Movies Rate and Discuss the Last Movie You Saw v.16

[revoltub]

Chopper (2000)

Eric Bana is fantastic in this film. It is really a great and different kind of performance than I was used to getting from him. He plays the role perfectly, mixing comedic elements with a darker, more deranged undertone.

This guy is off his rocker, paranoid, prone to impulsive violence, and also lively, sort of sweet, and friendly. It's a guy you both want to hangout with and run away from depending on what side of bipolar he lands on at a given moment.

The plot of the film is essentially following him from his days in prison to his days on the outside. It sounds mundane, but it really isnt. The film has a very good pace along with plenty of very good to great scenes mixed in along the way.

Definitely recommend if you havent seen it. One of the better performances I've been introduced to in a while.

7.5/10

 

[eddymotto]

I can't really see Hanks being able to play the unlikable aspects of certain roles that Cruise can. One thing that if I was nitpicking Hanks' career would be that.

I would argue that Cruise mostly played the good guy throughout his career as well. Especially at the point in his career.

How about 90's Mel Gibson? I think he would have crushed that role.

I get it. Most people love Cruise in that role. I am in the minority and I don't even think that Cruise was bad.

 

[eddymotto]

Chopper (2000)

Eric Bana is fantastic in this film. It is really a great and different kind of performance than I was used to getting from him. He plays the role perfectly, mixing comedic elements with a darker, more deranged undertone.

This guy is off his rocker, paranoid, prone to impulsive violence, and also lively, sort of sweet, and friendly. It's a guy you both want to hangout with and run away from depending on what side of bipolar he lands on at a given moment.

The plot of the film is essentially following him from his days in prison to his days on the outside. It sounds mundane, but it really isnt. The film has a very good pace along with plenty of very good to great scenes mixed in along the way.

Definitely recommend if you havent seen it. One of the better performances I've been introduced to in a while.

7.5/10

Thanks. I come across this movie randomly every few years but I have never gotten around to watching it. Plus, if I recall, this is Fat Bana.

 

[TKing]

Sting - 5/10 at times a 5.5 but in the end 5

I wanted to like this movie so much more, Eight Legged Freaks has always been a guilty pleasure. As far as the spider action itself that's where the movie was fun and shined, i wanted to learn more about the creatures. They tried very hard to make the human characters funny and quippy with some drama included. It ended up being random 1 liner and then straight to the wife fighting with her husband about anything and everything and those scenes lingered on too long.

So much missed potential here, good creature design and sound and a few gross scenes that callback to Alien/The Thing which is the direction they shouldve went solidly in, had the humans been even slightly better this movie would be a nice fun revisit like other films in it's genre. Instead it's something I most likely won't rewatch.

 

[revoltub]

I would argue that Cruise mostly played the good guy throughout his career as well. Especially at the point in his career.

How about 90's Mel Gibson? I think he would have crushed that role.

I get it. Most people love Cruise in that role. I am in the minority and I don't even think that Cruise was bad.

Cruise often did but he has more villainous roles than Hanks. Magnolia, Interview with a Vampire, his small role in endless love if you want to count it, tropic thunder if you want to count it, Taps, and Collateral.

 

[revoltub]

Thanks. I come across this movie randomly every few years but I have never gotten around to watching it. Plus, if I recall, this is Fat Bana.

Yes he gets rather chunky

 

[eddymotto]

Cruise often did but he has more villainous roles than Hanks. Magnolia, Interview with a Vampire, his small role in endless love if you want to count it, tropic thunder if you want to count it, Taps, and Collateral.

My point was that Cruise has not done many villainous roles when the movie was made. Maybe Rain Man?

I would still have preferred to see Hanks but the film was a massive success with Cruise and most people like him in the role

 

[revoltub]

My point was that Cruise has not done many villainous roles when the movie was made. Maybe Rain Man?

I would still have preferred to see Hanks but the film was a massive success with Cruise and most people like him in the role

jerry maguire? That was 96. But yeah since then only Collateral, Magnolia, and tropic thunder.

I guess you could add Rain Man to the list too. He is a pretty big asshole for a good chunk of the film. Though that was 89 I believe

 

[eddymotto]

Point Blank (USA, 1967)

American crime film directly by John Boorman and starring Lee Marvin. It is based on the novel The Hunter, the same source material for the Mel Gibson film Payback.

After a successful robbery, Walker (Marvin) gets betrayed, shot and left for dead by his best friend, Reese. To add salt to his very real wounds, Walker's wife goes away with Reese.

Walker survives and after a period of recuperation, returns to get revenge on Reese and recover $93,000 that is owed to him from the original robbery. Complicating matters is that Reese gave the stolen money to a criminal syndicate known as "The Organization". If Walker is going to get his money, he will have to convince the Organization to pay him. This turns out to be no simple task.

Point Blank is considered a crime thriller classic but I prefer the Gibson version. Payback recognizes that the situation, like many twisty crime plots, is faintly ridiculous and therefore makes itself into a black comedy. Porter (Gibson's version of the Walker character) is a full on villain and his quixotic quest to get paid is played for laughs. Payback adds in a hooker with a heart of gold, an Asian dominatrix, and some corrupt cops for fun. The entire film is coldly depraved but a lot of fun.

Point Blank plays the same basic plot straight up and I struggled to take it seriously after Payback basically satirized the entire plot.

Nevertheless, Point Blank is a solid thriller. Boorman knows how to get scenes onto film and he keeps the plot humming along. The ending is great. I am not sure that the ending would have worked for Payback but it works perfectly for the Point Blank version.

Rating: 5.5/10

 

[eddymotto]

Summer of Sam (USA, 1999)

Spike Lee film set in NYC during the summer of 1977 when the city was living under a reign of terror caused by the Son of Sam serial killer, David Berkowitz.

The plot, such as it is, follows the lives of a couple of Italian-American young men living in the Bronx. Vinny (John Leguizamo) is married, none too faithfully, to Dionna (Mira Sorvino). Ritchie (Adrien Brody) returns to the neighbourhood as a full fledged punk complete with an occasional British accent. His old neighbourhood friends are mostly freaked out by his appearance and attitude. Ritchie starts to date Ruby (Jennifer Esposito), a nice pretty girl doomed by her reputation as the neighbourhood slut. Ritchie has a side hustle as a gay prostitute and occasionally appears in porn films but he is also the only local guy who does not judge Ruby for her past.

The insular local neighbourhood is filled with people who all know each other too well. The summer is boiling hot and the Son of Sam paranoia slowly builds to a fever pitch. Nobody feels safe and the simmering fear threatens to combust into violence. The only common characteristics among the locals is a sense of neighbourhood tribalism, a complete lack of impulse control, and a love for the Yankees.

This is not a crime thriller. The Son of Sam killings are just part of the atmosphere. Lee appears to be trying to capture something specific about the Bronx in the late 70's.

The narrative incoherence is not helped by Lee's ponderous framing devices. I am left to wonder why Lee even bothered showing Berkowitz at all. Lee could have accomplished the same thing by leaving Berkowitz as a mysterious figure shown only as the shadows and in the headlines.

This is a particularly annoying decision because the entire film is self-indulgent and runs for a bloated 2:20. Lee seems in love with his own version of NYC. He forgets to show us anything that would make us share his passion.

In the end, the entire exercise seems pointless.

Shout out to the background hand drawn sign in the Italian restaurant; "No Spitting in the Kitchen". Nice touch.

Rating: 4.5/10