I caught the first hour of this on Showtime the other night. Still need to see the second half. Yeah, it’s a rip on X-Men mutants. But, on what I saw, it seemed pretty well done and interesting. Anyone else see this one and have an opinion on it?
99% of the time, Ben Stiller is the kiss of death for me when it comes to enjoying a movie. But, thanks to Vince Vaughn, Rip Torn, Justin Long, Stephen Root, Joel Moore, and Alan Tudyk, this one, albeit a silly movie, is always funny for me. Gary Cole and Jason Bateman were awesome in this one too.
Look, it tells time simultaneously in Monte Carlo, Beverly Hills, London, Paris, Rome, and Gstaad.
In Philadelphia, it’s worth 50 bucks.
This flick is one of the all-time greats for me, in the comedy department…
If you’ve ever had a creep in your life, like the character of Carter Hayes from this story – and I have, then you can, like me, appreciate this movie.
Maybe I shouldn’t admit that I like this one as much as I do – for the fear that some may think I’m a bad person for having laughed at so much of it. But, hey, how can you not feel something for a guy, like Borat, whose wife’s vazhïn hang like sleeve of wizard?
I saw this one in the movies with my buddies when it first came out. I was fourteen at the time – and probably too young, and for sure too immature, to see it. I do recall, back in 1977, when we saw it…me and my buddy Roger, being fourteen, acting like Beavis and Butt-head making stupid references back to what we saw in the movie. That lasted for a while. It wasn’t until years later, re-watching it as an adult, that I learned to appreciate this one for its cast. Chris Sarandon, Martin Balsam, John Carradine, José Ferrer, Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, Christopher Walken, Jerry Orbach, and Beverly D’Angelo were in it. And, at the very end, Tom Berenger and Nana Visitor show up – as very young actors – albeit only for a minute or two.
Brand me if you want, but, I’m a big fan of the Wesley Snipes’ Blade feature films. And, this one is my favorite of the three. I’ve probably watched it at least 20 times. It’s funny, after the second Blade, I heard that they were doing a third and that Ryan Reynolds was going to be in it. At that time, I thought “Nooooooooo!” (with my logic being that he would kill it). But, Reynolds was very good in this one. And, he got himself in great shape to pull it off. Actually, to me, major props on this one should go out to Ronnie Yeskel on the casting effort. Ryan Reynolds, Jessica Biel, Parker Posey, and Dominic Purcell all did a great job in their roles – as did John Michael Higgins, Natasha Lyonne, Callum Keith Rennie, Triple H, and Patton Oswalt in smaller ones. And, for the record, I prefer the ending that’s shown in the theatrical version – over that seen in the director’s cut. I know that many thought this one was too light-hearted – compared to the first two Blade movies. But, hey, that just makes it different, to me, and not worse – compared to the others. If you ask me, sometimes, having characters in a “comics” movie be a little over the top is a good thing…as long as it’s not too way over the top. And, again, to me, I don’t think that Snipes, Reynolds, Biel, Posey, and Purcell crossed that line in this one. Of course, your mileage may differ.
An Oscar winner? Nah, never…
But, this one provides a nice capture of the Disco crazy which was the late 1970′s. It terms of being a late ’70′s artifact, it’s right up there with the Tube Top.
Not one that I own in my DVD collection. And, it’s not one that I would seek out to watch. But, if I catch it on HBO, or something, by accident, I usually stop and watch it for a while. All told, I’ve probably watched the whole thing at least three times.
This is one of the reasons why I’m happy for Jon Cryer and the success that he’s reaped via his role on Two and a Half Men. The dude has put in his time with flicks like this one, No Small Affair and Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home. The race doesn’t always go to the swift, but, sometimes, to those who keep running. Cryer is an example of that.
I caught a little of this one on E! last night and it reminded me of how great it is…it makes my wildest dreams come true!
If I ever had 8 hours to kill for myself, one of the things I always thought that I would consider doing would be to watch:
Primal Fear
Fight Club
12 Monkeys
The Sixth Sense
…in that order. It’s an interesting sequence of acting jobs: Norton to Norton/Pitt to Pitt/Willis to Willis. And, all coming in great movies.
I dunno…there’s just something about Griffin Dunne’s character in this one that hits home with me. Always has…and probably always will.
Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton and Adrienne Barbeau…com’on…what’s not to love about that?
An 18-year old Diane Lane as a punk-rocker and some appearances by former Sex Pistols. What’s not to love about that? Oh, yeah, and Ray Winstone at the start of his career. All good stuff.
I went to see this one with my buddy Lou when it came out in the Spring of 1989. I went in thinking “This could be fun; or, this could be the worst movie ever made.” And, for sure, it turned out to be the former. If this isn’t the funniest baseball movie ever, it’s in the top three. Not even seeing Pete Vuckovich stuffed into a Yankees uniform could ruin it. Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, James Gammon, Wesley Snipes, Chelcie Ross and Dennis Haysbert were cast perfectly for this one.
During the early to mid 1980′s, I was in a long-term (dating) relationship with a girl named Lisa. We dated for a while – if I recall correctly it started around 1982 or 1983 and it ended in 1986. We really didn’t have many common interests. Looking back at it now, I would suggest that she was mostly interested in dating a guy whose last name ended in a vowel and then getting married sooner rather than later. Me? I was in my early 20′s, somewhat immature, truly a bit of a jerk, and really had no clue as to what I wanted. So, it’s amazing that we lasted as long as we did stick together.
In any event, one of the things that we did like to do (in common) was going to the movies – and we did that a lot. There were many weekends where we went out to see two movies. We would just “go” – often not knowing much about what we were going to see when we got there.
One Sunday night back in 1984, we elected to go check out this movie called “The Terminator” (at the Lane Theater on New Dorp Lane in Staten Island, where we both lived). And, this was one of those cases where we went in blind, not knowing anything about the flick. (I guess, somehow, even with all the movies that we went to, we missed seeing the trailer for “The Terminator”? Either that, or, back then, you didn’t get 15 minutes of trailers before a film – like you do now.)
I’ll always remember seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s name come up in the opening and thinking “Hey, that’s the guy from the Conan movies” and thinking “That’s interesting.” (Remember, at this time “Arnold” was not “Arnold” in the movie-sense yet.)
And, I’ll always remember walking out of that movie thinking “Whoa…That movie was great!” And, today, I still feel that way. Sure, the ones to follow in this series have been wonderful – and the new one coming out looks good too (from the trailers). But, none of those would be possible if not for the first – so, that’s why this one makes my Fav Flicks list.
Usually, I never go for the spoof movie. But, this one was so dead on. And, the soundtrack gets an A+. If you’ve never seen it, and you’re under the age of 50, you should check it out.
Getting back to the fav flicks stuff…
Eat your food.
Excuse me. May I go to the bathroom first?
Of course you may…
Thank you.
Oh, that never gets old…
A great production of an incredible story. And, while what we’re going through now in this country is not close to what was going on in the 1930′s, it’s a story that makes you think about today as you learn about the past. To me, James Braddock was a man’s man. And, this is simply a wonderful movie based on his life.
I watched SNL growing up in the 1970′s and 1980′s. But, I was not a monster fan of the show – nor was I out-of-control nutty over the Conehead skits. Nonetheless, I got a huge laugh out of this movie. Between the script and the cast of characters, it’s pretty cool. Every time I catch it on HBO, there are parts of it that still crack me up.
I was in High School when this one came out. I remember many classmates, mostly girls, saying “Don’t wait to see ‘Heaven Can Wait,’ go run and see it!” And, I somewhat laughed at them. But, eventually, I went to see it – and loved it. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie were great. James Mason and Jack Warden were pros. Vincent Gardenia, Buck Henry and Joseph Maher were solid. And, Charles Grodin and Dyan Cannon were just a hoot. I’ve seen this one several times since that first viewing. And, I enjoy it every time I see it.
Considering that there were two sequels to this one, and two animated television series and a live-action television series that came from it, and there’s talk of a “reboot” verison of it coming out in 2010…I’m guessing I’m not the only person who enjoys this movie.
One of the few ones that I would list in this “Fav Flicks” series where I only saw the movie once…
But, how could I pass on a move with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen? (And, throw in Christopher Plummer and Jodie Foster too!) Seriously, I would watch an instructional video on how to scramble eggs if Clive Owen was doing it. The dude is that good.
Why this one didn’t get bigger play, I dunno? Although there’s a rumor of a sequel. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it. I only had to see it once to have it make my fav’s list…
The Justice League of 19th Century Authors? I’m pretty sure this one did not do as well at the box-office has many hoped it would…but, for some reason, I really dig this movie. I’ve probably watched it about five or six times now…
Serpentine Shelly. Serpentine!
Yeah, the remake in 2003 was O.K. But, it comes no where near comparing to the original version of this one. Peter Falk and Alan Arkin stole the show in this comedy. A great pairing, if you ask me.
Yeah, I know the ending was different in the book. And, yeah, I know that Redford playing a kid was a reach. But, if you’re going to stick me on an island, by myself, for the rest of my life, and I can only take five movies with me, I’m taking this one (as part of that five).
Actually, I’ve found that the best time to watch “The Natural” is at night, sometime in January, when it’s dark and snowing like crazy outside – with at least six inches of snow on the ground already and it’s coming down too hard to go out there, yet, and clear it.
It’s the perfect “baseball cozy” for when it seems like baseball has been gone for way too long and it’s still several weeks before you get a taste of it again.
In 1977, I was 15-years old and a “rock” guy. My choice of music back then was usually something from Yes, The Who, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Queen, Pink Floyd, Foreigner, and the like.
As such, I was also a “Disco Sucks!” kind of guy.
Now, sure, I’ll admit, at that time, I did (somewhat) covertly find “guidettes” attractive in a Montague/Capulet taboo temptation sort of way. But, hey, I was fifteen, remember?
In any event, when this movie came out, as my friends used to say to me every time I mentioned some “D.G.” (our slang for “Disco Girl”) was hot, “it stands for everything that we’re against!”
So, while I saw it when it was released – and everybody saw it – I hated it. And, it wasn’t until several years later (when my musical tastes started opening up) that I started to appreciate it’s value/standing from a soundtrack perspective. And, after that, I learned to recognize how spot-on this one is for capturing the whole Brooklyn/’70′s/Disco era. And, today, it’s one of my favorites now.
Who says a teenage rocker can’t grow?
A good one from Jonathan Demme and the movie that put Ray Liotta on the big screen map. This one was typical of the type of movie that caught my attention in the early to mid-’80s.
