See also Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, and Dolph Lundgren. None of whom’s stars have risen above their long-standing reputation during the 80s either.
Interesting comment here. Spielberg was shooting a script written by Stanley Kubrick and Ian Watson. Were there re-writes? Sure, some. But the bones of that movie belong to someone besides the Director of record.
The story behind the film “A.I.”
Back to the O.P. I hated “Meet Joe Black”. I hated and to this day detest " Forrest Gump ". Gump is manipulative, banal, insulting, base, devoid of all humor save that aimed at people who are mentally challenged, racist, sexist, filled with stereotypes. It deserved zero, and I mean zero, accolades. The one saving grace is that the bus stop sequences made use of the much-beloved Town Square studio setting also used in “Back To The Future” and dozens of other films.
To be fair, they were up against Jackie Chan.
I heard Brian Aldiss say that the only reason he agreed to sell the movie rights was because he wanted to see his story made into a Stanley Kubrick film.
I don’t remember the details of all he said concerning the writing and re-writing, but somewhere along the line he felt screwed by the movie people, something like that he was supposed to get $1 million, but if they needed to hire more writers he would get squat. In any case, he said he would never work with those people again.
I hope he ended up with his million dollars, or at least enough for a nice yacht like he was fantasizing about, and that he was not too disappointed with it not ending up as a Stanley Kubrick film.
Casablanca.
Supposedly it’s on just about everybody’s list of the Top Ten Movies Ever Made. It’s … not. It’s a war movie with nor war, a love story with no love. It gave me absolutely nothing.
You could also complain that it’s a heist movie with no casino robbery and a teen sex comedy with no bikini car wash scenes.
Casablanca is a story about character growth.
I really like Wes Anderson’s movies. But I can fully understand why some people hate them and even agree that everything the people who fun of them say is true.
The Honest Trailer of Every Wes Anderson movie really shows it, doesn’t it?
But I really don’t think Isle of Dogs has any of that, does it?* I guess I’ll have to rewatch.
- except for the cast. Ed Norton! Bill Murray! Tilda Swinton! Do they smoke or ride small. motorcycles?
I think that was kind of the point of all the Chuck Norris memes; they weren’t meant to be taken seriously.
Ah, Casablanca. Apologies if I’ve posted about this recently.
My mom saw Casablanca when she was what is now called a tween, and cried her eyes out. This was in the days when most theaters showed a movie a week, Sunday to Friday, with a break for Saturday double features. Usually no deviation, but if a movie was a sensation, like Gone With The Wind, it would be held over another week, brought back at some future time, or both. Casablanca was another such film, so my mom saw it a second time, brought tissues, and soaked them all.
Flash forward to the mid-80s. In the intervening four decades, the movies my mom has rewatched on pre-cable TV and at revival houses have mostly been musicals; comedies and dramas not so much. But the turn of the 80s brought a lot of best-movies lists, with Casablanca in the top five of every one. And the library is loaning VHS, so she decides to check it out.
Now cut to a half hour into the viewing, and this is my mom. “Why is this a classic?” was the gist of her comments. She chalked up her earlier reaction to a) being at an emotionally vulnerable age and b) like everyone else, a sucker for anything that romanticized the war. Still, how does that explain all the other people who’ve kept it alive even today?
Because your mom is wrong. Casablanca is still a great movie.
You can not like it, she can not like it, that’s fine. That’s life.
But it doesn’t “romanticize” the war. It “romanticizes” romance, and the problems of two people in a crazy mixed up world. The war is just the background. The story is timeless.
Maybe your mom was a victim of too high expectations? It was such a big experience for her as a tween that re-watching it again as an adult just couldn’t match up. I’m not a fan of old movies but I’m with JAQ: Casablanca still holds up.
I may be speaking out of school here, but I think the majority of the hate for “Starship Troopers” isn’t for the movie itself, it’s for the way it butchers the book’s story and points without actually satirizing THEM. I mean, in what way does the movie satirize the book’s exploration of armed conflict? Or of the nature of responsible citizenship? Or why soldiers fight?
It was busy doing silly stuff like having Doogie Howser dressed up like an SS officer torturing bugs instead.
Another great Wes Anderson parody:
“Harold and Maude.”
Friend to me, back in college: “You’ve never seen it? Really? Well, you can come see it with me one of the six times that I go.” (It was a three-day engagement at the local Art Cinema, two shows a night.)
I went with her. Once. It was more than enough.
Harold and Maude was a big cult movie at the Blue Mouse theater in Salt Lake City, overshadowed only by Rocky Horror Picture Show (which played at midnight every weekend). The Blue Mouse was an Art Cinema that published a quarterly broadsheet listing which movies were coming up, and when. Harold and Maude was at the end of each broadsheet, playing 2-3 days every quarter of the year.
Of course I saw it. I think it’s worth seeing once, at least. But I’d never go to all the shows at an engagement. Heck, I had to watch the trailer for it multiple times every year.
Sadly, the Blue Mouse in SLC is gone. (although apparently there’s an art cinema by that name in Tacoma now. It shows Rocky Horror regularly, or it did until CoVID)
Harold and Maude was a huge favorite for the various film societies on the UW-Madison campus; I must have seen it 5 or 6 times.
Well, it was one of those movies where I wanted my two hours back after I’d seen it.
plus interest.
Just a terrible film.
I felt like that after watching the live action Scooby Doo movie with Sarah Michelle Gellar.
I had been putting off watching Birdman, but watched it a week or so ago. As I tend to ignore reviews to avoid spoilers, I just went with the high 7.7 IMDB score and some actors I liked.
About half an hour in I hoped it wouldn’t just be a “tormented actors in a broadway show”-movie. There could be some interesting twist lurking beneath, maybe using the main character’s extra talent.
That hope was in vain.