Crazy Stupid Love (2011)

It took three attempts for me to watch this film and properly pay attention to it for this project.  But I enjoy this film, so it's odd that I got so distracted.  Poorly chosen viewing times I guess. 

The plot ties up in a nice little Hollywood bow, which can be infuriating, but I forgive it in this instance, thanks to some subtle surprises in the connections between characters.  And child actors who aren't aggressively precocious also help.

It doesn't leave me with much to say about it though.  It's a film I enjoy, but not one that I form an emotional resonance with.

Final Thought:  Can Ryan Gosling do some more comedies please?

Up Next:  The Crow (1994)

Cradle 2 The Grave (2003)

This is not a very good movie.  At all.  But I didn't expect it to be when I got it.  This is in my library purely for the combination of Jet Li and Mark Dacascos.  I had grand hopes for what this might be. 

Every time I watch this film, I am newly disappointed by the sidelining of Li and Dacascos.  Seems this film was made as a vehicle for DMX, which sure was a gamble that didn't pay off, based on his current acting career.  The guy barely has enough charisma on film to fill a thimble.  Is he more engaging as a rapper?  Is that why this happened? 

On my first viewing, as I watched it, I comforted myself that, ok, they may not be giving Li and Dascascos as much attention as I'd like, but that's ok,  because surely they'll make up for it with the final showdown fight between the two that is bound to happen.  And happen it did.  ...Intercut with footage of two other lacklustre fight scenes.  I felt robbed.  Each time I watch it again, I think that maybe it wasn't that bad, I got to see more of the fighting than I thought.  But no.  What a waste.

Martial arts films are like musicals - you don't always watch them for the plot.  You watch them for the fight scenes.  That's not to say there aren't some wonderfully written martial arts films out there, there certainly are.  But I will forgive a lot of lackings in the plot if they are compensated for with great set pieces.  That didn't happen in this instance.  

Final Thought:  I mean, they used "2" instead of "To" in the title.  I should have known I'd be disappointed before I started watching it, based on that alone.

Up Next: Crazy Stupid Love (2011)

Coraline (2009)

As I set this up to watch it, I realised that I can't remember why I bought this film.  There must have been something about it when I saw it for the first time that prompted me to buy it.

I watched this one on my own on a rainy Saturday afternoon, which felt appropriate.  And I'm left thinking that my main reasoning for buying it was my love of stop motion animation.  The story doesn't hold my attention the entire way through.

There's many people in this world who love Neil Gaiman's writing.  I want to love it, and I've read a few of his books, but there seems to be something about it that I don't quite connect to.  I'm yet to pinpoint what it is I'm missing.  And I think that carries through to this film for me.  Much like with his novels, there are moments that grab me and there are moments that I just drift through.

Final Thought:  This is one of the few films that I watch and think "That moment would have been pretty cool in 3D..."

Up Next:  Cradle 2 The Grave (2003)

Cool Runnings (1993)

Repeated television screenings of this film through my childhood are responsible for me seeing this movie perhaps a dozen times.  There's so many classic lines in this one I feel it needs to come back to regular TV rotation so that today's viewers can use them in everyday conversation..
I can't even remember the first time I saw this film.  It just appeared on TV once a month or so, gradually worming its way in to my brain.  "Hey Sanka... You dead?" is a line I quote regularly to this day.  

It's a fun film, but it's not one that leaves me with a great deal to say about it.  Despite it being a fair while since I last watched it, I'm so familiar with this film that I spent this viewing pottering between the living room and the kitchen, attempting to satisfy a craving for mac and cheese.  Ill timed microwaving of pasta almost caused me to miss the emotional conclusion of this film.  My distraction during this viewing in no lessened my heart swelling as Junior's dad finally showed he was proud of his son.  Sniff.

Final Thought:  The mac and cheese was very tasty.

Up Next: Coraline (2009)

Con Air (1997)

I first saw this film on a bus to a school camp in the country.  I think it might have been the only film the bus driver had, and we might have watched it more than once.  Bizarrely, the entire group on the bus enjoyed watching this.  I say this is bizarre because it was a bus full of teenage girls who didn't generally seek out this sort of film.  Or perhaps I just really enjoyed it and projected my enjoyment on to everyone else.

It's not the best film.  I realise this.  It's barely even a good film.  I was blinded by my discovery of John Cusack (whose entire film catalogue I subsequently made it my mission to see, and some further evidence of this will come up in later entries).  But I really enjoyed this film when I saw it the first time.  And the second time.  And the twentieth time.  I went out and bought it on VHS and watched it repeatedly.  I thought Nicholas Cage was a bit lame, but who cares when John Cusack, John Malkovich and Steve Buscemi are around to make up for it?

By the time I reached this in my current movie library viewing crusade, it had definitely been more than 5 years since I'd seen it.  Unlike Clueless before it, this one hasn't aged as well for me (though John Cusack is still as wonderful as ever).  I like my crappy action movies, don't get me wrong.  More of them will pop up as this project continues.  But sometimes it can be difficult get past the fact that they're not great.  I wonder what I would think of this film if the nostalgia factor were removed...

Final Thought:  It seems as though they thought that "Put the bunny back in the box" somehow carried the same ominous feeling as "I'll be back."

Up Next:  Cool Runnings (1993)

Clueless (1995)

It's proven time and time again that successful teen movies don't talk down to teenagers.  Don't treat them as though they're not intelligent, curious and empathetic.  I know that media has changed since the 90s, but none of the movies I loved as a teenager were condescending. 

Would you really label this film as being aimed at teenagers though?  Perhaps it’s more a film that features teenagers.  It certainly resonates if you watch it as a teenager, especially if you happened to be one in the 1990s.  But while it’s embedded in the decade in which it was made, it manages to be enduring.  Watching it today, I enjoy it just as much.  Granted though, my enjoyment of this film has evolved as the years have gone by.

I eventually attempted to read "Emma", to get a broader sense of the story on which this film is based, but I ended up gradually wandering away from that book until I stopped reading it all together.  It didn't quite grab me.  I was probably not in the right frame of mind to be reading it at the time.

Going back and watching this film decades after seeing it for the first time, it doesn't suffer from seeming dated.  That's not to say that it hasn't dated, but the story is strong enough and timeless enough that it doesn't matter.  If anything, it hams up its 90s-ness so much that the more dated it is, the more I enjoy it.

Final Thought: Let's not talk about the TV series.

Up Next:  Con Air (1997)

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 (2013)

The characters are what make these films work for me.  They appeal to my sense of humour.  They really do strike the perfect balance between emotion and the ludicrous in a way that works for me.  That said, I only went to see this film thanks to the good feelings engendered by its predecessor, and I wouldn't say that it was in the same league.  It was great at the time, because it had been a while since I'd seen the one before it.  But re-watching the original film confirmed to me my preference for it over this sequel.

Mainly, I think I find the villain in Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 a bit of a... hassle.  I think that's the best word for it.  Rather than providing impetus for the plot, I feel like he gets in the way of it.  And that goes twofold for his orangutan sidekick.  The first film only needed the villain to be a vague idea in the background; the entertainment came from watching the characters reacting and dealing with consequences.  The villain in this film tried to steal the show from the main characters too much for my liking, making this film the lesser film.  But what do I know?  The Bassist says he prefers this one to the original (though he did see this one first).

Final Thought:  "There's a leek in the boat" makes me laugh every. single. time.

Up Next:  Clueless (1995) 

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009)

This film was a real surprise to me in how good it was.  From the title, it seemed like such a stupid film.  And it is, but in a wonderful way.
I love animation, so there's a lot of animated films that I'll watch as a gamble, and this was one of them.  I fell in love from it right from the start, at the moment they introduced of spray on shoes.  And I kept loving it, because there's so many delightful little side moments in this film.  You have to keep watching so you don't miss something.  Not to mention the fact that Steve is one of the greatest sidekicks ever.

Even though this film is a ludicrous idea, it's tempered by Flint's dad, who they've made such a touching character - hairy and gruff but well meaning.  And they deftly set the poignancy of this relationship early in the film and thereby give some sort of vague purpose to why Flint behaves as he does.

I think this film works for me because it embraces what it is and then takes it just a little bit further.  It leaves me teary (because I'm a sap, apparently) and jubilant (because Yay Animation!), which is just great.

Final Thought:  What's distressing is that Baby Brent reminds me of someone I know, and I can't figure out who...

Up Next:  Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 (2013)

Closer (2004)

The first time I watched this film, it left me shattered.  This is not a film to see when you've just broken up with someone.  Though, if that is the situation in which you see this film, it is cathartic through the emotional turmoil.  I don't think I knew very much about it when I first watched it, so the emotional impact it had on me was a shock.  The effect has lessened with subsequent viewings, as I know what to expect, but I still find it fascinating to watch.  
The script is stunning.  My university drama society staged the original play around the same time, and unfortunately it didn't come close to this film.  The acting is fantastic, and it's such a relief that they had the original playwright adapt it for the screen.

Final Thought:  "Natalie Portman does a pretty impressive split" is a thought that occurs to me every time I watch this.

Up Next:  Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009)

Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012)

I think you need to approach this film as a piece of art that you watch.  This isn't a film you seek out when you want an in depth plot, or even a plot that makes sense.  The plot exists in the same way it does in an old school musical; as a means of leading from one production number to the next.  If anything, the plot is even thinner than those of musicals.

That isn't necessarily a criticism.  If you watch this film with that in mind, you won't feel that you've missed out on anything.  And sometimes I need movies like that.  A pure, escapist, visual treat.  Certainly, if the focus had been the plot, something very interesting could have been created.  And I'm sure I would have loved to see it.  But the point of this movie is that it's a showcase of Cirque du Soleil acts from their Las Vegas shows.  And I'm fine with that, when that's what I'm in the mood to see.  And tonight, I was.

Final Thought:  I'm jealous of her umbrella boat.

Up Next:  Closer (2004)

Charade (1963)

Charade is so much more fun than I remember.  I haven't watched it in my adult life before.  I had completely forgotten about most of the comedy elements of this film, so watching it was a delight.  As a kid, I must have thought it a much more serious movie, and yet I remember the shower-in-a-suit moment in perfect detail.  I was so fascinated by all the parts I'd forgotten that I'm actually left with not much to say about it.  Just wonderful.

I've found, when it comes to classic films, that I'm sometimes left wondering what it is about them that earned them that status.  For example, Breakfast At Tiffany's didn't appeal to my tastes, and, other than the fashion, I do wonder a little at how it became as exalted as it is.  I think I need to sit down with someone who loves it and listen to why they feel that way.
To me though, Charade is definitely a classic.

Final Thought:  Nobody wears clothes as well as Hepburn and Grant.  Nobody.  I spent half the film wondering how Hepburn managed to look so good in what she was wearing.

Up Next:  Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012)