Manhunter (1986) – This is an interesting film that I’ve been meaning to see for quite some time. It’s really the first appearance of Hannibal Lecktor (Lector in the other movies) in film. Notice I mentioned the year… So take Red Dragon (the new version of this movie / book), and mix that with Miami Vice and you have Manhunter. If you think I’m kidding, watch it and see… 80′s contemporary clothing, modern architecture, and that soundtrack that is extremely unmistakable… Being a fan of the literary series, and later film series, I found it too hard to erase that as well as give the story-line the flexibility and liberties taken by Michael Mann… The cast almost impressive based on what they have done since, but were then relatively unknown at the time. William Peterson as Graham (very similar traits to his character Gil Grissom on CSI), Brian Cox as Lecktor, Joan Allen, Dennis Farina, and even Chris Elliot (yeah! – just a walk on)… It is easy to see the evolution taking place in Mann as this is going on… I’m glad I saw it, but will never seek it out again. I’ll give it a 3 of 10 because it is so bad compared to both the book and the more current Red Dragon (which I thought could be better, but was still good).
Art School Confidential – I had such high hopes for this. Starting out a review like this isn’t good. I thought it’d be a fun little time since I adore the cast attached to this (Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Anjelica Huston, and Ethan Suplee) and I know / like making fun of art school types. But there was very little comedy here, and the story that did develop was very weak. There’s an ounce of social commentary in here, but it matters about as much as a democratic vote in a wealthy suburb… 2 of 10.
Wordplay - To be honest, I expected more. But I’m only saying that because I’ve been on a documentary kick the past few years. When I hear that a documentary is good from the reviews and such, I usually don’t take into account my proclivity towards them. Wordplay is a nice and typical documentary on a subject I also like. It takes the perspectives of many celebrities about the topic of crossword puzzles and weaves a story of how there came to be a national tournament for the puzzles. It was nice to see, but it just felt like a remake of Word Wars (about Scrabble) with a few celebrities and less about the hardships of some of the true die hard players (I recomend word wars over Wordplay)… Regardless, the subjects are wicked smart, and it was an enjoyable time… 6 of 10.
Dead Like Me (season 1) – This is a 4-disc, 14 episode series on Showtime about the fictional life (or afterlife) of those who become grim reapers. Interesting premise, but it’s to be taken with a grain of salt. If I remember correctly, this was a direct response to HBO beginning it’s highly successful original series’ – most specifically Six Feet Under. Back to Dead Like Me. Interesting cast… The main character is played by Ellen Muth (who hasn’t done anything since), with a supporting cast that includes Mandy Patinkin, Noxima girl (Rebecca Gayheart), Jasmine Guy (bast from the past), and that alien-girl from The Faculty (Laura Harris). I found it to move too slow for my tastes and not original enough. In face, it mostly felt like they were trying too hard in a lot of the story lines. After watching season 1, I’ve moved season 2 way down on the Netflix queue so much that it’ll never be seen… judging it the same as a movie – 4 of 10.
P.S. – Just trolled the listings on Encore, and found this film that I’d never heard about. It’s a movie with a small, but good cast, led by Laura Linney and Topher Grace. Basically Linney is an artistic admissions person at Columbia who receives an application from someone who shares a strikingly similar name to a high school love who died. He then proves to not only look like him, but also share the same artistic spirit that Linney was still in love with 20 years after the fact. This can all be gleaned by the widely available description. The movie itself delivers pretty well by a odd story with good to great actors more than pulling their weight to make this a better than average film. Usually it seems like a normal movie set in such surroundings, but there are a few instances of nice shooting and all-around film making. A slower movie that I’ll give a 6 of 10.
Birth – This is that Nicole Kidman movie with all the controversy because of the storyline involving a relationship with a 10-year old… I never set out to actively see this movie, but it was on Encore, so I didn’t consciously pay for it via theater, rental, or Netflix. An I’m glad that I didn’t… Not because the movie was that bad, but the premise is so weird and wrong that it’s not my cup of tea. But I will say two positive things about the movie… It’s not as bad as I thought. And parts of the movie are wonderfully shot. But where the movie was weird/wrong, it was a little interesting to see how they could pull this all off. There’s only one scene of pure discomfort, the rest falls into the psychological drama category. About 1/2 o 2/3 through the film, it started becoming less interesting and more predictable coming to a crappy ending that I thought was as unfortunate as the fact that Kidman’s character had the same haircut as the annoying 10-year old… 4 of 10.
Superman Returns – For some reason, I never go out to see this on the big screen. I remember the timing always being just a little off, but now that it came via Netfilx, I’m not sad. Sure, the effects were great, and the story wasn’t half bad, but I just felt unmoved. I grew up with Christopher Reeve Superman movies and liked comics to an extent, and with the directors previous good work on the first two X-MEN movies, I thought it’d be a decent flick. Don’t get me wrong, it was, I was just hoping for more. Kevin Spacey was good (Gene Hackman was better)… Brandon Routh was good (he looks like a less scrawny Jason Schwartzman)… I hoped for better performances for the Lois Lane role (Kate Bosworth). Good little plot twist that I won’t spoil, but I still wasn’t moved by much. It just feels like a hun-drum 5 of 10.