Blade Runner

Tania Says:

Again, another movie I had seen once and that was awhile ago. Apparently though I enjoyed it enough back then to buy it and never once open it but leave it on the DVD shelf to collect dust. This project gave me a chance to spend 15 minutes trying to open the shrink wrap and all the sticker things. And the final verdict – I do like this movie quite a bit!

The story is basically that age old Sci Fi story of man creating a machine that is too smart and too human and then trying to figure out how to destroy said machines. Blade Runner does it really well though and adds a more human element by making the machines, well, humans. Actually Replicants that look just like humans and act just like humans (unlike HAL in 2001 or the Robots in I, Robot which I haven’t seen but those robots don’t look human in the previews.) Harrison Ford is a Blade Runner which is a cop who “retires” Replicants. There are 5 running free and he needs to work his magic. Four of them are running around reeking havoc because they want to know how long they will live and of course the fifth (played by Sean Young) doesn’t know she is a Replicant and Harrison Ford ends up falling in love with her.

Ok, the love thing between Deckert (Harrison Ford) and Rachel (Sean Young) is a little creepy to me. First of all, he kind of forces her to stay and kiss him and stuff when she really looked like she wanted to leave and then he starts telling her what to say. That creeped me out. It was like his own personal Buffybot so I question if he really loves her or just wants a sex robot. But really, the movie isn’t about that.

Rutger Hauer and Daryl Hannah are two of the other Replicants looking for their maker because they don’t want to die. I really ended up feeling for them (not Daryl Hannah because she is annoying) but for Rutger Hauer because they were made by man to be nearly human and so they want to live a human life but can’t. This brings up the deeper issue of man and his obsession with power and creating human life in an unnatural way and the consequences it can create that no one thinks of. But Blade Runner doesn’t get all preachy and boring like I just did but it did put that seed in my mind which is cool. It makes you think without being a “makes you think” kind of movie. The production value is pretty low but I didn’t bother me because I just think it is an all around cool movie.

Josh Says:

I had never seen this movie in it's entirety before, though I'd caught enough pieces of it to have probably watched the whole thing at least once or twice. The problem that I always had catching it on USA at 2:30 in the morning as I drifted off into dreamland (read: passed out after a long night at the bar) was that it always seemed to have been made in such a low budget shoddy way. The special effects, the weird, cheap lenses it was shot in, the lame props, choppy edits and set design all seemed a bit too 'b' grade to entice me to actually sit down and watch the whole thing.

Of course, that's the whole problem. I had never sat down and watched the whole thing. Sure, all of that stuff is still there, it's not exactly a crisp finely tuned machine from an aesthetical perspective, but viewed in it's entirety, this movie pretty much rocked and had me thirsting for a good buddy movie with that great duo Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer. In fact, I don't think I'll ever be able to think of them independently again. It's always going to be Harrison and Rutger for me now.

So, if you're like me and you read the original review by Siskel and Ebert before they sold out or came to their senses or whatever, or maybe have caught only pieces of this movie and thought, "what a cheap piece of cr** who would ever want to watch that trash?". I'd strongly recommend you give the movie, the whole movie another shot.

Movie Review: Gladiator - 2002

Tania says:
I remember seeing this movie in the theater when it was released and thinking – “huh, that was pretty cool.” I hadn’t revisited the movie since then and for some reason I was kind of dreading watching it now because I thought I might hate it. I’m not sure why. Either way, I didn’t hate it at all and ended up liking it more then I think I originally did – so bonus!

Russell Crowe is super good as Maximus – he is all subtle and you believe he is a man who would rather just be working his farm but got swept into a world that he can’t get out of. I read that the role was first offered to Mel Gibson and Josh and I agree that he wouldn’t have been able to pull it off because he is all crazy eyed and a little insane. Crowe gets it right.

Joaquin is super creepy which totally fits his part. He does a really great job and I think this is when people started to notice him.

So yeah, it is pretty much a fighting movie but it does try to have a little bit of a deeper plot by throwing in some stuff about revenge, Roman politics and just trying to be an all around good guy. Even with that stuff seeping in it would still just call it a big old fighting movie. The deeper stuff is pretty much on the surface but I don’t think it would have been the big hit it was if it delved much deeper. But even for a fighting movie, the story is interesting enough and the character of Maximus is sympathetic enough that it does set itself apart. I don’t really think it should have won Best Picture (although I look at the nominees and they are slim pickings’ too. I think Traffic was better.) But it is a good movie and worth a watch if by some reason you have never seen it. It’s long but it actually sped by really quickly when we watched. Plus it has a CGIed Oliver Reed in it – that could inspire a fun game of which Oliver Reed is real and which is CGI. (I mean no disrespect to Oliver Reed. RIP.)

Josh Says:
It's said that upon visiting the colloseum, Ridley Scott said that it was too small so they designed an oversized version of it for the film. This pretty much sums up everything about this movie I think. Everything is just done in a big way.

The fight scenes are big, the violence is brutal.

The characters are big. River Pheonix's Commodus is done in so close to an over the top manner yet just grounded enough to work brilliantly. The same is true for Crowe. The way in which he turns Maximus into a gigantic hero of mythic, almost godlike proportions yet simultaneously keep him down to earth is quite impressive and likely couldn't have been done by anyone else.

Which brings us to the solid but sometimes difficult choices that were made regarding the cast in this movie. Of all of these choices (Gibson as Maximus would have been bad, J-Lo would have been bad as Lucilla........thank god for their judgement there) there is but one that I am saddened by..........Sure, it's a small character, but rumors that the great Lou Ferrigno was passed up for the role of Tiger just have me perplexed. With all of the gigantic greatness going on in this film, how is it possible that the most gigantic man ever to have his own TV show could have been overlooked? I would have loved to hear his version of a British accent, not that historically, the British accents made much sense anyway but back to the point.......a green Gladiator? How awesome would that have been?

Other than that, I really can't fault much about this movie. Sure, it's a bit of a popcorn movie, sure, it's a big budget "Action" movie but it's all done so incredibly well in nearly every way such that it's actually one of my favorites. I'm not sure if it's a guilty pleasure type of a film or actually a great film but either way, I love it and it. I'm also a bit of a Russell Crowe fanboy. There I said it. I love you Russell Crowe.

Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine

Tania Says:

I LOVED this movie! I heard great things about this movie which is why again we skipped ahead on our list and gave it a spin in the old DVD player. I was not disappointed in the list and in fact it even overshot my expectations.

Little Miss Sunshine is about a very dysfunctional family who has to take a last minute road trip to California because they find out that their daughter will be in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Ah yes, family road trips make for wacky comedy and hijinxs to ensue but this movie is more then that and has surprising heart and not in a cheesy Full House kind of way. I particularly enjoyed the ending (and I will try not to spoil it) which was filled with laugh out load moments and that non-cheesy heart I mentioned. An ending to a movie about a dysfunctional family could end up being one of two things – 1.) Not satisfying at all because no one or nothing changes or 2.) So unrealistic and saccharine filled that it ends up tainting the whole dysfunction we had grown to embrace during the film. Little Miss Sunshine does neither and instead ends with a promise that at this moment the family has made their peace with what they are and embrace themselves and one another. Will it continue to be this way in their day to day life? Probably not but at the moment we share with them – well, it really was the perfect way to wrap up the story. Wow – I ended up sounding as cheesy as an episode of Full House but trust me – the movie doesn’t and it still warms your heart!

The performances are all around really strong and I can’t imagine changing any of the actors in the film. Steve Carell is particularly good. As a huge Office fan I have a hard time separating him from the obnoxious Michael Scott but his Frank is subdued and sad and often hilarious. I thought he did a great job and I would love to see him tackle some more, even more serious dramatical work. Abigail Breslin is also pretty amazing as Olive, the Little Miss Sunshine wannabe. She is both sweet and naïve and seems to be what keeps the entire family from falling apart. The rest of the cast is also great – Greg Kinnear as the a-hole Dad and Toni Collette as the Mom just trying to keep her family afloat. Stealing the show was the VW bus that the family takes to California.

This movie is a comedy but as I mentioned above has some great dramatic themes in it as well. Dare I call it a Dramedy? Maybe I will. Either way, I loved this movie and so glad we picked it up at Best Buy where if you bought three new releases you got a $10 gift card! This movie fared better then the other two we purchased (which will not be reviewed but were All the King’s Men (JUDE LAW!) and Lady in the Water. They both get a “meh” from me. But see Little Miss Sunshine! It rules!

Josh says:
I had heard such great things about this movie, that I'd love to be writing Tania's review. I'm not though, cause I'm not quite there with it. It's not that I didn't like the movie, I did. I just didn't love it. The cast is interesting. In a way, I found it very hard to believe that these people were related, however, on an individual basis, I have a hard time seeing anybody else playing these people. I mean in terms of the individual characters:

Arkin as the grandpa, perfect, but of course, he's just playing himself.

Carell as the uncle is perfect as well. I just can't see anyone else playing this guy so perfectly, the subtle irony he brings to every character he plays is just too perfect.

That kid is perfect as the older brother, once you warm up to where he's coming from.

That little girl was perfect as that little girl, the perfect amount of cute and pathetic.

Toni Collette as the mom, perfect.

Lastly, I'm generally not a big fan of Greg Kinnear but he's such a prick in this movie that, for me, I can't see anyone else in the role.

Still, something about these people as a family unit really didn't work, save for a few rare moments toward the end.

As for the story itself, it's cute, but excluding the fact that it had me waxing nostalgic for my old VW, it just seemed like it was a bit contrived or perhaps worse yet, a new and marginally improved Vacation (yes, I'm looking at you dead grandpa in the trunk gag) minus Wally World (can anything be improved by taking away Wally World?).

It does provide an interesting social commentary on what it is that constitutes 'success' and what it is to be 'normal' without that preachy feeling so many people hate in their movies. The movie also has some fairly realistic heart wrenching moments that come off very well with no cheese whatsoever. Overall, it's one of the better movies we've watched as part of this project, but we've watched a lot of really bad movies so far..................I'd recommend it be watched, but I just wouldn't expect a movie of the year or whatever everybody's calling it.