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Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
The Pelican Brief - Damn this movie is looong. Major pacing issues and it needed around 30 minutes cut.
It's ok but the conspiracy truly requires the suspension of disbelief. She's a college girl who created an interesting theory. That's it. Was she right? Yes....but if the FBI, CIA, and the president/staff would simply ignore it, it's so irrelevant that nobody knows it exists! By targeting her and those around her for assassination, it does the opposite...it puts a giant spotlight on the brief.
Reality Bites - As I get older, I sympathize more with Stiller's character. It was obvious when walking into their lives that it was an ironclad clique and he was on the outside looking in. It never would've worked.
Another thing I notice as I get older is how truly manipulative Winona really is here. She has both guys wrapped around her finger and is basically just using Stiller.
I also think that their final meeting at the club should've been handled better.
I think I've seen it once (Pelican Brief) and it was a slog to go through. And also I've never really like any John Grisham adaptions into motion pictures, the novels are always better.
The thing about the Stiller character too is that he's the most mature out of them. He has a stable job and his own apartment. I think they mock him (I may be wrong it's been a while since I watch him) for this which is kinda mean. At the end , the Janine Garrafalo character has her shit together and got promoted to a store manager at GAP, while Lainey and the Ethan Hawke character are kinda adrift and still trying to find themselves and figure out their lives. The ending is a little sad to me.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Great Balls of Fire - This has a great cast and it's unfortunate that they didn't do a deep dive into his story. It's just the broad strokes on the first couple years of his career.
I hate Baldwin... always will...but he does a great job playing Jimmy Swaggart.
Training Day - A great movie that goes to shit about 90 minutes in. Once I saw how it was playing out leading to the climax, I just wanted it over with.
The thing about the Stiller character too is that he's the most mature out of them. He has a stable job and his own apartment. I think they mock him (I may be wrong it's been a while since I watch him) for this which is kinda mean. At the end , the Janine Garrafalo character has her shit together and got promoted to a store manager at GAP, while Lainey and the Ethan Hawke character are kinda adrift and still trying to find themselves and figure out their lives. The ending is a little sad to me
Yeah...Stiller is mocked from the beginning all the way till the final scene.
The fling with Winona never should've went beyond a one night stand.
Yeah it is sad. The whole thing is sad actually. It's a group of losers basically. It starts out as this small group of ambitious college students graduating with the hope and dreams of youth.
It quickly crumbles.
Winona... immediately presented as the one with her shit together, gets fired from her job as a glorified intern due to self sabotage. What does she do next? Lays around the house feeling sorry for herself, running up $500 psychic line phone bills, and uses her dad's gas card to make quick cash. The little ambition she has(the "documentary") is tied up with the shallow relationship with Stiller and this too gets sabotaged.
Garoffalo has her job at The Gap....but she's a dime a dozen girl. She fucks anything that moves while pausing between AIDS tests.
She's on the road to nowhere...fast.
Hawke's character is also in the dime a dozen category...a young guy with dreams of being a musician/Rock star skating by on his looks while putting in little to no effort at anything in life. He clearly doesn't want to move on from his youth which is why he's still glued to this group.
Zahn is just....there....a gay virgin trying to come out of the closet.
While it's a good movie, I agree with the negative reviews saying that the film doesn't go far enough with the message it's trying to send. It's all surface level. A good time to dive into how they're wasting their lives is the argument between Stiller and Hawke at the apartment while Winona is standing there. Instead it is more played for laughs.
I can see why Stiller briefly wanted to do a sequel years later. Seeing how all their lives turned out 10-15 years later definitely had potential.
metallex78- Rep: 194
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
metallex78 wrote:I’ve never see Reality Bites. It was one of those movies I intended to watch, but never got around to it. Might have to look around for where it may be streaming
- metallex78
- Rep: 194
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
metallex78 wrote:Thanks James, but that link is blocked in Australia…
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Winona... immediately presented as the one with her shit together, gets fired from her job as a glorified intern due to self sabotage. What does she do next? Lays around the house feeling sorry for herself, running up $500 psychic line phone bills, and uses her dad's gas card to make quick cash. The little ambition she has(the "documentary") is tied up with the shallow relationship with Stiller and this too gets sabotaged.
While it's a good movie, I agree with the negative reviews saying that the film doesn't go far enough with the message it's trying to send. It's all surface level. A good time to dive into how they're wasting their lives is the argument between Stiller and Hawke at the apartment while Winona is standing there. Instead it is more played for laughs.
I totally forgot how the Winona character went totally downhill after she lost her job. IIRC she was rather immature about how she got fired. It was just really stupid and like self sabotage as you say. Basically after that she becomes a slacker and a double of the Ethan Hawke character.
You're actually correct about the major flaw with the film. It should be a debate about how 90s post college ideals, dreams, and life philosphies (or whatever) comes smack dab into the realities of life. It's a great film title, I might point out, nice play on words. Anyway, you might have these ideals but those don't usually pay the bills. And sometimes you have to delay your goals (like Lainey becoming a director for documentaries) for a bit otherwise you end up stuck like the Hawke character. The ending of this is like something out of a romantic comedy except that I have no idea how it got "to that point" and it's not really consistent with the reality of what we have shown in the film. I don't want to sound like I'm trashing this too much since I do love that it captures the vibe/feel of the 90s perfectly.
Straight Time (1979) Someone criticized Hoffman's films a few pages back. He's fine here as a career criminal trying to go straight and failing at it. He does attempt to re-enter society but it just doesn't work for him for a variety of reasons. So he predicatably goes back to the life he knows. I don't think I would have liked this as much if Theresa Russell (aka the MILF in Wild Things) wasn't as good in her role as the girlfriend. I'd say more but I don't want to spoil it.
Basic Instinct (1991) . This one is a fav and maybe a guilty pleasure. For a good while there Michael Douglas could do no wrong. I gotta admit though I love late 80s-early 90s Sharon Stone. From stuff like Action Jackson, Total Recall, The Quick and the Dead to Casino and this film, she did a lot of stuff that I loved. And she basically owns this film from the way she basically manipulates Nick(Douglas character) from start to finish. He thinks he is in control but he's really not. The character becomes somewhat obsessive and psychotic in the second half of the film. I totally forgot how funny this film is too. The cops are like cracking jokes at the first crime scene. I still think the film is a bit long and wouldn't cut out some parts of the middle.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Singles is still my favorite Gen X film, along with So I Married an Ax Murderer... Watch it again, total gen X film.
Training Day was supposed to end with the Hawke character basically taking the place of Washington, where the cycle repeats itself.
Basic Instinct is a classic. Near perfect. It's the film Hitchcock would have made had he made films in the 90s.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Memories of Me - The only 80s Billy Crystal movie I had never watched. The trailer made it look pretty good but I didn't like it. I think this film... about a dysfunctional father-son relationship...would have went over better if they leaned more into the drama instead of comedy.
Haven't watched many movies the past few days. Been watching episodes of the 70s TV show Maude. It's amazing. Deserves more attention than it gets today.
It's so wacky how the whole family is a bunch of pill poppers who drink all the time...and they use the neighbor doctor to fill prescriptions. Amphetamine and benzos are essentially a low grade speedball...and they recommend it!
Training Day was supposed to end with the Hawke character basically taking the place of Washington, where the cycle repeats itself.
This would have improved it immensely.
