Yeah, John C. McGinley overacts the shit out of his character. But Mickey Rourke played a perfect scumbag and it was cool to see Michael Caine in it. I had seen it over a decade ago, but I caught it on HBO and it’s still decent.
The original version, “Point Blank” with Lee Marvin is also awesome. But it does not have a Lucy Liu as a sadomasochist.
Ford V Ferrari was exceptional. Fun, well-acted, and it showed the main characters (Ken Miles, Carroll Shelby, Lee Iacocca) having multiple dimensions. The driving scenes were not over the top, and it was gorgeously shot.
When one is sitting inside during 98 degree heat, the Naked Gun trilogy makes for excellent watching. I love a lot of the National Lampoon movies from the 1980's and 1990's (Loaded Weapon and Hot Shots are up there), but I hadn't seen all three of these for years. The sight gags, the small details, Leslie Nielsen as the best straight man in movie history....all with OJ Simpson. Too good to pass up.
The first Naked Gun is the best comedy movie of all time. Nothing else comes close. The trilogy itself is never always entertaining. The third one in particular could never be made today.
The first movie’s jokes come at the firing pace of a GU-8 gatling gun. It was a joy letting my daughter watch it for the first time and see her slide off the couch in hysterics every 90 seconds. Now she shows it to any new friend that comes over and they’ll both die laughing. They simply can’t believe a live-action film this funny and screwball could even exist. They don’t make them like they used to, and that proves it. There’s a thousand awesome jokes to pick as your favourite, my two faves empty the bladder every time, because of their use of high-tension Hitchcock music:
Charlie reading his “Platoon” narration, only to be interrupted by his dad filming “Apocalypse Now” is simply fucking genius. The two best Vietnam movies ever made, starring a father in one and his kid in the other. Possibly the most brilliant cameo ever:
Face/Off I’m not even sure where to begin so I’m not going to. It’s just going to be random thoughts: -In the first 5 minutes of the movie, Nicholas Cage sexually assaults a teenage choir girl in the middle of a crowded mall, but it’s okay because she (kind of) likes it. Then he threatens a flight attendant with rape. She (kind of) likes it too. But she’s an FBI agent and he kills her. -Apparently there are domestic terrorists so powerful, well-equipped and financed, they are constantly eluding authorities in broad daylight. -You can just swap the skin on people’s faces without having to worry about bone structure, blood type, DNA, etc. -Electromagnetic boots make prison better or something. And if you’re an undercover FBI agent in that prison, you can just murder the guards if you want. -John Travolta thought it was a good idea to not tell his wife that he’s swapping his face with an incarcerated and later, escaped, terrorist. -They, without question or hesitation, adopt the terrorist’s orphaned son because he sort of looks like their son that the terrorist killed. That’s completely reasonable and not fucking weird. 8/10
“Try terrorism-for-here. We’ll blow some shit up, it’s more fun!” Face/Off always has, and always will be two thirds of an amazing movie.
Some of John Woo's best work, pushing the slow-motion gunfight a few years before the Matrix. Violence as poetry. Also, apparently they tried to tell a story, but....(shrugs).
Have y'all seen the Face/Off pillows? They are those fish scale things . . . one side is Cage, then if you swipe up, it switches to Travolta
Boiler Room This movie came out when I was 14 and I remember thinking it was pretty awesome. Now it's like the Boondock Saints in that the more you mature, the more it starts to suck. Giovanni Ribisi can't carry a movie worth shit, at least he couldn't back then. Every other cast member does a pretty boring job in their role except for Ben Affleck who is the only believable douchebag. The plot itself is interesting enough, but the first act is rushed and the third act basically doesn't exist. He tells Vin Diesel the FBI is about raid their office and then goes out to his car and drives away. I can't tell if you're supposed to sympathized with Ribisi's character or not because I only sympathized with his father who didn't want his life ruined by his idiot son. I think it has gotten way more credit than it deserves over the years, but since the same exact subject matter was handled much better by Martin Scorsese, it's pretty forgettable at this point. 4/10
Word. They simply gave Wall Street the “Young Guns” makeover. It wasn’t made by somebody who worked in the market, it was made by a guy who watched a bunch of stockbroker movies. The Bro douchechills this movie gives off makes it impossible to watch anymore. Scorsese did this with “Wolf” and made it exceedingly more fun, electric and captivating.
If you want a Wall Street movie that really flew under the radar, check out Margin Call. Most people I try to talk to about it have never even heard of it, but the cast is absolutely stacked: Kevin Spacey Paul Bettany Jeremy Irons Zachary Quinto Simon Baker Mary McDonnell Demi Moore Stanley Tucci It's closer to The Big Short than it is to Boiler Room or Wolf of Wall Street, but it plays like a really good stage play put to film. Great character work throughout.
Yeah, Margin Call is by far the best movie about the industry. Having worked at an investment bank early in my career, they nailed all the personalities perfectly, from the wealth-obsessed junior analyst to the miserably rich MD.