Before watching the movie:
This has a reputation of being a terrible misstep in Sylvester Stallone’s career. For a career built on major action spectaculars, maybe so. As a movie, we’ll see. I think Stallone could be good in the role, I think the premise is good, but maybe it doesn’t add up to a good whole. Maybe Stallone phones it in. Maybe he has no chemistry with his costar. But I’m optimistic right now.
Before watching the movie:
I’m not quite sure what this is. The synopsis I’ve seen about a rock star getting involved in a counter-operation on a Nazi attack on submarines is simply confusing, and I have a hard time picturing Val Kilmer and not someone like Brendan Fraser, but its cult reputation that I’ve very recently stumbled upon is that it’s a Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker comedy of the same caliber as Airplane!. That’s a tall order to fill, since Scary Movie 4 tried and failed to live up to it, and even The Naked Gun franchise eventually let me down (the first one is good, and I look forward to the short-lived TV show it was based on).
Also the presence of cows in boots on all the posters baffles me, but that’s probably intentional.
Before watching the movie:
I’m sure I’ve seen Eddie Murphy in an action movie, but I can’t remember one. Unless Harlem Nights counts as action, and I wouldn’t. So as far as I can recall, this is the first time I’ll really see Eddie Murphy doing “action hero”. It doesn’t seem like a good fit, but I know there were at least two sequels. I could see him doing a straight-up parody, but that’s not what comes to mind here.
Before watching the movie:
I’m fairly sure this is the movie I recall coming out at a time when I was too young to be interested in it, but I thought that it was a few years earlier, like 1997 or 98. Still, I definitely remember the title, nothing with that title came out in the 90s, and the summary is about what I remember.
I was surprised by the star-studded cast. Most of them are people I wouldn’t have heard of in 2001, but I know now are big names. I’m not sure if I knew any of them other than Whoopi Goldberg and Cuba Gooding Jr. at the time. I guess I knew of John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson, but I didn’t know they were in this movie.
I also just found out this is vaguely based on It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, which make sense, because it reminds me of “The Amazing Race” and that movie. Hopefully, it will have better pacing than “Mad World”, which dragged a bit at times from having to support so many characters and generally being long enough to be the only nonmusical film I know of with an intermission.
Before watching the movie:
I first heard of this movie when I saw pieces of it on TV. Not enough to get more idea of what it was than a trailer could have told me, but Kelsey Grammer caught my attention. It’s been years, so I’ve forgotten much more than “Kelsey Grammer, submarine, ragtag misfits, wargame”, but this finally rose to the top of my list.
On the other hand, that limits what I can say about my expectations. It’s clearly an underdog submarine comedy, and I’m not sure what else I can expect. What little I’ve heard about it otherwise suggests it’s not very good, but I’d hardly call it infamous.
Before watching the movie:
The main thing I can think of to describe my impression of this movie is… normal. Adam Sandler in the 90s playing a hockey player turned golfer sounds pretty normal next to Adam Sandler as a failure of a demon or Adam Sandler as a rich manchild going through elementary school, or even, to go later, Adam Sandler as an Israeli superspy turned fabulous hairdresser. I think he might actually be a fairly normal human being in this movie. I know he’s more serious now, but he did complete oddball roles back when he was “you know, that weirdo from SNL”.
I seem to recall the reason he gets into golf is the idea of hockey players having good golf drives, which reminds me of Jamaican sprinters being good bobsledders. I wonder if there are many other movies built on sports having overlapping skillsets. When I was young, I got his powerful drive confused with the kid with the superhumanly tensioned arm from Rookie of the Year.
Before watching the movie:
If AFI hasn’t done a countdown of iconic movie images yet, it’s probably on their to-do list. The one thing anybody remembers about this movie is probably in the top five, if not the number one.
What’s this film actually about, if not Marylin Monroe’s antigravity dress? I recall vaguely from a few synopses something about a man who’s bored with his marriage and strongly tempted by Monroe’s character. At least this poster has him standing nearby with his attention diverted by her, even if he’s not the focus.
I’m still trying to figure out how to describe Billy Wilder. So far all I’ve come up with is “gets it right.”
Before watching the movie:
This is based on a book that I’ve read, but I don’t remember very much of it. A gang of misfits that I recall as fairly large decides that instead of stealing from a bank, they’ll steal the bank itself, thanks to its temporary home in a trailer. Beyond the premise, I only remember one particular scene, and that while it’s a comedy, it was the kind of comedy that I had to keep stopping to remind myself that this wasn’t a drama with a bunch of one-off comic relief jokes. The situation sounds farcical, but in context I took it completely seriously. On the other hand, I was just a little too young to get it. I think I wasn’t even in middle school yet, and it’s definitely a book for adults.
I discovered it as an automatic recommendation along with other George C. Scott movies when I saw They Might Be Giants. The actor is probably the only similarity between the two movies.
Before watching the movie:
Well, Christmas is over. Hope everybody got their Christmas paraphernalia put away and locked up by 12:01 AM on the 26th.
So, this is probably the quintessential heist movie. Even though I’ve seen it (or rather, the remake and its sequels) parodied endlessly, the main thing I’m curious about is whether this is a romp or a drama. Not that humor and suspense are incompatible.
I wouldn’t be surprised when I get to the remake to find that this movie has better chemistry than the new one, since I’m pretty sure this includes the entire Rat Pack. I don’t think I’ve seen any Rat Pack films before, but I know their reputation.
Before watching the movie:
Here’s a cheery little comedy about how society’s changed so much women can become functioning adults without knowing how to cook! What a crazy, upside-down world! At least the lead can fake it in print.
I feel a little bad that I’m most interested in seeing what Sydney Greenstreet brings to this movie, when he appears to be in a supporting role. I come across Barbara Stanwyck so much I ought to know more about her. Unfortunately, she’s from an era where it seems like everyone in Hollywood, and especially women, were encouraged to be interchangeable. From what I’ve seen of her she’s pretty good, but she ends up failing to leave an impression on me because I can’t tell her apart from any other woman on film in the 40s. Also, speaking of interchangeable, I’ve never heard of Dennis Morgan.
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