Yesterday's Movies

Sliding Doors

February 20, 2015February 20, 2015temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

Exploring parallel outcomes of a small change in one’s life is hardly a unique source of plot, especially since Many Worlds Theory entered popular consciousness. Malcolm in the Middle did an episode on what would happen depending on which parent chaperoned an outing, one of Community‘s most popular episodes traces seven different continuities, Mister Nobody follows a mind-bending number of possibilities, and Constellations recently began a Broadway engagement, just to name a few, and completely ignoring the countless examples involving time travel. However, there are two films that are always held up as the chief examples of the concept: the German film Run Lola Run, and Sliding Doors, both of which, interestingly, released in the same year. Perhaps that’s a part of why they both resonate so strongly.

I encountered Run Lola Run first, so I’ve always seen this as the English-language derivative. I expect it to be less experimental in technique and so more accessible, but that’s dangerously close to snobbishness. This is still an experiment in stepping outside traditional linear story, and highly regarded as such, for reasons I’ll now get to experience.

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Stand By Me

February 12, 2015temporalparadox1 Comment

Before watching the movie:

I mainly know of this movie because it was apparently the biggest thing in Wil Wheaton’s child acting career besides Star Trek, and as I keep up with his internet presence, it comes up a lot. I only know the broadest strokes of the plot, that there’s a group of boys who have some kind of adventure that leaves them all changed, like The Goonies, though more mundane. Everything else I think I know comes from the Simpsons episode that I think is based on this.

I’m not normally drawn to coming of age films, as I’m neither young enough to appreciate them as a child nor old enough to absorb the nostalgia of childhood adventure. Indeed, I’m from after the era where children commonly wandered freely outside of school to make lasting friends and life-changing discoveries, so this kind of film is somewhat foreign to me. But I have the impression that it’s a classic from the mid-80s, even if it doesn’t have as strong or visible a cult following as many others.

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Soapdish

February 6, 2015February 6, 2015temporalparadox1 Comment

Before watching the movie:

There is so much star power in this movie I hadn’t heard of. I know Robert Downey Jr. was popular when he was young before he had to take a break to get clean and rebuild his reputation, but I think he’s still a bigger hit now than he ever was before. I always enjoy Kevin Kline, but while he’s gotten a lot of great comedy leads and supporting roles, I don’t think he ever got the comedy superstar status he may deserve. And of course, the movie is led by Sally Field and has Whoopi Goldberg in a role that might have 30 seconds of screen time for all I can tell with how prominent her name is versus how big she was in the 90s.

It occurs to me that I really enjoy spoofs of soap operas, though I don’t really seek them out. I saw several episodes of Soap some years ago but never continued after we finished the first disc or two, maybe because it was too much actual soapiness vs. mocking soapiness. Or perhaps I like the spoofs in concentrated bursts. Even Saturday Night Live’s “The Californians” was funny the first time. But what really draws me to this is that the story is about the drama going on off-camera, which makes me expect something like if Noises Off collided with Days of Our Lives.

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The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown

January 30, 2015January 30, 2015temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

This popped up on my radar as an automatic recommendation related to my interest in other movies of about the same era, which were in turn probably automatic recommendations based on other films. At this point, I have no idea what the original search was, but isn’t that what algorithmic recommendations are for?

So, as the poster says, this is the story of a bombshell who gets kidnapped for ransom and squabbles with her kidnapper until they fall in love. The synopsis I originally saw focused on her arguing the ransom amount was far too low, which is at least by now an old joke. So this sounds like a fairly stock screwball comedy, but it looks like it’s been cast with people who can pull it off well.

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A Simple Wish

January 23, 2015January 23, 2015temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

I’m not sure if Matilda is intentionally being invoked by the posters, or if it’s more of a coincidence of starring Mara Wilson and having a 90s “whimsical fantasy” aesthetic. The story isn’t much like Matilda at all really.

Anyway, the poster design wouldn’t have gotten me interested (I think I liked Matilda, but if I wanted to see it again I could just see it again. Actually, I ought to see it again), but it’s again in the big, cheap collection of movies I recently got, and the description on IMDB shows potential. But what really got me interested was the tagline. “Anabel made a wish. Murray made a mess.” That’s almost certainly an oversimplification, but it suggests a fun, haphazard style of accidental magic.

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Ed

January 16, 2015January 16, 2015temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Ed. Longview Entertainment/Universal Pictures 1996.

Before watching the movie:

I’m not sure if I bought the set this movie is in before or after I heard it come up in a conversation as an example of an awful career blunder for Matt LeBlanc, but I’d never heard of it before as far as I know. Looking at the description, I can kind of see why, because it makes no sense. A minor league baseball player has to room with the team mascot for some reason, and the mascot is a real live chimp for some reason, and this improves his career and life for some reason? I’m missing too much information here. I can’t really say how bad or enjoyable I expect this to be because I have no idea from the facts at hand where it could really go. It seems like it just needs to be experienced to be understood.

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Cloak and Dagger

January 9, 2015January 9, 2015temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

I came across this in a 10-movie collection of cheap “family favorites” I bought with a Christmas gift, and I’m a little confused by the plot summary. The neglected kid’s video game hobby and superspy imaginary friend both figure prominently in the description, but I don’t see how video games enter into where the twist takes them, other than providing a setup for how to get there. This might just be the kind of weird concept that’s surprising to think it got made.

Dabney Coleman wouldn’t be the first person I’d think of to play a superspy, but he does seem quite appropriate now that I see him here. It’s not exactly the type I know him best in, but I can picture the role as something similar that he’d be quite capable at, or he could surprise me.

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If it’s Tuesday, This Must be Belgium

January 2, 2015temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

This has one of those memorable titles that come up much more often than anything about the contents of the movie. I think I heard some time after coming across the title that this was about a European vacation tour, but not much more. I got the idea that it was a family vacation, and imagined National Lampoon’s Griswold family driving through the continent, when it’s actually a tour group. (Though National Lampoon did do European Vacation, so maybe I just conflated them. I’ve only seen Family Vacation and Christmas Vacation though.)

Anyway, the confusion implied by the title has more to do with the speed of the tour than a series of unfortunate events or interpersonal conflict, though I expect both to follow from it.

The description focuses on Suzanne Pleshette’s character falling for the tour guide, but I’m hoping the actual story is more ensemble-driven with those two having a small plurality, because the situation seems to lend itself to madcap antics in all directions.

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YesterMovies Rewind: Simon Birch

December 26, 2014temporalparadox1 Comment

Five years ago this month, Yesterday’s Movies officially began. To celebrate half a decade of movie reviews, I’m rewatching some of the highlights and giving them second-look reviews. I’m closing out this series with the very first movie reviewed here, Simon Birch.

I know I originally chose this one because I’d just read the book it was based on, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and I recall it ended up not having much to do with the book.

I also think I remember Christmas being a major part of the movie, being a major episode somewhere in the middle of a story told over about a year or so. I’m not sure if I said something about it in the original review, but I’m recalling a feeling very similar to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. oddly. That and the bus scene are all I really remember.

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YesterMovies Rewind: Family Plot

December 18, 2014December 19, 2014temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Five years ago this month, Yesterday’s Movies officially began. To celebrate half a decade of movie reviews, I’m rewatching some of the highlights and giving them second-look reviews. This week, I’m giving the unfairly forgotten Family Plot another try.

In May of 2011, I was preparing to leave for an extended stay in another state, and I’d decided that my last review the night before leaving would be a family copy of Family Plot. However, shortly after I began watching the movie, I received word canceling the lodgings I thought I’d secured for my trip. I spent the next few hours frantically trying to make other arrangements, and while I managed to get a review posted, I probably hadn’t had enough attention to give it. Therefore, I always wanted to find an opportunity to give it another attempt, since it’s probably the film on this blog most deserving of a second look.

That story is pretty much all of what I remember about the movie. It’s some kind of comedy about murder, but I think that much is stated on the box.

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