Yesterday's Movies

YesterMovies Rewind: Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

December 12, 2014December 12, 2014temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Cannon Films 1987.

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 taking another look at the worst movie I ever reviewed, Superman IV.

I remember this being a completely irredeemable movie. The acting phoned in, the story misguided and nonsensical, and the special effects being too terrible to forgive. The only time I couldn’t recommend anyone watch it. So I’m gonna watch it again!

I’m really hoping I’ll find something good about it that I missed the first time. The story is what it is because Christopher Reeve believed in its message, so hopefully I’ll find at least him to be fully committed to the result.

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YesterMovies Rewind: L.A. Story

December 5, 2014December 11, 2014temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Five years ago, on December 4, 2009, 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 kicking it off with a look back at the best reviewing experience I had, L.A. Story.

As I recall, I’d heard the film spoken of glowingly, but never expected it to be much more than one more copy-paste romantic comedy. I didn’t expect the amount of fun, warmth, and satire, and I certainly didn’t expect the element of fantasy. At this point the main thing I remember about the plot is that Steve Martin falls in love with a woman he probably shouldn’t. Also there’s a cameo with Patrick Stewart.

I’m concerned that it won’t be as good as I remember, simply because so much of my impression was born from the gulf between what I expected and what I actually saw.

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The World is Not Enough

November 28, 2014temporalparadox1 Comment

Before watching the movie:

In some families, Christmas starts the moment the Thanksgiving desserts are cleared away, or sooner. However, I prefer to give it a few days before slowly creeping into the season. So here’s an action spy flick starring James Bond and notable Bond girl Dr…. ah.

I don’t think there’s a movie out there so tenuously linked to Christmas, but if this doesn’t count, the honor would probably go to Die Hard.

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Cheaper by the Dozen

November 21, 2014temporalparadox1 Comment

Before watching the movie:

This is a movie about a very large family. There’s currently a franchise of movies with the title that stars Steve Martin, but this doesn’t appear to have much to do with it, aside from perhaps a “suggested by” remake. I have the distinct impression that the modern version (which I haven’t seen either) involves a blended family, while this doesn’t appear to.

It does appear to just be anecdotes from a real family’s life strung together into a feature film. Not quite as attractive as a slapstick comedy with Steve Martin, but it should be fun and interesting.

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Random Hearts

November 14, 2014temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

I first heard of this movie in In The Can, a book about Hollywood missteps. When I selected it, I didn’t remember what the book had to say about it (I may have confused it with another entry), but I was fairly certain it had been in the book. I have a particular interest in movies that had potential but made a critical error, and in this case it sounds like a minor problem rippling outward: according to the book, Harrison Ford’s fame took too much focus that could have been spent on more interesting characters. Now I can decide for myself if that’s the case.

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The Lodger

November 7, 2014temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

I got this in a box set of early Alfred Hitchcock films, which indicated it was Hitchcock’s first thriller. I’ve seen it described elsewhere as when Hitchcock came into his own. But I don’t know much about it beyond that it’s about a serial murderer and it’s silent.

I haven’t covered many silent films. I don’t dislike them, but they don’t usually attract me unless it’s something historically significant like The Birth of a Nation. Lack of color often enhances the tension in a movie, but I’m not sure if lack of sound will do the same or be a barrier to connecting with it. I’m expecting it to help though.

I have a hard time picturing a Hitchcock film without sound though. He does a lot of advanced camera and narrative techniques, and when I think of technique in the silent era, I think more about pioneering the basics than doing anything that can impress in its own right. I recognize this is patronizing, and I’m hoping this film will defy that notion.

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The Monster Squad

October 31, 2014temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

I’ve often said I wanted to try watching a movie completely cold, without knowing a thing about it. I’m not sure I knew this movie existed before yesterday. Apparently it has something of a cult following.

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The Long, Long Trailer

October 23, 2014October 23, 2014temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

This was recommended to me because I was going to pull a trailer across the country in a move as “something to watch after you’re done with the trailer”. The trailer is gone, and the movie is here, so here it is. Mine was somewhat smaller. I couldn’t imagine my car pulling a 36′ camper trailer, but I think they did make cars more powerful back then.

I was thinking more about a few Disney cartoons with misbehaving trailers, but I can certainly see the potential for comic mishap. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any difference between Lucy and Desi’s characters here versus on I Love Lucy, since both are star vehicles meant to showcase what they do best and giving audiences what they expect of the actors.
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Crocodile Dundee

October 17, 2014temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

Culture clash and Australian stereotypes. An icon in American perception of Australia. I’ve been waiting a long time to get access to this one.

For all the fame of this movie, the only thing I’ve seen that comes directly from it is the memetic “that’s not a knife”. The rest is a complete blank. Just a cartoonish expert of the Outback in somebody else’s world.

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Gulliver’s Travels

October 10, 2014temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

This is a story that gets remade every so often, probably because the state of film technology marches on and someone decides they can do better than the last one. Certainly, the recent version with Jack Black established the look very realistically. However, hardly anyone has adapted the entire book, and the title is almost universally considered to refer to only the Lilliput section, which this appears to do. Brobdingnang sometimes gets included since it’s just the reverse of the scale effect, but to my knowledge no version, or at least no enduring version, has attempted, for example, the island of the horse people. Not even the Harryhousen-powered The Three Worlds of Gulliver tried.

This is a staging by another great name in animation and effects, Fleischer Studios. I feel animation is underrepresented on this site, and I’m glad to bring in a historically significant animated feature now. I’ve never really cared much for the Fleischer style, so much as I’ve seen it, but Fleischer didn’t really endure long enough to develop as well as Disney and Warner Bros. did. But it should serve to tell the story adequately.

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