Iro's One Movie a Day Thread

Totally agree with you on Judgment at Nuremberg and 22 Jump Street.

I felt the opposite about The Last Stand. I was enjoying it quite a bit until about the last 25 minutes.

#245 - The Brothers Grimm
Terry Gilliam, 2005



Two brothers work as supernaturally-themed con artists in 18th-century Germany but are soon forced by French occupiers to confront genuine magical dangers under pain of death.

It's always disappointing to see a director you like make a bad film. The Brothers Grimm has an interesting enough concept for a dark fairytale kind of movie, which would be well within the purview of a filmmaker as well-versed in the fantastic as Terry Gilliam would be. Unfortunately, the resulting film comes across as a horribly dull and self-referential mishmash where the best qualities often seem like the director is spinning his wheels rather than creating anything genuinely worthwhile. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger play the titular brothers, who are divided into the roles of cynic and believer respectively. They (along with all the other German characters) speak with English accents, which sticks out considering how all the French characters (and Peter Stormare's Italian mercenary) all have the appropriate accents. What follows is an adventure involving a sinister French general (frequent Gilliam collaborator Jonathon Pryce) catching the duo out on their exorcism-based scams and forcing them to find out what happened to a group of girls who have gone missing in a haunted forest, accompanied by Stormare and an embittered huntress (Lena Headey). This leads them to discover an ancient folk tale about a vain queen (Monica Bellucci) who is still very much alive and causing havoc.

Being a Gilliam film, The Brothers Grimm does have some rather decent art direction but that is ultimated cancelled out by some extremely lacklustre CGI even by 2005 standards. The story itself feels boring and way too long for such a simple piece of work, plus all the various references to the actual Grimm fairytales feel way too contrived to be clever. There is virtually no chemistry between the two leads or any of the other characters they encounter and they aren't even solid actors in their own right. Gilliam hasn't always done good movies, but at least the other ones I weren't so fond of were at least interesting enough to hold my attention. I can't decide whether or not this film is Gilliam descending into self-parody or simply a result of him being way too neutered by executive meddling to produce an intriguing film, but in all probability it was both.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

#246 - Rain Man
Barry Levinson, 1988



A slick car dealer learns that he has an autistic brother who is set to inherit millions of dollars from their late father so the pair end up taking a road trip.

I guess it's probably a personal shortcoming that I still tend to approach any unseen Best Picture winner with no small degree of skepticism, especially one that has seeped as being into the collective cultural consciousness as Rain Man. Fortunately, the film is solid enough to overcome its various '80s trappings (such as the music - Hans Zimmer's score is as aggressively '80s as his work on Driving Miss Daisy, but not quite as annoying), but it's debatable as to how well it overcomes it handles its odd-couple narrative. The interplay between Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman as a pair of very different brothers is what drives the plot, especially Cruise's selfish motivation to acquire his late father's multimillion-dollar inheritance that is otherwise going to go to Hoffman, who is an institutionalised savant who is unable to grasp the concept of money. An understandable but not exactly sympathetic motivation that does make Cruise's character sufficiently complicated. Hoffman, on the other hand, earns an Oscar on the basis of his extremely committed performance that captures the various qualities associated with an autistic savant, whether it's an impressive ability to memorise a lot of things instantly or the nervous triggers that mean he refuses to travel on planes or even highways. Despite Cruise's initial and long-lasting impatience with Hoffman's peculiarities, he eventually warms up to him and they do start to bond, as you'd expect.

Of course, this bond is anchored to a fairly standard road movie plot that might be a little on the long side due to how slowly the film tries to develop the relationship between Cruise and Hoffman. It does involve a number of setpieces of varying quality, most notably the sequence where the duo hit up a Vegas casino in order to make some cash using Hoffman's gift for numbers (despite my general misgivings about the soundtrack, the song that plays during that sequence is awesome). Hoffman definitely earns the praise he gets, but it's a credit to Cruise that he's able to provide a solid foil who goes through a believable journey over the course of the film. Rain Man is pretty solid as far as Best Picture winners go, and while it may have been done a disservice by countless parodies and rip-offs (as well as its being extremely dated), it still holds up reasonably well.

I love Rain Man. I've not seen it in a very long time, but I'd probably rate it a little higher than you have. I saw The Brothers Grimm once, because a friend wanted to see it, but it was dull, dull, dull. Apart from some woods I really don't remember anything about it. Even the outline to the plot you provided didn't ring any bells.

The Last Stand I saw when I did a commentary for it with SC and JD. I'm sure the commentary helped my enjoyment of it greatly. As you say, it's pretty much nothing until the last 30 minutes. The Cable Guy is a film I've never wanted to see or thought looked good. It does appear to be better thought of than it was when it was released, but I expect that's the adults who saw and loved it as a child.

Did you continue with the Daredevil TV series? I have a friend who really likes it and I know he hated the film. 21 Jump Street is something I might be able to get something out of. However, unless I really love it, I can't see 22 Jump Street appearing in front of me any time soon, if at all.

Team America? **** YEAH! I laughed so much during that film. Again, I've not seen it in a very long time, but I must've seen that film 10-15 times.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Not yet.

I love Rain Man. I think it holds up better then people say. That central brother relationship is really compelling with great performances by both.

#247 - Hulk
Ang Lee, 2003



A scientist with a mysterious past ends up being exposed to radiation, thus turning him into a giant green creature whenever he becomes enraged.

I haven't seen Hulk since it first came out in theatres - on the basis on that viewing, I ended up putting it on my Worst 100 list. Of course, I had to wonder if I'd misjudged it a bit, and the fact that it was directed by Ang Lee suggested that it might at least have had some quality that I'd missed due to being under the impression that it would just be a mindless action blockbuster about an angry green giant smashing up everything in sight. At the very least, re-watching Hulk has shown that at the very least it should be appreciated as an overly ambitious misfire rather than a derivative, half-assed mess (like a certain other superhero film released in 2003 that I reviewed recently), but beyond that it's hard to think of it as a film that should be appreciated in general.

For starters, I appreciate that Lee and co. did try to literally bring a comic book style, complete with various editing techniques designed to simulate the experience of reading comic book panels such as split-screens or flashy scene transitions. The execution of this varies in quality from moment to moment but at least it's not boring - no, leave the boredom to the rest of the movie. I know everyone likes to criticise this film because it tried to provide a deep rumination on the Hulk's nature that flew in direct contrast to the Hulk's widespread reputation as a destructive, barely-coherent manifestation of scientific folly. Of course, the problem is that Hulk just doesn't do it properly. Making the film's main conflict about the relationship between Bruce (Eric Bana) and his biological father (Nick Nolte) and how it led to Bruce becoming the Hulk had some potential, but it's never developed as well as it should be. Aside from that, there's the greater physical conflict between the Hulk and the U.S. military, which also makes sense but isn't executed properly - not even having a harsh yet somewhat justified antagonist in the form of a general (Sam Elliott) and the complications caused by his daughter (Jennifer Connelly) being Bruce's ex-girlfriend pay off as well as they should. Way too much of this film ultimately fails to entertain in its own right and instead makes you think about how well the film could have played out.

Aside from the overly long and underdeveloped story side of thing (which isn't helped by lacklustre performances), the action is also pretty middling in terms of quality. Though Lee has a generally good eye for visuals and the CGI hasn't aged as badly as one might think, it's still not put to good effect as there's a distinct lack of solid action. That notorious fight between Hulk and a trio of dogs infused with Hulk DNA just looks even more ridiculous after a decade or so, while the majority of the action scenes pit Hulk against the military and offer up some fairly dry scenes involving Hulk causing considerable and supposedly non-lethal destruction in both desert and city. If anything, Hulk isn't an outright bad film so much as an extremely rough predecessor for a lot of the newer superhero films - there are elements that can be appreciated but more so because of their potential than because of their actual execution. At the very least, it is most definitely off my 100 Worst Movies Ever list, for whatever that's worth.

#248 - Harry Brown
Daniel Barber, 2009



An elderly ex-Marine living in a run-down housing estate decides to take revenge against the gang of violent delinquents who murdered his best friend.

I'm starting to think I'm basically done with the vigilante sub-genre, or at least the films that veer into exploitation territory. At best, they can be counted on for cheap thrills to pad out a very basic and underdeveloped narrative - at worst, they become downright objectionable in their own right. Harry Brown is a supposedly respectable-looking example of such a film thanks to the presence of the one and only Sir Michael Caine as the titular character, a lonely old pensioner whose growing resentment of the criminal element in his neighbourhood reaches a peak when his best friend is killed by the gang of hoodlums who hang around the estate. The hoods basically come across as British versions of the cartoonishly evil thugs from any Death Wish movie - they kill and destroy for no real reason other than their own sick amusement and they are almost completely devoid of definition beyond that (the rule-proving exception being Jack O'Connell as an abused rent boy, whose one-note back-story still gives him more depth than any of his companions). As befitting the genre, there's also a detective (Emily Mortimer) who is investigating both Harry and the hoods, putting the pieces together at great risk to herself and her career.

The main problem with trying to do a respectable take on the vigilante vengeance film is that the result is often compromised by the makers trying to provide the same cheap thrills as the worst of the genre but also trying to be taken seriously on a cinematic level at the same time. After spending the first third or so of the film wallowing in misery over the state of his life, Harry finally embarks on his rampage against the local scumbags, which goes surprisingly well considering how his character is pushing eighty (but of course he's an ex-Marine so that explains how he can hold his own against people a third his age). Not even some surprise third-act developments or various ruminations on the state of the world are enough to adequately compensate for the clichéd plot. The same goes for the muddled political aspect of the film as the film can't seem to make up its mind over how justified Harry and his actions are supposed to be. Aside from some decent performances and a coating of British grime, Harry Brown doesn't do much to differentiate itself from other urban justice films that got stale decades ago.

I agree completely. One of my favourite movies!

#249 - Mrs. Miniver
William Wyler, 1942



The members of a middle-class English family try to live their lives against the backdrop of World War II.

Another day, another Best Picture winner. Mrs. Miniver is a decent enough drama concerning the trials and tribulations taking place on the English home front as life goes on even under the threat of destruction from German air raids and the possible deaths of loved ones serving in the military or the war effort. Greer Garson plays the titular protagonist, the housewife who understandably worries about such things while trying to keep her home life running as smoothly as possible, which isn't easy when her husband (Walter Pidgeon) and eldest son (Richard Ney) both become involved in the war effort. Ney's character in particular also ends up falling for an upper-class yet sweet-natured young woman (Teresa Wright), which causes some tension with her haughty grandmother.

Though there are some interesting sequences in this film - the most memorable being one where Garson is taken hostage in her own home by an injured German soldier - for the most part Mrs. Miniver is merely an alright drama held together by some decent characterisation, especially on the part of both Garson and Wright. Its propaganda-like nature does detract from it slightly (especially considering its final scene) and it hasn't aged all that well, but it's still a sufficiently interesting insight into a certain time and place.

ah, what i've missed and the thrill of going back and catching up

caught the last 4 reviews and will going back and checking out all the rest when i can.

I felt the same way about Rain Man when i first watched it in the theater and just could not help but get thoroughly wrapped up in it. curious to see what a re-watch would do of that one.

I've seen Harry Brown last summer and found it worthwhile, albeit a bit of a hard watch.

And since there are multiple favorite actors, any time i've watched Brothers Grimm I just try to ignore the countless flaws and try to enjoy the morsels.

#250 - Airplane II: The Sequel
Ken Finkelman, 1982



A space shuttle transporting passengers from Earth to a lunar colony runs into trouble when the on-board computer goes haywire.

Airplane II: The Sequel is yet another sequel to a hit comedy that fails to generate even a tenth of the amusement that its predecessor did. Having a different writer on board certainly didn't help, especially considering how many sequel sins the film commits. About the only thing the film gets right is that it gets back some (but not all) of its original actors, but that doesn't count for much as this film recycles virtually everything from the first one. The plot once again involves an aircraft losing its pilots and forcing neurotic ex-pilot Ted Stryker (Robert Hays) to take control of the situation while trying to win back Elaine (Julie Hagerty) at the same time. The main difference this time is that this film is all happening in space instead and that the main threat isn't food poisoning but instead a HAL 9000 knock-off, which you'd think would offer some serious comic potential but none of the references ever pay off. It says a lot about the kind of gags this movie has when William Shatner appears late in the film and looks into a periscope to see the Enterprise fly into view. That's it. I get more of the references here, but they don't translate to funny jokes.

When it's not flat-out recycling a lot of gags from the first film (to the point where it will flash back to the first film before immediately repeating the gag, as is the case with the hysterical woman getting slapped repeatedly) or making the kind of blandly parodic pop culture references worthy of Seltzer and Friedberg, Airplane II fails to come up with anything of worth in terms of humour. I know that I've spent most of this review unfavourably comparing it to its far more acclaimed source, but that's only fair considering how utterly derivative it is. Not even the new gags pay off - I think one got a slight chuckle out of me, but when a feature-length broad comedy only gets one chuckle out of me then it's a failure in every regard.

#251 - The Dirty Dozen
Robert Aldrich, 1967



In 1944, an Army major is made to undertake a top-secret mission that involves the use of a dozen dangerous convicts.

The Dirty Dozen almost seems quaint by today's standards with an implausible high concept that wouldn't seem out-of-place in a Michael Bay movie. The premise involves Lee Marvin's hard-ass Army major being made to assemble a team of convicted American soldiers for a suicide mission against a chateau full of German officers ahead of the D-Day invasion. The convicts themselves are of course a colourful and difficult group of characters whose obvious problem with authority makes training them for their mission so challenging that at least two-thirds of this 150-minute movie is spent setting them up for the mission. Of course, it helps that the cast is populated by a bunch of recognisable old-school actors, each playing some fairly basic yet amusing action movie stereotypes with considerable gusto. The disparate personalities clash frequently and make for good interpersonal conflict throughout the film even as the group learns to function as a unit - this helps to keep the film's first half sufficiently interesting.

The action doesn't start in earnest until the second half, with a training exercise followed by the mission proper, but both examples demonstrate considerable competence when it comes to staging action sequences that are both high-tension and high-octane. Though one could easily pick apart some of the complications that happen during the film's third act and the film's extremely shallow treatment of its non-American characters, it's still a worthwhile action piece that doesn't shy away from how some of the film's "heroes" have dark sides that make them as reprehensible as any Nazi they kill. Such is the nature of The Dirty Dozen - it has enough moral ambiguity to make it more intriguing than a simple goodies-versus-baddies film but not enough to make you seriously question the entertainment you're getting out of watching the heroes complete their mission. All in all, a reasonably fun - if a little on the long side - piece of wartime fun.

#252 - Manhattan
Woody Allen, 1979



A middle-aged TV writer quits his job to work on a book while also contending with a variety of complications related to the love lives of both himself and his acquaintances.

The best thing about Manhattan by a long shot is the sumptuous monochrome cinematography by Gordon Willis, which certainly helps a lot in trying to capture Allen's beloved New York City with the same romantically complex air that he tries to cover through the film's actual narrative. While I did sort of like Annie Hall when I first saw it (though my review of it earlier this year indicated I ultimately don't like it enough), my first viewing of Manhattan didn't leave much of an impression beyond its amazing cinematography and also being the movie where Woody Allen's self-insert character dates a seventeen-year-old (though that was obviously not a good impression to leave, especially in light of recent real-life events). Beyond that, I barely remembered anything about it, and I figured that, as with Annie Hall, I probably owed it a second chance - this despite the general antipathy I feel towards Allen's films (which has been documented repeatedly in recent months).

The main thing that stops me liking Allen films is that I genuinely find it hard to care about the various plights of the characters. Allen once again plays a comedy writer, this time going through a number of crises - in addition to abruptly quitting his job at the start of the movie so he can write a book, he also has to contend with his dating a teenager (Mariel Hemingway) while also wanting to date his best friend's mistress (Diane Keaton), plus his lesbian ex-wife (Meryl Streep) is planning on publishing a tell-all story about their failed marriage. Given the circumstances, it's hard to think of his character as sympathetic or even engaging as he blunders through his various problems with line after line after line after line of not-particularly-clever dialogue. Most of the other characters are similarly unengaging, even the ones that do engender some degree of sympathy (such as Streep's stuck-up character who does apparently have some serious grievances against Allen's, or Hemingway's character who is obviously a little out of her depth by continuing a relationship with Allen). There's not all that much structure to the plot, with the characters constantly splitting up or getting together or being extremely tangential to the real plot. The only thing that keeps it halfway-tolerable are the slickly-captured backdrops that all this banal upper-middle-class New Yorker drama plays out against (though the jazz music on the background varies very wildly in quality). It's interesting to read how Allen actually didn't like how the film turned out - for once, I'm inclined to agree with him on something.

#253 - War Horse
Steven Spielberg, 2011



The son of a poor farmer befriends a horse but the two are soon separated as both end up becoming involved in World War I.

Much like the last Spielberg film I reviewed (Lincoln, in case you were wondering), War Horse is a somewhat decent exercise in period-piece filmmaking that's ultimately rather hollow underneath its vivid recapturing of a war-torn landscape. Unlike Lincoln, this film doesn't get carried on the back of a powerhouse lead performance, but it doesn't get bogged down in talky politics either so it balances out a bit. Instead, the film takes place in the lead-up to and during World War I, focusing mainly on a horse belonging to a poor family trying to eke out a living on an English farm. There's a rather protracted first act as the family ends up buying the titular horse but, though the plucky young protagonist (Jeremy Irvine) succeeds in training the horse (in the kind of triumphant moment that draws the attention of the other townsfolk - hey, it's Spielberg, what are you gonna do?). Then the second act kicks in where the still-impoverished family is forced to sell the horse to the army and thus the story really starts.

War Horse doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel, but it is still pretty tolerable for what it is. It could probably stand to be a little shorter (especially considering how often the horse changes hands over the course of the film's second half) and of course it doesn't do anything particularly radical with its basic "boy and his pet" narrative beyond having the film be more about the pet than the boy, but it's generally solid on a technical scale and at least makes up for a relative lack of depth with some decent performances from veteran British actors. John Williams' score is so by-the-numbers it's practically bad, but Janusz Kaminski's photography is gritty and gorgeous in equal measure. While it would be extremely easy to hate this movie (and I can definitely see why that would be the case), it's a testament to the general talent of Spielberg and co. that it still comes across as a serviceable PG-13 wartime drama with an absence of surprises but a presence of decent if generic quality.

#254 - Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
Henry King and Otto Lang, 1955



A Eurasian doctor living and working in Hong Kong falls for an American journalist.

It seems more than a little unfair to dismiss classic melodrama simply for being classic melodrama - like virtually every genre, there is good in it. Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, on the other hand, is not a particularly good example of 1950s melodrama. The film follows a romance that blooms between Jennifer Jones' Eurasian doctor and William Holden's American journalist in 1949 Hong Kong, and while it does start off reasonably promising it soon runs out of steam long before its conclusion. Holden is reasonably solid even though he does seem to be sleepwalking through his role at times, while Jones puts in some hard yards that don't quite seem to pay off. The rest of the cast doesn't leave much of an impression, though given the time period and setting I do have to wonder how well they treat the Asian members of the cast, especially when compared to Jones playing a white-passing Eurasian. In any case, they seem especially peripheral for the main plot, whether it's the family of Jones' character or her co-workers (with a significant scene where the main duo visit a fortune-teller).

There isn't much else of note to say about this film - the Hong Kong setting does make for a good backdrop and the music (which apparently won an Oscar, as did the titular song) isn't too obtrusive. There's a very cursory exploration of racial issues, but it's pushed to the side in favour of a clumsily-written romance between Holden and Jones that's padded out with some awkward dialogue that isn't sold by the leads' lack of chemistry with one another. As a result, it drags awfully hard over the course of 100 minutes and, though it looks alright, is a severely underweight piece of work.

#255 - The Philadelphia Story
George Cukor, 1940



When a wealthy woman is about to remarry, her ex-husband sets about trying to break off the marriage with the help of a journalist.

When it comes to watching a classic film and being underwhelmed, I do wonder if it's due to high expectations going unmet or mere skepticism over whether or not the film genuinely earns its reputation. The Philadelphia Story is unfortunately one of those all-time classics that doesn't do all that much for me - though it's far from the worst example of an acclaimed film not meeting my expectations. It's not like I haven't appreciated other screwball comedies from the same era, either - just that this one does very little for me. Though the considerable star power is a draw - and having Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and Katharine Hepburn in the same movie is most definitely a draw - it does seem like they're put to rather dissatisfying use. Hepburn is a wealthy socialite who has divorced her alcoholic husband (Cary Grant) and is remarrying two years after the fact. Grant plans on sabotaging things with the help of an undercover reporter (Jimmy Stewart), which naturally complicates things even further.

In fitting in with my aforementioned problems with expectations, it's a shame that I don't find The Philadelphia Story especially amusing as a comedy. Sure, it's got its fair share of clearly defined characters and they do snipe at each other quite frequently as per the genre's conventions, but none of it really crackles or provokes any kind of spontaneous response. In comparison to something like His Girl Friday, it feels very by-the-numbers. There's also the question of how the film ultimately resolves itself, which is either a horribly naive and problematic way to tie everything into a neat little bundle or actually a searing condemnation of the film's upper-class milieu and the people who are forced to operate within its crushing system of gears and cogs. Even so, that still feels a bit too up to interpretation to really work and the vibe of the rest of the film suggests that the former is the intended interpretation, so I'm sad to say that, despite some decent performances from generally solid actors, The Philadelphia Story otherwise did not feel like it lived up to its reputation. Time will tell if I give it a second chance, though.

It's a shame that you didn't like The Philadelphia Story. It's such a great movie with a fantastic cast. It was remade as the musical High Society (1956) starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Grace Kelly. The musical is not quite as good as the original, but it's also a wonderful movie.

is kind of my "alright" rating, like it's definitely on the plus side of the scale but there's nothing amazing about it either. That's a pretty accurate summary of how I feel about it (and also, the ending is probably enough to make me dock half a popcorn box on its own). I have High Society DVRed at the moment and will still watch it at this rate.

IMO, The Philadelphia Story is much better than just "alright", but based on your ratings for a lot of other movies, that's practically a glowing rating. At least you didn't give it a 1-star rating .