Sunday, June 17, 2012

(30) Stars of Summer - Day 17: Gary Oldman

Everyone should watch a Gary Oldman movie. EVERYYYYONNNNE!!

Here are the rules. Check out this list of all the month's actors with links to what's available on Netflix Instant. If you're not a Netflix subscriber, maybe this will help.

Day 1: Jimmy Stewart
Day 2: Catherine Deneuve
Day 3: Christopher Lee
Day 4: Bette Davis
Day 5: Nicolas Cage
Day 6: Diane Keaton 
Day 7: Orson Welles 
Day 8: Catherine Keener 
Day 9: Kurt Russell
Day 10: Pam Grier
Day 11: Clint Eastwood
Day 12: Susan Sarandon 
Day 13: Cary Grant 
Day 14: Barbara Stanwyck 
Day 15: Keith David 
Day 16: Frances McDormand 

21 comments:

  1. TRUE ROMANCE
    Oldman's Drexel is Perfect in a Perfect film.
    And, No, This is NOT white boy day!!

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  2. THE CONTENDER (2000)

    I don't know what this says about me, morally, but there's something a little boring about seeing someone stick to their principles for two hours. Unless we're talking about HIGH NOON or something. THE CONTENDER is a case study in anticlimactic storytelling, and Joan Allen gives a performance that is just a few notches above comatose.

    The saving graces are Oldman and Jeff Bridges, who are so fantastic at personifying the opposite ends of the movie's moral spectrum without overplaying a single moment. Also worth noting that this film reunites Jeff Lebowski and The Stranger as the president and his chief of staff, respectively. So that's really something.

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    1. I kind of like The Contender, actually, but I know it's shamelessly slanted. Jeff Bridges is really great (shark steak sandwich), and I'll disagree about Joan Allen. Gary Oldman might be good, too, but it's impossible for me to see past his silly wig and accent. Why couldn't he just be a person instead of creating some weird Universal monster? Oh, right, He DISAPPEARS INTO CHARACTER.

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    2. Never saw this one, but that description of Oldman's performance makes me want to track it down (not to enjoy ironically or any of that crap, I'm genuinely interested in good actors delivering oddball character turns in otherwise straightforward movies).

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  3. Lost in Space (1998)

    I remember I watched this movie as a kid when it was on television thinking it was pretty cool. Now that I saw this again, I realized this movie sucked all of a sudden. Based on the 60s TV show of the same name, some of the visual effects (most notably the CGI alien monkey) haven't aged well, and not even Oldman or William Hurt among others could save that film from drifting apart.

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    1. I thought the movie had so much potential based on the trailers, and was the rare TV show that I could see working as a movie (or series of movies, if they had gotten it right). The cast is solid -- even Matt LeBlanc. The look is decent. The script is THE WORST. And I will never, ever forgive Blarp. I fucking hate Blarp so bad.

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  4. AIR FORCE ONE (1997)

    My kind of action/thriller: big-budgeted, R-rated (so curse words and violence are allowed to have impact beyond being just a narrative action beat), meant for grown-ups as well as teenagers and with a fantastic-while-anchored-in-reality premise (the President's plane is kidnapped by terrorists) that lives or dies by how committed the cast and filmmakers are to the material. Harrison Ford has a worn-down, boy scout-like charm and determination that's a nice contrast with Gary Oldman's pitch-perfect turn as a terrorist that is as committed to his cause/principles as the US President is to his. The duel of wits between Marshall and Ivan Korshunov is every bit as thrilling as the action scenes, which offer a decent-but-dated mix of early CGI and model work. Even in a post-9/11 world "Air Force One" is fantastic and fun enough to still enjoy, and Oldman (along with great supporting work by Xander Berkeley and Glenn Close) is the main reason why.

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    1. This was the first movie I saw with Gary Oldman in it and frankly it's still what I think of when I think of him.

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  5. The Scarlet Letter (1995)

    "Freely adapted" from Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, everything about the film was just wrong. From a hugely miscast Demi Moore as the main female lead, to a tacked-on happy ending and a lack of chemistry between Moore and Gary Oldman, this wretched adaptation sputters off the rails. Oldman does the best from what he was given, yet not even he nor Robert Duvall could salvage it from being a total misfire.

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    1. I don't know if this book can be made into film. Of course I wish it could, though.

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  6. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990)

    Tom Stoppard's adaptation of his play wants to be both goofy and profound, but only succeeds in the former as the titular characters (wonderfully played by Oldman and Tim Roth) fumble and bumble their way through the story of Hamlet. An existential debate on laughing gas, the film does have some terrific moments - including a sequence where the last third of Hamlet is played out in dumb show - but the whole, as the saying goes, is less than the sum of its parts.

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  7. True Romance

    A great young-lovers-on-the-run movie with a busload of standout performances from a bevy of great character actors. Oldman is Drexel, a crazed pimp who has no idea that he's white. He's only in two scenes, but he leaves a hell of an impression. Also, Tom's right...it ain't white boy day.

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    1. I really love the scene between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper. It's almost like they're in a whole different movie.

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  8. Track 29 (1988)

    Nicolas Roeg-directed mess is guilty of believing a lot of its own nonsense, and Gary Oldman is an actor who should never be allowed to give a weird-for-the-sake-of-weird performance.

    I was much more interested in the subplot between Christopher Lloyd and Sandra Bernhard, both very underrated actors, but it's not really allowed to go anywhere.

    If anyone happens to go back to some of the few days of actors, I have posted some late reviews. My computer has been in the shop.

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    1. Awesome. Thanks for playing catch up with the reviews, Fritz, and it's good to have you and your computer back.

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    2. Lucky for us Patrick posted links to the previously tackled "Stars" days (along with the one's already on the right side of the blogspot) so its easy to go back and read Fritz's new reviews. :-)

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  9. Chattahoochee (1989)

    Gary Oldman is institutionalized in the 1950s and becomes an advocate for mental health facility reform when he and his fellow patients suffer abuse, corruption and horrible conditions. It's based on a true story, and while it's compelling in theory, the reality is a drab, shouty downer that wants to be gritty and inspirational. Apparently, '50s mental hospitals resembled the prison planet from Alien 3.

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  10. The Professional (1994): I suppose I could call this movie "LEON," but I'm not a DB. It's been over a decade since I've seen it last, and, while very much a film of the early/mid '90s (lots of guns, hyper color saturation, cool anti-hero, etc.), it still holds up, and is, in fact, incredibly badass (the Blu-ray transfer I watched is really pretty). Gary Oldman is comical, and I suppose that's the point, but his whole pill-taking affect is ridiculous. Again, 1994.

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    1. I've always thought the movie feels super French (OUI) -- especially the Leon version that's on the Blu-ray, because the relationship between Leon and Li'l Black Swan is even more UNCOMFORTABLE -- but that the Gary Oldman character is clearly a transplant from a very American movie.

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    2. I opted for the "theatrical" cut, only because the "extended" cut had the word "extended" in it. Speaking of "extended," Natalie Portman singing "Like a Virgin" was UNCOMFORTABLE (that's the right word, right? "Uncomfortable"?). But what's the deal with the one scene in which Jean Reno watches an old Gene Kelly movie? It comes back during that dress-up sequence, but does he really not know who Marilyn Monroe (TODAY'S STAR!) is? #nitpick

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