Adam Thas: Side Effects (2013, dir. Steven Soderbergh) A great cast, directed by Steven Soderbergh, and I liked it. That just about wraps up this week’s recommendation. Okay. I’ll elaborate. Side Effects' cast is pretty awesome, with Rooney Mara and Jude Law as the two main characters, and it’s apparent that Rooney Mara is becoming one of my favorite actresses. Everyone in the movie is solid. The direction is great and has a plot that will keep you interested. Side Effects isn’t perfect in that the overall plot takes some pretty big leaps of faith in regards to events that happen, but the “thriller” aspects of it are interesting enough and Soderbergh is a good enough director that the problems it has are with the story and not much else. I’m going to go with the fact that 2013 was the year my son was born and I spent much of that year in a haze as the reason why I never heard of Side Effects until recently, but I’m glad I did.
Heath Holland: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991, dir. Keven Reynolds) My favorite movie of all time has returned to Netflix. It's not that it's an excellent movie (it's pretty good), but it filled a Robin-Hood-shaped hole in my life that I didn't know I had back in 1991. It's just a really fun flick, and it came along at a time when movies weren't afraid to be a little corny and goofy. It's interesting to look back on it now, because for a long time this was the "adult" version of the Robin Hood story until Ridley Scott showed us how bleak the story could really be. No, this is a movie that enjoys itself and relishes the tropes of its time. The late Alan Rickman's performance (the reason to watch this movie) is insane and genius and unlike anything he did either before or after. The entire cast (except for the lead, a dour Kevin Costner) seems like they're having a blast playing dress up in the woods. For me, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was the beginning of my love affair with a certain kind of movie, but it's also a harbinger of coming change. By 1993, movies like Jurassic Park had marked the cinematic landscape indelibly and the movie-going public would crave a more ambitious spectacle from their summer blockbusters. But for a few years when I was a kid, movies like this one were simply untouchable. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves means everything to me.
Holy cow. Patrick, WATCH RAN! Kagemusha is a terrific film. Ran is one of the all-time greats. Also well worth watching by Kurosawa, High and Low.
ReplyDeleteSeconded on RAN. Amazing movie.
DeleteThirded(?) on Ran! Please watch it. You highly doubt you would regret that decision.
Delete*I highly doubt
DeleteHere's one for "Dreams" which I personally like better than "Ran" but, hey, it's AK so you can't really go wrong.
DeleteAnother vote for Dreams. I like Ran more but Dreams is too underrated for me not to vouch for it.
DeleteThe watermill village, man…
What would this be... fifth?... for Ran? Incredible film. Also, it's getting a new Blu-ray restoration if I'm not mistaken.
DeleteI like Kagemusha a lot, too. I watched it about a month ago. I would say the George Lucas connection might go beyond his producing the film (with Coppola). I see some parallels in Kagemusha with Phantom Menace -- all those group deliberations, and the theme of doubles (decoys) and symbiont circles.
DeleteJust saw Ran for the first time last weekend on the big screen. It's so weirdly balanced between upsetting and satisfying. Particularly the battle sequences.
DeleteRevisited Prince Of Thieves recently. Outside of Rickman's performance it was rough. I loved it when it came out and I only hold Heath partially responsible for my ownership of the blu ray.
ReplyDeleteI also bought a used Blu ray of Prince of Thieves after Heath's top 5 podcast. Re-watched it for the first time in at least a decade. Aside from the production design, score, and Rickman, I really really hated it. I'm a big Costner fan too but he sucks the life out of every scene he's in. Sorry Heath.
DeleteAh, that's a bummer, guys. Every time I watch it, it loses nothing for me. It's just a testament to the subjective nature of film, I guess.
DeleteAfter listening to some old podcasts (particularly the Favorite of 2013) I was compelled to check out Drug Wars and The Act of Killing on Netflix. I'll have to watch the Look of Silence at some point also now, but I'm going to need a bit of time before that one.
ReplyDeleteNow that I have a Hulu sub, I watched Beauty and the Beast since I think that was the only one of Patrick's top 5 I hadn't seen. Really amazing set design there. I also got around to watching Breaker Morant which is something I had been meaning to watch for ages. So many great performances there and subject matter that's still relevant today.
And Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a fun movie. It's not a great movie but it's incredibly rewatchable for me.
Which Beauty and the Beast was that?
ReplyDeleteI watched The Big Short. It was okay and mostly informative for me. I guess he bothers some, but I love Steve Carell. I just can't not watch him.
Because I was doing a young Mel Gibson thing last week, I watched some of Braveheart, which (I find it hard to believe now but) was too scary for me as a kid. Although I can't sit through the new CGI- heavy war/battle movies, I still found the old Braveheart design jarringly um...simple? I wonder if there will be a happy medium. I'm still waiting for Patrick's write up of Snow White and the Huntsman, which was really CGI heavy, But I thought it felt different. Like the CGI choices had a different angle that made it fresh.
It's the 1946 French Beauty and the Beast directed by Jean Cocteau.
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