Filling In The Gaps Case File #3: Blade Runner

Now I must admit I have seen Blade Runner before. But the last time I watched it I was a tiny child of 7 sitting in an audience with my parents watching Han solo battle more bad guys but with nary a storm trooper or death star in sight.

A new "Final Cut" of the movie was just released, So I welcomed this opportunity to re-asses the film as an adult.

The look of the film is the most striking part about it. Los Angeles of the future (circa 1982's vision of the future anyway) is dark, grimy, lonely, and perpetually in the midst of violent hard rain showers. The place to be is the street side sushi stands in what looks like Chinatown. Harrison Ford is so called "blade runner" tracking down human androids run amok called "replicants."

Everything about the look of this film is artsy and polished to a high sheen. His love interest (a sexy replicant played by Sean young) looks like one of the girls in Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" video, and the villains look like they stumbled out of a punk band at CBGB in 1979.

It can be a hard movie to cozy up to. The look of the film and the story seems to keep the audience at arms length.
But Harrison Ford's underrated performance grounds the whole endeavor in the dirt and soil of reality. I'm not likely to blow away a replicant wearing a clear plastic raincoat as she crashes through window after window until she dies a slow motion death, but dare I say it Ford's character is relatable.

There's also some tantalizing mind games as we learn that the next generation of replicants made by a corporate behemoth don't even know they're replicants. Their memories are just brain implants programmed in by the corporation. And Ford promptly falls in love with one of them. I wish this theme had been explored a little more, but as it is it provides a nice undercurrent to the action and it got me thinking about the nature of memory.

There's no question the film's reputation has only grown over the years, and it's had a tremendous influence on every futuristic film that came after it. I don't really remember much about the movie the first time I saw it. But I enjoyed it this time. I could even watch it again to find arguments to make on both sides of the debate whether Ford was a replicant or not. Other fanboys say this new version makes it clear, but I'm not convinced.

Buy it, Rent it, Watch it on cable, Skip it: Rent it.

Next Up is a real change of pace. Liza Minelli before she became a tabloid caricature in Cabaret.

Filling In The Gaps #2: Nashville

I have to say while I'm no Altman completest (if I were you'd think I would have seen "Nashville" before now) I've always had a soft spot in my heart for him.
I am one of the 20 people on the face of the planet who actually enjoyed and still enjoy his widely panned "Popeye." I remember reading the opening line of a review of that film in my big book of Leonard Maltin- "The beloved sailor man boards a sinking ship..."

So it was with a fair amount of optimism that I popped the film into my DVD player and embarked on a journey that would leave me haggard, weary, and watching the clock.
All the Altman signatures are here in possibly their purest form. A Gargantuan Cast? Check. Dialogue and conversations that seem to bump into and crowd out each other from scene to scene? Check. Story? Missing in Action.

Watching an Altman picture can be akin to standing in the middle of a crowded party and listening to the bits and pieces of the conversations around you. You only hear part of what was said, and there's always a lot of other noise and other conversations trying to drown it out.
Now this is a hallmark of his work, and I've enjoyed in other films such as "MASH" and "The Player." But here it's just distracting.

His penchant for large casts of characters works against him here too. We are introduced to so many people and we spend so little time with each of them, it's hard to care about anyone.
One of the first sights we see is the giggle inducing sight of former "Laugh In" cast member Henry Gibson in a sequined shirt, scarf, and obscenely large mutton chops singing some patriotic claptrap about the bicentennial. It's quickly explained that Gibson is an country western star, and a major league SOB, and then we're off to another studio and more characters.

Now none of this would matter much if there was an engaging story to keep me interested But I found all the story lines thin and incoherent.
There's a story about a country singer going through a nervous breakdown, a gospel singer, her put upon husband and their two deaf kids, Gibson's sob and his political aspirations, a British reporter doing a story on the Nashville scene, along with Jeff Goldblum, who wears glasses that wouldn't be out of place on Gloria Steinem and rides an easy rider chopper so large and cartoonish it looks like a giant big wheel.

There's also a political van touting a presidential campaign that seems to pop up every few minutes or so. I think it was supposed to help tie things together the way the announcements over the loudspeaker set the mood in "MASH." But I have to say I was left cold by its heavy handed political speechifying.

But the film only seemed to spring to life during the engaging musical sequences.
After an hour I was checking my watch, and by the time it mercifully came to an end two and a half hours later I was exhausted and weary and glad it was over.

Buy it, Rent it, Watch it on Cable, or Skip it: Skip It

Updated "Gold Rush" Rating

In Light of my new rating system, I'm changing "Gold Rush" to a watch it on cable.

New Rating System

I've been thinking about it and I'm gonna stick in a new rating system for this list of mine.
I've been consulting my inner snarky 80's teenager who still enjoys Scott Baio in "Zapped," and so here's what I've come up with.

Buy It: This is reserved for the movies you absolutely must own. So get the fuck out of your chair, rush to Best Buy and snatch one off the shelves. STAT!

Rent It: Stick it in your Netflix queue. You'll enjoy yourself and feel good too.

Watch It On Cable: If it happens to be on TCM or TNT take a look just so you can say you did.

Skip It: they're masochistic exercises in self improvement that only serve to leave an audience in agony and waiting for the sweet bliss of death.

Next Up: Robert Altman's "Nashville"

A Film Education: Introduction

Being a lifelong movie buff, I decided to rip myself away from the siren call of my DVD of Dumb and Dumber and go about the business of seeing all those movies critics and sophisticated types talk about. I will not read reviews of the films before I watch them so I can offer a completely unbiased opinion, and so I will not be influenced by the need to appeal to teacup sipping types who never leave the house without their monocles and top hats. I will however use the various lists from the good people at the AFI as my jumping off point. So today the inaugural entry on my Film education is a silent film, Charlie Chaplin's: The Gold Rush.



Why did I chose this? Well it just happens that was what was in my Netflix Queue.
To be entirely honest, I ordered the silent film but when i opened my anticipated red envelope i was greeted by sound, music, and words. I was sent the 1941 revival version with narration by Chaplin himself and a very loud music score.

The story is a simple one. Chaplin is in his little tramp getup of bowler, mustache, wobbly walk and cane and he's inexplicably prospecting for gold in Alaska without a coat.
There's a love story, and some nefarious dealings with a bandit.
But what strikes me most is the still potent slapstick comedy in the film.
There's some very funny sequences with two men struggling for a gun and Chaplin struggling to stay out of the way.
And some mildly amusing fun with two forks and some dinner rolls.
It made me think of some of the great comedy of the three stooges if the stooges ever attempted to court respectability and replace their bonks, screeches, and sointenlys with classical music and an upscale education.

I can't say the story kept me riveted though. In between the amusing silent manic sequences, there's a lot of filler. And the film feels long even at 69 minutes.
It could have been done in a three stooges length short and it would be a lot better.

I've also devised a rating system for this project.
Overrated: for films that don't deserve their lofty places
Underrated: for films that should be ranked higher
Just Right: These movies deserve to stay just where they are.

As for "The Gold Rush:"

Overrated