Nicole Kidman’s career has become a constant bipolar example of choices in film that really should be examined. Kidman can pull in a rousing performance in one film, and then oddly appear in a really bad film the next. She can go from brutally sexy Ingrid Bergman, to numb skulled Lindsay Lohan in mere minutes. And that’s why she’s become a gamble in Hollywood. And Will Ferrell is no saint, either. I’ve never seen two people so devoted to doing damage to their careers before. Are they talented? Sure, but stupid choices deteriorate a great career. Would it have been so bad to remake “Bewitched” directly? I ask you. I mean, a remake at all was incredibly questionable and unnecessary, but that’s just moot. No, a direct remake would be too obvious. Let’s do a satire on Hollywood. No one has ever done that before! Right…?
Tag Archives: B
Betty Blowtorch (And Her Amazing True Life Adventures) (2003)
I’ve never heard of Betty Blowtorch before–and after hearing their music, I’m sad I haven’t. I should really start seeking out better bands than what the media hands me. Granted, I only listen to classic rock, but you get my point. “Betty Blowtorch” is quite possibly one of the best rock documentaries I’ve ever seen. It’s the classic tale of a rock band starting out, garnering a fan base, forming a friendship, their attempts at stardom, their inevitable grasp for it, and their imminent downfall thanks to outside sources. Most modern music documentaries prefer to profile bands that suck like They Might Be Giants, or All American Rejects, but this film profiles a band–who doesn’t suck like Paris Hilton in a porno–they’re called Betty Blowtorch, four hard rocking bitches that were a hybrid of KISS, The Runaways, and Motley Crue.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Want to know something utterly shocking? When I finished “Brokeback Mountain”–I wasn’t gay. I know, you’re gasping and holding your breath, but I’m being honest. When I finished this homosexual love story, I wasn’t gay. I’m a heterosexual of young age, with an untarnished record, and yet, when I finished the movie I didn’t find the gay lifestyle appealing to my own tastes, and I was still sexually aroused by good looking women. Yes, you misanthropic, religiously fanatical, homophobic morons, watching a movie with gay people about the gay lifestyle won’t turn you gay. Can you believe that? And if you do, then perhaps your sexuality is already in doubt, but to those open-minded few who watched the film in spite of the themes and or because of its themes, then congratulations, you’re proof that humans are still evolving.
Birth (2004)
A man is running in the park one snowy day, and collapses under a bridge dying from a heart attack, years later, still grieving, Anna attempts to move on with her life and is confronted by a little boy who says he’s her dead husband Sean. Is he really her re-incarnated lover, or just a young boy conning this grieving woman. For the whole time I sat, watching this, I kept thinking to myself “The makers are trying to convince us of something”. What? I’m not entirely sure, but through the arduous time I watched “Birth”, it seemed like from the beginning to the climax, that everyone involved in this movie were attempting to convince us of something, but the closest verdict I’ve come to, was that they were trying to dissuade us in to thinking this was a good movie.
The Batman vs. Dracula (2005)
“The Batman” is one of the only series featuring Batman that hasn’t been animated by the well known and widely accepted form of Bruce Timm’s design, and as a series it’s always been a very poor successor in simple fact that it’s only basically been invented to cash in on “Batman Begins”. The series was created and rushed in to premiere showing on the WB network months before “Batman Begins”. The series as a whole is terrible; it’s bland, lifeless, and often uneventful. “The Batman vs. Dracula” is the first animated film from the Batman franchise that didn’t feature artwork from Bruce Timm et al. But this isn’t the first time Batman and Dracula have crossed paths, any respectable comic fan knows that Batman and Dracula are pure rivals, and this makes the distinct hinting that this is the first time they’ve ever crossed paths.
Batman Begins (2005)
You’ve probably heard this a lot since this film came out, but fuck it, I feel like saying it too. They finally got it right. Finally. After long years of imagining what the Batman franchise could have been, my hopes finally come to fruition. Finally. Batman is now Batman. Finally. Batman is a dark menacing figure who doesn’t wear silver specks on his costume. Finally. Batman is a really layered character. Finally. And here’s an incredibly wild concept: Batman gets more screen time than the two villains in the film. Finally. This is “Batman Begins”, this where it started, and I couldn’t be happier. There’s this feeling from beginning to end that we’re being given something that we were missing in the old franchise. There’s depth, psychology, warmth, heart, subtext, and so much amazing storytelling, all of which lacked for the better part of the first “Batman” franchise.
Before Sunset (2004)
It’s like they never left us. It really is. It’s as rare as a meteor to watch an engrossing romance that’s also very intellectually stimulating, but wouldn’t you know it, with Richard Linklater once again taking reigns of his film, you get what you expect, and I ultimately got what I expected, a fascinating, charming, and beautifully written romance drama starring two people who just have incomparable chemistry. All my fears were put to rest thirty minutes within the film as that magnetic chemistry between Delpy and Hawke becomes all the more volatile on-screen two fold. They have it here, and it works so well, I was just breath taken. This is a movie that could have easily been mishandled, and botched, but it ultimately works so well as a standalone and as a sequel. Only Linklater could commit such a feat.