I can fondly recall in 1991 when “Thelma and Louise” stormed theaters how beloved the film initially was and how influential it’s been ever since its release. As a film it’s one of the templates for many rip-offs and wannabes to come years after it won over mostly female audiences. After watching it finally after so many years of hype and unbridled love, I’m still pretty horrified to see “Thelma & Louise” as such a violent and disturbing film that defines the notion of double standards in popular culture.
Tag Archives: Drama
Judgment Night (1993)
I don’t quite remember if in 1993, “Judgment Night” was a hit at the box office. If not, it surely deserved to be. Watching this movie is like a show, and it presents audiences with its ups and downs of cinematic action that you’ll remember for a while. Emilio Estevez is an unlikely hero, Denis Leary is a surprisingly horrifying villain, and Cuba Gooding Jr. with his constant gaping jaw, shivering flared nostrils, and quivering dialogue delivers a performance that’s so over the top it’s as if the director has a gun trained on him throughout the entire production.
The Grey (2012) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]
When Ottway and his group of oil workers board a very shaky and shifty airplane, the surviving group of men find themselves in the middle of a frozen tundra after a horrible storm brings down the entire plane. Protagonist Ottway is often plagued by visions of his dead wife, a woman who apparently died a slow and miserable death. It’s a passing Ottway himself has never gotten over, and never had the chance to mourn. Rather than confronting his misery and pretty much overcoming this terrible loss that left his life a hollow shell, he instead chooses to run away. When we first meet him, he’s war torn, exhausted and enters in to the tamed darkness of his oil rig where he prepares to commit suicide in the abyss of snow. Choosing instead to live, for reasons we can’t quite know deep down, he ends up leading his remaining group of co-workers from the plane wreck and in to the white wasteland before them.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Though it’s true that the Joker is nowhere to be found in “The Dark Knight Rises,” this film is less about the character and much more about the taint he’s left on Gotham city as a whole. In the end of “The Dark Knight” the Joker won, even when he wasn’t able to prove that humanity is deep down a rotten vile stain on civilization. “The Dark Knight Rises” examines the fall out of the Joker’s reign of terror, and how it ultimately affects any attempts by the Dark Knight to thwart the new terrorist threat by the name of Bane. Eight years later Alfred is a crusty man servant, Commissioner Gordon is a grief stricken officer dealing with a painful divorce, and Bruce Wayne is a recluse who spends his days locked inside the mansion. When we meet Bruce again he’s aided by a walking stick and can barely find the strength to chase after Selina Kyle who makes use of his priceless jewels in one instance.
Albert & Juliet (2012)
I don’t know exactly what the intended meaning behind “Albert & Juliet” was originally, but the entire time I sat through Nic Barker’s gut wrenching short film, all I could think of was “This is a film about a mom and her child.” I mean it would be a bit overbearing in dramatic weight to feature a mom with a newborn baby being relentlessly tortured by everyone around her, but in a sense I felt as if “Albert & Juliet” was symbolic of a single mom and her baby.
Batman: Ashes to Ashes (2009)
I guess this can be considered a fan film worth watching. Only if you’re willing to endure what it has to offer in the way of pathos and cruelty. “Batman: Ashes to Ashes” pretty much re-thinks the mythos of Batman while knocking off classic movies in the process. Directors Samuel Bodin and Julien Mokrani take from “A Clockwork Orange,” “Batman Returns,” and heavily relies on imagery reminiscent of “Sin City” to get its story moving, while characters like Harley Quinn are turned in to femme fatales with major villains playing only small parts.
The Bad Seed (1956)
For the most part, “The Bad Seed” is a classic horror film that lives up to its reputation of being an infamous movie about a little monster who will stop at nothing for gratify herself and her own ego. She’s the product of over privilege and an abundance of deifying from the people around her. To get it out of the way, my one gripe with “The Bad Seed” is ultimately the ending. Since audiences couldn’t bear watching a film end on a downbeat with the villain winning, and the studios insistent on the bad guy losing in the end, no matter how contrived or tacked on it seemed, the climax to “The Bad Seed” keeps the film from being a perfect thriller.