Edgy MD

I knew Batman would go bad. It was only a matter of time.

Well-staffed? How about the expense account?

Swan Swan H wrote: I liked this a lot. Aubrey Plaza was excellent, and the ending surprised me in spite of myself. Jake Johnson is really good as well. Still digesting. I mostly approve. The unapologetic out-loud manchild writer seems to be quite the stock character these dayz.

Vic Sage wrote: And whatever else Bond movies are about, they are about Bond. Without a great Bond, you can't have a great Bond movie. I hope it's not won't be to willfully contrarian of me to say so, but the next great Bond movie will be the first.

Screaming blonde chick --- Ensign Rand?

Hancock just used his superfingernails.

Unfortunately, it rather does the opposite. [youtube:font4zgn]3zBnHCyrx6Q[/youtube:font4zgn]

I've seen them all done by bunnies. Does that count?

Yeah, just noting that. Not really demeriting them for it.

Jaws wasn't the villian, so much as the henchman/assassin. It was a theme in the earlier films to include an oddall assassin with a fetish for death and often a cartoonish M.O.: Kronstein, Oddjob, TeeHee, and Bambi and Thumper, among others. Jaws was part of a proud (though goofy) tradition.

Vic Sage wrote: Dalton was strong, and looked the part, but had the sexuality of a bachelor uncle. he was a "Ken doll" Bond. That honker, though. It gets everywhere (and I know whereof I speak). The angular features come across as too diabolical and less cool. Looks more like the handsome villain in a fantasy (as he was in The Rocketeer and Hot Fuzz) than the handsome hero. I think the Broccolis (Broccolini?) were trying to get Brosnan at this point but he couldn't get out of his TV commitments, so by the time he did get the role, he had only so many miles left.

Living Daylights brings me two assocations: (1) Tmothy Dalton able to kick people in the head and swing down off of roofs in stealth gear, after a lifetime accepting that Bond may have solid hand-to-hand fighting skills, but he's a little creaky. (2) The final single to chart in the US (#113 with a bullet) from a-ha. [youtube:31a45etb]WzV4WGoyl4Q[/youtube:31a45etb]

Saw it. Had its moments, but not for me. Maybe a big screen would've done more for it. Covers a lot of the same material as Elf, I think, in that the main character is a misfit not because he doesn't drink the eggnog, but because he drinks it so thoroughly and enthusiastically.

I know it's hard to look directly at that photo, but look again and check yourself for a pulse. White shirt is a chick --- former Solid Gold sweetie Lucinda Dickey.

Good job. Sorry I failed to participate. My moving cut into my time when this started, but I should've gotten around to it. Has a save leader ever done so poorly in our rankings?

I actually just sat through The Spy Who Loved Me a few weeks back. As Bond has too often been about the lastestness in style, almost all Bond films seem dated years later. While most agree that the Connery ones are the best, I think it's more that Connery was the coolest cat to play the roll, but the films themselves seem boring on review. I remember the Moore ones being funnier --- Roger playing against the absurdity of the character --- but most of the zexy ladies come across years later like overpainted tarts. And the cuts back from action to romance seem bouncy and haphazard. I guess you're supposed to get caught up in the event --- this time we go to Paris and Honolulu! --- that you're supposed to forgive how stupidly convoluted the plots all are. But years later, when there's nothing cutting-edge about the style, the cars, the chicks, the wierdo villian or anything --- the emptiness of the plots is just disengaging. Old Bond films --- like decades-old mildewed copies of GQ and Vogue --- are best viewed as curiosities.

I'm getting that "Arthur Christmas" is a weak pun on "Father Christmas" --- Santa Claus's more popular British title. Tell me please that the film has a higher standard for jocularity than is indicated by this title.

There isn't a worried little aardvark?

In The Lady in the Water, M. Night Whatshisface tells the tale of Naiad, who arises from the water to inspire a writer to publish his views --- to tell him that his writings are so substantive that they will inspire a future leader to usher in a new era of peace and progress and harmony. That writer was, of course, played by M. Nightienight Himself. I thought, well, there you have it. I thought no picture could feature more self-aggrandizement from an auteur than Braveheart, but M. Night topped it. Well, Ruby Sparks tops that. This unfunny comedy is embarrassing, tedious, mean-spirited, and filled with belief by young artists in their own brilliance --- to be borne, of course, as a burden. The thoroughly unlikable protagonist is crippled by the pressure of his early success and it's near impossible to not see him as something a stand-in for co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine). His supposedly wonderfully quirky but adorable Galatea won't take long to relate to screenwriter Zoe Kazan, because she's played by... screenwriter Zoe Kazan! There's also the problem Gus Van Sant ran into in Finding Forrester where it becomes problematic to make a film about a supposedly brilliant young writer when your screenplay can't provide a few instances of convincingly brilliant writing. The film is set in and around the writer's boring home. What they don't steal from Stranger than Fiction, they steal from other movies. I couldn't finish it. My wife fast-forwarded to see how things turn out and we just got to watch the writer be crueler and crueler to the woman he created. What is wrong with these people?

Young and socially awkward novelist develops writer's block after his wildly successful debut. When he dreams about a lovely and interestingly weird china doll of a girl, he wakes up inspired and begins furiously writing about her. In the least-shocking Pygmalionian twist, she comes to life. Some guy stars, who you may recognize from that other film. Whatshername plays the girl. Two other folks direct.

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But you've totally done Flashdance, right?

Dirty Dancing Dare Devil Doctor Detroit A lot of challenging fare there. I recommend Danny Deckchair, however.

I only watched the end part to catch the Jeff Wilpon appearance.

Yeah, it seemed like from 1980 to 1995, it was really hard to name a successful comedy without some Second City DNA. Many with a lot. Occasional seedy violent comedies like Midnight Run or 48 Hours were the main exceptions.