I never saw the original but I enjoyed the remake. Crispin Glover is naturally creepy enough to play a part where he talks to rats. I might have to watch that one again now that you guys talk about it.

I agree completely SB! It seems to be one of those movies where people are crazy in love with it, or they don't get it. It's interesting that it's not considered a musical but has as much music as any musical out there.

One of my favorite scenes is a good example of the casual humor that runs throughout the movie. It is when Jake's ex-fiancee blows up Elwood's apartment. They both climb out of the rubble and Elwood looks at his watch and says "We've gotta go to work." No big deal

Blues Brothers is one of my all-time favorites. It is truly unique in it's pacing and dry humor, then you throw in all that great blues music. One you didn't mention (There are so many) is John Lee Hooker playing on the street with his band in the middle of that street fair.

Okay, I'm watching it again right now. Thanks for the bad review Irish! You helped me plan my evening

There are so many great scenes, Blib. John Lee Hooker IS amazing. They all are. I don't think that there's one bad musical number.

I have to tell you that if my husband gets in an elevator, he will start quietly humming "Girl From Ipanema". And it cracks me up each and every time.

Glad I could be of assistance To each his own

Did my last post get cut/deleted?

Did my last post get cut/deleted?

How would we know? If it was deleted I mean... Is your post missing?

Yeah, I posted a review for DEAD MAN ON CAMPUS this morning

CADENCE 1/2
(Nth Viewing)

An enjoyable father/son collaboration for Martin and Charlie Sheen. This is Martin's first and only film were he was the director and the story follows a young private who loses his father, gets put in military prison for 90 days and learns to live with 5 other African-American prisoners in 1965 West Germany.

I didn't delete anything. The server has been flaky the past couple days so it may not've actually posted (did you see it posted?)

Yeah I made sure because the board has been messing up for me a lot today. For example, whenever I initially try to post a message comes up saying "can't connect" or something to that affect (which is why I've been posting twice). But it's not a big deal, I remember seeing the post. Oh well

Lost? HOW?

I watched it yesterday and I thought it was good.

OLD SCHOOL 1/2
(Third Viewing)

Don't get me wrong, I do like this movie but I never saw why so many people "loved" it. I never thought it was as funny as a WEDDING CRASHERS or something along that line. I enjoyed the casting of Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell. I wonder if OLD SCHOOL 2 will ever get off the ground?

21 1/2
(First Viewing)

A decent telling of a MIT student who is incredibly good at counting cards, takes his skills to Vegas along with 3 other students and his professor to make some green. However, I didn't really buy Kate Bosworth as a MIT student. Good to see Kevin Spacey playing a villain again.

"At this point, you might be asking yourself, 'why am I holding this 30lb. Cinder block in my hands? You might also ask yourself, 'why does this cinder block have a long piece of string tied to it? And finally, why is the other end of this string tied securely to your penis?"

How dare you Longneck for trying to evoke discussion in the "Movies You Just Watched Discussion" thread? Do you not know your place?

PREDATOR
(Nth Viewing)

Ah, Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime: a 1980s action flick. His usual quip one-liners (even if he had only one). I realized after just watching it tonight there's not a lot of dialogue (especially during the second half), but plenty of action. A true classic and the pairing of Schwarzenegger with Carl Weathers was awesome!

I'm not usually a fan of this type of movie, but this one was awesome!

That one shot of their biceps when they "shook" hands had many women in the theater squealing.

I think that Mac was my favorite character, though, followed by Billy.

PREDATOR 2
(Nth Viewing)

I'll give this film this much, it had mighty big shoes to fill after the first one and it does a pretty good job at coming close. Arnold made the original great but this was entertaining as well. Growing up I couldn't decide which one I liked better but now that I've seen both more than a couple of times, I like the original more but again, the sequel is no slouch.

The sequel is forgettable.

I mean, the idea of the Hunter in the city is good, I mean why not?

But with the government cover-up conspiracy, the ruthless media, the superiors not letting Danny Glover do what he's gotta do to kick some ass...PREDATOR 2 just feels like one bland as hell cop movie that got shoe-horned into the sci-fi genre.

The only nice thing I can say is that at least its sorta watchable, unlike those AVP pictures, which I'm sure Irish will give positive write-ups for.

PAYBACK: STRAIGHT UP - THE DIRECTOR'S CUT (2007) - ****

We learn from the DVD's documentary that apparently Paramount rejected the original version of PAYBACK because they wanted Mel Gibson's character to be more likeable, the movie to have a definitive ending, and the dog NOT to die. So after writer/director Brian Helgeland was evicted from the editing bay, one of the "creative decisions" made by star/producer Gibson to salvage the picture was to include a voice-over narration, which he argues makes his protagonist more "personal and relatable."

Give me a fucking break.

Porter aint Hamlet. He's a man not defined by thoughts, but through actions...and usually they're violent. He's a stone cold archetype, pure and simple.

When the Director's Cut of PAYBACK opens, he is walking (more like stalking) across the Washington Bridge into Manhattan, looking tired and very pissed, hungry to murder somebody, anybody. We don't know who he is or why, but this is a rough-looking, ruthless unforgiving bastard Gibson that we haven't seen since THE ROAD WARRIOR.

He's a criminal scumbag asshole that in real life you would want locked up in jail. He swifts some dude's credit card and takes him to the cleaners, without care or conscience. He orchestrates and murders Triad mobsters for $130,000. Hell, when he catches up with his junkie wife, he pretty much beats her like a drum. He's usually the villain in most movies.

My point is, all you need to know about Porter is that wouldn't want to fuck with him.

And yet, you end up rooting for him, because:

(1) His partners literally stab him in the back with bullets and steal his $70,000 cut. Not cool.
(2) His pal Gregg Henry, the one that leaves Gibson for dead, hits women for his own sheer pleasure. Not to excuse away Porter's domestic assault, but you might be mad too if your wife shot you earlier.
(3) To get Henry, and get his own goddamn money back, Porter must fight the whole city crime syndicate. Natural underdog storytelling.
(4) He kills a guy in cold blood after he bad-mouths his hooker girlfriend in Maria Bello. Porter has no moral principles really, but that moment must count for something.

Back in 1999, I remembered PAYBACK as a mix between a pretty badass movie and a pretty mediocre-ass movie. Like way too many pictures in that decade of PULP FICTION, the film turned me off when the narration goes too self-aware in applauding itself for being ironically hip inbetween the awesome bits. Nevermind the convulted 3rd Act with Kris Kristofferson and the kidnapping scam nonsense.

Now with Helgeland's PAYBACK restored, everything I hated about the theatrical edit has been whacked, and everything good about it has been enhanced with steroids. The action narrative is a decliously skull-bashing great time that doesn't complicate itself with bullshit. No narration, no Kristofferson, no boring blue-tint cinematography, no real concern to make Porter heroic or even likeable, and the mutt actually gets put to sleep.

Helgeland's PAYBACK, stuck in a cinematic modern-day where the 1970s never ended, is the closest equivalent in recent times to a true Lee Marvin movie, a brutal balls-to-the-walls extravaganza that contains the best and worst aspects of masculinity, all without trying to be a damn smartass.

Its pretty much nearly a perfect remake, considering how this movie is a remake of John Boorman's classic POINT BLANK, and both are based off Donald E. Westlake's novel "The Hunter." Like Westlake's Parker books, PAYBACK is pure bang bang entertainment that is something that the likes of SIN CITY so badly claim to be. I guess to steal a label from The Outlaw Vern, an internet critic I greatly respect, Helgeland's PAYBACK is "badass cinema."

What depresses me is that if the Director's Cut of PAYBACK was released today, it would be a hit. Inspired by the crime plot boilers of the 1960s and 70s, Helgeland's PAYBACK likewise would click with our cynical society, where its ambivalent characterization and ending would have been accepted. But because PAYBACK was shot in the boring, apathetic, and wussy 1990s, test audiences prefered the witty and bland theatrical version with the more likeable Jew-hating Gibson.

I know it wasn't Mad Mel's direct fault and all that we had to wait 9 long years for a damn good movie to escape Paramount's vaults, but when he criticizes Helgeland's edit in that "you can't make a movie for a selective elite," I thought this was rich coming from the same dude who shot a pretty violent and dark subtitled movie about Mayans some years back.

A lot of the "Director's Cuts" I've seen don't do much to justify their existence. They have a few "cut" scenes dropped in, but most of the time they interrupt the pacing and offer no real change to the film. The term has become synonymous with "Unrated Cut" and comes off as a marketing gimmick to get people to shell out for the same movie again.

I haven't seen the original cut of PAYBACK since probably 2000, but I remember enjoying it. It was a gritty crime film with a good dose of humor and Mel's trademark "I love being tortured" shtick. I rented this director's cut to see how it played, since it was apparently a dramatic difference rather than a few new scenes thrown in here and there.

I'd say the new cut is a much better movie than the old one. It eliminates Mel's narration, which I think greatly improves the way Mel's character is explored. We get to watch it rather than hear it, so he is now Porter rather than Mel Gibson. One of the strengths of this character is that we don't fully understand his motivations (see also POINT BLANK with Lee Marvin); we have the duration of the film to try and understand his code, his principles, and the original narration spoiled the process.

Another change is the filtering. The movie is no longer entirely washed out blue, it's full of warm tones as well as cool. I like this as well. It still fits the mood of the movie, and it's more visually pleasing.

As for new scenes, I couldn't really tell what was added in. I could tell what was removed, which was the kidnapping sub-plot, Kris Kristofferson's character, and the subsequent torture and escape. The new cut features a tidier finale, and the whole movie is actually shorter than the original cut. It clocks in at around 90 minutes, which works for this story. I remember liking Porter's escape scene in the original (clawing his way through the backseat), but I think the new cut keeps the pace consistently and serves the story better.

It's definitely worth checking out.

Lets hope not! As I made the mistake of renting Old School awhile back after watching that sh*t fest, I'd rather undergo a root canal.

I wouldn't be surprised to see it sooner or later. We're living in the age of sequels/prequels/and remakes

We've always had prequels/sequels/remakes.

Hell, John Huston's THE MALTESE FALCON, the first "film noir," was the 3rd Hollywood adaptation of the same goddamn book.

NATIONAL TREASURE
(Second Viewing)

Just gearing up for numero 2 which I'll watch tomorrow (thank you Blockbuster). Not Cage's best role, performance or film. I still enjoy him as an actor but I'd file this under his 'miss' category. It's seems to be a kids version of THE DA VINCI CODE in a way.

Yeah your right about that.


As for recent movies I just saw Eastern Promises last night, man that was a big mistake I thought it was anti-climatic and is sure as the hell didn't live up to all the billing about it.

I take it you were simply disapointed that the nudity in the steambath brawl didn't live up to the hype.