Dracula (1992)

Dracula (1992)
Today is Bram Stoker's 165th birthday so its a perfect time for this post! I had actually seen Bram Stoker's Dracula (this movie's full title, apparently for legal reasons) before in high school around the time I read the book for a class. However it has been a while since I last saw it and I've actually read the book again since.

The main thing I remembered from watching it years ago was that Keanu Reeves has a terrible British accent. And upon re-watching Dracula his accent is just as bad as I remember! To be fair Reeves does a decent job expressing the confusion and unpreparedness Jonathan Harker faces while meeting Dracula in Transylvania. The main problem is that every time he opens his mouth he sounds like his character Ted from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure attempting a British accent. Other than Keanu, the rest of the cast is very good with Gary Oldman dooing an amazing job in the title role. Anthony Hopkins is a little over the top but fun as vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, and Winona Ryder plays Jonathan Harker's independent fiancee, Mina Murray. Monica Belluci, who was in the last movie I wrote about (Shoot 'em Up), has a small role as one the female vampires who attempt to seduce Jonathan Harker at Castle Dracula.

I really liked how the movie managed to keep the epistolary form of the book by showing us characters writing letters, composing diary entries, making phonograph recordings, etc. There is also a scene done in the style of early movie camera, which while a bit ahead of this time period technology wise with color film, looks great. The visuals in Dracula are fantastic and the best part of the movie, though the makeup, costumes, and special effects look great as well. The practical effects hold up nicely after 20 years, just another reminder that CGI isn't perfect. Dracula won three Oscars for Best Costume Design, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Makeup. It was also nominated for Best Set Decoration.

The pacing could have been better, but keep in mind that this is a long book and it would not be practical to film everything from it. The movie also features the backstory of how Dracula became a vampire with Mina being a reincarnation of his wife, which was not in Bram Stoker's novel. Despite this part being an invention of the film, it works here to make Dracula a somewhat sympathetic villain, include more tension with Mina, and to tie in with the historical figure Vlad the Impaler. Again, its been long time since I've read the book but overall this is a solid adaptation that also works well on its own.

I've seen several vampire movies, a few of which I've reviewed on this blog, but this is actually the only Dracula movie I've seen so I have some catching up to do in that department. Speaking of films I still need to see, the only Francis Ford Coppola movies I've watched are this one and Jack... So many movies, so little time!
7/10

My First Movie Blogathon - Pinocchio and Aladdin

Welcome to the second day of the My First Movie Blogathon hosted at Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear! The Blogathon runs through August 4th so please check out the other entries!

The first movie I saw in theaters was the 1992 re-release of Pinocchio (1940), the second Walt Disney animated film. I was only three years old but still have vague memories of watching it in the theater with my family. The first "new" movie I saw in a theater was Aladdin which came out later that year. This was the first time I watched a movie with just myself and my Dad, a tradition we keep up to this day!

I was three years old around the time I saw these movies. While I don't remember anything about what I thought about Pinocchio at the time, I have seen it several times since and have always enjoyed it. I haven't watched Pinocchio recently but when watching the movie later it always struck about how dark it was. Sure we have the great songs "I've Got No Strings" and the Oscar winner for Best Song "When You Wish upon a Star," but we also have the evil puppet master Stromboli, kids who literally transform into "jackasses" then are sold to work in salt mines, and the giant whale Monstro who swallows Pinocchio!

I have stronger recollections from seeing Aladdin. One thing I specifically remember was laughing when the genie accidentally picks up Sebastian the crab from The Little Mermaid! I had already seen that movie at home before watching Aladdin so the joke was not lost on me. This must have been the first time I had ever encountered both reference jokes and meta humor which probably explains why I love those types of comedy to this day!

While my Dad also picked up on that reference, I noticed that he didn't giggle as much as I did. However, in another part of the movie I noticed that he was laughing hysterically and I didn't get the joke. I wouldn't fully understand it until years later, but my Dad loved the Genie's Jack Nicholson impression! While Aladdin is not unique in having some jokes for kids and other jokes for parents, I enjoy it when family films do this as it truly makes them for all age groups. Movies with humor for people of different ages tend to be even more watchable when you get older as you now get a joke you didn't understand earlier and can view the movie in a different light.

Disney films, such as Pinocchio and Aladdin, often have a high range of emotions and tones. We have ups and downs, funny moments, scary parts, musical numbers, and memorable characters of all types. Disney movies are the first movies a lot of young people watch, and therefore the formation and basis for their future film viewing. This sets up how they look at movies when they get older. Sure the villains will get more complex and there won't always be happy endings, but Disney films are the blueprint for getting used to watching feature films and certainly a big step up from most Saturday morning cartoons. And as was the case for me, Disney films can be a great early theater experience! Even with today's world of giant flat screen TVs and home theaters, nothing beats watching a film in the cinema on the big screen and hearing the reaction of the audience to the movie. This is something I learned at a young age thanks to both Pinocchio and Aladdin.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of the My First Movie Blogathon.
This is the fifth blogathon I've participated in, and hopefully there will be many more to come!

Winter Wrap-up Part One

Here are three movies that couldn't be more different! As you can see I'll watch films from pretty much any genre or time period. I only took a few notes when I watched these movies back in December so this post will be a little shorter than usual.

North by Northwest (1959)
I have seen several Alfred Hitchcock movies before but so far this one is my favorite. While I am familiar with Cary Grant I believe its his first full movie I have seen thus far. Cary Grant was the first choice to play James Bond and I bet that this film was most of the reason why.
North by Northwest was probably the first modern action movie as we have several big action scenes in many cross-country locations, fun one liners, beautiful women, and spies.
I loved the feeling of paranoia throughout the movie, especially with it being centered around an ordinary everyman. This sort of reminded me of the works of Philip K. Dick and I'd love to see somebody compare Dick's "Dark Haired Girls" to Hitchcock's "Cool Blondes."
The film is great in pretty much ever aspect: directing, writing, acting, editing, and music. And on top of that it is just a blast to watch from start to finish.
I am stingy with my 10s as for me they are essentially a bonus. This is my most recent ten!
10/10

Freejack (1992)
Freejack was directed by Geoff Murphy, the man who also made the cult classic The Quiet Earth which I have on DVD but still need to see one of these days. As I have stated before, I love time travel movies, so Freejack had been on my "to see" list of movies for quite some time for that reason alone.
The basic story is that race car driver Alex Furlong (Emilio Estevez) is transported into the future seconds before a would-be fatal car crash to the future of 2009 (hehe). The reason for this is so that the mind of a dying billionaire named McCandless (Anthony Hopkins) can be placed in his body to allow him to live. Although Hopkins doesn't have a large role as most of the movie is about Furlong on the run from the police force of the McCandless corporation (led by none other than Mick Jagger!), I do find it odd that this was the first Anthony Hopkins movie to be released in the U.S. after The Silence of the Lambs.
Besides Mick Jagger's role as the police leader Vacendak we have another rock star in the cast, David Johansen, who plays Furlong's Agent, Brad. Johansen was the lead singer for The New York Dolls and also known for the song "Hot Hot Hot" under his Buster Poindexter persona. Johansen has done more acting than Mick Jagger and I had actually seen him in another movie before. Johansen had a memorable role in the middle segment of Tales from the Darkside: The Movie where he plays a hitman hired to kill a cat!
Jagger and Johansen may not be great actors, but they had fun with their roles. Unfortunately I can't say the same about the lead as Estevez is mis-cast and plays role like a stoned Marty McFly. Rene Russo does a good job as Julie, Alex Furlong's wife. However when we see her in the future 18 years later she hasn't aged at all. Now maybe this is because some anti-aging work has been done in the future but if so it is never mentioned. And I must mention that Amanda Plummer has a cameo as a gun toting nun!
There are some interesting ideas here but overall it just doesn't work as a whole. This is exactly the type of movie that needs to be re-made as it did have potential despite being underwhelming. Last summer I made a post about remakes I would like to see and if I ever do another one this would certainly be on that list. Freejack was based on the novel "Immortality, Inc." by science fiction author Robert Sheckley so perhaps the best thing to do in this situation would be to go back to the original source material. That tactic worked wonders for John Carpenter's The Thing and in the right hands (Christopher Nolan or Duncan Jones for example) a damn fine movie could still be made out this story.
5/10

Moulin Rouge! (2001)
I am not a huge fan of musicals, but I don't hate them either. I just don't tend to seek them out even though I did some tech work behind the scenes for musicals in high school and have seen a few on Broadway.
So why did I choose to watch this movie out of all the musicals out there? I am a fan of the Nostalgia Critic and saw that he did a musical review of this movie! At first I started watching it as I only avoid his reviews of things I actually plan on seeing and this didn't seem like something I would want to watch. However, after I got a bit into his 45 minute review I just had to see it for myself and figured I would get even more out of the review if I did so, which ended up being the case.
Moulin Rouge was directed by Baz Luhrmann. The only other Luhrmann movie I have seen was Romeo + Juliet (1996) which I liked but didn't love. This is movie is made in a similar weird and over the top style. 
I liked the song mash-ups such as "Like a Virgin" being sung by Jim Broadbent!
Despite how quirky and and wacky this movie is, there is a serious ending. This is not a spoiler or a surprise as we are told this from the beginning. Moulin Rouge is a fun movie that's a bit different although not something I plan on watching again.
6/10

Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2

I had seen both these movies a long time ago but they had jumbled together in my head so I had re-watched them both in December. I am going to keep these short since I have seen them before.

Wayne's World (1992)
When I re-watch a movie I haven't seen in a long time I always wonder how it will hold up. Sometimes it is better or worse than I remember. In this case Wayne's World was just as fun as I remember!
Wayne's World is right up there with The Blues Brothers as the two best movies based on Saturday Night Live sketches. Although Mike Myers successfully made the jump from SNL regular to movie star (despite recent failures like The Love Guru) Dana Carvey was never able to make the transition. Anybody remember The Master of Disguise?!
The scene in Wayne's World making fun of product placement is brilliant, hilarious, and just as relevant today as it was twenty years ago.
Ed O'Neill, Al Bundy on the TV Show Married with Children, has a small role in both movies as a restaurant manager. We also have a great cameo near the end by Robert Patrick!
One of the things I love about this movie is how it breaks and demolishing the fourth wall. The ending "scenes" are great. Oh and everybody knows the famous Bohemian Rhapsody scene!
8/10

Wayne's World 2 (1993)
Although this movie is not quite as good as the original its still pretty damn funny. The scene where Wayne fights Cassandra's father (played by James Hong) is a riot! Wayne's World 2 is not as focused as first movie which is probably its biggest flaw. Wayne has a dream in which Jim Morrison tells him to hold a big rock concert in Illinois, parodying Field of Dreams. Christopher Walken plays a record producer trying to steal away Wayne's girlfriend. These two plots are a bit disjointed but it works here as the movie never takes itself too seriously and Walken does a good job as a comedic villain.
There is a great cameo near the end by a famous actor but I won't give it away in case you haven't seen the movie.
Although Wayne's World 2 was a moderate success it wasn't a huge hit at the box office like the first movie. But if you love the first Wayne's World do yourself a favor and watch the sequel as I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. And don't just take it from me, Roger Ebert gave both movies 3/4 stars!
7/10

Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Although I like John Hughes (he wrote the screenplays for both these movies while Chris Columbus directed them) I had avoided this series for a very long time. While these were meant to be family movies to appeal to children, even as a kid I thought they looked stupid. I these watched these movies around Christmas simply because they were Christmas movies I hadn't seen before as well as being huge box office hits that are still referenced in pop culture.

Home Alone (1990)
Coming into this movie I thought it would be an hour and a half of Malculay Culkin yelling while violently attacking intruders in insanely elaborate ways. While these things do happen, it's not anywhere near what I was expecting. Most of the movie is about Kevin being on his own, home alone, and not fighting the robbers. There are some scenes setting up the "Wet Bandits" Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv but we only have a few short scenes of them with Kevin until the ending. And when Kevin sets his traps they weren't as violent as I had expected and therefore could actually be funny. For example, Kevin putting the pet tarantula on Marv was hilarious and features one of my favorite screams in all of cinema.
This movie does have a heart thanks to the scenes between Kevin and his older neighbor. Kevin is initially afraid of this old man who lives alone and is rumored to be a serial killer. The scenes where they interact are quite touching with a nice payoff at the end. I just wish the movie could have focused more on this part. The score by John Williams is well done as usual and fits the movie well.
I liked the scenes where Kevin played parts of the fictional movie Angels with Filthy Souls (which must be a parody of the 1938 James Cagney movie Angels with Dirty Faces) to mess with them. Despite the scene being unrealistic it was still funny and creative. Kevin would've had a blast with internet soundboards but I don't want to give them any ideas for Home Alone 5!
John Candy has a fun cameo as a band member giving Kevin's mother a ride to her house so she can check on Kevin. It was pretty funny how she arrives home at the same time as the rest of the family due to crazy Christmas travel delays despite leaving before them.
I'm not one to harp on a movie being unrealistic, but the movies goes out of its way to try to make this story seem plausible. The whole set-up for it is so complicated that its silly, which I guess is the point but if that's the case why not take the ball and run with it and have the family not even realize they forgot Kevin at all? You could say that would make them seem like bad parents but they already accomplished that.
Although I expected to not like it, I was pleasantly surprised. That said, I don't think I liked it quite as much as the general public. 
6/10

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Let's get this out of the way: Home Alone 2 is a cheap cash-in made to capitalize on the huge financial success of the first film which was the top grossing movie of 1990 ($286 million in the US alone) as well as the stardom of Macaulay Culkin. Plot-wise a sequel for Home Alone makes as much sense as a sequel to Donnie Darko. Oh wait, that movie got a sequel too... Anyway, Culkin was huge and this was just another attempt to make money off him (gotta sell those Tiger Electronics Talkboys!) before he hit puberty. I even remember he had an animated Saturday morning kids show called Wish Kid! But hey, at least they brought all of the main cast back for the sequel.
If you thought the premise of the first Home Alone was silly it's even more ridiculous this time around. I won't get into the details but yes, Kevin gets away from the watchful eye of his large family yet again thanks to a crazy set of circumstances that for some reason still try to keep a sense of realism. Oh, and the same robbers from the first movie not only managed to escape from jail in Illinois to come to New York at the same time as Kevin, but actually bump into him several times in a city of eight million people!
There are several re-hashes from the first movie. My favorite is that instead of watching Angels with Filthy Souls, this time Kevin watches the sequel, Angels with Even Filthier Souls! The old man from the first movie is essentially replaced with an old homeless lady for Kevin to befriend. They really didn't try to change the formula except for being set in New York instead of his house in Chicago.
Despite all these issues, I couldn't really hate the movie. I don't like it and its clearly inferior to the original but there is some fun to be had here. All the scenes in the hotel were actually pretty funny. Tim Curry steals the show as a hotel clerk. Curry is great as usual and its too bad he couldn't have been the main villain.

We also have an early 90s SNL era Rob Schneider who is better than you would expect, especially given his recent movies. The buddy scenes between Harry and Marv are actually better than those in the original as the two are funnier than before. Daniel Stern (Marv) is a underrated comedic talent as he also stood out in another kid's movie, Rookie of the Year, as a crazy pitching coach.
The last part of the movie with Kevin defending himself in his Uncle's house is shockingly violent. Not to mention the fact that the Wet Bandits actually try to kill Kevin before all this. In the first movie I only remember a couple of traps that could be seriously dangerous but pretty much everything Kevin does this time would kill the two burglars. Throwing bricks at people heads from a tall building just isn't funny to me. I don't know why the traps are more sadistic this time around, I guess because they were going for the live action cartoon thing. For example, there is a scene of Marv getting electrocuted and we see his skeleton which is something right out of Looney Tunes. But it doesn't really work here when we also have a heavy dose of seriousness and realism with the big toy shop donating its money to sick children and a homeless lady alone on Christmas.
Hey, at least its still better than Macaulay Culkin's Richie Rich movie...
5/10

I'm not going to bother with the sequels (Home Alone 3 and 4) as I didn't exactly love these two, the sequels don't seem to have much (if anything) to do with these, and are both said to suck. And yes, Home Alone 5 is happening... I just wish it would be like this!


My next three posts will be about movies with just one sequel each.

Three Christmas Movies

I had seen parts of all these movies before, but never watched them all the way through in one sitting. Christmas gave me an excuse to watch them again, and in their entirety!

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Both this and Mickey's Christmas Carol (nominated for an Oscar for best animated short) are the only film versions of A Christmas Carol that I have seen so far. However they are both excellent! While I usually like the Muppets more when they are playing themselves instead of characters like in this movie or Muppet Treasure Island, it works surprisingly well here. The songs are memorable as I remembered most of them while watching this again despite the fact I hadn't seen this film in years. Michael Caine plays Scrooge completely straight and would have put in the same performance without the Muppets. While this is a Muppet movie, it is also an adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and a surprisingly faithful one at that. The Muppet Christmas Carol was the first Muppet movie made after Jim Henson's death and it was great that the Muppets were able to continue at a high level of quality after his passing. This one ranks up there with The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper as my three favorite Muppet movies. I saw The Muppets (2011) recently and will be discussing it in my next post.
8/10

A Christmas Story (1983)
Every year A Christmas Story gets shown on TBS for 24 hours on Christmas Day. Like most people this was how I was introduced to the movie. And like many people I had never seen the whole movie in one sitting before. I decided to change that this year as A Christmas Story is firmly entrenched in popular culture and is even on Roger Ebert's Great Movies list. While the film has been overexposed with the Christmas marathons, a lot of people still tune in to watch it every year. Although I don't think A Christmas Story is the best Christmas movie ever, it is the best to air on a loop. The film contains many vignettes which are loosely related as they all follow Ralphie's family in the days leading up to Christmas. This makes it easy to start or stop watching whenever you want, which doesn't work with a lot of movies. Although I feel that A Christmas Story is overrated, its still an enjoyable Christmas movie. I usually don't like narration in movies but it works perfectly here and was a direct inspiration for The Wonder Years TV show. Darren McGavin, mainly known for his TV work such as Kolchak: The Night Stalker, puts in a nice performance as the father.
7/10

Santa with Muscles (1996)
I had seen the first third of this movie several years ago but couldn't bring myself to finish it. What can I say, Santa with Muscles is surprisingly boring for a Hulk Hogan flick. Armed with a group of friends who like to mock bad movies and my own higher tolerance for crappy cinema, I was able to make it all the way through this time! The plot is pretty ridiculous, the Hulkster plays a millionaire who gets amnesia and thinks he is Santa Claus. Some orphans then ask for Santa's help since a mad scientist wants to take over the orphanage for the crystals underneath the building. Mila Kunis plays one of the orphans in an early role. We also have Ed Begley Jr., Clint Howard, and Robin Curtis (Saavik from Star Trek 3 and 4). That '70s Show fans will notice that in addition to Mila Kunis, actor Don Stark (Bob Pinciotti - Donna's father) is in this movie as Lenny, Santa's elf and partner in trying to save the orphanage.
When it comes to Christmas movies, this is one of the worst. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Santa Claus are pretty damn bad but at least they each have bizarrely amusing moments. Santa with Muscles is probably better than those two but its not as fun to watch. That said, this movie is It's A Wonderful Life compared to The Star Wars Holiday Special or Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny!
2/10