So for the first time, I was able to sit down and watch
My Cousin Vinny this weekend. I know, way damn late, but kiss my @#$, some of ya'll ain't even see Gladiator yet, so shush.
Anyways, I knew that it was good, I needed to watch it to see where Marisa came from etc, and I liked it alot. She really did steal the show, but it made me wonder, what in the hell happened to her career? Does anybody know? She comes out of nowhere, gets an Oscar, a great performance, she should have had open doors everywhere for her, instead, nothing. She doesn't do a damn thing of merit for almost 10 ten years.
Why? Was she doing drugs? Raising a family? What the hell was going on?
I look at this resume after she gets an oscar, Equinox, Chaplin, Untamed Heart, The Paper, Only You, The Perez Family, Four Rooms (FINALLY, a film I recognize) Unhook the Stars, A Brother's Kiss, Welcome to Sarajevo, a God damn TV movie in Since You Been Gone, another one
in Only Love, Slums of Beverly Hills, Dirk and Betty, King of the Jungle.........and that's the entire decade of the 90's, AFTER she won an oscar in 92 and CLEARLY had talent.
Someone, draw me a picture here. Please, I'm begging you, who the @#$% was running her career? She needs Ari Gold STAT!!!!
Pesci was great, but i don't even think he was acting, I think that was just him.
Solid 8 for me. Really enjoyed it, sorry it took so damn long, but I finally got to it.
Now,
Batman Begins.
First things first. INCREDIBLE cast. This to me, was the start. They upped the ante right here. Morgan Freeman, Rutger Hauer, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson, Michael Caine, all in SUPPORTING roles.
Excellent work. Then go with Bale, Neeson, and Cilian Murphy, now we just showin off for folks.
Loved the set up, I was scared to death when this first came out, the early previews didn't look like they were gonna work for me, but once it got started, I was hooked, and I'm not a comic guy like that. I know @#$% about comics. It's the movies I go off of. Actual comic material I need I have friends I can go too for that background. Neeson was so awesome in this movie, that I literally sat there pissed the whole time angry that George Lucas @#$%^ him over in his role as a Jedi. Everything he said, every syllable, should have been as a Jedi. He was fantastic. Ideals, become more, all of it was great.
Rachel Dawes sucked, and I'm glad she died in the sequel.
Bale was great, but like many others, his voice was a little irritating to me, even if he was copying the cartoon voice. To me, it was a bit forced. No need. Appreciate the effort, but let's just read the words on the cue cards homie.
Wilkinson may have had my favorite line when he is preachin to him in the restaurant. Pointing out all the politicians, and that's power that money can't buy, and tellin him to shut up about his anger and everyone knows Bruce Wayne and all that, that was a GREAT scene. I wasn't real big on Wilkinson until I saw Michael Clayton, but I love the guy's work now. And it probably started here (back in 05)
I loved this movie, but TDK raised the stakes even more. Joker was just too damn special. Death or not, the performance was simply unreal. I liked Neeson, I liked Murphy, but they were not Heath Ledger. Their performances put together couldn't add up to what Joker did.
My biggest true complain, and this goes for almost all of Batman's movies, the damn "threats". In 89 Bat, it was Hairspray and makeup. Deodorant and mouth wash. I mean, come on.
Just lame to me. And this was similar. Water turned to hallucinogen. A gas that gives people scary images. I get that the comics may have been about that stuff, or the bad guys had tricky stuff to fool Batman and all that jazz, but that's where Joker in TDK was so much better, it was simply @#$% with the world, for no damn reason. Chaos. Plain, simple, horrible, chaos. Not mixed lipstick and chewing gum leading to a frozen face for all time.
This was my only true complain about Begins, it reminded me a lot of the early films, and that wasn't a good thing.
For that,
8.5, with TDK getting a 9.5 from me.