If Easy Rider is Hopper's "lost generation" moment, Catchfire (aka Backtrack?) is his midlife crisis.
He really went ahead and made himself a relentless mob hitman who spends time with a repeatedly naked (and scorching hot) half-his-age Jodie Foster. He is then an action star for the finale.
This movie is so weird. Joe Pesci plays an impression of his iconic Scorsese roles--with several fellow alumni thrown in--and you get your hopes up. "90s crime thriller, here we go!"
We…
What a fascinating cultural artifact. An unbelievably loaded cast plays around in sets and costumes which are absolutely appropriate for a dead serious historical epic, but it definitely isn't... 90% of the time.
The Three Musketeers as a story really lends itself towards comedy. I think more than half the versions I've seen have totally leaned into it, and this is no exception. Sure, there are he usual buttkicks and farcical fights, but there's a lot more! There's a deeply…
You live by 1951, you die by 1951.
This thing milks the clock at times; it's a statement of fact. Look, Disney can effectively and memorably tell this story in 26 minutes. It's a novella. Unless you're doing something interesting (a la Scrooged) there's no way this movie should be 86 minutes.
Despite this complaint, I still found parts of it to be extremely affecting. Even with the "aww, gee, shucks Mister" of the time period, the impressive acting won me over, especially at the end. This was solid.
Merry Christmas movie season.
This mostly works! The action scenes go on too long, and are understandably a little hit & miss with the laughs (to be fair I'm a pretty tough sell with physical comedy), but there are still some solid moments.
The non-action works better! Which is the more important part of this, you know, comedy. Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway actually have pretty decent comedic chemistry together! I was entertained by their banter.
However, the real stars of the show are the…
