Letterboxd — Your life in film

Leno's as goofy as you expect, the jokes are as racist as you expect, the cliches are as abundant as you expect, etc... but when your movie has a bitchin' 80s soundtrack, stuntmen diving out of exploding houses, multiple delightful car chases (accompanied by said bitchin' 80s soundtrack), and a deathblow to the villain that ranks among the most unexpected/satisfying in my years of watching bad action movies? I lose all sense of objectivity.

swings a little too wide in tone as it attempts to balance the broad comedy and the tender romance. you can tell this is a building block to Martin's superior LA Story (and, to a lesser extent, his play Picasso at the Lapin Agile). still, works nicely in fits and starts.

it’s my deepest regret in life that I was never taken under the wing of a legendary pool hustler.

trying to decide which pool player is coolest:
Newman near the end, rocking the glasses and suspenders… or Cruise in his Vince shirt, singing Warren Zevon, swinging his cue like a bo staff. very tough call imo.

“light Scorsese” still smashes 95+% of movies ever made.

the bookend pool matches with Minnesota Fats are just stone cold perfection.

“let us be crooked, but never common.”

all-timer script, all-timer performance.

"there's no such thing as genteel poverty." ain't that the goddamn truth, Harold.

nihilistic, vulgar, and scatological revelry. my audible "oh fuck" utterances reached double digits. the first 15-20 minutes are undeniably (and intentionally) irritating, but the last hour is just such a fucking blast. Savage is 2-for-2.

(note: those allergic to found footage should absolutely stay away, as the camerawork definitely gets Blair Witchy down the stretch.)

precisely what you’d expect. which makes it a perfect, comforting watch on a shitty day.

cinema was a mistake

feels like it should only be viewed either at a midnight movie screening or in a modern art museum.

no clue how to grade something like this, but the animation, production design, and imagination on display are really extraordinary. if stoned college me had seen this, it doubtlessly would've been a formative experience.