A Look Back At......

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

With Thanksgiving here, I think it's appropriate to take a look back and revisit the classic Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. This movie is interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of it, its R rating for language. the funny part is is that without this one little scene, this movie could have easily passed for a PG-13 rating, if not a PG. I don't know what happened during production and editing, and honestly, I don't really care. Not knowing these things adds to the fun and magic of movies, but I like to imagine that someone might have considered cutting this scene to secure a lower rating, but if they had, it would have been a huge mistake. The fact that the rest of the movie was light only makes this one scene all the more shocking and hilarious! When I first saw it, I couldn't stop laughing! the lightness of the jokes does a lot to add to the humor in the movie throughout, a lesson that the creators of the disappointing 2010 knock off Due Date could have learned. while that movie boasted A-listers Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis and relied heavily on crude humor, essentially killing the emotion behind the heartfelt premise of a husband rushing to get home to see his first child born while having to deal with a lovable idiot. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles takes another approach to crudeness and vulgarity, holding it back for when it does appear, it is unexpected and funny, like the hotel room scene.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles also works because it has the advantage of being in the hands of John Hughes, who not only makes this a great movie because of his talent as a filmmaker, but also because he makes use of casting. For instance, the before mentioned car rental scene. The rental agent agent has a very small role. Other than just sitting there and taking Steve Martin's rant calmly, she does very little with her under three minute screen time. But now I ask you, can you picture anyone else doing that scene? It was pure perfection. That part was played by Edie McClurg, and she had previously worked with Hughes in Ferris Beuler's Day Off, playing the principle's assistant. That was a much more expanded role, but clearly Hughes knew her well enough to know how to best utilize her talents.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles works as a great film because it has all the elements to work as such. It has a perfect of blend of comedy, drama, and heart, coupled with the setting of Thanksgiving, a season synonymous with both hectic running to get things done, and spending time with one's family. It truly is an amazing film that embodies all of these elements. It is difficult to create the kind of chemistry that Candy and Martin share on screen. It is even more difficult to make a movie as entertaining as this one was with basically only two characters. Granted, it is not like a Robinson Crusoe story with zero supporting cast, but in general, what makes this movie work are the scenes with only the two main characters, and after watching it, I feel that these two actors under the directing hand of John Hughes could have easily made a two character story.Although in their own way, I think they already have.  

My Review of Interstellar

It is fitting that I start my blog by offering my thoughts on the new smash sci-fi hit known only as Interstellar. It was, after all this movie which finally convinced me to start this blog. It is no accident that both critics and audiences alike are split on whether they love the movie or hate it. A healthy debate is all good fun in the world of cinema. However, it is my opinion that there should be no debate at all. For me, it wasn’t about whether the movie was good on a technical level or even entertaining, it was. Yes, my number one principle for judging movies is that they first clear the hurdle of entertaining, and Interstellar does so with flying colors. But beyond that factor, we must start to look at the movie as a whole, and Interstellar fails on so many levels. There has been plenty covering the films lack of humanity and inconsistencies, but I would like to address one subject that I feel has been overlooked and what truly bothered me in the end. I could overlook the non-spirituality factor in a science fiction film, but I cannot get over how cheap I felt this movie to be, not in production, but in story. I expected originality, what I got instead was a rip-off of just about every science fiction movie ever. I failed to find anything original in the film and coming from Christopher Nolan, that was a major disappointment. Here is the man who practically single-handedly proved you could ground comic book movies and give them a real life feel, yet he adheres to every plot and cliché already explored in the genre. Without even yet giving it a second viewing, I can already draw the similarities between it and at least two different science fiction movies. There is the message from beyond that is Contact and the future exists already and is in a way a loop such as we see in Timeline. This is not even touching plot holes and character inconsistencies. If you want to read those in detail, I recommend this article from Entertainment Weekly that does a better job than I could in addressing these issues. http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/11/07/interstellar-plot-explained/

I do hope you go watch Interstellar. For all its flaws, mistake, and disappointments, it was an entertaining film that keeps you on the edge of your seat wanting to see it through. I just felt these issues need to address due to the source of the film and the hype surrounding it. It was good, it was not great. It lacked originality, which is something I think everyone expects from a new science fiction film. It had science to boot, but I don’t think it requires a master’s degree to understand the plot and how everything works. I wholeheartedly dismiss Christopher Nolan’s notion that those of us who did not find the film lived up to its hype and promise felt that way because we failed to grasp it. I grasped it very well, I just hated what I walked out of the movie theater with: not confused, just disappointed and cheated.   

2 1/12 stars out of 5

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! Here you will find stimulating discussions about movies, old and new, free from the annoying agendas that encompass today's critics' writings. I adhere to one basic simple principle about movies: a good movie must be, first and foremost, entertaining. If it fails in that aspect, its quality in other aspects are irrelevant. On the other hand, a movie's entertaining value might just be enough to make you overlook some other aspects that you may not like. Check back often for discussions, reviews, and observations on all aspects of movie watching. This is not a site for critics, but a site for movie lovers who maybe never really understood or were able to put in words just what they like about movies. I hope to be able to give you the tools you need to become a bona-fide cinephile! Please don't be a stranger, and feel free to offer feedback, questions, and suggestions for future posts. I hope you all enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy writing it.