“You’re wrong if you think the joy of life comes principally from human relationships.”

Well, 2007 just keeps getting better and better. As this began my first thought was basically whoops watching it so soon after Forbush ... but while there’s certainly a similarity in this story of man finding himself and humanity in nature, this has plenty more to warrant the extra hour of running time. It ends with less hope than Forbush, but somewhere in the midst of it is an abundance of the stuff.

I’d kind of convinced myself that it would be another of those 2007 movies to have a tremendous central conceit but one that’s simply not backed up enough by the unexpected stuff that surrounds it. It could easily have been exactly what it is but over 2 and a half hours got tired. But, and I don’t know what it is – I’d say Eddie Vedder’s songs, but they’re actually fairly sparse and I’d heard them before; I’d say Emile Hirsch’s performance but it’s really a mix of fresh-faced Leo DiCaprio-ness and emaciated Christian Bale that we’ve seen plenty of before (not to say it’s still not utterly compelling). I think more than likely it’s the whole combination – there simply isn’t a false note here. William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden are absolutely heartbreaking as the parents; Jena Malone about as perfectly cast as the almost psychically close sister as Maggie Gyllenhaal and Zooey Deschanel were in Donnie Darko and Almost Famous, her voiceover contributing to the constant reassessment of ideas this movie is. This really had me hooked from start to finish. It never stops clarifying and questioning its message. I haven’t read the book so I can only comment on Sean Penn’s screenplay and say his intelligence shines through with none of his occasionally grating self-righteousness. The dialogue is just about constant poetry, particularly in Alex/Chris and his sister’s voiceovers. I definitely picked the right movie to watch on my birthday.

I was a little baffled to say the least when this documentary didn’t make it to the shortlist for this year’s Best Documentary Feature Oscar; even though I hadn’t seen it yet, it just seemed like it couldn’t fail to convey something more than the average music doc. 90 minutes later, and I kinda see why the Academy ignored it. Though this compilation of conversations with Kurt himself laid over seemingly random shots of moody locales naturally stumbles upon its share of profound moments, it’s not a lot more than the sum of its parts, and I’d sooner watch Gus Van Sant’s Last Days again, or finally get around to reading the man’s journals (if the movie accomplished anything, it’s putting that very task back up on my to-do list).

Unlike the Scott Walker doc I watched before this, which was awash with the work of the artist, there’s nary a note of his own music to be heard. The film makers clearly made a conscious decision to distance the artist from the art – you don’t even see his face until the very end – and succeeded so well that ultimately the movie feels as distant as Kurt ever did at his most cryptic and defensive … or worse, like Courtney. His “narration” often feels a little like Malcolm McLaren’s stuff in The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle (“Terrorise, threaten, and insult your own useless generation…”), just a great eff-ewe to anyone who feels an artist “owes” something to the public. Though I realise there’s something in that argument, it’s really not something I like to hear an artist whine about; especially not this artist, and especially not for 90 minutes. It’s intriguing as anything about Kurt would be by default; but absolutely nothing more.

Well I can’t believe I just teared up while a Classic Eighties Movie Slow Clap^TM was going on in the background

It somehow felt like it was finally time for me to watch this – a recent Channel 4 thing about the best family films brought it to the surface, and I’ve been noticing a lot of people on Facebook listing it as a fave – but within minutes I was questioning if that was a good idea. There’s an old me that would have been far from impressed with this movie for the exact same reason the me of now ultimately fell for it today. This is guilty of just about every cliché in the book of late-80s and early-90s cinema. It pulls every faux-pas that practically threatened to destroy the artform during that period. But, somehow, it works.

It didn’t make me laugh at loud much at all compared to some. But there’s just something else under it all – perhaps highlighted by the Dark Moment (let’s use the proper template terms here, it couldn’t be more by the book I swear) ... which is actually really dark, I mean for a movie that seems so silly and light from the outside that crash is nasty – it’s perhaps the fact that it does follow the old screenplay paradigms and wot-not so to the letter. I don’t know. All I know is, I wasn’t bored, I laughed a little, and I was embarrassingly moved by those final moments.

I could so easily convince myself that I loved this movie for the same reasons I looked forward to seeing it (lol, though obviously not that much, I’ve been “meaning to see it” for at least 5 years …) – Drew Barrymore, of course, and Jerry Goldsmith’s score. I defy anyone not to find themselves with a huge smile on their face as the end credits roll, the girls in silhouette “getting away with it” to Goldsmith’s full-on version of the glorious main theme (one of those precious few that never diminishes no matter how often it’s repeated). But overall, the fact is it’s pretty bad with only a few admittedly well-placed set-pieces to hold the attention, by no means succeeding as the semi-feminist tract I think someone involved might’ve wanted it to be. It could one day find its way into my cheesy faves collection, but for now I really can’t give it more than 3 stars.

“My name is Reggie. I was an ice-cream vendor by trade. Now … I’m a soldier.”

Don’t worry, I believe you’re allowed to laugh ;)

Much as I expected, I think ultimately this is my favourite of the series. The use of the old footage is almost beautiful. The moment at the end where Mikey appears to speak to himself across time and space feels like the kind of moment the whole series is working to find. How many movies can lay claim to such a moment, the same character played almost 20 years apart by the same actor, and meshing together so seamlessly as it does? I really think people underestimate the magnitude of this aspect of this movie. I only hope that a postBubba Ho-Tep Coscarelli can make “Phantasm V” even better. Listening to the commentaries, it seems there’s still more of the old footage to work into the story.

Incidentally, on those commentaries – I finally listened to them and they’re really nice, with A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm and Coscarelli dropping in in different combos per movie. There’s not a great deal of new information in there, but you really get a sense of why these movies have always worked, like just how long they’ve known each other etc, “like family” as Scrimm says. And that “wrath of the Tall Man” credit mentioned below – appears at the end of all the movies, I think. I certainly spotted on II and III anyway.

November 14th, 2005:

Like the third movie, this movie manages to keep the same cast together, and adds to that a selection of footage that logically must have been shot for the original but it’s of scenes that would’ve had no place there. Their presence here is almost as bizarre as the whole time-space level this movie adds to the series. This one again is a little more juiced up but there’s a lot more tongue-in-cheek and you can kind of see the Don Coscarelli emerging that eventually made the fantastic Bubba Ho-Tep (I’d previously been kind of bewildered as to how he went from the original schlocky Phantasm to that relatively dreamy, poetic musing on old age).

I don’t know if there are similar things in the credits of the other films in the series, but I happened to notice here that the copyright notice at the end reads, “Unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition may result in civil liability, criminal prosecution and the wrath of The Tall Man.” lol The DVD doesn’t even have a trailer but it does have a commentary which, again, I’ve not yet listened to. Bring on Phantasm V!

“You can never go home again, Oatman. But I guess you can shop there.”

Too many quotes I could’ve begun with here – but that one’s as good as any. Check them out – just a great screenplay.

A slight diversion from the horror due to disk space being required on the Sky+ box, not to mention the last batch being frankly rubbish, lol. I recorded this last week and only just realised as it began … 10 YEARS, man! lol. Amazing how time flies, and amazing how good this movie still looks and feels.

Midway through the movie, I realised, sure I was enjoying it but it did feel like something was missing – call it a combination of the age of the thing and the fact that it’s one of those movies I watched way too much at the time and which brings back lots of confusing pesky me things, lol. But it’s amazing once we get to the reunion itself at the end, how the mood changes – anchored on that shot of John Cusack looking up at Minnie Driver from feeding the baby with a bottle. Yes, that whole scene is too cute for words – but that shot in particular, the look on his face, is just incredible. Likewise, the soundtrack – which is one of the best ever – is great throughout, but it’s in that last 30 minutes that it just soars. The “Live and Let Die” moment early in the movie is genius (Shrek the Third take note, this is where that song belongs) – but “99 Luftballons” at the end is up there with the absolute great soundtrack moments, floating in as it does over Minnie Driver’s wrecked expression.

This is just one of those perfect movies – if it weren’t for the fact my old DVD was a barebones release, I’d be kicking myself for getting rid of it because it is one to watch on a yearly basis if not even more frequently. It’s a real shame nobody had the mind to put together a 10th anniversary collector’s DVD. Roll on 2012? 17? lol.

I am not having a good movie week, lol. But at least this one makes me feel better for any upset caused by my Pirates 3 review. Because this is a Drew Barrymore movie, which is usually worth about 2 stars by default before I even push play. But wow – this one is embarrassingly, cringingly bad, and it only gets worse as it runs. The set-up begins with penpals …

Yes, yes. Guns bad. But if you’re a sexy young movie star, you look mighty sexier holding one. I love how many of these old “just say no” type movies actually end up making the bad no-no thing look unbelievably, irresistibly, cool, lol. Drew Barrymore is always great to look at, but this is one of those movies from the time where you find yourself watching her very basic, any teen will do, style of acting, and thinking: how the hell did she ever get as good as she is now? lol. It doesn’t help that it’s yet another one of her “Amy Fisher” type roles – like, again … how did she ever escape that typecasting, it seemed like an indelible curse.

Personally, I’d rather watch any given other Drew movie – literally, I think any of them – the old movie of the same title from the 50s (no relation in story – they put a space in between the words too, presumably because it was the 50s and they were cool enough without spelling aids – I think it was called “Deadly is the Female” in some places), and that episode from “Blossom” that dealt with guns and teens (if I remember correctly, lol: I could’ve dreamt it, I don’t know, but it was very good I think).

Is there anything I liked except for the aesthetics of Drew? Well I loved the credit at the beginning, “And Michael Ironside as Mr. Kincaid” LOL … sorry, I have no idea why that makes me laugh so much, it just seems so much like the early-90s in a nutshell somehow to me or something. Billy Drago’s quite fantastically scary as the fire and brimstone preacher who makes the genius decision of marrying Drew, his ward, to an ex-con, even 2 minutes after berating them for laying together half-naked outside surrounded by guns.

But the moment this dangerous couple’s reign of terror begins, it becomes one of the most unintentionally funny movies I have ever seen – from the double accidental shooting that starts the whole thing, to a cop-killing, to the crashing into the mailbox to avoid the essential doggy, to their abysmal bar robbery (“That’s my whole paycheck! If you take that, I won’t be able to eat, pay rent …” “I can’t take the money, Howard!” “Well don’t use my name!” ROFL), and the OH-so-subtle foreshadowing of the line, “Cross my heart and hope to die!” ... I don’t think I’ve ever shaken my head in disbelief so much at a movie, lol.

But Ironside is good – in fact, really good in a role quite far removed ultimately from his usual hardness – Drago is good, Barrymore is cute enough, and there’s at least one really nice shot, a POV of a victim being buried, through which we witness one of the couple’s romantic interludes. But none of this brings it even close even to the usual default Drewsome twosome of stars. And I’m not just being nice to the Pirates. This one really sucks too. It’s frankly amazing things like True Romance and Natural Born Killers ever got made with stuff like this leading the way, lol. This movie actually made me want to shoot something.

Wow. I just caught this on TV again with about five minutes’ notice and I feel like this movie has grown up with me. I now feel like I can put it up there with my favourite Scorsese movies: for the record, The Age of Innocence, Kundun and Taxi Driver. If you look at those titles you’ll notice they have one thing in common, great musical scores, and Elmer Bernstein’s work here leaves no hiding place for every shade of pain and beauty.

But there’s something here, I think, for everyone: whether you’re into comedy, sadness, story, acting, trippiness or good old-fashioned E.R. mayhem, it’s all here. I still remember the buzz I got when I first saw it on the big screen, right from the opening ambulance shot, how I laughed at the reckless use of ambulances, how I froze at the haunting images of the girl from Nicholas Cage’s past, how I cried at the death, how I sat, lost at the ending fade to white, and none of this has faded in the last five years, no matter how many times I’ve seen it. There’s so much to behold, so many images – Cage pulling the dead out of the ground; “Red Red Wine” playing over the drug-dealer hanging scewered off an apartment block; the three companions Cage has to work with, like the three ghosts in “A Christmas Carol”; the eyes of the old man pleading for release from life. This movie kills me in so many ways, yet it’s so full of life.