Chula Vista

Roller Boogie.

(where's my gun......... )

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Trollheart

The Prisoner of Second Avenue (Jack Lemmon/Anne Bancroft) (1975)

Frankly, not as funny or enjoyable as I remember. Another Neil Simon play, does well on the big screen but there's something lacking about it. It's almost like a less clever version of The Odd Couple, though not really. Worth watching, but ultimately I was disappointed this time around.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Frownland

You're Next

The characters in this reminded me of the family in A Good Man Is Hard to Find, so of course I thought this was hysterical. Good watch. 4/5

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

MicShazam

Edward Scissorhands


Not the Tim Burton movie that I'm most familiar with. I've only watched it once before and that was years ago. Rewatched it again this evening and... my impression (as I remember it) from back then, remains basically unchanged.
It takes forever to get going, no real conflict happening until over an hour into the movie, and when things do start happening, it's precious little. Surely the movie spends all that time on character development, then? Well... in theory, but absolutely every character stays a one note stereotype and there aren't really any interesting exchanges between characters - only a bunch of mildly amusing "fish out of water" scenes where Edward gets accustomed to life in a curiously 50's looking 80's suburban neighbourhood.

Numerous things about the movie just feel kinda underdeveloped and half baked. The daughter falls in love with the "monster". We know this, because at one point she tells him "I love you". It feels unearned, as the two have barely interacted with each other at this point ("this point" being the end of the movie, almost) and when we see her dreaming of those times with Edward as an elderly woman at the very end of the movie, it feels hollow. A key plot point where she knows that Edward was tricked into assisting burglary never goes anywhere. Never does she go to the police or her parents and confess, despite how it would fit into every single character relationship and plot arc in the film. Instead Edward retreats to his hiding place for seemingly the rest of his life and everyone stops visiting him - even the people who cared for him. It just feels oddly simplistic and contrived in so many ways.

I'm not even going to comment on all of the secondary and tertiary characters. Think a collection of over-the-top suburban housewife stereotypes, and you've got all the movie would give you.

I know it's supposed to be a simple little gothic, suburban fairy tale, but even movies as simple as Harry Potter or Star Wars or Sucker Punch have characters with more motivations, more character traits - as well as more developed conflicts happening in the story. Edward Scissorhands feels strangely hollow as a movie and I just can't figure out why it's such a beloved film. It's some of the thinnest, most underdeveloped material Tim Burton has given us and that's saying something. Big Eyes was a surprisingly good movie, but I guess Tim Burton isn't really my cup of tea. Most of his movies are kind of flat, I think. This one is the worst.

Frownland

lmao @ Sucker Punch. Did you have your first kiss when you watched that or something? A strong, significant emotional bond is the only explanation that I can think of for your appreciation of that crap.

Edward Scissorhands isn't Burton's worst movie. His worst films are when he takes that ham-fisted, self-conscious quirkiness and turns it into a formula without the little compelling content that was there to begin with. See: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd, Corpse Bride, etc.

Have you seen Big Fish? Personally I think that it's mad overrated, but it does stand out in his filmography as a better, less contrived film.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

MicShazam

I'm not saying Sucker Punch is great*, but it does have more going on as far as the characters go - even if it's precious little. At least they feel vaguely like humans. I picked that movie as an example on purpose, since I want to express just how badly I think Edward Scissorhands handles its characters. I really do think Edward Scissorhands is superficial to a very unusual degree.

I think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is way more fun to watch, even though a few scenes are cloying and sentimental in the extreme. And I really like Corpse Bride. Sweeney Todd was pretty awful. A musical with no good tunes.

I have seen Big Fish a few times and I used to like it, then kind of didn't anymore. It's got some good ideas, but it feels so tedious to get through.

EDIT: I'd also like to mention Dark Shadows. That one was really, really bad. Only good thing in the movie, literally: Eva Green was sooo hot in that movie... What a waste.

* Last time I watched it, which was a couple years ago, I still liked it. I've always considered it pretty flawed but also appealing in some ways. No idea what will happen when I get around to re-watching it. For some reason, I tend to be pretty forgiving with Zack Snyder's movies. I like Batman v Superman...

Frownland

To be fair, it is a Tim Burton musical. It's not like he set a standard for good music in his films that we should expect him to return to. And yes, that includes Nightmare Before Christmas's hokey ass songs.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

MicShazam

Eh, I like the songs in that movie. The one where Jack has been shot down and landed in the arms of a statue is pretty weak and sounds too much like an earlier song, but otherwise I think they're pretty good songs. The one I really like is "Sally's Song".

Danny Elfman is hokey no matter what he does. Have you ever heard Oingo Boingo?

Frownland

I mean, they're not dysfunctionally written songs, but they're still dull and annoying.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

The Batlord

Sucker Punch has hella fun action scenes. Everything in-between is like whatever, but those action scenes are highly memorable.

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