Quick Opinions - Movie Edition

Your profile pic is from a James Cameron film and you've never seen his Best Picture winner?!?

Am I so old that there's literally people who haven't seen Titanic?

I've seen everything but The Abyss and Piranha II which, as you said, doesn't really count.

Honestly you should probably see Titanic. The technical craft is pretty damn amazing.

Oh I will, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it too.  It's one of the few Best Picture winners remaining for me.  I'm running through Criterions and the Top 1,000 list right now but when I'm close to finishing those I'll watch it.  "The Abyss" is good, by far his most overlooked work but a solid movie.

He wasn't born yet when Titanic was released. Welcome to your 30's, Doomsday.

I was 7 when it came out.

Batman: It has flaws, but this was a pretty big part of my childhood, and that part of me kind of refuses to acknowledge them. This is the movie that more or less introduced the public to the "dark" and gothic Batman (which is why I find it strange that it gets dismissed by so many people as "goofy" in the wake of the Nolan films) and Nicholson is a pretty great villain. Lots of iconic moments.
**** out of Four

Diamonds Are Forever: Probably the worst Bond movie on all objective levels.  Just a silly and in many ways dull movie that feels incredibly dated, and not in the fun way that Bond movies usually are.  I can't quite bring myself to outright hate a Bond flick (that isn't Quantum of Solace) but definitely lackluster.
** out of Four

Titanic: Just going to quote what I wrote about it on Letterboxd last year: "Like most Americans of my generation I went to see Titanic in the theaters and loved it… of course I was ten years old at the time, so my tastes weren’t overly refined. I think I might have seen it again when it first premiered on network television but otherwise I haven’t revisited it since then. In fact I’ve been kind of dreading the very idea of revisiting it because everything I’ve heard about it suggests that it really wasn’t anywhere near as good as I remembered it. Well, I’ve finally rewatched the movie and I’ve got to say this latest viewing has led me to the conclusion that this was and is a very good and possibly even great movie. That said it is a movie with some clear flaws that I’m not blind to. I think the framing story is way too drawn out and there are some iffy moments here and there. The Billy Zane character is obviously pretty broad and silly (though I think Zane himself actually doesn’t give that bad of a performance given what he has to work with), and age has also given me a much different perspective on the romance at the center of the movie.

The truth of the matter is, Rose doesn’t really love Jack and I don’t think Jack really loves Rose. They might genuinely think they love each other, but really it’s just a youthful infatuation driven by Jack’s sense of adventure and Rose’s youthful rebelliousness and over the course of the movie this infatuation starts to feel very real because of the immense stress of a survival situation. This isn’t a criticism either by the way, more of an observation. I don’t think Romeo and Juliet’s courtship would have really worked in the long run either after all. Just the same, I can see why so many teenage girls took this romance deadly seriously and I do think the movie is a little bit pandering in the way it depicts Jack as this sensitive dreamy perfect boyfriend and Leonardo Di Caprio seems a little too well groomed when he’s around the other third class passengers. This of course isn’t exactly a new story, and there is a certain corniness to it, but it’s a charming sort of corniness. There’s a certain classical old-Hollywood element to it all that’s a bit endearing and I think it works perfectly well as a story to wrap this sinking ship around.

Oh and as far as that sinking ship is concerned; I think the disaster elements of the movie hold up really well today. There’s a lot less CGI than I remember and most of the sinking is mostly done by simply flooding the film’s extensive sets. There are other technical elements that are a little irksome like the lighting (which is a bit harsh) and the day-for-night photography is a bit problematic, but really I think it mostly holds its own from a production value perspective and when the ship starts sinking it becomes a very entertaining adventure movie with some very exciting moments. In fact I think this movie is going to continue to age quite well in a number of ways and its reputation is going to keep improving as its initial over-exposure and backlash come to fade away. That said this is a movie that sort of requires you to approach it with a certain open-minded outlook. It’s earnest as all hell and if you approach it cynically it’s very easy to dismiss, but you’re doing it and yourself a disservice if you do so."
**** out of Four

Batman - stiff, wooden, whatever. 5/10

Diamonds are Forever - worst of the Bonds (thusfar) - 2/10

Titanic - Awesome epic, makes you feel you are there. 9/10

Not seeing a movie out of spite because of 7 year old girls? Makes sense.

Batman is kind of crap. I liked the second one better, and that one wasn't very good either.

Diamonds are Forever - No thanks.

Titanic - Saw it in theaters when it came out, the theater was packed, I saw it at the Carmike Galleria (a place where I saw such classics as the new Godzilla, Pokemon, and where I first experienced the Jurassic Park sequels, and the eye opening Rumble In the Bronx) and was surrounded by teenage girls, who were all older than me at the time. I remember eating popcorn and having a kernel get stuck in my throat and hacking it out only to hack it into the seat in front of me and have it hit the floor with a pretty audible splash. I remember the girls next to me visibly disgusted and moving their bodies as far over in their seats as possible after this. Great disaster movie, what an atmosphere.

My Cousin Vinny - Good movie, I really enjoyed but Marissa Tomei best actress? She was cute in the role but an Oscar?

The Mask of Zorro - loved it - I remember being thrilled to pieces because he was one of my big boyhood heroes.

Airplane! - Lots of great jokes, and peformances

My Cousin Vinny: I don't find it especially funny, but it is very entertaining. Lots of fun performances. B+

The Mask of Zorro: A very fun throwback adventure film with just enough grit to be taken seriously. Anthony Hopkins is also surprisingly cool as an elderly Zorro. B+

Airplane!: Overrated. It has its moments, but also some really bad jokes. Naked Gun is infinitely funnier. C