Re-Evaluating Bad Movies

LOL. There's no way you like Kundun. Even Scorsese makes fun of that movie. If New York New York is his 1941, Kundun is his Always.

I saw it once - in theaters. I remember the Kill Bill trailer premiered with that movie and everyone said, "what the fuck" during the 'trixs are for kids' scene. Anyway, that movie had the misfortune of being made during Leo DiCaprio's transition from Titanic to respectable actor. I think Gangs of New York and The Aviator suffered from people not taking Leo seriously yet. Don't misunderstand me, the movies made money and won awards, but like you said, the shelf life wasn't long. The Departed was the turning point, but even that movie hasn't aged too well. It was my favorite movie of 2006, but now, I don't know if its even in my Top 10. The ending was total bullshit and kind-of ruined the whole thing.

Why would I lie about liking Kundun?



It's a very flawed movie, but the stuff that works is pretty great. I love the production and Daniel Day-Lewis is fucking awesome.





The Departed is great.

*Both of these reviews are based on first time viewings.

Robocop 2 (1990)



The Robocop sequels have always seemed to be entirely disposable and after seeing Robocop 2 it's easy to see why. I will say this; the film isn't hurting for ideas. The satirical advertisements from the first film reappear, there are still themes of corporatization, and Murphy's humanity is dwelled on. However none of these ideas are as fleshed out as they could have been and they end up falling flat. The notion of Murphy's lost humanity in particular is totally disregarded. The few ideas the film does run with are pretty dumb, notably a little kid being one of the central villain's and the third act involving OCP putting a drug addicted psychopath's brain in a giant robot (which of course, Robocop spends the rest of the film fighting). The film awkwardly jumps from one half-baked concept to the next while developing a dull plot about some drug dealers. The film lacks much of the humanity that helped the original and while satirical elements are present (and even funny) they aren't nearly as sharp as they were under Verhoeven's hand.

D

Popeye (1980)



Popeye was a bomb in 1980, one that played a part in Robert Altman being ghettoized from Hollywood for a decade, but the film has slowly gained a fan base over the years. The film is a musical comedy that attempts to adapt the tone and style of the cartoon to live-action, meaning we get zany characters, exaggerated motion, and weird sound effects, but all set in a fairly real environment and with a larger still camera. The results are interesting, I suppose. I can't say the film to be particularly funny and the story is pretty weak (and also ends on a climax involving a ridiculously fake looking Octopus) but the film does have a sort of off-beat charm. It's a unique little movie, with Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall giving very fun performances in Popeye and Olive Oyl. I can't call Popeye a good film, but I do kind of see the appeal.

C-

I watched the Robocop movies as a kid - the luxury of being unsupervised. When I re-watched them in high school, I encountered a SHOCKING revelation. I had never seen Robocop. My entire memory of Robocop was Robocop 2 and my entire memory of Robocop 2 was Robocop 3. In my mind, I filed a 3rd Robocop movie that never existed.

Yeah, what....?

Those are pretty much my thoughts on Eraserhead.

I definitely prefer Blue Velvet and The Elephant Man.

Always (1989)

Steven Spielberg had a pretty nice run in the 1980s. In a timespan of a few short years he gave us three Indiana Jones movies, E.T., Empire of the Sun, The Color Purple and Poltergeist more or less. He rounded out the decade with Always, a movie that's, well a little different than the others. It's smaller, somber and takes Spielberg into the arena of romance, something he never really touched and hasn't much waded into since. It might be for the best as Always is a choppy, unbalanced movie that never seemed focused from the beginning and ultimately fails to find its footing. The idea is there, it just doesn't hit the right notes when it needs to.

Richard Dreyfuss reunites with Spielberg as he plays Pete, a pilot whose second love is Dorinda (Holly Hunter) and first love is fighting forest fires from his airplane. One day while on the job he gives his life while saving that of his friend Al (John Goodman). Pete wakes up to find himself a ghost of sorts and is given instruction by Hap (Audrey Hepburn in her final on-screen role). He is told that he is now to help guide others and be an 'inspiration' and driving force for the living. Basically he would put thoughts in peoples' heads and they would think the thoughts are their own which is where such inspiration comes from. He finds himself guiding a fellow pilot named Ted who quickly crosses paths with Dorinda and the two fall in love. Pete must then watch as their love crushes him before realizing that he is no longer among the living and that his job is to make their lives better while they're still on earth.

Always is a weird movie to absorb. My first question is what part of the country has enormous wildfires every day? Aside from that the movie tries to have this deep, dramatic tone while offsetting it with some humor spread throughout so it doesn't get TOO depressing. These elements however don't play off each other, they wear each other down. Ted's character is written as this dreamy, good looking hunk while also being a huge idiot and a lonely, lovelorn fellow all at the same time. Pete also is confused, hopeful then dedicated yet there's no natural progression, they're just sporadic feelings that he goes through because that's what's written in the script. That's what prevents Always from succeeding, it tries to be too many things all at once. And that even touch on the ridiculous ending.

In case it interested you, Always is one of the only Spielberg movies I had yet to watch and noticed that it was recently put on Netflix streaming.

C so says Doomsday

Always is, probably, Spielberg's worst movie. 1941 is bad, but at least it's interesting. The Color Purple is uneven, but it means well. The Lost World has the dinosaur roaming around Burbank, excuse me, San Diego. So unless you wanna make a strong argument for War Horse, Always is the most forgettable movie Spielberg ever made. I've seen the movie twice. Once in my teens and once now as an adult and both times I was just bored.

New York New York is a piece of shit. It makes Kundun look like Citizen Kane.

Kundun isn't even bad, on a technical level it's highly impressive. It's the script and weak narrative that brings the film down, but it's still a solid albeit outlier entry for Scorsese.