Sorcerer: @Kimmo fingered it before I did (Violent Road), and good on ya for that, because both of these movies…wow. Tension doesn’t come close to summing up the action. The thesaurus in Apple’s Dictionary app lists these as synonyms:
…and none of them does either of these movies justice. BTW…collywobbles? Well, fine.
Is it moot to thank all the contributors in this thread? Outstanding taste in cinema, folks…except for the Armageddon/Deep Impact lovers. You’re dead to me.
we lived a block from the theater that it showed at in Nashville during it’s US theatrical run, me and my housemates walked over and saw it several times that summer.
“Damn, that was dope”
“Yeah, but it would’ve been cooler if those Toa dudes had kicked the shit out of the dad at the end.”
OK OK, guess I know what to watch this weekend. If it’s as good as Sorcerer it will be time well spent.
It’s going to have to be good to live up to the regard with which I hold Sorcerer, there are few films which can summate themselves to leave you with such a gut punch of a lesson at the end.
All I’ll say; “Whilst there’s music, let’s dance.”
One part in “Sorcerer” that caught me totally unawares was the attitude of the crowd when they’re seeing the first trucks carrying the dead and wounded back through town. At first, they’re furious, riotous, ready to lynch someone, anyone, especially when the soldiers are clearly trying to frighten them into submission (by firing guns in the air, charging at them with trucks and horses, etc.).
And then, when the first dead worker is noticed and handed to them, there is an immediate and unmistakeable change in their behavior to near silence and a clear respect for the dead. Then the reverence and compassion, as the bodies are taken off the back of the truck and handed down through the crowd, all hands reaching out to help carry these disgusting, oozing, semi-wrapped bodies to what we expect will be a funeral service and burial.
These poor bastards, living in filth, decay and utter corruption, seemingly abandoned by their government and elected/appointed leaders, and existing under the oppressive thumb of the LEO types meant to protect them, are still human beings with dignity and deserving of respect. That riotous crowd immediately becomes more worthy of compassion and respect than any of their corporate or government overlords.
The quiet that comes over that crowd totally shocked me, as did their immediate return to fury and riot once the dead had been placed into caring hands and removed from that particular area. What a beautiful bit of film making.
I’m going to go with a Vegas theme here just because
Overrated:
Casino - Thoroughly forgettable performances from nearly everyone involved. This was the start of De Niro’s long slide into mediocrity after a career that started at the very heights of the profession. It is impossible not to compare this film to Goodfellas and Scorsese, De Niro, and Pesci all come up wanting in Casino.
Ocean’s 11 (12 and 13 as well) - I hate this movie for what it could have been. I feel like they got the biggest group of A list stars together that they could, filled in the gaps with as many B list folks, then when “Shit we need a script so these guys know what to do”, and ended up just picking a movie at random to remake. There isn’t anything particularly interesting or thought provoking in this movie. The laughs are bland, the suspense is nonexistent (did anyone really think Danny Ocean was going to fail?), and what do we leave the film with? There is no deeper meaning, no moral to the story.
Now for the Underrated Vegas themed films, (I also just noticed these both have Christian Slater in them which is almost always a good thing)
Very Bad Things - This movie takes the concept of dark comedy to its extreme. There is no false advertising here. The film about a series of very bad things. It is The Hangover with more hard drugs and less slapstick. It is funny and tense all at the same time.
3000 Miles to Graceland - Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner lead a team of Elvis impersonators in a Vegas heist on a casino. This movie is what the Ocean’s movies should have been. The heist is over by about the 30 minute mark. After that we get to see the group unravel as each member vies for more than his fair share of the loot. This is easily my favorite Costner movie. It is fun and interesting the whole way through.
Bonus underrated film (since I am on the Christian Slater kick)
True Romance - if you like movies this is Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to you. Christian Slate plays a loser obsessed with kung fu movies working in a comic book store in Detroit. He meets a hooker with a heart of gold played by Patricia Arquette and they immediately fall in love. Val Kilmer plays the ghost of Elvis, Gary Oldman plays a Jamaican drug dealer/pimp name Drexl, Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper have in my opinion one of the best scenes in film together in this movie, and you can’t forget a pitch perfect early performance from Brad Pitt as the stoner roommate living on his buddy’s couch. This movie is just all around great.
Leaving Las Vegas is a great film, but I don’t know that I would call it underrated. At least from the reactions I have seen to the movie, I consider it pretty fairly rated.
Again, my personal opinion, both are rated about where they should be. I would give Mars Attacks a 6/10 and Showgirls a 2/10 (they only get the 2 points because of breasts)
Much to my point, the remake added almost nothing to the concept. As a remake I would consider a complete failure if it somehow hadn’t succeeded in making a stupid amount of money for just about everyone involved.
In the very least, the Ocean’s movies allowed Soderbergh to make other movies, and that’s a pretty decent payoff in its own right. But on their own terms they’re well made films with significantly more visual flair than you typically see in big-budget movies. It’s not like the original was some sort of amazing film that was desecrated, and in isolation I think that Soderbergh’s version is superior. I mean, if you think that Soderbergh’s version is a complete failure then I don’t know what you’d have to say about, for example, Scorsese’s The Departed.
I also think True Romance serves as a suggestion that it might be interesting to see Tarantino do less directing and instead let others shoot some of his scripts; I’m not sure if this movie would be improved with Quentin at the helm.
I’d say it’s a pointless remake that offers nothing over Infernal Affairs, and if Oscars mattered it’d be a travesty that it was the one Scorsese won for. It’s on a very short list of his films that I haven’t sought out to watch more than once.
The Infernal Affairs trilogy is great and I love Tony Leung, but The Departed is also a great movie in its own right that opened the story up to a whole new audience while recontextualizing the film, streamlining the story, and adding humor. It’s not quite the same as Spike Lee’s Old Boy, which is more properly described as a “pointless remake that offers nothing.”
I’m sure you’re right. I saw no need to bother finding out
If you’re going to remake a film, at least do something to make it your own. Something like A Streetcar Named Desire / Blue Jasmine. Same basic plot, but not the same film.
It’s notable that Tarantino has won two Oscars for his screenplays and none for his directing, so I think I agree (although I wonder what Tarantino’s Natural Born Killers would have been like.
Plus I always loved Tony Scott’s directing. I think he was better than his brother. Certainly more consistent, anyway, and much underrated.
