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Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer are his two best films. Seems like he's more than happy pushing out garbage today than actually attempting to make something funny. I was never a fan of his films like Billy Madison and The Waterboy (too childish) but Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer both have a heart.
BUT Bridgette Wilson is painfully hot. I cannot believe she was only 21 in that movie (and Mortal Kombat)!! Hell, they could still bring her in for a MK sequel!
Look at her today- hardly any different!
"Hello baby--- did you miss me?"
Fantastic film about a paparazzi cameraman who crosses the line many times to
Get the shot, to get ratings up on the TV station he sells his clips to.
This Means War
This is really, really bad. I wasn't expecting a lot, I knew that bleeping McG directed it, but it has Tom Hardy, so I decided to sit through it anyway. (I wonder if during TDKR Hardy and Bale exchanged notes and commiserated with each other. ;) For his sake, I hope Hardy's experience was better... The movie is definitely worse.) This movie even looks bad. I rarely actually think that the colors and the whole cinematography is awful, but here it is. X_X The story and dialogue are also awful in so many ways. Clunky and unfunny and predictable and kinda disgusting. The woman (Reese Witherspoon) is written as an idiot - she needs to choose between a boring jerk with no authenticity nor charm (...um... need to check... oh yes: Chris Pine... meh) and a nicer guy who is charming (Hardy), and... she actually has to think about it (duh!), and then... (DUH!) ...yeah right... No, honestly that wasn't really a spoiler, because you can see how it'll unfold a mile away if you watch - but I don't recommend you do. Unless for some reason you have to, like I did. :))
Heat
I remember seeing this in theater - 20 years ago, wow... how time flies... It's still good, but I'm not as impressed by it now.
The Last Of The Mohicans
I didn't remember DDL used to be this attractive... I did remember I hadn't particularly liked the movie before - and still didn't. It was not bad, either, but just didn't manage to get me really involved. I seem to have that problem a lot with Mann's movies.
Fury
This was pretty good. A good cast. I really liked Pitt here. I raked my brains in vain for the young man's name, he looked familiar. The mystery was solved when the credits rolled: Logan Lerman. Of course! Young people grow a lot in 7 years :P - since 3:10 To Yuma, in 2007, where he played the 14 year-old son of Dan Evans (Christian Bale). He might grow up to do great stuff.
Trouble With The Curve
Kinda meh. Having no knowledge of nor interest in baseball probably did't help, either. Amy Adams (as daughter) was the best thing here, Clint Eastwood (as father) was so-so. Also has John Goodman and Justin Timberlake.
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
Frances McDormand as Guinevere Pettigrew and Amy Adams as Delysia Lafosse in 1939 London. A charming movie, with charming leads. Also has Lee Pace, Mark Strong and Ciaran Hinds.
Kickboxer 2
Wow, talk about a film oddity.... in this sequel to Jean Claude Van Damme's goofy yet somehow awesome 1989 movie about a Kickboxing coach who takes revenge against Tong Po, who paralyzed his brother, Van Damme's Kurt Sloane is now dead and the new star is his other brother (who wasn't even mentioned in the first movie) David Sloane.
I'm not sure why Van Damme wasn't involved in this, but this sequel is seriously its own movie, connected to the first by a few returning characters and a few mentions here and there. David Sloane is the most 90's guy ever, with his gelled hair and mannerisms. He's NOTHING like Van Damme's Kurt Sloane.
Nothing.
I remember seeing this VHS at Blockbuster as a kid and assuming this was Van Damme's character but with a new actor. That probably would have been better, rather than a quick flashback showing the characters death.
It was a pretty lame movie I think. Even Tong Po returning as the bad guy was missing all the craziness from the first movie.
Apparently there are even move sequels with David Sloane-- I just don't get it!
I too found the movie to be a bit forgettable. The music is what makes this movie! I just love it! That, and the whole ending sequence (on the mountain) was beautifully shot.
In another world, Daniel Day Lewis would have made a great OO7. Just imagine him taking over in 1995... wonderful thespian Timothy Dalton isn't returning? Well just replace him with one of the greatest (possibly craziest?) actors of all time!
It really could have been the stuff of legend!
I don't know anything about DDL as a person, so I'm in no position to comment about him being crazy. That sounds fascinating, though, maybe I should look into it... :P
DDL as Bond might have been very interesting, indeed. *imagining as suggested*
Just imaging bringing that level of acting to James Bond!!
To my fellow Michael Mann-iacs friends - @DarthDimi, @Creasy47, @boldfinger and others - there is only one word I can say: WOW. One hell of a ride for 2 hours, IMO one of the most stylish thrillers I've seen in years. I'm a huge fan of Asian culture, and seeing all these stunning asian locations in the breathtaking Mann cinematography, it was simply epic. This is now my 2nd favorite Mann film after 'Collateral'. Yes, 2nd place, because it is a fantastic film, and it needs support after all the criticism it received. Michael Mann, please continue making movies! =D>
Interesting; when this was released it was savaged by the critics.
In other words a thoroughly dedicated actor? Yeah, that doesn't sound crazy to me - more like... well, commendable, someone loving and caring about their work, and eager to learn new stuff and new skills, trying to truly understand the life and circumstances of the characters. Being genuinely interested and curious. You calling it "good kind of crazy" does make sense, too. But, hey, I'm a Bale fan, so stuff like that sounds normal to me. :D You mean all actors don't do the proper research and preparation and all? :-O Darned lazy bums... ;)
DDL really stays in character? I've also heard he does, but I haven't done any actual research so I don't know if that's true. I mean, that gets said about Bale, too, but I know he doesn't. (For instance, there are far too many reports from other actors about how utterly hilarious he is, joking around between takes, and it's not like he does comedies a lot, so...) If DDL - or any actor - really stays in character that's gotta be... interesting. For him as well as others. I don't mean that in a negative way, and I can understand why one would. I look at it as an extension of keeping the accent (which Bale does) - it makes makes the acting process easier when the cameras roll. But on the other hand it has to be kinda tough in other ways if one actually keeps the whole character. To be honest I can't imagine how it works. Not much talking about regular stuff and getting to know people or joking - just all work, all day, no fun, I presume. And sometimes it's gotta be a bit weird - depending on the character. And you couldn't bring your kids on set. And so on.
Who knows, but I assume he would have done very different kinds of roles. Why not the ones you mentioned. Certainly what actors get offered is influenced by what they have done before, so that's one thing, but I'm sure good actors get offered varied stuff - some directors and casting people have imagination and don't just offer similar roles. The Academy often looking down on stuff like Bond, etc. and people involved is another thing, so that might have had some impact. Personally I didn't actually like There Will Be Blood, and I still haven't managed to get myself interested in even watching Lincoln. :-S
I haven't seen Blackhat, yet. Need to.
L.A. Confidential
A damned fine film. =D> I've seen this a couple of times before, but not in years, and it was even better than I remembered. An excellent story really well told, and a great cast, everybody is really good. The movie looks good, and has a great atmosphere and music. This has such great style. Everything just works. Beautiful.
Just saw this tonight. The review above sums it up for me. It's nothing original but it's good silly fun.
The film felt like a rock-hard punch in my face by Sylvester Stallone! And I mean it in a good way! It was a total blast for 2 hours. I won't compare the film to the Craig Bond's, as they are both on opposite end of the spectrum, but compared to the Bond's this film look to (Moore and Brosnan), I'd only rank TSWLM and GE as more entertaining than this! Not that the other Rog and Brozza films are worse, but Kingsman just doesn't have the weigh of a 50 years old franchise so it can play around with the tropes of the spy genre. Colin Firth is a proper badass, so is Mark Strong, and the main guy was great. He will be going places in the next few years. If they make sequels, they will be in the main 3 'spy' franchises I will count down the days to the new films (the other 2 being James Bond and Mission Impossible). However, I prefer 'Kick Ass', 'First Class' and 'Layer Cake' from Matthew Vaughn to this film, but it was still a very good film.
Well guess it wasn't; I just saw he said he felt "miserable" when doing it.
Um, yes. My expectations were low, but it still didn't reach them. I realized that it would be even worse than I had expected maybe about 5 minutes into it. Hardy is one of those people that I'll watch in absolutely anything. With any actor that sort of commitment from my part will inevitably lead to having to watch some terrible stuff. :))
I saw this 2 days ago and it was a great film. Damien's got an attitude problem but seeing him go toe to toe with some of tge characters and tge emotional baggage he carried through out tge movie was pretty good. DC have always been on top form with their animated shows and movies, I just wish such great writing can be realised in their movies.
A little gem of a movie, the 4 main actors have great chemistry. Some dramatic bits, but for the most part I had a huge smile on my face for 90 minutes. As for Brosnan, how can that guy still look he can be James Bond, despite having retired from the role 13 years ago and being over 60 years old? What an absolute legend he is, and I hope he continues making movies for a long time.
<center>DD's Michael Mann retrospective</center>
<center><font size = 4>part 11</font></center>
<center><font color = darkblue size = 6>BLACKHAT (2015)</font></center>
<center>
Six years! It's been six years since Michael Mann's last movie, Publick Enemies. Is he trying to pull a Stanley Kubrick on us or something? ;-) I know, he's been doing work for television. Still, I'm always looking forward to that next Mann film. And so these past few years I regularly checked updates on Mann's activity. That's how I eventually learned about a techno-thriller coming up. First it was going to be called 'Cyber' and released in 2014, but the title got changed to Blackhat and the film got released in 2015. Wait, I did say 'techno-thriller', didn't I?
Yes, one of those. And it would involve hackers. See, we've had the movies Hackers, The Net, The Matrix, SwordFish and more and as far as I can tell, only The Matrix managed to pull it off and for it to work, it went deep into SciFi / superhero stuff. Techno-thrillers are pretty hard to sell. The majority of people in the audience hardly know computers beyond the icons on their wallpaper. Hi-tech computer wizardry looks cool but fails to get most of us involved. Unlike a good detective story, where you can pick up physical clues along with the investigator and try to connect the dots yourself, techno-thrillers usually demand that we just go with it and accept the almightiness of the hackers.
Morgan Davis Foehl made his screenwriting debut with Blackhat. The story revolves around techno-terrorists who cause a nuclear meltdown in China and come close to causing one in the States as well. This calls for an uneasy alliance between American and Chinese investigators who, in order to have a good chance of beating the terrorists, require the help of Hathaway, a convicted hacker played by Chris - Thor - Hemsworth. Following one digital lead after another, the team travels from West to East, gets involved in gun fights, computer power play and some interesting romantic relationships.
While critics seemingly dislike the way the plot goes, I must say I'm not very disappointed. It's basically a short version of a season of 24. But indeed, the hacker stuff remains a problem. We have an issue? No worries, the cool hacker will sit down and toggle the keyboard and inexplicably get into every database, every system, every computer thing out there. But if you're willing to give the film that conceit, there's a pretty exciting story to be enjoyed. It's nothing Mann never did before, I agree - there's some Miami Vice / Collateral / HEAT if you look for it - but it's pretty tense and engaging nonetheless. Still, it is a pretty big conceit...
So far I've been both yes and no; now it's time to shower the film with love. Critics will hate me for it, some of you might call me insane even, but Mann touched a few of my soft spots. Let me start with the photography. Stuart Dryburgh, who wasn't involved in any of Mann's previous films, does an amazing job. His style reminds me of what Emmanuel Lubezki did for Ali and Dion Beebe for Miami Vice, but also of what Deakins did for the ShangHai stuff in SkyFall. Nights feel exciting, hot and moist, sweaty and yet dangerous too: the kind of danger that only Michael Mann can make both tense and sexy. The lighting and framing of the shots, the editing, ... all of it keeps me focused. Not a single shot comes off as boring. Even if the visual experience were all this film has to offer, I'd still rewatch Blackhat many times for that. Like I said, it's one of my soft spots. But there's the music too. While Atticus Ross and Harry-Gregson Williams are credited as the composers, Mann, as he does habitually, hacked up their score and brought in a lot of synth from unknown sources I presume, but it works! Blackhat has some Cliff Martinez vibes running through it because of this synth music. It's mostly Mann's update of his 80s scores, I suppose, two of which were composed by Tangerine Dream.
Objectively speaking, I can somewhat understand the criticism that the story struggles to make sense, that it doesn't involve enough human drama and that watching people use computers is far from exciting. But personally, I cannot say I dislike many things about Blackhat. I don't mind a colder, techno-based film; there's more than enough about it to enjoy. In fact, my reaction to it, having only watched Blackhat once, is more positive than my reaction to Public Enemies the first time I saw that film. Because I am a huge Michael Mann fan my judgement is perhaps clouded. Maybe I'm only seeing the good things. I can be critical of directors whose work I usually love though; it just happens that Michael Mann has never truly let me down - perhaps excluding The Keep.
Still, I'll be looking forward to the next Michael Mann film.
<font color = red>Final score:</font> 8/10
DD's Michael Mann retrospective score card:
HEAT: 10/10
The Insider: 9/10
Thief: 9/10
Collateral: 8,5/10
Blackhat: 8/10
Miami Vice: 8/10
Manhunter: 8/10
Public Enemies: 7,5/10
Ali: 7/10
The Last Of The Mohicans: 7/10
The Keep: 5,5/10
DD's David Fincher retrospective score card:
Seven: 9,5/10
The Social Network: 9,5/10
Zodiac: 8,5/10
The Game: 8/10
Panic Room: 8/10
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: 8/10
Alien³: 7,5/10
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button: 7,5/10
Fight Club: 8,5/10 (updated)
Great movie. It was really a feel-good moment, I couldn't help to have a big smile on my face for 2 hours. Helen Mirren was great, and of course a pleasure to see french actor Michel Blanc, who is one of my favorite actors. Very well filmed, never a dull moment, and all those meals looked very delicious!
I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed it, brother. I, too, was thoroughly surprised by how critically loathed it was: just another entertaining thrill ride by Michael Mann to me!
I will see this!