The Dusty Reel

I first saw the VHS for Ridley Scott’s Legend sitting on a shelf in my university library. I’ve always enjoyed films from this era and decided to give it a watch. The version I saw was the US cut and, though I was impressed by the film, I can’t say that I really “liked” it. Fast forward several years and, though I had not seen it since that first viewing, images from Legend stayed with me. Roughly five years later, when I saw that a Director’s Cut was available on Blu Ray on Amazon, I decided it was worth forking over the $10 to see it again. I’ve since seen it once or twice more and, though it will never be one of my most watched films (you can check “My Big Five” for those) it’s a movie I’ve come to appreciate. I will say, however, that even though the Us Theatrical Cut has it’s fans and strengths, the Director’s Cut is the superior version.

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To me, there are three types of movies. Those you love at first viewing, those you hate and first viewing and those you’re never really sure what to make of but that grow on you. David Lynch’s Dune fits into the third category. I’ll admit that, before seeing it I was intrigued by it’s interesting premise and the few images I had seen. However, my first viewing, like so many, left me scratching my head. The plot was dense and the film felt really hard to follow. However, upon repeated viewings it has grown on me. I’ll be the first to admit that Dune has some pretty serious problems (particularly in it’s script and editing) but that it manages to be an impressive mess nonetheless.

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On the surface, The Secret of NIMH is an easy film to overlook. Animated mouse movies are a dime a dozen and, even though they usually manage to be at least decent, few really manage to break out of the pack. However, everyone I have spoken to who was given The Secret of NIMH a chance has the same thing to say. Not only is it a good film for its genre, but it is in facta masterpiece of animation as a whole. I myself will tell anyone that The Secret of NIMH ranks easily as one of if not the best 2D animated film I have ever seen (which is saying a lot).

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One word that comes to mind to describe Batman Returns is, unusual. Whenever I talk to people about Batman movies, I generally hear the exact same things. The Nolan Trilogy is fantastic, Batman ’89 was also good and Batman Forever and Batman and Robin both suck. However, there seems to be an interesting divide on Batman Returns, Tim Burton’s second (and final) film about the Caped Crusader. Some say it’s an underrated classic while others like to pretend that this movie never happened. I’ve seen Batman Returns multiple times myself and, I’ll be honest, the first time I watched it I didn’t really know how to feel about it either. It was just such a bizarre movie, even by Batman standards. However, over the years, and several viewings later, I’ve come to appreciate this film; enough so that, in fact, it’s my personal favorite Batman film. Continue reading “Review of Batman Returns”

Enemy Mine came out at an unfortunate time. After the success of Star Wars, sci-fi films became a dime a dozen almost over night. Some of them have managed to stand out as the years have gone by (Dune comes to mind) but most of them tend to fall through the cracks and disappear into obscurity. For that reason, when I first stumbled across Enemy Mine at my local University Library I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Sci Fi movies from the 80s are usually entertaining at least, so I checked it out expecting some corny adventure with old school effects and sounds. As would be expected I ended up enjoying the movie immensely, but not necessarily for the reasons I was anticipating.

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I first stumbled across Wizards on a lazy Sunday afternoon. As I often do to pass the time I was looking through some IMDB lists (underappreciated animated movies at the time) when this poster caught my eye. I knew nothing about Wizards, but I was immediately interested. I mean, look at that poster! It’s amazing! For about a day I went back and forth, reading reviews and glancing over trailers and stills before committing buy it on DVD and give it a chance. After having seen it, I can admit that, while Wizards isn’t for everybody, it certainly qualifies as an animated gem and is easily one of my personal favorite animated movies.

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