Batman

We have now hit a very exciting chapter of our movie collection. BATMAN!!! We tried to find all four older batman movies, but could never find them. Luckily Andrew's mom found the first one and sent it to us, just in time!

The entire time I couldn't help compare this older movie to the newer batman movies. I've never seen this before and have always been pretty skeptical of theses, mainly because Tim Burton did it. It wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be, but is just so different from the Batman movies I'm used to that it didn't seem that great to me either.

One thing Andrew and I felt the need to distinguish was whether Michael Keaton is a good batman, or a good Bruce Wayne. The answer is without a doubt one of the best Bruce Waynes. His character has actual humor, isn't broody, and isn't terribly obsessed and traumatized by his parents murder (at least not as bad as Val kilmer's version)

We actually don't run into Bruce for about 15 minutes into the movie. Instead we get an introduction to our villain Jack Napier, and the rough financial times that Gotham is going through. We also meet Vicki Vale, photographer/love interest. It's Gotham's 200th birthday, but the city doesn't have the money to have the elaborate celebrations they wanted to have. So Bruce Wayne throws a big fundraiser, and all of a sudden Commisioner Gordon is called away. Uh oh! There's trouble at Axis Chemicals. Batman rushes over to help with the problem. What happens is that Jack is gonna go rob the place, but his boss betrays him and calls in his crooked cop friend to foil Jack. Basically a big shoot out occurs and Batman ends up accidentally letting go and Jack falls into a vat of toxic waste. At this point, Gotham doesn't really understand who/what Batman is and they don't trust him.

Jack apparently survived, and gunshots damaged the nerves in his face, leaving a permanent smile. He also is left with his pale skin from the toxins. Meanwhile, Bruce and Vicki have a date and hook up, and fall in love. But Bruce does have some issues and pushes her away.  The Joker now wants to ruin Gotham, and attempts to kill people using tainted cosmetics. He kills quite a few, and then his plan is exposed with the help of Batman. His next big ploy is to have a birthday parade, while raining 20 million dollars on the streets of Gotham, and then unleashing his toxic gas into the air. That works for a little while, but then Batman gets his batwing and saves the day. Alfred lets Vicki in on Bruce's big secret, and they still don't really know where they stand because of his tunnel vision of revenge. Bruce was able to have a flashback that reveals to him that Napier was the one who killed his parents.

The big fight scene culminates at the top of the Gotham City Cathedral, and Vicki is held hostage since Joker also has a little crush on her. Batman obviously wins and gets the girl, but there are some questionable things about this version of Batman. I always though that it was apart of his creed that he did not kill people (or maybe that's Superman?!). That is very apparent in the latest reboot movies and video games. However in this movie he has no qualms about blowing people up or throwing them off of buildings.

Kim Bassinger's (Vicki) is absolutely amazing in this movie. One more instance that makes me wish that I had thicker hair.

One other problem, aside from his killing people, is that Batman doesn't do anything in all these fight scenes. He basically just stands there and pushes things or uses a gadget. In the last scene we actually see him doing so quick ducks and punches, but that's it. I couldn't help but laugh every time he had to turn his head or look up, because he had to go to such extremes as he had no neck movement.

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention also how great Jack Nicholson was. Not just for his creepiness and great laugh, but for his ridiculous hip hop dancing since this movie consists of lots of Prince music. Kudos to Jack for letting loose!

Andrew's Closing Thought: Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

Up Next: Batman Begins

Bad Boys

This movie made me really think about the importance of this blog and our epic journey we are going on. Mainly because I really really didn't want to watch this movie, but realized we needed to in order to move on. I put it off as long as I could, but it wasn't until Sunday, after a long day of flying and my broken will that Andrew convinced me to watch it. He already had me watch this movie last year, but he forgot that he did, and was surprised when I already knew that I didn't like it.

This movie is a great example of the 90's culture. It was made in the super crazy fashion days of the decade. Boys wear vests as shirts and girls wear platform clog/flipflops. In this movie we have Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) who work in the narcotics department at the Miami PD. Mike is the rich playboy, whereas Marcus is the opposite: a middle class family man. Somehow they make a great team. The main crime plot of this movie is that a whoooooole lotta heroine was stolen from the Miami PD narcotics evidence room, obviously an inside job. So they have a short amount of time to figure out what happened. Mike asks his callgirl friend Max to keep an eye out for new rich playboys. Well what do you know? She ends up going on a job to one of these thieves. She brings her roommate Julie (Tea Leoni) along the way. Julie isn't liking the creeper that has invited them over, and goes to the bathroom, while Max gets caught up in a criminal showdown. Julie's friend and the creeper end up getting shot and die, while Julie sees the whole thing. The goons of the main drug lord Fouchet (The french guy from The Patriot!) chase her around, and she does an insane leap into a pool from the roof of the building.

Julie contacts Mike, because she was told that he could be trusted. Well it ends up that Mike was gone, so Marcus answers her call and has to pretend to be Mike the entire movie. Marcus lets her stay at Mike's apartment while the case gets worked out. They figure out who is behind it, and that they were going to cut the heroin with ethanol. Due to the fact that they have destroyed a bunch of property and killed a good amount of people, their department gets shut down. They decide to stay on the case anyway, cuz they are just about to bust the drug deal. It takes place at an airport hangar, where lots of nice explosions and car chases can take place.

They save the day after causing even more damage, and walk away as the baddest of all the boys.

Yes, in case you were wondering, within like the first 5 minutes they sing along to the song Bad Boys.

Tea Leoni is really really annoying in this movie. She thinks that being a material witness automatically makes her a cop. Silly

Andrew's Closing Thought: Whatcha Gonna Do

Up Next: Batman

Back to the Future Part III

 
Our trilogy adventure is over. I think its a satisfactory end to the series. It's by no means the best one, but I do like how different it is from the other two films. The director thought that they had done enough with Marty's family storylines, so he decided to focus more on Doc.

We meet up back in 1955 with the ole gang, and 1955 Doc helps Marty get back to the future. Along the way they learn that 1885 Doc is about to die soon, so Marty decides to go back and save him. He dresses up in the most ridiculous outfit in all of cinematic history and travels back to the old west. There he encounters his great great grandpa who helps him out. He then finds Doc, who has adjusted quite nicely to these new times. Mad Dog Tannen almost hangs Marty first, and during the shooting of this scene Michael J Fox actually got hung slightly and blacked out. Finally Marty puts on a respectable Western outfit and he and Doc come up with a plan to get back to the future, which involves using a train to push the gasless Delorean up to 88mph. One snag in the plan, Doc falls in love which messes with his decision of whether he wants to leave or not. This movie marks Christopher Lloyd's one and only kiss scene in his entire career, at least according to imdb.

Marty confronts Tannen in an early morning duel, and wins! He sends Tannen into a pile of manure, and it still hasn't gotten old. Doc breaks up with Clara, who eventually follows him onto their train adventure.Doc ends up being the hero in this one, saving the girl and sending marty safely off into the future. Marty gets back just in time to jump out of the Delorean before another train destroys the time machine. He finds Jennifer all safe and sound on her porch, and is about to enter into a car race that will destroy his future, but makes the better decision. Doc returns for a brief moment in a train time machine with Clara and two sons, and is happy as a time traveler.

This movie gives us two major moral lessons to take from this entire journey. 1. It doesn't matter what people say about you, like chicken, just believe in yourself! 2. Your future is not set in stone, and is always changing, so dont stress out about it so much!

Some of my favorite things about this movie:
The town dance
The different colored smokes the train gets with the crystal logs
Frisbie's pie pans!
Doc's super sweet steam engine time machine


Andrew's Closing Thought:  The time machine train was ridiculous

Up Next: Bad Boys

Back to the Future Part II

Great Scott! What a wonderful sequel!!

The first film is a really great movie, a classic, but this sequel ups the ante and really gets creative with its plot. The thing that makes this such a great movie is all the time jumps, and the moments when the first movie and this movie collide. The school dance being an example of this.

Marty leaves to go to the future, 2015, to go and help his family. The year 2015 is totally ridiculous. Apparently by this year we will have hoverboards (i wish!) and flying cars. He helps his son, but ends up having to go to his future house to get Jennifer, where he learns that his future self has failed at life all because of some 'accident'. He also buys a sports almanac that changes everything. He was going to use it for personal gain back in 1985, but instead Old Man Biff gets it instead and takes the time machine back to 1955. He is nice and returns the DeLorean back to 2015, where Marty and Doc then go back to 1985. Only uh oh, its an alternate 1985 where the world is horrible, Biff is in charge of everything, married to Lorraine, and George is murdered. Doc and Marty figure out what happened pretty quickly, and then go back to 1955 to intercept the almanac from young Biff. This is when the movie really shines. Marty must get the almanac from Biff, who happens to be at the same school dance that Marty was at like 2 days ago, only he can't let what he does during this mission affect (sp!?) his other self, who is still trying to get back to the future. He succeeds in all of his goals, and just when everything was about to be hunky dory, Doc in the DeLorean gets struck by lightning and is sent to 1885!

Some great moments of the film:
The hoverboard chase in 2015
The pizza hut pizza that is tiny and then turns into a huge pizza.
Basically everything about the family scene in 2015. The multiple tv channels and video conferencing, and Marty's double tie.
The hoverboard sequence in 1955, (which the hoverboard gets left in 1955!! tragic)
When Marty sneaks up behind 1955 Doc after just sending the other Marty back to the future. I always wanted to run between those firey tire marks as well


                <-- Baby Elijah Wood!


I did not know this until I read the IMDb trivia, but Crispin Glover did not come back for this movie. He wanted too much money, and so they wrote him out of the script as much as possible, and used a look-a-like when they needed him. Like for instance, all of the 1955 footage of him in this movie is somebody else! Crazy.

Up Next: Back to the Future Part III

Andrew's Closing Thought: We have 3 years to make flying cars

Back to the Future

We're back!!! After what seems like a really really long break in movie watching, we finally have found the time to watch one. We have finally gotten out of the A's and are excited about our B section. We start off with Back to the Future, and you can't get much better than that.

It only took about 10 minutes into the movie when Andrew and I both were just remembering how great of a movie it really is. It's one of the great 80's hits, and I think it's an American Classic. That's right, for some reason when watching this, I started feeling patriotic and really proud of America, for making such an amazing film.

In the movie, for those of you who have been living under a rock for the last few decades, we have a young heartthrob Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) who has an unexplained friendship with cooky scientist Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). Well one fine day Marty wakes up as he normally does and has breakfast with his unhappy parents, George and Lorraine (Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson respectively). His dad is a pushover and weakling, especially when it comes to the bully from high school Biff, and his mom is just unhappy. He also has a couple siblings who aren't really succeeding in life either.  Late one night Doc asks Marty to meet him at 1 in the morning at a mall parking lot, where he thus unveils his time machine: the magnificent DeLorean!!  Unfortunately in order to get the amount of energy (1.21 jigawatts!!) to fuel the time machine, Doc had to take some plutonium from some Libiyans. Well they come a'shootin in their VW bus, and Marty is forced to take shelter in the Delorean after seeing Doc get shot. He reaches that oh so special 88mph and gets sent back in time to 1955. Here he meets his parents, messes up their love story, and has to get them back together to ensure his existence in the present and future. A task that is made a bit more difficult by the huge crush his mom develops for him. I know, heavy right?? 

He also meets up with a young Doc Brown who helps him figure out how to get back to the future. The town clock tower just happens to be struck by lightning which breaks a week after Marty arrives in the 50's. They plan on harnessing the power of the lightning bolt to provide the amount of energy needed for time travel. After a couple of pretty memorable moments, like the skateboard chase leading to the first of many manure avalanches, the fight at the high school dance, as well as the Enchantment Under the Sea scenes, Marty finally succeeds and ensures his existence. However, he not only re-establishes what should already be, but he ends up changing the future. His dad is a more confident guy in the future, and is a rich author. Biff is the one who ends up being a 'lackee' to George. Thus his mom is also happier in the future and his siblings are successful too.

After a couple of close calls, Marty finally makes it back to the future, where no more then 12 hours later, Doc shows up from the future and takes Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer off on another adventure into the future.

This movie really always solidified who Christopher Lloyd was to me. I forever thought of him as Doc Brown. My maiden name is Lloyd, and I actually have a  cousin named Christopher Lloyd, so for years and years I used to tell people "Oh yeah, I'm totally related to Christopher Lloyd" It's not my fault they thought of the celebrity :)

I also grew up in a household where "Hello??, McFly!!" was a common phrase said throughout the day by my dad.

We went to Universal Studios Orlando for our honeymoon, and guess what!!?? The town square, clock tower included, was there. Neither this park or the California one have the Back to the Future ride anymore though.

A couple of the things that really make the movie for me:
- George McFly's silent laugh
- Lorraine's dress reminds me of my mom's old barbies
-the manure scene!!
- Michael J. Fox's lip singing (which I thought was really him when I was little)
-Earth Angel. I can never hear this song without thinking of this movie. As far as I'm concerned, this movie is the only reason the song was made.

There is a ton of really interesting trivia on this movie on IMDb, so you should go check it out!

Something that goes unexplained is how Marty and Doc even become friends. Andrew thinks its because Marty met him in 1955, so when Marty was born in the 70's Doc looked him up and established their friendship. Any other thoughts??

Up Next: Back to the Future II

Andrew's Closing Thought: Marty McFly is George McFly's Doctor Emmett Brown. Whoa.