Nicolas Cage doing what he does best

That being a very bad lieutenant indeed in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans. Cage was in splendid psycho mode and was able to rein it in, too, when the role required it. The rest of the cast (including Eva Mendes, Brad Dourif and Xzibit) was fine, the music was cool, the ending a little unexpected... all in all, I enjoyed the film. Extra points for singing iguanas!

I haven't seen the original Bad Lieutenant, but I understand they have little in common besides the basic idea.

Harder to kill

Die Hard gave us an action hero who can be hurt, who has doubts, and who would be happy to let the authorities handle it if they weren't so incompetent. John McTiernan had already proved with Predator that he could handle the 80s-style muscular action men (and introduce some twists to the formula), and with this movie he introduced a new subgenre of Western action: "Die Hard on a plane/train/ship/etc." Sadly none of the imitators would be as good.

Pretty much a perfect storm of an action movie.

Hard to kill

The titular Malone of Give 'em Hell, Malone is kind of a low-level superhero: he himself comments early on that he's hard to kill. He doesn't lie: Malone is shot a few times, stabbed, and beat upon the head with a baseball bat. He bleeds but does not die, and goes to his mother's retirement home so that she can patch him up.

The film has plenty of casual cruelty and needless violence. But somehow I liked it better than, say, Sin City. The latter felt very pretentious and hollow. Malone felt like an honest B-movie with no delusions of grandeur. I'm not sure I liked it as such, but it was all right.

Hoverboards

They were pretty much the only thing I remembered from Back to the Future Part II. It was darker than my memories and better too, although not quite as good as the first. The Blu-ray transfer looks amazing.

We win, Gracie!

If you're going to make a dumb movie, why not make it gloriously dumb? Armageddon is handicapped by a natural immaturity, and I forgive it. Harry Stamper is the man.

No need to remake that one...

The Coen brothers tried, anyway. I haven't seen their version of The Ladykillers, but I have seen the original now and find it hard to see how it could be meaningfully improved upon. Wonderfully black English humor.

Twice the nostalgia value

When Back to the Future was released, if offered a hefty slice of 1950s nostalgia. Watching it yesterday, I realized another 30 years will soon have passed since 1985, and 80s nostalgia was very much in effect. Huey Lewis, Van Halen, Walkman... ahhhh.

As a film it is of course still impeccable entertainment, guaranteed to lift your spirits. This time around I particularly liked Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson's performances. To no one's surprise, the Blu-ray looks and sounds great.

I remember parts II-III as somewhat less entertaining. But it's been much longer since I last watched those, and now that I have the whole trilogy it will be revisiting time soon.

One of Mann's finest

Heat is, for me, the best of Michael Mann's urban thrillers (I don't think anything can topple The Last of the Mohicans from the number one position overall). I've seen it a few times, and this was the first time on Blu-ray. I don't remember what bothered me about the final encounter between Hanna and McCauley, but whatever it was, it was gone now. Very, very good stuff throughout its long running time.

Twice the iron

Iron Man 2 on Blu was an enjoyable experience. I liked it in the theater, but just might have liked it slightly more the second time around. It's a pity they had to recast Rhodey, but Don Cheadle is fine in the role, as is Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Mickey Rourke as Whiplash.

I just heard Shane Black will direct the third movie. I liked what Jon Favreau did with the first two, but if someone has to replace him, I believe Black will do good.

Hit rate so far: 2/2

A few days ago I watched From Russia with Love, which had been as lovingly restored for HD as the first Bond. Another similarity was that it was a good movie. Unlike most Bonds, the plot was recognizable to readers of the novel, too.

Spiritual

That's how I would describe Contact. Science and religion are rarely treated this equally in popular fiction. No simple, definite, correct answer is offered. The cast includes a bunch of heavyweights but ultimately the film rides on Jodie Foster's slender shoulders and she carries it brilliantly. A lesser performance would have made it much more difficult to be swept along. It's not a perfect film, but it has never failed to engage my brain or my heart.

I don't know if there's a God or life in outer space, but I like what Sagan said about waste of space.

Half the reason for this blog's existence

Today we watched North by Northwest and Psycho, both in high definition. Northwest is probably my second most often seen film (Rio Bravo being the champion). I always find its charms impossible to resist, and it never feels as long as it actually is. It looks marvelous on Blu-ray.

I believe I'd seen Psycho only once before, and the plot's surprises had been spoiled for me even then. But it still holds great power. With the exception of the psychiatrist's explanation scene at the end, it feels quite modern, or maybe I should say timeless.

After the triple home run of these two and the immediately preceding Vertigo, I don't think Hitch ever achieved similar heights. Of course, most directors never make a single film that's this good.

Eagle-eyed readers will note that I skipped four movies in Hitchcock's filmography. This was because the studio audience had an additional member who had never seen North by Northwest and I wanted to show both BD titles in the same session. We'll get back to those missing ones later.

North Face

Being the English title for Nordwand, a somewhat factual German film about the 1936 attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger, also known as Mordwand or Murder Wall because of the number of climbers who have died trying. This story does not have the mandatory happy ending either.

The movie takes a while to get going, and non-climbing scenes are of average quality, but when we get to the north face the filmmakers seem to switch gears and the results are gripping and look marvelous. I don't know how much was actual climbing and how much special effects, but the whole fit together so well I didn't really care.

Straight on 'til morning

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which I watched yesterday, is the other Trek film directed by Nicholas Meyer, director of KHAAAN, and that film's only contender for the best entry in the series. It's a very fitting farewell to the original crew. Most characters get some snappy lines, but Spock, Valeris and the Klingons are perhaps best served.

KHAAAN!

Whoever guessed tonight's movie shall win no prizes.

Odds are Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan is the best Trek movie not only now, but for all time. It's been beautifully remastered for HD - reputedly the most extensive restoration work of the six films with the original cast. I had no complaints.

Hush-hush and on the QT

When I first saw L.A. Confidential, I only knew Russell Crowe from The Quick and the Dead, and Guy Pearce not at all. Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito were of course more familiar. I hadn't even read the novel or anything else by Ellroy - safe to say this has been rectified since. I just knew that here was a movie where everything worked.

This must've been the fourth or fifth time I see it, and the impact hasn't been lessened at all. On BD it is very easy to appreciate the wonderful cinematography, set design, and costumes.

Casablanca is movies

Said Umberto Eco after going on and on about semiotics and other fancy concepts, and I agree. It sums up Old Hollywood as well as can be imagined. It's amazing how a script that was written as the filming took place and was a compromise between writer Koch's and director Curtiz's intentions can work so perfectly. One of the films that kicked off my interest in older movies.

A weepie for guys

You know, when Maximus triumphs but dies soon thereafter and walks into Elysium... I did find some extra moisture in the corner of my eye. This would be Gladiator, of course, this time the extended edition on Blu-ray. It's one of my favorite historical epics. The aforementioned moment feels so wrong and so right. I guess I have some sort of a built-in trigger for heroic death stories. The Alamo, King Leonidas with his Spartans (and assorted other Greeks who tend to be forgotten) at Thermopylae, The Wild Bunch, Maximus...

Note that I'm not saying only boys' weepies have this effect. I am a big old softie sometimes.

Carpenter's masterwork

John Carpenter's, that is. I am, of course, talking about The Thing, which may be my favorite horror movie of all time. It stood up to a 5th or 6th viewing brilliantly, and the BD release reveals all kinds of new detail. Rob Bottin's spectacular creature effects do not suffer at all from the high-def treatment.

I miss the signal

Just watched Serenity, and I think I appreciated it even more the second time around. But it did make me miss Firefly something fierce.