1980s Movie Reviews

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Review

December 1, 2014 by JD Hansel

Boy, is this a tricky one to review. I saw this movie for my first time this past Thanksgiving night on Netflix, and I had no idea it was a Thanksgiving movie until I started watching! I love coincidences like that, but in movies, coincidences have to be handled very carefully (segue, segue, segue). Planes, Trains, and Automobiles does a remarkable job at playing up the absurdities of its continuous coincidences, and making the disastrous circumstances as funny as possible. From a writing standpoint, it is a very well-built film, which is uncommon for a movie that is essentially a series of things going awry. The acting from Steve Martin and John Candy, who were on top of their game in this film, is perfect. The film also has some great attention to detail, cool shots, fun cameos, and a very nice ending.

The problem that I have with it, however, is that it requires laughing at the suffering of the protagonist. One could argue that laughing at the pain of others is the essence of comedy, but as Mel Brooks said, “Tragedy is when I cut my finger; comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” In other words, if something bad happens to you, it’s tragic from your perspective, but funny from mine. Similarly, in television, film, and other media, it is easier to laugh at the suffering of those with whom we do not identify. Since this movie made me empathize with the main characters, it was difficult for me to laugh when they were suffering because I “felt their pain.” So, I found the movie kind of uncomfortable.

Regardless, I am impressed with the film and its ability to take a rather common kind of comedy story, and make a special one of a very high caliber. It’s just what one would expect from John Hughes.

Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home Review

November 9, 2014 by JD Hansel

The Star Trek movies and I have an interesting relationship. I love the original series, but I find that with the films, even Wrath of Khan, which I really like, I can never remember anything that happens in them. I have no memory of how the first one ends. Or begins. Wait … did I even finish that one? Once I even forgot that Christopher Lloyd was in Star Trek III. Actually, I keep forgetting the whole plot to that movie.

I believe this curse on my poor brain has finally been broken by a Star Trek film I can remember: The Voyage Home. I watched a wee bit of the third movie before hand so I would know what was going on, and then I started what I hoped would be a fun blast. It was a fun blast eventually. I really do not like it when a movie waits over 25 minutes before the inciting incident, but this one only went over that by a couple minutes, so I can cut it some slack. Once the story finally gets moving, it turns into one of those crappy movies in which the characters who are normally seen in their own world are suddenly transported into our worldand have to figure it out. (Seriously, they spend the film in 1986 San Francisco.) This movie however, much like The Muppet Movie, Follow That Bird, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, did it very well.

This is the movie that the franchise needed after a bunch of serious movies – a film that felt a lot like an episode of the show, like Wrath of Khan did, but a comedy that shows off the characters at their best, and their funniest. Unfortunately, because it continues the events of the third movie (and now I forgot even the name of the third movie) I can’t recommend this to everyone who has not seen Star Trek before. Actually, I think I will anyway. I will just suggest that they watch it with me so I can explain what they “missed.”

I want everyone to see this movie because no other Trek movie I’ve seen has topped it. I nearly gave this movie 4 ½ stars, which I only give to my highest favorites (call me snobby, but I’ve reserved 5 stars for my top favorite film). The opening is slow, and the “save the whales” message gets a wee bit annoying after a while, but it is still good. This is the one I’ll remember.

Xanadu Review

August 29, 2014 by JD Hansel

A magnificent and holy soundtrack raped by the horrendous acting, the idiotic directing, the pathetic cinematography, the ridiculous script, the multitude of Big-Lipped Alligator Moments, and the overall stupidity of the film.

(Moroder’s) Metropolis Review

July 17, 2014 by JD Hansel

UPDATE 2017-02-17: This is not the final review of this film. It has been amended with an “Upon Further Consideration” article. Click here to read the newer review.

My thoughts about this film are rather difficult to explain. I feel obligated to call Fritz Lang’s Metropolis genius because it was so historically significant, and it is a very, very good-looking film, especially for its time period. However, I saw the restoration done in 1984 by music producer Giorgio Moroder, which features an ‘80s pop soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong, I like ’80s music, and while this isn’t some of the best I’ve heard, it’s not bad, and it fits the film well. The issue with this is that I know that I did not necessarily see the best restoration of Metropolis that I could have by seeing it this way, and I know that my thoughts of the film were very much effected by the ’80s music score/soundtrack, so I cannot fairly give my thoughts on Lang’s work since I did not see the film the way he intended for it to be seen. So, the question is, do I critique it as if its Lang’s film, or as Moroder’s adaptation of Lang’s film? Well, I’ll try for both.

Lang does an amazing job at taking full advantage of what was almost entirely a visual medium at the time by making a film that has its own distinct, gorgeous, and almost believable world, because the sets, props, and paintings used look better than what you get in a sci-fi film today that relies entirely on CGI. The story of the film was originally written as a book by Lang’s wife, but the two of them worked on the script for the movie together, so Lang was responsible for making the story work as a movie. Did he do that? In some ways yes, but just because the film is pretty and has good acting, that does not mean it has the best storytelling, and in this film the storytelling fails a couple of times. For example, a character is introduced early on in the film and one is led to believe that he will essentially be the sidekick, but shortly after the film gets going, he hardly has anything to do with the plot. Also, there were times when I had to look up what was happening in the story because I couldn’t follow it, and I wish at certain points there had been better explanations of what I was seeing and why it was happening. What’s worse is that the movie had times when it would use text to describe a significant event that the audience would want to see, instead of actually showing how the event happened, such as when Maria escaped from the wizard.

Now, I don’t know exactly why Giorgio Moroder wanted to restore this film and add ’80s music, but despite the fact that it doesn’t sound remotely like a movie that could actually sell tickets to the teenagers who listened to the music in the film at the time, it was a cool idea. As far as his restoration and compilation of the footage goes, it looks good to me, but I haven’t seen any other restoration of Metropolis to which I could compare it. How good is the music on its own? Some of it is pretty fun, although I don’t think I desperately need to have this soundtrack. Does it fit the film well? Yes and no. It does a great job of expressing the emotions of the scene, and the instrumental sections of the soundtrack really bring the film to life just perfectly. However, the lyrics in the songs do not always seem to fit the scene, but this is somewhat understandable because they only had so many songs they could do, so they repeat some songs throughout the film, and that means the lyrics can’t be relevant every time.

Overall, the original film, from what I could tell, was quite an amazing silent film that actually had some pretty good characters considering that they did not rely much on dialogue or physical comedy to make the characters interesting. Despite the limitations that come with silent films, Lang made a movie that expresses a good story in a cool way, and he made science fiction history, and film history, in doing so. Moroder managed to alter this classic in a way that felt very fitting, as if this score was what Lang must have intended because it works so well. Together, Moroder’s music and Lang’s directing succeed in sucking viewers right into the world of Metropolis.