Last movie you watched......

I hear ya, but the movie is designed by PT Anderson to turn the Sandler formula on its head. Instead of presenting the audience with a rage-filled, borderline sociopath with no particular source of anger (like at least half of Sandler's man-child movies) Anderson gives the Sandler character great reason to be full of rage, or at least full of the movie rage that Sandler's characters tend to have, then saddled him with a guilty conscience for letting go of it just the tiniest bit. Sandler wanted to try out the concept again, and thus made (the far inferior) Anger Management.

To me, it's a fearsome piece of work. Unsettling and rewarding at the same time. And it's one of the few movies he's made that provides Sandler with an appropriate love interest, and not some Kate Beckinsale/Marisa Tomei/Winona Ryder bombshell type.

 

Bottom line: Without the voiceover, Blade Runner is sleep-inducing and confusing for the regular viewer in the opening half-hour. The movie has since become pop art, which it kinda always was anyway, and I accept it as such. But most general audiences just want to see a science-fiction movie and the voiceover provides them a way in.

 

It's written by the screenwriter of Forrest Gump, for one thing. Stunned that David Fincher let so many similarities creep in. Maybe he was awed because Eric Roth wrote a bunch of other stuff, I dunno. I don't personally care for Roth, who has a great head for facts and organization but generally doesn't produce great dialogue.

Julia Ormond is the best thing about the movie. A suprisingly humble performance from someone who has/had a lot of beauty/talent to burn.

 

I just watched (part) of Sixteen Candles. First time I've seen the unedited version in at least 15 years.

I still think it's John Hughes' magnum opus. Every character in that movie, right down to the most incidental, is hilarious ("Fred, there's your missing Chinaman.").

Watching it so many years later, I think Jake Ryan is kind of a dick. How old would they be now ... 41? Jesus. My guess is that Samantha is cougaring around for an oily beau hunk.

 

I just think for the most part, we should learn about the characters by watching them, not by receiving a vocal This Movie's Plot for Dummies. It's also often a lazy way to make transitions.

 

No question. What's precious about watching those movies - which were damn earnest for their time, while being just the slightest bit subversive i/r/t The Greatest Generation - is that you have a very good sense of how those characters must live today.

Pretty In Pink, for example. Andie and Blaine, if they ever got married? Probably divorced, with Blaine showing up for only half of his weekends for the kids and Andie general manager of some department store.

 

Generally, I agree, unless the voiceover is a character of its own, like in The Royal Tenenbaums, where it's intended to be ironic anyway.

But Blade Runner's a tough "in" for the regular viewer. Heck, so is "Alien," good as it is.

 

That said, I actually like the device in Desperate Housewives. I know I shouldn't, but I do.

 

You're right about the generational aspect, but I think that's the only movie where Hughes pulled it off deftly without turning his targets into total caricatures.

By his next movie, Breakfast Club, he was demagouging adults almost as bad as Rambo movies demagouged the Vietnamese. Then it became his M.O. It's one reason why some of his movies have aged so poorly. Pretty In Pink being one of them.

 

That's true. I've never been able to get into Blade Runner, contributed in large part to the fact I've never really been compelled to try for some reason, despite glowing reviews and recommendations.

 

Fair enough. A lot of people couldn't get past Sandler, and his prior work was definitely a lot to overcome for a role like that. But glad you enjoyed the movie -- I just really dig Anderson's style, and the fact that everything doesn't have to be tied up in a bow. What was with the harmonium? Eh, it doesn't really matter. It was just a symbol.

BTW, the thing with the pudding and the air miles was real. Someone really did that.

 

My favorite scene, honestly, was probably when he went to the grocery store with his friend, and he's dancing around the aisle, so pleased with himself for beating the system while his friend is bending over digging out all the pudding from the bottom shelf, thinking his friend is freaking insane.