Joie' De Vivre On Celluloid: Red Dragon

I'm sure once the B.O. receipts from Hannibal poured into the offices of Dino De Laurentiis and his wife, they decided to "Milk the cow" as Linda Hamilton has said before. I didn't like this as much as I did Hannibal and I'm gonna get that out of the way.

There is very little production history on this film, though I am curious as to how it could be farted out in such a timely manner and still be quite good. (Is this really a Ratner film?) Maybe because of the source material is already at the disposal of them.

I will say this: too bad about the critical and commercial bomb, After Sunset (his follow up to this). Because this one here got Ratner a lot of the right attention. And then he ruined all the good rapport with the audience and critics alike. "Feign surprise!" as Liz Lemon would comment. Easily his best film to date in front of the original Rush Hour.  Hell, even my damn mom thinks Rush Hour is raw son.


But wait! There's more!

Joie' De Vivre On Celluloid: Hannibal

He is dressed in a tuxedo, after an eloquent performance of Italian opera. The sky is black, the lights are like fireflies, the air is crisp and the atmosphere is beautiful. Or maybe that's because he elevates anything to a higher level of class instantly just by simply being around. Or at least he certainly seems to.

This is Dr. Hannibal Lectar. He watches as a couple passes by. The young woman says to her beau, "Let's get something to eat."

Hannibal replies, "Why not?"

This is my most satisfied review of Ridley Scott's Hannibal.

Joie' De Vivre On Celluloid: M:I 2

This is one of the movies that are cool, just fr the sake of simply being cool, and nothing else (save grabbing a boat load of B.O.) There's not much else you can find in this movie, besides the ever-used adjective "cool", and that being simply used for coolness sake. Which that was the real "mission" of Mission Impossible 2. And it worked. Turning the 125 million dollar budget into a 546 million dollar box office juggernaut in 2000. It was easily was the highest grossing film of the year. 

Things go boom in this movie. Things get kissed hard and spoken to sometimes softly, sometimes harshly over the sound of bullets. Or even as Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is going one punch at a time against a guard in an armed fortress (a borrowed 007 staple), only breaking his punches to speak into his ear piece to Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames). That one, punch-speak-punch scene was enough to tell me, in itself, this movie was a fuckin' silly as it was action heavy-tech-supplied therefore good. I mean, when someone jumps out of a hole blown in a building, falls, then executes a back flip before opening their parachute, you sorta have to wonder, "What am I really watching?" Or, "Is this the director, or the only-my-third-time-producing producer (Cruise)?" Let's find out.

A Review: 69 Year's Old = You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks (But You Can Epically Fail Trying)

Five times out of ten, I'll start a post by listing off the names of a new or current film project. Usually meaning that just by the names and director/writer(s) alone, they can't miss (much). Which is why I'm about to do it again. But honestly, that only get's you so far. In almost more than half the cases, an All-star cast and crew doesn't always mean you're getting something as good one would first surmise.

Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith from The Matrix series) Emily Blunt (Red Head Brit from Devil Wears Prada) Benicio del Toro and the great and powerful Anthony Hopkins. All lead by Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III). With a cast like that how can you loose?! Certainly 3/4's of them thought the new take on timeless character was extremely awesome?! And that the script was worth it? And even that Johnston would pull it together? Well, that was the intentions of the film in the beginning @ least...