Various Reviews: Titanic, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Batman, Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049

A lot of reviews here which I should have got round to earlier, but didn’t. So they’re often just random thoughts that I remember. Enjoy.

Titanic

Yep, a biggun’ that I’m only watching for the first time. It’s the world’s highest grossing film ever. Personally, from this viewing, I don’t think it’s massively deserving of this accolade, but hey, it did a lot for the cinema with all that mulah it raked in, so I can’t complain. Titanic is a disaster movie in one sense, but more of romance flick overall, with a bit of class conflict to spice up the drama between star crossed lovers Jack and Rose. Fun fact: you know that famous poster of those guys? It was a direct inspiration for the main poster of Brokeback Mountain, a film I feel is far superior to Titanic in every way. But I digress.

I also couldn’t take the main theme seriously, because, you know, that poor meme rendition with the recorder just takes over my mind. And then it reminded me of my younger days where I played jingle bells on the recorder with the sheer force of my nasal passages. And then that reminded me of the meme where the guy belts out the John Cena music on not one, but two recorders. Props to that guy. That’s a hell of a lot of breathing energy right there. Yeah, I got distracted. Overall, I’m just not a massive fan of romance films, so I didn’t really think this was a great one. Although I did notice that famous Welsh actor guy near the end of the film who starred in those two rubbish Fantastic Four movies, so that’s something (I googled it, and his name’s Ioan Gruffudd. There you go).

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Rewatch)

I introduced this banger to a sibling, and it certainly hasn’t decreased in quality. I appreciated how much The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari gets mentioned, and how much Nicolas Cage’s character (he plays himself in particularly meta fashion) appreciates it. As a fan of the actor’s OTT films and his more subtle performances, I had a feeling I was going to get into the groove the first time round. But there’s nothing wrong with a second viewing. Also, Pedro Pascal’s here too, so you know there’s going to be high quality. It doesn’t matter if the film itself isn’t that great, because Pedro will still be great. But this film’s great anyway, so there’s no problem. Beyond the Nicolas Cage playing Nic Cage on screen, there’s also a recurrent appearance of Wild at Heart Nicolas Cage providing questionable pep talks to the main Nic Cage. So plenty of Cages to enjoy. The film revels in bizarre humour as a simple acting job develops into an off-the-wall crime caper, and it’s all the better for it. He’s Nicolas friggin’ Cage, and that’s all you need to know.

Batman

Another film I really should’ve got round to watching earlier, but didn’t. Well, I’ve watched it now, and it’s pretty good. It’s nice to hear the ruggedly phrased ‘I’M BATMAN’ from an actor other than Christian Bale, and Michael Keaton puts on a fine performance as the caped crusader. If anything, there’s a similar Dark Knightdynamic where Batman’s overshadowed by the main villain, with Jack Nicolson’s joker taking up most of the drama with his deadly handshakes and eccentric shenanigans. And this is a Tim Burton film, of course, so there’s plenty of dark, expressionist backgrounds to enjoy. The love interest isn’t particularly engaging or believable, but that’s forgivable. I could probably do with some more context by watching more Batman films outside Nolan’s trilogy, all of which I’ve watched repeatedly.

Sci-fi Season at Cineworld: Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049 (Rewatch)

My local cinema has upped its game recently and come up with some great film scheduling. It particularly knocked the metaphorical ball out of the metaphorical park when it decided to show these two bangers recently. I’ve talked about them more times than I can count, but it’s great to watch them on the big screen, particularly as I’d never seen Blade Runner at a cinema before. And it’s also great to nerd out about the similar use of music and imagery across the two films while also noting how 2049 stands as an original film on its own. If you want more on the use of imagery and sound in 2049, then, uh, maybe you should check out my very reasonably priced *cough* book. Or maybe you should wait for the cheaper paperback release. Or maybe you won’t buy the book at all   o____o Who knows?