182: JFK

JFK (R) - 1991 - Runtime: 206 minutes
Starring: Kevin Costner, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Joe Pesci, Sissy Spacek
Director: Oliver Stone

Oliver Stone pretty much wears his beliefs and feelings on his sleeve. It's no secret he's a bleeding heart liberal and you can tell that this movie and the subject matter, are near and dear to his heart. The movie is over three hours long! At first, I was really considering something else, but Kevin Bacon movies, while there are a ton, aren't really that good on the whole (Stir of Echoes? Cavedweller? Loverboy?). All the good movies he has done I have seen, so JFK it is, then! Well, I will say this movie is engrossing and really entertaining. It sure is long, but it didn't feel really long. I will say you have to enjoy this era - the sixties. I absolutely love this decade. There was so much that happened that forever changed our country and culture in these 10 years than the previous twenty.

So the story involves Kevin Costner playing a New Orleans DA who gets obsessed with finding out the truth about what happened in that day in November in Texas. Of course, he uncovers lots of shady, underhanded deals and players all who seem to have connections to each other. As Mulder from the X-Files would say, the truth is out there. And from a pure murder mystery movie standpoint, this movie is good. You follow Costner's character all the way and it does a good job of making such a complicated mess of a conspiracy into a tight, thrilling movie. Say what you will about Stone's beliefs, you can't deny he isn't a great filmmaker.

So if you can stomach the running time and the setting, I say definitely go for this movie. It's worth watching and I'm so fascinated by it, I picked up a book Stone recommended a year ago, JFK and the Unspeakable. It finally arrived at my library today and I am looking forward to it!

Rating: Rent It!

182: Sleepers

Sleepers (R) - 1996 - Runtime: 147 minutes
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt
Director: Barry Levinson

Wow. This movie hit me pretty hard. Not that I was completely floored by the movie, but it did not leave my brain until several hours later. This was a good movie about friends, loyalty and growing up. It tugs at memories and nostalgia a lot, but it's tastefully done, much better than Mystic River, in my opinion.

The story involves a group of four friends living in Hell's Kitchen during the sixties. They're rough around the edges, but all in all, they're good kids. At least, that's what their priest believes (played by De Niro), until one day when they're lives are forever changed. They decide to steal some hot dogs from a vendor, but instead it goes horribly wrong and they all end up in juvenile detention for a year. There, they start to endure all kinds of torture from the guards, ranging from beat ups to actual sexual abuse. It's pretty horrifying. Flash to over ten years later and a couple of the kids, now turned local thugs, run into one of the main guards eating at a restaurant (the evil Kevin Bacon). Of course, they dispatch with the man and are subsequently arrested. And it comes down to a decision by their priest if they make it out alive.

The story, I think, isn't as important as the friendship involved between these four guys and the paths they take after the disastrous events with the hot dog vendor. The movie was long, but it never felt like anything could be cut out - the movie strikes a good balance between its first act - they kids - and the second act - the grown ups. I love movies where we get past & present - I like seeing where these characters have ended up and how sometimes the pull of fate is too much for friendship. Now & Then, Stand by Me, The Sandlot, Radio Flyer. Plus, I think I like the fifties and sixties version of childhood portrayed in these movies. It's like an ideal time for them, but looking back, it's much more complicated than and not so innocent of a time.

I thought the cast was excellent, the kids are great and the grown ups who play them were just as good. The movie does a good job at showing the emotional scars left behind in all of them. I liked how in the end, it didn't matter what the outcome was, they were never fully going to get over what happened to them. It's quite a downer of a movie, but it's not an oppressive feeling during the movie. It just weighs on your mind a long time afterwards. And that's a great movie - one that digs under your skin and leaves its mark long after you've left the screen.

Rating: Rent It!

182: Tremors

Tremors (PG-13) - 1990 - Runtime: 96 minutes
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter
Director: Ron Underwood

Ahh, Kevin Bacon, you seem to never disappoint. Tremors is a fantastically awful B-movie. It's not a bad movie, but it's not great - it holds its head up high and knows that it's just full of cheese and zaniness. I mean, giant man-eating worms attacking small town America? How more 50s-centric sci-fi referencing can you get?

Bacon Bacon's it up in this one, along with Fred Ward as they play two country boys looking to get outta dodge while they can. But of course an out of towner hottie (well, hot by B-movie and 80s standards) college girl has mess things up by discovering giant ass worms. So Bacon and Ward to the rescue to help the rest of the town's population survive and fight back! The plot's barely important in this one - it's all about those giant worms and the hell they unleash. They're pretty fantastic, but they're blind, hence they only hunt through sound. After what seems like a long time in discovering these creatures (it's like half an hour before they really start to attack!), they decide to get on the rooftops to avoid the ground. The movie's barely scary and not really suspenseful at all. And I think that's why I really can't recommend this one - it's just a little too dull and there's not enough action to keep this thing chugging along at a decent pace!

The best part about this movie is the married couple who have been preparing for the apocolypse since they exchanged vows. That's the best part of the movie is when they're trapped in the basement trying to fend a worm off. I just wish the rest of the movie was like this. Except there's too much ho-humming and "Shucks, what do we do now?" dialogging. More action, please!!

So as much as I regret this rating, I feel like I'd being doing a disservice if I recommended this one. As much cheese and cornball this movie is, it's just not a great movie!

Rating: Not Worth Paying For!

182: Footloose

Footloose (PG) - 1984 - Runtime: 107 minutes
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, Dianne Wiest, John Lithgow, Sarah Jessica Parker
Director: Herbert Ross

Another iconic movie that's more known for its parodies and epic dance foolishness, Footloose is most certainly a relic of its time. Although what do I know? They are remaking this movie that seems to have a curse finding the next Kevin Bacon (Zac Efron and Chace Crawford both have backed out, but it's still moving forward!). And although the movie is quite enjoyable, I think I had more fun watching this with Maggie and gently poking fun at the absurdity of it all. We'll see what comes of the new movie, but I just can't possibly imagine audiences believing a whole town has banned dancing. But if The Karate Kid can still kick butt, why can't another beloved 80s movie?

For those that haven't heard the ridiculous, Ren McCormack has moved from big time Chicago to a small, western town. There he finds out that the town has banned dancing. You see, the town suffered a tragic accident where some local teens partied too hard and wound up being dead. It's the devil's music, of course, that's the real culprit - so music and dancing are both banned so that the kids can be safe. At this point, we're already treading on thin ice. But what makes this movie so over the top is Bacon's dancing acrobatics. There's not just one or two, but several long dance numbers where Bacon and crew get to show off all of their whiteness by gyrating around like they're in the Nutcracker on speed. It's all very embarrassing to watch, so I can only imagine what the participants must have felt like. The movie plays one note throughout and it's all about expression and censorship - can the feeble-minded adults come to terms with their own impotence regarding dancing (because that's really the case - they're just jealous!) and can Ren and his band of renegade Hep Cats break free from their shackles of suppression and bust a nut at the prom? Well, I won't spoil anything, but shit does go down, along with people's groove things.

Obviously I think this movie isn't to be taken so seriously - it's more about having fun and showing off Kevin Bacon's dance moves. In fact, it's so over the top there's a game of chicken played with tractors. The suspense is so killer in that scene, too - I can't imagine seeing your life flash before your eyes in those thirty minutes you have before deciding whether to veer off course and be a chicken or finish the job. Like I said earlier, I just don't know how they're going to sell a new Footloose to modern audiences. Maybe it will involve Twitter or Facebook. "A town that's banned social networking - kids have to resort to talking to each other in the hallways. It's up to Ren McCormack and his new friends to find a way to add more trees to their Farm in Farmville." I think I'm on to something here...

Rating: Rent It! (It's so bad it's good!)

182: A Few Good Men

A Few Good Men (R) - 1992 - Runtime: 138 minutes
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore
Director: Rob Reiner

I had always thought this movie was just a dull, military legal procedural movie that was probably dated. But Kevin Bacon was in it and, honestly, it's one of his few movies that I'm at all interested in seeing. Part of the deal with this project was to watch six Bacon movies (Maggie's idea, not mine!) and so far, I've only managed to watch one! So imagine my surprise when the movie wasn't at all dated (except for Demi Moore's haircut, yeesh!) and was fully engaging throughout the two plus hours.

For those who didn't grow up in the early nineties or haven't heard the phrase "You can't handle the truth!" the movie stars Cruise as a young, brash and very cocky lawyer (this seems to be mostly what Cruise plays in all his movies, which I started to notice after this one - Cocktail, The Color of Money, Top Gun, The Firm, Risky Business, Rain Man, Jerry Maguire. Seriously, it's harder not to find a movie where he's not a young, cocky and brash). And he gets to test his mettle against a case that involves fellow soldiers taking orders to kill a fellow soldier. It's pretty heavy stuff, but nothing to crazy to wrap your head around. It's a great plot that sets up for some good characters. You can tell this movie was based on a play because of all the staging and emphasis on the dialogue. But that's not a bad thing - it just makes for some wonderful lines (duh!) and great acting. Tom Cruise is great and Jack Nicholson is at his best. Hell, even Demi Moore is pretty good. If it was playing on a rainy afternoon, I'd probably sit down and watch it again!

So all in all, I was really surprised how much I loved this movie. It was really, really good and totally the opposite of what I expected. So kudos, Aaron Sorkin. Well played.

Rating: Own It!

182: Mystic River

Mystic River (R) - 2003 - Runtime: 137 minutes
Starring: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon
Director: Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood must really love misery. Like love it. If he could marry an emotion, I'm sure we'd be reading about how much they make a great couple. Just look at his directing resume. Seriously. Nothing but downers - even Space Cowboys doesn't really stand out as a "feel-good" movie.

I mean, I don't expect Eastwood to go ahead and direct something like Happy Feet. Although as a side note, I think Eastwood's version of Happy Feet would be, if nothing else, very interesting. I'm sure it would include a penguin serial killer and a really awful penguin rape scene (too far?).

Mystic River is one of my Kevin Bacon movies. Weird choice, right? But I've always wanted to check this one out and after watching Gone Baby Gone and really liking it and also reading another Dennis Lehane novel, Shutter Island (which I'm uber-excited about, but also uber-disappointed that they moved it back to February) and falling in love with that book, I thought I'd really enjoy this movie. So I figured I was in for a treat - murder, mystery, past lives affecting the future. It all sounds so good.

But then the misery comes into this movie and sucks any sort of life out of it. If you don't know already, the movie follows three childhood friends who've parted ways after an incident where one of them gets abducted by a child molester. Fast forward twenty-five years later and one of the friend's daughter is found dead in the park. And it becomes quite clear to some that the formerly abducted kid (now a parent himself) has been involved.

I guess I just don't understand why most people I talk to love this movie. Sure, there's some good, Oscar-worthy performances, but man this movie just beats you over the head with melodrama and moral dilemmas. Gone Baby Gone was the same way, but I never felt cheapened by the surprise twist at the end, nor being spoon-fed how to feel about the movie. And the ending is a big problem for me in this movie. I found that the motivation for the killer was a cop-out and lazy. And Laura Linney's monologue at the end was just so pretentious and obviously trying to say something (and we're supposed to believe that the movie's giving us this moral dilemma without an answer, but really Eastwood is winking at the camera, saying "Here's how you're supposed to see this movie.")

So if you love misery (and who doesn't nowadays, right?) and love Eastwood and love Sean Penn acting all crazy, this is definitely your movie. But otherwise, you can just skip this somber, heavy-handed slow burner of a movie.

Rating: Not Worth Paying For