——The Doors——

(B)

Watching this film is like getting a little too drunk or high: it starts out feeling great, you start grooving out to everything around you, but eventually you realize that you are really fucked up and you can’t get out of it. I’m not sure if this could be made into a better film; Jim Morrison is just way too fucked up. This film is all about his self-destructive behavior, which is interesting to see where it came from, but not so much to see where he ended up. Also, for a movie called “The Doors” the rest of the band had practically no standing in the film. They all just kind of stood around and watched while Morrison pissed his life away. Now maybe that is how it all really happened, but I have a hard time believing no one was just a little bit pissed off with his insane behavior. Their reaction here always seems to be to roll their eyes and walk away. Still, the soundtrack is amazing (of course) and the directing quite good. I’m starting to forgive Oliver Stone for his football movie, even if this film isn’t really one of his better ones. I think that’s really the script’s fault though. There is nowhere for it to go, and no one really seems to grow. “The End” sequence was really great though. I quite liked that, although it did signal the beginning of the madness for the film.

——The Good Girl——

(B-)

Although this is a very watchable film with plenty of great performances throughout, I didn’t really find anything about the script particularly exciting. It felt kind of like the product of a good script writing seminar: few flaws other than the fact that it isn’t particularly interesting. Jennifer Aniston’s character was pretty good, but it was really hard to see why she was really attracted to Jake Gyllenhaal’s whiny child-like character. (I don’t really understand where all of his buzz is coming from. For some reason he’s getting more attention than his much more talented sister Maggie, whom I love.) I mean, if anything he showed less maturity than her husband, a loser pothead. The only possible explanation I can find is that the ladies seem to find him to be hot, and he hated his life as much as she hated hers. Since he’s so un-likable (at least I think so) it wasn’t very surprising to see that she did in fact go back to her husband to have whomever’s baby. Unfortunately the good girl doesn’t exactly make for a good movie.

——Cape Fear (1991)——

(D-)

What the hell were they thinking? This film only furthers my belief that outside of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Martin Scorcese isn’t a very good filmmaker. I mean what was this? Not only is this already a remake of a movie, but it is made to feel as if Alfred Hitchcock had come out to direct one more film. Martin has a firm grasp on all of Hitch’s best techniques; too bad he has no idea how to translate them into a good film. I mean is this movie suppose to be a joke, because that’s the only way I can see this film as a success? It so borders on self-parody that I have no trouble seeing why it has been spoofed so well by The Simpsons and Seinfeld. (The only thing that made me happy the whole time watching this movie was “Jerry, Hello!” and thoughts of Sideshow Bob stepping on 14 rakes. Honestly, that Sideshow Bob episode is a million times better than this hunk of shit.)

Let’s see: You have the almost always overused Bernard Herrman score. The Vertigo manipulation of color and the negative. Nick Nolte is your Gregory Peck of Jimmy Stewart. Jessica Lange has her Janiet Leigh haircut and is stalked by an Anthony Perkins Robert De Niro (who at one point is even dressed up like “mother”). Everyone seems miscast. There are all of the Hitchcock camera techniques like quick zooms and flowing cameras, all used for seemingly no purpose. Marty is trying to make his own Psycho, and fails miserably. The dialog is horrible. The story lame. The ending is overly over the top. The, like, ten minute long sequence in the theater was almost unwatchable. I was this close to just not watching the rest of it, it was so bad and insulting to watch.

There was one reason I didn’t give this an F. The photography is unusually crisp and beautiful. The trick shots, although they don’t work for the film as a whole, on their own are quite amazing. If Scorcese could have put a little more of himself into this picture and a lot less Hitchcock, this might have actually been a good movie. But as it is it is God-awful. I recommend this to no one. Scorcese should be ashamed of himself.