Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Alicia Silverstone - With Then/Now Pics



Known pimarily for her role in Clueless, Alicia Silverstone made her name as the poor man's Drew Barrymore, even if she was nowhere near as cute. She had the same kind of innocent, or semi-innocent charm, and was not unpleasant to look at. Her appeal was mainly with teenaged girls, unlike Ms Barrymore, who managed to be a sex-symbol as well as an airhead role-model. She is the exact female equivalent of Brendan Fraser in that both are short on talent, but both have a kind of appealing childlikeness to them (they appear together in this film), albeit one that grows thin as they show their respective ages.

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Alicia Silverstone wiki entry.

Interesting:
"Silverstone reportedly refuses to appear nude in any of her movies. Because of this, she requires a body double in her place for nude scenes. When she starred in the stage version of The Graduate, she insisted on wearing underwear for the famous nude-scene. The producers were forced to let her do this because, otherwise, she would have resigned from the show."

"Silverstone was born in San Francisco, California, to Monty Silverstone, a British-born Jewish real-estate investor, and Didi Radford, a Scottish-born former flight attendant who converted to Judaism upon marrying Silverstone's father. "

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Blast From the Past



Hollywood has always cannibalized itself, this is nothing new, even if something is not labelled as a "remake, it probably is. At least some other movie at some other time had a similar story. Again, none of this is new (it's done in all art-forms, you say you were "influenced"), but it bears re-stating since occasionally these cannibalisms are clever and somewhat interesting. Blast From the past is one such instance. What it really is is a re-hashing/reversal of the first Back to the Future movie. The "Marty McFly" character played by Brendan Fraser finds himself out of place in the modern world (well, 1999) just as Michael J. Fox's character found himself out of place in fifties.

Christopher Walken, as the dad who locks himself and his pregnant wife in a nuclear bunker at the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis, is slightly less twitchy than normal, but still handles the part enthusiastically. Sissy Spacek gives the best, smartest performance of the movie, as the slightly scatterbrained mom. Brendan Fraser plays his part the same way he plays all his comedic parts: with no real thought. He plays comedy like an actor who wants other roles but has been thoroughly typecast. Alicia Silverstone, who has also been typecast, is slightly more game.

The overall effect is still nice enough. It makes you laugh and it makes you want to keep watching, so yes, I recommend it. Fraser can't dance worth shit, but the sequence is still entertaining. This movie has a really good soundtrack, good enough to make it onto my favorite soundtracks list, but unfortunately, most of the good songs weren't included on the official compilation cd, you will have to download them yourself.

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Back To the Future



The Back to the Future movies were/are really popular only with the relatively smart. Geeks. While there are enough quick cuts, slapstick and action to satisfy the lower brows, they don't get how clever the movies are. Well, the latter two, anyway.

The first of the set was a teen movie, no question, not particularly bright and it doesn't age as well as the other two. It's ok, the Delorean was a cute idea, and Michael J. Fox is the only person who could have played Marty McFly (teen frustration and air-headedness personified), so yes, the casting was good. Christopher Lloyd, as always was thorough and intense and very funny as Doc Brown, even when the script doesn't give him anything funny. It's sweet and nostalgic for those of us who saw it as children in the eighties. Note: In 1999 the BTTF formula was reversed and tried as Blast From the Past with Brendan Fraser who was being thrown into the innocent-grown-up-child roles left vacant by Fox. In Blast From the Past Fraser plays (essentially) a man who grew up in the early fifties/sixties transported to the nineties. Excellent score.

Back to the Future 2, however, is where director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale come into their own. More on that here.

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Back to the Future 2



The first Back the the Future was a teen movie, but the second was for grown ups. Layering it over the original, was a stroke of genius, both in the idea and in the execution, and all three movies are excellent science fiction to boot! Back to the Future 2 was slightly darker than either of the other two, but had more punch as well. Robert Zemeckis knows how to direct adrenaline-powered comic action like nobody else. He has all the subtlety and judgment of Spielberg with little bit more of a sense of humor. Thomas F. Wilson came into his role as Movie-Bully Icon. Didn't ever let a critic tell you that a one-dimensional character can't be played well. Biff, the white-trash high-school sadist has absolutely nothing redeeming about his character, and yet he almost steals this movie from Fox. Doc Brown's quirks and twitches are enhanced from the first movie and make him even more hilarious to watch ("Great Scott!").

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Back To the Future



The Back to the Future movies were/are really popular only with the relatively smart. Geeks. While there are enough quick cuts, slapstick and action to satisfy the lower brows, they don't get how clever the movies are. Well, the latter two, anyway.

The first of the set was a teen movie, no question, not particularly bright and it doesn't age as well as the other two. It's ok, the Delorean was a cute idea, and Michael J. Fox is the only person who could have played Marty McFly (teen frustration and air-headedness personified), so yes, the casting was good. Christopher Lloyd, as always was thorough and intense and very funny as Doc Brown, even when the script doesn't give him anything funny. It's sweet and nostalgic for those of us who saw it as children in the eighties. Note: In 1999 the BTTF formula was reversed and tried as Blast From the Past with Brendan Fraser who was being thrown into the innocent-grown-up-child roles left vacant by Fox. In Blast From the Past Fraser plays (essentially) a man who grew up in the early fifties/sixties transported to the nineties. Excellent score.

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