I watch a lot of films and series and I go through lulls where I am simply getting tired of being wrong about what is going to be good over and over again. My disdain in the recent past started with seeing 28 Years Later in the cinema and being completely disappointed with it and subsequently starting to feel that all the reviews are rigged by the industry so that the public will believe it is a good film when I really think it is one of the worst films I have seen in a theater in my adult life. Next we had a couple of films that I got hyped for because of the excellent trailers only to be kind of let down because the trailers were much better than the movies.
I was even convinced that a rather "mid" series was good when it really isn't (Mr Inbetween) and this is based solely on the fact that there just aren't any good series that interest me at the moment.
When you face times like these I think it is important to revisit films that really do it for you and for me, American Phycho and Leon are two of my favorites of all time.
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Let's start with American Psycho, which is one of the few films that I have also read the book for and thought that both of them were equally great.
Christian Bale's portrayal of mentally disturbed executive Patrick Bateman is one for the annuls of time. Back in those days Bale wasn't very well known and they were actually trying to get Leonardo DiCaprio for the role and thank goodness that didn't work out. Leo wouldn't have been able to carry this role in the gruesome way that Bale was able to in what seemed to be a kind of effortless way.
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The reasons why this film is excellent are many, but one of the main things for me was the fact that they combine a good mix of narration and "show don't tell" throughout the entire thing, and since I know someone with psychopathic tendencies, I see a lot of my friend in Bateman's character which leads me to enjoy it more because I find myself saying "oh wow, that is so Alex" on a regular basis. My friend Alex never killed anyone, but just like Bateman, he seemed to always be contemplating it as he grew increasingly annoyed with the world around him even though he himself had a rather "choice" lifestyle. Some people can just never be pleased.
When American Psycho wraps up it invites as many questions as it provides answers and this makes the 2nd or 3rd viewing just as good because you find yourself looking for signs once you already know the ending.
Baled din't get enough recognition for his excellence in this movie and it did NOT perform well at the box office. I mean it was profitable, but given that it is what I consider to be one of the best movies of my lifetime, making about double it's budget after marketing seems a bit low. I'm kind of surprised that this film on most online rating lists manages to just pass 6/10 and I think it deserves a lot more.
I suppose the very graphic nature of it with violence and sex kind of limited its potential audience.
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Next up we have one of the few films that I am aware of that despite the film being in English and most of the cast being American, they made the strange decision to rename the film to The Professional in the US release. This has always annoyed me that there are some focus groups out there that made a decision that US audiences, for some reason, are not going to to and see a film that has a vague title. They did the same thing with a few Asian films that made their way over the Pacific and this annoyed me then as well.
I don't think that Leon needs an introduction, but if for some reason you haven't seen this one you really need to change that.
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While many people cite how incredible Jean Reno and Gary Oldman were in this movie, to me the real star of it all is a very young Natalie Portman who does such an amazing job exhibiting really strong emotion in her tearful deliveries that are just so rare that a child can pull off convincingly. Especially once you already know how the thing ends, her tears invoke tears of your own as you are watching it.
The film also has a sort of "running soundtrack" where a running and tense tune is playing nearly the entire way through the film and it rises at just the right moments to accentuate what is happening on screen.
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The unconventional way that Mathilda and Leon form a bond takes a lot of turns and while most of it is very serious and at times, a bit disturbing, overall this is a touching tale of two people being able to connect with one another and as Leon says in the film "you have given me a taste for life" and this is evident because prior to meeting Mathilda, Leon was a very stoic and rather uncaring person who wanted everyone to just leave him alone.
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By the way, Gary Oldman's famous "EVERYONE!" line was never meant to be in the film and as he claims, it was just an outtake and was meant as a joke to get a laugh out of director Luc Besson.
While there are strong performances all around (save a couple of the minor police characters who are not very good) Natalie Portman really stands out as she was just 11 years old when she was cast and 12 years old when the film was released. If you want to feel a bit old just know that Portman is now 44 years old.
There are a few movies that stand out in my mind as movies that I can watch an unlimited amount of times and still enjoy them and these two are both near the top of that list.
While they weren't everyone's cuppa, they certainly were and are my own. It wasn't my choice to have these films appear on my Plex but when they were there and I was tiring of bad film after bad film, it was a nice thing to go back and see something that I feel is truly fantastic.
I am often one of the guys that instructs that people shouldn't go back and watch something that they really enjoyed 20 or 30 years ago but these two are exceptions. While the day may come that they seem dated and hokey, that day is not here yet and I think that I actually enjoy the movies more the more often that I watch them.
Do you have any films that really just draw you in even though you have seen them many times? If so I'd love to hear about it in the comments!