Blade Runner

[greg]

So is anyone here as big of a Blade Runner fan as I am? It is my favorite movie. Not having any real friends in high school, my Friday night ritual was watching Blade Runner. When the Director's Cut was released around 1991, I was not old enough to drive and nobody would take me to the one movie theater in town that would show re-releases of movies (like Das Boot, My Fair Lady, etc). My older sister was always very quick to make up her mind about stuff, and she said she refused to watch it because she heard that "Harrison Ford's character shoots a woman in the back." I had to wait for it to be released on VHS. I've owned the movie on VHS, both the original and Director's Cut subtitled in Japanese on VHS, the original version on Laserdisc, and I got rid of my original DVD of the Director's Cut when the fabulous Final Cut was released.

George Lucas really could have learned a lot from Ridley Scott about retouching and improving a movie. Instead of making the Star Wars movies a nonstop spaz-fest, he could have subtly made tweaks and improvements and still made them great (with none of that "Greedo shoots first nonsense).

[davemerrill]

If you watched that movie every Friday night over and over again, I think you can safely assume no one here is a bigger Blade Runner fan than you. I was too young to see it in the theaters in its original run, but I did get the "Blade Runner" release of the original PKD novel "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep" for Xmas that year. Damn confusing book for a 12 year old. For adult readers, though, it's terrific, as is pretty much everything Phil Dick ever wrote.

I believe I did catch the '91 re-release, though I did see the first cut at a university screening a year or so earlier. I don't think I've seen it since then. I think it's a fine film, maybe a tad too over-designed. Of course it's the early 80s, every movie back then was art-directed to death. A lot of the quirkier, less noir-ish elements from the novel were ditched in favor of more grim detective stuff, and ultimately I don't know if it helps. It's interesting to see Harrison Ford come up to the edge of his acting ability, peer into the void, and turn right back around. I mean, Sean Young is stealing his scenes, Olmos barely has any dialog and HE'S stealing Ford's scenes.

On the other hand if Deckard IS a replicant, Ford's wooden acting makes sense.

[Armblessed]

I'm always on the fence about Blade Runner. I like it (as is evidenced by my ownership of the DVD), and it's awesome visually and atmospherically, but it doesn't seem to flow well to me. The pacing feels off and it seems like it drags here and there.
I've never seen a Ridley Scott film that I enjoyed entirely. His films usually have a seed of something great, and a ton of potential, but it always stutters (or completely falls flat) at some point. Especially his more recent films. I think that adds an extra added element of dislike for the director is that I'm always like "What a great idea for a movie! ...oh"
And while I'm hoping the upcoming Prometheus will be a return to serious, hard sci-fi films, given my feelings on the director's previous work, I'm expecting to be disappointed.

[davemerrill]

One movie of Scott's that I really liked was THE DUELLISTS. It's a period drama, but it has both the authenticity necessary to sell the story AND a modern style to the storytelling and the pacing. There's a trick they do with making the swords spark during the duels that works really well.

[greg]

I went to see the Final Cut in the theater with a friend of mine in December '07 when it was released. I was so glad to finally see Blade Runner on the big screen, that I had the chills when the Ladd logo was first shown. My friend hadn't seen the movie as often as I have, so he didn't catch the subtle differences with the Final Cut as I did, with the continuity errors being corrected and the extended street scenes and such. I love everything about the movie: the plot, the characters, the pacing, and definitely the dystopian future visuals. Once I saw the Director's Cut, I no longer liked the original with the corny voice-overs.

I've never seen a Ridley Scott film that I enjoyed entirely. His films usually have a seed of something great, and a ton of potential, but it always stutters (or completely falls flat) at some point. Especially his more recent films.

Really? While I am not the kind to have a totally favorite movie director in which I love all of the guy's movies and such, Ridley Scott comes close to being such a director for me. I particularly liked The Gladiator and Blackhawk Down. I am very much looking forward to seeing Promethius. If anyone can make a prequel to Alien (or a prequel to anything), it would be Scott.

[Armblessed]

Really? While I am not the kind to have a totally favorite movie director in which I love all of the guy's movies and such, Ridley Scott comes close to being such a director for me. I particularly liked The Gladiator and Blackhawk Down. I am very much looking forward to seeing Promethius. If anyone can make a prequel to Alien (or a prequel to anything), it would be Scott.

I just could not enjoy Gladiator. I wanted to like it and I expected to like it. I mean, a big budget movie about Roman times and gladiators? Sounded awesome. But, it just fell really flat for me. The action scenes seemed either lazy(ha!) or corny. And the main villain was absurd. I'm all for a villain you love to hate, but come on... Overall, too melodramatic and full of itself.
I liked Blackhawk Down, but I think thats largely due to the fact that its a very faithful retelling of real events (I read the book beforehand which I also enjoyed). At the same time, though, its limited by its own faithfulness. The true events are rather depressing and don't have an enjoyable... arc I guess I would say, which isn't a knock against the film technically, but does take away from me having a good time watching it.
And then there was Robin Hood. Fun here and there, but tried way too hard to be epic and completely fell off the scale of "decent movie" when Marian and a bunch of little kids on ponies ride into battle at the end. I was swearing at the TV. It really makes me have my doubts about Ridley Scott as an ongoing filmmaker if the part of his brain that says "Dont put this in the movie" is that far gone.

[greg]

I never saw Robin Hood. Scott's original idea was to have the movie told from the Sheriff's point of view, which is something that's never been done before. However, the studio made him do the movie their way, not his way. I didn't know about the kids on ponies part. That sounds rather absurd and makes me even less interested in bothering with that movie.

[Armblessed]

I saw Prometheus, and wrote a review, but the computer tweaked out and I lost it. Instead of me writing it all out again, please watch my favorite review show review this movie.
http://redlettermedia.com/half-in-the-bag-prometheus/
They touch on pretty much all the complaints I had of the movie, but were far more forgiving in their final verdict. The most I could say for this movie was that it held my attention.

[greg]

I'm at work right now, so I can't provide a link to YouTube, but do a search on YouTube for Honest Trailers Prometheus. It is hilarious. I still have yet to see this movie, and right now I really do not care to see it. I'd watch it for the sheer "this movies sucks so bad I wanna just laugh at it" like The Room, Birdemic, or any of those terrible Twilight movies. But unlike those, Prometheus is striking at something I hold dear: the Alien movies (well, the first two, anyway). This movie had so much potential, but they gave the script to that screwball who wrote for that stupid Lost show. EVERYONE was telling me, "Oh, you hafta see Lost! It's such a COOL SHOW!" And then every single one of them told me that the ending sucked. You think they're going somewhere good, and it just falls apart. That is not how real SF works. It's just a copout.

At least I can still enjoy SF novels. It seems to be the best I can hope for these days.

[davemerrill]

There's a whole category of films these days, and I think Prometheus is in this category, where we just wait for the guys at Rifftrax to make fun of the movie before we watch it. I mean, the movie LOOKED great, from a visual design standpoint, but I can't see spending 13 bucks on it. Let alone what they charge for popcorn.