Godzilla (1998)

Director: Roland Emmerich

Cast: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria

Have I Seen it Before: It is the beginning of the summer in 1998. The Promenade Palace theater is having its grand opening. I very particularly remember a large inflatable Godzilla on the roof. I also remember all of its screens were committed to the showing of this movie. So, naturally, I was there for it. It was one of those summers where I saw everything I could. In retrospect, betting big on this film was probably a losing gambit for the theater to enter the world. As I type this, the theater is now abandoned. Now I’m depressed. Thanks, Godzilla.

Did I Like It: This film was resoundingly rejected upon its release, and time has not been any kinder to it. The special effects are poor (even for the era), and the story is the laziest version of the loose thematic trilogy that Devlin and Emmerich started with <Stargate (1994)> and continued with Independence Day (1996), which feature a nebbish scientist being the key to the secret wonders of some slimy alien thing that will spend most of its time blowing up famous buildings.

The filmmakers would tend to blame a rushed production schedule forcing them into the Memorial Day weekend, but I don’t buy it. There is not one instant of this film that isn’t crassly calculated to lurch its way through an opening weekend. Each set has just enough room for product placement for everything from KFC and Taco Bell to Bacardi. Even Mac and Me (1988)* had some whimsy about it. It has very little to do with the Godzilla series, aside for the licensing of the name from the Toho company, and would have been more aptly titled The Iguana Who Ate Manhattan and Some Fish. Even it’s poster tagline, “Size Does Matter” feels like a junior executive excreted it than any kind of creative decision.

And then there’s Mayor Ebert (Michael Lerner). I’m not sure what the point of a set of characters based on Siskel and Ebert is supposed to be. It’s a running gag in every scene where the film is groaning to try to sell the seriousness of its peril. It also isn’t that funny. It also doesn’t make any sense to put these caricatures in New York City, when the two critics were Chicago institutions.

Was it intended to buy some goodwill with the critics themselves? Well, it didn’t. I looked it up and they both hated the film. And aside from some fond memories of a movie theater that’s never coming back, I kinda hate it, too.

*A film I remember both fondly and likely incorrectly from my childhood, if for no other reason than it has my name in it.

WarGames (1983)

Director: John Badham

Cast: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, John Wood

Have I Seen it Before: Many, many times. Long ago was the time that I dreamed of nothing more than a IMSAI computer rig the likes of which David Lightman (Broderick) wields in this film. One would think that I’d be happy with a far more powerful device that fits in my pocket, but I’m not.

Did I Like It: Without a doubt.

There’s always a hesitation with anything older than, say, five years. One wonders if it will not only age, but age poorly. One might have found Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) pretty funny (although, one would have been ten-years-old at the time), but now it is one of the more pointedly transphobic films ever committed to screen. All of Woody Allen’s movies are out, even the ones he hasn’t made yet. The less said about American Beauty (1999), the better off we all are.

And then there are films that—while not mired in the backward thinking of their day—can not overcome the aesthetic trapping of their age. A film like Forbidden Planet (1956) might be trying to tell us a story of the far-flung 23rd century, but you need to take a look at only a few seconds of the film to guess when it was made and be accurate within a few years. Few films even try for an ageless quality about them, and even fewer succeed.

I’m happy to report that WarGames happily transcends the earlier issue. The characters feel real, even if the situations around them occasionally veer into the farfetched. There’s not an attitude on display that feels mired in the myopia of the age. It even manages to fly in the face of the Reagan-era Star Wars mentality, distrusting the computers that would eventually run every facet of our lives.

Now, as far as aesthetically transcending the time in which it is made, WarGames gleefully clings to the time in which it was made. How could it not? The computers—although capable of doing things just beyond their reach at the time—are filled with the kind of pre-Macintosh clunkiness. One imagines that after the events of this film, Lightman found the first Macintoshes to come off the assembly line to be glossy, annoying toys. I also like to think that he just kept upgrading his IMSAI and still uses it to this day, but then again, I’m a dreamer. If you were unaware of when this film was made before playing it, you’d be able to guess as to it’s origins within a few years margin of error, but that is why it has miraculously stood the test of time. Just try to affect a robotic voice and say “The only way to win is not to play.”

Most people are right on board with that idea. If they’re not, they should be.

Glory (1989)

Director: Edward Zwick

Cast: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman

Have I Seen it Before: I got two eyes, a heart, and had cable in the 90s, didn’t I?

Did I Like It: Remember when we could just like blatant Oscar bait movies instead of thinking we’re so savvy that if we can identify the intent behind something, then it must automatically be bad.

Were Glory—the fitfully true story of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (Broderick) and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment—to be made today, the backlash would be brewing before any nominations for the Academy Award were even announced. There are large swaths that are emotionally manipulative, sure, but it tries to jam the complex context of both Shaw as a man and the racial attitudes of the time into a package just over two hours long. 

Thankfully, it was made in the era in which it was—and it didn’t win too many awards (I’m looking in your direction Forrest Gump (1994))—that we are free to enjoy it for what it is: a stirring war story. It never forgets to entertain, and if it ends up being, morally admirable in the process, that’s fine too.

My only complaints with the film would have to be with the presentation. I’m always up for seeing a beloved film on the big screen, but I’m relatively sure most films made before 2001 should never be converted to to 4K*. The seams show. every shot Washington or Broderick take in the film’s final scenes looks like a hole poked in their uniform, drizzled with a bit of red tempra paint. 

Some of the increased resolution does actually help the film. The detailed and what appears to be accurate production design comes to life on a large screen with as much resolution as possible. And, also to be fair, there are some parts that are weighed down by subpar editing. To my count there were no fewer than three instances of a soldier being shot in the face, and we are shown the musket firing, only to quickly cut to the soldier holding their face in pain. Maybe that’s what happens when someone is shot in the face by a musket (I don’t think it is, but am not really interested in researching the point), but the technique only serves to distract when used that many times.

I offer quibble but remain steadfast in my recommendation of the film. That scene before the big battle where all of the soldiers are singing? Doesn’t get much better than that.

*Oddly enough, the only exception to this notion that comes to mind: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

The Cable Guy (1996)

Director: Ben Stiller

Cast: Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick, Leslie Mann, Jack Black

Have I Seen it Before: It’s one of my favorites. Fight me.

Did I Like It: Don’t make me say it again.

The text of this review appeared previously in a blog post entitled “How Could No One Else Like These Movies?” published 04/23/2017.

Remembered mainly for Jim Carrey’s then-record twenty-million dollar paycheck, Ben Stiller’s second venture in the director’s chair was almost immediately dismissed upon release as “too dark,” “bleak,” and “not containing nearly enough scenes of an adult male attempting ventriloquism via his buttocks.” For my money, though it is not only a great film, it is the best film that writer Judd Apatow, director Stiller and star Carrey has yet to make. 

Yes, it is the pitch-black tale of a cable installer gone rogue who injects himself into a hapless customer’s life, a la The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992). It’s more thriller-esque elements are tempered by an all-consuming sympathy for both of its main characters. Both Steven (Matthew Broderick) and the alias-laden titular Cable Guy (Carrey) are woefully unable to relate to people outside of television*. Broderick’s character has the capacity to change and be better by the end of the movie, whereas Carrey is a far more broken, far more tragic character. We, the pop culture obsessed inevitably fall on a spectrum somewhere between the two leads, and we can only hope that our lives are a little more Broderick and a little less Carrey.

Also, it has one of the greater homages to “Amok Time” ever produced—what’s not to love? Seriously, go give the film another look, and if you still hold as low an opinion of the movie as you did twenty years ago… Well, then, just keep it to yourself. I really like it.

But we can all agree it’s better than Zoolander 2 (2016), right?

*Remind us of anyone?