CON AIR (Simon West, 1997)

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(*** / *****; ***** / ***** for the bunny scenes) :: First time seeing it since it came out and, between Cage sounding like the lovechild of Foghorn Leghorn and Kilmer's Doc Holiday and slowrunning/jumping from any number of explosions or infernos, Steve Buscemi having a tea party in an empty swimming pool, Malkovich holding a gun to a stuffed bunny, and the titular AIRplane crash-landing into the Las Vegas strip before culminating in a chase involving a fire truck, a skywalk, and heavy machinery, CON AIR remains one of the most gloriously insane blockbusters ever. Also: Colm Meaney and John Cusack should do / should've done more projects together.

BATMAN FOREVER (Schumacher, 1995)

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(Directed by Joel Schumacher from a script by Lee Batchler, Janet Scott Batchler, and Akiva Goldsman; starring Val Kilmer, Jim Carrey, Tommy Lee Jones, Nicole Kidman, Chris O'Donnell, Michael Gough, and Pat Hingle. Released 16 June 1995; (re)watched 2023w28 via Max.)

While Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey still grate on the nerves (it did help, somewhat, to think of them as multiversal iterations of The Joker who happened to collide in this universe) and Nicole Kidman had to make the most of an under-written and -utilized role (she did, after all have to follow Michelle Pfieffer’s legendary Selina Kyle), FOREVER is far more excellent than I either a.) remembered or b.) let the bad taste of its sequel let me remember: amidst an intriguing psychological drama seasoned with cool Bat-jumps from tall buildings and a great car wrapped in something of a prescient story surrounding The Riddler's Apple Vision Pro, the Gotham of FOREVER – I view Schumacher's films to be in their own little universe, separate from the Burton-verse, this great fan trailer and Hamm's BATMAN '89 comic showing us how amazing a Hamm-penned, Burton-directed Billy Dee Williams Two-Face could have been – conjures a cyberpunk BATMAN: TAS channeled through the mind of Grant Morrison and the pencil of Kelley Jones (a pairing which MUST happen at some point), set to the kaleidoscopic music of Eliot Goldenthal's circus-meets-Elfman's-DICK-TRACY-score, and protected by the only cinematic Batman that I can imagine not only needing a Robin – Kilmer's Bat should serve as inspiration for the Gunn-verse's THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD – but surviving a fall from space (as the comics version did several months back in Zdarsky's excellent run). You may fully count me among those who wants to see the mythical Schumacher Cut: it's no masterpiece, but FOREVER is something special whose full canvas deserves to be seen. This one was a joy to revisit.

DAREDEVIL (Johnson, 2003)

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(Written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson; starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, Jon Favreau, Keith David, and Ellen Pompeo. Released 14 February 2003; (re)watched 2023w23 via Max)

Bit late on publishing this one (rewatched it a week ago) but given that I haven't seen DD since its first DVD (or maybe even theatrical) release 20 years ago – and I still need to see Johnson's director's cut – I'll forgive my tardiness. The good news is that I enjoy it as much as I did the first time(s) through: the action scenes thrilled and hurt; the relationship between Foggy and Matt was better, I think, than the Netflix series (Foggy's perpetual Karen-ness, particularly in seasons two (loathed) and three (loved), grated and diminished an otherwise excellent performance from Elden Henson); Affleck – contrary to his own opinion – is a far more effective Matt Murdock / DD than Batman (though I do dig his Batman and wish we had gotten more of his Bats and Jeremy Irons's Alfred) and yes, I love the costume – even have the Marvel Legends action figure; Jennifer Garner, while remaining woefully miscast as Elektra, does her best with it (even making the hokey Matt/Elektra relationship scenes tolerable though apparently the director's cut diminishes the romance angle?) – a shame that her solo film was such an atrocity as she deserved far better; Keith David brought heartache and tragedy to Matt's origin as Battling Jack Murdock; and Michael Clarke Duncan (RIP - can't believe he's been gone for 11 years) and Colin Farrell were fantastic villains who I wanted to see more of – though I wish Farrell hadn't opted for the Tommy-Lee-Jones-as-Two-Face mode of supervillainy as it diminished much of his menace.

Next up: watch the director's cut and write about it sometime within the next 20 years.

THAT THING YOU DO! (Hanks, 1996)

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(Written and directed by Tom Hanks; starring Tom Everett Scott, Johnathon Schaech, Steve Zahn, Liv Tyler, Ethan Embry, Charlize Theron, and Tom Hanks. Released 04 October 1996; (re)watched 2023w13 via Hulu)

A diversionary revisit (first time since VHS, I think) from my usual Criterion brain/soul-sustenance and/or action-packed / true crime death show braincarbs, Hanks's first writing/directing foray remains one of the textbook examples of "delightful": it was this film and its earworm soundtrack that taught me how to drum; that cemented my now decades-long crush on Liv Tyler; that made me always enjoy a Steve Zahn appearance (even in the first season of WHITE LOTUS, which I loathed – with the exception of Renoir's RULES OF THE GAME, little turns me off more than stories about bored rich white people on vacation, no matter how incisive its social commentary might be – and never finished); that made me scratch my head but nod when Schaech showed up as Jonah Hex in LEGENDS OF TOMORROW – and wait for his Hex to burst into a refrain of "I quit"; and it was this film that made me pick up the drumsticks again after I picked them up again the last time I picked them up (or something). A boldly earnest film – that first time the Oneders (I wonder what happened to the o-need-ers) hear "That Thing You Do!" on the radio is one of the best expressions of unbridled excitement and happiness ever put to film – in an era of endless cynicism. Always, always recommended.