Leigh Paatsch: The movies I was totally wrong about
Everyone makes mistakes and movie reviewers are no exception. From the Big Lebowski to Frozen, Herald Sun film critic Leigh Paatsch revisits the reviews he got wrong the first time around.
Leigh Paatsch
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Herald Sun movie reviewer Leigh Paatsch has spent three decades watching the big screen and he can admit he doesn’t always get it right.
From Frozen and The Big Lebowski to Inception and 007, here are 12 movies that need a second opinion.
FACE/OFF (1997)
Starring: Nicolas Cage, John Travolta
Original star rating: ***** (Five stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “I could rave about the astounding quality of this top-shelf action film for hours. If the Oscars had the guts to acknowledge all genres rather than prestige drama, this would walk away with an armful of Oscars next March.”
HERE AND NOW: Oh my! From my rookie year in the chair, an overexcited big call if there ever was one for the movie where Cage and Travolta go nuts after swapping faces. Not sure what my sugar intake was in 1997, but this reads like the words of someone with too much red lemonade in their system.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: DOWNGRADE
MEET THE PARENTS (2000)
Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro
Original star rating: **** (4 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “Although we know Robert De Niro as one of the great all-time actors, it still comes as a shock to realise just how good he is at comedy when turning to the lighter side … an effective and hilarious mainstream comedy.”
HERE AND NOW: Still a funny-ish movie in a TV sitcom kind of way, but not the flat-out chuckle fest it seemed at the time. As for De Niro, this was the beginning of the end of a once-stellar reputation. Choices like this put him on the path to horrorrs like Dirty Grandpa.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: DOWNGRADE
THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)
Starring: Jeff Bridges, JOHN GOODMAN
Original star rating: **½ (2.5 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “The story doesn’t add up, and the totals go further out of whack once the film indulgently lets loose a throng of off-kilter minor characters … it definitely doesn’t work, though it is the most watchable mess I’ve seen in a long time.”
HERE AND NOW: These days, this surreal stoner comedy is a revered cult classic, and repeated viewings over the years have confirmed this to me. At the time of release, I wasn’t alone among Coen brothers’ fans thinking they had blown it big time after the Oscar-nominated triumph of Fargo.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: UPGRADE
FROZEN (2013)
Starring: the voices of Idina Menzel, Josh Gad
Original star rating: *** (3 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “Not hard to warm to what this animated fantasy Frozen has in store for its all-ages audience, even if it comes from a most familiar place. With its many catchy musical set pieces, it is always fun, and never feels forced.”
HERE AND NOW: Gotta put my hand up here and say I completely missed the boat when it came to identifying the factors that would catapult this irresistible musical adventure into the hearts of a generation. Just didn’t stand out upon release amid a stampede of Christmas movies. Forgive me, Queen Elsa.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: UPGRADE
INCEPTION (2010)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy
Original star rating: *** ½ (3.5 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “A glorious mess of contradictions … the mind-bending brilliance on display suggests it is about to break open into a full-blown masterpiece. Yet other scenes are so mind-numbingly hard to follow that a grand folly seems imminent.”
HERE AND NOW: The spellbinding dreams-within-a-dream structure was just too big picture for my small brain upon the first look. However, after several repeat viewings, I’m now unshakeably of the opinion Inception is one of the greatest movies of the past decade.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: UPGRADE
A BUG’S LIFE (1998)
Starring: the voices of Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey
Original star rating: ***** (5 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “If you don’t dig this, douse yourself in Aerogard and stay indoors for the summer … a creepy-crawly classic for kids of yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
HERE AND NOW: Whoa! Five stars for this long-forgotten cartoon? Where’s a time machine when you really need one? Any excuses? Only that this came out during the very early days of computer animation. Colour me way too easily impressed … and forever baffled.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: DOWNGRADE
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
Starring: Rami Malek, Gwilym Lee
Original star rating: **½ (2.5 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “The movie is loud, flashy and keen to dazzle, but not so adept at depositing much into your memory banks for the long haul. The accuracy of Malek’s physical embodiment of the singer - right down to the smallest twitchiest detail - is beyond uncanny.”
HERE AND NOW: To quote the Queen songbook, there is definitely “a kind of magic” about BoRhap that only continues to grow with repeat viewings. Malek’s performance was not merely one steeped in precise impersonation. This was the acting of a once-in-a-lifetime calibre. The Oscars got it right.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: UPGRADE
GARDEN STATE (2004)
Starring: Zach Braff, Natalie Portman
Original star rating: ****½ (4.5 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “As director, writer and actor, Zach Braff is one hell of a filmmaking triple threat. I cannot recall a talent arriving so fully formed on so many fronts. The most mature, rewarding and downright soulful American film of 2004.”
HERE AND NOW: Doubt that I’ll ever make a bigger call for a smaller return. Zach Braff did not exactly go on to greatness behind or before the cameras. Aeesh! As for the movie, it remains a lovely, low-key romantic drama, with a soundtrack to die for. But certainly no classic.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: DOWNGRADE
CASINO ROYALE (2006)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green
Original star rating: **** (4 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “If you’d had it up to here with the camp cocktail swilling and lady killing of the post-Connery James Bond movies, this will welcome you back to the fold with open arms. And a knife hidden in its sock.”
HERE AND NOW: A great example of a movie continuing to mature like a fine wine. So much so, I’m now convinced this is the best of the Bonds by a space. Even with Daniel Craig (reluctantly) still at the helm, hard to imagine the 007 franchise peaking this high again.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: UPGRADE
KICK-ASS (2010)
Starring: Nicolas Cage
Original star rating: ****½ (4.5 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “ … relentlessly audacious and electrifyingly entertaining, Kick-Ass sinks a steel-capped slipper into every superhero movie ever made. Breakneck pacing, killer action sequences and a maverick comic sensibility will all hit you like a thunderbolt.”
HERE AND NOW: Time has not been kind to this aggressively abrasive affair. In fact, I found it impossible to watch all the way through. Displays an attitude to violence, sex and ethical issues completely out of step with where we have evolved to now. Yuck.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: DOWNGRADE
DRIVE (2011)
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan
Original star rating: ****½ (4.5 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “Proceeds swiftly towards true cinematic greatness. En route, the movie swerves, brakes, speeds up and slows down with astonishing precision. You will be hanging on for dear life, and yet, hoping the journey never ends.”
HERE AND NOW: The closer you look at Drive over time, the less you will find. There is definitely an incredible sense of style to the fore, but it comes at the direct expense of substance. Gosling’s impersonation of an Easter Island statue is, err, an acquired taste.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: DOWNGRADE
CAST AWAY (2001)
Starring: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt
Original star rating: *** (3 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “Aside from sometimes talking to himself, Hanks befriends a volleyball as a sounding board and soulmate. With limited potential for action of any kind, Cast Away has every right to fade into outright dullness.”
HERE AND NOW: This Robinson Crusoe affair has stood the test of time very well, and it is all due to the minor miracle of Hanks’ committed performance. Few actors out there who could wring so much feeling from emoting at a volleyball.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: UPGRADE
THE BABADOOK (2014)
Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman
Original star rating: *** (3 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “A classily controlled exercise in psychological horror makes for a memorably unsettling feature debut from promising Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent. A bedtime story gone irreversibly rogue.”
HERE AND NOW: A tsunami of acclaim overseas in the years after release demanded a second (and third look). Thanks to Essie Davis’ bone-shaking lead performance — right up there with Toni Collette’s in Hereditary — this borders close to masterpiece territory.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: UPGRADE
BABY DRIVER (2017)
Starring: Ansel Elgort
Original star rating: ***** (5 stars)
WAY BACK WHEN: “If you think the Fast & Furious franchise is the last word in cars, crashes, chases and hi-octane heists, Baby Driver rewrites the four-wheeled film textbook on how to tear up tarmac with style, substance and spectacularly syncopated stunts that just never, ever let up.”
HERE AND NOW: Love this movie to bits. However, it must be said, the presence of the now-disgraced Kevin Spacey in a linchpin role gets distracting very quickly. While not the only title carrying Spacey on its books, a movie all about forward momentum just cannot overcome this major drag.
HINDSIGHT VERDICT: DOWNGRADE
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