Movie #124 - Clueless

Clueless
Paramount Pictures
1995 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 37 min
Director: Amy Heckerling
Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, Breckin Meyer

I had to skip Clue because it's out on loan, so I'll add that one back in when it's returned.  For now, onto a movie that defined a generation of teenaged girls... myself included.

As if!

I love love love this movie, especially since it's a (loose) adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. How clever and relevant to the times, how touching to bring Austen into modern cinema under the radar.  For years, I didn't even know about that. Look at that - the subtle influence of classic literature on an unsuspecting generation of girls.  Brilliant.

Anyway, Alicia Silverstone's career was made on this film, as well as Brittany Murphy's (man, do I miss her!!) And Donald Faison (Turk from Scrubs) is in this too, which is weird for me now because I watch that show.  When I first started watching Scrubs, he was "that guy from Clueless" but now, watching the movie, he's become "that guy from Scrubs." Funny how that works.

As the most quotable movie ever - in my opinion - this one's hard to watch without reciting the lines.  Maybe guys don't love this as much as I do - okay, I know they don't - but I think this movie is completely awesome, probably because of how unobtrusive the wit is.  It's satire done well and even now, 15 years later, I can still appreciate that.

Man... 15 years? That's disgusting.

Movie #57 - Batman & Robin

Batman & Robin
Warner Bros. Pictures
1997 - Rated PG - 2 hr 5 min
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chris O'Donnell, Uma Thurman, Alicia Silverstone

This movie is like a Who's Who in Nineties Film? project. That dude from Circle of Friends, that chick from Clueless, and oh yeah, the hottest doctor (move over, McDreamy) on TV: that guy from ER. And Arnold. He's cool too.

It's the same director, and yet the only person in this movie from the last is Chris O'Donnell... who plays the kid-brother kind of Robin that you want to punch in the face. Sorry, he annoys me. Whine, whine, whine. Go play on your trapeze, you big baby.

This time, Alfred is sick, his niece (Silverstone) is in town visiting, and a whole bunch of funky stuff is going down at a nearby lab - owned, of course, by Wayne Enterprises. In fact, between Dr. Freeze's cryogenics accident and Pamela what's-her-name's plant problem, Batman & Robin feels like an anti-chemistry advertisement at times. "Don't play with cryogenics at home, kids..."

Again, we have randomly intersecting bad guy plot lines, making things irritatingly complicated at times. At least there's legit girl power in this movie (although it's not much... I mean, really. Batgirl? She couldn't come up with an independent name?), and another dowdy chick turns hot thanks to a freak accident (i.e. Catwoman and Poison Ivy could be BFF's and share weird stories over a pedicure some time.)

But the best part about this movie is what it signifies... the END of the Batman movies before Christopher Nolan rebooted the franchise. Thank God.