The Fantasy Hall of Fame

I've never understood why so many people love E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. I didn't find it engaging when I was a kid, and unfortunately this recent viewing hasn't changed that. Nothing about it really draws me in, which causes its nearly 2 hour runtime to feel twice as long as it is. I don't deny that it's an incredibly well-made film, but this kind of sentimentality just seems to be completely lost on me. When you don't care about any of the characters, its difficult to get invested in what happens to them.

While I personally dislike everything about the actual design of E.T., the practical effects work really holds up. The size of the alien is a little inconsistent at times, but it's incredibly impressive how realistic it still looks 38 years after its initial release. The CG used for the flying bicycle scenes doesn't fair as well, but that's a minor complaint given how timeless the rest of the film feels. The performances are quite good as well, especially considering how young the main actors were at the time.

Many scenes are framed incredibly well. It's interesting how we don't see the government agents properly until they arrive at the house, instead they're shot in silhouette or only from the waist down. I like how the film builds tension, both with the adults and with E.T. himself. I'd forgotten a lot about the film in the years since I last saw it, and was honestly a little surprised at the inclusion of some foul language and a scene of under age intoxication. Unfortunately that was the only emotion I felt while watching E.T., so for now this will remain a classic that's clearly not meant for me.

DragonHeart reminded me of the opening scene in The Good The Bad and The Ugly where Clint Eastwood captures and turns in a wanted outlaw, Eli Wallach...After collecting the reward money, and as Eli is about to be hanged, Eastwood then shoots the rope and sets Eli free, galloping away on horseback to another town, for the same trick.

Visually DragonHeart was impressive, such cool sets that were real and built on location. I couldn't find the screenshot I wanted...it's of the water filled rock quarry with enslaved town's folks mining the rock from high up on wooden scaffolding. There was also a long floating bridge over the pond. Pretty cool stuff! So was the castle ruins and the countryside of Slovakia where it was filmed.

I was taken aback at first by Sean Connery's voice coming out of the dragon. The sound mix was such that Connery's voice boomed as if he was standing behind my tv set. Now the last thing I want is a middle-aged Scottsman getting tangled up in all those HDMI cables!

So after awhile I got use to the dragon sounding like Connery, though I wish they would've digitally mixed his voice so that it sounded more raspy with snorty gasps, you know like a dragon would make.

The highlight for me was David Thewlis as the evil, bully king who delighted in being mean, really mean! He alone made the movie and was my favorite character. Dennis Quad was OK, I think his character needed to be punched up more and played larger than life. Dina Meyer was OK too, she didn't get to do much, though she had a fair amount of lines. I liked her better in Starship Troopers.

Let's see, what else can I talk about? oh I guess that's it.

What the hell!!! I actually liked this film! and I had expected to hate it!

I really liked the first half, which I'd rate a 5/5, it was near perfect. The first scene in the house with mom and dad junkies was actually pretty cool (the house was as awesome set too). I loved the character Jennifer Tilly created. It was a blast how she moans & bitches with her screechy voice while laying in bed like a doped out slug...Then she hugs her daughter, telling her she loves her and will do something special for her one day....But when the little girl tries to grab her stash of chocolate bars mom hauls off and wallops her and calls her a little bitch...Oh my! I thought that was actually funny because it seemed like a moment from a black comedy and a lampoon on a deeply messed up family of junkies. If I had taken these people as real then it wouldn't have been so comical.

Jodelle Ferland was a really amazing actress in this. She was so natural and could convey all sorts of emotions, that adult actors would have had a problem portraying. I loved the creative use of the doll heads! And Jodelle Ferland did all the voices too. That was pure genius on Terry Gilliam's part. It was like the little girl had multiple personalities and the doll heads was her conduit to escaping reality.

Oh, the old house in the sweeping wheat fields, wow what a cool location that was! I don't know why but it was even more interesting when the dad OD and she was left on her own. It was interesting how she kept talking to him and dressing him up all the while he was decomposing and she either wouldn't admit it to herself or didn't know what the horrible stink was.

The second half of the film with the introduction of Dickens and Dell, was too over the top for me and I lost some interest. Terry Gilliam like Wes Anderson and so many other directors often go way over the top in the last part of the movie. I guess that's what most people want, but not me. The whole body preserving and creepy Dell character was too much.

I was not comfortable with the more sexual suggestive scenes between Je-liza Rose and Dickens. I don't think they were needed in the story eiether. In fact Dell and Dickens weren't needed as the actress who played the little girl could've done this as a one person show and pulled it off, that might have earned this film critical acclaim, hell it might have even earned Jodelle an Oscar nomination.

The film could've ended with her either alone in the house with the rotting corpse of her dad or with someone coming to take her away. The ending with the train didn't do much for me.

Good nom.