SILVERADO is Lawrence Kasdan’s upbeat 1985 western about some cowboys and, you know… they meet up and ride together and there’s guns and a jail and a saloon and a guy trying to steal land and all that. I don’t know, it’s a western.
This was Kasdan’s third time directing, after BODY HEAT and THE BIG CHILL. But consider that in the half decade before this he co-wrote THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and RETURN OF THE JEDI. This is his rare directing job that has some of the vibe of those George Lucas productions. He wrote SILVERADO with his brother Mark (CRIMINAL LAW) and all these decades later he wrote SOLO with his son Jonathan (who had a bit part in SILVERADO at the age of 14) so I thought it would be a good time to write about this one.
a survey of summer movies that just didn’t catch on
Big Willie Weekend, 1999
Two summers after their hit film MEN IN BLACK, director Barry Sonnenfeld (d.p. of BLOOD SIMPLE) and star Will Smith (SUICIDE SQUAD) tried to bring a similar comedy/special-effects/adventure mix to the old west. It’s like a western in that there are cowboy hats, guns, railroads and occasional horses, but also not really because it’s about two top agents for the president going undercover and then having a big battle against a giant mechanical spider that’s on a rampage and headed for the White House. Not a type of story I’ve seen done with John Wayne or Clint or anybody.
The basis is The Wild Wild West, a western-meets-spies TV show that lasted four seasons, ending thirty years prior to the movie. It was actually cancelled not due to a lack of popularity, but controversy over violence on television, and did have two followup TV movies. But the last of those was in 1980, and nineteen years later it was at best a cult show, and not yet available on DVD. So this is another expensive blockbuster based on characters that most of its intended youthful audience had never seen, or in this case even heard of.
But they didn’t have to know it was based on anything. Waning interest in westerns may have been a bigger problem, but that could’ve been overcome by the popularity of Smith, or the fun gimmick of the gadgets and steampunk type robotics, or the energetic style and cartoonish humor of the director of the ADDAMS FAMILY movies.
Before we get back into the Lucas-Minus-Star-Wars series I wanted to play a little catch up. Here’s one of my favorite movies of last year, and I bet most of you haven’t considered seeing it.
In RICKI AND THE FLASH Meryl Streep (BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY) plays the broke-ass leader of a California bar band who’s on an unlikely mission to Indianapolis to cheer up her daughter Julie (Streep’s real daughter Mamie Gummer), because her husband left her. One thing is, Ricki abandoned the family years ago to follow her rock and/or roll dream, and they never forgave her for it and rarely talk to her. But Julie’s gotten so bad that her dad Pete (Kevin Kline) gets desperate enough to break that emergency glass. It’s a fish-out-of-water story where the fish has no money and has to stay in your guest room and you don’t want her there but you try to be polite and also you have to pay for her cab.
Ricki is a rare and precious thing, a lead role for an actress – an older actress, even – that gets to be complex and flawed and also funny (not to mention sing and play guitar!). She’s a strong personality and also a mess and possibly racist and hates Obama and also it turns out she knows how to be a good mother and friend. I mean, now she does, but where the hell was she before? Will this cause healing, or only increase resentment? Streep, not surprisingly, goes to town with the role and seems to be having a great time. (read the rest of this shit…)
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Recent commentary and jibber-jabber
KayKay on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “And shiiiiiiit… did a JP/JW comments section just get hijacked by HP chatter? Stranger things have happened in these parts…” Mar 26, 19:59
MaggieMayPie on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “No, Vern, you’re absolutely right that there was nothing overt. It was all just in eye contact, body language, and…” Mar 26, 18:59
VERN on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “Well correct me if I’m wrong but there was never any acknowledgment of a thing between them, right? Not even…” Mar 26, 18:41
Acid Burn on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “MaggieMayPie, I think there’s room for your interpretation of the vibes between ScarJo and Bailey. Personally I took it as…” Mar 26, 17:55
KayKay on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “My mantra: Separate the art from the artist. I’ve read all seven Harry Potter books—pride of place on my shelf—and…” Mar 26, 16:54
Palermo on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “I liked this one and the negativity surrounding it is weird to me. It’s not a masterpiece, and doesn’t reinvent…” Mar 26, 15:49
MaggieMayPie on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “I actually really enjoyed this movie. I’m not sure why it works for me more than most people, but I’m…” Mar 26, 15:21
CJ Holden on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “Personally I did enjoy the HP books. They were an entertaining read and definitely more quirky than the movies, with…” Mar 26, 12:22
Alex R on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “And I’m totally fine with them being that blasé because treating it like a traffic jam is funny and then…” Mar 26, 10:44
VERN on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “I agree that people wouldn’t be blasé about it, but that early scene where they kinda are is pretty great.…” Mar 26, 10:40
Alex R on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “@Miguel Hombre: I can’t speak for other generations, but I was in the fourth grade when Harry Potter came out…” Mar 26, 10:35
VERN on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “Daniel – I was just making an off-handed anti-Rowling gesture. I personally was sick of fucking hearing about it anyway…” Mar 26, 10:32
Alex R on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “Mr. Majestyk makes a good point about Vern’s good points that the film is good because it doesn’t trip over…” Mar 26, 09:49
Miguel Hombre on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “I guess my point was what the hell does any adult, with all the life lived, experiences and spectrum of…” Mar 26, 09:47
daniel on Jurassic World: Rebirth: “@CJ Holden Gotcha, thanks for clarifying. @Miguel Hombre “I found the second book (I skipped the first book because I…” Mar 26, 07:19