12 response about Rank ‘em: Cameron Crowe Films »

1. 

   SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!

   I’m not a huge Crowe fan but I have liked a few of his films and yeah, I thought “Elizabethtown” had enough charm to be enjoyable even if I didn’t think it was a great film.

   Still haven’t seen “Say Anything”. I’ll get to it eventually.

   Comment by Marina Antunes — January 25, 2008
2. 

   I haven’t seen “Say Anything” in years. Not sure how it’s held up over time.

   Comment by Andrew James — January 25, 2008
3. 

   I haven’t seen either “Elizabethtown” or “Singles”. I’d probably rank “Say Anything” number one, with “Almost Famous” a VERY close second. I didn’t care much for “Vanilla Sky”, but I haven’t seen it since it’s release, so maybe another viewing is in order.

   Great idea for a post! Look forward to more of them.

   Comment by Dave — January 25, 2008
4. 

   I’ve actually only seen Jerry McGuire and Almost Famous. Of those I really enjoyed Almost Famous and I’m neutral about JM. I’m not really a big fan of Crowe so unless I hear I should do otherwise I’ll probably just pass on the rest of his stuff until some date far off.

   I’m seriously going to have to do a Johnny To Rank ‘Em coming up. I just watched Running out of Time and will be seeing PTU and Running out of Time 2 shortly.

   Comment by John Allison — January 25, 2008
5. 

   In regards to Vanilla Sky…

   I have the original, Spanish version sitting at home on my coffee table right now. I hope to get to it this weekend.

   VS is a confusing movie and it took me at least 3 viewings to completely comprehend what happened. Now that I get it though, I like it a lot. Plus I just like alternate reality types of films with good characterization. I’d recommend giving VS a try… and then try it again. In fact, it’s doing well right now on the voting list over at the movie club podcast.

   Comment by Andrew James — January 25, 2008
6. 

   Not a huge fan overall, but I absolutely love Almost Famous. Easily his best. Say Anything has huge nostalgic and sentimental value for me (what guy hasn’t thought about holding a boombox over their head outside the love of their life’s window?). So, I love that still.

   Jerry Maguire has some iconic moments and when it came out (I was 11, I think), I loved it, mostly because every 11 year old back then wanted to be Tom Cruise… but it hasn’t held up very well. Vanilla Sky, it’s been years since I saw it and I understood it all, but I remember only being lukewarm towards it. Probably should give it another watch.

   I haven’t mustered the courage to sit through Elizabethtown yet.

   Speaking of Michael J. Fox, I love that guy. Obviously I grew up watching Back to the Future constantly (right up there with Indy and Star Wars in times watched, I’m sure), but I love The Frighteners too. Ridiculously underrated movie. I also loved his show Spin City while he was on it. Then there was Doc Hollywood, Teen Wolf, Casualties of War, and can’t forget Family Ties. Seeing him nowadays like this breaks my heart.

   Comment by Jonathan — January 25, 2008
7. 

   I’m not a big fan of Crowe, but I did really enjoy Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky.

   Abre los ojos stars the great Eduardo Noriega, who I think does a much better job than Tom Cruise. I’m looking forward to seeing Noriega in Vantage Point (man that flick has a great cast) as well as the SUNDANCE Approved TRANSSIBERIAN! (yay great reviews for Brad Anderson’s Russian train-thriller!). Most folks probably know this actor as the ‘bad young man,’ Jacinto, from Guellermo del Toro’s THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE.

   Anyone seen Tesis, his previous film with Amenabar (who directs Abre los ojos)? That one I’ve been meaning to see for years and just never got my hands on it.

   Both films have their strengths, but I prefer Cruz (who is in both) in the Spanish version. On the other hand Kurt Russell and Jason Lee are great in the American version, as is the ‘creepy guy who explains everything’ in the english version.

   Worth seeing both, I guess. I saw the spanish one first, then the English one…

   Comment by Kurt — January 25, 2008
8. 

   1. Almost Famous - This is HIS movie
   2. Say Anything - This is his OTHER movie
   3. Vanilla Sky - I actually think this one blows the original out of the water.
   4. Elizabethtown - It has it’s moments but it’s one he should be embarrassed of.
   5. the rest

   Comment by Rusty James — January 25, 2008
9. 

   I saw the original version of Vanilla Sky before the remake, and thus watching the new version made me want to claw my eyes out and spit out blood. I seriously think its one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. All the Crowe stereotypes are there in full force, unrestrained - the forced ‘this is what im listening to! i like music!’ soundtrack, the closeups of eyes, the questionable casting, its all there.

   and the video diary on the extras is absolutely pompous and shameless, and made me loathe Crowe as a person. I mean really, he’s retarded. “hey Man, you know like, i just like life you know, and like to document.. like, this… LIFE? its like wow, i feel so blessed to capture love and life through…” and thats where the self inflected blows to the head from the remote control knocked me unconscious.

   in spite of this, I like Almost Famous, specifically the directors cut which at its much longer length dilutes his ridiculous tics to a much more manageable level.

   Out of the others, I’ve seen Jerry Maguire which has its moments but again, the Crowe-isms are often too much to ever subject myself to again, and I’ve successfully avoided the others.

   But yeah, once again, I’d watch a days worth of circumcisions and sex change operations before watching Vanilla Sky ever again.

   Comment by Goon — January 25, 2008
10. 

    I neglected to mention that I really liked the original though.

    Anyways, since I’m taking up space with a second post, heres a link to Sean (FilmJunk)’s review of Vanilla Sky from back in the day… and below I’ll quote my favorite part.
    http://www.filmjunk.com/2002/01/02/vanilla-sky/

    “Let me describe what I see as the three golden rules of Cameron Crowe filmmaking, all of which are painfully evident in this movie.

    1. Fill the movie with lots of witty music references and a hip soundtrack to match.

    Vanilla Sky contains an endless number of trivial music and pop culture in-jokes from Crowe, who refuses to let us forget that he was a former writer for Rolling Stone magazine. The soundtrack does feature some great music, but it is eclectic and jarring. It is admirable that Crowe puts a lot of effort into the backing music for his movies, but he’s no Quentin Tarantino; the music is all over the map, with no cohesive style or purpose.

    2. Pull the camera in tight on the faces of the stars as often as possible.

    By now we’ve seen that Cameron Crowe is a hopeless romantic, and his movies are basically all love stories. Vanilla Sky is similarly built around a love triangle, and we are treated accordingly to many, many excruciating close-ups of Tom Cruise grinning like a jackass, and Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz batting their eyelashes at him.

    3. Whenever you come up with a particularly clever line of dialogue, repeat it to emphasize its brilliance.

    I have started to notice that Crowe always has a few catch phrases in his movies that are often echoed in later scenes in an attempt to sound witty or resonant. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, but in Vanilla Sky he ends up spoiling some of the film’s most important moments with his goofy banter.

    It is understood that most directors have a distinctive style of their own; after all they are artists in their own right, and it is their vision that ultimately controls what we see on screen. However, it is also the director’s job to find the best way to immerse us in the story, without calling attention to how the film has been made. Many of Cameron Crowe’s idiosyncracies do not seem suited to this film, and come across as self-indulgent and distracting. Vanilla Sky seems like it wants to be darker in tone than he will allow. “

    Comment by Goon — January 25, 2008
11. 

    Since I am the friend who is referred to, I shall comment. I think what helped my viewing on this was the “Law of Diminished Expectations”. When it first came out it was review after review about how it sucked, not that great, etc… Here’s something that everyone is missing. This movie has tremendous heart without being corny. Do you know how hard that is to pull off? It’s something that Crowe never forgets in any of his movies(exception-Vanilla Sky). You look at Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire, Say Anything, etc… and all these movies directly capture the spirit and feeling of whatever group of characters he’s writing or filming. You buy into Stillwater as a band, you buy into Jerry Maguire as a power agent who eventually figures out what’s important in life. In Elizabethtown you buy into the spirit of this woman who enters his life and SAVES his life at just the right time. Crowe just never forgets his brand of understated humor and heart that I always appreciate. That road trip passage is done SO well it moved me to the point where I was like “I want to do that someday”. It’s hard to get to me that way.

    Comment by Big Scott — January 25, 2008
12. 

    Agreed on the road trip portion. The soundtrack was a little heavy handed at that point, but it completely won me over. Just becasue I put ET at #6 doesn’t make it a bad film. As you said to me earlier, the worst Crowe film is better than 95% of the rest of the shit that is out there.

    Comment by Andrew James — January 26, 2008

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