MovieChat Forums > Miracle Mile (1989) Discussion > This could have been one of the huge cla...

This could have been one of the huge classics of the 1980s except for a few fatal flaws. SPOILER ALERT

posted 3 years ago by whynotwriteme (7811)
8 replies | jump to latest

- Unappealing leads. Anthony Edwards is what Jewish people would call a "Nebbish", zero charisma, bland and ineffectual. Mare Winningham is probably the least-desirable leading lady who ever appeared on film. She looks like some weird muppet. I hear Nicolas Cage and Jennifer Tilly had been considered. They would have been much, much better.

-Miserable, downbeat ending. Don't get me wrong. I love bleak endings, but in this story it was not appropriate. Even an ambiguous ending would have been better. This one just leaves you flat and cold and spoils the whole movie.

-Uninspired director. This needs someone like John Carpenter at the helm. I know the director wrote the screenplay and it was his "baby", but he did not have the chops. Carpenter would have gotten a much bigger budget, too, which this movie needed.

[–] pjl69 (2647) 3 years ago

1) The actors were just fine, the story worked better with unknown actors.

2) Yeah, what we needed was another end of the world story with happy ending.

3) Carpenter worked best with small budgets. Besides you wouldn't get your happy ending with Carpenter writing and directing.

[–] whynotwriteme (7811) 3 years ago

Oh yeah, this movie needed no improvements whatsoever... That's why it is the beloved and well-remembered ultra-popular classic it is today...

[–] pjl69 (2647) 3 years ago

No its not, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Popularity doesn't equal good. There were some flaws, like the typical 80's humour moments if I remember correctly. The chopper pilot was ripped from some Rambo movie, for instance.

[–] whynotwriteme (7811) 3 years ago

I thought the chopper pilot was very amusing. My biggest problem was with the leads. I could not identify very much with Edwards, and Winningham was so odd-looking I could never imagine being attracted to her even if she was the last woman on earth. I think a pre-weirdo Nic Cage and Jennifer Tilly would have been so much more appealing. I wish that casting had not fallen through.

I would have ended the movie with them getting on the jet with Landa and the others, but you see it's short of fuel, or maybe leaking fuel, and they have a pitiful amount of supplies for the Antarctic, and everyone else on the plane is getting angsty with one another. End it with a zoom-in on the protagonists quietly embracing by the window while everyone else on the plane is bitching and screaming, and you can see mushroom clouds through the window on the ground below. Just dumping them in the La Brea Tarpits to die was way too abrupt and harsh.

[–] pjl69 (2647) 3 years ago

The ending was fine as it was, I think. It was appropriate the era of homo sapiens ended in the tar pits like the fossils of dinosaurs. The story was always about these two people, Landa and others would haven been unnecessary package for the ending.

I have never had problem with actresses looks, people have different tastes when it comes to falling in love. That's all I have to know. Plain looking actors made the story more accessible.

[–] Roguemail (1627) 3 years ago

I liked it for the very reasons the OP didn't. I liked the leads, they were not the clichéd pretty boy and girl typical of 80s movies.

The ending is bleak...but inevitable. No one would have survived. And its rare that movies allow their main characters to die.

But the above things are what made the movie unique for 3, plus the quirky characters in the diner and others. And Tangerine Dreams score.

In fact I consider this a bit of a Cult classic.

Why you would want to take away what makes the film different and unique is beyond me. It matters not to me that the film was not successful at the box office, that has no bearing on my enjoyment of it.

[–] tobisama (34) a year ago

Saw the film last night, it's a total hidden gem, one of those films you later keep thinking about.

[–] LetoAtreides (576) 4 months ago

I agree on the leads. Especially Mare...she's supposed to be young and attractive, but she already looks like an old lady. It doesn't work.

The tone is also all over the place, it goes from nearly being a comedy with the bunch of losers leaving the restaurant to cops being burned alive at a gas station.