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Rain
Man
remains one of my
favorite movies of
all-time. That list
is inhabited by dumb
comedies, big epics,
some buddy action
movies, and
Rain
Man.
Tom Cruise and
Dustin Hoffman star
together in one of
the best movies of
the 80’s and a movie
that was a big
stepping stone for
both of them in
their careers.
Charlie Babbitt is a
yuppie stock market
broker that drives a
fancy car and has
girlfriend that he
vaguely cares for
and that’s about it.
He cares about
himself and really
that’s his list.
When his father dies
he’s left to take
care of a brother he
didn’t know about;
Raymond. Raymond is
Charlie’s brother
and he’s
intelligent, funny,
and autistic.
Charlie is now left
to take care of
Raymond and he’s
really in no
position to do it
because he’s got to
be cross-country for
his job in a few
short days. So
Raymond and Charlie
travel
cross-country. They
learn to laugh,
love, and they get
to know each other.
It doesn’t end like
the kind of movie it
is, but really
everything works and
Barry Levinson’s
film is a great one.
Hoffman’s
performance as
Raymond Babbitt is
one of his best.
He’s got the Oscar
to prove it.
His
role as an autistic
guy who has about
ninety different
layers while
apparently having
one is fantastic.
Cruise is almost as
impressive as
Charlie, but he has
to pull off
considerably less
than Hoffman. In
addition to the
great performances
by Hoffman and
Cruise in this
character-driven
story you’re also
getting great work
by Barry Levinson.
He really set the
standard for
character driven
movies with
Rain
Man.
He didn’t have to do
a ton with this. But
watch a few of the
same type of movies
made before
Rain
Man
and watch a few made
after and you can
tell that he
impacted how this
type of movie was
made. Levinson’s
work warrants that
mention, but his
characters and the
story are this
movie’s best
qualities.
Rain
Man
had a great script
was hard for
Levinson to mess up.
The pressure was
more on Hoffman with
the movie, he
couldn’t overact. If
he did that the
movie was ruined.
His balance and his
performance were
remarkable. It can’t
be pointed out
enough.
The
picture and the
sound on
Rain
Man
are awesome on Blu-ray.
It’s a typical old
movie transfer
though, it looks
great overall but if
you’re paying
attention you can
see a flaw here and
there. Also, the
audio track for the
disc sounds good and
Hans Zimmer’s very
first motion picture
score is notably
that, it’s not very
impressive but it
does the job.
As
far as extras
there’s a lot of
bonus content with
Rain
Man
but not a lot of it
is good. There’s a
20 minute feature on
some people who
suffer from autism-
some who inspired
the movie. But the
material there is
slightly dated.
There’s also a good
audio commentary
track, the original
theatrical trailer,
and a making of
feature that’s
decent.
Rain Man
is a great movie,
one of the best of
the 80’s. Hoffman
and Cruise used it
for great steps
toward bigger things
and the movie
remains one of the
most re-watchable
movies ever.
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