Gideon58's Reviews

[Gideon58]

http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14391&stc=1&d=1399669316Small Town Girl was a 1953 musical from the MGM stable about a rich playboy (Farley Granger) who gets arrested for driving too fast through a small town and falls for the sheriff's pretty young daughter (Jane Powell). Nothing really special here, Granger and Powell are charming enough, but this film will always standout in my mind because of two musical numbers performed by supporting players Ann Miller and Bobby Van.

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Both of these numbers would later be featured in different installments of THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT. "You Gotta Hear that Beat" was a sizzling production number featuring Ann Miller dancing amongst a disembodied orchestra where you only see the arms/hands of the orchestra playing various instruments. The second number "Take Me To Broadway" featured Van as a human pogo stick, bouncing his way all over town, greeting people and interacting with people and places in town, but he never stops hopping. It's just an amazing number and because of these two musical highlights, SMALL TOWN GIRL is a film I will always remember. 3
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[Gideon58]

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Snakes on a Pane is a campy, far-fetched, yet effective little thriller that will hold your attention. This is the story of an Asian gangster named Eddie Kim who decides to take out the only witness to his murder of a prominent LA district attorney. When Kim feels he has exhausted all other options, he decides to take care of the witness by filling the plane that is flying the witness back to LA to testify, with thousands of deadly poisonous snakes. Then the plane's air filtration system is filled with a gas that triggers the snakes' aggression so what we have, as the main character states, is "snakes on crack."
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If you can accept that this Kim character had no other options and was able to arrange this in a matter of days and that this many snakes don't bite every single person on the plane, then some suspense, scares, and even laughs can be had here. This film reminded me of POLTERGEIST, in that, as much as it tries to scare you, it never loses its sense of humor either. The screenplay is constructed with its tongue well tucked into its proverbial cheek as it not only creates suspense, scares, and produces some genuinely "gross" moments, there is a camp quality to the execution of the story that allows you to accept the lapses in logic.
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The performances range from sincere to overblown with Samuel L. Jackson utilizing his enormous screen appeal to the nth degree as the no-nonsense FBI agent escorting the witness who becomes our reluctant hero. Juliana Marguilies manages to keep a straight face as the head stewardess and SNL's Keenan Thompson provides comic relief as a passenger who steps up in time of crisis. As long as you have a strong heart and you're not eating while you're watching, some thrills and shocks can be gleaned from [I]Snakes on a Plane. 3

[Gideon58]

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S.O.B. was director Blake Edwards' own "All that Jazz", a blistering, slightly over-the-top, slightly disguised look at a particular period in his career when he and wife Julie Andrews were treated pretty despicably by the Hollywood big shots who can make or break people in Hollywood with one telephone call.
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This film is loosely based on the time after Edwards had completed his wife's film STAR! and the studio hated it, wrested control of the film from Edwards, cut like an hour of footage from the film, retitled it "These Were the Happy Times" and then tried to shelve it. After all of this Edwards couldn't get arrested in Hollywood until he hit a bullseye with the 1979 comedy "10."
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But this 1981 comedy was a reminder to Hollywood bigwigs that Edwards had not forgotten their treatment of him. In S.O.B. (which, BTW, stands for Standard Operational Bull***t), Richard Mulligan plays the manic Hollywood director, Felix Farmer, who is suicidal after his film "Night Wind", starring his wife, Sally Miles (Julie Andrews) bombs miserably. Farmer is practically written off in Hollywood until he gets the inspiration to re-shoot the film as a near pornographic extravaganza and have his wife bare her breasts for the first time on screen.

This uncompromising look at the inner workings of Hollywood may seem a little off the wall. These are not pleasant people for the most part and every character in the film, even Andrews, has their own agenda.
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The merciless screenplay is well executed by a glorious all-star cast backing up Mulligan and Andrews, including William Holden, Robert Vaughn, Robert Preston (hysterical as a doctor who gives out pills like candy), Robert Webber, Loretta Swit, Craig Stevens, Stuart Margolin, Shelley Winters, Marisa Berensen, Rosanna Arquette, Robert Loggia, and Larry Hagman. There are several funny scenes in this film and a lot of interesting things happen that by the time Andrews does bare her breasts, it is somewhat anti-climactic, but there is much to enjoy here for those willing to pay the attention that is required as the story is painted on a broad canvas with a lot of characters, but it is worth the trip and, after I saw it the first time, I wanted to see it again and again and think it is one of the great sleepers of the 1980's. 4

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My favorites from this page are Roxanne, Ruthless People, and Sideways.

[Gideon58]

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Outstanding lead performances by Oscar winners Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton are the main selling points ofSomething's Gotta Give, an off-beat engaging comedy where Nicholson falls in love with the mother (Keaton) of his much younger girlfriend (Amanda Peet). Nicholson and especially Keaton deliver 100-Megawatt movie star performances here, presenting delightfully twisted but endearingly human characters that you will learn to care for and Amanda Peet has rarely been so appealing on screen. The strong supporting cast includes Frances McDormand as Keaton's best friend and Keanu Reeves as a young and sexy doctor who competes with Nicholson for Keaton's affections. This movie is deliciously entertaining with standout work from Keaton who surprisingly received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work here. Definitely worth the rental and essential viewing for Nicholson and Keaton fans. 3.5

[Gideon58]

Soul Food is an entertaining and, at times moving film that chronicles the lives of a tight-knit African American family. Big Mama (Irma P. Hall) is the widowed matriarch and referee who always knows exactly what to say to her children in any situation.
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Vanessa Williams is Terri, the oldest daughter, a no-nonsense attorney who spends a lot of time bailing family members out of tight spots and never letting them forget it. Terri's husband Miles (Michael Beach) is also an attorney who really wants to be a musician and is fighting an attraction to Terri's flaky cousin Faith (Gina Ravera). Viveca A. Fox is Maxine, the middle daughter who is married to Kenny (Jeffrey D. Sams), who we learn she stole from Terri when they were teenagers and has a son Ahmad (Brandon Hammond)who assists Big Mama in her job as family referee.

The story opens at the wedding of youngest daughter Bird (Nia Long)whose new husband (Mikhi Phifer)is having trouble securing employment because of his stint in prison. The family manages to handle their differences until Big Mama is incapacitated by illness and can no longer be peacekeeper, but young Ahmad, seeing his family crumble, steps up to take up the slack.
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This entertaining comedy-drama has a surprisingly smart screenplay and first-rate performances, with young Hammond a standout. Lovely family drama that affectionately embraces the experience of a loving African American family. And the food looks delicious! 3.5

[Gideon58]

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Star 80 is Bob Fosse's dark recreation of the relationship between PLAYBOY centerfold/starlet Dorothy Stratten and her Svengali/husband Paul Snider, who ended up murdering her out of resentment, bitterness, and jealousy.

Fosse's unique eye with a camera lends itself quite admirably to this dark tale about the teenage dairy queen employee (Mariel Hemingway) who meets a charismatic but sleazy player named Paul Snider (Eric Roberts)and according to this screenplay, somehow manages to get her to let him be her date for her senior prom and pose nude for pictures in the privacy of his bedroom, which he ends up submitting to PLAYBOY and from there becomes her manager as he takes her from Vancouver to Hollywood, but as Dorothy becomes famous, she clearly doesn't need Paul in her life and the more she attempts to wrest herself from his iron grip, the more unhinged he becomes and the tighter he seals his grip on her.
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The fact that this story is a true one just makes it all the more depressing to watch and Fosse has a way of giving the whole film a very voyeuristic feel...as if we're watching private scenes we are not supposed to see.

Roberts gives the performance of his career as the slimy Snider, the player who is in denial about what a loser he truly is and how Dorothy comes to not need him anymore, which he will have none of. Roberts is electrifying here, in a performance that should have earned him an Oscar nomination and Mariel Hemingway is lovely and fragile as the tragic Dorothy, caught in a web she can't escape from. Cliff Robertson is effective as Hugh Hefner and 60's starlet Carroll Baker is surprisingly good as Dorothy's mother. Roger Rees plays Aram Nicholas, the movie director Dorothy becomes involved with, in reality, a thinly disguised Peter Bogdanovich, whom Dorothy had a relationship with.

This is a dark and sobering drama, made all the more harrowing because it's a true story, masterfully directed by Bob Fosse. 3.5

[Gideon58]

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Starsky and Hutch, Ben Stiller's affectionate take on the 70's TV series is not so much an homage to the classic television series as it is to that divinely decadent decade known as the 1970's.

The TV show is basically used as a backdrop to mount a clever comic romp that trots out just about every TV cliché you think of from the 1970's. This re-thinking of the TV classic has Stiller playing Dave Starsky as a somewhat anal, by-the-book cop who does everything by the rules and is living in the shadow of his late mother, also a cop. Ken Hutchison, breezily played by Owen Wilson, is now a laid back, instinctual kind of cop who is not above taking shortcuts or slightly illegal methods to get evidence he needs or perks from the job he thinks he deserves.

The two are brought together here to bring down a couple of crooked drug dealers (Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman). Snoop Dogg steals every scene he is in as Huggy Bear and Will Ferrell has a memorable cameo that turns into one of the funniest scenes in the movie.
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In addition to the effortless chemistry between Stiller and Wilson, this film also evokes the 1970's so effectively, with the clothes, the cars, and especially the music (if you owned a radio in the 1970's, you will recognize the entire score of this movie). It's not a by-the-letters salute to the TV show, but it's a raucous, laugh-out loud comedy that recreates the 70's better than any film in recent history. 3

[Gideon58]

Stay the Night was a 1992 TV movie, originally aired in two parts, that centered around a small town trollop named Jimmy Sue Finger (Barbara Hershey), trapped in a loveless marriage, who drifts into an affair with a local teenager (Morgan Weissner)and eventually talks the boy into murdering her abusive husband so that they can supposedly be together.
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After the boy does the deed and is promptly sent to prison, Jimmy Sue pretends to be devoted to him by visiting him regularly in jail, but never reveals her part in what happened so the boy's mother (Jane Alexander) embarks on a mission to get Jimmy Sue to confess that the murder was Jimmy Sue's idea by cozying up to her and pretending to be her best friend in an attempt to get Jimmy Sue to casually reveal the truth about what happened.

This is a well-made drama that will wreak havoc with your emotions, thanks primarily to a strong screenplay and the riveting performances by the two lead actresses. Hershey, in particular, making the most out of a truly despicable character, is just spectacular in a performance that earned her an Emmy nomination. Alexander, splendid as always, matches Hershey scene for scene as the conflicted mother who finds herself feeling some guilt as she finds her personal feelings about Jimmy Sue getting tangled up with her mission.

Morgan Weissner is sincere as the boy who is the object of the drama and Earl Hindman ("Wilson" of TV's HOME IMPROVEMENT) is also effective as Alexander's husband and Weissner's father. It's emotionally manipulative, like Jimmy Sue Finger herself, but it hits the bullseye. 4

[Gideon58]

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Another movie that is part of my permanent video collection and never get tired of watching, Steel Magnolias is the beautifully expanded version of Robert Harling's play about the relationship between six women who frequent the same beauty parlor.
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Director Herbert Ross does an admirable job of taking Harling's play, which takes place entirely inside Truvy's beauty salon and making this story look like an actual movie and not just a photographed stage play and does it with style and care...the movie is absolutely beautiful to look at and the six actresses occupying the lead roles work like a well-oiled machine.

I am pretty sure the first phrase that comes to mind for most people when this film is mentioned is "Chick Flick", but, as a male, I happily admit to loving to watch this movie over and over again, not just because of the six charismatic performances by the actresses, but because this film also has one of the funniest screenplays ever written. Claree: "The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize." Truvy: "Ruth Robeline...now there's a story...her whole life has been an experiment in terror...first her husband was killed in WWII and then her son was killed in Vietnam... I tell you, when it comes to suffering, she's right up there with Elizbeth Taylor." Claree: "well, you always know what I say...if you can't think anything nice to say about someone, come sit by me." Ouiser: "I'm not crazy...I've just been in a bad mood for the last thirty years."
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And just when you think your sides are about to split open from laughing so hard, the film takes a tragic turn and you're reaching for the Kleenex. The scene in the cemetery is riveting, thanks primarily to a flawless and raw performance by Sally Field, who climaxes what is already a beautiful and commanding performance in the film, with her rage against God as her only outlet of grief at the moment. This scene makes me cry every time I watch the movie. An appeal to the gentlemen out there who have never seen this movie: Give it a chance. I did and I have never regretted it. 4

[Gideon58]

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Smokey Joe's Café was a dazzling and captivating musical revue comprised of songs by the team of Lieber and Stoller, who unknown to me prior to this show, composed a lot of Elvis Presley's biggest hits as well as some other Tin Pan Alley classics, whose origin had escaped me prior to this show.
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The version I saw of this show was, according to the announcer, the final performance of this show on Broadway so I did not see the original cast, but I was more than impressed nonetheless. No characters or dialogue...just singing and dancing, one spectacular number after another. Highlights for me included "Poison Ivy", "On Broadway", "DW Washburn", "W-O-M-A-N", "Hound Dog", "Jailhouse Rock", "You're the Boss", "Loving You" and topping it all was BJ Crosby's show-stopping rendition of "Say Hello to a Brand New Fool".
This show is full of "I didn't know they wrote that!" moments that take you back to a different time and place in pop culture in general and musical culture in particular, when songwriters still wrote songs and singers really sang them. For musical theater fans, a joy from start to finish. 4

[Gideon58]

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It's not Shakespeare, but St. Elmo's Fire was a great guilty pleasure from the 1980's that is still watchable thanks to its charismatic cast. In another variation of The Big Chill, this film follows a group of Georgetown college students a year after graduation and the different paths their lives have taken even though their friendships remain flawed but solid.
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Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy are now living together and Nelson's Alec is now pushing Sheedy's Leslie to get married even though he constantly cheats on her claiming marriage will make him faithful. Andrew McCarthy plays Kevin, an aspiring writer who everyone is convinced is gay because he has been in love from a distance for many years and won't talk about it. Emilio Estevez is a waiter who becomes obsessed with romancing a doctor (Andie McDowell) who he went out on one date with in college. Mare Winningham is now a social worker who is in love with Billy, played by Rob Lowe. Billy is an aspiring musician and aimless drifter who's been through 20 jobs since graduation and is lost without school. Demi Moore shines as Jules, the party girl who slept with everyone in college and whose partying lifestyle is starting to catch up with her. It's not deep or meaningful, but it's a lot fun and the cast is game. 3.5

[Gideon58]

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1978'sStraight Time is a dark and somber drama which asks a lot of difficult questions and offers few answers but continues to fascinate as its screenplay is rich with characters who are all painted in shades of gray...no one here is all good or all bad. Just like the questions posed in the story, none of the characters are black and white.
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Dustin Hoffman gives one of his most powerful and underrated performances as Max Denbo, a career criminal who has been in and out of the prison system for most his life who is again out on parole as the story begins and as much as Max wants to straighten his life out, all he finds along the way is roadblocks and bigotry, bigotry towards ex-cons trying to start their lives over that eventual leads him back to a life of crime.
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Hoffman is riveting as Denbo, a loser who clearly wants to carve out a new life for himself but society and circumstances keep throwing up roadblocks. You feel for this man and you want to see him turn his life around but you can't help but understand completely the backslide he takes and you always sympathize with him.

Hoffman gets strong support from Theresa Russell as a sympathetic employment agency worker, Harry Dean Stanton and Gary Busey as friends from Max's past who he reconnects with and M. Emmett Walsh as a slimy probation officer.http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14429&stc=1&d=1399699765 This sobering indictment of our society's rehabilitation system and its lack of effectiveness pulls no punches and stays with you long after fadeout. A haunting and impressive film. Bit of Trivia: In the scene where Hoffman goes to visit Gary Busey at his home, that is Busey's real-life son, Jake, playing his onscreen son. 4

[Gideon58]

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Stranger than Fiction is an offbeat and imaginative fantasy that is as intriguing a journey for the film-goer as it is a welcome change of pace for its star, Will Ferrell. Ferrell is cast dramatically against type as Harold Crick, a lonely and brilliant IRS agent who wakes up one day and hears a female voice narrating his life, which the pragmatic and completely practical Crick finds unsettling at first but learns to accept it to a point, until the day the narrator announces that he is going to die.
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We then learn that the narrator is actually a mentally-shredded, chain-smoking novelist named Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson) with writer's block and that Harold is the main character in Eiffel's latest book. It is revealed that Eiffel always kills off her main characters but is stuck on how to do away with Harold. Meanwhile, Harold seeks the help of an eccentric college professor (Dustin Hoffman) in learning who this narrator is while tentatively pursuing a relationship with a free-spirited baker (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who he is auditing.
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The story reaches a fever pitch for the viewer as we become completely engulfed in this cat and mouse game of Harold trying to prevent his death before Eiffel can write it, but then the story veers in an unexpected direction that makes this challenging race for Harold's life even more riveting.

The film features an intelligent screenplay and crisp direction and Will Ferrell is an absolute revelation here, creating a character like nothing he has done before. His Harold Crick has a mind like an Excel spreadsheet, but is also socially inept, hypersensitive, and full of suppressed dreams. For those who have hated Ferrell's work prior to this, I challenge you to give this film a try. Ferrell actually delivers a performance of depth and vulnerability that might surprise you.

Gyllenhaal has never been more appealing on screen and Hoffman is quietly masterful as the know it all professor trying to figure out who the narrator is by learning who it isn't first. Thompson tended to grate on my nerves as Eiffel and Queen Latifah's role as her assistant was pointless, but it is the deft story and the surprisingly effective performance from Will Ferrell playing a normal human being that made this film a winner. 4.5

[Gideon58]

http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14433&stc=1&d=1399701172Summer Stock was the final musical that Judy Garland appeared in while under contract to MGM. Judy plays Jane Falbury, a woman single-handedly struggling to run a farm and keep a milquetoast of a fiancée (Eddie Bracken) at arm's length.

One day, Jane's sister, Abigail (Gloria DeHaven) arrives at the farm and informs Jane that she has invited the cast of a show she's appearing in to rehearse at the farm. Jane reluctantly agrees to let the cast rehearse at the farm if they agree to help with chores around the farm.
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Then Jane falls for Joe (Gene Kelly) the director and star of the show and Abigail's boyfriend. This is the paper-thin plot from which this delightful musical springs and Garland, despite the hell that was her personal life at the time, never lets it show on screen. Shortly after the release of this film, Garland tried to commit suicide and was "released" from her contract with MGM.

The most famous musical number in the film is "Get Happy" which features Judy in a sexy cut-off tuxedo surrounded by muscular chorus boys. If the number looks out of place with the rest of the film, there's good reason. After the film was completed, MGM bigwigs decided the movie needed a stronger finale. Judy was called back to the studio six months after the rest of the movie had been completed and they shot "Get Happy" and inserted the number near the end of the film. During that six month interim, Judy had lost twenty pounds and does look noticeably thinner in "Get Happy" than she does in the rest of the film.
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This was Judy's third and final film with Kelly, who also makes a strong impression with a solo dance he does on an empty stage that involves a squeaky floorboard and a newspaper, and two great duets with co-star Phil Silvers: "Dig dig dig for your Dinner" and "Heavenly Music." Attention should also be paid to a lovely solo Judy has called "Friendly Star". The barn dance sequence is also a lot of fun and showcases Garland's underrated skills as a dancer.An MGM classic that definitely marked the end of an era. 3.5

[Gideon58]

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Superman Returns is the long awaited revival of the comic book hero to the big screen since he first arrived back in 1978. This gargantuan 2006 production finds our Superhero returning to Metropolis, the Daily Planet, and Lois Lane after an extended absence in which Superman apparently returned to Krypton to confirm the destruction of the planet of his birth. Upon his return to Metropolis, Clark Kent finds his old job back at the Daily Planet, finds out that Lex Luthor is back on the loose after five years in prison and that Lois Lane is engaged and has a child.

Director and co-writer Bryan Singer has mounted this production with a great deal of care and attention to detail. He seems to have been attempting to revive the spirit of the original 1978 film, as certain dialogue, settings, and music have been lifted and re-thought from the 1978 film (including Superman and Lois' romantic flight over Metropolis to "Can You Read My Mind?") but it all rings hollow for me because the film is lacking the primary ingredient that made the 1978 film so successful...humor.
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Singer has directed this film with a totally straight face. It is dark, bleak, and humorless, the only exception to that being the deliciously campy performance from Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Taking the humor out of the story also affects its pacing giving us a long and laborious film that offers state of the art special effects but not much else.

The casting ranges from OK to completely off the mark. Brandon Routh is sincere as Clark Kent/Superman and his resemblance to the late Christopher Reeve doesn't exactly work against him. Kate Bosworth is bland and unconvincing as Lois Lane...the emotional spitfire that Margot Kidder created back in 78 looks better and better after this tired interpretation of the role. Frank Langella is miscast as Perry White as is Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olsen and James Marsden fails to bring any spark to the proceedings as Richard White, Perry's nephew and Lois' fiancée. Even the normally charismatic Parker Posey fails to liven the proceedings as Luthor's new mistress, Kitty.

I also found it hard to accept the fact that Lois could fall in love with anyone else, much less have a child with him. The whole idea of Lois falling in love with another man works against the entire legend of these two characters and may be at the crux of why this this movie doesn't work. 2.5

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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the dark and dazzling 2007 film adaptation of the landmark 1979 Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim that won nine Tony Awards.

Not for the faint of heart, Tim Burton, the master of dark and demented (BATMAN, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY), found source material that seems tailor-made for his directorial sensibilities and mounted a deliciously entertaining film that should please most Sondheim purists and possibly motivate newcomers to the piece to seek out the original stage musical.
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For the uninitiated, this is the story of Benjamin Barker, a barber who was wrongfully imprisoned many years ago by the evil Judge Turpin, who was responsible for the "death" of Barker's wife, Lucy and the kidnapping of his daughter, Johanna, who returns to his old stomping grounds, a grimy London alley called Fleet Street to exact revenge on the Judge. Enter Mrs. Lovett, the slovenly owner of a dirty meat pie shop, whose infatuation with Barker and the desire to improve her own business, sparks a most fascinating business partnership.

This musical shocked theater audiences in 1979 and in the hands of ghoul master Burton, is no less shocking today. Burton employs his accustomed darkness to the already twisted material, making the story even creepier…the film allows Burton to expand portions of the story that were only touched upon on stage, particularly the back story of Benjamin, Lucy, and the Judge which makes the return of the clearly demented Todd much more plausible.
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Presenting the story on film also allows Burton to put another character center stage…the blood. There is blood everywhere here, as it should be, making the savagery of what Todd and Mrs. Lovett are doing even more sickeningly fascinating than it was on stage. Needless to say, expansions in some areas of the story require sacrifices in others and the main sacrifice Burton made here was with Sondheim's gargantuan score…a great deal of the original score has been cut from the film, which is missed at times, but the theatrical aspects of the score had to be altered for a film adaptation. The famous "Ballad" which occurs throughout the show, would have hampered the telling of the story on screen. As a matter of fact, the original theatrical trailer for this film completely disguises the fact that this film is a musical.
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The film features impressive art direction and cinematography (I can't remember ever seeing blood so red) and the cast is first rate. Johnny Depp's Oscar nominated turn as Sweeney Todd is nothing short of brilliant, a deeply internalized performance that was definitely developed from the inside out. As for Depp's singing, I had my doubts when I first heard he had been cast in this role, but it works for the movie screen…his "Epiphany" is breathtaking. Helena Bonham Carter's Mrs. Lovett sucks all of the humor out of the character and I don't blame Bonham Carter completely, Burton has to share this one.

Mention should also be made of Alan Rickman's Judge Turpin, Timothy Spall's Beadle, and Sascha Baron Cohen as Pirelli, a competitor of Todd's who recognizes him from the old days. A hauntingly impressive adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim masterpiece that does it justice. 3.5

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14442&stc=1&d=1399726737Sweet Dreams was the 1985 film biography of country and western singing legend Patsy Cline, magnificently portrayed by Jessica Lange, who delivers one of her most charismatic performances as the singing legend who rose from humble beginnings to become a country and western legend.

Lange imbues a fire and spirit into Cline that is quite endearing and allows us a perhaps partly speculative look at the fire that drove Patsy to become what she did. There is a great moment when Patsy is meeting with a record producer (David Clennon) and she is describing the kind of career she wants and he says, "Oh you want to be Kitty Wells?" and Patsy replies, "Hell no, I wanna be Hank Williams!"
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According to this film, Patsy didn't want to be a country singer, she wanted to BE country music. I also love the scene where Patsy is introduced to the song "Crazy" and says she can't sing this man's song and the producer explains, "Sing it the way you always do, Patsy...your way...let the words tell the story." Patsy slows the tempo, does it her way, and it became her signature song.

Lange not only delivers a wonderful performance in this film, but she does one of the best jobs I have ever seen on screen of an actor lip-synching to another voice. Her lip-synching to Cline's voice is practically flawless. If it weren't for the fact that I know exactly what Cline's recordings sounded like, it would have been hard to tell that Lange was not doing her own singing here. Lange delivers such a charismatic performance here that, despite the fact that her singing is dubbed, Lange still received an Oscar nomination for her performance.
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Lange also gets solid support from Ed Harris as Patsy husband, Charlie Dick and from Ann Wedgeworth as Patsy's mom. I don't know why this has always bothered me but I noticed that in COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER, Patsy seemed to be a major character in Loretta Lynn's story but Loretta is not even mentioned in this film. Nevertheless, this is a warm and entertaining film, definitely a notch above the average film biography, thanks mostly to an extraordinary performance by Jessica Lange. 3.5

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Take the Lead is a fact-inspired tale revolving around Pierre Dulaine, the owner of a ballroom dancing studio who, after witnessing an act of teenage vandalism, offers to teach ballroom dancing at an inner city high school. The principal tentatively agrees to let him teach the kids who are permanently in detention for the rest of the school year.
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Despite a preachy, cliché-filled screenplay and manic music video direction, the film is watchable because the dance sequences are positively electric, superbly choreographed by JoAnn Jansen. Antonio Banderas is charming and understated as Dulaine, the caring teacher who does manage to reach these kids until the world of these kids and the world of the students at his own school begin to collide.

Banderas wisely underplays to the extremely gifted young actors chosen to play the delinquents-turned-dancers here and allows them to shine, as they should and do. Alfre Woodard also manages to make the most of a predictably-written role as the principal of the school.
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When the movie leaves the dance floor, it screeches to a dead halt, but every single dance sequence in the film is mesmerizing, whether it's a single student practicing by herself in a quiet boiler room or a three versus two tango challenge that is like nothing I've ever seen on screen.

When the movie dances it works, when it stops dancing, be forewarned as it trots out every cliché you've ever seen in a movie about inner city high school kids, but Banderas and the dancing make it worth watching. 3
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Teaching Mrs. Tingle was a surprisingly effective little black comedy that was more entertaining than I imagined something like this could be.

Katie Holmes plays a straight-A high school student whose entire academic future is threatened when the cold blooded Mrs. Tingle (Helen Mirren) accuses her of stealing the answers to an upcoming exam. A desperate Holmes, with the assistance of two friends(Barry Watson,Marisa Coughlan) ambush Mrs. Tingle at her home, tie her to her bed,and plan to keep her prisoner until she agrees to let Holmes off the hook.
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The premise is rather off the wall, but the story is mounted with tongue firmly planted in cheek and if viewed in that fashion, this movie can provide some goofy fun. Holmes has always been a dreadful actress IMO and this movie did nothing to change my mind about that but Oscar winner Mirren is marvelous in the title role, speaking with a near perfect American accent, Mirren is masterful, turning in a performance of almost Gothic quality. Marisa Coughlan also has her moments as the self-absorbed drama major who enjoys this game a little too much until she allows Tingle to manipulate her as well.
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Mention should also be made of Michael McKean as the school principal, Molly Ringwald as Miss Tingle's substitute (her take on Cleopatra is hilarious), and especially Jeffrey Tambor, hysterical in a memorable bit as a fellow faculty member who is having an affair with Tingle. But the script is rather clever, Mirren is wonderful and the ending with a twist is on the money. 3

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Terms of Endearment is an undeniably gripping and emotional film experience that will have you rolling on the floor during one scene and weeping uncontrollably during the next. The film was a surprise box office smash that won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1983

This film follows the complicated relationship between an icy, Texan widow named Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine)and her slightly-off-the-wall daughter, Emma (Debra Winger), who at the beginning of the film is marrying a man named Flap Horton (Jeff Daniels), whom her mother clearly hates (Aurora doesn't even attend their wedding), seemingly just to get away from Aurora.
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The film follows Emma's marriage through three children, infidelity, and unexpected tragedy but it never lets go of the unspoken bond between Aurora and Emma...a bond so strong that it transcends telephone lines, geography, and even dialogue at times...there are moments in the story where you see Aurora and Emma communicate without saying a word to each other. The film primarily focuses on the very tangled relationship between Aurora and Emma and how everything that each does drives the other crazy but never changes the love between them, no matter how deep the denial.

Writer-director James L. Brooks won a pair of Oscars for writing and directing this funny and heartbreaking story that stretches over a long period of time but never fails to hold interest and trust me, the last 20-30 minutes of this film will have you weeping.
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Shirley MacLaine finally won her long-overdue Best Actress Oscar for her controlled performance as Aurora and Jack Nicholson won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as a retired astronaut who moves in next door to Aurora after Emma moves out and begins a hilarious and touching relationship with Aurora. Debra Winger is explosive and unpredictable as Emma and Jeff Daniels is fully invested in the unsympathetic role of Flap. A truly unique motion picture experience that will leave you limp. 4.5

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Thank you for Smoking is a bold and gutsy satire that takes a politically-sensitive issue and turns it on its ear in a manner that will thoroughly entertain those who view it in the way it is intended...as a satire.

Written and directed by Jason Reitman (son of famed director Ivan Reitman), the film stars Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor, who works as a lobbyist/mouthpiece for an organization called The Academy of Tobacco Studies, where his job boils down to being a goodwill ambassador for the tobacco industry. His current endeavors include negotiating a multi-million dollar movie deal for a futuristic sci-fi movie starring Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones where they would smoke throughout the film, opposing a campaign being spearheaded by a US Senator to put a new label on cigarettes that says "Poison" and display a skull and crossbones underneath it, and delivering a suitcase full of money to the original Marlboro Man, who is now dying of cancer, in order to get him to stop badmouthing smoking. Between these duties and his interview with a reporter (Katie Holmes)that reveals just a little too much, Nick actually finds his life in danger.
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This is one of the smartest and most original satires to hit the silver screen in a long time and as long as you keep in mind that it is a satire, the film is richly entertaining. We all know that smoking is bad and this film just takes a pointed and off beat look at the issue from the side of the tobacco industry in a world where their side of the issue would matter. Beautifully balancing Nick's twisted world and the sometimes perverted requirements of his job is his relationship with his son, whose hero worship of his dad makes Nick question whether or not he worthy of said worship.
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In the spirit of films like Network and All About Eve, the real star of this film is the razor-sharp screenplay by Reitman, based on a novel by Christopher Buckley, that humorously skewers the tobacco, advertising, and entertainment industries and should have been nominated for an Oscar. Reitman's kinetic direction works perfectly for this dark and brittle story, beautifully executed by a great cast...Eckhart (best known prior to this as Julia Roberts' boy toy in Erin Brockovich) turns in a charismatic and riveting performance as Nick Naylor and gets flawless support from JK Simmons as his boss, Rob Lowe as a fast talking movie studio exec,William H. Macy as the Senator heading the poison label campaign, and in a brilliantly understated turn, Sam Elliott as the dying Marlboro Man.

A truly unique and daring movie that breaks some bold new ground and should establish Jason Reitman as an important new force in film-making. A masterpiece. 5

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That's Life! is a lovely family drama from 1986 directed by Blake Edwards centering on an affluent family man named Harvey Fairchild (Jack Lemmon)who goes through an emotional roller-coaster due to his approaching 60th birthday. He is so busy wallowing in self-pity and depression that he is not even aware of the fact that his wife, Gillian (Julie Andrews) is facing a life-threatening illness.

This barely-seen and highly underrated film was an unexpected delight with an intelligent screenplay, sensitive direction by Edwards and a 100-megawatt star performance by Jack Lemmon in the title role. Harvey doesn't garner a lot of sympathy as this story progresses because this is basically a guy who has everything and is moping around feeling sorry for himself because he can't deal with the natural process of aging and even more incredible than Harvey's ridiculous behavior is Gillian's condoning of it, considering what she's going through.
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If the truth be told, this is pretty much a Blake Edwards home movie featuring his family and Lemmon's. This is the first time Edwards and Lemmon have worked together since The Days of Wine and Roses and they prove to be a formidable actor/director team, no Scorsese/DeNiro, but they definitely understand each other.

The film wreaks of nepotism with Chris Lemmon playing their oldest son, Blake Edwards' daughter Jennifer and Andrews' daughter, Emma Walton also appearing as siblings in the family. There is even a cameo by Lemmon's real life spouse, Felicia Farr, as a fortune teller. The home of Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews is even utilized as the Fairchild family home in the film.

Edwards, Andrews, and especially Lemmon fans should definitely give this one a look if they haven't seen it...a quiet, affecting drama that effectively blends the smile and the tear. 3.5

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14461&stc=1&d=1399733737That Thing you Do! was a warm and affectionate valentine to the world of pop music in the 1960's which marked the directorial debut of two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks. Hanks lovingly examines a phenomenon that was practically an epidemic in the music world in the 60's...the "One-Hit Wonder."

This film is the story of a garage band in a small town who call themselves The Oneders who have perfected a nice little ballad called "That thing you do." The night they perform the song publicly for the first time, the drummer doubles the tempo and, as an up tune, the song is a smash. They record it and it even gets radio play.

The group then meets a Mr. White (Hanks), who agrees to manage the group and get them national exposure. He changes their name to The Wonders because they keep getting introduced as "The Oneeders" and books them on tours of state fairs and even gets them on TV and in a beach party movie, all on the strength of this one song, but when the group pressures White to make another record, that's where the problems begin.
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This movie accurately portrays the way a musical act in the 60's was able to catapult to stardom on the strength of one record and then disappear forever. The film is beautifully mounted, with imaginative direction by Hanks and Oscar-worthy art direction and costume design.

Tom Everett Scott lights up the screen as Guy, the drummer whose change of tempo changes the lives of the group forever. The film also features impressive turns by Jonathan Schaech as the arrogant lead singer, Steve Zahn as the fun-loving empty-headed guitarist and Liv Tyler as Schaech's girlfriend.

Take note of my favorite scene in the film where the members of the group hear their song on the radio for the very first time...the joy depicted here is infectious as is this film, which proved to be an impressive directorial debut for Tom Hanks. 4

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14462&stc=1&d=1399734238Steve Carell, Emmy nominee for THE OFFICE and the only actor who came close to stealing ANCHORMAN from Will Ferrell, lights up the screen in The 40 Year Old Virgin, a completely winning and original comedy, co-written by Carell and Judd Apatow, that turned out to be one of the most refreshing and drop dead funny surprises of 2005. Carell and co-writer and director Apatow, have managed to create a comedy that is not only hysterically funny, but undeniably warm and charming.
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Carell plays Andy, an anal-attentive electronics store salesman who cooks gourmet breakfasts and has an expensive collection of action figures (when you remove them from their original packaging, it decreases their value)who agrees one night to an evening of poker with three of his co-workers (Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogan), who manipulate Andy into admitting that he has never had sex with a woman. We then spend the rest of the film watching poor Andy getting really terrible advice from his well-intentioned buddies about the best possible method of "deflowerization."

Such a premise would normally suiggest a smarmy sex comedy, but that's not what we get at all here. Carell and Apatow's screenplay is smart and almost always takes the high road, in the best tradition of the Woodmeister, and every time you think you know where it's going, the story takes a complete U-turn.
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Catherine Keener, one of Hollywood's sexiest and most intelligent screen presences these days, is sparkling and vivacious, as Trish, the businesswoman and single mom Andy falls for. Rudd has some very funny moments as Andy's buddy who is still obsessing over an ex and Jane Lynch is also amusing as Andy's self-absorbed boss. As I watched this practically perfect screen comedy, which works from start to finish, and remembered that Carell co-wrote it as well as starred, I couldn't help but wonder if Carell is going to be the next Woody Allen. If this winner is any indication of where he is headed as a writer and performer, he is well on his way. 3.5
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The Best Man is a hip and sexy re-thinking of films like THE BIG CHILL and RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS SEVEN,this time with an African American cast.

The film centers on a group of college buddies who are reuniting for a wedding. Things get sticky when one of the group has written an about to be published novel, where the characters are just thinly disguised versions of his friends and how revelations in this book alter and shake the foundations of these relationships.

Taye Diggs is attractive as Harper, the author of the book and the best man at the wedding; Morris Chestnut plays a professional football player and the groom; Nia Long is sexy and funny as Jordan, a TV journalist/Oprah wannabe who hopes to rekindle a romance with Harper at the wedding; Harold Perrineau plays a grade school teacher caught in a stranglehold of a relationship with an emasculating female (Melissa DeSousa); Terrence Howard steals every scene he is in as this group's voice of reality; Sanaa Lathan plays Harper's fiancée who can't get Harper to commit and Monica Calhoun is the bride who is at the center of the explosion caused by the book.

There's nothing terribly original here, but the cast is charismatic and works very hard at making the material fresh and appealing. It's predictable, but still fun is to be had here. 3

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1983's The Big Chill is one of those beautifully crafted and wonderfully acted films that is so ingratiating that I can watch it over and over and never tire of it. Director Lawrence Kasdan hits the bullseye in this alternately hilarious and moving variation on the earlier Return of the Secaucus Seven.
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This film follows the reunion of a group of friends who went to college together, who have gathered for the funeral of their mutual friend, Alex, who has committed suicide. The original screenplay included scenes with Alex, who was played by Kevin Costner, but, in a stroke of genius, it was decide to delete all of the Alex scenes in the film, lending a wonderful air of mystery to the character of Alex and allowing the audience more input as to why Alex decided to end his life. Director Laurence Kasdan's decision to eliminate Alex's scenes was a stroke of genius.. I also loved that these old friends of Alex from college gather for his funeral and are forced to face who Alex had become through the eyes of current girlfriend Chloe (Meg Tilly).

Alex's friends are Harold Cooper (Kevin Kline), who now owns a shoe store franchise and his doctor-wife, Sarah (Glenn Close), who also serve as our hosts ; Michael (Jeff Goldblum), a writer for PEOPLE magazine; Meg (Mary Kay Place)an attorney who wants to have a baby; Sam (Tom Berenger) an actor with his own TV show who misses the simple life; Karen (JoBeth Williams), a restless housewife who would really like to be a writer and Nick (William Hurt) a drug dealer who would like to be anything else. I love when Nick tries to lighten the mood at one point and the only one who laughs i Chloe,p a brilliant directorial touch by Kasdan.
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This gathering of old and new friends sets the stage for some long-dormant resentments to bubble to the surface and for some long buried passions to be re-ignited. Kasdan has a sharp directorial eye and a flawless ear for dialogue with one of the most quotable screenplays ever and it is all set to a soundtrack of the greatest music from the 1960's ever compiled for a movie soundtrack.

The cast is perfection...Close received a Best Supporting Actress nomination but the entire cast works at the same level and to honor one without honoring the ensemble wouldn't have been right. This is the ultimate ensemble piece and it works just about perfectly. Anyway you slice it, an instant classic. 4.5
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The Break Up is another incorrectly marketed romantic comedy, that like 2005's The Family Stone, turned out to be anything but the film it was advertised to be.

This disjointed and odd film chronicles the end of the relationship of Gary (Vince Vaughn) and Brooke (Jennifer Aniston). They meet in the opening scene at a baseball game and the bulk of their relationship is illustrated through photographs shown during the opening credits. What we see is the final days before the big fight where Gary and Brooke decide to break up, but remain roommates in the condo they co-own. Then the story segues into this WAR OF THE ROSES type battle to see which one can hurt the other more.
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The main thing that bothered me about this film is that the story is one-sided. I believe when making a film about a relationship, no matter what phase of the relationship, we should be able to empathize with both parties involved. In this film, Gary comes off as a victim of this cold manipulative bitch Brooke and it doesn't work. Vaughn's performance is solid but Aniston just comes off as shrill and annoying.

There is a solid supporting cast including Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Justin Long, Joey Lauren Adams, and the divine Judy Davis, but even their presence fails to make this film entertaining. It's mean-spirited and unpleasant and the lion's share of the blame has to go to Vaughn, who produced and co-wrote this mess. I don't know what he was trying to do here, but it didn't work. 2

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The Brothers is a breezy, but ultimately empty flip side to Waiting to Exhale which chronicles the friendship between four attractive and professional African American males as they navigate through various problems regarding the opposite sex.

Nothing deep or exciting here, but the cast is attractive and works to please. Morris Chestnut plays Jackson, the doctor who loves the chase but is scared to death of commitment; Shemar Moore is the engaged brother who thinks he's ready to settle down; DL Hughley is the married brother who is not getting what he wants in the bedroom; and Bill Bellamy is the attorney whose bad experiences with black females have led him to a decision to only date white women. Despite stilted direction and a paper thin screenplay, the very attractive cast makes this watchable. There is effective support from luscious Gabrielle Union as the lady with a secret Chestnut falls for and from Jenifer Lewis and Clifton Powell as Chestnut's divorced parents. Basically, the film comes off as a 90-minute rebuttal to Waiting to Exhale, but the attractive and willing cast make it worth a look. 2.5

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The Cable Guy is a twisted black comedy about a manic cable TV installer who invades the life of one of his customers well beyond the point of comfort.

Director Ben Stiller brings a decidedly dark twist to what could have been a standard comedy that distracts to the point where we're not sure how we're supposed to feel about the central character...are we supposed to like him? Fear him? Pity him? It's hard to determine exactly because the screenplay is all over the place and Stiller's rein on the manic Jim Carrey in the title role isn't quite tight enough.

There are some on-target jabs at the television industry but most of the laughs provided here are nervous ones. Carrey works hard to make his off-the-wall character likable but only succeeds half the time. Matthew Broderick makes an effective straight man as Stephen, the young architect whose life Carrey invades.
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The film also features Leslie Mann as Broderick's girlfriend, George Segal and Diane Baker as Broderick's parents, and Jack Black as his best friend. Owen Wilson can also be glimpsed in a brief cameo as a blind date of Mann's.

Director Stiller is also featured in an amusing set of cameos as twin former child stars whose murder trial is being covered on Court TV. Jim Carrey was paid 20 million for this film and after seeing it, you have to wonder why. 2.5
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Director David Fincher (Fight Club)has achieved the zenith of his career with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a sweeping and majestic fable that spans almost an entire century.

This moving and eloquent story follows the life of a boy named Benjamin, who was born as a baby in his late 80's and ages in reverse. His mother died in childbirth and his father was so horrified at the sight of him that he left him on an anonymous doorstep, where he was taken in by a kindly black owner of a boarding house in post WWI New Orleans.
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We become completely enveloped in Benjamin's tale as we watch him calmly accept the extraordinary hand that God has dealt him while others do the same or run in terror. We watch the kindly adopted mother who accepts him as he is, though does take him to a faith healer thinking she can "save" him; we also watch his biological father track him down and regret his decision of giving the boy up while he maintains a life long friendship with Daisy, the little girl who he meets as an old manchild, whose lives meet in the middle as she grows into a vain beauty who can't accept the fact that Benjamin grows younger as she grows older.

The film is visually arresting and bold in its cinematic scope as Fincher's meticulous direction brings you a story that haunts and fascinates.
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Brad Pitt received his second Oscar nomination for his performance in the title role, a role which many feel was all visual effects and makeup; however, Benjamin has a mind and a soul and a voice that Pitt brings to this extraordinary character with a quiet and understated dignity. Cate Blanchett is luminous as Daisy, the love of Benjamin's life who can't quite accept Benjamin's life for what it is and there is strong support from Taraji P. Henson as Benjamin's adoptive mother and Jason Flemyng as his biological father.

Fincher breathes an extraordinary life into this story which could have been buried in visual effects and makeup but has a life of its own and the final act as Daisy becomes an older woman while Benjamin regresses to infancy, is absolutely heartbreaking. A one of kind cinematic experience. 4

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I was afraid that The Dark Knight would not live up to the hype and to everything I had heard about the film, but the film not only lived up to the hype but effortlessly surpassed it.

This epic sequel to Batman Begins(a film which put me to sleep, BTW)is a directorial triumph for Christopher Nolan (robbed of a Best Director nomination), who has mounted the ultimate comic book fantasy on an epic scale and has produced a mesmerizing epic that dazzles from start to finish as Nolan takes us back to Gotham City where we find the Caped Crusader battling mobsters, his own conscience, and of course, the Joker.
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Nolan's intricate screenplay never fails to hold interest, bringing us a variety of new and beloved characters and balancing their time on the screen with effortless grace. Nolan's attention to production values is to be applauded with particularly impressive cinematography and art direction and he evokes performances from his cast that are uniformly superb right down the line with standout work from Christian Bale, who brings even more of a tortured intensity to the enigmatic Bruce Wayne/Batman than he did in the previous film and Aaron Eckhart who turns in the performance of his career as good guy turned bad Harvey Dent aka Two Face.
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And what can be said regarding the performance of the late Heath Ledger that has not already been said? I didn't think Ledger could possibly be as good as everyone kept telling me he was but I was wrong. This is a performance that stands alone and should be studied by acting classes. Dead or alive, Ledger richly deserved the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for one of the most mesmerizing performances of the decade, that even made Nicholson's Joker in the 1989 Tim Burton film pale in comparison. This performance is electrifying and gutsy and more than anything, it's tragically and beautifully human...Ledger doesn't allow the Joker to just be a cartoon, he fleshes the character out as a three dimensional human being whose tragic flaw is simply wanting to be loved. Ledger doesn't make a false or unbelievable move in this film...it's a deliciously thrilling performance that is to be savored repeatedly, just like the rest of this comic book masterpiece. 5

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Martin Scorsese finally snagged a Best Director Oscar for The Departed and though there are some (myself included) who do not feel this was his best work, the film is more than worthy of the Director Oscar it finally nailed for Scorsese as well as the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year that it also received.

This exquisitely mounted epic looks at the war between the police and the mob in South Boston, supposedly during the 70's and 80's, centering primarily on three characters. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio)is a young cop with a shady family legacy, who is sent deep undercover to get the goods on renowned Boston mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson).
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Matt Damon plays Colin Sullivan, a young man who grew up working for Costello,a la Ray Liotta's character in Goodfellas, but also becomes a police officer. A two-way cat and mouse game ensues as Costello tries to learn which member of his organization is a cop while the police try to figure out which one of their officers is a stooge to Costello. The race to learn which rat is where advances to the point where Sullivan is actually assigned to, in so many words, rat out himself.

Scor\sese offers one of the greatest examples I have seen in years of storytelling on screen with a meticulous and detailed screenplay that requires complete attention, not to mention multiple viewings to fully appreciated the multi-layered story presented here. Scorsese's direction is crisp and in-your-face, as always, and surprises are offered around every corner of the story told here. Every time you think you've figure it out, the story takes another detour and if you miss anything, you will be confused.
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DiCaprio offers the best performance of his career as the tortured Costigan and he might have won the Oscar if he had been nominated for this instead of Blood Diamond. Matt Damon's richly complex portrayal of Collin Sullivan hits the bullseye as does Nicholson's expectedly ruthless mafioso. Mark Wahlberg received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his razor sharp performance as DiCaprio and Damon's 2nd commanding officer who allows matters to get personal. Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, and Anthony Anderson also register in strong supporting roles, but it is primarily the compelling story, masterful direction by Scorsese and the three electrifying lead performances that make this film an instant classic not to be missed. 4

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14484&stc=1&d=1399739501The Devil Wears Prada is an uneven but entertaining comedy that chronicles the adventures of one Andy Sachs, an aspiring young writer/Plain Jane who inexplicably gets a job as the assistant to the assistant of the editor-in-chief of "Runway"- a chic, fictionalized New York fashion magazine and how what Andy initially considered to be nothing more than a way to pay the rent ends up becoming her entire life as she becomes immersed in the world of international fashion and the blood-sucking sophisticates and anorexic models who inhabit it.
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Despite the beautiful packaging of this movie that flawlessly displays the perks of being on the inside of the fashion industry, the screenplay is not terribly original and won't stand up to intense scrutiny. There are plot holes you can drive a truck through...most importantly, Andy is moments away from losing her job after several screw-ups, gets a fashion makeover from one of the designers, and then becomes the perfect assistant?

But the movie does have its assets, including effective use of NYC locations, stunning fashions, and a pair of delicious supporting performances from Emily Blunt and the always reliable Stanley Tucci as Andy's less than sympathetic co-workers. Anne Hathaway works hard in the role of Andy...she's a clothes horse and the camera loves her, but something about her performance comes off as forced and affected.

But what this film has above everything else, making it worthy of my three and ahalf popcorn rating is the extraordinary, 100-megawatt, dazzler of a starring performance by the amazing Meryl Streep, in the role of a lifetime as editor-in-chief/dragon lady Miranda Priestley. Never in all my years of filmgoing have I seen an actress so completely dominate a movie without ever raising her voice above a stage whisper...Streep is a one woman acting workshop as she effortlessly breathes life into this larger than life character without ever resorting to scenery chewing or any other cheap theatrics that could have creeped their way into this kind of characterization. Streep provides a master class in the art of underplay as she perfectly internalizes the power of Miranda, making every move and sound Miranda makes completely riveting.
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The fascinating combination of fear and respect Streep fuses into Miranda is the heart of this movie and what makes you not want to miss a minute of what's going on. She makes Miranda funny, terrifying, and tragic from one scene to another with seemingly little effort and just when you think the character is a totally heartless shrew, Streep rips your guts out in one brief scene where Miranda confesses to Andy that her husband wants a divorce. Streep creates one of the mostly richly complex and entertaining characters of her career which, no surprise, earned her an unprecedented 13th Oscar nomination. It is the performance of the divine Meryl Streep that transports The Devil Wears Prada from fluffy to fabulous. 3.5

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Though it laid a big fat egg at the box office, The Distinguished Gentleman is still one of Eddie Murphy's smartest and most entertaining films. Eddie plays a career con man who decides there is real money to be made in the political arena and using the name of his state's recently deceased incumbent, runs for Congress and is actually elected on the strength of his predecessor's name.
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Upon his arrival in Washington, he finds himself courted by many special lobbyists and finds him squaring off against one semi-crooked congressman (the late Lane Smith), whose personal agendas outweigh his duties to the people he represents and it is through his dealings with this guy and learning that politics is more than the big dodge he thought it was going to be, our hero learns to be a better person.

This clever comedy takes the expected pot-shots at Washington, DC and politics in general, but also presents a fun good vs evil story surrounded by some elaborate trappings that make for a sophisticated comic romp.

Murphy has rarely been better and he has surrounded himself with a superb supporting cast including Kevin McCarthy, Joe Don Baker, Charles S. Dutton, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Noble Willingham, and Grant Shaud. There is also a very funny cameo by James Garner as the congressman who Murphy succeeds. The movie is about 20 minutes too long, but for the most part, it is a very entertaining ride. It's not the kind of film hard-core Eddie-philes expect from him, but for those looking for something a little original and very funny...have your fill here. 3.5

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One of their later screen teamings, The Facts of Life was a 1960 comedy, rather adult for its time, where Bob Hope and Lucille Ball play two friends, married to others, who usually participate in a group vacation together and through some freak circumstances , end up on the vacation alone this year and grow so close they actually drift into an affair and consider leaving their spouses.
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I have to admit that this movie was surprising to me when I first saw it a few months ago, so I'm sure it raised a few eyebrows in the 1960's...infidelity was most likely a bold subject for a movie comedy and I doubt if it was something Bob or Lucy had done prior to this. but for this day and age, this was a very adult movie comedy that probably didn't do the business it deserved in 1960 because of its "controversial" storyline. Though it would hardly be considered controversial today, this film was probably quite the departure for its stars and as a curio of cinema history, it is definitely worth a look. 3

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The Family Stone is a well-cast and somewhat moving family drama that got a bad rap due to some inconsistent writing, fuzzy characterizations, and bad marketing. Trying to pass itself off as a warm and fuzzy holiday comedy, this film is really a rather intense look at a fiercely protective family looking out for one of their own as a young businessman brings home his new girlfriend for Christmas to meet his family, who believe this woman is all wrong for him and, therefore, treat her like crap the second she walks in the door.

This movie angered me the first time I saw it because I couldn't figure out why the Stones were so mean to Meredith, but upon repeat viewings it became clear that Everett and Meredith were a wrong fit from jump and the family saw this and in their own twisted way are trying to keep Everett from making a tragic mistake.
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A solid cast has been assembled who, for the most part, help cope with the unpleasantness of this story. Dermot Mulroney, in the best performance of his career, gives a tragic dignity to Elliott who can't understand why his family has turned on the woman he thinks he loves and Sarah Jessica Parker, in a role light years from Carrie Bradshaw, is effective as the tightly wound girlfriend who finds no help in connecting with Everett's family.

Diane Keaton's masterful performance as Everett's mom Sybil is fascinating and Craig T. Nelson is charming as Kelly, Everett's dad. Rachel McAdams makes a strong impression as Amy, Everett's sister who is totally nasty to Meredith and Luke Wilson is fun as Ben, the only family member who really makes an attempt to be gracious to Meredith. Claire Danes makes the most of an oddly written role as Meredith's sister, who joins Meredith because Meredith wants her support but, unlike Meredith,is welcomed with open arms and inexplicably, makes Everett forget how he feels about Meredith...one of several plot points that are kind of hard to swallow. Others include why Meredith doesn't offer to sleep on the couch when she won't sleep with Everett in his room or why she incurs Sybil's wrath at the dinner table, making pointed remarks about homosexuality, despite the presence of Sybil's gay, deaf son and his lover or why a woman who is supposed to be this highly intelligent business woman would yell every time she tries to speak to the deaf son. It's also hard to tell whether or not the deaf son reads lips or not. In some scenes it seems like he does and other scenes it seems like he doesn't but he knows when Meredith is yelling.http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14493&stc=1&d=1399744527
Despite these problems in story, characterization, and continuity, I found this film oddly riveting the second time I watched it and by the fourth time, there were moments that made me cry. The Family Stone is an emotional family drama for the patient and open-minded. 3.5

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The First Wives Club is a sparkling all-star comedy that hits all the right notes and makes you want to cheer out loud while you're watching. This is the story of three former college girlfriends (Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler) who are reunited after many years due to the suicide of a mutual friend (Stockard Channing) and all learn that they have been dumped by their husbands for younger women. They bond and not only plan revenge on their husbands but take their revenge to another unexpected level that is curiously refreshing for a comedy of this type.
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Elyse (Goldie Hawn) is an actress whose career has provided a comfortable living for herself and her ex (Victor Garber), but he wants to dump Elyse when he meets a younger model (Elizabeth Berkley). Annie (Diane Keaton) has been married to Aaron forever and they have a daughter together but that doesn't stop Aaron from having an affair with Annie's therapist (Marcia Gay Harden). Brenda loves Morty (Dan Hedaya) who owns his own business, obtained through shady means, who doesn't hesitate to drop Brenda when something younger and prettier comes along.

Keaton, Hawn, and Midler are marvelous as the women out for their ex-husbands' blood. Collins, Garber, and Hedaya are all on the mark as the scummy ex-husbands. There are funny bits contributed along the way by Rob Reiner as Hawn's plastic surgeon, Sarah Jessica Parker as Hedaya's mistress, Maggie Smith as a wealthy divorcée, Bronson Pinchot as a faux designer, and Eileen Heckart as Keaton's mother

A wonderful script is smartly mounted by director Hugh Wilson with an energetic cast to produce a terrific film comedy which can easily be watched several times and discover new pleasures on each viewing. 4
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Another film I never get tired of re-watching, The Four Seasons is an entertaining, albeit predictable comedy-drama about three affluent couples who vacation together, whose perfect circle of friendship is forever altered when one couple decides to divorce and the man tries to bring his new girlfriend into the circle.

There is a lot of funny stuff that goes on here and a lot of unpleasant stuff as well, especially the way the circle treats the new girlfriend, but most of it rings true and the emotions expressed among these friends about losing the wife who was rejected for a younger woman, are quite real.
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My only problem with this film is that all the characters talk like Alan Alda. Yes, Alda wrote and directed the film, but he should have given the characters their own personalities, not his. Alda and Carol Burnett make a very believable long-married couple, Jack and Kate as do Jack Weston and Rita Moreno as Danny and Claudia. Len Cariou makes the most of an unpleasant role as Nick, the husband who divorces his wife (Sandy Dennis, in a lovely and heartbreaking performance)and tries to bring his new girlfriend (Bess Armstrong) into the circle.
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There is slapstick and sentiment and pathos and I have to admit to cheering the first time I saw the scene where Armstrong tells the group off for treating her like an outsider. It's not Chekhov, but it is a charming film with likable characters, realistic situations, beautiful scenery and a lovely musical score. If you hate Alan Alda, beware. 3.5

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1977's The Goodbye Girl is probably the best comedy that Neil Simon wrote directly for the screen, filled with his usual razor sharp dialogue and his quirky characters brought vividly to life by a wonderful cast.
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Richard Dreyfuss walked off with the Best Actor Oscar for his brilliant comic turn here as Elliott Garfield, a small town actor who moves to New York to star in a revival of RICHARD III and, upon arrival at the apartment he has sublet from an old friend, learns the apartment is still occupied by said friend's girlfriend, Paula McFadden (Marsha Mason) and her daughter Lucy (Quinn Cummings)who were not informed that the worm sublet the apartment after ditching them to make a movie in Italy. Naturally, the three end up sharing the apartment and though you can pretty much guess the outcome, the journey is quite enjoyable, especially Dreyfuss' hysterical take on the character of Richard III and his encounter with some muggers who steal Paula's purse.

This movie is a delight from start to finish thanks primarily to the genius that is Neil Simon and the winning performances from Dreyfuss and Mason. 4
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The Holiday was one of the biggest surprises I've had at the movies in years. This fresh and funny comedy stars Cameron Diaz as Amanda, the owner of a company that makes movie trailers, who has just dumped her cheating boyfriend (Edward Burns)and decides she needs to get out of LA for awhile. She goes to a real estate website and chats with Iris (Kate Winslet), a lonely publishing employee who lives in England, who has just learned the man she's in love with is engaged. Amanda and Iris agree to exchange homes over the Christmas holiday.
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Iris arrives in LA and strikes up a friendship with Amanda's neighbor, a retired screenwriter (Eli Wallach) and Amanda's ex's best friend (Jack Black ). Amanda lands in London and finds herself in a whirlwind romance with Iris' bother (Jude Law), a sexy charmer with baggage.

As silly and predictable as this film appears on the surface, it is just the opposite...cleverly written and performed with exuberance and sincerity. Diaz' performance is kind of all over the place and kind of hard to latch onto but Law has rarely been more appealing on screen and Jack Black shows solid leading man potential without losing that goofiness that we love about him, but it is the luminous performance of Kate Winslet that raises the bar on this one...Winslet's Iris is a delicious combination of vulnerability, sweetness, and silliness that makes this film well worth sitting through. Wallach is also a delight as the old gentleman brought out of his shell by Iris. A delight from start to finish. 3.5

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The 1956 film version of The King & I was one of the most lavish and enchanting film versions of a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical ever made. Based on a book by Margaret Landon and a 1946 film starring Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne, this is the story of a widowed schoolteacher during 1860's who accepts the position of teacher to a tyrannical King in primitive Siam that leads to the ultimate culture clash/battle of the sexes, set to some really lovely music.
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Yul Brynner recreates his original Broadway role as the King in an electrifying, Oscar-winning performance that made Brynner an instant film icon who will forever be associated with the role and the gold standard to which all other actors who tackle the role aspire to. Deborah Kerr makes a lovely Anna Leonowens who, even though her singing is dubbed by Marni Nixon, still delivers a charismatic performance as the strong-willed Anna that also earned her an Oscar nomination. The chemistry between Brynner and Kerr is immediate and obvious and they absolutely light up the screen together in the most romantic non-romantic relationship ever portrayed on screen.
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A young Rita Moreno also makes a strong impression as the slave girl, Tuptim, whose best song, "My Lord and Master", has been cut from most versions of this film. But we still have "Whistle a Happy Tune:. "Hello Young Lovers", "We Kiss in a Shadow", "Getting to Know You", "A Puzzlement", and "March of the Siamese Children." There is also an extraordinary ballet entitled "The Small House of Uncle Thomas" which merits attention.
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Lavish scenery and Oscar-winning costumes are icing on the cake in one the most emotion-charged and moving screen adaptations of a Broadway musical to the movie screen. They don't make 'em like this anymore 4.5

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The Late Shift was an interesting made for HBO movie that took a detailed look at the power struggle that ensued between David Letterman and Jay Leno when Johnny Carson announced his retirement and both wanted to replace him.
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This struggle is now part of Hollywood folklore, but for those who don't know the story and are aware of where Letterman is now, it might be interesting to learn that David Letterman wanted to replace Johnny Carson as host of THE TONIGHT SHOW more than anything in the world, but Letterman found his dreams being derailed as frequent guest host Leno had one of Hollywood's most powerful agents, Helen Kushnick, in his corner and working tirelessly to get her client the job.

It's not often that we get to see behind the scenes Hollywood machinations recreated for entertainment value, but for fans of these two late night superstars, this movie provided a fascinating look at a very turbulent period in late night television.
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According to this movie, Letterman was practically promised the job by Carson himself while NBC had promised the job to Leno and that's where Helen Kushnick came in. The movie presents Leno as sort of a milquetoast who allowed his career to be manipulated by Kushnick and feigned ignorance to some of Helen's strong-willed manipulations of some of NBC's biggest power players and it presents Letterman as this smart and savvy businessman who, despite having Carson's support, was railroaded by NBC and Kushnick.

John Michael Higgins and Daniel Roebuck credibly recreate Letterman and Leno, respectively, but it is the razor-sharp performance of Oscar winner Kathy Bates as Helen Kushnick that keeps this movie bubbling. Bates commands the screen in one of her best, if not so well-known performances as the venomous Hollywood agent who eats television studio executives for breakfast. There is also a wonderful turn by impressionist Rich Little as Johnny Carson, but it is primarily a fascinating story and the powerhouse performance by Bates that make this one worth checking out. 3.5

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The late Elizabeth Montgomery was robbed of a second Emmy (the first time was when her performance in A Case of Rape lost to Cicely Tyson)for an absolutely chilling performance in The Legend of Lizzie Borden, a well-written and effectively directed ABC TV movie that cleverly blends fact and speculation to present one version of how this famous ax-murderer may have actually murdered her father and stepmother.
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Montgomery completely immerses herself in this character to the point where every time I even think about this movie, the hair on the back of my neck stands up. She was that good,as were Fritz Weaver as her father and Katherine Helmond, as her doubting sister. Another landmark television event that if it is not available on video, it should be. 4

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Probably my favorite movie of 1991, Thelma and Louise was an exciting, gripping, and deeply moving comedy/drama/adventure about girlfriends (Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis)who plan an innocent weekend away from their hum drum lives and the scummy men in their lives and due to some unforeseen circumstances, find themselves suddenly on the run from the law.

This was the first female buddy movie that completely worked for me...everything clicks here, a smart story and characters you can feel for and relate to. Although most of the supporting characters are drawn as unsympathetic bad guys, it seemed necessary in order for us to sympathize with the two lead characters and the terrible trouble they are in.
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The leads are superb, Sarandon in particular, gives the performance of her career that should have won her the Oscar, but I think the fact that Davis was also nominated kind of canceled her out. Khalli Couri's outstanding screenplay did win an Oscar and Ridley Scott's direction is equally compelling.
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There is also a memorable bit by Brad Pitt, in one of his first major roles, who makes a strong impression as a shady drifter the girls pick up on their journey. A beautifully constructed story of friendship and adventure that demands multiple viewings. 4

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A Case of Rape is the landmark NBC TV movie that changed the genre forever and initiated a new career and more sophisticated image for the late Elizabeth Montgomery.
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This television classic starred Montgomery (in a performance that should have won her an Emmy)as a housewife who gets raped twice by the same man. She does not report the 1st rape but she does report the second and the film shows the indignities this woman suffers from the courts and the insensitivity and mistrust she experiences from her husband (Ronny Cox) and her best friend (Patricia Smith). There is actually a horrific scene where Montgomery meets with best friend Smith, who actually wants details about what happened and implies that her friend might have enjoyed it.

This movie pulls no punches, makes no compromises or apologies, and promises no happy endings. It was reported that when the script was first submitted to network executives, they wanted to cut the second rape. A long time friend of Ms. Montgomery stated that she responded by submitting a list of names of other actresses who might be interested in appearing in the film because she would quit if they changed the script.
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This is a mature, disturbing, adult movie that is so well-crafted, it merited theatrical release and I find it amazing that this movie is not available on video. An intelligent script, uncompromising direction by Boris Sagal, and solid supporting performances by Cox, Rosemary Murphy and Williams Daniels as the attorneys involved, and Cliff Potts as the unapologetic rapist, made this film an instant classic and it's truly criminal if this film is not available on video. All serious students and connoisseurs of great drama and superb acting should see this important and disturbing movie. 4

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Burt Reynolds officially became a superstar with 1974's The Longest Yard, one of the greatest feel-good football comedy-dramas ever made.

Reynolds plays Paul Crewe, a disgraced ex-pro football player who is sent to prison for destroying his girlfriend's car (one of the great chase scenes in cinema history). Upon his arrival at a Florida prison, Crewe is coerced by the Warden (Eddie Albert), who has a semi-pro football team comprised of prison guards, to put together a team of convicts to play his guards and that's where the fun begins.
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Reynolds turns in a 100-megawatt movie star performance in this film as Paul has to draft players, train them, lead them, betray them, and win back their trust before the final whistle blows on the game. The recruiting and training scenes are smart and funny.
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Reynolds gets solid support here from Albert, in a slick performance as the slimy warden, James Hampton as best pal Caretaker and Michael Conrad as Nate Scarborough, another ex-footballer who has been jailed and agrees to help Crewe coach the team. The prison drama takes second place to one of the greatest movie football games ever filmed, with some striking split screen images between the game and the various elements of its audience, from the people in the stands to the prisoners laid up in the infirmary. The recent remake by Adam Sandler doesn't diminish in anyway the entertaining joy that this instant classic provides and continues to do so no matter how many times I watch it. 4

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I was initially very wary of seeing the remake of The Longest Yard. The original film is a classic and one of my absolute favorite films in the world and there is no way I thought Adam Sandler or anyone else could do it justice, but I have to admit that this remake was a pleasant surprise.

I found this 2005 remake of the 1974 classic to be a respectful and affectionate valentine to the original film with very few changes in the original story. As a matter of fact, executive producer Sandler had the screenplay tightened up from the original so that the audience is brought to the main story in a more direct manner than we were with the original. Crewe gets his order to organize the team from the warden during their first meeting in this film, which happens later in the first film.
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If you can accept Sandler as a pro football player then accepting the rest of this breezy and entertaining remake is no problem. Sandler delivers a nicely modulated performance that worked for me and Chris Rock, as always, steals every scene he's in as Caretaker. James Cromwell is acceptable as the slimy Warden, though he wasn't anywhere near as slimy as the late Eddie Albert was in the original.

Sandler also pays homage to the 1974 film by casting its original star, Burt Reynolds, as Nate Scarborough, the role played by Michael Conrad in the original and even beefs the part up a little and Reynolds makes every moment on screen count.
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Sandler cleverly cast former pro football players and WWF wrestlers as various guards and convicts including Michael Irvin, Kevin Hall, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Goldberg. Hip hopper Nelly also shines as a barefoot running back. All in all, a respectful remake that doesn't diminish the gloss of the original but manages to stand on its own as solid entertainment. 3.5

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14513&stc=1&d=1399752267The Man in the Moon is a warm and moving coming of age drama centering around a farming family in the 1950's. The main story follows a 14-year old girl (Reese Witherspoon) who develops a crush on a 17-year old neighbor (Jason London) who ends up falling for her older sister (Emily Warfield) and how an unexpected tragedy alters this family's dynamics forever. The 1950's are lovingly evoked here and the screenplay gives you characters you come to care about almost immediately. Witherspoon already begins to show the Oscar-winning talent she would develop in this early role and London makes a charming leading man. Warfield lends a quiet maturity to the role of the older sister that is effective as well. Kudos to Sam Waterston and Tess Harper who play the girls' parents and Gail Strickland, who plays London's mom. I was unexpectedly moved by this quiet and affecting drama that stirs up strong emotions and gives deeper meaning to the phrase "family ties." 3.5

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I have been pleasantly surprised to learn that the "Death To Barbra Streisand" Knell that seems to pervade Hollywood seems to be limited to just Hollywood and there are people out there who keep an open mind regarding Streisand and her work.
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Streisand mounts one of her most entertaining and romantic films with The Mirror has two Faces, a beguiling story about a romance between two lonely college professors that ends up turning into a platonic marriage.

Yes, you can see how this is going to end thirty minutes into it, but the journey to that ending is such a pleasure. Yes, despite Rose Morgan's Plain Jane demeanor, this is a bit of vanity piece for Streisand, but not so much as YENTL was. It's a very "Barbra" film with very "Barbra" themes and messages that we expect from her and for those of us who love Barbra, that's OK.
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Streisand has surrounded herself with a superb supporting cast. Lauren Bacall was robbed of an Oscar for her performance as Rose's vain, insensitive mother and Mimi Rogers was amusing as Rose's vain, insensitive sister. I loved the scene at Rogers' wedding where she threatens to have her mother's birth certificate blown into a birthday card and Bacall dryly replies, "I should never have encouraged you to speak."

Pierce Brosnan and Brenda Vaccarro also offer some strong moments. But the most pleasant surprise for me in this film is the performance by Jeff Bridges as the slightly nerdy calculus professor, Gregory Larkin. Bridges makes this character so likable and injects him with a perfect combination of nerdiness and sexiness at the same time. Very few actors can pull that combo off, but Bridges does it so effortlessly. You just want to take Gregory in your arms and say, "It's OK, baby, it's OK..." Streisand has directed this film with a surprising amount of quiet sensibility and has given us an albeit predictable, totally winning romantic comedy. 3.5
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Even though he had spent years as a Hollywood movie villain, Robert Preston did not become an official star until he accepted the role of "Professor" Harold Hill in Meredith Wilson's Broadway classic, The Music Man. Preston brilliantly recreates his Tony-award winning role in this dazzling film version, though he actually had to screen test for the role.
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Hollywood legend claims that several other actors were offered the role in the film version. Frank Sinatra and Cary Grant were both rumored to have been offered the role prior to Preston and both had the sense to turn it down, thank God, because I can't imagine anyone else having done this role at the time. Preston commands the screen as Harold Hill, a con man who arrives in turn of the century River City Iowa to con its citizens out of their money by promising to organize a boys' marching band for the town. Hill mesmerizes most of the citizens of River City with the exception of Marion Paroo, the local librarian who initially gets the goods on Hill, but also eventually falls under his spell.
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Preston lights up the screen as the charismatic con man and Shirley Jones makes a lovely Marian the Librarian. Paul Ford is wonderful as the blustery Mayor of River City as is the divine Hermione Gingold as his wife. Buddy Hackett provides laughs as an old pal from Hill's past who now lives in River City and Pert Kelton is wonderful as Marion's mother and let's not forget an adorable six-year old Ronny Howard as Marian's lisping little brother Winthrop. Who would have imagined that little six year old would end up being an Oscar-winning director?
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Musical highlights include "Trouble", "Goodnight My Someone", "76 Trombones", "Marian the Librarian", and "Til There was You". My only quibble with the score is the substitution of the lovely "My White Knight" with the rather bland "Being in Love". Morton DeCosta's spirited direction and Onna White's imaginative choreography ("Marian the Librarian" is brilliant)are the icing on the cake for this classic that just seems to get better with age and was not diminished in the least by the recent TV-remake with Matthew Broderick. Sorry, Matthew, but the role of Harold Hill belongs to one actor. 4.5
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The Nanny Diaries is a saccharine and annoying comedy that tries to incorporate touches of whimsical fantasy that don't really work. The film stars Scarlett Johansson as Annie Braddock (Why are female movie characters always named Annie, not Ann? I've never known an Ann in my life who likes to be called Annie), a recent college graduate who stumbles into a job as a Nanny for the child of an unhappy, upwardly mobile couple residing on Manhattan's lower east side.

The predictable story finds Annie initially hating the position but soon unable to leave because she doesn't want to leave the child alone with his dysfunctional parents.
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The film suffers from pedestrian direction and a screenplay that tries WAY too hard to be cute and smart, most notably Annie's obnoxious Carrie Bradshaw-like narration that really grates on the nerves. Johansson's lifeless performance in the starring role doesn't help either...the camera loves Johansson but this is a performance completely devoid of anything resembling comic timing.

The supporting cast is first rate though...Laura Linney's crisp performance as the boy's mother is perfection as is Tony Winner Donna Murphy's turn as Annie's mother and Grammy winner Alicia Keys as Annie's best friend. It cannot be denied that Nicholas Art is adorable as Annie's young charge and hunky Chris Evans is wasted as a romantic interest. It's SEX AND THE CITY meets MARY POPPINS and it just doesn't work. 4/10

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Eddie Murphy hit a bullseye with The Nutty Professor, his affectionate and clever re-thinking of the classic 1966 Jerry Lewis comedy, in which Murphy plays no less than six different characters. Instead of being the buck-toothed, nearsighted nerd that Jerry Lewis created, Murphy chose to make Professor Sherman Klump an outsider from society simply by making him fat.
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Klump is a brilliant scientist whose personal life is pretty much non-existent, partially because of his weight and probably also due to the fact that his family probably scares off most potential girlfriends. Murphy also plays Sherman's mother, father, brother, and grandmother. There is one amazing scene, thanks to some remarkable editing, that takes place at the Klump dinner table, where Murphy is actually playing five of the six people at the table.
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It is not only masterful editing and camera-work but an astonishing testament to the genius that is Eddie Murphy, being able to create five distinct characters and have them realistically communicate with each other, but Eddie's strongest work in the film really is the character of Sherman...a warm and endearing character who evokes so much love and sympathy that there are moments where you will be close to shedding a tear for him.
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Despite the Academy's snobbery about comedy films, Eddie's work in this film is Oscar-calibre. Jada Pinkett Smith is lovely as his leading lady and Larry Miller garners big laughs as the dean of the university where Sherman works. The film did win an Oscar for Rick Baker's remarkable work in transforming Eddie into six different characters, and yes, that is also Eddie playing Richard Simmons on TV. A triumph to the genius of Eddie Murphy. 3.5

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The Odd Couple is the classic 1968 film version of Neil Simon's most famous play about a TV newswriter named Felix Unger, who is an obsessive neat freak, who moves in with his divorced best friend, Oscar Madison, a sportswriter and complete slob, after his wife Frances throws him out of their apartment. Already divorced, Oscar takes his best friend in and regrets it from the moment he does it.
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Neil Simon's classic comedy first came to Broadway with Art Carney playing Felix and Walter Matthau playing Oscar. Jack Lemmon takes over for Carney in the film version with a memorable performance as Felix Unger. Lemmon is not only terribly funny in the role but so vividly real that he brings an element of melancholy to the pitiful figure that is Felix Unger. Matthau, fortunately, was allowed to recreate his role as Oscar, a one-of-a-kind gem of comic performance that provides consistent laughs throughout.

This teaming of Lemmon and Matthau turned out to be comic gold that was re-visited in nine other films. With both of these actors no longer with us, the viewing of this classic becomes more touching but no less hilarious. Simon's play has been nicely expanded for the screen with a silent prologue chronicling a depressed Felix's suicide attempt that is a winner.
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The supporting cast includes Herb Edelman, John Fiedler, Larry Haines, and David Sheiner as Oscar's poker playing buddies and Moncia Evans and Carole Shelley as the Piedgon Sisters, blind dates of Oscar and Felix. Of course, it later became an excellent TV series with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, but there's nothing like the original. 4

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Regular visitors to this site can go to a board on any movie based on a book and find at least seven or eight threads complaining about how the movie isn't as good as the book. The movie is NEVER as good as the book, but one movie that comes pretty damn close is The Outsiders, the 1983 film version of a book by S.E. Hunton I first read as a teenager. This teen classic is sort of a non-musical variation of West Side Story, where we find a class division in 1950's Oklahoma between two groups of restless teens: the Greasers, the poor kids from the wrong side of the tracks and the more socially acceptable Socs...the rich kids with the fancy cars and clothes and wouldn't be seen being friendly with a Greaser.

The crux of the story revolves around two Greasers, one named PonyBoy (C. Thomas Howell) and his best friend, Johnny (Ralph Macchio) who are forced on the run after being jumped one night and their escape involves a murder.
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Howell and Macchio play their roles with sincerity and have a solid cast of up and coming stars behind them here: Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe play Ponyboy's brothers, Darry and Sodapop, who have completely different relationships with Ponyboy. Matt Dillon is charismatic as Dallas Winston, the unofficial leader of the Greasers and Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise are also featured as fellow greasers Two-Bit and Steve. Future Oscar nominee Diane Lane also has a featured role as the girlfriend of the murder victim.

I have always been a kind of "Wait til the movie comes out" kind of guy and I can count on one hand the number of books I read before I saw the movie. For those who read the book growing up, be assured this film will not disappoint. It might not be quite as effective if you never read the book, but it's still a moving variation on the teen angst dramas that populated movie screens in the 80's. 3.5

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The 1957 film version of the Broadway musical The Pajama Game is one of the best translations of a stage musical to the screen ever. The screen version is extremely loyal to its origins, utilizing almost all of the original Broadway cast (except for Janis Paige, who lost the role of Babe to 50's box office powerhouse Doris Day)and keeping most of the original score intact ("Hers Is" and "A New Town is a Blue Town" are not used in the film and a song written especially for Doris for the film, ended up being cut).
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This delightfully original musical centers around the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory where the head of the grievance committee (Doris) is trying to negotiate a 7 and a half cent raise for the factory workers by butting heads with the new factory supervisor (John Raitt, reprising his Broadway role)but eventually falling for him. The secondary romance involves factory worker Hinesey (Eddie Foy Jr.) who can't control his jealousy regarding his girlfriend Gladys Hotchkiss (Carol Haney).
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Musicals were past their prime by the time this one made it to the screen, but it is still beautifully mounted and has some of the greatest songs in musical comedy ("Hey, There", "I'm not at all in love", "I'll Never Be Jealous Again", "Once a Year Day", "Small Talk","There Once was a Man", "Hernando's Hideaway").
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Day and Raitt make an engaging screen couple (Day has rarely been so adult or sexy on screen) and the imaginative choreography by the legendary Bob Fosse is a big plus. Carol Haney's "Steam Heat" is classic Fosse and one of the highlights of this wonderful movie musical that inexplicably died at the box office upon release. A great musical that is a must for Day and Fosse fans. 4.5
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The Paper was a glossy but substance-challenged comedy drama that is supposed to provide an incisive look into the daily running of a large metropolitan newspaper.

Michael Keaton stars as Henry Hackett, a maverick reporter trying to get the facts accurate on the biggest story of the decade while simultaneously chasing down a better job at another paper. The impressive supporting cast includes Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Marisa Tomei, Randy Quaid, Jason Alexander, Catherine O'Hara, Spalding Gray, Lynne Thigpen, and a classy cameo by Jason Robards as the paper's publisher. No, there's not a lot going on here, but the all-star cast makes it worth a peek. 3

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I had a mad crush on Hayley Mills when I was a kid. I don't know what it was about her...I think it might have been that English accent. Whatever, I absolutely adored her and The Parent Trap was probably my favorite Hayley film where she played twins separated as babies by their divorced parents who meet at summer camp, figure out what their parents did, and plot to get them back together. I recently viewed this Disney classic again for the 25th or 30th time a couple of months ago and still found it supremely entertaining.
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Brian Keith and Maureen O'Hara are wonderful as the parents and Joanna Barnes makes her presence known as Keith's bitchy new fiancée, Vicky Robinson. Of course, it doesn't make sense that the father lives in California and the mother is from Boston and the twins spoke with English accents, or that nobody noticed, but I let that slide as a kid and I still do. A classic, anyway you slice it, forget the sequels and remakes and stick with the original. 8/10

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The Philadelphia Story is the glittering 1940 film version of the Phillip Barry play in which Katharine Hepburn originated the leading role. Hepburn purchased the film rights herself so that no one else could play the lead in the film and I'm so glad she did.
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Hepburn gives, arguably, the greatest performance of her career, as Tracy Lord, a spoiled, self-absorbed heiress and grande dame of Philadelphia society who is busy planning her upcoming marriage to a stuffed shirt named George Kittredge when her ex-husband, C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) re-enters her life. Also thrown into the mix is a reporter (James Stewart) who has been sent to the Lord mansion to do a story on the wedding and ends up succumbing to Tracy's charms.

This delicious comedy-drama is a delight from start to finish. The opening scene is a classic where the relationship between Tracy and her ex is firmly established in a brief and classically funny scene, devoid of dialogue.
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Stewart won the Oscar for Best Actor for what was, in reality, the third best performance in the film. Hepburn is brilliant and was nominated for Best Actress (losing to Ginger Rogers for KITTY FOYLE) and Grant has never been better, in a performance that didn't even merit a nomination.

Donald Ogden Stewart also won an Oscar for his adapted screenplay. There is a school of thought that Stewart's Oscar for this film was more a consolation prize for losing the previous year for his far superior work in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, but I digress. The film was an instant classic upon release and is one of the few chances you'll get to see three acting legends working so beautifully together to provide the meat of this rich and stylish comedy. Remade as a musical in 1956 called HIGH SOCIETY with Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra taking the roles originated by Grant, Hepburn, and Stewart, respectively. 4.5

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The Pirate was a definite departure from the typical fare MGM was churning out during the 40's and 50's and audiences let MGM know immediately that this was not the kind of thing they were accustomed to because, for the most part, audiences stayed away in droves, and sadly, missed one of the most colorful and imaginative offerings to come from the MGM stable.
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The Pirate was the second of three films that Judy Garland and Gene Kelly appeared in together. Judy delivers a smart comic performance as Manuela, a Spanish princess engaged to a rich and sleazy nobleman (Walter Slezak)though at night she dreams of being with an enigmatic pirate she has heard tales of called Macoco or Mack the Black. Manuela meets Serafin (Gene Kelly) an actor in a traveling troupe and mistakes him for Macoco and it is this bit of mistaken identity upon which the thin plot thread revolves.
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Vincente Minnelli once again shows his penchant and eye for color with some outstanding scenery and art direction, as well as some state of the art special effects for 1948. Garland was at the height of her drug addiction during production and she and Minnelli were having problems, but none of this really shows onscreen.

Despite looking frail, Garland delivers an on target comic performance as Manuela and her voice, in fine form as usual, resonates on the rousing "Mack the Black" and is equally compelling on the beautiful ballad "Love of My Life". Gene Kelly is at the peak of his on screen charm and physical and dancing prowess as the witty Serafin and makes the Pirate Ballet fantasy a must see for musical fans and it goes without saying that his duet with Garland, "Be a Clown" is a classic. Kelly also does an amazing dance number with the Nicholas Brothers. Vincente Minnelli's magical eye, the voice of Garland, the charisma of Kelly, and Cole Porter music...what else do you need? 3.5

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Thirty years and two remakes have not diminished the quality of 1972's The Poseidon Adventure, an exciting and emotionally charged actioner that initiated a new genre of movie-making in the 70's known as the "disaster" film.
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The film follows what happens when an ocean liner is capsized by a 90 foot tidal wave, turned completely upside down, and follows the handful of survivors who try to get the bottom (or top) of the ship before it sinks completely. Maybe the special effects look cheap compared to the effects in the remakes, but what this movie has that the remakes lack is heart and characters you care about: Gene Hackman as the priest doubting his faith; Ernest Borgnine as the cop married to ex-prostie Stella Stevens; Red Buttons as the lonely haberdasher; Carol Lynley as the emotionally distraught lounge singer; Jack Albertson and Shelley Winters as the aging Jewish couple en route to meet their grandchild for the first time; Pamela Sue Martin and Christopher Shea as the brother and sister en route to a reunion with their parents.
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Irwin Allen somehow has managed to make an exciting film rich with characters you come to care about and make you hope for them to come out of this alive. Many have tried to duplicate and imitate, but this is the granddaddy of them all that is still as fun to get wrapped up in as it was 25 years ago. 8/10

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The superb performances by Oscar winners Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft definitely make the 1975 film version of The Prisoner of Second Avenue worth watching. Based on one of Neil Simon's lesser works, this film stars Jack Lemmon as a man whose company downsizes and he gets fired and just gives up on trying to find another job and just sits around the house wallowing in self-pity while his devoted wife decides to go back to work, which he also resents because she is no longer totally focused on him. Further complications ensue when their apartment gets ransacked and everything they own of any value gets stolen. And just when things can't get any worse, Bancroft loses her job too.

There are some funny situations and dialogue, but even mediocre Neil Simon is better than the majority of junk on the screen today. Lemmon and Bancroft are magical together and there is a nice supporting turn by Gene Saks as Lemmon's brother and an early film appearance from Sylvester Stallone as an alleged mugger. There are worse ways to spend two hours. 7.5/10

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The Rat Pack is an entertaining made for HBO-TV movie chronicling that famous group of entertainers, led by ol' blue eyes, who ruled Hollywood and Las Vegas stages for years and made their presence felt in the political arena as well.

Whether or not the facts presented here are accurate, only the actually parties involved can say, but, according to this particular screenplay, Sinatra was a powerful Svengali who controlled and manipulated the lives and careers of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and even wielded quite a bit of influence on our 35th President, JFK and his brother Bobby.

Martin is presented as a drunk who allowed Sinatra to lead him around by the nose and Davis is presented as a milquetoast who wouldn't make any move in his career or personal life without Sinatra's approval. Lawford comes off as a doormat who was shoved to the forefront to cover Sinatra's butt in embarrassing situations.

Ray Liotta works hard, but fails to convince as Sinatra, but Joe Montegna is superb as Martin, as is Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr. Angyus McFadden is convincing as Peter Lawford and comic Bobby Slayton makes the most of the thankless role of Joey Bishop. William Petersen does a charismatic turn as JFK as does Zeljko Ivanek as RFK. Barbara Niven also shines in a brief appearance as Marilyn Monroe.

If you're looking for an accurate recounting of the activities of this notorious circle of friends, this is probably not the place to go and if you're looking for a portrait of them as fun loving innocent entertainers, you won't find that either and I can pretty much guarantee that Sinatra fans will not be enamored of the way their idol is portrayed here, but if you're looking for a glance into a group of Hollywood insiders about which a lot is unknown, it might be worth the rental. 3_5

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14576&stc=1&d=1400040124Bette Midler delivered an electrifying performance in 1979's The Rose, an explosive and emotionally charged musical drama, oh-so-loosely based on the life of rocker Janis Joplin, that earned Midler an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Midler pulls out all the stops as a burnt out rock and roller who thinks she has everything in the world she could possibly want, except for the love of a good man, which she almost finds with a chauffeur/drifter (Frederic Forrest)who has a secret or two of his own.
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Midler is in virtually every frame of this film and completely commands the screen in a manner that belies the fact that this is her first film (not counting her appearing in the 1967 film Hawaiias an extra). Forrest provides solid support as the new man in The Rose's life as does Alan Bates, who plays her hard-nosed manager. Midler proves herself to be a powerful actress, but the film really comes alive during the musical sequences with "When a Man Loves a Woman" and "Stay With Me Baby" as definite standouts. Static direction and a somewhat clichéd screenplay are completely overpowered by Hurricane Bette. If you're a Midler fan, this is a must-see. 7/10
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The Secret of My Success was an amusing and deliciously entertaining 1987 comedy that can provide laughs as long as you accept from jump that it's a complete fantasy and that this could NEVER happen in real life.
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Michael J. Fox plays Brantley Foster, a young man from a small town who decides to seek his fame and fortune in New York, equipped with nothing but the phone number of a distant relative, who is a Manhattan power player, in his pocket. Foster plays on nepotism and persuades his uncle (the late Richard Jordan) to give him a job in the mail room; however, through a couple of well-placed phone calls, Foster also manages to get himself an executive position at the company under the name of Carlton Whitfield, who becomes a key player in preventing a takeover of his uncle's company and also finds romance with a female executive (Helen Slater), who is also seeing his uncle.
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The sexual and boardroom politics portrayed in the film are fast-paced and funny, but I think we all know that what happens to Brantley in this film could never happen at a real company and if you can accept that from the beginning and just accept the film for the fun fantasy that it is, the film does provide major laughs.
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Fox delivers one of his most charming performances as Brantley and gets solid support from Jordan as his uncle, Margeret Whitton as Jordan's wife and Fox's aunt, and John Pankow (MAD ABOUT YOU) as a mail room buddy. It's a fast-paced comedy that is great fun as long as you don't think about it too much. 7/10

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Just like Valley of the Dolls and The Lonely Lady, 1982's TheSeduction is one of those movies that is so bad that it is funny. It is funny but not to the point of multiple viewings, like DOLLS, it's funny once and that's it.
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Morgan Fairchild (in one of the worst performances by an actress in a 1980's film) plays a television anchorwoman who gets stalked by a psycho (Andrew Stevens, in an equally bad performance). This incredibly tired plot has been done so many times and it has been done so much better than this. Fairchild can't act and Stevens is way over the top. Michael Sarrazin is wasted as Fairchild's boyfriend and Vince Edwards is wooden as a police office to whom Sarrazin goes to for help. Maybe one of the ten worst films ever made. Unless you have wet dreams about Morgan Fairchild, don't bother. 3/10

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The Stepford Wives is Frank Oz' radical re-thinking of the 1975 classic about the mysterious town of Stepford where everything is not as neat and clean as it appears on the outside. In the original, Katherine Ross and Paula Prentiss played two relatively new citizens of Stepford, who desperately tried to figure out what was going on with the women of Stepford before falling under the "spell."

In this remake, Nicole Kidman plays the Ross role, Joanna, who is now a high powered television executive who was fired from her job and had a nervous breakdown, who is brought to Stepford by her husband Walter (Matthew Broderick)to start a new life with her husband and children.
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Stepford has been updated for the new millennium: there is even a gay couple played by David Marshall Grant and Roger Bart (THE PRODUCERS; DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES), but it's the same old evil. Unfortunately, Oz plays all his cards right away and all the suspense of the original is drained away.
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In the original, there is some mystery as to what's going on with these men and women, but there is no mystery at all in this version...it's spelled out for us five minutes after Joanna and Walter arrive in Stepford. Not only is the mystery of the wives completely spelled out but the mystery of the Stepford Men's Association is laughable in this version...it comes off looking like a bunch of teenage boys sitting around drinking and playing video games.
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It also breaks my heart to say, as a huge Nicole Kidman fan, this is the first performance of hers that was really a disappointment for me. I found Kidman's performance to be broad and affected, somewhat like a Stepford wife before she is Stepford-ized.

There are laughs to be found here and they come from Bette Midler, a joy in the Paula Prentiss role, Bart, Christopher Walken, and Glenn Close, who are perfection as Stepford's version of Welcome Wagon, all set against Oscar-worthy scenery and costumes, but next to the original classic...this is a pale, pale copy. 2.5

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The Story Lady was a delightful holiday TV movie that starred late Oscar winner Jessica Tandy as a senior citizen who wants to stay active and starts her own public access cable TV show where she reads children's stories on the show. The show begins to attract such a devout following that it attracts the attention of a national ad agency who want to put the show on network television, and as always in stories like this, once they've acquired the show, try to change it.

Tandy is absolutely enchanting in one of her final roles and receives effective support from Stephanie Zimbalist as a busy ad exec, Lisa Jakub as her neglected daughter, Ed Begley Jr. as Zimbalist's boss and Christopher Gartin as Tandy's favorite cameraman. The film also features Tandy's real life daughter, Tandy Cronyn. It may be overly sentimental and on the predictable side, but it is a delight from start to finish, thanks to the limitless screen charisma of Jessica Tandy. A fun holiday film for the entire family. 7/10

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The Sugarland Express was the first feature film directed by Stephen Spielberg, based on a true story about a woman with a questionable past who breaks her husband out of jail in order to retrieve their baby who they lost through some muddy legalities and, in the process, kidnap a police officer who they use as leverage to complete their journey to Sugarland, Texas, where the baby is.

Spielberg, in this early effort, is already displaying an uncanny ability to tell a very human tale on a grand scale, arousing strong emotion and sentiment, giving us larger than life, yet human characters, and sending them and the viewer on a extraordinary journey that the viewer cannot help but get wrapped up in.
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Goldie Hawn surprised everyone with her surprisingly effective dramatic performance as LuJean, the mother who knows no bounds in attempting to get her son back. William Atherton is impressive as her cuckolded jailbird husband and Ben Johnson is quietly powerful as the police officer trying to stop the pair. Michael Sachs (whatever happened to him?) also gives a very affecting performance as the young officer the Poplins take hostage. This story is riveting from start to finish and is early evidence of the genius that is Spielberg. 8/10

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The Terminator was a non-stop, slam bang action classic that established James Cameron as a director to watch and established Arnold Schwarzenegger as a superstar. Schwarzenegger plays a cyborg from the future who has been sent back in time to the year 1984 to assassinate a woman whose son grew up to be a great military leader whose enemies want to wipe out his entire existence by killing his mother.

This film was a smash hit at the box office and became an instant classic. Cameron has mounted an exciting and riveting story that redefined the action genre forever. Linda Hamilton (who later became Mrs. James Cameron) delivers a star-making performance as Sarah Conner, the ordinary woman who is completely baffled as to why she has become a target for termination. Michael Beihn is sexy and charismatic as the soldier from the future who has also been sent back to stop the terminator and protect Sarah. Paul Winfield and Lance Henriksen garner some chuckles as police trying to protect Sarah and there's an early albeit brief appearance by a young Bill Paxton as an early victim of the terminator.
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If you're an action fan who has never seen this, it's a must. Followed by a sequel called Terminator 2: Judgment Day. 8/10

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The 1973 version of The Three Musketeers is, hands down, the best version of this tale ever made. Director Richard Lester manages to concoct a perfect blend of comedy, romance, and swashbuckling adventure into a magical movie adventure that is a joy from beginning to end.
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Michael York gives the performance of his career as D'artagnan. York has never been more sexy on screen. I absolutely fell in love with the man after seeing this movie.
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Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay are great as the Musketeers and Faye Dunaway makes a sexy and sinister Lady DeWinter. And in the best performance of her career that actually won her a Golden Globe, Raquel Welch shines as Constance, the Queen's lady-in-waiting and the object of York's affections. Welch has never been more appealing on screen, revealing a wonderful gift for light comedy never revealed before. This film is pure magic and a treat for all fans of adventure and fun. 8/10

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Doris Day made a lot of movies that were a lot better than people knew and so many of them went practically unnoticed. A prime example was the 1963 comedy The Thrill of it All, which starred Doris as Beverly Boyer, the wife of a doctor (James Garner), who, quite accidentally, becomes a television spokesperson for a product called "Happy Soap" and becomes an overnight celebrity much to the consternation of her husband.
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Day is at the height of her charm here, completely winning as the housewife thrown into the celebrity spotlight and unsure of how to handle it. Garner matches her note for note as the slightly chauvinistic husband who would rather have his wife at home.
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There is also a lovely supporting turn by Arlene Francis as a patient of Garner's who Doris actually helps to give birth in a cab and Carl Reiner (who also co-wrote the screenplay) has an amusing set of cameos as the star of the show where Happy Soap is advertised. A warm family comedy that showcases brilliantly why the world loved Doris Day...and still does. 8/10

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14592&stc=1&d=1400069408The Towering Inferno is the classic Irwin Allen disaster film adapted from two novels, THE GLASS INFERNO and THE TOWER, which chronicles the attempt to rescue a large group of people trapped in a burning skyscraper in downtown San Francisco. The opening scenes that introduce the characters are pretty silly, but once the fire is blazing and the rescue attempts begin, the movie is quite exciting and you find yourself guessing who's going to make it and who won't.

Aided by state of the art special effects (for 1974), the all-star cast is headed by Steve McQueen as the head fireman and Paul Newman as the architect who designed the building.
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The film also features Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain (in an especially slimy turn as the contractor whose shortcuts in meeting safety codes may have been the cause of the fire), OJ Simpson, Jennifer Jones, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, and Susan Flannery. Fred Astaire received his only competitive Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a charming con man who falls for Jones. A rousing and exciting adventure that will keep you glued to the screen. 8/10

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Another of my favorite classics from childhood was 1966's The Trouble with Angels, a sassy and entertaining comedy from a time long forgotten about two teenagers (Hayley Mills, June Harding) who meet at a Catholic convent school called St. Francis Academy, who become fast friends and cause nothing but headache for the Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell). I remember seeing this movie in the theaters during its original theatrical release and enjoying it immensely. Rosalind Russell and Hayley Mills were both at the top of their game as the protagonists in this comedic cat and mouse game between student and administrator where you know something has got to give at some point and it actually does. Laughs and warmth abide in this entertaining family comedy, the likes of which we will never see again. 7.5/10
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The Truman Show was an intelligent and stylish social commentary about lost hopes and dreams, as well as the effect the media has on us.

Writer Andrew Nicol and director Peter Weir take us into the extraordinary world of Truman Burbank, a sheltered young man with an alleged perfect life whose life, as it is slowly revealed to the viewer, is a 24-7 television show, directed by a God-like dictator (Ed Harris)who has televised and controlled Truman'life from birth and is determined to hold onto Truman even after he has caught onto what is happening.

The thing I love about this story is the way it unfolds slowly...the story is told at a leisurely pace and we are only thrown subtle clues at first. There's a wonderful moment where Truman is walking down the street and is almost brained on the head by a spotlight. The expression on Truman's face at seeing a spotlight fall from the sky is just priceless and we are scratching our heads the same way Truman is. Once Truman realizes what is going on, he wants nothing to do with it and attempts to escape.
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Whether or not Truman escapes is unimportant, what is important is watching Truman trying to figure out what is going on. Jim Carrey redefined his career completely with this completely captivating performance in the title role.
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Carrey proved that he knew how to do more than pratfalls and mugging with this thoughtful and riveting performance and it was outrageous that Carrey was not nominated for an Academy Award. I don't know about winning but he at least deserved a nomination. Ed Harris, as Cristof, the director of Truman's show, gives the performance of his career that should have won him the Oscar. He was nominated but was robbed. A wonderful film that is worth seeing if for no other reason than to marvel at the amazing performances of Carrey and Harris. 8.5/10

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There are only a handful of actresses out there right now who can completely command a screen to the point that I will see anything they do and three-time Oscar nominee Joan Allen is definitely one of them and it is her dazzling performance which is the main selling point of The Upside of Anger, an intelligent and offbeat comedy-drama which stars Allen as Terry Wolfmeyer, a highly strung but domineering wife and mother who goes into an emotional meltdown when she believes her husband has run off with his secretary. She lashes out at everyone, with her four daughters taking the brunt of her abuse, while tentatively broaching a relationship with a retired baseball player (Kevin Costner).
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Allen turns in a gutsy and mesmerizing performance that should have earned her an Oscar nomination and her chemistry with Costner is surprisingly smooth. Alicia Witt, Erika Christiansen, Kerry Russell,and Evan Rachel Wood play Terry's daughters, who all have their own issues with Mom.
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Director and screenwriter Mike Binder has not only fashioned a moving and human story with flawed and vivid characters but written a juicy role for himself as Christiansen's boss, who she falls for, much to Mom's chagrin. It's easy to get caught up in the emotional story, but it is the blockbuster star turn by the fabulous Joan Allen that makes this one a keeper. 8/10

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Adam Sandler's rather selective screen charisma is put to the ultimate test in The Waterboy, a silly but watchable comedy in which Sandler plays a backwards Louisiana Bayou goof ball who serves as water boy for his town's local college football team but discovers some inner rage within him which makes him to be an unstoppable defensive player for the previously losing football team. http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14615&stc=1&d=1400161226
Sandler works hard to make this character funny, but he saddles himself with that strange child-like voice that makes him hard to understand at times and eventually the character does start to grate on the nerves.
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There are a couple of very effective supporting performances from Kathy Bates as Sandler's over-protective mother and Henry Winkler, in the performance of his career, as the neurotic coach of the team, who has more than his share of personal hang-ups. There are laughs scattered throughout but whether they sustain the entire film depends on your own tolerance of Adam Sandler. 6/10
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The Witches of Eastwick was a watchable 1987 comedy/drama about three repressed women (Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon) who have had bad experiences with men in the past and end up accidentally conjuring up what they believe is supposed to be the perfect man (Jack Nicholson); however, the man they conjure up and arrives in Eastwick to charm the three women turns out to be Satan.

There are some entertaining scenes in this film but there are problems too. Once Nicholson arrives on the scene, I don't understand why all three woman continue to vie for his attention. It makes no sense to me that these three woman who have supposedly been lifelong friends would fight over the same man; however, this film is completely watchable due to the hammy, overblown performance by Jack Nicholson as Daryl/The Devil. Nicholson just seems to be having a ball here and he makes this OK movie seem much better than it really is. 7/10

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I recently saw 1969's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? for the first time in its entirety. I had heard a lot about this film when it was first released and had seen bits and pieces of it in the past,but I found watching the entire film to be a devastating and shattering experience.
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I must concur with another poster's comparison to the marathon dance contest participants to today's reality show contestants...there is an air of desperation surrounding these people that is sad and frightening to watch. Some of these people have pinned their entire existence on winning this marathon and you just know everyone can't win. As a matter of fact, if memory serves, we never find out who won, because the film focuses on those losers who have pinned their entire lives on this and don't make it.

Jane Fonda should have won the Best Actress Oscar for her Gloria Beatty, a strong yet pathetic creature who MUST win this marathon. Michael Sarrazin had the role of his career as Robert, the young man who becomes Gloria's partner by fate and becomes drawn into her web of depression and loneliness. Gig Young won an Oscar for his ultra-slick turn as the host and promoter of the marathon.
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Memorable characterizations of other participants in the marathon are offered by Suhsannah York, Red Buttons, Bonnie Bedelia, and Bruce Dern. This film is not for every taste, but can be a haunting yet satisfying film experience for those who can handle it. Definitely not for the faint of heart and way ahead of its time. Exceptional direction by Sidney Pollack. 8.5/10

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This is Spinal Tap is the brilliant mock documentary that chronicles the final tour of an aging rock group. This razor sharp dig at the world of rock and roll marked the directoral debut of Rob Reiner and was the genesis of a rep company that would later bring us films like Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. Reiner appears as Marty DiBergi, a filmmaker who has decided to document the final tour of a legendary band called Spinal Tap which coincides with the release of their latest album called "Smell the Glove."
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This film provides huge laughs as we see the band deal with less than stellar box office sales, lackluster public appearances, bad reviews, and some touching moments including one scene where they hear an old song of theirs on the radio while in a hotel room and hear themselves referred to as being in the "Where are they Now" file.

Reiner has assembled a superb cast working at the top of their form here: Michael McKean plays David St. Hubbins,lead singer and guitarist of the group; Christopher Guest practically steals the film as Nigel Tufnel, the other lead guitarist and David's childhood friend who were the nucleus of the band. Harry Shearer garners big laughs as Derek Smalls, the group's bass player.

There is one funny bit after another here including bungled hotel reservations, a guitar speaker that goes to "11", the band's inability to find the stage from their dressing room at a concert in Cleveland, and the tension that surfaces between David and Nigel when David's girlfriend Janine joins them on the tour.
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Solid comic support is provided by Patric Macnee, Fran Drescher, Bruno Kirby, Tony Hendra (very funny as the band's manager), and some funny cameos by Ed Begley Jr. , Billy Crystal, and Howard Hesseman.

This comedy is so accurate in its depiction of the world of rock and roll that rocker Brett Michaels of Poison has been quoted as saying he finds watching this movie an uncomfortable experience. A fall-on-the-floor comedy classic that contains some moments of genuine warmth as well. 8.5/10

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One of my first exposures to Jerry Lewis as a child was the 1966 comedy Three on a Couch in which Jerry played a nebbish engaged to marry a beautiful psychiatrist (Janet Leigh) who he feels spends entirely too much time obsessing over three of her female patients (Leslie Parrish, Mary Ann Mobley, Gia Golan) who all have serious hang-ups regarding men and dating. In order to free up his fiancée so she'll have more time for him, Chris, Jerry's character, pretends to be three different guys and initiates a romance with all three women so that they'll gain some self-esteem where men are concerned and his fiancée will have more time to plan their wedding. I remember, even as a child, thinking to myself, "Does he really think he can get away with this?" but I guess if Jerry thought like I did, he'd have no career. The three imaginary suitors border on cartoon characters and the lovely Leigh is wasted in thankless role, but there are scattered laughs throughout and Jerry has made worst movies, but it's better than a route canal. 5/10

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The 1975 film version of the Who's Rock Opera Tommy is a motion picture experience unlike any other. Director Ken Russell takes us on a roller coaster ride of a story, putting starkly original visuals to the Who's original opera. In this version, Tommy is struck blind, deaf, and mute after witnessing his mother's lover murder his father after he finds the lover and mother in bed together and then follows the boy's journey to adult hood where he discovers an ability to play pinball machines by touch and eventually becomes a cult leader whose followers get out of control.
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The Who's memorable music is still center stage but there are wonderful performances, headed by Ann-Margret, who received her one and only Best Actress Oscar nomination for her full-bodied performance as Nora Walker, Tommy's mother. The late Oliver Reed is equally memorable as Frank, Nora's lover and Who lead singer Roger Daltrey, who proves to have an engaging screen presence in the title role. There are also memorable bits contributed by Tina Turner as the Acid Queen, Elton John as the Pinball Wizard, Eric Clapton as a Preacher, Jack Nicholson as the doctor, and Keith Moon as Uncle Ernie. There are wildly imaginative scenes that won't soon be forgotten such as Tommy's visit to a church whose God is Marilyn Monroe and Ann-Margret's unforgettable bath in a wash of soap suds, chocolate, and baked beans.
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An original assault on the senses that you won't soon forget. Not for all tastes, but for the brave and bold moviegoer, keep an open mind and give it a look...also, for my money, the LOUDEST movie ever made. 7.5/10

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If someone ever wanted to write a textbook on how to make the perfect movie comedy, this film should be the number one reference point. The 1982 film Tootsie became an instant classic and is just as funny twenty-three years later as it was at the time of initial release. I love this movie because, like The Wizard of Oz, no matter how many times I watch it, I always see something I never noticed before.

Sidney Pollack's inspired direction (and those who know Hoffman, know he probably "collaborated" with Pollack)perfectly brought together all the elements of this winning story about an unemployed actor/acting teacher/waiter named Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) who, despite being a wonderful actor, cannot get work as he has earned a reputation for being "difficult."
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Desperate to earn $8000.00 in order to produce a play that his roommate (Bill Murray) wrote, he dresses in drag and auditions for a role on a soap opera and actually gets the part. Complications ensue when he falls in love with the soap's leading lady (Jessica Lange), butts head with the soap's creepy director (Dabney Coleman), and has to hide what he's doing from his neurotic friend (Teri Garr, in a performance that should have won her the Oscar)who also auditioned for the soap role he got, a ruse that has the woman convinced Michael is gay. And if that weren't enough, Lange's father, played by the always solid Charles Durning, falls in love with Michael's female alter ego, Dorothy Michaels.
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Everything works in this film. Towering above everything is the amazing performance by Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels. Unlike Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria, Hoffman is completely believable as a woman. As a matter of fact, his screen time as Dorothy is the strongest part of his performance. Jessica Lange is a charming leading lady (though I still think the Best Supporting Actress Oscar should have gone to Garr, not Lange)and even director Pollack makes his scenes count as Michael's agent George Fields. This film demands and deserves multiple viewings and will always be considered a benchmark of American film comedy. 5

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A charismatic and heartbreaking performance by the late Lee Remick is the centerpiece of Toughlove, a relatively interesting 1985 TV-movie, originally aired on ABC, that is made to be much better than it is because of Lee Remick's performance.
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Remick and Bruce Dern play upper middle class suburbanites who are at their wits' end regarding how to handle their teenage son, whose drug addiction has his life spiraling out of control and is slowly and methodically destroying their family. Having tried everything thing else, the couple turn to an organization called Tough Love, which teaches parents to go on the offensive with out of control children: If your child is constantly staying out past his curfew, lock the front door at curfew and put the dead bolt on or if your child gets arrested, don't bail him out, let him experience the consequences of his actions.

This film chronicles the couples' initial reluctance to be so harsh with their child but soon learn that Tough Love is the only thing that affects their son's behavior. Remick is the conflicted mother, torn between wanting her baby home with her and knowing that as long as she continues to baby her son, he will never change. The scene where they learn their son is in jail and refuse to bail him out is sad and brilliant. Dern and especially Remick give superb performances as does a young Jason Patric as their troubled son, Gary. Despite an ending that's a cop out, this is pretty compelling stuff for most of the ride, thanks primarily to the work of the amazing Lee Remick. 7/10

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A once-in-a-lifetime motion picture experience from writer-director Duncan Tucker, Transamerica is a gloriously courageous look at the underbelly of the human condition through the eyes of two lost and desperate souls who, for no logical reason, form a bond that they each initially resist.

This is the story of Bree (Felicity Huffman), a trans gendered individual (who was born Stanley), who, shortly before having his final surgery to become a woman, is completely thrown into a tailspin when he learns that he has a 17-year-old son, a streetwise punk who has been supporting himself in Manhattan as a male prostitute and is now in a juvenile detention center. She bails him out (for the bargain price of $1.00), marking the beginning of an amazing road trip for the two, complicated by the fact that Bree doesn't tell the boy who he really is, claiming instead to be a church missionary and it is the tension of waiting for the lie to be exposed and the immediate desire to see these two lost people become family that form the crux of this incredible story.
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The rest of this film's formula for success rests with the astonishing performances by the two leads...Felicity Huffman, who won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for her performance, delivers what is probably the best performance I have seen of the decade as Bree/Stanley...her character is fiercely brave, tragically sad, and courageously funny. Huffman completely loses herself in this beautifully unique character that Tucker has created for her...Huffman beautifully internalizes the pain of this character while simultaneously nailing the physicality of the character. There is not one moment in the film where Huffman forgets that her character is a man. I love watching Bree walk. She walks like a man who doesn't know how to walk in high heels but wants to do so more than anything in the world. Not since Linda Hunt played a man inThe Year of Living Dangerously has a gender-switch performance been so completely vivid and believable.

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Huffman is matched note for note by Kevin Zegers, who is sexy and dangerous as the desperate and angry Toby, a sad youth with a troubled past whose years of self-preservation on the road have turned him hard on the inside and old beyond his years. I can't recall the last time I saw two movie characters I have wanted to see form a relationship and felt like there was no way it was going to happen, which is what makes the film so mesmerizing.

There are also a couple of beautiful supporting turns from Graham Greene as a kind traveler who offers Bree and Toby shelter and a ride for a night and Finoula Flanagan as Bree's mother, a sophisticated bigot who refuses to accept her son's new life but is ready to welcome her new grandson with open arms. An extraordinary motion picture experience to be savored and a triumph for director-screenwriter Duncan Tucker. A winner. 8.5/10

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14637&stc=1&d=1400173223Trapped was a solid little thriller starring Oscar winner Charlize Theron as the mother of a kidnap victim (Dakota Fanning)who learns that her daughter was kidnapped because the kidnapper (Kevin Bacon) feels that Theron's physician/husband (Stuart Townsend) was responsible for his daughter's death.

Theron gives a convincing performance as a victim for a change and Kevin Bacon is properly menacing as the kidnapper, turning in a performance on caliber with his work in
The Woodsman and The River Wild. Fanning's annoyance factor is less obtrusive than usual and Townsend is surprisingly convincing as the husband.

There is also a standout supporting turn by Courtney Love as Bacon's girlfriend/accomplice. Love gives one of her most convincing performances here as a tragic heroine uncertain of where Bacon's priorities lie. Taut direction and good performances overcome a somewhat clichéd screenplay and despite a somewhat ridiculous finale, Trapped is a riveting ride for the majority of the journey. 7.5/10

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Twice in a Lifetime is an emotionally-charged family drama that, despite a somewhat muddled screenplay, still works thanks to some solid gold performances.

Gene Hackman plays a Seattle steelworker who loves the Seahawks and seems content with his life as he prepares for the wedding of his younger daughter (Ally Sheedy), but still feels something missing in his life. His private mid-life crises move him to leave his devoted wife (Ellen Burstyn) and begin a relationship with a local barmaid (Ann-Margret). His wife resigns herself to his decision but his elder daughter (Amy Madigan) does not and refuses to let Dad off the hook.
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The screenplay is safe and predictable, but what makes this film worth watching is the powerhouse performances. Hackman's quiet and powerful turn as a man dealing with being at a crossroad he doesn't know how to handle, Burstyn's beautifully-realized vulnerability as the woman who is at a loss as to what went wrong in her marriage and Madigan, in a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination, icy and gripping as the daughter who refuses to accept her parents' divorce. Watching these wonderful actors take you through the roller-coaster of emotions involved in the rending apart of a family, make this movie something very special. 8/10

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Two Weeks is a quietly exquisite, deeply moving, and surprisingly hopeful drama centered on some very unpleasant subject matter. Writer and director Steve Stockman struck gold with this story of four adult siblings (Ben Chaplin, Julianne Nicholson, Tom Cavanaugh, Glenn Howerton)who return to their hometown in North Carolina to be at the bedside of their mother (beautifully played by Sally Field), who is dying of ovarian cancer.

This drama of the family's final time together is juxtaposed with a videotaped interview with Mom done by the eldest son (Chaplin) as sort of a final tribute to his mom before she gets too sick to remember things she wants to pass on.

This film offers surprises at every turn because it is more than the "sturm und drang" one would expect from such a story. Stockman puts a very human face on the subject of death and dying and because it is human, there is humor involved. There are laughs to be found here and they aren't the kind of laughs where you wonder whether or not being amused is appropriate. These are odd little moments throughout the film that we can all relate to...like one brother finding the cowboy sheets that were on his childhood bed and stashing them to take with him, or dealing with the problem of all the casseroles that well-intentioned friends and neighbors stuff the refrigerator with, or arguing with your siblings over the things Mom wants you to have and nobody wants.

The direction is a little static, but the screenplay has a deft quality to it and the performances are uniformly first-rate, with standout work from Field and Chaplin. A very special film experience...treat yourself. 4

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Adrian Lyne, the director who scared a lot of men out of cheating on their wives with his 1987 classic Fatal Attraction, takes another look at infidelity in Unfaithful, a dark and sexy drama about a suburban housewife (Diane Lane) who despite a perfect life with a devoted husband (Richard Gere)and loving son (Erik Per Sullivan) finds herself drifting into an affair with a sexy young book dealer (Olivier Martinez) who she meets accidentally in the city one day. Unlike Fatal Attraction's Dan Gallagher, Lane's Connie does not really go looking for this affair but finds herself inexplicably drawn to this man. Unlike Dan Gallagher, who immediately tries to end the tryst, Connie becomes completely consumed with thoughts of this man, that drive her to, among other things, public masturbation and sex in the hallway of his apartment building.
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This film features characters stepping out of their comfort zones and learning there are aspects of their lives that they've taken for granted, as well as moments of characters not being everything we expect them to be. The first sexual encounter between the housewife and the book seller so brilliantly illustrates the conflict in her mind regarding what is going on. The whole time he is undressing her and touching and caressing her, she is in tears, but she doesn't stop him either. She knows what is about to happen is wrong, but she finds herself powerless to stop it either. On the other end of this compelling story, we watch as the husband slowly and methodically begins to put together what is going on and even as the evidence so glaring points in one direction, he continues to deny what is going on as long as he possibly can. But once Lane's husband learns of the affair, the story takes some surprising turns.
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This is a riveting drama anchored by Lyne's undeniable eye for what is erotic on the silver screen and a superb performance from Diane Lane, which earned the actress her first Oscar nomination. Gere is solid as the bewildered husband and Martinez is a dark and sexy leading man. The movie also features supporting bits from Chad Lowe, Margaret Colin, and Kate Burton, but it is Lyne's masterful direction and the performances of Gere and especially Lane that are really the stars here. 4

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For those who lost loved ones on 9/11 and are still dealing with what happened on that awful, awful day, it might be wise to skip United 93, a one of a kind motion picture that blends fact and speculation in chronicling what happened aboard one of the four American jetliners that were hijacked on that fatal day.
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Less is probably known about this flight because this was the one plane that never made it to its destination. This meticulously crafted melodrama tells this difficult story in as much detail as possible, beginning with the the hijackers' preparation for what they are about to do (and from the way it's presented in this film, they did not all appear to be willing participants in this mission) to the final moments this flight was in the air.

Director and screenwriter Paul Greenspan proves to be a master storyteller and has mounted this story almost in the form of a documentary. Greenspan wisely chose not to populate the cast with big name stars, the biggest star I recognized was Christian Clemenson who played Jerry Espinson on Boston Legal. Greenspan clearly didn't want the viewer to be distracted from the story by having us star-gazing...the story is the star of the film as it should he.

Several of the ground personnel depicted in the film are actually air traffic personnel and not actors, which adds a definite air of authenticity to the story. The musical score is minimal...the power of the story compels the film with such power that music is not really needed.

The story seamlessly moves from the ground, where air traffic personnel are trying to figure out what is going on, initially believing it all to be a hoax and aboard the flight of the title, where once the plane has been taken over, the passengers realize the helplessness of their situation and make a plan to take the plane back from the terrorists. We then see half of the passengers planning the attack while we see the other half on phones to loved ones saying goodbye. It's not an easy film to watch, but it is a beautifully mounted film that is a sober reminder of a little known event that was part of the worst day in American History. A must-see film. 4

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Valentine was an ABC-TV movie about the love affair between two senior citizens that takes an unexpected tragic turn. This warm and lovely romantic drama was special because it showcased a love affair between senior citizens, which you don't see a lot of anymore, but the main attraction of this movie when it premiered was that it marked the television debut of Broadway legend Mary Martin. Martin, who starred on Broadway in South Pacific, I Do! I Do!, and The Sound of Music and is the real-life mom of TV icon Larry Hagman, turns in a lovely performance here opposite Jack Albertson as a senior who experiences love and then learns of her terminal illness. I don't know if this one is available on DVD or not, but if it is, it is definitely worth seeing for a rare television performance by a show business legend. 7/10

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Valley of the Dolls, the beyond dreadful 1967 film version of Jacqueline Susaan's trashy novel is the ultimate potboiler, a movie so hideously bad that it is funny as hell and endless laughs may be found here.

This laugh-out-loud drama follows the adventures of three girls seeking fame and fortune in New York. Anne Welles (the forever wooden Barbara Parkins) is a secretary who ends up becoming a cover girl and having an affair with a lecherous theatrical agent (Paul Burke).
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Neeley O'Hara (Patty Duke, in probably the worst performance by an actress in the history of cinema)is a singer/actress who uses and abuses pills, liquor, and men on her climb to the top and her descent to the bottom. Her final scene crawling around in the gutters of a Broadway alley has to be seen to be believed. Sharon Tate walks through the role of Jennifer North, a talentless waif who is aware of the fact that her body is only asset ("Yes, Mother, I'm doing my breast exercises").

The film also features Susan Hayward, in a role originally intended for Judy Garland, as Helen Lawson, a Broadway legend past her prime who is definitely threatened by O'Hara, God only knows why.

This movie just overflows with bad writing, bad acting, bad singing, bad choreography, and bad anything else you can think of. Legend has it that each character in this film is based on real people though author Susaan (who does a cameo in the film as a reporter) refuses to confirm or deny anything. It is commonly believed that the Neeley O'Hara character is based on Judy Garland, which must have caused some tension when Garland arrived on set for her original wardrobe tests when she had been signed to play Helen Lawson.
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There is just so much to laugh at in this film, I don't know where to begin...Neeley singing at a telethon battling a wild set of beads that won't stay out of her way, Anne's cover girl montage,where Parkins has on enough makeup to choke a horse and displays some of the most outrageous hairstyles and bad fashion ever seen, a drunken Neeley confronting her allegedly gay husband in the swimming pool, dressed in an unflattering slip and bra, a drunken Neeley sitting in a bar and listening to herself on a jukebox explaining to everyone in the bar who she was, Jennifer's husband Tony, losing his balance outside the benefit ("I can't feel my legs!"), Tony and Neeley singing a duet at an asylum; Helen Lawson lip-syncing (to Helen O'Connell's voice) in a too tight evening gown and trying to dodge a large mobile that thinks its alive, and of course, the classic ladies room encounter between Neeley and Helen which climaxes with Neeley pulling off Helen's wig and flushing it down the toilet.

This movie has to be seen to be believed. One of the funniest movies ever made...even though it wasn't supposed to be. 1.5
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Victor/Victoria is a thoroughly entertaining and, at times, raucously funny musical about a down and out singer (Julie Andrews) who becomes a great star as a female impersonator. We watch as, with the help of a gay mentor (Robert Preston) Victoria Grant becomes a star as Count Victor Gryzinski, a female impersonator, who attracts the attention of King Marchand, a Chicago mob boss vacationing in Paris with his ditzy mistress (Lesley Ann Warren), but finds himself attracted to the Count and goes to outrageous lengths to prove that the Count is really a woman, though it's not really clear as to whether he's doing it to really be with the woman or just to reassure himself about his own sexual orientation.

Though I never for a moment believe her as a man, Andrews is fully invested in the role of Victoria Grant/Count Victor Gryzinski and gives one of her finest performances (Her rendition of "Le Jazz Hot" is smokin'). Andrews has never been more adult or more sexy on screen. Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse' music and song score, which includes "Crazy World", "You and Me", "The Shady Dame from Seville:, and "Chicago Illinois" was awarded with an Oscar.
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James Garner is charming and amusing as Victoria's confused suitor, King Marchand. Robert Preston, playing radically against type, should have won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as Andrews' gay friend/confidante/manager, Toddy. Lesley Ann Warren turns in the scene-stealing performance of her career and delivers some of the biggest laughs in the films as Norma Cassidy, King's obnoxious, not-too-bright moll and kudos to Alex Karras for his understated turn as King's closeted bodyguard.
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There is a slow moment here and there, but this film is a very entertaining ride for the most part, thanks to the love and care of director Blake Edwards, who always manages to find the laugh or smile when appropriate and knows how to make his wife look good. The film's power was later diluted by an inferior Broadway musical (which also starred Andrews), but stick with the original. 4.5
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Directed by Forest Whitaker and adapted from a smash best selling novel by Terry McMillan, Waiting to Exhale is a glossy, but one-sided look at the relationship between four strong black women and the various men in their lives.

The film is one-sided because the screenplay presents most of the male characters as sexist, manipulative pigs without a redeeming characteristic in sight, but the sensitive direction and outstanding performances keep the rather lopsided story watchable.
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Whitney Houston made an impressive film debut as Savannah, an ambitious television executive caught in a dead-end affair with a married man (Dennis Haysbert). Angela Basset does Oscar-worthy work as Bernadine, a woman who has spent her life being the best wife and mother she knows how to be, who has her world rocked when her wealthy husband (Michael Beach) calmly announces one night before a formal dinner party that he's in love with someone else and wants a divorce. The scene where Bernadine gathers all her husband's stuff and makes a bonfire out of it in her driveway is one of the film's highlights.
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Lela Rochon plays Robin, a not-too-bright doormat who finds herself pregnant by a man she wants nothing to do with. Loretta Devine is fun as Gloria, a hairdresser who is divorced from her husband, who it turns out was gay, and is struggling to raise her son (Donald Faison) and tries to begin a relationship with a new neighbor (Gregory Hines).

If you can accept the fact that in the world of these four women, all men are pigs, then this film can be very entertaining but the top-notch performances by the cast cannot be overlooked. 3

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Walk the Line is the 2005 biopic tracing the roots of country music legend Johnny Cash, as well as his relationship with second wife, June Carter. As someone who has, if nothing else, a vague recollection of Cash, I found him to be a refreshing topic for a film biography. Since his son's name is one of the names credited to the screenplay, I would think that it is probably pretty accurate as far as the facts are concerned, but that doesn't make it necessarily a great film.
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Joaquim Phoenix is electrifying as Johnny Cash and totally nails the darkness and intensity of the character in a performance that I now think should have won him the Oscar. Phoenix completely loses himself in this character and turns in one of the greatest screen creations of a real life person ever. Reese Witherspoon won an Oscar for her work as June Carter, but I was not nearly as impressed with her work as I was with Phoenix. It's a solid performance but Oscar-worthy? I don't know. Other than an amazing performance by Phoenix, what we get here is just another show biz biography with all the same tired scenes we've seen in every show biz biography, from the "My daddy was mean to me when I was a kid" scene to the "I don't really have a drug problem, I'm just misunderstood" scene.
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Ginnifer Goodwin plays Johnny's first wife, who is drawn as such a total b*tch here you have to wonder why Johnny stayed with her. What makes this film worth seeing and what earned it this reviewer's rating is the breathtaking performance by Joaquim Phoenix as Johnny Cash. 3

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Wedding Crashers is a smart yet raucously funny romantic comedy that has a little more substance to it than the trailers might imply. The movie looks like a pure slapstick comedy on the surface but ends up evolving into much more. Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn play John Beckwith and Jeremy Gray, respectively, two DC attorneys who meet women in their spare time by crashing weddings.

Why two Washington lawyers would have so much trouble meeting women that they have to crash weddings is beyond me, but I digress. John and Jeremy definitely find more than they bargained for when they crash a wedding for the daughter of the Secretary of the Treasury (Christopher Walken) and get involved with the Secretary's two younger daughters.
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The movie is a little long, but consistently entertaining, anchored by a solid screenplay and razor-sharp performances from Wilson and Vaughn. Wilson, is a standout in particular, with a charismatic performance that could elevate him from the Stiller-Vaughn rep company to his own position as a romantic leading man. Wilson lights up the screen here and has never been more appealing on screen.
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Rachel McAdams is lovely as his leading lady and Walken gives one of his most beautifully underplayed performances as the Secretary. Former Bond Girl Jane Seymour is lovely as Walken's wife and looks incredible and there's a hysterical cameo by comic genius Will Ferrell that's just icing on the cake. Though the screenplay could have used a little tightening, Wedding Crashers is still an entertaining trip providing solid laughs most of the way. 8/10

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West Side Story is the 1961 film version of the landmark 1955 Broadway musical that updated Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET to the turbulent urban gang scene of Manhattan's west side that follows the romance between Puerto Rican Maria (Natalie Wood) and Polish Tony (Richard), which is framed against the battles between two rival gangs in the neighborhood, the Puerto Rican sharks and the Caucasian Jets, who are in constant, dangerous conflict over absolute rule over a small area of a west side neighborhood.
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Co-directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins have constructed a nearly perfect musical here, which offers everything Broadway fans want from a musical and also offers a meaty story that could appeal to non-musical fans as well. The score, by Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) has almost become part of musical folklore: "Tonight","America", "Something's Coming", "I Feel Pretty","Somewhere", "One Hand, One Heart", almost all of which have become individual classics in their own right and each is an integral part of the story that helps to flesh out characters and advance plot.
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The cast is first rate, despite the fact that none of the leads do their own singing. Natalie Wood still makes a lovely Maria (singing dubbed by Marni Nixon)and Rita Moreno and George Chakiris light up the screen in their Oscar winning supporting turns as Anita and Bernardo, Maria's best friend and brother, who is leader of the Sharks. Russ Tamblyn is athletic and charismatic as Riff, the Jets' leader and Tony's best friend. Richard Beymer is a little too limp-wristed as Tony, but his singing is superbly dubbed by Jimmy Bryant. But the real star of this film is the dance. Never before was the art of dance used to such brilliant effect to advance the plot of a story. The entire opening of the film, introducing the conflict between the Jets and Sharks is done completely in dance and perfectly conveys the tension between the two gangs.
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Co-director and choreographer Jerome Robbins has mounted some of the most amazing dancing ever seen on the silver screen. The opening, as well as the dance at the gym, "America" and "Cool" are absolutely dazzling dance numbers. This film swept the '61 Oscars, winning 10 awards, including Best Picture. No musical had ever won that many Oscars and it is doubtful that it will ever happen again. A once in a lifetime motion picture experience that all film buffs, especially musical buffs, should study and cherish and revel in. 5

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A laugh-out-loud movie from start to finish, What About Bob? is the story of a successful psychiatrist, Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss) who has just written a best selling book called "Baby Steps" and is about to be interviewed about it on Good Morning America when a colleague refers a patient to him by the name of Bob Wiley (Bill Murray), a nut who is suffering from just about every phobia imaginable.

Dr. Leo has a brief introductory session with Bob, gives him a copy of his book and tells Bob he will see him when he returns from his vacation. Well, Bob is not having this and follows Dr. Leo to his vacation hideaway and insists they start treatment immediately, but as nutty as Bob is, he manages to completely charm Dr. Leo's wife (Julie Hagarty) and his kids (Kathryn Erbe, Charlie Korsmo)to the point where they don't understand why Leo doesn't like the poor schlub.
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This supremely entertaining comedy has a smart script, amusing set pieces,and all the performances work. Bill Murray gives one of his most deftly demented performances since Ghostbusters and Dreyfuss underplays beautifully as Dr. Leo, never allowing Murray to overshadow him on screen. Murray and Dreyfuss make a surprisingly coherent and effective comedy team and make What About Bob? a clever and entertaining screen comedy that pleases from opening scene to closing credits. 8/10
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What a Way to Go! was a glittering all-star comedy that IMO never really got the acclaim it deserved. A true classic that is still watchable and still makes me laugh, over 40 years after it's original release.
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This comic gem stars Shirley MacLaine as Louisa Foster, a wealthy widow who we see at the beginning of the movie trying to give the IRS a check for $40,000,000. Louisa is then seen at the office of the psychiatrist (Robert Cummings)who she has been sent to after trying to give money to the IRS she didn't owe. We then learn, through flashbacks, Louisa's story...a simple girl who believes she is cursed because even though all she wanted was love and marriage, every time she met a man she loved and married him, he became wealthy, died, and left her all the money.
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Dean Martin appears as the small town playboy from Louisa's hometown who she always fended off. Dick Van Dyke plays her first husband, a general store owner whose ambition turns his store into a billion dollar franchise. Paul Newman, very amusing in a rare comedic turn, plays husband #2, an eccentric artist. Robert Mitchum is husband #3, who Louisa thinks is safe because he was rich when they met, and Gene Kelly is on target as husband #4, a struggling nightclub performer who overnight becomes an international movie star.
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MacLaine gives an energetic performance, draped in stunning Edith Head costumes (which should have won an Oscar)and is given solid support from all her leading men, especially Newman and Kelly, who shine in roles where they are definitely cast against type. A riotous and entertaining comic fantasy that holds interest until the final frame. An underrated classic that is all but forgotten these days. 7.5/10

[Mr Minio]

Hereby Gideon gets a MoFo forever alone title. No answers nor reps for these reviews? I just added some random reps just for the amount of work you put into these reviews.

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I don't know why I'm afraid to admit it, but What Planet are you From?is definitely one of my guilty pleasures which I have viewed multiple times and still find highly entertaining.
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This cute and entertaining comedy stars Garry Shandling as an alien sent to earth to impregnate a woman and bring the baby back to his planet. He ends up targeting a real estate agent and recovering alcoholic (Annette Bening) but he doesn't plan on complications like love, marriage, friends, business competitors...those little things that we earthlings deal with on a daily basis but an alien from another planet would have no concept of.
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The opening scenes of the aliens being educated on the female erogenous zones are quite amusing as is Shandling's explanations of women to aliens when he returns to his planet after impregnating Bening and stealing the baby. Bening is charming in a rare comedic turn and even gets to sing. Greg Kinnear scores as a slimy co-worker of Shandling's and Linda Fiorentino makes the most of her brief appearance as his sexy wife. John Goodman is solid as a cynical UFO investigator who can't get anyone to believe there is an alien on earth and has to deal with his paranoid wife (Caroline Aaron) who is convinced the man is cheating on her. Ben Kingsley, in a refreshing change of pace, plays the stone-faced leader of Shandling's planet and Camryn Manheim, Nora Dunn, and Ann Cusack appear as Bening's girlfriends.

Shandling co-wrote this comedy, smoothly directed by Mike Nichols, of all people. It's no masterpiece, but there are worse ways to kill 90 minutes and there are laughs to be had along the way. 6/10

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What's Love Got to Do With It is the dazzling 1993 musical biopic that chronicles the legendary Tina Turner, from her humble beginnings as a show off in her church choir when she was a kid named Anna Mae Bullock to her now legendary success as one of the top rock and roll performers of our generation.

As expected, the majority of the film focuses on Anna Mae's relationship with Ike Turner, a musician who works steadily but stays on the cusp of stardom until meeting Anna Mae, changing her name to Tina and making her the lead singer of the group. The film shines a not-too-flattering light on Ike's abusive treatment of Tina, which ranges from severe beatings to marital rape.
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The screenplay, clearly based on Tina's autobiography I, TINA, is kind of one-sided...in the film, Tina is presented as just this side of Mother Theresa and that Ike single-handedley destroyed their marriage, but in later years, Turner has admitted that the movie does paint Ike in an unflattering light and that she had as much to do with the destruction of their marriage as he did. On the other hand, it is the single-sided view of the screenplay that helps to make this movie so entertaining...we have a crystal clear heroine and an equally clear villain here that arouse the expected reactions from the filmgoers.
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Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishbourne deliver electrifying performances as the Turners, performances that earned them both Oscar nominations and are the anchor of this film. Bassett does a more than credible job of lip-syncing to original Tina recordings. Yes, it may gloss over the facts and the actors may not look like the people they are portraying, but this film is powerhouse entertainment from start to finish. 7.5/10

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What's Up, Doc? was director Peter Bogdanovich's affectionate salute to the screwball comedies of the 1930's, with a special nod to the Katharine Hepburn-Cary Grant classic Bringing up Baby.

This cleverly constructed comedy, set in San Francisco, stars Barbra Streisand as an aimless kook who is instantly drawn to a nerdy music professor (Ryan O'Neal)while getting involved in an elaborate misunderstanding centering around four look-alike overnight bags that ends up involving half of the city of San Francisco in one of the most amazing chase sequences ever put on film.
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Bogdanovich gets it all right here...razor sharp dialogue that moves at a lightning pace (very Howard Hawks) with wonderful set pieces, inspired sight gags, and undeniable chemistry between the two leads (which led to a brief off screen romance).
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It has been well-documented over the years that Streisand hated every minute of making this film and didn't think it was the least bit funny, but I still think she shines here and has never looked more beautiful on film and few actors have made nerdiness look as sexy as O'Neal did here. Madeline Kahn makes a hysterically funny film debut here as O'Neal's tight-assed fiancée and there are other funny bits contributed along the way by Kenneth Mars, Austin Pendleton, Liam Dunn, Mabel Albertson and Sorrell Booke. No doubt, one of the funniest movies ever made. 7.5/10

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When a Man Loves a Woman is a searing and emotional look at how alcoholism manages to leave a family in shreds and how they struggle to put themselves back together again.
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Meg Ryan, in the performance of her career, dominates the screen with her powerhouse portrayal of Alice, a wife, mother, and career woman whose secret drinking is slowly and methodically destroying her life. The film chronicles Alice's journey as she hits her bottom, enters rehab, finishes rehab, and then tries to resume the life she left before rehab and discovers it's not as simple as she thinks. Andy Garcia is equally solid as Michael, Alice's sensitive and loving husband who finds out what real powerlessness is as he watches Alice fall apart and is introduced to a new kind of powerlessness when Alice returns home with a new attitude and new friends she made during her recovery process.
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Lots of great films have been made over the years about alcoholism but what makes this one stand out is that it not only deals with the alcoholism and the rehabilitation process, but it more importantly shows what happens when the alcoholic tries to resume their old life, slowing coming to the realization that it is no longer their old life anymore because they now have to face it sober. It also approaches the subject from the angle of the alcoholic's loved ones as we see Garcia's Michael struggle with the new person Alice has become and finds his only outlet for his frustration in Al-Anon meetings, where he finally realizes he is not alone.
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Luis Madoki's sensitive direction is also an asset but this film works mainly thanks to a well-rounded screenplay and the sterling performances by Andy Garcia and especially Meg Ryan, in a performance that should have earned her an Oscar nomination.
3.5

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One of my favorite guilty pleasures from the 60's is Where Love has Gone, a turgid 1964 soap opera loosely based on the events surrounding Lana Turner when her daughter Cheryl was accused of murdering her then boyfriend Johnny Stompanato. In this story, the actress becomes a sculptor named Valerie Hayden-Miller and Mike (Mannix) Connors plays Luke Miller, her no good husband. Joey Heatherton is amusing as the daughter and Bette Davis does her fair share of scenery chewing, sitting in the world's ugliest chair, as Valerie's mother.
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The movie holds a certain morbid fascination since it is loosely based on fact (Hayward and Heatherton's characters are allegedly a thinly disguised Lana Turner and daughter Cheryl Crane) but everyone involved is either overacting or not acting at all which can be quite fun to watch. Hayward is an appropriate hand-wringing heroine from the 60's and Davis just looks embarrassed. I remember reading somewhere that Davis only agreed to do this movie so that she could pay for her daughter's wedding. 5/10

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White Christmas is the classic re-working of the 1942 film Holiday Inn which follows the story of Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye), army buddies who later become a successful showbiz team who find themselves helping out their retired commanding officer (Dean Jagger) who now owns a run down Vermont Inn and falling for a sister act at the same time. This colorful and entertaining musical has been a favorite of mine since childhood. I was unable to go to sleep on Christmas Eve until I watched this...now they hardly ever show it on Christmas Eve anymore.
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Crosby and Kaye make a great team and they receive great support from Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen as the Haynes sisters. Mary Wickes garners some big laughs as the general's housekeeper and future Oscar winner George Chakiris can be spotted in a couple of production numbers as a dancer. Musical highlights include "Sisters", "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing", "Count your Blessings",'Choreography", and of course, the title tune. Some consider this film the bastard stepchild to Holiday Inn, but I absolutely love it and can watch it over and over again. 4
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One of the most amazing films to come out of the 1960's was the film version of Edward Albee's absurdist vision Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? When I was in a high school acting class, my teacher told us he wanted us to see an example of really great acting and he introduced me to Virginia Woolf for the first time and I must agree.
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This scathing 1966 drama follows a drunken night between two college professors, one young and one not so, and their wives and the secrets, lies, and revelations that come out during their drunken encounter.

Elizabeth Taylor won her second Oscar for her performance as Martha, a character who redefines the term "shrew", the older professor's wife and the daughter of the president of the college(a character who we never meet but is mentioned throughout). Taylor pulled out all the stops for this performance...she put on twenty pounds, wore extra padding, grayed her hair, wore false teeth, and pitched her voice extremely low and buried her English accent for the most part to deliver the most electrifying performance of her career. Some found it over the top, but I find the performance continually fascinating and treasure the little nuances I discover in Martha upon repeated viewings.

Richard Burton was robbed of a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as George, Martha's emasculated husband who does his best to learn the rules of Martha's little games as fast as she can change them. Burton is just as funny as he is heartbreaking and beautifully underplays in order to allow Taylor to shine. George Segal and Sandy Dennis (also an Oscar winner)provide solid support to the Burtons as the new young professor and his wife, who fall victim to the twisted machinations of George and Martha.
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This film was considered quite controversial in 1966. It seems quite tamer now but still packs an emotional wallop and is not for the faint of heart. Mike Nichols' intense direction and loving attention to Albee's script are a big plus here and help to make Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?a shattering and haunting film experience that stays with you long after the final fade-out. 5

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Why do Fools Fall in Love is a supremely entertaining biopic of the young singer Frankie Lyman, which unfolds in a clever variation on the traditional flashback form of storytelling. The film opens with three women arriving at Frankie's former manager's office after his death, trying to claim his estate, all claiming to be the legal widow of Lyman and it is during the trial to determine which of these ladies is Lyman's legal widow where Frankie's story unfolds.
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As with all movie biographies, you never know how much you're watching is based on fact and what has been enhanced or diluted for dramatic effect. In this screenplay, Frankie is a charismatic young singer, who apparently had no problem charming women out of their clothes and their money, the latter of which apparently went to support his drug habit. Frankie's drug use is somewhat glossed over and the screenplay tends to concentrate more on Frankie's manipulative ways with these three women and how he, at one time or another, managed to convince all three of them that each was the only woman in the world.
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Baby-faced Larenz Tate plays Frankie with a sincerity and sexiness that possibly oversells Frankie's real womanizing, but he manages to keep Frankie likable despite some of the slimy things he does. The three women in Frankie's life are well played by Halle Berry, Viveca A. Fox, and Lela Rochon, with Fox a standout in probably the best performance of her career.

The musical sequences are troublesome...Tate works hard at lip-syncing authentically, but I never bought the lip-syncing in the film...all of the musical sequences in the film come off sounding "canned." Still, Tate and the ladies commit to their roles and do make the movie worth watching. I don't know how accurate the film is as a biography of Frankie Lyman, but it is a very entertaining film that will effortlessly hold interest. 3

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Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factor was the 1971 musical loosely based on Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that despite its enormous differences from the book, still makes an entertaining musical that continues to entertain new generations of young filmgoers.
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Gene Wilder turns in a delightful performance as Willie Wonka, a reclusive candy manufacturer who decides to send five golden tickets all over the globe, wrapped inside five of his candy bars, and offers the ticket finders a year's supply of chocolate, a tour of his factory, and a special "surprise" to one of the winners.

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Peter Ostrum is wonderful as Charlie, the young boy who got his ticket through a miraculous stroke of luck and is accompanied by his grandfather, energetically played by Jack Albertson. The other four ticket holders turn out to be insufferable brats who in varied ways, get what's coming to them.
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This colorful and imaginative musical is endlessly entertaining, especially for the pre-teen set. The musical score by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse includes the classic "The Candy Man" and "Pure Imagination". In 2005, another adaptation of the story, starring Johnny Depp, materialized that was darker and closer in feeling to the book, but not nearly as entertaining as this film. 8/10

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Working Girl was a first-rate motion picture comedy which displayed flashes of brilliance and was the breakaway surprise hit film of 1988.
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Masterfully directed by Mike Nichols, the film tells the story of Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) a secretary who wants to be more than a secretary, who has a business idea stolen from her by her current boss and then gets her revenge by pretending to be her boss who is temporarily sidelined.
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Nichols has a razor sharp screenplay here and has assembled a first-rate cast to pull it off. Griffith is a revelation as Tess, a role that re-ignited her comatose career and garnered her a Best Actress nomination. Sigourney Weaver is perfection as Catherine Parker, Tess' bitchy, self-absorbed boss who smiles in Tess' face but proves she's someone you can't turn your back on. Harrison Ford, in a refreshing change of pace for him, proves to be surprisingly adept at light comedy as Jack Trainer, Catherine's tentative love interest and business associate who finds himself torn when he meets Tess in the midst of her charade.
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The interplay between these three rich and complex characters makes for one of the most interesting triangles to hit the big screen in years. There are effective supporting bits contributed along the away by Joan Cusack, Oliver Platt, Olympia Dukakis, Alec Baldwin, Philip Bosco, and in blink-and you-miss-them-cameos, Ricki Lake and Kevin Spacey.

One of the smartest and most engaging comedies ever made that also received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Weaver and Cusack)and won Carly Simon the Oscar for Best Original Song. A triumph for Nichols and a flawless comic ensemble. Not only one of the best of 1988, but one of the best comedies of the 1980's period. 4

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Owen Wilson's screen charisma is perfectly suited for You Me, & Dupree, in which Wilson plays Dupree, a goof ball of a man-child who apparently has no goals, dreams, or aspirations, who finds himself homeless and becomes house guest to his best friend Carl and his new bride, Molly.

This breezy yet predictable comedy does provide consistent laughs, thanks primarily to Owen Wilson's deft, yet understated performance as Dupree. Matt Dillon works hard in the role of Carl, which clearly appears to have been meant for Ben Stiller, who I guess was unavailable. Kate Hudson makes the most of the thankless role of Molly and Oscar winner Michael Douglas makes a smooth transition from leading man to character actor with his classy turn as Molly's dad and Carl's boss, whose contempt for Carl becomes clearer as the film progresses.
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Wilson also served as co-producer on this film, which is not exactly steeped in originality, but does provide fun for the viewer along the way. 7/10

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What else can be said about this classic that hasn't already been said? 1974's Young Frankenstein is Mel Brooks' dead solid perfect parody of the Frankenstein films, Bride of Frankenstein in particular, in which we meet Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder)who is the grandson of the Frankenstein of folklore, who inherits his grandfather's castle and eventually becomes obsessed with his grandfather's dream of re-animating dead tissue.
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Everything works here, partly because I think Brooks chose to stay behind the camera this time. I have found his work where he stays behind the camera is better. Brooks has assembled a perfect cast: Wilder is brilliant as the deranged doctor, Marty Feldman creates one of the great comic characters in cinema history with Igor ("It's pronounced "Eye-gore"), Peter Boyle makes a charming creature and Cloris Leachman brilliantly channels Judith Anderson in her Frau Blucher. Teri Garr is a lovely Inga and Madeline Kahn is memorable as Frederick's fiancée Elizabeth.
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It's one gag after another here and almost all of them work. Personally, I think Kenneth Mars' Inspector Kemp is a bit over the top, but why carp? But above all, you have the classic Brooks/Wilder screenplay, which has become part of pop-culture folklore...I'm pretty sure anyone who has ever seen this film can quote at least two or three lines from it. A comedy classic that just gets better with age...like fine wine. 5
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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14703&stc=1&d=1400252929Yours, Mine & Ours is the 1968 family classic based on a true story that, among other things, was an inspiration for the TV series The Brady Bunch

This warm and entertaining comedy stars Lucille Ball as Helen North, a widowed naval nurse, who is the mother of eight children who meets and falls in love with Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda), a widowed naval officer, who is the father of ten children and the obvious complications that ensue when Helen and Frank decide to marry and blend their families.

There are no surprises here...the children obviously object to the union and still think of themselves as separate families despite Frank and Helen's efforts to bring them together, but everything does eventually iron itself out in true sitcom style.
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Lucille Ball has one of her best film roles here, playing it relatively straight as Helen, but the Lucy we know and love does get to shine through in a couple of comic scenes...one at a crowded bar where she does battle with a slip and a fake eyelash and during a dinner at Frank's house where Frank's sons have spiked her drink and she gets very drunk. Fonda proves to have a surprising gift for light comedy and his chemistry with Ball is unexpectedly solid.

Van Johnson is very funny as the mutual friend who brings them together and Tom Bosley has some funny moments as the family doctor. There are several future stars featured in the film as the North/Beardsley children, including Tim Matheson, Gil Rogers, Morgan Brittany, Mitch Vogel, and Tracy Nelson. A true family classic that still makes me laugh out loud after almost 40 years. 4

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14704&stc=1&d=1400253646You've Got Mail is the most recent updating of a classic movie story about two lonely people who are antagonistic towards each other in life but have been secretly corresponding for years but have never met. We were first introduced to this story as THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER with James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan back in 1940, if memory serves. Then we got a musical version of the same story in '49 with Judy Garland and Van Johnson called IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME. Barbara Cook starred in a stage musical version of the story called SHE LOVES ME and now Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan play Joe Fox, manager of a large retail bookstore chain and Kathleen Kelly, the owner of a small children's bookstore called (surprise!)The Shop Around the Corner who become instant enemies when Joe's new store threatens to put Kathleen out of business. Unbeknownst to either of them, they have been e-mail lovers for the longest time but don't know it.
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The classic tale is updated for the computer age but it's still timeless and engaging and my personal favorite of the three films Hanks and Ryan made together. They are magical here and are surrounded by a terrific supporting cast including Greg Kinnear, Parker Posey, Jean Stapleton, Dave Chappelle, Dabney Coleman, Steve Zahn, and John Randolph. If you're a sucker for a good old fashioned love story, have your fill here. 8/10

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For those who never saw A Chorus Line onstage and their only exposure to the story was this film, this film is OK as movie musicals go, nothing special, just OK. I have seen the show on Broadway 4 times and even auditioned for a touring company of the show once and for someone who pretty much memorized the original production, the 1985 film version is so dreadful on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin.
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First of all, for those who have never auditioned for a theatrical production, let me assure you that IRL when you audition for a play, the director, producer, and choreographer never ask personal questions and don't give a crap about why you wanted to become a performer. A real theatrical audition, whether it be for a play or a musical, rarely takes more than five minutes. If you're auditioning as a dancer, you get shown a 64-bar dance combination once, you do it, and then they decide immediately whether you're in or out.
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Michael Bennett's original concept of the show was to flesh out the lives of dancers and introduce to the uninitiated the passion for performing and why so many sacrifice so much for so little. The play is about these dancers. First of all, director Richard Attenborogh took so much focus off the dancers by beefing up the Cassie/Zach relationship and by casting Michael Douglas as Zach. In the play, you NEVER see Zach...he is just a voice in the back of the theater and his relationship with Cassie is barely touched upon. Cassie shown in the cab in traffic trying to get to the audition and upstairs talking to Larry (a character who is not even in the play)was all added for the movie and took so much focus off what the story is about.
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Major musical numbers were cut or rethought. The opening number in the play "I Hope I Get It" shows all of the dancers doing a jazz and ballet combination and then people get eliminated. In the movie they jam three hundred dancers onstage together and show them in closeup to disguise the fact that they have cast people in the film who can't dance (can you say "Audrey Landers"). "Goodbye 12, Goodbye 13, Hello Love", a brilliant vocal exploration of these dancers' childhood's jaundiced memories was reworked as "Surprise, Surprise" mainly a vehicle for the late Gregg Burge as Richie.
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The show's most famous song, "What I Did for Love" which in the show was a touching allegory sung by the entire cast about what they give up to dance, becomes just another standard love song in the film, performed tiredly by a miscast Allyson Reed as Cassie.
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Jeffrey Hornaday's choreography for the film is dull and unimaginative and doesn't hold a candle to Michael Bennett's original staging and when you're making a movie about dancers, the choreography has to be special.

There are a couple of good dancers in the film, the previously mentioned Gregg Burge as Richie, Michelle Johnston as Bebe, and Janet Jones as Judy, but they are hardly given the opportunity to show what they can do, yet Audrey Landers, who can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, is given one of the show's best numbers, "Dance 10, Looks 3."
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I will admit that the finale, "One" is dazzling, but you have to wait almost two hours for that. I would say that if you never saw A Chorus Line onstage, this film might be worth a look, but if you are a devotee of the original Broadway musical...be afraid...be very afraid. 2.5

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The turgid screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's 1973 masterpiece A Little Night Music is probably in the top five of worst adaptations of Broadway musical to the motion picture screen. The musical, based on the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, follows the revolving lives of three couples who clearly at the beginning are mismatched and how they end up being with their soulmates by the end of the film.
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Elizabeth Taylor, looking fat and tired, sleepwalks her way through the film and enough has been said about her singing so I won't even go there. Director Hal Prince did have the sense to hire Len Cariou and Laurence Guittard to repeat their stage roles Fredrich and the Count, who both think they are in love with Desiree, but even these two charismatic actors come off as stilted.
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Lesley Ann-Downe is a lovely woman but she's way too old to be playing Fredrich's young wife, Anne, who in the original script, was 18. The only completely satisfying performance in the film is by Diana Rigg as the Countess, who brings so much more to the role than the screenplay allows and also surprisingly gives the film its loveliest musical moment with her rendition of "Every Day a Little Death."
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Speaking of music, I found it interesting that Prince felt the need to completely overhaul one of the most beautiful musical scores ever written for the stage. Hermione Gingold's role as Desiree's mother is reduced to a glorified cameo since they chose to cut her song, "Liasons". The Count also has a gorgeous solo in the show called "In Praise of Women" which was also cut. The song "The Glamorous Life" was rethought and became a solo for Desiree's daughter, Fredrika, charmingly played by Chloe Franks. They also cut "The Miller's Son" a powerhouse of a song sung by Petra, the maid.
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I could go on ad nauseum about what's wrong with this movie, but that would be pointless. I just cannot fathom how Hal Prince so horrifically screwed up the screen version of a musical HE directed on Broadway. In an eggshell, the only reason to see this film is if you live for Diana Rigg. 2

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The 1954 version of A Star is Born is the second of three versions of the classic Hollywood story, originally conceived by William Wellman about an up and coming star who falls in love with an alcoholic Hollywood legend whose best years are behind him.
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Judy Garland delivered the performance of her career that should have won her an Oscar, as Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester the rising star who falls for her mentor, Norman Maine (James Mason), a Hollywood icon who can't get work anymore because of his drunken escapades. This film, produced by Judy's husband at the time, Sid Luft, was severely edited after initial release; however, a lot of that footage has been restored over the years with some stills inserted and the film now looks like the story Garland and Luft wanted to bring to the screen.
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Judy's weight appears to fluctuate throughout the film; however, her voice is at its peak. Her performance of "The Man that Got Away" is chilling and the 15-minute "Born in a Trunk" sequence is regarded as a mini-classic in itself. Judy earned her first Oscar nomination for Outstanding lead actress for her performance in this film. Her win seemed to be such a lock in Hollywood that reporters and TV cameras invaded Garland's hospital room on Oscar night. She had just given birth to her son Joey. When the envelope was opened and Grace Kelly was announced the winner, the reporters and cameras were gone in about two minutes.

James Mason, also nominated for an Oscar,is tragic and heartbreaking as Norman Maine and there is solid support from Charles Bickford and Jack Carson (wonderful as an acid-tongued agent). Hollywood in the 1950's never looked s glamorous and appealing and Judy's last great musical is a cherished classic that is still worth watching after almost 50 years. 5

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An Oliver Stone film can be spotted in five minutes in and Any Given Sunday is no exception. Sadly, Stone has the ability to pick some really human and moving stories and blow them up into gargantuan proportions to the point where it becomes nearly impossible to care about anyone or anything that is going on in the movie.
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Very few quality dramatic films have been done on the topic of professional football (BRIAN'S SONG and NUMBER ONE come to mind)and I don't why this is the case. It seems to me that the world of professional football would be rife with dramatic possibilities and it's nice that Stone recognized this; however, he attempts to tell this story on such a large scale that the film-goer just gets bored with trying to keep up with all the stories and all the characters.

I think if Stone and the screenwriter had chosen to be a little more economical with the screenplay and focused it on two or three of the stronger stories/characters, this film would have worked much better; however, as is, the film is too busy and there is just way too much going on. Al Pacino as the past-his-prime coach butting heads with new owner Cameron Diaz (badly miscast IMO)...Jamie Foxx as the up and coming quarterback who gets a swelled head...James Woods as the team doctor with the questionable code of ethics butting heads with his idealistic assistant Matthew Modine...Lawrence Taylor as the defensive player so obsessed with getting the yards he needs for endorsements he risks his life...Dennis Quaid as the quarterback coming face to face with the mortality of being a quarterback...Lauren Holly and Lela Rochon showing two different sides of being a football wife and it just goes on and on and on...Stone has assembled an impressive "Spot the Star" type cast but unfortunately has given them precious little to do.
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Pacino has his moments, but his performance mostly consists of a lot of unmotivated screaming and yelling and over the top drunk scenes. Lawrence Taylor and LL Cool J seem to be competing for the "Which is Worse Award?"- Football player turned actor or Rapper turned actor.

Former NFL and movie legend Jim Brown adds a touch of class to the proceedings as the defensive coach and John C. McGinley (SCRUBS) has some genuinely funny moments as a sardonic sports columnist, but Jamie Foxx easily walks away with the film with his charismatic turn as Willie Beamen. Foxx completely invests in this character, who is not painted in shades of black and white, and makes you care about him nonetheless, a performance which was a definite precursor to Ray.

I think if Stone had economized his screenplay, re-thought some of his casting, and tightened the direction, this movie could have been something really special. Instead, it's a film that should have been something really special. 3

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The undeniable charm of its stars, at the peak of their popularity, is the only thing that makes Best Friends slightly watchable. This paper-thin story centers on a pair of Hollywood screen writers named Richard Babson (Burt Reynolds) and Paula McCullen (Goldie Haw), who after years of living together, decide to marry, though they both have always felt marriage would destroy their relationship.

There's nothing new or interesting here and the thrust of the film is when the pair make a trip to visit each other's parents. Jessica Tandy and Barnard Hughes are wonderful as Goldie's parents, Audra Lindley and Keenan Wynn also have their moments as Burt's parents, but the whole thing just plays like a hastily written sitcom. The film is driven purely on star power and has this whole "been there done that" air about it. I think Burt and Goldie must have needed the money. 5/10

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For those who have never seen Bye Bye Birdie onstage, this 1963 film version will be a lot more enjoyable than for those familiar with the stage show, as this musical was vastly overhauled in order for Warner Brothers to showcase their new up and coming star, Ann-Margret and as a vehicle to show her off, the film works, however, it is only a pale imitation of the original musical.
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As a matter of fact, Dick Van Dyke, who played Albert Peterson on Broadway and won a Tony for his efforts, made the film during his hiatus from the first season of THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW and upon returning to the TV show, asked his cast members not to see the film because it was "The Ann-Margret Show" not Bye Bye Birdie. The late Paul Lynde, who also appeared onstage and in the film as Kim's father was quoted as saying the film should be called "Hello Ann-Margret."
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Everyone else in the film was reduced to supporting status in order to put Ann-Margret front and center for this story of the mania that sweeps over a small town called Sweet Apple, Ohio, when a famous rock and roll singer gets drafted (based on the mania when Elvis was drafted).

Despite the complete overhaul of the original show, it's still an entertaining film with Van Dyke in top form as Albert and Paul Lynde hysterically funny as Harry McAfee, Kim's father. Maureen Stapleton has some funny moments as Albert's mother; however, Janet Leigh was a rather bland replacement for spitfire Chita Rivera, who played Albert's girl Rosie on Broadway. Ann-Margret is charming as Kim and makes the most of this showcase of her talent though I do find myself giggling every time she purses her lips in an attempt to be sexy.
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There are some great musical numbers though, expertly choreographed by Onna White, including "The Telephone Hour", "Sincere", and "Gotta Lotta Livin to Do". Only Jesse Pearson misses the boat as rock and roller Conrad Birdie. But if you like Ann-Margret and have never seen the show onstage, you will enjoy this energetic film version of Bye Bye Birdie. 3.5

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Between Friends was an HBO-TV movie that brought together two show biz legends- Elizabeth Taylor and Carol Burnett, for the first time in this shallow but watchable film about two women who run into each other (literally) and become best friends in the blink of an eye. Burnett's character, if memory serves, is a divorced real estate agent with a daughter, currently having an affair with a married man and who, since her divorce has drifted from one man to another and that suits her fine because "nobody makes her cry" anymore. Elizabeth Taylor is a sheltered woman on the verge of a divorce who has no idea how to live by herself, meet a man, or act on a date.

Granted, it is fun watching these two show biz icons share the screen, but the script leaves a lot to be desired...these two women have absolutely nothing in common and their becoming best friends makes no sense and it is definitely stretching credibility to have Burnett playing the aging sex kitten who floats from affair to affair and Taylor as the woman who doesn't know how to even meet a man. But if you're a fan of the two actresses, it's worth a look. 6/10

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Cactus Flower was a delightful 1969 comedy based on a Neil Simon play about a dentist (Walter Matthau) having an affair with a young free spirited woman (Goldie Hawn), totally unaware that his devoted nurse/assistant(Ingrid Bergman)is in love with him. Matthau can play this kind of role in his sleep and he doesn't disappoint as the philandering dentist, Dr. Julian Winston, who is dating one woman but really has no clue that he's in love with another.

Goldie Hawn won an Oscar for her sparkling performance as Toni Simmons, the aging flower child who slowly comes to realize she is trapped in a dead end affair and is not as dim as she appears on the surface.
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But the real pleasure for me in this film was the performance of the legendary Ingrid Bergman as Stephanie Dickinson, Dr. Winston's completely devoted assistant, who is willing to to bury her own happiness as long as Dr. Winston is happy with Toni. Bergman is luminous in this film, looking absolutely beautiful (though the camera has always loved her) and showing a long-buried knack for light comedy, which had not been utilized since INDISCREET.
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Yes, the dialogue and the settings are slightly dated, but the story is timeless and the performances by the stars make it imminently watchable. 7.5/10

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I truly enjoyed the 1991 remake of Cape Fear, based on the 1962 classic with Roert Mitchum and Gregory Peck.

In this remake, Robert De Niro gives one of his most electrifying performances as Max Cady, an ex-con out to terrorize the lawyer (Nick Nolte) who sent him to jail, not to mention his wife and daughter (Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis). http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14733&stc=1&d=1400271081

My review is based on the merit of this film alone as I have never seen the original; however, after seeing this, I wanted to. Nolte gives an equally strong performance as the milquetoast lawyer pushed to his limits by this madman. Lange and Lewis offer strong support as Nolte's family (Lewis received an Oscar nod for this, her first starring role).
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I also thought it was nice of director Scorcese to salute the original film by casting original stars Mitchum and Peck in supporting roles. but above all, De Niro is worth the price of the rental here.:cool:

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1956's Carousel was definitely one of the stronger screen adaptations of a screen musical despite its troubled beginnings.
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Frank Sinatra had originally been cast as Billy and walked because the film was being filmed using two different film techniques requiring everything to be done twice. Doris Day was the producers' first choice for Julie but she was having health problems at the time and was unavailable. These circumstances created the reunion of "Oklahoma" stars Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, who even though this film was made right after "Oklahoma" seem much more adult, mature, and sexy than they did in the previous film.

For the uninitiated, CAROUSEL is the story of Billy Bigelow, a carnival barker who offers Julie a free ride on his carousel one night and the attraction between the two is instantaneous...almost animal...they both get fired from their jobs as a result but they don't care. I love the relationship between Billy and Julie, as opposed to Curly and Laurey, because Billy and Julie's relationship is clearly sexual, evidenced in Julie's pregnancy.
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There is violence and fantasy mixed with the romance here to produce one of the loveliest musicals ever filmed. MacRae and Jones shine alone and as a duo...the "If I loved You" scene is enchanting as are his "Soliloquy" and her "What's the Use of Wondrin?". Barbara Ruick is cute as Carrie, Julie's best friend, Robert Rounseville makes a robust Mr. Snow, Cameron Mitchell is amusing as Billy's shady pal Jigger and Claramae Turner's rendition of the show's most famous song "You'll Never Walk Alone" is breathtaking.
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Filmed on beautiful Maine locations, director Henry King has brought us a lush and lovely musical that has everything a musical should offer, even if it is a tad overlong. Still worth the trip. [Rating]4[Rating]

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Chances are is a charming romantic fantasy about a woman (Cybill Shepherd) whose husband (Christopher McDonald) is killed shortly after learning she is pregnant. We then see the husband in heaven letting the powers that be know that he was taken too soon and that his wife needs him. He is told he can return to earth but not as himself.
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Flashforward 19 years where we see Shepherd's daughter (Mary Stuart Masterson) preparing to graduate from college and encountering a young man (Robert Downey Jr.)who, it turns out is the reincarnation of her father.
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The film is a little on the predictable side...the story goes all the places you expect it to, but it is so charmingly played by an energetic cast (especially Shepherd and Downey) that you can't help but get wrapped up in the fun. Shepherd has rarely been seen on screen to better advantage and she and Downey are backed by a talented group of character actors in supporting roles. A lovely and charming fantasy that will engulf and enchant you. 8/10

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Michael Keaton turned in the performance of his career in Clean and Sober, a somber, yet riveting 1988 drama which starred Keaton as Daryl Poynter, a go-getter real estate agent who is in complete denial about a serious problem he has with drugs and alcohol. A serious night of partying goes deadly wrong for Daryl and he finds himself a fugitive from the law and decides to hide out at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, aware of their rules regarding confidentiality.

Daryl resists the program initially, still in denial, but eventually comes to realize that he is really an alcoholic and a drug addict and that he must deal with this realization if he ever wants to look at himself in the mirror again.
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This movie is gritty and uncompromising in its realistic depiction of drug and alcohol addiction and where the addiction can take you. Daryl is depicted breaking into his office looking for money as well as calling his parents asking them them to apply for a second mortgage on their house so that they can lend him the money. These scenes are frighteningly realistic for those who have dealt with addiction or have a loved one caught in the grips of addiction.

Michael Keaton delivers a powerhouse performance, the best of his career, as Daryl, the big shot who sees his world crumbling around him and continues to deny what the root of the problem really is. Morgan Freeman gives his usual solid performance as the head counselor at the rehab center. Kathy Baker, Tate Donavan, and Claudia Christian also offer solid support as fellow rehab clients and M. Emmett Walsh plays Daryl's sponsor, a relationship Daryl accidentally stumbles into.
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If you have ever had a problem with drugs or alcohol or care about someone who does, Clean and Sober is an important film to see and ponder. The film doesn't answer all the questions that may come to mind about the disease of addiction, but it clearly shows where denial can take someone suffering from the disease A riveting and powerful film that should not be missed. 4

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Other than WAYNE'S WORLD, this is the only film adaptation of an SNL skit that really worked for me. Coneheads was an inventive and smartly written 1993 comedy that expanded upon the original Saturday Night Live skits starring Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, and Lorraine Newman as Beldar, Prymatt, and Connie Conehead, the aliens who are trying to live as earthlings and tell the world that they are from France.
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The movie starts before Connie is even born, showing why Beldar and Prymatt were sent to earth and how they ended up smack in the middle of suburbia. There are some moments of genuine warmth that you feel for the Coneheads as they have to stay on the run, as they are being pursued by a slimy Immigration agent (Michael McKean, in an on target performance) and his ass-kissing assistant (a hysterical David Spade).
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The film has one hilarious moment after another. Jan Hooks appears as a student of Beldar (who is seen working briefly as a driving instructor)who lusts after Beldar and her silent encounter with Prymatt in a supermarket is hysterical. Chris Farley is very funny as Ronnie, Connie's boyfriend.
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The role of Connie has been inherited by Michelle Burke for some reason, though Lorraine Newman can be spotted in a cameo near the end of the film. Jason Alexander and Lisa Jane Persky are very funny as Beldar and Prymatt's suburban neighbors. Sinbad has some funny moments as Beldar's first boss and Adam Sandler is funny in a brief scene as a guy who provides Beldar with a phony Social Security card and whole new identity.

There is so much to take in here and a lot of talented comedians are seen to good advantage, whether in starring or cameo roles. Coneheads is one of the most underrated comedies of the 90's which I don't think ever got the credit it deserved. If you've never seen it, give it a shot. 3.5

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14755&stc=1&d=1400276057After their triumph with All of Me, Steve Martin and Carl Reiner decided to try something very different with this clever detective movie spoof called Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, where Martin plays a 40's private eye named Rigby Reardon who is hired by a cool brunette to solve her father's murder.
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The clever linchpin upon which this film hangs is that, through the magic of tricky editing and complicated photography, Steve Martin interacts with film clips from movies of the period with the actual stars of these films spliced into the scenes with Martin. Martin does scenes with Jimmy Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Lana Turner, Bette Davis, Kirk Douglas, Vincent Price, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edward Arnold, Veronica Lake, Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck and other great stars from Hollywood's golden era.

This film is a must for true film buffs who will immediately start scratching their heads trying to remember what movies these clips are from. In the case of some like Bogart, Turner, and Gardner, clips from two or three different films are used (Lana Turner is seen in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and JOHNNY EAGER, for instance).
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This film is a lot of fun and Martin plays it straight for big laughs and gets solid support from Rachel Ward as his beautiful client, Juliet Forrest and from Reiner as the villain of the piece. Obviously, because of the clips utilized, it is filmed in glorious black and white but the inter-splicing of Martin with the clips is virtually seamless.
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A must see for true film buffs as well as Martin fans. It should also be mentioned that this film was the final project for Hollywood's greatest costumer designer, Edith Head. The film is dedicated to her. 3.5

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Death to Smoochy was a continuation of director Danny DeVito's journey into the realm of "black comedy", a term I think DeVito,as a director, has definitely redefined (most notably War of the Roses)which tells an effectively mounted tale (and yes, there are parallels to the 1976 classic Network) about a kids TV host (Robin Williams) who gets fired after a scandal and is replaced by an idealistic young performer (Edward Norton) who, once, given complete creative control of the show, takes it in unexpected directions and is unable to be controlled by the network bigwigs and finds his idealism landing him in some legal trouble as well as danger.

Despite an amusing premise and cute title, there is very little pleasant or entertaining about this film, except for the endlessly charming performance by Edward Norton, an I actor I'm convinced could become the movie genre's new Jack Nicholson...an actor of such range and versatility that he can make mediocre dialogue shine and make a strained story watchable. Death to Smoochy is watchable only because of the endless on screen charm and charisma of Edward Norton. 7/10

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Divorce American Style was an offbeat and surprisingly adult (for 1967) comedy that starred Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds as Richard and Barbara Harmon, a wealthy California couple who divorce after 17 years of marriage and the adjustments both try to make being single once more. Smartly directed by Bud Yorkin and co-written by future TV icon Norman Lear, this biting satire died at the box office at the time of release, but is really a well-made and quite revealing comedy about the ins and outs of marriage, divorce, and all the little banalities that these subjects bring about.
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Yorkin directs with a master hand here...I love the scene right after Richard and Barbara's dinner party where they undress for bed in total silence, getting in each other's way but not saying a word to each other, just "Bury you six feet under" looks. Or when Richard and his best friend (Joe Flynn)and Barbara and her best friend (Emmaline Henry) arrive at the bank at the same time to clean out their bank accounts and safety deposit box...another scene done with no dialogue but so smartly staged, with a serious of stills spliced together at lightning speed, dialogue is not needed. Yorkin places a lot of trust in his hand-picked cast and they deliver the goods, especially considering that a lot of the actors in this film are radically cast against type.
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The supporting cast is first rate...Jason Robards is surprisingly funny as Nelson Downs, a divorce victim who tries to set Richard up with his ex (the lovely Jean Simmons) so that he doesn't have to pay alimony anymore. Lee Grant, Tom Bosley, Van Johnson, Eileen Brennan, Shelley Berman, and Dick Gautier also contribute funny bits. A very young Tim Matheson also appears as Richard and Barbara's eldest son.
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This delicious and slightly twisted comic confection from the mind of Norman Lear is a delight from beginning to end and if you've never seen it, it's worth a look. 3.5

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I may be in the minority here, but I loved Dr. T and the Women, mainly because it wasn't what I expected.
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Looking at the title and the cast, I expected a smarmy sex comedy about a doctor who is irresistible to all of his patients and is running from exam room to exam room getting his clothes torn off and then I saw that Robert Altman directed it and decided to give it a look.
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I found this film to be an intelligent and winning comedy about a doctor who actually loves and respects his female patients as well as the various females in his life. Richard Gere has rarely been more appealing on screen as the doc of the title and he is surrounded by an impressive group of actresses at the top of their game. Helen Hunt plays the golf pro he falls for. Laura Dern is very funny as his alcoholic sister-in-law. Shelley Long has some funny moments as his office manager who harbors a secret crush on her boss. Kate Hudson and Tara Reid play Doctor T's daughters and in a brief but memorable cameo, Farrah Fawcett as Gere's mentally unstable wife who ends up institutionalized.
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This film is a little more structured than most of Altman's previous work and doesn't require the usual work necessary to enjoy an Altman film and the straight forward scripting is a big help. I know a lot of people found the ending troubling, but to me it was classic Altman...a little crazy, a little off-center, and leaving questions unanswered...something we Altman fans have come to expect of him.
3.5

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I officially fell in love with Johnny Depp and gained a brand new respect for him as an actor after seeing 1990's Edward Scissorhands, the darkest of black comedies, in which Depp plays the creation of a mad scientist (Vincent Price, in his final film role)who, after the death of his creator, is disturbed to learn that his creator did not finish his hands and left his hands as large scissor-like objects who is befriended by a kindly Avon Lady (Dianne Wiest)who takes him home to live with her family.

Director Tim Burton takes the "fish out of water" concept to an all-new level, creating an alternately dark and vibrant cinematic canvas that encompasses some of the most interesting color schemes that I've seen in a film in ages.
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A razor sharp screenplay is given yeomen service by Wiest, Winona Ryder as her daughter who Edward develops a crush on, Alan Arkin as Wiest's husband, Anthony Michael Hall as Ryder's boyfriend, and Kathy Baker as an amorous neighbor; however, it is Depp who dominates the proceedings with a devastating, tragic, sweet, brave, and touching performance. There is nary a false note in his performance as Depp plays the stranger in a strange land to perfection. This film was the genesis of the Depp-Burton collaboration that would continue into other films, but it all started here...this magical fantasy journey into the darkest parts of suburbia will thrill, amuse, and entertain. 4

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Election was a surprise sleeper of 1999 that got by a lot of people during its initial release, myself included. I was more than pleasantly surprised at what a smart and highly original black comedy this was.

Reese Witherspoon gives a razor sharp performance as Tracy Flick, an over achieving high schooler who plans to run for student body president unopposed until a faculty member persuades the captain of the football team to run against her.

To say much more would just give away too many of the delightful twists and turns this story takes. Suffice it to say that the journey is more than worth it in this smart and stylish black comedy that holds surprises at every turn.
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Matthew Broderick, in a refreshing change of pace, scores a bullseye as the faculty member, who turns out to have a dark side you don't see coming and Chris Klein makes the most of his role as jock turned politician. Attention must be paid here and if you think you know what's going to happen, you're probably wrong and should just keep watching. A minor classic, stylishly directed by Alexander Payne (SIDEWAYS, ABOUT SCHMIDT), that is worth repeated viewings. 4

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Admittedly, I have never been a fan of action/adventure films. I don't know why...the genre has never appealed to me that much, so an endorsement from me regarding an action/adventure film is a big thing. And there are few action films that have totally riveted me from start to finish like Face/Off.
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This thoroughly original and truly exciting film is one the finest examples of this genre, mounted by proven action genius John Woo, who has become sort of the Sam Peckinpaugh of this generation. The movie centers on a long standing cat-and-mouse game between a veteran FBI agent (John Travolta) and a demented career criminal (Nicolas Cage), who, many years ago, in an attempt to murder Travolta, murdered his son instead. Cage's Castor Troy has planted a bomb somewhere in Los Angeles and is then assumed to be dead.

Travolta's Sean Archer can only learn where the bomb is from Castor's brother and the only way he can get the information from him is to become Castor Troy which involves a highly technical surgical procedure where Troy's face is removed from his comatose body and placed on Travolta's face. However, the story gets ugly when Castor awakens from his coma, has Travolta's face put on himself, and then murders everyone who knows about the plan.
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It's such an interesting story that the viewer can't help but become emotionally involved in and what a great acting challenge for these two actors, who, at times, must adapt each other's speech patterns and mannerisms in order to make this ruse work.

Travolta and Cage do some of the best work of their respective careers here, almost to the point that you can forget who is who at what time. Joan Allen, one of the best actresses in the business, offers solid support, as Sean Archer's confused wife, caught in the middle of this deadly game and Gina Gershon makes a strong impression as Troy's girl and mother of his son, but this is Cage and Travolta's show all the way, and with the help of an intelligent screenplay and masterful direction, bring us one of the great action/adventure epics of the last 20 years. 4
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I must admit to scratching my head at the fact that in this time when Hollywood is all about action and violence and sex and toilet bowl humor that a film like Far From Heaven ever got greenlighted, but I am so glad it did.
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This lavishly produced drama reminds me of one of those lush Ross Hunter productions of the 1960's where Lana Turner changed her Edith Head wardrobe every ten minutes and cried her eyes out in the arms of a different man in every scene she did, but this is not a lampoon of those movies...this movie is what those movies should have been.

Julianne Moore gives the performance of her career as Cathy Whitaker, a 1950's housewife who seems to have it all: a successful and handsome husband (Dennis Quaid), two great kids, a beautiful home, social standing in her community, she is even seen being interviewed for a newspaper article at the beginning of the film for her role in community affairs. Cathy is on top of the world but finds herself toppling off when she goes to her husband's office to surprise him when he is supposedly working late and walks in on her husband about to have sex with another man.
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The refreshing surprise here is that Frank Whitaker doesn't make excuses like he was drunk or experimenting...he tells Cathy he's had these feelings for a long time and walks out on her. A lonely Cathy then drifts into an innocent friendship with a neighborhood black man (Dennis Haybert), an absolute taboo thing in the 1950's.

This story is so lovingly told and sensitively written that you can't help but get drawn into what's going on and I found myself having to constantly remind myself that this film takes place in the 50's because so many of the attitudes displayed here are so antiquated now but for the 50's they are dead-on.
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Moore is luminous as Cathy and Dennis Quaid delivers an equally compelling performance as confused husband Frank. Haysbert brings a nice early Sidney Poitier quality to his role and there is a brief, stylish supporting turn from Patricia Clarkson as Cathy's friend. This film is a masterpiece and a must-see. 4

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The 1968 musical Finian's Rainbow has definitely grown on me over the years and is now a part of my permanent video collection. This was one of the first directorial assignments for Francis Ford Copolla, who would go on to direct The Godfather.

There are many stories of a troubled production history regarding the film, including many disagreements between star Fred Astaire and the director, as well as a change in choreographers. Fred's long-time choreographer Hermes Pan was originally signed but Copolla wanted more "realistic" choreography (whatever that means) and had him replaced; however, little of this trouble really show on the screen in this delightful musical about an Irishman (Astaire) who steals a crock of gold from a leprechaun (Tommy Steele) and goes to America with his daughter (Petula Clark) to start a new life.
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Astaire, Clark, and especially Steele are wonderful and the musical numbers are entertaining and who can beat the Burton Lane-E.Y. Harburg score with songs like "Look to the Rainbow" and "Old Devil Moon". An above average musical and, if possible, try to see it in a theater. 3.5

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Finnegan Begin Again was a delightful made for HBO TV movie from 1985 about a lonely advice columnist (Robert Preston in a lovely performance), trapped into caring for his senile wife (Sylvia Sidney) who develops a relationship with a woman (Mary Tyler Moore) who is equally trapped in a dead end affair with a married man (Sam Waterston).

This movie lovingly tells the story of two desperately lonely people, trapped in lives they don't know how to get out of and find solace and friendship in each other. The movie is well-written and directed and the stars, particularly Preston, are just wonderful. I don't know if this one is on DVD but it should be. If you can find it, try to catch this underrated gem. 3.5

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14807&stc=1&d=1400340936Fresno was a television rarity...a multi-part comedic TV miniseries. This near brilliant spoof of nighttime soaps like DALLAS and DYNASTY came right on time in 1986 when those shows were in their heyday.
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This laugh out loud miniseries followed the adventures of the Kensington family, the owner of the largest raisin dynasty in Fresno, California. The large and wonderful all-star cast included Carol Burnett, Dabney Coleman, Teri Garr, Gregory Harrison, Anthony Heald, Bill Paxton, Michael Richards, Theresa Ganzel, Valerie Mahaffey, Melanie Chartoff, Pat Corley (Phil on "Murphy Brown")and despite the presence of all this comic talent, this entire mini series was stolen by Charles Grodin, in a brilliant comic turn as eldest son Cain Kensington. His JR Ewing take-off was perfectly executed comic genius and quite possibly Grodin's finest work on any screen anywhere.
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Just an exceptionally funny miniseries that stays fresh and hilarious throughout its extreme length. I used to have FRESNO on tape and lost it during a move. As another poster intimated, I too would gladly pay for a copy of FRESNO on VHS or DVD. If CBS hasn't put it on video it should be. A forgotten classic that is worthy of a second look for those who missed it the first time. 3.5

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Barbra Streisand reprised her Oscar-winning role of Fanny Brice in 1975's Funny Lady, a big splashy musical that centers around Fanny at the height of her stardom and her stormy relationship with second husband, Billy Rose (James Caan).
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Much has been written about how unnecessary this sequel was and how it wasn't very factual regarding Fanny and Billy's marriage. First of all, Hollywood has always had sequel-itis. Any movie that makes a decent profit at the box office is going to have a sequel sooner or later. Second, as far as accuracy is concerned, does anyone really think Funny Girl stuck to the facts? Funny Girl was about as close to a factual biography of Fanny Brice as a Harlequin romance novel, but people loved it and Barbra won an Oscar.
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For what it is, Funny Lady is a very entertaining movie with a charismatic starring performance by Streisand as an older, wiser, and more savvy Fanny who is definitely in charge of her own life now...that is, until Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif, in a gratuitous cameo)briefly re-enters her life.

The film really focuses on Fanny's relationship with Rose, antagonistic at first but it does grow into a relationship based on mutual respect and affection, but not love or passion, which Fanny had with Nick. I love the scene where Billy proposes to Fanny because it's more like a business merger than a marriage proposal. These people are clearly not in love with each other but they are both lonely and need each other so they agree to a marriage they don't really want.

The musical numbers, for the most part, are well-staged if not terribly original. There's a definite "been there done that" feel to some of the numbers. Fanny on stage in an empty theater belting out "How Lucky Can You Get?" reminded me of Fanny on stage in an empty theater belting out "I'm the Greatest Star." And many comparisons have been made to "Let's Hear it from Me" to "Don't Rain on my Parade", except that Fanny takes off in a plane instead of chasing a tugboat. Barbara shines in the "Big Day" production number and her take on two lovely ballads "Isn't this Better?" and "If I Love Again" is memorable. The score effectively combines songs from Fanny's era as well as new songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb (CABARET).
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Caan is charming as Billy Rose and though this film was only released 7 years after Funny Girl, those years haven't been kind to Sharif. Kudos also to Ben Vereen for his one-show-stopping number, "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie". Not historically accurate or terribly original, but Funny Lady is an entertaining musical with Barbra in top form and her fans will not be disappointed. 3.5

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14813&stc=1&d=1400342345It is the mere presence of the late Anne Bancroft in Garbo Talks that keeps the film from being totally intolerable. This rather silly 1984 comedy is about a dying woman (Bancroft)whose dying wish is to meet Greta Garbo, the actress of whom she has a lifelong obsession and knows everything about. This dying wish sends her son (Ron Silver) on a journey to make this wish come true for his mother.
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It's kind of interesting watching Silver do the detective work required to find a recluse like Garbo but it is lovely to see the lengths the guy goes to in order to fulfill his mother's dying wish. Some talented veterans are seen to good advantage in supporting bits including Steven Hill, Howard Da Silva, Hermione Gingold, Adolph Green, Dorothy Loudon, and Richard B. Shull, but it is Bancroft who really makes this film worth watching. I love the scenes of her laying in her bed talking about Garbo's career and sharing intimate details with her son about Garbo's movies and life.

This kind of material would have been maudlin and sappy in the hands of other actresses, but Bancroft makes this material sing and makes this movie worth watching. BTW, that is legendary screenwriter Betty Comden appearing at the end of the movie as Garbo. 3

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Ghostbusters was a smashing and innovative 1984 comedy that was the perfect blending of clever comedy, eye-popping special effects, and supernatural silliness that was one of the biggest box office smashes of the year and deservedly so.
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Three professors doing college research on the supernatural lose their funding and decide to go into business for themselves as paranormal investigators. Bill Murray towers over all with his near perfect comic performance as Dr. Peter Venkman, a sort of wise ass guy who doesn't take this ghostbusting stuff seriously until they start making real money. Dan Aykroyd is a charmer as Ray, "the heart of the Ghostbusters" and Harold Ramis, who would gain greater fame as a director, generates real laughs here as Egon ("I collect spores, moles, and fungus.") Sigourney Weaver makes a refreshingly intelligent damsel in distress and Rick Moranis steals every scene he's in as Weaver's nerdy neighbor who also becomes part of the story as we learn the apartment building where Weaver and Moranis live is on top of some ancient burial ground.
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Annie Potts also scores as the guys' secretary and William Atherton is funny as an EPA exec out to ruin the Ghostbusters. But it is mostly Murray's beautifully flippant performance laid against some awesome (for 1984) special effects that made this movie work. It even has a very catchy title tune that became a top ten smash for Ray Parker, Jr. An instant comedy classic and deservedly so. 4.5

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14816&stc=1&d=14003439741978'S Grease is the nearly perfect screen adaptation of the 1971 Broadway musical with a score by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical centers around the romance between a cheerleader/exchange student named Sandy (Olivia Newton-John)and a hood named Danny (John Travolta).

Travolta and Newton-John are charming leads but the film is practically stolen by Stockard Channing, in her knockout performance as Rizzo, the leader of the Pink Ladies and Danny's ex. Mention should also be made of Jeff Conaway as Kenickie,inah Manoff as Marty, Eve Arden as Principal McGee, Sid Ceasar as Coach Calhoun, and Edd "Cookie" Byrnes as Vince Fontaine
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The musical has been "cleaned up" for the big screen (the Broadway show was WAY raunchier) with energetic direction by Randal Kleiser and imaginative staging of the musical numbers by the stage show's choreographer Patricia Birch. Musical highlights include "Summer Nights" Danny and Sandy's duet on how they met. "Greased Lightning", "Beauty School Dropout", a very funny fantasy number led by Frankie Avalon,"Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee", "Born to Hand Jive", and Channing's solo "There are Worse Things I Could do".

As is the case with most Broadway to Movie Transitions, songs were cut and added. Some of the songs cut from the play can be heard as background music if you listen and "Grease", "You're the One that I Want", "Hopelessly Devoted to You", and "Sandy" were written especially for the movie.
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For many years, this film held the record as biggest moneymaking musical film ever and the validation is up there on the screen. It's a little corny and predictable, but you can't help but get caught up. "Grease is the word have you heard have you heard it's got mood it's got feelin...grease is the time is the place is the motion...grease is the way we are feelin. 4

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The 1999 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Fosse, came to television brilliantly intact in 2001 with most of the original cast and a couple of sterling star turns.

This bold and brassy tribute to arguably Broadway's greatest director/choreographer, Bob Fosse, this musical, directed and choreographed by Fosse mentor and girlfriend Ann Reinking, lovingly recreates some of the most classic Fosse routines that we Fosse fans have come to adore and revel in over the years.
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The TV version features Ben Vereen and Reinking on stage as well as some of Fosse's best known (and least known) work comes vividly to life again. Honestly, there are moments where you miss the original performers of these numbers, but this young and nubile cast is willing and energetic and give these classic routines fresh life.

For me, the highlights were "Big Spender" from SWEET CHARITY (featuring Reinking), "I Wanna Be a Dancin Man" from DANCIN, "Steam Heat" from THE PAJAMA GAME, "Rich Man's Frug", also from CHARITY, "Nowadays" from CHICAGO, and two numbers from the 1973 TV special LIZA WITH A Z: "Bye bye Blackbird" and "I Gotcha". Just about all of Fosse's work is touched on here, with the possible exception of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING, but it is a monumental mounting of Fosse's best work and if you're a fan of the dance in general and of Fosse in particular, this is a must. 4

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I remember seeing Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? when I was a kid and being very impressed by what I was told was a groundbreaking film about race relations. But as the years have passed, the strength of this film is not as solid as I once thought.
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This movie brings up a lot of interesting questions but instead of thoughtfully exploring these questions, the movie looks for quick fixes and easy answers that you would normally find in 22 minutes of situation comedy.

For instance, Matt and Christina Drayton (Tracy and Hepburn)are forced to come to immediate conclusions about their daughter marrying a black man because the couple are planning to leave the country. I wonder if their feelings would have been the same without the time constraint. I think screenwriter William Rose also made the story easy by making Sidney Poitier's character a wealthy, widowed doctor with a million degrees doing groundbreaking research. I wondered what this movie would have been like if Katharine Houghton had brought home a drug dealing pimp instead of an important doctor.

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But the film is still worth seeing if for no other reason to watch the screen's most divine screen team, in their final film together. Tracy commands the screen whenever he is on it, but Hepburn has her moments too. My favorite Hepburn moment is when her assistant from the gallery, played by Virginia Christine ("Mrs. Olsen" from the Folgers commercials)makes veiled racial remarks about John and Joey and Christina calmly and very politely fires her. It's classic Hepburn and that scene is worth the price of admission alone. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?is definitely showing its age, but the still stylish and intelligent presence of Tracy and Hepburn still makes it worth watching. 3.5

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The 1962 screen version of Gypsy was a lavishly mounted version of the musical that made a stage legend out of Ethel Merman playing Mama Rose, the stage mother to end all stage mothers, whose lust for fame is vicariously sought after through her daughters, June and Louise, who both find different routes of escape from their mother's iron fist.
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Rosalind Russell is energetic in the role of Mama Rose but what I always remember about this movie is the wonderful performance by Natalie Wood as Louise/Gypsy.

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Wood was apparently very nervous about doing this film after having her singing dubbed in WEST SIDE STORYand doing her own singing here, but that didn't bother me at all. She makes Louise warm and vulnerable and her transformation into Gypsy Rose Lee is totally believable. I love when Louise sings "Little Lamb" and I also love when she gets dressed for her first big striptease as Gypsy and she sees herself in the mirror and says, "I'm pretty Mama, I'm a pretty girl." I also love a little later when she tells Rose off, telling her that she must let go of her. "I'm Gypsy Rose Lee...and I love her!" Karl Malden is solid as Herbie, Rose's long suffering love who can no longer dance to Rose's tune.
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The now iconic score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim includes showstoppers like "Some People", "Let Me Entertain You", "Small World", "You'll Never Get Away From Me", "If Momma was Married", "All I Need is the Girl", "Everything's Coming up Roses", and "Rose's Turn".

The musical numbers are well-staged, especially Gypsy's rise to fame stripper sequence. I've seen better Roses on stage and film (Angela Lansbury, Bette Midler), but Wood is and always will be my favorite Louise and this film is worth seeing for her performance alone. 3.5

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http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=14840&stc=1&d=1400357157The 1979 film musical of Hair was loosely based on the infamous 1960's Broadway musical that became famous because of its infamous nude scene. The stage musical isn't really much more than a group of skits strung together with some amusing musical numbers; however for the film director Milos Foreman (who won an Oscar for directing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and the writers have taken the basic premise of the play and the score and constructed a real story to make the show more "user friendly" for the big screen.

In the film, naive farm boy Claude Hooper Buchowski (John Savage) is about to go into the army and decides to spend a couple of days in New York where he meets a group of aging hippies (Treat Williams, Dorsey Wright, Annie Golden, Don Dacus)who get him involved in a group of nutty misadventures, including the pursuit of a snooty society girl (Beverly D'Angelo).

The story divides into a series of vignettes that range from the ridiculous to the sublime, but it is all gorgeously photographed with a clever use of NYC locations and imaginatively staged musical numbers (outstandingly choreographed by the legendary Twyla Tharp).
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Treat Williams lights up the screen as Berger, the unconventional and free-spirited hippie who does his best to get Claude to loosen up and is matched scene for scene by Savage as Claude, who brings a lovely sweetness to the role of Claude. Annie Golden is a charmer as Jeannie, the pregnant hippie who is pregnant by Wright or Dacus, doesn't know which one is the father and doesn't seem to care.

There is one outstanding musical number after another here..."Aquarius" is a tour through Central Park which includes dancing horses...Treat Williams disrupts a fancy dinner party in "I Got Life"..."Black Boys/White Boys" features the late Nell Carter and Ellen Foley extolling the ethnic virtues of men and "Easy to be Hard" is a powerful rendering of one of the best songs in the show by original cast member Cheryl Barnes, who plays Wright's ex-girlfriend and mother of his child.
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This is a beautifully photographed, well-acted, sung, and danced psychedelic acid trip of a movie that must be seen and once seen, will initiate multiple viewings as this dazzler has too much to offer to catch it all in one showing. 4

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High Society was an entertaining and frothy musical version of the 1940 classic The Philadelphia Story, which ironically won an Oscar for Original Screenplay since it was based on another film. Grace Kelly made her final film appearance here as Tracy Lord, the spoiled Newport heiress torn between her current fiancée (John Lund), her songwriter ex-husband, Dexter (Bing Crosby) and a reporter (Frank Sinatra) sent to her home to cover her wedding.
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Crosby, Kelly, and Sinatra light up the screen here, making the most of their roles here. Crosby and Sinatra have a classic duet called "Well, did you evah" and Sinatra croons "You're Sensational" to Kelly in a way that's guaranteed to melt your heart. Other songs written by Cole Porter for the film include "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", "I Love You Samantha", "Now You Has Jazz" and "True Love", which received an Oscar nomination for Best Song.
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There is also a solid supporting turn from Celeste Holm as Liz Imbrie, Sinatra's photographer who also harbors a secret crush on him and Louis Calhern is very amusing as Kelly's Uncle Willie, a classic dirty old man. Some of the bite is missing from the original 1940 film, but this is an entertaining musical nonetheless, worth watching for the luminous performances by the three leads. 4

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Hotel was the 1967 all star soap opera based on the novel by Arthur Hailey revolving around the goings-on at an old, yet elegant New Orleans hotel called the Saint Gregory.
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Basically, this is just a grounded version of Hailey's later Airport, only not quite as interesting, but pleasant to look at with a competent enough cast. Rod Taylor plays Peter McDermott, the hard-nosed, but compassionate manager of the hotel. Melvyn Douglas plays Warren Trent, the owner of the hotel, trying to conceal his concern about a possible buyout from Kevin McCarthy as O'Keefe, who arrives with his mistress (the plastic Catherine Spaak), who falls in love with McDermott in about five minutes. Michael Rennie and a still gorgeous Merle Oberon play a Duke and Duchess staying in the hotel who are concealing an accident they were involved in and are being blackmailed by house detective Richard Conte and Karl Malden is amusing as Keycase, a thief and conman working the hotel. OK, it's not Grand Hotel...it's not even Airport...but there are worse ways to spend two hours. Decades later, it was the basis for a television series. 2.5

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House Calls was an amusing 1978 comedy about a widowed doctor (Walter Matthau) who now wants to play the field but can't help but be drawn to a patient of his (Glenda Jackson) who refuses to be just another notch on his bedpost. Matthau likes the woman but does not really want to make the commitment that she insists upon so he agrees to date her exclusively for two weeks and then make a decision as to whether or not he wants to commit; however, other complications make it difficult for Matthau to make a decision when the two weeks are up, even though he is clearly in love with the woman.

Matthau and Jackson have surprisingly effective chemistry as a screen couple and are given strong support from Richard Benjamin, Candice Azzara, Dick O'Neill, and especially Art Carney as the inept and senile Chief of Staff at the hospital where Matthau is employed. Matthau even has a brief scene with his real-life son, Charlie, who appears as Jackson's son. This engaging comedy still holds up pretty well after all these years. 3.5

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How to Marry a Millionaire is a sparkling 1953 comedy about three single gals who rent an elegant Manhattan penthouse apartment as a lair in order to snare rich husbands (and they have given themselves a one-year time limit in which to do it).
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Lauren Bacall is smart and stylish as Schatze Page, the brains of the trio who organizes the whole scheme and finds herself torn between an older rich guy (William Powell, in his usually classy turn) and another guy (Cameron Mitchell) who she thinks is a "gas pump jockey." Marilyn Monroe shines as Pola Debovoise, a flighty but vain beauty who won't let any man know that she wears glasses and therefore bumps into furniture a lot. Betty Grable plays Loco Demsey, a dim-witted model who has a knack for meeting men at the grocery store. David Wayne is amusing as Monroe's near-sighted boyfriend and Rory Calhoun has definite hunk appeal as the eventual object of Grable's affections.
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But the real fun of the film is watching these three female superstars on screen together. Monroe was often quoted as saying she stole her acting techniques from Grable and if you watch the two of them acting together, you can see that it's true. Monroe is absolutely breathtaking in this film, when she's onscreen I can't take my eyes off of her. They don't make 'em like this anymore and with Grable and Monroe both gone, this is a classic to be cherished and enjoyed during several repeated viewings. 4.
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1959's Imitation of Life was one of those lush, weepy, Ross Hunter melodramas that Lana Turner had a copyright on during this decade. The film followed the relationship that developed between a struggling actress (Turner) and an unemployed black woman (Juanita Moore) and their daughters. Lana becomes a Broadway star in about 10 minutes and Moore becomes her housekeeper. Their daughters grow up and turn into Sandra Dee (Susie) and Susan Kohner (Sarah Jane).
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Sarah Jane's father was white and she has spent much of her life trying to pass for white because she is very light-skinned but her mother will never let her forget that she is black. There is an unintentionally funny scene where Sarah Jane's high school boyfriend finds out she's half-black and beats her up. I know that may not seem comical, but Kohner's half-baked performance takes it to that level as she's lying in an alley wiping her face and screaming at her boyfriend to come back.
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Lana has her share of funny moments too...especially laughable is a scene where she agrees to accompany a lecherous agent (Robert Alda in a very amusing performance)to a party and finally realizes what he expects in exchange for helping her with her career, symbolized (as it had to be in the 50's) by his "gift" of a mink coat to wear to the party. Sandra Dee also garners chuckles as Lana's neglected daughter grows up and falls in love with her mother's boyfriend (John Gavin) and loses it when he rejects her.
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The only completely satisfying performance in the film is by Juanita Moore as Annie, who brings so much more substance to the role than the script provides. She received an Oscar nomination for her performance as did Susan Kohner (God knows why). For unintentional giggles, this movie rates right up there with VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. 2.5

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Kevin Kline offers a brilliant comic turn in the 1997 comedy In & Out. Kline plays Howard Brackett, a small town history teacher who excitedly sits down to watch the Academy Awards this year because one of his former students (Matt Dillon) is a nominee. He is nominated for his performance in a film where he plays a gay soldier and when he wins, he thanks Howard in his speech for inspiring him because Howard is gay. Now this floors Howard because he has no clue why this guy would say this on international television because he's not gay.

Howard is even engaged to be married (to Joan Cusack, in an Oscar-nominated performance)so he has no idea where Dillon's Cameron Drake got the idea that he is gay and finds he has to defend himself to everyone at school but is shocked that no one seemed terribly shocked by what Cameron said on the Oscars.

Howard has a birthday party where he is given birthday presents like the soundtrack to Yentl and ends up explaining to his guests why Barbra Streisand was contractually obligated to make Funny Lady, subjects not broached at birthday parties for heterosexuals. His parents (Wilford Brimley, Debbie Reynolds) are shocked but promise to support their son, even if he is gay.
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He also gets a visit from an out of town reporter (Tom Selleck) who wants to do an article about him because he's gay too. The moment when Selleck plants a big kiss right on Kline's lips is a classic. But all of these little things have Howard actually questioning his sexuality and wondering if he really is gay...much to the aggravation and frustration of his fiancée, Cusack, who is beyond confused. The scene where she leaves a bar in her wedding gown and stands in the middle of street screaming about the lack of single straight men in the world is a classic.

But what I like about this movie is the way Kline fully invests in the role and was not afraid to look foolish or look gay. There is a fabulous scene, probably the most famous from the film, where he buys a record, on how to be macho, and the guy on the record is talking about how real men don't dance and a disco tune comes on (I WILL SURVIVE if memory serves)and the narrator on the record says no matter what you do, don't dance, but Howard can't help himself and he ends up shaking his groove thing all over the room. It's hysterically funny and Kline plays it with sincerity and gusto.

The film is not pro or anti gay...it's just a deft and amusing character study about a man trying to figure out exactly who he is. Wonderful film. 4

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1959's IMITATION OF LIFE
You wrote this quite awhile ago since it's now considered a great and serious film. You've also got some factual errors; i.e. Sarah Jane's dad was not white.

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A couple of years ago, I finally managed to get It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World on video. I saw it as a kid and remember enjoying it but watching it again some 40 years later, I still found myself LMAO.

This is still the granddaddy of all comedy/adventures directed by Stanley Kramer, who up to this point had only directed serious dramas like The Defiant Ones and Judgment at Nuremburg. A comedy with an over three hour running time was something completely novel back in 1963 and Kramer was hardly the first director that would have been associated with such an assignment.

A dying man (Jimmy Durante) who was thrown from a car that careened over a cliff, tells a group of witnesses to the accident (Sid Ceasar, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters) that there is $350,000.00 hidden under a big "W" in a nearby town, which sets off one of the wildest, craziest chase comedies made in the history of cinema.

A rather tired and haggard looking Spencer Tracy heads the cast as the cop on the trail of these greedy money-mongers and just about every comedian or comic actor alive in 1963 appears in this film, either in a starring role or cameo and despite this impressive gathering of the best comedic talent in the business, towering over all of them in one of her few film performances, is Broadway legend Ethel Merman, who gives the performance of a lifetime as Berle's shrew of a mother-in-law. Her performance alone makes It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World worth seeing. Check out this classic if you've never seen it. 3.5
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Denzel Washington continues to prove why he is one of the best actors in the business with his performance in John Q, a moving, emotional, and tension-charged drama about a family man whose son needs a heart transplant; however, due to financial problems, his insurance won't cover the cost of getting his son on the donor list so John Q decides to take hostages in the hospital until someone arranges for his son to be on the donor list.

This film sheds an unflattering light on the medical profession and its sometimes insensitive obsession with money and how the sanctity of human life only has validity if it can paid for. This movie had me praying that I never contract a serious illness because I know I wouldn't be able to afford the treatment.

Despite a preachy and simplistic screenplay, the intense direction and first-rate performances make this film work. I particularly loved Denzel's work here because this was a character unlike he had ever played before...Denzel usually plays well-educated, intelligent lawyers and/or businessmen (with the obvious exception of Training Day), but here Denzel is playing an average Joe...a working stiff, struggling to pay bills and keep food on the table and a roof over his family's head who is driven to extreme measures to protect the family he cherishes so dearly.
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Washington gets strong support from Robert Duvall, solid as always as the hostage negotiator, James Woods as a wimpy surgeon, Anne Heche as an unsympathetic hospital administrator, and especially Kimberly Elise as John's wife. An emotional drama, wrought with tension, that will rivet you to the screen. 3.5

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Kiss Me Kate is the 1953 adaptation of the 1948 Cole Porter musical, revamped to accommodate the MGM stable of talent.
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This re-working of the musical follows an egomaniacal actor/director named Fred Graham (the late Howard Keel)who agrees to persuade his ex-wife and leading lady, Lilli Vanessi (Kathryn Grayson) to work with him in a musical version of Taming of the Shrew and the complications that ensue in the mounting of the production as well as the parallels between the lives of Fred and Lilli to Petruchio and Kate.
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Several songs have been cut or re-thought, mostly to good advantage. Keel and Grayson's duet "So in Love" is absolutely gorgeous as is Keel's haunting rendition of "Were Thine That Special Face" and Grayson's surprisingly energetic "I Hate Men." Ann Miller had the best role of her career here as Lois Lane/Bianca and her rendition of "Too Darn Hot", compactly performed in Fred's living room is a classic. She also pairs well with Tommy Rall on "Always True to you Darling in My Fashion" and "Why Can't You Behave?" Miller shines with Rall, Bob Fosse, and Bobby Van on "Tom, Dick, or Harry" and Keel's interpretation of "Where is the Life that Late I Led?" is spectacular.

This movie also gave us the rare opportunity to see two of the greatest dancers of the 1950's, Bob Fosse and Carol Haney, dance a steamy pas de deux in "From this Moment On", which was clearly choreographed by Fosse, just a glimpse of his later genius. Anyone who is familiar with Fosse's future work as a choreographer will recognize immediately that he choreographed this portion of the number.
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A delicious musical with superior singing and outstanding dance numbers and a pair of scene-stealing performances from Keenan Wynn and James Whitmore as a couple of Damon Runyan-type thugs make Kiss Me Kate a classic on all levels. 4

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As far as this being a great and serious film, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, please allow me mine. I guess Sarah Jane's father being white was something that I just assumed.

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Kramer Vs Kramer won five Oscars, including Best Picture of 1979. This intense and deeply moving family drama follows an advertising executive whose life is turned upside down when his wife of eight years, walks out on him, leaving him to care for his son and build the relationship with him he never had.
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Robert Benton's incisive screenplay presents us flawed, but real human beings with hearts, souls, and brains. For instance, in the scene where Joanna announces to Ted she's leaving him, she doesn't just storm out the door...she gives him the keys, her credit cards, the dry cleaning ticket, tells him which bills have been paid, and informs him she has withdrawn from their bank account the same amount of money she had when they were married, no more. This decision to leave was not a whim...it was thought about and Joanna felt, with no other option than to leave, if she was leaving she was going to do it properly...and with no specific plan in mind, she did not think it right to take Billy.
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Dustin Hoffman won an Oscar for his Ted Kramer, a man so obsessed with bringing home the bacon, he had no clue that his life at home was crumbling into pieces. Meryl Streep also won an Oscar playing Joanna, the unhappy wife who we feel sympathy for in the beginning of the film but that all changes when she returns for her son. Hoffman is at the top of his form here. I always tear up during the scene where he tries to explain to Billy (Oscar nominee Justin Henry) why his mom left and he does it all in a stage whisper or when he meets Joanna upon her return and slams her drink into a wall (a Hoffman moment not in the script that Streep was not told about in order to get a natural reaction). Justin Henry hits all the right notes as Billy, the confused little boy who doesn't know why his mom is gone and doesn't know how to communicate with his father. Jane Alexander also got an Oscar nod as Ted and Joanna's neighbor, Margaret, who has switched allegiances by the film's conclusion.
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This is an intense family drama but there are laughs to be had here too...Billy and the chocolate chip ice cream...Billy pouting because Ted is late picking him up from a party...Billy catching his dad's one night stand (JoBeth Williams) on her way to the bathroom stark naked, but it's the moments of human drama you remember...Ted running through Manhattan with Billy in his arms to get to the emergency room after BIlly falls off the jungle gym...Ted getting fired right before beginning his custody battle and instead of making a scene, he tells the guy in a whisper..."Shame on you."
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And of course, the finale where Joanna tells Ted she's not taking Billy, which I found a little hard to swallow. Why would she go to all that trouble of suing for custody and then just change her mind? But this is a small quibble regarding a wonderful movie, masterfully directed by Robert Benton and flawlessly performed by a top-notch cast. A must-see. 5

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Time has not been good to Less than Zero, the 1987 drama about privileged California teens descending into a world of constant partying, drug, and alcohol; however, this film has obtained a sort of cult status among film buffs as one of those guilty pleasures that a lot of filmgoers might take pleasure at giggling at; however, I do not find a lot amusing about this film at all, unless yo u're talking about the wooden performances of Andrew McCarthy and Jamie Gertz as 2/3 of the star trio.

Less Than Zero will always be remembered because of the mesmerizing performance by Robert Downey, Jr. as Julian, a definite foreshadowing of his future and a role he played a little too well. Downey perfectly conveyed what cocaine addiction can do to a person. Julian eventually realizes there is no line he won't cross in an effort to get high, including prostituting himself with men in order to get his drugs.
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Downey is sad, tragic, heartbreaking, and terrifying all at once in the showiest role of his career that he completely lost himself in. Julian is so real it's scary, whether he is horrified at McCarthy learning he is prostituting himself or begging his father (Nicholas Pryor) to let him come home because he would like to wake up and know where he is...just once.Less Than Zero is not great cinema, but the performance by Robert Downey Jr will stay with you for a long, long time. 3

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The 1986 film version of the Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors is an entertaining movie based on the black comedy from the 1960's about a nerdy milquetoast who raises a man-eating plant that gets totally out of control. Rick Moranis is perfection as Seymour, the nebbish who is at a loss at what to do when his own Frankenstein grows too big for him to control and Ellen Greene (reprising her role in the original musical) is delightful as Audrey, the object of Seymour's affections.
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Moranis and Greene make one of the most engaging screen teams I've seen in a while. Vincent Gardenia plays the greedy flower shop owner, Mr. Mushnik and Bill Murray is hysterically funny in one scene as Arthur Denton, a man who seems to enjoy going to the dentist a little too much. Tischina Arnold, Tisha Campbell, and Michelle Weeks are awesome as the Greek Chorus known as "The Urchins" and Steve Martin practically steals the movie as "Orin Scrivello, DDS". His song "Be a Dentist" is hysterically funny. The voice of the plant, Audrey II, is provided by Levar Stubbs of The Four Tops and he is superb. Despite a rather mean-spirited climax, this is a fun musical comedy that the whole family can enjoy. 7/10

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After losing the role of Eliza in the film version of My Fair Lady, Julie Andrews got sweet revenge and an Oscar for her film debut in 1964's Mary Poppins, a dazzling, enchanting family musical which was personally overseen by Walt Disney himself, who hand-picked Andrews for the title role.

Based on the books by P.L. Travers, this film centers around the Banks family of London 1912, whose most recent Nanny (Elsa Lanchester)has just quit after the children (Matthew Garber, Karen Dotrice)have run away again chasing an out of control kite.
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George Banks (David Tomlinson) begins to advertise for a new Nanny when the children come to him with their own advertisement, which George dismisses, tears up, and throws in the fireplace. We then see the pieces of the children's advertisement float up the fireplace. Enter Mary Poppins (Andrews), the "practically perfect" nanny who arrives to interview for the job with the children's advertisement in her hand, all taped together.

What follows are a wonderful series of adventures including a magical housecleaning of the nursery, a tea party on the ceiling, a country holiday in a sidewalk chalk drawing, and a dance session on the rooftops of London with about 100 chimney sweeps.

This is movie magic at its zenith, and it is just as entertaining now as it was 50 years ago. It is definitely a family film, but there are lovely adult touches in the screenplay...I love the way it is implied that Mary and Bert (Dick Van Dyke), the chimney sweep/jack-of-all-trades, have met before this movie takes place but it is never really discussed. I also love the way Mary never admits to having any kind of magic powers and after each adventure tells the children it was all in their imagination.
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This was the most memorable example of mixing live action with animation during the "Jolly Holiday" scene, which is absolutely delightful.

The sublime musical score includes "A Spoonful of Sugar", "Chim Chim Cheree" (which won the Oscar for Best Song), "Step in Time", and of course "Supercalifragilistiexpialidocious."

Andrews and Van Dyke are given solid support from Tomlinson and Glynis Johns as Mr. and Mrs. Banks, Hermione Baddeley as their maid, Reta Shaw as their cook, Ed Wynn as Uncle Albert, and Arthur Treacher as a Constable.

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If you have never seen this film, or more importantly, if your kids have never seen it, go out and get the DVD today because this film continues to enchant generation after generation because it is the perfect family film. 5

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Max Dugan Returns is a lightweight comedy from Neil Simon about a widowed schoolteacher (Marsha Mason) with a young son (Matthew Broderick, in his film debut), struggling to make ends meet, who one night is reunited with her estranged father (Jason Robards), who shows up on her doorstep wanting to make up for lost time with $687,000.00 in tow. Mason is reluctant to get involved with Dad because the money is not really his but when she learns that he is dying, she softens and decides to grant his dying wish...to spend some of his final time on earth with his grandson.

Throw into the mix a police detective (Donald Sutherland) who, upon finding out who Max is, is definitely torn between getting his man and or getting the girl.
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This comedy charms from start to finish with a lot of classic Neil Simon one-liners and Robards turns in one of his most charming performances as Max Dugan. Yes, there are plot points that are left dangling and you just have to accept that, but if you can, Max Dugan Returns is a delightful and diverting comedy that will grown on you with multiple viewings. 7/10

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Meet the Fockers was the 2004 sequel to the surprise hit Meet the Parents, in which Greg and Pam Focker (Ben Stiller and Teri Polo) along with Pam's parents (Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner) take a road trip with Pam's infant nephew, to meet Greg's parents, played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand.
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I must admit upon hearing there was going to be a sequel to Meet the Parents, I expected something along the lines of watching Greg and Jack Burns (De Niro) learning how to get along as son-in-law and father-in-law, but this sequel skips right over that period of adjustment and has Greg and Jack almost friendly with each other as they prepare to meet their in-laws, who are nothing like the straight-laced Burns family.
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Bernie Focker (Hoffman) is a stay-at-home husband and wife Roz (Streisand) is a sexual therapist and naturally they are the polar opposites of Jack and Dina Burns, wild, free-spirited people who say what is on their mind at all times and don't seem to care if people hear them having sex in their bedroom.
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Personally, I think Hoffman practically steals this film as the fiercely loyal yet slightly demented Bernie Focker, whether it's defending his son's lack of scholastic achievements or working diligently at satisfying his wife's sexual appetite. Hoffman just seems to be having a ball here and it really shows in his performance and it's not easy stealing scenes from Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro but Hoffman does just that.

Even Streisand is more controlled than usual and gives a nicely modulated performance as Greg's sexually uninhibited Mom. Even though it wasn't the story I was expecting, I found Meet the Fockers quite entertaining, anchored by a brilliant comic turn by Dustin Hoffman as Bernie Focker. 3
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1996's Michael is warm and winning comedy-fantasy that features one of my favorite performances from the John Travolta library. Travolta gives one of his breeziest and most likable performances as Michael, an archangel whose quiet existence at the home of a lonely innkeeper named Pansy (Jean Stapleton) is disrupted when Pansy reports Michael's presence in her home to a "National Enquirer"-like newspaper and the editor (Bob Hoskins) sends reporters (William Hurt, Andie McDowell, Robert Pastorelli) to the motel to check it out.
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Hurt, McDowell, and Pastorelli are quite good as the jaded news staffers who have a hard time accepting they've met an angel but this is Travolta's show and he rules as the pot-bellied, sugar-eating, cookie-smelling, pie-loving, Aretha-loving, bull-chasing Michael, an angel who just isn't what you think you of when you think of angels. And you have to love the scene in the bar when he and the ladies dance to "Chain of Fools". I love this movie more and more every time I watch it and it's mainly because of the completely winning performance from John Travolta. 4

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Next to Hope Floats, Sandra Bullock has not been seen to better advantage on screen than she was in the 2000 comedy Miss Congeniality.
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Bullock turned in sharp comic performance as Gracie Hart, an over anxious FBI agent who goes undercover as a beauty pageant contestant when it is learned someone is planning to kill whoever takes the crown.

Director Donald Petrie guides Bullock with a sure hand and never allows her to go over the top with what could have been a purely slapstick female version of Ace Ventura...the comedy comes from a well-thought story with likable characters played by competent actors. Michael Caine shines as Victor Melling, the washed up contestant coach who is hired to make Sandra look like a real beauty pageant contestant ("The eyebrows...there should be two!"). Candice Bergen is beautifully bitchy as pageant director Cathy Morningside and Benjamin Bratt is a sexy and charismatic love interest for Bullock. And let's not forget William Shatner, warming up for his BOSTON LEGAL role here as the dim pageant host, Stan Fields. And special mention to Heather Burns, who makes the most of her role as Cheryl Frazier, Miss Rhode Island, the naive contestant Gracie befriends. A delightful comedy that just gets funnier on repeat viewings. 3.5
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Movie, Movie is a forgotten gem from the late 70's which is an affectionate spoof of a 1930's double feature (there's even a preview of coming attractions) that is divided into two separate films that run about 50 minutes a piece.

The first film, "Dynamite Hands" is a black and white "Golden Boy"-type spoof with Harry Hamlin as a young boxer rising to the top with George C. Scott as his manager, Red Buttons as his trainer, Kathleen Beller as his hometown girlfriend and Ann Reinking as a nightclub singer named Troubles Moran.

The second film is called "Baxter's Beauties of 1933" and is a colorful spoof of films like 42nd Street with George C. Scott featured again as the egomaniacal director, Barry Bostwick as the idealistic young songwriter, Rebecca York as the young Ruby Keeler type and Trish VanDevere as the bitchy diva who York eventually replaces.

True movie buffs and fans of these kinds of movies will be in cinema heaven here...a loving tribute to a bygone era that works thanks to spirited direction by Stanley Donen and an energetic cast. 3.5

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In Multiplicity, Michael Keaton works extremely hard as a contractor named Doug Kinney who is so stressed out by work that he doesn't have time for his family or anything else for that matter.
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He meets a doctor(Harris Yulin) who is experimenting in the science of cloning, who persuades Doug to have himself cloned so that he can have more time with his family. Doug #2 is all about work (or so Doug thinks)leaving Doug more time with his wife (Andie McDowell)and kids, but Doug gets spoiled and decides he needs even more time so he gets cloned again and Doug #3 is very domestic and is an expert in the kitchen, very Felix Unger-like to the point where he starts criticizing McDowell about her skills in the kitchen, but this does free up Doug more and allow McDowell the opportunity to return to work. However, Doug #2 and #3 start getting stressed out and, unbeknownst to Doug, create Doug #4 and the complications that ensue are predictable but the fun in this picture is watching the skill with which Keaton makes each Doug different from the previous one.
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Actually Doug #3, the domestic one, is my favorite and he is hysterically funny when Doug #2 gets sick and #3 has to go to work for him and is absolutely clueless about the work and gets Doug fired. Once Doug #4 (who being a copy of a copy, turns out to be kind of retarded)appears on the scene, the film begins to lose its momentum but it's a fun ride for most of the way, thanks to remarkable work by Michael Keaton. 3.5

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Murphy's Romance is a lovely 1985 comedy about a divorcée (Sally Field) with a young son (Corey Haim)who is trying to begin a new life in a small town and finds herself inexplicably attracted to the local pharmacist (James Garner) who is several years older than she is and also must deal with her ex-husband (Brian Kerwin) re-entering her life. Aided by a strong screenplay, Field has rarely been more appealing on screen but it is Garner who really shines here in such a laid back and breezy performance that it earned the actor his very first Oscar nomination for Best Actor. If you're a fan of the stars, you will be utterly charmed by this warm and winning comedy. 3.5

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The 1982 comedy My Favorite Year was a lovingly made period piece that takes place during a wonderful time in entertainment history...the infancy of live television in the 1950's (or more specifically, YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS).

This laugh-filled comic romp follows the adventures of Benji (Mark Linn-Baker), a gopher for COMEDY CALVACADE (this film's version of YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS), who is excited when a swashbuckling actor of the period named Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole) has been booked as a guest on the show turns out to be a skirt-chasing alcoholic who Benji is put in charge of keeping under control until showtime.
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This movie is a lovely valentine to the 1950's with exquisite period detail and an intelligent screenplay that invokes the period so beautifully. O'Toole gives the performance of a lifetime as Swann, an alternately laugh out loud funny and heartbreakingly warm performance that earned him an Oscar nomination, yet Linn-Baker somehow manages to hold his own and never allows O'Toole to blow him off the screen.
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O' Toole and Linn-Baker get solid support from Lainie Kazan as Benji's mother, Joseph Bologna as King Kaiser, the star of Comedy Calvacade, Cameron Mitchell as a not-too bright gangster, and Adolph Green as the manic producer of the show. A good looking, superbly written comedy that documents a long gone era in entertainment history and tells a warm and amusing story as well. Later turned into a Broadway musical with Lainie Kazan reprising her role as Benji's mother. 4
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My Six Loves was an entertaining family comedy from the 1960's that stars Debbie Reynolds as a musical comedy star who is sent to her country home after being told by doctors that she is exhausted and needs major time off. She and her assistant (Eileen Heckart)arrive at her country home and shortly after her arrival, Reynolds discovers six orphans secretly living on her property. The story is routine, the situations predictable and the story pretty much moves in the expected directions, but it's a relatively entertaining journey with Reynolds at the peek of her charm, receiving able assistance from Heckart, Cliff Robertson as a neighborhood minister, and a surprisingly funny David Janssen as her fast-talking agent. The kids are cute and work well with the star. It ain't Chekhov, but it will keep you awake for 90 minutes. 2.5

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For years, the 1996 HBO movie Norma Jean and Marilyn has been maligned by critics and viewers alike because it was not an accurate biography of Marilyn Monroe.
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Frankly, if you're looking for an accurate film biography of Marilyn Monroe, there is no such animal (though the ABC-TV movie with Catherine Hicks is pretty close).

Norma Jean and Marilyn is not supposed to be a biography of Marilyn. So much has been written about Marilyn over the past 50 years, how can there be anything that people don't know at this point? That's why this movie took a different tack and presented a probing psychological drama that speculates about the inner demons that tormented Marilyn from her childhood as Norma Jean throughout her adult life as Marilyn. Ashley Judd lights up the screen as a young Norma Jean, the young woman determined to forget a loveless marriage to Jim Dougherty and carve out a career for herself as a movie star, even if she has to sleep her way to the top to do it. Norma Jean makes no bones about what she wants, even if it means using and abusing good friend Eddie Jordan (Josh Charles)to get to his famous uncle as an "in" to the Hollywood crowd.
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The screenplay splices together fantasies and inner dialogues with some actual events in Norma Jean's life in order to give us a look into Marilyn's psyche. Once Norma Jean gets signed to Fox and she changes her name to Marilyn Monroe, Mira Sorvino takes over the role in an uncanny reincarnation of the screen's greatest sex symbol.

Sorvino is warm and heartbreaking as Marilyn, recreating some of Marilyn's greatest on screen moments with frightening accuracy while at the same time beautifully conveying the decay of Marilyn's mind, thanks to booze, pills, men, and the treatment she received from studio heads, acting coaches, and others who tried to help her.

What makes this film unique and indicates that it is not just a typical biopic is that after Sorvino takes over the role, Ashley Judd still appears as the inner Norma Jean, coaching and encouraging Marilyn to do the right thing and ridiculing her when she does the wrong thing.

This movie is an examination of the inner Marilyn who lived in constant mental anguish and was never satisfied with anything she ever did or any relationship she had. The movie is well-written with flashbacks and flash forwards that require close attention in order to stay with the story but it is well worth it.
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Sorvino and Judd receive solid support from David Dukes as Arthur Miller, Peter Dobson as Joe DiMaggio, Ron Rifkin as Johnny Hyde, and Lindsay Crouse as Natasha, Marilyn's acting coach who, according to this film,was in love with her. This is a haunting and disturbing film that will not answer all your questions about her, but might help you to understand what a tormented soul she was. If you're looking for a biography of Marilyn, go to a library and check out a book on Marilyn. If you're looking for a unique film experience about a side of Marilyn we rarely saw, then give Norma Jean and Marilyna look. 3

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I guess no one was able to turn out high quality camp in the 60's better than Jacqueline Susaan and every one of her novels that reached the big screen became a camp classic and this one was no exception.Once is not Enough is a camp classic from the Susaan library that induces numerous giggles along the way as it follows the adventures of a rich girl named January Wayne (the wooden Deborah Raffin)who is the daughter of a washed up movie director (Kirk Douglas), with whom she has a semi-incestuous relationship with, who resents her father's marriage to a wealthy matriarch (Alexis Smith) and retaliates by having an affair with an alcoholic writer (David Janssen) who is her father's biggest enemy.
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This movie has it all...sex, drugs, lesbianism...all the makings of a camp classic, delivered by a campy cast which also included George Hamilton as an aging playboy, Melina Mercouri, as an aging lesbian movie star, and Brenda Vaccaro as a man-crazy magazine editor (Vaccaro actually received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress). It's not as funny as Valley of the Dolls, but there are definite laughs to be fund here. 2

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Ordinary People was a perfectly mounted, intense, emotionally draining motion picture drama, based on the novel by Judith Guest which was the first directorial effort of Robert Redford, who received one of the film's five Oscars.
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This deeply moving drama follows an affluent Chicago family, still feeling the after effects of the death of their oldest son, and the guilt the younger son is still wrapped up in, four months after being released from a mental hospital. Timothy Hutton won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his beautifully modulated performance as Conrad, the tortured teen who feels "onstage" after returning to school and cannot connect with his mother (Mary Tyler Moore), who he feels loved his brother more than she loved Conrad and Donald Sutherland is the agonized husband/father trying to keep the peace between his wife and son, clueless anymore as how to do so.
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Sutherland's performance is so easy to overlook here, but it is a performance of such subtle power...his final scene with Moore when she comes downstairs and asks him why he's crying, is just devastating. Judd Hirsch also scores as Conrad's psychiatrist, who helps him to get to the root of his guilt.
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But what I went away from this movie remembering over everything else was the astonishing performance by Mary Tyler Moore as Beth Jarrett. I never imagined Moore could play a character so icy and emotionally distant...so cold, almost unfeeling at times. Throughout most of the film, she refers to Conrad as "he" or "him". She never uses his name. She has one brilliant moment near the end of the film where Hutton gives her a hug and she just physically recoils from the touch of her own son. It's a chilling and brilliant moment, perfectly executed by Moore. Sissy Spacek won the Best Actress Oscar that year for Coal Miner's Daughter, but IMO, there was nothing done on screen by any actress that year that was better than Moore's performance in Ordinary People. She should have won the Oscar and any other awards that were available. Just breathtaking work from a surprisingly unexpected source. 5

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Time has not been kind to Pete -N-Tillie, a 1972 film starring Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett. I remember seeing this film in the theaters when it was released and thinking how good it was, but as the years have worn on and I have seen this film several more times, it comes off as a muddled and confusing film that isn't sure if it wants to be a comedy or a drama.
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Matthau and Burnett play middle-aged singles who court, marry, have a child, and find their marriage tested by tragedy. The movie makes jarring switches from fall-down hilarity to soap opera tragedy in the blink of an eye and it's hard to keep track of what we are supposed to be feeling.
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Director Martin Ritt has also kept a tight rein on his two stars, making sure they never go over the top; however, I think this is to the film's detriment. There is one hysterically funny scene of a knock down drag out fight between Burnett and her best friend, played by Geraldine Page (who inexplicably received an Oscar nomination for this), but other than that, this is a muddled and confusing film barely watchable because of the natural charisma and legendary reputations of its stars. 2.5

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Say Anything... was the surprise sleeper hit of 1989 that brought us one of the most unforgettable and utterly original characters in the history of cinema...a guy named Lloyd Dobler...a thoroughly unconventional but totally likable guy who wears his heart on his sleeve and goes after what he wants with a vengeance, not to mention being one of the most romantic guys in cinematic history. We all should be lucky enough to be loved by our own Lloyd Dobler someday.

The film opens at Lloyd's high school graduation where, on a whim, he asks the class brain, Diane (Ione Skye) to be his date for a graduation party and they are both equally shocked when she accepts his invitation and before the evening is over,he is head over heels in love with her. The only problem is that she's going to college in London in the fall so Lloyd has decided to win her heart before she leaves.

To say more would ruin the film, but know that John Cusack gives the performance of a lifetime as Lloyd, an utterly charming rogue who no girl should have trouble falling in love with. Skye is charming as Diane and John Mahoney gives a great performance as Diane's Dad. Mention should also be made of Lili Taylor's hysterical supporting turn as Lloyd's best friend, who is not taking the breakup with her boyfriend very well.
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Thanks to steady direction and an intelligent screenplay that doesn't pander to teen sensibilities, this is a warm and winsome comedy that is worth seeing again and again. 4

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Shampoo was a well-written and smart sex comedy which showcased the personal sex appeal and charm of Warren Beatty to great effect. Beatty shines in this film as a womanizing hairdresser named George Roundby, who is the most popular stylist at a chic Beverly Hills salon but really wants his own salon. George treats women like toys and juggles them around to the best of his ability, making every single woman in his life feel like she's the only woman in his life. The story is set back in 1968 a couple of days before Richard Nixon is elected president, but George's sexual shenanigans seem to be more akin with the "me" generation of the 80's.

I always thought this film was way ahead of its time (1975) and had more substance than the screenplay presents. Even though he's a cad, Beatty imbues George with something that makes you care for him and feel sorry for him. Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie, Lee Grant (who won an Oscar for her performance) and Carrie Fisher (in her screen debut) play the women that George is currently juggling and Jack Warden does a fine supporting turn as Grant's husband and Fisher's father.
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If you don't blink, you will catch brief appearances from ex-Beatty girlfriend Michelle Phillips and a very young Andrew Stevens. To say more would ruin it for the uninitiated, but if you like Beatty and have never seen this sleeper, it is definitely worth the rental. 3.5

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Though nowhere near as good as Tootsie, Soapdish is an amusing spoof of the world of daytime drama with a funny story and an impressive all-star cast.
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Sally Field, who revives a skill for slapstick comedy that she had shelved for many years, is on target as Celeste, the aging soap diva of THE SUN ALSO SETS, afraid that she is past her prime and constantly complaining about her story lines, co-stars, wardrobe and anything else she can think of. Kevin Kline is charming, as always, as Celeste's ex-husband, who is tracked down at a dinner theater in Florida playing Willy Loman, to come onto the soap to make trouble for Celeste. Robert Downey Jr. steals every scene he is in as one of the producers of the show, who is being cuckolded by another cast member (a wonderfully bitchy Cathy Moriarty)to get Celeste off the show.
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Whoopi Goldberg plays the show's head writer and Celeste's best friend, who has one very amusing scene at a New Jersey mall. Elisabeth Shue also charms as an actress with a secret who joins the show and there are also funny bits from Kathy Najimy, Carrie Fisher, and Teri Hatcher. Despite manic direction and an uneven screenplay, Soapdish is still a lot of fun and worth checking out, whether or not you watch soaps. 3

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Some Came Running was a well-mounted 1958 melodrama about a soldier named Dave Hirsch (Frank Sinatra) who returns to his hometown after many years, followed by a desperate good time girl (Shirley MacLaine), who tries to re-establish a relationship with an icy hometown girl (Martha Hyer)and his daughter (Betty Lou Keim) while hooking up with his old buddy, Bama Dilert (Dean Martin), a gambler/playboy who never takes off his hat.
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Sinatra has one of his best roles here but Shirley MacLaine practically steals the film as good time girl Ginny Moorhead. Arthur Kennedy also has some strong moments as Dave's father. Vincente Minnelli, known primarily for directing musicals, shows a flair for directing melodrama here in a film that was released the same year as his Oscar-winning musical GIGI, but this film is just as good. A classic 50's melodrama with an atypical touch of warmth and some very good performances. 3.5
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I don't even know why I chose to watch this remake of South Pacific when it premiered on ABC. I love musicals but this is one of my least favorite musicals and I HATED the 1958 film version so it's amazing that I even watched this at all but I did. Glenn Close actually made a credible Nellie Forbush even if she might be a little too old for the role. Glenn's squeeze at the time, the late Robert Pastorelli, made a great Billis, but the best part of this show for me was Harry Connick Jr. as Lieutenant Cable. His rendition of "Younger than Sprintime" was dreamy and his "You've Got to be Carefully Taught" was appropriately disturbing. The cinematography is lovely and the show is well mounted, even if it goes on a little too long, but if you're a fan of the musical, I guess this remake is pretty good. If you're a Glenn Close fan and you like this musical, you will probably like this remake. 3

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Spaceballs is Mel Brooks' dead on parody of the Star Wars movies which features Mel as President Skroob, the leader of a planet that is planning to steal all the air from a neighboring planet called Druidia. Mel is amusing as President Skroob as are Bill Pullman as the Hans Solo-ripoff, Lone Star, Daphne Zuniga as the Princess, and John Candy as Lone Star's Half-man half-dog sidekick, Barf (I'm a Mog...I'm my own best friend."). But the film is easily stolen by Rick Moranis as the villain of the piece, Dark Helmet (who is a takeoff on you know who)who kidnaps the princess and kisses Skroob's butt even though he thinks he's an idiot.
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As always with a Mel Brooks film, Mel always reminds you that you are watching a movie and lets you in on the joke. There is one brilliant moment where Rick Moranis and George Wyner, who plays Colonel Sanders ("What's the matter Colonel Sanders? Chicken?)are trying to figure out what their next move and Sanders suggests that they look at a copy of Spaceballs on video and Dark Helmet says "How can it be on video? We're still in the middle of making the movie!" Dark Helmet then goes to a cabinet which contains videos of every Mel Brooks movie prior to this one. What happens next is too funny and I think I've already said too much. This is a Brooks movie that I think got by a lot of people but I still think it's terribly funny. 3

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After several years as a comic book action hero, Burt Reynolds took a calculated career risk at becoming a romantic leading man in the 1979 comedy Starting Over and the risk paid off in spades. Reynolds turned in his best performance up to this point as Phil Potter, a writer whose wife (Candice Bergen) has just divorced him who begins, perhaps a bit too quickly, another relationship with a neurotic schoolteacher (Jill Clayburgh).

This smart comedy, lovingly directed by Alan J. Pakula, hits all the right notes and introduces characters you care about. Bergen, in particular, also opened up a whole new career for herself, showing a flair for light comedy, which resulted in her first Oscar nomination. Her musical seduction of Burt with "Better than Ever" is one of the funniest scenes in film comedies ever. Bergen's performance here was largely responsible for her being offered the role of Murphy Brown. Clayburgh (also nominated for an Oscar) is just as good, creating a quirky and heartbreaking character who evokes laughs and sympathy.
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It has been well documented over the years that Reynolds was deeply hurt when both of his leading ladies here received Oscar nominations and he did not. Then to add insult to injury, the Best Actress Oscar that year went to his girlfriend at the time, Sally Field. Burt should have been nominated for this film...it was a beautifully controlled performance that was nothing like he had ever done before. Charles Durning and Frances Sternhagen offer strong support as Phil's brother and sister-in-law and don't overlook those wonderful scenes with Burt's Divorced Men's support group. A winning romantic comedy that finally proved Burt Reynolds really knew how to act. 4

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Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter was a deeply moving 1979 TV movie that brought the divine Bette Davis to the small screen near the end of her career. Davis plays a cranky old woman who is totally thrown by the appearance of her daughter (Gene Rowlands)who has come to stay with her, despite the fact that they have been estranged for years. Davis' Lucy can't understand why Rowlands' Abigail now wants to have a relationship with her until it is revealed that Abigail is dying and wants to make peace with her mother. Bette Davis won an Emmy for her work in this well-written tearjerker but Rowlands is equally effective as a woman thrown a devastating curve in her life and realizes that she needs the mother she had forsaken so many years ago. Watching these two dance around reconnecting with each other is sometimes difficult to watch, but these two amazing actresses make this TV movie grand television. 4

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Bob Fosse's first opportunity to direct a movie was the 1969 film version of his own Broadway musical Sweet Charity, a musical based on the film Nights of Caberia, with a book by Neil Simon and music by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields.
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The story is best described by the film's subtitle: "The Adventures of a Girl Who Wants to be Loved". Shirley MacLaine, taking over the title role from Fosse's wife and muse, Gwen Verdon, plays Charity Hope Valentine, a pathetic thing who has worked as a taxi dancer in the Fandango Ballroom for eight years and has basically been a doormat to men all her life. As her friend Nickie (Chita Rivera) explains, "You run your heart like a hotel...you got men checking in and checking out all the time."
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The story is told in a series of amusing and touching vignettes, including a brief encounter with a famous movie star (Ricardo Montalban) before finally meeting the possible man of her dreams, a milquetoast named Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin, reprising his Broadway role). This film died at the box office in 1969 and I'm not sure why except for the fact that this was a period when musicals just weren't being made anymore and that's a shame because the movie is extremely entertaining, thanks to the bravura performance by MacLaine as Charity and the extraordinary choreography by Bob Fosse.
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I can watch this movie over and over again just to watch the dance numbers. The raw sensuality of "Hey Big Spender"...the angular, disjointed and pointed moves of "Rich Man's Frug"...the Broadway exuberance of "There's Gotte be Something Better Than This", energetically danced by MacLaine, Rivera, and Paula Kelly...the brilliant jazzy classic Fosse moves of "Rhythm of Life"..and the pure joy of "I'm a Brass Band." All of Fosse's choreographic signatures are present here...the hats, the gloves, the turned in feet, the disjointed body parts, the expressionless dancer faces, it's all here to be watched and studied and marveled over. For dance purists and Fosse devotees, Sweet Charity is a must. 4

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Alan Alda, still trying to be Hollywood's Everyman, wrote, directed and starred in Sweet Liberty, a relatively entertaining comedy about a small town professor who has written a book about what went on in his town during the revolutionary war and has sold the film rights. The film chronicles the arrival of the film crew to do the film on location and Alda's exasperation at all the changes they want to make to his book; however, his attitudes toward what they are doing to his book take a back seat when he meets the film's leading lady (Michelle Pfeiffer) who apparently physically resembles the character she is playing to a T but, as Alda finds out, is nothing like her.
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This movie is just so Alan Alda and like all of his movies, the characters all seem to talk and think like Alda but I have come to expect this from an Alda movie after The Four Seasons. Alda has assembled an impressive cast including Michael Caine as a hammy actor and Bob Hoskins, extremely amusing as the screenwriter who pretends to want Alda's input on his screenplay while seeking his constant approval at the same time. The film does run out of steam before fade out, but Alda and company manage to keep it afloat for most of the ride. 3

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For many years I thought I was the only person on the planet who had seen Tempest and I am so glad to learn that I am not the only person who discovered this sleeper somewhere in their movie-going travails.

Loosely based on the Shakesperean play, Tempest follows an architect (the late John Cassavettes, in one of his best performances), bored with his work and his crumbling marriage (to real life spouse Gena Rowlands), who decides to chuck it all, say the hell with the rat race and go live on an island with his daughter (Molly Ringwald, in her film debut), and new girlfriend Aretha (a luminous Susan Sarandon).
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Even though Paul Mazursky is credited as director, Cassavettes hand is all over this film...the long scenes filmed without cutting, the improvisatory feel to the dialogue..., the self-indulgent storytelling style, this is definitely his show from beginning to end, and if you're not a fan of his work, the film will seem laboriously long and dull but if you are a fan, there are rewards to be had.

Cassavettes is surrounded by a first rate cast...his scenes with Rowlands crackle with intensity and his surprising chemistry with Sarandon is a stark contrast to his scenes with Rowlands. Ringwald shines in her film debut and there is a scene-stealing performance by the late Raul Julia as Kalibanos, Cassavettes' manservant on the island. Julia stops the show in one scene dancing with a flock of sheep accompanied by Liza Minnelli singing "New York, New York".
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This film is sad and tragic and funny and intense. Yes, it's a little long and disjointed and it works a little too hard at being different (there's even a curtain call at the end of the film), but it never fails to hold the attention of those who like something a little different in their film going. 3.5

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I just saw The Baby Dance for the first time a few months ago and can rarely recall a movie taking me through the emotional wringer that this one did. The trip was worth it though because the movie starred two of our best actresses, Stockard Channing (who I think can do no wrong) and Laura Dern.

Channing and Peter Riegert play a wealthy couple who are planning to adopt a baby from a poor Louisiana couple (Dern and Richard Lineback) who already have three kids and live in a trailer. As I watched the film, I found myself switching allegiances with each couple as the film progressed. At first it seemed like the trailer trash was taking advantage of the rich folks but then I was angered when the rich folks had second thoughts about adopting the baby when it is revealed that the baby might be brain-damaged.

The film gives a pretty even depiction of what both couples are going through and throws a lot of difficult questions out there and doesn't provide easy answers. If you're paying a couple to have a baby for you, do they have the right to use that money anyway they want? Do you have the right to back out of an adoption agreement because there is something wrong with the baby? The film is not the easiest watch, but it is worth checking out for the superb performances of Stockard Channing and Laura Dern. 4

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The Band Wagon was a stylish and amusing musical that was one of the best musicals from the golden years of MGM, IMO, even better than Singin in the Rain. The Band Wagon starred Fred Astaire, in prime form here, as Tony Hunter, a washed up movie star who has been pegged to star in his first Broadway show with a stuck up ballerina (Cyd Charisse) as his leading lady and an eccentric and egomaniacal nut (Jack Buchanan) as the director of the show.
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This thin plot line sets up some very hysterical moments as Astaire and Charisse try to keep their sanity being stuck in the middle of this big overblown production which bombs on opening night and then Tony takes it upon himself to re-think and trim down the show so that it becomes a success. Astaire and Charisse work well together and Buchanan is funny as the nutty director as are Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray as the authors of the show. There are several classic musical numbers here: Astaire, Fabray, and Buchanan do "Triplets" dressed as babies, Astaire and Charisse perform a lovely dance in the park to "Dancing in the Dark", Astaire does a great solo set in an arcade called "A Shine on your Shoes", Nanette Fabray is outstanding doing "Louisiana Hayride" and the closing Mickey Spillane Ballet is brilliant. This is also the film that introduced the tune that became associated with MGM, "That's Entertainment". One of the best to come from the MGM stable. 4.5
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The Barkleys of Broadway was originally written to reunite Fred Astaire and Judy Garland after their smash hit Easter Parade; however, Judy was having a lot of health problems at the time and was unable to do the film, which paved the way for Ginger Rogers to reunite with her former film partner for the first time in ten years and for the first time in color. Sadly, this would also be their last film together but it is quite the send off for these dancing legends.
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The film, written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green (Singin in the Rain)follows a Broadway song and dance team named Josh and Dinah Barkley, who are at the peak of their careers, but Dinah feels like she's suffocating from Josh's Svengali-like grip on her career and decides she wants to become a serious actress. Of course, this story does parallel what happened with Astaire and Rogers ten years earlier when Rogers yearned to become a dramatic actress and actually won an Oscar the following year for Kitty Foyle. The road to their inevitable reunion is predictable (and as for Ginger's interpretation of some French play, the less said the better)but the team's dancing is still spectacular even after ten years away from each other.
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Their comic duet in Scottish kilts "Me One and Only Highland Fling" is a delight and Fred's solo "Shoes with Wings On" is brilliant, even though realistically, this number would be physically impossible to do in a theater as it is presented here, but I digress. And their final dance to "They Can't Take That Away From Me" is one of the loveliest pas de deuxs ever filmed. Not up to par with SINGIN IN THE RAIN or THE BAND WAGON, but classy entertainment with that beloved MGM gloss. 3.5

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An uncompromising script and a solid performance from Leonardo Di Caprio help make The Basketball Diaries a powerful and memorable film experience.
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Leo plays Jim Carroll, a high school student with a love of basketball and a flare for writing whose life goes right down the toilet when he becomes a heroine addict. Yes, perhaps Jim gets hooked a little too quickly but everything that happens to him after he gets hooked is totally real.
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Like the Michael Keaton drama Clean and Sober, this movie so clearly and honestly demonstrates where drug addiction can take you...how nothing else becomes important but how and where that next high is coming from. There is one harrowing scene after another here. We see Jim returning to his mother (Lorraine Bracco) after being kicked out of the house and we see Jim turn from begging child to threatening thug in a matter of seconds, a scene brilliantly performed by DiCaprio. We see Jim and his friends beat up an old lady for her purse and we even see Jim prostitute himself with a man in order to get money.

It's a frightening and realistic spiral downward that Jim takes and he does make it back, but it is important to remember when watching this film that a lot don't. DiCaprio gets solid support from future stars Mark Wahlberg, Bruno Kirby, Jr., Juliette Lewis, and Michael Imperioli. A harrowing film experience that will not be forgotten once the credits roll. 4
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The Birdcage is the hysterically entertaining Americanized version of the French classic La Cage Aux Folles
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In this version Robin Williams plays the gay owner of a Florida nightclub who learns his straight son (Dan Futterman) is coming home and is engaged to be married. Williams learns from his son that his fiancée's parents (Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest) are straight-laced and ultra-conservative and will not be comfortable meeting his gay father or his even more flamboyant lover (Nathan Lane) and suggests Williams send Lane out of town while Hackman and Wiest are in town. Instead, Lane puts on his best drag and meets the parents as Williams' wife in one of the most hilarious dinner party scenes ever filmed.
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This film is chock full of sparkling dialogue and sharp performances. I also found it rather refreshing to see Robin Williams playing straight man to Lane, who along with Hank Azaria as their housekeeper, practically steal the film from everyone else in one of the most entertaining comedies of the 90's. And the sight of Gene Hackman in drag is something everyone must experience. 4
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The Brady Bunch Movie is a twisted and clever lampooning of the classic 1969-74 TV show about the saccharine sweet blended family and the adventures they faced. Director Betty Thomas has cleverly set this movie in 1995; however, has kept the Bradys stuck in a 1970's time warp, talking, acting, and dressing like they are still in the 70's and it this clash of opposing pop cultures that help to make this movie so funny; however be forewarned: This movie is solely aimed at people who watched every single episode of the TV series. If you did (and I must confess to being one who did) you will find this film rolling-on-the-floor funny. If you did not, you will find this film meaningless. Of course with everything we know about the Bradys now (Robert Reed being gay, Barry Williams book GROWING UP BRADY, the kids all having the hots for each other), this movie takes on even more meaning.

The movie is very well cast too. Gary Cole's Robert Reed impression as Mike Brady is frighteningly on the money and Shelley Long is also good as Carol. The kids are well cast too, special mention to Christine Taylor' Marcia (whose physical and vocal resemblance to Maureen McCormick is uncanny)and the brilliant Jennifer Elise Cox, who just about steals the movie as Jan. She doesn't look too much like Eve Plumb, but the voice, the walk, the mannerisms and the attitude are dead solid perfect.
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There are amusing cameos by RuPaul and former Monkee Davy Jones as well as former BRADY cast members Williams, Christopher Knight, Susan Olsen, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. Michael McKean and Jean Smart are also very funny as the evil Mr. Dittmeyer, who wants to buy the Bradys' home and his drunken wife, who has the hots for ALL the Brady men. So if you loved the TV series, you will love this movie...if not, skip it. 3.5

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The King of Comedy is an oft-overlooked gem from the De Niro/Scorcese library that is one of my favorite films and is part of my permanent video collection. De Niro gives one of his most on-target performances as Rupert Pupkin, a slightly demented fan of talk show host Jerry Langford, who wants to be a stand up comic and goes to very extreme lengths to achieve his goal.
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This film is an on-target look at fan obsession and how it can completely take control of a normal human being's life...from the opening scene where we see crazed autograph hounds screaming at each other about their latest acquisition for their autograph book, we know we are not dealing with normal people here...Scorsese instantly creates a cinematic atmosphere that makes the viewer squirm, or at least it made this one squirm.

De Niro's Pupkin is alternately funny and tragic, almost heartbreaking in the way he justifies in his own twisted mind the things he does to get what he wants. Jerry Lewis practically channels Johnny Carson, in the performance of his career, as Jerry Langford, the no-nonsense talk show host who blows off Rupert and pays a terrible price for it.
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I saw an interview with Lewis once where he stated that this role was the easiest thing he had ever done and that he wasn't really acting, just reading the lines, but I disagree. Lewis gives us deep insight into the pressure of celebrity fame and the sacrifices that come with that fame. Sandra Bernhard steals every scene she is in as Masha, another fan obsessed with Langford who finally gets her chance to be alone with the man. Her rendition of "Come Rain or Come Shine" is a classic.
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There is a school of thought that Scorcese erred by having Pupkin come out at the end smelling like a rose and I understand those that feel that way, but I found myself so strongly sympathizing with the character that I found the ending quite satisfying. Not for all tastes, but if you are a DeNiro/Scorcese fan and love the business of show business, The King of Comedy is a must see. 4.5

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1979's The Main Event was a lame attempt to rekindle the chemistry that Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal created in What's up, Doc?, in an attempt to make lightning strike twice at the box office. Well, the chemistry between the stars is still evident, but the story just does not do them justice this time. Streisand plays Hillary Kramer, a cosmetics tycoon who learns that her accountant has absconded with everything she owns and the only thing she has been left with is the contract of a washed-up ex-boxer (O'Neal). So to recoup her money, she makes him start boxing again and becomes his manager. Streisand works very hard to make her character likable but it is a struggle and O'Neal is just miscast as a boxer. He just doesn't look or act like a boxer. It's not boring, but both stars have been seen to better advantage. The best thing about this movie is the powerhouse theme song that Barbra sings over the closing credits. It is an absolute "Wow!" 3
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In the style of Starting Over, Burt took on another romantic lead in 1983's The Man Who Loved Women, which starred Reynolds as a confirmed bachelor whose obsession with the opposite sex has driven him into therapy with a female shrink of course (Julie Andrews in a low-key performance).
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Though not as good as his performance in Starting Over, Reynolds does exude a great deal of charm in this film and get solid support from Andrews, Marilu Henner, and in an early and very amusing role, Kim Basinger as the undersexed trophy wife of a wealthy Texan (Barry Corbin) who likes her sex with an element of danger. This comedy that was co-written by Blake Edwards and his own psychiatrist is worth a look. 6.5/10
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The Money Pit stars Tom Hanks and Shelley Long as an unmarried but together couple who decide to buy a broken down old house in the country and rebuild it. Even though we see what's coming because our hero has to borrow money from a miniature gangster in order to come up with half the price and that the woman who owns the house is way too anxious to get rid of this house, so anxious that she throws in an automobile with the deal, we just relax and drink in what's going on because it's Tom Hanks, who makes this movie worth sitting through;

Though the film resembles the old Cray Grant-Myrna Loy film Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House this film definitely has an 80's sensibility and showcases Hanks' effortless gift for slapstick. I love the scene where he falls through the carpet covering the hole in the floor and gets trapped in the hole. There are very few actors who could have pulled this scene off (Jim Carrey comes to mind) but Hanks makes the scene very funny, especially when he starts singing the "Name Game" song to pass the time.
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The late Alexander Goudenov is very funny as Long's ex-lover as is Maureen Stapleton as the woman they buy the house from. The film also features some impressive stunt work and set design, including impressive scenes where the house's massive staircase collapses and the destruction of some of the outside construction where the director definitely was influenced by executive producer Steve Spielberg...these scenes have Spielberg written all over them. Not the greatest comedy ever made, but still very watchable due to the effortless charisma of one Tom Hanks. 3
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Dick Van Dyke earned a well deserved Emmy nomination for his powerhouse performance in The Morning Aftera 1974 ABC Movie of the Week where Van Dyke played a successful public relations man who begins to forsake everything in his life for the bottle.

This intense look at the disease of alcoholism is uncompromising in its approach to the story and Van Dyke pulls out all the stops to turn in this gut-wrenching performance, which, if the truth be told, probably wasn't a real stretch as Van Dyke was drinking very heavily at the time.
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Van Dyke had been drinking for years but kept it well hidden. A few years later, he made his alcoholism public and got sober a few years after that. I was 16 years old when this movie premiered but I remember Van Dyke's performance haunted me long after the movie was over. I remember a scene where his wife, played by Lynn Carlin, won't give him the car keys so he can go out and get more liquor and he practically beats her up to get the keys. I also remember the final scene of a drunken Van Dyke, all alone in the world, on a beach, with his bottle, drinking and passing out.
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The movie is a powerful indictment against drinking and vividly portrays the isolation from everything important in a drinker's life that alcohol can cause. Another landmark TV movie that should be made available on video if it is not. 8/10

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After years of playing bad guys on screen, Robert Preston carved out a brand new career for himself and became a household name when he was cast as fast-talking salesman Harold Hill in the original Broadway production of The Music Man back in, I believe, 1955 and had to screen test against Frank Sinatra to recreate the role in the original film version in 1962. Preston became forever associated with this role and its signature song "Trouble" and anyone who steps into Harold Hill's shoes and picks up his baton is going to be ripe for comparison.
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Disney's 2003 TV remake of the musical gets an "A" for effort. It was remounted with a great deal of care and reproduced Meredith Wilson's original score intact (the opening number on the train "Rock Island" is performed in its entirety and Marian's number from the Broadway show, "My White Knight" was returned to its original place in the score instead the lackluster replacement song for the movie "Being in Love"), the scenery and costumes were exquisite and there was some first rate choreography, but no matter what else is going on with this show, if you don't have an electrifying Harold Hill, the show falls flat and Matthew Broderick was a disappointment in this role. And this is coming from a HUGE Matthew Broderick fan who has never been disappointed with him up to this point.
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As much as I respect Broderick's talent (I saw him on Broadway in "How to Succeed" and he was fabulous), I thought his performance as Harold Hill was rather one-note and a little bland.

What made this musical worth watching, however, was the charismatic and luminous performance by the incredible Kristen Chenowith as Marian Paroo. Most Marians tend to fade next to Harold Hill whenever this show is mounted; however, Chenowith's engaging screen presence and breathtaking soprano made this film worth watching (Her rendition of "Goodnight My Someone" brought a tear to my eye and her "My White Knight" made the hair on the back of neck stand up).

Chenowith and Chenowith alone made this worth watching. Broderick was one note, Victor Garber and Molly Shannon were badly miscast as Mayor and Mrs. Shinn and Tommy and Zaneeta were snore-inducing, but Kristin Chenowith's magical turn as Marian Paroo makes this version of The Music Man completely watchable. 3
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Music and men appear in The Opposite Sex, the 1956 remake of the 1939 classic The Women. Based on the play by Clair Booth Luce, this remake stars June Allyson as a retired nightclub entertainer who loses her husband (Leslie Nielsen) to a maneater named Crystal Allen (a young Joan Collins) and how after a year, she decided to fight to get her husband back.

Allyson inherits the role played by Norma Shearer in the 1939 film, a woman devoted to her husband but so blinded by his betrayal that she just gives up on her marriage even though she still loves her husband. Collins is an eye-opener inheriting the role played by Joan Crawford in the 1939 version, a character who is not meant to garner any sympathy and you just know she's going to get what's coming to her, not to mention a prophetic precursor to the rest of Collins' career.
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Though fairly dated, this musical remake holds up pretty well and talented gals like Ann Miller, Dolores Grey, Charlotte Greenwood, and Agnes Moorhead are all given moments to shine, but there's one thing about this movie that I will never forget: June Allyson performs two musical numbers in the film, one is a big production number called "Yeah, Baby Yeah". The second is a weepy love ballad she sings at a party in her home. But when she opens her mouth to sing this ballad, Doris Day's voice comes out!. I later learned that it was not Day's voice, but it sure as hell wasn't June Allyson! This story was remade again in 2008 with an all-female cast with Meg Ryan and Eva Mendes taking on the lead roles. 3

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The Producers is the film version of the Mel Brooks Broadway musical that won 11 Tony Awards, which was the musical version of the 1968 film that won Brooks his only Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (everybody got that?).

The story is about a washed-up Broadway producer (Nathan Lane, recreating his Tony-winning Broadway role) and a nebbish accountant (Matthew Broderick) who conspire to produce a flop Broadway show, oversell percentages in the show and then leave the country with the money. Brooks wisely allowed director/choreographer Susan Stroman (who also directed and choreographed the Broadway show) to take the helm here because Stroman has a keen eye for musical comedy and knows exactly what a musical comedy should look like. She knows exactly what audiences expect from a movie musical and she delivers.
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With solid assistance from Mel Brooks' superb screenplay, music, and lyrics, Stroman has mounted this film with great care and attention to detail, expanding it nicely for the screen and makes wonderful use of NYC locations for the production.
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Nathan Lane's bigger than life stage presence translates to the screen beautifully here with the performance of his career as Max Bialystock. His solo number in a jail cell called "Betrayed" where he practically re-enacts everything that happens in the movie, is just brilliant. Matthew Broderick practically channels Gene Wilder in his recreation of Leo Bloom. His paranoid, pantaphobic Leo is a joy to watch, especially when he has his security blanket taken away from him. His fantasy production number "I Want to be a Producer" is a throwback to musicals of the 1930's and is a delight.

There is also a brilliant production number called "Along Came Biayli" with Lane leading a chorus of little old ladies who do a tap dance with walkers that is inspired, purely Stroman's brainchild. Will Ferrell steals every scene he is in as Franz Leibkind, the author of SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER and Gary Beach and Roger Bart hilariously recreate their Broadway roles as the very gay director of the show and his lover/assistant. Their number "Make it Gay" is also hysterically funny. Uma Thurman makes a lovely Ulla (though her singing appeared to be dubbed). I couldn't help but imagine Nicole Kidman in this role, who was originally cast in the role. Her duet with Broderick "Her Face" was a lovely nod to Astaire and Rogers though.

The actual production of SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER was a musical comedy classic (just as it was in the original film)...hilariously staged and performed, the likes of which will never be seen again.
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Even though Susan Stroman directed this film, Brooks' hand is definitely all over this film. There is a poster for a show in Max's office called "The Breaking Wind." At the end of Lane and Broderick's duet "Till Him", Lane walks up to Broderick and you expect him to thank him for his friendship, but instead he says "You're a really good singer." Even the shots of the audience watching SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER were hilarious. If you like stage musicals, movie musicals, or Mel Brooks, this film is an absolute must and I can't wait for it come out on DVD. I know it's going to become one of those films I can watch over and over again. 3.5

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The Purple Rose of Cairo is a lovely, funny, and heartbreaking entry from Woody Allen that still remains one of my favorites. This romantic fantasy tickles your funny bone and tugs at your heartstrings at the same time and I go through a myriad of emotions whenever I watch it.
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Mia Farrow stars as Celia, a depression era housewife, trapped in a dead end marriage to a pig (Danny Aiello) whose only escape comes from going to the movies. She goes to see the movie of the title several times and then at one show, the main character in the movie (played by Jeff Daniels)speaks to Celia directly from the screen saying, "You must really love this movie, don't you?" The character then walks off the screen and into Celia's life, claiming that he loves her and wants to be with her forever.

Meanwhile, the actors in the movie on the screen are stuck and don't know what to do because they can't finish the movie without Daniels' character and they are seen conversing with each other about what to do and to the audience in the theater, who for some reason, sit and watch the actors on the screen trying to figure out what to do.

Further complications arrive when the character starts walking off the screen in other theaters around the country and the actor who played the character (also Daniels) arrives in town to try to convince his character to go back in the movie.
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Woody doesn't delve into the territory of fantasy too much, but this one totally works with one of his most intelligent screenplays and winning performances from Farrow and Daniels and the ending is a heartbreaker. A must-see. 4.5

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Seduced by Madness: The Diance Borchardt Story gave Ann-Margaret the chance to strut her stuff as an actress in this riveting TV movie about a seductive temptress/schoolteacher who convinces three or her students to murder her husband by claiming he was abusive to her when actually she was the abusive one.

Ann-Margaret completely loses herself in this complex and unsympathetic character whose true story is the stuff that movies of the week are made of and Ann-Margaret pulls it off beautifully and effortlessly makes Diane the woman you love to hate.

Peter Coyote, an actor who has often been overshadowed by the actresses he has worked with, manages to hold his own as Diane's victimized husband, a devoted husband and father who is completely powerless over this madwoman whose universe he is unable to escape from in time.

Writer Buck Henry told a similar story in less time and to greater effect in To Die For a theatrical film which featured an amazing performance by Nicole Kidman, but Ann-Margret did Emmy worthy work as the twisted and terrible Diane Borchardt. 7.5/10

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The genius that is Stephen Sondheim was never more prominently displayed as it was in his 1979 "Musical Thriller" Sweeney Todd, a Gothic, gory, grisly, yet delicious musical concoction about a demented barber who returns to London to exact revenge on the evil Judge who not only had him permanently exiled from London, but who is also raising his daughter as his own and plans to marry her to "shield her from all the evils of the world." The barber finds love,sympathy, and assistance from a lonely pie shop owner who has her own agenda where Todd is concerned.
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This musical rocked Broadway and won nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actor and Actress in a Musical (Angela Lansbury). The production was filmed in its entirety in 1982 with Angela Lansbury recreating her Broadway role as Mrs. Lovett, the daffy pie shop owner who finds a practical use for the heads that Todd makes mincemeat out of.

George Hearn, who replaced Len Cariou on Broadway, is electrifying in the title role, so much so that you have to wonder why he wasn't originally cast in the role. Lansbury and Hearn are riveting from start to finish and commit 100% to their ghoulish characters aided, by a first rate Sondheim score, probably the closest thing Sondheim has written to an opera. Lansbury shines on "The Worst Pies in London" and "By the Sea". George Hearn stops the show with "Epiphany" and is also compelling during "Pretty Women", a duet he sings with Judge Turpin, the man he has sworn revenge on.

Cris Groendahl is vocally impressive as Antony, the young sailor who rescues Todd and falls for his daughter Johanna. Betsy Joselyn is a little over the top as Johanna and really pushes vocally to the point that during "Green Funch and Linnet Bird" she actually drives her voice off-pitch during a couple of moments.

The rest of the cast is first rate, especially Edmund Lyndeck as Judge Turpin who gets to perform "Johanna" in this production, which was cut from the original production and Ken Jennings as Toby, whose gorgeous tenor fills the auditorium on "Not While I'm Around." But it is the breathtaking musical score by Stephen Sondheim and the mesmerizing performances by Lansbury and especially George Hearn that make this night of Gothic musical theater an experience that stays with you long after curtain call. Not for all tastes, but if you're game and have strong heart, Sweeney Todd is a joy for all music theater lovers and a must for fans of Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury. 4.5

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In the tradition of Slapshot and The Longest yard, The Replacements was a charming and laugh-out loud sports film about a group of scabs for an on strike, fictional pro football team brought together by a long out of work coach (Gene Hackman) and long ago disgraced quarterback (Keanu Reeves) coaxed into a comeback.

After demanding no interference from the team's owner (Jack Warden), Hackman's Jimmy McGinty goes about putting together a rag-tag scab football team that initially looks like a nightmare but there are some secret weapons within...including a psycho cop in training (Jon Favreau), a former thief with lightening feet and slippery hands (Orlando Jones), an anorexic looking place-kicker from Scotland (Rhys Ifan) and a deaf running back (David Denman). And just when the team starts to come into their own, the regular quarterback (Brett Cullen) decides to cross the picket line, leaving Keanu's character out in the cold.
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Though the film is, for the most part, pretty predictable, what makes the film special is the presence of Gene Hackman and the stylish professionalism he brings to the role of Jimmy McGinty. Hackman underplays the rIole so beautifully and allows the over the top performances by Jon Favreau and Orlando Jones among others, to shine in the appropriate moments without ever allowing himself to be pushed in the background. Hackman is so adept at doing this that you don't even see him doing it. The casting of Hackman as Jimmy McGinty was a stroke of genius because it brought an element of class and charm that would have otherwise have been missing and made this just another slapstick sports comedy, but Hackman's presence and charisma takes the film to a more quality level. [Rating]3[Rating]

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The Sunshine Boys was the hilarious 1975 screen adaptation of Neil Simon's play about a retired vaudevillian team, played by Walter Matthau and George Burns, who had a very bitter breakup and have been asked to reunite one more time for a television special. The problem is that the two still hate each other and want nothing to do with each other. Richard Benjamin appears as Matthau's nephew, a theatrical agent who has been given the monumental responsibility of making this reunion a reality.

This warm and winning comedy is a lovely valentine to a forgotten form of entertainment...vaudeville and it works mainly thanks to one of Neil Simon's better screenplays and outstanding work by Matthau, Burns, and Benjamin.
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Burns won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this, but I think Matthau walks away with this film with his flawlessly hilarious performance as Willy Clark. Matthau was nominated for Best Actor but didn't stand a chance against Nicholson for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; however, in another year, this was an Oscar-worthy performance. Matthau commands the screen and there is not a false note in this beautifully timed performance. The scene where he is auditioning for a potato chip commercial and can't get the name of the product right is a classic. The Sunshine Boys is a warm and winning Neil Simon comedy which shines thanks to unbeatable chemistry between Matthau and Burns. 8/10

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Ballet has never really been user friendly subject matter for movie box office potential (with the rare exception of The Red Shoes) but 1977's The Turning Point was a remarkable exception to that school of thought. Not only did this film preserve on screen some of the most beautiful ballet dancing ever seen, but it brought two Hollywood icons together for the first time who both turned in the Oscar-nominated performances of their careers.
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As a matter of fact, this is one of two films in Oscar history (The Color of Purple being the other) that was nominated for 11 Oscars but didn't win a single award. Nonetheless, it is still a compelling and riveting melodrama which uses ballet as its backdrop.
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The film focuses on two women, Emma Jacklin (Anne Bancroft) and Deedee Rodgers (Shirley MacLaine) who were both in the same ballet company many, many years ago and were competing for the lead in a new ballet when Deedee became pregnant and Emma got the role and this is where their relationship forked and their lives went separate ways. Deedee got married to a dancer in the company (Tom Skerritt) had three children and runs a dance studio now, but part of her still yearns to be a prima ballerina. Emma became the prima ballerina that Deedee wanted to be; however, Emma's life is all about work now...she takes class, she dances, and she goes home to her dogs. When Emma's dance company comes to Deedee's town, they are reunited and both begin to quietly examine the choices that they made. Thrown into the mix is Amelia (real life prima ballerina Leslie Browne), Deedee's daughter who may be a better dancer than her mother ever was and Emma begins to groom and pulls strings to get her in the company which causes further resentment from Deedee.
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This movie is about choices, regrets, crushed dreams, and dreams fulfilled. Bancroft and MacLaine turn in grand performances and the dancing of ballet superstar Mikhail Barysnikov and Leslie Browne is outstanding (even though every time Browne opens her mouth you want to stuff a sock in it.) A beautiful melodrama anchored by supreme performances by two of the best actresses in the business. 8.5/10
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Danny DeVito took the Black Comedy to its most intense level of blackness with the 1989 comedy The War of the Roses, which reunited Romancing the Stone stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, as the Roses, an affluent California couple who have a gorgeous home and family, tons of money and expensive things, and anything else a family could ask for but somewhere along the way, Oliver and Barbara Rose become disenchanted with each other and decide to divorce, but neither refuses to give up the house, which ignites a war between these two married combatants which has tragic circumstances.
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De Vito has brought us a disturbing but never uninteresting comedy, full of funny and perverse situations, not to mention some of the most interesting camera-work I have seen in a comedy in quite awhile. Yes, the depths that this couple sink to are a little hard to swallow, but the film requires you to put your brain on check and let dramatic license have its freedom and if you can do this, there are rewards to be had here.

Douglas and Turner work very hard at their roles and De Vito is equally effective on screen as the lawyer caught between the Roses. There are a lot of funny moments in this film but there are moments of bleakness and sadness that stay with you long after the credits roll.

Though it's not an easy watch, The War of the Roses is worth seeing for its jaundiced view of marriage and divorce as seen through the demented eyes of Danny De Vito. 7.5/10

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1982 was a very good year for movies and one of the best that came out of that year was The World According to Garp an almost epic mounting of the novel by John S. Irving that many said would be impossible to film, but director George Roy Hill has crafted a vastly entertaining, yet disturbing film full of stark visual images and unusual plot twists.
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The film centers on the life of T.S.Garp (T.S. stands for Technical Sargent), a young man raised in the 50's and 60's by his mother Jenny Fields, who chose to have Garp out of wedlock because she wanted a child, not a husband.
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Garp is seen in college as a wrestler but really wants to become a writer and eventually does. Watching Garp write inspires his mother to write also, which Garp initially laughs off as he continues to write book after book. However, Jenny writes one book called "Sexual Suspect" which becomes a "feminist manifesto" and makes Jenny an international celebrity overnight, much to the chagrin of her son, who even though he writes several books, never achieves the stardom his mother does. but instead of basking in the fame, Jenny becomes an underdog for the handicapped, misunderstood, and mistreated including a transsexual named Roberta Muldoon who used to be a tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles and the film shows how Garp tries to carve out his own career while being in deep denial about his jealousy regarding his mother's success.
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Robin Williams turns in one of the best performances of his career as Garp and Glenn Close, in a stunning film debut, is a revelation as Jenny Fields. Mary Beth Hurt plays Garp's wife Helen and John Lithgow is a standout as Roberta Muldoon. Despite the fact that I never read the book, I enjoyed this thoughtful and intelligent film immensely that asks tough questions and doesn't always provide easy answers. For a truly unique motion picture experience, try The world According to Garp. 8/10

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The film version of Harvey Fierstein's own play Torch Song Trilogy is an entertaining comedy which, though stretches credibility, remains a watchable motion picture for those who are comfortable watching films dealing with gays and gay issues. The movie is the story of a drag queen named Arnold and how he deals with life offstage through relationships with men and with his overbearing mother (the fabulous Anne Bancroft).
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As much as I admire Fierstein as a writer and performer, he seems to be suffering from that Woody Allen syndrome where he has a rather distorted view of his own sexual attractiveness. Not to be cruel, but I found it hard to swallow that guys who looked like Brian Kerwin and Matthew Broderick would be attracted to a guy who looked like Harvey Fierstein, but if you can accept that, the film is imminently watchable with strong performances from Kerwin, Broderick, Bancroft, and Eddie Castrodad as David, a gay teen that Arnold adopts. Broderick played David in the original production of the play, but in the movie he plays Harvey's lover. An entertaining film with a unique story, a couple of disturbing messages, and some very good performances. 6.5/10

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Mel Gibson goes pure romantic lead for the first time and turns in one of his most charming performances in What Women Want, a cute comedy-fantasy about a womanizing advertising executive who gets quasi-electrocuted one night and upon awakening, discovers he has the ability to hear what all women are thinking, an ability he initially rebuffs, then abuses, and then runs from with all his might. Gibson is charming and sexy in this film...his dance in the apartment with the fedora to the Frank Sinatra record is a delight and he is well matched by Helen Hunt as his new boss. There are other amusing supporting turns by Alan Alda, Marisa Tomei, Valerie Perrine, Delta Burke, Loretta Devine, and Ashley Johnon as Mel's daughter. If you think Mel Gibson is the sexiest man alive, What Women Want is the film for you. 7/10

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Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan shine in the title roles of the 1989 comedy When Harry Met Sally..., an episodic romantic comedy that follows two lonely souls from a road trip after college graduation over a 10-15 year period where they actually become friends first instead of lovers, even though Harry believes men and women can't be just friends. After their initial parting after the road trip, Harry and Sally "meet cute" a couple of times and become friends who see each other through jobs and other relationships.
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The dialogue of Crystal and Ryan seems to roll of their tongues with such ease and I'm sure director Rob Reiner and Crystal had input in what finally ended up on the screen, script wise. All I know was, after seeing the film for the first time, I said to myself, "This movie should definitely get an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay." And it did. Sadly, it did not win, but I have found When Harry Met Sally... to be one of my favorites...it's part of my collection and I can watch it a million times. How can you get tired of Meg's fake orgasm in the sandwich shop or the game of pictionairy (Baby Fish Mouth!), or Billy and Meg singing "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" or the four way telephone scene when Harry and Sally call Jess and Marie?

A masterful screenplay mounted by a skillful director and performed by a perfect cast. 9/10
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is the most brilliant blending of live action and animation since Mary Poppins
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Robert Zemeckis proved to be a master filmmaker with this complex and masterfully edited cinematic gem about a 1930's down and out Hollywood detective (the brilliant Bob Hoskins) who is hired to prove a cartoon rabbit named Roger is innocent of a murder he did not commit. With the aid of crack technical people (the film won four Oscars for its technical mastery), Zemeckis has crafted a completely believable melding of real people and animated characters that is hard to resist. I love when Hoskins is walking through a movie studio and you see all these famous animated characters from the past walking around (he even bumps into one of the hippos from Fantasia). There's a scene in a nightclub where all the waiters look like the penguins from Mary Poppins and Betty Boop is the cigarette girl.

Charles Fleischer provides the voice of the title character and his wife Jessica, who is human but animated ("I'm not bad...I'm just drawn that way.")has the speaking voice of Kathleen Turner and the singing voice of Amy Irving.
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But other than the technical wizardry that is apparent in every frame of this film, the thing that makes it all click is the amazing performance by Hoskins, who plays the character totally straight as if her were in a real detective story from the 30's. It is his straight acting approach to these comical situations (aided by Zemeckis I'm sure) that makes this whole bizarre roller coaster ride come together. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is, quite simply,a masterpiece that should have won Robert Zemeckis an Oscar. 4.5

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Wildcats was an entertaining sports comedy with Goldie Hawn at the top of her form as a high school track coach, who wants more than anything to coach football (her late father was a football coach). She finally gets the opportunity to coach a high school football team at a tough inner city high school where the majority of the students are African American or Latino.
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Of course, Goldie's Molly McGrath meets the obvious resentments from high school boys that you would expect finding out their new coach is a woman, but she does eventually win them over, even at the risk of losing custody of her two daughters to her uptight ex-husband (James Keach).

Nothing new or inventive here but Goldie lights up the screen presenting a smart yet flawed character trying to live her dream. Nipsey Russell has one of the best roles of his career as the principal of the school that hires her and there are some very funny moments provided by the members of the team, especially Woody Harrelson, Nick Corri, and in a star-making turn, a very young Wesley Snipes. Bruce McGill scores as a sexist coach from the opposing school, Prescott and Jan Hooks has some cute moments as Goldie's ex-husband's new girlfriend.
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I love the scene where Goldie outruns the boys on the team and calls them "pussies" and the rap song over the closing credits is hysterically funny. A terrific feel-good comedy starring a great actress at the zenith of her personal charm. 3.5

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I really like your idea about putting up the image of the poster of the films, but I must confess that I don't know how to do that, could you offer a quick tutorial?

[Daniel M]

I really like your idea about putting up the image of the poster of the films, but I must confess that I don't know how to do that, could you offer a quick tutorial?

Go to the wikipedia page of the film, right click the poster and click 'Copy Image Location' so you copy the image url like for example

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/82/Pulp_Fiction_cover.jpg/215px-Pulp_Fiction_cover.jpg

Then write it like this

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/82/Pulp_Fiction_cover.jpg/215px-Pulp_Fiction_cover.jpg[/img ]

but without the spaces in the brackets.

Or click this little button in the post editor, and paste the link in the box.

[IMG]http://gyazo.com/25f2fa8ef451d457cba57d87e51f0dfa.png

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I grew up with movies like White Christmas, Holiday Inn, and It's a Wonderful Life as holiday viewing traditions, but that all changed with the release of A Christmas Story, the 1983 instant classic that has so enchanted film goers that TBS in Atlanta now shows the film on Christmas Eve for 24 straight hours every year.

This warm and funny Christmas story centers on an adorable little boy named Ralphie whose only wish for Christmas is to find a Red Ryder BB gun under the Christmas tree and the manipulations he puts his parents through to get one. Written and narrated by Jean Shepherd and based on his story "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash", this delicious slice of Americana is a delight from start to finish filled with equal parts belly laughs and warm sentiment.
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Young Peter Billingsley is a joy as Ralphie and he receives brilliant support from Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon as his parents. Scott Schwartz also scores as Ralphie's best friend Flick, who has a memorable encounter with a telephone pole. Don't miss this one. 8/10

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Airplane! was the 1980 comedic spoof of Airport movies in general and the classic Zero Hour in particular, in which an ex-war pilot (Robert Hays, in a star-making performance), who hasn't been able to get behind the wheel of a plane since the war,ends up, through a bizarre set of circumstances, forced to land an airliner full of passengers suffering from food poisoning.
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This on-target comic spoof spawned many imitations and clones, but this is the granddaddy of them all. The gags come at a lightning fast pace so that if one gag doesn't amuse as much as you think, there's another one not far behind. The movie is smartly written with a great deal of attention to the set-up of a joke as well as the actual payoff.
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Hays gets great support from Julie Hagerty, as the ex-girlfriend and head stewardess, Peter Graves as the pilot with a thing for young boys, Leslie Nielsen as a stone-faced doctor (possibly an inspiration for his Frank Drebin character), Kareem Abduhl Jabaar as the co-pilot who has an identity crisis, Lloyd Bridges as a grounds control pilot with an addiction or two, and Lorna Patterson as another stewardess. A comedy classic that's just as funny now as it was 33 years ago. If I had to pick a favorite gag, and that's not easy, I would pick the strange problem of Lieutenant Horowitz. 8.5/10

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Angel in my Pocket was a charming and folksy 1969 comedy that took Griffith's Sheriff Andy Taylor persona and brought to the big screen in the form of a devoted minister named Reverend Samuel Whitehead, who has just been assigned a new church in a rural area and all the various problems and troublesome townsfolk he has to deal with. This role is not much of a stretch for Griffith and fits him like a glove. Jerry Van Dyke is very funny as his useless brother-in-law as is Kay Medford as his meddlesome mother-in-law. Lee Meriwether makes a lovely Mrs. Whitehead. A few years later she would play Andy's wife in a CBS TV series called HEADMASTER.
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This old fashion comedy is predictable as they come with several film and TV veterans in supporting roles (including Andy's TV co-star Jack Dodson). Take special notice of the wonderful scene where the Reverend goes to a burlesque house to purchase an organ for the church. A light and amusing family comedy that goes a long way on Andy Griffith's considerable screen charisma. 6/10

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A Raisin in the Sun is the 2nd television remake of the 1961 film based on the play by Lorraine Hansberry and the recent Broadway revival about broken dreams that centers on the Younger family, a hard-working black family living in a cramped Chicago tenement in 1959, to whom we are introduced to the day before the family is to receive a $10,000.00 insurance check and the tensions that arise from the plans that the young patriarch of the family has already made for money that really isn't his.
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Lena Younger (Phylicia Rachad) is a strong,God-fearing woman who has worked as a housekeeper to a white family for years but has decided to retire because of her impending windfall (the check is only coming because of the death of Lena's husband). Walter Lee Younger (Executive Producer Sean "Puffy" Combs)is a chauffeur who wants to use Lena's money to start his own business. Walter's wife, Ruth (Audra McDonald)is a strong-willed woman who finds herself constantly torn between her husband and her mother-in-law, often at the expense of her son Travis(Justin Martin). Beneatha (Sanaa Lathan) is Walter's flighty, free-spirited sister, struggling to find her identity as a black woman, full of more dreams than she can handle, which are further complicated by her relationships with two completely different kind of men.
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This story first hit theaters in 1961 with Sidney Poiter as Walter Lee, Ruby Dee as Ruth, and Claudia McNeill as Lena. Combs has brought the cast of the highly successful Broadway revival (which won Tony Awards for Rachad and McDonald) to the small screen and aided by the detailed direction of Kenny Leon, has opened up the story for the television screen without losing the story's intensity or intimacy.

Phylicia Rachad is nothing short of brilliant, in the performance of her career, as Lena, the proud matriarch struggling to hold her family together and hoping that this money might help. Audra McDonald, who has won 4 Tony Awards for her work in Broadway musicals and won a fifth for this role on Broadway, proves that she is as powerful an actress as she is songstress as she brings a depth and substance to the pivotal role of Ruth that I have never seen before. Sanaa Lathan also offers one of her best performances as the bombastic Beneatha, a walking talking hurricane of emotions struggling to find who she is in a world where she feels like she is suffocating.
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Sadly, Sean Combs had some big shoes to step into, taking on a role originated by Sidney Poiter and for me, his performance just doesn't work...there is an emptiness to the performance that implies Combs really doesn't understand a man like Walter Lee. Combs also seems to be unaware at times that he is now in front of a television camera and not in a Broadway theater and that certain facets of his performance have to be taken in and controlled, which can be partly blamed on the director I suppose, but this problem only exists with Combs, not his leading ladies. Poitier brought a dignity and maturity to the role of Walter Lee that Combs is missing...he plays the role as a petulant child, diluting a lot of its power.

Despite Combs problematic performance, this film stands as a worthy tribute to its predecessors thanks to the mostly effective direction by Kenny Leon and three extraordinary performances from Sanaa Lathan, Audra McDonald, and especially Phylicia Rachad. 3.5

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I remember my parents taking me to see Billie at the local drive-in when I was a kid. Patty Duke, pre-Valley of the Dolls, played this tomboyish teenage girl who could outrun all the boys in her school thanks to something in her head that she called "the beat", but boys don't like to go out with girls who run faster than they do, so Billie is pretty much alone until she compromises her feminist ideals, sings a corny song about becoming a woman ("I'm an In Between"), and purposely loses a race so that she can have the boy of her dreams, who I believe was played by Warren Berlinger.

Jim Backus played her father, who was running for Mayor on a "Women belong in the home" platform while his daughter was out running track with the boys. This movie was kind of corny, but Patty played the role energetically and I liked her blonde, Mia Farrow haircut. 5/10

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Bill Maher really hits it out of the park with his most recent HBO stand up concert, Bill Maher: The Decider. I must confess that I tuned in with some reluctance as I am no fan of Maher's HBO series REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER...I find it difficult to get through an entire episode without nodding off. Maher has a rock solid political conscience that is the bedrock of his comedy and I wasn't sure if I was up to listening to him rant about President Bush for 60 minutes;however,thankfully Maher did manage to touch on some other entertaining but still topical subjects. Don't get me wrong... the President took his usual verbal beating from Maher, but other subjects came up as well, like infidelity, teenage abstinence, travel, and the new prescription drug craze ("Did anyone have restless leg syndrome before they came up with a drug for it?"). Maher is an edgy, yet polished stage presence, who, like Jerry Seinfeld, is an extremely skilled wordsmith...the flawless ability to pick the absolute perfect word for each element of a joke,without ever talking "above" or "at" his audience. For those who like their stand-up with a little substance. 7.5/10

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I can't recall the last time I had such high expectations for a piece of television entertainment and was more disappointed at the finished product. Bob Saget: That ain't Right is an HBO comedy concert that marked the official return to stand-up comedy for Bob Saget, former star of FULL HOUSE and AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS.

Now I can absolutely relate to Saget's desire with this concert to distance himself from his image as the king of family-oriented television, but he really drives the message home with a sledgehammer approach here. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with adult language, but Saget really overdoes it here...Richard Pryor never used the "F" word as much as Saget does in this special and most of the time, it has very little to do with the content of his comedy. He seems to be using it purely for shock value and cheap laughs.

His material here is primarily crude, tasteless bathroom humor that just didn't work for me. Saget is working so hard here to let the world know that he is not Danny Tanner (his FULL HOUSE character) by being as tasteless and shocking as he possibly can and it gets very old very quickly. And the saddest part of this debacle is that Bob Saget IS a very funny and intelligent guy who has already proved that he is not Danny Tanner(if you don't believe it, check out his guest appearance on HBO's ENTOURAGE). He's an intelligent comic presence who, for shock value, has checked his quick comic mind at the door and has chosen just to shock and gross out his audience. Saget did share one very amusing story involving an incident in a restroom with his FULL HOUSE co-star John Stamos, but other than that, this concert was a nasty, unappealing disaster. A real shame. 1.5

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Chris Rock once again commands the stage in his fourth HBO special, Never Scared, which is just as fall-on-the-floor funny as the previous three. Chris is a bold and polished presence onstage and has become to HBO comedy what George Carlin used to be. His concerts have become "Must-See TV" and I'm sure they will continue to be so for a long time to come.

Though his themes are similar, Chris never really repeats material. As always, he covers a myriad of subjects here, including the war, the president, sex, marriage, Michael Jackson, drugs, relationships, strippers, and rap music.

Another thing I love about Chris is that he's never afraid to push the envelope where his audience is concerned. There is always at least one joke that generates as many uncomfortable "Oooooooh's" as it does laughs. Chris also never forgets that he's a man and every concert also contains at least one joke that only gets laughs from the men in the audience, but Chris doesn't care. He says what's on his mind and what people think, be damned but he never leaves the stage without a standing ovation. 8/10

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Dane Cook: Vicious Circle was the severely overrated HBO debut of red-hot stand up comedian Dane Cook, wisely filmed in his hometown to make him seem a lot funnier than he really is. Cook was first introduced to HBO audiences with the dreadfully boring documentary Tourgasm which was then capped off with this comedy concert filmed in Cook's hometown of Boston. Apparently, Bostonians find this guy hysterically funny because the audience at this concert is shown going out of their minds at every single word that comes out of this guy's mouth and I just didn't get it. Cook seems full of himself, self-congratulatory, and madly in love with the sound of his own voice. The nucleus of some very funny material is here, but Cook blows everything way out of proportion...the guy takes twenty-minutes to tell a five minute joke and his material hardly merits the 90 minutes (!) that HBO gave him while really funny guys like Chris Rock and DL Hughley only get 60 minutes. For hard-core Cook fans only. 4.5/10

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Kirstie Alley won an Emmy for her performance in David's Mother, an uncompromising look at a blue-collar, boorish mother, who seems to be at a total loss at how to deal with her autistic son.
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Alley, cast against type, loses herself in this role of an uneducated, trailer-trash kind of mother who wants to love and help her son but is never really quite sure about what she should be doing for him. The always reliable Stockard Channing is also featured as her snobbish sister and Sam Waterston is charming as a man Alley gets involved with but this is Alley's movie and she forsakes any pretense of glamor to realistically portray an unsympathetic character in a difficult situation who somehow still manages to make us feel for her even though we know that a lot of what this woman does and feels is just wrong. Alley makes the most of a rather unpleasant role and gave us a memorable television experience, light years away from her role as Rebecca Howe on CHEERS. 7.5/10

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D.L. Hughley delivers the laughs in his fourth HBO special subtitled Unapologetic, which was filmed in Washington DC. After the disastrous BOB SAGET: THAT AIN'T RIGHT, this comic confection was a breath of fresh air, offering an amusing look at topics that weren't terribly original, but Hughley's outlook and much more selective use of adult language works to much greater effect here than Saget. One of Hughley's favorite topics is male/female relationship and he gets off some on-target shots on this well-worn subject, and as always, shows his flare for spontaneity by goofing on members of the audience in the theater. The subject matter may not be strikingly original, but Hughley's twisted view and on-target delivery almost always works. 7.5/10

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George Carlin remains the King of HBO comedy and refuses to relinquish his crown with George Carlin: Life is Worth Losing. Carlin continues to be the master observer of all that is good and evil and twisted in the world. He opened this set with an extremely long poem about himself, utilizing every pop-cliché that we have become accustomed to hearing these days and has a way of making most of these clichés sound banal and silly.
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Carlin also does something in this special that I liked that he rarely does: he referenced a joke from an earlier concert because he got mail from people who didn't understand it and chose to explain it here. You don't see that often.

This show, like all of Carlin's shows, is scathingly accurate and roll-on-the-floor funny, but this one seems to have a darker theme floating over it than most of his shows. The majority of the material seems to be centered around subjects like death, dying, suicide, murder, and other cheery topics, yet, as always when watching George, I found myself laughing my ass off and agreeing with everything he says because after all these years of pushing the comedic envelope, one constant that has never changed with George is that everything he says is absolutely correct. 8/10

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After several years of working on his sitcom, comedian George Lopez was finally allowed to return to his stand-up roots with his first HBO Special,George Lopez: America's Mexican. Lopez also sticks close to his own roots here, never allowing the live audience he's playing to or us to forget his heritage. Admittedly, there was a portion of things he says in this special in Spanish that I didn't understand, but when he's speaking English, Lopez is hysterically funny. I loved his piece about how kids today couldn't have survived the way he grew up. It's so easy to forget how spoiled kids today are but Lopez reminds us in a most hysterical way. Lopez also offers on target jabs at Arnold Schwarzenegger, elder care,and of course President Bush. I love when he talks about post Katrina clean up in New Orleans and says that it was handled by FEMA, which means "Find Every Mexican Available". A laugh-out loud comedy special guaranteed to tickle the funny bone. 7/10

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Sunday in the Park with George was the first, if memory serves, Broadway musical based on a painting. This sensitive and moving look at the artist Georges Suerat, through his most famous work, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Le Grand Jatte", was unlike anything Broadway had seen up to this point.
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Suerat serves as sort of a narrator and Greek chorus, as well as the main character, as James Lapine's smart book takes what little was known of the artist's life and fleshes out characters from the people in the painting. Broadway's most gifted composer, Stephen Sondheim, crafted a lilting and beautiful score filled with clever lyrics and lush melodies. Sondheim is the best lyricist in the theater because he writes as people talk, not as they sing.
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The first act follows the relationship between Suerat, electrically portrayed by Mandy Patinkin and his model/mistress Dot, the luminous Bernadette Peters, as their on again off again relationship is constantly challenged by his obsession with his work. The second act features Patinkin as Suerat's grandson and Peters as his grandmother as we see the modern sculptor struggling with a heredity he continues to deny until a fateful trip to the island where the original painting had been done.

Director Terry Hughes has lovingly captured this intimate story on video and given us close-ups and sweeping camera shots that were not possible to experience seeing the show onstage, making the show even more personal and involving.

Mandy Patinkin commands the stage as George with a stylish stage presence and magnificent singing voice that fills the theater as well as the television screen and is matched note for note by Peters, who makes Dot a tragic and fragile heroine and brings a lovely touch of humanity to the ditzy grandmother, Marie.
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It should be noted that at the time this was filmed, Ms. Peters was vocally and physically exhausted. She had already left this show and was in rehearsals for the show that would finally win her a Tony Award, SONG & DANCE. Some vocal strain can be noted with Peters, particularly in one unmerciful close-up where her voice just gives out on her, but Peters is a pro and delivers a performance of opening night quality.

Though not for all tastes, Sunday in the Park with George is a lush and lovely musical theater experience that all those with a passion for the genre should experience. 4

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I grew up watching this 1966 version of the Broadway musical Cinderella, which was shown on an annual basis for several years after its initial premiere.
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This musical version of the classic fairy tale features some wonderful songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein and originally premiered on Broadway with Julie Andrews in the title role. Lesley Ann Warren plays the role here and 40 years later, no matter what else she does, Lesley Ann Warren will always, first and foremost, be Cinderella to me. She is utterly enchanting in the role and her rendition of "In My Own Little Corner" is charming.
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Celeste Holm made a delightful fairy godmother, Walter Piedgon and Ginger Rogers added a touch of class as the king and queen, and Stuart Damon made a handsome and elegant Prince Charming. Jo Van Fleet was a memorable evil stepmother and Pat Carroll and Barbara Ruick score as the stepsisters and they stop the show with "Stepsisters' Lament", one of musical comedy's funniest songs.
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Well mounted with lavish sets and breathtaking costumes, Cinderella, like THE WIZARD OF OZ, should continue to be shown on an annual basis in order to renew our faith in miracles, love, and fantasies coming true. If this show is not available on DVD, it should be. A winner for children of all ages. 4

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The 1997 television remake of Cinderella is watchable if you didn't grow up on the 1966 version with Lesley Ann Warren. This remake seemed to be working so hard to please so many people that it really doesn't please anyone.
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Although I admire the attempt to make the story more PC by making the cast multi-ethnic, I found it distracting to the story. A white king (a bland Victor Garber)and a black queen (an over the top Whoopee Goldberg) have a son/prince whose Puerto Rican (Carlos Montalban).
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Cinderella's stepmother is white (Bernadette Peters, superb as always) but the stepsisters are black and white (Natalie Desselle and Veanne Cox, who both appeared to graduate from the Whoopi Goldberg School of Overacting).

The producers for some reason also felt the need to enhance the Rodgers and Hammerstein score with two songs that Richard Rodgers wrote for other shows. Cinderella and the Prince duet on "The Sweetest Sounds" which Rodgers wrote for the musical NO STRINGS and Peters sings "Falling in Love with Love" which Rodgers wrote with Lorenz Hart for THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE, a song which seemed unbelievably out-of-place in the story and seemed to have been added just to give Peters a solo.
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Then you have the battle of the Divas, Brandy and Whitney Houston, as Cinderalla and her Fairy Godmother. Houston seems to be making a concerted effort to sing Brandy off the screen and she almost succeeds in their primary battle, a song called "Impossible/It's Possible". I guess if you've never seen the show before it might be worth a look, but if you grew up with Lesley Ann Warren like I did, this version will disappoint. 2.5

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1983's Without a Trace was my first exposure to the acting gifts of one Kate Nelligan. Nelligan dominates the screen as a soon to be single mom who sends her young son off to school one day and he disappears. The film makes all the predictable twists and turns you expect it to but the journey is worth it because of the gut-wrenching performance by Kate Nelligan in the lead.

Credit must be given to skillful direction, a serviceable screenplay and strong supporting turns from Judd Hirsch as as a detective, David Dukes as Nelligan's self-absorbed ex, Stockard Channing as her insensitive best friend and Kathleen Widdoes as a psychic, but it is the performance by Kate Nelligan that raises the bar on this one, who brings so much more to her performance than is in the script, rich, detailed, and worth studying. 3.5

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A movie I stumbled upon accidentally in a video store, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway turned out to be a complete and utterly delightful comedy-drama that, though probably not for all tastes, would be a wonderful film for anyone to see who appreciates really great acting.

The film takes place in Florida and traces the unlikely friendship that develops between a straight-laced, Cuban, retired barber (Robert Duvall)and a free-spirited, independent-minded, retired naval officer (Richard Harris) who brags to anyone who will listen about his wonderful relationship with his son, who, in reality, is just too busy for him.
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This warm and engaging character study is not so big on story, but on the relationship that develops between these two diversely different people who eventually find a way to connect with each other. Harris, in particular, is just remarkable in his gutsy, totally unhinged performance that should have earned him an Oscar nomination.

There are effective supporting turns by Sandra Bullock as a waitress Duvall has a crush on, Shirley MacLaine as Harris' landlady and Piper Laurie as a local lady Harris fancies, but this movie is mainly an acting showcase for two of the best...Robert Duvall and the sublime, divine (and deeply missed) Richard Harris. 3.5

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I'm sorry if I was wrong about Sarah Jane's father being white, but I stand by my opinion of the film...you have a right to your opinion and I ask that you allow me mine.

[mark f]

Of course you can have your opinion. No biggie. :)

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The 1970 Neil Simon comedy The Out-of-Towners is a slightly dated but still very entertaining comedy that was actually a discarded act from his play PLAZA SUITE.
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The film stars Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis as George and Gwen Kellerman, a couple from a small midwestern suburb who fly to Manhattan where George is expected for a job interview and find out exactly what the term "Murphy's Law" refers to when their plane circles for hours waiting to land and they miss their dinner reservation at Tavern on the Green and that is just the beginning of their troubles.

Arthur Hiller's manic direction is a perfect compliment to Simon's one-liners, which come at breakneck speed. Lemmon reunites with Simon for the first time since The Odd Couple and continues to be a first rate Simon interpreter and his chemistry with Dennis is surprisingly solid. It's easy to believe that the Kellermans have been together for 60 or 70 years.
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There are funny comic bits contributed along the way by Anthony Holland as a snooty desk clerk, Ann Prentiss as a flight attendant, Graham Jarvis as a Manhattan thug, and Anne Meara as a purse snatching victim, but it is Lemmon, Dennis, and Simon that make this somewhat over-the-top misadventure believable and funny at the same time. This film was remade in 1999 with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn in the leads, but I say, stick with the original. 3.5

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Airport 1975 is the first sequel to the 1970 classic Airport that was intended to provide the same kind of entertainment, but for me, brought mostly unintentional giggles.
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Director Jack Smight actually appears to have been directing this story of a small private plane crashing into a 747 with a straight face. To this day, I still debate which is funnier: the sight of Dana Andrews clutching his chest while feigning a heart attack so that his private plane could crash into the jumbo jet or a cross-eyed Karen Black stumbling into the cockpit and trying to revive the dead pilot and co-pilot and then trying to fly the plane herself.
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Charlton Heston, who was EVERYWHERE in the mid 70's, brings his granite-faced authority to the role of Alan Murdock, the pilot dropped in the jet to save it and Nancy's part-time boyfriend. Heston looks undertandably embarrassed as do Efrem Zimbalist Jr as the pilot, Myrna Loy, Sid Ceasar, Susan Clark, and the legendary Gloria Swanson (playing herself) as various passengers on the plane. Linda Blair, fresh off her triumph in THE EXORCIST, who has a glorified cameo as a little girl being flown to a hospital for an organ transplant and Helen Reddy as a singing nun, don't look too thrilled with the ride either. George Kennedy tries to keep a straight face as he reprises his role from the first film as Joe Patroni. Jerry Stiller is actually featured in the film as a passenger who SLEEPS through the entire adventure.

The idea of a sequel to Airport probably looked very good on paper, but definitely lost something in its transfer to the screen. 2

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A triumph for star and director, Dog Day Afternoon is the fact-based 1975 classic that should have won Oscars for Al Pacino and director Sidney Lumet who possessed one of the most impressive directorial resumes in the business.
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Pacino plays Sonny, a bisexual criminal who decides to rob a Brooklyn bank in order to pay for his boyfriend's sex change operation. The robbery doesn't quite go as planned and the robbery turns into a hostage situation with Sonny, his partner (John Cazale), and nine bank employees as hostages.

Pacino is riveting throughout, whether Sonny is trying to take control of his hostages, dealing with the hostage negotiator (Charles Durning) or talking to the lover (Chris Sarandon) for whom he is doing this.

The film works because Pacino somehow manages to make Sonny so likable that you find yourself cheering him on from the moment he clumsily pulls that rifle out of the flower box. We know that what Sonny is doing is wrong, but Pacino makes that irrelevant.
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The film received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, Lead Actor, Supporting Actor (Sarandon), and screenplay adaptation. In another year, it might have won most of these awards, but the film collapsed at the Oscars that year under the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest sweep, but I'm still one of the few people who thinks Pacino should have won. Lumet's direction is electric and atmospheric, making you feel the sweat on this hot Brooklyn day and the intensity of what's going on and makes you cheer for someone who you really shouldn't be cheering for. 4.5

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Colin Higgins' imaginative direction and the breezy performances from the cast helped to make 1980's Nine to Five a minor comedy classic.

This clever and well-written comedy is about three secretaries at a large corporation whose battles with a sexist pig of a boss include blackmail and kidnapping.
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Jane Fonda (who also served as one of the film's executive producers) plays Judy Bernlee, a newly divorced woman venturing into the workforce for the first time. Lily Tomlin plays Violet Newstead, a widowed single mother and longtime employee of the company who has just learned that she was passed over for a promotion by an employee that SHE trained. Dolly Parton made a sparkling film debut as Doralee Rhodes, the slimy boss' personal secretary who most of the office assumes is having an affair with said slime. Dabney Coleman, who had a patent on slimy movie characters in the late 70's and early 80's, is appropriately greasy as Franklin Hart, the boss who is the subject of the film's most entertaining scene, where our three heroines share their fantasies about doing away with the boss and that's where the fun begins.
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It's a cute story that takes some fun twists and turns with on-target performances, with Tomlin a standout, and a very satisfying denoument. Parton's rendition of the title tune became a smash hit. An entertaining and laugh-filled comedy that, despite its feminist bent, has a little more substance than one might expect. 4

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Seems Like Old Times is a laugh-out loud comedy written by Neil Simon directly for the screen.
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The film stars Goldie Hawn as a bleeding heart liberal attorney whose attempt to help her ex-husband (Chevy Chase), who is on the run after being forced by gunpoint to rob a bank, is putting a cramp in the life of her current husband (Charles Grodin), who is running for political office.

Hawn and Chase, whose onscreen chemistry together had already been documented in Foul Play, proved that their smooth onscreen partnership was no fluke. The two work like a well-oiled machine, yet Grodin never allows himself to be blown off the screen and definitely earns his share of the laughs.
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Robert Guillaume, Harold Gould, and Yvonne Wilder offer effective comic bits along the way, but it is the classic Neil Simon one-liners and the solid performances by the three leads that make this one a winner. 4
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In contemporary media where reality television is slowly becoming the rule and not the exception and advertising has completely dominated the media (try signing on to any website on the internet without having to endure at least a handful of commercials), the 1976 film Network has become more and more timely as the years have passed.
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This scathingly dark satire focuses on UBS, a fictional television network that is struggling in the ratings until a news anchorman comes on the air one evening and casually announces that in a few days he is going to kill himself on the air. Instead of taking the man off the air and getting him the obvious help he needs, the powers-that-be decide to capitalize on the media frenzy by making the anchorman a "mad prophet of the airwaves" denouncing everything that is wrong with contemporary society; however, it backfires when his tirades begin to affect network business. The film's primary focus is on the rise and fall of anchorman Howard Beale, whose news program is reformatted by a hard-as-nails programmer whose other primary focus is to try and launch a TV series based on a terrorist group similar to the group that kidnapped Patty Hearst.
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Sidney Lumet struck gold here. His crisp, articulate, and in your face direction should have won him an Oscar. Paddy Chayevsky's brilliant and incisive screenplay, which seems to have gotten better with age, won him his second Oscar. For my money, this is one of the five best screenplays in cinematic history.

William Holden turned in the performance of his career as Max Schumacher, the director of the news division and Howard Beale's best friend, who is disgusted by the interference with his job and the network's manipulation of his friend. Faye Dunaway won the Oscar for Lead Actress for her crisp performance as Diana Christiansen, the ice-in-her-veins programmer who is all about her work and always has her mind on business (even during sex), who takes over Howard's programming while drifting into a doomed affair with Max.

Peter Finch won the first posthumous Oscar for Lead Actor for his charismatic performance as the tortured Howard Beale, a lost soul who suffers when he starts to believe his own press and Robert Duvall is razor sharp as the network executive playing puppetmaster with Max, Howard, and Diana. Beatrice Straight, a virtual unknown at the time of the film's release, won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for virtually one extremely powerful scene as Max's wife. Ned Beatty also received an Oscar nomination for a single scene as the owner of the network who attempts to rein in an out of control Beale. This was the first film since A Streetcar Named Desire to win three of the four acting awards. Personally, I think if they had nominated Duvall instead of Beatty, they would have won all four. The film was also robbed of the Oscar for Best Picture.
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This film is a triumph for all concerned, particularly Chayevsky and Lumet. This film is Lumet's masterpiece and a film that just gets better and more important with age. 4.5

[j751]

I saw both Network and Seems Like Old Times many years ago on VHS.Both are very good movies.

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Splash was the 1984 comedy that put Ron Howard on the map as a director and made an official movie star out of Tom Hanks.

The story is simple: Boy meets girl, girl is really mermaid, boy dumps mermaid, boy has change of heart and loves mermaid. Hanks' character, Alan Bauer, fell off a ferry as a child and had an encounter with the same mermaid and after his girlfriend leaves him, Alan gets away to Cape Cod and is reunited with childhood muse of the sea.

What follows is a literal fish out of water story as the mermaid (charmingly played by Daryl Hannah) does her best to keep her secret, despite the suspicions of a slimy scientist (Eugene Levy) who is determined to expose her but turns out to have a heart after all.
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Howard showed a real gift for painting cinematic pictures here...I love the shot of Alan on the beach looking for his muse and way, way in the background in the ocean, you see her tail briefly surface and go back in the water with just the tiniest splash.

In addition to Levy, the late John Candy also provides major belly laughs as Alan's lazy brother, whose biggest ambition in life is to have a letter published in Penthouse magazine. The film was remade for TV in 2013, but as my usual advice, stick to the original. 3.5

[j751]

Splash was ordinary.

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You're certainly entitled to your opinion.

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1951 was a very good year for American cinema and one of the most memorable offerings from that eventful year was A Place in the Sun.
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Director George Stevens crafted a compelling and emotionally charged melodrama that tugged at the heartstrings. Montgomery Clift, in one of his best performances, plays the apex of a romantic triangle, George Eastman, torn between a plain Jane factory worker named Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), who has trapped him into an engagement and a glamorous socialite named Angela Findlay (Elizabeth Taylor), and how George's obsession with Angela leads him to desperate measures to free himself from Alice. These measures lead to George's arrest and a trial that brings about myriad emotions because throughout the trial, the viewer's mind continues to flash back to the night Alice died and the way the scene was filmed, it's not made absolutely clear what happened or if George was guilty of what he was accused.

The romantic triangle was a cinematic staple in the 1940's and 1950's and never was it utilized to greater effect than here. Based on Theodore Driesel's AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, this story offers a tortured protagonist who does things that he shouldn't but manages to evoke our sympathy at the same time and therein lies the melodrama.
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The chemistry between Clift and Taylor is electric and Taylor has rarely been more beautiful onscreen (and that's saying a lot). The film began an offscreen friendship between Clift and Taylor that lasted right up to his death and they did make two more films together, but this one was the best. Winters is quietly brilliant as Alice, creating a surprisingly complex and compelling character that, despite the real romance between George and Angela, we can't help our hearts breaking for Alice.
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The film received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Lead Actor (Clift), Lead Actress (Winters) and George Stevens' sensitive direction won him an Oscar. A classic in every sense of the word. 4

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Rocky was the feel good film of 1976 that unexpectedly walked away with the Oscar for Best Picture of 1976 and made an instant star out of its star and writer, Sylvester Stallone, for whom the film was pretty much a do or die project...the ultimate Hollywood Cinderella story.
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For those who have been living under a rock for the past 50 years, this is the story of Rocky Balboa, a hulking Philadelphia schlub who works as a thumb-breaker for a local bookie. Rocky's life is forever changed when Apollo Creed, the reigning heavyweight boxing champion, offers Rocky the chance to step into the ring with him, pretty much as a joke and publicity ploy, but Rocky doesn't get the joke and actually is determined to give the champ a run for his money.

Stallone has crafted a story and a character that audiences can't help but empathize with. Rocky's life borders on the pathetic as the film opens and you can't help but want to see him make the most of this once in a life opportunity that has fallen into his lap.
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Stallone is supported by a solid cast...Talia Shire as the painfully introverted Adrian who he begins a tentative romance with, Carl Weathers as the obnoxious Apollo Creed, Burt Young as Paulie, Adrian's over-protective brother, and especially Burgess Meredith as Mickey, the over-the-hill trainer, who agrees to take on the task of preparing Rocky for his big fight. Stallone won an Oscar as producer and was also nominated for Lead Actor and for his screenplay. Shire was nominated for Lead Actress and Meredith for Supporting Actor.

John G. Alvidsen won an Oscar for his spirited direction as did Bill Conti for his heart-pumping musical score. An instant classic that has spawned five sequels (so far). 4

[Brasstacks]

I liked your list much better. Still, major independent films were over looked.

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1964's Send Me No Flowers marked the final film collaboration of Doris Day, Rock, Hudson, and Tony Randall and was definitely the weakest of their vehicles together.

Hudson plays a hypochondriac who mistakenly comes to believe that he is dying and spends the rest of the film trying to keep the revelation from wife Doris while trying to find a suitable guy to take his place after he's gone.
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The film's weakness lies in the fact that in Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back the first two vehicles this trio made together, the story's primary focus was on Hudson's pursuit of Doris who spent both films keeping Hudson's character at arm's length. There's no chase here, no conflict, the characters are already married and, for some reason, the relationship just doesn't have the spark produced in the first two films.

Norman Jewison's spirited direction is a plus and Randall has by this time gotten the art of playing Hudson's best friend down to a science. Paul Lynde also garners major laughs in a small role of a mortician who tries to help Hudson with his final resting place and ends up assisting Doris as well. Hudson and Day work very hard at being funny; however, the film is a sad denoument to this classic cinematic team. 2.5

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CBS television mounted a lavish version of the Broadway classic Gypsy in 1993 featuring Bette Midler putting her own special stamp on what is possibly the greatest female role in musical comedy, Mama Rose.

This role was originated on Broadway by Ethel Merman in 1959 and has also been interpreted by Rosalind Russell in the 1962 theatrical film version and in various stage reincarnations by Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Tyne Daly, and Patti LuPone (all but Peters won Tony awards for their performances).
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This musical featuring an almost iconic score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim and original book by Arthur Laurents, for the uninitiated, is a slightly fictionalized look at the mother of all stage mothers, Rose Hovick, the mother of future burlesque sensation Gypsy Rose Lee and actress June Havoc, who ran one daughter away and made a reluctant star out of the other, merely as a vicarious satisfaction for her own lost ambitions.
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This is a complete production of the original musical, the score completely intact ("Together Wherever we Go" was cut from the 1962 film) and Jerome Robbins' original choreography has been lovingly recreated. The score includes "Some People", "Everything's Coming up Roses", "Let Me Entertain You", "You Gotta get a Gimmick" and the fabulous "Rose's Turn."

Midler is electrifying in the title role and definitely has put her own stamp on the role. Being the trained musician that she is, she sings the role better than most of the above mentioned Roses and always keeps the character slightly manic, but never unlikable.

Cynthia Gibb works hard in the pivotal role of Louise, the allegedly untalented daughter of Rose, who, thanks to her mother's prodding, becomes the world's most famous stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee. Gibb is less successful as the wallflower Louise, but she absolutely shines when Louise finally takes the stage as Gypsy Rose Lee. Her rendition of "Little Lamb" almost rivals Natalie Wood's in the '62 film, one of my most favorite cinematic musical moments ever.
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Peter Riegert does yeomen service to the thankless role of Herbie, the candy salesman turned agent, who falls for Rose, despite the fact that they want very different things from life. Riegert holds his own with Midler and never allows her to blow him off the screen. There are also a couple of effective supporting turns from Andrea Martin as a theatrical secretary and Christine Ebersole as one of the strippers in the "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" number.

Polished direction by the late Emile Ardolino and lavish sets and costumes are the icing on the cake in this loving remounting of this musical comedy classic. Fans of the genre and the show should be pleased. 4

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Robert Altman, a director whose unconventional cinematic eye produced mixed results, a very selective cult following, and various degrees of box office success, reached his zenith as a director for me with Nashville, the lavish, 1975 all-star classic that combines an almost documentary-like look at the machinations behind the birthplace of country music with effective jabs at politics and the mercilessness of the media.
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As he always did, Altman paints his story on an extremely huge canvas but somehow managing to present a surprisingly balanced look at 24 different major characters, framed against the preparations of a musical rally for a political candidate.
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Altman made some bold casting choices here that really paid off, particularly the late Henry Gibson as country music icon Haven Hamilton. The former ROWAN AND MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN regular commanded the screen here, in an Oscar worthy performance as the country legend who neglects his family, runs his music organization with an iron fist and is quietly considering running for political office. Gibson gets solid support from Barbara Baxley as his devoted wife, who sometimes doesn't know how neglected she really is. Ronee Blakely got the role of her brief career here as Barbara Jean (who looked like and seemed to be based on Loretta Lynn), a tempermental and overly emotional singer who REALLY needs a vacation and is intensely pampered by her husband/manager (Allen Garfield). Blakely received an Oscar nomination for her performance here. Karen Black plays Barbara Jean's number one rival, Connie White (clearly patterned after Dolly Parton). Keith Carradine plays a boozing womanizing singer who finds himself at the apex of a romantic quadrangle that provides one of the most entertaining scenes in the film where Carradine is onstage singing a song in a club and has four different women in the audience thinking he is singing especially to her...just fabulous. The song Carradine sings in that scene, "I'm Easy" was written by him and won him the Oscar for Best Song that year.
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Lily Tomlin received an Oscar nomination for her performance as one of the women involved in that scene, a Nashville housewife and mother of a mentally challenged child. There are also standout turns from Ned Beatty as Tomlin's husband, Gwen Welles as a would-be country singer in denial about the fact that she can't sing, and especially Barbara Harris, as a would be singer who can, who figures prominently into the film's shocking finale.

Altman's improvisatory style of directing never worked to better advantage and made a richly complex film of depth and substance that slightly haunts by the time the finale rolls around. 4