Gideon58's Reviews [Archive] - Page 7

Gideon58

07-05-16, 09:47 PM

TAMMY
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/22/9a/8a/229a8a63bb680da7c69c0fae130433d4.jpg
Melissa McCarthy has proven she has the chops to be a genuine movie star with the ability to command the big screen in films like Spy and her Oscar-nominated performance in Bridesmaids, but her credibility as a big screen comic mistress is stretched to its limits with a silly and pointless 2014 comedy called Tammy, which somehow attracted an A-list cast of movie stars to assist McCarthy but still only manages to deliver sporadic laughs.
http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/still/tammy03.jpg
Tammy is a married fast food employee who gets fired from her job by boss Keith (Ben Falcone, who also directed and wrote this mess), goes home to learn that her husband (Nat Faxon) has been cheating on her with her friend (Toni Collette) so she decides to blow town in Grandma's car, but Grandma (Susan Sarandon) wants to accompany Tammy on the road trip, which Tammy only agrees to when she learns that Grandma has $6700 in cash.

What follows is a very scenic road trip that is really pretty to look at but involves some really silly misadventures including Tammy and Grandma's drunken encounter with a guy (Mark Duplass) and his horny dad (Gary Cole), who hits it off with Grandma and Tammy's robbing a fast food joint when she thinks she needs the money to bail Grandma out of jail. Tammy and Grandma's getaway leads them to Grandma's cousin Lenore (Kathy Bates) and her lesbian lover (Sandra Oh) who provide help for our hapless heroines when they really need it.
http://thecriticalcritics.com/review/wp-content/images/tammy-still_2-500x333.jpg
Let me assure you that you are eyes weren't playing tricks on you when you read the names of some of the actors that got involved in this junk. Apparently there are some really credible actors out there who have respect for McCarthy and her talent because I really can't see them doing this film for artistic fulfillment. Maybe they needed the money, but I seriously doubt if most of the actors involved really needed the money I think they just wanted to ride the McCarthy gravy train, which is kind of hot right now, but they really chose the wrong vehicle to ride here.
http://minnesotaconnected.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Melissa-McCarthy-Tammy-Teaser-Trailer.jpg
McCarthy does bring the occasional laugh, especially in the opening where she gets fired from the restaurant and even Sarandon, an actress who I thought would be above such nonsense, doesn't manage to look completely ridiculous and neither do Bates or Allison Janney and Dan Aykroyd, who play Tammy's parents. This film was definitely given a bit of a budget...there is some exquisite location photography along the way including an incredible finale at Niagara Falls, but this is really for hardcore McCarthy fans only. 2

cricket

07-05-16, 09:50 PM

Zero interest in seeing Tammy.

Sexy Celebrity

07-05-16, 09:52 PM

That review actually makes me wanna see Tammy. That could be my next review if I can find it.

Citizen Rules

07-05-16, 09:53 PM

Ohh, Tammy got a 2/5...I think I'll pass on that one.

Sexy Celebrity

07-05-16, 09:57 PM

Despite how big of a star she is now, I don't think I've ever actually watched a Melissa McCarthy movie.

Gideon58

07-06-16, 10:43 AM

Despite how big of a star she is now, I don't think I've ever actually watched a Melissa McCarthy movie.

If you're interested in seeing a good Melissa McCarthy movie, I would recommend Spy.

Gideon58

07-06-16, 06:02 PM

HEART AND SOULS
https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/118/MPW-59119
Ron Underwood, whose other directorial credits include Tremors and City Slickers. knocks it out of the park with a richly imaginative, if overly elaborate comic fantasy from 1993 called Heart and Souls, a wonderfully entertaining comic confection that takes the concept of the childhood imaginary friend to an all new and delicious level.
http://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/4973841/968full-heart-and-souls-screenshot.jpg
One night in 1959 San Francisco, a telephone operator (Alfre Woodard) kisses her sons goodnight to go to work; a two bit thief (Tom Sizemore) fails to retrieve some valued stamps he stole from a young boy; a waitress (Kyra Sedgwick) realizes she made a mistake turning down her boyfriend's proposal; an aspiring opera singer (Charles Grodin) freezes during an audition and walks off the stage disgusted with himself. These four strangers board the same bus, which ends up getting into an accident with a car carrying Bill and Eva Reilly (Bill Calvert, Lisa Lucas), who are on their way to the hospital to have their first child, Thomas. Our four friends die in the accident but find themselves bound to Thomas as proverbial guardian angels whom only Thomas can see and hear.
https://maniacosporfilme.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/morrendo-e-aprendendo-5.jpg
As Thomas gets older and starts going to school, his guardian angels start to have his parents and teachers questioning his sanity, so the angels apparently have the power to be invisible to Thomas as well, but the inability to leave him. About 25 years later, a grown up Thomas (Robert Downey Jr.) is reacquainted with his angels and learns that he must help them with one final task before they are able to go to their final resting place.

Underwood has undertaken a pretty large task here, thanks primarily to a somewhat complex screenplay by Brent Maddock, S.S.Wilson, Gregory Hansen, and Erik Hansen that presents characters in a very specific and restrictive fantasy that sometimes trap the characters in positions they don't really deserve or understand. It's a little unsettling when we first see the angels with little Thomas and marvel at how they seem to have just accepted what has happened to them. Milo, Sizemore's character, seems to be the only one interested in finding a way out and Penny, Woodard's character, is the only one who seems to speak about her earthly life before the bus crash. I actually found myself getting angry when the angels decided to leave Thomas when he was 7 and the scene of him mourning their departure was heartbreaking, but a little patience was quickly rewarded with a bonus where it was revealed that Thomas still has wounds from the angels leaving him when he was a child.
https://watchingourselves.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/heart-and-souls-2.jpg
Underwood has put a great deal of detail in the mounting of this elaborate fantasy, including some really offbeat casting choices that worked...Robert Downey Jr. offers one of the best performances of his career as the troubled Thomas...love the moments where the angels inhabit his body, reminiscent of Steve Martin in All of Me. Sizemore and Woodard are a lot of fun too and loved David Paymer as the bus driver. A warm and winning comic fantasy that left me feeling all warm and gooey inside. 4.5

Gideon58

07-06-16, 09:45 PM

MAN OF THE YEAR
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/26/Man_of_The_Year_(2006_film).jpg
The star and director of Good Morning Vietnam reunited for 2006's Man of the Year, a squirm worthy political thriller that starts off to be something very different than what it seems to be presenting initially, casting a severely unflattering look at politics, the media, and the corporate eye on the almighty bottom line.
http://sarmovie.com/images/1/man-of-the-year-4.jpg
The late Robin Williams stars as Tom Dobbs, a comedian who hosts his own political satire television show a la Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, whose vocal lambasting of everything going on in DC has fans suggesting that he run for President himself, despite protests from his manager (Christopher Walken) whose primary concern seems to be that Tom made more money as a comedian than he will as President.

As Tom actually begins mounting a campaign as an independent candidate, a company called Delacroy has just invented a new computerized voting machine that will be utilized in this coming election and send stock profits for Delacroy well into the stratosphere. Tom ends up winning the election at the same time that a programmer at Delacroy named Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) discovers a glitch in the new voting machines that prove Tom didn't win, but Delacroy doesn't want their profits messed with and go to extreme lengths to silence poor Eleanor.
https://www.mydatir.net/files/Man%20Of%20The%20Year%202006%20720p_398680.jpg
Director Barry Levinson has produced a bone-chilling drama that unfolds very slowly to reach that point...we think we're going to get a light comedy about a comic who wants to play President and it's nothing like that at all. Even though Dobbs is a comedian, once he starts the campaign, he is dead serious about what he's doing, even if he's not always sure what he's doing and isn't always as funny as people expect him to be anymore. But the character always remains true to himself, he never lies about anything and offers no promises to the people but change. Now these Delacroy people are another matter...what they put poor Eleanor Green through is heartbreaking and terrifying to watch and it's truly disturbing to think that if I have a job where I discover something important is wrong, is it possibly safer for me to look the other way? This movie poses a lot of uncomfortable questions and offers no easy answers.
http://images.popmatters.com/film_art/m/man-of-the-year-2006.jpg
Williams, Walken, and especially Linney do solid work here, as do Jeff Goldblum and Lewis Black, but this is really a triumph for writer and director Barry Levinson, who has crafted a chilling story that has just gotten more topical over the years. 4

Gideon58

07-07-16, 07:04 PM

ST. VINCENT
Despite a story that strains credibility at every turn, the 2014 comedy drama St. Vincent is viable entertainment thanks to some really splendid performances from a clearly hand-picked cast.
http://oovie.partner.instantsystems.se/pictures/f/StVincent.jpg
Bill Murray plays Vincent McKenna, an insensitive alcoholic womanizer who owes money to everyone and is always looking for easy ways to get out of said debt who finds himself the unlikely babysitter and mentor for a little boy (Jaeden Lieberher) who has just moved in next door to Vincent with his mother (Melissa McCarthy) who is in the middle of a messy divorce and custody battle with the boy's father. As expected, Vincent becomes a very unlikely father figure for this boy.
http://assets.stvincentfilm.com/img/fpo-photo3.jpg
Director and writer Theodore Melfi really knew what he was doing when he cast Bill Murray in the leading role in this story because if anyone else had been playing this role, I probably would have turned this off about 25 minutes in...this Vincent is really a slime bucket. Not five minutes after meeting this woman and her son, he is trying to bilk money out of her to watch her son and to pay for a fence that he damaged. Things are further complicated by Vincent's relationship with a pregnant stripper/prostitute (Naomi Watts) whom Vincent treats like crap and why she is so enamored of the guy is a complete mystery. The character actually displays a little potential when after initially watching the boy get bullied after school, steps up when he sees the boy's only form of defense is to slap his bully across the face...it's at this moment that we see potential in this relationship and that it could be beneficial for both.
http://www.asset1.net/tv/pictures/movie/st-vincent-2014/St.-Vincent-DI-1.jpg
However, Melfi's screenplay has Vincent being a credible role model one scene and a horrible one the next. And just when you think there's no potential for this character to be redeemed, we see him tending to his institutionalized wife who no longer recognizes him.This guy is boorish, insensitive, and completely unworthy of audience sympathy, but he evokes just that because of Bill Murray's delightfully unhinged performance that is partially a creation for this particular film and partially manifested through the show business legend that is Bill Murray making us love a character who absolutely doesn't deserve it and he's not alone here...Melissa McCarthy is surprisingly effective, cast radically against type, playing the closest thing she has ever played to a regular human being, a newly single parent struggling with it and hanging on by a thread, while Watts actually does the comic scene stealing as a woman who sees something in this man that the rest of us don't.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/tribeca_cms_production/uploads/image/gallery_image/53bc2ec88528626f20000002/stvincent_3.png
The film's overblown finale is a little hard to take as is the bonding of the boy with his bully, but this is a journey worth taking because of the very gifted Bill Murray doing what he does best. 4

Omnizoa

07-07-16, 09:03 PM

grease is the way we are feelin. [rating]4[/Rating}
Oops.

Gideon58

07-07-16, 09:09 PM

Oops.

Thanks for the heads up, have taken care of it.

Omnizoa

07-07-16, 09:13 PM

Yours, Mine & Ours
[rating]4[rating]
Oops.

Gideon58

07-07-16, 09:44 PM

MONKEY BUSINESS (1952)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/ff/Monkey_businessposter.jpg/220px-Monkey_businessposter.jpg
The solid gold comedy performances from Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers are the primary selling points of a nearly forgotten 20th Century Fox gem from 1952 called Monkey Business that featured two actors cast radically against type to great advantage and two actors cast in the kind of roles they could play in their sleep.
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/20400000/Monkey-Business-1952-classic-movies-20490496-1067-800.jpg
The film stars Grant as Dr. Barnaby Fulton, the original absent-minded professor complete with coke bottle glasses, employed by a chemical company and currently working on a new formula that is reputed to be the fountain of youth in liquid form. Fulton neglects his devoted wife, Edwina (Rogers) due to his obsession with getting this formula right, even though he's not as confidence about the formula working as his boss, Mr. Oxley (Charles Coburn) is. After the formula is left unattended and messed with by a chimpanzee, Barnaby takes a dose of the formula which clears his vision and makes him act like a teenager, much to the delight of Oxley's voluptuous secretary, Laurel (Marilyn Monroe) who has been harboring a secret crush on the guy.
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When Edwina learns what's going on, she goes to the company and takes a dose of the formula herself which has her regressing all the way back to her wedding night with Barnaby. After recovering from the dose, which found Edwina locking a blind Barnaby out of their hotel room, they both take one more dose leading to one of the most bizarre comic finales of a 50's comedies.
http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Grant,%20Cary/Annex/NRFPT/Annex%20-%20Grant,%20Cary%20(Monkey%20Business)_NRFPT_02.jpg
This comedy features breezy direction from Howard Hawks who has a surprisingly clever and adult screenplay to work with and gets terrific performances from his stars, especially Grant, who turns in a performance that is simultaneously nerdy and sexy. Grant also displays a gift for physical comedy here that really hadn't been showcased to such advantage since Bringing up Baby. Rogers appears to be having a ball as the devoted wife who gets to relive her childhood. Monroe has one of her best roles here and Charles Coburn has the best line in the film when he asks Monroe to get someone to type something that he needs typed correctly. Grant, Rogers, and Monroe fans will be in heaven here. 4

gbgoodies

07-07-16, 10:27 PM

Monkey Business is a fun movie, but it isn't one of my favorite Cary Grant movies. (But I love most of his movies, so it's still a great movie.)

gbgoodies

07-07-16, 11:33 PM

Gideon58

07-08-16, 10:49 AM

I love Heart and Souls. It's one of those movies that I never get tired of watching. Robert Downey Jr. is terrific.

Yeah, I'm planning a favorite Robert Downey Jr performance thread and I knew I couldn't do it without watching this, absolutely loved it.

Citizen Rules

07-08-16, 11:49 AM

Grant, Rogers, and Monroe fans will be in heaven here.And I was! Monkey Business is a good one, I liked the part where they play Indians and Cary gets tired to a tree. And Cary chasing Marilyn around and around is pretty funny. And doesn't he buy a little sports car in this one after taking a dose of his own concoction?

Gideon58

07-08-16, 12:08 PM

And doesn't he buy a little sports car in this one after taking a dose of his own concoction?

Yeah, that's the one. It's while they're in the car where Laurel (Marilyn Monroe) confesses to Barnaby that she's had a secret crush on him forvever.

Citizen Rules

07-08-16, 12:14 PM

Wasn't Monkey Business remade as The Nutty Professor? or was that another film I'm thinking of?

Gideon58

07-08-16, 03:50 PM

Wasn't Monkey Business remade as The Nutty Professor? or was that another film I'm thinking of?

I don't think so...the Jerry Lewis film was remade by Eddie Murphy but the plot of the Jerry Lewis film was nothing like this one. Ginger Rogers did appear in a movie called The Major and the Minor which Jerry Lewis remade as You're Never Too Young, but I don't think Monkey Business is a remake.

gbgoodies

07-08-16, 04:40 PM

Yeah, I'm planning a favorite Robert Downey Jr performance thread and I knew I couldn't do it without watching this, absolutely loved it.

I'm looking forward to your Robert Downey Jr. thread. If you haven't seen Chances Are (1989), Soapdish (1991), and Only You (1994), you should watch them before doing your list.

Gideon58

07-08-16, 05:04 PM

I'm looking forward to your Robert Downey Jr. thread. If you haven't seen Chances Are (1989), Soapdish (1991), and Only You (1994), you should watch them before doing your list.

I have seen all three of them...he totally steals Soapdish from the rest of the cast...the chemistry between him and Cybill Shepherd was suprisingly solid in Chances are...been awhile since I've seen Only You and am considering a re-watch of that one before doing the list...so I know if I want it on the list and also to beef up my review for possible submission to Yoda and the MoFo Gods.

gbgoodies

07-08-16, 05:11 PM

I have seen all three of them...he totally steals Soapdish from the rest of the cast...the chemistry between him and Cybill Shepherd was suprisingly solid in Chances are...been awhile since I've seen Only You and am considering a re-watch of that one before doing the list...so I know if I want it on the list and also to beef up my review for possible submission to Yoda and the MoFo Gods.

I completely agree about Soapdish. Robert Downey Jr. is terrific, even in a cast that's as good as that cast.

Gideon58

07-08-16, 05:40 PM

THE FIVE YEAR ENGAGEMENT
http://www.impawards.com/2012/posters/five_year_engagement.jpg
Jason Segel continues to build an impressive resume as a Hollywood filmmaker. Virtually unknown as a filmmaker a decade ago, this talented man not only seems to have acquired the juice to make the kind of movies he wants to make with the budget they require, but he also seems to be attracting A-list talent who seem to want to work with him. His journey to being the next Woody Allen is steady but long from over, thanks primarily to a little too much self-indulgence in his writing. He does get an "A" for effort for 2012's The Five Year Engagement, a timely romantic comedy centered on topics that the cherished 18-34 demographic can relate to, but takes a little too long to get to a really tasty payoff.
http://i.lv3.hbo.com/assets/images/movies/the-five-year-engagement/the-five-year-engagement-1920.jpg
Directed and co-written by Nicholas Stoller, this is the story of Tom (Segel), a San Francisco sous chef on the verge of becoming head chef who has been in a relationship with Violet (Emily Blunt) for about a year and finally proposes. Violet accepts but almost simultaneously receives a job offer that predicates her moving to Michigan for two years. Believing love conquers all, Tom suggests that they postpone the wedding and move to Michigan since he thinks he can get a job cooking anywhere. Upon arrival in Michigan, Violet is having the time of her life, but Tom has only been able to find a job in a sandwich shop and is miserable, but he loves Violet and tries to suck it up until Violet's two year job turns to four.
http://www.myfilmviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/the_five_year_engagement_31.jpg
Credit must be given to Segel and Stoller for coming up with a story that tackles a realistic and contemporary topic...the issues involved with sustaining a relationship through dual careers and geography. The topic is given an added richness in that it is the man who sacrifices his career for the sake of the woman he loves, which is something I really didn't see coming and found rather refreshing. I also found it refreshing that when Tom learned about the extension of Violet's job, the sucking up stopped and he came right out and told her he couldn't do this anymore because there is a point in the film that's rather sad where it's clear Tom is losing his mind and needs to escape this dead end existence.
http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/Chris-Pratt-Alison-Brie-The-Five-Year-Engagement.jpg
As is the problem with a lot of films like this, it's a a relief when the characters separate even though we know they still love each other and both have outside influences trying to keep them apart, we know in the end that they will find their way back to each other, but the 45 minutes of screen time devoted to that journey is just interminable. This story was worth investing time in, but not two hours and ten minutes.

What the film does have going for it is an impressive cast, all working at the top of their game...when I saw their names together in the credits, I really didn't imagine Segel and Blunt having chemistry but Segel's resume is starting to reveal that he is an actor who has chemistry with just about anyone he works with, a new millenium James Garner if you will. I loved Tom and Violet from jump and was routing for them even though it took too long. Chris Pratt stole every scene he was in as Tom's BFF. Some great bits are also contributed along the way by Mindy Kaling, Mimi Kennedy, Jim Piddock, Jackie Weaver (hysterical as Violet's mother), Randall Park, Rhys Ifans, Adam Campbell, and Kevin Hart. Stoller and Segel really had a good idea here, but they just let it get away from them for a bit before setting up a really terrific ending. 3

Gideon58

07-09-16, 11:51 AM

SHREK
https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w1280/iDBZ7JsHbCKCYL3MUBjJctOWnTp.jpg
Dreamworks studios had a major triumph in box office receipts, the beginning of a major film franchise, and a merchandising dream with a little something from 2001 called Shrek, a sophisticated and outrageously funny fractured fairy tale where Dreamworks actually lampoons a lot of the animated classics that made Disney the defining force in the genre and turns them on their ear in a way that not only pays homage to said classics while giving this story its own sense of originality.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XMU5YspBSVY/VL77oEvrICI/AAAAAAAAQAM/Vws8Kx3ycBs/s1600/12.png
Set in a fairy tale kingdom called Dulac, Lord Farquad (voiced by John Lithgow) learns that he cannot officially become King of Dulac without marrying and has set his sights on Princess Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz), who is being held in the tower of an isolated castle guarded by a fire breathing dragon. Farquad blackmails a lonely ogre named Shrek (brilliantly voiced by Mike Myers) into rescuing the Princess. Shrek, accompanied by his new unwanted companion, a very talkative donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) embarks on a journey to rescue the Princess, who it turns out has a secret herself.

This movie entertains from start to finish thanks to a brilliant and sophisticated screenplay that does not to pander to the target demographic. The story, characters, and humor presented here are very adult as are some wonderful pop culture references that most children would not have a clue about. There is a scene where Lord Farquad is introduced to three possible brides and it is done completely in the style of the classic game show The Dating Game, even utilizing the theme music, a show which anyone under the age of 45 has most likely never seen and had no idea that the music was not original.
http://i.imgur.com/aUt1eCo.png
This film also introduces an incredibly sophisticated form of animation that had not been seen prior to this...it's a more sophisticated form of "claymation" that allows the characters facial expressions to convey complex emotions that actually allow the viewer inside the thought process of these characters...this dazzling new animation is often the closest thing to live action movie making that I have ever seen.

The voice work is on the money and I think if they gave Oscars for animated voice work, both Myers and Murphy merit at least a nomination. I have to give a shout out to John Lithgow as Farquad as well, a really funny interpretation of one of animation's most obnoxious villains. This film was an instant classic that has spawned theatrical and direct to video sequels as well as a merchandising empire. 5

Gideon58

07-09-16, 03:53 PM

SOPHIE'S CHOICE
Inspired direction by the gifted Alan J. Pakula and a pair of sterling lead performances are the primary reasons to invest in a slightly overrated but still intriguing cinematic journey from 1982 called Sophie's Choice.
http://tina-in-fantje.si/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/sophies_choice-dvdcover_s.jpg
Based on a novel by William Styron, the story opens in 1947 Brooklyn where we meet an aspiring writing named Stingo (Stingo, Styron, coincidence, I think not), played by Peter MacNichol, who moves into a boarding house above a room occupied by the bombastic Nathan (Kevin Kline), an employee at a pharmaceutical company and the enigmatic Sophie (Meryl Streep), a Polish concentration camp survivor,p who first introduce themselves to Stingo through the very physical sex they are having in the room above his that almost takes out his ceiling lamp, followed almost immediately by a violent argument ending with Nathan storming out the door.
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/11300000/Sphie-s-Choice-Movie-Screencaps-sophies-choice-11301676-650-350.jpg
Despite this rocky introduction, the three principals do become fast friends, even if Stingo is a bit of an outsider, which sometimes seems to be a safe place to be. Nathan displays quite the temper and knows exactly how to keep Sophie under his thumb and push her buttons...specifically, reminding her of her time in the camp and the unspeakable things she did to survive.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FsjPV9PxEwk/maxresdefault.jpg
To reveal anymore here would spoil this harrowing and unique film that left me spent and emotionally exhausted...the film requires complete attention as the relationship between the three principals and the flashbacks of Sophie's past are revealed in slow and detailed layers, almost a little too slow, but the first third of the film makes us care about these people in such an efficient manner that we want to know what's going to happen to these people and, most importantly, what happened to Sophie in that camp that made it such an unspeakable time for her and the reveal of what happened to her will not disappoint...these scenes are done with great care to authenticity, with German dialogue without subtitles but Streep's beautifully expressive face makes us understand exactly what is going on. And it is no surprise that Sophie is not the only one with hidden agendas.
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/11300000/Sophie-s-Choice-Movie-Screencaps-sophies-choice-11301926-650-350.jpg
And Streep is the thing that you come away from this film remembering, a performance which won her the Oscar for Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role and I understand why now. I wanted someone else to win that year, but I definitely understand Streep's win...the performance is nothing short of magnificent, a character that seemed to be developed from the flawless Polish accent Streep employs here, that never gets in the way of her performance but only enhances it...some of my favorite moments in the performance are when Sophie is struggling in her head to find the proper English word to express whatever she is speaking of at that moment.
https://cinemafanatic.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/sophieschoice.jpg
As strong as Streep's work is here, it seems to have overshadowed Kevin Kline's extraordinary and charismatic work as Nathan, which people don't talk about nearly as much and was just as Oscar-worthy as Streep's performance...a performance rich with pathos, humor, mystery, and most of all, complete unpredictability that never foreshadows what is happening with this character. Peter MacNichol has a little difficulty keeping up with these two acting powerhouses as the wide-eyed Stingo, but he doesn't get blown off the screen either. Alan J. Pakula has mounted an eye-opening and emotionally charged drama that moves a little too slowly, but we forgive due to the work of Kevin Kline and the extraordinary Meryl Streep. 4

Citizen Rules

07-09-16, 04:32 PM

Gideon58

07-10-16, 04:48 PM

Sophie's Choice, an excellent film. Why don't we hear more about it?

We agree on Meryl Streep's brilliant acting and on Peter MacNichol lack luster acting too. But disagree (in a way) on Kevin Kline.

A lot of people have told me they thought Kline was over the top this, but I loved him...I thought his performance fit the character perfectly.

Citizen Rules

07-10-16, 05:18 PM

I can respect that, and I do think Kevin Kline is a solid actor. I'm glad you watched the movie:)

Gideon58

07-10-16, 05:32 PM

COLLATERAL
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Collateral_(Movie).jpg
2004's Collateral is a bloody and nightmarish thriller that, despite some problems in story structure and character motivation, scores due to some offbeat casting choices and the meticulous direction of Michael Mann.
https://selfproclaimedmegalomaniac.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/collateral.jpg
It is the midnight to dawn shift in Los Angeles where we meet Max (Jamie Foxx), a cab driver who really wants his own limo company even though he's been cabbing it for 12 years. After dropping off an attractive lawyer named Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith)at her office, Max almost misses being hailed by a slick guy in a sharp suit named Vincent (Tom Cruise), who offers Max $600 and a $100 tip, twice his usual evening take, if Max will be his cabbie for the evening and take him to five different locations. Max finds out what's really going on at the first stop while waiting for Vincent to complete his business, a body comes flying out of a window and lands on top of Max's cab. And thus begins an unprecedented nightmare for Max as he becomes the one night transportation for a professional hitman.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IejpzbxKUZE/maxresdefault.jpg
Michael Mann should get credit for getting a lot right here in the kind of story he attempts to present here...he does a beautiful job of setting up the midnight to dawn atmosphere which is a perfect setting for this story and in a rare instance where this actually works, Mann allows the story to unfold rather slowly and doesn't telegraph everything that's going to happen in the first ten minutes. During Max's ride with Annie, we know that this woman is going to be involved somehow, but it's not in the way we think. I also liked that our two antagonists are extremely intelligent people...just because a man kills people for a living doesn't mean he has to be a moron and as the story progresses, Vincent is revealed to be a man of intelligent and sophistication and we almost get to liking him, which I'm pretty sure was the intention of Mann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie. Of course, casting one of Hollywood's most likable actors as a straight up villain was a master stroke as well.
http://www.media3.hw-static.com/wp-content/uploads/collateral-movie-still-mark-ruffalo_2405098-305x400.jpeg
There were certain story elements that I had a hard time swallowing. I didn't understand Max's motivation behind throwing away Vincent's briefcase...did he think that was going to stop him? I was shocked it didn't get him killed. I was also surprised when Max pretended to be Vincent and was sent to Felix (Jarvier Bardem) to get the information that Max lost that Felix actually believed he was Vincent. I was also extremely bothered by Max's desperation to get out of this situation and get as far away from Vincent as possible suddenly disappeared when he realized Annie, a virtual stranger, was in danger.
https://rossbirks.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/collateral.jpg
But these minor plot contrivances definitely did not deter my enjoyment of this thundering roller coaster of a ride that offered one surprise after another, particularly in the presentation of two central characters...the story never forgets that Vincent is a professional and that Max is an amateur, a line that films like this tend to cross sometimes and this one never does. The performances are very solid...Cruise is fire and ice as the enigmatic Vincent and Jamie Foxx was nominated for a Supporting Actor Oscar for his Max, though the role really is a leading one...the performance is just as solid as the one that won Foxx an Oscar the same year,(Ray). Mark Ruffalo, Bruce McGill, and Peter Berg round out the strong supporting cast in this stylish action thriller that take a lot of chances that really pay off. 4

Gideon58

07-11-16, 12:12 PM

NOW YOU SEE ME
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c7/Now_You_See_Me_Poster.jpg
Now You See Me is an expensive and elaborate adventure/fantasy that is so dazzling in its execution you almost don't notice all the red herrings and dangling plot points and find yourself victim to a story that consistently defies explanation and still rivets the viewer to the screen.
http://drop.ndtv.com/Movies/images/reviews/big/nowyouseeme.jpg
This 2013 film recounts the story of four second rate magicians and illusionists (Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco) who are brought together by a mysterious benefactor (Michael Caine) and turned into an act called The Four Horseman, where we witness them rob a bank in Paris without ever leaving a Las Vegas stage. Throw in an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) and an Interpol agent (Melanie Laurent) assigned to the case and a cable television star (Morgan Freeman) who lives to expose the secrets of magicians and you have most of the ingredients of a story that moves at a dizzying speed but never fails to entertain.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2bpkd6hwH6U/maxresdefault.jpg
The screenplay by Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin, and Edward Ricourt serves the story and nothing else...it does not allow the viewer time to figure anything out and require complete attention. It's one of those intricately complex screenplays that if you leave the movie for five minutes without pausing the tape, when you return you will be totally confused. On the other hand, even with complete attention, there is a lot left unexplained here and what is explained demands more than a little patience from the viewer, but we're so dazzled by expensive location filming and dazzling magic effects, we almost forget that we're being kept dangling.
http://popblerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Now-You-See-Me-pair.jpg
Louis Leterrier's direction is detailed just enough to keep the viewer riveted to the screen and curious about the ending. He has put together a wonderful all-star cast with standout work from Harrelson, Eisenberg, Freeman, and especially Ruffalo. The relationship between Ruffalo and Laurent's characters didn't really work for me, as Laurent just seemed to be miscast, but it was a minor distraction in a movie that had so much going on with it that was right I didn't have time to worry about what was wrong. The film is rambling and confusing at times, but I never took my eyes off the screen and never looked at my watch. And there's a sequel...can't wait. 3.5

Gideon58

07-11-16, 06:00 PM

AMERICAN HISTORY X
http://www.masculinity-movies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/american-history-x-poster.jpg
The futility and often bone-chilling consequences of hate seems to be the underlying theme of 1998's American History X, a blistering and unapologetic look at racial hatred from all sides that projects hate without filter and offers some really uncomfortable conclusions, primarily that this kind of hate is often taught and unlearned.

As this film opens we meet Daniel Vinyard (Edward Furlong) a bitter and angry Venice Beach California high school student whose older brother has just been released from prison after three years the same day Daniel has turned in a term paper based on the book Mein Kampf, which stems from Daniel's white supremacists leanings, which his teacher (Avery Brooks) suggests he explore by writing another paper on the true inspiration for his beliefs: his older brother.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JsPW6Fj3BUI/maxresdefault.jpg
Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) was an angry young man, whose hate of anyone not white and protestant seems to have been triggered by the death of his father, manifesting itself into Derek becoming a number one proponent of white supremacy in Venice Beach, sprouting vicious hate propaganda that reaches a fever pitch when two black men try to break into Derek's truck one night and pay with their lives, right in front of Daniel's eyes.
http://cdn3.movieroomreviews.com/sites/movieroomreviews.com/files/imagecache/full_size_image/photos/american-history-x-movie-picture-19.jpg
This film is bold and makes no apologies for David McKenna's uncompromising screenplay that offers a powerful indictment on racism on both sides of the spectrum, taking the humorous view of bigotry and prejudice that Norman Lear explored with All In the Family to a new and disturbing level. What's really disturbing here is that Derek has changed upon his release from prison; however, he is unable to erase the influence his past has had on his brother and his struggle to keep his brother from stumbling down the same dangerous path forms the crux of this really ugly story, even though we are privy a little too late as to what changed Derek, it turns out to be too little too late.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8zOjrZwOwi0/TYdjqcw2MrI/AAAAAAAABQE/Nsj0TdVjfkM/s1600/AmericanHistoryXedwardnorton147646_1024_768.jpg
Tony Kaye's powerhouse direction is bold and in your face and he has pulled an Oscar-worthy performance from Edward Norton as Derek and an equally powerful turn from Edward Furlong as Daniel that keep this film sizzling. It's not an easy watch, but if you can handle it, it's bold and angry film making that stays with the viewer long after fade out. 4.5

gbgoodies

07-12-16, 02:02 AM

SOPHIE'S CHOICE
Inspired direction by the gifted Alan J. Pakula and a pair of sterling lead performances are the primary reasons to invest in a slightly overrated but still intriguing cinematic journey from 1982 called Sophie's Choice.
http://tina-in-fantje.si/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/sophies_choice-dvdcover_s.jpg
Based on a novel by William Styron, the story opens in 1947 Brooklyn where we meet an aspiring writing named Stingo (Stingo, Styron, coincidence, I think not), played by Peter MacNicho who moves into a boarding house above a room occupied by the bombastic Nathan (Kevin Kline), an employee at a pharmaceutical company and the enigmatic Sophie (Meryl Streep), a Polish concentration camp survivor,p who first introduce themselves to Stingo through the very physical sex they are having in the room above his that almost takes out his ceiling lamp, followed almost immediately by a violent argument ending with Nathan storming out the door.
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/11300000/Sphie-s-Choice-Movie-Screencaps-sophies-choice-11301676-650-350.jpg
Despite this rocky introduction, the three principals do become fast friends, even if Stingo is a bit of an outsider, which sometimes seems to be a safe place to be. Nathan displays quite the temper and knows exactly how to keep Sophie under his thumbs and how to push her buttons...specifically, reminding her of her time in the camp and the unspeakable things she did to survive.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FsjPV9PxEwk/maxresdefault.jpg
To reveal anymore here would spoil this harrowing and unique film that left me spent and emotionally exhausted...the film requires complete attention as the relationship between the three principals and the flashbacks of Sophie's past are revealed in slow and detailed layers, almost a little too slow, but the first third of the film makes us care about these people in such an efficient manner that we want to know what's going to happen to these people and, most importantly, what happened to Sophie in that camp that made it such an unspeakable time for her and the reveal of what happened to her will not disappoint...these scenes are done with great care to authenticity, with German dialogue without subtitles but Streep's beautifully expressive face makes us understand exactly what is going on. And it is no surprise that Sophie is not the only one with secrets and hidden agendas.
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/11300000/Sophie-s-Choice-Movie-Screencaps-sophies-choice-11301926-650-350.jpg
And Streep is the thing that you come away from this film remembering, a performance which won her the Oscar for Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role and I understand why now. I wanted someone else to win that year, but I definitely understand Streep's win...the performance is nothing short of magnificent, a character that seemed to be developed from the flawless Polish accent Streep employs here, that never gets in the way of her performance but only enhances it...some of my favorite moments in the performance are when Sophie is struggling in her head to find the proper English word to express whatever she is speaking of at that moment.
https://cinemafanatic.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/sophieschoice.jpg
As strong as Streep's work is here, it seems to have overshadowed Kevin Kline's extraordinary and charismatic work as Nathan, which people don't talk about nearly as much and was just as Oscar-worthy as Streep's performance...a performance rich with pathos, humor, mystery, and most of all, complete unpredictability that never foreshadows what is happening with this character. Peter MacNichol has a little difficulty keeping up with these two acting powerhouses as the wide-eyed Stingo, but he doesn't get blown off the screen either. Alan J. Pakula has mounted an eye-opening and emotionally charged drama that moves a little too slowly, but we forgive due to the work of Kevin Kline and the extraordinary Meryl Streep. 4

I saw Sophie's Choice many years ago, but the only thing I remember about it is the scene where she has to make the choice. It was so powerful that it still stands out in my mind as if I just watched it yesterday. But sadly, I didn't even remember the rest of the cast, and I remember the movie being a very hard watch, so I've never had a desire to rewatch it.

gbgoodies

07-12-16, 02:06 AM

NOW YOU SEE ME
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c7/Now_You_See_Me_Poster.jpg
Now You See Me is an expensive and elaborate adventure/fantasy that is so dazzling in its execution you almost don't notice all the red herrings and dangling plot points and find yourself victim to a story that consistently defies explanation and still rivets the viewer to the screen.
http://drop.ndtv.com/Movies/images/reviews/big/nowyouseeme.jpg
This 2013 film recounts the story of four second rate magicians and illusionists (Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco) who are brought together by a mysterious benefactor (Michael Caine) and turned into an act called The Four Horseman, where we witness them rob a bank in Paris without ever leaving a Las Vegas stage. Throw in an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) and an Interpol agent (Melanie Laurent) assigned to the case and a cable television star (Morgan Freeman) who lives to expose the secrets of magicians and you have most of the ingredients of a story that moves at a dizzying speed but never fails to entertain.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2bpkd6hwH6U/maxresdefault.jpg
The screenplay by Ed Solomon, Boaz , and Edward Ricourt serves the story and nothing else...it does not allow the viewer time to figure anything out and require complete attention. It's one of those intricately complex screenplays that if you leave the movie for five minutes without pausing the tape, when you return you will be totally confused. On the other hand, even with complete attention, there is a lot left unexplained here and what is explained demands more than a little patience from the viewer, but we're so dazzled by expensive location filming and dazzling magic effects, we almost forget that we're being kept dangling.
http://popblerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Now-You-See-Me-pair.jpg
Louis Leterrier's direction is detailed just enough to keep the viewer riveted to the screen and curious about the ending. He has put together a wonderful all-star cast with standout work from Harrelson, Eisenberg, Freeman, and especially Ruffalo. The relationship between Ruffalo and Laurent's characters didn't really work for me, as Laurent just seemed to be miscast, but it was a minor distraction in a movie that had so much going on with it that was right I didn't have time to worry about what was wrong. The film is rambling and confusing at times, but I never took my eyes off the screen and never looked at my watch. And there's a sequel...can't wait. 3.5

I loved Now You See Me, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Gideon58

07-12-16, 10:49 AM

II remember the movie being a very hard watch, so I've never had a desire to rewatch it.

Believe me, I won't be re-watching it anytime soon either...not exactly a popcorn movie.

Citizen Rules

07-12-16, 01:11 PM

Believe me, I won't be re-watching it anytime soon either...not exactly a popcorn movie. If you want to see two films that are even more powerful than Sophie's Choice, watch these critically acclaimed movies:

Lilya 4-Ever (2002) and Amour (2012)

Gideon58

07-12-16, 04:58 PM

ONLY YOU
http://images.boxtv.com/clips/173/9173/player_crop_1000x563_39450_9173.jpg
The champagne of contemporary romantic comedy, 1994's Only You is an intoxicating tale of romantic destiny that conjures simultaneous images of Cinderella and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, but is so undeniably charming that I found myself grinning from ear to ear from start to finish.
http://psimovie.com/images/only-you/scr-7.jpg
Directed by veteran Norman Jewison, this is the story of Faith, a schoolteacher who is ten days away from marry a podiatrist named Dwayne, despite the fact that, when she was 11 years old, a Ouija board and a fortune teller informed her that her soulmate was someone named Damon Bradley. While trying on her wedding gown, Faith receives a phone call from a friend of her fiancee's who says he can't make the wedding because he has to fly to Rome on business...he says his name is Damon Bradley and that's all Faith needs to hear. Faith goes the airport, still dressed in her wedding gown and tries to meet her soulmate but she misses him.
http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/photo/d01/large/0457.jpg
Needless to say, Faith's obsession won't allow her to let this rest so she and her sister-in-law Kate fly to Rome to try and track down Bradley. While at a restaurant where Faith has been led to believe Bradley is having dinner, he escapes from his table before Faith can get to him and before she can catch up to him. she meets and falls instantly in love with Peter Wright, an American shoe salesman who, after hearing Faith's story, initially claims to be Damon Bradley, but when the truth comes out, Faith is determined to pursue her destiny while Peter pursues his.
http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/4400000/Robert-in-Only-You-robert-downey-jr-4498095-1600-900.jpg
This is a romantic comedy where everything works, starting with a near brilliant screenplay by Diane Drake that pays homage to great romantic comedies of the past, Roman Holiday, in particular...the film even features an homage to that film's most famous scene, but the story has its own dash of originality that makes the story fresh and worth investing in. The story initially has us wrapped up in Faith's destiny and the hope that she will find it, but once we hear Peter's story, we realize that Faith is his destiny and love watching the lengths he goes to in order to prove it to Faith, including attempting to produce Damon Bradley for her. Another refreshing change here is that our leading lady's sister-in-law, a role usually confined to cracking wise and being the voice of reality, actually finds a little romance herself with a charming hotel concierge.
http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/photo/d01/large/0456.jpg
Jewison has mounted a beautiful looking film, featuring gorgeous Rome locations and gets great performances from a wonderful cast. Marisa Tomei is enchanting as Faith, offering one of her best performances as a contemporary Audrey Hepburn (complete with Audrey's haircut). I don't think I have ever enjoyed Tomei onscreen as much as I did here. She creates undeniable romantic chemistry with Robert Downey Jr., who makes Peter sexy, vulnerable, and completely irresistible. Bonnie Hunt, one of our business' most underrated actresses, brings a richness to the role of Kate that really isn't in the script and creates surprising chemistry with both Joaquim De Almeida as her Roman romance and Fisher Stevens as her slightly scummy husband. A cinematic textbook on how to make the perfect romantic comedy that hits all the right notes and goes all the right places. 4.5

Gideon58

07-12-16, 07:06 PM

MADAGASGAR
http://img.p2pbg.com/covers/madagascar.png
Dreamworks came up with another winner in 2005's Madasgar, a winning animated comedy that provides equal doses of hilarity and warmth as animal characters with human sensibilities who we are never allowed to forget are really animals captivate us in another variation on the universal theme with a lot of animation: the power of friendship.
http://www.filmapia.com/sites/default/files/filmapia/pub/scene/scene/madagascar%20lemurs%20wave%20goodbye.jpg
The story opens at the Central Park Zoo, where we meet a restless zebra named Marty (voiced by Chris Rock) who, upon his 10th birthday, is yearning to break away from the confines of the zoo and pursue life in the wild, inspired by a small group of penguins, who are planning to escape the zoo and find passage to Antarctica. Now Marty's best friends, a self-centered lion named Alex (voiced by Ben Stiller), a hyponchondriacal giraffe named Melman (voiced by David Schwimmer), and a hippo named Gloria (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith) are perfectly happy with their comfortable life in the zoo and try to talk Marty down, but to no avail. Marty somehow escapes the zoo and when his friends come after him, they get a real taste of being animals in a human world when they are drugged and put on a ship to Africa but they fall off the ship and end up on a deserted island paradise occupied by a kingdom of tiny animals who refer to our heroes as the New York Giants.
http://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/images/madagascar1.jpg
As they did back in 2001 with Shrek, Dreamworks has come up with an imaginative story revolving around animals, utilizing a lot of familiar pop culture references and familiar music that, also like Shrek, might be a little above the intended demographic for this film, but the screenplay by Mark Burton, Billy Frolick, Eric Darnell, and Tom McGrath provides plenty of laughs for children and adults alike. If I had one tiny complaint regarding the story is that it's kind of hard to determine what kind of animals these are inhabiting the island of Madagasgar, because the kind of animals the central characters are is relevant and I wish the animators had been a little more detail oriented regarding the animals on the island. It's a bit of a cliche, but this really IS a movie that the entire family can sit down and enjoy together and probably more than once.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zLtbNHPnkws/maxresdefault.jpg
The voice work here is terrific...loved Stiller as the self-centered Alex and Schwimmer as the neurotic Melman as well as Sasha Baron Cohen as Julien, the leader of Madagasgar, who I think is a squirrel, but don't hold me to that, but if the truth be told, the film is completely stolen by those four little penguins trying to get to Antarctica, led by Skippa (brilliantly voiced by Tom McGrath). A warm and winning animated comedy that was followed by a pair of sequels. 4

gbgoodies

07-12-16, 08:17 PM

ONLY YOU
http://images.boxtv.com/clips/173/9173/player_crop_1000x563_39450_9173.jpg
The champagne of contemporary romantic comedy, 1994's Only You is an intoxicating tale of romantic destiny that conjures simultaneous images of Cinderella and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, but is so undeniably charming that I found myself grinning from ear to ear from start to finish.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Dt2MnszYhiA/maxresdefault.jpg
Directed by veteran Norman Jewison, this is the story of Faith, a schoolteacher who is ten days away from marry a podiatrist named Dwayne, despite the fact that, when she was 11 years old, a Ouija board and a fortune teller informed her that her soulmate was someone named Damon Bradley. While trying on her wedding gown, Faith receives a phone call from a friend of her fiancee's who says he can't make the wedding because he has to fly to Rome on business...he says his name is Damon Bradley and that's all Faith needs to hear. Faith goes the airport, still dressed in her wedding gown and tries to meet her soulmate but she misses him.
http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/photo/d01/large/0457.jpg
Needless to say, Faith's obsession won't allow her to let this rest so she and her sister-in-law Kate fly to Rome to try and track down Bradley. While at a restaurant where Faith has been led to believe Bradley is having dinner, he escapes from his table before Faith can get to him and before she can catch up to him. she meets and falls instantly in love with Peter Wright, an American shoe salesman who, after hearing Faith's story, initially claims to be Damon Bradley, but when the truth comes out, Faith is determined to pursue her destiny while Peter pursues his.
http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/4400000/Robert-in-Only-You-robert-downey-jr-4498095-1600-900.jpg
This is a romantic comedy where everything works, starting with a near brilliant screenplay by Diane Drake that pays homage to great romantic comedies of the past, Roman Holiday, in particular...the film even features an homage to that film's most famous scene, but the story has its own dash of originality that makes the story fresh and worth investing in. The story initially has us wrapped up in Faith's destiny and the hope that she will find it, but once we hear Peter's story, we realize that Faith is his destiny and love watching the lengths he goes to in order to prove it to Faith, including attempting to produce Damon Bradley for her. Another refreshing change here is that our leading lady's sister-in-law, a role usually confined to cracking wise and being the voice of reality, actually finds a little romance herself with a charming hotel concierge.
http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/photo/d01/large/0456.jpg
Jewison has mounted a beautiful looking film, featuring gorgeous Rome locations and gets great performances from a wonderful cast. Maris a Tomei is enchanting as Faith, offering one of her best performances as a contemporary Audrey Hepburn (complete with Audrey's haircut). I don't think I have ever enjoyed Tomei onscreen as much as I did here. She creates undeniable romantic chemistry with Robert Downey Jr., who makes Peter sexy, vulnerable, and completely irresistible. Bonnie Hunt, one of our business' most underrated actresses, brings a richness to the role of Kate that really isn't in the script and creates surprising chemistry with both Joaquim De Almeida as her Roman romance and Fisher Stevens as her slightly scummy husband. A cinematic textbook on how to make the perfect romantic comedy that hits all the right notes and goes all the right places. 4.5

It sounds like you liked Only You even more than I did, and I love the movie. I thought Robert Downey Jr. and Marisa Tomei made a cute couple. I've never been a big fan of Marisa Tomei, but I love her in this movie and in My Cousin Vinny.

gbgoodies

07-12-16, 08:28 PM

MADAGASGAR
http://img.p2pbg.com/covers/madagascar.png
Dreamworks came up with another winner in 2005's Madasgar, a winning animated comedy that provides equal doses of hilarity and warmth as animal characters with human sensibilities who we are never allowed to forget are really animals captivate us in another variation on the universal theme with a lot of animation: the power of friendship.
http://www.filmapia.com/sites/default/files/filmapia/pub/scene/scene/madagascar%20lemurs%20wave%20goodbye.jpg
The story opens at the Central Park Zoo, where we meet a restless zebra named Marty (voiced by Chris Rock) who, upon his 10th birthday, is yearning to break away from the confines of the zoo and pursue life in the wild, inspired by a small group of penguins, who are planning to escape the zoo and find passage to Antarctica. Now Marty's best friends, a self-centered lion named Alex (voiced by Ben Stiller), a hyponchondriacal giraffe named Melman (voiced by David Schwimmer), and a hippo named Gloria (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith) are perfectly happy with their comfortable life in the zoo and try to talk Marty down, but to no avail. Marty somehow escapes the zoo and when his friends come after him, they get a real taste of being animals in a human world when they are drugged and put on a ship to Africa but they fall off the ship and end up on a deserted island paradise occupied by a kingdom of tiny animals who refer to our heroes as the New York Giants.
http://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/images/madagascar1.jpg
As they did back in 2001 with Shrek, Dreamworks has come up with an imaginative story revolving around animals, utilizing a lot of familiar pop culture references and familiar music that, also like Shrek, might be a little above the intended demographic for this film, but the screenplay by Mark Burton, Billy Frolick, Eric Darnell, and Tom McGrath provides plenty of laughs for children and adults alike. If I had one tiny complaint regarding the story is that it's kind of hard to determine what kind of animals these are inhabiting the island of Madagasgar, because the kind of animals the central characters are is relevant and I wish the animators had been a little more detail oriented regarding the animals on the island. It's a bit of a cliche, but this really IS a movie that the entire family can sit down and enjoy together and probably more than once.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zLtbNHPnkws/maxresdefault.jpg
The voice work here is terrific...loved Stiller as the self-centered Alex and Schwimmer as the neurotic Melman as well as Sasha Baron Cohen as Julien, the leader of Madagasgar, who I think is a squirrel, but don't hold me to that, but if the truth be stolen, the film is completely stolen by those four little penguins trying to get to Antarctica, led by Skippa (brilliantly voiced by Tom McGrath). A warm and winning animated comedy that was followed by a pair of sequels. 4

It's been a while since I saw Madasgar, but I remember it being a fun movie. I think I may have seen one of the sequels too, but I'm not sure. I guess I'm past due for a rewatch.

BTW, King Julian is a lemur, not a squirrel.

Gideon58

07-13-16, 10:51 AM

It's been a while since I saw Madasgar, but I remember it being a fun movie. I think I may have seen one of the sequels too, but I'm not sure. I guess I'm past due for a rewatch.

BTW, King Julian is a lemur, not a squirrel.

I don't even know what a lemur is, but like I said in the review, I had no idea what any of the animals on the island were.

Gideon58

07-13-16, 12:13 PM

Get Him to the Greek
Jonah Hill's impeccable comic timing is possibly the one thing that might make a 2010 comedy called Get Him to the Greek worth checking out.
https://mrmoviefiend.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/get-him-to-the-greek-poster-3.jpg
This outrageously expensive and over the top comedy stars Russell Brand as Aldous Snow, a burnt out rock star who was actually introduced to movie audiences two years earlier in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Aldous hasn't cut an album in three years since the release of an album he made called "African Child" which was a commercial and critical disaster. But the tenth anniversary of a legendary concert he did at the Greek Theater is approaching and Hill, playing a record company employee named Aaron, has the idea to do a 10th anniversary concert, preceded by an appearance on The Today Show. Aaron's boss (Sean "Puffy" Combs) sends Aaron to London to persuade Snow to do the concert and then to get him on The Today Show and to the Greek Theater on schedule, which turns out to be a monumental task.
http://i.lv3.hbo.com/assets/images/movies/get-him-to-the-greek/get-him-to-the-greek-1920.jpg
The basic plot of this film actually resembles a comedy from 1982 called My Favorite Year, but instead of 1950's live television, sex, drugs, and rock and roll are the now the canvas for this story. The progression of events are pretty much the same though...Aaron has to get Aldous away from the clubs, drugs, and women long enough to get him on a plane back to the states, complicated by Snow's messed up marriage to a trampy rock star named Jackie Q (Rose Byrne) and Aaron's girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss), a serious-minded doctor who wants Aaron to quit his job and move to Seattle with her where she wants to do her residency.
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/17100000/Elisabeth-Moss-in-Get-Him-to-the-Greek-elisabeth-moss-17154400-1280-720.jpg
Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, the creative team behind The Five Year Engagement have apparently been given an unlimited budget for this film because there is money all over the place here...the film features expensive on location filming in London, Las Vegas, and Manhattan, not to mention a large cast of well-known actors, some in leading roles and some in cameos, but Segel and Stoller seem to have the juice to attract serious talent and budget for their work.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/55X_DAk6K_k/maxresdefault.jpg
Don't get me wrong, the film definitely provides laughs, but a lot of them are kind of cheap and uninspired...there's this running joke of Jonah Hill's Aaron vomiting throughout the film that gets very old very quickly, but Hill really is the one thing that makes this film worth sitting through. Russell Brand is pretty much Russell Brand in every movie he makes and Sean Combs is annoying, but what I didn't get is why have Brand play a character from another movie, that Hill also appeared in but have Hill play a different character? The film features a plethora of pointless cameos from a lot of stars, including Brand's leading lady in Sarah Marshall, Kristen Bell, but it's all for naught. This film is a hot mess but hardcore Jonah Hill fans might enjoy it. 2.5

Gideon58

07-14-16, 12:21 PM

THE LOVELY BONES
Another of those movies that offers more questions than answers and flash over substance, 2009's The Lovely Bones is a disturbing and stomach churning drama about a tragic murder and how it affects everyone involved...especially the victim.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Lovely_bones_ver2.jpg
Susie Salmon is a 14 year old girl from a happy home with a younger brother and sister, parents who adore her, and has finally caught the eye of the boy at school she's been crushing on from a distance. On the way home from the mall one day, Susie runs into a neighbor named George Harvey, who lures Susie into a trap and when Susie won't do what George wants, she tries to escape and it initially appears that she does, but she didn't...only her soul escaped. We then learn that Susie is trapped in some sort of mystical Purgatory where she is torn between longing for justice regarding her murder and watching her family try to move on.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jvWXV-c2hWo/maxresdefault.jpg
This is a really interesting idea, looking at a murder from the victim's POV; unfortunately, I wish the screenplay had committed a little more fully to the concept and allowed Susie a little more control of her situation. We are given hope when a connection is firmly established between Susie and her father (Mark Wahlberg) through some spooky visual trappings and we wonder if Susie is going to be able to lead her father to her killer, but the exact opposite happens...as the investigation into Susie's death progresses, George is nowhere near the vicinity of the suspect list. There is a completely aggravating scene that takes place 11 months after the murder where the father suggests to the lead detective (Michael Imperioli) that they start thinking outside the box and offers him a list of people he should look at as suspects and George isn't on the list. This movie angers as it appears that George is going to get away with this.
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I liked the idea of seeing a victim unable to go to her final rest because of the way that she died, but the screenplay by Fran Walsh, Phillipia Boynes, and director Peter Jackson, based on a novel by Alice Sebold, never really gives Susie the direct power to affect her family's grief or the pursuit of her killer, so what's the point? That's where this movie missteps for me.
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Still, Peter Jackson's direction is imaginative and he gets some first rate performances from Wahlberg, Oscar winner Rachel Weicz as Susie's mother, an eye opening turn from Saoirse Ronan as Susie and especially Stanley Tucci, brilliantly unapologetic as George Harvey in a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination. The story is a really good idea that doesn't fully commit, but this is another one of those movies, like Gone, Baby, Gone, that will make you want to grab your kids and never let go. 3

Gideon58

07-14-16, 06:58 PM

The Judge
Despite a rambling and predictable screenplay, the 2014 film The Judge is worth seeing because of the brilliant lead performances by Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall, doing what they do best...making mediocre material seem a lot better than it really is due to their talent.
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Downey Jr. plays Hank Palmer, a hot shot Chicago lawyer going through a divorce who flies to his hometown in Indiana for his mother's funeral and while there, his father, a local judge (Duvall) is accused of murder, running someone down with his car but was apparently drunk and doesn't remember doing it. As expected with such a set-up, it is no surprise that there are a lot of issues between father and son but this doesn't stop Hank from putting his life in Chicago on hold so that he can defend his father, even though his father would rather have any other attorney in the world representing him.
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I've seen a lot of movies in the last several months centered around characters with Daddy issues but this is one of the few films where those issues seem to be at the core of what is going on in this film and that's one of the primary problems with Nick Schenck and Bill Dubuque's screenplay...the hostility between this father and son doesn't make sense when we don't know what these issues are and we have to wait until the final third of the film to find out what these issues are and that's a long wait for a film that runs almost two and a half hours.
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But we tend to forgive because Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall, two of our industry's finest actors, keep these characters human and likable and evoke sympathy as well as empathy. Duvall is particularly brilliant, a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination, playing a character who, on the surface, is kind of a jerk, but you know when you forget everything you hate about the character and start loving him? The moment when he meets his granddaughter for the first time...it's a lovely moment that makes you forget what a jackass this guy is.
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The story also crafts a strong story of sibling resentment with Hank and his two brothers: Glen (Vincent D'Onofrio) has always been the referee between Hank and his dad, usually siding with Dad and mentally challenged Dale (Jeremy Strong) who just wants the family back that he grew up with. The brotherly dynamic these actors create is solid and believable.

Director David Dobkin's direction is solid as is the supporting cast including Vera Farmiga, making the most of an underwritten role, the late Ken Howard, Denis O'Hare, Dax Shepherd, and the fabulous Grace Zabriskie. A movie this predictable shouldn't be this long, but Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall make it worth your time. 3.5

Gideon58

07-15-16, 05:30 PM

TAKEN
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Solid action scenes and an unlikely hero combine to make Taken, a riveting nail-biter from 2008 worth watching because of its seamless marriage of action movie with a central character who is not a superhero, but an ordinary guy with a skillset that comes in handy when it has to.

Liam Neeson stars as Bryan Mills, a former CIA agent who goes into father mode when his daughter (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped while vacationing in Paris and ends up being part of a female sex trafficking ring. The story takes on added dimensions when we learn early on that the people who grabbed Bryan's daughter knew exactly whose daughter they were taking.
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Director Pierre Morel really hit a bullseye here not only with an intense and unsettling story that actually plays out quite economically, but the presentation of a new kind of action hero in Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills. Bryan is not Superman or Iron Man. He is a former CIA agent whose past might have influenced this crime occurring, but more than anything else he is a father...I love the scene when his daughter is actually grabbed, quite unlike anything I have ever seen before...he is actually on the phone with her when the kidnappers are coming and tells here where to hide, what to do, and calmly informs her what is about to happen to her and that he will find her. The scene is brilliantly directed and performed...the moment when he hears her being taken over the phone and the look on his face is absolutely heartbreaking. I love when he keeps listening to the tape of her abduction over and over again, a constant reminder that this story, though it involves international criminals, is still the story of a father determined to get his daughter back.

And "determined" is a masterpiece of understatement here...Mills does things in the name of getting his daughter back that he probably never had to do when he was still active with the CIA. He uses resources he didn't think he would have to use and has to turn on people he thought he could trust who have betrayed him. Mills tortures people and deliberately hurts innocent bystanders in pursuit of his daughter, but the odds are stacked against him and we understand. It is fascinating watching Mills piece together what happened...I love when he is able to get an ID of the guy who took his daughter and wastes no time finding the guy, even if it is no avail.
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Liam Neeson created a new kind of action hero here because the through line of his character is always that of a father, and not of an FBI agent and that's why we forgive some of the unforgivable things he does. We never doubt that this guy is not going to get his daughter back but it doesn't make watching him do it any less exciting. Loved this movie and am looking forward to the sequels. 4

Gideon58

07-15-16, 06:56 PM

OLIVER AND COMPANY
The Disney Studios actually went to the classics, specifically the most famous work of Charles Dickens as the inspiration for an entertaining animated diversion called Oliver and Company that takes full advantage of the lack of limitation in legitimate animated storytelling.
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The Disney Studios have always had a couple of universal themes at the core of a lot of their most famous work. Either the story is either an animal's point of view in the human world or it involves two different kinds of animals who, in real life, are natural enemies and this film combines both of these themes quite effectively.
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Now if you're going to update Dickens for an animated film, where else would you set it but New York City. In the middle of Manhattan we meet Oliver (voiced by Joey Lawrence), who is an orphaned kitten whose brothers and sisters were all adopted who finds himself involved in a scheme with a dog named Dodger (voiced by Billy Joel) to get something to eat. Dodger tries to g keep the food for himself but Oliver follows him where he is introduced to a rag tag group of dog thieves, including a highly intelligent bulldog named Francis (voiced by Roscoe Lee Browne) who likes educational TV, a loud-mouthed chihuahua named Tito (voiced by Cheech Marin), and a sexy Afghan hound named Rita (voiced by Sheryl Lee Ralph) who take turns stealing dinner on a daily basis.
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The dogs have a human leader named Fagin (voiced by Dom De Luise), who owes a lot of money to a slick gangster named Sykes (voiced by Robert Loggia) and decides to use Oliver to get it when Oliver unexpectedly gets adopted by a little rich girl, whose pet poodle named Georgette (voiced by Bette Midler) is not feeling Oliver's presence at all and schemes to get Oliver out of the mansion.
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As one might expect, it gets a bit confusing at times to remember which characters are human and which are not, but then again, it's Disney and its animation, so logic just sort of goes out the window and we just let an entertaining story flow over us. The movie features some clever songs including "Once Upon a Time in New York City", "Why Should I Worry", and the showstopping "Perfect Isn't Easy", brilliantly performed by Midler.
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The voice work is quite good...can't believe Billy Joel never did anymore voice work after this, but if the truth be told, Bette Midler totally steals the show as Georgette. There was a little air of sadness of this for me as I watched as a lot of people doing the voice work here are no longer with us, but children won't be aware of that and they are the intended demographic here and, on that level, this works. 3

Gideon58

07-16-16, 04:29 PM

THE FISHER KING
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For those who like movies that are rich with colorful and eccentric characters, touches of comic and dramatic fantasy, and arresting visual images all wrapped inside a moving and vividly human story, you don't have to look any further than 1991's The Fisher King, a moving story about the power of guilt and redemption.
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Jeff Bridges turns in a delightfully unhinged performance as Jack Lucas, a radio "shock jock" whose abuse of a fan on the air inadvertently led to a terrible tragedy. Three years later, Jack has quit the radio, is despondent, drinking heavily, and is working in a video store and sleeping with the owner (Mercedes Ruehl). He meets a deranged homeless man named Perry (Robin Williams) who gets Jack out of a serious scrape before Jack learns that Perry was severely affected by the aforementioned tragedy three years before.

Jack decides he might be able to find redemption for his part in the tragedy if he can help this man. The man initially won't take the $70 that Jack offers him so Jack decides to help Perry meet a woman (Amanda Plummer) who he's been stalking all over Manhattan for two years because he claims he's in love with her.
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Screenwriter Richard LaGravanese (who also makes a cameo in the film as a mental patient) has given us a complex story all based around the questionable moral compass of Jack Lucas...this guy does a lot of right things for the wrong reasons, but really has no idea that his reasoning his skewed, which makes it hard to fault what he tries to do but it doesn't excuse it and you can see the motivation behind every move he makes with Perry from a mile away. I love that Jack actually thinks he can erase his guilt with $70. The predictability of Jack's actions is in direct conflict with his intentions, whether it's with Perry or with his video store owner girlfriend, who clearly literally scooped Jack up from the gutter and saved him from complete self-destruction and his gratitude appears to be love in her eyes, though it's evident from their first moments onscreen together that Jack doesn't love this woman.
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Director Terry Gilliam employs some imaginative camera work and expects the audience to accept a lot. It's never really directly addressed, but I think there are deeper mental health issues with Perry than the tragedy three years ago but a scene inserted in the final act seems to make us want to believe that this is all it is.
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Gilliam also manages some strong character reveal through the performances he got from this terrific cast. Bridges owns the flawed and fascinating Jack and Robin Williams' Oscar nominated performance might seem a bit over the top to some, but there wasn't one thing the late actor did in this performance that I didn't buy or wasn't moved by. Ruehl won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her raw and gutsy turn as Jack's girlfriend who has on rose colored glasses regarding her relationship with Jack and Amanda Plummer is delightfully loopy as the object of Perry's affections. The happy ending seems to fall into place a little too quickly, but most of this film is a slightly uncomfortable but very fulfilling journey. 4

Sexy Celebrity

07-16-16, 04:30 PM

I turned that sucker off when I tried watching it. Bored me. I am so not much of a Terry Gilliam fan (Brazil was actually okay).

Gideon58

07-16-16, 05:55 PM

I turned that sucker off when I tried watching it. Bored me. I am so not much of a Terry Gilliam fan (Brazil was actually okay).

This was actually my second attempt at watching it...the first time I tried I turned it off about 20 minutes in...

Gideon58

07-16-16, 06:15 PM

THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER
Our favorite agents from the Rescue Aid Society are recruited for one more mission in this 1991 sequel to The Rescuers.
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A little boy in Australia named Cody (voiced by Adam Ryen) helps a rare bald eagle out of a trap so that she can return to her unhatched eggs. It is revealed that the daddy eagle is already the property of an evil poacher called McLeach (brilliantly voiced by George C. Scott) and now he wants Mama and the eggs and he figures the only way to get to Mama ad the eggs is through the boy so he kidnaps him.
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After a very complex telecommunication process which involves multiple tin cans and broken keyboards, it has already been decided that Bernard (voiced by Bob Newhart) and Bianca (voiced by Eva Gabor) will take the case, but they have to be tracked down at a very elegant restaurant where they are sipping champagne and Bernard is preparing to propose.
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Of course, our hero and heroine put their own plans on hold to help this little boy. They have new transportation this time with Orville's albatross cousin Wilbur (voiced by John Candy) and find a little extra help upon arrival down under, courtesy of a slick-talking Aussie mouse guide (voiced by Tristan Rogers) who shamelessly flirts with Miss Bianca the second he lays eyes on her, which the insecure Bernard is not too crazy about.
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I've heard over the years that this film is better than the first one. I'm not absolutely convinced of that but it is, if anything, just as much fun as the first one. I like that the relationship between Bernard and Bianca had progressed between the first film and this one and the bit of Bernard being interrupted every time he tried to propose was kind of played. I also thought the mama eagle was kind of scary, but Candy and Scott were a lot of fun and I loved McLeach's pet lizard, Joanna...their relationship reminded me a bit of The Grinch and Max in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. All in all, a worthy sequel...if you liked the first one...3.5

Gideon58

07-17-16, 05:06 PM

TRUE ROMANCE
Quentin Tarantino's brilliant screenplay, some eye-popping violence, and a dazzling all-star cast help make 1993's True Romance appointment movie viewing, a blistering tale of losers and dreamers and movers and shakers that leaves a lot of bodies in the wake but provides a wonderful payoff.
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The film stars Christian Slater as Clarence, a movie buff obsessed with Elvis who marries a rookie call girl named Alabama (Patricia Arquette) who, upon confronting her pimp (Gary Oldman) in order to clear the air, ends up with a suitcase of cocaine that said pimp stole from someone else. Clarence and Alabama decide to drive to LA in hopes that an old friend of Clarence's (Michael Rapaport) will help Clarence sell the coke, unbeknownst to Clarence and Alabama, the real owners of the cocaine are also on their way to LA to get their coke back.
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This movie envelops the viewer from the beginning, not so much by the story itself, but the way the story is told...Tarantino again proves to be a master storyteller who knows how to let a story unfold slowly, let the viewer not only get to know the characters but to get to care about them so that when they're in the thick of it, we're with Clarence and Alabama because Tarantino took the time to take us inside the relationship from the moment they met, even if it was under suspicious circumstances. A connection was made between these two characters that made us care about them immediately and, more importantly, be frightened for them when they opened that suitcase filled with cocaine.
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The rest of what is presented here is window dressing to the story of Clarence and Alabama, thus the title of this film, which I never really got until this most recent viewing...this story features stomach churning violence and a lot of very unpleasant people, but these people are all part of the story of Clarence and Alabama, a contemporary romance that takes a lot of ugly and uncomfortable bumps during the unconventional journey.
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Director Tony Scott, a proven artist with action scenes thanks to his work in films like Top Gun, Man on Fire, and Enemy of the State mounts some unprecedented cinematic gore here, which had to be enhanced with the presence of Tarantino on the set and you can't tell me he wasn't, because this film has Tarantino written over it...the whole look of it, the slimey characters, the unapologetic violence (the scene where Alabama gets beat up is very hard to watch), the improbable story detours...I kept having to remind myself that Tarantino didn't direct it as well.
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The cast is absolutely terrific...I don't remember exactly when Christian Slater's career went south, but this was the last great performance I remember from him, he lights up the screen here in the tradition of Nicholson and De Niro. Patricia Arquette works very hard in the physically and emotionally demanding role of Alabama, a pathetic creature on the surface who has a surprising strength that she reveals at just the appropriate times. The flawless supporting cast includes Dennis Hopper (wonderful as Clarence's dad) who has a fabulous scene with mafioso Christopher Walken that is one of the film's highlights. James Gandolfini also does a star-making turn as the thug who beats up Alabama and other pertinent players in the romance include Saul Rubinek, Val Kilmer, Christopher Penn, Bronson Pinchot, and a scene stealing cameo by Brad Pitt as Rapaport's perpetually stoned roommate, Floyd. A winner that had me smiling, laughing, holding my breath, and fighting tears, right up to the finale, which will have you cheering. 4

cricket

07-17-16, 05:32 PM

Great movie, one of my favorites. The Alabama/Tony Soprano scene is just one of the many highlights.

Gideon58

07-17-16, 07:08 PM

THE FRESHMAN
An unconventional story with a clever hook and a couple of charming lead performances make the 1990 comedy The Freshman worth checking out...a breezy comedy premise that is mined for a lot of humor by director Andrew Bergman, the director of Honeymoon in Vegas.
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Matthew Broderick plays a freshman at the NYU film school named Clark Kellogg who gets a job with an "importer" named Carmine Sabatini, who sends Clark to the airport to pick up a package without revealing what it is. Clark is frightened it might be a body in a casket, but it turns out to be a lizard-like animal called a komodo dragon, which Clark learns is on the endangered species list. Throw into the mix Carmine's pushy daughter, Tina (Penelope Ann Miller), who has decided that Clark is going to be her husband whether he likes it or not and a pair of police detectives determined to stop this animal from being the main course at a very important dinner and you have most of th ingredients for an engaging comedy.
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The other element and the total reason this movie works is Bergman's inspired idea of having Carmine Sabatini played by the legendary Marlon Brando, playing the role exactly the way he played Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather, right down to the cotton-stuffed jowls. It almost seems like a breaking of the fourth wall, but it really isn't because every time Carmine's resemblance to The Godfather is brought up, it is a forbidden subject and the fact that when someone mentions it directly to Carmine, he has no idea what they're talking about. It's a funny character premise that is further driven home by the fact that Clark's film class is currently studying The Godfather, which features several clips from the 1972 classic.
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Bergman has a pretty clever idea here and I wish he had taken a little more of the film in this direction and a little less with this endangerment of animals thing, which grew tiresome, but the Brando/Carmine/Corleone thing never does and with a charming assist from Matthew Broderick, makes this film well worth your time. 3.5

Gideon58

07-18-16, 04:17 PM

I COULD GO ON SINGING
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The 1963 film I Could Go On Singing has a footnote in cinema history as the final theatrical film of the iconic Judy Garland. Not a great film, but perhaps the one film that offers the closest thing on film I have ever seen to the real Judy Garland and something true fans of the artist should experience since a mere six years later, she was found dead in her London apartment.
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Garland plays Jenny Bowman, a famous singer who has been booked for an engagement at the London Palladium and uses this as an opportunity to reconnect with her son, Matt (Gregory Phillips) who lives with his father, Dr. David Donne (Dirk Bogarde), who had an affair with Jenny many years ago that produced Matt. Apparently, David was severely burned by what happened between him and Jenny, who chose her career over him and her son (she and David never married) because he has kept Matt from Jenny and made her swear to never tell him that she is his real mother, but when David weakens and agrees to let Jenny see him, the emotional flood gates have opened and Jenny wants a life with her son.
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This film touches on a lot of familiar movie themes, such as what people in show business give up in order to scratch their way to the top, the time a career can take away from being with family, and the pressure that fame often heaps on a celebrity to always be "on," but said themes take on an added richness here because it is Garland who is playing them and anyone knows anything about the actress knows these are things that probably hit close to home for Garland and motivated her to do the film.

Garland loved her children Liza, Lorna, and Joey ferociously and regretted every minute her career took her away from them and you can see that in every move that Jenny Bowman makes...Judy never gave up her children like Jenny did, but her career often took priority and near the end of her career, Garland actually took her kids on tour with her and often had them onstage with her. Garland understood this character and how being reunited with the child she gave up so long ago was now the biggest mistake she ever made in her life.
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The film does have its problems...Mayo Simon's screenplay makes Dr. David seem like a heartless monster who has been permanently damaged by his relationship with Jenny and is now punishing her by keeping her away from her son. Dirk Bogarde also has no chemistry with Garland and makes you wonder what Jenny saw in the guy in the first place. I have to admit though I loved the opening scenes where Jenny and David reunite for the first time and David tries to keep it strictly business and Jenny wants to talk about them...well written and acted. There is also a brilliant scene after a night of partying, Jenny is refusing to go on to a sold-out house and David is trying to get her go on...Garland is startling in this scene and reveals the closest thing I have ever seen onscreen to the real Judy Garland.

Director Ronald Neame did understand one thing though and that's the fact that anything wrong with a Judy Garland film becomes irrelevant when she starts singing and the film does come alive in the too-few musical sequences with "Hello Blackbird", "By Myself", and the title tune finale as highlights...Neame doesn't employ a lot of cinema trickery here either...he just points the camera at Garland and lets her do what she does best...the image of Garland in that fire engine red dress alone behind a fire engine red backdrop belting out "By Myself" is one I won't be forgetting anytime soon. For those who want to see a legendary artist near the end of her career but nowhere near the end of her power as a performer, this film is a must. 3

Gideon58

07-18-16, 06:58 PM

The Answer Man
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A charismatic lead performance by Jeff Daniels is the main reason to check out a 2009 romantic comedy/character study called The Answer Man, which offers a riveting lead character who never fails to entertain but very little else.
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Daniels plays Arlen Faber, a writer who struck gold with a book he wrote twenty years ago (why do things in the past in the movies always happen 20 years ago? Why not 15 years ago or 30 years ago?) called "Me & God" that became such a monster best seller that books were written on the book...we even get a glimpse of a book titled "The Me & God Diet", but as the 20th anniversary of the book approaches, Faber is revealed to not have written anything since and has become a virtual recluse, but somehow ends up meeting and altering the lives of a chiropractor/single mom (Lauren Graham) and the young owner of a bookstore named Kris (Lou Taylor Pucci) who has just been released from rehab.
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There's the germ of a good movie here ( a germ that really owes its origins to another movie), but there are things that writer/director John Hindman doesn't quite clarify...it was difficult to understand the mania behind this book without understand exactly what Faber said in the book and that is never really made clear, though as the film progresses, we learn that even the author doesn't believe what he wrote, but without that basic knowledge from jump, it was hard to get behind anything that was happening here...I felt like I couldn't appreciate what was going on in this movie without reading "Me & God", a book that doesn't exist.
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I also hate to climb on this band wagon again, but once again we have another alcoholic movie character who is looking to fix the problems in his life (including a father who's still drinking) anyway he can, except the way he is supposed to...going to AA meetings and working the program. Kris is observed going to a meeting early in the film where he curses the program and curses out everyone at the meeting and they just nod their heads in understanding...that should have been a clue for Kris right there, yet he is going to look for answers from this mean-spirited writer .
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What we do have here is a genuinely interesting central character, the kind that would have been played by Jack Nicholson 25 years ago...as a matter of fact, this whole film reminded me of 1997's As Good As it Gets, a film where three very different people find a connection with each other that defies explanation and the same thing happens here only we don't really get invested because the cast isn't anywhere near as effective here...Daniels has made a career out of playing unsympathetic characters and hasn't lost his touch, but he has no chemistry with Lauren Graham who practically fades into the scenery. Lou Taylor Pucci works hard to keep Kris likable but is fighting the screenplay all the way. Daniels' performance just barely keeps this one watchable. 3

Beatle

07-18-16, 09:52 PM

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Barbra Streisand brought her own vision to A Star is Born, the third version of this classic Hollywood story about the romance between an up and coming star and her alcoholic husband whose career is fading into oblivion. Streisand put her own stamp on this movie, making the story more acceptable to her and more accessible to 1970s film audiences.

She changed the setting of the story from films to the world of music, making her Esther Hoffman a struggling singer who is discovered by an alcoholic, self-destructive rocker named John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson)who grooms her for stardom while his own career falls apart.
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We all know this story and have seen either of the previous versions and some were unsettled by the fact that in this version, John Norman doesn't commit suicide, he is killed in a car accident instead, taking away a lot of the power of the story.

The point of the original story is that the actor sacrifices his own life so that his wife won't give up the career she's worked so hard for. One of the most amusing parts of the original and 1954 versions is the whole episode about Esther changing her name so it looks better on a marquee. Here, our feminist heroine, Esther Hoffman, refuses to change her name and for me, this small but vital plot points diluted a lot of the power of this story.
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This production is overblown and uneven. It should be understood that Streisand was just on the edge of insanity while making this film. She was involved at the time with future film producer Jon Peters, who was running her career and her life. Peters butted heads with leading man Kristofferson as well as credited director Frank Pierson, who pretty much directed this film in name only...Streisand and Peters had the last word on everything regarding this film, much to its detriment, due mainly to Streisand's complete trust in Peters, who really knew nothing about film-making at this time.

But no matter what else she does, this movie comes alive whenever Streisand sings. Highlights for me were "Queen Bee", "Woman in the Moon", "With One More Look at You" and, of course, the Oscar-winning "Evergreen."
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With all the hats she was wearing while making this film, needless to say, Streisand was not very focused on her performance here, which can be described, kindly, as uneven. Kristofferson, in a role originally offered to Elvis Presley, is strong and surprisingly sexy as John Norman Howard and Gary Busey also scores as John Norman's manager. For hard-core Streisand fans only. 5.5/10

I remember seeing this as a kid, and of course I didn't get anything. except Kris' fooling around. It made me laugh like mad. What was it? Shooting at a helichopter with a rifle?

Years later I saw it and only remember my mom commenting it unwatchable.

Gideon58

07-20-16, 06:03 PM

PRISONERS
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The 2013 film Prisoners is a meticulously mounted and well acted crime drama that is disturbing on a number of different levels. This cringe-worthy crime drama had me questioning concepts I hadn't before like "innocent until proven guilty" and had me wondering about the lengths that the justice system goes to protect criminals' rights sometimes more than the victims, producing a long yet riveting cinematic journey whose bittersweet ending left a bad taste in my mouth. It's also another one of those movies that makes you want to hug your kids, then lock them in their rooms and never let them out.
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Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) and pal Franklin Birch (Terrance Howard) get together with their families on a rainy Thanksgiving and, while waiting for dinner, their two youngest daughters go out to play and encounter an RV parked down the street. Several hours later, the RV is gone and so are the girls, initiating a police investigation, led by a police detective named Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) who arrests Alex Jones (Paul Dano), the owner of the RV but doesn't have enough evidence to hold him. Upon his release, Jones says something to Keller, that conveniently no one else hears, that implies he knows where the girls are, which causes something to snap in Keller making the crazed father going to dangerous and unspeakable extremes to get his daughter back.
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Aaron Guzikowski's complex screenplay offers a lot of red herrings in its attempt to keep the viewer guessing, something it accomplishes in spades and has the guilty looking like the victims and vice versa. It's aggravating watching the criminals' rights being savagely protected and some really obvious police procedures not even come to play in solving this horrific crime. The screenplay keeps meticulous track of how long the girls have been missing and my heart sank when, approximately halfway through the film, it is revealed that the girls have been missing for a week, knowing that, after 48 hours, most abductions have become homicides.
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What does make this film watchable is Denis Villeneuve's striking direction which offers some arresting visual images and some really amazing performances. Hugh Jackman gives the performance of his career as Dover, the crazed father who finds one roadblock after another in the quest for his daughter and has no choice but to take the law in his own hands. Jackman is frighteningly unhinged as a father driven to desperate measures to get his daughter back. He is well-matched by Gyllenhaal as the not-as-laid-back-as-he-appears-to-be detective who begins to live this case. Paul Dano, a young actor who is making a career out of playing creepy and bizarre characters, adds another to his resume and Oscar winner Melissa Leo is impressive, as always, as Dano's mother. Howard as Birch, Maria Bello as Keller's wife, and Viola Davis as Birch's wife, make the most of underwritten roles, but it is the compelling story that only partially satisfies and the performances of Jackman and Gyllenhaal that make this one sizzle. 4

Tugg

07-20-16, 09:02 PM

Great review of "Prisoners", Gideon. It reminds and spells out why I appreciate this movie so much too.

Gideon58

07-21-16, 10:38 AM

Great review of "Prisoners", Gideon. It reminds and spells out why I appreciate this movie so much too.

Thank you Tugg...wasn't satisfied with the way it ended, but it is an excellent film. Hugh Jackman was AMAZING!

Tugg

07-21-16, 11:31 AM

Thank you Tugg...wasn't satisfied with the way it ended, but it is an excellent film. Hugh Jackman was AMAZING!
Actually, I thought it ended perfectly with what the woman said to him and the uncertainty of fate.

Gideon58

07-21-16, 11:59 AM

Actually, I thought it ended perfectly with what the woman said to him and the uncertainty of fate.

I didn't like the fact that that the film ended with Keller in that hole and wondering if he would ever be found...that really disturbed me and kept me from upping my rating half a bag of popcorn.

Gideon58

07-21-16, 06:08 PM

MONSTER'S UNIVERSITY
Disney Pixar took a little bit of a different tack when they decided to revisit the world of Monsters Inc. The 2013 film Monsters University is a colorful and exciting prequel to the first film that examines most of the classic themes of Disney animation, along with an interesting look at whether or not certain behaviors are inherent or can they be taught.
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This film shows us how Mike (voiced by Billy Crystal) and Sully (voiced by John Goodman) met. Mike and Sully have their historic first meeting at the institution of the title, where they have both come to learn how to be scarers, so that they can help to mine energy supplies for this monster world, which actually come from the screams of children.
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Initially, Mike and Sully don't get along at all, but it's revealed that Mike is the hardest working student on campus but isn't really scary. On the other hand, Sully, whose father was a legendary scarer, is naturally scary but a lousy student. They are both on the brink of expulsion by the evil Dean Hardscrabble (voiced by Helen Mirren) when they put together a team of monsters for the scare games competition with a fraternity of loser monsters as their only hope of staying in school.
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If you've ever seen Revenge of the Nerds, you can pretty much guess the rest of what happens here, but it's still a really entertaining journey anyway because the main characters are monsters and human beings are toxic and looking at the world from a monster's point of view remains as fresh and surprising as it did in the first film. There are some on-target conceptions of scary produced here, in particular, the librarian in the library competition scene, a perfect monster's eye view of how humans see librarians who want nothing in the world but quiet.
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Love the voice work here, Disney Pixar always scores in this department and this film is no exception, but I have to say that Helen Mirren walks away with this honor in her vocal creation of Dean Hardscrabble, one of the creepiest animated characters I have seen in years, though Billy Crystal and John Goodman still inhabit Mike and Sully like comfortable shoes. If you liked the first film, no reason you shouldn't like this one. 3.5

gbgoodies

07-22-16, 01:30 AM

I loved Monsters University, (not as much as Monsters, Inc.), but I think a lot of people didn't like it because it sent a bad message to kids. It taught them that they can screw up and cheat, and still somehow manage to get what they want.

Gideon58

07-22-16, 11:49 AM

LOST IN AMERICA
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A witty and intelligent screenplay, exuberant direction, and terrific chemistry between the stars are the primary reasons to check out a gem from 1985 called Lost in America, a clever idea that gets wrapped up a little too conveniently, but the journey to the conclusion is a lot of fun.
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The film stars Albert Brooks (who also directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Monica Johnson) and Julia Hagerty as an upwardly mobile couple from LA who quit their jobs, liquidate their assets, buy a Winnebago and decide they are going to spend the rest of their lives traveling across America, but they're plans go awry when, while stopped in Las Vegas to renew their wedding vows, Hagerty goes to the casino and gambles away most of their nest egg.
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First, let me say the concept of this movie is terrific and Albert Brooks is right up there with Woody Allen as far as having a sharp ear for comic dialogue and having characters express things verbally that we regular Joe's would never have the nerve to say and I was laughing throughout the film, I just wish Brooks had taken the idea to full fruition and have this couple struggle to the point that they had nothing and had no other options. Once they realize the seriousness of their situation, they almost instantly give up on their dream and start looking for jobs in Nevada, even though they are both overqualified for the kind of work available.
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It's the middle section of the film that worked the best for me, especially Brooks' initial reaction to learning that his wife lost most of their money, which actually leads to the best scene in the film: Brooks decides to go to the owner of the casino, played with dry perfection by Garry Marshall, to convince him to give back the money his wife lost and what great publicity it would be for the casino...this scene is beautifully written and executed and had me rolling on the floor.
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The other thing that worked for me in this film was the genuine chemistry between Brooks and Hagerty, one of the most believable screen marriages I have seen in a long time...love when he comes to her office and wants her to have sex with him on her desk and she manages to fend him off, but doesn't really seem surprised by the request either. My problem with the film is that the story wraps up a little too quickly to be completely believable, but most of this film is a comic pleasure. 3.5

Gideon58

07-22-16, 06:12 PM

FIGHT CLUB
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One of the most fascinating films of 1999, Fight Club is a ferocious and groundbreaking piece of film making that, in the tradition of Tarantino, breaks all the rules of conventional movie making, drops red herrings during every reel, conveys some very disturbing messages, confuses, aggravates, and most importantly, never allows the viewer to take their eyes off the screen.
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Edward Norton plays an insomniac caught in a dead-end existence who finds temporary solace in attending support groups, even though his only addiction is insomnia. This quick fix is interrupted by a hot mess of a woman named Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) who is finding the same solace in attending support groups that Norton's character is. They meet and agree to not attend the same meetings.
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While on a business trip, our hero finds himself seated next to someone who calls himself Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a charismatic soap salesman whose gateway into Norton's life turns out to be no accident. Norton and Pitt start an underground club where guys beat the crap out of each other and find a cathartic release they find nowhere else in their humdrum lives, and just as the one club starts becoming a nationwide franchise, Tyler begins initiating a plan to take the club to a whole other level behind Norton's back.
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This film is a triumph for director David Fincher and probably the best film of his career...rich in imagination and technical wizardry serving a bizarre story that doesn't answer at least half of the questions it poses. I have probably watched this film half a dozen times and there are still elements of the story presented here I still don't understand and probably never will. I think anyone who completely understands every frame of what happens here is lying...I wouldn't be surprised if screenwriter Jim Uhls was even a bit confused when he saw the final product because Fincher's imagination as a director is in overdrive here...creating a dark and dangerous atmosphere filled with over-the-top and unapologetic violence, not to mention Fincher's accustomed expertise with visual imagery...Fincher paints on a cinematic canvas that is startling and gnaws at the viewer like an animal's claw, forcing you to face an ugliness you don't want to face. And though it might seem strange, as squirm worthy and ugly as this story is, it also produces laughs, some nervous and not always intentional, a lot of them having to do with more breaking of the 4th wall than you might expect from a movie like this that just when you might be forgetting it, jumps in and reminds you that it's just a movie.
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The film features exquisite film editing, visual effects, cinematography, sound editing and a cast that is nothing short of perfection. Edward Norton officially became a movie star with his powerhouse narrator and Brad Pitt has never looked better and is just blistering as Tyler Durden and somehow, Helena Bonham Carter manages to create viable chemistry with both stars and create her own individual character, bathed in pathos and self-pity, but in denial about it. Future Oscar winner Jared Leto can also be glanced as a fight club member. It can't be fully explained and it can't be appreciated in a single viewing but if you've never seen this underground masterpiece, get your first viewing out of the way and make sure you're taking notes. 4.5

Gideon58

07-23-16, 03:39 PM

PULP FICTION
The art of film making was changed forever with the 1994 instant classic Pulp Fiction, a bloody and unapologetic crime story that broke all the rules where making movies was concerned and became one of the most talked about movies in history that the most devout film buffs continue to argue passionately about.
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I have watched this movie over a dozen times and have avoided writing about it until this point because I wanted to see if time, re-watches, and input from buffs and film historians might help to clarify the things about this movie that mystified and aggravated me. Some questions have been resolved to my satisfaction but there are other things about this movie I realize I will never understand, but after my most recent viewing I feel ready to talk about this masterpiece and why I never tire of re-watching.
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Director and co-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino created a new way of telling what is, at its core, a rather ordinary story by telling the story out of sequence and populating it with extraordinary characters who are never doing or saying what they are supposed to, along with an uncanny ability to create tension and suspense onscreen that rivals Hitchcock...not the "boo" kind of tension, but the "stop talking because there's a bomb under your table just seconds from exploding" tension, the kind of nail-biting tension that keeps the viewer nailed to the screen.
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On the surface, this is the story of some criminals and assorted lowlifes whose lives intersect in bizarre coincidences and spark tales of unspeakable violence and redemption. The principal characters include a pair of intelligent and philosophical hitmen named Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta), who have been sent to a seedy apartment building to retrieve a briefcase that belongs to their boss, Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Marsellus also has an aging boxer named Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) in his pocket and has arranged for him to go down in the 5th round of his next fight. Marsellus has also arranged for Vincent to take his wife, Mia (Uma Thurman) out to dinner while he is out of town and it is these three separate yet connected stories that provide the canvas for this extraordinary story which stems from some bad choices made by the characters involved and none of these seemingly simple events going as planned.

Tarantino and co-screenwriter won a richly deserved Oscar for this intricate screenplay, a master of cinematic trickery that requires the meticulous connection of tiny story elements that inform the attentive viewer that this story is being told out of order but never tells us what order the events of the story should really be. After over a dozen viewings, I'm still not 100% sure of the order of events in this story, but Tarantino creates such imaginative diversions for us to get swept up in that we really don't care.
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Tarantino the director is no slouch either...as I mentioned before, the man rivals Hitchcock in his ability to create unbearable tension and suspense...when Jules and Vincent arrive to get the case and we've seen them weapon up, it's maddening when they get the case and we have to wait for them to take care of business. Watching Butch and Marsellus tied up in the basement of that store and wondering what's going to happen to them was ultimate squirm material as was Jules' confrontation with a small time robber (Tim Roth).

Not only does Tarantino know how to create suspense but he also knows how to mine laughs from situations that on the surface are in no way amusing. I always find myself laughing throughout Vincent's situation with Mia and Jules' handling of the idiots who had the briefcase...and that damn briefcase...a large chunk of this story centers around a briefcase and we are never told exactly what's in it. Film experts have argued for years about what it is and even Tarantino never really decided what was in it, yet the reactions that the two actors who see the contents. Travolta and Roth, react in a similar way...something tangible and very valuable, but in the mind of Tarantino, just a red herring.
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There is some extraordinary acting led by Samuel L. Jackson, robbed of an Oscar for his electrifying Jules and John Travolta, who also received a nomination and revived a career that was dying after a long series of flops. I learned recently that Michael Madsen was originally approached for the role and turned it down. I could see Madsen in the role but Travolta's legacy as an actor really worked for him here...how could you watch him on that dance floor with Uma Thurman and not have Saturday Night Fever flash through your head? I also think Bruce Willis gives the best performance of his career as Butch, the tortured athlete on the run from his past and present.

The film is rich with atmosphere creating some of the most extraordinary settings for this unconventional story...Jack Rabbit Slims is just possibly the coolest restaurant I have ever seen in a movie. This is one of a kind movie making and should be the first class for any serious student of film making...the ultimate textbook. 5

Gideon58

07-24-16, 03:34 PM

A PERFECT WORLD
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Solid direction by Clint Eastwood and the finest performance of Kevin Costner's career are the primary attractions of 1993's A Perfect World, a somber and atmospheric drama that takes crime drama and the buddy movie to a new and engaging level.
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Kevin Costner plays Butch Haynes, a convict who escapes from prison with his buddy Terry Pugh (Keith Szarabajka) who find themselves having to take an 8 year old boy (TJ Lowther) as a hostage in order to begin their escape across the state of Texas, with a veteran Texas Ranger (Clint Eastwood), one of his officers (Bradley Whitford) and a criminalogist (Laura Dern) hot on their trail.
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Eastwood has constructed a compelling story here and paints on a pretty broad canvas, serving John Lee Hancock's effective but problematic screenplay well. There are some issues with the story that bothered me, primarily regarding the relationship between Butch and his hostage. Stories of kidnappers and their hostages bonding are nothing new, but I was troubled by the way the bonding between the two characters was almost instantaneous. I would think that an 8 year old boy in such a situation would be terrified and resentful of his kidnapper and that a bonding between the two would be tentative and methodic, but this boy never seems to show any fear of Butch and seems to like this stranger without any reservations whatsoever. I guess this is supposed to be because this boy had no father in his life and it is revealed that neither did Butch and that is supposed to be the linchpin upon which this unlikely friendship hangs, but I couldn't buy it happening so quickly. I was also bothered that when Butch learned about the boy's father, he informed him that his father was a no good bum...I don't care what Butch's father was like or even if this was true, you don't say that to a child about his father, whether he's a slime bucket or not.
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Eastwood really erred in the casting of Lowther as the boy as well...if I had seen this film when I did my Worst Child Performances list, this one would have been on it...one of the most wooden performances I have seen from a child in years...the kid just didn't seem to be invested in what he was doing and I'm not even sure he had his lines memorized. Eastwood did make up for it though with the casting of Kevin Costner as Butch. I have never enjoyed Costner onscreen this much, and that includes Bull Durham. This is a real movie star performance where Costner imbues a flawed character with so much likability that we almost forget at moments that this is a criminal but Hancock's screenplay never lets us forget, which makes what Costner does with the character all the more exciting to watch.
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As always with Eastwood, he has employed a crack technical team in bringing this compelling tale to the screen..the film is beautifully photographed with Oscar-worthy cinematography, with nods to the editing and sound departments as well. I also had to mention I loved the moment where Butch pulls the car into an alley and next to him is a painted advertisement for Bull Durham cigarettes. Not a perfect film, but a wonderfully engaging drama well worth investing in. 4

Gideon58

07-24-16, 05:58 PM

Our Idiot Brother
The screenplay is a little unfocused and there is some questionable casting, but I still found myself laughing pretty consistently throughout a 2011 comedy called Our Idiot Brother, another look at adult siblings, like This is Where I Leave You. This film is lighter in tone, but the territory tread here is familiar and mined for maximum humor.
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The film stars Paul Rudd as Ned, the owner of an organic vegetable stand who gets arrested for selling weed to a uniformed police officer. He is released from jail three years later and this film chronicles how he turns the lives of his three sisters (Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer, Zooey Deschanel) upside down.
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Writer/director Jesse Peretz doesn't always seem to be exactly sure whose story he is telling here and populates his story with a lot of very uninteresting minor characters when his focus should have been where the title of the film implies...these sisters' and their relationship with their brother who made a mistake, paid his debt, and is now having trouble getting his life back on track but, in the interim, has gotten himself a little too involved in his sisters' lives. Ned is another one of those movie characters who does all the wrong things for all the right reasons and often engages his mouth without considering the consequences, but he hasn't a mean bone in his body and I LOVED this guy from the moment he appeared onscreen.
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Paul Rudd lights up the screen as Ned, in a role that, as I watched, kept picturing Will Ferrell playing the part but Rudd has rarely been this charming onscreen. Another actor who seemed to be playing someone else's role was Adam Scott as Banks' boyfriend, a role that felt like it was written for Seth Rogen and Emily Mortimer just seemed like she was in the wrong movie...this girl doesn't possess an ounce of comic timing. Loved Banks and Deschanel though, as well as Rashida Jones as Deschanel's lover, Steve Coogan as Mortimer's husband, and Kathryn Hahn as Ned's ex. I went into this film expecting to be bored to death, but I found this film to be surprisingly funny with a wonderful star turn from Paul Rudd. 3.5

Topsy

07-24-16, 06:19 PM

omg that cover of paul rudd :lol: :lol:
Why do they insist on airbrushing photos so much though,it just looks weird.
Havent heard of this movies before,ill have to check it out!

Miss Vicky

07-24-16, 08:43 PM

I thought Lowther did a fine job. :shrug:

Gideon58

07-25-16, 12:00 PM

I thought Lowther did a fine job. :shrug:

You're certainly entitled to your opinion.

Gideon58

07-25-16, 12:20 PM

Hercules
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Disney put their own animated stamp on the Hercules legend in this splashy and entertaining musical diversion that turns classic mythological characters on their ear and surrounds them with some terrific comic relief and some audio and visual trappings we don't see coming.
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In the tradition of Clark Kent and Peter Parker, Hercules (voiced by Josh Keaton and Tate Donovan) is considered a freak and is distressed when he learns from his parents (voiced by Hal Holbrook and Barbara Barrie) that they found him with a medal around his neck that implies he is not human, but a God, which sets our hero on a journey to claim his destiny and purpose in life, finding friendship and romance in the process.
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Ron Clements and John Musker, the creative forces behind Aladdin struck gold again by taking classic literary characters and painting them with a fresh and not so serious coat of Disney gloss...you're know you're in for something very special as the film opens with a pompous narration by Charlton Heston, which gets interrupted by a group of brassy muses (voiced by Lillias White, Vanessa Thomas, Cheryl Freeman, LaChanze, and Roz Ryan) who take over the narration and put it to music that puts Motown to shame.
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The actual story is nothing new, but the execution here is fresh and a lot of fun. I love after Hercules finishes his training with Phil (voiced by Danny DeVito) and travels to Thebes where he not only becomes a hero but a merchandising dream and pop idol. They show his name being put on everything in the city, women trying to tear his clothes off, and most importantly, Hercules being confused by it all. We also are treated to an unconventional leading lady in Meg (brilliantly voiced by Susan Egan); this is no vestal virgin, this girl has been around the block a couple of times and when we meet her she is already the property of our villain, Hades (voiced by James Woods).
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The voice cast is impressive...Loved James Woods as Hades, DeVito as Phil, Rip Torn as Zeus, and Matt Frewer and Bobcat Goldthwait as a pair of villainous stooges named Pain and Panic. Another fun musical fantasy from the geniuses at Disney. 4

Gideon58

07-25-16, 06:39 PM

DONNIE BRASCO
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Director Mike Newell and his two stars deserve the lion's share of credit for 1997's Donnie Brasco, an atmospheric and moody docudrama that is an on-target look at small-time mob sensibility, bathed in rich period detail without making the lifestyle look as glamorous as it has been portrayed in other films and how so many innocent outsiders are affected by it.
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This is the true story of a New York police officer named Joe Pistone (Johnny Depp) who was sent undercover to infiltrate the mob for three months as Donnie Brasco, but as our story begins, he has been in for over two years now and is in perhaps too deep to get out. The central story here concerns the relationship between Joe/Donnie and a veteran wiseguy named Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero (Al Pacino) and how Donnie allows this relationship to become the most important thing in his life without even realizing it's happening, keeping his superiors at arms' length and destroying his real life with wife, Maggie (Anne Heche) and his three daughters.
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Newell has taken facts and molded them into riveting and believable screen entertainment that keeps the viewer on the edge of his seat, due to the complexity of Donnie's life and how much longer he can continue to do this. Donnie's feelings about the whole situation seem to be conflicted to him as they do to us...we observe him in his bare apartment marking the days off the calendar and yet when he does get the opportunity to sneak home to his family, he doesn't offer even a hint about when he might be coming home for good, though when he is home, he still tries to assert himself as man of the house and Maggie is unsure if he hasn't lost that privilege and it's hard not to agree with her...there is a wonderful sequence where he has come home for Christmas and we see him doing ordinary household chores that most people would find mundane, but he is totally relishing this time with his normal life.

On the other side of this story we have Lefty, a wiseguy whose best years are behind him trying to keep his head above water as part of this life because he really doesn't know any other kind of life. It's hard not to like Lefty because of his relationship with Donnie...we almost feel bad for him because in two years Donnie has built complete trust with this guy, which either makes Donnie the smartest cop on the planet or Lefty a complete idiot because in two years, Donnie has to have slipped up somewhere...I can't believe he tells Lefty that he was an orphan and that he has absolutely no family anywhere and Lefty just accepts that.
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Newell manages to recreate 1970's New York with frightening accuracy and does a nice job of offering explanations for various forms of "mobspeak" that we've all heard for years but never really knew what they meant specifically. We learn what the difference between "connected" and "made" means and the difference between being a "friend of mine" and a "friend of ours" means. There is also one terrific scene where Donnie explains the multiple meanings of the most famous mob phrase ever..."forgeddaboutit."
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But above everything we have two powerhosue performances from Pacino, giving us Michael Corleone 30 years later, trying to hold onto his legacy and Depp, a man trying to do his job and hold onto his sanity and always teetering on the edge but always thinking. Michael Madsen, Bruno Kirby, James Russo, Zeljko Ivanek, Gerry Becker, and Brian Tarantino offer solid support, but it is the work of Pacino, Depp, and Newell that make this one work...completely riveting entertainment that was the fastest two and a half hours I have had at the movies. 4.5

Gideon58

07-26-16, 05:10 PM

AT LONG LAST LOVE
https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/77/MPW-38604
Despite some superb production values, Peter Bogdanovich's 1975 musical At Long Last Love is an epic fail due primarily to the director's misunderstanding of the genre and his assumption that we would be as enamored of his leading lady as he was at the time.
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This movie has been maligned as one of the worst musicals ever made and I haven't watched it in decades but felt a re-watch was in order before I wrote about it in order to be fair. I'm glad I did because, believe it or not, there are worse musicals out there, but unfortunately, this one is still pretty bad. This film is supposed to be the director's homage to the musicals of the 1930's, but at times, the screenplay and the director's staging of the story seems to vacillate between homage and lampoon and I'm not sure which Bogdanovich was trying to do here and I have a feeling that his cast was equally confused. The few entertaining moments that this film provides are unintentional.
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The film's plot, such as it is, is centered on a romantic quadrangle: The players are Michael Pritchard III (Burt Reynolds) a rich playboy, Brooke Carter (Cybill Shepherd), a socialite trying to hide the fact that she's penniless, Johnny Spanish (Duilio Del Prete), an Italian gambler. and Kitty O'Kelly (Madeline Kahn), a Broadway musical comedy actress. The story finds this quartet of characters switching back and forth utilizing the iconic music of Cole Porter as a backdrop and herein lies one of the first problems with the film...Cole Porter wrote some amazing songs and they don' t need a lot of "help"...Bogdanovich seems to be working overtime to bring something new to these classic tunes and these are songs that don't really need to have anything new brought to them and even if they did, the cast he chose was not up for the job. Not to mention the endless reprises of each song. For some reason, the director decided it was necessary to give every major character a verse or two to sing of every single song, making some of these musical interludes interminable, made only worse by the lack of singing skill displayed.
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We also have another problem that has plagued a lot of Hollywood musicals, especially ones of more recent years...we have a musical here that stars actors with little or no musical comedy experience. Only two cast members of this film (Madeline Kahn and Eileen Brennan) have any kind of musical comedy experience and since they are not the lead characters, some of the musical numbers are just painful to watch. Every time Reynolds and Shepherd open their mouths to sing is painful...Reynolds has never appeared so uncomfortable onscreen and Shepherd, who it is clear Bogdanovich was in love with at the time, was not worthy of all the screen time she gets here. And Duilio Del Prete is one of the most annoying actors I have ever seen in a movie, over acting and over singing all over the place...it is no coincidence that I never saw him in another movie. The two actors displayed a small semblance of chemistry, but their lack of musical skill put a kibosh on it. Kahn manages to rise above the mediocrity of the material provided as do Brennan and John Hillerman who play Brooke's maid and Michael's butler.
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Bogdanovich has provided us with a musical that moves at a snail's pace...this movie was about two hours long, but it felt like six. The staging and choreography for the musical numbers was dull and unimaginative...the most complex dance step utilized in the film was a triple time step. On the positive side, the film is absolutely gorgeous to look at, with Oscar worthy sets and costumes, but it's just not enough to make this snore-inducing musical worth sitting through. Bogdanovich proved to be a director of some skill with The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, but this film is a strong indicator as to why his career went south. What a waste of talent, in front of and behind the camera. 1.5

Gideon58

07-26-16, 07:19 PM

THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS
Elizabeth Taylor at her most alluring is the main attraction of a 1954 melodrama called The Last Time I Saw Paris, a lushly mounted romantic tale that ranks with the best work of Douglas Sirk.
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The film stars Van Johnson as Charlie Wills, a soldier who returns home from the war to Paris and begins a whirlwind romance with Helen Ellswirth (Taylor), a carefree party girl who kisses Johnson on the street during the coming home celebration. He gets a job writing for The Stars & Stripes and Helen continues to believe that life is one big party. Charlie and Helen marry and have a child, much to the consternation of Helen's sister, Marian (Donna Reed), who also has feelings for Charlie. But Charlie's inability to get his own novel published, which starts him drinking, coupled with Helen's boredom with their marriage leads to constant conflict and eventual tragedy.
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Screenwriter Julies J. Epstein has constructed one of those old fashioned romances that appears to be sincere on the surface, but there are little hints along the way that this relationship is doomed. It is unclear from the beginning whether or not Helen is actually in love with Charlie or if she just pursues him to stick it to her sister, but a love does eventually blossom here, but it is aggravating watching Helen punish Charlie for the kind of behavior that was the norm for her. What we have here is a love affair that takes too long to find its footing for this couple to actually survive.
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This film is slick and glossy and director Richard Brooks pulls a luminous performance from Elizabeth Taylor that lights up the screen. Brooks would later direct Taylor in her Oscar nominated performance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Van Johnson is a solid leading man for Taylor, one of the few actors to do more than one film with Taylor. Clearly, the chemistry they demonstrated four years prior in The Big Hangover was no fluke. I loved these two together and was behind them as a couple from the start. Walter Pidgeon offers one of his most charming performances as Helen and Marian's father. Donna Reed works hard at keeping Marian likable but fights the screenplay. The film also features some exquisite on location photography in Paris and a memorable title song, but this is really Elizabeth Taylor's show...she knows it and owns this film. 3.5

Gideon58

07-27-16, 08:01 PM

GRINDHOUSE
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B movie fans or anyone who ever got in a car and went to a double feature at the drive-in is going to have a ball with Grindhouse, an affectionate and scathingly accurate homage to B exploitation movies of the 60's and 70's that not only perfectly recreates the genre for modern audiences, but educates the genre newcomer to what they are watching and from which the inspiration came. Sadly, I don't think this film did too well at the box office because the all-important 18-34 demographic at which movies are aimed these days didn't have a clue regarding what Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino were trying to do here.
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For the uninitiated, a grindhouse is a former movie palace that used to show classic films but has been closed for many years and has now reopened and is a place where B movies, usually double features, were shown. And for the really young members out there, a B movie is an independent feature made on the cheap that most major studios turned and most A list actors were not interested in appearing in, mainly because the people behind B movies couldn't afford to hire A list actors, so these movies were usually populated with bad actors sprouting a lot of a silly dialogue and working very hard at keeping a straight face while they're doing it.
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Grindhouse is a dead on recreation of the B movie double feature experience...it starts off with a trailer for a movie that hasn't been released yet called Machete which features actor Danny Trejo and then we are treated to the first feature. a zombie thriller called Planet Terror which owes its origins to films like Night of the Living Dead and From Dusk Til Dawn. The director of From Dusk Til Dawn, Robert Rodriguez took the helm for this bloody action thriller which finds the hero (Freddy Rodriguez) and his girl (Rose McGowan) at the center of a zombie invasion and of course, the local sheriff (Michael Biehn) thinks they're crazy. This film is filled with hysterically funny dialogue, stomach-churning violence and features a cameo appearance by Tarantino.
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After a commercial for a restaurant next to the theater and a couple of more trailers, including one for a movie where Nicolas Cage plays Fu Manchu, we are then treated to Tarantino's film, a raucous road picture called Death Proof which centers on a demented former stuntman (Kurt Russell) who decides to murder two different sets of women he encounters but finds a little more than he bargained for in the second group. Russell overacts all over the place and it is perfect for what Tarantino is trying to do here. What I love about these movies is that like the films they pay homage to, they don't employ a lot of A list stars, Tarantino and Rodriguez utilize a lot of actors who have been away from the screen for awhile and it adds a certain authenticity to what they trying to do, not to mention the look of the film...the film has that grainy look from the 70's with all the scratchy lines that we've all seen but pretend that it doesn't annoy us.
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The films not only reference its inspirations like Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, but the directors' work as well...there is even a mention of Big Kahuna Burger from Pulp Fiction. I'm not going to lie, this is a film experience with limited appeal, but those out there who are old enough to understand what Rodriguez and Tarantino are doing here, this hits a bullseye. 4.5

Gideon58

07-28-16, 04:38 PM

SHREK 2
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Disney knocked it out of the park with Shrek 2, the sparkling and imaginative 2004 sequel to their surprise hit from 2000 about the romance between an ogre and a princess that meets and surpasses all my requirements of a good sequel (see my review of The Dark Knight Rises) and provides a lavish animated adventure rich with modern pop culture references seamlessly blended into classic fairy tale sensibilities and the introduction of some new characters who almost steal the show and from the talent already assembled, that is quite the feat. And yes, I'll say it...this is that rarest of rare animals...a sequel that is better than the original.
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As Shrek (voiced by Mike Meyers) and Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz) return from their honeymoon, we learn that the real Prince Charming (wonderfully voiced by Rupert Everett) who was the one who was really supposed to awaken Fiona with his kiss is too late and looks to his fairy godmother (voiced brilliantly by Jennifer Saunders) for help in getting him his true love back. Meanwhile, Mr. & Mrs. Shrek receive a dinner invitation from Fiona's parents, the King and Queen of Far Far Away, inviting them to dinner and a ball they are throwing to celebrate their wedding. Accompanied by Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy), who's "on a break" with his dragon girlfriend, Shrek and Fiona arrive and are met with instant hostility from the king (flawlessly voiced by John Cleese) who is revealed to have a secret agenda with the Fairy Grandmother that the Queen (voiced by Julie Andrews) knows nothing about and Shrek actually gets a shot at living as a human with the love of his life.
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This sequel is nothing short of brilliant, thanks to a solid gold screenplay that seamlessly blends contemporary pop culture references into a fairy tale setting and making them seem perfectly natural. And while providing endless entertainment, the story also quietly provides some important messages regarding friendship, good vs evil, and most importantly, how what you are on the inside is a lot more important than what you look like on the outside. It's a bittersweet part of the story when Shrek gets his first taste of being human because you feel happy for him until it seems like he thinks this is the only way he can hold onto Fiona. The story also introduces two fabulous new characters...the Fairy Godmother, a villain in the tradition of Margaret Hamilton, is presented as a female Donald Trump with a wand who seems to secretly control Far, Far Away and Puss N Boots (beautifully voiced by Antonio Banderas) who the king hires to take Shrek out but he ends up bonding with Shrek instead. I love Puss' secret weapon of "kitten eyes" that he uses to distract his enemies.
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Jennifer Saunders just about walks away with this film with her brilliant voicing of the Fairy Godmother...her rendition of "I Need a Hero" is a showstopper. Banderas also steals every scene Puss is in and Puss' duet with Donkey, following the "Ghostbusters"-inspired finale, is a whole lot of fun. This film is pure entertainment from opening to closing credits filled with warmth and laughter and not just for kids. 5

rauldc14

07-28-16, 04:40 PM

I wouldn't give it a perfect rating, but it did make my top 25 Animated list

gbgoodies

07-28-16, 07:34 PM

The problem for me with the Shrek movies is that I enjoy them while I'm watching them, but I remember very little about them after the movies are over. I've seen the first two Shrek movies multiple times, but I only remember the characters. I don't remember anything about the stories. I don't even remember whether or not I've seen the third movie. :shrug:

Gideon58

07-29-16, 05:31 PM

The Contender
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Don't let the title of the film fool you...the 2000 film The Contender has nothing to do with boxing and is not a sequel to On the Waterfront...this is an intense, timely, and quietly powerful look at the Washington DC political machine and the often unscrupulous practices that keep it operating as well as an unapologetic look at the differences between serving the president and preserving the sanctity of the office, which often causes party lines to blur beyond recognition.
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President Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) has to replace his intended appointment to replace the deceased vice president when Governor Hathaway (William Petersen) becomes involved in a Ted Kennedy-type scandal that the President's handlers deem inappropriate for the office. The President then decides to go with Senator Laine Hanson (Joan Allen), who appears appropriate even though some believe she is only being nominated because she is a woman, but Laine's vice presidential dream starts to derail when an alleged sex scandal in her past surfaces right before the confirmation hearing for her nomination, headed by a republican senator named Shelley Runyon (Gary Oldman) who was a staunch supporter of Governor Hathaway and has personal issues with Senator Hanson that have him doing whatever he can to stop her nomination.
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If you were around during the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal, then there are themes here that should ring familiar, but there are differences here. Instead of responding to the allegations against her, Senator Hanson chooses not to address the issues at all and that's where the crux of this drama lies...why would a woman, a hair's breath from the presidency, refuse to defend herself in order to ensure her becoming the vice president of the United States?

Director and writer Lurie really hits a bullseye here, especially in his creation of the story's central character, Laine Hanson...this woman is a class act, intelligent, sophisticated, the personification of cool. There is only one moment in the story where we come close to seeing the Senator loose her composure and it has nothing to do with the sex scandal, it is when she is being questioned regarding her views on abortion, but she even manages to catch herself before saying something she might regret. This character is grace under pressure and when she explains why she refuses to address issues of her sexual past, we realize she is absolutely right. I also love when Hanson reveals that she has more power as a US senator than she ever would as vice president.

What also makes this film fascinating is watching where the various players surrounding Hanson in this story fall...the President questions her once and lets it go, yet his aide (Sam Elliott), loyal to the president to a fault, is OK with Laine's nomination until this scandal leaks and does a complete 180. We even have a principaled junior congressman (Christian Slater) who, despite being a democrat, has never been a fan of Hanson's and bullies his way onto the nominating committee in order to stop her being nominated. But it is the ugly battle of wills between Hanson and Shelley Runyon that is the heartbeat of this emotionally charged political drama.
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The performances that Lurie has gotten from his cast are nothing short of superb...both Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges received Oscar nominations for their work as Laine Hanson and President Evans. I love the folksy quality that Bridges brings to the President, who is obsessed with trying to order something from the White House kitchen and being told that they don't have it. Sam Elliott gives the performance of his career here as the presidential aide torn between his president and what is best for the office and I'm at a loss for words regarding the work of Gary Oldman here...Oldman is one of Hollywood's greatest chameleons, able to completely transform himself to something unrecognizable for every role and plays psycho better than just about anyone, but this character is no psycho, he is just evil, dripping with venom and Oldman nails it. This story takes a minute to get going but once it does, it rivets to a conclusion that holds a few unexpected twists that will prompt applause. 4

Gideon58

07-30-16, 12:18 PM

CHEF
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Jon Favreau continues his quest to become the next Woody Allen as the writer, director, and star of 2014's Chef, an entertaining diversion that despite some questionable plotting and a contrived and convenient ending, is a pretty smooth cinematic ride.
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Favreau plays Carl Casper, a gourmet chef and divorced dad who has a very public confrontation with with a food critic (Oliver Platt) that results in him losing his job. While traveling with his wealthy ex-wife (Sofia Vergara) and his son, Percy (Emjay Anthony) to Florida, he receives a beat up food truck from his ex's ex (Robert Downey Jr.) and begins a brand new business, with his son at his side.
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Favreau is already a proven commodity behind the camera as director of the Iron Man films and has proven he knows what to do in the director's chair, but his writing is still a little suspect...there are several plot points that I had a hard time digesting...I had trouble getting behind Carl's co-worker in Manhattan (John Leguizamo) quitting his job and going to Florida to help Carl, with no promise of a job or salary. I thought it was a little strange that the ex-wife just let Carl take Percy for the entire summer to work on the food truck and I was really troubled by the EXTREMELY happy ending where everything that happened to our hero was cleared up. The writer and director made sure the star came out smelling like a rose.
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I also am seeing another similarity between Favreau and the Woodmeister and that is his somewhat exaggerated sense of his attractiveness to the opposite sex. I had a hard time accepting Scarlett Johannsen playing his current girlfriend and Sofia Vergara as his ex-wife. This character was all about his work and I just didn't buy that this guy could land women who looked this.
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The film features some attractive photography and the cast, for the most part is solid...Emjay Anthony was a revelation as Percy and the cameos by Robert Downey Jr. and Dustin Hoffman served the story properly. Leguizamo was fun but Johanssen's role was thankless. Overall, we had a very entertaining comedy that could have used a little shot of realism and a little less Favreau vanity floating over the proceedings. 3.5

MovieMad16

07-30-16, 01:07 PM

I'm doing a review of this soon. Think I liked it a bit more than you did, but yeah, nice review.

Gideon58

07-30-16, 01:08 PM

I'm doing a review of this soon. Think I liked it a bit more than you did, but yeah, nice review.

Thank you.

Citizen Rules

07-30-16, 01:22 PM

CHEF

I just didn't buy that this guy could land women who looked this.
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rating_3_5

Very true! That was my thought too! I reviewed this film too and I gave it the same rating. I liked watching it and it's a nice watch.

Gideon58

07-30-16, 03:51 PM

THE BOSS
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Melissa McCarthy and writer/director Ben Falcone, who were behind the disastrous 2014 comedy Tammy had much better luck with the 2014 comedy The Boss that brought the laughs, despite a predictable screenplay and a rather bland supporting cast. Falcone puts the weight of the comedy on McCarthy this time and she is up for the job, providing her strongest outing since Spy.
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McCarthy plays Michelle Darnell, a female Donald Trump who goes to jail for insider trading and upon release, shows up on the doorstep of her former personal assistant (Kristen Bell) and finds a way to scratch her way back to the top by going into business with her former employee selling her homemade brownies.
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Falcone is aware of the comic gold that he is allowed to showcase and this time, he stays out of her way and lets the actress command the movie screen the way she has proven capable. He has fashioned a character for McCarthy that is perfect for her, a take-charge, kick-ass woman who eats business competitors for lunch, which was a welcome change of pace from the doormat he made her play in Tammy...McCarthy is no doormat and she proves it here in a comic tour-de-force that makes this rather ordinary comedy worth a look.
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Unfortunately, Kristen Bell doesn't possess an iota of anything resembling comic timing which made for some rough going at time and Ella Anderson was nothing to write home about as her daughter nor was Tyler Labine as Bell's love interest. Only Peter Dinklage, playing McCarthy's scorned ex-lover manages to match McCarthy in the area of comic timing, making the most of an underwritten role, but it's McCarthy's movie and everyone seems to have been made aware of that and everyone just kind of stays out of her ways and lets her bring the funny, which she does in spades. 3.5

Gideon58

07-31-16, 04:40 PM

THINK LIKE A MAN TOO
Under the category of unnecessary sequels, feel free to file Think Like a Man Too, the 2014 sequel to the overblown 2012 comedy about how the relationship of four different couples is manipulated by a book written by Steve Harvey. Things were resolved satisfactorily at the conclusion of the first film (which took forever to get to) and couldn't imagine what a sequel could be about and, as suspected, an uninspired story borrowing liberally from a half a dozen other better movies was the result.
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The film is centered on the wonderfully original idea of one of the couples, Michael (Terrence Jenkins) has decided to marry Candace (Regina Hall), despite the interference from his smothering mother (Jenifer Lewis) and it is decided that everyone's flying to Vegas for the event...a wedding party in Vegas...we've never seen this before.

Dominic (Michael Ealy) and Lauren (Taraji P. Hensen) are still being kept apart because of their careers; Kristen (Gabrielle Union) is pressuring Jeremy (Jerry Ferrera) into having a baby while still keeping his balls in a mason jar; Zeke (Romany Malco) can't escape his past rep as a player, even in Vegas, and Mya (Megan Good) can't take it much longer; Cedric (Kevin Hart) is trying to be best man for the big event and stay out of the line of fire of girlfriend Gail (Wendy Williams).
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This big contemporary comic soap opera wasn't that interesting in the first film and moving the crew to Las Vegas really doesn't add to their appeal. Not to mention that everything that happens to these people while in Vegas has been seen in just about every movie that takes place in Vegas made during the last 20 years. In terms of story, it's all "been there done that", which is a real problem for a sequel. I barely cared about these people at the end of the first movie, a sequel was going to need a serious hook to sustain my interest and this one didn't have it.
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The cast still looks good, but they all just seem to be phoning it in here...Jenifer Lewis, one of my least favorite actresses, made me want to reach through the screen and strangle her and even Kevin Hart, who can usually be relied on to bring the funny, comes off as forced and annoying. A whole lot of money and a whole lot of talent just gong to waste next to slot machines, swimming pools, and inside strip bars. 1

Gideon58

08-01-16, 06:26 PM

THE AVENGERS
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Just put your brain in check, hold onto something and enjoy 2012's The Avengers, an expensive and eye-popping technical achievement that brings all of your favorite comic book movie heroes together and gives them a classic villain to contain while never letting us forget that most of them are human beings and flawed ones at that.
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The story is so not the thing here, but if that sort of thing is important to you, it seems that Loki (Tom Hiddleston), brother of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), has some unresolved family issues that he has decided to take out on earth by completely enslaving it with the aid of a deadly steel-coated army. Loki is too much for his brother to handle on his own and we then see the genesis of an organization hinted at in Iron Man 2 where Thor gets an assist from Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)in bringing his brother down.
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Needless to say, this film is a technical triumph for director and co-screenwriter Joss Whedon, but what I loved most about this movie is the very human faces the screenplay puts on these superheroes....we are never allowed to forget that, except for Thor, these are all human beings who bleed and feel pain and most importantly, are not always comfortable with being a superhero. I love that when speaking to each other, they always use their real names. We see this immediately with David Banner, who seems to be in denial about the Hulk. I love when he learns he has to go to New York and he sheepishly admits that the last time he was there he "broke Harlem." Ironically, the moment when Banner does finally morph into the Hulk (and Whedon makes us wait for it) is when this film really kicks into high gear.
http://www.movieviral.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/The-Avengers-2012-Movie-HD-Wallpapers-7.jpg
Also loved the immediate antagonism between Iron Man and Captain America. I expected them to pull out rulers and start measuring...the snappy exchanges between these two provided some of the film's funniest moments. At moments, it seemed like this antagonism was going to be instrumental in the Avengers' downfall, but of course, the exact opposite effect is accomplished.
https://ctcmr.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/the-avengers-2012.jpg
This film is a lot of fun, but it definitely has its share of "Aw, come on" moments...all of these characters spend a lot of time defying gravity, falling for miles and miles and somehow conveniently escaping even a scratch or a dent in their uniforms, though I have to admit the scene where Tony Stark is saved by Jarvis and his suit was awesome. Not exactly steeped in realism, but this is a comic book movie where anything can happen. Nods to the film editing and sound departments, but this film is mostly a triumph for Joss Whedon, who has given us an out of this world adventure populated by ordinary people in extraordinary situations and the possibility for endless sequels. 4

gbgoodies

08-01-16, 07:19 PM

The Avengers is one of my favorite superhero movies. I think they finally got The Hulk right with Mark Ruffalo. I hope he gets his own Hulk movie.

Gideon58

08-02-16, 10:58 AM

The Avengers is one of my favorite superhero movies. I think they finally got The Hulk right with Mark Ruffalo. I hope he gets his own Hulk movie.

Mark Ruffalo was great...Mark Ruffalo is always great...he's getting to be one of those actors who I will see anything he does just because he's in it.

Gideon58

08-02-16, 04:05 PM

SCOOP
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3f/Scoopposter.jpg/220px-Scoopposter.jpg
Even Woody Allen has a misfire once in awhile and he had a major misstep with 2006's Scoop, an interesting concept for a movie that gets lost amidst an overly padded screenplay and the director's thinking from below the waist that I'm pretty sure precipitated the casting of the leading female character.

Set in contemporary London, this is the story of a deceased British journalist (Ian McShane) who appears to a journalism student vacationing in London named Sondra (Scarlett Johansson) and strongly suggests that a wealthy English playboy named Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman) is the Tarot Card Killer because he met Peter's secretary upon arrival in Purgatory who suspects her boss murdered her. This tip motivates Sondra and a second rate American magician (Woody Allen) to investigate Lyman so that Sondra can get the scoop of the century, but as expected, Sondra begins to fall in love with Lyman, despite evidence piling up toward his guilt.
http://www.altfg.com/film/wp-content/uploads/images/scoop-woody-allen-review-scarlett-johansson.jpg
The basic idea of this movie is pretty good, but there are a lot of problems here and the primary one is the casting of Scarlett Johansson as Sondra. The Woodmeister clearly has a thing for the actress, having used her to excellent advantage the year before in Match Pont, but that was a drama. Johansson can be a strong actress in the right dramatic role but the woman is not funny and her performance here doesn't work at all and it's not entirely her fault. Woody's screenplay is confusing as to exactly who Sondra is and her degree of intelligence seems to change from one scene to the next. The film is pretty much centered around the character of Sondra, but Johansson just seems out of place here. Woody has even chosen to de-glam the actress for this role...minimal hair and makeup and glasses that do nothing to help her appeal. I guess this was supposed to show us that Johansson doesn't need to reply on her looks, but for this performance it might have helped.

I was also troubled by Woody Allen's performance. I haven't said this in awhile regarding Woody's work onscreen, but I have never found him as tedious and annoying as I did here...his constant stuttering over his lines like he didn't quite have them memorized was maddening. How can the writer not know his own lines? If the truth be known, I think this whole story could have worked without Woody's character at all...it would have been a lot more fun watching Sondra working with a ghost than with this guy, who for most of the running time, really wasn't a lot of help.
https://jamesriverfilm.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/scoop.jpg
Woody gets an "A" for effort here, but he really needs to put a little more thought into his casting process than how it might get him laid. This was so unlike Woody, who normally serves his story first, but he was definitely trying to get something else serviced here. 1.5

gbgoodies

08-02-16, 05:52 PM

Mark Ruffalo was great...Mark Ruffalo is always great...he's getting to be one of those actors who I will see anything he does just because he's in it.

I agree. I haven't seen a lot of Mark Ruffalo's movies, but I can't think of any of his movies that I haven't liked. I'll pretty much watch anything that he's in now, just because he's in it.

gbgoodies

08-02-16, 05:55 PM

I bought the Scoop DVD because Hugh Jackman is in it, but I haven't watched it yet. I'm not a big Woody Allen fan, so I didn't have high hopes for it anyway, but it sounds like it might be worse than I was expecting. :(

Gideon58

08-02-16, 06:46 PM

ROBIN AND THE SEVEN HOODS
https://www.filmlinks4u.to/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Robin-and-the-7-Hoods-1964-Hoolywood-movie-watch-online.jpg
It was hard for Frank Sinatra to get his Rat Pack together in Hollywood long enough to make a movie, but when they did, it was usually worth watching and the best of these few outings was a minor classic from 1964 called Robin and the Seven Hoods.

This brassy and colorful musical comedy takes the Robin Hood legend and transplants it to Chicago in the roaring 20's and recounts how the assassination of a mob boss named Big Jim (a classy cameo by Edward G. Robinson) sparks a war between Guy Gisborne (Peter Falk), who wanted the territory for himself and was behind Jim's elimination and Robbo (Frank Sinatra), who controls the north side of Chicago and has no intention of giving it up to Gisborne or anyone else. We watch as Robbo and Gisborne both want to open casinos but when Robbo impulsively donates a large amount of money to an orphanage, it takes his name and business to an all new level and igniting an all out war with Gisborne. Oh and let's not forget Big Jim's lovely daughter, Marian (Barbara Rush), who wants somebody, anybody, to avenge her father's death.
https://pic.yify-torrent.org/20150617/37435/robin-and-the-7-hoods-1964-720p-largescreenshot2.jpg
Sinatra was the man in 1964 and had the juice to put whatever he wanted onscreen here and as producer, he spared no expense in bringing this elaborate story to the big screen the way he wanted to. With the aid of director Gordon Douglas and screenwriter David R. Schwartz, Sinatra has effectively taken all the classic characters from Sherwood forest and transplanted to downtown Chicago during the roaring 20's and also did something I really didn't see coming: He gave his very talented cast, which included Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Bing Crosby all a little time center stage. As a matter of fact, we have to wait until almost halfway through the film to hear Sinatra sing, but as you might suspect, it's worth the wait. And a special shout out to Peter Falk, who steals every scene he's in.
http://36.media.tumblr.com/3a68faddd0c3ac981b0d7f015aa5c64a/tumblr_mycz7b7qaY1qbvm6yo9_1280.jpg
The first rate musical score provided by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Husen includes, "A Man Who Loves His Mother", "Bang,Bang", "Style", "Mr. Booze", and, of course, "My Kind of Town", which earned an Oscar nomination for Song of the Year. It ain't Guys and Dolls, but there's fun to be had here. 3.5

gbgoodies

08-02-16, 09:35 PM

ROBIN AND THE SEVEN HOODS
https://www.filmlinks4u.to/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Robin-and-the-7-Hoods-1964-Hoolywood-movie-watch-online.jpg
It was hard for Frank Sinatra to get his Rat Pack together in Hollywood long enough to make a movie, but when they did, it was usually worth watching and the best of these few outings was a minor classic from 1964 called Robin and the Seven Hoods.

This brassy and colorful musical comedy takes the Robin Hood legend and transplants it to Chicago in the roaring 20's and recounts how the assassination of a mob boss named Big Jim (a classy cameo by Edward G. Robinson) sparks a war between Guy Gisborne (Peter Falk), who wanted the territory for himself and was behind Jim's elimination and Robbo (Frank Sinatra), who controls the north side of Chicago and has no intention of giving it up to Gisborne or anyone else. We watch as Robbo and Gisborne both want to open casinos but when Robbo impulsively donates a large amount of money to an orphanage, it takes his name and business to an all new level and igniting an all out war with Gisborne. Oh and let's not forget Big Jim's lovely daughter, Marian (Barbara Rush), who wants somebody, anybody, to avenge her father's death.
https://pic.yify-torrent.org/20150617/37435/robin-and-the-7-hoods-1964-720p-largescreenshot2.jpg
Sinatra was the man in 1964 and had the juice to put whatever he wanted onscreen here and as producer, he spared no expense in bringing this elaborate story to the big screen the way he wanted to. With the aid of director Gordon Douglas and screenwriter David R. Schwartz has effectively taken all the classic characters from Sherwood forest and transplanted to downtown Chicago during the roaring 20's and also did something I really didn't see coming: He gave his very talented cast, which included Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Bing Crosby all a little time center stage. As a matter of fact, we have to wait until almost halfway through the film to hear Sinatra sing, but as you might suspect, it's worth the wait. And a special shout out to Peter Falk, who steals every scene he's in.
http://36.media.tumblr.com/3a68faddd0c3ac981b0d7f015aa5c64a/tumblr_mycz7b7qaY1qbvm6yo9_1280.jpg
The first rate musical score provided by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Husen includes, "A Man Who Loves His Mother", "Bang,Bang", "Style", "Mr. Booze", and, of course, "My Kind of Town", which earned an Oscar nomination for Song of the Year. It ain't Guys and Dolls, but there's fun to be had here. 3.5

I thought I was the only one who liked Robin and the Seven Hoods. It's interesting that you compared it to Guys and Dolls. I think I liked Robin and the Seven Hoods a little bit more.

Swan

08-02-16, 09:40 PM

Wow. What a great title.

Gideon58

08-03-16, 10:58 AM

I thought I was the only one who liked Robin and the Seven Hoods. It's interesting that you compared it to Guys and Dolls. I think I liked Robin and the Seven Hoods a little bit more.

The film version of Guys and Dolls has some questionable casting and there was major tampering with Frank Loesser's score, I don't know, I guess I have a soft spot for Guys and Dolls because I've actually appeared in three different productions of the musical. It was just hard not to notice the similarities between Guys and Dolls and Robin and the Seven Hoods.

Gideon58

08-03-16, 05:15 PM

IN THE CUT
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/Snakemaster/ITC_01.jpg
Jane Campion, the woman who directed 1994's The Piano, which won Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin Oscars, is also the force behind 2003's In the Cut, a dark and gritty crime drama wrapped around a somewhat interesting character study that has a couple of solid lead performances, but suffers due to a screenplay that borrows liberally from other movies and has holes you can drive a truck through and hopes we won't notice by bombarding us with repellent gore and gratuitous sex.
http://65.media.tumblr.com/6836d275763c491898d47392592d32d8/tumblr_nv28dgKcoT1qzsuffo1_1280.png
The film stars Meg Ryan as Frannie, a spinsterish school teacher whose sexual repression seems to be somehow connected to her mother's troubled relationship with her husband. It seems Frannie has been keeping most men at arm's length for most of her life, despite encouragement from her sexually uninhibited half-sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who lives above a strip club. Frannie has two very different men in her life as the story begins: Cornelius Webb (Sharrieff Pugh) is a student of hers obsessed with John Wayne Gacy, who is assisting Frannie with a book she is writing on American slang. John Graham (Kevin Bacon) is an actor turned medical student, who is dangerously mentally unbalanced and now obsessed with Frannie to the stalking level. The brutal murder of a woman in her neighborhood brings a third man into her life, a Detective Malloy (Mark Ruffalo), whose sexist attitudes and unabashed sexual heat awaken something in Frannie that she tries to fight but cannot.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d4/4e/5a/d44e5a1792d8954a0fd3c40f8da71a31.jpg
Campion and co-screenwriter Susanna Moore have constructed a story that alternately titillates and repels, but unfortunately, doesn't employ a lot of originality in doing so, sparking images of other movies throughout (Se7en, 9 1/2 Weeks, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and American Psycho to name a few) with a leading female character who is all over the place, placing herself in all kinds of danger, and often the kind of danger she could easily avoid. Lots of unanswered questions here...there is a scene where Frannie comes home and finds John waiting for her in her apartment, half-dressed, questioning her whereabouts and she's not immediately on the phone with the police...this guy is later observed screaming at the top of his lungs to strange women on the street that he is crazy and would they please have sex with him. And that's just the tip of the plot hole iceberg.
http://www.superiorpics.com/movie_pictures/mp/2003_In_the_Cut/2003_in_the_cut_003.jpg
Campion decides the best way to make us not question these minor details is by barraging us with graphic sex and violence, intended to shock and excite but it doesn't make us forget the questions that have been raised and glossed over. If nothing else, like she did in The Piano, Campion does get a couple of superb leading performances from Ryan and Ruffalo...Ryan is properly de-glammed and is the exact opposite of Ruffalo, who seamlessly combines sexy and dangerous to such an intense level you almost don't notice the inconsistencies that run rampant throughout this ugly story...almost. 2.5

Gideon58

08-03-16, 09:48 PM

THE CHANGE-UP
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Myms4xpNL.jpg
The "Body Switch" comedy concept explored in the past with comedies like Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son, and Freaky Friday got a reboot with a 2011 comedy called The Change-up, a comedy that provides sporadic laughs going all the places it's supposed to, even if it takes a little too long to do it.
http://img.cinemablend.com/cb/1/7/e/8/b/a/17e8baece2514481475dbb4c0c94d315ea365eab8ca636ba0c7f3eba80b67c82.jpg
In this re-thinking, the participants are both adults: Dave (Jason Bateman) is a lawyer gunning for partner at his firm and is married to Jamie (Leslie Mann) and the father of three; Mitch (Ryan Reynolds) is an unattached struggling actor who smokes pot and has a mouth like a sailor. Dave and Mitch get together for the first time in awhile and talk about how much they envy each other's lives. They decide to take a piss together in a fountain (something they used to do in college I think) and they wish out loud for each other's lives and, of course, every light in the city goes out for five seconds and when they come back on, Dave is inside Mitch and vice versa.
http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/3751/92/16x9/960.jpg
The issues presented here are a little different than the above mentioned films because of the fact these are both adults as opposed to adults becoming children. Inside Dave's body, Mitch learns that there's more to being a lawyer than watching Law & Orderand that one of Dave's co-workers (Olivia Wilde) has been harboring a secret crush, while inside Mitch's body, Dave learns that Mitch's father (Alan Arkin) is a slimeball and getting back into the swing where unattached sex is concerned is not as easy as he thought.
http://goodfilmguide.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Change-Up-Jason-Bateman.jpg
Jon Lucas and Scott Moore's screenplay takes way too long with the initial screwing up of each others' lives that we expect; but once Dave and Mitch can't locate the fountain and have to embrace their situation and train each other on how to live each other's lives, the film kicks into gear, despite some sticky choices that both guys have to make in order to protect each others' lives as well as their own.
http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/change-up-movie-image-jason-bateman-leslie-mann-01.jpg
Bateman and Reynolds really bring the funny here and almost make some hard-to-swallow plot elements tolerable and I have never enjoyed Leslie Mann onscreen as much as I did here. Director David Dobkin has reined in Mann better than her hubby Judd Apatow ever did and, once again, Olivia Wilde shows a surprising gift for light comedy that serves her role well. It takes a while to get going, but once it does, The Change-Up cruises to a satisfactory conclusion. 3

cricket

08-03-16, 09:59 PM

I was shocked how sexually explicit In the Cut was. I didn't like it on my first viewing, and then found it decent on my second. The good thing is that it made me more of a Meg Ryan fan.

Nice to see The Contender get some love, a good movie that I never see mentioned.

Topsy

08-03-16, 10:11 PM

yeah in the cut is such a weird movie-i like it,but at the same time i dont but still i love it.
i absolutely hated the change up though-whenever i see Jason bateman in interviews i find him hilarious yet his movies are so unfunny!also i know im going to hate a movie when it stars Leslie Mann :lol:

cricket

08-03-16, 10:13 PM

I like Jason Bateman in pretty much anything, but I thought The Change Up was just ok.

Topsy

08-03-16, 10:22 PM

yeah its not really him though,its the type of movies he does-just not my sense of humour.but im not surprised its yours :lol: :lol:

mark f

08-03-16, 10:36 PM

Too generous, cricket, about In the Cut. It was horrible both times I watched it, even if it showed things one wouldn't expect to see.

Gideon58

08-05-16, 05:24 PM

THE WOODSMAN
http://www.impawards.com/2004/posters/woodsman_ver2.jpg
A dark yet completely riveting character study that had me holding my breath and fighting tears for most of its surprisingly economic running time, 2004's The Woodsman addresses a lot of very prickly issues, primarily how the process of criminal rehabilitation often doesn't work because most of the people who are supposed to support the process end up impeding it.
https://justatad.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/the-woodsman.jpg
Walter is a pedophile who has just been released from jail after 12 years in prison and is attempting to start a new life. He has a job and is participating in what seems to be court-appointed therapy. Rehabilitation seems to be paramount to Walter, but there are temptations and roadblocks everywhere he turns: His new apartment is across the street from a grade school where little girls parade in and out all day; his brother-in-law tries to reach out to him even though his sister and her daughter want nothing to do with him; his daily bus ride finds him sitting just a few feet from a pretty 11-year old every day; a police detective is harassing Walter and trying to get him to slip up and worst of all, glancing out his window at the school, he sees a man who is trying to do the same thing with little boys that Walter was doing with little girls.
http://derekwinnert.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/286.jpg
This movie just wreaked havoc with my emotions because Walter not only seems sincere about rehabilitation (he initially balks at his therapist's suggestion that he keep a journal but changes his mind) but has been severely damaged himself by 12 years in prison and we see him doing everything he is supposed to do. We also see people who intentionally or not so intentionally get in the way of the new life that Walter is trying to build for himself. When he spurns a co-workers advances, she outs him in front of the entire workplace; he attempts to seek some common ground with his brother-in-law with some real honesty which meets with a death threat and this police officer who wants to catch Walter doing wrong so badly that he can taste it. He does find the beginning of a relationship with another co-worker, who has her own troubled sexual past (which seemed a tad convenient), but it is clear that Walter's past has also severely affected his dealings with adult women. There are a lot of difficult issues here and no easy answers offered, though writer/director Nicole Kassell piles a lot on Walter's shoulders, there is nothing here that is not deeply and vividly realistic.
http://img.rp.vhd.me/4599993_l5.jpg
With a grand assist from Nicole Kassell, this film works primarily due to a stunning performance from Kevin Bacon as Walter, in the performance of his career that should have earned him an Oscar nomination. I have never seen Bacon lose himself in a character the way he does with Walter...he makes this character strong, frightening, and most of all, terribly sad. Bacon's real life wife, Kyra Sedgwick is solid as his love interest here and this is a case of a real life couple whose offscreen chemistry definitely translates onscreen. Mos Def is properly slimy as the police detective,loved Michael Shannon as Walter's therapist, and Benjamin Bratt as the brother-in-law. This is strong stuff and a must for Kevin Bacon fans...not an easy watch, but worth it. 4

Gideon58

08-05-16, 07:14 PM

SCARY MOVIE 3
The first two films in the franchise were lukewarm attempts at satire at best, but they nailed it in Scary Movie 3, a horror movie lampoon that works because a proven commodity in the art of movie satire is behind the camera.
http://www.liptunesmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Scary-Movie-3-movie-poster_1.jpg
David Zuker, one of the creators of the original 1980 classic Airplane! is in the director's chair this time, offering a delicious send-up of Signs and The Ring, which also offers affectionate winks at The Sixth Sense, Scream, The Matrix, Independence Day, and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy without ever forgetting the film's original intention and that is to make fun of horror movies.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/scary-movie-3/w448/scary-movie-3.jpg
Our heroine Cindy (Anna Feris) is now a television anchorwoman who finds herself in the middle of a mystery that involves a message left in a cornfield belonging to a farmer and ex-priest (Charlie Sheen) and his younger brother (Simon Rex). who dreams of escaping the farm and being a rapper. Cindy finds herself falling for the would-be-rapper whil dealing with a mysterious videotape that has put herself and her son in danger, a danger of epic proportions that becomes national and eventually involves the POTUS (Leslie Nielsen).
http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/30200000/Scary-Movie-3-charlie-sheen-30229859-1920-1088.jpg
This movie works because Zuker and his screenwriters have gone directly to the films referenced above and taken what was ridiculous about them (and let's face it, they all contained at least a trace of ridiculous) and took it to the extreme here, making what might have been unintentionally funny in the original films very funny here and keeping the jokes moving at such a lightening pace that the viewer isn't really allowed time to analyze and figure what isn't exactly right.
http://pmd205465tn.download.theplatform.com.edgesuite.net/Miramax/249/814/ZseWRvYToEenKhtQ3U6Y8t80kSqEXV0t_640x360_53994563653.jpg
Zuker has also surrounded Feris with a lot of familiar faces like Queen Latifah, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Hart, Anthony Anderson, and the late George Carlin, as well as some talented newcomers like Rex, who really seem to understand what Zuker is doing here. The absence of Shawn and Marlon Wayans, who appeared in the first two films, is never really explained and frankly, I didn't care. Other highlights include the prelude with Jenny McCarthy and Pamela Anderson and Charlie Sheen's showdown with Michael Jackson. All I know is that for the first time in this franchise, I was laughing non-stop for 90 minutes. 3.5

Gideon58

08-06-16, 04:17 PM

YOU CAN COUNT ON ME
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/07/You_Can_Count_on_Me_Poster.jpg
I noticed that I had been watching a lot of Mark Ruffalo movies lately and that motivated a long overdue re-watch of one of his earlier efforts, a 2000 sleeper called You Can Count on Me that was probably one of Ruffalo's first significant roles and earned Laura Linney an Oscar nomination.
http://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/wp-content/uploads/2001/04/YCCOM.jpg
Linney plays Samantha, a tightly wound single mother who decides to return to the small town where she grew up to raise her son, Rudy (Rory Culkin), after being badly burned by Rudy's father. Samantha gets a job at a bank, goes to church every Sunday, and picks Rudy up from school every day at 3:15 (a chore that almost keeps her from getting hired at the bank) and seems to be enjoying the dull rut her life has become. Samantha gets excited when she gets a letter from her long lost brother, Terry (Ruffalo) saying he's coming for a visit.
http://www.movie-roulette.com/photos_big/you-can-count-on-me-3-1.jpeg
Actor, writer and director Kenneth Lonergan has mounted what is essentially a dual character study of a brother and sister who are both miserable in very different ways and come to have a profound effect on each other's lives. As expected, Terry's visit turns out longer than he planned and becomes the reluctant father figure for Rudy that was not on his schedule, which has freed up Samantha to explore her inner trashy, manifesting itself in affairs with three different men, including her married boss (Matthew Broderick). You could see that one coming from a mile away though...the sexual tension between Samantha and her boss was immediate and off the chats.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eg04Zz3CERw/S6p0HYOmpbI/AAAAAAAAEFU/uJLnPxD2DJM/s1600/you+can+count.png
What I love about this movie, and Lonergan has to be credited for a lot of this, is the relationship between Linney and Ruffalo up there onscreen as actual siblings. I've seen a lot of movies where actors are playing brother and sister, but they come off more like lovers than siblings, but that is not the case here...we believe from their very first moment onscreen together that these two are brother and sister. There isn't a lot of hugging and kissing between the two, but there is a genuine affection, not to mention the ability to speak to each other without filter. The scene in the restaurant where Terry confesses to Samantha that he spent some time in jail was beautifully performed and directed..I loved the way Linney's Samantha was screaming at her brother and either wasn't aware or didn't care. There was a sadness to it too though because apparently Samantha had some sugar coated memories regarding her brother that were immediately dashed when she got this news, further driven home by his confessing that he only came to visit to borrow money. The scene at the ATM where she's getting him the money also rings true...I love how Terry looks away while she's actually removing the money from the machine.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M_Tu7UxjtNU/UZ6mZS0J1ZI/AAAAAAAAD4E/2YF-2qNyukI/s1600/you+can+count+me+2000+movie+%25284%2529.png
Linney's Oscar-nominated turn is fresh and fascinating, but I really forgot that Ruffalo is the one who makes this movie sparkle...this is a real movie star performance that just bounces off the screen and into your heart and most important of all, you never catch Ruffalo "acting"...the sign of a really great performance. Macauley's little brother is adorable as Rudy and Broderick and Jon Tenney also impress as the men in Samantha's life. Kenneth Lonergan's intelligent yet accessible screenplay and sensitive direction are the crowning touches on this underrated winner. 4

cricket

08-06-16, 08:24 PM

I love that movie^^enough that I've almost nominated it for a HoF. Ruffalo is brilliant in it.

Gideon58

08-07-16, 03:53 PM

DRUNKS
https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/23/A70-11744
The 1995 drama Drunks is an allegedly intense look at alcoholism that scores big in terms of intentions, but the execution doesn't match the intention due to some dated plot elements, some really overripe performances, and most important, is fuzzy in its offering of a solution.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NoGn7fKJ0R8/hqdefault.jpg
This film, which is based on a play by Gary Lennon who did his own screenplay adaptation, actually takes place at an AA meeting, where we meet a disparate group of people who are all suffer from the crippling disease and this is one thing the movie does get right: this disease does not discriminate and these are people who, outside of this disease, would probably never associate with each other. The story opens with Jim (Richard Lewis), who has been sober for three years and reluctantly agrees to be the speaker for this meeting. Jim's angry share seems to move the people at the meeting but it also moves Jim to leave the meeting and relapse. The film shifts between the tracking of Jim's return to drinking and drugging and the meeting where we meet among others, a woman (Lisa Gay Hamilton), whose HIV will kill her if she drinks, a man (Howard Rollins Jr.), sober a year after killing his son while drunk behind the wheel and a doctor (Dianne Wiest) who has been stealing demerol from her patients.
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Admittedly, this film does shine an accurate light on alcoholic behavior: we meet a man (Spalding Gray) who claims he's not alcoholic and that he only came there looking for a choir rehearsal, but the man doesn't leave and reveals that he's exactly where he needs to be. We also meet a woman (Faye Dunaway) who is trying to stay sober for her son's sake and sobriety never works when you're doing it for someone else. We also meet a young woman named Kathy (Annette Arnold) who raises her hand to tell everyone she doesn't want to talk and takes ten minutes to do so. Alcoholism is a disease fed by ego and that is made clear here.
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The film definitely shows its age too...the people at this meeting are observed smoking and smoking in AA meetings was eliminated decades ago, but I think the primary problem here is that the film doesn't really offer the true solution to alcoholism, which has very little to do with going to meetings, but because of AA tradition, what happens in those rooms remains anonymous and cannot be translated to film, which kind of makes what Lennon is trying to do here pointless, but it still might help point someone in the right direction, though I have never heard of anyone getting sober because of this movie.
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The performances are strictly a matter of taste...Richard Lewis is like Pacino on crack and Rollins, Gray, Parker Posey, and Calista Flockhart are equally annoying. Wiest and Hamilton were the only performances that didn't completely make me nuts, but they were not enough to really recommend this film that tries to open eyes to a disease in a way that a film really cannot do. 2.5

Sexy Celebrity

08-07-16, 03:56 PM

That looks like something I would watch -- Drunks. I've never heard of it. Surprisingly. No, I am not a drunk.

Gideon58

08-07-16, 06:55 PM

BUGSY
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Director Barry Levinson and producer/star Warren Beatty spared no expense in bringing their sophisticated 1991 look at crime boss Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, appropriately titled Bugsy, an ambitious biopic that sometimes gives us more style than substance and probably works a little too hard to protect the innocent, but rarely fails to keep the viewer riveted to the screen, thanks primarily to a pair of lead performances that actually led to a history making real life romance.
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For those new to this movie genre, Bugsy Siegel was a major New York crime boss who, along with partners Meyer Lansky and Charlie Luciano moved their business from New York to Hollywood, which Siegel loved and eventually found love with a fiery struggling actress named Virginia Hill, who apparently was not much of an actress so she started sleeping around with major Hollywood players to get seen and get what she wanted out of life. Her attraction to Bugsy was swift and undeniable, according to this film and the fact that Ben was married with two daughters was a non-issue. This glossy Hollywood look at organized crime in 1930's Hollywood, layered with a solid love story about two people who were all wrong for each other, which only made the draw more powerful.
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Barry Levinson, fresh off his Oscar win for directing Rain Man is in rare form here, taking a conventional crime drama and dressing it up with such elegant trappings and cinematic trickery that we can't help but becoming completely enveloped with what's going on. I loved the first meeting of Ben and Virginia, on a Hollywood soundstage with the fake backdrop behind them, not to mention before their first lovemaking session where a lot of the scene is done with the actors' silhouettes was just inspired.
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I also loved the presentation of the central character, not exactly your typical Hollywood thumbbreaker...this Ben Siegel was a sharp dresser who loved the fine things in life and actually really wanted to be an actor...the moments of Ben sitting in his huge screening room watching his screen test over and over again are a bit funny and a bit sad. But this character definitely has the characteristics we've come to expect in a movie like this...Ben is really burned when he learns Virginia actually has a past but she's not allowed to bring up his wife and children. He could tolerate just about anything except people stealing from him, oh, and did you know he hated being called "Bugsy"?
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Beatty the producer took great care with Beatty the actor, a charismatic performance that earned the actor an Oscar nomination and the chemistry he created with Annette Bening as Virginia Hill is something that must be experienced. As was accustomed with Beatty, he fell in love with his leading lady, like he always did throughout his career, but this time was different...this was REALLY love...Beatty eventually ended up marrying Bening and they are still married to this day, but this film was the genesis of a Hollywood marriage no one saw coming. Mention should also be made of a couple of very effective supporting performances that earned Oscar nominations: Ben Kingsley as Meyer Lansky and Harvey Keitel as Mickey Cohen. A stylish and elegant gangster epic that takes an ugly crime story and a twisted love affair and wraps it up in an irresistible and elegant gloss. 4

Gideon58

08-09-16, 06:07 PM

THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN
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The Amazing Spiderman is the spectacular and imaginative re-boot of the Sam Raimi franchise about the high school student who becomes a superhero thanks to a bite of just the right spider. This film is slam-bang entertainment that works thanks to an intelligent and layered screenplay, lighter in tone than the Sam Raimi films, that brings a new and welcome backstory to the legend, some spectacular visual effects, and a pair of charismatic lead performances, especially a less wimpy and more likable leading lady.
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This film takes pretty much the same story path that the 2002 Sam Raimi film did with a couple of startling exceptions. In this film, we get to meet Peter's parents at the beginning of the film. Peter's father, briefly but effectively played by Campbell Scott, was a genetic scientist working on the blending of spider DNA with other animals, and has somehow put him so much danger that he and Peter's mother had to disappear and leave Peter with his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and his Aunt May (Sally Field). This reveal brings an added richness to the story because it implies that Peter's father might have had some influence on what happens to Peter in this story.
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Other story elements mirror the Sam Raimi films. We watch Peter lose Uncle Ben, put another high school bully in his place, discover and try to figure out his powers, and get the attention of pretty Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), who it turns out is the daughter of the chief of police (Denis Leary), who, of course, thinks that Spiderman is vigilante and not the good guy that he claims. What we have here is the story from the Sam Raimi franchise tweaked to a believable effect with a little more humor than the Raimi Spiderman.
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I loved Peter's initial discovering of his powers on a crowded subway, one of the highlights of the film for me. Once he realizes he is different, Peter doesn't just go out and fool around like Tobey Maguire did, he goes straight to his PC and actually does research about what is happening to him and trying to determine possible adverse effects. I was also impressed by Peter's more direct handling of his alleged secret identity....I love that he tells Gwen almost immediately and that it really doesn't change the way Gwen felt about him before she learns the truth, but it doesn't scare her away either. The only person he really isn't honest with is Aunt May, but like the Rosemary Harris version of the character, I think this one knows what's going on but chooses not to talk about it. I also love the way the story subtly sets up sequels through a promise Peter makes and we know there is no way he will be able to keep it.
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Andrew Garfield's goofy charm brings a deliciously human quality to the role of Peter Parker and Emma Stone is a vivacious and intelligent romantic interest, way superior to Kirsten Dunst's MJ Watson. Rhys Ifans offers the performance of his career as Dr. Curt Connors, the demented, one-armed former partner of Peter's father who becomes The Lizard and Denis Leary was solid, as always, as Captain Stacy. The film boasts first rate production values under the skillful guidance of director Marc Webb, with special nods to cinematography, film editing, visual effects, and sound effects editing. This is everything a great popcorn movie should be...just sit back and drink it in. 4.5

nebbit

08-09-16, 11:17 PM

Nice review :yup: Thanks :)

Gideon58

08-10-16, 11:01 AM

Nice review :yup: Thanks :)

Thank you for taking the time to read it.

gbgoodies

08-10-16, 12:05 PM

Gideon58

08-10-16, 03:59 PM

It's kind of funny that you said that about Emma Stone because that's exactly how I felt about Andrew Garfield. He was so much better than Tobey Maguire's Spidey. Like you said about Gwen Stacy, Andrew Garfield's Spidey was "less wimpy and more likable".

Oh, if I didn't make that clear, I preferred Garfield to Maguire as well.

Gideon58

08-10-16, 04:40 PM

The Country Girl
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The Country Girl is the emotionally charged film version of a play by Clifford Odets that received six Oscar nominations including Best Picture and won two Oscars for its seamless blending of character study of a man struggling with addiction and an on target look at the business of show business.
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Bing Crosby, in the finest performance of his career which earned him an Oscar nomination, plays Frank Elgin, an actor whose alcoholism destroyed his career who's being offered a chance to revive his career by director Bernie Dodd (William Holden), who wants Frank to play the lead in a new Broadway musical he's directing called THE LAND AROUND US. The show's producer, Mr. Cook (Anthony Ross) does not want to risk the money he's pouring into this show on an alcoholic has been, but Bernie cannot be swayed and is firm that Frank is perfect for this part. Bernie becomes concerned though when he meets Frank's wife, Georgie (Grace Kelly), a quietly controlling woman who seems miserable with Frank but completely devoted and fiercely protective of him. Bernie believes that Frank will have an easier time doing this show if he can get his wife's tentacles out of him. What he doesn't realize that Frank is lost without Georgie, despite their misery, which developed after the death of their son.
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This film is probably most famous for being the film where Grace Kelly blindsided Judy Garland by winning the Oscar for Best Actress over Garland in A Star is Born and after this recent re-watch, my opinion about this Oscar win has not changed...Garland was robbed. Don't get me wrong, Kelly works very hard to be believable in this role and actually dared to step in front of the cameras sans eye makeup, but the performance just didn't work for me but I don't blame Kelly entirely. I don't think it was necessarily the matter of a bad performance as it was a matter of Kelly was miscast. This character is a simple, unsophisticated woman from the country, as the character describes herself and no matter how many unattractive frocks you put her in or how much makeup you deprive her of, there is nothing about Grace Kelly that says simple or unsophisticated. The woman claims complete disdain for show business yet knows an awful lot about it, in some ways, even more than Frank, which just doesn't make sense. Kelly's onscreen persona, and Frank even uses the word to describe her as such, is regal and the sophisticated dialogue she is given on top of the allegedly simple woman Georgie is supposed to be, the character never jelled for me and Kelly failed to convince in this role.
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Bing Crosby, on the other hand, is a whole other story. This film was actually made the same year he made one of his biggest hits, White Christmas, and you would never know it's the same actor in both films. Crosby has never lost himself in a character the way he does here...the charming crooner who inhabited so many classic musicals is but a distant memory here. Crosby's Frank Elgin is a confused frightened child who wants this chance to revive his career more than anything, but convinces himself at every turn that there's no way he can do it. Though he does his best to conceal his feelings which he can only accomplish by lying to everyone about everything, something very common with addiction. There are a couple of moments in the film where Georgie and Bernie ask Frank the same question and he gives them completely different answers. Crosby really understands Frank and gives him an emotional center that is, at times, heartbreaking. I would have given Crosby an Oscar over Kelly...it also easily trumps his Oscar winning performance in Going My Way.
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William Holden, who actually has the most complex role in the story, is absolutely kinetic here as the man willing to stand behind Frank as long he can get him away from Georgie but even Bernie's motives come into question near the end of the second act, but Holden's performance never does. He manages a viable chemistry in his individual scenes with both Crosby and Kelly that always rings true.

George Seaton's direction is intense and he won an Oscar for his adaptation of Odets' play. Mentioned should also be made of Anthony Ross as the slimey producer Mr. Cook. Other than Kelly and an overbearing music score, this film is a gripping experience and if I do a thread about favorite movies about show business, this film will definitely be somewhere in the top ten. 4

Gideon58

08-10-16, 07:48 PM

FOOTLOOSE (2011)
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My love of the original 1984 musical had me very wary about watching the remake but I broke down today and got pretty much what I expected. If you're going to remake a film, it is important to bring something new to the piece without sacrificing the integrity of the original and despite a modicum of updating, this remake really doesn't bring anything new to the cinematic table.
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For those unfamiliar with the original film, this is the story of a kid from the big city named Ren McCormick who moves to a small town in Texas where loud music and dancing are forbidden because of a horrible accident in which five teenagers were killed and how Ren fights to get that law changed, initiating a battle of wills with the local minister, while dating his daughter, a girl who spends her time trying to not be "the preacher's daughter". This movie was the surprise hit of 1984 and officially made Kevin Bacon a movie star, who was assisted by a kick ass music score which included a memorable title tune by Kenny Loggins and a memorable turn by John Lithgow as the minister.
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Dean Pitchford, who wrote the screenplay for the 1984 original also served as co-writer for this film, along with the director Craig Brewer and that becomes obvious very quickly as this film is pretty much a scene-for-scene remake of the first film, much like Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho, but like that film, it attempts to reproduce the original film than find its own footing as an original work. There were a couple changes to the story that may or may not have been necessary. It was decided for this film that the film open with the actual accident that inspired the law and one of the victims turns out to be Rev. Shaw's son and Ariel's brother. Ironically, when they are in the car, they are listening to Kenny Loggins' original song, which was kind of odd.
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There are couple of scenes that work...the scene where the four leads drive to a nearby town and visit a western bar features some spectacular line dancing and my favorite scene in the original film, where Ren teaches Willard how to dance to the strains of Denice Williams belting out "Let's Hear it For the Boy" did not disappoint but the rest of it just felt like Pitchford was so obsessed with maintaining the spirit of the original film that this movie never really finds its own footing and because of that, is very slow going in spots. This movie even lifts actual choreography and costuming from the first movie.
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Kenny Wormold inherits the role of Ren McCormick and he's cute and can dance, but doesn't have the charisma that Kevin Bacon brought to the role and Julianne Hough also fails to convince as the good girl who wants to be bad. Dennis Quaid is fine as Rev. Moore, but it is Miles Teller who steals the show playing Willard, the role played in the original by the late Christopher Penn, the farm boy who loves to fight and can't dance. Yes, this is another one of those remakes that motivates my accustomed reaction to most remakes: Stick to the original. 2.5

Gideon58

08-11-16, 11:09 AM

DISCLOSURE
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When does sexual harassment become assault? Does no really mean no? When does assault become rape? Is submitting to your attacker required if the attacker is your boss? And are any of the answers to these questions altered by the fact that the attacker is female and the victim is male? These questions provide the canvas for a sexy and stylish thriller from 1994 called Disclosure.
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Michael Douglas stars as Tom Sanders, an executive at a computer software company who learns he has been passed over for a promotion that went to a former lover named Meredith Johnson (Demi Moore). After Meredith's first day at the firm, she calls Tom to her office for an after hours meeting and forces him to have sex with her. Tom goes home, takes a shower, and says nothing to his wife Susan (Caroline Goodall). Tom arrives at the office the next day and learns that Meredith has gone to their boss (Donald Sutherland) and claimed that he sexually harassed her. Boss Sutherland is in a panic because he's afraid that this scandal will disrupt an upcoming merger for the company that means millions. He tries to manipulate a transfer for Tom, who's not having that and decides that his only option is to sue Meredith and the company for sexual harassment.
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This is such a fascinating, little talked about subject that has rarely been addressed in the movies and it really gets an intelligent and balanced look, thanks to a very clever screenplay by Paul Attanasio, based on a novel by Michael Crichton and the meticulous direction of Oscar winner Barry Levinson. The filmmakers really score here by having this story unfold very leisurely...until the fateful confrontation between Tom and Meredith occurs, we have absolutely no idea what this movie is about. And regarding said confrontation, this scene is brilliantly directed, edited, and acted and worth the price of admission alone. There is evidence to support that what begins as sexual assault becomes consensual sex but that is for the individual viewer to determine. It does aggravate that when the trial/mediation proceedings begin, that Tom's sexual past is open to examination but Meredith's is not. Levinson does offer subtle clues as to what's going to happen, but they are so subtle you don't really notice. There is a moment early on where Tom is observed patting his secretary on the ass with a file folder and the camera zooms right in on it and we're not really sure why at that moment, but it definitely comes into play later.
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The movie loses steam during the final quarter after the trial ends, but this film is riveting entertainment for most of its running time. Douglas and Moore create a steamy and combative chemistry and Sutherland is appropriately oily as the boss whose loyalties change from scene to scene, not to mention Dylan Baker as his toadie. Goodall also has some strong moments as Tom's wife and Roma Maffia is wonderful as Tom's attorney, but more than anything, this film is a testament to the directorial style of Barry Levinson. 3.5

Gideon58

08-11-16, 06:31 PM

CHINATOWN
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A pair of charismatic lead performances, a meticulously crafted screenplay, and the undeniable artistry of Roman Polanski in the director's chair made 1974's Chinatown an instant classic that received ten Oscar nominations, including Best Picture of the Year and deserved every accolade it received. This film is, simply a masterpiece and I am kicking myself for waiting so long to see it.
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The setting is 1930's Los Angeles where we meet a slick private investigator named JJ Gittes who is hired by a woman named Evelyn Mulwray to find out if her husband, the Los Angeles Water Commissioner, is having an affair. It is soon revealed that the woman who hired Gittes is not the real Mrs. Mulwray and a short time later, Mulwray is found dead and Gittes wants to find out exactly what happened and is confused when the real Mrs. Mulwray just wants him to drop it and even pays him to do so. And thus begins a convoluted and fascinating tale of murder, greed, corruption, and family dysfunction whose many plot twists are difficult to keep up with at times but not so difficult that we don't stay on the edge of our seats for the entire running time.
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Say what you will about the man's personal life, there is no denying that Roman Polanski is a master at screen storytelling, crafting a moody and disturbing crime thriller that will have names like Bogey, Bacall, Chandler, and Marlowe going through your head as Polanski proves his understanding and appreciation for the film noir and provides us with a dead solid perfect homage to the genre that entertains from start to finish with a grand assist from Robert Towne's flawless screenplay, which won the film its only Oscar. With the aid of some superb production values, Polanski beautifully recreates the gritty 1930's Los Angeles that this story demands, it's so dead on accurate that there were moments as I was watching that I almost wished Polanski had done the film in black and while...almost.
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Polanski's cast delivers the goods as well, serving the story and always keeping it center stage...Nicholson was Oscar nominated for his sexy and unpredictable JJ Gittes and I don't think Faye Dunaway has ever been better, perfectly channeling Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford in her role as the real Evelyn Mulwray that earned her a nomination as well. Dunaway would win an Oscar the following year for Network, but I have to wonder if that award was partially a consolation prize for being overlooked here. Dunaway is just flawless as the femme fatale who should have had a sign hanging around her neck that read "I haven't told you anything close to the truth and never will." There is a very stylish cameo by Oscar winning director and actor John Huston and even Polanski makes a cameo appearance as a menacing thug who cuts up Gittes' nose. Anyone who has any questions on how to make an effective film noir need look no further than here. 5

Gideon58

08-12-16, 04:10 PM

PAL JOEY
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Frank Sinatra fans will be in heaven with Pal Joey, a sparkling 1957 re-tooling of the 1940 Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical that is definitely a watered down version of the original stage piece, but revamped to fit Ol' Blue Eyes, it still provides solid entertainment value.
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The 1940 Broadway musical actually starred Gene Kelly, who made three films with Sinatra, so Sinatra taking over for the film version seemed like a no-brainer. Sinatra plays Joey Evans, a womanizing nightclub singer who gets a job at a club in San Francisco and finds himself torn between two very different women. Linda English (Kim Novak) is a chorus girl at the club where Joey works and catches Joey's eye immediately but she won't give him the time of the day, which makes her all the more attractive. Joey and his band are hired to perform at a charity gala at the home of high society matron Mrs. Vera Prentice-Simpson (Rita Hayworth), whom Joey immediately recognizes as a former stripper known as "Vera of the Vanishing Veils" and finds himself drawn to her when she offers to finance his very own club called Chez Joey and you have what has become a staple of musical comedy: the romantic triangle.
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What is different here is that Joey is really not a very nice guy and makes no apologies for it. Joey's character is established in the opening scene where he is being escorted by the police onto a train out of town for having the mayor's underage daughter in a hotel room. When asked about how he handles women he explains, "You treat a dame like a lady and a lady like a dame." And as much as Joey enjoys female company, he has no desire to be attached to a female either. Joey shows his true colors as he pulls away from Linda when he realizes he can make his dream of being a club owner come true with Mrs. Simpson and it is Joey's shabby treatment of these two women that becomes the draw of this musical.
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The role of Joey fits Sinatra like a glove and he doesn't shy away from the negative aspects of the character at all...creating a three dimensional musical comedy leading man who doesn't always act the way he's supposed to. Rita Hayworth is as alluring here as she was 11 years earlier in Gilda and though she looks amazing, Kim Novak's wooden performance made it hard for me to understand Joey's interest in her. I found the chemistry between Sinatra and Hayworth much more interesting and it is their complex relationship that makes this musical worth investing in.
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Of course, the iconic score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart is a big drawing point as well. I never saw the stage show, but I have heard the original Broadway cast soundtrack and the original score was butchered, not an uncommon practice in bringing Broadway to Hollywood, but we still have "I Could Write a Book", "Zip", "There's a Small Hotel", "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", "The Lady is a Tramp", and "My Funny Valentine". The songs are well-performed, even if Sinatra is the only lead doing his own singing. JoAnn Greer sings for Hayworth and Trudy Stevens sings for Novak, but both actresses do lip-sync convincingly. There is a dream ballet near the climax of the film that seems out of place, but the film is watchable thanks to George Sidney's breezy direction and the talents of Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Frank Sinatra. 3.5

Gideon58

08-12-16, 07:06 PM

THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY
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After a 4th watch, I think am ready to tackle reviewing the richly complex psychological thriller from 1999 that is as mesmerizing as it is aggravating and leaves all kinds of story elements open to personal interpretation. This is all a part of the cinematic enigma known as The Talented Mr. Ripley.
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Tom Ripley is a washroom attendant who accidentally meets a millionaire whose son is living in Italy and Tom claims that he and Dickie, the son, were schoolmates at Princeton. This motivates Dad to offer Tom $1000 to go to Italy to get Dickie to come back home. Upon arrival in Italy, Tom instantly bonds with Dickie and his fiancee, Marge but the bonding reaches beyond friendship slipping into obsession and maybe even further than that and when Dickie decides he can't play by Tom's rules, it forces a fatalistic move on Tom's part that forces him into a dangerous charade that gets stickier and causes more collateral damage as Tom goes into self preservation mode.
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Anthony Minghella has mounted a fascinating drama here, based on Patricia Highsmith's novel, where a lot is left to viewer interpretation. Each time I have watched this film, I find myself waffling as to whether Tom falls in love with Dickie or if he wants to be Dickie and being unable to decide what's going on in Tom's head I've finally realized is rather futile because Tom is a sociopath and I'm still not sure if he was in love with Dickie or not. This is made all the more aggravating because the sexual tension between Tom and Dickie is off the charts, though both men are in denial about it and that's what makes this story so fascinating...how does Tom justify what he does and how does it affect Marge and how does he sleep at night and is he going to get away with this?
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Minghella's intelligent screenplay is matched by his crisp and detailed direction that always raises questions for me every time I have watched this film, but the brilliant performances by Matt Damon and Jude Law, who received a Best Supporting Actor nomination are a primary selling point as well. The sexual heat these two actors generate onscreen is undeniable, whether or not it was intended it's there and it's what makes this film sizzle. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Cate Blanchett, and Jack Davenport are solid as more collateral damage in Tom's orbit. Gwyneth Paltrow's Marge is a little hard to take, but does not deter from a film that I never tire of re-watching but still feel like there's a payoff I should be getting that I'm not. 4

nebbit

08-13-16, 01:12 AM

You have been busy Gideon :yup: Nice reviews I own most of these movies :yup:

Gideon58

08-15-16, 06:05 PM

LEAVING LAS VEGAS
http://www.chasingthefrog.com/most_substance/Posters/LeavingLasVegas.jpg
Nicolas Cage won the Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actor of 1995 for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas, an, at times, over-the-top, but for the most part, revealing look at the disease of alcoholism, bringing home the isolation and insanity that the disease can cause and also providing a rare look at the pain and suffering that can come from enabling an alcoholic.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ke6kU0rD8Jg/maxresdefault.jpg
This was my second watch of the film, which placed at # 23 on my list of favorite movies about addiction and I'm inclined to think this placement is pretty accurate, though there were many who didn't think so when I posted the list. The film is an insightful look at the disease of alcoholism; however, director and screenwriter Mike Figgis uses the same sledgehammer approach that Robert Zemeckis utilized for Flight, taking this story to the very extremes of where we are introduced to these characters, trying to make us accept unacceptable behavior that we are supposed to forgive because the root of the behavior is a disease.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6aqjImwniec/hqdefault.jpg
Cage plays Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter whose drinking destroyed his career and his marriage, which ended with his wife and daughter leaving him. When Ben gets fired from the studio, instead of taking a serious look at what his life become because of alcohol, he decides to liquidate his assets, move to Las Vegas and drink himself to death, where he meets an intelligent but lonely prostitute named Sera (Elisabeth Shue), who inexplicable finds herself drawn to the man and thinks she has accepted who Ben is and wants to be with him anyway.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sUZTgDtt6dw/maxresdefault.jpg
Figgis mounts this drama with an unapologetic eye, beginning the story with some really outrageous behavior on Ben's part...a moment where Ben is observed driving down a busy Hollywood street downing a bottle of vodka with the law behind him is almost laughable, but the story settles into a more realistic vein once Ben gets to Vegas and I like that Ben never makes any qualms about why he came to Vegas. When he first meets Sera, he tells her flat out that he came here to drink himself to death, which initially amuses Sera but when she realizes that it's the truth. she actually gifts him with a flask, a symbol of her understanding and the beginning of her enabling Ben that would be instrumental to his downfall. She thinks she understands and accepts Ben for who he is but she really doesn't.
https://filmhaze.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/nicolas-cage-elisabeth-shue-in-leaving-las-vegas2.png
The story then becomes a challenge between Ben and Sera as Ben doesn't want to do anything but drink and Sera discreetly tries to foster an interest in something else, anything else...she suggests that they gamble one night and it ends in an explosive meltdown for Ben that has them being thrown out of the casino. Her suggestion that Ben move in with her eventually has circumstances for her that she calmly accepts. We get an interesting mirror to Ben's predicament as we see Sera try to explain her feelings to a therapist and trying to leave her complicated relationship with her pimp (a brilliant turn by Julian Sands) behind her.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OxuxvWWv9dw/T66d4Fi7glI/AAAAAAAAEHc/KB__eKvUg2U/s1600/Leaving+Las+Vegas.png
The performances are strictly a matter of taste. I read that before filming began on this movie, Cage and a friend took off for two weeks and drank as "research" and there is some effective scenery chewing here and there, but for me, the secret of playing a good drunk scene is trying to act like you're not drunk and Cage doesn't have a single moment in the film like that. On the other hand, I guess he wouldn't because Ben never tries to conceal his disease from anyone in this movie. Elisabeth Shue was also nominated for Best Actress for her Sera. Shue works very hard to be a convincing prostie-with-a-heart-of-gold, but I just kept picturing Chris in Adventures in Babysitting playing dress up and just couldn't get behind the performance, but the actors and Mike Figgis reveal a passion for this project that puts the ugliness of alcoholism center stage. 3.5

cricket

08-15-16, 08:12 PM

When you say the scene of Ben driving down the street swigging a bottle of vodka with the police next to him is laughable, do you mean humorous or silly?

Gideon58

08-16-16, 11:33 AM

Gideon58

08-16-16, 12:11 PM

The Big Bus
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z1XThePEdbc/UGHh31I6y1I/AAAAAAAAEow/8C1U-ujnmEI/s1600/bus.jpg
Disaster movies were all the rage during the 1970's and anyone who has ever seen The Poseidon Adventure or Earthquake is well aware that this is a genre rich for lampooning and the first lampoon actually came right in the middle of the disaster craze, a 1976 comedy called The Big Bus. And if the truth be told, I can see where the Zucker brothers got some of their inspiration for Airplane!
https://starcarcentral.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/bus00b.jpg
This film made my worst comedies ever made list and though a re-watch proved that it wasn't as terrible as I remember, it still belongs on that list. This comedy is the overblown adventure of the first nuclear-powered passenger bus and its maiden voyage from New York to Denver. This bus looks more like a train..it has three cars and has a swimming pool, a bowling alley, and a cocktail lounge. Apparently there are rich oil lobbyists trying to stop the bus from being built but it gets done anyway. The driver who had been pegged for this journey gets injured and Kitty Baxter (Stockard Channing), the designer of the bus must turn to a disgraced former driver and ex-lover named Dan Torrance (Joseph Bologna) to take over as driver. who agrees as long as his new BFF Shoulders O' Brien (best character name ever) can be his co-driver. Unfortunately our crew has to deal with an insane millionaire in an iron lung (Jose Ferrer) and his insecure brother (Stuart Margolin) who have planted a bomb on the bus.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/the-big-bus/w448/the-big-bus.jpg
Of course, this landmark journey is taken by the expected nutty assortment of passengers, including a horny fashion designer (Lynn Redgrave), an about to be divorced wealthy couple (Sally Kellerman, Richard Mulligan), a disgraced veterinarian (Bob Dishy), a priest doubting his faith (Rene Auberjunois), and a man with six months to live (Richard B. Schull).

As I said, this is a genre rich for parody and screenwriters Fred Freeman and Lawrence J. Cohen have definitely done their homework...all of the stock characters that we've seen in disaster films make an appearance in some form here. Ned Beatty appears as a some kind of ground technician who seems to be a takeoff on Joe Patroni, the character George Kennedy played in the Airport movies and Auberjunois' character is a spot on jab at Gene Hackman's character in The Poseidon Adventure. There is a little too much time spent on exposition here...the scene in the bar where Bologna's character is introduced is way too long and the bit with Harold Gould being injured and doctor Larry Hagman saying he cannot be moved, even in the middle of a blinding rainstorm gets old quickly, but once the bus actually begins its journey, there is sporadic fun.
http://cdn.thedissolve.com/reviews/320/fullwidth.c57d120b.jpg
Bologna and Channing are credible leads and Kellerman and Mulligan are very funny. Some of the funniest moments in the film actually come from Murphy Dunne as the lounge pianist in the cocktail lounge, a role he would briefly reprise in the Mel Brooks comedy High Anxiety. The screenplay could have been a little more economic, but James Frawley's direction is just manic enough for this kind of satire. If you liked Airplane!, there are laughs to be found here. 2.5

Citizen Rules

08-16-16, 12:16 PM

The Big Bus sounds kind of fun and after hearing about if from Captain Steel and reading your review. I will give it a watch:)

cricket

08-16-16, 05:24 PM

I'm not sure what the difference would be, but the sight of the man behind the wheel of an automobile chugging a full bottle of vodka was kind of difficult to take seriously...even the most serious of alcoholics are not going to get behind the wheel of a car with a FULL bottle of vodka and chug away like that...he didn't even have it in a bag. I also had a hard time believing that the cop didn't see it...and then the cop pulls ahead and he just pulls out the bottle and back to business? Sorry, just didn't buy it.

Thanks for the reply. The reason I asked is because you're wrong about that, and I know that from experience. I was just like Ben, and I wouldn't drive without chugging booze, and it didn't matter who was looking. I even drank alcohol inside a police cruiser-on two seperate occasions! Diving around Montreal I pulled up next to a cruiser, asked them in a fake Australian accent where the whores were, and chugged my beer while I was talking to them. I used to intentionally bump police cruisers when I pulled up behind one at a red light. I don't know why I did these things, but the fact is that some people drink themselves to obliteration and display outrageous behavior. The point is that, if you were to come to the realization that his actions in the movie were realistic, would you like it more?

Gideon58

08-16-16, 06:22 PM

Gideon58

08-16-16, 09:15 PM

FAME (2009)
My recent viewing of the remake of Footloose gave me the cajones to brave the 2009 remake of Fame and I'm going to come right out and say it...I liked this movie a lot.
http://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/movie/movie_poster/fame-2009/large_90PcOmNyDsiw3cC0CPjNsnvMOfM.jpg
This is a splashy and imaginative re-thinking of the 1980 Alan Parker musical that won an Oscar for its title song and spawned a long running television series. I must qualify the review that follows by saying that this movie is not for everyone...there are two particular demographic segments to whom this movie will appeal: Of course, if you loved the 1980 film you will definitely find entertainment here. The other demographic that this movie will work for is people who have any kind of direct experience with theater or show business. I possess a Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theater that I earned at a school very much like the School of Performing Arts and just about everything that happens here is something that I can tap into in some way or form and understand what these kids go through.
http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/image-base/Movies/F/Fame_2009/slices/Fame%20movie%20image%20slice%20(1).jpg
This film follows the basic premise of the first film to the letter..we follow a group of high school students from the audition process to graduation from Performing Arts. Screenwriter Allison Burnett has taken the characters and situations from the original film and tweaked them just enough that this film finds a life of its own while paying complete respect to the film it is based on. The film touches upon all the subjects that you would expect from this film such as having a passion for the business is pointless if you don't have the talent, that people in this business do not always have the most honorable intentions and if you don't enjoy what you're doing, you're never going to be really good at it.
http://www.comingsoon.net/assets/uploads/1970/01/file_538179_famereview.jpg
Among the characters we meet are a brilliant keyboard player named Victor (Walter Perez), a shy aspiring actress named Jenny (Kay Panabaker), a very angry rapper (Collins Pennie), and a dancer named Kevin (Paul McGill), who wants to dance professionally more than anything but doesn't really have the talent. The most compelling story for me revolved around Denise (Naturi Naughton), a girl who has been forced to be a classical pianist by her father, but her real passion is singing, which is beautifully revealed in Naughton's breathtaking rendition of "Out Here On My Own", the only song from the original film utilized here, but given a fresh rebirth here.
http://gorgview.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/flame-punch.jpg
The "Hot Lunch" jam from the first film is faithfully recreated with the addition of rap and tap. I loved that the art of tap dance is not overlooked in this film, but it did bring up one minor quibble I had. There is a fabulous scene of a tap class that is taught by the school's ballet teacher (Bebe Neuwirth), but technically a ballet teacher would not be teaching a tap class, but I digress. Neuwith has a first rate moment of drama though when she tells Kevin the truth about his future. Also loved Kelsey Grammer as the piano teacher and Megan Mullally as the voice teacher. We even get treated to Mullally bringing down the house with a rendition of "You Took Advantage of Me". Another loving salute to the original film is the casting of Debbie Allen, who had a small role in the original film and was the star of the TV series, playing the head of the school. Charles S. Dutton also brings a wonderful depth to his role as the acting teacher.
http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/8300000/Fame-fame-2009-8380241-1920-1280.jpg
This film is consistently entertaining for the most part, rich with some very talented singers and dancers. There is some dazzling choreography aided by some sharp editing and the gospel choir rocks, despite the fact that a lot of the singers were white, but another minor quibble regarding one of the most entertaining remakes I have seen in a long time, creating its own effervescent life while honoring with style the film from which it originated. 3.5

cricket

08-17-16, 03:24 PM

I would like it more if a subject as serious as alcoholism is going to be dealt with in a film then it needs to be dealt with in a serious manner...this is a disease that kills more people than anything. To show this man doing what he was doing with no consequences was wrong. You may not agree with me and you have that right, but telling me I'm wrong is inappropriate...we can agree to disagree. To have that scene and not at least have him be caught by the cop was wrong, case closed.

There's a saying that when a person gets caught drinking and driving, it's never their first time. He died, and I would consider that the ultimate consequence. A person is way more likely to not get caught drinking and driving, than to get caught.

Gideon58

08-17-16, 03:41 PM

There's a saying that when a person gets caught drinking and driving, it's never their first time. He died, and I would consider that the ultimate consequence. A person is way more likely to not get caught drinking and driving, than to get caught.

The time lapse between his vodka incident and his death was considerable...the consequence should have been immediate...there was no point in having a cop pull up on him and not catch him and arrest him, that's how that scene should have played, he should have been caught and thrown in the drunk tank, and with that, I would like to end this discussion.

cricket

08-17-16, 03:44 PM

The time lapse between his vodka incident and his death was considerable...the consequence should have been immediate...there was no point in having a cop pull up on him and not catch him and arrest him, that's how that scene should have played, he should have been caught and thrown in the drunk tank, and with that, I would like to end this discussion.

I respect your feelings, and if all was perfect in the world, he would have been caught. However, the odds of it actually happening are very slim

Gideon58

08-17-16, 06:43 PM

CRY-BABY
John Waters' singularly unique directorial style, a delicious musical score, and a pair of charismatic lead performances are the primary selling points of a 1990 gem called Cry-Baby, which finds Waters offering universal yet well worn cinematic themes and dressing them up with his outrageous cinematic concepts and his bizarre rep company of actors.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b9/Crybabyposter.jpg/220px-Crybabyposter.jpg
The film is set in the only place and time that Waters works: 1950's Baltimore. The story is very simple: The virginal Allison-Vernon Williams (Amy Locane) finds herself drawn to Wade Walker AKA Cry-Baby. The problem is that Allison is one of the "Squares", the proper folk on the right side of the tracks, whose spiritual leader seems to be Allison's tight-assed grandmother (Polly Bergen). Cry-Baby is one of the "Drapes"
, the outrageous troublemakers led by Cry-Baby's nutty grandmother (Susan Tyrell), her common law husband (Iggy Pop), Cry-Baby's sister Pepper (Ricki Lake), a high school student and mother of two with a third on the way, and Hatchet Face (Kim McGuire). It's one side of the tracks falling in love with the other that carves out the canvas of this bizarre but entertaining musical comedy.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/cry-baby/w448/cry-baby.jpg
For the uninitiated, John Waters is another director who works way off the beaten path who loves to present bizarre stories that stretch credibility at every turn and characters that walk a fine line between funny and repellent and this film is no exception. He also likes to utilize a very select rep company of actors in his films. He is responsible for bringing the famed transvestite Divine (Pink Flamingos) to the screen and pretty much made a star out of Ricki Lake.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fZt8dti-r14/maxresdefault.jpg
Waters went a step further than he usually does, making this film a musical, with a fantastic 50's styled musical score by Patrick Williams that perfectly captures the feelings of the 1950's in a way that Happy Days never did. The musical numbers are imaginatively staged and serve the story instead of slowing it down, the standout being "Please Mr. Jailer", a jazzy production number which features Locane at her steamiest. It should be mentioned that Depp and Locane do not do their own singing, but the lip synching is credibly done.
http://www.deppimpact.com/gallery/albums/caps_crybaby/cry030.JPG
This film is not for all tastes, but if you're a fan of musicals, Depp (who is basically sex on legs here), or the director, this one will not disappoint. 4

gbgoodies

08-18-16, 12:53 AM

I still haven't seen either the original version of Fame or the remake, but I used to watch the TV show when I was younger. If I was only going to watch one version of the movie, which version would you recommend watching?

I have the DVD of Cry-Baby because I found it in a dollar store a few years ago, but I still haven't watched it. I'll have to bump that up on my watchlist.

Gideon58

08-18-16, 10:55 AM

I still haven't seen either the original version of Fame or the remake, but I used to watch the TV show when I was younger. If I was only going to watch one version of the movie, which version would you recommend watching?

Honestly, I think you should watch both, in the order they were made of course. The remake wouldn't impress as it should if you haven't seen the original...the remake does enough tweaking of the original film to give it legitimacy, but completely respects the original film. I would also recommend not watching them back to back...give it a day or two between watching both films. I never watch originals and remakes back to back, I'm more objective with a little time between two films.

Gideon58

08-18-16, 04:47 PM

NIGHTCRAWLER
http://www.bigfatkill.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Nightcrawler-movie-poster.jpg
Striking direction, a razor sharp screenplay, and a completely reprehensible central character brought to life by one of our most likable actors combine to make 2014's Nightcrawler an ugly and unsettling crime thriller that left me with my mouth open in amazement, only slightly covering the anger and very bitter taste this film left in my mouth.
http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/fp/Jake+Gyllenhaal+Films+Nightcrawler+88vKok7eCj4l.jpg
Jake Gyllenhaal, cast brilliantly against type, plays Louis Bloom, an unemployed techno geek who happens upon a traffic accident one night and learns from a freelance crime journalist (Bill Paxton) on the scene that he is about to sell the footage to the news station that will pay him the most for it and that a lucrative living is possible if you know what you're doing. Louis goes to a pawn shop and trades an expensive bicycle for a camera and a police scanner. Before we know it, Louis has schooled himself on police procedures and codes and begins bringing crime footage to the news director of a low rated LA station, effectively played by Rene Russo. She recognizes raw talent and when Louis asks for advice on the kind of footage she's looking for, her replay is, "Imagine a woman running down the street with her throat cut."
http://jojud265nia2bj9sy4ah9b61.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/Jake_weird_filming1.jpg
Louis takes her advice to heart, updates his equipment (not sure how he was able to afford this) and even hires an assistant named Rick (Riz Ahmed) to help him track police calls and monitor the GPS for the quickest routes to the crime scene. Louis gains experience and acquires enough skill (and cajones) that he can name his own price for his work. Louis' work and position with the station move to an entirely new level when Louis gets a tip regarding a triple homicide in the wealthy neighborhood of Granada and Louis actually gets to the scene before the police do.
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5233347fe4b00c95cda9e5d6/t/54553c63e4b0e9c948ca2099/1414872167872/
Revealing anymore at this point would be wrong, but this is also where the story gets really disturbing and brutally unapologetic. I'm not even sure where to begin here...let's start with this central character, Louis Bloom. In a word, this character is extremely intelligent, urbane, educated, never at a loss for words which almost always leave his mouth without filter. He is also a master at the art of negotiation. He is also a scumbag...he possess nothing resembling a conscience or a moral compass. He forgot to get in line when the sensitivity chips were passed out as well. As his skill at what he's doing increases so does his passion and the mission to get the right footage takes precedence over everything and everyone. There is a lot of backstory regarding Louis that is never addressed but comes out in his actions. In one of the film's earliest scenes we actually see Louis beat up a security guard in order to steal his watch. Mental instability is a definite factor with this character but it's either glossed over or assumed.
http://www.filmibeat.com/img/2014/10/30-nightcrawler-2.jpg
Director and screenwriter Dan Gilroy really knocks it out of the park here, presenting a story filled with unsympathetic characters doing really rotten things, as well as taking an incisive look at the often unscrupulous media machine that our society has come to depend on for way too much, showing, warts and all, how the story and the ratings come before everything else. Gilroy has constructed a story with meticulous detail and has provided a brutal tale that offers no easy or likable solutions and characters who are not always shown in a flattering light. Russo's character actually seems to be aroused sexually by some of the brutal crime footage she witnesses in her job...the more brutal the footage, the more excited she appears to become.

Jake Gyllenhaal is frightening and creepy in a performance that earned him a Golden Globe nomination and was Oscar worthy in my opinion and Russo, who hasn't been seen onscreen for awhile (at least for me) shows she still knows how to command a movie screen. There is also a star-making performance from Riz Ahmed as Louis' assistant, one of the most vividly human performances I have seen in a long time...this guy has movie star written all over him. Nods to the cinematography and editing teams are also due, but it's the solid work from Dan Gilroy and a cringe worthy turn from Jake Gyllenhaal that make this film appointment viewing, despite a truly troublesome climax, but you be the judge of that. 4

gbgoodies

08-19-16, 12:40 AM

Honestly, I think you should watch both, in the order they were made of course. The remake wouldn't impress as it should if you haven't seen the original...the remake does enough tweaking of the original film to give it legitimacy, but completely respects the original film. I would also recommend not watching them back to back...give it a day or two between watching both films. I never watch originals and remakes back to back, I'm more objective with a little time between two films.

Thanks, I'll add both versions of Fame to my watchlist.

I sometimes like to watch the original and remake versions of movies back to back, but only if there's something different about them, and the remake isn't a direct copy. But based on your recommendation, I'll watch these two movies on different nights, with at least a day or two in between them.

gbgoodies

08-19-16, 12:42 AM

Gideon58

08-19-16, 10:50 AM

Thanks, I'll add both versions of Fame to my watchlist.

I sometimes like to watch the original and remake versions of movies back to back, but only if there's something different about them, and the remake isn't a direct copy. But based on your recommendation, I'll watch these two movies on different nights, with at least a day or two in between them.

If it helps, the remake is not a scene-for-scene remake like Gus Van Sant's Psycho...as mentioned in my review, certain characters and plot elements have been tweaked, there is even one character in the original film who is female who becomes male in the remake.

Gideon58

08-19-16, 10:52 AM

It's been a while since I watched Nightcrawler, but as I recall, it was a pretty good movie. I vaguely remember thinking that there were a few major plot holes, but I can't remember what they were anymore. (I think at least one plot hole had something to do with the ending.)

I was disturbed by the ending because this guy comes out smelling like a rose...a whole new staff and two company vehicles...it just bothered me. I also couldn't figure out how he financed the upgrading of all his equipment...the guy was broke and unemployed at the opening of the film and pawned a bicycle to get his first camera. I know he got paid for his first couple of submissions, but I really doubt if it was enough to finance an equipment upgrade, not to mention paying Rick.

skizzerflake

08-20-16, 10:28 AM

CRY-BABY
John Waters' singularly unique directorial style, a delicious musical score, and a pair of charismatic lead performances are the primary selling points of a 1990 gem called Cry-Baby, which finds Waters offering universal yet well worn cinematic themes and dressing them up with his outrageous cinematic concepts and his bizarre rep company of actors.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b9/Crybabyposter.jpg/220px-Crybabyposter.jpg
The film is set in the only place and time that Waters works: 1950's Baltimore. The story is very simple: The virginal Allison-Vernon Williams (Amy Locane) finds herself drawn to Wade Walker AKA Cry-Baby. The problem is that Allison is one of the "Squares", the proper folk on the right side of the tracks, whose spiritual leader seems to be Allison's tight-assed grandmother (Polly Bergen). Cry-Baby is one of the Drapes, the outrageous troublemakers led by Cry-Baby's nutty grandmother (Susan Tyrell), her common law husband (Iggy Pop), Cry-Baby's sister Pepper (Ricki Lake), a high school student and mother of two with a third on the way, and Hatchet Face (Kim McGuire). It's one side of the tracks falling in love with the other that carves out the canvas of this bizarre but entertaining musical comedy.

For the uninitiated, John Waters is another director who works way off the beaten path who loves to present bizarre stories that stretch credibility at every turn and characters that walk a fine line between funny and repellent and this film is no exception. He also likes to utilize a very select rep company of actors in his films. He is responsible for bringing the famed transvestite Divine (Pink Flamingos) to the screen and pretty much made a star out of Ricki Lake.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fZt8dti-r14/maxresdefault.jpg
4

Cry Baby and Hairspray are the two most mainstream of Waters' films. If you really want to enjoy the twisted mind of the guy, go back to early movies like Multiple Maniacs or Pink Flamingos, which make humor out of rape perpetrated by giant lobsters, ax murders and excrement eating. As the years have passed, Waters has mellowed and become an avuncular icon in and around our home town of Baltimore. Many of us know people who appeared in his movies and some of the less well known cast members have been with him since his early 8mm days. There are a lot of local "in jokes" in his movies, so, to completely appreciate them, you have to be familiar with the local pop and outsider culture of Baltimore. I don't know whether drapes and squares existed elsewhere, but if you were a teen in the Cry Baby era, you definitely did not want to be one of the squares.

**Warning - Lobster rape of transvestite follows**
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEGK4goaUZ0

Gideon58

08-20-16, 11:50 AM

DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK
https://thetelltalemind.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/dont-bother-to-knock2.jpg
There is a school of thought that Marilyn Monroe was a beauty but that she could not act. She had a flair for light comedy and after her time at the Actor's Studio in Manhattan, she proved her acting chops in Bus Stop, but a few years prior, Marilyn displayed the beginning of a raw acting talent in a moody little melodrama from 1952 called Don't Bother to Knock.
http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/american-actress-marilyn-monroe-looking-at-the-young-american-actress-picture-id141567597
Marilyn plays Nell, a young woman who is hired to babysit a child (Donna Corcoran) in a fancy hotel, a job arranged for her by her Uncle (Elisha Cook, Jr.) who works in the hotel as an elevator operator. Jed (Richard Widmark) is an airline pilot who has just checked into the hotel after flying in from Chicago and has just had a fight with his girlfriend, Lyn (Anne Bancroft), who works as a lounge singer at the hotel. Jed goes to his room, which is across the courtyard from the room where Nell is babysitting and flirts with her from across the courtyard with enough effectiveness to get Nell to invite him to her room and it is not long after his arrival, that Jed realizes this woman is seriously mentally unbalanced.
https://sqsmaravillosa.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/anne-bancroft-dont-knock.jpg
First, I have to credit director Roy Baker for creating a viable canvas for this story...this story could have come off very claustrophobic and like a photographed stage play because the entire story takes place in the hotel, but it doesn't. Daniel Taradash's screenplay is also essential in moving the story around the hotel without making the viewer feeling trapped in one story location.
https://quetzalattack.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/dbtk.png
Baker also has to be credited for the performance he pulled out of Marilyn Monroe at the time...Marilyn had not really done anything like this at this point in her career, but this movie proves that with proper handling and a sensitive director, Marilyn displays the beginning of some true acting ability here. She's no Katharine Hepburn, but Marilyn understands this character and from Nell's first tentative appearance, it is apparent that there is something wrong with this woman. Marilyn establishes this in her performance long before Baker employs a not-so-subtle closeup on the cuts on Nell's wrists.
http://www.arabianindustry.com/static/content/images/larger2/56009-416167.jpg
Must confess that I'm not really familiar with a lot of Richard Widmark's career...I've seen Coma and seen bits of Kiss of Death, but I thought he was a terrific leading man for Marilyn, combining sensitivity and sexiness very effectively. The transition the character made from being frightened by Nell to being genuinely concerned about her and wanting to help her was very believable. Anne Bancroft's Lyn was basically a thankless role but Bancroft made the most of it (Bancroft's singing is dubbed, BTW). Loved Lurene Tuttle and Jim Backus as the little girl's parents and Verna Fulton as a nosy downstairs neighbor. It ain't Rear Window, but if you want to see Marilyn display the beginning of some genuine acting skills, this one might surprise you. 3.5

Gideon58

08-20-16, 03:31 PM

EASY A
The teen angst comedies of the 1980's get a fresh and imaginative coat of paint with a surprisingly entertaining gem from 2010 called East A that works thanks to a near brilliant screenplay that nails the power of gossip and the never ending quest for high school popularity, a star-making performance from Emma Stone, and a terrific supporting cast.
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Stone stars as Olive Pendergast, a high school student on the cusp of popularity who lies to her best friend, Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) about losing her virginity to a college guy and how this one lie, overheard by the school's prudish president of the chastity club (Amanda Bynes), not only gives Olive a new reputation as the school tramp but ends up causing all kinds of collateral damage that Olivia certainly didn't see coming and finds herself doing some serious back peddling to make amends.
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Screenwriter Bert V. Royal has constructed a screenplay that is a loving and en pointe homage to the teen angst comedies we all grew up with, rich with pop references and borrowing liberally from these classic films, but it's OK because the borrowing is acknowledged straight out, complete with actual clips from some of the films honored here...at one moment while watching, I was thinking how much this film reminded me of Ferris Bueller's Day Offand not ten minutes later, a clip from that movie popped up on the screen...it's OK to steal from other movies as long as said theft is acknowledged and with the aid of director Will Gluck and some terrific editing, we get a loving homage to a an almost forgotten film genre that stands on its own as an independent piece of filmmaking with its own breath.
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Gluck has also employed a perfect cast to pull this sometimes credibility-stretching comedy off...Stone commands the screen as Olive in a performance that evokes laughs, tears, and warmth, another one of those performances that makes us accept a character doing wrong because the actor makes the character likable and Stone does that in spades here. Royal cleverly frames the whole story around a web cast that the central character is making, totally legitimizing Stone talking directly to the camera, which the actress seems completely at ease with.
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Loved, loved, loved, loved, loved, loved Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive's laid back parents, as well as a reined in Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow as Olive's favorite teacher and his guidance counselor spouse. Dan Byrd also registers as Olive's gay BFF and there are also a couple of funny cameos by Malcolm McDowell as the school principal and Fred Armisen as a pastor. A breezy and entertaining comedy that earns its credentials by giving it credit where credit is due, even if credit is from films of the past. 4

Gideon58

08-20-16, 06:19 PM

NARC
The complex and dangerous lives of undercover narcotics officers are effectively examined in 2002's Narc, which also looks at the sometimes far reaching collateral damage that the lives these officers lead can cause and the brick-like solidity of the blue wall that materializes with the death of a police officer.
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Nick Tellis (Jason Patric) is an officer who lost his badge 18 months prior when his actions caused injuries to a pregnant woman led to the loss of her baby. He has now been offered the chance to get his gun and badge back if he will assist in the investigation of a dead undercover narcotics police officer, teaming with a veteran rogue cop named Henry Oak (Ray Liotta), whose unconventional working methods have kept him under the constant scrutiny of Internal Affairs. The film follows these very different officers finally break open an investigation and are troubled by where it actually leads.
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This film seems to want to frustrate the viewer from the beginning...the initial scenes of Internal Affairs officers questioning Nick about the incident with the pregnant woman are really aggravating, as is Nick being badgered by Oak, who thinks this pairing is Internal Affairs way of keeping an eye on Oak, not to mention Nick's wife drifting away from him and as in another Patric film, Rush, the disbelief that the victim had become a drug addict. Undercover narcs have to buy drugs and sometimes do drugs to gain trust and addiction is a reality of the job. Oak's unrelenting defense of the victim regarding his being an addict was a little hard to believe...it's a reality of the job that should not have surprised him.
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Director and writer Joe Carnahan has mounted a gritty crime drama that works, despite a finale that was a little hard to swallow. Patric's performance is compassionate and there was Oscar talk regarding Liotta's thundering performance as Henry Oak...Liotta ha never commanded the screen the way he does here. Also loved rapper Busta Rhymes as a drug dealer. If you have the stomach for it, it's a solid little crime drama. 4

Gideon58

08-21-16, 06:01 PM

The Gift (2015)
https://photos.prnewswire.com/prnvar/20150908/264588
The Gift is a prickly psychological thriller that really has a lot going for it, including intense direction and superb performances from the three stars, but the film leaves a major plot hole unaddressed, which made it hard for me to completely invest in the proceedings.
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This moody 2015 thriller introduces us to Simon and Robyn (Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall), upwardly mobiles from Chicago starting a new life in Los Angeles who find their life negatively impacted by the sudden appearance of Gordo (Joel Edgerton), an old friend of Simon's from high school who definitely has some unresolved issues with Simon gets way too close for comfort to Simon and Robyn, who are going through their own stuff at this point and Gordo is really the last thing they need.

Initially, this film appeared to be a rehash of a film from 1992 called Unlawful Entry, except in that film, Ray Liotta's character is a stranger to the couple and his agenda is clear from jump, he is obsessed with Kurt Russell's wife. Writer, director, and star Edgerton has taken this premise to a different level, unfolding the story quite methodically in front of us, eventually revealing not only Gordo's dangerous qualities, which we saw coming, but that Simon might have actually something to do with it, which we don't see coming at all.
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There are little plotholes that aren't really explained like how Gordo keeps getting into Simon's house, but I decided to let this slide and be patient for the big picture, which starts forming onscreen quietly when it is revealed that Simon did something to Gordo that severely damaged Gordo for life, a revelation that almost puts Robyn on Gordo's side. I kept waiting for the reveal of exactly what Simon did to Gordo and it never came, though it must have been pretty horrible, since Gordo has decided that the only proper revenge is destroying Simon's life.
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Edgerton makes an impressive debut as a writer and director here and is properly creepy as Gordo. He also pulls an absolutely brilliant performance from Jason Bateman, nailing an outwardly charming character whose dark side does come out as the story progresses and Rebecca Hall is properly fragile as the issue-laden Robyn. I admit this film had me riveted for the majority of its running time but without learning exactly what happened between Simon and Gordo all those years ago, it was difficult to accept what happens between them today. 3.5

Gideon58

08-22-16, 04:06 PM

Don Juan De Marco
Director and screenwriter Jeremy Leven scores with Don Juan De Marco, an exuberant and imaginative comic confection from 1994 that seamlessly weaves together two very different stories that wind down to a lovely, if bittersweet, conclusion.
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This is the story of Dr. Jack Mickler (Marlon Brando) a psychiatrist who is called to the scene where a young man, claiming to be the great lover Don Juan (Johnny Depp) is threatening to throw himself off a billboard. The young man is brought to the mental institution where Mickler is scheduled to retire in ten days. The head of the hospital (Bob Dishy) reluctantly gives Mickler ten days to get through to the guy or put him on medication, which Jack doesn't want to do. Don Juan also asks Jack for the same ten days to convince him that he is who he says he is.
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The story of Don Juan (according to Leven anyway) lovingly unfolds before us, told in lavishly mounted flashback by this enigmatic young man who has concocted this elaborate backstory for himself that the doctor doesn't necessarily believe, but is profoundly affected by it, particularly the young man's passion about love and women, which ignites inside Jack a desire to to restore the passion and excitement to his own marriage, much to the confusion of his quietly devoted wife (Faye Dunaway), who is content with her life and her marriage...or so she thinks.
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Leven's clever but manipulative screenplay sucks us in right away...the opening scenes of Don Juan approaching a woman in a restaurant waiting for her date, seducing her by kissing her hand, getting her in bed and back to the restaurant before her date arrives have us immediately on the side of this young man and wanting to believe he is who he says he is. As Don begins to tell the story of his life (with a perfect and very sexy Spanish accent), Leven lavishly recreates the scenes to match every word Don says...there are couple of fantastic moments where Don's narration perfectly mirrors the action. These scene are so lavishly produced that the viewer gets sucked into believing what this young man is perpetrating and so does the doctor and that's where the fun came for me with this film. This movie made me want to believe everything that Don Juan was perpetrating here even though I knew that was impossible.

What Leven has done here is so effective...we are almost halfway through the story before we are forced to accept the possibility that this young man is not who he says is and we still hope that we might be wrong. There are only two moments that I noticed in the film where the Don Juan character reveals, without saying anything, that he is not who he says he is but he commits to the charade as long as he can and we have to wait a lot longer than I originally expected to hear this character speak without the accent.
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Leven's lavish story earns a lot of its credibility through the charismatic performances by the three stars...Brando seems completely invested in this slightly sad character whose passion for life is reignited by this patient and Depp, sex on legs as usual, also brings a lovely vulnerability to this character making him part bold sex machine and part frightened child...his final confessional scene is just heartbreaking. Faye Dunaway has rarely been as likable onscreen as she was as Mrs. Mickler, a woman thrown by the change in her husband but willing to go with it. The film also features exquisite cinematography and a lush musical score. All in all, a delicious comic fantasy that will fool you into thinking what it wants you think...for a good chunk of the running time anyway. 3.5

Gideon58

08-22-16, 06:42 PM

Hyde Park on Hudson
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2012's Hyde Park on Hudson is another of those docudramas that takes us into a secret part of an iconic historical figure revealing a part of his life that we had heard nothing of before. This was my first exposure to this story but that doesn't necessarily make it fiction, but as this story unfolds, its accuracy as history becomes irrelevant and you accept a warm story that puts some very human faces on historical figures for the sake of entertainment, not to mention nails the clash of class between the uptight Brits and those terribly crude Americans.
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The film opens in 1939 Hudson Valley in upstate New York where it is revealed that Daisy, played by Laura Linney, has been summoned by the White House to help her distant cousin FDR, played by Bill Murray, relax as the weight of the presidency is causing the man stress (imagine my shock). Daisy arrives at the home of FDR's mother and hits it off immediately with the President, a relationship that morphed from companions to lovers in rather quickly which not only has the President's handlers up in arms, but we are slowly led to believe that this was not uncommon behavior for the President. This relationship also happens to develop at the same time that FDR is expecting a visit from the King and Queen of England who are looking to the US as a possible military ally.
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Even though I have never seen it actually documented, I have always felt that the relationship between FDR and Eleanor was more of a business arrangement than a grand passion and this film drives that point home, especially in the quiet acceptance of Daisy's presence at the house by Eleanor and FDR's mother. Although this alleged love affair did have elements that we every day folk recognize...as hard she tried to fight her feelings for FDR, Daisy could not deny them yet could not ever reconcile herself to the fact that she had to share FDR with Eleanor and with his secretary, Missy.
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The story shifts sharply with the arrival of the Queen (Olivia Williams) and King (Samuel West) who are portrayed as being as frightened and apprehensive about this visit as the Americans are, but this is where the most entertaining relationship in the film really kicks in...I love the relationship that develops between FDR and the King, who comes off like a frightened little boy here, but with FDR's encouragement learns to stand up to Elizabeth while he offers similar encouragement to FDR regarding Eleanor. Even though this is not what this film was really supposed to be about, I found it to be the most entertaining portion of the film.
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Bill Murray's performance as FDR is rich with warmth and humor and Linney's take on Daisy is compelling though she is fighting the screenplay a bit. Williams made a wonderful Elizabeth and I also loved Elizabeth Wilson as FDR's mother, but it is Samuel West who really steals the show here as the King, a nervous man child uncertain about the responsibilities of being King, not to mention how to eat a hot dog. Whether or not the love story between FDR and Daisy was fictional became a non-issue pretty quickly. I just sat back and drank in this exquisitely mounted look at a love story that was news to me. 3.5

Gideon58

09-03-16, 04:10 PM

SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT
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Burt Reynolds had one of the biggest hits of his career with Smokey and the Bandit, the feel good action comedy of 1977 that struck such a chord with movie audiences that it was the number #2 box office attraction of 1977, exceeded only by a little something called Star Wars.

Reynolds is at the height of his good ol' boy charm here as the Bandit, a smart-aleck rodeo cowboy who is drafted by a snotty Atlanta millionaire named Big Enos Burdette (PatMcCormick) and his son Little Enos (Paul Williams) to drive to Texarcana Texas, pick up 400 cases of Coors Beer and bring them back to Atlanta in time for Big Enos' birthday party. Bandit calls on his old running partner Cletus (Jerry Reed) to actually drive the truck while Bandit clears the path in a black Trans Am. The Bandit's misison is complicated when he picks up a runaway bride (Sally Field) who has just left the son of Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), which instigates one of the wildest man chases on various sets of wheels that has ever been committed to film.
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Reynolds and director/co-screenwriter Hal Needham really knocked it out of the park here with a movie that still ignites major laughs depsite some dated elements to the plot, in particular the whole CB craze. For those who weren't around in the 70's, Citzen Band radios were sort of like walkie talkies for vehicles where motorist, truck drivers in particular, could communicate with each other from their vehicles regarding speed traps, among other things. The advent of CB's initiated a language of its own that is on prominent display in this film, and though some of it sounds a little silly in 2016, it does not deter from the fun that this movie still is, some forty years after its original release.
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The other fun thing about this movie is watching the way the CB community bands around the Bandit and do anything they can do to help him in his mission. Apparently the citizen band community was a very tight one but it was also a very large one...watch as word of the Bandit's mission spreads throughout the CB community and how there is absolutely no one who is unaware of who the bandit is.
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Reynolds is charming and sexy here and creates a very steamy chemistry with Field, which would manifest itself into three more films together and a long real-life romance. Jackie Gleason is comic perfection as the red-necked sheriff and Mike Henry is also very funny as his son. Definitely part of the "Just put your brain in check and enjoy" genre, but one of the best. 4

Gideon58

09-04-16, 07:10 PM

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
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Every now and then you see a movie that, on the surface, looked like a good idea but when you finish watching, all you can do is shrug your shoulders and lament, "what a shame." Thus is the case with an overblown and logic defying action comedy called Central Intelligence which suffers from over-indulgent direction, a ridiculously intricate screenplay and two proven box office commodities in the leads who are cast against type and it only really works for one of them.
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The film stars Kevin Hart as Calvin Joyner, an accountant who is bored with his dead end job who is unexpectedly reunited with Bob Stone (Dwayne Johnson), a former fatty who Calvin briefly bonded with during an embarrassing incident during a high school assembly, who has slimmed down and become a CIA agent, getting Calvin up to his neck in international intrigue.
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Like I said, the idea of this movie is fine and I'm not sure where they went wrong. Let's start with an extremely convoluted screenplay that offers too many red herrings and makes the audience work much too hard to figure out what's going on. Maybe I shouldn't speak for everyone, it made me work a lot harder than I should have for what would be considered an action comedy, a comedy that defies logic and realism at every turn and unfolds way too slowly...this movie seemed about four hours long and it wasn't even half that...director Rawson Marshall Thurber needed someone at his ear keeping an eye on the bottom line and the running time.
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The casting is a little problematic as well...Hart and Johnson are solid comic actors who know how to command a screen but Hart is definitely cast against type here as the high school wunderkind who is disappointed with the boredom of his current life...Hart' onscreen persona has always been one of a cocky, non-stop talker who is an expert on everything and this guy bummed out about the cards that have been dealt him just didn't register with me. On the other hand, Johnson lights up the screen as Bob Stone...Stone ia character unlike anything I have ever seen onscreen...he is built like a truck, wears a fanny pack and unicorn T-shirts and his favorite movie is Sixteen Candles. There is a scene where Bob is explaining his love for the movie and how he relates to Molly Ringwald's character that's quite touching and Johnson nails it. Sometimes Bob's seemingly child-like innocence is a little hard to take, but it works for the most part because Johnson and screenwriters Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen never forget the through line for this character....that ego shattering incident in high school which Bob has never really gotten over. Johnson always makes sure you feel this character's pain which he works so hard to hide and is only partially successful.
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I don't know, for fans of pure action, there are a lot of car chases and explosions and Kevin Hart has some funny moments even though he's fighting the screenplay tooth and nail. But it's Dwayne Johnson's deliciously damaged CIA agent that almost makes this worth sitting through...almost. 2.5

gbgoodies

09-06-16, 03:54 AM

SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT
http://www.gregspradlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/smokey-bandit-poster.jpg
Burt Reynolds had one of the biggest hits of his career with Smokey and the Bandit, the feel good action comedy of 1977 that struck such a chord with movie audiences that it was the number #2 box office attraction of 1977, exceeded only be a little something called Star Wars.

Reynolds is at the height of his good ol' boy charm here as the Bandit, a smart-alecked rodeo cowboy who is drafted by a snotty Atlanta millionaire named Big Enos Burdette (PatMcCormick) and his son Little Enos (Paul Williams) to drive to Texiarcana Texas, pick up 400 cases of Coors Beer and bring them back to Atlanta in time for Big Enos' birthday party. Bandit calls on his old running partner Cletus (Jerry Reed) to actually drive the truck while Bandit clears the path in a black Trans Am. The Bandit's misison is complicated when he picks up a runaway bride (Sally Field) who has just left the son of Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), which instigates one of the wildest man chases on various sets of wheels that has ever been committed to film.
http://img.cinemablend.com/cb/d/5/e/9/3/3/d5e933bd4c28f20cd1ac927e8a14a7cf38935364324fa876f2d56730d5a0e7a6.jpg
Reynolds and director/co=screenwriter Hal Needham really knocked it out of the park here with a movie that still ignites major laughs depsite some dated elements to the plot, in particular the whole CB craze. For those who weren't around in the 70's, Citzen Band radios were sort of like walkie talkies for vehicles where motorist, truck drivers in particular, could communicate with each other from their vehicles regarding speed traps, among other things. The advent of CB's initiated a language of its own that is om prominent display in this film, and though some of it sounds a little silly in 2016, it does not deter from the fun that this movie still is, some forty years after its original release.
http://pic.kickass.re/20150927/16073/8efecfb880be4933b805be4c9826dca0_m.png
The other fun thing about this movie is watching the way the CB community bands around the Bandit and do anything they can do to help him in his mission. Apparently the citizen band community was a very tight one but it was also a very large one...watch as word of the Bandit's mission spreads throughout the CB community and how there is absolutely no one who is unaware of who the bandit is.
http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/catcountry1029.com/files/2012/08/The-Bandit-Car-4.jpg
Reynolds is charming and sexy here and creates a very steamy chemistry with Field, which would manifest itself into three more films together and a long real-life romance. Jackie Gleason is comic perfection as the red-necked sheriff and Mike Henry is also very funny as his son. Definitely part of the "Just put your brain in check and enjoy" genre, but one of the best. 4

Smokey and the Bandit is one of those movies that I can watch over and over again, and it just gets better every time I watch it. It has a great soundtrack too.

Gideon58

09-06-16, 06:22 PM

VOLUNTEERS
Splash put Tom Hanks on the map and he followed it up with 1985's Volunteers, a film with less substance and definitely had an inferior director, but proved that Tom Hanks had the ability to make obviously mediocre material seem a lot better than it really is.
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Set in 1962, Hanks plays Lawrence Bourne III, a cocky Yale graduate desperate to escape a $28,0000 gambling debt by joining the Peace Corps, initially stealing his roommate's identity but when he asks his wealthy daddy (George Plimpton) for help getting out, Daddy makes sure he is officially enlisted. On the plane, Lawrence meets Tom Tuttle (the late John Candy), an architect and Beth (Rita Wilson), a sincerely but tightly wound volunteer and realizes the huge mistake he's made.
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Upon arrival in Bangkok, Thailand, Lawrence learns that the corps mission is to build a bridge and it is also revealed that different military and criminal Thailand leaders want the bridge completed way ahead of schedule for various nefarious reasons and our hero finds a way to turn these crminals' agendas to his own advantage while finding time to romance Beth and save her from the clutches of an alleged Peace Corp leader named John (Tim Thomerson), who has a switblade he's named Mike.
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Any Tom Hanks comedy is going to provide laughs at some point and this one is no exception but there's something about this film that doesn't really work and I think what bothered me about it is that there was nothing about the film that was period appropriate. The film is allegedly set in 1962 but we only know this because Ken Levine and David Isaac's screenplays announces it. The film's opening credits are shown over some stock archival footage that shows a nice cross section of 1960's pop culture and this is the only thing about the movie that evokes the 1960's.
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I have to confess though I was able to sort of let that go because of Hanks' uncanny ability to make me laugh and make me believe anything that he is doing onscreen. And yes, I am pretty sure that if anyone other than Hanks had been playing Lawrence Bourne III, this movie would have bored the crap out of me, but Hanks, like Robert Downey Jr., can make just about anything watchable.
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There is some lovely Thailand photography and the musical score is a little overbearing but these elements neither enhance or deter. Hanks, obviously works well with Wilson, who would later become his wife. Thomerson provides some funny moments as rhe psycho, as does Gedde Wanatambe, best known for playing Long Duck Dong in Sixteen Candles, as Lawrence's sidekick who seems a little confused about his sexual orientation. Candy, who co-tarred with Hanks in Splash is given a smart character to play for once but the character gets brainwashed and a lot of the humor the character had drains away, but with Tom Hanks center stage, it's worth a look. 2.5

Citizen Rules

09-06-16, 06:55 PM

Cool you seen Volunteers. I didn't realize it was set in 1962 until I just read your review...and I seen the movie only a month ago. I just assumed it was the 80s. I mean Rita Wilson has big hair!

Gideon58

09-06-16, 07:04 PM

Cool you seen Volunteers. I didn't realize it was set in 1962 until I just read your review...and I seen the movie only a month ago. I just assumed it was the 80s. I mean Rita Wilson has big hair!

It was your review that motivated me to watch it Citizen, because until I reasd your review, it had completely skipped my mind that it was one of the few Tom Hanks movies that I had never seen.

Citizen Rules

09-06-16, 07:08 PM

I remember that we talked about it. I just picked up another John Candy movie Cool Running. I bet you've seen that one, I have too, but a long time ago.

Gideon58

09-07-16, 10:54 AM

I remember that we talked about it. I just picked up another John Candy movie Cool Running. I bet you've seen that one, I have too, but a long time ago.

I haven't seen it and will wait for your review to decided if I want to...watching Volunteers has motivatd some long over due John Candy re-watches like Uncle Buck, Delirious, and Only the Lonely.

Gideon58

09-07-16, 06:12 PM

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION
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My recent look at stage to screen adaptations prompted a re-watch of 1993's Six Degrees of Separation, the stylish and sophisticated screen adaptation of John Guare's hit stage production that premiered at the Lincoln Center Theater. Guare's story is an elaborately layered look at the art of the con, at all levels and from all angles and how some are unaware they are even doing it or of the damage they are leaving in their wake, lining their pockets with little or no thought of repercussion.
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Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing star as Flan and Ouisa Kittredge, an upwardly mobile Manhattan couple who make millions through elaborate art deals bathed in shades of gray, who find their lives turned upside by the appearance of a young man at their doorstep named Paul (Will Smith), with a knife wound claiming to be mugged and claiming to go to school with the Kittredges' children and eventually claiming that he is the son of Sidney Poitier.
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Paul charms the Kittredges with stories of his father, of the Kittredges' cnildren, and even promises them roles as extras in the film version of the musical Cats, which his father is allegedly slated to direct. Paul even cooks dinner for them and claims to have a flight home to his father's home in the morning so the Kittredges, blinded by his charm, invite him to spend the night and that;s where Paul makes his first true mistake and all of his lies start to unravel before our eyes and before the ears of the Kittredges' inner circle who Flan and Ouisa seem to have no problem sharing what happened and their sharing eventually reveals they are not Paul's only victims and the victims of this con bond to get justice for Paul's betrayal, while sharing the story with anyone who will listen like it's some sort of badge of honor.
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John Guare's screenplay, adapted from his own play, is a little on the talky side, but the talk is mostly very smart and very funny and what we see is the cons getting conned and not even realizing it. There is a parallel buetween what Paul is doing to the Kittredges and what they are doing to their art clients, which, of course, the Kittredges don't see. We also see that even the most charming con can lure anyone in as we observe the effect Paul has on Ouisa who, despite Paul's charade, still feels close to him and still wants to help him.
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Fred Schepisi, who also directed the Steve Martin comedy, Roxanne, does a beautiful job of expanding this story out of its theatrical confines through the use of some lovely Manhattan location scenery, stunning cinematography, and extraordinary set direction...the Kittredge apartment is absolutely breathtaking and a perfect setting for the majority of the film, but Schepisi keeps the story moving throughout various Manhattan spots by having the Kittredges sharing their story at various social events. The film is also framed in a gorgeous musical soundtrack that serves the proceedings properly.

Guare and Schepisi have mounted a complex look at the art of the con and the toxic effects of materialism that will find the viewer switching alliances throughout the story and have you scratching your head as the credits roll. Will Smith, after five years on a sitcom and a couple of minor comedies, proved to be an actor of substance with his performance as Paul and the incomparable Stockard Channing received her only Oscar nomination for her performance as the crisp and compassionate Ouisa, matched note for note by Sutherland as her husband. Bruce Davison, Mary Beth Hurt, Ian MacKellen, and Anthony Michael Hall, offer solid support and keep your eyes peeled for future star Heather Graham and future director JJ Abrams in small roles. This slick and sophisticated comedy is a textbook on how to bring an unsettling story to the screen and never have it come off as a photographed stage play. 4

Gideon58

09-08-16, 05:30 PM

THE EFFECT OF GAMMA RAYS ON MAN-IN-THE-MOON MARIGOLDS
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Evocative direction by the late Paul Newman and a dazzling lead performance from his wife, the extraordinary Joanne Woodward that should have earned her an Oscar nomination, are the primary selling points of 1972's The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.
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This film is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Paul Zindel that is essentially a bold and unapologetic character study that isn't in the least bit flattering, Woodward plays Beatrice Hunsdorfer, a bitter and self-righteous widow disgusted by her dead end existence and unconsciously taking out her unhappiness on her two very different daughters: Ruth (Roberta Wallach) is a bitchy teen in denial about her epilepsy and convinced that everything wrong in her life is her mother's fault, despite her mother's sometime smothering attention. Mathilda (Nell Potts) is a painfully shy grade schooler who, despite her mother's unintentional neglect, is a scholastic genius in the making who may have found her fifteen minutes as a finalist in the school science fair. The title of the film is the title of Mathilda's project.
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Oscar winner Alvin Sargent has thoughtfully adapted Zindel's play for the screen, focusing on the highly dysfunctional Beatrice...a woman angry with what life has dealt her...she more than once actually refers to her late husband as a son of a bitch for dying on her. She finds her only release from her unhappiness from reading about other peoples' lives in the personal ads in the paper and her half-hearted dream of opening up a little tea room where she would serve tea and cheesecake. The sanctity of her escape is beautifully documented in a scene where Beatrice learns that Ruth did a skit at school imitating her (a scene brilliantly performed by Wallach, easily her best moment in the film). We see the irony in everything that Beatrice supposedly believes in as we watch her make sure the room that she is planning to rent out to an elderly woman (Judith Lowry) is spotless while the rest of her house is a pigsty.
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Once again, as he did with The Glass Menagerie, Newman trusts the quality of the material he's working with and the endless talent of his wife, who has a way of making the most unsympathetic of characters fascinating to watch. I love the first moment we see Beatrice she's in a store trying on different wigs...Woodward instantly shows a woman who wants to be someone else, anyone else. Woodward never loses grip of this character's strength until she is supposed to, during the third act when Beatrice's achilles heel is revealed and how it deeply woulds Mathilda, who has more business hating her mother than Ruth does, but it is clear she doesn;t.
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Potts, the real life daughter of Newman and Woodward, is a revelation in the role of Mathilda, putting this girl's inner pain center stage and making us want to put our arms around her and Wallach is also successful in projecting Ruth's conflicted feelings about her mother which, fortunately, do not damage her relationship with her sister, but it is really the powerhouse work from Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward that make this film appointment viewing. 4

Gideon58

09-09-16, 07:06 PM

A Thousand Clowns
https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/16/b70-8340
The late Jason Robards was known as one of our greatest character actors who won back-back to supporting actor Oscars in 1977 and 1978 had already proven his leading man abilities when he was allowed to reprise his Broadway role in the 1965 film version of A Thousand Clowns.

Based on the play written by Herb Gardner, this is the story of Murray Burns (Robards), a non conformist former television writer for a childrens' TV program, who refuses to live by the rules...he sticks his nose up at anything normal or conventional, such as employment. He has been unemployed for five months, which is of no concern to him, but is of concern to his nephew/guardian Nick (Barry Gordon, also reprising his Broadway role) and to the child welfare board, who are challenging his fitness as a guardian to Nick, who arrive at Murray's apartment in the form of a pair of social workers, played by William Daniels and Barbara Harris.
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Over 50 years since its original release, this movie is still warm and entertaining for a lot of reasons. The sanctity to the original piece of theater that Gardner created is evident in every frame, which I think had a lot to do with the fact that Gardner was allowed to fashion the screenplay from his own play, an entertaining comedy with a Neil Simon quality to the dialogue, that never sacrifices the integrity of the story for cheap unmotivated laughs, but most of all, what this movie has is the charismatic performance by Robards that absolutely lights up the screen. Robards was an enigma in the business who never had the career he deserved because he had the talent of a leading man but, sadly, did not have the looks, relegating him to supporting roles, at which he became the best, but when given the chance to prove that he could carry a movie on his own like he was here, he delivered in spades.

He gets grand assistance from Gordon, with whom he creates an undeniable chemistry and from Barbara Harris, whose loopy performance as Sandra the social worker is an acquired taste, but I loved it. Martin Balsam's slick turn as Murray's brother and agent won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and William Daniels also impresses reprising his Broadway role as Sandra's tight-assed co-worker, already displaying the promise he would eventually deliver as one of our greatest character actors.
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The film was made on a shoestring budget and filmed in black and white, most likely because Gardner and director Fred Coe refused to cast movie stars in the movie and wanted to do it with most of their original Broadway cast (Barbara Harris inherited the role originated by Sandy Dennis), but like I always say in cases like these, the lack of production values adds to the power of the piece. There is an underlying respect for the integrity of the piece and minus the lack of frills, that integrity and a wonderfully entertaining story come shining through. 4

cricket

09-10-16, 02:54 PM

Have to agree with you on the always great Smokey and the Bandit, and the disappointing Volunteers.

Gideon58

09-10-16, 04:09 PM

ONLY THE LONELY
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Writer/director Chris Columbus and the late John Candy, who worked so well together in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, once again knocked it out of the park with an underrated gem from 1991 called Only the Lonely, which works thanks to some imaginative writing and a terrific cast.
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Candy plays Danny Muldoon, a lonely Chicago cop who lives with his overbearing, strong-willed, bigoted mother, Rose (Maureen O'Hara) who finds himself torn between his devotion to his mother and an equally lonely mortuary cosmetologist (Ally Sheedy).
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Columbus journeys into very familiar cinematic territory here, but it makes it something very special, thanks to some clever writing and some beautifully offbeat casting, especially with Candy, who sheds that goofy slapstick persona for which he was known and gives us a delightfully human and flawed character, steeped in realism and pathos. Danny is immensely likable, nothing new for the characters Candy has often played, but this character is intelligent, caring, nurturing, and, yes, very funny without ever becoming a cartoon character. We love his goofy charm and his need to connect to Sheedy's character but we also understand his guilty fantasies about something happening to his mother due to his neglect of her in favor of his personal happiness.
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Columbus really struck gold when he persuaded Maureen O'Hara to step in front of the movie cameras again for the first time since 1971 for her role as Rose Muldoon...O'Hara offers a real movie star turn here as a character who does and says a lot of unflattering things, but never resorts to caricature while always completely investing in some of the unpleasant aspects of Rose's character. The scene where Rose and Danny have dinner with Sheedy's Theresa for the first time is brilliantly performed by O'Hara, garnering laughs while simultaneously making us want to strangle her. Another Hollywood legend, two-time Oscar winner Anthony Quinn, steals every scene he is in as a neighbor of the Muldoons who has been crushing on Rose for years but she has been keeping at arm's length despite the obvious attraction. It was such a joy watching Quinn and O'Hara share the screen together for the first time since 1952's Against All Flags.
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The story is not big on originality but the actors make you feel what is going on and take the story where we want to take it. We understand Theresa's resentment of Rose, but we also see the heartache she is headed for when she tries to get Danny to choose between her and his mother and it is no surprise when neither Danny nor Theresa show up at the church for their wedding, but is an expected detour that legitimized everything we had seen prior to this, but we knew it had to happen and we also knew a little patience was going to be required for the requisite happy ending, which, fortunately, didn't take as long as it could have. Chris Columbus has mounted a winning romantic comedy rich with warmth and star power. And Columbus, as always, makes his beloved Chicago look great. 3.5

Citizen Rules

09-10-16, 05:45 PM

Glad you liked Only The Lonely....I enjoyed reading you review, it's nicely written. I liked the background details you include about Maureen O'Hara's career. Question, I assume you weren't the biggest fan of Ally Sheedy. What did you think of her performance/character.

Have you seen John Candy in JFK? He's plays the role completely serious and is very effective. If memory serves me it was Maureen O'Hara who encouraged Candy to take on more serious roles.

Gideon58

09-10-16, 06:09 PM

HEARTBURN
With Mike Nichols and Nora Ephron behind the camera and Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson in front of it, the 1986 comedy-drama Heartburn comes off as being a lot better than it really is.
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Nora Ephron's screenplay, based on her novel, is a fictionalized ;look at Ephron's relationship with Carl Bernstein, the Washington DC columnist who co-authored All the President's Men. In this story, Ephron becomes Rachel Samstat, a food critic who meets Bernstein, who is called Mark Foreman (Jack Nicholson) at a wedding and enters a whirlwind courtship and marriage with the man and as she finds herself settling into domesticity, Mark finds himself unable to control his wandering eye.
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The relationship between Rachel and Mark is beautifully foreshadowed during the scene at Mark and Rachel's wedding where Rachel refuses to come out of her bedroom and begin the wedding and friends and family keep coming in the room trying to get Rachel to come out and doing a really terrible job at it, saying everything that Rachel doesn't need to hear, including some well-intentioned warnings from Mark's best friends (Stockard Channing, Richard Masur) about what Rachel is getting into. The other odd thing is that Mark is outside waiting for Rachel to come out and doesn't seem terribly concerned that Rachel doesn't want to come out, instructing the pianist to play "Roll Out the Barrell."
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As expected, the pressures of remodeling a DC brownstone and Rachel forsaking her work to have Mark's child, Mark cheats on Rachel and though the relationship will never be the same, Mark and Rachel not only stay together, but Rachel continues to have children with the man and we find ourselves scratching our heads wondering why for a moment or two along the way.
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I say we wonder only for a moment because the story is so not the attraction here. What makes this film appointment viewing for me is the extraordinary performances by Nicholson and especially Streep. Streep, in particular, invests in a character who is a hot mess, a walking, talking mass of phobias and jumbled emotions who is so high strung and unpredictable you can't take your eyes off of her. This character is the complete opposite of Streep's normally strong movie persona playing women who are emotionally solid and Rachel is anything but. Nicholson matches her scene for scene and overcomes the character's predictability with the actor's ability to elevate a character above his likability factor and when the two work in tandem...one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Rachel and Mark decide to celebrate the news that they're about to be parents by eating pizza and singing all the songs they can think of with the word "baby" in it....the scene has a lovely unscripted feel to it that is a testament to the magic that these two actors create.
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Mike Nichols' direction is detailed where it needs to be and breezy where it needs to be and he has surrounded his stars by a superb supporting cast including Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels, Milos Foreman, Steven Hill, Maureen Stapleton, Joanna Gleason, Mercedes Ruehl, and, of course, my girl Stockard Channing. There's also a cameo by future Oscar winner Kevin Spacey as a subway thief. The movie is no classic, but Streep and Nicholson make it worth checking out. 3.5

Gideon58

09-11-16, 05:42 PM

THE PEOPLE VS LARRY FLYNT
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The bold and meticulous directorial eye of Milos Foreman, an uncompromising fact-based screenplay and a dazzling Oscar-nominated performance from Woody Harrelson are the primary selling points for The People Vs Larry Flynt, a brash, unapologetic, and ambitious biographically-styled look at one of pop culture's most controversial figures.
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Larry Flynt and his brother Jimmy were eeking out a living as the owner of a string of strip clubs when Larry decided to branch out and take the concept of Playboy magazine a step further...get rid of all the articles and interviews that no one cares about and provide a magazine, clearly for a select clientele, that provided exactly what they were looking for...pornography, in its purest form, without all the other pointless frills provided by publications like Playboy. Larry's instincts that a clientele for such publication existed were on the money and made him piles of it; unfortunately, it made him a lot of enemies too, documented in an actual assassination attempt which left him paralyzed, but not dead. Larry not only found himself at the forefront of the defense of pornography as art but for determining where the line between art and pornography was drawn, as well as a proponent for the First Amendment, which actually found him at one point in the Supreme Court.
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Flynt's story was played out in front of us during the hedonistic 1970's so it would have been pretty hard for screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski to embellish or fictionalize without friction from the Flynt empire, so I don't doubt the validity of the story presented here, even though I'm sure there are elements of the story that were embellished for the sake of entertainment, but the screenplay does provide a lot of balance in terms of being realistic in its presentation of Flynt as a "smut peddler' and what he would come to represent for so many. I found the portion of the story where Larry's wife, Althea (Courtney Love) makes a horrific descent into heroine addiction a bit much and detracted from the primary story being told, but there was nothing out of the realm of realism here.
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Director Milos Foreman proves to be a master of painting bold cinematic pictures that haunt the viewer...the shots of Larry giving his speech about whether porn or war is more offensive against the giant slide show or the final shots of Larry's decaying mansion near the end of the film remebering Althea, lovingly detailed with a hand-held camera, are images that are hard to erase from the memory. Not to mention his no-holds-barred recreations of Flynt's outrageous courtroom antics, which walk the fine line between funny and cringe-worthy.
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And just as he did with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Foreman gets some incredible performances from his cast. Harrelson is nothing short of brilliant and I sometimes wonder if he shouldn't have won that Oscar. Love's inyour face performance is completely unhinged but fascinating. Edward Norton' s razor sharp work as Alan Isaacman, Flynt's attorney might be easy to overlook. Bouquets to Donna Hanover as Ruth Carter Stapleton, Richard Paul as Jerry Falwell, and Harrelson's real-life brother Brett as his brother Jimmy. And yes, that is the real Flynt playing the judge in Flynt's first trial. This film is an unapologetic look at a media emperor who made no apologies about what he believed in and though people throughout his life tried, never became anything that what he was and stayed true to that. 4

Gideon58

09-12-16, 03:42 PM

TOOTH FAIRY
Dwayne Johnson's ability to carry a movie was put to its ultimate test with an oddity from 2010 called Tooth Fairy, a somewhat original comedy concept that loses its way due to an overly padded screenplay from writers whom I would expect better.
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Johnson plays Derek Thompson, a minor league hockey player whose best days are behind him and is a little bitter about it. Derek almost tells his girlfriend's daughter that there is no such thing as the tooth fairy and is promptly summoned to Tooth Fairy Land, where as punishment for "disseminating disbelief" regarding the tooth fairy, he is assigned tooth fairy duties for two weeks.
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This story initially threw me by blowing the whole concept of the tooth fairy being a single creature completely out of the water. According to the screenplay by Lowell Hanz and Babaloo Mandel, the Tooth Fairy is a winged administrator (Julie Andrews) who runs an entire organization where tooth fairies are trained and given assignments all over the world that appear on one of those airport flight boards, telling the fairies where to go and what kind of tooth is coming in. They are also equipped with "tools" like shrinking cream, and amnesia dust to help them complete their missions, supplied by the Tooth Kingdom's own version of James Bond's M, named Jerry (Billy Crystal).
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This is all well and good, but instead of keeping Derek in the fairy kingdom, they keep sending him back to his normal life and interrupting it, conveniently complicating his relationship with his girlfriend (Ashley Judd) and her son. Not to mention making an obnoxious new teammate (Ryan Sheckler) pretty impossible to deal with. It seemed to me that for the concept presented to make sense, Derek would have to remain in the kingdom for training, which was pretty non-existent. Not to mention the fact that they kept interrupting Derek to get teeth while thousands of other fairies are sitting in the fairy cafeteria doing nothing.
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The film's principle theme about the death of children's belief systems is a nice one, but the writers should have been a little more forthcoming with it and not make the viewer work so hard for it. Director Michael Lembeck has a keen comic eye and he puts a lot of trust in the charm and charisma of his leading man and I have to admit if anyone but Johnson had been playing this role, I probably would have turned it off about 15 minutes in, but Johnson really commits to this hot mess of a movie and almost makes it worth your time. 2.5

Gideon58

09-12-16, 06:30 PM

IRON MAN 3
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Director and co-screenwriter Shane Black may have gone to the well once to often with Iron Man 3, the third installment in the series, an overblown, logic-defying, confusing, aggravating actioner that doesn't explain anything, doesn't feel the need to, but does provide a more personal look at Tony Stark and what he's been tinkering with in his basement laboratory.
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From what I could glean from the convoluted screenplay, a nerdy techno geek from Tony's past (Guy Pearce), a second rate actor (Ben Kinglsey), and a woman from Tony's past (Rebecca Hall) all have a connection to an international terrorist called The Mandarin, who has Tony so steamed that he actually gives the guy his home address.
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I'm not going to lie, the only thing that kept me invested in this film was my undying love for Robert Downey Jr., who still manages to infuses likability and vulnerability into this sometimes unapologetic superhero. I love Tony because he sort of stumbled into being a superhero and instead of struggling with it, he has chosen to embrace it...the only superhero who couldn't be bothered with creating an alter ego...Tony Stark and Iron Man are one and the same and that's it.
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The plot here had a lot to do with all of those suits that we've seen Tony playing with in his basement laboratory and in this installment, we actually get to see other characters inhabit the suit, including Tony's bud Col. Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). The sequence where Tony directs the suit onto Pepper's body in order to protect her was pretty awesome.

I was never sure who they were supposed to be from scene to scene, but Pearce and Kingsley both did some effective scenery chewing, the best enemies for Iron Man since Jeff Bridges' Obediah Stain. Even though I didn't have a clue what was going on, I never took my eyes off the screen either. 3

gbgoodies

09-13-16, 12:16 AM

Iron Man 3 was easily the weakest of the three Iron Man movies. I didn't like that he started getting panic attacks in this movie. It just felt out of character for him.

Gideon58

09-13-16, 06:03 PM

WHITE PALACE
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1990 was not a terrible year in cinema, documented by my recent re-watch of White Palace, an edgy and intelligent adult romance about two people with sexual heat who are in very different stages of grief. Oh, and you have Jason Alexander with hair.
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James Spader plays Max, a 27 year old up-and-coming who meets cute with a 43-year old waitress named Nora Baker, who has a Marilyn complex and loves to drink and have sex. And her house is a mess. Of course, there is the classic "The Haves vs Haves Not" sensibilities that help to keep our star-crossed lovers apart.
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Director Luis Mandor must be credited for this steamy look at contemporary relationship land, anchored bya near brilliant screenplay by Ted Tally, based on Glenn Savon's novel that is dark and challenging and never forgets that some of cinema's most telling romantic moments are silent.

Remember when Sisan Sarandon was delicious and James Spader was thin and sexy? Susan Sarandon, as always, is illuminated sex on legs as Nora, another one of those great movie characters who not only knows speaks without filter but knows how to it make it hurt. Spader is the personification of urban sophistication that really needs to get laid. There are some deft supporting turns offered by a clearly hand-picked veteran supporting cast...Eileen Brennan as a warm clairvoyant relative of Nora's, Renee Taylor as Max's mother, and Kathy Bates as Max's boss offer great star turns that serve the story, nothing more.
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But what this movie has more than anything is smoldering sexual heat between the two lead actors...only Sarandon's work with Kevin Costner in Bull Durham begins to rival this. Bouqets as well to set direction, sound editing and a lush soap-opera score, If you liked When Harry Met Sally...4

Gideon58

09-14-16, 04:59 PM

ROSEMARY'S BABY
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My recent viewing of Roman Polanski's masterpiece Chinatown motivated me to actually do something I have been trying to do for about 35 years: I have finally watched Polanski's 1968 classic Rosemary's Baby from opening credits to closing credits, something which I have attempted to do dozens of times over the years and finally did today. It's so awesome when a classic lives up to its reputation and this one did, even some 50 years after its original release, thanks to its director, Roman Polanski.
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Based on a novel by Ira Levin, this is the story of Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, a young New York couple who move into one of those old gothic looking brownstones and begin refurbishing the place. Guy is a struggling actor and Rosemary's only priority seems to be having a child. Around the same time Rosemary becomes pregnant, the Woodhouses are befriended by an elderly couple named Minnie and Roman Castavet, who take an inordinate interest in Guy and Rosemary, or more specifically, in Rosemary and her pregnancy...Minnie immediately starts making health drinks for Rosemary and arranges a new doctor for her, but it soon becomes apparent to Rosemary that the Castavets have a hidden agenda and just when they are are about to be exposed by Rosemary's old friend Hutch, Hutch conveniently ends up dead.
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As a writer and director, Roman Polanski proved himself an artist where cinematic storytelling is concerned. Polanski has enough trust in the material and in the payoff that this story eventually provides that he allows this story to unfold very slowly and this is one of the few times that this really works to maximum effect....we're at least 20 minutes into the film before we even get a hint of what is happening here and it is just a hint, noting more...there are red herrings here and there and there are a few things that happen in the story that I didn't understand, but it didn't stop me from becoming completely enveloped in one of the most compelling, terrifying, and heartbreaking stories I have ever seen. Chills are definitely in order when what is happening here starts to come into focus and we hope that we're wrong because this story is centered around one of the most instantly likable movie heroines I have ever seen. We're concerned for her but, through Polanski's screenplay, we learn that the character's outward appearance of fragility cannot be mistaken for stupidity...this character is sharper than she appears on the surface and even though she may not act on it, she really doesn't miss much. I especially love act two, where Rosemary begins to realize Roman and Minnie are not all they appear and that there's something wrong with those health drinks, as she begins pouring the drinks down the drain and planning parties where the Castavets are not on the guest list.
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Polanski's hand-picked cast deliver the goods, starting with Mia Farrow, in the performance that made her a movie star...Farrow's Rosemary is an uncanny combination of china doll fragility and self-preservation beast. Normally, in a story like this, the heroine gives up at some point but Rosemary never does, even though her initial naivete seems a little affected at times, we love this woman from the opening frames and want her to have everything she wants. Polanski made a real offbeat choice in the casting of John Cassavetes as Guy...on paper, Guy seems like he would have been played with someone more movie-star-looking like Warren Beatty or Robert Redford, but his unconventional acting choices make Guy a much more interesting character than he is in the script and somehow manages to keep Guy slightly likable. Ruth Gordon's scene-stealing antics as the annoying and creepy Minnie Castavet won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Mention should also be made of Sidney Blackmer as Roman Castavet, Maurice Evans as Hutch, Ralph Bellamy as Minnie's creepy doctor and a very young Charles Grodin as Rosemary's real doctor. It should be mentioned that this film was made during a time of great personal turmoil for the director and his star...Polanski's relationship with Sharon Tate was about to be ended by her brutal murder and Farrow was nearing the end of her crumbling marriage to Frank Sinatra...Sinatra wanted Mia home barefoot and pregnant and Mia was not having that...she got this movie and her marriage was pretty much over by the time it was released.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/P10AWBi4-y8/maxresdefault.jpg
But what this film has above everything else is the gothic and chilling atmosphere that director Polanski creates through some imaginative camerawork and striking cinematic pictures that spark such frightening imagery that, like the central character, we find ourselves from time to time wondering if this is really happening or if it's all just a psychotropic nightmare and that , I think, was Polanski's intent. 4.5

Gideon58

09-14-16, 07:52 PM

MARTY
http://www.screeninsults.com/images/marty-poster.JPG
A simple story rich with universal themes, sensitive Oscar-winning direction by Delbert Mann, and an Oscar-winning lead performance by one of our most reliable character actors combine to make Marty, the surprise hit of 1955 that became one of the few "little" movies that actually won the Oscar for Best Picture.
http://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/marty.jpg
Paddy Chayefsky created the role of Marty Pilletti, a 34 year old butcher in the Bronx who is the eldest of six children and the only who has yet to marry. Constant pressure from BFF Angie (Joe Mantell) and his mother (Esther Minicotti) have Marty thinking about finding someone special, though he has been burned in the past romantically and has him thinking is an obligation that should be his priority, even though he has a dream of buying his own butcher shop.
http://www.cornel1801.com/video/Marty/Ernest-Borgnine-Marty-Piletti.jpg
One night, Marty is shoved to the Starlight Ballroom a local dance hall where he runs into a guy who offers him five bucks to take his homely date off his hands so that he can go after another girl. Marty refuses the money, but befriends the young woman anyway...a lonely schoolteacher named Claire, who is apparently receiving the same kind of pressure from people in her life to get out there. Marty and Claire actually hit it off and spend the rest of the evening together culminating in Claire actually returning to Marty's apartment with him.
https://mindreels.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/marty-1955-movie-review-marty-clara-ernest-borgnine-betsy-blair-new-years-eve-speech-best-picture-actor-600x300.jpg
Of course, as expected in a story like this, as soon as Marty has finally connected with someone, everyone who has been pressuring him to get out there has a problem with Claire...his buddies don't think she's pretty enough and his mother offers an entire laundry list of things that are wrong with her. Marty also gets a glimpse at the dark side of married life with his long suffering brother and sister-in-law who are having troubles adjusting to becoming new parents.
http://basementrejects.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/marty-1955-movie-review-marty-mother-church-ernest-borgnine-esther-minciotti-best-picture-actor.jpg
Chayefsky and Mann have taken a pretty standard and predictable love story and made it something special by taking away all the Hollywood gloss...simple black and white photography, characters that entertain and remind us of ourselves, and lead actors who aren't pretty, but create rich, deliciously human characters you can't help but root for.

Ernest Borgnine, an actor known for playing bad guys, proved his versatility with a character who is lonely and in pain and always tries to do what the next right thing is and was awarded with a richly deserved Oscar and Betsy Blair matches him scene for scene as the painfully shy Claire...I love the first scene of them dancing together and Claire is talking to Marty but is unable to look him directly in the eye. Mann and Chayefsky knew they had something very special here and chose not to tamper with it too much....letting a really wonderful actor make a story so engaging that you don't miss the fancy production values. 3.5

gbgoodies

09-14-16, 09:47 PM

Gideon58

09-16-16, 06:10 PM

THE PRODUCERS (1967)
The recent passing of Gene Wilder gave 1967's The Producers a serious bump up on my watchlist. Mel Brooks was the creative genius behind this deft and twisted look at one of my favorite movie themes: the business of show business. This movie put Brooks and Gene Wilder on the map and, to date, won Mel Brooks his only Oscar for his razor sharp, bordering on offensive, screenplay. But, of course, if it wasn't bordering on offensive, it wouldn't be Mel Brooks.
https://renawatchesmovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/the-producers-banner.jpg
This is the story of Max Bialystock, a third rate Broadway producer who raises money for his productions by having sex with little old ladies in exchange for fat "checkies". A nebbish accountant named Leo Bloom, a bundle of neuroses who carries a blue security blanket a la Linus Van Pelt has been sent to Max's office to do his books and plants the idea in Max's head that he can make more money producing a Broadway flop rather than a hit by collecting more money that the show requires, selling over 100% of the share of the profits, producing a show that flops and than taking off to Rio with the money because if the show flops, they don't have to pay back investors.

Max and Leo then search out the worst play they can find, a travesty called "Springtime for Hitler, hire the worst director in New York to direct, but they mess up when the hip young actor they hire to play Hitler comes on in the second act and makes the show the biggest hit on Broadway.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/the-producers/w1280/the-producers.jpg
This movie works because Mel Brooks trusts in the strength of his story, which is rock solid and everything that he surrounds his story with is there for one purpose and one purpose only...to serve Brook's vision as a writer and director. Brooks lets his story unfold slowly and allows us time to understand the two central characters...one of my favorite parts of the film is after Max has planted the idea in Leo's head but is still hesitant. Max takes Leo out to lunch in an effort to "seduce" him into making this nefarious plan a reality. I love the way Max very discreetly but effectively convinces Leo that he hates his life and wants something more, all set against some breathtaking backdrops of Manhattan.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7_9vrDPSJoQ/UguOLi95WGI/AAAAAAAAOm4/-hsY27jG_7Q/s1600/Prod02.jpg
Needless to say Brooks served his story in some very unconventional casting for a 1967 film. Zero Mostel, an actor known primarily as a Broadway star (he won a Tony for creating the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof), but pretty much an unknown outside of the New York theater crowd, was a risky choice for Brooks to trust a leading role in a big budget studio film, but it paid off. Mostel delivers one of the 1960's greasiest movie characters who provides consistent laughs...you can just see the oil dripping off this guy. Mostel was an actor known to do a lot of improvising but Brooks keeps him reined in thanks to the confines of the character and Gene Wilder's sometimes totally unhinged Leo Bloom is just a joy to watch. Wilder makes such unconventional acting choices here that gives Leo a layer of unpredictability that is just intoxicating.
http://i.imgur.com/HLpk9wd.jpg
The film also features first rate support from Christopher Hewitt as the director of the play, Andréas Voutsinas as his assistant/lover, Kenneth Mars as the author of the play, and especially Dick Shawn, the actor hired to play Hitler. If you blink, you might miss cameos from future stars Renee Taylor, Barney Martin and William Hickey. The film is rich with imaginative set pieces and the production number,"Springtime for Hitler" has become a classic within itself.
https://lifevsfilm.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/wet.jpg
Brooks decided to revamp the piece into a Broadway musical that Brooks wrote the score for and premiered in 2001, won 11 Tony Awards, and ran for over 2500 performances. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick played Max and Leo in the musical, respectively and reprised their roles in the 2005 film version, which I also enjoyed, but the 2005 film suffers due to the fact that Brooks didn't direct the film. Mel Brooks works best on his own and from behind the camera and this 1967 classic is proof of that. Everything in the musical is just a rehash of Mel Brooks' caustic and brilliant original. 4

gbgoodies

09-17-16, 02:36 AM

Gideon58

09-17-16, 11:20 AM

I liked both versions of The Producers, but I agree that the 1967 version is the better version. However they are very different movies. The 1967 version is a comedy with some music, but the 2005 version is more of a musical comedy. People who don't like musicals will probably like the original version, but probably won't like the 2005 version.

You can read my review of both versions here (http://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=1273986#post1273986).

I like both versions too, but like I said, this one works better than the musical because Brooks directed it. Susan Stroman directed the musical version and directed it on Broadway as well and I think therein the difference lies...Brooks' very special directorial stylings are missing from the 2005 version.

Gideon58

09-17-16, 03:26 PM

HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS
https://screenconnections.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/hello-my-name-is-doris-blu-ray-cover.jpg
A dazzling, Oscar-worthy performance by Sally Field is the centerpiece of a quirky little 2015 character study called Hello My Name is Doris which puts a very unlikely character center stage in some almost unbelievable situations that we willingly accept because this lead character is such a charmer.
http://www.movieinsider.com/images/p/287907.jpg?1452439611
Doris Miller is a middle-aged data entry operator who dresses like a bag lady on crack and after recovering from her mother's death, is trying to move on with her life even though her brother and sister-in-law want her to move out of Mom's house so that they can sell it, which leads to another reveal about Doris which she is in denial about: Doris is a hoarder, the house is filled to the brim with junk and Doris has agreed to seeing a therapist about it. In the midst of all this, Doris finds herself instantly attracted to a new, much younger co-worker named John, whose friendship she mistakes for mutual attraction.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0OeYoXTD9Qo/sddefault.jpg
Director and co-screenwriter Michael Showalter has created an intoxicating story centered around a character who is given vibrant and effervescent life by one of the industry's best actresses. After half a century in the business, Field shows she still knows how to command a movie screen...her Doris makes you laugh, cry, but most of all, you want to protect her from the pain that the story seems to pushing her towards. We can see from her first few encounters with John that her feelings for him are slipping quietly into the area of obsession when she starts attending electric rock band concerts and creating false Facebook profiles with the aid of her granddaughter. We know there is no possible way John can return Doris' feelings and we're scared to watch the fall she's about to take. We worry when she meets John's girlfriend but she ends up bonding with her too.

Showalter has a keen directorial eye that sucks the viewer into believing one thing when something else is happening. His respect for Field and her talent is evident, trusting her instincts as an actress to meld with his directorial vision. Field works surprisingly well with Max Greenfield, known to TV audiences as Schmidt on Fox's New Girl, in his first major screen role as John...Greenfield brings the same sexy, sensitive, metrosexual quality to this character that he does to Schmidt. You understand Doris' attraction to this guy. There is an impressive supporting cast including Peter Gallagher as a motivational speaker who motivates Doris to pursue John, Stephen Root as her brother, Wendie McLendon Hovey as her bitchy sister-in-law, and especially Tyne Daly as Doris' BFF. A very special motion picture experience where a bittersweet experience for our heroine actually makes her stronger instead of destroying her. 4

Citizen Rules

09-17-16, 03:40 PM

Loved your review of Hello Doris, I agree with your opinion of it. It's a charmer!

Gideon58

09-17-16, 06:03 PM

THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Best_little_whorehouse_in_texasposter.jpg
A fact-based Broadway musical called The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas raised eyebrows in 1978 with its raunchy telling of an adult story of political and media pressure that forced the closing of a famous Texas house of prostitution. The musical was brought to the big screen in 1982, cleaned up in the same way Grease was cleaned up for the screen, but still an entertaining diversion, especially if you never saw it onstage.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/f9/16/30/f916303a3e3d97af0232f7758c43211d.jpg
This is the story of The Chicken Ranch, a famous whorehouse on the outskirts of Gilbert Texas that has been open to the public since 1910, earning its name during the Depression when money was scarce and gentlemen paid for their services with poultry. The establishment is now run by the effervescent and big-hearted Miss Mona (Dolly Parton) who has been having a quiet backstreet affair with the sheriff of Gilbert, Ed Earl Dodd (Burt Reynolds), who loves Miss Mona but bows to pressure to shut Miss Mona down when her business is exposed by a tight-assed TV activist named Melvin P. Thorpe (Dom DeLuise) who has declared the Chicken Ranch an illegal den of debauchery that should be shut down immediately.
http://broadwaymusicalhome.com/images/alt/whore.jpg
Director Colin Higgins has taken a bawdy, adult musical and watered it down for general consumption, not to mention altering some of the facts. Though Miss Mona and Sheriff Ed Earl were real-life figures, they were not romantically involved in real life or in the stage musical this movie was based on, but the pairing of Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton onscreen for the first time demanded that the characters be involved and though the romance is acceptable here, it takes the focus away from the original purpose of the musical, the story of the Chicken Ranch and how it was destroyed by political and media pressure.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/z3uX58tQ7mQ/hqdefault.jpg
Fact altering for movies is nothing new, but the whole "cleaned up" look of the story is what hurts it a little...this is the cleanest, neatest, most colorful and proper whorehouse ever presented in a movie which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it was not the intent of the creators of the original Broadway musical, but how many Broadway musicals have come to the screen completely intact?
https://karencarpenterdiedforyoursins.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/screen-shot-2012-08-01-at-9-04-05-am.png?w=580
Burt Reynolds really seems to be phoning it in here with a performance that is just kind of empty, but Parton is a delight, absolutely lighting up the screen as Miss Mona. Dom DeLuise also scores as Melvin Thorpe, as does Charles Durning, who actually received an Oscar nomination for his showstopping turn as the Governor of Texas, which is basically a dazzling musical number called "The Sidestep."
http://cineplex.media.baselineresearch.com/images/96359/96359_full.jpg
Carol Hall's original toe-tapping score has been tampered with, but we still have "A Little Bitty Piss Ant Country Place", "Texas Has a Whorehouse in it", "Hard Candy Christmas", and "The Aggie Song". Two songs were added to the score just for the movie, written by Parton...a duet called "Sneakin' Around" for her and Reynolds and a little something you might have heard of called "I Will Always Love You." The musical numbers are well-staged, featuring some athletic choreography by Tony Stevens. It's an entertaining couple of hours, though considering the subject matter, a little antiseptic. 3

Gideon58

09-18-16, 04:34 PM

CINDERELLA (1950)
http://www.impawards.com/1950/posters/cinderella_ver4.jpg
The Disney studios had one of their biggest hits with Cinderella, the colorful and entertaining animated retelling of the classic fairytale that features a lot of the staples that we expect from a Disney film, some still working to enormous effect and some not so much, but it's still a pleasurable animated diversion that even motivated this old man to smile and chuckle throughout.
https://hype.my/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Cinderella-1950.jpg
For those who have lived under a rock for the past century, a long time ago in a kingdom far away, Cinderella is the daughter of a wealthy widower who remarries to provide his daughter with a mother figure, but when her father dies, the stepmother (who has two daughters of her own) shows her true colors (black and evil), takes over the house turning Cinderella into a servant in her own house. Meanwhile, the King has decided to throw a ball to welcome his son, the Prince, home and intends for his son to find a bride at said event and sends invitations commanding that all available maidens attend the ball. The Stepmother sees this as a path to Easy Street for her and her daughters and does whatever she can to keep Cinderella from attending.
http://paroleacolori.com/wp-content/uploads/In-partenza-per-il-ballo-1950.jpg
Now this is story enough for a movie, but this is Disney we're talking about so embellishing the classic good vs evil story is comic relief, in the form of animals, who either speak or understand English and do what they can to help or hinder our heroine. In Cinderella's corner are a group of mice, led by Jaq and Gus, who when they learn about the ball, immediately do a rehab on the dress Cinderella plans to wear, right before her ugly stepsisters destroy it. Getting in Cinderella's way throughout the story is an arrogant and obnoxious cat named Lucifer, who has attitude for days and adores the evil stepmother until she suggests that Lucifer needs a bath.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4X4K47kE5oo/maxresdefault.jpg
And as far as good and evil is concerned, the lines are clearly and beautifully drawn in the central characters...Cinderella (beautifully voiced by Ilene Woods) is pure and kind and everything you want from a heroine and the evil Stepmother (brilliantly voiced by Eleanor Audley) just drips evil...I love the first confrontation between these two characters where Cinderella enters Stepmother's room and the camera sweeps to her bed and we first see nothing, then Lucifer's bright green eyes, and then Stepmother, with a bone-chilling smile on her face.
http://davelandweb.com/dvd/images/cinderella/CinderellaDiamondEdition_Photo_09.jpg
The film features a handful of nice songs too, including "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes". "Sing Sweet Nightingale", "So This is Love", and "Bippity Boppity Boo", which received an Oscar nomination for Best Song.
http://pic.imghost.pro/big/2015/0724/56c2fe5de2c3dd8dce66d6eb6b16a898_9b9023a7c463192bc3312442fddfce21.png
In this computer generated age of filmmaking, it was so refreshing that I could find genuine entertainment from an animated film that is over 60 years old, but that's exactly what I found and I still think that, even in this day and age, 5-10 year old girls will still be enchanted by this. 3.5

Gideon58

09-18-16, 07:18 PM

VERTIGO
http://www.filmsite.org/posters/vert2.gif
I am hesitant as I sit down to write about my very first viewing of the film that many buffs consider Hitchcock's masterpiece and there is a whole lot of love for it on these boards. Still processing in my head what I've just watched because I want to be fair to a film that is considered a classic. And to be completely fair, it should be noted that this review is coming from someone who is not a huge fan of Hitchcock or Jimmy Stewart and someone who has never been able to stomach Kim Novak. With that said, I feel comfortable in stating that watching this movie was alternately riveting and aggravating, but never boring and never had me looking at my watch, right up to a somewhat predictable ending after a couple of hours of head-scratching entertainment.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Vertigo_1958_trailer_Novak.jpg
It is 1954 San Francisco where we meet John Ferguson, a police detective with a crippling fear of heights, who had to retire because of it, who is coaxed out of retirement by an old friend who wants John to tail his wife, who he suspects has been possessed by the spirit of another woman. John tentatively agrees to follow the woman and begins seeing the connection between this woman named Madeline and a dead woman named Carlotta, which reaches a disturbing level for John when he witnesses Madeline jump into the San Francisco Bay. John eventually finds himself becoming obsessed with his friend's wife, which his BFF Midge who wants to be more is not to thrilled about either.
https://jnpickens.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/vertigo-1958.jpg
The master, Alfred Hitchcock, has given us a psychological thriller that is somewhat pedestrian in some places and spellbinding in others, and used his own unparalleled skill in cinematic storytelling in keeping us in suspense regarding what we think is happening is and what is REALLY happening...Hitchcock and screenwriter Samuel Taylor sprinkle this story with just enough red herrings to slightly confuse the viewer, but never enough to make us give up on the story, and believe me, I have no qualms about giving up on a story that is too confusing, but despite the bizarre twists and turns this story take, especially during the final third, I not only couldn't take my eyes off the screen, I found myself talking back to the movie, a sure sign of a movie that has gotten me.
http://www.moviemail.com/img/still/7447/Vertigo_1_rgb.jpg
Hitchcock has provided a story with two central characters who I felt every specifically about at the beginning of the story but by the end of the story, I felt exactly the opposite about them. The character who was initially sympathetic to me had the hair on the back of my neck standing up and the initial villain of the piece had a symbolic noose tightening around her neck as the story wound to an unspectacular conclusion, but up until then, it was a helluva ride.
https://crossleycinema.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/barbara-bel-geddes-and-james-stewart-vertigo.jpg
James Stewart gives one of his best performances here. I would rate it right up with my favorite (Anatomy of a Murder) and Kim Novak gives the closest thing to a performance I have ever seen. I guess it shows what an A List director can do with a bad actress. Also LOVED the stylish supporting turn by Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge. Bernard Herrmann's score is a little overbearing, but I did not allow it to get in the way of enjoying what is, yes, an amazing piece of cinema that did live up to its reputation. 4

gbgoodies

09-18-16, 11:32 PM

HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS
https://screenconnections.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/hello-my-name-is-doris-blu-ray-cover.jpg
A dazzling, Oscar-worthy performance by Sally Field is the centerpiece of a quirky little 2015 character study called Hello My Name is Doris which puts a very unlikely character center stage in some almost unbelievable situations that we willingly accept because this lead character is such a charmer.
http://www.movieinsider.com/images/p/287907.jpg?1452439611
Doris Miller is a middle-aged data entry operator who dresses like a bag lady on crack and after recovering from her mother's death, is trying to move on with her life even though her brother and sister-in-law want her to move out of Mom's house so that they can sell it, which leads to another reveal about Doris which she is in denial about: Doris is a hoarder, the house is filled to the brim with junk and Doris has agreed to seeing a therapist about. In the midst of all this, Doris finds herself instantly attracted to a new, much younger co-worker named John, whose friendship she mistakes for mutual attraction.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0OeYoXTD9Qo/sddefault.jpg
Director and co-screenwriter Michael Showalter has created an intoxicating story centered around a character who is given vibrant and effervescent life by one of the industry's best actresses. After half a century in the business, Field shows she still knows how to command a movie screen...her Doris makes you laugh, cry, but most of all, you want to protect her from the pain that the story seems to pushing her towards. We can see from her first few encounters with John that her feelings for him are slipping quietly into the area of obsession when she starts attending electric rock band concerts and creating false Facebook profiles with the aid of her granddaughter. We know there is no possible way John can return Doris' feelings and we're scared to watch the fall she's about to take. We worry when she meets John's girlfriend but she ends up bonding with her too.

Showalter has a keen directorial eye that sucks the viewer into believing one thing when something else is happening. His respect for Field and her talent, trusting her instincts as an actress to meld with his directorial vision. Field works surprisingly well with Max Greenfield, known to TV audiences as Schmidt on Fox's New Girl, in his first major screen role as John...Greenfield brings the same sexy, sensitive, metrosexual quality to this character that he does to Schmidt. You understand Doris' attraction to this guy. There is an impressive supporting cast including Peter Gallagher as a motivational speaker who motivates Doris to pursue John, Stephen Root as her brother, Wendie McLendon Hovey as her bitchy sister-in-law, and especially Tyne Daly as Doris' BFF. A very special motion picture experience where a bittersweet experience for our heroine actually makes her stronger than destroying her. 4

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing Hello, My Name is Doris. I usually like Sally Field in just about anything she's in, and it sounds like my kind of movie. (Plus, I'm a hoarder too, so I might be able to relate to her character. :) )

Citizen Rules

09-18-16, 11:35 PM

gbgoodies

09-18-16, 11:35 PM

THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Best_little_whorehouse_in_texasposter.jpg
A fact-based Broadway musical called The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas raised eyebrows in 1978 with its raunchy telling of an adult story of political and media pressure that forced the closing of a famous Texas house of prostitution. The musical was brought to the big screen in 1982, cleaned up in the same way Grease was cleaned up for the screen, but still an entertaining diversion, especially if you never saw it onstage.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/f9/16/30/f916303a3e3d97af0232f7758c43211d.jpg
This is the story of The Chicken Ranch, a famous whorehouse on the outskirts of Gilbert Texas that has been open to the public since 1910, earning its name during the Depression when money was scarce and gentlemen paid for their services with poultry. The establishment is now run by the effervescent and big-hearted Miss Mona (Dolly Parton) who has been having a quiet backstreet affair with the sheriff of Gilbert, Ed Earl Dodd (Burt Reynolds), who loves Miss Mona but bows to pressure to shut Miss Mona down when her business is exposed by a tight-assed TV activist named Melvin P. Thorpe (Dom DeLuise) who has declared the Chicken Ranch an illegal den of debauchery that should be shut down immediately.
http://broadwaymusicalhome.com/images/alt/whore.jpg
Director Colin Higgins has taken a bawdy, adult musical and watered it down for general consumption, not to mention altering some of the facts. Though Miss Mona and Sheriff Ed Earl were real-life figures, they were not romantically involved in real life or in the stage musical this movie was based on, but the pairing of Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton onscreen for the first time demanded that the characters be involved and though the romance is acceptable here, it takes the focus away from the original purpose of the musical, the story of the Chicken Ranch and how it was destroyed by political and media pressure.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/z3uX58tQ7mQ/hqdefault.jpg
Fact altering for movies is nothing new, but the whole "cleaned up" look of the story is what hurts it a little...this is the cleanest, neatest, most colorful and proper whorehouse ever presented in a movie which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it was not the intent of the creators of the original Broadway musical, but how many Broadway musicals have come to the screen completely intact?
https://karencarpenterdiedforyoursins.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/screen-shot-2012-08-01-at-9-04-05-am.png?w=580
Burt Reynolds really seems to be phoning it in here with a performance that is just kind of empty, but Parton is a delight, absolutely lighting up the screen as Miss Mona. Dom DeLuise also scores as Melvin Thorpe, as does Charles Durning, who actually received an Oscar nomination for his showstopping turn as the Governor of Texas, which is basically a dazzling musical number called "The Sidestep."
http://cineplex.media.baselineresearch.com/images/96359/96359_full.jpg
Carol Hall's original toe-tapping score has been tampered with, but we still have "A Little Bitty Piss Ant County Place", "Texas Has a Whorehouse in it", "Hard Candy Christmas", and "The Aggie Song". Two songs were added to the score just for the movie, written by Parton...a duet called "Sneakin' Around" for her and Reynolds and a little something you might have heard of called "I Will Always Love You." The musical numbers are well-staged, featuring some athletic choreography by Tony Stevens. It's an entertaining couple of hours, though considering the subject matter, a little antiseptic. 3

I saw The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas back when it was released, and all I really remember about it was that despite a cast of actors who I like, the movie was pretty bad. I thought the only one worth watching in the whole movie was Charles Durning. :shrug:

gbgoodies

09-18-16, 11:38 PM

Watch it GBG, I think you'll like it, and if you're a hoarder you'll understand the 'intervention' scene where her brother and sister in law want her to get rid of all of her stuff. Just image if someone told you, you had to get rid off everything you own! It was a well done scene and I agree with Gideon a great movie. I really liked it.

It's already on my watchlist. Someday I might actually catch up to current movies, but if not, I'll probably see it within the next couple of years.

In my world, a hoarder is called a "collector", so I don't have to get rid of everything because it's collectible, and it will go up in value the longer I keep it. :D

Citizen Rules

09-18-16, 11:40 PM

I kind of thought of you as a collector. But Doris is a hoarder! In the movie it's funny in a way, but a bit sad too, well you'll have to watch it.

gbgoodies

09-18-16, 11:45 PM

CINDERELLA (1950)
http://www.impawards.com/1950/posters/cinderella_ver4.jpg
The Disney studios had one of their biggest hits with Cinderella, the colorful and entertaining animated retelling of the classic fairytale that features a lot of the staples that we expect from a Disney film, some still working to enormous effect and some not so much, but it's still a pleasurable animated diversion that even motivated this old man to smile and chuckle throughout.
https://hype.my/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Cinderella-1950.jpg
For those who have lived under a rock for the past century, a long time ago in a kingdom far away, Cinderella is the daughter of a wealthy widower who remarries to provide his daughter with a father figure, but when her father dies, the stepmother (who has two daughters of her own) shows her true colors (black and evil), takes over the house turning Cinderella into a servant in her own house. Meanwhile, the King has decided to throw a ball to welcome his son, the Prince, home and intends for his son to find a bride at said event and sends invitations commanding that all available maidens attend the ball. The Stepmother sees this as a path to Easy Street for her and her daughters and does whatever she can to keep Cinderella from attending.
http://paroleacolori.com/wp-content/uploads/In-partenza-per-il-ballo-1950.jpg
Now this is story enough for a movie, but this is Disney we're talking about so embellishing the classic good vs evil story is comic relief, in the form of animals, who either speak or understand English and do what they can to help or hinder our heroine. In Cinderella's corner are a group of mice, led by Jaq and Gus, who when they learn about the ball, immediately do a rehab on the dress Cinderella plans to wear, right before her ugly stepsisters destroy it. Getting in Cinderella's way throughout the story is an arrogant and obnoxious cat named Lucifer, who has attitude for days and adores the evil stepmother until she suggests that Lucifer needs a bath.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4X4K47kE5oo/maxresdefault.jpg
And as far as good and evil is concerned, the lines are clearly and beautifully drawn in the central characters...Cinderella (beautifully voiced by Ilene Woods) is pure and kind and everything you want from a heroine and the evil Stepmother (brilliantly voiced by Eleanor Audley) just drips evil...I love the first confrontation between these two characters where Cinderella enters Stepmother's room and the camera sweeps to her bed and we first see nothing, then Lucifer's bright green eyes, and then Stepmother, with a bone-chilling smile on her face.
http://davelandweb.com/dvd/images/cinderella/CinderellaDiamondEdition_Photo_09.jpg
The film features a handful of nice songs too, including "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes". "Sing Sweet Nightingale", "So This is Love", and "Bippity Boppity Boo", which received an Oscar nomination for Best Song.
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In this computer generated age of filmmaking, it was so refreshing that I could find genuine entertainment from an animated film that is over 60 years old, but that's exactly what I found and I still think that, even in this day and age, 5-10 year old girls will still be enchanted by this. 3.5

Cinderella is a wonderful movie, and if you haven't seen them, there are several old live action versions that are worth watching. Specifically, the 1957 version starring Julie Andrews, and the 1965 version starring Lesley Ann Warren.

gbgoodies

09-18-16, 11:46 PM

I kind of thought of you as a collector. But Doris is a hoarder! In the movie it's funny in a way, but a bit sad too, well you'll have to watch it.

I will definitely watch it. It just might take me a while to get to it, (unless it's out on DVD on Black Friday and someone has it on sale. :) )

gbgoodies

09-18-16, 11:54 PM

VERTIGO
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I am hesitant as I sit down to write about my very first viewing of the film that many buffs consider Hitchcock's masterpiece and there is a whole lot of love for it on these boards. Still processing in my head what I've just watched because I want to be fair to a film that is considered a classic. And to be completely fair, it should be noted that this review is coming from someone who is not a huge fan of Hitchcock or Jimmy Stewart and someone who has never been able to stomach Kim Novak. With that said, I feel comfortable in stating that watching this movie was alternately riveting and aggravating, but never boring and never had me looking at my watch, right up to a somewhat predictable ending after a couple of hours of head-scratching entertainment.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Vertigo_1958_trailer_Novak.jpg
It is 1954 San Francisco where we meet John Ferguson, a police detective with a crippling fear of heights, who had to retire because of it, who is coaxed out of retirement by an old friend who wants John to tail his wife, who he suspects has been possessed by the spirit of another woman. John tentatively agrees to follow the woman and begins seeing the connection between this woman named Madeline and a dead woman named Carlotta, which reaches a disturbing level for John when he witnesses Madeline jump into the San Francisco Bay. John eventually finds himself becoming obsessed with his friend's wife, which his BFF Midge who wants to be more is not to thrilled about either.
https://jnpickens.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/vertigo-1958.jpg
The master, Alfred Hitchcock, has given us a psychological thriller that is somewhat pedestrian in some places and spellbinding in others, and used his own unparalleled skill in cinematic storytelling in keeping us in suspense regarding what we think is happening is what is REALLY happening...Hitchcock and screenwriter Samuel Taylor sprinkle this story with just enough red herrings to slightly confuse the viewer, but never enough to make us give up on the story, and believe me, I have no qualms about giving up on a story that is too confusing, but despite the bizarre twists and turns this story take, especially during the final third, I not only couldn't take my eyes off the screen, I found myself talking back to the movie, a sure sign of a movie that has gotten me.
http://www.moviemail.com/img/still/7447/Vertigo_1_rgb.jpg
Hitchcock has provided a story with two central characters who I felt every specifically about at the beginning of the story but by the end of the story, I felt exactly the opposite about them. The character who was initially sympathetic to me had the hair on the back of my neck standing up and the initial villain of the piece had a symbolic noose tightening around her neck as the story wound to an unspectacular conclusion, but up until then, it was a helluva ride.
https://crossleycinema.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/barbara-bel-geddes-and-james-stewart-vertigo.jpg
James Stewart gives one of his best performances here. I would rate it right up with my favorite (Anatomy of a Murder) and Kim Novak gives the closest thing to a performance I have ever seen. I guess it shows what an A List director can do with a bad actress. Also LOVED the stylish supporting turn by Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge. Bernard Herrmann's score is a little overbearing, but I did not allow it to get in the way of enjoying what is, yes, an amazing piece of cinema that did live up to its reputation. 4

I'm glad you liked Vertigo. It's not my favorite Hitchcock movie, but it's one of his best movies. (I grew up watching Hitchcock's movies, so I can't imagine anyone not being a fan of Hitchcock.)

Gideon58

09-19-16, 11:02 AM

Cinderella is a wonderful movie, and if you haven't seen them, there are several old live action versions that are worth watching. Specifically, the 1957 version starring Julie Andrews, and the 1965 version starring Lesley Ann Warren.

I watched the Lesley Ann Warren version every year on CBS for about ten years when they would broadcast it annually like The Wizard of Oz. I saw the Julie Andrews version a couple of years ago...a lot of people don't know Andrews originated that role. I even saw the remake with Brandy and Whitney Houston. There is also a version of the story from the mid 50's called The Glass Slipper with Leslie Caron playing Cinderella that I also loved.

Citizen Rules

09-19-16, 02:03 PM

Gideon58

09-19-16, 06:08 PM

EVERYTHING MUST GO
An original look at some classic movie themes, anchored by a powerhouse lead performance from an unexpected source make 2010's Everything Must Go worth your time. A prickly and sometimes unsettling story that, considering the initial set-up and the star of the film, provides nothing that we expect, but pays off with vivid entertainment that never defies logic or realism.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Everything_Must_Go_Poster.jpg
Will Ferrell stars as Nick Halsey, an alcoholic business executive who is let go from his job after 16 years and comes home to find the locks on his house and garage changed and everything he owns all over his front yard. In the next 24 hours, Nick has been blocked access to his bank accounts, his cell phone has been cut off, and his car is repossessed. Nick's AA sponsor, a police detective, keeps Nick from being arrested by arranging a permit for him that says he is conducting yard sale that buys Nick three days until he can figure out what to do.

It is during these three days that Nick manages to actually connect with two very different people who accidentally drift into his life. Samantha is a pregnant, across the street neighbor who has just moved in and still awaiting the arrival of her husband. Kenny Loftus is an overweight latch key kid who actually witnessed his wife having the locks changed and throwing his stuff out, who actually agrees to help Nick with his yard.
http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/everything-must-go-movie-image-will-ferrell-slice-01.jpg
When I first heard about this film and was informed who was the star, I expected a manic slapstick comedy about a guy living on his front lawn and there is nothing manic or comic about what happens in this story. What happens to the character of Nick Halsey is pretty much a nightmare and the initial laughs provided are nervous ones. As nightmarish as this man's plight is, every time he takes a drink, you have to wonder if he hasn't gotten exactly what's coming to him. Alcoholism has consequences and what we see here is the consequences of Nick's alcoholic behavior and the behavior itself is restricted to backstory and as to whether what Nick's wife was justified, that is for the individual viewer to decide.

Rivaling his work in Stranger than Fiction, Ferrell delivers a powerhouse movie-star performance that commands the screen, never strains credibility, and buries any image of the movie clown to which we've become accustomed. Ferrell's Nick is not a black and white character and Ferrell, with the aid of director and co-screenwriter Dan Rush, doesn't shy away from the negative aspects of the character. The scene where he is refused credit for a six pack and stands in front of the store begging for a beer is heartbreaking. Rebecca Hall establishes a nice chemistry with Ferrell as Samantha as does Christopher Jordan Wallace as young Kenny. Michael Pena is also quite effective as Nick's sponsor. There's also a lovely cameo by Laura Dern as an old high school classmate that sort of comes out of nowhere but serves the story.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-F0Dsk57f92c/Tpr8EVsBWsI/AAAAAAAAD3Y/I8pWKBF_Fjw/s1600/EMG%2B6.JPG
I also love the fact that we never meet Nick's wife, Catherine...it gives the story so much more power. Bouquets to the art direction and editing teams and I loved David Torn's music. A surprisingly unique look at the horror of addiction, from a surprisingly refreshing angle. 4

Gideon58

09-19-16, 09:46 PM

UNCLE BUCK
http://www.dvd-covers.org/d/266756-2/Uncle_Buck1.jpg
John Hughes and John Candy once again struck gold as a movie making team with a 1989 comedy called Uncle Buck, that makes a pretty standard story special due to some deft screenwriting and Candy's ability to bring more to a role than what's on the paper.
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Candy plays Buck Russell, a confirmed bachelor, an unemployed chronic gambler who steps up when he gets a call from his brother asking if he can look after hie nieces and nephew. Buck is not his sister-in-law's first choice for this job made clear by the fact that the two younger children didn't even know they had an Uncle. The story eventually whittles down to a battle of wills between Buck and his mean-spirited older niece (Jean Louisa Kelly).

What I like that John Hughes did here is establish the kind of person the central character is through other characters and events in the story. The kids' mother only agreeing to call Buck when ALL other options have been exhausted, the look of terror on her face as she is giving Buck final instructions before they leave town, and on the other side of Buck, we see his sometimes girlfriend (Amy Madigan) who he is supposed to start working for, ask him about 47 times in their first scene nif he is going to show up for work for his first day. The wonderful twist here is the way Buck steps up and takes this responsibility so seriously but never stops being Buck.
http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/30000000/Uncle-Buck-john-candy-30055507-1920-1080.jpg
Hughes creates a perfect marriage of actor and character with Candy and Buck, one of Candy's more likable characters, who actually has a little more substance than you might think. Kelly is a little too straight-faced as the niece, but Macauley Culkin is a scene-stealer in a performance that led to his star-making role in Home Alone. Madigan is wasted bu Laurie Metcalf has some funny moments as an amorous neighbor with the hots for Buck. Once again, the two Johns, Hughes and Candy, make an unbeatable combination. 3.5

Citizen Rules

09-19-16, 11:08 PM

Glad to see some love for Uncle Buck.

one of Candy's more likable characters, who actually has a little ore substance than you might think. You might try Oliver Stone's JFK (1991) to see Candy in a total serious role where he gets a chance to show his stuff.

gbgoodies

09-20-16, 12:13 AM

I watched the Lesley Ann Warren version every year on CBS for about ten years when they would broadcast it annually like The Wizard of Oz. I saw the Julie Andrews version a couple of years ago...a lot of people don't know Andrews originated that role. I even saw the remake with Brandy and Whitney Houston. There is also a version of the story from the mid 50's called The Glass Slipper with Leslie Caron playing Cinderella that I also loved.

I haven't seen the remake with Brandy and Whitney Houston, but I love Whitney Houston's voice, so I'll have to see it. (I have no idea who Brandy is. :shrug: )

I've seen The Glass Slipper with Leslie Caron, and it was okay, but IMO, it isn't nearly as good as the other two versions that I mentioned, or the Disney animated version.

Gideon58

09-20-16, 07:26 PM

gbgoodies

09-20-16, 10:50 PM

Did you know that Betsy Blair almost didn't get the role in Marty because she was blacklisted? She only got the part because her husband, Gene Kelly, threatened to pull out of the movie that he was filming at the time.

Ever since you posted this, I've been racking my brain trying to think of what movie Gene Kelly was working on at the time...my original thought was Invitation to the Dance,p but that was a very important project to Kelly that I don't see him walking away from for any reason...so I've decided that he must have been working on It's Always Fair Weather, ironically, one of the few Gene Kelly musicals I have never seen.

Yes, the movie he threatened to pull out of was It's Always Fair Weather. It's a very good movie, and I recommend it, but it's not one of my favorites of his movies. However I love watching Gene Kelly dance while wearing roller skates because I can't even stand on skates, so I'm amazed that he could dance on them.

Gideon58

09-21-16, 10:47 AM

Yes, the movie he threatened to pull out of was It's Always Fair Weather. It's a very good movie, and I recommend it, but it's not one of my favorites of his movies. However I love watching Gene Kelly dance while wearing roller skates because I can't even stand on skates, so I'm amazed that he could dance on them.

The roller skate number made my dance choreography thread if you recall...that number drives me nuts...I can't believe the guy actually tap dances on roller skates...the man was amazing.

Gideon58

09-21-16, 05:55 PM

I haven't seen the remake with Brandy and Whitney Houston, but I love Whitney Houston's voice, so I'll have to see it. (I have no idea who Brandy is. :shrug: )

I've seen The Glass Slipper with Leslie Caron, and it was okay, but IMO, it isn't nearly as good as the other two versions that I mentioned, or the Disney animated version.

Brandy (I think her real surname is Norwood but she dropped it to be a star) played the title role in a syndicated sitcom called Moesha that ran 4 or 5 seasons if memory serves, I think she cut a couple of records and that was pretty much her 15 minutes, other than a very public romance with Ray J, who did have a recurring role on Moesha. If you watch this version of Cinderella, there is a very competitive vibe between Brandy and Houston that burns a hole in the screen...I think Houston felt a little threatened by Brandy, evidenced in their duet together, "Impossible", where the two divas are basically trying to out-sing each other. There is a review of this version on page 25 of my review thread.

gbgoodies

09-22-16, 12:52 AM

Brandy (I think her real surname is Norwood but she dropped it to be a star) played the title role in a syndicated sitcom called Moesha that ran 4 or 5 seasons if memory serves, I think she cut a couple of records and that was pretty much her 15 minutes, other than a very public romance with Ray J, who did have a recurring role on Moesha. If you watch this version of Cinderella, there is a very competitive vibe between Brandy and Houston that burns a hole in the screen...I think Houston felt a little threatened by Brandy, evidenced in their duet together, "Impossible", where the two divas are basically trying to out-sing each other. There is a review of this version on page 25 of my review thread.

I never watched "Moesha", but the name sounds familiar. I also have no idea who Ray J is, so that didn't help either. :shrug:

But I like Whitney Houston, and I like the basic "Cinderella" story, so I'll give this version a chance. I added it to my watchlist.

Gideon58

09-22-16, 05:54 PM

THE WRONG GUY
The severely underrated comic talents of Dave Foley anchor a 1997 comedy called The Wrong Guy, a somewhat convoluted crime farce that defies logic and credibility throughout, rich with "Aw come on" moments, but one thing the movie does do consistently...it brings the funny.
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Foley plays Nelson Hibbert, a nerdy business executive who is passed over for a promotion who storms into his boss' office to give him a piece of mind and discovers the man has been murdered. Of course, Nelson freaks out, removes the murder weapon from the victim and gets the victim's blood all over him. We then watch Nelson board an elevator and quietly leave the office, covered in blood, with nary a question from anyone in the building and manages to get out before the police get there. Assuming that the police are already on his tail, Nelson decides he has no choice but to go on the run. Of course, before he goes, he has to call his fiancee, who is the victim's daughter, and inform her that he did not kill his once and future father-in-law-to-be.
http://cdn.moviestillsdb.com/sm/434e11469a75fd319cb8e0ca2453039d/the-wrong-guy.jpg
The irony of the whole situation is that even before Nelson makes his getaway, the authorities already know who the real killer is and even though they're not looking for Nelson, he keeps getting in the way of the investigation. Things get stickier when it is revealed who hired the killer and that said killer has decided that Nelson was used to set him up, so he decides that Nelson needs to be eliminated.
http://cdn.moviestillsdb.com/sm/697b87dd774c920220c7fd8add1b4279/the-wrong-guy.jpg
Foley, David Anthony Higgins, and Jay Kogen have concocted a loopy and sometimes confusing story that takes all kinds of bizarre twists and turns and asks the viewer to accept a lot, but the cast plays it with straight faces which makes it a little easier to forgive certain lapses in credibility. There is one scene where the killer actually shoots his way out of a hotel parking lot filled with police that was just too implausible, but, like William Hurt said in The Big Chill, "sometimes you just have to let art flow over you."
http://www.alcohollywood.com/wp-content/uploads//ep217-wrongguy.jpg
David Steinberg's direction is actually quite detail oriented and he keeps a pretty tight rein on a cast of comedy veterans, led by Foley, who got the movie role of a lifetime and nailed it...though the running joke of him being a woman grew tiresome, Foley's work here never does. Co-screenwriter Higgins is also very funny as the lazy police detective who is more interested in the perks of police work than the work itself. Colm Feore made a slick comic villain and the delicious Jennifer Tilly lights up the screen as the narcoleptic love interest who can't cook. I was expecting to be bored to death by this one, but every now and then I get a pleasant surprise. 3.5

mark f

09-22-16, 07:15 PM

The late David Steinberg's direction is actually quite detail oriented...
This David Steinberg is still with us. :cool:

Gideon58

09-23-16, 05:45 PM

This David Steinberg is still with us. :cool:

Thank you, I'm going to change that right now...I was confusing him with David Brenner.

Gideon58

09-23-16, 06:09 PM

Jodie Foster won her first Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actress for her performance in a 1988 nail biter called The Accused, which takes an unflattering and up close look at the crime of rape, how hard it is to convict, and how the rights of the accused seem much more important than the rights of the victim.
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Foster plays Sarah Tobias, a woman who walks into a bar one night and ends up running out of the same bar later in tattered clothing after being gang-raped in the back room of the bar by three men. Sarah reports the crime immediately and does everything a rape victim should do and the three men are apprehended, but Sarah is upset when she learns that the prosecuting attorney, Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) decides that Sarah would not be a credible witness on the stand and makes a deal with the accused, pleading to a lesser charge.
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Sarah feels Kathryn has let her down and it isn't until Kathryn has a personal encounter with one of the accused that she realizes she's made a mistake. She can't un-do the deal she's already made, so she decides to prosecute the witnesses who stood there in the room cheering and encouraging the rape.
http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/8TbQN4hCDgkmGoKC4nUj4H9x9gR.jpg
Screenwriter Tom Topor has done his homework, offering us a story with no easy answers. Should the accused get a pass because Sarah came into the bar provocatively dressed? Should Sarah be penalized because she was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana? However out of hand things may have become, didn't it become rape the moment Sarah said no? Of course, the last question is where the crux of the drama lies and that's why we know the truth won't be revealed until the inevitable re-enactment of what happened that night through the eyes of a key witness and non-participant in the crime, which is where director Jonathan Kaplan really scored...the direction of the scene of the crime is nothing short of brilliant.
http://www.nicksflickpicks.com/accusedrev.jpg
Kaplan also got a powerhouse performance from Foster in a role that evokes sympathy one scene and embarrassment the next. We know this woman is a victim but she really doesn't act like it a lot and seems to be destroying her own case. McGillis is a little wooden as Murphy and I have to admit I kept picturing someone else in this role, someone like Diane Keaton, who could let Foster shine in the more showy role without fading into the wallpaper the way McGillis does at points in this film. With a different actress playing Murphy, this film could have been amazing, but Foster is still mesmerizing and commands your attention, as she always does. 3.5

nebbit

09-24-16, 01:37 AM

What a great and disturbing movie :yup: great review :up:

Gideon58

09-24-16, 11:19 AM

What a great and disturbing movie :yup: great review :up:

Thanks, Nebbit...love your new avatar.

Gideon58

09-24-16, 02:58 PM

I LOVE YOU MAN
A deft screenplay and a terrific ensemble cast are the primary selling points of a 2009 comedy called I Love You Man, a goofy yet endearing look at how friendships can affect romance and vice versa.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51PUBxxNkbL.jpg
Paul Rudd plays Peter Klaven, a tightly wound real estate agent who has just proposed to his fiancee, Zooey (Rashida Jones) and as wedding preparations begin, it is Zooey who comes to the realization that Peter doesn't really have any male friends, evidenced in his inability to find a best man. Peter actually goes on a couple of "man-dates" in order to change things, but ends up hitting it off with Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) an investment broker who crashes Peter's open house to try and sell Lou Ferrigno's house. Peter and Sydney become instant BFF's, but, as expected, Peter's relationship with Sydney begins to seriously impact his engagement.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/obhltB1DSTI/maxresdefault.jpg
Director and co-screenwriter John Hamburg has a very keen instinct regarding contemporary relationships and what makes them tick because he touches on all aspects of them here. The primary one being that Peter is encouraged by Zooey to make a friend and when he does, she doesn't like it. I also love that the character of Sydney is nothing like Peter...he is a slob who speaks without filter, has a masturbation station in his living room, and likes to walk his dog on Venice Beach but refuses to clean up after him. It is the development of the relationship between Peter and Sydney that makes up the crux of this movie and it is also the most entertaining aspect.
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It's so much fun watching Peter's almost hero worship of Sydney and his absolute disdain of rules and etiquette. Peter's attempts to speak like Sydney, specifically coming with cool nicknames for Sydney, are also hysterical. It was adorable the way Peter's eyes would light up whenever he would see Sydney's name come up on his phone and their bonding at a Rush concert (their favorite band) was something I won't forget anytime soon.
http://www.asset1.net/tv/pictures/movie/i-love-you-man-2009/I-Love-You-Man-DI.jpg
Paul Rudd is loopy and charming as Peter and Jason Segel's breezy laid back Sydney is a joy to watch and the chemistry between the two is undeniable, true movie BFF's. Hamburg has surrounded the stars with a terrific supporting cast including Jon Favreau, Jaime Pressly, JK SImmons, and Jane Curtin. Andy Samberg has some funny moments as Peter's gay younger brother, though there is nothing in the performance that makes the character appear gay, though Thomas Lennon does score as a man date of Peter's at the beginning of the film who falls in love with him instantly. Definitely one of the more pleasant surprises I've had at the movies lately. 3.5

Gideon58

09-24-16, 05:51 PM

ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
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The 1974 comedy-drama Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore won its leading lady her first Oscar after two other nominations and was something very different on the resume of its director. This thoughtful character study of a woman trying to find herself sustains interest due the aforementioned talent.

Ellen Burstyn stars as Alice Hyatt, a New Mexico housewife in denial about her fear of her abusive husband (Billy Green Bush) and her fear that he might harm her son, Tommy (Alfred Lutter), has her wishing for a way out and not long after, Don Hyatt dies in an automobile accident, leaving a penniless and confused Alice to pick up the pieces, which she decides is to return to her childhood home of Monterrey in time for Tommy to start school there.
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Alice has never really worked except as a lounge singer and when the few opportunities she found to sing dry up, she reluctantly accepts a job as a waitress at Mel and Ruby's Diner in Tuscon, where she may have also found the man of her dreams in the form of a hunky and charming rancher (Kris Kristofferson).

This is definitely not the kind of film most people would associate with Martin Scorsese and I constantly have to remind myself that Scorsese directed this because episodic character story is not exactly what he director is known for, but he has mounted an evocative and somewhat voyeuristic look at a woman struggling to stay above water without letting her son know what's going on. Scorsese does a wonderful job of establishing the relationship between Alice and Tommy...sometimes they are more like friends than mother and son, which isn't always a good thing, but it makes for some entertaining yet realistic diversions in this cinematic journey.
http://www.moviemail.com/img/still/5996/Alice-Doesnt-Live-Here-Anymore-5996_1.jpg
But above everything, this film has a breathtaking leading performance from one of the best actresses in the business, who brings so much more to this character than revealed in Robert Getchell's Oscar-winning screenplay, which actually reveals quite a lot but Burstyn takes us completely inside Alice's soul, a sometimes dark and conflicted place that is the source of a woman who has never really been truly happy but seems to have no problem with putting her son ahead of her own happiness. Burstyn also manages to create a lovely chemistry with Kristofferson, who has rarely been this charming onscreen and Alfred Lutter is a real scene-stealer as Tommy. Diane Ladd received an Oscar nomination for her performance as Flo, a waitress at the diner and future Oscar winner Jodie Foster also manages to steal a scene or two as a friend of Tommy's. A lovely little melodrama made much more entertaining than it should be thanks to its leading leading lady. Later turned into a CBS television series called Alice that ran for nine seasons. 3.5

cricket

09-24-16, 09:20 PM

I think Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is Martin Scorsese's most underrated movie, and I Love You Man one of the best comedies of the last 10 years.

Gideon58

09-25-16, 04:40 PM

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
For many film goers, the best film of 1994 was The Shawshank Redemption. a sweeping and emotionally charged epic that weaves multiple stories of corruption, friendship, survival, and loyalty and sets all these stories behind prison walls without ever making the story feel claustrophobic.
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Based on a novel by Stephen King called "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption", this is the story of Andy Dufrane (Tim Robbins), the vice president of a bank who is convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover, sentenced to two life sentences for each of his victims and, in 1947, is sent to Shawshank, a huge prison where Andy learns how to survive, make friends, and even make improvements to the facility, primarily through the use of his own brains and education and his friendship with another lifer in the facility named Red (Morgan Freeman).
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Director and screenwriter Frank Darabont has created a textbook in cinematic storytelling here that is centered around a character who is not bathed in an angelic glow from the beginning. Our first glance at Andy sees him getting drunk and loading a gun with bullets, scenes that are juxtaposed with a prosecuting attorney (Jeffrey DeMunn) putting the final nails in Andy's coffin, as it were. It's not until Andy arrives in Shawshank and confronts Red about getting him that tiny little hammer that we know Andy is innocent. It is only a couple of months after his arrival in Shawshank that Andy actually begins planning his escape only no one realizes it.
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We don't realize it because Andy's exterior survival mode not only finds him a way out of the laundry room and as the right hand man to the warden (Bob Gunton). We can't help but wish for a way out for Andy as he begins to think of the men around him and how he can help and educate them as well. I love Andy's tireless pursuit of the state for funds to improve the prison library, beautifully climaxed by Andy broadcasting that operatic recording all over the prison yard and watching every single man in the place be mesmerized by it. We also get a look at the other side of Andy's situation with the heartbreaking subplot of Brooks (James Whitmore), a lifelong con who actually gets released and is absolutely terrified about it...a man who has spent so much of his life on the inside that being a free man is something he can't even conceive.
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Darabont has spared nothing in bringing this sprawling epic to the screen, taking time to introduce us to all the characters who are a part of Andy's story, never forgetting that it's Andy's story and because of the way he tells the story, the viewer will only be satisfied with one conclusion to this story. Darabont gets some excellent performances from his cast...Tim Robbins is a perfect Andy, another character where that baby face of his works to such great advantage and Morgan Freeman's Oscar nominated work as Red is so good that you almost forget that Freeman is a much more intelligence screen presence than this character. Bob Gunton just drips evil as the warden as does Clancy Brown as the head corrections officer. William Sadler, Gil Bellows, and Mark Rolston also score in supporting roles. The film also deserves nods for cinematography, film editing, sound, and a lush musical score that serves the story effectively, but most of all, this film is a tribute to the artistry of Frank Darabont. A must for all cinema purists. 5

Citizen Rules

09-25-16, 05:01 PM

:up:THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, Agree with everything you said. Great to see some love for Shawshank as lately it's been the movie du jour to knock. It's a solid 5/5 movie for me.

Gideon58

09-25-16, 07:22 PM

SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL
Screenwriter John Hughes and director Howard Deutch, the creative team behind Pretty in Pink and the architects of 80's teen angst scored again with a 1987 confection called Some Kind of Wonderful, a basic love triangle made watchable due to Hughes' uncanny insight into teen psyche and Deutch's surprisingly detailed direction.
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The basic triangle here involves Keith (Eric Stolz), a teen mechanic who dreams of being an artist who has been best friends since the third grade with Watts (Mary Stuart Masterson), a tomboy who really hasn't discovered her inner girl yet and Amanda Jones (Lea Thompson), the popular school beauty who can't seem to extricate herself from a sleazeball named Hardy Jenns (Craig Sheffer).
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As with most John Hughes teen comedies, we pretty much know where this is going about ten minutes in, but what makes this one interesting is the very complex journey the characters take, sometimes of their own doing and the way the characters aren't always what they are supposed to be for the story that unfolds.
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We understand how Keith's obsession with Amanda is intensified when he learns that Hardy is not faithful to her, but we don't understand is how Keith can be completely clueless as to how Watts feels about him. And Watts doesn't exactly make all the right moves either...when Keith and Amanda have their big date, why on earth would Watts agree to be their driver and why would Keith accept such an offer? Watts goes through a lot of pain during this story but a lot of it is self-inflicted and to make things even more complicated, the character of Amanda, who we would expect to be a total bitch, is not at all, making us scratch our heads as to how we're ever going to get to that ending we saw ten minutes in.
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But Hughes and Deutch have crafted a tale that hits all the right teen angst notes with the aid of a solid cast. Stolz is a charming leading man and Mary Stuart Masterson is a revelation as Watts, the sight of her huge expressive eyes welling up with water is hard to resist and Lea Thompson keeps Amanda likable even though she shouldn't be. Also loved Elias Koteas as the school psycho and Maddie Corman as Keith's sister. It ain't Pretty in Pink, but it will hold your attention. 3

cricket

09-25-16, 07:24 PM

I saw that at the movies, a lesser John Hughes movie but still decent.

Gideon58

09-27-16, 06:26 PM

NANCY GOES TO RIO
Jane Powell and her breathtaking lyric soprano take center stage for a delightful MGM confection from 1950 called Nancy Goes to Rio. This film was produced by the Joe Pasternak division of MGM. Pasternak was a producer who preferred legit sopranos like Jane Powell and Deanna Durbin as the stars of his movies as opposed to belters like Judy Garland and this movie appears to be a real valentine to Powell from Pasternak as no expense was spared here.
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Powell plays Nancy Barclay, the daughter of Broadway star Frances Elliott (Ann Southern), who is just as talented as her mother and has been toiling quietly in her college summer stock productions keeping boyfriend Scotty (Scotty Beckett) at arm's length, looking for her big break wherever it might come. Nancy gets her break when the author of a new musical (Fortunio Bononova) sees Nancy in a college production and offers her the lead in his new musical, a role that he had promised to Nancy's mother, even though the character in the new show is much closer to Nancy's age.
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Nancy is sent to Brazil on a cruise ship to learn the role secretly and while on the ship meets a handsome playboy (Barry Sullivan) who overhears Nancy rehearsing lines from the play which he, of course, misinterprets leading to some classic musical comedy complications that find Nancy and her mother not only competing for the same role, but for the same man.
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The MGM gloss makes this piece of fluff appear a lot more important than it really is and if you look at the basic plot, in this day it would be laughed off the screen because in 2016 a mother and daughter competing for the same part or the same man would not be nearly as considerate of each other's feelings as Frances and Nancy are in this movie, which is what makes this movie such a wonderful escape, and wasn't that what MGM musicals were all about?
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Powell and Southern are wonderful together and their voices blend beautifully on "Magic is the Moonlight". Other musical highlights include "So This is Love", "Ca-Room Pa-Pa", "Shine on Harvest Moon", "Yipsee Ky-Ay", "Time and Time Again" and the title tune. Powell even offers a stunning rendition of "Musetta's Waltz" from LaBoheme.
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Carmen Miranda, in her second to last film, shines in her two musical numbers that disguise how pointless her role really is and Louis Calhern is a lot of fun as Nancy's grandfather. Only Sullivan misses the boat here, light comedy not really being his thing and failing to produce chemistry with either of the leading ladies, but it's a bit of a nitpick in a colorful and entertaining MGM musical package that is a pretty smooth ride. 3.5

gbgoodies

09-28-16, 12:16 AM

I've never heard of Nancy Goes to Rio, but it sounds like my type of movie, so I added it to my watchlist.

Gideon58

09-28-16, 07:19 PM

GRACE OF MONACO
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/Grace_of_Monaco_Poster.jpg
Grace Kelly had only made 11 movies and won an Academy Award when, a couple of years later, she walked away from Hollywood after a whirlwind and highly-publicized romance with Prince Rainer and actually became Her Serene Royal Highness Princess Grace of Monaco, a move that shocked Americans and Europeans alike and the early years following these events are documented in 2014's Grace of Monaco, a 2014 docudrama that begins with the disclaimer that it is a "fictional account of actual events", an up close look at how what looked like a fairy tale to the rest of the world was anything but.
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The film opens during the final day of filming on what appears to be To Catch a Thief and then the film skips to 1961 where see Alfred Hitchcock arriving at the Monaco compound because he wants Grace to return to Hollywood in order to star in his latest film "Marnie" and it is this one event that sets off one of the most complex and ugly political machinations of a woman's private life and her very public marriage.
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What this film does so effectively is that it gives us a very insightful look inside Grace and her restlessness as the new Princess...even before Hitchcock tells her, it is clear from Grace's first appearance in this movie that this woman is not happy. I'm not saying that this is what was going on, I am saying this is how director Olivier Dahan and screenwriter Arash Amel present Grace...I always thought it was very odd that Grace walked away from Hollywood at the height of her career and this film initially implies that Grace might have regretted what she has done but feels a little trapped in her new princess clothes. Needless to say, it was no surprise that Grace was initially very excited at the prospect of returning to Hollywood but neither the Prince nor the rest of Monaco was having that. It was clear from the moment Rainer learned of Hitchcock's visit, that there was no way Grace was going to do this movie (# 2 Hitchcock obsession Tippi Hedren ended up doing the movie).
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As I watched I couldn't help but compare the marriage of Grace and Rainer to the marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe Dimaggio...two men who became obsessed with movie stars but found they really didn't want movie stars at home and were a little frustrated with the fact that the women were unable to let go of Hollywood the second they left and this became very clear here with Grace where her doing this movie actually turned out to have political repercussions and the lengths that palace staff went to in order to keep Grace from doing this movie were a little chilling and though I found Grace's involvement in all the Monaco politics a little hard to swallow, it made her decision to eventually turn down Marnie understandable.
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The screenplay is a little muddled, but it doesn't get in the way of the golden performance by Nicole Kidman in the title role...a perfect marriage of actress and character whose performance alone made this film appointment viewing and made the film seem a lot better than it really is. Tim Roth's quiet dignity as Rainer, Frank Langella's fatherly confidente to Grace, and Parker Posey, seriously cast against type as a palace staffer with questionable loyalties also made an impression but they were all just window dressing to what is Nicole Kidman's movie and she owns it. One small technical quibble: When Grace is outfitted for that first ball scene in the white gown with the sash, the camera does a close up on her feet revealing that she's wearing flats...the Princess would not be wearing flats on such an occassion. I know Kidman is tall and they probably didn't want her towering over the rest of the cast, so don't do a close-up of the flats (duh!). 3.5

Citizen Rules

09-28-16, 10:36 PM

Gideon, have you seen the bio pic movie about Princess Diana... called Diana (2013)?

Gideon58

09-29-16, 11:42 AM

Gideon, have you seen the bio pic movie about Princess Diana... called Diana (2013)?

No, I haven't...isn't that the one where Naomi Watts plays Diana?

Gideon58

09-30-16, 06:35 PM

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA
The star and director of Escape from New York reunited five years later for a little cinematic acid trip called Big Trouble in Little China, another entry from the "Just Put your Brain in Check and Enjoy" school of filmmaking.
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Kurt Russell plays a truck driver named Jack Burton who hooks up with an old friend named Wang in San Francisco's Chinatown and agrees to give Wang a ride to the airport in order to pick up his fiancee, Miao Yin. Upon arrival, Miao Yin and another girl are kidnapped by a Chinese street gang. Gracie (Kim Cattrall) is a lawyer who was there to protect the girl and obviously failed. Before you can say red herring, it is revealed that Miao Yin has been kidnapped for a 2000 year old sorcerer named David Lo Pan, who has been cursed to exist without his body and the only way to lift the curse is to marry a woman with green eyes, which Miao Yin happens to possess, a rarity for an Asian girl, but things get stickier when Lo Pan finds out Gracie has green eyes too and decides to marry both of them.
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If this film sounds crazy and outrageous, crazy and outrageous doesn't even scratch the surface of what goes on here...there are gravity-defying street gang members, goblins and creatures that are impossible to identify, century old Gods who walk underground Chinatown with electricity coursing through their veins, and a villain who morphs into at least three different forms during the course of the story,
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And just when you're exhausted from trying to keep up with everything that's going on, the breezy laid back Jack Burton moves center stage to remind us that he thinks what we're watching is just as ridiculous as we do. Jack is one of those great reluctant heroes who really had nothing to do with what is going on here, having walked in on the whole thing accidentally, but once he's in the middle of it, he steps up and becomes that awesome kind of anti-hero that would make Indiana Jones and John McClane proud.
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Director John Carpenter mounts some elaborate action scenes and serves Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein's screenplay with the tongue-in-cheek quality it demands. He also gets a breezy and sexy performance from Russell as Jack Burton. I also loved Dennis Dun as Wang and James Hong chewing up the scenery as Lo Pan. It's not Shakespeare, or even Tarantino, but it's a lot of fun. 3.5

Citizen Rules

09-30-16, 08:55 PM

No, I haven't...isn't that the one where Naomi Watts plays Diana? That's the one.:)

Gideon58

10-01-16, 04:44 PM

GHOSTBUSTERS (2016)
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The 1984 comedy ranked #5 on my list of favorite film comedies and there is a plethora of reasons why I was not interested in watching the remake nor why I could even get behind the idea of making it at all, primarily the idea of resurrecting the film without the late Harold Ramis just seemed wrong to me, but I didn't know that this remake was being done with a female cast which made me a little more comfortable about watching it, but it still wasn't a great idea and was a remake that I could have gone through my life without knowing about, despite little signs throughout that people involved in the original were giving this reboot their blessing.
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Director and co-screenwriter Paul Feig and his muse, Melissa McCarthy seem to be the culprits here, deciding to remake something that really wasn't screaming remake, but when has that stopped Hollywood before? The film is not a scene-for-scene remake like Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho, but it follows the same basic story outline and tweaks some of the characters and their relationships in order to give the piece an air of originality and possibly fool the one or two people on the planet who never saw the 1984 original.
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In this film, Erin (Kristen Wiig) is about to begin a new teaching job at Columbia when a book about the paranormal she wrote 20 years ago with Abby (McCarthy) has appeared online and is putting Erin's job at risk. She tracks down Abby who is still chasing ghosts with the silly yet intense Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) and refuses to take the book off the internet. Of course, Erin gets fired from Columbia and before you can say, "Who ya gonna call?", we have a 2016 distaff version of the Ghostbusters.
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Feig and Kate Dippold have constructed a screenplay that sticks pretty close to Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis' original concept, tweaking it for the New Millenium...changing the sex of the lead characters required some major re-thinking of a lot of the story, especially the part about Peter Venkman and Dana Barrett, which basically had to be scrapped here; unfortunately, the villain they came up with to replace that story wasn't nearly as interesting. I did love Erin hating their work being referred to as ghostbusting.
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Feig and McCarthy were once again afforded a seemingly unlimited budget like they were for Spy and every penny spent is up there on the screen, creating their own vision for this well-loved story while paying homage to the film from which it came, evidenced in lifting of original set pieces from 1984 as well as cameo appearances from four cast members of the original film. Feig keeps control of this epic project and gets performances from his cast that serve the story, but if the truth be told, Kate McKinnon quietly walks off with this movie as the goofy Holtzmann, which really wasn't that hard to do. Hardcore fans of the original film, you stand warned... 2

Gideon58

10-03-16, 04:19 PM

THE HATEFUL EIGHT
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Quentin Tarentino's unique storytelling technique, his eye for cinematic carnage and some thundering performances are the primary selling points of 2015's The Hateful Eight, a bloody western saga that provides riveting entertainment that requires some patience, but patience will be rewarded.
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It's the dead of winter in Wyoming shortly after the Civil War where we meet Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a bounty hunter bound for the city of Red Rock who hitches a ride on a stagecoach which was bought by another bounty hunter named John Ruth (Kurt Russell) who's handcuffed to his bounty, a murderer named Daisy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) he likes to elbow in the mouth whenever she speaks. The stagecoach then picks up Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), who reveals himself to be the next sheriff of Red Rock. As weather becomes intolerable, the stage does find shelter in what appears to be a large mountain cabin, populated with a group of disparate characters who we learn are all hiding secrets that are part of a much larger agenda.
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As has been accustomed with Tarantino, our story is told out of sequence, but unlike Pulp Fiction, it takes a lot longer to figure that out, primarily due to several red herrings, another Tarantino trademark, particularly Warren's possession of a letter written by Abraham Lincoln, that almost makes the viewer stray from the prize, which is the real story that eventually unfolds. But a pot of poisoned coffee at the beginning of the third act kicks this story into high gear and after that, Tarantino brings the bloody and delivers the story we've been waiting for.
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Tarantino's screenplay is a little talky, which includes an unbelievably limitless use of the "N" word...I can't remember the last time I've heard this word used so much in a single film and Tarantino's possible racist leanings could find some justification in the fact that he also makes Jackson's Marquis Warren the smartest character in the story, but racist is in the eye of the beholder.

Tarantino continues to be a great actor's director and gets superb performances from his rep company including Jackson, as always, Russell, Leigh (one of the most durable female characters that I've ever seen), Tim Roth, and especially Walton Goggins, who lights up the screen as Chris Mannix. I would like to submit Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, and Bruce Dern for permanent membership in the Tarantino rep company.
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It should be mentioned that this film features some of the most gorgeous cinematography I have ever seen...not since The Shining has a winter landscape served a story so effectively, and Ennio Morricone's music score is properly evocative. It takes a minute to get going, but once it does, this one delivers. 3.5

Gideon58

10-05-16, 07:17 PM

GRAND CANYON
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5e/Grand_canyon_poster.jpg
The creative force behind 1983's The Big Chill scored a not as well known bullseye eight years later with Grand Canyon, a 1991 episodic drama centered on a group of characters whose six degrees of separation tell different stories of guilt, loneliness, materialism, emotional blackmail, and the consequences of actions.

The film centers on the accidental meeting between two people who really never should have: Mack (Kevin Kline) is a high-powered Los Angeles attorney whose car breaks down in the wrong neighborhood one night and his life is actually saved by a tow truck driver named Simon (Danny Glover) and then we are introduced to the lives that surround both of these two men whose separate lives involve some life-altering events.
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On Mack's side, we meet his wife, Claire (Mary McDonnell), who is experiencing empty nest syndrome when her 15 year old son goes to camp for the summer and one morning while jogging, Claire actually finds an abandoned baby in a secluded wooded area and decides that she is going to keep this baby, no matter what her husband and son think. We also meet Dee (Mary Louise Parker), Mack's assistant with whom he had a one night stand that he regrets but it is slowly revealed that Dee has not gotten over it as quickly as Mack has. Then there's Mack's BFF, Davis (Steve Martin), a movie producer who is responsible for popular cinematic trash who has an alleged epiphany after a mugging that ends with him getting shot in the leg.

Simon's world introduces his nephew (Patrick Malone) whose gang banging has put his mother (Tina Lifford) and little sister in serious danger. What we then see is Mack feeling obligated to continually thank Simon for what he did while discouraging his wife about this baby and pretty much ignoring what Dee is going through.
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Director Lawrence Kasdan and his wife, Meg have crafted an intelligent, if slightly talky screenplay that offers some surprising moments of discomfort, especially in the way Mack keeps trying to insert himself into Simon's life but we understand Mack's gratitude as well as we understand Simon's discomfort at Mack possibly making more out of this incident than he should have, though as I watched the opening scene, I couldn't help but think that if the same incident happened in 2016, both Mack and Simon would have been dead.
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Kasdan's direction is thoughtful and detailed as it was in The Big Chill and gets some terrific performances from his cast, with standout work from Glover, maybe my favorite performance of his and Steve Martin's flashy, Oscar-worthy turn as Davis. BTW, Mack's son is played by a young Jeremy Sisto, who, four years later, would get his 15 minutes playing Elton in Clueless...love the scene where Mack is giving his son a driving lesson. What we have here is a thoughtful and intelligent adult drama with a brilliant ensemble cast that will suck you in and keep you invested to the end. 4

Sexy Celebrity

10-05-16, 07:21 PM

https://criticultredux.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/ghostbusters-2016-poster-web.jpg?w=1360

I hate the way they promote this film.

It looks like it's called Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.

gbgoodies

10-06-16, 01:29 AM

GRAND CANYON
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5e/Grand_canyon_poster.jpg
The creative force behind 1983's The Big Chill scored a not as well known bullseye eight years later with Grand Canyon, a 1991 episodic drama centered on a group of characters whose six degrees of separation tell different stories of guilt, loneliness, materialism, emotional blackmail, and the consequences of actions.

The film centers on the accidental meeting between two people who really never should have: Mack (Kevin Kline) is a high-powered Los Angeles attorney whose car breaks down in the wrong neighborhood one night and his life is actually saved by a tow truck driver named Simon (Danny Glover) and then we are introduced to the lives that surround both of these two men whose separate lives involve some life-altering events.
http://images3.static-bluray.com/reviews/5526_3.jpg
On Mack's side, we meet his wife, Claire (Mary McDonnell), who is experiencing empty nest syndrome when her 15 year old son goes to camp for the summer and one morning while jogging, Claire actually finds an abandoned baby in a secluded wooden area and decides that she is going to keep this baby, no matter what her husband and son think. We also meet Dee (Mary Louise Parker), Mack's assistant with whom he had a one night stand that he regrets but it is slowly revealed that Dee has not gotten over it as quickly as Mack has. Then there's Mack's BFF, Davis (Steve Martin), a movie producer who is responsible for popular cinematic trash who has an alleged epiphany after a mugging that ends with him getting shot in the leg.

Simon's world introduces his nephew (Patrick Malone) whose gang banging has put his mother (Tina Lifford) and little sister in serious danger. What we then see is Mack feeling obligated to continually thank Simon for what he did while discouraging his wife about this baby and pretty much ignoring what Dee is going through.
http://www.internetmonk.com/wp-content/uploads/grand-canyon-1991-05-g-800x544.jpg
Director Lawrence Kasdan and his wife, Meg have crafted an intelligent, if slightly talky screenplay that offers some surprising moments of discomfort, especially in the way Mack keeps trying to insert himself into Simon's life but we understand Mack's gratitude as well as we understand Simon's discomfort at Mack possibly making more out of this incident than he should have, though as I watched the opening scene, I couldn't help but think that if the same incident happened in 2016, both Mack and Simon would have been dead.
http://images.static-bluray.com/reviews/5526_5.jpg
Kasdan's direction is thoughtful and detailed as it was in The Big Chill and gets some terrific performances from his cast, with standout work from Glover, maybe my favorite performance of his and Steve Martin's flashy, Oscar-worthy turn as Davis. BTW, Mack's son is played by a young Jeremy Sisto, who, four years later, would get his 15 minutes playing Elton in Clueless...love the scene where Mack is giving his son a driving lesson. What we have here is a thoughtful and intelligent adult drama with a brilliant ensemble cast that will suck you in and keep you invested to the end. 4

Grand Canyon has been on my watchlist for a while, mainly because of Kevin Kline, but I haven't gotten around to watching it because Steve Martin movies are very hit or miss for me. But your review makes it sound like something I would probably like, so I'm bumping it up on my watchlist a bit.

BTW, I'm not sure about Jeremy Sisto's movie career, but he's had more than his "15 minutes" on TV. He starred in the short-lived TV show "Kidnapped", and he was in a few seasons of "Law & Order", (as well as several other TV shows that I didn't watch).

Gideon58

10-07-16, 12:05 PM

Grand Canyon has been on my watchlist for a while, mainly because of Kevin Kline, but I haven't gotten around to watching it because Steve Martin movies are very hit or miss for me. But your review makes it sound like something I would probably like, so I'm bumping it up on my watchlist a bit.

BTW, I'm not sure about Jeremy Sisto's movie career, but he's had more than his "15 minutes" on TV. He starred in the short-lived TV show "Kidnapped", and he was in a few seasons of "Law & Order", (as well as several other TV shows that I didn't watch).

You would love this movie, GBG, and please don't let Steve Martin's presence deter you...he plays a character unlike anything he' done and he's brilliant, I could have seen him getting an Oscar nomination. As for Jeremy Sisto, yes, he has worked past Clueless, including the star of the sitcom Suburgatory, but no one really knows who he is, except if you say, "Remember the guy who played Elton in CLUELESS?"

gbgoodies

10-08-16, 01:06 AM

You would love this movie, GBG, and please don't let Steve Martin's presence deter you...he plays a character unlike anything he' done and he's brilliant, I could have seen him getting an Oscar nomination. As for Jeremy Sisto, yes, he has worked past Clueless, including the star of the sitcom Suburgatory, but no one really knows who he is, except if you say, "Remember the guy who played Elton in CLUELESS?"

I've never seen Clueless, but I'll probably always think of Jeremy Sisto as the guy from the short-lived show "Kidnapped".

Gideon58

10-08-16, 05:46 PM

WILD
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A pair of Oscar-nominated performances make 2014's Wild worth investigating. This is the fact-based story of a woman who finds an unusual outlet for dealing with all the rotten cards she's been dealt. Unfortunately, the rotten cards turn out to be a lot more interesting than the outlet.
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This moody, episodic drama is about a woman named Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) who, distraught over the end of her marriage, and the death of her mother (Laura Dern) impulsively makes the decision to hike over a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, a journey of self-discovery and renewal that, despite her lack of experience, does transform the Cheryl we meet at the beginning of the movie. Actually, our first glance of Cheryl is about halfway through her journey where her hiking boots have just fallen off the edge of a very steep cliff.
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This movie does introduce the viewer to what is new and foreign cinematic territory. The world of hikers is apparently a counter culture all its own, kind of like bikers. The trail offers assistance along the way that Cheryl knew little about. An early scene of her trying to get her over-packed backpack on was kind of comical, It was fun when she learned that the company where she bought her boots will automatically replace them free of charge when they wear out. An encounter with a writer for a "hobo" newsletter who was so impressed with meeting that rarest of animals, a female hobo, was also amusing.
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Unfortunately, the story of Cheryl's journey wasn't nearly as interesting as the backstory that motivates it...her crumbling marriage, the beautiful evolution of her relationship with her mother who rose above an abusive marriage that she shielded her children from before succumbing to cancer and Cheryl's bouts with drug abuse and promiscuity were a lot more interesting than Cheryl's hike, taking the focus of this film away from where it was intended.
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The long winded screenplay by Nick Hornsby adapted from Cheryl's book is hard to stay with at times but director Jean-Marc Vallee's respect for the subject comes through in every overly detailed frame. Witherspoon is wonderful in this physically demanding role as is Dern, who lights up the screen as her mother and as expected with a film like this, there is some exquisite location photography, unfortunately, the wrong story came into focus for me making the film pretty hard going, but still worthwhile. 3

Citizen Rules

10-08-16, 06:06 PM

You might have read my post where I talked about this movie...but I have hiked on a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, but not the entire length!

Gideon58

10-09-16, 03:15 PM

You might have read my post where I talked about this movie...but I have hiked on a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, but not the entire length!

I'm pretty sure it was your review that motivated me to add the film to my watchlist, but don't remember you talking about the trail.

Gideon58

10-09-16, 06:13 PM

GRACE IS GONE
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A director/screenwriter I have never heard of named James C. Strouse struck gold with a 2007 drama called Grace is Gone, a different and compelling look at loss and grief and coping mechanisms for same that works due to Strouse's sensitive direction and a startling lead performance from John Cusack.
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Cusack plays Stanley Phillips, a home supply store manager whose wife is an army sergeant who has been deployed to Iraq while he is keeping the home fires burning with his daughters, Heidi and Dawn. Grace has been away for awhile and the family is quietly adjusting...Stanley even tries attending a support group for military wives on the base where he lives. One morning, Stanley gets up and answers the door and finds two very official looking military officers at his door who inform him that Grace has been killed in Iraq. While reeling from the shock and clueless as to how to tell his daughters, Stanley realizes that he can't do it and instead packs his daughters in the car and announces they're driving to Florida and going to Disney World (renamed Enchanted Gardens for this movie).
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This is another one of those manipulative dramas that had my stomach in knots for the majority of the running time. We feel Stanley's pain but we also know, at our movie viewing core, that what he is doing is wrong, but we also know that he is doing it for the right reasons. This is a fantastic father who wants to protect his daughters from anymore pain. It seems that he has gotten them to an understanding about what their mother does and why she has to spend so much time away from them and though it is hinted that there is danger in what Grace does, it seems that Stanley never doubted Grace's return and the thought of having this conversation with his girls is more than he can bare. The film seems to become a race to see which will happen first...will Stanley be truthful with his daughters or will they find out accidentally. The moments where Stanley calls home so he can hear Grace's voice on the answering machine are just heartbreaking.
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This delicate drama had me riveted to the screen as there are several moments in the story where I suspect elder daughter Heidi knows the truth but chooses to wait until her father wants to talk about it. There is one absolutely brilliant scene at the hotel where Heidi calls her school to let them know they're going to be gone for awhile and the tone of voice and what is being said on the other end of the phone conversation makes it clear that the school knows about Grace's death and I was literally holding my breath to see if Heidi would figure it out or if the school administrator would say the wrong thing and give it away.
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Strouse has mounted a timely and straightforward story that he keeps center stage with everyone involved committing to this powerful but simple story. John Cusack buries his accustomed smart-ass screen persona and delivers a gut-wrenching performance as the father dealing with an impossible situation the only way he knows how. There is a wonderful supporting performance from Allesandro Nivola, most famous for playing Pollux Troy in Face/Off, as Stanley's ne'er do well brother and Shelan O'Keefe is glorious as Heidi. A simplistic drama of great power that should definitely tug at the heartstrings.
4

gbgoodies

10-10-16, 02:00 AM

I've been a fan of John Cusack since his teen movies, but Grace is Gone shows a whole new side of him. He's terrific in this movie. It's heartbreaking watching him try to cope with the news of his wife's death, while at the same time trying to figure out how to break the news to his kids.

After the older daughter called the school, I was sure that she knew, or at least suspected, that her mother was dead, but when I saw her reaction at the end, I wasn't so sure. Maybe she only knew that something bad had happened to her mother, or maybe it was the shock of actually hearing the news out loud, but she seemed devastated when she heard the news.

Great review of a great movie. :up:

Gideon58

10-10-16, 10:46 AM

After the older daughter called the school, I was sure that she knew, or at least suspected, that her mother was dead, but when I saw her reaction at the end, I wasn't so sure. Maybe she only knew that something bad had happened to her mother, or maybe it was the shock of actually hearing the news out loud, but she seemed devastated when she heard the news.

Great review of a great movie. :up:

I thought she knew after that phone call too...that phone call scene was BRILLIANT, the voice on the other end of the line played it perfectly. I thought Heidi knew but was either in denial about it or she wanted to hear it from her father. But it was clear when she finally got the news that she didn't know, though it's a little hard to believe that she didn't suspect it.

Gideon58

10-10-16, 05:24 PM

REIGN OVER ME
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Actor/writer/director Mike Binder, who was the creative force behind The Upside of Anger, mounts another compelling comedy-drama called Reign Over Me, yet another story of the grieving process and how the power of friendship can sometimes impede the process.
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This film stars Don Cheadle as Alan Johnson, a Park Avenue dentist who runs into his old college roommate, Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler), who Alan has not seen since the man lost his wife and three daughters on 9/11. What follows is a sometimes volatile re-connection between the two, once Charlie actually remembers who Alan is, who instantly sees Charlie's break from reality, which may or may not be connected to his loss, but Charlie ends up having a surprising effect on Alan's life as well, affecting his business as well as his marriage to Janeane (Jada Pinkett Smith).
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Binder has created a story that is a little long-winded, but is rich with humor and unpredictability, despite some hard to accept details in characterization, particularly where Charlie is concerned. Charlie seems to have some serious issues that go far beyond the grieving process but Binder's screenplay never puts a label on it, allowing the character of Charlie to be all over the place and sometimes hard to remain invested...some of his explosive and unmotivated outbursts toward Alan make for high drama but seem to come from nowhere. This not only makes it hard for the viewer to care about Charlie but also makes us wonder why Alan won't leave him alone either, especially with the negative impact Charlie's presence seems to be having on his once cushy if somewhat dull existence.
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Binder's screenplay often sacrifices realism for entertainment, which is easy to do when you have a cast of professionals bringing said entertainment to life. Don Cheadle is an offbeat casting choice for the role of Alan, but it's a beautiful and brilliant performance that never gets blown off the screen by Adam Sandler's explosive scenery chewing that defies convention and manipulates viewer emotions. The scene where he FINALLY talks about what happened that horrible day does finally occur and that might be the problem...the wait for that scene is too long and Binder almost loses us, but his impressive cast makes us want to stick it out. Robert Klein and Melinda Dillon were terrific as Charlie's in-laws as was Saffron Burrows as an amorous patient of Alan's and BJ Novak as an insensitive attorney. There's also a stylish cameo from Donald Sutherland as a judge and Binder appears as Charlie's attorney, but it is the surprising chemistry between Cheadle and Sandler that almost makes you forget that this is going on a little longer than it should. 3.5

Gideon58

10-10-16, 09:02 PM

A NIGHT IN HEAVEN
Seven years after winning an Oscar for directing Rocky, John G. Avildsen tried to make his way into John Hughes/Chris Columbus territory with an alleged romantic comedy called A Night in Heaven, which beyond a wonderful performance from its leading lady, offers nothing surprising or original.
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The 1983 film stars Lesley Ann Warren as Faye Hanlon, a married community college professor who is neglected by her space engineer husband (Robert Hogan) and has just flunked a student of hers named Ricky Monroe (Christopher Atkins) on his final exam in her class.
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Faye's sister (Deborah Rush) decides that her sexually repressed sister needs an evening out with the girls and they end up at a strip club called Heaven and, to Faye's shock and surprise, as well as our own, Ricky turns out to be the headliner at the club dancing under the name "Ricky the Rocket" and when Ricky discovers Teach in the audience, it is Faye who wants to head for the hills not Ricky and it is the beginning of a dogged pursuit of the woman, despite the fact that she is married, even if the marriage isn't a perfect one.
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Screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury's screenplay is rather unimaginative, made even more snore inducing by the less than uninteresting subplot of Faye's husband's unhappiness with his work. which we just don't care about, primarily due to Logan's lifeless performance in the role. Christopher Atkins is pretty and looks great in various states of undress but then he starts reciting lines.
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What does work here is a superb performance from Lesley Ann Warren as Faye. Warren brings more substance to this role than what's written, showing us a woman whose sexuality has been dormant for longer than she cares to admit and finds it being awakened from a very unlikely source. If not for Warren and Deborah Rush as her sister, this film would have been a crashing bore...can't believe this is from the same guy who directed Rocky, but fans of Lesley Ann Warren should definitely check it out. 2.5

Gideon58

10-11-16, 09:26 PM

SISTERS
A lot of times when actors reach a certain level of celebrity, they feel that don't have to work as hard to entertain and feel that audiences will just lap up anything they do. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are proven comic powerhouses but even their proven reputation isn't enough to salvage a hot mess of a 2015 comedy called Sisters.
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Don't get me wrong, I love Tina and Amy but apparently they thought we would just ride with this because it's Tina and Amy, but this not a segment of Weekend Update...this is a silly and pointless comedy that actually runs over two hours but this film doesn't provide two hours of laughs.
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Tina and Amy play Kate and Maura Ellis, respectively, a pair of sisters who travel to Florida after learning their parents are planning to sell their childhood home and, unable to let go of their teenage years and wanting to make up for missed teen opportunities, they decide to throw one big party as a last chance to play teenagers, including Maura's desire to have sex in her childhood home before it's too late.
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The primary roadblock to enjoying this film for me is that it felt like Tina and Amy were playing the wrong parts. Tina playing the irresponsible screw-up and Amy playing the sensible good girl just didn't work for me. It occurred to me that Tina and Amy did this on purpose just to prove that Tina could play a screw-up and Amy could play a sensible girl but it just came off as forced. Both actresses are working unbelievably hard to be believable in these roles and there are times when it gets absolutely exhausting.
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Screenwriter Paula Pell and director Jason Moore really didn't have a lot to do here, since all of Amy and Tina's Hollywood buddies agreed to participate and I'm pretty sure a lot of what goes on here was unscripted and unsupervised. As expected, several past and present stars of SNL are on hand but you're just reminded here how funny they were on that show. Ike Barinholtz made an unconventional romantic lead and John Cena has a funny cameo as a drug dealer. And I loved having James Brolin and Dianne Wiest, who play the parents on the CBS sitcom Life in Pieces, playing Tina and Amy's parents, but this movie coasts on Tina and Amy's rep rather than on its own merit. Tina and Amy are very funny women and they deserve better...so do we. 2

Gideon58

10-12-16, 06:11 PM

WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO?
Tyler Perry offers one of the most useless sequels ever made, which somehow manages to be much worse than the first film, which I didn't think was possible and the fact that it seems about 14 hours long doesn't exactly help.
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Why Did I Get Married Too? is the excruciating sequel to the 2007 Tyler Perry disaster about 4 black married couples who meet annually for a retreat/marriage seminar. The first film took place at a secluded cabin in the Colorado Rockies, so it should have been no surprise that this 2010 sequel begins in the Bahamas.
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This film immediately brought to mind another dreadful sequel I saw earlier this year called The Best Man Holiday because it's one of those sequels that assumes you've seen the first film and doesn't bother to explain or recap anything that happened in the 2007 film and I'm so certain of this that I will say if you didn't see the first film, you might as well stop reading now.
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Once again, Perry exploits every black stereotype he can think of in his over indulgent presentation of these people we really didn't care about after the first film. Marcus (Michael Jai White) continues to be the world's most tolerant husband married to that nightmare Angela (Tasha Smith), certain that Marcus is cheating on her and if he is, we wouldn't blame him because Angela is an emasculating shrew who would make anyone cheat. Sheila (Jill Scott) and Troy (Lamman Rucker) are struggling with finances that only become more complicated when her nasty ex, Mike (Richard T. Jones) shows up unannounced and uninvited in the Bahamas. We also learn that the marriage of Pat (Janet Jackson) and Gavin (Malik Yorba) has a lot more issues than what was glossed over in the first film.
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Perry writes and directs with such a heavy and melodramatic hand here that these allegedly riveting scenes from a marriage come off either as unintentionally funny or snore-inducing and I'm sure neither of these were Perry's intention. The scene of Smith interrupting White's TV show to accuse him of cheating or of Jackson destroying her own house with a golf club just come off as forced and manipulative but this is a case where the manipulation doesn't work.
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Unlike The Best Man Holiday, this cast has definitely aged since the last film. The entire cast could have used six months in the gym before this movie began filming, with Janet Jackson looking especially chunky, no matter how they tried to disguise it with wardrobe. At least in the other film, the cast still looked good. The performances are nothing to write home about, including a pointless cameo from Louis Gossett Jr. and Perry good luck charm Cicely Tyson. I talk frequently about films where I'm checking my watch, well I was checking mine about 20 minutes in on this one. And a gold star to anyone who can figure out why there is a question mark at the end of the title. 1.5

Gideon58

10-12-16, 09:50 PM

THE LUCKY ONES
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The 2008 comedy drama The Lucky Ones was an offbeat episodic drama that put a deft twist on the traditional road trip/buddy movie genre that takes some unexpected detours but never fails to hold viewer attention.
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This is the story of three soldiers who are returning from the war after being injured. Cheever (Tim Robbins) is a veteran who was injured in a non-combat incident who is being sent home for good. TK (Michael Pena) received an injury that rendered him impotent and he is on leave for 30 days, as is Colee (Rachel McAdams), who was shot in the leg. The three soldiers hook up accidentally and end up on the road together and eventually learn that the people they left behind before the war have moved on with their lives and have not been standing patiently next to the old oak tree with the yellow ribbon tied around it.
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Director and co-screenwriter Neil Burton has created a realistic journey for three characters who at the core of this, are virtual strangers except for their connection to the military and this story drives home how important that connection can be and how friendship and unconditional support and defense can build from that connection. Virtual strangers at the beginning of the movie, there is no doubt that by the end of this film, Cheever, TK, and Colee would walk through fire for each other.

The story also effectively showcases different reactions to the service our three central characters have provided and how everyone doesn't feel the same about it. We see our heroes receive thanks for their service and we see them ridiculed for it as well, The balance that this portion of the story revealed was a pleasant surprise.
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Tim Robbins and Michael Pena are solid and though I thought Rachel McAdams came off a little soft initially, she eventually sold me on this quiet little girl becoming a soldier who was full of spit and vinegar. A different kind of buddy movie that featured a screenplay that could have used a little tightening, but it was still a pretty entertaining ride that provided unexpected surprises along the way. 3.5

Citizen Rules

10-12-16, 09:54 PM

I though you might like The Lucky Ones. Glad to see this movie getting some fans.

gbgoodies

10-13-16, 01:51 AM

I thought The Lucky Ones was one of the best movies nominated in the recent HoFs. I especially liked that it didn't take the easy way out with the ending, and go with the predictable ending. I was sure that I knew how it was going to end, but I was pleasantly surprised that I was wrong.

Gideon58

10-13-16, 11:08 AM

I though you might like The Lucky Ones. Glad to see this movie getting some fans.

Another one I watched on your recommendation, Citizen...thanks.

Gideon58

10-16-16, 06:52 PM

SUNDAY IN NEW YORK
Before she became "Hanoi Jane", two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda went through what I call her "sex kitten" period where she made a nice handful of naughty adult comedies that took the Doris/Rock will-they-or-won't-they comedies to the next level. One of the best of these was a tasty little offering from 1963 called Sunday in New York.
https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/13/b70-6782
Based on a stage play by Norman Krasna, this is the story of Adam Tyler (Cliff Robertson), a womanizing airline pilot who gets surprised with a visit from his little sister, Eileen (Fonda), who is smarting after breaking up with Russ (Robert Culp) who lives in Albany and Eileen claims broke up with her because she refused to have pre-marital sex with him. Adam assures Eileen she did the right thing and he claims to be equally pure as the driven snow. Things heat up for Eileen when she "meets cute" with a handsome writer named Mike(Rod Taylor) and during their initial meeting, it begins to rain and Eileen brings Mike back to Adam's apartment to dry off and that's where the fun really begins.
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This breezy adult comedy (for 1963) probably raised a few eyebrows in 1963 with some pretty in your face dialogue regarding pre-marital sex, a subject that was pretty much non-existent on movie screens in the 1960's and to find it front and center in a saucy mainstream comedy released by a major studio probably made this quite the water cooler movie during its release.
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Krasna adapted his own play into a workable screenplay and did a pretty decent job, with the aid of director Peter Tewskbury, of keeping it from looking like a photographed stage play, even though the majority of the action takes place in Adam's apartment, there is some effective use of New York locations utilized that keep the story from feeling too claustrophobic.
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Tewksbury has also gotten some surprisingly sharp performances from his cast, a cast which consists of actors who really weren't really known for making comedies and I think that has a lot to do with why the performances work. Fonda and Robinson had some comedy experience but this was definitely new territory for Taylor and Culp and I think that's why their performances worked as well, because they weren't mining laughs, they were just playing the characters as written and let the laughs develop from the characters...Taylor has rarely been this appealing onscreen. And it goes without saying that Fonda is way more intelligent than the character she is portraying here, giving it an added richness that makes her work here hard to resist. A clever story and a terrific cast at the top of their game...they don't make 'em like this anymore. And a bouquet to that jazzy title tune crooned by Mel Torme. 3.5

gbgoodies

10-17-16, 03:31 AM

Great review! :up:

I absolutely love Sunday in New York, so I'm so happy to read that you liked it. I've probably seen it well over a hundred times. I watch it every time it airs on TCM, and if I'm not home when it airs, I DVR it. It's the movie that made me a fan of both Cliff Robertson and Rod Taylor. :)

I also like the Mel Torme song too. :)

BTW, Sunday in New York was my #1 movie for the 1960's Countdown. :D

Gideon58

10-17-16, 07:05 PM

INSIDE OUT
Disney Pixar hit another bullseye with 2015's Inside Out, an endlessly imaginative and delightfully intricate story of human emotions and how they can manipulate behavior, fuel passion, and the concept of it all being controlled by selective memory.
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The setting for this riveting animated journey is inside the brain of an 11 year old girl named Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Diaz), where we are introduced to the five emotions that apparently control everything Riley does and feels. Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) is the head emotion and she is assisted by Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith), Fear (voiced by Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) who all have their own ideas about Riley's happiness but Joy seems to have the final word on everything and seems to have control of the large computerized console that controls Riley.
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Riley's happiness controlled by these emotions until Riley's parents (voiced by Kyle MacLachlan and Diane Lane) announce that they are moving from Minnesota to San Francisco and Sadness reacts by affecting Riley's memories, which force Joy and Sadness to make a very dangerous journey to retrieve Riley's memories, leaving Fear, Anger, and Disgust with control of Riley and unable to figure out how to help her, they decide to have her run away from home and the story becomes a race to see if Joy and Sadness can return Riley's memories to their proper place in Riley's subconscious before Riley runs away from home.
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Once again, Disney Pixar has come up with another strikingly bold concept in animated storytelling where human sensibilities become part of non-human entities and providing them with a voice that we can understand. The complexity of the screenplay is no surprise since seven people had a hand in the screenplay (including Poehler and Hader), but the complexity never leads to boredom and the humor here, as always with Disney Pixar stories, is never aimed directly at the intended demographic. The story presented provides humor for the young and the young at heart who still want to believe.
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The fun in this story was watching the emotions working the computer console and seeing how what buttons they push would affect Riley's behavior and the pleasant surprise was that most of the time, it was never exactly what we expected and sometimes it even got her in trouble with mom and dad. This was beautifully addressed though when during a scene at the dinner table where mom and dad are trying to figure out what's wrong with Riley, we see the emotions inside their subconscious, equally clueless as exactly how to deal with Riley...loved mom's emotions complaining about dad being useless and dad's emotions just wanting mom to stay from in front of the TV.
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This film is colorful and fast-paced and I would be lying if I said understood everything that went on here, but I can't think of a single Disney Pixar film where I did understand everything that was going on but that has never kept me from getting the underlying theme and being captivated by the imaginative characters at the same time. The animation and sound are rich and the voice work is splendid with standout work from Poehler, Lewis, and Kaling. Another fun entry from the mad geniuses at Disney Pixar. 4