Gideon58's Reviews [Archive] - Page 8

Gideon58

10-20-16, 09:44 PM

ELVIS & NIXON
The 2016 docudrama Elvis & Nixon is a deliciously entertaining movie that traces a meeting between these two iconic figures in United States history that features some terrific performances and some fun situations, despite the fact that I don't believe a lot of what happened in this movie.
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The movie immediately planted seeds of doubt with me with the disclaimer that rolled before the opening credits claiming that there is no documentation of this meeting ever occurring, but that was just the beginning of my difficulty accepting what happens here as reality, but it did not make this film any less entertaining. According to the screenplay by Joey Sagal, Hanala Sagal, and actor Cary Elwes, in 1970, Elvis Presley, worried about the state of the country because of the war against drugs, got on a plane to Washington DC to request a meeting with Richard Nixon because he wanted to become an undercover Federal agent for the government and help with the drug problem as well as other political issues, such as communism and brainwashing.
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This movie reminded me of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind in the way that this is the first I've ever heard of any of this and characters who are at the center of this story are also people who I have never heard of, Elvis' handlers in particular...it seemed odd that a movie about Elvis circa 1970 wouldn't have Priscilla or Col. Tom Parker anywhere in sight yet we're introduced to a pair of brothers named Jerry and Sonny who are so tight with the King that he insists that Nixon meet them as well.
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What works in this movie is the way the screenplay and director Liza Johnson paints the main characters. Elvis is presented as slightly arrogant but sincere about what he wants and was not above using his celebrity to get what he wanted, particularly in this situation, though he does make a couple of ridiculous moves that I find hard to accept that even Elvis thought he could get away with. Did he really think that he could just stroll into the White House with firearms under his cape and in his boot? Was the man really that dumb?
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And on the Nixon side, are we really supposed to believe that he knew so little about Elvis that he actually asks for a bio on the guy and that he agrees to entertain Elvis' foolish notion in exchange for an autograph and a picture? Or are we supposed to believe that Nixon was only interested in meeting Elvis after learning that he was into karate?
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What makes this movie worth watching is the two powerhouse performances from Michael Shannon as Elvis and Kevin Spacey as Nixon, performances that are more than impersonation, but capture the spirit of these historical figures without ever resorting to caricature or parody. Shannon especially gets lost inside of Elvis and makes us accept some of Elvis' silly behavior here, including his serious reaction to his treatment by Nixon. Alex Pettyfer and Johnny Knoxville were fine as Jerry and Sonny as was Colin Hanks as a Nixon aide, but Shannon and Spacey made this hard to believe trip worth taking, and the photo of Elvis and Nixon at the end of the film did nothing to firm my belief in what I just sat through, but I found entertainment value, if not a history lesson. 3

gbgoodies

10-21-16, 12:51 AM

I haven't seen Elvis & Nixon, but it might be worth seeing just for Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey.

Citizen Rules

10-21-16, 01:44 PM

Hey great review on Elvis & Nixon, you almost make me want to watch it again. I think the director is 'winking' at the audience with his 'filling in the blanks' with what happened off record with the meeting of Elvis and Nixon. At first I was taken back by it, as that's not the Elvis we all know and love...but the director is doing a bit of satire, so yeah it works. Fun movie:)

Gideon58

10-21-16, 05:37 PM

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (2016)
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I must admit to strong mixed emotions when I heard that FOX television's next foray into live television musicals was going to be The Rocky Horror Picture Show for myriad reasons. Number one, the original 1975 film was on my list of films that should never be remade. Number two, I heard a woman was going to be playing the lead role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter and, maybe my biggest concern, the fact that FOX's live presentation of Grease sucked. All my fears were put to rest about 10 minutes into this bold and brassy remake that respects the original material but establishes itself as an independent entertainment and credit for that has to go to director Kenny Ortega, the man behind the High School Musical franchise.
http://www.billboard.com/files/media/rocky-horror-picture-show-FOX-2016-billboard-1548-650-05.jpg
For those unfamiliar with the original, the piece, with a musical score written by Richard O'Brien, who played Riff Raff in the '75 film, is about a nerdy engaged couple whose car breaks down in front of the castle of a kinky, transsexual, mad scientist, started as a theater piece and was given the big screen treatment in 1975 and it promptly died at the box office. Later, someone had the idea to start showing the film at B movie houses at midnight, where the movie became an international phenomenon, which resulted in people bringing props to use during the movie, lines they yell at the screen during the film, and some theaters would have a group of fans actually duplicating the show in front of the movie screen while it was being shown. Soon, this became the only way to experience the film that is now considered a cult classic and kicked off the film careers of Barry Bostwick who played Brad, Susan Sarandon who played Janet, and carved a place in cinema history for Tim Curry, whose one of a kind performance as Dr. Frank-N-Furter is now part of pop culture.
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This remake is pretty much scene for scene, but Ortega has been very careful in making sure nothing here is a duplicate of the 1975 film...he has given every moment in this film a respectful reboot and they work for the most part. Ortega even had the insight to provide an actual theater audience who execute some of the audience participation activities that were part of the midnight movie experience. The huge red lips that sing the opening number, "Science Fiction Double Feature", are replaced by a movie theater usherette played by Ivy Levan, who brings fresh life to the classic song.
http://www.etonline.com/tv/2016/07/24256039/1280_rocky_horror_fox.jpg
My concerns about the role of Frank-N-Furter being played by a woman (Laverne Cox of Orange is the New Black) were quickly vanished because Cox, and I'm sure with Ortega's assistance, doesn't play the role as a woman, she is played as a transsexual male and there is nary a moment in the performance that comes across as female. Cox is an actress playing a man with female sensibilities, something like Julie Andrews was supposed to do in Victor/Victoria, but Cox does it so much better...this actress commands the screen right from her opening number "Sweet Transvestite" to the out of this world finale. Hunky Ryan McCartan and the lovely Victoria Justice were perfection as Brad and Janet, their vocal chemistry was just as solid as their somehow child-like sexual chemistry. Their take on "There's a Light" was on the money. Reeve Carney brought a freshness and smoldering sexuality to the role of Riff Raff that was just dazzling and Adam Lambert, who I kept thinking would have made a terrific Frank-N-Furter, made every moment he had onscreen as Eddie count. Christina Milian and Annaleigh Ashford properly chewed scenery as Magenta and Columbia, respectively. Ben Vereen seemed an odd choice to play Dr. Scott but it didn't distract, and of course, Tim Curry, the original Frank-N-Furter in '75 was allowed to play the Narrator here, a performance that had its own level of sadness since Curry is wheelchair-bound IRL, but it was still lovely of Ortega to have him involved.
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Ortego clearly is a fan of the original piece and of the midnight movie house experience as he tried to create the whole experience for us and he did a surprisingly competent job, providing entertainment that had me laughing and singing along for the entire running time. Ortega had solid assistance with film editing, musical direction, and his choreography was inventive. This recent trend of live musicals on television has been a real hit and miss thing, but this one was a hit. 4

Evan_Wheatley

10-22-16, 12:34 PM

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Elisabeh Shue's utterly enchanting performance in the starring role is the centerpiece and main selling point of 1987's Adventures in Babysitting, a highly improbable but richly entertaining comedy, that is sort of a distaff re-thinking of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
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Shue plays Chris, a high school senior who is dumped by her scummy boyfriend (Bradley Whitford) right before their big date. With no other plans, Chris accepts an offer to babysit for Brad (Keith Coogan), who has a major crush on Chris, and Sara (Maia Brewton) while their parents go to a party.
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Right after Brad's BFF Daryl (Anthony Rapp) shows up with the latest edition of Playboy that features a centerfold who bears an uncanny resemblance to Chris, Chris gets a phone call from her BFF Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller), who has run away from home but is in some serious trouble at the downtown Chicago bus terminal and asks Chris to come pick her up. Chris has no choice but to pile the boys and Sara into the station wagon and drive downtown, beginning one of the most bizarre comic adventures ever filmed, which includes car trouble, an encounter with some very dangerous criminals, and a garage mechanic (Vincent D'Onofrio) who bears an uncanny resemblance to a comic book hero that Sara worships, a strange detour into a blues club, and Chris' encounter with a dreamy frat boy (George Newbern) who becomes her savior.
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This movie isn't exactly steeped in realism and it is hard to believe that everything that happens here happens in the course of a few hours and credibility is stretched to its limit at every turn. There is one scene where the children are actually climbing the exterior of the building where the party is that their parents are attending! But what makes this movie so deliciously entertaining is Elisabeth Shue's wonderful performance as Chris...no matter how dangerous or ridiculous their situation becomes, Chris never forgets that she is the babysitter and that these kids are her responsibility, not to mention making Brad feel like a king without leading him on.
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Shue receives solid support from Keith Coogan and Daryl Rapp and from Calvin Levels as a sympathetic thief. According to the IMDB, Elisabeth's brother, Andrew, who played Billy on Melrose Place, is an extra in this film but I have never noticed him (the frat party is probably a good place to start looking if you care). Shue makes this a fun little ride and if you liked Ferris Bueller, you'll like this. 3.5

Great work on this review! “Adventures in Babysitting” is a classic and I hated to see that it was being remade into a TV movie this year.

Evan_Wheatley

10-22-16, 12:36 PM

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Helen Mirren's complex and mesmerizing Oscar-winning performance anchors The Queen, an intimate story told on a grand scale, documenting, in what could only be a blend of fact and speculation, the movements of the royal family, Queen Elizabeth II in particular, during the days following Princess Diana's death. Peter Morgan's uncompromising screenplay hypothesizes much of the Queen's thoughts and emotions during this difficult period as this story takes us into extremely private moments with the conflicted monarch of which no one could be privy, but basically, this story portrays the Queen as an icy and cold-hearted harridan who is curiously unmoved by Diana's death and does nothing to publicly grieve or acknowledge the Princess, who by this time, was already divorced from Prince Charles and had basically turned her back on the Royal family.
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The film shows how Englanders' begin to publicly air their resentment of the Queen for her actions, or lack thereof, and her battle of wills with Prime Minister Tony Blair, who tirelessly advocated that the Queen acknowledge Diana publicly and what she had come to mean to the rest of the world as "the People's Princess."
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Stephen Frears' bold direction does not sugar coat the screenplay, which doesn't necessarily paint the title figure in a flattering light, but puts a human face on this mysterious icon. Mirren's delicately nuanced performance is breathtaking and Michael Sheen (FROST/NIXON)proves to be a formidable screen presence in his interpretation of Tony Blair. Mention should also be made of James Cromwell as Prince Phillip and Sylvia Syms as the Queen Mother, who also make the most of their screen time, but it is the bold screenplay and Mirren's artistry that make this film sing. 3

I enjoyed reading this review as well. I’ll have to give this one a watch sometime!

Sexy Celebrity

10-22-16, 05:10 PM

I feel like saying "shame on you" to your Rocky Horror remake review. But I didn't watch the whole thing. I turned it off after 40 minutes when I realized how stupid it was. I was actually gonna PM you during the thing and ask, "Are you watching this?" I was expecting a positive review from you, but hoped you'd trash it.

Gideon58

10-23-16, 04:54 PM

Gideon58

10-23-16, 05:27 PM

LET'S DANCE (1950)
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Fred Astaire and Betty Hutton made a surprisingly effective musical duo in a forgotten 1950 gem called Let's Dance, a sparkling musical comedy that actually offers a little more substance than an average MGM musical but also provides the kind of musical interludes we expect from a Fred Astaire musical.
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Betty Hutton plays Kitty McNeil, a former USO performer who broke up with partner Don Elwood (Astaire) six years ago, got married and had a child, but her husband dies and she is now trapped in a comfortable but miserable existence with her husband's family, a group of stuffy Bostonians who Kitty can't stand, so she packs up her son, Richie one night and moves back to New York in hopes of resuming her musical career.
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Not long after arriving in New York, Kitty gets a job as a cigarette girl in Larry Channock's Supper Club, where the entire staff has adopted Richie and takes great care of him and she is also reunited with Don, who does what he can to help when lawyers working for Richie's great grandmother, Serena (Lucille Watson) show up at the supper club to inform Kitty that Serena is suing for custody of Richie.
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The pleasant surprise about this movie and maybe the reason it was one of Astaire's lesser known movies is it is more of a musical comedy than a musical. This is really a comedy that is accentuated by some musical numbers, where the story really takes precedence as opposed to a lot of musicals of the period that were just musical numbers with dialogue inserted around them. In this case, we have a real story rich with entertaining characters and classic musical comedy misunderstandings that neatly wrap themselves up in a little over 90 minutes.
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Betty Hutton was a very particular kind of talent who a lot of directors had trouble reining in. She is best known for playing Annie Oakley in the film version of Annie Get Your Gun, but the actress definitely had a limited appeal that made her somewhat exhausting to watch at times, but director Norman Z. MacLeod, who directed a lot of the Marx Brothers and Danny Kaye's best films, seemed to have an understanding on how to handle this actress because she is quite charming in this performance as a young mother who puts nothing ahead of the welfare of her child and she actually makes a more than competent partner for Astaire, whether or not she was that strong a dancer or choreographer Hermes Pan adapted the routines to fit her skillset, it's hard to say, but her dancing with Astaire in this movie works.
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The film features a handful of nice songs written by Frank Loesser (Guys & Dolls) including "Oh them dudes", a rowdy western style number set in a saloon and a delicious patter song called "Can't Stop Thinking (About Him)" that accentuates the story which MacLeod and screenwriter Dane Lussler always keep center stage. And for those who expect an Astaire staple, a dance solo with an inanimate object for a partner, don't worry, our boy does a great duet with a piano here. The film also features a pretty solid supporting cast for a musical comedy including Ruth Warrick, Barton MacLane, Sheppard Struddick, Roland Young, and little Gregory Moffet is adorable as Richie. If you like you musical comedy with a little meat on its bones, belly up. 3.5

gbgoodies

10-24-16, 02:15 AM

I hadn't read anything positive online about it before I watched it and considering how much I hated the Grease remake I thought I would hate this too but I didn't. I really enjoyed it and nothing anyone says is going to change my opinion about it or anything I wrote in my review and if anyone has a problem with that, feel free to write your own review.

I was surprised to read how much you liked The Rocky Horror Picture Show (2016). I'm not a fan of the original version, but I thought this version was terrible. I watched it long enough to see Tim Curry, Adam Lambert, and Ben Vereen in it, and then I turned it off.

I thought maybe I hated it so much because I don't like the original version, but when I read some reviews of it online, it seems like most people hated it, especially the die-hard "Rocky Horror" fans.

gbgoodies

10-24-16, 02:37 AM

I'm surprised that a musical comedy with Fred Astaire and Betty Hutton somehow managed to slip past me, but I've never even heard of Let's Dance. It sounds like my kind of movie, so I added it to my watchlist.

I think I found it on YouTube. Is this the right movie?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IgDd5LVe6g

Citizen Rules

10-24-16, 01:22 PM

I'm surprised that a musical comedy with Fred Astaire and Betty Hutton somehow managed to slip past me, but I've never even heard of Let's Dance. It sounds like my kind of movie, so I added it to my watchlist.
It slipped past me too. At least I don't remember watching it. I've seen Betty Hutton before and she's always interesting and funny. So sounds like a good movie.:)

Gideon58

10-24-16, 05:49 PM

Gideon58

10-24-16, 06:38 PM

THE BIG COUNTRY
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It seems 1958 turned out be a very good year for lavish, all-star cinematic soap operas. We met the Pollitt family in the Tennessee Williams drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the Varners in The Long Hot Summer. Director William Wyler lent a slightly heavy-handed directorial hand to a third soap opera that year called The Big Country that tells a compelling story but suffers from a screenplay that definitely could have used some tightening.
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This western drama is the story of Jim McKay (Gregory Peck), a New England city slicker who arrives for a visit in a western town to visit his fiancee, Pat Terrill (Carroll Baker) who he met while Pat was on a visit back east. Pat has persuaded Jim to visit in order to see if he has the stuff to be a genuine cowboy. Upon arrival, Jim finds himself at the center of a long and bitter feud between Pat's family and another family named the Hannaseys who are battling over the water rights on a parcel of land which actually belongs to a schoolteacher named Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons) whom the eldest Hannassey boy, Buck (Chuck Connors) tells his tyrannical father Rufus (Burl Ives) that her feelings for Buck will eventually make Julie give up the land.
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On the other side of the feud, Pat's dad, the wealthy Major Henry Terrill (Charles Bickford) has tread lightly because Julie is Pat's best friend. We also meet Henry's devoted # 1 ranch hand, Steve (Charlton Heston) who has been secretly lusting after Pat for the longest time but has been hiding it from everyone, and there you have it, all the elements of a classic soap opera, except that most of it takes place on horseback.

William Wyler is no stranger to this kind of spectacle, it just would have been nice if he had been aware that his story isn't as original as he apparently thought it was, because he certainly takes his time telling this story, even though we can see what is going on about 20 minutes in, which would have been all right if the story by James R. Webb, Sy Bartlett, and Robert Wilder was as suspense filled as Wyler seemed to think it was. Wyler puts a lot of trust in a story that he allows to unfold much too slowly and asks a lot of the viewer to invest this much time into a story this predictable.
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Don't get me wrong...the film does have a lot going for it, including some interesting characters and some offbeat casting that really works. Gregory Peck is an unlikely western hero but he really commands the screen here and I don't think I have ever enjoyed Charlton Heston onscreen as much as I did here. Jean Simmons brings a layer of strength to her accustomed onscreen beauty and even Carroll Baker is somewhat interesting as the spoiled and self-absorbed Pat. Bickford was strong as Maj. Terrill and Burl Ives is absolutely superb as Rufus Hannassey, a performance that won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. I had always wondered why Ives won the Oscar for this and not for his Big Daddy Pollitt, but now that I've finally seen this, I have to admit this is the superior performance and he won for the right film.
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Wyler has created a sweeping and beautifully photographed western horse opera that works on most levels, even if it goes on a little too long. That familiar theme music was composed by Jerome Moross and if you blink, you'll miss a young Roddy McDowell in a bit part. 3

Sexy Celebrity

10-24-16, 06:41 PM

Yeah, it's starting to look like I'm the only person on the planet who liked it...oh well...

Twenty years from now, everyone will be saying they love it, it was better than the original, etc.

Gideon58

10-24-16, 07:09 PM

Twenty years from now, everyone will be saying they love it, it was better than the original, etc.

Except you, right Sexy?

gbgoodies

10-24-16, 11:50 PM

I was surprised to read how much you liked The Rocky Horror Picture Show (2016). I'm not a fan of the original version, but I thought this version was terrible. I watched it long enough to see Tim Curry, Adam Lambert, and Ben Vereen in it, and then I turned it off.

I thought maybe I hated it so much because I don't like the original version, but when I read some reviews of it online, it seems like most people hated it, especially the die-hard "Rocky Horror" fans.

Yeah, it's starting to look like I'm the only person on the planet who liked it...oh well...I actually am curious why you bothered to watch it if you didn't like the original. I can't imagine anyone bothering to watch the remake of an original they hated and act surprised that they hated it.

I watched it mostly out of curiosity about some of the actors, but I wasn't surprised that I hated it. I was surprised that everyone else hated it.

I watched "American Idol" when Adam Lambert was on it, and while he wasn't my favorite singer that season, it was very obvious how talented he is, so I wanted to see him as Eddie. I also watched to see Tim Curry as the Narrator/Criminologist, but it was more sad to see him in that role than anything else. And I wanted to see Ben Vereen as Dr. Scott, mainly because I thought it was very strange casting him in that role, and as I expected, his talent was wasted. :shrug:

Gideon58

10-25-16, 05:54 PM

I watched it mostly out of curiosity about some of the actors, but I wasn't surprised that I hated it. I was surprised that everyone else hated it.

I'm still confused here...it still goes back to the fact that you didn't like the original film...if you didn't like the '75 film, why watch the remake at all, no matter who was in the cast? You even said you didn't like Adam Lambert when he was on Star Search yet you were curious about him as Eddie and that you thought the casting of Ben Vereen was strange. It seems to me that you had it in for this production before watching it, so why watch it? You came into it looking to hate it and seem to be looking for someone to validate the hate that seemed to be implanted before you even tuned in. It seems like this production didn't really have a chance with you and that you couldn't wait to come here and rip it apart.

Sexy Celebrity

10-25-16, 06:00 PM

I'm still confused here...it still goes back to the fact that you didn't like the original film...if you didn't like the '75 film, why watch the remake at all, no matter who was in the cast?

Is it really all that shocking? If they remade The Big Lebowski with Jake Gyllenhaal, I'd see it.

You came into it looking to hate it and seem to be looking for someone to validate the hate that seemed to be implanted before you even tuned in. It seems like this production didn't really have a chance with you and that you couldn't wait to come here and rip it apart.

Aye-yi-yi.

Sexy Celebrity

10-25-16, 06:02 PM

Gideon, I think you hated the Rocky Horror remake, too, but you just wanna be different and act like it was fantastic.

Gideon58

10-25-16, 06:11 PM

Gideon, I think you hated the Rocky Horror remake, too, but you just wanna be different and act like it was fantastic.

You're really enjoying this aren't you, Sexy?

Sexy Celebrity

10-25-16, 06:15 PM

Well, look -- let me say something. I thought the Rocky Horror remake didn't start off THAT bad. I thought the usherette and the people watching it in a theater were nice. It was good to see Tim Curry involved. However, once they arrived at Frank N Furter's castle, that's when everything fell apart for me. Laverne Cox didn't seem too bad, but everything else, :sick: It lost me, I felt I couldn't take it anymore, I turned off the TV and then discovered that everyone else hated it, too.

Gideon58

10-25-16, 06:55 PM

Not everyone.

gbgoodies

10-26-16, 01:28 AM

I watched it mostly out of curiosity about some of the actors, but I wasn't surprised that I hated it. I was surprised that everyone else hated it.

I watched "American Idol" when Adam Lambert was on it, and while he wasn't my favorite singer that season, it was very obvious how talented he is, so I wanted to see him as Eddie. I also watched to see Tim Curry as the Narrator/Criminologist, but it was more sad to see him in that role than anything else. And I wanted to see Ben Vereen as Dr. Scott, mainly because I thought it was very strange casting him in that role, and as I expected, his talent was wasted. :shrug:

I'm still confused here...it still goes back to the fact that you didn't like the original film...if you didn't like the '75 film, why watch the remake at all, no matter who was in the cast? You even said you didn't like Adam Lambert when he was on Star Search yet you were curious about him as Eddie and that you thought the casting of Ben Vereen was strange. It seems to me that you had it in for this production before watching it, so why watch it? You came into it looking to hate it and seem to be looking for someone to validate the hate that seemed to be implanted before you even tuned in. It seems like this production didn't really have a chance with you and that you couldn't wait to come here and rip it apart.

I didn't say that I "didn't like" Adam Lambert on "American Idol". I said that "he wasn't my favorite singer that season". I even admitted that it was obvious that he was talented. (He was the favorite to win that season.) The main thing that I didn't like about him was his song choices because I don't like the type of songs he sang, but he's an incredibly talented singer, who I thought would have done an amazing job as Dr. Frank-N-Furter. I was surprised that he was cast as Eddie, and I wanted to see how he would be in that role. (And he was one of the bright spots of the show.)

I'll admit that I went into it expecting to hate it, but I didn't go into it looking to hate it. I wanted to give it a fair chance to at least be entertaining. I was more surprised that all the reviews that I read about it were negative. It made sense that I didn't like it, but I thought that other people would have liked it. I really expected the reviews to be positive, and that I would have been the only person who hated it. That would have made more sense to me.

And I didn't "rip it apart". I just said that I didn't like it. And after reading so many bad reviews of it online, I was just surprised that you liked it.

Sexy Celebrity

10-26-16, 01:34 AM

I knew he would like it. I was actually thinking about Gideon while watching the Rocky Horror remake.

gbgoodies

10-26-16, 01:36 AM

I knew he would like it. I was actually thinking about Gideon while watching the Rocky Horror remake.

I know some die-hard "Rocky Horror" fans who hated it. I thought they would like at least like it, but they didn't.

Sexy Celebrity

10-26-16, 01:55 AM

It's hard to like remakes. Especially remakes that try to be different. Certain things capture the magic of something. When you deviate from those things, the magic isn't there.

Gideon58

10-29-16, 05:17 PM

THE BACK-UP PLAN
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The 2010 romantic comedy The Back-up Plan has flashes of originality in terms of story, but suffers from an overly padded screenplay, a rather annoying lead character, and a less than charismatic leading man.
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Jennifer Lopez, away from the big screen for a minute, returns as Zoe, a romance-challenged pet shop owner who decides she can't wait for the right man in order to have a baby so she decides to be artificially inseminated. On the very day that she has the procedure, Zoe meets cute with a gourmet cheese maker named Stan (Alex O'Loughlin) and falls for him almost instantly and once she confesses that she is pregnant (with twins) and Stan wants to commit to her anyway, she does everything she can to drive him away.
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Kate Angelo, who was a contributor to the screenplay for the Cameon Diaz/Jason Segel comedy Sex Tape, scores points for creating a leading character who is not afraid of having a child on her own and seems ready for the challenges ahead of her, but really isn't. I did like the fact that the entire film was not about Zoe trying to hide the fact that she was pregnant, but it was after this reveal and Stan commits to her anyway is where the film really starts to get messy.
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Once Stan makes the commitment to stay with Zoe and to raise these twins as his own, Zoe seems to think this gives her license to behave anyway she wants and Stan is just supposed to roll with it. The story initially establishes Zoe as someone positive and contemporary and likable but forgets about all that about halfway through the film and turns her into a whiny, spoiled, entitled diva who expects Stan and everyone else to bow to her whim, driving Stan away and making me want to give up on this seemingly very long and often tiresome cinematic journey.
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The performances are a matter of taste...Lopez, who looks absolutely amazing, overacts throughout and commits to a lot of forced physical comedy that just slowed the film down. O'Loughlin looks good without a shirt, but his performance was lifeless and uninteresting. An actor with a little more experience in this role really might have helped here. Ryan Gosling comes to mind. There were some fun comic bits contributed along the way by Anthony Anderson as a Mr. Mom who offers advice to Stan, Melissa McCarthy as the leader of a single moms therapy group, and Linda Lavin as Zoe's grandmother. This film also marked the final film appearance of the late Tom Bosley as Grandma's fiancee. Hardcore Lopez fans might add half a bag of popcorn to this rating, but for this reviewer, this one was pretty hard going. 2.5

gbgoodies

10-30-16, 03:26 AM

I've never heard of The Back-up Plan, but even though your review didn't make it sound like a great movie, I might give it a try anyway. I think the only thing that I've seen Jennifer Lopez in was "American Idol", so it might be fun to see her in a movie, and I like Alex O'Loughlin in "Hawaii Five-O", but I've never seen him in anything else, so I'm kind of curious to see him in a rom-com.

Gideon58

10-30-16, 05:51 PM

GENIUS
http://www.impawards.com/2016/posters/genius.jpg
Movies about real-life figures that I know very little about are so attractive to me as a filmgoer because my lack of knowledge of the story I am about to be brought into allows me to be more objective about what I'm seeing and can properly judge the film purely on its entertainment value...one of the reasons I loved Tim Burton's Big Eyes so much and also why I found 2016's Genius, a riveting docudrama wrapped around a dual character study that introduced me to characters I knew nothing about and gave me insight into others that may or may not have been factually accurate, but was wonderfully entertaining.
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It is Depression era Manhattan where we are introduced to Max Perkins (Colin Firth), a book editor at the famed Scribner Publishing Company, where he has completed editing the work of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald and is now finding the greatest challenge of his career reining in a bombastic and arrogant writer named Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law) who has brought him his first completed work, which Perkins decides needs a couple hundred pages of editing and Wolfe is willing to do whatever Perkins wants in order to get the work published. "Look Homeward, Angel" is born and is a runaway bestseller. But the crux of this drama begins when Wolfe brings Max his second book and Max insists about 300 pages have to be cut and Wolfe, full of himself after the success of "Look Homeward Angel", thinks every word he has written is golden and fights Max every step of the way.
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The working relationship between these two men is complicated by Mrs. Aline Bernstein (Nicole Kidman) a woman of apparent means who left her husband for Wolfe and feels like she is losing Wolfe to Max. Her Svengali-like grip on Wolfe seems to melt away and she finds herself as part of a triangle that she hadn't planned or is accustomed to, as this is clearly a woman who is used to being the apex of the triangle.
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Director Michael Grandage and screenwriter John Logan have crafted a beautiful dual character study based on real life figures that takes its time to establish what kind of people Max and Wolfe are. I love the opening scenes of Max reading the rough draft of "Look Homeward Angel"...this is a man who takes his work very seriously and wants to be absolutely fair in assessing the problems with whatever he's reading. There's a moment where he gets home with the manuscript and actually goes into a closet to continue reading in peace. Max is also painted as a man who is keenly aware of the delicacy of writers' egos who when making suggestions, always makes the writer think the changes are the writer's idea. It's so smart watching Max convince Wolfe that the title of his first book is wrong but he never makes it a deal breaker, he just says, "Have you thought about another title?"
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Wolfe is portrayed as a man who is as serious about his work as Max is, but not so much with the rest of his life and it is this difference that keeps the relationship between Wolfe and Max crackling, reaching an impasse until Wolfe finally finds a way to make Max lighten up. Unfortunately, it is all at the expense of Wolfe's relationship with Mrs. Bernstein, which is a bit of mystery...the woman clearly doesn't need Wolfe, but is obsessed with him and just won't walk away from him.
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Grandage pulls superb performances from the three stars...Firth is beautifully controlled as Max and Jude Law is the polar opposite in a deliciously unhinged turn as Thomas Wolfe that commands the screen. Nicole Kidman is dangerously bitchy as Mrs. Bernstein and mention should also be made of Laura Linney as Max's devoted wife, a woman who has buried her own artistic passions to be what her husband needs her to be. Guy Pearce continues to prove his versatility with his turn as the damaged F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dominic West's cameo as Hemingway was fun too.

Grandage's attention to period detail is on the money, with his cinematography and art direction teams deserving special mention, as well as a quietly melodic musical score that frames the story perfectly. A very special motion picture experience that provided an insightful look at the ego of the artist and the drive and sacrifice involved in the cultivation of said art. 4

Evan_Wheatley

10-30-16, 06:31 PM

NIGHTCRAWLER
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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

I enjoyed reading your review, Gideon! I like how you addressed the bitter taste that this film leaves in your mouth. As good as the acting and direction are, the film’s content, implications and pulse-pounding ending are quite disturbing.

Gideon58

10-31-16, 06:49 PM

THE INTERN
The singularly unique screen charisma of two time Oscar winner Robert De Niro is really the only reason to commit to a tired and implausible 2015 comedy called The Intern that tries to tell a contemporary story but acceptance of the story presented here requires the viewer to accept a whole lot that I was unable to accept.
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De Niro plays Ben Whitaker, a 70 year old widower who gets hired as a senior intern at an internet fashion company called About the Fit, founded and run by Jules Ostin (Oscar winner Anne Hathaway), a driven workaholic who never sleeps and had no idea that her company had instituted a senior internship program. This company is so financially sound that they actually have a masseuse (Rene Russo) on staff. Needless to say a clashing of general work ethic keep our two principal characters apart as Jules initially gives Ben nothing to do but eventually finds him to be an asset to her professional and personal life.
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This movie reminded me of an old Michael J. Fox movie called The Secret of My Success, a film about big business that provided entertainment value as long as you can accept upfront that NOTHING that happens in this movie is based on anything resembling realism. OK, where do I start here...first of all, I don't believe that Jules' staff was able to institute a senior internship program without her knowing anything about it. I also don't believe any company, especially an internet company, would be hiring 70 year old interns to be doing anything. I also didn't buy the respect and reverence that was accorded Ben upon his arrival because senior citizens are just not accepted in a workplace environment as unconditionally as Ben is here.
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To find entertainment value here, there had to be some affection for the character of Jules and I had a hard time finding anything to like about this character. I gave it the old college try, but the nail went into her likability coffin the first time Jules sees Ben in her kitchen for the first time.
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One thing director/screenwriter Nancy Meyers did get right is our exposure to Jules' personal life, which isn't revealed until about 40 minutes into the movie. We are actually surprised to see that she has a stay-at-home husband and a daughter who are totally neglected and I knew five minutes into the first scene with Jules' husband (Anders Holm) that the guy was cheating on her. Some may consider this a spoiler, but I knew it the second the character appeared onscreen so I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything. What I also found aggravating is this driven workaholic considering giving up control of her company in order to save her marriage...seriously? I do have to credit Meyers for not pairing the leads romantically and allowing Ben to initiate a relationship with Russo's character.

The only thing that kept me committed to this sinfully overlong journey was the charisma of De Niro, which almost made this mess worth sitting through. Hathaway is fighting the script all the way and Russo is wasted. Hardcore De Niro fans might want to check it out, but you would be better off re-watching Taxi Driver. 2

Citizen Rules

10-31-16, 07:35 PM

We had about the same opinion on The Intern....
What I also found aggravating is this driven workaholic considering giving up control of her company in order to save her marriage...seriously? Even though I didn't mention that in my review, I agree that part bugged me too. Then again I hated the geeky stay at home husband. I'm not sure if it was the character or the actor, but he was cringe worthy.

Gideon58

10-31-16, 07:42 PM

I hated the geeky stay at home husband. I'm not sure if it was the character or the actor, but he was cringe worthy.

Did you also realize the second the guy appeared onscreen that he was cheating on her? It was so obvious.

Citizen Rules

10-31-16, 07:45 PM

Did you also realize the second the guy appeared onscreen that he was cheating on her? It was so obvious.
Nope I didn't at first, but then again I'm not always that observant...But a short time latter I did start to think he might be having an affair.

Gideon58

11-02-16, 06:35 PM

DEMOLITION
Initially on the surface it appears to be an off beat look at the grieving process, but the 2015 drama Demolition utilizes the grieving process merely as a springboard for a story that often shocks and sometimes fascinates and, for the majority of the running time, had my stomach in knots.
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Jake Gyllenhaal plays Davis Mitchell, a Wall Street investment broker who loses his wife in a tragic automobile accident (he was in the car with her and he came out without a scratch) whose life implodes when instead of seeking some kind of help with his grieving process, allows what happens to manifest itself in a pattern of destructive behavior that defies explanation, except in the eyes of a sympathetic customer service worker (Naomi Watts) and her young son (Judah Lewis).
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Director Jean Marc-Vallee, the director of Dallas Buyers Club and Wild serves Bryan Snipes' unapologetic screenplay with some arresting visual images that serve a story that initially evokes mad sympathy for the central character but as the story progresses, the viewer finds himself alternately feeling sympathy for Davis and actually being frightened of the often unhinged behavior that his grief unleashes. My mouth literally fell open when he walked by the site of a house being demolished and offered the foreman $240.00 if he could be allowed to help. The whole concept of destruction being the only outlet for this man's grief was so unsettling. Normally in a story about this kind of loss, we see flashes throughout of the deceased and what the victim remembers. We are almost 30 minutes into the movie before we actually see Davis experience a memory regarding his wife, despite the fact that his father-in-law (Oscar winner Chris Cooper) is in his face every time he turns around, telling him how to feel and telling him how he should be behaving.
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This story challenges the viewer at every turn because we know none of what happens to Davis would have happened if, as his father-in-law suggests, he had just talked to someone but we also see from the funeral on that Davis doesn't want to talk and watching his very unique and frightening grieving process played roughshod with my emotions.
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Jake Gyllenhaal delivers another devastating Oscar-worthy performance that just defies description and gets solid support from Cooper and Watts and Lewis is a revelation as the initially hostile child who makes an uneasy connection with Davis that manifests itself in some very unexpected ways. A singularly unique film experience that also features sharp editing and an offbeat musical score. Fans of the work of Paul Thomas Anderson will have a head start here. 4

Gideon58

11-06-16, 06:58 PM

A LETTER TO THREE WIVES
Joseph L. Mankiewicz won twin Oscars for writing and directing the Oscar winning Best Picture of 1950, All About Eve. The year before, he also won twin Oscars for writing and directing an absolutely delicious melodrama called A Letter to Three Wives, that shines due to some really strong female characters.
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This lovely slice of small town Americana is the story of three suburban wives who wake up one Saturday morning to accompany a group of children on a boat trip/picnic but before the boat leaves, the mailman delivers a letter addressed to all three women from the town tramp named Addie Ross. Addie's short and sweet note announces that she is leaving town and that she is leaving with one of these ladies' husbands, but of course doesn't mention which one. We then get a glimpse into the three marriages at the heart of the story as these women try to determine if their husbands are going to be home when the boat returns to port.
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Deborah and Brad Bishop (Jeanne Crain, Jeffrey Lynn) met when Deborah was in the navy, where she was a strong and confident woman who is now insecure about her ability to fit in with the country club set that her husband adores; Rita and George Phipps (Ann Southern, Kirk Douglas) are a radio program writer and a schoolteacher whose roles as primary breadwinner and head of household often blur; Lora Mae and Porter Hollingsway (Linda Darnell, Paul Douglas) met when Porter was Lora Mae's boss and it appears that Lora Mae married Porter for his money. We then learn about a subtle connection that Addie Ross has with each of the husbands and her small part in each story. It's a little unsettling as we watch all three husbands have nothing but wonderful things to say about the woman their wives consider the town tramp.
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Mankiewicz' near brilliant screenplay captures the suburban sensibility of a community where everyone knows everyone's business, especially those who are doing dirt and it is clear that during her time in this town, Addie has done some dirt, but the screenplay provides just enough balance in the story that the viewer has absolutely no idea whose husband Addie has left town with and we're not supposed to and that's one of things that makes this movie so much fun.
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The other thing that makes it fun is the strength of the female characters and the fact that they are not timid little hausfraus...these are strong career women who have sometimes neglected their husbands in favor of their own agendas but not one of the three women is absolutely convinced that their husband will be home when they get back and they subtly try to glean clues from each other about what will happen when they get home. Ann Southern's driven career woman and Linda Darnell's flawless use of her feminine wiles to get a wedding ring out of Douglas are a pleasure to watch.
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The performances are uniformly first rate. Southern is a lot of fun and I don't think Jeanne Crain has ever been better and Darnell is basically sex on legs. Kirk Douglas has rarely been as appealing onscreen as he was here and Paul Douglas makes every moment he has onscreen memorable as does Thelma Ritter, whose tiny role doesn't keep her from stealing every scene she's in. And for anyone who didn't recognize the voice, that is Celeste Holm as the never seen only heard Addie Ross, our hostess for the story. Melodrama lovers will eat this one up...they don't make 'em like this anymore. 4

Gideon58

11-07-16, 07:49 PM

BIG BUSINESS
https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/146/MPW-73331
Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin, two of the funniest women in the movies, work very hard at making the 1988 comedy Big Business viable entertainment, but an overly complex story and some fuzzy writing bog down the proceedings and only provide sporadic laughs.
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The film opens in the 1940's in a backwoods community called Jupiter Hollow, where a wealthy couple named the Sheltons, who are just passing through, give birth to twin daughters who they decide to name Sadie and Rose. On the same day, a local couple named the Ratliffs, also give birth to twin daughters, who they also name Sadie and Rose. Unfortunately, the dotty nurse in the delivery room gets confused and puts the babies in the wrong cribs.
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Flash forward to present day Manhattan where Sadie and Rose Shelton are now co-CEO's of a large corporation called Moramax, who are preparing to negotiate the purchase of a small company called Hollowmade, which is located in a town called Jupiter Hollow and guess which twin sisters have been pegged to go to Manhattan to try and stop Moramax from buying the little company that employs half the town?
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This is one of those projects that probably looked really great on paper but definitely lost something in its translation to the screen. The screenplay by Dori Pierson and Marc Rubel asks the viewer to swallow a lot and requires a scorecard to keep track of everything that is going on, despite the fact that both sets of twins end up checked into the Plaza Hotel in suites right next to each other. Then we get something akin to a Noel Coward drawing room comedy with characters from Dogpatch that keep barely missing each other in elevators and restaurants and we have to wait well into the final act for the two sets of twins to meet and though the moment where the two sets of twins finally meet is hysterically funny, it takes way too long to get there and a 90 minute movie feels twice that length.
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Jim Abrahams, who directed Midler in Ruthless People puts a lot of detail in the staging of the story that keeps the twins apart for most of the running time, but all the near misses and misunderstandings leading to the rushed conclusion just come off as pat and contrived. Midler and Tomlin appear to be enjoying themselves though and they have a solid supporting cast including Fred Ward, Edward Herrmann, Barry Primus, Michael Gross, and Michele Placido, but it's a very exhausting cinematic journey that doesn't provide anywhere near the entertainment it should. For hardcore Midler and Tomlin fans only. 2.5

Gideon58

11-08-16, 08:03 PM

MEN DON'T LEAVE
Despite a meandering and unfocused screenplay, the performances in a 1990 drama called Men Don't Leave are worth checking out, the story of a family trying to start over and having more than their share of problems doing so.
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Beth Macauley (Jessica Lange) is the mother of Chris (Chris O'Donnell) and Matt (Charlie Korsmo) who reside in Bingham, Maryland, but after the sudden death of Beth's husband John (Tom Mason), a mountain of bills force Beth and her sons to start life over again in Baltimore, where Beth gets a job as the assistant manager at a gourmet food store, while her sons begin to act out: Chris begins a totally inappropriate relationship with an older X-ray technician who lives in their building (Joan Cusack) who has no boundaries and Matt becomes BFF's with a pint-sized thief/con man named Winston (Corey Carrier). Then Beth loses her job and she, too, begins to act out, damaging her promising relationship with a sexy and eccentric musician named Charles (Arliss Howard).
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I've seen a lot of movies recently regarding loss and the grieving process and what director and co-screenwriter Paul Brickman (Risky Business) is giving us here is a family who was so overwhelmed by the reality of financial issues ruling the period after dad's death that there was no time for the grieving process and how, at some point, grief must manifest itself, even if we don't know that's what happening. Unfortunately, Brickman and Barbara Benedeck's screenplay takes a really leisurely journey with this family that doesn't sustain interest for the running time, not to mention some really squirm worthy moments that are unmotivated. During the first meeting between Matt and Winston, Winston offers to split a milk dud with Matt and in order to do so, cuts it with a switchblade as long as his arm...seriously?
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Despite some sluggish spots, the performances work for the most part...Lange is always watchable and Howard lights up the screen as Charles. Never understood why Arliss Howard never become a star because this guy defines charisma. Cusack invests in an initially unsympathetic character and O'Donnell also does a star-making turn as Chris that I'm sure had a lot to do with his casting in Scent of a Woman. Not for all tastes, but Jessica Lange fans should definitely check it out. 3

Gideon58

11-09-16, 09:10 PM

LION FOR LAMBS
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If intentions were all that mattered in telling a compelling cinematic story, 2007's Lions for Lambs hits a bullseye in its examination of political manipulation, journalistic integrity as opposed to effective sound bytes, and the motivations behind the war in Iraq and Iran, unfortunately director Robert Redford has sacrificed integrity for the subject matter in favor of economy.
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The story attempts to tell three separate stories in a real time period whose connections take a little too much time to come into focus. We are first introduced to a Republican US Senator (Tom Cruise) who has invited a television journalist (Meryl Streep) to his office to reveal some new military strategies in Iraq and Iran, while we see the actual mission being executed and two soldiers (Derek Luke, Michael Pena) who are missing and in danger and though it takes a little too long to reveal it, these two soldiers have a connection to the third story, a political science college professor (Redford) trying to re-engage a gifted student (Andrew Garfield) not working to his full potential.
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As mentioned, the intentions here are good, but this is one of those films where the parts are better than the whole...the scenes between Senator Cruise and journalist Streep are absolutely fascinating as we watch the Senator doing his best to deliver a well-rehearsed sound byte about a military strategy that Streep's journalist cynically tries to dissect what the Senator is doing as a platform for his own political ambitions, which he, of course, emphatically denies. It's fascinating watching the Senator realize that a past professional relationship with this journalist is not going to play out the way he wants. One of my favorite moments in the story is when Cruise is outlining a specific military action and Streep asks him what he's doing to bring our troops home. Of course, he has no answers.
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The depiction of the mission itself could have been quite compelling but it is so poorly photographed that it's hard to tell what's going on and I never really understood what the relationship between Redford and Garfield had to do with the rest of the story, but the Cruise/Streep scenes crackled with tension and were the most interesting aspect of the film...actually, the most interesting aspect of the film were its intentions, but Matthew Michael Carnahan's screenplay fails to legitimize those intentions. This is one of those rare cases where I think the film's economy was a hindrance instead of a benefit. 3

Gideon58

11-10-16, 06:59 PM

TEXASVILLE
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/89/Texasville_large.jpg/220px-Texasville_large.jpg
Peter Bogdanovich went back to his masterpiece as inspiration for 1990's Texasville, the sequel to The Last Picture Show that was probably made about 15 years too late, but mostly is way too dependent on the legacy of the 1971 classic to make anyone care.
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It is 1984 and we meet several of the same characters that were introduced in the first film, most notably Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges) who is now married, awash in children and grandchildren, and is the owner of an oil company that has gotten him 12 million dollars in debt. He is suffocating in his marriage to the emasculating Karla (Annie Potts) who has suffered through Duane's constant adultery and other problems and as much as she complains about Duane, refuses to let go of him either. Duane's best friend Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) is hanging on by a thread, going through some kind of emotional meltdown that his friends are aware of but don't take too seriously. And of course, there is the return of Jacy Farrow, the high school tramp who put Duane and Sonny through hell in the first movie. She has recently returned home from Europe after a failed movie career and the death of a husband and child, quietly tryimg to re-ignite her relationship with Duane. We also see how some behavior is genetic as we are introduced to Duane's son, Dickie, who can't keep his fly zipped and is sleeping with several older women in town and has gotten one of them pregnant while agreeing to marry another.
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Bogdanovich's screenplay is a little too leisurely in its telling of the story and it also assumes that you've seen the first film. But since the first film was made over 40 years ago, it's hard to believe that there was really an interest in re-visiting these characters in 1990 let alone now. The characters really didn't gain much appeal during their absence either, particularly the character of Jacy, who is so full of herself and convinced that it's all about her that you hate seeing Duane being pulled back into her web and the way she does it, by ingratiating herself to Karla and his family and becoming Karla's new BFF is really unattractive and didn't exactly endear her to this reviewer.
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Other actors who appeared in the first film including Cloris Leachman, who won an Oscar for the first film, Eileen Brennan, and Randy Quaid are pretty much wasted here and what they have done to the character of Sonny is just embarrassing. Bridges manages to keep his head above this melodramatic muck, but if the truth be known, Annie Potts walks off with the acting honors in this little-seen sequel that I think most of us could have gone on with our lives if it had never been made. 2.5

Citizen Rules

11-10-16, 08:59 PM

LION FOR LAMBS

the third story, a political science college professor (Redford) trying to re-engage a gifted student (Andrew Garfield) not working to his full potential. What did you think of Andrew Garfield's performance?

The depiction of the mission itself could have been quite compelling but it is so poorly photographed that it's hard to tell whats going on That's what I thought too, it almost seemed like the battle scene was an afterthought.

Cruise/Streep scenes crackled with tension and were the most interesting aspect of the film They were good together! that was my fav storyline too.

This is one of those rare cases where think the film's economy was a hindrance instead of a benefit. I agree, it was too short (90 minutes) to tell three different stories.

Gideon58

11-13-16, 03:50 PM

LION FOR LAMBS

What did you think of Andrew Garfield's performance?

Garfield was fine, but like I said, I couldn't figure out what that story had to do with the rest of the movie.

Gideon58

11-13-16, 04:20 PM

OSCAR
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The stylish and exuberant direction of John Landis, first rate production values, and a refreshing change of pace for its star make a forgotten gem from 1991 called Oscar worth checking out.
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This dead-on satire of gangster melodramas stars Sylvester Stallone as Angelo "Snaps" Provolone, a 1930's mob boss who makes a promise to his dying father to go straight and give up his life of crime. A month later, Provolone is doing his best to keep his promise to his father and is in the process of getting on the board of directors of his local bank when he receives a visit from his young accountant, who demands a raise so that he can afford to marry his daughter.
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To reveal anymore of what happens here would just be wrong, suffice it to say that this is the jumping off point for one of the most off-the-wall and roll-on-the-floor-funny satires that requires complete attention from the viewer without causing boredom or confusion. The story is actually based on a play by Claude Magnier which was adapted for the screen by Michael Barrie, a delicious send up of gangster movies that takes all the cliches we associate with the genre and delightfully turns them on their ear, with the aid of some very clever direction and a clear understanding of the genre and the art of satire demonstrated by the director.
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The real fun in this film is watching a group of gangsters actually trying to live a crime-free life and not really having a clue how to do it...it is so funny watching these tough guys in pin striped suits serving drinks, answering doors, and preparing meals, but the director and screenwriter never forget that these guys are used to being thumb breakers and are completely out of their element as household staff. I also loved watching Snaps navigate through the nuttiness of everything that happens here while keeping his promise to his father, while police and rival mobsters seem to be clueless about Snaps starting a new life and continue to monitor his every move, further muddying the waters of the domestic troubles that make up the majority of Snaps' adventures in this story.
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Landis has put a great deal of care in the mounting of this story...authentic 1930's atmosphere with stunning art direction/set direction, costumes and a cast that is pretty much perfection. Landis really scored here by casting actors not really known for satire who would play the satire with the straight faces it requires and it works. Sylvester Stallone, an actor whose previous attempt at comedy (Rhinestone) was a disaster. absolutely lights up the screen as the hapless gangster whose important day in his rehabilitation is turned completely upside down. This movie proves that with a gifted director like Landis to guide him, Stallone can deliver a comedic performance that works. Stallone's supporting cast is superb with standout work from Peter Riegert and Chazz Palminteri as Snaps' top toadies, Vincent Spano as the accountant, Marisa Tomei as his daughter, Kurtwood Smith as a cocky police detective and a surprisingly funny Ken Howard as the tight-assed bank president who wants nothing to do with Snaps. Also loved the classy cameo by Kirk Dougas opening the comedy as Snaps' father. This film was a triumph for Stallone and John Landis and if you've never seen it, treat yourself. 4

cricket

11-14-16, 09:04 AM

John Landis is actually one of my favorite directors, and I love Sly, but I've never been interested in Oscar. A PG rated comedy is something I very rarely watch.

On the other hand, I added A Letter to Three Wives to my 40's watchlist. That sounds really good.

Gideon58

11-14-16, 06:17 PM

SPOTLIGHT
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The Oscar winner for Best Picture of 2015, Spotlight is a disturbing, fact-based drama that looks at a dangerous epidemic that has been plaguing this country for way too long but said examination reaches a level in this dangerous story that redefines the phrase "separation of church and state" and had the hair on the back of my neck standing up for most of the running time.
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The setting is the 1990's at the Boston Globe newspaper where a new editor-in-chief requests that Spotlight, a four person investigative reporting team who work completely independent of the rest of the paper and choose their own assignments, to drop their current look into Boston police corruption and pick up a story that the paper covered briefly regarding priest pedophilia and how Spotlight's investigation not only reveals the pain and widespread effect of this epidemic, but more importantly, the massive cover up involved in keeping a lot of these incidents quiet and buried when possible, a cover up that actually seems to actually blaze a trail all the way up the Archdiocese.

This film is a triumph for director and co-screenwriter Tom McCarthy who has crafted a docudrama wrapped around a compelling detective story where journalistic integrity and the simple search for the truth on a very delicate subject matter finds our quartet of reporters encountering a wall of silence, that like the walls that protect the police and the military, are almost brick-like in their protection of a group of people who absolutely are unworthy of the protection they are being afforded.
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We watch as our team, Walter Robinson (Michael Keaton), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), and Matt Carroll (Brian D'Arcy James) decide to build a case from the outside in and have to look back at the dropped work from five years prior, which leads them to a survivor of priest rape who started a support group for other survivors, which is the springboard for an entire new investigation for our group that reveals there are possibly ninety priests in the Boston area guilty of pedophilia but the Archdiocese had a role in a cover-up of epic proportions which would eventually lead to the dirt on almost 250 priests and uncover over 1000 victims.

McCarthy and co-screenwriter Josh Singer also hit a bullseye with the impact that this investigation has on the personal lives of the Spotlight team, or more specifcally, the lack thereof. These four people appear to have no personal life at all and always seem to be at work. We learn early on that Rezendes is married but we're well into act two before it is revealed that his wife left him because of his obsession with his work and, sadly, he really doesn't seem to care. The investigation also reveals startling personal connections to Robinson, Carroll, and Pfeiffer that might make some back off, but these reporters never take their eye off the prize, even when their investigation is stalled by the events of 9/11.
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In addition to the Best Picture Oscar, McCarthy and Singer also picked up the gold for their brilliant screenplay and Ruffalo and McAdams received supporting nominations. Ruffalo is especially explosive as the rogue member of the team who is severely affected by the ugliness of what this investigation is unveiling and goes ballistic when it is suggested to drop the story before they have all the facts. Michael Keaton is also solid as Robinson as are Stanley Tucci as a slimy assistant DA whose allegiances appear a little muddy, John Slattery as Ben Bradlee Jr., and Liev Shcreiber as the new editor who sets this entire ball in motion. This is powerhouse cinematic storytelling that rivets the viewer to the screen and hopefully when it's over, makes him a little angry. Fans of All the President's Men will have a head start here. 5

Citizen Rules

11-14-16, 10:54 PM

Spotlight 5/5 rating:) glad to see your enthusiasm for it! I thought it was a fine film myself. I wish Hollywood make more films like that, sadly there's probably not as big as audiences for serious subject films like Spotlight. But I'm glad to have seen it.

Gideon58

11-17-16, 09:59 PM

THE NICE GUYS
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The creative force behind Iron Man 3 and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is responsible for an entertaining, slam bang action comedy called The Nice Guys that features some offbeat casting and first rate attention to period detail, but suffers due to a screenplay with just a few too many plotholes.
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It's Los Angeles in the 1970's and as our story begins we see a car crash through a house that contains a dead porn actress named Misty Mountains and then we are introduced to a pair of third rate private detectives who have both been hired to locate a woman named Amelia, who is missing and is connected to this dead actress somehow. Jackson Healy is an overweight and methodical detective who loves to bang suspects' heads on tables to get answers out of them. Holland March is a dim-witted detective who has no sense of smell and a 13 year old daughter named Holly who hates him. Eventually, these two detectives learn they are looking for the same person and decide to work together on a convoluted case that seems to be leading to the Department of Justice.
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Shane Black is another "flash over substance" director who likes to keep the viewer dazzled with enough action that they will let those unexplained red herrings go and move at the same pace at which he moves the story. Just as he did with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Black has constructed a story that is so convoluted and leaves a lot unanswered but provides such entertaining characters and dazzling action sequences that the viewer is inclined to let the details slide. I did like the idea of giving one of our detectives a daughter who puts herself right in the middle of the action and, ironically, seems to have a lot more respect for Healy than she does for her own father and has a profound effect on both men before the credits fall.
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Not since Boogie Nights, have I seen the 1970's so lovingly created onscreen with some exquisite details...I actually noticed a sign for a comedy club where one of the headliners was Elayne Boosler...when was the last time her name was dropped anywhere? Just like he did with Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer, Black pulled a pair of great movie star turns from Russell Crowe, who has apparently given up on looking like a leading man and Ryan Gosling, who creates a delightfully human character who when he gets hurt actually screams like a woman. There's also a star-making turn by Angourie Rice as Gosling's daughter. It requires complete attention that doesn't really work, but for the most part, it's a pretty entertaining ride. 3.5

Tugg

11-18-16, 03:39 AM

I loved "The Nice Guys". I think it was spot on for the most part.

Gideon58

11-19-16, 11:41 AM

PEOPLE LIKE US
Daddy issues seem to be the underlying theme of 2012's People Like Us, a warm and compelling melodrama where we actually never meet the daddy at the center of all these issues.
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Chris Pine stars as Sam Harper, a slick salesman hanging on to his job by a thread, who flies to his hometown for his father's funeral. After the service, Sam meets with his father's attorney (Phillip Baker Hall) who informs him that his father left him his massive record collection (Jerry Harper, Sam's father, was a famous record producer) and a shaving kit. Inside the kit is $150,000.00 with instructions that Sam deliver the money to someone named Josh Davis. Upon locating Josh, Sam is shocked to learn that he is an 11 year old boy who is actually Sam's nephew and also learns that he has a sister named Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) who Sam never knew existed.
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Director and co-screenwriter Alex Kurtzman has crafted a story that initially reminded me of Rain Man, but this story takes that one to another level. In the 1988 film, Charlie Babbitt learns about an autistic brother who has been institutionalized. In this story, Frankie is revealed to be a beautiful and intelligent single mother and recovering alcoholic struggling to raise Josh properly who was part of a second family that Jerry Harper kept a secret from Sam and his mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) and now, in death, is trying to ease his conscience by giving his young grandson this money. Jerry Harper put his career ahead of Sam and he always resented him for this, but Jerry also kept an entire family a secret, making Sam's issues seem less significant in comparison.
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However, this does not keep Sam from initially trying to figure out how he can keep this money for himself. We even are privy to another comparison to Rain Man as we witness Sam go to the family garage and remove the cover from a beautiful vintage automobile that obviously brought up even more memories regarding Sam and his father, evidenced in his reluctance to let Josh in the car the first time Josh asks for a ride home. But it is the immediate connection that Sam makes with his nephew that makes him re-think keeping the money and getting to know his sister.
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This is an emotionally charged story that is made all the more interesting by the fact that the catalyst for everything that happens is dead at the beginning of the story and remains a viable character throughout this troubling reunion of two families. Pine gives a charismatic performance as the tortured Sam and Elizabeth Banks' Frankie is rich with pathos and vulnerability. Michael Hall D'Addario lights up the screen as young Josh and Michelle Pfeiffer is superb as Sam's mother, who has a secret or two of her own. This film features some imaginative editing, some lovely music, and had me fighting tears throughout. 4

Gideon58

11-20-16, 05:50 PM

MOONSTRUCK
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The atmospheric direction of Norman Jewison, a stylish and humorous screenplay, and some absolutely winning performances are the primary ingredients of Moonstruck, a delicious marriage of romantic comedy and character study that is so completely engaging and mounted in such loving detail that it won three Oscars and was a nominee for Best Picture of 1987.
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This is the story of Loretta (Cher), a widowed bookkeeper in Brooklyn, on the cusp of spinsterhood, who finds herself engaged to a sweet buffoon named Johnny (Danny Aiello) who has to leave town when his mother becomes ill, but before he leaves, he asks Loretta to contact his brother, Ronnie (Nicolas Cage) and invite him to the wedding. Loretta tracks down Ronnie working underneath a bakery in the ovens, where it is revealed that he hates his brother and blames him for a baking accident in which he lost his hand and the woman he loved. Loretta manages to temporarily talk the explosive young man down and before you can say "romantic triangle", Ronnie decides that he is in love with Loretta.
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There is another story perfectly integrated with this one revolving around Loretta's parents. Her dad, Carmine (Vincent Gardenia) hates Johnny and thinks Loretta is cursed where men are concerned and while offering Loretta lots of free advice about men, is cheating on Loretta's mother, Rose (Olympia Dukakis) with a woman named Mona (Anita Gillette). It's revealed that Rose knows her husband is cheating but remains silent and has her own brief encounter with a stranger (John Mahoney).
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It is screenwriter John Patrick Shanley's perfect melding of these two very special stories, possibly influenced by the patterns of a very large moon that follows our central characters around and is possibly monitoring their romantic destinies that won this film the Oscar for its very special screenplay, which is clever and contemporary, yet wrapped in old fashioned Italian culture that makes being Italian seem the only way to be...not since Big Night, have I seen a more shining endorsement for being Italian.
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Shanley's screenplay also creates some realistic characters that make some contradictory moves that don't make a lot of sense as they're happening. Loretta tells Ronnie it's over after she wakes up after realizing she has cheated on her fiancee and yet agrees to accompany Ronnie to the opera that night. And that's another thing...when we first glance Ronnie under the bowels of this bakery, he is practically this drooling neanderthal screaming about all the injustices life (and his brother) have dealt him and a couple of scenes later, he is revealed to be an expert on La Boheme and Chagall. But we are so behind the character by this time and his mission to win Loretta that we let it slide.
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Cher got the role of a lifetime here as Loretta and lights up the screen in a performance that won her the Oscar for Best Actress (but was she really better than Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction?) and Olympia Dukakis won Best Supporting Actress for her beautifully underplayed Rose. Cage has rarely been sexier onscreen and Vincent Gardenia also scores as Loretta's dad. The film is bathed in rich Italian atmosphere, utilzing some exquisite NYC location filming and some gorgeous music from Pucinni, Dean Martin, and even Vikki Carr. A joyous romantic comedy that will definitely leave you warm and fuzzy on the inside. 4

Gideon58

11-21-16, 06:32 PM

THIS IS 40
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My last encounter with Judd Apatow was the dreadfully unfunny Funny People, and after watching 2012's This is 40, I realize that the mess that was Funny People was no accident. I don't know if Apatow was trying to work out some personal issues onscreen here or if he was just trying to make his wife and children movie stars, but whatever the director's goal, it's an epic fail thanks to a muddy and unfocused screenplay that doesn't know what it's trying to say and takes 2 hours and 17 minutes to do it.
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This rambling and ridiculous comedy is the story of Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Apatow's wife, Leslie Mann), the parents of two daughters, who are both approaching their 40th birthday and this milestone is the beginning of the reveal of the mess that is Pete and Debbie's life together. Both Pete and Debbie have their own businesses which are both failing miserably...he owns a record label and she owns a clothing boutique. The label is failing because Pete is backing artists no one cares about and Debbie takes forever to realize that one of her employees is robbing her blind. Debbie wants Pete to stop eating cupcakes and Pete wants Debbie to stop smoking but they both continue their bad habits behind each other's backs. Their daughters (played by Apatow and Mann's real life daughters) hate each other, a hate that seems to be fueled by the elder daughter's addiction to the TV series Lost. which she is binge watching. We also are witness to both Pete and Debbie physically threatening children...nice, huh?
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I'm guessing this movie is supposed to be based on Apatow's own experiences, but if that's true, it's hard to believe that Leslie Mann would agree to appear in it. Whatever is going on here, it's a mess that goes on forever, with a lot of stuff that just doesn't make sense. It is revealed that Pete's favorite artist is a musician named Graham Parker. Having never heard of him, I flipped over to this film's IMDB page to see who was playing Graham Parker. Imagine my shock that Graham Parker was playing himself.
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Inside this hot mess of a movie is a movie that, on its own, might have really made an interesting film. It is revealed that both Pete and Debbie have fathers who deserted them as children and have started second families now that Pete and Debbie are grown. Pete's dad (Albert Brooks) is an unemployed bum who has been borrowing money from his son for years behind his wife's back. Debbie's father (John Lithgow) is an important doctor who Debbie hasn't seen in seven years and, during this story, meets his granddaughters for the first time. This part of the movie totally works...the only problem is that it is only about a quarter of the films running time.
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Rudd and Mann work very hard to make this ridiculous story viable entertainment but it's an uphill battle all the way. Brooks and Lithgow are superb and there are some nice bits by Jason Segel, Chris O'Dowd, Megan Fox, and Melissa McCarthy, but this movie is really one long, dull journey that was about 45 minutes too long. 1.5

Gideon58

11-22-16, 09:03 PM

PAPER MOON
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It seemed like director Peter Bogdanovich would have nowhere to go but down after The Last Picture Show and What's Up, Doc?, but he actually hit the trifecta with a another lovely black and white period piece called Paper Moon, a warm and winning comedy that made a second generation star out of Tatum O'Neal, as well as making her the youngest actor to date to win an Oscar.
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Based on a novel called "Addie Prey" by Joe David Brown, this story, set during the Great Depression in the Kansas bible belt, introduces us to a slick con man named Moses Prey, played by Ryan O'Neal, who arrives at the funeral of a woman he had a past with named Essie Mae Loggins and finds no one there but a minister, two old women, and Essie Mae's daughter, Addie (Tatum O'Neal). After assuring the ladies present that he is not Addie's father (apparently they have the same jaw), they ask him if he would be willing to drive Addie to St. Joseph Missouri, since he is en route to St. Louis. He agrees but needs to do some business to make some traveling money, and when Addie quickly catches on to what Moses is doing and how she can help, this marks the beginning of a very unlikely and unpredictable business relationship.
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Needless to say, the appeal in this story is the slow burn of the relationship that quietly develops between these two very unlikely business partners, made all the richer and entertaining by the fact that the two characters are being played by a real life father and daughter and Alvin Sargent's Oscar-nominated screenplay never allows us to forget this. We are reminded throughout the story of the physical resemblance between Moses and Addie and we have to chuckle every time the con man vehemently denies that he is the child's father. Even Addie herself sees the resemblance and is willing to forgive the first time Moses uses her in his con when she thinks he might be her dad, but when he insists that he's not, that's when Addie insists on the money he conned out of innocent women with her assistance. If I had one quibble with the screenplay, it would be that we never find out one way or the other whether or not Moses is really Addie's father, which might have been on purpose, but it would have been nice to know. Not to mention the fact that though she never would admit it, Addie really wanted it to be true.
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The relationship is thrown a wrench when Moses picks up a gregarious good time girl named Trixie Delight (Madeline Kahn) and her 15 year old maid, Imogene (P J Johnson). As wise beyond her years as Addie appears to be, she reverts to complete 10 year old mode with her bold-face resentment of Trixie taking attention away from her, not to mention the front seat.
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Bogdanovich has crafted another period piece, shot in beautiful black and white, that stirs images of the Great Depression as a stark contrast to the comedic story being presented. Ryan O'Neal is slick and charming as Moses and he and Kahn prove they still have the chemistry they displayed in What's Up, Doc?, but this is Tatum O'Neal's show all the way, a performance that so commands the screen, she became the youngest actor ever to win an Oscar, taking the title from Patty Duke. O'Neal won Outstanding Supporting Actress though the role is clearly a lead, as young Tatum is in virtually every frame of the film, displaying an ease with the camera that is a little startling for a 10 year old making her film debut. A triumph for Bogdanovich and the O'Neal family and a lot of fun for the viewer. 4

Gideon58

11-26-16, 06:04 PM

RIDE ALONG 2
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From the "If you liked the first one..." school of movie sequels comes Ride Along 2, a sequel to the 2014 action comedy that offers nothing new that made this sequel worth waiting for, but I imagine you could run the two films side by side and have a hard time telling the difference.
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This 2016 film finds James (Ice Cube) going after a small time drug dealer who ends up getting his partner (Tyrese Gibson) killed. With the help of a computer hacker (Ken Jeong) the trail leads to an important Miami businessman named Antonio Pope (Benjamin Bratt) who is also a drugs and weapons dealer. James' brother-in-law-to-be, Ben (Kevin Hart) has graduated from the Academy and is now a beat cop and a few days from marrying James' sister, Angela (Tika Sumpter) who manages to persuade James to take Ben with him to take down Pope because Ben is driving her crazy trying to actually involve himself in the wedding plans.
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Director Tim Story has definitely been given a bigger budget here but bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. The director, as he did with the first film, has the skills to mount a proper action sequence, but when the action stops, he becomes a little too dependent on Kevin Hart to carry the rest of what's going on here; unfortunately, Hart gets very little help from the screenplay and his screen charisma can only carry a film so far without a solid story to anchor it. And Ken Jeong is just as annoying here as he was in the Hangover movies.

The antagonism between James and Ben was played out at the end of the first film and for a viable sequel, we really needed to see their relationship go to another level. We either needed to see James admit that Ben has the makings of a real detective or we needed to see Ben admit that he has a lot to learn and that he is willing to learn, but neither of these things happen, so the whole film just comes off as "been there done that", not to mention the hint of a relationship between James and a Miami detective (Olivia Munn) comes way too late, because let's be real, this guy James really needs to get laid.
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The film features some lovely Miami scenery, some sharp film editing, and the endless charisma of Kevin Hart but doesn't offer something new that we didn't get in the first film and, because of that, it's a pretty sluggish journey. 2

Sexy Celebrity

11-26-16, 06:20 PM

Were you forced to watch Ride Along 2 at a Thanksgiving family dinner or something?

Gideon58

11-27-16, 05:08 PM

Were you forced to watch Ride Along 2 at a Thanksgiving family dinner or something?

No coersion involved...I had seen the first one and the first twelve movies I tried to watch on various websites would not play...it was the first one I could find that would actually play after fiddling with websites for almost an hour.

Gideon58

11-27-16, 06:09 PM

DEATHTRAP
Sparkling direction by Sidney Lumet, a story with constant surprises, and some terrific performances make 1982's Deathtrap a forgotten gem from what was a pretty fantastic year at the movies. This is the film version of the Broadway smash by Ira Leven (Rosemary's Baby) that ran for over 1000 performances on the Great White Way, that made a deliciously entertaining transition to the silver screen.
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This is the story of Sidney Bruhl (Michael Caine), a playwright whose play "The Murder Game" was the longest running comic thriller on Broadway. Since then, Sidney has had four Broadway flops and our story opens on opening night of his latest flop, "Murder Most Fair." After getting drunk and watching the scathing television reviews, Sidney receives a copy of a play called Deathtrap in the mail written by one Clifford Anderson (the late Christopher Reeve), an aspiring playwright who took a writing seminar conducted by Bruhl. He has sent Bruhl a copy of his play for comments and suggestions. Adding to Sidney's depression about the direction of his career, he is not happy to discover that "Deathtrap" is so good that "even a gifted director couldn't ruin it." Desperate to resurrect his career, Sidney decides to invite Clifford to his East Hampton home, murder him, and produce "Deathtrap" as his own.
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Unfortunately, Sidney makes the mistake of verbalizing his plan in front of his wife Myra (Dyan Cannon), an extremely high strung woman with a heart condition and her name on everything that she and Sidney own. Myra initially laughs off Sidney's idea and suggests that he and Clifford work together with Sidney working as producer, but after Clifford arrives at the house, it slowly begins to dawn on Myra that her husband is serious about his plan and that's where the fun begins.
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Director Lumet and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen do a beautiful job of opening the play up so it doesn't look like a photographed stage play...we watch the disgusted theatergoers leaving the Music Box theater after watching "Murder Most Fair" and then watch Sidney getting drunk at a bar and struggling to find a cab for the $52.00 cab ride back to the East Hamptons, but what we don't realize that it is somewhere doing this exposition that Sidney has read "Deathtrap", which is the springboard for the story that onstage took place entirely inside Sidney and Myra's home.
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This is one of those clever comic thrillers that takes twists and turns throughout we don't see coming. Every time you think you've figured out exactly what's going on, you learn you're wrong and that's the fun of the piece...it requires complete attention but said attention pays off in spades. Lumet has a first rate team on art direction/set direction here too...the Bruhl's East Hampton's hideaway is breathtaking and the perfect setting for this slightly claustrophobic thriller. As he always does, Lumet gets superb performances from his cast...Caine effectively chews the scenery as Bruhl and Reeve gives an eye opening turn as Anderson and if your only exposure to Reeve was Clark Kent, you might be surprised here. Dyan Cannon was appropriately shrill as Myra and loved Irene Worth as a psychic named Helga Ten Dorp. Another forgotten gem from the resume of Sidney Lumet. 4

Gideon58

11-28-16, 06:46 PM

ROMAN HOLIDAY
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/Roman_holiday.jpg
Stylish and imaginative direction from one of the best in the business, a witty and intelligent screenplay with a troubled history and an enchanting lead performance by a gifted actress all make the 1953 classic Roman Holiday one of the most beloved romantic comedies ever made and appointment viewing for all cinema purists.
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Audrey Hepburn was awarded her first leading role, after bit parts in two other films, as Princess Ann, the princess of a fictional European country, who is on a goodwill tour of Rome who, bored and exhausted with the responsibilities of being a princess, cracks under the pressure and is sent to bed and given a mild sedative. Longing to get away from the life that most little girls dream of, Ann temporarily wakes up in the middle of the night and sneaks out of the palace in the back of a delivery truck. As the effects of the sedative kick back in, Ann is found half asleep on a bench by Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), a reporter for the American News Service in Rome who is scheduled to have an interview with the Princess at 11:45 am that morning.

When the palace realizes Ann is missing, they decided to save face by informing the media that she has taken ill and when Joe sees a picture of the Princess and realizes that she is asleep in his room, decides to try and use this to his advantage with the help of his buddy Irving (Eddie Albert), a photographer to bilk $5000 out of his boss and, well, I think you can guess the rest.
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Director William Wyler takes great care in bringing this lovely, if unlikely romance to the screen, giving the Oscar winning screenplay the professional polish it deserves. The screenplay was actually written by Dalton Trumbo, who was not allowed to be credited with the screenplay because he was blacklisted at the time. The onscreen credit for the screenplay and the Oscar that it won both went to Ian MacKellan Hunter, though Trumbo does receive an onscreen credit "Story by...". This detailed and imaginative story does a wonderful job of establishing this central character of the princess. It is clear from the opening frames that this young woman is acutely aware of the importance of her position and the responsibilities that come with it, but there is also a little girl who longs to just stop being a princess and just wants to go outside and play. I love our first clue that this woman is getting weary of her life when she is glanced in the middle of a formal receiving line and the camera gives us a shot underneath her dress as she removes one of her shoes because her feet are killing her.
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The attention to detail in the screenplay is a little inconsistent. I love when the Princess mentions in the privacy of her bedroom how she would like to wear nothing but pajama tops to bed just once and l later in the story when she wakes up in Joe's pajamas, she immediately checks to see if she has bottoms on as well. On the other hand, I found it a little hard to believe that during Ann's adventures in Rome after she escapes from the palace, that absolutely NO ONE but Irving recognizes her, despite the fact that her picture was splashed all over the newspapers. It was also a little troubling that even though the palace was pretending that she was sick, that it wasn't until the final act of the film that she is tracked down by palace staffers, but these are minor plot contrivances that I didn't allow to deter my enjoyment of what was happening here.

Audrey Hepburn's performance in the leading role is magical and charismatic and won her the Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actress of 1953. The film also won Edith Head an Oscar for Black and White costume design and Eddie Albert received a supporting actor nomination for his fun turn as Irving. Hepburn creates chemistry with Gregory Peck as Joe, though I kept picturing Cary Grant in this role, but again, I did not let this get in the way of the joy of this lovely romantic fantasy that is a triumph for William Wyler, Audrey Hepburn, and a treat for classic film buffs. 4

Citizen Rules

11-28-16, 10:32 PM

Roman Holiday is such a great film, it's a pity more people don't see it. I think it was MarkF who said that if it was an Italian film people would find it amazing. But somehow people see two big Hollywood stars and discount the movie as some Hollywood movie-of-the-week. It doesn't help that people don't appreciate Audrey Hepburn.

I think Audrey was wonderful in everything she did. Sadly she was often paired with romantic leads that were way too old for her youthful personalty. Roman Holiday is one time that she was paired with a suitable leading man in Gregory Peck.

Gideon58

11-29-16, 11:03 AM

I think Audrey was wonderful in everything she did. Sadly she was often paired with romantic leads that were way too old for her youthful personalty. Roman Holiday is one time that she was paired with a suitable leading man in Gregory Peck.

Peck was OK, but as I mentioned in my review, I kept picturing Cary Grant in the role.

Citizen Rules

11-29-16, 12:51 PM

Usually Audrey Hepburn was romantically paired with actors old enough to be her grandfather: Humphrey Bogart, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper.

Gideon58

11-29-16, 04:29 PM

Usually Audrey Hepburn was romantically paired with actors old enough to be her grandfather: Humphrey Bogart, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper.

Yeah, she and Gary Cooper were especially bad together.

Citizen Rules

11-29-16, 05:20 PM

Yeah, she and Gary Cooper were especially bad together. Maybe Love in the Afternoon (1957) is a good candidate for a Worst Romantic Pairings list. Have you done a list like that already? If not, it could be an idea:)

Gideon58

11-29-16, 05:34 PM

Maybe Love in the Afternoon (1957) is a good candidate for a Worst Romantic Pairings list. Have you done a list like that already? If not, it could be an idea:)

OK, I checked my worst onscreen chemistry list and they didn't make that list though they should have.

Gideon58

11-29-16, 09:56 PM

DELIVERY MAN
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cf/Delivery_Man_Poster.jpg
An imaginative screenplay and a superb performance from its star will keep the viewer interested in a 2013 film called Delivery Man, whose basic premise appears to be a slapstick comedy but this film was anything but and had this reviewer squirming for the majority of the running time and copped out with an ending that was just a little too pat and convenient.
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Vince Vaughn stars as David Wozniak, the irresponsible and unreliable delivery driver for his family's meat company who grows pot in his apartment and owes $100,000 to a drug dealer. David learns that his girlfriend, Emma (Cobie Smulders) is pregnant but wants him to have nothing to do with the raising of the baby. Despite warnings from his buddy Brett (Chris Pratt) and brother Aleksy (Bobby Moynihan), who are both awash in children, that he has dodged a bullet, still wants to be father to his child.
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David then gets a visit from a lawyer who reminds him that 20 years ago he made 693 donations to a sperm bank for which he was paid over $24,000. David is informed that his donations were widely distributed and resulted in 533 biological children for David and that 142 of them want to know who their father is, but David is not allowed to reveal himself because making the donations involved him signing a confidentiality agreement. These young people won't give up and decide to file a class action suit to get David to reveal himself, who made the donations under the pseudonym "Starbuck."
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David then receives profiles of the 142 plaintiffs and is advised by Brett, who is a former attorney, that he should not open the envelope. Needless to say, David ignores this advice and starts making contact with the children individually without revealing himself, having varied reactions to his different children and causing varied effects to their lives. Things get sticky when he realizes that the "Starbuck" children have formed a foundation and have a reunion that David attends, thanks to Viggo (Adam Chanler-Berat), one of the 142 kids who has somehow found out who David is but wants to keep him all for himself.
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I don't know where to begin here, but let me say this film was absolutely nothing like I expected when I read the basic plotline. Director and writer Ken Scott has crafted an unusual story that stirred some raw emotions with this reviewer that weren't all warm and fuzzy. It was very effective how vastly different each of the initial encounters with his children was...his joy at learning that one of his sons was a New York Knick, the worry of one daughter being a drug addict, a gay son, and especially a mentally and physically handicapped child who is institutionalized. I was initially drawn in by David's attempt to do the right thing by all of these young adults, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear that there's no way this can happen.
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I couldn't figure out how he would keep running into these people in separate places, not to mention the Starbuck reunion, and, other than Viggo, how NONE of them seem to figure out exactly who he is. On top of this, he still seems determined to be in Emma's life and a part of her life and her child without telling her he's Starbuck and that just seemed wrong. And just when I didn't think David could do no more wrong for the right reasons, he files a counter suit against the 142 young people to protect his anonymity.

Despite some really questionable behavior and some really ugly turns this story takes, Vince Vaughn's superb performance kept me curious to the end and this is where the movie lost me...Scott just tied up everything in a neat little bow where David was everyone's hero and that just didn't ring true to me, but up until then, a really novel idea for a movie that was unexpected but never uninteresting. 3

cricket

11-30-16, 09:26 PM

Moonstruck is one of the best rom-coms I've seen, and I also loved Paper Moon.

Gideon58

12-01-16, 07:30 PM

ANGER MANAGEMENT
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Despite some serious star power, the 2003 comedy Anger Management fails to produce the laughs it should due to a ridiculously over the top story with plot holes you can drive a truck through taking a very long journey to a contrived conclusion.
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Adam Sandler plays Dave Buznik, an executive assistant at a pet clothing supply company who has always been somewhat of a doormat in his personal life. He gets arrested for assaulting a flight attendant while on a business trip which leads to Dave being forced to serve 30 days in an anger management program called Fury Fighters, headed by a Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson), who was actually a witness to the incident on the plane and did nothing to back up Dave's innocence.
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It's not enough that Dave has been railroaded into anger management but after another incident in which Dave accidentally injures a waitress, Rydell actually decides he has to move in with Dave and follow him around everywhere he goes, including work but instead of offering legitimate anger management therapy, Rydell just seems to be setting up Dave in situations designed to make Dave snap, but Rydell's nutty therapy takes a serious detour when he sees a picture of Dave's girlfriend, Linda (Marisa Tomei).
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Screenwriter David Dorfman asks us to accept a lot of ridiculous stuff going on here because it's Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson doing it. There's no earthly reason why any therapist, anger management or otherwise, would move into a patient's home and sleep naked with him in his bed. And we're just supposed to be tickled when Dave is late for work and Rydell makes him pull over his car on the middle of the George Washington Bridge so that he can center himself by singing "I Feel Pretty"? There's a whole lot of stupid stuff going on here and it's hard to watch Sandler's Dave just sit back and take everything that happens to him in this bizarre story. The only thing Rydell does that might be considered a legitimate piece of therapy is when he makes Dave confront a childhood bully (John C. Reilly), who is now a Buddhist monk, which results in a scene that resembles Sandler's encounter with Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore.
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The real sadness about this mess of a story is that the Dave Buznik character is possibly one of the nicest characters Adam Sandler has ever played...he's more mature than the angry man child we're accustomed to seeing from the actor, not to mention the fact that after witnessing the scene on the plane where Dave's innocence is obvious, it is hard for us to accept all the crap that gets heaped on him for the rest of the running time.
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And as much as I love the guy normally, Jack Nicholson has rarely been less appealing onscreen, creating a character so obnoxious that it's hard to accept the redemption of the character attempted at the film's conclusion. Tomei makes the most of a thankless role and there are numerous bits from people like Derek Jeter, Heather Graham, Rudy Guiliani, Luiz Guzman, John McEnroe, John Turturro, January Jones, Kevin Nealon, Lynne Thigpen and an especially funny cameo by Woody Harrelson, but the story is so silly and hard to swallow and considering all the star power onscreen, this should have been something really special instead of something so...messy. 2

Gideon58

12-02-16, 04:51 PM

A FACE IN THE CROWD
Director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg, the creative force behind the Oscar winner for Best Picture of 1954, On the Waterfront, struck gold with their next collaboration, 1957's A Face in the Crowd, a blistering and unflinching look at, among other things, the power of celebrity and the abuse of same, fan obsession, the power of advertising and the media and the constant monitoring of the bottom line. The film also introduced a brand new movie star to the world named Andy Griffith.
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Griffith plays Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a drunken womanizer who is discovered in a sleepy little farm town called Pickett, Arkansas by a radio station employee named Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) whose performance of a song on Marcia's show becomes an overnight radio sensation in Pickett, which leads to an offer to do his own television show in Memphis, which leads to Rhodes becoming a media sensation and eventually a player in the political arena and how his elevation to the position of pop culture icon also turns him into a monster, manipulating and using anyone he has to in order to get what he wants.
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Needless to say, this film was WAY ahead of its time and was probably a bit of shock to 1957 filmgoers and was clearly an inspiration for later works like Elmer Gantry and Network. It is unsettling watching the journey that Lonesome Rhodes makes here...he starts out as a simpleton who practically has hayseed coming out of his ears as he is finishing off a spell in an Arkansas drunk tank. We laugh as we watch the man shout whatever he wants over the airwaves, without filter and ignoring any kind of attempts at control or censorship. However, attempts to control fall to the wayside when he actually begins to attract an audience and it is no accident that there is a strong female demographic who he magically casts a spell over. This is troubling to Marcia, who while trying to "package" Lonesome into something marketable, is trying to fight her own feelings for the man.
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It's unsettling that we find ourselves laughing at Lonesome when he's trying to figure out how to deal with a television camera or how to read a television commercial and later wanting to strangle him as he uses Marcia and the rest of his handlers to the point where he thinks he doesn't need them anymore. I can't recall the last time I saw a movie character who had me rolling on the floor laughing at the beginning of the movie and cheering when he finally experiences consequences of his actions at the end.
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It is shocking to me that this film didn't receive a single Oscar nomination but I have a feeling that this film shed such an unflattering light on the business of show business that the Academy might have been offended by a lot of what happens in the course of this often ugly and uncomfortable story. The primary snubs being Schulberg's bold, take-no-prisoners screenplay and Kazan's solid direction that features some imaginative camera work and some solid editorial choices. The direction and screenplay were both worthy of Oscar nominations and I think their work here easily trumps On the Waterfront. This film just might be Kazan's masterpiece.
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Andy Griffith was nothing short of brilliant in his mesmerizing performance as Lonesome Rhodes, a performance that should have earned him a nomination as well. Griffith proved to be an actor of depth and power here and those of you whose only exposure to Griffith is as Sheriff Andy Taylor, you are going to be in for quite the shock. His work here reminded me so much of Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry, but Griffith made some gutsy acting choices here that Lancaster shied away from. Patricia Neal is stylish and strong as Marcia and there are a couple of razor sharp supporting performances from Walter Matthau and Anthony Franciosa as a writer who Rhodes steps on and as a slick press agent who jumps on the Rhodes bandwagon. This film also marked the film debut of Lee Remick as a 17 year old baton twirler who catches Lonesome's eye. This was a one of a kind motion picture experience that left me limp. 5

Citizen Rules

12-02-16, 10:07 PM

Awesome review! of A Face In the Crowd. I can tell you were really impressed with the movie and your review reflects that beautifully. I agree with all of what you said. I especially liked and agreed with this:

It is shocking to me that this film didn't receive a single Oscar nomination but I have a feeling that this film shed such an unflattering light on the business of show business that the Academy might have been offended by a lot of what happens in the course of this often ugly and uncomfortable story. The primary snubs being Schulberg's bold, take-no-prisoners screenplay and Kazan's solid direction that features some imaginative camera work and some solid editorial choices. The direction and screenplay were both worthy of Oscar nominations and I think their work here easily trumps On the Waterfront. A Face in the Crowd did deserve an Oscar. I think the film not winning any Oscars has to do with the fact that Elia Kazan 5 years earlier had testified as a witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, back in 1952. That was during the time of the Hollywood blacklist. He was shunned by some in the film industry.

Captain Steel

12-02-16, 10:52 PM

Wow! That's two excellent reviews I've seen now (from Gideon and Rules) for A Face in the Crowd.
I really need to see this movie!
I'm kind of kicking myself because I saw it listed on TCM a while back and passed it over because I thought, "Another Andy Griffith as good-hearted country bumpkin vehicle."

Citizen Rules

12-02-16, 11:00 PM

A 5 rating is as good as it gets on MoFo:p, and A Face in the Crowd deserves it too. It's one of the few films like I liked more on a second viewing. Check it out if it comes back to TCM.

mark f

12-03-16, 02:39 AM

A Face in the Crowd did deserve an Oscar. I think the film not winning any Oscars has to do with the fact that Elia Kazan 5 years earlier had testified as a witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, back in 1952. That was during the time of the Hollywood blacklist. He was shunned by some in the film industry.
So then how do you explain Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954) winning 8 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director?

Gideon58

12-03-16, 11:18 AM

A Face in the Crowd did deserve an Oscar. I think the film not winning any Oscars has to do with the fact that Elia Kazan 5 years earlier had testified as a witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, back in 1952. That was during the time of the Hollywood blacklist. He was shunned by some in the film industry.

Yeah, it also occurred to me that the blacklisting might have something to do with it too.

Citizen Rules

12-03-16, 02:21 PM

So then how do you explain Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954) winning 8 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director?Good question.

I did say this: I agree with all of what you[Gideon] said. I especially liked and agreed with this:
Gideon wrote: It is shocking to me that this film didn't receive a single Oscar nomination but I have a feeling that this film shed such an unflattering light on the business of show business that the Academy might have been offended by a lot of what happens in the course of this often ugly and uncomfortable story.

Markf wrote: So then how do you explain Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954) winning 8 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director? First as I just said, I agree with Gideon's reasons...Also by 1957 the House Committee on Un-American Activities also known as McCarthism/Blacklisting had grown much worse than it was in 1954. So it's possible that voting Academy Members had their eyes opened by 1957 and decided (individual but in sufficient numbers) not to vote for a Eliz Kazan film due to his willing participation in the anti-communism hearings.

Which is very much like what will happen at the next Oscars, when voting Academy Members will decide in mass to 'make up' for the Jada Pinkett Smith racist claims and we will see a larger number of black Americans winning the Oscar next year. The Oscar votes are influenced by outside 'politics'.

Gideon58

12-03-16, 04:25 PM

BAD SANTA
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cc/Bad_Santa_film.jpg/220px-Bad_Santa_film.jpg
The recent release of the sequel motivated me to check out 2003's Bad Santa, an outrageous black comedy that offers sporadic laughs as long as you don't think about it too much and as long as you accept going in that nothing that happens in this film can happen in real life.
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Billy Bob Thornton plays Willie Stokes, a lazy, alcoholic safe cracker who, along with his partner, the miniature Marcus (Tony Cox), work once a year. At Christmas time, they get themselves hired as a department store Santa and his elf helper and then on Christmas Eve, they break into the store safe and clean the place out. As the story opens, they have already robbed seven stores and they have now arrived in Phoenix where Willie befriends a young boy (Brett Kelly) who is bullied at school on a regular basis and seems to believe that Willie really is Santa and a pretty bartender (Lauren Graham). Their plan is complicated by the store's security officer (the late Bernie Mac) who is asked to keep an eye on them by the tight-assed store manager (the late John Ritter), who does a little detective work and finds out exactly who Willie and Marcus are.
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Since Joel and Ethan Cohen are billed as executive producers, it was assumed that what was about to follow was not to be taken too seriously. In the spirit of films like The Ref, I suspect this is supposed to be the Christmas movie for people who hate Christmas movies and if that was indeed the intended demographic, a bullseye was scored here, but if you're looking for anything resembling logic or realism, you've got the wrong movie. I just went with it...I went with the fact that Thornton, who looks anorexic in this movie, doesn't even bother to pad his Santa costume...I went with it that the character was drunk for the entire running time, including the time he was asking small children what they wanted for Christmas...I went with it when the title of the film flashed on the screen while Willie was bent over a garbage can behind a bar throwing up...I went with it when this kid kept calling Willie Santa even though I knew there was no way this kid could believe this guy was really Santa, but you know when it all became OK? When Willie notices the kid's black eye and goes to his school and beats the crap out of the kid who did it.
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Director Terry Swigoff has an imaginative directorial eye and the screenplay by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa is peppered with enough adult language that the 18-34 demographic will be amused. Billy Bob Thornton does give a terrific performance in the title role and gets solid support from Mac and Cox, but the film has some long stretches that might make you drowsy, especially involving this clueless kid, but Thornton's performance alone makes this worth a look. 3

Sexy Celebrity

12-03-16, 04:58 PM

Gideon58

12-03-16, 06:06 PM

"Black comedy" as in dark humor, or "black comedy" as in there's a black elf and Bernie Mac in it?

You didn't really go there did you, Sexy?

Camo

12-03-16, 07:13 PM

The first time i watched Bad Santa i would've rated it about the same, rewatched it earlier this year though and really loved it. Man. that kid and Billy Bob are incredible together.

Gideon58

12-04-16, 04:23 PM

DECK THE HALLS
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Deck the Halls is a juvenile and pointless 2006 comedy that wastes a lot of talented actors in a story that is just not worthy of them.
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The film stars Matthew Broderick as Dr. Steve Finch, an optometrist in a small Massachusetts suburb who gets positively anal when Christmas rolls around. He is not only in charge of the town's winter Festival, but he has a strict schedule of Christmas activities for his family in a 3 ring binder. His plans change when Buddy Hall (Danny De Vito), a car salesman, moves in across the street with his wife (Kristen Chenoweth) and twin daughters. Thanks to a website that his daughters show him, Buddy becomes obsessed with making the Christmas decorations on his house visible from space.
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Director John Whitesell displays a flair for cinematic slapstick, but slapstick without a viable story behind it is just an SNL sketch and the actors involved seem very aware of this. Broderick and De Vito look properly embarrassed throughout and I feel their pain. The screenplay by Matt Corman and Chris Ord is an unsettling balance of crude sexual entendres and sugary sentiment. Steve's wife, Kelly, played by Kristen Davis, actually has a line in the film where she scolds her husband about not making the most out of those "chocolate milk and french fry moments". Pass the insulin please.
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Broderick is a perfect straight man and he and De Vito work very hard at making this silliness worth our time and they are fighting the ridiculous screenplay all the way. I never really bought De Vito and Chenowith as a married couple and Chenowith's musical moment near the climax of the film just seems thrown in because someone said, "Hey, we've got Kristen Chenoweth...we've got have her sing somewhere!" Davis' role as Mrs. Finch is thankless and could have been played by just about anyone. Fred Armisen and Gillian Vigman shamelessly ape a pair of characters Armisten and Kristen Wiig played on SNL and this so-called "wholesome family comedy" also seems to imply that Buddy Hall has the hots for his nubile 16 year old twin daughters. A holiday movie that walks a thin tightrope between boredom and tastelessness,,,not an easy thing to do. 2

Gideon58

12-05-16, 04:55 PM

THE MYSTERY OF NATALIE WOOD
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ABC television struck gold with their lavish TV biography of Judy Garland entitled Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. Unfortunately, they did not have nearly the success with their 2004 effort The Mystery of Natalie Wood, another expensive made-for-television biopic focusing on an iconic movie star whose mysterious and tragic accidental drowning still haunts people today with so many unanswered questions about exactly what happened and the aggravation that has developed over the fact that the parties who were directly involved that night still aren't talking. This TV movie is afforded the same care and attention to its subject that the Garland film was but suffers due to a fuzzy screenplay and a problematic performance from the actress playing the title role.
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The film is a detail-oriented look at the star's life, a young girl of Russian descent whose real name was Natasha Gurdin who was pretty much pushed into show business by her domineering mother, Maria who neglected the rest of her family in order to focus on Natalie and her career...not unlike Judy Garland's relationship with her mother, Ethel Gumm, and like Judy, Natalie could never wrestle free of her mother's iron grip, though said grip was instrumental in the beginning of Natalie's path to becoming a movie star. We watch as Maria murders a butterfly in order to get young Natasha to cry on cue during her film debut and even though she was pushed into it, began to take control of certain aspects of her career...we watch her tireless efforts to get the role of Judy in Rebel Without a Cause, which may or may not have motivated a sexual relationship with the director, Nicholas Ray and her troubled relationship with director Elia Kazan, as well her fairy tale romance with Robert Wagner, which couldn't withstand Natalie's fame, but would eventually heal, and of course, her mysterious death in the water in 1981.
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And this was one of the primary problems with the film for me. We all know the story of how Natalie died and how Natalie always had a fear of water, but the screenplay here just pounds it into our heads with sledgehammer-like effect through about two thirds of the film's running time. It seems like every ten minutes in the film we are reminded that a gypsy predicted Natalie death in dark water and that Natalie had a lifelong fear of water. We all knew this and didn't need to be reminded of it constantly throughout the story. I would have liked this film to concentrate more on Natalie's long dormant desire to be a mother, her stormy relationships with Wagner and Richard Gregson (her marriage to Gregson is summed up in about 10 minutes), and more behind the scenes dirt on the set of her many movies.
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I sat patiently waiting for the story to reach the point where Natalie was cast in West Side Story, one of her biggest hits but also a film where many felt she was miscast and there was a lot of tension on the set because of it. Again, precious little time was devoted to this crucial point in her career. This movie concentrated too much on unsubstantiated parts of her personal life rather than confirming documented controversy. The film created relationships that I never knew Natalie had before. This film presents Natalie as having some sort of relationship with Marilyn Monroe and relating to her so much that according to this film, the day Marilyn died, Natalie was so affected by it but not in the way you would think...it appears that Natalie is almost jealous of the attention that Marilyn received by dying which I found really disturbing.
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Director Peter Bogdanovich works very hard at making classic Hollywood look fresh and glamorous and manages to get some pretty solid performances from his cast. Justine Waddell is acceptable in the title role, resembling the star, but never really capturing her maturity or intelligence. Loved Michael Weatherly as Robert Wagner and Matthew Settle as Warren Beatty, but the acting honors here definitely go to Alice Krige as Natalie's nightmare of a mother, a performance of bone-chilling intensity that should have at least earned her an Emmy nomination. I must also credit Bogdanovich for the detail he put into the final act of the movie on the boat...we all know what happens, but there is a viable tension created here that actually made the final fifteen minutes of this movie very difficult to watch. The movie has its problems, primarily ignoring or glossing over facts in favor of dramatic effect, but fans of the iconic star will definitely want to take a look. 3

Gideon58

12-06-16, 08:02 PM

THE SHAGGY DOG (1959)
Walt Disney Studios were the industry giants of animation during the 1940's, 50's & 60"s, but it took a while before they made an impression with live action comedy and one of their first offerings was a minor classic from 1959 called The Shaggy Dog.
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This was the story of Wilby Daniels (Tommy Kirk), a nerdy 50's teen who is competing with his greasy best pal Buzz (Tim Considine) for the attentions of pretty Allison (Annette Funicello) but find themselves distracted when a college professor (Alexander Scourby) moves in across the street with his pretty young daughter, Franceska (Roberta Shore) who owns a rare Egyptian sheepdog she calls Chiffon. The dog is inexplicably attracted to Wilby and not long after, Wilby has an encounter with a dotty Professor (Cecil Kellaway) which finds Wilby in possession of an ancient ring that, after Wilby repeats a certain Latin phrase, turns Wilby into Chiffon, though he still has the ability to speak.
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The story is complicated by Wilby's father, Wilson Daniels (Fred MacMurray), a mailman who, for obvious reasons, can't stand dogs and actually thinks he's allergic to them, even though he's not. Every time Wilson thinks there's a dog within a hundred miles, he starts breaking into imaginary hives and has refused the numerous requests of Wilby's little brother, Moochie (Kevin Corcoran) to have a dog as a pet.

Of course, the spell under which Wilby has fallen has temporary effects which find him changing from boy to sheepdog and back again at the most inopportune moments, most notably, during a dance where he is trying to impress Allison and in the presence of Franceska's father when it is revealed that he is actually a spy.
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Yes, long before Disney Pixar was even a concept, Disney was able to mount a multi-layered story that, if the truth be told, the intended demographic probably didn't even notice. I'm pretty sure kids didn't notice the convoluted love triangle between Wilby, Buzz, Allison, and Franceska and the only part of the spy story that had them paying attention was when Wilby the dog is actually driving a car chasing the bad guys. I actually think my favorite subplot of the story is that Moochie is thrilled when he learns his older brother is a dog and works very hard to try to keep his secret and keep him as a pet at the same time. Sometimes Moochie is a little too smart for his years, but it's Disney fantasy so you let things like that slide.
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MacMurray is properly befuddled as the confused dad in what is basically a supporting role, even though he receives top billing. Jean Hagen as MacMurray's wife and Funicello are wasted in thankless roles, but Kirk and Corcoran are properly energetic as the stars of the show and there is a funny supporting turn from an actor named James Westerfield as a cop who thinks he's losing his mind when he encounters a talking dog. The movie may be over 60 years old, but it still made me laugh. 3

Gideon58

12-08-16, 06:34 PM

HAIRSPRAY LIVE (2016)
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NBC and FOX continue to compete in this interesting new trend of bringing Broadway musicals to television. Unfortunately, NBC's latest offering of Hairspray provided lackluster results. This mounting of the Broadway musical has some good things going for it; however, suffers due to an overly preachy re-hauling of the original libretto, some questionable casting choices, lackadaisical direction, and some production issues that could have easily been handled with more efficiency.
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The property originally came to the screen as a 1988 comedy drama from demented filmmaker John Waters featuring two of Waters' greatest discoveries: transvestite Divine and Ricki Lake. The piece was turned into a smash Broadway musical that premiered in 2002 and ran for over 2600 performances and a film version of the musical hit theaters in 2007.
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It is 1960's Baltimore where we meet Tracy Turnblad, an overweight teenager who dreams of being a dancer on THE CORNY COLLINS SHOW, an "American Bandstand" type dance show produced by the bitchy and bigoted Velma Von Tussle and featuring her equally nasty daughter Amber as one of the dancers. Once a month the show features what is known as "Negro Day", where they play music exclusively by black artists and only feature black dancers. Tracy and her best friend Penny get a chance to audition for the show and Tracy actually gets cast on the show and her innocent remark that she wishes every day on the show was Negro day makes her a somewhat unwilling spokesperson for racial equality, hampering her budding romance with Link Larkin, a dancer on the show who is involved with Amber but Tracy and every other Baltimore teenage girl is crushing on.
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This story raised eyebrows because the role of Edna Turnblad was originally played by a transvestite and the role has traditionally been played by a man. When the movie became a Broadway musical, Harvey Fierstein played the role of Edna and John Travolta inherited the role in the film version of the musical. I have to admit I was impressed by the fact that for the first time since these live musicals started being produced, an actor was allowed to reprise the role they created on Broadway. Fierstein was allowed to recreate his Broadway role as Edna and also wrote the screenplay for this production and, if the truth be told, I wish he had just been allowed to concentrate on his performance because one of the things that I liked about the 2007 film version is that the message regarding racial equality was not driven home with a sledgehammer, but Fierstein brought out the sladgehammer big time here, having Tracy announce every ten minutes that she wants "everyone to dance together." I think his duties as writer affected his performance as well, which just seemed kind of phoned in to me.
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There is some strong casting going on here though...Maddie Baillio lights up the screen as Tracy and her rich vocals were one of the true pleasures of this production. Derek Hough was surprisingly slick as Corny Collins and I loved Dove Cameron as Amber, who made the most of a number written especially for this production called "She's Got Cooties." Ariana Grande was fun as Penny and Garrett Clayton's resemblance to Zac Efron didn't hurt his performance as Link. Martin Short was acceptable as Tracy's dad, though he seemed to be slipping into Ed Grimley every now and then. I have to admit to being a little disappointed with Kristen Chenoweth as Velma Von Tussle, the villain of the piece...Chenoweth is a powerhouse vocalist but she doesn't bring the bitchiness the role requires, but Jennifer Hudson made a great Motormouth Maybelle and Ephraim Sykes made every moment he had onscreen count as her son, Seaweed, who falls for Penny.
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The score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman came here mostly intact, including "Good Morning Baltimore", "Miss Baltimore Crabs", "I Hear the Bells", "Ladies Choice", "Without Love", "You're Timeless to Me", and "You Can't Stop the Beat"; unfortunately, the huge orchestra overpowers a lot of the singers making it hard to catch a lot of lyrics. Kenny Leons direction is a little too leisurely to the point that when the story stops singing and dancing, it stops becoming interesting and with the exception of "Run and Tell Dat", the choreography is surprisingly pedestrian. This production definitely deserves an "A" for effort, but parts were definitely better than the whole. 3

Gideon58

12-11-16, 06:08 PM

HOPE SPRINGS
A pair of powerhouse performances from Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones make a forgotten gem from 2012 called Hope Springs worth your time.
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Streep and Jones play Kay and Arnold Soames, a couple who have been married for 31 years but sleep in separate rooms. They are not unhappy, but Arnold has accepted the quiet rut their marriage has become. Kay, on the other hand is another matter. She reads a self-help book on marriage written by a Doctor Feld (Steve Carell) and is so moved by the book that she googles the doctor and learns that he does intense couple counseling from a sleepy little town in Maine. Without even consulting Arnold, Kay signs them up for counseling with the good doctor, determined to bring romance back to their marriage, whether Arnold is interested or not.
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In addition to the starring performances, credit has to go to screenwriter Vanessa Taylor for providing a solid story with vividly flawed but completely believable characters who are not young and beautiful anymore. These characters also have their own minds and don't always kow tow to the wishes of other characters in their orbit. As expected, Arnold balks when he learns about this couples counseling that his wife has signed them up for, but in a refreshing change of pace, Kay announces to Arnold that she is going to Maine whether he does or not. I wanted to cheer as Kay packed her bags and got on that plane as Arnold watched with his mouth dangling open. We knew Arnold was going to join Kay, we just didn't know when and that's what made this so much fun.
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Once they arrive in Maine and start meeting with Dr. Feld, this is where we see the work of David Frankel kick in. Frankel directed Streep in The Devil Wears Prada so he knew exactly the kind of performance he wanted from this extraordinary actress and he proved that he could bring more out of Streep, who breathes mesmerizing life into a character nothing like Miranda Priestley and does most of it without dialogue. What Frankel does brilliantly in the the scenes with Carell's therapist, is that he allows a lot of the reveal of what's going on this marriage comes from the reacting between the two principals...I love the way Kay and Arnold sit on complete opposite sides of the couch when they are meeting with Dr. Feld and I also loved the way every time Feld would ask Kay or Arnold a question individually, you would see the other bristle in anticipation of what the answer was going to be. We knew there was a chance for this marriage when Feld asks them about the best sexual experience they ever had and they seem to find some common ground.
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This is not an easy road this couple takes and there are a couple of very unpleasant detours that this story takes, but these two brilliant actors, Streep in particular, make you care about these prickly scenes from a marriage and we really want to see Kay get what she wants. Streep gives another of her magical performances that rises above the material she's provided and Jones matches her note for note as the man who had become accustomed to the vacuum his marriage had become and was not thrilled at having to fight for his continued indifference. Carell beautifully underplays as the therapist, allowing these two wonderful actors make this story work and they do. 3.5

Gideon58

12-12-16, 06:31 PM

PITCH PERFECT 2
From that vast wasteland of cinematic junk known as the unnecessary sequel comes Pitch Perfect 2, the overblown and seemingly endless sequel to the 2012 film that will have a bookmark in cinema history as the feature directorial debut of Elizabeth Banks.
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As we rejoin those darlings of A Capella singing, the Bellas, they have won the Nationals three times but an embarrassing incident during a command performance for Barack and Michelle Obama gets them suspended from further national competition, so they decide to enter the world championship, where their primary competition is a German group called Das Sound Machine. We also learn that Beca (Anna Kendrick), who had to be dragged onstage with the Bellas during the first film, is their leader now and does all their arrangements but her priorities appear to change when she receives an internship with a record company.

Further subplots include a new recruit to the Bellas named Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) who has dreamed all her life of being a Bella and is also a legacy, her mother (Katey Sagal), also having been a Bella. Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) also finds herself trying to keep Bumper (Adam Devine ) at arm's length, who has declared his undying love for her.
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The primary problem with this movie is pretty much the same problem I had with the first film: the musical sequences are professionally mounted but when the music stopped, so did any interest I had in what was going on. I didn't think this movie was ever going to end. The screenplay by Kay Cannon and Mickey Rapkin presented some very confusing scenarios, primarily, how does a singing group get banned from a national competition but it's OK for them to participate in an international competition? Once we have swallowed this part of the story, we know that there's no point in making the movie if the Bellas don't win the competition so why do we have to sit through two other competitions where Das Sound Machine kicks their ass but they miraculously win the competition at the end of the movie?
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One of these "extra" competitions was some sort of underground improvised competition where the groups have to come up with instant arrangements of songs from categories on a "Family Feud" type game board. It bothered me that these groups were able to come up with these arrangements instantly, seeming to really minimize the skill and work that goes into A Capella singing, making it seem a lot easier than it is.
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My feelings about the characters have not changed since the first movie either...Anna Kendrick's Beca is still really unlikable and I don't get all the fuss regarding Rebel Wilson's Fat Amy, the only character in the film given a romantic interest, not to mention the fact that Beca's love interest in the first film (Skylar Astin) has been reduced to a glorified walk on. Hailee Steinfeld, so impressive in the True Grit remake, is just annoying here. Mention should be made of a smart turn by Keegan-Michael Key as Beca's boss at the record company. Despite her heavy-handed direction, Banks and John Michael Higgins, just like they did in the first film, provide the only real laughs in the movie as the competition commentators, but their screen time is not sufficient to make this snore-inducing two hours worth the effort. 1.5

Gideon58

12-13-16, 05:49 PM

FLIGHTPLAN
Despite some plot holes you can drive a truck through, the 2005 film Flightplan draws the viewer completely into an improbable story thanks to evocative direction and the accustomed powerhouse lead performance from Jodie Foster, an actress who can make the most implausible story completely riveting.
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Foster plays Kyle Pratt, an engineer who has flown to Berlin with her six year old daughter to retrieve the body of her recently deceased husband, also an engineer and return the body back to the states. Kyle and her daughter board a plane back to the states with her husband's casket in the cargo area. Shortly after takeoff, Kyle and her daughter move to the back of the massive airliner to stretch out and take a nap. Kyle wakes up a short time later to discover her daughter missing.
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What we become witness to is an elaborate conspiracy manifested through a parental nightmare as we see the flight crew actually try to convince Kyle that her daughter was never on this flight despite the fact that we have seen her daughter on board, we have seen people on the flight who have seen Kyle's daughter who are now pretending that they didn't and an air marshall (Peter Sarsgaard) who befriends Kyle almost immediately without mentioning or acknowledging her daughter's presence and is slow to cooperate with Kyle when she claims her daughter is missing. The final clue that we are in the middle of a major conspiracy is that after Kyle is initially told that her daughter was never on the plane and that no one saw her, Kyle is then told that her daughter died along with her husband.
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This story is, on the surface, a little ridiculous, because we saw Kyle and daughter Julia get on the plane, but what does begin to intrigue the viewer, and director Robert Schwentke must be credited for this, is trying to figure out who is in on this who is not and how they feel about it. Pulling off a conspiracy like this requires intimate attention to detail and someone with power over an awful lot of people who can command their silence and stage things without the knowledge of the flight crew because at the beginning of the story, it appears that several members of the flight crew are in on what's going on, but this turns out to be a large red herring that is pretty difficult to believe especially the way Schwentke has the flight crew play the story. This is where the screenplay by Peter A. Dowling and Billy Ray has to eat a lot of what's wrong with this story because there's just too much left unexplained here...the night before Kyle boards her flight, she observes a couple of Arabs watching her hotel room and then sees them on the flight. They are revealed as being innocent, but why were they watching Kyle's hotel room?
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Despite the problems with this improbable story, I could not take my eyes off the screen, thanks primarily to Jodie Foster, an actress who completely invests in every role she takes on and makes you believe anything she says and does onscreen and Sarsgaard is sinister and sexy as the air marshall. Mention should also be made of Sean Bean as the captain and Kate Beahan as an icy flight attendant. Superb work from the art direction/set direction departments who make this airliner feel gigantic and claustrophobic at the same time. Sound editing and an appropriately moody music score are the other final touches to a drama that seems a lot better than it really is because the right actress was cast in the leading role. 3.5

Gideon58

12-14-16, 11:51 AM

CLAUDINE
A pair of lead performances by stars cast radically against type is the primary attraction to a 1974 comedy drama called Claudine, that despite some dated plot elements and some cliched dialogue, provides some emotionally charged entertainment that sustains itself for the entire running time.
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The film stars Diahann Carroll as Claudine Price, a twice-divorced mother of six living on welfare in a cramped, 4-room apartment and secretly working part-time as a maid. She has to keep it a secret in order to continue receiving her welfare benefits. Claudine is dealing with a very angry eldest son, an eldest daughter who is experimenting with alcohol and sex, a son who wants to drop out of school and is getting into gambling, and another son who is mute. Claudine's full plate gets even fuller when she finds herself tentatively entering a relationship with an utterly charming garbage man named Rupert "Roop" Jackson (James Earl Jones), who is also divorced with children but has had his eye on Claudine for awhile as the house where Claudine works as a maid is on his route.
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As expected, Claudine's children are initially very resentful of Roop's presence in their mother's life but Roop eventually wins them over, but the realities of Claudine and Roop's individual lives begin to rear their ugly heads and damage what is beginning to happen between them. Claudine finds her life turned upside down because when she's with Roop, all she thinks about is the kids and when she's with the kids all she thinks about is Roop. Then there's government interference when the welfare people realize that Roop is trying to help Claudine, which welfare technically considers Claudine committing welfare fraud. Roop wants to marry Claudine, but that would reduce the benefits she receives and then when things couldn't get any messier, Roop is being sued for willful neglect of his own kids which manifests itself in the garnishing of his paycheck.
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Screenwriters Lester and Tina Pine have constructed a complex story here that doesn't offer a lot of easy answers, but does provide a pretty realistic look at the welfare system during the 1970's and the often aggravating scratch for survival that was the norm for middle and lower class blacks that Norman Lear made light of on the sitcom Good Times, but we get a little more realistic look at it here. It's not all completely serious though...I love when the family goes into "social worker" mode and start hiding everything in the house that the social worker is not supposed to know they have to avoid welfare fraud. The scene where Roop is caught in the middle of "social worker" mode had me on the floor.
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Diahann Carroll, known primarily as a singer and fresh off her successful sitcom Julia, raised a few eyebrows here, playing a character nothing like her onscreen persona, that actually earned the actress her only Oscar nomination. Carroll works hard to be convincing as a welfare mom, but I think the performance surprised people because, like Grace Kelly in The Country Girl, Carroll actually appears onscreen without eye makeup. But the real pleasure from this film and the thing that kept me glued to the screen was the brilliant performance by Emmy and Tony winner James Earl Jones as Roop...Jones absolutely commands the screen and, like Carroll, is radically cast against type, playing a romantic leading man, foreign territory for this powerhouse actor whose charisma is almost sometimes too large to contain on a movie screen, but he nails this character, a 100-mega watt performance that made this entire movie worth investing in. Jones totally owns this movie without overpowering Carroll or anyone else, doing exactly what the screenplay requires of him but doing it to the nth degree. Mention should also be made of a young Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as Claudine's eldest son and a terrific song score by Gladys Knight and the Pips, but if for no other reason, this movie is worth a look at the acting powerhouse that is James Earl Jones. 3.5

Gideon58

12-15-16, 09:41 PM

ZOOLANDER
Ben Stiller had one of his biggest hits as the director, co-screenwriter, and star of a lavish, 2001 comic adventure that offers pretty consistent laughs called Zoolander, that works despite a modicum of self-indulgence on Stiller's part.
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Derek Zoolander (Stiller) is the top male model in the world who after winning male model of the year three years in a row, loses the title to modeling's newest flavor of the month, Hansel (Owen Wilson) which has Derek re-thinking his purpose in life. Meanwhile, an insane fashion designer named Mugatu (Will Ferrell) tempts Derek back on the runway with a new fashion line which is just a cover to brainwash Derek into assassinating the prime minister of Malaysia.
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Stiller, Drake Strather, and John Hamburg's screenplay is overly complex, but what it does nail is the world's view of male modeling and how the men who inhabit said world don't have a brain in their head. And what the screenplay for this film addresses so beautifully is the fact that whether or not these guys are idiots, they will never know because no one ever tells them. You can't help but laugh at the stupid things Derek says and does and how no one ever seems to correct him. Derek's world is so self-involved that he spends all his time working on different "looks" for the camera, giving each look its own name, totally unaware that all the looks are the same. The idea that a male model is the perfect pawn for political assassination is a bit much, but by the time we realize what's going on, we roll with it because we like Derek, silly and self-absorbed as he might be.
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Considering all the hats he was wearing here, Stiller manages a funny and engaging performance in the title role, that I think he worked from the perfect vocal inflection he chose for the character...just this side of gay but just enough masculinity to accept as just arrogant and empty-headed. Owen Wilson is a perfect comic foil as Hansel and the "walk-off" between the two models, which features some really sharp editing, is definitely one of the film's highlights, as is Ferrell's scene-stealing comic villain. Stiller's wife, Christine Taylor is an acceptable leading lady, not surprisingly working quite well with her husband. The film also features dozens of cameo appearances including Sandra Bernhard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Billy Zane, Vince Vaughn, David Bowie, Fabio, Garry Shandling, James Marsden, Natalie Portman, Wynona Ryder, and Stiller's parents, Jerry Stiller and the late Anne Meara. The story is a little overblown, but the movie works for the most part and provides solid laughs most of the way. A sequel was released earlier this year.3.5

Gideon58

12-17-16, 04:12 PM

WALT BEFORE MICKEY
The art of making a proper biopic continues to be one of Hollywood's greatest enigmas. The subject of the film must be worthy of the project and pique the curiosity of the movie audiences. The powers behind the film then have to decide how to fashion the facts into entertainment, entertainment that will sustain interest without challenging the viewer's attention span. The recent trend has been to concentrate on a certain period in the subject's life and make the film about that specific period, but sometimes the filmmakers chose the wrong period to base a story on and herein lies the problem with the 2015 look at the early life and career of Walt Disney called Walt Before Mickey, a snore-inducing look at a show business icon that tells the wrong story and doesn't do it in a terribly interesting manner.
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The 2013 film Saving Mr. Banks documented that Walt Disney is a worthy subject for a biopic even though that film was more about PL Travers than it was about Disney, so a film focused on the man himself would, on the surface, be a no-brainer, but this overly-detailed and cliched look at the very beginning of Disney's career as an animator is just not the story to provide viable entertainment for an audience whose prime demographic is barely acquainted with Disney Pixar, could hardly be expected to be interested in what goes on here. Dragged down by a corny and predictable narration, we are introduced to Walt as a daydreaming child who developed an early interest in drawing that developed into a passion for the art of animation.
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We are then treated to an agonizing look at a man who had a passion for what he loved, but knew nothing about running a business or keeping an eye on the bottom line. It is not until Walt turns to his older brother, Roy, to keep an eye on the business end of things, allowing Walt to concentrate on the creative end that things start to turn around but even then, reality once again rears its ugly head for Walt when he makes a deal with a distributor to market his work that relieves Walt of ownership of his work, something that Walt could not abide...not being his own boss.
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The film does provide an up close look at a man who had a passion for what he did, even though he was not aware of all it involved and the film allows us to watch Walt sink pretty low...there is a point in the film where Walt is observed eating out of garbage cans which leads to some foreshadowing that never is really capitalized on...his friendship with a mouse that he keeps in his shirt pocket.
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The story does introduce us to some other future innovators in the world of animation, including Hugh Harman, creator of the Red Ryder comic, and Friz Freleng, the inspiration behind some of Warner Brothers' greatest animated characters, who started working for Walt but could not handle his lack of business expertise. What I expected with a Walt Disney biopic, was a look at Disney's career where this film ended, which made for a very long and dull film.
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Thomas Ian Nicholas is sincere as Disney and Jon Heder is fine as Roy and co-screenwriter Armando Gutierrez isn't blown off the screen as Ub Iwerks. Khola Le's sluggish direction is aided somewhat by some first rate production values, but the whole thing just failed to sustain interest due to a story that I didn't really care about. 1.5

Citizen Rules

12-17-16, 04:30 PM

Sounds like you disliked Walt Before Mickey even more than I did. It really showed that the first time director needed a bit more practice before he took on a film like this one.

Gideon58

12-17-16, 04:40 PM

Sounds like you disliked Walt Before Mickey even more than I did. It really showed that the first time director needed a bit more practice before he took on a film like this one.

Yeah, this one was a real snooze.

Citizen Rules

12-17-16, 04:46 PM

There's a third Walt Disney bio-pic called As Dreamers Do (2014) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3402880/)
I've never seen it and it doesn't sound promising with a low 3.5 IMDB rating.

Gideon58

12-17-16, 06:04 PM

MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT
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Another challenging screenplay from Woody Allen that tackles several prickly subjects, including the validity of prayer and existence of God, is just part of a lavish 2014 comedy called Magic in the Moonlight that disguises a degree of pretension with some expensive production values, stunning attention to period detail, and some on-target performances.
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It's the Roaring 20's where we are introduced to a famous magician named Stanley, played by Colin Firth, who also loves to expose phony spiritualists. He is tapped by a fellow magician named Howard (Simon McBurney) to expose a phony psychic named Sophie Baker (Emma Stone), who is in the process of bilking the wealthy Catledge family out of millions, through her manipulation of the matriarch Grace Catledge (Jacki Weaver) and heir apparent Brice (Hamish Linklater) who thinks he's in love with Sophie. Stanley's plan to expose Sophie for the phony that she is gets sticky when he actually finds himself falling for the woman himself.
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The Woodmeister offers another smart story that's not afraid to take a stand on several different issues, but unlike most of Allen's work, doesn't provide a lot of surprises, which doesn't make the story any less entertaining. What I loved is that the validity of Sophie's powers is made apparent early on during a telling scene with Grace and Sophie's mother (Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden), so who Sophie is becomes a non-issue pretty quickly, the fun here, like in the classic musical The Music Man, is will Stanley expose Sophie before he falls for her the way Marian the Librarian falls for Harold Hill before she plans to expose him.
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Allen has poured a lot of money into this film, utilizing gorgeous location photography, exquisite settings and costumes, and, as always, Woody's flawless ear for music is once again utilized to maximum effect. Woody has pulled top-notch performances from his cast as well. Colin Firth beautifully underplays as Stanley, a perfect counterpart to Stone's bouncy effervescence as Sophie. There are also a pair of superb supporting performances from Weaver as Grace and Eileen Atkins as Stanley's aunt and moral barometer. Once again, Woody Allen has taken his usual loopy characters and set them in a more glamorous setting, but it doesn't deter from the loopy at all. 3.5

Gideon58

12-18-16, 05:45 PM

TYLER PERRY'S I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF
Tyler Perry's heavy-handed direction and his self-indulgent screenplay filled with stereotyped characters make the 2009 adaptation of his own play, I Can Do Bad All By Myself pretty heavy going, despite a solid performance from the leading lady.
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The film opens with Tyler's annoying alter ego Madea and her husband, Joe (also Perry) beating on a trio of children who have broken into their home. The children lead Madea to April (Taraji P. Henson), the children's aunt, a boozy free spirit who works at a 2nd rate nightclub and is involved with an insensitive creep (Brian White) who April thinks she loves because he helps pay her bills. It is revealed that the children are stealing because their grandmother, April's mother, is MIA and that their mother, April's sister, died from a drug overdose. April's admitted selfishness and inability at motherhood are put to the test while a sexy and classy handyman (Adam Rodriguez) quietly shows her what a relationship with a real man is like.
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As always, despite a story that has nothing to do with Madea, Perry's screenplay finds a way to connect the rest of this story to his tired-with-nothing-new-to-bring-to-the-table character Madea and having her pop up throughout the story, taking a potentially compelling story out of the realm of reality that has been established and bringing us back to the nonsense of Madea World, where the only purpose of children seems to be threatening them with physical violence, a staple of the Madea character that has grown quite tiresome over a series of movies. Madea's take on the Bible is supposed to be funny, but just makes the character look even more stupid, if that's possible. This story could have been effectively mounted without the appearances of Madea and Joe at all, which is just the tip of the iceberg of the things that are wrong with this movie.
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Perry's screenplay is rich with stereotyped characters that are so predictable that you can practically recite their dialogue along with him...White's jerk who thinks he's the man because he pays the bills as well as April's niece, Jennifer (Hope Olaide Wilson), a character who should evoke sympathy, but she is so focused on taking care of her brothers that she is inappropriately nasty to April, Madea, and anyone else in the story that tries to help her. Not to mention the addition of meaningless characters on the canvas that are conveniently cast with some of Tyler Perry's music idols (Gladys Knight, Mary J. Blige, Marvin Winans), offering the chance to pad the screen time with superfluous musical numbers, that despite their being well-performed, just bring the film to a dead halt. And why cast an intelligent and sexy ethnic actor like Adam Rodriguez and dumb down his character by having him employ a thick Puerto Rican accent?
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What the film does have going for it is a real movie star turn by Taraji P. Henson as April, a reluctant surrogate mother who finds her selfish existence put on hold by the appearance of three kids whose blood denies her first instinct...ignoring them. White is an eye-opener, cast against type and Wilson works hard at keeping Jennifer likable, but the film is ultimately unrewarding due to the self-indulgence of this overrated writer and director. 2

Sexy Celebrity

12-18-16, 06:52 PM

As always, despite a story that has nothing to do with Madea, Perry's screenplay finds a way to connect the rest of this story to his tired-with-nothing-new-to-bring-to-the-table character Madea and having her pop up throughout the story, taking a potentially compelling story out of the realm of reality that has been established and bringing us back to the nonsense of Madea World, where the only purpose of children seems to be threatening them with physical violence, a staple of the Madea character that has grown quite tiresome over a series of movies.

Yep. Tyler Perry has a net worth of $400 million dollars for doing this. Tell me again why we should just ignore this and focus all of our anger on Donald Trump?

Funny how Madea wants to kill all the children, but she'll stop the world for any miserable, pathetic black woman with man troubles. She's in the wrong movie franchise. She needs to be in Nightmare on Elm Street.

Gideon58

12-19-16, 06:15 PM

FRED CLAUS
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For those old enough to remember, there was a folk singing duo back in the 1960's called The Smother Brothers, who actually had their own controversial variety series on CBS. One of the standing bits between older brother Tom and younger brother Dick was Tom always reminding Dick that "Mom always liked you best." The Smothers Brothers kept flashing through my mind while watching a lavish 2007 comedy called Fred Claus, which addresses sibling rivalry as well as challenging aspects of the Santa Claus legend in an amusing and believable fashion.
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The film opens with the birth of Nick, who it is revealed is the largest baby ever and we then learn that Nick has an older brother named Fred who finds himself competing for the love of his mother (Kathy Bates), but cannot compete with Nick whose generous spirit helps to turn him into Santa Claus. The film then flashes forward to present day Chicago where Fred (Vince Vaughn) is desperate to start his own OTB business and escape from constant reminders of Christmas and his more famous brother. Fred gets in some trouble and contacts younger brother, Santa AKA St. Nick (Paul Giamatti) to borrow $50,000 which Nick agrees to on the condition that Fred come to the North Pole and help with the Christmas operation. The story is further complicated by the arrival at the North Pole of an efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) who has been sent to the North Pole by "the Board" who are not happy with North Pole operations and are threatening to close down the pole for good.
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This film features a solid screenplay by Dan Fogelman and Jessie Nelson that, despite everything that's going on here, never forgets the central story here...the sibling rivalry between Fred and Nick, which is firmly established in the opening scenes where Fred's resentment of his little brother never changes the love Nick has for Fred, despite Fred's horrible treatment of him. As you can imagine, living in Santa Claus's shadow can be daunting and near the end of the second act, it all comes to head in a showdown between the adult brothers, in the form of a very funny snowball fight.

I also love the way the story takes these brothers' story as well as the aspects of the Santa legend and addresses them in a somewhat realistic manner. There is a brilliant sequence, which I didn't see coming at all, where Fred is observed attending a Siblings Anonymous meeting to deal with his issues, a meeting also attended by Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton, and Stephen Baldwin. When Fred finally has to step up for his brother, the film also cleverly addresses the practicality of entering homes through the chimney and having to consume all the cookies and milk left for Santa in fear of offending the children who left them.
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Vince Vaughn is totally winning in the title role, a character who is drawn in shades of gray but never becomes unlikable and Paul Giamatti makes a perfect Santa Claus. Miranda Richardson scores as Mrs. Claus as does John Michael Higgins as a very insecure elf. Kevin Spacey also effectively underplays a classic mustache-twirling villain. A lot of money went into this film...it's lavishly mounted with superb art direction/set direction. The North Pole is beautifully created here, though I have to wonder that the North Pole would have an establishment that serves alcohol, but it's a tiny quibble that did not keep me from becoming completely enveloped in this smooth and funny holiday journey. 3.5

Gideon58

12-20-16, 07:21 PM

IN THE BEDROOM
Director and screenwriter Todd Field takes us on an ugly, emotionally charged journey in 2001's In the Bedroom, an unapologetic drama about the grieving process and the often twisted justice system that never goes exactly where you expect it to go, but provides an unsettling, yet satisfying conclusion that definitely requires viewer patience.
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Set in a small New England fishing community, Dr. Matt Fowler (Tom Wilkenson) and his wife, Ruth (Sissy Spacek) are not exactly on the same page regarding their son, Frank (Nick Stahl). Home from his freshman year in college, Frank has found himself involved in a sexual relationship with an older woman (Marisa Tomei) with two small children who is still legally married to her abusive and violent husband (William Mapother). Matt seems to have decided to let his son live his own life, but Ruth is quietly doing everything she can to get Frank to end this relationship, which has trouble written all over it. The trouble finally comes in a terrible tragedy which puts the Fowlers and the viewer through an unusual grieving process.
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Field has really struck gold here because this story of the grief process, as well as the justice system, doesn't go where we expect it to, skipping over parts of the process that we are normally privy to in such a story and builds an effective tension as we watch a wall go up between the Fowlers because neither of them have found a proper outlet for their grief. We never see Ruth's reaction to the news of what happened to her son, but we do see her trying to move on and how futile it is and it becomes clear that something's got to give with the Fowlers, who are becoming a shell of what they used to be. It is near the end of the second act, that two separate and personal encounters Ruth has that finally motivate Ruth to express the anger she has been suppressing and Matt to take the action he has been considering ever since learning that the man responsible for his son's death might only be charged with manslaughter.
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This movie builds unbearable tension because we know that the Fowlers have not expressed their grief and won't find peace until they do. Field makes us wait for this expression and the wait is worth it, resulting in a powerful family drama that received five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture of the Year. Sissy Spacek's Ruth won her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination and Tom Wilkenson's powerhouse turn as Matt earned him a nomination as well. Marisa Tomei also was nominated for a surprisingly complex performance as the woman at the center of this storm. Field's direction and some striking editing by Frank Reynolds also deserve mention as the final touches in this unusual and uncomfortable film experience. 4

Gideon58

12-21-16, 09:21 PM

SCROOGED
Arguably the most famous and most filmed Christmas story in cinema, gets a big budget, contemporary re-thinking with 1988's Scrooged, a lavish spectacle that totally works thanks to the imaginative direction, flawless production values, and the comic genius that is Bill Murray.
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In this dual-layered rendering of the Charles Dickens classic, Murray plays Frank Cross, a selfish and cynical high-powered television executive who is in the process of mounting a live production of SCROOGE on his network starring Buddy Hackett as Scrooge and narrated by John Houseman. The countdown to this production finds Frank under a lot of pressure that results in his unjust firing of a member of his executive team (Bobcat Goldthwait) and using and abusing his faithful administrative assistant (Alfre Woodard). He even finds time to neglect the love of his life (Karen Allen) before he is visited by his former business partner (John Forsythe), who informs him he is about to be visited by three ghosts.
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Director Richard Donner is no stranger to action and spectacle, the man behind 1978's Superman: The Motion Picture and the original Lethal Weapon and he really knocks it out of the park, creating a lavish fairy tale mounted on a modern canvas, utilizing a very clever screenplay by Mitch Grazer and Michael Donoghue that actually gives us two versions of the same story that never actually meet in the world of this story. I was thoroughly amused by the fact that Cross was producing this elaborate version of SCROOGE on his network and never really made the connection between that production and what was happening to him. For some reason, we believe that the connection is never made thanks to the writing and, of course, to a perfect leading man.
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Just as he was with Ghostbusters, Bill Murray was a perfect flippant counterpart to some eye-popping production values that made you believe everything that goes on here. Murray so completely invests in the negative aspects of this character that we don't really care about a lot of the initial rotten that he does and we accept the very slow burn of Cross' acceptance of what he's going through here. I love that after each ghostly encounter, he just brushes it off as drunken hallucinations and does not see the connection to Buddy Hackett and John Houseman at all.
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Donner has populated this story with an impressive all-star cast, in lead and bit roles who all serve the story, with standout work from Woodard, an actress who always brings more to her work than the screenplay gives her, Robert Mitchum as Cross' boss and John Glover, an offbeat casting choice as a work rival of Cross' who appears to be after his job. Allen is a charming leading lady who had a nice chemistry with Murray. Carol Kane was a little hard to take as the Ghost of Christmas Present and I really didn't get all the physical violence between her and Cross. I did love Michael J. Pollard, Anne Ramsey, and Bert Remsen as three homeless people who think Cross is Richard Burton.
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As mentioned, the film has extraordinary production values, with particular nods to film editing, art direction, visual effects, sound editing, and especially makeup. A dazzling holiday spectacle that totally works thanks to Richard Donner and Bill Murray. 4

Gideon58

12-27-16, 07:09 PM

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS
An unusual love story anchored by a couple of genuine movie star performances makes the 2014 drama The Fault in our Stars a stylish and life-affirming cinematic journey worth taking.
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This is the story of Hazel Grace Lancaster, a teenager with a special form of lung cancer that forces her to carry an oxygen tank with her wherever she goes, though she doesn't go to too many places due to a depression she has sunk into that has her pretty much confined to her home reading the same book over and over again. Shoved into a cancer support group by her mother, Hazel catches the eye of Augustus Waters, who lost part of his leg a year before the story begins, to his own form of cancer. Augustus carefully broaches a relationship with Hazel by reading the book of which she is so enamored, which eventually leads to the pair making a trip to Amsterdam to meet the author.
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Neither your average love story nor your average disease of the week movie, screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber have constructed a story that is a little self-indulgent and has the occasional slow spot, but offers some pointed observations about living with a terminal disease, some of which that aren't usually dressed in a story of this ilk, primarily that the person suffering from said disease can get pretty much anything they want from their caregivers and they are keenly aware of this, even if they don't always take advantage of it. As we all know, the process of death is allegedly divided into five parts: anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Our protagonists are definitely in different stages of this process. Hazel is still experiencing anger but is primarily in the depression stage while Augustus appears to be in acceptance of what is happening to him.
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The different places where these two young people are is made clear from jump: Hazel wants to talk about what she's going through and Augustus wants to talk about anything but...it was refreshing that even from the first second he lays eyes on Hazel, Augustus doesn't see the oxygen tank or the tubing she must always wear in order to breathe. I love that even though Augustus is smitten from the beginning, he doesn't work too hard at getting this girl to lighten up but is unable to conceal his true feelings at the same time.
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Don't get it twisted though...as obvious as the direction of this story travels, there are a couple of uncomfortable and unexpected detours that we don't see coming, especially Hazel's long-awaited face to face meeting with her literary idol, that provided an added layer of tension to this already complex story.
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As mentioned, there are a couple slow spots, but director Josh Boone holds our attention through the performances of the leads. Shailene Woodley, so memorable as George Clooney's daughter in The Descendents is luminous as Hazel, a character who is an uncanny blend of china doll fragility and lion-like ferociousness. Ansel Elgort is equally charismatic as Augustus and mention should also be made of Laura Dern, who plays Hazel's mother. Dern is becoming one of those actresses who I'm beginning to think is incapable of giving a bad performance. Which reminds me, I also found it refreshing that Hazel and Augustus' parents were completely behind their relationship, which I guess should have been expected, because these parents wanted whatever their children wanted. And let's not forget a showy turn from Willem Dafoe as the author of Hazel's favorite book. A lovely film experience that offers hope and grins. 3.5

Gideon58

12-28-16, 07:20 PM

REGARDING HENRY
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Harrison Ford has put together an impressive resume since the mid 1970's. appearing in several of the biggest box office hits of all time, but I have to confess that my favorite Harrison Ford performance is in a nearly forgotten gem from 1991 called Regarding Henry, a moving drama of hope and second chances that Ford makes worth watching, despite some really ugly detours in the screenplay.

Ford plays Henry Turner, a brilliant workaholic attorney who has it all: a prestigious position in a Manhattan firm, a beautiful wife and daughter, and lives in a gorgeous penthouse that he never sees. Henry's life is changed forever when he leaves the penthouse one night to buy a pack cigarettes. He walks into a corner store in the process of being robbed and, when he refuses to give up his wallet, gets shot in the head.
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Henry miraculously survives the shooting, but the bullet penetrated a particular part of his brain that pretty much controlled most of his basic functions. When Henry finally wakes up, he is unable to speak or walk and can remember nothing about his life before the shooting, including wife Sarah and daughter Rachel. Henry is transferred to a rehabilitation center where he begins to get back his abilities to function as a human and it is decided that it is time for him to return home. This is where things start to get really complicated for Henry and the movie begins to go off course.
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The late Mike Nichols, who guided Ford's performance as Jack Trainer in Working Girl three years earlier, is again in the director's chair here and proves that he was one of the best actors' directors ever and definitely draws a performance of depth and sensitivity out of him here, unlike anything we had seen from Ford prior to this. The scenes of Henry's rehab process are meticulously directed, carefully documenting each landmark in his recovery process: the first time he walks and talks, thanks primarily to a terrific physical therapist, but we feel for Henry when he is terrified at the thought of leaving the rehab center and going home with a wife and daughter he doesn't remember. But what makes Henry's process so fascinating is the unpredictability of the return of certain memories...I love that the first thing he remembers about the penthouse is the gray carpeting and that memory gives him the courage to go home.
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Unfortunately, even though Henry is aware of it, most of the people in his life are not aware that he is not the person he was before the shooting and that he never will be again and, because of this, Henry is thrust into a lot of squirm-worthy situations that he is just not ready for, especially returning to his position at the law firm, which we instantly see is a mistake, though a contrived plot twist revolving around a case he won before the shooting is supposed to legitimize this, but it really doesn't.

Despite the troubling final third of this movie, Harrison Ford, under the skillful direction of Mike Nichols, makes this film a very smooth experience that produced grins and had me fighting tears as well. Annette Bening impresses in one of her earliest performances as Henry's devoted wife, Sarah and the late Bill Nunn does a star-making turn as Henry's physical therapist. Mikki Allen is also a revelation as Henry's daughter, Rachel...the scene where she teaches him to read and their scene in the library are a joy. The story takes some very bumpy detours, but Ford and Nichols deliver the goods. 3.5

Gideon58

12-29-16, 06:30 PM

ANYTHING GOES (1956)
Paramount Studios decided to go the MGM route with a splashy musical confection called Anything Goes, an original story that borrows parts of the score from another musical in order to frame a new story with an engaging cast.
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This movie has nothing to do with the 1936 musical that starred Ethel Merman as Reno Sweeney, though this film does borrow her leading man from that film. Bing Crosby stars in this musical as Bill Benson, a veteran musical comedy performer who has been pegged to star in a new musical with a young and energetic television star named Ted Adams (Donald O'Connor). After the expected old/young generation tension evaporates, Bill and Ted decide to vacation in Europe for the eight weeks before they are scheduled to begin rehearsals for their new show, even though a leading lady has not been signed yet. Bill jets to London, where he meets a talented performer named Patsy Blair (Mitzi Gaynor) who is working in London because her father's gambling debts have made it impossible for her to return to the states. Dazzled by Bill, she agrees to return to the states to do the show. Meanwhile, Ted goes to Paris and is enchanted by a prima ballerina named Gaby Duval (ZiZi Jeanmaire) and immediately signs her to be the leading lady in the new show.

Bill, Patsy, Ted, and Gaby all return to the states on an oceanliner and initial misunderstanding between Bill and Ted gets even stickier when Bill begins falling in love with Gaby and Ted fights feelings he's developing for Patsy.
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This is the kind of musical that MGM used to make in their sleep during the 1950's and I actually had to check the opening credits twice to make sure this was not an MGM film because this film has the gloss that you would associate with some of MGM's strongest productions...this one rates up there with stuff like Easter Parade, Summer Stock, and On the Town, though, despite the presence of Donald O'Connor, it's no Singin in the Rain either.

It's a little odd that they chose to use several Cole Porter songs from his classic stage musical and re-think them for this musical, along with a couple of original songs by Jimmy Van Husen, including an oddity called "With an old fashioned turban and a crystal ball", but the musical numbers work for the most part.
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Crosby is fine, though it's hard to distinguish this performance from any of a dozen other performances he gave. Gaynor is a charming and effervescent leading lady, but Jeanmaire is really out of her element here...a marvelous dancer, but a dreadful actress who was painful to watch when she wasn't dancing. If the character had to be French, why didn't they cast Leslie Caron? She would have been perfect in this role. But what this film really has going for it is a real old fashion movie star turn from Donald O'Connor as Ted. O'Connor first worked with Crosby in the 1938 film Sing You Sinners, when O'Connor was still a child, but he's all grown up here and proves that he had the chops to handle the leading man status that alluded him for most of his career. He was suave. sophisticated, and, as always, very funny and reason enough to watch this movie.
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Musical highlights, featuring energetic and imaginative choreography by Nick Castle, include the title tune, a huge production number featuring Gaynor, Gaynor and O'Connor's classy pas de deux to "De-Lovely", the four-way duet of "You're the Top" performed by the 4 stars in side by side staterooms, and Crosby and O'Connor's opening number "You Gotta Give the People Hoke." Jeanmaire does headline an elaborate dream ballet choreographed by her husband, Roland Petit, but it really has nothing to do with the story at hand and just slows the movie down, but for the most part, a smooth musical outing that holds up well after almost 70 years. 3

Gideon58

12-29-16, 09:47 PM

MOTHER
The recent passing of Debbie Reynolds prompted a re-watch of the 1996 comedy Mother, a surprisingly warm and funny story directed, co-written by and starring Albert Brooks that has a much more caustic and edgy screenplay than I remember and even though the reference raises eyebrows well into the film, this movie is actually, more than anything, a love story.
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Brooks plays John Henderson, a blocked writer fresh into his second divorce, who thinks his career and female issues have something to do with his troublesome relationship with his mother (Reynolds) and the only way to work out the problems in his current life is to re-explore his past by moving back in with his mother for awhile.
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Referring to it as "the experiment", we watch John turn his old bedroom into the room where he spent his high school years and basically regress back to his teenage years, driving his mother crazy. Mother loves John and wants to do whatever she can do to aid in "the experiment" even though she doesn't fully understand it because, truthfully, John doesn't completely understand it himself. It is further complicated by the fact that it is affecting Mother's relationship with John's little brother, Jeff (Rob Morrow), and Mother's secret boyfriend (Peter White).
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Brooks and co-screenwriter Monica McGowan Johnson have constructed a believable story whose nucleus is a totally believable mother and son relationship, that any grown man who has spent any time as an adult with his mother can relate to. The laughs provided here are grounded in reality, as well as the very real sibling rivalry presented between John and Jeff. The comedy is deceptive because it appears what John is doing here is just an excuse to hide from life and give up on everything, but the pleasant surprise here is that what he wants to do ends up actually working.
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Brooks has mounted a lovely story about a mother and son reconnecting that really is a love story, even though that inference raises eyebrows at one point in the story, but that is what happens here and the story is a pleasure to watch. Brooks and movie icon Reynolds are magical together and Rob Morrow is solid as the insecure Jeff. Love this movie and I miss you, Debbie. 3.5

Gideon58

12-30-16, 06:01 PM

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
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Popularity, peer pressure, romance, and all other facets of a movie genre that came to fruition as the teen angst film during the 1980's get a New Millenium coat of paint in a quirky and offbeat comedy drama from 2012 called The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which establishes its credentials by making the character that Molly Ringwald had a patent on in the 80's a guy.
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Writer and director Stephen Chbosky has crafted what I suspect is an autobiographical tale of a high school freshman named Charlie, who we meet on his first day of high school, terrified for a lot more reasons than we initially suspect, who does eventually find himself part of a very special inner circle of upper classmen, who are sympathetic upon reveal of some of Charlie's backstory, but eventually, realistic and painful peer pressure does irreparable damage to this circle, including Charlie having to walk away from Sam, an effervescent senior whom Charlie is falling for, while helping Sam's stepbrother, Patrick, who is openly gay and struggling with an affair with a closeted football player.
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Chbosky hits a bulls eye here with a story of teen angst that doesn't play all its cards in the opening twenty minutes. Charlie's initial terror at beginning high school has its roots in something that is not revealed right away and patience is required and rewarded, revealing a multi-layered tale of teen angst that definitely takes stories like Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink to another level. Chbosky's screenplay is rich and sophisticated, almost a little too sophisticated for the characters involved, but never too sophisticated for the viewer, who understand a lot of the feelings on display and also understand when we're not being told everything.
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There is also a refreshing circle of characters introduced here...it was nice to see a character like Patrick, an out and proud gay teen who makes no bones about his sexuality but we accept when we learn he is the midst of an affair with some one who is still in the closet, which makes it a little easier to accept Patrick because we know he's in for some pain he might not deserve. We love Charlie's initial acceptance into this inner circle, even if he has to eat marijuana brownies to achieve it, and we naturally wonder if it will last when the brownies are gone and the seniors graduate.
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Chbosky nails the contemporary teen angst drama here and gets help from a first rate production team, with a special nod to his cinematography and film editing teams. Logan Lerman lights up the screen as young Charlie, the tortured teen at the center of this drama and Emma Waston buries the English accent she utilized in the Harry Potter franchise, but the real movie star performance here comes from Ezra Miller as the charismatic and funny Patrick. Mention should also be made of Paul Rudd as Charlie's favorite teacher and Dylan McDermott and Kate Walsh as his parents. The story is fresh and doesn't always go where it's expected and Chbosky has cast his film with actors that fit the characters, abandoning the temptation to have us star-gazing, allowing his compelling and original story to take center stage. 4

Gideon58

12-31-16, 06:09 PM

SUNSET BOULEVARD
Billy Wilder hit a direct bullseye as the director and co-screenwriter of 1950's Sunset Boulevard, an atmospheric drama that is an effective look at the destruction left in the wake of an old Hollywood when a new Hollywood took over, more specifically, a Hollywood that learned how to talk.
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This is the story of a down on his luck screenwriter named Joe Gillis who finds himself the accidental guest of a faded silent film queen named Norma Desmond, who lives in a decaying Hollywood mansion with her faithful manservant, Max and a pet monkey, whose funeral is interrupted by Joe's arrival. Joe is unnerved by this star, teetering on the edge of sanity, who has not accepted the end of her career just because of the arrival of sound ("We didn't need dialogue...we had faces then!"). Norma reveals to Joe that she has written her next film (she hates the word comeback), the story of Salome and offers to move Joe into her mansion and pay him to shape the thousands of pages she has scribbled into a viable screenplay. Meanwhile, a young studio script reader named Betty Schaefer has seen some of Joe's work and wants to write a screenplay with him and it is Joe's attempts to live as part of old Hollywood and new Hollywood that is the nucleus of this drama that became an instant film classic.
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Gloria Swanson returned to feature films for the first time in nine years to play Norma Desmond, a larger than life character, trapped in a past she doesn't know she's trapped in, trying to survive in the present by pretending it doesn't exist. From the moment we meet Norma, it is clear that this woman has not left this mansion in years for any kind of socialization...it's sad watching her on "movie night" where Max puts on one of her old movies and doesn't even notice that Joe is not as mesmerized by her old movies as she is, her only real form of entertainment, outside of a semi-regular game of bridge with Anna Q. Nilsson, Buster Keaton, and H B Warner, whom Joe refers to as "The Waxworks". This performance earned Swanson a Best Actress nomination.
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William Holden's rich performance in the complex role of Joe Gillis is the fuel that pumps this story and is endlessly entertaining, earning him a Best Actor nomination and Erich Von Stroheim is just heartbreaking as Norma's beloved Max, the adoring fan/servant who shields his lady from all that is evil in Hollywood, a performance so quietly effective he earned a supporting actor nomination as well. Wilder's screenplay with Charles Brackett and D M Marshman is extremely smart and actually did win an Oscar. Wilder also received a nomination for his direction, as did Franz Waxman for his gorgeous music. Nancy Olson also charms as Betty Schaefer. A one-of-a-kind look at Hollywood with an ending that is a heartbreaker. Later turned into a stage musical. 4.5

Citizen Rules

12-31-16, 07:00 PM

Excellent movie! I enjoyed your review of it. Did you know that original:

Montgomery Clift quit the production because he was, like the character of Joe, having an affair with a wealthy middle-aged former actress, Libby Holman, and he was scared the press would start prying into his background.

Gideon58

01-03-17, 11:09 AM

Excellent movie! I enjoyed your review of it. Did you know that original:

Montgomery Clift would have been fantastic in this movie, but if he had done it, he might not have been available for A Place in the Sun...it's one of those fates of cinema history created from odd circumstances...like Julie Andrews not getting the role of Eliza Dolittle in the film version of My Fair Lady...if she had done it, she would not have been able to do Mary Poppins and I'm not sure I would like to live in a world without Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins.

Gideon58

01-03-17, 11:42 AM

Excellent movie! I enjoyed your review of it. Did you know that original:

I've heard of Libby Holman but can't think of a single movie she was in...I'm checking her IMDB page now...OK, I just checked her IMDB page and she only has two film credits listed...one was in 1931 and one was 1947 and I have never heard of either film. Guess I'm confusing her with someone else.

Citizen Rules

01-03-17, 02:03 PM

Montgomery Clift would have been fantastic in this movie, but if he had done it, he might not have been available for A Place in the Sun...it's one of those fates of cinema history created from odd circumstances...like Julie Andrews not getting the role of Eliza Dolittle in the film version of My Fair Lady...if she had done it, she would not have been able to do Mary Poppins and I'm not sure I would like to live in a world without Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins. That's an excellent point! I'm very glad Julie Andrews did Mary Poppins and Monty Clift did A Place in the Sun

Gideon58

01-04-17, 08:33 PM

CAFE SOCIETY
Woody Allen scores a direct bullseye with 2016's Cafe Society, an expensively mounted, multi-layered, story of romance and mob violence that tells interlacing stories that really shouldn't interlace and makes a couple of squirm-worthy detours, including some on target jabs at the place Woody hates more than anywhere in the world...Hollywood.
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The film introduces us to Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg), a wide-eyed Jewish youth bored working in his father's jewelry store who moves to Hollywood to work for his Uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a high-powered Hollywood agent. He becomes involved in a romantic triangle with Phil's assistant, who is having an affair with a married man. When that romance goes south, Bobby moves back to New York and begins working at a nightclub run by his brother, Ben, who is a gangster, even though his family is in denial about it, but aren't above using it to their advantage when need be.
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The Woodmeister has once again sucked me in with a story rich with characters who are not what they appear on the surface and there were one or two points in this story where my jaw literally dropped, as I didn't see a lot of the detours that this movie takes coming at all. I have to admit to initially being thrown when the movie didn't end when the Hollywood triangle ended, but when Bobby returns to New York, we do see a growth in this character who learned a painful lesson in Hollywood and learned that its glamour doesn't cover up a lot of the same lousy human behavior he left in New York. And just when we see Bobby settling into a new life, including a new romance, his Hollywood past catches up to him and the story veers off into another ugly direction that we don't expect, but it was classic Woody Allen.
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As it should be, Woody's intricate screenplay is the star here and Woody the director serves it well, peppering the story with something we're unaccustomed to seeing in Woody's work...some in your face violence that must be expected with any story rich with mob sensibility as this one is, made more alluring by the fact that the story takes place in the 1930's, when being a gangster was totally cool.

Woody once again has a hand-picked cast that is pretty much perfection...Eisenberg lights up the screen as young Bobby and makes the complicated transitions this character makes completely believable and Carell manages to infuse some likability into what is on the surface a totally hissable character. Though I haven't seen a lot of her work, Kristen Stewart also impressed as the apex of the Hollywood triangle and I LOVED Corey Stoll (so memorable as Ernest Hemingway in Allen's Midnight in Paris) as Bobby's brother Ben.
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As per usual, Woody has employed exquisite production values to his story, including authentic recreations of 1930's Manhattan and Hollywood, with stunning cinematography and costumes. This is a cinematic journey that doesn't go anywhere you think it's going to go but the pursuit of the mystery is such a pleasure. 4

Citizen Rules

01-04-17, 10:31 PM

We're worlds apart on Cafe Society...which is OK, I respect your opinion as a movie reviewer. I did like the period piece sets, the scenes in Hollywood and Blake Lively.

Gideon58

01-05-17, 05:33 PM

We're worlds apart on Cafe Society...which is OK, I respect your opinion as a movie reviewer. I did like the period piece sets, the scenes in Hollywood and Blake Lively.

I thought Blake Lively's performance was the weakest in the movie. Different strokes.

Gideon58

01-05-17, 05:59 PM

EDDIE THE EAGLE
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Eddie the Eagle is the emotionally manipulative 2016 biopic/sports drama "inspired" by the life and career of British Olympic ski jumper Michael "Eddie" Edwards,who eventually went to the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. It's not big on originality or imagination, employing every single cliche you've ever seen in a sports biopic and I had trouble believing that a lot of what happened here really happened, but in terms of pure entertainment, this movie worked.

We are introduced to Eddie as a handicapped, bespectacled, simple-minded sweet soul whose life long passion is to go the Olympics, but in a refreshing change of pace for movies of this kind, Eddie hasn't decided what sport he is interested in yet. I found it a little hard to swallow that one glance at a practice ramp clinched the decision for him, but I went with it and found a story that includes the expected peaks and valleys in such a story. We see his parents split on their support of their son's passion, as well as Eddie learning that Great Britain hasn't had a ski jumping team since 1929, accidentally finding the proper coach in an alcoholic former jumper named Bronson Peary and various forms of corporate red tape and technicalities keeping him off the Olympic slopes and even when he makes it, he still has to face discouragement from people who should be inspiring hhim, including some of his own teammates.
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Director Dexter Fletcher and screenwriters Sean Macauley and Simon Kelton have constructed an entertaining, if hard to believe story that was probably embellished for entertainment value because the story of Eddie is presented strictly in terms of getting the audience behind this central character, making us fall in love with him and the only way to do that was to make this story irresistibly manipulative. I love the way the film opens with pre-teen Eddie trying out various sports and failing miserably at all of them before he decides what he wants to do, despite his father's declaration that he will never be an athlete, words that haunt our hero throughout. The character is presented as a bit of a paradox because he is directed and acted as if the character might have some mental health issues (quick research revealed some time spent in a mental hospital, but he had no real mental heath issues), yet the character is written as being extremely smart and passionate and knowing what he wants...the scenes of him coercing Peary into being his coach reveal a man who knows exactly what he's doing and exactly what he wants. The character does seem to be socially inept and a bit of a social hermit...he doesn't drink, a point driven home for a reason and is a virgin, a point also revealed for a reason, but this guy is no dummy.
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As stated, this film is predictable and manipulative and you pretty much know what's going to happen if you watched the 1988 Winter Olympics, but what really makes this movie so much fun is the charismatic, star-making performance by Taron Egerton in the title role and the real movie star turn by Hugh Jackman as Bronson Peary. The onscreen relationship recalled Stallone and Burgess Meredith in Rocky and Hillary Swank and Clint Eastwood in Million Dollar Baby. Keith Allen and Jo Hartley are terrific as Eddie's parents and there are a pair of classy supporting bits from Oscar winners Christopher Walken and Jim Broadbent. Exquisite cinematography and a heart-pumping music score cap off this highly manipulative sports story that probably was more interesting than Eddie's real story, but the manipulation works. 3.5

Citizen Rules

01-05-17, 06:22 PM

Excellent review on Eddie the Eagle. Totally agree on all the points you made.

Gideon58

01-05-17, 06:43 PM

Excellent review on Eddie the Eagle. Totally agree on all the points you made.

Thank you Citizen and thanks for recommending it, I enjoyed it.

Citizen Rules

01-05-17, 07:44 PM

Wasn't that camera shot from on top of the looooong ski ramp, scary looking! Wow, I can't even image doing ski jumping:eek:

Gideon58

01-05-17, 09:36 PM

Wasn't that camera shot from on top of the looooong ski ramp, scary looking! Wow, I can't even image doing ski jumping:eek:

I know, I was never really into the Winter Olympics, but this is one sport that when you watch it, it looks so much easier than it is really is and this movie really brought that home for me.

Gideon58

01-05-17, 10:01 PM

THE CHUMSCRUBBER
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The suicide of a teenage drug dealer is the springboard for a bizarre black comedy/suburban soap opera called The Chumscrubber, a cinematic acid trip that defies logic, turns the stomach, and had me completely riveted for its entire running time.
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The film features multiple storylines with intersecting characters but the primary story revolves around Dean, the best friend of the victim, who discovered the body and walked out of the house without telling anyone. The story also revolves around a botched kidnapping by some kids who want to get hold of the victim's stash, an uptight interior decorator preparing for her wedding to the mayor, who has some "issues". The mother of the victim, who is telling anyone will listen that they are not to blame for her son's death and Dean's parents, a self-absorbed author who wants to put his son on medication and his mother, a woman guilt-ridden because she didn't bring the mother of the victim a casserole.
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Director and screenwriter Arie Posin breaks all the rules for cinematic storytelling in a story that requires attention and is rich with bizarre characters who have no idea that they are bizarre. The film sets up characters who are initially sympathetic but then has them do things that make it hard to sympathize with them. We watch other characters who are being manipulated, cuckolded, and hoodwinked and have no idea what is happening to them. We have parents who have no idea where their children are or what they're doing and children who take full advantage of that. This movie had me squirming, gasping, laughing, fighting tears, but never fighting boredom.
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Posin also scored with an impressive cast of actors who completely commit to this hot mess of a story. Jamie Bell (so memorable in Billy Elliott) makes an intense Dean and Glenn Close effortlessly walks the line between heartbreaking and creepy as the mother of the victim. Also loved William Fichtner and Allison Janney as Dean's parents and I don't think I have ever enjoyed Rita Wilson on screen more as the tightly wound bride to be or Ralph Fiennes as her dotty fiancee. The camerawork and editing is a little dizzying at times, but it actually seems to fuel this bizarre, nonsensical, yet richly entertaining story. Fans of the movie Alpha Dog and of the TV series Desperate Housewives will definitely have a head start here. 3.5

Gideon58

01-06-17, 06:12 PM

THE FAMILY MAN
Charles Dickens and Frank Capra have to be credited as inspiration for 2000's The Family Man, an elaborate and emotionally charged fantasy about life choices, compromise, second chances, and the road less traveled.
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Nicolas Cage plays Jack Campbell, who during the opening scene is at the airport getting ready to board a plane to London for an internship, deserting his girlfriend, Kate (Tea Leoni) who is begging him not to get on the plane, but he does anyway. Flash forward thirteen years and Jack is observed as a high powered Wall Street investment banker keeping his staff at the office on Christmas Eve, primarily because Jack is all about his work and has no reason to go home on Christmas Eve. Kate reaches out to him, but he ignores the call. Finally on the way home, Jack has an encounter with a gun-toting thug (Don Cheadle), who actually turns out to be a guardian angel who offers Jack a glimpse at the life he gave up. Jack goes home and goes to sleep, and when he wakes up, he's in a Jersey suburb, married to Kate for 13 years, with two children and works for his father-in-law, Big Ed (Harve Presnell).
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Screenwriters David Diamond and David Weissman have provided a deft variation on It's a Wonderful Life that unfolds so leisurely that we're a good thirty minutes into the movie before we realize exactly what's going on. The opening scene at the airport makes less and less sense during that thirty minutes and then slaps you in the face with its relevance to the story as it finally comes into focus.
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If caught in the right mood, this film can really wreak havoc with viewer emotions as we watch Jack fight what's going and we really don't want him to because Kate is awesome and his kids are terrific and though he's not a Wall Street investment banker, his life is pretty decent. The story throws us a wrench we don't see coming when Jack's daughter realizes something's wrong with her father and is convinced he's an alien. Daughter Annie slowly becomes a conduit to Jack's acceptance of what is happening to him and then through a bizarre set of circumstances, Jack is given a chance to merge his Wall Street life with this glimpse at what he missed.
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Director Bret Ratner has mounted an expensive and manipulative fantasy that works on all levels. It makes us love the central character and both versions of his life, but is it really fair that this guy gets to have it all? I did love that the story concluded with this being a possibility and I was OK with that. Cage's slightly hammy performance in the starring role endears us to the character and Tea Leoni nails the role of her career as Kate. I've never enjoyed Leoni onscreen more, and that includes Spanglish. Ratner has surrounded his stars with an impressive supporting cast including Saul Rubinak, Josef Sommer, Jeremy Piven, Mary Beth Hurt, and little Mackenzie Vega is a winner as Jack's daughter, Annie. Effective Manhattan photography and a lush music score by Danny Elfman are the finishing touches to this slightly overlong fantasy that cruises a little too leisurely to a satisfactory resolution. 3.5

Gideon58

01-07-17, 05:11 PM

MARNIE
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Alfred Hitchcock was a director who seemed to constantly reinvent himself. Psycho was unlike anything he had done before and became his masterpiece. After The Birds, he was looking for something different and again, shocked his audience with a stylish and sexy psychological thriller from 1964 called Marnie, which has gained a reputation as a cult classic but might deserve a little more respect than that.
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This eye-opener revolves around one Marnie Edgar, a psychologically scarred woman who has become a thief and habitual liar. She has issues with thunderstorms, the color red, and wont let a man touch her. As the story opens, she has just finished stealing $10,000 from a businessman named Strutt and has died her hair, changed her identification, and gotten a job at Rutland and Co., where she works just a few feet away from the safe and plans to do the same thing, but Mark Rutland, the company's heir apparent, is on to her and instead of turning her in, wants to help her and finds himself falling in love with her in the process.

Once again, Hitchcock's skill as a cinematic storyteller trumps the problems with this film. Like he did with Vertigo and Psycho, it was his unique vision as a filmmaker that made this story much richer than it appears on the surface. Hitchcock makes us care about a character who is not very sympathetic by quickly introducing us to her roots without giving away everything that is about revealed. We don't understand why Rutland falls for a woman who tries to rob his company blind, but we also see that Rutland sees that this woman is damaged and wants to help her.
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Jay Presson Allen's screenplay, based on a novel by Winston Graham, doesn't play all its cards right away and it is Hitchcock's service to this story that makes this film worth the viewers time, despite some problematic performances and lapses into melodrama that test the viewer's patience, which is eventually rewarded.
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Anyone who saw the 2013 film Grace of Monaco, knows that Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly to play the lead in this film and went to her with the script even though she had already married Prince Rainer and retired from films. The Princess eventually turned the film down and Hitchcock turned to his leading lady from The Birds, Tippi Hedren, Hitch's # 2 obsession, to take the role. Anyone who has seen The Birds knows that Hedren's acting skills were, to be kind, limited, but she works very hard to be believable in this extremely complex role, aided by a director who adored her. Hitchcock did score with her leading man though...Sean Connery made a sexy and dynamic Mark Rutland and brought much more to this role than the screenplay provided. Martin Gabel is solid as Strutt and Diane Baker is lovely as Mark's sister Lil. Alan Napier, who would earn his 15 minutes playing Alfred on the ABC series BATMAN, plays Mark's dad and there are brief glimpses of future stars Bruce Dern and Mariette Hartley. It's no Psycho or even To Catch a Thief, but the Masters hand is all over this one and Hitch delivers. 3.5

Gideon58

01-08-17, 04:36 PM

DEADPOOL
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From the one-of-a-kind opening credits, we know we are in for something very special with the 2016 action/adventure Deadpool, a logic-defying, endlessly imaginative, undeniably stylish, and fall-on-the-floor-funny, cinematic acid-trip which floors us when the hero describes the film as a love story, but you know what? That's exactly what it is...it's a love story that breaks every single rule of movie making there is and as a viewer, all you want to do is offer endless praise and thanks.
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Wade Wilson is a smart-ass former mercenary and Special Forces operative who has fallen hopelessly in love with a hooker named Vanessa when he learns he has contracted cancer. He is approached by a stranger who offers not only to cure his cancer, but to turn him into a superhero. Not wanting Vanessa to see him die, Wade reluctantly accepts the offer and is greeted by the slick and evil Francis, who now calls himself Ajax, who puts our hero through a series of agonizing and torturous treatments that leave the man horribly disfigured in addition to the promised superpowers and we are blessed with the opportunity to watch this smart and funny superhero hunt down the man who disfigured him in order to get his looks back so that he can return to the woman he loves.
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Director Tim Miller has a major triumph here, a superhero movie that breaks all the rules and spends a good deal of screentime breaking the 4th wall, thanks to the imaginative and beyond clever screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick that has no qualms about reminding us that we are watching a movie. I cannot recall the last time a I saw a movie that breaks the 4th wall and actually refers to it onscreen ("A broken 4th wall of another 4th wall...that's like sixteen walls."). The main character even actually references the actor playing him...absolute insanity! Nothing is sacred here...I also can't recall the last movie where are I saw so many movie characters impaled with steel and/or iron bars and just pull the bars out of their bodies and go on about their business. Yes, the film is rich with "Aw, come on seriously?" moments, but we've been warned from the opening credits that this is just a movie so it's OK.
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Reese and Wernick have created a central character who, no matter what he's going through, never forgets his sense of humor and never forgets that he's a human being. There are a couple of great relationships with minor characters that are established but never forgotten. I love the cab driver who is given romantic advice by Wade near the beginning of the film and we learn during the beginning of the final act that the guy has his romantic rival in the trunk of his cab...genius.
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Ryan Reynolds proves he still has what it takes to command a movie screen (no matter what Wade says) and Ed Skrein is a perfect combination of sexy and menacing as Ajax. Morena Baccarin was a refreshing leading lady and I loved Wade's two comrades, a politically correct cyborg named Colassus (voiced by Stefan Kapicic) and a teenage human torch called Negasonic Teenage Warhead, played by Brianna Hildreband. Needless to say, Miller's technical team is on the money here, with special nods to film editing, sound editing, and there is some slow motion camera work that has to be seen to be believed. A unique motion picture experience that DEFINITELY lets us in on the joke. 4.5

Gideon58

01-08-17, 06:53 PM

THE 'BURBS
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If you thought suburban living was all about who has the best lawn and the best
Christmas decorations, you might want to check out The 'Burbs, the scathing black comedy from 1989 that sheds a bizarre light on suburban living that we don't see coming at all, even if it does play it's cards a little too quickly.
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Set in the fictional hamlet of Hinkley Hills, this film takes place in the cul-de-sac of a particular street where the neighbors, who all know each other intimately, are all disturbed by the arrival of the new neighbors, a creepy family called the Klopeks, who have done nothing to their lawn, have not painted the house, but have been observed digging in the backyard at night and putting large piles of garbage out front and beating it into submission before putting the top on the cans.
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The residents of the cul-de-sac include Ray (Tom Hanks), who has taken the week off work and wants to be lazy around the house, despite objectionas from his wife, Carol (the late Carrie Fisher), who wants to vacation at the lake; Art (Rick Duccommun) is Ray's lazy, mooching best friend who has been watching the Klopeks and has his own theories; Rumsfield (Bruce Dern) is a slightly demented ex-military man who lives with his much younger wife, Bonnie (Wendy Schaal); Ricky (Corey Feldman) is the teen whose parents are out of town and is our guide through this demented look at suburbia, who considers every night in his neighborhood a show and invites friends over to watch; and there's Walter (the late Gale Gordon, in his final film role), an old man with a toy poodle, whose disappearance kicks the mystery of the Klopeks into high gear.
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Director Joe Dante, the man who directed Gremlins, does a clever job of bathing this suburban setting in a gothic atmosphere that is quite intoxicating, thanks to a perfect mixture of disparate cul-de-sac residents, who are all given fun and individual personalities by Dana Olsen's surprisingly deft screenplay, that possibly plays its cards too quickly...one of the first shots in the film is of the Klopeks basement, with strange noise and flashing lights coming from it and it is after that, we see the neighborhood the next day, looking picture perfect with the paperboy riding through the cul-de-sac. That's where I would have started the story, providing a peek into a what is supposedly picture perfect street and then let us in on what's going on. The film also provides an extra ending, which we don't see coming, but it does bring the bizarre story to a satisfactory conclusion.
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Hanks makes a perfect straight man, the cynic who doesn't want to believe there is evil going on in his neighborhood and allows Duccummun to garner major laughs without letting him blow Hanks off the screen. Also loved Bruce Dern as the unhinged Rumsfield and Henry Gibson, Brother Theodore, and Courtney Gains were appropriately creepy as the Klopeks. I would have liked to have seen the story unfold a little more slowly, but as it is, an entertaining ride. RIP, Carrie. 3.5

Gideon58

01-09-17, 05:57 PM

PRIMARY COLORS
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Despite the professional polish in front of and behind the camera and a fact-based story, the 1998 film Primary Colors still comes up short as a great film. The film follows an idealistic campaign worker, grandson of a great civil rights leader, who becomes part of the campaign staff of a slick-talking governor seeking the democratic nomination for President.
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This film is, of course, a thinly disguised version of Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign where the facts have been altered just enough to avoid lawsuits. In this film, Governor Stanton is a warm and gregarious soul who longs for change in the country, even if he's not exactly sure how to create such change and a tireless advocate for the regular Joe, the guy working to pay the rent and put food on the table. Fortunately, Stanton has his wife, Susan in his corner, a smart and politically savvy woman who knows exactly what her husband has to be to whom and at what time.
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Unfortunately, Stanton is also a guy with a past. Stanton is one of those guys who can't keep his fly zipped and Susan is still in some stage of denial about it and as much as she tries to stand by her man, More secrets come to the surface, making it difficult for her to continue to guide her husband's bandwagon. Jack and Susan eventually hire a former investigator named Libby Holman to get in front of any further dirt on Stanton, which is the beginning of a slippery slope of political mud slinging that gets very ugly.
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The late Mike Nichols and Elaine May were a force in this industry, separately and together, for well over half a century, but their work here as director and screenwriter is a little too self-indulgent, working very hard to make unsympathetic characters sympathetic and fail for the most part simply because these people are politicians and politicians are just not very nice people, no matter how much you try and dress them up. The young campaign worker, Henry Burton, is supposed to be our guide to getting to know these people, but the character is just not that likable, making it hard to invest in a lot of what the character is trying to let us see.
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Nichols' direction is overly-detailed and he has a great cast to work with...John Travolta does a great Clinton and there is a impressive supporting cast including Paul Guilfoyle, Maura Tierney, Billy Bob Thornton, Larry Hagman, and Caroline Aaron. Adrian Lester is unconvincing as Henry Burton, but Kathy Bates received an Oscar nomination for her flashy turn as Libby Holman, but the heart of this movie really is Emma Thompson's Susan Stanton, the woman behind the man who can only take so much. This movie is a little overblown and a little too frightened to offend to be what it should be. 3

cricket

01-09-17, 06:57 PM

I've still not seen The Burbs

Gideon58

01-10-17, 09:28 PM

RICKI AND THE FLASH
Meryl Streep is an acting powerhouse who has the ability to carry a film on the strength of her talent and her talent alone and that was never more clearly evidenced than in piece of fluff from 2015 called Ricki and the Flash, that despite a problematic screenplay, becomes watchable thanks to the magic of its leading lady.
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Streep plays Linda, a woman who abandoned her family many years ago in order to pursue her dream of being a rock and roll star as the lead singer of the title band. Somewhere along the way, Linda/Ricki did actually record an album but clearly never became the next Janis Joplin. As the film opens, the band is headlining a dingy LA bar where the same people come in every night and even though they love Ricki and her band, she is hardly a star. Ricki gets a call from her wealthy ex-husband (Kevin Kline) asking her to fly to Indianapolis because their daughter, Julie (Mamie Gummer) has been dumped by her husband and has tried to commit suicide.
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Diablo Cody, who won an Oscar for her screenplay for Juno, provides a story with a vibrant and interesting central character that we love and identify with immediately, despite the way this woman gave up on her family in pursuit of show business success, but the cost of what she did is revealed immediately upon her arrival in Indianapolis and though we feel for Linda/Ricki, we understand where Julie is coming from, who can't even remember the last she saw her mother. Not to mention two sons, one who doesn't want his mother at his wedding and the other who is gay and convinced his mother is a homophobe.
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What does ring true here is the relationships between the grown-ups here. The reconnection between Streep and Kline's characters is lovely to watch and we see the struggle it is for Linda/Ricki and just when she and we think there might be a chance for her to pull her family back together, Linda has a fatal confrontation with Kline's second wife (Audra McDonald), who pointedly refers to Julie as "her kid."
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There are a couple of very effective scenes of family tension, especially that first dinner out with the entire family where the whole restaurant is watching, not to mention the looks Linda receives when she and boyfriend Greg (Rick Springfield) arrive for her son's wedding. These scenes are rich with tension, that director Jonathan Demme must be credited with, but there several lapses into melodrama that are just a little hard to take.
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It was fun seeing Streep and Kline working together again for the first time since Sophie's Choice and McDonald was solid. Gummer, Streep's real life daughter was kind of annoying in a performance that was rather one-note for my tastes and the character's sudden acceptance of Mom near the end was a little hard to believe, but Streep gives a vivid and arresting performance as Ricki of Ricki and the Flash, that makes this movie worth checking out. 3

Citizen Rules

01-11-17, 04:45 PM

Gideon58

01-13-17, 05:21 PM

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Now that my heart has returned to its proper position in my chest, I am ready to write about a 1967 classic called Wait Until Dark that despite some minor plot holes, had me riveted to the screen due primarily to an absolutely awesome damsel in distress and an equally awesome villain, the ultimate cat and mouse game. Did this film live up to its reputation? I was holding my breath during the final ten minutes of the movie and literally jumped from my chair twice.
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Based on a 1966 Broadway play by Frederick Knott that starred Lee Remick and Robert Duvall, this film introduces us to a mysterious woman named Lisa (Samantha Jones) who is seen boarding a plane to Manhattan with a doll filled with heroin. Lisa discovers someone anticipating her arrival and we see her give the doll to Sam Hendrix (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.). The next time we see Lisa her body is hanging in a wardrobe bag inside Sam's apartment.
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Also in the apartment are Harry Roat Jr. (Alan Arkin), Mike Talman (Richard Crenna) and Carlino (Jack Weston), three very shady characters (at least one is a dirty cop I think) who are there looking for the doll which seems to be nowhere in the apartment. Enter Sam's wife, Suzy (Audrey Hepburn), who lost her sight in an accident about a year ago and is attending a special school for the blind to learn how to adjust to her condition. These three thugs convince Suzy that Sam is responsible for Lisa's death and the only way to help him is to give them the doll, but she doesn't know where it is.
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In talking about stage to screen adaptations, I have often spoke of the importance of opening up the piece so that it doesn't look like a photographed stage play, but this piece is a rare exception to that rule. The claustrophobic atmosphere that director Terence Young creates setting the majority of the story in the Hendrix apartment works because we see Suzy being slowly manipulated into an extremely tight corner that she might not be able to get out of. Making our heroine blind intensified her vulnerability and likability without her ever coming off helpless. They say when one sense is lost, the others are heightened. This, coupled with the fact that Suzy goes to blind school is what makes her so amazing...even as the danger of what is happening to her starts to come together for her, she never forgets her head, never forgets what she learned in school, and when it comes down to a climactic showdown which she knows she cannot avoid, she brilliantly evens the playing field.
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Young creates an absolute chilling atmosphere here and has a pretty perfect cast to work with who make you forget the unexplained plotholes. Mel Ferrer is billed as producer of this film, which essentially means he purchased the film rights of this play for his wife, Hepburn and it was the smartest money Ferrer ever spent because Hepburn gives a brilliant performance, creating a heroine of vulnerability and strength who, though terrified, never stops thinking and makes us frightened for her. The performance earned Hepburn her fifth Oscar nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress.
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Alan Arkin was robbed of a nomination for his Harry Roat Jr., possibly the most bone-chilling movie villain I have ever seen...this guy is right up there with Hans Gruber and Hannibal Lecter. Arkin has been quoted as saying the reason he didn't get a nomination is because "you don't get nominated for being mean to Audrey Hepburn." Whether or not that is true, he certainly commits to what the character is asked to do, which is essentially, three different characters and, despite his long and distinguished career, I don't think Arkin has ever been better. Richard Crenna got the role of his career as Mike, the guy whose loyalties are never quite clear and Jack Weston serves the story properly as the oily Carlino. Can't wrap this review without mentioning Henry Mancini for providing maybe the creepiest and most appropriate movie score I have ever heard in a movie...even the music gave me the chills. Turn the lights out, hold onto something, and watch. 4.5

Gideon58

01-14-17, 05:42 PM

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY
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Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the creative force behind Dumb and Dumber and Me, Myself, and Irene, found middling success with an overblown sexual farce from 1998 called There's Something About Mary that contains everything we expect from the Farrelly Brothers, including scattered laughs and a predictable ending, but it goes on way too long.
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Ted (Ben Stiller) is a lonely Rhode Island writer who has never gotten over his high school sweetheart Mary (Cameron Diaz), whose date for the senior prom was derailed by a very embarrassing incident. Thirteen years later, Ted decides to hire a detective named Healy (Matt Dillon) to find Mary. Healy finds Mary in Miami, who hasn't changed a bit in thirteen years, but Healy doesn't tell Ted that, hoping to discourage Ted so that he can have Mary for himself, a mission he begins by eavesdropping on her life to learn things about her that he can use to court her attention.
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The Brothers Farrelly, Ed Decter, and John J. Strauss have provided us with a rambling screenplay that starts off promisingly, with a very funny recreation of Ted and Mary in high school and the "incident" which put a kibosh on their relationship, but once the story moves to Miami, the story just works very hard to shock and offend, which is expected from the Farrelly Brothers, but two hours and ten minutes of it was definitely overkill. This movie doesn't provide laughs for the entire running time primarily due to some really uninteresting and unfunny minor characters and the expected bathroom humor and sexual smut that has become a staple of the Brothers Farrelly.
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What we do have here is a very appealing central character, vividly brought to life by Cameron Diaz, in one of her most charming performances, who makes you care about what happens to her. The initial high school scenes seem to set the character up as this kind of trampy tease who drove all the boys crazy and, even if she did, it wasn't due to any manipulation on Mary's part and that doesn't really change when the story flashes forward. Despite all the over the top shenanigans here, Mary remains a very sweet yet human character who has had an effect on men throughout her life that she really doesn't use for her own purposes or is even aware about it.
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Ben Stiller is fun as Ted and Matt Dillon works very hard at keeping Healy likable, but for me, the funniest of Mary's suitors was an architect named Tucker, hilariously brought to life by Lee Evans. The rest of the supporting cast is pretty annoying, especially W. Earl Brown as Mary's retarded brother, but there are laughs to be found here, though there are times you have to really mine for them. 3

cricket

01-14-17, 07:19 PM

I like it a little more but I pretty much agree with you. There's some great laughs in that movie but it needed to be tighter.

Wait Until Dark is a terrific thriller.

Captain Steel

01-14-17, 11:43 PM

Inconceivable

01-15-17, 05:35 PM

I absolutely love Hitchcock's Marnie, and I think it's one of his more underrated films, Frenzy falls in that category as well.

Gideon58

01-15-17, 06:08 PM

Deadpool: not to nit-pick, Gideon, but for the record, Colossus is a mutant, not a cyborg. Although they never showed it in Deadpool, Colossus changes from his human form of young Russian former-farmer, Piotr Rasputin, into his living organic steel form of Colossus (there's no technology in involved).

As I said on IMDB:
Colossus in the X-Men movies = too shiny.
Colossus in Deadpool = not shiny enough!

Honestly, I really wouldn't know the difference though...this genre isn't exactly my long suit so any help I can get would be appreciated. Your replay proves it...I never caught that Colassus was ever human.

Captain Steel

01-15-17, 06:31 PM

Honestly, I really wouldn't know the difference though...this genre isn't exactly my long suit so any help I can get would be appreciated. Your replay proves it...I never caught that Colassus was ever human.

First, I don't really know why Colossus was in the movie. I'm not a follower of Deadpool, but I don't know of the two characters having any real relationship to each other (guess it was just to link Deadpool to another X-Men property?).

Second, come to think of it, there's no way anyone not familiar with the character would have known he was not a cyborg since his background and nature of his powers was not explored in Deadpool! One of my complaints was that they never showed Colossus in his human form, or transforming from human to organic steel (in a couple of the X-Men movies he's shown as both human and steel - but a major ball they dropped in those movies was denying him of his Russian heritage and his accent - on this item, Deadpool got it right).

Third, (this is really minor) but Colossus seemed very middle-aged in the movie, just by the way he spoke. He just came off as much older to me. Don't know how old he's supposed to be these days in the comics, but initially he was in his late teens - and we all know that characters can remain the same age for decades.

P.S. Why did you describe him as politically correct? Is it because of the way he reacts when the woman he's fighting has a "wardrobe malfunction"? ;) Yes, that was characteristic... Piotr always was shy, old-fashioned and a bit of a prude.

Gideon58

01-15-17, 06:38 PM

ROOM
Think about that little gardening shed in the back yard, you know the one where you keep the lawn mower, the weed eater, and all your gardening supplies? Now imagine living in a space that size for seven years and you have the premise for an emotionally charged 2015 drama called Room.
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As this harrowing story begins, we are introduced to Joy and Jack, a mother and son who are living in a tiny room furnished with all the basics, but obviously cut off from the outside world, their only exposure to the outside world being a tiny skylight. Joy works tirelessly at keeping Jack safe and keeping him from asking too many questions that Joy really doesn't want to answer. We learn that Joy has been living in this shed for seven years, a virtual prisoner of someone referred to as Old Nick. The story opens on Jack's 5th birthday so some quick math reveals that Joy was imprisoned in this shed for two years before giving birth to Jack and that Jack has never been exposed to anything outside of this shed and hasn't really missed anything because Joy has made it her mission to make Jack think there is nothing abnormal about the way they are living.
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This way of living is having its toll on both Joy and Jack and Joy decides that they have to get out and the only way she can do it is through Jack. She tells Old Nick that Jack is sick and needs to go to an ER and when that doesn't work, she devises a deceptively simple plan that involves Jack pretending to be dead. The ruse works and Jack and Joy are eventually rescued but this is only the beginning of a new and very complicated chapter of their lives.
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Director Lenny Abrahamson perfectly captures that claustrophobic atmosphere that the first half of Emma Donoghue's screenplay, adapted from her own novel, requires. It is made clear immediately that these two people have been living in this tiny room for more than a minute, documented by their baking a birthday cake together for his 5th birthday and Jack being upset because they couldn't get candles from Old Nick. Yes, there are questions left unanswered, like why Old Nick imprisoned Joy in the first place and though it is hinted at in an interview Joy does, Old Nick is never confirmed to be Jack's father, but it couldn't really be anyone else.
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We think Joy and Jack's rescue is pretty much the end of the story, but it's just the beginning as Jacks health must be monitored closely as whether or not the child has any kind of immune system is unclear. We watch Joy's tense reunion with her parents, which isn't as smooth as we might think, evidenced by Joy's father's inability to deal with his new grandson. It's heartbreaking watching Jack not to want to communicate with anyone but Joy, and worst of all, my heart sank as it is quietly revealed that Jack misses the room.
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This film is not an easy watch, but it is a worthwhile one, thanks to Abrahamson's atmospheric direction and the performance by Brie Larson as Joy, which won her the Oscar for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role and she is matched note for note by Jacob Tremblay's extraordinary work as Jack, one of the best performances by a child I have seen in a long time. I also enjoyed seeing Joan Allen and William H. Macy onscreen together as Joy's parents, the first time they have worked together since 1998's Pleasantville. This was a heartbreaking and unique motion picture experience that did actually have me shedding a few tears...this is one of those movies that leaves you frozen as the credits roll. 4.5

Gideon58

01-17-17, 11:45 AM

I absolutely love Hitchcock's Marnie, and I think it's one of his more underrated films, Frenzy falls in that category as well.

Never seen Frenzy...I need to add that and Family Plot to my watchlist.

Gideon58

01-17-17, 11:49 AM

P.S. Why did you describe him as politically correct? Is it because of the way he reacts when the woman he's fighting has a "wardrobe malfunction"? ;) Yes, that was characteristic... Piotr always was shy, old-fashioned and a bit of a prude.

That phrase came to mind when he was trying to convince Deadpool not to kill Ajax...maybe "politically correct" isn't the correct term, but it seemed very important to Colossus for Deadpool to take the high road. He put a lot of effort into trying to persuade Deadpool to let Ajax live.

Gideon58

01-18-17, 09:44 PM

THE SESSIONS
Director/writer Ben Lewin triumphs with an endlessly imaginative, edgy, and often prickly cinematic journey called The Sessions, a fact-based story that is an intelligent and emotionally charged look at a refreshing topic not really broached before.
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This is the story of Mark, a soulful poet who is paralyzed from the neck down and lives in an iron lung. He can only be away from the lung for three or four hours at a time and can only move his head. As you can imagine, Mark's thinks about sex a lot and becomes obsessed with losing his virginity. Because of the special problems that sex would cause for Mark, he finds he has no option but to enlist the aid of a sexual surrogate named Cheryl to help him achieve his goal.
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This film fascinates from jump due to an instantly likable lead character in Mark, who reminded me of Rocky Dennis in Mask, a man resigned to his life and still being able to laugh and smile about just about anything. Mark doesn't speak without filter, but he is always honest, one of the few movie characters I can recall who is rarely caught in a lie. It is revealed that Mark's condition stems from polio, but flashbacks reveal a normal childhood so we don't know exactly how long he's been in this condition and it is never documented, but for the first time with a movie character like this, I really didn't care...Mark was such a breath of fresh air that all I cared about was his present and his future.
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The film also provided an eye-opening look at the difference between sex surrogacy and prostitution, which is beautifully explained by Cheryl who makes it clear to Mark minutes into their first meeting that they will only have six sessions together and that she is a private woman with a private life. The work of a sex surrogate, according to this film anyway, can be quite the emotional roller coaster and it is fascinating watching Cheryl do her best to leave her work at the office, so to speak. We are almost shocked when it is revealed that Cheryl has a husband and a teenage son and during their first scene together, her husband refers to Cheryl as a "saint"...I was thinking the same thing about the husband.
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Things get complicated, which was a bit of a surprise because prior to meeting Cheryl, we had already witnessed Mark scare off a caregiver by being a little too free and easy with his emotion, but I loved the way Cheryl remained the consummate professional throughout...there's a great moment where she's recording her progress with Mark and documents the fact that the man is developing inappropriate feelings for her. Mark's emotions bring the story some dark directions and there is a really scary turn in the final act, but this is a story that it is impossible to look away.
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John Hawkes' powerhouse performance as Mark is endlessly charming and Helen Hunt received her second Oscar nomination for her crisp and controlled Cheryl, a character whose intelligence, compassion, and professionalism are a marvel to behold. Also loved William H. Macy as Mark's priest/sounding board, Moon Bloodgood as Mark's caregiver and Adam Arkin as Cheryl's husband. Lewin's screenplay is thoughtful and filled with warmth and laughter and the film is beautifully photographed and scored. Drink this one in because you're not likely to see anything like this again. 4.5

Gideon58

01-19-17, 10:08 PM

THE SHALLOWS
It borrows elements from films like Jaws, Cast Away, and 127 Hours, but 2016's The Shallows hits an effective and economic bullseye because it provides the scares that the story sets up, but provides something that is so rare in films like this, something that Hitchcock was a master at producing...suspense.
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The story is simple: Nancy (Blake Lively) is a nursing student who has left her girlfriend at the hotel and been driven to a special section of beach that has personal meaning to her and plans to do some surfing, but before she even realizes what's happening, Nancy finds out the area she is surfing in is the feeding ground for a great white shark, who has other meals before his final battle of wills with Nancy.
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This film features meticulous direction by Jaume Collet-Serra that has a real Hitchcock influence to it...he makes you think he's playing all his storytelling cards when he's not and he doesn't shove all the scares at you at once...viewer patience is required and said patience is how suspense is manifested here. During the opening scene, we see a helmet with a camera on it found by a young boy and we see footage of a shark attack on the camera and we think the story is being telegraphed, but it really isn't. The opening scene is just a warning to the viewer as to what kind of terror is possibly on the horizon.
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But instead of bringing us straight to the terror, the director takes the time to let us into the middle of Nancy's life...he lets us know that this is a real person going through stuff and that her life already is not sunshine and roses and that this vacation is a bit of an escape for her, as she immediately distances herself from human contact as quickly and politely as she can, including two fellow surfers who she ends up needing later and regrets her quick method of dispatch.

Collet-Serra creates amazing suspense here and even gives us a couple of false starts...there's a fabulous moment where we see Nancy being surrounded by a group of large fins surrounding and jumping over her and it's a few seconds before we realize they're dolphins, not sharks. We get the scares that the opening scene promises, but the director makes us wait for them.
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Lively works hard at being believable in this role...a role which requires a lot of talking to herself and establishing a relationship with a small bird, similar to Tom Hanks' relationship with Wilson in Cast Away, but this movie so not about acting...this movie is about scares and the suspense of trying to figure out exactly when they're going to happen. 4

Citizen Rules

01-19-17, 11:02 PM

Hey cool, you liked it! I think me and you are the ones here who do.

a role which requires a lot of talking to herself and establishing a relationship with a small bird, similar to Tom Hanks' relationship with Wilson in Cast AwayI like that comparison, it's very astute observation. I actually liked the scenes with the bird, I thought they gave a little 'down time' from the danger below.

Captain Steel

01-19-17, 11:17 PM

Sounds pretty good - I'll keep an eye out for it!
Would you call it a "survival film"? (That's one of my favorite genres. Started a thread about them once.)

Steve Freeling

01-20-17, 11:44 AM

Hey cool, you liked it! I think me and you are the ones here who do.
I like that comparison, it's very astute observation. I actually liked the scenes with the bird, I thought they gave a little 'down time' from the danger below.
You can add a third to that list. (http://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=1599912#post1599912)

Gideon58

01-20-17, 11:51 AM

Hey cool, you liked it! I think me and you are the ones here who do.
I like that comparison, it's very astute observation. I actually liked the scenes with the bird, I thought they gave a little 'down time' from the danger below.

It's another one I watched after reading your review of it, Citizen...if you hadn't watched it, I probably wouldn't have, but I liked it...honestly, it pretty much scared the bejesus out of me, Wait Until Dark.

cricket

01-21-17, 08:41 AM

I was absolutely loving the room until the escape, but I thought that was the high point and the rest felt anticlimactic.

I didn't think much of The Shallows. I strongly prefer Open Water.

Roy C.

01-22-17, 04:57 PM

cricket

01-22-17, 05:35 PM

She's in the water going from object to object.

Citizen Rules

01-22-17, 05:47 PM

I was going to say she spends a good amount of time on that rock. But not always of course.

Gideon58

01-22-17, 06:26 PM

She's in the water going from object to object.

And the irony of it all is that she's only about 200 feet from the shore!!!

Gideon58

01-22-17, 06:50 PM

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE
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A compelling story and a bone-chilling performance from John Goodman make 2016's 10 Cloverfield Lane, an effective nail-biter worth checking out. It initially appears to borrow from other movies, but definitely establishes its own cinematic credentials.
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The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle, a woman who gets into a car accident and when she wakes up, she finds herself chained to a dirty mattress and an IV coming out of her arm in what appears to be a basement of some kind. Michelle is then introduced to her host, Howard (Goodman) who has brought Michelle to his underground shelter in order to protect her from the air being attacked by all kinds of deadly chemicals. Howard has apparently spent all his life constructing this bomb shelter, which hearkens back to the 1950's...it is fully equipped like any home except that it is underground and there is seemingly no way in or not. Michelle initially doubts Howard's story until she meets Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), who is also in the shelter and helped Howard with its construction, who supposedly at the time of the attack was trying to get into Howard's shelter and broke his arm trying to get in.
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To say anymore at this point would be wrong, but suffice it to say this is a film seems like it's going in one direction and does a 180 just when you think you've figured out what's going n. The screenplay by Damian Chazelle (Whiplash, LaLa Land), Matthew Steuken. and Josh Campbell is rich with enough red herrings to pique viewer interest but not too many that we get bored with what's going on. Most of the conflict and entertainment in the story comes from this character Howard, who initially appears to be just a male version of Annie Wilkes in Misery, but there's an unsettling layer to Howard's insanity that is hard to categorize specifically. Howard offers just enough details to his story and his motives while keeping things equally murky, never explaining anything thoroughly. Howard is one of those creepy movie characters who you're not sure whether or not he's telling the truth or if you just hope he's not telling the truth.
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Director Dan Trachtenberg creates a brilliantly claustrophobic atmosphere for this story with a big assist from set director Michelle Marquand II. Goodman is Oscar worthy creating a character who kept the hair on the back of my neck standing up. Winstead is a durable heroine who never loses her head and Gallagher is a charmer as Emmett. Film editing, sound editing, and music deserve mention as well. A first rate chiller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. 4

cricket

01-22-17, 06:57 PM

I really enjoyed that movie. Did you see Cloverfield?

Gideon58

01-24-17, 06:39 PM

No...is it a documentary? Is the film I watched fact-based?

cricket

01-24-17, 06:54 PM

No, it's tied into 10 Cloverfield Lane, the first of the series so to speak.

cricket

01-24-17, 06:55 PM

It's a very different movie, but Lane makes more sense if you've seen the first.

Gideon58

01-24-17, 09:44 PM

HUSH
Director/co-screenwriter Mike Flanagan and co-screenwriter/leading lady Kate Siegel reveal definite promise as filmmakers with a somewhat compelling little thriller called Hush, a 2016 film that does provide a couple of effective "boos", but there are just way too many holes in the screenplay to make the film the solid shocker it should be.
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Siegel plays Maddie, a deaf writer staying at an isolated cabin in the woods trying to finish her latest book. Maddie is observed bonding with a neighbor named Sarah (Samantha Sloyan) who is learning how to sign and has just read Maddie's last book. A short time later, Sarah is observed pounding on Maddie's kitchen glass doors because she needs help and she is then observed being brutally murdered right in front of the window and once the killer (John Gallagher, Jr.) figures out that Maddie is deaf, it is clear that she is the guy's next victim.
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Flanagan and Siegel have definitely seen their share of slasher movies and thrillers, but not enough that there is a whole lot unexplained and illogical going on here. For instance, the killer's motivation for killing Maddie, or Sarah, for that matter, is never made clear. In Wait Until Dark, the thugs terrorizing Audrey Hepburn are looking for a doll filled with heroin. The screenplay never addresses why this guy wants Maddie dead or why he had to kill Sarah to get to her. Early scenes reveal that Maddie is still stinging from a bad relationship with a guy named Craig and I kept waiting for it to be revealed that this killer was Craig but said reveal never came, and not knowing why this guy was stalking Maddie made it kind of hard to invest in what happens here.
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Other problems include the clear pictures of Maddie walking around the house that the killer was able to take from outside the house on his phone which were Maddie's first alerts of the danger she was in, or the fact that after killing Sarah, the killer comes back to the house equipped with a crossbow...a crossbow? Seriously? Can't even remember the last time I saw a crossbow in a movie. It would have been an intriguing idea except that every time someone got shot with an arrow, they just pulled it out of their body and went about their business. What's the point of having a useless weapon? And did this guy actually tell Maddie that he could come in the house at anytime, but it "wasn't time yet"? I haven't heard a piece of dialogue that corny in years.
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Despite all the problems with this film, Flanagan and Siegel really show some promise as filmmakers and seem to be aware of what a proper thriller should like, but they need a little help with their writing, which is definitely not up to snuff with the direction and the acting, which are actually relatively competent, but without a more carefully constructed screenplay, it doesn't work the way it should. 2.5

cricket

01-25-17, 07:55 PM

I enjoyed Hush, even if I didn't think it was much more than average.

Gideon58

01-25-17, 08:20 PM

Like I said, there's some real directorial skill displayed in this film, but the screenplay left too much unexplained and featured a lot of illogical stuff.

Gideon58

01-28-17, 05:43 PM

PROOF
A talky and pretentious screenplay and an unconvincing lead performance keep the 2005 film version of David Auburn's play Proof from being the compelling entertainment it should be.
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Catherine is reeling from the recent death of her father, a once brilliant mathematician and college professor whom Catherine cared for during the final five years of his life, during which he apparently suffered a complete mental breakdown and instead of having him institutionalized, Catherine chose to care for him at home because that was what she felt was best for him. But now that he's gone, Catherine is deathly afraid that the same thing might be happening to her.
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Enter Hal, a teacher and former student of the professor who has come to the house to help go through the professor's things, including 103 notebooks full of mathematical theorems that might have the potential to be published and Claire, Catherine's tightly wound older sister who thinks Catherine's continued presence in the house is unhealthy and wants her to move to New York with her (which would allow her to sell her dad's house in Chicago).
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Auburn's play had a solid run on Broadway, over 900 performances, so there is entertainment value in the story and director John Madden does an OK job of opening up the story so it doesn't look like a photographed stage play, but I think where he errs is in his casting and presentation of the two lead characters. This brilliant but insane mathematician never really comes off as insane and his brilliant and caring daughter comes off as not really having a brain in her head, not to mention being chronically unhappy and unlikable (she doesn't crack a smile until about the halfway point), which is why the tentative romance broached by Hal and Catherine doesn't work either.
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Gwyneth Paltrow's interpretation of Catherine is mannered and a little broad for the screen, a performance more suited for a Broadway stage that really needed to be reined in and director Madden must take some blame for that. Anthony Hopkins is lovely as Catherine's father, a performance rich with humor and fire that made me wish the story was more about him. Jake Gyllenhaal is charming as Hal despite a definite lack of chemistry with Paltrow and Hope Davis is terrific as Claire, but the story is centered on Paltrow's character and the inability to latch onto this character made it difficult to latch onto the entire story. 2.5

Citizen Rules

01-28-17, 07:03 PM

I never heard of that movie. Ever since I've come to MoFo I can't watch a Jake Gyllenhaal movie without thinking it's Sexy Celebrity:p

Gideon58

01-29-17, 04:57 PM

END OF WATCH
A blistering and unapologetic look at the life of beat cops, 2012's End of Watch is a gritty and relentlessly unpredictable look at the dangerous game of Russian Roulette that is the life of a beat cop.
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Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is three years out of the Academy, has ambitions beyond being a beat cop, including studying pre-law, which has him videotaping the events that unfold before us. He is single, not due to a lack of female attention but he's looking for a woman he can actually have a conversation with after they get out of bed. Mike Zavala (Michael Pena) went to the Academy with Brian and they have been partners and BFF's ever since. He's married and has a baby on the way and is wishing the same for his partner.
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Writer/director David Ayer mounts this story in the form of a documentary, or even a feature length episode of Cops...an episodic look at the varied situations that cops finds themselves drawn into, from an actual throwdown with a thug which forces Zavala to take off his badge and put his gun down to an accidental encounter with a human trafficking ring. We are given an up close and personal look at a pair of cops who never back from the risk involved in their work and always seem a little unfulfilled but they do what they have to do. There is a telling episode where they get to be genuine heroes by pulling a pair of children out of a burning building which gets them recognition and medals, but they are still not feeling like the heroes they are told they are.
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Ayer has crafted a story that offers no easy answers and will make anyone think twice who thinks being a police officer is glamorous work. He also gets a pair of rock solid performances from Gyllenhaal and Pena as the ultimate servants of the thin blue line...these actors invest completely in these characters and the ugliness of what they have to do and have us holding our breath every time they respond to a call on their radio.
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Ayer, who also wrote the screenplay for Training Day, has an imaginative directorial eye, which includes textbook use of the hand-held camera, which has rarely been utilized to greater effect in a film. The film also features effective editing and a pulse pounding music score that perfectly frames the story without every overpowering it. Ayer, Gyllenhaal, and Pena deliver the goods in this ugly story that doesn't promise happy but does deliver hope. 4

Gideon58

01-30-17, 06:54 PM

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS
Yet another extraordinary performance by the amazing Meryl Streep portraying a real-life figure is the centerpiece of 2016's Florence Foster Jenkins, an exquisitely mounted valentine to a wealthy socialite with a passion for the opera, who came to be known as the world's worst opera singer.
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It is 1944 in Manhattan where we meet the central character, a woman with an all-consuming passion for music, but sadly her talent does not match her passion. We watch amazingly as the woman is savagely protected by the people who love her (and are using her as well), led by her in-name-only husband St Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), who does not live or sleep with Mrs. Jenkins, but loves her in his own way and supports her musical passion to the point of buying fans and positive reviews of her performances, performances that are populated with an audience carefully orchestrated by Bayfield in order to protect his beloved Florence (not to mention keeping his own pockets lined). Health issues have temporarily sidelined Florence, but we see her preparing to resume her career with the hiring of a new pianist, who is shocked by Florence's lack of talent, but he too is entranced by her passion and agrees to aid her husband in continuing the charade, though deep down, he knows this is wrong.
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Director Stephen Frears and writer Nicholas Martin have crafted a richly entertaining tale that initially produces a lot of laughs when it is revealed that Mrs. Jenkins really can't sing, but the mannered and deliberate reveal of her backstory, including a bout with syphilis, which she contracted from her first husband, we understand why it is so important to everyone in Mrs. Jenkins' orbit to protect her, but as a viewer, we also know that this charade cannot last forever and we spend pretty much the second half of the film waiting for this terribly sad cinematic shoe to drop. Unfortunately, we have also fallen in love with the character by this point, understand her husband's motives completely and begin to dread the eventual heartbreak that this woman is going to experience.
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This motion picture provides vibrant moments of rich hilarity and equal heartbreak and that is primarily due to the breathtaking work of our greatest living actress, whose Oscar nominated work in the title role is a joy to behold...Streep fully commits to this character and never for a moment allows you to believe that Florence Foster Jenkins can sing, even though Meryl Streep can. Hugh Grant has never been better in what is clearly the most complex role in this story, the husband who really does love Florence in his own way and puts her happiness above everything else, even if it doesn't always seem that way. Simon Helberg, co-star of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, also gives a star-making performance as Cosme McMoon, the young pianist who falls under Florence's spell.
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Frears' direction is meticulous, beautifully recreating 1940's Manhattan with period appropriate settings and Oscar-nominated costumes as frosting on the cake, but the cake here is the gift that keeps on giving...the divine Meryl Streep. 4

cricket

01-30-17, 07:00 PM

I didn't dislike End of Watch, but I was a little disappointed. I'm not sure why.

Citizen Rules

01-30-17, 07:08 PM

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS...that sounds great. I'm wanting to see that now.

Gideon58

02-06-17, 04:54 PM

The People V OJ Simpson
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A horrific double homicide that was the springboard for the criminal trial of the century as well as the media event of the century is recreated with just the right amount of dramatic flourish in a 2016 mini-series called The People V OJ Simpson, a 10-hour mini-series originally broadcast on FX that won the Emmy and Golden Globe for Outstanding Limited Series, which in dazzling docudrama fashion, through the use of fact and assumed speculation, chronicles the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, the pursuit of OJ Simpson as the prime suspect, and his eventual trial, which became a media beast that no one expected and refueled racial tension in this country with a vengeance. This drama also sheds a light on some of the principal players that was overshadowed by the drama of the trial. It also provides a surprisingly balanced look at all the aspects of this harrowing and riveting story.
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I would like to preface this review by stating that this is intended to be an analysis of this mini-series for its entertainment value. I am not writing this because I want to get on any kind of soap box regarding this trial or the defendant. I am not here to discuss the verdict nor is it my intent to initiate any kind of discussion regarding this trial or the verdict. I will say that whatever your opinion is regarding the verdict, that viewing this mini-series will probably not alter your opinion, but for those who were children when all this was happening, and I know they are members here who were, this mini-series is a fairly accurate recreation of the events, with some exaggeration of particular events for the sake of entertainment value and since this piece purports to be nothing more than a piece of entertainment based on real events, on that level, it works.
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For those who were children and don't remember any of this, back in 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and her then lover Ron Goldman were found brutally murdered on the front steps of Nicole's home and eventually, Nicole's ex, football legend turned actor OJ Simpson came into focus as the primary suspect, Simpson panicked and hopped into his white Bronco, driven by his friend Al Cowlings, with $8700 in cash and a gun to his head, leading police on an memorable chase on a California highway that eventually led to his arrest and what was, in essence, the trial of the century.
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Ryan Murphy, the genius behind Glee, Scream Queens, and the dazzling HBO movie The Normal Heart was the creative force behind this monumental project, which, more than anything, puts human faces and flawed behavior on the principal players involved in this drama, and shows how their lives were forever changed by their involvement in this drama and how most of them initially resisted getting involved with this case, which on the surface, seemed like a no-brainer but turned out to be anything but. The drama carefully documents the assembling of the prosecution and the defense, a group of high-powered attorneys who eventually were tagged "the dream team", some of the best legal minds in the country who actually found a way to fight the overwhelming physical and forensic evidence that continued to pile up against their defendant.

We watch as Marcia Clark is pegged to head the prosecution and when her original second chair falls ill, the second chair is filled by a dynamic young attorney named Christopher Darden, who initially wanted nothing to do with the case and whose promotion to second chair might have had more to do with the color of his skin than for his litigation skills.
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The "dream team" consists of Robert Kardashian, OJ's best friend whose children, future reality stars Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, and Rob, referred to OJ as "Uncle Juice", the perpetually oily Robert Shapiro who initially headed the team until the arrival of Johnnie Cochran, another player who initially wanted nothing to do with this case until his wife asked him how he would feel if OJ got off and Johnnie had nothing to do with it. Legendary attorney F. Lee Bailey also comes on board, but is pretty much reduced to a figurehead and is not happy about it.

This film takes an up close and personal look at the personal lives that were interrupted and forever altered by this trial. It wasn't until watching this film that I realized that all during this trial, Marcia Clark was going through a nasty divorce and custody battle for her children, but never took her eye off the OJ prize...this woman was a shark in the courtroom but this movie provides a glimpse into a troubled wife and mother who put everything in her life that was important to her at risk in order to bring OJ to justice.
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Johnnie Cochran was revealed to be the true leader of the dream team who pushed Bob Shapiro to the side because he didn't feel Shapiro had OJ's best interests at heart. I loved at the first full meeting of the dream team when Shapiro asked if anyone in the room felt OJ was guilty and everyone, Cochran included, just looked at him with their mouths open. Cochran even managed to maintain his poise and minimize the damage caused when news of his own past with domestic violence came to light.

As for the defendant himself, this mini-series paints OJ Simpson as a spoiled, petulant child, who once he became a superstar, forgot he was black and spent his life trying to be part of the Caucasian good life. The man spends every minute he has onscreen screaming to the heavens of his innocence, but every move he makes once he becomes a suspect screams guilt. I'm not saying that the character is portrayed as being guilty, I'm saying that the OJ that is presented in this story does not behave like an innocent man. An innocent man would not have initiated that bronco chase on an LA highway with a gun to his head. This man was panicked about going to jail but he never stopped thinking either.

The other thing that this mini-series nails is the way the media devoured these events and life in the United States became "all OJ all the time." Kennedy's assassination didn't get the attention this story did. There's a terrific little scene at a television network where the president of a network is being persuaded by his underlings to cancel all daytime programming in order to cover the trial 24/7 and it actually takes a minute for him to be convinced that it's the right thing to do. The film also offers a couple of prickly glimpses at the jury at the drama surrounding their part in this. Jury selection was interesting especially where black women were concerned...the prosecution thought black women would resent OJ for his history of domestic violence but the defense didn't want black women on the jury because OJ was married to a white woman. Love the scenes of jurors being eliminated from the process while Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" fills the soundtrack.
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This film, actually based on a book by Jeffrey Toobin called "The Ride of His Life: The Story of OJ Simpson", features an intelligent and unapologetic screenplay and absolutely brilliant and meticulous direction by Murphy, Anthony Hemingway, and John Singleton. The cast is pretty much on the money, led by Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark, a performance that won her an Emmy and a Golden Globe, Sterling K. Brown as Christopher Darden, which won him an Emmy, and especially Courtney B. Vance, in a powerhouse performance as Johnnie Cochran, which galvanizes the screen and mesmerized this viewer, winning him a Globe as well. John Travolta is appropriately oily as Robert Shaprio and Cuba Gooding Jr. provides an alternately sympathetic and pathetic OJ Simpson. This is a once in a lifetime television event, that is a bit of a time commitment (almost 10 hours), but this was the swiftest most entertaining 10 hours I've spent in front of a television screen in my entire life. 4.5

Gideon58

02-07-17, 11:04 AM

Please indulge me...there were some superb performances in this film and there are a few more I would like to mention that I didn't include in the review:

Bruce Greenwood as Gil Garcetti
Rob Morrow as Barry Scheck
Steven Pasquale as Detective Mark Fuhrman
Christian Clemenson as Bill Hodgeman
Kenneth Choi as Judge Lance Ito
Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Al Cowlings
Keesha Sharp as Dale Cochran
Connie Britton as Faye Resnick

Gideon58

02-07-17, 09:35 PM

LA LA LAND
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Damian Chazelle, the creative force behind Whiplash has provided musical lovers with the ultimate valentine to their passion, an exquisitely mounted valentine to the genre called La La Land, which breaks all the rules of contemporary filmmaking but strictly adheres to the rules of making movie musicals. And to be perfectly fair, if you're not a fan of movie musicals, you should stop reading right here.
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As with most musicals, the story is pretty simple: A cocktail lounge pianist named Sebastian whose real passion is jazz and someday owning his own club meets Mia, an aspiring actress who, while waiting for her break, works as a barista at a coffee shop on the lot of Warner Brothers Studios. Sebastian and Mia's instant attraction to each other is thrown off course when the pursuit of their individual passions come between them. Ready to give up on an acting career, Mia takes Sebastian's suggestion and writes a one woman show for herself to perform. Meanwhile, after losing his job at the cocktail lounge, Sebastian gets an offer to join a successful jazz band headed by a rival musician with whom he has a volatile past, where he finds commercial success but his dream of owning his own club seems to go up in smoke.
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I must confess to having issues with Chazelle's Whiplash, but this ridiculously talented writer and director made up for anything wrong with that film here. Chazelle has clearly done his homework here and somewhere along the way, has had more than a passing acquaintance with movies like Singin in the Rain, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris in his mounting of this stylish musical fantasy that revels in its celebration of everything musical comedy, displaying endless inspiration from the golden days of MGM and never apologizing for it.
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This musical takes the classic route of the leads meeting cute and initially displaying nothing but disdain for each other, but find their common footing in a song or a dance step that appear completely unmotivated on the surface, but that's what musical comedy is all about. If you're looking for something steeped in reality, you're looking at the wrong movie, but if you're accessible to the magic of movie musicals, you might have a stupid smile on your face throughout this movie the way I did.
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The tuneful song score by Justin Hurwitz and Ben Pasek includes "A Lovely Night", "Another Day of Sun", "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)', "Someone in the Crowd", "Start a Fire" and the Oscar-nominated "City of Stars", all performed with sincerity and energy by the stars, not great singers, but Chazelle has taught them how to sell a song and Mandy Moore's sharp choreography serves the score without overpowering it...the staging of the opening number "Another Day of Sun" on a crowded California highway is on the money.
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Chazelle struck gold with the casting of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as Sebastian and Mia, who create an Astaire/Rogers chemistry that is hard to resist. John Legend also impressed as Keith, Sebastian's pal who hires him for his band, who makes the most of an underwritten role, my only problem with the screenplay...I would have liked to have had a little insight into Sebastian and Keith's troubled past, but I was able to look past it. I would also like to thank the director for not staging any scenes on the Hollywood Sign. The film won seven Golden Globes and has been nominated for 14 Academy Awards and though I'm not completely sure it's worthy of all that award love, there are definite rewards for the few of us genuine musical lovers left on the planet. This movie was a journey of champagne and chocolate truffles gliding to a lovely and bittersweet conclusion. 4

Citizen Rules

02-08-17, 01:27 PM

Gideon, that was one helluva good review.

Very professionally written. Detailed with interesting facts, and you gave an excellent description to the reader that made the mini series a must watch.

I love how you opened with a gripping first sentence that catches the reader's eyes and make them want to read on. Your opening paragraph, which is always the most important in any review, is also very well done:

A horrific double homicide that was the springboard for the criminal trial of the century as well as the media event of the century is recreated with just the right amount of dramatic flourish in a 2016 mini-series called The People V OJ Simpson, a 10-hour mini-series originally broadcast on FX that won the Emmy and Golden Globe for Outstanding Limited Series, which in dazzling docudrama fashion, through the use of fact and assumed speculation, chronicles the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, the pursuit of OJ Simpson as the prime suspect, and his eventual trial, which became a media beast that no one expected and refueled racial tension in this country with a vengeance. This drama also sheds a light on some of the principal players that was overshadowed by the drama of the trial. It also provides a surprisingly balanced look at all the aspects of this harrowing and riveting story.I was glad you said this about the mini series:
I will say that whatever your opinion is regarding the verdict, that viewing this mini-series will probably not alter your opinionAnd I'm sure it wouldn't change my mind. I remember those days...I watched the news events on OJ's chase and eventual arrest as the news story broke live. I watched much of the trial. The only time I've ever watched a criminal trial.

I remember when Marcia Clark walked into the court room sporting a new hairdo and the room broke into applause. I remember watching OJ trying on the dried-blood soaked, leather gloves that didn't fit. I remember Johnnie Cochran say "if they don't fit, you must acquit".

Yes, I remember those events, which are seared into my mind and I wish that they weren't.

Your review is one of the best I've read. I know from writing reviews myself just how long it takes to get them right.

I'm sure The People V OJ Simpson is powerful television and well deserving of the Emmy and Golden Globe awards it won. But I could never revisit that trial, just thinking about it as I am now has demoralized me. I don't like to watch shows that stir up such strong emotions.

Gideon58

02-08-17, 05:16 PM

Gideon, that was one helluva good review.

Very professionally written. Detailed with interesting facts, and you gave an excellent description to the reader that made the mini series a must watch.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to read it, Citizen...I was freaking out about this review and just needed an outside opinion. Thanks again and I can understand not wanting to watch because it will definitely stir up memories of the time and if you don't wish to revisit, I understand, but thanks for reading the review.

ShopkeeperTriumph

02-08-17, 05:20 PM

I'm really glad they put that series on Netflix recently. I was almost about to buy the series on blu ray actually, I really wanted to watch it. I'm about to start it soon, I hope it's as good as everyone says it is!

Also, what a surprise that Travolta is in it.

Gideon58

02-08-17, 05:22 PM

I remember when Marcia Clark walked into the court room sporting a new hairdo and the room broke into applause. I remember watching OJ trying on the dried-blood soaked, leather gloves that didn't fit. I remember Johnnie Cochran say "if they don't fit, you must acquit".

One thing I will remember as long as I live and I was so anxious to see if this movie was going to recreate it...when the court clerk announced the verdict, she fumbled the pronunciation of OJ's real first name (Orenthal) and I was curious to see if they would remember that for the movie and they did! I couldn't believe it!

Gideon58

02-09-17, 06:02 PM

FENCES
Denzel Washington has an artistic triumph as the director and star of Fences, the 2016 film version of August Wilson's 1987 Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway play. Washington has done the impossible here and made a viable motion picture experience out of a stage vehicle that was most likely never meant to be a movie.
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Denzel takes on the role that was originated on Broadway by James Earl Jones and won him a Tony Award and it has earned Washington his seventh Oscar nomination. It is the 1950's and Troy Maxson is a hard-working garbage man who every Friday brings home his paycheck to his devoted wife, Rose while finding constant excuses to keep from building the fence around their home that he has been promising to build for years. Troy has a grown son named Lyons, who is an unemployed musician who shows up at his father's house every Friday to borrow money and refuses his father's offer to get him a job where Troy works. Troy also has a high school age son named Corey who works part time at the local grocery story, but is also a football star of such promise that a college scout is en route to talk to Troy about Corey's future. Troy also has a mentally challenged brother named Gabriel who has him enveloped in guilt because of how Troy has taken advantage of Gabriel to line his own pockets.
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Troy appears to be a man haunted by a troubled past and seems to be taking it out on his boys, simultaneously wanting a better life for them but only if they work for it they way he does. Troy makes it clear that he is the king of the castle because he pays the bills and that no one else in the house has any kind of right or say in anything because he pays the bills and we understand the kind of person Troy is to a point, but a major revelation about Troy's life occurs halfway through the film that shows us a side of Troy that almost destroys his family and his somewhat comfortable existence.
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Washington has taken on a lot here, bringing a stage piece to the screen that never really escapes its origins as a stage piece, but with a major assistant from August Wilson's adaptation of his own play, Washington manages to mount a compelling drama that is slightly confining, but never uninteresting, thanks to an often reprehensible central character who you want to strangle at times, but you can never take your eyes off of him either. Watching one of our industry's most likable actors completely invested in this realistic, yet deeply flawed character had my stomach in knots for a good chunk of the running time.
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Fortunately, director Washington doesn't allow his star to be the whole show. Viola Davis, a Best Supporting Actress nominee, is nothing short of brilliant as the endlessly patient and neglected Rose. Davis beautifully internalizes this character's pain and still manages to hit the viewer right between the eyes with it...there are very few actresses out there who can make their eyes well up completely with water and not allow a tear to fall, but Davis makes it look easy. Davis received a supporting nomination, though this role is clearly a lead, I guess in an attempt to give her a better chance of winning. After two previous nominations, Davis may have found the role to do it for her. Jovan Adepo does a star-making turn as Corey and mention also must be made of Mykelti Williamson, most famous for playing Bubba in Forrest Gump, who gives the performance of his career as the mentally shredded Gabriel. It's a little talky and takes a minute to get going, but the work of Denzel Washington and Viola Davis make this well worth the serious filmgoer's time. 4

Gideon58

02-10-17, 07:01 PM

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
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Kenneth Lonergan, the creative force behind the 2000 sleeper You Can Count on Me has triumphed with 2016's Manchester by the Sea, a beautifully crafted and emotionally-charged look at grief, family dysfunction, and family responsibility and the emotional chaos that can ensue as the manifestations of same begin to blur. This moving and mesmerizing drama received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
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Casey Affleck turns in the performance of his career as Lee Chandler, an apartment complex handyman in a suburb of Boston called Quincy, who receives word that his brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler) has lost his long battle with heart disease and travels to neighboring Manchester to handle his brother's affairs but more importantly, be there for his teenage nephew, Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Lee is thrown when he learns that Joe has requested in his will that Lee become Patrick's legal guardian, which would require Lee to move back to Manchester, which is something Lee cannot do.
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Lonergan proves himself a masterful storyteller here, providing a leisurely pacing to a story that, even though it is told out of sequence, is very easy to become enveloped in and relate to everything this central character Lee is going through, but patience is required of the viewer and it is spectacularly rewarded, with an absolutely shocking backstory that not only clarifies why Lee has become the social hermit he is now but, more importantly, why there is no way he can resume a life in Manchester.
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Lonergan's intricate screenplay first introduces us to Lee, Joe, and Patrick when Patrick was still grade school age and then moves back and forth between the past and present as we watch Lee take care of business and his nephew while simultaneously trying to handle the pain that this return to Manchester is causing him. I was impressed by the maturity of the relationship that develops between Lee and Patrick after Joe's death...Lee steps up where his nephew is concerned but never tries to become his father. I love the scene where Patrick asks Lee if it's all right if his girlfriend sleeps over, expecting a fight from Lee about it but not getting one. There's also a realistic sense of Patrick realizing that he can get away with things with his uncle that he was unable to get away with his dad and he definitely takes advantage of it up to a point.
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I think Casey Affleck deserves the Oscar that has alluded him up to this point with a beautifully controlled and internalized performance that provides some truly shocking and explosive moments because of the actor's control of his performance, which I'm sure director Lonergan (who also makes a brief cameo) had a lot to do with and the relationship Affleck cultivates onscreen with Oscar nominee Lucas Hedges as Patrick is lovely as is the one with ex-wife, Randi, effectively brought to life by Michelle Williams in a performance that earned her a 4th Oscar nomination and Kyle Chandler also scores as Joe, a character we only meet in flashback.

The film is beautifully photographed (can't believe it was not nominated for cinematography) and this is one of the first films in a long long time that features music from Handel's Messiah as part of its score, but it works beautifully. More than anything, this is a testament to the talent of Kenneth Lonergan. 4.5

cricket

02-11-17, 08:33 PM

I have very high expectations for that movie.

Gideon58

02-12-17, 05:39 PM

HIDDEN FIGURES
A 2016 Oscar nominee for Best Picture, Hidden Figures is a docudrama that, despite a manipulative and slightly preachy screenplay and some uncomfortable lapses into melodrama, still manages to captivate the viewer with an important story that should have been told about 40 years ago.
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It is 1961, a time in the United States when racism was at its zenith, segregation was the norm, and JFK was a driving force behind the infancy of the space program. This story offers another of those heretofore completely unheard of chapters of American history that for some reason has been buried and not talked about for almost 70 years. Apparently, the mathematical calculations regarding space trajectories and coordinates were all computed and documented by a group of African American women who worked in the bowels of NASA and were its best kept secret.
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This film focuses on three of these women: Katherine Goble Johnson was pulled from the group to work directly with Al Harrison as sort of a human computer, providing data that was vital to the space program while fighting unabashed bigotry for not only being black but being a woman. Dorothy Vaughn was Katherine's supervisor who was doing the work of a supervisor without the title and compensation the job should have brought her. Dorothy is thrown when an unknown company called IBM arrives at NASA to install their first computer mainframe, a new-fangled device that could put Dorothy and her subordinates out of her work, so Dorothy decides to get in front of her competition and learn how to operate it so that she and her girls become indispensable. Mary Jackson is a mathematician who really wants to be an engineer but must obtain permission to attend a whites only school in order to take the courses she needs to make her dream a reality.
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I found it shocking that this wonderful story, directed and co-written by Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent) and based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly took close to 70 years to come to the screen. I was three years old in 1961 and I am shocked that the story of what these women did never even crossed my path in high school. Melfi and Allison Schroeder's screenplay focuses a little too much on the racism of the 60's, well-worn cinematic territory that is presented with sledgehammer intensity here. I would have liked to have seen a little more focus on what these three terribly smart women did and less on their bitterness about having to use bathrooms for coloreds only. I think a lot of these events were overblown to manipulate the viewer but there are points in the film where we are asked to accept a lot....are we really supposed to believe that Al Harrison had NO idea that Katherine had to run half a mile away from her desk to go to the bathroom? And his dismantling of a couple of bathroom signs was supposed to signify some sort of change? We understood it all when Katherine went to get her first cup of coffee from the "White" coffee pot or when Harrison saw the "coloreds" only coffee pot and everyone in the room pretended to know nothing about it. It's 1961, racism is going on, we get it, move on and concentrate on this terrific story. This movie found me feeling more offense at the word "colored" then the "N" word.
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Melfi also assembled a terrific cast to serve his story here. Janelle Monae was an eye opener as Mary Jackson and Oscar winner Kevin Costner offers a real movie star turn as Al Harrison. I also loved Glen Powell as John Glenn and Emmy winner Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) as Paul Stafford. Oscar winner Octavia Spencer's beautifully controlled Dorothy Vaughn earned her another nomination, but for me, it is Taraji P. Henson who delivers the powerhouse performance here as Katherine, a woman of strength and pride who sacrificed everything for her work, did eventually find a man, but never really needed one. For those whose only exposure to Henson has been as Cookie on FOX's Empire, this is a performance that will surprise you. Theodore Melfi has mounted an important story that has finally been brought out of the historical closet and manages to entertain as well. 3.5

Gideon58

02-13-17, 05:43 PM

TRUTH
Remember at the end of the second act of 1976's All the President's Men when Ben Bradlee (the late Jason Robards) warns Woodward (Robert Redford) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) that if they are about to call the most powerful man in the world a crook, they better have the story right? Well, the 2015 docudrama Truth is an on-target look at would have happened if Woodward and Bernstein had gotten it wrong.
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During George W. Bush's run for a second term as President, rumors began to form that Bush had avoided being drafted and sent to Vietnam by signing up for the National Guard and even once there, using personal leverage to get him out of a lot of his obligations as a member of the guard. This film documents what happens when CBS anchorman Dan Rather and 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes begin an investigation into the allegations, which ends up putting their own careers in jeopardy.
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It was circa 2003 and this was at a time when 60 Minutes was a such as cash cow for CBS that they actually expanded the show into a second episode on Wednesday nights. Rather had built a reputation as the CBS anchor rivaling Cronkite having actually surpassed Cronkite in the number of shows anchored. We are intrigued when Mapes, Rather, and their team conduct an investigation that boils down down to a small group of documents that confirm what they suspect; however, these documents are not originals and proving their authenticity becomes impossible as Mapes and Rather backtrack to get the story from a different angle and find out that just about everyone they contacted regarding this investigation lied to them and their whole expose begins to crumble in front of their eyes. The true irony of this investigation is that despite the fact that no one will go on the record about the authenticity of these records, no one denies their authenticity either.
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Director and co-screenwriter James Vanderbilt has mounted an overly elaborate screenplay, based on Mapes' book, that makes it difficult to track everything that is going on here, but we are behind Mapes, Rather, & company and want to see them get what they're after and despite the sometimes exhausting energy it takes to keep up with what's going on here, what shines through in this story and kept this reviewer riveted to the screen was the relationship between Mary Mapes and Dan Rather. It was such a pleasure watching the mutual respect and trust between these two and that they had each other's backs all the way to the end of this very ugly journey that did destroy both of their careers.
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Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford deliver a couple of flashy movie star performances as Mapes and Rather. They establish such a strong onscreen chemistry that they make this whole sad and twisted story worth investing in. Dennis Quaid, Elisabeth Moss, and Topher Grace also score as the rest of their investigative team, but it is really the relationship between Mapes and Rather, beautifully realized by Oscar winners Blanchett and Redford that make this one worth a look. 3

Gideon58

02-14-17, 07:43 PM

HELL OR HIGH WATER
Director David Mackenzie and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan have collaborated on a riveting piece of screen entertainment called Hell or High Water, a 2016 Best Picture nominee that is a little bit crime drama, a little bit character study, a little bit buddy movie, a little bit family dysfunction drama, but these parts add up to create a richly entertaining adventure that works as a viable cinematic adventure.
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Toby Howard (Chris Pine) is waist-deep in child support and determined to find the money to save his family ranch as a legacy for his children. He turns to older brother, Tanner (Ben Foster), a career criminal who has been out of jail a year after doing a ten year stretch in prison, to help him secure the money he needs. The Howard brothers begin robbing branches of a particular Texas bank chain and after a couple of robberies, the task of bringing the brothers to justice somehow lands in the lap of a world weary Texas Ranger named Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and his Indian/Mexican deputy, Alberto (Gil Birmingham) and the viewer has a front seat to one of the most emotionally charged games of criminal cat and mouse to hit movie screens.
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What screenwriter Sheridan has effectively done here has brought us a pair of bad guys and a pair of good guys whose degree of good and bad is never black and white and whose relationships offer some subtle and unforeseen parallels. Yes, the Howard Brothers rob banks and thanks primarily to Tanner, know exactly what they are doing...I was impressed by the fact that as they hit the cash drawers, they only take small bills and only take loose bills, nothing that is bundled, assuming that loose bills are more difficult to trace I imagine. It is also made clear that the brothers have a very specific mission and are not interested in hurting anyone. There is a lovely moment right before the third robbery we witness where Toby asks Tanner to go easy on the teller this time. It is at this moment, where these guys really stopped being black and white villains, aided by early backstory regarding their very troubled past as children that has only strengthened their bond.
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As for Ranger Hamilton and Alberto, we are exposed to a relationship that is like a long married couple...Hamilton's methodical and sometimes maddening approach to nailing the Howard brothers is often overshadowed by his often condescending treatment of Alberto, who shrugs it off for the most part, but it's obvious there are moments where Alberto would like to punch his boss in the face. There is an element of humor to Hamilton's treatment of Alberto that effectively conceals a respect that Hamilton only reveals during the climactic confrontation with Toby and Tanner.
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It is the crafting of these two sets of relationships that sets this crime drama apart from most, along with the fact that the story never takes itself too seriously,,,there are a surprising amount of laughs in a story that on the surface appears to be deadly serious, but director Mackenzie lets the humor in these characters shine through without ever forgetting what's really going on here. I was also terribly amused that both the Howard brothers and our Texas Rangers had memorable encounters with sassy waitresses while on dinner breaks.
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Mackenzie also pulled four remarkable performances from actors who created four characters who appear to have known each other forever. Chris Pine once again proves he is more than a pretty face with his intense Toby and Ben Foster, who I haven't seen since Alpha Dog, is explosive and exciting as the ticking time bomb that is Tanner. Gil Birmingham is a revelation as Alberto, holding his own opposite the amazing Jeff Bridges, who galvanizes the screen in this Oscar-nominated performance as the seemingly laid back Texas Ranger who is determined to see this case to the end, manifested in an unexpected second ending that this reviewer really didn't see coming. This film definitely displays inspiration from people like Tarantino and the Cohen Brothers, but this is a singularly unique film experience that left me spent. 4

Citizen Rules

02-15-17, 07:45 PM

Gideon58

02-19-17, 05:38 PM

JACKIE
An absolutely breathtaking, Oscar-nominated performance by Natalie Portman makes 2016's Jackie, a flawed look at one of our most enigmatic first ladies, worth your time.
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This is our first theatrical exposure to this woman. A lavish ABC TV movie called Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy starred Jaclyn Smith and there was a mini-series in 2011 called The Kennedys which featured Katie Holmes in the role. Director Pablo Lorrain and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim have taken on a delicate task here, instead of taking the accustomed biopic approach here, they have given us an up close and personal look at the 35th First Lady's life,just days after her husband was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
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This film utilizes archival footage effectively edited into this presentation of the insanity that was Jackie Kennedy's life after the death of her husband and how she remained the picture of poise and dignity to the public, doing her best to fulfill the obligations of her husband's office, putting her own grieving process to the side in order to make sure that the legacy her husband has left is accurately remembered, while finding a way to reconcile herself to who the real JFK was, taking care of her children, and documenting what she's going through to a journalist, who appears as if he would rather be working on some other assignment.
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This is one of the few times that I have actually seen the subject of a biopic, brief as the glance might have been. A good deal of the story here is centered around the tour of the White House that Mrs. Kennedy gave for CBS and I do remember seeing that tour and I never forgot what a poised and elegant presence Jackie was and was curious to see if the people involved did their homework and they did, though I think Oppenheim's screenplay presents Jackie as a little more calculating than she really was...in this film, Jackie is presented as using this interview as a sound byte over which she had complete editorial control, telling the journalist exactly what he could write and what he couldn't. This journalist wasn't in line when the sensitivity chips were passed out either...I was shocked when he asked Jackie if she remembered what the bullet sounded like.
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The film does a frighteningly accurate recreation of the moment that JFK is assassinated and everything that followed. The overhead camera shot of Jackie in the speeding car with JFK's bloody skull in her lap is something I won't soon forget nor was the moment when Lady Bird suggested Jackie change out of the pink suit to meet the press later and she said she wanted the world to see what they had done to her husband. It was also unsettling watching Jackie as LBJ is sworn in as the 36th POTUS, one of the film's most squirm-worthy moments.
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The director provides a more than competent melding of the archival footage with his own film and the combining of black and white and color photography. A large portion of this story is told sans dialogue and that works because of Natalie Portman's brilliant performance in the title role, Like the director and screenwriter, the actress has done her homework and produces a performance of power and pathos. Bouquets as well to Peter Skarsgaard as Bobby Kennedy, Beth Grant as Lady Bird, and Billy Crudup as the journalist interviewing Jackie, but Natalie Portman owns this movie with a performance that demands a second Oscar. 3.5

Gideon58

02-20-17, 06:16 PM

HACKSAW RIDGE
An Oscar nominee for Best Picture of 2016, Hacksaw Ridge is a riveting and eye popping fact-based drama that takes an unflinching look at the senseless carnage of war through the eyes of a conscientious objector and his sometimes credibility-stretching contributions that are a blazing testament to the directorial genius of Mel Gibson.
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This is the true story of Desmond Doss, the God-fearing son of a WWI veteran who wants to join the army during the second World War, but as a medic and upon arrival at boot camp, shocks his commanding officers and bunk mates when he refuses to even touch a gun. This leads to the expected tension with his fellow soldiers and eventually to court martial proceedings where he is incredibly exonerated and begins to serve his army in WWII without ever picking up a gun.
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Since it's based on fact, it's hard to dispute a lot of what Robert Schenkkan and Andrew Knight's screenplay presents here. We get a very balanced look at the consequences of Doss' beliefs, understanding how he feels, but also understanding the mistrust and resentment that develops in his barracks, wondering how safe they would be in combat with someone who refuses to shoot a gun and we wonder if Doss is even going to survive boot camp, but he not only somehow survives, but becomes a major force when his unit is actually sent to battle the Japanese at the battle location of the title. I had very mixed feelings about Doss' relationship with the guys in the camp because I understood both sides, even though I found it a little hard to believe that Doss thought he could go through army training and never pick up a gun.
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Once it was clear that Doss was going to be allowed into combat without rifle training, the story becomes a little pat and contrived as Doss' indispensable role in the battle at Hacksaw Ridge does defy credibility to a degree, but in terms of movie entertainment, it made for an emotionally charged story that had me riveted to the screen, despite some stomach-churning violence and carnage.
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Director Mel Gibson is no stranger to cinematic carnage, as anyone who saw The Passion of the Christ can attest, but he takes it to an entirely different level here, which had this reviewer constantly turning back and forth from the screen, unable to stomach some of the carnage displayed here. Gibson paints some shocking cinematic pictures here...the sight of the wagons of dead and half dead bodies returning from the Ridge just as Doss' unit arrives to replace them is permanently etched in the memory, the varied effects of these men is all over their faces and there are no two faces the same. The sight of a soldier on attack who picks up the half-blown off body of a fellow soldier to utilize as a shield was a shocking image that I was sure was my eyes playing tricks on me.
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In addition to his brilliant recreation of the carnage and insanity of war, Gibson also manages to pull some strong performances from a terrific cast. Andrew Garfield received a Best Actor nomination for his compelling, wide-eyed sincerity as Doss, a character we are behind from the moment he appears onscreen and his likability makes it much easier to accept the sometimes hard to believe war hero he is set up to be. There is also standout work from Sam Worthington as Captain Glover, Luke Bracey as Smitty, Theresa Palmer as Doss' wife, Hugo Weaving as his father, and in a startling change of pace for the actor, Vince Vaughn as Sergeant Howell. As great as the cast is and as impressive as the production values are, they only work because of a director with his eye on the prize and a second Best Director Oscar is not out of the realm of possibility for an artist working to repair the damage he's done to his career and this film is a good start. 4

Gideon58

02-21-17, 08:27 PM

MOONLIGHT
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On the surface, what we have here is a daring and unique character study that does have limited appeal, despite its tapping into some very universal emotions, but 2016's Moonlight is an effectively crafted look at one young man's quest for his identity that struck a chord with movie audiences and has earned eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture of the Year. This is another one of those movies that never goes anywhere you think it's going to go and requires patience that is rewarded to a degree.
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The story opens with the introduction of Chirone,a young boy who is known as Little. He is a painfully shy and emotionally stilted child who is neglected by his crack addict mother, Paula (Naomie Harris) but finds solace and sanctuary with his mother's dealer (Mahershala Ali) and his girlfriend (Janell Monae). Our initial introduction to Little reveals that he is a victim of constant childhood hazing in his neighborhood that he only understands to a point but does have one friend his own age named Kevin. The story then shifts to Chirone's teenage years where we see the beginning of the end for his mother and an ugly turning point in his relationship with Kevin. Chirone, his mother, and Kevin are then visited as the boys have become young adults and all three have gone through profound changes in their lives but certain connections still exist and are explored.
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Director and writer Barry Jenkins has crafted a deliberate and detailed look at the evolution of an African American male whose journey of self-discovery goes several places we don't expect it to and, to be honest, a lot of the places where Chirone's life go to are going to be difficult for Caucasian audiences to relate to but this version of teen angst mounted during the middle portion of the film is rich with universal themes that are familiar to anyone who survived their teenage years, which were all about popularity, sexual discovery, peer pressure, and fighting back...this part of the film is quite strong with a climax that was nothing short of startling, but nothing out of the realism is presented here and there is nothing here that any African American male past the age of 16 will either vicariously relate to or feel a semblance of guilt for participating in some of the ugly behavior displayed.
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But where this story really shines is the final third where Chirone and Kevin reconnect as young adults...these characters have gone through a lot of change since being teenagers, including stints in jail and this Chirone is nothing like Little, but the reunion with Kevin is a slow and tension-filled dance where Jenkins puts the viewer on pins and needles waiting for something that is hinted at in subtext, but Jenkins makes us work for it and what we are expecting is delivered but it is delivered with something I wasn't expecting...taste.
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The three actors playing Chirone bring this single character vividly to life, with standout work from Ashton Sanders as teenage Chirone. There are also a pair of powerhouse performances from Naomie Harris as Chirone's mother and Mahershala Ali as her dealer that both earned Oscar nominations. The film also features striking camera work, film editing, and an evocative music score that frames this surprisingly delicate story with the loving care it deserves, limited appeal nothwithstanding. 3.5

Gideon58

02-23-17, 09:16 PM

ARRIVAL
The science fiction thriller has been elevated to a fresh and intelligent level with a challenging and unpredictable 2016 nail biter called Arrival, which skips over the accustomed path of films of this genre that question the existence of life outside of this planet, but confronts that life with the question "What can we do for you?"
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Twelve alien crafts that look like giant coffee beans land in different locations all over the world. The only one that lands in the United States appears somewhere in Montana. While attempting to deal with this invasion, the government is baffled when the pod appears to be trying to communicate with the earthlings. Military leaders enlist the aid of a linguistics professor named Louise Banks (Amy Adams), who they have worked with before and has military clearance, to determine exactly what these aliens, who communicate with large, octopus-like tentacles, want with our planet.
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Screenwriters Eric Heisserer and Ted Chiang have crafted an adult and contemporary sci-fi nail biter that treats the viewers as adults who don't have to be spoon fed the fact that we are dealing with alien life here. The story also earns its cinematic credentials in that the confrontation doesn't go immediately to intergalactic battle...this not about the destruction of this alien life but the quest to find out exactly what they want from earth because they don't attack, they just land. The military has exhausted scientific and mathematical methods of contact and realize their only option is through actual communication, which is where Banks come in. We are enthralled as Banks methodically gains the trust of these beings through teaching them English words to communicate with but Banks' contact with the aliens (nicknamed Abbott and Costello) reaches a dangerous level when the aliens somehow convey the word "weapon."
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Director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy) has taken on a mammoth task here, giving a methodic leisure to this story that sometimes moves a little too slowly for us, offers a few too many red herrings, but never goes anywhere we expect it to, but the pieces of this striking cinematic puzzle begin to fall together during a third act where, after constant opposition and interference from the people who asked for help, Louise has to go rogue to continue the path she has initiated which the rest of her crew has lost faith in. The tension of this story is further fueled by the glimpses of what is happening at the other eleven locations where the coffee beans have landed. They have us wondering if these aliens are trying to teach the world how to work together or if they're trying to tear it apart and the final reveal is a payoff no one will see coming.
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Villeneuve's direction is crisp and detailed and gets grand assistance from a first rate production team, as well as a cast, headed by the always reliable Amy Adams, who serve the story, which always stays center stage. Villeneuve's direction received one of the film's eight Oscar nominations, as well as a Best Picture nomination, confirming that Villeneuve is a director to watch. 4

Gideon58

02-26-17, 05:58 PM

SING
In the spirit of the best Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland "Let's put on a Show" musicals comes the endlessly imaginative and richly entertaining Sing, a dazzling animated musical comedy that provides a classic show business story with a cast of humanoid animals and bathes them in a contemporary gloss that makes this confection hard to resist.
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This 2016 winner is the story of Buster Moon (wonderfully voiced by Matthew McConaughey), a third rate theater producer and Koala Bear about to go under when he decides to revive his theater by holding a singing competition and offering $1000 as the prize (all Buster could scrape together). Things get sticky when Buster's assistant misprints the flyers advertising the competition and they say that the prize is $100,000, bringing every singing beast within a 1000 miles to the entrance to audition.
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Among the participants we meet are a pig named Rosita (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) who is married and has 25 kids, who loves to sing and has pipes, but no stage presence and is paired with another pig named Gunter (Nick Kroll) who has the presence, if not necessarily the talent; Johnny (voiced by Taron Egerton) is a gorilla who sings like a dream, but can't get from under the thumb of his criminal family; Ash (voiced by Scarlett Johanssen) and Lance (voiced by Beck Bennett) are a pair of rocking porcupines whose offstage relationship is challenged when Buster only wants Ash in the show. There's also Mike (brilliantly voiced by Seth MacFarlane), a self-centered white mouse who thinks he's Frank Sinatra and Meena (voiced by Tori Kelly) an elephant who freezes during her audition but still gets hired to be a stage hand (three guesses who stops the show during the finale).
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Garth Jennings does everything right here, as the writer and co-director of this animated fantasy that not only gives human sensibilities to animals, but provides major laughs in the process with a story that is classic show business, featuring references that will get past the intended demographic, but that's what makes this film such perfect family entertainment because those little things that the kids aren't going to understand here, Mom and Dad will be able to fill them in.
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Everything works here...this had to be a logistical nightmare for Jennings in more ways than one...the film features over 85 different songs in some form and I was impressed by the thought that Jennings put into matching the right song with the right animal singer...the trio of frogs singing The Pointer Sisters' "Jump" immediately comes to mind. I also loved the evolution that certain characters make here. My favorite was Rosita's discovery of her inner funk while grocery shopping.
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The voice work in this film is nothing short of spectacular and was delighted to discover a lot of actors here who can sing, which was total news to me. McConaughey seems to have a ball with the role of Buster Moon and there is also standout work from Witherspoon, Egerton, Kelly, and especially MacFarlane. Never has the term "family entertainment" been more appropriate to a movie that will have you laughing out loud between the occasional "Awwww" moments. A triumph. 4.5

Gideon58

03-03-17, 11:26 AM

SPLIT
M. Night Shyamalan, who redefined the psychological thriller with films like The Sixth Sense, The Village, and Unbreakable, has once again broken new ground with a 2016 thriller called Split which, despite a problematic screenplay, works thanks to Shyamalan's evocative direction and an absolutely spellbinding performance from his leading man.
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Three teenage girls are kidnapped in a mall parking lot by a man who calls himself Dennis. He sprays something in the girls eyes and, of course, when they wake up, they are in some kind of basement, but Dennis turns out to be anything but your garden variety psychopath or sexual deviant. It is slowly revealed that Dennis is afflicted with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), also known as split personalities. It eventually comes to light that this man actually has 23 different personalities, though we only meet about eight of them in this story.
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For those who never saw Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve, Sally Field in Sybil, or were not fans of the daytime drama One Life to Live, DID is a condition that is usually caused by a severe childhood trauma that the patient is unable to process in their mind and their only way of dealing with what happened to them is the manifestation of a separate personality, more commonly referred to as an "alter", who protects the person from the pain and from anyone who tries to make that person deal with said trauma. Alters are triggered when the person is forced into dealing with things too painful. Alters always have a different name than the victim, are not always the same age and sometimes aren't even the same sex, but they are all a manifestation of the victim's pain and their mission is to protect the patient. One alter usually takes the lead in protecting the patient and sometimes alters even pretend to be each other in order to become the lead protector.
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One thing that Shyamalan's screenplay does is provide an insightful look into this disease that revealed several things that I didn't know about DID, such as the fact that alters can have different health issues than the patient. I was surprised when it was revealed that one of the alters in this story was a diabetic. It's also revealed in this story that alters can sometimes possess superhuman strength, not to mention that they can sometimes not even be human.
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In this story, Dennis and another alter named Patricia seem to be running things and once the kidnap victims are in place, other alters begin making themselves known to the girls, including a 9 year old kid named Hedvig and a fashion designer named Barry. We are almost halfway through the film before we actually learn the real name of the patient, which is Kevin. Kevin's only link to the real world appears to be a psychiatrist named Dr. Karen Fletcher, who gets e-mails from Dennis whenever he wants an emergency "session" and is using her work with Kevin to further her own research into DID.
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There is a whole lot of stuff that is unexplained here...except for a brief shot of a news broadcast reporting that these girls are missing, we see absolutely no effort from the outside world to find these girls. Logic and continuity are in question as the girls are eventually held in separate rooms and we see Dennis, Patricia, and company hopping from room to room within seconds, changing their clothes every time a new alter appears. We also see Dr. Fletcher watch the newscast about the missing girls and then immediately go to her computer as if she knows what Kevin is doing, but this turned out not to be the case at all.
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Yes, there are plot holes you can drive a truck through, but any problems that this film have fall to the wayside, because of Shyamalan's imaginative direction and the amazing performance by James McAvoy as Kevin/Dennis/Hedvig/Barry/Patricia, etc. McAvoy brilliantly, with the aid of Shyamalan, creates eight distinct characters in this film like nothing I have ever seen. Maybe it had something to do with the time of the film's release, but how McAvoy didn't receive an Oscar nomination for this incredible performance is a mystery to me. McAvoy loses himself in every one of these characterizations and keeps meticulous track of what each one is supposed to be doing. There is one fabulous scene where Barry is meeting with Dr. Fletcher who suspects Barry is really Dennis and we are shocked when it turns out that the doctor is correct and that Dennis was actually pretending to be Barry. McAvoy is amazing in this movie and is worth the price of admission alone...the last time I saw an actor command a movie screen the way McAvoy does here was probably Jack Nicholson in The Shining and he gets solid support from Betty Buckley as Dr. Fletcher, a character a lot more complex than she appears on the surface.

This was a harrowing and exhausting motion picture experience where a director and an amazing actor completely disguise this film's flaws and keep the viewer completely wrapped up in this unconventional nail-biter. 4

Gideon58

03-03-17, 06:59 PM

SWING TIME
As part of Citizen's new musical HoF (thanks again for doing this Citizen), one of the films I had to watch was the 1936 classic Swing Time, starring Hollywood's greatest dance team Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I shouldn't say "had to" like it was a chore because it was anything but.
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The paper thin plot introduced us to Lucky Garnett (Astaire) a small town hoofer and chronic gambler who leaves his fiancee (Betty Furness) at the altar. Upon arrival at the house, her father informs Lucky that he will give Lucky another chance to marry his daughter for the bargain price of $25000. Lucky and his best pal Pop (Victor Moore), a magician, gambler, and pickpocket hop a freight train to New York and almost immediately Lucky meets a pretty dance teacher named Penny Carroll (Rogers) and, well, you can guess the rest.
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Needless to say, the story is not really the thing with this lavish RKO musical, but this was Astaire and Rogers sixth film together and audiences were beginning to expect more from them than tap and ballroom. Howard Lindsey and Allen Scott have provided a clever screenplay that gives this outing a little more meat than the average movie musical and probably was instrumental in keeping the chemistry between the stars so fresh.
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The tuneful score by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields includes "Pick Yourself Up", "A Fine Romance", "Never Gonna Dance", "Waltz in Swing Time", and "The Way You Look Tonight", which won the Oscar for Best Song that year. I loved that "A Fine Romance" was sung in a wintery setting and proved Astaire and Rogers didn't need tap shoes to make a musical number work. Mention should also be made of "Bojangles in Harlem", a spectacular production number which features Astaire dancing in front of a giant screen featuring three shadows of himself.
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Future Oscar winning director George Stevens gives this film the light directorial touch it needs that doesn't mess with the stars' very special chemistry and I must give a special shout out to Rogers, who is very funny in this movie...the scene where she is dared to storm into Lucky's dressing room and plant a kiss on him is too funny. Helen Broderick, a definite pre-cursor to actresses like Eve Arden and Thelma Ritter, cracks wise with the best of them and Moore is a scene-stealer as well. Cannot believe I was this entertained by a movie over 80 years old. And remember, "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did...only she did it backwards and in high heels." 3.5

Gideon58

03-04-17, 05:23 PM

I SAW THE LIGHT
2015's I Saw the Light is a dark recounting of the life of country music icon Hank Williams that, despite a charismatic performance from the leading man, suffers due to a cliched screenplay and lethargic direction.
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The film opens in 1944 at the quickie justice-of-the-peace wedding of Williams to his longtime girlfriend, Audrey, who also wants to be a music star. The film follows Williams' humble beginnings on an early morning radio show to his first recording contract with Roy Acuff and Fred Rose, through his brief but monumental success with his dream, the Grand Ol' Opry until his tragic and much too early death at the tender age of 29.
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Despite the brevity of his career, Williams has always been considered the king of country and western music, the artist who set the gold standard in country music, mainly because he insisted that the success he achieved be on his terms and, according to this film, his terms were almost always non-negotiable and having things the way he wanted them required a lot of sacrifice he wasn't crazy about making and hurting a lot of people he really didn't intend to hurt including his beloved Audrey, who was the just the tip of the iceberg on his victim list.
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Of course, as is with most musical biopics, we aren't shocked by the reveal that Williams was an abusive alcoholic who could not keep his fly zipped, wreaking havoc on what personal life he had. Williams was revealed here to be rather selfish in his pursuit of stardom as we watch him quietly and methodically crush any attempts Audrey makes having at a career, a career she apparently wanted but didn't really have the talent. Though this movie never really makes clear which one is clear...did he keep Audrey down to keep her out his way or did she really not have the talent?
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Writer and director Marc Abraham has mounted a detailed tribute to this show business icon that doesn't necessarily paint him in a flattering light, but does let the viewer in on an unknown tidbit here and there. Before viewing this film, I had no idea that Williams suffered from Spina Bifida, a crippling back disease that found Williams backing out of a lot of commitments that he makes, not to mention intensifying his drinking.
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As stated, this is a detailed look at the star, perhaps a bit too detailed, suffering from an almost deadening pace that makes a two hour film seem like four. Tom Hiddleston does light up the screen as Hank Williams, bringing a surprising combination of sincerity and sexiness to this character...watch him especially in his onstage sequences, Hiddleston almost brings an Elvis quality to this character that is quite irresistible and Elizabeth Olsen holds her own as the tormented Audrey. Kudos as well to Cherry Jones as Hank's mother and Wrenn Schmidt as another eventual knot on Williams' bedpost. With tighter direction and writing, this could have been quite amazing, but Hiddleston still makes it worth a look. 2.5

Gideon58

03-06-17, 06:57 PM

QUIZ SHOW
Robert Redford proved that his Oscar-winning debut as a director with Ordinary People was no fluke when he produced and directed Quiz Show, a lavish 1994 docudrama chronicling one of the greatest show business scandals ever, that never really got the attention it deserved because it was released the same year as some more popular box office heavyweights that overshadowed it.
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The setting is the mid-1950's, when television was still in its infancy and almost all programming was live, providing the backdrop for what became known as the great quiz show scandal. A quiz show called "Twenty One" was a cash cow for NBC and as the story opens, we are introduced to the show's current champion, a man named Herbie Stempel, who is smart, but kind of nerdy and annoying according to the president of Geritol, the show's sponsor, who quietly drops the hint that he wants Stempel off the show and replaced with a new champion. Dan Enright and Albert Freedman, the execs behind the show, encounter one Charles Van Doren, who is spotted at NBC auditioning for a different quiz show. Van Doren is handsome, charismatic, and the heir apparent of one of the most powerful literary families in New York, headed by Charles' father, who is a celebrated professor under whose shadow Charles has been hiding for years.
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Enright and Freedman offer Van Doren the championship on the show by providing him with the answers to the show in advance. Van Doren initially turns down the offer, believing he can beat Stempel on his own steam, but this is not good enough for Enright, who tells Stempel that he is going to take a dive by answering a simple question incorrectly. Stempel has show business aspirations of his own which he is afraid will derail if he doesn't cooperate and Van Doren thinks he becomes the champion on his own merit but keeps silent when the show starts feeding him the answers, keeping him on the show, making him rich and a media darling. Things get really ugly when Stempel starts making noise about what happened to him, motivating a congressional attorney named Richard Goodwin into investigating his allegations.
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Redford has taken one of my favorite cinematic subjects, the business of show business, and focused a truly unflattering, but surprisingly balanced look at one of entertainment history's ugliest scandals, where no one involved is painted in black and white. Paul Attanasio's Oscar-nominated screenplay, based on a book by Goodwin, provides one of those maddening stories that could have the viewer talking back to the screen as we watch an embarrassing scandal slowly come to light under national scrutiny while all the parties go into self-preservation mode and players we had no idea were initially involved also come to light.
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Producer and director Redford has spared no expense in bringing this story to the screen, employing first rate production values and a superb cast, headed by Ralph Fiennes as Van Doren, David Paymer and Hank Azaria as the properly greasy Enright and Freedman, respectively, and Rob Morrow in the performance of his career as Goodman. Paul Scofield received an Oscar nomination for his performance as Van Doren's pompous father, but personally, I think that nomination should have gone to John Turturro for his explosive performance as Stempel. Also loved Christopher McDonald as Jack Barry, the host of "Twenty One." The film also features appearances by two Oscar winning directors: Martin Scorsese appears as the Geritol sponsor who kicks this whole thing in motion and Barry Levinson appears as Dave Garroway.
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Redford was also nominated for Best Director, as was the film for Best Picture. More than anything, this film is a tribute to the screen storytelling skill of Robert Redford, who meticulously puts a compelling story center stage and never allows anything in the story to do anything but serve it. 4

Citizen Rules

03-06-17, 08:38 PM

I SAW THE LIGHT
...despite a charismatic performance from the leading man, suffers due to a cliched screenplay and lethargic direction.

With tighter direction and writing, this could have been quite amazing, but Hiddleston still makes it worth a look. rating_2_5That's what I thought of it too. The lead actor was real good but the screenplay and direction were mediocre. I even rated it slightly lower than you.

Did you find that scenes started, but were never explained, then abruptly ended? It seemed like scenes would start out interesting, but in a flash, it's months later and we wonder what happened in the last scene?

Gideon58

03-07-17, 11:08 AM

That's what I thought of it too. The lead actor was real good but the screenplay and direction were mediocre. I even rated it slightly lower than you.

Did you find that scenes started, but were never explained, then abruptly ended? It seemed like scenes would start out interesting, but in a flash, it's months later and we wonder what happened in the last scene?

Yeah, but they still managed to keep the pace of the film absolutely deadening...the movie was under two hours, but felt like four.

Gideon58

03-07-17, 04:38 PM

LEAP OF FAITH
A charismatic starring performance by Steve Martin is the centerpiece of a richly entertaining comedy-drama from 1992 called Leap of Faith a story about religion for profit and the legitimacy of miracles that challenges logic and leaves story elements to personal viewer interpretation, but never fails to entertain.
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Martin plays Jonas Nightingale, a phony faith healer/evangelist who heads a very elaborate traveling faith healing show that is so big it consists of two eighteen-wheelers and a full gospel choir. One of the trucks breaks down in the middle of a one horse town that is not on Jonas' schedule but Jonas decides to seize the opportunity to make some money and he and his longtime partner, Jane (Debra Winger) go about their elaborate sting where they and the rest of their staff gather enough information about the townspeople that Jonas is able to fool people into knowing what they need, with an assist from Jane's computer skills. Jonas and company mesmerize most of the town, with the exception of the local sheriff (Liam Neeson), who is determined to expose Jonas for the phony that he is and run him out of town but his plan falls to the wayside when he falls for Jane. Jonas also becomes more involved than he planned with an attractive waitress (Lolita Davidovich) and her handicapped younger brother (Lukas Haas).
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Aided by screenwriter Janus Cercone, Martin creates a terrific lead character in Jonas...he's part Elmer Gantry and part Harold Hill but unlike those characters, he never really believes his own press until what appear to be possibly genuine miracles begin to happen in the town that everyone wants to credit to Jonas, except Jonas.
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And this is where the viewer is challenged...just when Jonas has been exposed by the Sheriff for the phony that he is, these miracles begin to occur which Jonas publicly uses to his advantage but knows he has nothing to do with, but do we, the outsiders watching this story know this? I believe this is purposely crafted for personal viewer interpretation because in terms of the story up to this point, there are no explanations for certain events that happen here that can have any basis in reality, but entertainment isn't always about reality, sometimes it's just about hope, and I think that's what the message is here...hope. Miracles can occur if you believe in them.
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Director Richard Pearce has mounted a somewhat manipulative story here, but the manipulation works. Steve Martin offers one of his strongest performances as Jonas and works really well with Debra Winger, one of cinema's most refreshing and unaffected presences. I think one reason the relationship between these two characters works so well is that it has nothing to do with romance...these characters are business partners, two people who know each other better than anyone else and sometimes that kind of relationship is more interesting than a romance and it really serves this particular story effectively. Liam Neeson is charming, if a little too straight-faced as the sheriff and Davidovich is wasted, but I love Peerce's attention to the townspeople, some lovely detail is employed regarding Jonas' interactions with these people and really helps to make this movie kind of special, even if you don't believe everything you see. 3.5

Miss Vicky

03-08-17, 03:49 AM

Really glad to see you liked that one, Gideon. I haven't seen it in quite a long time but I remembered Martin being very good in it. Your review makes me want to watch it again.

Citizen Rules

03-08-17, 12:41 PM

LEAP OF FAITH
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Is that Debra Winger in the photo? She looks cute as a button there. Does she have a big role? I might watch it just to see her.

mark f

03-08-17, 01:28 PM

That's Lolita Davidovich.

Citizen Rules

03-08-17, 01:31 PM

Thanks Mark. I last seen her in Gods and Monsters (1998), I didn't even recognize her.

Gideon58

03-08-17, 04:05 PM

Is that Debra Winger in the photo? She looks cute as a button there. Does she have a big role? I might watch it just to see her.

No, that's Lolita Davidovich in that photo...couldn't find a decent shot of Winger from the movie.

Gideon58

03-08-17, 04:11 PM

Really glad to see you liked that one, Gideon. I haven't seen it in quite a long time but I remembered Martin being very good in it. Your review makes me want to watch it again.

He was very good and thank you for motivating me to watch it...it will be in the top ten on my list.

Gideon58

03-08-17, 09:59 PM

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS
Director and screenwriter Tom Ford, the creative force behind the Colin Firth drama A Single Man had an intriguing idea that got away from him in 2016's Nocturnal Animals which, though well-acted, suffers due to an overly intricate screenplay that doesn't provide the payoff the viewer waits for.
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This is the story of Susan (Amy Adams), a wealthy art gallery owner who is an insomniac in the middle of a troubled second marriage, who receives a manuscript in the mail from her ex-husband, Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) who has dedicated the book to Susan and wants her thoughts on it. In the story, we are introduced to a man named Tony (also Gyllenhaal) who is traveling with his wife and daughter who are harassed on a dark highway one night resulting in a terrible tragedy.
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We then get a flashback to Susan and Edward's marriage, which is revealed to have suffered because Edward felt emasculated by what he felt was Susan's lack of support in his writing career, which apparently was the beginning of the end of their relationship. Susan has interpreted this manuscript as some kind of revenge on Edward's part for what Susan did to him and though she is haunted by what Edward has written, before finishing it, she contacts Edward and tells him she wants to talk to him about it and he agrees.
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Ford has an interesting idea here, but he lets it go too far...the story presented in the form of a manuscript is bloody and messy and goes far beyond a simple revenge scenario to the point that we are scratching out heads and wondering why this man thought that this bizarre story would upset his ex-wife. The parallels between Edward and Tony are obvious from jump and there is no reason for this manuscript to go as far as it does, though it does provide some interesting characters, most notable, a methodical police detective (Oscar nominee Michael Shannon) who has been diagnosed with cancer.
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Ford has employed some solid production values here, including some striking cinematography and gets strong performances from Adams, Gyllenhaal, and especially Shannon, but there's some kind of payoff this story should have provided and didn't, leaving this viewer scratching his head as the credits rolled. 3

Gideon58

03-11-17, 05:19 PM

TENACIOUS D IN THE PICK OF DESTINY
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Jack Black has provided more than his share of laughs on the big screen over the years, but those who know the actor as well as those who saw School of Rock know that this is one actor who wants to be a rock and roll musician. When not making movies, Jack and his partner Kyle Gass make music together as Tenacious D and Black was finally allowed to combine his passion with his bread and butter for a 2006 oddity called Tenacious D in The Pick of Detiny.
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Black and Gass are basically playing exaggerated versions of themselves here, a pair of Venice California rock and roll potheads who plan to participate in an open mic night and decide that the only way they can win the competition is to steal a legendary guitar pick that is under very tight security at the Rock and Roll History Museum.
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Black and Gass had a really solid idea here but I just don't think they believed in their own concept enough to trust it to deliver what they wanted. I don't know if there's an actual term for it...for the sake of this review, I'm calling it "Rock and Roll Improv", the art of putting instant lyrics to famous rock progressions, but there is NOBODY in the business who does it better than Jack Black and as this movie began, I thought "OMG, this is going to be awesome, a Jack Black rock and roll opera!" Unfortunately, my dreams turned to dross when characters actually started speaking lines, because most of the actors cast in this film were pretty dreadful (including Gass). If Black had fully committed to this idea and made the story a rock opera, this film would have been amazing.
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Instead of amazing, what we ended up with is a sluggish musical comedy that provides laughs, especially for rock music fans, but these laughs do not sustain through the closing credits...and the film is only 90 minutes long! Sadly, it was a pretty long ninety minutes that found me glancing at my watch on occassion and even stifling the occasional yawn.
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Jack Black is almost always worth watching, documented by School of Rock, but I think he might have had the ear of director Liam Lynch a little more in order to keep this thing moving at an entertaining pace. Gass is no actor but Black's respect for the guy is evident in every frame and every moment that these two spend in front of mics with guitars strapped to their chests was gold; unfortunately, there weren't enough of them. There are some clever cameos by Tim Robbins, Ben Stiller, Amy Poehler, and Fred Armisen, but it's Black and Gass' show and their idea was a good one, I just wish they had committed to it completely. 2.5

Gideon58

03-13-17, 06:30 PM

PINK FLOYD: THE WALL
A well-worn cinematic premise is given new life thanks to some arresting and unsettling live action and animated visual images and the iconic rock album that forms the soundtrack making 1982's Pink Floyd: The Wall a viewing experience that, despite obvious influences from other films, establishes its own credentials as a unique acid trip of a movie that might startle, confuse, and repel, but riveted this viewer to the screen.
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The film introduces us to Pink (Bob Geldof), a burnt out rock star who has begun a methodical descent into complete madness, a madness that has found Pink building a symbolic wall around him that is shutting him off from the rest of humanity, who want to save him but haven't a clue as exactly how to break through.
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Our story flashes back and forth revealing a troubled childhood for Pink,which included the boy's inability to deal with the loss of his father during the war and an emasculating mother who had some unhealthy influences on the boy. This somewhat disturbing character study reveals the central character's obsession with blood, violence, and destruction and it is all so effectively melded together that sometimes we're not sure what is real and what is a manifestation of this guy's shredded mental capacities where heavy drug use have to be a factor. And just when things start to become a little more cohesive, a truly unsettling political bent enters the story which hints at facism and its possible connection to being our hero's savior.
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Originally, it seemed my unfamiliarity with the music of Pink Floyd might have had something to do with my initial confusion regarding this absurdist musical vision; however, as the film progressed, I realized that this was not the case, as the music framing every sick and bizarre image presented here was a perfect fit, so perfect that there were moments in this story, particularly the beginning images of young Pink during his demented school days, I actually found myself tapping my feet, the music having become a natural part of my experience.
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Director Alan Parker, whose resume as a director follows no rhyme or reason, is no stranger to mounting musical stories. He directed the 1980 musical Fame and the 1996 film version of the Broadway musical Evita and has a proven track record of combining music and visuals to maximum effect and even though Roger Waters is credited as both composer and screenwriter, making this cinematic vision had to be a completely collaborative effort because the video and audio here had to be conceived simultaneously for maximum effect, even if that effect is confusing and disturbing.
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Parker and Waters have spared no expense here, the film is rich with impressive production values, including some unbelievable animation, which produces some of the film's most stomach-churning moments. If I had one technical quibble and I'm not sure if it was the film itself or the print that I was watching, but there are sections of the film where I really had trouble hearing the audio which was really a major faux pas for a film based on a record album, but I never took my eyes off the screen and never checked my watch. Not for all tastes, but fans of the 1975 Ken Russell film Tommy will have a head start here. 3.5

Citizen Rules

03-13-17, 06:35 PM

Loved, your review of The Wall. I have yet to rewatch it, but have seen it several times in the past. Nice choice of photos too!

Gideon58

03-14-17, 06:35 PM

THE COMMITMENTS
Dazzling entertainment from opening to closing credits, 1991's The Commitments not only takes a classic show business story and delightfully turns it on its ear, but earns its cinematic credentials by setting the story on foreign soil and providing a story rich with something you don't find in a lot of musicals...stark, in-your-face-realism.
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The setting is contemporary Dublin where we meet an unemployed, aspiring music impressario named Jimmy Rabbitte who decides to put together a band but has a very specific vision for the band that we really don't expect from a young Irishman. Jimmy has decided that the secret to his band is the Motown sound...James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, etc. Starting with nothing but his vision, Jimmy places an ad in a local paper and holds auditions for the band from his home and as hopefuls arrive, before they even perform, the only thing Jimmy wants to know is who their musical influences are, if they name anyone Caucasian, he slams the door in their face. Once he has found the exact combination of musicians he wants, some completely by accident, he goes about making his vision a reality and finds the road is not an easy one, but Jimmy knows this well-traveled road and never takes his eye off the prize...the first Irish soul band.
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This film, is more than anything, a testament to the genius that is director Alan Parker, no stranger to directing musicals (Fame, Evita) bringing what he learned in the mounting of those films and putting a fresh and delicious gloss that thoroughly entertains without ever leaving the realm of reality. Except for one brief scene on a subway train, there is no random bursting into song and dance on crowded streets here...this is a story of a man with a serious vision about the kind of band he wants and also keenly aware of the delicate egos of musicians and knows exactly how to deal with them. As an outsider looking in on this story, we think our chains are being yanked when Jimmy's vision is presented, but we realize he is dead serious when we see him sit some of the band members down and have them watch a video of James Brown and when we see the confused looks on the band members' faces, we know we are not heading into your typical backstage musical.
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Parker and screenwriter Dick Clement (based on a novel by Roddy Doyle) have created a story rich with characters that are nothing like what we expect from the premise. I love that the lead singer Jimmy hires is an overweight, sexist pig who can't eat a pastry without getting it all over his face. I love that the only band member who understands Jimmy's vision from jump is a trumpet player old enough to be his father who is instantly made a member of the band when he brags about jamming with BB King. I loved that the guy who Jimmy originally hired to be security eventually ends up being his drummer. But what I loved most about this story is that this band, as terrific as they are, do not become an instant success and their debut gig has more than its share of hiccups, as does their second...and third.
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In addition to Parker's sparkling direction, credit must be given to Wilson Pickett for his sensational musical arrangements of the Motown classics recreated here, which never attempt to duplicate the original recordings but completely respect this one of a kind musical sound that reinvented music in the late 50's and early 60's and watching a bunch of white Irish guys doing it, just adds to this story's entertainment. The film also features terrific art direction, sound mixing (obviously) and Oscar-nominated film editing.
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Parker wisely chose not to populate the film with a lot of stars, utilizing a hand-picked cast who serve the story, even if complete attention is required due to the heavy Irish brogues and slang employed, but attention is rewarded in spades here. There is standout work from Robert Arkins as Jimmy, Andrew Strong as the slovenly lead singer, and Johnny Murphy as the veteran trumpet player. Mention should also be made of Colm Feore, the biggest "name" in the cast, playing Jimmy's dad who thinks Elvis is God. A one-of-a-kind movie experience that will have you tapping you toes and dusting off your Motown collection. 4.5

Gideon58

03-14-17, 09:50 PM

SULLY
Meticulous and detail-oriented direction by Oscar winner Clint Eastwood and a 100-megawatt movie star performance by Oscar winner Tom Hanks anchor the 2016 docudrama Sully, that provides a balanced look at a historical event while providing compelling entertainment.
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For those who don't remember, on January 15, 2009, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, a commercial pilot with 40 years experience found his only option in dealing with a malfunctioning airliner was to make an emergency water landing in the Hudson River, something unprecedented and from which there are rarely survivors but Sully not only makes the landing but all 155 people aboard the plane somehow survive.
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This docudrama provides an out of sequence yet balanced look at the events of the crash, the consequences for Sully and how the whole concept of being a hero was something Sully was never able to wrap his head around. I was shocked to learn the exact cause of the plane malfunction which I was unaware of prior to this film. Screenwriter Todd Komarnicki took Sully's book and cleverly crafted a story that requires attention because it begins with the consequences of what Sully did, which so many are not aware of, including an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Bureau into Sully's culpability and how it has already grounded him and might permanently end his career. Sully's past and training are briefly touched upon as is the actual water landing itself, terrifyingly presented in dual point of views...from the passengers and from the cockpit.
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Clint Eastwood knocks it out of the park here taking the kind of story that automatically induces cheers and evokes sympathy for its hero and of course, Eastwood knew that there was only one actor who could pull this off. No one but Hollywood's most likable actor would have been appropriate for this role and I'm pretty sure Eastwood would have waited 50 years to make this film if Tom Hanks hadn't been available for 50 years.
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Hanks delivers one of his most solid performances, beautifully controlled and emotionally charged that proves Hanks still has the acting chops to command the screen after over 40 years in the business and he gets solid support from Aaron Eckhart, Mike O'Malley, Laura Linney, and Jamey Sheridan, but Hanks owns this movie...Hanks and Clint Eastwood, making the film seem a lot better than it really is. 3.5

Upton

03-14-17, 10:06 PM

Nice review of The Commitments, I love that movie

I also love this current stage of middle-aged Tom Hanks where he's weirdly no longer getting automatic Oscar nominations despite churning out some of his best performances in this, Captain Philips and Bridge of Spies. I watched Sully recently and spent most of it just appreciating Hanks doing his thing

Gideon58

03-15-17, 07:53 PM

THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT
1967's The Young Girls of Rochefort is a stylish and colorful valentine to MGM musicals that, even though it is in French with English subtitles, will appeal to anyone who has ever enjoyed an MGM musical because everything you expect from a classic musical comedy is here, it's just presented with a delicious French accent.
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Set during a memorable weekend in a small seaside town in France called Rochefort, this musical focuses on a pair of glamorous sisters: Delphine (Catherine Deneuve) is a dance teacher and her twin, Solange (Francois Dorleac), a piano teacher and composer who have big dreams and plan to move to Paris to seek fame and fortune. A cluster of characters caught up in romantic destiny that revolves around these sisters include the girls' mother (Danielle Darrieux), a lonely cafe owner, an American musician between gigs in Paris (Gene Kelly), a charming music store owner (Michel Piccoli), a sailor who is also a poet and painter (Jacques Perrin), and a pair of slick carnival performers (George Chakiris, Grover Dale) who have just been deserted by their leading ladies. These characters are thrown together in classic musical comedy fashion and our joy comes in watching exactly how we're going to reach the happy romantic ending we customarily require for our musicals.
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I must confess to some initial panic when I realized the film was in French with subtitles because normally I hate reading at the movies, but reservations were almost immediately quashed as I realized that I was about to be treated to a musical that makes no apologies about the fact that it is a musical...the first dance number begins during the opening credits and from there I was hooked...the story is crafted from elements from so many classic musical that understanding exactly what was going on became a non-issue pretty quickly.
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Director Jacques Demy mounted this confection with respect to the genre and giving us musical lovers all the things we are looking for, even if they are disguised with a French accent. Composer Michel Legrand has provided a lush and melodic musical score that is utilized in a classic theatrical style...I loved when the carny guys asked the twins to be in their show and wanted to know what kind of number they could do and the girls responded by reprising their opening number in the film that introduced them to the viewer, a classic musical comedy device. The story even throws in a small subplot involving a murder mystery that provided some fun without getting in the way of what we really came here for. The film also features spectacular dance numbers, beautifully choreographed by Norman Maen (except for Kelly's sequences which he choreographed himself).
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About twenty minutes into the film, I suspected that most of the singing in the film was dubbed and it was confirmed when Kelly made his first appearance and opened his mouth to sing and a voice that was not Kelly's came out, but like the subtitles, this quickly became a non-issue, as did the unsettling image of George Chakiris, who six year earlier won an Oscar for playing Puerto Rican Bernardo in West Side Story speaking with a perfect French accent. To be honest, Kelly, in his first appearance in a musical in a decade was wasted, but I'm sure he was added to the cast to give the film some appeal to American film goers.
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I think what I liked the best about this movie is that even though you know where everything is going and who's supposed to be with who, Demy makes you wait to the very last minute of the film for that requisite happy ending, but the journey there was such a surprising pleasure. 3.5

Gideon58

03-16-17, 09:51 PM

DOUBT
Very prickly subject matter is effectively broached thanks to intelligent scripting, startling direction, and some powerhouse performances with 2008's Doubt, a scorching and intense drama that makes no apologies for a take-no-prisoners story that leaves more than its share of cinematic bodies in its wake.
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Set at a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964, this is the story of a teacher at the school named Sister James (Amy Adams) who stumbles upon what is, on the surface, circumstantial evidence, that the church's very popular priest, Father Flynn (the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman) might have instigated an inappropriate relationship with a young black student. Equipped primarily with gut instinct, she reports what she has learned to the school's hard-as-nails principal, Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) who takes the little she is given and runs with it, initiating what is basically a witch hunt to get a confession out of Father Flynn.
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This is the film version of a play by John Patrick Shanley, who won an Oscar for his screenplay for Moonstruck, who was not only allowed to adapt his own play into a viable screenplay, but took the director's chair for the second time in his career (the first was Joe Versus the Volcano) and I think the man's protective instinct toward bringing his original stage vision to the screen is evident in every frame. Though the film never really escapes its stage origins, it manages to rivet the viewer to the screen with vividly human characters caught in the middle of a sometimes ugly story that unfolds with enough ease that we are a little startled when we realize what is going on and witness what appears to be the railroading of this priest. The real beauty of this story though is that even though no true evidence of this priest's guilt is ever brought to light, hints of the truth are provided for the viewer that are not provided to Sister Aloysius because these hints come to fruition through Shanley's quietly brilliant direction, which only the viewer is privy of...small, seemingly irrelevant moments in the story that reveal the truth of what is happening here without one word of dialogue.
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The other thing that makes this film sizzle is this central character of Sister Aloysius, beautifully realized by the amazing Meryl Streep...there has always been a certain pious quality to cinematic nuns that is kind of annoying to the viewer, but Streep infuses this character with a sharpness and a bitter cold that is alternately chilling and very, very funny...this character produced chuckles throughout this film that came from the quiet bitchiness that Streep brings to a character whose motivations are supposed to be God-driven and watching her spearhead this witch hunt is richly entertaining even though if her actions are observed closely, the Sister makes a lot of wrong moves, most notably the fact that she never talks to the boy, but we realize that she doesn't have to because she knows she doesn't have to. Even her confrontation with the boy's mother (Viola Davis) backfires on her, but it doesn't deter her.
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There's not a whole lot of suspense here, but this is riveting entertainment thanks to Shanley's shameless story, his sensitive direction, and the Oscar-nominated performances from Streep, Hoffman, Adams (very effective in what seems to be a one-dimensional character), and Davis. But what this film really did was established John Patrick Shanley as director and not just a writer. Fans of The Children's Hour will have a head start here. 3.5

Joel

03-16-17, 10:01 PM

I'll always have a soft spot for this film but I agree with you mostly. This was a good review for a film that should have been better. Sadly, because of its box office failure, we probably won't get another one (their live performances these days are less than inspired, from what I've seen). I'm happy they made it, though.

TENACIOUS D IN THE PICK OF DESTINY
I just wish they had committed to it completely. 2.5

Citizen Rules

03-16-17, 10:14 PM

Gideon, it sounds like you really like Doubt (I did too). In your opinion, what would the film have to have done differently to get a higher rating from you?

Gideon58

03-17-17, 11:31 AM

Gideon, it sounds like you really like Doubt (I did too). In your opinion, what would the film have to have done differently to get a higher rating from you?

It's so funny you asked me that, because I was thinking about it all night...what would have gotten 4 or possibly 4.5 bags of popcorn out of me was a slight change in the story...if Father Flynn had been innocent but Sister Aloysius forced him out anyway, I think that would have been a much more powerful story.

Citizen Rules

03-17-17, 02:05 PM

I didn't review Doubt, but I do remember that I thought highly of it. I should rewatch it so I can review it.

Gideon58

03-17-17, 04:01 PM

I didn't review Doubt, but I do remember that I thought highly of it. I should rewatch it so I can review it.

Did I just spoil it for you? Sorry.

Gideon58

03-18-17, 01:18 PM

TOP HAT
RKO Studios spared no expense in the mounting of 1935's Top Hat, a lavish musical comedy that features a clever screenplay, a flawless supporting cast, a melodic song score, and of course, the greatest dance team to ever grace the silver screen...Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
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Astaire plays Jerry Travers, an American hoofer who arrives in London to star in a show there for his pal, producer Horace Hardwicke (Edward Everett Horton). An impromptu tap dance in his hotel room disturbs the rest of Dale Tremont (Rogers), a fashion model in the room below who meets Jerry and is immediately attracted to him, but through a classic case of musical comedy mistaken identity, is led to believe that Jerry is really Horace, which complicates Dale's feelings because Horace's wife, Madge (Helen Broderick) is Dale's BFF and her loyalty to Madge has her leave London and go to Italy, where Madge is and confesses everything, and is surprised by Madge's laid back reaction to the revelation that her husband came on to Dale.
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Of course, Jerry and Horace fly to Italy as well to try and iron things out but it's not as easy as Jerry was hoping when Horace reveals he really is cheating on Madge. Throw in Horace's manservant, Bates (Eric Blore), who Horace orders to keep an eye on Dale and Alberto Beddini (Erik Rhodes), the arrogant fashion designer secretly in love with Dale, and you have the perfect 1930's musical comedy.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Dgx3-GX__3M/UilOysU4JzI/AAAAAAAAMNE/JJ93--VlDqs/s1600/TopHatPIC-rev05.jpg
What separates this musical from most is a surprisingly well-crafted screenplay by Dwight Taylor and Allen Scott that keeps this mistaken identity plot credible, executed by a fantastic cast who mine every single laugh this almost credibility-stretching story provides but never gets in the way of the one-of-a-kind screen chemistry between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Rogers once again proved that, even without her tap shoes, that her comic timing was something to be reckoned with.
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The lovely Irving Berlin score includes "Fancy Free", "No Strings", "Isn't it a Lovely Day", "Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails", "The Piccolino" and the memorable "Cheek to Cheek" In the "Top Hat" number, Astaire is just dazzling...he is backed by about 20 male dances in the number who you barely notice and Hermes Pan's staging of "The Piccolino" rivals some of Busby Berkeley's best work.
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The supporting cast is perfection, from Edward Everett Horton's beffudled Horace, to the wisecracking Helen Broderick, and especially Rhodes, who had me on the floor as Bedinni, a character whose fractured English provided big laughs. The film also features exquisite production design, some stunning costumes, and even though the story is set in London and Italy, it's obvious that this movie never left a studio, but we're so caught up in the comedic and musical joy unfolding before us, that we easily forgive. 4

Citizen Rules

03-18-17, 01:40 PM

TOP HAT

Ginger Rogers once again proved that, even without her tap shoes, that her comic timing was something to be reckoned with. I'm glad to see you appreciating the comic talents of Ginger Rogers:) She's sooooo good in so many movies, that basically I feel if Ginger is in it...watch it!

Have you ever seen a photo of Hermes Pan? It's amazing that he actually looks like Fred Astaire. I heard he was sometimes mistaken for Fred around the studio, if someone spotted him from afar.

http://www.classichollywoodbios.com/Images/Links%20Images/Astaire-Rogers%20Top%20Hat%20(1935).jpg
Ahhh...The gazebo number with Ginger's feather dress:p Love that one.

Great review! and it's really cool that you're watching some older 1930s movies, that's my favorite movie decade.

Gideon58

03-18-17, 05:08 PM

JOHN WICK
A stylish and offbeat variation of the classic anti-hero with a perfect taste of tongue-in-cheek makes the 2014 action thriller John Wick, a film that works thanks to a somewhat interesting variation in the presentation of its central character.
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The introduction of John Wick is not really anything we haven't seen before, but the only difference is that we are definitely not being told everything. It's not obvious what John does for a living, but his beautiful home implies that he is very good at it and that he is currently taking some time off. We find out one of the reasons for this is the death of his wife (Bridget Moynihan), who actually bought a puppy and had it delivered to John before her death. The puzzle pieces don't start to fall into place until the son of a Russian mobster (Alfie Allen) steals John's 1969 Mustang and murders the puppy. When dad (Michael Nyqvist) learns what his son did, he kicks the crap out of his son and then places him in a safe house for his own protection.
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Through the use of carefully structured backstory and his present day reputation, it finally comes to light that John Wick is a former hitman whose reputation is unprecedented and has garnered respect on both sides of the law. The aformentioned Russian mobster is no exception where this respect/fear of Wick is concerned, but is not above putting a $2,000,000 contract out on him either.
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Screenwriter Derek Kolstad has constructed a straight up action thriller that combines a quiet tongue in cheek quality to the story as well as populating the story with good guys pretending to be bad guys and bad guys pretending to be good. It was such fun seeing a story like this where the bad guy is aware of what he's up against from jump and not being terribly thrilled about it. This slimy Russian is so fearful of this guy Wick that he is willing to throw his own son under the bus and once you see this guy in action, you'll know why.
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Keanu Reeves showed he had the chops to be a viable action hero in Speed and in The Matrix franchise, but anyone who still has any doubts need look no further than his work here...Reeves has never commanded the screen the way he does here, bringing a warm emotional center to this assassin who can kill with his bare hands, but only utilizes this skill when he absolutely has to. Reeves is aided by the strong direction of Chad Stahelski, who displays a flair for mounting an edge-of-your-seat action thriller. Art direction, film editing, and a pulse-pounding music score help bring this classy action thriller home. 3.5

Dani8

03-18-17, 05:10 PM

Nice review, Gid. I rewatched this recently.

Gideon58

03-20-17, 11:56 AM

WHEN WE RISE
Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for his screenplay for the 2008 film, Milk, is the creative force behind When We Rise, an ambitious mini-series that premiered on ABC, chronicling the history of the struggle for gay rights beginning with the Stonewall riots in 1969 through the battle for the right to same sex marriage.
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This is another case of a project that if all was important were its intentions, this mini-series definitely hit a bullseye; sadly, this story suffers from an overly intricate and very preachy screenplay. Normally, a degree of preachiness can be forgiven on this subject...I forgave it with Philadelphia and The Normal Heart because those were two-hour movies. However, we're talking about a four-part mini series that ran approximately eight hours and as sincere as the intentions might be, the preachiness has a sledgehammer-like effect that made getting through this mini-series a real chore, and as a gay man, there is some degree of shame in that, but this review is about the entertainment value of this production not its intentions.
http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/170110140829-when-we-rise-exlarge-169.jpg
This story is told through the eyes of four separate real life characters. Cleve Jones is a gay male whose struggle with his sexual identity began by the initial rejection of who he was by his father, who wanted to send Cleve to therapy in order to "cure" him. Diane and Roma are a lesbian couple who met in South Africa, were separated, but were reunited as Roma became in involved with NOW (National Organization of Women). We also meet Ken Jones, a black gay man who was in the navy and had his first lover there, which resulted in him being discreetly transferred to San Francisco and eventually found another lover who died of AIDS. The death of Ken's lover actually initiated a mental breakdown for Ken from which religion seemed to be his only escape.
http://cdn01.cdn.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/headlines/2017/02/when-we-rise-cast-list.jpg
The story presented here is important and it's lovely that it was finally given a voice here, but what made this production so troubling was its reveal of the infighting between people who should have been working together. I was shocked to see the infighting that existed between the lesbian movement and NOW but what was brought to light here more than anything was the war between gay men and gay women, something that was really news to me. It would seem that these people would have been working together, but this infighting almost tore the movement apart. It was troubling to watch lesbians refuse to support Harvey Milk because they had a lesbian candidate they wanted to support. Watching this surprising opposition between people who should be working together actually had me understanding the intensity of this fight and how could we expect support from the heterosexual community when there was such fighting among ourselves? And, of course, the story takes an ugly turn with the advent of AIDS.
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There was a lot of money poured into this production and it features an impressive all-star cast, but, sadly, the production suffers here too...a lot of the performances are over-the-top and unconvincing, not to mention some problematic casting. There were a lot of openly gay actors who clearly wanted to be involved in this project in some way and a lot of them were miscast...most notably, David Hyde Pierce, completely unbelievable as Cleve's homophobic father. Rachel Griffiths and Mary Louise Parker were convincing as Diane and Roma, but Guy Pearce was a little much as Cleve and Michael Kenneth Williams, a powerhouse actor whose work I've admired for years, turns in one of the worst performances of his career here as Ken. TR Knight, Phylicia Rachad, William Sadler, Rob Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg, Dylan Walsh, Henry Czerny, Mary McCormack, Melora Hardin, and Balthazar Getty offer contributions to the story, but what should have been a compelling look at some important issues becomes an overblown production that offers some education but not enough entertainment value to sustain eight hours of television, especially for heterosexual audiences. 2.5

Gideon58

03-20-17, 05:26 PM

ONCE
Most likely aimed at moviegoers who don't like musicals as a rule, the 2007 film Once is an unremarkable but lovingly crafted look at the singularly unique passion that music can ignite between two people who otherwise would never connect; however, this is sadly a case where the parts are better than the whole.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9d/Once_(2006_film)poster.jpg
Like another film I viewed recently, The Commitments, the setting is contemporary Dublin where our two central characters meet. He works in his father's vacuum cleaner repair shop during the day and at night, hits the streets of Dublin with his guitar and his own angry music. She is a Czech immigrant and single mother who is drawn to his music and is eventually revealed to be a gifted pianist. She takes him to a music store where she has an understanding with the owner and they combine their gifts with the guitar and piano and a love affair is born, even if they don't realize it.
https://i0.wp.com/filmotomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Once-1.jpg?resize=675%2C360&ssl=1
This is another one of those cases where if making a strong cinematic statement was about intentions, this would hit a home run, but there's a very sluggish pacing to this story that really doesn't sustain interest for its very economic running time. Writer and director John Carney has a terrific idea here, creating a realistic movie musical, but when it comes down to it, no matter what kind of musical you're making, it comes down to the music as the sticking point and I just found the music rather uninteresting, even though I liked the fact that it was the singular factor linking the two central characters.
https://yts.ag/assets/images/movies/Once_2006/large-screenshot1.jpg
On the positive side, the characters' link through their music is so strong that the characters aren't even assigned names and we don't notice or care. I was intrigued by the fact that most of the music seemed to manifest itself through the two characters damaged romantic pasts, but this made for some music that at some times was hard and a little depressing. I did like that the two leads were clearly musicians first and not actors, which definitely aided in the realism that Carney was going for...it was so refreshing seeing a movie character sit down at a keyboard and the camera not have to move away from the keyboard in order to disguise the fact that the actor isn't really playing. It was obvious that every time this guy fingered that guitar and every time her hands flowed over that keyboard that they were creating the music onscreen for us. I was also impressed that the music that the protagonists create onscreen is pretty much the only music in the movie.
https://emsax27.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/once.jpg?w=1221&h=674&crop=1
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglove have a surprising ease onscreen, in what was clearly their first big screen assignments, but I wish they had been given a little more assistance from the screenplay and director in order to create viable screen entertainment that didn't find me stifling the occasional yawn. 2.5

Gideon58

03-22-17, 09:38 PM

LOVING
A compelling 2016 docudrama that hits all the right notes is 2016's Loving, an effectively crafted look at a facet of racism that has almost been forgotten about because in this day and age it seems to be such a non-issue.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Loving_(2016_film).jpg
The setting is 1950's rural Virginia where we meet Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton), a white bricklayer who has just learned that his black girlfriend, Mildred (Ruth Negga) is pregnant with his child. He is thrilled and immediately proposes and he, Mildred, and her father drive to DC where Richard and Mildred are married by a justice of the peace. Upon their return to Virginia, they are arrested for interracial marriage, which was still a crime back then. After one night, Richard is bailed out and we are horrified as he is told he can't bail out his pregnant wife and that her family has to come do it on Monday. Richard and Mildred are arrested again when Mildred insists that her mother-in-law (Sharon Blackwood), an experienced midwife, deliver her baby. They are sentenced to a year in jail, a sentence which is suspended if they agree to leave Virginia for 25 years. Richard and Mildred find peace in another state but Mildred's unassuming letter written to Bobby Kennedy sets off a series of events that lead to the ACLU taking their case to the supreme court.
http://thecriticalcritics.com/review/wp-content/images/loving-still-1-1160x480.jpg
Director/writer Jeff Nichols has provided an effectively balanced look at a once timely subject that really shouldn't be forgotten. It's such a non-issue in 2017 that this film was a bit of a culture shock, taking place at a time when interracial marriage was actually against the law. Can't argue with the events here, because it's based on real events and I was intrigued by some of the emotions this story stirred in me. At the core of this story were two people who were deeply in love and never wanted to be media darlings, they just wanted to walk in the sun as an interracial couple and that never changes. Their love for each other is evident and we know this because they do have two more children.
https://emsax27.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/once.jpg?w=1221&h=674&crop=1
It's all of the people in their orbit whose behavior is at times questionable here. I had a bit of a hard time believing that Mildred's family accepted Richard in Mildred's life so unconditionally, even after their arrest. Even the motives of the ACLU don't always appear clear and there are points in this story we just want all these people to go away and just leave the Lovings alone, especially after the road to the supreme court is on the horizon and it seems to be pulling the couple apart.
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The story is told at a leisurely pace but we want to see the ending, as unsurprising as it might be, this story demands that we see it. The film also features lovely cinematography and music and lovely performances from the leads. Edgerton is solid as Richard and Ruth Negga is absolutely luminous in a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination.
Negga's beautifully expressive face helped us understand what Mildred was feeling every second of this compelling story. A very special look at a topic that is not as timely as it should be. 3.5

Citizen Rules

03-22-17, 09:44 PM

Gideon58

03-23-17, 11:55 AM

Glad to see you enjoyed Loving. I felt about the same way you did about the movie. Ruth Negga was the best part. I didn't care for the actors who played the ACLU lawyers, I found them comical, which didn't fit the tone of the movie. How did you view the lawyers?

It's funny you should mention the lawyers, because they bothered me too...the first one, Mr. Cohen (Nick Kroll) especially came off like he wasn't taking the matter seriously or as if there was hidden motive for him that we weren't privy to. I don't know if it was the character or Kroll's performance, but Cohen just seemed to be making light of the entire situation and I found it hard to believe anything that came out of his mouth.

Citizen Rules

03-23-17, 01:26 PM

It's funny you should mention the lawyers, because they bothered me too...the first one, Mr. Cohen (Nick Kroll) especially came off like he wasn't taking the matter seriously or as if there was hidden motive for him that we weren't privy to. I don't know if it was the character or Kroll's performance, but Cohen just seemed to be making light of the entire situation and I found it hard to believe anything that came out of his mouth. Yup, that's exactly what I thought of the two lawyers.

I liked the movie so much, I got the documentary about the real Loving case. It's called: The Loving Story (2011) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1759682/) I'll write a review about it once I watched it (which should be real soon).

Gideon58

03-23-17, 04:08 PM

Yup, that's exactly what I thought of the two lawyers.

I liked the movie so much, I got the documentary about the real Loving case. It's called: The Loving Story (2011) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1759682/) I'll write a review about it once I watched it (which should be real soon).

There was also a TV movie done on it called Mr. & Mrs. Loving starring Timothy Hutton and Lela Rochon.

Citizen Rules

03-23-17, 04:42 PM

Yeah, SilentVamp told me about that one, it's on my watch list. Have you seen it? She really liked it.

Gideon58

03-23-17, 04:43 PM

Yeah, SilentVamp told me about that one, it's on my watch list. Have you seen it? She really liked it.

No, but I can't believe it's a better movie.

Citizen Rules

03-23-17, 04:44 PM

I'm going to watch it and I will post on my review thread about it. It might not be for a week or two though.

Gideon58

03-25-17, 05:29 PM

FOLLOW THE FLEET
Hollywood's greatest dance team collaborated for the fifth time in 1936's Follow the Fleet, another entertaining confection that provides just enough plot that we actually have a story that we don't mind being interrupted by the occasional musical highlight.
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Fred Astaire plays Bake Baker (terrible character name), a sailor on leave with his ship mate Bilge Smith (Randolph Scott), who attempts to rekindle his romance with Sherry Martin (Ginger Rogers), who he had an act with before joining the navy while Bilge finds himself involved with Sherry's Plain-Jane sister, Connie (Harriet Hilliard).
https://jnpickens.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/harriet-nelson-and-randolph-scott-in-follow-the-fleet-1936.jpg
Director Mark Sandrich provides a breeziness to Dwight Taylor and Allen Scott's screenplay that not only plays up the stars' talent on the dance floor but their comic timing as well, which is given a healthy display here. Rogers already impressed me with her gift for comedy in Top Hat and Swing Time, but Astaire gets some really funny moments here too. I was especially amused by the scene where Bake decides to give dance lessons to his fellow sailors on the ship. We also get something here that is rare in an Astaire-Rogers musical...a Rogers dance solo and she makes the most of the opportunity.
http://www.classicmoviehub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/astaire_and_rogers_follow_the_fleet_opt.jpg
Music is key with Astaire and Rogers and Irving Berlin has provided a clever blend of romance and patter with songs like "We Join the Navy", "Let Yourself Go", "Get Thee Behind Thee, Satan", "But Where are You", and, of course, "Let's Face the Music and Dance".
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/87/38/bd/8738bd472d5c1232c513a656ff22cc42.jpg
Randolph Scott surprises with his light comic touch as Bilge and Harriet Hilliard gives a star-making turn as Connie. A couple of decades later, Hilliard would become a TV icon after marrying a guy named Ozzie Nelson and starring on a sitcom with him called The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. And if you don't blink, you'll also catch a couple of early film appearances by Betty Grable and Lucille Ball. It's no Top Hat, but an entertaining diversion nonetheless. 3.5

Gideon58

03-26-17, 05:43 PM

THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN
A powerhouse lead performance from Michelle Pfeiffer is the centerpiece of an affecting drama from 1999 called The Deep End of the Ocean which takes a surprisingly balanced look at what is basically every parents' nightmare, but unlike most films on this subject, this one addresses everyone involved.
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It is 1988 in Wisconsin where we meet Beth Cappadora (Pfeiffer), a photographer, wife, and mother of young Vincent, Ben, and baby Kerry. One morning Beth kisses husband Pat (Treat Williams) goodbye and packs the kids in the car as she plans to take them with her to DC for her high school reunion. Upon arrival at the hotel, Beth goes to the registration desk to check in, leaving Vincent and Ben alone. When she returns, Ben is no where to be found. The police are immediately alerted and we are informed that most missing children turn up within five hours. We watch the five hour mark turn into six weeks, not to mention the agony Beth is going through, trying to deal with the reality of what happened without blaming herself and without neglecting the rest of her family.
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Flash forward nine years later when Beth answers the door one day and there is a young neighbor there who offers to mow her lawn. It is apparent through Beth's movements that she believes this young man is Ben, who it turns out has been living just a few blocks away for years. The delicate process of returning Ben to his family is initiated but the requisite happy ending is a bumpy and emotionally-charged journey that requires patience and riveted this reviewer to the screen.
https://lh5.ggpht.com/njqeOfX4WHnVEE5Uw72IA6z88jVIlkxH5bQMVRoRlaBka4uJYPDYeycUzMGZgT4y2Pa6=w720
Director Ulu Grosbard (Straight Time; True Confessions)lends a sensitive directorial hand to Stephen Schniff's surprisingly balanced screenplay (based on a book by Jacquelyn Mitchard), which offers a family torn apart by what can only be described as a nightmare, but what the Cappadora family doesn't count on is the fact that Ben doesn't remember his life as Cappadora and thats where the real drama unfolds here, not to mention the father who raised Ben who is an innocent victim in this whole thing and Vincent, the older brother who has been seriously wounded by his mother's neglect and his own guilt.
http://c8.alamy.com/comp/F6GD7K/release-date-march-12-1999-movie-title-the-deep-end-of-the-ocean-studio-F6GD7K.jpg
Grosbard pulls an Oscar-worthy performance from Michelle Pfeiffer that makes you completely care about this woman and insist on her happiness, even though we're never quite sure if that's even possible. Pfeiffer gets solid support from Williams as her loving husband and Whoopi Goldberg as a sympathetic police officer. Ryan Merriman has some strong moments as the returned Ben/Sam and there is also a star-making turn from five time Daytime Emmy Award winner Jonathan Jackson as the tortured Vincent. Some lovely photography and a lush musical score are the finishing touches on this beautifully human family drama that, if caught in the right mood, will ignite a tear duct. 3.5

Sexy Celebrity

03-26-17, 06:03 PM

and Whoopi Goldbeg as a sympathetic police officer

Whoopi Goldbeg? Is she a new actress? Never heard of her!

Gideon58

03-26-17, 06:55 PM

I guess you could have just told me I left the "r" out of her last name, but then that just wouldn't be you, Sexy.

gbgoodies

03-27-17, 03:34 AM

The Deep End of the Ocean has been on my watchlist ever since I saw the trailer many years ago. I still haven't gotten around to seeing it, so I'll have to bump it up on my watchlist.

Gideon58

03-28-17, 07:08 PM

THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY
Despite some cliched musical biopic plotting, 1978's The Buddy Holly Story is totally winning entertainment, thanks primarily to an amazing marriage of actor and character that absolutely makes this biopic work.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTIyNzMwNDY2MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMDM2Njk4._V1_.jpg
It is Lubbock Texas in 1956 where we meet Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holly, the front man for a three piece rock and roll band who appear on a weekly radio program broadcast from a local roller rink, whose devil-worshiping rock and roll upsets Lubbock residents but attracts the attention of a record producer in Nashville, who likes Buddy's sound, but wants to put a hillbilly beat behind it, which Buddy is not feeling at all. Almost simultaneously, Buddy learns that his roller rink producer sent a tape of his music to a New York record producer who wants to sign Buddy's band and agrees to let Buddy do his music his way.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lw3DVsVhlsE/maxresdefault.jpg
Director Steve Rash and writer Alan Swyer, who adapted the screenplay from a book by John Goldrosen, have mounted a musical biopic in the most classic sense of the term. providing all the expected scenes that the genre implies...we see Buddy's humble beginnings where he is ridiculed and told that he will never be able to make a living from his passion, which most dismiss as a "hobby" to the initial conflict with bigwigs who want to put their own spin on the sound Buddy hears in his head, to the eventual control of his own career which unfortunately manifests the expected tension between Buddy and his band, when Buddy's fame elevates him to the point where he doesn't really need his drummer and bass player anymore, not to mentioned the obligatory love story with a secretary at the record label. We even get to see a set of theater marquees where we actually witness Buddy's name at the bottom of the marquee at the beginning of the story and inch its way up to the top for his final concert appearance.
https://www.furiouscinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/buddy2.jpg
I was intrigued by the reveal that most of the attention that Buddy and the Crickets originally received came from the fact that when most people in the music business heard their music, it was assumed that they were black, climaxed by their historical appearance as the first Caucasian band to appear at the Apollo and how the band won the all-black audience over pretty quickly.
https://alchetron.com/cdn/The-Buddy-Holly-Story-images-7cd55d7a-5d33-49bc-b21e-041093857bf.jpg
The production team brought a real musical authenticity to the story by having the actors record the music live and perform the songs onscreen as they were being filmed and anyone who has ever watched a musical with prerecorded music will immediately be able to tell the difference, giving complete respect to Buddy's music with a realistic sound that really makes the musical segments of the film come alive. And a large chunk of Buddy's most memorable songs are reproduced here, including "That'll be the Day", "Oh Boy" "Maybe Baby" "True Love Ways", and "It Doesn't Matter Anymore."
http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/acc71bb66b20411b9d00082ee4bc6cdc/oct-02-1978-hollywood-ca-usa-gary-busey-and-maria-richwine-star-as-f6f37r.jpg
But most of all, what this movie has is a dazzling starring performance from Gary Busey in the title role, a genuine movie star turn that earned the actor his first and only Oscar nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor. I have never enjoyed Busey onscreen more (with the possible exception of Mr. Joshua) and his vocal work producing the Holly sound was surprisingly impressive. The vocals produced by Busey and Charles Martin Smith (so memorable as Toad in American Graffiti), who plays Ray Bob, Buddy's bass player and back-up singer are on the money and Don Stroud, a bold and intense actor who never had the career he deserved, is properly moody as Buddy's drummer. The relationship between these three guys forms the heart of this movie and it's distressing when Buddy's fame starts to tear them apart, but it is nothing out of the realm of show business reality. Conrad Janis also scores as Buddy's New York producer and there are fun cameos by standup Paul Rooney as Sam Cooke and impressionist Fred Travelena as a manic disc jockey. Fans of musical biopics and of Gary Busey should eat this one up. 3.5

Citizen Rules

03-28-17, 11:49 PM

Nice review there Gideon, glad you liked my nom. After watching La Bamba and The Buddy Holly Story....I really want to see a bio-pic on The Big Booper...was such a movie even made?

Gideon58

03-29-17, 07:06 PM

I don't think there has been a movie on The Big Bopper...Gailard Sartain was good in this, but a movie about the Big Bopper would require a name and I'm drawing a blank off the top of my head as to who I would cast...any thoughts?

Sexy Celebrity

03-29-17, 07:15 PM

Gailard Sartain? That big fat guy from the Ernest movies?

Gideon58

03-29-17, 07:37 PM

EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS
Though the film has earned a cult following over the years, I'm at a loss to figure out why 1983's Eddie and the Cruisers has any fans at all. This pretentious and snore-inducing drama with music suffers due to a swiss cheese story (plot holes as far as the eye can see), some really cliched dialogue, and some overripe performances.
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This is the story of a magazine writer (Ellen Barkin) who is researching a small rock and roll group from the 60's whose charismatic front man, Eddie Wilson (Michael Pare) apparently drove his car off a bridge in March of 1964. The reporter reveals that at the time of his "death", Eddie was working on a new album called "A Season in Hell" and that some tapes were made of early recording sessions that disappeared the day after Eddie's death. The reporter has decided she wants to locate these tapes as well as investigate the possibility that Eddie might still be alive, since his body was never found.
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We are then introduced to former members of the band who the reporter approaches in her quest for the truth. Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger) was the keyboard player and lyricist for the group who is now a teacher and seems to want to forget his entire past with Eddie. We also meet Doc (Joe Pantoliano), Sal (Matthew Laurance) and Joann (Helen Schneider) who, along with Frank, all have their homes ransacked as it becomes clear that someone is serious about getting their hands on these tapes and the popular theory is that the only person these tapes could be this important to is Eddie himself.
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Director and co-screenwriter Martin Davidson has concocted a convoluted and confusing story that, despite its flashing back and forth between the present and the past, moves at a snails pace and really doesn't endear us to any of these people, most of whom have one foot stuck in the past and trying to blame this moron Eddie for the mess their lives have become. We never really learn who broke into these people's homes and the eventual reveal regarding the tapes is uninspired and was not worthy of the ninety minutes of my life I'll never get back.
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This movie was rough going, requiring toothpicks on the eyelids to sustain interest until the end. Davidson had an OK idea here, which allegedly was based on a real musician named Eddie Wilson, but there's so much silly stuff going on here. Even the musical sequences came off as canned and unconvincing, bringing up another glaring oversight that I couldn't get past...John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band provided the vocals for the movie, including the fabulous "On the Dark Side", which became a top 40 hit. The onscreen group featured Joann, a female singing her heart out as part of the group, but there was not even a hint of a female voice on the audio track. That's just sloppy film making and the performances aren't much better. Berenger is sincere as Frank, but Michael Pare is just dreadful as the title character, a performance that's part Fonzie and part John Milne, part Danny Zuko, but not enough Eddie. Even the usually reliable Joe Pantoliano stunk up the place. I've heard great things about this movie over the years, but it did not live up to its reputation. 1.5

Gideon58

04-01-17, 05:19 PM

THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS
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20th Century Fox struck gold with a 1954 gem called There's No Business Like Show Business, a splashy and colorful big budget musical wrapped around a classic show business story that touches upon what people give up for the business and the iconic concept of "the show must go on."
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The film opens on the Five Donahues, a family vaudeville act consisting of father Terry (Dan Dailey), mother Molly (Ethel Merman), elder son Steve (Johnny Ray), daughter Katy (Mitzi Gaynor), and younger brother Tim (Donald O'Connor), who have just completed a successful run at the Hippodrome Theater when fate and circumstances start breaking up the act: Steve decides to quit show business and become a priest; Katy falls for a Broadway composer (Hugh O'Brian), and Tim falls under the spell of Vicky (Marilyn Monroe) a hatcheck girl with big show biz aspirations that turn out to be more important to her than Tim.
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As I did after watching 1956's Anything Goes, I had to confirm that this was an indeed a 20th Century Fox film, because this film has the gloss and style that MGM had a patent on in the 40's and 50's, but Monroe's presence confirmed that this was a Fox film. Director Walter Lang, whose next assignment would be The King & I spared no expense in bringing this lavish tale of a show biz era that is a thing of the past beautifully back to life, in the tradition of the Broadway musical Gypsy(even borrowing that show's star). Phoebe and Henry Ephron have provided a screenplay with just enough meat that it doesn't get in the way of what moviegoers were looking for in the 1950's in terms of movie musicals. The story presented here has equal shares of laughter, romance, and genuine warmth and I must confess getting a little misty at the climax.
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Irving Berlin has provided some terrific songs for this outing, some but not all especially for this film but if you listen to the background music, just about every song Irving Berlin wrote can be heard at some point here. The score for this film includes "When the Midnight Cho Choo", "Alexander's Ragtime Band", "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody", "After You Get What You Want, You Don't Want It", "If You Believe", "Lazy", "A Man Chases a Girl", "Heat Wave", and, of course, the title tune, which was actually written for Annie Get Your Gun.
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The cast is terrific for the most part...Ethel Merman was probably the greatest star Broadway ever created but for some reason her presence never translated properly to the movie screen, creating a limited movie career, but her performance works here. Director Lang has properly reined in the actress so that she is not too big for the movie screen and she works extremely well with Dailey, limber on his feet as ever as Terry. Mitzi Gaynor once again makes the most of a thankless role as Katy and Donald O'Connor is a solid leading man, especially scoring in an impressive production number where he brings an Astaire elegance dancing with statues who magically come to life...only in a musical. And let's not forget the original Divine Ms M...Marilyn absolutely lights up the screen here in one of her best performances, playing a character who actually has a brain and you never doubt that for a second. Only Johnny Ray misses the boat as older brother Steve. Ray was the biggest singing star on the planet at the time and Fox wanted to capitalize on that, but Ray was no actor and, during moments, almost painful to watch.
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Elaborate sets, stunning costumes, and flashy choreography by Robert Alton are the finishing touches on this winner that is a must for classic musical fans. 3.5

Gideon58

04-02-17, 05:19 PM

THE JAZZ SINGER (1980)
Neil Diamond was a driving force in the world of pop music during the 1970's and 80's and someone got the bright idea that his popularity could be capitalized upon by making him a movie star. The 1980 film The Jazz Singer is the second remake of the history-making 1927 film that came to be known as the first "talkie", but this film shamelessly rips off a cinematic legacy and makes a singer's attempt to become an actor look pretty lame.
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Diamond plays Jess Rabinovitch, a Jewish cantor who attempts to defy family tradition (cantors go back five generations in his family) and become a rock star, changing his last name to Robin. Jess forsakes his wife (Caitlin Adams) and his very strict father (Laurence Olivier) to go to California when he learns that rock star Keith Lennox (Paul Nicholas) wants to record one of his songs. Even though that doesn't work out, Jess decides to stay in California to continue pursuit of his dream with the help of Lennox's former aide (Lucie Arnaz) and his BFF from New York (Franklyn Ajaye).
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Needless to say, this film probably bears little resemblance to the 1927 original, which was actually based on a play by Samson Raphaelson. Herbert Baker's long-winded screenplay attempts to give a contemporary face lift to an outdated story, utilizing every tired show biz movie cliche that we've been subjected to in far superior movies. I guess we weren't supposed to notice because it's Neil Diamond. We have the defying-the-family scene, to the showing-the-vet-how-to-perform-my-music scene to our hero achieving a modicum of success (which occurs in about 20 minutes) and letting it all go to his head to the leaving the pressures of success to go out and "find himself." Richard Fleischer's lackluster and unimaginative direction doesn't help matters either.
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Diamond does provide some nice songs for this film, which are probably the best thing about it. Written by Diamond, Alan Lindren, Gilbert Becaud, and Doug Rhone, the songs include "America", "You Baby", "Amazed and Confused", "Summerlove", "Hello Again", and the fabulous "Love on the Rocks."
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I remember seeing this film during its original theatrical release and having my high hopes dashed. I've always felt a bit of a kindred spirit to Diamond because we share a birthday, but it doesn't change the fact that this film is a real snooze-fest. The acting ranges from wooden to over the top. Diamond is just out of his element as an actor and even Laurence Olivier is hard to take here...the climactic scene where he tears his clothes and declares he has no son is almost funny, though it really shouldn't be. A lot of money and faith went into this project, but faith sadly turned to dross here. 2

Gideon58

04-05-17, 08:07 PM

HOT SHOTS
The creative team who brought us Airplane! reunited 11 years later for 1991's Hot Shots, a near perfect satire of the 1987 film Top Gun that provides major belly laughs throughout.
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Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) is a disgraced Navy pilot who is persuaded to return to duty to aid in a very special mission that is being complicated by a pair of greedy weapon manufacturers. Upon his return to the base, Harley immediately becomes involved in a love triangle with the pretty base psychologist Ramada Thompson (Valeria Golino) and hot shot pilot Kent Gregory (Cary Elwes, in a perfect send-up of Val Kilmer's Ice).
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Director and co-screenwriter Jim Abrahams had a perfect blueprint to work with, since, let's face it, Top Gun is a movie rich for parody, though there are also affectionate winks provided along the way to The Fabulous Baker Boys, Dances with Wolves,9 1/2 Weeks, Apollo 13, and Independence Day. Abrahams screenplay features some impressive attention to detail that has some comic bits moving at razor speed and taking the time to set up others so that when the final predictable punchline lands it's still funny. A standout example of this is the way the fate of "Dead Meat" Thompson (William O'Leary) is set up...it starts unassumingly with a black cat crossing the path of "Dead Meat' and his wife, Mary (Heidi Swedberg). I also loved "At Ease."
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Abrahams also has employed a crack technical team to provide intentionally cheesy special effects that work perfectly for this kind of parody. Watch the scene where Topper and Ramada meet for the first time when he is on a motorcycle and she is on a horse...Abrahams makes no bones about the fact that Golino is not doing the stunt work here and for some reason it makes the scene even funnier.
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Abrahams assembled a top-notch cast that really understand what he's trying to do here for the most part. Sheen is perfect in the lead and Elwes, one of the most underrated and versatile actors in this business, nails his Val Kilmer impression. Also loved Lloyd Bridges as the bubble-headed commanding officer, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., surprisingly smooth as the villain of the piece, and Sheen's future Two and a Half Men co-star Jon Cryer as "Wash Out", a pilot with serious vision issues. Galino kind of missed the boat for me though...I never really got the feeling that she understood the concept of this kind of movie parody and played her role just a little too straight, but for the most part, this movie is a dead on satire of a very popular movie that surprisingly, hasn't held up over the years and this very funny lampoon documents that. Followed by a sequel. 3.5

Gideon58

04-08-17, 04:42 PM

DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES
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A slightly over the top but uncompromising look at the disease of alcoholism, 1962'S Days of Wine and Roses is still appointment movie viewing, thanks primarily to some bold directorial strokes from Blake Edwards and a pair of Oscar-nominated lead performances.
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Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) is a public relations man unhappy with his job, but dealing with his unhappiness through some heavy drinking. Joe meets an attractive secretary named Kirsten (Lee Remick) who doesn't drink, but he does manage to get her to have dinner with him where he uses her passion for chocolate to get her hooked on Brandy Alexanders. Joe and Kirsten marry and have a child, but eventually alcoholism becomes the glue that is holding their marriage together but the real test of Joe and Kirsten's relationship comes when Joe faces the truth about himself and decides to get sober but Kirsten continues to drink.
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JP Miller's screenplay, adapted from his 1959 Playhouse 90 production which earned him an Emmy nomination, takes an up close and unattractive look at this deadly disease and the iron grip it has on its victim. The slow burn of this story is alternately fascinating and aggravating. During that fateful first dinner date, it appears that Joe is going to accept the fact that Kirsten doesn't drink and that she is going to be the one dealing with his sickness, but having her be his nursemaid was clearly not going to be enough for Joe...he wanted a playmate and a partner-in-crime and it was slightly squirm-worthy watching this man pretty much "teach" this woman how to drink in order to make her the kind of playmate he wanted and required. Of course, the story does come full circle when Joe faces the truth about himself but is unable to get Kirsten to do the same.
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There are some dated elements to this production, but what isn't dated at all is the work of Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick in the leads...Lemmon, in particular, is a one man acting class, in a role that allows him to play any kind of emotion you can think of and he nails them all, earning his third Oscar nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor. Remick initially appears to be a little soft to be believable as a woman sinking into full blown alcoholism, but shocks with a performance of such pathos that it earned the late actress the only Oscar nomination of her career for Outstanding Lead Actress.
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Lemmon and Remick receive solid support from Charles Bickford as Kirsten's father and a surprisingly sensitive Jack Klugman as Joe's AA sponsor. And any talk about this film has to include a nod to Henry Mancini, whose evocative score, including a gorgeous title song, properly frames this somewhat seedy, but realistic human drama that offers no easy answers to some difficult questions. 3.5

Gideon58

04-09-17, 04:10 PM

HOLLYWOOD OR BUST
Hollywood or Bust is a 1956 comedy with music that has a footnote as the last onscreen teaming of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
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Martin plays Steve Wiley, a singer and chronic gambler who owes $3000 to a bookie and plans to pay him by making copies of all the tickets to a contest where a new car is being given away so that no matter what ticket is called he will win. Unfortunately, the young man in possession of the real winning ticket, Malcolm Smith (Lewis),a nerdy movie fan obsessed with actress Anita Ekberg, is not going anywhere so Steve convinces Malcolm to take a road trip to Hollywood where they plan to sell the car and Steve can introduce Malcolm to his "neighbor" Anita Akberg. En route, they encounter a would be chorus girl (Pat Crowley) who Steve falls for.
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By this time in their careers, Martin and Lewis were a well-oiled machine and it comes through in every frame of this movie. Erna Lazarus' screenplay merely serves as a blueprint for our stars, who clown and play off each other like they've been doing it forever and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of what ended up onscreen here was improvised and not part of the script at all. A script was never an absolute necessity for Jerry Lewis and his gift for improvisation as well as for physical comedy serve him well here. But the real surprise here was Dean Martin, who not only provided his accustomed velvet pipes to the proceeding but a real penchant for physical comedy as well. After working with Lewis for almost a decade, this should have come as much of a surprise, but, unlike their previous film, Living it Up, Martin never fades into the woodwork and provides just as many laughs as his partner.
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The film features some terrific songs by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster, who wrote the score for Calamity Jane. The highlights include "A Day in the Country", "It Looks Like Love", "The Wild and Wooly West", and the title tune. And just like Dino does more clowning in this film than usual, Lewis decided to do a lot more singing in this film and whether or not that this is a good thing is a matter of personal taste I guess.
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Director Frank Tashlin provides breezy supervision for our stars, staying out of their way and letting them do what they did better than anyone. Crowley is a charming leading lady and Ekberg offers a cute cameo as well and mention must be made of a large Great Dane named Mr. Bascomb, Malcolm's best pal, who steals every scene he's in. A worthy swan song for one of Hollywood's greatest screen teams. 3

Dani8

04-10-17, 06:42 PM

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Director Sidney Lumet (Network; Serpico, 12 Angry Men)has managed the impossible and has mounted a surprisingly riveting drama thanks to superior acting from a hand-picked cast and Lumet's solid directorial hand. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is a rather mean-spirited story that is made watchable because of its professional polish and the talent in front of and behind the camera. This intense family drama is the story of Andy and Hank Hanson, two brothers in deep financial trouble, who hatch a plan to rob their parents' jewelry store, a plan that goes horribly awry, resulting in the death of two people. What these brothers plan to do is completely vile and reprehensible; however, thanks to an intricate screenplay by Kelly Masterson, which requires close attention, as it flashes forward and backward to explain what drove these brothers to do what they do and the harrowing consequences of their actions, you understand how the Hanson brothers are driven to do what they do but you can't help but accept the eventual consequences of their actions.
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Oscar winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman is brilliantly unhinged as Andy, the unconscionable mastermind behind this scheme, with major father issues, whose embezzling at work and drug addiction have driven him to this desperate point. Ethan Hawke delivers the performance of his career as Hank, the high-strung younger brother, three months behind in his child support and labeled a loser by his own daughter, desperate to regain his daughter's respect. Albert Finney is rock solid, as always, as the father, bitter and unapologetic about the kind of father he was, frustrated with the police's lack of interest in nailing the culprit of this horrific crime. Marisa Tomei delivers one of her stronger turns as Andy's empty-headed wife, who is having an affair with Hank and the legendary Rosemary Harris shines briefly in the role of the mother. Brian F. O'Byrne is also memorable in a brief role as Bobby, Hank's partner in executing the robbery.

These are unpleasant people wrapped up in an ugly story which you actually find yourself questioning the fact that it is actually unfolding before your eyes, but the actors and director so completely commit to the misery that is this story, that it envelops you and stays with you long after the credits roll. 3

Brilliant review, Gid!

Gideon58

04-10-17, 06:43 PM

Brilliant review, Gid!

Thank you so much.

Dani8

04-10-17, 06:45 PM

That movie made my heart ache. As you said it's very mean spirited but so compelling because you cant help but empathise with the characters. I need a rewatch. I;ve seen it 2 or 3 times.

Dani8

04-10-17, 08:44 PM

I'm only up to page 4 but ripping good read Gideon. You havt great taste.

Gideon58

04-11-17, 09:49 PM

GET LOW
Serious students of film writing and film acting would benefit from a watch of 2009's Get Low, an exquisitely detailed and imaginative blend of fact and folklore that provided one of the most surprisingly entertaining times at the movies I've had in quite awhile.
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It is 1930's backwoods Tennessee where we meet Felix (Oscar winner Robert Duvall), a hermit who is feeling mortality closing in on him and decides he wants to buy his way into heaven and convinces a slick funeral parlor owner to throw him a funeral while he's still alive, but the man's wide-eyed assistant finds his moral compass going into overdrive, not wanting to take this man's money without making sure he knows exactly what Felix wants.
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I love the way every moment where we believe we know exactly what to expect from a movie when it hits a certain emotional point, but this movie with every 30 minutes or so, adds layers to this story that we don't see coming, and it's while watching Felix reconnect with an old friend and an old flame that Felix's true agenda comes into focus...Felix needs to clear his conscious before he dies publicly and is not sure if he can do it or not.
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I love Chris Provenzano and C. Gay Mitchell's screenplay because it is another one of those stories where a central character is partially created and manifests backstory through the way other characters in the story react to him. I love the way everything in town stops whenever Felix passes through and everyone just waits to see what he's going to do next...we are even told that the townfolk don't want him anywhere they're women and children,but for me, everything that this guy ever did wrong or whatever he had to get off his chest was forgiven when we learned he built a church with his bare hands. This was also the first movie I've seen about a hermit where the screenplay actually utilized the word "hermit"...I liked that.
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Director Aaron Schneider has employed a first rate production team to bring this beautiful story to the screen, taking some surprising detours that never defy realism or entertainment value. And believe, no denying star power is a major selling point here...Duvall was robbed of another nomination for this onscreen graduate acting course of a performance and he gets rock solid support from Bill Murray who redefines "greasy" with this funeral parlor owner. This performance is so slick that there a couple of scenes in this movie where I have absolutely have no idea whether Murray's character is being sincere and if that was Murray's intention, he nailed it. Lucas Black was warm and sincere as the assistant. Every moment Sissy Spacek spends onscreen with Duvall was golden...God, all the cinematic memories conjured watching those two together again. Bill Cobbs made every moment he had onscreen count as well as the only person who seemed to know the real Felix.
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Mention should also be made of extraordinary attention to period detail, not to mention David Boyd's cinematography, solid editing by the director, and absolutely lovely musical score by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek that frames this lovely story that provided rich entertainment and yes, ignited a tear duct or two. 4

Gideon58

04-20-17, 07:59 PM

ZIEGFELD GIRL
During its golden years, MGM mounted some of the most lavish musicals ever produced and bragged about having "more stars than the heavens" and confirmed this with a lavish 1941 spectacle called Ziegfeld Girl, which actually turned out to be nothing like what I was expecting, but still provided first rate entertainment.:D
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From the turn of the century until the 1930's, Florenz Ziegfeld was an enigmatic Broadway producer who reinvented the New York theater scene with his lavish musical revues that were all based on one primary theme: the glorification of woman as a creature to be worshiped and adored. And because of this, it was the dream of every female show business hopeful to become a Ziegfeld girl, some of whom would actually establish careers after the Ziegfeld Follies, most notably Fanny Brice. This film is a musical melodrama about three young women who become Ziegfeld girls and how this once-in-a-life time show business break altered their lives permanently.
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Sheila (Lana Turner) is an ambitious elevator operator from Brooklyn whose head is turned by show business success and finds herself addicted to money, baubles, and booze, which finds her leaving her truck driver boyfriend (James Stewart) in the dust and having her head turned by a slick and wealthy attorney (Ian Hunter); Susan (Judy Garland) is a talented singer who does a vaudeville act with her father (Charles Winninger) but is wracked with guilt when the follies comes calling but doesn't want her father; Sandra (Hedy Lamarr) is the exotic beauty married to a classical violinist (Phillip Dorn) who is having trouble supporting his wife, who is immediately scooped up by the follies, even though Sandra thinks being a Ziegfeld girl is silly nonsense but cannot say no to the money and though still in love with her husband, finds herself attracted to the show's handsome tenor (Tony Martin).
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If you're looking for a rehash of Singin in the Rain or The Band Wagon here, you've come to the wrong movie. MGM was a studio that had always displayed a penchant for melodrama as well as musicals and they combined both genres pretty smoothly here, thanks to a solid screenplay by Marguerite Roberts and Sonya Levien that provides some surprisingly well-rounded characters in a well-balanced story that has just the right melodramatic touches and every time the story starts to get a little soapy, we are thrown an elaborate musical number accentuated by stunning costumes and classic Busby Berkeley staging, all under the skillfull directorial hand of Robert Z. Leonard, who respects this melding of separate genres and makes it work.
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The cast from MGM's stable of stars totally works...Garland's role is slightly thankless, but her interest in being part of this project should have been of no surprise to anyone who really knew her because one of Garland's biggest issues in her life was to be considered to be pretty and no one was considered more pretty than a Ziegfeld girl. Garland often spoke of wanting to look like Lana Turner and now she was doing scenes with her.
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Stewart, fresh off his Oscar win for The Philadelphia Story, brings a lot more to his role than the script provides and few actresses were adored by the camera the way Lamarr was, but the real surprise for me here was Lana Turner, yes, Lana Turner, an actress who usually puts me to sleep. really lights up the screen here in the flashiest role in the film and I have to say that I have never enjoyed Turner onscreen more, and that includes Imitation of Life and Peyton Place.
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Musical highlights include Garland's "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows", Martin's dreamy rendition of "You Stepped out of a Dream" "Carribean Love Song", "Minnie from Trinidad", and "Mr. Gallagher". The film loses half a bag of popcorn for being in black and white (this lavish production just screamed for color), but lovers of classic cinema will be in heaven here. 3.5

Citizen Rules

04-22-17, 05:40 PM

I'm not sure if I've seen Ziegfeld Girl or not, nice review. I'll have to watch it for the upcoming 1940's Countdown. Have you seen:
Ziegfeld Follies (1945) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039116/?ref_=nv_sr_3)

The Great Ziegfeld (1936) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027698/?ref_=nv_sr_1)

Gideon58

04-22-17, 05:42 PM

Never seen The Great Ziegfeld. but I have seen Ziegfeld Follies, that's the only movie where Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire danced together, "The Babbit and the Bromide".

Citizen Rules

04-22-17, 05:49 PM

The Great Ziegfeld...tells the life of Florence Ziegfeld as he looks back on his life and the show that he did, from heaven. William Powell as the great Ziegfeld, makes the movie memorable and it has a top notch cast including one of my favorite actresses Luise Rainer, who won a Best Actress Oscar...and the move won a Best Picture Oscar. Definitely worth watching!

mark f

04-22-17, 06:09 PM

The Great Ziegfeld is the one with Luise Rainer and in B&W, while The Ziegfeld Follies has Flo in Heaven, Astaire & Kelly and is in color.

Citizen Rules

04-22-17, 07:07 PM

The Great Ziegfeld is the one with Luise Rainer and in B&W, while The Ziegfeld Follies has Flo in Heaven, Astaire & Kelly and is in color. Thanks Mark:)... I swear every time I try to do a movie only from memory I get them confused:p

Gideon58

04-23-17, 06:17 PM

COVER GIRL
Columbia Pictures went the MGM route in 1944 with Cover Girl, a splashy and colorful musical confection that even featured an MGM icon as its leading man and provided the same kind of entertainment that Louis B. Mayer and company were believed to have a patent on.
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The film stars Rita Hayworth, at the height of her beauty and onscreen allure as Rusty Parker, a dancer who dreams of being a Broadway star but is currently working as a chorus girl in a nightclub in Brooklyn owned by one Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly), who loves Rusty but takes her for granted. Rusty learns that Vanity Fair is looking for an unknown girl for their new cover girl and when Rusty gets the job, it brings a lot of business to Danny's club, but it also threatens Rusty's job at the club as well as her romance with Danny. Further complications ensue when John Coudair (Otto Kruger), the editor of Vanity Fair, brings a Broadway producer named Noel Wheaton (Lee Bowman) to Brooklyn and he falls for Rusty instantly and wants to make her a Broadway star.
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There is an interesting secondary story here as well as it is revealed that Coudair had a romance some 40 years ago with a glamorous showgirl named Maribelle Hicks (also Hayworth), who we learn was Rusty's grandmother, who left Coudair at the altar because she was in love with the piano player at Tony Pastor's. The film cleverly brings together the parallels in these two stories, rife with the classic musical comedy complications that we expect from such a story.
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Virginia Van Upp's screenplay is overly padded, taking a little too long to get to an obvious conclusion, but director Charles Vidor spares no expense in bringing this elaborate story to the screen, in the tradition of some of MGM's best work, providing sparkling entertainment that never allows the viewer to become too impatient with this slightly overlong musical journey.
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The tuneful score by Ira Geshwin and Jerome Kern incudes "The Show Must Go On", "Who's Complaining", "Sure Thing", "Make Way for Tomorrow", "Put Me to the Test", and the lilting "Long Ago and Far Away." Stanley Donen, who would later collaborate with Kelly on On the Town and Singin in the Rain, provided most of the energetic choreography, though I suspect Kelly's alter-ego dance was his own creation.
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Kelly offers one of his best performances here and that's saying a lot considering his long and distinguished career. His dancing is first rate, as always, and he and Hayworth work wonderfully together, but the non-musical portions of his performance are among his strongest work...he creates a complex yet likable character in Danny McGuire and I'm convinced that the process of technicolor was invented for Rita Hayworth...not since Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire have I been so mesmerized by an actress' onscreen beauty. I literally could not take my eyes off the woman, even when dancing with Kelly. She makes the most of her musical moments too (though her singing is dubbed by Martha Mears). Phil Silvers has some fun moments as Danny's best pal Genius and there is a fabulous scene-stealing turn from Eve Arden as Courdair's assistant, Cornelia "Stonewall" Jackson. The film features elaborate sets and gorgeous costumes and though it could have been wrapped up a little more economically, it was still an enchanting musical journey. Trivia: When Gene Kelly appeared in the 1980 musical Xanadu, the name of his character was Danny McGuire. 3.5

mark f

04-23-17, 06:45 PM

Trivia: When Gene Kelly appeared in the 1980 Xanadu, the name of his character was Danny McGuire.
Re: Xanadu - Olivia Newton-John's character Kira is actually the Muse Terpsichore who Rita Hayworth played in Down to Earth. :cool:

Gideon58

04-24-17, 05:36 PM

Feud- Season 1
The FX Network and mad genius Ryan Murphy had a major triumph and an award season darling last year with The People V. OJ Simpson and have once again scored a major triumph with a dazzling fact-based melodrama called Feud an eight-part mini-series that is an up close and personal look at what was arguably, Hollywood's greatest feud: the war between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, which found its genesis on the set of their only onscreen collaboration, the 1962 classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
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The mini-series recounts in elaborate detail a look at two stars whose careers were both on the decline, looking for a way to revitalize their careers, the battle to find a studio interested in backing a horror movie starring two show business "has-beens", the effects that the film had not only on the careers of Davis and Crawford, but on their careers and the lasting effects that the whole Baby Jane experience had on everyone personally involved, including director Robert Aldrich and innocent bystanders in a Hollywood battle that was, in reality, fueled by outside influences and never really should have reached the level of venom it did, because one thing this film projects and I believe this to be true, is the enormous respect these two actresses had for each other, but were in complete denial about.
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Needless to say Ryan Murphy and his creative team have found a story that is rich for the kind of undeniably bitchy entertainment that would be expected from this story. Obviously, recreating Hollywood history onscreen is a tricky thing and it's hard to know how factual everything presented here actually is, but if you're just looking for facts, I'd go to the internet or read the biographies of the people involved, but if you're looking for an entertaining recreation of a classic time in Hollywood that puts some human faces on some Hollywood icons, you need look no further than here.
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The story is a spot on look at the movers and shakers of Hollywood in the 60's and more, importantly, the extremely delicate egos of those involved. There's a lot of discussion on this site regarding the worthlessness of the Academy Awards, but this mini-series nails how the Academy Awards are the life blood of everyone who is serious about a career in Hollywood and how they love to pretend how the award mean nothing when they really mean everything. One of the most entertaining aspects of this story is what happens at the 1963 Oscars, where Davis was nominated but Crawford was snubbed and how Crawford still managed to make the evening all about her.
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I will say that the story spends a little too much time utilizing other stars of the period as narrators and/or alleged "insiders" on the feud and most of this screentime is a waste, but when the story focuses on Davis and Crawford, it works.
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The story also works because of some really on-target casting, manifesting some brilliant performances. Though she initially appears to almost be phoning it in, Susan Sarandon does grow into the role of Bette Davis, bringing the screen legend effectively to life, especially in the final three episodes and during certain shots, with certain posing and lighting and wardrobe/hair choices, the resemblance between Sarandon and Davis is just startling. Judy Davis is just dazzling as Hedda Hopper, the legendary actress turned gossip columnist who apparently was team Crawford according to this story. Alfred Molina does a richly complex turn as Robert Aldrich, the director of Baby Jane, who often had to do a very delicate balancing act to keep these two ladies from killing each other and wasn't always successful and Stanley Tucci made every moment he had onscreen as Jack Warner count. But the thing that you will go away from this mini-series remembering is the absolutely mesmerizing performance by two time Oscar winner Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford...Lange is heartbreaking, terrifying, funny, and bone-chilling in a performance that should make her the darling of the next award season. Jessica, we're not worthy. For fans of classic Hollywood and movie buffs looking for a sparkling blend of fact and dazzling entertainment, have your fill here. 4

Gideon58

04-25-17, 07:27 PM

THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS
Despite some cliched plotting and fuzzy characterizations, the 1989 melodrama with music called The Fabulous Baker Boys is worth a look due to a dazzling performance from the leading lady and a pair of acting brothers, teamed onscreen for the first and only time.
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Jeff and Beau Bridges star as Jack and Frank Baker, respectively, brothers who have a second rate piano playing lounge act whose work is beginning to dry up. Frank decides they need to breathe new life into the act by a hiring a singer and after auditioning 37 girls, they hire the 38th...an ex-prostitute named Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer) who does bring a freshness to the act but complicates the relationship between the brothers as well.
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Director-writer Steve Kloves has the germ of a really wonderful movie here and there is a spark of originality in what is presented, as we didn't get the expected romantic triangle that the premise implies. Frank and Jack are very different guys...Frank lives in the suburbs and has a wife and kids and, therefore, has no real interest in Susie other than business. Jack is an alcoholic loner whose best friends are a black lab named Eddie and a 12 year old latch key kid who lives upstairs and the slow burn between Jack and Susie becomes the central story here, but there are unexplained complications that keep this slow burn positively deadening. It's clear from jump that Jack is a classic movie angry young man with issues that go far beyond sibling rivalry and alcoholism, but these issues remain an issue for the entire running time, making it hard to sympathize with the character at times, but the fact that he is being played by Jeff Bridges definitely helps.
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The whole introduction of Susie into the lives of the Baker Boys smacks of cliche as well...it was just so predictable that we watch the guys listen to 37 girls sing and are about to walk out the door when Susie stumbles through the door, an hour and a half late, looking like she just rolled out of bed, and almost unintelligible because of her inability to stop chewing gum for more than 30 seconds. She takes the gum out of her mouth long enough to belt out "More than you Know" and a star is born. Not really sure what the point was of making the character a former prostitute either...why was a woman with pipes like this earning a living on her back? I also had a hard time buying that this ex-prostie, 20 minutes after joining the act, was all of a sudden an expert on nightclubs and show business.
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All that aside, the novelty of watching Jeff and Beau Bridges work together onscreen for the first and only time was a gimmick that completely worked and every moment they shared onscreen was completely believable and their chemistry sometimes overshadowed some really cliched writing and Pfeiffer was a revelation here, in a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Pfeiffer was even more effective than the brothers in overcoming the cliched elements of her character and delivered a true movie star performance that also showcased her severely underrated and sometimes forgotten vocal talent...her renditions of "The Look of Love", and "Can't Take My Eyes off of You" were stylishly original and her steamy rendition of "Makin Whoopee" atop Jack's piano is worth the price of admission alone.
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The film is beautiful to look at, featuring Oscar-nominated cinematography and film editing, as well as Dave Grusin's jazzy score, not to mention some very effective ivory tinkling from the brothers Bridges, who spent six months taking piano lessons in preparation for this film and their homework really paid off. This film is not as good as it should have been, but it's still worth a look. 3