Gideon58's Reviews

[cricket]

The Baker Boys was a strange pick for me to go to see at the cinema when I was 18, but I used to love Michelle Pfieffer. I thought it was decent too.

[Gideon58]

The Founder
John Lee Hancock, the creative force behind The Blind Side and Saving Mr. Banks hits another bullseye with a deliciously entertaining 2016 docudrama called The Founder, which takes a look at the evolution of a small business owner to ruthless tycoon that works thanks to an imaginative screenplay that brings out the "drama" in the docudrama and some powerhouse performances.
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This is the story of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), the founder of McDonald's, or so I thought until watching this film. According to Hancock's screenplay, Kroc was a traveling salesman circa 1954, trying to sell multimixer milkshake machines who is shocked by an order of eight machines from a small drive in restaurant in California run by Dick McDonald (Nick Offerman) and his brother, Mac (John Carroll Lynch), who have reinvented the business of fast food and created a booming business concept that upon watching the operation, Ray sees immediate possibility of this business becoming a franchise, which the brothers want no part of due to past failed attempts at franchise. Of course, Ray wears the brothers down and agrees to sign a lengthy contract promising no changes to the brothers' business without their approval, but early in we see that this contract is eventually a non-issue as Ray attempts to make McDonald's his own.
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Robert Siegel has crafted a brilliant screenplay which initially establishes Kroc as a sympathetic and almost pathetic character to the point where we initially start feeling sorry for the guy. The film starts out showing him failing to interest several fast food places in his machine and his business and marriage falling apart due to his obsession with becoming a success. He definitely hits the pathetic mode when he is observed listening to self-motivation records and its almost laughable listening to what these records are telling Ray and even more telling is the way the words on these records are haunting us by the film's conclusion.
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John Lee Hancock's direction is detail-oriented with a great attention to period atmosphere and the film features Oscar-worthy film editing by Robert Frazen. Michael Keaton continues this winning renaissance of his career with a beautifully understated look at a really ruthless businessman, who was always able to justify the crumby things he did here, especially the treatment of these McDonald brothers, who are instantly likable and watching what Kroc does to them is heartbreaking.
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Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch offer the performances of their careers as the McDonald brothers and match Keaton note for note. Laura Dern scores as the long suffering first wife of Kroc and BJ Novak, who was also in Saving Mr. Banks, is surprisingly effective as the financial wiz who provides Ray with the secret to gaining complete control of the franchise. If you're looking for an entertaining biopic that doesn't necessarily paint the subject in a flattering light, this is your movie. Fans of Scorsese's The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street will have a head start here. 4

[Citizen Rules]

Loved your review of The Founder. Very well written and I really liked what you said about the character of Krok (Michael Keaton):

a brilliant screenplay which initially establishes Kroc as a sympathetic and almost pathetic character to the point where we initially start feeling sorry for the guy. :up: That says it well. I felt the same way too...he did almost seem to become pathetic at one point, which then made me care about his character as I seen his human side. Glad you liked the movie:)

[Gideon58]

THE IDOLMAKER
Director Taylor Hackford put himself on the map with a sleeper from 1980 called The Idolmaker, a dazzling show business tale wrapped around a compelling character study that takes an up close look at the manufacturing of teen idols in the 1950's, which were more of a product than we realized that works primarily due to Hackford's service to a terrific story and the mesmerizing performance he pulled from his leading man.
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This is a fictionalized look at the career of record promoter/producer Bob Marcucci who was responsible for the careers of Frankie Avalon and Fabian. Here, Marcucci becomes Vincent Vaccari, an ambitious Italian songwriter who, through reading teen idol magazines, has learned what it takes to be a star and has decided that a lot of it is based on a look, which he doesn't have, but he does see the look in a childhood friend and second rate sax player named Tommy D and grooms the reluctant wanna-be to a level of fame that goes to Tommy's head and just when he thinks he doesn't need Vincent's help anymore, Vincent tackles another project in the form of a 16 year old busboy named Guido, who has the look, but needs serious help with everything else involved in achieving teen idol status, but Guido, who Vincent renames Ceasare, begins to outgrow Vincent as well.
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Hackford and screenwriter Edward Di Lorenzo have provided the classic cinematic look at show business stardom from another angle that really found its origins on the Broadway stage. Watch Vincent backstage during Tommy's first big show, duplicating every move Tommy is making onstage, it rings so true. Vincent Vacarri is a contemporary re-thinking of Rose Hovick, the stage mother from hell created on Broadway by Ethel Merman in Gypsy. Vincent has gotten it into his head that because he doesn't have the looks that stardom requires that he is going to live out his own show business aspirations vicariously through the grooming of Tommy and Ceasare and just like June and Louise in Gypsy, Tommy and Ceasare find Vincent's guidance turning into a strangle hold onto their lives from which they can't escape and find themselves torn between their gratitude to Vincent for what he has done for them and the desire to have their own lives back.
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But it's not what's happening onstage with these two teen idols that makes this movie work, but watching Vincent's Svengali-like handling of these guys and how, even if they or the viewer don't want to admit it, it is clear that this guy knows exactly what he's doing, even if some of his methods aren't always kosher. I love the scene where after his initial approach of Guido which meets with reluctance from the young man, Vincent goes to the boy's grandmother with his plans for Guido and the entire conversation between the two is in Italian and even though the scene is done entirely in Italian, we know exactly what Vincent is telling Grandma and the melting of her initial icy exterior is obvious and a joy to watch.
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In my reviews of other Taylor Hackford films, I have often spoke of his self-indulgence as a director and how sometimes his films are a little sluggish in his pacing of the story, but there is little of that here...everything Hackford does here serves the story, despite some cliched dialogue that sounds like discarded scripts from The Sopranos, there is very little wasted screentime here.
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The late Ray Sharkey is simultaneously slick, explosive, and controlled in the title role, a performance that won him a Golden Globe and generated serious Oscar buzz and if the film had been released another year, might have garnered him a nomination. This was a gifted actor with mad onscreen charisma who was taken from us much too soon. I never really bought Peter Gallagher as a 16 year old, but he fully commits to the role of Guido/Ceasare giving a real movie star performance that lights up the screen, as does Paul Sand as Tommy D and an early turn from Joe Pantoliano as Vincent's BFF and music director. Tovah Feldshuh brings a substance to the role of the magazine editor who Vincent uses and abuses that really isn't in the screenplay and if you don't blink, you'll catch future Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis as Vincent's mom and Maureen McCormick from The Brady Bunch as a reporter who works for Feldshuh, but it is Hackford's direction and the sensational performance from Ray Sharkey that make this one sizzle through the closing credits. 3.5

[Gideon58]

THE CADDY
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis provided one of their most hilarious collaborations with a 1953 comic romp called The Caddy.
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Lewis plays Harvey Miller Jr., a golfing legacy who inherited his father's skill at the game, but was unable to make a career out of it because he would freeze up in front of crowds. Martin plays Joe Anthony, a guy who has no desire to take over his father's fishing business so he returns to his hometown of San Francisco, where he discovers Harvey living with his family and engaged to his sister (Barbara Bates). He also discovers a talent for golf and Harvey agrees to act as his caddy and coach to help Joe earn enough money to save his family's restaurant.
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Joe wins his first tournament and his second tournament leads him to his first real introduction to the Country Club set, who welcome him graciously into their circle, led by the glamorous Kathy Taylor (Donna Reed) who is immediately attracted to Joe; however, the rich country club is not so welcoming to Harvey and make it clear that, as a caddy, he belongs on the other side of the club and eventually what we have is Joe and Harvey both experiencing personal conflict as this "snobs vs slobs" sensibility tests their friendship and their working relationship at every turn.
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This movie is classic Martin and Lewis and shows with almost every scene, in a completely coincidental manner, how these two began their career together. As a matter of fact, the film opens with a stage appearance from the pair filmed two years prior to the movie that is used to springboard this story. You get to see Martin the crooner trying to put over a serious tune while the clown Lewis keeps interrupting, getting in the way, and garnering huge laughs in the process. As a matter of fact, there is a recurring bit throughout the film of this chubby guy being front and center during all of Joe and Harvey's antics, unable to stop laughing at them and eventually suggesting they give up golf and go into show business.
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This film was made during the team's peak and it was always believed that if and when Martin and Lewis broke up, Lewis' gift for physical comedy would sustain an individual career but that Martin would be nothing without him and after viewing this and Hollywood or Bust, and Living it Up, I can't think of anything that was further from the truth. Martin's gift at keeping a straight face throughout Jerry's nuttiness and his ability to never fade into the woodwork with his partner made it clear that Martin had a talent and, even though he didn't realize it at the time, didn't really need Lewis.
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Lewis, of course, rules with some great classic comedy that includes the destruction of a department store and an elegant country club dinner party. Martin is given his chance to shine with a handful of nice songs by Harry Warren and Jack Brooks including "You're the Right One", "It's a Whistlin Kind of Morning" and one of Dean's biggest hits, the smash "That's Amore". Donna Reed is a charming leading lady, playing second fiddle to Martin and Lewis here and later in the same year, delivering her Oscar winning performance in From Here to Eternity. Fred Clark is properly befuddled as the department store manager and Clinton Sundberg underplays beautifully as a tightly wound country club butler. Fans of this legendary show biz pair will find this to be one of their best. 3.5

[gbgoodies]

Gideon58

I've seen a small handful of the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis team-up movies, but it's been a long time, so I don't remember much about them except that I love Dean Martin and I hate Jerry Lewis. Do you think it's worth watching this movie if I hate Jerry Lewis and his antics?

[Gideon58]

Gideon58

I've seen a small handful of the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis team-up movies, but it's been a long time, so I don't remember much about them except that I love Dean Martin and I hate Jerry Lewis. Do you think it's worth watching this movie if I hate Jerry Lewis and his antics?

Jerry's really over the top in this movie, so I would say if you really hate Jerry Lewis, you might want to give this one a pass.

[Gideon58]

GET OUT
There is a running joke among some film buffs that in contemporary horror films, "the black guy always dies first". Writer/director Jordan Peele turns that theory on its ear with a 2017 psychological thriller caller Get Out.
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Chris is a black photographer who is invited by his white girlfriend, Rose to spend the weekend at her parents' glamorous estate and gets a lot more than he bargained for upon his arrival as what initially appears a little too good to be true turns out to be exactly that.
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Jordan Peele has crafted a contemporary thriller that doesn't play all of its cards too quickly yet, on the other hand, is a little too leisurely in pulling things together for the viewer. The movie opens with a young black man being murdered on a suburban street and we're almost 2/3 into the running time before the connection between this murder and Chris and Rose's story comes to light. The way Rose jumps to Chris' defense when the cop asks to see his ID and the white guilt immediately demonstrated by Rose's father are very subtle clues as to what we're being drawn into, but they are very, very subtle and only scratch the surface.
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Peele also scores in his creation of a strong and smart protagonist, who happens to be a black man, which we are initially led to believe is inconsequential to the story, which, of course, turns out not to be true. Chris has a brain and once he realizes what is going on, he never loses his head and realizes that he is not going to be able to trust anyone around him and because of this, we know Chris is not going to die first, but watching it dawn on him what is going on and how to get out of it did keep me on the edge of my chair.
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Daniel Kaluuya gives a star-making performance as Chris and I also loved Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener as Rose's parents. The film features first rate photography, editing, and an appropriately creepy music score and provides solid evidence that Jordan Peele is a filmmaker to watch. 3.5

[Gideon58]

TO CATCH A THIEF
Long before he started scaring the bejesus out of us with unexpected showers, angry birds, and neckties, Alfred Hitchcock was providing sparkling screen entertainment through his uncanny ability to make an ordinary story special through his stylish direction and few films proved this better than a 1955 gem called To Catch a Thief.
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The setting is the contemporary French Riviera where a string of jewelry robberies have occurred and the methods employed during the thefts all point to one John Robie (Cary Grant), a retired jewel thief who was known as "The Cat" who realizes the only way he can prove his innocence is to catch the real criminal in action.
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Robie acquires a list of the victims from an insurance investigator (John Williams) which leads him to a wealthy heiress named Francie Stevens (Grace Kelly) who, is immediately attracted to John and not fooled by his attempt to pretend that he is someone else. As a matter of fact, knowing who John really is just seems to fuel Francie's attraction to the man, which just makes John want to protect the woman from the danger that she seems determined to dive head first into.
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John Michael Hayes, who provided screenplays for two previous Hitchcock smashes, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Rear Window, has given the Master another clever story that is rather simplistic on the surface but is rife with subtle humor and some surprisingly (for 1955) bold sexual double entendres in the dialogue between Grant and Kelly. This is another place where the director really hits a bullseye...casting. The chemistry between Grant and Kelly pretty much burns a hole through the screen and when you combine this steamy chemistry with Hitchcock's artistry, brilliantly illustrated during the characters initial meeting to that classic hotel room encounter with our two protagonists separated by a window blazing with fireworks, it is clear that there was no director who could take an ordinary story and turn it into blazing entertainment better than Alfred Hitchcock.
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Hitch also utilizes first rate production values in making this story viewer friendly, including Oscar-winning cinematography from Robert Burks and breathtaking, Oscar-nominated costumes from Edith Head. Grant is at the peak of his onscreen charm here and Kelly, fresh off her Oscar winning unadorned performance in The Country Girl is the smoldering sex goddess we know and clamor for. I have to admit it was a little uncomfortable watching Kelly in those driving scenes around those sharp mountain curves considering how the actress eventually died. Throw in a pair of effective supporting turns from Williams and Jessie Royce Landis as Kelly's mother and you have supreme movie entertainment that does provide the requisite happy ending but it makes you wait for it, but the wait is well worth it. 4

[Gideon58]

AMADEUS - Director's Cut
The Oscar winning Best Picture of 1984, Amadeus is the sumptuous and expensive cinematic rendering of Peter Shaffer's Broadway smash that takes us to 18th century Vienna to provide insight into one of our greatest classical composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with a slightly different cinematic path than most biopics. This film looks at Mozart through the people in his orbit and how they interpreted his extraordinary talent and its effect on Mozart the human being.
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Based on Shaffer's 1980 Broadway play that ran on Broadway for over 1100 performances, the story begins as we meet an aging composer named Antonio Salieri, who has been confined to an insane asylum, claiming that he is responsible for the death of Mozart, which prompts the visit of a priest who encourages Salieri to confess to anything that would free his conscience and it is through this offer of spiritual purging that the story unfolds.
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We are introduced to Salieri, a man whose passion for music has been all-consuming and he has dedicated his entire life to. He has vowed chastity and given up everything else in life, including the love and respect of his father, in order to serve his passion for music, which in his mind, mirrors his passion for God. His passion is so sincere that the death of his father comes as a relief, allowing him to pursue his passion and he is able to work his way into the position of court composer for Austria's Emperor Joseph II. As dedicated as he is to his passion, he finds himself consistently outdone by a brash, vulgar, skirt-chasing, nut case named Mozart whose passion is outwardly not as all-consuming, but his music is superior to Salieri's which makes him crazy, despite the general consensus among the Emperor and most of Austria that Mozart's music has "too many notes".
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This film is a feast for the eyes and ears, as we watch lavish recreations of Mozart's greatest work and the conflicted reactions it brings to Salieri, who is driven inwardly crazy about the effortless skill in Mozart's work and Mozart's disdain of Salieri's, yet Salieri cannot deny the beauty and artistry of this vulgar creature's work and it is that conflict, along with the attention and acclaim that Mozart's work brings him, something Salieri never achieved.
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What makes this different from your standard biopic is that the subject is really looked at through Salieri's eyes. We don't ever really get inside Mozart and what drives him except for some daddy issues, which come to full fruition after his father's death and the opera that inspired it, "Don Giovanni", and it is this work that triggers the gifted composer's eventual downfall. One thing the film makes clear about Mozart's process is that every note he wrote, he wrote in his head first and then committed to paper.
It is this conflict in Salieri's mind that really is the heart and soul of this cinematic spectacle. The fascination of watching Salieri struggle with his jealousy of Mozart's artistry yet being unable to deny its existence is what is at the core of this story and looking past all the pomp and elaborate visual trappings, this is what the story is about. Mozart's alleged kookiness as a human being is consistently offset by Salieri's elaborate verbal descriptions of his music while the music vividly fills the audio.
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Milos Foreman won his second Best Director Oscar for his meticulous direction, which might include some pandering to Peter Shaffer's Oscar-winning adaptation of his own play, which might spend a little too much time recreating some of Mozart's work and could have spent a little more time looking at the man himself. However, there is no denying the artistry that went into this production.
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In addition to the film, Foreman, and Shaffer, a virtually unknown actor named F. Murray Abraham won the Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actor for his deeply moving performance as the conflicted Salieri...I actually preferred his work as the elder Salieri at the end of his life and Tom Hulce brings a surprising goofiness to Mozart that we don't see coming in a film like this, but it makes the character so human and likable. And though we have to wait for it, it's these two actors' work together near the end of the film when they are working together to put Mozart's "Requiem" to paper, is worth the price of admission, just a joy to watch. Mention should also be made of a superb supporting performance from Jeffrey Jones as Emperor Joseph II. The film is a little long, but is never anything less than riveting. Bouquets all around. 4

[Joel]

One of my all time favorites. F. Murray's performance is second to none. H eloved Mozart so much and was in such awe that it drove him over the edge with jealousy and frustration. Total love knife situation.

[Gideon58]

Married to the Mob
The recent passing of Jonathan Demme motivated a look at 1988's Married to the Mob, a comedy that features a terrific cast and first rate production values, but loses points for a screenplay that is unclear in what type of movie this is supposed to be.
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This is the story of Tony Russo (Dean Stockwell), a mob boss who murders one of his lieutenants, Frank DMarco (Alec Baldwin) when he learns Frank is sleeping with his mistress (Nancy Travis). Tony arrives at Frank's funeral and comes onto Frank's widow, Angela (Michelle Pfeiffer), who was unhappy with her life as a mob wife and Tony's come-ons motivate her to start a new life elsewhere, but Tony doesn't care and is going to have Angela wherever she goes. Enter Mike Downey (Matthew Modine), an FBI agent who has figured out what happened with Tony and Frank and has decided the only way to nail Tony is to shadow Angela in her new life. Also in the picture is Tony's psycho wife, Connie (Mercedes Ruehl) who is convinced Angela and Tony are having an affair and of whom Tony is terrified.
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Demme works very hard to make this story an entertaning one, but therein lies the problem...the screenplay by Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns never really makes it clear if we're supposed to be watching a farcical comedy or a genuine mob story. There are too many silly things going on here to be a straight up story...there is a scene where Tony is on the phone complaining to someone about an attempt on his life. The guy is a MOB boss...why is he so shocked that someone is trying to kill him? On the other hand, the story really doesn't commit to the concept of farce, trying to straddle the road between farce and realism and not doing it very effectively. This was an alleged mob comedy but I don't think I laughed out loud once for the entire running time.
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I was drawn into the realistic aspects of the story that kept me watching, particularly this extremely likable central character that Michelle Pfeiffer so vividly brings to life here...this character is smart and sincere and we're behind her from jump. Never really bought Modine as an FBI agent but Stockwell was on target in a performance that actually netted him an Oscar nomination. As mentioned, production values are first rate, including impressive art direction/set direction and terrific costumes from Colleen Atwood, but the film's fuzzy screenplay keeps it from being what it was meant to be. 3

[Gideon58]

I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
An indie gem from 2015, I'll See You in My Dreams is a funny and heartwarming episodic character study that works thanks to a screenplay that takes some calculated risks that pay off and an effervescent performance by one of the most underrated actresses in the business.
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The character in question is Carol (Blythe Danner), a widow since 1994 and former singer who is now a California retiree recovering from the death of her beloved dog, Hazel attempting to keep her sunset years viable including a humorous attempt at speed dating. We are delighted as two very different men enter Carol's life: Lloyd (Martin Starr) is the much younger guy who cleans Carol's pool but also has a dormant passion for music and a secret weakness for karaoke nights. Bill (Sam Elliott) is a wealthy confirmed bachelor at Carol's country club who makes no qualms about his attraction to Carol and vice versa.
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I have to admit that films like About Schmidt did flash through my mind as this film began, but this film earned its cinematic credentials with a screenplay that presents an older central character who, in a refreshing change of pace, isn't living with one foot in the past and is not fighting anything thrown at her regarding moving on with her life. Yes, Carol loved her husband, but she didn't stop living when he died and has no qualms about talking about her life before and after her husband. I loved that she was the one who called Lloyd for their first karaoke night together and I also loved that she accepted Bill's request for a date with no hesitation. I also loved that Carol didn't feel she owed any explanation regarding her relationship with these men to her three bridge playing girlfriends (Rhea Pearlman, Mary Kay Place, June Squibb). The story also gave us a gIimpse at Carol's relationship with her daughter (Malin Ackerman) and in another refreshing change of pace for films of this ilk, the two ladies don't hate each other.
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It should also be mentioned that two of my favorite scenes in the film were musical: Danner's karaoke rendering of "Cry Me a River" was a winner as was the song Lloyd sang in the final scene that was reprised during the closing credits.
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But what this movie has above all else is an absolutely luminous performance by Blythe Danner in the starring role. Danner completely invests in this strong and sensitive character...the scene near the beginning of the film where Carol watches her dog Hazel being put to sleep left a definite lump in the throat. There's nothing false or affected with this performance, another one of those terrific performances where you never see the actress "acting." It is mind blowing to me that this extraordinary actress has never received an Oscar nomination yet her daughter has one on her mantle, but I digress. Danner's performance is worth the price of admission alone, but Starr is wonderful as Lloyd and is there any actor aging more gracefully and getting sexier as he does it than Sam Elliott? Fans of Hello My Name is Doris will have a head start here. 4

[Gideon58]

GREASE 2
My recent re-watch of Married to the Mob prompted a second look at another early entry on Michelle Pfeiffer's resume. Reputedly one of the worst sequels ever made, the years have not been kind to this film and its legacy as the armpit of movie sequels lives on.
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This 1982 sequel to the 1978 classic takes the same basic premise as the original film but attempts a gender switch: This time, Sandy's cousin Michael Carrington (Maxwell Caulfied) has arrived at Rydell High as an exchange student and is immediately attracted to the head Pink Lady Stephanie (Pfeiffer) who is considered off-limits to Michael because he's not a T-Bird and the current leader of the T-Birds, Johnny (Adrian Zmed) still carries a torch for Stephanie.
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The movie opens with a terrific number called "Back to School Again" but everything goes downhill after that as screenwriter Ken Finkelman, who later directed another bad sequel, Airplane II: The Sequel has constructed a limp story built purely around the legacy of the first film, which was a bad idea, evidenced that so few of the stars of the first film wanted nothing to do with this one and most of the actors from the first film who did sign on for this mess are ones we really didn't care about in the first film.
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I guess we were supposed to have unconditional acceptance of the Michael Carrington character because we are told that he is the cousin of Olivia Newton-John's Sandy Olsson and that his guide to the world of Rydell is first film refugee Frenchy, a virtual cameo by the always annoying Didi Conn, but it just didn't work for me.
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Maxwell Caulfield is pretty but his performance is wooden and has absolutely no chemistry with Pfeiffer, whose career somehow survived this debacle. Zmed is no John Travolta, working very hard to keep his shirt buttoned and keeping the audience from wanting to punch him in the face. Lorna Luft does have some funny moments channeling Marilyn Monroe, but Eve Arden, Dody Goodman, Sid Ceasar, Tab Hunter, and Connie Stevens are wasted in roles that just slow down an already deadening musical.
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The horrible musical score by Louis St. Louis, Frank Musker, Howard Greenfield, Rob Helger, and Dominic Bugatti includes "classics" like "Let's Score Tonight", "Do it for Our Country", "Reproduction", "Cool Rider", and "Charades".
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Patricia Birch's direction and choreography are lazy and uninspired...there are scenes lifted directly from the 1978 film that don't even attempt to disguise the fact. And Birch mounted the original 1971 Broadway show! Can't even think of something positive regarding the production values...for a musical, the sound and sound editing are lazy as well...several songs sound like they are being performed in a tunnel. Proof positive as to why sequels are killing Hollywood. 1.5

[cricket]

I'm surprised you don't like Married to the Mob more. I love it.

[Citizen Rules]

Hey! glad you liked I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS (2015), I thought that was a pretty neat little film. It's always a treat to see Gwyn's mom do her thing:p

[Gideon58]

I prefer to think of Gwyn as Blythe's daughter. LOL!

[Citizen Rules]

I prefer to think of Gwyn as Blythe's daughter. LOL! Ha! good one:p

[Camo]

I loved Grease 2 as a kid, and i didn't even like the original. Think i knew even then that it was godawful but christ was it fun in a terrible corny way. Who's That Guy and Cool Rider are etched into my memory haha. Not seen it since i was 8 or something and i doubt i'll ever watch it again as outside of a few hilarious "so bad they're good" moments i know i'll not be able to sit through it.

[Gideon58]

I loved Grease 2 as a kid, and i didn't even like the original. Think i knew even then that it was godawful but christ was it fun in a terrible corny way. Who's That Guy and Cool Rider are etched into my memory haha. Not seen it since i was 8 or something and i doubt i'll ever watch it again as outside of a few hilarious "so bad they're good" moments i know i'll not be able to sit through it.

Well, you'e certainly entitled to your opinion, and I have a list of "so bad they're good" movies, but this would not be on it...this movie was just painful to watch. As I said in the review, the opening number was good, but the rest of the movie was a mess.

[Camo]

Well, you'e certainly entitled to your opinion, and I have a list of "so bad they're good" movies, but this would not be on it...this movie was just painful to watch. As I said in the review, the opening number was good, but the rest of the movie was a mess.

It's not really my opinion, it was my opinion when i was 8. As i said i know i wouldn't feel that way now.

Plus it's not as if Grease is that much better, that film is really bad in the same ways too just to a lesser extent.

[Gideon58]

VIVA LAS VEGAS
Elvis Presley was one of the greatest recording artists ever but really wasn't much of an actor. That didn't stop Hollywood from getting their piece of the Elvis gravy train, actually allowing the singer to star in 31 movies before his death. One of his biggest hits was a 1964 romp called Viva Las Vegas, which is more than watchable due to some slick visual trappings, a fun story, some terrific songs, and a rare instance of a leading lady for Elvis who definitely didn't fade into the woodwork next to the star.
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Elvis plays Lucky Jackson, a professional race car driver who is determined to drive in the first Grand Prix in Las Vegas and has recently saved up enough money to buy a special motor for his car. Upon arrival in Vegas, he misplaces the money and has to go to work as a waiter in a hotel to earn the money back. Working as a waiter does complicate his pursuit of a pretty swimming instructor at the hotel named Rusty Martin (Ann-Margret), who has also caught the eye of another professional driver (and millionaire) named Elmo Mancini (Cesare Danova), setting up a professional rivalry and a classic romantic triangle.
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Lucky's pursuit of Rusty is going pretty smoothly until Elmo tells Rusty the story of another driver who died. Rusty asks Lucky if he would give up racing and when he refuses, Rusty decides to use Mancini's attraction to her to get Lucky to change his mind.
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Like all of Elvis' movies, there is never any doubt who is going to get the girl when the credits roll, but Sally Benson's screenplay sets up a believable triangle where there is actually an element of suspense as to whether or not Lucky is going to win Rusty that is actually pretty credible. This is such a 60's movie and the sensibilities that go along with that time period seem dated now, but do provide some amusement. I was very amused when after meeting Rusty and letting her get away, Lucky and Elmo go club hopping to hunt her down, assuming that any woman who lives in Vegas must be a showgirl. I really had a hard time picturing two guys in 2017 walking into a Vegas showroom and standing in front of the stage to check out each girl individually, but this movie was not made in 2017.
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Admittedly, I haven't seen a lot of Elvis' films, but this is the strongest performance of the ones that I have seen. Somewhere between Loving You and this film, Elvis seems to have picked up a little comic timing and, with director George Sidney's assumed guidance, is charming and funny here. The scene where Lucky is waiting on Rusty and Elmo on their big date and trying to ruin it was very funny.
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Ann-Margret was definitely the first leading lady of Elvis who not only wasn't blown off the screen, but created a chemistry with Elvis that is off the charts here. Sidney, who had just directed Ann-Margret in Bye Bye Birdie, clearly understands the actress and makes her look great here and, in a rare instance in an Elvis movie, is even given a solo musical moment, a sexy number called "Appreciation". Ann-Margret's bold performance here completely belies the fact that this was only her 4th film. Other musical highlights included a duet called "The Lady Loves Me", "If you don't think I need You", "You're the Boss" and a brassy song and dance duet for the stars called "C'mon Everybody". Not to mention the title tune, which was one of Elvis' biggest hits. The musical numbers are expertly staged by David Winters, who had just finished playing Arab in the film version of West Side Story.
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Cesare Danova and that sexy accent made viable romantic competition for the Pelvis and I also enjoyed William Demarest as Rusty's dad. Elvis fanatics might add half a bag of popcorn to this rating, but this minor classic kept me smiling and tapping my toes. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

I haven't seen Viva Las Vegas in a long time, but I always dig an Elvis film and he pairs well with Ann-Margret. I liked both Grease and Grease 2, but liked Grease better.

[Gideon58]

TAKEN 2
A sequel to the 2008 hit, Taken 2 is a solid action thriller that meets and surpasses most of my requirements for a good sequel (see my review of The Dark Knight Rises) and kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire running time.
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This 2012 film re-introduces us to Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), a divorced former CIA agent with an almost grown daughter, who though retired from the agency, still does freelance security work. In this film, Mills has completed an assignment in Istanbul and his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) and daughter (Maggie Grace) join him there for some R & R. Unfortunately, Bryan and his ex get kidnapped by an Albanian nationalist (Rade Sherbedgia) whose son was murdered by Bryan during his mission to save his kidnapped daughter in the first film.
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I love the way this sequel unfolds, re-introducing this family that we met in the first film without re-hashing events from the first film. Luc Bresson and Robert Mark Kamen's screenplay cleverly establishes the kind of man the central character is when he learns his daughter has a new boyfriend (Luke Grimes) and he is warned by both his ex and his daughter to leave the guy alone and not conduct a background check on him, a warning that Bryan ignores. Of course, anyone who saw the first film can hardly blame him.
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As a former CIA agent, we learned in the first film that Bryan has a very specific skill set that was instrumental in rescuing his daughter, but here we are refreshingly introduced to some different skills not utilized in the first film. I loved as Bryan and his ex were being abducted in a van the way he was counting the seconds they spent on a street before turning and then memorizing sounds that he was hearing during the ride. It was absolutely fascinating watching the way he used this very specific information to help his daughter figure out exactly where her parents were being taken.
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I have to admit to chuckling every time Bryan would give his ex or his daughter any kind of instructions and they would initiate some kind of discussion or argument about it. It would seem that after everything that happened in the first film, these two ladies would trust Bryan's instincts about danger, shut up, and do what they're told.
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Director Olivier Megaton displays a knack for mounting viable action sequences and is aided by a first rate production team. There is some dizzying camerawork and the film editing is nothing short of superb. Neesom, Janssen, and Grace create a family that we have come to care about and even though we know that somehow they are going to survive, we are still fascinated to see exactly how it's going to happen. I must also applaud the director and screenwriters, who in an attempt to make a bigger and better sequel, didn't feel the need to give us a four hour film. The running times for the first film and this one are practically identical...fabulous. And yes, there is a Taken 3. 4

[Gideon58]

A Mighty Wind
The Christopher Guest rep company, never known for providing conventional comedy, take the viewer on an offbeat journey in 2003's A Mighty Wind that actually turns out to be funnier than its premise implies.
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The death of a folk music concert promoter from the 60's prompts his son (Bob Balaban) to organize a tribute to his father in the form of a concert, featuring three great folk acts of the 60's who happen to still be around.
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The Folksman is a trio of singers who are thrilled to be part of this tribute, despite some infighting among the guys; The Main Street Singers is actually a rather large group which are actually two separate groups that decided to merge; Mitch and Mickey were a male/female duo who had a monster hit record that made a giant impact because near the end of the song, Mitch and Mickey kiss each other. Mitch is lauded as this folk music god who influenced everyone back in the day, but when he shows up in New York to rehearse the concert, he has apparently had some sort of mental breakdown and is only a shell of the man he was.
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In their accustomed "mockumentary" style, director Christopher Guest and his co-screenwriter Eugene Levy have crafted an amusing and human look at a very select group of show business professionals who seem to be in complete denial about their genre's limited appeal. Only one character in the movie actual admits to hating folk music and he happens to be the other son of the dead concert promoter. I have to admit that as the premise of this film unfolded, I expected to be bored to death, but Guest and company, who have made us laugh at dog shows, community theater, and Hollywood, mine humor out of folk music as well.
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The one of a kind musical score includes songs like "Old Joe's Place", "Loco Man", "Never Did No Wondrin', "Main Street Rag" and "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow", Mitch and Mickeys famous duet, actually received an Oscar nomination for Best Song.
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Guest has always had a knack for casting his rep company in tailor-made roles and it was genius to cast Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and himself as the Folksman...the gimmick of having the three actors who were the leads in This is Spinal Tap reunite onscreen here 20 years later was just inspired and conjured up all kinds of memories for me. The offstage bickering between the trio definitely stirred up images of an older and wiser David, Nigel, and Derek. Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara shine as Mitch and Mickey and there are other great comic contributions along the way from Jane Lynch, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, John Michael Higgins, Jennifer Coolidge, and Ed Begley Jr. This movie is a lot more fun than it sounds. Fans of the Smothers Brothers will have a head start here. 3.5

[Gideon58]

JUNGLE FEVER
Director Spike Lee gave us a real mixed bag with 1991's Jungle Fever, a well-meaning if overly elaborate look at New Millenium racism that does tread some new territory for mainstream films, but the primary story from which everything else springs just isn't as interesting as everything surrounding it.
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The primary story revolves around Flip (Wesley Snipes), an intelligent and arrogant black architect who is married with a daughter and is so convinced that he is underappreciated where he works that he quits when his demand to be made partner isn't met. Angela (Annabella Sciorra) is a sexy Italian temp working for Flip who lives with her father, her two moronic brothers, and has a newsstand proprietor (John Turturro) in love with her. One fateful night, Flip and Angela give into a mutual attraction that they fought as long as they could, and the reveal of their affair alters the lives of everyone in their individual orbits forever.
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Flip and Angela's affair springboards an in-your-face look at different kinds of racism that isn't always addressed in other films on the subject. This story is not just about a black guy cheating on his light-skinned black wife with a white girl. This is about an Italian girl being nearly beaten to death by her father when he learns his daughter is a "N****r lover." This is about black women's increasing insecurity regarding too many black men getting involved with white women. This is about how one of Angela's best friends finds her sleeping with a black man "disgusting". This about the newsstand proprietor who after being quietly dumped by Angie, finds himself attracted to a black woman and how his family is not having it.
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There's also a slightly over the top, but nonetheless entertaining secondary story revolving around Flip's older brother, Gator (Samuel L. Jackson). Gator is a crackhead constantly borrowing money from Flip and his mother (Ruby Dee) and has been banned from his parents home by his father (Ossie Davis).
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Though the film pretends to be a story of interracial romance, there's so much going on here that this so-called romance gets lost in the cinematic shuffle. Flip and Angela's story really doesn't sustain the interest as it should. First, because Sciorra's lifeless performance makes Flip's attraction to the woman hard to buy and the chemistry between Snipes and Sciorra just wasn't there and for a story like this, if there is no real chemistry between the leads, attention begins to wander. Fortunately, Lee gives us other things to distract us from the leads, particularly Gator's story, made completely watchable thanks to the flashy performance from Samuel L. Jackson, though the scene in the giant crack house strained credibility. The saddest part of Flip and Angela's story is that it really had very little to do with the color of their skin...these were just two people who had a moment of weakness that they mistook for love and paid the price for it.
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Wesley Snipes works very hard at keeping Flip likable even though the guy is kind of an ass. Lonette McKee offers a powerhouse turn as Flip's wife and I loved Turturro (and his little brother Nicholas) and the scenery chewing turn by Oscar winner Anthony Quinn was also a standout.
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Lee's self-indulgence soap box approach to direction has never been more apparent...that annoying camera thing where it looks like the characters are floating when they are supposed to be walking is used to distraction in two different scenes. And I don't know what it is about Spike and music, but there are few directors more clueless about music than Lee...it started off promisingly with Stevie Wonder's awesome title tune, but the music soon turned pretentious and overpowering, diluting the power of scenes that it should have been enhancing. Despite all this, I found myself riveted to the proceedings and never looked at my watch, though Lee has definitely done better work. 3

[Gideon58]

SELMA
For those like me who were children when most of this was happening, or for those who hadn't been born yet and their only exposure to Martin Luther King Jr. was his "I Have a Dream" speech, the 2014 Best Picture nominee Selma is worthy of your time and attention.
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Oprah Winfrey was producer and Brad Pitt served as one of the executive producers for this elaborate docudrama, mounted in exquisite detail, where Dr. King's battle for Civil Rights went after "I Have a Dream." The story begins after the iconic speech and after Dr. King's winning the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, where he has begun a new leg of his civil rights battle...the right for blacks to vote, a right on paper, that was blocked through red tape and illegal restrictions and technicalities manifested by the south, where even though desegregation was a law on paper, was not even close to becoming a reality.
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Like my review of The People Vs OJ Simpson, this review is intended to be a review of the film in terms of its entertainment value and I will be analyzing what the film documents and not my personal feelings about it. There are too many very prickly subjects touched upon by this docudrama to discuss in any kind of realistic context so I will be talking about the film for its effectiveness as entertainment.
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Paul Webb's screenplay seems to take a pretty balanced look at this often ugly and turbulent period in American history without taking sides and does not paint the central character (or any other character here )in a completely flattering light. As mentioned, I was a child when all this was going on, but according to this film, the whole March on Selma was triggered by LBJ's refusal to sign a voting equal rights bill, resulting in what was intended to be a peaceful March from Selma to Montgomery, which met with violent retaliation from Alabama law enforcement (fueled by Alabama governor George Wallace). I have to admit to being shocked to learn that King didn't even participate in the first march.
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Don't get it twisted though...the film also makes it crystal clear that this leg of King's fight for Civil Rights was his life blood and nothing would deter him. There is an explosive confrontation between King and LBJ where King explains that LBJ could have prevented all of this with a stroke of his pen. According to this film, LBJ supported civil rights in theory but did not consider it a priority in his administration and this is what fueled the entire battle presented in this landmark drama.
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Director Ava DuVernay has mounted a compelling and emotionally manipulative fact-based drama that has no clear cut heroes or villains and spreads the blame for this disturbing battle equally, DuVernay is aided by some first rate casting, especially with David Oyelowo as Dr. King. Olyelowo doesn't resemble King and never attempts to imitation, but perfectly captures the spirit of the man. Kudos as well to Tom Wilkinson for his LBJ and Tim Roth, as a surprisingly greasy George Wallace, The film features excellent production values including exquisite cinematography, explosive editing, and a flawless music score, climaxed by John Legend's Oscar-winning "Glory". A textbook docudrama that hits all the right notes. 4

[Joel]

A Mighty Wind


I adore most of Guest and Co's movies with the exception of Mascots. Would like to know your thoughts on that one. Good review, btw!

[Gideon58]

I adore most of Guest and Co's movies with the exception of Mascots. Would like to know your thoughts on that one. Good review, btw!

Never seen Mascots

[Gideon58]

SHALL WE DANCE (2004)
One of the more pleasant surprises I've had at the movies lately was 2004's Shall We Dance. Not to be confused with the old Astaire/Rogers musical, this film is labeled as a romantic comedy, but the film reminded more of films like Footloose and Billy Elliott as a celebration of the passion that dance can ignite in a person, aided by sparkling direction and mad star power.
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Fresh off his Golden Globe winning song and dance turn in Chicago, Richard Gere plays John Clark, a married Chicago attorney and father of two, who is entranced by a young woman (Jennifer Lopez) he sees looking pensively out of a window on the second floor of a dance studio that his commuter train passes every day. After catching her at the window twice, he impulsively gets off the train the third day and signs up for dance lessons and though the woman he saw only teaches advanced students, John finds a passion for ballroom dancing that he had no idea was inside him but is also afraid to tell his wife (Susan Sarandon) about it.
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The screenplay here is alternately imaginative and a little safe...we are expecting a passionate affair between John and Paulina, Lopez' character but we get something a little different. We're expecting a romantic triangle and what we get is a look at the passion of dance and how it can bring some people together and build walls between others. There is a lovely subplot involving a co-worker of John's named Linc, brilliantly played by Stanley Tucci, who loves ballroom dancing but feels the need to keep it a secret from everyone he knows, going to elaborate lengths, including outrageous disguises and toupees in order to keep his secret. Unfortunately, it is John's inability to be honest with his wife about his new passion that almost destroys his marriage. I thought it was an interesting story move when John's wife hires a detective (Richard Jenkins) to find out what her husband is up to and when she learns he's not having an affair, chooses to let John have his secret instead of asking to share in it.
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Of course, there is some wonderful dancing here and Gere had already proven his ability to command a dance floor in Chicago, but it is this lovely character that Gere creates that is really the star attraction here...Gere has rarely been so utterly charming onscreen and the steamy tango he does with Lopez about halfway through the film in a dark empty dance studio is definitely the film's high point. Sarandon brings a richness to the role of John's wife that isn't in the script, Bobby Cannavale is amusing as a fellow dance student who thinks learning to dance will make him a babe magnet and Tucci steals every scene he is in. And if they don't blink, fans of "Dancing with the Stars" will catch cameos by two pros from that show, Karina Smirnoff and Tony Davoloni. It's nothing earth-shattering, but the film is richly entertaining and, if caught in the right mood, could ignite a tear duct or two. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

Gideon58, that's a very thought provoking review of Hidden Figures, well written too. I enjoyed reading it.

I didn't know it was nominated for Best Picture 2016, IMO it was good but not that good.

[Gideon58]

A SIMPLE PLAN
Greed and the power of money and how said power can trigger unspeakable modes of self preservation seem to be the motivations behind a 1998 drama called A Simple Plan, a suspenseful and sometimes moving drama that takes some really ugly turns that force the viewer's attention. This was my first re-watch in honor of the late Bill Paxton, who offers one of his strongest performances here.
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Paxton plays Hank Mitchell, an accountant in a feed & grain store, who is married to Sarah (Bridget Fonda) and has a baby on the way. One snowy night Hank, his slightly dim brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jacob's BFF Lou (Brent Briscoe) find an airplane crashed in the woods buried underneath the snow. Hank enters the plane and encounters the dead pilot still in the cockpit and finds a large gym bag that contains four million dollars.
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Jacob and Lou's first instinct is to split the money and never mention it to anyone. Hank appears to have a slightly cooler head and suggests that he hold the money until the thaw or until someone comes looking for the plane. If the snow melts and no one has come around about the plane or the money, Hank agrees to split the money between the three of them as long as they all leave town after they do so. But Hank's greed comes to light as well when he brings the money home to hold and shows it to Sarah almost immediately, whose first instinct is to turn the money in, but when it comes to light that the possibility of no one coming after the money seems imminent, even Sarah's greed kicks in, spring boarding a truly disturbing story that holds surprises at every turn.
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Director Sam Raimi really scores here creating an atmospheric drama that takes on an added richness with the story being buried in snow and the eerie cinematic symbolism of black crows overlooking the story...every shot of the snow buried plane is overseen by intrusive black crows warning the viewer of the evil that men do, even though we don't need any reminders...the effect of greed has rarely been so effectively showcased as screenwriter Scott B. Smith does here, adapting his own novel for the screen. Stories about people who find large amounts of money never end pleasantly, and even though you want to slap the characters involved for even considering for a minute that they're going to get away with what they're intending, it doesn't make the story any less watchable and this particular story leaves a lot of bodies in its wake.
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Paxton is first rate in a complex performance, as are Billy Bob Thornton as Jacob, a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination and Briscoe as Lou. Raimi has employed top notch production values here, with special nods to art direction and cinematography. There's some slow spots about halfway through, but the film bounces back to a powerful and uncompromising conclusion. 3.5

[Gideon58]

Gideon58, that's a very thought provoking review of Hidden Figures, well written too. I enjoyed reading it.

I didn't know it was nominated for Best Picture 2016, IMO it was good but not that good.

I don't think it deserved a Best Picture nomination either.

[Gideon58]

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (2017)
As with most remakes, I was reticent about approaching the 2017 live action remake of the 1991 animated musical that was the first animated film to receive a Best Picture nomination, but fears were almost immediately vanquished by this elaborate and exquisitely detailed live action rendering of the classic fairy tale which fleshes out some characters and plot points to maximum effect and really brings into focus who the real villain of this piece is.
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For those who didn't see the 1991 film, Belle is a dreamy-eyed romantic girl growing up in a tiny French village who is considered an oddball because she likes to read and is not in a hurry to find a husband. An arrogant French soldier named Gaston has decided that he wants Belle as his bride whether she's interested or not. Belle's father leaves the village and is taken prisoner by a beast who lives in a huge gothic mansion because Belle's father attempted to steal a rose for Belle. This rose is the key to a curse that was put on the Beast many years ago and he could never become normal again without it and the love of a woman. Belle goes to the castle to barter her father's freedom and agrees to stay at the castle in exchange for her father's freedom, setting the stage for one of the greatest love stories ever mounted.
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Bill Condon, who directed the film version of Dreamgirls and won an Oscar for the screenplay of Gods and Monsters, has triumphed here, mounting a musical feast for the eyes and ears that not only delivers the story that was brought to us in charming animated form in 1991, but clears up a few points that the 1991 version didn't make as clear. In this film, we are privy to the curse that is placed on the Beast and, more importantly, why it was placed on him. It was quite the eye opener to learn that this guy was kind of a jerk even before he become the beast and his jerkiness was definitely intensified by the curse, but he was no saint at the beginning of the story and I liked the fact that it really was Belle's love that changed him. I loved the slow burn of the relationship between Belle and the Beast...I love when her face lights up when she sees his library and he gives it to her. This version of the story also makes it very clear that Gaston is the villain here and not the Beast. Granted he starts off as sort of a comic villain, but for the final act of the film, the character's humor has faded and we are left with one of cinema's most venomous antagonists.
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Most of the songs written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman wrote for the 1991 film are back, including "Belle", "Be Our Guest", "Something There", "Gaston", and the Oscar winning title tune. There are also a couple of new songs written especially for this film including "The Mob Song" and "Evermore".
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Condon has employed superb production values in bringing this classic tale vividly to life, the movie features absolutely superb art direction/set direction, cinematography, editing, costumes, makeup, and visual effects. The technical artistry in bringing the Beast's household staff to life, like Lumiere and Cogsworth is nothing short of incredible.
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Condon's casting instincts were also pretty much on the money here...Emma Watson made an enchanting Belle and Dan Stevens brought a sophisticated elegance to the Beast that was joy to watch. Luke Evans beautifully underplays as Gaston, a character who could have been just a one-dimensional, mustache-twirling villain, but Evans brought a twinkle to Gaston's eye and a sleaze to his agenda that made him the perfect guy for this story and he was perfectly complemented by Joshua Gad as LeFou, Gaston's companion who eventually sees Gaston's true colors. Bouquets as well to Ewan MacGregor as the voice of Lumiere, Ian McKellen as the voice of Cogsworth, and Emma Stone as the voice of Mrs. Potts. And let's not forget Oscar winner Kevin Kline as Belle's father. Fans of the 1991 film should find entertainment value here. I did.
4.5

[Gideon58]

CINDERFELLA
Jerry Lewis decided to give the classic fairy tale a gender switch and came up with a 1960 oddity called Cinderfella which provides sporadic laughs.
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Jerry plays Fella, whose late father left everything to his second wife (Judith Anderson) on the condition that she always take care of Fella. Since the will was not specific as to how Fella was to be cared for, Stepmommy kept him on the estate as a slave to her and her two moronic sons (Henry Silva, Robert Hutton), and Fella just seems to go along with it.
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Then a princess from a foreign country (Anna Maria Alberghetti) is rumored to be on her way to America for some husband shopping and Stepmommy of course wants to see one of her boys romance the woman, but Fella,who has run into the princess prior to the ball being thrown in her honor and made less than a strong impression, gets a second chance with the help of his Fairy Godfather (Ed Wynn).
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Director and screenwriter Frank Tashlin works hard at bringing something new and original to this well-worn story and it looks like he left a lot of it up to his star...the scene in the kitchen where Fella is pretending to be the Count Basie orchestra and his classic entrance at the ball down a very long staircase appear to be Jerry's brainchild and Tashlin just let the star do what he does best. Even though this movie was made four years after Lewis' final work with Dean Martin, Lewis still seems to be nursing a need to let the world know here that he doesn't need Martin anymore, evidenced in a couple of dreadful musical numbers that Lewis is given here that add nothing to the story. The second one in the basement of Fella's house is particularly embarrassing.
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As usual with Jerry Lewis' work in the 1960's Jerry's the whole show, but Judith Anderson, Ed Wynn and Henry Silva do manager to sneak a few laughs past the star. Jerry fans will find a lot to love here, but I think he's done better work. 2.5

[SilentVamp]

There are also a couple of new songs written especially for this film including "The Mob Song" and "Evermore".
"The Mob Song" is actually in the original 1991 film. :) There was that song "Human Again" that they added to the Broadway show that was originally written for the '91 film. I loved it when they added it to the re-release of the animated Beauty and the Beast. I was looking so forward to seeing it done on the movie screen in this live action version. I will say that the fact that they omitted that from the songs that could've been used in the film was a disappointment for me. They could've turned it into such a big number. I would've loved that.

[Gideon58]

PECKER
John Waters, the creative force behind underground classics like Pink Flamingos, Polyester, Hairspray, and Cry Baby tried something a little more mainstream in 1998 with Pecker a film that is a little too safe in dealing with some subject matter that is now dated enough to make interest wane in 2017.
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Most of Waters' work takes place in Baltimore in the 1950's but Waters chose to set this story in contemporary Baltimore, where we are introduced to Pecker (Edward Furlong) a young man obsessed with photography and the concept of it as art. Everyone in town knows Pecker and of his obsession...when people see him coming, they automatically start posing. His family loves him (despite the fact that they named him Pecker), even if they are slightly embarrassed about his passion for picture taking. Even his girlfriend (Christina Ricci) is finding it tiring until Pecker's pictures get the attention of a New York art gallery director (Lili Taylor) who wants to give Pecker his own show and faster than you can say "shutterbug" , Pecker becomes an art world celebrity, a position that does have its perks and its consequences.
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There's no doubt that Waters' work has always been an acquired taste and that this movie has a lot going for it, particularly a really likable title character who we are behind from jump; however, I think my interest in what happened in the course of the story did begin to wane because the story seems dated...photography? Unless inside a modeling studio, when was the last time you saw anyone on the planet with a camera around their neck? Cameras are on cell phones now, making the whole basic premise of this film rather dated.
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Waters' screenplay is pretty accurate in portraying the ups and downs of celebrity and those obsessed with same and we understand when the lives of the people that Pecker really cares about become damaged because of his success, but it's such safe, middle of the road stuff for a filmmaker like Waters. Waters has a reputation for outrageous stories and bizarre characters that require complete suspension of disbelief. Very few members of Waters' rep company are on hand here and it might be this cast's misunderstanding of Waters that made for some real sluggish going around the halfway point, before rebounding for a terrific conclusion.
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Furlong is a charmer in the title role and I also enjoyed Mary Kay Place and Mark Joy as his parents, Martha Plimpton as his sister, and Brandon Sexton III as his BFF Matt, and I did enjoy a game Pecker and Matt play at the beginning of the film called "Shopping for Others", but the saggy center of the film and Waters' rather pedestrian subject matter kept this film from being what it should have been. 3

[Gideon58]

REAR WINDOW
Alfred Hitchcock, the undisputed king of cinematic suspense, earned one of his five Best Director nominations for 1954's Rear Window, an atmospheric and stylized nail biter that unfolds slowly without a lot of red herrings but delivers a climax that definitely had me on the edge of my chair and that's only because the master was behind the camera. Say what you will, but Hitchcock was the only director where no matter what film of his you're experiencing, the standout element of the film was his direction.
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This superb piece of entertainment stars James Stewart as L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies, an acclaimed magazine photographer who has been wheelchair bound in his apartment for six weeks due to a broken leg and is going stir crazy. Jeff's boredom has him spending hours looking out the window and observing his various neighbors and creating his own stories about the lives of the varied neighbors, including a lonely spinster who actually pretends to have gentleman callers, a songwriter whose career seems to be having many ups and downs, and a pretty dancer who likes to stretch in front of her open window. But those neighbors' stories take a back seat for Jeff when it starts to look like another neighbor (Raymond Burr) may have murdered his wife.
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Jeff shares his theory with his wealthy, self-absorbed girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) and his nurse/housekeeper, Stella (Thelma Ritter), who are both initially skeptical about what Jeff thinks he has seen but are eventually on board with Jeff and want to help him nab this guy. Unfortunately, Jeff's buddy Doyle (Wendell Corey), a police detective, is a little more difficult to convince and his initial look into Jeff's suspicions are unable to be substantiated and have Jeff and the viewer scratching our collective heads as to the validity of Jeff's theory.
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Hitchcock really knocked it out of the park here, creating a deliciously entertaining suspense film that unfolds so deliberately that we're not really sure what's going on here, even though it's obvious that it's going to involve one of his neighbors. I love the way John Michael Hayes' screenplay firmly establishes the kind of level-headed, but adventurous guy that Jeff is, while subtly foreshadowing what is going to happen through Kelly and Ritter's characters...five minutes after her initial entrance into the story, Ritter's Stella makes it clear that Jeff needs to stop looking out the window because he's going to see something he's not expecting. Jeff's relationship with Lisa has a couple of different layers...we see that Jeff is feeling a little smothered by Lisa and he actually attempts to use this mystery to discreetly end his relationship with Lisa, but it only has the exact opposite effect.
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Hitchcock must also be applauded for the attention he put into establishing the individual lives of Jeff's neighbors...I was amused by one window revealing a couple who has just been married and after the traditional carrying over the thresh hold, they are the only neighbors observed actually closing their windows and blinds. I also love the way Hitchcock legitimizes all these neighbors having their windows and shades open by giving us an almost immediate close up of a thermometer revealing a temperature in the 90's making us accept the fact every neighbor has their windows open and one couple is even sleeping on their balcony because it's too hot in the apartment.
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Hitchcock and Stewart reunite after The Man Who Knew Too Much and prove to be a formidable team and Kelly, draped in gorgeous Edith Head costumes, is smoldering and sexy. Ritter, as always, provides just enough comic relief to serve the story and I've never enjoyed Wendell Corey onscreen more as Doyle. Psycho is definitely Hitch's masterpiece, but this one sure gives Psycho a run for its money. BTW, the voice of Jeff's editor on the phone in the opening scene is future Oscar winner Gig Young.
Re-thought for television in 1998 for Christopher Reeve, who was already paralyzed.
4.5

[Gideon58]

PUBLIC ENEMIES
Despite some flashy directorial pyrotechnics, a couple of charismatic leading performances, a rock solid supporting cast, and some first rate production values, the 2009 docudrama Public Enemies isn't quite the film it should be due primarily to an overly padded screenplay that meanders too leisurely to a foregone conclusion.
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This film is a look at what appears to be the final years in the career of mobster John Dillinger and the FBI's dogged pursuit of the man, led by J. Edgar Hoover and Melvin G. Purvis. Dillinger is not new cinematic territory, but it is the first one I've seen and my knowledge of the facts is pop culture level, so this film can be only judged on how the characters were presented in my eyes and the film as entertainment value.
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Director and co-screenwriter Michael Mann, if nothing else, drives home the inspiration of the phrase most associated with Dillinger..."Public Enemy Number One." Dillinger is painted here as a criminal who demanded fear and respect from both sides of the law. He commanded unquestionable loyalty from those who were part of his inner circle and was undisputed in the art of self preservation. This Dillinger is also a man who was acutely aware of his mortality and exactly what his lifestyle has earned him in terms of eventual consequences. I can't think of a lot of movie characters I've seen who have made an impression that makes their own want to distance themselves. According to this film, John Dillinger was a mobster that even the mob wanted nothing to do with.
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One thing that this film does is infuse a definite likability factor into the character and that is definitely the combined efforts of the actor and director. Observing a lot of what Dillinger does here, it's a little unsettling that I find myself siding with the character whether I'm supposed to and a lot of that is in the magic of casting.
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Johnny Depp lights up the screen in the title role and I have to wonder if this film would have been nearly as interesting if another actor had been playing this part, but Depp's star power gives this film more meat than it deserves and Christian Bale works hard at keeping Purvis from being a cliche. Mann has assembled an impressive supporting cast including Billy Crudup, Stephen Lang, Jason Clarke, James Russo, Giovanni Ribisi, and Channing Tatum. Must also mention Oscar winner Marian Cotillard who takes the typical movie gun moll role to another level. The film also features incredible editing, sound, and costumes. Fans of the director might add half a bag of popcorn to the rating, but being a fan of Depp kept me from taking half a bag off. A mixed bag to be sure, but it definitely goes on too long. 3

[Gideon58]

DIRTY DANCING (2017)
ABC apparently poured mountains of money into their "re-imagining" of Dirty Dancing the 1987 classic that won an Oscar for Best Song ("I've Had the Time of My Life") and made official movie stars out of the late Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, but it was all for naught. I'm pretty sure the term "re-imagining" was used to legitimize this bastardization of the original film that I am scrambling to think of something positive to say regarding the three hours of my life this movie stole from me.
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For the uninitiated, this is the story of Frances "Baby" Houseman, a high school senior in the 1960's, who spends the summer at a resort in the Catskills with her parents and older sister and has an ill-fated romance with the resort's sexy dance instructor, Johnny Castle. This film re-invented the art of movie dance, made guys dancing cool again and was the surprise box office smash of 1987.
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This film was in the top 20 of my list of films that never should remade, but now that's it done, all I can do is bring to light the myriad problems that came with remounting a film that should have been allowed to languish in our cinematic memory chests as the original treasure it was instead of attempting to bring something "new" to it.
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There's so much wrong here that I'm not sure where to start, but let's begin with Jessica Sharzer's screenplay with its obvious feminist leanings. The story attempts to empower the women in the story even though exactly the opposite is true of most of the women in the original film. We are told immediately of Baby's fascination with Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" and are shocked when later on in the film we see Lisa trying to read it. Yes, Lisa, Baby's older sister, the girl who didn't have a brain in her head in the original film. Lisa is actually given a brain and a social conscience in this film, evidenced in her on the surface romance with a black guitar player who teachers her how to play the ukelele (yes, you read that correctly). Marjorie Houseman, Baby's mother, turns out to be struggling to keep her marriage together, when it is revealed that she and Dr. Houseman haven't had sex in a year and Vivian Pressman, the rich divorcee whose lust for Johnny actually drives her to blackmail.
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Apologies for the comparisons to the original film, but with any kind of remake, avoiding comparisons is pretty much impossible. For me, what made the original film the special experience it was was the smoking chemistry between Swayze and Grey, and it's just not here. Abigail Breslin is a talented actress who understand the character of Baby and works very hard at being part of a sexy onscreen team but generates absolutely NO chemistry with virtual unknown Colt Prattes whose wooden performance and less than stellar dancing skills, along with Breslin appearing to be approximately 25 pounds overweight, just made it hard to invest in these two as a couple.
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The film tries to make up for the lack of chemistry between the stars by beefing up the roles of minor characters that we just don't care about. The whole subplot of the Houseman's dying marriage was just deadening despite sincere work from Debra Messing as Marjorie Houseman, but Bruce Greenwood sucked all the likability out of the role of Baby's father, brilliantly played by the late Jerry Orbach in the original. The role of Vivian was also beefed up, given great appeal thanks to Katey Sagal's terrific performance in the role. Messing and Sagal were even both awarded their own musical sequences in the film, which I suspect were added to get the actresses to agree to appear. Also enjoyed Nicole Scherzinger as Penny, Johnny's dance partner, played by Cynthia Rhodes in the original film. She and Sagal somehow manage to retain their dignity during this mess.
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The main problem with this film is that Sharzer and director Wayne Blair have attempted to take a drama with dance sequences and turn it into a movie musical and try to legitimize it all with a hard to believe climax that left me scratching my head. They attempt to turn the piece into a musical by utilizing all the music from the original and having the cast sing the songs, which would have been OK, except all the musical sequences come off sounding canned and phony. On the very small positive side, the film is beautiful to look at with some stunning cinematography, but the choreography is unimaginative and I've seen better dancing on Dancing with the Stars. Other than the performances of Katey Sagal and Nicole Scherzinger, this movie is a hot mess, even worse than FOX's remake of Grease, which I really didn't think could be outdone in terms of bad, but ABC has accomplished just that. 1

[cricket]

Nothing much I've seen recently except for A Simple Plan, which I loved the second time around, and Rear Window, which I wasn't crazy about the most recent time.

I've never been that interested in Public Enemies despite my love for gangster films, and I will never watch the Dirty Dancing remake despite my love for the original.

[Gideon58]

ONE HOUR PHOTO
A bone chilling performance by the late Robin Williams is the centerpiece of a riveting psychological thriller from 2002 called One Hour Photo that keeps the viewer riveted yet squirming thanks to a story that provides as many questions as it does answers and is worth the creepy journey despite an ending that was a bit of a letdown.
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Williams plays Sy Parrish, an employee in a one hour photo lab who has developed an unhealthy obsession with a regular customer named Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielsen), her son Jake (Dylan Smith) and Nina's husband, Will (Michael Vartan)who, as the story begins, Sy has never met. It soon becomes apparent that Sy's obsession with this family has crossed all kinds of boundaries as he has actually imagined himself to be part of the family. It is revealed that the Yorkins are not the blissful model family that Sy has created in his mind and certain events cause Sy to snap and do what he has to in order to preserve his self-created family.
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Writer/director Mark Romanek has crafted a compelling story that does provide its share of scares but does a much more effective job at creating squirm worthy situations that we know are wrong but this creepy central character is blissfully unaware. Romanek builds this puzzle of a character slowly and deliberately beginning with Nina coming to Sy with film requesting 2 prints of each photo and we see Sy write down 3. It initially seems to stretch credibility when even young Jake confesses to his mother that he thinks Sy is lonely and is worried about him, but the real squirming for the viewer begins at Jake's baseball practice where he hears his name and instead of seeing one of his parents, Sy is sitting in the bleachers all by himself.
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Romanek's creation of this central character is fascinating considering the lack of information we are given about him. I love that Romanek attempts to elicit sympthy for the character by having him serve as the story's narrator, looking at every aspect of life through the art of photography. It's obvious there are mental health issues going on with this character though they are never addressed. Nothing else resembling backstory ever really comes to light regarding Sy either...this is the first time in a long time I remember meeting a character at the beginning of a movie and not knowing anymore about him at the end of the movie.
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Robin Williams turns in a powerhouse performance that shows surprising understatement in its execution...this character could have easily gone over the top and become laughable but never does. Williams has never lost himself in a character the way he does here.
Nielsen is lovely as Nina and the usually wooden Michael Vartan has never been better as Will. Eriq LaSalle and Gary Cole also make their scenes count as a police detective and Sy's boss, respectively. The hook of Sy wanting to see his final photos after his arrest didn't work for me because the pictures were nothing like I was expecting, but a pretty chilling ride up to the fuzzy conclusion. 3.5

[Gideon58]

KITTY FOYLE
After spending the 1930's appearing in eight musicals with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers yearned to hang up her tap shoes and spread her dramatic wings and actually won an Oscar for Best Actress first time out of the gate for an underrated 1940 gem called Kitty Foyle.
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This is Hollywood melodrama at its zenith...what appears to be a conventional love triangle on the surface is an actual valentine to the evolution of women as creatures of independence who didn't necessarily need a man to validate their existence but began to recognize the right guy if he came along.
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The film opens with an amusing prologue briefly chronicling women's place in American society and how finding the right man was the number one priority for any women who had her head on straight. The film then switches to contemporary 1940 where we meet the title character, a working girl who is content with what appears to be her lot in life as a single independent woman until two different men from her past reappear.
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Wyn (Dennis Morgan) is a an important magazine editor from an extremely wealthy family who hires Kitty to be his secretary but eventually falls for her. However, family pressure from his side force them apart and Kitty eventually meets cute with a handsome doctor (James Craig) who treats Kitty like a queen.
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This lush and well-mounted film has all the classic elements of movie melodrama...the star-crossed couple being kept apart because of difference in social class and the woman feeling affection for one man that doesn't match her passion for the other and you know as the story progresses, that one of these poor souls is going to be left out in the cold and it's a shame because Dalton Trumbo's surprisingly adult screenplay presents us with three very likable characters, especially our heroine, a contemporary movie heroine unlike any we had seen up to this point.
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Many were surprised when Rogers won the Best Actress Oscar and it is a terrific performance that allows her to run the gamut of emotions, but was it really better than Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story? Morgan and Craig are charming leading men and I also loved Gladys Cooper as Wyn's snobby mother. For fans of the genre, this one is hard to beat. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

Hey, talk about a coincidence! I just watched Kitty Foyle two nights ago. I guess great minds think alike:p I didn't totally love it, I would rate it the same as you. I didn't care for the prologue or Ginger's dark hair. I'm not sure Ginger deserved the Oscar for this. I'd say she won more for the subject matter, than her performance. But yes, she was very good in this and I did enjoy the movie. OK I guess I need to review this one myself.

[Gideon58]

Hey, talk about a coincidence! I just watched Kitty Foyle two nights ago. I guess great minds think alike:p I didn't totally love it, I would rate it the same as you. I didn't care for the prologue or Ginger's dark hair. I'm not sure Ginger deserved the Oscar for this. I'd say she won more for the subject matter, than her performance. But yes, she was very good in this and I did enjoy the movie. OK I guess I need to review this one myself.

I didn't care for the dark hair either, but I suspect it was partly as a way of separating herself from the Ginger who had worked with Fred Astaire. I'm actually with you on the prologue too...I understand why they did it, but was it really necessary for us to understand the rest of the story? I don't think so.

[Gideon58]

We Bought a Zoo
One of Hollywood's greatest storytellers, Cameron Crowe, the man behind Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous scored again with a 2011 sleeper called We Bought a Zoo, a fact-based comedy-drama that is completely warm and winning thanks to a terrific cast, even if the screenplay could have stood a little tightening.
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Matt Damon stars as Benjamin Mee, a former globe-trotting reporter and widowed father of an angry preteen son and an adorable daughter, who finds a perfect new home for his family but is thrown when he learns that the house is part of an actual zoo that has been closed and that living in the house would mean getting the zoo operational again.
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Mee initially balks at the idea of running a zoo until he sees his little girl, Rosie, feeding the ducks and quicker than you can say "Doctor Dolittle", Benjamin finds himself completely enveloped in getting this zoo back on its feet, with the help of the pretty and the all-about-the work zookeeper (Scarlett Johansson), goes about learning the realities of mounting such a business which includes developing actual relationships with animals and dealing with the sometimes harsh realities of a zoo animal's shelf life.
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Crowe and Aline Brosh McKenna have crafted a sometimes edgy and humorous screenplay based on Benjamin Mee's book that might go into a little too much detail in establishing this extremely likable Benjamin Mee, a wonderful father who has clearly put his own grieving process on the back burner in order to take care of his children and hasn't always been successful at it. Rosie is a happy little girl who misses her mom, but is living with her loss. Benjamin's son, Dylan, is another story...this is an angry child who has mistaken his father's grief for anger at him and there are walls between Benjamin and Dylan that we really want to see come down. I was impressed that whenever his kids would ask Benjamin anything about their mother, he never changed or avoided the subject and answered them as honestly as he could. The scene near the end of the film where he tells them about the first time he met their mother is absolutely brilliant.
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The other thing I loved about this movie is watching these actors interact with real animals and the actual relationships that Benjamin and the other characters have with the zoo inhabitants. We find ourselves buying the relationship that develops between Benjamin and a dying tiger, the joy Rosie experiences watching a mother peacock experience pregnancy, or one of the workers name Robin (Patrick Fugit) whose entire time onscreen is spent with a small chimpanzee on his shoulder. Benjamin also has an encounter with an escaped grizzly bear that literally had me holding my breath.
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Crowe has employed first rate production values here, with special nods to cinematography and editing and as he always does, gets first rate performances from his cast. Matt Damon has rarely been so charismatic onscreen, an edgy performance that actually ignited a tear duct or two from this reviewer and creates a viable chemistry with sexy Johansson, which never gets in the way of the real story being told here. Also loved Angus McFayden as a hard-drinking zoo employee and John Michael Higgins as a tight-assed zoo inspector. The real Benjamin Mee also makes a cameo appearance. It's slightly overlong, but animal lovers and Matt Damon lovers will be in heaven here. 3.5

[Gideon58]

YOU'RE NEXT
The slasher movie gets a relatively fresh coat of paint with an economic thriller from 2011 called You're Next which delivers the gore that fans of the genre expect but provides an unsettling motivation for the carnage.
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Paul and Aubrey Davison are a wealthy couple who arrive at their country estate, anxiously anticipating the arrival of their grown children to celebrate their anniversary. Shortly after a tension-filled argument at the dinner table, the family finds themselves under brutal attack and family members are brutally murdered in front of each other but it is when the motivation for these murders comes to light that this story really kicks into gear.
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Screenwriter Simon Barrett immediately establishes a credible family dynamic here as it is made clear that the Davisons are not the Bradys...there are deep-rooted resentments that have been buried for a long time and Barrett brings all these resentments bubbling to the surface at that dinner table, a scene that initially provides laughs before the blood and guts that we expect shockingly commence.
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This is where director Adam Wingard begins to work with Barrett to establish credibility for what is happening by providing us enough glimpses at the individuals involved to figure out what is going on to an extent without playing all of its cards within minutes. As the reveal of what is going on here becomes clear, it takes more than a minute to figure out exactly how many family members are involved and the elaborate planning that has gone into this heinous plan. Not since Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, have I been privy to a group of characters who are vile and reprehensible and just happen to be family. One of the brothers actually admits to wanting in on the reward at the end of the plan, but didn't want to directly participate in what happens. These are not nice people, but they also made me laugh.
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Research revealed that the budget for this film was a mere million dollars and that becomes obvious as the film progresses...no stars, most of the action takes place on one set, but the money was spent wisely, utilizing some solid production values, including some superb editing, sound, and a creepy music score. This is also the first film that I've seen that features a character being murdered by a blender. A sturdy little thriller that delivers scares and an occasional giggle. 3

[Gideon58]

ROBERTA
My recent obsession with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers led me to what is probably an unsung hero of their library, their fourth film together, a sparkling musical comedy called Roberta, where just about everything works, including the fact that Fred and Ginger aren't really the leads.
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This film version of a play by Jerome Kern follows a pro football player named John Kent (Randolph Scott) who travels to Paris with his buddy Huck (Astaire), a bandleader, where John is reunited with his Aunt Minnie (Helen Westley) who really is the owner of Roberta's, a famed and expensive fashion company that is really run by Minnie's loyal assistant, Stephanie (Irene Dunne). Huck is also reunited with an old flame named Liz (Rogers) who is pretending to be a Russian Countess and one of Roberta's most important clients. When Minnie passes away, John is shocked when he learns that he has been left Roberta's in her will. He insists that Stephanie take over the company, who refuses but does agree to be John's business partner. John and Stephanie fight over the business and over their attraction to each other, which is further complicated by the arrival of John's nasty ex-girlfriend, Sophie (Claire Dodd), who has decided she wants John back.
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One of the most pleasant surprises for me in my recent exploration into Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films has been the fact that these films actually have viable storylines, they are not just a group of tap numbers connected by a few lines of dialogue and this film is one of the greatest examples of that...a classic music comedy plotting rich with the misunderstandings and complications that come with the genre. The screenplay is witty and surprisingly adult for 1935, rich with some biting dialogue that is completely motivated by the characters that are presented. Though it is, in its purest sense, a musical comedy, this is a musical comedy that never strays from realism, but stirs the same emotions that a musical comedy should.
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I was initially wary about the fact that Astaire and Rogers characters were actually kind of secondary here, but my fears were immediately put to rest thanks to the completely enchanting performance by Irene Dunne as Stephanie. Dunne brings this musical heroine beautifully to life, giving us a character who is passionate about her career and is almost willing to throw away true love in favor of it. I must confess that this was the first Irene Dunne film I have seen and I was completely mesmerized by the actress, who gives a warm and engaging performance and also proves to be quite the vocalist. Randolph Scott is a little on the wooden side but somehow still manages to create a viable chemistry with Dunne and we find ourselves rooting for these two to be together from the moment they meet.
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Don't get me wrong, Astaire and Rogers don't exactly fade into the woodwork here. Ginger Rogers is once again given the opportunity to show her comedic chops in a role that allows her to sing, clown, and employ Russian and French accents and she is an absolute joy to watch. I love the scene where Huck is talking about Liz in a very unflattering manner and she can't react because she's still pretending to be the Countess. Rogers was truly one of Hollywood's most underrated screen comedians as well as a terrific dancer.
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The musical highlights of the first rate musical score by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach includes "Let's Begin", Dunne's haunting rendition of "Yesterdays", Rogers' comic clowning in "I'll be Hard to Handle", the classic "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", beautifully sung by Dunne, Astaire's brilliant solo to "I Won't Dance" and the Oscar nominated "Lovely to Look At".
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Director William A Seiter and RKO spared no expense in bringing this lavish musical to the screen. The film features exquisite art direction/set direction and some of the most breathtaking costumes I had ever seen. Sadly, the costume design Oscar category was not to be for another 13 years, Bernard Newman's work here was absolutely outstanding. Easily one of the more entertaining entries from the screen's greatest song and dance team. Bouquets all around. Remade in 1952 as Lovely to Look at. 4

[Gideon58]

AND SO IT GOES
The 2014 comedy And So it Goes is a somewhat predictable romantic comedy that, if nothing else, has some serious star power in front of and behind the camera.
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Michael Douglas plays Oren Little, a cantankerous, widowed real estate agent attempting to keep the world at arm's length since the death of his wife. Oren's neighbor, Leah (Diane Keaton) is an overly emotional widow trying to make her dream of being a lounge singer a reality. These two lonely people who have kept their distance despite living next door to each other, are suddenly brought together when Oren becomes guardian to his granddaughter (Sterling Jerins) when her father (Scott Shepherd) is sent to jail. Oren is clueless regarding the concept of grand-parenting but Leah is a natural and it is their mutual love for Sarah that slowly brings these two people together.
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Director Rob Reiner (who also does a funny turn as Leah's pianist) goes the Nancy Meyers route here, bringing us a romantic comedy between mature and intelligent people, even though Mark Andrus' writing isn't on par with Meyers, it is forgiven because Reiner had the wisdom to hire a pair of Oscar winning pros to bring these characters vividly to life, despite the lack of originality and focus in story and characterization.
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Douglas, in a role that seemed like it was written for Jack Nicholson, is quite charming as a contemporary take on Ebeneezer Scrooge and Keaton can play this kind of role in her sleep, a mature variation on her character in Something's Gotta Give that is a perfect counterpart for Douglas' character. Though it doesn't happen the second they share the screen, the chemistry between these two actors does begin to gell but because the slow burn of this relationship is a little too slow, the story does have its slow spots but Douglas and Keaton are always worth watching and prove it here.
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Reiner's breezy direction is just intrusive enough to keep things buzzing along and his onscreen contribution is funny too, wearing a very unflattering toupe that garners laughs every time the camera hits him. Veteran Frances Sternhagen is fun as a co-worker of Oren's and Sterling Jerins is a charmer as Oren's granddaugher, Sarah. The stars make it worth a look. Fans of It's Complicated will have a head start here. 3

[Dani8]

I hadnt heard of that but I loved It's Complicated so will give this a go, and I love Keaton.

[Gideon58]

SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS
Martin McDonagh, the creative force behind In Bruges, a movie I turned off about 20 minutes in, knocks it out of the park with a logic defying, cinematic acid trip called Seven Psychopaths, a brutal and ferociously funny psychological crime drama revolving around an alcoholic screenwriter, an out of work actor with anger issues, and a kidnapped Shih Tzu.
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This 2012 winner stars Colin Ferrell as Marty, the screenwriter who has in idea for a new screenplay, but all he has is a title, "Seven Psychopaths". His best friend, Billy (Sam Rockwell) can't get a job acting because he likes to get into fights with directors. Billy gets the bright idea to kidnap an adorable Shih Tzu named Bonnie who belongs to a slightly unbalanced mobster named Charlie (Woody Harrelson) whose seemingly unhealthy attachment to this dog is the linchpin for an unmercifully bloody action/adventure that defies explanation and requires complete and undivided attention.
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To reveal anymore at this point would be wrong. There is a definite Tarantino influence to the story mounted by McDonagh here, a story that stretches, scratches, bends, twists, pushes, and rails at the fourth wall without ever actually breaking it. This is not just a movie within a movie, this is a movie within a movie that breaks the fourth wall and keeps putting it back together before you can figure out exactly what's going on. This movie breaks a lot of cinematic rules and, needless to say, there is no chronological sense to the story as it is presented which is why complete attention is required. One minute we're watching Marty struggling with his screenplay, the next we're seeing part of his new screenplay play out in front of us and we're not sure if it has really happened or if it's in Marty's mind, or Billy's for that matter, as Billy begs Marty to let him co-write as does Hans (Oscar winner Christopher Walken) an aging con man with a wife dying of cancer. Keeping track of which movie I was in from scene to scene kept my head spinning but never allowed my interest to wane.
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This film is rampant with unprecedented cinematic carnage, approaching Tarantino and Scorsese territory, almost to the point of overkill, but what is unsettling about the body count in this film is how the majority of the body count consists of innocent bystanders, people just in the wrong place at the wrong time and oddly, most of these victims were female...I've never really noticed a film like this with so much violence inflicted on female characters. As Marty explains early on to another character regarding same, "It's a hard world for women."
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McDonagh gets some terrific performances from his cast. Ferrell is surprisingly reserved in what is essentially a straight man/host/narrator of this bizarre story that unfolds but never fades into the cinematic woodwork. Harrelson is a lot of fun as an off-the-chain mob kingpin and Walken does a real movie-star turn as Hans, but the acting honors, as expected, go to Sam Rockwell, with his deliciously unhinged and totally unpredictable performance as Billy, a character that defies description and never made a single move I expected it to. I don't know who else was nominated that year off the top of my head, but a supporting actor nomination for Rockwell would not have been an outrageous thing. Don't try to figure it out or second guess it, just sit back and enjoy it. 4

[cricket]

I never really considered it, but I think my wife and I would like We Bought a Zoo. I'm going to put that on the watchlist.

Although I don't necessarily dislike them, I consider You're Next and Seven Psychopaths disappointing.

[Gideon58]

THE PLAYER
In my recent review of Rear Window, I mentioned that Hitchcock's direction was always the standout element of the film. After watching 1992's The Player, a Best Picture nominee that earned the director one of his five directing nominations, I think this was also true of the legendary Robert Altman, who takes a standard crime story and lays it on top of a slick Hollywood canvas rich with star power, multi-layered star power that you need a scorecard to keep track of.
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Based on a novel by Michael Tolkin, this is the story of Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins),a movie studio executive whose primary job duty is listening to writers pitch ideas for movies and the fate of whether or not these pitches actually become movies often rests on Griffin's opinion alone. While juggling multiple pitches and his job being threatened by another executive named Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher), Griffin begins receiving threatening postcards from a writer whose pitch he rejected but, of course, Griffin has rejected so many ideas that he has no idea who is making the threats. Griffin does some discreet detective work and decides that the threats have to be coming from a writer named David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio) and decides to confront him. The confrontation goes terribly wrong resulting in David's death and the beginning of Griffin's battle for self-preservation, further complicated by Griffin's attraction to David's girlfriend (Greta Scacchi).
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Tolkin was allowed to do his own screenplay adaptation, which I always feel is a plus, presenting a conventional crime story on a glittery Hollywood canvas that is hard to resist. But there are two elements that really make this story work. One is this central character of Griffin Mill, a constant enigma who we're really not sure if we are supposed to sympathize with or not, because if you watch him in the pitch meetings or dealing with David or anybody else in the movie for that matter, this is guy is kind of a dick and it's kind of hard to feel sorry for him when he gets himself in trouble. This lack of sympathy is further documented by the fact that Griffin is never completely honest with anyone about what happened with David Kahane. Usually, when a movie character has remorse about something, they want to confess to somebody but Griffin never really does. Ironically, he tries to confess to David's girlfriend but she doesn't want to hear it.
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The other element that leaps off the screen is Altman's directorial eye and his multi-layered use of star power here, never used to this extent before. First we have the characters previously discussed, played by mostly A-list actors. Then we have the actors playing parts in the movies within the movies like Scott Glenn, Lily Tomlin, Julia Roberts, and Bruce Willis. Then we have the stars who appear as themselves as part of the Hollywood canvas, many Altman rep company members including Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Burt Reynolds, Sally Kellerman, Jack Lemmon, Felicia Farr, Nick Nolte, Malcolm McDowell, Steve Allen, Harry Belafonte, Buck Henry, Cher, James Coburn, and Paul Dooley. I thought it such clever writing that Griffin's encounters with Reynolds and McDowell were extremely unpleasant and that neither star had a nice word to say about Griffin. There is a brilliant directorial moment where Griffin leaves Reynolds' table at a restaurant to join another table and the camera quietly floats between both tables so that Altman forces the viewer to listen to what is happening at both tables...classic Altman.
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Tim Robbins offers a razor sharp performance as Mill, a performance on par with his work in The Shawshank Redemption. He gets solid support from Fred Ward as the movie studio security head, Cynthia Stevenson as his co-worker/girlfriend. Whoopi Goldberg as a police detective, and Sydney Pollack as a studio lawyer. Altman has employed first rate art direction/set direction...love all the studio offices decorated with classic movie posters, though I was a little disappointed when Griffin was told he had a phone call from Joe Gillis and he didn't know that Joe Gillis was William Holden's character in Sunset Boulevard, any real movie executive would know that name immediately, but it's a little thing in a movie that ruffles feathers, but works. 4

[Gideon58]

AT WAR WITH THE ARMY
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis provide sporadic laughs in their 1950 outing At War with the Army that suffers due to a problematic screenplay that doesn't really play to the team's strengths.
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Martin plays Sergeant Vic Puccinelli and Lewis plays Pvt. Alvin Corwin, two guys who were allegedly buddies before joining the army but now, being separated by rank, their friendship seems to have suffered with Vic taking advantage of Alvin at every turn, including trying to hang Alvin out to dry for his own problems. Alvin is having trouble becoming the soldier he should be because of a song he wrote that he wants Vic to record and because his wife is expecting a baby.
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This is not foreign territory for the team. The underlying theme of friendship being threatened by circumstance or social class was very common with Martin and Lewis comedies, but the problem here is that the screenplay keeps the pair apart for a large chunk of the running time. It's like Vic and Alvin's stories are two separate movies that are unfolding simultaneously and the pair do not share the screen enough here for us to invest in the team as we have before. What made Martin and Lewis so special as a screen team is what they did onscreen together and they just don't have enough time together here.
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There are some funny scenes here and there...the scene where Alvin goes into a bar in drag looking for Vic and finding another Sergeant, well played by Mike Kellin, coming on to him, is very funny. There's another scene between Lewis and Kellin where after Kellin exits, Lewis repeats the entire scene doing a perfect imitation of Kellin that worked and Lewis displayed his usual penchant for physical comedy on a military obstacle course. Martin also was allowed to display his skill for mimicry during a musical scene where he does a dead on impression of Bing Crosby, but during the funniest moments in the movie, the stars aren't onscreen together.
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Martin and Lewis work hard to make this work with the aid of slightly manic direction by Hal Walker. Polly Bergen and Jean Ruth are fun and decorative leading ladies and Kellin steals every scene he is in. There are some fun songs by Jay Livingston and Mack David including "The Navy's Got the Gravy", "Tonda Wonda Hoy", and "You and Your Beautiful Eyes", but when it all comes out in the wash, you have a comedy starring a great screen team where the writers forgot they were writing for a team. 2

[Gideon58]

WHY HIM?
John Hamburg, who wrote the screenplays for Meet the Parents, Along Came Polly, and I Love You Man dusts off some classic movie themes and gives them a new gloss with the aid of a terrific cast in 2016's Why Him?
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Bryan Cranston stars as Ned Fleming, the owner of a printing factory in Detroit who reluctantly accepts an invitation from his daughter Stephanie (Zoey Deutch), a student at Stanford, to spend Xmas with her in order to meet her boyfriend, Laird (James Franco), who turns out to be a Silicon Valley billionaire who lives on a massive estate atop a mountain with live animals roaming the property, art of animals fornicating on his walls, and a dead moose encased in urine in his living room. He is also socially inept and speaks with absolutely no filter but makes it clear to Ned that he plans to propose to Stephanie on Xmas day if he has Ned's blessing.
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Hamburg is a proven comedic commodity and there is an original twist to a lot of what is going on here. Making the potential son-in-law a billionaire was probably the one thing that kept me from thinking of a dozen similar comedies from the past, including Meet the Parents and this hook is the primary thing that made me want to stick with the story and see how it plays out.
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The other thing that caught my attention was the breezy performance from James Franco as Laird. This is another of those performances that I often speak about where the actor really seems to be enjoying himself, which always brings an added richness to the performance. The character of Laird does a lot of wrong and inappropriate for all the right and appropriate reasons, not to mention the fact that even though he is a billionaire, he is one of the most likable characters I've seen in a movie in quite some time.
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As likable as Laird is, I also see the conflict with Ned and how the thought of this guy taking away his little girl (who is 10 years younger than Laird BTW) is something he cannot abide. Needless to say, Laird does charm Ned's wife (Megan Mullally) and his son (Griffin Gluck) and once this happens, you know the meeting of the minds between Ned and Laird is just a matter of time.
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Franco is sexy and fun and Cranston is properly anal as Ned. Mullally underplays beautifully and there is also a fun performance from Keegan-Michael Key as Laird's assistant, but Deutch is a little bland as Stephanie. The film also features some beautiful California scenery and Laird's house is amazing. Hamburg, Franco, and Cranston work hard to make this film seem a lot better than it really is. 3

[Gideon58]

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!
It doesn't paint its subject in a very flattering light and the screenplay is rampant with cliches and what I suspect are embellishments of fact, but the 1989 musical biopic of rock and roller Jerry Lee Lewis called Great Balls of Fire! is worth watching for the charismatic lead performance by its star.
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Dennis Quaid lights up the screen as the controversial rock and roller who became a major recording star due to his love for the piano and "n*gger music", which was the inspiration for his first big hit "A Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On". The film follows the typical biopic path we're accustomed to with films like this, but there's a slight "ick" factor in Lewis' story in that the romance that Lewis finds in the film, and there's always a romance or two in films like this, comes in the form of a 13 year old cousin named Myra Brown (Winona Ryder) who Lewis actually marries. Lewis sees nothing wrong with this but his fans feel differently and according to this film, the marriage almost does irreparable damage to his career.
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As is the case with most movie biopics, it's hard to know exactly what is fact and what is dramatized for the purpose of entertainment. The screenplay by Jack Baran and Jim McBride, based on a book by the real Myra Brown Lewis, spotlights Lewis as a wild child who never really grew up, loved his music, and like a lot of show business movie subjects, had difficulty keeping his fly zipped. The screenplay also seems to be conflicted regarding the intelligence of its subject...he is told at the beginning of the film that girls prefer guitar players because they like to watch them wiggle, instantly inspiring Jerry Lee's famous piano stunts that often had him throwing his piano bench out of the way. On the other hand, Jerry Lee is also presented as a guy who sees absolutely nothing wrong with marrying a 13 year old girl. He is never seen here justifying or apologizing for it and doesn't feel the need to, even when it threatens to destroy his career. I guess I can understand if Lewis didn't feel the need to justify his actions to anyone, but this film portrays the man as not seeing anything wrong with what he did and it was difficult investing in a story about a grown man who marries a 13 year old girl and sees nothing wrong with it.
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As the story unfolded, it also seemed like Jerry Lee's alleged rise to the top was a little too meteoric. One minute he standing outside a black nightclub listening to the "Shakin" song and the next scene he's recording it. Absolutely nothing is revealed regarding the inspiration for the title song, it just seems to come out of nowhere and the film seems to spend a little too much time trying to convince the viewer that Jerry Lee was considered a serious threat to Elvis and I just don't buy that. There's a silly albeit brief scene where Elvis (Michael St. Gerard) actually confronts Jerry Lee before he leaves for his stint in the army, that was just silly and I don't believe for a minute that it ever happened.
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What the film does have going for it is a slick and sexy performance by Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis that made this flawed biographical journey worth taking. Winona Ryder was a little overwrought as Myra, but I loved John Doe as Myra's dad and Jerry Lee's cousin, Trey Wilson as Sun Records manager Sam Phillips and a very young Alec Baldwin as Jimmy Swaggart, who was also Lewis' cousin (news to me). As far as being an accurate portrayal of Lewis' life, I do know that Lewis hated Myra's book and this movie. Quaid did do some of the piano work in the film but all the vocals were dubbed by Jerry Lee himself. 3

[Joel]

I remember being uncomfortable with this movie at the sex scene between Quaid and Rider. Even at age 15 watching it. Something kind of greasy about the cocksure playboy air surrounding Quaid I could never warm up to, even though I do enjoy some of his films.

[Gideon58]

I remember being uncomfortable with this movie at the sex scene between Quaid and Rider. Even at age 15 watching it. Something kind of greasy about the cocksure playboy air surrounding Quaid I could never warm up to, even though I do enjoy some of his films.

I thought Quaid was terrific, my issues were with the character.

[Citizen Rules]

I thought Quaid was terrific, my issues were with the character.I've been meaning to watch Great Balls of Fire, I like Dennis Quaid in most of his roles. I've obtained the movie and will be watching it hopefully this weekend. Looks fun!

[Joel]

I thought Quaid was terrific, my issues were with the character.

I remember liking Quaid a lot in Dreamscape and The Right Stuff. I'll have to re-watch GBOF.

[Citizen Rules]

Ahh....The Right Stuff, good movie!

[Citizen Rules]

Congratulations Gideon on reaching your 800th Review:up:

[Gideon58]

THE GRASS IS GREENER
The stylish direction of Stanley Donen working with a dream cast makes the 1960 comedy The Grass is Greener more than worth the time of the real film buff.
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Victor and Hillary Rhyall (Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr) are titled British aristocrats who live in a large English estate but are having some sort of financial difficulties that have forced them to allow tours of their palatial home. One of these tours produces an American millionaire named Charles Delacro (Robert Mitchum) who somehow gets separated from the tour and meet Hillary, with whom Charles instantly falls in love. Things get stickier with the arrival of Hattie Durant (Jean Simmons), an old friend of the Rhyalls who is more than willing to pick up the pieces with Victor when it seems like Hillary is falling for Charles.
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This film is a loving homage to the drawing room comedy of Noel Coward (Coward even wrote a pair of songs featured in the film) where people run in and out of the wrong bedrooms at the most inappropriate times, the sanctity of marriage is briefly put in question but everything always seems to come out in the wash and that's where the primary pleasure in this comedy comes...Victor and Hillary are established as a solid couple at the beginning of the film, a pair who might take each other for granted, but are still deeply in love. We know from the start of this film that Victor and Hillary are going to be together when the credits roll but the journey to this foregone conclusion is such a pleasure.
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The other thing that makes this movie work is a glorious cast, some working out of their comfort zone. Deborah Kerr, in particular, an actress with a penchant for melodrama, gets a chance to lighten up here and really seems to be enjoying herself and the fact that she is working with actors she was worked with before (she and Grant were in An Affair To Remember and she and Mitchum were in Heaven Knows Mr. Allison) is a big plus. This kind of sexy bedroom comedy was kind of new territory for Simmons as well but she completely invests in it, turning in an absolutely delicious performance.
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The screenplay by Hugh Williams and Margaret Vyner is a little talky, but it is such intelligent and amusing talk that we don't really notice or care that we're getting a photographed stage play, but it is a richly entertaining one, thanks to Donen, a proven expert with star power and said power delivers in spades here. For lovers of classic cinema, this is a must-see. 3.5

[Gideon58]

Congratulations Gideon on reaching your 800th Review:up:

Thank you Citizen.

[Gideon58]

THE MARTIAN
Director Ridley Scott, a proven commodity in the science fiction and action adventure genres, has taken elements of all of his strongest work and come up with his masterpiece, a 2015 epic called The Martian, an epic adventure upon which Scott employs some very human faces.
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The film introduces us to a space mission on Mars that is disrupted by some sort of meteor storm during which one of the crew, Mark Watney (Matt Damon) gets struck by a large piece of debris and is assumed dead. The rest of the crew (Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie) have no choice but to abort the mission and leave Mark's body on Mars. It is almost immediately revealed that Mark is alive and we are distressed as we watch Mark assess his situation, which includes how long it will take him to be rescued, how much food and water he has for survival and how he can cultivate more.
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What initially appears to be an outer space re-thinking of Cast Away adds a couple of additional layers to the story that this reviewer did not see coming at all. First we have all those lovely folks at NASA, who initially treat Mark's "death" as taking one for the team and we hate that it's going to be left at that. But in a refreshing change of pace for a story like this, NASA learns early on that Mark is alive and want to do what they can to rescue him, but they also want to do it without it turning into a public relations nightmare. An additional layer to the story materializes as Mark's crew is initially kept in the dark about his being alive which NASA initially justifies by saying that they need to concentrate on their own mission to get home and not be clouded with guilt about Mark.
https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-martian-3.jpg?w=600&h=337&crop=1
Ridley Scott's overly detailed approach to this edgy and compelling sci-fi adventure includes complete reverence to Drew Goddard's complex screenplay, rich with enough techno-babble to cross the viewer's eyes, but it explains what needs to be explained and through mere story structure, we understand the rest of what is going on, but what Goddard's screenplay does most effectively is present a brave, intelligent, but flawed central character who keeps his head in an impossible situation. We watch as he calmly assesses his situation and is always realistic about it...the man doesn't want to die and never gives up, but is completely realistic about the possibility. The complexity of Mark's situation makes for such compelling viewing because there is nothing predictable here...Scott and company make sure that there is nothing foregone about the conclusion of this story, having us on the edge of our seats as long as he wants. If I had one quibble about the screenplay, I had a little trouble swallowing the solution to sending Mark supplies came from some techno-geek (Donald Glover) who didn't even work at NASA.
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Scott gets a real movie star performance from Matt Damon that earned him a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. Chastain and Pena provide solid support as do Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Eijefor, and Kristen Wiig as NASA personnel. Scott's attention to production is first rate, with Oscar nominated work in sound editing, sound mixing, production design, and visual effects. An epic adventure rich with human emotion and a central character you can't help but fall in love with. 4.5

[Gideon58]

JUNIOR
The stars and director of the 1988 comedy Twins reunited for a 1994 comedy called Junior, which does provide some laughs that test the viewer's patience because we are really forced to wait for them.
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Dr. Alex Hesse (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Dr. Larry Arbogast (Danny DeVito) are doctors specializing in fertility research who have developed a drug to help with fertilization and avoid miscarriage but the FDA and the university where they have been working have shut them down from their next stage, which is injecting a woman with the drug. They decide to get around the FDA by injecting Alex with the drug, who continues to take it longer than instructed, causing major maternal instincts to kick in and the desire to carry the baby to term. Further complications materialize when Alex learns where the egg was implanted came from and from Larry's ex-wife (Pamela Reed), who is pregnant by the personal trainer for Aerosmith.
https://decider.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/junior-movie-image.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=646&h=335&crop=1
The idea of a pregnant man was previously explored in the 1978 Joan Rivers comedy Rabbit Test but with nowhere near the scientific detail that is on display here and therein lies the primary problem with this film. The screenplay by Kevin Wade and Chris Conrad is so intricate and concerned with scientific mumbo jumbo that viewer interest is hard to sustain for almost the first half of the film. Once Alex's desire to be a mom really kicks in, so do the laughs but the movie just takes too long to get there.
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The cast is game for the bizarre goings on here and deliver for the most part. Arnold is a little stone-faced at the beginning of the film but does eventually warm into the role and you really want to see this guy have this baby. Danny DeVito delivers one of his most on target performances playing one of the smartest characters he has ever played. I was hot and cold with Emma Thompson as the research doctor whose involvement in the story goes further than a standard romantic interest. I have always found Thompson a little annoying when she's trying to be funny and she works overtime at trying to be funny here and it ultimately ended up being distracting. Never really bought her and Arnold as a couple either. Reed is very funny as is Frank Langella as the head of the university and the story's villain and there's a lovely appearance by singer Judy Collins as the head of a pregnancy resort where Alex has to hide out during the final act.
https://screenqueens.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/junior-2.jpg
The film is beautifully photographed and I was able to forgive a slightly overbearing musical score (the moment when Alex first takes the drug is accompanied by music from another Reitman film Ghostbusters). Director Ivan Reitman provides the discipline the story requires but it just takes too long to get where it's going. 2.5

[Gideon58]

STARRING ADAM WEST
Not into documentaries as a rule, but 2013's Starring Adam West is a loving, touching, funny, and uplifting look at a show business icon who pretty much became an icon through one role and how he never allowed what this role did to his career to destroy the incredible human being he was.
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Directed by West's son-in-law, James E. Tooley, the documentary is crafted on a clever hook that immediately has the viewer scratching his head. We meet West arriving at a radio station for an interview where one of the disc jockeys there has been obsessed with West since he was a child and he was outraged when he learns that West doesn't have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Throughout the rest of the documentary, we see the continuing efforts of this disc jockey, aided by West's two youngest children, to make Adam West's star a reality.
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We are then treated to the standard look at West's humble beginnings as the son of a farmer and former opera singer, who had movie-star good looks but didn't really know what to do with them until it was suggested that he would make an excellent star of westerns and that they were doing a lot of westerns on television. West arrived in Hollywood and was signed at Warner Brothers the same year they signed Clint Eastwood, Roger Moore, and Steve McQueen. West was the only one of the four whose contract was dropped after a year.
http://www.latimes.com/includes/projects/hollywood/portraits/adam_west.jpg
The viewer then gets a look at the meteoric and heady success that came with his role as the Caped Crusader on the ABC series Batman came about. The success of this show and West's popularity in the role are similar to William Shatner and James T. Kirk. This was another show, like Star Trek, that made such a huge impact on television and pop culture in general that people tend to forget it only ran three seasons. It was also one of two prime television shows in the 60's (Peyton Place was the other) that was broadcast twice a week. Unfortunately, with the cancellation of the show, came the reality of West being typecast and not being able to work at all. By the 1970's Eastwood, Moore, and McQueen were all stars and West's career was dead in the water.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Adam_West_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg/1200px-Adam_West_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg
But there are two things that this documentary capture so effectively and made it worth the watch. First, was the love and respect that Adam West fans have for him. It was fascinating watching young children and graying grandmas at comic book conventions giggling with excitement as they talked to and posed for pictures with the always gracious actor. In comic book world, Adam West is a rock star and he always will be and it was fun watching even West being a little bamboozled by it all. Everywhere the guy made a personal appearance it was standing room only.
http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/56/5614/WIRVG00Z/posters/adam-west.jpg
The other thing I loved that this documentary so beautiful captures is the warm, funny, intelligent, family-oriented man that Adam West was. This was a man who during the late 60's was chewed up and spit out by Hollywood and he could have been really bitter about it, but there is no sign of bitterness or resentment in the man regarding the cards Hollywood dealt him, outside of the financial difficulties it caused his family. The man was full of gratitude for his career as it was and held no resentments about anything that happened during his rocky career, evidenced in the joy as he put the earphones over his ears to go to work as Mayor Adam West on Family Guy.
https://imamovienerd.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/adam-west-star-james-tooley.jpg
It should be noted that the hook for the documentary did pay off and that West received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 6, 2012. I must also mention that it is nothing but bizarre coincidence that the evening before I watched this documentary, Adam West passed away at the age of 88. RIP. 4

[Gideon58]

SILK STOCKINGS
One of the most underrated gems from the golden years of MGM was Silk Stockings, a sparkling musical comedy that features some of the best of MGM's talent in front of and behind the camera proving, once again, that no one had the magic touch with musicals the way MGM did.
http://www.sondheimguide.com/porter/graphics/silkfilmpo.jpg
Fred Astaire plays Steve Canfield, a movie producer who has come to Paris to smooth the choppy waters created when a Russian composer Steve wants to do the music for his next movie has decided to defect and the Russian government has sent three agents (Peter Lorre, Jules Munshin, Joseph Buloff) to get the man to return to Russia but they, too, are seduced by the glamour of Paris, so another agent named Ninotchka Yoschenko (Cyd Charisse) is sent to Paris to complete the job. Steve falls for her instantly but Ninotchka is not so easily swayed by the City of Lights as her comrades. Throw into the mix Peggy Dayton (Janis Paige) a fictionalized Esther Williams who is set to star in the movie who Steve enlists to help the composer lighten up about his music.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GMrOrBWgC8g/UJVAe6OtoiI/AAAAAAAAIZ8/qdIGM1leQ4M/s1600/Silk+Stockings+1.jpg
The story is, of course, based on the 1939 Greta Garbo classic which was then turned into a Broadway musical in 1955 featuring some terrific songs by Cole Porter, that accentuate the story beautifully without ever getting in the way. There were few composers of this period who had a gift with lyrics the way Porter did and this score is one of his best examples: "All of You", "Satin and Silk", "Paris Loves Lovers", "Stereophonic Sound", "Fated to be Mated", "Siberia", "Without Love" and "It's a Chemical Reaction, that's all."
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Astaire is charm personified as always and is reunited with his co-star from The Band Wagon, whose performance is a little wooden as the all business Russian agent, but when she starts to dance, anything else Charisse does onscreen is forgiven, whether it's an economic pas de deux with Astaire in her hotel room, the ballet where she discovers silk stockings and lingerie or the spectacular production number "I Got the Red Blues", Charisse' dancing makes you completely forget that she was no Meryl Streep.
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Peter Lorre made a rare foray into the world of musical comedy here and pretty much stole every moment he had onscreen as did Munshin, in one of his last big roles. The choreography by Hermes Pan and Eugene Loring is jazzy and exciting. I especially loved Fred and Cyd's dance to "Fated to be Mated" and Fred's big finale "The Ritz Roll and Rock." Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse doing what they do best...what else do you need? 3.5

[nebbit]

A nice bunch of movie reviews :yup: Thanks :)

[Gideon58]

LINCOLN
Steven Spielberg's artistry as a director and an Oscar winning performance by Daniel Day Lewis are the primary selling points of 2012's Lincoln, a lavishly mounted historical drama that is not the biopic its title implies but provides a private look at one of our most popular presidential legends during one of his most public political battles.
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This is not a look at Lincoln's life, but a particular period in the Lincoln administration and its effect on the man. The film opens in January of 1865, shortly into Lincoln's second presidential term to reveal the President working to get the 13th Amendment passed which would abolish slavery permanently. Apparently, the Emancipation Proclamation that Lincoln signed was little more than a piece of paper when all was said and done. Slavery was still a matter of state no matter what Washington DC had to say about it. This film chronicles Lincoln's efforts to get the 20 votes he needed from the House of Representatives in order for the amendment to pass. The quest for these votes reveal some on the surface unsavory methods from the administration in order to get what they wanted, methods that flew directly in the face of the legacy that is Abraham Lincoln.
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The film also finds time to take a glimpse into Lincoln's personal life, starting with an extremely troubled marriage to the mentally unbalanced Mary, whose mental issues apparently stemmed from the death of their first son, Willie, who died in the war and it is revealed as part of this story that Lincoln's middle son Robert wants to quit law school and join the war effort. Mary is also not happy with her husband's dedication regarding the 13th Amendment, which she thinks will be a black mark on what was a very popular pair of terms in the White House.
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Tony Kushner (Angels in America) did an admirable job of adapting Doris Kearns Goodwin's book that, though a little on the wordy side, does provide a well-rounded look at the title character, a deeply passionate man who, according to what was presented here, loved the opportunities that being POTUS provided for him to help, but was often disenchanted by the ugliness of politics and what it forced him to do sometimes. The man is painted as a real human being here...he is observed constantly speaking in folksy analogies that aggravated some, fascinated others, and for some, clarified exactly what he wanted.
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2012/11/09/arts/09lincoln-3/09lincoln-3-jumbo-v2.jpg
Initially, Spielberg is not the first director I would have thought of for a project like this, but he does mount a compelling, if slightly overlong look, at a historical figure whom people think they know everything about and there is no doubt in my mind that anyone who sees this film will learn something about Abraham Lincoln that they never knew before, even if this wasn't a biopic in the truest sense, it does provide an insight into the man that was not uninteresting. And even though Spielberg is a director known primarily for action and CGI-dominated entertainment, provides spectacular production values for this story including including Oscar winning set designs.
http://www.notquitesusie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/lincoln-movie.jpg
Spielberg has assembled a first rate cast serving the story, especially Daniel Day Lewis in a quietly dignified performance that won him a Golden Globe and a third Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actor. No one really knows what Lincoln sounded like or how he moved, but the actor, with Spielberg's assistance, gives us the Lincoln we would hope existed. Sally Field is slightly unhinged enough to make her Mary Todd Lincoln a little squirm worthy, a performance that earned her a supporting actress nomination. Tommy Lee Jones was also nominated for his movie star turn as Thaddeus Stevens. The large supporting cast also included standout work from Joseph Gordon Levitt, David Straithairn, Hal Holbrook, Jackie Earle Haley, Bruce McGill, Peter McRobbie, and especially James Spader. It's a little on the talky side, but Spielberg's direction is solid and Daniel Day Lewis is sublime. 3.5

[Gideon58]

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
Despite some dated elements, the 1955 drama The Man with the Golden Arm still packs a wallop as an emotionally manipulative but still surprisingly powerful look at the effects of drug addiction.
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Fresh off his Oscar win for From Here to Eternity, Frank Sinatra turns in the performance of his career as Frankie Machine, a heroin addict who has just been released from rehab and has returned home to try and start life over, determined to leave behind his former career as a professional card dealer as well as his addiction. Frankie wants to begin a new career as a musician but is having trouble getting it going, primarily due to his clingy and desperate wheelchair-bound wife, Zosh (Eleanor Parker) who wants Frankie's undivided attention and doesn't care whether or not he's addicted. There's another girl from his past living downstairs named Molly (Kim Novak) who has feelings for Frankie but can't abide his addiction.
https://scienceonscreen.org/assets/films/_1600x900_crop_top-center_75_none/The-Man-with-the-Golden-Arm.jpg
Leave it to director Otto Preminger for blazing this virgin territory for 1955 moviegoers. This was some pretty bold stuff at the time and I'm pretty sure there were a lot of compromises to Walter Newman and Lewis Meltzer's screenplay that had to be made to get this story to the screen during the 1950's. The word "heroin" is never mentioned and neither is the word "rehab"...Frankie is always referred to as having "been away." But the surprisingly adult screenplay does broach some universal themes regarding addiction and does its best not to shy away from them, at least as far as 1950's censorship would allow.
https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/themanwiththegoldenarm1956.3720.jpg
The film does address basic material regarding drug rehabilitation that is still true today, primarily the fact that if someone is to recover from addiction, that they cannot hang with the same people and go to the same places they did when they were using. This is made clear here as Frankie makes no attempt to change his lifestyle so it is not surprising that the road to relapse is a quick one for him. Though it was a little hard to accept the way his dealer (Darren McGavin) kept chasing after Frankie to get him hooked...this disease is such a monster that dealers do not have to chase users the way Frankie gets chased here.
https://anotherfilmblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/golden3.jpg
What works here is uncompromising direction from Preminger and some powerhouse performances that he obtains. Sinatra received an Outstanding Lead Actor nomination for what is the best performance of his that I've seen and he gets solid support from Eleanor Parker, who effectively chews the scenery as Zosh. Preminger even eeks some strong moments out of Kim Novak as Molly and McGavin had what was probably his best movie role as the heartless drug dealer. I found Elmer Bernstein's jazzy musical score a little overbearing, but other than that, this was a riveting screen drama that, despite some downplaying of the horrors of addiction, still drives the message home. 3.5

[Gideon58]

DIRTY GRANDPA
Dirty Grandpa is an overblown 2016 comic misadventure that has star power and provides laughs but the laughs are kind of cheap and easy.
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The comedy stars Robert De Niro as Dick Kelly, a retired army colonel who lives in Georgia whose wife has just died and at the funeral he asks his grandson, Jason (Zac Efron) an uptight young attorney to drive him to Florida to a destination he allegedly planned to visit with the deceased and it is this road trip that defies cinematic convention at every turn.
https://wp.dailybruin.com/images/2016/01/web.ae_.dirtygrandpa.courtesy.jpg
The defiance of storytelling should come as to no surprise since the director, Dan Mazer, who also directed Borat and Bruno, two thoroughly unconventional film comedies and Mazer employs the same manic sledgehammer approach that he did to those Sasha Baron Cohen comedies, taking a razor thin story that doesn't really sustain interest and disguises the story deficiencies with profanity, comic violence, and unmotivated sex and nudity. It seemed whenever the story started to lag, either De Niro would start cursing or Efron's clothes would come off and believe it or not, both only worked up to a point and I found myself trying to scratch my way back to a story that was bubbling underneath but never fully rises to the surface.
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De Niro just seems embarrassed spouting a lot of dialogue that just didn't make sense for a character his age and Efron is just miscast as the tight-ass attorney coming out of his shell, no matter how attractive that shell might be. I suspect Mazer was aware that Efron was miscast as well and maybe that's why he kept the guy out of his clothes for a healthy chunk of the running time thinking that we might not notice.
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The movie does have its laughs, but they're just kind of easy and we don't have to work very hard for them. De Niro and Efron do have a funny supporting cast including Julianne Hough, in her most effective screenwork to date as Efron's bitchy fiancee, Jason Mantzoukas as a twisted drug dealer, Adam Pally as Efron's BFF and best of all, Aubrey Plaza as a bimbo who inexplicably spends the entire running time trying to have sex with De Niro's character. There's a lot of talent involved here and some money was definitely poured into this, but the whole thing never really engages the viewer and makes you care about these people. 2.5

[Ms. M]

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
Despite some dated elements, the 1955 drama The Man with the Golden Arm still packs a wallop as an emotionally manipulative but still surprisingly powerful look at the effects of drug addiction.
http://annyas.com/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/saul-bass-1955-man-with-the-golden-arm-half-sheet-poster-b.jpg
Fresh off his Oscar win for From Here to Eternity, Frank Sinatra turns in the performance of his career as Frankie Machine, a heroine addict who has just been released from rehab and has returned home to try and start life over, determined to leave behind his former career as a professional card dealer as well as his addiction. Frankie wants to begin a new career as a musician but is having trouble getting it going, primarily due to his clingy and desperate wheelchair-bound wife, Zosh (Eleanor Parker) who wants Frankie's undivided attention and doesn't care whether or not he's addicted. There's another girl from his past living downstairs named Molly (Kim Novak) who has feelings for Frankie but can't abide his addiction.
http://theredlist.com/media/database/films/cinema/1950/the-man-with-the-golden-arm/003-the-man-with-the-golden-arm-theredlist.jpg
Leave it to director Otto Preminger for blazing this virgin territory for 1955 moviegoers. This was some pretty bold stuff at the time and I'm pretty sure there were a lot of compromises to Walter Newman and Lewis Meltzer's screenplay that had to be made to get this story to the screen during the 1950's. The word "heroine" is never mentioned and neither is the word "rehab"...Frankie is always referred to as having "been away." But the surprisingly adult screenplay does broach some universal themes regarding addiction and does its best not to shy away from them, at least as far as 1950's censorship would allow.
http://theredlist.com/media/database/films/cinema/1950/the-man-with-the-golden-arm/020-the-man-with-the-golden-arm-theredlist.jpg
The film does address basic material regarding drug rehabilitation that is still true today, primarily the fact that if someone is to recover from addiction, that they cannot hang with the same people and go to the same places they did when they were using. This is made clear here as Frankie makes no attempt to change his lifestyle so it is not surprising that the road to relapse is a quick one for him. Though it was a little hard to accept the way his dealer (Darren McGavin) kept chasing after Frankie to get him hooked...this disease is such a monster that dealers do not have to chase users the way Frankie gets chased here.
https://anotherfilmblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/golden3.jpg
What works here is uncompromising direction from Preminger and some powerhouse performances that he obtains. Sinatra received an Outstanding Lead Actor nomination for what is the best performance of his that I've seen and he gets solid support from Eleanor Parker, who effectively chews the scenery as Zosh. Preminger even eeks some strong moments out of Kim Novak as Molly and McGavin had what was probably his best movie role as the heartless drug dealer. I found Elmer Bernstein's jazzy musical score a little overbearing, but other than that, this was a riveting screen drama that, despite some downplaying of the horrors of addiction, still drives the message home. 3.5
I love this movie. I was shocked when I have seen it for the fit time. I have known Frank Sinatra from different emploi untill then. I discovered his "drama face" thanks to this film.

[Gideon58]

I love this movie. I was shocked when I have seen it for the fit time. I have known Frank Sinatra from different emploi untill then. I discovered his "drama face" thanks to this film.

Thanks for reading the review...yeah, this was the strongest Sinatra performance I have ever seen.

[Ms. M]

Thanks for reading the review...yeah, this was the strongest Sinatra performance I have ever seen.
Absolutely:yup:

[Gideon58]

DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS
The recent passing of Glenne Headley prompted a re-watch of 1988's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a sumptuously mounted look at the art of the con that works due to some solid directorial touches, impressive production values, and the unexpected chemistry between the stars.
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The film is actually a remake of a 1964 comedy called Bedtime Story which starred David Niven, Marlon Brando, and Shirley Jones. In this update, Michael Caine inherits Niven's role, Lawrence Jamieson, a sophisticated con man who makes a handsome living on the French Riviera conning wealthy women out of their money and finds his livelihood threatened with the arrival of Freddy Benson (Steve Martin now in Brando's role), a less sophisticated but equally effective con man who Jamieson decides to get rid of by betting which one of them can squeeze $50,000 out of a wealthy American heiress (Headly, inheriting Shirley Jones' role).
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Director Frank Oz stylishly crafts Dale Launer's screenplay into a sophisticated romp that gives the 1964 story a contemporary flavor while remaining loyal to its origins. The story is very clever because the characters of Lawrence and Freddy are both very good at what they do, though they have very different approaches to their work. We are initially intrigued at the idea of the two of them working together and perhaps becoming friends, but the story takes an unexpected turn at the end of the second act that we really don't see coming that makes these two working together virtually impossible. And even though we've spent a good chunk of the story wanting these two to work together, the story suddenly seems to make us want to choose sides and the side we choose changes from scene to scene until the conclusion.
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The other thing that really works here is the surprising chemistry between Michael Caine and Steve Martin. Oz has found a way to have these actors do what they do best creating a balance of story spotlight that makes Caine and Martin a terrific team...Caine beautifully underplaying the sophisticated Brit that few actors do better and Martin balancing the movie clown to which we're accustomed with a slick and slightly smarmy rogue who can turn on the sensitive charm at the drop of a hat when needed. Props must also be awarded to Glenne Headley, an absolutely charming leading lady who never allows these two movie vets to blow her off the screen. Also enjoyed the stylish turns from Megan Fey, Frances Conroy, and the fabulous Barbara Harris as other marks of our leading men.
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The film features handsome production values, including some exquisite French Riviera scenery, impressive art direction/set direction, some striking costume choices, and Miles Goodman's music is absolute perfection. A smooth and silky comic romp made watchable due to the professionalism on both sides of the camera which is that rarest of rarities...a remake that's better than the original. Over a decade later, it was actually turned into a Broadway musical with John Lithgow and Norbert Leo Butz playing Lawrence and Freddy.
3.5

[Gideon58]

CONTRABAND
Despite an overly complex screenplay that often stretches credibility, the 2012 action drama Contraband delivers enough of what action fans are looking for that they will be willing to overlook the storytelling flaws.
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The film stars Mark Wahlberg as Chris Farraday, a former smuggler trying to get out of the business, who finds himself drawn back in when he agrees to help his young brother-in-law, who owes a huge amount of money to a demented drug lord, by boarding an offshore ship headed to Panama in order to retrieve a huge cache of counterfeit money.
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Aaron Guzikowski, who also wrote the screenplay for Prisoners, adapted the story from an Icelandic film called Reykjavik-Rotterdam providing a story that takes a little too much time with exposition...a good 30 minutes of the film are spent explaining Chris' former profession to us and how he wants a new life. The film kicks into gear once he's on the ship, but then we are thrown one incredible plot twist after another that ask the viewer to swallow a lot, including the fact that our protagonist is absolutely oblivious to the revelations that come to the surface. The film also takes a really unpleasant turn when the drug lord decides to ensure Chris' cooperation by threatening his wife and children, who Chris has asked his pal Sebastian to look after while he's gone.
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What the film does have going for it is a very likable central character, even though parts of his brain seem to have been removed in order to make certain plot twists work. I was amused by the opening scenes of Chris telling anyone who will listen that he wants a new life but once he's on that ship, he confesses to his brother-in-law that he loves this "but don't tell your sister."
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Wahlberg is solid and there are a pair of effectively unhinged performances from Ben Foster as Sebastian and Giovanni Ribisi as the crazy drug lord. Kate Beckinsale is also strong as Chris' wife, who is really put through the wringer in this story. The film also features expert editing and a pulse-pounding music score and with a less convoluted screenplay, this could have been something really special. 3

[Gideon58]

THAT DARN CAT! (1965)
Disney Studios had one of their biggest live action hits with the 1965 classic That Darn Cat an elaborately mounted comic adventure that might have been a little too sophisticated for its intended demographic but still provides solid laughs for a film that's 52 years old.
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The film follows a pair of bank robbers who use a bank teller as a shield to get out of the bank and continue to hold her hostage in their hideout. One of the robbers is followed home by a Siamese cat named DC, who is after the food the robber is carrying. DC gets into the hideout and while there, the hostage manages to slip her wristwatch around DC's neck with a partial message scratched on it. DC returns home to his owner, Patti Randall, a teenage drama queen with an overactive imagination. Patti actually figures out everything immediately and decides that she must report the watch to the FBI, where she decides a handsome young agent named Zeke Kelso is the man for the case, but getting the FBI to believe Patti's story and be on board with it is a lot more difficult than Patti thought but it is DC who actually convinces them that Patti's story might have some merit.
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Director Robert Stevenson, fresh off his Oscar-nominated work directing Mary Poppins takes on an equally elaborate story here but with different challenges than his previous assignment provided. Instead of a lot of special effects and making us accept the mingling of live action and animation, Stevenson has the monumental task of making us believe a story where the smartest character in the movie is a Siamese cat, a cat whose primary mission is food but also knows where his bread his buttered and knows when people like him and when they don't. It's a little hard to believe that this cat has all these silly humans running around like chickens with their heads cut off, but that's exactly what he does and a lot of credit for this has to go to the director and the trainers in charge of making the several cats utilized in making the movie, a likable and believable movie hero who actually seems to understand whenever these silly humans are talking about him.
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What did surprise me about this film was the surprisingly adult screenplay by Gordon and Dorothy Gordon, rich with sophisticated dialogue and some slightly edgy relationships for a 1965 Disney comedy. It is clear from the moment Patti and Kelso meet that Patti is attracted to the man, which seems a little icky on the surface since the character is clearly too old for Patti, but Patti's crush is never portrayed as unseemly and we never worry that anything inappropriate is going to happen between Patti and Kelso because Kelso knows it's wrong without making a fuss or slowing down the real story, though he does find himself attracted to Patti's older sister, Ingrid.
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Stevenson has assembled a perfect cast for this comedy led by Hayley Mills, absolutely enchanting as Patti and the adorable Dean Jones as Kelso, whose work here is delicious and believable...Kelso is allergic to cats and I love the way Jones never forgets to have trouble breathing through his nose whenever Kelso and DC are in the same room. The terrific supporting cast includes Dorothy Provine as Ingrid and Roddy McDowall as her stuffy boyfriend. Frank Gorshin was very funny as one of the bank robbers as were William Demarest and Elsa Lanchester as neighbors who were clearly the inspiration for Abner and Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched. A winning Disney comedy that still provides major laughs after all these years. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

That looks like a fun movie, I've never seen That Darn Cat, but one of these days.

[Gideon58]

It is a fun movie, Citizen, I can't believe how well it held up...very funny.

[Gideon58]

My Life
After winning an Oscar for his screenplay for Ghost, Bruce Joel Rubin had a worthy but for some reason nearly forgotten follow-up as the writer and director of My Life, a funny, deeply moving and, yes, manipulative drama but the manipulation totally works. I'm still wiping the tears from my eyes.
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The film stars Michael Keaton as Bob, a public relations man who has a great life that is rocked when he finds out almost simultaneously that he is going to be a father and that he's dying from cancer. The story initially unfolds through a series of videotapes that Bob is making for his unborn child, all the things that he feels a father should tell his child and teach his child. Bob's attempt to leave a legacy for his child happens at the same time that a desperate Bob is looking for a possible reversal in his condition. When traditional medicine offers no hope, his wife, Gail (Nicole Kidman) leads him to a holistic healer (Dr. Haing S. Noir), an idea that he initially poo-poos but when no other options present themselves...
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Bob tries to reconcile in his mind what is happening and is doing all the things he should do to care for his son after he's gone and resolving issues with his own family before it's too late, unfortunately, Bob is trying to do all of this by himself, completely shutting Gail out of the process and not telling anyone else about his condition.
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Rubin has crafted a funny and deeply human story with a central character going through an impossible situation and not always doing what he should, though his intentions are always on the money. This cinematic journey found me wanting to give Bob a big bear hug one minute and strangle him the next, made all the more aggravating by the fact that Gail is nothing short of a saint and it takes way too much of the running time for Bob to realize what a jewel Gail is and how he has to let her in.
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The film also provides genuine laughs through the scenes of Bob's videotapes to his child, which are sincere and funny and meant to teach the child all lessons necessary for survival on earth. I was especially moved by his messages about music, how to walk in a room and greet someone, how to cook spaghetti, and sex.
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Michael Keaton's powerhouse performance as Bob anchors this moving story and there is nary a false note in his performance. We love this guy from the beginning and it is heartbreaking watching what he's going through, particularly the devastating third act where the disease begins to ravage Bob's body. Nicole Kidman matches Keaton with her warm and loving Gail and there is solid support provided from Bradley Whitford, Rebecca Schull, and especially Michael Constantine as Bob's brother, mother and father respectively. A moving film experience that will provide laughs and tears and hope. 3.5

[Gideon58]

CHANGING LANES
A fender bender on the FDR Drive is the springboard for an edgy and ugly psychological thriller from 2002 called Changing Lanes that works thanks to a richly complex screenplay and a pair of powerhouse lead performances.
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Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson) an insurance salesmen struggling with sobriety and holding onto his family, is on his way to a custody hearing when he (literally) runs into Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck), a hotshot attorney on the road to partner whose career could be destroyed by a very different kind of court hearing for which he is en route. Banek is very curt to Gipson during the expected exchange of insurance information and in a rush to get to court, Banek loses a file crucial to his case which Gipson finds which jump starts this ugly game of cinematic cat and mouse.
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This film works thanks to a brilliant screenplay by Chap Taylor which presents two central characters who are drawn in serious shades of gray. The story initially presents one of the characters as sympathetic but the story manipulates viewer sympathy where it is changing approximately every ten minutes of running time. Neither character does all right or all wrong and there are some things done by both characters in the name of vengeance and self-preservation that had this viewer's stomach tied in knots for the majority of the running time,
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Director Roger Michell also displays a gift for letting us inside the character's motivations without ever foreshadowing what's going to happen. The camera works in tandem with the story to provide a story that is impossible to predict but doesn't frustrate with cinema red herrings or superfluous screen time. If I had a quibble with the story, I was a little troubled by the attention paid to the set-up of the character of Doyle as an alcoholic as a possible justification for his actions, but it was clarified to my satisfaction before the end credits rolled.
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Samuel L. Jackson is intense and explosive as Doyle and Ben Affleck offers one of his strongest performances as Gavin. There's a solid supporting cast that serves the story including Sydney Pollack, Richard Jenkins, an appropriately greasy Dylan Baker, William Hurt, and especially Toni Collette but it is this fascinating story and the performances from the leads that make this one leap off the screen and scratch at the gut. 4

[Joel]

CHANGING LANES
4

You sold me, Gidge. Can I call you Gidge?

I may see where I can stream this tonight. Thanks.

[Gideon58]

Call me what you like just don't call me late for dinner.

[Gideon58]

FARGO
For most fans of Joel and Ethan Cohen, they had their masterpiece with a 1996 gem called Fargo, a twisted and bloody black comedy filled with bizarre characters, uncompromising violence and a story that provides laughs, though you find yourself wondering if some of the laughs are appropriate.
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The film introduces us to a resident of Fargo, North Dakota named Jerry Lundergaard (William H. Macy) a wimpy car salesman married to an annoying and shrill harridan and employed by her monstrous father (Harve Presnell) who, in a desperate attempt at some fast cash, hires two thugs (Steve Buscemi, Peter Storemare) to kidnap his wife so that he can collect the "ransom" but the plan goes horribly wrong.
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Unexpected complications with the plan result in the involvement of Marge Gunderson (Frances McDorman), the pregnant police chief of neighboring Brainerd whose Columbo-like methods in piecing together what happened occur simultaneously with Lundergaard trying to keep his plan from completely falling apart along with the rest of his life.
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The Cohens' Oscar winning screenplay is the real star here, rich with characters who are completely reprehensible or completely likable, but none are perfect. The Jerry Lundergaard character is a particularly fascinating character because from the second this character appears on the screen and opens his mouth, it's clear that nothing he says is the truth but you can also see where his deceptive nature comes from...it's also clear, more through the Cohens' direction that Jerry is in some deep financial waters that have forced him to this point. It's also clear that Jerry has not thought out this plan clearly, disregarding a lot of innocent victims here...love the moment after the kidnapping when someone asks Jerry about his son and Jerry is taken aback for a minute. We realize that when Jerry put this plan in motion that he put no thought into how it would affect his son.
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Jerry is a such a smarmy character but what the Cohens have done so effectively is confuse the viewer by having this slime portrayed by the baby-faced William H. Macy with the sweet smile who almost makes you feel guilty for thinking that this guy is a scumbag. On the opposite side, we have Frances McDormand's Oscar winning performance as this small town police chief, who is given an added layer of viewer love by making the character pregnant...every time the character lost her footing in the snow, my heart stopped for a second and then there's that snow...setting this ugly story under all this snow gives it an eerily atmospheric quality that's quite intoxicating.
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Kudos as well to the awesome Peter Storemare, whose performance reminded so much of a later Cohen Brothers character, Anton Chigur in No Country for Old Men and Steve Buscemi, explosive and funny as his partner not to mention Presnell's investment in a totally unlikable character as well. I also loved John Carroll Lynch as Marge's husband Norm and their whole marriage was a lovely little subplot that totally rang true...wish I could say the same for Marge's reunion with an unstable friend from high school (Steve Park). but for the most part, this is comedy at its blackest where, in a refreshing change, everyone actually gets what's coming to them. 4

[Gideon58]

THE HUDSUCKER PROXY
Joel and Ethan Cohen's imagination was really in overdrive with their 1994 black comedy The Hudsucker Proxy, but I wish the imagination had been accompanied with a little more originality and a little less cinematic pyrotechnics.
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It's New York 1958 where we witness the owner of a huge corporation called Hudsucker Industries kill himself. The board and majority stockholders need to install someone in his chair that they can manipulate in order to take controlling interest in the company and a young mailroom employee named Norville Barnes is installed, but Barnes isn't as easily manipulated as the mustache twirling company president Sidney Mussberger finds out. Throw in the mix a fast talking female reporter sent to expose Barnes after he becomes a success and you have most of what you need for another wild Cohen Brothers ride.
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This film is a lovingly detailed homage to screwball comedies of the 30's and 40's like His Girl Friday and in that respect, the Cohen's story totally works, we see immediately what they'going for here. The problem here is the lack of surprises in the story...the story goes to all the places you expect it to and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but when toasting a film genre like this, a genre where we know what to expect, some surprises should be provided along the way here and they aren't. What we get instead of the dose of originality that we should is a lot of cinematic smoke and mirrors and over the top symbolism that moves at such a lightening pace it's hard to figure out exactly what the Cohen brothers are trying to say.
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This does not mean this film was not entertaining and did not hold my attention, but with a little more care devoted to this germ of a terrific story, this film could have been something really amazing instead of the overly stylized ride that takes a little too long to get going.
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The Cohens' hand-picked cast serves the story brilliantly though, headed by baby-faced Tim robbins, finding yet another role where that face aids in the character's appeal. Jennifer Jason Leigh stirs up images of Katharine Hepburn, Jean Arthur, and Rosalind Russell in her lady reporter and Paul Newman chews the scenery with movie-style pinache as Mussberger and seems to really be enjoying it too.
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The film is rich with incredible production values including some dizzying and imaginative camera work, amazing art direction/set direction, stunning costumes, and Carter Burwell's incredible music, which should have won an Oscar. Not the classic it should have been, but well worth the ride. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

I seem to remember that I liked The Hudsucker Proxy. Your review gives me reason to revisit it:)

[Gideon58]

POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPING
Andy Samberg was criminally underused during his tenure on SNL, to which anyone who saw his Digital Shorts on that show or anyone who watches his hit sitcom Brooklyn Nine Nine can attest. Samberg was given the chance to bring both skill sets to the big screen in 2016's POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING, a razor sharp, New Millenium updating of This is Spinal Tap that pretty much had me laughing until I was crying.
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Done in the "Mockumentary" style of Spinal Tap and most of Christopher Guest's comedies, this is the story of three childhood friends, Conner (Samberg), Owen (Jorma Taccone) and Lawrence (Akiva Schaffer) who form a white rap group called The Style Boyz, who have a very bitter breakup that finds Conner striking out on his own as a solo rapper with Owen as his DJ. Lawrence leaves the business altogether and becomes a farmer. Conner's first solo album is a monster hit which goes to his head but a very bad business deal and less than lackluster sales of his second album find Conner's career doing a serious nosedive. To aid slow album and concert ticket sales, Conner's manager (Tim Meadows) suggest they hire an opening act named Hunter (Chris Redd) who only makes things worse when he becomes way more popular than Conner.
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The three stars are also responsible for the screenplay that is so sharp you can cut yourself on it, a scathing satire of the world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll that nails the delicacy of celebrity ego, fan obsession, and the business of show business that is so dead on, it's a little frightening. Close attention to certain story elements will reveal that some of them have been borrowed and thinly disguised from the lives of certain real life musicians, but nothing overt or mean-spirited about it. I have to say though that if I were Justin Bieber or Vanilla Ice or MC Hammer, I might find offense at some of things that happen here. I found the scenes with Lawrence on his farm a little slow, but they are justified in the story's delicious wrap-up.
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Like Spinal Tap, the film features some absolutely brilliant songs written by Matthew Compton that include "I'm So Humble", "Turn up the Beef", "Kill this Music". "Finest Girl", "Things in my Jeep", "Mona Lisa" and my favorite "Equal Rights", a hysterical but outdated plea to legalize gay marriage.
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Samberg is dazzling in the starring role, proving that this guy has the chops to carry a major motion picture and Taccone beautifully underplays the role of Owen, the second fiddle who gets continually dissed by Conner throughout but never wavers in his loyalty to the guy. Meadows brings the laughs as he always does, as does Chris Redd as Hunter. I even enjoyed Sarah Silverman, who usually annoys me, underplaying nicely as Conner's publicist. The film also features a plethora of cameo appearances including Usher, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, Seal, Carrie Underwood, Maya Rudolph, Ringo Starr, Pharrell Williams, Nas, Pink, and Simon Cowell, but this is Samberg's show and if you're not a fan, you might want to take a half a bag of popcorn off this rating, but this movie had me rolling on the floor with laughter. 4

[cricket]

I might actually watch that because I loved Samberg on SNL.

[Gideon58]

CHRONICALLY METROPOLITAN
An intriguing title turned out to be the most intriguing thing about a 2016 comedy-drama called Chronically Metropolitan that didn't quite deliver the quirky that the title promises.
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The film chronicles the adventures of an aspiring writer named Fenton who returns to Manhattan after an abrupt departure for a rocky reunion with his dysfunctional family who finds his biggest challenge when he learns that his ex-girlfriend is engaged to be married.
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Director Xavier Manrique does what he can to preserve the quasi-Woody Allen sensibility of Nicholas Schutt's screenplay, which seems to be an attempted homage or bad impression of the Woodmeister, but Schutt isn't really the wordsmith that Allen is and a lot of the dialogue in this story comes off as the screenwriter just trying too hard to be cute and unconventional.
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Manrique's attempted homage to Allen's directing style isn't much better...the movie attempts to keep the story opened up with the use of some Manhattan location filming, but somehow the whole thing still seems to come off like a claustrophobic, photographed stage play and not a very good one at that. The pacing of the story is deadening and found this reviewer checking his watch, despite the fact that the film runs under ninety minutes.
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The performances are nothing special...Johnny Depp look-alike Shiloh Fernandez works hard at keeping Fenton likable but is fighting the script all the way. Chris Noth seems to be enjoying himself as Fenton's father, an acclaimed professor who can't keep his fly zipped, a role that seems like it was written for Stanley Tucci and Mary Louise Parker is wasted as Fenton's mother. Addison Timlin was fun as Fenton's sister and Josh Peck managed to hold his own as Fenton's BFF who now seems to be into Fenton's mother. This attempted homage to the style and pinache of Woody Allen doesn't have any of Woody's style or enough of his wit. Not a good sign when the best thing about a movie is its title. 2.5

[Gideon58]

THIS IS THE END
The Judd Apatow Rep Company deliver some solid laughs in 2013's This is the End, a comic satire that kept me laughing, despite a saggy middle and forays into some really tasteless toilet bowl humor.
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Seth Rogan and Jay Baruchel, playing themselves, arrive at James Franco's house for a party where we are introduced to the rest of the company and the various friends and fans of Seth and writing partner Evan Goldberg. Seth and Jay leave the party to go to a convenience store for cigarettes where they witness a bizarre incident where innocent people seem to be sucked into the sky by a mysterious blue light. The boys return to Franco's house just in time for some kind of explosion to hit the house, murdering most of Franco's guest list and leaving Rogan, Baruchel, Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride as allegedly the only human beings still alive in the city of Los Angeles.
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Rogen and Goldberg put a lot of thought and imagination into the screenplay for this comedy. One thing I liked is that even though everyone in the film is playing themselves, the screenplays creates fictional relationships and personalities for the actors involved that make them real actors playing fictional versions of themselves. For example, upon Baruchel's arrival in LA, we learn that he can't stand Franco and Hill and has no desire to go to this party. The initial exposition also sets up Jonah Hill as this sweet angelic guy who loves everybody and everything and Michael Cera as this total scumbag who treats everyone in his path like crap. Rogen and Goldberg crafted this story around all of their buddies but constructed a story that took all of these actors out of their comfort zones, which made what was going on very tempting to invest in.
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Once the initial set up of this alleged apocalypse is established during the first act, there is some struggle keeping the story viable as the weight of the story suddenly falls on four or five actors working on what is essentially a single set. The claustrophobia of the story does begin to settle in for a bit and interest does begin to wane and it is at this point that Rogen and Goldberg cop out with toilet bowl humor that seemed out of place with the initial story set up, but they do manage to bounce back for a slam-bang, if slightly over-the-top finale.
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The actors are all friends IRL and their respect for each other comes through here. It was so great seeing Rogen and Franco reunited and I love the scene where they get stoned and discuss a sequel to Pineapple Express. Also loved Seth's inventory of their supplies, the discussion of which survivor was most deserving of the only Milky Way in the house, and the Franco/McBride "jerk off" argument (don't ask).
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Rogen and Goldberg were apparently given an unlimited budget and used it to employ some first rate art direction and special effects. The film also features cameos from Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Rhianna, Aziz Ansari, Jason Segel, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Channing Tatum, and Kevin Hart. There are better comedies out there, but fans of the stars will not be disappointed. 3

[Gideon58]

THE LADY IN THE VAN
There's a reason that Dame Maggie Smith has won two Oscars, 4 Emmys, and 3 Golden Globes. There are only a handful actresses out there who can not only command the screen but elevate the quality of the material provided, which is exactly what Smith does with 2015's The Lady in the Van.
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Introduced to us as "A Mostly True Story", it is London 1970 and Smith is found playing Miss Shepherd, a homeless woman who lives in a raggedy van in the Camden section of London, moving her vehicle from the front of one residence to another, something akin to alternate side of the street parking . She accidentally connects with one of the residents, a lonely playwright named Alan Bennett, who is immediately turned off by the woman's hygiene and the disgusting condition that she leaves his bathroom in the first time she asks for permission to use it, but also finds himself caring about the woman and he begins investigating her, the layers of Miss Shepherd's past are slowly revealed explaining how she ended up the way she did.
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This was a really clever story idea that could have been played strictly for laughs and, believe me, there are laughs along the way as we watch the various Camden residents who have their own ways of dealing and reacting to Miss Shepherd which all ring true. Just like on this side of the pond, there are some who try to pretend the homeless don't exist and can't accept the reality when it's in their faces. The flip side of that coin is presented as well,,,there are people here who genuinely want to help Miss Shepherd and she symbolically spits in their faces...a family brings her Christmas presents and instead of saying "Thank you", she says "Close the door, I'm a busy woman."
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The real Alan Bennett adapted the screenplay from his own memoir and in the creation of this vivid and exciting and pathetic character, Miss Shepherd, he scores, unfortunately, his attempt at artsy cinematic symbolism by making his character a dual role, one Alan living his life and the other writing it, didn't work for me. It comes off as gimmicky and might have been more interesting with a different actor playing the role, but Alex Jennings' rather bland performance was difficult to invest in.
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What the film does have going for it is some stylish direction by Nicholas Hytner (The Madness of King George) and the glorious Maggie Smith, bringing this sad and funny character to delightful fruition and making this movie worth experiencing. Yes, this is another one of those movies saved by a single performance. If anyone other than Maggie Smith had been playing Miss Shepherd, this movie would have been deadly dull, but Smith makes this ride worth the price of admission. 3

[Stirchley]

The Lady in the Van is in my Netflix Q somewhere. Really looking forward to it. Love Alan Bennett.

[Dani8]

I love Maggie Smith.

[Citizen Rules]

Ahh...Lady in the Van...I agree with what you said here and we're mostly on the same page with our reviews. Good one! keep them coming:p

[Gideon58]

THE AVIATOR
Stylish direction by Martin Scorsese and a strong movie star turn from Leonardo DiCaprio are the primary selling points of 2004's The Aviator, the lavish and sweeping biopic of Howard Hughes, the eccentric billionaire who wanted to rule Hollywood and the sky.
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The film opens during the 1920's on the set of Hughes' first directorial effort, an epic called Hell's Angels that Hughes has been working on for two years and gone way over budget and just when it looks like the film is about to wrap, The Jazz Singer is released and is a smash, so Hughes spends another year going into debt in order to re-shoot Hell's Angels as a talkie. As much as Hughes appears to love the director's chair, it is also clear that his real passion is flying and his mission to build the biggest, baddest airplane to ever hit the skies. The fortune that Hughes made manufacturing drill bits is observed being methodically drained in Hughes' exhaustive efforts to rule Hollywood and to rule the skies, a mission which would include his purchase of what would eventually become TWA Airlines.
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The film also chronicles Hughes' reputation as a social hermit and a womanizer, primarily through relationships with legendary actresses Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner and how both relationships would eventually crumble under obsession with complete control of these women and how they weren't worthy of genuine respect because they were just "movie stars." Though I was impressed when, despite their breakup, Hughes did what he could to stop a fan magazine of printing pictures of Hepburn and the very married Spencer Tracy.
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Scorsese and screenwriter John Logan have brought us a biopic in the truest sense of the term, providing a peek into childhood motivations and a startling, squirm-worthy look into some of the mental health issues that would eventually be Hughes downfall. The screenplay is overly padded and spends perhaps too much time addressing Hughes' well known reputation as a germaphobe...this phobia is made clear early on in the film and the repeated scenes of Hughes in pubic restrooms washing his hands until they bleed just seemed a little self-indulgent. Scorsese could have spent a little more time on that brilliant dinner scene at the Hepburn estate, the plane crash that almost killed him, the climactic senate hearings that he walked out on, or the final breakup scenes with Hepburn and Gardner, which were the real highlights of the film for this reviewer.
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Scorsese, as always, has attracted a first rate cast to bring this elaborate story to life led by DiCaprio's charismatic Hughes, a performance which earned him his second Oscar nomination. Cate Blanchett is nothing short of brilliant as Katharine Hepburn, a dazzling turn that captures the spirit of the larger than life actress without ever reducing her to a caricature, a performance that earned Blanchett the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Strong support is also provided by John C. Reilly as Hughes' devoted aide Noah, Alan Alda as a smarmy Senator, Alec Baldwin as the head of Pan Am Airlines, and a surprisingly effective turn from Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner. Beckinsale has never been an actress I cancel plans for, but I have never enjoyed her onscreen as much as I did here. Also have to give a shout out to Frances Conroy as Hepburn's mother.
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In addition to Blanchett's Oscar, the film also won Oscars for Robert Richard's cinematography, Thelma Schoonmaker's film editing, art direction/set direction, and Sandy Powell's exquisite costumes. This is one of the very rare times where I think a film deserved every Oscar it won. Despite a slightly over-indulgent screenplay, this film is a rewarding and eye-opening look at a controversial subject where finding accurate facts regarding him has always been problematic, but this film really rings true. 3.5

[Gideon58]

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE
The 2010 comedy Hot Tub Time Machine is a raucous comic adventure completely devoid of originality or realism but did something I really wasn't expecting...delivered consistent laughs for almost its entire running time.
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Adam (John Cusack) and his two best friends, Nick (Craig Robinson) and Lou (Rob Corddry) and Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) decide to spend the weekend at a ski resort town called Kodiak Valley where the pals spent a weekend back in the 80's. Upon checking into their hotel room, they discover a hot tub with a dead raccoon in it, but a few minutes LATER the tub is filled with bubbling hot water. The guys jump in and find that they have been transported back in time to the year 1986.
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After a brief conversation with a "hot tub repairman" (Chevy Chase), the guys figure out that the only way to get back to 2010 is that they have to repeat everything that happened back in '86, which includes Adam dumping a pretty girl (Lyndsey Fonseca), Lou getting beat up, and Nick having sex with a girl and singing with his former band. The plot is further complicated when upon their arrival in '86, the guys encounter Jacob's mother and Jacob's very existence comes into question.
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Josh Heald and Sean Anders' screenplay borrows liberally from several teen classics of the 80's but tweaks it just enough that those who weren't around in the 80's will not notice and those of us who were around can forgive. Steve Pink's direction is on the manic side, rich with complex physical comedy and bathroom humor that often teeters on the cliff of good taste, but never quite falls off.
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It was so much fun seeing John Cusack going back to his comedy roots and still looking good doing it, the guy has barely aged since the 80's. Rob Corddry delivers major laughs as the demented Lou and I also loved Crispin Glover as an armless bellboy. I understand that there is a sequel and as funny as I thought this was, I really have no desire to see the sequel but maybe I'll change my mind about that someday, but this film was a lot funnier than I thought it was going to be. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

THE AVIATOR

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rating_3_5


I really liked Aviator, especially with it's tie in to Hollywood stars. It would make a Top 100 of my favorite movies. I need to re watch.

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/Hot_tub_time_machine_poster.jpg
rating_3_5 This one sounds fun. I'll have to check it out.

[cricket]

I hated This is the End but I love Hot Tub Time Machine.

Didn't care for The Aviator but That Darn Cat is awesome:)

[Gideon58]

UNBREAKABLE
M. Night Shyamalan and Bruce Willis reunite for a disturbing little chiller from 2000 called Unbreakable that takes an offbeat look at the possible origin of the comic heroes and how much of it is predestined. Will do my best to talk about this one without spoilers.
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Willis plays David Dunne, a security guard who is on a commuter train that derails and kills the other 131 people on board. Not only does David survive, but he comes out of the ordeal without a scratch. Shortly after returning to work, David receives a mysterious note asking if he's ever been sick. It is revealed that the note came from an Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) an artist who has suffered from a bone disease that has made his bones so delicate and easily breakable that he has been known as "Mr. Glass" all his life. Price forces David to look into his own health history, which seems to be the polar opposite of Price's...it is revealed that David not only has never been sick or injured a day in his life and that he has superhuman strength and that these attributes are no accident.
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Shyamalan, no stranger to bizarre and stomach turning storytelling, takes a completely unforeseen look at the origin of a form of entertainment that defies cinematic convention as we are forced to look at the possibility that comic book heroes are more than a product of a writer's imagination and it is unsettling as the writer and director slowly moves to this conclusion that our tortured protagonist is being pushed toward.
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Another disturbing layer is added to the story when what is coming to light about David is tearing his family apart. His wife (Robin Wright Penn), who sleeps in a separate room, is unable to believe what is happening while son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark) is not only embracing it but forcing Dad to face what is going on in several startling ways.
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This movie asks some uncomfortable questions and is a little too leisurely getting to a rushed conclusion, a staple of Shyamalan's work, but there are some stylish directorial touches with solid work from Willis, Jackson, and an absolutely breathtaking musical score by James Newton Howard. It's a wild ride, but it's worth a look. 3

[Gideon58]

I have to admit I was expecting to hate Hot Tub Time Machine but gave it a chance because of John Cusack, but the movie was really funny.

[Gideon58]

THE BEST OF EVERYTHING
They don't make 'em like this anymore. The Best of Everything is a lavishly mounted 1959 soap opera that works thanks to an almost shockingly adult screenplay for the period and some terrific performances from the female cast.
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The film is set at a fictional publishing company in Manhattan and is centered around three central characters: Caroline Bender (Hope Lange) has just gotten a job as a secretary at the company when her boyfriend, Eddie (Brett Halsey) leaves the country for a year and finds herself attracted to a handsome executive (Stephen Boyd) and in a battle of wills with her hard as nails boss, Amanda Farrow (Joan Crawford); Gregg Adams (Suzy Parker) is a secretary who really wants to be an actress and finds herself way too deeply involved with a slick Broadway playwright (Louis Jourdan); April Morrison (Diane Baker) is a virgin fresh off the farm who gets involved with a smarmy player (Robert Evans) who wants the milk without buying the cow.
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Jean Negulesco, a director who helmed classic comedies and musicals like How to Marry a Millionaire. Daddy Long Legs, Three Coins in the Fountain and its remake The Pleasure Seekers, shows an unerring sense of the genre that is cinematic soap opera and treats it like he actually respects fans of the genre. He is aided by an often shocking screenplay by Edith Sommer and Mann Rubin, based on a novel by Rona Jaffee, that provides everything fans of the genre expect....women giving up careers for the men they love, women giving up the men they love for their careers, pre-marital sex, infidelity, even unplanned pregnancy, a lot of subject matter that had rarely been addressed onscreen in 1959, but is done with an element of discretion...there is some foreshadowing of certain plot elements, but its never overt and only true fans of the genre will see certain things that happen coming before they actually do.
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The story also offers a very interesting dichotomy in the female characters presented here. The Caroline Bender character goes through an incredible transformation during this story that is such a pleasure to watch...her journey from insecure girl using a job to mend a broken heart to ambitious lady executive who doesn't need a man is the heart of the movie and completely winning. On the other hand, watching the downfall of Gregg, who is a smart self-assured woman as the film begins and the neurotic mess that she turns into is not pretty, but equally as compelling.
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Hope Lange, fresh off her Oscar-nominated performance in Peyton Place proves to be an actress of substance here commanding the screen as she never had before. Lange even has a drunk scene and I kept thinking as I watched that I had never seen Lange do a drunk scene before ever, a real eye-opener of a performance that should have made her a superstar. I really don't understand the brief career that Suzy Parker had after watching this because I found her performance alluring and charismatic, completely defying the unflattering journey her character takes. As expected, Crawford made the most of her brief role. Where the film suffers is with the male actors cast here...Stephen Boyd was his usual wooden self and Robert Evans shows why he gave up his acting career to become a producer. I will admit that I enjoyed veteran Brian Aherne as a senior editor who likes to chase secretaries around his desk.
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The film actually received Oscar nominations for its wonderful costumes and for the lovely title song written by Alfred Newman and Sammy Fain (dreamily crooned by Johnny Mathis). The rest of Newman's score was equally smooth and a bouquet to the set direction as well. An old fashioned soap opera with a garnish of adult gloss that was hard to resist. Fans of Valley of the Dolls will have a head start here. 3.5

[Patrick Beatty]

GREAT review of Unbreakable Gideon58!
I really hope the sequel lives up to it!

[Citizen Rules]

THE BEST OF EVERYTHING
They don't make 'em like this anymore. The Best of Everything is a lavishly mounted 1959 soap opera that works thanks to an almost shockingly adult screenplay for the period and some terrific performances from the female cast.

Fans of Valley of the Dolls will have a head start here. rating_3_5 Sold! I'm going to watch it. I'm a fan of Joan Crawford and of 1950s soap operas....and Valley of the Dolls too. So this sounds just like my kind of movie.

[Gideon58]

Sold! I'm going to watch it. I'm a fan of Joan Crawford and of 1950s soap operas....and Valley of the Dolls too. So this sounds just like my kind of movie.

It is your kind of movie, Citizen, warning though, Crawford's role is a small supporting one.

[Gideon58]

APOLLO 13
Robbed of the Oscar for Best Picture of 1995, Apollo 13 is an often heart stopping docudrama that is, more than anything a testament to the directorial genius of Ron Howard, who managed to tell a compelling true story laced with an underlying theme I really didn't connect with the first time I watched it 20 years ago.
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The presentation of the facts involved in this story actually begin to construct an uncomfortable but plausible idea that the Apollo 13 mission was doomed before it ever began. This is all laid out in elaborate but functional detail as it is revealed that Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Frank Haise (Bill Paxton), and Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) were originally scheduled as the crew of Apollo 14, but when one of the astronauts on the 13 crew developed an ear infection, our boys were suddenly bumped up to 13. There is a revealing scene at a press conference where several coincidences had come to light regarding the number 13's connection to this mission, a lot more than the number's tradition as bad luck. As the crew has finished all their pre-flight training, another health issues rears its head forcing Mattingly to drop out of the mission and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) to become the third man on the mission. And before you can say "Houston we have a problem" the spacecraft suffers severe damage that not only cancels their plan to actually land on the moon but threatens their ability to even return to earth.
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Ron Howard, who incredibly didn't even receive an Oscar nomination for his work here, has accomplished something truly unique and fascinating. He has taken an extremely intricate screenplay (based on a book by the real Jim Lovell) filled with enough techno babble to make a viewer's head hurt but sounding so authentic it's hard to debate, but what the script doesn't tell us, Howard tells us through his camera lens and through his cast...I have rarely seen the camera utilized as such an effective storytelling tool. If the truth be told, the technical explanation of exactly what went wrong with this spacecraft was never made clear to this reviewer, but the danger it put these three astronauts was made clear through the director's eye.
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The other thing that Howard did so effectively was he told the complete story of everyone involved in this story, the people on the ground as well as the three people in that space module. I love the scene where Jim tells wife Marilyn (Oscar nominee Kathleen Quinlan) about being bumped from 14 to 13 and even though she wants to share in her husband's happiness, you can see the concern on her face that they aren't ready but refuses to steal her husband's joy. The scenes with mission control brilliantly convey not only the seriousness of the situation but the moments when they had absolutely no idea what to do next and how Mission Control leader Gene Kranz (Oscar nominee Ed Harris) was just not having it. Howard's attention to small and telling moments of foreshadowing is just incredible...I love the moment before the ship takes off when the camera does a very quick shot of the "Abort" lever. Or when Marilyn Lovell is taking a shower in a hotel room and her wedding ring falls down the drain. Watch Jim's younger son as he worries about the broken door on the previous mission or his son in military school watching what's going on with his dad from a classroom...this is cinematic storytelling at its zenith.
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Howard, always an actor's director, has assembled one of the best acting ensembles ever to deliver this story, an ensemble that serves the story and won the Screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Acting Ensemble. The film won Oscars for film editing and sound but all production values were Oscar-worthy, especially the man behind the camera, the most underrated director in the business...this is his masterpiece. 4.5

[Citizen Rules]

APOLLO 13
Great review and I love this movie! It gets better every time I watch it.

[Stirchley]

Great review and I love this movie! It gets better every time I watch it.

I agree.

[Gideon58]

ZOOLANDER 2
Derek and Hansel return for another round of fashion insanity in 2016's Zoolander 2, an overblown, over the top sequel to the 2001 hit that suffers from the disease that afflicts most movie sequels...too much of everything in attempt to outdo the original film resulting in a film experience that's just exhausting.
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As the story opens, we learn that the school that Derek (Ben Stiller)had built at the end of the first film has collapsed and fallen into the ocean two days after its opening, killing hundreds of students, his wife Mathilde (Christine Taylor), disfiguring Hansel (Owen Wilson) and causing Derek to lose custody of his son (Cyrus Arnold). Defeated and humiliated, Derek and Hansel quit modeling but are lured back into the business with an offer to model a new fashion line in Rome where Derek's assistance is actually sought by an Interpol agent (Penelope Cruz) who is certain that one of Derek's patented "looks" is responsible for the death of Justin Beiber and several other pop stars. While helping this agent, Derek is also reunited with his son, who is in an Italian boarding school, and unlike his father, is fat and smart.
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I guess I'll start where I usually do, with the screenplay...Stiller, Justin Theroux, Nicholas Stoller, John Hamburg apparently poured a lot of sweat into this extremely complex screenplay that was, surprisingly, rich with gay subtext throughout...the relationship between Derek and Hansel resembled ex-lovers this time around, something I never got in the first movie, Hansel's relationship with his "orgy" seems to be primarily based on a relationship with Keifer Sutherland, who we are told is having Hansel's baby. The writers haven't forgotten that Derek is a brainless twit, but in the sequel, it would have been nice to have Derek actually admit it, which he doesn't, even after his own son tells him what an idiot he is. And I guess that was my primary problem with the story and I've said this regarding other sequels, if you're going to do a sequel, I think it's an important to see a change or some kind of growth in the characters to make the sequel a viable experience and that never really happens here.
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As a director, Stiller went into serious overdrive here and apparently was given the budget to do so. The film features lavish world wide location filming that is quite striking at times but the story moves in such a manic pace and in so many different directions that it's hard to appreciate the production values. Truth be told, in an attempt to make a bigger and better sequel, Stiller has the genesis of about four really good movies here, but none of them are fully developed enough to completely engage the viewer. I think a little more concentration on Derek's relationship with his son and less on who killed Justin Beiber and Hansel and his "orgy" might have helped. Not to mention the fact that Stiller just waited too long to do this sequel...it's 15 years since the first film, and we just don't care about these silly people anymore.
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Stiller and Wilson are still a solid onscreen team and the film earns half a bag of popcorn for Will Ferrell's return as Mugatu. The film really energizes and becomes funny when Ferrell hits the screen but that doesn't happen until the third act and by then our attention span is dangling by a thread. Like the first film, there are many cameo appearances including several real life fashion designers including Anna Wintour, Marc Jacobs, and Tommy Hilfiger, but this film mainly comes down to is too much, too late. 2.5

[Gideon58]

SILKWOOD
The polished directorial hand of the late Mike Nichols is all over 1983's Silkwood, a gripping docudrama about everymen talking on corporate America that features another dazzling performance from Meryl Streep that earned her one of her 19 Oscar nominations.
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It is 1970's Oklahoma and Streep plays Karen Silkwood, a worker at a plutonium processing plant with her boyfriend Drew (Kurt Russell) and BFF Dolly (Oscar nominee Cher) whose involvement with her union involving safety hazards for employees have gotten her in so much hot water with her employers that she may have been deliberately contaminated with plutonium in an attempt to stop her whistle blowing and when that didn't work, it looked like more severe methods were employed to silence her.
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As this is a very true story involving real people and corporations, Nichols and screenwriters Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen had to be very careful about how this story was brought to the screen and I think they did an admirable job of providing a balanced look at what happened, a job that was rewarded with Oscar nominations for all three of them, presenting an extraordinary story centered around an extremely flawed and human protagonist who is not exactly painted in an angelic light, the way the subjects of a lot of these films are.
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Karen is presented as a slightly promiscuous, no-nonsense, ball of fire who holds her tongue for no one and sometimes doesn't really know when to shut up. I love Nichols' initial introduction of the character to us as we see her in the plant break room sticking her hands in everyone's lunch, obviously not having brought her own...haven't we all worked with someone like that? We then learn that Karen is the mother of three children but their father has custody of them. Custody decisions rarely go against the mother so your mind automatically races wondering what kind of behavior caused Karen to lose custody of her children, an element of backstory which isn't really revealed.
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It is mostly through Nichols' direction that we see how Karen might have been instrumental in her own downfall. Once Karen comes on board as a corporate whistle blower, she is very sincere about what she's doing, but, if the truth be told, she just wasn't very good at it. I loved yet another scene in the break room where a co-worker mentioned something the union should know about and she whips out a notebook and starts writing and questioning the co-worker. A lot of jobs were going to be at risk because of what Karen was doing and she didn't care, evidenced in the fight that went out of her when even Drew walks out on her.
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Streep gives one of her most vivid and entertaining performances in the title role, a character we immediately love, even if she isn't the brightest bulb in the row. Kurt Russell brings a little more substance to the role than I remembered other than a nice bare chest and Cher is an eye-opener as Dolly. Also loved Diana Scarwid as Dolly's girlfriend and Sudie Bond, Fred Ward as sympathetic co-workers, as well a surprisingly smarmy Craig T. Nelson as a not so sympathetic co-worker. A solid docudrama that, despite the known climax, still engages the viewer and makes us want to know the whole story. 3.5

[Gideon58]

AN EDUCATION
A luminous performance by the leading lady that earned her a Best Actress nomination is the centerpiece of 2009's An Education, an edgy but endearing melodrama that disguises the inappropriateness of certain story elements with proper British accents and lovely scenery.
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It is London in the 1960's where we are introduced to Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan), a 16 year old, straight A student at an all girls school whose life has been mapped out for her, including college at Oxford. Her plans get derailed when she meets a handsome and charming con man named David (Peter Sarsgaard) who is almost twice her age.
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Nick Hornby's Oscar nominated screenplay is based on Lynn Barber's memoir, who I assume is the inspiration for Jenny. .The story that takes us on a journey that if it had been in American film, probably wouldn't have gone as far as it does here because the English accents and the breathtaking London and Paris scenery distract to the point that we almost don't notice how inappropriate this relationship is.
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2009/10/09/arts/09education2_650.jpg
Of course, having Peter Sarsgaard playing David greatly aided in suspending disbelief. Sarsgaard's David is sophisticated and very very sexy. He also has uncanny people skills that allow him to say exactly what anyone he encounters wants or needs to hear at the right time. The viewer is totally blindsided as David so completely charms Jenny's parents that they seem to have no problem with their daughter dating a much older man. If this had been a John Hughes film and Molly Ringwald was playing Jenny, David would have been shown the door during the first act.
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The real attraction here is the absolutely enchanting performance by Carey Mulligan in the starring role. Her Jenny is extremely smart and funny, but never comes off as anything more than a smart and love struck teenager who knows exactly what she wants. I love when David persuades her to go away for the weekend with him and she insists that she is a virgin and plans on staying that way and, to my amazement, David not only honors her wishes, but still treats her like a queen.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Pz0RfOVm-So/maxresdefault.jpg
Mulligan and Sarsgaard create a viable chemistry that almost makes the viewer forget how truly inappropriate the relationship is. They receive solid support from Alfred Molina as Jenny's father, Rosamund Pike as a jet setting pal of David's, and Oscar winner Emma Thompson in a stylish cameo as the uptight headmistress of Jenny's school. Bouquets as well to John de Borman's cinematography and Paul Englishby's lush musical score. A special cinematic journey for the discriminating film goer. 3.5

[Stirchley]

APOLLO 13


What I didn't know until recently is that the Mission Control leader has to be a former astronaut. And only he is allowed to speak to the spacecraft crew. Interesting I thought.

SILKWOOD

Brilliant movie. Seen it many times.

[Gideon58]

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
As far as stage to screen adaptations go, 2013's August: Osage County is immensely watchable, thanks to some serious star power delivering solid performances that almost make you forget that you're watching a photographed stage play.
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This film is a sometimes too up close and personal look at the female members of an Oklahoma family who are brought together when the family patriarch commits suicide. Violet (Oscar nominee Meryl Streep) is the widow, a foul-mouthed harridan dying of mouth cancer and addicted to her medication; Barbara (Oscar nominee Julia Roberts) is the eldest daughter who is separated from her philandering husband (Ewan MacGregor) and in a very strained relationship with her pot-smoking vegetarian daughter (Abigail Breslin), not to mention resenting her on again off again position as her mother's caregiver; Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) is the spinsterish middle daughter in love with the wrong guy (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Karen (Juliette Lewis) is the flighty, self-absorbed younger daughter who missed a lot of the pain that her mother put Barbara through and is in denial about what a dog her fiancee (Dermot Mulroney) is.
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The film is based on a Broadway play by Tracy Letts that hit the boards in 2007 and ran an unremarkable 648 performances which I think might have a lot to do with the lack of star power. The Broadway cast was rich with theater actors who probably brought these characters vividly to life onstage, but with that immense fourth wall called a movie screen separating the actors from the audience, something else has to come into play in order to turn a somewhat interesting theater piece into viable screen entertainment and frankly, star power was the way to go. If the truth be told, if I had seen this onstage, I probably would have been bored to death but TPTB somehow knew that star power could make this work on screen and their instincts were on the money.
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Letts was allowed to adapt her own play into a screenplay, which nails family dysfunction and brings out just the right amount of secrets throughout the story, unfortunately the gaps between these reveals were a little too long, but when you have a cast like this, you tend to forgive.
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A big bouquet to John Wells, primarily a television director, for getting the performances from this clearly hand-picked cast that he did. Meryl Streep gives another post graduate acting class here and I loved the way Wells took sex symbols like Ewan MacGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch and cast them totally against type, concealing the sexy behind horn rimmed glasses and bad hair and allowing the men to prove they are more than pretty faces. Also loved Margo Martindale, an actress who is no stranger to playing bitchy characters, doing what she does best here and Oscar winner Chris Cooper as her very patient husband. But the acting honors here have to go to Julia Roberts, an actress often maligned as being attractive but unable to act, who carries this film with the most explosive and intense performance of her career as the eldest daughter and family referee who is begining to crack under the pressure of her position in the family. I can't remember the last time I saw an actor, any actor, give Meryl Streep a run for her money the way Roberts does here.
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The film is a little talky, but the stars will hold your interest. The film is beautifully photographed and features beautiful music. Fans of Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill will have a head start here. 3.5

[Joel]

Just a little aside, Gidg. This morning one of my friends texts me that he is 1/2 way trough Tootsie and loves it. I notice it's 6:30am. This dude watches Tootsie at 6:30, before work, on a Monday morning. Funny thing is that I never engaged in a convo about Tootsie with him but had just queued it in my ebay shopping cart for the Criterion blu ray.

[Stirchley]

Just a little aside, Gidg. This morning one of my friends texts me that he is 1/2 way trough Tootsie and loves it. I notice it's 6:30am. This dude watches Tootsie at 6:30, before work, on a Monday morning. Funny thing is that I never engaged in a convo about Tootsie with him but had just queued it in my ebay shopping cart for the Criterion blu ray.

I have never seen Tootsie & intend to keep it that way.

[Joel]

I have never seen Tootsie & intend to keep it that way.

Stirchley, why are you so hung up on Tootsie? Talk to me..is it a Dustin Hoffman thing? I don't think Sean Connery is in Tootsie, if that's what you're worried about.

[Stirchley]

Stirchley, why are you so hung up on Tootsie? Talk to me..is it a Dustin Hoffman thing? I don't think Sean Connery is in Tootsie, if that's what you're worried about.

Am I hung up on Tootsie? Have I mentioned it before????

[Joel]

Am I hung up on Tootsie? Have I mentioned it before????

No, my mistake. But I do rmember you saying that you've never seen a Connery film and "intend to keep it that way" so I'm trying to figure out why?

Is there something about Tootsie that turns you off, I mean, other than the fact that Dustin Hoffman is dressing like a bleachy toothed red-head?

[Gideon58]

BLUE VALENTINE
Some stylish directorial strokes and a pair of charismatic starring performances make 2010's Blue Valentine worth your time.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Blue_Valentine_film.jpg
This is the story of Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams), a long married couple with an adorable daughter named Frankie. Dean has just begun a job with a moving company and Cindy is a nurse who has been offered a job with her boss that would involve moving and uprooting her family. Dean and Cindy take Frankie to spend the night with her grandparents because they have decided they need some time alone. They check into a hotel and as they hit the sheets, we see that this marriage is not everything it initially appears to be.
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This film then takes us on a Tarantino-like journey through scenes of Dean and Cindy's marriage, told out of sequence but still peeling the layers away of this decaying marriage which could not be held together by the sexual hit that ignited the relationship. The story moves back and forth between the beginning and the end of Dean and Cindy's relationship and provides answers as to why these people feel the need to check into a hotel to bring something back to their marriage that is missing.
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Director and co-screenwriter Derek Clanfrance has mounted an intricate story that requires complete attention from the viewer as the story is told out of sequence, but not just out of sequence, these scenes from a marriage almost overlap at different points and might have the viewer questioning what is the present and the past, but where Clanfrance really scores is in his creation of these two characters who we come to immediately care about and want to learn what's wrong.
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The other primary reason this story stays interesting is the riveting performances from the stars. Ryan Gosling is quite convincing going the De Niro route as a sexual beast who isn't the brightest bulb in the row, but is passionate about what is important to him. Michelle Williams received another Oscar nomination for the sexually charged character she creates in Cindy, a woman who sometimes thinks below her waist a little too much and finds pain because of it. But it is the chemistry between the two that keeps this one sizzling. I also loved the subtle music score by Grizzly Bear which Clanfrance felt didn't need to frame every single moment in the movie. It takes a minute to get going but I liked this one. 3.5

[Gideon58]

BROOKLYN RULES
The 2006 drama Brooklyn Rules is rich with good intentions but suffers due to lackluster direction, some questionable casting, and a story that liberally borrows from too many other movies, primarily Goodfellas.
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It is Brooklyn 1985 where we meet three childhood friends, Michael, Carmine, and Bobby who witness a wiseguy brutally assaulting someone in broad daylight, an event that frightens Michael and Bobby but fascinates Carmine. Later, while walking along a beach, the boys encounter a body in a car with a bullet hole in the skull and each decide to take a souvenir from the scene...Carmine takes the guy's cigarettes and lighter, Bobby takes a puppy he finds in the backseat and Michael takes a gun he found in the glove compartment.
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The story then flashes forward to our trio as adults: Michael (Freddie Prinze Jr.) is in college and working part time in a butcher shop; Bobby is looking for a job and struggling to keep his marriage-minded girlfriend in check and Carmine has developed a friendship with the wiseguy (Alec Baldwin) who he saw beat the crap out of someone when he was a kid. We then watch Bobby and Michael try to warn Carmine about his involvement with the wiseguy, but Carmine just gets in deeper, getting his two childhood buddies caught in different kinds of crossfire.
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Director Michael Corrente attempts to bring some semblance of originality to Terence Winters' practically plagiarized screenplay, borrowing elements from just about any mob movie you can think of, especially Goodfellas, including a cliche-ridden narration done by Freddie Prinze Jr. that almost sounds like it was written for a comedy, though there is nothing really funny here and attempts to inject levity into this depressing and violent story were an epic fail.
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Freddie Prinze Jr., who I thought had fallen off the face of the earth, could have stayed wherever he was because his attempt at playing a reformed Brooklyn bad boy fails to convince, no matter how many times he says "dese" and "dose". Scott Caan looks great in a wife beater but is equally unimpressive as the wiseguy wannabe and Jerry Ferrera, who looks like he was just at the beginning of his magical weight loss, just seems to be phoning it in. Alec Baldwin goes the Robert De Niro route as the head wise guy but I just never bought him as this mob kingpin. Mena Suvari is wasted as a potential love interest for Prinze Jr. as well. I'm trying to think of something that really worked here, but I'm drawing a blank. If you're a fan of Baldwin, it might be worth a look, but I don't think so. Even the title displays a lack of imagination. 1.5

[Dani8]

I havent seen this and Baldwin immediately grabbed my attention because I like him a lot. Then saw your 'urgh' in the rating thread. Think I'll give it a wide berth. I trust your judgment.

[Gideon58]

OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY
From the "Put your brain in check and enjoy" school of film making comes a raunchy and hysterically funny film called Office Christmas Party that had me laughing until I was crying and I'm pretty sure will be a new addition to my list of guilty pleasures.
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The 2016 comedy takes place at a fictional New York technology firm called Zenotek, where we meet Josh Parker (Jason Bateman), whose BFF Clay Vanstone (TJ Miller) is president of this branch of the company, which was left to him by his late father. Clay's sister, Carol (Jennifer Aniston) is the company's CEO and runs the rest of the corporation and has decided the only way out of the company's financial troubles is to cut Christmas bonuses and fire 40% of the staff. Clay and Josh, with the assistant of Josh's assistant, Tracey (Olivia Munn) think they can save the company by landing an important client (Courtney B. Vance) and think the way to do it is by inviting the man to the office Christmas party to end ALL office Christmas parties.
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Must confess that I was expecting to hate this movie, but this movie was spectacularly funny, thanks to a surprisingly deft screenplay by Justin Malen and Laura Solon that turns political correctness on its ear and delivers equal parts raunchy, sexy, and adult humor that may offend some but will have others, like myself, doubled over with laughter for the entire running time. An office setting provides an opportunity to introduce the kind of characters we expect, including Josh and Stacy, who have been hiding feelings for each other that bubble to the surface now that Josh is divorced and brassy variations on characters we expect like the uptight HR director, the nerd who hires a prostitute to pretend to be his girlfriend. the divorced secretary in relationship hell and the guy who likes to be treated like a baby in diapers when he's having sex.
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Directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck clearly were raised on films like Animal House and Caddyshack, providing a breezy directorial hand where it is required and trusting the talent they've hired to deliver the raunchy and outrageous without ever abandoning realism.
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Jason Bateman is a perfect straight man for all the insanity around him and TJ Miller does a star making turn as the crazy man/child Clay. Jennifer Aniston delivers another sexy villain that rivals her work in Horrible Bosses. Courtney B. Vance is a lot of fun as the important client who really lets his hair down after being accidentally dosed with cocaine and Emmy winner Kate McKinnon steals every scene she's in as the tightly wound HR director who also lightens up. There is also standout work from Rob Corddry as the office bad boy, Jillian Bell as a female pimp, Vanessa Bayer as the secretary with relationship issues and Randall Park as the guy with the baby fetish. Nothing groundbreaking or important here, just consistent laughs from opening to closing credits. 3.5

[cricket]

I think I'd like to see that^^one.

If you can believe it, I haven't seen Silkwood or Apollo 13.

[Stirchley]

I think I'd like to see that^^one.

If you can believe it, I haven't seen Silkwood or Apollo 13.

I've seen Silkwood a million times. Great movie.

[Gideon58]

I think I'd like to see that^^one.

If you can believe it, I haven't seen Silkwood or Apollo 13.

You'd freak if I listed all the classic movies I've never seen.

[Citizen Rules]

You'd freak if I listed all the classic movies I've never seen. You need to watch more classic movies:)

Are you sending in a list to SilentVamp for the Top 100 1940s Movie Countdown? If you not, you should! There's lots of 1940s films I could recommend to you, that I'm sure you would like. And there is still 2 months left until the deadline to send in your voting list.

[Gideon58]

I would except that I have a really hard time finding older movies online.

[Citizen Rules]

I would except that I have a really hard time finding older movies online. They are easier for the most part.

[Gideon58]

They are easier for the most part.

Not for me

[Gideon58]

THE BODYGUARD
It's the cinematic equivalent of cotton candy, but 1992's The Bodyguard left this reviewer's sweet tooth satisfied thanks to some stylish direction and a chemistry between the stars that was off the charts.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/The_Bodyguard_1992_Film_Poster.jpg
Fresh off his triumph with Dancers with Wolves, Kevin Costner vacated the director's chair to star as a former Secret Service agent named Frank Farmer (terrible character name) who, for the bargain price of $3000 a week, agrees to be the bodyguard for a Hollywood superstar named Rachel Marron (the late Whitney Houston) who is in more danger than she realizes.
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Credit must go to director Mick Jackson, whose only other directorial effort I was familiar with was the Steve Martin comedy LA Story, who manages to make a screenplay rife with predictability and red herrings at every turn, seem fresh and compelling by utilizing his camera to make a not-so-interesting-on-the surface story worth investing in, not to mention being keenly aware of the other gold that materializes here and not getting in the way of it.
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The other gold of which I speak is the kinetic sexual/romantic chemistry between the stars. I have not seen such smoking hot chemistry between romantic leads since Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. From the moment Frank and Rachel meet (one of my favorite moments in the film, BTW, beautifully underplayed), we know exactly where the story is going and we are more than willing to strap ourselves in for the journey, even though we know it's going to take a minute, but every minute we had to wait was charged with a sexual tension unlike anything I've seen in quite awhile.
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I especially loved the crafting of the Frank Farmer character, which surprisingly, had very little to do with what the screenplay provides...a lot of it comes out in Jackson's presentation of the character...through the director's eye, we are able to see a man who is completely about the job, knows exactly what he's doing, and best of all, has been unable to get past something in his career that went wrong. I love the scene where he and Rachel are dancing and someone drops a glass, and Frank's work reflexes completely overcome the personal feelings he is developing for his client.
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Costner is quietly sexy as Frank and Houston proves to be a viable leading lady, a lot of which must be credited again to director Mick Jackson. Bill Cobbs, Mike Starr, and Ralph Waite provide solid support in key supporting roles, but it's really the Kevin/Whitney show and they totally own this movie. The director clearly wanted to showcase his leading lady's acting abilities, but did allow her to show off those amazing pipes. Houston had the biggest hit single of her career when she stole Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" and made it her own, though I personally preferred the haunting "I Have Nothing". It ain't Merchant/Ivory, but it's richly entertaining. Miss you Whitney, RIP. 3.5

[Dani8]

I really enjoyed the Bodyguard.

[Gideon58]

LIFE (2017)
The writers of Zombieland and Deadpool hit another bullseye with 2017's Life, an eye-popping, heart-pounding sci-fi thriller that left a few more things unexplained than I would have liked, but large chunks of this movie scared the bejesus out of me.
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The film is about a team of scientists aboard an International Space Station who are researching the possibility of legitimate life form on Mars and manage to bring one such life form on board where it is cultivated and cared for and even named (Calvin), but the life form has the crew confused when it's growth process suddenly comes to a halt and when one of the crew has figured out a way to resume its growth process, he creates an outer space Frankenstein that threatens the lives of the crew as well as the entire planet earth.
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Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have constructed a story that is steeped in a little more realism than their above referenced work and I think that might be one of the problems with the story. These are writers who are very accustomed to telling stories at such a lightening pace and not allowing the viewer time to think that a story that requires a little thought and a little more than imagination might have been foreign territory for them because there is a lot left unexplained here. I was troubled by the revelation that this life form turned on its saviors and the lack of rhyme or reason in its mission was never clear, but the story just didn't give me time to figure any of that out, I just had to go with it, and experienced some serious "Boos" along the way.
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Director Daniel Espinoza reveals a gift for the short term "Boo" as opposed to the Alfred Hitchcock form of suspense building, which for this film was OK, because once this life form starts its destruction, this story isn't really about building suspense, it's about genuinely scaring the audience and on those terms, this one delivers.
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Espinoza has employed a solid cast, including Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds who serve the story and a first rate production team, with film editing and visual effects a standout...the scene of this life form destroying a lab rat is something that's going to be burned in my memory for quite awhile. If you're not big on logic and into geniune scares that will make you jump out of your seat, have your fill here. If you're a fan of the Alien franchise, you will be in heaven here. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

Enjoyed reading your review as always. And it's nice when you review something that I just seen and reviewed to, as I can compare notes, so to speak. I think the first half hour was pretty intense after that the film lost me.

[Gideon58]

Enjoyed reading your review as always. And it's nice when you review something that I just seen and reviewed to, as I can compare notes, so to speak. I think the first half hour was pretty intense after that the film lost me.


Oh I didn't know you had reviewed this...I'm going to find it and read it right now.

[Citizen Rules]

Passengers (2016), have you seen that? It's a surprise hit, a lot of people who don't like sci fi are loving it.

[Gideon58]

Yeah, hearing nothing but good things about it...have added it to my watchlist.

[Gideon58]

MOANA
Disney struck gold with 2016's Moana a colorful and splashy animated musical that initially resembles earlier Disney work, but quickly establishes its own credentials as an independent work through its endless imagination and the creation of yet another independent-minded animated heroine who will steal your heart.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/26/Moana_Teaser_Poster.jpg/220px-Moana_Teaser_Poster.jpg
Based on a Polynesian legend, the title character (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho) is the princess/heir apparent of a Polynesian village who learns that the only way she can save her island, whose food resources are dwindling and causing the slow death of her village, is to travel beyond the reef, something she has been told since she was a child she must never do (a Disney heroine doing something she was told not to do...shocking) and finds the key to helping her village rests with a shift-shaping demigod named Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) who she has heard tall tales about since she was a toddler but now finds her destiny tangled up with Maui's restoration of his own.
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This dazzling animated gem initially appears to rehash earlier Disney films like Mulan, The Little Mermaid and Pocohontas, but the vividly imaginative screenplay by Jared Bush and Ron Clements stands on its own with its new approach to crafting a unique group of characters together to tell a story. The characters in this story are not all human and dramatic license is utilized beautifully here as the ocean itself becomes Moana's personal guide to her destiny, showing her what she needs to know as a toddler and assuring her that the ocean will always be her friend and ally. This is also the first time I have seen a character's backstory actually come to fruition on the character's back...the tattoos that cover Maui's body come to life at appropriate times not only to reveal parts of his past and help us to understand who he is, but are also his conscience and best friends, always reminding him of the right thing to do, even if he isn't always doing it.
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The story is also aided by a rich musical score from current Broadway genius Lin-Manuel Miranda, the genius behind the Broadway smash Hamilton, who has provided some wonderful songs for this story including "Where You Are", "You're Welcome", "Know Who you Are", "Shiny", and the Oscar-nominated "How Far I'll Go."
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Can't conclude without talking about the look of this film...the animation is lush and eye-popping, the palate of colors applied to each and every frame here is an absolute joy to behold and the detail in the animation is to be applauded as well...look at the moment where Moana is washed ashore and she wakes up covered in sand...it actually looks like sand! The film also features a perfect voice cast and Oscar-worthy film editing, providing the final decorative touches to one of the most captivating animated adventures I have seen in a long time. Disney does it again. 4

[Gideon58]

AIRHEADS
If you're looking for some silly and pointless fun at the movies, the 1994 comedy Airheads should fill the bill. Despite an occasional plot hole or slow spot, the movie delivers consistent laughs thanks to a terrific cast , many at the beginning of their careers.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/Airheads_film_poster.jpg
Brendon Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler play the members of a band called The Lone Rangers who actually take a radio station hostage in order to get their demo tape played on the air. Complications keep the demo from immediate airing and before you can say Dog Day Afternoon, what these guy are doing turns into a media circus.
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Director Michael Lehmann and screenwriter Rich Wilkes have mounted a raunchy and over the top comedy aimed directly at that cherished 18-34 ticket-buying demographic. The three lead characters don't have a brain in their collective heads, but they are also completely likable and like a lot of movie characters, do a lot of wrong for the right reasons. If you really want to scrutinize these characters, they are lazy and looking for the most painless path to Easy Street but you can't help but like them.
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Lehmann gets some terrific performances out of a cast who play this over the top story with totally straight faces. Brendan Fraser is effectively sincere as the band's front man and Steve Buscemi brings his explosive screen demeanor to another demented character. Adam Sandler reveals the genesis of the angry man/child character that would make him a lot of money later on in his career. Kudos as well to Joe Mantegna as a DJ, Michael McKean as the tight-assed program director, and the delicious Amy Locane as Fraser's girlfriend. Michael Richards also has a couple of funny moments as an employee of the station who our heroes don't know is in the building and is crawling through the air-ducts, a la John McLane. No classic, but there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes. 3

[Gideon58]

THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR
Fans of classic movie melodrama will be in heaven with a gem from 1947 called The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, a film where everything works, particularly the non-romantic romance at the center of the story, some imaginative direction, and a lovely chemistry between the stars.
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Set at the turn of the century, this is the story of Lucy Muir (the radiant Gene Tierney), a young widow with a daughter who decides to get away from her in-laws and moves into a seaside cottage with her daughter and her maid, despite the fact that her initial visit to the house revealed that it's being haunted by its former owner, a sea captain named Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison).
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Mrs. Muir gets a visit from her in-laws who inform her that there is no money coming from her late husband's estate and that she won't be able to afford to stay at the seaside. In order to raise the money to stay, the Captain suggests that Mrs. Muir, a former writer who stopped writing when she got married, "ghost write" his biography, which, naturally becomes a bestseller but also brings Mrs. Muir in contact with Miles Fairley (George Sanders), a writer of children's books, who instantly falls in love with her, setting up a very unconventional love triangle.
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Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who a couple of years later would rack up four Oscars for A Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve, proves to have a golden touch with melodrama, presenting a lilting story of star-crossed lovers who really aren't lovers at all. Mankiewicz and screenwriter Phillip Dunne, who adapted the story from a novel by R.A. Dick, also scored in the creation of this central character...we are in love with Mrs. Muir thirty seconds into the movie and through dialogue and direction, her backstory is revealed without her saying a word...it is clear five minutes into this movie that Mrs. Muir's marriage was not a fairy tale romance and that she can't stand her in-laws and I love the way the backstory is confirmed...she is told all of this by Captain Gregg five minutes after he meets her.
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This is also another one of those movies centered around a non-romantic romance. It's not just the practical aspect in that Captain Gregg is actually dead, but the fact that both characters are in deep denial about their feelings for each other. The Captain bristles whenever another man comes within five feet of Mrs. Muir and she actually feels guilt when she enjoys the attention of another man. The relationship reminded me of Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr in The King and I and the chemistry between the actors is just as strong.
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Gene Tierney, an actress who the camera loved intensely, is enchanting as Mrs. Muir and Rex Harrison eases into the role of Captain Gregg quite smoothly and we want these two to be together so badly even though it never can be. George Sanders was even more smarmy than he was in All About Eve and little Natalie Wood is adorable as Mrs. Muir's daughter. The film is shot in beautiful black and white, with Oscar-nominated cinematography and also features a lush musical score by the iconic Bernard Hermann. Classic film buffs should eat this one up. Almost 35 years later, the movie was adapted into a television comedy with Hope Lange and Edward Mulhare in the title roles,
but that show was but a pale imitation of this amazing movie. 4

[Citizen Rules]

Well said! So glad you enjoyed The Ghost and Mrs Muir. It's one of the movies in the 1940's HoF Part 2. Link (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=1708532#post1708532)
That link goes to the 1st post in the Hof which has other links to the members reviews of The Ghost and Mrs Muir. Everyone is welcomed to comment on the movie, even if you're not a member of an HoF.

I hope you'll watch the Gene Tierney movie that is in my Top 10 favorites on my profile.

[edarsenal]

a glorious review to a glorious movie. VERY well done, Gideon!!

[Gideon58]

Well said! So glad you enjoyed The Ghost and Mrs Muir. It's one of the movies in the 1940's HoF Part 2. Link (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=1708532#post1708532)
That link goes to the 1st post in the Hof which has other links to the members reviews of The Ghost and Mrs Muir. Everyone is welcomed to comment on the movie, even if you're not a member of an HoF.

I hope you'll watch the Gene Tierney movie that is in my Top 10 favorites on my profile.

I want to thank you for recommending it, Citizen...loved every minute of it and Gene Tierney has become a new obsession of mine, along with Ginger Rogers.

[Gideon58]

SEXY BEAST
The crime drama and the black comedy blend to startling effect in a powerhouse sleeper from 2000 called Sexy Beast, which features stylish direction, some terrific performances, and a squirm-worthy serving of unbearable tension.
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Gal is a retired safecracker who is living the high life in a Spanish Villa with his ex-porn star girl friend DeeDee and their best friends Aitch and Jackie. Their idyllic existence is shattered by the arrival of an unhinged former business associate of Gal's named Don Logan who has arrived to convince Gal to do one more job, a job that becomes a complicated mess long before its completion.
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Director Jonathan Glazer (Birth) and screenwriters Louis Mellis and David Scinto must be credited for bringing a fresh coat of paint to the former-criminal-being-lured-back-to-crime story by concentrating the majority of the story on the actual lure and the consequences of the job than the actual job itself.
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The story opens with a leisurely pacing which initially confuses, but what the filmmakers are doing here is clearly establishing how happy Gal is with his life in retirement and how, unlike so many movie characters in similar situations, has absolutely no desire to return to his old life. Gal's number one priority upon our first meeting with him is getting the perfect tan and its importance to him is so clear, that it's really hard to determine what his former profession might have been, but from the moment he learns of Logan's arrival, this blissful existence turns to one of tension and fear.
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The initial confrontation between Gal and Logan is fascinating because no matter how many times Gal says he is not interested, Logan insists that he is. Through his attitude, we can tell that Logan has the juice behind him to drag Gal out of the villa and make him do whatever he wants, but for some reason, it seems vital to Logan that Gal say that he wants to do this...Logan not only will not take no for an answer, but insists on a yes and even though he never gets it, we know he's in when he says goodbye to DeeDee and tells his young pool boy to stay away from the house for awhile.
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Another fascinating aspect of this story that comes shining through, primarily through Grazer's direction, is establishing the fear that Gal has about what he's being drawn into, but does his best to conceal his fear from DeeDee and Logan, but every moment in the film where he's alone, the fear comes out in the form of uncontrollable sweat and shakes that provide an additional layer of tension for the viewer.
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Glazer employs some dizzying camera work and gets grand assists from his cinematographer and film editor. He also gets dazzling performances from Ray Winstone as Gal, Ben Kingsley, in a dangerous and funny turn as Don Logan, which earned him an Oscar nomination. His scenes on the airplane and with airline security I think probably cinched the nomination for him. Also loved Ian McShane as Logan's boss. A funky music score frames this deliciously intense story that is not for all tastes, though fans of the work of Guy Ritchie will definitely have a head start here. 4

[cricket]

I love Sexy Beast, a big favorite of mine.

[Funny Face]

Haven't seen Sexy Beast but very fond of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Think my first Gene Tierney movie was Heaven Can Wait (which I watched for Don Ameche) and have enjoyed her films ever since. Take CR's advice and watch Leave her to Heaven and if you haven't already seen The Razor's Edge, please watch that too!

On a side note, Jenna Dewan Tatum reminds me of her. Both ladies are beautiful.

Nice reviews Gideon!

[Gideon58]

Never noticed the resemblance between Tierney and Jenna Dewan Tatum, but you're right, there is a resemblance. And Leave her to Heaven will be my next trip to Tierney world.

[Gideon58]

THE ACCOUNTANT
Take some Rain Man and put it in a movie bowl with some The Great Santini and add a generous portion of John Wick and you have the basic ingredients for The Accountant, an elaborately mounted 2016 action/adventure that borrows elements from the above referenced films but establishes its own credentials as a solid action thriller.
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Ben Affleck plays Christian Wolff, an autistic savant with a gift for numbers who eventually uses said gift to make a profitable living cooking and un-cooking the books for some of the most dangerous people on the planet. The specialized military training he and his brother received from his father have also helped him to become one of the world's most deadly assassins. This story finds Christian's two lives blurring as he is hired to fix the books at a software company called Living Robotics, where he discovers a multi-million dollar discrepancy that has an FBI and Treasury Agent hot on his tail.
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Director Gavin O'Connor takes a great deal of care in mounting Bill Dubuque's extremely intricate screenplay that might take a little too much time in setting up Christian's childhood as an autistic savant and how it affected his relationship with his family, but once the story gets going, the viewer is given very little time to breathe or try to figure out what appears to be red herrings and plot holes at every turn; however, I was delighted to learn that by the time the final reel commences, all questions and plot holes that had been nagging at me were tied up in an effective little cinematic bow that left this reviewer a little spent, but satisfied.
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I was impressed by the set up of Christian as an autistic savant and how this remained a through line for the character throughout the story. Christian's connection with the childhood poem "Solomon Grundy" reminded me of Raymond Babbit''s constant recitation of "Who's on First?" in Rain Man. I was also impressed during the halfway point when a damsel in distress (Anna Kendrick) is trying to connect with Christian by explaining how she learned to count cards as a teen (another nod to Rain Man), the connection just doesn't happen because Christian's lack of socialization skills don't allow it and he even explains it to her in efficient detail, one of my favorite scenes in the film.
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I haven't seen any of Affleck's work as Jack Ryan, so I was pleasantly surprised by what a solid action hero with a twist that he made. Solid support is also provided by JK Simmons, John Lithgow, and Jon Bernthal as key players in this riveting story. Production values are first rate with special bouquets to film and sound editing. Action purists, belly up. 3.5

[Gideon58]

THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR
Yes, the story requires a major suspension of disbelief, but it's pretty easy to do with the 1942 classic The Major and the Minor, thanks to the genius of Billy Wilder behind the camera and a sparkling performance from Ginger Rogers in front of it.
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Rogers plays Susan Applegate, a former New York career gal who decides to return to her hometown of Stevenson, Iowa but learns the train fare to her hometown has increased and the only way she can get home is to disguise herself as a 12 year old girl, allowing her to buy a half fare ticket. Unfortunately, the conductors on the train catch on almost immediately and Susan ends up hiding in the sleeping car of a charming military man named Major Phillip Kirby (Ray Milland) who actually believes Susan is 12 years old.
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Things get sticky when Phillip's flighty fiancee, Pamela (Rita Johnson) meets him and Susan at the train and after getting a phony story from Susan about why she's travelling alone, Kirby and Pamela decide that Susan should return to the military school where Kirby is on staff and Pamela's father (Edward Fielding) is Kirby's commanding officer.
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This film features an intelligent and witty screenplay by Wilder and Charles Brackett, which offers consistent laughs that are motivated by the characters' actions, thereby requiring complete attention from the viewer. Of course, the other thing required from the viewer here is complete suspension of disbelief, because we are asked to accept a pretty bizarre premise here. This grown woman pretends to be 12 years old and a couple of conductors on the train catch on almost immediately but our leading man never suspects for a second that this 12 year old girl is a grown woman, not to mention his fiancee and a whole military academy of cadets, yet Pamela's younger sister, Lucy (Diana Lynn) not only catches on to Susan immediately but becomes her closest ally in pulling off this charade?
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If you can just roll with all this, this movie is a comic joy, thanks to Wilder's energetic direction and the effervescent performance from Ginger Rogers, which not only requires her to pretend to be 12 years old, but requires her to take on a couple of other personas as well and Rogers nails it all, making a totally improbable story completely winning and hard to resist. I was also impressed with Ray Milland, who I only have exposure to as a dramatic actor, showing a winning touch with light comedy that was an unexpected pleasure. Johnson and Lynn also impressed as the villain and the sidekick in this goofy and often hard to believe story. The film was re-imagined in 1955 as You're Never Too Young with Jerry Lewis in Ginger's role, but I would be hard pressed to believe that film is anywhere near as entertaining as this one...a triumph for Billy Wilder and Ginger Rogers. 3.5

[Gideon58]

CLOSER
The exquisitely polished direction of the late Mike Nichols makes 2004's Closer, the often ugly and uncompromising deconstruction of two relationships, seem like a lot better film than it really is.
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Contemporary London is the setting for this complex quadrangle where we meet two separate couples whose relationships become permanently mangled. Dan (Jude Law) is an obituary writer who falls for Alice (Natalie Portman), a waitress he meets after watching her get hit by a car. Larry (Clive Owen) is a doctor who meets Anna (Julia Roberts) at an aquarium after mistakenly thinking he communicated with her online the night before. These are not terribly healthy relationships to begin with, but are forever altered when Dan writes a book and Anna is hired to shoot his picture for the book jacket.
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Mike Nichols deserves the lion's share of the credit for making this extremely unpleasant story appointment viewing. The reason Nichols gets the credit is because the meat of this story is told through his directorial eye...Patrick Marber's screenplay (adapted from his own stage play) doesn't reveal too much about what makes these characters tick, except for the fact that pretty much nothing that comes out of their mouths is the truth. Nichols' direction almost allows you to forgive the small flaws in the screenplay. The truth that these characters so conveniently dodge in the dialogue is revealed in their eyes and their actions, evidenced in an exceptional use of the closeup...the camera lets us inside these characters so effectively that we are able to almost completely forget to watch that we are watching a photographed stage play. The story is revealed through the camera and the actors, not the dialogue.
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Nichols lets us inside these characters' head because their outer behavior is often unpleasant and not concerned with political correctness. Dan and Larry are alpha males in the truest sense who want what they want when they want it and once they get it, they don't want it anymore. It was fascinating to watch these men who felt their infidelity was always justified but when they felt betrayed, they simultaneously couldn't deal with it but wanted every detail about what happened. Anna is an icy and emotionally detached enigma whose romantic desires change from scene to scene. Alice is a sexually charged creature who seems completely in charge of her life and what she wants until it appears that she may have lost Dan.
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As he always does, Nichols pulls superb performances from his quartet of actors who actually make you forget that they are pretty much the only actors onscreen for the majority of the running time. Jude Law gives us a broken and vulnerable Dan, a character so emotionally raw that he actually cries in front of his romantic rival. Julia Roberts does some of her strongest work here as an ice queen who actually manages to elicit sympathy from the viewer though she's not always worthy. Clive Owen is at times chilling losing himself in a character who is, for my money, a disgusting human being and Natalie Portman's sexually charged performance as Alice lights up the screen. Owen and Portman won Golden Globes and received Oscar nominations and Portman should have won for this eye-opening performance that rivets the viewer to the screen.
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The film is beautifully photographed with some effective London backgrounds and kudos to the sophisticated musical score as well, but more than anything, this film is a tribute to the genius that was Mike Nichols. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

Glad to see you liked The Major and the Minor. I seen that for the second time recently, Ginger is hilarious as a 12 year old!

[Gideon58]

LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN
1945'S Leave Her to Heaven is a lushly mounted soap opera that will rivet the viewer to the screen thanks primarily to one of the most duplicitous and manipulative movie heroines since Scarlett O' Hara.
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In flashback, we are told the story of a writer named Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) who meets wealthy and glamorous socialite Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) on a train while she just happens to be reading Richard's latest book, en route to meet her family in order to spread the ashes of her late father. The attraction is swift and immediate and they are married just days later, but once they are married, Ellen's obsession with Richard and desire to have him completely to herself threatens everyone else in their orbit.
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Based on a novel by Ben Ames Williams, screenwriter Jo Swerling has fashioned a stylish melodrama that introduces a seemingly conventional movie heroine but then peels away her layers like an onion to reveal a woman with an almost toxic effect on the people around her and that's one of the story's greatest appeals...like a lot of great movie characters, we learn what is most important about her through limited backstory and by the way other characters react to her. The first hint is when Ellen and Richard first meet and she can't stop staring at him...we think it's because she's recognized his face from the dust jacket on the book, but it's because she claims he bears an uncanny resemblance to her late father. We see Ellen's pain as she spreads the ashes, callously disposes of the urn, and doesn't return to the house for hours. The big reveal for this reviewer that Ellen was not all she seemed to be was when her fiancee arrives to see her and she dumps him by informing him that Richard, who she has only known for hours, is now her fiancee.
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Director John M. Stahl is to be applauded for one of the very rare times where allowing a story to unfold slowly is an asset instead of a detriment. Richard and Ellen initially appear to be established as star-crossed lovers and we are actually kind of excited when she lies to her fiancee to get rid of him, but when Ellen's self-absorbed and obsessive behavior quietly bubbles to the surface, we then want to slap Richard and tell him to wake up because he is the only person in the story who really doesn't see who Ellen really is. Even Ellen's own mother doesn't champion her own daughter. I love when Ellen hasn't returned from spreading the ashes and Richard is concerned and her mother dryly replies, "Nothing ever happens to Ellen."
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Stahl must also be credited with his choice of leading lady and the sizzling performance he gets from gorgeous Gene Tierney, whose complete investment in this unsympathetic character earned her an Oscar nomination. My only exposure to Cornel Wilde prior to this film was the rather conventional The Greatest Show on Earth, so the surprisingly sensitive leading man he brought to this story was a pleasant surprise. Jeanne Crain also offers one of her strongest performances as Ellen's adopted sister, Ruth and Tierney is also briefly reunited with her Laura co-star Vincent Price, who figures prominently into the film's riveting climax.
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The production values here are nothing short of superb. Lush color photography made a perfect background for the story. Leon Shamroy's cinematography won an Oscar and I also loved Alfred Newman's music and Kay Nelson's costumes for Tierney, which were breathtaking. If you're looking for good old fashioned 1940's melodrama, this is the place. 4.

[Gideon58]

MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI
A 2016 Oscar nominee for Outstanding Animated Film, My Life as a Zucchini is a slightly edgy and challenging piece of cinema that definitely goes places where no animated film has gone before (at least in my experience), but I have to wonder at what demographic this film was aimed.
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The French film (it's apparently available with subtitles or dubbed in English) is the story of a lonely little boy named Courgette, who is brought to a foster home for all kinds of displaced children by his only friend in the world, a lonely policeman. It is at this home where Courgette learns to let go of his anger toward his mother and learns about things like truth, loyalty, and even romance.
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Director Claude Barras and screenwriter Celine Sciamma have crafted a lovely little story that has some surprisingly adult touches that, as an animated film, you have to wonder who the intended audience was for this, at times, disturbing tale. I haven't seen a lot of animated films with abusive alcoholics as mothers of the central character and I found it equally disturbing that Courgette felt responsible for his mother's death. The opening scenes that convey Courgette's fear of his mother are diametrically opposed to his reverence to her memory after she's gone...he has a beer can that he has kept as a souvenir of her and in one scene goes ballistic when one of the other kids finds it and won't give it back.
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On the other hand, the story does take some more conventional turns at the foster home as well. The other kids are a disparate breakdown of what we expect...Simon is the spiritual leader of the kids and bully who uses toughness to hide his anger at his predicament; Beatrice is a lonely little girl who thinks her being here is all a big mistake and every time a car pulls up, she thinks it's her mom, and then there's Camille...a little girl who finds a soulmate in Courgette, but is panicked when her nasty Aunt wants to take her home with her in order to receive additional financial assistance.
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The stop motion animation is visually arresting and there are some incredible pictures painted here...I loved this one shot where the camera slowly backs up to a reveal an above ground train passing or the sight of the rain pelting the roof of Courgette's home with his Mom. As stated, this is pretty sophisticated cinema and I can't believe children were the intended demographic here, but then I watched a scene near the climax where an employee of the home returns after having a baby and she is rocked when the kids are shocked that she is planning to keep her child no matter what he does...that scene stopped me cold and motivated a half bag popcorn bump up in my rating. If animation with a little substance sounds appealing, you might want to give this one a look. 4

[cricket]

I liked The Accountant, but I didn't think it was good enough to justify a sequel coming. At least that's what I heard.

Leave Her to Heaven was very good and I should probably see Closer.

[Gideon58]

WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF
Despite a solid all-star cast and some handsome production values, the 1945 spectacle Weekend at the Waldorf is not quite the classic it should have been, but provides sporadic entertainment value for lovers of classic melodrama.
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This film is a re-imagining of the 1932 classic Grand Hotel (which is actually referenced here) and follows the events that happen on a particular weekend at the iconic Manhattan hotel. The story is one of those soap opera type tales where several different stories are told concurrently, though some are more interesting than others.
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The primary stories presented revolve around a burnt out actress (Ginger Rogers), who finds herself drawn to a burnt out war correspondent (Walter Pidgeon), who is initially pretending to be someone else. The other story revolves around Bunny (Lana Turner), the ambitious hotel stenographer who finds herself torn between a slimy businessman (Edward Arnold) who can provide Bunny with the kind of life she has always dreamed and a young soldier (Van Johnson), who might be dying but all he can provide Bunny with is true love,
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If this brief synopsis of the story has a spoiler-like quality, it is not only because this is really a remake of another film, but because the screenplay by Sam and Bella Spewack really offers no surprises. We know exactly where these stories are going from the moment these characters face off, so we're hoping that some surprises will be provided along the way in order to make a rather overlong journey not as tedious; however, these surprises never really come.
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What we get instead is a story padded with minor stories and characters that have very little to do with the primary stories presented and instead of providing their own layer of entertainment to the proceedings, all they do is pad the running time, making the film a lot longer than it needs to be. There's even an elaborate musical production number featuring Xavier Cugat and his orchestra that really slows the film down, though Cugat does have a funny scene with Johnson earlier in the film. Sadly, they should have left it at that.
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What the film does have going for it and made it worth sitting through was another wonderful performance from Ginger Rogers that lights up the screen. Walter Pidgeon works hard at being funny and charming, but that seemed to be the problem, he seemed to be working too hard at it...every moment he was onscreen, I kept picturing other actors of the period in the role, Cary Grant in particular. Van Johnson's wide-eyed soldier was absolutely charming and Arnold made a terrific greasy villain, and though I found her performance a little wooden, Lana Turner seemed appropriate in the role of Bunny. Leon Ames, Keenan Wynn, and Robert Benchley also made the most of supporting roles. The film was lavishly filmed (wished it had been in color) and featured impressive art/set direction, gorgeous costumes for the leading ladies, and a terrific score by Johnny Green. There are definite slow spots, but for fans of the genre, or Grand Hotel, it's worth a look. 3

[Citizen Rules]

I've never seen WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF, but I'm sold! It sounds like my kind of film, I love soapy melodramas and like you I'm a big fan of Ginger Rogers and Van Johnson too. I'm not so much a fan of Lana Turner but that's OK, she seems to be in pretty decent films. I'll watch this one based on your review:p.

[Gideon58]

Ginger's great and makes it worth watching all by herself...you'll love it Citizen.

[Gideon58]

THE HUMAN STAIN
Despite some stylish direction and some powerhouse performances, the 2003 drama The Human Stain ultimately doesn't work thanks to problems with story, casting, and characterizations.
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The film recounts the toxic affair between a disgraced, widowed college professor named Coleman Silk, played by Anthony Hopkins, who begins an affair with a much younger, slightly trashy cleaning woman (Nicole Kidman), who is revealed to be a prisoner of a very troubled past which she tries to shield Coleman from, but he is ultimately up to his neck in. Just as the relationship begins to reach a truly dangerous level, thanks primarily to the woman's psycho ex (Ed Harris), the story then flashes back to reveal a backstory for Coleman and this is where the film begins to lose me.
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Oscar winner Robert Benton (Kramer vs Kramer) has a proven record of documenting human emotion and flawed characters onscreen, but he's got a really odd screenplay to work with, not to mention some odd casting choices. Nicholas Meyer's screenplay, based on a novel by Philip Roth (Goodbye Columbus) is all over the place as it tries to convince us that the problems that Coleman has had all his life, including the reason for losing his job at the college, all stem from the fact that he is a light skinned black man who has been passing for white all his life.
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This is not new cinematic territory, but the casting here makes it hard to swallow a lot of this...first of all, we're supposed to accept English Anthony Hopkins (who makes no attempt to hide his accent) as Coleman from East Orange, New Jersey. Now that's OK until we meet Coleman as a young man (well played by Wentworth Miller) who is charming and educated, but definitely an American and then we're supposed to accept the whitest looking actor in Hollywood playing a light skinned black guy? That's when they lost me.
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Not to mention the fact, that the way the relationship between Hopkins and Kidman is established, Kidman's character is way more damaged than Hopkins and this is the character whose backstory would have been a lot more compelling than Coleman's but the closest we get to her backstory is meeting her nutso ex, played with bone-chilling intensity by Harris. I have to say that I also loved the relationship initially set up between Coleman and a troubled writer (Gary Sinise) that also get shoved to the back burner in favor of Coleman's hard to swallow backstory told in endless flashback.
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I managed to stay with it thanks to some extraordinary performances from Hopkins, Kidman, Harris, Sinise, and Harry Lennix and Anna Deveare Smith as Coleman's parents, but the overly complex and hard to believe story and its execution don't really work. 2

[Gideon58]

CLUE
A perfect cast and the movie making skills of a gentleman named Jonathan Lynn combine to make the 1985 film comedy Clue a minor classic that has gained almost a cult following over the years.
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If memory serves, the only film based on a Parker Brothers board game, Lynn has taken the characters and game pieces from this well-known game and fashioned a credible and hilarious live action murder mystery around them. It is a stormy New England night in 1954 at a gothic mansion where Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), Mr. Green (Michael McKean) and Miss Scarlett (Lesley Ann Warren) all receive invitations to the mansion for dinner and agree to appear, despite the fact they don't know who their host is, what the occasion is, or why the host makes them agree to use aliases instead of their real names.
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The guests are greeted by the butler, Wadsworth (Tim Curry) who reveals that all of the guest are being blackmailed and that their blackmailer is their host for the evening. The guests are all given lovely gift wrapped boxes with the famous weapons from the game (gun, lead pipe, rope, knife, candlestick, wrench) and before you can say "Whodunnit", the blackmailer and two more people wind up dead and that is just the beginning of the insanity to come.
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The lion's share of the credit for why this silliness works has to go to director Lynn and his co-screewriter John Landis, who have crafted a story that moves at breakneck speed and doesn't allow the viewer time to figure out exactly what is going on. They have also presented a story where, despite it being stupid with outrageous physical comedy, finds large portions of the story told through the eye of the camera...asides, furtive looks, telling nods, badly hidden facial reactions to secrets that are much more effective than 40 pages of dialogue.
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During the film's original theatrical release, Lynn and company had the inspired idea to film three different endings for the movie and tack them on randomly to copies during distribution so that most people who saw it in theaters did not see the same ending, a gimmick which spiked ticket sales because people would go see it multiple times in order to see all three endings. With the advent of video, this gimmick is a distant memory as the DVD features all three endings shown back to back. The movie is still a comedic joy and thee is a real Mel Brooks influence to Lynn's work here. The performances are uniformly superb, with standout work from Brennan and Curry. Treat yourself to a cult classic that still holds up almost 30 years later. 4

[Gideon58]

ALLIED
Director Robert Zemeckis has once again combined action, romance, and adventure to maximum effect with Allied, an elaborate 2016 WWII epic that brought to mind what a prequel to the 1942 classic Casablanca might have been like.
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As a matter of fact, the film opens in French Morocco in 1942 (the year Casablanca was released BTW) where a Canadian Intelligence officer named Max (Brad Pitt) has been sent to Casablanca to team with a French Resistance Officer named Marianne (Marian Cotillard) on an assignment to assassinate a Nazi ambassador. After the mission, they move to London, marry, have a baby, and start a new life that is a dream for Max but suddenly begins crashing around him when information comes to light indicating that his new bride might be a double agent, still working for Germany. A trap is set for her and Max is informed that if it turns out to be true, military law demands that he kill her himself.
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Robert Zemeckis has taken the best elements of classics like Casablanca and combined with his own skill at blending genres so effortlessly, like he did so beautifully in 1987's Romancing the Stone and, of course, Forrest Gump, both films that featured a star-crossed romance laid out on a canvas of action and adventure and Zemeckis takes that skill set to another level.
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Steven Knight's intricate if slightly padded screenplay does a credible job of establishing the fact that Max and Marianne are two very different kinds of soldiers. Max is serious about his duties as an Intelligence officer but it is not his passion and he has a life plan for when the war is over. The same can't be said for Marianne, whose entire life seems to be centered around being the very best soldier she can. It was not the least bit surprising when Max asked about her plans after the war that Marianne didn't have a clue. This is also why it is not a huge shock when it's revealed that Marianne may not be who she says she is.
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This sets up the most interesting part of the movie for me. In total denial about what he's been told we watch as Max refuses to believe what he's been told about his bride and attempts to resume a normal life with her while simultaneously trying to block certain things she said during their time in Casablanca that give his suspicions ground and trying to prove her innocence at the same time. Ironically, it is while he's having sex with Marianne that she senses a change in him. Speaking of sex, I did love the highly erotic scene where the leads make love for the first time...in a car in the desert while a massive sandstorm was in progress shot with a revolving circular camera...artsy, sexy, and terribly stylish.
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Obviously a director of Zemeckis' calibre was able to secure all the money he needed for this production and every penny is up there on the screen. Special nods to film editing, sound, art and set direction, and costumes. Zemeckis proves he still has the chops to provide action and romance with uncanny wizardry that's hard to resist. 3.5

[Beatle]

.http://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=13686&stc=1&d=1397742624The late Dudley Moore had the most famous role of his too-short career in 1981's Arthur a raucously funny and alternately touching tale that generates warm smiles, big belly-laughs, and an occasional tear if you're in the right mood.

Moore received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as Arthur Bach, a drunken playboy who "races cars, plays tennis, fondles women, but he has weekends off and he's his own boss." Arthur is destined to inherit 750 million dollars when he marries a snooty society girl named Susan Johnston (Jill Eikenberry)who is the spoiled daughter of an undercover gangster. Things get sticky when Arthur meets Linda Morolla (Liza Minnelli) a waitress/struggling actress from Queens who steals neckties for her father's birthday.
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Moore lights up the screen in one of the single funniest performances of the last 50 years. The late Sir John Gielgud won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his flawless turn as Arthur's acid-tongued butler and best friend, Hobson, whose outward disdain for Arthur's behavior covers more paternal feelings.

There are other funny contributions by Barney Martin as Linda's father. Stephen Elliott as Susan's father, and Geraldine Fitzgerald as Arthur's demented grandmother.

The film was directed with a keen eye for comedy by a first time director named Steve Gordon, who, sadly, died the following the year. There was a forgettable sequel several years later and the film was remade in 2011 with Russell Brand as Arthur, but this instant classic is not to be missed. rating_3_5

and it wasn't. At least not by me. Hi, Gid, btw. :) I vividely remember it. Like,when Arthur is taking a bath in the photo, and John says in the end

You want me to wash your *hmhum*, you little s*?! :lol:

And that was when nobody was even listening. Or when he first meets Liza (I ADORE her btw), admiring her stealing technique and experiencing love at first sight partially because she's an excellent thief. And then there was that maniac who wanted to kill him. Burt Johnson I think is the name. Hillarious.

rating_5

[Gideon58]

NO STRINGS ATTACHED
Despite a storyline so old and overdone it's got cobwebs growing on it, the 2011 romantic comedy No Strings Attached might be worth a look thanks to some clever dialogue and a wonderful performance from the leading lady, who makes the film seem a lot better than it is.
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Adam (Ashton Kutcher) and Emma (Natalie Portman) met at summer camp when they were kids. Now Adam works on a Glee-like television show and Emma is a doctor beginning a very busy internship. The revelation that his ex-girlfriend is now dating his former television star dad, has Adam a little commitment-shy and Emma isn't exactly ready to rush into a relationship either as she feels just doesn't have the time. But she and Adam do agree to a sex-only relationship and do I really have to say anything else?
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I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what the money men behind this movie were thinking...there are at least dozen far superior movies out there with the identical storyline, including one that came out the very same year called Friends with Benefits. It's bad enough that they picked a story as old as the hills. but why do it the same year as another movie on the very same subject. I would think a second movie released the same year would mean that the second movie must have something new to bring to this plot chestnut that hasn't been explored before, but it really doesn't. And to watch the same tired plot being played out again with nothing but the names changed to protect the innocent, we get a movie that seems four hours long that was only an hour and 47 minutes.
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The film does benefit from a proven comedy commodity behind the camera. Ivan Reitman has been in the director's chair for comedy classics like Ghostbusters, Stripes, and Twins and his expertise at mining laughs is a big asset that helps disguise the funny but ultimately empty screenplay by Elizabeth Meriwether, one of the creative forces behind the FOX comedy New Girl The film was a disappointment considering this kind of talent behind the camera.
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One thing they did do right here was casting Natalie Portman as Emma. Portman offers a vivacious and charismatic performance that makes this film tolerable, despite the fact that Portman is way too intelligent a screen presence for this kind of silliness. Even Kutcher is less annoying than usual and laughs were also provided by Kevin Kline as Adam's dad and New Girl's Jake Johnson as Adam's BFF, but this movie takes too long to get to a conclusion we saw coming ten minutes in. Portman fans won't be disappointed, but everyone else? Approach with caution. 2.5

[Citizen Rules]

ALLIED

Obviously a director of Zemeckis' calibre was able to secure all the money he needed for this production and every penny is up there on the screen. Special nods to film editing, sound, art and set direction, and costumes. Zemeckis proves he still has the chops to provide action and romance with uncanny wizardry that's hard to resist.

I liked it too, and for all the reasons you gave...plus because unlike most big budget movies these days it didn't go all bombastic.

[Gideon58]

It's another one I watched on your recommendation, Citizen...I promised to watch it after reading your review...it took me awhile but I finally got around to it and thanks.

[Dani8]

ALLIED

I've been meaning to see this.

[Citizen Rules]

It's another one I watched on your recommendation, Citizen...I promised to watch it after reading your review...it took me awhile but I finally got around to it and thanks. Thanks Gideon, I'm glad to hear my review thread is doing some good:)

I was just looking at your review thread starting at the very beginning, and you have a ton of great films reviewed here! I've watched some of them thanks to your review thread too.

[Gideon58]

Thanks Gideon, I'm glad to hear my review thread is doing some good:)

I was just looking at your review thread starting at the very beginning, and you have a ton of great films reviewed here! I've watched some of them thanks to your review thread too.

Whether or not you realize it, I always check your thread with regularity and there are a least dozen reviews on my thread that only exist because I heard about the movies because I read YOUR reviews.

[Gideon58]

ROPE
The genius that was Alfred Hitchcock makes the 1948 psychological thriller Rope a lot better than it should have been.
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This economic thriller, based on a play by Patrick Hamilton, is a fictionalized re-imagining of the Leopold-Loeb murder case. In this story, we are introduced to Brandon (John Dall) and Phillip (Farley Granger), who have actually just murdered a friend of theirs named David Kentley and have him stuffed in a large chest in the middle of their living room. Brandon feels the murder is "justifiable homicide" because he feels David is their "intellectual inferior", but Phillip is racked with guilt about what they have done and wants to take it all back as soon as it happens. Brandon is not only guilt-free, but doubly excited about the dinner party they are about to throw, where the guest list includes David's parents, his girlfriend, and a former college professor of Brandon and Phillips named Rupert Cadell (James Stewart). Brandon is so stoked about doing this, he even moves the table settings for dinner from the dining room to on top of the chest.
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Through the screenplay credited to Ernest Lehman, Hume Cronyn is credited with "adapting" the piece from Hamilton's play (whatever that means), is a little on the talky side, it does provide us with a couple of flawed and fascinating protagonists in the form of Brandon and Phillip. Brandon, in particular, holds a morbid fascination for the audience with his passion regarding murder as sport and the validity of such passion. Even though the idea of murder as sport is rather twisted, it's not nearly as twisted as Brandon's heinous justification for this crime...it would have been one thing if he and David had gotten in a struggle with a gun and it went off accidentally or if David was killed in self-defense, but to commit murder because the victim is your intellectual inferior is disgusting and cannot be rationalized in any way.
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But this is where Hitchcock's skill at cinematic storytelling kicks in...he manages to tell an unappealing story that only has limited appeal as a story, again, because of the heinous nature of this crime. Hitchcock and Lehman accomplish this by having David remain a viable character throughout the story. Once the dinner party commences, David is the center of conversation and everyone wants to know why he's late. The actor who plays David even receives top billing in the closing credits. Hitchcock also effectively uses his camera to tell the story...one of my favorite scenes in the film is when Rupert is recounting what he thinks happened to David and instead of the camera being on Rupert, the camera is flowing all over the room, documenting what happened, and you just KNOW this is exactly what happened.
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I can't let this review go without commenting about the relationship between Brandon and Phillip that is established. Even though there is nothing overt in the screenplay regarding the nature of their relationship, it's pretty obvious that Brandon and Phillip are lovers, something you didn't see a lot of onscreen in the late 40's. It's quietly confirmed in the way their housekeeper, Mrs. Wilson, talks to them. Hitchcock doesn't shy away from it, but doesn't shove it in the faces of the audience either. Though the relationship between Brandon and Phillip does come up in the documentary The Celluloid Closet, which examines the history of homosexuality in the movies.
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I believe this was the first teaming of Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart and you can see why he quickly became one of Hitch's favorite leading men and Jon Dall is quietly brilliant as Brandon. Sometimes Granger is a little hard to take as Phillip, but the performance fits the character...you expect the guy to evaporate into a pool of water at any second. Kudos to the set director for the stylish apartment that is the setting for the film and to Hitchcock's inspired decision to use almost no musical score...this movie didn't need one. Once again Hitch proves why he was the man and why he never won an Oscar continues to be the greatest mystery to most film historians. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

ROPE
....John Dall is quietly brilliant as Brandon. Sometimes Granger is a little hard to take as Phillip, but the performance fits the character...you expect the guy to evaporate into a pool of water at any second.[/rating] I agree with much of your review:up: And yes the apartment set was nicely done by the art department, which is important, as we never leave that room.

I thought John Dall was superb, but I wasn't a big fan of Granger...and as much as I like Jimmy Stewart I feel he was poorly cast and didn't fit the personality of his character. I would have preferred Montgomery Clift in Granger's role and James Mason in Stewart's role.

[Gideon58]

I agree with much of your review:up: And yes the apartment set was nicely done by the art department, which is important, as we never leave that room.

I thought John Dall was superb, but I wasn't a big fan of Granger...and as much as I like Jimmy Stewart I feel he was poorly cast and didn't fit the personality of his character. I would have preferred Montgomery Clift in Granger's role and James Mason in Stewart's role.




I like the idea of Clift in Granger's role, I don't know about James Mason though.

[MovieMeditation]

I owe Rope a rewatch, also because I've only seen it once, but it didn't quite work for me... I liked the idea though. It's also almost too much of a Hitch-perfect storyline... People hiding bodies "in plain sight" for a certain almost too planned out line of suspense...

[HashtagBrownies]

The tension in that movie nearly killed me. My favourite Hitchcock film.

[Camo]

I owe Rope a rewatch, also because I've only seen it once, but it didn't quite work for me... I liked the idea though. It's also almost too much of a Hitch-perfect storyline... People hiding bodies "in plain sight" for a certain almost too planned out line of suspense...

Agreed. Rope was very underwhelming after everything i'd heard about it. Not that i disliked it mind you.

[Gideon58]

THE NOTEBOOK
Experiencing it more than a decade after its release, I was curious to see if 2004's The Notebook would live up to its reputation as a cult classic in the romance genre and I am happy to report that it did in spades.
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This star-crossed romance with a contemporary face lift opens with a nursing home resident (the late James Garner) visiting another resident (Gena Rowlands) and continuing to read a story to her that he apparently started long before our story begins. We then flashback to a 1940's summer where a young factory worker named Noah (Ryan Gosling) meets and is instantly entranced by a beauty named Allie (Rachel McAdams) at a local carnival. After a rocky start, Noah and Allie fall in love but are eventually torn apart by Allie's wealthy family who use the excuse that she is going to college in New York as justification to keep her away from Noah, who they merely consider trailer trash and not worthy of their daughter.
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Based on a bestseller by Nicholas Sparks, this riveting love story found memories of movies like Gone with the Wind, Splendor in the Grass,The Way We Were, and Titanic coming to mind as we watched two people experience immediate sparks but are kept apart by various forms of circumstance and even though we are completely behind this romance from the beginning, we know the road to their happiness is going to get ugly. This is confirmed when we are informed through Garner's narration when the couple finally admits to being in love with each other, but we're only twenty minutes into the film.
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Director Nick Cassavetes, whose previous directorial credits include action-filled dramas like Alpha Dog, surprises with a delicate hand at mounting a romantic melodrama that provides all the classic landmarks in a story but provides a few surprises along the way as well. Cassavetes reveals a sharp eye for what is romantic and erotic without being tasteless...the scene of their first attempt at lovemaking in an empty house where she is tentatively removing her clothes and with every piece she removes, he rips something off or their canoe ride where they caught in the rain are undeniably moving...Cassavetes brings a surprising sensitivity to the sexy here and leaves us wanting more.
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Needless to say, the film is given a huge boost by the magical performances by the leads. With each performance of his, Ryan Gosling continues to prove that he is more than a pretty face and lovely body, delivering a performance of charm and strength that puts us completely behind the character. Rachel McAdams, another actress who I always thought was a one-trick pony like Amy Adams, is an effervescent leading lady who keeps this character likable despite some unlikable behavior in her character. James Marsden trues to come between our stars the same way he tried to break up Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey in Enchanted. The late Sam Shepherd scores as Noah's dad and there is a razor sharp turn from the always watchable Joan Allen as Allie's mother.
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Of course, Garner and Rowlands are absolutely heartbreaking and the film is beautifully mounted. There is exquisite attention to period detail and I must applaud Robert Frasee's cinematography, Chuck Potter's set direction, and Karyn Wagner's lovely period costumes. If you're a fan of romantic melodrama, this is a classic not to be missed. 4

[Gideon58]

Neighbors 2 Sorority Rising
Neighbors 2 Sorority Rising is the disastrously tasteless and unfunny sequel to the 2014 film that is further documentation as to why sequels are methodically destroying Hollywood. It's a sad state of affairs when they start making sequels to movies that weren't the least bit funny and, therefore, completely unworthy of a sequel.
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Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne return as Mac and Kelly Radner who, after their battle with the off the chain fraternity in the first film, are now pregnant with their second child and in escrow on selling their house when they learn that the house inhabited by the fraternity in the first film has now been purchased by a group of girls who want to start their own sorority because sororities are not allowed to party. The girls know nothing about starting a sorority but an assist from first film refugee Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron) whose life has gotten pathetic since the first film and decides to help the girls, partially as a method of getting back at the Radners.
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Revenge is not an uncommon theme for sequels, but the silly and implausible screenplay by Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendon O'Brien carves a wide birth of credibility in order to make this story viable. not to mention the suspension of disbelief. It was really hard to wrap my head around the fact that after everything that happened in the first film, that a sorority would be allowed to move into the exact same house, with 19 year old girls wreaking twice the havoc that the guys did in the first film. I also found the bonding of Teddy and Radners a little hard to believe as well. I was also a little disappointed that, I'm guessing in an attempt to mine more laughs, they made a major change in Efron's character...the character was kind of a psychopath in the first film, but he had a brain. His brain has been completely removed for this film. There is an actual scene in the film where Rogen actually teaches Efron how to hard boil eggs and Efron burns his fingers because he didn't realize the water would be hot.
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Nicholas Stoller, whose previous work with Jason Segel, has provided some relatively solid entertainment in the past, needed a more iron hand over these wacky proceedings and I use the word "wacky" kindly. Rogen and Efron work very hard to be funny and Rose Byrne continues to be the unfunniest actress to continually be cast in comedy films. Ike Barinholtz manages to steal a laugh here and there and there are couple of fun albeit brief cameos from Kelsey Grammer and Lisa Kudrow, but I really have to give this one a pass...as sequels go, this one rates right up there with Sex and the City 2. 1.5

[Gideon58]

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2
As far as sequels go, there is a lot worse stuff out there than 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and it scores in terms of intentions, but it suffers due to an overly intricate screenplay that doesn't really address everything it should.
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The film opens as expected with Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) easing into his role as a crime fighter despite media speculation about his motives (something that should have been addressed in the first film) while finally coming to learn the truth about his father (Campbell Scott) and why his work led to his eventual death and how his work is connected to an unexpected villain in this piece that we really don't see initially, other than the geeky, desperately needy Oscorp electrician (Oscar winner Jamie Foxx) whose accident turns him into what appears to be the villain, but really isn't at all. We also see Peter haunted by the words of Captain Stacy (Denis Leary), who he promised that he would stay away from daughter Gwen (Oscar winner Emma Stone) in order to keep her safe.
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The screenplay by Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci is the source of everything that is right with this movie and everything that is wrong. I like that it addresses things from the first film, like Spidey's promise to Captain Stacy and I also like the way it separates this franchise from the Sam Raimi franchise by re-thinking relationships established by Raimi and company and still keeping them viable, primarily the relationship between Peter and Harry Osborn, which was a prominent part of the Raimi franchise, but it is approached from a different angle for this movie which is equally as compelling. On the other hand, the story is slowed to distraction with Peter's relationship with Aunt May, which is lovely on the surface, and the little she reveals about Peter's parents became unnecessary when Peter finally sees the tape of his father. Not to mention...this guy is a superhero, why is he still living with his aunt? That scene arguing over him or her doing his laundry was a silly waste of screentime. I also like the way the screenplay really established Oscorp as the villain, not Electro.
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Director Marc Webb still knows how to mount viable action sequences, but the problematic screenplay made some of it seem superfluous. Some of the production values also de-valued the work of some of the actors' work as well. Jamie Foxx was initially fun as Max, but his performance gets buried under CGI technique when the character becomes Electro, though the sequence where he undergoes the change was absolutely spectacular. Garfield and Stone still delivered chemistry as Peter and Gwen, but Foxx was wasted and Dane DeHaan's Harry Osborn didn't work for me either, but there is entertainment value here, even if you have to mine for it a little. 3

[Gideon58]

SHOW BOAT (1951)
MGM brought their patented gloss to the 1951 version of Show Boat, the third film version of the legendary Broadway musical that actually premiered onstage in 1927. This splashy and colorful version works thanks to a story that still engages the audience and a perfect cast.
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Based on a novel by Edna Ferber, this musical broke a lot of ground back in the 20's because it brought subject matter to the stage that hadn't been addressed such as gambling and racism. Needless to say, the subject matter was a little easier to take thanks to its cushion of a memorable music score by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II.
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In 1946, MGM produced a lavish revue saluting the life and music of Kern called Til the Clouds Roll By which concluded with a medley of songs from Show Boat and the success of this musical finale was most likely the inspiration of this lavish third and final film remake.
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This is the story of the Cotton Blossom, a riverboat run by Captain Andy (Joe E.. Brown) and his wife, Parthy(Agnes Moorhead), that is actually home for a theatrical troupe that travel from port to port playing to sold out audiences. Upon arrival at one port, it is revealed that the show's headliner, the vivacious Julie LaVerne (Ava Gardner) is half-black and is married to a white man and at this time, interracial marriage was still against the law so Julie and her husband Steve (Robert Sterling) are fired. Enter Gaylord Ravenal (Howard Keel), a professional gambler who is immediately smitten with Andy and Parthy's daughter, Magnolia (Kathryn Grayson) so he pretends to be an actor in order to romance Magnolia. It works, they're married but their happiness is short-lived.
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In addition to the score, Jerome Kern also provided the screenplay for this classic story and with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, provided one of the most lyrical scores ever written for a musical. The iconic score includes "Who Cares if My Boat Goes Upstream?", "Make Believe", "You are Love", "I Might Fall Back on You", "Can't Help Lovin Dat Man", "Bill" and, of course, "Ol Man River".
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This film marked the first screen pairing of Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson and they are just magical together....their vocal chemistry is just as strong as their screen chemistry. They made such an impression here that MGM reunited them for two more films, Kiss Me Kate and Lovely to Look At. Ava Gardner, never a favorite of mine, really lights up the screen here as Julie and makes every moment onscreen count, even her musical ones, even if she is dubbed by Annette Warren. The dubbing is beautifully done. Personally, I would have loved to have seen Lena Horne play Julie, who sang her songs in Til the Clouds Roll By, but casting Horne in that role in the 50's would have cost the film a lot of bookings in the south so TPTB went with Gardner.
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The film also features an early appearance from a couple once touted to be the next Astaire and Rogers, Marge and Gower Champion, who provide a couple of spectacular dance numbers. As expected with an MGM musical, the settings and costumes are breathtaking and a perfect backdrop for this enchanting musical valentine. 3.5

[Gideon58]

NO RESERVATIONS
Despite a hard working cast, the 2007 comedy No Reservations ultimately doesn't quite measure up due to a rampantly predictable story and a couple of very unappealing central characters.
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The film stars Oscar winner Catherine Zeta-Jones as Kate, an accomplished gourmet chef at a trendy Greenwich Village eaterie whose busy job and empty life are thrown a complicated curve when she is made guardian of her niece, Zoe (Abigail Breslin) when Kate's sister dies in a car accident. When Kate takes a little time off to get Zoe settled into her new life, another chef named Nick (Aaron Eckhart) is brought in to temporarily pinch hit for Kate and unwittingly threatens Kate's job and pretty much her entire existence.
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The primary problem with Carol Fuchs and Sandra Nettlebeck's conventional screenplay is that the two characters at the core of the story are pretty unlikable making it very difficult for this reviewer to invest in the slow burn of a relationship that is supposed to develop between them. I think everyone knows or has worked with someone like Kate...she is an ice queen all about her job, intimidates her kitchen staff with her no-nonsense approach to her work and is convinced that whenever she's not there, the place falls apart. Near the beginning of the film, Kate is observed balking when she is asked to come out of the kitchen to speak to regular customers who want to compliment her food, but later when customers want to compliment Nick on his cooking, she blows a gasket. It should also be mentioned that Kate is in therapy but never reveals anything resembling genuine feelings. Though it is amusing when she tries serving Zoe the kind of food she cooks at the restaurant and Zoe won't touch it.
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Zoe is no prize either...she makes her aunt work extremely hard for her affection, initially thumbing her nose up at anything Aunt Kate tries to do to make her comfortable. She begins to thaw when Kate offers to take her to work with her, but when that gets Kate in trouble, she turns the tables on Kate, blaming her and having a fit when her attempts to push Kate and Nick together don't instantly work. Zoe displays behavior most parents would not put up with but is given slack when she whines that she misses her mother. For a grade school child, this girl is surprisingly manipulative and very into disappearing for no other reason than to scare the hell out of Aunt Kate.
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The only saving grace in this story is Nick, an utterly charming and gracious guy who is as talented in the kitchen as Kate is, but that's where the similarity ends...the guy knows how to have fun, instantly connects with Zoe, and treats Kate with the respect her job deserves, even when he is offered said job.
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Zeta-Jones works very hard to make this character appealing but she is fighting the script all the way. Breslin, fresh off her Oscar-nominated performance in Little Miss Sunshine does some solid work, but her character's behavior sometimes makes it hard to notice. I also enjoyed the always watchable Patricia Clarkson as Kate's boss and Bob Balaban as Kate's shrink, but it is Aaron Eckhart's Nick that is the glue that makes this film worth sitting through. Eckhart creates a charming and very sexy character who makes us laugh at him and fall in love with him mainly because he's the only character who makes all the right moves. Unfortunately, Eckhart's work is not enough to make this completely work. 2.5

[Gideon58]

HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943)
Stylish fast-paced direction by the legendary Ernst Lubitsch, a witty screenplay and a terrific cast combine to make Heaven Can Wait the classic it deserves to be.
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This film has nothing to do with the 1978 Warren Beatty film, which is a remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan. This film opens with the recently deceased Henry Van Cleve arriving at the gates of Hell and explaining to Satan why he thinks he belongs there. The film then flashes back to turn of the century Manhattan where we meet Henry's family, a wealthy and tightly-knit family who spend a lot of time catering to the womanizing playboy Henry. Henry's self-proclaimed power over women seems to be confirmed when he steals his cousin's fiancee, Martha, right from under his nose. The film then provides an overview of Henry and Martha's 25-year marriage, which wasn't exactly roses and cotton candy.
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This delightful comedy is anchored by a rock solid screenplay by Samson Raphaelson, rich with adult humor that is well serviced by Lubitsch, who received an Oscar nomination for his work here. The idea of a man arriving at the gates of hell demanding entry is an intriguing one and even though we seriously doubt that this charming man belongs in hell. it's clear that he does and we can't wait to hear his side of the story. The opening scenes allegedly documenting Henry's power over women aren't really necessary but they are economical and don't get in the way of the primary delicious story.
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Lubitsch works wonders with what was clearly a hand-picked cast, all working at the top of their game. Don Ameche turns in a slick and charming performance as Henry, a devilish rake who remains completely lovable for the entire running time and he is perfectly complimented by the breathtaking Gene Tierney, whose lovely Martha proves to be more than the shrinking violet who initially enters the story. It's so much fun when Martha reveals that Henry is not as clever at hiding his scandalous side as he thought he was. Charles Coburn delivers his accustomed scene stealing turn as Henry's grandfather and Louis Calhern and Spring Byington were fun as Henry's parents. There are also a pair of scene-stealing performances from Marjorie Main and Eugene Pallette as Martha's parents, who actually have the movie's funniest scene, which deals with spoiler alerts and the funny papers.
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The film also features first rate production values, including Oscar-nominated cinematography, meticulous art direction/set direction and some really stunning costumes and was there anyone who adorned period costumes better than Gene Tierney? An absolute delight from start to finish that provided equal parts belly laughs and warm sentiment. 4

[Gideon58]

ZOOTOPIA
The Oscar Winner for Outstanding Animated Feature of 2016, Zootopia is a colorful and endlessly imaginative valentine to television and film police dramas that takes familiar movie themes from other genres but establishes its own credentials as an independent work by making all the characters animals working out of their natural place in the animal kingdom.
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This is the story of Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), a passionate young rabbit who wants to step out of the shadow of her farmer parents (voiced by Don Lake and Bonnie Hunt) and decides to leave the quiet little hamlet of her birth called Bunny Burrow and attend the police academy in the giant metropolis of Zootopia. Upon graduation, Judy excitedly reports for police duty but is dejected when she is assigned meter maid duties. She still decides to to be the best meter maid on the planet, but is eventually given the chance to solve a missing persons case with the aid of a slick hustling fox named Nick (Jason Bateman) but the case turns out to be so much more.
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Screenwriters Byron Howard and Rich Moore (Moore also provides the voice of Doug) have constructed the accustomed overly complex screenplay that we have come to expect from Disney. This screenplay is inspired by several television and movie dramas of the past but it is inspiration only as the characters here are all animals and the writers never forget that. As in a lot of Disney stories, this story does present animals who should be natural enemies, like the rabbit and the fox, and has them learning how to peacefully co-exist, but this story adds an additional layer to this through line for the characters by also exploring the difference between animals who are predators and ones who are prey, something never addressed in such a direct manner before to my knowledge, making for an intriguing underlying theme for the story. Have to give a special shout out to the scene in the DMV...just brilliant.
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I also love the care and originality put into establishing the central character of Judy Hopps...we first observe Judy in school participating in a school play where the major theme is that anyone can be anything they want to be. It's so obvious as we watch Judy's excitement in what she's doing on this stage, that this school play was her creation, she's not just an actor cast in a part, made all the more believable by the audience's half-hearted reception to the performance, a funny bit I didn't see coming. I also loved the viable chemistry that is generated between Judy and Nick...I'm always blown away when I feel actually chemistry between animated characters but it happens here big time.
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The look of this film is absolutely dazzling with some dizzying camerawork, if you can call it that. There are moments during Judy's train trip to Zootopia where I actually got a little dizzy and the city itself was breathtaking. Goodwin and Bateman are superb as our star-crossed animals and mention should also be made of Idris Elba as the police chief, JK Simmons as the Mayor, Nate Torrence as Clawhauser, and Jenny Slate as the Mayor's assistant. Despite an extra ending or two, this film was a joy that completely enveloped me. I don't admit it very often, but this is one Oscar the Academy got right. 4

[Gideon58]

LUCY
The 2014 spectacle Lucy is an intriguing premise that sadly gets buried behind a lot of cinematic smoke and mirrors that consistently challenge viewer attention span.
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The film stars Scarlett Johanssen as a young woman in Taiwan who inadvertently finds herself involved with some powerful drug dealers who force her to be a drug mule by placing the drugs in her stomach surgically, but the effects that this drug have on our heroine after she attempts to remove them are something she can't explain, rationalize, or escape from.
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Director screenwriter Luc Besson (The Fifth Element; The Professional) has taken an interesting idea for a movie and given us an overblown and over stylized story beyond the realm of true entertainment value and into the territory of muddled confusion and occasional boredom.
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Virgin cinematic territory is definitely approached here where the scientific fact that human beings only utilize ten percent of their brain capacity and what would happen if they used more than that is explored. Once the drug has been removed from Lucy's body, it is revealed that her brain is working at 20% capacity and that the growth has not stopped so she seeks help from a renowned scientist who specializes in the study of the brain (Morgan Freeman).
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This film alienates the viewer from jump by setting the story in Taiwan and forcing the viewer to deal with a lot of characters who don't speak English, which adds an appropriate tension to Lucy's story in some places, making her seem more alone in this, but most of the time, it was just an annoyance that added to the confusion of what was going on. The story offers connection to evolution and what is happening to Lucy that seem to slow down the story and though a connection is eventually provided, it just takes a little too long to get there. Johanssen presents an initially interesting character who eventually disappears in a cloud of fancy editing and visual effects. There's a lot of technical expertise involved in the execution of this story, sadly the story and its entertainment value are sacrificed in the process. 2

[Gideon58]

DAZED AND CONFUSED
Richard Linklater, the creative force behind the Oscar-winning Boyhood had already proved his ability to tell a compelling and entertaining story onscreen with a 1993 sleeper called Dazed and Confused a stylishly fun re-working of films like American Graffiti and Fast Times at Ridgemont High that stands on its own thanks to some smart writing and a charismatic young cast.
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The film opens on the last day of school at fictional Lee High School in 1976 and the multiple storylines are triggered by two separate events: the returning senior members of the football team have all been asked to sign a conduct contract for next year forbidding the use of alcohol and drugs and the idealistic quarterback is balking at signing such a contract. Also the big end of school party being thrown by one of the students is abruptly cancelled when the kid throwing the party gets busted because the beer kegs were delivered before his parents left for the weekend.
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These two separate events are the springboard for our introduction to all of the characters we would expect from such a story. As you can imagine, we meet the geeks and the stoners but the look at class separation is taken to an even more detailed way than in previous films. Films like this have often looked at the class separation between geeks and stoners, brainiacs and delinquents, but this story takes an incisive look at a separation that has rarely been explored before: the separation between freshmen and seniors. We meet a group of senior football players who are inexplicably hassling a young freshman equipped with squash paddles, but then the young freshman finds an unexpected opportunity to bond with the seniors, leaving his freshman buddies in the dust, a story move that takes this movie in a fresh and unforeseen direction. We even meet siblings dealing with the fact that they are beginning to be part of the same social circle.
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Director and screenwriter Linklater not only displays an uncanny instinct on teen angst in the 1970's (pretty sure some character in this movie is a version of Linklater), but an imaginative eye with the camera that adds a sophistication to the proceedings I really didn't see coming. Linklater must also be applauded for absolutely breathtaking attention to period detail...this is one period piece where everything that's going on in the film makes you feel the year that the beginning of the film announces. There was absolutely nothing 1993 about this film, which is such a rarity. Loved the drive-in marquee in one scene advertising the 1976 film Family Plot.
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Linklater has also employed an impressive ensemble cast that serve Linklater's vision and always remain in the framework of this often intricate story. Several actors are observed here early in their careers and some who took lesser roles sensing what a special project this was going to be. There is standout work here from Jason London as the quarterback, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Joey Lauren Adams, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp and future Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey, in a real star turn as the former Lee dropout who hasn't grown up, a contemporary rendering of Arthur Fonzarelli or John Milne. A richly entertaining comedy that never talks down to its audience and never fails to entertain. 3.5

[cricket]

Agree with you on the excellent Heaven Can Wait and Dazed and Confused, and also the mediocre Lucy.

[Citizen Rules]

I've been on the border line over watching Lucy or not? I thought Lucy was an alien who absorbed her sex partners? Is that a different movie?

Glad you liked Dazed and Confused I reviewed it and gave it the exact same rating.

[Gideon58]

I've been on the border line over watching Lucy or not? I thought Lucy was an alien who absorbed her sex partners? Is that a different movie?

Glad you liked Dazed and Confused I reviewed it and gave it the exact same rating.

No, that's not Lucy, but honestly, Citizen, if I were you, I wouldn't even bother with Lucy...as far as I'm concerned, 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

[Gideon58]

MARS ATTACKS!
The endlessly imaginative directorial eye of Tim Burton, superb production values, and an impressive all-star cast make the 1996 satire Mars Attacks! solid comic entertainment and one of Burton's most underrated films.
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In this affectionate salute to 1950's film classics like The Day the Earth Stood Still and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the United States finds itself under attack from Martians who insist that they come in peace, but are just yanking earth's chain and end up destroying anything in their path.
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The story is told through the eyes of a disparate group of characters and how they are affected by the attacks: Of course, we meet the President (Jack Nicholson), the First Lady (Glenn Close), and the First Daughter (Natalie Portman), who all have different views on the attack, not to mention the mixed messages the Prez is getting on handling the situation from the smarmy White House Press Secretary (Martin Short) and a gung-ho Army General (Rod Steiger). We also meet a former boxer (Jim Brown) working as a side show attraction in Vegas trying to get back to his ex (Pam Grier) and his sons; a greedy millionaire (also Nicholson) and his ditzy wife (Annette Bening), who is initially thrilled by the aliens' arrival, a noted scientist (Pierce Brosnan) and a talk show hostess (Sarah Jessica Parker); a pair of trailer trash brothers (Jack Black, Lukas Haas), oh, and Tom Jones.
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Burton really knocked it out of the park with this expensive and expertly mounted satire that tells a hysterically funny story that manifests itself on one very clever comic bit, the fact that the aliens keep saying that they're coming in peace and that they are totally lying. Burton manages to take this very premise and present it with the proper respect to the long gone films that he's saluting here. And I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but I was also impressed by the special effects employed here, which are partially state of the art and partially semi-cheesy looking, giving the film an authentic 1950's feel that was pretty hard to resist.
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With all the attention Burton gives to the production values, he still manages to get some solid performances from his cast, especially Nicholson, who beautifully underplays as the President, and Brown, who seems to be doing a lampoon of the films he did early in his career, but his stone-faced delivery was perfect for this kind of satire. Bening and Steiger also make the most of their screentime and a huge bouquet to the gifted Danny Elfman for his brilliant music. For fans of the director and of the genre being saluted here, this is a must. 3.5

[Gideon58]

THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Stylish and intense direction, a compelling, multi-layered story, and a terrific ensemble cast combine to make The Usual Suspects one of the best films of 1995.
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This story-within-a-story-within-a-story-within-a-story opens with us meeting Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) a disgraced ex-cop turned criminal on a ship dying from a gunshot wound whose death is sealed with a couple of more bullets from an unknown assailant. We then see the ship set on fire and explode. The story then flashes back to an unusual police lineup that includes Keaton, McManus (Stephen Baldwin), Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), Hockney (Kevin Pollak), and the enigmatic crippled Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) who allegedly have been brought in to be questioned regarding a truck hijacking, but we know this can't be the case since when a lineup is usually done, it's always done with the perp and strangers who have nothing to do with the case. We watch as this odd quintet of criminals are brought together for other work and then learn that everything they have gotten wrapped up in has been orchestrated by a criminal mastermind named Kayser Sose, who has a final assignment for them involving a 91 million dollar cocaine shipment out of which they may or may not come out alive.
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Director Bryan Singer, whose only other work I have seen is the sadly mediocre 2007 adventure Superman Returns proves that at one time he was an expert at mounting the complex Oscar winning screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie that definitely has a Tarantino influence to it (not surprising since Pulp Fiction had just changed the crime drama forever a year earlier) but remains an independent story that brilliantly lays out as three stories that eventually whittle down to one offering just enough red herrings to pique viewer curiosity and demand complete viewer attention that is rewarded.
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There is a scary underlying theme throughout this film regarding the power of this Kayser Sose...I found it a little stomach churning the number of people who were clearly under this guy's thumb who never met him. not to mention the terror he inflicted on his victims (a staggering body count is mounted here), one stool pigeon refers to his final encounter with him as "looking into the eyes of the devil." Once again, a character's impact is manifested through other characters' descriptions and limited backstory to maximum effect.
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Singer's ensemble cast delivers the goods, everyone serving the story as they should. Giancarlo Esposito, Dan Hedaya, and especially Chazz Palminteri are quite effective as the cops trying to get to the bottom of this ugly story and Byrne has rarely been better as Keaton. Also loved Del Toro's flashy turn as Fenster and needless to say Kevin Spacey's Oscar winning performance as Verbal Kint is a one-man acting class. Production values are first rate, with special nods to film editing, sound, production design, and John Ottman's evocative music. A once in a lifetime crime drama that is inspired by dramas of the past but definitely has a life of its own. 4

[iank]

I love Mars Attacks! ;)

[gbgoodies]

I liked your review of Dazed and Confused much more than the movie.

[Citizen Rules]

I love Mars Attacks! ;) Me too....what a fun and clever movie. They don't make em like that anymore:p

[Gideon58]

THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1963)
The recent passing of Jerry Lewis gave the 1963 comedy The Nutty Professor a bump up on my watchlist. There is a school of thought that this film is Jerry's masterpiece and somehow I never managed to fit it into my viewing schedule. The film does provide laughs, but frankly, I think Lewis has done better work.
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Lewis co-wrote and directed this comedy in which he plays Professor Julian Kelp. a nerdy and lonely college professor who is on the verge of losing his job after yet another explosion in his lab. Julian's loneliness and the unrequited crush he has on one of his students, one Stella Purdy (Stella Stevens) prompt him to concoct a potion that turns him into a womanizing stud named Buddy Love, who fascinates Stella and every other female on the campus, even though Buddy is an arrogant jerk.
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Unfortunately, Buddy Love's appearances are limited and Julian has no control over when he will return to his nerdy self and is not happy that Stella is fascinated with Buddy but won't give Julian the time of day. Julian takes advantage of his limited time as Buddy until it is suggested that Buddy perform at the prom and Julian be a chaperone, forcing Julian and Buddy to be at the same place at the same time.
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Lewis and co-screenwriter Bill Richmond do make some interesting choices that probably connect with the story's underlying theme that we should be happy with who we are and that even pretty people have problems. I thought it was an interesting story choice that Buddy is made to look like kind of a jerk and yet, Julian still seems to cherish his time as Buddy and works feverishly to have more control over his creation, even if he is kind of an ass. There's also a suspension of disbelief that is involved with this story that was kind of hard to get behind, specifically dealing with the character of Stella. Buddy doesn't look so completely different from Julian that some suspicion should have been aroused and it seems like Stella suspects what's going on in one scene and doesn't have a clue in the next, which made it kind of hard to invest in the story. There is another school of thought that the Buddy Love character is based on Dean Martin, but you be the judge.
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The film does allow Lewis to display his penchant for physical comedy and, more specifically, the physicality involved in creating these two characters, who really are radically opposite even if they do look alike. The detail Lewis puts into establishing the nervous Nelly that is Julian is impressive...watch him in the first scene where he is called into the Dean's office or the scene at the gym. There were few actors who challenged their bodies in their work as frequently as Jerry Lewis did.
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Stella Stevens is a vivacious leading lady and Del Moore was also very funny as the dean. but the film doesn't really provide the laughs that it should. Of course, Eddie Murphy re-thought this film in 1996, but it was interesting seeing the genesis of that film, which has some funny stuff, but I think Jerry has made funnier movies. 3

[Gideon58]

William Shakespeare's ROMEO + JULIET (1996)
Baz Luhrmann did his own flashy re-thinking of The Great Gatsby back in 2013, but long before that, he took on Shakespeare with his eye-popping interpretation of Romeo + Juliet, the ultimate story of star-crossed lovers that Luhrmann made palatable for the masses thanks to a contemporary setting, an impressive cast, and Luhrmann's accustomed cinematic razzle dazzle.
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Shakespeare's most famous work was brought to the screen three times prior to this version. Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard played the young lovers in 1936. Laurence Harvey and Susan Shentall inherited the roles in 1954 and in 1968, utilizing casting closest to Shakespeare's vision of the characters, Franco Zeffirelli cast 17 year old Leonard Whiting and 15 year old Olivia Hussey as the lovers. The story was also re-thought as a Broadway musical in 1955 called West Side Story, which came to the screen in 1961. Luhrmann scores casting Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, who appear age appropriate for the roles, as the young loves kept apart by the long standing feud between their families, not to mention that both have been promised to others, but from their first accidental meeting, it's love at first sight and these young people decide that nothing, not even their families, will keep them apart.
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Major cajones are required to put your own interpretation to Shakespeare, but lack of cajones has never been an issue with Baz Luhrman. What Luhrmann has done here with the aid of screenwriter Craig Pearce, is to retain Shakespeare's original dialogue but that's where all resemblance to previous versions of the story ends. Luhrmann has chosen to set the story in the present in Florida and immediately establishes the feud between the two families by opening the story with an intimidating shot of the city skyline with two tall skyscrapers in the center, one with the name "Montague" on it and the other with the name "Capulet", a very effective tool in letting the audience know that these two families are enemies and have been for a long time. Not to mention the bloody gun battle between the Capulet and Montague gangs that bring to mind the Jets and Sharks in West Side Story.
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The other thing that Luhrmann does is break down Shakespeare's dialogue, making it more accessible to contemporary audiences by making sure that his actors know exactly what's going on at all times, and what the actors don't give us is provided by Luhrmann's very busy camera...that does a surprisingly efficient job of making the audience understand anything that might be fuzzy in the dialogue. whether it is the way characters react to each other or the pacing of the individual scenes, almost to the point of comic relief...rarely have I seen such effective use of the fast motion camera, used to maximum effect during the preparations for the Capulet party and with Lady Capulet's frantic dealings with her daughter.
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With all the attention to visual trappings, Luhrmann still manages to get some compelling performances from his cast. DiCaprio and Danes make charismatic lovers who we care about from the first moment they lay eyes on each other from opposite sides of a fish tank (one of my favorite moments in the film, sensitively filmed). They receive solid support from Harold Perrineau as Mercutio, Miriam Margoyles as the Nurse, John Leguizamo as Tybalt, and Diane Venora steals every scene she's in as Lady Capulet. Since it's Baz Luhrmann we're talking about here, needless to say the production values are nothing short of superb. The film features often dizzying camera work, film editing, art direction, and, of course, costumes. If you've always been a little gun-shy about Shakespeare, you might want to give this version a try. 3.5

[Gideon58]

RUMBLE FISH
Stylish, imaginative direction and some charismatic performances are the primary attractions of an artsy entry from 1983 called Rumble Fish that has definitely been influenced by some classic films of the past but definitely stands on its own as an original piece of cinema to be pondered and ultimately applauded.
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Set during the late 1970's in a tight knit industrial town, this is the story of Rusty James (Matt Dillon), the unspoken leader of a small posse of thugs in town who laments the slow and methodic death of street gangs due to drugs but still has a loyal following who is reunited with his older brother known as the Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Roarke) who was a gangleader during its heyday and has recently returned to town after spending several years in California. The film slowly introduces these siblings who have been severely damaged by their alcoholic father (Dennis Hopper) and the mother who deserted them when they were toddlers, though they are in denial about it. It becomes clear that Rusty James worships his older brother and wants to be just like him and Motorcycle Boy is terrified that this might be exactly what is happening.
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Based on a novel by SE Hinton, who also wrote The Outsiders, this film, co-written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola was actually directed at the same time as The Outsiders with Matt Dillon again assuming leading man duties, but that's pretty much where the resemblance between this film and The Outsiders ends. The Outsiders is told in a straightforward realistic vein, but Coppola takes a much more stylized approach here, telling a story that is rich with unconventional symbolism and a stark blend of realistic drama and idealistic fantasy that seems appropriate for the angry teen angst drama that is presented here. The film almost seems to be an answer to The Outsiders, a film that dealt directly with street gangs as opposed to this film, which seems to deal with the death of same. Coppola uses some very effective tools to display this cultural shock and its effect on these brothers and those in their orbit...there is a repeated image of smoke everywhere throughout the film, seeming to symbolize the end of one lifestyle in preparation for another that these kids might not be really ready for.
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The story also presents some some really damaged characters who really aren't aware of how damaged they are, making them all the more interesting. I loved Steve (Vincent Spano) a friend of Rusty James who is conflicted with what being Rusty's friend involves and what he believes is right. Patty (Diane Lane, another Outsiders refugee) is the perennial good girl who is attracted to Rusty's soul but can't live with who the guy is on the outside. The Motorcycle Boy is consistently fascinating, established immediately as someone who once ruled the streets but wants nothing more than to escape that reputation though he's willing to utilize it to protect Rusty James at any cost. This character is what Tony in West Side Story should have been, one of several classic films that flashed through this reviewer's mind during this film, though there is nothing but loving and thoughtful influence and homage happening here. The film contains just enough sex, violence, and graphic language to attract contemporary audiences but it still manages to do nothing but serve the story and Coppola's vision.
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Dillon gives one of his strongest performances as Rusty James and Mickey Roarke beautifully underplays as his older brother. Few actors do alcoholic bums better than the late Dennis Hopper did and Lane was an attractive leading lady. Mention should also be made of William Smith as a sinister cop and Diana Scarwid as a heroine junkie who is obsessed with Motorcycle Boy. Coppola also found work for nephew Nicolas Cage and daughter Sofia here as one of Rusty's boys and Lane's kid sister, respectively. The film is shot in exquisite black and white and features some stylish cinematography, film editing, and sound. A big bouquet as well to The Police's Stewart Copeland for his moody and evocative music score. A winner. 4

[Citizen Rules]

I just finished reading your excellent review of Rumble Fish:up: I wasn't sure you'd like it, but it sounds like you did! Loved what you wrote about it. It's a film that would only get better with repeat viewings.

[Gideon58]

Another one I watched after reading your review Citizen...I loved it and I totally agree that it probably gets better with repeat viewings.

[Velvet]

CLUE
A perfect cast and the movie making skills of a gentleman named Jonathan Lynn combine to make the 1985 film comedy Clue a minor classic that has gained almost a cult following over the years.

If memory serves, the only film based on a Parker Brothers board game, Lynn has taken the characters and game pieces from this well-known game and fashioned a credible and hilarious live action murder mystery around them. It is a stormy New England night in 1954 at a gothic mansion where Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), Mr. Green (Michael McKean) and Miss Scarlett (Lesley Ann Warren) all receive invitations to the mansion for dinner and agree to appear, despite the fact they don't know who their host is, what the occasion is, or why the host makes them agree to use aliases instead of their real names.

The guests are greeted by the butler, Wadsworth (Tim Curry) who reveals that all of the guest are being blackmailed and that their blackmailer is their host for the evening. The guests are all given lovely gift wrapped boxes with the famous weapons from the game (gun, lead pipe, rope, knife, candlestick, wrench) and before you can say "Whodunnit", the blackmailer and two more people wind up dead and that is just the beginning of the insanity to come.

The lion's share of the credit for why this silliness works has to go to director Lynn and his co-screewriter John Landis, who have crafted a story that moves at breakneck speed and doesn't allow the viewer time to figure out exactly what is going on. They have also presented a story where, despite it being stupid with outrageous physical comedy, finds large portions of the story told through the eye of the camera...asides, furtive looks, telling nods, badly hidden facial reactions to secrets that are much more effective than 40 pages of dialogue.

During the film's original theatrical release, Lynn and company had the inspired idea to film three different endings for the movie and tack them on randomly to copies during distribution so that most people who saw people in theaters did not see the same ending, a gimmick which spiked ticket sales because people would go see it multiple times in order to see all three endings. With the advent of video, this gimmick is a distant memory as the DVD features all three endings shown back to back. The movie is still a comedic joy and thee is a real Mel Brooks influence to Lynn's work here. The performances are uniformly superb, with standout work from Brennan and Curry. Treat yourself to a cult classic that still holds up almost 30 years later. 3.5

A real treat to watch. Even when the comedy drags the energy makes it entertaining. Nice review!

[cricket]

I've been on the border line over watching Lucy or not? I thought Lucy was an alien who absorbed her sex partners? Is that a different movie?

That is Under the Skin which has a lot of fans here. I didn't care for it but I'm interested in seeing it again. It's not something that I would think to recommend to you.

[Citizen Rules]

That is Under the Skin which has a lot of fans here. I didn't care for it but I'm interested in seeing it again. It's not something that I would think to recommend to you.Thanks, now I remember reading about Under the Skin, and yeah I was iffy if I was going to watch it or not.

[Gideon58]

RULES DON'T APPLY
Hollywood legend Warren Beatty was the producer, director and co-writer of 2016's Rules Don't Apply, an overblown and rambling epic that attempts to provide biographical elements to a conventional love story but the final product never really gels.
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Back in 1993, Martin Scorsese gave us The Aviator, a solid biopic looking at the life and career of the enigmatic Howard Hughes. Rules Don't Apply appears to initially come off as a similar look at the billionaire from another angle, as the story eventually focuses on two people whose lives becomes intertwined because of separate connections to Hughes. Frank Forbes is a grounded young man who has been hired to be a driver for Hughes and Marla Mabrey is a former beauty queen who has been brought to Hollywood by Hughes for a screentest (along with 25 other young wannabe starlets). The story finds these two people having their lives completely manipulated by someone they have, at the beginning of the story, never met.
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Beatty is an Oscar winning producer, writer, and director who knows how to mount an epic (Reds), a love story (Heaven Can Wait), and a biopic (Bugsy) but really misses the boat here, primarily due to a screenplay by himself and Bo Goldman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) that vacillates between two different stories and only one of them really holds interest for the viewer. Even though it was done better in The Aviator, the look at Howard Hughes this film provides is its most entertaining aspect, thanks to a quietly brilliant performance by the star, even if his ego gets in the way a bit...Beatty's vanity shines through in this production, primarily in projecting his fear of aging. All of Beatty's scenes are poorly lit making it hard to see the actor's expressive face and making it difficult to invest in the really terrific performance he gives. The film opens with the world waiting for a phone call from Hughes, who has drifted into dementia and we wonder is the story going to really commit to the theory that Hughes was crazy. The answer to that would be a big yes and Beatty's performance is unapologetic and fascinating presenting a character whose mental faculties are fading, despite his complete denial about it. Though it was interesting that all the screentime that was devoted to Hughes being a germaphobe in The Aviator wasn't even addressed here.
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Where the film fails to connect is with what I believe is a fictionalized romance between young Frank and Marla. We all knew of Hughes' affairs with Katharine Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Jean Harlow, etc., what made Beatty think a story of Hughes mistreating a fictional character would be more interesting? It also smacked of cliche to make Marla this seriously religious virgin who doesn't drink or do anything bad, yet her life's ambition is to be a movie star? The character of Frank wasn't that interesting either. For some odd reason, this character is presented as being very religious too. He and Hughes meet for the first time and sit down to eat a burger and fries and Frank says a blessing before eating which gets an odd look from Hughes and I can't say I blame him.
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The Frank and Marla story doesn't get any help from the lifeless performances of Alden Ehrenreich and Lily Collins as Frank and Marla. Matthew Broderick and Martin Sheen are solid as Hughes staffers and veterans like Candice Bergen, Oliver Platt, Alec Baldwin, and Paul Sorvino are wasted in pointless cameos, though Mrs. Beatty, Annette Bening, does shine in her few opening scenes as Marla's mother. Serious Warren Beatty fans might want to give it a look, otherwise...watch The Aviator instead. 2

[Gideon58]

NIGHT SHIFT
Nearly forgotten from 1982, Night Shift was a rather cliched comedy that was one of Ron Howard's earliest directorial efforts and put a young actor named Michael Keaton on the map but really hasn't aged well.
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This is the story of Chuck (Henry Winkler), a milquetoast morgue attendant who has recently been switched to nights at work and been saddled with an obnoxious man/child named Bill (Keaton) as his new partner who gets the idea of them running a prostitution ring out of the morgue. The idea is born when a pimp is murdered and brought into the morgue and it is revealed that one of his girls, Belinda (Shelley Long) lives in Chuck's building.
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This film was pretty much the genesis of the Ron Howard/Brian Grazer/Lowell Ganz/Baboloo Mandel production company, who would later collaborate on films like Splash, Gung Ho, and The Grinch and this film definitely shows promise, but it also shows that these guys were still trying to find their footing as filmmakers. The screenplay by Ganz and Mandel is just a little too antiseptic considering the subject matter and employs every tired joke about prostitution ever used in a movie. A prostitution ring being run out of a morgue after the murder of a pimp? This film should have been a lot raunchier than it is, though as a novice director, I'm sure Howard had to make a lot of concessions to get this film made at all and it shows. I have never seen Times Square look so clean and shiny nor have I seen more prostitutes who look like Beverly Hills socialites.
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Howard does show some of his future directorial style and ability to create striking cinematic images...the slow motion shot of the kid making the basket while the pimp is being thrown out a window simultaneously about to go through the basket as well is seriously stylish and shows that this is a director to watch.
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Howard does show some skill where casting is concerned though...casting his Happy Days co-star in a role that is the polar opposite of Arthur Fonzarelli was inspired and totally works...Winkler quietly and effectively underplays the least showiest role in the story but never allows anyone to blow him off the screen either. Shelley Long is charming as Belinda, though I never really buy her as this hardened Manhattan hooker...her perfect hair, clothes, and diction just made it hard for me to take her seriously and the word "pimp" just sounded foreign coming out of her mouth. But what this movie really has going for it and makes it worth watching is the 100 mega-watt comic tour-de-force performance by Michael Keaton that provided the only consistent laughs here. Keaton is a one-man comedy class here and makes the rest of this comedy look like it works better than it really does.
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Howard has also packed this film with a plethora of once and future stars, including a very early appearance by Oscar winner Kevin Costner as a boy at a frat party, Vincent Schiavelli as a delivery boy, Richard Belzer as a murderous thug, and of his course, his little brother Clint. If you don't blink, you might even catch Howard's wife, Cheryl, in a brief cameo. With a little more realistic screenplay and some more on target casting, this could have been a minor classic, but Keaton alone makes it worth a look. 3

[Citizen Rules]

NIGHT SHIFT

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That looks interesting!

[Joel]

That looks interesting!

This is always a fun movie! Love the Shelley Long breakfast scene. What a nice little figure on her.

[Joel]

"Corrrrndawwwg!"

[Citizen Rules]

RULES DON'T APPLY
...Where the film fails to connect is with what I believe is a fictionalized romance between young Frank and Marla...It also smacked of cliche to make Marla this seriously religious virgin who doesn't drink or do anything bad, yet her life's ambition is to be a movie star?

The character of Frank wasn't that interesting either. For some odd reason, this character is presented as being very religious too. Totally agree with this, I was scratching my head trying to figure out why Frank and Marla were shown as super religious, it went no where, had nothing to do with the story and seemed like a afterthought by Warren Beatty.

The Frank and Marla story doesn't get any help from the lifeless performances of Alden Ehrenreich and Lily Collins as Frank and Marla. Matthew Broderick and Martin Sheen are solid as Hughes staffers.That's how I seen it two, especially Broderick stood out as memorable.

[gbgoodies]

NIGHT SHIFT

3


I love Night Shift. It's one of my favorite Michael Keaton movies.

[Gideon58]

THE FIRM
The Firm is a slick and expensive suspense thriller from 1993 that might play some of its cards a little too quickly, but it's a pretty entertaining ride for the most part thanks to razor sharp direction and a superb cast.
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Tom Cruise stars as Mitch McDeere, a wide-eyed recent Harvard Law School graduate who is married to a beautiful school teacher named Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn) who is being courted by some of the country's top law firms but is made an offer he can't refuse from a firm in Memphis called Bendini, Lambert, & Locke who want Mitch so badly that they offer him a job before he has even passed the bar. Abby senses that the lavish life being thrown at them by this firm is a little too good to be true, but Mitch tries to look the other way at her concerns but it is soon revealed that this firm has a dark side...apparently a handful of attorneys who tried to leave the firm are now dead and Mitch's discovery of the truth might be putting him and Abby in danger as well.
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The film is based on a novel by John Grisham, the king of legal thrillers and has been crafted into a wordy but intelligent screenplay by David Rabe, David Rayfiel, and Oscar winner Robert Towne that does provide a spark of originality in that the alleged evil bubbling under the surface here is first hinted at through the protagonist's wife. We are provided subtle clues that something is not right here when Abby is informed that the firm doesn't "forbid" her from working and encourages her to start a family right away. Customarily, it is the wife who is left in the dark in stories like this, but not here. I loved the fact that Abby senses the wrong long before her husband does.
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My only problem with the story is that we are only at the halfway point of the film when we become privy to exactly what is going on and find Mitch has been put in an impossible position of loyalty to his shady employers. who are so greasy your hands would slide off of them and the feds who are also forcing Mitch's hand in bringing them down. What Mitch has to do at this point isn't much of a stretch, but we still have over 90 minutes of screen time that makes the journey to a pat conclusion a little labored.
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What the film does have going for it is crisp and stylish direction by Sidney Pollack that almost allows the viewer to forgive some dangling plot points, not to mention the brilliant cast Pollack has assembled to serve this complex but compelling story. Cruise is solid and Tripplehorn brings a strength and intelligence to Abby we really don't see coming. The brilliant supporting cast is led by Gene Hackman, robbed of an Oscar nomination for his dazzling turn as Avery Tolar, Mitch's mentor at the firm whose agenda seems to change from scene to scene. Hal Holbrook, Ed Harris, David Straithairn, Jerry Hardin, Wilford Brimley, Gary Busey, and Steven Hill provide solid support as well. The film received two Oscar nominations, one for Holly Hunter's scene-stealing performance as a not-as-dumb-as-she-appears secretary and for Dave Grusin's jazzy piano score. It goes on a little longer than it should, but it's glossy and suspenseful fun most of the way. 3.5

[gbgoodies]

I'm not a fan of Tom Cruise, so I haven't seen The Firm, but your review makes it sound like it's worth seeing, so I added it to my watchlist.

[Gideon58]

I'm not a fan of Tom Cruise, so I haven't seen The Firm, but your review makes it sound like it's worth seeing, so I added it to my watchlist.

If you're not a Cruise fan, you should watch it if you're a Hackman man...it's one of his best performances.

[Joel]

Looks like we share the same thoughts on The Firm. Saved me a review.

[Gideon58]

THE WOMAN IN RED
The recent passing of Joseph Bologna gave the 1984 comedy The Woman in Red a bump up on my watchlist. It's an economic little comedy that explores familiar themes and takes a little too long to provide the expected payoff, but the solid cast makes it worth a look.
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The late Gene Wilder wrote and directed this comedy in which he plays Teddy Pierce, a San Francisco advertising executive who is married with two kids and puts his entire life at risk after he glimpses a beautiful woman in a red dress (Kelly Le Brock) in the parking garage of the building where he works. It turns out the woman is a model applying for a job at Teddy's agency and he becomes completely obsessed with her, forsaking everything else in his life, despite watching what's happened to his BFF Joey (Bologna), a married womanizer whose wife has just walked out on him and took every stitch of furniture in the apartment.
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Throw into the mix a Plain Jane secretary at Teddy's office (the late Gilda Radner) who mistakenly thinks Teddy's obsession is with her and when he allegedly stands her up for a date she thinks he made with her, the Alex Forrest in her comes out, complicating Teddy's life even further.
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Anyone who has seen the 1979 Blake Edwards comedy "10" will recognize the themes explored here...a middle-aged man with a terrific life getting ready to throw it away for a brief infatuation and if Wilder's story had adhered strictly to this theme, this might have been an incredible movie, thanks to Wilder's commanding comic presence. Unfortunately, Wilder's screenplay isn't as strong as his direction, a story that goes in several unexpected directions with scenes that have nothing to do with the story at hand and are just distracting. There's a really funny scene with Teddy's other BFF Buddy (Charles Grodin) where he's pretending to be blind and causing a ruckus in a restaurant. The scene was really funny, but I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what the scene had to do with the rest of the movie.
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The other problem with this story is that it works very hard at making Teddy Pierce sympathetic when he really shouldn't be. We do snicker when he gives a doctor friend elaborate instructions on a phone call to make to his house about a fake emergency at work or when he plans a romantic evening with his wife right before he plans to spend the weekend out of town with his fantasy girl. Wilder the writer protects Wilder the star even when Teddy should be busted and seems to be letting him get away with all his wrong until a finale that really does provide the payoff we want, even if it's not in the way we expect.
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Needless to say, Wilder's performance is simultaneously vibrantly funny and deliciously human and he receives terrific support from Bologna, Grodin, and Judith Ivey is lovely as his very tolerant wife, whose brain is removed for a couple of scenes. Gilda Radner is also brilliant in a performance that garners more laughs in her scenes without a word of dialogue. Mention should also be made of a terrific song score by Stevie Wonder and Dionne Warwrick, including Wonder's # 1 smash "I Just Called to Say I Love You". And of course it goes without saying that Le Brock's salute to Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch is seriously sexy. Despite a script that does a little too much meandering, Wilder does provide some solid laughs here. 3

[cricket]

Night Shift and Woman in Red are both movies that I was a little disappointed in. Haven't seen them since the 80's though. My wife is a big fan of The Firm. I was skunkfaced and would need to see it again.

[Gideon58]

Night Shift and Woman in Red are both movies that I was a little disappointed in. Haven't seen them since the 80's though. My wife is a big fan of The Firm. I was skunkfaced and would need to see it again.

I was a little disappointed with The Woman in Red too...with that cast, I thought that movie would be a LOT funnier than it was.

[Gideon58]

BEETLEJUICE
The often jaundiced directorial eye of Tim Burton was in serious overdrive with 1988's Beetlejuice, a dazzling black comedy that Burton knocks out of the park thanks to a clever screenplay, some terrific performances and some cracker-jack special effects.
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Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis) are a happily married couple living in a Connecticut suburb who are killed in a tragic accident. They are seen returning to their home, unaware that they are deceased, but can no longer deny what has happened to them when a snooty couple from Manhattan (Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O'Hara) purchase the house and move into it with their black-hearted daughter (Winona Ryder). Adam and Barbara fight to keep their house with some of their newly acquired skills that have been afforded through death, but don't really know how to use them properly. Eventually, the Maitlands have to turn to a "bio-exorcist" named Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) for help in getting these people out of their house. Betelgeuse apparently lives in the model of the town where the Maitlands live which is in their attic and which is where the Maitlands hide once the new occupants move into the house.
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The Matilands find a surprising ally in their mission to get their house back because even though no one else seems to be able to see or hear Adam and Barbara, the black-hearted daughter can. Since she can't stand her parents and hated moving away from New York, she decides to help Adam and Barbara get their house back.
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More than anything else, this film is a triumph for Tim Burton, effortlessly displaying the skill it takes to bring together all the elements of a film and have them gel into a piece of entertainment that is nothing short of magical. Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren's screenplay is peppered with stinging dialogue and rich with a variety of characters who effectively cover a dramatic landscape that fascinates from jump...from the lovable and sympathetic Maitlands, to the off-kilter Dietz family trying to take away their home, the outrageous creatures that populate Burton's cinematic purgatory, and, of course, the appropriately over the top title character.
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The director and the screenwriters also take their time in letting this sometimes hard-to-swallow story unfold...the opening scenes of Adam and Barbara quietly enjoying a week off from work at home are so sweet and when we see them shooing off a pushy real estate agent (Annie McEnroe) who is pressuring them to sell their house, it is only a vague hint as to the madness we are about to be witness.
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Despite the logistical nightmare portions of this film must have been, Burton never neglects his cast, whose work here is perfection. The chemistry between Baldwin and Davis is lovely and has us rooting for them from jump. Jeffrey Jones and the brilliant Catherine O'Hara garner huge laughs as the socially ambitious Dietzes and Winona Ryder has rarely been more endearing onscreen as Lydia. And somehow, Michael Keaton's dazzling turn as Betelgeuse produces monster laughs, but never overpowers anyone else in the story either...I actually could have seen a supporting actor nomination for Keaton here, it's a one man comedy class that is tireless without ever being tiring.
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A story like this could never have been pulled off without a crack technical team and Burton's attention to the look of his story is meticulous, as always. The film features Oscar-worthy art direction/set direction, cinematography, and especially visual effects. The film did win an Oscar for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup and, as always, Danny Elfman's music is flawless. I still say Ed Wood is Tim Burton's masterpiece, but this is definitely #2. 4

[Citizen Rules]

I've never seen Beetlejuice. One of these days, I'll catch it. It looks like you liked it, good enough for me!

[Gideon58]

THE VON TRAPP FAMILY: A LIFE OF MUSIC
For those like myself who grew up on the 1965 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, the 2015 drama The von Trapp Family: A Life of Music might be a bit of a culture shock, but it's a compelling journey despite an eventual lapse into soapy melodrama.
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I had heard for years that the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical was not big on the facts and, if the truth be told, never really cared that much about the facts. I'm not even sure how factual this movie is, but I will admit that it felt a lot more authentic than the musical for myriad reasons.
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This story begins long before the musical did, just before the death of Captain von Trapp's wife and the mother of his children. The eldest daughter, Agatha (who became Leisl in the musical) became the family caretaker and seemed to relish the position and was not happy when her father hires a young governess named Maria, who he eventually falls in love with, marries, and has another child with.
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This story rings true because the acceptance of Maria into the lives of these children, especially Agatha, is not immediate and they are not as thrilled with the news of their father remarrying as they were in the musical. The screenplay by Chris Silber and Tim Sullivan takes the focus of this story off the romance between the Captain and Maria and focuses it on the Captain's relationship with Agatha, which is very complex...it's sad watching the Captain's remarriage almost completely destroy his very special relationship with Agatha, and even though we're not initially feeling what is happening here because it's not what happened between Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, it definitely feels more authentic and realistic... the tensions behind becoming a step parent and accepting one.
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One thing this film does have in common with the musical is its approach to Hitler and WWII and how it permanently altered the lives of the von Trapps forever. Surprisingly, this is where this film seems to become very melodramatic...the writing becomes pretentious and the camerawork becomes simplistic, spoonfeeding the audience on who the good guys are and who the Nazis are, but until then it's a riveting journey and the hook of the film unfolding in flashback, being told by Agatha to her granddaughter, who is running away because of her wicked stepmother, totally works.
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The film also rivals The Sound of Music in the area of production values...the cinematography, set directions, and costumes are nothing short of exquisite. The performances serve the story beautifully, with standout work from Eliza Bennett as Agatha, Yvonne Catterfeld as Maria and an absolutely dazzling performance from Matthew MacFayden as Captain von Trapp. And the legendary Rosemary Harris shines as contemporary Agatha and our narrator for the story. Despite an eventual slip into soap opera territory, the film is an often moving look at a story we thought we knew. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

Glad you could watch THE VON TRAPP FAMILY: A LIFE OF MUSIC. I thought it made a great companion piece for fans of The Sound of Music and so enhanced the pleasure of watching the musical.

[gbgoodies]

I've never seen Beetlejuice. One of these days, I'll catch it. It looks like you liked it, good enough for me!


You should definitely see Beetlejuice. It's a fun movie, and one of Michael Keaton's best performances.

[TheUsualSuspect]

Tacitus Gideon's Beetlejucie review has a ZERO popcorn rating under the reviews section, despite him giving it a 4

[Gideon58]

Tacitus Gideon's Beetlejucie review has a ZERO popcorn rating under the reviews section, despite him giving it a 4

I mis-typed the rating the when I wrote the review, I have since corrected it.

[Gideon58]

THE INVENTION OF LYING
Ricky Gervais is a funny guy, to which anyone who has seen him host the Golden Globes can attest, but he really misses the boat with a 2009 comic fantasy he co-wrote and co-directed called The Invention of Lying that starts off promisingly but just doesn't work due to a problematic premise not properly established and some disturbing mixed messages the story sends.
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This story is allegedly set in a world that has been created in Gervais' mind that really doesn't exist. Gervais' opening narration informs us that this story takes place in a world where everyone tells the truth and there is no such thing as a lie. It's sort of like the premise of White Man's Burden where we are told that black men are the superior race and whites are the victims of bigotry and racism. Gervais' Mark Bellinger is an unemployed screenwriter whose life is systematically going down the toilet and he tells the world's first lie ever in order to avoid him getting evicted from his apartment. Mark continues to use the concept of lying to improve his life, even to the point where he becomes a contemporary messiah who is the only person on the planet with the real dirt on the existence of God.
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Gervais and co-director/co screenwriter Matthew Robinson have the germ of a really good idea here, but it's not properly developed. Maybe the power of lying would have had a little more legitimacy if Gervais had taken a little more time to show us what a world is like where everyone tells the truth. We do see some amusing skirting of accustomed small talk and some insensitive insulting that on the surface is funny, but it seems that a world where no one ever tells a lie would be a lot different than the one we live in and we never get that feeling here. Not to mention the fact that when Mark tells his first lie, it's a lie that really shouldn't have worked to his advantage the way it did here, making it hard to invest in the rest of the story.
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And the rest of the story is no prize either as Gervais and Robinson are asking us to sit back and blithely accept quite a bit here. I had difficulty watching this unemployed writer become rich and famous through this new skill called lying. On the other hand, there is a contradictory theme in the story that no matter how many lies you tell and no matter how powerful they make you, that power is meaningless if you're ugly, which seems to be more of a personal jab Gervais might be making at Hollywood's treatment of him rather than a pure idea for this troublesome film.
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On the positive side, Gervais has managed to assemble an impressive cast to help pull off this highly improbable story. Jennifer Garner is an appealing leading lady and seems to understand what Gervais is trying to do here. The rest of the "Spot the star" cast includes Tina Fey, Jeffrey Tambor, Jason Bateman, Edward Norton, Rob Lowe, Louis CK, Jonah Hill, Christopher Guest, and the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, but it's all for naught since from the moment the first lie in the story is told, the selected laughs up to that point sadly diminish. Gervais fans should just go to You Tube and watch reruns of the Golden Globes. 2

[Gideon58]

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
The MGM gloss at its zenith, Vincente Minnelli's sparkling direction, the incomparable George Gershwin music, and the magic that is Gene Kelly are the primary reasons An American in Paris, a lavish and deliciously entertaining spectacle became an instant classic and won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1951.
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Strip away all the elaborate window dressing and what you have here is a typical MGM musical at its core. Gene Kelly plays Jerry Mulligan, a penniless American painter who decided to remain in Paris after the war who is not having much success as a painter, evidenced by the cramped one room he lives in. Things begin to look up when a wealthy art patroness named Milo Roberts (Nina Foch) is attracted to Jerry's work (and Jerry as well) and wants to sponsor Jerry's work, even though Jerry is not keen on being a kept man. Jerry's fear of being under Milo's thumb is further complicated by his attraction to a pretty shopgirl named Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron), who is involved with a nightclub entertainer named Henri (Georges Gueteray) who has been offered a job in America and wants Lise to marry him and relocate with him.
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Needless to say, because this is an MGM musical, the plot is so not the thing. Alan Jay Lerner's screenplay does have a surprisingly adult sensibility that neither Minnelli nor his cast shy away from. One thing that attracted me to this very special musical is that its inspiration from work of the past and how it clearly inspired work of the future. The incredible ballet (brilliantly choreographed by Kelly) definitely owes something to Agnes De Mille's dream ballet in Oklahoma!. Kelly's pas de deux with Caron to "Our Love is here to Stay" was definitely inspiration for Astaire and Charisse's "Dancing in the Dark" in The Band Wagon and Caron's introductory ballet to the tune of "Embraceable You" was clearly inspired by Vera-Ellen's "Miss Turnstiles" dance in On the Town. Patricia Neal's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's and Eleanor Parker's in The Sound of Music reminded me a lot of Nina Foch's fabulous Milo.
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Other musical highlights include Kelly's I've Got Rhythm where he charms a bunch of kids; Oscar Levant's dream sequence where he plays every member of the orchestra and Gueteray's "Ill Build a Stairway to Paradise", a number I never tire of due mostly to Gueteray's gorgeous tenor that's just irresistible. I also liked the idea of "'S Wonderful "S Marvelous" re-thought as a duet for Kelly and Gueteray. Gershwin's flawless music doesn't need a lot of "help" and thank God, Minnelli and company realized that.
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Gene Kelly has never been more sexy and charismatic onscreen and that includes Singin in the Rain. Leslie Caron enchants in an impressive film debut as Lise...yes, her inexperience as an actress is obvious, but when she puts on those pointe shoes and does an arabesque, you really don't care. Oscar Levant's deadpan delivery is perfection and Foch is a revelation with her stylish Milo Roberts. The film won six Oscars, including Best Picture and as good as I thought this movie was, was it really better than A Streetcar Named Desire or A Place in the Sun? I have no issues with the other five Oscars it won and for lovers of musicals, this is a dream. 4

[Joel]

Night Shift and Woman in Red are both movies that I was a little disappointed in. Haven't seen them since the 80's though. My wife is a big fan of The Firm. I was skunkfaced and would need to see it again.

I'm just glad that there's a couple people on this forum who would even speak of these movies.

[Gideon58]

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
The Granddaddy of all romantic comedies is the 1934 classic It Happened one Night, a sparkling adult comedy that not only inspired a lot of future cinema but was the first film to win all five top honors at the 1935 Oscar ceremony, including Best Picture.
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Claudette Colbert plays Ellie Andrews, a spoiled, rich heiress who is being kept prisoner on her father's yacht until he can arranger an annulment of her recent marriage. Ellie manages to escape the yacht and get a train ticket to New York. It is on said train that Ellie meets Pete (Clark Gable), a recently fired newspaper reporter who, upon learning who Ellie really is, thinks there might be a story that could get him his job back.
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Robert Riskin's screenplay is based on a short story by Samuel Hopkins Adams that is first rate comic adventure, beautifully brought to the screen in a series of very funny vignettes that do not confine all the action to the train and putting our two protagonists in a lot of sticky situations that force these two virtual strangers to trust each other and eventually bond. The story also keeps us wondering if Peter is going to sacrifice Ellie to the wolves in order to get his job back before he falls in love with her.
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Of course, the real joy in this story is watching these two people who have absolutely nothing in common with each other, wonder how they are ever going to get along, let alone fall in love. It was so much fun watching Peter educate Ellie on various life lessons and survival techniques to which the self-absorbed Ellie was oblivious. I love when Peter teaches Ellie the proper way to dunk a doughnut, but they were a well-oiled machine when a detective sent by Ellie's father confronts them and they pretend to be a long married couple screaming at each other. It did seem odd that Ellie's father would send a detective to find his daughter and not give the guy a photo of her, but I let that slide.
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In addition to its Oscar night blitz, this film made history with a couple of highlights. The "Wall Of Jericho" scene in which Peter throws up a blanket between his and Ellie's bed has been repeated and lampooned in dozens of movies and television shows...I love when he's sitting on his side of the blanket and quietly singing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?". And in the very same scene, female moviegoers went wild when Clark Gable removed his shirt to reveal a bare chest...apparently actors had always worn T-shirts before this scene and Gable properly underplays the moment to the point that now it seems silly. Oh, and let's not forget that great hitchhking scene.
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Frank Capra's energetic direction is a big plus and won him the Oscar for Best Director. Gable won the Oscar for Best Actor, Colbert for Best Actress, and Robert Riskin for his screenplay. It's so odd to me that Gable won the Oscar for this but lost for playing Rhett Butler, but I digress. A delicious cinema classic that, despite some dated elements, holds up pretty well. The film was remade during the 1950's once as a musical called Eve Knew Her Apples and a straight comedy called You Can't Run Away From It with June Allyson, but I say stick to the original. 3.5

[Ms. M]

I really like your reviews, @Gideon.

[Citizen Rules]

Lovely review Gideon. I like the background info that you include, it makes for a good read. I believe that was your first Claudette Colbert film?

[Gideon58]

Lovely review Gideon. I like the background info that you include, it makes for a good read. I believe that was your first Claudette Colbert film?

L:ike I said before, I saw the TV movie The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, but this was my first Colbert classic, yes.

[Ms. M]

Lovely review Gideon. I like the background info that you include, it makes for a good read. I believe that was your first Claudette Colbert film?
👍

[Citizen Rules]

Midnight (1939) is a must see. It's a deeper role for her and I think you'll really like it.

[Gideon58]

My first impulse was to watch Midnight but had a little difficulty finding it, but it's definitely next if I can I find it.

[Gideon58]

THE PALEFACE
A pair of terrific lead performances are the primary highlight of 1948's The Paleface, a hilarious send-up of Hollywood westerns that provides solid laughs without ever letting the viewer forget that it's a movie.
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This movie provides another fictionalized look at Wild West legend Calamity Jane played strictly for laughs. In this story, Jane Russell plays Jane who has been commissioned by government agents to find out who's been smuggling guns and dynamite to the Indians and, as part of her cover, marries a cowardly dentist named "Painless" Peter Potter, who breaks out in hives at the mention of Indians.
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The story really kicks into high gear when Dr. & Mrs. Potter join a wagon train that is attacked by Indians and Painless is observed taking out all the enemies, even though it is actually Jane who is doing all the shooting. The ruse aids Jane in completing her mission but gets Painless in trouble when he starts to believe his own press about being the best gunfighter in the west.
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Edmund L. Hartmann's screenplay provides a story played for laughs that requires a little suspension of disbelief here and there, but because Bob Hope is involved, we really don't mind doing that. The other thing I love about the story is that Calamity is the smartest character in the movie, but never broadcasts it, just uses it to her advantage. I found it amusing that this character didn't spend five minutes of screen time with a smile on her face but still managed to provide major laughs, not to mention her uncanny ability to keep a straight face with a master of physical comedy like Hope, who got a lot of laughs in this movie without uttering a word.
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Don't get me wrong, there are definitely scenes that garnered big laughs where dialogue was involved and may have even inspired future comedy. A scene with Hope and an Indian who has been introduced to his laughing gas for the first time reminded me of Peter Boyle and Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein. Another comic highlight was Hope preparing for a major gunfight and getting several different pieces of advice on how to handle his opponent and not being able to keep all the advice straight in his head. The movie even breaks the 4th wall, a rarity for a film of this period. For a 1940's comedy, there was a lot to laugh out loud at here.
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The film features a couple of songs by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, one called "Meetcha Round the Corner" and another called "Buttons and Bows" that won the Oscar for Best Song of 1948. Hope and Russell are terrific and their work alone makes this minor comedy classic worth checking out. The film was remade in 1968 as The Shakiest Gun in the West with Don Knotts and Barbara Rhoades taking over for Hope and Russell but I seriously doubt it's as funny as this. 3.5

[Gideon58]

THE V.I.P.S
If you're into a slick melodrama with an impressive all-star cast and a generous portion of soap suds as part of the story, you might want to give the 1963 film The V.I.P.s a look. A film that features Hollywood's most popular acting team at the time, unfortunately they don't have enough time onscreen together.
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The film opens at the London Airport where we meet a group of people waiting to board a flight from London to New York. International business tycoon Paul Andros is seeing his wife, Frances off on the flight where they run into mutual friend Marc Champselle, a gambler/playboy/gigolo. Frances is planning to leave Paul and start a new life in Manhattan with Marc. Frances has left a note for Paul at home explaining everything that he will see after a business meeting but Frances and Marc plan to be in New York by the time he reads the note.
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Max Buda is a famous film director who is fleeing London with his mistress, actress Gloria Gritti, in order to avoid some tax trouble. Les Angrum is an Australian businessman who is trying to get to New York to keep his company from being gobbled up by a larger one with the aid of his devoted secretary, Miss Mead. The Duchess of Brighton is also traveling to New York to get a connecting flight to Florida where she has accepted a job to try and save her elaborate home that she is about to lose. But then the plane gets delayed and eventually grounded by fog, altering all the stories we've been introduced to.
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Needless to say that the story of Paul and Frances Andros is the primary one here and TPTB did right by casting Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in these roles; however, Hollywood's most famous acting pair spend way too much time apart during this film's running time. Taylor spends the majority of her screen time with Louis Jourdan, who is appropriate as Champselle, but it goes without saying that he never creates the chemistry with Taylor that Burton does, but the part of this story that works is Taylor's character, who is literally in love with both of these men and truly torn, a classic movie triangle in the truest sense that makes the movie worth investing in despite the lack of sparks between Taylor and Jourdan.
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The film does have a few other virtues, including a deliciously hammy turn from Orson Welles as the eccentric filmmaker who underestimates his mistress and Margaret Rutherford actually won the 1963 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her down to earth and down on her luck Duchess who is getting addicted to pep pills. However, if the truth be known, this movie is effortlessly stolen by the divine Maggie Smith as the proper Miss Mead, putting her obvious love for her boss (Rod Taylor) on the back burner long enough to save his business, which is part of the way the final act actually connects what seemed like separate storylines up to that point.
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The film features superb set direction and Miklos Rozsa's lush music score is glorious, but I still would have liked a little more of Taylor and Burton together onscreen. 3

[Citizen Rules]

Was that your first time watching THE V.I.P.S?

I've seen it once before and liked it for the reasons you said: that it's a slick melodrama about the interwoven lives of a group of people at the airport. They don't really make movies with this kind of low key personal feel anymore do they?

A side note....funny thing is that I forgot Orson Welles was in it until I read your review...And he was the reason I watched it in the first place! Well, it has been at least several years if not more since I saw the movie.

[Gideon58]

You said the same thing about The Long Hot Summer, that you had forgotten Orson Welles was in it until you read my review, LOL!

[Gideon58]

SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU
As I've discussed in prior reviews, proper mounting of a docudrama is a tricky thing because the filmmaker and the audience are looking for an accurate representation of the facts and want the film to be entertaining. On the other hand, the recent trend with biopics has been to concentrate on a particular period in the subject's life, instead of a birth to death chronicle. The 2016 docudrama Southside to You takes this to a new extreme concentrating on one day...this film recounts the first date between a couple who have had more than share of the spotlight the last decade or so...Barack and Michelle Obama.
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It's the summer of 1989 and we are introduced to the very proper and serious Michelle Robinson, employed at an important Chicago law firm while living with her parents in order to care for her MS-stricken father. Barack is working at the same firm and we are informed that Michelle is his "advisor" (whatever that means) and that they are getting together to go to a business meeting away from the office. Michelle announces to her parents at least half a dozen times that "This is not a date" even though she is observed putting meticulous care into making sure she looks like she's going on a date.
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After Barack picks Michelle up, we watch her steam when she learns that the meeting is later and that he told her it was earlier so that they could engage socially, which she considers completely inappropriate and the rest of the story consists of Barack working very hard to get Michelle to stop fighting her attraction to him.
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I must applaud director and screenwriter Richard Tanne for the very original idea of having this story focus around the couple's first date. However, for a movie that takes place in one day, this movie's pacing is a little lethargic. When presenting a story where we already know the outcome, the film has to move in order to sustain viewer interest and this one really takes its time getting started.
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The other troubling aspect of this film was its presentation of the character of Michelle Robinson. Michelle comes off as extremely unlikable, a cold and detached ice queen, constantly on the defensive about the cards life has dealt her as a black woman trying to survive in a white man's world This was startling to me because the real Michelle never came off to me as being like this, but there's no saying that this isn't the way Michelle was at the time of her first date with Barack. On the other side, Barack is portrayed almost exactly like the man I saw in the White House for eight years, even though I think this story works a little too hard at presenting Barack as this "regular guy." He is observed smoking in just about every scene and drives a broken down economy car that actually has a hole in the floor of the vehicle. OK, Barack came from humble beginnings, we get it, no need to pound it into our heads every scene.
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Like the ending of the 2016 Best Picture winner Moonlight, the final ten minutes of this movie where Barack finally melts Michelle's icy exterior are lovely, but getting to that last ten minutes is a lot of work, though the scene of Barack giving a speech at a church trying to get a new community center built did get my heart pumping and reminded me of why this guy became President. Tika Sumpter gives a crisp performance as Michelle, fighting the screenplay all the way and Parker Sawyers lights up the screen as young Barack. This movie was a lovely idea, but lost a little something in the execution. 3.

[cricket]

I was surprised how much I enjoyed The Paleface. It was really funny.

[Gideon58]

PLAY IT TO THE BONE
The creative force behind Bull Durham and White Men Can't Jump really missed the boat with 1999's Play it to the Bone, an overlong and rambling boxing story/buddy picture that really can't decide what kind of movie it wants to be and takes WAY too long to do so.
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Vince Boudreau (Woody Harrelson) and Cesar Dominguez (Antonio Banderas) are a pair of second rate welterweights and best friends who are given the chance to be the undercard at a Mike Tyson main event in Vegas by fighting each other and being paid $50,000 a piece for their services. They decide to drive to Vegas accompanied by Grace (Lolita Davidovich), who used to be with Vince but is now with Cesar, though she is about to break up with him as well. Throw in a trampy good time girl named Lia (Lucy Liu) and some greasy fight promoters and you have the ingredients for what could have been an intriguing story.
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Ron Shelton is a proven commodity behind the camera but I think he just got a little full of himself here. His screenplay is all over the place, presenting what is initially a buddy picture about two boxers but we know we're in trouble when we get this detailed backstory flashbacks that document how Vince and Cesar's careers took such dramatic falls, but the stories have nothing to do with how Vince and Cesar met, which is what we're expecting from the buddy movie that is being initially established. The screenplay takes a couple of odd detours when we learn that Vince has recently discovered Christianity and keeps having hallucinations of Jesus and that Cesar briefly experimented with homosexuality.
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Then we have the character of Grace who is no prize either. She spends most of the screen time lying to Vince and Cesar by telling them the same thing just because she knows this is what they need to hear. The whole "two guys who love the same girl who demand to know which is better in bed" is just so played out and nothing new is brought to the table. I was totally through with Grace when she ran out of the big match because she couldn't watch anymore and ran into a bar to watch it on TV and then started screaming at the TV to stop the fight and ran right back to the fight.
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Honestly, the fight between Vince and Cesar was watchable, if a tad on the melodramatic side, but it was a worthy climax to this story, but it just took way too long to get there. The greasy money men behind the movie were also unappealing and could have been a separate movie, but they just made this journey even more tedious than it already was. Harrelson is always watchable and Banderas seems miscast but works very hard to be believable. Davidovich makes the most of a very unlikable character and Liu was fun and sexy, as usual, in her virtual cameo. The film is rich with cameo appearances from people like Wesley Snipes, James Wood, Tony Curtis, Jennifer Tilly, and, of course, Kevin Costner, but it's all pointless and goes on forever. 2

[Gideon58]

HOT SHOTS! PART DEUX
Another cinematic rarity, the sequel that stands up proudly to the original, Hot Shots! Part Deux, is a rapid fire action comedy that admittedly didn't have a lot to do with the first film, but I didn't care after about ten minutes. Another gem from the creative genius behind the Airplane and Naked Gun franchises.
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Charlie Sheen returns as Topper Harley, the retired top gun from the first movie who is tracked down in an Asian monastery by his former commanding officer Captain Walters (Richard Crenna) to save some Iraqi prisoners of war who have been attempted to be rescued twice and failed. The mission is being led by a sexy White House Aide named Michelle (Brenda Bakke), who, of course, falls for Topper, even though he has never really gotten over his first film love Ramada (Valeria Golino).
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Director and co-screenwriter Jim Abrahams had mastered the art of this kind of satire, initiated 13 years earlier with the classic Airplane. Abrahams and co-writer Pat Proft have a crafted a perfect take-off the movie Rambo: First Blood Part Two, though the film does provide some clever winks at films like Casablanca,Basic Instinct, No Way Out, Lady and the Tramp, and a beautifully executed shot at Apocalypse Now that had me on the floor.
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In my review of The Dark Knight Rises, i made my list of ingredients for a proper sequel and I have to confess that this film doesn't adhere to any of them, but as I said earlier, early on I found myself so thoroughly entertained and too busy laughing my ass off to notice that the film wasn't following any of my rules. Abrahams and Proft make absolutely no attempt to explain or apologize for the fact that this movie has nothing to do with the first one. They also make no attempt to conceal the fact that we are watching a movie. There is rampant breaking of the fourth wall here. Critics often talk about the body count in war/action movies and and here, we actually get to see the body count onscreen during the climactic final battle. The gags, sight gags, and set pieces come 100 MPH here, not allowing you to finish one laugh before experiencing another and this film's take on Saddam Hussein will have you on the floor.
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Sheen has settled comfortably into the role of Topper Harley and is a wonderful apex for the romantic triangle set up with him, Bakke, and Golino and I wasn't even bothered by the fact that Golino is a soldier in this movie and was an army psychologist in the first one. Lloyd Bridges was very funny as the air head POTUS, Tug Benson as was Ryan Stiles as a fellow soldier and Jerry Haleva as Saddam Hussein. There were also a couple of memorable cameos from Rowan Atkinson and Charlie Sheen's dad, Martin. In a time when bad sequels are the norm at the movies, this one was a breath of fresh air...a very funny breath. 3.5

[Gideon58]

COP LAND
Despite a somewhat complex story and some cliched dialogue, the 1997 crime drama Cop Land works thanks to solid direction and a shockingly strong performance from its star.
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Sylvester Stallone gives a near brilliant performance in this gritty crime drama playing Freddy Heflin, a New Jersey sheriff who has always wanted to be an NYPD cop but an ear injury he sustained saving a woman from drowning prevented that. Freddy's lost dreams constantly haunt him because the bar where he hangs out is a NYPD hangout where Freddy's dreams are often thrown back in his face, but Freddy gets a chance at the big time when an accident on the George Washington Bridge leaves two thugs dead and a young cop at the center of a cover up that involves faking his suicide.
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Writer and director James Mangold, who would later give us Girl Interrupted and Walk the Line has constructed an intriguing story of police corruption and the often trampled upon thin blue line that offers a whole lot of colorful characters who we are initially baffled by regarding who the good guys and the bad guys are. One thing that I was not confused about was that the suicide of this young cop was fake but what I didn't understand was why and this eventual crux of the story took a little longer to come to light than I would have liked.
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The real selling point of this story is the creation of this central character Freddy Heflin. Mangold has crafted a tragic hero, rich with lost dreams and buried emotions that we learn all stem from that near drowning incident that ended up crushing his dreams permanently. I love the initial shot of Freddy sitting by the water and looking over the East River at Manhattan. There's a lovely moment where Freddy is introduced to an alleged mob boss (played by the recently deceased Frank Vincent) who implies he could get Freddy in the NYPD with a couple of phone calls and this is the first time in the film where you ever see a light in Freddy's eyes.
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Mangold's direction is striking if a little melodramatic at moments, with some exceptional slow motion work that calls to mind the work of the great Sam Peckinpah. Except for Creed, I don't think Stallone has ever given a better performance, riveting the viewer to the screen with this engagingly sad character and he is backed by a brilliant all star cast including Harvey Keitel in his usual greasy turn, Robert De Niro, nicely underplaying as the Internal Affairs officer, Ray Liotta, Peter Berg, Robert Patrick, and a young Michael Rappaport as the young cop whose fake suicide triggers this story. The film also features strong film editing and music that effectively frames the story. Stallone haters should really give this one a look. 3.5

[Gideon58]

ONE FINE DAY
Where great romantic comedies are concerned, the 1996 film One Fine Day offers nothing groundbreaking, but a pair of charismatic performances from the stars will definitely hold your attention.
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George Clooney plays Jack Taylor, a divorced investigative reporter who is in the middle of a big story when his ex-wife asks him to watch his daughter while she goes on her honeymoon. Michelle Pfeiffer is Melanie Parker, a divorced architect and mother of a little boy named Sammy, who has a very important presentation to make at work that is complicated when Sammy misses the class field trip on the circle line. Of course, Jack and Melanie meet cute and anyone who has ever seen a romantic comedy can probably guess what happens.
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There is a singularly unique hook to this story in that it all takes place in a single day and I did find myself forgetting that at times. Screenwriters Terrel Sltzer and Ellen Simon do put some effort into bringing something fresh to this story even if they aren't altogether successful. I was thoroughly amused by one scene with Jack and his shrink (Robert Klein) where Jack substitutes certain words for others because his daughter is in the room and ends up confessing "I wish I could find a fish who could appreciate my dark chocolate center."
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Director Michael Hoffman does put a lot of care into the mounting of this story, with an extremely effective use of Manhattan locations, skill displayed here that is right up there with Woody Allen. I haven't seen a non-Woody movie that made Manhattan look more beautiful, even unexpected moments where the leads and the kids are climbing over a construction site to get to a soccer game on time. Hoffman shows how intimate the city can be and how massive it can be, demonstrated in the scene where Melanie loses Jack's daughter and running around looking for her, climaxed with Melanie mounting the top of a cab.
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As expected, Clooney and Pfeiffer bring a nice Tracy/Hepburn quality to their performances that make you want to endure this journey even though you know almost immediately how it's going to end. Clooney and Pfeiffer both show an unexpected skill for physical comedy that is quite disarming. There is solid support from Charles Durning as Jack's boss Holland Taylor as Melanie's mother, and Amanda Peet as an amorous co-worker of Jack's. Mae Whitman, so memorable as Sandra Bullock's daughter in Hope Floats, also deserves a shout here for keeping Jack's daughter adorable despite some not adorable behavior. Also loved James Newton Howard's breezy music and Natalie Merchant's take on the title tune. One of those movies that almost makes you think it's better than it really is. 3

[cricket]

As much as I like Cop Land I still think it underachieves given the cast.

[Gideon58]

As much as I like Cop Land I still think it underachieves given the cast.

There are problems with the film and most of them center around the screenplay.

[Gideon58]

MR. HOLMES
The 2015 period piece Mr. Holmes is not for all tastes and is not completely successful in the melding of different movie genres, but is worth a look thanks to handsome production values and some brilliant performances.
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It is 1947 Sussex England where we're introduced to retired fictional detective Sherlock Holmes (Sir Ian McKellen), slipping into dementia, whose life after Dr. Watson left to get married has been reduced to raising bees and driving his housekeeper, Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney) to distraction while developing a real bond with her young son (Milo Parker), who has happened upon some of Homes' writing and learns that the great detective is trying to remember the details of his last case.
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I must begin by admitting that I have never read any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books nor have I seen any of the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce movies, so I'm definitely coming from a different place than viewers familiar with the character. I loved the idea of a detective story blending into a biopic of a fictional character, an interesting genre mash-up that comes off as quite original and even though the screenplay is overly complex at times, my interest never waned primarily due to this fascinating central character, clearly a creation of the actor and director.
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Bill Condon, who won an Oscar for his screenplay to 1998's Gods and Monsters, returns to his leading man from that film and they create a consistently fascinating fictional character who comes off as anything but. It was so much fun listening to this fictional character talk about how he finds fiction useless and is only interested in the facts. What Condon and McKellen nail here is this character's fear of aging, evidenced in a trip to Japan to obtain an exotic jelly that he believes will help with his memory. Holmes' fear comes shining through especially around this child who refuses to accept the mortality involved in his friendship with this legendary detective. And as confusing as the screenplay is, it takes a shocking turn in the final act that I didn't see coming that kept me riveted to a story that was beginning to lose me.
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My good friend Citizen compared this film to a cup of hot tea by the fire on a cold night and I think it's a lovely analogy. McKellen, looking and sounding more like John Gielgud as the years pass, is a striking combination of power and fragility as Holmes and Linney, an actress accustomed to playing unsympathetic characters, does infuse a likability into the character that is not in the screenplay. The film features rich production values with special bouquets to cinematography, production design, set direction, and costumes. A deliberate cinematic journey that doesn't always move the way one would like, but there are definite rewards for the patient. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

Gideon58

I'm honored that you watched MR. HOLMES based on my review of it. That always makes me happy when one of my reviews sparks an interest and someone then decides to watch the movie based on what I wrote. Yes, as you saw rich production values. I had forgotten about the Japanese visitor until I read your review. That was a key part to show the audience who well respected Mr. Holmes had become through the novels about his deeds. I never read a Sherlock Holmes book either, nor have I seen a Basil Rathbone movie about the detective. So we're in the same boat there:p

Thanks for watching the movie!

[Gideon58]

I told you when I read your review that I would watch it...it took me a minute to get around to it with the new TV season in high gear, but I did and I really enjoyed it. If I tell you I'm going to add something that you reviewed to my watchlist, I will watch it at some point, unless I can't find somewhere to watch it and in that case, I will PM you and ask you to send me a link. I keep a close eye on your review thread and if I say I'm going to watch something that you reviewed, I will.

[edarsenal]

so very happy you enjoyed Mr. Holmes. It was quite the delight and quite original take on a character that has run the gambit on so many versions. Rather liked your comparison to Gielgud - nice touch and rather apt, actually.
I was pretty excited when this came out, being such a fan of McKellen and had such a gut feeling it was going to be some rather beautiful and special and it was!

Side note: always wanted to actually read one of the novels, and never have. But seen countless versions including the most famous Rathbone and Bruce movies.

[Gideon58]

THE EGG AND I
For those of you who have spent sleepless nights wondering which came first, the chicken or the egg, you will not find any answers in a delicious 1947 comedy called The Egg and I, but what you will find is a richly entertaining comedy that offers a pair of terrific lead performances, a surprisingly adult screenplay, and a pair of supporting characters who would find their own life after this film.
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The story opens on the wedding night of Bob McDonald (Fred MacMurray) who has just returned from the service and announces to his bride, Betty (Claudette Colbert) that he has purchased a chicken farm and that he has planned for them to spend their lives raising chickens and selling eggs, without discussion or consideration of Betty's feelings about the way her husband has mapped out the rest of their lives. The episodic comedy finds the McDonalds restoriing the run down farm, learning the ins and outs of the farming industry, and dealing with neighbors, which include a hillbilly couple with 12 kids and the glamorous owner of a modernized farm who sets her sights on Bob.
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Writer/director Chester Erskine's screenplay is based on a novel by the real Betty McDonald, which takes a humorous look at city slickers taking a crack at country living for the first time. The story is rich with slapstick comedy which had me in stitches for the majority of the running time, which made the surprising dark turn the story takes during its final third a little unsettling, but never taking me out of the warm atmosphere the film had already established.
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I was especially tickled by Betty's initial reaction to the run down house, superbly played by Colbert with minimal dialogue, including her initial encounter with an antique stove and a "Home Sweet Home" sampler barely dangling from the wall. Colbert proves to be very adept at physical comedy here and even though you wonder why she never expresses her discontent with this new life, you can't help but be touched by her all-consuming loyalty to making her husband happy, which might be hard to accept in 2017, but it didn't make this character any less lovable.
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This film is probably most acclaimed for introducing a pair of supporting character named Ma and Pa Kettle, hilariously created by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride, respectively. Pa likes to borrow things and never return them and Ma can't remember the names of her children, but the couple proved so popular that they were spun off into their own franchise which produced nine more films starring the Kettles. The film also offers a brief glimpse at future television star Richard Long playing the eldest Kettle son, Tom. He would find TV fame a couple of decades later on The Big Valley and Nanny and the Professor.
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Claudette Colbert is completely enchanting as Betty and Fred MacMurray's wide-eyed exuberance as Bob is quite endearing. Must also give a shout out to Louise Allbritton as the wealthy farm owner after Bob. Erskine's direction is energetic and Frank Skinner's music score perfectly accentuates the hilarious goings-on. A delightful, if slightly dated comedy that holds up quite well. Fans of the sitcom Green Acres will have a head start here. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

THE EGG AND I...is a richly entertaining comedy that offers a pair of terrific lead performances, a surprisingly adult screenplay, and a pair of supporting characters who would find their own life after this film.

Claudette Colbert is completely enchanting as Betty and Fred MacMurray's wide-eyed exuberance as Bob is quite endearing. ...rating_3_5Very, cool!...I'm so glad you liked this one.

As you know Claudette Colbert is one of my favorite classic actresses, I think she really shines here as the put-upon wife. Fred MacMurray is pretty darn funny as the naive but full steam ahead chicken egg farmer:p

The Egg and I is one of my favorite classic comedies. I totally agree with everything you said about it.

Have you seen any of the Ma and Pa Kettle movies?

[edarsenal]

have never heard of this but definitely sounds like one I would enjoy!!

great lil review, Gideon!!

[Gideon58]

Very, cool!...I'm so glad you liked this one.

As you know Claudette Colbert is one of my favorite classic actresses, I think she really shines here as the put-upon wife. Fred MacMurray is pretty darn funny as the naive but full steam ahead chicken egg farmer:p

The Egg and I is one of my favorite classic comedies. I totally agree with everything you said about it.

Have you seen any of the Ma and Pa Kettle movies?

Ma and Pa Kettle were funny supporting characters but I really have no desire to watch films centered completely around them.

[Gideon58]

BAYWATCH
One of the biggest television phenomena of the 1990's was lavishly re-thought for the big screen when Baywatch got the big screen treatment.
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This elaborate 2017 action/adventure is loosely patterned after the television monster that made household names out of people like David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson (who both make cameo appearances here). In this film, Mitch Buchanan (Dwayne Johnson) finds himself butting heads with new recruit Matt Brody (Zac Efron), a disgraced former Olympic gold medalist who refuses to take life guarding seriously until Mitch and his crew find themselves in the middle of a mystery involving a dangerous drug, a dead city councilman, and a lady gangster who would put Bond villainnesses to shame.
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Before saying anything else, I should begin by stating this review is coming from someone who never actually watched an entire episode of the serIes. Screenwriters Damian and Mark Swift, under the supervision of original series creators Michael Beck, Douglas Schwarts, and Gregory J. Bonann have put together a story with a wonderful tongue and cheek sensibility that sometimes flies in the face of the realistic action adventure that Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) is mounting here....there are times in this story where it's unclear whether or not this film is supposed to be a loving homage to the original series or a parody of same. Needless to say, fans of the series would be able to tell which is accomplished here.
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I do know I found myself amused by the general potshots taken at the show that even non-fans of the show like myself were amused by. The constant use of slow motion and the absolute brilliant reference by Summer regarding CJ, saying "she always looks like she's running in slow motion." The writers were keenly aware of the things that made this show so famous and weren't above putting them front and center, mostly in the name of laughs, with a special nod to the concept that these characters are lifeguards who find themselves doing work that IRL would and should be left to the police.
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I actually found myself laughing throughout this movie...these characters have been thoughtfully and breezily re-thought for this reincarnation and most followed the basic pattern of their TV counterparts as far as I know. There was one character, an overweight nerd named Ronnie, played by Jon Bass, who couldn't speak whenever CJ got within ten feet of him who was really annoying and it was hard to swallow CJ actually getting in his face every chance she got, but it was a minor annoyance.
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No matter what might have been wrong with this movie, it's very easy to forget every time Dwayne Johnson takes center stage...this guy continues to redefine movie charisma and makes any movie he graces his presence with worth watching. Zac Efron was properly chiseled as young Matt and I have to give a shout out to Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who is absolutely hilarious as a police officer tired of the lifeguards interfering with his work. It's not Citizen Kane, but this movie was a lot of fun and could become a serious guilty pleasure of mine. 3.5

[Gideon58]

Blue Hawaii
Elvis Presley had one of his biggest hits with a splashy and colorful outing from 1961 called Blue Hawaii, which is no classic, but could have been if the creative team had trusted their story a little more than they did their star.
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Elvis plays Chad Gates, a young man who returns home to Hawaii after two years in the army and instead of taking his expected place as vice president of his father's pineapple company, takes a job at his girlfriend's tourist agency as a tour guide. Of course, in the process Chad finds himself up to his neck in females, not just his longtime girlfriend (Joan Blackman), but an attractive schoolteacher (Nancy Walters) and a spoiled teenager (Jenny Maxwell) who hates her life but thinks that throwing herself at Chad might improve it.
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Screenwriter Hal Kanter and director Norman Taurog have collaborated on a relatively solid story here that had the potential to be something really special, but instead of trusting in a decent story with universal themes, Kanter and Taurog instead decide to throw the weight of the film on its star by having him sing a song every ten minutes of the running time. There's even a scene where the character gets thrown in jail and we get a brief closeup of him behind bars before he and his back up band (who follow him throughout the film and are also conveniently arrested) before they can break into yet another tune. When Elvis isn't singing, the only other real energy here comes from the on-target and unexpected casting of Angela Lansbury as Sara Lee Gates, Chad's clingy and slightly bigoted mother who thinks Chad's new job is beneath him and that his girlfriend is pure evil. Though Sarah Lee sounds a bit like a cartoon character, she still provides the few solid laughs that this film provides.
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As mentioned, the film is chock full of songs that Elvis delivers for a good third of the films' running time, including "Almost Always True", "Moonlight Swim", "Beach Boy Blues", "Rocka Hula Baby" and one of the biggest smashes of Elvis' recording career, "Can't Help Fallin in Love."
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The movie is kind of slowly paced, but there is some beautiful Hawaiian scenery and in addition to Lansbury, I also enjoyed Howard McNear as Blackman's boss and Roland Winters as Chad's dad. You might also recognize one of the members of Elvis' band as Jose De Vega, who also appeared in the Oscar winning Best Picture of 1961, West Side Story, where he played Chino. There are worse ways to spend 100 minutes. 3