Gideon58's Reviews

One of my favorite Put-your-brain-in-check-and-just-enjoy films was the 1973 futuristic thriller called Westworld, a literal roller coaster ride from the mind of Michael Crieghton (THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN).



The film stars Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as a pair of buddies who visit a sophisticated theme park, which offers three different excursions into fantasy worlds...there is a medieval world, a roman world, and an old west world. Each world features computer-operated robots but all hell breaks loose when the computers malfunction and so do the robots, actually putting our two protagonists in danger.

The fun here is when the film comes down to a cat and mouse chase between Benjamin and a gunslinging robot, perfectly portrayed by Yul Brynner. To say anymore would just spoil this one...just get your popcorn, strap yourself to a chair and enjoy...this one is a lot of fun. It was followed by an inferior sequel called FutureWorld. 7.5/10

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Every now and then acclaimed directors of comedies and dramas venture into the movie musical genre and varying rates of success were achieved...Sidney Lumet really tripped up with The Wiz as did John Huston with Annie and Richard Attenborough with A Chorus Line Sir Carol Reed did yeomen service toOliver!, Milos Foreman triumphed with Hair and Norman Jewison did a decent job with Jesus Christ Superstar.

One director I never imagined making a musical was Woody Allen but even Woody ventured into this forbidden territory with 1996's Everyone Says I Love You, A sophisticated romp with the same kind of loopy characters Woody usually provides us with, except here, they do occasionally burst into song and dance, despite the fact that several of the cast members can't sing. I have to admit that I do like the fact that the Woodmiester chose to cast actors who fit the characters and not just actors who can sing and dance.

The film stars Goldie Hawn and Alan Alda as the head of an affluent upper west side family eagerly anticipating the wedding of her daughter and his stepdaughter (Drew Barrymore) to the heir apparent of another wealthy family (Edward Norton) who are thrown for a loop when Barrymore falls for an ex-con (Tim Roth) who Hawn has invited to their home for dinner as a gesture of bleeding heart liberalism. As always Woody blends multiple stories to great effect, the other primary one being Woody's role as Hawn's ex, whose daughter (Natasha Lyonne) has accidentally overheard a lot of information about a woman (Julia Roberts) who Woody meets in Paris and feeds him information about her in order to romance her.

I think Woody made a wise choice in not employing an original score and using classic old songs for the characters to sing and the actors do their own singing (except for Barrymore), which I think adds a touch of realism to the unexpected musical interludes. There is some imaginative choreography by Graciela Daniele with Norton and Lyonne's production number in a jewelry store being a stand out. There is also a dance number at the film's denoument with Woody and Goldie that can only be described as magical.

Musical numbers aside, Woody's screenplay is rich with the sophisticated wit we have come to expect from Woody, there's just a little less of it because of the musical numbers. Woody has always had exquisite taste in music, a key element in all of his films so I guess his journey into this genre shouldn't be completely unexpected, but, I think the results are pretty much a mixed bag and the film is suggested for hardcore Woody-philes only. 6.5/10

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Burt Reynolds hit a bullseye as as the star and director of the 1978 comedy The End, a scathing black comedy that mines genuine laughs out of some rather unpleasant subject matter.

Reynolds stars as Sonny Lawson, a man who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness who decides that, instead of waiting for his illness to take him out, he is going to beat the disease to the punch by committing suicide.

This quietly brilliant episodic comedy takes unsettling subjects like death and suicide and turns them on their ear with a seamless blending of comical warmth and outright slapstick. Screenwriter Jerry Belson hits all the rights notes here, creating characters who range from warm to off-the-wall, all kept in line by Reynolds' focused directorial eye.

Reynolds is charming as Sonny and he has a great supporting cast behind him including Dom DeLuise as his best friend, Sally Field as his girlfriend, Kristy McNichol as his daughter, Robby Benson as a priest, David Steinberg as his shrink, Joanne Woodward as his ex-wife and a brief appearance by screen veterans Pat O'Brien and Myrna Loy as his parents.

A comic romp that is an entertaining ride for most of the way, despite an ending that does sort of peter out, but, for the most part, the journey is a pleasure. 7.5/10

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From the mind of Judd Apatow came Knocked Up, a formulaic romantic comedy that provides some sporadic laughs thanks to the film's unconventional leading man.

Seth Rogen plays Ben Stone, a party animal and all-around bum who meets a tightly wound television reporter for E named Allison Scott (Katherine Heigl) who he meets one night in a bar. Though the meeting doesn't exactly set off fireworks, the two do go home together and have sex. Ben is thrown for a loop a couple of months later when Allison gets in touch with him to inform Ben that she is pregnant with his child.

The rest of this 2007 film pretty much follows the formula you would expect from such a tired plotline except for the fact that Ben Stone is completely clueless regarding pregnancy and fatherhood and all that it entails and watching Ben navigate these very choppy waters provides the majority of the entertainment this film offers.

Rogen is very funny as Stone but has no chemistry with Heigl, whose character is pretty unappealing and swallowing Stone's attraction to her is a bit difficult. Apatow's nutty rep company provide solid support, especially his wife, Leslie Mann as Allison's sister, Paul Rudd as her husband, and Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, and Jay Baruchel as Ben's burn-out frineds. There is also a lovely cameo by the late Harold Ramis as Ben's father. Like most of Apatow's work, the screenplay is overly complex and the film is a little too long, but Rogen and company still manage to make it a relatively entertaining ride. 6/10

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28 Days is a nearly forgotten, but incisive look at the disease of addiction and, more specifically, the rehabilitation process and what a roller coaster ride it can become.

The film stars Sandra Bullock as Gwen, a party girl whose drinking and drugging at her sister's wedding climaxes with her crashing a stolen limo into a house, resulting in court-ordered rehab for our heroine and how her deep denial about the fact that she actually has a problem keeps her from taking the process seriously, especially when her boyfriend (Dominic West), who is still on the outside and still partying, doesn't acknowledge Gwen's problem either.

This film will really hit home with those who have struggled with addiction. It perfectly captures the entire process of rehabilitation...where the addiction took the person, the descent to rock bottom, the initial denial of the problem and that moment of clarity when the alcoholic/addict realizes that they are powerless over drugs and alcohol and become willing to do whatever it takes to get better.

This is one of Bullock's strongest performances, playing a gamut of emotions that result from her initial frustration with her situation, her recognition of herself in fellow addicts, and most importantly, the realization that she can't live the way she did and hang with the same people she hung with before if she wants to stay sober.

Steve Buscemi offers one of his most likable characters as the head of the rehab center, whose relationship with Gwen gets off to a VERY shaky start. Reni Santoni, Diane Ladd, Mike O'Malley, Alan Tudyk, Azura Skye, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste are solid as the members of Gwen's therapy group as is Viggo Mortenson as a former baseball superstar who has a brief encounter with Gwen. Mortenson is part of one of the scene's saddest scenes as his character is recognized during a field trip by a child fan whose adult chaperone figures out Mortenson's situation. Elizabeth Perkins also scores as Gwen's sister, who has one powerful scene during a family therapy session.

Suhsannah Grant's smart screenplay and Betty Thomas' stylish direction are the frosting on the cake here...a clever and entertaining comedy that broaches some uncomfortable subjects but is effectively stemmed in realism. 7/10

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Prince was one of the biggest musical acts of the 1980's and Hollywood decided to get their piece of the pie by offering the musician the lead in a 1984 film called Purple Rain, framed around Prince's music in which he pretty much plays himself (the character is only referred to as "The Kid"), an arrogant musician who has not only alienated the manager of the club where he performs, but his own band members (played by real-life members of his band) who have grown tired of their leaders' music and are ready to walk when the kid adamantly refuses to even listen to a song they wrote, let alone performing it. Things get further complicated when competition from another band (Morris Day and the Time) threatens his regular job as well as a budding romance with an aspiring singer (Apollonia) who the kid attempts to control until he learns she actual has her own career aspirations, which involve the kid's sworn enemy, Morris.

Albert Magnoli's music video directorial approach to this film's mounting is more than appropriate, creating an eye-popping, ear-pounding musical drama that stays consistently entertaining, despite the unappealing lead character...the Kid is a sexist, thoughtless egomaniac who thinks it's all about him and objectifies women to the point of distraction, a trait he apparently inherited from his father (Clarence Williams III, in a brilliant performance), a pig who seems to be blaming his failed music career on the kid's mother, evidenced in his beating of her on a regular basis.

The story is actually a throwback to musicals of the 1950's but its glamorous 1980's visual and musical trappings do help to disguise that fact. Thank God that Prince's musicianship is so intoxicating because the guy is no actor...though the scene where tries to seduce Apollonia musically onstage with a song called "Nicky", is awesome...a sexually riveting musical number that mesmerizes the rest of the audience but sends Apollonia running from the room. For me, outside of the work of Clarence Williams III, the best scene in the film.

The film also features Prince classics like "Let's Go Crazy" "When Doves Cry", and the absolutely gorgeous title song. Morris Day and his band also get a chance to shine as well. Yes, the film is basically just a 90-minute music video, but the music is awesome and the visuals are arresting and despite an unappealing lead character, this film is a lot of fun and has great re-watch appeal. 7.5/10

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The Graduate was the 1967 instant classic that won Mike Nichols a Best Director Oscar despite In the Heat of the Night winning Best Picture that year, and made an instant movie star out of its virtually unknown star, Dustin Hoffman.

Hoffman plays Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who has returned home with no real goals or aspirations and, as it turns out, doesn't have really time to think about such matters as he tentatively begins an affair with the much older wife of one of his parents friends, a Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), who pretty much bulldozes Benjamin into having sex with her and then flips out when Benjamin develops actual feelings for Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine (Katherine Ross).

Buck Henry's clever and adult screenplay is deftly mounted by Nichols, whose directorial style is evidenced throughout...that shot of Benjamin telling Mrs. Robinson that she's trying to seduce him, from between Mrs. Robinson's legs, is sheer genius and could have come from no place but the creative mind of Mike Nichols.

As most film buffs know, the role of Mrs. Robinson was originally offered to Doris Day, who turned the role down as she felt the screenplay was, in her word, "vulgar." The character definitely would have been something different played by Day, but I think Bancroft is perfection in the role and I can't imagine anyone else playing Mrs. Robinson and her onscreen chemistry with newcomer Hoffman is surprisingly smooth.

Bancroft and Hoffman receive solid support from William Daniels and Elizabeth Wilson as Benjamin's parents and Murray Hamilton as Mr. Robinson. There are also brief appearances from Norman Fell, Richard Dreyfuss, Mike Farrell, and the film's writer, Buck Henry. The now iconic song score by Simon and Garfunkle, including "Mrs. Robinson" and "The Sounds of SIlence" is also a big plus and perfectly compliments the onscreen proceedings. A cinema classic that should be experienced by all film purists. The film was turned into a stage play decades later with Kathleen Turner playing Mrs. Robinson. 9/10

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Jack Black had one of the best roles of his somewhat questionable career in 2003's School of Rock an entertaining comedy that provides pretty consistent laughs in addition to a moment of genuine warmth here and there.

Black plays Dewey Finn, a homeless and penniless wanna be rock star who is crashing at his best friend's apartment, who one day takes a phone call, meant for his friend, accepting a position as a substitute teacher at a local grade school. Bored with teaching history, Dewey takes it upon himself to form a rock band out of the students in the classroom, on the DL, without the school's principal (Joan Cusack) finding out.

Black found a role that fits him like a glove here. He is completely and naturally hilarious as Finn not only teaches the kids rock music but tries to educate them about the history of rock music as well. It's fun as we get to watch Finn bring some students out of their shell musically and put other students' egos in check as well as getting the tightly wound principal to lighten up as well.

Richard Linklater's energetic direction, along with the performances of Black and Cusack that are the primary selling points here, not to mention Black's effortless charisma with the children that makes this film definitely worth checking out. 7/10

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The Disney Studios scored a bullseye with their 1960 classic Pollyanna, a lavishly mounted film adaptation of the famed novel by Eleanor H. Porter, about a young girl's arrival in a small turn of the century community, practically owned by her iron-fisted aunt, and her effect on her aunt and on the community as a whole.

Hayley Mills is enchanting, as usual, as "the glad girl", a child whose eternal optimism seems to rub off on everyone she comes in contact with, except with her own Aunt Polly and it is the slow burn of the relationship between these two and Pollyanna's eventual melting of her aunt's icy exterior, that makes this wholesome family film a worthwhile experience.

Mills received surprisingly solid support from Jane Wyman, an actress who usually played good girls, as Polly's emotionally distant Aunt Polly, Richard Egan as the town doctor, who has always been attracted to Polly, but has always been kept at arm's length by the woman, Karl Malden as the Reverend, and Nancy Olson as Polly's housekeeper.

David Swift's simple but direct screenplay, his spirited direction, and expensive production values are the final touches to a family classic that still holds up pretty well. 7.5/10

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If you changed your Avatar. Added some pics, and changed your layout abit, your review thread would receive more attention. Just a thought mate.

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Blast from the Past is a relatively entertaining 1999 comedy that could be considered the final installment of the Brendan Fraser "Fish out of Water" Trilogy, following Encino Man and George of the Jungle.

The film stars Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek as a 1950's couple with a child named Adam, who hide out in a bomb shelter during the 50's and what happens when a grown-up Adam (Fraser) decides to venture out of the shelter in 1999 Los Angeles because the family needs supplies.

Fraser's effortless screen charisma and his experience with this kind of character makes this movie seem a lot better than it really is. Walken and Spacek are wonderful as his parents and Alicia Silverstone is adequate as the obligatory romantic interest.

Hugh Wilson's direction is exuberant and keeps the story somewhat believable but it's really the performances of Fraser, Walken, and Spacek as the family caught in a time warp that make this film worth sitting through. 7/10

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I don't know how to do any of the things you have suggested. Someone posted a tutorial here a few months ago on how to add movie posters to my review but the instructions he gave me didn't work, so I just forgot about it. I enjoy writing the reviews and if people don't read them, I can live with that, because the majority of contact I have had with other people on this website has been negative and unpleasant anyway.

Disaster movies were all the rage during the 1970's and one of the biggest hits of the genre was 1974's Earthquake, whose self-explanatory title lets you know what you're in for, but unlike similar fare like The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, only about a third of the film really works.

As with most films of the genre, the film opens with silly exposition scenes introducing a group of disparate characters that have no connection to each other and provide no reason for us to care about them. The primary players include an architect named Stewart Graff (Charlton Heston) trapped in a marriage to a grasping and desperate woman named Remy (Ava Gardner), who is the daughter of Stewart's boss (Lorne Greene). We also learn that Graff is having an affair with a struggling actress named Denise (Genvieve Bujold) who has a young son. We also meet a motorcycle daredevil (Richard Roundtree), his assistant (Victoria Principal) and an ex-marine turned sex deviate who works in a grocery store (Marjoe Gortner), not to mention a recently fired police officer played by George Kennedy, who I think, by law, appeared in all disaster films made in the 70's.

The scenes when the earthquake actually hits and destroys Los Angeles are pretty effective, but the final third of the film involving the actual rescue efforts is dull and extremely hard to get through. The performances range from shrill to annoying and some of the casting is really hard to swallow (Ava Gardner as Lorne Greene's daughter? Seriously?), but I guess if you're really, really, bored, there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours. BTW, Walter Matthau makes a cameo appearance as a drunk in a bar and is billed under his real name, Walter Matuschanskayasky. 5/10

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Annie is the lavish 1982 film version of the 1977 Broadway musical based on the classic comic strip characters which chronicles the relationship that develops between the orphan of the title and Oliver Warbucks, a billionaire who decides to have an orphan spend a week with him in his palatial mansion and has to deal with Miss Hannigan, the nasty head of the orphanage who decides that Annie's time with Warbucks is her ticket to Easy Street (the name of one of the show's best songs, BTW).

The casting works for the most part, with Albert Finney making a strong impression as Daddy Warbucks, the millionaire whose gruff exterior is eventually melted by the presence of this little girl in his home. Carol Burnett's performance as Miss Hannigan is a matter of personal taste. I have always felt Miss Hannigan, one of Broadway's greatest villains, a perfect combination of evil and greed, but Burnett seems to play the character as just a drunk. Don't get me wrong, there are few performers out there who can play drunk better than Burnett, but to me it's a cheat and makes the character rather one-dimensional, though her performance of my favorite song in the show, "Little Girls", is a winner.

Aileen Quinn is fiesty and adorable as the title character and Ann Reinking works hard to make the thankless role of Warbucks' secretary, Grace, worth investing in. A song written especially for the movie called "We've Got Annie" seems to have been inserted purely to take advantage of Reinking's skill as a dancer. Tim Curry and Bernadette Peters are also fun as Rooster and Lily, Hannigan's partners-in-crime, who,along with Burnett, stop the show with the aforementioned "Easy Street".

Other musical highlights from the Martin Charnin-Lee Strouse score include "It's a Hard-Knocks Life", "Maybe", "I think I'm gonna like it here" , and the show's most famous song, "Tomorrow." Sadly, there is a song written especially for the film called "Let's all go to the movies" that brings the film to a screeching halt.

Despite rather static direction by John Huston, the film is a satisfactory mounting of the stage musical that Broadway purists will find acceptable, though I personally found the 1999 TV remake much better. 6/10

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OK, this doesn't help me.

It would help if you actually listened. Have you noticed the distinct lack of rep and replies in this thread? I'd say a lot of that has to do with the very unappealing way in which you format your posts.

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One of the biggest box office smashes of 1991 was New Jack City, a slightly over-the-top but engrossing crime drama, set during the advent of the crack epidemic of the 1980's, which follows the charismatic rise of a drug dealer named Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes), whose overthrow of a ghetto apartment complex and turning it into a drug manufacturing and selling empire, elevates him to the title of drug lord and a group of cops who have made it their life mission to bring him down. The story eventually whittles its way down to a cat and mouse battle between Brown and one cop named Scotty Templeton (Ice-T), with whom a personal connection is revealed.

Directed by Mario Van Peebles, who also appears in the film as the cop in charge of bringing Nino down, this film struck a chord with that all-important 18-34 demographic for the wrong reason, primarily that it glamorizes drug abuse and makes the lifestyle that can be achieved selling drugs very appealing, despite a somewhat preachy screenplay and some unappealing characters.

On the plus side, Wesley Snipes lights up the screen as Nino Brown and there is a scene-stealing turn by a very young Chris Rock, as a crack addict who Scotty throws under a bus as an accomplice in his mission. Allen Payne is also effective as Nino's childhood friend and second in command as is Judd Nelson as Scotty's rogue partner.

Rich with violence, sexual content, and a score that is a hip-hop lover's dream, it is no surprise that this film cleaned up at the box office. 6/10

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I AM listening but I am also not receiving any help in how to format my posts any differently, just a lot of snarky criticism. I have mentioned more than once that I don't know how to do the things that have been suggested to me, but instead of receiving assistance or tutorials, all I get is smart-ass comments.

It ain't rocket science. Just click on User CP at the top of the page, then Edit Avatar on the left side of the page, upload a picture that you want to use as your avatar, click Save Changes, and presto!

As for the formatting, you seem to have no problem including a ton of Smilies, so I don't know why you're having trouble figuring the rest of it out. As long as you click "Go Advanced" when posting instead of "Quick Reply," everything you need is there for you to use. Scroll over the icons at the top and they'll tell you what they're for. You can upload a picture or click Insert Image and link to a picture online. If you want to post a rating, put the word rating in brackets, then a number 1-5, then /rating in brackets.

You can can click reply to any post that uses pictures or various formatting styles and see how the HTML will look, that way you can get a better understanding. It's all very simple.