Gideon58's Reviews

1961's The Children's Hour is the second film of Lillian Hellman's play about how gossip and rumor can destroy lives.

The play first came to the screen in 1936 as These Three, but this version is a little more faithful to the original play, though still slightly watered down for 1961 movie audiences.

This is the story of Karen Wright (Audrey Hepburn) and Martha Dobie (Shirley MacLaine), two teachers who run a private girls' school. Tension between the ladies rises when Karen becomes engaged to a handsome doctor (James Garner) and Martha doesn't take the news very well. After eavesdropping on a conversation between Karen and Martha, a vicious student named Mary (Karen Balkin) starts a rumor that Karen and Martha are lovers, a rumor that reaches Mary's wealthy grandmother (Fay Bainter), a major benefactress of the school who makes sure that the women lose their jobs, even though there is no truth to the rumors.

Things get even stickier when it is revealed that Martha really is a lesbian and really in love with Karen, though Karen does not return her feelings. The conflicted feelings of Karen, her fiancee's confusion and Martha's pain of living with this secret all combine to make for riveting drama.

The stars are wonderful, with a particularly brilliant turn from MacLaine, who I think was robbed of an Oscar nomination for her performance as Martha. MacLaine is absolutely devastating throughout, especially in the scene where she confesses her true feelings to Karen. MacLaine ripped my guts out in this film and her performance alone makes the film worth watching. It should also be mentioned that Miriam Hopkins, who plays Lily Mortar, played one of the leads in These Three.

A surprisingly adult drama that will wreak havoc on your emotions, due to the disturbing story and haunting performances.

I love Home Alone 2, great movie. It's my Christmas movie .

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Teen pregnancy is not a new subject matter for the movies, but it is given a strikingly original and fresh coat of paint in the 2007 film Juno, a riveting comedy-drama that provides consistent entertainment and flawed, believable characters that speak without filters and remain steeped in realism.

The film stars Ellen Page as Juno MacGuff, a 16-year old girl who finds herself pregnant after a one night stand with her boyfriend (Michael Cera) who decides that she is going to allow the baby to be adopted by a seemingly happy, upwardly mobile couple named Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner) and how the plan veers in some very unexpected directions.

Diablo Cody's brilliant, Oscar-winning screenplay anchors the proceedings because it skips over a lot of the cliched issues normally addressed in films on this subject matter. I liked the fact that there was no discussion about Juno keeping the baby, I liked that she knows from jump that she is no position to be a mother and I like that Juno agreed to a closed adoption, meaning that once the baby is born, she hands him over and has no more contact with the baby or his new family. Also loved the unconditional support Juno received from her father (JK Simmons) and stepmother (Allison Janney).

What I didn't like is the way Juno pretty much shut the father out of her initial decision-making and the relationship that develops between Juno and Mark really had me squirming...I knew it was wrong for Juno to be getting this close to Mark; on other hand, it was also clear to me early on that Mark and Vanessa were not as happy as they pretended to be for Juno. There is a wonderful scene between Bateman and Garner where they are looking at possible colors for the nursery and the tension between them is real and burns a hole through the screen, which can only be attributed to the skillful directorial hand of Jason Reitman, who had already proven himself to me with Thank you for Smoking.

Ellen Page turns in a star-making performance in the title role, a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress and she receives solid support from Bateman, Simmons, Janney, and especially Jennifer Garner, who blew me away with the performance of her career as Vanessa, the woman who wants to be a mother more than anything and you just know is not going to be able to withstand another disappointment. Especially loved the scene where Vanessa ran into Juno at the mall and Juno allowed her to talk to the unborn baby in Juno's belly.

Some inventive camera work and a lovely song score are the finishing touches on this unique and moving film that quietly sails through the soul to an extremely satisfying denoument.

A movie idea that looked good on paper but lost something in its translation to the screen was the 1962 comedy That Touch of Mink.

The film starred a glamorously aging Cary Grant as Phillip Shayne, a wealthy businessman whose limo splashes the coat and dress of a woman on a rainy street one day. Shayne has his assistant track the woman down so that he can pay for the dry cleaning. The woman is a working girl named Cathy Timberlake (Doris Day) who is attracted to Shayne, but it is soon revealed that Grant wants to have a fling with the woman and she is saving herself for marriage.

This return to Pillow Talk territory is not nearly as successful due to the fact that there is NO chemistry between the leads and to Day's unappealing character...it was just a little too hard to swallow Cathy's naivete about what Shayne wanted from her and the idea that every time Cathy comes close to having sex with Shayne she breaks out in hives, was just silly.

There is a solid supporting cast including Gig Young as Shayne's assistant and Audrey Meadows as Cathy's best friend, but a comedy like this pins a great deal on the chemistry between the stars and it just wasn't there.

Fred Astaire proved he still had what it takes to command the screen in a musical with 1955's Daddy Long Legs.

Astaire plays Jervis Pendleton III, a millionaire vacationing in France who meets an 18-year old girl in an orphanage (Leslie Caron) who longs to go to college in America. Enchanted with the girl, Pendleton decides to finance the girl's college education without her knowledge. The girl only knows Pendleton as Daddy Long Legs and unbeknownst to Pendleton, his assistant (Fred Clark) has been corresponding with the girl by letter under the guise of Pendleton and Pendleton panics when the girl insists upon a face to face meeting.

The basic idea of this musical is very good. The idea of helping a young girl get an education and keeping it a secret and it is so nice seeing Caron's Julie adjusting to and loving college life, but the film takes a weird turn when Pendleton and Julie finally do meet and he is immediately attracted to her. Astaire and Caron do dance well together, but Astaire is WAY too old to play a romantic interest to Caron and it gave the whole onscreen relationship a very incestuous feel that made me squirm.

Fred Clark and Thelma Ritter do provide some laughs and as I said before, there is some great dancing, including a dream ballet, but Astaire and Caron as a romantic couple just didn't work for me and cast a pall over the entire film.

2009's Law Abiding Citizen is an emotionally manipulative and shockingly violent crime thriller that takes films like Death Wish to a whole new level.

Clyde Shelton's wife and daughter were brutally murdered by a pair of home intruders and one of the killers managed a plea bargain which got him a lighter sentence in exchange for turning on his partner. Shelton, still numbed from his family's death, has his own plan on making sure the other killer gets what he deserves. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of Shelton's revenge as he plans to punish the entire justice system through the elimination of anyone and everyone involved in the outcome of his case.

Gerard Butler works very hard at infusing the character of Clyde Shelton with sympathy, but he gets no help from Kurt Rimmer's screenplay, who turns the grief-stricken Shelton into a mustache twirling, one-dimensional villain. Jamie Foxx is quietly effective as the assistant district attorney on Shelton's case who brokered the deal that got one of the killers free. I was impressed that despite everything Shelton puts Foxx's Nick Rice through, he makes it clear that he does not regret his decision to broker the plea bargain because if they had gone to trial, both killers might have gone free.

Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Regina Hall, and Colm Meaney score in supporting roles and there is a classy turn from Viola Davis as the Mayor. The film is filled with shocking, over-the-top violence that definitely makes this film for adults and the screenplay is a little talky, dragging it down in spots, but director F. Gary Gray keeps things moving at a nice pace for the most part and if you can accept Butler's channeling of Mel Gibson and some of the things that Shelton is able to do from inside a jail cell, it's a pretty entertaining ride.

The wolf pack from Vegas returns in 2011's The Hangover Part II, the expensive and over the top sequel to The Hangover which despite an overly complex screenplay, does provide laughs along the way.

This time around, Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifianakis), and Doug (Justin Bartha) actually fly all the way to Thailand where Stu (Ed Helms) is getting married. Still stinging from their Vegas adventure, Stu decides to have his bachelor party at an IHOP; unfortunately, it doesn't turn out that way. Just like the first movie, we see the guys raise their glasses and then we see them after another party. This time, Phil and Alan are on the floor, Alan's hair is gone, and Ed is passed out in the bathtub with a tattoo on his face. Oh, and Stu's 16-year old future brother-in-law is missing.

Clearly, director and co-writer Todd Phillips was given a lot bigger budget this time around and the money can be seen on the screen. Beautiful Thailand locations are a plus, but the whole thing could have just as well have taken place in Vegas. This story would have worked in Vegas or Manhattan or anywhere local...I guess the idea of bringing the boys to Thailand was supposed to make the proceedings more substantial, but it still seems to be much to do about nothing.

The actors still work well together, with standout work from Helms and Galifianakis and there's a scene stealing turn from a cigarette smoking monkey, and Ken Jeong's character redefines the word annoying, but if you liked the first film, you will probably like this one too.

The 1954 musical classic Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is considered one of the crown jewels in the MGM gallery, but will primarily be remembered as the movie musical that brought a new respect to the art of choreography and made it socially acceptable for men to be dancers.

The musical stars Howard Keel as Adam Pontipee, a backswoodman/farmer who runs a farm with his six brothers. One day Adam goes into town for supplies and returns with a wife named Milly (Jane Powell), who he has married basically as a maid, to cook and clean for Adam and his brothers. Initially fearful of what she has gotten herself into, Milly takes up the challenge, starting with cleaning up Adam's brothers, who know nothing about hygiene, etiquette, or courtship rituals, but what these guys really need Milly is unable to provide, but when they decide to go get what they want, encouraged by Adam, this creates a riff between Adam and Milly.

Keel's rich baritone serves the role of Adam well and Powell had the best role of her career as the strong-willed Milly. The brothers are played by Jeff Richards, Tommy Rall, Matt Mattox, Jacques D'Ambroise, Marc Platt, and a very young Russ Tamblyn, but these guys were not hired for this movie for their acting ability, but for their ability as dancers and that is the thing that made this film so special. Michael Kidd's inventive and physically demanding choreography is easily the star of this musical. The barn raising sequence is already iconic and deservedly so. Personally, my favorite musical sequence in the film is a number called "Lonesome Polecat", a dreamy ballad performed by the six brothers, accompanied by a harmonica, a couple of saws, and an ax...minimal but magical. Kidd's demanding choreography brought a new respectability to the art of the dance and that it was acceptable for men to dance and still be considered masculine.

The rest of the Johnny Mercer-Gene De Paul score includes "Bless Your Beautiful Hide", "Wonderful, Wonderful Day", "When You're in Love", and "Courtin".

Stanley Donen's spirited direction and some really beautiful photography are the finishing touches on one of MGM's most entertaining offerings. The film also inspired two different television series as well as a Broadway musical.

The performances by the stars made a somewhat cheesy 1991 TV movie called Lucy and Desi: Behind the Laughter worth a look

This lavish TV movie was supposedly an intimate behind the scenes look at the relationship between MGM contract player Lucille Ball and new contract player, a Cuban musician named Desi Arnaz. The film recalls their first meeting on the set of an MGM musical called Too Many Girls, through a lengthy courtship and marriage, which eventually morphed into a hit television series, two children, and one of the first independent television production companies ever.

It's hard to know exactly how factual the story presented here is...facts are almost always sketchy and fictionalized in showbiz biopics and according to this one, Lucille Ball was a clinging and desperate woman who refused to put up with Desi's constant infidelity, but refused to divorce him for the longest time as well. It takes two people to make a marriage and it also takes two people to destroy a marriage and I have a hard time believing that the destruction of this marriage occurred strictly because of Desi's infidelity. Why would you have two children with a man who constantly cheated on you? It is my understanding that Lucie Arnaz was outraged by this movie so take from that what you will.

What this movie does have is a superb, star-making performance from Frances Fisher as Lucille Ball. Fisher puts a human face on this comedy icon and though she is fighting the script all the way, she imbues Lucy with intelligence and sympathy, even if the screenplay doesn't. Maurice Benard is less successful as Desi Arnaz, but I don't think he was as bad as most people claimed he was, but Fisher definitely outclasses him here.

It's interesting that the filmmakers felt the need to open and close the film with the first taping of I Love Lucy, as if they felt they had to remind us who the subjects of this film were and what they accomplished. Again, take from that what you will.

After winning Oscars for Forrest Gump, star Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis teamed up for a 2000 epic called Cast Away, a compelling and well-made drama but, for me, a very difficult film to watch, with minimal re-watch appeal.

Hanks plays Chuck Noland, an executive with Federal Express whose life is changed forever when he is involved in a plane crash, which he survives and ends up stranded on a deserted island for four years. No episode of Gilligan's Island here as we watch this man, initially in denial about what has happened to him, anticipating rescue in a few days but as time passes, he can no longer deny what is happening to him and must learn how to survive, while simultaneously trying to cling to his sanity, evidenced in an actual relationship he develops with a volleyball, which he names WIlson and takes care of like a newborn baby.

This film is challenging because it goes places where other plane crash dramas have never gone. For example, there is a horrific moment when Chuck actually discovers the body of the pilot of the plane and goes through his wallet. I don't ever remember a film like this where the body of someone who didn't survive was even mentioned let alone revealed. The film also takes its time in having Chuck accept his plight. I like the way Chuck keeps his clothes on initially because he really thinks he's going to be found quickly, but eventually he starts wearing less and less to the point where he is just in a loin cloth and his pants are now covering his head. Even common health issues come to the surface here when Chuck develops a toothache and has no choice but to pull the tooth out himself, a scene I literally cannot watch anymore.

Director Zemeckis employs a keen eye for detail and realism here...this film contains what is probably the most frighteningly realistic plane crash I have ever seen in a movie. The moments before the plane hits, the panic in the pilots voices, Chuck's iron-fisted clutch of a picture of his fiancee (Helen Hunt), it all rang true and was just horrifying to watch and when Chuck was literally underwater trying to fight his way out of the plane, I was literally holding my own breath. Another Zemeckis touch to ensure realism is that after the initial scenes up to the plane crash were filmed, he shut down production of the film for a couple of months to give Hanks time to lose 30 pounds, to make his desperate diving for fish in the ocean look more desperately authentic and to show that Chuck was no longer eating regularly.

Zemeckis also knows how to make his viewer squirm, particularly in his depiction of Chuck's relationship with Wilson...the moment when Wilson falls off the raft and Chuck is unable to save him is heartbreaking and pathetic. You feel for Chuck while at the same time, you can't help but think, "Uh...it's a volleyball."

One of my absolute favorite cinematic pictures occurs in this film as well...the shot of Chuck's raft quietly floating in the ocean as a giant ship floats by right next to him.

This film is beautifully made and tells a very difficult story. Tom Hanks received a richly deserved Oscar nomination and Helen Hunt makes the most of her small role as his confused fiancee, but this film is really hard to watch. Putting myself in Chuck's shoes was a very uncomfortable experience that I don't wish to duplicate. It's a superb movie and I'm glad I saw it, but I have no desire to ever see it again.

The Boys in the Band was the ground breaking 1970 film, based on Mart Crowley's play that was probably the first mainstream theatrical film in which most of the characters are homosexual. Despite some extremely dated elements, this film was important in that it did not present all gay characters as flouncing fairies, though that stereotype is definitely represented here. What this film does do is present homosexuals in all shapes, sizes, colors, and degrees of masculinity.

The film takes place during a birthday party thrown by Michael (Kenneth Nelson) for his friend Harold (Leonard Frey) with a short guest list which includes Michael's best friend Donald (Frederick Combs), a former trick with whom Michael eventually became BFF's. Hank (Laurence Luckinbill) and Larry (Keith Prentice) are in a committed relationship, though Hank seems a little more committed than Larry. Cliff Gorman is hysterically funny as the flouncing fairy Emory and Rueben Greene plays his gal pal Bernard, the only non-caucasian party guest.

Things get sticky when an old friend of Michael's from college named Alan (Peter White) shows up unexpectedly, who may or may not be gay and may or may not know about Michael and may or may not be attracted to Hank. Michael also initiates a vicious party game that turns really ugly and brings some long bubbling resentments to the surface.

William Friedkin's masterful and in-your-face direction is a big plus here and the performances are uniformaly first-rate down the line. Sadly, several of the actors in this film, who were gay in real life, are no longer with us, a sort of underlying message that the film still seems to send today. I also liked the fact that this film, like 1982's Making Love, addressed the fact that being married has nothing to do with sexual orientation. We learn that Hank was married and left his wife to be with Larry and Alan's confusion about it is kind of aggravating.

If you have an open mind and looking for something a little different that has a significant spot in cinematic history, check this one out.

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Under the category of silly and pointless comes the 2009 comedy Bride Wars, a film that provides sporadic laughs here and there, but strains credibility at just about every turn.

Kate Hudson plays Liv and Anne Hathaway plays Emma, childhood BFF's who have both dreamed of having their weddings at the Plaza in June ever since they were kids. We then see Liv and Emma both receive marriage proposals almost simultaneously and then make a beeline to renowned wedding planner Marian St. Clair (Candice Bergen) who initially arranges separate weddings for both gals at the Plaza in June, but a clerical error finds Liv and Emma's weddings scheduled on the same day, which ignites a war between the two brides-to-be that gets WAY out of control.

Clearly the inspiration for Bridezillas, there's so much that goes on here in the name of comedy that I had a hard time buying. I understand that a woman's wedding is the most important day of her life, but I would think if a woman's wedding is scheduled the same day as her BFF that, at some point, one of these women would either change the date or the venue or their wedding so that this very special day can still be their own. Is the venue and date SO important that you would destroy your best friend's day as well as your own just to have your own way?

My confusion about this is addressed in the film through the two grooms-to-be (Chris Pratt, Steve Howey), who really don't understand what the fuss is about and don't get why being married at the Plaza in June is such a deal breaker. I also don't understand why the guys put up with the shenanigans that go on as long as they do.

Gary Winick's direction is a little on the manic side and the screenplay by Greg DePaul and Casey Wilson (Wilson makes a cameo appearance as the bride-to-be who has stolen the date our heroines need for separate weddings) is kind of all over the place, but one thing this film does convey despite the over-the-top goings-on, is that these two women really are BFF's who would walk through fire for each other and it's interesting to see them trying to destroy each other one minute and feeling mad guilt about it the next, but does it make up for the rest of the silliness that happens here?

Steve Carell's Jack Lemmon-esque everyman quality has never been utilized to greater advantage than in the 2007 comedy Dan in Real Life, a warm family comedy that provides smiles, giggles, roll on the floor laughter, and a possible lump in the throat.

Carell is just wonderful as Dan Burns, a widower with three daughters who, shortly after arriving at his parents' mountain cabin for a family reunion/weekend, is enchanted by a woman (Juliette Binoche) he talks to for ten minutes in a bookstore. Dan is on cloud nine until he learns the woman is dating his brother, Mitch (Dane Cook).

Director and co-writer Peter Hedges establishes the kind of guy Dan is from the opening scene where we see him still sleeping on his side of the bed and taking excellent care of his girls. Sympathy is immediately evoked for Dan as he fights his attraction to the woman, but can't. The story takes an odd turn when Dan's parents arrange a blind date for him and Mitch's girlfriend is clearly jealous.

Hedges' direction is spirited and Carell is backed by a wonderful supporting cast led by John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest as Dan's parents...two very classy people whose love for their son keeps them from coming right out and letting him know when he's screwing up. Dane Cook, who I usually can't stand, is almost likable as Mitch. Leo Norbert Butz has some funny moments as Dan's other brother, as does Emily Blunt as Dan's blind date. Also loved Brittany Robertson as Dan's middle daughter, Cara.

The film's primary faux pas is the casting of Oscar winner Juliette Binoche as the object of Dan's affections. Light comedy is just not Binoche's long suit and her performance is just as annoying as her character becomes when she sees Dan with another woman. Not to mention the fact that the onscreen chemistry between Carell and Binoche was nonexistent.

Lovely cinematography and a lilting song score by Sondre Lerche help, but it is the casting of Binoche that keeps this film from being the very special film that it almost is.

Dr. Dolittle is the 1967 musical dud that almost put 20th Century Fox out of business for good while simultaneously receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Picture of 1967.

Based on stories by Hugh Lofton, this is the story of John Dolittle, an anti-social doctor whose disdain for humans and love for animals motivates him to stop treating humans and only treat animals. He then discovers he has the ability to actually communicate with animals, an ability which ends up getting him arrested and on trial for his sanity.

Rex Harrison, fresh off his Oscar win for My Fair Lady comes off a little stiff in the title role. I learned later that Harrison was never comfortable with animals and hated every minute of making this film and some of that tension is evident in his performance. Anthony Newley plays his over eager sidekick Matthew, Samantha Eggar is lovely as the obligatory love interest, and Richard Attenborough nails a cameo as a circus owner named Mr. Blossom.

The lackluster musical score by Newley and Leslie Bricusse (who also wrote the screenplay) includes "My Friend the Doctor", "Beautiful Things", "When I Look in Your Eyes", "At the Crossroads", "After Today" "Never Seen Anything Like it" (delightfully performed by Attenborough) and the Oscar winner for Best Song of 1967, "Talk to the Animals."

The film is overlong and interest wanes long before the final fadeout, but small children might find some fun here. The film was re-imagined almost four decades later as a vehicle for Eddie Murphy.

Will Ferrell and John O'Reilly reunite for Step Brothers, a silly and over-the-top 2008 comedy that asks the viewer to accept a lot, but if you can, finding major belly laughs here shouldn't be a problem.

Ferrell plays Brennan, a 40-something unemployed bum still living with his widowed mother (Mary Steenburgen). O'Reilly plays Dale, a 40-something unemployed bum who lives with his widowed father (Richard Jenkins). Brennan's mom and Dale's dad meet, fall in love, and decide to get married forcing Brennan and Dale into a familial relationship neither wants that we watch morph into a friendship and eventual business partnership.

First of all, you have to wonder why Brennan and Dale's parents are still allowing their 40 year old sons to live with them. You also have to wonder why the parents tolerate the guys' childish behavior or why they didn't tell the boys to hit the road the second they decided to marry. I'm pretty sure there isn't a parent on the planet who would continue to support a 40 year old unemployed child, but if you can just let all of this flow over you, there is fun to be had here.

Ferrell and O'Reilly prove that the chemistry they created in Talledega Nights was no fluke and it is kind of funny watching the relationship change...the beginning is especially funny when they are forced to share a bedroom and begin snarking at each other in the dark, trying to make each other feel like the intruder. Even when their parents give them 30 days to get a job, they actually job hunt together, evidenced in a couple of very funny scenes, especially one that features a cameo by Seth Rogen.

Adam McKay's direction is loose and having worked with the actors before, seems to know when to let them go and when to rein them in. The presence of Steenburgen and Jenkins actually give the piece a touch of class that I'm not sure it really deserves. Adam Scott is also very funny as Brennan's snotty younger brother, as is Kathryn Hahn as his wife, who starts lusting after Dale after he punches her husband in the face.

The comic gold in the onscreen chemistry between Will Ferrell and John O'Reilly is reason enough to breeze through the over-the-top silliness of Step Brothers.

2009's Julie and Julia is a lovely and lavishly produced comedy-drama, which is a near perfect melding of two separate true stories that are more similar than they appear to be on the surface.

The film opens in 1940's Paris with renowned chef Julia Child and her husband Paul moving to France and showing a discontent Julia enrolling in Le Cordon Bleu in a class of all men and then devoting her life to an elaborate cookbook of french cooking.

The film then shifts to Queens, New York in 2002 where we meet Julie Powell, a government employee who is a great cook and kind of obsessed with Julia Child and has decided to give herself 1 year to cook every dish in Julia's book and blog about it. The film then alternates between the two stories whose connection seems paper-thin but becomes more clear as the film progresses.

Meryl Streep adds another remarkable performance to her gallery of memorable characters in her vivid and full-bodied performance as Julia Child and anyone who has ever seen Child on TV cannot argue the fact that Streep nails this character...every nuance of Julia's physical being beautifully realized by a master craftsman. Amy Adams somehow manages to make Julie Powell likable enough that we actually stay awake during Julie's story.

Stanley Tucci is quietly brilliant as Paul Child, Julia's neglected but never taken for granted husband, and Chris Messina is fun as Julie's husband Eric. I also loved Linda Emond as Julia's writing partner and a brief but flashy turn by Jane Lynch as Julia's sister.

The film boasts impressive production design and Nora Ephron's direction is solid, though her screenplay loses points for revealing that Julia Child hated Julie's blog, but the film is still a must-see, if for nothing else, for the gift that keeps on giving, Meryl Streep. BTW, the voice of Julie's mother on the phone is supplied by Mary Kay Place.

One of my favorite cinematic games of cat and mouse was 1993's The Fugitive an expensive and well-mounted re-thinking of the classic 60's television series that made a star out of an actor named David Janssen.

The film stars Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, a brilliant physician who walks into his home one night and confronts a one-armed man who has just finished murdering his wife (Sela Ward). The man somehow escapes and Kimble is arrested, convicted of the crime, and sent to prison. Later, Kimble is on a bus being transferred to another facility that gets in a very bad accident and Kimble manages to escape. Enter FBI detective Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) and his crew who begin the manhunt of the century and the ultimate cat and mouse game commences.

This film is riveting primarily because we know that Kimble is innocent even if none of the other characters in the movie do and, because of that, we are on his side from the beginning and want to see him triumph despite everything stacked against him. Even during an initial confrontation with Gerard, Kimble tries to plead his innocence and Gerard tells him he doesn't care. Unfortunately, we are also able to see Gerard's side of things and understand that the man is just doing his job and doesn't know that Kimble is innocent and it's the viewers anticipation of something giving way in this cat and mouse game that keeps us tuned in. It's also fun watching the near misses in this chase...how many times Kimble and Gerard are close enough for physical contact, yet Kimble somehow manages to slip away.


Ford turns in one of his strongest performances as Kimble and Tommy Lee Jones won a supporting actor Oscar for his Gerard (though personally, I think Jones has done better work). Julianne Moore scores in a brief role as a doctor who Kimble assists and Ward is lovely as Mrs. Kimble, it's really hard watching her get killed. Joe Pantoliano is also a lot of fun as Gerard's second in command. Jeroen Krabbe also scores in an unsympathetic role as a doctor who had a key role in Kimble's frame-up.

An action/adventure classic that entertains from beginning to end. A winner.

Holiday Inn is the 1942 musical classic most notable for introducing arguably the greatest Christmas song ever written.

The story is simple: Jim (Bing Crosby) and Ted (Fred Astaire) are a song and dance team that are coming to an end because Jim has decided to leave the act and decides to buy a run down old hotel in Vermont that will only be open on holidays. Jim meets Linda (Marjorie Reynolds), an aspiring performer who agrees to work at Jim's inn until one night, a drunken Ted arrives at the inn and dances with Linda, but is unable to find her the next day because he never saw her face, setting up the classic musical comedy triangle as Jim goes to some pretty outrageous lengths to keep Ted and Linda apart.

Crosby and Astaire are wonderful together and were reunited a couple of years later in Blue Skies. Walter Abel also steals every scene he is in playing Danny, Ted's manager who tries to help him find Linda. Abel is roll on the floor funny in this movie, turning in a nearly forgotten performance that deserves attention.

Unfortunately, Marjorie Reynolds is a rather bland leading lady, but maybe they didn't want the role of LInda upstaging Crosby and Astaire but I couldn't help thinking what this film might have been like if Kathryn Grayson or Vera-Ellen or Cyd Charisse, or even Judy Garland had played Linda.

The lackluster score is nothing to write home about, with the exception of one song: this is the film in which Crosby introduced a little ditty called "White Christmas", which would win the Oscar for Best Song.

Not a classic in the sense of Singin in the Rain or The Band Wagon, but Crosby and Astaire are always worth watching.

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The 1979 film Being There is an emotionally manipulative, but undeniably moving character study, though that term might be underestimating everything that happens here, that is worth seeing primarily for Hal Ashby's finest work as a director and the extraordinary performance by Peter Sellers in the lead role.

Sellers received an Oscar nomination for his performance as Chance, a gardener at a large estate outside of Washington DC, who has never left the estate and his only knowledge of the outside world is limited to what he's seen on television. Chance is outwardly accepting but inside panicking when the old man who owns the estate dies and Chance is unceremoniously asked to leave with nothing but the clothes on his back. Fortune intervenes when Chance is hit by a limo that contains one Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), who takes him home where he becomes good friends with Eve's husband, billionaire industrialist Benjamin Rand (Melvyn Douglas), who is fascinated by Chance's gardening analogies and applies them to political and business decisions that eventually have Chance meeting the President of the US (Jack Warden).

Based on a novel by Jerzy Koszinski, this movie presents an undeniably unique lead character who provokes equal doses of smiles and tears. There is an absolutely heartbreaking moment in the film where Chance is confronted by a group of teenage thugs on a crowded DC street and when he feels he's being threatened, he pulls out a remote control and brandishes it like a weapon...the move provokes laughs onscreen and it did in the theater when I saw the film for the first time, but I just found it terribly sad. On the other hand, I loved the way Chance's simple views on life, stated in terms of gardening, are taken to a point where Chance actually finds himself the toast of DC society and believed to be the President's #1 political advisor at one point...or is he more than that?

Sellers receives solid support from Melvyn Douglas, who won his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as Benjamin Rand. Warden makes a great president and Richard Dysart is also effective as Rand's doctor. MacLaine is smooth and understated as Eve, despite an eye-opening scene where Eve attempts to seduce Chance.

But it's still Sellers' remarkable performance that makes this film worth seeing more than anything. This movie would have made such a beautiful finale to Sellers' distinguished career; however, for some reason, he chose to make one more movie, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, which would be the final film he made before his death.

A lovely and haunting film with a thought-provoking finale that will stop you in your tracks.

It's not often that a film surpasses my expectations, but Hustle and Flow, an intense and sad urban drama with music that had me riveted from beginning to end, did exactly that.

After years of toiling away in mostly supporting roles, Terrence Howard was finally given the chance to carry a film in a lead role and it pays off in spades in this 2005 film in which he plays DJay, a 2nd rate Memphis pimp and drug dealer whose passion to be a rapper is reignited when he sees the success of an alleged childhood friend, who now calls himself Skinny Black (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges) and Djay is hoping Skinny Black will be instrumental in getting him out of this dead end life in which he feels trapped.

Unfortunately, DJay has people in his life, primarily the ladies who work for him, who have pinned their entire existence on DJay, start to feel a little left in the dust as DJay seriously begins to pursue his dream with the help of a buddy, played by Anthony Anderson and a mixing genius played by DJ Qualls.

Howard's powerhouse performance carries a lot of weight and his supporting cast is solid. Taraji P. Hensen and Taryn Manning also register as the two main women in DJay's life, one of whom is carrying his child.

This film is richly entertaining, but if I had one complaint, I just wish the executive producers had put a little more trust in the vehicle and put a little more money into production values...the film has a grainy and rather cheap look, like it was made in the 70's. Writer and director Craig Brewer's vehicle deserves a little more care to production than it received. Howard and Ludacris, who both appeared in Crash, probably made this before Crash, and maybe if it had been made after, it might have gotten the budget it deserved. BTW, the song "It's Hard out here for a Pimp", actually won the Oscar for Best Song of 2005.

The film appears to have been made on the cheap, but Howard and company definitely make it worth watching. 7.5/10