Gideon58's Reviews

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

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ROBIN AND THE SEVEN HOODS

It was hard for Frank Sinatra to get his Rat Pack together in Hollywood long enough to make a movie, but when they did, it was usually worth watching and the best of these few outings was a minor classic from 1964 called Robin and the Seven Hoods.

This brassy and colorful musical comedy takes the Robin Hood legend and transplants it to Chicago in the roaring 20's and recounts how the assassination of a mob boss named Big Jim (a classy cameo by Edward G. Robinson) sparks a war between Guy Gisborne (Peter Falk), who wanted the territory for himself and was behind Jim's elimination and Robbo (Frank Sinatra), who controls the north side of Chicago and has no intention of giving it up to Gisborne or anyone else. We watch as Robbo and Gisborne both want to open casinos but when Robbo impulsively donates a large amount of money to an orphanage, it takes his name and business to an all new level and igniting an all out war with Gisborne. Oh and let's not forget Big Jim's lovely daughter, Marian (Barbara Rush), who wants somebody, anybody, to avenge her father's death.

Sinatra was the man in 1964 and had the juice to put whatever he wanted onscreen here and as producer, he spared no expense in bringing this elaborate story to the big screen the way he wanted to. With the aid of director Gordon Douglas and screenwriter David R. Schwartz, Sinatra has effectively taken all the classic characters from Sherwood forest and transplanted to downtown Chicago during the roaring 20's and also did something I really didn't see coming: He gave his very talented cast, which included Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Bing Crosby all a little time center stage. As a matter of fact, we have to wait until almost halfway through the film to hear Sinatra sing, but as you might suspect, it's worth the wait. And a special shout out to Peter Falk, who steals every scene he's in.

The first rate musical score provided by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Husen includes, "A Man Who Loves His Mother", "Bang,Bang", "Style", "Mr. Booze", and, of course, "My Kind of Town", which earned an Oscar nomination for Song of the Year. It ain't Guys and Dolls, but there's fun to be had here.

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

Wow. What a great title.

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

IN THE CUT

Jane Campion, the woman who directed 1994's The Piano, which won Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin Oscars, is also the force behind 2003's In the Cut, a dark and gritty crime drama wrapped around a somewhat interesting character study that has a couple of solid lead performances, but suffers due to a screenplay that borrows liberally from other movies and has holes you can drive a truck through and hopes we won't notice by bombarding us with repellent gore and gratuitous sex.

The film stars Meg Ryan as Frannie, a spinsterish school teacher whose sexual repression seems to be somehow connected to her mother's troubled relationship with her husband. It seems Frannie has been keeping most men at arm's length for most of her life, despite encouragement from her sexually uninhibited half-sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who lives above a strip club. Frannie has two very different men in her life as the story begins: Cornelius Webb (Sharrieff Pugh) is a student of hers obsessed with John Wayne Gacy, who is assisting Frannie with a book she is writing on American slang. John Graham (Kevin Bacon) is an actor turned medical student, who is dangerously mentally unbalanced and now obsessed with Frannie to the stalking level. The brutal murder of a woman in her neighborhood brings a third man into her life, a Detective Malloy (Mark Ruffalo), whose sexist attitudes and unabashed sexual heat awaken something in Frannie that she tries to fight but cannot.

Campion and co-screenwriter Susanna Moore have constructed a story that alternately titillates and repels, but unfortunately, doesn't employ a lot of originality in doing so, sparking images of other movies throughout (Se7en, 9 1/2 Weeks, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and American Psycho to name a few) with a leading female character who is all over the place, placing herself in all kinds of danger, and often the kind of danger she could easily avoid. Lots of unanswered questions here...there is a scene where Frannie comes home and finds John waiting for her in her apartment, half-dressed, questioning her whereabouts and she's not immediately on the phone with the police...this guy is later observed screaming at the top of his lungs to strange women on the street that he is crazy and would they please have sex with him. And that's just the tip of the plot hole iceberg.

Campion decides the best way to make us not question these minor details is by barraging us with graphic sex and violence, intended to shock and excite but it doesn't make us forget the questions that have been raised and glossed over. If nothing else, like she did in The Piano, Campion does get a couple of superb leading performances from Ryan and Ruffalo...Ryan is properly de-glammed and is the exact opposite of Ruffalo, who seamlessly combines sexy and dangerous to such an intense level you almost don't notice the inconsistencies that run rampant throughout this ugly story...almost.

THE CHANGE-UP

The "Body Switch" comedy concept explored in the past with comedies like Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son, and Freaky Friday got a reboot with a 2011 comedy called The Change-up, a comedy that provides sporadic laughs going all the places it's supposed to, even if it takes a little too long to do it.

In this re-thinking, the participants are both adults: Dave (Jason Bateman) is a lawyer gunning for partner at his firm and is married to Jamie (Leslie Mann) and the father of three; Mitch (Ryan Reynolds) is an unattached struggling actor who smokes pot and has a mouth like a sailor. Dave and Mitch get together for the first time in awhile and talk about how much they envy each other's lives. They decide to take a piss together in a fountain (something they used to do in college I think) and they wish out loud for each other's lives and, of course, every light in the city goes out for five seconds and when they come back on, Dave is inside Mitch and vice versa.

The issues presented here are a little different than the above mentioned films because of the fact these are both adults as opposed to adults becoming children. Inside Dave's body, Mitch learns that there's more to being a lawyer than watching Law & Orderand that one of Dave's co-workers (Olivia Wilde) has been harboring a secret crush, while inside Mitch's body, Dave learns that Mitch's father (Alan Arkin) is a slimeball and getting back into the swing where unattached sex is concerned is not as easy as he thought.

Jon Lucas and Scott Moore's screenplay takes way too long with the initial screwing up of each others' lives that we expect; but once Dave and Mitch can't locate the fountain and have to embrace their situation and train each other on how to live each other's lives, the film kicks into gear, despite some sticky choices that both guys have to make in order to protect each others' lives as well as their own.

Bateman and Reynolds really bring the funny here and almost make some hard-to-swallow plot elements tolerable and I have never enjoyed Leslie Mann onscreen as much as I did here. Director David Dobkin has reined in Mann better than her hubby Judd Apatow ever did and, once again, Olivia Wilde shows a surprising gift for light comedy that serves her role well. It takes a while to get going, but once it does, The Change-Up cruises to a satisfactory conclusion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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THE WOODSMAN

A dark yet completely riveting character study that had me holding my breath and fighting tears for most of its surprisingly economic running time, 2004's The Woodsman addresses a lot of very prickly issues, primarily how the process of criminal rehabilitation often doesn't work because most of the people who are supposed to support the process end up impeding it.

Walter is a pedophile who has just been released from jail after 12 years in prison and is attempting to start a new life. He has a job and is participating in what seems to be court-appointed therapy. Rehabilitation seems to be paramount to Walter, but there are temptations and roadblocks everywhere he turns: His new apartment is across the street from a grade school where little girls parade in and out all day; his brother-in-law tries to reach out to him even though his sister and her daughter want nothing to do with him; his daily bus ride finds him sitting just a few feet from a pretty 11-year old every day; a police detective is harassing Walter and trying to get him to slip up and worst of all, glancing out his window at the school, he sees a man who is trying to do the same thing with little boys that Walter was doing with little girls.

This movie just wreaked havoc with my emotions because Walter not only seems sincere about rehabilitation (he initially balks at his therapist's suggestion that he keep a journal but changes his mind) but has been severely damaged himself by 12 years in prison and we see him doing everything he is supposed to do. We also see people who intentionally or not so intentionally get in the way of the new life that Walter is trying to build for himself. When he spurns a co-workers advances, she outs him in front of the entire workplace; he attempts to seek some common ground with his brother-in-law with some real honesty which meets with a death threat and this police officer who wants to catch Walter doing wrong so badly that he can taste it. He does find the beginning of a relationship with another co-worker, who has her own troubled sexual past (which seemed a tad convenient), but it is clear that Walter's past has also severely affected his dealings with adult women. There are a lot of difficult issues here and no easy answers offered, though writer/director Nicole Kassell piles a lot on Walter's shoulders, there is nothing here that is not deeply and vividly realistic.

With a grand assist from Nicole Kassell, this film works primarily due to a stunning performance from Kevin Bacon as Walter, in the performance of his career that should have earned him an Oscar nomination. I have never seen Bacon lose himself in a character the way he does with Walter...he makes this character strong, frightening, and most of all, terribly sad. Bacon's real life wife, Kyra Sedgwick is solid as his love interest here and this is a case of a real life couple whose offscreen chemistry definitely translates onscreen. Mos Def is properly slimy as the police detective,loved Michael Shannon as Walter's therapist, and Benjamin Bratt as the brother-in-law. This is strong stuff and a must for Kevin Bacon fans...not an easy watch, but worth it.

SCARY MOVIE 3
The first two films in the franchise were lukewarm attempts at satire at best, but they nailed it in Scary Movie 3, a horror movie lampoon that works because a proven commodity in the art of movie satire is behind the camera.

David Zuker, one of the creators of the original 1980 classic Airplane! is in the director's chair this time, offering a delicious send-up of Signs and The Ring, which also offers affectionate winks at The Sixth Sense, Scream, The Matrix, Independence Day, and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy without ever forgetting the film's original intention and that is to make fun of horror movies.

Our heroine Cindy (Anna Feris) is now a television anchorwoman who finds herself in the middle of a mystery that involves a message left in a cornfield belonging to a farmer and ex-priest (Charlie Sheen) and his younger brother (Simon Rex). who dreams of escaping the farm and being a rapper. Cindy finds herself falling for the would-be-rapper whil dealing with a mysterious videotape that has put herself and her son in danger, a danger of epic proportions that becomes national and eventually involves the POTUS (Leslie Nielsen).

This movie works because Zuker and his screenwriters have gone directly to the films referenced above and taken what was ridiculous about them (and let's face it, they all contained at least a trace of ridiculous) and took it to the extreme here, making what might have been unintentionally funny in the original films very funny here and keeping the jokes moving at such a lightening pace that the viewer isn't really allowed time to analyze and figure what isn't exactly right.

Zuker has also surrounded Feris with a lot of familiar faces like Queen Latifah, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Hart, Anthony Anderson, and the late George Carlin, as well as some talented newcomers like Rex, who really seem to understand what Zuker is doing here. The absence of Shawn and Marlon Wayans, who appeared in the first two films, is never really explained and frankly, I didn't care. Other highlights include the prelude with Jenny McCarthy and Pamela Anderson and Charlie Sheen's showdown with Michael Jackson. All I know is that for the first time in this franchise, I was laughing non-stop for 90 minutes.

YOU CAN COUNT ON ME

I noticed that I had been watching a lot of Mark Ruffalo movies lately and that motivated a long overdue re-watch of one of his earlier efforts, a 2000 sleeper called You Can Count on Me that was probably one of Ruffalo's first significant roles and earned Laura Linney an Oscar nomination.

Linney plays Samantha, a tightly wound single mother who decides to return to the small town where she grew up to raise her son, Rudy (Rory Culkin), after being badly burned by Rudy's father. Samantha gets a job at a bank, goes to church every Sunday, and picks Rudy up from school every day at 3:15 (a chore that almost keeps her from getting hired at the bank) and seems to be enjoying the dull rut her life has become. Samantha gets excited when she gets a letter from her long lost brother, Terry (Ruffalo) saying he's coming for a visit.

Actor, writer and director Kenneth Lonergan has mounted what is essentially a dual character study of a brother and sister who are both miserable in very different ways and come to have a profound effect on each other's lives. As expected, Terry's visit turns out longer than he planned and becomes the reluctant father figure for Rudy that was not on his schedule, which has freed up Samantha to explore her inner trashy, manifesting itself in affairs with three different men, including her married boss (Matthew Broderick). You could see that one coming from a mile away though...the sexual tension between Samantha and her boss was immediate and off the chats.

What I love about this movie, and Lonergan has to be credited for a lot of this, is the relationship between Linney and Ruffalo up there onscreen as actual siblings. I've seen a lot of movies where actors are playing brother and sister, but they come off more like lovers than siblings, but that is not the case here...we believe from their very first moment onscreen together that these two are brother and sister. There isn't a lot of hugging and kissing between the two, but there is a genuine affection, not to mention the ability to speak to each other without filter. The scene in the restaurant where Terry confesses to Samantha that he spent some time in jail was beautifully performed and directed..I loved the way Linney's Samantha was screaming at her brother and either wasn't aware or didn't care. There was a sadness to it too though because apparently Samantha had some sugar coated memories regarding her brother that were immediately dashed when she got this news, further driven home by his confessing that he only came to visit to borrow money. The scene at the ATM where she's getting him the money also rings true...I love how Terry looks away while she's actually removing the money from the machine.

Linney's Oscar-nominated turn is fresh and fascinating, but I really forgot that Ruffalo is the one who makes this movie sparkle...this is a real movie star performance that just bounces off the screen and into your heart and most important of all, you never catch Ruffalo "acting"...the sign of a really great performance. Macauley's little brother is adorable as Rudy and Broderick and Jon Tenney also impress as the men in Samantha's life. Kenneth Lonergan's intelligent yet accessible screenplay and sensitive direction are the crowning touches on this underrated winner.

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

DRUNKS

The 1995 drama Drunks is an allegedly intense look at alcoholism that scores big in terms of intentions, but the execution doesn't match the intention due to some dated plot elements, some really overripe performances, and most important, is fuzzy in its offering of a solution.

This film, which is based on a play by Gary Lennon who did his own screenplay adaptation, actually takes place at an AA meeting, where we meet a disparate group of people who are all suffer from the crippling disease and this is one thing the movie does get right: this disease does not discriminate and these are people who, outside of this disease, would probably never associate with each other. The story opens with Jim (Richard Lewis), who has been sober for three years and reluctantly agrees to be the speaker for this meeting. Jim's angry share seems to move the people at the meeting but it also moves Jim to leave the meeting and relapse. The film shifts between the tracking of Jim's return to drinking and drugging and the meeting where we meet among others, a woman (Lisa Gay Hamilton), whose HIV will kill her if she drinks, a man (Howard Rollins Jr.), sober a year after killing his son while drunk behind the wheel and a doctor (Dianne Wiest) who has been stealing demerol from her patients.

Admittedly, this film does shine an accurate light on alcoholic behavior: we meet a man (Spalding Gray) who claims he's not alcoholic and that he only came there looking for a choir rehearsal, but the man doesn't leave and reveals that he's exactly where he needs to be. We also meet a woman (Faye Dunaway) who is trying to stay sober for her son's sake and sobriety never works when you're doing it for someone else. We also meet a young woman named Kathy (Annette Arnold) who raises her hand to tell everyone she doesn't want to talk and takes ten minutes to do so. Alcoholism is a disease fed by ego and that is made clear here.

The film definitely shows its age too...the people at this meeting are observed smoking and smoking in AA meetings was eliminated decades ago, but I think the primary problem here is that the film doesn't really offer the true solution to alcoholism, which has very little to do with going to meetings, but because of AA tradition, what happens in those rooms remains anonymous and cannot be translated to film, which kind of makes what Lennon is trying to do here pointless, but it still might help point someone in the right direction, though I have never heard of anyone getting sober because of this movie.

The performances are strictly a matter of taste...Richard Lewis is like Pacino on crack and Rollins, Gray, Parker Posey, and Calista Flockhart are equally annoying. Wiest and Hamilton were the only performances that didn't completely make me nuts, but they were not enough to really recommend this film that tries to open eyes to a disease in a way that a film really cannot do.

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

BUGSY

Director Barry Levinson and producer/star Warren Beatty spared no expense in bringing their sophisticated 1991 look at crime boss Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, appropriately titled Bugsy, an ambitious biopic that sometimes gives us more style than substance and probably works a little too hard to protect the innocent, but rarely fails to keep the viewer riveted to the screen, thanks primarily to a pair of lead performances that actually led to a history making real life romance.

For those new to this movie genre, Bugsy Siegel was a major New York crime boss who, along with partners Meyer Lansky and Charlie Luciano moved their business from New York to Hollywood, which Siegel loved and eventually found love with a fiery struggling actress named Virginia Hill, who apparently was not much of an actress so she started sleeping around with major Hollywood players to get seen and get what she wanted out of life. Her attraction to Bugsy was swift and undeniable, according to this film and the fact that Ben was married with two daughters was a non-issue. This glossy Hollywood look at organized crime in 1930's Hollywood, layered with a solid love story about two people who were all wrong for each other, which only made the draw more powerful.

Barry Levinson, fresh off his Oscar win for directing Rain Man is in rare form here, taking a conventional crime drama and dressing it up with such elegant trappings and cinematic trickery that we can't help but becoming completely enveloped with what's going on. I loved the first meeting of Ben and Virginia, on a Hollywood soundstage with the fake backdrop behind them, not to mention before their first lovemaking session where a lot of the scene is done with the actors' silhouettes was just inspired.

I also loved the presentation of the central character, not exactly your typical Hollywood thumbbreaker...this Ben Siegel was a sharp dresser who loved the fine things in life and actually really wanted to be an actor...the moments of Ben sitting in his huge screening room watching his screen test over and over again are a bit funny and a bit sad. But this character definitely has the characteristics we've come to expect in a movie like this...Ben is really burned when he learns Virginia actually has a past but she's not allowed to bring up his wife and children. He could tolerate just about anything except people stealing from him, oh, and did you know he hated being called "Bugsy"?

Beatty the producer took great care with Beatty the actor, a charismatic performance that earned the actor an Oscar nomination and the chemistry he created with Annette Bening as Virginia Hill is something that must be experienced. As was accustomed with Beatty, he fell in love with his leading lady, like he always did throughout his career, but this time was different...this was REALLY love...Beatty eventually ended up marrying Bening and they are still married to this day, but this film was the genesis of a Hollywood marriage no one saw coming. Mention should also be made of a couple of very effective supporting performances that earned Oscar nominations: Ben Kingsley as Meyer Lansky and Harvey Keitel as Mickey Cohen. A stylish and elegant gangster epic that takes an ugly crime story and a twisted love affair and wraps it up in an irresistible and elegant gloss.

THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN

The Amazing Spiderman is the spectacular and imaginative re-boot of the Sam Raimi franchise about the high school student who becomes a superhero thanks to a bite of just the right spider. This film is slam-bang entertainment that works thanks to an intelligent and layered screenplay, lighter in tone than the Sam Raimi films, that brings a new and welcome backstory to the legend, some spectacular visual effects, and a pair of charismatic lead performances, especially a less wimpy and more likable leading lady.

This film takes pretty much the same story path that the 2002 Sam Raimi film did with a couple of startling exceptions. In this film, we get to meet Peter's parents at the beginning of the film. Peter's father, briefly but effectively played by Campbell Scott, was a genetic scientist working on the blending of spider DNA with other animals, and has somehow put him so much danger that he and Peter's mother had to disappear and leave Peter with his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and his Aunt May (Sally Field). This reveal brings an added richness to the story because it implies that Peter's father might have had some influence on what happens to Peter in this story.

Other story elements mirror the Sam Raimi films. We watch Peter lose Uncle Ben, put another high school bully in his place, discover and try to figure out his powers, and get the attention of pretty Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), who it turns out is the daughter of the chief of police (Denis Leary), who, of course, thinks that Spiderman is vigilante and not the good guy that he claims. What we have here is the story from the Sam Raimi franchise tweaked to a believable effect with a little more humor than the Raimi Spiderman.

I loved Peter's initial discovering of his powers on a crowded subway, one of the highlights of the film for me. Once he realizes he is different, Peter doesn't just go out and fool around like Tobey Maguire did, he goes straight to his PC and actually does research about what is happening to him and trying to determine possible adverse effects. I was also impressed by Peter's more direct handling of his alleged secret identity....I love that he tells Gwen almost immediately and that it really doesn't change the way Gwen felt about him before she learns the truth, but it doesn't scare her away either. The only person he really isn't honest with is Aunt May, but like the Rosemary Harris version of the character, I think this one knows what's going on but chooses not to talk about it. I also love the way the story subtly sets up sequels through a promise Peter makes and we know there is no way he will be able to keep it.

Andrew Garfield's goofy charm brings a deliciously human quality to the role of Peter Parker and Emma Stone is a vivacious and intelligent romantic interest, way superior to Kirsten Dunst's MJ Watson. Rhys Ifans offers the performance of his career as Dr. Curt Connors, the demented, one-armed former partner of Peter's father who becomes The Lizard and Denis Leary was solid, as always, as Captain Stacy. The film boasts first rate production values under the skillful guidance of director Marc Webb, with special nods to cinematography, film editing, visual effects, and sound effects editing. This is everything a great popcorn movie should be...just sit back and drink it in.