Gideon58's Reviews

Glad you liked it and that you could get a chance to see it. I think you might have liked it better than me, but I did like it, mostly the Mexico segment. What I loved was the sets, especially Dean Martin's bachelor pad, dig that sunken living room and that crazy free standing fireplace, I want a house like that!

I'm pretty sure I liked it more than you did. I saw it at the drive in when I was a kid but didn't remember it at all, Totally agree with you regarding Dean's bachelor pad, it was AMAZING!! I thought Deborah Kerr was fantastic, I don't think I have ever enjoyed her onscreen more, and that includes The King & I.

Everything I Have is Yours
Marge and Gower Champion spent years at MGM as specialty dancers but were finally given the chance to become the next Fred and Ginger with an elaborate 1952 musical called Everything I Have is Yours.

Chuck and Pamela are a Broadway song and dance team who have just opened in their first Broadway musical but opening night, Pamela discovers that she's pregnant. The couple are thrilled that they are to become parents but decide for the sake of a healthy baby, Pamela should leave the show. Chuck moves Pamela to an elegant country house in Connecticut and hires a sexy man trap named Sybil (Monica Lewis) to replace her in the show. Pamela enjoys raising her daughter while Chuck and Sybil become the toast of Broadway. After four years, Pamela gets the itch to return to the stage but Chuck wants her to stay home and raise their daughter.

The Champions are wonderful dancers and they are almost as magical as Fred and Ginger when they are on the dance floor and for the longest time, I never understood why they never became the next Fred and Ginger...then I saw this movie. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had a very special onscreen chemistry that extended beyond their tap shoes. Ginger, in particular, was a gifted comedienne who knew how to command the screen without dance. They were talented dancers and Gower would later become a Tony Award winning Broadway director and choreographer, but the truth of the matter is simply that Marge and Gower Champion were terrible actors and every moment they spend onscreen where they aren't dancing is almost painful...or deadly dull.

MGM cannot be faulted for giving them every opportunity to prove they had what it takes. They have been given a witty, if dated screenplay by Ruth Brooks Flippen and George Wells that was probably considered fun in 1952 but the idea of a man wanting to keep his wife barefoot and pregnant while he does whatever he wants would be booed off the screen today. I have to admit that I was amused by the bit of Chuck feeling all of Pamela's pregnancy symptoms but it eventually wore thin.

There is no denying that the film does come alive during the few dance sequences featuring the couple. Their opening duet, "Like Monday Follows Sunday" was cute as was Marge's solo "Derry Down Dilly" and Gower's "Serenade for a New Baby", an imaginative dance he performs for his daughter who's watching from her crib and there's a lovely dream ballet choreographed to the title tune that also works. The energetic choreography was provided by Gower Champion and Nick Castle.

Even the supporting cast was nothing to write home about, though Monica Lewis did have a few moments as the bitchy Sybil, but this one was a serious disappointment and unless you're hardcore Champion fans, I'd give this one a pass.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?
A man named Fred Rogers not only reinvented children's television but practically created the PBS network with a show called Mister Rogers' Neighborhood that ran from 1968 to 2001. His impact on television and his passion for loving, educating, and protecting children are lovingly brought to the screen in an incredible 2018 documentary called Won't You Be My Neighbor? I should mention at this point that this review is coming from someone who never actually watched an entire episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

The documentary cleverly sets up backstory for Rogers as a troubled and sickly child who had a very painful childhood, though the film does not go into a lot of details about it, it is implied through his inspiration to entertain children because he spent so many hours as a child entertaining himself. Somehow, Rogers managed to get himself a half hour television series on this new, commercial-free creation called educational television where he greeted children every day by coming home, taking off his sport coat and changing into his sweater and taking off his loafers and putting on a pair of sneakers. The show featured actors playing different roles in the neighborhood and there were a group of puppets who were all voiced by Rogers and inspired by different people in his real life. An unknown artist having complete creative control of his own television was pretty much unheard of in 1968, but the film's glance at alternate entertainment for children in the 60's and 70's made TV executives search for an alternative a no-brainer.

The film documents Fred's move from his original occupation as an ordained minister to the ministry that he really loved...the ministry of loving children. It was wonderful watching the way children were completely mesmerized by this man and how hard it was for a lot of them to distinguish between Fred and the puppets whose voices he provided. There is one absolutely lovely scene here between Fred and one child and he has his favorite puppet, a tiger named Daniel, on his hand and even though Fred is talking right to the child's face, the child never takes his eyes off the puppet on Fred's hand. We learn that Daniel the tiger was an extension of Fred who often spoke for him and I really came to believe that as the film progressed.

Fred Rogers is also documented as a groundbreaker where racism was concerned. In a bold move for 1968, Fred hired a gay, black actor named Francois Clemmons to play a police officer named Officer Clemmons. Black police officers couldn't have been something children were seeing on television every day at that time. He may not have been a bigot, but Rogers was a realist who when he found out Clemmons was gay, told him that if he wanted to keep this job, he could no longer frequent gay bars.

The film features commentary from Rogers' widow, his two sons, his sister, Clemmons, other actors and crew members on the show and cellist Yo Yo Ma. My favorite thing about this documentary, that is so rare in show biz documentaries, is that the documentary doesn't peel all these layers away from the subject revealing him to be a completely different person than the one we've put on a celebrity pedestal. Fred Rogers was exactly what we thought he was, nothing more and nothing less and completely reinvented the concept of humility. I won't lie, I found myself fighting tears during this film and for someone who never watched the show or knew close to nothing about the subject, that is quite the accomplishment.

Ocean's Eight
The female reboot of Ghostbusters had me a little hesitant about a female reboot of the George Clooney/Ocean movies, but my fears were quickly vanquished as Ocean's Eight turned out to be a slick, sexy, and delightfully dark crime caper that pays respect to the original franchise but definitely brings something new to the cinematic table.

The 2018 film stars Oscar winner Sandra Bullock as Debbie Ocean, the sister of George Clooney's now deceased character. who, just like Danny in the first film, is first glimpsed at a parole hearing where she swears her life of crime is over and that she just wants to be a normal woman. Only minutes after her release, we see Debbie contacting her old buddy Lou (Oscar winner Cate Blanchett) to get her in on her latest plan: Debbie wants to steal a necklace worth $150 million right off the neck of a flighty socialite (Oscar winner Anne Hathaway) during an important gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We then watch Debbie and Lou put their crew together including a soccer mom/professional fence (Sarah Paulson), a jewelry reconstruction artist (Mindy Kaling), and a pool hustler/computer hacker (Rhianna).

Director and co-screenwriter Gary Moss is clearly a fan of the first franchise, having mounted an elaborate tale that not only sets up paper-thin connections to the first film but provides plot points very similar to plot points in the first film that only true fans of the first film are going to catch. I love at the halfway point when Lou learns that part of the plan involves revenge on the guy who put Debbie in jail. I immediately flashed back to Brad Pitt in the first film threatening to walk when he learns that Danny's ex-wife, Tess, is a part of Danny's plan. The way Moss worked that into the screenplay was nothing short of brilliant. I also loved the dash of originality added to the story with the addition of an insurance investigator who quickly puts together what happened but still can't get his girls. I also loved the fact that the girls' plan doesn't go exactly as planned and have to deal with some unexpected hiccups that could have derailed the entire operation.

Moss provides a solid eye with the camera, the waist high camera following the girls passing things to each other was a joy to watch. It was nice seeing Sandra Bullock playing a character with a bit of an edge and she and Blanchett (who has never been sexier onscreen) create the same kind of chemistry that Clooney and Pitt did. I also enjoyed Paulson and perfect comic relief was provided by the fabulous Helena Bonham Carter. The offbeat casting of James Corden as the insurance investigator also totally worked. The film also features cameos by Heidi Klum, Marlo Thomas, Dana Ivey, Elizabeth Ashley, Kim Kardashian, Mary Louise Wilson and original film alumni Elliott Gould, and Shaboa Quin. The film also features top-notch cinematography, film editing, art direction, and sound editing. Can't wait for the sequel.

Glad you liked it! I just seen this review, I've been busy and having been up on reviews. You're so right Ray Walston nails his performance. I really liked Dino as super Dino!

I've seen this but it was years ago, so based on your review I'm going to watch it again, as I love 1950s style soap operas.

You would LOVE Madame X Citizen.

M.A.S.H
Robert Altman put himself on the map with 1970 Best Picture nominee, M.A.S.H., an uncompromising and unapologetic black comedy that went places military comedies had never gone before and found new life after the film's release.

The title stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, a hospital during the Korean conflict that is comprised of trucks and tents that are just a few miles from the front lines so that they can move to another location if need be. This is the story of one of those units, 4077th and provides an episodic look into the sexual, religious, and medical hijinks at said hospital, kicked off by the arrival of three new surgeons (Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt) at the hospital.

Ring Lardner Jr's Oscar-winning screenplay covers a lot of ground, including the difficulties of performing "meatball surgery', the constant defiance of authority from Hawkeye (Sutherland) and Trapper John (Gould), the hilarious and unexpected romance between the highly religious Frank Burns and the tightly wound head nurse Margaret Houlihan (and yes, we learn the origin of her famous nickname here), and a young officer (John Schuck) who has decided he is homosexual and that his only option is suicide.

In 1970, this was groundbreaking stuff that spit in the face of most cinematic images of war, boldly laughing at aspects of war that had never been considered humorous before. On the other hand, the scenes of surgery in the hospital are, at often times, stomach-churning at times...we get images of surgeon's entire arms inside soldier's bodies and blood spewing from various parts of the body. There is a chilling moment where Hawkeye has to deal with blood spewing from a soldier's neck before he can even get his gown and gloves on.

The parallel between these scenes and the scenes where Frank and Margaret's lovemaking becomes public or Hawkeye and Trapper get some unexpected R & R in Tokyo or Margaret's shower reveal might have you on the floor and think you just might be watching two different movies. But Altman never allows us to forget that no matter how rebellious Hawkeye and Trapper appear outside the operating room, they are brilliant surgeons who keep this hospital humming.

Evidence of Altman's unconventional directorial style is evident in the surgery scenes as well as in the climactic football game. Altman's work here earned him an Oscar nomination as did Kellerman's Major Houlihan. Sutherland and Gould were so strong together that they were re-teamed a few years later for the dreadful S*P*Y*S. And of course, a year and a half after the film's release, the film became a television series with Alan Alda and Wayne Rogers replacing Sutherland and Gould. The only actor in the movie allowed to recreate his role in the series was Gary Burghoff as Radar. A minor classic that might be of interest to fans of the TV series who have never seen it.

Drinking Buddies
That fuzzy line between friendship and relationship and the age old cinematic question can men and women ever just be friends are examined in a 2013 comedy-drama called Drinking Buddies that makes some valid points but just takes a little too long to get where it's going.

Luke and Kate are co-workers in a brewery who are also BFF's and playfully flirt with each other all the time. Luke is romantically involved with Jill and there are men in Kate's life as well. The story clearly establishes a friendship between these two people that is so special but those lines somehow never cross until one fateful weekend where they all go away together and the viewer is immediately scratching their heads about the validity of the relationships that we are being asked to accept here.

Director and writer Joe Swanberg is showing the influence of a lot of different filmmakers in this story...there's a little Bergman, a little Woody Allen, and especially a little Nora Ephron because fans of When Harry Met Sally will recognize a lot of the issues explored here, though it would have been nice if Swanberg had spent a little less time on exposition and gotten directly to the meat of the story...the weekend where everything looks wrong on the surface. I suspect the reason the beginning plays out as it does is because Swanberg wants to show us that relationships aren't always neat and tied up in a bow and cannot always be changed just because we want them to.

Swanberg's screenplay does an admirable job of showing the muddy waters the relationships that populate this canvas. There is one terrific scene where Jill and Luke decide to have a talk about marriage and Jill makes it clear that she's not ready but until she actually says it, you can see the little beads of sweat forming on Luke's forehead.

Swanberg has crafted a story that has a very improvised and voyeuristic feel to it...his camerawork almost always makes the viewer feel like they are intruding on some very personal moments. Swanberg picks a perfect situation to explore a friendship when Luke offers to help move, for many a new plateau on the friendship journey, we don't offer to help just anyone move. As a matter of fact, this is where the movie really kicks into gear; unfortunately, it's more than halfway through. I love when Luke cuts his hand while trying to get her sofa out of the old apartment and the completely different ways Kate and Jill react to it.

The saggy moments here are aided by a terrific pair of lead performances from Jake Johnson as Luke and Olivia Wilde as Kate. Johnson and Wilde worked together on the FOX series New Girl so fans of that show will definitely have ahead start and Anna Kendrick is charming as Jill. It takes a little too long to get going and it doesn't deliver what we're hoping for, but it is realistic and entertainment can be gleaned here.

Black Widow (1954)
A clever screenplay and a solid ensemble cast make the 1954 murder mystery among the New York theater setBack Widow worth a look.

While his wife Iris (Gene Tierney) is out of town, a Broadway producer named Peter Denver (Van Heflin) is persuaded to attend a party at the home of his upstairs neighbor and star of his current Broadway hit, the glamorous Carlotta Marin (Ginger Rogers). Peter meets a young girl at the party named Nanny (Peggy Ann Garner) who claims to be an aspiring writer and persuades Peter to let her write in his apartment during the day while he's not there. One day, Peter comes home and finds Nanny hanging from a noose in the bedroom but when the detective assigned to the case, Detective Bruce (George Raft) learns that Nanny was really murdered (and hardly the innocent she claimed to be), that's when the story really kicks into high gear.

Nunnally Johnson was one of the most popular and busiest screenwriters during the 1950's, responsible for for films like How to Marry a Millionaire, Casanova Brown, O Henry's Full House, and Everybody Does it and though he has also written other dramatic, his name has always been associated with light comedy so I was a little surprised when I saw him credited as the writer and director of this stylish murder mystery that actually provides something a lot of murder mysteries don' and that is mystery. This is one of the few films I have ever seen where a murder was revealed and I had no idea who did it, which has to be credited with Johnson's mounting of the exposition and backstory of the characters involved.

Having the story center around New York theater people gave the story a sophistication that was quite engaging. Watching the glamorous Carlotta strutting and chewing scenery was so much fun as well as Peter's complete boredom with her theatrics. There were a couple of story elements that seemed silly to me...we learn that Nanny is murdered and we know that Peter didn't do it, we don't know who did, but we do know it wasn't Peter, but when Bruce shows up at his office to question, he runs...why?

But I digress. This was an economic and wonderfully entertaining mystery and the final third where we learn exactly what happened, aided by flashbacks, was full of twists and turns I didn't see coming. Ginger Rogers is flashy and flamboyant as the very theatrical Carlotta and Van Heflin grows into the role of Peter. Tierney effectively underplays Iris and Garner impresses as young Nanny, but Raft was just a little too stone-faced for my tastes, but did not deter my enjoyment of this dandy little murder melodrama.

Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain
Hart may have gotten a little full of himself since I'm a Grown Little Man but he still brings the funny in 2011's Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain.

In my review of Grown Little Man I stated that a lot of Hart's humor was based on the fact that he's short but he does manage to mine humor from different sources this time. Hart finds a way to have his audience doubled over with laughter by recalling events from his childhood and his current life that had to be very painful for him.

Before the actual concert, we do get an overlong prologue where Hart visits his hometown of Philadelphia, telling stories about he ruled the streets and connecting with folks from his childhood who pretend to be unimpressed with his success. Of course, we see the real deal when he goes into a Philly Cheese steak restaurant and buys sandwiches for everyone in the place. I will admit that I was touched by the final minutes of the prologue where he visits his actual blood relatives and thanks them for making him the man he is.

We learn during this concert that Hart's father was a drug addict but Hart finds a way to take an aspect of his life that was clearly very painful for him and turn it into comic gold. During the prologue he mentions how his mother didn't allow his dad past the second step on the stoop and explains why in the concert. Hart also tells some very funny stories centered around his mother's funeral involving his cousin and the perils of being a pall bearer.

Hart opens the show with some very pointed observations about hanging out with other celebrities and how important it is to "stay in your own financial lane." The story of his own daughter's backyard birthday party and his dealings with the actor hired to play Sponge Bob had me on the floor. It is also revealed during this concert that Hart is now divorced and back on the dating scene which brought about some great stories about being in the clubs, sex, and (of course), being short. I also wanted to mention that I love when I see celebrities in the audience during things like this, and I am happy to report that , if you don't blink, you'll get brief glimpses of Shaquille O'Neill and Taraji P. Henson in the audience. Another winner from the New Millenium Eddie Murphy.

The Marriage Go Round
A professional cast and solid production values keep the 1961 comedy The Marriage Go Round from being just another photographed stage play.

Paul Delville and his wife, Content are married college professors who find their marriage challenged when a young Swedish woman, whose father was a former colleague, has returned to America all grown up and announces that she wants Paul to father a baby with her.

Leslie Stevens' play first premiered on Broadway in 1958 and ran for over 400 performances. Charles Boyer and Claudette Colbert played the Deville's and statuesque Julie Newmar created the role of the Swedish sex kitten.

Boyer and Colbert lost the roles in the film version to James Mason and Susan Hayward but Newmar was allowed to recreate the role she created on Broadway in the film version and she gives an eye-opening, movie-star performance that is about so much more than her amazing body. Newmar brings a depth and complexity to the role of Katrin because we're never completely sure of what her agenda is...yes, she says she wants a baby but never says that's all she wants and that's the fun of this comedy. The Devilles have taken each other for granted for years and it is the appearance of this woman in their lives that makes them take stock of their lives, not to mention Ross (Robert Paige) a longtime family friend who has been waiting for Content to dump Paul for years so he can have her...or so he thinks.

Romantic comedy has never been James Mason's long suit but he works very hard at keeping Paul likable and Hayward's acid-tongued Content is on the money, but they both take a backseat to Newmar, who totally owns this movie and earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance, a long way from being one of the brides in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The film also features top-notch art direction and music, including Tony Bennett's bouncy rendition of the title tune.

Where are you?

I'm back...I was out of town for about month for some job training.

Paternity
Paternity is a charming albeit predictable romantic comedy from 1981 that is watchable thanks to an absolutely winning cast.

Buddy (Burt Reynolds) is a 44-year old executive at Madison Square Garden who is feeling mortality creeping up on him and decides that he wants to hire a woman to be a surrogate mother because he has no desire to get married. Maggie (Beverly D'Angelo) is a waitress and musician who has just received a scholarship to study in Paris but needs money in order to do that. She wants to experience childbirth but is really not interested in the actual raising of a childbirth. And before you can say "labor pains", Buddy is offering Maggie $50,000 to have his baby.

Charlie Peters' screenplay provides consistent chuckles throughout and is centered around an extremely likable central character in Buddy Evans. The opening scenes where we see Buddy interacting with several different children are absolutely enchanting and we believe from the beginning of the movie that this guy really wants to be a father. We're a little disappointed when it is revealed that Buddy thinks because he is paying for her services that it is all right for him to date other women, but we never worry that Buddy is going to realize what he's doing is wrong.

David Steinberg's direction is a little on the pedestrian side but he has assembled such a terrific cast that you almost don't notice. Reynolds and D'Angelo are absolutely charming together and we are behind them from jump. Paul Dooley and Norman Fell are fun as Buddy's best friends, a doctor and a lawyer (how convenient). Elizabeth Ashley, Lauren Hutton, and Juanita Moore shine as various women in Buddy's life and there is a brief appearance from Peter Billingsley, the young bespectacled actor who would becomes a star a couple of years later when he was cast as Ralphie in A Christmas Story.

The film features some terrific Manhattan scenery and I loved David Shire's music, I just wish the actual story took a few more risks and didn't play like an extended episode of a sitcom.

I won't say that's completely unreasonable but this place is more important than some career.

I watched this based on your review, and I totally agree with you...it was a pleasant watch but a forgettable one. I waited so long to review it, that I've forgotten all about the movie and so didn't do a review, but if I had I would give it a

Oh..yes the French actress Darrieux really looked like she could be Jane Powell's mother, the resemblance was uncanny.

Even though I rated this much higher than you, still I felt exactly like you did and agree with what you said. I too thought it would be about class struggle and the difficulties and benefits of 'living small'....But then it shifts gears and gets weird and loses a lot of it's original strength. In the way it shifts gears, it reminds me of The Grand Budapest Hotel, which I loved at the beginning but went downhill as it moved away from the original setting and ideas.

Never thought of the comparison to The Grand Budapest Hotel but I see it now that you mention it. But the final thirty minutes or so of Downsizing are just strange.

Morning Glory (2010)
The director of Notting Hill and the screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada teamed up for an effectively but practically forgotten comedy from 2010 called Morning Glory that works because of the professionalism in front of and behind the camera.

The film stars Rachel McAdams as Becky Fuller, a television producer who gets hired as the executive producer of DAYBREAK, the lowest rated morning show in Manhattan. She makes immediate waves and gains respect from the co-anchor of the show, Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton) and most of the staff when she fires the obnoxious co-anchor (Ty Burrell) on her first day. Of course, Becky has to find a replacement immediately and actually manages to convince a veteran news anchorman named Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) to take the job. Unfortunately, Mike does not hit it off with Colleen at all and hates everything that morning television stands for.

Not sure what motivated me to watch this film, but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise, featuring an intelligent and edgy screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna that takes an incisive look at the world of morning television and manages to make us laugh at the fluffiness at a lot of the material that is presented on these shows but they have been doing it for so long we have forgotten how silly a lot of it is but this Mike Pomeroy character has not and he is utilized as a conduit into this sometimes silly part of network television.

Director Roger Michell manages to give this film authenticity by filming on location in New York, where all of these shows are filmed. The production values are first rate with special nods to film editing, art direction, and music. I loved the way the offices of DAYBREAK were made to appear as if they were truly at the bottom of the ratings, but their rating status never showed onscreen.The cramped dressing rooms of Mike and Colleen were perfectly decorated and made the opening scenes where they refused to meet in each other's dressing room so funny.

Rachel McAdams absolutely commands the screen with her Becky Fuller and is never blown off the screen by Oscar winner Keaton or the incomparable Ford, who seems to be channeling Jack Nicholson in one of his most entertaining performances that had me in stitches throughout. As he ages, I hope Ford considers more comedy because he really proves that he can be more than a former action hero, he can be a terrific character actor. Jeff Goldblum, John Pankow, and Matt Malloy offer fun along the way and Patrick Wilson is his accustomed sex on legs as the romantic interest. The whole cast is wonderful but that's because they have a clever screenplay and strong director guiding them. A very pleasant surprise.