Gideon58's Reviews

The Watch
The creative force behind the hysterically funny Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping was not nearly as successful with a silly and improbable comedy from 2012 called The Watch that never really finds its footing as the kind of movie it wants to be.

Set in a fictional town called Glenview, Ohio, a security guard at the local Costco is brutally murdered and Evan (Ben Stiller), the Costco manager, decides to form a neighborhood watch so that he can find out what happened to his security guard. Unfortunately, only three guys show up for the first meeting: Bob (Vince Vaughn) is only interested in participating as an excuse to get out of the house; Franklin (Jonah Hill) is a bitter gun nut who was rejected by the local police department and wants some outlet for his tendencies for violence; Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade) is a recent divorcee who thinks being part of the watch will help him get laid. It's not long before the watch discovers that the security guard was murdered by an alien and that there are more.

Director Akiva Schaffer is really only one of the culprits here...Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who wrote Superbad also wrote the screenplay for this confusing movie comedy that really doesn't know what it really wants to accomplish. Like a lot of Rogen's work, a reasonable premise is set up here and the idea of neighborhood schnooks forming a neighborhood watch is a premise that has legs, but the legs really were not a science fiction adventure including aliens of varying skills and powers who are not only apparently hiding in the basement of Costco but have found hosts among the citizens of Glenview. And why would aliens planning to take over the world start with Glenview, Ohio?

If this story had been presented as a straight up comedy about a neighborhood watch doing a genuine investigation into the death of this security guard, that might have worked. If the story had been mounted in the form of a Mel Brooks or Zucker Brothers type satire of movies like Alien or Predator, that might have worked too. Unfortunately, Rogen and Goldberg attempt to meld two very different kind of movies together and it never really gels as a singular movie experience. The whole subplot revolving around Evan's fertility just came off as filler to expand the running time and really had nothing to do with the story at hand, such as it was.

Stiller offers another of his uptight everymen who wasn't that much different than a half dozen other characters he's played and Vaughn just grates on the nerve as the guy who never takes what's going on seriously until he has to. Jonah Hill does provide some genuine laughs as the intense Franklin as does Will Forte as an obnoxious cop, but this is really only for hardcore fans of the stars.

Ironweed
Ironweed is an intense and atmospheric look at alcoholism, homelessness, and loneliness that goes on a lot longer than it needs to, but is worth a look thanks to the extraordinary, Oscar-nominated performances by Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.

It's Halloween Night in 1938 Albany, New York where we meet Francis (Nicholson) who has returned to his hometown for the first time in years, reuniting with his best friend Rudy (Tom Waits) and his best girl Helen (Meryl Streep). As we watch the reunion of these homeless comrades, we do learn that Rudy is dying from cancer, that Helen was once a professional singer and that Francis was once a major league baseball player. The story is an up close look at how these three people choose and don't choose to deal with the demons that have haunted them by attempting to drown them in alcohol.

William Kennedy has crafted a period appropriate screenplay, based on his own novel, that takes an up-close look at the plight of the homeless and alcoholic that has a different look than we're accustomed to because it's set in the 1930's, when the homeless were referred to as "bums" and people were even more uncomfortable with them then than they are today. Like most homeless, we're never privy to what got them to that state, but we get a little insight into it here...Francis apparently was responsible for the death of his infant son, separating him from his family and forcing him deep into the bottle. The detail that goes into Francis' story probably had a lot to do with this film's severe over-length.

Hector Babenco has provided very detail-oriented direction to this somewhat depressing tale, perhaps a little over-detailed as this film is really much longer than it needs to be, but aided by his production team. Babenco creates an atmosphere of deep pathos that pervades every scene. He drives home the desperation of people not knowing where their next meal was coming from or where they were going to sleep that night, but, for some reason, always seem to have a pint stuffed in their pocket. This might be one of the underlying reasons why people today are still a little reluctant to help the homeless because they really don't seem interested in helping themselves.

These people may not work too hard at helping themselves, but they once had goals and ambitions, sometimes manifested in fantasy here. I love the scene where Francis, Helen, and Rudy are in a bar and Helen is asked to sing a song for the patrons. Babenco and Kennedy give Helen a moment of triumph that is cheer-inducing and then jerk it right away from her, taking us right back to the often dank reality of this story, which includes an attack on the homeless near the film's climax that is comparable to the KKK attacking blacks in the deep south that is quite unsettling.

Nicholson's powerful and heartbreaking turn as Francis won him a sixth Lead Actor Oscar nomination and a fifth Lead Actress nomination for Streep, the only nominations the film received. They get solid support from Waits, Carroll Baker, Michael O'Keefe, and the intense Diane Venora, an actress who has been known to give me chills. Art direction, cinematography, and music deserve bouquets as well, but it is Nicholson and Streep that make this long and labored journey worth a shot.

Broadcast News
After winning twin Oscars for directing and writing Terms of Endearment, James L. Brooks followed up with the lavishly mounted Broadcast News, a long-winded, but fairly engaging romantic comedy that is rich with the colorful and offbeat dialogue we expect from Brooks, but it tries to encompass a little too much and goes on a little too long.

The 1987 film is set in contemporary Washington DC where we meet a quirky, control freak news producer named Jane, played by Oscar winner Holly Hunter, who is not happy with the trend that television news is becoming more concerned with entertainment than information. Jane finds herself involved with two different men who represent both sides of the controversy: Tom (Oscar winner William Hurt) is a pretty boy reporter who has never really had to work very hard for everything he's achieved and when it comes down to it, is no Rhodes scholar. Aaron (Albert Brooks) is brilliant, talented, an encyclopedia of current events, and is Jane's best friend, who also happens to be madly in love with her.

Basically what we have here is your basic movie romantic triangle, but with James L. Brooks in the driver's seat, we know right away there is going to be nothing basic about what happens. As expected, Brooks puts his own spin on these three classic characters that we've all seen a million times before, but the originality they are given here is quite refreshing. We fall in love with the Tom character right away because unlike most characters of his ilk, Tom is more than aware that he he has skated by on his looks, but has the passion to be better at his job. We love Aaron because even though he is the smartest character in the movie, we still feel bad for him because we know that he would probably trade his brilliance for Tom's looks in a minute, especially because they're luring Jane away from him.

And as always with the apex of a romantic triangle, it turns out that Jane is not seeing either of these men for what they really are. She is in complete denial about the fact that she is drawn to Tom's looks and feigns ignorance regarding Aaron's feelings for her even though she is totally aware of how he feels and this is where the control freak in the character comes in, symbolized throughout the story with Jane giving directions to drivers every time she has to take a taxi. What I love that Brooks does with these characters is that he makes all three characters so likable that we're not sure if we really want to see this triangle resolve itself.

I also love that Tom and Aaron are both big enough to admit when they need each other. Loved when Aaron got his first chance to anchor the weekend news and he asked Tom for advice in being on the air. The scene where Aaron does the weekend broadcast and can't stop sweating is fall on the floor funny. Unfortunately, the subplot about the 24 million dollar budget cut causing the firing of half the staff just slows the film down. When the story stays focused on our principals, it's a lot of fun.

The film received seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture and nominations for all three leads, with standout work from Brooks, brilliant in one of the few performances where he is being written and directed by someone else. There's also a glorified cameo by Jack Nicholson, who won an Oscar for Terms of Endearment, as the no-nonsense anchorman who stays above all the behind the scenes tension. It's not as good as Terms of Endearment, but Brooks does put his very special stamp on this story, giving it a freshness that doesn't quite sustain its length.

Undisputed
Rocky meets The Longest Yard in the 2002 sports drama Undisputed that suffers from a cliched and predictable screenplay, but is watchable thanks to its leading man, one of the most underrated actors in the business.

Sweetwater State Penitentiary is a facility located in California's Mojave Desert that is so huge they actually have a boxing program, which has been dominated for the last decade by a lifer named Monroe Hutchen (Wesley Snipes) who is undefeated after 69 matches but his reign may come to an end when George "Iceman" Chambers (Ving Rhames), the current heavyweight boxing champion, is convicted of rape and sent to the same prison. Anyone who has ever seen a boxing movie or a prison movie can pretty much figure out what happens from there.

Walter Hill, the creative force behind films like 48 HRS and The Warriors, provides the viewer with a screenplay that is rich with every cliche we've ever seen from the genre and beats them into the ground in order to beef up what is really a paper thin story. A story that, by the way, doesn't present the American prison systems in a very flattering light. Chambers taunts Hutchen minutes after his arrival and, for some reason, Hutchen gets put in solitary. Why would the authorities put the world heavyweight boxing champion in general population anyway? There's also a lot of screentime devoted to establishing the fact that Chambers is guilty of the rape charge and that he is deep financial trouble, which precipitates the need for him accepting the climactic match, but it's so unnecessary. The man wouldn't be sent to such a large facility if he wasn't guilty.

I was also troubled that a lot of the events in the course of the story are orchestrated by an aging mafioso/inmate, beautifully played by the late Peter Falk. It was a little hard to swallow that this guy practically had the entire prison population under his thumb and not just the population. He actually arranges a meeting with the Warden, who has decided to forbid the big fight, and discreetly advises the guy that he better go on vacation for awhile. As for the climactic battle itself, it's well-staged and photographed, but honestly, after years of watching Rocky movies, it was hard to buy a boxing match where not a drop of blood was shed...I kid you not, no blood, not even a scratch above the eye that the corner man had to cut open.

The best thing about this movie was the 100-megawatt, movie star performance from Ving Rhames as the Iceman. This guy has more screen charisma than he knows what to do with, which he had already proved in Pulp Fiction, but even with rather contrived material to work with, he still manages to light up the screen. Snipes is appropriately stone-faced as Hutchen and Falk, Michael Rooker, and Fisher Stevens also make the most of their screentime, but it is Ving Rhames that makes this one worth a look. Followed by a sequel.

The Lost Weekend
1945's The Lost Weekend won 4 Oscars, including Best Picture, but this allegedly realistic look at the horrors of alcoholism has not aged well at all, rich with dated elements and scenes that are almost comical now.

Don Birnham is a writer who lives in New York with his brother, Wick and is getting ready to go to the country for the weekend with Wick when his girlfriend, Helen drops by before an afternoon classic music concert to see if Don is OK for the weekend. We then learn that Don is a heavy drinker, but has been sober ten days. Sadly, it's not long before Don has talked Helen into going to the concert with Wick and found $10 that Wick left for the cleaning lady, which initiates the beginning of a four-day drinking spree for Don from which there is no rescue.

Billy Wilder was the force behind this, at times, horrifying look at a deadly, incurable disease that probably frightened 1945 audiences out of their socks with its no-holds barred portrayal of what alcoholism can do to a person. In terms of intentions, this film hits a bullseye, driving home the dangers of drinking with a somewhat sledgehammer approach, but there's so much that goes on here that just looks silly in 2019.

On the positive side, I like the way Wilder chose to begin the story in the middle of Don's addiction...he's been sober ten days and is brimming with confidence about it, but it drives home another message that sober time is no guarantee of continued sobriety. Watching Don in this movie, there is nothing in his actions that indicate the man has not been drinking except for the fact that the screenplay tells us so. He walks into bars and bartenders look terrified and don't want to serve him.

There's just way too much going on here that just doesn't fly in 2019. Stealing the women's purse at the restaurant would have landed him in jail today. So would that scene where Don just walks into a liquor store and just takes a bottle without paying for it. And trying to buy a drink by hocking his typewriter just looked stupid today, as did that almost laughable scene near the climax where he hallucinates seeing bats eat a rat in his apartment.

Wilder won two Oscars for his direction and for his screenplay with Charles Brackett and Ray Milland's sincere work as Don won him the Lead Actor Oscar. Jane Wyman was lovely as his enabling girlfriend and Howard DeSilva was terrific as a not-so-sympathetic bartender. This was probably quite an eye opener in 1945 but it's definitely getting rusty around the edges.

Drowning Mona
2000's Drowning Mona is an underrated black comedy that provides solid entertainment from opening to closing credits, thanks primarily to a terrific ensemble cast, a few of whom are cast seriously against type.

Set in one of those small New England towns where everybody knows everybody, the story opens with a woman named Mona Dearly (Bette Midler) getting into a car where we see the brakes fail and Mona drive the car off a mountain curb, into a river to her death. As word spreads of Mona's death, it is revealed that this woman is the town's most hated citizen and no one, including her husband Phil (William Fichtner) and son Jeff(Marcus Thomas), is terribly upset about her death. Other suspects on the canvas include Bobby (Casey Affleck), Jeff's business partner and Rona (Jamie Lee Curtis), the waitress with whom Phil is having an affair. Watching police Chief Rash (Danny DeVito) trying to piece together exactly what happened to Mona makes up the crux of this loopy little comedy.

Peter Steinfeld's clever screenplay is set up around the murder of a town's most hated citizen, making just about everyone a suspect while simultaneously establishing the very close relationships between said suspects. With every scene, a new connection is established between the various suspects that we don't see coming which could be confusing. Of course, anyone paying close attention can figure out exactly how Mona's death came about but the fun is watching Chief Rash and the rest of these not-too-bright folk try to figure it out. We also get flashbacks of Mona's past encounters with the suspects in order to establish possible red herrings that provide a lot of laughs.

Director Nick Gomez keeps things moving at a nice clip, demanding viewer attention, and just when we think we've got it figured out, the third act throws another corpse into the mix negating a lot of what we think we've learned, but it is all resolved in a clever and economic fashion.

The best thing about the film is the superb ensemble cast that Gomez has assembled for this whacked out romp, with standout work from Midler, Fichtner, Curtis, and Affleck. One surprise was Danny DeVito as the sheriff, playing the role with one of the straightest faces he has ever presented onscreen in order to let the other nutty characters shine. Also loved Paul Ben Victor and Paul Schulze as DeVito's dim-witted deputies. There are also a couple of small roles provided for future stars Will Farrell and Melissa McCarthy. A twisted comic romp that delivers laughs and surprises throughout.

Basic Instinct
Basic Instinct was one of the biggest box office smashes of 1992, though today it is probably best known for a single scene, the slick psycho-sexual thriller does have other things going for it like stylish direction and steamy chemistry between the stars.

Michael Douglas plays a San Francisco police detective named Nick Curran who is assigned to the case along with his partner, Gus (George Dzundza) when a former rock star is murdered. The investigation immediately points our heroes in the direction of one Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a sexually uninhibited crime novelist who has just written a book about a former rock star who is murdered. Curran is thrown when Catherine appears to know a lot about him that she would have no way knowing until it's revealed that she is modeling the lead character in her next book on Nick and has been doing research on him. The investigation draws these two people together, two people who are more alike than they care to admit, though trust becomes an issues as more bodies continue drop around them as the investigation deepens.

Joe Eszterhaus, who also wrote Jagged Edge and Showgirls has constructed an overly complex screenplay that seems to be constantly trying to manipulate the viewer into believing things are going on that aren't going on, though I do like the seriously flawed character of Nick Curran...we learn that Nick has just been through an Internal Affairs investigation after shooting two suspects and even had an affair with the police psychologist (Jeanne Tripplehorn) in order to expedite the investigation. Eszterhauz also provides layers to Catherine Tranmell that complicate the story and fuel the mystery surrounding her characater, her bisexuality and her striking up friendships with killers in the name of research for her book.

Where this film scores are director Paul Verhoeven's stylish directorial touches that he brings to the story, particularly an eye for the erotic that wasn't quite so effective in Showgirls, but it is everywhere here...the camera roaming the floors of the dance club and eventually leading to the restroom where Catherine is having sex and snorting cocaine or Douglas' heated sex scenes with both Tripplehorn and Stone, shot and edited for maximum effect. And as for the film's most famous scene...Stone in the interrogation room crossing and uncrossing her legs, seems to have been inserted for titillation purposes and really has nothing to do with the story. Ironically, it's the first thing people think about today when the film's title is brought up. The film has a little more to offer.

Douglas completely invests in the complexities of Nick Curran and after a few other minor roles, Sharon Stone officially became a movie star with this blazing, sex-on-legs performance as Catherine Tramell. Jan De Bont's cinematography and Jerry Goldsmith's music also deserve mention, but it's the chemistry between Douglas and Stone that carry this one.

Love Affair (1994)
Warren Beatty struck gold back in 1978 when he remade Here Comes Mr. Jordan as Heaven Can Wait. Wish the same could be said about his lavish big budget remake of Love Affair, which is only carried so far by the chemistry of Mr and Mrs. Beatty.

Mike Gambril (Warren Beatty) is a sportscaster who is engaged to an Oprah-like media queen (Kate Capshaw) who meets Terry McKay (Annette Bening), a singer engaged to a wealthy businessman (Pierce Brosnan) on a flight to Sidney, but the plane has to make an emergency landing and Mike and Terry are put on an ocean liner where they have a whirlwind romance. They decide that after the boat docks, they will give themselves three months to extricate themselves from their current romantic entanglements and meet at the top of the Empire State Building; however, tragedy intervenes and one of them doesn't make the fateful meeting.

This story first came to the screen in 1939 with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne in the starring roles and was remade in 1957 as An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr taking over the roles in what was probably the more famous version of the two, though Warren Beatty really missed the boat here as producer and co-screenwriter of this remake that went back to the original title and the 1939 screenplay by Leo McCarey and Donald Ogden Stewart. Unfortunately, Beatty and co-screenwriter Robert Towne seemed a little overly concerned with "updating" the story for the 1990's with a lot of unnecessary changes to the original story. The whole thing of Mike and Terry meeting on a plane that has to de-board and put everybody on a ship was just one of several reasons why this movie, with a running time under two hours, seemed more like four.

Warren Beatty and Annette Bening prove that the chemistry they had previously displayed in Bugsy and actually developed into a real life marriage, was no fluke, but it just wasn't enough to keep this film engaging. There's a whole lot of screentime consisting of planes and ocean liners and the Empire State Building being shot from different angles that did nothing but pad the running time. Producer Beatty also continues to be very protective of actor Beatty, making sure the actor is shot in dark lighting and with those filters they used to use on Doris Day, in an attempt to cover up the fact that Beatty is aging, something Beatty has been denial about for a long time.

It was curious that Beatty gave up the director's chair for this project that he produced and co-wrote. Glenn Gordon Caron, a director mostly known for his work in television, but did direct the excellent Clean and Sober, employs flawless production values, which don't disguise the fact that this movie moves at snail's pace. The late Garry Shandling makes the most of his role as Beatty's agent and there is a classy cameo by the legendary Katharine Hepburn, in her final feature film role, but what this film comes down to is the chemistry between the stars, which is there, but it's just not enough.

Kevin Hart's Guide to Black History
Kevin Hart has a major misfire with the 2019 Netflix special Kevin Hart's Guide to Black History, a good idea on paper that definitely loses something in execution.

This look at some of the unsung heroes in black history is framed around Hart trying to understand why his daughter is mistreating her little white friend. She explains that they were watching 12 Years a Slave and decides to take 200 years of oppression out on her little friend, which motivates Kevin to share stories of important black figures in history.

This was a good idea...it was interesting to see someone talk about black figures in history other than George Washington Carver. We are afforded looks at people like Matthew Henson, the first back explorer to set foot on the North Pole, Mae Jamison, the first female black astronaut. a civil war soldier named Robert Benson, and the legendary Josephine Baker, but these stories aren't afforded the respect they deserve. There is also a look at Dr. Vivian Thomas, whose story was already told in a respectful manner by HBO in Something the Lord Made

In addition to the smirking and hip tone that Hart utilizes for the narration, portions of these stories are brought to life in the form of comic reenactments played by actors but said reenactments are so not funny. Maybe budget limitations were an issue, but these were pretty much unknown actors for the most part, who really didn't seem to get the humor in Evan Waite's screenplay. Waite's biggest credit prior to this was as a writer for The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt so maybe it might have helped if Hart had actually written this himself. Not to mention, Hart has enough juice in Hollywood now that he could have gotten some "A" list actors to participate in the reenactments.

It doesn't help that the young actors playing Hart's daughter and her little friend are beyond annoying, as is Lil Rel Howery, playing Hart's gambling pal. Even cameos by Tiffany Haddish and Weird Al Yankovick couldn't help this one.

Black Rain
From the producers of Fatal Attraction and the director of Gladiator, 1989's Black Rain is a by-the-numbers mob thriller that attempts originality by being set on foreign soil, unfortunately, the setting works against the film as much as it works for it.

The film stars Michael Douglas as Detective Nick Conklin, another movie cop fresh off an internal affairs investigation who is at a bar one night with his partner, Charlie Vincent, played by Andy Garcia, where they witness a meeting between New York mobsters and members of the Yakuza (the Japanese Mafia), which results in two people being murdered in cold blood in front of dozens of witnesses. Conklin and Vincent nab the guy who did it who has been ordered back to Japan and our boys are assigned to accompany the guy. Upon arrival in Tokyo, a group of men claiming to be Japanese police take the prisoner off their hands, but it turns out they were imposters and dogged by a stuffed-shirt Japanese detective (Ken Takamura), Conklin and Vincent find themselves waist deep in the Yakuza and an elaborate counterfeiting operation.

Director Ridley Scott is to be applauded for the look of this film, which is dark and haunting, thanks to superb production values, but his work is overshadowed by a long-winded and often incomprehensible screenplay by Craig Bolitin and Warren Lewis that plunges the two main characters in the middle of a fish out of water mob story and often forgets that the story takes place in a foreign country. Approximately one third of the screenplay is not in English and there are no subtitles provided. Don't get me wrong, I hate reading at the movies and have never been keen on subtitles, but when most of the characters onscreen are not speaking English for the majority of the running time, attention begins to wane pretty quickly.

The film is beautifully photographed and mounted, with gorgeous Asian scenery, making Tokyo look like the most beautiful city in the world. The cinematography by future director Jan De Bont is first rate as are film editing, music, and the Oscar-nominated sound. Douglas is solid as Conklin and Andy Garcia is a lot of fun as Charlie, but the inability to understand Japanese really hindered my enjoyment of what was going on here.

8 Heads in a Duffel Bag
Once again, I judged a book by its cover and let myself be enticed into viewing a movie because I liked the title. Despite a brilliant performance by Oscar winner Joe Pesci, 1997's 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag is a big mess, even with a screenplay by the Oscar winning writer of Dead Poets Society.

Pesci plays Tommy, mafia courier who has been assigned to deliver the heads of eight murdered men to a mob boss who paid $80,000 to have these guys killed. Tommy gets on a plane and is seated next to Charlie (Andy Comeau), a college student who is on his way to Mexico for a holiday with his girlfriend (Kristy Swanson) where he'll be meeting her parents (George Hamilton, Dyan Cannon) for the first time. Of course, Tommy and Charlie pick up each other's bags and before you know it, Charlie's girlfriend's mother is the first one to discover that Charlie has a duffel bag with eight heads in it.

Tom Schulman, who not only wrote Dead Poet's Society, but the hilarious What About Bob? is also in the director's chair for this one, and maybe that's one of the problems. Schulman is not someone known for effectively wearing multiple hats behind the scenes. The story starts off promisingly with Pesci driving everyone on the airplane crazy trying to protect his precious cargo, but when he realizes Charlie's not in Mexico, the only clue he has is the name of Charlie's college, where he makes a beeline and starts torturing Charlie's two roommates (David Spade, Todd Louiso) to make them spill where Charlie is. Now these scenes are quite funny, but the focus of the film starts to wane from Tommy and the roommates and goes back to Charlie and his family, where the story goes from funny to silly to stupid. I was hanging to a shred of interest until halfway through the third act when an over-the-top fantasy sequence came out of nowhere and made me want to check out permanently.

Fortunately, Joe Pesci is always worth watching, offering one of his most subtle performances as the angry hitman, but Pesci doesn't have enough screentime in the story to keep viewer interest piqued. Andy Comeau, whose biggest credit prior to this was a supporting role on the SHOWTIME series Huff, works very hard at looking comfortable with all the physical comedy, but when you have to work this hard to look comfortable, maybe casting someone with a little more comic experience might have been the ticket. Spade and Louiso are very funny though. Swanson offers her accustomed unlikable screen persona and Cannon redefines the word "shrill" here. An hour and a half of my life I'll never get my back, Pesci earned this film half a bag of popcorn on its rating.

Solitary Man
Some clever and colorful writing and some really good acting help to make a 2009 character study called Solitary Man a lot better than it really is.

Ben Kalmen is an arrogant, youth-obsessed, unscrupulous businessman with a questionable moral barometer, who once made a fortune with his own automobile franchise and has pretty much lost everything and is now trying to start over; however, a health scare and signs of his past catching up with him are making that pretty much impossible.

Screenwriter and co-director Brian Koppelman has created an effectively layered screenplay that simultaneously establishes the central character through backstory while providing consequences for a lot of the character's past behavior. Unfortunately, said consequences don't keep the character from making similar bad choices during the course of this story and there is no justification for a lot of Kalmen's behavior in this movie, but the character has an element of likability to him that has us hoping for his redemption and by the time the credits roll, it looks like redemption is possible, but we're not 100% sure.

This central character and the kind of guy he is gets established during the opening scene where he is greeted by his daughter and grandson and tells them they are not to call him "Daddy" or "Grandpa" in public. We also see him sleep with the daughter of the woman he's currently dating and one of his daughter's friends and not thinking twice about it. On the other hand, we see a lovely friendship with his ex-wife, who apparently accepted who Ben was years ago, divorced him, and came out of the relationship relatively unscathed.

The primary selling point here is the charismatic movie star performance by Michael Douglas in the starring role, pulling out all the acting stops here in the kind of role that, 30 years ago, would have been played by Jack Nicholson. This character is a smart-ass know-it-all who loves to give bad advice to people and is unapologetic for a lot of really detestable behavior though we get the sense that he's never forgotten about the wrong he has done. There's this lovely moment where he's visiting his old college where buildings are now named after him, where he sits down on a campus bench and we see the memories of his wrong and regret sweep over his face. I think this was the first moment in the film where I actually started to like the character, a guy whose only positive attributes comes out during moments with his grandson.

The direction by Koppelman and David Levien is pretty unimaginative for a collaborative effort, but the cast is so good you almost don't notice. Douglas gets solid support from Susan Sarandon, Imogen Poots, Jenna Fischer, Danny DeVito, and Mary-Louise Parker as past and present collateral damage in the life of Ben Kalmen. Michael Penn's music also deserves a nod, perfectly framing this often squirm-worthy character study anchored by one of Michael Douglas' most interesting performances.

Come September
Some gorgeous Italian scenery, a surprisingly witty screenplay and a charming performance from Rock Hudson are the best things about Come September, a 1961 generation gap comedy that still provides a fair amount of laughs for a movie over 50 years old.

Hudson plays Robert Talbott, a wealthy American businessman who owns an elegant Italian villa that he only visits once a month every September. As this story begins, Talbott has decided to make his annual visit two months earlier than usual and plans a reunion with an old girlfriend named Lisa (Gina Lollobrigida) who is about to marry someone else but agrees to meet Robert at the villa. Upon arrival at the villa, Talbott learns that his major domo (Walter Slezak) has been making a lot of money turning the villa into a hotel for the other eleven months of the year. Talbott orders his major domo to throw out the virginal teenage girls who are currently staying there until the arrival of a group of oversexed college boys arrive and set their eyes on the girls.

Stanley Shapiro, who won an Oscar for his screenplay for Pillow Talk, has written a story that is an effective combination of a generation gap comedy and a battle of the sexes comedy, once again approaching the "will she or won't she" kind of comedy that Shapiro introduced in Pillow Talk, but this story has an extra layer with Hudson's character protecting the girls from exactly the kind of character that Hudson portrayed in Pillow Talk.

Though split screen images are utilized in only one scene here, this film presents the same kind of lighthearted romance , breezily directed by Robert Mulligan that provides a character for Hudson that is the polar opposite of Brad Allen, his character in Pillow Talk. I love when Talbott is just moments from kicking these girls to the curb, he all of a sudden becomes their protector and does whatever he can to make sure these girls stay pure until their wedding day.

Rock Hudson is completely enchanting in the title role, methodically endearing us to a character who comes off initially as a cad. Gina Lollobrigida brings her physical assets and a definite affinity for light comedy to her role and creates viable chemistry with Hudson. Bobby Darin and real life girlfriend Sandra Dee aren't nearly as interesting but they try hard. Slezak and Brenda De Banzie, playing the girls' chaperone, provide laughs. Future Oscar winner Joel Grey can also be glimpsed in a small role as one of Darrin's buddies. Fans of Pillow Talk will have a head start here.

Dial M For Murder
Even second tier Hitchcock is better than a lot of the crap being produced today, evidenced in the Master's 1954 film Dial M for Murder, which is unable to escape its stage origins, but Hitch's undeniable style and a winning cast do make it viable entertainment.

Ray Milland stars as Tony Wendice, a tennis pro disenchanted with his cheating wife, Margo (Grace Kelly) and has decided to get revenge by blackmailing an old college acquaintance named Lesgate (Anthony Dawson) into murdering Margo, offering him a portion of the money Tony would inherit from Margo's will. Lesgate agrees to the deed, but the plan doesn't go as planned and Lesgate ends up dead, but Wendice finds a way to even work this to his own advantage and keep his hands cleans...or so he thinks.

This film is based on a play by Frederick Knott (Wait Until Dark) that opened on Broadway in 1952 and ran for 552 performances, with Dawson and John Williams as Inspector Hubbard playing the roles they were allowed to reprise in this screen version. It's pretty obvious that the story began onstage since most of the film plays on a single set, but Hitchcock is still able to create an atmosphere of tension here that is actually made more viable by the confines of the setting.

The story is a little unsettling because as the story unfolds, it comes to light that this Tony Wendice character has been planning the murder of his wife for almost a year and has done so down to the last detail. I love the scene when he is laying out his plan to Lesgate while simultaneously setting the guy up for the crime so that he has no choice but to accept and he is walking around the room wiping fingerprints off everything. The scene is staged with such subtlety that it actually takes a minute to actually catch on to what Wendice is doing. Equally effective is the scene where Margo's lover, Mark (Robert Cummings) is methodically piecing together what happened to Tony and getting no confirmation, even though he's getting it all right. Love the fact that we never see Tony Wendice sweat...his plan doesn't go as planned but he never stops thinking.

Ray Milland brings a smarmy slickness to Tony Wendice that works and of course, Grace Kelly is a breathtaking damsel in distress and Robert Cummings offers one of his best performances as Mark Halliday. Though if the truth be told, John Wiliams steals the show reprising his Broadway role as Inspector Hubbard. His entrance into the story actually energizes the proceedings and gives the story real forward movement. Dimitri Tomkin's music is a perfect accompaniment to the story, a story that is lifted out of the ordinary by an extraordinary director.

The music's great. Seems to be a real homage to earlier works in the genre.

Late Night
A glorious performance by Oscar winner Emma Thompson is the main reason to check out the 2019 comedy Late Night, which was actually written by Thompson's co-star, Mindy Kaling. who is definitely overshadowed by acting powerhouse Thompson.

Thompson is cleverly cast as Katherine Newbury, the hard-as-nails hostess of a late night talk show who is being threatened with being replaced when she hires an aspiring female comic named Molly Patel (Kaling) to become the only female member of her writing staff who immediately antagonizes her co-workers and aggravates her new boss because she knows there's something wrong with the show that has been in a ratings slump for about a decade, but she really doesn't know what to do about it. Things get stickier for Newbury when it becomes public that she has had an affair with one of her writers (Hugh Dancy), who has also been flirting with Molly.

As star and screenwriter, Mindy Kaling was definitely looking for that breakout role that would make her a star; unfortunately, this isn't it. If the truth be told, Mindy Kaling is like a poor man's Will Smith, no matter what role she's playing, she's pretty much Mindy Kaling in everything she does and this movie is no exception. She brings nothing special to this role that she wrote herself, except possibly a fancier wardrobe than usual.

Thompson, on the other hand, is another matter. The two time Oscar winner has proven to be one of the most powerful and versatile actresses in the business, unwilling to back down from any challenge as an actress. I was doubtful getting behind the idea of Thompson playing a female Johnny Carson, but Thompson really sinks her teeth into this role and makes this movie worth watching. She creates a character who is a little intimidating, a little sad, a little insensitive, and a whole lot of funny. Thompson has not made me laugh this hard since her Oscar acceptance speech for writing Sense and Sensibility. Watch that scene where she takes the stage at the cancer benefit...Thompson makes some really bold and edgy acting choices. She is fire and ice and her performance alone made this Amazon Pictures production worth sitting through.

Mention should also be made of the endlessly talented John Lithgow, who makes the most of his role as Katherine's invalid husband and Denis O'Hare as Katherine's producer. Also enjoyed Reid Scott and John Early as other writers on Katherine's staff, Ike Barinholtz as the standup scheduled to replace Katherine and Amy Ryan as the no nonsense network president. It's not the intended breakout intended for Mindy Kaling, but Thompson, Lithgow, and O'Hare provide solid entertainment value here.

Death to Smoochy
Imaginative direction by Danny DeVito and some terrific performances help to make the 2002 black comedy Death to Smoochy, two thirds of a really merciless look at the cutthroat world of children's television, but the story goes way off the rails during the final act and the genuine fun that precedes turns far-fetched and a little too black for this reviewer's taste.

A children's TV host named Rainbow Randolph (the late Robin Williams) is fired from his show under a cloud of controversial disgrace and is replaced by Sherman Mopes (Edward Norton), playing a fuchsia-colored rhino named Smoochy discovered by one of the shows producers, Nora (Catherine Keener), giving weekly concerts in a methadone clinic. Sherman/Smoochy are a smash hit and it is not long before Sherman is made executive producer of the show, but the suits behind the show and other interested parties are becoming aggravated with Sherman, who has no interest in corporate games centered completely around money and go to some extreme lengths to get Sherman to tow the corporate line. Not to mention the fact that Rainbow Randolph is not taking his firing very well and is determined to get his job back at any cost.

Screenwriter Adam Resnick, who has served as a writer on both SNL and
Late Night with David Letterman gives us a loopy and often entertaining look at the world of children's entertainment that starts off quiet brilliantly, almost in the form of a straight up satire in the style of Mel Brooks or the Zucker Brothers, but the story gets away from Resnick, creating screentime for unnecessary characters and taking the darkness of the story a little too far. I'm on board with just about everything that goes on during the first two acts of this story, but when characters start getting kidnapped, injured, and even murdered and in front of live children audiences, it was hard for this reviewer to stay invested in the proceedings through the closing credits. There was one character, a retarded former boxer named Spinner, played by Michael Rispoli, who was a complete and utter waste of screentime.

There is a manic quality to Danny DeVito's direction that really fits the story. His elaborate attention to detail in creating the world of children's television is quite ingratiating and his almost uncomfortable use of the close-up and the silhouette are effective as well. DeVito also scores in his onscreen role as Sherman's agent, Burke Bennett.

Robin Williams is exhausting, funny, and a little heartbreaking as Rainbow Randolph and Catherine Keener is again a natural and vivacious leading lady. Jon Stewart, Harvey Fierstein, and Vincent Schiavelli make the most of small supporting roles, but it is Edward Norton, whose dazzling performance as Sherman/Smoochy, anchors this film and makes the viewer care about what happens to him. Norton has rarely been so charming onscreen and he's the main reason that you'll want to stick this one out and see how it ends.

The Americanization of Emily
It is commonly believed that Julie Andrews made her film debut in the Disney musical Mary Poppins, but Andrews' actual film debut was in a 1964 black and white comedy drama called The Americanization of Emily, a surprisingly adult look at romance and standard views on the absurdity of war.

James Garner, in one of the best performances of his career, lights up the screen as Charlie Madison, a naval officer who is living the high life in the navy, working as an attache for an important admiral (Melvyn Douglas). Charlie's work for the admiral primarily consists of making sure the admiral gets the very best food, wine, and women available days before D-Day in 1944. Charlie finds himself falling in love with a military driver named Emily Barnham (Andrews), who hates everything Charlie stands for, including the fact that he's American, but that doesn't change the fact that she loves the man. Things get sticky when Charlie's admiral suffers a nervous breakdown and assigns Charlie to a very dangerous overseas mission in the midst of his breakdown.

I'm pretty sure that it was no coincidence that this film was released in 1964, the same year that a more absurdist look at war called Dr. Strangelove was released. Oscar winner Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay for this film is crafted with a little more of a straight face than the Stanley Kubrick classic, but it still effectively examines the insanity of war and brings into question the mental capacities of those guys actually barking out the orders. This story was a lot different than I thought it was going to be. I had been under the impression that this film was about a wartime romance, but this film is more about life in the military during WWII and how opposing views on this conflict tears this couple apart.

This was actually the first film that Julie Andrews made and it was on the strength of her work here and on the Broadway stage, that Walt Disney personally chose her to star in Mary Poppins. Serious buzz surrounded Mary Poppins during production and it was decided that the Disney film would be a stronger beginning to Andrews' film career, so even though she made this film first, Mary Poppins was released first and this film second a masterstroke that kicked off Andrews' incredible career.

If the truth be told, as charming as she is here, Andrews' role is basically a supporting one and somewhat thankless at that, this is the guys' story the actors really deliver here. I'v always considered James Garner one of the industry's most underrated actors we ever had, and he proves it here with a gangbusters performance, simultaneously creating mad chemistry with Andrews that would be re-visited in two other films. Douglas is solid and James Coburn steals every scene he's in with his dazzling turn as Charlie's fellow officer and BFF. Some other familiar faces pop up along the way including Keenan Wynn, Steve Franken, and two future Laugh In stars, Judy Carne and Alan Sues. Lovely little comedy with just the right touch of romance.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
A forgotten treasure from 2015, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is an edgy and intelligent comedy drama that takes the viewer through a myriad of emotions vicarious memories before leaving a serious lump in the throat.

The film introduces us to Greg, a smart, savvy, and sensitive high school kid whose passion is making parodies of classic movies with Earl, his "co-worker", who he has known since they small children. Greg's mother gently pushes him into spending time with a schoolmate named Rachel, who has just been diagnosed with leukemia. This time turns into what Greg terms a "doomed friendship", but this journey becomes a rich and rewarding experience for both of them.

Screenwriter Jesse Andrews has done the impossible by creating a story that simultaneously unfolds slowly but never stops its forward motion. I love the opening scenes of Greg explaining his high school survival techniques by becoming mildly acquainted with ALL of the school cliques. The opening scenes of Greg and Rachel's first meetings dancing around each other exploring boundaries are squirm-worthy as they should be but Greg makes the inspired decision to have Earl accompany him on this journey and Earl's lack of concern regarding boundaries breaks down a lot of walls between Rachel and Greg.

Needless to say, the ending is a foregone conclusion but neither the screenplay or the characters ever allow us to believe that. There is actually a moment at the end of the second act where Greg assures us that Rachel is not going to die and the sincerity in his voice makes us believe him. Loved Greg's narration of this story...haven't enjoyed a movie narration this much since Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Also loved the finale where Greg goes into Rachel's room and discovers what she has done to all of her books.

Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is to be applauded for the imagination utilized in mounting this take, including striking camera work, some inventive and offbeat music, and some claymation fantasy sequences used to illustrate some of Greg's survival techniques. Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, and Olivia Cooke light up the screen as Greg, Earl and Rachel, respectively. Mention should also be made of Connie Britton and Nick Offerman as Greg's parents and Molly Shannon as Rachel's mom. An extraordinary film journey that is not as predictable as the storyline suggests.

See No Evil Hear No Evil
The late Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor were teamed onscreen for the third time in a forgettable 1989 comedy called See NO Evil Hear No Evil, which is basically a one-joke movie stretched over an hour and 45 minutes, that makes for a pretty tiresome moviegoing.

Wilder's Dave and Pryor's Wally work together at a newsstand where a woman murders a man in her pursuit of a rare gold coin, which we later learn is worth $8,000,000. When the police arrive to question Dave and Wally about the murder, they are unable to get a complete description of the woman because Wally is blind and Dave is deaf. Dave only glimpsed her legs as she was fleeing the scene and Wally was only able to smell her. The woman and her partner learn that there were witnesses to the murder and even though they were blind and deaf, the still feel they can't take any chances and decide that Dave and Wally have to be silenced.

Amazingly, it took five writers, Wilder included, to come up with this convoluted story based on a single comic premise that is set up in detailed fashion in the opening scenes. In the opening scene we witness Wilder almost get run over by truck because he doesn't hear the approach and Pryor actually escorting another blind man across the street. These scenes are amusing, even if they run on a little longer than need be. There's also a scene at a medical conference with Pryor pretending to be a Swedish doctor that reminded me a little too much of a similar scene in Mel Brooks' High Anxiety.

Unfortunately, continuity becomes an issue as the film progresses as we witness both characters doing things they really shouldn't be able to do. This is particularly obvious with Wilder's Dave, legitimizing a lot of what he gets away with by giving the character the ability to read lips, which doesn't cover the scope of a lot of what Dave does here, though he is pretty convincing not reacting to loud noises like gunshots and alarms. I did love the final confrontation between Pryor and Anthony Zerbe's Sutherland, who was also blind.

The problems with the film never really get in the way of the chemistry between the stars which is still there and the respect that they had for each other as performers shines through in every scene. Sadly, they just don't have a vehicle worthy of their talent this time. Joan Severance is a rather bland villainness but future Oscar winner Kevin Spacey is a lot of fun as her accomplice. Veteran character actress Audrie Neenan is very funny as a cop trying to take a mug shot of Wilder and provides some of the sporadic laughs here. What a shame.