Gideon58's Reviews

The Devil You Know
Despite a solid acting ensemble at its center, the 2022 film The Devil You Know is an overheated family drama that methodically collapses under its fuzzy screenplay and melodramatic direction.

Omar Epps stars as Marcus Cowans, a recovering alcoholic with a criminal past who is trying to get his life back on track with a new job, AA meetings, and a new girlfriend. Marcus gives his brother, Drew, a ride home one night when he is too drunk to drive. While in his brother's apartment, Marcus sees a collection of baseball cards that he recognizes as having gone missing from a home invasion/double suicide he saw on the news a couple of months ago . He questions Drew about the cards, whose flimsy explanation about their presence motivates Marcus to make a move that affects his entire family.

Director and screenwriter Charles Murray has apparently adapted a fact-based story for the screen, something we really don't learn until the end of the movie. It doesn't change the fact that this screenplay is all over the place as we watch this guy Drew watch his entire family suffer than go on the record on what happened on this invasion, despite the fact that he wasn't directly involved. We not only see Marcus lose his new girlfriend over this, but we see his brother, Anthony, lose his job. We see the family patriarch (Glynn Turman) suffer a heart attack that puts him in the hospital and a dumb as box of rocks detective (Michael Ealy) have this home invasion case practically fall in his lap and still unable to make an arrest.

The secondary story of Marcus and his new girlfriend, Eva, was equally aggravating because during the first 30 minutes of this movie, we watch this girl practically throw herself at Marcus, but the second the police come sniffing around, she goes screaming into the night. Then after Marcus gets thrown the under the bus, she wants to come crawling back.

Murray spoon-feeds this story with lethargic direction that makes this movie seem six hours long. Though this reviewer found himself stifling the occasional yawn, Omar Epps is an actor always worth watching and he's no exception here. Kudos to William Catlett as Drew, Curtiss Cook as Anthony, Vanessa Bell Calloway as the boys' mother and Theo Russell as the psychotic Al. A tighter screenplay and a director more trusting of his story and his audience would have helped here. Epps and Ealy are also credited as executive producers.

Breaking Away
The director of Bullitt and the writer of The World According to Garp are the creative forces behind Breaking Away, a warm and exuberant slice of cinematic Americana that so effectively draws the viewer into this engaging coming of age tale that it actually earned four Oscar nominations including Best Picture of 1979.

The setting is the small industrial town of Bloomington, Indiana where we meet Dave Stohler (Dennis Christopher), a recent high school graduate who after receiving an expensive Italian bycycle as gift, becomes completely immersed in Italian culture, learning to speak the language, changing his name, and following the exploits of the current Italian cycling team. Steve's new obsession not only his confusing his parents (Paul Dooley, Barbara Barrie). but building a wall between him and his BFF's Mike (Dennis Quaid), Moocher (Jackie Earle Haley), and Cyril (Daniel Stern, in his film debut).

Steve Tesich's Oscar-winning screenplay is a beautiful blend of small town sensibilities, clashing cultures, and the lines that often get drawn between the upper class and working class that often put people on opposite sides of issues which they should be battling together. It's a little disconcerting watching Dave push his best friends away because of his new obsession at a time when they really need him. An angry Mike seems to be aimless since his days as a football hero are over and Moocher seems to be getting ready to marry his girlfriend because he has to (though the screenplay never documents this).

Dave's Italian obsession also seems to be creating a gulf between his parents that provides a solid subplot for the story as his father gets fed up and Mom just tries to understand. I was also surprised by the fact that there were, not one, but two big races in this story and though it's a heartbreaker when Dave gets knocked out of the first one, we are thrilled with a chance for redemption (though it's not a slam dunk and kept this reviewer on the edge of his seat).

Director Peter Yates has provided a postcard canvas for this vivid and exciting story that earned him an Oscar nomination as well. The film is beautifully photographed and the camerawork, especially during the races, is exceptional. For a lot of actors near the beginning of their careers, there are some really star-making performances bringing this story to life. Dennis Christopher is completely beguiling as Dave and Dennis Quaid easily hints at the actor he would become with his charismatic Mike. Paul Dooley is brilliant, as always, as Dave's father and Barbara Barrie's quietly eloquent mom earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination. A shout out as well to Patrick Williams for his Oscar-nominated adaptation of some of the most beautiful Italian music ever created to serve the film's score. A surprising and emotionally-charged motion picture.

Wrath of Man
The stylish and skillful direction of Guy Ritchie and the Steve McQueen-like cool of Jason Statham are the anchors of 2021's Wrath of Man, a bloody and high octane crime drama that doesn't quite answer all the questions the story poses, but if the viewer just goes for the inventive ride that's offered, sufficient rewards are offered.

Statham plays H, a man of a questionable and cleaned up past who gets hired to be a driver for an armored car company, but his initial handling of a couple of very dangerous situations, thrusts him into the spotlight at the company, but makes it more difficult for his past not to come after him, resulting in, among other things, the death of his son.

In addition to directing, Ritchie also co-wrote this complex screenplay, based on a French film called Le Conveyour that methodically crafts the story in front of our eyes without playing all of its cards at once. It also effectively brings different genres together into a single story without the viewer even noticing. Especially loved the opening scenes where H is training at the armored car company, where the atmosphere established resembles a prison movie and H is the new guy who has to prove himself. Before we can figure out what's going on with the armored cars, H's well-guarded backstory comes to the surface as he is revealed to be some kind of high-powered syndicate leader who has mob boss power, but we're never told exactly where it comes from, but it is this power that has him sent to the armored car company.

We don't realize it until well into the second act, but we're getting a story told in Tarantino style and when the puzzle pieces fall into place it's revealed that H has found himself in an elaborate heist that involves taking the cash from ALL the trucks in the compound.

In Ritchie's capable hands, we get thrust into a crime of such enormity that much bigger than the kind of crimes Ritchie brought us in the past from across the pond. Ritchie's eye for carnage rivals Scorsese here, not to mention his uncanny ability to keep the viewer confused about who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.

Ritchie has a first rate production team behind him to pull off this mammoth crime spectacle, with special nods to cinematography, editing, sound, and that pulse-pounding musical score. Statham is the perfect choice for this richly internalized character...I don't think H speaks more than 20-25 words during the entire film. He gets solid support from the terrific Jeffrey Donovan, the long absent from the screen Josh Hartnett, Holt McCallany, and especially Scott Eastwood's kinetic turn as Jack. First rate action thriller that had me on the edge of my chair.

Outrageous Fortune
Bette Midler and Shelley Long are teamed for a logic-defying action comedy called Outrageous Fortune,which provides some laughs before running out of gas, from the writer of Mrs. Doubtfire and the director of Silver Streak.

Midler and Long play two very different women who meet in an acting class but don't know they are having an affair with the same man, one Michael Sanders (Peter Coyote). Before the ladies discover the truth, Michael fakes his death and the women team up to find him, determining to find out which one of them he really loves, completely unconcerned with the fact that the CIA is after him because of a deadly toxin he is in possession of which could destroy all plant life.

Leslie Dixon's screenplay for this 1987 starts off promisingly, setting up the unlikely teaming between these two women, polar opposites in every way except for their attraction to this man. But what gives this story a dash of originality is the fact that even after our heroines finally realize how much danger Michael has put them in, the only thing they still seemed to care about is which one of them he really loved. Once they agree on the fact that Michael is scum and doesn't deserve to live, the film definitely begins to lose steam.

The detective work that the ladies employ to locate Michael is kind of silly and the broad accent Midler utilizes in the beginning of the movie disappears about 25 minutes in, but both actresses prove to be very adept at physical comedy and work hide at disguising an air of tension between them. The skills which aspiring actress Lauren, played by Long, all come into play later on in the story, even if they have an "Aw come on" air about them. This is also the first film I've ever seen with two separate scenes involving large amounts of money being released from containers and flying through the sky so people can scoop it up.

Like he did with Silver Streak, director Arthur Hiller displays a strength with action sequences played against some gorgeous Arizona scenery. Midler and Long have a strong supporting cast behind them including Robert Prosky as a phony acting teacher, John Schuck as a CIA agent and the late great George Carlin as a drunken fake Indian named Frank. It's no Thelma and Louise, but there are laughs to be found, even if they're aren't consistent to the closing credits.

What Maisie Knew
The effect of divorce on children is not uncommon movie subject matter, but the 2012 independent feature What Maisie Knew stands out due to an edgy screenplay that is rife with surprises and some knockout performances.

This film is actually a contemporary re-imagining of a novel by Henry James published way back in 1897. Set in Manhattan, this is the story of a seven year old girl named Maisie who watches her parents' marriage fall apart when her father, a wealthy art dealer named Beale (Steve Coogan) begins an affair with Maisie's nanny, Margo (Joanna Vanderham) who Beale impulsively marries. Maisie's outraged mother, Susanna (Oscar winner Julianne Moore), an aging rock star, begins a bitter custody with Beale over Maisie, during which Susanna marries a bartender and gourmet chef named Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgaard), a move that finds Maisie torn in four different directions.

It was mind blowing to discover that this story was based on a novel written at the end of the 19th century, because this story felt fresh, contemporary, and rich with a squirm-worthy realism that I haven't experienced since Kramer Vs Kramer. It's the story structure that impresses because this story starts out somewhat predictable but as the story progresses it becomes less and less so. I've never seen a movie about divorce go some of the places that this one does. Nancy Doyne and Carroll Cartwright's screenplay was robbed of an adapted screenplay Oscar nomination.

What really sucked me into this often heartbreaking story was the journey that this little girl is sent on this story. It was fascinating that as the story opens up, it appears that Maisie is the one manipulating her parents, but it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that Maisie is a bargaining chip for Susanna and Beale, who both claim to love the little girl more than anything, but neither will put their career on the back burner for her. The other thing I loved about the way this story played out is that there are points in the story where it seems like Maisie is aware of the power she has over her parents and sometimes she doesn't.

There is one squirm-worthy scene after another here. I was especially impressed with the way the Lincoln character was introduced. Susanna sends him to Maisie's school to pick her up one day without informing anyone, even though Margo is there because Susanna hadn't shown up. Lincoln initially comes off like he's drunk or something, making the scene crackle with tension. That scene where Beale is having a meal with Maisie and asking her if she wants to leave the country with him, even though he really doesn't want to made me squirm, as well as the heartbreaking climax

Directors Scott McGhee and David Siegel have mounted this story on a stunning canvas, including marvelous Manhattan location photography. Julianne Moore knocks it out of the park with an explosive performance, playing the most unlikable character she has ever been given. Steve Coogan's icy Beale matches her note for note and Alexander Skarsgaard lights up the screen playing the film's most likable character, second only to Onata Aprile's extraordinary performance in the title role. An emotionally charged motion picture experience that had me fighting tears and talking back to the screen.

Immediately brought to mind Irreconcilable Differences. Thanks fore the review!

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I really enjoyed Wrath of Man. I know Ritchie's a fan of The Long Good Friday, and this is the only movie of his that approaches that level of meanness (although Get Carter is probably a more direct inspiration).

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If you're a Guy Ritchie fan, you should also check out a film from a couple of years ago called The Gentlemen with Matthew McConaughey

I did like that one, although it didn't feel quite as light on its feet as his earlier movies.

Shattered
Despite some stylish directorial flourishes, 2022's Shattered is a riduculously over the top "erotic thriller" that is steadily buried by its predictabilty and dependence on other films leading to a viable climax that should have happened a lot sooner than it did.

Chris Decker is an about to be divorced internet millionaire with a young daughter. Chris meets a beautiful girl named Sky at a grocery story and begins an affair with her. A few days later he learns that her roommate/girlfriend is dead and that Sky is a dangerous con artist bent on taking Chris for every penny he has.

I should have suspected trouble when I learned that this film was written by David Loughery, screenwriter of the dreadful Idris Elba thriller Obsessed. Once again, Loughery attempts to journey into Fatal Attraction territory with another lady psychopath trying to take advantage of a dumb, pretty, rich guy, but this time, the woman doesn't want to be his lover, she wants to steal his identity and unlike Alex Forrester or that crazy bitch in Obsessed, Sky has been stalking Chris for months via a telescope (!) to his isolated mountain chalet, in the hotel room she shared with her girlfriend...seriously?

The Sky character seems to be an uneven combination of Alex Forrest and Annie Wilkes who, by the time her true agenda is revealed, Loughery actually has the nerve to introduce an accomplice whose addition to the story is actually supposed to imbue an element of sympathy and/or justification into why this Sky woman is so damaged but that boat is long sailed. And the whole story could have played without the perverted motel manager, well played by John Malkovich, whose entire role in the story brought it to a halt.

The main reason I wanted to watch this film was because it featured the richly talented Cameron Monaghan playing Chris. Monaghan, who mesmerized television audiences on Gotham and Shameless, works very hard in this role but one thing Monaghan doesn't have a lot of experience with is playing victims and it really shows here. Kate Hudson-look-a-like Lilly Krug does show promise as Sky and Frank Grillo was terrific as Sebastian, but this overheated thriller just never fails to engage the viewer as the erotic thriller intended.

This was nothing like Irreconcilable Differences...this was like a way more serious version of Kramer VS Kramer...the dynamic between Susannah and Beale reminded me so much more of Ted and Joanna Kramer.

Inserts
Two years before winning a Best Actor Oscar for The Goodbye Girl, Richard Dreyfuss gave a ferocious, Oscar-worthy performance in a 1975 curio called Inserts, a gritty show business story that goes to some dark places but strong direction and the terrific performance by Dreyfuss will keep the viewer invested.

It's Hollywood in the 1930's where we meet Boy Wonder (Dreyfuss) , an important Hollywood director whose career was destroyed with the advent of talkies, who is now living like a hermit and making porno movies inside his home on a single set with his junkie/actress/girlfriend Harlene (Veronica Cartwright). Boy Wonder and Harlene are in the process of making a porn extravaganza with a young actor called Rex the Wonder Dog (Stephen Davies) a dim-witted stud who is preparing to prostitute himself to an important male producer for a juicy contract. Big Mac (Bob Hoskins) arrives on the scene with his ambitious actress girlfriend Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper) to pay the cast. He pays Rex in cash and Harlene in heroine. Unfortunately, a tragedy derails the lives of all the principal players forever.

Director and screenwriter John Byrum (Duets, Heart Beat) has mounted a dark and dangerous story taking place in a time in Hollywood that has normally been addressed in other movies with humor, like in Singin in the Rain, or in the manner of a fantasy like The Artist, but the underbelly of those times is approached here with a much more serious tone, along the lines of Sunset Boulevard. Boy Wonder reminded me a lot of Norma Desmond in the 1950 classic...he feels Hollywood has turned their back on him, but unlike Desmond, he is not in denial about it, he has just chosen to give up.

The film feels like a play adapted for the screen, partly because the five above referenced characters are the only characters that appear on screen and that the entire film takes place inside Boy Wonder's decaying mansion. A fascinating element is added with the only other character getting mention in the film, though he's never seen, is an unknown actor named Clark Gable, who Boy Wonder, Big Mac, and Rex all feel threatened by.

The film has a bold sexual underlayer that provides rich context for the characters, especially Boy Wonder, who we also learn that his descent into this armpit of the movie industry has brought his own sexual issues to the surface. The film features graphic, yet tasteful nudity throughout that never allows the viewer to forget the world we've become a part of. Dreyfuss is an acting powerhouse, in a performance that completely belies his age at the time and Cartwright works very hard as Harlene, even though she's really miscast and this was the finest performance of Jessica Harper's brief and sporadic career as well. It's not for all tastes, but a definite must for Dreyfuss fans.

The Card Counter
His impressive resume as a director and screenwriter includes films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Blue Collar, and Affliction, but Paul Schrader had a real swing and a miss with 2021's The Card Counter, a moody and meandering tale of revenge and redemption that, despite some stylish direction and a couple of striking performances, doesn't connect because it's not sure where it's trying to go and takes way too long to get there.

This allegedly fact-based story centers on William Tell, a professional gambler and former military officer who, after some time behind bars, is trying to start over building a nestegg the only way he knows how...through poker and blackjack. his plan is disrupted by a young man named Cirk, who wants Tell's assistance in getting revenge on a mutual enemy from their past. Tell agrees to consider Cirk's request if Cirk accompanies him on a tour of high stakes poker, where he is financed by a seductress named LaLinda.

Schrader has crafted a really interesting movie in here somewhere, but his story branches out in so many directions very quickly that it's difficult to tell what this movie is about at first. First, it appears to be about gambling addiction as the opening scenes are accompanied by Tell's narration offering us specific instructions on counting cards for blackjacks and how to play different kinds of poker. Just when it seem like we've figured it out, Tell's military past is revealed and we think it's about PTSD. Then a previously unexplained connection between Tell and Cirk finally comes to light in the third act, where we really learn what this movie is about and also about 40 minutes of screentime could have been eliminated.

Schrader does create an interesting canvas for the story to take place. The world of television gambling does make an interesting canvas for the story, just like it did with Lucky You in 2007, but the canvas eventually begins to weigh the whole story down to the point where we almost check out before the spectacular finale. Oscar Isaac's richly internalized, De Niro-ish performance is fascinating throughout and I loved Willem Dafoe as Gordo, but the whole thing is just very labored and much longer than necessary.

Bustin' Loose
The late Richard Pryor had his first true vanity project as the star, executive producer, and co-screenwriter of an uneven comic adventure from 1981 called Bustin Loose, a comedy that Pryor tries to hold together despite a swiss cheese screenplay and a miscast leading lady.

Pryor plays Joe Braxton, a career criminal who is trying to avoid another ten years in jail when his parole officer, forces him to drive a tightly wound social worker named Vivian Perry (the late Cicely Tyson) and eight children from downtown Philadelphia to Washington State in a broken down bus to a farm owned by Vivian's relatives that she plans to turn into a group home. Another wrinkle added to the story is that Joe's parole officer is romantically involved with Vivian.

First of all, anything wrong with this film has to placed on Pryor's shoulders. The very first credit that appears on the screen is "A Richard Pryor Production". Pryor co-wrote the screenplay with Lonnie Elder III, who received an Oscar nomination for writing the 1972 Best Picture nominee Sounder. I'm pretty sure Tyson got on board because of Elder or vice versa, but there are a lot of things that happen here that don't make sense. Couldn't figure out why Joe's parole officer forced him to do this and then we learn about halfway through that Joe's parole office has been following them and wants them to turn around so he can put Joe back in jail. They do manage to get to Washington where we then learn Vivian doesn't have the money to pay off the farm and that's where the film starts to run out of gas.

There are some other oddball story elements that were a little squirm worthy for this reviewer. We witness an emotionally scarred kid start a fire in a haystack and don't learn why for another 30 minutes. One of the young female students actually comes on to Joe and in another scene, Joe decides to teach the kids strip poker. I did like a fishing scene where Pryor and Tyson end up in the water and a beautifully written scene where Joe and the kids actually encounter the KKK is nothing that we expect and the strongest scene in the film.

Pryor works very hard to make the inconsistences in his character work. This Joe Braxton is a slick and ignorant con artist in one scene and the perfect babysitter in the next. Cicely Tyson is just out of her element here...Tyson is a brilliant actress but physical comedy is not her forte. It's a lovely performance but it's in the wrong movie. The kids are all beyond annoying and most of them never worked again after this movie. Robert Christian, who had a significant role in 1979's And Justice for All, was excellent as Donald the parole office as was George Coe as a conman behind a pyramid scheme during the film's silly final act. I've heard a lot of things about this film over the years, but for this reviewer, a disappointment.

The Loved One
The recent passing of Robert Morse motivated my first viewing of 1965's The Loved One, a sumptuously mounted, star-studded, dark, and mean spirited black comedy that's a little more complex than it needs to be but is fascinating entertainment due to a squirm-worthy screenplay, a one of a kind cast, and some extraordinary production values.

Morse plays Dennis Barlow, an aimless British poet who moves to Los Angeles on a whim and moves in with his Uncle Sir Francis (John Gielgud), who is employed in some non-specific way by a movie studio. After Francis loses his job, he quietly returns home and hangs himself. Dennis, of course, is left to the funeral arrangements and is led to a mysterious funeral empire called Whispering Glades, that appears to be its own world, run by the Reverend Glenworthy (Jonathan Winters), where he is entranced by one of the home's cosmetologists named Aimee (Anjanette Comer).

While Dennis finds himself battling for Aimee's affections with the parlor's embalmer, Mr. JoyBoy (Rod Steiger), his introduction to the world of Whispering Glades leads him to taking a job at a pet cemetery called The Happy Hunting Grounds Memorial Home, which is run by a part time Hollywood agent named Harry (also Winters).

This film has quite the offscreen pedigree. The overly intricate, but never uninteresting screenplay, based on a novel by Evelyn Waugh, is by Terry Southern (Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider) and Christopher Isherwood (Cabaret, A Single Man). As a matter of fact, this film reminded me lot of Dr. Strangelove in its savage skewering of death as a business and the funeral business as one big sting operation that manipulates people through their grief. The scene where the casket salesman (a surprisingly on-target performance from Liberace (!)) is offering his wares to Dennis, is nothing short of brilliant. Tony Richardson was in the director's chair, fresh off winning twin Oscars for producing and directing the 1963 Best Picture Oscar winner, Tom Jones.

As a satire of the funeral business, the film scores a direct bullseye, but as the final act of the program commences, there's a connection to the future of the space program that muddies the cinematic waters and drains a lot of the fun out of what we've seen to that point. The film is also rich with some of cinema's most bizarre characters, especially Dr. JoyBoy, not to mention where the story takes the fresh-faced Dennis and the virginal Aimee, whose on the surface star-crossed romance, hits a lot of dark potholes along the way.

The black and white photography notwithstanding, Richardson has spared no expense in the looks of this film. Haskell Wexler's cinematography and future director Hal Ashby's editing are extraordinary. Production and set direction are superb as well...the eye-popping Whispering Glades is awash in elaborate statues, offices, laboratories and greenery that defy description. Big bouquet to John Addison's music too.

This film is also a dream for cinephiles who love star power. Morse works very hard to make the journey that Dennis Barlow takes here credible, despite a questionable British accent. Steiger and Winters do Oscar-worthy work, especially Winters in a dual role that rivals Peter Sellers' dual role in Dr. Strangelove. And if you pay attention you will also catch appearances from James Coburn, Robert Morley, Dana Andrews, Roddy McDowell, Tab Hunter, Lionel Stander, Barbara Nichols, Milton Berle, Margaret Leighton, Reta Shaw and a blink or you'll miss it bit from Jamie Farr. This film also marked the film debut of future Oscar and Grammy winning singer/songwriter Paul Williams as an obnoxious child prodigy. It runs out of gas before the end, but a riveting film experience for most of the running time.

Everybody Loves Chris Rock
After what happened at this year's Oscar ceremony, I thought it might be interesting to take look at a 2021 documentary called Everybody Loves Chris Rock, a one-sided look at the comic icon that glosses over the hit and miss record that is his career and pretty much paints him as God's gift to comedy.

Presented in traditional documentary style, the film begins with a look at his Brooklyn upbringing, rife with excepted racism that forced him in to drop out of high school, which Chris never got around to in his allegedly fact-based sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. Once the film gets into his career, including early mistreatment by the the powers to be at In Living Color and Saturday Night Live, this documentary really starts to examine his career, but making the quality and success of a lot of what he did a lot more than it was.

His second HBO special, Bring the Pain, which I've seen at least half a dozen times, actually won the comic two Emmys, which was news to me. But I sat incredulous as this documentary began to wax rhapsodic about the success of films like Beverly Hills Cop 2, Head of State, Grown Ups, and CB4 and what works of art they were, when in reality, Rock's movie career has always been a mixed bag. No mention of classics like Osmosis Jones, Pauly Shore is Dead, and I Think I love my Wife. If the truth be told, Rock's best screen work has been in films where he had no creative control like New Jack City and Nurse Betty, but this movie tries to imply that just about every movie Rock has made was comedy gold and nothing could be further from the truth.

The most fascinating part of the documentary was the inclusion of a press conference that Rock conducted after hosting the 2016 Oscars, which he handled beautifully, but was a squirm worthy watch after what happened this year. It was also interesting watching Rock doing press appearances for the Madagasgar franchise, posing and smiling with Jada Pinkett Smith.

Don't get me wrong...I think Chris Rock is one of the funniest people on the planet. He is on my list of comics, along with George Carlin and Dave Chapelle, who i think everything he says is absolutely correct. But this movie tries to paint the guy like the Second Coming and I just can't get behind that.

The Strongest Man in the World (1975)
Dexter Riley and his pals from Medfield College return for the third and final installment of this Disney franchise called The Strongest Man in the World, which is definitely the weakest entry in the series.

In this 1975 comedy, Kurt Russell reprises the role of Dexter Riley, a role he originated in The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes[/i] and reprised in Now You See Him Now You Don't. Once again, fictional Medfield College is financially strapped and may have found a way out with a formula Dexter and his pals have come up with that, when mixed with breakfast cereal, causes superhuman strength. Dean Higgins (Joe Flynn, reprising his role from the first two films) wants to sell the formula to a cereal company headed by Harriet Crumply (Eve Arden), but a rival cereal company has hired AJ Arno (Ceasar Romero, also reprising his role from the first two films) to steal the formula.

This is definitely the silliest of the three films, the first of which were made almost tolerable thanks to Kurt Russell's sweet-natured sincerity in the first two films. Unfortunately, Russell's screentime is severely reduced in this film, making room for a lot of over the top acting by some of the 1960's most recognizable character actors, some reprising their roles in the first two films, like Flynn and William Schallert as Prof. Quigley. I thought it was interesting that the first two films took place in separate universes, where nothing that happened in the first film was referenced in the second film. However, the first two films were referenced in this one, though it didn't make this one anymore interesting. The final weight lifting contest is silly, and not just because all of the contestants on the opposing team look 40 years old.

Vincent McEveety's direction is a little manic, though he does get a strong assist from film editor Cotton Warburton, who won an Oscar for editing Mary Poppins. Russell makes the most of his limited screentime as does Romero and Dick Bakalyan, reprising their roles as AJ Arno and his stooge, Cookie. And if you don't blink, you will find appearances from Phil Silvers, Dick Van Patten, Kathleen Freeman, Friz Feld, James Gregory, Kathleen Freeman, Ronnie Schell, Harold Gould, Larry Gelman, John Myhers, Roy Roberts, Dick Patterson, Art Metrano, and Bert Mustin before the credits roll. The Dexter Riley franchise died quietly after this one and somehow Kurt Russell's career survived.

All the Old Knives
The steamy chemistry between Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton help to sustain interest in a 2022 espionage thriller called All the Old Knives, but not much.

Pine and Newton play Henry and Celia, respectively, CIA agents and former lovers, who find themselves involved in a deadly hijacking and reunited many years later when investigation into the tragedy is still pending. Eventually, Henry is assigned to reunite with Celia, who has since retired from the agency, married, and had children, to find out about suspicions that she might have might have been working with the hijackers.

This film reminded me a lot of a Robert Zemeckis film from a few years ago called Allied where Brad Pitt and Marian Coitillard played soldiers who are eventually forced into betraying each other. In that film, PItt has been presented evidence that Coitillard was double agent and is forced into betraying her, but the story here is not as clear cut.

Unfortunately, the screenplay by Olen Steinhauser, based on his own book and his first effort as a screenwriter is confusing as sketchy. It's not just that the story is told out of sequence.
Quentin Tarantino proved years ago that a story told out of sequence can work. Henry is given virtually no concrete evidence that Celia did anything wrong, while, everyone else Celia was working with at the time came off like everything that came out of their mouths was a lie (especially the Bill Compton character, played by Jonathan Pryce). Exactly what happened that day becomes more and more mysterious as the film progresses and the only thing we want is to see these two somehow reunite romantically, which is never going to happen.

And that's the main thing about this movie that works...the chemistry between Pine and Newton is positively kinetic, but outside of some outstanding production values (that wine-themed restaurant where they reunite is spectacular), it's the only thing that really works here. It runs less than two hours, but this one actually found me stifling the occasional yawn and checking my watch. And I'll be damned if I understand the title.

Three Fugitives
The unlikely teaming of Nick Nolte and Martin Short as a comic duo is a lot more effective than you might imagine in a 1989 action romp called Three Fugitives, from the creative force behind Les Cage aux Folles and its Americanized version The Bird Cage.

Nolte plays Lucas, a career bank robber who has just been release from prison after years. He walks into a bank to open an account while a desperate wingnut named Ned (Short) bursts in with a grenade wanting to rob the bank and his panic when he realizes the police have surrounded the bank, causes him to take Lucas as a hostage, putting the pair on the run, along with Ned's young daughter, Meg, a special needs child who hasn't spoken in two years and is the reason Ned robbed the bank.

This story might seem a little offbeat for Veber, who directed and wrote the screenplay for this action comedy peppered with just enough character study that we get to know and like these three characters at the heart of this tale that we are are more than willing to accept the numerous close calls from which they escape during the first two thirds of the film. One thing I did like about the story structure here is that for the majority of the first two thirds of the film, the title characters spend very little time onscreen together, kept apart by the crazy circumstances of the story, unfortunately, by the film's final third where the characters are brought together, the story starts to run out of gas, but we still want to see them get out of this.

The other thing that really makes this movie work is the performances of Nolte and Short that really leap off the screen. Nolte, in particular, is just dazzling in a beautifully underplayed performance of world-weary cynicism that reminded me of his work 48 HRS and Down and Out in Beverly Hills. Nolte plays the character with a straight face and that's what makes it so funny and a perfect counterpoint to Short's manic, Jerry-Lewis-like shenanigans. Sarah Rowland Doroff, in her only film appearance to date, is all kinds of adorable as little Meg and every moment she shares onscreen with Nolte is gold. James Earl Jones and Alan Ruck are also fun as the cops chasing our heroes as is Kenneth McMillan as a vet who thinks Nolte is a dog. Ruck is very funny in a performance that seems to be channeling Judge Reinhold in Beverly Hills Cop. It doesn't sustain interest through closing credits, but Nolte alone makes it worth a look.

The Lost City (2022)
Take the 1984 Robert Zemeckis film Romancing the Stone and mix in equal portions of The African Queen and Jungle Cruise and you have an epic action adventure called The Lost City that gets off a to a great start, but definitely begins to runs out of gas during its final act before moving very slowly to its satisfying conclusion.

The 2022 film stars Oscar winner Sandra Bullock as a spinsterish romance novelist named Loretta Sage who is on a book tour with Alan (Channing Tatum) the cover model for the main character in all of her novels. Loretta is kidnapped by an eccentric millionaire (Daniel Radcliffe) who thinks something Loretta included her latest novel could lead him to a treasure if he could get Loretta to translate it for him. It's clear that Alan and Loretta have feelings for each other that have been buried for years, so when Loretta disappears, Alan hires an old buddy and adventurer named Jack Trainer (Oscar winner Brad Pitt, in a dazzling cameo) to rescue Loretta for him, but that doesn't quite work out and eventually Alan has to step up and save Loretta himself.

The film initially comes off as a remake of Romancing the Stone. As a matter of fact, early on we get a glance of a hotel lobby with a large painting on the wall that says "Romancing the Pen", but there's a big difference with one of the central characters in this story. Michael Douglas' Jack Colton in Romancing the Stone is a genuine reincarnation of one of the characters in the books of Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner). In this film, Alan is the just the physical embodiment of Loretta's character, Dash. On the inside, Alan is a bubbling cauldron of neuroses and phobias, that come immediately to surface whenever Alan faces anything resembling discomfort or danger, and it's this character that gives this film the dash of originality it has.

It was refreshingly realistic to learn that the Alan character is kind of a wimp, but even more refreshing than that is the fact that Alan is fully aware of it and doesn't care what anyone thinks. Once he realizes what kind of danger Loretta is in, he realizes the kind of help she needs and she knows it's not him. The funniest scenes in the film are when Pitt's Trainer is doing what he has to do to save Loretta and the utterly clumsy Alan keeps getting in his way.

Of course, eventually it's up to Alan to save the day and when that does come to fruition, the film starts to run off gas and runs much longer than it needs to, sagging in the middle but snapping back for a terrific ending. Bullock nicely underplays as the tightly wound Loretta and Daniel Radcliffe works very hard in a role that was clearly written for Peter Dinklage. Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Hector Anibal, and Oscar Nunez also make the most of supporting roles, but if the truth be told, Channing Tatum quietly walks off with this movie with his beautifully internalized performance as the outward cowardly Alan who steps up when he has to. Tatum alone makes this film worth sitting through.