Gideon58's Reviews

Back to the Future Part II
After watching the heartbreaking Michael J. Fox documentary Still, I was motivated to finally finish this trilogy which I've avoided for a long time because I've heard bad things about the other two films, but I am pleased to report that 1989's Back to the Future Part II flourishes from "Sequel-itis", something that kills most sequels, but it works here thanks to the genius that is Robert Zemeckis.

For those who saw the first film, the final five minutes are recreated in which we learn Marty (Michael J Fox) has to go back to the future because something has to be done about his kids. Unexpectedly, that part of the story wraps pretty quickly, but a visit to the future forces Marty to stay a little longer because he learns his father's old bully, Biff Tannen (Thomas F Wilson) is Hillsdale's wealthiest citizen, now married to his mom, Lorraine (Lea Thompson), thanks to an act of thievery by Biff that Marty and Doc Brown (Christopher Brown) can only stop by, once again, returning to 1955 and the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance.

Bouquets to Zemeckis and his writing partner Bob Gale for coming up with a richly complex screenplay that does require the viewer to have seen the first film and incorporates most of the events that happened in that film into this one. The connections to the first film are not random and contrived and affect the outcome of everything that happens in this film. Initially, it's a little confusing, but I found myself getting caught up in the confusion and being part of it, and I think a lot of that has to do with the way what happened in the first film is integral to what happens in the second film without rehashing the first film. This story also required the principals to play basically three different versions of their characters.

I won't lie, there are minor problems with the story that provided unintended giggles but didn't deter from my enjoyment of what I was watching. Of course, I couldn't help but be amused by the fact that the film was set eight years ago and yet Hillsdale now looked like a Jetsons cartoon complete with flying cars, hover boards, and giant movie holograms that attack people on the street. And it may seem like a nitpick, but I found it hard to swallow that the scores of every major sporting event from 1950-2000 fit inside a book about the size of a comic book. It was also kind of annoying that when Doc originally shows up to get Marty, he explains the urgency, but tells him he can't talk to anybody, touch anything, change anything, or even be seen by his 2015 self...how can he save his children or anything else if he can't do anything/

Needless to say, the movie is a technical wonder. The production design is insane and the Visual Effects actually earned an Oscar nomination. Even with all the technical wizardry present, Zemeckis gets terrific performances from the cast, all required to triple the work they did in the first film, with a special shout out to Thomas F Wilson, who recreates three very distinct characters in 2015 Biff, 2015 Griff, and 1955 Biff. One of the best surprises I've had at the movies in a long time, a sequel that stands up proudly to its predecessor. Hope the third one is as good.

Wow, I can't believe you've never seen Back to the Future Part 2 and 3. Glad you liked Part 2 so much. I like all 3 of them.

No Hard Feelings (2023)
An effervescent, sex-on-legs performance by Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence is at the center of 2023's No Hard Feelings, an improbable but engaging romantic comedy that is not big on originality, but the star makes you care about what's happening.

Lawrence plays Maddie, a bartender and Uber driver who lives on Long Island but is in danger of losing her house and her car. She actually finds an ad on Craig's list from a wealthy couple offering a Buick Regal to a woman in her mid-20's who will "date" their socially awkward son, Percy, and get him to come out of his. And, well, you can probably guess the rest of what happens.
Director and co-screenwriter Gene Stuptnitsky, who was part of the writing team for the NBC sitcom The Office has concocted a story that is probably every 17 year old's dream and reminded me of a lot of comedies from the past, including Failure to Launch, .I]Class[/i], My Tutor, The Girl Next Door, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but still manages to establishes its own comedic credentials with its casting of the Oscar winner in the starring role and her complete investment in a role that allows the actress to run the gamut.

The story finds the star doing a lot of physical comedy, which is something I don't think of when I think o Jennifer Lawrence but she pretty much nails all of it. I loved her trying to maneuver uphill on a pair of roller blades, draped on the hood of a car, and having a fight on the beach with three strangers while she's completely nude. But then, we get to see every bit of vulnerability the actress can muster when she is moved by the young man serenading her on the piano in a crowded restaurant. This is where Stupnitsky has us exactly where he wants us and then throws us a wicked curve ball that pulls the couple apart and we wonder if we're ever going to get a happy ending.

Haven't enjoyed Lawrence onscreen this much since Silver Linings Playbook and her gift for light and physical comedy was a pleasant surprise. Newcomer Andrew Barth Feldman holds his own against Lawrence though, displaying some genuine acting chops here. Also making the most of their screentime were Natalie Morales and Scott MacArthur as Maddie's BFF's and Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti as Percy's parents. It could have moved a little more quickly than it did, but Lawrence demands viewer attention.

Fat City
Gritty direction by the legendary John Huston and some exceptional performances make the 1972 cult classic Fat City worth a look.

Based on a novel by Leonard Gardner, this is the story of two guys who are losers but don't really know it. Tully (Stacy Keach) is 30 years old and has been away from the ring for years for many years and we're not really given much insight into why. Ernie (Jeff Bridges) is 19 years old and our first glimpse of him murdering a punching bag in a YMCA gym has him looking unstoppable, but then he gets his teenage girlfriend pregnant.

Gardner was allowed to adapt his own book into a screenplay and provides us with a character driven story rich with a pathetic factor that actually draws the viewer in without even realizing. As pathetic as Tully and Ernie are, Huston and Gardner make us care about them and make us hope for something better for them. Tully's envy and jealousy when he first sees Ernie in the gym is almost heartbreaking to see and his attempt to intimidate the kid right after they meet is equally sad.

Huston and Gardner provide us with a much uglier look at the world of professional boxing than the Rocky franchise, would begin a mere four years later. And it's not just Tully and Ernie either...we get glimpses of several young men looking to be the next heavyweight champion. Loved the 15 year old black kid offering all kinds of unsolicited advice to Ernie before his fight and the next time we see him, his cheek is swollen like a bowling ball. We see it's over for Tully when he becomes involved with a drunken floozy he moves in with after her boyfriend. Lover the scene where he is trying to cook dinner for her and she's fighting him tooth and nail. When he opened a can of peas and just dumped them on the plate, I lost it..

I had forgotten Stacy Keach was ever this young but he gives a riveting performance and Bridges holds his own as poor Ernie. Susan Tyrell's drunken Oma dominates the screen whenever she's on it and her work earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Nicholas Colasanto was terrific as Tully's coach as was Candy Clark as Ernie's girlfriend. Not for all tastes, but Keach and Bridges fans should find something to revel in here.

Great review. I really loved Fat City and Tyrell's powerhouse performance in particular is what stands out to me and what I most remember from the film.

They Cloned Tyrone
The creative force behind Space Jam: A New Legacy brings us another strange offering with 2023's They Cloned Tyrone, which seems to be what would happen if Quentin Tarantino attempted to write a science fiction film.

Fontaine is a drug dealer who has just left a pimp named Slick Charles and his # 1 girl Yo Yo to collect the money that Charles owes him. As he leaves Slick's hotel room, Fontaine is shot and killed by a rival drug dealer, but wakes up the next morning like nothing happened. Fontaine assumes that it was just a nightmare until he confronts Slick and Yo Yo, who are blown away because they saw Fontaine get shot and die.

Director and co-screenwriter Juel Taylor really reaches for the stars here like he did with that Space Jam sequel, but his reach isn't quite there yet. Once again, like he did with Space Jam: A New Legacy, Taylor has let a really promising idea get away from him to the point where he completely alienates the viewer. We see what is initially going on with the multiple recreations of the events the day Fontaine died, which was the foundation for Tarantino films like Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, but as events are recreated here, we're expecting some sort of supernatural explanation to what's going on rather than the government conspiracy that finally comes light. And not only does what's going on take forever to come to light, what comes up is racially offensive.

It's hard to get behind a government conspiracy that is allegedly supposed to help black people, but we are also supposed to accept that they asked for it? That they needed it? That this is the only solution to a problem that is never really verbalized. It reminded me of another movie a few years ago called Sorry to Bother You, whose initially troubling premise was that if black people were to survive in this world, they would have to learn how to act white.

Less than stellar production values didn't help. The first 20-30 minutes of the film were really poorly lit and I had to turn on the closed captioning for the final 15 minutes of the film because I couldn't hear the bad guys telling us why they were doing what they were doing. The performances were mostly overripe though I did like Oscar winner Jamie Foxx as Slick Charles and Keifer Sutherland as Nixon. Juel Taylor again displays some talent as a filmmaker, but he's just not there yet.

The Iron Petticoat
Don't know what MGM was thinking when they decided that having Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn make a movie together would be a good idea, but the idea got by someone and a ridiculous Ninotchka rip-off was greenlighted called The Iron Petticoat that was the longest 90 minutes of my life.

The four time Oscar winner plays Captain Vinka Kovalenko, a Russian pilot who defects to America because she feels that she has been discriminated against in Russia because she's a woman. Captain Chuck Lockwood (Hope) is about to take an extended leave to reunite with his snooty British fiancee when his leave gets cancelled because his superiors think he is the perfect person to convince Captain Vinka that Capitalism is the only way to live and, while trying to convince Lockwood that communism is the way to go, somehow Chuck and Vinka fall in love.

Famed Hollywood writer Ben Hecht, who wrote classics like The Front Page, Notorious, and The Man with the Golden Arm is actually one of the co-conspirators around this silly and convoluted story that finds Hepburn playing a Russian pilot with absolutely no concept of being a woman is and Hope playing another one of his wise-cracking know-it-alls, whose dialogue is still and always was about those typical Hope one-liners where you can almost hear the rim shot in the background after each one.

The film is directed with a leaden hand by Ralph Thomas, who directed all of those Dirk Bogarde "Doctor" movies, which apparently made MGM think he had the skill to pull off this comedy, but this was one of the least funny movies I have ever seen. I might have laughed out loud twice during the entire 90 minutes. The problem here was pretty simple: When it comes down it, this film was a romantic comedy and a successful romantic comedy requires chemistry between the stars and there isn't a scintilla of chemistry between Hope and Hepburn, as hard as the pair are working at it.

Hepburn's interpretation of a Russian accent, which consisted primarily of always putting the accent of every word she spoke on the second syllable got very annoying very quickly and then tension between her and Hope was prevalent throughout. English actor James Robertson Justice was fun as a Russian officer, but I never really bought Noelle Middleton as Hope's snooty fiancee. Somebody at MGM should have lost their job over this one.

Pamela: A Love Story
Baywatch babe and pop culture icon Pamela Anderson is the subject of a long-winded but never uninteresting Netflix documentary called Pamela: A Love Story that provides a lot of interesting tidbits about the actress and busts a few myths about her, but I have to admit I did find myself checking my watch.

The film opens with the star strolling the beaches of Ladysmith, British Columbia, the Canadian seaside community where she was born, dressed in a white bathrobe, sans makeup, definitely the first time I've seen Anderson that way, which was quite the shock. We learn from Pamela's lips that she had an abusive father, a female babysitter who molested her, and was raped at the age of 12 about 15 minutes into the film. We then watch Pamela pretend to stumble upon a bunch of diaries and journals she kept as a child and gives director Ryan White permission to have someone else read them but thinks reading them herself might be too painful.

Loved Pamela's recollections regarding her road to becoming a Playboy centerfold in February of 1990 and how it eventually led to her starring her role on Baywatch. Her small role on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement isn't even mentioned and I have to admit I wondered why. It's not like they were trying to save time...the documentary runs close to two hours, concentrating mostly on her stormy marriage to Motley Crew musician Tommy Lee, who she married four days after meeting him and had two children with him. Anderson talks openly about the abusive man that Tommy turned out to be and about the infamous sex tape that was stolen from her and Lee. Even though the marriage ended shortly after Lee went to jail, we are a bit thrown to learn that Lee is the only man Anderson ever really loved, despite getting married four more times.

The film gets hard to stay invested in when the story moves past Anderson's marriage to Tommy Lee until two events happen almost simultaneously: Hulu decides to make a mini-series about her sex tape with Tommy Lee and Anderson gets an offer to replace the current Roxie Hart on Broadway in Chicago, an offer Anderson jumps at, despite no formal song or dance training. The film features interviews with Tommy Lee, her sons Brandon and Dylan, and her parents, but there are no interviews with anyone who worked with Anderson on Home Improvement or Baywatch, so take from that what you will. It's a little antiseptic and one-sided, but never boring.

Shame (2011)
Before he became an official Hollywood player with 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen scored as the director and co-screenwriter of Shame, a dark and unsettling erotic drama that follows one man's quest for something he can't get enough of or something he doesn't know he wants and is in denial about it.

The 2011 film stars Michael Fassbender as Brandon, an upwardly mobile advertising executive and sex addict, who has been struggling to keep his addiction under control. but for some reason, it becomes impossible when his younger sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan) arrives for a visit and wastes no time having an affair with Brandon's boss.

As co-screenwriter with Abi Morgan, McQueen dances around some very delicate cinematic landmines here, but as a director, he reaches out slaps the viewer in the face with everything he's trying to say here. It initially seems like McQueen wants the viewer to do the work here as he takes his time in revealing exactly what kind of person Brandon is. One of the film's first serious glances into who Brandon is takes place on a subway where Brandon pretty much has an affair with a woman sitting across the aisle on the train but loses her when he tries to follow her off the train. This scene is all McQueen and speaks volumes as to who the kind of person Brandon is, as is his first meeting with a prostitute where he watches her count her money before doing anything and when she starts undressing, he instructs her to do it slowly.
But everything changes with the arrival of Sissy as McQueen steps back a bit and lets the characters reveal their story without revealing what might be the actual point of this film. We know something's not right when the first meeting between Brandon and Sissy is when he comes home and finds Sissy in the shower. He pulls her out of the shower and they have a 15 minute conversation while Sissy is wet and naked. Now, I'm in my 60's and ha ve never seen either off my sisters naked, let alone have a conversation with them while they were naked, so McQueen is definitely trying to say something here. Brandon's life begins to spiral out of control after Sissy's arrival and we know this is no accident either.

McQueen's story provides some balance for the viewer as he makes it clear what a prisoner Brandon is of his addiction but doesn't come right out and say what his addiction might be. McQueen allows the viewer to do a lot of the work here, while providing an eye for what is erotic on camera that rivals Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction). Love the scenes of Brandon having sex with women against open windows, as well as the possibility of what might be going on between Brandon and his sister.

Michael Fassbender is sexy and charismatic in the starring role and the chemistry he creates with Carey Mulligan is off the charts. It should also be mentioned that Mulligan provides the film with an incredible musical interlude with the most original take on the John Kander Fred Ebb song "New York New York" that I have ever heard. It's not for all tastes, but I found this film riveting.

The Little Mermaid (2023)
The 2023 live action version of The Little Mermaid is an eye-popping retelling of the Disney animated classic that goes on a little longer than need be, but provides what everyone looks for in a Disney classic and a movie musical thanks to a proven commodity with musicals in the director's chair.

Arielle is a lovely young mermaid who has an unquenchable curiosity about life at the surface, though she has been forbidden by her father, King Triton, to ever go to the surface and interact with the evil human beings. Of course, Arielle defies her father and makes her way to the surface where she witnesses a shipwreck and instantly falls in love with one of the passengers, the dashing Prince Eric. As the ship goes down, Arielle saves Eric's life but is, of course, forbidden to be with him while Eric begins combing the seaside looking for the woman who saved him.

An evil sea witch named Ursula has been watching what happened with Arielle and confronts her with an offer: She will turn Arielle into a human for three days and if she can get a kiss from Eric, she will remain human and all it will cost Arielle is her voice.

Hans Christian Anderson actually gets onscreen credit as one of the screenwriters for this classic tale and he is assisted by David Magee (Mary Poppins Returns) and John Musker, who wrote the original animated film. They provide the story we expect though it is a bit overstuffed with a few scenes that run much longer than necessary, resulting in the film's slight overlength. The original shipwreck, the scene at the street carnival, and the final battle with Ursula all could have been trimmed a bit. There were some logistical issues that nagged at me throughout as well: At the street fair, they make a big deal out of the fact that Arielle eats flowers and combs her hair with a fork. When she's bathing at the castle she eats soap, but when they're dressing her, she knows exactly what a corset is and even mentions it in her song. How would a mermaid know what a corset is? I also wouldn't have minded seeing Arielle have a little trouble adjusting to having legs.

Fortunately, these minor issues don't deter thanks to the brilliant Rob Marshall at the helm. Marshall directed the 2002 Oscar winner for Best Picture Chicago and the film version of Into the Woods knows exactly what a musical should like and I've said this before: Anytime a musical is brought to the screen these days, Marshall should always direct. He provides perfect staging of musical numbers with perfect choreography for dolphins and sea turtles.

Musical highlights include Arielle's "Part of Your World, Sebastian's "Under the Sea", "Kiss the Girl", Ursula's "Poor Unfortunate Souls" but if the truth be told, my favorite number was a sassy little rap number led by Awkwafina voicing Scuttle called "The Scuttlebutt", written especially for this movie.

Halle Bailey is absolutely enchanting as Arielle...this is a stunning beauty with the voice of a Broadway star. Oscar winner Javier Bardem was terrific as King Triton as was Tony Winner Daveed Diggs (Hamilton as the voice of Sebastian the crab. Melissa McCarthy is nothing short of brilliant as the rotten Ursula, who refuses to play fair. I have to admit that during the final third, I began checking my watch, but found this live action remake first rate entertainment for the most part.

Jurassic Park
The same year he won his first Best Director Oscar for Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg also created one of the best popcorn movies ever and a box office smash. Jurassic Park is a thunderously and consistently terrifying nightmare of nature versus technology and man's insatiable desire to control both goes horribly wrong.

The 1993 film is set in Central America where we meet an eccentric millionaire named John Hammond (Oscar winner Sir Richard Attenborough) who is putting the final touches on an amusement park he is planning to open in a year which will feature live dinosaurs, that Hammond is having hatched from birth but controlled by technology. Hammond invites a pair of paleontologist (Sam Neill, Laura Dern), a cynical doctor (Jeff Goldblum), and his grandchildren to tour the park in hopes that the paleontologists will endorse the park before it opens. But when one of Hammond's employee's attempts to steal dinosaur embryos and security systems controlling the dinosaurs are shut down, everyone on this tour is put in grave danger.

Spielberg really knocked it out of the park here and I'm not sure why I waited all these years to actually watch this film, but I can't recall the last time a film had me alternately riveted to the edge of my chair and jumping out of it. Admittedly, Michael Crichton and David Koepp's screenplay contains a lot of headache-inducing techno babble that keeps this movie in first gear for the first thirty minutes or so, but once said exposition is over and the genius that is Steven Spielberg takes over, just grab something and watch.

This film contains one heart stopping sequence after another made all the more effective because the group of people we meet at the beginning of this park tour get separated for the majority of the running time, documenting that classic saying about safety in numbers. It's not just Spielberg's state of the art (for 1993) technical wizardry, but it's not always about making the viewers eyes pop. There's a horrific scene where Hammond is suggesting to Neill's character that they break for lunch and he sees a bull in a harness being lifted over some sort of cage covered with leaves. We learn that a dinosaur is being fed but Spielberg doesn't show us the carnage, he just shows the bull being lowered, the noise as it happens, and the harness being lifted out, now torn and tattered. Racing a dinosaur out of a tree with a car right behind them that was also in the tree and the finale where we actual see different breeds of dinos turn on each other were also scenes that had me tempted to cover my eyes.

Some parts of the film had a slight air of predictability to them. We learn early on that Sam Neill's character is not crazy about kids, so guess who gets stuck protecting Attenborough's grandchildren for most of the running time? Or when a technician, played by Samuel L Jackson, says he can't run the park system without Wayne Knight's character and seconds later we see Knight's car stuck in the mud and having his own dino encounter.

There are some interesting messages about ecology and tampering with nature that come through here, mostly via Goldblum's character, but they take a back seat to the seriously scary and thunderous roller coaster ride this movie is. Did love the shot about halfway through the film of the gift shop with all the merchandising that we know is going to end up in an incinerator. Mr. Spielberg, we're not worthy. The film won Oscars for Visual Effects, Sound, and Sound Effects Editing, all richly deserved.

The Out-Laws
A Netflix film produced by Adam Sandler, The Out-Laws is a silly and hard to swallow action comedy that seems five hours long. Got the feeling Netflix approached Sandler to star in it and he chose to produce instead. Smart move.

Owen Browning is a nerdy bank manager engaged to the beautiful Parker McDermott, who reluctantly informs Owen that her parents, who were out of the country, will be able to attend their wedding after all. What Parker doesn't know is that her parents are bank robbers who owe a dangerous criminal $6,000,000 so they change their RSVP to the wedding so that they can rob the bank where their future son-in-law works. Unfortunately, their short on what they owe so the criminal kidnaps Parker until she gets the rest of her money.

The screenplay by Ben Zazove and Evan Turner is positively juvenile and really difficult to latch onto. Are we really supposed to believe that these two people raised a grown daughter who has no idea that her parents have been robbing banks forever? And how do people who rob banks for a living accrue a six million dollar debt to anyone? And why would they think the solution to their problem is to come to their daughter's wedding and put her and her fiancee in danger?

Director Tyler Spindel, who directed the dreadful Adam Sandler comedy Jack and Jill has somehow managed to mount a comedy with manic pacing that still felt five hours long. There's some really strange casting too. I don't know what Spindel was thinking with the casting of Poorna Jagannathan as the woman to whom the McDermotts owe all this money. More laughs were provided by the parents than the bad guys in this one.

This was one thing Spindel got right was his casting. Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin (who both looked amazing), were all kinds of fun as Parker's parents, but Richard Kind and Julie Hagerty were equally funny in the less showy roles of Owen's parents. Unfortunately, Adam Devine is exhausting as Owen and Nina Dobrev just provides another variation on the various TV wives she has played. Michael Rooker provides some fun moments as a federal agent on the case. Hardcore Brosnan fans might want to check this out, but for this reviewer, another one hour and thirty seven minutes of my life I won't be getting back.

Ship of Fools
Director Stanley Kramer (The Defiant Ones, Judgment at Nuremburg, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) provided one of his most forgotten and underrated works in 1965's Ship of Fools, an adult shipboard drama rich with romance and bigotry and a lot more substance than we expect.

Based on a novel by Katherine Ann Porter, it's 1933 and a ship is leaving Mexico and traveling to Germany and our guide for the journey, a dwarf named Glocken (Michael Dunn), speaks directly to the camera and assures us that we're likely to meet someone like ourselves during this journey. Among the stories that unfold are the slow burn romance between the ship's doctor (Oskar Werner) and a Spanish Countess (Simone Signoret) who are both harboring secrets; Mary Treadwell (Vivien Leigh) is an aging femme fatale who is looking for male attention, any male, preferably someone younger; A bigoted German newspaper publisher (Jose Ferrer) who wants all blacks and Jews shipped off to an island somewhere; Tenny (Lee Marvin) is an ex-baseball player bitter about the end of his career and wants to drink and hump his way through this cruise; Jenny (Elizabeth Ashley) is a trust fund baby in love with an arrogant artist (George Segal) with whom she's afraid she has nothing in common with but sex. There's also a family of flamenco dancers on board where dad is pimping out his daughters and hundreds of Spanish immigrants have been picked up and are being stored in steerage

Uh. yeah, this is not your typical 1965 melodrama. Abby Mann's Oscar-winning adaptation of Porter's novel is multi-layered, not only offering a glance at the class system between 1st class and steerage, that anyone who saw Titanic is already aware of, but offers individual stories within that system that have a surprisingly adult slant for a 1965 movie. Was shocked when Jenny said she was looking forward to 26 days in separate cabins to see if they had something in common besides sex. I couldn't believe the beautiful young flamenco dancer who was willing to offer herself to a stranger for the bargain price of $40. It was shocking watching the tragic Mary Treadwell throw herself at any man who would look at her twice, but an encounter with Tenny climaxed with her beating the hell out of the guy.

There is an air of familiarity to some of what goes on here. Leigh's character, Mary Treadwell, is pretty much a retread of Blanche DuBois, who Leigh played in A Streetcar Named Desire, but this character doesn't try to sugar coat who she is the way Blanche did and Leigh completely invests in it. Watch that scene where she's in front of the makeup mirror...this woman is definitely not there. The back and forth between Jenny and David on the other hand, required complete attention because their relationship changed in every scene and we definitely know there is more going on with this countess than what initially surfaces. There are a couple of scenes that go on longer than they need to, especially the flamenco family's first dance, but a minor quibble.

In addition to Mann's Oscar for adapted screenplay the film received seven other nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor for Werner, Best Actress for Signoret, and Michael Dunn for Supporting Actor, though I could have seen a supporting nomination for Marvin as well, he stole every scene he was in. A supporting nod for Ashley wouldn't have been a terrible thing either. Sadly, this was also Vivien Leigh's final film role.

Elemental
Once again, Disney Pixar has overshot its load with an overstuffed spectacle called Elemental that is stupid with cinematic magic; unfortunately, it is mostly wasted on an illogical story that takes forever to get to its five endings, making an hour and forty-one minute film seem five hours long.

The 2023 film takes a theme common with Disney Pixar and tries to wrap it around subjects for which it doesn't really make sense. The movie takes place in a magical city called Firetown, where the residents are all elements (fire, water, wind, land, and air) attempt to live together. Ember is a teenage fire girl who works in her father's shop called The Fireplace, that she dreams of taking over when he retires. One day, during an important sale, the pipes in the basement burst and a city inspector, a water guy named Wade, reports it and tells Ember she must find a way to fix it or her father's shop will close down. Wade offers to help Ember in anyway he can because, even without realizing it, he is starting to fall in love with fire, even though he is water.

Similar themes have been explored in the movies forever...blacks can't be with whites, bees can't be with humans, foxes can't be with hounds, foxes can't be with rabbits, a lot of these in Disney Pixar creations, but there's no way for screenwriters John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, and Brenda Hsueh to legitimize the love story they are trying to tell here. These are elements, not people, not animals, they're elements, elements that cannot be together, period. From the beginning of time, we've seen what happens when fire and water make contact...eventually, fire goes out. There was no way I could wrap my head around the concept that these two elements could co-exist.

Of course, as accustomed with Disney Pixar, the film is a blazing (pun intended) technical achievement. The look of this film is absolutely stunning with incredible production design and set pieces. This animated film features images of water that look more like real water than any animated film I have ever seen. It's not just the look of the water but the illustration of its power is like nothing I have scene. It's absolutely terrifying during the 5th or 6th ending when Firetown gets flooded. Genuine terror is created here, but it doesn't change the fact that Ember could travel through all this water and survive. The relationship between Ember and her parents reminded me of the family on the sitcom Kim's Convenience.

This is director Peter Sohn's directorial debut, though he did provide voices for Lightyear and the Oscar winning Ratatouille. Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie do wonderful voice work as Ember and Wade, respectively. Wendie McClendon-Hovey was also very funny as Gale, Wade's boss, but I just found this film illogical and a little bit exhausting.

The Muse
Albert Brooks had a real misfire with 1999's The Muse, a sadly unfunny black comedy that starts off promisingly, making most of the characters in the film look like blithering idiots, including a handful of Hollywood heavyweights playing themselves.

Brooks plays Steven Phillips, a Hollywood screenwriter whose career is circling the drain who desperately seeks advice from a successful fellow screenwriter named Jack (Jeff Bridges). Jack reluctantly hooks Steven up with Sarah Little (Sharon Stone), a woman who worked with Jack as his "muse." Exactly what a muse is is not explained clearly by Jeff and not clearly understood by Steven, who gives into some expensive demands from Sarah for her services.

It's not long before it's revealed that Sarah has been a muse for Rob Reiner, Martin Scorsese, and advised James Cameron not to do a sequel to Titanic so Steven is willing to put up with the expense and inconvenience until Sarah starts spending more time with his wife, Laura (Andie McDowell), motivating her to become the next Mrs. Fields, with an assistance from Sarah's good pal Wolfgang Puck.

Brooks wrote this film with his long time collaborator the late Monica Mcgowan Johnson, who also helped him write Lost in America and Mother, two films I really liked, but Brooks really misses the boat here. This Steven is thrown constant clues from jump that this woman Sarah is not what she purports to be, but Jack keeps getting sucked in deeper. What kind of "muse" demands a gift from Tiffany's on their first meeting with a new client? It was when Steven moved out of his own bedroom and allowed Sarah to move in that it was check out time for this reviewer. A reveal about who Sarah is does come out eventually but Brooks pulls that reveal out from under us before the credits roll...what was the point?

There are some expensive production values and in addition to the above mentioned stars, there are also cameos from Cybill Shepherd, Steven Wright, Lorenzo Lamas, Bradley Whitford, Jennifier Tilly, and Mark Feuerstein, but all the star-gazing in the world doesn't disguise how dumb this movie is.

The Tutor
There are some expensive visual trappings, some stylish direction, and a terrific performance by the star, but 2023's The Tutor is another one of those alleged psychological thrillers that challenges viewer attention span because the story takes way too long to get where it's going and a lot of the journey just doesn't make sense.

Garrett Hedlund, who you might remember as the youngest brother, Jack, in Four Brothers plays Ethan, a tutor to spoiled trust fund babies prepping for their SAT's who lives with his pregnant girlfriend. Out of the blue, Ethan is offered $2500 a day to tutor a kid named Jackson for a week at an incredible estate on Long Island, but all is not as it seems when it becomes clear that Jackson knows who Ethan is and everything about his life.

This is screenwriter Ryan King's second feature length film and that becomes apparent pretty quickly as one can drive a truck through all of the holes in this screenplay. Once it is established exactly who Jackson is, a plethora of questions crowd the viewer mind...like why didn't he contact Ethan directly years ago instead of stalking him? And once he's got Ethan right there in his house, he continues to hide who he is like he expects Ethan to figure out by himself. At the halfway point in the film, Jackson drugs Ethan which finds him at the bottom of a lake. After all of this, Jackson decides to talk to Ethan's girlfriend and get her on his side...why not talk to her first? And later when Ethan returns to the mansion to confront Jackson, we're supposed to buy that there are strangers living there now who have no idea who Ethan is?

Director Jordan Ross, whose experience is as limited as King's, is probably best known for writing and directing a 2017 film called Thumper, does show some directorial skill. he definitely knows what a movie should look like. The opening scenes showing what Ethan does for a living are extremely well-mounted, where he gets first rate editing assistance. They are so good that we almost think we are prepped for an outrageous black comedy, but there was definitely nothing funny here. I have to admit that moment where Jackson and entered Ethan's room and laid down with his head in Ethan's lap was undeniably creepy.

Hedlund does work very hard as Ethan, evoking sympathy for a character who may or may not deserve it. Victoria Justice, who I last saw playing Janet in the TV remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, tries to make something out of her thankless role as Ethan's girlfriend, but Noah Schnapp is a little overripe for my tastes as the tightly wound Jackson. It's a bice effort, this director and screenwriter need a little more seasoning.

For Keeps?
A screenplay with a few surprises, emotionally charged direction, and a solid cast make the 1988 romantic comedy-drama For Keeps? an entertaining story that really puts the viewer behind the lead characters, demanding that they get what we want for them.

Darcy (Molly Ringwald) and Stan (Randall Batinkoff) are high school seniors who are planning a long distance romance while they plan going to college on opposite coasts where Darcy plans to study journalism and Stan wants to study architecture. Unfortunately, Darcy and Stan's plans fall apart when, after six sexual encounters, Darcy becomes pregnant. Darcy's single mother wants her to have an abortion and Stan's parents want her to give the baby up for adoption, but Darcy and Stan want to raise the baby themselves.

The intelligent and mature screenplay by former SNL regular Tim Kazurinsky and Denise DeClue have provided what initially appears to be a by-the-numbers story of teenage pregnancy that we've seen a million times, but this one goes to several places this reviewer did not see coming. Shock was my reaction to the way Darcy and Stan's families turn their backs on them and once they get married, they are completely offscreen for a healthy chunk of the running time. Was also impressed with the story addressing post partum depression when, after the birth of their daughter, Darcy doesn't want to touch her. That was plot twist I did not see coming up at all that was woven seamlessly into the more obvious financial problems that arise for the couple, giving a good chunk of this film a lot more depth than I expected.

The screenplay is a little vague about when the film takes place. Taking into account, costuming, music, and most importantly. characters' attitudes about male and female roles in society, I would say it takes place in the 50's. It was confirmed for me when Stan flipped out the first time Darcy suggested that she get a job until the baby was born.

John G. Alvidesn, who won a Best Director Oscar for Rocky, was in the director's chair and served as film editor for this film as well. Alvidsen really brings us into the heats and minds of these characters and creates some genuinely cringe-worthy scenes throughout. That moment at the Thanksgiving dinner table where the news first comes to fruition is fraught with tension and heartbreaking was the only way to describe watching Stan stepping up for his daughter because her mother didn't want to touch her. The manipulative interference from Darcy and Stan's parents brought a lot of tension to the story as well.

Molly Ringwald brings a maturity to Darcy that we don't see coming and can we talk about this Randall Batinkoff's dazzling film debut in the role of Stan? Batinkoff is undeniably charismatic in this role and has continued to rack up an impressive resume through the years, but for some reason, no one knows who this guy is and that's a shame, because this guy commands the screen here. Also have to give a shout out to Miriam Flynn, best known for playing Catherine in the Vacation franchise, who registers in the really unlikable role of Darcy's mother. This movie was a pleasant surprise that got by a lot of people and the only thing that confuses me is the question mark at the end of the title.

Harry: The Interview
This 2023 documentary is actually an ITV British television interview conducted by ITV's Tom Bradby with Prince Harry, which coincided with the release of the book Harry just wrote called "Spare", that has now been release din the form of documentary.

Bradby mentions more than once that he and the Prince are longtime friends, so it's probably safe to say that the guy was very careful to only bring up things that Harry was willing to discuss. If the truth be told, the guy's lips seemed to be firmly attached to Harry's butt for the entire interview.

I have to admit to being a little shocked that Bradby actually asked Harry about the day his mother died, but was impressed with Harry's recollection of the day and the conversation he had with his father was quite moving. This part of the interview did lose me though because Harry concluded by stating that everyone he has ever talked to about his mother's death remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard Diana had died. The only famous person death I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news was the death of John F Kennedy. It goes without saying that Harry's issues with the paparazzi were easy to understand.

There were times during the interview when Harry appeared to be talking out of both sides of his mouth, but I'm not sure if that's really fair since I really wasn't paying attention when he and his wife were going through whatever it was they were going through that had them on the news for a daily basis for awhile. One of the reasons I watched this documentary was I was hoping Harry might recall for those of us who might have missed it exactly what happened. Full disclosure was never really provided. All we know now is that a permanent rift has come up between Harry and the rest of his family, especially his dad, Charles and his brother, William (who he refers to as "Willie"). I thought it was interesting that Harry felt it was important to be honest about his drug use in the book, but wasn't sure if it was fodder for the media.

A couple of things do come through in this interview, primarily that Harry still loves his family and wants reconciliation but claims the ball is in their court. The subject of Camilla Parker Bowles was the only humor I found in this rather dry interview from an articulate family man who still has a spoiled child living inside him. It was fun listening to Harry reading excerpts from his book.

The Bad News Bears
A terrific performance by Walter Matthau is the main selling point of 1976's The Bad News Bears, a by-the-numbers sports comedy given some originality by having child actors talking like sailors.

Matthau plays Morris Buttermaker, a beer-drinking, pool-cleaning, former minor league baseball player who is paid to coach a ragtag group of foul-mouthed ballplayers into a real baseball team. When the team displays virtually no talent on the field and Buttermaker is asked to give it up, he instead decides to help the team by hiring a female pitcher with a bullet for an arm and a juvenile delinquent who help the team score runs but bring just as much conflict to the team.

Burt Lancaster's son, Bill, has provided a screenplay where the main attraction seems to be ten year olds using a lot of adult language, but there are some additional layers to the story that bubble to the surface. Eventually, Buttermaker's obsession with winning and making himself look good become more important than the team as a whole, which is supposed to be the primary message here I guess.

The big draw here was actually supposed to be the first film appearance by Tatum O'Neal, after becoming the youngest actor in history to win an Oscar for her film debut in Paper Moon. Someone was determined to prove that O'Neal's Oscar win was no fluke and that she wasn't riding on her father's coat tails. If the truth be told, the performance is nothing special and O'Neal is still a working actress today, but, honestly, she has never topped her work as Addie Prey. This film did feature an impressive film debut with Jackie Earle Haley's first film role as Kelly the juvenile delinquent.

The offbeat idea of utilizing music from Bizet's Carmen for a lot of the story actually works. Matthau is a pro, as always, but he really is relegated to playing second fiddle to these kids, including Alfred Lutter, who had just finished playing Ellen Burstyn's son in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Chris Barnes as Tanner. Vic Morrow and Joyce Van Patten score in supporting roles and you might recognize the young man playing Morrow's son as Brandon Cruz, who played Eddie on the ABC sitcom The Courtship of Eddie's Father. The film was followed by two sequels The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan, but neither featured Matthau or O'Neal. There was also a short-lived television series that featured Jack Warden as Buttermaker and Tricia Cast as Amanda.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Harrison Ford once again picks up his whip and dons his fedora for the fifth installment in the franchise, 2023's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, another roller coaster ride from Dr. Jones and company that provides everything we expect from the franchise and respects the fact that Dr. Jones is not a kid anymore, but also had me checking my watch.

Indy is getting older, getting a little bored with teaching, and even getting bored with the adventure and danger he has become accustomed to, but once again is motivated to retrieve a valuable artifact that could change the course of history, especially if an evil Nazi named Dr. Voller gets his hands on it.

The screenplay here does try to cover a bit too much territory but I do like the fact that it respects the history of the franchise by having characters return from pervious movies. It also never forgets that Dr. Jones is getting older. Love the scene after he returns home from his most recent adventure and storms downstairs with a baseball bat to his downstairs neighbors to complain about the noise. We also see the importance of family to Indy in that his primary nemesis in this film is a goddaughter who he hasn't seen since she was a child.

This movie redefines the action sequence with some of the most hair-raising sequences I've seen in a long time. Indy being chased through the subway on horseback was worth the price of admission alone. The underwater sequence with Antonio Banderas was almost as squirm-worthy as was that very narrow passageway where the walls are covered with disgusting insects, revitalizing Indy's fear of snakes. What I loved most though is that in the middle of a lot of this action, Indy would just stop, because he was tired, and he would tell everyone he was "thinking."

There was some reticence when I learned that Spielberg was not in the director's chair for this, but James Mangold (Walk the Line) does competent work in the director's chair, though I wish he had reined it in a little so it wasn't so long. Though Ford is still wearing this character like comfortable shoes, I did get a sense that he 's ready to hang up the whip and fedora, but I really enjoyed Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Voller and Emmy winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as Indy's goddaughter, Helena. Fans of the franchise will not be disappointed.