Gideon58's Reviews

Stephen Curry: Underrated
Regular followers of my review thread know that I love celebrity documentaries, but I went a little out of my personal comfort zone with my viewing of a 2023 documentary called Stephen Curry: Underrated, a comprehensive and often quite moving look at the career of NBA superstar Stephen Curry, taking a heart pumping look at this one of a kind athlete that riveted this viewer to the screen, a viewer who not only knows nothing about Curry, but nothing about basketball.

The film opens on a very special night for the Golden State Warrior. It is the game where Curry is one shot away from breaking the world record for the most career three-point shots. We are initially under the impression that we're going to get a typical rags to riches biography of a sports legend, but we get anything but as learn that Curry was an underdog from jump whose passion and hard work helped him work through his underdog status to become the star on the court he did. As a matter of fact, this reviewer would have used the word "Underdog" for this film's subtitle instead of "Underrated."

It was initially surprising to learn that for the sport, Curry was a bit of a runt...he was skinny and by the time he began his career ay Davidson, a small North Carolina college that no one had heard of, he was only 6 ' tall. It is revealed that Curry was aware of his shortcomings, but his passion for the game just made him work all that harder. As much as Curry loved this game, there was a never an attitude of "I'm the Greatest" with him like Muhammed Ali. There is not even a shred of anything resembling ego with this man. He is truly humbled by his success and credits everyone who supported him in his journey.

The majority of the film concentrates on his time at Davidson, where he would eventually help the team earn five trips to March Madness. Loved when he talked about learning he had been accepted at Davidson and was a little hurt that no cared that he had been accepted at a college that no one had ever heard of. I was also deeply moved to learn that after entering the pros. marrying and having three children, Steph decided to earn the college degree he never received at Davidson, opting to go the NBA a year early instead. Also loved a look at a Rocky Balboa-type training sequence that involved a basketball, a tennis ball, and some kind of monitor in a trainer's hand that he had to alternate with precision like nothing I had seen. .And my heart was so full when he's observed winning his first NBA MVP award.

There is commentary provided by Steph's parents, who were also athletes in college, Davidson coach Bob McKillop, Reggie Miller, Shonn Brown, Steph's high school coach, and Davidson teammate Jason Richards, among others. I don't know anything about sports, but this documentary about a very special athlete was a joy to watch.

Raggedy Man
A luminous performance by Sissy Spacek anchors 1981's Raggedy Man, which starts off as a sweetly nostalgic melodrama that eventually slides into an unexpectedly violent finale that sort of sours the warm story that we have seen until the final third.

The film is set in the fictional town of Gregory, Texas during WWII where Spacek plays Nita Longley, a divorced mother of two young boys who finds herself drifting into an affair with a charming young sailor on a four day leave (Eric Roberts), while being simultaneously stalked by a pair of drooling morons who believe divorced women are hot to trot and won't rest until they have their way with our heroine.

The screenplay starts off quite effectively as we are introduced to this fiercely independent woman struggling to do what's right for her and her boys. I like the fact that the film begins with Nita catching her husband cheating on her, but skips over the whole accusation/fight/separation/divorce part of the story and introduces Nita as a woman who has put her scummy ex in the rear view mirror and is starting over. Everything that happens with the sexy sailor rings true, including its eventual demise thanks to gossiping neighbors who won't let them be. What I couldn't handle were these two sexist idiots and their obsession with Nita just because she's divorced, leading to a rather ugly finale that we don't see coming.

The movie is handsomely mounted by director Jack Fisk, the real life of husband of Sissy Spacek, his first time in the director's chair after several years as a set decorator, cinematographer and art director. He lovingly creates the 1940;s for us, and perfectly establishes that small town atmosphere for Gregory Texas, where everybody knows what everybody else is doing.

Needless to say, Fisk gets a lovely performance from his wife, fresh off her Oscar-winning performance in Coal Miner's Daughter whose performance makes this film worth watching by itself. Eric Roberts is sex on legs as the young sailor and William Sanderson and one of my fave veterans Tracey Walter make the most of their roles as the slimy sex maniacs. And that is Henry Thomas in his feature film debut, playing Spacek's elder son, whose next film role would be playing Elliott in ET The Extra Terrestrial. Fans of Ms. Spacek will not be disappointed.

Fool's Paradise
Hands down, the worst film of 2023 that will surely sweep the next Razzie Awards, 2023's Fool's Paradise, a painfully unfunny show business comedy that gets dumber and dumber, wasting a big budget and a lot of talented actors.

Charlie Day is the director, writer, and star of this travesty as a mental patient who is released from the hospital because they can't figure out exactly what's wrong with him and don't know how to treat him. Five minutes after his release, he encounters a Hollywood producer who reveals that this guy is a dead ringer for an obnoxious movie star named Sir Bingsley and, even though the guy seems to be unable to speak, he is hired to replace Bingsley in the movie. Our hero also becomes the client of a fourth rate publicist named Lenny whose career is circling the drain.

I'm just at a loss here. I'm impressed that Charlie Day has the juice to get crap like this on the big screen and actually get some A list actors involved as well. Never watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and my only exposure to Day has been the Horrible Bosses franchise, but this movie just comes off as really bad Jerry Lewis. The whole premise that someone who doesn't speak can become a movie star is just ridiculous. A virtual movie star being created out of someone who never says a word just makes every other character in the movie look like an idiot. And not only does this movie get completed, it's a smash and he is immediately signed for another one. Seriously?

There's just one stupid scene after another here. There's a scene at a chic Hollywood party where every time the guy sits down, he knocks over a coffee table, one with cocaine on it. His leading lady actually falls in love with him, marries him, and adopts children with him. My jaw dropped as I watched all this stuff happen to a mental patient who never speaks. There's nothing based in realism here, the movie is just going for laughs, but it never accomplishes that either.

Day somehow managed to get some names involved in this mess. The late Ray Liotta is very funny as the producer who discovers the guy and Oscar winner Adrien Brody steals every scene he's in as an arrogant method actor. Edie Falco has some funny moments as the guy's new agent, but Hollywood's most annoying actor, Ken Jeong, is excruciating as Lenny the publicist and a shoo in for the Razzie for Worst Actor. The longest one hour and thirty-eight minutes of my life.

The Electric Horseman
1979's The Electric Horseman is a glossy, big budget look at corporate greed and animal cruelty that, despite some minor holes in the screenplay, remains completely watchable thanks to the professionalism in front of and behind the camera.

Oscar winner Robert Redford had one of his best roles as Sonny Steele, an alcoholic, former rodeo champion who has sold his soul to a corporation called Ampco in order to be the spokesperson for a breakfast cereal. He has been scheduled to fly to Las Vegas and appear in a commercial where he would ride a $12,000,000 thoroughbred horse in circles around the stage while promoting the cereal. Sonny is outraged when he learns that the horse has been drugged to keep him calm and when it's time to shoot the commercial, he rides the horse off the stage and kidnaps him with the intention of eventually setting the horse free. An investigative reporter named Hallie Martin (Oscar winner Jane Fonda) manages to track Sonny down but circumstances force her to go on the run with Sonny and the horse.

Three writers collaborated on this slightly complex that is a bit leisurely in setting up the story and the characters. Sonny's present misery is effectively established in the opening scenes and his backstory just as efficiently through one scene with sonny's ex-wife (Valerie Perrine).
Despite his misery, Sonny's likability factor goes through the roof during that scene where discovers the horse is being drugged. Every scene where Sonny is observed caring for the horse is a joy to watch. The motivations of Fonda's character seem to change from scene to scene but there is a point where she understands and respects what Sonny is doing. Yes, feeling of affection do develop between Sonny and Hallie, but that never becomes the focus of the story and I liked that.

There are a couple of holes in the story...the Ampco people should have been tailing Hallie right after they first interview her and should have been on her tail when she rejoined Sonny in the desert. Sonny's horseback escape in the desert was a little convenient. Not to mention that the taped statement that Hallie filmed of Sonny stating his intentions was shot from a completely different angle than it appeared when it was broadcast on TV. I did love that scene of the Ampco villains watching the statement from various locations.

The personal history in front of and behind the camera also helped this film work. Director Sydney Pollack directed Redford in Jeremiah Johnson and directed Fonda in They Shoot horses, Don't They and of course, Redford and Fonda worked together over a decade earlier in Barefoot in the Park and spark the same chemistry here that they did in the Neil Simon comedy. John Saxon, Nicholas Coster, Willie Nelson, Allen Arbus, and Will Hare score in supporting roles. And if you don't blink, you will catch a cameo from the director. Willie Nelson's song score is also a big plus.

I love The Electric Horseman. Nothing new in it, but as an old-fashioned vehicle for two movie stars you can't do much better. Light, breezy, charming, beautifully shot...lots of fun.

I also wind up singing "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" for about three weeks after I watch it.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Champions (2023)
The undeniable screen charisma of three time Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson makes an overlong and extremely predictable sports-oriented comedy called Champions worth sitting through.

Harrelson plays Marcus, hot-headed former minor league basketball coach who, in response to a DWI arrest, is sentenced to 90 days of community service coaching a team of Special Olympic basketball players who play out of a run down community center in Des Moines. He is also thrown when he learns that one of the team members is the little brother of a struggling actress Marcus just had a one night stand with (Kaitlin Olson).

Anyone has seen The Bad News Bears or The Mighty Ducks or any other sports comedies involving kids will recognize everything that goes on here. This film offers absolutely no surprises, going pretty much everywhere we expect it to. Can't believe it actually took three writers to come up with this by-the-numbers story that thinks it's being original because the team members are mentally challenged. The film's overlength is primarily due to a couple of subplots that really weigh down the proceedings. One involves a player who keeps missing practice because of his job that falls flat and goes nowhere. The other one involves an excellent player who refuses to play for the team that kind of reminded me of the Jackie Earle Haley character in The Bad News Bears that just takes too long to come to fruition.

The romance with Olson's character also falls flat, due to the character being all over the place and really hard to like. One scene she is totally enamored with Marcus and the nest she wants nothing to do with him. The kids are a lot of fun though, all given their own little quirks and eccentricities. The one very clever thing that gets addressed with the kids that made me bust a gut was when Marcus' assistant was yelling at a teammate about how well she was doing and she harshly reminded him that she has Down's Syndrome, she's not deaf.

Harrelson lights up the screen though as Marcus and Ernie Hudson and Cheech Marin try to bring something to thankless supporting roles. Loved those kids though, especially Kevin Iannucci as Johnny, Madelyn Tevlin as Cosentino, and Casey Metcalfe as Marlon. It had no business being two hours and four minutes long, but some grins can definitely be mined out of this one. It might have been nice if a little more imagination could have gone into the title.

Violets are Blue
The 1986 film Violets are Blue is a sweet and sad romantic drama that can tie the stomach in knots if caught in the right mood thanks to sensitive direction and superb performances from the three stars.

Gussie Sawyer (Sissy Spacek) and Henry Squires (Kevin Kline) grew up in the same small Maryland seaside town and were high school sweethearts certain they would be together forever. Gussie's wanderlust eventually found her leaving and finding a successful career as globe-trotting photojournalist while Henry was content to stay in Maryland and run the local newspaper for his father. Gussie returns home for the first time in 13 years and is reunited with Henry, who is now married to Ruth (Bonnie Bedelia) and has a young son. This doesn't stop Gussie and Henry from drifting into an affair that neither were really looking for.

The screenplay by Naomi Foner (Running on Empty) is simple on the surface, but it's the complicated emotions that bubble to the surface for both the characters and viewers that make this story so rich. We see what's coming and we know on the surface that it's wrong, but the chemistry, the pull between Gussie and Henry is so strong and it's a little shocking that neither of them really attempt to fight it. Foner attempts to legitimize what's happening by Ruth being jealous of Gussie the second she lays eyes on her and then drawing Gussie and Henry together professionally, but when what we're watching is realistically stripped bare, we know it's wrong and our hearts break for Ruth and Henry's son, the real victims in the story.

What was most unsettling for this reviewer was watching Sissy Spacek play such a complex and eye-opening character. Hollywood's sweetheart is one of those actresses we just never imagine playing a homewrecker and at the core of her soul, Gussie isn't a homewrecker, but is unable to fight what she's feeling. Spacek beautifully internalizes Gussie's conflicted emotions and somehow manages to evoke sympathy for a character who we're not really sure deserves it.

Once again, Spacek's husband, Jack Fisk, is in the director's chair and just like Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews, Fisk knows how to make his wife look good and knows her capabilities as an actress. It's clear that Fisk has a lot to do with Spacek's understanding of what she's doing here. Kevin Kline is smooth and sexy as Henry and totally invests in the characters slight descent into slimeball territory, creating a chemistry with Spacek that cannot be denied. Though the real acting honors here have to go to Bonnie Bedelia, one of Hollywood's most underrated talents who never had the career she deserved, who is absolutely heartbreaking as Ruth. It's a powerhouse performance where you never catch Bedelia "acting." Cinematography and music are the finishing touches on this lovely llittle movie that could ignite a tear duct.

Jules
A powerhouse performance by Oscar winner Sir Ben Kingsley anchors 2023's Jules, a deliciously enchanting comic fantasy that is so well-directed and acted that it's very easy to forgive some screenplay issues.

Set in the fictional town called Boonton, Pennsylvania, Sir Ben plays Milton, a lonely widower who visits the town meetings every week because he wants the town's motto changed and wants a traffic signal installed at a particularly busy intersection. One night Milton is awakened by a crash and goes downstairs and discovers a spaceship has landed right on top of his azaleas. He calls 911 to report it, but they don't believe him and hang up on him. The next night, he goes out to his yard to discover an alien as come out of the ship and is lying comatose in his yard. The following evening, he finds the alien huddled in a corner with the blanket that Milton provided him wrapped around himself, so Milton invites him into the house.

The alien doesn't speak nor displays any fear or aggression. but seems to understand Milton and pays attention as Milton offers a tour of his home before discovering that the alien likes to eat apple slices. It's not long before Milton's grown daughter hears about the alien and wants to have her father committed. Meanwhile, a pair of Milton's lady friends, Sandy and Joyce discover Milton's houseguest and do what they can to help Milton protect the alien, but the story takes a dark and unexpected turn when the alien gets Sandy out of a sticky situation.

Screenwriter Gavin Steckler provides an engaging story with interesting characters at its core that is easy for the viewer to become engaged. There were a couple of things that did initially nag as I continued to watch: When his daughter tries to lock him up, I didn't understand why he made no attempt to get her to come to the house to see the spaceship. Also, this is a small suburban community, are we supposed to believe that no one saw this spaceship in Milton's backyard? By the halfway point of the film, I was able to let these things go in favor of embracing the rich elements of the story I was provided by.

This wasn't just a story about an alien coming to earth, it was a story about ageism and how cancelled senior citizens feel as they age. Milton, Sandy, and Joyce all find someone to listen to them in this alien and we get the feeling that no one has really listened to them for a long time and their joy at being listened to was a joy to watch.

Director Marc Turtletaub definitely displays his affinity with film classics like ET and Cocoon, keeping this heartwarming story steeped in realism as we watch the bad guys get close enough to our little alien friend to make us squirm, while still providing a couple of story moves we don't see coming. Sir Ben Kingsley buries his British accent and delivers the kind of performance that breaks hearts and wins Oscars. One of my favorite character actresses, the brilliant Harriet Sansom Harris lights up the screen as Sandy, as does Jane Curtin as Joyce, who nails a surprising musical moment. This movie will probably get by a lot of people and I don't see a lot of award love coming its way either, though I think Kingsley and Harris do Oscar-worthy work. Absolutely LOVED this movie.

Charlotte's Web (1973)
Hanna Barbera Studios, the animation empire behind The Flintstones struck out on the big screen with a charming animated adaptation of a classic children's novel called Charlotte's Web that still will provide entertainment for the youngsters.

Based on a novel by E B White, this is the story of Wilbur (voiced by Henry Gibson), a pig who was the runt of his litter, raised on the Arable farm. Wilbur is raised by the Arable daughter, Fern (voiced by Pamelyn Ferdin) until he's too big to be a house pet so the Arables sell Wilbur to Fern's uncle, Homer Zuckerman, whose first impulse is to sell Wilbur for ham and bacon. Wilbur is then befriended by a lovely gray spider named Charlotte (voiced by Debbie Reynolds) who, with the aid of the other Zuckerman barnyard animals, comes up with a plan to save Wilbur's life.

The appeal of this film is probably more aimed at folks who never read the novel, because for those viewers, there are definite surprises along the way. Charlotte's plan to help Wilber is quite clever and I liked the pied pier effect that Charlotte had on the other animals on the Zuckerman farm. It was fun watching Charlotte call a meeting of the animals on the next step in helping Wilbur and the animals would quietly and immediately report to Charlotte, with the exception of a lazy and shiftless rat named Templeton (brilliantly voiced by Paul Lynde), who doesn't care about anything except his next meal.

The film features a pleasant song score by Richard M Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (Mary Poppins) that includes "There Must Be Something More", "I Can Talk", "Mother Earth and Father Time", "Zuckerman's Famous Pig", and "A Veritable Smorgasbord."

The animation has sort of a "no frills" look to it, considering how far animation has come since 1973. BTW, though the IMDB lists the film as a 1973 release, the opening credits say that the film was released in 1972. Debbie Reynolds is lovely as Charlotte. The IMDB also states that Reynolds agreed to do the voice of Charlotte without salary because she loved the book so much. Gibson is adorable as Wilbur and I also loved Agnes Moorhead as the voice of a goose who liked to say words three times in a row. This film did feature a couple of reunions for voice actors involved. Dave Madden, who provided the voice of the ram worked on The Partridge Family with Danny Bonaduce, who does the voice of Avery Arable. And, of course, Paul Lynde, who voiced Templeton and Agnes Moorhead, who voiced the goose, worked together on Bewitched and even get to duet together on "A Veritable Smorgasbord." The film was remade as a live action feature in 2006.

John Mulaney: Baby J
To this reviewer, the man is definitely an acquired taste and it took me a few minutes to warm up to him here, but I eventually found myself laughing pretty consistently through 2023's John Mulaney: Baby J, a smart and witty evening of standup that made me laugh, but never put me completely on the comic's side.

The Netflix special shot from the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra finds the star already onstage, dressed in a burgundy suit, explaining to the audience about his constant need for attention, which is something pretty hard to argue with. For the uninitiated, Mulaney is a former writer and frequent host of SNL, whose appeal has, up to this point, has escaped me for the most part. I have always fund Mulaney a rather off-putting stage presence. There is a layer of unabashed arrogance in his material and the presentation of same that constructs a wall between him and his audience that is pretty hard to penetrate. I found it rather pretentious that we are offered approximately ten minutes of material before the elaborately opening credits rolled.

The initial distance that I have always felt watching Mulaney was present at the beginning of the concert, but there was a point where a thaw began between myself and the comedian. Early on in the concert, Mulaney's X-ray vision spots an eleven year boy in the balcony and learns his name is Henry. Mulaney's discomfort with seeing a child in his audience comes off as authentic and once he learned that Henry had seen his standup before, he still warned Henry that there was a lot of stuff he was going to hear about but should never do, my defenses came down and was ready to give Mulaney a real shot at entertaining me.

The concert turned out to be a lot more personal than I thought since the majority of material centered around his recent stint in rehab. He started off strong with his story about being invited to dinner by friends but arriving for dinner finding 12 comedian friends gathered for an intervention. His breakdown of the intervention was hysterically funny,, including a dead on impression of Fred Armisen, which wrapped with a very funny dig stating that whenever he sees any these people out now, he feels obligated to pick up the check.

His actual time in rehab started off pretty funny, especially his detailed recounting of his time in detox where he was unable to sleep for 50 hours, but he lost me after that with a lot of silly stories about the process, though I was thoroughly amused by his honest admission that he was upset that no one in rehab knew who he was. I did enjoy his story about "Dr. Michael" though. His concluding bit about an interview he gave with GQ while he was high and didn't remember giving kind of fell flat, but overall, a lot more entertaining evening of comedy than I expected.

The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Another practically forgotten gem from a very strong year at the movies, 1994's The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a brassy and joyous road trip comedy unlike any you've ever seen that broaches a lot of squirm-worthy subject matter and does so with humor and intelligence.

The setting is contemporary Sydney, Australia where we meet a pair of drag queens named Tick and Adam and a transsexual named Bernadette who has just become a widow, who get to bring their cabaret act to a city called Alice Springs. The three pack up their eyelashes and pantyhose, purchase a used school bus that they christen Priscilla, and begin the road trip of a lifetime

Director and screenwriter Stephan Elliott impresses with a rich story that not only addresses the expected message of tolerance but also tackles a couple of issues regarding sexual identity that rarely get addressed in film. It was refreshing that we learned early on that Tick was married to a woman once and we learn later on in the film that he actually wants to be a father. We also are presented a clear delineation of the transvestite and the transsexual in the presentation of the Bernadette character, who was born Ralph and sees red whenever anyone calls her that. The only myth that I was hoping that would be crushed but wasn't is the fact that all drag queens are not homosexual, but so much material is covered so effectively here that it's easy to forgive.

Needless to say this film is not for all tastes, and anyone who has any issues with homosexuality will find little entertainment value, because Elliott brings unabashed gay pride to this story, but never strains credibility either because our heroines are not met with unconditional acceptance wherever they go. There is one scene where Adam is advised against attending a certain social event and he chooses to anyway and pays the price. On the other side of this coin, there is a relationship that develops between Bernadette and a heterosexual mechanic named Bob that is a joy to watch.

The film features rich production values, including absolutely gorgeous cinematography. the shots of Adam and Tick on top of the bus wearing flowing scarves as the bus careens through the desert are breathtaking, as are the Oscar-winning costumes, the only nomination the film received. Hugo Weaving nails the complexities of the Tick character and Terrence Stamp buries all images of General Zod in his richly internalized performance as the lonely Bernadette, but it's the dazzling performance by Guy Pearce, of all people, in the role of Adam/Felicia that you will go away from this film remembering. Cannot believe this was the same actor from LA Confidential and Memento who, once gain, proves to be one of Hollywood's most versatile chameleons. There were a couple of unnecessary story detours, but this movie was a lot of fun from opening to closing credits.

Kountry Wayne: A Woman's Prayer
I've reviewed my fair amount of standup over the years, but this is one genre where I have a tendency to stick to proven commodities. I found out why after viewing a 2023 Netflix concert featuring a comic I've never heard of named Kountry Wayne called Kountry Wayne: A Woman's Prayer.

Before I watched the special, I decided to check out the guy's IMDB page to see if there was something else I might have seen him in. When I googled Wayne on the IMDB, the only thing that came up was this special, a red flag right there. Netflix took a real gamble here that really didn't pay off. Somehow, this unknown managed to get Netflix to film him live in a front of a sold out audience in Washing DC. I knew I was in trouble when he asked the audience to give themselves a hand three times and babbled incessantly about how great it was to be in DC and to be able to do his first concert from there.

Wayne enters down the aisle shaking audience members' hands dressed in a glittery blue suit that looked like something left over from Liberace's estate. For some reason, he decided the way to immediately get the audience on his side was by informing them that he is the father of ten kids with various women and that all of the parents coddle their children too much, lying to them about how they can be anything they want to be. His varied stories about child rearing did nothing to endear him to this reviewer or to the audience.

He attempts to personalize his material by talking about his Uncle Richard who had AIDS and an incident at Thanksgiving dinner when he was nine years old that was even more humorless than his child rearing advice. I got very nervous when he polled the audience via applause regarding their belief in God, which led into an equally unfunny diatribe about his local pastor, Pastor Williams.

He did get a few chuckles out of me when he started a routine about how black people age better than white people because they don't worry about bills the way white people do and just when I thought he might be able to end the evening on a somewhat positive note, he somehow managed to segue back to Pastor Williams and another dumb story about him and Kountry's wheel-chair bound cousin Pierre. You won't see this reviewer waiting on pins and needles for the next Kountry Wayne special.

Blast From the Past
During the 1990's Oscar winner Brendan Fraser (love being able to refer to him that way) was the king of the "Fish Out of Water" comedies and one of his final entries in the genre was 1999's Blast from the Past, a deft and imaginative comedy that suffers a bit due to a really unappealing leading lady..

Fraser plays Adam Webber, a 35 year old man who was born and raised in a bomb shelter. See, Adam's father, Calvin (Christopher Walken) was a brilliant scientist, but was also super paranoid about the world being destroyed by the bomb so he spent years building a shelter underneath his home with all the comforts of home. Back in 1961, Calvin hears President Kennedy talking about the Cuban Missile Crisis and his paranoia gets the best of him and takes his pregnant wife, Helen (Sissy Spacek) down to the shelter and they do hear an explosion above ground minutes later, but it's just a plane crashing into their house.

Calvin doesn't believe this and thinks his family is still in danger and insists they stay underground where Adam is born and receives a thorough education from his parents. Unfortunately, they only had enough supplies for 35 years, so on Adam's 35th birthday, he agrees to venture to the surface with $3000 and a grocery list, where he meets a brassy and cynical young beauty named Eve (Alicia Silverspoon). Adam and Eve, get it?

Hugh Wilson (The First Wives Club) and Bill Wilson co-authored this extremely clever screenplay that initially starts off as a period piece but quietly creeps into 1999 before we realize it. Love that after the plane crash, a malt shop is built on the property, which is replaced by a bar during the 70's and is now an adult bookstore. The underlying theme of always listening to your parents is prevalent throughout as poor Adam tries to navigate through 199 and the only tools he has are things his parents taught him, which simultaneously get him in and out of trouble throughout the running time..

The Eve character kind of brings the film down because she's so abrasive and mean to Adam, who is just possibly the sweetest human being on the planet. At one point, she even agrees to help Adam find a wife, but is so jealous she can't see straight the first time she sees him on a dance floor with two other women. And when Adam is finally truthful with her about his situation what does she do? Have him committed. Then once the thaw between the two happens, all of a sudden., Eve starts narrating the film. Seriously?

Fraser is so sexy and charismatic as Adam, though that we're able to forgive the nasty Silverspoon character. It goes without saying that Walken and Spacek are perfection as Adam's parents and Dave Foley, Nathan Fillion, and Joey Slotnick make the most of supporting roles, but this is Brendan's movie and he lights up the screen.

No One Will Save You
There's no denying that, even though what was happening was making little sense, two thirds of the 2023 suspense thriller No One Will Save You scared the bejesus out of me, thanks to so\me superior camera work, insane set pieces, and spectacular production values, but the final third of the film kind of falls apart.

Set in a fictional small town called Mill Falls, this is the story of a young woman named Brynn, a guilt ridden town pariah who is treated like dirt by everyone in town apparently because Brynn had something to do with the death of her BFF Maude. One night, Brynn is awakened b y an alien entering her home and, after an intense battle where the alien destroys her home, Brynn thinks she has killed the alien, but the danger is just beginning.

I was a little hesitant about another movie about an alien after my recent viewing of the wonderful Jules, but this movie is nothing like that one. The alien in Jules is somewhat akin to the alien in ET, but this alien has no interest in being friends with Brynn. And this alien isn't alone either. This alien and his friends had powers that would have allowed them to take Brynn out in about ten minutes but they don't want her dead.. Somewhere near the halfway point, we see the alien pause in pursuit of Brynn and just starts staring at a picture of Brynn and Maude and then we see the alien grab a picture of Brynn and Maude out of Brynn's hand from across the room. There is a connection between this alien attack and Maude's death, but we never actually learn what happened to Maude, which made what was going on more and more confusing.

Director and screenwriter Brian Duttfield, who directed a 2020 film I liked called Love and Monsters shows a real affinity for the 1980 Stanley Kubrick classic TYhe SHining. In
terms of camerawork and storytelling and most important, the serious lack of dialogue (I don't think there are more than a dozen words of dialogue in the entire film), the overhead shots, and the eerie music had a real Kubrick influence to it as well and a nice handle on Hitchcock-like suspense, keeping us on the edge of our chair when the next attack was going to happen. Eventually we expect an "And then I woke up" scene, which we
get, but even that is a red herring, leading to Maude's first appearance in the story where the movie begins to make less and less sense.

Duttfield puts a lot of care into the look of the film, which he had to since there is so little dialogue, but it pays off for the most part. Kaitlyn Dever works hard in the physically demanding starring role, but a weak final act hurts this one.

Love Among the Ruins
1975's Love Among the Ruins is a sumptuously mounted blend of comedy, drama, and romance that was originally broadcast on ABC that teamed two acting legends onscreen for the first time.

This made for television gem is set in 1911 England and stars Katharine Hepburn as Jessica Medlicott, an aging actress who is being sued for breach of promise by a much younger man and has hired a lawyer named Arthur Glanville-Jones, played by Laurence Olivier to defend her. It's revealed almost immediately that Arthur and Jessica had a brief passionate affair after Arthur saw Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, but, to Arthur's dismay, Jessica has no memory of it.

This movie has an impressive pedigree for a TV movie. Screenwriter James Costigan who wrote the ABC miniseries Eleanor and Franklin and its sequel, provides a witty and sophisticated story that provides an equal balance of comedy and sentiment, with just a dash of heartbreak that completely engage the viewer. I've heard a lot about this movie over the years and I always assumed that the movie was going to be about Arthur trying to make Jessica remember their long ago affair, but that's not what it's about at all. Arthur is able to accept that Jessica doesn't remember their affair, but he uses his love for her in an unconventional way to try and win her case.

Another Hollywood veteran, George Cukor, who directed Hepburn back in 1940 in The Philadelphia not only applies exquisite detail in the look of this film but in the richly layered performances from the two stars. Love the opening scene where Olivier is running around like a 10 year on Christmas Eve waiting for Jessica's arrival. Hepburn underplays beautifully when she is initially sitting dutifully in the courtroom and we can see just from her expressions how much of the testimony being given is the truth and her explosion in the courtroom when she is removed is high theater. And there's no denying the heartbreak on Olivier's face when he realizes Jessica doesn't remember their affair or the joy when he flashes back to Jessica onstage as Portia.

This elegant and witty TV movie won six richly deserved Emmys for Hepburn, Olivier, Cukor, Costigan and for the breathtaking art direction and costumes. It's the one and only time Hepburn and Olivier worked together and it is a joy from start to finish.

Heist 88
Emmy and Golden Globe winner Courtney B Vance and his wife, Oscar nominee Angela Bassett are the executive producers of 2023's Heist 88, an overheated and far-fetched crime drama that features solid performances and production values, but is done in by a screenplay with holes big enough to drive a truck through. The opening credits of this movie reveal that it was "inspired" by real events.

This made for SHOWTIME movie stars Vance as Jeremy Horne, a criminal mastermind who is preparing to serve a five year sentence for his previous crime and is scheduled to surrender himself to authorities in a few weeks. He has decided that it is a good idea to recruit his nephew, a wanna be record producer and his three BFF's, who are all employed in the check clearing/wire transfer department of the First National Bank of Chicago, to help him liberate said bank of $320,000,000.

I've always had a great deal of respect for Vance and Bassett as actors, so I was completely bewildered regarding what a hot mess this movie was. The screenplay offers clues from the first scene and throughout that this Jeremy Horne character was not to be trusted and somehow his oily charm seemed to work on everyone with whom he comes in contact. In the opening scene, he meets his nephew at his brother's funeral who told him the last thing his dad told him was to stay away from his Uncle Jeremy. Once it's revealed that Jeremy has involved three other people in the plan without telling these kids and has offered them a cut too, with the take being reduced to $80,000,000, we just know it's only a matter of time before this Jeremy Horne attempts to screw them all over and not one of them makes an attempt to get out of the plan. If it helps to clarify, what these bank employees were doing was akin to what Sam Wheat did for a living in Ghost.

I'm guessing that the title of the film implies that this was the year the film takes place, but that was kind of hard to believe when it's revealed that the three young bank employees are only making $3.35 an hour. I don't believe that anyone employed in a bank, even in 1988 and even being black, was bringing home $3.35 an hour. These people are observed to be having financial problems, but at that salary, they should have been flirting with homelessness. A particularly offensive part of Horne's plan was training his crew how to sound like actual investors on the phone. In other words, teaching these black people how to sound white.

The film is handsomely mounted but it doesn't help in disguising how dumb this movie is. Courtney B Vance is a wonderful actor and he does his accustomed crisp and polished work here, but it's not enough to make everything that happens viable and his final line at the end of the movie is just ridiculous.

Queen Bee
Some ferocious scenery-chewing by Joan Crawford anchors 1955's Queen Bee, a sizzling soap opera featuring passion, jealousy, family dysfunction, and betrayal, everything lovers of the genre expect and get in spades.

A young woman named Jennifer Stewart arrives at the glamorous estate of her cousin Eva Phillips, an arrogant and controlling diva who is in a loveless marriage to Avery and shares her home with two children she spends no time with, her sister-in-;law, Carol who is engaged to Judd, Eva's former lover.

Director and co-screenwriter Ranald MacDougall, who also wrote the screenplay for Crawford's most famous role Mildred Pierce, provides a juicy melodrama that Crawford could play in her sleep, but she is definitely not phoning it in here. She pulls out all the stops here as a woman who has a tight rein on everyone in her orbit until the arrival of cousin Jennifer. It is kind of amusing the way Jennifer arrives on the scene and thinks she has the ability to put this broken family back together again. It's not long before she realizes the web of deceit and lies that Eva weaves on a regular basis and her transition from defending Eva as misunderstood to realizing what a witch she is is swift and believable.

The unabashed arrogance of this Eva character is just fascinating to watch. She has no qualms about flaunting her former affair with Judd right in front of Avery, but doesn't have the cajones to tell Carol about it at first. The scene where she confronts Judd alone after everyone else is asleep and explains to him that he will always love her is infuriating. It's also a little sad watching Avery, who ever since being disfigured by a car accident, sleeps in a separate bedroom and spends all his spare time drinking. Avery is such a downer it was hard to buy Jennifer falling for him and the 11th hour twist near the end of the film didn't really make sense. I also have to mention that Crawford wears a fur coat in one scene that reminded me of a coat Faye Dunaway wore in Mommie Dearest.

Crawford commands the screen the same way she did in Harriet Craig, but this Eva is way nastier. Sullivan is a little one note as Avery and Lucy Marlowe's wooden performance ass Jennifer really hurts the story. I kept picturing Natalie Wood in the role. John Ireland was terrific as Judd though as was Betsy Palmer as Carol and Crawford's Jean Louis gowns were stunning. A must for Crawford fans.

The Equalizer 3
Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua return for another round of high octane action adventure with The Equalizer 3, which not only provides the assumed stomach turning violence we've come to expect from the franchise, but provides some quiet introspection into the demons of the enigmatic Robert McCall.

The film is set in Sicily, where McCall is recovering from some serious injuries and has possibly found the ideal spot for the retirement he has been contemplating. It's obvious that he has been there long enough to make some really good friends that he can count on, and as they eventually find out, they can do the same. Unfortunately, some of these good friends are having their families and businesses threatened by mobsters who are running an international drug smuggling operation through their town and, of course, McCall is having none of that.

The screenplay for this film is deliberately paced as it takes its time showing the life has established for himself in Sicily and how he has come to embrace it, while doing his best to keep his past in the past. As the film begins, we see the aftermath of a bloody battle McCall as just had and the guilt about it that is eating him up inside. He's tired of this. The first time he is observed walking down the cobblestone Sicilian streets, everyone watches him walk but it's not made clear right away whether they fear him or angry with him, but it just seemed to be a sort of cinematic red herring to lead us to the reveal that McCall is definitely interested in leaving his past behind.

Speaking of that first walk down the streets, it was a little unsettling watching McCall make this walk with the aid of a cane. McCall had also seemed impervious to pain in the first two films and always came out of his famous scrapes with nary a scratch. Here we see him on an operating table in a doctor's office (no hospitals or police for obvious reasons) being stitched back together again and the relationship between McCall and this doctor is one of the loveliest parts of the movie.

Needless to say, Fuqua continues to redefine the action sequence. During the opening gun battle, and I still think I might have imagined this, but I could have sworn at one point that McCall shoots bullets through the head of a corpse to kill someone else. Is that even possible? Denzel is still a viable action hero but I never really bought Dakota Fanning as a rookie CIA agent, though the final reveal about who she is was perfection. This film would make a nice conclusion to the trilogy, because McCall seems happy in Sicily, but if the movie makes a lot of money, I'm sure we'll get an Equalizer 4.

The Big Easy
The steamy chemistry between the stars makes a 1986 crime drama called The Big Easy worth a look.

Dennis Quaid plays Remy McSwain, a laid back New Orleans police lieutenant who has spent 11 years enjoying the perks of being a cop, sometimes resulting with the occasional waltz with internal affairs. The most recent murder case to cross his desk has attracted the attention of an Assistant DA named Anne Osborne (Ellen Barkin) whose immediate attraction to McSwain doesn't stop the reveal of a bunch of dirty cope in this particular New Orleans precinct.

Director and co-screenwriter has crafted a story that establishes a swift and rich chemistry between the two central characters and then messes it up by having them on opposing sides of a courtroom about thirty minutes into the running time. And as hard as McBride tries, he is never able to recapture the chemistry generated by the stars at the beginning of the movie, Said chemistry does realistically tamper with the alleged professionalism of the pair where their actual jobs are concerned, but it's so strong that we really don't care.

The spread of the corruption on display is a little shocking and it's a little hard to accept that everything that is revealed before the closing credits happened without McSwain having little knowledge. It also smacked of cliche that this supposed hard-nosed Assistant DA played by Barkin had such a weak constitution that every time she saw a dead body she got sick to her stomach. And I'm still trying to figure out how that magnet got from inside that bank to the property room next to the videotape incriminating McSwain, resulting in the damage of the tape and Remy's exoneration.

Quaid has never been sexier onscreen and he and Barkin work really well together. They receive solid support from Ned Beatty, John Goodman, Lisa Jane Persky, Charles Ludlam (hysterical as Quaid's attorney) and the always watchable Grace Zabriskie as McSwain's mother. The story is on on the sketchy side, but Quaid and Barkin keep the movie watchable.

Sr.
Director Chris Smith and two-time Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr have triumphed with a 2022 Netflix documentary called Sr., a loving, funny, intimate, and deeply moving valentine to Robert Downey Jr's father, underground filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. To avoid confusion, for the rest of this review, the subject of the film will be referred to as Sr and his Oscar nominee son will be referred to as Jr.

I've seen a lot of celebrity documentaries over the last few years and it would be very easy for me to say that Smith and Jr. have thrown out all the rules regarding making documentaries, but depending on your point of your view, it might be more accurate to say that Smith and Jr have decided to incorporate all the rules of documentary filmmaking into this consistently fascinating look at a person this reviewer knew precious little about, despite the fact that Jr is one of my favorite actors.

For the uninitiated like myself, Sr made dozens of films dating back to the 1970;s, the most famous of which would probably be Putney Swope, The Harder They Come, and Greaser's Palace. He was a director who always worked outside of the studio system because he says all studios were interested in was making money and he didn't give a damn whether or not his movies made money. He makes it clear that the first studio film he made, Up the Academy was the worst experience of his career.

It's revealed almost immediately that Sr's health is in a serious state of decline and makes no bones about it as filming begins. As a matter of fact, we learn early on, while Chris and Jr are making their film, Sr is editing his own version of what they're doing from his home. It's insane the way the film jumps from the director talking to Sr and Jr directly, to the father and son talking to each other, to Jr talking directly to the camera about what he's trying to do here, to Sr leading us through his beloved Manhattan and providing stories from his endlessly fascinating life associated with every location.

There is some brave and squirm-worthy filmmaking going on here. There is one scene near the beginning of Sr's sightseeing where he calmly admits to being dizzy and everyone wants to stop for the day the second he says that but he claims to be OK. Sr is devoid of anything resembling ego and I was very moved by his admitting that he felt his allowing Jr to smoke weed as a child might have led his son into his future with addiction.

It was great getting a view of Sr from his family. Loved when asked how long she and Sr had been married, her reply was 1500 years. The footage of Elsie Downey, Jr's mother, had almost an ethereal quality to it and it's the only time during the film where we see Sr fighting tears. It should also be mentioned, that anyone who thinks they've never seen Jr, might want to take a look at the 1997 film Boogie Nights. Remember that scene where Mark Wahlberg and John C Reilly pressure that record producer to release their demo tapes? Guess who played that record producer.

Commentary is also provided by Norman Lear, the late Alan Arkin, Paul Thomas Anderson, and a very special appearance by Emmy and Tony Award winner Sean Hayes, A glorious look at a forgotten artist, and I can't lie, the final 10 minutes of this film destroyed
me.