Gideon58's Reviews

I don't wanna give away spoilers, but..... it's both. BUT. What felt fake was... the happy part. The happy part felt fake. And I don't know if it necessarily needed to be more depressing... but.... I could have bought it better if it had been.

And here's spoilers for anyone who's seen it or just wants to know:

I don't remember the film ending that way. I watched this with a friend last year and just remember having a really great time. I will probably rewatch it soon.

SC, how did you feel about the Milo character?

I really liked him. But at the same time.... there really wasn't much to him. He's really a co-star. His sister is really the main character. It's her story that really drives the whole film. (I'm saying the word "really" too much, I'm noticing).

Just realized it's on Hulu so we'll probably watch it tonight.

Wiig had me rolling my eyes more than Hader...different strokes.

THEY CAME TOGETHER

It's always a little sad when a movie loses something in its journey from the written page to the screen. Director and co-writer David Wain had a rather clever idea in his 2014 film They Came Together, but really needed a little help from people who really know how to do what he was trying to do here, people like Mel Brooks and the Zucker Brothers.

Framed around a double date at a trendy New York eatery, this is a lampoon of the contemporary romantic comedy whose basic plot line resembles the Hanks/Ryan comedy You've Got Mail with Amy Poehler playing the owner of a small candy shop who finds herself romantically involved with an executive at a large candy conglomerate (Paul Rudd) but the film also features very knowing winks at films like Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and Jerry Maguire. The comedy recounts the bumpy relationship between these two characters that gets complicated by misunderstandings, bad advice from BFF's and how business and careers can get in the way of true romance.

This was a great idea on paper and David Wain's attempt to do a satire of romantic comedies does make some right moves here in term of story and scene structure...there are scenes in this movie that will bring to mind romantic comedies of the past. but as you watch there's something that's not right here and if I had to put a finger on it, I would have to say Wain and Michael Showalter's screenplay is a little safe...in order to truly lampoon a movie genre, risks have to be taken and nods to certain movies have to go where the original movie dared not to tread and this movie just isn't daring enough in its execution...it seems to want to lampoon the genre without actually offending it. A true lampoon will always involve some degree of offense, satire doesn't exist without stepping over the line a bit and this story is just played with too straight a face to be truly effective as what it seems to be intending to be.

Rudd and Poehler do have a certain amount of chemistry, but I think even they are a bit confused as to exactly what's going on here...there are scattered laughs, but they're not the kind of laughs they should be.

GRUDGE MATCH

Rocky Balboa meets Jake Le Motta for one final showdown in a surprisingly entertaining 2013 comedy drama called Grudge Match, a film that remains watchable due to a proven story concept and a massive amount of star power.

The film actually borrows its basic premise from a Neil Simon comedy called The Sunshine Boys. Sylvester Stallone plays Henry "Razor" Sharp and Robert De Niro plays Billy the Kid McDonnen two professional boxers who have been out of the ring for over 30 years and haven't spoken to each other over a woman (Kim Basinger) who are persuaded by a second generation fight promoter (Kevin Hart) to enter the ring again for a reunion match since the last time they met in the ring it was a draw.

Screenwriters Tim Kelleher and Rodney Rothman have added a couple of effective layers to Neil Simon's premise that provide just enough drama to give this story an air of originality. Billy meets a son (Jon Bernthal) he never knew he had who also has a son. We also learn that Stallone and Basinger have unresolved feelings for each other and that Razor would be taking a dangerous health risk by participating in this fight. The other thing that the screenwriters and director Peter Segal have done so effectively is mine the screen legacy that these two actors have created over the years and somehow, instead of reminding us how they did better work when they were younger, it imbues a power and respect into what they're doing onscreen now that you can't help but get completely behind this story and that these two guys can work their way through the very believable complications the story places in front of them.

The creative forces behind this film had to know the kind of memories that this film starring these actors would ignite for the viewer and they chose to use these memories to their advantage. I love the way the Kid ends up being trained by his son and Razor ends up being trained by his father (Alan Arkin) and the TPTB know what kind of memories they are stirring up...the scenes with Razor and Dad are very reminiscent of Rocky's relationship with Mickey (Burgess Meredith) and there is a fabulous moment during the expected training montages where we actually see Stallone enter a meat locker.

I found myself enjoying this film a lot more than I thought I was going to...with all the star power going on here, four Oscar winners and a slick supporting turn from Kevin Hart who always brings the funny. The other unexpected thing that happened as I watched this film was that I found myself taking a side and I really don't think that was supposed to happen, even though it just deepened my investment and enjoyment in what was going on.

YOUNG AT HEART
Watching Calamity Jane recently motivated a rewatch of Doris Day's next film, a warm and entertaining musical melodrama called Young at Heart.

The 1954 film is actually remake of the John Garfield classic Four Daughters, that introduces us to the Tuttle family, a family of musicians headed by music professor and flautist Gregory (Robert Keith) with his three daughters, Fran (Dorothy Malone), who plays the harp, Amy (Elisabeth Fraser) who plays violin, and Laurie (Day) who plays piano and sings and how the family is turned upside down by the arrival of two New York musicians (Frank Sinatra, Gig Young) who find themselves vying for Laurie's attention.

This film was a no-brainer from the beginning...Day, fresh off Calamity Jane and Sinatra, fresh off his Oscar win for From Here to Eternity seemed like a natural fit and it was...the chemistry between Day and Sinatra is fresh, adult, mature, and sexy. Sinatra is solid as the failed musician, mad at the world for all the hard knocks he's been given who's heart is actually melted by Day's Laurie. Day is a real-eye opener here...she makes the conflicted feelings she has about Young and Sinatra's characters completely believable. Watch Laurie with Young on the beach and you can see her wanting the man with her heart and her head and then watch her in the scene where they're in a noisy restaurant while Sinatra is singing "Someone to Watch Over Me"...the desire for the man is definitely coming from her loins. Day's performance here rivals her work in Love Me Or Leave Me...she provides a three-dimensional character who remains lovable and as for Sinatra, I can't believe this hardened and bitter character is being played by the same guy who played sweet and simple Clarence Doolittle in Anchors Aweigh nine years earlier. And no one interprets a romantic ballad like Ol' Blue Eyes,

Sinatra and Day receive solid support from Gig Young, playing his usual greasy womanizing character to a T and Ethel Barrymore as Aunt Jessie. If I had one complaint, I would have liked to have heard Day and Sinatra sing together more than they did, but it did not deter me from enjoying this story and made me sad that Day and Sinatra never made another movie together. After this film, they were both signed for the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, but both withdrew from the project for separate reasons...too bad.

I don't think I've seen Young at Heart, but with that cast, it sounds like my kind of movie. I added it to my watchlist.

I noticed a lot of the stuff you repped on my movie music list and I am pretty sure you would LOVE Young at Heart.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE (1987)

Paul Newman didn't do a lot of directing in his career but when he did, it worked. Like most actors who went into directing, Newman had a gift for pulling great performances from actors and the performances he pulled from the cast of the 1987 version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie are nothing short of superb.

Williams' play about a faded southern belle named Amanda Wingfield who now lives in St. Louis with her grown children Tom and Laura, first came to the screen in 1950 with the legendary Gertrude Lawrence playing Amanda. The story was produced on ABC television in 1973 with Katharine Hepburn playing Amanda. In 1987, Newman mounted this theatrical version as a valentine to his gifted wife, Joanne Woodward, who does one of Williams' most complex and fascinating heroines proud.

For the uninitiated, Amanda (Woodward)is a flighty, self-absorbed woman who has never gotten over her husband walking out on her many years ago and has continued to take her bitterness out on her children...her deathly fear that Tom (John Malkovich) might walk out on her too has her smothering the man and her fear that her painfully shy and club-footed daughter Laura (Karen Allen) is destined to be an old maid has her shielding Laura from the world and Amanda is rocked by the revelation that Laura has been lying about going to business school and her life is now centered around her glass animal collection. Amanda then quietly forces Tom to find a man to bring home to dinner to romance Laura and he actually brings home Laura's high school crush (James Naughton).

One thing I love about this version of the story is Newman's complete respect for this classic piece of theater and he really doesn't make any bones about its theatricality either...the character of Tom narrates the story as well as being a part of it and Tom's narration is done almost as if he is a separate character from the Tom in the story...providing narration from a separate location than the rest of the film and actually breaking the 4th wall with Tom tentatively talking directly to the camera and I think this might have been one place where Newman erred...Malkovich looks uncomfortable talking directly to the camera but I think if he had completely committed to it and did the entire narration directly to the camera it would have been more effective than his looking to and from the camera, but Newman has to take responsibility for that.

That aside, Newman clearly understood this piece and understood the actors he was working with, especially Woodward, who delivers a powerhouse performance as Amanda, not shying away at all from the negative aspects of this character. Amanda says and does a lot of wrong for all the right reasons and Woodward's interpretation doesn't whitewash the wrong. Malkovich is stylish and fun as Tom, a character who is really a ticking time bomb and he makes us long for the explosion. Karen Allen is riveting as Laura, nailing the character's fear of the world outside of her glass animal collection and James Naughton captures the gentleman caller's cockiness which is layered with enough charm that we don't want to slap the character. This story is one of Williams' most frequently produced and finding something new to bring to it can be a challenge, but Paul Newman hit a bullseye, making a theatrical piece breathe onscreen thanks to some sensitive direction and powerhouse acting.

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
On paper, 1992's A League of their Own, the story of the first female professional baseball team, must have seemed like a great idea, but the execution was definitely hit and miss, due to Penny Marshall's accustomed self-indulgent direction, an overly padded screenplay and some problematic casting and performances.

The second World War has begun and millions of men are being shipped overseas, including professional athletes, so a candy mogul (Garry Marshall) decides to start the first professional all-girls' baseball team. The primary focus of the story is on a pair of sisters who are drafted for the league: Dottie (Geena Davis) is a talented catcher and hitter, but doesn't really have the passion; her sister Kit (Lori Petty) definitely has the passion but, of course, doesn't have the talent and how the competition between them becomes even more heated when Kit is traded to a different team. Also at the center of the story is Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) an alcoholic ex-player who has been given a last chance at remaining in the game by coaching these women.

Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell are a proven commodity as screenwriters (Splash) but they might have bitten off a little more than they can chew here. The story starts off with some strong feminist leanings commenting on how these women were defying their expected place in society but it then veers off in unexpected directions, producing several mini-melodramas that could have made separate movies by themselves, but to try and incorporate all into a single movie resulted in a story that provides sporadic entertainment, but goes on and on and on and on...

Penny Marshall proved her skill as a director with Big and Awakenings but she got a little full of herself here, mounting a story that is interesting but is told at such a leisurely pace that we definitely find ourselves looking at our watches, or at least wishing things would move along.

The performances are hit and miss too...Geena Davis almost seems to be phoning it in as Dottie, but Lori Petty is terrific as Kit, providing a three-dimensional character we really come to care about, as does Hanks, who nails the has been wrestling with a comeback he's not sure he really wants. The role of Dugan seems to have been written with an older actor in mind, but Hanks commits to it and makes it work. The stunt casting of Madonna was a problem for me as well...Madonna was the biggest music star on the planet in '92 and her casting here just seems to be an attempt to capitalize on that, her character here just seems to be Madonna with a different name in a different time. She and Rosie McDonnell came off as lovers here (I think they were having an affair at the time), but it was pointless to this story.

The film is told in flashback and during the interminable final scene, we see Davis, in some really bad old age makeup, reuniting with the ladies in present time, where they're all grandmothers now, but most of the the other team members are played by older actresses. If they'e going to put Davis in bad old age makeup, why not do the same with the rest of the ladies that we have been watching for the duration of the film instead of hiring more actresses?

The film is mounted with care...there is some stunning cinematography and settings and costumes are nicely detailed and period-appropriate, but Marshall just needs to be reined in as a director, though Hanks and Petty fans should definitely check it out, but this was one film that, for me, did not live up to its reputation.

WE'RE NOT MARRIED
A sparkling all-star cast and a clever cinematic concept are the primary selling points of a surprisingly fun 1952 comedy called We're Not Married.

Nunnally Johnson, who wrote the screenplay for How To Marry the Millionaire, also penned this story of a dotty old justice of the peace (Victor Moore) who receives his appointment papers before they actually go into effect and marries five different couples without realizing that he wasn't an actual justice yet. Two years later, the snafu comes to light and the five couples are all sent a letter informing them they are not legally married. What is so fun about this movie is that the news that they're not legally married anymore brings unexpected reactions from the various couples and the lives they have built together in two years.

Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen play a couple who have a radio show together but they hate each other; however, their continued employment makes being married a contractual obligation; Marilyn Monroe plays a housewife and mother who is the breadwinner in her household by entering beauty contests for married women; Louis Calhern plays a wealthy businessman about to be taken to the cleaners by his hedonistic wife (Zsa Zsa Gabor); Paul Douglas and Eve Arden play a couple who are just in a rut and Eddie Bracken plays a soldier who learns his bride (Mitzi Gaynor) is pregnant and goes to extreme measure to make sure his child will be born legitimately.

Despite the multiple storylines, this movie is surprisingly economic and moves along at a very nice pace, making each story just long enough to make the audience care but not become bored with them either.

The performances are terrific with standout work from Rogers, Allen, David Wayne as Monroe's husband, and especially Calhern, who is absolutely brilliant in his vignette with Gabor. The film doesn't provide a lot in terms of production values, but what it does is provide solid entertainment that is still watchable some 60 years later.

I still haven't found the time to watch A League of Their Own, but your review pretty much sums up how much I think I'm going to like it.


I've never heard of We're Not Married, but it sounds like my kind of movie, and I think I found it on YouTube.

Everything about A League of Their Own - a sports movie featuring a whole bunch of women - screams "Miss Vicky shouldn't like this." And I don't like it. I LOVE it. It's one of my all time favorite movies.

I really enjoy all of the performances (though Hanks certainly stands out as the best) and never got a "lovers" vibe off of Madonna and O'Donnell.

__________________

I agree with Miss Vicky, the film never states that Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell are lovers. I enjoyed the film so much that I would watch it again.

That's not Geena Davis in old lady make up. It's an older actresses with her voice being dubbed by Geena. The older Dottie is played by Lynn Cartwright.

I didn't say that the film stated Madonna and Rosie's characters were lovers, I know it didn't say that, I said that's the way the relationship comes off. And putting another actress in old age makeup and dubbing in Geena Davis' voice is even dumber than what I originally thought was going on.

THE TENDER TRAP
Despite some dated ideas about dating and relationships, the 1955 romantic comedy The Tender Trap is still sparkling adult entertainment thanks to a proven rom-com premise and some terrific performances.

Charlie Y. Reader (Frank Sinatra) is a theatrical agent and confirmed bachelor who lives in an elegant Manhattan penthouse complete with hot and cold running women, parading in and out of the place 24/7 much to the shock and jealousy of Charlie's best friend, Joe (David Wayne), who has come to New York from Indianapolis after leaving his wife. Joe finds himself attracted to Sylvia (Celeste Holm), who only has eyes for Charlie.

Enter Julie Gillis (Debbie Reyolds), a young wannabe actress who gets cast in a show that Charlie is involved in, but acting is just a time-filler for Julie. Julie wants to be a wife and a mother and knows exactly what kind of man she wants, how many children she wants, and where they will all live and won't even sign a run of the play contract for the show because she's afraid show business might interfere with her plan, but that's nothing compared to the fight she has to put up to keep Charlie at arm's length, who stands for everything that Julie is against.

Adapted from a stage play by Max Schulman and Robert Paul Smith, Julius J. Epstein's screenplay does contain some dated elements, but the screenplay does offer some surprising adult touches I really didn't see coming...the fact that Joe falls in love with Sylvia and actually proposes to her, even though he technically is still married, had to be a bit of an eye-opener in 55, not to mention the fact that Charlie actually proposes to two different women in a 24 hour period. We see from the opening frames, that Charlie is a player and in the beginning he claims to hate it, even though it's clear that he doesn't. Charlie does slimey things during the course of the story, but one thing I noticed is that he never actually lies to anyone, which I found refreshing for a romantic comedy.

Charlie is not in this alone though...none of these characters had time to polish their halos, they all make wrong moves at one point or another, causing some very tangled relationships, which has been the genesis for classic romantic comedy forever and though the characters do wrong, we see where it's coming from and we forgive.
Sinatra has rarely been as charming and sexy as he was here and Reynolds proved to be a surprisingly solid leading lady for him, despite their difference in age, which is addressed in the screenplay and they get brilliant support from Holm and Wayne in the second leads. Carolyn Jones and Lola Albreight are decorative as members of Charlie's harem and the film features a fantastic title song by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Husen that received an Oscar nomination for Best Song. Lovers of classic romantic comedy don't have to look any further than here for some silly sexy fun.