Gideon58's Reviews

Daddy Day Care
He must have really needed the money. It's the only reason I can think of that Eddie Murphy would sign onto a by-the-numbers comedy from 2003 called Daddy Day Care, which was much better when it was called Kindergarten Cop.

Murphy, Jeff Garlin, and Steve Zahn play a trio of employees from an advertising agency who get laid off and after futile attempts at getting another job decide to open up a day care center in Murphy's home. Things are going OK until they meet serious competition from Miss Harridan (Oscar winner Anjelica Huston) as the head of the most popular and expensive day care center in town who decides she has to put these guys out of business.

Geoff Rodkey's utterly predictable screenplay goes all the places we expect it to go. The initial few days of Daddy Day Care provide every attempt at overly cute humor with children that the viewer would expect from the premise. The kids are all the archetypes that one would expect from such a story. We have the kid who can't tear himself away from Mommy, the kid who shows up every day in a Flash costume, and a kid who is dealing with uncontrollable flatulence. The scene where this kid lets go and starts making all kinds of unfunny faces was just embarrassing.

The most embarrassing part of this movie is Eddie Murphy's involvement. Something tells me that this film would never have been greenlighted without Murphy on board. Ironically, there is nothing in the role of Phil that seems tailored to Murphy's talents and as the film progressed, it was obvious that just about anyone could play this role and Murphy brought nothing special to it. This film was made at a time when Murphy was making one bad movie after another in search of another Beverly Hills Cop in order to re-ignite his career, but he chose the wrong vehicle here.

Director Steve Carr (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) allows this movie to move at a snail's pace and brings no imagination to his mounting of the story. Murphy and Garlin had no chemistry whatsoever, but Zahn and Huston stole every scene they were in. Also, if you look close, you'll notice that one of the kids in Daddy Day Care is a very young Elle Fanning and the kid in the Flash costume is Jimmy Bennett, who was Lindsey Lohan's romantic interest in Mean Girls. For hardcore Murphy fans only. Incredibly, followed by a sequel called Granddaddy Day Care.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Rian Johnson, who was robbed of an original screenplay Oscar for the flawless Knives Out is not quite as successful as producer, writer, and director of 2022's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, a sumptuously mounted murder mystery that features stylish direction and an interesting ensemble cast, but the story is confusing and exhausting and I'm pretty sure I had a birthday during its ungodly long running time.

An eccentric billionaire named Miles Bron invites a small circle of friends to his lavish palace in the Greek Islands for a murder mystery weekend. The guests include a disgraced supermodel named Birdie Jay, a scientist named Lionel Toussaint, the owner of a boner pill franchise named Duke, a smart savvy politician named Claire, and a woman named Andi trying to warn the other guests of danger. Also invited to the party is Detective Benoit Blanc, the central character from Knives Out who is invited to the party as well, but not by Bron. When two of the guests end up dead, it's up to Blanc to step up and figure out what's going on.

First of all, I LOVED Knives Out and gave it a rating of , proving that Johnson was a filmmaker to be reckoned with, but it's unclear exactly what went wrong here. Number one, it's always a bad sign when a film with its roots in another film, has to put that film's title in the new film's title. The film seems to suffer from "sequel-itis", which is an attempt to duplicate the success of a film by making a sequel that's bigger and better. Technically, it isn't even a sequel because Blanc is the only character from Knives Out that appears in this fim.

Johnson's screenplay does take time to set up the characters who are Bron's guests but we're never sure whether these people really owe everything have to Bron or if they all have reasons to want Bron dead. And as wealthy as Bron is, it's hard to understand why he would want to set one of these people up for his death, but he does say he's only going to be dead for the weekend, which makes what's going on very confusing. The film flashes forward and back at an alarming pace that makes it hard to know what's going on. At this point, it's pretty easy to figure out what's going and the rest of the film is just very expensive filler, mounted with first rate production values, unlike Knives Out, a true mystery where the identity of the killer had me in the dark to the final frame of the film.

Johnson's skill with a camera is evident throughout, thanks to superb assistance from his cinematographer and film editor. Daniel Craig gives another take charge performance as Blanc that lights up the screen. Edward Norton is dazzling as Miles Bron and Kate Hudson is all kinds of fun as Birdy. Janelle Monae nails a dual role and former WWF wrestler Dave Bautista is a lot of fun as Duke. There are also cameo appearances from Serena Williams, Hugh Grant, Natasha Lyonne, Stephen Sondheim, Kareem Abduhl-Jabar and, in her final film appearance, Angela Lansbury. It's no Knives Out, but there is entertainment to be mined for here.

My Man Godfrey (1936)
The 1936 screwball comedy My Man Godfrey is so skillfully mounted by the director of Stage Door and features such rich performances that it more than lives up to its reputation, including being one the few romantic comedies in movie history that received six Oscar nominations.

Set during the Depression, the film stars the delicious Carole Lombard as Irene Bullock, a scatterbrained young heiress who is participating in a scavenger hunt where one of the items to be found is a "forgotten man" (or what we would refer today as homeless). She and her snooty sister, Cornelia go to the city dump to find a forgotten man where Cornelia offers Godfrey (William Powell) $5 to return to the scavenger hunt with her. He politely turns down Cornelia's $5, but does agree to return with Irene, who offers him a job as the butler, where he turns the household upside down and offers several surprises for the family during his tenure as butler.

The screenplay, based on a novel called 110 Park Avenue is rich with witty dialogue, physical comedy, and eccentric characters that moves at a nice pace. The story immediately intrigues because when we first meet Godfrey at the city dump, we know there is more to Godfrey than meets the eye and can't wait to see how it's going to come to cinematic fruition. The other thing I loved about this story is that the man is the one being chased. Irene makes no bones about her attraction to Godfrey and it's hysterically funny that whenever he's paying attention to anyone but her, she bursts into tears.

Director Gregory La Cava has mounted a witty comedy of manners that establishes what is supposed to happen in the first ten minutes of the film, but throws in various red herrings to keep us guessing. We keep waiting for backstory on Godfrey and we expect an out and out rivalry to form between Irene and Cornelia, but neither of these things really happen. It's also fun watching Godfrey assume his duties as butler and completely disguise any romantic feelings he might have for Irene, though we know they're there.

For those who like to keep track of such things, this was the first film in Oscar history to receive nominations in all four acting categories. William Powell's sophisticated and smart Godfrey earned him a lead actor nomination and Carole Lombard's ditzy Irene earned her a lead actress nomination. Mischa Auer's eccentric Carlo earned him a supporting actor nomination and Alice Brady earned a supporting nomination for her sparkling performance as Irene and Cornelia's mother. Gail Patrick and Eugene Pallette also deserve shout outs for their work as Cornelia and the Bullock family patriarch, respectively. A comedy classic anchored by Powell and the amazing Carole Lombard. The film was remade in 1957 with David Niven and June Allyson and even though I haven't seen that version, I'm going to stick my neck out and say it: stick to the original.

The Banshees of Inisherin
From the people who brought us In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri comes 2022's The Banshees of Inisherin, a dark and bittersweet tale of a broken friendship, mounted on a breathtaking canvas, that simultaneously confuses and rivets the viewer as it builds to a fever pitch with a climax we definitely don't see coming.

Set off the cost of Ireland, this is the story of Padraic (Collin Farrell) and Colm (Brendon Gleeson), lifelong friends whose friendship comes to an impasse when Colm calmly announces that he no longer wants to be Padraic's friend, Padraic is confused because he doesn't know what he did, but Colm makes some shocking and unpredictable moves in an attempt to have Padraic take him seriously. It is Padraic's confusion and Colm's tight-lipped silence about what he's doing that turns the re-building of a friendship into a war.

First of all, compliments to director and screenwriter Martin McDonaugh for the look of this film. The film is absolutely gorgeous to look at and cinematographer Ben Davis should be a lock for an Oscar nomination for his flawless work here. This is another one of those movies filled with shots that look like paintings. Equally impressive were scenes that foreshadowed what was coming but we don't realize it as we're watching.

The unusual hook of this story is that we're never told exactly why Colm wants to end his friendship with Padraic which should aggravate the viewer to the point of tuning out, but in this instance, it only fuels the story's power and just makes us want more than anything than to see the problems with these two resolve themselves. Also loved the fact that two of the central characters in the story are animals...initially coming off as scenery dressing, we are surprised that, as the film progresses, Colm's dog and Padraic's baby donkey become important story elements. The story quietly builds to a jaw-dropping climax that left this reviewer limp.

Colin Farrell could finally earn his first Oscar nomination for his spellbinding performance as Pedraic, the first time I have seen him completely lose himself inside a role and Gleeson is equally compelling as Colm, and though I don't see them both getting nominations, they both deserve nods. A Best Picture nomination is not out of the realm possibility either. Mention should also be made of Kerry Kondon as Padraic's sister Siobahn and Barry Keoghan, who starred with Farrell in The Killing of a Sacred Deer as the severely damaged Dominic. Carter Burwell's music is the icing on this riveting and often chilling cinematic piece of cake.

Have you seen Calvary?

No, I haven't

The Boston Strangler (1968)
Some really interesting and inventive direction and a first rate cast make the offbeat docudrama about suspected murderer/rapist Albert De Salvo entitled The Boston Strangler seem like a lot better film than it is.

As the 1968 film opens, a group of Boston police detectives are investigation the brutal murders of women in the Boston area that eventually grows to 13 victims. The investigation ends up leading to a man named Albert De Salvo who, instead of being arrested, is institutionalized, suspected of being unfit for trial. John Bottomly, the head of the task force investigating the murders is not happy that he hasn't gotten a confession out of the man nor that his alleged prognosis of DID is legitimate and takes it upon himself to meet one on one with the killer to find out exactly who De Salva is.

Screenwriter Edward Analt, who won an adapted screenplay Oscar for 1964's Beckett, falters a bit here with a story that starts off promisingly as a genuine docudrama as we find a team of police detectives baffled by some very brutal murders and, in the first half of the film, come up with one suspect after the other. All of a sudden at the halfway point of the film, we meet De Salvo and discover that he is probably the Strangler, but combined with the fact that we've already seen multiple suspects and De Salvo claims to not remember anything that happened to these women, the viewer is scratching is head. We never see where the investigation actually closes in on De Salvo, which makes the second half of the film hard to accept as fact-based.

What does work here is some really terrific direction by Richard Fleischer (Compulsion, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing) that features an almost exhausting use of the split screen technique that director Gordon Douglas introduced in Pillow Talk, but Fleischer takes it to a whole new level here. The film technique does require undivided attention from the viewer as we get several split screens of the attacker approaching a victim's door while the victim is innocently on the other side of the screen. Fleischer's approach to the sessions with Bottomly and De Salvo also have a dash of originality as we observe Bottomly sometimes actually enter De Salvo's nightmares and recollections. Despite some impressive cinematic pyrotechnics, we never get what we want from this film...a confession from De Salvo.

Fleischer also seems to have put a lot of thought into his practically perfect cast as well. Tony Curtis is simultaneously bone-chilling and heartbreaking as De Salvo and Henry Fonda is the perfect moral center of the film as Bottomly. Dozens of other familiar faces pop up along the way including George Kennedy, Murray Hamilton, Mike Kellin, Sally Kellerman, George Furth, Carole Shelley, James Brolin, Jeff Corey, William Marshall, Richard X Slattery, William Hickey, and two future cast members of the daytime drama The Young and the Restless, Jeanne Cooper and Carolyn Conwell. The film doesn't deliver what it seems to promise, but it is so well directed and acted that we stay invested.

I really enjoyed it--great performance from Gleeson.

I thought about the same as you in terms of The Boston Strangler. I didn't care for some of the way that the killings were shown, as I felt they leaned a bit exploitative. It's been a long time, but is there a part where he rips a woman's dress down the front while holding her from behind? I didn't like the way that the camera centered on her body.

Yes, there was a scene exactly like that. I think they wanted to show more than that, to imply that De Salvo raped her as well as murdered her. That was probably all they were allowed to show in 1968.

Chelsea Handler: Revolution
Chelsea Handler returns to the standup mike for the first time in two years in an anger-fueled evening of standup called Chelsea Handler: Revolution.

Shot from Nashville, Tennessee, Handler comes onstage dressed in an unflattering, black romper and powder blue Nikes, getting off to a strong start talking about the aftereffects of the Pandemic and more, specifically, the effects on her love life. If the truth be told, the majority of Handler's material seems to find its basis in the fact that at 47 years of age, she is still unmarried and childless. Ironically, not long after directing this special for Handler, Joy Ko and Handler broke up.

This is my first exposure to Handler as a standup and there is a lot to admire here. The comedienne is a talented wordsmith like Jerry Seinfeld and her delivery is crisp and sharp and she never breaks my most important rule for standup, she never laughs at herself. One thing that is a bit off putting about her style is that there is a slight arrogance to her delivery, which causes her to construct a definite wall between her and the audience. There's a point later in the concert where someone in the balcony yells something at her and she gives the person a brief glance and ignores them. She informs the audience about her world but she never lets them in to experience it with her.

I have to admit that I fell off my chair when she mentioned that for the longest time she thought the sun and the moon were the same thing. She offers a lot of strong material about rescue animals, which she reminds us is the only way celebrities are allowed to have dogs. Her story about a battle for the affections of her dogs Bertrand and Bernice with her housekeeper provides some big laughs.

She begins to lose me during the final third of the show where she goes into straight up man bashing, stating that men are such pigs that they are actually having heterosexual women considering lesbianism. This section of the show seemed to be pandering to her largely white female audience, though I have to admit that I did chuckle when she stated that if there were any straight white men in the audience, it was because their girlfriends made them come. Handler's comedy would be a lot funnier if it wasn't based in so much anger. She needs to be reminded that she's not Dave Chappelle.

Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling
Richard Pryor's intentions seemed pure, but his work as producer director, co-screenwriter, and star of 1986's Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling, a fictionalized look at Pryor's life that is really an overheated and melodramatic mess that found this reviewer stifling the occasional yawn.

In 1980, Richard Pryor poured rum all over himself and set himself on fire while freebasing cocaine. This film opens with the fictional version of himself, Jo Jo Dancer, being brought to the emergency room and treated for his injuries after the accident. While in a comatose state, we see Jo Jo's soul leave his body for an out of body experience where we are treated to a look at Dancer's life from being raised by his grandmother, who runs a whorehouse, to his humble beginnings in nightclubs, through his career, various marriages, and the drug abuse that put him in the hospital at the beginning of the film.

It's perfectly understandable that, after what Pryor went through, that he would want to work out his demons that brought him to the point that it did. If he really wanted to look at his life honestly, I would think he wouldn't fictionalize himself. Everybody already knew what happened to him, Richard Pryor's life was tabloid fodder for decades, what was the point of trying to fictionalize himself onscreen? Even worse than the unnecessary fictionalization is the fierce protection that Pryor provides for himself through a screenplay that suggests that everything bad that happened to Pryor in his life was somebody else's fault.

The film also confuses as the story frantically switches from Jo Jo's childhood, to Jo Jo's soul advising him throughout the flashbacks about what he should be doing but ignoring most of the advice, and checking on his condition at the hospital. During the first half of the film, Jo Jo acts like a spoiled and not too bright teenager. He confronts a nightclub owner with a starter pistol when the guy won't pay him. This is also the first film I've seen where Pryor appears in drag, a scene that provided surprisingly few laughs. The only scene in this movie that made me laugh out loud was a scene early on in the film on a nightclub stage where Jo Jo does an imitation of a baby being born.

Considering all the hats Pryor wore for this production, it's no surprise that his performance was overripe. He looked completely stressed out throughout this film, unable to conceal the tension in bringing this project to fruition. Debbie Allen, Barbara Williams, and Paula Kelly make the most of their roles as varied women in Jo Jo's life and I was impressed by a rare movie appearance from Scoey Mitchell as Jo Jo's father. This film could have been something spectacular if Pryor had been more honest about what he was doing. This film is why we still need an actual Richard Pryor biopic.

The Apology
Despite solid performances from the stars, the 2022 alleged thriller The Apology is a convoluted and talky film that starts off with an interesting premise, but eventually degenerates into a hard to swallow story of redemption and revenge that borrows from at least half a dozen other films.

Darlene is a recovering alcoholic whose 16 year old daughter disappeared 20 years ago and is preparing to host Christmas at her house for the first time in 19 years with help from her neighbor, Gretchen. Christmas Eve brings up a lot of memories for Darlene and just as she is about to relapse after 19 years of sobriety, she is interrupted by a surprise visit from her ex-brother-in-law, Jack, who she hasn't seen in years, who arrives with a big secret that he wants to share in his own way.

Director and screenwriter Allison Locke starts her story off strong by setting up the isolation of the story by taking its time taking us to Darlene's snow-buried home, which recalls the Overlook in The Shining. She then introduces us to a very sympathetic central character in Darlene who deserves a respite from 20 years of grief. But the arrival of this slimebucket Jack takes this story from the sublime to the ridiculous as it is revealed that he has arranged to trap Darlene in her home so that he can clear his conscience without suffering the consequences of his actions.

In addition to The Shining, this story also borrows elements from films like Misery, Extremities, and Wait Until Dark has an initially challenging story becomes a standard lady in distress thriller where the lady eventually takes control of the situation and still gives her antagonist the opportunity to justify his actions. The story loses me completely when she has the chance to turn this guy in, but prefers closure to justice.

Locke's story has more than a few holes in it, most importantly, how did Jack secure Darlene's house and kill her phone before his arrival, but this became the least of this movie's problems as it got dumber and dumber with each scene. Anna Gunn, who has won two Emmys for her role as Skyler White on Breaking Bad delivers a superb performance as Darlene, rising above the mediocrity of the material she is provided and is well-matched by Linus Roache as Jack, but this grade Z Stephen King ripoff takes the viewer down a very dark hole from which they aren't really allowed to escape.

Agreed. The plot pushes too many unbelievable things at us.

For me, the biggest issue was just

The Mosquito Coast
A beautifully unhinged performance by Harrison Ford in the starring role makes a 1986 drama called The Mosquito Coast worth a look.

Ford plays Allie Fox, an eccentric inventor who resides in a small farming community, who is sick of the rat race and is disgusted by the direction in which America is heading. One day he impulsively decides to uproot his wife and four children and take a cruise to a small town in Central America, that he actually purchases, renames Geronimo and embarks on constructing the Utopian community of his dreams, even though he doesn't really clue his family in on his plan, but demands complete and unconditional obedience from them until his dream takes a couple of dangerous turns that he doesn't see coming.

Paul Schrader's screenplay, adapted from a novel by Paul Theroux, does contain a dash of originality, edge, and challenge, taking the viewer into new cinematic territory. The most troubling aspect of the story is the absence of, what should have been a crucial part of this story. We never get a scene where Allie sits down with his family and tells them exactly what they're going to do before they do it. Even though it is set up that if this scene had occurred, Allie would have lied to his family about what's going, it seemed like a missed opportunity for some high octane drama during the opening scenes. We could have also done without son Charlie's narration, which was unnecessary and seemed to be bringing the Allie character an element of sympathy that I'm not sure he deserved.

Despite the character's unsympathetic quality, it is this Allie Fox character that makes this movie worth the investment. We've seen a lot of characters over the years like this...a grumpy angry know-it-all who thinks the world is going to hell in a hand basket and thinks he has a solution though nobody will really listen to him. Love the early scene where he goes into a hardware store to purchase something and goes off on the poor clerk (Seinfeld's Jason Alexander) because the item he brought him wasn't made in America. He treats his family like employees or soldiers, barking out orders and expecting blind acceptance of what he says. At one point, his younger son sees a chance to escape his misery for a brief respite and his father says fine, but if he does, he is never to come back. The character is also a bit of a sexist, evidenced in his always referring to his wife (Oscar winner Helen Mirren) as "Mother." If memory serves, I don't think we ever actually learn what her name is.

Director Peter Weir, who also directed Ford in his only Oscar-nominated performance in Witness, provides a breathtaking canvas for this story to materialize, unfortunately, a lot of what goes on in the construction of this Utopia isn't all that interesting and often we can't even tell exactly what Fox and his people are doing. The film does bounce back for a solid final act, commencing with a deadly hurricane.

Harrison Ford has rarely commanded the screen the way he does in a performance that earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Helen Mirren employs another perfect American accent in her thankless roles as Mother and the late River Phoenix holds his own against Ford as his seemingly loyal son Charlie. And if you don't blink, you'll catch a brief cameo by Butterfly McQueen, as a resident of Geronimo, that would be her final feature film appearance. It starts out great and the ending is haunting, but it does sag in the middle, but Harrison Ford makes it worth watching. It was reimagined as a television show in 2021.

I've been meaning to rewatch that for the longest time. I seen it only once and that was at the theater back in 1986. I remember liking it really well. Glad to see you liked it too.

If you like Weir, check out The Last Wave.

The Menu
With the director of the HBO series Succession behind the camera and a screenplay influenced by Stephen King and Agatha Christie, the 2022 thriller The Menu is a spine-tingling roller coaster ride that despite some story inconsistencies, found this reviewer riveted to the screen for the entire running time. Will attempt to review this film without spoilers.

A young couple named Tyler and Margot are among a very select group of guests who have paid $1250 a plate to take a boat to a remote island that is the location of a very special restaurant called Hawthorne. They are joined there by an arrogant food critic and the editor of the magazine she writes for, an unhappily married couple named Richard and Anne, a cocky movie star and his personal assistant, and three young crooked businessmen. It's not long after the first couple of courses that these people find they are in store for a lot more than a gourmet meal.

Screenwriters Seth Reiss and Will Tracy have given us a complex and sometimes confusing story that unfolds very slowly, offering tiny hints to what's going on without giving everything away all at once. Our first clue that all is not as it appears is that Tyler has been living for this event and date Margot is less than thrilled. Then we learn that Margot was not Tyler's original date for this event. Then during the third course of the meal, the diners are served tortillas that have events from the guests' lives sculpted on them. Loved the way each course was written on the screen for the viewer like a movie card in a Woody Allen movie. The Chef's staff was beyond creepy, almost like soldiers or robots, for which little backstory is provided, but how they got where they are becomes irrelevant.

Director Mark Mylod, who directed most of the HBO series Succession, is to be applauded for his meticulous mounting of this suspenseful and creepy movie that made the hair on the back of neck stand up. The film is beautifully photographed featuring Oscar-worthy cinematography and film editing. The editing really shines whenever the camera is focused on the courses being prepared. Mylod's attention to the preparation of the food in this movie makes cooking seem like a religion that not all can be a part of. However, it becomes apparent pretty quickly that Tyler wants to be a part of this religion, but it is never to be. As it becomes clear what's happening here, we are saddened as the rest of the principals quietly accept it too.

Mylod gathers an interesting ensemble cast to bring his vision to life. headed by Ralph Fiennes in an absolutely bone-chilling turn as Chef that should, but won't, earn him an Oscar nomination. Anya Taylor-Joy's gutsy Margot demands attention as does Nicholas Hoult's almost child-like Tyler. Also loved Janet McTeer as the food critic and John Leguizamo as the movie star. Influence from other classic films is evident here, but this is an original work that grips the viewer, even if all the questions posed aren't answered.

I was really surprised to find myself giving it a 4. It seems like it should be a 3, maybe a 3.5 max.

But I really had a good time during it and was drawn to its weird energy.

Staircase (1969)
Despite a talky and muddled screenplay and surprisingly pedestrian direction, the 1969 drama Staircase is still worth a look because of the two Hollywood legends in the lead roles, playing characters way out of their comfort zone.

This is the story of Charlie and Harry, two gay hairdressers on London's West End who have lived together above their shop for over twenty years. Charlie is a former actor who is terrified about the impending visit of his daughter and about criminal charges that have been brought against him for lewd public behavior. Harry is a terribly insecure man who is suffering from a hair loss disease called alopecia that has him so self conscious he wears a towel wrapped around his head 24/7. He is also being driven insane being the primary caregiver of his bedridden mother, who lives across the hall from him and Charlie.

The novelty of this film is that the two central characters are played by actors one would have never imagined accepting these kind of roles. Charlie is played by Oscar winner Rex Harrison and Harry is played by seven time Oscar nominee Richard Burton, who don't completely lose themselves in these roles but they understand Charlie and Harry and aid in making the audience understand them. Both actors employ an effective physicality to their roles that borders on the cliche, but never goes over the top. Despite the fact that Charlie and Harry spend the majority of the film sniping at each other, we never for a minute doubt the love they have for each other, sort of a gay version of George and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

The screenplay by Charles Dyer, based on his own play, is talky and a bit hard to follow thanks to Charlie and Harry's fights jumping from one subject to another at an exhausting pace and a lot of British slang that this reviewer was unfamiliar with and never really escapes its stage origins, as we watch Charlie and Harry hopping around the neighborhood from scene to scene for no good reason. The film also suffers from rather unimaginative direction from the legendary Stanley Donen, probably the weakest work of his career.

The film appears to have been made on a shoestring budget, most of which probably went to the salaries for Burton and Harrison to agree to do this. Harrison has a little difficulty hiding a slight discomfort with this role, but Burton is an absolute joy to watch in this dated and turgid potboiler that will only hold interest for hardcore Burton and Harrison fans. In terms of cinema history, a curio to be sure.

Sam & Kate
The novelty of having two Oscar-winning actors sharing the screen with their real life offspring is the primary hook for a 2022 drama called Sam & Kate, a sweet and sad drama that without this very special hook, would have been a pretty mundane film experience.

This is the story of Sam (Jake Hoffman), an aspiring artist who moves back to his hometown so that he can take care of his ailing father (Dustin Hoffman). One day, Sam meets a pretty bookstore owner named Kate (Schuyler Fisk) who is trying to deal with what she considers a secret shame that her mother, Tina (Sissy Spacek) is a hoarder.

Director and screenwriter Darren Le Gallo (Date Night) has taken what is an ordinary and not terribly interesting story and given it some depth through the casting of two great actors acting opposite their real life children. Unfortunately, without this clever casting of the four leads, this film would have been a crashing bore. The first half of the film moves at a deadening pace where we keep waiting for something to happen. If the truth be told, we are so distracted by the fact that Hoffman and Spacek are performing with their real children, that we really don't notice how boring this story is.

I found myself so fascinated by how Jake and Schuyler looked EXACTLY like their parents. There's a scene near the end of the film where Schuyler is singing and playing the piano off-camera and just hearing her voice, you would swear you were listening to a discarded audio track from Coal Miner's Daughter. Jake has a couple of moments in the film as well where he sounded just like his dad as Benjamin Braddock. Though the love of their children comes shining through in every frame, Dustin and Sissy never forget what they were supposed to be doing up there. Watch Hoffman after he learns Sam and Kate spent the night together or especially Sissy when Kate and the movers arrive to clean out her house. Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek are two Hollywood veterans who still know how to command a screen. I also loved seeing Sissy, who looked 17 years old for almost 30 years, aging so beautifully and looking incredible.

The film features Oscar-worthy cinematography and I loved the music too. Schuyler Fisk, daughter of Sissy Spacek and set decorator Jack Fisk, lights up the screen as Kate and Jake Hoffman is undeniably charming as Sam, but if the truth be told, every moment Sissy Spacek has onscreen here makes this movie worth a look.