Gideon58's Reviews

The Revenant (2015)
A motion picture experience unlike anything I have ever seen, 2015's The Revenant is a darkly ferocious and terrifying tale of survival and justice that won its director a second consecutive Oscar and a long overdue and richly deserved Oscar for its leading man.

The film follows a fur trapping expedition in the 1820's led by one Hugh Glass that is destroyed by a vicious Indian attack, from which only a handful of the original expedition survive. After barely escaping the attack by water, the remaining trappers find temporary solace but Glass is temporarily separated from the rest of his team, during which he is brutally mauled by a bear. He is found but his team finds transporting Glass is hampering their own survival, making the fatalistic decision to leave three men behind to care for Glass as long as they can and then give him a proper burial.

Proving his previous year Best Picture triumph Birdman was no one trick pony, director and co-screenwriter Alejandro G. Iñárritu has crafted a story of simultaneous unrelenting carnage and lilting beauty that envelops the viewer from the opening scenes and keeps us on the edge of our seats with a story that had me glued to the screen and often turning away from unprecedented cinematic ugliness.

And it would be wrong to start anywhere else but with the amazing scene where Glass is attacked by this bear. I've been racking my brain trying to think of a scene in another movie that produced the terror in me that this one did. The only thing I could think of is Tippi Hedren going into that attic in The Birds, but that scene wasn't even in the same neighborhood as this one. Shot in exceedingly graphic detail, it's not just that the bear throws Glass around like a rag doll or that she stands on top of Glass after the mauling like the victor in a WWE wrestling match, but the fact that she actually attacks the man more than once. How do I know the bear was female? Seconds before Glass is attacked, we get a glimpse of a bear cub in the corner of the screen and we realize that this vicious attack was, at its core, a mama bear protecting her baby.

Iñárritu paints one striking cinematic photograph after another here...I love the way he uses the sky to document time passing...there is a wonderful shot of Glass waking up in the snow and glancing the sky filled with dark clouds as the sun struggled to get out from behind. He makes us feel the freezing cold that frames most of the story and provides uncompromising looks at what can be associated with survival. There is a scene where Glass attempts to repair the damage to his throat that hearkens back to Tom Hanks pulling his tooth in Cast Away not to mention a harrowing fall off a cliff on horseback that provides another unspeakable survivable technique utilized by our hero which brings up another thing...I also can't recall the last I saw a movie that featured so much brutal treatment of animals so if you have issues with that sort of thing, be forewarned.

After four previous acting nominations, Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for Outstanding Leading Actor for this physically and emotionally demanding role and let me make this clear: this was not a "Body of Work", Oscar. I saw three of the other four nominees that year and DiCaprio earned this Oscar. Must also give a shout out to Tom Hardy's Oscar nominated villain of the piece and to all technicians involved in the sound on this film...sound mixers, sound editing, whatever, they were robbed of an Oscar...I've never seen a movie before that so perfectly captured the sound of an Indian's arrow entering human flash. A once i a lifetime movie well worth your time if you have the stomach for it.

Bulletproof
The stars work well together, but the 1996 cop/buddy movie Bulletproof suffers from a cliched screenplay that borrows stuff from every cop/buddy movie ever made.

The film stars Damon Wayans and Adam Sandler as Keats and Moses, respectively, a pair of two bit criminals who have been working together for over a year when it is revealed that Keats is actually an undercover cop named Carter trying to get the goods on Moses' boss, a car dealership owner/drug lord (James Caan). Carter is shot during the reveal and once he recovers, he is assigned to bring in Moses and protect him until he can turn state's evidence against his boss.

I can't remember the last time so many movies flashed through my mind while watching a single movie. Director Ernest Dickerson and screenwriter Joe Gayton have definitely seen their share of cop/buddy movies because every cop/buddy movie cliche you can think of gets employed here; unfortunately, movies like The Defiant Ones, Midnight Run, 48 HRS, and Beverly Hills Cop did it a lot better.

As mentioned, the stars do work well together and their relationship is the best thing about the movie, but even that relationship has a bit of an "ick" factor to it. These two have only been acquainted for a year when the movie begins but these two act like they've been friends since they were toddlers. These guys got REALLY close in a year, the relationship almost has a homoerotic quality about it, that actually found me squirming during selected scenes. Moses tells Keats he would take a bullet for him...I've known people for 30 years I wouldn't take a bullet for.

Wayans and Sandler are very funny guys but they are unusually subdued here. It must have been a lot of work trying to make this cliched screenplay, that sounds like it was written for 10 years olds, viable entertainment. Caan is over the top as is a long-absent-from-the-big-screen James Farentino as Wayans' boss. And other than a hairy sequence during the opening act aboard a malfunctioning plane, the action sequences are nothing special. For hardcore Wayans and Sandler fans only.

The Good Mother
Despite lackluster direction, the 1988 melodrama The Good Mother is worth a look thanks to its interesting subject matter approached with sensitivity and the lead performance by the always watchable Diane Keaton.

Keaton plays Anna Dunlop, a divorced piano teacher with a young daughter named Molly, who begins a relationship with a sexy and sensitive artist named Leo (Liam Neesom). One night, while Anna and Leo are in her bedroom having sex, Molly bursts in claiming to have had a bad dream and innocently climbs into bed with Molly and Leo, which inadvertently leads to an incident between Anna and Leo that might have Anna losing custody of Molly to her father.

Screenwriter Michael Bortman, utilizing a novel by Sue Miller as source material, has crafted a story that sensitively and imaginatively unfolds before the viewer. The story begins with a very lengthy flashback to Anna's childhood which is supposed to help establish Anna's feelings about sexuality and how what happened then has shaped how she has dealt with Molly regarding sexuality, even if it does go on much longer than needed. We get another foreshadowing of what's to become when Anna is observed explaining a book about male and female anatomy to her daughter. We get another clue with a scene of Leo reading Molly a story while Molly and Anna are taking a bath together, but it isn't until well into the second act when Anna's ex is waiting for her on her doorstep that we have any clue what this film is about.

What Bortman does do correctly is provide a very balanced look at a highly sensitive subject that I don't think has really been addressed on film before. We understand the anger and rage of Molly's dad about what has happened and we understand Anna's confusion and conflict about something that she never gave a second about when it was happening and we understand how Leo was trying to honor the way he thought Molly was being brought up by handling the incident the way he did. And even though we understand all of this, we know, at its core, what happened between Leo and Molly was wrong but we hate to see Anna punished as well and therein lies the melodrama.

The primary problem here is Leonard Nimoy's leaden direction, that keeps this movie at a snail's pace and just wanting to scream at everyone on the screen, "Get on with it!" There's a scene between Anna and her grandfather (Ralph Bellamy) where she goes to him to borrow money that brought the movie to a dead halt at a point where our patience was already being tried.

Nevertheless, Keaton is always worth watching and she turns in another powerhouse performance that doesn't disappoint. And I won't lie, it was fun watching Liam Neesom play a role that was based strictly on his hunk appeal and he seems to be aware of that and doesn't shy away from it. James Naughton was solid as Anna's ex and you have to love the stylish work of the late Jason Robards as Anna's attorney, but Nimoy was really out of his directorial element here and it really hampers the proceedings.

Roxie Hart
1942's Roxie Hart is the cynical and sizzling black comedy about murder, betrayal, and the power of the media that brings new meaning to phrases like "Innocent until proven guilty", "the pen is more powerful than the sword", and "justice is blind." The film also turns out to be an analysis of the often clear connection between the law and show business.

This film, allegedly based on a true story, stars Ginger Rogers as the title character, the married flapper in 1920's Chicago, whose show business aspirations are dashed when she shoot her lover and is sent to jail, even though her devoted, dim bulb of a husband originally confesses to the crime. Roxie is assured that she will be OK because no woman has ever been hung in the history of Cook County and one of the primary reasons for that is a fast-talking attorney named Billy Flynn (Adolph Menjou) who is also defending a cellmate of Roxie's named Velma. When Roxie's husband, Amos, asks Billy to take the case, he doesn't ask if Roxie is guilty or innocent, he just asks if Amos has five thousand dollars. Even though Amos doesn't have all the money, Billy still takes the case and constructs a case for Roxie, not based on the facts, but on making her a darling of the media that no jury would dare to convict.

This story actually first came to the screen in 1927 with Phyllis Haver playing the title role in a film that was actually based on a play by Maurine Watkins. Thirty-three years after this film, the story found life again onstage as a Broadway musical called Chicago that starred Gwen Verdon and that musical became a movie in 2002 and won the Oscar for Best Picture, but, if the truth be told, that musical is a pale imitation of this shockingly dark comedy that is completely unapologetic in its cynicism regarding the conceptions of law and justice.

Nunnally Johnson's screenplay accurately skewers a justice system that has proven before and since this film how justice can be manipulated by the media. It's a little unsettling that this Billy Flynn's approach to getting Roxie off centers on creating a sympathetic image and a new fake background for her and her guilt or innocence actually becomes a non-issue. If this film is your first exposure to this story, I can safely say that you will get through at least half of this film unsure as to whether Roxie is guilty or innocent which is the exact intent of this story I'm sure. In Chicago, we witness the death of Fred Casely, but in this film, we don't witness the crime.

The character of Roxie is a lot of fun and there's no way the viewer cannot get completely behind her and especially the way she embraces the whole idea of her defense as a gateway to her show business career. I loved her first meeting with the press in jail where she had all the reporters doing the Black Bottom, or during the trial when every time the jury was looking at her, Roxie made sure that her skirt was hiked high enough to expose her lovely knees. There's a great moment during the trial where the press rush to the stand to photograph Roxie and the judge gets up behind her and gets in the shot.

Ginger Rogers is terrific as Roxie, but it was Adolph Menjou's dazzling turn as Billy Flynn that was the most memorable part of this comedy for this reviewer. Menjou's richly complex performance as the slick and insensitive attorney is easily the best work of his I've seen. George Montgomery was also quite charming as the young reporter who falls for Roxie and there's even a brief appearance by William Frawley, who would later gain fame as Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy. Fans of the 2002 musical should definitely take a look at this more biting view of the same story.

Glad to see you still watching Ginger Rogers films. I seen that one but only once and long ago. I remember liking it. Did you know Lucy Ball and Ginger Rogers were good friends in real life?

I always figured that because I've seen them photographed a lot together and, if memory serves, Ginger did a guest shot on The Lucy Show once.

Play It Again Sam
Woody Allen had one of his earliest screen successes with the 1972 screen version of one of his first plays called Play it Again, Sam, which works very hard at not looking like a photographed stage play with only marginal success.

Woody plays Alan Felix, a writer who has just gone through a nasty breakup with his insensitive ex-wife (Susan Anspach). With the help of his best friends, Dick and Linda (Tony Roberts, Diana Keaton), Alan tries to forget about Nancy as Dick and Linda keep setting him up on dates trying to find the perfect woman for him, but, for Alan, the perfect woman just might be Linda.

The special hook provided for this story is that the character of Alan is a movie buff who worships everything Humphrey Bogart and throughout the story we see Alan getting advice and inspiration from the spirit of Bogey (Jerry Lacy) on the art of romance.

The play premiered in 1969 featuring Allen, Keaton, Roberts, and Lacy and ran for over 400 performances. The play takes place completely in Alan's apartment , but director Herbert Ross does his best to open the story up by having the story become bi-coastal between New York and San Francisco, but there's something about the story that still feels kind of cramped and claustrophobic.

Moviegoers' first exposure to the enigmatic screen chemistry that Woody Allen and Diane create does make this film worth investing in. As my reviews of a lot of Allen's later work reveals, I have often been put off with Woody's view of himself as a sex symbol, but I never got that narcissistic Allen that inhabits a lot of his later work here. I believed Alan's neuroses, effectively fueled by ex-wife Nancy in the early scenes and his disastrous attempts at dating that lead Alan to the reveal that he is really in love with his best friend's wife. I also wouldn't have minded a little more focus on Alan's relationship with Bogey's spirit. It's set up as such an important part of Alan's character makeup, evidenced by the overlong clip of Casablanca, I expected Bogey's spirit to have a more prominent role in the story than he did.

Ross' direction is a little wooden but he does manage charming performances out of Allen, Keaton, Ross, Lacy, and Anspach and there is some lovely location photography of Manhattan and San Francisco, but I couldn't help thinking throughout how different and possibly better this film might have been with Woody in the director's chair.

Eight Crazy Nights
As research for my upcoming list of favorite Adam Sandler performances, I chose the animated musical oddity from 2002 called Eight Crazy Nights, Sandler's fractured and raunchy re-thinking of A Christmas Carol filled with tasteless, bathroom humor that taints what is a somewhat original look at a story that has been told in a lot of different movies.

Sandler provides the voice for the central character, Davey Stone, an angry thirty year old booze hound and all around loser who hates everything and everybody in the small town where he lives. The only person in town who seems to give a damn about Davey is Whitey (also voiced by Sandler), a little old man who is a volunteer basketball coach and the town punching bag, who lives with his crazy twin sister, Eleanor (voiced by Sandler as well). Whitey takes Davey in when his trailer burns down and does try to get through to the guy, who has also somehow connected to a kid named Benjamin (voiced by Austin Stout) who is the son of Davey's childhood sweetheart, Jennifer (voiced by Jennifer Sandler).

Sandler definitely gets points for originality here, creating a holiday movie that actually references Chanukah instead of Christmas, but his central character is just a little difficult to invest in. Davey Stone is just plain mean and has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. As unpleasant as Davey is, you kind of have to forgive it because the character is drawn and sounds exactly like Adam Sandler.

Davey's anger seems completely unmotivated until a clue to his evil is provided by a Chanukah card from Davey's parents that he received from his parents as a child but never opened. The reveal of this card clears up why Davey is so angry but it seems the reveal should have come a little sooner, but maybe this reveal should have come a little before we have come to completely hate the character.

There's some really tasteless and raunchy humor sprinkled throughout and that includes the often clever song score by Teddy Castellucci, Marc Ellis, and Ray Ellis, that includes "At The Mall", "Patch Song", "Long Ago", "Bum Biddy", and my personal favorite, "Technical Foul".
A lot of Sandler's SNL pals provide voices including Kevin Nealon and Jon Lovitz, and long time rep company member Allen Covert contributed to the screenplay, but this one is definitely a mixed bag that hardcore Sandler fans will be able to mine laughs from.

Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History
Along with The Brady Bunch, I don't think there was any other sitcom that became part of pop culture the way this one did (ironically they were both created by the same writer). They are probably the only two sitcoms in television history that everyone knows the theme songs as well. The story of how this classic sitcom came to be is delightfully chronicled in a 2001 documentary entitled Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History.

Like Star Trek and Batman, this sitcom made such an impact on television history that people tend to forget that it was only on the air for three seasons in prime time. This documentary takes a novel approach to telling the story of how the show got on the air and the onset/offset insanity that ensued. The film features three of the four surviving cast members of the show, Bob Denver, Russell Johnson, and Dawn Wells who serve as narrators of the story (Denver and Johnson have both passed since this documentary was made), but also features actors cast as the seven stars of the show, Sherwood Schwartz, and CBS executives to dramatically present a lot of the events involved in the story.

Like all good documentaries should, a lot of information was revealed that was news to me. Bob Denver's reveal that he only got the role of Gilligan because the original choice for the role, Jerry Van Dyke, decided to do My Mother the Car instead was a surprise to me. And am I the only one who didn't know that Gilligan was the character's last name? This documentary not only reveals how Sherwood Schwartz came up with the name Gilligan but what his first name was, even though it never came up during the run of the show.

This documentary also doesn't shy away from the all the drama that Tina Louise brought to the set because she was allegedly led to believe that Ginger Grant was the main character on the show. An incident is shown where Louise was threatening to film a shower scene in the nude and how crew people jammed the rafters above the set to watch. On the other hand, we also learn that Dawn Wells/Mary Ann received more fan mail than any other cast member. Of course, it goes without saying that Tina Louise wanted nothing to do with the making of this documentary.

The actors cast as the actors are quite appropriate in their roles, with standout work from Eric Allen Kramer as Alan Hale Jr., Steve Vinovich as Jim Backus, EJ Peaker as Natalie Schaefer, and Aaron Lustig as Sherwood Schwartz. An informative and entertaining look at a piece of television history that fans of the show will eat up.

Father of the Bride (1991)
Steve Martin proved to be more than up to the task of filling the shoes of the amazing Spencer Tracy in an appealing and exquisitely mounted remake of Tracy's 1950 classic Father of the Bride.

This 1991 remake features Martin playing George Stanley Banks, a shoe manufacturer who is having trouble with the fact that his daughter Annie has returned from a trip to Hawaii with a fiancee. We watch George hoping this whole thing is a bad dream and upon accepting that the upcoming wedding is a reality, he must then deal with the chaos and expense involved in planning the perfect wedding.

Director Charles Shyer and wife Nancy have done an admirable job of updating the original Francis Goodrich/Albert Hackett screenplay from 1950, keeping the theme of the story front and center, despite the addition of some slapstick elements to accommodate the leading man. There are a couple of extra complications to the story, like a major snowstorm in California.

Director Shyer also does an expert job reining in his star, who could have made this movie all about pratfalls and mugging, but Martin's performance is unusually subdued and quite charming. I absolutely love the scenes during the reception after the wedding where all he wants to do is talk to Annie and have a dance with her, but he just can't get to her. If the truth be told, this was also my favorite part of the 1950 film where Tracy is trying to get two minutes alone with daughter Elizabeth Taylor. I do like the way this version gives the role of the bride's mother a little more substance than it had in 1950 and Diane Keaton gives even more richness to the role than the screenplay provides. I loved the scene where she bails George out of jail and insists on speaking to him before she bails him out.

Kimberly Williams is an acceptable updating of Elizabeth Taylor's role and though a lot of people found him very funny, I found Martin Short kind of annoying as the wedding planner with the bizarre accent that made it pretty impossible to understand what he was saying, not to mention Asian BD Wong playing his assistant named Howard Wienstein (?), but, mercifully, their screentime was limited enough that I was still able to enjoy this solid remake of a classic that stands up proudly next to the film on which it was based.

An Affair to Remember
Despite some confusing and unnecessary story elements, the 1957 melodrama An Affair to Remember is still quite the effective tearjerker, thanks to the almost magical chemistry of the stars that definitely makes the problems with the film a little easier to overlook.

The film is a remake of a 1939 film called Love Affair which featured Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. In this version, Cary Grant plays Nicky Ferrente, an Italian playboy who has a shipboard romance with a nightclub singer named Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr), even though both are romantically committed to others. Nicky and Terry fight their attraction to each other but by the time the ship returns to New York, they are in love. The night before the boat docks, Nicky and Terry give each other six months to free themselves of their current romantic entanglements and for Nicky to learn how to actually work for a living. They agree to meet exactly six months to the day, at 5:00 pm. at the top of the Empire State Building but the fateful meeting never happens.

Director and co-screenwriter Leo McCarey does an effective job of presenting a star-crossed romance that we are absolutely convinced can overcome anything and just when the viewer thinks we are about to get exactly what we want from the story, it is cruelly taken from us and we spend the rest of time waiting for what could only be a large red herring to either frustrate the viewer or just to pad the running time. Sadly, it appears to be a little bit of both.

The initial scenes on the ship of Nicky and Terry fighting the romance and having to dodge the watchful eyes of fellow passengers are kind of funny, though it is a bit much when a fellow passenger actually tries to blackmail them with incriminating photos of the pair taken by the ship's photographer. The scene with Terry and Nicky meeting Nicky's Old World grandmother also goes on way too long. We are heartbroken when the Empire State Building meeting never happens and the scenes of our star-crossed lovers just accepting what has happened and moving on with their lives like they don't care are maddening. It's also a little hard to accept the fact that Nicky's glamorous and wealthy fiancee and Terry's stuffy boyfriend just look past the fact that these two are in love and always will be, but we actually forgive just about everything with that glorious final scene where Nicky and Terry are reunited and what happens between them is not even close to what we expect.

Grant is the ultimate romantic leading man here and Deborah Kerr is lovely as Terry (Kerr's singing is dubbed by Marni Nixon, who sang for Kerr the previous year in The King and I). Effective support also comes from Cathleen Nesbitt as Grandma and from Neva Patterson as Nicky's flight fiancee, who has a wonderful Nina Foch-quality that I loved. The film is beautiful to look at (even though the scenes on the cruise ship are so obviously shot in a sound studio) and I loved the title song, dreamily crooned by Vic Damone during the opening credits and reprised later in the movie by Kerr. There are definite slow spots, but if you're looking for a genuine 1950's tearjerker, this is the place. In addition to being a remake itself, the film also inspired the biggest chick flick of 1993 Sleepless in Seattle. The film was remade again in 1994 under the original title, Love Affair starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.

Widows (2018)
The director of 12 Years a Slave and the screenwriter for Gone Girl have collaborated on 2018's Widows, a sizzling and bloody heist epic that combines elements of some of the strongest heist stories ever made on a dark and evocative canvas that rivets the viewer with unrelenting cinematic carnage and an impressive cast.

Based on a story by Lynda LaPlante, the story takes place in contemporary Chicago during a time of great racial and political unrest where we meet four women whose husbands were all recently murdered behind their criminal activities, including the lifting of a large amount of money, which has put these four ladies in great danger. One of the widows is approached and warned that she has one month to get a connected politician his money back. Opening her late husband's safe deposit box leads this widow to her husband's next job, which could pay off the debt and provide a tasty payoff for the women as well.

Oscar winner Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn have constructed an elaborate and prickly story that effectively connects mob sensibilities to political ambition and leaves a lot of bodies in its wake. This is another one of those stories that requires complete attention and might even require a re-watch to catch everything. The story is rich with red herrings as it slowly unfolds but the payoff of said herrings requires patience, but not as much as you might think. This is also another of those stories that involves the death of a lot of innocent bystanders, people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I do love the way the story presents four very different, very strong women at the core of the story who each had a different level of knowledge regarding their husbands' work but when the time comes, they all step up to the plate.

McQueen and Flynn offer old fashioned, noir-ish-like story elements that effectively blend with this contemporary violent and bloody tale. I loved that one of the first clues offered in the story was a matchbook. I believe a matchbook was one of the first clues we got in the 1997 classic LA Confidential which ballooned into unspeakable crimes of political corruption that are given a unique and jaundiced shading here that rivets the viewer to the screen.

Director McQueen displays the ability to create some startling and stomach churning cinematic images as well. I love the shot of the bad guy sitting in front of a TV turning the volume WAY up so that neighbors don't hear his goons beating a guy to death. The torture of a wheelchair bound man in the middle of a bowling alley was equally unsettling. McQueen also works wonders with a first rate cast which includes standout work from Oscar winner Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki (who was so great in Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby), and especially greasy turns from Colin Farrell, Oscar winner Robert Duvall, and Get Out star Daniel Kaluuyo. A bloody and blistering crime drama that actually provides a truly tasty payoff.

Tight Spot
A cliched and simplistic screenplay, some questionable casting, and an overripe performance from the leading lady help prevent 1955's Tight Spot from being the intense crime melodrama that it should have been.

Ginger Rogers plays Sherry Conley, a female prisoner who is taken out of jail and moved into a hotel downtown so that a government attorney (Edward G. Robinson) can convince her to testify against a mob boss (Lorne Greene), despite interference from a cop (Brian Keith) who has been assigned to protect her.

William Bowers' often silly screenplay is actually based on a play be Leonard Kantor that features just about every cliche you can think of associated with mob movies. The dialogue is so garbled with simplistic slang that it makes several characters, especially the character of Sherry, appear ignorant and uneducated. There are times when Sherry actually sounds like some kind of hillbilly, which is in stark contrast to the hard-nosed, brassy ex-gun moll that she's supposed to be.

I have garnered major respect for Ginger Rogers over the last several months, but I must confess that this performance has been the first real disappointment I have experienced from her. The performance is so garish and over the top and seems more appropriate for a comic farce, something Ginger could do in her sleep, rather than the serious crime drama intended. The whole thing of moving Sherry to a hotel seemed so silly and we can't help but laugh when Sherry begs these people to take her back to nice safe jail cell.

Two of the other leading roles seem to be miscast as well. I would have cast Greene as the government attorney and Robinson as the mob boss, but I guess that's just me. The only thing in this movie that really worked for me in this movie was the smoldering performance from Brian Keith as the cop protecting Sherry. Keith displayed solid leading man potential that would eventually come to fruition but this was an actor who was always severely underrated and he proves it here. A hit and miss effort to be sure and a rare misstep for Ginger Rogers.

That's My Boy (2012)
Adam Sandler again proves why he is the vice president of the "So Bad It's Good" school of filmmaking with That's My Boy, a 2012 comedy that is silly, pointless, predictable, raunchy, tasteless, and pretty much had me on the floor for the majority of the running time.

Sandler plays Donny, a goofball who had an affair with one of his teachers when he was a junior high school student and got her pregnant. Teach went to jail for 30 years and Donny's son, who he named Han Solo, grew up hating his father and changed his name to Todd (Andy Samberg). What happened to Donny when he was in school actually made him a rich celebrity but he squandered all that money and is now in trouble with the IRS. When he learns that his son is getting married, he sees this as an opportunity to avoid going to jail and repair the relationship with the son that hates him.

Director Sean Anders (Daddy's Home) and screenwriter David have mounted an often ridiculous story on such a large and inviting canvass that the audience will find themselves amused in spite of themselves. The strained father/son relationship is a story that is always ripe for re-visiting and the novelty of a teenage father gave this story an extra push at the beginning that grabs the viewer's attention and really makes us want to see father and son work things out.

It takes a minute to get going and I must confess there was a point early on where I came very close to turning it off, but by the time we got to the memorable bachelor party, I was completely invested in the insanity and watched this twisted father/son relationship take one step forward and two steps back for the rest of this often hard to swallow story.

Honestly, Sandler's Donny is not much different than a lot of characters he's played in the past but this guy is a dad, kind of foreign territory for the man/child we have grown to love over the years and he works extremely well with Samberg, who garners just as many laughs as Sandler does.

Most of the Sandler rep company is on hand (except Steve Buscemi) and, as always with a Sandler comedy, there is some nutty stunt casting, like Tony Orlando as Samberg's boss, James Caan as a priest with anger issues, and Vanilla Ice playing himself. I also loved that the teacher/mom who began the story was played by Susan Sarandon's daughter, Eva Amurri Martino, at the beginning of the film and then played by Sarandon near the end of the story. Kudos as well to Milo Ventimiglia from This is Us playing Todd's psycho future brother-in-law. Oh, and Peggy Stewart seems to have taken over as the resident little old lady with the potty mouth since the passing of Ellen Albertini Dow. The trip to the requisite happy ending is a little longer than necessary, but I consistently laughed in spite of myself.

First Man
The ridiculously talented Damian Chazelle proves that his artistry in the director's chair extends beyond musicals with the dazzling 2018 docudrama First Man, the extremely up close and personal look at the people and events that led up to astronaut Neil Armstrong stepping foot on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.

The film actually begins eight years before that historic July day where we meet pilot Neil Armstrong, a soft-spoken but passionate pilot who has dreams that reach far beyond flying when he begins astronaut training. Armstrong is observed dealing with the death of a child and five fellow astronauts before he is actually chosen to command the memorable Apollo 11 mission.

The director of La La Land has taken on a mammoth assignment here and, to some, it might seem like he bit off more than he could chew here. In a pretty seamless marriage of docudrama and character study, Chazelle and screenwriter Josh Singer cover a lot of territory here. If the truth be told, the screenplay could have used a bit of tightening, but I think I understand what Chazelle and Singer were doing here...it would have been easy to just document the Apollo 11 mission, which would have made the film just a rehash of Ron Howard's Apollo 13, but providing an overview of Armstrong's life, what was going on in the country at the time, and the previously glossed over loss of life in pursuit of the space program.

The screenplay is very effective in its initial set-up of the importance of eventually landing on the moon and the revelation that there were millions of US citizens who thought the space program was a big fat waste of money. I was pleasantly surprised that this was addressed as well as the story of the two astronauts who lost their lives during the Gemini missions and the three astronauts who lost their lives on the ground during pre-flight testing during the initial Apollo mission, a startling piece of history that was news to me.

Chazelle and Singer must also be applauded for the attention paid to the character of Neil Armstrong. Whether or not this was the case IRL, Armstrong is portrayed here as a man of great humility, immensely passionate about his work, but was accustomed to internalizing his emotions, something I'm sure that stemmed from the death of his daughter. There's a scene at a press conference where he says he was pleased to be chosen to head Apollo 11 but during the scene where that happens you can hardly tell. The strain on his marriage is not glossed over either...the scene where Janet Armstrong demands that he tell his sons that he may not return is brilliant as is the scene where he actually does so...he answers his boys' questions like another press conference.

Chazelle pulls a rich performance from his [i]La La Land[i] leading man, Ryan Gosling, as Neil Armstrong and Claire Foy is nothing short of brilliant of Janet, a performance that should definitely earn her some award season love. Solid support is also provided from Corey Stoll as Buzz Aldrin, Jason Clarke as Ed White, and Kyle Chandler as Deke Slayton, the head of the NASA's Astronaut Office. Production values are exemplary, with special nods to cinematography, film editing, and especially sound...the sound in this film is incredible, it literally had my chair shaking as I watched and that early scene of one of Jim's earliest flights actually got me a little queazy in my stomach. A riveting and memorable motion picture experience that could earn Damian Chazelle a second Oscar for Best Director.

On Moonlight Bay
Doris Day's charming performance anchors a sweetly nostalgic, but ultimately empty 1951 musical called On Moonlight Bay.

The setting is the fictional town of Millburn, Indiana where we meet the Wingfield family, who have just moved into a new home. Doris plays Marjorie, the Wingfield's grown daughter who hasn't figured out that she's a girl yet, until she meets cute with William Sherman (Gordon MacRae), the know-it-all college student who lives across the street and has radical ideas about marriage and money.

Marjorie and William fall in love instantly but William makes it very clear to Marjorie that he doesn't believe in marriage. Marjorie, trying not to scare him off, says she feels exactly the same way, but Majorie's father is not having a man near his daughter who has no plans for marriage, which sets up this terribly complicated musical comedy.

The screenplay is based on the Penrod Stories by Booth Tarkington which perfectly captures small town sensibilities, more specifically, the societal roles expected by men and women and how relationships between men and women were meant to result in marriage. It's no surprise when Marjorie's father, George, finds a more marriage minded guy for his daughter. It's also no surprise that Marjorie finds this guy dull as dishwasher. There is an overly complex subplot involving Marjorie's little brother, Wesley, that seems to just pad the running time, but doesn't really interfere with the story either.

The score includes "Tell Me", "Cuddle a Little Closer", "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", "Love Ya", "Every Little Movement", and, of course, the title tune.

This was the second of three films that Day would make with Gordon MacRae, whose pearly whites and rich baritone compliment Day beautifully even though the story keeps his character offscreen a little too much. Leon Ames and Rosemary DeCamp are charming as Marjorie's parents and Mary Wickes cracks wise with the best of them as the housekeeper, Stella. There's also a scene stealing turn from Billy Gray as little Wesley. Gray would earn his fifteen minutes a few years later playing Bud on Father's Knows Best. The film cleverly sets up its sequel, By the Light of the Silvery Moon.

A couple in there I want to see; A Star is Born and A Child is Waiting.

What took you so long to see The Revenant? Weren't that interested?

I have no proper answer as to why I took so long to see The Revenant, but I'm glad I finally did. Would love your thoughts on A Star is Born if you do see it.

Staying Alive
A definite contender for the worst sequel ever made, 1983's Staying Alive suffers from a cliched and juvenile screenplay, lethargic direction, wooden performances, and an overall air of ignorance regarding the subject matter.

This film is a sequel to Saturday Night Fever, the smash hit of 1977 that made John Travolta a movie star. Travolta once again steps into the dance shoes of Toniy Manero, who has now abandoned Brooklyn and has decided to become a dancer on Broadway. Tony is working as a waiter and a dance teacher but he finally gets cast in the chorus of a Broadway show called SATAN'S ALLEY.

As rehearsals begin, Tony finds himself involved with two very different women in the show. Jackie (Cynthia Rhodes) teaches at the same school where Tony does and has been his BFF since moving to New York. She is mad about him but he keeps blowing her off once he meets Laura (Finola Hughes), the star of the show, a wealthy arrogant diva who is amused by Tony's attraction to her, but has no real feelings for the guy.

Incredibly, this film was the brainchild of Sylvester Stallone, who is billed as Executive Producer and inhabited the director's chair for the first time in a project that didn't involve Rocky Balboa (he even makes a brief cameo appearance near the beginning of the film). I don't know what Stallone was thinking here, because the Broadway musical theater was something Stallone was apparently ignorant about, which comes through in every frame of this movie. We have scene after scene of Broadway dancers going through grueling dance routines set to disco tunes by the Bee Gees and Stallone's brother, Frank, who Stallone does try to showcase here.

There's just too much going on here supposedly on Broadway that would NEVER happen IRL. Tony would not be allowed to hang backstage during Jackie's show or visit Laura's dressing room. He would not be allowed to disrespect the leading lady or the director the way he does here and still be in the show. Oh, and let's talk about this alleged Broadway show, SATAN'S ALLEY...a Broadway musical has songs and dialogue. This was just Travolta leaping around onstage in a loincloth while dancers clawed at him...this was not a musical, this was a ballet. I wish Stallone had done a little more research into theater and how it works before attempting this debacle.

Travolta looks appropriately embarrassed to be involved in this mess. Clearly, he knew how stupid this was too. Cynthia Rhodes and Finola Rhodes' wooden performances were nothing to shout about either...Rhodes would fare a little better a few years later in Dirty Dancing and Hughes would eventually find a show business niche on daytime television playing Anna Devane on General Hospital. Julie Bovasso makes a very convenient cameo as Tony's mother, the only cast member from the first film to appear here besides Travolta. The screenplay has all the depth of a Mickey Rooney Judy Garland musical and the choreography is undisciplined and uninteresting. Luckily, both Travolta and Stallone's careers managed to survive this hot mess.

Night School
Kevin Hart is the executive producer, co-screenwriter and star of a 2018 comedy called Night School that does provide laughs but for a story this predictable, goes on way longer than need be.

Hart stars as Teddy Walker, an employee at a BBQ store who is dating a high-powered lady executive who accidentally burns the BBQ business to the ground and has been offered a comparable job by a friend if he can get his GED. Teddy returns to his high school and enrolls in an evening GED class with other assorted misfits and finds himself squaring off with his tough-as-nails teacher (Tiffany Haddish) and his high school nemesis (Taran Killam), who is now principal of the high school.

Hart evokes sympathy for Teddy by beginning the film with a flashback that shows why Teddy never graduated high school. It also shows him being ridiculed by his father and sister for being dumb. Hart would not have gone to the trouble of showing all of this if he had not intended for Teddy to get that GED, so why make the journey to this already foregone conclusion almost two hours long? And if the point of the story was to prove that Teddy isn't dumb, why have Teddy decide to steal the answers to the test before the halfway point in the film? And did we really need to see Teddy working at a fast food joint called Heavenly Chicken dressed like a giant chicken? Jerry Lewis did less embarrassing things on film than Hart does here.

Hart is very funny and he has assembled a solid cast to back him up, but this film just goes on a lot longer than it should have. The chase that ensues between the GED students and the principal that concludes with them trying to escape via the rooftop was just silly and really slowed the movie down. We also didn't need ten minutes of the night school students twirking at the senior prom or watching Theresa (Mary Lyn Rajskub) telling her husband what kind of sex they're going to have now that she has a GED. Seriously? And the scenes of Haddish beating Hart into learning were just dumb.

But the film did have some positive things to offer...Taran Killam was very funny as sort of a new millenium Dabney Coleman comic villain, who was a perfect comic foil for Hart. Ron Riggle was also very funny as a GED student who wants a job where he can get off his feet. There is a lot of manic physical comedy, well-staged by director Malcolm D. Lee, but the whole thing just goes on way too long.