Gideon58's Reviews

Nine years after their smash Pretty Woman, director Garry Marshall reunited his stars, Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, in Runaway Bride, a watchable 1999 romantic comedy which is more than anything, a reunion of the Pretty Woman stars (including Marshall good luck charm Hector Elizondo) in a featherweight comedy that borrows liberally from more than half a dozen superior romantic comedies that I can think of, including Pretty Woman.

Roberts plays Maggie, a small town free spirit who has a reputation for planning large elaborate weddings and leaving the groom at the altar at the very last second. When Maggie gets engaged for the fourth time, word of her story reaches a big city newspaper writer (Gere) who decides to come to Maggie's intimate little hamlet to cover the wedding and well, you can guess the rest.

The on screen charisma between Gere and Roberts is still there, but this time they have a rather limp screenplay to work with that doesn't really play to their strengths as farceurs.

In addition to Elizondo, Joan Cusack does steal every scene she is in as Maggie's best friend and there are also effective turns from Paul Dooley as Maggie's dad and Christopher Meloni as fiancée #4. It's passable comic fare, but if you're looking for another Pretty Woman, you will be disappointed.

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Ruthless People was one of the funniest comedies to come out of the 1980's and it just seemed to get funnier and funnier with repeat viewings.

This clever and completely winning comedy stars Danny DeVito as Sam Stone, an unscrupulous owner of a fashion company whose theft of a fashion idea from a young struggling designer turned him into a billionaire. In an attempt to exact revenge, the designer and her husband decide to kidnap Stone's wife, Barbara (Bette Midler)for an enormous ransom. Unknown to the poor couple, Sam can't stand Barbara and refuses to pay the ransom. This is just the beginning and to reveal anymore to the uninitiated would be criminal, but this sets the stage for a raucously funny comedy that became an instant classic.

DeVito and Midler deliver razor sharp performances as the Stones. Helen Slater and Judge Reinhold are charming as the hapless designer and her husband. Also thrown in the mix are the late Anita Morris as Devito's sexy mistress and Bill Pullman, in one of his earliest roles, as the goof ball she's seeing on the side. This film generates laughs throughout with a few surprise twists and turns leading to a finale which will have you cheering.

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Same Time Next Year is the 1978 film version of the long running Broadway play by Bernard Slade that follows the relationship between Doris and George, two people, married to others, who meet annually for a romantic weekend tryst at a New England Inn once a year for twenty-five years, even though this story only chronicles their meetings every five years, starting in the 1950's and ending in the 1970's.

Ellen Burstyn recreates her Tony-Award winning role in the Broadway play as Doris, a sweet and gentle soul who we see grow from painfully shy romantic to free-spirited hippie to smart and confident businesswoman over the course of the story. Alan Alda replaces Charles Grodin in the role of George, a lovable stuffed shirt who turns into a completely different person when he's with Doris.

Each vignette has its own special charm...my favorite is the year they meet and they can't have sex because Doris is pregnant. Burstyn's rich performance earned her an Oscar nomination and Alda matches her note for note. Mention should also be made of the beautiful love theme for the film sung by Johnny Mathis and Jane Olivor, "The Last Time I Felt Like This". A film for the romantic in all of us.

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Sideways is an offbeat but completely winning character study revolving around a quartet of quirky California folk who have a common interest: love of fine wine.

The primary character here is a teacher and aspiring novelist named Miles (Paul Giamatti)who has a passion for wine and for literature and decides to take his best pal, Jack (Thomas Haden Church)on a road trip through California's wine country a week before he is to get married. On this trip Miles reconnects with an intelligent and free-spirited waitress (Virginia Madsen) while Jack has an affair with a quirky wine expert (Sandra Oh), which turns bad when she learns Jack is engaged.

This original comedy drama has an intelligent and humorous screenplay by Alexander Payne (ELECTION)that earned an Oscar and features completely winning performances by its cast: Church and Madsen both received Oscar nominations for their charismatic turns here, but oddly, Paul Giamatti was overlooked for one of the most brilliant lead performances of the year as Miles, a rich and complex characterization that takes on new meaning with every viewing.

These characters are not perfect and there is a lot of questionable behavior glamorized here (Miles stealing money from his mother, Jack sleeping with another woman a week before his wedding, Miles' constant drinking and driving), but Payne makes these characters so warm and engaging that you're able to forgive the behaviors somewhat and revel in the sophisticated dialogue and on-target performances, especially Giamatti, who didn't even get a nomination, a real puzzler to me.

The film also features exquisite photography of the California wine country, which is almost like a another character in the story and an inventive and jazzy musical score that fits the film perfectly. If you're fan of Payne or Woody Allen, you will love Sideways, which has that same loopy Woody sensibility that you can't help but get caught up in.

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She's Having a Baby was an imaginative and charming 1988 comedy that follows a young couple from courtship through parenthood via some amusing vignettes and clever fantasy sequences that effectively break the fourth wall and constantly remind us that we are watching a movie, but this idea is set up from the beginning through the narration and internal fantasies of lead character Jefferson "Jake" Briggs (Kevin Bacon, in one of his most appealing post-Footloose role).

Bacon's chemistry with the lovely Elizabath McGovern (whatever happened to her?) is undeniable and early into the film you really find yourself rooting for this couple. Alec Baldwin had one of his best early roles here as Jake's slightly slimy college buddy.

There a lot of very funny and imaginative scenes in the film, which are mostly a product of Jake's mind, which I found kind of novel for a John Hughes film...love the production number with the lawn mowers and Jake's in-laws coaching him on what to do during sex, not to mention's Jake's internal re-writing of his wedding vows.

Both Holland Taylor and the late Cathryn Damon score as Jake and Christy's moms and William Windom is amusing as Christy's dad, who cuts Jake no slack whatsoever.

I think I liked this movie better than the average viewer...maybe because I really like Kevin Bacon and he's practically in every scene, but I think even for non-Bacon fans, there are smiles, chuckles, and warm fuzzy feelings to be found by taking in the story of Jake and Kristy Briggs. And make sure you stay tuned through the closing credits.

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Mel Brooks decided to break some new ground with Silent Movie, an actual silent movie in which Brooks plays Mel Funn, a movie director who decides he wants to make a silent movie and his misadventures as he attempts to find stars for his project.

It's a cute idea that grows tired rather quickly but there are some laughs here and there. Dom DeLuise and Marty Feldman are very funny as Mel's assistants who accompany him on this journey and Bernadette Peters makes a lovely, silent romantic interest.

Paul Newman, James Caan, Burt Reynolds, Anne Bancroft,Liza Minnelli, and Marcel Marceau make cameo appearances as the stars Funn tries to recruit for his movie. Reynolds' scene is especially hilarious. Mel has definitely made better films, but mediocre Mel Brooks is better than none at all. Beware of edited prints.

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No movie studio made better musicals than MGM during the 1940's and 1950's but the golden crown in their musical stable was definitely 1952's Singin in the Rain, an instant classic that was an affectionate look at a difficult time of transition in Hollywood...the advent of talkies taking over for silent films.

Gene Kelly plays Don Lockwood, a silent film star who has made several films with the glamorous Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), both of whom are thrown for a loop when "The Jazz Singer" is released and is a smash hit. The studio then decides to turn their latest silent feature, "The Dueling Cavalier" into a musical but there is one huge problem: Lina has a speaking and singing voice like nails on a chalkboard. Enter Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), a young chorus girl with lofty theatrical ambitions who agrees to dub Lina's vocals for the film and falls for Don in the process, much to the chagrin of Lina, who believes the fan magazine stories that Don is in love with her.

This simple yet clever story provides the backdrop for MGM's greatest triumph which became an instant classic upon release. Kelly is charming and charismatic as Lockwood and works well with Donald O'Connor, who plays his best friend Cosmo Brown.

Debbie Reynolds, 18 years old at the time, is completely winning as Kathy and Jean Hagen earned the film's only Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her brilliant comic turn as Lina Lamont, the glamorous, vein glamour queen whose ego far outweighs her talent.

Musical highlights include two dance numbers with Kelly and O'Connor, "Fit as a Fiddle" and "Moses" which allow the viewer to compare and contrast the different but equally dazzling dance styles of these two artists; O'Connor's hysterical solo, "Make Em Laugh", Kelly and Reynolds' lovely pas de deux, "You were Meant for Me", and of course, Kelly's title tune, which is practically Hollywood folklore now.


And notice must also be taken of "Broadway Ballet" a 20-minute fantasy/production number which features a special appearance by the divinely long-legged Cyd Charisse. No true lover of movie musicals should miss this one...it's simply, sensational.

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Six Weeks is a soapy melodrama made watchable thanks to an interesting story and charismatic stars, that might make you cry if you catch it in the right of frame of mind. Dudley Moore gives a nicely understated performance as Patrick Dalton, an unconventional congressional candidate, who is married and has a son, who finds himself a little more emotionally involved than he should be with a wealthy industrialist (Mary Tyler Moore) and her daughter (Katherine Healy), an aspiring dancer who is enamored with Dalton and wants to work on his campaign.

A somewhat soapy screenplay is made palatable thanks to a surprisingly understated performance from Moore and the charm of young Healy, who is not only a charming actress but an amazing dancer. And Mary Tyler Moore has never looked more beautiful than she does in this film.

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Farrah Fawcett's Emmy-nominated performance is the centerpiece of Small Sacrifices, a riveting, ABC mini-series based on the true story of Diane Downs, a cold-blooded woman who was sent to jail for murdering two of her three children.

This teleplay presents Downs as the lonely, divorced working mother of three who appears on the outside to be a devoted and loving mother but has no qualms about putting her own needs first when the opportunity presents itself.

While working at a post office, Diane begins a romance with one of her co-workers, Lew Lewiston (Ryan O'Neal)and things are going well until Diane learns that Lew doesn't like kids and has no desire to be a stepfather so Diane decides to kill her children. Fortunately, her elder daughter, somehow survives the brutal shooting and is taken into protective custody not only to protect her from further harm by her mother but to use her to help build a case to convict her mother.

Fawcett gives the performance of her career...an icy, heartless bitch who shouts of her innocence throughout the proceedings, even though all evidence points to her and has the nerve to be baffled by the fact that her daughter wants nothing to do with her.

O'Neal's role here is more in the way of stunt casting as he was Fawcett's real life romance at the time and is wasted in a thankless role, but there are two solid performances from John Shea and Gordon Clapp as the two police detectives caught in the deadly cat and mouse game of trying to slip Diane up in order to nail her for this horrendous crime. Despite it's almost three-hour length, I found this movie fascinating from start to finish, thanks primarily to a powerhouse performance from Farrah Fawcett who got the role of her career and ran with it.

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Small Time Crooks is an underrated gem from the Woody Allen library that's not a classic in the sense of Annie Hall or Manhattan, but is still funny and worth watching. Woody plays an inept former crook who is bored with playing it straight and decides to plan a bank robbery with the help of some buddies (Michael Rappaport,Jon Lovitz, Tony Darrow).

They decide to hit the bank by burrowing from underneath via an abandoned bakery next door and Woody's wife (Tracy Ullmann) provides a front for them by opening up a gourmet cookie store. In a classic Allen plot twist, they bungle the robbery but the cookies become a smash,making Woody and Tracy millionaires;however,they learn that money does not guarantee social acceptance.

Woody tells an entertaining story here with a master hand...he offers one of his funniest screenplays anchored by razor-sharp direction and,as usual, a wonderful hand-picked cast. Woody and Ullmann are absolutely hysterical together and mention should also be made of supporting turns by Hugh Grant and the fabulous Elainie May, who steals every scene she's in. It takes a little while to get going, but stick with it...it will be worth it.

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Small Town Girl was a 1953 musical from the MGM stable about a rich playboy (Farley Granger) who gets arrested for driving too fast through a small town and falls for the sheriff's pretty young daughter (Jane Powell). Nothing really special here, Granger and Powell are charming enough, but this film will always standout in my mind because of two musical numbers performed by supporting players Ann Miller and Bobby Van.


Both of these numbers would later be featured in different installments of THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT. "You Gotta Hear that Beat" was a sizzling production number featuring Ann Miller dancing amongst a disembodied orchestra where you only see the arms/hands of the orchestra playing various instruments. The second number "Take Me To Broadway" featured Van as a human pogo stick, bouncing his way all over town, greeting people and interacting with people and places in town, but he never stops hopping. It's just an amazing number and because of these two musical highlights, SMALL TOWN GIRL is a film I will always remember.

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Snakes on a Pane is a campy, far-fetched, yet effective little thriller that will hold your attention. This is the story of an Asian gangster named Eddie Kim who decides to take out the only witness to his murder of a prominent LA district attorney. When Kim feels he has exhausted all other options, he decides to take care of the witness by filling the plane that is flying the witness back to LA to testify, with thousands of deadly poisonous snakes. Then the plane's air filtration system is filled with a gas that triggers the snakes' aggression so what we have, as the main character states, is "snakes on crack."

If you can accept that this Kim character had no other options and was able to arrange this in a matter of days and that this many snakes don't bite every single person on the plane, then some suspense, scares, and even laughs can be had here. This film reminded me of POLTERGEIST, in that, as much as it tries to scare you, it never loses its sense of humor either. The screenplay is constructed with its tongue well tucked into its proverbial cheek as it not only creates suspense, scares, and produces some genuinely "gross" moments, there is a camp quality to the execution of the story that allows you to accept the lapses in logic.

The performances range from sincere to overblown with Samuel L. Jackson utilizing his enormous screen appeal to the nth degree as the no-nonsense FBI agent escorting the witness who becomes our reluctant hero. Juliana Marguilies manages to keep a straight face as the head stewardess and SNL's Keenan Thompson provides comic relief as a passenger who steps up in time of crisis. As long as you have a strong heart and you're not eating while you're watching, some thrills and shocks can be gleaned from [i]Snakes on a Plane.

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S.O.B. was director Blake Edwards' own "All that Jazz", a blistering, slightly over-the-top, slightly disguised look at a particular period in his career when he and wife Julie Andrews were treated pretty despicably by the Hollywood big shots who can make or break people in Hollywood with one telephone call.

This film is loosely based on the time after Edwards had completed his wife's film STAR! and the studio hated it, wrested control of the film from Edwards, cut like an hour of footage from the film, retitled it "These Were the Happy Times" and then tried to shelve it. After all of this Edwards couldn't get arrested in Hollywood until he hit a bullseye with the 1979 comedy "10."

But this 1981 comedy was a reminder to Hollywood bigwigs that Edwards had not forgotten their treatment of him. In S.O.B. (which, BTW, stands for Standard Operational Bull***t), Richard Mulligan plays the manic Hollywood director, Felix Farmer, who is suicidal after his film "Night Wind", starring his wife, Sally Miles (Julie Andrews) bombs miserably. Farmer is practically written off in Hollywood until he gets the inspiration to re-shoot the film as a near pornographic extravaganza and have his wife bare her breasts for the first time on screen.

This uncompromising look at the inner workings of Hollywood may seem a little off the wall. These are not pleasant people for the most part and every character in the film, even Andrews, has their own agenda.

The merciless screenplay is well executed by a glorious all-star cast backing up Mulligan and Andrews, including William Holden, Robert Vaughn, Robert Preston (hysterical as a doctor who gives out pills like candy), Robert Webber, Loretta Swit, Craig Stevens, Stuart Margolin, Shelley Winters, Marisa Berensen, Rosanna Arquette, Robert Loggia, and Larry Hagman. There are several funny scenes in this film and a lot of interesting things happen that by the time Andrews does bare her breasts, it is somewhat anti-climactic, but there is much to enjoy here for those willing to pay the attention that is required as the story is painted on a broad canvas with a lot of characters, but it is worth the trip and, after I saw it the first time, I wanted to see it again and again and think it is one of the great sleepers of the 1980's.

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My favorites from this page are Roxanne, Ruthless People, and Sideways.

Outstanding lead performances by Oscar winners Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton are the main selling points ofSomething's Gotta Give, an off-beat engaging comedy where Nicholson falls in love with the mother (Keaton) of his much younger girlfriend (Amanda Peet). Nicholson and especially Keaton deliver 100-Megawatt movie star performances here, presenting delightfully twisted but endearingly human characters that you will learn to care for and Amanda Peet has rarely been so appealing on screen. The strong supporting cast includes Frances McDormand as Keaton's best friend and Keanu Reeves as a young and sexy doctor who competes with Nicholson for Keaton's affections. This movie is deliciously entertaining with standout work from Keaton who surprisingly received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work here. Definitely worth the rental and essential viewing for Nicholson and Keaton fans.

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Soul Food is an entertaining and, at times moving film that chronicles the lives of a tight-knit African American family. Big Mama (Irma P. Hall) is the widowed matriarch and referee who always knows exactly what to say to her children in any situation.

Vanessa Williams is Terri, the oldest daughter, a no-nonsense attorney who spends a lot of time bailing family members out of tight spots and never letting them forget it. Terri's husband Miles (Michael Beach) is also an attorney who really wants to be a musician and is fighting an attraction to Terri's flaky cousin Faith (Gina Ravera). Viveca A. Fox is Maxine, the middle daughter who is married to Kenny (Jeffrey D. Sams), who we learn she stole from Terri when they were teenagers and has a son Ahmad (Brandon Hammond)who assists Big Mama in her job as family referee.

The story opens at the wedding of youngest daughter Bird (Nia Long)whose new husband (Mikhi Phifer)is having trouble securing employment because of his stint in prison. The family manages to handle their differences until Big Mama is incapacitated by illness and can no longer be peacekeeper, but young Ahmad, seeing his family crumble, steps up to take up the slack.

This entertaining comedy-drama has a surprisingly smart screenplay and first-rate performances, with young Hammond a standout. Lovely family drama that affectionately embraces the experience of a loving African American family. And the food looks delicious!

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Star 80 is Bob Fosse's dark recreation of the relationship between PLAYBOY centerfold/starlet Dorothy Stratten and her Svengali/husband Paul Snider, who ended up murdering her out of resentment, bitterness, and jealousy.

Fosse's unique eye with a camera lends itself quite admirably to this dark tale about the teenage dairy queen employee (Mariel Hemingway) who meets a charismatic but sleazy player named Paul Snider (Eric Roberts)and according to this screenplay, somehow manages to get her to let him be her date for her senior prom and pose nude for pictures in the privacy of his bedroom, which he ends up submitting to PLAYBOY and from there becomes her manager as he takes her from Vancouver to Hollywood, but as Dorothy becomes famous, she clearly doesn't need Paul in her life and the more she attempts to wrest herself from his iron grip, the more unhinged he becomes and the tighter he seals his grip on her.

The fact that this story is a true one just makes it all the more depressing to watch and Fosse has a way of giving the whole film a very voyeuristic feel...as if we're watching private scenes we are not supposed to see.

Roberts gives the performance of his career as the slimy Snider, the player who is in denial about what a loser he truly is and how Dorothy comes to not need him anymore, which he will have none of. Roberts is electrifying here, in a performance that should have earned him an Oscar nomination and Mariel Hemingway is lovely and fragile as the tragic Dorothy, caught in a web she can't escape from. Cliff Robertson is effective as Hugh Hefner and 60's starlet Carroll Baker is surprisingly good as Dorothy's mother. Roger Rees plays Aram Nicholas, the movie director Dorothy becomes involved with, in reality, a thinly disguised Peter Bogdanovich, whom Dorothy had a relationship with.

This is a dark and sobering drama, made all the more harrowing because it's a true story, masterfully directed by Bob Fosse.

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Starsky and Hutch, Ben Stiller's affectionate take on the 70's TV series is not so much an homage to the classic television series as it is to that divinely decadent decade known as the 1970's.

The TV show is basically used as a backdrop to mount a clever comic romp that trots out just about every TV cliché you think of from the 1970's. This re-thinking of the TV classic has Stiller playing Dave Starsky as a somewhat anal, by-the-book cop who does everything by the rules and is living in the shadow of his late mother, also a cop. Ken Hutchison, breezily played by Owen Wilson, is now a laid back, instinctual kind of cop who is not above taking shortcuts or slightly illegal methods to get evidence he needs or perks from the job he thinks he deserves.

The two are brought together here to bring down a couple of crooked drug dealers (Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman). Snoop Dogg steals every scene he is in as Huggy Bear and Will Ferrell has a memorable cameo that turns into one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

In addition to the effortless chemistry between Stiller and Wilson, this film also evokes the 1970's so effectively, with the clothes, the cars, and especially the music (if you owned a radio in the 1970's, you will recognize the entire score of this movie). It's not a by-the-letters salute to the TV show, but it's a raucous, laugh-out loud comedy that recreates the 70's better than any film in recent history.

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Stay the Night was a 1992 TV movie, originally aired in two parts, that centered around a small town trollop named Jimmy Sue Finger (Barbara Hershey), trapped in a loveless marriage, who drifts into an affair with a local teenager (Morgan Weissner)and eventually talks the boy into murdering her abusive husband so that they can supposedly be together.

After the boy does the deed and is promptly sent to prison, Jimmy Sue pretends to be devoted to him by visiting him regularly in jail, but never reveals her part in what happened so the boy's mother (Jane Alexander) embarks on a mission to get Jimmy Sue to confess that the murder was Jimmy Sue's idea by cozying up to her and pretending to be her best friend in an attempt to get Jimmy Sue to casually reveal the truth about what happened.

This is a well-made drama that will wreak havoc with your emotions, thanks primarily to a strong screenplay and the riveting performances by the two lead actresses. Hershey, in particular, making the most out of a truly despicable character, is just spectacular in a performance that earned her an Emmy nomination. Alexander, splendid as always, matches Hershey scene for scene as the conflicted mother who finds herself feeling some guilt as she finds her personal feelings about Jimmy Sue getting tangled up with her mission.

Morgan Weissner is sincere as the boy who is the object of the drama and Earl Hindman ("Wilson" of TV's HOME IMPROVEMENT) is also effective as Alexander's husband and Weissner's father. It's emotionally manipulative, like Jimmy Sue Finger herself, but it hits the bullseye.

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Another movie that is part of my permanent video collection and never get tired of watching, Steel Magnolias is the beautifully expanded version of Robert Harling's play about the relationship between six women who frequent the same beauty parlor.

Director Herbert Ross does an admirable job of taking Harling's play, which takes place entirely inside Truvy's beauty salon and making this story look like an actual movie and not just a photographed stage play and does it with style and care...the movie is absolutely beautiful to look at and the six actresses occupying the lead roles work like a well-oiled machine.

I am pretty sure the first phrase that comes to mind for most people when this film is mentioned is "Chick Flick", but, as a male, I happily admit to loving to watch this movie over and over again, not just because of the six charismatic performances by the actresses, but because this film also has one of the funniest screenplays ever written. Claree: "The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize." Truvy: "Ruth Robeline...now there's a story...her whole life has been an experiment in terror...first her husband was killed in WWII and then her son was killed in Vietnam... I tell you, when it comes to suffering, she's right up there with Elizbeth Taylor." Claree: "well, you always know what I say...if you can't think anything nice to say about someone, come sit by me." Ouiser: "I'm not crazy...I've just been in a bad mood for the last thirty years."

And just when you think your sides are about to split open from laughing so hard, the film takes a tragic turn and you're reaching for the Kleenex. The scene in the cemetery is riveting, thanks primarily to a flawless and raw performance by Sally Field, who climaxes what is already a beautiful and commanding performance in the film, with her rage against God as her only outlet of grief at the moment. This scene makes me cry every time I watch the movie. An appeal to the gentlemen out there who have never seen this movie: Give it a chance. I did and I have never regretted it.

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