Gideon58's Reviews

The time lapse between his vodka incident and his death was considerable...the consequence should have been immediate...there was no point in having a cop pull up on him and not catch him and arrest him, that's how that scene should have played, he should have been caught and thrown in the drunk tank, and with that, I would like to end this discussion.

I respect your feelings, and if all was perfect in the world, he would have been caught. However, the odds of it actually happening are very slim

CRY-BABY
John Waters' singularly unique directorial style, a delicious musical score, and a pair of charismatic lead performances are the primary selling points of a 1990 gem called Cry-Baby, which finds Waters offering universal yet well worn cinematic themes and dressing them up with his outrageous cinematic concepts and his bizarre rep company of actors.

The film is set in the only place and time that Waters works: 1950's Baltimore. The story is very simple: The virginal Allison-Vernon Williams (Amy Locane) finds herself drawn to Wade Walker AKA Cry-Baby. The problem is that Allison is one of the "Squares", the proper folk on the right side of the tracks, whose spiritual leader seems to be Allison's tight-assed grandmother (Polly Bergen). Cry-Baby is one of the "Drapes"
, the outrageous troublemakers led by Cry-Baby's nutty grandmother (Susan Tyrell), her common law husband (Iggy Pop), Cry-Baby's sister Pepper (Ricki Lake), a high school student and mother of two with a third on the way, and Hatchet Face (Kim McGuire). It's one side of the tracks falling in love with the other that carves out the canvas of this bizarre but entertaining musical comedy.

For the uninitiated, John Waters is another director who works way off the beaten path who loves to present bizarre stories that stretch credibility at every turn and characters that walk a fine line between funny and repellent and this film is no exception. He also likes to utilize a very select rep company of actors in his films. He is responsible for bringing the famed transvestite Divine (Pink Flamingos) to the screen and pretty much made a star out of Ricki Lake.

Waters went a step further than he usually does, making this film a musical, with a fantastic 50's styled musical score by Patrick Williams that perfectly captures the feelings of the 1950's in a way that Happy Days never did. The musical numbers are imaginatively staged and serve the story instead of slowing it down, the standout being "Please Mr. Jailer", a jazzy production number which features Locane at her steamiest. It should be mentioned that Depp and Locane do not do their own singing, but the lip synching is credibly done.

This film is not for all tastes, but if you're a fan of musicals, Depp (who is basically sex on legs here), or the director, this one will not disappoint.

I still haven't seen either the original version of Fame or the remake, but I used to watch the TV show when I was younger. If I was only going to watch one version of the movie, which version would you recommend watching?

I have the DVD of Cry-Baby because I found it in a dollar store a few years ago, but I still haven't watched it. I'll have to bump that up on my watchlist.

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

Honestly, I think you should watch both, in the order they were made of course. The remake wouldn't impress as it should if you haven't seen the original...the remake does enough tweaking of the original film to give it legitimacy, but completely respects the original film. I would also recommend not watching them back to back...give it a day or two between watching both films. I never watch originals and remakes back to back, I'm more objective with a little time between two films.

NIGHTCRAWLER

Striking direction, a razor sharp screenplay, and a completely reprehensible central character brought to life by one of our most likable actors combine to make 2014's Nightcrawler an ugly and unsettling crime thriller that left me with my mouth open in amazement, only slightly covering the anger and very bitter taste this film left in my mouth.

Jake Gyllenhaal, cast brilliantly against type, plays Louis Bloom, an unemployed techno geek who happens upon a traffic accident one night and learns from a freelance crime journalist (Bill Paxton) on the scene that he is about to sell the footage to the news station that will pay him the most for it and that a lucrative living is possible if you know what you're doing. Louis goes to a pawn shop and trades an expensive bicycle for a camera and a police scanner. Before we know it, Louis has schooled himself on police procedures and codes and begins bringing crime footage to the news director of a low rated LA station, effectively played by Rene Russo. She recognizes raw talent and when Louis asks for advice on the kind of footage she's looking for, her replay is, "Imagine a woman running down the street with her throat cut."

Louis takes her advice to heart, updates his equipment (not sure how he was able to afford this) and even hires an assistant named Rick (Riz Ahmed) to help him track police calls and monitor the GPS for the quickest routes to the crime scene. Louis gains experience and acquires enough skill (and cajones) that he can name his own price for his work. Louis' work and position with the station move to an entirely new level when Louis gets a tip regarding a triple homicide in the wealthy neighborhood of Granada and Louis actually gets to the scene before the police do.

Revealing anymore at this point would be wrong, but this is also where the story gets really disturbing and brutally unapologetic. I'm not even sure where to begin here...let's start with this central character, Louis Bloom. In a word, this character is extremely intelligent, urbane, educated, never at a loss for words which almost always leave his mouth without filter. He is also a master at the art of negotiation. He is also a scumbag...he possess nothing resembling a conscience or a moral compass. He forgot to get in line when the sensitivity chips were passed out as well. As his skill at what he's doing increases so does his passion and the mission to get the right footage takes precedence over everything and everyone. There is a lot of backstory regarding Louis that is never addressed but comes out in his actions. In one of the film's earliest scenes we actually see Louis beat up a security guard in order to steal his watch. Mental instability is a definite factor with this character but it's either glossed over or assumed.

Director and screenwriter Dan Gilroy really knocks it out of the park here, presenting a story filled with unsympathetic characters doing really rotten things, as well as taking an incisive look at the often unscrupulous media machine that our society has come to depend on for way too much, showing, warts and all, how the story and the ratings come before everything else. Gilroy has constructed a story with meticulous detail and has provided a brutal tale that offers no easy or likable solutions and characters who are not always shown in a flattering light. Russo's character actually seems to be aroused sexually by some of the brutal crime footage she witnesses in her job...the more brutal the footage, the more excited she appears to become.

Jake Gyllenhaal is frightening and creepy in a performance that earned him a Golden Globe nomination and was Oscar worthy in my opinion and Russo, who hasn't been seen onscreen for awhile (at least for me) shows she still knows how to command a movie screen. There is also a star-making performance from Riz Ahmed as Louis' assistant, one of the most vividly human performances I have seen in a long time...this guy has movie star written all over him. Nods to the cinematography and editing teams are also due, but it's the solid work from Dan Gilroy and a cringe worthy turn from Jake Gyllenhaal that make this film appointment viewing, despite a truly troublesome climax, but you be the judge of that.

Thanks, I'll add both versions of Fame to my watchlist.

I sometimes like to watch the original and remake versions of movies back to back, but only if there's something different about them, and the remake isn't a direct copy. But based on your recommendation, I'll watch these two movies on different nights, with at least a day or two in between them.

It's been a while since I watched Nightcrawler, but as I recall, it was a pretty good movie. I vaguely remember thinking that there were a few major plot holes, but I can't remember what they were anymore. (I think at least one plot hole had something to do with the ending.)

If it helps, the remake is not a scene-for-scene remake like Gus Van Sant's Psycho...as mentioned in my review, certain characters and plot elements have been tweaked, there is even one character in the original film who is female who becomes male in the remake.

I was disturbed by the ending because this guy comes out smelling like a rose...a whole new staff and two company vehicles...it just bothered me. I also couldn't figure out how he financed the upgrading of all his equipment...the guy was broke and unemployed at the opening of the film and pawned a bicycle to get his first camera. I know he got paid for his first couple of submissions, but I really doubt if it was enough to finance an equipment upgrade, not to mention paying Rick.

Cry Baby and Hairspray are the two most mainstream of Waters' films. If you really want to enjoy the twisted mind of the guy, go back to early movies like Multiple Maniacs or Pink Flamingos, which make humor out of rape perpetrated by giant lobsters, ax murders and excrement eating. As the years have passed, Waters has mellowed and become an avuncular icon in and around our home town of Baltimore. Many of us know people who appeared in his movies and some of the less well known cast members have been with him since his early 8mm days. There are a lot of local "in jokes" in his movies, so, to completely appreciate them, you have to be familiar with the local pop and outsider culture of Baltimore. I don't know whether drapes and squares existed elsewhere, but if you were a teen in the Cry Baby era, you definitely did not want to be one of the squares.

**Warning - Lobster rape of transvestite follows**

DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK

There is a school of thought that Marilyn Monroe was a beauty but that she could not act. She had a flair for light comedy and after her time at the Actor's Studio in Manhattan, she proved her acting chops in Bus Stop, but a few years prior, Marilyn displayed the beginning of a raw acting talent in a moody little melodrama from 1952 called Don't Bother to Knock.

Marilyn plays Nell, a young woman who is hired to babysit a child (Donna Corcoran) in a fancy hotel, a job arranged for her by her Uncle (Elisha Cook, Jr.) who works in the hotel as an elevator operator. Jed (Richard Widmark) is an airline pilot who has just checked into the hotel after flying in from Chicago and has just had a fight with his girlfriend, Lyn (Anne Bancroft), who works as a lounge singer at the hotel. Jed goes to his room, which is across the courtyard from the room where Nell is babysitting and flirts with her from across the courtyard with enough effectiveness to get Nell to invite him to her room and it is not long after his arrival, that Jed realizes this woman is seriously mentally unbalanced.

First, I have to credit director Roy Baker for creating a viable canvas for this story...this story could have come off very claustrophobic and like a photographed stage play because the entire story takes place in the hotel, but it doesn't. Daniel Taradash's screenplay is also essential in moving the story around the hotel without making the viewer feeling trapped in one story location.

Baker also has to be credited for the performance he pulled out of Marilyn Monroe at the time...Marilyn had not really done anything like this at this point in her career, but this movie proves that with proper handling and a sensitive director, Marilyn displays the beginning of some true acting ability here. She's no Katharine Hepburn, but Marilyn understands this character and from Nell's first tentative appearance, it is apparent that there is something wrong with this woman. Marilyn establishes this in her performance long before Baker employs a not-so-subtle closeup on the cuts on Nell's wrists.

Must confess that I'm not really familiar with a lot of Richard Widmark's career...I've seen Coma and seen bits of Kiss of Death, but I thought he was a terrific leading man for Marilyn, combining sensitivity and sexiness very effectively. The transition the character made from being frightened by Nell to being genuinely concerned about her and wanting to help her was very believable. Anne Bancroft's Lyn was basically a thankless role but Bancroft made the most of it (Bancroft's singing is dubbed, BTW). Loved Lurene Tuttle and Jim Backus as the little girl's parents and Verna Fulton as a nosy downstairs neighbor. It ain't Rear Window, but if you want to see Marilyn display the beginning of some genuine acting skills, this one might surprise you.

EASY A
The teen angst comedies of the 1980's get a fresh and imaginative coat of paint with a surprisingly entertaining gem from 2010 called East A that works thanks to a near brilliant screenplay that nails the power of gossip and the never ending quest for high school popularity, a star-making performance from Emma Stone, and a terrific supporting cast.

Stone stars as Olive Pendergast, a high school student on the cusp of popularity who lies to her best friend, Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) about losing her virginity to a college guy and how this one lie, overheard by the school's prudish president of the chastity club (Amanda Bynes), not only gives Olive a new reputation as the school tramp but ends up causing all kinds of collateral damage that Olivia certainly didn't see coming and finds herself doing some serious back peddling to make amends.

Screenwriter Bert V. Royal has constructed a screenplay that is a loving and en pointe homage to the teen angst comedies we all grew up with, rich with pop references and borrowing liberally from these classic films, but it's OK because the borrowing is acknowledged straight out, complete with actual clips from some of the films honored here...at one moment while watching, I was thinking how much this film reminded me of Ferris Bueller's Day Offand not ten minutes later, a clip from that movie popped up on the screen...it's OK to steal from other movies as long as said theft is acknowledged and with the aid of director Will Gluck and some terrific editing, we get a loving homage to a an almost forgotten film genre that stands on its own as an independent piece of filmmaking with its own breath.

Gluck has also employed a perfect cast to pull this sometimes credibility-stretching comedy off...Stone commands the screen as Olive in a performance that evokes laughs, tears, and warmth, another one of those performances that makes us accept a character doing wrong because the actor makes the character likable and Stone does that in spades here. Royal cleverly frames the whole story around a web cast that the central character is making, totally legitimizing Stone talking directly to the camera, which the actress seems completely at ease with.

Loved, loved, loved, loved, loved, loved Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive's laid back parents, as well as a reined in Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow as Olive's favorite teacher and his guidance counselor spouse. Dan Byrd also registers as Olive's gay BFF and there are also a couple of funny cameos by Malcolm McDowell as the school principal and Fred Armisen as a pastor. A breezy and entertaining comedy that earns its credentials by giving it credit where credit is due, even if credit is from films of the past.

NARC
The complex and dangerous lives of undercover narcotics officers are effectively examined in 2002's Narc, which also looks at the sometimes far reaching collateral damage that the lives these officers lead can cause and the brick-like solidity of the blue wall that materializes with the death of a police officer.

Nick Tellis (Jason Patric) is an officer who lost his badge 18 months prior when his actions caused injuries to a pregnant woman led to the loss of her baby. He has now been offered the chance to get his gun and badge back if he will assist in the investigation of a dead undercover narcotics police officer, teaming with a veteran rogue cop named Henry Oak (Ray Liotta), whose unconventional working methods have kept him under the constant scrutiny of Internal Affairs. The film follows these very different officers finally break open an investigation and are troubled by where it actually leads.

This film seems to want to frustrate the viewer from the beginning...the initial scenes of Internal Affairs officers questioning Nick about the incident with the pregnant woman are really aggravating, as is Nick being badgered by Oak, who thinks this pairing is Internal Affairs way of keeping an eye on Oak, not to mention Nick's wife drifting away from him and as in another Patric film, Rush, the disbelief that the victim had become a drug addict. Undercover narcs have to buy drugs and sometimes do drugs to gain trust and addiction is a reality of the job. Oak's unrelenting defense of the victim regarding his being an addict was a little hard to believe...it's a reality of the job that should not have surprised him.

Director and writer Joe Carnahan has mounted a gritty crime drama that works, despite a finale that was a little hard to swallow. Patric's performance is compassionate and there was Oscar talk regarding Liotta's thundering performance as Henry Oak...Liotta ha never commanded the screen the way he does here. Also loved rapper Busta Rhymes as a drug dealer. If you have the stomach for it, it's a solid little crime drama.

The Gift (2015)

The Gift is a prickly psychological thriller that really has a lot going for it, including intense direction and superb performances from the three stars, but the film leaves a major plot hole unaddressed, which made it hard for me to completely invest in the proceedings.

This moody 2015 thriller introduces us to Simon and Robyn (Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall), upwardly mobiles from Chicago starting a new life in Los Angeles who find their life negatively impacted by the sudden appearance of Gordo (Joel Edgerton), an old friend of Simon's from high school who definitely has some unresolved issues with Simon gets way too close for comfort to Simon and Robyn, who are going through their own stuff at this point and Gordo is really the last thing they need.

Initially, this film appeared to be a rehash of a film from 1992 called Unlawful Entry, except in that film, Ray Liotta's character is a stranger to the couple and his agenda is clear from jump, he is obsessed with Kurt Russell's wife. Writer, director, and star Edgerton has taken this premise to a different level, unfolding the story quite methodically in front of us, eventually revealing not only Gordo's dangerous qualities, which we saw coming, but that Simon might have actually something to do with it, which we don't see coming at all.

There are little plotholes that aren't really explained like how Gordo keeps getting into Simon's house, but I decided to let this slide and be patient for the big picture, which starts forming onscreen quietly when it is revealed that Simon did something to Gordo that severely damaged Gordo for life, a revelation that almost puts Robyn on Gordo's side. I kept waiting for the reveal of exactly what Simon did to Gordo and it never came, though it must have been pretty horrible, since Gordo has decided that the only proper revenge is destroying Simon's life.

Edgerton makes an impressive debut as a writer and director here and is properly creepy as Gordo. He also pulls an absolutely brilliant performance from Jason Bateman, nailing an outwardly charming character whose dark side does come out as the story progresses and Rebecca Hall is properly fragile as the issue-laden Robyn. I admit this film had me riveted for the majority of its running time but without learning exactly what happened between Simon and Gordo all those years ago, it was difficult to accept what happens between them today.

Don Juan De Marco
Director and screenwriter Jeremy Leven scores with Don Juan De Marco, an exuberant and imaginative comic confection from 1994 that seamlessly weaves together two very different stories that wind down to a lovely, if bittersweet, conclusion.

This is the story of Dr. Jack Mickler (Marlon Brando) a psychiatrist who is called to the scene where a young man, claiming to be the great lover Don Juan (Johnny Depp) is threatening to throw himself off a billboard. The young man is brought to the mental institution where Mickler is scheduled to retire in ten days. The head of the hospital (Bob Dishy) reluctantly gives Mickler ten days to get through to the guy or put him on medication, which Jack doesn't want to do. Don Juan also asks Jack for the same ten days to convince him that he is who he says he is.

The story of Don Juan (according to Leven anyway) lovingly unfolds before us, told in lavishly mounted flashback by this enigmatic young man who has concocted this elaborate backstory for himself that the doctor doesn't necessarily believe, but is profoundly affected by it, particularly the young man's passion about love and women, which ignites inside Jack a desire to to restore the passion and excitement to his own marriage, much to the confusion of his quietly devoted wife (Faye Dunaway), who is content with her life and her marriage...or so she thinks.

Leven's clever but manipulative screenplay sucks us in right away...the opening scenes of Don Juan approaching a woman in a restaurant waiting for her date, seducing her by kissing her hand, getting her in bed and back to the restaurant before her date arrives have us immediately on the side of this young man and wanting to believe he is who he says he is. As Don begins to tell the story of his life (with a perfect and very sexy Spanish accent), Leven lavishly recreates the scenes to match every word Don says...there are couple of fantastic moments where Don's narration perfectly mirrors the action. These scene are so lavishly produced that the viewer gets sucked into believing what this young man is perpetrating and so does the doctor and that's where the fun came for me with this film. This movie made me want to believe everything that Don Juan was perpetrating here even though I knew that was impossible.

What Leven has done here is so effective...we are almost halfway through the story before we are forced to accept the possibility that this young man is not who he says is and we still hope that we might be wrong. There are only two moments that I noticed in the film where the Don Juan character reveals, without saying anything, that he is not who he says he is but he commits to the charade as long as he can and we have to wait a lot longer than I originally expected to hear this character speak without the accent.

Leven's lavish story earns a lot of its credibility through the charismatic performances by the three stars...Brando seems completely invested in this slightly sad character whose passion for life is reignited by this patient and Depp, sex on legs as usual, also brings a lovely vulnerability to this character making him part bold sex machine and part frightened child...his final confessional scene is just heartbreaking. Faye Dunaway has rarely been as likable onscreen as she was as Mrs. Mickler, a woman thrown by the change in her husband but willing to go with it. The film also features exquisite cinematography and a lush musical score. All in all, a delicious comic fantasy that will fool you into thinking what it wants you think...for a good chunk of the running time anyway.

Hyde Park on Hudson

2012's Hyde Park on Hudson is another of those docudramas that takes us into a secret part of an iconic historical figure revealing a part of his life that we had heard nothing of before. This was my first exposure to this story but that doesn't necessarily make it fiction, but as this story unfolds, its accuracy as history becomes irrelevant and you accept a warm story that puts some very human faces on historical figures for the sake of entertainment, not to mention nails the clash of class between the uptight Brits and those terribly crude Americans.

The film opens in 1939 Hudson Valley in upstate New York where it is revealed that Daisy, played by Laura Linney, has been summoned by the White House to help her distant cousin FDR, played by Bill Murray, relax as the weight of the presidency is causing the man stress (imagine my shock). Daisy arrives at the home of FDR's mother and hits it off immediately with the President, a relationship that morphed from companions to lovers in rather quickly which not only has the President's handlers up in arms, but we are slowly led to believe that this was not uncommon behavior for the President. This relationship also happens to develop at the same time that FDR is expecting a visit from the King and Queen of England who are looking to the US as a possible military ally.

Even though I have never seen it actually documented, I have always felt that the relationship between FDR and Eleanor was more of a business arrangement than a grand passion and this film drives that point home, especially in the quiet acceptance of Daisy's presence at the house by Eleanor and FDR's mother. Although this alleged love affair did have elements that we every day folk recognize...as hard she tried to fight her feelings for FDR, Daisy could not deny them yet could not ever reconcile herself to the fact that she had to share FDR with Eleanor and with his secretary, Missy.

The story shifts sharply with the arrival of the Queen (Olivia Williams) and King (Samuel West) who are portrayed as being as frightened and apprehensive about this visit as the Americans are, but this is where the most entertaining relationship in the film really kicks in...I love the relationship that develops between FDR and the King, who comes off like a frightened little boy here, but with FDR's encouragement learns to stand up to Elizabeth while he offers similar encouragement to FDR regarding Eleanor. Even though this is not what this film was really supposed to be about, I found it to be the most entertaining portion of the film.

Bill Murray's performance as FDR is rich with warmth and humor and Linney's take on Daisy is compelling though she is fighting the screenplay a bit. Williams made a wonderful Elizabeth and I also loved Elizabeth Wilson as FDR's mother, but it is Samuel West who really steals the show here as the King, a nervous man child uncertain about the responsibilities of being King, not to mention how to eat a hot dog. Whether or not the love story between FDR and Daisy was fictional became a non-issue pretty quickly. I just sat back and drank in this exquisitely mounted look at a love story that was news to me.

SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT

Burt Reynolds had one of the biggest hits of his career with Smokey and the Bandit, the feel good action comedy of 1977 that struck such a chord with movie audiences that it was the number #2 box office attraction of 1977, exceeded only by a little something called Star Wars.

Reynolds is at the height of his good ol' boy charm here as the Bandit, a smart-aleck rodeo cowboy who is drafted by a snotty Atlanta millionaire named Big Enos Burdette (PatMcCormick) and his son Little Enos (Paul Williams) to drive to Texarcana Texas, pick up 400 cases of Coors Beer and bring them back to Atlanta in time for Big Enos' birthday party. Bandit calls on his old running partner Cletus (Jerry Reed) to actually drive the truck while Bandit clears the path in a black Trans Am. The Bandit's misison is complicated when he picks up a runaway bride (Sally Field) who has just left the son of Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), which instigates one of the wildest man chases on various sets of wheels that has ever been committed to film.

Reynolds and director/co-screenwriter Hal Needham really knocked it out of the park here with a movie that still ignites major laughs depsite some dated elements to the plot, in particular the whole CB craze. For those who weren't around in the 70's, Citzen Band radios were sort of like walkie talkies for vehicles where motorist, truck drivers in particular, could communicate with each other from their vehicles regarding speed traps, among other things. The advent of CB's initiated a language of its own that is on prominent display in this film, and though some of it sounds a little silly in 2016, it does not deter from the fun that this movie still is, some forty years after its original release.

The other fun thing about this movie is watching the way the CB community bands around the Bandit and do anything they can do to help him in his mission. Apparently the citizen band community was a very tight one but it was also a very large one...watch as word of the Bandit's mission spreads throughout the CB community and how there is absolutely no one who is unaware of who the bandit is.

Reynolds is charming and sexy here and creates a very steamy chemistry with Field, which would manifest itself into three more films together and a long real-life romance. Jackie Gleason is comic perfection as the red-necked sheriff and Mike Henry is also very funny as his son. Definitely part of the "Just put your brain in check and enjoy" genre, but one of the best.

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE

Every now and then you see a movie that, on the surface, looked like a good idea but when you finish watching, all you can do is shrug your shoulders and lament, "what a shame." Thus is the case with an overblown and logic defying action comedy called Central Intelligence which suffers from over-indulgent direction, a ridiculously intricate screenplay and two proven box office commodities in the leads who are cast against type and it only really works for one of them.

The film stars Kevin Hart as Calvin Joyner, an accountant who is bored with his dead end job who is unexpectedly reunited with Bob Stone (Dwayne Johnson), a former fatty who Calvin briefly bonded with during an embarrassing incident during a high school assembly, who has slimmed down and become a CIA agent, getting Calvin up to his neck in international intrigue.

Like I said, the idea of this movie is fine and I'm not sure where they went wrong. Let's start with an extremely convoluted screenplay that offers too many red herrings and makes the audience work much too hard to figure out what's going on. Maybe I shouldn't speak for everyone, it made me work a lot harder than I should have for what would be considered an action comedy, a comedy that defies logic and realism at every turn and unfolds way too slowly...this movie seemed about four hours long and it wasn't even half that...director Rawson Marshall Thurber needed someone at his ear keeping an eye on the bottom line and the running time.

The casting is a little problematic as well...Hart and Johnson are solid comic actors who know how to command a screen but Hart is definitely cast against type here as the high school wunderkind who is disappointed with the boredom of his current life...Hart' onscreen persona has always been one of a cocky, non-stop talker who is an expert on everything and this guy bummed out about the cards that have been dealt him just didn't register with me. On the other hand, Johnson lights up the screen as Bob Stone...Stone ia character unlike anything I have ever seen onscreen...he is built like a truck, wears a fanny pack and unicorn T-shirts and his favorite movie is Sixteen Candles. There is a scene where Bob is explaining his love for the movie and how he relates to Molly Ringwald's character that's quite touching and Johnson nails it. Sometimes Bob's seemingly child-like innocence is a little hard to take, but it works for the most part because Johnson and screenwriters Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen never forget the through line for this character....that ego shattering incident in high school which Bob has never really gotten over. Johnson always makes sure you feel this character's pain which he works so hard to hide and is only partially successful.

I don't know, for fans of pure action, there are a lot of car chases and explosions and Kevin Hart has some funny moments even though he's fighting the screenplay tooth and nail. But it's Dwayne Johnson's deliciously damaged CIA agent that almost makes this worth sitting through...almost.

Smokey and the Bandit is one of those movies that I can watch over and over again, and it just gets better every time I watch it. It has a great soundtrack too.