Gideon58's Reviews

Observe and Report
A surprisingly understated performance by Seth Rogen is the centerpiece of a risque black comedy from 2009 called Observe and Report that provides laughs despite some very unexpected detours.

Rogen plays Ronnie, a mall security officer who takes it very personally when a flasher starts appearing at his mall and is determined to get the guy but is quite upset when his boss takes it upon himself to call a real police detective (Ray Liotta) to handle the case. Attempts to work with the detective fizzle so Ronnie decides to pursue his long dormant dream of joining the police academy.

Along the way we see Ronnie's attraction to Brandy (Anna Faris), a trampy party girl who works at the mall as a cosmetician, make him nuts while his daily encounters with a pretty barista named Nell (Collette Wolfe) who clearly has a crush on him, don't even register with Ronnie.

Director and screenwriter Jody Hill has mounted an unusual black comedy that is often unsure of exactly how black it wants to be. It's a popular school of thought that guys who work mall security do it because, for some reason, they are unable to be actual police officers, a subject rife with material for a movie comedy. This film reminded me of the Jim Carrey film The Cable Guy in that it centers around an enigmatic main character whose sympathy factor changes from scene to scene. In the beginning of the film, Ronnie seems like a guy who just takes his job a little too seriously, but deep into the second act, we're beginning to wonder if Ronnie has mental health issues. The laughs come throughout the story but as it progresses, the laughs become more nervous and we begin to wonder exactly how funny this is.

Seth Rogen's richly internalized performance in the starring role did keep this reviewer completely invested in what was going on. Rogen is extremely controlled in what could have been a very manic and exhausting performance but it never gets that way and Hill must share credit for that. Michael Pena's almost cartoonish turn as Ronnie's partner is a total scene stealer and Liotta's straight-faced portrayal of the police detective perfectly counterparts a lot of the nuttiness here. Also loved Aziz Ansari as a nasty mall employee who hates Ronnie and Celia Weston as Ronnie's alcoholic mom. There is some terrific camera work (the slow motion finale is superb) and kudos to Joseph Stephens' music, I just wish Hill's screenplay had committed more firmly as to how we are supposed to feel about this guy Ronnie.

Ten Thousand Bedrooms
Dean Martin's considerable onscreen charisma helps to disguise the fact that the 1957 romantic comedy Ten Thousand Bedrooms goes on way too long.

Martin plays Ray Hunter, a millionaire playboy who arrives in Rome to take over ownership of a hotel there. He is given the royal tour upon his arrival by Maria Martelli (Eva Bartok) but a quick stop at her home finds Ray completely smitten with Maria's baby sister, Nina (Anna Maria Alberghetti). After a courtship of approximately 48 hours, Ray and Nina decide to marry but her father (Walter Slezak) won't let Nina get married until Maria and her other two sisters get married first.

Also thrown in the mix is a penniless Polish Count who thinks he's a sculptor (Paul Henreid) who is crazy about Maria and Ray's pilot, Mike (Dewey Martin), who falls instantly in love with Nina and a pair of Ray's business associates who Ray has flown in to romance the two middle sisters.

This film has a footnote in cinematic history as the first film that Dean Martin made without Jerry Lewis and it's clear that the money people behind this film were a little nervous about Martin's ability to carry a film, evidenced in the fact that Martin sings four songs in the first 20 minutes of the film as if his singing might make up for the fact that Lewis isn't there, but it really wasn't necessary. The screenplay by Laszlo Vadnay and Art Cohn has created a central character for Martin that fits him like a glove and would define the screen persona that Martin would perfect in the next decade or so. With sure-footed guidance by director Richard Thorpe, Martin proves that he is a movie star in his own right.

Unfortunately, the screenplay is a little convoluted and takes way too long to resolve a fairly predictable story. We really never buy the Ray and Nina pairing since Nina is only supposed to 18, but we accept it because Alberghetti is clearly older than 18 and the role is written as if the character were a lot older, but the pairing does allow Martin and Alberghetti to sing together which was not a bad thing. Ironically, Alberghetti would be Jerry Lewis' leading almost a decade later in Cinderfella.

Bartok brings a sophistication to Maria that is quite endearing and, needless to say, Walter Slezak steals every scene he's in as the confused Martelli patriarch. Sadly, the gifted Jules Munshin is wasted in a thankless role as Ray's manservant. The film also features some lovely Italian scenery and a kicky title tune, but I definitely found myself checking my watch.

All the Money in the World
Director Ridley Scott again knocks it out of the park with the riveting 2017 docudrama All the Money in the World which seamlessly blends fact and speculation with a dash of heightened drama to mount a story rich with nail biting suspense, stomach churning violence and a delicious payoff.

In July of 1973, the grandson of billionaire John Paul Getty was kidnapped in Rome, Italy and shortly after, a ransom of 17 million dollars was demanded for his return. We are baffled when it is revealed that the richest man in the world refuses to lift a finger to help his grandson. The story then flashes back to reveal the relationship between Getty and his son, which was non-existent but the apparent love he had for his grandson and the kid's hero worship of him, which makes the fact that Getty won't pay this ransom even more confusing.

Though it's never actually confirmed, it is then implied that grandson Paul may have arranged the kidnapping himself since he and his family have been practically penniless since his mother Gail divorced Getty's son. Getty quietly arranges to have his #1 winged monkey Fletcher Chase fly to Rome and try to find Paul without paying the ransom and whether or not Paul arranged the whole thing becomes moot when Paul's original captors cut their losses and sell him to someone else.

More than anything else, this film is a triumph for Ridley Scott, whose meticulous directorial eye takes the slightly muddy David Scarpa/John Pearson screenplay and constructs a masterpiece of storytelling where red herrings and unanswered questions are everywhere butt what we are privy to is so riveting that the viewer is never given the time to ponder over small plot holes...all we want to know is did this kid do this to himself, why his grandpa won't help him, and what becomes very important near the end of the second act, what do Paul's new captors have in store for him...there's a bone chilling moment where Paul's new captor sees him for the first time and makes it clear that he must be fattened up.

Scott, Scarpa, and Pearson also create a real enigma in the character of John Paul Getty. There is no attempt to sugar coat this character's motivations or why he is the way he is. This guy sacrificed everything in the name of getting rich and now can't go 30 seconds without talking about how much money he has...he has analyzed it to the point where he has dissected the difference between "getting rich" and "being rich", a distinction no one really cares about. They also score with the Gail character, the ultimate Mama Bear who is ready to take on anyone, especially her father-in-law, if it will help get her son back.

Michelle Williams was robbed of a 5th Oscar nomination for her stylish and powerful performance as Gail and Christopher Plummer received a Supporting Actor nomination for his Getty. Of course, it is now public knowledge that Plummer only got this role when Kevin Spacey was unceremoniously fired from the film after his sex scandal broke and I have to admit, I could not keep this out of my head while watching and thought how much more of a layered performance we would have gotten from Spacey. Mark Wahlberg is solid as Fletcher Chase and Charlie Plummer (no relation to Christopher) is impressive as young Paul. The film is handsomely mounted with special nods to art direction/set direction, editing, sound, and music. More than anything, this film documents Ridley Scott as one of the great cinematic storytellers.

Game Night
A clever story and an engaging cast make 2018's Game Night a fun night at the movies.

Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams play Max and Annie, a couple who have a weekly game night with their good friends Kevin and Michelle (Lamorne Morris, Kyle Bunbury) and their friend Ryan (Billy Magnussen) a himbo who brings a different date to every date night. The gang is invited to game night at the home of Max's older brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler) and just as Brooks has informed them that their game is going to be a kidnapping mystery where one of them will be kidnapped, masked men burst in and kidnap Brooks for real.

Screenwriter Mark Peretz has come up with a great hook for a story...very competitive friends whose spirit of competition is so intense that they are often unable to separate their games from reality. I loved that during a drinking game, Michelle reveals that she had sex with a celebrity and and Kevin is unable to concentrate on anything else until he finds out who it is.

Directors John Francis Dailey and Jonathan Goldstein show a real talent for mounting action sequences and put a great deal of trust in the cast they have assembled for this sometimes hard-to-swallow story, a story that the viewer will figure out what's going on long before the characters do. We know we're in for a wild ride when the three couples all have clues to what's going on but all end up in three different places.

Bateman and McAdams are perfect hosts for the madness here and Morris garners big laughs, but it's really Magnussen as the dim bulb Ryan who steals the show here. There's nothing groundbreaking here and the story goes everywhere it's supposed to, but the cast appears to really be having a ball and I'm pretty sure you will too. Actually this might make an interestingdouble bill with the Steve Carell/Tina Fey comedy Date Night.

Old School is one of my favorite comedies, Observe and Report one of my favorite dark comedies.

A Christmas Story Live 2017
In 2017, FOX television presented an overlong, overblown musical spectacle they titled A Christmas Story Live, a title that might have confused some viewers into thinking they were seeing something other than what they were actually presented.

For the uninitiated, this Jean Shepherd classic, based on the novel "In God we Trust, All Others Pay Cash", is a charming period piece about a little boy named Ralphie Parker who only wants one thing for Christmas, a Red Ryder BB gun, and puts his parents, teachers, and everyone else through a lot of craziness in order to get it.

This story first came to the screen in 1983 with Peter Billingsley playing Ralphie and Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon playing his parents. The movie was a smash and became an instant classic that, to this day, is shown every Christmas Eve on TBS over and over again for 24 hours. For those who think this is a remake of that movie, you might as well stop reading now.

The movie was actually turned into a Broadway musical in 2012 that ran for an unimpressive 51 performances. This 2017 spectacle is actually a filming of that musical and after sitting through it, I can see why it only ran for 51 performances. Despite an impressive score by the composers of the songs for The Greatest Showman and La La Land, this rendering of the musical is a lackluster experience due to some questionable casting and production choices, some technical snafus, and the fact that it goes on forever...I think I had a birthday while watching this, but I'm not sure.

First of all, directors Scott Ellis and Alex Rudzinski couldn't decide if they wanted to make a movie or film a musical, two very different things. The story is mounted as a movie, but they have this invisible audience applauding after every musical number, which is fine if you're going to present it as a true live performance in a proscenium theater like NBC did with Jesus Christ Superstar, but that's not what they did and the waffling between a movie experience and a live theater performance was extremely distracting.

As always with this recent trend of bringing Broadway musicals to TV, minor characters and scenes have been been added and lengthened to fill a 3-hour television slot. The character of Mrs. Schwartz, played by Ana Gasteyer, was merely a voice on the phone in the 1983 film but she is given an entire musical number here about the joys of being Jewish called "In the Market for a Miracle" which Gasteyer nailed, but it really had nothing to do with the primary story. I loved Chris Diamantopoulos as Ralphie's father, a dazzling musical comedy performer who stopped the show with two musical numbers, "The Genius of Cleveland Street" and "A Major Award". Jane Krakowski was also terrific as Ralphie's teacher who had a fabulous production number called "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out", which featured a child chorus and some very intricate tap choreography.

Sadly, Andy Walken was rather one-note as Ralphie and Tyler Wladis' Randy almost seemed retarded. Even poor Matthew Broderick looked lost and a little embarrassed as the adult Ralphie/narrator/greek chorus for the show who actually seemed to go up on some of his lines. There was a major audio snafu during the musical number in the department store where several of the singers could not be heard. I know it was live, but stuff like that should be double-checked before going live in front of millions. Then again, by this time, I was struggling to keep my eyes open anyway. A worthy effort that FOX poured a lot of money into, but they should have cut their losses and ran.

The Red Shoes
The way movie audiences looked at the art of dance was changed forever with the release of 1948's The Red Shoes, motivating an influence on the art of dance unlike any other movie.

The first time I heard of this movie was when I attended a performance of the Broadway musical A Chorus Line and three of the female characters confessed that they wanted to become dancers after seeing this movie. I soon learned this was not something just made up for the musical...millions of little girls started taking ballet classes because of this movie and I understand its influence now but it's only a portion of what this amazing motion picture has to offer.

This intimate yet inviting cinematic canvas focuses primarily on three characters: Julian Craster (Marius Goring) is a music student who goes to see the premiere of his music teacher's new ballet and is shocked to find that the teacher stole some of Julian's music for the ballet; Julian's angry claims of his work eventually get him hired as the new conductor of the ballet's orchestra and he asked to re-write a new ballet called "The Ballet of the Red Shoes"; Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) is the aspiring ballerina also in the audience who is eventually offered the lead in the Red Shoes ballet when it opens in Monte Carlo; Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) is the tyrannical and slightly maniacal artistic director of the ballet company whose issues of control and obsession with Victoria leads to great success and eventual tragedy.

Yes, the dancing is extraordinary, but it is the Oscar nominated screenplay, actually based on a story by Hans Christian Anderson that anchors this beautiful story. A story that not only beautifully captures the passion of the dance, but also touches on the delicacy of artistic temperament, the ego that fuels most performers and one of my favorite movie themes, the business of show business.

I do see why this movie influenced so many little girls over the years. This movie makes being a ballet dancer appear to be the only life worth living, yet it also brings home the point that to get it, it is required that everything else in your life take a back seat. The movie simultaneously shows the work that goes into being a dancer and how effortless it seems once you've become a real dancer. One of my favorite moments in the movie is right after opening night of the Red Shoes Ballet, the very next thing we see is Victoria in the studio very early in the morning, stretching at the bar, by herself. Going into this movie, I was actually expecting the entire movie to be a ballet, but this was a cinematic rendering of the passion of the dance that quietly segues into a juicy romantic triangle you don't even see coming.

The movie is a technical wonder...the actual performance of the Red Shoes ballet, which surprisingly takes place about halfway through the film, tosses realism out of the window and offers stunning symbolism that extends far beyond a proscenium stage. There is stunning colorful European photography and the Oscar winning art direction/set direction is a joy to behold. Robert Helpmann, who plays the principle male dancer in the company, also provided the extraordinary choreography for the dance sequences. If Helpmann's name sounds familiar, it's because a couple of decades later, he made a place for himself in cinema history when he played the Childcatcher in the 1968 musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. An extraordinary piece of cinema of which I'm trying to think of something to criticize, but I'm drawing a blank.

Chris Rock: Tamborine
I have written in the past about the enigma that is the career of Chris Rock. After the hot mess of Top Five, Chris dropped off the radar for awhile. Well, for those who have been wondering what happened, Chris picked up the stand up mike again for a 2017 Netflix special called Chris Rock: Tamborine.

Rock's HBO concerts during the beginning of the Millenium were appointment television for me and always had me doubled over with laughter. Chris also stole every scene he had in movies like New Jack City, Nurse Betty, and the remake of The Longest Yard...anyone who has seen his work knows that this is a very funny man, a naturally funny man, but when you look at what happened with his career, it seems that he has some issues with creative control because, outside of his comedy concerts, his work where he was in control was less than impressive.

Chris still brings the funny, but that edgy bite that used to pervade his comedy has dulled a bit. Chris went through what I suspect was a very nasty divorce after sixteen years of marriage and has focused the majority of this special on how this affected him. Yes, he mines some comic gold out of his experience, but you can also see the pain behind his eyes, revealing that a lot of what he went through was extremely painful and is still reeling from it. There is a moment where he admits that his infidelity was a big part of the breakup and there is an uncomfortable awkwardness that pervades the Brooklyn theater as the audiences seems confused as to whether or not they are supposed to be amused.

Rock begins the concert with the expected tirades about cops and racism and his thoughts on Donald Trump might actually surprise you. His views on making a relationship work have definitely mellowed over the years. In previous concerts, he would always say a few things that would get laughs from only the men in the audience, but that never happened here.

The divorce has mellowed him, but it has taken some of the bite out of his work too. On the other hand, the strongest and funniest part of the evening was when he was talking about his divorce. And though it may confuse you before you see it, you will love the explanation of the title. He's not what he used to be, but Chris still knows how to command a stage and his fans will not be disappointed.

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar
Despite a memorable title and a trio of sparkling performances in the lead roles, a 1995 tale of bigotry and tolerance called To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar doesn't really provide the same kind of originality as the title.

The late Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes. and John Leguizamo took real career risks when they accepted the roles of three drag queens who embark on a cross country car trip to Hollywood who find themselves stranded in a one horse redneck town one weekend when their car breaks down.

My second viewing of this film reveals that it doesn't hold up as well as I had hoped. Douglas Carter Beane's screenplay provides some education regarding tolerance and what causes a man to abandon shirts and pants in favor of panty hose and padded bras on a daily basis. This is beautifully illustrated in the opening scenes that show Vida Boheme (Swayze) and Noxema Jackson (Snipes) leave behind the hetero world and become the queens that they are.

Sadly, the story begins to fall apart as our three heroines arrive in this little town and have this Pied Piper effect on the inhabitants, most notably, a damaged housewife (Stockard Channing) who is being physically abused by her husband (Arliss Howard). Not to mention the ridiculous notion that, upon their initial arrival in town, these people actually think these three queens are really women. We learn some knew all along and some didn't, but the rallying around them during the finale is just a little too pat and convenient.

Swayze beautifully underplays as the damaged Vita and Wesley Snipes is a lot of fun as Noxema (even if he is the ugliest drag queen EVER). John Leguizamo steals every scene he's in as the hypersensitive Chi Chi and it was hard watching a powerhouse actress like Stockard Channing playing a victim. The late Christopher Penn has some funny moments as a cop whose memorable encounter with Miss Vida makes him the villain of the piece. The film features three terrific lead characters, I just wish the writer and director had come up with a better story for them.

The Last Action Hero
Morbid curiosity was the prime motivation for viewing 1993's The Last Action Hero, an overlong, overblown, over-the-top spoof of action films that has been unfairly maligned as the worst action film ever made. Don't get me wrong...it's no Die Hard either, though both films share the same director.

The idea is actually a pretty clever one, I just think TPTB let it get away from them. Danny Madigan is the pre-teen couch potato son of a single mom who loves going to the movies and is a big fan of a movie called Jack Slater and its sequel. A projectionist who is a friend of Danny's has been asked to be behind the projector for the premiere of the new Jack Slater film and offers Danny a chance to see it before the actual premiere. The projectionist gives Danny a ticket to the premiere which he claims is magic. Danny is excitedly watching the new movie when a stick of dynamite is thrown at Jack's car on the screen, but actually lands in the theater next to Danny. The ticket in Danny's pocket starts glowing and suddenly Danny finds himself in the back seat of Jack Slater's car in the movie.

The screenwriters, including Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) have the germ of a really good idea, an affectionate valentine to the action movie that never lets you forget that you're watching a movie and addresses all those cliches that have driven us crazy over the years about action films like a how the bad guy always gives the good guy time to escape because they have to explain their plan in intimate detail or how the hero's boss spends the first 20 minutes of the movie screaming at him and trying to take away his badge. Or how villains can get off round after round of bullets without ever reloading their gun. Or how all the women in the movie are incredibly beautiful. These issues and many others are addressed and I think that's the primary problem here is that the screenplay just tries to cover too much ground.

Director John McTiernan, the man behind the best action film ever made, should have kept a closer eye on the screenplay and picked the strongest parts and exorcised the rest of the it. I did enjoy Danny's first 30 minutes or so in the movie when he keeps bringing up one cliche after the other and no one knows what he's talking about. It's fun watching him use information from the first two films to help Slater and confuse bad guys Vivaldi and Benedict. Unfortunately, Benedict gets hold of the magic ticket forcing the story to be transported back to New York and bringing the movie characters into real life, including a face to face between Jack Slater and Arnold Schwarzenegger, is where the movie really loses me.

Schwarzenegger does seem to understand what McTiernan and company are doing and I absolutely loved Charles Dance and Anthony Quinn as Benedict and Vivaldi, respectively. I loved the way Vivaldi kept misquoting movie cliches and Benedict kept correcting them. There are enough car crashes and explosions in this movie for three movies, but this movie is just exhausting and it goes on forever.

The Greatest Show on Earth
The Oscar winner for Best Picture of 1952, The Greatest Show on Earth is a pretentious and overblown spectacle that has not held up well over the years. Touted by many buffs as the worst film ever to win a Best Picture Oscar, I can definitely see an argument for that.

The legendary Cecil B. DeMille directed this melodramatic and corny circus soap opera that focuses primarily on two romantic triangles: Holly (Betty Hutton), the energetic trapeze artist is crazy about circus boss Brad (Charlton Heston) but finds her head turned by the Great Sebastian (Cornel Wilde), the arrogant rival trapeze artist who somehow manages to take the center ring from Holly and make her fall in love with him at the same time. Angel (Gloria Grahame) is a showgirl who works with the elephants and is the obsession of their trainer, Klaus (Lyle Bettger). Angel not only has a crush on Brad but she also has a past with Sebastian. Oh, there's also a clown named Buttons (James Stewart) who never takes off his makeup.

Screenwriters Fredric M. Frank and Barre Lyndon actual won Oscars for their cliched screenplay, rich with unintentionally funny dialogue, including serious overuse of the phrase "you've got sawdust in your veins." The screenplay also includes a pretentious and completely unnecessary narration (provided by the director himself) that makes this circus seem like missionaries spreading the word of God. The primary story is interrupted every ten or fifteen minutes for this narration, touting the importance of the circus crew people. that brings the film to a screeching halt.

De Mille's direction is overly-detailed, spoon-feeding everything that happens to the audience with way too much of everything. Some of the circus scenes are fun, but they are dragged out by constant shots of extras in the audience covering their eyes or eating ice cream cones. DeMille clearly thinks every moment he put on the screen here is box office gold and they just aren't, the film is about 45 minutes too long.

DeMille should have spent more time on the performances of his cast than on the extras eating ice cream. I don't think Charlton Heston changes his facial expression during his entire performance and Betty Hutton is just shrill and annoying. Grahame has some fun moments, but the only completely satisfying performance in this film came from James Stewart as Buttons...charming and understated, not screaming every one of the emotions the character is feeling. Production values are top-notch, with standout cinematography and costumes. It may not be the worst film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, but it's certainly in the top five. This one is definitely beginning to creak and rust.

Black Panther
Marvel Studios bring another comic book hero to the screen with their lavish 2018 spectacle Black Panther that succeeds for the most part, despite a rambling screenplay that takes way too long to get where it's going.

T'Challa is the newly crowned king of an African kingdom called Wakanda whose guilt about the crown consumes him because he is only king because he was unable to prevent his father's death. Not long after T'Challa assumes the throne, some Wakandan artifacts are stolen from a London Musuem by Erik Killmonger, who turns out to be T'Challa's cousin and the believed real heir to the throne of Wakanda.

Director and co-screenwriter Ryan Coogler puts loving detail into this production, starting with very detailed exposition explaining the relationship between T'Challa and Erik, only when it is happening, we don't really realize this is what's going on, so at the moment, it just seems like much to do about nothing. And the story does appear to have a spark of originality because the characters are black, but there is very little that goes on here that we haven't seen in other comic book movies, it's just that this time they're done in black face. Of course, the slick, high-tech gloss Coogler applies to his story helps to disguise a lot of this face.

The characters are pretty clear cut good guys and bad guys for the most part but one thing I loved about the characterizations here was the take on the female citizens of Wakanda...no meek, seen but not heard housewives here...the female characters in this movie are soldiers, bad ass soldiers whose dedication to their army and their country comes above everything else. I can't recall the last time I saw a movie filled with so many bad ass female characters.

Coogler's direction is dark and brooding, creating some dazzling cinematic pictures that will remain in the memory, thanks to amazing production values. The film is absolutely gorgeous to look at and features first rate art direction, sound editing, music, and costumes. Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan do star-making turns as T'Challa and Erik, respectively and there's also a scene stealing turn from Leticia Wright as T'Challa's little sister. It takes too long to get going, but once it does, there's definite entertainment here.

The Courtship of Eddie's Father
The smooth direction of Vincente Minnelli and a completely winning cast make the 1963 family comedy The Courtship of Eddie's Father definitely worth your time.

The film stars Glenn Ford as Tom Corbett, a recent widower who is adjusting to life without his beloved Helen by focusing all of his energy on his young son, Eddie (Ronny Howard). Eddie, on the other hand, sees Tom is not adjusting as well as he claims and is focusing all of his energy on getting Dad to remarry. His prime candidate is their across the hall neighbor, Elizabeth (Shirley Jones), who was Helen's best friend, but she and Tom just can't seem to connect. Tom eventually sets his sights on a glamorous but icy socialite named Rita (Dina Merrill) who is also attracted to Tom, but Eddie is not having it.

John Gay's screenplay, based on a novel by Mark, is clever with some nice adult touches, but it is most effective in the way it sets up the relationship between father and son Corbett...these are two guys who have been through their own personal hell and are scratching their way out, but still haven't figured out that they have their own ways of dealing with this loss and they have to let each other do what they have to do. There's one almost shocking scene where Eddie asks Tom if he can go next door to tell his best friend that his mom died and you see Tom actually start to stop Eddie, but realizes this is what Eddie has to do.

There's no denying it's pretty obvious how this story is going to end, but the journey is such a pleasant one that the expected bumps leading to the requisite happy ending are actually welcome, even if it makes the story just a tad longer than it really needs to be.

Minnelli does wonders with a first rate cast, led by Ford and Howard who create an instant and totally viable chemistry as Tom and Eddie Corbett. Future Oscar winning director Howard delivers one of the best child performances I have seen in years, a perfect blend of warmth and intelligence that never becomes cloying or saccharine. Little Ronny really understands this character...watch him in that scene where he and Tom have dinner with Rita for the first time...he nails it without ever forgetting that he is a kid and that he has the ability to manipulate dad when it suits him. BTW, if you don't blink, you might catch Ronny's little brother, Clint at Eddie's birthday party and his dad, Rance Howard, as a counselor at the summer camp.

Jones is charming, reunited with Little Ronny after their triumph the previous year in The Music Man and Merrill is sophisticated and elegant as Rita. There is also a standout supporting turn from the fabulous Stella Stevens as a woman the Corbetts meet in an arcade who eventually finds happiness with Tom's boss (Jerry Van Dyke). The film features some exquisite set direction and the ladies are beautifully gowned by Helen Rose. Six years after the release of this film, ABC turned it into a sitcom with the late Bill Bixby playing Tom and Brandon Cruz playing Eddie, but I think even fans of that series will be surprised by its supremely entertaining origin.

I loved that film too, I rated it the same. Have a look at my review.

You need to send me a link to your review or I'll never find it.

Just use the Reviews link at the top of any MoFo page. Type in the name of the movie, and when the correct movie pops up, click it.

The only movie of the last five I've seen is The Greatest Show on Earth, and I quite liked it.

Rocky II
The Oscar winning Best Picture of 1976 was a 15 round split decision, so a sequel was an inevitability that didn't really have the magic of the first film, but it does provide what the fans came to see and really makes them wait for it too.

The 1979 film faithfully recreates the last 10 minutes of the first film and then we watch the words of no rematch uttered during the end of the first fight become fantasy as Apollo is consumed with the thought that Rocky was lucky and demands a re-match while Rocky considers his moment in the sun history and wants to resume a normal life that has nothing to do with boxing. Needless to say, Apollo is having none of this and the eventual second showdown does happen.

Stallone's screenplay spends a little too much time watching Rocky buying a house and a car he can't afford and adjusting to becoming a father instead of what the fans of the first film really came to see...we wanted to see Rocky definitively kick Apollo's ass. The script does an admirable job of establishing Apollo's obsession with getting back at the Stallion, but there's way too much time spent on Rocky trying to forget boxing and being a good husband and father. His missing the ring does bubble to the surface eventually while Adrian is doing whatever she can to keep Rocky out of the ring for good. We understand how the two separate parts of the story connect, but it takes just a little too long to do so.

Stallone's direction is also a little on the self-indulgent side...he seems to consider Rocky's hard-to-swallow naivete about a lot of things gold but it really starts to wear thin here. We already learned in the first film that Rocky was not the brightest bulb in the row, but Stallone really drives it home here to the point of ad nauseum.

Once the fight is on, the movie kicks in just the way it should and you almost forget the melodrama you had to tolerate to get there. The training sequences are just as exciting as ever and the actual climactic fight is quite riveting, even if it is a little bit over the top. Stallone's sincerity as Rocky is still quite endearing and Talia Shire lights up the screen, even when the character is standing in Rocky's way. Burgess Meredith's Mickey has the same effect. Kudos to Stanford C. Allen's editing and, of course, Bill Conti's heart-pumping music. Certainly a letdown from the first film, but it eventually delivers what was demanded after the first film.

Wonder
An initially compelling story and some strong performances don't keep 2017's Wonder from degenerating into a syrupy and sentimental mess where parts are better then the whole and I thought would NEVER end.

Based on a novel by R J Palacio, this is the story of an 11 year old kid named Auggie Pullman whose face is disfigured after 27 surgeries and after being home schooled by his mother for his first four years of school, has been coaxed into beginning 5th grade in a public school for the first time.

The story looks at Auggie's first day from his view, as well as his sister Via (short for Olivia), his new friend Jack Will, and Via's best friend Miranda, who spent the summer separated from Via and now mysteriously wants nothing to do with her.

Anyone who has seem the 1985 film Mask will be familiar with some of the themes explored here and I kept finding myself making comparisons to that film. On one hand, I found it a little hard to feel the sympathy director and screenwriter Stephen Chbosky attempts to evoke for Auggie, because his face wasn't anywhere near as damaged as Rocky Dennis in Mask. On the other hand, I did like the fact that we got to see how people in Auggie's orbit were affected, especially his older sister, who has always felt that her mother stopped caring about her after Auggie was born. It was refreshing seeing this side of the story addressed.

The other thing Chbosky nails in his screenplay and in his direction is his look at the sensibilities of pre-teen children, who are probably the cruelest and most insensitive creatures on this planet. Those scenes in the ultimate test of school popularity, the school cafeteria, rang totally true as we watched allegiances change with the simple of act of having lunch at a different table.

Unfortunately, I think Chbosky does try to cover a little too much territory, making connections between characters that just didn't make sense to me. It's established at the beginning of the film that Miranda is through with Via for some reason but later on the film, we see her missing Via but reaching out to Auggie instead and wishing he was her little brother. And when she gave up her role in the school play opening night so that Via could do it, I think I threw up a little in my mouth. And even after it's made clear that Auggie has been accepted and made an impact on his classmates, Chbosky tacks on a couple more unnecessary endings that did nothing but pad the running time. Not to mention some touches of fantasy here and there that just didn't work for me.

Jacob Tremblay, so memorable a few years ago in Room is completely winning as Auggie and Julia Roberts is beautifully understated as his mother. Izabela Vidovic is terrific as Via and Owen Wilson makes the most of his thankless role as Auggie's dad. Mandy Patinkin is also wasted as the school principal. There are some first rate production values, but the director and screenwriter should have been reined in a little bit.

Kiss Me Stupid
Billy Wilder was the creative force behind a controversial mixed bag from 1964 called Kiss Me Stupid, a film rich with all the Wilder touches, including a surprisingly adult screenplay for the 60's.

Dean Martin basically plays an extension of himself, referred to here as Dino, who has left Las Vegas and is driving back to Hollywood but gets stranded in a one-horse town in Nevada called Climax, where he is ambushed by Orville Spooner (Ray Walton) a piano teacher and amateur songwriter and his lyricist, a gas station owner named Barney (Cliff Osmond) who want Dino to record one of the hundreds of songs they've written together.

Orville is married to a beautiful girl named Zelda (Felicia Farr) who Orville is convinced is constantly cheating on him, despite the fact that the story opens on their 5th anniversary. When Barney suggests that Dino spend the night at Orville's while he's in town, Dino insists on some female companionship so Orville sends Zelda away for the night and Barney gets a local good time gal named Polly (Kim Novak) to pretend to be Zelda and Orville actually finds himself pimping out his wife to sell a song.

Wilder and I A L Diamond, whose long and distinguished career as screenwriters includes classics like Sunset Boulevard, Some Like it Hot, and The Apartment have come up with another comedy rich with sexual shenanigans that got the film limited play during its initial release due to what was considered rather risque subject matter and despite the on the surface titillation factor of the screenplay, this is a story rich with humor, warmth, pathos and some very funny dialogue.

I loved Wilder's concept of the character of Dino...it is Dean Martin, but it isn't really. The character of Dino is based on Martin, but it is sort of an exaggerated version of Martin's onscreen persona that doesn't always paint Martin in the most flattering light, but Martin doesn't shy away from it and he seems to be enjoying himself.

The real joy of this film is the brilliant comic performance by Ray Walston as Orville. Walston pretty much steals the show here as the paranoid cuckhold who has a wonderful epiphany about himself during the course of the story that is a joy to watch. Osmond is fun and Farr is absolutely charming as Zelda, but it is really the magic of Billy Wilder that makes this one shine. Thanks for the recommendation, Citizen.