Gideon58's Reviews

The Bride Came C.O.D.
A fun story, energetic direction, and sparkling performances from the stars make the 1941 slapstick comedy The Bride Came C.O.D. worth a look.

The comedy stars James Cagney, as Steve Collins, a marriage-shy private pilot who is about have his plane repossessed when he makes a deal with a millionaire named Lucius Winfield to get his spoiled daughter, Joan (Bette Davis) away from the obnoxious band singer that she's about to marry named Allen Brice (Jack Carson). Steve gets Allen off the plane and spirits Joan away but the plan becomes complicated when Joan tries to escape from the plane by jumping and the plane ends up crashing just outside a practically deserted ghost town called Bonanza, California.

This outrageously silly comedy owes a lot of its success to films like It Happened One Night and Bringing Up Baby, which also found two people with nothing in common on the run together and having to depend on each other even though that's the last thing either wants to do. Julius J. and Phillip G. Epstein's screenplay is smart and clever, peppered with funny one-liners that held up surprisingly well in 2019. William Keighley's fast-paced direction, that doesn't always allow the viewer to think about what they're watching, is also a huge asset.

But it is the incredible cast that really keeps this one humming, led by the legendary James Cagney and Bette Davis, both wonderful actors but definitely working out of their comfort zones here. Cagney did have some musical comedy experience but nothing like this and this kind of physical comedy and this was definitely foreign territory for Davis, but both actors completely invest in the manic goings-on here and they actually seem to be having a lot of fun doing it. Especially loved right after the plane crashes when Joan falls into a cactus and Steve has to pull the stickers out of her pampered bottom. I've seen a lot of the work of both of these actors recently and was pleasantly surprised by the chemistry between them, which is definitely at the core of why this movie was so much fun.

Jack Carson was properly pompous as Allen Brice and mention should also be made of Harry Davenport as Pop Tolliver, George Tobias as Steve's mechanic and especially Pallette who had me on the floor with my favorite line in the movie..."Why am I running" I've got thirty million dollars!" For fans of Cagney and Davis, this is appointment viewing that still provides pretty consistent chuckles throughout.

Cadillac Records
Beyonce Knowles was the executive producer and one of the stars of 2008's Cadillac Records, an ambitious and handsomely mounted fact-based drama that chronicles the rise and eventual fall of Chess Records, a recording company that represented artists who became known as pioneers in rhythm and blues as well as rock and roll.

The film opens in the late 1940's where we are introduced to Leonard Chess, a nightclub owner who really wants to begin a record label with the aid of his first discovery, Muddy Waters. As Len and Muddy get the label off the ground, we are also introduced to other artists who come to the label, including singer and harmonica player Lil Walter, Howlin Wolf (Eamonn Walker), Chuck Berry, and Etta James.

Director and writer Darnell Martin is applauded for the effort put into bringing this story to the screen. It put me in mind of the 2016 film Hidden Figures because it tells a story that has apparently been buried for decades, specifically that a lot of the music that we grew up on and influenced artists today was not only influenced by the musicians around which this film is centered, but in some cases, was directly stolen from them. Unfortunately, this was such an epidemic during the 1950's and between this and the greed-manifested payola scandal of the 50's, there was so much ugliness going on behind the scenes in the music business that it's pretty much impossible to document it all in a single movie and that's where the problem lies with this film, it just tries to cover too much territory, a virtually impossible task, but the spirit of what Martin is trying to do does shine through.

The film did provide some little known facts for this reviewer that were a complete surprise. Did you know that the music for the Beach Boys' "Surfin USA" was actually stolen from a melody written by Chuck Berry? Or did you know that Led Zeppelin used Willie Dixon's music in "A Whole Lotta Love". The film also informs us that Etta James believed she was the illegitimate daughter of pool legend Minnesota Fats. Of course, with a story set in the 1950's, racism makes its way into the story and is delivered with a sledgehammer, but I wish the story had focused a little more on these musicians and not so much on the rampant bigotry that has already been documented in dozens of other movies.

Martin's direction is a little stilted, making the film drag in spots, but he does get some very strong performances from some of his cast. Jeffrey Wright is splendid, as always, as Muddy Waters and Oscar winner Adrien Brody brings a take charge presence to the Leonard Chess character. Mos Def made a terrific Chuck Berry and there's a dazzling, star-making performance from Columbus Short as Lil Walter. Executive producer Beyonce gives herself a plum role as Etta James, though her acting hasn't improved since Dreamgirls. Her vocal take on James' classic "At Last" was on the money though. I also could have done without Cedric the Entertainer's over-the-top narration.

The film features effective attention to period detail, but the screenplay just needed to be economized and maybe concentrated more on a couple of artists instead of trying to document the entire history of Chess Records. I was pleased to see during the epilogue that all of the musicians profiled in this film were eventually inducted into the Rock and Roll Gall of Fame.

How Stella Got Her Groove Back
A smart and charismatic performance from Angela Bassett in the leading role brings a little substance to 1998's How Stella Got Her Groove Back,a glossy romantic comedy that attempts to be hip and relevant, but suffers from lethargic direction and a cliched story rich with often juvenile dialogue.

Stella Payne is a workaholic 40-year old divorcee with a young son who talks her best friend, Delilah into taking a vacation to Jamaica. While on the island, Stella meets a well-built 20-year old stud named Winston Shakespeare and sparks fly. Stella initially dismisses it as an Island romance until an unemployed Winston shows up on her doorstep in Los Angeles insisting that he's in love with the woman, but some of the people in Stella's pre-Jamaica life aren't quite as accepting of Winston, particularly her bitchy sister.

As she did with Waiting To Exhale, Terry McMillan was allowed to adapt her own novel into a screenplay that tries to be some sort of battle cry for independent women of the 1990's but the story is just so contrived and convenient and overly cute that it grows tiresome very quickly. It starts when she calls Delilah (a scene-stealing turn by Whoopi Goldberg) to suggest the vacation and then calls her right back to say she cant do it right now. Even when she gets to Jamaica, her initial fighting any attempt to enjoy the island gets equally tiresome. The constant reminders about the differences in Stella and Winston's ages totally telegraph just about everything that happens here, except for the unexpected turn to melodrama involving Delilah, which made the already deadening pace of the story even more deadening and the whole story just gets way too serious after that.

Even if it wasn't in the credits, it's easy to tell that this is a Terry McMillan story because all of the women in the story are unrealistically empowered and all the men, especially Winston, are made to look like blithering idiots, but their lack of brains seems to be a non-issue when they can make a woman have an orgasm.

Angela Bassett works very hard to make Stella Payne a viable screen presence and Taye Diggs made a sex-on-legs film debut as Winston. Oscar winner Regina King steals a couple of scenes as Angela's girlfriend and Suzzanne Douglas is fun as Stella's snooty sister. A bouquet as well to Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, who makes the most of her one scene as Winston's mother, who's only a year older than Stella. This is another one of those movies that's like a beautifully wrapped package with nothing inside.

Clambake
One of Elvis Presley's most lifeless performance is one of several problems with a 1967 piece of fluff called Clambake, which is probably best known for its stable of once and future stars.

Elvis plays Scott Hayward, the son of an oil millionaire who doesn't want to work for his father anymore and is tired of women chasing him because of his money. En route to Florida, Scott meets a goofball named Tom Wilson (Will Hutchins) who is on his way to a hotel in Florida to take a job as a water skiing instructor. Tom thinks Scott is an idiot for hating his life and tells him he would gladly trade places with him, so that's what they do. Tom jumps in Scott's expensive sports car and Scott hops on Tom's motorcycle and they both arrive at the Shores hotel, where Scott pretends to be Tom, becoming the hotel's new water skiing instructor and Tom becomes Scott Hayward, romancing women and spending Scott's money with ease and enthusiasm.

Scott then meets Dianne Carter (Shelley Fabares), a woman who has come to Florida to land a millionaire playboy and amateur boat racer named JJ Jamieson (Bill Bixby), and even though Scott is attracted to Dianne, he agrees to help Dianne with her mission. And just when we don't think the proceedings could get sillier, it's revealed that Scott developed a scientific formula for a special glue called "Goop" that might help him win $10,000 in a boat race for him and the owner of a boating company (Gary Merrill).

This film has all the ingredients for a typical Elvis romp, but it has such a feeling of "been there done that" around it that I think Elvis even saw it. Arthur Browne Jr.'s screenplay is silly and predictable and Arthur H. Nadel's pedestrian direction doesn't help. This is probably the first Elvis film I've seen where Elvis' disdain for the script comes through in his performance...he just seems to be phoning it in here.

The musical numbers are nothing to write home about either, though this film did feature a musical highlight that I've never seen before. Elvis actually performs a duet with a male co-star, which I think was a first. Elvis and Hutchins do a duet on the road to Florida called "Who Needs Money" (Hutchin's singing is dubbed by Ray Walker). There's a number Elvis does with a bunch of kids called "Confidence" that brings the film to a dead halt and there's a number where Elvis and a bunch of pretty girls are working on the boat called "Hey Hey Hey" that reminded me of "Greased Lightning" in Grease. The musical highlight of the film was definitely Elvis' take on the Ray Charles classic "You Don't Know Me."

This film featured two of the biggest television stars of the 1960's in Hutchins and Bixby. Bixby brings an effective sleaziness to his character, but Hutchins really grates on the nerves. Fabares was an effervescent leading lady and James Gregory was a lot fun channeling Foghorn Leghorn to play Elvis' dad. For hardcore Elvis fans only.

Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune is a meticulous and often chilling docudrama that recreates the events centered around the attempt to overturn the conviction of someone everyone thought was guilty that is riveting screen entertainment due to a brilliant, Oscar-nominated screenplay that tells the story from three points of view and three stunning lead performances, one of which won the Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actor of 1990.

This 1990 docudrama chronicles the story of Claus von Bulow, who was convicted of attempting to murder his wife, Sunny, by injecting her with a fatal dose of insulin in 1980. After being convicted of two counts of attempted to murder, von Bulow contacts attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz and asks him to appeal the conviction, aided by a select group of his best law students.

This film fascinates from jump due to a richly complex, Oscar-nominated screenplay by Nicholas Kazan that allows this often ugly story to unfold in front of the viewer from three different angles. First we see Dershowitz and his team reluctantly drawn into this case. I've seen a lot of courtroom dramas in my day, but this was the first one revolving around an appeal of an already convicted defendant and the only one I recall where NO ONE involved in this appeal believes in the innocence of this client. We also see the von Bulow's marriage unfold before us, in reverse, through the viewpoint of Claus and through the viewpoint of Sunny, as we watch Sunny transform from human vegetable to a desperately unhappy woman whose marriage appeared to be a sham from the start from her own point of view. Naturally Claus' point of view paints a different picture and actually tries to infuse Claus von Bulow with some sympathy. It was undeniably creepy having Sunny von Bulow serve as the film's narrator.

The viewer's personal feelings about von Bulow and his possible innocence become irrelevant. What does engage the viewer is watching the dedicated Dershowitz break down this case and actually creating plausible alternate theories to what happened without committing to any of them.

Barbet Schroeder's rich atmospheric direction is a big plus as are the solid performances from his cast. Jeremy Irons' icy detachment as Claus von Bulow was chilling enough to win him the Best Actor Oscar that year and he is matched scene for scene by the late Ron Silver, turning in the performance of his career as Dershowitz. Glenn Close is fragile and heartbreaking as Sunny von Bulow, a performance of such delicacy that fascinates throughout. Strong work from Annabella Sciorra and Felicity Huffman as part of Dershowitz' team and Fisher Stevens as a greasy witness is also worth mentioning. Handsome production values are the topper on this effectively haunting docudrama.

Clambake looks fun, I'll have to see that sometime. At least the car is cool!

Nice reviews as always

__________________
Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

Cassandra's Dream
Woody Allen has broached similar subject matter in films like Crimes and Misdemeanors, Match Point, and Irrational Man, but he takes it to another level in a dark and disturbing entry from 2007 called Cassandra's Dream, which takes a little too long to becomes the first rate nail biter it eventually morphs into.

It's contemporary London where we meet Terry Blaine (Colin Farrell) and his brother, Ian (Ewan McGregor) who are both having some serious financial troubles that they think can be taken care of when word that their wealthy Uncle Harold (Tom Wilkenson) is coming for a visit. Harold agrees to help his nephews if they agree to do something for him: One of Harold's employees is about to give some damaging testimony regarding Harold's business dealings to legal authorities and Harold feels his only option is to eliminate said employee and asks his nephews to do it.

Woody has crafted yet another tale centered around one of his favorite cinematic subjects and that is the concept of getting away with murder. He does go to another level here, in that after the murder has been committed, one of the brothers is unable to live with himself and wants to clear his conscience, believing he can do without implicating his brother or his uncle.

Woody's screenplay starts off a little soft and unfocused and we're not really sure where this story is going. The film almost begins as two separate films as we watch Terry's gambling and drinking get him in a lot of trouble. At the same time, we watch Ian beginning a new romance and wanting to get in on a new business deal because he's going bonkers working in his father's restaurant. It isn't until Uncle Harold appears on the canvas that we know exactly what this film is about and the exposition setting up Uncle Harold's entrance is pretty slow going, but after Uncle Harold made his proposal, this movie had me riveted for the rest of its running time. I loved that even though his problems weren't as serious as Terry's, it was Ian that had to talk Terry into carrying out Uncle Harold's request.

It's been awhile since I've seen work from Woody that created such nail-biting suspense, courtesy of a couple brilliantly false starts. Woody establishing Terry's guilt by having him have a conversation with their intended victim at a bar before it happens was such a smart storytelling tool. The scene where the brothers plan the murder at the man's flat and freak out because he doesn't come home alone was incredible. Allen's utilization of the steady cam as the brothers later follow their victim down deserted streets and alleys created the kind of tension that might have a viewer holding their breath. And Woody's double reverse ending added a half bag of popcorn to my rating.

Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor give focused and intense performances as the Blaine brothers, with standout work from Farrell, who I don't think I have ever enjoyed onscreen more. The scene where he's talking to the victim in the bar is amazing...the viewer can actually see every pore on Terry's face filling with perspiration. Tom Wilkenson is completely invested in the negative of Uncle Harold and I was also impressed with Hayley Atwill as Ian's actress/girlfriend. it takes a little to long to kick into gear, but once it does, this one works, right up to that incredible kick-ass ending.

Defending Your Life
The recent passing of Rip Torn motivated a long overdue re-watch of 1991's Defending Your Life, Albert Brooks' undeniably stylish interpretation of purgatory that offers a twisted view of one man's life and his roads less traveled.

Brooks plays George Miller, an advertising executive who minutes after picking up his new car, is killed by a bus. When he regains consciousness, he finds himself on a special tram headed for someplace called Judgement City, which is a sort of a resort strip that consists of five different hotels and the Hall of Past Lives. George learns from his judgement attorney (Torn) that he has nine days to prove that he faced all of his fears during his lifetime. While he faces a tough prosecutor (Lee Grant) during the day, he finds himself falling in love with another client named Julia (Meryl Streep) who is housed in a different hotel.

Writer/director/star Brooks not surprisingly takes a much different tack on the concept of purgatory than we are accustomed to in film. This journey to the afterlife is made to look as fun and alluring as possible. One of the bonuses of life in Judgement City is that you are allowed to eat as much as you want of whatever you want and never gain any weight, which is Julia's favorite part of being here.

The underlying message Brooks seems to be conveying here is a little troublesome, the fact that peace in the afterlife can only be achieved by facing all of your fears. It seemed odd that George was so apprehensive about this experience and Julia just seemed to be embracing it, though we weren't really let into the details of Julia's story, this was George's story. It was amusing watching the flashbacks through George's life, dating all the way back to his infancy and it was fun gauging just by the look on his face which days in his life used as evidence he remembered exactly what happened that day and which ones he didn't remember at all. After the third or fourth day, there was an odd moment between George and the prosecutor where she offered to spill her entire life story to him after this was all over that didn't make a lot of sense, but a minor quibble. There are a couple of dangling plot holes near the climax but they become irrelevant as the credits roll.

Brooks the director gets a nicely understated performance from Brooks the actor and Streep is simultaneously luminous and human as Julia. Torn and Grant bring a sparkle to their roles that really isn't in the screenplay and there's a fun cameo from Buck Henry too. One of Brooks' most engaging film comedies that could motivate definite warm fuzzy feelings.

Bound (1996)
The creative forces behind the Matrix franchise tried something a little risky and knocked it out of the park with 1996's Bound, a richly stylish and sexy noir-ish type thriller that is riveting entertainment thanks to imaginative direction and the surprisingly steamy chemistry between the stars.

The film stars Gina Gershon as Corky, an ex-con who has been hired by a landlord to restore one of the apartments in his building. One day on the elevator, she locks eyes with Violet (Jennifer Tilly), the mistress of a not-too-bright wiseguy named Ceasar (Joe Pantoliano) and before she even realizes it, Corky finds herself involved in a sexual affair with the woman. Violet asks for Corky's help in getting out of her life with the mob and collecting a two million dollar booty while they're at it.

Directors and screenwriters Lana and Lilly Wachowski were billed as The Wachowski Brothers and submitted this screenplay under that moniker, most likely because it was the only way to get the film made. Lana and Lily have since publicly come out as transgendered individuals but it really doesn't have a lot to do with their superior work on this sexy film nior, with directorial touches that are seriously inspired by the likes of Hitchcock and DePalma, creating a crackling suspense that seamlessly weaves with a sexual chemistry between two actresses unlike anything I have ever seen. Research revealed that Gershon prepared for her role by watching films starring Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Robert Mitchum.

As expected, the sex scene here is one of the film's highlights, but it's not just that particular scene, Gershon and Tilly ignite sparks ever single moment they spend onscreen together, even with their clothes on. Tilly is an absolute revelation here, creating a character that's part Ava Gardner, part Marilyn Monroe, and part Faye Dunaway. Tilly is electric sex on legs here and her performance is worth the price of admission alone.

But there's so much more going on here...the camera work is inventive and inspired...I loved that shot of the toilet bowl that Gershon is working on and it morphs into the toilet bowl next door which is slowly filling with blood thanks to Ceasar and his goons roughing up a fellow wiseguy trying to skim money from the mob. Or where Ceasar meets his fate in a sea of thick white paint, with the aid of slow motion photography. The Wachowskis display a skill and passion for the art of film noir and know exactly what they're doing.

Pantoliano, best known for playing Guido the Killer Pimp in Risky Business, turns in the performance of his career as Ceasar, a thoroughly greasy and wonderfully entertaining sleazebag who you know just has to get what's coming to him. A pre-Law and Order Christopher Meloni also shines in an early role as a dumb ass mob heir apparent, but it is the stylish direction and the deliciously erotic chemistry between Gina Gershon and the fabulous Jennifer Tilly that keep this one on sizzle.

Aquaman
Another DC comic book hero gets the big screen treatment in 2018's Aquaman, an overlong and overblown epic that really doesn't bring anything new to the superhero table, except possibly bigger and better movie pyrotechnics.

According to this film, Aquaman, actually named Arthur at birth, was a half-breed...his father was a lighthouse keeper and his mother was actually the Queen of the Lost Kingdom of Atlantis. The King of Atlantis sent soldiers to return his Queen to her place, leaving a lost and alienated Arthur confused about his eventual destiny. Arthur finds he must do battle with his half-brother, King Orm, for the throne as King of Atlantis and has been asked to stop a war that King Orm has declared against the surface dwellers.

The rambling screenplay initially doesn't spend a lot of time on exposition, unfortunately, as the present story begins forward progress, it is interrupted every ten minutes to flash back to Arthur's formative years, including his combat training by the enigmatic Vulko (Willem Dafoe). Though i did enjoy the scene at the aquarium where Arthur is being bullied and the sharks come forward to protect him and Arthur first embraces his legacy. The constant battles our hero is put through are hard to keep track of and seem to have little to do with the sibling rivalry that is established as the core of the story. And, of course, poor Arthur is getting it from both sides of the surface...the kingdom of Atlantis seems to resent him as much as the surface dwellers do...ah, the curse of the half-breed.

In terms of pure action, there are a couple of scenes that do standout. I loved when those gremlin looking beasts attacked the ship that Aquaman and the Princess were on and the final battle with little brother was pretty memorable, but the whole thing had that "been there done that" air about it that has been plaguing the action/adventure genre ever since The Avengers first hit the screen...there is nothing going on here that we haven't seen in a dozen other comic book heroes.

Jason Momoa was properly chiseled as the title character and I was impressed with Patrick Wilson as King Orm and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (who stole ever scene he had in Baywatch) as Manta. Production values were first rate...Atlantis resembled something out of Blade Rinner with just a dash of The Jetsons thrown in, but scenery and special effects do not a great movie make.

The Glass Bottom Boat
During the final decade of her film career, the late Doris Day made several less than stellar comedies and 1966's The Glass Bottom Boat, a silly slapstick comedy only goes so far on Doris' charisma and an impressive veteran supporting cast.

Day plays Jennifer Nelson, a widow who works as a secretary at a space research center on Catalina Island during the weekend and as a mermaid on her father's boat tour during the weekend. Jennifer meets cute a couple of times with Bruce Templeton (Rod Taylor) the wealthy scientist who has just invented a gravity-defying formula who is attracted to Jennifer but she won't give him the time of day. In order to spend time with her, Bruce pulls Jennifer from her secretarial duties and asks her to be his biographer. Things are gong OK until important people around Bruce begin investigating Jennifer and have come to the conclusion that she's a Russian spy.

Everett Freeman's screenplay actually asks the audience to believe that sweet little Doris Day is a Russian spy, which never really washes. There are reasons that these suspicions come to light, but they're pretty thin and make a pretty silly premise upon which to base a comedy. Frank Tashlin, who spent a lot of the 50's and 60's directing people like Jerry Lewis, and Danny Kaye displays his affinity for slapstick here which Doris invests in, though leading man Taylor seems a lot less comfortable with it than she does.

There is selected fun to be found here, if the viewer looks for it. The scene in Bruce's automated kitchen that worked like something out of The Jetsons was a lot of fun as was Doris' wild adventure on an out of control motor boat that causes major havoc on the ocean off Catalina, but a lot of what happens here just doesn't offer an hour and fifty minutes of entertainment.

Day and Taylor create a semblance of chemistry here and it was nice to see television icon Arthur Godfrey make a rare movie appearance as Doris' father. The terrific supporting cast is the real selling point here. Dom DeLuise, Dick Martin, Paul Lynde (who appears in drag in one scene), John McGiver, and Edward Andrews do garner major laughs. I was also amused by the casting of Alice Pearce and George Tobias, the original Gladys and Abner Kravitz on Bewitched, as Doris' next door neighbors here. It's better than a hot poker in the eye, but not much.

Just before I Go
Actress Courtney Cox made her directorial debut with a 2014 mixed bag called Just Before I Go, which appears to be a black comedy on the surface, but an unfocused screenplay that doesn't take any real risks in the story keep this fragmented story from coming together as a complete story.

The film stars Seann William Scott as Ted Morgan, a loser who has come to a crossroads in his life where he is actually debating as to whether or not he wants to continue his hot mess of a life. Ted has decided that he wants to kill himself and feels before he does, he has to face the demons in his life, more specifically, his family who he holds responsible for the loser he has become. However, upon arrival home, Ted finds himself drawn into the chaos of the lives he left behind and resents the fact that he doesn't have time to blame these people for what went wrong in his own life.

Devid Flebotte's very safe and somewhat predictable screenplay is the primary culprit here. Most movies that broach the subject of suicide, are either very serious like The Hours or done in the vein of a black comedy like the Burt Reynolds comedy The End, but Flebotte's screenplay is kind of all over the place and is really not sure how he wants the story to play. Parts are played very seriously and parts are played as a farce and blended together, they make for a rather uneven film experience.

If the truth be told, the two strongest elements of the film actually felt like they were separate movies and could have been movies by themselves. I enjoyed the story of Ted reconnecting with a girl named Vickie (Mackenzie Marsh) he had a crush on when he was a kid, who is now fat, married, the mother of five, and working in a supermarket. I also actually liked the story of Ted helping his nephew, Zeke (Kyle Gallner) deal with the fact that he's gay, but neither story seemed to connect to the story at hand, which seemed to be about Ted confronting people who felt negatively impacted his life. The scene where confronts a dying teacher (Beth Grant) who made his grade school years a living hell, just came off as unintentionally cruel but what happens between his older brother Lucky and his wife, who masturbates in her sleep (don't ask) rings true.

Cox's direction displays some imagination, particularly during the final act, but she needs to work on pacing a story because this one seemed so much longer than its actual 90-minute running time. Seann William Scott plays the starring role a little too straight-faced for my opinion, but Garret Dillahunt stole every scene he was in as Ted's brother and it was nice to see the long-absent-from-the-big-screen Connie Stevens as Ted's mother in her first screen appearance since Grease 2. Cox's ex-husband, David Arquette also makes the most of his two scenes as Vickie's husband. The story is unfocused and doesn't go anywhere we think it's going to, but Cox does display potential behind the camera.

National Lampoon's Animal House
Movies like Caddyshack, Revenge of the Nerds, Fast Times at Ridgmont High, and Porky's all owe their existence to the granddaddy of all raunchy comedy classics that still provides solid laughs 41 years after its release, a little something called National Lampoon's Animal House that introduced several future movie stars and made a genuine movie star out of a guy named John Belushi.

The setting is 1962 at fictional Faber College where we are introduced to the worst frat house on campus, the Delta House, which is basically a 24-hour party, which, unknown to the fraternity has placed them on "double secret probation" by the evil Dean Wormer. After letting new pledges Larry Kroger and Kent Dorfman, the frat, led by Otter, Boone, and Bluto, decide the only way to deal with double secret probation is by throwing a toga party. When the toga party gets their house shut down, a road trip which includes a trip to an all black nightclub is next on the schedule before returning back to town for an annual parade the town will never forget.

The screenplay by Harold Ramis and Douglas Kenny, the director and one of the writers of Caddyshack is raunchy, but never obscene, rich with outrageous physical comedy, unbelievable set pieces, and is very protective of this ridiculously funny fraternity and the nutballs that inhabit it. This one of a kind, completely over-the-top story is hysterically mounted by John Landis, who would later cement his reputation as the director of Trading Places and Coming to America.

This episodic laugh-riot is filled with one roll-on-the-floor funny scene after another. The toga party is one event that you will never forget and, somehow, John Belushi manages to garner huge laughs all by himself in a scene getting his tray in the cafeteria lunch line, which leads to a food night, a scene which learned later was completely improvised. The scene in the all black nightclub, featuring Otis Day and the Knights also produces big grins.

Tim Matheson had the most significant role of his oddly sporadic film career as Otter and Thomas Hulce who would later earn an Oscar nomination for Amadeus is too cute as Larry. The late Stephen Furst is funny as Dorfman and the late great John Vernon created one of the all-time great comic villains in Dean Wormer, but Belushi is the one you go away from this one remembering...perhaps the funniest movie performance from an actor utilizing the least dialogue. Also making an impressive film debut is a very young Kevin Bacon. No matter how you slice it, a comedy classic that still brings the funny.

Sisters (1972)
An early bulls eye from the resume of Brian De Palma is an often chilling psychological thriller from 1972 called Sisters that already shows the Hitchcock influence that would permeate so much of De Palma's work.

Jennifer Salt plays Grace Collier, a rookie reporter for a small Staten Island newspaper who witnesses a brutal murder in an apartment building across the courtyard from hers. The apartment is occupied by an attractive French Canadian model named Danielle (the late Margot Kidder) who brought the victim home with her the night before. Grace calls the police but they are unable to turn up any evidence of a murder, so Grace hires a private investigator (Charles Durning) to help her figure out exactly what happened.

De Palma, even at this early point in his career, is already displaying a definite affinity for creating nail-biting suspense as opposed to the immediate but temporary "boo" which has become the trademark of so many later horror/slasher films. Very subtle clues are offered as to exactly what's going on here and strict viewer attention is demanded, if not always rewarded. My first clue that the victim was in trouble was when he was in the bathroom putting on his shirt and he knocked her pills down the drain. Somehow I knew right then that this guy's death was an inevitability.

De Palma employs a couple of brilliant storytelling techniques here that I didn't see coming at all, particularly the use of the split screen right after the murder. On one side of the screen we see the murder being covered up and the other we see Grace calling the police and meeting them downstairs. This was such a clever tool of De Palma's that forced the viewer to pay attention...it was slightly maddening, but extremely effective.

The screenplay by De Palma and Louisa Rose is a little muddled at times. We are told early on that Danielle has a twin sister named Dominique, but when Grace talks to a doctor (Barnard Hughes) and reveals that Danielle and Dominique were Siamese twins who had been separated, it took the entire story in a disturbing and unsettling direction we don't see coming. De Palma's use of real-life conjoined twins and freaks during the nightmarish sequence where Grace is silenced was a master stroke. I was also troubled by the ambiguity of the ending, leaving a major plot point dangling.

Kidder is surprisingly effective as the damaged Danielle and Jennifer Salt is a commanding screen presence as the energetic Grace. Durning is also a lot of fun as the private eye. Bill Finley scores as Danielle's ex as does Dolph Sweet as the frustrated police detective and if you look close, you might catch future Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis playing a bakery employee. The story has a couple too many holes, but De Palma's storytelling skill allows you to forgive the film's minor problems.

Thousands Cheer
America was deep into WWII in 1943 and Hollywood was one of the military's biggest champions, churning out countless films about the war effort and showing how appreciative they were for what our boys were doing. MGM only had moderate success with Thousands Cheer, an overblown military-themed musical comedy that scores in terms of intentions but goes on forever.

Based on a story called Private Miss Jones, this is the story of Kathryn Jones (Kathryn Grayson) a pretty classical singer and the daughter of an army colonel (John Boles) who decides to sideline her career to join the army and assist her father, while attempting to get him to reconcile with her mother (Mary Astor), from whom he's been divorced for many years and both of them seem to like it that way. Kathryn meets a young soldier named Eddie Marsh (Gene Kelly), a trapeze artist who has joined the army but, for obvious reasons, would rather be in the air corps. Kathryn finds herself very busy trying to help Eddie get a transfer, getting her parents back together, and organizing a huge variety show that features just about every star under contract to MGM at the time, with Mickey Rooney serving as Master of Ceremonies.

Outside of the military setting, there wasn't much out of the ordinary regarding the story except possibly the fact that Kathryn's parents are divorced and she is actually living with her father instead of her mother. Though I will admit that having John Boles and Mary Astor play Kathryn's parents brought an air of sophistication to the proceedings that I didn't expect. The film was clearly produced by the Joe Pasternak unit at MGM because Pasternak made sure that director George Sidney kept Grayson and her lyric soprano center stage for most of the proceedings. Grayson is given three solos, including an aria from La Traviata, while Gene Kelly is only given a single opportunity to dance in the entire film.

As for the big variety show, it takes a while to get there, but when it does, a lot of it is just not very interesting. The only real highlights for me were Judy Garland belting out "The Joint is Really Jumpin' Down at Carnegie Hall" and Lena Horne's sexy rendition of "Honeysuckle Rose". Frank Morgan's comedy skit with Ann Southern, Lucille Ball, and Marsha Hunt wasn't nearly as funny as its length, ditto Red Skelton's skit. There's also a second reprise of a song called "I Dug a Ditch" featuring Kay Keyser and his orchestra that went on forever. Why Pasternak and Sidney felt this song needed to be performed three times is a mystery. There's also a ballet featuring a pair of unknown dancers named Don Loper and Maxine Barrat that was over 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Rooney was kind of funny recreating a scene from Test Pilot imitating Clark Gable and Lionel Barrymore, but if MGM wanted to show their support of the war effort, maybe they should have just made a cash contribution.

Mike's Murder
A solid Debra Winger performance notwithstanding, 1984's Mike's Murder is an overbaked salute to film noir that degenerates into a standard damsel-in-distress potboiler thanks to a swiss cheese screenplay and several characters who are dumb as a box of rocks.

Winger plays Betty Parrish, a bank teller who had a one night stand six months ago with a part-time tennis pro and small time drug dealer named Mike (Mark Keyloun) who contacts her again and keeps saying wants to reconnect but keeps standing her up because of some dirty deals that his partner, Pete (Darrell Larson) keeps getting him involved in shady drug deals, one of which actually gets Mike murdered. Betty can't get Mike out of her mind and decides she has to find out exactly what happened to Mike and why.

This film is actually the brainchild of Oscar nominated director/screenwriter James Bridges, who was nominated for The China Syndrome and directed Winger in Urban Cowboy. Casting Winger was the smartest thing Bridges did, because the rest of this movie is a hot mess. There's all kind of stuff going on here that doesn't make sense primarily why Betty is so obsessed with this guy...she had sex with the guy once and then he made a habit out of asking her to go out again and then standing her up. She should have come to her senses after being stood up three or four times, but then as she begins her little investigation, she learns that Mike was once the boy toy of a wealthy, gay record producer. Most women would have closed the book on Mike as soon as they learned that, but not our Betty.

I have to admit I was intrigued by the instant suspense created here just by the film's title. We meet Mike in the opening scene and we already know he's going to die, so why does it take almost 45 minutes for it to happen. Bridges actually telegraphs when it's going to happen during that visual exchange between Mike and Pete when they are trying to decide whether or not to steal some of that cocaine...then somehow Pete ends up holding the cocaine, but Mike is the one that gets murdered? And after hearing about Mike's murder, why would that record producer not get rid of videotape of him fighting with Mike?

Bridges direction does have flashes of style, though a lot of the film is poorly lit and its often hard to tell what's going on, but I suspect that was intentional to create suspense but it just created aggravation for this reviewer. Winger does try to inject some life into this limp murder mystery and Paul Winfield does a classy turn as the record producer, but Keyloun is no actor and Larson is ridiculously over-the-top as Pete. Considering the talent involved on both sides of the camera, a major disappointment.

John Leguizamo: Latin History for Morons
The severely underrated John Leguizamo makes a long awaited return to the stand up microphone with a 2018 Netflix special called John Leguizamo: Latin History for Morons which finds the comic schooling a Broadway theater on inaccuracies and the blatant neglect of Latino history in the history books that are part of most kids curriculum today.

Apparently, the inspiration of this special was a couple of specific incidents involving John's son, who is now in the 8th grade. "Buddy" (I suspect that this is not his son's real name, which I'm sure Leguizamo withholds to respect and protect his son) has been bullied at school and has not been equipped with enough education regarding his people in order to provide effective responses to the often insensitive hazing that can be part of being a 14 year old Latino kid. He is also given a homework assignment where he has to do a report on great Latino heroes in history and is absolutely clueless on the subject. These two events motivated Leguizamo to return to the stage and provide an overview of neglected Latin American history that also provides pretty consistent laughs.

I understand perfectly where Leguizamo is coming from here because I felt the same way after seeing the 2016 docudrama Hidden Figures about a group of black female mathematicians who provided statistics that were instrumental in running the space program at NASA during the early 1960's. As a black male who grew up in the 1960's, it was infuriating that what these women did NEVER came up in a history class when I was growing up. Leguizamo provides insight into a lot of historical Latinos whose names we've hard but know precious little about.

Initially, the instinct when watching what Leguizamo is doing here is making up a lot of stuff that he talks about, but before approaching each subject that he brings up here, John pulls out a book, tells us the title and author, and tells us that this book will document what he's about to say. This put Leguizamo in a whole new light for me because I had no idea how well read the man is. I loved when he told the audience that his drug of choice was books.

Leguizamo uses minimal props here, with the exception of a large blackboard and never lets the audience forget they are in school. There is one bit where he is about to impersonate President Andrew Jackson and in order to gray his hair, bangs and eraser all over his head and then confesses that he knows he looks more like Frederick Douglass than Andrew Jackson and he's OK with that. The comic provides facts and figures that are hard to argue with and his heartwarming recreation of his son's eighth grade graduation actually left a lump in the throat concluding with his son's declaration that "Violence is the lowest form of communication." From the mouths of babes...

johns
A pair of solid performances from the leads makes a somewhat sordid but realistic look at life on Hollywood Boulevard from 1996 called johns worth a look.

It's the morning of Christmas Eve on Hollywood Boulevard when we meet John (David Arquette), a 20 year old male prostitute who has sex with men for money even though he is heterosexual. John has been planning for several months to spend Christmas Day at the Park Plaza Hotel because Christmas Day is also his birthday, but most of the money he was going to use to pay for his suite gets stolen from him in the opening scene. We also meet Donner (Lukas Haas), the teenage son from a wealthy family who was kicked out of the house when he came out to them and has only been on the streets a couple of months, but is clearly in love with John.

Writer/director Scott Silver, who was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay for The Fighter provides the viewer with an episodic look at life on Hollywood Boulevard that is a far cry from Vivian in Pretty Woman. John is homeless, has no idea what each day is going to bring, but has figured out that men are attracted to him and has decided it is the easiest way for him to make a living. Unfortunately, he finds himself seeking out shortcuts that get him in a lot of trouble. He stole money from a drug dealer and never seems to be where he's supposed to be because he receives three Christmas presents from different characters in the movie and they all give him watches.

As sick as it might appear on the surface, the relationship between John and Donner is quite believable. We can tell from their first meeting that Donner is in love with John and John is just using him, but John is at least honest about it and, for some reason, Donner seems to enjoy being teased, abused, and often ignored by John. The danger associated with being a sex hustler is also driven home with a sledgehammer. Both John and Donner spend a lot of time during the running time getting bloodied up.

Silver's story works overtime at making the title of the film work, not only in terms of what John and Donner do, but by naming several other characters in the story John, which seemed a little contrived to me. Silver does get a dazzling performance from David Arquette as the main John, a character who is sexy, funny, engaging, and slightly pathetic. Watch his joy as he's checking out the Park Plaza Hotel for the first time, or his rage when the john he tries to rob only has $42 in his wallet. Arquette wouldn't really get noticed until he appeared as part of the Scream franchise, but he is superb here and is matched by Haas as the sad and touching Donner. Some familiar faces pop up along the way like Terrence Howard, John C. McGinley, Elliott Gould, Richard Kind, and Keith David, but it is Arquette and Haas that demand attention and make this movie worth a look.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
After creating the character of Ali G on HBO, Sacha Baron Cohen became a Hollywood player as the star and co-screenwriter of a 2006 melange of shock, vulgarity, and, yes, laughs simply known as Borat that barrages the viewer with some nearly obscene visual images and adult themes that redefine the phrase "something to offend everyone."

Borat Sagdiyev is a television correspondent in his native land of Kazakhstan, a Jew-hating country, who has been sent to America with his assistant Azamat and a cameraman to film a documentary about American culture. The first night in his hotel, Borat is watching a rerun of Baywatch and falls instantly in love with Pamela Anderson. He tries to forget about Anderson because he's married, but then he gets a telegram informing that his wife is dead. After a brief celebration of the news, he and Azamat buy an old ice cream truck and decide to drive cross country to California so that Borat can find Pamela Anderson and make her his bride.

Anthony Haynes, Peter Baynam, Dan Mazer, and Cohen actually received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for this bizarre road trip comedy that definitely earns points for originality but loses an equal amount of points for tastelessness. There is nothing that happens in this movie that even approaches the neighborhood of decorum or appropriateness. This story seems to have been created to see just how much offensive material an audience would be able to tolerate and still generate laughs. I've seen a lot in my over half a century of movie viewing, but there are things in this movie that even I found hard to watch...but I also couldn't stop laughing either.

From the minute Borat arrives in New York and keeps trying to greet men with kisses on the cheek (thought it was rather strange that he only greeted male characters with kisses), we know we're in for something different. When he is being instructed on how to tell a joke, we know we're in for some silliness. When he sings the national anthem of his country to the tune of our national anthem to a rodeo full of rednecks, we're not sure if we're supposed to be laughing or not. When Borat uses the bathroom at a dinner party and brings his "deposit" downstairs, we're repulsed, but when Borat and Azamat have a nude wrestling match that leaves their hotel room and enters a crowded convention room, we just have to turn away. And don't even get me started on his actual attempt at kidnapping Pamela Anderson.

Director Larry Charles and Cohen display major cajones in their in-your-face presentation of this often repugnant but often equally hilarious fish out of water story. Charles and Cohen are also to be applauded for their casting of the characters interacting with Borat trying to teach him what he should and shouldn't be doing. Some of them don't even come off as actors, bringing an air of reality to the proceedings that's a little unsettling. Cohen's fearless and funny performance as Borat is something cinema historians should study. This is one of those movies that people are going to really really love or really really hate. Needless to say, I'm somewhere in the middle.