Category: Comedy
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Outstanding, high concept comedy about misanthrope weatherman Bill Murray going to a small-town to cover the titular holiday, only to discover he can’t ever leave–he’s repeating the same day over and over and over again. Great Murray performance. Really smart script (by director Ramis and Danny Rubin). DVD, Blu-ray, Streaming.Continue reading →
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Beyond tedious story of traveling actress Anna Magnani getting into romance and intrigue in colonial Central America. Boring direction, poorly drawn characters. Plus Renoir’s got the international cast speaking English (for unity?), which brings in a bunch of other problems, particularly with Magnani’s performance and what Renoir does with it. DVD, Streaming.Continue reading →
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Occasional, amateur Presidential impersonator Kevin Kline gets a visit from White House chief of staff Frank Langella when the real President (also Kline) has a heart attack and they need a temporary replacement. Idealistic Kline (not the President one) discovers everyone’s corrupt in one way or another, as he contends with the icy First Lady…
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Mildly charming caper movie about one of art forger Hugh Griffith’s fakes ending up in a museum and daughter Audrey Hepburn needing to rob the museum so no one finds out the piece is a fake. To pull off the heist, she needs the help of cat burglar Peter O’Toole. Hepburn’s fine, O’Toole makes little…
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Amusing special effects spectacular about evil little monsters wrecking havoc on a small town at Christmas. Chris Columbus’s script is shockingly slight, but the acting, directing, and special effects offset that deficiency. Zach Galligan’s a great lead and Hoyt Axton’s excellent as his father. DVD, Blu-ray, Streaming.Continue reading →
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Fun but creatively lazy comedy Western about aging lawman Henry Fonda teaming up with amateur gunslinger Terence Hill to take on “The Wild Bunch.” Sergio Leone came up with the story, produced the picture in some uncredited but important capacity, and even directed some scenes. Or just one. He can’t doesn’t save it. In addition…
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Black comedy about thief Robert Downey Jr. masquerading as an actor and getting wrapped up in a noir-ish L.A. conspiracy. Val Kilmer’s sort of the hard-boiled P.I., Michelle Monaghan’s sort of the femme fatale. Great performance from Downey and phenomenally constructed script from director Black enable the whole thing. Kilmer and Monaghan are both excellent…
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Mildly amusing and often sexist 1960s sex comedy with James Garner and his pals trying to set up a “bachelor” pad (only most of them are married) complete with in-house blonde (Kim Novak). Novak’s good, Garner’s okay (playing the bachelor and Novak’s de facto love interest); William Bendix has a great cameo as the boys’…
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Rather bad comedy about Italian immigrant Walter Chiari moving to Australia. The acting is actually fine, it’s the script (by director Powell’s long-time partner Emeric Pressburger–under a pseudonym). May have been responsible for kicking off the Australian film industry? But otherwise, a big stinker. DVD (R4).Continue reading →
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Do the Brits have any major film movement? In the 1920s, the Germans had the expressionist movement. In the (what?) 1960s, there was the French New Wave. In addition to contributing more Greenhouse Effect-causing pollutants to the atmosphere, the United States has perfected the over-produced blockbuster. The British, however, have never really had a movement.…
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Let me annotate the opening cast crawl with my thoughts at the time…. James Spader–great, love him on “Boston Legal.” Melora Walters–from Magnolia, love her, she’s in nothing. Jay Mohr–liked him in Picture Perfect when I saw it, now can’t believe I liked it… Catherine O’Hara, Bill Murray… solid people. So what happened? It’s actually…
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Woody Allen has written around thirty films, probably thirty-four. Ten of these films are some of the finest in the last thirty years, give or take. But he tries something new in Melinda and Melinda and it doesn’t work. Of his recent work, his post-Miramax period, Melinda is the second strongest–Curse of the Jade Scorpion…
The Stop Button 