An excellent future awaits Mankind -- provided a couple of dim-witted yet good-hearted high school dudes can pass history. To this end, they are given the means to travel through time and collect historical figures like Beethoven and Billy the Kid for an awesome finals presentation. Fortunately, the movie is a lot smarter than its titular characters (who would appreciate that word, titular) and delivers its biggest laughs with situation and dialogue (and the impeccable delivery of Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves). Fades noticeably in the second half, however, as writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon can find little for the famous personages to do (though there is one priceless moment with Beethoven in a music store). With George Carlin as a guide from the future and former Go-Go's guitarist Jane Wiedlin as Joan of Arc. Followed by Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991).
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An excellent future awaits Mankind -- provided a couple of dim-witted yet good-hearted high school dudes can pass history. To this end, they are given the means to travel through time and collect historical figures like Beethoven and Billy the Kid for an awesome finals presentation. Fortunately, the movie is a lot smarter than its titular characters (who would appreciate that word, titular) and delivers its biggest laughs with situation and dialogue (and the impeccable delivery of Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves). Fades noticeably in the second half, however, as writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon can find little for the famous personages to do (though there is one priceless moment with Beethoven in a music store). With George Carlin as a guide from the future and former Go-Go's guitarist Jane Wiedlin as Joan of Arc. Followed by Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991).
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*** Mix of live action, surreal imagery, and evocative animation makes for some striking visuals but the script by Roger Waters (who wrote most of the songs on the double album on which this musical is based) fails to provide much coherence to the story of a rock musician whose troubled life has left him depressed and psychologically isolated from the rest of society. Still, as a mood piece, it, like the Pink Floyd soundtrack, certainly has its moments, highlights including grotesquely faceless schoolchildren marching into a meat grinder, a fascist episode, and some of the bizarre animation sequences. Not a great film by any stretch, but certainly an interesting one. *** Fictionalized account of a real case tried by the author in 1952, concerning the defense of an Army lieutenant accused of murdering the man who raped his wife. Intelligent and reasonably entertaining legal thriller, though with heavy emphasis on the legal side of things and very few thrills. The book's greatest weakness, in fact, is its almost complete lack of suspense: if Traver didn't keep telling us how clever and able the prosecutor is and how fragile the case for the defense, we'd frankly never guess it ourselves. On the other hand, if Traver steers well clear of the sort of passion and messy emotions that make for good drama, he at least writes what he knows, which is the ins and outs of an imperfect legal system. The book, for instance, depends a great deal on the rape, about which there's simply no question. This has to be the case, for the book begins with our hero all but putting up a billboard outside his perfecctly rational client's jail cell spelling out for him the only possible legal defense, that being an insanity plea. Truth, we infer, may take a back seat when justice is at stake. Later, we learn the fascinating truth of the value of "expert" psychiatric testimony: it gives the jury wiggle room in their quest for a verdict. Not as good as 62 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list would have you believe, but enjoyable nevertheless. (With, however, an interesting attitude toward rape itself. Though we are given the awful details, the violated wife bounces back from the experience quite nicely and is soon even joking about her bruises. When the lawyer hero eventually succeeds in getting the rape into the trial, his reaction is the heartwarming thought, "at last I got the lady laid!") Robert Traver is the pen name of John D. Voelker. Made into a film directed by Otto Preminger in 1959. ***** Delicious tale of three wives who worry and reminisce after receiving a letter from another woman telling them she is leaving town with one of their husbands. Mankiewicz, who also wrote the script -- based on an adaptation by Vera Caspary of John Klempner's book Letter to Five Wives -- unerringly weaves each wife's unique story into a funny and dramatic tale of friendship and love that ends in an unexpected yet thoroughly satisfying way. With Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, and Ann Sothern as the three wives, and Jeffrey Lynn, Paul Douglas, and Kirk Douglas as their respective husbands, all of whom, particularly the middle pair, turn in excellent performances. Celeste Holm plays the heard but never really seen homewrecker. Academy Award winner for Best Picture and Best Director. ** Saved from complete ignominy by one good idea and a couple of chuckles, this embarrassing direct-to-video thriller is about a woman (Mia Sara) and her daughter held captive by an unlikely pair of wackos (Burt Reynolds and Angie Dickinson) and their cruel little girl. Dickinson thinks Sara is her dead sister, Reynolds thinks she's hot, and their young daughter doesn't seem to care so long as she gets to drag Sara's kid around on a leash. Can't seem to make up its mind whether to be frightening or funny or so over-the-top foolish as to resonate with the so-bad-it's-good crowd. Ends up just being dumb. Based on the book Playmates by Andrew Neiderman. *** Family of five is threatened when a psychopathic man who was sent to prison on the testimony of the father is set free. Unusual thriller in the sense that dad garners lots of sympathy but little real help from the authorities, and is ultimately forced to band together his own family for their protection, being (refreshingly) unable to handle it all himself. Suspenseful and exciting -- up to a point. MacDonald's more realistic approach also undercuts the drama as the villain can do only so much and remain plausibly at large. Filmed as Cape Fear in 1962 and 1991, and also published under that title even though it has no relevance to the book. **** Kaurismäki the director, working a certain kind of magic, creates a compelling film from a plain woman, very little dialogue, and lots of shots of match-making machinery. Kaurismäki the writer cleverly selects exactly the right scenes to tell his story about lonliness, despair, and the death by rote repetition of imagination. Kati Outinen is terrific (though that word suggests an energy her character doesn't possess) as a woman with no life and no skills for dealing with one. It all sounds very depressing when in fact it's nearly hypnotic. A standalone film, but the last in Kaurismäki's Proletariat Trilogy, preceded by Shadows in Paradise and Ariel. Finnish, with English subtitles. ** Returning Vietnam vet John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) gets the undesirables treatment from a small town sheriff (Brian Dennehy) and his sadistic deputies, then escapes to the woods for some impromptu guerrilla warfare. Worthwhile as an action picture, but weakened by its expectation of sympathy for its truculent and easily set off hero, who, ironically, proves only how unfit for civilized society he is. The first of the Rambo films, though not the best, based on David Morrell's novel. *** Disparate group of luxury liner passengers must struggle to survive after a seaquake turns their ship upside down in international waters where it may sink at any moment. Strong story, driven by characters who are salvaged from sentimentality by Gallico's refusal to succumb to escapist expectations. Gets better as it goes along and includes that rarest of literary fish, the satisfying ending. Made into a movie in 1972, which spawned a literary sequel from Gallico, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, as well as two remakes, one for TV (2005) and one for the big screen called simply Poseidon (2006). ** Cursed by an old gypsy woman (Lorna Raver) after refusing to grant a third extension on her mortgage, young loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) has only three days to either end the curse or shift it to someone else, knowing that if she fails her soul will be dragged to eternal torment in hell. These gypsies are hardcore: the movie opens with a kid who gets the same curse for stealing a necklace. Not a scary movie, but with buckets of blood and other bodily fluids, it’s certainly nauseating. Christine and her professor boyfriend (Justin Long) both look like kids playing dress-up. For the slapstick horror crowd, the one that finds humor in excessive gore. |
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