John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020)

It was July the 25th before I saw this my first 2020 release of the year, and what a weird year it's been. I decided to go with this fortuitously timed John Lewis biography because of the congressman's recent passing. I learned a lot, he was a very admirable man. Not perfect though, some of the things he did to beat his primary opponent, a long time friend, to win his Congressional seat in Georgia in 1986, well they're not flattering. It reminds me of George H. W. Bush who generally seemed a rather principled man, but not always in the heat of a race. Overwhelmingly though John Lewis was a stand up guy and then some. The film is a bit conventional in presentation, a biography of the civil rights icon turned congressman with "present day bits" from 2018 and 2019 interspersed. Again solid and informative, the man at its center rising above so much. *** 

Snakes on a Plane (2006)

High-concept film that delivers on it's succulent premise, 'Snake on a Plane' or at least its title was seemingly everywhere in 2006, it really captured the zietgiest. I have had many conversations about this film, especially back then, in fact a friend and I came up with an idea for a ripe off version which we titled 'Serpents on a Dirigible', the misdirect being they are water serpents in the blimps plumbing and everybody on board has just been feed a bunch of bran muffins. Do you take your chances, or do you risk embarrassment? 

The story of 'Snakes on a Plane' is just that, it's like a cross between 'Die Hard' and one of those old 'Airport' movies, only it one ups 'Passenger 57'. Gangsters have loaded the freight of a red eye flight from Hawaii to LA with a plethora of exotic snakes, and timed their release into the cabin to coincide with the release of a pheromone cocktail to make the snake particularly aggressive. The purpose being to cause enough chaos that the plan crashes into the ocean, thus killing a murder witness being escorted by Samuel L. Jackson to testify.

Now most of the characters are stockish, but there was enough of them that I could care about and I'm a second generation sucker for a fun disaster movie so I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact I liked it a lot more then I thought I would, it was fun, had sufficient stakes, and was surprisingly well executed. Of course there were dumb and hokey bits, and I would have been open to a longer wrap up as it seemed pretty rushed, but to tell the truth it wasn't really necessary, once the snakes have de-planed there's not much of a point to keeping the camera's running. Supporting cast includes Kenan Thompson, Julianna Margulies and Rachel Blanchard. ***

Domino (2005)

Directed by Tony Scott from a script by Donnie Darko creator Richard Kelly, 'Domino' is a strange hybrid of a film depicting real life model turned bounty hunter and Tony Scott friend Domino Harvey in a fictional caper story spanning LA to Vegas. It jumps around a lot and has a rather stylized flavor as you would expect form Kelly, and also as you would expect from Kelly it is just jam packed with stuff, too much stuff, so much stuff that I couldn't entirely follow the plot. 

Harvey, the daughter of the South African born actor Laurence Harvey and the English model Paulene Stone, was a troubled figure, which would seem self evident of a child of privilege who would give up the cat walk for hunting bail jumpers. She would in fact pass away from a Fentanyl overdose in June of 05', the movie wouldn't be released until October of that year. 

The film would flop making about $23.5 million of a $50 budget. The movies Domino is played by a 19 year old Keira Knightly, and the nicely cast picture would include Mickey Rourke, Delroy Lindo, Dabney Coleman, Lucy Liu, Jacqueline Bisset, Christopher Walken, Mena Suvari, and Tom Waits. Brian Austin Green, Ian Ziering, and Jerry Springer appear as themselves. 

A mess, but not an unwatchable one, a colleague of stuff that eventually settles into a nice rhythm but goes on too long and lacks much invest-ability in its characters. Director Scott himself thought the corp of the thing was fine but that he'd messed up the execution, I could agree with that.**

Dr. T and the Women (2000)

Kind of a divisive film Robert Altman's 'Dr. T and the Women' was criticized by some feminists as being misogynistic and rates a mere 20% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert's review of the film address the feminist criticism better then I could but suffice it to say that like Ebert I feel it mostly misplaced.

Richard Gere plays doctor Sullivan Travis, Dr. T for short, a very successful high class Dallas gynecologist, whose overflowing waiting room is attributable as much or more to the fact that he looks like Richard Gere then to his doctoring skills, which appear to be excellent. Dr. T has two grown daughters played by Tara Reid and Kate Hudson, the latter of which is engaged to be married. While shopping for the wedding Dr. T's wife (Farrah Fawcett) wanders off confused in the mall and eventually strips naked to play in the fountain. She has obviously had a breakdown but Dr. T is blind sided when he later learns from a psychologist that the cause is a rare condition effecting women who think their lives are too perfect and  feel they are simply too loved.

Dr. Travis is a man who wants to do the right thing by all who are around him, he is a good, admirable, role model-esque figure who truly cares for his wife, his kids, his patients, his staff, his friends, Things are complicated when deprived of his wife's company he starts developing romantic feelings for the new female golf pro at his country club (Helen Hunt). The large and largely female cast includes the likes of Shelley Long, Laura Dern, Liv Tyler and Lee Grant. 

While obviously not for all tastes I was surprised how much I liked this, was practically swept away by it and think it likely the best performance of Gere's career. He gives a restrained, underplayed performance as a truly decent man perplexed and befuddled by the strangeness of life and a little overwhelmed by all the women around him. ***1/2.

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

It's title a direct play on the better known Hollywood satire 'Sunset Blvd', 'Hollywood Boulevard' is a magnum opus of exploration film, a Roger Corman production that is a meta satire on other Roger Corman productions. Produced by Corman's New World Pictures and co-directed by Allan Arkush and Joe Dante, it's the story of a young women Candy Wednesday (the late Candice Rialson) who arrives in L.A. with the dream of breaking into pictures, she breaks into B-pictures and then watches as friends are bumped off by a serial killer stalking young starlets. The plot though is not all that important, its a excuse to stitch together re-used scenes from other Corman movies as supposedly the films Candy is making. Dick Miller of course is in this, he plays Candy's agent. Not always in the best taste it's still a treat if your versed in the world of Corman. A guilty pleasure, and intended to be so. **1/2 

Wonder Man (1945)

Only Danny Kaye's second staring vehicle (the first being 1944's 'Up in Arms') the un-inventively titled 'Wonder Man' is a lose assemblage of bits and musical numbers with a strange through line story. It has a low key thrown together quality that I actually thinks helps it. Danny Kaye plays twins, one a loud mouth comic performer, the other a meek book worm. When twin A is murder by the mob he appears to twin B, and occasionally possesses him in an effort to bring his killers to justice. Twin A's love interest is played by his future 'White Christmas' co-star Vera Ellen, and Twin B's by Virginia Mayo. Capably directed by H. Bruce Humberstone, a journey man best known for his Charlie Chan and Tarzan films, there are enjoyable bit parts for the likes of Allen Jenkin's and S.Z. Sakall. It is Kaye's film however, he carries it with a high level of commitment and energy, making this jumble of  movie better then it should be. The film won an Oscar for its special effects, which still work. ***

The Deadly Companions (1961)

Sam Peckinpah's first movie as a director starts off strong, loved that first scene and the whole attitude of the early part of the film, but settles into a slow and more conventional territory for far to long. Released the same month as its stars Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith's much better know film 'The Parent Trap', 'The Deadly Companions' stars Keith as a union veteran in obsessive persuite of  revenge against the confederate solder who partially scalped him, and O'Hara as a dance hall girl whose son Keith accidentally kills. Here's a major spoiler which doesn't work and I could hardly digest, but the two fall in love. With flashes of promise 'The Deadly Companions' would lead to much greater things from it's director, and thus is most notable for bringing him his start at calling the shots behind the big screen. **

Night Life in Reno (1931)

'Night Life in Reno' is a low budget 'pre-code' film from something called 'Art Class Picture Corp'. The most notable actor in it is probably Dixie Lee, the first wife of Bing Crosby and at the time this picture came out the bigger star. Even so Dixie's is basically a bit part, the lose woman a Los Angeles husband (Jameson Thomas) strays with, prompting his wife (Virginia Valli) to flee to Reno for a six week divorce. Thomas goes after her in an attempt to stop the divorce, he says he is regretful but Valli needs him to prove it, which he does in the final reel. 

This starts as a melodrama, has a protected comic drunk/ awkward double date scene (the other parties have no idea the two are married). and ends after Thomas falsely confesses to a murder that Valli has been framed for. Of course the real killer is apprehended very shortly thereafter and the central couple reunited. Not great, but not as bad as it might have been given the poverty row production. Gambling was legalized in Nevada earlier the same year as this picture was released, so it's the only movie I've seen set there during that 2 or 3 year period were open gambling was legal in Nevada, but liqueur was not because of probation. **

Judge Priest (1934)

One could hardly say that there aren't elements to the 1934 film 'Judge Priest' that aren't problematic, especially when looked back on 85 years later. There is the "lost cause" confederacy element, singing and presumably docile and happy black folks, and Stepin Fetchit's standard, shambling shtick. Yet this is a film that was also attempting to be unusually progressive on racial matters for a mainstream movie of it's era. Judge William "Billy" Priest was a creation of humorist Irvin S. Cobb, inspired by his boyhood in post Civil War Kentucky. Priest is perfectly embodied by fellow humorist Will Rogers. 

The action is set in the rural Kentucky of 1890, not that there is much of it. The plot is pretty lose, this movie is about the central character and the atmosphere, a sympathetic look at a fondly remembered time in the life of the author, which is not say an entirely uncritical one. Priest is in many way more paternalistic to his white neighbors then the black employees he treats mostly with respect. A widower of 19 years, and 25 years the elected judge of his county, Priest is a confederate veteran, but has to practically be dragged to a solders reunion (he needs to press flesh for votes). He thinks the war and his service in it was a mistake, but knows that he can't be to critical in public, the locals respect his judgment for the most part, but might not if he was too open about this. 

The two principal stories concern the Judges efforts to help his nephew romance the woman he loves, despite the disapproval of the boys mother who looks like down on the girl for coming from nothing. There is also an effort by some locals to unfairly railroad an itinerant laborer, new to the town. That man is white but there may have been a third major plot string to the story. A reportedly eloquent speech against lynching was delivered by Priest and actually filmed, but nervous Fox executive axed it from the final release and the scene is apparently now lost. Director John Ford was not happy about this edit, so much so that 20+ years later he remade the film as 'The Sun Shines Bright' largely so he could have the speech in there. 

At places an awkward film, and it is still very much of a less enlightened time, but the progressive-ism, warmth, and patience of the lead character, though perhaps a little muted on occasion, is there all the same. ***

Orange County (2002)

Produced by MTV Films 'Orange County' is a teen comedy that served as an early launching vehicle for the careers of Colin Hanks (son of Tom), Jack Black, and to a much lesser extent Schyler Fisk (daughter of Sissy Spacek). The film was even directed by second generation Hollywood, Jake Kasdan (now a successful director of the revamped Jumanji franchise among others) the son of writer/ director Lawrence Kasdan (best know as a writer on 4 Star Wars films). Family connections likely played a part in the films exceptional cast, many of whom appear in essentially cameo parts that likely required only a day or four to shoot (Hey Chevy Chase, can you come in for a day and play a disengaged teacher?).

Hanks plays an aspiring writer and high school senior who longs to leave Orange County and study at Stanford under the feat of his favorite author (Kevin Kline). He's exceptionally smart so getting in shouldn't be a problem, but when his flighty guidance councilor (Lily Tomlin) sends in the wrong transcript, it's time to call in all favors, and eventually embark on a road trip to the school with his supportive girlfriend (Fisk) and stoner brother (Black). I liked this thing a lot more then I thought I would, not particularly raunchy it's essentially a screw ball comedy, and it has the requisite level of hart that I'm a sucker for in these things. Also a neat flash back to roughly my high school era, the film was released in early 2002 and is pre 9/11 in spirit. ***

Cloak and Dagger (1946)

Not to be confused with the 1984 Dabney Coleman movie or the Marvel series of the same title, 'Cloak and Dagger' is a smart Fritz Lang directed World War II espionage picture. Gary Cooper plays an American nuclear physicist (I know right) recruited by the OSS to escort an acquaintance (a defecting Hungarian physicist) out of Switzerland. Things don't go as planed (the Hungarian doesn't make it) and Cooper is rerouted to Italy in the hopes of persuading another possibly sympathetic physicist to defect. While in Rome Cooper is teamed up with a comely young member of the Italian Resistance played winningly by Polish born Lilli Palmer, who at the time was Mrs. Rex Harrison (her first of two marriages, his second of six). There's real chemistry there and the two fall in love why trying to avoid detection and escape with Vladimir Sokoloff (the Italian physicist). Written by two eventually blacklisted screenwriters, it's intelligent, at times taught, and really satisfying. The romance between Cooper and Palmer actually works as well or better then the spy stuff. Elements of the films basic plot and structure are similar to those of one of my personal favorite movies 'Night Train to Munich', only their the emphasis is on a dry humor, while'Cloak and Dagger' plays things pretty straight. This could have easily been a forgettable B picture, but it's given the A treatment throughout and really surprised with me just how good it is. ***1/2 

The Alamo (1960)

John Wayne's pet project come obsession 'The Alamo' almost bankrupted him. Long, talkie, and famous for its historical inaccuracies, Wayne produced and directed this monster production, something he'd dreamed of doing since the 1940's. It didn't do well and critical reaction was mixed to poor, but he managed to get himself a best director Oscar nomination. The action scenes are well mounted as one would expect, and the recreated Alamo is impressive, but much of the cast seems simply too old for their roles. A great example of a video wallpaper movie, it doesn't demand a lot of your attention but it demands a lot of your time. **

All This, and Heaven Too (1940)

Bette Davis and Charles Boyer star in this period romance based on the novel of the same name by Rachel Field. 'All This, and Heaven Too' is speculative but based on an actual scandal that rocked 1840's France and even played a role in the unseating of a King. Davis plays the English nanny to the children of a couple of French aristocracy played by Boyer and Barbara O'Neil. The wife is clingy, obsessive and unpleasant and ultimately someone, likely her husband, ended up killing her. The story takes a very chaste read on the relationship between the master of the house and his children's tutor, likely in part because the novel was written by the great niece of the Davis's characters husband, (they married after the scandal when she fled to America in an attempt to escape notoriety). The story is actually quite good, the two lead performances understated and O'Neil's suitably manic (she got a best supporting actress Oscar nomination out of this). But the whole thing is just too long and too slow, clocking in at 141 minutes. Also forbidden love between 19th century master and servant, I feel like I've encountered this plot too often ('Dragonwick', 'Jane Eyer'). Both luscious and lame. Capably directed by Lithuanian born Anatole Litvak, but could have really used a more empowered editor. A 15 year old June Lockhart plays one of the daughters in an early role. ** 

Just Married (2003)

'Just Married' is just lazy, there is really no better descriptive word for this movie. Benefiting from a January release and two then rising stars, Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy, this sadly financially successful movie is the story of a poor man and a rich girl who meet lazy, marry against the advice of seemingly everybody, and then have the honeymoon from hell in Europe. Will this cause the couple to break up? Would that it did because that at least would have been creative, as opposed to every other obvious scene and trite convention this movie tries, lazily, to exploit. Murphy is above the material, Kutcher is not, young Tom Hanks from 'Big' David Moscow is in this too, as is Christian Kane from 'Leverage' and David Rasche from 'Sledge Hammer'. This mediocrity paved the way for better things from director Shawn Levy ('The Night at the Museum' franchise) and some probably not better things (2006's 'The Pink Panther', 'The Internship'). Bad, with occasional nice European scenery. *1/2 

Swim Fan (2002)

One of my movie goals for the year is to watch at least one film released every year from 1930 on, 'Swimfan' fills the 2002 slot because it's free on Prime, and I remember seeing the trailer constantly in theaters 18 years ago. The plot is essentially borrowed from 'Fatal Attraction', here a love triangle between champion high school swimmer Jesse Bradford, his mostly good girl girlfriend Sheri Appleby, and obsessive psycho new girl in town Erika Christensen. It hits all the beats you might expect, has a sound track full of forgettable early 2000's trash, and as much sexy happenings as they could get in under a PG-13 rating. Set in New Jersey. Watchable. **

Stormy Weather (1943)

Released the same year as MGM's major black cast musical 'Cabin in the Sky', the 20th Century Fox production 'Stormy Weather' is a salute to a quarter century's worth of African-American musical entertainers, many of which appear in the film sometimes playing themselves. There is Lena Horne (who sings the films signature tune) and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson who helm the thing in a studio standard romance that spans the years 1918-1943. In support you have Cab Calloway, Katherine Dunham, Fats Waller, the Nicholas brothers, Ada Brown and Dooley Wilson. The film has an entirely black cast, and while there are a few unfortunate moments, principally the ministerial numbers, on the whole its pretty progressive for a major studio film of its era. Some great music and performances you don't get to see that often, in basic structure it's a very standard musical  its of era, but I found it more easily able to hold my interest then a lot of white helmed contemporaries. More then a curio, it's a legitimately good film, unexceptional in everything but talent. ***

Ski Party (1965)

Over a long Friday night to Saturday morning I started a number of films with the intention of falling a sleep to them. At first I succeed briefly with 'Thank God It's Friday' (1978), a movie about a group of people at a disco which was essentially a theatrical record promotion. Leonard Maltin called the movie 'perhaps the worst film to ever win some kind of Academy Award', in this case for the song 'Last Dance' sung by Donna Summer in her film debut, it would prove to be her only film role. Then the Roger Corman produced female gladiator film 'The Arena' (1974) staring Pam Greir, even it couldn't keep my attention. But 'Ski Party' a 1965 Frankie Avalon vehicle that transports that standard beach party story line to the slopes, and contains poorly explained musical cameos by Leslie Gore and James Brown, well that I could sit through. 

Ski party stars Frankie Avalon and Dwyane Hickman who play college roommates (despite being too old) who can't seem to have any success with college girls. So they decide to follow big man on campus Freddie (Aron Kincaid) up on a sky vacation to the Idaho's Sawtooth Mountains. While there they do the 'Some Like it Hot' schtik and pretend to be female English exchange students to learn directly from women what they like in men. It's stupid, but somehow its watchable and amusing as an artifact, when we think of 60's youths we tend to think of the counter culture, but lame schlock like this was popular with a lot of young people. **

Out of Liberty (2019)

'Out of Liberty' tells the story of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith and a handful of associates stay in the jail at Liberty, Missouri in late 1838 and early 1839. The group, that included Joseph's brother Hyrum, First Presidency councilor Sidney Rigdon, and future Apostle Lyman Wight were there charged with treason as part of the 1838 Missouri Mormon War. The film drops into proceedings with little context at first, it reminded me of how Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' just drops in to Gethsemane taking for granted that you know the story. While Gibson's film was jarring this movie is mostly slow, staid, and kind of boring, actually really boring at times. Like say 'God's and Generals' the film works better as a collection of scenes then it does as a whole. It felt like this would have been better as a radio play. 

The audience surrogate figure here is Samuel Tillery (Jason Wade) the chief jailer at Liberty, an actual historical figure about whom relatively little is known allowing the screenwriters take dramatic liberties. Joseph and his associates are eventually "allowed to escape" when the prospect of their trial and probable release and/or lynching becomes increasingly problematic politically for powerful people in the state. The movie implies that Smith and Co won Tillery (a veteran of the War of 1812 and aspiring lawyer) over. While it is possible that they did it seems most likely that the reason Tillery let them go is that he was acting on instructions, direct or implied from his superiors, rather then out of strict sympathy. This movie surprisingly leaves out the most famous anecdote from Joseph's stay, his rebuking of foul mouthed guards, but does keep in elements related to Smith's writings in the jail that become sections 121 - 123 of the LDS Doctrine and Convenients. While the movie has some good moments, it is to often a slog to sit through. Perhaps the most intriguing thing to me about the film is why Corbin Allred (the only actor in the thing I recognized) decided to endow his portrait of Porter Rockwell with such a raspy voice. Is that historical? I want to know. **

Heaven is for Real (2014)

'Heaven is for Real' is a Christian movie adapted from the 2010 memoir of the same name that tells the purportedly true story of three year old Colton Burpo's trip to heaven while in the hospital for a burst appendix. Colton's minister father put down his son's tales and added some family context in a best selling book, and the film version became the 5th all time highest grossing 'Christian' film in the United States, making over $101 million theatrically on a $12 million budget. The film stars Greg Kinnear, Kelly Reilly, Margo Martindale and Thomas Hayden Church, the first three putting in good performances and the latter kind of phoning it in. The movie is more then a little trite and often heavy handed and takes a long time to get going, and while I wasn't expecting much there is about half an hour of solid movie in its 1hr 40 minute running time. Kinnear gives a particularly sincere performance, I think he's an underrated rated actor. While I'm still skeptical of this story I didn't hate it. **

Holiday (1938)

'Holiday' is a movie that had I seen it in high school it would have likely been part of the regualr staple of films I tried to get other people to watch. I regret that I hadn't seen this until now, a girl I knew in colloge encourged me to see it, I should have listnened to her. Holiday is based on a 1928 play by Phillip Barry (best known for 'The Philidelphia Story') that had previusly been made into a movie in 1930. This George Cukor version stars Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, the underrated Lew Ayers, the mostly forgotten Doris Nolan and a sceen stealing Edward Everett Horton reprising the same role he played in the 1930 version, only it had been substantially re written. Cukor had the story tweeked in the screen play stage and original author Barry reportedly said he'd improved it. 'Holiday' is the story of Johnny Chase (Grant) a self made man of poor background who is suprised to find the young woman he feel in love with on a ski holiday (Nolan) is the second daughter of an extremly wealthy New York Society family. The couple inlist the help of her older sister (Hepburn) and brothr (Ayers) in winning her demanding father (Henry Kolker) over to the pairing, and at first they succed. The three Seton children at first seem remarkbaly well adjusted given their upbrining, but we gradually discovery they aren't, and Grant and Hepburn discover they might be the better match. I loved this movie, it is excpetionaly well realized and a great deal more sophesitced then I had expected, knowing little going in beyound the cast, the good reputation, and that it is lite romantic comedy. Bowled over by this one, I highly recomend. ****

Shark! (1969)

'Shark!' is a Mexican-American co-production helmed by budget film maestro Samuel Fuller and staring Arthur Kennedy, former Mexican starlet Silvia Pinal and a young Burt Reynolds. Based on the 1955 novel His Bones Are Coral by Victor Canning, the title was changed to 'Shark!' by the producers rather disgustingly to capitalize off the death of a stuntmen by shark during filming. Reynolds is an American gun runner who teams with  university professor Barry Sullivan and his girlfriend (Pinal) in a scheme to retrieve gold from a ship sunken in the Red Sea (this movie was filmed mostly in Mexico but set in the Sudan). Arthur Kennedy plays a drunken ex-pat doctor, and child actor Carlos Barry gets an "introducing' credit, Carlos Barry appeared in 0 additional movies. A cynical story boringly told, most notable for the presence of  Reynolds in front and Fuller behind the camera, the latter had much grander visions for this movie from what ended up on screen. A slog.  *1/2