[5] In the first film, Mick Dundee (Paul Hogan) was a fish out of water in New York. This time around, the action is transported largely to the Australian Outback, with Linda Kozlowski’s character being more of the fish. Unfortunately, this sequel is short on laughs and anti-climactic, but Hogan and Kozlowski are charming enough to make it worth a gander for those who enjoyed …
[5] Visually striking but emotionally hollow, Warren Beatty’s film version of Chester Gould’s comic creation is an underwhelming would-be blockbuster. The only character you can get invested in is Madonna’s Breathless Mahoney. Everyone else, including our strong-jawed hero, is as two-dimensional as the comic strip they came from. It’s kinda fun to spot well-known actors in cameos throughout the movie — keep your eyes peeled …
[6] A handful of fun musical numbers and charismatic performances make Grease an entertaining ride. John Travolta, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway are the ones who really shine. Olivia Newton-John is better when she’s singing than when she’s acting, but the fact that she was able to pour herself into those skimpy leather pants at the end should surely count for something! I wish the …
[8] This version of Hairspray disarms you from the very beginning notes of “Good Morning, Baltimore” and builds to one of the most joyful finales of any movie in recent memory. The musical numbers are all superbly choreographed and staged by director Adam Shankman, but it’s the last half-hour of this movie that really seals the deal for me. The climactic performance of “You Can’t …
[5] A business man (Paul Rudd) is invited to a clandestine ‘dinner with idiots’ in which he’s encouraged to bring the weirdest, most bizarre guest he can find for the rest of the business partners to gawk. Everyone brings a weirdo, and whoever brings the weirdest person, wins a substantial prize. Rudd manages to find an IRS employee (Steve Carell) who spends all his free …
[4] Queer cinema pioneer Gregg Araki (The Living End, Mysterious Skin) serves up a brightly colored teen sex comedy by way of Twin Peaks with a Dr. Strangelove finale. Like most of Araki’s films, there are nice scenes here and there, and a raw, primal quality to his storytelling that allows him to get away with lack of subtlety better than most filmmakers. But I’d …
[5] I’m at a loss for this one. I saw the movie, but I’m still not sure what it’s about. There’s a town that sabotages drivers, all so the community can trade auto parts among themselves and hand the drivers (the ones who live) over to a doctor for medical experimentation. The town’s adults live in fear of their own children, a punkish lot that …
[7] Barbara Stanwyck’s a card shark and Henry Fonda’s a naive millionaire. They meet and fall in love aboard an Atlantic cruise in Preston Sturges’s The Lady Eve, a romantic comedy made tolerable with its sizzling sexual teasing and moderate slapstick humor. Stanwyck is great in her multi-faceted role. She starts the film as a deceptive villain, but turns into a very sympathetic character when …
[6] Henry Fonda is caught between a beleaguered WWII cargo crew and their vindictive captain in this oddly cheerful, lightweight drama directed by John Ford and Mervyn Leroy. James Cagney hams it up as the nutcase captain while William Powell makes a graceful big screen exit as the ship’s doctor. Jack Lemmon won the first of his two Oscars for his supporting role as an …
[7] Formulaic romantic comedies don’t usually fly with me, but when you place a genuine, sincere element into the formula, an element like Paul Hogan, it sometimes doesn’t matter how old the story is. And I have to credit Hogan and his fellow screenwriters for writing a central love relationship that doesn’t belabor itself. The characters don’t have to talk a lot for us to …
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