[5] At her sister’s funeral, an eccentric woman meets her uptight nephew and takes him globe-trotting to find an old flame. The combination of the great George Cukor and the ever-acerbic Maggie Smith doesn’t add up to anything compelling in this Auntie Mame wannabe. The screenplay, based on Graham Green’s novel, is distractedly episodic and Smith’s performance is over-the-top even for her. The tone is …
[8] The film adaptation of Robert Harling’s play is unabashedly melodramatic, nostalgic, and sentimental. Some of those qualities usually annoy the hell out of me, but the ensemble of great actresses and the slew of memorable one-liners make Steel Magnolias hard to resist. I care less about the dramatic Sally Field/Julia Roberts center story (mother, daughter, wedding, pregnancy, illness, blah) and more about the group …
[2] Swingers is the reason we cannot let college students with broken hearts have movie cameras. If I had to say something nice about the movie, which somehow launched the careers of director Doug Liman and writer Jon Favreau, it’s that Heather Graham has probably never been photographed more beautifully. And I guess the male leads, including super-skinny Vince Vaughn, are all attractive. But that’s …
[6] In order to make The Dark Crystal, Jim Henson and company first had to make the financiers a sequel to their successful Muppet Movie. And so The Great Muppet Caper was born. It’s not as epic or inspirational as the first film, and the songs are nowhere near as magical either, but the sequel isn’t too shabby in its own right. Kermit, Fozzy, and …
[6] Director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) takes us once more to the Marigold well, reuniting all the original cast members and throwing Richard Gere into the mix. Gere plays a mysterious American who may or may not be a financial inspector whose opinion could make or break the Marigold’s franchising to a second location. Judi Dench’s character is offered a new career, all while …
[7] John Madden, the director of Shakespeare in Love, serves up an adaptation of Debora Moggach’s novel about an eclectic group of aging Brits who manage to turn their lives around for the better at a rundown hotel in India. I couldn’t argue with anyone claiming this movie is a pandering, formulaic feel-good dramedy — it is. But when you have the likes of Judi …
[6] Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt) directs from a script by Bob Nelson this father/son road trip story about a senile old man who mistakenly thinks he’s won a Publisher’s Sweepstakes and insists on getting to Lincoln, Nebraska, to pick up his winnings — at any cost. Bruce Dern plays the old man and Will Forte plays his son. This is one of those movies …
[6] Splash is a sweet-enough fantasy rom-com from Ron Howard (his second feature). Tom Hanks stars as a man who falls in love with a mysterious woman who just happens to be a mermaid. Darryl Hannah plays the fish; John Candy and Eugene Levy ham it up in supporting roles. The best scenes are ones where Hannah tries to hide her true nature, including a …
[7] Screwballs and others of its ilk were one of few ways a teenager could hope to ‘sneak a peek’ in the pre-internet days. Today, boobs are just a mouse click away, and you don’t have to be coy about it, either — you can go right into the hard stuff. This makes it difficult for some to appreciate the teenage sex comedy, a genre …
[7] A horny teenager and his dog communicate telepathically while wandering a post-apocalyptic wasteland in search of food and women in this adaptation of Harlan Ellison’s novella. The heart of the movie is the antagonistic but loving relationship between its title characters, the human half of which is played by future Miami Vice star Don Johnson. The narrative is loose, ultimately leading to Johnson’s capture …
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