We’re “them.” We’re “they.” We are the Men in Black.

I thought I’d throw another bromance onto the review heap. Not that Agent J and Dr. Laurel Weaver’s flirting isn’t enjoyable but the real strength of this film is how well Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith play off each other as their characters attempt to save the Earth.

Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) has been helping to save the planet and monitor the aliens who live here for close to 35 years. When his partner reluctantly decides it’s time to retire, Kay and his boss Zed (Rip Torn) begin to test and audition replacements. James Edwards (Will Smith), an NYPD officer, caught Kay’s eye when he unknowingly ran down a cephalapoid while trying to make an arrest. Impressed with Edwards’ stamina and smarts, Kay lures him to the (hilarious) testing where Edwards proves he has what it takes as he thinks outside the box and make correct split second decisions. When he accepts, Edwards becomes J, the newest agent of the MIB.

And just in time as something has the alien population running scared and fleeing the planet. Turning to a major source of their intel, the tabloids, Kay and J interview a woman (Siobhan Fallon) who claims an alien stoled her husband Edgar’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) skin. Kay quickly realizes that a Bug has landed and is running loose in NYC. Heading to the morgue, they discover the M.E. Dr. Laurel Weaver (Linda Fiorentino) has two alien bodies there but the mystery of what the Bug in the Edgar suit wants only deepens. It takes a trip to interrogate Frank the pug to reveal what Kay and J have to find before the Bug does because if they can’t stop him, the Arquillians are going to kill us all.

I love MIB. MIB II not so much and I’m bracing myself for the third installment due out this Spring in the hope that it will rise to the level of this one. But the original movie is hard to top. From the opening credits of a dragonfly flitting through the Universe before ending up as splat on a windshield it’s a pretty much a wild, nonstop ride. There is a bit of boring exposition as Kay fills J in on the history of the MIB and knowledge of aliens on this planet but most of the rest of the running time isn’t wasted. Considering how much the plot was changed as it went along, the final result ends up fairly cohesive. It’s also a beautiful film to look at – the outside NYC scenes show off the beauty of the city while the inside sets are all 1960s space age curves.

The relationship of Kay and J carries the film. Smith and Jones have fabulous chemistry. They totally play off each other with Jones’ straight faced delivery complimenting Smith’s wisecracking facade. But J and Kay aren’t just Super Men with major firepower shown saving the world in a rain of special effects. They’re human. They get busted up, J cares about the effect of Kay’s memory messer-upper on the people who get flashed and he wants the cover stories which replace those peoples’ memories to be nice and – in the case of Edgar’s wife – empowering. Kay regrets the loss of his most recent partner and still loves the woman he had to leave behind all those years ago when he became an agent. You can see the weight of all his memories on his face. Yet, despite the need for them to toil in obscurity, there are the occasional nice moments such as when J helps deliver a bouncing, newborn baby….squid.

Rip Torn as Zed conveys gravitas in the face of the imminent destruction of the planet yet can still slide in a few zingers about the years of government training of the other candidates and how the MIB aren’t hosting an intergalactic kegger. Linda Fiorentino is lovely to look at and her character catches onto the situation quickly. I was delighted when she manages to not only save herself but also provides the final blast needed to rid the world of the Bug. One of my favorite tertiary characters is Beatrice the beaten down wife of Edgar. Fallon manages to make me laugh out loud without saying a word just from the expressions on her face.

But it’s Vincent D’Onofrio’s performance as the Bug which rulz. I can’t imagine how much work he had to put into pulling off the look and mannerisms of having a giant cockroach stuffed into his skin. The loping gait, the awkward way he poses his arms as he sits in the Zap-Em truck, the smash and grab techniques at the jewelry store and sidewalk post-card seller’s stand – even the way he talks…he makes me believe he’s something otherworldly. It’s also hilarious to watch how frustrated and pissed the Bug gets the longer he’s stuck in New York. Even Edgar’s cows don’t give him any respect.

The special effects still hold up fairly well with lots of exploding blue goo and Bug slime everywhere. I still think “the little guy in the big guy’s head” looks a little cheesy but the final sequences with the Bug are good. The “ingrate” worms who loaf around all day at the MIB headquarters are funny and the pug in a “I ♥ NY” T-shirt is cute. One of my favorite funny scenes is the way J discovers exactly what happens when he pushes the red button in the Ford P.O.S. as he and Kay are headed to Queens through the tunnel to the music of Elvis Presley.

The movie is supposed to be fun and breezy light entertainment and succeeds as such. Director Sonnenfeld keeps the story focused and the pace fast as it zips to a conclusion. The commentary tract is also interesting to listen to as he and Jones discuss what went into making the movie and seemingly have a good time remembering the whole process. Are we just an intergalactic Aggie in an alien game of marbles? Who knows? But no one better give me a flashie thing as I’d probably forget to put on my Ray Bans and would end up zapping myself to mental oblivion.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. GUEST FRIDAY FILM REVIEW: Starman
2. Friday Film Review: Galaxy Quest
3. Friday Film Review: Everyone Says I Love You

“Never give up, never surrender!”

There’s been a lot of talking about fanfic lately and Sunita had the brainstorm for me to review “Galaxy Quest.” I hadn’t watched it in a couple of months so it was youtube to the rescue again. It all came back to me courtesy of 11 episodes and I recalled just how much fun it is. Gotta get my own copy now.

Seventeen years after it ended, the actors who portrayed the crew of the NSEA Protector in the TV show “Galaxy Quest” eke out a living by appearing at Cons and big box store promotions where they sign autographs, complain about their lack of acting careers and bitch about the egomaniac Jason (Tim Allen) who portrayed the captain and grabbed the best lines, the best babes and always managed to lose his shirt during the episode. At the latest gig, Jason mugs as usual until he overhears some people mocking him and followers of the show. Disheartened, he initially blows off some geek fans who want to talk technical details, as well as a group of weirdly smiling people who he thinks are dressed as aliens.

Only they aren’t just dressed as aliens….they are aliens. Thermians from another galaxy who are seeking the help of Commander Peter Quincy Taggert and his crew, they’ve learned all about them from transmissions of “historical documents.” Now they need “Taggert” as well as Gwen DeMarco/Tawny Madison (Sigourney Weaver), Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus (Alan Rickman), Fred Kwan/Tech St. Chen (Tony Shalhoub), Tommy Webber/Laredo (Daryl Mitchell) and Guy Fleegman/Crew member number six (Sam Rockwell) to help save them from the evil General Sarris (Robin Sachs) who threatens to destroy them. Can Jason convince the others that this isn’t a gag? Will they be able to replicate on board the real ship what they used to fake each week on the show? Is there a way for the dedicated fans to help Jason and Gwen through the chompers alive? And what is the mysterious Omega 13 device?

Guy Fleegman: “Did you guys ever watch the show?”

I don’t seek out fanfic – no slurs being cast, I just don’t have time with all the books on hand I need to read – so I’m probably not the best judge of whether this is fanfic, homage, spoof, or a mix…you tell me. I do know that it’s funny as hell, inventive and manages to nail not only the actors in various SF shows but also the characters they play. Using Sunita’s words, personally I think that there are changes “sufficient to make the jump from derivative to transformative.” It might use SF shows as a starting place but it quickly goes beyond that and leaps into new territory. Yes, it pokes fun at the characters, the settings and the scripts of various shows and films but it doesn’t just rely on a series of tired gags to make the movie. It’s a damned good action picture in its own right.

Alexander Dane: “There were five curtain calls. I was an actor once, damn it. Now look at me. Look at me! I won’t go out there and say that stupid line one more time.”

Casting for the movie is spot on. This is an ensemble piece, a buddy picture that requires a certain “type” in order to portray all the various stock characters – the bombastic captain, the female relegated to a meaningless job whose main purpose is to show some cleavage, the Shakespearean actor reduced to wearing foam rubber “alien” makeup, the “was then” child actor who is typecast in his role and the unnamed actor who’s cast in the “red shirt” role that ensures he’s always killed off in that episode. I especially like Tony Shalhoub as Kwan, the laid back “engineer” who’s the first to embrace where he is and what his show character is supposed to be doing. And the Thermians! Oh, I love them. They’re so cute I want to hug them hard enough that their eyes pop. Okay maybe not when they’re au natural but when they’re transformed, they’re darling. Enrico Colantoni deserves special props as Mathasar.

Jason Nesmith: “This is great. Usually it’s just cardboard walls in a garage.”

The special effects are actually fairly good. The aliens on the ships look convincing, the gizmos with lights don’t look like a Light Bright display, plus the Rock Monster and Pig-Lizard are fabulous. And even if the effects are not quite to the blockbuster level, well, the whole set up is that the Thermian ship is based on what they saw of the old TV show.

Brandon Wheeger: I just wanted to tell you that I thought a lot about what you said.
Jason Nesmith: It’s okay, now listen…
Brandon Wheeger: But I want you to know that I’m not a complete brain case, okay? I understand completely that it’s just a TV show. I know there’s no beryllium sphere…
Jason Nesmith: Hold it.
Brandon Wheeger: no digital conveyor, no ship…
Jason Nesmith: Stop for a second, stop. It’s all real.
Brandon Wheeger: Oh my God, I knew it. I knew it! I knew it!

And you gotta love how carefully the movie treats the hard core SF fans – the ones who dress up, quote entire passages of dialog, have mapped out all the duct work of the inner bowels of the ship and love to get together and dissect the minutia of the show. While real show/movie fans will get more of the references and inside jokes, “Galaxy Quest” is also enjoyable for the Average Joe. The pace is fast, the dialog is thoughtful and clever and the actors’ comedic timing is almost always perfect and there’s even a romance! But it’s also got heart and is emotionally moving – something which Mel Brooks once said is needed to lift a movie above and beyond being merely a spoof.

This is a great fun, feel good, all together now experience. It’s also a love letter to the genre that’s well aware of the cliches and in fact embraces them. It may start out with the conventions of the past 45 years but quickly moves past them and becomes its own story, as I rediscovered when I watched it again.

Fred Kwan: “Come on. Group hug.”

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Shaun of the Dead
2. Friday Film Review: While You Were Sleeping
3. Friday Film Review: Run Fatboy Run

The plot is nothing new or exciting. Maggie Johnson (Pickford) is a stock clerk at a five and dime store where she meets new fellow clerk Joe Grant (Charles Rogers) and takes him under her wing. Only he’s actually the owner’s son, there to prove himself before his engagement to a society girl hand picked by his parents. But he and Maggie, of course, fall for each other. What will happen when the rich Merrill family finds out about poor Maggie?

Maggie is so the romance heroine martyr. Her mother spends her days attending funerals – doesn’t matter whose – while her henpecked father waits around at home. Meanwhile wild sister Liz is going out with “sporty” men and getting into all kinds of trouble. Maggie seems to be the only one who works – all day – then she comes home to make dinner and clean up the family messes.

The other girls at the store might joke with Maggie about her interest in Joe but he’s just as interested back as we see in two charming scenes when he rides home with her in the back of a truck before meeting her family in an especially raucous mood. Then later they eat lunch in a packing crate, laughing together and annoying an older supervisor before even he is won over by their obvious love for each other.

But Pickford never lets us feel sorry for Maggie. She loves her family and only stays out one night when Joe talks her into going with him for dinner – to his family’s house when they’re out. She’s horrified at the thought while Joe mimes and winks his plans to the butler behind her back. What follows is a funny scene of Maggie flustering the footman and quietly telling Joe that the service is excellent even if the food is poor.

Then the Merrill’s arrive home and before she flees into the rainy night Maggie finds out just how much Joe has lied to her. As she wanders the streets and dreams of what might have been, Joe frantically searches for her. Only to find her talking the night court Judge out of jailing her sister who’s been arrested. Joe declares his love but Daddy Merrill has to make a final play at getting rid of Maggie before true love prevails.

This is the only scene which I thought Pickford played too broadly but the following reconciliation with Joe was worth it. For the rest of the movie, the actors mainly underplay it and there’s a lack of the overwrought facial expressions and exaggerated acting which I associate with silent films. Here the physical comedy is fantastic and usually had me in stitches. There’s not a lot of dialogue but the actors are so good that it’s not needed to follow what’s going on and being said. I also like that there are a few sound effects and the background music is played by a full orchestra instead of only a piano.

It’s also clear that the film was made before the Hays Code as seen in a funny early scene when an overloaded Maggie is attempting to bring out more stock in the store and accidentally drops a pair of ladies underwear. An unknowing female customer walks onto them then looks down and is horrified at the thought that she’s dropped her drawers in public. During the final reconciliation scene, Maggie initially turns him down saying, “It’s my family, Joe…they need me more than you do.” Her father overhears at which point he finally grows a pair, stands up and yells, “Like hell we do!” before he takes charge and kicks his lazy family in the collective ass. Color me shocked when he said that! But it’s funny as …well, hell.

The movie is only 87 minutes long but it’s one I didn’t want to end. It’s filled with humor, creativeness and wit. Pickford and Rogers, who would later marry, have wonderful screen chemistry and are backed by a great cast. If you’ve never tried a Pickford movie or a silent one, here’s a great place to start.

~Jayne

Amazon

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Lars and the Real Girl
2. GAY WRITES FRIDAY FILM REVIEW: Better Than Chocolate
3. Friday Film Review: Away We Go

Being undead sucks. Literally.

Just ask C. Thomas Flood. Waking up after a fantastic night unlike anything he’s ever experienced, he discovers that his girlfriend, Jody, is a vampire. And surprise! Now he’s one, too. For some couples, the whole biting-and-blood thing would have been a deal breaker. But Tommy and Jody are in love, and they vow to work through their issues.

But word has it that the vampire who initially nibbled on Jody wasn’t supposed to be recruiting. Even worse, Tommy’s erstwhile turkey-bowling pals are out to get him, at the urging of a blue-dyed Las Vegas call girl named (duh) Blue.

And that really sucks.

Dear Mr. Moore,

I’m really glad I remembered so much about “Bloodsucking Fiends” because you just jump right into this story and woe to anyone who can’t keep up. The few hints and regroups and reminders scattered throughout the story do help but I doubt that anyone who hasn’t read book one in this series would be able to keep up with the pace.

It’s good to see Jody and C. Thomas “Tommy” Flood plus all the Animals, Cavuto and Rivera and, occasionally, Elijah again. Then there’s the all new Blue – the smurf hooker. My new favorites are Abby/Allison, who takes over as chief minion now that Tommy’s been turned, and her got-to-wait-til-almost-the-end-to-see-him-again sweet love-ninja boyfriend “Foo Dog” Steve. Steve and his awesomely cool UV light fighting gear are boss.

The action is fast and furious from the get-go and yet, to some extent, much of it seems like the same from BF. Jody is delighted with her powers, Tommy still wants to know all there is to know about vampires (or vampyres as goth-ishy Abby and her gay pal Jared spell it) only this time since he is one, he really wants to know WTF. Too bad Jody didn’t learn from Elijah all there is to being a foul undead while she could. The Animals are still stoners, playing skid the buzzard and basically useless slaves to the power of Blue’s HIV+ hoo-hah – bet they’ll be glad they were, even if so briefly, changed as well in order to kill that pesky virus. And maybe Drew’s knee is fixed too. Cavuto and Rivera still are behind the times about what’s going on but at least this go round they catch on more quickly that San Francisco is becoming vampire central. Though it looks like they’ll be stuck as coPs (as Abby says it) for a while instead of retired and playing golf.

As to the number of vampires we’re dealing with, Mah God, doesn’t that almost get out of control. And speaking of OoC, I briefly worried that this book would end somewhat as does “Dirty Job” and “BFs” in that category. Everyone’s getting changed, people are racing around trying to catch each other, kill each other and stay out of the sun before the mysterious 3 show up – those who seem to have the Ultimate Vampire power and last word. Now that I know there’s a book three to check out, I wonder if more will be learned about them and why Elijah slinks off with them when they say “Slink Off, 800 year old Dude” (to paraphrase as Abby does in her “annoying at first but later you get used to it” journal).

Don’t get me wrong, I had fun reading this book, loved to see all the former gang back, and whipped through it in 2 days yet so much of it felt like a reread of BF. Which, if I have to read a reread of a book I’ll gladly read it of this one however… I guess it goes to show how hard it is to write what people loved about the first book but more. “Yeah, I want it exactly like the first book but different.” Ah, well, I’m now looking forward to “Bite Me.”

~Jayne

AmazonBNSonyKobo

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
2. REVIEW: Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
3. REVIEW: Just About Sex by Ann Christopher

“Far out.”

Yes, I remember this movie when it was first shown on HBO. I know that dates me but, what the hell. It’s kind of a comedy crossed with a thriller crossed with a view of life back in 1978 when people said “shake your booty” and actually meant it.

Shy divorced librarian Gloria Mundy (Goldie Hawn) unwittingly becomes involved in an assassination conspiracy when she picks up an undercover cop on the run who passes her information but is killed before he can tell her he’s done it or what it means. Before she knows it a whole assortment of killers are after her even though she initially can’t get her landlord Mr. Hennessey (Burgess Meredith) or the cute but bumbling police lieutenant Tony Carlson (Chevy Chase) and his partner Fergie (Brian Dennehy) to believe her. But things keep happening to her and slowly the pieces begin to fall into place revealing a plot to kill the Pope while he’s visiting San Francisco. Can Tony and Gloria make it across town in time to bring the curtain down and stop the nefarious scheme?

Foul Play is supremely silly but such fun. It shows the end of the swinging 70s when disco was king, most everyone smoked, the threat of AIDS was unknown so going home with someone from a singles bar was fine and picking up hitchhickers then going to movies with them was okay. Some of the more serious parts of Tony trying to solve the case seem stilted and fall flat but when Chase and Hawn are onscreen, they’re adorable together. They’re also backed by a good cast and halfway decent script with plenty of nods to Hitchcock.

Goldie Hawn is her usual bubbly blonde, seeming airhead self but somehow she manages to evade, escape or disable most of the villains even though they are little more than cartoons for the most part. There is a hilarious scene where she’s fleeing down a fire escape and trying to catch the attention of two older ladies playing dirty scrabble – watch to see what word is spelled and then misspelled as it’s added onto. This is a time when Chevy Chase was actually funny and still sorta cute though he still resorts to his usual clumsy shtick throughout the film. He and Dennehy have a great scene with a “who’s on first” style attempt to unravel the wild story Gloria is telling them about the second disappearing dead body she’s run across in two nights. Marilyn Sokol plays Gloria’s fellow librarian friend who is packing and ready to deck anyone who messes with Stella “unless Stella wants to be messed.” I have to agree, after reading a comment at IMDB, that “messed” was not the original word planned in that sentence. Refer back to the scrabble reference.

But the best secondary character of the entire film, hell almost the best character period, is Stanley Tibbets played by Dudley Moore. Stanley’s got a “Beaver Trap” apartment complete with a quadraphonic sound system, swing out Murphy bed, mirrored ceiling, blow up dolls, projector, a full bar and binoculars. After looking at his closet full of gadgets, a stunned Gloria comments “I never knew the diversity!” God love him, poor Stanley keeps getting caught up in Gloria’s perils when all he’s trying to do is get laid. The city of San Francisco should also get acknowledged as it looks gorgeous and provides the streets for the final wild cross town ride that almost ends the movie.

It’s definitely dated, totally un-PC, can be quite violent at times but it still makes me laugh even after more than 30 years. Remember it’s basically a light hearted romp so don’t take it too seriously. Just have fun with it.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Everyone Says I Love You
2. Friday Film Review: The Rage of Paris
3. Friday Film Review: Away We Go

Since today is Veteran’s Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in many other countries, I decided to pick a film to pay tribute to those who’ve served. But I didn’t want preachy so that ruled out such things as “The Americanization of Emily.” And it had to have some romance so that ruled out a lot of others. With time running out to get this review done, I remembered a film I’d been thinking of reviewing for a while and here it is.

Lt Commander Matt Sherman’s (Cary Grant) submarine, Sea Tiger, got strafed and shot up pretty badly during a Japanese attack but, unwilling to give up on her before she’s seen any action (It would be like a beautiful woman dying an old maid), he talks the port commander into letting his now skeleton crew attempt to patch her up enough for them to get to a naval shipyard for major repairs. Since several of his officers and crew were transferred to other ships, he’s got to take what replacements he can get and what Sea Tiger gets is a new Supply Officer Lt. Nick Holden (Tony Curtis) who takes scavenging to new heights – or depths depending on if it’s your stuff that just got stolen requisitioned.

But it’s enough for the sub to get under way until a leak forces them to an island where Holden discovers 5 stranded Army nurses. With the Japanese expected there anytime, there’s no way – Holden argues – that Sherman can leave them there. Disgruntled but unable to argue with the facts, Sherman reluctantly takes the women on board then prays he can keep his men from trying to exchange information about the facts of life with their pretty new shipmates while they duck and dodge their way across the Pacific.

First some things to mention. This is a fluffy movie played for laughs and fun. There are a few moments which are supposed to be tense but with the tone of the film already set by then, it’s pretty obvious that nothing bad is going to happen and no one is going to die. Well, unless you’re Seaman Hornsby. By this point, people were ready to see comedies about WWII, which is mainly what the first half is about, and Hollywood “sex comedies” (tame by today’s standards) filled with busty leading ladies were being cranked out full blast, which is mainly what the second half is. This is also not a PC movie by today’s standards, though it’s held up better than a lot of other 50+ year old films, yet at the same time it’s also fairly tame with no nudity, sex scenes or profanities. There are lots of sexual innuendoes and the cramped quarters are used to good effect but it’s done in pretty light hearted fun and IMHO, you’d have to work at it to be offended.

Grant and Curtis’s characters both find their lady loves among the nurses but the film is actually more a bromance than a romance since they’re the ones with the major interactions. The way these two play off each other is wonderful though the humor never feels forced. Unlike Grant’s OTT performance in “Arsenic and Old Lace,” here he’s subtle. Watch Grant’s face as much as you listen to his dialogue because he’s a master at conveying a lot with only a wry look and a well timed pause. Con man Curtis is given some great lines to deliver but he doesn’t overdo it either and allows the laughs to flow from the actions and dialogue on screen rather than hamming anything up.

Directed by Blake Edwards, the rest of the cast is filled with a host of famous, soon to be famous and well known faces including Dina Merrill, Gene Evans, Dick Sargent, Arthur O’Connell, Madelyn Rhue, Virginia Gregg, Gavin MacLeod and Marion Ross. I will be honest and say that towards the end of the film, there’s a sort of pile on of events which ends in several island women, their children and a goat coming on board and that the, now pink, Sea Tiger limps into port after evading being sunk solely on the strength of a woman’s brassiere but watching Holden’s early scrounging missions and the way by-the-book Grant reacts to those expeditions is priceless.

Grant is suaveness personified, Curtis is cheeky fun, the rest of the cast backs them up well and the whole is a froth of mindless fun. If you’re willing to sit back and allow yourself to be entertained, there’s a lot here that can do it.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: To Catch a Thief
2. Friday Film Review: Arsenic and Old Lace
3. Friday Film Review: Run Fatboy Run

“This is developing into a very bad habit!” – Mortimer Brewster

I had always heard great things about “Arsenic and Old Lace,” but the first time I sat down and tried to watch this film years ago my reaction was a rip roaring “meh.” After that, I raised an “yeah, right” eyebrow whenever I saw people gushing about how fabulous and wonderful it is. But if nothing else, doing these movie reviews has gotten me to (re) watch a whole lot of movies I never thought I would and searching for this year’s Halloween entry coincided with a broadcast of the film on TCM. With nothing, including even an Netflix rental fee, to lose I set my DVD-R then finally discovered why people love it so much.

Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) and Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane) have just gotten married and stopped off at their respective houses – which are just across an old cemetery from each other – to pick up some things before heading to their honeymoon at Niagara Falls. Mortimer has been raised by his two eccentric aunts Abby (Josephine Hull) and Martha (Jean Adair) along with their brother (John Alexander) who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, blows a trumpet and charges up the staircase like it’s San Juan Hill.

To his horror, Mortimer discovers that there’s a dead body in the window seat and assumes that delusional Teddy has killed someone. But Mortimer is flabbergasted when Abby and Martha calmly tell him that they killed the gentleman as well as eleven other older men. They see it as a charity to end what they see as the suffering of lonely old bachelors and use elderberry wine spiked with arsenic, strychnine and “just a pinch of cyanide.” A stunned Mortimer muses that the wine probably tastes pretty good. Teddy always buries the bodies in the basement assuming that they are yellow fever victims from the building of the Panama Canal.

Frantic to save Teddy from any charges, Mortimer tries to get the papers that will get him committed to a sanitarium in the care of Mr. Witherspoon (Edward Everett Horton) and fobs off an increasingly irate Elaine as to when they’ll leave for their honeymoon. But wait, things are about to get worse.

Mortimer’s psychotic brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) then shows up with his alcoholic plastic surgeon sidekick Dr. Herman Einstein (Peter Lorre) looking for a hideout until Einstein can finish altering Jonathan’s face so he no longer resembles Boris Karloff. Oh, and also dispose of Jonathan’s latest victim, a Mr. Spenalzo.

Can Mortimer get Teddy committed – the neighbors are complaining about the trumpet blowing, keep his aunts from killing any more nice, old men and out of jail, get Jonathon and Einstein out of the house, keep Elaine from getting a divorce before the wedding night and keep the police from finding out everything?

The main reason I didn’t like the movie the first time is Grant’s OTT performance. Since then, I’ve come to appreciate screwball comedies in general and the fact that sane Mortimer is the one going crazy while his crazy relatives are calm and collected. While everyone else acts like there’s nothing wrong, it’s an increasingly frantic Mortimer who has to juggle all these plot threads and keep the movie from spinning out of control. I still think he’s slightly crazed at times but that’s the nature of the film.

Hull and Adair are darling as the doting, dotty but lethal ladies of the Brewster family. I love Aunt Abby’s feather ruffled outrage at Mr. Spenalzo (a foreigner!”) in her window seat as well as how mad she and Martha are when Einstein puts Spenalzo in the same grave with good Methodist Mr. Hoskins. Raymond Massey is menacing as brother Jonathan with his black bag full of gulp inducing instruments. Lorre is hilarious as the schnapps swilling doctor who tries to keep Jonathan from killing his own family (“No! Not the Melbourne method, please! Two hours!”) I don’t care as much for Lane as Elaine. She looks too much like Ginger Rogers and I keep expecting to see Rogers in her place. But she’s adequate in the role.

There are several wonderful actors in secondary roles including Horton doing his usual slightly prissy routine, James Gleason as the harried police lieutenant dealing with beat cop Jack Carson. I can’t recall ever seeing Alexander before but he does a great T.R. impersonation. Also watch for the long suffering taxi driver played by Garry Owen.

Director Frank Capra manages to present the story without showing any dead bodies or much violence. Instead he uses shadows, noise, music, Jonathan’s awful looking instruments and Peter Lorre’s actions and reactions to instill apprehension and infer the fight scene without having to be graphic. With the Hays Code in effect I did wonder at the aunts actually getting away with murder but they do end up in a position where they won’t be able to continue their charitable work and, after all, Jonathan’s crimes are so much worse.

When watching the scenes of unsuspecting Mortimer, and later the police officer, talking about danger while all the while the danger their describing perfectly mirrors the actual danger sneaking up behind them, remember that this started out as a Broadway play and this would probably have played especially well on stage. Boris Karloff was also playing Jonathan in the play hence the jokes about Jonathan looking “kind of like Boris Karloff.”

I am an “Arsenic and Old Lace” convert now. I will anticipate the sequence of Einstein and Jonathan bringing Mr. Spenalzo through the window (“Wait a minute, Johnny. You lost a leg somewhere.”) As well, the hilarious “contest” between the Aunts and Jonathan as to who has killed more people. (“No, no, Johnny. You cannot count him. You got twelve, they got twelve. The old ladies is just as good as you are!’) But most of all, I will enjoy it for the things Capra managed – tension mixed with laughs and murders without ever seeing more than the shadow of a dead body. B

“Oh, don’t worry about Halloween. The pixies won’t be out till after midnight.” – Mortimer Brewster

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Cluny Brown
2. Friday Film Review: Dear Frankie
3. Friday Film Review: Lars and the Real Girl

“Forum,” yet another old favorite of mine, hasn’t weathered the years quite as well as others but is still good for some laughs once it gets going. It’s based on a Broadway production of the same name and is definitely a product of its times. It’s slightly bawdy and 60s sexist, runs towards slapstick and physical comedy and features a grubby Rome that presages the recent HBO series.

I’m going to give the short, uncomplicated version of the plot and base my version on that of John Vogel at IMDB who has summed up the major parts:

Pseudolus (Zero Mostel) is the laziest slave in Rome and has but one wish, to purchase his freedom. When his master and mistress (Michael Hordern and Patricia Jessel) leave for the day he finds out that the young master, Hero, (Michael Crawford) has fallen in love with a virgin (Annette Andre) in the house of Lycus (Phil Silvers), a slave dealer specializing in beautiful women. Pseudolus concocts a deal in which he will be freed if he can procure the girl for young Hero. Of course, it can’t be that simple as everything begins to go wrong. The virgin Philia has already been sold to a Roman captain Miles Gloriosus (Leon Greene) who threatens death and destruction if she’s not delivered, virgo intacta, on time and Hysterium (Jack Gilford), a fellow slave to Pseudolus gets dragged into the mix as the action spirals out of control. Meanwhile Erronius (Buster Keaton) continues his years long search for this two children who were stolen in infancy by pirates.

Having never seen the Broadway production, I don’t miss all the dialogue and Sondheim songs which were cut for the film. I didn’t realize until recently that Richard Lester directed this but as I love his version of “The Three Musketeers” and “The Four Musketeers” it’s easy to see the similarities. The same frenetic directing style and “lived in” city are present as well as the visual jokes and a culmination scene that brings together most of the cast to tie things up.

I do enjoy watching Mostel’s wide open portrayal of Pseudolus. It’s a role meant to be overplayed and he does it wonderfully. Hordern’s henpecked Senex, Gilford’s hysterical Hysterium and Greene’s “full of himself” Gloriosus are treats as well. Silvers does a nice version of an effusive panderer while Jessel is a Roman Matron battle-ax who would put fear into the heart of Jupiter. Watch for Buster Keaton who steals whatever scenes he’s in and who I wish had a larger role. Hero as played by Crawford is basically a Roman version of an upperclass English twit and Andre lives up to her song “Lovely, all I am is lovely. It’s the one thing I can do.” I’m not sure if this is intentional or just those two actors. A bit part to look for is Roy Kinnear, one of Lester’s friends, as a gladiatorial trainer trying to get his student to master the art of the mace.

The portrayal of the courtesans will either make you laugh or piss you off – or maybe both. They’re mainly body parts in push up bras with vivid blue eye shadow and back-combed beehive hairstyles. The dances they do as they’re presented to Pseudolus and Hero remind me of nothing so much as swinging 60s club dancers. All they really need to complete the look would be go-go boots.

Though a lot of the songs from the stage production have been cut some great ones remain including the opening “Comedy Tonight,” the cheeky “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid,” and Miles Gloriosus’s tribute to his greatness, “My Bride.” The frantic chariot sequence is funny even if it might carry on just a bit too long. If you like the opening animation from HBO’s “Rome” wait for the closing credits here. They’re fabulous.

My recent viewing of this film is a less successful trip down memory lane yet still enjoyable enough to review here for those who have seen it and liked it or those who might enjoy the style of Lester’s directing. I think it’s a film to watch for what’s good and skim over what doesn’t work so well. It’s also a tribute to the power of mare sweat. Like a reviewer at IMDB all I’ll say is you have to see the film to appreciate that.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. My First Sale by J.L. Miles, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Published
2. Gay Writes Friday Film Review: Beautiful Thing
3. Friday Film Review: The Slipper and the Rose

When I reviewed “Cyrano de Bergerac,” some of you said you couldn’t watch or didn’t want to watch it or hated it because of the tragic ending. I can understand that. More often I’m in the mood for a HEA too. So here one is in the form of an updated version of Edmond Rostand’s famous story. And this time, the right guy gets the girl.

Fire department chief C.D. “Charlie” Bales (Steve Martin) is a great guy. He’s charming, witty, friendly, kind, intelligent and caring. He’s also got an incredibly huge nose. When he meets summer resident and astronomy student Roxanne (Daryl Hannah) he’s smitten but she’s only got eyes for new handsome fire fighter Chris (Rick Rossovich). Chris is also hopeless when it comes to interacting with women and frustrates Roxanne by refusing to talk to her. So she asks C.D. to help them, not knowing of his feelings for her. Will C.D. ever work up enough courage to tell Roxanne what he feels even as he vicariously woos her for his friend?

If you know anything about the original story, you’ll notice how cleverly this remake/update works those details into the plot. C.D. is great with words as shown in the “20 insults” scene at the bar when he chastises someone who insults his nose then goes on to spontaneously come up with 20 much more clever things the man could have said. They aren’t delivered as a poem but still show C.D.’s superior intellect. Roxanne is an astronomer which was a hobby of the original Cyrano. C.D. shows his fencing skill not with a sword but a tennis racket – the scene is hilarious. Instead of whispering the words to Chris to woo Roxanne with, C.D. initially uses a short wave radio with a transmitter hidden under a cap Chris wears then finally resorts to charades and pantomimes.

There are several people in town who act the part of C.D.’s friends as well as the other fire fighters who stand in for the Gascogne cadets. There’s a funny scene of C.D. falling out of a tree as he spies on Roxanne only to almost land on top of four older ladies. He spins a story about having almost been abducted by aliens which resembles the “man falling from the moon” tale told by Cyrano to the jealous Comte – which is one subplot that is otherwise dropped in this version of the story. But never fear, if you haven’t read the play or seen other Cyrano movies, you won’t feel like you’re missing things or are being left out of the inside jokes.

As with any telling of the Cyrano story, the main emphasis is on the man himself and thus this is really Steve Martin’s movie. He does great physical as well as verbal comedy. I don’t think he did all the gymnastic entries into Roxanne’s rental house but he does fence with the tennis racket, act out the aliens, and leads his volunteer fire fighters in proper hose technique then waltzes to their efforts – you have to see that part to appreciate it. Martin tones down his wackiness – often it’s the other characters who take this up – and instead gives a charming, sensitive performance.

Daryl Hannah is lovely as Roxanne is supposed to be but also pulls off the job of being as intelligent as this character is portrayed. She’s still dazzled by a pretty face but now gets a scene of anger at the realization of the scam pulled on her and finally – for this character – sees beyond the physical to the true worth of the man who has loved her from afar. As for the pretty face, Rossovich is more than cute as the tongue tied, airhead Chris and I ended up still liking him despite the shallowness – he had to be gotten out of the way – of his character here.

Shelley Duvall, Fred Willard, an early Damon Wayans, and – my favorite – Michael J. Pollard are some of the secondary actors who all do good jobs. Oh, and there’s Flossie the cow and Grover the cat who is the one responsible for Roxanne and C.D. meeting in the first place.

Lots of historical stories which are updated and presented as contemporaries fail to work for me. Many of the plot details just don’t fit in the modern world or the work arounds are so cumbersome that it makes the whole thing to clunky and unbelievable. Here I think the filmmakers have done a great job of keeping the basics, updating some of the details and jettisoning what would have ground the story to a halt. And even though the film is almost 25 years old, it doesn’t feel 80s dated either. Wooh – twofer! For those who don’t like Cyrano due to the unhappy ending – here ya go. B

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Cyrano de Bergerac
2. Friday Film Review: Everyone Says I Love You
3. Friday Film Review: The Reluctant Debutante

Tuesday August 16th would be La Heyer’s 109 birthday and to celebrate Jane urged us to dust off our copies of her books and write reviews. I pondered and thought and recalled how much I’ve always enjoyed “Powder and Patch.” I know it’s not one of the best beloved of her books but it is one of mine. I first read it when I was about 14 and will readily admit that it made me a fan of Georgian era books. The silk coats, the small swords, powdered wigs and red heeled shoes! Ah, bliss.

In his day, Sir Maurice Jettan was a bon vivant and a darling of the ladies. Well known in Paris as well as London, he cut a fine figure before settling down with his lady love and fathering a son, Philip. But though Maurice loves his son dearly, he despairs of him as Philip is happy in the country, on their estate, and has no thoughts or desires to ever leave. Philip is, his father declares, rather dull. A neighborhood miss, the ravishing Cleone Charteris, also feels Philip could use some polish though deep in her heart, she loves him only.

When an older childhood acquaintance, Charles Bancroft, returns to Little Fittledean and flirts with Cleone while simultaneously mocking Philip, Philip has had enough. He challenges Charles to a duel but is quickly pinked. Deciding the only way to win Cleone and satisfy his father is to give in to what they want of him, he declares he’ll leave for Paris, acquire polish and, in a word, show them. Off to the City of Light he goes where as the son of Sir Maurice, doors are open to him and friends are quickly made.

But when word of his success reaches Little Fittledean, Cleone gets the mistaken impression that he’s fought a duel over a French lady love and decides to head to London for a Season of her own. Her triumph and the number of men swarming around her bring Philip back to England, determined to win his lady once and for all. But when Maurice and Cleone see what Philip has become, will they rethink getting what they wished for? Or has he really changed all that much?

I first read this book as a teenager and identified with Philip and Cleone. They love but their pride gets in their way and all sorts of (idiotic to me now though also funny) things ensue. Young love, strong passion, stupid actions. They both, at various times, need to be thumped over the head and made to see reason. Luckily for them they are surrounded by older and wiser heads who take almost delicious delight in said thumping.

But I get ahead of myself. The book does start slightly slowly as we get a few chapters setting the stage and the characters. Be patient. Keep going. Trust me. When Philip gets to Paris and we see his transformation, it’s all worth it. It’s also hilarious. He goes from a man who could care less about his three old, battered, coats to one who wears grey lace (A sweet conceit, hein?) and has pink hummingbirds on his clocked stockings. And his valet! Francois is a marvel. A man who throws tantrums over the almost loss of said bas aux oiseaux-mouches but who delights in making sure his master is well turned out. But though Francois seems resigned to shortly gaining a mistress of the household, I do wonder how he, Jacques – the groom – and the cousin of Francois who is now Philip’s chef, will fair in Little Fittledean. Watch for the account of the second meeting between Philip and Bancroft, this time in Paris and to the accompaniment of a fiddler and all of Philip’s French friends.

So, Philip returns to London determined to win Cleone once and for all but of course it couldn’t go that easily and Heyer has fun twisting the two of them around with the help of another old childhood friend and a roguish English gentleman as Cleone finds herself engaged to two men on the same night. Fear not though, her reputation will be saved by the earlier head thumping I mentioned which is delivered by Sir Maurice along with two other delightful characters – Maurice’s younger brother Tom and the lady Tom has secretly loved for many years, Lady Sally Malmerstoke. I want to be Lady Sally in a few years – she says her mind no matter to whom, wears outrageous wigs, tells it like she sees it – listen to her giving Philip a curt lesson in what young ladies say vs what they really think – and delights in the possibility of a little scandal. She also has Tom dangling on a string though she’s merciful to him in the end.

To me “Powder and Patch” is a charming little bonbon of a book. It helps to have a picture of gentlemen’s clothes of the day so as to fully appreciate how much Philip has changed on the surface though recall, if you will, that he has a masterful chin and as Sally Malmerstoke says, such men always get what they want. Cleone is a silly chit but what young woman hasn’t wanted to be admired and courted with sweet nothings whispered in her dainty ears. And as for Philip, is it so wrong that he wants to be loved for who and how he is? Here the young really can be ridiculous at times and in the intervening years, I’ve come to admire and appreciate their elders who steer les enfants away from their foolish pride and back to sensible actions. I loved the book 30 some years ago and it still stands the test of time for me today. B+

~Jayne

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | nook | Sony | Kobo

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
2. GUEST REVIEW: Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
3. REVIEW: Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer

We read so many books here about “The Season” that I thought it appropriate to review this movie set during the last official one before the Queen pulled the plug on it in 1958. Though it was probably watched more for Sandra Dee and John Saxon during its release, today I watch it more for the bravura comedic performances by Kay Kendall and Rex Harrison as the harried father and stepmother trying to launch his daughter and one-up her second cousin once removed (“And once isn’t far enough.”)

Lord James Broadbent (Rex Harrison) and his second wife, Lady Sheila (Kay Kendall) are expecting his American daughter Jane (Sandra Dee) for a summer vacation in London. While picking her up at the airport, they run into Sheila’s distant relative Lady Mabel Claremont (Angela Lansbury) and her daughter Clarissa (Diane Clare). Bossy chatterbox Mabel, who steamrolls her way through life, insists on riding back with the Broadbents. And while the two young women are dropped off to see some of the sights of London, including a guardsman David Fenner (Peter Myers) with whom Clarissa is in love, Mabel regales Sheila with tales of how wonderful a Season is (Sheila didn’t have one because of the war) until Sheila just has to get her own back by announcing that she and Jimmy have decided to surprise Jane with a Season of her own.

And so starts a whirlwind of parties and endless nights for Jane to dance with uppercrust English twits who bore her silly until she meets handsome American David Parkson (John Saxon). But Parkson is a dark horse with a past that Mabel takes great care to gossip to Sheila and Jimmy about in a funny scene at a ball, after which Sheila declares him persona non grata in favor of Clarissa’s drippy beau David Fenner. But Jane knows her own mind and no one but Parkson will do. Now it’s up to Jimmy and Parkson to come up with some way to change Sheila’s mind without making it obvious they’re changing her mind (“Truth doesn’t mean the same to a woman as it does to a man. To them it’s what they want to believe regardless of the facts.”).

Put aside modern sensibilities and forget that this is a story about a 17 year old Jane finding her HEA after a few short weeks with 23 year old David. I’m sure it played better in 1958 but now it does make me cringe a bit. In fact, there’s even a scene in which Jimmy Broadbent denounces the whole rigmarole as nothing more than mothers dolling up innocent goats then staking them out in the hopes of catching a passing tiger. To me and to many who love the film, it’s all about the adults.

There are several delightfully catty scenes of Sheila and Mabel trying to outdo each other through their daughters with triumphant smirks all around when things go their way. There’s also poor Jimmy having to not only foot the bill but also survive late nights at parties before early days in the office. I’d begin to haunt the bar looking for the dregs of whatever drinks are left at 2 am too. Listen for how an exhausted Jimmy mistakenly announces them as they trudge into yet another ballroom on 3 hours of sleep.

It’s obvious from the beginning who Jane will fall for and for whom she won’t. John Saxon is darkly handsome and, as depicted in later scenes with Jane after her ball, almost too good to be true while Peter Meyer plays the plummy voiced David Fenner as a human GPS drip. The look on Sheila’s face in the final scene when she discovers who David Parkson really is is priceless as are the proceeding scenes as she and Jimmy ineptly attempt to spy on Jane and Parkson. There’s a sweet undertone to the relationship between father and daughter which balances that of Sheila and Mabel and it’s funny to watch Jimmy plan to manipulate Sheila in the same manner which women normally reserve to outmaneuver their men.

And oh, the fashions. This was still an era when airline travel was glamorous and young women wore hats and gloves while doing it. As seen at the parties, England expected every bolt of tulle to do its duty as a debutante dress and everyone wore opera length gloves. However I want the Balmain gowns worn by Kendall and Lansbury – too divine – and the fab London Broadbent townhouse – even if I know it’s probably just a soundstage.

Finally! there’s an official DVD for sale (check at TCM – it’s on sale now) plus there are used copies of VHS tapes online. I made my DVD copy off a telecast on TCM. There are some sites offering a DVD-R copy though I’ve never ordered anything from them and can’t guarantee what they sell.

Kendall and Harrison, married in real life, have marvelous chemistry here and Angela Lansbury is great fun in a comedic role. Sandra Dee proves she actually can act as does John Saxon. It’s lighthearted fluff but very entertaining fluff and a film I think a lot of romance fans will appreciate.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Rachel and the Stranger
2. Friday Film Review: love jones (1997)
3. Friday Film Review: Sabrina

It’ll soon be that time of year again, when we get contacted about the organized hell that are High School Reunions. “Festivals of Pain” as one character here calls this one, when we see people we’ve barely thought of in 10, 20, 30 years and wince as we look back on our class pictures. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could arrive and casually mention that you’re a professional killer? That’d get some looks!

With apologies to “Afterburner” I’m going to snag, but slightly modify, the IMDB synopsis of the plot.

Martin Blank (John Cusak) is a freelance hitman who starts to develop a conscience, which causes him to muff a couple of routine assignments. On the advice of his secretary (Joan Cusak) and his psychiatrist (Alan Arkin), he attends his 10th year High School reunion in Grosse Pointe, Michigan (a Detroit suburb where he’s also contracted to kill someone). Hot on his tail are a couple of over-enthusiastic federal agents (Hank Azaria and K. Todd Freeman), another assassin who wants to kill him, and Grocer (Dan Aykroyd), an assassin who wants him to join an “Assassin’s Union.” Plus there’s his high school sweetheart (Minnie Driver) he left waiting in her prom dress 10 years ago who might, or might not, want to figuratively kill him too.

On someone’s advice from a previous review, forgive me I can’t recall who or which review, I put this one in the rental queue and loved it. I’ve since added it to my growing DVD collection – doing these reviews is playing fun havoc with my credit card – and enjoy it each time I pull it out. It also serves to solidify my certainty that I will never attend a class reunion if I can possibly avoid it. Gah!

Popcorn! I love the assassin “spy vs spy” (for those of you who’ve ever read Mad Magazine) stuff that Blank and Grocer engage in. The careful meetings where each has one hand on his gun and the final showdown when we see that television – or in this case A television – really can kill you! The firefight at the Ultimart is hilarious too.

Minnie Driver is fantastic as Martin’s abandoned girlfriend who gives him hell “on the air” when he shows up after 10 years. She manages to avoid doing “bitter” or “my life stopped 10 years ago and I’ve never gotten over you” while retaining a confident sense of humor and not letting Martin off the hook. She makes it easy to see why Martin would never have forgotten her and decides to turn his life around to keep her in it.

John Cusak is Martin Blank, a sort of loner who discovered a moral flexibility while in the Army which has allowed him to become a rich professional killer. And I’m amazed at how many people in town he tells what he does for a living as well as their humorous responses to the news. “Do you get dental with that?” His sister Joan cracks me up as Martin’s secretary who needles him into going to the reunion as she coolly orders more hollow point bullets for him. She definitely deserves the profit sharing.

And then there’s the reunion when Martin discovers that a real friend really will help him dispose of the body. As well as being able to get pens, have a chance to break into his old locker, put those motivational hall banners to actual good use and dance to oldies but goodies. The soundtrack for the film is fabulous. I love the stuff he comes up with before heading to the High School to tell people what he’s done with his life. Pet psychiatrist, couch insurance, test marketing positive thinking and leading a men’s group – “We specialize in ritualized killings.”

But wait, there’s more! The final showdown during which Martin saves the day, ponders the meaning of his life and what he’s done for the past few years then proposes to Debi is worth the price of admission. I laughed myself silly when Martin finishes up one assassin by bashing him with a frying pan. I will say that the Newberry house is going to need a lot of refurb’ing before going back on the market, though.

The film is clever, funny, with action sequences so OTT that you can sit back and enjoy them as entertainment and not worry that you’re laughing at and with assassins. It has a strong heroine and an introspective killer hero who truly seems to have a “newfound respect for life.” The music is great, the actors are well cast and it’s certainly not your usual rom-com. Here’s a big “Thanks!” to whoever recommended it to me.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Never Say Goodbye
2. Friday Film Review: Say Anything
3. Friday Film Review: Run Fatboy Run

I’d been toying with watching this movie for a while, ever since I got in the Cinderella kick, but negative comments about its adaptation from the book always put me off. But then I thought, “Jayne you haven’t read the book so what do you care?” Into my Netflix queue it went. Though I have some reservations about it – which are the type which emerged afterwards as I thought more about it – it’s a film that I think would be especially good and empowering for younger girls to see.

Ella of Frell (Anne Hathaway) was given – cursed with? – the gift of obedience by the Fairy Lucinda (Viveca Fox) who is known for her bad gifts to newborns. Ella has to do whatever anyone tells her and everyone around her who loves her has to watch what they say. This wasn’t so much of a problem when her mother was alive but after her death, Ella’s father (Patrick Bergin) marries a vile woman (Joanna Lumley) with two terrible daughters Hattie (Lucy Punch) and Olive (Jennifer Higham) who quickly discover the curse and use it to their advantage.

There reaches a point when Ella has had enough and sets off to find Lucinda and make her take back the “gift.” Along the way she again meets Prince Char (Hugh Dancy), with whom she had an earlier run in, an elf (Aiden McArdle) who wants to be a lawyer but who is forbidden by the harsh segregation laws put in place by Char’s uncle and guardian Edgar (Cary Elwes), as well as ogres and giants also discriminated against by those laws.

As they travel to Lamia for Char’s coronation, Ella and Char start to fall in love and Char begins to see the effect Edgar has had on the kingdom. But Edgar isn’t about to lose his hold on power and after meeting Hattie and Olive, he devises the perfect plan to eliminate Char. Can Ella stop his evil intentions, save the man she loves and overcome her curse?

The opening song of the film, “Strange Magic” by ELO, told me immediately that I would love the music used. Another favorite of mine, “Somebody to Love” by Queen, is turned into a show stopping performance for Ella and there’s a fabulous group effort at the end to a catchy “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” which is a strange choice for a wedding but bouncy to watch nonetheless.

This a fractured fairy tale in the vein of “Shrek” or “Princess Bride” and a lot of the fun is catching all the references, puns and jokes slyly inserted in not only the dialogue but also the background sets. Let’s just say the Grimm Brothers don’t come off well. I’ll be honest and say I don’t think it quite matches either of those other films but obviously a lot of effort and care was put into it. Ditto for the sets as a whole which are fabulous as well as the stunning opening sequence. Watch how the Miramax illustration merges into and becomes a medieval world. And since it’s a fairy tale world the waltzing, line dancing, red ninjas and “Batox” didn’t bother me at all.

It’s also an obvious YA girl empowerment vehicle. Ella defends herself and saves others though Prince Char does lend a hand a few times. Ella also ends up being the one to save Char – which even though it’s only once, to his rescuing her twice, is done when it counts – and finds the inner strength to break the curse of her “gift.” She’s the one who opens Char’s eyes to the injustices in his kingdom and, I’m pretty sure, will always be the brains and heart of his reign. But I like that Char knows from the start that Ella is a strong personality and loves her for exactly who she is. She’s the one who makes him want to be a better king and man.

All the actors do a marvelous job in their roles though I think Minnie Driver, Viveca Fox, and Parminder Nagra are criminally underused. Lucy Hatch is a stand out as the crueler sister who is also the leader of one of Char’s “boy band” fan clubs. It’s nice to see Lumley again in a role reminiscent of Ab Fab and Cary Elwes as the opposite of himself in “Princess Bride.” But one of my favorite “characters” is actually CGI – Steve Coogan as the voice of the sinister mix of Kaa and Shere Khan from “Jungle Book” – Heston the snake.

I watched this a few days before writing the review and thinking back on it, the film might be a little too earnest in its efforts to be PC, empowering and inclusive. The overall message is a great one but I found the ‘days after’ feel a touch too sweet. But, in an about face, I also think it’s a film that rewards repeated viewings – as I found myself when I watched parts of it with the commentary track on. It’s snappy, happy, toe tapping fun. Perhaps a little silly yet “Charmant” all the same.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Hail the Conquering Hero
2. Friday Film Review: Tremors
3. Friday Film Review: Run Fatboy Run

So I’ve started a quest to see more Simon Pegg movies and put this one in my Netflix queue. It’s got a lower star ranking than does “Hot Fuzz” or “Shaun of the Dead” so I went into it with lower expectations. Luckily for me, it exceeded those expectations by being a fun and touching film.

Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg) is, not to put too fine a point on it, a loser. Five years ago on the day of his wedding to his pregnant girlfriend Libby (the lovely Thandie Newton), he panicked and did a runner. Now he’s discovered that she has someone new in her life and it might be serious. Whit (Hank Azaria) is everything Dennis isn’t: successful, considerate, in shape and the perfect boyfriend plus he loves Dennis and Libby’s son Jake (Matthew Fenton, who is adorable).

Desperate to get back into Libby’s life, Dennis vows to run the same marathon Whit will be running. The catch? Dennis is in terrible shape and the race is only 3 weeks away. Can he, with the help of Libby’s cousin Gordon (Dylan Moran), who’s bet a bundle on him, and his landlord Mr. Gosdashtidar (the hilarious Harish Patel), shape up and actually have a hope in hell of finishing the race? And if he can, what might that lead to?

Okay, this isn’t quite as good as either “Shaun” or “Fuzz” but it’s charming in its own way. In addition to being a rom com, it’s also about Dennis’s relationship with his son and how Dennis changes himself. Yeah, some of his motivation is the fact that Gordon has bet heavily with a few fairly shady characters on Dennis finishing the race and that Mr. Goshdashtidar can wield a mean spatula to Dennis’s backside to “encourage” his training sessions, but in the end it’s Dennis who makes the decision to try and change himself for the better.

Hank Azaria is fabulous playing the straight man whose layers are slowly peeled away. Part of the tension in the film is wondering if he’s really as great as we first see him to be and worrying over whether Dennis truly has a chance to try and win Libby back. Without turning into a shrew or a hardhearted woman, Thandie Newton gets the exact look of disillusionment with Dennis’s antics needed to convey how badly he hurt her.

The film pokes fun at all the “training to win” movies (watch for Dennis’s first workout session and when he’s trying to drink eggs) then adds Pegg’s own fantastic bits (dealing with the rash he gets “in the scrotal zone” while at work). He plays his character straight which also gets us past some of what would otherwise be silly or cloying moments in the film. The finale of the marathon might strike some as too “feel good” but there’s been enough fun along the way to balance it all out.

If most any other British actors (Hugh Grant’s endless, stuttering romantic comedy roles immediately come to mind) had played Dennis, I doubt I would have enjoyed the film half so much. It’s Pegg’s earnest befuddlement that sells the show. It’s the fact that he begins as such a complete loser (watch for what the little old lady in Libby’s bakery calls him) and really has little room to sink much lower that allows him to rise to the point where we’re cheering him on and hoping for a reconciliation.

I love the fact that the film ends with hope. As the director, David Schwimmer, and Pegg said, the movie could have been sandwiched between two weddings. But instead, they chose to have Dennis win the chance to maybe win Libby back. It’s a feel good ending without us being forced to “feel good.” For those who are beginning to work their way through Pegg’s oeuvre, this is a nice stop along the way.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Shaun of the Dead
2. Friday Film Review: The Big Easy
3. Friday Film Review: My Best Friend’s Wedding

The first time I saw this film was with a dear friend of mine who told me I’d love it. Me, I was skeptical since I wasn’t really into romantic comedies then but by the end of the movie, I was in love with it. So in love that I went home and bought my own VHS copy – which has since been replaced with a DVD. I wanted Lucy’s romance, and Lucy’s future family-in-law and Lucy’s HEA. And each time I see it, I still do.

CTA token booth agent Lucy Moderatz (Sandra Bullock) falls in love with Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher) the first time she sees him. Too shy to say anything to him, she yearns from afar until the day that muggers knock Peter into the path of an oncoming express train and Lucy saves his life. Now a mix up at the hospital, where Peter is in a coma, has his whole family thinking that Lucy is Peter’s fiancee.

The big hearted Callaghan clan welcomes her with open arms and Lucy, who is alone in the world except for her cat, can’t help but fall in love with them even as she’s racked with guilt about lying to them. But it isn’t until brother Jack (Bill Pullman) arrives on the scene that she’s really in trouble. As the days go by and these two spend more time together, Lucy finds herself falling for the wrong brother just as Jack is falling for her. So, what’s going to happen when Peter finally comes out of his coma?

This is such a feel good movie – but it’s not one that’s so desperate to be one that it shoves it’s feel-goodness in your face. It just gently moves along and catches you in its magic. And right when it starts to edge in the vague direction of maybe a little too treacley, Ox (Peter Boyle), Saul (Jack Warner) or Elsie (Glynis Johns) slips in a sharp comic line to make you laugh again. Or Lucy has to prove herself by explaining about Peter’s testicle which is an owie moment.

Sandra Bullock manages to play Lucy in such a way that I don’t think she’s a sad, lonely loser. Instead she’s a woman who just hasn’t met that special someone who sees beyond her shy exterior yet. And Bill Pullman is fabulous as the man who suspects something is off, after all she leans into Joe Jr, but who falls for Lucy anyway because “I’d say that she gets under your skin as soon as you meet her. She drives you so nuts you don’t know whether to hug her or, or just really arm wrestle her. She would go all the way to Europe just to get a stamp in her passport. I don’t know if that amounts to insanity, or just being really, really… likable.” And because this is the first time he’s envied his brother anything.

The film has so many great scenes: the opening the Christmas presents at the Callaghans – where they’ve hung a handmade stocking for Lucy, several scenes between Jack and Lucy as they move a love seat present into Peter’s apartment or walk home through the cold only to slip on the ice in front of Lucy’s apartment, Saul and Lucy’s conversation about the Callaghan family, the dinner scene with the creamy mash potatoes, the hilarious wedding scene and the final proposal scene with the whole Callaghan family.

It’s also got some of my favorite actors like Jack Warner, Peter Boyle, Glynis Johns, and actors new to me like Micole Mercurio as Midge Callaghan, Michael Rispoli – he of the butt crackage – as the obnoxious son of Lucy’s apartment manager and Jason Bernard as Jerry, Lucy’s boss with whom she has some of the funniest conversations in the movie.

Lucy: I’m having an affair. I like Jack.
Jerry: Who’s Jack?
Lucy: Peter’s brother.
Jerry: So?
Lucy: So he thinks I’m engaged.
Jerry: To who?
Lucy: To Peter.
Jerry: Lucy, I really don’t have time for this.
Lucy: No, you have to tell me what to do.
Jerry: Tell the truth.
Lucy: If I tell Jack I lied to his family he will *never* speak to me again. And Ox and Midge and Mary and Saul.
Jerry: Saul? Who’s Saul?
Lucy: The next door neighbor. But you know what? Actually, he knows.
Jerry: Lucy, you are born into a family. You do not join them like you do the marines.
Lucy: So what should I do?
Jerry: Pull the plug.
Lucy: You’re sick.
Jerry: I’m sick? You’re cheating on a vegetable.

Jerry: So what’s the big deal?
Lucy: What’s the big deal? Jerry, they think I’m their future daughter in law. And the grandma has got this heart thing and if I tell them the truth, she’s gonna have a heart attack and die and it’s gonna be on my head.
Jerry: Well, go along with it and when Peter comes out of the coma the family’ll be so happy they won’t care that you lied to them. They’ll probably even thank you for it.
Lucy: [to hot dog vendor] *Just* Mustard.
[to Jerry] Lucy: Ok, what if he *doesn’t* come out of his coma?
Jerry: Then who’s to know?
Lucy: [groans] Jerry: Listen, Lucy, when I told my mother I was getting married to my wife, her intestines exploded. You tell them the truth now, you may as well shoot grandma.

I love to watch Lucy skate on the edge of being found out yet realistically get out of it each time. Which she manages without lying – too much. And who wouldn’t fall for the man who buys you a Florence snow globe just because you once told him you want to go there? Sigh… After I finish watching “While You Were Sleeping,” I have a big smile on my face and feel happy all over. Plus the paperboy falling off his bike always gets a laugh too.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Jack and Sarah
2. Friday Film Review: Smokey and the Bandit
3. Friday Film Review: Paperback Hero

Yes, this one is dated and seems terribly sexist but how can you go wrong with two BFFs who do some fab Parisian shopping then find love. And while at first it looks like nothing else except tight tops and tighter skirts, if you listen to the lines, these two girls from Little Rock are actually quite smart.

Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) and Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell) are two stage performers and best friends. Lee has snagged a rich fiance, Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan), but his father disapproves. They had planned to sail to Europe on the Ile de France and get married there but with daddy mad at Gus, the plans change. The two women are to sail with Dorothy acting as Lorelei’s chaperone. But Mr. Esmond senior sets a private detective Ernie Malone (Elliott Reid) on Lorelie to see what she does on the journey.

Lorelie’s irrepressible love of diamonds gets her into trouble as does her incessant matchmaking for Dorothy (looking on the ship’s passenger list for men listed “with valet” doesn’t always work). When the two figure out that the man who’s been wining and dining Dorothy is actually the PI, they use their talents to get the incriminating pictures back. But the damage is done and the two find themselves stranded in Paris with no money. Not to worry – they’ll sing their way out of trouble in a nightclub, and a French court of law, while winning back the two men who love them.

Some of the older bombshell movies haven’t aged well but this one does. Monroe and Russell rarely looked better, especially in the 50s fashions made for fuller figured gals. It’s no wonder that men followed them like lemmings throughout the movie. And there are plenty of opportunities to watch Monroe’s famous “walk.” The whole movie is in vivid Technicolor and is a treat for the eye.

But the film also shows that both women were great comedians though with different styles. Dorothy has a dry wit while Marilyn comes off as ditzy scatterbrain – that is until one listens to her arguments to her future father-in-law for why she wants to marry Gus.

Esmond Sr.: Have you got the nerve to tell me you don’t want to marry my son for his money?
Lorelei Lee: It’s true.
Esmond Sr.: Then what do you want to marry him for?
Lorelei Lee: I want to marry him for YOUR money.
Lorelei Lee: Don’t you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn’t marry a girl just because she’s pretty, but my goodness, doesn’t it help?
Mr. Esmond Sr.: Say, they told me you were stupid! You certainly don’t seem stupid to me! Lorelei Lee: I can be smart when I need to be.

These two may play on their looks but they’re just doing what they know the men expect them to do and wrapping those men around their fingers at the same time. And it works for me because these two are never hard edged as they go after what they want. I genuinely believe that Lorelie loves Gus while Malone manages to make it up to Dorothy for what he was hired to do. In this movie the women are strong while their men are actualy fairly weak.

The film is a musical with several wonderful songs including the opener “Two Girls from Little Rock,” “Bye, Bye Baby,” and the iconic “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.” I know I can’t think of Monroe without seeing her in that bright pink dress being carried around the stage as diamonds are dangled around her. The script also manages to be sexy while still following the Hollywood Code of the day.

Watch the film for the songs, the clothes, the male beefcake in the guise of the Olympic Team and the intelligent women portrayed by two actresses with remarkable onstage chemistry. It’s fun, it’s glamorous and it always makes me smile.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Billionaires Prefer Blondes by Suzanne Enoch
2. GUEST REVIEW: Gentlemen Prefer Succubi by Jill Myles
3. Review My Book & Win a Copy of Jill Myles’ Gentlemen Prefer Succubi

Okay, did everyone take my advice last October and watch “Shaun of the Dead?” Because here’s another movie from the same crew that spoofs just about every police movie ever made. Again, don’t worry if you haven’t seen the spoofies. I haven’t and had a blast watching the film anyway. So “bring the noise” and “punch that shit.” “Yarp.”

Constable Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is making the Metropolitan Police Service look bad. His awards, commendations, extra training, rapport with the man on the street and exemplary arrest record are showing up the rest of the service and making everyone look like slackers. So the decision is made to promote him to Sergeant and farm him out to a rural village – Sandford, a model village. Despite his protests, the deal is done and he and his Japanese Peace Lily head out to Gloustershire.

Once there, he begins his new job and faces the disdain of the other police officers who think he thinks he’s too good for them and their small village. But things begin to happen. Soon after Angel arrives, people begin dying. The local police dismiss the deaths as accidents but Angel thinks differently. Can he get his fellow officers to believe him and back him up before it’s too late?

There’s no love interest for Pegg this time around so the film is almost entirely a bromance between Angel and Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) whose love of police movies and questioning of Angel (“Have you ever shot two guns while diving through the air?”) almost drives Angel mad. Since the other officers think Angel is bonkers to believe the deaths are murders, Danny is soon Angel’s only friend. There’s a great scene of the two of them watching films from Danny’s impressive police movie DVD collection after bonding over lagers at the local pub.

I don’t want to spoil the outcome of the film but listen closely to the dialogue and you’ll get clues of what’s to come in this model village where everyone works for The Greater Good. Also check out the music which is wonderful including Adam Ant’s “Goody Two Shoes” played over a montage of Angel’s overachieving actions in London. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

There are so many funny scenes in the film including a spoof of the fence jumping in “Shaun of the Dead,” a runway Swan!, a fruit attack, two blokes and a fuckload of cutlery, plus a timely application of a Japanese Peace Lily to bring down a villain. Watch for a ton of great actors including Timothy Dalton in a smarmy looking mustache.

The violence level is high, including a final scene in the model village that makes me cringe whenever I watch the film. But the laugh level is even higher and this is another film I knew I had to buy a copy of as soon as I’d seen it. Maybe it’s not quite as good as “SotD” but I’d still give it a B+

One question though: What makes a juggler crusty?

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: The Big Easy
2. Friday Film Review: The Closer You Get (aka American Women)
3. Friday Film Review: My Best Friend’s Wedding

The first time I watched “Trouble in Paradise” I fell in love with it. It’s smart, sophisticated, cultured and urbane. And it’s about two crooks who meet, fall in love then take advantage of a situation to instill themselves into the household of a wealthy widow in Paris, planning to take her for all they can get.

The action opens in Venice but not the way such openings normally happen. Instead of a shot of the Piazza San Marco or the grand canal we get….well I won’t spoil the surprise but it’s a classic example of the way Lubitsch tried to turn things on their heads and give the audience something different. The next scene, of a handsome man planning a dinner party for two, tells us that romance is in the works along with – again – something different.

Our first view of Lily (Miriam Hopkins) seems off. Something’s wrong in the way this woman is obviously overplaying her lines. But it’s the director’s way of showing that what we’re seeing isn’t the truth. Then in a shocking turn the handsome man we met earlier calls her a thief. But it’s okay since he, Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) is one too. As the dinner progresses, these two seduce and woo each other by revealing what each has pickpocketed from the other. It’s love at first sight.

The action skips a year then introduces the second woman of the plot via Lubitsch’s take off on the overwrought radio ads of the time. Madame Colet (Kay Francis), of Colet and Company has too much money for her own good and no head for business. But she’s so generous with her wealth that we can’t help but like her. When she thinks she has lost an expensive handbag at the opera, she posts a reward that brings our two con artists – who stole the bag in the first place – into her life.

We then get to watch suave Gaston in action. He’s all charm and Continental sophistication from his command of languages, knowledge of women’s make-up and – guess what? – head for business that Madame Colet soon has him working as her man of business even as she tries to seduce him.

But there’s trouble in paradise as a former mark of Gaston’s, and current co-beaux of Colet’s, puzzles out where they met. Will the truth come out? And whom will Gaston pick as the closing credits roll?

The movie is only 82 minutes long but it’s not a problem as Lubitsch didn’t clog up with works with extraneous subplots. The need to make sharp cuts to hide Marshall’s limp moves the action even faster. And what a delightful example of sexual attraction we get in this pre-code era. It must have been charmingly shocking in its day. Here’s a man who is obviously living with one woman and attracted to another. But as their final scene together shows, Gaston and Madame Colet are regretful but accepting of the reality that Gaston is fated to stay with the one woman who not only loves that he’s a crook but who is one of equal skill herself.

The film is art deco and Bauhaus galore. Its characters are dripping with money in a time when most of the world wasn’t but it gave audiences a chance to fantasize for a while and somehow managed to make them still like this wealthy woman who tossed money around like confetti. That must have been almost as criminal to the viewers of 1932 as Gaston and Lily’s cons and thieving. In fact, there’s not but one character I disliked and that was because of his hypocrisy. There are two other characters, the co-beaux, whom I adore.

This is not a frantic screwball comedy. Instead it is a measured, delicious, shimmering comedy of manners. I think it benefits from repeated viewings and the Criterion DVD I have includes an intro from Peter Bogdanovich (is he doing anything but these intros now?) along with commentary by Lubitsch’s biographer which shines light on the evolution of the film and of the times in which it was made. Give it a try and see one of the best examples of “the Lubitsch touch.”

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Ladyhawke
2. Friday Film Review: Cluny Brown
3. Friday Film Review: Ninotchka

This film was an A for me when I first saw it and it’s only got funnier over the years. Top notch performances from almost everyone in it plus a great script yield a movie that still makes me laugh so much my sides hurt.

Georges (Tom Georgeson), Ken (Michael Palin), Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Otto (Kevin Kline) have planned the perfect jewel robbery. Wanda and Otto have also planned the perfect double cross, while Wanda on her own has got a triple cross up her sleeve. The only problem is that Georges moved the  £13 million of diamonds before Otto made the call to the police telling them Georges did it. Georges isn’t telling anyone where the loot is so Wanda schemes to romance the information out of Georges’s barrister Archie Leach (John Cleese), unhappily married to nagging wife Wendy (Maria Aitken). There’s also the eye witness (Patricia Hayes) to be eliminated. Who will wind up with the diamonds? Who apologies to whom? Who gets eaten? And who’s on the plane to Rio as the credits role?

Cleese and Palin have a long history of being funny in Monty Python sketches but Curtis and Kline blend perfectly into the mix here. There are so many funny scenes and moments – Otto sniffing his armpit, animal lover Ken repeatedly trying to off Mrs. Coady but getting one of her obnoxious Yorkshire terriers each time, Archie dancing around while undressing at a borrowed London flat only to be confronted by a family who has rented it themselves, the juxtaposition of Archie and Wendy’s boring bedtime routines with Otto spouting Italian nonsense while he and Wanda make love, the verbal calisthenics Archie resorts to in the final courtroom showdown and of course the multiple times Otto earns the sobriquet of stupid to name only a few – that I could spend the rest of the review just trying to list them all. Even after years of watching the film, none of the jokes have gotten stale and I could easily click “play” again as soon as “FIN” appears at the end.

Kline won a well deserved Oscar for his OTT, Nietzsche-quoting, gun totting, “asshole” yelling dumb American character. Cleese is an Englishman so repressed after years with his frigid wife that Curtis hits him like a hurricane and blasts him back to life. Palin as the stuttering, animal loving hit man who leaves flowers on the graves of his doggie victims is priceless. And Curtis as a woman cheerfully out for herself who ends up falling in love and getting it all is fantastic. This truly is one of the best comedies I’ve ever watched and I doubt I’ll ever tire of it.

Wanda: [after Otto breaks in on Wanda and Archie in Archie's flat and hangs him out the window] I was dealing with something delicate, Otto. I’m setting up a guy who’s incredibly important to us, who’s going to tell me where the loot is and if they’re going to come and arrest you. And you come loping in like Rambo without a jockstrap and you dangle him out a fifth-floor window. Now, was that smart? Was it shrewd? Was it good tactics? Or was it stupid?
Otto West: Don’t call me stupid.
Wanda: Oh, right! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people! I’ve known sheep that could outwit you. I’ve worn dresses with higher IQs. But you think you’re an intellectual, don’t you, ape?
Otto West: Apes don’t read philosophy.
Wanda: Yes they do, Otto. They just don’t understand it. Now let me correct you on a couple of things, OK? Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not “Every man for himself.” And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up.

God, I love this movie.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Tremors
2. Friday Film Review: Everyone Says I Love You
3. Friday Film Review: Never Say Goodbye

Is there a genre of movie that Woody Allen hasn’t tried? Since I’m not his biggest fan, I can’t say for sure but he certainly has turned his hand to most of them by this time. “Everyone Says I Love You” is another one of those fortuitous Netflix recommendations that’s worked out for me.

Recently I decided to rent it again to see if it would work for a Friday Film Review and discovered that it’s no longer in print and can’t be rented. Major bummer. But once again it was Half.com to the rescue though I did wait a few months to see if the prices would come down a bit. When someone posted it for a more reasonable price, I pounced.

The story revolves around a wealthy New York family. Bob (Alan Alda) and Steffi (Goldie Hawn) have two daughters and a son between them while Steffi and her first husband Joe, have two daughters: Skylar (Drew Barrymore), DJ (Natasha Lyonne) who acts as the narrator, Lane (Gabby Hoffman), Laura (Natalie Portman) and Scott (Lukas Haas). Skylar is engaged to Holden (Edward Norton) and Joe has terrible luck with women.

DJ attempts to help her dad by telling him all about a beautiful woman, Von (Julia Roberts), who’s caught his eye while they are in Venice. Meanwhile back in New York hilarity and mayhem erupt as Skylar breaks off her engagement to Holden once she meets an ex-con, Charles Ferry (Tim Roth) whose cause has been championed by her socially conscious, rich mother Steffi.

There are a few other subplots such as DJ’s man of the week and Scott’s sudden turn towards conservative Republicanism but the main questions are: will Joe finally find the relationship of his dreams and who will Skylar end up with?

After watching the movie and beginning to look back on it, the plot seems to be mainly cobbled together as a framework to hang the songs on. Allen has picked some great ones – My Baby Just Cares for Me, Makin’ Whoopie, Everyone Says I Love You, I’m Through with Love, Enjoy Yourself, Cuddle Up a Little Closer and many more. The dance numbers are fun from the salesmen in Harry Winston’s to the medical staff and patients at the hospital Skylar and Holden have to go to after she accidentally swallows the engagement ring Holden put in her dessert.

The Fifth Avenue penthouse apartment is to die for as are the locations in Venice and Paris. It must be nice to have that kind of money. Sigh…Everyone looks lovely, dresses divinely and, amazingly, sings rather well. Well, maybe except for Woody Allen in one number you can barely hear him in and apparently Drew Barrymore who’s so tone deaf she had to be dubbed. There’s also a neat dance between Goldie Hawn and Woody Allen with Goldie on a wire harness that floats her around the stage.

Since it’s basically an all star cast and the secondary characters are only on screen very briefly, I can’t say much about them except that they seem to do a good job in their small parts. One thing I have to say is that I hope Woody Allen is now over casting himself as the love interest of beautiful women.

For anyone interested in the movie, I’d say try (if you can) to try it first before unloading any money on it. The DVD (from 1998) is just the basic nuts and bolts with no extras beyond subtitles. It’s funny, frothy and enjoyable – just what a musical should be.

~Jayne

FTC discloser – I bought this with my own money.

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Down With Love (2001) & Strictly Ballroom (1992)
2. Friday Film Review: love jones (1997)
3. Friday Film Review: My Best Friend’s Wedding