Reviews

Tender, slice-of-life drama marks an impressive debut for writer/director Eric Mueller. Unlike most queer cinema of the 90's, World and Time Enough eschews ubiquitous drag queens, trendy settings, and bitchy dialogue. It's sensitive, low-key, and modest. A film that's more interested in "quiet moments" than a complex narrative and lots of action. Those who appreciated Bill Sherwood's Parting Glances will probably love this movie, which is a little less urbane and more blue-collar. Viewers with short-attention spans and an affinity for graphic gay sex should definitely avoid at all costs.

Much of the film's success is due to the ingratiating performances of Matt Guidry and Gregory Giles as central characters Mark and Joey. Both actors are spot-on in their portrayals of two men who share a deep, mutual love for one another. Their supportive relationship is a refreshing change from the dysfunctional unions typically presented in films of this kind. Although the actors are both straight in real-life, they are completely believable as onscreen lovers. Like other reviewers, I'd love to see the two together again. Guidry continues to appear in Minneapolis theatre, while Giles is concentrating on theatre in LA. Maybe one day Mueller will do a sequel to show us Mark and Joey, still united I'm sure, years later. I know I'd be the first in line to buy a ticket.

"The Edge of Night" was without a doubt one of the best daytime soaps ever. Unlike other soaps, Edge focused on intelligent, complex mysteries fraught with irony, suspense, and edge-of-your seat action. The show's ensemble cast was probably the best in daytime history, supporting Edge's reputation a classy, well-written, and terrifically acted program. Sadly, after 28 years of superior programming, Edge was dropped in favor of higher-budget, more popular soaps, all of which in effect plagiarized Edge's plots, action, and individuality. Accept no susbstitutes: Edge was The Best!

A true classic in the So Bad It's Good genre. I'm astonished that "A Summer Place" doesn't rank up there with camp icons like "Mommie Dearest" and "Valley of the Dolls". Summer Place is in many ways even more lurid and over-the-top than those potboilers.

The story unfolds like this: Sexually frustrated Richard Egan brings his demonic wife (Connie Ford) and giggly daughter Molly (Sandra Dee) to Pine Island, a summer place for wealthy vacationers. On the island, Egan is reunited with his former lover Dorothy McGuire who now suffers with a dipsomaniacal hubby and horny teenager Johnny (Troy Donahue). Pretty soon, Egan and McGuire have rekindled their flame, while teenagers Molly and Johnny play footsy and try very hard not "to be BAD" (ie, go all the way).

It's typical soapy fare, but what really sets this one apart from the ordinary garden-variety melodrama is some truly inane dialogue, outrageous plotting, and incredibly bizarre acting.

Connie Ford steals the show as a Crawfordesque mother who goes so far as to have Molly's hymen checked by a doctor after Molly is stranded overnight with Johnny following an accident. Later, Molly complains to her father about being forced to wear corsets that flatten her chest. Molly, referring to her breasts, remarks to Dad, "Mother says I jiggle too much. Is that right, Daddy?" "Heh, heh, heh--only in a good way," leers father Richard Egan.

Next, after McGuire and Egan get caught "being bad", Johnny is shipped off to a boarding school during a custody battle (which seems absolutely ludicrous since actor Troy Donahue looks about 36 years old), while Sandra Dee continues to grin and giggle her way through the picture, making Molly look as if she's inhaled a can of nitrous oxide at the dentist's office. Conversely, wooden Troy Donahue seems to be a Method Actor imitating a totem pole.

Donahue and Dee get together on the sly, and when Ford finds out, she promptly slugs Molly, who careens into a plastic Christmas tree. The movie is worth seeing for this hysterically hilarious scene alone!

I almost always refrain from posting negative reviews. What I find ridiculous may be sublime to others. However, this is one movie that I find so disgustingly revolting that I cannot resist adding my unwelcomed two-cents.

If you're one of the three people on earth who hasn't seen the film, PLEASE take my advice and find something more constructive to do with your time.

Director/writer James Cameron has reduced a TRULY horrific event into a ludicrously trite love story that makes Days of Our Lives seem like a Shakespearean tragedy by comparison. Instead of focusing the story on actual people and events, Cameron took the easy way out and created a cast of dull, sterotypical characters who spout inane dialogue seemingly lifted from a tv-movie-of-the-week. Rampant historical inaccuracies, cliched directing, uninspired acting, and ridiculously cheap sentimentality all add up to one over-hyped, overrated spectacle.

The only thing more nauseating than the film itself was James Cameron's "moment of silence" at the Oscars for the real victims of the disaster. The "movie" Titanic has about as much to do with the actual disaster as the Police Academy movies do with law enforcement. This film isn't a testament to human tragedy...it's a disgusting marketing ploy aimed at bilking moviegoers out of money, while making a mockery out of those people who experienced an event that no one should ever face.

Despite the fact that "Hot Rods" is undoubtedly one of the most God-awful movies ever made, I couldn't help but give it a 10. Somehow, you have to admire a movie that's just so irretrievably bad, and this one is so bad it has to be seen to be believed.

From the cheesy opening car crash (seemingly lifted from SNL's Toonces the Driving Cat skit) to outrageously deadpan dialogue that manages to be even funnier than an episode of Dragnet '67, this film will leave you absolutely breathless with laughter in much the same way that "Plan Nine From Outer Space" does. ** Pay close attention to the scene in which Jeanne Crain loses control of the car. This scene is so hysterically funny that it should win some kind of award in the Bad Acting Hall of Shame.**

For years I've kept this superb film at the top of my recommended viewing list, and nearly everyone who watches it shares the same admiration I have for it.

Anthony "ER" Edwards plays a young musician who meets the girl of his dreams (Mare Winningham). Hours later, he intercepts a pay phone call and overhears the murder of an anonymous man who claims a nuclear holocaust will occur in 75 minutes. After sending the city of Los Angeles into mass hysteria and deadly chaos, Edwards races against the clock to reunite with Winningham and flee the country to safety. When the missiles don't arrive on time, Edwards fears he's made a tragic mistake. What makes the film work so well is that neither the hero nor the audience knows until the last moment whether or not the threat of nuclear annihilation is real.

Many detractors of The Miracle Mile claim that the movie suffers from too many plot contrivances and illogical situations. Personally, I found the narrative no more unbelievable than the average shoot-shoot kill-kill Stallone/Scharwzenegger muscle-fest. The difference here is that The Miracle Mile has a great deal of heart and poignancy. Once you've accepted a hefty suspension of disbelief, you'll enjoy a wonderful adventure and one of the most touching love stories ever filmed. Anyone with an ounce of romanticism in their heart will no doubt be forever haunted by the final scene of this unforgettable gem.

This is another one of those brilliant character studies that proliferated film screens in the early 1970's. Rip Torn gives a superb performance as Maury Dann, a mercurial, drunken country/western singer whose life ultimately careens out-of-control during a road tour. Payday is probably the most accurate filmed depiction of a musician's life on the road that you'll ever see: endless drug abuse, random sex, sudden violence. It's all here in one well-written, astutely directed package. Sadly, Payday is seldom seen in revival houses or on television. This is a true gem worth finding.

Splendid metaphorical film about a former cop who turns anti-establishment and accepts a challenge to drive from Colorado to California in record time. This is a wonderful, original road movie that's loaded with symbolism and makes a trenchant commentary about the social and racial upheaval of the turbulent 1960's. Those who think this film is about the car Kowalski drives and reduce the narrative to the inane level of The Dukes of Hazard (huh?) have missed the point entirely.

Intriguing sci-fi love story about a physicist (Tom Bell) who ends up in a parallel universe after a scientific experiment goes awry. At first, the film is a wonderful fish-out-of-water tale as Bell slowly realizes his predicament and reluctantly assumes the identity of his parallel counterpart Colin Trafford (an arrogant, much-maligned playwright). However, the tale gets even more complicated when Bell falls in love with Trafford's flamboyantly unhappy wife Ottile (Joan Collins in a surprisingly subtle performance).

Although the film's narrative often seems like a discarded plot from the daytime soap Dark Shadows, this is an inventive, well-written and (more importantly) splendidly acted drama. It's definitely worth a look if you happen to come across it.

Clever psychosexual drama about a wounded Union soldier (Clint Eastwood) who seeks refuge in an isolated Confederate school for young women during the Civil War. Slowly, Eastwood begins to seduce every girl in sight, until the tables are turned and he becomes the pursued in an unsettling, gothic-toned finale. Never has a film been so deliciously erotic yet disturbingly macabre at the same time.

This is undoubtedly Eastwood's finest hour (those who tune in for "Dirty Harry" will indeed be surprised), while the rest of the cast gives uniformly superb performances. Try to see the film on video, as television prints usually delete crucial flashback scenes between Geraldine Page and Patrick Culliton.

Crafty little thriller about a wealthy, bored young couple (James Caan and Katharine Ross) who resort to playing kinky games for kicks. The games turn deadly though when mysterious stranger Simone Signoret insinuates herself into their lives. After a rather slow start, Games soon segues into an exciting, serpentine mystery that seems way ahead of its time for 1967. Although modern audiences have become too adept at sniffing out clues and predicting twist-endings, this film is still very effective at keeping its audience guessing. Rarely shown on tv, but if you do have the opportunity to see it...do!