Reviews

Serious Spoilers coming.... Meatballs (1979) featuring Bill Murray as Tripper and Chris Makepeace as Rudy, was a warm film featuring a young teen and the coolest guy at summer camp helping him get through some of life's tough challenges.

The Way Way Back (2013) featuring Sam Rockwell as Owen and Liam James as Duncan, was a warm film featuring a young teen and the coolest guy at the Water Park helping him get through some of life's tough challenges.

And there the similarities for the most part end.

Neither one of the young teens in Meatballs or The Way Way Back get much resolution to their problems. What they do get is a better understanding on how to deal with their problems. So, both have learned a few of life's lessons and we are left wondering how their lives will have changed as a result of this summer. The Way Way Back solves it's issues with much less humor than Rudy in Meatballs, but this actually makes The Way Way Back the better of the two movies. In 1979 I believed Bill Murray was the absolute coolest guy in America. In 2013 I believed Sam Rockwell was the coolest guy in American (possibly #2 behind Ryan Reynolds). Both Rockwell and Murray were guys I could have used in my early teens. As for The Way Way Back, it's a warm, but somewhat harsh reminder of the worst of times and the best of times. Highly recommended!

**** SPOILERS**** Until today I have always considered J J Abrams to be a very competent director. He is the only one I know of who could reboot, complete with new cast "Star Trek" creating a great film going forward, and in spite of what some think, I believe he did a respectable job on "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". But this film is a complete mess. There is not a coherent plot. As others have written, it appears that we are dumped into a 2 hour and 22 minute trailer for a blockbuster film. If someone were to ask me to tell them plot of this film, front to back I couldn't do it. Let me try: Kylo Ren finds out that Emperor Palpatine, who, at last check was dropped to his death into a bottomless reactor shaft in "Return of the Jedi", is seemingly alive and well, and has been in control throughout this trilogy. Now he has created a secret armada of star destroyers with enough firepower to destroy entire planets. Meanwhile Rey is on the verge of completing her Jedi training with Leia while her pals, Fin, Poe, and Chewy also learn of Palpatine's resurrection. So Rey decides to finish Jedi training later and joins Poe, Finn, Chewy, BB-8 and C3PO as they head out to find an old contact of Luke's who might know where Palpatine is located, while R2D2 stays behind with Leia. On their way they meet up find Palpatine, Lando Calrissian joins in the quest. They find a message containing a clue but C3PO can't interpret the message... his original programming forbids translation of messages scribed by the Sith. So C3PO gets his memory wiped so he can translate the message telling where to find Palpatine. Meanwhile Chewbacca gets nabbed by the bad guys and when he is being transported off the planet surface, Kylo and Rey have a force tug-o-war with Chewy's transport ship and Rey uses force lightning (a first for anyone except Palpatine). In the process the ship explodes, presumably killing Chewy. But it turns out that Chewy wasn't on the transport so he lives. And R2D2 had a backup of C3PO's memory so it gets restored. See what I mean, things happen one minute, then they are reversed in the next minute. And we aren't even half way through the film yet. But it doesn't get any better. Perhaps after watching "The Rise of Skywalker" 3 or 4 times it might come in to focus, but I'm not paying $10 each for tickets to try to figure out this film. I have read other reviews praising this film so it could be me. But believe me, 5 stars out of 5 is generosity on my behalf. This is easily the worst film of the 9 film trilogy of trilogies.

I don't understand the people calling for a boycott over comments Liam Neeson made 40 years ago. If this controversy kept anyone out of the theatres, it's the viewers loss. "Cold Pursuit" was a teriffic film, which was visually stunning, with a bit of a surreal view of the snowy days and nights in Denver and the fictional ski resort of Kehoe, Colorado. Nels Coxman's (Liam Neeson) son dies of a heroin overdose. It turns out that the son was actually murdered by a drug kingpin named Trevor "Viking" Calcote (Tom Bateman). As Nels sets out to avenge his son's death, he's not the only one avenging a son's death. The body count begins and doesn't end until the credits roll. For the amount of death and personal loss, the film ends with a decent level of satisfaction, but I sure wish it would have continued for another 15 minutes or so to resolve a few things director Hans Petter Moland left to the imagination. Cold Pursuit is described as a "dark comedy", but I didn't laugh much (not a negative). By the way, Hans Petter Moland also directed the Norwegian film, "In Order of Disappearance" upon which this film is based, and "Cold Pursuit" is nearly a virtual remake of "In Order of Disappearance". It is available in North America with dubbed English.

Somehow this film arrived in theatres, had a very successful run, appeared on Pay TV and was released on home video, and I managed not to be aware of it's presence. 9 years later I stumbled on to it on Amazon, and since it was available on 4K UHD Blu Ray, I bought it expecting another worn out Bruce Willis action flick. I finally gave it a spin last night and was delighted beyond words. Bruce Willis smiled more in this film than he did in all other films he starred in combined. John Malkovich absolutely steals the show playing a slightly deranged conspiracy theorist who's every line is on-the-floor funny. Helen Mirren surprises by playing a retired MI-6 agent, who's as tough as James Bond, and Brian Cox stars as a Russian agent with a knack of always showing up just in time. Then there's Mary-Louise Parker as Bruce Willis' love interest. She's a bored telephone customer service rep, who's dragged into a world of good guys and bad guys with an endless arsenal. Morgan Freeman also stars in an all-to-brief appearance rounding out the team who go up against the CIA, FBI, and even Richard Dreyfus as an arms dealer and political puppeteer. Karl Urban and Rebecca Pidgeon top the list of people tracking and trying to kill Willis and the team, with a couple of plot twists, and lots of humor thrown in for good measure. This film is described as an action-comedy and it delivers on both fronts. I can't mention Red without mentioning Ernest Borgnine, who has a short, but delightful role as the keeper-of-the records at the CIA. It's 1 hour and 51 minutes of pure delight, start to finish. When it was over, I jumped back on Amazon and ordered the sequel, Red 2. The reviews aren't the best, but if it's half as good as the original it'll be money well spent.

I missed this film in theatres in 2016, but last night I watched the Blu Ray (theatrical cut). There was so much about it that I didn't understand I scoured the IMDb to read the user reviews, which suggested that the extended cut cleared up many of the problems with the theatrical version. I watched the 4K disc extended version this afternoon. Not a good idea.... Although it did help clear up some of the things I didn't understand, it just shows what Warner is doing to the DCEU. They should have stopped making Superman movies after they reacquired the property from Ilya Salkind. Superman Returns (2006) was not great, but a decent movie and I would like to have seen Singer's planned sequel, but things really went south for me when Man of Steel came out. When the Salkinds wanted to darken the product a bit and bring in some of the other characters from the DCEU, Warner & company blocked them and said fans don't want to see Metropolis turned into Gotham City and Superman fans don't want to see a darker (in tone) Superman, but that is the exact thing they have done. Henry Cavill is a skilled actor who looks good in the suit, and Ben Affleck was a much better Batman than I expected, but the rest of the film is a disjointed mess. The visuals in some cases are worse than in the 1978 movie. CGI is a great tool but it is so overused, not just in this film but in nearly all of today's films I wish they would just go back to wires against a blue screen. During the fight with Doomsday the entire sequence looked like a cartoon (it was). I know there are many who really liked this film but I am not one of them. I finally found a Superman film to knock "IV-Quest for Peace" of the Superman cellar. Tonight I'm going to see how low they can go 'cause Justice League showed up from Amazon today.

As a guy who spent 42 years in radio, there are a few things I could poke at as far as radio accuracy is concerned, and since I haven't read any of the other IMDb reviews or comments I might be repeating stuff already mentioned elsewhere. First, why don't any of the DJ's wear headphones? When you open the microphone it turns off the speakers (to avoid feedback) and you can't hear what's playing, so what's up with that? Also, In almost every scene in the radio station control room, the VU meters on the board never move. Finally (and this is the coup de gras): How could an overnight DJ on a small market radio station ever afford to own or rent an ocean side villa overlooking the Pacific? Factually Dave Garver (Clint Eastwood) should be living in a trailer park or low-rent apartment complex on his salary. Now, the good stuff... This is Clint Eastwood's directorial debut and he excelled. This film's plot is basically "Fatal Attraction" 15 years before Douglas and Close struck gold in 1987. This nearly out-Hitchcocks Hitchcock! The viewer is slowly sucked in as the tension builds until nuclear war breaks out. Shot entirely on location in Carmel California, the cast is flawless with Jessica Walter co-staring as the girl with the fatal attraction for Dave Garber, a DJ at KRML. Donna Mills also stars as Dave's ex-girlfriend who's sole purpose is to complicate things. A great original soundtrack, plus Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", which would go on to hit #1 on the Hot 100 5 months later as a direct result of exposure in this film. This film has gone down in the annals as one of the greatest thrillers ever, and a film that struck fears in the heart of disc jockey's everywhere. "Play Misty For Me.. And not Ray Steven's Version"!

This movie was the buzz of the summer last year (2011) and a dozen people told me I "had to see it". I never got the chance to catch it in theaters but when the Blu Ray came out in February I snatched it up and watched it. I was captivated from the beginning to the end. One of the best ensemble casts ever assembled and Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer both deserve Oscars, as does Emma Stone who brought tears to my eyes when she found out what really happened to her childhood maid Constantine Jefferson, played by Cicely Tyson. This film has everything, tremendous acting, a great script, drama, heartbreak and some of the funniest moments on film. Best Picture of 2011!

This is the ultimate comedy. All other comedies are judged by this one. Every comedian in Hollywood wanted to be in this picture. Don Rickles still rails about how he didn't appear in the "greatest comedy of all time". He appears in one of the featurettes. Sid Ceaser's facial expressions alone are worth the price of admission. And seeing Ethyl Merman get it in the end (slipping on a banana peel, which is the ultimate joke). Milton Berle rules as does all of the cast. I've been saying for nearly 50 years that this is the best comedy ever made and I stand firm on that statement. This movie and Star Wars (1977) are the only two movies (out of hundreds) that I've given a 10 out of 10 score.

The Three Amigos was not a great movie. It was a good movie with moments of greatness. One of the areas in which John Landis and crew excelled was the cinematography. The locations shooting as well as the stuff filmed on the soundstage are colorful, perfectly lit and framed and are basically eye candy. Elmer Bernstein's soundtrack is perfect in every way. Randy Newman's songs are fabulous (and his singing as the 'singing bush' is hilarious). The absolute best part of the movie is the "Blue Shadows" sequence, featuring Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short, singing a western ballad written by Randy Newman while surrounded by a campfire, singing horses (with mouth movements hand-animated that are better than much of today's CGI), lots of animatronics critters listening in and probably the most beautiful sunset ever filmed (indoors, on a soundstage I might add). I could never tire of that song or the segment. Otherwise, there are much better movies with Chase, Short and Martin (although not together). Either you love this film or you don't. I fall in the 'love' category, but it's still not a great movie. The predictable plot and sometimes repetitive slapstick can be grating on the nerves at times. Still, the good parts far outweigh the not-so-good, and it actually gets better with multiple viewings. Maybe it's just taking me longer to finally "get it".

When someone wants a quick look at my home theater systems (I have a DLP HD front-screen projector with Dolby Digital/DTS sound and a 10' screen), I usually play the tornado sequence at the beginning of "Twister" (when the tornado sucks Jo's dad out of the storm cellar), or else I play the pre-title sequence from "Tomorrow Never Dies". The photography is beautiful and the sequence is action packed, and the DTS 5.1 channel soundtrack is one of the best I've heard. Once the pre-title sequence is done and the opening credits roll, "Tomorrow Never Dies" settles in and delivers 2 hours of good entertainment. As Bond battles media mogul Ted Turner.... Ahhm, I mean Elliot Carver (hey, if Jimmy Dean really played Hugh Heffner instead of Willard Whyte in "Diamonds Are Forever", then it is safe to say Elliot Carver is really Ted Turner and I kind of like that idea), he travels to Vietnam, Germany and lots of exotic locations. As for women, James tangles with Teri Hatcher, thankfully for only a brief amount of time... but the real Bondette is Michelle Yeoh and she is fabulous. Played as nearly an equal to James, (much the same as Jinx in Die Another Day), this film ranks in the upper 50% of Bond adventures. Since there has never been an outright 'bad' James Bond movie (at least out of the official 21 Enon films), that makes for 2 great hours in front of the screen.