Reviews

I lived thru all this and remember going to the library to read a copy of the boston paper when they were reporting it ... this movie captures the kick in the gut that this news was ... and I still wonder how the catholic church is still 'In business'

I have no idea how this musical saw the light of day or how this movie of it has garnered an 8+ stars here on IMDB. Weak is the one word that comes to mind after watching this. Weak songs, weak story ... just weak.

I'm a big Ryan Gosling fan and saw this in a list of great movies of this century so far and watched it because I didn't know he could sing. He does fine but there aren't many demands put on his voice. This is odd though since the leading man in this musical doesn't really have a signature song that showcases his voice. But then the 'signature song' from this musical, the one that won the Oscar, is forgettable. Completely forgettable. I mean I couldn't whistle it with a gun to my head.

And speaking of whistling, let's just put this musical to the Old Grey Whistle Test. This is an old English theatre district test where you stand outside the theatre as people leave and if the old gray-haired patrons are whistling a tune or two from the show, it's going to be a hit. There isn't one song in this musical that could pass that test ... and since I'm an old gray-haired guy I can tell you there isn't even a phrase I could whistle. Even the little phrase they repeated half a dozen times or more can't be summoned up. I'm a musician. I can hold onto a chunk of new music in my head if it's memorable. None of these songs were.

And what happened to the forty-five minutes or so in the middle of the movie when it stopped being a musical completely?? Okay, a musical is a show where everybody is singing their lines (for the most part) rather than just speaking them. There's a huge chunk of this movie that has no singing at all. What happened?

Really? 8+ stars? I don't see it.

to say this movie sucks is to say that getting run over by a bus hurts ... luckily, however, the pain involved in getting run over by a bus lasts only a few seconds (hopefully and initially) but the pain involved with this movie lasts for two hours ... i went looking for a bus about halfway thru this predictable piece of tripe ... every cliché about sports is dumped into this celluloid-crap-truck by the shovelful and reminded me of my days swamping out horse stalls by the shovelful ...

you might as well go back and watch "Knute Rockne All-American", starring Pat O'Brien and some half wit hack who somehow wandered into the White House forty years later and was equally predictable and lame there as he was in this 1940 piece of crap ...

if you want to sit in front of your TV and continually predict the next "plot twist" with the winner taking a shot i suppose it is functional as a drinking game ... other than that, you might as well step out in front of a hard-charging bus

****SPOILER ALERTS****

Growing up in Indiana the only racing I really ever followed was one ... actually only one race that is: the Indianapolis 500 -- I occasionally would watch another Indy-class race or even a stock car race but growing up in the 60s and 70s, Formula 1 racing was hardly ever shown on American TV ... perhaps only on ABC's Wide World of Sports but I can't remember too many of those even (this of course was long, long before cable TV was even available and all-sports channels let alone all-auto-racing channels were ever thought of or dreamed of I imagine) ... even Sports Illustrated, the biggest and most popular sports magazine of the time, gave piddling coverage to Formula 1 racing ...

That is until one moment in time: the horrific crash of Niki Lauda ... let me remind everyone of the tried-and-terribly-true journalism credo: "If it bleeds, it leads" ... and so Sports Illustrated and even TV sports shows were quite suddenly very interested in the state of Niki and of Formula 1 racing ... cover stories were even devoted to this crash and the weekly sports magazines and shows were regularly doing in-depth coverage of Niki's recovery and then his amazing comeback not to mention the dynamic dual of Lauda and James Hunt for the world title that year ... and yes, even as a young teen, I too was engrossed in the monumental recovery and courageous return to racing that Niki made that year only to drop-out of the final race that season due to what he deemed to be unsafe racing conditions, that being a fairly heavy and constant rainstorm ... Hunt was able to win the world championship that season by only a single point having gained many points during Niki's (only) two race absence after the severe burns he received inside and outside his body which drew the sporting world's attention to him and Formula 1 racing that season ...

This movie not only covers the pure guts and determination of Niki's will to be a champion but shows the sport of auto racing better than any other movie I have ever seen ... it makes you feel the power of the machines, the speed and the mere inches these drivers operate within at those speeds, and the frightening results of a single miscalculation of the speed and inches they compete within ...

But I was further surprised that this film was directed by Ron Howard ... this is not to say I am not a Ron Howard fan ... I usually enjoy his films though some can be rather sappy etc (imho) and not to my taste but I do not shy away from watching most of his movies ... but thinking of joining his directorial skills and style with this sport and story was surprising to me and so when I came across it through some accidental luck on IMDb, I made sure to see it purely out of interest to see how all of these ingredients would mix ... well, the mix perfectly and this is a film to be admired and one that I would think would make most people's pulse jump a bit from the fine editing (credited to Dan Henley and Mike Hill) and perfectly planned racing sequences which, I have read, were a mix of principal photography, cgi, and archival footage ... a flawless blend to my eye and many kudos to all the folks involved on that side of the production ...

This is the best racing film I have ever seen and I would imagine the best one out there if judging only by the racing sequences alone ... I am not including the standard car chase scenes that pollute so many movies these days as frankly, those are most typically tiresome retreads (pun intended) of all the other car chase sequences done in all the other movies where you basically wait around for fifteen or twenty minutes for the next car chase to begin (let's take the "Fast and Furious" franchise for an example ... as one critic on this thread complained of the "wooden acting" in between the race sequences in this movie, I can't imagine what could be more oaken than the "acting" which interrupts the car chases in F&F franchise ... and for the record, the acting in "Rush" is not wooden but well done and the interplay and sparks between Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl (along with their counterparts) do not make it so you sit around only waiting for the next action sequence ... it is well done and each of the stars have a firm grip on the character and "character" of the man they are portraying ...

This is one of Howard's very best films, the best auto-sports film around, and a rock solid 10 in my book ... highly recommended for racing fans, of course (who have probably sought this out already) but also for fans of movies of people overcoming inner and external injuries and shortcomings to achieve their goals and it is quite certainly not one of the oh-so-many sappy, Hollywood cookie-cutter "oh golly he got grievously injured or had inner demons he had to overcome to finally win the big one and get the girl and have millions of adoring fans and the old-time trainer who never got his shot at the big time but knows everything it takes to get to the big time and finally found the one pupil he could impart all of this knowledge upon, etc, etc, etc" movies ... it is high-quality storytelling of each character's striving to become the best at what they do ...

definitely one to keep a copy of as it is worth watching on a semi-regular basis

take care, cormac

"One star in the sky so I named it Otis Redding" -- John Hiatt

This is going to be a strange review in that (not that i've read other reviews of this movie on IMDb) but it walks such a fine line between a disturbing film that could easily slip into a funny 'scary' movie like the classic "Scream" quadrilogy ... but for me, this works as a disturbing and ultimately heart-breaking film on several levels ...

You can read the description(s) and get the gist of the story before you watch it so i'm not going to rehash it but one thing that stunned me was that i just happened to look on IMDb to see if Kevin Smith had changed his mind about directing since his announced retirement and i saw this film ... i didn't read the description before watching and so had no idea what to expect but when I recognized Michael Parks from Smith's "Red State" (another recommend movie) I was delighted because he had such a powerful role in that film ... and it had an early reference to Hemingway and a Hemingway quote I'd never heard so I was pleased immediately with that ... sometimes I'm easily pleased what can I say ...

BUT it wasn't until the next day when I was watching a youtube vid of a q&a with Smith and Justin Long (who's the star of the movie) and discovered that freakin' Johnny Depp was in the movie ... I didn't even recognize or suspect the character he plays was him ... not at all ... it is a complete chameleon role (not to be confused with the little creature he played in the animated kid's film a few years back) ... he was so complete and perfect that it wasn't until i watched the q&a and Smith started mentioning Depp and I went back to IMDb to look at the cast ...

my god ... even if you are adverse to scary/disturbing movies but are a Depp fan, you MUST struggle thru this one to see his performance ... one of his very best ever ... and that's saying something when one considers he is certainly one of the top 10 (or 5) actors of our time and has done some amazing work ... this is a show-stopper role ... the character was fantastic before I even knew it was Depp and it just impressed me all the more once I knew

okay, just some thoughts on the movie and such is all this review is but it is one of the best movies I've seen in a couple years ... and the heart-breaking ending is further accented by the yearning version of the old Scottish (I believe) folk song "The Water is Wide (Oh Waly Waly)" sung by Gerard Way best known as the front-man of the now-defunct My Chemical Romance ... a beautiful version of this song which prompted me to pick up my guitar and start learning it (my voice cannot match Way's but I get by lol) this is one of Smith's top 5 or even top 3 films in my book and as mentioned walks that fine line so well without slipping into something that the audience would laugh at rather than be disturbed by which is the intention

I understand this film has some problems but not so many that they took away from Clive Owen's brilliant portrayal of Ernest Hemingway. I didn't look up the actors in the film before i watched it and so without opening credits, i kept wondering who this actor was that was playing Hemingway, showing all his qualities and failures without flinching. Owen did an exceptional job with this, not looking like himself but turning into Hemingway. And Nicole Kidman's portrayal of Martha Gellhon is not to be overlooked either. Both bring a good chemistry to the film, Gellhorn being the only woman to sue Hemingway for divorce.

Well worth a watch imho.

This may not be a movie for everyone, but this is one of the best buddy films in history. Bruce Willis expertly plays a burned-out cynical private eye, Joe Hallenbeck, once a Secret Service agent who saved the president's life, who gets a hot scary case dumped in his lap by his private eye partner, who also just happened to be screwing Hallenbeck's wife. All this leads to a protection job on Halley Barry, exotic dancer and boyfriend of Damon Wayans', Jimmy Dix is his character, a former pro football quarterback for the Los Angeles franchise. Berry, Cory, has a tape and other evidence that Senator Baynard, who got Hallenback fired from his Secret Service job. Baynard and Sheldon Marcone, owner of the L.A. franchise, are conspiring to get sports betting legalized in California. This is of course all under the table dealing and bribes, etc.

So Hallenback and Dix team up, reluctantly, to find Cory's killers as they keep stumbling deeper into the true nature of the scam going on.

Not to go into any more of the scam's specifics but the team of Hallenback and Dix eventually come to an understanding and head together into the mouth of deep dark secrets of the rich and powerful. Wisecracks and gallows humor pervade as we follow the two through their eventual victory against the rich and powerful. Plenty of laughs and plenty of big-time stunts and wild fights follow and it's a movie you'll be quoting for years to come. Just Hallenback's comments about rap music are worth the price of the rental.

It's a shame Tony Scott, brother of Ridley, passed on so soon. He has a deft touch directing this wild and funny romp through and around the authorities and the bad guys as he gets perfect tone in the acting of Willis and Dix.

It's a shame they didn't find a way to do a sequel. Though perhaps that might have been just another second-tier job that pales in comparison to the original.

If you're looking for a night of Bruce Willis mayhem flicks, you can start with this one, move onto "Last Man Standing", and wrap it up with "Die Hard" or "The Fifth Element" ... or both ... stay up late with lots of popcorn and enjoy the smart-ass mayhem.

this movie works and works well.

When you see a movie starring Michael Douglas as Liberace, Matt Damon as his gay lover/chauffeur/boy Friday/what have you, and Rob Lowe as their perfectly Hollywood zombie plastic surgeon, you just HAVE to watch it ... there is no way any kind of movie fan can not not watch this. Those three actors alone in most any movie would make it a pretty solid "maybe" and would cause you to read up on the plot, etc, before you commit to going to the theatre to see it. But certainly, if it is not a movie you think it is worth the $50 to see in a theatre then it is a rental for sure.

I didn't see it in the theatre ... i laughed reading the casting list and the blurb but that's not enough for a theatre excursion.

But man am i glad i saw it on rental. I've even watched it twice truth be told and that is something i recommend because there are some little things (or bigger things even) that you miss and make it an even more hilarious and darker comedy. Just watching Rob Lowe sit there sedated just below a level suitable for surgery is a laugh out loud moment (more than one more actually).

Having grown up in the 60s and 70s i was of course exposed to Liberace. This was during the age of variety shows and spectacular TV specials. So with three networks channels and a public television station and luckily since i grew up near chicago, we also had wgn (good for Ray Rayner and Cubs baseball) ... so Liberace was a big name for these kinds of things and without much of a selection or much say-so in what channel was on the TV (this was back when a parent could backhand you for looking at them funny ... and now they wonder why parents raised like that respond to their own kids in the same way ... yeah ... difficult to figure out the line that leads to a heavy hand in childrearing) ... so if you wanted to watch TV you had plenty of exposure ...

but this is the back story ... all that money he made was good since he had plenty leftover after covering up all of the things he didn't want the general public to know ... i don't remember if the supermarket tabloids were saying or alleging that Liberace was gay back then but his 'eternal search' for that 'perfect bride' had to be a thin veneer out in las vegas and Hollywood ... in the midwest tho, homosexuals were considered well, not exactly likely where agriculture and steel manufacturing were the predominant industries ...

anyway, it's pretty interesting to see the behind the scenes stuff and while i don't know how accurate it is, for this movie, i don't care ... there's obviously enough truth to get it started and then the fun begins ...

really, don't miss this one just as a laugh out loud couple hours of some great work done by three pretty darned good actors who took on some difficult roles truth be told ... it's campy yes but it isn't silly and stupid .... they make the people they are portraying realistic no matter who nutty they may seem to us ...

btw, if the gay community is offended by this movie, i apologize i suppose for not having more sensitivity into what i could see might be considered as offensive as actors in black face would to African-Americans ... but it doesn't strike me that way tho i am not saying i am perfect and could be misreading it ...

anyway, it's a 10 on the laugh scale and another 10 for douglas, damon, and lowe pulling off some hysterical stuff

even if you're not into porn (which i am not) this is an interesting glimpse into the industry as the 70s turn into the 80s ... lots of drugs and lots of bad craziness but the film portrays it all right out in the open ... it doesn't try and glamorize it in any way, shape or form ...

perhaps the best and certainly the most intense scene is when William H. Macy's character has finally had enough of being publicly cuckolded by his wife (played by real life porn star Nina Hartley) ... this all comes to a head (no pun intended) on new year's eve as everyone at the party is counting down the new year and he is walking with pistol in hand to the back bedroom to kill his wife, her current lover, and finally standing in front of the party-goers, himself ... the soundtrack builds and builds the closer he gets and doesn't climax with his first two murders but with his suicide ... one of the best sequences i've seen in many movies truth be told ...

perhaps the finest accomplishment of the movie is how these real actors capture the bad acting of these porn stars in front of the camera and their nearly universal cluelessness as people behind the camera ... except for the ones who run the show, such as Burt Reynold's character, and the money-men who finance the whole show ... they are the ones who have the brains and know how to handle the people without many brains ...

certainly not for a younger audience but for mature audiences this is a fine film that accurately captures an industry within the era

One of the all-time great 'holiday' theme shows from an American sitcom -- surprisingly so since most of the other episodes were mediocre (if i'm not mistaken there were two other episodes, at least one, with Rob Reiner as a motorcycle gang member named Snake who has a crush on Laurie that were also very funny) ... but the general premise of the show was pretty weak ... but this episode is a real winner ... Keith coming in with lame singing lines is great ...

not quite up there with WKRP's Thanksgiving episode but close .. i'd rank this xmas episode at 9.5 and WKRP at z perfect 10 but you can rate them only with whole numbers as IMDBers know :)

just what century was this film set in? the time of Camelot or in a 1990s dance club? actually, the answer is both ... how a talent like Heath Ledger ever end up in a film better suited to being dropped into the nearest sewer and praying every day that no one would ever find this celluloid atrocity.

I have a monumental loathing for historical films that have little in common the historic event aside from character names (and then even that is questionable).

One similar film immediately pops into my head: the Red Baron (2008). (I am certain everyone else can add a plethora of such films.) First off, WHY in the name of all that is holy does Hollywood seem to believe that the actual life of the WW1 "Ace of Aces" needs any embellishment (and outright lies) to make if more interesting? they are actually saying that the Red Baron, perhaps the greatest fighter pilot of all time and certainly the best know, needs to have his spectacular and exciting life pumped full of literary steroids?? No, of course it doesn't ... but they have the Canadian pilot Roy Brown and Richtoffen meeting on the ground after both their planes have been too damaged to fly on THREE DIFFERENT occasions ... an they're all chummy too ... good lord anyway, this 'knight's tale' has many many flaws ... frankly, if people danced and behaved in such a matter back then, they would have been burned at the stake. Unfortunately, they didn't have the courtesy to do so with this film.

When i hear that hillcoat was slated to direct 'the road' i was skeptical since i didn't know his work and mccarthy's book meant so much to me. that's when i stumbled onto 'the proposition' and knew 'the road' would be in very good hands ...

'lawless' is another fine film from hillcoat tho it didn't hit me between the eyes like 'the proposition' ... still hillcoat made it at a good pace, had the feel and look of the era ...

and no one can choreograph a gun fight like hillcoat ... definitely one of his strengths since most of his films i've seen needed a hellacious gunfight and he delivers the movie is well worth a watch no doubt, but so far 'the proposition' is his masterpiece and the best western ever filmed

so whether Scorcese ripped off "Broken Vessels" for his waaaay below average "Bringing Out The Dead", or vice versa, either way the responsible party should have a good smack upside the head for putting together a bland, predictable, cliché-riddled mess that shouldn't have been committed to film ... what a waste of time on my part having to sit thru both of these hapless "dramas / thrillers" neither of which had very much of either in them ...

OK so we have paramedics who are under constant stress due to their jobs ... in "Broken Vessels" they deal with it (one guess here, folks, just read the title), yep! they deal with it by taking drugs ... even tho the fresh-faced, wide-eyed innocent Midwestern boy from Pennsylvania tries to refuse ... he really, really, really tries ... for about five minutes ... then he's doing heroin ... of course then we see the first part of a flashback to him driving down a pristine country lane while upending a can of beer ... and in the first ten minutes of the film he's asked ooohhhh about a dozen times why he's moved from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles ... 'just a change of scenery' is his answer in both his voice-over and acting part ... but we can figure out in about three seconds that anyone wanting a change of scenery while having flashbacks of drinking and driving and insisting really really hard that he doesn't even want a beer that back in good ol' Altoona he ran someone over while out drinking that beer he keeps having a flashback about ... and this of course is going to lead to having a beer and then immediately to heroin because, hey, as everyone knows, beer is the gateway drug to heroin ... you have one beer and then WHAMMO, you are on the BIG H, my friend ... not the little H but the big one ... not even the medium H but the BIG ONE, THE BIG H ... beer is sooooo evil that way ... even the Budweiser Clydesdales are all strung out on the BIG H just from hauling a big-ass wagon of fake beer kegs around to parades throughout America ... and you can imagine how big an H a Clydesdale needs to get his fix ... it's a BIG OL' H, pal o' mine ...

and we can all figure out pretty quick what's gonna happen to the character of sweet ol' "Gramps" ... he's a junkie who has been friends with the lead junkie on the paramedic team since he was 15 (the lead junkie paramedic btw has for some mysterious reason gone thru a lot of partners thru the years ... hhhhmmm, i still haven't figured out that one yet) ... he's not related apparently but just one of those nice ol' Gramps that all junkies have in their lives to keep them on the straight and narrow path of heroin use ... and when Gramps says something profound to the lesser of the junkie paramedic team ("When people talk about living, they're not talking about this" ... yep, that's the deepest line in the movie ... right there ... yep, about as deep as a Clydesdale's stall if it hasn't been cleaned for a few days), Gramps dies ... and the lesser junkie is now worried about how the morer junkie is going to fill the hole left by the Grampa junkie dying ... yep, i guess that's the first thing we all worry about when that happens ...

and so it goes and goes and goes ... really ... banging my head against the wall would have been a more productive way to spend the 90 minutes or so i spent watching this movie ... toss in Scorcese's hunk of celluloid crapola and that would be about three hours of head banging productivity ... if you haven't seen either of these film's yet, take my advice, choose banging your head against the wall ... you'll thank me later and stay away from the beer!!! it's the gateway, man, the GATEWAY!!!

Honestly, if you can't get your heart behind Harry and Walter, two of the most inept and schlock-sloppy vaudevillians in movie history, I must assume you quite simply do not have a heart. These two sad-sacks are (dis)honestly delightful as they go from their opening song-and-dance routine (one hopes they were able to steal the routine or cobble it together from slices of other performers' routines since if they actually paid for a tune-smith to 'craft' this routine it would have to be, contrary to the film's felonious finale, the greatest rip-off in this film) to a race to out-heist the greatest and grandest of New York's elite safe crackers, quite perfectly played by Michael Caine using his deep store of calm aplomb and a style and grace that does not rub of on Harry or Walter despite their close proximity to the fastidiously-fashioned felon when they are assigned as his immured chamberlains, a position they are even less suited for than vaudeville.

There are some fine twists and turns and changes of heart along the way in what is said to have been the leftover sets from "Hello, Dolly" ... and it shows. Very classy, upscale late 19th century street scenes combined with the less savory back alley action where the starring duo work to save a worthy cause while half the duo is just not putting in the old-college try in turning over a new leaf. However, you will find the ups-and-downs and twists-and-turns lots of fun and despite the fact that this film nearly bankrupt Columbia Pictures (how this was possible I am not certain but considering the director claims that the studio saw the solution to the 'film's problems' as well as the studio's financial woes as leaving the funniest part of the films on the cutting room floor ... what sense this makes is beyond me but when film studios get in trouble, "Heaven's Gate" would be another fine example, it is the film that is attacked with artless, ham-fisted verve in the cutting room as it seems to be the traditional way in which to "save a studio" ... anyone who has seen the uncut version of "Heaven's Gate" will testify that it is not, as it is commonly known, the 'worst film in Hollywood history' but rather perhaps the finest film of the western genre ever made ... certainly the finest of the genre as it was drawing its final breathes in the wilds of Montana rather than the Warner Brothers ranch or Monument Valley National Park where so many were shot.

So whilst I have typically careened off on a jaunt thru an unfamiliar ditch, I highly recommend "Harry and Walter Go to New York" as a film for the entire family.

yep, it's a long title but that's what i'm hoping someone is doing since it is mentioned in the documentary that this will likely be the only time a film crew is granted such extensive access to the Chauvet caves of Southern France, home of some of the most striking art ever produced by mankind in any era, let alone from some 32,000 years ago ... so i hope they are actively making copies of the most pristine print they have of this film so it is not lost as even tho the cave caretakers go to great lengths to preserve the site, even this will likely not be enough considering our clumsiness as a species ... and occasionally the earth's rambunctious nature with flooding, earthquakes, etc ... i imagine these are unlikely but still, one never knows and as this is our only film record, or the only major filming effort, we need to doubly-ensure that we save this piece of history ...

i've heard and read a bit about these caves on and off thru the years but never have been a great student of them ... this film tho really lights one's fire to find out more ... from just the simple beauty of these drawings/paintings to the use of staggered positions over one pivot point of a part, namely a head and tusk of a rhino and legs of horses, so that when firelight is used on them, they provide a type of animation or motion to the drawing ...

this animation aspect was a new fact to me and blew me away ... i can imagine sitting in that cave with fire as the only light and no doubt it would look like this, especially to the early humans sitting there never having seen what we take for granted and have seen all our lives (who hasn't grown up watching Bugs Bunny? i'd imagine a decided minority of kids born from 1960 to 1980 have not enjoyed the Loony Tunes throughout their childhood -- and even longer) ... think of sitting in a room with a fireplace as the only light and the dancing of the shadows and the 'movement' of various stationary articles around the room (lamps, chair backs, etc) as the light and shadow dance and flick and flit with and around each other ... add a bit of natural hallucinogen in a ceremonial setting and you'll have some staggering animation going on in that cave ...

there is some debate about the 'flute playing' and whether or not he is 'adding notes' by whistling ... well just as a trumpet player doesn't simply use the basic notes available to him via the valves and pressing or releasing or combining the stops, a trumpeter also uses a variety of tightness in his lips position to add more notes ... it is no different with this type of flute and the positioning of the lips ... it is not 'whistling' but simply a difference in the stream of air, speed, concentration of the stream, etc, one uses to increase the number of notes used ... even as he was playing melodies before demonstrating the 'star spangled banner' short section, i recognized it as a a part of the pentatonic scale i often use when playing guitar ... but you don't get it with the five or six holes he had on the flute (i don't remember which number it was right off hand), but you get it with a bit of difference in your lip position ... simple as that

anyway, i highly recommend this film ... i'd think it would be excellent for a senior science class and even for an art class ... someone mentions the closeness to some of Piccaso's work even ... and the Minotaur drawing, first fully shown here as no one has even walked into the area where it is hanging (drawn on a stalactite) so as not to disturb the tracks, etc, is fascinating considering how far removed it is from the first telling of that tale (would it be from the classic Greek civilization? perhaps a variation in Egyptian or even Mesopotamian?)

definitely a film that will spark your imagination and interest

I'm really not sure why people don't find this movie universally hilarious but perhaps i'm just a sucker for a bunch of losers finally coming around to doing the right thing kind of movie. With Nicolas Cage portraying 'the smart and good brother' doing everything he can to keep himself on the straight and narrow and also taking on the older brother mantle of trying to keep his younger brothers recently paroled for overcrowding and released to Cage's custody, the gleefully ne'er-do-well brothers portrayed by Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey, it is Cage's duty to keep these two on the straight and narrow as well. With Carvey's brother a helpless kleptomaniac and Lovitz' brother a semi-smooth talking schmuck who can always talk himself (and occasionally others) into anything ... and so they eventually, with the help of their 'sainted' mother (perfectly portrayed by Florence Stanley), talk Cage into breaking their parole, leaving the state to visit another con's estranged daughter. The purpose of the trip is really to rob a small town bank which, on a particular day, holds a Fort Knox like sum of cash.

And so the story is set and while many people might guess the general path the film takes, it is a joyful and hilarious ride through their travails and eventual redemption in a town called Paradise. A tight and smooth-running script keeps the film humming along at a fine pace and ranks among my top ten xmas films ... though of course that might not include the standard films most would include ... i'm also a big fan of 'silent night, deadly night' ... so take it for what it's worth ... but this is still a very funny movie despite many of the negative reviews and the sub 6 star rating.

i was a kid when the smothers brothers were on and yet i remember them well ... i also remember a very cool babysitter i had who would sneak over her smothers brothers albums so we could listen to them ... man she was cool and she was shocked at what i understood of the political satire they used ... i was pretty political at a young age so i was with it in that respect...

but this documentary gives you all the background you never knew at the time of what the brothers and the writing staff (along with the guest stars) were fighting to get even the softer political stuff on the air ... sometimes they could slip things past the censors just because the censors weren't 'hip enough' to catch on (a skit mentioning 'roaches' is a case in point) ...

the smothers brothers were the only act to get fired by all three major TV networks ... that certainly can stand as a badge of honor since they simply wouldn't back down, or at least not back down much at all ... and some will be surprised to learn that it was Tommy (the 'dumb one') was the fire behind the controversial material ... along with his crack writing staff that included Steve Martin and Rob Reiner among others ...

this is a well done and very interesting documentary ... it's 90 minutes in length but it will seem to be much shorter as it is well-paced and keeps your interest

**SPOILERS AHEAD -- BEWARE -- SPOILERS ALERT**

This film is much better than the 5.6 rating it has on this site. Rewatching it recently, the film really is a good solid adaptation of one of Stephen King's lesser-known works.

Like the novel, the film is short and punchy with a good pace. No part of it drags and the growing (or reducing in Billy Halleck's case, played perfectly by Robert John Burke best known for his Robocop role) of the gypsy's curses on the men involved in 'stepping around' the death of Tadzu Lempke's (Michael Constantine in a fine role) daughter. Tadzu is the chief of the gypsy troupe and is 106-years old ... a much younger but very experienced Constantine does a great job with this role and the make-up work for him was perfect as it was for Burke's character who goes from a huge man, nearer 400 pounds than not, to a literal shadow of himself late in the film.

Each of the three men (the judge and the police chief along with Halleck) involved in the 'stepping around' of Halleck running down Tadzu's daughter has their own unique curse and each is done up proper in make-up that doesn't for a moment look fake or half-assed. The heavyweight version of the make-up for Burke is excellent and just as effective as the sagging skin left after the curse has nearly run its course.

Lucinda Jenney plays Billy Halleck's wife, Heidi, and does so, in the beginning, with that sparkling peppiness she carries off so well. She is an underrated actress imho and gives a first-rate performance here going from a peppy and supportive wife trying to help her grotesquely huge husband to a deceitful adulteress who, along with her lover's help, tries to have her husband committed when he hits the road to try and find the gypsies to have the curse removed.

Even with the good pacing of the first half of the movie, it really picks up steam once 'the white man from town' finds the gypsies and has a rather unpleasant encounter with the group. This results in his calling in a 'marker' he has with a mafia-connected client -- Richie "The Hammer" Ginelli, played with great delight by Joe Mantegna. Mantegna just makes you smile and even laugh out loud as he sinks his teeth into the role. He is perhaps the best 'mob actor' around imho. When Halleck calls The Hammer asking for help and saying he needs a doctor, Richie replies he'll have someone there by morning ... "not exactly a doctor but close". You just have to laugh with the thought and his delivery of the line.

That just starts the ball rolling and it really picks up speed as the movie shoots straight on target to its climax. It isn't disappointing either and stays faithful to the King book and ending. And, if I may say so, this is one of King's best endings.

This is a film that you could watch with your junior high kids these days I imagine. It is suspenseful but not overly gruesome -- not a slasher film but some brief moments of gore (a large ball bearing shot thru the palm of a hand and a very unique pie that will have you skipping desert for a week are the two most gruesome parts and they would really only rank a one or two on a scale of ten when considering the most gruesome films around today).

Oh and watch for Stephen King himself as the pharmacist in the first part of the film. Also this was filmed in Camden, Maine, and it shows ... the region just has a special look to it that is special and the Irving gas station is a dead giveaway for the northeast USA and southeast Canada for starters :) Give it a watch and a fair chance and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

"He was a mook but he was MY mook." -- just one LOL line from The Hammer. :)

take care, cormac_zoso

Austin City Limits has been around darn near as long as me and that's getting to be a serious length of time. But when you go hunting to find a sub-par performance, let alone a poor or even bad performance, I doubt you'll find one. ACL always gives its performers the best venue and voicing that all the performer need then do is perform ... simple really though so many venues and especially televised performances miss out on these simple ingredients. Good equipment and a comfortable venue and a relaxed performer makes for a great performance and ACL has delivered this time and time again over the decades.

The intimacy of each performance gives the feeling of sitting ringside in a not-too-crowded club (as evidenced by the small cocktail tables that you occasionally see the audience members comfortably sitting around when the camera pulls back) with the best in equipment to relay their music. What more could one ask for? This performance from Randy Newman is an especially sharp one as he gives us snappy versions of his best known songs (i mean how many times has this guy had to sing 'Short People'? ... and he still delivers it as if it hit the top ten just last week) he still brings that and a few others home with all the sardonic lines that made it his biggest and just about only hit on his own (3 Dog Night had covered 'Mama Told Me Not To Come' but few noticed the author's credit on that one years before ... and I prefer Newman's rolling-left-hand version to the Dog's version truth be told).

And for the the folks who didn't realize Newman started recording long before the 'Little Criminals' album that contained his biggest hit, there are lots of other razor-sharp lyrics on parade as he ventures through many, and for the uninitiated, unknown songs.

One special moment is when he asks if there are kids there tonight and he gets a small roar of response and chagrined says, 'I'd have sung this earlier if I'd known" and starts up with "You've Got A Friend" from "Toy Story", a song that has made him famous all over again with a generation nearly two behind him. One boy in particular is picked out by the cameras as he earnestly sings along, obviously a big fan of Newman's Pixar recent work.

I've seen Newman probably thirty times or more over the many years he's made stops around the Chicago-area and he never fails to deliver a high-quality show. There is never a lazy effort or a throw-away phrasing ... he always gives it a pro's effort and includes new 'forgotten' songs from his albums that always makes for interesting listening and not just the same-old-set-list as you get from far too many 'old pros'.

Any of the many, many, many Austin City Limits shows available are well worth having even if you don't recognize the performer's name but this is one to definitely add to your collection. (Add the BBC Sessions' performance with a small orchestra at St. Luke's in London from 2008 and you'll have two performances that you'll find yourself cueing up on your DVD player on quite a regular basis.)

another reason for IMDb to add a ZERO rating to its list ...

you look at the title of this and the photo on the natgeo website that goes with it and you think 'okay, this might be interesting seeing these people's over-the-top collections and obsessions' ... you'd be right so far since it would be interesting to see that ... however, it is not what you get from this show this show is about how the families of these hardcore hobbyists try and "cure" these hobbyists of their addiction ... a wife and a mother try and fix the first guy and an older brother and a mother try and fix the second guy ... apparently, they both succeed ... kind of ...

i don't understand and never will understand why people think they can change other people ... this is the case in the first story where the collector of action figures is married to someone who thought they would 'grow up' at some point ... well, first off, this is just stupid and sad ... on both sides to be honest ... the collector will apparently tell the wife (they have two children) to cut back on food bills because he is going to be buying something ... obviously he's a complete horse's ass to suggest such a thing as cutting back on the care of your children, in effect, so you can add to your collection ... however, since the wife and mother does this then why should he not keep telling her this? this is called 'enabling' in alcoholic circles ... and of course the mother is the second problem in this weird triangle as the wife suggests calling in professional help in the form of a psychiatrist, the mother starts to cry saying she's upset she might be hurting her son and that she's let him down somehow ... yeah, well you let him down years before this since if this makes you cry then you obviously let him get away with murder while growing up ... and this is the result ... eventually, after some long and painful viewing (yes i stuck it out), the guy agrees to start selling off some of his collection ... but we never see a follow-up to see how it all turns out a couple months later or what-have-you ... i'm thinking he has just been pretending to sell-off his collection and it's divorce with him moving into his mother's basement and next starting up a Star Trek collection ...

the second story is about a guy who collects nothing but Andy Van Slyke baseball cards, photos, etc ... now Willie Mays i can see ... but Van Slyke? he was a second-tier player at best ... but he claims to have over 60,000 baseballs cards of the player ... obviously, again this can't be just cards unless they're thousands of repeats ... but whatever, on with the painful story ... his older brother now enters the picture and says how he's worried his younger brother won't ever advance and that it's unhealthy .. well leave it to an older brother to tell you that you're worthless and won't amount to anything unless you do what he tells you to do (for those of you like me who have older brothers, you know all about this ... i stopped talking to my older brother 25 years ago because he wouldn't stop telling me how worthless i was ... this guy should do the same but doesn't) ... also of course the mother is involved since this collector had a bad breakup and moved back in with mom ... she is again a mother who let him do whatever he wanted when growing up and his father was absent ... so now there's this weird vibe of the older brother stepping in to take the father's role and frankly, the Oedipal feeling of this part of the show was thick and very heavy and creepy ... there's something weird about the older brother ... of course he's completely condescending and a know-it-all but also the mother completely defers to him ... very weird ... so this collector, in the end, BURNS his entire collection on advice of the psychiatrist his brother has scrounged up ... so this guy wasn't too hardcore to begin with ... and he is a perfect fit for a Manchurian Candidate since his mind can be so easily changed ...

these shows are just sickening to watch and must be an embarrassment to family and friends when they see them on TV ... it's certainly sickening to watch them ... if people want to collect things, let them ... frankly, if you think you know what's best for someone else and set yourself above them, you're more of a problem than the collecting is ...

and for natgeo, this is far below the standard you have set thru the years ... get on with something other than 'reality TV'

This documentary is a frank and honest presentation of the facts of the Isralie-Palestinian conflict and the ongoing and distorted support of the American taxpayer ... though I am certain 99% of American taxpayers have no idea how much money is really going to Israel as America is the main support, both monetarily and militarily (money and weapons), for Israel.

Watch it, pass it along to others ... there aren't many documentaries that tell the whole story of this ongoing problem and everyone should know the truth.

"The truth shall set you free" -- hopefully, the truth in this film will help set the Palestinian people free.

I remember having to beg for a ride or the car to go see this film three times in the one-week run at the closest movie theater 15 miles away when i first had my license I liked it so much ... it was just an exciting movie all around ... the conspiracy of a manned mission to Mars not being possible because the company that designed and built the life-support systems for the astronauts made, according to Hal Holbrook, 'a little too much profit', the escape of the astronauts and their subsequent trek across a desert trying to 'get back home', the investigative reporter (Gould) who won't let it go and knows something is going on no matter how many dead-ends he keeps hitting, and of course the Twainesque-finale is quite thrilling.

Gould in this film especially was surprising since I had only known him as a comedian/comedic actor (I hadn't seen Ted & Alice & etc of course) and was impressed with his dramatic effort (tho some comedy was still there of course). Of course, as an aspiring football player, I was a fan of OJ back then when he was a hero (how things change and my how they still covered up the lives of stars even then). And seeing Holbrook I think for the first time as a bad guy. I'll never forget telling my dad about the movie and how disappointed he was Holbrook was the bad guy. But he's a helluva bad guy. That voice has a dark threat to it and his skill as an actor was always at its peak. I've never seen a bad performance from him; bad movies perhaps but never a bad performance. Sam Waterston does a great job as the guy who takes nothing seriously it seems but obviously he's got the right stuff. But his climb up a cliff face as he keeps telling a joke to keep himself going is still an exciting scene.

And actually it led me to watching old 'newspaper' movies such as "His Girl Friday" after the 'Bosley'-Gould confrontation in the newsroom ... and glad for it since there are some cool old newspaper movies out there, the best imho being the fore-mentioned And even if it's not 'perfect', oh well, it's still a great ride if you lay back and relax. And seeing it upgraded to BluRay is great; gives it that fresh crisp look it had so many years ago.