Reviews

As much as I like Ginger Rogers (and so many other members of the cast) it was impossible for me to relate to her at age 35 and wearing a dreadful part "fright wig" passing for an 18 year old reform school delinquent; it was just too big a stretch for this viewer's imagination and I thought in general the film lacked verve. In relation to Ginger playing a much younger character than her years how can one forget her in "The Major and The Minor" at age 32 passing herself off as a 12 year old? With the softest focuses available at the time this was still an incredible piece of casting! I believe this film was a remake of a French film entitled "Battement De Coeur" made in 1939 which I intend to track down for comparison purposes.

I like everything about this show, particularly the talking to camera. The observations of Bernie Mac are astute and never "cute" or "let's all pretend life is perfect and everything is wonderful" and I particularly like the way he looks at those kids with a menacing glare when they are not doing precisely what he wants them to do. The episode where he discovered he had high cholesterol and his insistence on sticking to his favourite foods in spite of his wife's opposition finished off brilliantly with the family and guest Don Rickles sitting down to buckwheat pancakes, his wife telling him she had thrown out the syrup and the final line "where did you throw it?" just about sums up everyone. Unfortunately the show is on at 3.30a.m. here so I have to adjust my clock accordingly but, with the current dismal state of situation comedies in general, it is well worth it. How anyone could refer to it as "crap" is dumbfounding!

Normally I am wary of feel-good, sentimental films which are sometimes described as "heart-warming" and usually involve children and/or animals but this one came up trumps. It was on at 2a.m., which is a fair indication of the esteem in which it was held by the television station. Frankly it was excellent, it skilfully portrayed the characters and side-stepped what I usually refer to as "mush". The acting of all concerned was excellent (has Anne Bancroft ever turned in a bad performance?) and I enjoyed it thoroughly. While I will continue to avoid this type of scenario this was indeed one out of the box. The children certainly gave Miss Bancroft a run for her money in the acting department but age and experience won out in the end.

Watching a group of "suits" attempt to rewrite Chekhov's "Three Sisters" in order to make it more attractive to the audience of today so they can recoup a gigantic loss which has been incurred by an eager but profligate film maker is hilarious. We follow the group from London to New York as they try to get their bank out of serious debt. Totally original, extremely classy and yet another example of why French films continue to be a force in cinema, it constantly delivers laughs while having a subtle dig about films today, what sells them and why they are watched. A perceptive observation of how today's films have been hijacked by those who can only seen the "bottom line" is delivered with comical flair.

I cannot understand why anyone involved in this production would think it had any chance of success. Dreary, boring and ever so sad it is a prime example of too much money and too much talent squandered in a futile stab at cinematic greatness. This really exists as a quaint testimonial to Jackie Gleason's admiration of the great Buster Keaton - however Buster was a man of his time. Gigot in 1962 - certainly a stretch by anyone's standards. I am reminded of "Chaplin" - a truly excellent film with a wonderful performance by Robert Downey Jnr. Quite often if it's not exploding and there is too much dialogue audiences are uncomfortably challenged and we can't have that can we?