Alfred Molina, Jonathan Pryce and Catherine McCormack make a movie in the movie The Moon and the Stars
In the Nazi occupied Rome a gay Jewish producer Davide Rieti (Alfred Molina), a Nazi star Kristina Baumgarten (Catherine McCormack) and a drug addicted, cynical British actor James Clavel (Jonathan Pryce) gather to make a movie based on Tosca as the world breaks around them. Soon crew members are being arrested, Kristina's stalker Marcantonio (Niccolo Senni) commits suicide and the producer himself is in grave troubles when he is threatened by the Nazi's.
The Moon and the Stars is a clever, partly amusing and partly deeply disturbing movie about the World War II occupation and the terrors of being a Jew. And alto the romance between Kristina and James is redundant and rather badly composed the rest of the film is really good. I specially enjoyed the character of Laszlo Molnar, the proud Hungarian director played by Andras Balint. He is funny, enjoyable and really well performed.
A group of people are given jury duty appearing before Derek Jacobi and Anthony Sher in The Jury
The series opens as a young boy named Duvinder Singh (Sonnell Dadral) is arrested for murder. Then we meet a group of people who are soon to be jurors. They are: Johnnie Donne (Gerard Lewis) a former drunk, Marcia Thomas (Nina Sosanya) a single mother in feud with her own mother, Jeremy Crawford (Nicholas Farrell) a man who lost all of his money because of a bad investment, Charles Gore (Stuart Bunce) a seminary student who left it because of lack of faith, Rose Davies (Helen McCrory) who is tired from her huseband (Mark Strong) and Peter Segal (Michael Maloney) a sturdy family man who has a boring father-in-law who (Peter Vaughan) wants to but into the case he is judging upon. The case itself is a horrible one Duvinder is accused of killing his school friend Ron (Jack Shepherd) with a sword in the park. The person who is defending Duvinder is a shrewd and clever George Cording (Derek Jacobi) but the prosecutor Gerald Lewis (Anthony Sher) is sometimes even shrewder. Of course the major role also plays the family of the victim who wants blood revenge.
The Jury is a striking character based mini-series focusing equally on both the drama and the trial. It's fascinating, fun, enjoyable and amazingly well acted. It's a must-see for any lover of courtroom drama like me. It's right there next to Inherit the Wind and 12 Angry Men. I was particularly impressed by the performances of Nina Sosanya and Mark Strong who build their characters slowly and sturdily without a single fault. But all together this is the best thing aired on television since the 80's.
Bette Midler and Woody Allen play out these Scenes from a Mall
Scenes from a Mall is a movie with a frighteningly simple plot. In it Nick (Woody Allen) and his wife Deborah (Bette Midler) have a series of arguments in the middle of the mall.
When i popped Scenes from a Mall in my DVD player i was expecting a lot, and i got very little. It is a series of tired, flat, jokes and boring dialogues. Also when the running gag of the film is seeing Woody Allen with a pony tail dragging a surf board around a moll you're in big problems.
I guess someone had an idea to connect Woody Allen and Bette Middler together but they should have gotten Woody to write the script and not Roger Simon and Paul Mazursky who are separately okay writers but together don't seem to be able to write a single good line. Woody pulls this movie from complete mud when he inserts some of his jokes in there but this film is still absolutely terrible.
Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law update Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes
The film opens as Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), a man hanged a few days ago breaks out of his tomb. Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) is meanwhile visited by his old nemesis Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) who gives him a case to look after a midget scientist. Soon thou the midget is found in Blackwood's grave and Sherlock is intrigued. Soon he is faced with many problems including Watson (Jude Law) moving away, being chased by the police lead by inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan) and a secret society that hired him to catch Blackwood.
Sherlock Holmes is dark, amusing, enjoyable and perfectly acted, i loved every frame of it. The story, the directing and a specially the way it looks is just brilliant. I am yet to drive out and see the second part but if i enjoy only as half as this one you will have another positive review here.
Now that being said i also want to mention that this Holmes is not the Holmes written by Arthur Conan Doyle nor the one presented in the Granda shows. No it's a new kind of Sherlock which i very much enjoy. I hope it continues for a very long time.
Jean Reno and Christian Claviers travel from the dark ages in the French comedy The Visitors
In the opening, the brave Godefroy (Jean Reno) defends his king's bride from her vicious uncle. After his fantastic victory he travels to marry his beloved Frenegonde (Valerie Lemercier). On the way he arrests a witch (Tara Gano). After her many attempts to escape she finally drugs Godefroy's water which makes him hallucinate, resulting in him killing Beatirce's father. After being turned down by her he goes for advice to Eusebius (Pierre Vial) a skilled wizard, who sends him trough time but makes a mistake and instead of returning him, he sends him trough time in 1993. There, as fishes out of water Godefroy and his faithful servent Jacquouille (Christian Clavier) they barely find their way around until they meet Beatrice's distant cousin Beatrice (also played by Valerie Lemercier) who believes Godefroy to be her cousin who went missing on a ski trip. Soon many new problems arise as Jacquouille falls in love with a tramp Ginette (Marie-Anne Chazel) and Jacquoille's distant cousin Jacquard (also played by Christian Clavier).
Just to clear something up before we begin, i consider Les Visiteurs to be one of the finest comedies ever made. Jean Reno and Christian Clavier give fantastic performances and Valerie Lemercier is absolutely breathtakingly good as a baffled dentists wife (a performance honored by a Cesar , equivalent of an Oscar). French , in my opinion, have the best comedies ever and this is their crowning glory. Later on of course there was a mediocre sequel and of course an American version which is one of the worst comedies I ever saw.
All in all Les Visiteurs is an overlooked classic.
Walter Matthau returns while Jack Lemmon might not in Buddy, Buddy (1981)
Trabucco (Walter Matthau) is a paid hitman who is sent to a hotel to shoot a state witness (Fil Formicola) unknown to him, in the next room stays a suicidal man (Jack Lemmon) just dumped by his wife (Paula Prentiss) for a fony sex doctor (Klaus Kinski). Victor (Lemmon) attempts to kill himself unsuccessfully and the last thing Trabucco needs are the cops all around the hotel, so he decides to kill Victor himself. But first he wants to see if he can make his wife return to him, so he takes him to the sex clinic where his wife Celia resides in a love affair with Dr. Hugo Zuckerbrot, a fony sex doctor who she went to uncover on the 60 minutes but fell in love with.
Again, just like in The Odd Couple 2 the scenes in the hotel with just Matthau and Lemmon are absolutely breathtakingly brilliant, but everything else is terrible. The sex clinic scenes has to be the most pathetic attempt at laughs in the Matthau/Lemmon comedy films and Klaus Kinski is just awful.
Felix Ungar and Oscar Maddison are back in THE ODD COUPLE 2
Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) returns to haunt Oscar Maddison (Walter Matthau) when they hear that Oscar's son (Jonathan Silverman) is marrying Felix's daughter (Lisa Waltz). The two embark on a cross-country road trip that gets even worse when their car gets broken in the middle of the desert.
The Odd Couple 2 is not as fresh, nor fun, nor funny, nor amusing as the first one it's even rather bad in some scenes, but in the scenes when just Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau play against each other it's really fun to watch. All the other scenes in the film are redundant. My recommendation is see it, but only watch the moments between the two of them, everything else is terrible.
Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon embark on their most successful journey in The Odd Couple
A hypochondriac, neat freak, do-gooder Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) is chased out of his flat by his wife and he is forced to move in with his messy, short tempered best friend Oscar Maddison (Walter Matthau). As you can see not everything is going to go fine.
The Odd Couple is simply the best comedy ever made. It's funny, fun, well-written and it contains the best performances from both Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon portraying Neil Simon's best-known characters. There is nothing more than needs to be said other than if you haven't seen The Odd Couple you have never seen a good comedy.
And here he is THE WORST MOVIE OF ALL TIMES ZARDOZ
In a futuristic world, a rebel Zed (Sean Connery) jumps into the head of his gigantic god Zardoz (Niall Buggy) and crosses over into a different world run by a group of bored immortals who are doomed to live forever in a vortex of time and space. Zed trained only to kill experiences love for the first time with Consuella (Charlotte Rampling).
Calling Zardoz the worst movie of all times is an insult to bad films, Zardoz is not a bad film, it is an atrocious, dull, stupid, careless, pointless, ugly, disgusting, distraught and misdirected can of celluloid. I am reluctant to call "Zardoz" a movie because nothing that contains the line: "Penis is bad, guns are good" said in a non-comical matter can be called a movie. Now the premise is acceptable, but the idea to put Sean Connery in a red diaper and have him play a gunman in the plains of Ireland couldn't have had a clear mind. Of course he didn't because that decision belongs to John Boorman a man who had made "Close Encounters of Ned Beatty Kind". Back on the subject Zardoz is the single worst mess i had the bad luck to sit trough. This thing had absolutely the worst editing, acting, writing and directing. It is a stupid, arrogant and wrong (not to mention unsuccessful) way to get written into the history of film.
Jaime Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan switch minds in FREAKY FRIDAY
Freaky Friday opens as we learn that Tess Coleman (Jaime Lee Curtis) a career psychiatrist is getting re-married despite her daughter Anna's (Lindsay Lohan) complaints, she was her father's daughter and hates her mother for getting re-married. Following an intense argument in a Chinese restaurant Tess and Anna find that they have switched bodies (or minds). For both it is hell because Tess is getting married on Friday and Anna has a super important gig with her band the same day. Something obviously has to be done so mother and daughter decide to play each other for a week.
Freaky Friday is based on a very popular Mary Rogers novel written in 1972 which had a number of adaptations and this is (believe it or not) the only one that's any good). The first Jodie Foster version was campy and silly, the 1995 TV version was just bad, this 2003 version is a fun, wild and entertaining ride with some fantastic elements. "Freaky Friday" features Lindsay Lohan when she was just a sweet and careless Disney actress and she is fantastic in this film as she plays dual roles: a rebellious, rocking teen and a stuffy, boring psychiatrist and she is fantastic in both roles and so is Jaime Lee Curtis who is at her tops in this film. For me Freaky Friday was a surprise as i was expecting a mediocre film and i got the best teenage comedy ever made.
Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia and Steve Martin are all planted in this Frank Oz directed musical Little Shop of Horrors
Seymour (Rick Moranis) is an orphan who since he was a little kid works in a little flower shop owned by Mr. Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia). Soon Seymour will find a mysterious plant at a flower-seller 'round the corner and the film will start developing. Seymour starts caring for the plant very much who he named after a girl he works with and is in love with Audrey (Ellen Greene), who is in a relationship with a sadistic dentist Orin (Steve Martin). After Seymour cuts himself he finds out that the plant is carnivorous and that it can talk. Audrey II (Levi Stubbs) now spreads terror as it grows bigger and bigger and Seymour can't do anything to stop it.
Little Shop of Horrors is a sometimes cheerful sometimes sad and sometimes gruesome film based on a 1982 off-Broadway musical who in turn is based on a 1960 Roger Corman low-budget horror film with a same plot just without singing. But no matter in what mood it is it's always colorful, fun and very satirical. I loved it's cheery exterior as it tells a story of mass murder and a carnivorous plant, the film almost seems like something out of a mind of a Monty Python member on drugs.
All in all it's a colorful, amusing and intelligent adults-only fun.
Alec Baldwin, Anthony Hopkins and Jennifer Love Hewitt (as the Devil) star in this latest adaptation of the wildly popular Stephen Vincent Benet story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" SHORTCUT TO HAPPINESS
The film opens as we see and incredibly miserable writer Jabez Stone (Alec Baldwin) trying to get his story published. One of the first doors he knocks on belong to a star publisher Daniel Webster (Anthony Hopkins). While there he notices a strange trophy on Webster's wall, a tail like thing framed and hanging above his desk. After weeks of trying Jabez is almost quitting when he gets an unexpected visit from an unknown woman who turns out to be Devil herself (Jennifer Love Hewitt). She offers Jabez a deal: if he sells her his soul she will make his dreams come true. He of course accepts and soon he is a well-known and rich writer. Unfortunately not everything is as it seems, and Jabez realizes that, due to his new fame and fortune, he has been ignoring his old and good friends, one of which died of cancer a while ago. Fiding that he has gotten more than he has bargained for and he wants out of the deal but the Devil stays reluctant. Than Daniel Webster comes back into the story to defend Jabez in a trial in the depths of hell whose judge is Jabez's former friend Julius (Dan Aykroyd) who was killed in a car accident. More surprises follow when he finds that the jury is made of: Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Charlotte Bronte and all the other writers the scriptwriters of this film could come up with.
In one word 'Shortcut to Happiness' is atrocious. In more than one word 'Shortcut to Happiness' is one of the worst would-be comedies I ever saw. It's bland, wildly uneven, badly written and horribly directed. Thou it has a few amusing moments 'Shortcut to Happiness' is a no-no. As expected thou Anthony Hopkins delivers a top-notch performance but unfortunately his fifteen minutes of screen time are blundered with more than an hour of Alec Baldwin's chewing of the scenery. Another thing that particularly annoys me is the fact that years ago the name Dan Aykroyd stood for quality, enjoyable, hilarious movies (Ghostbusters, Blues Brothers, 1941, Dragnet, Spies Like Us), now it stands for bad, boring and bland would-be comedies (Nothing But Trouble, North, Exit to Eden, Casper, Getting Away with Murder, Blues Brothers 2000, Yogi Bear).
All in all 'Shortcut to Happiness' is terrible but it has one redeeming quality and that's Anthony Hopkins who went out on the limb to deliver a quality performance and he makes it. If someone were to cut out only his scenes in the film (minus the courtroom ones) you would get a well acted short about a rich and powerful publisher this way you get a dull and annoying comedy of which even Alec Badlwin is ashamed of. Compare it to "Cat in the Hat".
Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau take their penultimate journey in a fun family romp known as OUT TO SEA
A failed gambler Charlie Gordon (Walter Matthau), in need of money cons his newly widowed friend Herb (Jack Lemmon) into going on a cruise in a luxurious ship. But as Herb soon finds out they are not there as passengers but as dance hosts. Their duties include dancing and entertaining the ladies during the parties. More problems include the sadistic and narcissistic cruise director Gil Godwyn (Brent Spiner), Charlie's love interest Liz (Dyan Cannon) who believes he is a rich playboy and Herb's love interest Vivian (Gloria DeHaven) who is also a widow.
Out to Sea is one of the funniest, most intelligent comedies ever made. Alto it isn't Lemmon/Matthau's best it is one of my personal most favorite comedies of the later ages. One of the things i liked the most is the performance of Brent Spiner who really shows that he is a unique comedy talent playing Gil the old comedic way, completely over-the-top.
All in all Out to Sea is a must-see for any self-respecting comedy fan.
