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kmw1962
Reviews
Diner (1982)
Definitely....the smile of the week
Diner is funny, misogynistic and cool.
We all grow up at some point between our late teens and mid 20s. The characters in Diner aren't there yet; but they are careening towards it very fast. They take breaks to swerve off the road and stop at the local diner hoping to hold on to a life of irresponsibility, immaturity and silliness.
What I love best about this film is not the main characters (who are all incredibly funny) but the bit characters. From the guy spouting off the dialogue from "Sweet Smell of Success" to Earl who eats everything from the entire left side of menu to Bagel who's looking out for Boogie to Eddie's Mom who threatens to kill Eddie with a cooking knife in one of the films funniest moment to the thick accented owner of the Fells Point Diner; you can see that the glue that holds the main characters together is everyone and everything from their Baltimore neighborhood.
This movie has great dialogue (its certainly more quote-worthy than "Sweet Smell of Successs") and it emulates a lot of what men do at this point in life --- obsessing about sports, music, and girls and defending your immaturity as "its a smile"
Miracle Landing (1990)
Great Made for TV movie
I had the opportunity to meet one of the stewardesses from the actual flight as well as Captain Schornstheimer. This movie catches much of the real tension that was occurring.
Putting aside the 18 foot section of the plane being gone and torrential wind being blown at everyone,the pilots had no idea what had happened in the cabin and the flight attendants had no idea whether what the pilots were doing, if they were preparing to ditch or the plane could be landed anywhere. Furthermore, the landing calculations needed to be done by hand due to instrumentation damage.
POTENTIAL SPOILER
The movie is a tribute to how tough flight attendants are and how a good algebra teacher can save your butt some day (after the real flight safely landed in Maui, Captain Schornstheimer thanked his algebra teacher).
The Hustler (1961)
The allure of the pool hall....dissected
They say there are four perfect games: tennis, bridge, chess and billiards --- in these games, a person of superior skill will best a person of inferior skill in virtually every encounter. When two players of equal skill match up --- luck comes into play.
The characters in Ames Pool Hall seek this perfection if only as spectators. In every other encounter, Robert Rossen shows the true hustler's gift --- seeming lucky. From the opening scene where Fast Eddie and his parner take down the bar owner to the encounter with the gang of pool sharks to the "billards" game at the Kentucky Derby, characters are victimized by "bad luck" when in reality luck never came into play.
What makes "The Hustler" such a tremendous film is that both the love interest, played by Piper Laurie, and the real antagonist, played brilliantly by George C. Scott, never understand the quest for perfection that draws the characters into Ames.
Saint of 9/11 (2006)
"Knowing Father Judge was like knowing Jesus"
This quote comes from a Fransiscan Brother for whom Father Mychal Judge was a mentor.
The people interviewed for this documentary are not the erudite, intelligent and moral but for the most part the dregs of society, the lost souls and the outcasts. Sure NYFD guys and fellow priests are there but the stories told about him in this film are mostly by drunks, addicts, the homeless, sick and the poor.
This film is a reminder of what being a Christian is actually about without the preaching and proselytizing. While 9/11 is featured at the beginning of this film and again toward the end (Father Mychal held a Mass for many NY Firefighter on September 10 from which most of the film of him as a priest is taken), the documentary is really about a man and his works.
After Hours (1985)
Never tell anyone about this film....you could be at a party, get drunk, and talk
Paul is about to go to the city...not the daytime, 9-5, word processing white, pink, and blue collar city he knows but the dark, after hours arty, funky, punky, twisted leather clad city he knows nothing about.
Every encounter he has from Marcy to Kiki to Julie to Gail to June is a devolutionary step of how far someone will go, will trust, will accept, and will fall for a smidgen of safety and comfort. Paul tries, fails and finds himself recommitting the same errors that created his predicament ---- his nightmare happened because he didn't go to sleep he went out. Paul cannot seem to untwist himself from the odd assortment of characters, lowlifes, psychos and sociopaths that seem to inhabit Marcy's SoHo neighborhood nor does he understand that to them he is the oddball.
Scorcese's foray into the black comedy genre is darkly funny and worth renting for a break from the usual. The first time I saw this movie a friend said how do you explain this (Paul's after hours nightmare) to someone. The answer you don't tell anyone cause they could be at a party, get drunk and talk
Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981)
Classic Alan Arkin...
Alan Arkin is a bum, surrounded by characters crazier than himself, who has finally dried out and has the chance to play minor league ball. (He was known as the "Philly Flash" when he was a major league pitcher, before becoming a major drunk.) The only catch is, he's got to get there (Minnesota as I recall) himself. So he does all the things street people do, wash car windshields, do small errands, sell bogus crap to people to get the bus ticket money. He has friends and colleagues, but not the kind that will finance him (Hey,we're talking $40 here). So he's trying to earn the bus ticket money.
Enter, Chu Chu (Carol Burnett) a street performer who teaches music to the desperately untalented from her one room apartment and does a very funny one woman band show for spare change on the street. When they meet, its love at first sight, okay, maybe second sight. Although the main comedy instrument is the discovery of secret government documents, which the Flash informs Chu Chu are worth "fifty bucks, maybe seventy five", this movie is about the love between two hapless characters who's talents aren't enough for fame and fortune, but gives them the hope that they can have a better life than the ones they have.
What makes this film really work is that their best friends sitting in the bus depot basically recalling the events of the last few days while waiting for their friends to arrive. If Chu Chu and the Flash are life's losers, then Charlie (played by Adam Arkin) and Theresa are a few rungs below that. Everyone should have friends as loyal and selfless as these two.
The Life of David Gale (2003)
Never accept an adequate defense attorney for a Capital crime
My wife and I (a defense attorney) discussed and argued this well crafted but somewhat cliche ridden film on the death penalty. I found the film remarkable in its ability to show that without money and unlimited resources, you can be convicted and executed for a crime you did not commit.
Kevin Spacey plays a brilliant professor and anti-death penalty advocate who finds himself jobless after having been falsely accused of raping a student, Berlin (Rona Mitra). Although Berlin apologizes via a postcard years later for the trouble she has caused, Spacey's life is ruined. His wife divorces him, marries a man with whom she has been having a long term affair and takes his son away. But its his final reaction, agreeing to an interview with Bitsy Bloom (Winslet), which creates the plot twists that follows. You'll find yourself arguing at what point did Gale with his two most loyal friends put in motion his last swipe at the death penalty.
Worth seeing twice.
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
If you don't cry during this movie, you need digitalis
This movie is fabulous. Stewart and Reed come across as a couple that was meant to be together and the "what if I was never born?" question proves this point poignantly when the Angel reveals what happened to Mary without George.
Great characters abound outside of these two however. George's Uncle (Billy) is as a promoter & cheerleader for everything good but seems to be good for nothing else. Ernie the cab driver and Bert the cop are the ultimate friends (even if George's trip to the world without him). Sam Wainwright, the boy done good, who needs to be forever reminded where he came from (a point often missed by even those who have watched the film ad nauseam is that George Bailey is responsible for getting virtually every man in town a job by chiding Sam to build his new factory in town ) But Lionel Barrymore steals this picture (other than the final scene) as a man so filled with hate that he willingly does everything to ruin George Bailey.
EVERYONE OUGHT TO WATCH THIS PICTURE ONCE EVERY CHRISTMAS - in black and white
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
One of the three worst films ever
This movie is incredibly bad. The bios for most of the actors in SCCTM are terribly singular ---- Why? This movie killed their careers. (It would have been helpful if Pia Zadora had taken their cues)
The sets are hideous, the dialogue inane, even for children, and the acting is so sugary sweet, it makes you want to eat Liver and Onions to get rid of the taste. Few "bad" films live up to their reputations, SCCTM deserves it treatment as one of the three worst films ever made (The other two are "Plan 9 from Outer Space" which has regained its cult notoreity due to Seinfeld and "Terror of Tiny Town")
Missing (1982)
Terrific...and angry
I have never been a Sissy Spacek fan which makes this film all the better. She plays the loving wife of a radical (she is too) determined to fight the right wing in Pinochet's Chile. Her father in Law (Lemon) is a pro-government conservative, out of touch with his son's political views, moral views and seems to be at odds on why his son married Julie Horman. The tension between the characters, at times nearly accusatory in tone, is riveting. The two times I saw this film, you could feel the anger of the audience as they left the theater. (The first time was at William and Mary, not exactly the bastion of liberalism)
Most impressive of all is that with countless thousands of porn films, controversial pseudo-historical films, and some very anti-government movies; Missing remains as the only film to be officially sanctioned/criticized by the United States (mostly at the insistence of Henry Kissinger).
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
Nicely done psychological drama.
This is an extremely well done film about characters that are genuinely disagreeable, dislikeable and difficult. Stranded in the desert, the characters try to survive day to day and work get the plane able to get them back to civilization. There is great character development throughout (and the characters do not improve much over the course of the film.) Base instincts, low morals, and personal dislike and distrust resonate in the dialogue and interplay between characters. The most riveting scene is when it is revealed that Hardy, the aircraft designer, knows only about model planes, not real live ones.