Reviews

I first saw this episode pack on a VHS tape last evening with my mom. The first episode, "A Fear of Spiders" really freaked me out. Patrick O'Neal played a guy who wanted no use for the crazy librarian lady who lived upstairs. He is trying to write some columns, but is first disturbed by his phone ringing (person calling was the crazy lady), then he hears her footsteps and she rings his doorbell seconds later. But while he's trying to do his typing, he is bothered not only by the woman's calling, but with his kitchen faucet dripping. He goes in there and finds a small spider in the sink. He tries to kill the spider by drowning it in running water. The spider goes down the drain, but seconds later, it comes back by crawling out of the drain pipe (same action is repeated). Then, he decides to get rid of the crazy woman, but seconds later, he hears a squeaking sound from another room. He finds where the sound is coming from, opens the door and there is an extremely large spider in the room (God, this really freaked me out I almost jumped out of my skin)! The guy then goes upstairs to the woman's apartment and tells her what he saw, and asks how to eliminate the spider. They go back down to his place, and she locks him in the room and leaves after a few minutes. He begs and panics because he he thinks the spider is going to kill him. The squeaking sound is heard again, and the spider kills him.

"Junior" was not that long, but it too was creepy. This character looked like Herman Munster. I didn't stick around for "The Academy", but the "Marmalade Wine" was also quite eerie, with the guy walking in the rainstorm, being cared for by this doctor, only to have his feet amputated, etc. Out of all the episodes this pack had, "A Fear of Spiders" and "Marmalade Wine" were the scariest.

My mother first saw this movie when it premiered on television back in 1972. I first saw it a few years ago on the Encore channel (roughly part of it), and thought it was an amazing film. I had recently been looking for a copy on DVD but couldn't find one until I got one on ioffer.com (it was a copy that was recorded on TV and transferred to DVD). In my case, it looked great, and all that. Sandy Dennis played Marjorie Worden and Darren McGavin played her husband Paul. Johnny Whitaker is the couple's son, Steven, and the daughter Laurie is played by twin girls (played by Sandy and Debbie Lampert). The family moves into a farmhouse in the countryside, without knowing until later that the previous occupant had been driven to suicide by jumping out of the 2nd floor window of the barn. Then, some mysterious things start happening shortly later on. Marjorie is hearing sounds of a baby crying, the family has a party at the house (and two guests mysteriously die on the way back home), multi-colored gel in a mason jar in the barn then in the house, and the son is being possessed by the devil! Another shocking thing is the sight of those scary ass red demon eyes peering out of a window while some silly commercial is filmed. Several other mysterious things are seen in the film, but they are odd as well. To me, those hideous eyes are what freaked me out the most. The family then moves out of the house to get away from the evil lurking in there. This movie never runs very long (at 73 minutes), but it's still worth watching. It would be great if this could be released on DVD (commercially), but until so, just deal with what is recorded from TV.

Ally Sheedy stars as Jessie Montgomery, a spoiled girl who lives in a fancy mansion with her very wealthy father (played by Tom Skeritt). After taking a group of people dancing late one night, she is lectured by her father the next morning for charging over $900 on his credit card. Then, that night, she is pulled over for speeding and spends the night in jail for drug possession. While she sits in jail, her father wishes that he never had a daughter. Meanwhile, Stella (the fairy godmother, played by Beverly DeAngelo) appears in the jail and bails Jessie out. Stella explains that the charges were dropped, and that no criminal record exists for Jessie. But there's a shocking surprise for Jessie. Stella had cast a spell that caused Jessie to be broke, and with no family or friends. She doesn't believe it, and tries to go back to what was her home, but her father, chauffeur and maids act as though they never knew her. She meets with Stella again in the park, and is advised to get a job. Jessie ends up finding beat up high heeled shoes from a dumpster, and gets a job working as a maid for a snobby rich couple in a similar mansion. The couple have a very disgusting taste for clothes and not a lot of respect for Jessie. She meets a cook (played by Merry Clayton) and a Spanish speaking maid, and works with them (she also ends up meeting Nick, the mechanic, who also lives at the house). After a while, there's a party at the house, where Jessie's father and Stella are among the many guests. The people are asked what their wishes are, and Jessie wishes that their wishes come true. At the end of the movie, the spell is removed, and Jessie's father "knows" her again, as does the chauffeur. She also gets her original high heeled shoes back from the beginning of the movie and no longer has the ugly ones from the dumpster. Jessie and Stella say goodbye, with Stella driving away in a bubble toward the starry sky. Great movie, and I read that it is somewhat of a "Cinderella-in-reverse" story, that I agree with. This is also very 80s, because of the clothing, and the pastel colored blinds (gross!!), but I feel it has held up well over time.

This is a favorite movie of my mother and I. We have it on VHS, but are disappointed about it not being out on DVD. Why this movie is not out on DVD (still?!) remains a mystery. The acting is stellar by all of the actresses. A bunch of female friends get together at a deserted Woolworth's Five and Dime store in 1975 in a small Texas town to reunite 20 years after starting a James Dean fan club that they had started in '55, at the time when the film Giant was being made. Throughout the movie, the story line changes every few minutes from '75 to '55 (the flashback scenes from '55 are seen in mirrors). Cher is wonderful as Sissy, who was the character obsessed about her breasts, and you have Mona (played to the hilt by Sandy Dennis), who claimed to be the mother of Jimmy Dean, Jo (played by Karen Black; the male version played by Mark Patton), was wonderful as well, Juanita, who was the religious woman, and Stella Mae played by Kathy Bates in an early role, and Edna Louise, the character who was pregnant with her 7th kid. This movie could be considered as a comedy and a drama, and it is one that must be watched a lot more times than once. The songs that are played throughout the movie were ones that were done by the McGuire Sisters (their hit song, Sincerely is the one that stands out), and when the movie ends, Mona, Joanne and Sissy are seen in the mirror dancing to Sincerely as the closing credits come on. Then the song fades, and we see eerie footage of the deserted store in disarray: a broken ceiling fan lying on a table, the swivel stools gone, shelves that will never be stocked again, etc. The only sound that is heard is the wind blowing outside. To whoever is the copyright owner of this movie: please get this out on DVD soon, there's no reason not to.

I am not a fan of Woody Allen's, but his role in this movie cracks me up BIG TIME. I first saw it on TCM some years ago on TV, and was amazed at what I saw. Woody plays Miles Monroe, who worked as a health food store worker. He became ill and was scheduled for an ulcer operation at a hospital, but was mistakenly put in cryogenics and was revived.....200 years later (in the year 2173, being in the 22nd century)! When he regains consciousness, he is told by the people who revived him that all of his relatives and friends had passed away long ago. He then learns of life in the era he wakes up in. He is then told to find the Aries Project. A lot of the props were quite funny, such as the flying helicopter (that Miles had no success working with), and is known as an alien that the security police are looking for. Numerous sight gags are funny as well, such as "Orgasmatrons", confessional robots, robot tailors, a mechanical dog that talks. Diane Keaton played a wonderful role in the movie. This movie takes place during an era that none of us are going to see, but then again, the physicality of what we see (the devices, props, etc.) are also things that I don't think will be used at that time.

This sequel to Grumpy Old Men is as funny as the original. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and the rest of the cast from the original movie reprise their roles. John and Max are still feuding, but the tension between them has softened. There are, however, some changes: Ariel and John are married and there's a new girl in town named Maria Ragetti. She's moved to Wabasha to open up an Italian restaurant at the former Chuck's Bait place. When the boys discover what Maria's intentions are, they hatch a scheme to ruin the grand opening of the restaurant and try to keep Chuck's business going, even though the inventory of the former business has been cleared out and the interior remodeled to look like an Italian restaurant. Max and Sophia meet, but there's a disagreement about what the place should be. Maria goes to the neighborhood bar to try and reason with Max, but to no avail. It seems as though Max and John have trouble saying goodbye to what is no longer there. The humor between Lemmon and Matthau's characters is still spiced up and is still able to put viewers in stitches. Then, Max and Maria get married, and the restaurant starts selling bait, as well. Great movie, great cast, great fun!!

A wonderful movie, 1972's The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds stars Joanne Woodward as Mrs. Beatrice Hunsdorfer, an unhappy widowed woman who struggles to cope with daily life while raising two teenage daughters. Paul Newman's directing is superb and given two thumbs up. I first saw this film at my grandparents' home back in the early '90s, and loved it right away. There are a number of things going wrong for Mrs. Hunsdorfer: her husband died in the Korean War and she's left with the responsibility of raising her girls while living in a messy house, she has no job and stays home reading the ads in the local newspaper. She then takes in an elderly lady, known as "Nanny" (Judith Lowry) to get some income. Nanny's presence in the movie is wonderful, though she doesn't speak. Her daughters have issues of their own as well: Matilda (or Tillie) is growing marigolds that were dipped in radioactivity for a science project, and Ruth is wanting to spend time with her boyfriend (and has seizures). Little by little, Mrs. Hunsdorfer's life is going downhill. She ends up drinking and bitching to Tillie about seeing too much rabbit feces in the house, and a number of other things. She also dreams of opening a business--a small café downtown--but is told by her brother-in-law that she can't handle it. This is mostly a drama, but for me, it is also a comedy as well. It really saddens me that this movie is still not out on DVD. I strongly hope that it gets released sometime soon. To the producers of this film: PLEASE get this flick out on DVD soon!!! A++ for the story and acting and Paul Mewman's directing.

I never even saw this movie at all until I got it on DVD a few weeks ago. The only thing I knew regarding this movie was the title theme that Diana sang (Do You Know Where You're Going To). She sang this song quite well, and it is one of my most favorite songs of hers. Her acting was quite remarkable. She plays a ghetto girl who dreams of being a fashion designer. The movie starts out with the Asian fashion show thing; what is surprising is that the costumes glowed in the dark at the beginning. Anthony Perkins plays Sean McAvoy, the fashion photographer who tries to take advantage of Tracy's career (he gave her the nickname Mahogany). Anthony's character in this film is as equally crazy as his Norman Bates character in Psycho from 15 years earlier, but, of course, he doesn't have his mother's shell in a house up a hill. The craziest thing in the film is toward the end, where Sean and Tracy are shooting a commercial in an Italian sports car, and then he starts taunting her, to where the car goes out of control, Tracy gets nervous and tries to get control of the car, but the car crashes and Sean is dead. She survives. Billy Dee Williams is great as the politician boyfriend of Tracy's. Beah Richards plays Tracy's aunt Florence. Her role was great as well, even though her screen time was limited. I was so happy to get this movie on DVD, because I never saw it before--not even on TV. A must have for any fan of Diana's. The scenes in Rome are beautiful as well. The music in the film is brilliant also, especially the title theme song in instrumental form. If you have the soundtrack album, check that song out too.

I first saw this movie on TNT back on New Year's 1991/92 (actually half of it after browsing channels). I didn't know the title of it at first, but it was very suspenseful and kind of scary. Dennis Weaver played David Mann, who was an everyday man on his way to an out of town business meeting or appointment. At first, everything seems to go normally for David on his journey, but shortly later on, he ends up behind a huge dirty tanker truck spouting black smoke and nasty fumes. David tries to pass the truck, but the driver of the truck seems to want to terrorize David on his journey. Regarding the truck driver, his identity is anonymous; the only things about him that are seen are his cowboy boots and a chunky arm. David continues to try to get away from the driver, but to no avail. He stops at a roadside cafeteria for a bite to eat, and while there, he tries to analyze his situation by figuring out which one of the men inside is the one causing the trouble. He sees a man sitting at a table eating his sandwich (and thinks it's the bad guy because he saw a similar pair of cowboy boots, etc.), and goes to confront the guy. A scuffle happens, and it turns out that the man David confronted was the wrong one (driving away in a different truck--talk about mistaken identity). David leaves the restaurant and continues on with his journey and the victimization of him continues on. He sees a stopped school bus to ask the driver for help, but there was no luck, and the chase resumes. The truck driver then tries to endanger David's life (and car!) at a railroad crossing while a train is passing through, he then stops at a "snake lady's" house to call the authorities, but the driver almost kills David leaving the phone booth, and destroys the snake lady's displays. David gets away, and more trouble happens for him. He sees an elderly couple passing by and asks them to call for help, but they get scared and drive off due to David's reason. Then, his car starts malfunctioning. It starts to smoke, the OIL warning light flashes on and off, etc. Then, at the end, David crashes his car into a cliff, and almost doesn't get it started again, but gets away JUST IN TIME before the trucker slams him. David then comes up with an idea, which is to use his briefcase to push against the accelerator pedal and jumps out letting the car and the trucker crash. We see the trucker's cowboy boots again a couple of times there and his right hand trying to change gears (??), and the truck goes off the cliff. After the dust settled, David then sees from a distance the result of the crash and is pleased that it's over. We see him sitting on the edge of the cliff as the sun sets and the movie ends there. Not a bad movie, but not worth watching for folks who are nervous about driving on the highway. What happened to David afterwards, how he got back home, etc. is unknown (of course, because there is no after in most movies like this). My grade for this movie: C+. Spielberg's directing: A. Dennis Weaver's acting in this movie: A.

I first saw Pyramid many years ago when I was a little kid (it was the $25,000 show) back when Dick Clark had it. I might have seen it several times on CBS back when it was in production, but I saw it a lot more when the reruns of that and the $100,000 version were on the USA channel. The parts of the show I love to see are the winner's circle rounds, because that is where more excitement is at. It is so wonderful to hear Dick Clark say, "For $10,000/$25,000, here is your first subject. Go!" or "For $100,000, here is your first subject. Go!" if it was during the $100,000 tournaments. I always got a big smile on my face when a contestant won in the winner's circle. When a contestant won $10,000 or $25,000, his or her relatives would come up on stage to congratulate the winner, but when a contestant won $100,000 during the tournament, it would be the entire audience scrambling out of their seats and racing up to the winner's circle. I had learned that the audience never cared about the contestant winning the $100,000, but that they wanted some camera time. But, whatever the reason for it, it was a great way to make the $100,000 wins more exciting. I had just learned that the show has been removed from the GSN lineup. That is very sad to know. I hope it comes back by popular demand; I would love to see a $100,000 win on TV (as it was years ago when I witnessed one on TV). There was a revival of it in 1990 or 1991 with John Davidson as host, but I never saw that and I learned that it wasn't that great. There was another revival of it from 2002-04 with Donny Osmond as host. I loved that one also, even though several of the rules differed from Dick Clark's version and that it was pulled after its 2nd season. I thought Donny Osmond was great as host, also. GSN needs to get this show back on the lineup so that it will be enjoyed by fans for many more years to come.

This movie, 1981's "The Fan" stars screen legend Lauren Bacall, Michael Biehn, and Maureen Stapleton. Bacall plays an actress of stage and screen Sally Ross. Biehn plays a man named Douglas Breene, who is a fan of Sally's, and Stapleton plays Belle Goldman, who is Sally's secretary. Douglas works in a record store, and is a fan of Sally. But he is not an ordinary fan; he has an out of control, psychological obsession of her that turns pretty ugly. He writes Sally almost every day expecting an answer from her directly, but gets answered by Belle. During this movie, you see how crazy, disturbed (and increasingly dangerous) Douglas is. A variety of odd things start happening. In one scene, he is in his apartment pretending to have a candlelit dinner with Sally, he sends Sally a very pornographic letter that gets answered by Belle in a reprimand, he sends another letter to her (in person) that he hopes she will receive, but it gets to Belle instead, he goes and buys a straight razor as a weapon, sees Belle in the hall of the subway station, goes up to her and cuts her face, then he goes after David, one of Sally's friends and slashes him (possibly kills him) at a public swimming pool, then goes after Sally's maid and kills her in the apartment by slashing her breasts (which was the real shocker), destroys the apartment, goes to a gay bar and sees a guy who looks almost exactly like him, and kills him by dousing gasoline on the guy and throwing a match on him to prove to Sally in a note that she is free, etc., then attends Sally's musical when it's almost over and goes backstage to kill other people (first the stage office manager, then Sally's new maid), and then there's the confrontation between Sally and Douglas (a small chase and then he catches up with her). Then, after a bit of his dialog of obsession he has with Sally and embraces her, she quickly stabs Doug in the neck and he is gone. I first saw this movie on TV years ago when I was a kid, and saw it again years later in the late '90s on Encore (taping it). The chilling incidental music is wonderful as well. I do like this movie a lot (but not the sadistic slayings). I am going to get the DVD of this movie soon. See it while you can!! Also, James Garner (from TV's "The Rockford Files") plays Sally's love interest. The actors were great; kudos to them!! Great movie, so why give it negative reviews, folks???

In this 2002 movie, Enough, Jennifer Lopez plays Slim, a young lady who works as a cafeteria waitress. Slim meets and marries Mitch, a guy who works in a construction business. They have a daughter, and then, after a while, Slim discovers that Mitch is cheating on her by seeing a French girl, named Darcell (sounds like Duracell). She confronts him about it and gets hit for it. Soon afterwards, she gets bullied and mistreated by her cheating husband. He continues to beat her up; throughout the movie, you see for yourself that Mitch is the kind of guy that NO woman should date or be married to. One possible factor, regarding Mitch's abuse towards Slim, in my opinion, could be that when he was growing up, his mother probably didn't teach him that when he dates a woman and/or marries her, he can't abuse her. What I find appalling in this movie is the scene where Slim goes to her mother-in-law's house and she notices the thick scratch mark on Slim's cheek. What the mother-in-law asks Slim is very stupid: "What did you do? What did you say?" (You will immediately have a look on your face saying "What are you talking about, woman?!") Mitch's mother somehow failed to realize that Slim was beaten by him. Anyway, Slim does what she can to get herself (with Gracie, the daughter in tow) away from the evil acts of her husband. There is another disturbing scene in this movie: when Slim finds out that her credit cards can't be used due to her funds being frozen in her bank account (you obviously know who was the responsible party for that). Her husband enlists the aid of dangerous henchmen to get Slim and Gracie almost non-stop. So, Slim takes a one-on-one self-defense class so that she can protect herself from Mitch. At the end of the movie, you know without a doubt that Slim is telling Mitch that she's had "enough" by beating him up so much that his life is over!! This movie could be a lesson to women to help them get away from abusive boyfriends or spouses. No woman of any age deserves to be mistreated by her boyfriend or spouse. Get this movie and see Jennifer Lopez's action in the climax!! You will really be thrilled to see her character's self-defense moves!!!!

I used to watch this show every weeknight when it was shown on the Lifetime channel back when I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade. I loved it very much. Shortly after I started the 4th grade, it was pulled from the lineup and I was disappointed; I never saw it again. From what I learned, the show was on ABC back in late '85 and early '86, but was shown in reruns on Lifetime ('87-'89?) when I saw it a couple of years later. I thought Jamie Rose played Katy Mahoney (the female lead cop) very well. I thought the show was on for several years, but to my surprise, it only lasted for only twelve episodes. What a shame that the program never made it to at least one season. From what I learned, some critics say that she was a female version of Dirty Harry. Some people might say that the reason why it was canceled after twelve episodes could be that TV audiences were not yet ready for such a show, or that such a show had too much violence. I also loved the theme song from this show (I don't know the lyrics to it as it was a long time ago when I saw it). Katy was a no-nonsense type of cop who was always going after those awful drug dealers (and other possible offenders) and pointing her huge .357 Magnum gun at them! It would be great to see this show come out on DVD or back to cable TV (as reruns), but it obviously won't since it only lasted for 12 episodes. For a show that had such a very short run, the chances for it coming to TV lineup or on DVD is very impossible. I may not be able to see this show again, but I will always remember how much I enjoyed watching it in reruns. My 10 star rating stands, in spite of it's very short run.

Love, Lies and Murder, released for TV in 1991 is about the hideous case of a murder that happened in Garden Grove, California. On March 19, 1985, Linda Bailey Brown was murdered while she was asleep in her bedroom at home. David Brown, Linda's husband, is not at home at the time of the crime, but his daughter and sister-in-law are. David Brown is an evil person, as well as a master manipulator. He manipulated Cinnamon (his daughter from a previous marriage) by having her pull the trigger, and having Patti (his sister-in-law) be an accomplice to the crime. David is also the type of person who didn't care about anyone else but himself and showed no regard for his family. It was also so sick of him to get his sister-in-law pregnant shortly later on, then they get married and end up abusing the insurance money that they live on (by being extravagant). Horrible man!! I have seen this movie many times and every time I see it, I have a lot of anger towards David for plotting this crime. He thought (in his own mind, of course) that Linda wanted to have him killed so that she could take over his business and money. What a bunch of crap that is!! Linda would never have done such a thing. A person like David does not deserve to be out in society; the man will obviously stay in prison until his dying day. Poor Patti and Cinnamon; David just manipulated them. Clancy Brown, who played David, is a great actor and Moira Kelly, who played Cinnamon, was great in her role as well. Sheryl Lee (who played Patti) was great, too. Acting is superb. This movie needs to be out on DVD soon, instead of being confined to cable TV.

This TV movie, "Wheels of Terror", was released to the small screen in 1990 (TV movie). Starring Joanna Cassidy and Marcie Leeds, this freaky and sadistic thriller is about a young lady (played by Cassidy) who works as a school bus driver and her young daughter (played by Leeds). They had moved to the country to get away from being city folks. This story is about a very sadistic, evil, and scary looking black car (the driver's identity is anonymous) that abducts, molests, and kills young girls. What was really shocking was the bus driver's daughter being taken right in front of her mother's eyes, and she begins a desperate attempt to track down the hideous car and get her daughter back safe and sound and hopefully unharmed. I had seen this movie twice in '90, but have not seen it on TV since then and not anymore. This is not one of my favorites, and I would not recommend this to other people whether they have school age kids or not. Joanna Cassidy and Marcie Leeds are great actresses, but this is not a good story; this seems to be a modern day "reprise" of Spielberg's Duel. What were the creators of this '90 flick thinking, anyway??? There are other great TV movies out and about, but this one should not have been made. Sorry folks!! I don't think that the movie should have a sequel. My grade for this movie: D-

The Patty Duke Show is quite a remarkably funny show, but also an odd one, because it deals with two teenage girls who are.....identical cousins!!! I first saw this show back in the early 90s when it was on Nick at Nite. I really liked this show and I thought Patty Duke did a remarkable job. She had said in her autobiography "Call Me Anna" that she thought it was quite a dumb show and that she didn't really like doing it. Maybe it was because of the dual role she had to play, but who knows? I thought it was cool and fully enjoyable. I also like the theme song from this program, titled "Cousins, Identical Cousins", which I also thought was funny and odd as well (there is no such thing as identical cousins, which is probably why some people regard this program as a dumb one; well, I don't). I had not seen this program for quite some time since Nick at Nite had it. After Nick at Nite stopped showing it, I was shocked, and thought it would probably resurface on that network again later, but it hasn't. I would really love to see this show become available on DVD, even though it ran for only three seasons. I wish it could have been shown in color, but according to Patty's autobiography "Call Me Anna", United Artists Television thought it would be too expensive to have it shown in color, which might be why it was cancelled in 1966 after its third season. Patty's co-stars were wonderful. William Schallert played the dad, Jean Byron played the mother (I found out that she died earlier this year; God bless her), Paul O'Keefe played Ross, who was Patty's brother (Patty stated in her book that "Ross" was a name she tried to avoid saying, because it was the name of this middle aged couple she had lived with in real life, John and Ethel Ross, who were also her managers). Uuuuuggghh!!!! So, this is a great program and I would love to see this on DVD sometime. Even though Patty hated doing this show, I thought she was incredibly funny.

1992's Sister Act stars Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy, Maggie Smith, Mary Wickes, and Harvey Keitel. Whoopi plays Deloris Van Cartier, who is a lounge singer in Reno. Vince (Keitel) is Deloris's boyfriend involved in a mob. When Deloris witnesses her boyfriend killing an employer, she bolts away to the police to report the crime. Lt. Eddie Souther (played by Bill Nunn) decides to put Deloris in the Witness Protection Program, by having her hide out as a nun in the convent, until the time comes for her to testify against her boyfriend. While at the convent with her new "temporary identity", she doesn't seem to like the idea of being there, but, after a while, she makes quite a difference to the other sisters in the convent. After being caught by the Mother Superior (played by Maggie Smith, a wonderful actress) when returning from a visit to a bar down the street, Mary Clarence (Deloris's new identity) is ordered to be in the not so melodious choir. Only later, she turns the choir from a bunch of out of order singing voices to a very harmonious and beautiful sound of singing voices, and gets them grooving on the piano in church!! There is a bunch of laughs throughout this film. After a while, her boyfriend discovers her hiding place and tracks her down, at which time Lt. Souther meets up to her and tries to get her out...when the sisters are about to rehearse their singing for the Pope himself for the following Sunday!! Vince and his evil partners in crime catch up to her, she gets away from them (check out her method to get away from the two guys), and they get arrested a short time later. After that, the Sunday service goes as planned, and when the sisters get done with singing (with Mary Clarence conducting), they get a standing ovation from everyone in the audience including the Pope!! Great comedy with a great cast! Check out the sequel, too!!

Beaches is a truly wonderful movie. Starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, this movie is about two women who first meet on the beach in Atlantic City when they were kids; one is from a rich family and the other is into show business. They become instant friends, and keep in touch with each other over the years through the mail, keeping each other informed about their current situations. I'm truly a big fan of Bette Midler and thought she was truly marvelous in her role as CC Bloom. The same thing applies to Barbara Hershey in her role as Hillary. I don't know in general if any other two actresses could have played these characters as beautifully as Bette and Barbara did. They were great!! During the course of the movie, you are informed about their goings on in life; CC is struggling to keep busy with her acting and Hillary becomes a lawyer, and after a while, meets a guy who is also one and they get married. I thought it was so wonderful to see the scene where CC and Hillary were reunited in New York, and become roommates in CC's apartment. There are also some tense moments in the friendship as well (yes, every friendship can have its rare bad moments), such as the scene where they get into a heated argument in the department store, CC writes to Hillary to try to bury the hatchet, but her letters are sent back to her, and they see each other again in some nightclub (you would almost think at first that their friendship was not worth saving). There, they patch things up through tears and CC learns that Hill is pregnant (by her husband whom she caught with another woman--wearing her robe!!). Lainie Kazan (I also regard her as a great actress) was wonderful in the movie as CC's mother, even though she was in no more than two scenes. The one scene I thought was the saddest was when Hillary got sick due to viral cardiomyopathy (a viral disease that causes damage to heart tissue) and her daughter became so scared and nervous. Hill died at the end of the movie. Bette's singing in the movie was wonderful (check out that Otto Titsling segment; a real riot). The one song from the movie and the soundtrack album that I and a lot of other people know is the most memorable is "Wind Beneath My Wings". I LOVE that song so much, and think it is a real inspiring and kind of a sad song as well (Come on, who hasn't heard this song and/or doesn't like it?). People who have seen this movie automatically mention this song and their liking of it very much, no question about it. I learned that the song won a Grammy for Best Song of the Year in 1989--that is excellent!! I also love the other songs on the album. Any person who watches that ending scene (where Hillary and CC are sitting on the beach to Hill's funeral) with that song playing or even hearing that song on the soundtrack album would obviously be reaching for a Kleenex, if they have emotions that are so fragile. This is a truly unforgettable movie to watch and will make you realize for sure that you should always have friends to stick with you through thick and thin, good times and bad. I also have the soundtrack album of this movie as well on LP, cassette tape and CD. Bette's acting is as equally wonderful as her singing. Kudos to Bette and Barbara for their roles. Great job, ladies!!

A truly wonderful movie, 1993's "What's Love Got To Do With It" is based on the life and career of none other than the famous Tina Turner. Angela Bassett plays Tina to the hilt and Laurence Fishburne plays Ike equally well. The movie begins with Tina (Anna Mae Bullock, her original name, as she was known then) as a sweet little girl, who acts up in church singing with the choir by not singing the song "Bright Light" appropriately. The lady conducting the choir stops the music, warns her to stop, and then escorts the girl out of the church just seconds later for not listening. Jenifer Lewis was excellent playing Tina's mother, and she was fabulous as well. She then meets Ike in the late 50s, and, at first, he treats her kindly, but after a while, he is very mean and abusive to her (there are several scenes of such content in this movie that are so horrible to see. In these instances, you automatically feel sadness for Tina and intense anger at Ike; how dare he lay a violent hand on her!) You see for yourself that Ike was NOT a good husband to Tina; in other words, he was a real (you know what), and she did not do or say anything to deserve being beaten and bullied by Ike. She WAS singing the songs properly, but Ike didn't listen. There was one scene where she tries to take the kids and sneak out, but unfortunately, Ike catches up with her the next day, and her plan to get away is dashed. There were several instances that Tina got back at him: the scene where they and a friend of Tina's, Jackie, were at the cafeteria and Ike forced her to eat some cake by forcing it in her mouth, and she threw her drink in Ike's face (Wow!! What a way to make him back off!), but Ike had hit Jackie, she told him to kiss her (you know what) and bolted out. The next fight back scene was when Ike and Tina were in the plane and he kept leaning on her, she got up to get away from him and told him to "Go straight to hell, Ike!", and in the limo where she hit him back after he hit her in the car. Whooo! She wasn't going to put up with him anymore!! Ike had had some problems with drugs and possibly alcoholism during the marriage (the addictions made him abusive to her, I assume) and Tina should have gotten rid of him sooner, but after a while, she sued for divorce and got rid of him FINALLY!!! Way to go, Tina!! It is quite obvious that you had taken enough of his abuse. The music in this movie is great to listen to (I have the soundtrack album of the same name on CD). Songs like I Don't Wanna Fight, Nutbush City Limits (that's a funny one), the title track is great as well, A Fool In Love, and their version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Proud Mary is great also, with Tina speaking the intro describing to the folks listening how it is being done. Creedence's version of the song is great to listen to, as it is a soft rock version, while Ike and Tina's version contains a nice and jumpy groove to it (with horns added) to almost want to make you want to dance. I am a fan of Tina's, even though the songs on the soundtrack are the only ones of hers I like. I never read the book, "I, Tina", but this movie is good to watch. I highly recommend watching this movie.

This movie came out in 1985, the year that I started kindergarten at the age of five. I did not see this movie when it first came out. I had first seen this movie on TV (I assume on the Encore channel) in the early 90's, when it was a fairly recent movie and not quite ten years old. After my first seeing of this movie, I really liked it. The characters were quite remarkable. It's about five high school students who end up having to sacrifice a Saturday of their weekend to serve a detention in the school library. These characters come from different backgrounds and have their own differences in life like most other high schoolers. When they got together at the beginning of their detention, they hardly knew each other, but hours later, they get to know one another and touch each other's lives in a very special way. These characters range from: a prom princess, a basket case, a jock (athlete), a nerd, and a criminal. Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, and Judd Nelson play these roles (in this respective order). Paul Gleason (who passed away a few days ago; God bless him) played the principal of the school supervising the students in detention. This could be a comedy in some respects depending on how you see the characters (I say it is in my opinion). The dialog is funny, even though it is graphic and descriptive on certain occasions. My favorite character is John Bender. He is funny, even though he was the type of person who lived a demeaning life with a lack of love and respect. I like the other characters a lot as well, especially Mr. Vernon (Paul Gleason's character). He was the one who would not take or tolerate any inappropriate kind of nonsense from anyone (obviously, no principal should, of course). I liked the scene where Vernon tells off Bender in the storage room for acting like such a smart a** in front of the other students. The next scene where John falls through the ceiling after telling the explicit blonde joke was a riot. The scene at the beginning of the movie where he spits up in the air and catches it back in his mouth was so gross. I can't stand seeing some people doing that; it makes me cringe and almost gag. I never ever spat when I was in high school. Totally inappropriate!! The characters were funny to some extent. I also loved the soundtrack music to this movie, especially the Simple Minds track, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", which is heard in a slightly different way in here than the regular radio version on the soundtrack album. This is the kind of movie that you can watch remembering your days (good and bad) as a high schooler.

This movie from 1964 stars Olivia de Havilland as a woman who gets trapped in her own private home elevator as a result of an electrical problem during a very hot weekend. Olivia does a fantastic job as the title character (Mrs. Hilliard). The movie begins like this: Her grown son is going away to stay with friends over the weekend. But, when he drives away from the house down the alley, he accidentally hits a ladder leaning on a power line (the wire also has a caught kite on it contributing to the power failure). Mrs. Hilliard has no knowledge of the ladder nor does she have any idea about what she will encounter later on in the day. After her son leaves for the weekend, she goes back upstairs in her elevator (which she uses because she had broken her hip a few months back, and cannot use the stairs), but within the next few seconds, the power goes out and the elevator stops working. Mrs. Hilliard tries to get the elevator going again, but she assures herself that power will be restored quickly, but it isn't like that. She tries to ring her emergency bell, but it goes unanswered for a matter of minutes, later on to be acknowledged by a disheveled wino, who later disconnects the bell (he has the word REPENT either stamped or tattooed on his hands) in torn clothes (this being played by Jeff Corey). The phone rings shortly later on, but Mrs. Hilliard is unsuccessful in answering it. She tries again later and finally gets it pleading for help, but finds out that it is disconnected while trying to make a call. A few minutes pass by and the wino breaks into the house looking for some booze, and finds some. Mrs. Hilliard mistakenly assumes that the person in the house is a friend of hers, but finds out it isn't. The guy ends up stealing her toaster and her watch, while breaking some of her porcelain figurines by throwing them against the wall and screaming "Repent!" (while Mrs. Hilliard screams "Help!" repeatedly before he leaves) and he goes over to see his female friend, Sade (played by Ann Sothern). He starts to tell her about the house and the woman in the elevator and convinces her to go see it. But, within a few minutes, things go downhill even further, as the three thugs (two men and a young blonde) barge into the house creating havoc. They take clothes, they take a bath upstairs, and also take some of Mrs. Hilliard's stuff (the young blonde ends up wearing her dress, and chanting "We're going to have a party". There isn't a great deal of shocking moments in my opinion, but, there are two or three that I can think of. One is where the young thug, Randall (James Caan's character) ends up talking odd talk to Mrs. Hilliard and openly belching to her face (talk about bad manners) and tries to shake the elevator. Another scene is where the wino ends up being stabbed to death in Mrs. Hilliard's presence (she doesn't see the poor man being stabbed, as he is hidden by a folding panel, but you can see the look of horror on her face as she witnesses the sadistic killing). Another one is where Randall climbs into the elevator and intimidates Mrs. Hilliard. Randall obviously discovers a note that Mrs. Hilliard's son had written before he left. The note's details are quite odd and a real shock, because her son tells her something about that if she won't let him live a life of his own, he will "kill himself", and that there is a safe somewhere; her son also tells her to give him his half of the money or he will do as quoted (Randall is also demanding to know from Mrs. Hilliard where the safe is located in the house). The real shocking scene is in the end of the movie where Mrs. Hilliard crawls like a snake to the door and outside her house trying to flag down someone to help her. Earlier, she managed to use her hand to manually flip the switch that controls the elevator's door and to jump out of the elevator head first. Randall goes after her and drags her back in the house; she then continues pleading for help, to which he mocks her, there is also an exchange of saying "Damn you", and Randall gets stabbed in the eyes with the metal trim from the elevator!!! Ouch!!! He obviously loses his sight and gets killed shortly later on by having his head smashed by a passing car's tires. She then gets help from authorities, and ends up attracting attention to herself while screaming "Murderers!" or "Neandertals!" or something else to the thugs (who get caught almost immediately after trying to escape. I first saw this movie on TV one night back in the '90s (I assume in '94 or '95) on AMC, and thought it was funny. This is a movie that will give you a mild scare when you see it for the first time. This would have also been a great Hitchcock movie, if he had directed it.

This is a very funny movie; one of the funniest movies that Jack Lemmon made during his career (his role in this one was hilarious). Sandy Dennis was great as well, playing the wife of Lemmon's character. When it comes to a comedy, Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis know how to be funny. This film is about a young Ohio couple, George and Gwen Kellerman (played by Lemmon and Dennis) who are on the way to New York City for a business trip that George has the next morning. They expect to have a nice time, but as soon as they leave home, things start to get very hectic and go wrong, basically one thing after another. First, when they are on their flight to New York, the pilot says that everyone on board will have to go to Boston (after much time consumed circling over the big city, due to weather conditions), they lose their luggage when they arrive at the Boston airport (and try to find it in a panic, while hurrying to catch a train), they hustle by cab over to one station to board a train, but Gwen has to go to the women's room, but can't find it due to hurrying to make the train (the one they board has no one on but a cleaning lady, and they miss the one they were looking for, which was next to the empty one), then they hustle to another station to get on board one and try to get something to eat on a car with almost no food, they arrive later on at a transit station in New York and discover that all of the transportation services are on strike, so they walk in the rain to their hotel, and Gwen breaks the heel on her shoe while walking before they arrive, only to discover that their room was given away to someone else after the 10 pm deadline, then they walk with a man who helps them find another room (only to rip them off by robbing them at gunpoint, taking George's wallet), then they try to go to the police station to report the guy who scammed them, then go the armory by the police, only to get their route foiled by some liquor store robbers, they get dumped in the park and mugged by a stranger at 4 am while sleeping under a tree (George's watch was taken while he was sleeping), then they find Cracker Jack on a bench for breakfast (that a dog steals almost immediately, which George breaks a tooth on, causing him to whistle on his spoken S's), they get chased by a cop on horseback for an assumed problem with a child in the park, and more funny situations to come. After a few more mishaps, they finally make it to their same hotel destination with their luggage brought back earlier, thanks to the airport in Boston, but George can't get his suitcase unlocked due to the fact that the scam guy from the night before has his key in his wallet, then George goes to his interview, making it on time, in spite of his disheveled appearance (and he thought he wasn't going to make it due to the strike). But, then they realize that New York is not the place for them to live, so they go on back home. But, while they are on the plane, they find out that the flight that they boarded to go back home is hijacked en route to....Havana, Cuba!!! Uh, oh! See this movie and you will see for yourself just how funny an out-of-town trip can be!!!

I first saw this movie back in 1994 or '95 during my freshman year in high school when it was on Lifetime. After I first saw it, I thought it was wonderful. Sure, it may not have run longer, but it is as accurate as can be in my own opinion (regardless of what anyone else may think). Cynthia Gibb was great at portraying Karen, and Mitchell Anderson was okay as Richard. Louise Fletcher (Yes, who played Nurse Ratched in 1975's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") was fine as well, but I found her version of Agnes (Karen and Richard's mother) to be a little bit of a control freak. I am an EXTREMELY HUGE fan of the Carpenters, and I believe that Karen's voice was and still is so wonderful. It really saddens me about the fact that she is gone and had left this earth too soon, but thanks to the never ending popularity of her music and her angelic voice, the music will live on. Anyway, back on track to this movie, it really is a mystery to me and possibly other people (fans and non-fans of the Carpenters) as to what caused Karen to end up getting this problem with her health. Was it the media that was responsible or was it just Karen's decision? I would not believe that it was her decision. It could have been the media from one article that was printed out about her somewhere in '70, when their hit "Close to You" came out (from what was shown in the film). There are some other moments in the movie as well. Richard's struggle with drugs, and Karen's brief marriage. I did not hear about her loss in February of 1983, as I was not yet into watching the news; I had found out years later. I don't know if there will be another movie about the Carpenters or Karen made in the future, but until then, this movie will do fine. I will say this though: If Karen had disregarded the false details of that article or any future articles that might have been published with similar content calling her "chubby" (which must have been quite an insult), she would still be here on this earth today. I know that she is in Heaven and probably entertaining everyone with her beautiful voice. God bless you, Karen!!

Excellent, fun, thrilling, and scary as hell thriller based on the novel by Stephen King, this movie is about a novelist named Paul Sheldon (played by James Caan), who is finishing up another book in his famous "Misery" series based on that character. Paul is at a small motel and gets ready to head up to New York to see his literary agent (played by screen legend Lauren Bacall), but shortly after he leaves the motel, he runs into a blizzard and loses control of his vehicle due to the storm and is in a near fatal crash. Sometime later, he is found and rescued by Annie Wilkes (his "#1 fan") (played by Bates), and she takes him to her house and nurses him back to health. But, sometime later, things get really nasty when Annie reads about Misery being killed off at the end of his latest book. From then on, Paul is being held prisoner in Annie's home, and he's writing to keep himself alive, while taking a lot of undeserved physical torment from her as well. One scene that I found the most disturbing was when Annie smashed Paul's feet against the wood log (hobbling, as she said while telling him about what happened to the workers of the Kimberly Diamond mines. Ouch!! That would make me scream to high heaven!!) I am a huge fan of Kathy Bates and I truly believe that she deserved her Oscar for her role in this movie. Her character, Annie Wilkes, is funny (in some instances, depending on how you see her), but most other instances, she is a really crazy and psycho b****, who has an obsession of Paul way beyond a general one. Poor Paul, having to deal with Annie and her sadistic behavior. I love the showdown scene toward the end where Annie and Paul are fighting in the bedroom, and she finally falls and hits her head on the typewriter. Paul then thinks the fight is over, but a few seconds later, she's at him again and he knocks her out with an "iron pig". Then she is surely gone, the abuse over and done with. Eighteen months later, Paul is up in New York meeting with his agent, discussing a book he had just published. He then starts to talk about his experience with Annie, and his agent asks him if he wants to write a non-fiction book about what went on in the home. It's not known, of course, if he had wanted to write such a story, but if so, there must have been quite a lot to say. I highly recommend this movie to anyone being a fan of Stephen King or Kathy Bates!!

Great movie starring William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, and Steve Buscemi. When I first saw this movie a few years ago on VHS, I had noticed the information notice at the beginning stating that this was based on a true story from 1987. Now I know that this picture was NOT based on a true event from what I learned a while back. How misleading that is. Anyway, the movie is about a young man named Jerry Lundegaard (played by Macy) who works at an auto dealership and hires two guys to kidnap his wife so that he can pay off his debts (his wife was wealthy). Jerry Lundegaard is the kind of guy who was very stupid and not really honest in his ways. Anyone who is in tremendous debt that hires someone to have a relative or relatives of theirs kidnapped and/or killed in order to pay off his or her own debts is surely asking to get themselves landed in prison. Right after Jerry's wife is kidnapped, he comes back home to find that his wife is not there and "acts" like he's worried and concerned. His concerned feelings are very phony and all he wanted was to get greedy, just to pay off his debts. To me, Jerry was a selfish guy. I have absolutely NO RESPECT, WHATSOEVER for people who try to pay off their own debts by hiring someone to kidnap and/or kill their wealthy relatives. Then, when he gets in touch with the two men he "hired" to do this awful and sadistic deed some more, things get out of hand for him. The guys demand more money (they're just as greedy as Jerry), they had killed three people on the evening of the same day that they kidnapped the wife (a state trooper who was just doing his job by pulling them over for forgetting to put the temporary tags on this new car was shot, and two passers by who slowed down to witness what was going on were shot as well). Frances McDormand gave a wonderful performance as the very pregnant officer chief assigned to the case. This is a movie worth watching with lots of comical scenes (not the ones of violence, of course) and some dramatic ones as well. It is worth watching. I also like the Indian guy, Shep Proudfoot. He was seen a few times in the movie, but I thought he was funny as well. Check the scene where he gets back at the guy at his residence. That is something!!!!