Yet another one of Disney's package films of the 40's; second to last of them, and leans a little more towards 'Make Mine Music' in style. Once again, we're spread out with a total of seven segments, so the review will be a touch long-winded, but I'll do my best to keep it short and sweet. Much with 'Make Mine Music', it features segments that are punctuated with musical tones and poetry, and you get to guess how much of it may have been originally intended for the almighty 'Fantasia'. The whole thing is narrated by Buddy Clark - a man known more for his soundtrack performances than acting. He is also the man who sings the title song with his delightful, crooning voice. One by one, as usual, the segments are introduced, each offering a somewhat different artistic perspective. 'Once Upon a Wintertime': Frances Langford sings the title song, and we follow two young lovers named Jenny and Joe (neither with dialogue) while a couple of rabbits imitate most of their same moves. It's bright, chipper and cute, and would probably make for a nice addition to any Christmas soundtrack. Not my favorite kinda thing, but good for what it is. 3/5 'Bumble Boogie': This one WAS my favorite; Freddy Martin and His Orchestra, along with Jack Fina on the piano crank out a very jazzy, fast and upbeat version of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Flight of the Bumblebee'. All the while, it follows this poor bumblebee as it keeps seemingly getting attacked and chased by surreal-looking instruments and musical notes. It's very artistic-looking and fun, and yes, it was originally considered for 'Fantasia'. 5/5 'The Legend of Johnny Appleseed': Dennis Day narrates a Disney retelling of American folk hero, John Chapman, otherwise, of course, known as 'Johnny Appleseed'. His nicknamed was earned after he spends most of his life planting apple trees across Mi-Western America while spreading Christianity. I'm not a fan, but that doesn't mean it's not fine for its target audience. I have this really weird bias against pioneer day stuff. I have a very hard time enjoying any of it, and find it a bit boring. We do all have our thing we'll never go out of our way to watch though. With that said, it pretty much mirrors how I feel about 'Once Upon a Wintertime'. 3/5 'Little Toot': I'm fairly certain I had this in the form of a read-along book on tape when I was a kid. One way or another, this was something I remembered from my childhood, so there was a bit of nostalgia that popped up. I pretty well forgot all about it until now. It tells of a small tugboat named 'Little Toot' who wanted to be just like his father, 'Big Toot', but couldn't stay out of trouble, and never seems to learn. It did trigger some nostalgia, but not quite enough. Once again, passable, but nothing too special. 3/5 'Trees': Joyce Kilmer's 1913 poem, 'Trees', is here performed by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. For yours truly, I found the song slow, dull, boring, like... watching trees grow? The artistic style of the segment, however, is gorgeous. Each scene is essentially a nature painting brought to life, as it cycles through the seasons and the changing of the trees. All in all, it's actually a great segment if you can just get past the slow drone of the recitation. 3/5 'Blame It on the Samba': A down and out Donald Duck and José Carioca (the Brazillian parrot) meet the Aracuan Bird (who we first met in 'The Three Caballeros'), who introduces them to the Samba, whisking their sadness away with the playful, fun dance. The song is an English-dubbed version of Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho by Ernesto Nazareth, performed by the Dinning Sisters, and featuring organist Ethel Smith in a short, live-action performance. I actually find the song quite catchy, the Aracuan Bird is funny, and it was good enough to make me ignore the fact that José already introduced Donald to the Samba back in 'The Three Caballeros'. 4/5 'Pecos Bill': In the final segment, Roy Rogers (along with his horse, Trigger), Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers tell the story of Pecos Bill to Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten (who we just saw talking to a bunch of creepy dummies in 'Fun and Fancy Free). The story tells of a child who was raised by Coyotes, later to become the world's greatest "buckaroo" (which I definitely did not hear right the first time around). Once again, due to smoking content, it was later strongly censored, but revived once it landed on Disney+. Once again, this is just okay, but I probably got a bit more out of it that 'Once Upon a Wintertime' or 'Johnny Appleseed'. It's a little more on par with 'Little Toot'. 3/5 Aside from a couple of the more surreal segments, this movie just works out to be another perfectly average film of its kind. I'm really looking forward to getting through all of these, as I find them a little more challenging to review. I can break down each segment, and work out an average rating, which makes things a touch easier. But when you get segments like this, unless it really speaks to me, it can be hard to say that anything is either terrible or awesome. These will almost always work out to be a 3 or, at best, 4, just due to how average it all works out to be. Like most of these (and it's starting to get frustrating because I want to give more), it works out to be a perfectly passable film, harmless, decent for the kids as well as the cultured (being a bit of Disney history), and something that makes for good background entertainment. It doesn't have the scope of 'Fantasia', or is particularly memorable, but there's really nothing wrong with it either. Here's thanking my lucky stars that the next and final package film, just in time for October, will be 'The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad', featuring what I can already say is my all-time favorite segment, 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'... so gimme a couple more months, and these will be much less boring! 3/5
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Finally, I've reached the point where these reviews are gonna be a bit easier. We're still going through some anthology stuff, but this time, instead of reviewing 6 or 7 short segments, I'm reviewing 2. It's a breath of fresh air, really - a somewhat back-to-normal. In this case, the self-contained reviews will be a touch longer, as there's slightly more to cover than just a musical number with visuals. The film opens with our kindly little host, Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards), singing a song about living "fun and fancy free", as he goes around telling different animals how they worry too damn much. He sets the mood for what you're about to see, with his upbeat attitude, and it's enough to pull you in. Speaking for myself, it was nice to see a song about all the worries people have, in regards to society right now with a world-wide pandemic. All Jiminy wants you to do now is join him in a fun, fable-telling film, all starting with the lovely voice of Dinah Shore as she narrates and sings the first of two stories. 'Bongo': Based on the Sinclair Lewis story, 'Little Bear', the story tells of a circus bear cub named Bongo. He's amazing at what he does, but he's treated poorly and wants his freedom. He eventually escapes, and just when he thinks things aren't going the way he imagined, he falls for a female cub named Lulubelle. But he must prove himself against a big brute of a bear named Lumpjaw, if he wants a shot at being with her. It's the classic David vs Goliath/Nerd vs Jock love story. All and all, it's a pretty solid musical, rhyming number for the little ones. It's honestly pretty cute, and even got a few laughs from me. However it should probably be mentioned that bears show their affection in this by slapping each other, so just be sure to remind your kids that humans aren't like that. 3/5 'Mickey and the Beanstalk': With narration by Edgar Bergan, this one's a retalling of 'Jack and the Beanstalk', replacing Jack with Mickey Mouse (Walt Disney), Donald Duck (Clarence Nash) and Goofy (Pinto Colvig). Mickey sells their cow for magic beans, which lead to the beanstalk, which lead to them discovering Willie the Giant's (Billy Gilbert) castle. There, they must retrieve a singing harp (Anita Gordon), and defeat the giant, to restore peace to their village. The animated segment is just classic. If I mention 'Fun and Fancy Free', many don't seem to know what I'm talking about, but if I mention 'Mickey and the Beanstalk', everyone seems familiar. I remember it being pretty popular, growing up,and it was likely featured on Disney's Sunday evening. But there was something about it I never caught on to until this watch. Segment narrator, Edgar Bergan, was a ventriloquist, and the segment is him telling the story to a young Luana Patten, with the help of two dummies named Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. It delivers some laughs, but a lot of it is just because of how incredibly creepy it all is. It looks like a scene from 'Goosebumps', and I can't imagine that girl being so comfortable through the whole thing. One of them even offers her a cigar. With that said, though, it just added to the fascination of the segment. But that's honestly just me. It's so weird and creepy that it's funny. 4/5 In short, this is just a feel-good film, and that's all it's meant to be. The only things I found potentially dated here was how creepy the dummies were, and the idea of slapping someone to show them you like them, but if you can just get around those things, it's totally enjoyable, and worth gathering the family around for a few laughs. 4/5 This month would appear to be a somewhat repetitive one. Not to be boring, but it just so happens that a five of these are under-the-radar anthologies, often musical and/or educational, dated, and met completely in the middle with my opinion. This one tries to play a little more on the 'Fantasia'-like anthology, featuring the music and lyrics of a select group of high-ranking artists for the time. With that, it's fascinating, but like it is with a lot of Disney stuff from way-back-when, there's some dated stuff here. For the most part, the film is totally passable and enjoyable, but it's nothing at all that particularly sticks out in Disney's library. In fact, this might be the one title I've mentioned to other people that no one at all seems to recognize. Even the segments within it are pretty obscure; the most famous probably being 'Peter and the Wolf', or 'Casey at Bat' (which, by the way, has the dated comment that really stands out). More than anything, it's the musicians we're here for, and it's pretty interesting going back to hear some of the music of the time. 'The Martins and the Coys': The King's Men, a popular vocal group, sing the 'Hatfields and McCoys' story about a wild west family feud in which two characters from opposing sides fall in love. Eventually, the segment was censored from the film's video release for its gun-use, so apparently nowadays it's a bit of a rarity. But it's not entirely special nowadays when we're familiar with too many similar stories, and the concept of a vocal group is kinda dated. It's fine for its time, but not as timeless as a lot of Disney material is. 3/5 'Blue Bayou': Another fascinating one, featuring animation originally intended for 'Fantasia', using 'Clair de Lune' from Claude Debussy. The segment is quite lovely, featuring two egrets flying around on a beautiful, moonlit night. It would have fit 'Fantasia' so well, and for my money, is probably the classiest segment of the film. It's now featured with the song 'Blue Bayou' by the Ken Darby singers. Apparently, the original cut can still be found, but this is the official version, and it's a shame it didn't make it into 'Fantasia'. 3/5 'All the Cats Join In': Benny Goodman and his Orchestra play for this segment, probably my favorite in the film. It's a really neat take on animation that I've always enjoyed, where a pencil is drawing out the art as the animation is happening - some of the earliest examples of fourth wall breaking. The segment portrays the swinging youth of the 1940's with a very catchy tune, and even once featured female nudity that has since been edited - and yeah, you can tell where it was. But that's more just an interesting fact. The real takeaway from this is the ever-moving dance animation, and a tune that will have you tapping your feet, providing you with a cool little 1940's time capsule. 5/5 'Without You': A song about lost love by Andy Russell. Though it's punctuated by some beautiful animation, it's all in all depressing, and it feels like a huge drop from the catchy rhythms of the previous segment. I wasn't a fan. 2/5 'Casey at the Bat': While the 1888 poem is a solid classic, the segment opens up with a pretty rough song that states "the ladies don't understand baseball a bit, they don't know a strike from a ball or a hit". It otherwise hits a home run for giving us the comedy we so desperately needed after the last segment, and other than the song in the beginning, provides us with the timeless poem about how cockiness can lead to disappointment. It even got a sequel with 1954's 'Casey Bats Again'. 3/5 'Two Silhouettes': I'm not sure whether or not this was another one originally meant for 'Fantasia', with a different song, but it looks like it might be. This segment features a simple and pleasant love song, sang by Dina Shore, as two silhouetted ballet dancers, David Lichine and Tania Riabouchinskaya dance against a beautifully rendered, ever-changing background. If I'm honest with myself, I can certainly appreciate it. It sets a very pleasant mood, and for as much as I dislike ballet, I appreciate dream-like sequences a lot. If you do like ballet, go look it up on YouTube and check it out. 3/5 'Peter and the Wolf': Sergei Prokofiev's musical composition comes from 1936, and ten years later was made into a classic segment for Disney. I seem to faintly remember having a "read-along" book of this as a kid (a book that came with a tape you could read along with), but it really hit me as something bigger than I thought when 'Tiny Toons' parodied it, almost more as though it was a modern remake. Sterling Holloway (who popped up in the last review) narrates for Prokofiev's piece, and it tells of a boy named Peter who hunts a wolf with the help of his animal friends - Sascha the bid, Sonia the duck and Ivan the cat. Each character is represented by different instruments - Peter, the string quartet; Sascha, the flute; Sonia, the Oboe; Ivan, the Clarinet; an the Wolf, horns and cymbals. It gets kinda dark, but it does have a happy ending, and it still holds up as a classic piece of Disney work. 4/5 'After You've Gone': Benny Goodman comes back for this one, along with his quartet. I really enjoy this one in its creativity, as it features six anthropomorphic instruments, including a piano, bass, drums, cymbal and clarinet somehow putting on a sort of dance number. Between this and 'All the Cats Join In', this film has given me a whole new appreciation for Benny Goodman. They are both easily two of the most entertaining segments in the film. 4/5 'Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet': The romantic tale of two department store hats falling for each other. But when Alice is sold, Johnny devotes himself to finding her. All the while, The Andrews Sisters sing the story. As far as any love story goes in this film, the only one that really stuck out was 'Two Silhouettes'. This one was cute, but if I'm honest, I wasn't a fan of the song, and the whole thing felt a bit "mushy". Perhaps just not for me, once again. 2/5 'The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met': It's such a solid choice to make an operatic number the finale, but the problem here is that I really do not like opera at all. I have lots of respect for what they can do, but that's kinda like saying I have respect for anyone whose voice is sharp enough to break glass - it's cool, but the sound of it is a bit much. Nelson Eddy narrates, sings and voices everything here, as we hear the story of a whale named Willie (decades before 'Free Willy') who has an incredible singing talent, and dreams of singing grand opera. Soon, though, his voice is mistaken for being three opera singers he probably ate, and the hunt is on. It ends very bittersweet, and all in all isn't bad, but the operatic singing started taking me out of it just because that's about the one form of music I just can't deal with. The film ended, and I just kinda thought to myself that something like 'Peter and the Wolf' may have made for a better finale. Oh, and the whale sings 'Shortnin' Bread' (an old plantation song) at one point, and that may make one cringe a bit. Maybe it's just me, but I was disappointed by the wrap-up. 2/5 Perhaps most interesting about this movie is how it came to be. During World War II, a lot of the Disney staff was drafted, and several who stayed behind were asked to make US propaganda films (and we all know how well that stands nowadays). The studio was then full of unfinished ideas, and in order for Disney to keep going, six "package films" were created. These began with 'Saludos Amigos' and 'The Three Cabelleros', and after this would eventually be capped with 'Fun and Fancy Free', 'Melody Time' and 'The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad' (to be reviewed in the October Edition of this series). I actually didn't realize the history until I dug into this one. That made for a very lengthy review, and if you're still here, congratulations, you made it. My closing thoughts are just that I'm glad I finally got a chance to check this out. Just bear in mind that while the segments are easy enough to find, the full-length feature is not; even D+ doesn't have it, and that's where I watched the last two films I reviewed for this month. I'm not gonna consider this one underrated, but I will say that it's worth a sit-down, as I think the good actually does outweigh the bad. I keep handing out 3/5, but I recommend going by segments, because some are very well done. 3/5 Another Disney movie with self-contained segments drowned out by 'Fantasia's success was 'The Three Caballeros'. I've been familiar with it since childhood, but never saw or even bothered with. Back then was a time when Disney movies would get video re-releases for a limited time before "going back into the vault, forever". Because of this, there were a lot of titles I was unfamiliar with. For a while, this was one of them, but I was also aware of a movie called 'The Three Amigos', so eventually I caught on. But truth be told, this was my first time watching it. The film begins as Donald Duck (Clarence Nash) is celebrating his birthday (on Friday the 13th, but no month is mentioned). He opens up a package containing all sorts of gifts that will give him further information of the world's geography and cultures. Mainly, it takes a further look at Brazil, as José Carioca (José Oliveira) the Parrot comes back to host Donald, and Mexico, where a rooster named Panchito (Joaquin Garay) comes in to dub the American duck, Brazilian parrot and Mexican rooster "the three caballeros". It all bears very similar aspects to 'Saludos Amigos'. I'd almost call it an unofficial sequel. The Cold-Blooded Penguin: Narrated by Sterling Holloway (most commonly known as the voice of Winnie the Pooh), the segment features a cute little penguin named Pablo, who goes against all penguin logic and decides he's sick of the cold climate of Antarctica, and wants to travel to warmer climates. Before landing on the Galápagos Islands, Pablo passes by Chile, Peru and Ecuador, giving kids a little geography lesson on South America's west coast. It was cute and gave me a giggle or two, but it didn't necessarily stand out either. 3/5 The Flying Gauchito: Narrated by Fred Shields (who was also narrator on 'Saludos Amigos') tells of a cute adventure of a little boy from Uruguay and his winged donkey, named Burrito. The segment is full of cuteness, but in a good way. It pretty much matches my opinion on the first segment, but perhaps with a little more stand-out in the cuteness of the characters involved. 3/5 Baía: I rather enjoyed the concept of this one; a love letter to the Brazilian state of Baía. This is where José really enters into it, as he sings a rather beautiful song about it, and takes Donald on a tour within a pretty damn cool pop-up book. Together, they meet the locals, including the lovely singer, Aurora Miranda. A lot of it involves the Samba, and Donald pining for the beautiful Brazilian women. It combines live action with animation, and I thought it was all put together nicely. 4/5 Las Posadas: We get a glimpse of Christmas tradition in Mexico, as a group of Mexican children re-enact the journey of Mary and Joseph, searching for room an the inn. "Posada" basically translates to "Shelter", which they of course eventually find in the stable. However, Mexican tradition brings in the piñata, which the kids hit for gifts and candy. It was neat, but might be more of a bookmark for something to check out around the Christmas season. 3/5 Mexico: Pátzcuaro, Veracruz and Acapulco: Here's where Panchito kinda takes the reins, and comes in with the song about "Three Caballeros". He then takes Donald and José on a tour of Mexico on a magic carpet. Here, they learn about several traditionally cultural dances and songs. We learn here that Donald is running a gag, often pining for the local women, but kinda failing at getting return affections every time. 3/5 You Belong to My Heart and Donald's Surreal Reverie: Seemingly continuing his running gag, Donald soon falls for singer Dora Luz, who sings him the son 'You Belong to My Heart'. He also eventually dances with the lovely Carmen Molina, singing and dancing to the song 'La Zadunga'. Eventually this all leads to a sort of love-struck, drug-like atmosphere that has Panchito and José ever-interrupting, and even eventually taking over, and there's a bit of chaos before the whole thing ends in a flash of Mexican, Brazillian and American fireworks. This part of the film wasn't one i particularly enjoyed, because it just kinda gets crazy and ends somewhat abruptly. But it's not even close to enough to ruin the whole movie, either. 2/5 All in all, it's not necessarily a title I could see myself revisiting much. The whole thing is something I feel like I'd end up being made to watch in Spanish class, as it mostly serves as an educational tool about geography and other cultures. As I mentioned before, I see it as a sort of loose sequel to 'Saludos Amigos'. And, much like with 'Saludos Amigos', I'm trying to figure out how much of the film is dated with its depictions of certain cultures. Again, not trying to be culturally insensitive at all, but perhaps coming across as such. It didn't really cross my mind in this case; I felt they meant well, trying to give kids an early education on things. To make the review short, it's simply passable, not very memorable, but I'm glad I watched it. 3/5 Once again, we have a month of 5 Thursdays, so once again, it's time to visit the deep, dark reaches of the Disney Vault. And man, oh man, do we have some obscurities this month. This may be the only Disney Month that consists entirely of films I could just as easily do an 'Under the Radar' month on. First up, we have the Disney Animation Studios record-holder for shortest film; the 42-minute 'Saludos Amigos'. Though this is part of the DAS collection, in truth, it plays much more like a Disney Special I'd have seen one Sunday evening. The film is short, and consists of sketches, sometimes featuring old Disney favorites like Donald Duck and Goofy. In fact, it's probably safe to say that Donald is the main character in this, acting as a tourist as he travels to different destinations, but not in every sketch. Much like I did with 'Fantasia', I'll break it down bit by bit. The brief synopsis of the full film has to do with representative animators from Disney Studios travelling to exotic locations, and finding inspiration for their animation. Of course, as we all know, that has the potential to be a bit controversial. It's fun, but I often wondered if it bordered on insensitive. It stands as educational for its time, but I do wonder how much they got wrong. It's very much a product of its time. Lake Titicaca: This is one of the segments featuring Donald Duck as a tourist. For this one, he visits Lake Titicaca, and learns about some of the local culture, which includes riding a very stubborn llama - which is by far the best part of the sketch. 3/5 Pedro: While flying high above the mountains, one animator is inspired to create a story about an anthropomorphic plane who is engaging in his first mail retrieval flight, from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza. It's cute, but mildly entertaining at best, seemingly very aimed towards children (which is fine). 3/5 El Gaucho Goofy: Here we take a look at cowboy life, the way only Goofy can do it. It places Goofy, as an American cowboy, in the Argentinian pampas (lowlands) so he can learn the ways of the gaucho (South American cowboy). The scene pictured above of Goofy smoking a cigarette was later removed for the Gold Classic Collection, the Classic Cabelleros Collection, and even on Disney+, despite it being advertised as "unedited". Despite perhaps some dated cultural depictions, it still got a good laugh. 3/5 Aquarela do Brazil: In Portuguese, this means "Watercolor of Brazil", and it's probably my favorite of the sketches. In this finale, Donald returns as a tourist, this time in Brazil. He meets José Carioca; a Portuguese speaking, cigar smoking parrot from Rio, who shows him around, introducing him to the samba, and cachaça - a distilled spirit created from fermented sugarcane juice. This one's stylish, has catchy music to go with it, and even teeters on being a bit adult with the drink. For whatever reason, that wasn't as controversial as Goofy's cigarette. 4/5 I'm a bit torn on this one because there's something about it that I'm not quite getting. So much about it is saying that I should find the conroversy in it, as it does depict different nationalities in what is perhaps a dated way. But at the same time, nothing about it felt overtly racist, like jive-talking crows, or a certain centaur from 'Fantasia'. I really felt like this was trying to be cultured, and educational, and it never truly felt insensitive to me. But honestly, if I need my eyes opened, please do educate me. I can only speak personally, and I can say that in many ways this one took me back to childhood. Particularly, seeing a couple of old Donald and Goofy skits that were new to my eyes was a fun, nostalgic treat. I think one could look at this film as completely dated, and maybe even a bit insensitive if they look hard enough. But for myself, nothing really made me cringe or reel, it was just always on that edge where it could have crossed a line, but just did enough not to. It's a quick, easy watch, and just kinda there. I woudln't even really count it as a movie, myself, but it is on the list, so here we are. 3/5 Growing up, there was this trend of film that spoke to our generation involving kids and sports. 'The Mighty Ducks', 'The Sandlot', 'Little Giants', 'Rookie of the Year', 'Little Big League', 'Angels in the Outfield' (man, baseball was a real go-to, wasn't it?) the list goes on. I liked a bunch of them okay at the time, but there was a very different one that spoke to me, personally; 'Heavyweights'. The film portrays 11-year-old Gerry Garner (Aaron Schwartz) who comes home to his parents intervening with his lifestyle with ads for a "fat camp" called Camp Hope. Though skeptical at first, the ad actually shows cool things like go-karting and "The Blob" (a massive inflatable raft used to launch kids into the air and into the lake) which quickly gains his curiosity. He then meets the other kids, headed by Josh (Shaun Weiss) and Roy (Kenan Thompson), and the counselors; which primarily include a big softy named Pat (Tom McGowan), who has his own development story as he has an interest in a sweet nurse named Julie (Leah Lail) and all seems to be going well. However, when the camp owners, the Bushkins (Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara) have to file for bankruptcy, the camp is suddenly taken over by maniacal meathead, Tony Perkis (Ben Stiller) and his crew of enforcers. They have come to essentially abuse these kids into losing weight. For an idea on his character, think White Goodman from 'Dodgeball' coaching a bunch of kids. As if that isn't enough, they also have to deal with their rival camp; essentially a group of typical bully jocks. In the end, it's a question of how far the kids and counselors are willing to take things to regain control of their camp. To be frank, there is a lot about this movie that isn't as great as I remember. I find the humor to be oddly balanced; where some gags get a giggle, others will have you rolling your eyes. A lot of the lame humor comes from the kids and counselors, but and as one can imagine, a lot of the good stuff comes from Ben Stiller. There's something about him playing an overtly cocky guy that just cracks me up. The dialogue comes to us from an interesting team though; Steven Brill ('The Mighty Ducks', 'Ready to Rumble' and 'Little Nicky') and Judd Apatow ('The 40-Year-Old Virgin', 'Knocked Up' and the legendary 'Freaks and Geeks'), so one can imagine an odd balance. The film as a whole is pretty off-the-wall ridiculous in what it wants us to buy into sometimes; for instance a video that has you asking "whose camera is that?", and the whole general idea that, while perhaps not to his extreme, Perkis is one of those villains you realize is kinda right in what he's doing. Right from the get-go, you see how insanely easily these kids get hold of junk food to cheat with. In such a situation, it does make sense to bring in someone who will lock it down, as the whole idea of the camp is to lose weight. Again, maybe not him, but someone more strict was probably pretty necessary, if I'm being honest. At the end of the day, however, this IS a movie aimed at kids, so I'm not gonna just sit here and pick it apart little by little. As I mentioned, this was something that spoke to a chubby, out of shape me, back in the day. I have to appreciate that it took the bonding concept that other early 90's kids sports movies had and incorporated it into something for all the other kids who sucked at gym class. Even with that, it still features a game of baseball, so it did try to reach a range of kids - perhaps to show them that kids like me didn't necessarily suck at everything. This one might not hit the same chords it did back then. It's no last string of childhood, like 'Space Jam', nor does it represent some obscure life event like puberty. It was just a fun film that spoke to me a little more than it spoke to others back then. A lot of it is kinda tough to watch nowadays as an adult, and there's no real nostalgic tie to it. However, if you are curious about some of Stiller's early work, it might be worth checking out. Bringing up 'Dodgeball' again, you could even fan-theorize that Tony Perkins and White Goodman are perhaps one and the same? 3/5 Upon its release, 'Bio-Dome' was holding on tight to the dangling thread that was the early 90's in which the 80's did a bit of a spill-over. The problem was, this was 1996, and everyone was kinda over Pauly's noisy, primate-like antics of the past four years. For some, it was too little, too late; for others, it wasn't given it any consideration at all; for people like me, we saw it much in the same way as I saw 'Space Jam' - it was one last entry in the cinematic journal of our childhood. By this time, change was in full swing, and party animal, Pauly Shore faded away afterward - not so much into obscurity, but in that realm where only the few die-hard fans would give him any attention. At the time, he was a bit of a comedic icon, especially to a younger crowd. However, my generation grew up and grew past him to such an extent that even a movie was made about it - 'Pauly Shore is Dead' (which I actually recommend as a great send-off, that is, if you ever cared for Pauly Shore). Before all that, 'Bio-Dome' was the last of what I like to call the "Weasel Series" - 'Encino Man', 'Son in Law', 'In the Army Now', 'Jury Duty' and this, all with Shore portraying a very similar character. In fact, it could even be said that the first three films take place in the same universe, with a couple of cameos from Brenden Fraser's Link, suggesting these Pauly portrayals may all have been related, or even clones. But perhaps that's going a little deeper than is deserved. Let's take a look at the role that put the nail in Shore's coffin. It all starts with a couple of delinquents, Bud (Shore) and Doyle (Stephen Baldwin) making an effort to get out of helping their respective girlfriends, Monique (Joey Lauren Adams) and Jen (Teresa Hill) pick up trash for Earth Day. They go for a drive, and soon find themselves at the Bio-Dome; an environmental bubble, built for sealing in a group of scientists to see if they can maintain 100% homeostasis for a straight year. In other words, a giant Garden of Eden type place where the scientists will do their best not to screw it up. The scientists in question consist of Leader, the sophisticated Dr. Noah Faulkner (William Atherton); Geologist, Olivia Biggs (Denise Dowse); Agriculturalist, Mimi Simkins (Dara Tomanovich); Entomologist, T.C. Romulus (Kevin West); and Oceanographer, Dr. Petra von Kant (Kylie Minogue) and it's all headed up, outside the dome by William Leaky (Henry Gibson) whose occupation is... I'm not sure it's ever mentioned. He's the big wig whose only on-screen for a limited time, but between him and Atherton, I wonder who was the most regretful for being a part of it. Anyway, when the boys mistake it for a mall in which Doyle can potentially urinate, the dudes find themselves sealed in as well, having to endure the year ahead.. As one might imagine, it's just a bunch of noisy and irritating shenanigans while these two completely mess with the scientists' work, until everything backfires and they need to learn a lesson in growing up (which I'm not sure they ever do) by saving the Dome, and hopefully reuniting on the outside with their respective ladies. Now, here's the thing. I have this certain weakness when it comes to Pauly Shore. He's a lot like Lucky Charms cereal; all of my peers have grown up and are eating better, but I still have that sweet tooth that keeps bringing me back for the odd bowl... and it is a very odd bowl. I talk about movies that want you to turn your brain off, and his films are some of the best places to find them. In my humble opinion, the man is the embodiment of retro guilty pleasures. Somehow, I can still find entertainment in all of his films, despite some of the most horrendous reviews out there. Hell, 'Encino Man' is still one of my go-to's for a "cheer-me-up" movie. With all of that said, I am well aware that I'm in a vast minority. I suppose there's just something about these movies that takes me back to childhood when it was all so much simpler. So yes, I beat the term into the ground with a lot of my reviews, but again, it's "nostalgic". Pauly Shore aside, it's safe to say that there is a whole massive collection of recognizably bad nostalgic movies I enjoy for what they are, so often, my opinion is pretty biased. But even with that in mind, I can still recognize that they are altogether bad movies, and it's not like I'd ever get mad at someone for calling the "pointless, stupid, horrible wastes of time" (or something to that effect). I wanted to look back on it for the first time in quite a while to see how it held up. If I'm being honest with myself, About 90% of it is just these two making noise and goofing around, and the entire film's comedic level is pretty low-hanging and cheap - although I will admit a few moments still get a giggle (the exchange of "Adieu!" / "A-Duh!" still cracks me up). So while someone like me can still get a kick or two, if you're in that majority of people who just deem Pauly Shore unwatchable, that's a good enough reason to avoid it. I'd sooner recommend second chances to other titles of his, and even then, you'd have to take my recommendation with a grain of salt. At best, this is a recognizably bad guilty pleasure; at worst, it's just another piece of garbage Bud and Doyle refuse to pick up. 2/5 Originally released when I was 12, going on 13, 'Casper' actually ended up being a sort of landmark film for yours truly. At the time of its release, I wasn't exactly popular, so there was a big part of me that related to Casper's loneliness. I also developed my first celeb crush on Christina Ricci with this, at the time, so it fit pretty well 12-year-old me. Watching it nowadays though, interestingly enough, I actually found it to be a bit deeper than I remember. 'Casper' is, of course, based on those old Harvey Entertainment cartoons (funnily enough the name of the father and daughter in this), and it more or less plays out the same way. Casper (Malachi Pearson) is just a lonely ghost looking for a friend. The problem is that his uncles, Stretch (Joe Nipote), Fatso (Brad Garrett) and Stinky (Joe Alaskey) constantly scare and drive off any potential candidates. That is until one day, while watching TV, Casper stumbles on a news report that tells of a paranormal psychologist, Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman) and his daughter, Kat (Ricci). Harvey reveals that all he wants to do is help ghosts in need; seeing their unfinished business through so they can cross over. Combining that with a little instant crush of his own on Kat, Casper works his magic to bring it to the attention of the latest inheritor of Whipstaff Manor (the house the ghosts haunt), Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty), who, along with her assistant, Dibbs (Eric Idle), has recently discovered that the manor is haunted, and she want the ghosts out of the house in order to find a mysterious treasure that was revealed in her late Father's will - the same will that left her the property. Casper's plan works, and eventually he gets to meet and befriend Kat while Dr. Harvey makes the effort to counsel the three uncles - though pretty much none of that is ever seen, as these ghosts take great enjoyment in messing around with him. Will the ghosts leave, an give Carrigan access to this treasure? Or will Dr. Harvey and Kat discover that they have enough in common with these ghosts to let the stick around? Before I get into it all, let me get some of the negative out of the way. Opinions on this one are very 50/50, and it's not exactly regarded as a good movie. I managed to pick out a lot of what people might see bad about it, like some of the humor (a lot of it can get pretty crude), or often the writing not making a whole lot of sense (Why does Carrigan inherit the manor from her father when it's clearly revealed that Casper's father lived there? Why do Casper and Kat run upstairs to keep the Lazarus potion from falling into the wrong hands only to answer a door and just go right back down to where they were?) But the truth is, even as an adult, this one isn't lost on me. And not even in that "guilty pleasure" context, like 'Space Jam'. A lot of the good in this comes from learning a little something about Casper, and developing his character much more than he was ever developed in the cartoons. The film takes a few moments to have some good conversation between Casper and Kat, and we learn things like how Casper originally died, but without having to do a whole flashback scene. I also still really enjoy the whole scene between the two involving the lighthouse, and later in Kat's room. The whole idea that Casper can't remember his life is interesting, and it's subtle, but when he remembers he doesn't have a reflection you can kinda see this realization on his face that he hasn't seen his own face in who knows how long. Then of course there's the famous line "can I keep you?" which I always used to think was a bit corny. Now, I'm seeing this as not so much a romantic notion, but illustrating the fact that all of these people have come into his... afterlife?... only to be scared off by very his presence. It's kinda his way of saying "can you stay with me, and not run away?" Admittedly, that tugs on my heartstrings, as I DO know what it's like to be looked at with the "ew, get away from me" gaze. It has even been vocalized, which is nasty, but that's more 12-year-old me than now... exactly the same age as Casper and Kat, and the age I was when I first saw the film. I do have this one on my Halloween 2017 list of Family Friendly Halloween Classics, and the perspective I had on it a few years ago was pretty much the same as now. It might be kinda silly, sloppy and even kinda stupid in parts, but there's really nothing incredibly wrong with it - save for maybe a few prime time curses like "for Christ's sake" and using the word "bitch" a coupe of times. The overall reality is that one can still gather the family around to watch it, and it actually holds up fairly well. You may even get a bit more from it, like I did this time around. While it's not exactly a gem to a lot of people out there, it's perfectly passable for what it is, and I feel like despite its flaws, it gets a bad rap. Don't take it too seriously - its target audience is preteens, after all. 3/5 I thought for the month of June I might take a look back on a few movies I remember absolutely loving at the time they were released. However, over the years, they have all been seen in some sort of negative light by others. Is the nostalgia enough to save these movies? Will I find something I like even more? Will I end up going from love to hate? Let's start with perhaps my biggest curiosity on this - 'Space Jam'. The story (real quick if you're one of the few people who don't know) involves a handful of aliens from an amusement park planet called Moron Mountain, coming to Earth to kidnap the Looney Tunes in order to make them the park's main attraction. The Tunes, going for an easy win, challenge the little aliens to a basketball game. But when the aliens end up stealing the abilities of some of the NBA's best players, the Tunes turn to Michael Jordan - widely known as the greatest basketball player of all time, for help. Cards on the table, this movie had damn near perfect timing for yours truly. It came along when I was 14, perhaps my most tender age in life. I had just barely started falling out of my interest of basketball for some reason, made even weirder by the fact that the Toronto Raptors - my would-be home team were founded the previous year. I was also just stepping into high school, and going through the phase of somewhat "properly" growing up. Things like 'Power Rangers' were things I couldn't be bothered with, and cartoons were more of an elementary school thing. There was now officially "kids stuff" and "grown-up stuff". Now, imagine having that state of mind when a movie about some of my favorite cartoon characters teaming up with Michael Jordan came along. At the time, this was a movie that, for me, stood as my last lingering thread of childhood. It was like this crazy "last hoorah" of sorts, and might... might be my first does of what nostalgia felt like - even if it was recent nostalgia. Fast-forward to today, and many still see it as a nostalgic gem of the 90's despite anything critics have to say about it. As for me, this viewing was my first time around since my obsession with it back in '96/'97. I had the soundtrack (by the way, the 'Monstars Anthem' is STILL amazing, I don't care what anyone says), I had a white clamshell VHS copy of it, and I drove my poor big brother batshit crazy with it. Enough time had passed that I had forgotten a lot of it, but retained about half of it. Would it suck me back into the late 90s, having the same nostalgic effect if not more powerful? Or would I come to see it as the pile of junk it actually is... I am somewhat saddened to say that I lean more towards the latter, and finally realize what some people were talking about that whole time. All things considered, I'm sorry, but this is a bad movie. The acting from the NBA pros is pretty brutal, the jokes don't tend to really land in any sort of good way, and they made a sex symbol out of a flesh-toned rabbit. By the way, the new 'Looney Tunes' show has a much, much better version of her, voiced by Kristen Wiig. This film literally threw her in as furry eye candy under the guise of a "hear me roar" woman. Basically, she was the best basketball player on the squad other than Jordan, but that's as far as things go with her. On top of all that, it's just badly written, the pacing's off, and I kinda wonder what it is I ever saw in it. However, before the fans get their pitchforks and torches ready, I DO have some good to say about it. While it is recognizably bad, I can't help but get that nostalgic twinge that a lot of present-day fans get when watching it. Again, this represented a very interesting point in time of my life when I was growing up, and I'll never deny my overall obsession with it at the time. It was also just cool to see some of our athletic heroes of the time on the big screen, including Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues, who was always my personal favorite due to his speed and being able to elate to his short height. Adding to that, think about the crap we put up with nowadays so readily. Speaking for myself, there are a lot of titles out there that I wanna se just because the whole concept is absolutely ridiculous. Well, here we have the Looney Tunes recruiting Michael Jordan to win a basketball game against a bunch of space aliens. I'm telling you right now that if I was brand new to this concept, I would be all over it. Granted, it would be for different reasons, but I can certainly see people enjoying this because it's just that silly. There have been several titles I've looked back on and ended up hating compared to my love of them in my youth - perhaps the biggest culprit being 'TMNT III'. But this did not hit me that way. I somehow recognized it as the crap-fest it was, but at the same time, I watched it with a smile on my face the whole time. It was kinda like looking at a bad yearbook picture - it's a mess, but it's remembered fondly. If it's on your list of great nostalgic gems, I can completely understand. For me, it fits somewhere with 'TMNT II' or 'Ghostbusters II', I can still enjoy it... even if I have a lot of cringing to do while I'm going through it. 2/5 This one comes from a children's novel called 'The Adventures of Pinocchio', written by Italian author, Carlo Collodi, and released in 1883. Through the years in between the book and the film, Pinocchio had already become a pretty famous hero of sorts, with his story having largely to do with being a jerk, going through a sort of "Hell", and finalizing it with a rebirth. And honestly, it's pretty spot on with the subject matter. One nice thing about this title is that it's pretty well timeless, as opposed to something like 'Snow White', which hasn't aged all that well. This one has all the right ingredients for kids to take a few valuable life lessons from it. To this day, it remains one of my top picks for classic Disney, even if it does reach points of being truly disturbing. We open things up with Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards) who tells the story, which begins with him stumbling on an old inventor's home named Gepetto (Christian Rub). He lives among a variety of knickknacks, clocks, toys, etc. But what really catches Jiminy's eye is a marionette puppet, who Gepetto has named Pinocchio (Dickie Jones). Being a lonely old man, that night, Gepetto makes a "wish upon a star" (Oscar winner for Best Original Song) that his puppet comes to life, and gives him a son to take care of. Enter the Blue Fairy (Evelyn Venable), who brings Pinocchio to life. She tells him that he can become a real boy if he follows his conscience in the right direction. In one aspect of the movie I really enjoy, she ends up making Jiminy Cricket his official conscience. He's to guide Pinocchio in the right direction, leading him away from the path of temptation. The thing is, much like with any real human being, sometimes that little voice just isn't there, and sometimes we even ignore it with our curiosity. As things unfold, Pinocchio does, indeed, find himself heading down that wrong path, largely guided by a fox named Foulfellow, or "Honest John" (Walter Catlett) and a cat named Gidean (Mel Blanc) who for whatever reason live among humans without being noticed. My take is that they're characters represented by these animals, especially the fox being known for being so sly. This also ties into all the disturbing stuff that happens later on involving bad little boys transforming into donkeys - a scene that may very well just scare your kids into being good. Even watching it now, I kinda wondered how I sat through those scenes in my youth. Of course, as the adventure continues, Pinocchio learns a lot about what it means to be selfless, brave, and honest, especially when he discovers that lying makes his nose grow... which happens far less than I remember. The whole climax of the movie is very impressive with its animation as well as tension, as it tosses us into the ocean where we come face to face with a whale. The film has a happy ending, of course, but for a little while there it gets pretty crazy - a far cry from the black and white simplicity of 'Snow White'. So here's one I might recommend for the whole family. There are some pretty freaky sequences here, but the lessons embedded within the film are nothing to ignore, and it does a good job of getting them through. It's pretty basic stuff, but it's done fairly subtly, and it doesn't preach the issue. It might just make your kids think twice before they invite that bad influence of a friend over, and I can honestly say that I wish I sat down to watch it more throughout my childhood because of that. 4/5 Coming to us from acclaimed director, Cameron Crowe ('Jerry Maguire', 'Almost Famous' and more recently 'We Bought a Zoo') brings us his directorial debut. It has since gone down in cinematic history as one of the best modern romances, complete with the famous scene everyone knows about, involving a bedroom window and a boombox. But being from the 80s, how well does this still hold up? Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), and army brat, has some strong feelings for fellow high school graduate, and class valedictorian, Diane Court (Ione Skye). Diane lives a life of achievement and excellence with the guidance of her loving, divorced father, Jim (John Mahoney), who owns a nursing home. Diane's most recent achievement is receiving a prestigious fellowship to study in England, which Jim uses to try to pump her up as she's not quite as self-confident as she should be. Lloyd has recently returned to the US to finish high school, while he lives with his (real-life) sister, Constance (Joan Cusack). He has no real aspirations, kick-boxes as a hobby, and dreams of doing something big. He does still, however, want to date Diane, who is widely believed to be out of his league, considering all of her achievements. In accepting a date with Lloyd, she soon finds herself falling for someone who wants to spend as much time as he can with her before she leaves. This causes her to second guess her fellowship, and wonder if the unlikely Lloyd might fit in her life better. And, while one path certainly seems to make for a more promising future, certain events involving her father may taint that particular viewpoint. In this day and age, there aren't a whole lot of romantic gestures in earlier film that have aged well. Many of them come off as obsessive, or even stalker-like, when back in the day, they were considered dreamily romantic. In this one, there is a little bit of that, but by the end of the film we definitely do see him as a good guy and not a weirdo. Perhaps a bit obsessive, but the famous boombox scene is about as far as things go. It's easy enough to overlook, and the supporting characters really help us see him as the nice guy, or potential friend zone material, making him a little more human. So yeah, it holds up pretty well. It's a solid coming of age romantic comedy from the 80's that I've overlooked for far too long. This almost fits in the same vein as some of John Hughes best work, but with that said, this may be a bit darker as well. There is a side plot involving Jim being accused of some criminal activity within his nursing home. I won't say what, but I will say that you don't have to worry about him physically abusing anyone. It's another one that I have only just seen for the first time, but others know it pretty well. I'm happy to say that I still got plenty out of it, and though the main plot has been done to death (one about to leave, the other wanting to spend time and/or wanting them to stay, some unanimous decision for a happy ending), it's executed well here, and the side story helps to ground things a bit. I'd recommend this one for a good stay-at-home date, if you feel like a bit of a classic. 4/5 Another flick from the 80's that went right over my head. This was a title I was always familiar with, but not a lot of people ended up talking about it within my circle of friends. It pretty well faded into obscurity, but I stumbled on it again when looking for some "coming of age" titles from the 80's I haven't seen yet. Luckily for me, this was a good choice. We meet Lane Meyer (John Cusack) who is dumped by his girlfriend, Beth Truss (Amanda Wyss) for a cocky jock skier named Roy Stalin (Aaron Dozier). Obsessed with her, Lane spends most of his days thinking of a world without her, and thus considering ending his life. His other option is to go through with his challenge to Stalin to race him down the dangerous K12 slope, which Stalin has set a ski record for. In doing this, he hopes to impress Beth and win her back. Meanwhile, Lane's neighbors, Ricky Smith (Dan Schneider) and his mother (Laura Waterbury) take in a French exchange student named Monique (Diane Franklin). She has to live with Ricky's creepy affection for her, as well as his overbearing mother, who treats her as her own child, giving her next to no freedom. However, she meets and befriends Lane at a party, and could be the answer to helping him out on the K-12, along with a few other things. In the background, we get a lot of good genuine laughs with Lane's family, alone. His Dad (David Ogden Stiers) sees him as going through a phase, and tries very hard to keep up with the lingo of the time, failing miserably. His Mom (Kim Darby) is a running gag through the movie as she keeps trying to cook, having it always end horribly. Lastly, his kid brother, Badger (Scooter Stevens), has no dialogue through the whole movie, but might be the best side note of it. He's constantly tinkering away in his room, making awesome inventions, and researching how to pick up women. It makes me wonder if anything about his character was an inspiration for Stewie Griffin, but it's hard to find details about Badger. Either way, a very likable background character for me. Now, speaking only for myself, it's actually a treat to see a movie that doesn't make fun of suicide, but makes light of the idea that ending things based on an obsession with one person is just plain silly. It does a good job of reminding the viewer that no matter how distraught you are over a breakup, or someone who just plain isn't interested, it's not the end of the world. Remember that there's a bright, beautiful world out there, full of possibilities, and one person doesn't actually matter nearly as much as you feel they do at the time. This was a film that really hit home for me. The comedy was creative and often cartoonish, which is right up my alley. That comedy is consistent in the visuals when it comes to things like Mrs. Meyer's cooking, and moreso, Lane's imagination. Hell, there's a full musical number here involving claymation burgers. But the best running gag here involves a punk paperboy (who I now realize the 'Dennis the Menace' movie totally payed homage to) named Johnny Gasparini (Demian Slade). He's like a little mob boss who is always chasing down Lane throughout the film for $2 that Lane refuses to pay. The end result is laugh out loud hilarious. I could go on and on, but clearly this is a title that has earned my praise (as far as that goes), along with its director, Savage Steve Holland. This is a guy who has an array of titles I haven't seen yet, and I might just make him the subject of next month. This was my intro to him, I loved it, and I feel like I could be missing out on some pretty solid material. Or at least material that's a little more up my alley than others. Whether or not any of them are good or bad, I will say this - 'Better Off Dead' is now on the list of go-to titles when I find myself struggling with my thoughts, and if you have an open enough mind, I'd recommend it to anyone else for the same reasons. 5/5 One of the bigger titles I felt I truly missed out on in 2017, was 'The Big Sick'. Being such a huge fan of '50/50', I thought it would be interesting to see another comedic, but respectful take on serious physical illness. I'm not entirely sure why I let it pass me by, but it did, and it was an easy pick for this month's 2017 catch-up theme. The story is based on the real-life relationship between stand-up comedian, Kumail Nanjiani (as himself) and Emily V. Gordon (Zoe Kazan). The pair meet during one of Kumail's acts, and they hit it off extremely well. In its portrayal, you can't really help but route for them to make it. They just played so well off each other, you could believe it was real. Soon, however, a sudden illness takes Emily over, forcing her to be put into a medically-induced coma so that the doctors can get to the bottom of things. During this time, Kumail meets Emily's parents, Terry (Ray Romano) and Beth (Holly Hunter). In getting to know them better, he finds himself questioning who he is and what he really believes, potentially having to abandon his routes for his happiness. By the end of it all, I'm happy to say that everyone was right when they told me this was something I was gonna enjoy. I can't help but admire the idea of a movie that takes such serious subject matter (not necessarily stopping at Emily's sickness), and sheds a somewhat pleasant light on it. It doesn't make fun, or make light of the situation, but it does allow its audience to see it as a part of life, and a potential way to deal with things instead of just allowing it to ruin your life. Speaking for myself, I see this as an all-around feel-good movie, but a somewhat more realistic, slice of life story. Nothing here gets too crazy one way or another, and it handles all of its dark moments with the best sense of humor. The big stand-outs for me were getting to know Emily's parents, and a peek at how difficult some lives can be in some cultures with Kumail's family. The film ends on a wonderfully bittersweet note, that I assume is based in reality. I won't spoil it for you here, but it is a good way for the story to end with the fact that you can't always have your cake and eat it too... but it's also pretty damn extreme, and I could see audiences being disappointed in it. However, for me, it just amps my admiration for it. I was very happy with the bittersweet ending, as opposed to a sunshine and rainbows ending it could have easily had instead. If you haven't checked this one out yet, it ends up being a relatively high recommendation from yours truly. I'll even go so far as to say that this parallels '50/50' in its whole atmosphere. It's mainly a comedy, but it still manages to provide a wide range of emotion. It's good to watch for something just deep enough, without having it rack your brain completely. 4/5 Now that I'm three years into this site, I have decided to start taking a look back, starting with movies that I wanted to check out, but missed out on, from 2017. First up is 'Boss Baby', which I wanted to see mostly due to people meeting it completely in the middle. It doesn't seem to be overly loved, but at the same time, this thing got nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar, somehow overshadowing 'The Lego Batman Movie' for that nomination. This film is just plain mysterious, to me, but at the same time, I can't honestly say it's as terrible as people let on. We open with some narration from a grown-up Tim Templeton (Tobey Maguire), recapping the story from his childhood in which he encounters the Boss Baby (Alec Baldwin). As a 7-year-old boy, Tim had an awesome life, with a great imagination fueling his fantasies that he plays out with some great, loving parents (Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow). They even have a special song they sing for him at night before bed ('Blackbird' from The Beatles). But then, his new adopted baby brother arrives, which takes away from the attention Tim's parents give him. One night, Tim hears someone talking in his brother's bedroom, only to sneakily discover that his new baby brother is having a phone conversation. Realizing that the Boss Baby considers himself in charge of the whole family, Tim wants to expose this to his parents, and tries to get proof, leading to your typical sibling squabbles. But soon, they have to put their differences aside, when *deep breath* it's revealed that the head of a literal puppy company (Steve Buscemi) threatens to tilt the desire to have puppies over babies in his favor. With a puppy convention just days away, the brothers team up to stop the guy, lest the boss baby revert to just being a regular baby and, yeah. That's where the movie loses me. It's just so damn weird to imagine that the human beings of this world are over-all desiring getting puppies instead of babies. Not only that, but what about cats? One word - YouTube (or is that two?) But I digress. The point is, the whole threat in this movie makes next to no sense to me, thus kinda rendering the movie pointless. And then there's the way it ends, which I won't spoil, but it furthers the idea that there wasn't much of a point to the film. This is actually done through a couple of reveals, and it honestly makes me wonder what they were thinking. But like I mentioned before, I still don't see this one as being as terrible as it was received by so many. A lot of the innuendo is surprisingly suggestive, and I'd be lying if I said it never made me laugh. However, that just proves that the film doesn't really have a specific target audience. It looks so cute, and one would imagine its harmless for kids. But kids are impressionable, and if they said some of this stuff on the school playground, they just might get a talking to. But there's a good chunk of this that's aimed at adults, quite clearly. My feeling was that it was trying to be like 'Shrek', putting in some funny, grown-up bits. But there's a difference between a bird singing to the point of exploding, and a baby telling his brother to put something in his mouth and suck it. Sure, he's talking about his pacifier. But imagine your kids watching this, and you walk by, listening to that conversation out of context. It gave me a good laugh, but it was a cringing laugh in which I fully realized that this wasn't necessarily aimed at kids, despite its cute, animated design. I'm glad that I went back to check this one out, and I wasn't bitterly disappointed, but it's a hard one to review. Most of what I've said about this one has been negative, and any positives were based on a morbid, personal taste. So I guess I'd recommend that a parent check it out before exposing it to their kids, and then use your discretion. It was okay, but for the life of me, I still can't fathom its Oscar nomination. It leans so close towards a 2, but I'd be flat out lying in suggesting that I didn't like it one bit. It has its moments, but the bottom line is that, as I mentioned before, it's just a mysterious damn movie, and I really can't tell who its for. I guess it's just one of those "gauge it for yourself" titles. 3/5 Back in the mid-80s, a young Tom Hanks became a new face to the big screen. We know him today as one of the best actors on the planet, most recently representing Fred Rogers in 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood'. He boasts two Oscar wins among five nominations, four Golden Globe wins among nine nominations, and people only need to see his name attached to something anymore to know we're gonna get a good movie, half-decent at worst. Back before 'Philadelphia' won him his first Oscar in '93, he was sort of a go-to for comedic roles, with 'Big' giving him his first Oscar nomination, and being a sort of teetering point towards people realizing he has a good set of acting chops. Predating all of that though, 'Bachelor Party' was one of his first big screen performances, and being such a likable character, he brought a sort of charm to this role, playing the unlikely party animal man who can actually probably be trusted, despite what anyone thinks. But what about all the rest of the movie? As the film opens, we are introduced to Rick Gassko (Tom Hanks). He's a party animal type who makes a living driving a Catholic school bus, and allowing the kids to have fun on the bus ride to school. Kinda the bus driver we all wanted as kids. Anyway, he's set to get married to his girlfriend, Debbie Thompson (Tawny Kitaen), whose parents (George Grizzard and Barbara Stuart) and ex boyfriend, Cole (Robert Prescott) all seemingly hate him, but despite odds being against him, he presses on. With his marriage at hand, Rick's friends decide to make his bachelor party an all-out bash of epic proportions. The whole nine yards would go on to include things like drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, and for fans of 'Clerks 2', the whole donkey idea came from here. Though I think it's meant to be a bit of a surprise, I feel like anyone even slightly familiar with this title recognizes the donkey as the "money shot" of this film. Anyway, the whole movie is basically a test on Rick to try to stay faithful to Debbie, and not succumb to his usual instincts. It's hard for me to say how much I enjoyed it though. I saw it long enough ago once that watching it this time around might as well have been a first. It struck me as pretty heavily dated, ending up in that mid-80's era of raunchy party comedies that you might not get away with so easily today. I had a few good laughs, and had to like Rick as a character, almost being the original Van Wilder. I mean, early comedy Hanks is pretty much always a treat. With that said though, I found most of the supporting cast to be pretty forgettable, save Debbie, and definitely her father, Ed, who is just the biggest jerk but in all the best ways. I get the feeling I end up in the 1% on this, but I didn't think it was all that special. For me, it was just another party movie. But at the time, I can respect it for probably breaking some new ground as far as party movies go. As mentioned before, "Original Van Wilder" is actually a pretty good way to look at it. The stories are completely different, sure, but character-wise and atmospherically, they'd make for some good back-to-back viewing. If you like a fun, mindless party movie with a charming touch, this is a good place to turn. 3/5 This one has been on my "to-see" list for quite some time now. I'm not entirely sure why, but for whatever reason, I never really gave this one a second thought. Perhaps it's just not talked about as much as other comedies of the era, but I have to admit that upon finally seeing it for myself, I'm sorry it took so long. Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) is the sole heir to the throne of the fictional land of Zamunda, somewhere in Africa. His parents, King Jaffe (James Earl Jones) and Queen Aoleon (Madge Sinclair) see to it that he gets the royal treatment, which includes things like getting bathed by maidens, and walking on flower pedals, but Akeem sees the whole thing as a bit much. Akeem is arranged to be married to the lovely Imani Izzi (Venessa Bell), but he is somewhat turned off with her servitude upon learning that she'll simply do anything he wants, and her interests are whatever he likes. He then requests to explore America to seek out something more. His father sees it as an opportunity to sew his royal oats, though, and allows him to go with his servant and best frend Semi (Arsenio Hall) to check things out. Eventually, things lead to Lisa McDowell (Shari Headley), a woman with all the qualities that Akeem is looking for. However, a jerk named Darryl Jenks (Eriq La Salle) stands in his way, being Lisa's boyfriend, wealthy due to the family business, and favored by Lisa's father (John Amos). Without any pressure, Akeem does what he can to respectfully win Lisa over. Keeping in mind that I really didn't know much about this movie going into it, I can recommend it highly as one of the most thoroughly acted Eddie Murphy performances. I say this, as he shows range playing a variety of characters that besides Akeem include an obnoxious barber named Clarence, a Jewish man named Saul, and a reverend named Randy Watson. It's a good one for Arsenio, too, taking on the characters of Clarence's friend, Morris, Reverend Brown, and a woman who hits on the two of them in one of the funniest scenes of the film. While the story is kinda overall predictable and basic by today's standards, it does stand out as one of the funnier romantic comedies of the 80s, that probably wouldn't be classified by anyone as a "chick flick" (for lack of a better term). It's very much an Eddie Murphy fueled comedy, and it gets the laughs, especially when Arsenio helps it along as a good contrast to Akeem. But it's also very sweet, and the whole theme is about liking someone for who they are, not what they have. Think of it like 'Aladdin', but reversed. I had a good time with it, and I think it makes for a nice movie to throw on for a Sunday afternoon laugh. Nothing here gave me a knee-slapping laugh, but there were still some genuine giggles here and there. My only slight problem with it is that I felt it ended very abruptly, as though there may have been a scene missing. But with that said, the rest of it is a good time, and it'll probably still put a smile on your face. 3/5 As the film opens, we meet a kid named Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe). He's a caddy at the Bushwood Country Club, and his thoughts on his future are clouded. He often seeks the guidance of a charming golfer named Ty Webb (Chevy Chase), who he often caddies for. Danny sees a chance at getting his life together by earning a caddy scholarship from Judge Elihu Smails (Ted Knight), the owner of the Country Club, who has to deal with the obnoxious and eccentirc millionaire, Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield). He has interests in purchasing Bushwood, and soon enough, a conflict rises between them. In the meantime, the biggest comic relief of the film comes in a "Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd"-like feud between country club groundskeeper, Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) and a gopher, who Smails wants gone from the gold course by any means necessary. It's a whole fantastic cartoon that runs alongside the main plot, which already offers plenty of humour. This film is a great example of peak 1980's humour. Starting with the writers, we have the late Harold Ramis (who also directed), Brian Doyle Murray (the boss from 'Chritsmas Vacation' and Bill Murray's brother), and Douglas Kenney (writer on 'Animal House', and surprisingly enough, the first upcoming episode of 'Marvel's What If...?'). Beyond that, the previously mentioned cast speaks for itself. It's a title that has gone on to become regarded as one of the best comedies of all time. However, I haven't watched it for about two decades, so it was practically new to me again, and I hate to say it, but it felt kinda dated. Don't get the wrong idea, I still had fun here, and had quite a few genuine laughs. But some of the random moments, especially from Dangerfield, are kinda cringe-worthy by today's standards. This is no fault of the movie though, it's just a product of its time. In 1980, this was kinda top of the line when it came to comedy. I particularly enjoy the overall cartoon quality of Bill Murray's character here, along with the gopher. When I say it's like Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, that's no exaggeration. It's Carl trying to kill this gopher any way he can, and the gopher taunting him the whole way through. It even dances for the credits. Beyond that, Chevy has some good low brow, casual dialogue as only he can deliver, and I meet Dangerfield somewhere in the middle. We're supposed to find him annoying, and I can honestly say I kinda did. But you find him annoying ironically. He's one of those party animals we all know who just has to have a good time, even if it means ruining everyone else's, and you can't help but find the comedy in what he's doing. So,if you're on the lookout for a good movie from the 80's that serves as a prime example of what 80's comedy was largely like, 'Caddyshack' is definitely a very solid title for it. Once again, bear in mind that if you're new to it, it might feel a bit dated. But if you are interested in 80's culture (face it, it's a thing these days), it's probably one of the best titles you can watch for the comedy side of things. I had a few issues, but it's still just a good time, and nothing to take seriously whatsoever. It has big potential to grow on me, and that earns it bonus points. 4/5 It's probably safe to say that in the grand scheme of things, for the most part, SNL-based movies don't exactly hit home runs. However, there are still a few great titles among them, and for most people's money, it would probably be a toss-up between 'Wayne's World' and this; a title that I was altogether familiar with, but have only seen all the way through a couple of times. So this is a revisit to see how well things hold up. Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd) picks up his brother Jake from prison, being paroled on good behavior after three years of a five year sentence. A visit to the orphanage where they grew up reveals that the orphanage owes $5,000 in back taxes. In order to help their old orphanage out, the brothers head out on the town to try to get their old band back together and raise the money. So what we have here is the combination "save the rec center"/"get the band back together" story. There's also a musical twist here, which adds to the film's whole theme. The good news is that when I speak of a musical twist, it's nothing but talent from the time, including names like Cab Calloway, James Brown, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and more. The film is very musically representative of the time, and it does a good job these days of pulling on those nostalgic strings. The first couple of times, the musical outbreaks can be a bit jarring, but over time, one can get into it. Aside from the music, however, what really fuels this movie is its sense of humor. The brothers are ever-casual and cool, and the whole time we have an angry Carrie Fisher trying to dispose of them. We never really find out why until the end, and that gives us a great gag. Through the movie, her kill attempts are so over the top, they're downright cartoonish - but that's what makes them so funny. This one is often considered a downright classic from the 80's era, and it's pretty easy to understand why. There was a certain "all-outness" to the 80's, and this film was no exception. I can almost see this as a fairly typical Disney animated muiscal film, but for adults. Even today, there's still plenty of edge to the exploits of these two characters, most famously perhaps a drive through a shopping mall while outrunning cops. I forgot to mention that this also serves as a crime movie in that the brothers find themselves on the run from cops as well as "Chicago-Nazis", which adds to the thrill ride of things. The cops start really chasing due to Elwood driving with a suspended license, and the "Nazis", well, they're a smaller part of the whole thing. They're kinda just meant to be an extra thing for them to deal with, knowing that because they represent Nazis, we're all good with the brothers causing them grief. While it's not all the way up my alley, I can't deny that it harkens back to how fun the 80's were with film. This is one of those "everything" movies that has a little something for everyone, be it humor, good songs, action, or more humor. All in all, it's just a lot of fun, nothing to take seriously, and it's a great flick to watch for those of you born in 2000-something who are somehow into 80's material. 4/5 I've always kinda found this one to be floating around sort of under the radar, but well known enough, if only because of its remake, featuring Tom Hanks, which in and of itself isn't talked about much. It's one of those titles people are aware of, but don't really bring to the forefront of any conversation about film. It's been pretty well swept under the rug. We know it's there, but it's out of sight, out of mind. 'The Ladykillers' tells of an innocent old lady named Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson), who is trying to rent out a room. Along come a gang of five criminals, planning a heist at London's King's Cross Station, and needing a place to stay while they plan it all out, under fake identities. An almost cartoonish band of crooks, they are lead by mastermind Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness). Others include straight-laced Claude Courtney (Cecil Parker), hot-headed Louis Harvey (Herbert Lom), funny man Harry Robinson (Peter Sellers) and slow-witted ex-boxer, "One-Round" Lawson (Danny Green). The namesake of the film comes into play when the heist goes off without a hitch, but the gang is caught by Mrs. Wilberforce. While she intends on making them turn the money in, the gang agrees to do so, while in the meantime, plan on killing her, taking the money and run. Of course, as one might guess, the comedy comes into play when these characters start playing off each other, and the situation at hand just gets worse and worse. If I'm perfectly honest, this one didn't do a hell of a lot for me. It certainly wasn't bad. It made me laugh here and there, it's a solid dark comedy for the late 50's, and it works just fine for what it's trying to do. I get the feeling that it's just one of those titles that isn't for me. But as I mentioned earlier, it does seem to have gotten swept under the rug and forgotten about - save the 2004 remake, which suffered pretty much the same fate. This is a good title for those trying to dip their toes into the subgenre of dark comedy. This could easily be seen as a pioneer for that kind of film making. It was Oscar nominated for Best Original Screenplay in 1957 (losing to 'The Red Balloon'), and its writer, William Rose, went on to work on 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World', and was nominated for 'Genevieve' (preceding 'Ladykillers'), 'The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!' and 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' - odds are you're familiar with one of those old, famous titles. If so, check this out based on the writer's skill more than anything else. It's otherwise just kinda... "meh". 3/5 Some of us who were born in the 80's recognize Anne Ramsey's face very well, most likely from 'The Goonies'. She had a particular gift for playing bitter, angry, irritable old women, and she did it so very well. In fact, she did it so well here, she was even nominated for an Oscar - losing that year to Olympia Dukakis for 'Moonstruck'. Sadly, she missed her chance and passed on later that year. However, us kids from the 80's remember her so very well, and most of us probably can't even put a name to her face. Here, we are introduced to Larry Donner (Billy Crystal); a college professor and tutor for aspiring writers. The only successful book he's ever written was done so under his ex-wife, Margaret's (Kate Mulgrew) name, and she now reaps the benefits while he wallows in misery about it. That is until one of his students, Owen Lift (Danny DeVito), comes up with a proposal. Owen lives at home with his horrible mother (Ramsey), and constantly fantasizes about ways to rid himself of her agonizing nagging once and for all - by the way, the way she nags is just hilarious. Finding out about Larry's situation, Owen makes the criss-cross offer of "I'll kill your ex-wife if you kill my mother". While Larry takes it as a joke, he soon finds out that Owen has carried out his part of the deed, and Larry suddenly becomes the prime suspect. All the while afterward, Owen continues to pressure Larry into carrying out his part of the bargain. I had a lot of fun with this one, and it offers a lot of good, dark laughs, which are always right up my alley. Between DeVito (who also directed this one), Crystal and Ramsey, I'm not sure who got the most laughs from me. It might as well be a three-way tie, all showing their best humour in their own ways. The fact that this is essentially a re-imagining of 'Strangers on a Train' is openly addressed, making the film completely self-aware (much like how 'Happy Death Day' mentions 'Groundhog Day'), which blends nicely with the comedy of it all, especially for a film from 1987. If you're someone like me, and you're really into dark comedies, I can highly recommend this one. Remember, by '87, all the rage was slasher horror, and the PG-13 rating had recently been introduced via 'Temple of Doom' in '84. This was a title that fit nice and snug into that PG-13 rating, and really helped pave the way for dark comedies to have more intensity to them. Not that anything in here was all that intense, even for the time, but I daresay this one helped to open that door. 4/5 |