Reviews

"No one ever said it would be fun. At least... no one ever said it to me." This is the line spoken from a character named Richard who is not part of the core of baby boomers, instead this character is the conservative uptight husband of one of the characters, and what he says sums up the entire film. The Big Chill refers to the chill that director Kasden had through his bones when running into an old college friend who had different "values" than him, and Kasden felt a "Big Chill" running through his body realizing that this person whom he knew as a college kid had a far different outlook. In the scene where Richard is sharing his personal views with two of the baby boomer characters, played by William Hurt and Tom Berenger, Hurt gets a look a lot like there's a chill running through him. But then after Richard says "No one ever said it would be fun. At least... no one ever said it to me", both boomers get a look like "Perhaps he's right", and indeed he is. This movie is a classic, because it not only embraces the baby boomers and their side, but it lets them realize that their youth was in fact... youth, and when its time to grow up, life isn't as easy and/or simplistic as when you are young. Jeff Goldblum is my personal favorite character, providing some of the best lines since he is a true outsider of the group; as is William Hurt's character, a drug dealer who still hasn't grown up. In one scene he mentions that perhaps all of them never knew each other at all being that they were so spoiled as children. The entire cast is fabulous. The weakest link is Mary Kay Place's story about wanting to get impregnated; it sort of drifts in and out of soap opera qualities, but no matter... This is one of the best character-driven films ever made, and I recommend it highly for baby boomers or for those of us who are annoyed by them.

I don't consider this film anti-establishment since the establishment is 90% anti-war and has been since the seventies. In the sixties they were indeed the underdog but who would know that - since they're the only ones who make films and since we don't get any movies showing the other view, I can't see the logic of calling them underdogs or revolutionaries any longer. In my opinion, they are the establishment... but I digress. In the first scene as the main character is being driven by his mother (who looks the same age) down the street, he is looking at hippies as if he'd just woken up from a coma; as if the sixties "counter-culture" just happened to appear out of nowhere. The classic protest song "For What it's Worth" is playing, and at this point you know what you're in for... an agenda with party animals thrown in; or perhaps its a party animal movie with an agenda thrown in. Either way it's a horrid film but I enjoyed it profusely, because I adore bad films. The primary cast consists of Brian Kerwin, who was in one of my favorite sitcoms "Sheriff Lobo", Stephen Furst who was in one of my favorite comedies "Animal House" (which is also one of the best comedies ever), Ken Michaelson who was in my favorite hour long TV series, "The White Shadow", and Cooper Huckabee who co-starred in "Funhouse", a Tobe Hooper film which I considered much better than the one about the chainsaw. The plot is simple. A bunch of military academy teenagers (played by dudes in their late twenties) rebel against the teachers of the academy. That's it in a nutshell. Along the way you get to listen to great music from the likes of Buffalo Springfield, you get to watch a lady microwave a dog, guys smoking pot and banana peels, a hippie with a dead parrot on his shoulder, and a beautiful woman with a colorful painted van watching whales migrating and getting plenty hot. David Caruso, who is the main picture of the only available DVD, and who they try to trick us into thinking is the main character, has a two minute scene as a friend of Kerwin who helps him light tires and throw them onto the road. An exciting scene, especially since none of the tires rolled more than two feet after being pushed out of the moving truck. During the dog-microwave scene, when all hell breaks loose, there is a TV show playing the likes of Wally George, where a conservative villain chews out an enlightened hippie student, that seems more entertaining than the movie itself. If you like bad movies, this one is for you, but the DVD quality is poor, even worse than "Truck Stop Women", another favorite Z-film which I recently purchased. The most annoying thing though is the curse words are cut out. And I believe some other scenes from the original film were deleted as well. To me, this is more of a crime than bad quality. If it's cheap enough, buy it. It won't let you down unless you're expecting something worthwhile and meaningful: two ingredients I usually despise.

I watched this movie for three reasons. The first being Claudia Jennings. She's one of the the hottest women ever. The second being John Martino, "Paulie" from The Godfather. He's a cool actor; I also liked him in "Dillinger" where his death scene is one of the best ever. The third being a friend of mine has a cameo, playing a girl who witnesses a truck crashing with her boyfriend in a very memorable, and entertaining, scene. And I really like this movie. The acting is actually good. Dennis Fimple stands out as the likable sidekick. The camera-work flows well, with some creative shots. The story is interesting, and for a drive-in flick, quite complex... so much so I had to watch it a few times to keep up. That's the only low-point though. I kind of wish it were more simple. Not simplistic, simple. But the pace is high and the woman are plenty-hot and the music is enjoyably bad. I recommend this for anyone who wants to turn off, tune out, and have a whiskey or two in the process.

This is one of the worst movies ever made. The first "House" was great. one of the first comedy/horror films. You really have an adventure inside of that "House", which was a normal two story house. This house thought is gigantic, and full of portals to other worlds. The two heroes are very weak. The plot is lame and boring. There is a zombie cowboy who is supposed to be funny, and he's horrible. He's watching TV in one scene, and sees Ronald Reagan (at that time the President) in an old film, and starts going on and on about how Reagan is a "sissy". This is a guy who just entered the eighties after being somewhat dead since the 1800s and he has a liberal left wing bent. Or... maybe it was the writer of the film displaying his political agenda on his sleeve, as happens so much, and always against the right. It's how things are, and people like myself have to take it, take it, and take it some more. This film is horrible. Really bad. There is no plot, bad acting. It looks like it was made straight to video.

Horrible film. We get two hours of droning conversations about how evil the big Hollywood studios are and how gallant the communist writer's unions are. And I don't use the term communists as a jab, because in this film the screenwriter's union leader, played by Jack Nicholson, is a proud "open" communist (who probably makes a lot of money) and he gets to punch the evil tycoon, played by DeNiro, in the face and then say "I always wanted to hit ten million dollars." Hurray for the little guy! Oh silly Hollywood, you always choose your champions and it's just amazing that this kind of drivel gets green-lighted. And it's such a shame that the only time we get two legends, DeNiro and Nicholson on screen together, it's for a propaganda film that only shows one side of the coin clearly. Which is the only side Hollywood likes to show, and when it shows, it glistens. This movie was a waste of time. It was horrible. I never read the novel and I don't even want to. Sam Speigel produced it and Sam, so I've read, was liken to a tycoon; Kazan directed it and didn't he "rat" on actors who were interested in communism, or who were accused of attending meetings? Maybe there's some guilt going on; two big-wigs "giving a little back to the working class", so to speak. Oh just avoid this hog-wash of a film. And the saddest part is, DeNiro sleepwalks through the role. He's boring, uninteresting, and in my opinion much too young looking for the part. Horrible. Horrible.

The story is true about the girls and the photos. The story is true about the photos and how they tricked people. But the fairies flying around and bathing with fins and dodging cigarettes while carrying suitcases is not true. The ghost of a child blocking a doubting reporter from framing these girls after breaking into their room is also not true. This movie should not have "A True Story" at the end. It would be like "Titanic: A True Story", simply because the ship sinking is true. This is a good movie at times, has a lot of charm and the magic shines through. Harvey Keitel seems more like a downtown New York thug than a famous magician. The two leads who play the girls are charming, sweet, and talented. But my problem goes back to the "truth"; if they are going to show fairies they should have only showed them when the girls were present, so then it would be assumed that they might be only in the girl's imagination... or not. Showing the fairies flying around without the girls turns this "true story" into a "fairy tale", as in... it ruins the entire mystique that the pictures raised in the first place. The movie should center more on the hoax, on how the girls did what they did to trick scholars, famous writers and basically an entire continent. That would be interesting. Instead we get a fairy tale within a fairy tale with a false premise of the entire thing being true, that is, a movie that is telling us that fairies actually exist by tagging this "a true story". It's not true, it's merely based on truth. Just like "The Titanic", which didn't have "A True Story" added to the title; this movie should only be called "FairyTale", or better yet, "The Cottingley Hoax", or something based on actual history, not manipulation.

This film has no race and no chase. Okay there is a race but it has really nothing to do with the movie. The first film of course is all about "The Cannonball Run", which is an illegal race from coast to coast, written by Brock Yates who, along with director Hal Needham, actually drove an ambulance across America - and it's Yates who invented the Cannonball Run. In the original, Burt and Dom use the very same ambulance; now we have a sequel which isn't written by Yates, and is as bad a sequel as I've yet to witness on screen. As mentioned, the actual coast to coast race has little to do with anything this time around. Instead there's a lame subplot about mobsters trying to hijack Jamie Farr's character, an Arab with tons of oil money who this time around is funding the prize at the finish line. So basically this is a comic mobster film with a bunch of actors thrown in who are driving cars. Jack Elam, who is incredible in the first film, is thrown in as wallpaper. Burt and Dom are horrible and lazy; you can tell they were just doing the film for a paycheck. Shirley Maclaine and Marilu Henner play actresses dressed as nuns, and we have to sit through people doing double-takes as these impostor penguins curse in public. Boring. Horrible. Jackie Chan is even ruined this time around. In the first film Roger Moore plays a guy who thinks he's Roger Moore, and thus he drives a gadget filled car, ala Bond. This time around, Chan, who had some gadgets of his own in the original, has even more gadgets as he's basically replacing the Moore/Bond character from the original. And his driver is Richard Kiel, best known as Bond nemesis "Jaws". Chan's car even goes under water, just like Bond's car in "The Spy Who Loved Me" (which featured Kiel). Other contestants include an ape teamed up with Tony Danza. All I have to ask Tony is: Didn't "Going Ape" teach you not to work with primates? Jamie Farr's character is ruined because he's too involved; his sheik was far better as a cameo in the original. And Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr are totally wasted this time, disguised as cops instead of priests, and they don't even get into any trouble. Burt and Dom are dressed as soldiers; Burt is a general and Dom is a private. They pick up Jim Nabors along the way, as "Private Lyle" (guess what they're spoofing here?) and his cameo is as useless as an air conditioner in an igloo. It doesn't feel as if there is any "need" to win the race for any of the characters. You forget there is even a race at all. Man, I tell you, this is one of the worst sequels - if not the worst sequel ever, ever, ever made. Avoid it at all costs. Even as a kid I knew it was chum.

I thought this movie was great. I had a blast watching it. It was mellow and took it's time nicely. I don't understand why all the hate. Yes it's a "Jaws" ripoff but so what? Bo Hopkins was neat to watch as basically "Chief Brody Hooper Quint", playing the lead character ocean expert tough guy. John Huston has a side role as a roving investigator trying to figure out the deaths of people being sucked from land into sea. Henry Fonda has a phoned in role as the bigwig who might be responsible for making this octopus such a hungry beast. And one of my favorite cult actors, Claude Akins, as a cop. The best thing about this film is the keyboard soundtrack that you can also hear in Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof" and Mario Bava's "Rabid Dogs", and a handful of other films. Whenever the Octopi attacks the music plays and it's quite cool sounding. I thought the action scenes were nice and yes, the octopus looked fake, but then again so did the shark in "Jaws", and "Jaws" is one of the best movies ever made. Mind you, I'm not saying this is anywhere near "Jaws", but still, they did a good job covering up the fact that a rubber coat with arms was used as the terrorizing beast. I thought this movie was totally enjoyable and I find it relaxing, and there are some beautiful Italian women, all blondes. The girl who plays Bo Hopkin's wife looks a lot like Heather Graham (or vice versa). Kick back, and enjoy. Don't expect much. Just have a good time.

...Would be a more fitting title for this movie. And I really liked the movie. It just wasn't about a baby, and it wasn't about his wife. She's a secondary character, if that. It's all about Kevin Bacon's character who is a ad-man who wants to be a professional writer, but his wife, and the beautiful home in the suburbs and all its dreary perfection, is bringing him down. As are his in-laws, his player best buddy (Alec Baldwin in his thin days), and a dream-girl who seemingly wants to seduce him. This film is really about the struggle and the temptation of a guy who has everything, but doesn't know if he wants it. There are some incredible, creative scenes. One showing how his office literally closing in on him; another showing a picture of his father-in-law smiling as he's looking at it; then he says something to the picture (as if speaking to it) and the picture has changed to where the father-in-law has a shocked expression. There's one homage to "Psycho" where the wife throws "the pill" down the drain; you get a shot of the water going down the drain which then slowly dissolves to her eye. And there's a musical sequence with suburbanites mowing their lawns whilst dancing and singing that is hilarious when taken in its context; but if you were to see this sequence out of context, you'd think it's gonna be a horrible film. Anyhow, this movie is all about the husband. They show the wife having the baby at the very end, and things get complicated and that's when he realizes how much he loves her... brooding in the waiting room like the character from Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms". But you really don't feel that he ever really loved her in the first place. That's the only fault I can give this film. The rest of it is creative and totally entertaining.