Footloose.

Review #1690: Footloose.

Cast: 

Kevin Bacon (Ren McCormack), Lori Singer (Ariel Moore), Dianne Wiest (Vi Moore), John Lithgow (Rev. Shaw Moore), Chris Penn (Willard Hewitt), Sarah Jessica Parker (Rusty), John Laughlin (Woody), Elizabeth Gorcey (Wendy Jo), Frances Lee McCain (Ethel McCormack), Jim Youngs (Chuck Cranston), and Timothy Scott (Andy Beamis) Directed by Herbert Ross (#244 - The Sunshine Boys and #1455 - The Goodbye Girl)

Review: 

It it hard to say a movie is inevitable. And yet, this is one of the most obvious movies that one will ever glare at in their lives, not so much because it is memorably great or terrible, but because one just has the feeling that they will watch it at some point in time. This is a long and dull way of saying I knew I would have to do this movie because I once had to practice dancing to the title song of this movie for a sweet sixteen birthday party...nine years ago. Trust me, time has not withered the memory of having to hear that Kenny Loggins song over and over again, and I say this as someone who digs the singer, even for a movie that is inferior to other movies with Loggins doing the lead song (well, there is Caddyshack II, but pretend that doesn't exist). You may be interested to know that the film was written by Dean Pitchford, who had won an Academy Award for his song-writing with the title song to Fame (1980). He had been inspired by a news story he had heard in 1979 that involved Elmore City, Oklahoma, a town that had just eliminated a ban on dancing that lasted 80 years. He would ultimately co-write ten of the thirteen songs present in the soundtrack, which included singers such as Loggins, Bonnie Tyler, and Sammy Hager. Strangely, the first director in mind to direct this movie was Michael Cimino (fresh off the production fiasco of Heaven's Gate (1980), if you remember). No, seriously, he was hired in 1983 before filming was to start. This occurred due to stalled negotiations with Herbert Ross (a director familiar with dance since he had done choreography on films and Broadway before taking on directing in 1969), but the demands that Cimino would put on pre-production ended up in his dismissal. Specifically, he wanted $250,000 for the script to be re-written in order to make it darker (as quoted by a producer, who stated that they wanted to make entertainment, and it probably doesn't help to go over a budget when you have just $7.5 million to spend). I will admit that while The Deer Hunter (1978) wasn't exactly a great favorite of mine, I would certainly have been interested to see just what Cimino would have done with his type of polish involved instead of what we received instead.

So yeah, I guess this is a movie for the teens. At least I think so, if one wants to have a movie filled with a grab-bag of 80s songs like a music video (the jury's out on pairing Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" with a game of chicken with tractors), or maybe it's supposed to be a teen drama, filled with oddballs that have to deal with the terrible task of no dancing or rock music in a small town with a gymnast for a lead character. Or maybe it is the classic teenage hokum movie (small town folks, let me know if you've ever seen a truck with deer antlers on it). Teenagers doing bits of gymnastics in a warehouse? Sure, go ahead, and add a secret place full of graffiti of forbidden words put there by kids that even includes a daredevil who likes pulling dumb stunts like standing on the train tracks with a train ahead (that opening stunt is a crock, because I actually thought that would be the impetus for the whole "dancing/rock music leads to debauchery and maybe death", just look at that car...nah, it just gets told to us later). By the time folks start to think about burning books, my eyes were already on their fifth cycle of rolling (how the focus goes from rejecting an offer to do a prom to books in the library are harming the children is up to you). At least the parents don't start to use the mountains in the background (filmed in Utah, where else?) for watchtowers. Technically speaking, there is an interesting drama that is just begging to play itself out (albeit one with maybe four or five actors present, not the handful here), but even Saturday Night Fever (1977) manages to dance circles around this movie, and the weirdest thing is that both movies have pretty good performances from the lead actor. Clearly the movie has made an interesting fit for some folks when it comes to its era and mood, but it just didn't click with me. I never really found much to care about in its attempts at balancing music and its plot, because it all reaches with the depth of a marshmallow, equating to a book report about why folks should be allowed to express themselves (in other words, Saturday Night Fever wasn't merely a disco movie, and Footloose isn't merely anything). Bacon (whose first prominent film role was with Diner two years prior alongside a handful of stage work) is the best presence in the movie, mostly because he handles everything with composed charisma. In a movie where he has to play the fish-out-of-water from Chicago that deals with odd yokels and friends with dance, he makes sure to play it on key, because he sells what needs to happen on his end with no trouble because of his energy. Singer fares less than great, probably because the whole daredevil attitude is probably the most interesting thing about her character, and we are talking about someone who gets to share time with Bacon and Lithgow, which means one gets to be overshadowed twice. Wiest has a few moments to share with Lithgow that compliments the adult perspective of trying to deal with a growing adolescent. Lithgow is the other side of the interesting coin, devout in his composure that acts like a parent of a community, which naturally has to shift in layers for 110 minutes (albeit not a complete 180), which works okay. Penn plays a sturdy folksy relief character (one who can't dance, but come on, that hasn't stopped dummies like me from trying) - he soon would become better known with comic / tough roles, and this is a moderately curious early role for him. This was the second film role for Parker (familiar with theater and television from a young age); those brief moments on screen are enough for a positive sentence, for what it is worth. As a whole, Footloose is cheese that has the kind of polish that can satisfy those who find its sweet spot to their liking, whether because of the music, the charm of its lead (or Lithgow), one that has a little bit of what counts in expressing oneself that might just prove enough in entertainment. I can't endorse it, but I also can't stop one from having the curiosity to seek what all the fuss is about.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Pale Rider.

Review #1476: Pale Rider.

Cast:
Clint Eastwood (The Preacher), Michael Moriarty (Hull Barret), Carrie Snodgress (Sarah Wheeler), Richard Dysart (Coy LaHood), Chris Penn (Josh LaHood), Sydney Penny (Megan Wheeler), John Russell (Marshal Stockburn), Richard Kiel (Club), Doug McGrath (Spider Conway), Chuck Lafont (Eddie Conway), and Jeffrey Weissman (Teddy Conway) Produced and Directed by Clint Eastwood (#1252 - Space Cowboys and #1310 - Million Dollar Baby)

Review:
"You have to trust your instincts. There's a moment when an actor has it, and he knows it. Behind the camera you can feel the moment even more clearly. And once you've got it, once you feel it, you can't second-guess yourself. You can find a million reasons why something didn't work. But if it feels right, and it looks right, it works. Without sounding like a pseudointellectual dipshit, it's my responsibility to be true to myself. If it works for me, it's right."

Clint Eastwood has cultivated a unique and prolific career for himself over half of a century. Ther have been quite a bit of actors who have become stars in both television and film, but there have not been as many actors who have also sprung into star directors. Eastwood has had a breakthrough project in each decade since the 1950s, whether that involves television (Rawhide, 1959-65), starring roles (The Dollars Trilogy, Dirty Harry), or directing (debuting with Play Misty for Me (1971), the first of over thirty films), with influence coming from directors he had worked with such as Sergio Leone and Don Siegel with a quick pace. The Western certainly had declined in stature for the 1980s, but Pale Rider was certainly a high point for its decade (being one of the most profitable Westerns released for that era). This was the third Western directed by Eastwood and his first since The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), and it certainly isn't the first of him playing a nameless and mystical drifter (such as with High Plains Drifter over a decade earlier). In general, the film seems to cover ground that was done with Shane (1953), which also had a stranger that came into a town wracked with intimidation over settlers by a baron and his minions that soon escalates into hiring a gunfighter to combat the stranger (in this case, a group of marshals), and the stranger leaves town after it has been settled to stay with its settlers. Of course there are quite a few differences between the two (namely in gold miners as opposed to homesteaders), with the most key being in the quiet details of this film, which has a mystical quality to its title hero, practically seeming like a ghost when engaging in action (which Eastwood subsequently confirmed). In that sense, it makes for an interesting experience of 116 minutes with careful precision. No matter how familiar one is with Eastwood as an actor or director, it isn't too much of a stretch to enjoy what we see without feeling like one is watching a greatest hits Western or something without a competent athmosphere and support to go with it. Eastwood may always grit his way through a role, but it doesn't mean he can't be curious to view regardless, a sardonic presence of careful words. The others prove fairly adept with making this small town setting come forward with careful interest. Moriarty proves an affiable leader of the folks with calmness. Snodgrass and Penny do fine when paired with others, while Dysart and Penn make fair adversaries to view involving greed. Russell (known for his work in the TV show Lawman) makes for a useful presence of old eyes that carry menace. The film proves diverting in its own look upon the mysterious stranger lurking on the frontier with its own kind of mythic nature that make a quietly effective time - whether in thinking about a man we see with bullet holes in the back at first glance or in how he operates with these folks without really needing to show much of himself and cut the ambiguity. There is always a place for a Western that wants to cover a frontier worth looing upon, and this is a fair film in its genre that sets itself up well with atmosphere and a cast worth viewing at least once for its era.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Reservoir Dogs.

Review #1180: Reservoir Dogs.

Cast: 
Harvey Keitel (Mr. White/Larry), Tim Roth (Mr. Orange/Freddy), Michael Madsen (Mr. Blonde/Vic Vega), Chris Penn ("Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot), Steve Buscemi (Mr. Pink), Lawrence Tierney (Joe Cabot), Randy Brooks (Holdaway), Kirk Baltz (Marvin Nash), Edward Bunker (Mr. Blue), Quentin Tarantino (Mr. Brown), and Steven Wright (K-Billy DJ) Directed by Quentin Tarantino (#638 - Kill Bill: Volume 1 and #639 - Kill Bill: Volume 2)

Review: 
Reservoir Dogs is the first major motion picture directed by Quentin Tarantino, who also wrote and co-starred in it. Tarantino had done a select amount of jobs beforehand, such as working at a video store or production assistant for an Dolph Lundgren exercise video. It was his meeting with producer Lawrence Bender in 1990 that helped elevate Tarantino to making this film on a much higher scale; Bender gave the script to his acting teacher, whose wife was a friend of Harvey Keitel. The signing of Keitel (who also serves as co-producer) helped in raising the budget for the film from the original intended amount of $30,000 to $1.5 million. There were a few films that influenced Tarantino, such as The Killing (1956) and Kansas City Confidental (1952), and it's not hard to see his love of films, which certainly comes through in a heist movie that is fairly entertaining in how it conducts itself, holding itself well enough through its dynamite cast. Keitel, Roth, Madsen & Buscemi are the main group that we follow throughout a film that utilizes plenty of snappy dialogue and choice use of violence that sprinkles itself throughout its 99 minute run-time, conducting itself out of order (without showing the heist itself) without feeling disjointed or too much like a chore to reach, never really having a period of sluggishness. It doesn't ever feel like a movie bogged down by heist cliches, but rather one that rolls with what it is without focusing too hard on falling in line with expectations. It may be a bit much for some with its style/violence, but there is still a valid amount of substance involved to make it work. Keitel shines the best, having a hard-edge to his character of a career criminal that is instantly one we can follow without reluctance, and he has some entertaining moments with the other members of the group. Roth finds time to shine with ease, and Buscemi is snappy but worthwhile when on screen. Madsen plays his role with a fine bit of ruthlessness and unpredictability that sticks out in various ways. Penn and Tierney (known for his previous portrayal of mobsters and tough guys in films prior) round out the main cast, and each play their respective parts handily without trouble. The film clicks itself pretty early with its opening sequence, inviting you into a look of these folks through an amusing conversation and music choices that work to give the movie some flavor. The film works out enough to not go off the rails in its climax because it keeps a fine level of thrills and tension going that make for a worthwhile debut for Tarantino.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Beethoven's 2nd.

Review #578: Beethoven's 2nd.

Cast
Charles Grodin (George Newton), Bonnie Hunt (Alice Newton), Nicholle Tom (Ryce Newton), Christopher Castile (Ted Newton), Sarah Rose Karr (Emily Newton), Debi Mazar (Regina), Chris Penn (Floyd), Ashley Hamilton (Taylor Devereaux), Danny Masterson (Seth), and Catherine Reitman (Janie) Directed by Rod Daniel.

Review
The sequel only happened due to the first movie's unexpected success (A family flick about a cute dog that's a success? Shocking.), as the main cast returns once again. The movie isn't really anything special, but boy does it try to top the cuteness factor of the first flick with not one, but five new dogs (characters, but whatever) in tow. Grodin is clearly having fun with this role, as do Hunt and the others in a movie that just seemingly goes through the motions of being a family flick with the tinges of teen romance, the dog slapstick humor, people falling into mud, the list goes on. The movie is at least enjoyable, if not just a bag of cliches rolled into one. But yes, the puppies are cute and destructive, so take this movie at your own risk.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Rush Hour.

Review #305: Rush Hour.

Cast
Jackie Chan (Lee), Chris Tucker (James Carter), Tom Wilkinson (Thomas Griffin), Tzi Ma (Solon Han), Ken Leung (Sang), Elizabeth Peña (Tania Johnson), Mark Rolston (Warren Russ), Rex Linn (Dan Whitney), and Chris Penn (Clive Cod) Directed by Brett Ratner (#012 - X-Men: The Last Stand)

Review
This is one of those films that could range from either action packed decency or annoying banter. This is like a weight scale, it tips for one side and tips for the other side. I do like Jackie Chan in this film, he gives off the appearance of "why is going on around me"...which makes a lot of sense actually. Aside from that...cameo in The Cannonball Run (#034), this is the first time reviewing something with him, and he does a good job. However their is a familiar actor who has presumably returned from slightly annoying me in The Fifth Element (#027) to getting a 9.1 on the grating scale, Chris Tucker. Now to be fair Tucker and Chan do make a good pair together (Somehow...), and there are some funny moments (Naming them takes a bit longer to remember though.) that almost forgive the fact of annoyances that do indeed happen. The plot is decent, not exactly great, but decent. The action and Chan's involvement in them is good, Chan clearly knows his way around doing fight scenes, which is admirable. While the film is not entirely (take your pick) without flaws, it does have some enjoyable moments to make a slighly more than standard film. Which would have a sequel. Oh dear?

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.