Month: August 2021

Almost Heroes (1998)

A late 90s comedy starring Chris Farley and Matthew Perry as a bungling pair of explorers trying to beat Lewis and Clark to the Pacific Ocean and directed by Christopher Guest sounds like it would feature at least regular chuckle-able moments. Sadly that’s not the case. It mostly feels like it has a lot of missed potential. I read a review suggesting that Farley and Perry were miscast and would have been better if their roles were switched. That at least sounds like it would have been a much more interesting movie. For years I’ve avoided this and Wagons East! for similar reasons. I love John Candy a million times more than I care about Chris Farley, so Wagons East! is probably going to end up on The List.

Slightly Scarlet (1956)

I’ve always enjoyed John Payne in Miracle on 34th Street and have been intrigued to see what else his career has to offer. Here we have him in a noir-ish film, playing the bad guy as a crooked cop who takes over the crime syndicate through is own clever machinations. Along for the ride we […]

Spies Like Us (1985) – Rewatch

I keep getting this film confused with the vastly superior Stripes, but I know the plot to Stripes so I rewatched this one to remind myself what it’s all about. After watching it again, I still find this film forgettable. Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd are two dissimilar wannabe secret agents who are sent out on a mission as decoys to draw attention away from the real agents. It’s a Cold War farce that’s rarely funny.

Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)

In an Italy where pretty much everyone is a crook, a bunch of bungling crooks get together to pull off an easy heist. It’s all a lot of breezy fun watching the interactions and relationships of this gang while they’re trying to overcome the various obstacles that get in the way to the loot. Going to have to work through more of the Marcello Mastroianni films on The List.

Oscar Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film

Dolores Claiborne (1995)

I haven’t read the book, but this seemed unusual for a Stephen King as there isn’t any horror or suspense. Instead we have a mystery: is Dolores a murderer and if she is, why did she do it. Love some Kathy Bates and she did a great job portraying Dolores at different ages. It was […]

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

A film shot over more than 15 years, even as separate vignettes, doesn’t seem like it’d be as cohesive as this one is. There are a lot of themes that flow through the eleven stories that go beyond the simple idea of small groups of people drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes together. Not surprisingly Bill […]

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