Written by James M. Tate / 3/09/2019 / No comments / blake edwards , bruce willis , comedy , eighties , fifties , jack lemmon , james garner , john ritter , lee remick , malcolm mcdowell , romantic comedy , sixties , thriller , TV , william holden
A BAGFUL OF PARANTHETICAL BLAKE EDWARDS ARCHIVE REVIEWS
Bruce Willis and Malcolm McDowell YEAR: 1991 Score: **1/2 |
Year: 1980 Score: ***1/2 |
There are good moments, like anything involving Richard Mulligan (as buried lead William Holden futilely attempts to protect him from bad choices) as a hit-making director who made a big budget disaster, losing his mind and becoming a suicidal maniac. Writer/director Blake Edwards is making a statement here and it's still not very clear what it is: but he might've felt similar many times throughout a hit/miss career...
Year: 1986 Score: **1/2 |
Elegantly Misleading Classy Title Sequence YEAR: 1962 Score: **1/2 |
And it's funny seeing Jack Lemmon on screen with Jack Klugman, the original "Felix Unger" with the TV "Oscar Madison", but they're not such THE ODD COUPLE as one is a drunk and the other a recovering drunk/AA sponsor, which is what this movie turns out to be — a searing two hour ad for Alcoholics Anonymous.
Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger Year: 1987 Score: * |
Everything goes awry for him while she remains untouched since she has no real purpose but to eventually drive this poor bastard's life down the drain. She has an ex-boyfriend stalking them, adding frenzy to the frenzied chase. This is not only an out-and-out ripoff of Martin Scorsese's AFTER HOURS but feels like a dull unending nightmare — one of those where every character exists to annoy either other, and their audience.
Year: 1982 Score: **1/2 |
James Garner, whose bodyguard Alex Karras has a secret, is a bigwig who falls in love with Andrews: first thinking she's a she then finding out she's a him and his manliness is questioned. Once the "relationship" begins with Garner and Andrews, the film goes downhill — well past the entertaining first half with Andrews and Preston struggling together as everything gets too muddled. Blake Edwards has so many wheels turning in different directions the vehicle gets stuck in the mud. But the mud isn't intentionally/altogether uncomfortable to wallow in as Julie steals both shows.
YEAR: 1989 Score: **1/2 |
But the rest of the movie, dealing with a bearded piano-playing playwright who's addicted to sex played by John Ritter, is hit-or-miss and often gets weighed down by its own navel-gazing while conquest conversations with a bartender seems to feed Edwards' alter-ego more than move the character's story.
Ritter is able to display his subtle pratfalls and dry witty charm, and is thoroughly convincing since he's had so much practice playing sex-starved men. And, although this character is much luckier than his game-changing Jack Tripper from THREE'S COMPANY, the lack of underdog charm makes this Ritter role not very relatable or altogether engaging. Leaving no reason to review Blake Edwards' earlier THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN starring Burt Reynolds because... they're basically the same film.
John Vivyan & Ross Martin in MR LUCKY Year: 1960 Score: *** |
Like Edwards' PETER GUNN star Craig Stevens, MR. LUCKY lead John Vivyan is a perfectly good-enough actor for the twists and turns to occur around his well-suited charm as he's faithfully flanked by sidekick, Andamo, played by Ross Martin, who'd become famous as another number two on WILD WILD WEST. With a fickle Spanish accent that hardly matters anyway, he keeps their combined energy fresh and engaging: along with the usual Blake Edwards wallpaper of gorgeous women, often as unpredictable and spontaneous as the mazy plot-lines in which they're caught: the good episodes are serious and breezy while the mediocre entries play semi-comedic upfront. Either way, at 24 minutes per, LUCKY is pretty decent bet.
Malcolm McDowell does a vampire thrust at Bruce Willis in an otherwise lightweight SUNSET |
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
All Time Popular
-
Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...
-
year: 1978 cast: Allen Garfield, Leif Garrett, Kathleen Lloyd, Tony Alva, Pam Kenneally rating: ***1/2 Although promoted as a Leif Garr...
-
Kari Michaelsen in Saturday the 14th year: 1982 In LOVE AT FIRST BITE, a popular comedy that took the vampire genre by satire, Richard ...
-
Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: **** Starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as determined vice cops BUSTING hookers, makin...
-
Mary-Louise Weller in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE, directed by John Landis and produced by Ivan Reitman, stars John Be...
-
Kerri Green and John Candy in SUMMER RENTAL Year: 1985 John Candy, in his first leading role, plays a burnt-out air traffic controller ...
-
Robyn Hilton on STARSKY AND HUTCH Model/Actress ROBYN HILTON played Mel Brook's secretary in BLAZING SADDLES and turns up in an epis...
-
Robyn Hilton in Video Vixens the same year as Blazing Saddles: 1974 The Anthology of Comedic Parodies, already done in several Woody All...
-
CADDDYSHACK is best known for the iconic leading actors: Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray, but originally the ...
-
Elizabeth James and Tom Laughlin on equal ground YEAR: 1967 THE BORN LOSERS wasn't supposed to happen but thank God it did since BIL...
Featured Post
DEFENDING THE BREEZY SEQUEL 'BREAKIN 2': ELECTRIC BOOGALOO'
Title: BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO Year: 1984 Rating: *** Cannon Films' BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO was rushed out the same...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.