cult film freak: charles grodin

Showing posts with label charles grodin. Show all posts

Written by James M. Tate / 7/04/2023 / No comments / action , adventure , bounty hunter , buddy , charles grodin , comedy , crime , dennis farina , eighties , FBI , joe pantoliano , john ashton , mafia , martin brest , road movie , robert deniro , yaphet kotto

ROBERT DENIRO TEAMS WITH CHARLES GRODIN IN 'MIDNIGHT RUN'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqnz3Md6RmEoU-gwyFQby5uY2JM4GbUoP0lmOZWyvSk9U1VSgDajli08VS7KqmwvupnfxQPt1sjgN57lg6MKw5eHmBqGHvWL32ipOWzreRehzjr5tnifVAJlDEhnKj9evOTNXJpUASHQ8GLFUjVxcfdUcDw4YXNTAfs0VwZTVSxiQq8g5hWoK9GvOyMlhX/s1598/376234605_1800061767089658_5522927381893661311_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="1598" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqnz3Md6RmEoU-gwyFQby5uY2JM4GbUoP0lmOZWyvSk9U1VSgDajli08VS7KqmwvupnfxQPt1sjgN57lg6MKw5eHmBqGHvWL32ipOWzreRehzjr5tnifVAJlDEhnKj9evOTNXJpUASHQ8GLFUjVxcfdUcDw4YXNTAfs0VwZTVSxiQq8g5hWoK9GvOyMlhX/s16000/376234605_1800061767089658_5522927381893661311_n.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert DeNiro in MIDNIGHT RUN Year: 1988 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Director Martin Brest's action/comedy MIDNIGHT RUN is a 
double-edged sword for Robert De Niro: while it moved him from the cult 
into the mainstream, he's been continuously selling-out (with the exception of GOODFELLAS and JACKIE BROWN) and cashing-in ever since... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But not like here, keeping his unique edge as tough yet vulnerable bounty-hunting Jack Walsh, partnered with mob accountant turned mob-targeted Charles Grodin, nicknamed Duke but more of an uptight Felix to Jack's mangy Oscar, their bickering dialogue between action sequences providing the best moments in a terrific non-stop ride...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, bounty hunter, buddy, charles grodin, comedy, crime, dennis farina, eighties, FBI, joe pantoliano, john ashton, mafia, martin brest, road movie, robert deniro, yaphet kotto

ROBERT DENIRO TEAMS WITH CHARLES GRODIN IN 'MIDNIGHT RUN'

Robert DeNiro in MIDNIGHT RUN Year: 1988 Rating: ****1/2 Director Martin Brest's action/comedy MIDNIGHT RUN is a double-edged sword for...

HAWN AND GRODIN CHASE NEIL SIMON'S 'SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7CUDjwKBJ6ea_Ku2hsHg8SsiQ_r3AVmnCusQx8zFQdKwraYXJZLhlthYKpLVqKx--b80h115kTj_CX9mVKqNfwNTI1kRNwuM7l2RkWfsD342HzATYXBCnsu6gXtMW4092p3Gb35Sv2gc1x4uslcJqjETnN1jQG_-E0MyuZyYjf1u8mbOHMGE45rwrXVzr/s1868/z.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="1868" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7CUDjwKBJ6ea_Ku2hsHg8SsiQ_r3AVmnCusQx8zFQdKwraYXJZLhlthYKpLVqKx--b80h115kTj_CX9mVKqNfwNTI1kRNwuM7l2RkWfsD342HzATYXBCnsu6gXtMW4092p3Gb35Sv2gc1x4uslcJqjETnN1jQG_-E0MyuZyYjf1u8mbOHMGE45rwrXVzr/s16000/z.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES Year Released; 1980 Rates: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>While the Hitchcock-style Goldie Hawn romp FOUL PLAY got the critical accolades, with Chevy Chase as her personal Cary Grant, SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES is not only a funnier pairing but better suits Chase's physical comedy...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Even though Hawn, as the wife of a prominent D.A., is the central character, we begin with her flaky ex-husband Chase, an ex-con journalist kidnapped to rob a bank, becoming the Wrong Man and sent into hiding... into Hawn's busy house housing not only her important husband but a nagging maid, a crooked chauffeur and a bevy of orphaned dogs... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

charles grodin, chevy chase, comedy, eighties, ensemble, goldie hawn, neil simon, robert guillaume, slapstick, t.k. carter, wrong man

HAWN AND GRODIN CHASE NEIL SIMON'S 'SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES'

SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES Year Released; 1980 Rates: **** While the Hitchcock-style Goldie Hawn romp FOUL PLAY got the critical accolades, with C...

DUSTIN HOFFMAN & WARREN BEATTY WANDER THROUGH 'ISHTAR'

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7OR4Z-2Qa8VkV_B0jR52Ffzb91HfMmwH9TkGNl4bdffiuQEBpj6kj3dWX1oV6ocDVAVuf8WcS5I0fvZCd60V31hUNeGwcFI-QaIdQJpxbsuRxGUjmMvs0zpO9Ce02caDe3Js0cP0uScwz4D7AX6CZxNy3drrwxTgdSFoDLq1_YedglNOSdC51kQmw1s-a/s2126/Screen%20Shot%202025-03-11%20at%2010.04.27%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1074" data-original-width="2126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7OR4Z-2Qa8VkV_B0jR52Ffzb91HfMmwH9TkGNl4bdffiuQEBpj6kj3dWX1oV6ocDVAVuf8WcS5I0fvZCd60V31hUNeGwcFI-QaIdQJpxbsuRxGUjmMvs0zpO9Ce02caDe3Js0cP0uScwz4D7AX6CZxNy3drrwxTgdSFoDLq1_YedglNOSdC51kQmw1s-a/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-03-11%20at%2010.04.27%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dustin Hoffman in ISHTAR Year: 1987 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In one scene from the famously 
infamous 1987 mega-flop ISHTAR, a shy and introverted Warren Beatty 
admits that, in order to get women, he wished he looked more like 
Dustin Hoffman: which is funnier than anything else in the movie... <br>
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Both are straight men without comic relief (Beatty's sweet and stupid while Hoffman's stupidly confident), and there isn't a
 touch of humor to be found: Especially not in the muddled 
screenplay written by director Elaine May and centering on two awful 
lounge singers, Lyle Rogers and Chuck Clark, who don’t seem realistic 
enough to be genuine failures... </p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, buddy, charles grodin, comedy, desert, dustin hoffman, eighties, elaine may, espionage, isabelle adjani, jack weston, warren beatty

DUSTIN HOFFMAN & WARREN BEATTY WANDER THROUGH 'ISHTAR'

Dustin Hoffman in ISHTAR Year: 1987 Rating: ** In one scene from the famously infamous 1987 mega-flop ISHTAR, a shy and introverted Warren...

CHARLES GRODIN AND FARRAH FAWCETT BASKING IN 'SUNBURN'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijsScbne-f22xr8-X874nm7P5jUDn2O-Pg5jYEzMFdMgsMxNR1xj1bODL9e5vX9Vu2vSiQwKLLoAKBYXzPBmv7VgCjsPpbBVg8ruE-Wa1Xcrk9gZQwg9EQz5pdQk9FUBXGHVnpSHh7Tk7p/s869/Screen+Shot+2021-05-19+at+7.44.08+PM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="869" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijsScbne-f22xr8-X874nm7P5jUDn2O-Pg5jYEzMFdMgsMxNR1xj1bODL9e5vX9Vu2vSiQwKLLoAKBYXzPBmv7VgCjsPpbBVg8ruE-Wa1Xcrk9gZQwg9EQz5pdQk9FUBXGHVnpSHh7Tk7p/w400-h318/Screen+Shot+2021-05-19+at+7.44.08+PM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Sunburn poster resembling Killer Fish circa 1979 Rates: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Around the time <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2014/04/saturn-3.html">Farrah Fawcett</a> and husband <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/04/Majors-of-Steel.html">Lee Majors</a> produced <i>his</i> <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2019/08/blackfish.html">KILLER FISH</a> in sunny Brazil, <i>she</i> went to sunnier Acapulco in an action-comedy almost entirely lacking humor; and yet, helmed by VANISHING POINT director Richard C. Sarafian, the action sequences are pretty good along with neat shots of the glistening locale with a scantily-clad Farrah who, having just left CHARLIE'S ANGELS, was so hot/popular that anything she starred in could pass as Exploitation Cinema, although SUNBURN is mostly a mainstream venture juggling too many characters while losing focus on the main plot: A rich old man's car crash might not be accidental, and his insurance company has to reluctantly shell out 5M...</p><p>So Grodin, supposedly a troublesome private eye, is sent with Fawcett as his fake wife... But there's hardly any trouble or suspense surreptitiously investigating the man's family that includes a lusty Joan Collins and the dead man's kids in a quaint <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2012/09/buster-and-billie.html">Joan Goodfellow</a> and her playboy brother. Meanwhile, Art Carney... as a gumshoe's gumshoe mentor... gets lost in a mix of neo noir crime and chaos wherein, since Grodin plays it so dry he hardly seems there at all, only Fawcett really shines... Which was obviously this film's backup plan that ultimately becomes pretty much everything.  </p><p><span></span></p>

action, charles grodin, comedy, exploitation, farrah fawcett, gumshoe, joan collins, joan goodfellow, neo noir, robin clarke, romance, seventies

CHARLES GRODIN AND FARRAH FAWCETT BASKING IN 'SUNBURN'

Sunburn poster resembling Killer Fish circa 1979 Rates: ** Around the time Farrah Fawcett and husband Lee Majors produced his KILLER FISH...

STEVE MARTIN IS 'THE LONELY GUY' WITH (RIP) CHARLES GRODIN

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGjL2qEiOzgXxpdjdS7uB-awFEQ9TnRy-p0chaBcQ83auzKkO5MDKiHgR9pkMcs3PpKMYaLTudGcCrQqYtABeP36DLN3RHqyPWPpiOro528QgPQc7451Q9mcSdwel9Rxd5Fs91XWarpWem/s1182/Screen+Shot+2021-05-19+at+9.23.05+PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="1182" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGjL2qEiOzgXxpdjdS7uB-awFEQ9TnRy-p0chaBcQ83auzKkO5MDKiHgR9pkMcs3PpKMYaLTudGcCrQqYtABeP36DLN3RHqyPWPpiOro528QgPQc7451Q9mcSdwel9Rxd5Fs91XWarpWem/w400-h316/Screen+Shot+2021-05-19+at+9.23.05+PM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Grodin goes Galactica Year: 1984 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Posted in memory of Charles Grodin is this summary of THE LONELY GUY that, if based on how many particular jokes land compared to the ones that don't, this wouldn't be considered classic or groundbreaking, but the character 
played by Steve Martin, who, after breaking up with his gorgeously loose girlfriend (Robyn Douglass), residing in New York as a
 terminally lonely single fella, is so likable and relatable, GUY is, plain and simple, the journey of a man who not only hits 
rock bottom, but learns how to exist there. </p><p></p><p>He has an equally "pathetic" buddy Charles 
Grodin (choosing to watch BATTLESTAR GALACTICA instead of mingling at a party) and keeps running into the earthy woman of his dreams: always losing her phone number right after. </p><p>What works 
best here are the specific examples of being alone in a big city and how
 to deal with each particular bout of solitude (including raising plants as pets and other time-filling tips), hence THE LONELY GUY Guide book that makes him famous. Hence the last forty minutes, after our hero 
becomes a famous author, things dwindle
 considerably; but that first hour, especially the scenes shared with 
Grodin, is a real slice of life.<span></span></p>

battlestar galactica, charles grodin, comedy, cult, eighties, judith ivey, robyn douglass, steve martin

STEVE MARTIN IS 'THE LONELY GUY' WITH (RIP) CHARLES GRODIN

Charles Grodin goes Galactica Year: 1984 Rates: ***1/2 Posted in memory of Charles Grodin is this summary of THE LONELY GUY that, if based o...

JESSICA LANGE 'KING KONG: THE LEGEND REBORN' JEFF BRIDGES

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFK7M8sQ18uzTzkB3Q_96v300DqpGTiC_7-SA8_zLVcIPnSYPPcfiESaZDsQbq-gpW2SWr1nBaGQKZHUhUYwjgPgCMlP1_1H7AjmG_4e3TxIxtztaljskHJkYchhAuOuCa4TKYiGOAjKNRm1TB9xg8TiPsSzW06H6xiO-3xuZOuuyqctsA5pYNFmlvJMI/s2110/Screen%20Shot%202024-08-01%20at%2010.43.12%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1460" data-original-width="2110" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFK7M8sQ18uzTzkB3Q_96v300DqpGTiC_7-SA8_zLVcIPnSYPPcfiESaZDsQbq-gpW2SWr1nBaGQKZHUhUYwjgPgCMlP1_1H7AjmG_4e3TxIxtztaljskHJkYchhAuOuCa4TKYiGOAjKNRm1TB9xg8TiPsSzW06H6xiO-3xuZOuuyqctsA5pYNFmlvJMI/w400-h276/Screen%20Shot%202024-08-01%20at%2010.43.12%20AM.png" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1976 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table>The first half is fantastic: a creative set-up with the 
famous story altered where oil speculator Charles Grodin seeks
 the fog-surrounded island as a possible origin for that gushy stuff 
that keeps planes flying and cars running...<br>
<br>
Jeff Bridges, as a "hippie" stowaway turned trek's photographer, who had bribed his way aboard the freighter, knows the island has a big secret, and yet even he's not sure 
exactly what's there... And had another actor been cast in this preachy, idealistic
photographer role, liking and even thinking he understands simians over humans, it would be annoying and/or pretentious, even cliché given the progressive 1970's era: But given his film credits before and after, it's no surprise that Bridges can be just cool enough to add a
 tinge of pulpy action hero to the hairy modern dogooder...<br>