Alex in Wonderland (1970)

Posted on August 21, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 3 out of 10

4-Word Review: Director ponders next project.

Alex (D0nald Sutherland) is stuck in the classic struggle many young artists in Hollywood find. His first film that he directed was a big success both commercially and critically, so now he must carefully decide what to for his next project while trying to avoid the dreaded ‘sophomore jinx’. He aspires to do something that analyzes the political struggles of the time, but his agent and studio heads want him to avoid all that and just do something that will be a box office hit. While he longs director something that has impact and ‘makes a statement’ he still fears it not being a hit and thus crippling his career before its barely begun. He also must consider his wife (Ellen Burstyn) and family. He wants to move them into a bigger house in a better neighborhood, but to do so he must choose a project that is profitable. Can he manage to thread-the-needle by creating something that is both artistic and uncompromised, but still commercially appealing?

After the success of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice director Paul Mazursky found himself not knowing what movie that he should do next. Finding himself caught between doing something with mass appeal, but also artistic he finally decided on the ‘clever’ idea of making a movie about a director going through the same type of dilemma. On some level it does have it moments. I liked the segment showing a full-scale Vietnam-like war happening right in the streets of downtown Hollywood, which is surprisingly well mounted and both funny and vivid. The meeting that Alex has with a producer, played by Mazursky, is excellent too. Love how Mazursky uses flattery to try and ‘woo’ Alex into doing the type of project that he wants and tries to impress him with his expensive paintings hanging about to show him how he ‘must know what he’s doing in order to afford such stuff’ and how Alex dryly declines from getting committed to anything. Both men leave still on ‘friendly’ terms, but it’s clear that animosity runs underneath which for me is probably the most on target thing in the whole movie and something that should’ve been explored more instead of just dropped.

The rest of the film is not as engaging and meanders badly until it seems like there’s no pace to it at all. I loved how Mazursky casts his own daughter, Meg, as Sutherland’s kid, she looks just like her real-life dad, and how precocious she is, but her conversations with Sutherland seem endless and don’t help propel the story along and come off almost like someone’s home movie where the camera is turned on and whatever happens happens without any direction at all. The cameos appearances by Federic Fellini and Jeanne Moreau fall flat. In Fellini’s case he seems almost put-off and annoyed and spouts his lines like he just wants to get it over with. With Moreau Sutherland spots her while shopping like anyone can just bump into a legendary French actress while doing everyday activities and then the two break out into song, which is as tacky as it sounds. Not sure if this was meant to be a fantasy segment, or not, but it doesn’t work either way. Viewers of today will be turned-off by Alex’s friend Andre (Andre Philippe) who casually brags about sleeping with 16-year-old girls, which our protagonist almost seems to find amusing. Back in the wild 70’s this sort of thing might’ve been considered by the jaded set as ‘wink-wink’ but now is completely unacceptable.

Burstyn is as usual quite good but having the two argue about what house to buy, or what to purchase at the grocery store is quite generic and not compelling at all. On one hand I guess you could say it’s nice to see that Hollywood couples can have the same type of problems and squabbles as anyone else, but the movie needs something more to it. The attempts to mix the dramatic with the surreal doesn’t work and makes the film quite jarring. Had it been edited down and better structured then maybe, but it’s too wide open to the point that it gives the term cinema verité a bad name.

The most disappointing thing is that it doesn’t delve into the movie business enough. A viewer comes into a movie hoping to experience something that they can’t in real life, or at least appreciate some new viewpoint, but here it never gets going. It stays stalled the whole way with Alex unsure of what to do next. This should’ve ended after act one. In act two he could’ve gone through the process of casting and writing his next project and then in act three went ahead and began filming it. The quarrels and issues he has with his family could’ve been trimmed and intercut between the rest, so we still would’ve gotten a taste of his personal life, but not so much that it would get draggy while also giving us a good idea of how making a movie works from start to finish. Had it gone this route it might’ve been special, but because it doesn’t it ultimately becomes dull and pointless like a movie in desperate search of a script.

My Rating: 3 out of 10

Released: December 17, 1970

Runtime: 1 Hour 51 Minutes

Rated R

Director: Paul Mazursky

Studio: MGM

Available: DVD-R (Warner Archive Collection), Amazon Video, YouTube

 

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Posted in 70's Movies, Comedy/Drama, Quirky, Surreal/Fantasy

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Loophole (1981)

Posted on August 11, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 3 out of 10

4-Word Review: Robbing an ‘impenetrable’ vault.

Mike (Albert Finney) is a career safe cracker who finds their last job unrewarding as the loot was less than expected. He decides their next project will be breaking into a bank safe that is supposedly impenetrable, but with one unknown loophole as it’s housed near a main sewer line. He comes up with the idea that he and his men will go into the sewer tunnels and drill holes through the brick walls until they can get underneath where the safe is and then drill through the floor of that until they can get inside. Of course, once they get into the safe it will set off alarms, but the police will not suspect anyone’s inside as the safe door will still be locked shut. In order for their plans to work they’ll need the assistance of Stephen (Martin Sheen) an architect who will be able to locate where the safe is while they’re tunneling underground. At first, he resists, but pressure by his wife (Susannah York) for him to maintain their affluent lifestyle eventually gets him to agree.

The film starts out in a highly unusual way in that with no backstory, or set-up, or even credits jolt the viewer right into a robbery in progress, watching in detail as Mike and his assistants break into a safe, which is disconcerting.  I almost thought there was some sort of glitch in the streaming of the film, and I had somehow come into it in the middle half and completely bypassed the beginning and this goes on for about 5-minutes. Without knowing who these characters are, or why they’re doing it, it’s not interesting or captivating. The result is off-putting and gives the production an amateur vibe.

When the story does finally come into play it still remains fairly awkward. I was surprised that Finney, who had taken a 4-year break from film acting, would choose this one for his ‘comeback’. The character he plays here is dull and one-dimensional and offers no real arc, or emotion. It’s interesting to an extent to see that he lives in affluence with a family, but the woman who plays his wife looks too similar to York, who plays Sheen’s spouse and thus it gets confusing at times, and more effort should’ve been made to make her distinct from the other.

Sheen does better as at the very least you see some change occur in the person he plays and some drama, at least at the very beginning, in his scenes. I liked how he’s resistant to the plan initially by constantly desribing himself as ‘an honest man’, which allows for some tension, but the way he ultimately caves is disappointing. There is the fact that he’s unemployed and in need of the money, but there still should’ve remained friction all the way through. If honesty is truly important to him then there should be lingering guilt about what he’s getting into and evidence of an inner struggle versus him ultimately just becoming ‘one of the guys’.

The robbery itself is pedestrian and been done before in other films. Having their truck get a flat tire, in order for the crew to slide through a trap door of the vehicle and into the manhole cover of the sewer without being detected, seemed too risky especially since it gets done in the daytime instead of under the darkness of night. At one point even the police drive by, which could’ve backfired as once the robbery has been committed, and the investigators realize how it was done they’ll immediately backtrack to the truck and research from the license plate who owned or rented it. Making it probable that they might not have been able to get away with it and would ultimately be caught.

Spoiler Alert!

The most disappointing aspect should’ve been the most exciting. It has to do with the sewer tunnels flooding during an unexpected rainstorm. Finney and his colleagues decide to wade their way through it, but Sheen hangs back insisting he’d rather stay in the safe though this will risk him getting caught once the bank opens on Monday morning.  Watching the water push up through the hole in the floor of the safe eventually creating an entire pool, which gives Sheen less and less room to stay above it, is quite intense, but then the film sells out in the most horrible fashion I’ve even seen, where he’s shown ‘waking up’ inside his own bathtub with absolutely no explanation of how he got out of the safe. If that’s not a copout I don’t what is and seriously ruins the film to the extent that I suggest no one bother to watch it as the stupid ending just destroys the whole thing.

My Rating: 3 out of 10

Released: March 13, 1981

Runtime: 1 Hour 45 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: John Quested

Studio: Goldcrest Films International

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Fawesome, Plex, Roku, Tubi, Amazon Video

 

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Posted in 80's Movies, Heist Movies, Movies Based on Novels, Foreign Films, Robbing Banks, British Movies

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The Cheap Detective (1978)

Posted on August 6, 2026 | 2 comments

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 5 out of 10

4-Word Review: Private eye doesn’t tip.

Lou (Peter Falk) is a struggling private eye who finds himself being questioned by the police over the death of his former partner whose wife (Marsha Mason) he was having an affair with. While he tries to avoid them he comes into contact with his true love Marlene (Louise Fletcher) whom he broke up with years earlier. She wants him to help retrieve some stolen paperwork and a passport that would allow her new husband (Lorenzo Lamas) to leave the country. Along the way he also becomes embroiled in an effort to retrieve a lost treasure that entails gems shaped like eggs.

After the unexpected success of Murder by Death three years earlier writer Neil Simon was motivated to take another stab at detective/mystery satire. This one though, while still making a profit, which came mainly from the opening weekend until word-of-mouth caused it to plummet, didn’t fare as well. While the first film used a variety of comic elements this one stays focused on the dialogue. Some of it is funny as Simon has always been known to have a knack for the one-liners, but it misses out on a lot of potential humor that could’ve propelled it to a higher comic level. Some examples is when Mason’s character talks about getting her black dress at an all-night mourning widow’s shop or receiving her insurance payout just an hour after her husband died, which all would’ve been much funnier had we seen this played out instead of just discussed. The opening visual bit where we see gunshot victims dead, but still standing with small holes in their forehead is both campy and imaginative and there should’ve been more of that throughout verses having it revert to talking heads the rest of the way making it seem almost like it’s a filmed stage play.

While the sets look authentic to the period, they’re also too similar making it seem almost like they stay in the same room the whole time. Lou’s apartment in particular doesn’t look like a genuine bachelor pad as he’s shown having a replica portrait of the Mona Lisa hanging on his wall, but what kind of single man, who’s portrayed as being quite crass and uncultured, would ever want something like that for a decoration? Since he’s constantly complaining about lack of sex and loneliness, I would think having a scantily clad pinup model adoring his place would’ve been better reflective of the character.

The acting by the male cast is a letdown. Falk is the one exception. I initially thought it was type casting as he was more famous for playing another detective named Columbo and I thought watching this would just remind me of that one, but he’s such a talented performer that he manages to make this character quite distinct to the extent that you never see any connection. John Houseman though, playing a fat person named Blubber, is wasted and the oversized suit that he wears, in order to make him seem more ‘blubbery’  does nothing but make his head seem like it’s getting swallowed up. Dom DeLuise is also a detriment playing someone obnoxious and not all that useful to the story. I was also very surprised why Phil Silvers, who was just as well known as the rest, was given such a tiny role where he’s seen just briefly at the end as a cab driver and given only one line to say. Granted he had suffered a stroke earlier in the decade, but he was in several movies and TV-shows after this, so it seemed like he should’ve been given a bigger role and would’ve been able to handle it.

The females fare better especially Fletcher and Mason as well as Ann Margaret who plays a seductive woman, a type of role she’s typically known for, but having her break into a different accent mid scene is fun. I did though feel that Stockard Channing should’ve had more to do. She was treated almost like someone who wasn’t established even though she already starred in her own movie, the underrated gem Sweet Revenge, and thus could’ve been given more of a comic outlet here. I also didn’t buy into her character being so blase about the parade of women that come out of Lou’s apartment as she had openly stated she was into him sexually, so I think she would’ve been jealous and even upset at the other women she saw with him and not amused like here.

The film also suffers from a lack of hipness and much of this could be blamed on virtually the entire cast being well over 40 and filled with has-beens, with the exception of Channing who at 34 was the only up-and-comer. Having a couple of people in their 20’s could’ve helped give it a more youthful appeal and not made it seem so stale.

Spoiler Alert!

There’s also an error that occurs near the end where Falk is shown at gunpoint backed against a window. There’s then a cutaway revealing someone pointing another gun through the open window, but then it cuts back to a long shot where we can’t see the gun making it seem like it’s behind Falk’s body, so then when it goes off it should have hit him instead of Sid Caesar who was sitting in front of Falk. In either case if the gun was indeed behind Falk, but high enough above his body, so that the bullet would hit Caesar then it should’ve been visible in the longshot and no need for the cutaway.

My Rating: 5 out of 10

Released: June 23, 1978

Runtime: 1 Hour 32 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Neil Simon

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Available: DVD, Amazon Video, Tubi, YouTube

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Posted in 70's Movies, Mystery, Parody

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Evil Under the Sun (1982)

Posted on July 29, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 4 out of 10

4-Word Review: Who killed the actress?

Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) travels to a luxurious hotel in the Adriatic Sea in order to investigate a diamond that was purchased at Tiffany’s and given to a famous actress named Arlena (Diana Rigg) but later found to be a fake. When Poirot arrives at the resort, he finds the actress to be quite bitchy and disliked by everyone, including Daphne (Maggie Smith) the resort owner who resents Arlena’s fame, as she herself tried out to be an actress at the same time as Arlena, but her career never took off.  There’s also writer Rex (Roddy McDowall) who wants to publish Arlena’s biography, which she now refuses to sign-off on. Producers Odell and Myra (James Mason, Sylvia Miles) resent Arlena because she won’t star in one of their plays, Christine (Jame Birkin) hates her because she’s too flirty with Christine’s husband Patrick (Nicholas Clay), while there’s friction between Arlena and Linda (Emily Hone), Arlena’s 15-year-old stepdaughter, who resents her caustic ways. When Arlena does turn up dead while at the beach it’s up to Poirot to figure out, from the plethora of suspects, which one did it.

This was the second installment with Ustinov playing Poirot after the success of Death on the Nile, and the film starts out with plenty of potential. The exotic locale, filmed on the Balearic Islands, is definitely stunning and a chief asset. The comedic touches, particularly the acerbic interplay between the characters, is another strong point, and helps to make the first hour fun, despite the fact that nothing much happens you’re waiting for the murder to finally happen to the point you begin to wonder if it ever will.

While the production values are high the soundtrack gets overblown. It has a sort of show tune vibe to it, which isn’t bad, but not a good fit for the material. Sure, it’s about an actress who’s starred in some stage productions, but this is something that requires music that helps build suspense, and the stuff here not only doesn’t do that, but actually becomes intrusive. When the characters of Patrick and Myra are boating over to the dead body lying on the beach, the music should’ve been soft and menacing, but here it’s upbeat and booming and this is equally true when Poirot retraces the steps of the killer, where the sound should be downbeat and lowkey and not the reverse.

Spoiler Alert!

The biggest issue I had was with the mystery itself. Normally Agatha Christie does a great job of weaving an elaborate crime, but the resolution here is less than satisfying. While I had never read the 1940 novel of which this is based on, I quickly deemed the Birkin character as being the culprit and the most obvious suspect, so finding out it was her offered no surprise. The way Poirot solves it requires extreme guessing with no proof, like the fact that Birkin has a bottle of sun lotion, or changes the time on Linda’s watch, which is stuff that can’t be fully proven and in a lot of ways a stretch to even deduce. The whole signature thing where the killer (Birkin’s husband) signs his name in the hotel registry, which is a different name that how he signs his cheque, but Poirot is still able to confidently proclaim it’s the same handwriting seemed sketchy too as it didn’t look the same to me.

End of Spoiler Alert!

While the ending is a big letdown the performances by the women are splendid and help keep it entertaining through the lulls. Rigg camps it up perfectly and I enjoyed Smith whose ability to convey droll humor is second to none. Miles is really great too especially her oversized hats, Hone, who’s only ever been in two movies, is fun as the teen who doesn’t hesitate to speak her opinion. Birkin is also excellent particularly because at the time she was a big sex symbol, but here downplays that by covering up her body and coming off as someone who is drab and insecure.

My Rating: 4 out of 10

Released: March 5, 1982

Runtime: 1 Hour 57 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Guy Hamilton

Studio: EMI Films

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video, Fawesome, Plex, Roku, Tubi, YouTube

 

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Posted in 80's Movies, Black Comedy, British Movies, Foreign Films, Movies Based on Novels, Movies with a Hotel setting, Mystery

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Posted on July 21, 2026 | 2 comments

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 10 out of 10

4-Word Review: Meetup at Devil’s Tower.

Roy (Richard Dreyfuss) works of a utility company in central Indiana and gets assigned in the middle of the night to investigate power outages that are occurring in the area. While he stops his vehicle to read a map a huge spaceship flies over him causing him to get a bad skin burn on the side of his face. After the encounter he becomes obsessed at recreating a distinct mountain landscape inside his home using any material necessary including digging up the dirt and plants from his outdoor garden and bringing them inside, which causes his wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) to leave him along with their three kids. Jillian (Melinda Dillon) is having a similar issue. She’s a single mother residing in a country home with her young son Barry (Cary Guffey) who gets swept up into the spaceship when it goes over her house. Since losing her son she too becomes obsessed with creating the same type of mountain landscape. Eventually Roy and her meet by chance and when they realize they both have the same vision in common and connect it to Devil’s Tower they set out to Wyoming to get there unbeknownst that the government has already become aware that the aliens intend to land there and have come up with a ploy to keep the public away by pretending that the area has become contaminated with a dangerous gas leak.

The film is a remake of sorts of Steven Spielberg’s first movie that he did called Firelight, which he directed in 1964 when he was only 17. While the storyline was similar that one was shot on a budget of $500 while this one was given almost $20 million and that made all the difference, but what really stands out is how, unlike most sci-fi films up to that time, it’s more about the people and their reactions to the ‘invasion’ or ‘visit’ than the space creatures. Some of the best moments deal simply with the local people congregating on a hilltop next to the highway in the middle of the night playing cards while waiting for the saucer to come. Another great segment is when the government officials become excited when they figure out what the coordinates that the aliens have sent to them mean and then roll out this giant globe to figure where on the planet the location is.

My favorite scenes deal with Roy’s home life, which is so realistic that it’s almost like it could’ve been somebodies home movies. I loved how the children, though still quite young, have essentially ‘taken over’ the house with toys and chaos all over. The parents have become so used to the kids shenanigans that when the one boy takes his younger sister’s doll and begins smashing it to pieces the mom and dad don’t bother to pay much attention to it even as it happens right in front of them, which is what I believe happens with most parents they essentially start to tune out the kids and the noise to the extent they no longer notice what their own kids are doing that others from the outside immediately would.

The casting is on target most of the way. Initially Dreyfuss was deemed too young for the dad role as he was only 29 at the time, but the segment where he becomes disillusioned at the children not wanting to see Pinocchio, which he had enjoyed growing up, brings out the universal generational disconnect that can befall most parents and thus almost immediately cements him as being middle-aged in the viewer’s mind.

I did feel that Garr’s and Dillion’s roles should’ve been reversed. Dillion’s character I never really got into. She’s got too much of a serious look about her and comes off as cold. Some may argue she was traumatized at losing her son, but I just didn’t really feel her pain. Garr is much better at playing vulnerable types and therefore should’ve been the single parent and Roy’s ultimate love interest while Dillion’s acting style would’ve been better suited for the distant and impatient wife.

Roy and Jillian’s quest to get to Devil’s Tower and fight through all the elements that try to stop them is compelling especially when done with John William’s pounding score, but there did seem to be a few logic loopholes. For instance, there’s no explanation where he got the car, as his wife drove off with the kids in their station wagon, and as his car keeps crashing through all the barriers there should’ve been a lot more front-end damage. Having the aliens message the exact coordinates of where Devil’s Tower is begs a lot of questions too. How would aliens know what English numbers mean and if they’re smart enough to learn that then why not learn the language too and speak to the humans with English words and not even bother with the musical note ditty?

Spoiler Alert!

The climactic finish, while still impressive especially with the giant spaceship landing, is a bit of a letdown. The biggest problem are the aliens themselves, which were obvious stop-action Claymation and comes off as tacky and unconvincing. There’s also the issue of this group of people, seems to be around 15, who agree to go off with the aliens in their ship and back to their home planet, but why would anyone want to do that?

How would they know they weren’t going into a hostile environment where humans wouldn’t be accepted, or treating unfairly? Wouldn’t they miss their friends and family here since there would be no guarantee they’d ever come back? Showing other people who had ‘disappeared’ years earlier and were now returned to the earth having not aged might’ve been enough to put the other people’s mind at ease, but still for me it would be taken too much of a risk and I don’t think there would be that many people like it gets shown here who would volunteer to do without question or pause.

The same goes for Roy who is seen entering the ship, but he has family here and if he’s any type of loving father he would never want to leave them. Some may argue that his wife left with the kids, so he was essentially ‘abandoned’, but he could fight for joint custody making the ‘abandonment’ angle null. To make more sense Roy should’ve been portrayed like the protagonist in Liquid Sky, as a loner with no connections or friends and thus leaving this planet wouldn’t have been any great loss.

My Rating: 10 out of 10

Released: November 16, 1977

Runtime: 2 Hours 17 Minutes (Director’s Cut)

Rated PG

Director: Steven Spielberg

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video, YouTube

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Posted in 70's Movies, Classic, Movies Based on Conspiracy Theories, Movies for the Whole Family, Movies with a rural setting, Sci-Fi

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On Golden Pond (1981)

Posted on July 10, 2026 | 3 comments

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 10 out of 10

Ethel and Norman (Katherine Hepburn, Henry Fonday) are an older couple who spend each summer at their lakeside cabin. Norman, while being perpetually grouchy, is starting to show serious signs of aging. They receive word that their grown daughter, Chelsea (Jane Fonda), will becoming for a visit along with her new boyfriend Bill (Dabney Coleman) and his son Billy (Doug McKeon). She plans on traveling in Europe with Bill while leaving Billy with her parents. At first Norman does not take kindly to the news, but eventually he and Billy bond while taking the boat out to go fishing. When Chelsea returns, she finds the two have become quite close, but then her own past problems with Norman begin to seep through.

The film is based on the play of the same name that originally opened on February 28, 1979, and starred Tom Aldredge as Norman and Frances Sternhagen as Ethel, who were both only in their late 40’s at the time, but managed to somehow convincingly come off as elderly, and was written by 28-year-old Ernest Thompson who had struggled throughout the 70’s as an actor, co-starring in some short lived TV-shows, before finally finding his forte as a writer. The play, like the movie, was a big hit both with the critics and the audiences and it’s easy to see why. Instead of focusing on some bigger-than-life occurrence it captures the magical nuances of real life and how a simple visit to a cabin leads to unexpected results to what initially seems like two very different people with nothing in common.

The acting is a standout most especially Hepburn, who at the age of 73 did all of her own stunts including diving into the lake, is terrific and helps to hold the whole thing together. Fonda is great too, both won the Oscar for their work, though personally I would’ve liked his arc to have been more evident, he softens slightly at certain intervals, but I would’ve preferred it being broader and more permanent. It might’ve helped too had his mental decline not been telegraphed so quickly, make it seem like he was doing fine, which would’ve then made the scene where he can’t remember how to find his way home after picking strawberries more disturbing versus here where we’re pretty much expecting it before it even happens.

McKeon is adequate though Anthony Micheal Hall, who auditioned for the role, but lost out, might’ve been better. My main complaint is that I felt he was a bit too old. Leaving a 13-year-old who’s at that age where they begin to be rebellious and challenge authority alone with two frail, elderly people, might not have been the best idea, and having the kid be under 10, maybe like 8, where they’re more manageable, would’ve worked better.

The idea that the kid would’ve been ‘bored’ traveling in Europe made no sense to me. Exploring an entire new continent would’ve been quite memorable and something most kids would consider an exciting adventure especially if it was going to be done with their parents instead of spending it at a lonely cabin with old fogeys that he didn’t know, which is why I felt there needed to be a better explanation. For instance, he could’ve failed a class and thus forced to stay behind in order to attend summer school.

Having Jane bring up the idea of the kid staying with her elderly parents during the visit seemed audacious and really should’ve been discussed and planned out long before, like weeks or even months and having all parties agree to it. You couldn’t blame the kid for initially sulking about it and feeling like he had been ‘dumped’, which is exactly what it came off like especially since they weren’t even his grandparents and just people he had only met.

Coleman is splendid in support, and I really dug his manly beard, which actually makes him look younger. Jane’s role though seemed unneeded. Her conflict with her father was too broad and came-off more like padding than anything concrete. It’s not exactly clear what the specific problem is other than he was cold and distant to her growing up, but he’s that way to everybody, so why does she take it so personally? Having it revolve around some past incident of some kind would’ve been meatier.

While small in nature, the segment where Norman is reading the newspaper is a little confusing as he seems to be talking about the baseball scores, but when you look at the top of the page that he is reading it’s clearly the weather section and not the sports. I also felt it was dumb that Ethel asks for the aid of the mailman, played by William Lanteau, and his boat to help in her search when Norman and the kid don’t return home. Whatever state they lived in they had a working phone and were inside a county, so there would’ve been a police department and those should’ve been called as their boats would most likely been better able to go inside the treacherous rock area and they could’ve also had helicopters, which would’ve made the search easier and quicker.

Overall though the film succeeds on its vision and kudos should really go to director Mark Rydell, who as of this writing is still alive at the age of 97, which is considerable older than what Norman’s age was in the movie, which was 80. Rydell started his career as an actor and probably best known for his creepy performance in The Long Goodbye, but he’s helmed some really good films too with this one being his best. What I enjoyed the most was the imagery like when the kid takes the boat around the lake on his own and the brief shots of leaves growing out of the buds on trees and plants showing, like with the characters, the evolution of life.

My Rating: 10 out of 10

Released: December 4, 1981

Runtime: 1 Hour 49 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Mark Rydell

Studio: Universal Pictures

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video, PlutoTV, Plex, Peacock, Roku, Tubi

 

 

 

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Posted in 80's Movies, Academy Award Winners for Best Actor, Academy Award Winners for Best Actress, Drama, Movies Based on Stageplays, Movies for the Whole Family, Movies with a rural setting

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The Front Page (1974)

Posted on June 29, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 6 out of 10

4-Word Review: Reporters covering an execution.

In 1928 Chicago convicted killer Earl Williams (Austin Pendleton) is set to be put to death over the accidental shooting of a police officer. All the reporters from the press are there set to cover it as it happens except for Hildy (Jack Lemmon) who plans on getting married to Peggy (Susan Sarandon) and get out of the reporting business once and for all much to the chagrin of his tenacious editor Walter (Walter Matthau). Problems ensue when Earl escapes from his cell. All the other reporters take to the streets presuming he must be hiding somewhere in the city, but instead he breaks into the press room when only Hildy was there. Hildy soon realizes that Earl isn’t the cold-blooded killer that everyone has made him out to be and decides to jump back into being a reporter to cover the big scope just as his fiancée sits outside in a taxi waiting to take him away on a train to their honeymoon.

The film is based on the 1928 hit stage play of the same name that was remade into a movie twice before this one and then once after in 1988. While this one isn’t as poor as the 80’s version, which starred Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner, it isn’t as good as the first two. This version, which director Billy Wilder later admitted he wasn’t proud of, is rather slow and doesn’t manage to hit its stride until the second hour. I remember watching His Girl Friday, which was the second film version, and finding each and every scene and line of dialogue to be hilarious while here there’s only a sprinkle of occasional laughs. Part of the problem is that the older versions had a rapid fire pace, but in this movie, everything is slowed down and stagy and the blame could be put squarely on Wilders as he insisted all the words of dialogue needed to be heard clearly versus having overlapping conversations where one character would occasionally talk over or interrupt the other, which would’ve helped the scenes move along faster.

Lemmon is only funny when the characters he plays are in some sort of anxious bind and he responds to it in a nervous, hyper sort of way. Here though he’s way too relaxed. He walks into the scene like he’s not even a part of the cast. While everyone else is frantic to get an edge on the story he sits back like he’s more of an observer who really doesn’t have anything to do with the main plot, and the contrast is not humorous or interesting. It would’ve been better had he still wanted to cover the story, but his soon-to-be wife wouldn’t let him and thus there could’ve been a funny balancing act of him trying to keep her happy while still trying to do his job behind her back.

The film also suffers from the miscasting of Carol Burnett, who has later admitted to this being one of her weakest performances. The problem is that she’s too one dimensional coming off like some angry, emotional woman who has nothing funny to say. Had it been played by a younger woman with a physical appeal who could’ve elicited her lines in a softer way that would’ve made her seem less embittered. Switching the roles where Susan Sarandon played Molly who could’ve conveyed a less angry inflection while Burnett could’ve shined as the nagging fiancée, which she’s more adept at.

The rest of the supporting is the one thing that helps keep it afloat. Matthau again scores, but more for his body language like the scene where he gives Sarandon a knowing stare down when it finally hits her that deep down the man she wants to marry is really more in love with his job. David Wayne is amusing as an effeminate reporter who drinks his liquor with a straw and Vincent Gardenia steals every scene he’s in as a hyper nervous Sheriff though in the end it’s probably Austin Pendleton that I liked best if only for the moment where he smiles into the camera as his picture is being taken despite the fact that he’s only hours away from being executed.

My Rating: 6 out of 10

Released: December 18, 1974

Runtime: 1 Hour 45 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Billy Wilder

Studio: Universal

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video. YouTube

 

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Posted in 70's Movies, Black Comedy, Movies Based on Stageplays, Movies that take place in Chicago, Remakes

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Endangered Species (1982)

Posted on June 23, 2026 | 1 comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 4 out of 10

4-Word Review: Investigating mysterious cattle mutilations.

Ruben (Robert Urich) is a recovering alcoholic who quits his job as a cop and decides to move to rural Colorado with his teenaged daughter MacKenzie (Marin Kanter).  Along the way their vehicle breaks down in the small-town of Buffalo.  They decide to make their temporary home there and Ruben meets up with Harriet (JoBeth Williams) the newly elected sheriff. He learns that she’s investigating, with the help of local newspaper reporter Joe (Paul Dooley), some mysterious cattle mutilations that has been plaguing the area. Ruben, who grows fond of her, helps her in the pursuit for answers and comes to determine that it may have something to do with a nearby abandoned military complex as well as a neighboring cattle baron Ben (Hoyt Axton) who seems awfully worried about anyone snooping around.

The film’s direction, done by the still budding Alan Rudolph, is probably the best thing to recommend about what’s otherwise a pedestrian story. I liked the soundtrack, which despite the setting being quite rural, has a cool sci-fi vibe, and the grainy cinematography gives it a documentary feel. Rudolph’s use of capturing dialogue, which was clearly inspired by his mentor Robert Altman, is cool too as the camera will focus on one person, but we’ll hear the conversation of two other characters who are not in the shot. Unfortunately, the plot is unimaginative, and the mystery portion becomes too obvious.

Urich is miscast in the lead, the part was intended for Robert Mitchum who would’ve been far superior. Urich’s a nice guy and all, but not convincing as a brash, hard-edge cop making his entire performance come off as affected. His character arch, which focuses on an alcoholic trying to redeem himself, both with his career and relationship with his daughter, is too formulaic to be either gripping, or compelling though it’s interesting to hear him casually utter the slur ‘faggot’ at one point as it would be impossible for someone in a movie today to say that and still be deemed the hero.

I also didn’t feel an outsider was needed here as Urich seems to come up with all the clues that you’d think somebody living in the town would’ve deduced far earlier. A good example is when he follows some trucks to the military complex and starts to connect this to the cattle killings, but any other resident could’ve done this too and most likely would’ve. Most small-town people are characteristically suspicious of government agencies, so knowing that there was an abandoned federal outpost nearby would’ve made that area number one on their suspect list and would not have required the assistance of some big city cop to get them there.

Jobeth looks awkward and uncomfortable in her police uniform. I dug the idea of having a female sheriff, which hasn’t been done too much, so it offers a unique angle, but it approaches it in an illogical way. For instance, it has her attempting to break up a male bar fight by her trying to somehow tackle one of the men, who immediately fling her away as if she were a rag doll and it looks as pathetic as it sounds. Clearly, she should’ve gone into that with some backup by male deputies, or a taser, but for her to go in it alone and think somehow, she can ‘handle it’ makes both her and the film look like it has no common sense.

I will though give some credit to the scene where Urich is in her shower and he makes a pass at her and she in returns gives him a gut punch, which was unexpected as I was afraid it was going to turn into some sort of sappy, stereotypical love scene, which does occur later, but I at least enjoyed the momentary attempt to go against the grain.

Spoiler Alert!

I did enjoy Axton’s bad guy part. He performance isn’t anything spectacular and his poisoning moments, where he brushes his teeth with a contaminated toothbrush that causes his gums to bleed looks more like he’s just swishing around red Kool aid in his mouth. I also thought it was ridiculous that Urich would force Axton to drive the pick-up at gunpoint when he was clearly in a weakened and distressed state that could’ve killed them both. However, his death scene, where he kneels on the highway and has his abdomen burst out of his body, is awesome and the film’s best moment though it could’ve been extended.

The ending unfortunately offers no resolution. It has the night helicopters of the bad guys flying away while JoBeth and Urich remain on the ground watching helplessly. To sit through nearly 2-hours of this thing, which is at times a bit slow, there needed to be more of a finale. Preferably nabbing the baddies and breaking open the case and the fact that this doesn’t happen makes the whole thing feel like one big waste of time.

My Rating: 4 out of 10

Released: September 10, 1982

Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes

Rated R

Director: Alan Rudolph

Studio: MGM

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video, YouTube

 

 

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Posted in 80's Movies, Movies Based on Conspiracy Theories, Movies with a rural setting, Mystery, Thrillers/Suspense

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Number One with a Bullet (1987)

Posted on June 15, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 2 out of 10

4-Word Review: Mismatched cops fight pushers.

Nick (Robert Carradine) is a renegade cop who plays by his own rules and uses unorthodox ways to not only nab the bad guys but also getting them to confess. He gets matched up with Frank (Billy Dee Williams) who’s more on the cultured side and enjoys the company of beautiful women. They are assigned to transport a known snitch named Boudreau (Alex Rebar) so that he can help the cops identify dangerous drug dealers, but before he can give any names he gets killed forcing the two to use their local leads to get them inside information as to who the hit man was and who ordered it.

Initially I thought this was a rip-off of Lethal Weapon as it has the same basic storyline and set-up and since it was produced by the Cannon Group, whose output of movies were never that original anyways, it seemed to make sense, but to my shock this one actually was filmed first, in April-May of 1986, while the other one was shot in the fall of ’86. Either way it’s basically the same thing though the one with Mel Gibson/Danny Glover fares a bit better.

The main complaint here is the over-the-top nuttiness of the Carradine character, that was originally meant to be played by James Belushi who might’ve been better. It’s not so much that Carradine gives a bad performance, he actually does okay for what’s asked, but as a protagonist I really couldn’t stand the guy. I didn’t see him as a ‘hero’ but more of a problem. His interrogation of the suspects is just plain ridiculous and at one point hangs a guy upside down from a tall building and then just leaves him there. I realize with Dirty Harry it made cops who do these things seem ‘cool’, but in reality, it would and should get them into a lot of trouble and the fact that he’s constantly able to get away with it with almost no consequence except some minor exacerbation from their superior, played by Peter Graves, just makes the thing even more absurd. The truth is if these suspects got a good lawyer than all the information that they stated while being tortured would’ve been thrown out since it was under extreme duress when they gave it, so then Carradine’s ‘tough guy’ efforts would’ve become more of a detriment and not a solution as it gets portrayed here.

Aside from this he’s also just a complete jerk especially with the way he treats he’s so-called friend and buddy Williams. For instance, when they’re up in a plane, Williams tries to meditate since he has a fear of flying, but instead of showing him any sympathy Carradine just makes a joke out of it. He also ruins one of his potential dates by insinuating to the lady that Williams was gay, which makes you wonder with friends like these who needs enemies. Carradine’s relationship with his ex, played by Valerie Bertanelli, is creepy too. He comes off more like a stalker who can’t move on and in need of a restraining order to keep him away.

What tops it off even more is the blandness of the bad guys as they all take the term cliche to new heights. The stereotypes are so strong here it becomes literally cartoonish and almost like an unintended parody. They acted and looked the same. Each new one they came upon seemed just like the last one and I ended up not caring whether they ever were able to bring in the kingpin or not and the tired, overused scenario just gets more irrelevant and boring as it goes on.

I did feel that Billy Dee Williams was fantastic and likable and had the movie just been centered around him, without the stupid ‘psycho’ sidekick, I probably would’ve enjoyed this better. He gets horribly underused as Carradine is given most of the screentime when it should’ve been in reverse. The jazz score is good too, but other than that there’s nothing to recommend. It’s just another B-rate 80’s cop comedy/drama that adds nothing to what was already a tired formula.

My Rating: 2 out of 10

Released: February 27, 1987

Runtime: 1 Hour 43 Minutes

Rated R

Director: Jack Smight

Studio: The Cannon Group

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Tubi

 

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Posted in 80's Movies, Black Comedy, Buddy Movies, Police Drama

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Five Days One Summer (1982)

Posted on June 9, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 6 out of 10

4-Word Review: Mountain climbing with niece.

The year is 1932 and a Scottish doctor by the name of Douglas (Sean Connery) arrives in the Swiss Alps for a vacation with a young woman named Kate (Betsy Brantley) whom he introduces as his wife. The truth though is that she’s really his niece and the two have run off together for a few weeks so that they can endeavor in their affections without the prying eyes of Sarah (Jennifer Hilary) who Douglas is actually married to. The two hire a guide by the name of Johann (Lambert Wilson) to help them climb the mountains. He eventually becomes aware of Kate and Douglas’ ‘arrangement’ and tries to convince her to leave him, which she starts to consider after realizing that Douglas isn’t quite the man she thought he was, but when she brings up the topic of breaking up Douglas refuses to listen insisting that despite the wide age gap the two are ‘perfect’ for each other. Johann then comes to the conclusion that it’s up to him to make Douglas change his mind and plans on doing it while guiding him up the steep climb of Maiden Mountain.

This marked the last film to be directed by the legendary Fred Zinnemann and while the story itself is weak the climbing segments are both breathtaking and intense. The actors were forced to do many of the stunts themselves and everything is quite authentic with nothing done inside a studio or in front of a green screen. The bird’s-eye shots inside an icy canyon that Connery almost falls down into and which Johann spots the shoe of a dead body, is visually impressive and helps the movie standout. If you watch the film for only these moments you should still go away quite entertained and enthralled.

As for the script, which is based on the short story ‘Maiden, Maiden’ by Kay Boyle, it doesn’t work as well. The source of the problem stems with how Kate falls for Douglas. The film fails to have any adequate explanation for why she ‘loves’ him so much and the fact that she starts having these feelings for him as a young child, even though he is already a full-grown adult, ceases to make much sense. Children can certainly like adults in their lives for a variety of reasons, but it’s usually through admiration, or respect, but not as somebody they want to be with romantically. Here though, even while under the age of 10, she’s quite possessive of him and very upset when he leaves, which makes it more like a weird obsession and that she has psychological issues.

Had it been centered around some sort of event, like Douglas had saved her from an animal attack, or accident, or fire, as a teenager and she started to have feelings for him that way, it might’ve been easier to buy into. Or, she could’ve been shown dating men her age, but finding them to be immature and irresponsible, and thus she turns to Douglas because of his money and prestige, but the film doesn’t show or elude to either of these scenarios and thus making Kate a very weird one-dimensional, enigma that at times even comes-off as creepy and unhinged particularly as she angrily glares at Douglas’ wife when she first meets her.

Connery’s character isn’t so great either. It’s hard to sympathize with a guy who beds his brother’s daughter and openly cheats on his wife while she’s living with him in the same home. Johann, the guide is also off-putting. He’s stiff and robotic showing little emotion except for anger and frustration, so the viewer doesn’t care much for him as well and thus by the third act with no one to really root for you become detached from the proceedings causing the climactic finish to have no impact at all.

Spoiler Alert!

The photography at the end is still quite good, but what should’ve been gripping, like watching the two hang on for dear life while boulders and rocks slide down the mountainside all around them, fails to elicit much concern because they’re both unlikable. Seeing one of them fall from the mountain is realistic looking, it resembles even at a distance, a real man and not a dummy, but being coy as to which man it was, didn’t really heighten the tension, or suspense, making this come-off more like a misfire despite the amazing action and cinematography.

My Rating: 6 out of 10

Released: November 12, 1982

Runtime: 1 Hour 48 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Fred Zinnemann

Studio: Warner Brothers

Available: DVD-R (Warner Archive Collection), Amazon Video, YouTube

 

 

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Posted in 80's Movies, British Movies, Cold Climate/Wintertime Movies, Drama, Foreign Films, Movies Based on Short Stories, Movies with a Hotel setting, Outdoors

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