Endangered Species (1982)

Posted on June 23, 2026 | Leave a 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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The Traveling Executioner (1970)

Posted on May 29, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 5 out of 10

4-Word Review: Paid to execute criminals.

Jonas (Stacy Keach) is a man who makes a living executing prisoners with his electric chair in the South near the turn of the century. He charges $100 per execution as he travels from prison to prison. On his latest stop he’s set to execute siblings Willy (Stefan Gierasch) and Gundred (Marianna Hill). While Wily’s goes smoothly he ends up falling for Gundred and coming up with a scheme where he’ll fake her execution, giving her just enough voltage to knock her out and make her seem dead, but then revive her later on with the help of Doc Prittle (Graham Jarvis) the prisoner doctor. However, this plan gets stymied when Doc demands payment upfront in order to be a part of the scheme forcing Jonas to come up with different ways to raise the funds including hiring the local prostitutes to ‘service’ the prisoners inside their cells for five minutes each at a set rate.

The story was the product of writing student Garrie Bateson who wrote the script for one of his screenwriting classes he was taking at USC and his teacher liked it so much he shopped it around to the studios before MGM decided to finance it. The idea is original and the first two acts work pretty well and at times has some delicious black humor, but by the third act it begins to falter and never fully recovers.

Keach’s performance was one of the things I did like. He’s always an excellent actor and here he helps humanize a character and even makes him engaging and likable particularly with the way he ‘counsels’ the prisoners as they’re being strapped down by telling them stories about the ‘Fields of Ambrosia’ and convincing them they’re not necessarily going to die, but instead being swept up into a another world that will be full of bliss and beauty. The on-location shooting, shot at the closed Kilby Prison in Montgomery, Alabama during the dead of winter, helps to accentuate the period flavor while also encompassing it with the brown, sparse landscape which works to bring out the dead theme of the story.

There’s good support from Hill, who speaks with a German accent, but she’s not in it enough.  For Keach to risk so much, his job and reputation, just to save her, a woman he hadn’t known just a few days before, simply because he suddenly got smitten with her, was rushed and unconvincing. Would’ve worked better had there been some underground element willing to pay him off if he faked her execution, which I feel would’ve been more believable.

Spoiler Alert!

I actually thought the scheme to fake her death was a cool idea and I was intrigued to see if he could pull it off, but unfortunately the plot becomes too preoccupied with the side story of Keach trying to make enough money to pay off the Doc to keep quiet about it. When one con doesn’t work, he tries another until you start to forget about the electric chair, which was in the shop getting repaired, altogether. The ‘friendly executioner’ was what made the movie unique, and everything needed to remain focused on that, not silly scenarios on how to bring in quick money.

The finale, which has Keach strapped to his own electric chair, and everything malfunctioning, which causes the entire prison building to blow up, has a nice surreal quality to it, but the message is unclear. This was intended to be a ‘satire’ on the death penalty, but it never makes much of a point if any. Also, having Keach go on a long rant about the ‘Fields of Ambrosia’ slows everything down. The ending needs quick edits in order to heighten the tension not having the camera glued to a talking head that drones on and on, which is why I feel the film failed at the box office as it didn’t maintain its momentum and lost sight of its offbeat premise.

My Rating: 5 out of 10

Released: October 1, 1970

Runtime: 1 Hour 35 Minutes

Rated R

Director: Jack Smight

Studio: MGM

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

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Posted in 70's Movies, Black Comedy, Movies that take place in the South, Movies with Nudity, Offbeat, Prison Flicks

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D.O.A. (1988)

Posted on May 26, 2026 | 1 comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 4 out of 10

4-Word Review: College professor ingests poison.

Dex Cornell (Dennis Quaid) works as a college professor where he teaches writing, a craft he once showed promise in, but has given up on in order to sit back and enjoy the benefits of being tenured. Rob (Nicholas Lang) has written a book and gives Dex the manuscript for him to critique, but Dex is too lazy to actually read it but gives him an ‘A’ on it anyways for effort. Later Rob is pronounced dead after jumping off the roof of a college office building and then after that Dex begins to feel sick and when he goes to the hospital, he’s informed that he’s ingested a fast-acting poison, of which there’s no remedy, and will kill him within 48 hours. Dex then uses what little time has, and with the help of a college student Sydney (Meg Ryan), of which he glues himself to, to find out who it was that killed him.

This is a remake of the classic original that came out in 1950 and starred Edmond O’Brien. While most will agree that was the better film, I didn’t think this one was all that bad. Maybe, it benefited from me coming up with very low expectations, but overall, I liked the way this one played out, at least the first hour that kept me kind of riveted. The shift from black-and-white to color was slick and Quaid and Ryan give great performances. I felt the set-up was a bit better too, I clearly knew who the suspects were and genuinely intrigued to find out which one did it. I was even surprised when the actual perpetrator is unmasked. Usually, I can guess these things ahead of time, but here I didn’t.

On the flip side there were added elements thrown in for no reason. The heatwave thing confused the heck out of me. For one thing it takes place during Christmas, so there shouldn’t be any heat to speak of, and it makes no difference to the plot, so I didn’t know why it had to be brought up as much as it is, or even at all. Also, the characterizations of the policemen are pretty bad. I get it that they wanted to show that they’re ‘hardened’, but these guys come off like they have no soul. A guy comes into the station telling you he’s been poisoned there should be some concern, after all these are public servants, and to act so glib about it was over-the-top. It’s not every day that you meet someone who tells you they have literally just a few hours to live, so there should’ve been at the very least some shock and surprise on their part.

The thing really starts going off its hinges when it loses sight of its very premise. Having Dex get trapped in a car and furiously kick the rear window until it breaks in order to escape, seemed off kilter. Most healthy people probably wouldn’t have the strength to break a car window, and this guy should’ve been in a weaker condition due to the poison, making the odds of him getting out even lower.

He also seems to at one point, make love to Meg while the two are on the run. It’s not explicitly shown, but heavily implied as he’s seen putting a blanket over her nude body as she lays sleeping on a sofa, so they must’ve done something, but how? They guys is sick, so having an erection would be too physically demanding and besides that he has limited time to find his killer and that should be his top priority. Making love is wasting away precious minutes and therefore last thing he’d want to do.  Having him shown getting physically weaker as the poison progresses would’ve helped heighten the urgency and kept the focus on him slowly dying, but the way things get done here we almost start to forget about that.

Spoiler Alert!

The twist ending makes things even more ridiculous. Again, I liked that Stern was revealed to be the killer, as I hadn’t even considered him, but having him doing it over a student’s manuscript was far-fetched. Apparently, it was so ‘brilliant’ he just had to steal the idea, but it’s highly unlikely that anyone would be able to write something so perfect on their first draft. Many manuscripts have to go through several revisions and edits before it even starts to come together and this is from professional writers who do it for a living, so for a student who’s never even attempted to write a book before the odds are he’d have a long way to go to get it publishing ready even if the story idea and prose had good potential.

Watching Dex then casually walk away from the interrogation room, as seen during the closing credits, didn’t make much sense either. In the original version, O’Brien died at the end, and that’s what Quaid should’ve been seen doing too. Otherwise, it makes it look like the whole thing was a hoax. Besides where exactly is he walking too?  By this point he should have only a matter of seconds left and be too weak to be able to even get up let alone move. It may look ‘cool’ to have him casually stroll out, but it doesn’t mesh with the reality of the situation and further weakens the novel premise.

My Rating: 4 out of 10

Released: March 18, 1988

Runtime: 1 Hour 36 Minutes

Rated R

Director: Rocky Morton, Annabel Jankel

Studio: Touchstone Pictures

Available: DVD, Blu-ray

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in 80's Movies, Christmas Movies, College Life, Moody/Stylish, Movies that take place in Texas, Mystery, Remakes

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Lifeguard (1976)

Posted on May 7, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 6 out of 10

4-Word Review: Considering a career switch.

Rick (Sam Elliot) works as a lifeguard along a southern California beach. While the pay isn’t great, he does enjoy the laid-back nature of the job and meeting attractive young women, including those that aren’t quite 18 like Wendy (Kathleen Quinlan) who is only 17, but still eager to get with Rick. He meets Larry (Stephen Young) whom he knew when he was younger and who is now a successful car salesmen. Rick is being pressured by his father (George D. Wallace) to ‘get a real job’ and thus decides to go in for an interview at the dealership where Larry says they have an opening. Rick also attends his high school reunion and gets reaquanted with Cathy (Anne Archer) who he dated back in the day. She’s now divorced and interested in starting their relationship back up, but only if he can find a ‘respectable’ job that pays well as she owns a home in the burbs and wants to ‘keep up appearances’, which further pressures Rick to make a career switch, but the more he considers it the more he feels like he’d happier just staying where he’s at.

The marketing for this one, as evidenced by the film’s promotional poster seen above, tried to make it seem like this was going to be some mindless teen sex comedy, which it’s not, but the result didn’t attract the right type of audience and thus allowed it to fall under the radar and was little seen, which is a shame. In reality it’s an excellent drama that brings out many universals that just about everybody goes through at some point in their life. It also captures the day-to-day events in a vivid way showing the unglamorous side of lifeguarding where a lot of time is just spent sitting around bored, going after old men who expose themselves to ladies on the beach, or having to pry away perverts trying to sneak a peek of women on the toilets. When they do actually save someone in the water, as he does at one point, they’re rarely every thanked for it and it’s all just taken for granted even from the victims themselves. While I’ve never worked as a lifeguard, I have had customer facing jobs and have found the events depicted here as well as the people’s responses ring quite true.

I enjoyed the class reunion scenes as well that not only allows us to see an actual picture of Elliot when he was a teen, which he’s forced to tape to his name tag, but also the generic conversations one has while at these events. The best part though is how he lies about what he does to the attendees. Other movies and TV-shows have depicted high school reunions before but have always had the other characters be the one who fib, so it was refreshing to see the protagonist bend the truth because sometimes good people can lie and thus this helps with the realism.

It’s also great seeing young actors before they became stars including Parker Stevenson, who has a very dreamy surfer boy look playing a lifeguard in training who exudes an outer confidence only to have it instantly fragment the second he gets faced with a difficult situation. Kathleen Quinlan is also great as a teen who falls hard and instantly for Rick despite being underage.

The fact that Rick, who is 32, has sex with her while knowing she’s not yet at the age of consent may not go over well with today’s viewers, but my issue is more with her reaction when he decides to move on. Their ‘relationship’ consisted of nothing more than a quick fling inside of all places the guardhouse, so having her threaten to drown herself when he no longer wanted to see her made her come off as irrational and unstable. Some may argue that because of her young age she didn’t know the difference between love and infatuation and thus this caused her overreaction, but a much better twist would’ve had her become pregnant, which then would’ve put more pressure on Rick to take the sales job in order to support the child and thus helped heighten the drama even more.

Spoiler Alert!

I was disappointed though that we never see Rick actually work the sales job. He went to such efforts to get it, even showing up to the interview in a suit and tie, so why not at least try it out? He still could’ve decided to go back to being a lifeguard at the end like he does, but showing the negative side of being a salesman, even just briefly, could’ve helped give the film, which is a bit too leisurely paced, an added kick that it’s otherwise missing.

My Rating: 6 out of 10

Released: July 23, 1976

Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Daniel Petrie

Studio: Paramount

Available: DVD, Amazon Video

 

 

 

 

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Posted in 70's Movies, Drama, Movies with Nudity, Outdoors

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Uncle Buck (1989)

Posted on April 30, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 4 out of 10

4-Word Review: Babysitting his brother’s kids.

Bob and Cindy (Garrett M. Brown, Elaine Bromka) must leave for Indianapolis when they’re informed that her father has suffered a heart attack and are desperate to find someone to look after their three children: Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly) who’s the oldest, and Miles (Macaulay Culkin) and Maizy (Gaby Hoffman). After going through all possibilities, they finally settle on Bob’s brother Buck (John Candy). Buck avoids commitment and spends most of his time at the track betting on horse races. His relationship with the kids is awkward, but he finally manages to bond with the younger two, but things remain frosty between him and Tia.  Things further escalate when Tia wants to spend time with her boyfriend Bug (Jay Underwood) whom Buck does not approve of.

While the film has its flaws, which we’ll get to in a minute, it does start out pretty well. Candy is always good for laughs, even just his very presence can elicit chuckles, and Kelly, in her film debut, is excellent and helps give the story some depth with her three-dimensional character. While the humor does score points, particularly the giant pancake that Buck serves up to the kids, there were other moments where I felt it could’ve gone further. The scene dealing with a clown, played by Mike Starr, who shows up to the kid’s party drunk, would’ve been funnier had he actually been allowed inside and then have Buck get into a fight with him all to the amusement of the kids who had been bored just previously.

The main character though ultimately becomes a big drawback. One second, he’s a laid-back slob and in the next instant a stern father-figure. It was confusing why someone, who didn’t even know the kid’s names when he’s driving up, would suddenly take such extreme concern for them in just a matter of one short week. This was a guy who had no children, nor wanted any, so where did he suddenly get all this parental wisdom from? Would’ve been better had he initially been completely carefree with the kids, let them do whatever they wanted while he sat back and drank beer, only to eventually realize through the chaos that there needed to be some rules and limits, which would’ve given him an actual character arch verses this weird, unexplained Jekyll and Hyde thing that we get here.

He also has moments where he isn’t all that likable and seems in a way kind of creepy. His broken down, back-firing car is a total disaster and an embarrassment to Tia who asks that she be able to walk home instead being seen going inside it. If Buck was really being sensitive he would’ve understood her feelings and agreed to let her walk home, or picked her up a few blocks down the road that would’ve been out of sight of her friends. However, he instead becomes very angry and controlling insisting he’ll pick her up whether she likes it, or not, but why be so demanding? Just a little while earlier he barely knew she existed and he’s just there for a week and then back home to his regular life, so why not just let her do what she wants, it should make no real difference to him either way.

The scene where he traps the cheating boyfriend in the trunk of his car is equally problematic and in reality, could’ve led to some serious consequences. Granted it would’ve been the gentlemanly thing for the boyfriend to have officially broken up with Tia before he starts messing around with someone else at a party, but that still doesn’t give Buck the right to tie him up with duct tape, and drive around until the wee hours of the night with him in the trunk. Legally this would be deemed kidnapping and then having Buck nail him in the back of the head with a golf ball would’ve gotten an added charge of assault and if the kid, or his parents, went to the authorities, Buck would be in a heap of trouble. The car exhaust was in such disarray anyways the kid probably would’ve been overcome with the fumes and when Buck did finally open the trunk door he’d find himself with a dead body.

Buck’s girlfriend Chanice, played by Amy Madigan, isn’t handled right either. She’s introduced briefly in the first act and then pretty much disappears only to come on strong near the end, which doesn’t work. Having her consistently in the film by having Buck regularly calling her to get advice on how to deal with the kids, or do household chores, which then could’ve helped strengthen their teetering relationship. Marcie, played by Laurie Metcalf, who was the weird neighbor lady who tried to come-on to Buck, was not needed. I admit that Buck’s ‘conversation’ with the washing machine, which Marcie overhears, was quite funny, but having Chanice walk-in while he’s talking, would’ve been just as good.

The inciting incident is weak too. Buck is reluctantly asked to come babysit the kids because they couldn’t find anyone else, but in reality, Bob, the husband, really didn’t need to go with Cindy to Indianapolis to visit her sick father. Yes, it’s nice for the spouse to tag along when he can for moral support, but his job probably wouldn’t have let him off on such short notice, and this was 1989 long before remote work was even a concept. To make it more plausible Bob and Cindy should’ve already been on a trip, like a cruise, and then having logistical issues, like a weather event, force them to extend their trip. The babysitter that was in place wouldn’t be able to stay longer and then asking Buck to come for only ‘an extra day or two’ would’ve made more sense. The film then could have this running joke where Buck would think is time there would be coming to a close only to have Bob and Cindy call again telling he’d have to stay longer because more problems had come up, which would then elicit increasingly frustrated responses from Buck.

My Rating: 4 out of 10

Released: August 16, 1989

Runtime: 1 Houd 40 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: John Hughes

Studio: Universal Pictures

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

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Posted in 80's Movies, Adolescence/High School, Campy Comedy, Comedy/Drama, Movies that take place in Chicago

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What’s Up Doc? (1972)

Posted on April 22, 2026 | 1 comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 10 out of 10

4-Word Review: Four bag mix-up.

Judy (Barbra Streisand) is a college dropout who plays con games to get what she wants. She spots stuffy college professor Howard (Ryan O’Neal) in a hotel lobby and immediately sets her sights on getting with him romantically despite the fact that he’s already engaged to Eunice (Madeline Kahn) a very controlling, hyper proper woman. Things further escalate when both Judy’s and Howard’s overnight bags, which are similar, get mixed-up with two other bags at the hotel, one that has expensive jewelry and another with top secret government information.

The genesis for this project started with the novel ‘A Glimpse of Tiger’ by Herman Raucher that dealt with a conman named Luther (Elliot Gould), who is secretly from a rich family and only pretends to be poor and who takes in a teenage runaway named Janice (Kim Darby) whom he teaches on how to commit petty crimes. Elliot Gould, Streisand’s ex, bought the rights to the book and tried to turn it into a movie, but his unruly behavior, he later stated that he was only trying to ‘stay in character’, alienated everyone on the set and had the production shut down after only 4-days of shooting. In an effort to save the project Warner Brothers handed the reins over to Peter Bogdanovich who had been actively seeking something that he could do with Streisand. He decided to turn the conman into a female and then having the male being the square that she traps into her schemes. The rest of the tiger script he nixed as it had a very dark ending and instead converted if over to a screwball comedy similar to Bringing Up Baby, which was a film he had enjoyed growing up.

The result is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest comedies every made. There are certainly a lot of funny movies out there, but very few hit their punch lines as consistently as this one. Even the best ones will have some misfired gags, or lulls, but here absolutely everything works. It comes together like a lyrical orchestra at a breakneck speed that never lets up.  Even the most minor characters here, some who may just have one brief scene, still get an amusing moment. It’s about as well crafted as you can get while still remaining fresh and hip at the same time.

Streisand is a major asset. Her critics have sometimes complained that she takes herself too seriously, so it’s nice having her in a comedic role where she’s being playfully ditzy and professing obscure facts in a fast cadence. Part of what makes the movie seem so with the times despite borrowing from an old comedy formula is having her character be the one that aggressively chases after the guy. Most if not all movies up to that point always had the female being the one waiting for the guy to notice her and never daring to make the first move. Here though it’s the lady who essentially takes charge and this coupled with her streetwise survival tactics was a nice way to usher in the feminist era and could even be considered ground-breaking.

O’Neal is perfectly cast. I have complained about his acting in my other reviews and even he stated himself in an interview with Piers Morgan that he felt he had only ‘modest talent’ and had just ‘gotten lucky’ for most of his career. Here though I would consider this his best role. The character fits into his real-life personality that tended to be subdued and matter of fact and this plays off well comically with Streisand’s hyper presence. He’s also, let’s face it, quite good looking, so it would make sense why he’s stand out in a crowd to Judy and why she immediately goes after him, which is the movie’s all-important inciting incident.

Madeline Kahn is brilliant in support and in many ways the funniest person in the movie. Why O’Neal would want to be engaged to someone who’s so incredibly uptight, bossy, controlling, and just all around unsexy is a legitimately good question, but with that said she’s still the perfect fiancée from hell that could never be topped. It’s fun too seeing Mabel Alberston in her final film appearance before she had to retire due to Alzheimer’s. She was best known for her TV roles where she played intrusive mother in-laws here though she plays against type as a rich socialite who’s even seen in segment wearing hot pants despite being at the advanced age of 70. Liam Dunn is excellent as well as an elderly judge who tries to make sense of all the chaos at the end. While he looked to be at least 75 he was actually, shockingly only 54.

If there was anything critical to say about the movie, and they’re very minor complaints, it would be the firemen who come in to put out the hotel fire, which was meant to resemble the bumbling keystone cops that I felt was pouring on the pratfall humor too much and not needed. There’s also the scene where FBI agent played by Phil Roth is able to get into a hotel room that wasn’t locked, but there’s no explanation for why a room that had been cleaned and not occupied would be open. There’s the same logic loophole for how Streisand gets into O’Neal’s room. The first time is because he accidentally leaves it open, but how she gets in there the second time when he’s away, is not made clear.

I also didn’t care for the title. It’s connected too much to Bugs Bunny cartoons and doesn’t come off as original. Yes, Judy does use this line when she first meets Howard inside the pharmacy and there is a snippet of a Warner Brother’s cartoon at the very end while they’re on a plane, but it really doesn’t have anything to do with the main story. A good title should clue the viewer into what the main plot is about. Even something as simple as ‘The Four Bags’ or ‘Howard and Judy’ would’ve been better.

My Rating: 10 out of 10

Released: March 9, 1972

Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes

Rated G

Director: Peter Bogdanovich

Studio: Warner Brothers

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

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Posted in 70's Movies, Farce, Fast Cars/Car Chase, Movies for the Whole Family, Movies with a Hotel setting, Romance

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The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)

Posted on April 10, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 1 out of 10

4-Word Review: U.S. Senator has affair.

Joe Tynan (Alan Alda) is a senator from New York who one day hopes to run for President. He meets with elderly Senator Birney (Melvyn Douglas) urging him to throw his support for a certain Supreme Court nominee that Tynan doesn’t particularly agree with but could help him politically. Tynan then meets with Karen (Meryl Streep) who has done research on the nominee and the two begin an affair. Meanwhile at home Tynan’s wife Ellie (Barbara Harris) is studying to be a therapist while raising their two kids (Blanche Baker, Chris Arnold) mostly alone due to the challenges of her husband’s career. While the two mostly get along there are sporadic differences mainly around Ellie’s openness about having gone through therapy, which Joe fears the general public isn’t open-minded about and could potentially ruin his political chances should he decide to run for high office especially after Ellie brings the matter up during an interview with a newspaper reporter (Marian Hailey).

While Alda has had a great acting career his foray as writer/director has been less than stellar. While his comedies have had some entertaining moments with his best one being The Four Seasons, they’ve always ended up having a shallow flair and seeming like they’re saying more than they really were. Unfortunately, this film, which was his first screenplay that took him over three years to write, is probably his worst. In fact, I wished he has turned this one into a comedy like his others as it might’ve worked in a satirical vein, but having to try and take this all seriously is where it really falls flat.

Alot of the problem is that it acts like that this is some sort of ‘trenchant, searing drama’ that’s enlightening us into the dark, compromising world of politics, but it shows stuff that most people know already. The wheeling-and-dealing is quite predictable as are the moral concessions that the protagonist makes in order to get ahead. Everything gets handled in a very mechanical way where the one-dimensional characters get thrown into dilemmas that are quite manufactured.

The affair between Alda and Streep is the most annoying as it pops-up without much build-up put in simply to work off the stereotype that most rich and powerful people cheat on their wives because they can and therefore this one must go through the paces, but it’s neither shocking or riveting. It’s also hard to care about the main character when he’s so easily swayed. Had Streep been more aggressive and Alda resisted some it might’ve helped, but having Alda jump between-the-sheets with her the first chance they’re alone makes him come-off like a total lout that you want to see fail. His marriage wasn’t all that bad either and seemed genuinely good outside of a little tiff, which can happen in even the best of them, and if that was enough to make him trash his vows then he was morally bankrupt from the beginning and wasn’t ‘seduced’ like the movie makes you want to think.

Spoiler Alert!

The ending, in which Ellie finds out about the other relationship, but this somehow ‘strengthens’ their marriage and makes their bond ‘even stronger’ is complete and utter schmaltzy hogwash. It would’ve been a far better payoff had Ellie gotten on stage and announced into the microphone to the crowd at his campaign rally about what a two-timing jerk he was and thus ruined his career, which I think most viewers would’ve liked to see and given this otherwise benign, trite thing a little edge, which it woefully lacks otherwise.

End of Spoiler Alert!

The performances are pretty good though the usually reliable Streep, who admitted in later interviews that she was on ‘automatic pilot’ while doing it due to the recent death of her fiancé John Cazale, isn’t as effective as she can be and I didn’t care for her southern accent. I did though really enjoy Blanche Baker, the daughter of actress Carroll Baker, who has some strong moments as Alda’s troubled daughter. Harris too is excellent, this marked her last major film role as she decided to enjoyed stage work better, who gives a compelling performance playing for a change a normal person instead of an eccentric, kooky one like she did in most of her other roles. She also ironically has an extended scene with her driving around in a station wagon, which looked quite similar to the station wagon that another character she played in The North Avenue Irregulars drove, which came out the same year as this one.

Rip Torn is also quite engaging where he cooks a spicy southern dish and then challenges the rest to eat it. Alda takes up the offer and is able to down the whole thing without heaving while Torn is forced to run to the bathroom. Would’ve been funnier though had it been Alda who was the one with the bad reaction, or both of them as it really didn’t make sense why Alda, who was not accustomed to that type of food, wouldn’t react to it in the same adverse way.

My Rating: 1 out of 10

Released: August 17, 1979

Runtime: 1 Hour 47 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Alan Alda

Studio: Universal Studios

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

 

 

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Seven Minutes in Heaven (1986)

Posted on April 1, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 4 out of 10

4-Word Review: Two teens live together.

This review is brought to you by request from ‘somebody’ who also requested that I review Times Square and Uncle Buck, which I will do in the preceding weeks. This one though, while starring several up-and-coming young stars is strangely obscure as the only place to find it streaming is on YouTube and while it does have a DVD issue it’s not on Blu-ray and even more shockingly is not listed in Leonard Maltin’s Movie Listings.

The story revolves around Natalie (Jennifer Connelly) who is left alone for a period of time while her father (Micheal Zaslow) is away on business. While he’s gone she allows her friend Jeff (Byron Thames) to move in since he’s having issues with his stepfather (Marshall Bell). Natalie though is not into him romantically as she’s got a crush on James (Alan Casey) that Natalie’s friend Polly (Maddie Corman) is also into. Polly is initially upset when James goes after Natalie instead of her, but she gets over that when she meets Zoo (Billy Wirth) a male model and professional baseball player.  She even flies all the way out to New York in order to hook-up with him during a baseball series that he is playing there.

On one hand this has a lot of pleasing elements. It’s different from most 80’s teen flicks in that it’s not vulgar, or raucous.  The main character isn’t some mindless, sex starved teen who immediately jumps into the sack with Jeff when he moves in, which is nice. She doesn’t even let a cute guy kiss her, who she is into, when she meets him during aa trip to Washington D.C. She’s quite sensible, as are her friends for the most part, and these characters come-off more like young adults in the making than cartoonish caricatures of out-of-control party animals with no limits like in most other adolescent films from that era.

On the flip side the adults didn’t seem too believable. Her father leaving a teen alone for what seems to be weeks and never bothers to call, or check-in on her seemed hard to fathom. Jeff’s parents behaved in an equally confounding way. They just let him run off and make only feeble attempts to try and ‘win’ him back, but I would think they’d become more assertive when they realized he was living with another teen of the opposite sex unchaperoned, which could presumably lead to unwanted pregnancy, so since he’s under 18, and he certainly looks like he is (he was in fact 15 when this was shot), they’d have the right to demand he come back, or get the authorities involved versus just sitting back and acting like they’re helpless to do much of anything.

I thought Polly’s ‘romance’ with Zoo was a bit off too. For one thing he’s supposedly an adult playing in the major leagues, so hooking up with a teen would be inappropriate. Yes, he does ‘ask her’ if she’s 18 and she does say that she is, but she looks much, much younger (she was 14 when it was filmed), so he should’ve known that she was lying. Of course, maybe he did and didn’t care, but that should’ve been confirmed either way.

The segment though where Polly gets arrested while at the ball game and is hauled away by the cops only to have Bill (Terry Kinney), the team photographer, intervene by pretending to know her to keep her out of trouble is when this thing really jumps-the-shark. If he had some perverse underlying motives, like he wanted to force himself on her sexually when he brought her back to his place, which certainly wouldn’t be good, but at least make some sense, I might’ve understood it, but instead that’s not the case. He brings her to his apartment and then insists she call her parents while allowing her to stay their temporarily, but why do this? What’s in it for him? Does he do this same thing for everybody when he sees them getting arrested? This could also prove to be dangerous for him as well. What’s to say she wouldn’t vandalize his place, or sneak in and steal his credit cards, or money out of his wallet when he’s asleep? Why would anybody want to take such a risk for somebody that they didn’t know? If he had been a teen counselor working with runways/delinquents then it might’ve worked, but the way the scenario gets portrayed here is just downright wacky.

I did like though that the film does bring out an underlying jealousy that Polly has towards Natalie and this causes her to become vindictive. Most other teen movies don’t do it this way. If there’s a ‘mean girl’ involved she’s already the enemy at the beginning, but in reality, friendships, even close ones, can have their share of rivalries and can become strained especially at that age. So, the movie scores on that level, but then ruins it by having them instantaneously become chums again when they bump into each other at the airport without any scene showing them talking through their feelings, which should’ve been necessary.

Connelly is terrific and I enjoyed the moments where she imagines herself as an adult character inside an old ‘B’ movie as well as the scene where she fantasizes of slapping the Vice President across the face, but it gets confusing who the main protagonist is supposed to be. Corman, as Polly, gets almost as much screen time and in certain ways goes through more of a change.

In either case I didn’t find any of to be very involving. The fall scenery is pleasant, and teens are inoffensive, but the storyline is too serene. There was potential for a lot more drama and comedy and the scenarios should’ve been played up more. It starts out cute but becomes increasingly more benign as it goes and completely flat lines by the third act.

My Rating: 3 out of 10

Released: May 9, 1986

Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Director: Linda Feferman

Studio: Warner Brothers

Available: DVD, YouTube

 

 

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Posted in 80's Movies, Adolescence/High School, Comedy/Drama, Romance

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