The Dream Team (1989)

Posted on February 20, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 4 out of 10

4-Word Review: Lost in New York

Dr. Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris) is a psychiatrist working at a mental hospital who decides to take four of his patients on a ‘field trip’ to watch a Yankees baseball game. The four patients consist of: Billy (Michael Keaton) who suffers from violent impulses, Henry (Christopher Lloyd) who thinks he’s a doctor, Jack (Peter Boyle) who imagines he’s Jesus Christ, and Albert (Stephen Furst) who can only communicate through baseball terms. Things start out okay, but then Dr. Weitzman witness two corrupt cops (Philip Bosco, James Remar) murdering someone and this leads to him being knocked unconscious. With no one to lead them it forces the four to work together to not only find help but also justice for their doctor all while doing it inside the big, scary place known as New York City.

The first act is too reminiscent of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and it doesn’t help things that Christopher Lloyd was in that one too, which does nothing but make you want to watch the original and skip this one completely. The humor is too mild, you might chuckle a bit, but there’s never any laugh-out-loud moment. The doctor is also too damn benign. What made the other one so interesting was that Nurse Ratched, the supposedly ‘normal’ one, was just as goofy, maybe even more so, as the patients she was overseeing and ‘helping to cure’ and it would’ve been nice had this doctor also had some unique aspect versus being so painfully blah.

The biggest issue though it that these guys really aren’t all that ‘dangerous’. Sure, they suffer from delusional traits but nothing that necessarily screams that they need to be institutionalized. In Keaton’s case he comes off as downright rational and only needing therapy in anger management. The rest too are quite gentle and could easily exist, with proper medications, in an outpatient setting and the film should’ve approached it that way. Instead of playing it like this trip was their ‘only’ chance to see the outside world again it should’ve been the first of what could be many trips that would hopefully allow them to reacclimate into society.

The trip thing has some intriguing potential, but ultimately losses its edge when it’s revealed that these characters lived and worked in the city before they had their breakdowns and can easily find their way around as evidenced by Henry going back to where he lived and Jack visiting his old job. Having these guys come from a small town to a big, massive city they’d never been to would’ve offered more challenges and comedy. It’s also confusing why the doctor’s identity isn’t known and he gets placed in the hospital as a ‘John Doe’ because he should’ve had his wallet on him, I don’t remember seeing it stolen by the corrupt cops, and therefore his driver’s license would’ve said who he was.

Spoiler Alert!

The mystery aspect where no one believed their story about the corrupt cops, I actually liked, but everything gets resolved too easily. For one thing I didn’t like Keaton’s girlfriend, played by Lorraine Bracco, playing an integral role in getting the bad guys caught as this was the four’s story and therefore it should’ve been solely up to them to find a solution. Having them get caught and temporarily thrown into jail only to escape was unnecessary and only helps to slow down the pace. There’s also a major loophole in that the four end up ‘disguising’ themselves as doctors in order to get access into the hospital and yet earlier their faces were shown on a televised news report, so most assuredly somebody would’ve seen that broadcast and recognized them and thus their ‘charade’ would’ve come to an end before it ever got going.

The ending is confusing too in that the four are allowed to go on a second field trip, but this time all by themselves without any supervision. What’s to say they’ll ever come back and if they are deemed ‘sane’ enough to go out on their own then why are they even institutionalized in the first place?

End of Spoiler Alert!

On a side note, you get a glimpse of Peter Boyle’s naked buttocks and while I’ve mentioned in other reviews of seeing Dabney Coleman’s and Tim Matheson’s bare ass and considering those to be two of the finest, I did feel Boyle’s deserves nomination as being one of the worst.

My Rating: 4 out of 10

Released: April 7, 1989

Runtime: 1 Hour 53 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Director: Howard Zieff

Studio: Universal

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

 

Leave a comment

Posted in 80's Movies, Comedy, Movies that take place in the Big Apple, Movies with a Hospital setting, Movies with Nudity, Road Movies

Tagged , , , , , ,

Klute (1971)

Posted on February 16, 2026 | 1 comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 8 out of 10

4-Word Review: Detective falls for prostitute.

John Klute (Donald Sutherland) is a private detective who is hired by Peter Cable (Charles Cioffi) to investigate the disappearance of a CEO named Gruneman (Robert Milli). The only clue is an obscene letter found in Gruneman’s office that he wrote to a prostitute named Bree (Jane Fonda). When Klute initially tries to question her, she refuses to help, so he rents an apartment in her building, which allows him to bug her phone. Eventually the two become friendly and even form a bit of a relationship, but Bree is only able to offer a few clues mainly that one of the johns she saw two years ago who used Gruneman’s name beat her up, but when he shows her a picture of the real Gruneman she says he wasn’t the one. This forces Klute along with Bree’s help to try and track down the other prostitute’s that had seen the same john, but their efforts prove mostly futile even as the unidentified killer continues to stalk Bree and appears ready to close in.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell from a script, which was written by two brothers, if it’s going to make for a good movie, or not. This is clearly a great example for how it’s approached directorially can make all the difference. In other hands this could’ve been a blah programmer, but director Alan J. Pakula, along with cinematographer Godon Willis, adds so many stylized touches that it grabs you in from the very beginning and never let’s go. The evocative lighting is particularly impressive as is the editing and Michael Small’s soundtrack who wisely keeps the music subtle using only the light touches of a xylophone to help accentuate the suspense. What’s most amazing though is Bree’s apartment, which was completely constructed on a soundstage, complete with working toilet, but you’d never know it as it has an authentic cluttered, live-in look and realistic outside light and sound ambience coming in from the window making it one of the most believable set designs I’ve ever seen. Even if you’re not into the mystery just watching it for its production values along would be mesmerizing enough.

The acting adds yet another excellent dimension with Sutherland, wearing a boyish looking bowel haircut, disappearing in his role by giving a nuance performance that allows for Bree to get most of the attention. Fonda, who won the Oscar for her work here, is genuinely riveting and she adds a lot to the proceedings that wasn’t in the original script. One great example of this is when Bree listens to a tape recording of another prostitute getting violently attacked. It was written in that her character should respond with a look of fear, but instead Fonda impulsively broke out in tears, which helped to make her more likable when you can visibly see her empathy and emotions towards her peers. The wide mood swings that her character shows seemed quite authentic for that type of person. The romance angle works better than in most movies, as here it comes off more incrementally and not just all of sudden and it’s his unselfish actions that earns her love, but realistically due to their contrasting lifestyles never comes to a full, permanent fruition.

Charles Cioffi is also really good, but surprisingly never got enough credit. What impressed me was how ordinary he looked where he doesn’t stand out at all and could easily be a typical businessman seen anywhere. In most movies someone with a strange, or scary appearance gets cast as the bad guy, but in real life most killers blend in, like this one, and that’s why they’re able to get away with their crimes for as long as they do. I also liked how when he’s stalking Bree there’s a brief look of sadness in his eyes, like there’s a part of him that feels bad for what he’s about to do, which helps to make his character multi-dimensional. My only quibble is I wish we had seen a bit of his private life. Most likely a high corporate type like him would’ve been married and with a family and seeing him playing around with his kids, even briefly, would’ve made his dark side, when it finally comes about, all the more shocking, but still believable as I think there’s plenty of ‘happily’ married family men out there that could still harbor dark fantasies.

The supporting cast has some interesting moments too, which includes Roy Scheider in a rare turn as an antagonist, which he does well in, and Dorothy Tristan in a small, but pivotal part, as a drug tripping hooker. You can also spot Veronic Hamel, as an auditioning ad model, and Jean Stapleton, as a ditzy secretary, playing in minor roles before they became famous.

Spoiler Alert!

My only complaints with the story come mainly during Bree’s therapy sessions. The sessions themselves, especially the performance by Vivian Nathan as the psychiatrist, were well handled and one of the more realistic interpretations of a therapy session put on a film, but Bree’s ‘confessions’ didn’t totally jive. She says she feels ‘most in control’ when she’s doing tricks, but I’d presume it would be the other way. She packs no gun, so what’s to protect her if a guy gets rough? The idea that Cable would’ve been the only client that would have ever gotten violent with her seemed a stretch. Granted she’s a ‘high class’ call girl, but that still wouldn’t make her completely immune from having to deal with the occasional sickie. Rich guys can be dangerous too and sometimes even more so.

Hard to imagine that she couldn’t describe what the violent john who attacked her looked like especially since that was apparently a rare experience, so I’d think that would make him stand out even more so. His face would be so etched on her mind that she’d easily be able to tell Klute his appearance versus here where he just gets somehow forgotten in her mind along with all the rest.  The scene where she meets up with another client and he implies that he has a unusual turn-on that he’d like to play out and whispers it in her ear, but then when the sex does get shown, under the covers, it comes off as quite vanilla and I failed to see where the ‘kink’ was.

I also felt it was a mistake to reveal who the killer was during the second act and having it remain a mystery to the very end would’ve been creepier. The way it gets resolved, where the detectives are able to connect the same typographical error in the obscene notes to other correspondence that Cable had sent to Gruneman, seemed too easy. I just don’t think Cable would’ve been dumb enough not to have spotted that mistake himself before sending out. A better way would’ve had Bree unable to remember the killer’s identity due to him knocking her unconscious during their violent meeting and then struggle through therapy to bring those repressed memories back, which she would’ve eventually been able to do at the end.

My Rating: 8 out of 10

Released: June 23, 1971

Runtime: 1 Hour 54 Minutes

Rated R

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Studio: Warner Brothers

Available: DVD, Blu-ray (The Criterion Collection), Tubi, YouTube

 

 

 

1 Comment

Posted in 70's Movies, Academy Award Winners for Best Actress, Movies that take place in the Big Apple, Mystery, Thrillers/Suspense

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Stripes (1981)

Posted on February 9, 2026 | 4 comments

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 5 out of 10

4-Word Review: Losers join the army.

John (Bill Murray) works as a cab driver but is getting tired of putting up with obnoxious passengers. He sees an ad on TV about joining the army and convinces his friend Russell (Harold Ramis), who’s also unhappy with his line of work, to take up the offer. The two though find basic training to be far tougher than they thought particularly under the command of drill instructor Sergeant Hulka (Warren Oates) of which John doesn’t get along with and they end up having a one and one confrontation while inside the toiletries.

It seems amazing while watching this movie now how much things have changed as at the time this was considered a ‘raunchy’ flick, but in retrospect outside of a brief minute of flashing tits, and a mud wrestling segment, is very tame and PG rated material. It also goes very soft on the army aspect. This was shot during the era when there was still simmering discontent with the Vietnam War, which had just ended five years earlier and it was hip in many films of the era to poke fun of the military and yet this film doesn’t really do that. Sure, there are some over-the-top characters like Larroquettes, but overall, it’s surprising balanced portrait where if anything it’s Murray that learns the hard lesson that it’s best to keep your mouth shut, or pay the price, in this case the ever-mounting number of push-ups he’s forced to do when he smarts off. In some ways it’s a good portrait of what happens when differing personalities clash and how the ones that are more disciplined, or those that learn to take it on, ultimately win out.

Murray is as always highly engaging and his smug, party boy persona never seems to get old, but the story was originally intended for Cheech and Chong who could’ve been even funnier. My main complaint with Murray is he doesn’t really change and remains the same glib slacker that he was at the beginning though I did like the moment he gets punched in the stomach by Oates, which for Murray was his very first dramatic bit. The opening segment though in which he drives his cab erratically through the city streets in an effort to ‘get back’ at a crabby passenger (played by Fran Ryan) gets overdone as it put other innocent drivers at risk and would’ve gotten him arrested. Also, he and Ramis should’ve had their hair cut just as short as the other recruits as the army is all about uniformity and no one gets any special break.

Ramis is splendid in support even though director Ivan Reitman didn’t want to hire him due to Harold’s lack of acting experience and that his audition didn’t go well, but with Murray’s insistence he came on board and it’s a good thing. Mainly because he doesn’t compete with Murray for laughs, and in fact isn’t clownish at all and thus making him the most relatable. Oates is solid too though nowhere near the intensity that R. Lee Emery would’ve been, but still I liked his nervous facial tics. However, his character gets injured at one point and then gets seen with bandages around his arms and hands, but then during the third act these all disappear and he’s perfectly fine again, but I felt for the sake of continuity he should’ve remained bandaged.

I enjoyed too that the women here aren’t portrayed as bubble-headed beach blondes, but instead sensible people who aren’t afraid to be in control as evidenced by P.J. Soles and Sean Young, who looks really cute and was apparently cast simply for her looks alone. My only complaint though is that as Military Police they should’ve remained with the upper hand all the way through. Not letting down their guard and ultimately allowing the men to take charge. There still could’ve been the flirting and sex, but with the women calling the shots and the men playing along.

In support it’s fun seeing the young faces of up-and-coming stars including Conrad Dunn, who later became famous for his work in the soap opera ‘Days of Our Lives’, as a guy named Francis who threatens to do violence to anyone who dares call him that as well as Joe Flaherty as an inept border guard, Judge Reinhold as a would be drug smuggler and Timothy Busfield, in his film debut and looking downright boyish, as a soldier who fires a misguided mortar shell.

John Larroquette is quite good too in his first major role, in fact I felt the scene where he’s playing with toy soldiers inside his office to be the funniest moment. Unfortunately, his egotistical personality doesn’t get played up enough as I would’ve liked to have seen a showdown between him and Murray, which never happens. Also, his date looked too much like Murray’s former girlfriend, and I actually thought it was the same women, and they should’ve cast one as a brunette and the other a blonde, so we could’ve told the difference.

Spoiler Alert!

I was ready to give this 7 points, but the third act, which director Reitman later described as ‘an embarrassment’, ruins it.  While I’m all for giving the thing some action the way it goes about it is all wrong. Initially I thought it would be the other recruits going to war against Murray and Ramis under the mistaken impression that they were spies after they absconded with the top-secret van, but instead they go up against the Czechoslovakian army, which came off as too easy. These were still amateurs when it came to using weapons and technology and yet they’re able to blow up the bad guys with pinpoint presession until it becomes boring and anti-climactic where if they had been more bumbling about it, it would’ve been both realistic and funnier.

My Rating: 5 out of 10

Released: June 26, 1981

Runtime: 1 Hour 46 Minutes

Rated R

Director: Ivan Reitman

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon, YouTube

 

 

 

4 Comments

Posted in 80's Movies, Comedy, Movies that take place in the South, Movies with Nudity

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Casey’s Shadow (1978)

Posted on January 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 7 out of 10

My Rating: Boy raises a racehorse.

Based on the short story ‘Ruidoso’ by John McPhee the plot centers around Lloyd (Walter Matthau) a single parent raising three sons. The youngest, Casey (Michael Hershewe), decides to raise a colt whose mother has died. At first, they’re not sure the colt will make it, but eventually he grows into being a racehorse that gets named Casey’s Shadow. Lloyd, who’s been looked upon as a loser for many years, feels this is his one chance to make money and thus enters the horse into the All-American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico despite the fact that the horse has been recently injured and running him could endanger his life.

Upfront the film seems similar to many other young boy with horse movies to the extent you wonder why even bother to make this one though it does manage to have some memorable moments. The biggest one being the birth of the colt that gets captured in graphic, vivid style that one will find either a beauty of nature, or grotesque. I also liked the scene involving the horses being put into their stalls before the race and how some of them were difficult to maneuver and even resisted. The shot of the dirty dinner dishes inside a grimy bathtub filled with yellowish water is an image you won’t get out of your mind as well as the horse that gets poisoned to death and keels over in dramatic fashioned making it appear very real and not sure how they could train a horse to do that, but it’s quite effective.

On the casting end I wasn’t convinced this was the best career choice for Matthau as his character is too similar to the one he played in The Bad News Bears where he was a down-and-out guy with little ambition who suddenly finds his competitive edge. In that film his transition was fun, but here it’s strained and not nearly as engaging. It also seemed a mistake to make him the protagonist as it’s the boy that spends the most time with the horse, so he essentially should’ve been the main hero.

While I liked how the three sons aren’t afraid to question their father’s judgement and many times seem to be the mature ones I felt there were too many of them. The two oldest ones lacked any distinction and could’ve easily been combined to just one person. The youngest, Casey, came off like some Italian kid from Brooklyn, especially with his long hair, and I didn’t for a second believe these were boys raised in Cajun country particularly since they made no attempt to convey an accent authentic to the region, which makes it feel like they’re miscast.

The supporting cast is interesting, but underused. Alexis Smith has an icy appeal, but it never comes to full fruition. Would’ve liked more of a confrontation between her and Matthau. Murray Hamilton is always good playing a conniving, amoral character, but his presence is intermittent and doesn’t ultimately do much to propel the story. Robert Webber fares best. He’s known mainly for playing sniveling types, but here falls into the rugged western persona surprisingly well. The only beef with him, and it’s not his fault, is that he gets beaten up by Matthau in what looks to be a pretty decent pummeling, but then later it shows him fully recovered. To make it realistic he should’ve been seen with bandages, crutches, or cuts.

My Rating: 7 out of 10

Released: March 17, 1981

Runtime: 1 Hour 57 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Martin Ritt

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Available: DVD, Amazon Video, YouTube

 

 

Leave a comment

Posted in 70's Movies, Drama, Movies Based on Short Stories, Movies for the Whole Family, Movies that take place in the South, Sports Movies

Tagged , , , , , ,

Bachelor Party (1984)

Posted on January 22, 2026 | 4 comments

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 7 out of 10

4-Word Review: Wild night before marriage.

Rick (Tom Hanks) has decided to settle down and get married to Debbie (Tawny Kitaen) after years of being a party animal. Debbie’s parents (George Grizzard, Barbara Stuart) do not approve of the impending union and enlist the help of Cole (Robert Prescott), Debbie’s former boyfriend, to try and break it up by attempting to win Debbie back. Meanwhile, Rick’s friend Jay (Adrian Zmed) decides to throw Rick a lavish bachelor party by renting out a hotel room, but things soon get completely out of control.

This was pinnacle of the crude 80’s movies where the comedy emphasis was on the vulgar and shocking and while there were plenty of films before and after that had the same format this one is probably the best. A lot of the reason for it is that it has four different scenarios working in tandem that eventually converge into one at the end. Cutting away to the different plotlines and characters helps keep the pace breezy and doesn’t make the story come off quite as one dimensional as with other crude comedies. There are some genuinely funny moments especially the ending sequence that features Rick getting into a fistfight with Cole in front of a movie screen showing a film and theater goers think it’s simply a part of the 3-D effects.

Yet as popular as this movie was, and I was around when it came out where it was a huge hit, you cannot find it streaming anywhere, which is initially baffling. However, when you go back and watch it, I hadn’t seen it since it was released, you can kind of see why as the humor is quite un-PC especially by today’s standards. A good example is at the beginning when Jay, who works as a child photographer, has a mother with big bosoms come in with her kid and he manages to ‘trick’ her into posing in provocative ways, which is something that only happens in a guy’s fantasy world. A woman with big breasts is well aware that it attracts men, so she would immediately recognized Jay’s not so subtle come-ons right away, might even be expecting it as most likely many guys before having done the same thing, and wouldn’t be so naive.

The male strip joint sequence that the ladies attend is kind of dumb too. It features one of the male strippers putting his penis on a tray between some hot dog buns and then ‘serving it up’ to Debbie’s mother (Stuart). However, nobody in their right mind would want to put their sexual organ up to a stranger for them to grab. What if they stretched, or scratched it? It’s making it too vulnerable to injury and if it does get injured could they sue, or because they literally shoved the thing in the woman’s face, would they be considered liable? No idea why Stuart’s hand seems to get ‘stuck’ with it either, but that’s another issue.

While Hanks is engaging his character is a bit over-the-top. He acts very juvenile when with the parents to the extent that I actually sided with the dad as I wouldn’t want my daughter marrying a complete clown like that either. You’d think if he wanted to impress the parents, he’d try to be more serious and upstanding. Had the film done it this way and the father still rejected him then you could sympathize with Hanks, but here his goofing around just makes things worse.

Hanks complete ambivalence in regard to his friend Brad (Bradford Bancroft) who threatens to kill himself and even attempts it, but Hanks blows it off like it’s ‘no big deal’ makes him seem like he doesn’t care about what’s now considered a very serious issue. He also, at a later point, dangles Cole out a hotel window several stories up with nothing more than bed sheets, which is quite dangerous because if the guy slips out of them, he’ll fall and die and thus putting Hanks and his pals on the hook for reckless homicide.

The worst part in the movie, and again I did like it overall, but I feel it’s important to get the negative aspects of it addressed, is the donkey scene. I’m not sure why the donkey was brought to the party, I guess so the lady stripper could perform bestiality, which is both illegal and very unsexy, but having it perish after ingesting a lot of drugs that had been laying around is sad. Then having its dead body show up in an elevator makes it even sadder. Granted they didn’t actually kill a real donkey, but the just the idea is terrible and if anything, they should’ve had the donkey live and run all through the hotel where it would scare the guests and staff, which would’ve been funnier.

My Rating: 7 out of 10

Released: June 29, 1984

Runtime: 1 Hour 45 Minutes

Rated R

Director: Neal Israel

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Available: DVD, Blu-ray

4 Comments

Posted in 80's Movies, Crude Comedy, Movies with a Hotel setting, Movies with Nudity

Tagged , , , , ,

The Return of Swamp Thing (1988)

Posted on January 18, 2026 | 1 comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 1 out of 10

4-Word Review: Doctor creates genetic mutations.

Dr. Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan) continues in his quest to fight aging by doing, with the help of his assistant Lana (Sarah Douglas) many experiments that combines genes from swamp creatures and people that creates many monstrous mutations, some of whom escape the lab and go out and terrorize the swamp lands including any human victims that they may come upon. Abby (Heather Locklear) travels to visit Arcane, her stepfather, at his lab to find out what really happened to her dead mother. Arcane uses this as an opportunity to have Abby be his next victim to his newest experiment where he hopes to transfer her youthful essence to his body, so he can be young again, but Swamp Thing (Dick Durock) returns to fight off Arcane and all of his henchmen in order to save Abby and the two fall in love in the process.

This ill-advised sequel could of been so much better had, or at least had some potential, had it been put in the hands of a talented director, but instead the project was handed over to Jim Wynorski, who’s pretty much the Ed Wood of his era. He not surprisingly flunked out of film school back in the 70’s, but was so desperate to get into the business that he traveled out to Hollywood anyways and managed to get a job as an on-location manager to the short lived TV-show ‘Breaking Away’, but soon got fired from that and feeling demoralized and out of money he humbly took the next flight home thinking that was the end of his Hollywood dreams, and most likely it would’ve been, had he not met someone on the airplane who knew Roger Corman and he set-up a meeting with him, which got him a job writing screenplays for his production company that ultimately lead to him directing. To date he’s helmed over 110 movies, but virtually all of them have been critically panned and many are of the direct-to-video variety making you wonder if it’s really worth making all those movies if nobody ever sees them.

This film is typically of his campy approach where everything is done for cheap laughs, which quickly become tiresome. I don’t mind some humor in horror films and during the 80’s it became common for killers to make jokey one-liners after they killed their victims, which became kind of kitschy, but those at least had some bona fide scares and gore. This one though has no fright or tension and just the tackiest of effects making it all just a cheap, silly mess.

Locklear is certainly easy on the eyes, but her character is written in a way that makes her seem like it’s just some sort of walk-on role where she steps in to make a few snarky comments and then leaves. She seems to have no emotional connection to anything going on around her and she has no discernable arc making her presence overall quite sterile. She also rushes to judgement about things and lets her motivations be known too quickly. For instance, when she first arrives at Arcane’s residence she immediately gets into a bickering match with Lana, but wouldn’t it make more sense since she’s just gotten there to hide her animosity until she’s figured out how to maneuver her way around and see whom she can trust? She also instantaneously falls for Swamp Thing, but it would’ve been more interesting transition had she been reserved around him, or even disgusted by his appearance, as most people probably would be.

Jourdan, in his second to last film, is fun though looking frailer than he did in the same role eight years earlier. However, in the last outing it ended with him turned into a monster and no explanation for how he was able to turn back into his original form, which makes this seem less like a sequel and more like a separate movie altogether.

The only one that I really did like was Daniel Emery Taylor who plays this fat redhead kid that says a lot of amusing lines. His acting his actually terrible, but it jives with his goofy, clumsy character and thus becomes amusing. In fact, I think had he and his friend Oman, played by RonReaco Lee, been the sole protagonists this thing could’ve done a lot better. I also felt that turning it into a live action was a mistake as the comic book visuals that get shown over the opening credits look rather cool making me believe the entire thing should’ve been animated.

My Rating: 1 out of 10

Released: May 12, 1989

Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Director: Jim Wynorski

Studio: Millimeter Films

Available: DVD, Blu-ray, PlutoTV, Tubi

1 Comment

Posted in 80's Movies, Campy Comedy, Low Budget, Movies based on Comic Books, Movies that take place in the South, Sci-Fi, Sequels

Tagged , , , , , ,

Swamp Thing (1982)

Posted on January 14, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 3 out of 10

4-Word Review: Scientist transforms into creature.

Alice (Adrienne Barbeau), a federal agent, is sent to the bayou regions in order to investigate the disappearance of another agent who’d been working at a top-secret facility. It is there that she meets researchers Linda (Nannette Brown) and Alec (Ray Wise) who are brother and sister and working on a chemical that can rapidly regrow plant life. Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan) is after this formula and raids the facility in order to get his hands on it, but Alec manages to swipe it away just in time only to trip and fall causing him to spill it over himself and getting set on fire. In order to extinguish the flames, he jumps into the swamp but is presumed dead. Alice is able to escape, but Arcane’s henchmen (David Hess, Nicholas Worth) spot her the next day and attempt to drown her, which is when a strange green creature jumps out of the water to save her. Alice is at first unsure of where this creature came from but slowly begins to suspect it may be connected to Alec.

The film is based on the comic book of the same name where the creature first appeared in July of 1971. While I liked the on-location shooting done at the Cypress Gardens in South Carolina the movie otherwise falls precariously flat. I suspect the cause of this comes from the tight budget where the emphasis was for everything to come in on time and limit costs. There’s adequate action, which almost all done on the water, but it eventually gets formulaic. There had been plans to shoot a chase underwater, but this got scrapped and there’s just so many shots of a speed boat one can take before it becomes monotonous. It’s not clear either whether this was to be played up for camp, or not. Some knowing humor could’ve given it an added dimension, but as it is the only real amusing moment is when Alice ‘shoos’ away the giant creature with her hand treating him like he was nothing more than a rodent.

Casting wise it has an appeal. Barbeau was already hitting 40 and it’s refreshing having a female protagonist not having to be youthful and hip, but instead grounded and straightforward. Jourdan is equally enjoyable, and his crusted, stern look and terse delivery makes him sufficiently menacing. I also enjoyed Hess and Worth better known for playing prominent psychos in other films but coming off as sort of klutzy and over their heads here. Out of everyone though I really like Reggie Batts. He was a young black kid that lived in the region but had no other acting experience and was never in another movie but is quite amiable with his humorous observations and his presence gives the movie some earthy balance.

While Wise does well as the main character the fact that when he turns into the creature it gets played by somebody else, in this case stuntman Dick Durock, doesn’t really work. Initially Wise was supposed to play both roles and Durock would only put on the creature outfit when there needed to be stunts done, but his body build was so different from Wise’s that it was determined to just use him as it would be too obvious otherwise. The biggest mistake though, and I haven’t read the comic, so it may be true there as well, is that I didn’t like him speaking. Having the creature be this murky anomaly gave him an aire of mystery, which gets ruined when he starts talking. He becomes like just another character only in a body suit, and outside of super strength and being able to regrow his limbs, isn’t all that interesting.

Spoiler Alert!

The concept where ingesting the formula will bring out the person’s ‘true essence’ of who they really are was cool but unfortunately gets badly botched. When Worth’s character takes it, he shrinks in size and thus showing that he’s timid inside, which is fine. However, his clothes shrink with the body, but the chemical never got on them, so they should’ve remained normal sized and just his body gotten smaller.

When Arcane drinks it he becomes a hairy monster, but it comes off looking like a guy in a Halloween costume, which cheapens the effects. It might’ve cost more, but doing the transformation via makeup, similar to The Planet of the Apes, would’ve been more impressive and authentic looking.

My Rating: 3 out of 10

Released: February 19, 1982

Runtime: 1 Hour 31 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Wes Craven

Studio: United Artists

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

Leave a comment

Posted in 80's Movies, Movies based on Comic Books, Movies that take place in the South, Sci-Fi

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Shirley Valentine (1989)

Posted on January 6, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 7 out of 10

4-Word Review: Trying to find purpose.

Shirley (Pauline Collins) is a middle-aged woman married to Joe (Bernard Hill) and having two grown children but feeling like her life lacks purpose. While her marriage started out well the passion has now faded and the two find themselves at odds sometime for the most minor of things. Seeking change Shirley jumps at the chance of getting out of working-class England by taking a trip with her friend Jane (Alison Steadman) to Greece. During her vacation she meets up with bar owner Costas (Tom Conti) where he takes her on his boat and the two make love. When it’s time for her to return back home she instead skips out on taking the flight and remains in Greece while taking a job as a cook at Costas’ restaurant, but Joe won’t let go of his marriage and travels to where Shirley is now living in an attempt to woo her back.

The film is based on the stage play by Willy Russell, but with some big differences as the play had only one character, Shirley, and a running monologue. Some of the monologue remains by having her routinely break the fourth wall and speak directly to the camera, which most of the time works and isn’t a distraction. It even helps tie-in some loose ends by allowing us to understand Shirley’s inner motivations, but I didn’t like how the film ‘explains’ her running commentary by having her get ‘caught’ by some of the characters, like Costas, speaking out loud to herself and having them walk away thinking she’s gone ‘a bit batty’. Other films have done a similar concept but play it off more like time just freezes and thus allows the protagonist to speak their thoughts for a bit and I felt the movie should’ve stuck to this same rationale.

The acting is excellent with Collins reprising the same role she had played onstage. Her matter-of-fact delivery and the terse little frown she exudes when she’s with someone she secretly can’t stand help expose her character’s down-to-earth sensibilities though I could’ve done without her nude scenes from both the front and back. Conti is also good playing a Greek man with authentic sounding accent at least I felt it was though other critics weren’t all in agreement.

The story itself is a bit slow with Roger Ebert describing it as a ‘realistic drama of appalling banality’. However, for me that’s what made it work. There’s a lot of people like Shirley out there longing for some point to why we’re here and not able to find the satisfaction through the normal social functions of marriage and raising a family. Too many times, we’re told that having a family should be fulfilling and make us ‘happy’, but for some people that’s not always enough and sometimes just makes things worse especially in Shirley’s case where the kids, now adults, treat her like someone to be taken for granted.

I also liked the way it explored loneliness. Most films that deal with this subject usually portray the person as being the one at fault by having them afflicted with poor social skills, or behaviors that cause others not to want to be around them. Here though it’s Shirley’s ‘friends’ that are the annoying ones and could turn off most anyone. Just having people around doesn’t mean one is actually connecting, and the film deftly examines how a person can be smart and friendly and yet still fall through the cracks.

Spoiler Alert!

The trip sequence, which takes up the third act, is well done as Shirley’s loneliness doesn’t just automatically end with a change of scenery. The fling that she has is okay, but when she decides to stay on and overhears Costas feeding another woman the same lines he had given her about coming onto his boat, I thought she should’ve responded with a hurt, or angered look. Instead, she’s amused, but I’d think most other people in the same situation would’ve felt used and taken advantage of.

I did like the husband coming to Greece at the very end, but I believe his character should’ve been more toned down earlier. The way he gets so extremely upset at not being served the meal he was expecting and then throwing the food on her lap made him seem mentally unhinged. In some marriages people just grow apart. They can both be good people, but through no one’s fault, have much in common and I think the film could’ve approached it that way versus having him blow up in a very over-the-top way that was almost frightening.

My Rating: 7 out of 10

Released: August 24, 1989

Runtime: 1 Hour 49 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Director: Lewis Gilbert

Studio: Paramount Pictures

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

Leave a comment

Posted in 80's Movies, British Movies, Drama, Foreign Films, Movies Based on Stageplays, Movies with Nudity

Tagged , , , ,

The Sunshine Boys (1975)

Posted on January 2, 2026 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 4 out of 10

4-Word Review: Comedians try to reunite.

Wily Clark (Walter Matthau) is an aging comedian from the vaudeville era who’s now in his 80’s and finding it hard to find work. His nephew Ben (Richard Benjamin) acts as his agent but signing Wily to acting gigs proves challenging due to Wily’s disagreeable manner. Al Lewis (George Burns) worked with Wily when the two where in their prime and known as The Sunshine Boys. ABC wants to reunite the two for a TV special, but Wily resists insisting that he can’t work with Al again due to petty grievances. Ben though gets the two together in Wily’s apartment for a rehearsal of their old skits, but fighting immediately breaks out. They then pair up again for the TV special under the condition that neither has to talk to the other outside of the skit, but when Wily falls over with a heart attack things take a serious turn. Will Al be able to reconcile with Wily before it’s too late?

This is another hit Neil Simon play that hasn’t aged well. At the time it was best known for having George Burns, who hadn’t been in a movie in 36 years, and his subsequent Academy Award win for Best Supporting Actor, which he received at age 80 that was a record for oldest recipient until broken 14 years later by Jessica Tandy. My main gripe though is more with characters. Matthau is alright, though he was only 55 when he did the part, but still looked adequately old, but the person he plays is unlikable. Supposedly he wants acting gigs but makes little effort to get to the auditions on time, or memorize his lines while expecting his stressed-out nephew, whom he belittles and berates constantly, to do all the legwork. It’s really hard to feel sorry for someone who doesn’t put in the effort and he’s rude and boorish at every turn. The movie tries to play this off as just being a part of old age, but it really isn’t. The guy has a huge attitude problem for any stage in life, and it becomes a big turn off. The viewer could’ve sided with him more, or at least little, had he been trying his best and just coming up short and would’ve created a far more interesting dramatic arc had his only option back into the business would be pairing with Al and the internal efforts he’d have to go through to get along with him to make it work versus having his nephew desperately do all the attempted repairing, which isn’t as interesting.

The reasons for their feud are inane and hinges on minor issues like Al apparently ‘spitting on’ Wily whenever he says a word that starts with ‘T’ or poking him in the chest during a moment in their skit, but you’d think if they had been doing this routine for 43 years that Wily would’ve brought up these grievances already. Al seemed quite reasonable, so why does Wily feel the need to stew about it and not just call it to his attention? The story would’ve been stronger had there been a true gripe to get mad at, like Al stealing away Wily’s wife or girlfriend, or signing some big movie deal without Wily’s knowledge that made Al a star while Wily got left behind. All of these things would make anyone upset and create a better dramedy on how the two would be able to reconcile, but these other ‘issues’ that Wily has are just too insipid even for a silly comedy.

Spoiler Alert!

The film also lacks an adequate payoff. There’s this big build up for this TV special, but then it never gets past the rehearsal phase. It climaxes with Wily lying in bed in his cluttered apartment treating his nurse, played by Rosetta LeNoire, just as shabbily as he does everyone else and having learned nothing. I was surprised to by all of these get-well cards and telegrams supposedly by his fans and other celebrities. Would’ve been more profound if Wily received no well wishes and thus gotten him to realize that he was truly forgotten and this would then force him to reassess his selfish nature and commit to treating people better, which unfortunately doesn’t occur, and the character learns nothing.

Since it’s revealed that Wily and Al will be spending the rest of their lives in the same actor’s retirement community it would’ve been nice to show them doing their skits in front of an audience of other seniors, but the film misses the mark here to. There’s no real finality or journey, just constant rhetorical bickering and a running joke dealing with Wily unable to unlock his apartment door from the inside “don’t push it, slide it”, which gets old fast.

My Rating: 4 out of 10

Released: November 6, 1975

Runtime: 1 Hour 51 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Herbert Ross

Studio: MGM

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

Leave a comment

Posted in 70's Movies, Buddy Movies, Comedy, Movies Based on Stageplays, Movies that take place in the Big Apple

Tagged , , , , , ,

Plaza Suite (1971)

Posted on December 26, 2025 | Leave a comment

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 4 out of 10

4-Word Review: One room, different characters.

The entire movie takes place in one setting, New York’s historic Plaza Hotel, where three different couples rent out the same room at different times and the story examines what happens while they’re in it. The first segment involves Sam and Karen (Walter Matthau, Maureen Stapleton). Karen has checked into the room because that was where they spent their honeymoon 23 years earlier, but since then their marriage has soured and she hopes to rekindle the old flame but finds her husband’s resistance to it to be both challenging and troubling. The second story involves a famous Hollywood producer (also played by Matthau) checking into the room so he can have a quick fling with Muriel (Barbara Harris) a girl he dated before he was famous and who is now married with kids. The third and final act revolves around Roy and Norma (Walter Matthau, Lee Grant) and their efforts to get their daughter Mimsy (Jenny Sullivan) to come out of the bathroom, of which she has locked herself inside, and attend her wedding.

The film is based on the play of the same name that was written by Neil Simon who also wrote the screenplay. The play, which opened in 1968 at the Schubert theater before moving onto Broadway, had the same storylines, but was cast differently. In that one George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton played the characters in all three segments, but director Arthur Hiller didn’t like that approach. Initially he wanted different actors for each story including having Peter Sellers and Barbra Streisand cast in the second, which would’ve been terrific, but when that fell through, he decided to have Matthau play in all three and then simply change around the female leads, but this approach doesn’t work as well. The film suffers badly from having everything done in the same room, which quickly becomes visually static, and the talky script is only occasionally amusing.

The first story features a strong performance by Stapleton, but having the husband eventually admit to having an affair with his secretary, has been done hundreds of times before. The segment lacks anything fresh and the viewer can almost immediately guess where it’s going right from the start making it both predictable and boring. Had it unfolded differently where the husband at least pretended there was a spark left in their marriage and only revealed his true nature through subtle layers then it might’ve had potential but having him be aloof and cranky at the start offers no surprises and makes things much too obvious.

The second segment shows its cards too soon as well. It’s clear that the producer will come onto any attractive woman he sees, so watching him attempt to exploit an old girlfriend and then become shocked when he finds her more intrigued with the celebrities that he knows instead of himself doesn’t offer much of a payoff. Instead, he should’ve been portrayed as being burnt out with Tinsel Town and all of the plastic people he’s bedded and genuinely wanting to rekindle things with his past love whom he remembered as being down-to-earth and then having him shocked to learn that she had become just as superficial as the rest would’ve been funny.

The third act is by far the funniest particularly Matthau hamming up over his frustration at how much the wedding, and subsequent reception, is costing him. This is also the only segment to have some of the action take place outside of the room when in an attempt to get into the locked bathroom he goes out on the 7th story ledge, which is a bit nerve-wracking. However, there’s still some issues including the fact that Mimsy, the daughter, never says anything while locked inside the bathroom, which is unrealistic and off-putting. I didn’t like the point-of-view shots showing her sitting on the toilet through the door’s keyhole as this was unintentionally creepy as it insinuates that anybody could secretly peep at anyone else going to the bathroom and therefore putting a keyhole on a bathroom door would’ve been patently absurd. The parents are also not very likable, or caring as they seem to feel that their daughter is somehow ‘obligated’ to get married and it’s ‘too late to backout’ when it really isn’t. Forcing someone to get hitched and acting like it’s some sort of ‘life duty’ is very old fashioned making the segment quite dated even for its time period.

Some of the exterior shots were cool including the opening bit where Stapleton is shown walking down a busy New York street towards the hotel where the pedestrians are not extras, but instead regular people unaware that they were a part of a movie. The bird’s eye shot showing cars going along the Brooklyn Bridge and its ability to focus in on the one being driven by Harris is impressive and quite possibly, at least on a visual scale, one of the best moments in the film. Even these segments though have some logic loopholes as it shows the character from the segment that has just ended walking outside the hotel while the new character walks in making it seem like the new guest goes into the room the second the former one leaves it, which wouldn’t make sense as a maid would’ve had to go in there in-between to clean it.

My Rating: 4 out of 10

Released: May 12, 1971

Runtime: 1 Hour 54 Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Arthur Hiller

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Available: DVD, Amazon Video, PlutoTV, YouTube

Leave a comment

Posted in 70's Movies, Comedy/Drama, Movies Based on Stageplays, Movies that take place in the Big Apple, Movies with a Hotel setting

Tagged , , , , , , , ,