ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[southendmd]

IMDb:  Jimmy (Steve Guttenberg), a failed writer and actor, comes home on New Years Eve to find his girlfriend has left him, his cat has died and a gay burglar (Lombardo Boyar) is robbing his place...for the third time that month. He captures him, ties him up and things get strange.

James Kirkwoods' play was an off-Broadway hit in the 1970s. I never saw it but I read the script and it was wonderful. This film comes far too late--the play was very much of its time. The gay character (which was pretty revolutionary when the play came out) is old hat by now and the movie feels washed out. Basically the comedy doesn't work. Boyar is VERY good in his role but Guttenberg (who can be good) was pretty bad. Maybe both directing and acting for the movie was too much. The two actors have no chemistry at all (even though Boyar is trying). The movie isn't unwatchable...it's just no big deal. Also Guttenberg's apartment was WAY too big and beautifully decorated for a starving artist. They also (badly) changed the ending of the play.

So it's worth seeing for Boyar alone. Also he's got guts--he spends half the movie tied down with his pants cut wide open showing his back side.

Lombardo Boyar's front side.

=aside= Gil
Lucky you!  Enjoy and report back!



Philip Battley playing NN in Toronto?  What a hottie.

[oilgun]

=aside= Gil
Lucky you!  Enjoy and report back!

Philip Battley playing NN in Toronto?  What a hottie.

Actually NN is played by Daniel Weyman who is also a hottie:

[southendmd]

Actually NN is played by Daniel Weyman who is also a hottie:

That's funny, his website says he's playing in Toronto.  I suppose he could be playing a different part...

http://www.philipbattley.com/

[Fran]

IMDb User Rating:  5.1/10

[oilgun]

From IMDb:  A film crew sets up shop in an abandoned high school where horrific murders (is there any other kind of murder in the horror genre?) once took place. Well, wouldn't you know it, they start dropping like flies...
Well, I'm sure other people have said it before me, but any film that kills off George Clooney within the first thirteen minutes bears some looking into. (I'm not sure that qualifies as a spoiler, his is not even a major character, and he was a newcomer to film back then.) It doesn't quite seem to be a parody, but more of a tongue-in-cheek horror movie (I think the more recent film "Cherry Falls" would also fall into this small category). Reasonably entertaining but no ball of fire, film has appealing leads (Brendan Hughes, Lori Lethin) and funny supporting performances by Alex Rocco (probably the best performance in the film) as the sleazoid producer and Scott Jacoby as the pretentious director. There's also the prospect of seeing some one-time TV stars in cameos: Maureen McCormick as a police officer who is turned on by gore, and Vince Edwards as a teacher.



==COMMENT==
The eighties decade is a goldmine of mediocrity...

[Ellemeno]

I decided to take Gil's suggestion about 80s mediocrity, and went to the middle of the 80s and found Supergirl.  Despite having quite a cast, this got a 3.9/10 at IMDb.

Faye Dunaway    ...   Selena
Helen Slater    ...   Kara / Supergirl / Linda Lee
Peter O'Toole    ...   Zaltar
Mia Farrow    ...   Alura
Brenda Vaccaro    ...   Bianca
Peter Cook    ...   Nigel

[MaineWriter]

Another mediocre movie based on a mediocre country western song...



==aside==

It's the weekend, hooray! I hope I have a chance to update the archive. This week was wild...

[oilgun]

From IMDb:  A Harlequin Romance type of movie about an American horticulturist marooned in Paris who encounters a married man when the group she is traveling with departs for other countries with her visa. Endlessly contrived situations that break up/make up the relationship between them - however, the charm and acting skill of both leads, Karen Allen and Thierry Lhermitte, together with countless nude scenes, succeeds in overcoming the deficiencies in the script. What the movie is missing most of all is a forceful subplot, which would have added a greater degree of complication and reasons for breaking up and making up. Both leads act well. Hard to understand why Karen Allen never became a bigger star. And interesting to see Thierry Lhermitte, sleek and groomed, in a romantic role instead of the comedic roles he usually plays. And of course there is Paris - which never looked lovelier, more sophisticated and charming. (What time does the next plane leave?) Not a great movie but enjoyable to watch on a rainy afternoon.







==ASIDE==
Elle, here are some images of Supergirl.  I saw it when it came out and actually enjoyed it.  Brenda Vacarro was great in it.  I'll have to watch it again because I remember thinking that it was almost a feminist manifesto.


Last night I had one of those wonderful, and rare, flying dreams so these images remind me of it.  It was amazing,  I was flying above the city just like that,  I didn't want to wake up   ( I was also a woman, and undead, but I won't get in to that  .  My shrink will love hearing about that one.  Actually, that's not true, he's neither Jungian nor Freudian so dreams don't interest him.)

[Fran]

From IMDb:

"Vanity Fair" (2004) is an acceptable but abbreviated version of the classic Thackery Victorian period novel which tells of Becky Sharp (Reese Witherspoon), who uses artifice and charm to climb from lowly governess to aristocrat, always able to find a suitable family of peerage or property to use as a rung in her ladder to the top in spite of the tribulations of the time. At just over two hours, this film cannot deal in depth with the many characters in the story and has to content itself with hitting the high points which make for a very condensed telling suited to those who only wish the flavor of the story. Those with a particular interest in Victorian pulp fiction or more expansive dramas should turn to the BBC's 1998 six hour miniseries which offers greater character depth, a presentation much more true to the period, and a very much better cast. (B-)

[MaineWriter]

This movie might be worse than mediocre (I couldn't sit through it, I tried) but it still gets a solid 5 at IMDb.