ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Lynne]

Kotch is a 1971, Oscar-nominated comedy film which tells the story of an elderly man who runs away so as not to be put into a nursing home, and strikes up a friendship with a pregnant teenage girl. It stars Walter Matthau, Deborah Winters, Felicia Farr, Charles Aidman and Ellen Geer.

The movie was adapted by John Paxton from the novel by Katherine Topkins. Matthau's friend and frequent costar Jack Lemmon directed; it was Lemmon's only film behind the camera.

The movie was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Walter Matthau), Best Film Editing (Ralph E. Winters), Best Music, Song (for Marvin Hamlisch and Johnny Mercer for "Life Is What You Make It") and Best Sound.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  Clay, an eighteen-year-old freshman, comes back from his first term at a college in New Hampshire to spend his Christmas vacation with his broken-up wealthy family in Los Angeles. His former girlfriend, Blair, is now involved with his ex-best-friend, Julian. She warns Clay that Julian needs help: he is using a lot of cocaine and has huge debts. What follows is a look at the youth culture of wealthy post adolescents in Beverly Hills with a strong anti-drug message. Apart from the setting and the names, the film has very little to do with Bret Easton Ellis's book by the same title on which it was based.

[oilgun]

Plot:  After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesic, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.

[Lynne]

From Wiki:

Nothing So Strange is a 2002 film shot in the style of an "independent documentary" directed by Brian Flemming. It centers on the fictional assassination of former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on December 2, 1999.

At the very beginning of the film, Bill Gates (played by experienced Gates-double Steve Sires) walks onto the stage of the pavilion in MacArthur Park, Los Angeles, California on Thursday, December 2, 1999 to give a check for one million dollars to "Literacy For Life" as part of the "Bill Gates Foundation." (The filmmakers intentionally avoided mentioning Gates' family members in the film; thus, they refrain from naming the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.) Upon reaching the stage, Gates is shot dead by a sniper - first in the right shoulder, then the head...

[Fran]

From IMDb:  Three criminals pull off a cash and drug heist in LA, which results in the sadistic and brutal murders of six people. The crooks are Fantasia (Cynda Williams), a bad girl with a soft spot. She got pregnant in her teens and got talked into the robbery by her boyfriend Ray Malcolm (Billy Bob Thornton) who is a paranoid and violent psychotic. Yet throughout the course of events, Fantasia wants to go back home to Star City and see her little boy (something that ultimately contributes to her downfall). The third member of the gang is Pluto (Michael Beach), a would-be intellectual crime boss, whose personality varies between being a cold and sadistic killer with a passion for knives and a cool calm and collected crook who won't kill unless he has to. Having pulled off the job, they decide to make for Phoenix, Arizona, in order to sell the drugs and split the money. However, things are complicated by Fantasia wanting to go home, and more blood is shed along the way.

=comment=
Film critic Gene Siskel voted this film as his favorite of 1992.

[memento]

From IMDB: This is one of those movies that is just immensely good fun. First of all, it has an excellent cast. Caine is wonderful as the world-weary London private eye adrift in Los Angeles. Michael Constantine, as the ex-con desperate to find his daughter, has never been better. Natalie is very good as the satin-clad femme fatale. And then there's the outstanding supporting cast. In a sense, this film is a tribute to character actors. Even the unappreciated Robert Ito shows up as the sinister Japanese butler.

But even given the cast, what really shines is the W. D. Richter's script. Especially our hero's brilliant analysis of the location of a house based on the angle of the sun and the shadows it casts, followed by his discovery that: "I wasn't even close. It was in Beverly Hills."

On the other hand, your favorite bit may be the Humphrey Bogart impersonator reciting the credits at the beginning of the film to the accompaniment of a lone trumpet (at least, that's how I remember it; actually, since the other reviewer and I seem to be the only people in the world who have actually seen this film, who's to argue?) It's a sad fact that Peeper has been dumped. It doesn't even appear on most filmographies of Michael Caine. It's not available on video in any form, and I have never seen it appear on television (maybe we can persuade The Mystery Channel to show it, if the tape hasn't disintegrated by now). So if there's a patron saint of forgotten films wandering around this site, why don't you see if you can nudge 20th Century Fox into releasing it. It deserves better.

[southendmd]

Plot:  A young woman comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom, but achieves them only with the help of an alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him.

[Lynne]

Real Women Have Curves is a 2002 American movie starring America Ferrera. Produced by HBO and directed by Patricia Cardoso, it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award in addition to Special Jury Prizes for both Ferrera and Lupe Ontiveros. The independent film earned in excess of five million dollars and brought the previously-unknown Ferrera to the public's attention.

The coming-of-age plot revolves around Ana Garcia, a Mexican-American teenager living in an East Los Angeles barrio. While attending Beverly Hills High School, where she is an accomplished student, she works in near-sweatshop conditions in her sister's dress factory alongside her mother, Carmen (Ontiveros), who considers this to be her younger daughter's vocation. But Ana, encouraged by her teacher Mr. Guzman (George Lopez), has dreams of attending Columbia. Before achieving her goal, she must try to balance her mother's traditional view of women with her own contemporary ideas while dealing with self-image issues and exploring a new romantic relationship.

It is based on the play "Real Women Have Curves" by Josefina Lopez.

[Fran]

From IMDb:   An FBI agent takes on a plane full of deadly and poisonous snakes, deliberately released to kill a witness being flown from Honolulu to Los Angeles to testify against a mob boss.

[memento]

From IMDB: As a young man, Jack Black leaves his religious family and oppressive town (Kickapoo, MO) for Hollywood on a quest to form the world's most awesome rock band. There he meets acoustic guitarist Kyle Gass, who is performing on the street, and begins worshipping him as a rock god because of his skills and attitude. Kyle feeds Jack's fantasy by pretending to be famous with a self-named band ("The Kyle Gass Project"), and exploits him to do work such as cleaning his apartment and buying him weed with the promise of an audition for his fictitious band. After Jack learns Kyle is actually unemployed and living off his parents, the two become equal, and Kyle apologizes to Jack by giving him a brand-new guitar. They create their own band: Tenacious D, named for birthmarks found on their behinds. (Jack has a birthmark which says: "Tenac", and Kyle has a mark which reads: "ious D".)