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Reviews
Shallow Hal (2001)
a lovely modern-day fable
notice how the movie is full of otherworldly freaks, and how they're real characters, people? notice the wizard and the magic? this isn't your average light romantic comedy, or grossout flick. it's a bit of both, but it's more. shallow hal is just like the fables and fairytales, from aesop and hans christian anderson to the darker brothers grimm, that we loved and learned from as children. anyone who dwells on the so-called lowbrow humor and "stupid" or "offensive" jokes is misguided. remember folks, silly things like talking animals, evil witches and poison apples populate those stories too. the stories that expanded the limits of our imagination, that had us dreaming of fire breathing dragons, talking foxes and frog princes. this is exactly the kind of movie i'm excited to enjoy with my children when/if i have any. sure, people laugh at the freaks and the fatties. everyone gets goofed on in this movie--no behind left unchided. where else can one see freaks and fatties in the movies, playing real human characters? shallow hal is a movie with a message, a story told with humanity and humor. the skin-deep beauty morality tale as beautifuly rendered as i've ever seen. i would be surprised and saddenned to see this movie slip into obscurity. fortunately, this is the kind of imaginative art that tends to outlive its critics and then some. here's hoping that posterity rewards shallow hal with a space on the shelf or a few gigabytes on the hard drive for generations to come.
Summer Lovers (1982)
what more could one ask?
As a genre picture, a nearly perfect movie. Thinly plotted sexual/romantic tryst dreamily, honestly and surprisingly innocently rendered, with lovely leads nicely shot in gorgeous locations. Another reviewer notes that the film would benefit from a less heterocentric depiction of the menage a trois, i.e. a little more girl-on-girl action, and I can hardly quibble with that. Considering the taboos, the times and the MPAA, I think the very capable filmmakers did a commendable job nonetheless. I feel sorry for anyone who can't enjoy this little gem of a movie. That said, it's a good thing Daryl Hannah is stunning, and that her character is shy and awkward and doesn't have a whole lot to say, because she's a bit wooden in this early role. A little trivia: Daryl Hannah's character says she fantasizes about being a mermaid, two years before her breakout performance in Splash. While the two American leads went on to successful Hollywood careers, Valerie Quennessen (Lina) died in 1989 in an auto accident and Hans von Tongeren (Jan, who had recently starred in Verhoeven's Spetters) took his own life in 1982.
Der Skipper (1990)
*spoiler*
the title is misleading for the first 97 minutes, and then you walk away wondering what in the world just happened. did they have some film left and need a fetching title? otherwise, it's an engaging and surprisingly well done character study. similar to dead calm, another cabin fever murder at sea also with a somewhat inexplicable villain. a very funny bit was the fact that the apparently drug addled and soused skipper ends up looking even more pathetic when it turns out he isn't drug addled, just a diabetic. a possible explanation of the blindside ending: there is one scene where liz hurley is sitting in the middle of the boat, as her maddening, fueding shipmates are in opposite cabins. she's tired of it. it's cabin fever, and perhaps we see on her face a glimmer of the acknowledgment that those two are not worth the aggravation. a callous disregard for human life, but familiar, i'd guess, to anyone who has endured a long, hot roadtrip with other people. who are squabbling. the entire way from wisonsin to walmart, south dakota. about mount rushmore and indian sacred ground. where is that darn spear gun!