Reviews

It's a shame that I am really no fan of Gene Wilder! In most of his movies he simply gets on my nerves! This is pure irony because Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory could never have succeeded as the classic that it has become WITHOUT the superb performance of Gene Wilder!

In the original novel by Roald Dahl "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory"(actually currently remade and due for release in 2005) the "Willy Wonka" character was an eccentric elderly genius.Perhaps a little "odd" but nonetheless refined and "sane" in his approach to his visitors to his factory! In "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" Gene Wilder pulls out ALL the stops! His "Willy Wonka" carries the film with a vigor and a sense of mystery that the viewers cannot even figure out until the ending! This is clearly the role Gene Wilder wanted to play all of his life.And he does it his own way..like no one else EVER could!!

"whatever happened to Baby Jane?" remains a stunning,horrific story well ahead of it's time (1962) Joan Crawford and Bette Davis left memorable & nightmarish examples of how to play a role for all it will get you! However, it's 1991 remake with the lovely and talented Redgrave sisters promised to leave viewers with the same creepy chills & thrills! Unfortunately, this simply dosen't happen here!

Don't get me wrong! The 1991 version of "Whatever happened to Baby Jane?" holds up as it's own story: set in modern-day Hollywood with it's all-too-familiar band of groupies,druggies,drag-queens & has-beens,who will forever lurk in the video stores and back streets, hoping to meet aging or ailing celebrities in order to "break-in" to the big-time! This TV movie actually draws the viewer in to a modern version of a hybrid between "Sunset Boulevard" and "Midnight Cowboy"

But, in deference to it's original.I must confess that as the ailing,aging Blanche, Vanessa Redgrave manages to hand in an adequate if not wooded portrayal.AS the nutty Jane,Lynn tries her best to NOT imitate Bette Davis and it does work-at least her portrayal is more remorseful and concerned about her crippled sister! In THIS version we actually FEEL for poor Jane as she's led to believe that SHE had caused the accident! When she finally learns the truth she actually seems to have been "set free" from 20 years of guilt,depressionn & alcoholism! Of course,it's too late now,we realize, as we watch the police chase her on the beach in the final shot!

Originally intended as a flat-out biography of Janis Joplin's last days titled "Pearl" ( Janis' nickname and alter-ego ) the filmakers allegedly ran into privacy issues with the Joplin family which caused them to take a more "loosely based" approach of a "composite" character! Even Bette Midler herself had some ideas of her own that promised to provide a fictious portrayal! Since I had always found Janis Joplin's life both fascinating and tragic I had to write off seeing this movie in the theatres when it first came out in 1979.It wasn't until sitting through it on HBO that I could truly appreciate how utterly great Bette Midler's performance was!It certainly stayed close enough to the "truth" while adding some dynamic elements that a Janis biography portrayed by anyone else would have sorely lacked! Bette Midler is truely at her best! She pours out her heart and soul into this role and leaves nothing behind!Her rock concert scenes alone show her broad talent as a stage performer! Her scenes drunk & stoned give a rare glimpse into a lonely and crazy world of rock stars(like Janis Joplin was!) Her scene with her childhood country-music idol reminded me of a similar situation between Janis and Johnny Cash! Her former lesbian lover is reminiscent of Janis' one-time "biographer/lover" Peggy Caserta! The "homecoming" concert at the film's end reminded me of Janis' 10-year-highschool reunion which she attended only shortly before her death! All in All I regret not having seen (in the theatre) this "loosely based" and yet "thinly disguised" story of Janis!With Bette Midler at center stage it stands as both a glowing tribute to Janis AND Bette!

There are moments during "Hardcore" when EVERY father of a daughter has to brace himself and fight the urge to destroy every rotten thing that can hurt her or turn her into something rotten. Of course we are left to realize that every rotten thing lives within our own rotten desires! No matter how much a man can enjoy porno or sleaze he MUST remember that every "girl" who dances or performs sexually is/or has once been SOMEONES precious little daughter! Which brings us to Grand Rapids' Dutch Calvinist church.Middle-aged,divorced Jake VanDorn is absorbed in both his career and his life as a single father to teen-aged Kristen.We never really get to know too much about her.Which probably helps explain Jake's anxiety and terror when she is reported missing during her youth group's Christmas trip to Southern California. We realize the she is just as much a mystery to him as she is to us! In desperation Jake hires a street-wise private detective who promises to track down the missing girl. She is found of course "acting" in a cheap,sleazy,"untraceable" hardcore movie! Feeling he has nowhere else to turn Jake travels to the Bowells of Hollywood,trying to find his daughter among the underworld of strip-clubs,pornoshops,and prostitutes!Through a strange venture posing as a buisnessman looking to finance some porno-movies Jake meets and enlists the aid of a transient hooker named Nikki.Together they roam through the dark alleys of the "sex industry" all the while searching for not only the missing girl but also searching for some true meaning in their own lives!The ending is a messy and unsatisfying scenario with no real questions answered and nothing really resolved.

Don't misunderstand me! "Dirty Dancing" still ranks as one of my favorite movies! A bright and cheery "feel good" experience that's always fun to watch and enjoy during a date night or a party! You simply have to take it at face value and not too seriously! The soundtrack,the photography,the summer resort setting and of course the fabulous dance numbers all have managed to work together to make one of the 80s biggest and most memorable hits! But,you have to laugh at what the filmakers tried to pull off: a conglomeration of characters who act and dress and behave in ways UNHEARD OF in 1960s America! BUT...maybe that's what does it! Is it the summertime vacation experience that everyone (young or old) has secret dreams about? Does this far-fetched soap-opera/love story strike such a deep nerve in our American viewers that we love it because it lives-out our fantasies??? Who knows?? Watch it anyway...have the time of your life!

"House without a Christmas Tree" actually works so well because of it's setting in 1940s Nebraska.Back at a time when children actually respected their elders and there was no such thing as a single parent!Which brings us to Addie Mills.She's 10 years old,spunky,and lives with her older,gruff,hardworking,no-nonsense father and her loving grandma.We learn that Addie's mother died when she was a baby and her father has been unable to enjoy Christmas ever since!Nowadays of course Addie's teacher's would probably have reccommended old dad to spend time in counseling while Addie spent Christmas with her new foster family visiting grandma at the local assisted-living condo devolopement! But,putting humor aside, this story works because Addie so desperately wants not just her first Christmas tree BUT her dad's love and affection!With the help of her loving yet patient grandma young Addie manages to break through dad's wall of coldness by her act of doing good for somebody less fortunate! This could NEVER be tolerated in the new Mellenium,but in 1940s Nebraska a family's love and devotion shines through the holidays once more!!!

Looking at the "world" we live in (in 2003) movies like " Dirty Harry" or "Death Wish" or even "Taxi Driver" seem like throw-backs to simpler times! YES, simpler times when only "scum" or "thugs" or "pimps" were the people who could hurt us or change our lives in a negative way! Just watch the news!! Today there is (virtually) no way of knowing who are the crime kings or the gangsters! No longer is the "big city" the only place to get robbed,raped,kidnapped or killed! Nowadays with the internet and cell phones we have sex,drugs and weopans literally at our fingertips! Prostitutes,pimps,dealers,queers no longer NEED to "come out at night" to fill our city streets! Which brings us to 1976 and "Taxi Driver" a surprisingly hard and violent exercise in how one lonely VietNam vet attempts to cope with the "crumbling" world around him! This film is well-photographed and well acted.But it's strange twist with it's main character becomming a "hero" after killing three people is just too implausible even if he did shoot those men in his "defense" of a 12-year-old prostitute! Sorry,but he would NOT have been aquitted-even in 1976! It would be very interesting to see the same character in a modern-day sequel (say "Taxi Driver-2003"??) Travis Bickle would probably look at the world TODAY and REALLY shoot himself in the head!!

I think that the "Karen Carpenter Story" succeeded because it stayed close enough to the truth and played-up the "good stuff" so well that we the viewer simply has to respect Karen's privacy and give this TV bio the benefit of the doubt!Unfortunately we leave this movie without any real understanding of the facts behind the Carpenters rise to success and Karen's harrowing decline into anorexia nervosa and ultimate death in 1983!This is disturbing because eating disorders and body image delusions were finally made known and treatable largely due to Karen Carpenter!This film SHOULD have devulged the problem much more specifically and brought out what Karen Carpenter was actually doing to herself and how she decieved others around her!Major obstacles in her life such as her marriage,her long illness,her attempt to get well,her overbearing and perfectionistic personality,her many failed attempts at a relationship,her solo attempt-All have been glossed over in the attempt to make a 2-hour TV movie!Worth watching-but not very insightful!

"Fatal Attraction" remains an effective and creepy little gem of a psycho-thriller!But it is also a movie that starts off so well that it COULD have remained a masterpiece of drama and suspense.All wrapped around a very real storyline which unfortunately tries to become a slasher flick! The familiar story involves a successful,professional man living out his American dream with his loving wife and daughter in New York City.He is outwardly happily married and deeply in love with his beautiful and devoted wife.During a weekend when he's "doing extra work" he has a brief,wild sexual affair with a strangely beautiful and aggressive colleague!She turns out to be clingy,needy,possessive and suicidal!She agrees to end the affair and "get counseling" He tries to go on as if nothing has happened!Within weeks she's back in his life again:harassing him,threatening him,declaring love for him and announcing that she's pregnant! Up to this point in the film the viewer can relate to just about everyone's plight!There is a lot of room for serious discussions about marital responsibility and the "right" of the pregnant woman to demand the baby's father to own up to his responsibility!Of course this woman is emotionally unbalanced and lonely but we still could feel some compassion for her situation!Many of us could also understand(secretly)the man who seemingly has it all only to take a foolish risk for a "free fling" But rather than deal with all of this head-on and realistically the filmakers have decided to make the pregnant woman a psychotic killer who does some pretty far-fetched things to this man and his family before he finally drowns her in a bathtub-only to have her leap from the tub to attack him again before his wife shoots her dead!The END! Fatal Attraction could have been a testament to the dangers of extra-marital sex and it's severe consequences!Instead it just has to stand as a slasher-thriller with very real characters being stretched out of proportion and thrown over the top!

"One flew over the Cuckoos Nest" is a definite "MUST SEE" among lovers of the classics and Jack Nicholson!When I first saw it in 1975 it struck a lot of raw nerves in viewers and started a lot of discussions in psychology classes!This was all before the advent of Mental Health Advocacy groups,day-treatment centers,half-way houses,wrap-a-round services,In-home treatment and sheltered workshop training,and ESPECIALLY the closing of most of the state mental hospitals in the USA! In this new mellenium "one flew over the Cuckoos Nest" has become a beautifully filmed story of what life WAS like before psychiatric treatment units began cropping up in nearly every prison! Don't get me wrong!The movie and storyline is worth watching.But we could almost never relate anymore to these characters being placed together in a hospital ward!

To truly appreciate "Sextette" one has to truly appreciate Mae West!And to truly appreciate Mae West one must know and understand her life and her persona!Just forget any other Hollywood actress!Mae West stands alone in a class by herself!She is entirely her own creation and spent her lifetime maintaining and nurturing that creation!There exists a few GOOD books about her!And even her autobiography sheds light on HER view of herself and her effect on the world(as she believed it revolved around her!) Mae West was a small,husky,talented,brassy girl from Brooklyn who decided early in life to become a sexy,living legend long before she finally arrived in Hollywood (at age 39) She succeeded at a time when overweight and overaged leading ladies were unheard of!(they still are!) Everything from her golden hair,her hourglass figure,her purring voice and sassy,hip-swinging strut she devoloped through years of self-discipline and self-worship!By the time she became a world-famous movie star she was already in her 40s,wearing wigs,corsetts,wedge-heels,practicing exercises and birth-control devices decades ahead of her time! Which,of course,brings us to "Sextette" Based on a musical play of her own creation it would seem almost inconcievable to have anyone else portray her character!And remember,Mae West WAS her own character!The blond wigs,slinky gowns,diamonds and furs were STILL part of Mae's everyday persona well into her 80s!This was a woman who never had children nor cared for anyone but herself!SHE BELIEVED in her ageless,sexy siren and all that came with it!By all accounts Mae was remarkably agile and well-preserved!It would have been nice to have seen her WITHOUT the gauzy photography and artificial get-up!

As a child I remember reading about CarilAnn Fugate in one of those"Whatever Happened To.." books that my mother used to read!Of course she was still in the Nebraska Women's Prison,filing her appeals to her parole board.Some years later a discussion came up in my college psychology class about CarilAnn Fugate's recent release from prison and her apparent "antisocial personality disorder".Then in 1993 she popped-up out of nowhere,calling an angry press conference and venting her wrath over the airing of a TV movie about her "ordeal" as a "child" Naturally,being a movie and crime buff,I became fascinated with the Starkweather-Fugate case!Reading almost anything I could get my hands on about it and even watching "Badlands" and was surprised how close it came to the truth!However,I couldn't wait to finally see "Murder in the Heartland"! Hoping to maybe see the case played out and form some opinion about it for myself! Well...This movie definitely shows the known facts of the murder spree and sticks almost completely to the testimonies and the speculations!Perhaps so much that it leaves the viewer confused about young CarilAnn's actual level of involvement and the harshness of her consequences!Played to eerie perfection by Tim Roth and Fairuza Balk.The harrowing murder spree of Charles Starkweather and CarilAnn Fugate is one that will shock and bewilder!!

I remember seeing "real" gypsies as a child!They used to camp at different places at the Jersey shore!They had trailors,tents,cadillacs and all lived and traveled together in big families!They seemed so loud and happy!But where have all our Gypsies gone?You can hardly even see a genuine gypsy fortune-teller anymore!Perhaps this is because of the lure of American life!With welfare,WIC,medicare,section-8 housing,disability and eldercare who really wants to live a nomadic life?Let alone be an "outlaw" Gypsy and make a squalid living stealing and telling fortunes? "King of the Gypsies" answers a lot of these questions without really saying so! We view many of the so-called traditions of American gypsies and witness their members decline into poverty and organized crime.The movie isn't completely true to the book.But by the movie's end we realize that the wild and colorful gypsy world is passing away.To be replaced by the hustle-n-bustle of American middle class life!

"Cage without a Key" attempts to tell a rather worn-out,innocent-teenaged girl-behind bars story with a surprisingly effective disguise as a commentary on our nation's indifference towards it's troubled youth!Nonetheless "Cage without a key" reveals some heavy moments of genuine drama within it's shell of a story that we've all seen before!

The story concerns 17-year-old Valerie Smith.During her summer vacation she accepts a ride from a boy she barely knows and finds herself forced (at gunpoint) to participate in a botched robbery and charged as an accessory to a murder!Sent to the state reformatory for girls,young and naive Valerie is wrongly surrounded by the usual circle of tough lesbians,half-crazed druggies,warring gangs(called"families") and the panel of efficient and uncaring professionals who exclaim pride in their "school" and it's "rehabilitation" program!Of course young Valerie gradually becomes just like the others and even loses all hope of any eventual "release".But all in all,the movie is rather smoothly done!With some excellent and believable performances and scenery."Cage without a Key" does a good job of making us believe that we haven't seen it all before!

"BORN INNOCENT" remains one of the more "controversial" TV movies of the 1970s.Setting the path for Linda Blair's future in trashy,women-behind-bars,skin-flicks.This is a shame because Born Innocent is a realistic and straight-forward expose'of life in "reformatories" and the people who try to make a difference there! The well-known story concerns a 14-year-old girl,branded an "incorrigible"runaway,sent to the state school for girls after being relinquished by her parents.At the "school" we meet girls with a variety of problems and behaviors-most of whom seem simply unloved aqnd unwanted!Of course we learn otherwise but the question still remains:Can having loving parents and a "normal" life in middle-class suburbia really solve everyone's problems?Are some people just not capable of functioning within the structure of a family and becomming productive in society? I think the most couragious step that the filmakers have taken is to show the school's "inmates" as both criminals and yet still "kids" who crave acceptance from each other and yes,the adults around them!This is especially evident in the scenes in which Chris Parker(the central character) befriends those same girls who "raped" her earlier in the story!Or when Moco(the tough lesbian) actually cries when Janet(Chris' friend) loses her baby during her stint in isolation(as punishment for fighting with Moco!) By the movies' end nothing has really been resolved!After injuring their housemother during a protest riot Chris joins her friends at the school and has undoubtedly become the new "leader".We the viewers are left to wonder:Will Chris ever get out and lead a productive life?Will any of these girls "make it" out "there"? It would be interesting to have made a "follow-up" sequel-something like "Born Innocent-25 years later!" Well...maybe not!!!

The simple fact that this movie was even made says more about how much of a "success" Edward D.Wood has become than how "bad" his movies are!I'm not denying that Ed Wood's movies are some of the worst films (of their types!)ever released in the heyday of the 50s second-rate cinema!But the fact that Ed Wood remains so talked about( and biographed and his films reviewed over and over)it shows just how much of an impression he made on the world of filmaking!If over 40 years later his silly,trashy,dirt-cheap,grade-Z movies still sell on video, and play in art houses and college parties, than Ed Wood certainly achieved his impossible dream!! He MUST be looking down from heaven...LAUGHING at the rest of us who will never forget him!! As it stands the movie "Ed Wood" does a pretty good job of capturing the essence of the 1950s Hollywood and it's colony of"fringe dwellers" the wannabes and has-beens and novely acts that Ed Wood managed to attract as features and fixtures in his wild schemes to make his movies!Although the filmakers twist a lot of the facts,they stay close enough to the truth to make it real!And of course the truth was weird enough as it was! Enter the aging and drug-addicted Bela Lugosi-lonely,feeble and unemployed!Believed to be long-dead by Hollywood!And then there's Tor Johnson-the 400lb former wrestler making cheap monster-movies just for fun!And the "amazing" Criswell-long before the "psychic friends network" making bizarre and bogus "predictions" on local variety shows!Ed's girlfriend Dolores Fuller-a struggling,second-rate model who finally leaves Ed for a "normal"life!(she eventually became a successful songwriter!)And the one-time TV horror-hostess Vampira-who finds herself playing the "ghoul woman" after she's broke and blackballed in Hollywood! But the most intriguing character is Ed himself!Played to perfection by Johnny Depp he's ambitious,shrewd,caring,loving,imaginative and totally in love with his own twisted belief that he could be a true Hollywood legend!And despite the fact that he made nothing but laughable trash and lived the rest of his life in alcoholic obscurity and poverty...he succeeded after all!!!

She-Devil was trumped-up as Roseanne Barr's movie debut!In just a few years our favorite chubby housewife rose from being a stand-up comic performing in bars to having her own TV series and at last co-starring in a major motion picture with the immortal Meryl Streep!The movie itself is rather silly and farfetched!Roseanne is essentially playing herself as a put-apon housewife! But the real surprise is Meryl Streep! She delivers a searing,self-mocking performance as narcissisitic romance novelist Mary Fisher.She plays this role flawlessly!! As a prissy,bluenose diva she reacts hilariously to every twist and turn of the movie's silly storyline!Actually mocking every role she's played before!Roseanne holds her own nicely-but it would't have been possible without Meryl Streep!!

Don't get me wrong!I like Jennifer Lopez and I think she is the only actress good enough to bring the essence of Selena Perez to the big screen.The soundtrack and photography are superb!Yet the filmakers have failed to tell the whole story and attempt to make any sense of Selena's untimely death!Perhaps the family of Selena agreed to be so open and candid about her life on the condition that her involvement with Yolanda Saldivar(who ultimately kills her) be downplayed and desensationalized!Of course this approach is understandable-but it dosen't provide any answers!I guess the best way to appreciate the movie is to watch it AFTER viewing an E or A&E biography of her life!These biographical accounts have pretty well examined how Yolanda worked her way into Selena's confidance and succeeds in blinding her to how dangerous she was!It still leaves the disturbing question of "what?" and "how?" it all really occured! The movie makes no attempt to answer!!

Star 80 tells the story of Dorothy Stratten pretty brutally and realistically!Maybe Mariel Hemingway dosen't exactly measure up to the rare beauty of Dorothy-but the actress pulls it off rather well!We the viewers are able to feel the naivety and innocence of Dorothy and how much the sleazy Paul Snider had a hold on her!The real star of the film is Eric Roberts!He brings to the role an understanding of the tortured and crazed man.We see Paul's obsession and inability to translate his love for her into anything healthy or productive!Of course the crazy and lurid Paul is incapable of loving! But through Eric Robert's performance we believe that he is at least suffering from his own sick delusions! Poor Dorothy died not really acknowleging just how dangerous Paul really was!Both to her and to himself!!!

"Fire Down Below" involves a rather silly storyline with interesting scenery.Shot on location in the island of Tobago-complete with native Caribbean festivals and rituals-this film reveals more of the direction of Rita Hayworth's life-that of an aging glamourgirl fighting for survival despite her weakness for men and alcohol!At 37 Rita still has the sparkle of her earlier films.But here she's clearly older,heavier and depressed at the lack of fulfillment in her life! Much like what was really going on at that particular time in Rita's life!Her character Irena travels illegally from place to place-living off the willingness of those who wish to use her!She's jaded and unable to give or receive anything meaningful! Fire Down Below remains one of Rita Hayworth's last movies as a sexpot.Knowing that her next 10 years would involve a downward spiral into alcoholism,obscurity and eventual mental deterioration from Alzheimers disease leaves viewers feeling very sorry for her!It is a sad yet true insight into the life of a once beautiful and hopeful woman!

Tootsie has been wrongly accused of being a movie which promotes cross-dressing!Of course the male lead DOES portray a female character-and this character actually takes on her own identity!But this has nothing to do with cross-dressing or transexualism.It's a smart and funny comment on our gender expectations.There are many other films with similar themes (Mrs Doubtfire,Victor-Victoria,Some like it Hot,Charley's Aunt,Just One of the Guys,etc) But the resulting characters of the "gender-switch" are little more than grotesque exagerrations of the opposite sex-set up as a silly "secret" between the filmaker and the viewer! Not so with Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of "Dorothy" She actually seems to be "holding her own" so well that we can almost forget that she's a character being played by a man! There was some serious joking about Dustin Hoffman being nominated for a "Best Actress" award-he deserved it!

"the Legend of Lizzie Borden" is possibly one of the best TV movies ever made! I DO NOT say this lightly! The filmakers have taken such care to recreate the tone and atmosphere of New England in the 1890s.It puts theatrical productions to shame!From the flawless photography,authentic props and scenery,masterful costume and hairstyles,and the documentary feel of the cool,muted visual design of the film.The viewer gets a rare look into the case of Lizzie Borden from both HER viewpoint and the viewpoint of the legend itself! The case story is by now well known (however legally"unsolved") Lizzie Borden is accused of a brutal double-murder of her father and step-mother.The trial and legal proceedings are taken (almost exactly) from the transcripts of 1893.The filmakers have introduced one of the theories of how Lizzie could have committed the murders without actually bringing it out in the courtroom(which it never was) This is done quite effectively through use of flashbacks and "daydreaming" and would not have been possible without the performance of Elizabeth Montgomery.She is alternatingly cold,fierce,manipulative,and above all believable as Lizzie ( the real Lizzie was heavier,shorter and not very pretty) Miss Montgomery makes one realize that there really WAS some magic behind that "witch twitch" we all knew from TV.

Despite it's rather misleading title "the Snake Pit" offers a rare look into the world of mental illness and it's treatment modalities.Of course the state hospital system is nearly obsolite in America today.But in 1948 it was a stark reality!This film offers a view from all angles:the confused and frightened patient,her concerned and loving husband,the dedicated and determined doctor,and the hospital system itself.With it's overcrowding population,the bars and locks,the straight-jackets and shock treatments,and even the moments of humor and humanity!This movie takes you on a journey in only 2 hours which seems like a mini-series. The central character is the young and terrified Virginia Cunningham Stuart.For reasons that are never fully revealed she has a "nervous breakdown" and becomes a patient at the local state hospital.She suffers from memory lapses,mood swings,suspicious delusions,and is very frightened!The wards in which she lives are often filled with old and chronically mentally ill women.Her concerned psychiatrist Dr."Kik" believes that Virginia can be reached and helped to face her troubles.This is accomplished via shock treatments and deep psychotherapy ( remember this was before psychotropic meds!) But the world of the state hospital and her husband's attempt to rescue her prove to be larger obstacles!But Virginia does manage to overcome those obstacles and eventually become "well" enough to return "home" ( remember this was long before half-way houses and day-treatment centers!) From the harrowing and unforgettable portrayals to the expert cinematography "the Snake Pit" remains a true gem for moviegoers of any era!!