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Reviews
The In-Laws (1979)
"Serpentine Shelly, Serpentine!"
"Serpentine, Shelly, Serpentine!"
Almost anyone who has seen the original Arthur Hiller film "The In-Laws" (1979, Alan Arkin / Peter Falk) will remember one of the funniest scenes from this absurdly funny comedy.
Sheldon Kornpett (Alan Arkin), a successful New York Park Avenue dentist who lives in a Northern New Jersey mansion has the perfect life. His daughter Barbara (Penny Peyser) is marrying Tommy Ricardo (Michael Lembeck), a second-year law student at Yale on the upcoming weekend at the Kornpett residence. Tommy's father, Vince Ricardo (Peter Falk) is a somewhat mysterious import/export executive who is in reality a Central Intelligence Agency agent whose operational area is Central America.
The Kornpetts have scheduled a dinner for both families at the Kornpett home to get better acquainted. Vince, as usual, is late for the dinner as he has been involved in the rather unique heist of some very valuable currency engravings that have been stolen from the U.S. Treasury as bait for a Central America CIA sting operation.
At dinner after a few glasses of wine, Vince Ricardo begins to entertain his hosts with wild tales of his experiences in the Central American jungle, in particular a seemingly far-fetched tale of giant tse-tse flies (with beaks, no less) carrying off small children into the deep jungle. Sheldon begins to think that Vince is a lunatic (the look on Kornpett's face is one of disbelief - and hilarious!) and is having second thoughts about this whole marriage thing. Suddenly, Vince announces that he has to make a very important private telephone call and is afforded a telephone which is located in the basement where he not only makes the call, but hides one of the engraving plates in the air conditioning duct.
The following day Carol Kornpett (Nancy Dassault) accidentally discovers the plate while supervising a delivery of beverages for the wedding. Not knowing what she has found, she takes the plate to her New York Bank to find out just exactly what the plates are. In just a matter of minutes a slew of Treasury Department Agents appear at the bank wanting to know just how this woman came into possession of stolen Treasury engraved plates.
What follows is a madcap, totally unbelievable series of hilariously funny events which include New York City street gunplay, clandestine jet flights to either Scranton or Central America, wild car chases, chickens in the hotel room (!), an insanely funny Central American dictator (Richard Libertini), a cameo appearance by James Hong ("Seinfeld, party of four") and split pea soup ("STOP WITH THE SOUP!").
Viewers are encouraged to leave any sense of disbelief in the other room before sitting down to watch "The In-Laws." Director Hiller and the actors play the story for just what it is: Visual, over-the-top comedy played to perfection by a cast who seem to be having just as much fun as the viewers.
Rated PG, language. Available on Amazon Prime rental for $2.99.
My rating 3 and ½ popcorns ***+ (and I'll throw in a container of Diet Coke for good measure).
Reviewed for Bob's Blog on Facebook, 11/18/2020 by Bob.
I Went Down (1997)
Delightful if occasionally violent tale
The Irish working class have always used what we in the English-speaking world consider profanity or vulgarity as punctuation rather than adverbs or verbs and it would seem that no one ever seems to be offended by their frequent sprinkling of F-bombs and other colorful word selections in their everyday speech.
Such is the case with "I Went Down," that I found on Amazon Prime, a delightfully funny, vulgar and at times violent film from director Paddy Breatnach about two unlikely ex-cons who are paying off debts to the local loanshark and are sent on a mission to Cork to capture and return the loanshark's former partner. During this "quest" the pair are constantly in and out of situations that can easily derail their "mission" and could jeopardize their standing with the loanshark, played to perfection by Tony Doyle, a man who appears to have little tolerance for error.
The two mismatched debtors, Git, played by Peter McDonald and Bunny, played by Brendan Gleeson embark on a riotous, violent and funny odyssey to capture and return Frank, played by Peter Caffrey to a not-so-surprising finish... or is it perhaps surprising after all?
My Rating: Three*** popcorns plus one very large box of Junior Mints. Film contains viloence, vulgar language and one brief sexual situation.
The Harder They Fall (1956)
Bogart's Last Hurrah
While waiting for yesterday's baseball playoffs to begin I watched "The Harder They Fall," a story of boxing corruption and a sports writer's fall from grace and ultimate redemption. This was Bogart's last film (1956) and his lack of energy is evident as he was slowly dying from esophageal cancer. Bogey prevails, however with a great performance which outshines the over-the-top, scenery-chewing role by co-star Rod Steiger.