Today's Movie: My Cousin Vinny

Not to sound like too much of a hypocrite here, because I often knock fish-out-of-water comedies that feel like they're written around one joke, but I really like the 1992 film My Cousin Vinny.

Now if you close your eyes, it's not hard to picture someone pitching this movie to some Hollywood executive "I've got an idea for a movie! Picture this... Joe Pesci... wait for it... in a small town in Alabama." 

"Is Joe Pesci going to be attempting a southern accent?" would likely be the follow up question.

"No." says the person pitching the idea "It's just Joe Pesci being Joe Pesci in Alabama, the jokes practically write themselves."

...and that's how I've always envisioned this movie got off the ground.

The film starts off with two college age friends Billy and Stan (played by Ralph Macchio and Mitchell Whitfield respectively) who are driving through Alabama and accidentally shoplift a can of tuna while making a pit stop at a convenient store. Shortly after they leave the store, the clerk is murdered and the two friends are mistaken for the killers. Once arrested, they call Billy's mom who informs them that Billy's cousin Vinny is a lawyer. So, Vinny Gambini (played by Joe Pesci) and his fiancee Mona Lisa Vito (played by Marisa Tomei) arrive from Brooklyn and, right away, they're out of there element. Mona wonders why there's not a Chinese restaurant in the small town, their car gets stuck in the mud, they don't know what grits are, etc. Although it's a fairly predictable plot, the dynamic between Vinny and Mona, and between Vinny and Judge Haller (played by Fred Gwynne) provide a lot of laughs. 

Vinny has only been practicing law for a few months, failed the Bar exam a handful of times, and has never been to trial so he makes a lot of mistakes that irritate Judge Haller and for a while he losses the confidence of Billy and Stan. However in the end, Vinny, with a lot of help from Mona, wins the case and all charges are dropped. Even though you kind of know early on where everything is going it still manages to be really entertaining. The comedy doesn't feel forced and pretty much all of the jokes hit their mark. Also, the performances in the film are all top-notch, Marisa Tomei even won an Oscar for her role in the movie. (I think. Don't fact check me on that one.)

Overall, it's a really fun movie and if you've never seen it then I recommend checking it out.

I give it a 4 out of 5.

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Today's Movie: Quiz Show

Every so often there will be a movie that has been recommended to me or that I've heard is pretty good for a while, and I just never got around to checking it out. That's been the case with the 1994 film Quiz Show.

In a nutshell, the film is about a 50's game show called 'Twenty One' on NBC that is rigged in order to generate more public interest, thus increasing ratings and generating more money for the show's sponsor. Eventually when the ratings plateau, the two men who run the show Dan Enright (played by David Paymer and Albert Freedman (played by Hank Azaria) convince the recurring champion Herb Stempel (played by John Turturro) to lose on purpose, so that a good-looking, marketable guy named Charles Van Doren (played by Ralph Finnes) can be the champ. Of course after throwing the game, Stempel is bitter and he'll tell anyone who will listen that the game is rigged. It doesn't take long for a young congressional lawyer named Dick Goodwin (played by Rob Morrow) to catch wind of the possible rigging and he heads to New York to investigate. 

From there it's a lot of Van Doren feeling guilty, Stempel being angry, Goodwin trying to build a case, and Enright trying to cover it all up, but it's done in a very entertaining way. For the most part it's all well written, well directed, and well acted which is especially important because this one could have very easily been a dull, run-of-the-mill, corruption movie. I particularly liked Rob Morrow and Ralph Finnes in the film, but even some of the smaller roles like Christopher McDonald as the game show host and Martian Scorsese as the 'Geritol' executive manage to stand out.

Overall, it's a good movie. It's not one I foresee myself watching over and over, but I definitely enjoyed it. 

I give this one a 4 out of 5.

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Best of 2016

2016 has come to a close and, as with every year, there were plenty of great movies and disappointments to hit theaters.
 I originally thought about doing a sort of every-man version of the Oscars and pick my favorite actor, director, supporting actor, film score, etc. from this year, but I ended up with just too many categories. So, I decided to break it down into three categories that stood out to me after all my trips to the theater this year.

Best Comic Book Movie:

Captain America: Civil War

Comic Book movies get their own category because now more than ever before there is no shortage of action-packed hero flicks hitting the big screen every year. There was a lot to be excited about going into 2016, but i would say there were more negatives in this category than positives. Civil War was pretty awesome and Dr. Strange was good but, for me, movies like X-men: Apocalypse, Deadpool, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, and Suicide Squad either didn't live up to the hype or were flat-out disappointments. Some of these movies would have a good action scene or a fun character but Captain America: Civil War was thoroughly enjoyable and, as a result, was the one that really stood out from the rest of the pack.

Best Animated Movie:

Moana

Much like the Comic Book category this wasn't a close call for me. It had been a while since an animated film came around that I absolutely loved, and then Disney's Moana came out. I wasn't the biggest Finding Nemo fan so I didn't expect Finding Dory to thrill me,and it didn't. I found Trolls hard to sit through, Storks was funny, I didn't even get through all of Secret Life of Pets, Zootopia didn't really move the needle for me, I skipped out on yet another Ice Age sequel... Moana was the only one that really had me entertained, and I even went back to see it a second time.

Best Thing I wasn't Expecting:

Hacksaw Ridge

There were a quite a few movies I really enjoyed this year that caught me off guard. I was surprised how much I liked The Jungle Book remake, but the toss up was really between Hacksaw Ridge and In a Valley of Violence. Both were films that weren't even on my radar until right before they came out, and I thought both were really entertaining. In this category, I give the edge to Hacksaw Ridge because I think it's a bit of a better all-around film but I do recommend checking out both of them if you have the opportunity. (Here are links to both reviews Hacksaw Ridge, In a Valley of Violence)
As a bit of a side note: One movie that wasn't quite as good as I was expecting was Rob Zombie's 31. I liked it but it didn't blow me away.

  A big thanks to everyone who has been reading my reviews this year.

Have a movie recommendation for me to check out in 2017?
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Western Wednesday: The Man from Utah (1934)

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for a Western!
 This week's film is 1934's The Man From Utah.

Now, I've included John Wayne films in some of my previous 'Western Wednesday' post, such as The Big Trail and True Grit. So, let's take a look at another movie featuring the man synonymous with the genre. 

In this one John Wayne plays John Weston and he is, as the title would suggest, a man from Utah. He rides into a small town one day seeking work. However, shortly after he arrives three men rob the local bank and, being the man of action he is, John guns down two of the robbers and shoots the gun out of the hand of the third. After the marshal sees how easily this man stopped the three criminals, he decides he can use the sharp-shooting Weston to help him in his investigation to figure out who's behind a crooked rodeo. Weston enters the rodeo, he does really well, and from there everything you'd expect to happen pretty much does. The Duke infiltrates the rodeo gang, figures out how they operate, and, of course, saves the day.

So, is this one of the great John Wayne films? No. The characters are one-dimensional and the plot is pretty basic. Overall, it's watchable, and it's only about a hour long (unfortunately a significant portion of that is rodeo stock footage). If you're a big John Wayne fan then I recommend it, but otherwise it's not a must-see.

I give it a 2 out of 5.

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The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975)

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother is one of the often forgotten Gene Wilder films, perhaps partly because it came out just 1yr after arguably his best film; Young Frankenstein. Wilder directed, wrote, and stars in this underrated 1975 comedy. If you haven't seen it, it's a hilarious movie with a solid cast.

Gene Wilder plays Sigerson Holmes, who's older brother Sherlock (or "sheer luck" as Sigerson calls him) delegates some cases to him while he and Dr. Watson lay low for a while. If the cases are still being solved then criminals will never know that Sherlock is taking some time off. Sigerson soon teams up with a Scotland Yard records clerk named Orville (played by Marty Feldman). Orville has the unique ability to recite conversations as if they were recorded. Soon after the two meet, a habitual liar named Jenny Hill (played by Maldeline Kahn) comes to Sigerson's apartment seeking help.

  Jenny has been blackmailed by an opera singer named Eduardo Gambetti (played by Dom DeLuise) to give him a secret document that she has stolen from her fiancee in return for a lewd note that she had previously written. Gambetti intends to sell the document to Sherlock's famous nemesis Professor Moriarty and, of course, it's up to Sigerson to retrieve the mystery document and foil Moriarty's plan.

It's not a perfect film by any stretch but, it is entertaining from start to finish and there are a ton of really funny moments. This is one I definitely recommend, particularly if you like Gene Wilder.

Overall, I give it a 4 out of 5. 

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Dylan Dog: Dead of Night

Brandon Routh is a man desperate to play a comic book character and yet it doesn't seem to be a role suited for him. In between the disappointing Superman Returns in 2006 and his poorly written role as 'The Atom' on T.V., he played Dylan Dog in the 2011 film Dylan Dog: Dead of Night a horror/comedy that fails to provide either scares or laughs.

Dylan Dog is a private investigator in New Orleans, where monsters hide in plain sight just trying to get along like everyone else, and he used to specialize paranormal cases but has since given it up. However, after a couple of people are murdered, one of them being his friend Marcus (played by Sam Huntington), he gets breaks out his old gear and goes searching for the killer. He soon finds his friend who is now a zombie, and Dylan wants to find out why the undead are suddenly on a killing spree.   Along the way he encounters werewolves, vampires, and zombies. Admittedly, I'm not super-familiar with the 'Dylan Dog' comics, but I get the sense that there are probably some cool ideas in the comics that they just failed to execute in the movie.

Now, not every film that is panned by critics is poorly acted or stupid, and not every box-office flop is terrible... in this case the film is all of those. The writing feels lazy, the action scenes are sub-par, Sam Huntington as the comic-relief sidekick is just awful, and the monsters look lousy.

Overall, this isn't one I recommend. 
 I give it a 1 out of 5.


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Rogue One - a review by The Bored Enthusiast

Hello Enthusiasts,

Star Wars is a franchise that has been going on for about four decades now, and there are still stories to tell. Take the newest film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, for example. This story isn't a direct part of the normal anthology. Instead, it focuses on the boots-on-the-ground aspect of war, something we have only gotten glimpses of in the past films. The Rogue team's mission? Steal the plans to the Death Star for the rebels.

Overall, the film was pretty solid. The characters could have been flushed out a little more, and some of the cameos (C3PO and R2-D2) were unnecessary, but it was still an enjoyable movie. The final act of the film feels like an actual war movie, with various tactics and equipment. The humor and dialogue are enjoyable, the acting is believable, and the whole film feels a lot shorter than it actually is. There are several really enjoyable scenes with a character from the original trilogy, but I'm not looking to give anything away.

If you're a fan of the Star Wars movies and haven't already seen this, go see it. If you don't like the franchise, know that this film shifts its focus away from the Jedi and that aspect of the universe, and instead looks at the actual war among the stars. It still might not be the film for you, but it is a great addition to the series.

I give Rogue One: A Star Wars Story a 4/5.

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast