Film Geek (2005)

Director: James Westby

Writer: James Westby

Composer: Jason Wells

Starring: Melik Malkasian, Ritah Parrish, John Breen, Dennis Adkins, Tara Walker, Taylor Nida, Daphne Carver, Kristen Torrianni, MIchelle Garner, Michael Ramirez, Jack Ryan, Kim Hill

More info: IMDb

Tagline: His Knowledge is your misery.

Plot: The story of Scotty Pelk, a socially inept video store clerk who gets fired from his job and becomes a sensation as an online film critic.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Probably not.

You don't have to have much of a budget to make a good film.  There are some good performances here and some really funny shit like Scotty (Malkasian) frequently masturbating in the sink.  I'm sure most people will find Scotty or Malkasian's performance annoying as shit, much like just about everyone around him but then he's supposed to be that way.  He really knows his shit when it comes to movies and he's super passionate about it that all he wants to do is spread the love, except when he's spreading his love into the sink.  I sympathize with him except for the yankin' it in the sink part but I'm not annoying or bothersome like this guy.  This dude creeps me out a bit.  Here's a fun scene that's a little funny if it weren't so awkward (having invested the time watching Scotty up until this point because you know he's not going to take this well - you can get a glimpse of his video store work in the trailer).

Writer/director Westby takes four full minutes to fire Scotty which is a lot but it works very well and the scene doesn't overstay its welcome one bit.  For the most part the rest of the picture feels the same way but then there's the huge WTF with the happy ending.  It comes out of left field and it feels awkwardly shoe-horned in.  One of three things happened; it's real and it's either played as a joke on Hollywood's penchant for happy endings, or it's real and Westby handled it poorly as if to quickly wrap the film up or, and this is a good possibility, the happy ending is Scotty's fantasy cooked up to cope with his miserable life.  Even if the latter is true, there should have been more of a clue (either comically or with painful sadness) that this is in Scotty's head.  I'm actually OK with it being a dream or reality but considering how the film played out before it, the end should have been clearer.  I only watched it on Netflix streaming about a year ago (yeah, I'm that far behind in reviews) and it's no longer available that way.  Maybe the DVD has some insightful extras.  I'd actually watch it again with some commentary if it were available.  For film buffs this is definitely worth a look.  It's fun even if it's not entirely satisfying.  It's at least got me interested in seeing what else Westby has created. 

8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997)

Director: Tom Schulman

Writer: Tom Schulman

Composer: Andrew Gross

Starring: Joe Pesci, Andy Comeau, Kristy Swanson, George Hamilton, Dyan Cannon, David Spade, Todd Louiso, Anthony Mangano, Joe Basile, Ernestine Mercer

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Meet Tommy Spinelli. He's got two days to deliver this bag, or more heads are gonna roll.

Plot: A mob bagman finds that his luggage, containing the proof of his latest hit, has been switched.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Not funny.  The script feels like it needs a lot more tuning and that would require changing a lot of the scenes.  I can't blame the cast. No one's dropping the ball in that department.  Pesci's role is underwritten.  His character, Tommy, should have had a lot more to do.  Hell, one of the biggest problems, and this is script related, is that this wildly talented cast (Dyan Cannon and George Hamilton have been funny as shit in other movies but not in this one) isn't utilized to even half capacity.  In each of those three I've mentioned so far, there's an inkling that they might be but obviously aren't.  David Spade probably came off the best (as far as anyone you might recognize).  The only time I laughed, and it was a good one, was when Tommy dreams that the heads are singing (all 8 are placed along the top of a dresser).  THAT was funny but it was a long wait for it. This isn't a horrible picture (The pacing was good) but it's definitely under-cooked. The MGM DVD delivers the film in anamorphic widescreen and the sole extra is the non-anamorphic widescreen trailer.

Wendy and Lucy (2008)

Director: Kelly Reichardt

Writers: Kelly Reichardt, Jonathan Raymond

Starring: Michelle Williams, Lucy the dog, Michelle Worthey, Will Oldham, Wally Dalton, John Robinson, John Breen, Will Patton, Larry Fessenden

More info: IMDb

Tagline: On the long road, friendship is everything.

Plot: A woman's life is derailed en route to a potentially lucrative summer job. When her car breaks down, and her dog is taken to the pound, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she is led through a series of increasingly dire economic decisions.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Good flick.  Michelle Williams carries the picture as Wendy interacts with a variety of characters, some good and some bad. We only get a small hint as to why she's on the road with her dog, Lucy, trying to make her way to Alaska and we aren't entirely sure why she's going there.  She gets detoured in a small town where, over a couple of days, she's arrested, loses Lucy and her car dies.  It's a sad piling of events in which she is partly responsible for.  Money was tight so she didn't have to steal but that brings on a major event which will have significant consequences.  No spoilers here but her decision in the end is heartbreaking.  Was it the right one?  Maybe.  My emotions would've gotten the best of me and I would have done it differently...but then I don't think I would've resorted to stealing.  Her decision wasn't based on emotion but on reasoning and not a selfish one at that.  The ending is very good and it's right for the film regardless of what I or you think we would've done.  Now you're curious, right?  Check it out.  It's a good character piece with a good cast and performances.  There's no score which is odd but it works with the film.  After seeing this and MEEK'S CUTOFF (2010) in the span of one day I'm keen to see Reichardt's other work.  I like her voice.  Sadly, there are no extras on the Oscilloscope DVD for this film but there are for others.  You get trailers for 12 Oscilloscope pictures and Five short films chosen by the director from her colleagues at Bard College to include BOSTON FIRE, NEW YORK PORTRAIT #2 (by Peter Hutton), FLIGHT by Les LeVeque, THE SCARY MOVIE by Peggy Ahwesh and HOW TO FIX THE WORLD by Jacqueline Goss.

Thief (1981)

Director: Michael Mann

Writers: Michael Mann, Frank Hohimer

Composer: Tangerine Dream

Starring: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson, James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Tom Signorelli, Dennis Farina, Nick Nickeas, W.R. Brown, William Peterson,

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Tonight, his take home pay is $410,000...tax free.

Plot: Becoming closer to his dream of leading a normal life, a professional safecracker agrees to do a job for the mafia, who have other plans for him.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Man, I haven't seen this in nearly thirty years.  It's even better than I remember.  James Caan is a badass.  I love that guy.  Robert Prosky plays a mean heavy and it's his first feature film (as well as Belushi's,  Farina's, and Mann's).  There's a nice bit of tension that builds until the AWESOME finale that kicks all kinds of ass.  Tangerine Dream's score works so well with Mann's style and use of slow motion.  This is a great little crime caper picture that just stylish enough to make it work well with the substance.  I would LOVE to see this in a theater and it's one hell of a feature film debut from Mann. There are a lot of reasons to see this but mainly because it's that damn good.  Hell, I'm ready to watch it again. 

Heartbreakers (2001)

Director: David Mirkin

Writers: Robert Dunn, Paul Guay, Stephen Mazur

Composer: John Debney

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee, Anne Bancroft, Jeffrey Jones, Gene Hackman, Nora Dunn, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Ricky Jay, Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis, Carrie Fisher, Jack Shearer, Kevin Nealon

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Caution: Dangerous Curves Ahead

Plot: A mother and daughter con team seduce and scam wealthy men.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Sure.

Everyone in this thing is hilarious but it was Liotta and Hackman that stole the show for my money.  These guys were brilliantly funny.  It's been a dozen or more years since I saw this but it was funnier this time around.  I loved it.  It's not without flaws.  The foley work is spotty, sometimes going too far with the cartoonish sounds like when Page (Hewitt) falls in the mud.  It literally sounds like a cartoon. I'm sure it was a deliberate choice but it felt like it was too much.  The comedy in this picture is all over the place.  There's enough farcical moments sprinkled throughout to go for the slapstick laughs but there's a lot more to it.  I guess it'd be easy to nitpick this but it's clearly over the top so you can't get too involved by comparing this to reality.  For being a two hour comedy (!!!) it moves pretty quickly.  The only thing that slowed the picture down was when Max (Weaver) is singing with the band.  That went on way too long and I wasn't laughing.  I also wasn't given final cut approval.  No one bothered to contact me at all now that I think about it.  Anyway, it's a really funny movie that has enough belly laughs to ease the slower, dramatic sections.  Ray Liotta kills me in this.  He should do more comedy.  The MGM DVD has got more extras than you'd think for this picture.  There are two commentaries (one with the director and one with him and Weaver and Hewitt), a making of freaturette (22 minutes), another featurette focusing on the funny (12 minutes), 23 minutes of deleted scenes and trailers for this film (anamorphic wide) and THE PRINCESS BRIDE (fullscreen trailer for the DVD release).

Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger (2014)

Director: Joe Berlinger

Composer: Wendy Blackstone

Starring: James 'Whitey' Bulger, Stephen Rakes, Tommy Donahue, David Boeri, Steve Davis, Dick Lehr, Shelley Murphy, Patricia Donahue, J.W. Carney Jr., Kevin Cullen

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The FBI thought they had him. It was the other way around.

Plot: From Academy Award-nominated director Joe Berlinger, Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger is a sweeping and revelatory documentary film that follows the trial of the infamous gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, using the courtroom action as a springboard to examine accusations of multi-faceted corruption within our nation's law enforcement and legal systems.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yeah.

If you'd like a frame of reference for who this guy is, Jack Nicholson's character in THE DEPARTED (2006) was loosely based on him.  He ruled the Boston underworld for a lot of years.  I guess you could say he was a man of honor.  He admits to being a murderer, drug dealer, and all 'round bad criminal type but even though he clearly cooperated with the FBI, he denied it to the end.  He was a rat but he had his own spin on it.  It's clear that he was a cheese-lovin', disease-ridden rodent, fleas and all. This film takes us through his life, from his being on the lam for something like 16 years and finally getting caught at the age of 81.  SPOILER ALERT...he'll die in prison.  END OF SPOILERS...YARRRRR!  I love true crime docs and movies so I'll definitely return to this one someday.  It's currently streaming on Netflix.

Ups and Downs (1937)

Director: Roy Mack

Writers: Jack Henley, Cyrus Wood

Composers: Saul Chaplin, Sammy Cahn

Starring: Hal Le Roy, June Allyson, Toni Lane, The Deauville Boys, Fred Hillebrand, Phil Silvers, Reed Brown Jr., Alexander Campbell

More info: IDMb


Plot: June Daily, daughter of stockbroker J. C. Daily, is engaged to father's assistant Richard Burton, but is enamored of tap-dancing elevator operator Hal Smith. J.C. has a hot tip on stock for the Upsadaisy Elevator Company. When Richard goes out of town, June invites Hal to dinner with J.C. J.C. is no snob, and seizes the opportunity to ask an "expert" about Upsadaisy Elevators. Hal gives them a ringing endorsement, and J.C. buys all the stock he can get. When Richard learns this, he breaks his engagement to June, thinking J.C. has gone broke. But the stock flourishes, and J.C. introduces Hal as his new partner and future son-in-law.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

Man, can that Hal Le Roy dance!  Watching those feet move so effortlessly is an absolute joy.  His singing didn't match that talent but who cares?  Hell, it's worth watching if only to see a 26 year old Phil Silvers in his first silver screen appearance.  The story about stocks and elevators is OK but it's only their to hang some song and dance routines on with a little bit of light comedy.  This short is one of the few extras on the Warner Bros. DVD for STAGE DOOR (1937), an excellent film on its own.