Hannah and Her Sisters

Hannah and Her Sisters
March 14, 1986
Orion
Comedy, Drama
VHS
B-

When I saw this at 18, I was very annoyed with the audience when they (all of whom had been adults longer than I had) laughed at the argument between the characters played by Max Von Sydow and Barbara Hershey.  I found the movie a lot more profound then than I do now.  Yes, you might think that being middle-aged I'd identify with it more, but I think it's partly that I am middle-aged that I feel so impatient with these spoiled, unhappy, upper-middle-class characters.  I want to yell at the screen that they should all be nicer to Hannah (Mia Farrow), who's basically holding the family together.  That only a few years later Woody Allen would leave Farrow for Mia's adopted daughter (and perhaps abuse the very young daughter he adopted with Mia) has also made this film less enjoyable.  It's hard to watch Elliot (Michael Caine) cheat on Hannah with her sister Lee (Hershey's character).  And the jokes about "child molestation" don't help either.

This is not to say that the movie isn't still entertaining.  It is often funny and sometimes genuinely insightful.  The acting is overall solid, with the balance of comedy and drama generally good.  Farrow, Wiest, and Hershey don't look much alike ('80s perms aside), but they're believable as sisters, and of course Farrow's mother O'Sullivan is convincing as the mom.  I do have to say that Helen Miller and Leo Postrel (who were both part of the movie audience in Purple Rose of Cairo) steal the movie with their one scene as Mickey (the Woody character)'s parents, and I'm totally on the father's side when he says who cares what happens when he's dead, "I'll be unconscious."  Julie Kavner (then best known as TV's Rhoda's sister Brenda) also is good and down-to-earth in her scenes as Mickey's coworker Gail, my favorite line being the one about the black spot on his shirt.

But too often the movie takes itself as seriously as Mickey does, and even at 18 I wanted to watch Duck Soup more after that one clip.  Also, I've always felt that the 39 Steps are superior to Bobby Short, if what we see of them here is any indication.  But, yeah, those Thanksgiving dinners look like they might've been fun, if too angsty for my taste.

This time Woody regular John Doumanian is a Thanksgiving guest.  Ivan Kronenfeld, who plays Lee's husband, would be On-the-Spot Newsman in Radio Days.  Mia's son Fletcher Farrow Previn, who's a Thanksgiving guest here, would be Andrew there.  Fred Melamed is Dr. Grey here and would be Bradley there.  And Ira Wheeler, who's Dr. Abel, would be a Sponsor.  The nicest bit of casting is probably Tony Roberts again cast as Woody's friend who goes Hollywood, this time first contributing some sperm for Hannah's twins.

Daniel Stern was a Hare Krishna in One-Trick Pony but has a more prominent role here as Dusty the rock star.  Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who had just completed a stint on Saturday Night Live, appropriately shows up as part of the staff on Mickey's SNL-like TV show; she was then 25 and would soon play a recent college graduate in Soul Man.  William Sturgis, who's Elliot's Analyst, would be Franklin Benedict in The Royal Tenenbaums.  Carrie Fisher plays Lee's best friend "who steals her boyfriend."

Save me a drumstick and don't seat me next to Ichabod Crane.

Hamburger: The Motion Picture

Hamburger: The Motion Picture
January 1986
Busterburger Limited Partnership
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
C+

As you might guess from the title, this movie is sometimes cheesy and often tasteless.  It is funnier than, for instance, Transylvania 6-5000, but it is chockful of politically incorrect stereotypes.  To take the most egregious example, an attractive female freedom-fighter from Guacamole comes into the room of our hero, and she's topless, carrying a machine gun, and demanding sex.  Yes, it's this, http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale, of course played for comedy.  He gets out of it by pretending to be gay, it having been established in the opening scenes that women always want to have sex with him, but it keeps getting him kicked out of colleges, and he's trying to change his luck, here at Busterburger University, in order to claim an inheritance.

The jokes involving the university, and fast food in general, sometimes work.  Those playing off the stereotypes-- there's also a nerd, a nun, a fat guy, a black singer who's sort of Rick-Jamesian, and the wacky horndog roommate (Buddy Hackett's son Sandy as Fred) of our too sexy hero-- mostly don't.  The movie had only one writer but often seems schizophrenic, as if one person wrote the crude stuff and the other wrote the parody, not that these don't sometimes overlap.  (The movie actually steals the thudding "Mao Tse-Tung" joke from Americathon, but you probably won't notice because it's during the infamous Fred "eats out" scene.)  I'd probably give the movie a C, but I kind of like the various songs, all of which celebrate, yes, hamburgers.

This time Chuck McCann plays the mad Dr. Mole, and Dick Butkus is the villain Drootin.  Charles Tyner, who plays founder Lyman Vunk, was Uncle Victor in Harold and Maude.  (And he's still alive at almost 90!)  Overweight twins Betsy Lynn and Carol Gwynn Thompson were the Siamese Connection in The Gong Show Movie.  Frequent extra Helen Kelly, here a restaurant patron, had recently appeared in Girls Just Want to Have Fun as Woman at the Park.

John William Young, who's Prestopopnick here, would have an uncredited role as a banker in Soul Man.

Another '80s movie that can't live up to its poster.

Transylvania 6-5000

Transylvania 6-5000
Nov. 8, 1985
New World
Comedy, Horror
DVD
C-

Rudy De Luca is the main party responsible for this near monstrosity.  It's one of his few directing credits (the infamous Pink Lady...And Jeff  TV variety show is another), but he also penned Caveman and Million Dollar Mystery.  (He also plays Lawrence Malbot, the Wolfman's father I think.)  So sometimes the dumb humor works, but mostly it doesn't.  The movie doesn't work as Horror either, or Horror-Comedy, particularly with most of the scenes set in daylight.  So why did I get it on DVD?  (With De Luca's commentary no less!)  Well, it was cheap and I had blocked out things like the jokes that are as unfunny the tenth time as they are the first.

Here's what you can do to amuse yourself if you do end up watching this movie:

1. Count the performers who are over 6 feet tall:  Jeff Goldblum (6' 4 1/2"), Jeffrey Jones (6' 4 1/2"), Ed Begley, Jr. (6' 4"), Donald Gibb (6' 4", the Wolfman here and Mad Dog in Meatballs Part II), Michael Richards (6' 3"), Joseph Bologna (6' 1"), and Geena Davis (6').
2. Ogle Goldblum and/or Davis, both of whom show off their chests.  (They met on the set, so something good came out of this.)
3. Savor the irony of Norman Fell's (not over 6') celebration of "crap."
4. Enjoy every single rendition of the title song, from the rockin' version over the opening credits to the castle phone's ring tone to the folk tune towards the end to the closing not-exactly-Glenn-Miller big band take.
5. Wonder if Carol Kane (5' 2") is more embarrassed by her role as half of a hunchback couple with John Byner, or by her briefer role in the bigger bomb Ishtar.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Girls Just Want to Have Fun
April 12, 1985
New World
Musical, Romance, Comedy
DVD
C+

At 17, I was a shade too old for this movie, which apparently didn't do well at the box office without my help.  (I got it for like a $1 a couple years ago.)  GJWHF probably is of more interest now than at the time, and that's not saying much.  It has only thematic connection with the Cyndi Lauper song, which is covered by someone more obscure.  (Lauper allegedly appears as Woman in Diner though.)  The main plot elements of a teenage girl getting on a dance show, with the help of her loyal best friend, while falling in love with a cute boy she dances with, would be done much better in Hairspray three years later.  (And Hairspray would manage a lot more of course.)  Lee Montgomery isn't a particularly likable or compelling love interest, although he does have more charisma than Gil Petersen in The Cool Ones.  The film doesn't have the charming absurdity of a '60s teen movie, although there are certainly plot-holes and unexplained character motivation, notably in the debutante ball crashed by punkers, New-Wavers, female body-builders, and others with no better way to spend a Saturday night.

This movie is better than Thank God It's Friday, for what it's worth.  It's more focused and we actually see more of the dancing.  My marginal recommendation though is for the early glimpses of 21-year-old Helen Hunt, 20-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker, 18-year-old Jonathan Silverman, and 14-year-old Shannen Doherty.  Hunt, often with fake creatures on her head, steals every scene she's in, although the other "girls" are watchable enough.  Silverman's character is obnoxious but he tries hard in his first big-screen role.  (The gals were already TV vets by '85.)

As for the rest of the cast, real life d.j./v.j. Richard Blade plays the host of Dance TV.  Twenty-year-old Robert Downey, Jr., whom if I recall correctly was dating Parker at the time, apparently was uncredited as a Punk Party Crasher.  Extra Helen Kelly, who's Woman at the Park here, had previously appeared in Spinal Tap and Johnny Dangerously and would go on to Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  Of the nameless dancers, Karen and Sharon Owens would dance in Earth Girls Are Easy, while Tita Omeze would be Tanya in that movie.

"Dude, don't touch my hair!"

Morons from Outer Space

Morons from Outer Space
March 29, 1985
Thorn EMI
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
B-

Written by and starring comedy partners Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith (although they don't appear together till the final scene), this silly but never moronic British comedy doesn't feel as fresh as when I first saw it on cable a few years after its release, but it still makes me smile.  Part of the problem is not just that I've seen it before (after all, that didn't hurt Johnny Dangerously), but also that that style of physical comedy and sight gags, with "surprise" elements popping up, has been used so much since then.  (However, the "brick joke" that goes much faster than the TV Tropes' examples still impresses me with its timing.)  Most of the gags actually work better in the closing credits, set to the title tune (sung by the Morons).  Also, the film references are to movies I've either never seen or haven't seen in decades.

Still, it's an amiable if twisted movie.  It takes balls to cast James B. Sikking as gung-ho Col. Raymond Larrabee, CIA, and then kill him off early in the movie.  (He does show up for one of those dead-guy reaction-shots that were apparently popular in the mid-'80s, cf. Johnny Dangerously.)  The trio of moronic aliens, with their Northern accents (sorry, I can't place them more specifically than that, other than non-Liverpudlian), have no redeeming features but they're fun to watch, especially in their New-Wavey rock concert gear.  My favorite performer is Dinsdale Landen, who remains stiff-upper-lip as Commander Grenville Matteson, even when chaos breaks out around him, until he falls for (and serenades) the female alien.  Smith is "the fourth alien" and Jones is their manager.

This time Miriam Margolyes plays the fat little scientist the other scientists try to push through the air shaft; she would of course later become Harry Potter's Herbology teacher.  And Derek Deadman, who's Man in Car, would be the first Tom the Bartender at the Leaky Cauldron.  Peter Whitman, who's Friborg here, was a Yeshiva student in Yentl.  Space Pilot Robin Driscoll would be Actor in Agent's Office in Smith's The Tall Guy.

Any resemblance to Alannah Currie is purely coincidental.

The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Purple Rose of Cairo
March 1, 1985
Orion
Comedy, Drama, Romance, Historical, Fantasy
VHS
B

Although this is not at all a sequel to Zelig, and Broadway Danny Rose (which I've never cared for) was released in the interval, this is in some ways Woody Allen's follow-up to the quirky 1983 movie.  It's set later in the '30s (Top Hat, which we see a clip from, was released in '35), and the grimness of the Depression real world contrasts with the shiny, sleek onscreen world.  The main character, Cecelia (Mia Farrow), who loses her job at a diner and has a jerk of a husband (well played, perhaps too well, by Danny Aiello), escapes to that film world as often as she can.  And then one day one of the characters on the screen wants to explore her world, because he's fallen in love with her.  What will this mean in her life, and in the two-dimensional black & white lives he leaves behind?

Allen does a good job working out the ramifications, including when the real (but essentially fake) actor who plays the straying character shows up in Cecelia's town to get his alter ego back where he belongs.  (Jeff Daniels does a fine job of distinguishing naive but heroic Tom from charming but two-faced Gil.)  Unlike some other good '80s movies (notably Tootsie), there aren't any loose ends.  I admit to hating the ending when I was 17, especially since I adored the movie-within-a-movie (a note perfect parody/tribute to '30s society comedies).  I wanted Cecelia to stay with Tom Baxter, and live onscreen.  My favorite scene was and is when Cecelia enters Tom's world and innocently creates as much chaos as he's created in her world.  There's a night-life montage that I now suspect that Down with Love (2003), which is set in 1962, is paying homage to as much as it is to similar montages in non-parodies.  (There's a reference there to Woody Allen as a stand-up comic.)

But Allen's point, admittedly bleak, is that no matter how out of touch Cecelia is with reality, she can't fully live in the world of fantasy.  If this meant Cecelia doing something constructive with her life, then I'd support that point.  But let's face it, Woody doesn't give her any good options.  Even if she were to stay onscreen, the film is about to be burned and she would, along with Tom and his friends, "die."  (Unless there's resurrection later, on television and eventually VHS, DVD, and Blue-Ray?)  Gil the actor would never take her to Hollywood, and even if he did, she wouldn't fit in there.  So she's left with her unemployed husband, who drinks, cheats, and beats her.  At best, she might be able to stay with her sister (Stephanie Farrow again typecast but very good), but her sister has kids and probably not much more money than Cecelia.

The thing is, Allen could've had Cecelia boarding a bus to somewhere else, starting a new life on her own.  But that's not who she is, and she wouldn't necessarily find happiness that way either.  Her only happiness in the end is watching Fred & Ginger light up the screen.  That I wish that she could step into that movie and never look back shows that at heart I'm just as much of a sentimental movie fan as Cecelia.

As always, Woody reuses actors and actresses.  Loretta Tupper, who plays the Music Store Owner, is recognizable at 78 as one of the old ladies giving Alvy advice in Annie Hall.  Ken Chapin was an interviewer in Zelig and a reporter here.  Deborah Rush, Lita Fox in Zelig, gives a solid Jean-Harlowish performance as brassy but soft-hearted blonde Rita.  Sydney Blake, who's the Variety Reporter, would be Miss Gordon in Radio Days.  Of the Penny Pitchers, Peter Castellotti and Paul Herman would in Radio Days be respectively Mr. Davis and a burglar, while Rick Petrucelli was one of the Italians bugging Alvy in Annie Hall.  Of the onscreen movie audience, Crystal Field would be half of the Abercrombie couple in Radio Days and George Hamlin was Experimental Drugs Doctor in Zelig.  Helen Miller and Leo Postrel would be Mickey's parents in Hannah and Her Sisters.  And of course Dianne Wiest, playing Emma the hooker here, would be Hannah's sister Holly.

Milo O'Shea, who has had many roles, including as Dr. Jameson in Digby, is Father Donnelly here.

"I just met a wonderful new man.  He's fictional, but you can't have everything."

Johnny Dangerously

Johnny Dangerously
Dec. 21, 1984
Fox
Comedy, Historical, Action
VHS
B+

Although I think this was neglected by the critics at the time, thirty years later it has survived as one of the funniest movies of the '80s.  From its Weird Al theme song to its "crime pays a little" twist ending, it's a rollicking parody of '30s gangster movies with several stand-out performances.  Michael Keaton as the adjectively named title character is dead-on Cagney, with charm of his own.  (He's one of the sweetest gangsters in movie history.)  Maureen Stapleton as his mother (playing 29 in the early scenes, with no change in wardrobe or make-up, although she was then 59) is earthy and deadpan, while Griffin Dunne as his brother is noble and horny.  (Compare and contrast this to his Who's That Girl role three years later).  Joe Piscopo and Richard Dimitri are both very quotable as Johnny's rivals Danny Vermin ("Once!") and Roman Troy Moronie ("You fargin corksucker!").  Marilu Henner is of course sexy as Johnny's girl Lil, but she can also sing and do comedy.  She dresses as a nun in one scene, as she did that same year in Cannonball Run II (which I used to own).  Her Taxi costar Danny DeVito (who'd been in the sexy-women-dressing-as-nuns movie Going Ape! with their costar Tony Danza) appears as District Attorney Burr, who's run over by a malt liquor bull after hitting on Johnny, in one of many '80s references.  There are also '30s jokes of course, and even a slam on William Howard Taft.

Not every joke works, but even the ones that don't, like Dom DeLuise as the Pope, are done with such verve that I can't help smiling.  Much of the humor is sexual but the movie is too good-natured to be sleazy, even when it's tasteless.  If nothing else, you'll have a ball spotting all the cameos, like Dick Butkus as Arthur, Alan Hale, Jr. as the Desk Sergeant, and Ray Walston as the newstand vendor.

Cynthia Szigeti, who was a passenger in The Big Bus and Diner Doll Sophie in The Gong Show Movie, is Mrs. Capone here.  T-Shirt Vendor Jeffrey Weissman was Ringo Fan in I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Brainwashed Youth in Sgt. Pepper.  

Taylor Negron, who was Blond-Haired Man Auditioning in The Gong Show Movie, has another uncredited role here, as Delivery Man.  Helen Kelly seems to have had a lot of uncredited roles at that time, among them "Pod" Concert Viewer in Spinal Tap, Wife Visiting Prisoner here, and Woman at the Park in Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

This movie was directed by Amy Heckerling, then best known for Fast Times at Ridgemont High (which I don't own), and she would go on to direct and write Clueless (which I of course own).  Neal Israel, very briefly Hecklering's husband, as well as the director etc. of Americathon, plays Dr. Zillman in the  army-training film/Betty-Boop satire Your Testicles and You.

All of Me

All of Me
September 21, 1984
Universal
Comedy, Romance, Fantasy
DVD
B-

Although this movie, based on the book Me Two, which I haven't read, has the makings of a classic farce, most of the time it plays like an above average sitcom.  (Carl Reiner was the director, but this is not equivalent to what his son Rob was doing at the time.)  I really enjoyed the movie when I saw it on first release, so I made sure to buy the DVD for this project, but it didn't live up to my memories.  (Similar to Roxanne, which we'll get to later.)  Not that this movie isn't entertaining, but it only achieves magic at the end, when the characters played by Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin, who have fallen in love while sharing his body (her soul accidentally moving in next to his) and are now living separately but more together than ever, have a joyful, silly dance together, shown to us in a mirror, since that's the only way her spirit exists after her death.  I know I'm explaining this strangely, but it is an odd movie, despite its use of cliches.  Not only is there a farce trapped inside a sitcom, but there's also a missed chance to explode rather than embrace gender (and racial) stereotypes.  (Tootsie this isn't.)  No one breaks free but it's an interesting struggle.

This time Eric Christmas (by then 68) plays Fred Hoskins.  Neil Elliot, who's the cabbie here, was "Neil" in Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding!  Hardhat Nicholas Shields was Gorilla in Elevator in Thank God It's Friday.  Gailard Sartain, who's Fulton Norris here, was B. B. Muldoon in Roadie.  Dana Elcar, who plays Martin's boss, was Maxwell Smart's boss in The Nude Bomb.  Richard Libertini, who plays Prahka Lasa, was Geezil in Popeye.

Minister David Byrd would be Dr. Hugo Bronfenbrenner in The Hudsucker Proxy.  Victoria Tennant, who plays the duplicitous Terry Hoskins, met Martin on the set and they were married for a few years.

Meatballs Part II

Meatballs Part II
July 27, 1984
TriStar Pictures
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
C-

What can I say?  I saw this on an early date with my then-new-boyfriend-and-future-ex-husband.  We were 16 and 17 and we knew the movie was crap, but the alien plotline was sort of funny.  (There's also a Belmont Steaks pun that I got this time.)  This is only vaguely a sequel to the Bill Murray movie of five years earlier, although it is about two rival camps and their leaders: Richard Mulligan as Coach Giddy of Camp Sasquatch, and the aptly named Hamilton Camp, who has probably his biggest role in my movies, as Col. Bat Jack Hershey of Camp Patton.  The movie is only very marginally recommended if a) you want a better sense of what Wet Hot American Summer (2001) would go on to parody (the song played over both opening and closing credits manages to cram in every "summer" cliche it can), and/or b) you want to see the random cast.

Nine years and a Hello, Larry after Escape to Witch Mountain, 19-year-old Kim Richards does what she can with the role of virginal Cheryl, who has a Little Darlings lite plot of having to see a "pinky" by the end of the summer.  Rising slightly above the material are 36-year-old John Larroquette, right before he became a star on Night Court, and 31-year-old Paul Reubens, a year before Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (which I've seen but don't own), playing respectively a very stereotypical homosexual and a geek like you've never quite seen before.

This movie is sort of a reunion for Scavenger Hunters Mulligan and David Hollander, who was 14 at this point but lumped in with 12-year-old Jason Hervey and 10-year-old Scott Nemes, later of The Wonder Years and It's Garry Shandling's Show respectively.

Archie Hahn plays both horny counselor Jamie and the voice of Meathead the Alien.  Felix Silla (best known as Cousin Itt, but also appearing in Pufnstuf among other things) is the one in the alien costume.  Vic Dunlop tries to convince us he's a French chef; he was Ralph in Lunch Wagon.  Donald Gibb, who plays Mad Dog, would be Wolfman in Transylvania 6-5000.  Thirty-one-year-old Elayne Boosler, who's thanked in the credits, definitely does not look old enough to be playing the mother of a teenager, but she does have some almost-funny lines.

The Friday the 13th reference made by the Jive-Talking Black Girl Tula Washington (played by an actress who has absolutely no other credits) is an in-joke, as co-writers Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson also did a couple movies in that series.

Don't let the poster fool you.

This Is Spinal Tap

This Is Spinal Tap
March 2, 1984
Embassy Pictures
Comedy, Musical
DVD
B+

This mockumentary/rockumentary is primarily the work of four men: director Rob Reiner, and bandmates Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer.  That's not to say that others didn't contribute (the guest cast, not all of whom I mention later, are all solid), but that is the team who is mostly responsible for the humor and poignancy.  The movie holds up very well after thirty years; in fact, it's probably a bit funnier now because Heavy Metal, and the '80s in general, are funnier at a distance.  The movie is full of quotes you've heard (e.g. "It goes up to eleven"), but it still feels fresh.  The music, especially the '60s tunes, is actually quite good, even with silly lyrics.

What struck me most this time was the strained but never fully broken friendship between the McKean and Guest characters.  Shearer comes close to stealing his scenes, but he's mostly there as a balance, the "lukewarm" between their "fire and ice."  And Reiner does well as both directors, real and film-within-film.  If TIST is not quite in the upper tier of my movies, it may be that it shares a fault with another mockumentary, Zelig, in keeping the viewer at a distance.  Also, the "girlfriend ruining the group" motif is a little too much like Yoko-hate, even if she's blonde and British rather than Asian.  Still, definitely worth repeat viewings, and the in-character DVD commentary is brilliant.

Perhaps not coincidentally, some folks who were in Americathon appear here: Zane Buzby as Rolling Stone Reporter, Howard Hesseman as Terry Ladd, and Fred Willard as Colonel on Military Base.

Charles Levin, the Disc 'n' Dat Manager, was Alvy's stage counterpart in Annie Hall.  Robin Menken, who was Maddy in Thank God It's Friday, is Angelo's assistant here.  Blackie Lawless, who's Commercial Headbanger here, stood out more as Metal Guy with Leash at Audition in Can't Stop the Music.  Archie Hahn, who plays the queeny Room Service Guy, would shortly have a dual role in Meatballs Part II.  

Billy Crystal, who worked with Guest on Saturday Night Live, has a small role as Morty the Mime.  Another SNLer (although then future), 28-year-old Dana Carvey, is a mime waiter.  And, yes, that's a 34-year-old Ed Begley, Jr. as the first of many Tap drummers.

Despite themselves, they are actually sexy as well as sexist.