Aladdin

Aladdin
November 25, 1992
Disney
Children's, Comedy, Romance, Musical
VHS
B

I had fallen off the Disney bandwagon by the time their late '80s/ early '90s comeback came along.  Seeing most of these movies years later, I was not overly impressed.  But this one stood out.  It's funny, sweet, action-packed, and has strong voice performances, with Robin Williams's genie of course the stand-out, although I'm fond of Gilbert Gottfried as the evil parrot Iago.  The movie is also borderline racist and there are parts where things start to drag out.  The main characters aren't terribly sympathetic, although they do have much more personality than your average Disney "prince" and princess.  But for the most part it's a fun ride.

When Williams killed himself, this was one of the movies people thought of most.  Although we don't see him, we hear him, that very versatile voice playing so many roles within one.  His two show-stopping numbers remain amazing (and more worthy of an Oscar than "I Can Show You the World"), but it's not all laughs.  There's pathos, too, which was always there inside Williams, although we tried not to see it.  But, yes, it's still possible to watch this as a kids' movie that adults will delight in, too.  And, yes, the anachronisms and Disney references are very '90s.

Linda Larkin (Joanne in Zapped Again!) voices Princess Jasmine.  Hal Smith does the voice of Jafar's Horse.  Frank Welker, who specializes in animal voices, here does Abu (the monkey) Rajah (the tiger), and the cat-like Cave of Wonders.  Ron Clements and John Musker would also collaborate on The Princess and the Frog.

Peter's Friends

Peter's Friends
November 13, 1992
BBC
Comedy, Drama
VHS
B+

This is sort of an autobiographical film, in that the cowriters Rita Rudner (who plays Carol) and Martin Bergman are married and he's British and she sometimes felt out of place with his friends from university.  And much of the cast, including director Kenneth Branagh (who plays Andrew, Carol's husband), met at Cambridge and remain friends to this day.  Branagh was then married to Emma Thompson (who plays Maggie), and Thompson's mother plays housekeeper Vera.  Hugh Laurie (Roger) and Stephen Fry (Peter) were such good friends that they would often team up on television shows together at the time.  Even Tony Slattery, who's appearing as outsider Brian, was at Cambridge.  Oh, and there are lots of Harry Potter and/or Jane Austen points on this one, but I'll get to all that in later reviews, except to say that Laurie and Imelda Staunton (here as Mary) would again play a married couple.

This discussion of the "incestuous" background is not out of place.  The movie is about bonding and quarreling and flirting in a tight-knit group, and how (not) to deal with outsiders.  It is a witty if sometimes crude movie, very quotable (especially Andrew's lines).  The drama sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, but the film never ceases to be watchable, which is saying a lot for something that is almost solely dialogue.  The cast works well together (with Thompson probably the stand-out), although I will say that Slattery fan though I was and am (it was a pretty big thrill to see him be both goofy and naked), his later scenes don't really work.  Also, the script is a bit cliched and Peter's big reveal (at midnight on New Year's) doesn't pack the wallop it did twenty some years ago.

But there is an added poignancy, seeing the cast when they were relatively young (mostly mid 30s).  When I first saw the movie at 24, I couldn't relate to the feeling of not having accomplished all you'd imagined in your youth.  And I laughed my head off at the opening credits, seeing all those faces of '82 to '92 (yes, including Salman Rushdie), while now it's a time capsule, no longer a look at the recent past.  Similarly, the soundtrack was then filled with the hits of a few years before, and now (while still as good as ever) it is more definitely golden oldies.  In short, the movie doesn't mean what it did before, but then nostalgia never does.

Remembering

Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts
September 4, 1992
Miramax
Comedy, Drama
VHS
B-

This "documentary" about the imaginary title politician, a "rebel conservative" whose folk singing parodies Dylan, is not exactly dated, in that it's very specifically set 1990-91, so much as it's a time capsule.  It matters that it's not only set in the months leading up to that particular Gulf War, but that this is long before Sarah Palin and the Tea Party and the rest of the more laughable but scary elements of the modern Republican Party.

It stars 33-year-old Tim Robbins, who also wrote and directed it.  His political rival is perfectly cast, Gore Vidal, then 67 but looking older and more tired than that.  (The novelist and essayist was himself the grandson of a senator, and he provides an insider's viewpoint.)  More surprising casting is that of Roberts's power behind the throne, Alan Rickman, as Lukas Hart III, here sounding very American and fast-talking.

I would actually recommend this movie most for the cast.  Not that it's boring or anything, but the satire is never as sharp or as funny as it should be.  When the movie satirizes Saturday Night Live in the guise of Cutting Edge, it's a bit glass-housey, as is some of the political satire.  (The music satire is actually fairly savvy, as in the INXS-like music video.)  The movie also seems to want to be a mystery and a drama, or even a tragedy.  There is some good acting and some hmmm moments, but it's not up there with mockumentaries like Zelig or Spinal Tap.

Allan Nichols was Rough House in Popeye and plays the director of Cutting Edge here.  Brent Hinkley, who's Bif the Patriot here, was Larry in Zapped Again!  Joe Shelby, who has an uncredited role as a doctor here, would be an uncredited bus rider in Dogma.  Bob Balaban plays Michael Janes here and would be Morris Weissman in Gosford Park.  Robbins's long-time partner Susan Sarandon appears as a TV news anchor, while Helen Hunt is a reporter.  This time Peter Gallagher plays Dan Riley.

Both John Cusack (the Cutting Edge host) and Jack Black (obsessed fan Roger Davis) would of course appear in High Fidelity, which would have one of the vigilantes here, Brian Powell, as Middle Aged Customer.  And the screenplay would be by Steve Pink, who's the Penn State Professor here.

Enchanted April

Enchanted April
April 5, 1992
Miramax
Comedy, Drama, Romance, Historical
VHS
A-

In reviewing the book on which this is based, http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/04/enchanted-april.html, I said that I'd probably give the movie a B+.  But on this, my first viewing in about four years, I found it was even better than I remembered.  Yes, I'm still not entirely satisfied with how the husbands are handled, but the film is nonetheless, as Lottie puts it, a tub of love.  I kept thinking the word "beautiful" again and again.  The movie was shot for television but then released for the big screen, and of course I watch it on TV, on one of three VHS tapes that my ex-husband and I made (we were both big fans), but you could probably watch it on a smart device and still see how lush the scenery is, how the women (even Mrs. Fisher) look like living, breathing paintings.

And the dialogue and narration are in turns sweet, funny, and heart-breaking.  It may well be the movie I own with the least action (even what would develop into a fight scene or a robbery in another story has a happy or at least comedic ending).  It's a reflective, vacation-like movie, and yet there is an undercurrent of sadness, with these characters hurt by loss of love.  Yet Spring means rebirth.

I came to this movie originally because of my fanhood of Josie Lawrence (physically but not spiritually miscast as Lottie).  She's quite lovable on the British comedy-game show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and she's equally lovable here, although Lottie seems to have little in common with her, other than a tendency to say things she didn't intend to.  The rest of the cast is generally strong, but she still stands out as the heart of this movie.

This film is notable for beginning what I call the Three Degrees of Harry Potter and/or Jane Austen.  This is the rule that after a certain point, every British film has someone who was in a Jane Austen adaptation and/or a Harry Potter movie, or at least has someone who's a degree or two from someone who was.  Polly Walker (Lady Caroline) would show up in Emma, while director Mike Newell would helm Goblet of Fire, which has Miranda Richardson as the very un-Rose-Arbuthnot-like Rita Skeeter.  And Jim Broadbent, who's Rose's husband here, would appear as Professor Slughorn later in the series.

Wayne's World

Wayne's World
Feb. 14, 1992
Paramount
Comedy, Romance
VHS
B

It's very tempting to say, "Let the '90s begin!"  Although the influence of the '80s is still felt in this movie (from Bill & Ted to heavy metal), this has a very '90s sensibility.  It is also far better than you'd expect for a concept inspired by a running sketch on Saturday Night Live.  The funny, often sharp, fourth-wall-breaking script was cowritten by Wayne himself (Mike Myers) with wife-and-husband writing team Bonnie & Terry Turner, whose affection for '60s through '90s pop culture would also be seen a few years later in The Brady Bunch Movie.  From Grey Poupon commercials to Bugs Bunny's drag act, this movie references a lot of things that Gen-Xers in particular can appreciate.  And that fourth-wall-breaking is used to great effect, mostly by Wayne and best buddy Garth (Dana Carvey, acting like a shy, demented child), but sometimes "borrowed" by Ed O'Neill and others.

If I can't rate the film higher, it's that it's not non-stop hilarious, and there are times when Mike Myers gets on my nerves (although nowhere near what he does in his movies from this century).  Also, I can't say I was particularly invested in his romance with cover-singing Cassandra.  Still, there are few better examples of a '90s time-capsule movie, and if you want to hear "As if!" pre-Clueless, or see what sort of technology was then available to beam a live music act into someone's limo, look no further.

Brian Doyle-Murray appears as Noah Vanderhoff, the buffoon sponsor, while Lara Flynn Boyle is Wayne's obsessed ex Stacy.  Alice Cooper yet again plays himself, while Meat Loaf is "Tiny," ha ha.  Carmen Filpi, who plays Old Man Withers in the "Scooby Doo ending," would be Old Man in Bar in The Wedding Singer.

"Bohemian Rhapsody"

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
June 7, 1991
HBO/ Warner Bros.
Comedy, Romance
VHS
B-

Like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, this Stephen-Herek-directed Bush-I-era teen movie's parts are stronger than its whole.  In this case, I kept catching bits and pieces on cable and finding them entertaining (especially "The dishes are done, man!"), so I finally taped the whole thing.  I think DTMBD is a stronger movie than BTEA, but like its 1991 peer, Too Much Sun, it suffers from an inaccurate "ticking clock" plot.  We're told in the beginning that the Mom of the title will be in Australia for two months, but it seems like a month at most passes.  Having her come back "a week early" doesn't really help matters.  And it's never clear anyway what exactly her reaction to the shenanigans of her five bratty children might be.  She calls a couple times but the main concern is that if they tell Mom about the babysitter's death, then she'll come back early and spoil their summer fun and independence, even if there's not all that much fun or independence to be spoiled.

There are other plotholes, most significantly those centering around the main plot, that of 17-year-old firstborn Sue Ellen, nicknamed Swell, landing an administrative assistant's job with a faked resume.  Even when her cover is blown, in stages, her boss Rose manages to be remarkably forgiving.  So that's not really a threat either.  And it does seem odd that neither love interest Bryan, nor his bitchy sister Carolyn, realize until near the end that the Sue Ellens in their lives are one and the same.

In some ways, this is more of a fantasy than BTEA.  Little girls, and even grown women (like me in my mid 20s), may envy Sue Ellen.  Yes, her siblings are annoying, and yes, she's got work stress, but both her boss and her boyfriend are incredibly nice.  Also, Sue Ellen's fashion sense is given free range, even working for a company that manufactures uniforms.  (Her redesigns at the backyard fashion show are hideous, showing that that neon/citrus trend of the late '80s, as seen in Back to the Beach, was still flourishing in the new decade.  But the outfits she wears herself are great.)  Also, even when there's no food in the house, it is a wonderful big old house.

Swell is played by Married with Children's Christina Applegate, then 19, and she's paired with Josh Charles, also 19, as the warm, funny Bryan.  Their scenes together are surprisingly sweet and wholesome-- I mean on the level of Frankie & Annette-- despite the sex humor elsewhere in the movie.  (The 48-hour orgasm/ Santa Barbara exchange is great.)  Also, Swell smokes, and her brother Kenny does drugs, till he cleans up his act.  Nonetheless, I could see people letting little kids watch this movie.  They and you could do worse.  And, yes, this would be an interesting double feature with Zapped Again!, considering that fast food jobs appear in both.

David Duchovny plays Carolyn's boyfriend.  And, yes, Bryan Clark, here appearing as the doctor who's distractingly like Ronald Reagan (I mean, there's no comedic pay-off to it in this movie), occasionally played the by then former president.

Too Much Sun

Too Much Sun
January 25, 1991
Cinetel Films
Comedy
VHS
C+

This early '90s oddity sets out to offend and to amuse, succeeding in both, sometimes simultaneously.  Homosexual siblings and their lovers are pitted against an evil priest and his trio of nuns, at least one of whom he's romantically involved with, in order to get the estate of Howard Duff (who soon died offscreen as well).  The brother and sister are played by Eric Idle and Andrea Martin.  Robert Downey, Sr. directed the movie and cowrote it, one of his cowriters being his wife, Laura Ernst, who plays Martin's lover (giving what's probably the best performance in the movie) and who died only three years after this movie came out, at the age of 36.  And Downey's son (then 24) plays one of two twisted realtors, his partner being Ralph Macchio.  Allan Arbus, not looking terribly much older a dozen years after Americathon, has a role as a chauffeur, although he disappears about halfway through.  So the movie is at least interesting for its cast.  Downey, Jr. also sings the title song, in his persona within a persona of an English rock star.  (His British accent still needed some work, though it's marginally better than Idle's American.)

Besides the stereotyping and tastelessness (the less said about the "lullaby" scene the better), the film also suffers from failing to uphold even its own reality.  There's a proviso in Duff's will that one of his children must become a parent within a year of his death in order to get the inheritance, which will otherwise go to the church.  But then there's a big showdown at the end, all centered around whether Martin is the mother of a 22-year-old.  And Idle is shown as trying to impregnate three women (his sister's lover, his one-time straight fling, and a prostitute), and it's implied that he can't reach orgasm.  (There's a funny line, where he inquires hopefully, "Did I come?")   And yet, later it's revealed that 22 years ago his one-time fling bore a son.  And, presumably nine months after the film is set, the prostitute is shown pushing a stroller.

Despite all this, there's something almost likable about the movie.  It kept almost winning me over.  Maybe with a stronger script, it could've been a lost gem.  As it is, it's just a time capsule of Bush I era sex-- AIDS results cards, 976 numbers, and all.

Mermaids

Mermaids
December 14, 1990
Orion Pictures
Comedy, Drama, Romance, Historical, Musical
VHS
B

Based on a book I've never read, this movie has a more intelligent script than your average big Hollywood movie, even if it's only "a big movie" in comparison to my other films from 1990.  It's set the Fall through Spring of '63 and '64, in a lovely small town in Massachusetts.  The unconventional family of the Flaxes, 33-ish Rachel (played by 44-year-old Cher), her daughters 15-year-old Charlotte (19-year-old Winona Ryder) and 9-year-old Kate (10-year-old Christina Ricci in her big-screen debut) are somewhat nomadic, thanks to Rachel's restlessness and fear of commitment, but this time her daughters want to stay in one place.  Rachel's new boyfriend, the surprisingly sexy Lou (48-year-old Bob Hoskins), also wants them to stick around.  Meanwhile, Charlotte, despite her ambition to be a nun (although the Flaxes are Jewish), longs for 26-year-old Joe.

You can see why I've chosen so many genre labels.  As for "musical," it's not so much that everyone breaks into song (although Cher can be heard covering "The Shoop Shoop Song [It's in His Kiss]" over the closing credits, and in the music video on the VHS version), as that the songs set the various moods and help flesh out the time period.  By the time the Flax "girls" are clowning to "If You Want to Be Happy," you see what a journey they've been on, as a family and as individuals.  Even Kate has her own arc and, although she's far from a stereotypical little girl, it's clear why the one thing Rachel and Charlotte agree on is how lovable Kate is.  The dynamic between mother and older daughter is very well done, and I like how, although everyone is flawed, there are no villains here.  The direction, by Richard Benjamin, is overall solid.

It's not a great movie, and indeed this was only my third or fourth viewing, so I don't have a strong attachment to the film.  But I definitely recommend it, as long as (as with the other 1990 movies I own) you don't expect to be blown away, just entertained and maybe moved.  And you might just get some ideas for the next time you serve finger-foods.

Tune in Tomorrow...

Tune in Tomorrow...
November 1990
Odyssey
Comedy, Romance, Historical
VHS
B-

This is an uneven but pretty good film, where the main plot, of a 1951 romance between Martin, a 21-year-old New Orleans man (played by 26-year-old Keanu Reeves with a shaky Southern accent) and his 36-year-old "aunt" (actually his aunt-by-marriage's sister) Julia (42-year-old Barbara Hershey), who's been living in New York, is overshadowed by the goings on, on and off the air, at the radio station where Martin works.  Reeves and Hershey have decent chemistry together, and the age difference doesn't seem like an especially big deal, but the problem is that their characters aren't particularly interesting or likable, together or separately.  And the way that soap-opera writer Pedro Carmichael (Peter Falk) manipulates them, and that they fall for it, adds to the faultiness of the romance.  (When Martin shows up with a gun and then it's resolved through unfunny humor, it leaves a bad taste.)

Luckily, Pedro's machinations for the characters of Kings of the Garden District more than make up for this.  While some plain-looking and -sounding radio performers act, we see the scenes played out with stars like John Larroquette and Dan Hedaya (as two brothers), Hope Lange, Elizabeth McGovern, Buck Henry (as a priest) and so on.  Incest is a theme on the radio soap as well, but taken to ridiculous heights.  And Pedro's unremitting and unmotivated hatred for Albanians leads to some of the funniest lines.  I'd almost recommend you fast-forward through the romance parts, but that "reality impacts" the soap.  And the Wynton Marsalis soundtrack is nice, although I'm not a jazz fan generally.

Richard B. Shull, who was Emery Bush in The Big Bus, is Leonard Pando (the actor Pedro convinces to masturbate to improve his acting).  Irving Metzman, who was the Theater Manager in The Purple Rose of Cairo, is the Producer of Detroit Radio here, while Crystal Field was in the audience there and is Josephine Sanders here.  (She was also in Radio Days.)  Bill Moor, who's Duke Vermont here, was U.S. Consul in Ishtar.

Peter Gallagher, playing sister-lover Richard Quince here, would be Dan Riley in Bob Roberts.  Jerome Dempsey who plays Sam & Sid (the split-personality/ twins who run the station), would be a board member in The Hudsucker Proxy.

This movie is based on the Mario Vargas Llosa novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (obviously not set in New Orleans), which I couldn't get through when I tried it years ago.