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.

Popeye

Popeye
December 12, 1980
Paramount
Comedy, Musical, Action, Romance, Fantasy
DVD
B-

When Robin Williams died last month, one of my first thoughts was of this movie.  Although this was not a full-out critical and commercial flop as some think, it didn't live up to expectations, and yet it's grown a fandom in the intervening three decades.  I find it simultaneously comforting, funny, and symbolic that the "Popeye Village" that was built from scratch on a Maltese island has become a tourist attraction, with all the drab Depression-era houses now brightly colored.

The movie is still an oddity though.  As I mentioned in my review of the behind-the-scenes pre-movie-release tie-in book, http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-popeye-story.html, the film is odd and off-putting.  There are some genuinely heart-warming moments, especially with Popeye and the unquestionably adorable but quirky Swee'Pea, but there is a dark, depressing undertone, as exemplified in the "Sweet Haven Anthem."  Additionally, you've got circus performers and other physical comedians acting like cartoon/comic-strip characters but there's also the Robert-Altman quasi-documentary touch in the look of the film and the way things keep happening in the margins.  Williams adds ad-libs on top of the Jules Feiffer script, from the brilliant reply to Swee'Pea's "I'm a baby" to his muttered line about catching "a venerable disease."  Some of this I got at 12 (not the "you expects a cervix" one though), and some I've figured out later.

It's not just Williams's death that made me appreciate his performance here.  It really is great, mixing humor, wistfulness, and of course toughness.  Duvall, as everyone notes, is perfectly cast as Olive Oyl.  Some of the others, like Paul Dooley as Wimpy, don't seem quite right but they're giving it their best shot anyway.  Ray Walston shows up late in the movie and has to do a quick turn-around from villain to good guy and succeeds less than Gary Oldman would as Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but he has some funny exchanges with his film son.  Mostly though, I'd recommend this movie for Williams, as I'd recommend Little Darlings for Kristy McNichol.

This film doesn't quite come together (it really does fit all those genres I've listed and maybe Western and Sci-Fi for all I know), and I can see why it has gotten such extreme reactions, then and now, but I've enjoyed it every time I've seen it and it certainly hasn't gotten stale.

Williams's then wife, Valerie Velardi, has her only movie role, as Swee'pea's mother, Cindy the Drudge.  MacIntyre Dixon, who's Cole Oyl, was the bartender in Thank God It's Friday.  Donovan Scott, who plays Castor Oyl, would be the Sancho-Panza-like sidekick Paco in Zorro the Gay Blade.  Geoff Hoyle, Scoop the Reporter, would have a more substantial role in The Spirit of '76, as Heinz-57.  Allan Nicholls, who's Rough House here, would be "Cutting Edge Director" in Bob Roberts.

Then and now, my favorite visual gag, Bluto seeing red when his fiancee shows up with a stranger and a baby.