Holes

Holes
April 18, 2003
Disney
Comedy, Mystery, Historical, Romance
DVD
B

Based on one of the quirkiest children's novels ever, probably the quirkiest to win the Newbery Award, this film is a relatively faithful adaptation by Louis Sachar of his book.  My main quibble, which is more of an issue onscreen, is that not all the plot threads are tied together for the hero Stanley Yelnats IV.  The reader/viewer is shown the various time periods and clues, but he's not.  Yet he nonetheless has to solve the interlocking mysteries.

One of these periods is the Wild West of 100 or more years ago.  My other quibble is that the timeframe just doesn't work in terms of the Warden's family, unless her grandfather lives to be about 120.  Still, I thought that the scenes involving the interracial romance were among the best.  There are some surprising subjects in this movie, it being Disney and all.

The main subject though is friendship and family, and how they can get you through hard times.  Shia LaBeouf as Stanley and Khleo Thomas as Hector Zeroni are appealing and believable buddies.  And the other boys at Camp Green Lake (where there is no lake) are memorable.  Just about every character here is a "character," but it never gets to be too much, even when Henry Winkler (as Stanley Yelnats III) is singing about odor-free shoes.  And the soundtrack is pretty good, particularly the "Dig It" song by the Boys of D Tent.

Steve Kozlowski was Carmine Friend #1 in Good Will Hunting and is Lump here.  Siobhan Fallon Hogan, who plays Stanley's mother, would be the Birthing Teacher in Baby Mama, while Sigourney Weaver (playing the Warden here) would be Chaffee Bicknell there.  (She was Alvy's movie date back in Annie Hall.)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
November 15, 2002
Warner Bros.
Children's, Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery, Horror
DVD
B

My review of the book is here:  http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2013/11/harry-potter-and-chamber-of-secrets.html.  I have somewhat changed my mind about the movie, but first I want to cover the regulars for this entry.  (Stars indicate newbies.)

1. Sean Biggerstaff as Oliver Wood
2. David Bradley as Argus Filch
3. John Cleese as Nearly Headless Nick
4. Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid
5. Eleanor Columbus as Susan Bones (still not speaking, since she's not British, but she does join Hermione in crushing on Lockhart)
6. Violet Columbus (another of the director's daughters) as Girl with Flowers in one of the moving portraits*
7. Emily Dale as Katie Bell
8. Warwick Davis as Professor Flitwick
9. Louis Doyle as Ernie MacMillan*
10. Alfred Enoch as Dean Thomas
11. Scott Fearn as Adrian Pucey (although Terence Higgs before)
12. Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy
13. Richard Griffiths as Uncle Vernon Dursley
14. Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley
15. Robert Hardy as Cornelius Fudge*
16. Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore
17. Josh Herdman as Gregory Goyle
18. David Holmes as a Slytherin Beater (although specifically Adrian Pucey before)
19. Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy*
20. Toby Jones as the voice of Dobby the House Elf*
21. Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom
22. Harry Melling as Dudley Dursley
23. Devon Murray as Seamus Finnigan
24. James Phelps as Fred Weasley
25. Oliver Phelps as George Weasley
26. Leslie Phillips as the voice of the Sorting Hat
27. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter
28. Chris Rankin as Percy Weasley
29. Adrian Rawlins as James Potter
30. Fiona Shaw as Aunt Petunia Dursley
31. Charlotte Skeoch as Hannah Abbott*
32. Geraldine Somerville as Lily Potter
33. Danielle Tabor as Angelina Johnson
34. Harry Taylor as the Station Guard
35. Emma Watson as Hermione Granger
36. Jamie Waylett as Vincent Crabbe
37. Mark Williams as Arthur Weasley*
38. Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley
39. Luke Youngblood as Lee Jordan

Also, Amy Puglia, who was a Quidditch Player last time, is just a Pupil this time.  Maria Coyne and Oliver Lavery-Farag again play unspecified students.  Ben Borowiecki is again a Diagon Alley Boy, here named Angus for no known reason.  (It's not like he has lines or anyone talks to him.)   Christopher O'Shea would again be an extra in Order of the Phoenix.  Jamie Dunlop makes another of his three uncredited appearances as a wizard.  

Shirley Henderson is the most in-jokily cast newbie, as Moaning Myrtle, soon after her appearance as another bathroom-weeper in the first Bridget Jones movie.  (She would return to both series.)  And Bridget's mother, an actual Ms. Jones, Gemma Jones, makes her first appearance as Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse.  Miriam Margolyes was in some of my other movies, and she first appears as Madam Sprout here.  (I had to limit tags, so Henderson and Margolyes are omitted.)

Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith both return (as Snape and McGonagall) and have their moments, although fewer than in the first movie.  Julie Walters, on the other hand, makes the most of the many more Weasley family scenes, in her role as matriarch Molly.

The main one-timer of note is Kenneth Branagh, as the vain Professor Lockhart.  Although not exactly handsome, he makes the role his own.  Along with Jason Isaacs, he shows that you don't have to be in the first movie to be impressive in the second.  (And of course there would be other later additions who would shine.)

I still have some gripes about this movie, yes, including "No Hogwarts without you," but I tried to be fair in my viewing this time.  Even with that scene, the line itself is OK.  It's the standing ovation that Hagrid gets that bugs me.  It is the first in a series of tone-deaf endings, and yet it is slightly balanced by the post-credit throw-away gag about Lockhart's latest book.  (The first movie's ending is just right though.)

The two main things I noticed this time were that the children's acting has generally improved (including Radcliffe's, who's less bland, although not at the level he'd attain later), and the movie is darker (although less than later of course).  I really do feel it is arguably both a mystery that we can solve along with Harry and friends (more so than the first movie), and a horror movie.  The latter is seen in the use of the spiders and the Basilisk.  At the same time, the movie is much more of a comedy than the first, especially in the first hour.  On the down-side, there's the beginning of the use of Ron for comic relief, which I don't resent as much as some in the fandom but it can be seen as a cheapening of his character.

There is less shiny wonder than in the first year, but this is compensated for by the general improvement.  Even the special effects and music are better than they were a year earlier.  (I like "Fawkes's Theme" best, capturing the healing and hope.)  I will admit that the pacing is not as good, but it's never dull.

So basically, it's a movie with growing pains, and good and bad mixed together, as suits the voice-changing twelve-year-old hero.

Near, far, in our motor car, oh, what a happy time we'll spend!

The Cat's Meow

The Cat's Meow
April 12, 2002
Lions Gate etc.
Historical, Mystery, Drama, Comedy
DVD
B-

I don't think it's just that this follows Gosford Park that makes me feel that it's a lesser film.  It doesn't quite work, although it's interesting.  Unlike Gosford, it's based on a real-life mystery, the death of producer Thomas Ince in 1924, possibly on board William Randolph Hearst's yacht.  The main characters are based on real people, notably Hearst, played by 59-year-old Edward Herrmann (who was one of the on-screen "swells" in Purple Rose of Cairo), and his long-term mistress Marion Davies, played quite well by Kirsten Dunst at 19.  Others in the cast include Eddie Izzard as Charlie Chaplin, Joanna Lumley as Elinor Glyn (who came up with the concept of "It" for sex appeal), and Jennifer Tilly as Louella Parsons.  I will say that the costumes, particularly "Lolly's," are much better than in Gosford, where they are either plain (for the servants) or genteelly bland.  The Hollywood setting helps.

Claudie Blakley is almost unrecognizable as Didi the flapper here, compared to her role of mousy but strong Mabel Nesbitt in Gosford.

Gosford Park

Gosford Park
January 18, 2002
USA Films etc.
Historical, Mystery, Drama, Comedy
DVD
B+

As with Monsoon Wedding, it takes awhile to sort out all the characters and their relationships in this movie, but fortunately this film holds up even better to repeat viewings.  Yes, it's a mystery, but the whodunnit is just one aspect of the intricate plot.  I also feel that the various threads are resolved satisfactorily, if usually not thoroughly.  The movie was directed and co-written by Robert Altman, so this "ensemble piece" aspect is not surprising.

The setting is a house party in 1932.  We get to know both "upstairs" and "downstairs," and how they sometimes overlap, sexually in particular.  I'm going to mostly just mention the people who are in other films of mine (some of them of course in the Harry Potter series), although they're by no means the only ones giving strong performances.  The closest to a heroine, and the one who solves the mystery, is Mary Maceachran, played by Kelly Macdonald with a soft Scottish burr and very observant eyes.

• Bob Balaban, who plays Morris Weissman, helped come up with the concept for the film and his character is the most an outsider, as a gay, Jewish Hollywood producer.
• Stephen Fry this time plays Inspector Thompson, the bumbling detective, who adds a more farcical element to the movie.  (Most of the rest of the humour is very dry.)
• Michael Gambon, as William McCordle, is very gruff, with none of the warmth or whimsy of his later role as Dumbledore #2.  (Of course, there are Potter fans who see him as just as gruff as Dumbledore.)
• Richard E. Grant, as George, spends a lot of the time sneering at people, but it works much better than when he was sneering at the Spice Girls as their manager.
• Tom Hollander, as Anthony Meredith, is the only happily married man in the movie, although he is worried about money throughout most of the story.  His role of the short and insecure man is not unlike his role in In the Loop at the other end of the decade.
• Jeremy Northam is understated but pivotal as Ivor Novello (the only real character), since he shows the importance of pop culture to "low-class" people, while the upper classes look down on him and it.  He also sings well as Novello.
• Maggie Smith, as Constance Trentham, not surprisingly comes closer to stealing the film than anyone does, making the most of her wonderful lines.  Yet there's a poignancy to her role, since she, too, worries about money.  (And, yes, there's a certain retroactive irony to McGonagall pleading with Dumbledore.)  She would of course go on to the television series Downton Abbey, which was created by one of the screenwriters here, Julian Fellowes.
• Geraldine Somerville as Louisa Stockbridge (the red-haired sister) is very different than in her saintly role as Harry Potter's dead mother.
• Sophie Thompson, as Dorothy, gives one of the messages of the movie, on the importance of loving someone, whether or not the love is returned.

Note:  John Atterbury, who plays Merriman, would be the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

It's so exhausting training new servants.

Foul Play

Foul Play
July 14, 1978
Paramount
Comedy, Mystery, Romance
DVD
B+

I saw this movie at the time, when I was 10, and even now watching the title sequence, with Barry Manilow singing "Ready to Take a Chance Again" (alternately belting it out and almost confiding it to us), as Goldie Hawn drives her little yellow VW Bug along the coast to San Francisco, gets to me in a way that no other title sequence does.  (I get shivers from "Hedwig's Theme" in every Harry Potter movie, but that has less to do with the visuals.)  Hawn plays an uncertain librarian, sometimes in big glasses, but there is the giggly Goldie side at some moments.  And yet, she's also thoroughly convincing as the "damsel in distress" who can sometimes rescue herself and try to solve the mystery of who's trying to kill her and why.  She furthermore has probably never looked so simultaneously beautiful and girl-next-door adorable.  She's well named Gloria Mundy, "glory of the world."

She's perfectly matched, comedically and romantically, with a post-Saturday Night Live Chevy Chase, at the peak of his looks, charm, and talent.  He plays a bumbling but clever cop named Tony, who's assigned to protect her, and there's a nice, very '70s moment, when she balances her feminism and her attraction to him.  He apologizes for his chauvinism, while still talking about her "ass," and they're more attracted than ever.  They have incredible chemistry together, such that I had to bump this up from a B to a B+.  I honestly can't think of a cuter film couple, but it's not just the way they look, but the way they talk and smile, and all they bring out in each other, like his sweetness and her mischief.  Interestingly, perhaps to keep the PG rating (despite the violence, drug use, and profanity, including the old ladies' dirty Scrabble game), we don't see Gloria and Tony do more than kiss, although it's very clear that they spend the night together at his place, and we see him wake up in just his jockey shorts.  The sex being offscreen allowed me to see this movie at such a tender age.

Meanwhile, however, there's the Stanley character played by Dudley Moore.  When Goldie needs a place to hide out, she approaches Stanley in a singles bar and asks him to take her home.  He of course thinks he's going to get lucky.  So while she's nervously peeking through binoculars-- "You're into that, too?"-- he gets his "pad" ready for a night to remember, with the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" record, blow-up dolls, a stag-film projector, and a bed that is almost indescribable.  In these days of Internet porn and all-- I'm considering seeing an R-rated comedy called "Sex Tape" this week-- the pad may seem a lot less shocking than it did 36 years ago, but it's still very tacky, and unlikely to impress Gloria.  She's less outraged than puzzled when she looks away from the window, but their paths will cross again.

The funniest moments probably belong to Billy Barty as a "dwarf" Bible salesman that Hawn attacks when she thinks he's one of the bad guys.  Both the attack, and her hospital visit later that day, are played just right by both Barty and Hawn.  Burgess Meredith also does well, as Hawn's protective landlord with the laughing pet snake.  Chuck McCann has a brief bit as the owner of the revival theater where Gloria first witnesses a death.

The movie was written and directed by Colin Higgins, seven years after Harold and Maude.  (And not long after Silver Streak, which I haven't seen since the time.)  It is for the most part successful, although I do think the last half hour is the weakest, with an Obligatory '70s, not Chase Scene, but Rush to Save the Day Scene, that involves things like driving the wrong way on a one-way street, car crashes, and ethnic and other stereotypes (like Italians who exclaim, "Mama mia!").  And while there's more at stake at the Mikado production than there was in the Night at the Opera finale, I don't think this sequence works entirely.  Still, it's great at the very end to see Chevy & Goldie go from smooching (they are a great team of smoochers) to shrugging and taking bows, as Mr. Manilow proclaims he's ready to take a chance again.  (And I'm not even a Manilow fan, except here.)  Both Chase and Hawn are great reactors, separately and as a team.  Like the rest of the movie, they walk a balance between realism and cartoon.

So how's the movie as a mystery?  Well, it's certainly suspenseful, and I remember being really scared as a kid, especially of the albino, but there are a lot of moments of putting convenient clues together, and the cigarette pack with the microfilm in it (probably the most dated of many dated elements in the movie) turns out to be a complete McGuffin.  If you just apply the Gilligan's Island Rule of Broadcasting, then you know that the television news is repeatedly reporting that the Pope will be visiting San Francisco soon, and thus you know whom the villains want to assassinate.  (When Foul Play was first scheduled to be shown on TV in 1981, it had to be postponed because of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II.)  There are aspects that are homages to Hitchcock, some of which I get, some of which I don't.  I have the sense we're not meant to take the mystery entirely seriously, as when late in the film Tony says Gloria will have to identify the albino because she's the only one who's seen him and "he may be in disguise."  What, in colored contacts and a toupee?

Marc Lawrence, who plays Stiltskin ("The Dwarf"), would soon be another villain, Webster in Goin' Coconuts.  Rollin Moriyama and Mitsu Yashima, who play the Japanese couple in the taxi, would be Chinese in Americathon.  Marilyn Sokol, who plays Stella, would be Lulu in Can't Stop the Music.

Escape to Witch Mountain

Escape to Witch Mountain
March 21, 1975
Disney
Children's, Sci-Fi, Mystery
DVD
B+

This is the oldest movie I own that I saw on first release, although I bought the DVD recently.  I hadn't watched the film in over 30 years, but I remembered loving it as a kid and there was something haunting about it (pun not quite intended).  Watching it again, I could see why I was so enthralled.  I don't quite love it now, but it's still very, very appealing.  Some of the appeal then and now:

• Twelve-year-old Ike Eisenmann and ten-year-old Kim Richards, as Tony and Tia "Malone," are convincing both as siblings and as believable kids with unbelievable powers.
• There's what I call the Harry Potter Fantasy, not the magic so much as the myth that the main characters may be unhappy, orphaned, and picked on by bullies, but their specialness will be recognized and they'll find a society where they're not only accepted but warmly welcomed.  
• The magic is pretty cool though, and the sort of thing that kids (especially younger kids, like seven-year-old me) would want to do or at least see, like the dancing marionettes and the communication with animals.
• A different fantasy is the wealthy lifestyle that the brother and sister experience, although there's a sinister side to it.
• While the movie probably wouldn't induce nightmares, there's a well done menace throughout, starting with the credits that use the motifs of dogs and escape and eerie music, some of which continues through the film.  (Tia wins over the attack dogs.)
• The special effects, until we get to the flying vehicles at the end, have held up well after almost forty years.
• While it's not a traditional mystery, there is a puzzle to solve, as Tia remembers more and more of their shipwreck.
• The California coast looks lovely but also menacing, all those cliffs.
• The starcase is awesome!
• Last but not least, Winky the sidekick cat!

I recall the 1978 sequel as not as good but I haven't seen that since the '80s.  I have no interest in the remakes.

The small role of a psychic was towards the end of Dan Seymour's career; he was the slave-buyer in Road to Morocco and Abdul in Casablanca.  Reta Shaw, who runs the orphanage here, was the cook in Mary Poppins.  Tiger Joe Marsh, who plays Lorko, the guard with a convenient allergy to cats, was the Naked Turk in Son of Blob.

Harry Holcombe, who plays Capt. Malone, would be a priest in The Big Bus.  Dermott Downs, who plays the red-haired bully Truck and comes across as a mean version of Johnny Whitaker, would be Harvey in Freaky Friday.  Paul Sorensen would play a policeman again in The Shaggy D.A.  Donald Pleasence would have a completely different villain role from quiet and sinister Deranian, as brash record producer B. D. Hoffler in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

And I was hooked before the dialogue started.

Cancel My Reservation

Cancel My Reservation
September 21, 1972
Naho/Warner Bros.
Comedy, Mystery
VHS
C

Louis L'Amour wrote the novel that this Southwest mystery was based on, with the less Hope-ful title of The Broken Gun.  I can only imagine what Dominic Frontiere would've done with that, since he sings the Jackson-5ish "Cancel My Reservation" over both opening and closing credits.  Bob H was pushing 70 at this point, but his character is supposed to be 42, and he's paired with 48-year-old Eva Marie Saint, who looks stunning.  (And she shows off a lot of skin for a middle-aged woman, including in hot pants.)  The two of them are unhappily married because she's a women's libber whose "own thing" is becoming co-star on his talk show.  (They interview a pre-Happy-Days Pat Morita as a karate expert.)  Even though he doesn't seem to like children (he says that two rude autograph-seekers, one played by the director's daughter, at the airport are a good argument for the Pill), she blames herself that they haven't had any kids.  The happy ending, after he's several times arrested and they both come close to dying, before he finally solves the mystery, is she's pregnant and can leave the show.  Even though she told "Crazy" (Anne Archer) that she hated being stuck at home while her husband went off to work, she seems pleased about this.

As for the mystery, it includes Forrest Tucker and Ralph Bellamy as villains, some Indian land rights, and a few murders.  Keenan Wynn plays the local sheriff, and Chief Dan George a really old Indian.  I haven't read the book, so I don't know how much of this was added by co-adapters Bob Fisher and Arthur Marx, who'd teamed up for I'll Take Sweden.  I am fairly sure though that the joke, "I'll come back for my stomach later," when Bob is on the back of a motorcycle is a direct self-steal from Sweden.  And I suspect L'Amour did not include a rape joke.  (Eva MS, upon finding out that the Indian girl Bob H is accused of killing wasn't raped, says, "And that gets you off the hook with me.")  The movie is of course sexist and racist, although I suppose it could be worse.  It's incredibly dated, even for its time (the Twiggy joke for instance), and the cameos of Bing, John Wayne, Johnny Carson, and Flip Wilson are only slightly better than those in Birds Do It.  (At least they're given lines, although not good ones.)  Oh, and this time Herb Vigran plays Roscoe Snagby.

The movie isn't dreadful but it doesn't even have the camp appeal of Hope's '60s comedies.  It's just sort of there.  I guess see it if you're curious and/or a completist.

This is somewhat the chronological midpoint of this project, since I started with 1929 and I'm unlikely to finish before next year.  At the moment, I don't own any movies from after 2012, but that will probably change before I'm through.

Points for correct use of "whom"

Thank You, Jeeves!

Thank You, Jeeves!
January 1, 1937
Twentieth-Century Fox
Comedy, Mystery
VHS
C+

The only things that this movie has in common with the Wodehouse 1934 novel of the same name are the main characters, the situation of Bertie Wooster playing a musical instrument and annoying the neighbors (thus planning a visit to the country), and unfortunately racism.  (http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/05/1934-1989-harper-row-edition-p.html)  This time Bertie has a rather elaborate drum-set, but before he can leave town, a mysterious blonde arrives on his doorstep, pretending to know him.  (I don't know if the writers get any points for being canonically compliant that Bertie doesn't have a brother.)  Soon he's tangled in a tedious mystery that not only is very un-Wodehouse but doesn't even work on its own terms.  (Why, if Marjorie is on the run, would she trust a stranger she meets at a inn?  Why are there torture devices in the basement?  Why are we misled into thinking that her cousin is her boyfriend, when there's no pay-off to this?)  The movie is not quite an hour long but still drags.

Along the way to the inn, shortly before a not bad chase scene, Bertie and Jeeves pick up a "colored" Dixieland saxophonist played by poor Willie Best, who in his earliest film roles was known as "Sleep 'n' Eat." (http://celluloidslammer.blogspot.com/2009/02/willie-best-life-remembered.html)  Here his character is "Drowsy," which isn't much better.  It's a very stereotypical part and adds nothing to either the plot or the humor of the movie.  (However, the scene of Jeeves conducting him in a rendition of "The March of the Hussars" almost works.)  Arthur Treacher, who would go on to the Wooster-less Step Lively, Jeeves and similar valet-or-butler roles, is somewhat well-cast, in that he's got Jeeves's dignity, but he's a much more peppery and brawny Jeeves than in the books.  David Niven is, as he almost always is, charming in his first major role, although he's too bright for Bertie, and the print-Jeeves would never stand for that mustache.  Niven and Treacher have a nice rapport, as when they sing together in the car, and I wish there had been more of them together.  The film doesn't hold a candle to the 1990s British television series with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, but it's not without interest, for the casting and other reasons.

The American boy who annoys Jeeves is played by Gene Reynolds (looking much younger than his thirteen years), and he went on to be a writer for My Three Sons, M*A*S*H, and other TV shows.  Joseph North, who plays a butler here, would be another butler in The Bank Dick.