Critical Commentary - Four Movies

In the past five days,  I have busied myself with watching four separate movies, two new, two old.  Here we go, in order of viewing.

Yes, a long term aversion to Adam Sandler didn't stop me from being among the millions of people who set Netflix records by streaming this one.

I think, but cannot absolutely swear to it, that I saw the original "Happy Gilmore", and if I did, I put much of it out of my mind, except for Sandler punching out Bob Barker. Still, we were in the mood for some mindless entertainment, and this one sure qualified as that.

It did have its comedic moments, and I did enjoy all of the cameos that were done by various professional golfers.  Like Jack Nicklaus ordering a half iced tea, half lemonade.  "Arnold Palmer?" the waiter asks.  "No" he replies "I'm Jack Nicklaus, but I get that a lot."  And of the current golfers featured, Xander Schauffele, in my opinion, steals the show in his bit while at the tournament banquet.

You don't grade a movie like this using the same curve that you would say, "Citizen Kane" or the latest Scorsese masterpiece, but considering what it is, The Grandstander gives it Two Stars.

Listening to Ben Mankiewicz on the latest season of The Plot Thickens podcast prompted me to watch this one from 1949.  Ben's uncle Joe Mankiewicz won Oscars for this one for Screenplay and Directing, so it is a classic of sorts.  Three ladies, Jeanne Crain, Ann Southern, and Linda Darnell, are about to embark on a river cruise to a day camp for underprivileged kids when they receive a note from a mutual friend of theirs, Addie Ross, telling them that that evening, she will be running off with one of their husbands.  Unable to communicate with anyone - there were no cell phones in 1949 - they spend the rest of the day wondering if their husband is the one who will be leaving with the hussy Addie.  We then see flashback scenes from each of them that would make them think that they are the one about to be abandoned.

Lots of dated ideas in this one, like "Only the husband should be the breadwinner in a family", but still a pretty good movie, and some of the notions, like marrying for money instead of love, can still prompt debate here in good ol' 2025.

Oh, and Thelma Ritter is in this one.  It is only her second credited movie appearance, and in it she displays the persona that she did in just about every movie she ever made thereafter, and did you know that she was nominated for SIX Academy Awards over the course other career?  I didn't.

The only quibble that Linda and I had with it was that we thought the wrap up to the story seemed rushed and also confusing.  Still, we liked it, and I give it Three Grandstander Stars.

I have written many times on this blog of my fondness for this classic movie from 1950 that was written and directed by Billy Wilder, and starred Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich Von Stroheim, and Nancy Olsen.  Just last month I pulled out my DVD copy of this movie and introduced it to Linda who had never seen it. As fate and good fortune would have it, just this weekend, theaters across the country were honoring the 75th anniversary of this movie by showing it on a big screen. 

I am not going to recount the plot line of the movie here, but it is a terrific story of Hollywood, past glories, and cynicism, and seeing it on the big screen for the first time with all those other "wonderful people out there in the dark" made for a whole new and terrific experience.

As always, "Sunset Boulevard" rates a full Four Stars from The Grandstander.

And then there is "The Naked Gun", and I will tell you right off the bat that I just loved this one.  It is a retelling of all of those Naked Gun/Police Squad movies that Leslie Nielsen and George Kennedy made back in the eighties and nineties.  In this one, Liam Neeson abandons his action hero persona, or maybe he just embraces it, as Frank Drebin Jr., Nielsen's son, and he is terrific.  He's great as he deadpans through all of his bits in this one, even as he and the producers make fun of his own reputed physical gifts, if you get my drift.  It's hard to think that this is the same guy who was nominated for an Oscar for "Schindlers List".

I went to a 10:00 AM showing of this one this morning and I was the only person in the theater, which was good, because then I didn't have to stifle myself during all of the time I laughed out loud at throughout this one.  There are some great running gags in this one and one that I liked was Drebin and his partner constantly being handed cardboard cups of coffee.  Sophisticated it's not, like what the bad guy thinks he is seeing through the curtains of Frank's apartment while using infrared binoculars, and the body cam sequences of Drebin in his squad car after eating several chili dogs, but let's face it, going to see a Naked Gun movie isn't like going to a Noel Coward play.

I also give great props to Pamela Anderson in this one.  She plays it for all of its slapstick worth, but there is one scene of her doing some scat singing in a jazz club where she is just terrific.  Oh, and stay for the credits.  All of the credits.  There is a funny scene at the very end, and the movie makers drop some pretty funny fake credits throughout that will make you laugh, and I probably missed a bunch of them.

Like I said earlier, you don't judge a movie like this the same way you would a Spielberg of Scorsese movie, but for what it is, this one is terrific.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.