I haven’t seen any new movies in theaters for awhile, but I scored two worthwhile rentals tonight.
“Beautiful Girls,” a 1996 release from director Ted Demme was really good with a fine cast that included Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Lauren Holly, Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman, Michael Rapaport and Rosie O’Donnell (cast in what were surely among their last roles playing twenty-somethings) and a young, precocious Natalie Portman.
I was completely unfamiliar with this flic.
Think of a reunion of friends, sort of like in “The Big Chill,” instead taking place at the Warsaw Tavern (and surrounding locales) with characters somewhat like the cast of “The Drew Carey Show,” but featuring more plot depth, character development and poignancy.
IMHO, it offers excellent ensemble and individual performances in a storyline as genuine and perceptive as any Woody Allen film about relationships and has dialog, I thought, as intelligent and real as that in “Garden State.”
Rosie O’Donnell certainly wasn’t cast in this movie as a beautiful girl, but her all too short rant about just that exact topic, which she lays on us in a drugstore, almost rivals the long monologue of put downs that Steve Martin delivered in that bar in “Roxanne” and/or Meg Ryan’s famous imitation orgasm restaurant scene in “When Harry Met Sally.”
Good music too.
I recommend it highly for guys and gals.
If you haven’t seen it, give it a try.
I also watched “Boondock Saints,” which came out in 1999.
I had heard of this film, but had never seen it.
Think of a storyline (and speaking accents) as delightfully complicated as in “Snatch,” but with the violence from such as ”Pulp Fiction.” or even “Scarface.”
This one has really likeable bad guys, as were Tom Hanks in “Road To Perdition” or Charles Bronson in “Death Wish,” with whom vicariously vengeful viewers can visually vacation, but it additionally turns you every which way but loose with a non-stop, streaming, delicious cinematic mixture of blood, humor, revenge, pathos, loyalty, skewed ethics, sadness, comedy and fast-paced, cleverly filmed and edited action.
It features Willem Defoe as an unorthodox FBI agent and even porn icon Ron Jeremy is present in a fully clothed role.
The bloodshed and irreverence are shocking, but many of the lines, plot twists and situations are very funny.
This is definitely much more of a guy flic, but my sweet wife said she really enjoyed watching me enjoy it.
Anyway, I’m sure many of you cinemaphiles have already seen one or both of these movies and I’m glad that now I have also.
Gig 'em, FAST FRED '65.
Before the world wide web, village idiots usually stayed in their own village.
[This message has been edited by FAST FRED (edited 3/30/2005 11:13a).]
“Beautiful Girls,” a 1996 release from director Ted Demme was really good with a fine cast that included Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Lauren Holly, Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman, Michael Rapaport and Rosie O’Donnell (cast in what were surely among their last roles playing twenty-somethings) and a young, precocious Natalie Portman.
I was completely unfamiliar with this flic.
Think of a reunion of friends, sort of like in “The Big Chill,” instead taking place at the Warsaw Tavern (and surrounding locales) with characters somewhat like the cast of “The Drew Carey Show,” but featuring more plot depth, character development and poignancy.
IMHO, it offers excellent ensemble and individual performances in a storyline as genuine and perceptive as any Woody Allen film about relationships and has dialog, I thought, as intelligent and real as that in “Garden State.”
Rosie O’Donnell certainly wasn’t cast in this movie as a beautiful girl, but her all too short rant about just that exact topic, which she lays on us in a drugstore, almost rivals the long monologue of put downs that Steve Martin delivered in that bar in “Roxanne” and/or Meg Ryan’s famous imitation orgasm restaurant scene in “When Harry Met Sally.”
Good music too.
I recommend it highly for guys and gals.
If you haven’t seen it, give it a try.
I also watched “Boondock Saints,” which came out in 1999.
I had heard of this film, but had never seen it.
Think of a storyline (and speaking accents) as delightfully complicated as in “Snatch,” but with the violence from such as ”Pulp Fiction.” or even “Scarface.”
This one has really likeable bad guys, as were Tom Hanks in “Road To Perdition” or Charles Bronson in “Death Wish,” with whom vicariously vengeful viewers can visually vacation, but it additionally turns you every which way but loose with a non-stop, streaming, delicious cinematic mixture of blood, humor, revenge, pathos, loyalty, skewed ethics, sadness, comedy and fast-paced, cleverly filmed and edited action.
It features Willem Defoe as an unorthodox FBI agent and even porn icon Ron Jeremy is present in a fully clothed role.
The bloodshed and irreverence are shocking, but many of the lines, plot twists and situations are very funny.
This is definitely much more of a guy flic, but my sweet wife said she really enjoyed watching me enjoy it.
Anyway, I’m sure many of you cinemaphiles have already seen one or both of these movies and I’m glad that now I have also.
Gig 'em, FAST FRED '65.
Before the world wide web, village idiots usually stayed in their own village.
[This message has been edited by FAST FRED (edited 3/30/2005 11:13a).]