IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU (1994) – Nicolas Cage wins the lottery! Now what about that tip?!

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Bradley Crain

As much as I enjoy writing about movies and talking about movies, I make a living by helping people with their annual income tax filings. That means from around January 15th through April 15th each year, almost every waking hour is spent focused on tax return preparation. While I’m working on these tax returns, I will often play movies or TV shows on one of my computer screens. These aren’t just any movies, though. These are movies or TV shows that make me feel good and help me relax while I’m working so many hours. Over the years, I’ve used movies like THE OTHER GUYS, THE HANGOVER, and ZOMBIELAND. A few years ago, THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW was on Prime, and I watched the entire 8 seasons through 3 times during tax season. One genre I hit hard this time of year is romantic films, both comedies and dramas. The main thing I’m looking for is happy endings. My favorite romantic films include NOTTING HILL, RETURN TO ME, HITCH, YOU’VE GOT MAIL, PERSUASION & SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. As a big fan of Nicolas Cage, IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU, Cage’s 1994 romantic comedy with Bridget Fonda has joined that list over the years as well. Since today, January 7th, 2025, is Nicolas Cage’s 61st birthday, and tax season is coming, I thought I’d write about this charming film!

IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU revolves around Charlie Lang (Nicolas Cage), a New York City cop who seems like an all-around good guy. One day he’s having coffee at a local diner with his partner Bo (Wendell Pierce), when they get a police call. Charlie finds himself without the money to give a proper tip to his waitress, Yvonne (Bridget Fonda), so he improvises on the spot and tells her he has a lottery ticket to be drawn on that very same night. Further, he goes on to tell her if he wins, he’ll split the winnings with her as a tip. The two cops head on out, Charlie happy that he gave her something, and Yvonne, who’s not having a good day anyway, just shakes it off knowing that it’s just another small tip she missed out on. But wouldn’t you know it, on this night the stars all align and Charlie’s number is drawn as a winner. Charlie and his wife Muriel (Rosie Perez) are ecstatic with their win, which amounts to around $4 million. In the middle of their celebration, Charlie remembers his promise to Yvonne and tells Muriel. To say she’s upset is an understatement, and she begs him to stiff the waitress. Charlie is just too honest for that, so he is able to convince Muriel that $2 Million is enough for them to live comfortably on. She begrudgingly agrees, but the fuse has been lit between Charlie and Muriel. The next day, Charlie goes back to the diner and tells Yvonne that they won. At first not believing it’s true, Charlie is able to convince Yvonne that he’s honoring his tip by giving her half of the winnings. We have found out that Yvonne is having severe financial problems, and this “tip” comes as a completely unexpected answer to her prayers. Alls well that ends well, right? As we all know, money can bring out the very best or the very worst in people and we see that play out throughout the rest of the movie. I’ll just put it this way, as Charlie and Muriel grow apart with their newfound money, Charlie and Yvonne grow closer together, bound by this amazing experience.

It’s all a pretty crazy setup, but IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU is a movie that I relate to idealistically. I really like Cage and Fonda in their roles. I’d love to be as honest and likable as Nicolas Cage’s character Charlie Lang. He is just a good guy, way down deep. I want to be that kind of guy. And Bridget Fonda’s character Yvonne is also very appealing. She’s presented as a lady going through a lot of personal issues, but who somehow seems to always show a kind and compassionate spirit to everyone around her, especially to others who are struggling. The scene where Charlie convinces her that he really is giving her half the money is quite an uplifting scene. Both of these characters have an honesty and attitude about life that resonates with me. Some people might argue that their characters should have more depth to make them more realistic and less one-dimensional, and they might be right, but I personally enjoy seeing them as just really honest and kind people.

It should also be pointed out that you have to be able suspend your disbelief to enjoy IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU. If your movies “have” to be realistic, this is not the movie for you. The entire premise is a fairytale, and the movie should be seen as such. For the movie to work, the good guys have to be really good guys, and the bad guys have to be really bad guys. I’ve mentioned earlier how kind both Charlie and Yvonne are throughout the film, with the money not changing their attitudes about life in any way. If anything, the money allows them to be even more kind and generous to others. Well, money has had the exact opposite effect on Muriel, and we soon learn that $2 Million isn’t enough for her and that the full $4 Million would not have been enough either. At this point, I’m not sure $100 Million would have been enough. In our fairytale story, she can’t be presented as a lady realistically struggling with her husband’s overly generous tip, she has to be presented as extremely selfish and cruel. I mean, how else is the story going to get Charlie and Yvonne together?!

All in all, IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU works for me. I’ve said many times I’m a sucker for a good romance, and this film fits the bill for me. The main characters warm my heart as they are decent, kind and honest. I like a good fairytale. It’s one of the main reasons I enjoy the movies, and it doesn’t seem like we get enough good fairytales these days.

Check out the trailer for IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU below!

And if you’re looking for more awesome information about Nicolas Cage, check out John Rieber’s latest post where he celebrates Cage’s birthday with a movie marathon!

Happy Birthday Nicolas Cage! I Watched SEVEN “Cage-tacular” Films To Celebrate!

The Eric Roberts Collection: Bonnie And Clyde: Justified (dir by David DeCoteau)

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2013’s Bonnie and Clyde: Justified opens with a long-haired Eric Roberts introducing himself as legendary Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. Speaking straight to the camera, Roberts-as-Hamer warns us against idolizing the notorious Depression-era outlaws Bonnie and Clyde. They were murderers!, Hamer tells us with all the fervor of a tent revival preacher.

We then flashback to Bonnie (Ashley Hayes) and Clyde (Jim Poole) driving down a country road. Clyde is behind the wheel. Bonnie, a redhead like me!, reads aloud her latest poem about what it’s like to be a notorious outlaw. Suddenly, Hamer and his men appear on the roadside and open fire.

We then start yet another flashback. 15 year-old Bonnie marries good-for-nothing Roy (Julian Brand) while Clyde and his brother Buck (Hagen Mills) steal a truck full of turkeys. Jump forward to 1929 and Bonnie is unhappily married and working in a diner that we’re told is in Dallas, Texas. Oddly enough, there’s a lot of mountains in the background. I live in North Texas and I can assure you that, as much as things have changed here over the past few years, one thing has always remained the same. There are no mountains in Dallas County.

Eventually, Bonnie meets Clyde, they fall in love, and they rob banks. At least, that’s what we’re told. The majority of the film is told through sepia-toned still shots and newspaper headlines. Clyde attempts to escape from prison but we don’t actually see him do it. Instead, we just see a headline. Bonnie and Clyde rob banks but, again, we don’t really see it as much as we hear about it. Even when people die during the robberies, we don’t really learn the exact circumstances that led to Clyde opening fire. Ashley Hayes actually gives a good performance as Bonnie and her scrappy interpretation of the character is probably closer to the truth than Faye Dunaway’s. As for Jim Poole, he’s much better-looking than the real Clyde Barrow and that’s a good thing. Who wants to watch an ugly bank robber? There’s a reason why my distant-relation Pretty Boy Floyd remains a legend. As for the title, you may be wondering what exactly was justified about Bonnie and Clyde. You can argue that they were justified in doing what they had to do in order to survive during the Great Depression. Or you can argue that Frank Hamer was justified in ambushing them. Or you can assume the film was trying to appeal to (or perhaps just tricks) fans of the Justified television series. Or you can just not worry about it.

This is the story of Bonnie and Clyde on a budget. It came out in 2013, presumably to coincide with a 4-hour Bonnie and Clyde miniseries that was airing on A&E at the time. To be honest, you have to respect the nerve of a film about Bonnie and Clyde that doesn’t actually feature much of them doing what they were famous for. Cheers to director David DeCoteau for sticking with it and giving Eric Roberts top-billing for a cameo appearance. And cheers to Eric Roberts for just being Eric Roberts.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

Film Review: The Great Smokey Roadblock (dir by John Leone)

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 1977, The Great Smokey Roadblock tells the story of Elegant John Howard (Henry Fonda).

Elegant is not really his first name. It’s a nickname, one to let us know that, in the world of independent truckers, John Howard was one of the good guys. He never crashed his rig. He never overcharged for a job. He always arrived on time and in good shape. John Howard was a good man but then he turned 60 and he got sick. He spent months in the hospital, unable to work. His truck was repossessed. The movie starts with John sneaking out of his hospital room, stealing back his truck, and hitting the road in search of one final job. Though John says he just wants to make enough money to get his truck back, the truth is that John is terminally ill. If he’s going to die, he wants to die doing what he loves. Of course, dying while driving could lead to some trouble for anyone else who happens to be on the road at the time but still, you have to respect John’s determination. He’s a true American, independent to his core.

(My Dad occasionally made a living driving a truck so perhaps that’s why I’m partial to films like this one.)

John picks up a hitchhiker, a religious young man named Beebo Crozier (Robert Englund). John picks Beebo up because Beebo was walking through the desert in a suit. Beebo claims that he’s walking to Florida but John tells him that he can’t do that. John will drive Beebo to Florida. Of course, John also expects Beebo to pay for the gas that his truck uses because it’s not like John has any money. At first, Beebo accuses John of cheating him. (Henry Fonda cheating someone!? Perish the thought!) Soon, however, John has become Beebo’s mentor.

Everyone respects John but no one wants to hire him. The only offer that John gets is from sleazy Charlie Le Pere (Gary Sandy), who has an agenda of his own. Finally, John visits his old friend, Penelope (Eileen Brennan). Penelope is a madam whose brothel has just been closed down. John agrees to transport Penelope and her girls (including Susan Sarandon) to a new location on the East Coast. Penelope offers to help John pay the bills. Elegant John’s a pimp now! (I was about to say that this seemed like an odd turn-of-events for Henry Fonda but then I remembered that he starred in The Cheyenne Social Club with Jimmy Stewart.)

There’s not really much of a plot to The Great Smokey Roadblock. John, Beebo, Penelope, and the girls travel from one location to another. They get thrown in jail by a notoriously corrupt deputy named Harley Davidson (Dub Taylor). After they escape, they become minor celebrities. Two counterculture journalists (played by Austin Pendleton and John Byner) show up and help them broadcast their story and the film comes to a halt while Pendleton and Byner exchange what sounds like improvised dialogue. The police attempt to set up a roadblock to stop Elegant John and his Six Mystery Women. I guess that’s the Great Smokey Roadblock of the title.

It’s a weird movie, in that the humor is extremely broad and often crude but Henry Fonda is playing a man who is not only terminally ill but who actually looks like he’s terminally ill. (Henry Fonda himself was reportedly very ill during the filming of The Great Smokey Roadblock.) As such, it’s a rather melancholy comedy, one in which every joke seems like it might be the last one that Elegant John will ever hear. In the 70s, not even a trucker comedy could have a happy ending and, as such, The Great Smokey Roadblock feels like a drive-in film for the existential set. The film’s plot doesn’t really add up to much and is full of plot holes that serve as evidence of a troubled production. That said, there’s something rather charming about seeing a pre-Nightmare On Elm Street Robert Englund playing a gentle guy who ends up as Henry Fonda’s protegee. Fonda and Englund play off each other well and their scenes together are the best thing about The Great Smokey Roadblock.

Lisa Marie Reviews An Oscar Winner: From Here To Eternity (dir by Fred Zinnemann)

Posted on January 6, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“The boldest book of our time,” shouts the poster art for 1953’s From Here To Eternity, “honestly, fearlessly brought to the screen!”

And indeed, James Jones’s novel was brought to the screen about as boldly as a studio film could be brought in 1953. The book told the story of several soldiers in the days immediately before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Production Code was still in effect and, as a result, a few changes were made to the film’s plot. Donna Reed played Lorene, a character who is described as being a “hostess” at social club but who, in the book, worked at a brothel that was popular with the soldiers from a nearby army base. In the book, an unfaithful husband gives his wife a venereal disease that leads to her getting a hysterectomy. In the movie, Karen’s (Deborah Kerr) hysterectomy was the result of a miscarriage that occurred after she discovered her husband was being unfaithful. The book was critical of the Army and featured officers who faced no consequences for their actions. The movie definitely presents the enlisted men as being at the mercy of officers but the worst of the officers is ultimately disciplined. The movie was made with the cooperation of the U.S. Army and, as a result, the film’s villains — like Captain Holmes (Philip Ober) and the monstrous Fatso Judson (Ernest Borgnine) — were portrayed as being aberrations who did not represent the Army as a whole. That said, the film version of From Here To Eternity is still a powerful, moving, and daring film. What couldn’t be shown on screen is still suggested. One might not see the specifics of what Fatso Judson does to Maggio (Frank Sinatra) in the stockade but it’s not difficult to figure out.

The film follows one company of soldiers as they laugh, fight, and fall in love while stationed in Hawaii. They spend time training for a war that most of them think will never come. Captain Holmes is more concerned with his regimental boxing team than the prospect of going to war and is confused when Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) refuses to stop back into the ring. Prewitt, who takes pride in his ability as a bugler, quit boxing after he blinded an opponent in the ring but Holmes doesn’t care. Holmes wants another trophy for his office. He orders Sgt. Warden (Burt Lancaster) to make life Hell for Prewitt until Prewitt agrees to box. Warden, who has seen a lot of officers come and go and who has been tempted to become an non-commissioned officer himself, is having an affair with Holmes’s wife, Karen. Meanwhile, Prewitt and his friend Maggio spend their time looking forward to the weekends they’re allowed to spend off the base. Prewitt has fallen in love with Lenore but, as with all the men in From Here To Eternity, Prewitt’s true love is for the army. Even with Holmes pressuring him to box, Prewitt’s loyalty is to the men with whom he serves. There’s a lot of drama, a lot of death, and a lot of romance. This is the film in which Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr make out on the beach while the tide rolls in. But, when Pearl Harbor is attacked, all of the drama and all of the romance is forgotten as America goes to war.

From Here To Eternity is one of the best films of the 1950s and certainly one of the more worthy winners for Best Picture. Intelligently directed, wonderfully acted, deliriously romantic, and finally rather sad, it’s a film that embraces the melodrama without ever hitting a false note. Burt Lancaster’s rugged weariness, Montgomery Clift’s method sensitivity, Frank Sinatra’s naturalism, Ernest Borgnine’s crudeness, Deborah Kerr’s classiness, and Donna Reed’s earnestness all come together to create a film in which the characters feel real and alive. Warden, Prewitt, Lenore, Karen, and Maggio are all interesting, multi-faceted people, trying to find some sort of happiness in the shadow of an inevitable war. The viewer may sometimes have mixed feelings about their actions (and Borgnine’s Judson is one of the most loathsome roles that the normally likable Borgnine ever played) but you never cease to care about them and their stories. With all of the characters and the affairs and the secrets, From Here To Eternity can feel like a soap opera but it’s also a portrait of a world that is on the verge of changing forever.

A few years ago, I attended a screening of From Here To Eternity at the Dallas Angelika. This is a film that definitely deserves to be seen on the big screen. From the famous scene on the beach to the attack on Pearl Harbor to the tragic final moments, this is a big movie that deals with big emotions and big moments. It’s one of the best.

The Great White Hope (1970, directed by Martin Ritt)

Posted on January 6, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

The year is 1910 and the sports world is in a panic. For the first time, a black man has won the title of the heavyweight champion of the world. Jack Jefferson (James Earl Jones) had to go to Australia because no American city would agree to host the fight but he came out of it victorious. The proud and outspoken Jefferson finds himself targeted by both the white establishment and black activists who claim that Jefferson has not done enough for his community.

It’s not just Jefferson’s success as a boxer that people find scandalous. It’s also that the married Jefferson has a white mistress, a socialite named Eleanor Brachman (Jane Alexander, in her film debut). While boxing promoters search for a “great white hope” who can take the title from Jefferson, the legal authorities attempt to arrest Jefferson for violating the Mann Act by supposedly taking Eleanor across state lines for “immoral purposes.” Jefferson and Eleanor end up fleeing abroad but even then, their relationship is as doomed as Jefferson’s reign as the heavyweight champ.

Based on a Pulitzer-winning stage play by Howard Sackler, The Great White Hope features Jones and Alexander recreating the roles for which they both won Tonys. Both Jones and Alexander would go on to receive Oscar nominations for their work in the film version. It was the first nomination for Alexander and, amazingly, it was the only nomination that Jones would receive over the course of his career. (It surprises me that he wasn’t even nominated for his work in Field Of Dreams.) Both Jones and Alexander give powerful performances, with Jones dominating every scene as the proud, defiant, and often very funny Jack Jefferson. Jones may not have had a boxer’s physique but he captured the attitude of a man who knew he was the best and who mistakenly believed that would be enough to overcome a racist culture. (Speaking of racist, legendary recluse Howard Hughes reportedly caught the film on television and was so offended by the sight of Jones kissing Alexander that he thought about buying NBC to make sure that the movie would never be aired again.) Hal Holbrook, Chester Morris, Moses Gunn, Marcel Dalio, and R.G. Armstrong all do good work in small roles.

Unfortunately, The Great White Hope still feels like a filmed stage play, despite the attempts made to open up the action. Martin Ritt was a good director of actors but the boxing scenes are never feel authentic and the middle section of the film drags. Jones and Alexander keep the film watchable but The Great White Hope is never packs as strong of a punch as its main character.

Film Review: After Hours (dir by Martin Scorsese)

Posted on January 6, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Directed by Martin Scorsese, 1985’s After Hours opens in an office. This isn’t the type of office that one might expect a Scorsese movie to open with. It’s not a wild, hedonistic playground like the office in The Wolf of Wall Street. Nor is it a place where an aging man with connections keeps his eye on the business for his friends back home, like Ace Rothstein’s office in Casino. Instead, it’s a boring and anonymous office, one that is full of boring and anonymous people. Scorsese’s camera moves around the office almost frantically, as if it’s as trapped as the people who work there.

Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) works in the office, at a job that bores him but presumably pays him enough to live in New York. Paul is not a typical Scorsese protagonist. He’s not a fast-talker or a fearsome fighter. He’s not an artist consumed by his own passion or an amoral figure eager to tell his own story. Instead, he’s just a guy who wears a tie to work and who spends his day doing data entry. He’s a New Yorker but he doesn’t seem to really know the city. (He certainly doesn’t know how much it costs to ride the subway.) He stays in his protected world, even though it doesn’t seem satisfy him. Paul Hackett is not Travis Bickle. Instead, Paul is one of the guys who would get into Travis’s cab and, after spending the drive listening to Travis talk about how a storm needs to wash away all of New York’s sin, swear that he will never again take another taxi in New York.

One day, after work, Paul has a chance meeting with a seemingly shy woman named Marcy (Rosanna Arquette). Marcy lives in SoHo, with an artist named Kiki (Linda Fiorentino) who sells plaster-of-Paris paperweights that are made to look like bagels. Marcy gives Paul her number and eventually, Paul ends up traveling to SoHo. He takes a taxi and, while the driver is not Travis Bickle, he’s still not amused when Paul’s last twenty dollar bill blows out the window of the cab.

Paul’s trip to SoHo doesn’t goes as he planned. Kiki is not impressed with him. Marcy tells him disturbing stories that may or may not be true while a search through the apartment (not cool, Paul!) leads Paul to suspect that Marcy might have disfiguring burn scars. Paul decides to end the date but he then discovers that he doesn’t have enough change on him to take the subway home. As Paul attempts to escape SoHo, he meets a collection of strange people and finds himself being hunted by a mob that is convinced that he’s a burglar. Teri Garr plays a sinister waitress with a beehive hairdo and an apartment that is full of mousetraps. Catherine O’Hara chases Paul in an ice cream truck. Cheech and Chong play two burglars who randomly show up through the film. John Heard plays a bartender who appears to be helpful but who also has his own connection to Marcy. Even Martin Scorsese appears, holding a spotlight while a bunch of punks attempt to forcibly give Paul a mohawk. The more that Paul attempts to escape SoHo, the more trapped he becomes.

Martin Scorsese directed After Hours at a time when he was still struggling to get his adaptation of The Last Temptation of Christ into production. If Paul feels trapped by SoHo, Scorsese felt trapped by Hollywood. After Hours is one of the most nightmarish comedies ever made. It’s easy to laugh at Paul desperately hiding in the shadows from Catherine O’Hara driving an ice cream truck but, at the same time, it’s impossible not to relate to Paul’s horror as he continually finds himself returning again and again to the same ominous locations. In many scenes, he resembles a man being hunted by torch-wielding villagers in an old Universal horror film, running through the shadows while villager after villager takes to the streets. Paul’s a stranger in a strange part of the city and he has absolutely no way to get home. I think everyone’s had that dream at least once.

Paul is not written to be a particularly deep character. He’s just a somewhat shallow office drone who wanted to get laid and now just wants to go home. Fortunately, he’s played by Griffin Dunne, who is likable enough that the viewer is willing to stick with Paul even after Paul makes some very questionable decisions and does a few things that make him a bit less than sympathetic. Dunne and John Heard keep the film grounded in reality, which allows Rosanne Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, Catherine O’Hara, and especially Teri Garr to totally play up the bizarre quirks of their character. Teri Garr especially does a good job in this film, revealing a rather frightening side of the type of quirky eccentric that she usually played.

Scorsese’s sense of humor has been evident in almost all of his films but he still doesn’t get enough credit for his ability to direct comedy. (One need only compare After Hours to one of Brian De Palma’s “comedies” to see just how adroitly Scorsese mixes laughs and horror.) After Hours is one of Scorsese’s more underrated films and it’s one that everyone should see. After Hours is a comedy of anxiety. I laughed while I watched it, even while my heart was racing.

The TSL Grindhouse: Solomon King (dir by Sal Watts)

Posted on January 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the early 70s, Sal Watts, the owner a popular chain of Oakland clothing stores, took a look at the “blaxploitation” films coming out of Hollywood and thought to himself, “I can do better.”

For two years, Watts worked on his film. Originally titled Black Agent Lucky King, the film took place in Oakland and an unnamed Middle Eastern country. When the evil Prince Hassan (Richard Scarro) overthrows the king and takes over the country’s oil fields, Manny King (played by “Little Jamie” Watts) is among the Americans who escape from the country. Accompanying him is Princess Oneeba (Claudia Russo), who I guess is supposed to be Hassan’s sister, though it’s never really made clear in the film.

Who is Solomon King? He’s a businessman. He’s a social activist. He’s a former Green Beret and a semi-retried agent of the CIA. All the women love him. All the men envy him. He’s the coolest guy in Oakland and everyone assumes that he’s the perfect person to keep Oneeba safe. Solomon and Oneeba fall in love. They talk walks along the beach. Oneeba is amazed that you can hear the ocean when you hold a shell up to your ear. The entire time, a man with a high-powered rifle is following Oneeba. Finally, when Oneeba steps out onto the balcony of Solomon’s penthouse, the sniper take his shot. Oneeba falls in slow motion. Solomon holds her as she dies and then, he tries to cry. In this scene, we’re reminded that crying on cue is not as easy as it looks and that Sal Watts was definitely not a trained actor.

Solomon is out for revenge. He wants to take down Prince Hassan and return the king to his throne. He also wants to get back the oil wells that Hassan stole from him and his family. (The film makes it sound like everyone owns an oil well.) The CIA suggests that Solomon should get some of his Green Beret pals together and overthrow Prince Hasan. Sure, why not? I mean, look how well that thinking worked when the CIA and the Mafia tried to invade Cuba!

Eventually, Solomon puts together an army and invades the unnamed Middle Eastern country. Even though the country is supposed to be in the Middle East, it’s hard not to notice that it looks a lot like Oakland. Solomon gets his revenge but nothing can bring Oneeba back to life….

Solomon King was long-considered to be a lost film. A few years ago, a damaged print was discovered and the film was partially resorted. (The original film reportedly ran close to two hours. The restoration clocks in at 85 minutes.) Solomon King is definitely a work of outsider art. What Sal Watts lacked in experience and ability, he tried to make up for with determination. There are a few genuinely well-done shots of Solomon driving his car. (As befits the coolest guy in Oakland, he’s even got a phone in his car!) The soundtrack features an appealing mix of jazz and funk. And there are a few politically-charged lines of dialogue that suggest that Sal Watts had more on his mind than just making another action film. That said, Solomon King is also, even in its shortened version, a rather slow-paced and difficult-to-follow film. The acting is terrible and the fight scenes are haphazardly edited in a way that’s meant to keep you from noticing that no one in the film is actually hitting anyone but which actually has the opposite effect. My favorite moment was when there was a close-up of Solomon kicking out his leg and then an abrupt jump cut of someone falling backwards, trying to look as if they had been kicked. It was so unconvincing that it was actually kind of charming.

Solomon King is proof that anyone can make a film but making a good one is significantly more difficult.

Lisa Marie Reviews An Oscar Nominee: The Power of the Dog (dir by Jane Campion)

Posted on January 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s interesting how quickly a film can be forgotten.

Based on a novel by Thomas Savage, The Power of the Dog was one of the most anticipated films of 2021. It was considered to be a front runner for Best Picture even before it was released. Even though everyone knew 2021 was going to be the year that the Academy finally got around to giving Will Smith the Oscar, there was still a lot of excitement about the idea of Benedict Cumberbatch playing a sinister and closeted cowboy named Phil Burbank. The first teaser featured Cumberbatch being wonderfully creepy. I remember that I was certainly looking forward to it.

When it finally showed up in theaters and then premiered on Netflix, the reviews were …. respectful. They were positive but they weren’t exactly enthusiastic. This was the type of film where people noted that it was well-made and well-acted but it seemed to just be missing a little something. The film was nominated for a lot of Oscars but, in the end, it only won one, for Jane Campion’s direction. (And Campion, unfortunately, had to spend the days leading up to the ceremony dealing with a stupid controversy over a very mild joke she made to Serena and Venus Williams about how making a movie was more difficult than playing tennis.) People admired the skill that went into The Power of the Dog but, in the end, it was CODA that captured the hearts of the Academy. CODA may not have been as technically well-made as Power of the Dog but CODA was a film that made people cry. And, in 2021, voters who had spent an entire year being told that they would die a horrible death if they even dared to leave their house without putting on a mask, decided to vote with their hearts.

Taking place in 1925 Montana, The Power of the Dog centers on two prominent ranchers, the Burbank brothers. Phil Burbank is a man’s man, a bluff and hearty type who lives to conquer the land and who doesn’t have much use for women. Phil looks down on anything that he considers to be a sign of weakness, like showing emotion or making paper flowers. And yet, Phil is also fiercely intelligent and Ivy League-educated, a man who is capable of playing beautiful music but who has decided not to. Phil is cruel and manipulative. Perhaps the only person that he’s ever respected is his mentor, Bronco Henry. Phil’s admiration for Henry and his collection of gay pornography tells us all we need to know about why Phil is so obsessed with maintaining his “manly” image.

His brother, George (Jesse Plemons), is a much more sensitive soul than Phil and yet, he allows himself to be dominated by his brother. It’s not until George meets and marries a widow named Rose (Kirsten Dunst) that he starts to come out of his shell. Angry that Rose seems to be freeing George from his domination, Phil goes out of his way to make her life miserable, even preventing Rose from playing the piano. In her loneliness, Rose starts to drink. Phil, meanwhile, sets himself up as a mentor (and potentially more) for Rose’s sensitive and introverted son (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who does like to make paper flowers but who also has an obsession with his late father’s medical books….

The Power of the Dog is a film that I had mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I did respect the craft that went into making the film. The Montana scenery was both beautiful and ominous. And I thought that both Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst gave award-worthy performances. Dunst, especially, really captured the pain of Rose’s life on the ranch. Plemons, meanwhile, made George’s gentle nature compelling, which is not always the easiest thing for an actor to do. At the same time, Benedict Cumberbatch was miscast as Phil and Kodi Smit-McPhee’s performance was a bit too cartoonishly creepy for the film’s ending to really be as shocking as it was obviously meant to be. Ultimately, the main problem with the film was that Campion, as a director, kept the audience from really connecting with the characters. The film was well-made but almost as emotionally remote as Phil Burbank and it left the audience feeling as if they were on the outside looking in. While the book leaves you feeling as if you’re actually in Montana and allows you into the hearts of all of the characters, even Phil, the movie leaves you feeling as if you’ve just watched a really carefully-made film that ultimately treated you as scornfully as Phil treated Rose.

Because it is such a well-made film, The Power of the Dog is a film worth watching but it’s not necessarily a film that leaves you with any desire to watch a second time. For all the excitement that the film generated before it was released, it was largely forgotten after it lost the Oscar for Best Picture to CODA.

Chip of the Flying U (1939, directed by Ralph Staub)

Posted on January 5, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

In this B-western, Johnny Mack Brown plays Chip Bennett, the foreman of the Flying U Ranch. The ranch is owned by J.G. Whitmore (Forrest Taylor) and his daughter (Doris Weston), who has just returned from college and who has eyes for Dusty (Bob Baker), a singing ranchhand.

Ed Duncan (Anthony Warde) and his gang are in the arms smuggling business. To make their business a success, they need access to the ranch, which sits on the shore of a lake. Knowing that Chip would never let them take over, Duncan tries to frame Chip for a bank robbery and murder. Chip responds by kidnapping two of Duncan’s men, leading to a final and explosive shootout.

Chip of the Flying U is a western that doesn’t seem to know what era it’s supposed to be taking place in. Chip, Duncan, and all of the other ranch hands dress like they’re in the late 1800s. Doris Weston dresses like she’s just stepped out of a 1930s photoshoot. Duncan is trying to smuggle hand grenades, which were invented in 1908 but not commonly used until World War I. The movie’s time period is all over the place but that was frequently the case with the B-westerns of the 30s. Shot on studio backlots and for a very low budget, these films were not concerned with historical accuracy. Instead, they were about shootouts and a few songs. Chip of the Flying U offers up both, along with Fuzzy Knight as the comedic sidekick who turns out to be very good with a rifle.

With lots of horse chases and bloodless shoot-outs and not too much romance, this movie may seem creaky by today’s standards but probably thrilled the kids who caught while spending an afternoon at the movies in 1939. Today, the appeal of movies like this is that the good guys are unquestionably good and the bad guys are unquestionably bad. They remind us of a simpler time that may have never existed but we all hope it did.

Made-For-Television Movie Review: Skokie (dir by Herbert Wise)

Posted on January 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Skokie, a 1981 made-for-television movies, opens in a shabby Chicago office.

A group of men, all wearing brownshirts and swastika armbands, listen to their leader, Frank Collin (George Dzundza). Collin says that they will be holding their next rally in the town of Skokie. Collin explains that Skokie has a large Jewish population, many of whom came to the United States after World War II. Collin wants to march through their town on Hitler’s birthday.

If not for the swastika and the brownshirt, the overweight Collin could easily pass for a middle-aged insurance salesman, someone with a nice house in the suburbs and an office job in the city. However, Frank Collin is the head of the American National Socialist Party. a small but very loud group of Nazis who specialize in marching through towns with large Jewish populations and getting fee media attention as a result of people confronting them. Making Frank Collin all the more disturbing is that he isn’t just a character in a made-for-television movie. Frank Collin is a real person and Skokie is based on a true story.

The Mayor (Ed Flanders) and the police chief (Brian Dennehy) of Skokie are, needless to say, not happy about the idea of modern-day Nazis marching through their city. Though they inform Collin that he will have to pay for insurance before he and his people will be allowed to hold their rally, they know that the courts have been striking down the insurance requirement as being a violation of the First Amendment. While the mayor and the police chief worry about the political fallout of the rally, the Jewish citizens of Skokie debate amongst themselves how to deal with the Nazis. Bert Silverman (Eli Wallach) and Abbot Rosen (Carl Reiner) argue that the best way to deal with Collin and his Nazis is to refuse to acknowledge them, to “quarantine” them. As Rosen explains it, Collin is only marching to get the free publicity that comes with being confronted. If he’s not confronted, he won’t make the evening news and his rally will have been for nothing. However, many citizens of Skokie — including Holocaust survivor Max Feldman (Danny Kaye) — are tired to turning their back on and ignoring the Nazis. They demand that the Nazis be kept out and that, if they do enter the city, they be confronted.

With the support of the ACLU, Collin sues for his right to march through Skokie. The ACLU is represented by Herb Lewishon (John Rubinstein), a Jewish attorney who hates Collin and everything that he stands for but who also feels that the First Amendment must be respected no matter what. When Lewishon is asked how he, as a Jew, can accept a Nazi as a client, Lewishon relies that his client is the U.S. Constitution.

Skokie is a thought-provoking film, all the more so today when there’s so much debate about who should and should not be allowed a platform online. (Indeed, Collin and his Nazis would have loved social media.) Lewishon argues that taking away any group’s First Amendment rights, regardless of how terrible that group may be, will lead to slippery slope and soon everyone’s First Amendment rights will be at risk. Max Feldman, and others argue that the issue isn’t free speech. Instead, the issue is standing up to and defeating evil. The film gives both sides their say while, at the same time, making it clear that Frank Collin and his Nazis are a bunch of fascist losers. It’s a well-acted and intelligently written movie, one that rejects easy answers. Needless to say, at a time when so many people feel free to be openly anti-Semitic, it’s a film that’s still very relevant.

As for the real Frank Collin, he would eventually be charged with and convicted of child molestation. After three years in prison, he changed his name to Frank Joseph and became a writer a New Age literature. He’s looking for Atlantis but I doubt they’d want him either.