Category Archives: Film Review

Musical Film Review: Eagles: Hell Freezes Over (dir by Beth McCarthy-Miller)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Thank God for Joe Walsh, I thought as I watched 1994’s Eagles: Hell Freezes Over.

The Eagles were one of my Dad’s favorite bands, along with Lynard Skynard and the Steve Miller Band.  I can still remember being little and sitting in the back of our van and hearing Hotel California playing as we actually drove through California.  It’s a nice memory.  When I went away to college, I heard the rumor that the band was named after the mascot of the University of North Texas.  It’s true that Don Henley attended UNT (or North Texas State University as it was known back then) but none of the other members of the band did.  For whatever reason, I doubt that the quintessential California band decided to pay homage to a Texas college when they were selecting their name.

The band was formed in 1971 and they had several hits through the 70s.  The members of the band were as famous for their fights as their music and the Eagles broke up in 1980.  The members of band spent 14 years pursuing solo careers and Don Henley famously said that “Hell will freeze over” before they ever all played on the same stage again.  In 1994, it appears that Hell did just that because the Eagles reunited.  They toured.  They released a live album.  Most importantly, they made some money.  MTV produced a special, Eagles: Hell Freezes Over, which featured the band performing in a Burbank film studio.

Earlier today, while sitting out on a deck overlooking Lake Texoma, I watched the special on YouTube.  Watching the members of the band perform with each other for the first time in 14 years, I could understand why they broke up.  Each member of the band was undeniably talented.  They sounded good.  But they didn’t have much onstage chemistry.  Everyone did their part and they did it professionally and they got through the show without cursing each other out but, at the same time, there was very little warmth to be found on the stage.  No one seemed particularly enthused about being on stage with his former and current bandmates.  They came across like a group of people who didn’t particularly like each other and who had mostly shown up for the paycheck.

The other thing that I noticed is that the music itself, when taken as a whole, was kind of boring.  I hate to say that because my dad loved this band.  And the songs certainly weren’t bad.  They were good songs but, when heard one after another, it was hard not to notice that the mellow California sounds got dull after a while.  Heard on its own, Desperado is a classic piece of Americana.  Unfortunately, if you hear it immediately after listening to New York Minute, In The City, and Get Over It, Desperado loses its edge.  Even the opening performance of Hotel California was a bit of a slog.  By the time this special was recorded, it was obvious that the members of the band had decided they were fine with nearly leaving the Hotel California.

And that’s why I’m thankful for Joe Walsh, the guitarist and not the self-important jackass former congressman.  Because Walsh, almost alone amongst the group, still seemed to be having fun on stage.  The performance of Life In The Fast Lane is one of the rare moments when this special really comes to life and it’s almost entirely due to Joe Walsh and his guitar.  Life In The Fast Lane was also my Dad’s favorite Eagles song so, on his behalf, I’ll just say, “Thank you, Joe Walsh.”

Lifetime Film Review: The Wrong Baby Daddy (dir by David DeCoteau)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Lila (Ciarra Carter) has just broken up with her boyfriend and desperately needs a new job to take her mind off of things.  Luckily, her friend Robin (Vivica A. Fox) comes to the rescue.  Robin not only tells off Lila’s ex but she also gives Lila a job.  At work, Lila meets Mark (Matthew Pohlkamp).  One one night stand later, Lila is pregnant and moving into Mark’s surprisingly large house.  (It’s a David DeCoteau film.  All of the houses are surprisingly large.) Mark’s ex-wife, Julia (Jamie Bernadette), shows up and is surprisingly helpful.  Meanwhile, it seems like everyone who questions Mark’s motives either disappears or is discovered dead.  Is it all a coincidence or should Lila be worried?

Oh, you just have to love the Wrong films.  A lot has changed over the past few years and Lifetime’s programming and movies have changed as well.  Whether they’ve changed for the better or for the worse depends on how you look at things and what you prioritize.  For someone like me, who detests change and wishes that time could be frozen for just a few years or so, it can be difficult to accept that it’s not the 2010s anymore.  But the Wrong films have remained consistent for ten years.  David DeCoteau directs.  Handsome men of a certain age are not to be trusted.  Everyone lives in a big house that there’s no way they would be able to afford in real life.  The melodrama is embraced.  The violence is often bloodless.  The main character is usually a woman who really should know better.  Vivica A. Fox plays the no-nonsense authority figure who, in most cases, says the film’s title.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Vivica A. Fox to these films.  Along with serving as an executive producer, she also serves as the voice of reason.  That she is usually as frustrated with the characters as the viewers is a very important thing.  Watching these films, it’s easy to wish that you could step into Vivica’s stylish and expensive shoes and say, “Girl, looks like you hired The Wrong Landscaper.”  Or, “Girl, looks you paid The Wrong Bill.  The lights are going to be off for a while.”  The secret is the way that Vivica delivers the line.  When Vivica says that someone was “the wrong whatever,” she leaves with you with little doubt that there’s no point in arguing.  Vivica knows wrong when she sees it and you don’t.

As for 2026’s The Wrong Baby Daddy, it has one of the best titles but it’s also actually a bit mild when compared to some of the other Wrong films.  It goes through the motions without ever going as gloriously over-the-top as some of the other installments in the series.  That said, it’s still a fun movie.  At this point, the familiarity of the plot is kind of the point.  The Wrong films are comfort food for the soul.  It doesn’t matter how bad of a day you’ve had or how negatives the news may be.  If hearing Vivica A. Fox call someone “the wrong baby daddy” doesn’t bring some light to your life, you have no soul.

Film Review: Is This Thing On? (dir by Bradley Cooper)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As I watched 2025’s Is This Thing On?, I found myself making a special plea to the Academy.

Dear Academy, I wrote in my head,

Please, please, please hurry up and give Bradley Cooper an Oscar so he’ll stop directing these depressing movies.  Love, Lisa Marie

Is This Thing On? is technically a dramedy.  Will Arnett and Laura Dern star as Alex and Tess Novak, a separated couple who try to learn how to be friends and parents while in the process of splitting up.  Both of them find fulfilment in activities that they couldn’t necessarily pursue while being married.  Tess once again starts coaching volleyball and dating Peyton Manning.  (Technically, Peyton Manning plays a character named Laird but, for all intents and purposes, he’s Peyton Manning.)  And Alex becomes a stand-up comedian, performing a routine about his failing marriage.

Casting Will Arnett as a comedian with a dark side isn’t that much of a stretch and Arnett does do a good job in the role, even if he sometimes seems to be doing a bit of a Bradley Cooper imitation himself.  (Of course, Cooper himself also appears in the movie, playing Arnett’s best friend.)  Arnett is not only plays the lead role but he also co-wrote the script.  Both Arnett and Cooper have been open about their past struggles with alcoholism and Is This Thing On?, with its muted color scheme and its nervous camera work, is very much a 12-step film.  It’s a movie where people talk and talk and talk about their problems and their past mistakes and their regrets.  The scenes of Alex performing stand-up have an AA feeling to them.  One could just as easily imagine Alex taking the stage and saying, “Hi, I’m Alex and I’m an alcoholic.”  The support that he gets from the audience feels very much like the applause that one would get upon announcing they had gone a week, a month, or a year without taking a drink.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Many stand-up comedians have attested to the fact that their sets often double as therapy.  I used to be pretty cynical about programs like AA but then I saw how it helped my Dad not only get sober but also stay sober.  Cooper and Arnett are smart enough to not focus too much time on Arnett’s stand-up.  We see enough to convince us that people would find him to be funny but the movie seems to understand that humor is subjective and, unlike other stand-up films like The Comedian, it doesn’t beg us to laugh at Alex’s act.  I appreciated the fact that the laughter in the club scenes sounded like actual laughter, as opposed to sounding like a bunch of extra being ordered to make a joyful noise no matter what.

Is This Thing On? is well-acted and, though he leans a bit too much on the jittery hand-held camera thing, Cooper’s direction gets better as it goes but ultimately, Alex and Tess never really come across as if they are worth all the trouble.  They come across as being the self-absorbed friends that everyone secretly hopes won’t be able to make it to the party.  Unlike Cooper’s A Star Is Born, the film never quite convinces us that we’re watching real relationship.  It’s easy to believe that Tess could get back into coaching volleyball after she splits up with Alex but when Tess announces that she’s been offered a spot coaching the Olympic team, it’s hard not to roll your eyes just a little.  Being offered a chance to coach the high school team or maybe the community center team would have worked just as well.  Instead, it has to be the Olympics.  It’s one of those things, like quitting your job and using your homemade cupcakes to open a bakery, that only happens in Hollywood films.

Musical Film Review: Freebird…. The Movie (dir by Jeff G. Waxman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

 

My Dad was a huge Skynard fan.

When I was little, I didn’t really know that there was any controversy about the lyrics of Sweet Home Alabama or the fact that Lynard Skynard’s stage show usually featured a Confederate flag.  I didn’t know what Tuesday’s Gone was about.  I didn’t know that Free Bird was considered to be a classic by anyone other than my father.  I didn’t even know about the tragic 1977 airplane crash.  I just knew that when my Dad was driving he liked the Eagles, he enjoyed the Steve Miller Band, and he loved Lynard Skynard.  Even today, whenever I hear Sweet Home Alabama, I imagine my Dad driving his big rig across this beautiful country of ours.  The song may have been about Alabama and it may have been an answer song to a very specific song written by a Canadian (of all people) but it was still a song that could be listened to and enjoyed anywhere.  It was a song about Alabama but it was also a song that uniquely American.

At least, that’s what I always thought.  When I was in college, my friend Jen absolutely hated Sweet Home, Alabama (both the song and, believe it or  not, the film) and she would always start going, “No, don’t do it!” whenever she saw that I was about to play it.  That just made me play it louder.

By that time, of course, I knew that there was some controversy about both the song and the band.  Because Lynard Skynard was proudly and defiantly Southern, there were quite a few people who interpreted Sweet Home, Alabama as being a defense of everything that was going on in Alabama during the early 70s.  Of course, that’s not the case of all.  The song was defending a group of people against other people who, like Mr. Young, looked down on Alabama while ignoring or excusing the very similar things that were happening in their own backyard.  Massachusetts, for instance, was the scene of a good deal of violent racial strife throughout the 70s but Neil Young was never tempted to write Boston Man.  While Alabama was finally starting to move away from Jim Crow, people in Boston were rioting about busing.  The appeal of Lynard Skynard, at least as far as the original 70s version, was that they were tough, they were loud, and they didn’t apologize for being who they were. They weren’t going to apologize for being from the South and speaking with Southern accents.  They were defiant in a way that brought together both hippies and rednecks.

1996’s Freebird…. The Movie was one of the last films that my Dad watched before he died.  The film is a mix of archival concert footage and interviews with the members of Lynard Skynard, all of whom are rather worshipful of lead singer Ronnie Van Zant.  Van Zant emerges as such a charismatic performer and frontman that it’s easy to see why the members of the band and the audience would follow him just about anywhere.  Of course, the main appeal of the film is the music.  Sweet Home Alabama is performed with a blast of pure energetic Southern rock that stands in contrast to some of the band’s more mellow songs.  Freebird is performed beautifully and Billy Powell’s piano solo remains amazing.  As always, it probably helps to already be a fan of the band when watching a film like this.  All I can say is that, on July 31st, 2024, my Dad smiled as he watched it and I cried as I watched it with him.

Lifetime Film Review: I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco (dir by Heather Hawthorne-Doyle)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco is an example of one of the latest trends in Lifetime filmmaking.  The real Mary Jo Buttafuoco tells us her story in between scenes of it being reenacted by actors.

That’s not necessarily a bad idea.  Lifetime did something similar with Elizabeth Smart and it led to one of the most powerful films to ever appear on the network.  However, the Elizabeth Smart film benefitted from the fact that Smart is an articulate, intelligent, and insightful speaker in her own right.  She is someone who went through the worst and managed to come out of it not only stronger but also with the passion and articulateness of an genuine activist.

Mary Jo is not quite as compelling.  It brings me no joy to say that because Mary Jo really was put through Hell and, far too often, she has been treated as an afterthought in her own story.  For those who may have forgotten or who haven’t had seen any of the previous films made about what happened to her, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was the wife of Long Island mechanic Joey Buttafuoco.  She stood by Joey while he struggled with drug addiction and she supported him when he opened his own garage.  Joey rewarded her loyalty by having an affair with a teenager named Amy Fisher.  Fisher, who apparently believed that Mary Jo was the only thing standing in the way of her being with Joey forever, went to the Buttafuoco home and shot Mary Jo in the face.

The story was a media circus, with Amy Fisher being dubbed “the Long Island Lolita” and three made-for-TV movies being made, all in the same year, about the shooting.  Joey initially denied that he had ever touched Amy and Mary Jo, who miraculously survived, originally stood by Joey.  Unfortunately, in all the attention that was given to Amy and Joey (and really, the word “goombah” might as well appear with a picture of Joey in the dictionary), the fact that Mary Jo nearly died was often overlooked.  Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco became odd celebrities as a result of the crime.  Mary Jo was ridiculed for both not realizing that Joey was cheating on her and continuing to stand by her man for years after she was shot by his mistress.

There’s a great movie to be made about Mary Jo Buttafuoco.  (Considering that one of three previous films was told from Joey’s point of view, it only seems appropriate that there should have been a movie from Mary Jo’s.)  Unfortunately, having Mary Jo tell her own story doesn’t work as well as one might hope.  When you really want Mary Jo to go off on Joey, she instead goes off on being raised Catholic.  If only she hadn’t been raised in a Catholic family, she seems to be saying, she never would have married and stuck with Joey Buttafuoco.  Instead of really examining her marriage to Joey Buttafuoco, she instead blames her mother and her religion.  It feels like too convenient an excuse.

The film is a bit more compelling in the flashbacks, with Chloe Lanier giving a strong performance as Mary Jo and Madelyn Grace playing Amy Fisher as not being a Lolita but instead as being a neurotic and rather stupid brat.  In the end, what matters is that Mary Jo did eventually free herself from Joey and we should all be happy for that.

Lisa Marie Reviews An Oscar Nominee: Marty Supreme (dir by Josh Safdie)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Leave it to Josh Safdie to make an anxiety-ridden film about ping pong.

That’s not a complaint, by the way.  Both with his brother Benny and working solo on this film, Josh Safdie has proven himself to be a master at making anxiety compelling.  Much more so than Benny’s 20205 offering, The Smashing Machine, Josh’s Marty Supreme keeps you off-balance.  Marty Supreme may be set in the 50s but it’s deliberately shot in the gritty style of 70s-era Scorese and Lumet.  Meanwhile, the background music is largely made up of classic songs from the 80s.  Timothee Chalamet may play the title role of Marty Mauser, a shoe salesman who also happens to be a ping pong champion.  And the film may also feature recognizable actors like Odessa A’Zion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Fran Drescher, and Emory Cohen (remember him?).   But the majority of the cast is made up of people best-known for not being actors.  Shark Tank co-host and aspiring lead of Canada Kevin O’Leary plays Paltrow’s husband and Marty’s occasional sponsor.  Director Abel Ferrara plays a gangster who is searching for his dog.  Penn Jillette plays a New Jersey farmer who shoots first and asks questions later.  David Mamet, Isaac Mizrahi, early internet sensation Ted Williams, former New York mayoral candidateJ ohn Catsimatidis, rapper Tyler The Creator, and performance artist Sandra Bernhard all show up in small roles, creating a very New York atmosphere that somehow feels both familiar and artificial.  Watching the movie is like living the tourist’s dream of traveling to New York, seeing your favorite Manhattan celebrities hanging out in Brooklyn, and then having them curse you out for owing them money.

As is to be expected from a Safdie film, Marty Mauser is not always a sympathetic protagonist.  He’s been having an affair with the married Rachel (Odessa A’Zion) but, even after he finds out that Rachel is pregnant, that doesn’t stop him from having a purely sexual relationship with former actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), the wife of businessman Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary).  Marty thinks that he’s the world’s best ping pong player, which is why he has a hard time accepting being humiliated at the hands of Japan’s champion, Endo (Koto Kawaguchi).  Marty’s efforts to return to Japan for a rematch lead to an at times dizzying array of complications.  Marty is the type who will steal his lover’s necklace just to return it and apologize after learning that it was only worth two bucks because it was costume jewelry.  Fortunately, Marty is played by Timothee Chalamet, who gives such an energetic and charismatic performance that it’s hard not to be charmed by the character even while his actions might upset, annoy, or even offend you.  The film never claims that Marty is the best ping pong player in the world.  Only Marty claims that.  Instead, the film shows just how unshakeable Marty’s belief in himself is.  It’s hard not to like someone who refuses to accept defeat.

In many ways, Marty is a quintessential American figure.  He believes in himself and he’s not going to apologize for it.  Both the character and the film celebrate the individualism that make America unique.  That 50s setting really does make sense.  Marty truly is the post-war American, dedicated and unapologetic.  And, in that context, the film’s “stunt” casting, for lack of a better description, makes sense as well.  David Mamet, Kevin O’Leary, Penn Jillette, Abel Ferrara, John Catsimatidis, and so many of the other familiar faces that float through Marty Supreme: they’re all people who have gone their own way, even at the risk of alienating the establishment.

Marty Supreme was nominated for 9 Oscars but failed to win any of them.  Indeed, the amount of negative stories that were breathlessly reported about the film’s director and lead actor after the nominations were announced indicates that there was an organized whisper campaign against the film.  (In a sad sign of the time, there was a good deal of negative backlash online from the dishrag brigade, who were upset that the film’s lead character was Jewish.)  Despite being the best of the nominated films, Marty Supreme lost to One Battle After Another.

Brad revisits the Hong Kong tearjerker ALL ABOUT AH LONG (1989), starring Chow Yun-Fat!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

I have about a 30-minute commute to my office every day, so I love to listen to podcasts about my favorite actors and movies. About a year or so ago, I discovered the “Podcast on Fire,” which mostly focuses on Hong Kong movies, but will veer into other Asian related cinema as well. Kenny B and his various co-hosts may do a series on a prominent Hong Kong director one week and a sleazy category III soft porno the next, so the wide variety is especially enjoyable, and I’ve learned so much by going through their back catalog of episodes. I recently came across their series dedicated to popular Hong Kong melodramas. The first episode in the series included a lengthy discussion of ALL ABOUT AH LONG, an award-winning tearjerker starring Chow Yun-Fat. I haven’t watched it in over 20 years, so it was time for a revisit.

Ah Long (Chow Yun-Fat) is a former motorcycle racer who lives in Hong Kong and works as a truck driver while raising his son Porky on his own. The two seem to have a great relationship, even if their situation can only be described as modest at best. Things get interesting when Ah Long’s former girlfriend Por Por (Sylvia Chang), who also happens to be Porky’s mother, enters their life after being away in America for 10 years. In a cruel twist that was brought on because her family did not want her to be with Ah Long, she had been led to believe that Porky had died and her escape to America was her way of dealing with that pain. Now wealthy and successful, she discovers that Porky is indeed alive, and Ah Long has been raising their son alone all these years. Naturally, she wants to be involved in her son’s life. As a matter of fact, she wants to give Porky a life that his father never could.

My favorite living actor, Chow Yun-Fat, gives one of the best performances of his career in this film. It’s especially impressive because it asks him to behave almost completely the opposite of the cool heroes that made him famous around the globe in his Hong Kong action hits like THE KILLER and HARD BOILED. His Ah Long can be funny and charismatic, but he can also be immature and downright mean. There are times he’s so sweet and likable, and then there are times, especially seen in flashback, where he’s not likable at all. Chow doesn’t try to smooth away the rough edges of the character, either. Ah Long is flawed, but he’s also a great dad, and his chemistry with his son Porky (Huang Kun-Hsuan) feels very natural. I also like Chow’s chemistry with Sylvia Chang as Por Por. Even though she wants to take Porky back to America with her, she’s never portrayed as this evil villain, and she and Chow actually end up working together to do what’s best for their son. Chow would win his 3rd Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor for his performance here.

The film is very melodramatic, but director Johnnie To goes out of his way to ground the film in some level of reality. Long before To was transforming the Hong Kong film industry in the late ‘90’s through his Milky Way Images production company, he was a working director just making successful movies. With this film’s cramped apartments, simple meals, awkward dinner conversations, and past romantic regrets, the movie gives all of us something we can latch ahold of. When tragedy enters near the end, it’s especially affecting since we’ve grown to understand and care about the characters. If ALL ABOUT AH LONG doesn’t make you reach for the tissues, you’ve got a heart of stone, my friend!

In my opinion, ALL ABOUT AH LONG is also the kind of movie that determines if you’re a Chow Yun-Fat fan or just a John Woo action movie fan. Chow is about as far away from the charismatic hero of A BETTER TOMORROW as he can possibly get. This is Chow at his most human and relatable, and I’ll admit I loved every moment of his performance. I watched it again on the DVD that I purchased about 25 years ago, and there’s just nobody any better out there.

Cinemax Memories: Sins of Desire (1993, directed by Jim Wynorski)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Kay Egan (Tanya Roberts) goes undercover as a nurse at a sex clinic because she thinks that Dr. Scott Callister (John Henry Robertson) and his wife, Jessica (Delia Sheppard), are responsible for the suicide of her sister.  Working undercover leads to Jessica meeting private detective Barry Mitchum (Nick Cassavetes), whose partner Monica (Gail Harris) died under mysterious circumstances while she was working undercover at the clinic.  Is there anyone working at the clinic who isn’t undercover?

This is a Jim Wynorski film, which means the plot is mostly just an excuse for the female members of the cast to disrobe.  Like many of Jim Wynorski’s films, it’s trashy but entertaining.  It’s a sex clinic where therapy comes in the way of hallucinations, strobe lights, and choreographed stripping.  Kay falls in love with Barry but, when she realizes that Jessica is into her, she used that to her advantage and buys Barry some extra time for his investigation.  Jan-Michael Vincent plays Warren Robillard, a twitchy associate of the Callisters.  It’s a Wynorski film all the way.

Jim Wynorski later said that he had a difficult time working with Tanya Roberts, who brings little of her old Charlie’s Angel spice to her role.  But John Henry Robertson and Delia Sheppard are a blast as the evil sex clinic owners.  Adult film actress Gail Harris is so sexy and likable as Monica that it’s a shame that she’s only has a few minutes of screentime.

Sins of Desire is a perfect example of why you couldn’t have late night Cinemax without Jim Wynorski.

Brad reviews AN UNFINISHED LIFE (2005), starring Robert Redford! 

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Recently, I was sitting on the back deck of my parents’ house visiting with my family. Of course, when I’m around movies are always a topic of conversation, and my sister brought up the fact that she had just watched AN UNFINISHED LIFE and really liked it. My sister has always loved Robert Redford, and when she brought him up, it was fun hearing my mom get on her case about her long-ago recommendation of UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL, that came without the appropriate warning of the movie’s tearjerker of an ending. That’s a no-no with my mom, and we all had a good laugh. When my wife and I got home, we were browsing the Paramount Plus streaming service, and lo and behold, there was AN UNFINISHED LIFE, so it just seemed like the right time to watch it! 

The movie centers in on Einar Gilkyson (Redford), a Wyoming rancher who still hasn’t properly dealt with the death of his son about a decade earlier. He blames his daughter-in-law Jean (Jennifer Lopez) for the accident that killed him. When Jean shows up at his ranch, because she’s on the run from her abusive boyfriend Gary (Damian Lewis), Einar tells her that he doesn’t want her there. His heart softens though as she introduces him to Griff (Becca Gardner), the granddaughter that he never knew he had. This sounds like a setup for big-time melodrama, but director Lasse Hallstrom is able to keep things somewhat grounded as we watch this broken family attempt to reconnect. 

It’s time for a confession… I’ve never been the biggest fan of Robert Redford. Now don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean that I don’t like him. It’s just that he’s so perfect, maybe too perfect?! My favorite actors are not perfect looking human beings, but they do have an undeniable charisma and screen presence. Actors like Charles Bronson, Roy Scheider, and James Woods immediately come to mind. As such, I’ve never made it a priority to watch all of Redford’s movies, although I’ve watched most of his best at some point in my life. I will say that I think he’s excellent in AN UNFINISHED LIFE. He’s still undeniably “Redford,” but age has a way of evening up the playing field, and this performance relies on his ability to embody a character slowly opening his heart after years of shutting himself off. His scenes with his granddaughter are especially strong, without seeming excessively manipulative. I may look more closely into his later career based on his work here. 

I’m also not the biggest fan of Jennifer Lopez. I loved her in SELENA, the film that kickstarted her career, but other than OUT OF SIGHT and ANACONDA, I haven’t enjoyed much else in her filmography. With that said, I think she’s good here. Her character has made one bad decision after another since her husband died, but I can’t help but root for her to find some happiness. In real life, it would have taken a lot of courage to ask someone like Einar for help, and I do appreciate that she’s willing to humble herself for her daughter’s sake.

Have I mentioned that Morgan Freeman is also in the film in the role of Mitch Bradley, Einar’s injured ranch hand and closest friend? He brings his warmth and wisdom to the proceedings even though his character’s unique storyline, which revolves around being mauled by a bear, doesn’t always work. The characters played by Damian Lewis and Josh Lucas also don’t land that strongly. Lewis is Lopez’s abusive boyfriend, but his awful behavior is ultimately dealt with in a way that’s more cartoonish than you might expect in a serious drama. Lucas, who was born in my home state of Arkansas, is fine here as “Crane” Curtis, but he doesn’t have that much to do. 

The Wyoming setting for our story is beautiful, but it was actually filmed in British Columbia. My wife spent 18 years of her life in Wyoming, and it’s generally not as green as the “Wyoming” presented here. That’s just a minor nitpick, because for the uninitiated, the setting is beautiful and makes you feel like you’re part of a modern day western. There’s just something romantic and comforting about that, and the wide-open spaces seem to offer endless chances for a new beginning.

Overall, while I don’t think AN UNFINISHED LIFE is a great movie, I enjoyed watching it. It’s a movie that understands the importance of forgiveness by showing us wounded characters who are willing to open themselves up to imperfect people who are just trying to be better. At the end of the day, if any of us want meaningful connections to the people in our lives, we’d better be willing to do the same. 

Cinemax Memories: Mortal Passions (1990, directed by Andrew Lane)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Todd (Zach Galligan) is married to Emily (Krista Errickson), who was previously involved with Todd’s brother, Berke (Michael Bowen).  When Berke comes by for a visit, he discovers that Emily is cheating on Todd with Darcy (Luca Bercovici).  A confrontation between Emily, Berke, and Darcy ends with Darcy dead.  While covering up the murder, Emily is also plotting to take all of Todd’s money for herself.  David Warner appears as the therapist who struggles to keep straight who is double-crossing who.

In the 90s, where could you see the lead of Gremlins being betrayed by both his sexy wife and his no-good brother?  Where, in the 90s, could you see the star of Hello Larry try to reboot her career as a Kathleen Turner film fatale?  Where, in the 90s, could you see the man who would one day play Buck in Kill Bill playing Zach Galligan’s long-haired brother?  Only on Cinemax!

Mortal Passions was an attempt to do a modern noir and it has all of the expected tropes, from the clueless husband to the morally gray relative to the wife who is planning on betraying everyone.  Krista Errickson is sexy and dangerous as Emily, ruthlessly plotting Todd’s downfall while walking around in lingerie.  Errickson’s femme fatale is never as clever as she thinks she is but fortunately, for her, all the men around her are idiots.  Galligan and Bowen are both believable as two of the most easily manipulated people that you’ll ever meet.  And then there’s David Warner, phoning it in and getting away with it because he’s David Warner.

Mortal Passions is Late Night Cinemax at its trashiest best!