Stroker Ace (1983, directed by Hal Needham)

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Jedadiah Leland

In 1983, Burt Reynolds had the choice of appearing in two films.

He was offered the role of former astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment, a role that director/screenwriter James L. Brooks wrote specifically with Reynolds in mind. The role was designed to play to all of Reynolds’s strengths and none of his weaknesses. It was also a key supporting role in a film that was widely expected to be an Oscar contender.

Or, Reynolds could star in Stroker Ace, another car chase film that was going to be directed by his old friend, Hal Needham. No one was expecting Stroker Ace to be an Oscar contender but Needham and Reynolds had made three similar films together and all of them had been hits at the box office.

Reynolds decided to star in Stroker Ace. Jack Nicholson received the role of Garrett Breedlove and went on to win his second Oscar. As for Burt, he later called Stroker Ace “the beginning of the end.”

The title character of Stroker Ace is a good old boy race car driver. He’s a typical Reynolds character. He grew up in the South and learned how to race cars by watching moonshiners outrun the police. Now, he’s a star on the NASCAR circuit but he’s also arrogant and needlessly self-destructive. Because this is a Hal Needham car chase movie, those are portrayed as being good traits. When Stroker loses his former sponsor after pouring wet concrete on him, he’s forced to accept sponsorship from a crooked chicken mogul (played by Ned Beatty, who deserved better). When Stroker’s not driving his car while dressed as a chicken, he’s romancing the prudish Pembrook Feeney (Loni Anderson).

It’s hard to describe the plot of Stroker Ace because it really doesn’t have a plot. There’s a few scenes where Burt looks directly at the camera and smirks. It’s supposed to remind us of Smoky and the Bandit but Stroker Ace doesn’t have the spectacular stunts that the first film had nor does it have the comedic energy of Jackie Gleason. Instead, it’s got Jim Nabors as a mechanic named Lugs. The former star of Gomer Pyle does say “Golly” but he doesn’t sing.

The main problem with Stroker Ace is that there’s no reason to root for Stroker Ace. The Bandit was good at his job and cared about his car. The same thing is true about the stuntman that Burt played in Hooper. Stroker is a racer who would rather destroy his car than come in second and who loses his sponsorships because of his own stupid behavior. Stroker Ace doesn’t care about anything so it’s difficult to get outraged over him having to wear a chicken suit while racing.

Reynolds later described turning down Terms of Endearment for Stoker Ace as being one of the biggest mistakes of his career. When he talked about how the Terms of Endearment role won Nicholson an Oscar, Reynolds added that he didn’t win anything for Stroker Ace because “they don’t give awards for being stupid.” It was a missed opportunity for sure and Reynolds would have to wait another fourteen years before Boogie Nights finally proved that he could do more than drive cars and smirk at the camera.

Despite the failure of Stroker Ace, Reynolds and Needham remained friends and even made two more film together (Cannonball Run II and Hostage Hotel). Their friendship later served as the basis for the relationship between the characters played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

A Midnight Clear (1992, directed by Keith Gordon)

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Jedadiah Leland

In December of 1944, with the world at war and Christmas approaching, a small U.S. Army Intelligence squad is sent to a deserted chateau near the German lines. The squad, which was decimated during the Battle of the Bulge, is made up of six young soldiers who all have genius IQs. They’ve been hardened by war but they’re still young enough to have some hope for the future. Leading them is “Mother” Wilkinson (Gary Sinise), an officer who cares about his men but who has been mentally struggling with not only the war but also with the recent death of a child back home.

At first, the chateau seems like a perfect sanctuary, a place to wait for the war to end. But then the Americans discover that there is a regiment of German soldiers nearby. The Germans are just as young as the Americans and when the two groups meet each other, they don’t fire their guns but instead have a snowball fight. The Germans say that they know the war is about to end and that they want to surrender before the Russians arrive. However, the Germans are worried about their families back home and what will happen when word gets back that they’ve surrendered. They request a staged fight so that it will appear that they were captured in combat. Almost everyone is down with the plan but it turns out that it’s not easy to fake a war in the middle of a real one.

Based on a novel by William Wharton, A Midnight Clear is one of the best Christmas films that hardly anyone seems to have heard of. It’s a war film that is more concerned with the men who fight the wars than with the battles. Along with Sinise, the ensemble cast includes Ethan Hawke, Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, Ayre Gross, Frank Whaley, and John C. McGinley and all of them make an impression, bringing their characters to life. By the end of the movie, you feel like you know each member of the squad and their individual fates hit you hard. Some of them make it to the next Christmas and tragically, some of them don’t. The film starts out almost gently and all of the soldiers are so intent on just letting the war end while they hide out at the chateau that you find yourself believing that it could actually happen. When reality intrudes, it’s tragic and poignant. Intelligently directed by Keith Gordon (making his directorial debut), A Midnight Clear is an unforgettable anti-war story that has an amazing final shot. A Midnight Clear makes an impression on Christmas and every other day.

An Unlikely Weapon: The Eddie Adams Story (2008, dir. by Susan Morgan)

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

In 1968, Eddie Adams took a picture that would change history.

Adams was 34 years old and working as a photographer for the Associated Press. He was covering the war in Viet Nam. On February 1st, Adams saw a Viet Cong prisoner being led through the streets of Saigon. Adams was among the many who followed, taking pictures. Adams wasn’t expecting to capture anything unusual. He thought it was just another day in Saigon. Instead, he captured a shot of Saigon police chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executing the prisoner in the street. Adams just happened to catch the exact moment that Loan fired his gun into the man’s head.

After the picture appeared in newspapers around the world, it became a rallying cry for the anti-war movement and it has since always been included in every documentary made about the Vietnam Conflict. The picture won Eddie Adams a Pulitzer Prize and it has been frequently cited as a picture that changed history. But Eddie Adams was never happy with it. Adams felt that it overshadowed every other picture that he took over the course of his long career and he also felt that it just wasn’t a very good picture. He hated the way that the picture was used to demonize Loan and, years later, when there was an attempt to charge Loan with a war crime, Adams testified on Loan’s behalf. Adams later wrote of the picture, “Two people died in that photograph: the recipient of the bullet and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera.”

An Unlikely Weapon is a documentary about Eddie Adams and his career. It not only tells the story of the photograph but it also looks at Adams’s later work. Adams went from war photography to fashion photography and even spent a while working for Penthouse (“Before it got raunchy”). Years after taking that picture in Saigon, he took photographs of refugees and activists around the world. The pictures were published in an acclaimed book called Speak Truth To Power. Adams hated the title, which he said was forced on him by the publishers. As the documentary shows, Adams was a perfectionist. That’s why his pictures are so powerful but it’s also why he was never happy with any of them. An Unlikely Weapon features several interviews with the late Adams and his colleagues and it’s inspirational to hear the story behind how they captured some of the most influential images in history.

Every photographer dreams of capturing the perfect picture. An Unlikely Weapon tells the story of a photographer who did just that and never forgave himself for it. It’s a documentary that should be required viewing for everyone who carries a camera.

Overcomer (2019, dir. by Alex Kendrick)

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

John Harrison (played by Alex Kendrick, who also directed the film and co-wrote the script) is a high school basketball coach whose entire season comes to a crashing halt when the local manufacturing plant moves to another city and most of his players move with it. The high school is left with next to no athletes and John nearly loses his job until he finally agrees to coach cross country, even though John doesn’t consider it to be a sport. When only one student shows up to try out for the cross country team, John ends up exclusively coaching Hannah (Aryn Wright-Thompson), who has asthma and a lot of heart.

John is also doing volunteer work at the local hospital. That’s where he meets Thomas (Cameron Arnett), who used to be a championship runner before he got involved in drugs and who is now blind due to diabetes. John eventually discovers that Thomas is actually Hannah’s father, who she was told had died. With the help of John, Thomas, and Principal Brooks (Priscilla Shirer), Hannah tries to find the inner strength to overcome all obstacles and win the state championship.

I usually love inspiring movies but Overcomer just didn’t really work for me. I think I would have liked it better if the movie had just focused on Hannah but instead, it was more about her coach and his family than it was about her. Hannah should have been at the center of the story but instead, it was almost all about John and how upset he was was over having to coach her. Even in the scenes with Thomas, it was more about how the coach felt than how Hannah felt about learning that her father was still alive. Along with being a sports film, Overcomer is also a religious film and it gets pretty preachy. In one scene, the principal teaches Hannah how to pray, which is something that I don’t think many public school official could get away with in real life.

I appreciated the message of Overcomer, about having faith and giving it your all, but the movie otherwise didn’t work for me.

Guilty Pleasure No. 50: Maid in Manhattan (dir by Wayne Wang)

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Whenever I see that the 2002 film, Maid in Manhattan, is going to be playing on HBO or Cinemax, I always think to myself, “I can’t understand why everyone hates on this film. I mean, it’s not that bad. It may be predictable and silly but it’s kind of sweet and Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey have a tame but sexy chemistry.”

Of course, then I watch the film and I discover that Maid in Manhattan is not the film where Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey fall in love. That’s The Wedding Planner. Instead, Maid in Manhattan is the one where Jennifer Lopez is a maid who works in a big fancy hotel and who is a single mother to a precocious child who is obsessed with Richard Nixon. Maid in Manhattan is also the one where Jennifer Lopez falls in love with Ralph Fiennes. Fiennes plays a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Everyone is worried that he’ll never make it to Washington if people discover that his girlfriend is a maid. I think his bigger problem is that he’s a Republican running for the U.S. Senate in New York. (At least, I assume he’s a Republican because — as we learn from his conversations with Lopez’s son — he certainly seems to know a lot about and be rather sympathetic to Richard Nixon.)

I still like Maid in Manhattan, though perhaps not as sincerely as I like The Wedding Planner. Some of that is because Maid in Manhattan takes place during the Christmas season and I love a good wintry romance. Some of it is because this is probably the only mainstream film to feature people discussing the good points of Richard Nixon. There’s the fact that Jennifer Lopez is always perfectly cast as someone determined to make something out of her life, regardless of whether or not the world supports her or not. She’s always had the ability to make steely ambition sympathetic and that’s a good ability to have when you’re playing a maid who is determined to get promoted into management.

Finally, there’s the odd romantic pairing of Ralph Fiennes and Jennifer Lopez. It’s one of those things that shouldn’t work and yet, strangely, it does. Fiennes always brings a certain off-center, neurotic energy to his performances, which not only explains why he’s played so many villains but also why it’s strange to see him starring in a romantic comedy. And yet, that odd energy is exactly what Maid in Manhattan needs. It keeps the viewer on their toes and it makes the surprising discovery that Fiennes and Lopez have romantic chemistry all the more rewarding.

Don’t get me wrong, of course. This is a deeply silly movie and there’s a lot of less than sparkling dialogue and the plot falls apart if you even start to think about it. The entire story revolves around mistaken identity, with Fiennes not realizing that Jennifer Lopez is a maid and …. well, it’s all a bit unnecessarily complicated. The film also takes Fiennes’s political aspirations a bit too seriously. It’s not quite as bad the whole thing with Matt Damon running for the Senate in The Adjustment Bureau (“Due to his charming concession speech, he will someday be elected President,” — whatever, Beto) but it gets close.

But, still — I love romance and I love New York and the pairing of Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes in Maid in Manhattan is just too strange (and oddly effective) for me to resist.

Previous Guilty Pleasures

Get Ready For Christmas With Santa and The Ice Cream Bunny!

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Patrick tried to warn me.

When I told him that I was planning on watching 1972 film, Santa and The Ice Cream Bunny, he warned me that it would totally change the way that I viewed Christmas and probably not for the better. But, you know me. When I get an idea in my head, I simply have to do it.

Despite all the warnings, I watched Santa and the Ice Creamy Bunny. I made Jeff and my friends Johnny and Jim watch it with me. Leonard nearly joined us but he was smart enough to think twice. Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny was like nothing that any of us had ever seen before. We all just kind of watched it like, “What the Hell is happening?!”

The plot — well, who knows? Apparently, Santa is stuck in Florida and he calls a bunch of kids to come help him out. It turns out that the kids are pretty stupid so not only do they fail to rescue Santa but Santa also has to tell them a story to keep their spirits up. The version that we watched featured the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. Apparently, there’s another version that features Thumbelina. Regardless, Santa was probably doing some pretty serious drugs when he came up with the story.

Eventually, a human-bunny hybrid shows up and helps Santa transport back to North Pole. Christmas is saved!

Interestingly enough, it’s never really explained how Santa came to be stuck in Florida in the first place. Santa gives off a definite beach bum vibe and …. well, there’s a part of me that kind of doubts whether or not Santa was actually Santa Claus at all! For all we know, he could just be some jerk with a sleigh and red suit. That said, the Ice Cream Bunny was definitely for real.

As Patrick already pointed out in his review of the film, Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny is not a particularly good film but I do feel like it’s one that everyone should watch at least one. It’s just so weird. Plus, if you watch the version with Jack and the Beanstalk, you will totally get the giant’s theme song stuck in your head.

So, with all that in mind, please enjoy Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny!

Holiday Film Review: A Very British Christmas (dir by Steven Nesbit)

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2019’s A Very British Christmas tells the story of Jessica (Rachel Shenton), a world-famous singer who misses her flight to Vienna and somehow ends up stuck in a small country village in England. Now, to be honest, I’m not really sure how Jessica missed her flight or why she ended up in that village. I probably missed some important dialogue in the beginning to explain the problem with the flight and arriving in the village had something to do with getting too relaxed on a train. But, to be honest, in the grand scheme of the film’s overall story, it really doesn’t matter why she’s in the village or why she missed her plane.

Instead, what’s important is that it’s nearly Christmas and Jessica needs a place to stay. Fortunately, the local B&B is owned by a handsome widower named Andrew (Mark Killeen). Andrew lives with his adorable daughter and his caring mother. He’s not only a perfect host but he’s also an aspiring artist and he’s also the one man in the village who can hopefully convince the rest of the landowners not to sell out to a mining company….

Does all this sound familiar? This may be a very British Christmas but it’s also a very Hallmark-y Christmas, even though this is not technically a Hallmark film. That said, it has everything that you would typically expect from a Hallmark Christmas film. Rachel and Andrew fall in love. They do Christmas stuff. They tour the countryside. Rachel has to decide whether to stay in the village or to leave so that she can continue with her career. You already know what’s going to happen.

I have to admit that I do wish that the film had been a bit more British. Nowadays, when I hear the term “Very British,” I assume that means that there will at least be a fierce debate over Brexit, a good deal of casual profanity, and a lot of football talk. Instead, this movie takes place in the type of British village that we Americans like to fantasize about, the place where all of the streets are cobblestone, all the citizens are friendly and earnest and everyone has mince pies for breakfast.

That said, it’s a sweet movie and, if you like this sort of thing, you should enjoy A Very British Christmas. The scenery is nice, the actors are all likable, and the Christmas cheer cannot be denied. One thing that I particularly appreciated about this film is that Rachel wasn’t presented as being someone who hated Christmas or who needed a man to show her how to embrace the holiday spirit. Instead, Rachel pretty much falls in love with both the village and the B&B as soon as she sees it. She’s not a snob or a cynic who needs be taught the importance of family and love. Instead, she’s a nice person who meets a bunch of other nice people in a nice village and they all have a nice holiday. You may have noticed that the key word here is “nice.” There’s no darkness to be found in A Very British Christmas. Andrew is a surprisingly cheerful widower and everything pretty much works out wonderfully for everyone. Yay!

Documentary Review: Alabama Snake (dir by Theo Love)

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Snake handling has never been for me.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I know that there are a lot of people who incorporate handling poisonous serpents into their religious rituals. And I can even kind of see the appeal of it. If the idea is that your faith is so strong that you don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen to you if you die, why not prove it by holding something that could potentially kill you? If you believe that God is going to protect you, why would you fear handling a creature that can inject toxin straight into your bloodstream?

In fact, I’ll even go further and I’ll even acknowledge that there’s probably quite a rush that comes from successfully grabbing a snake and dancing around without getting bit. I mean, it only makes sense. Before you pick up the snake, you would undoubtedly be terrified. But once you grabbed it and started to move around with it, the relief of not being bitten would have to be overwhelming. In fact, it would probably be so overwhelming that it could potentially put you in a bit of a trance. When I was eighteen, I was in a pretty serious car accident. The car flipped over with me in it. It was terrifying when it happened but after I realized that I had somehow survived the experience without only a few cuts and bruises, I was so exhilarated that I felt like I could fly. I felt as if I had proof that I was special. If I wasn’t special, how else could you explain me totaling my car without breaking my neck?

So, don’t get me wrong. I get it. That said, snake handling is not something that I could ever see myself doing. Seriously, snake are scary! I’ve seen my share of them and they always freak me out. I once nearly stepped on a rattlesnake in New Mexico. In Arkansas, I saw a water moccasin slithering down a creek. I swear that I once saw a boa constrictor in Oklahoma, though my sisters swear that I was just dreaming and that there aren’t any boa constrictors in Oklahoma. Maybe they’re right but still, the point stands. I could flip my car and survive a hundred times, I’m still never going to go anywhere near a snake.

Alabama Snake is a creepy true crime documentary about Glenn Summerfield, a Pentecostal minister who did handle snakes. In fact, he had an entire farm of them. In 1991, he was arrested for trying to murder his wife, Darlene, with those snakes. Darlene claimed that Glenn was an angry and mentally unbalanced drunk who forced her to stick her hand into a box of rattlesnakes, not once but twice. The defense claimed that Darlene was trying to kill Glenn with the snakes but that she accidentally got bitten instead.

Featuring commentary from local historian and folklorist Thomas Burton, Alabama Snake takes a look at the crime, the trial, and the culture of fundamentalist serpent handling. It’s a Southern Gothic horror story and it makes for creepy and atmospheric viewing. Though the documentary doesn’t always go as far beneath the surface as one might hope that it would, it tells an interesting story and Thomas Burton provides lively commentary. Fans of strange true crime will enjoy it and those of us who need another excuse to be wary of snakes will find one.

Holiday Film Review: The Christmas Chronicles 2 (dir by Chris Columbus)

Posted on December 7, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

If I ever actually meet Santa Claus, I’ll be really disappointed if he doesn’t look like a bearded Kurt Russell.

Russell plays the role of St. Nicholas in The Christmas Chronicles 2 and he’s absolutely perfect in the role. It’s not just that Russell is an intensely likable actor, though that’s certainly some of it. Santa, after all, should be a likable character and it’s pretty much impossible not to like Kurt Russell. Even when he was killing people in Death Proof, he was still the most likable serial killer that you could ever hope to meet. Beyond just being likable, though, Russell brings a lot of joi de vivre to the role of Santa. As played by Russell, Santa loves what he does. Spreading Christmas cheer and keeping the holiday spirit alive is what he lives for. Over the years, movies have given us stern Santas and humorous Santas and occasionally even incompetent Santas. Kurt Russell is the fun Santa.

In The Christmas Chronicles 2, Russell is joined by his real-life partner, Goldie Hawn. Goldie plays Mrs. Claus, who turns out to be a witch but a good one. She’s the type of witch who makes gingerbread cookies the explode, which is certainly the best type of witch to be. As I watched Goldie Hawn in this film, it occurred to me that if Hollywood is ever foolish enough to try to remake The Wizard of Oz, Goldie would be the perfect choice for Glinda. Not surprisingly, Hawn and Russell have a lot of chemistry in The Christmas Chronicles 2. They’re the perfect couple. They’re exactly who you would hope Santa and Mrs. Claus would turn out to be.

(I have to say that, of all the Hollywood couples out there, Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn are the couple that I would want to actually live next door to. Kurt seems like he would be good about repairing stuff around the neighborhood while Goldie seems like she would be the type to keep an eye on my Amazon deliveries until I got home from work or wherever. I’d much rather live next to them than George and Amal Clooney, if just because the Clooneys seem like they would be the type to complain because you accidentally clipped their yard with a lawn mower or something.)

The Christmas Chronicles 2 actually does have a plot and it tells a pretty sweet little story. A bitter elf named Belsnickel (Julian Dennison) is trying to ruin Christmas and it’s all up to Katie (Darby Camp) and Jack (Jahzir Bruno) to help Santa and Mrs. Claus save the world’s Christmas spirit. Along the way, Katie gets to travel through time and meet her father and both Katie and Jack learn about the importance of family. It’s all very sincere and very sweet and if it doesn’t bring at least one tear to your eyes this holiday season, you’re hopeless. That said, The Christmas Chronicles 2 is ultimately all about star power and charisma. The film works because Russell and Hawn are a total joy to watch. Consider this: it’s a 114-minute film but the main story is resolved in 90 minutes. The remaining 24 minutes are spent watching Russell and Hawn light a Christmas tree and hang out with Santa’s elves and it’s absolutely delightful to watch! By the end of the film, you basically just want to move to the North Pole and live with the Clauses.

The Christmas Chronicles 2 is currently on Netlfix and it’s a fun little holiday romp. It’s perfect for kids and the adults who sometimes have to watch movies with them. There’s a great musical number and a few surprisingly clever jokes. (I loved that when Santa and Mrs. Claus watched It’s A Wonderful Life, it was a version that had been dubbed into the Elvish language.) Check it out. It’ll lift your holiday spirits.

Holiday Film Review: Christmas Lodge (dir by Terry Ingram)

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, here you are. You’re hiking in the wilderness with your boyfriend and you can’t help but notice that he doesn’t seem to be much of an outdoorsman. He’s a city boy and you’re a mountain girl and who knows if those two cultures can come together.

Well, it turns out that they can’t but don’t worry! No sooner has your boyfriend dumped you than you’ve found a new purpose in life! You’re helping to restore and rebuild the old Christmas lodge where you and your family used to spend the holidays. The important thing is to get it done quickly enough so that grandpa can see the lodge for one last time before he dies. Fortunately, the lodge is owned by a handsome man who needs someone to be a mother for his daughter. Perfect, right?

There’s really not a lot of conflict to be found in this film. Erin Karpluk plays Mary, who decides to save the lodge and, at no point, does she really suffer from the type of self-doubts that you would expect someone to suffer in a film like this. Instead, she decides to do it and then she does it. There’s a few people who think that Mary is wasting her time but they quickly change their minds. Even her break-up with her boyfriend has to be one of the nicest, most polite break-ups that I’ve ever seen.

Make no doubt about it, 2011’s Christmas Lodge is a holiday movie. It’s continually positive and upbeat and unabashedly sentimental and, if you’re into that sort of thing, you’ll enjoy it. And, to be honest, the holidays is a good time to give up cynicism and be optimistic for at least a few days. Me, I get cheerfully sentimental when it comes to the holidays. I smile at every Christmas tree. I love every gift that I get. And I usually shed a few tears while sharing memories with the family. That’s what the holidays are for. Christmas Lodge does a good job of tapping into that spirit.

That said, Christmas Lodge is perhaps a bit more religious that some people are going to like. The film may seem like a typical romantic Hallmark holiday film but ultimately, there’s a lot of talk about God wanting the lodge to be built and the family to come together. At one point, Mary’s grandfather even asks a hesitant carpenter what Jesus would do if he was told that the lodge needed to be repaired. Personally, I suspect that he would open up the lodge to the poor and the homeless but, in Christmas Lodge, apparently he would just give up whatever other projects he had going on and lend a helping hand so the family could gather there while snow gently fell outside.

That said, I’m a sucker for any film that has people celebrating the holidays while snow gently falls from the sky. Christmas Lodge is a sweet-natured movie. It’s not the type of film that you’re going to watch in the harsh heat of the summer but, for the sentimental holidays, it gets the job done.