Jimmy Stewart is one of the great actors of all-time, and he’s personally one of my very favorites. I did not realize a movie had been made about him until I stumbled across this trailer today. Check it out!
Tag Archives: Julian Works
The Films of 2024: The Long Game (dir by Julio Quintana)
The Long Game is a sports film and, like most sports film, it’s a crowd-pleaser despite being predictable.
The film opens in South Texas in the 50s. World War II vet JB Pena (Jay Hernandez) has been hired as the new superintendent of the school district. Haunted by his experiences in the war, Pena now works out his emotions by hitting golf balls. Despite being sponsored by his former commanding officer, retired golf pro Frank Mitchell (Dennis Quaid), Pena is turned down for membership in the wealthy Del Rio Country Club. It’s suggested that he might fit in better at the all-Mexican country club a few towns away.
Pena discovers that five caddies at the country club have built their own golf course. (He discovers this when one of them hits a golf ball through his car window while Pena is driving.) Pena also discovers that the caddies are all students at the local high school. Pena decides to recruit the caddies into the high school’s first ever golf team. Under the guidance of both JB Pena and Frank Mitchell, the Mavericks make it to the Texas High School Golf championship and …. wouldn’t you know it! — they find themselves playing at the same country club that previously refused to allow Pena to join.
Sports films are interesting. Critics and audiences tend to make a big deal about wanting to be surprised by movies. We complain about the lack of originality that is present in most modern-day films. But we make an exception when it comes to sports films because we understand that, at their best, sports film appeal to some very basic but very important emotions. We go into sports film with the understanding that the underdogs are going to win, despite all of the obstacles that have been put in their way. We go into sports films with the understanding that the team’s best player is going to be a troubled soul who has to be talked into competing. We go into sports films knowing that the coach is going to start out pushing one method, just to realize the error of his ways. We go into sports films knowing that there’s going to be a wise mentor. (In fact, The Long Game gives us two, with both Dennis Quaid and Cheech Marin offering up advice.) Sports film tend to be very predictable but you know what? It doesn’t matter. Everybody appreciates a story about underdogs proving that they can go the distance and compete with the best. Everybody loves a story where the contender that no one took seriously comes from behind and wins. There’s a reason why the Rocky films didn’t end with the first one. After our heroes prove they’ve got the heart of a champion, we then like to see them win. These stories are totally predictable but damn if they don’t bring a tear to my eye every time.
The Long Game certainly inspired a few tears. It’s a well-made sports film, one that features heartfelt performances from Jay Hernandez, Dennis Quaid, and all of the young actors playing the members of the Mavericks. It’s predictable but it’s also well-made and there’s an aching sincerity the whole thing that is just impossible to resist. (It also helps that the film itself is wonderful to look at, with the cinematography truly capturing the beauty of my home state.) The film is based on a true story. I imagine that a few liberties were taken, as they always are with a film like this. But still, when the film ended with grainy images of the real-life golfers, it was impossible not to be moved by their story and proud of their accomplishments.
Go Mavericks!
Back to School #80: The Unauthorized Saved By The Bell Story (dir by Jason Lapeyre)
Well, it’s here! This is my 80th and final Back to School review! As I’ve mentioned before, I originally thought I’d be able to do all of these reviews in just one week. Instead, it’s taken me five weeks but you know what? I’ve had fun doing these reviews and I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading them. It’s been interesting to see how teen films have progressed and changed over the decades. We started this series with 1946’s I Accuse My Parents and now, we end it with a film from 2014 that might as well be called I Accuse Screech.
Technically, it’s called The Unauthorized Saved By The Bell Story but that’s kind of an unwieldy name, isn’t it? I can’t really see myself typing that title over and over again. So, for the purposes of this review, this movie is called I Accuse Screech.
First off, some background. When I was a kid, I used to watch Saved By The Bell: The New Class. What’s weird is that, when I look back at it, I think even then I knew that the show wasn’t very good. I knew that the jokes were frequently not funny. I knew that the story lines were predictable. I think I was even aware that it was strange how frequently actors were either dropped from or added to the cast. Don’t get me wrong. The show was (and still is) oddly watchable but it was never any good and I am pretty sure I knew that. Then again, maybe that’s just way I want to remember it. Being a fan of Saved By The Bell: The New Class isn’t exactly something that you brag about. However, one thing that I can be sure of is that, even when I was young, I knew that Screech Powers sucked.
As played by Dustin Diamond, Screech was the principal’s assistant at Bayside High. He was also probably the most annoying character ever to be unleashed onto the psyches of impressionable children and tweens. Screech spoke in a high, squeaky voice and could usually be relied upon to do something incredibly stupid. Whenever he fucked things up (and he managed to do this several times in each episode), he would say something like, “Zoinks!” Everybody hated Screech.
Now, I have to admit that I never actually saw an episode of the classic original Saved By The Bell until after the New Class was already off the air. And that’s when I discovered the adventures of Zack Morris, A.C. Slater, Kelly Kapowski, Jessie Spano, and … Screech. That’s right, you can’t escape Screech!
And here’s the thing — the original Saved By The Bell is one of those shows that really is kind of terrible and yet you can’t stop watching. It’s addictively bad, the type of show that you watch with a combination of shock, horror, and amusement. The original Saved By The Bell is the television equivalent of The Room or Troll 2. It’s terrible but it’s fun.
So, you would think that a made-for-tv movie about what went on behind-the-scenes of Saved By The Bell would also be terrible yet fun. That’s certainly the way that it was advertised by Lifetime. Lifetime appeared to be hoping that their version of the story behind Saved By The Bell would give them a Sharknado of their very own.
And hey, it should have been great. There’s an interesting story there. How would a bunch of teens handle suddenly becoming famous? How would they handle the pressure of being famous while also appearing on a show so bad that it would essentially run the risk of ruining their lives, not to mention their careers? How would they handle having to grow up both on TV and in real life?
Those are the questions that we expected to have answered by this movie but instead…
Well, let’s just say that I Accuse Screech!
In 2009, Dustin Diamond published a “memoir” called Behind The Bell and oh my God, it is literally the worst fucking book ever written. Words escape me to describe just how terrible this book is. Essentially, the book is full of Diamond either complaining that his co-stars didn’t like him or bragging about the fact that he used to have sex with 12 year-olds at Disneyland. Diamond accuses his castmates of smoking weed. (Wow, teenagers smoking weed. MY GOD, THE SCANDAL!) Diamoned accuses his castmates of having sex. (OH MY GOD, TEENAGERS HAVING SEX!) In other words, the book is pretty much Dustin Diamond complaining about the fact that everyone but him was having fun on the set of Saved By The Bell.
So, of course, if you’re going to make a movie about Saved By The Bell, where would you go for your source material? Well, you can’t go to any of the stars because, with the exception of Dustin Diamond, they all have successful careers outside of Saved By The Bell. And you can’t go to Dennis Haskins because, seriously, who cares what Mr. Belding thought?
Lifetime decided to use Behind the Bell as their source material. Unfortunately, Diamond himself has admitted that the book was a pack of lies. As a result, most of the more salacious (and therefore entertaining) material could not actually be used in the movie. The Lifetime film is full of hints of bad behavior but no direct evidence. At one point, we see the actor playing Mario Lopez flirting with an extra in a deserted classroom. In another scene, the girls get snarky with each other because they all like Mark-Paul Gosselaar. But, beyond those hints, we don’t get to see any of the book’s more sordid accusations. Instead, all we get are a lot of scenes of the actor playing Dustin Diamond looking annoyed with his castmates.
(Because, literally, the only verifiable, non-slanderous thing to be found in the book is that apparently Dustin Diamond was whiny, bitter, and jealous…)
As a result, the film seems to be suggesting that Saved By The Bell was put together and performed by the most boring people on Earth. The end result is not only the worst film to have appeared on Lifetime but perhaps one of the worst films of all time.
Why is it so bad?
I accuse Screech!
(Incidentally, if you want to learn more about Saved By The Bell, I suggest checking out the best Saved By The Bell review site around, The Summer of Morris!)
And, on that note of failure, we conclude this series of 80 Back to School reviews! Thank you, everyone, for your indulgence and your patience! I hope everyone enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.
Through the Shattered Lens 