Tag Archives: Robin Duke

Hostage For A Day (1994, directed by John Candy)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Hostage For A Day is the only film that the much-missed John Candy ever directed.  (It premiered on Canadian television, a few months after his death.)  It’s also one of the only films to feature George Wendt in a leading role, as opposed to being a supporting player.  The film is full of funny people like Don Lake and Robin Duke.  John Vernon plays Candy’s father-in-law.  A lot of talent went into this movie.  It’s too bad that it’s not very good.

Wendt does give a good performance in the lead role.  He plays Warren Kooey, who is depressed on his 41st birthday.  His wife (Robin Duke) has drained their bank account to remodel their house and apparently shag their interior decorator, Hondo (Currie Graham).  No one respects him at work.  Warren’s reflection in the mirror tells Warren that he needs to do something with his life.  Warren decides to fake a hostage situation so that he can collect the ransom.  The problem is that the SWAT team has recently had their budget cut and can’t afford to pay the amount that Warren comes up with.  Then some real kidnappers (led by John Candy, making a very brief appearance) hold him hostage for real.  While this goes on, Wendt continues to talk to his reflection in the mirror and there are a few sweet but out-of-place scenes featuring him reuniting with his childhood sweetheart, Diane St. Clair (Christopher Templeton).

As a director, Candy never seems to be sure what type of film he’s trying to make.  The comedy is broad but Candy also tries to sneak in some sentimental moments and the end results just doesn’t mix well.  He gets some good performances for his cast but the film itself never really comes together.  This was George Wendt’s only starring role and he does a good enough job that I regret he didn’t get bigger roles once Cheers went off the air because, judging by this film, he could have handled them  I just wish this movie was better.

Film Review: Groundhog Day (dir by Harold Ramis)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Happy Groundhog Day!  For the record, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today so get ready for six more weeks of winter!

Oh, how I love Groundhog Day.  I really do.  It’s perhaps the silliest holiday that we have in America and I absolutely adore the whole thing.  I love the fact that people get dressed up for it.  I love that there are people who plan their entire weekend around seeing what the groundhog predicts.  I love that we all know there’s no way a groundhog can reasonably predict the weather but, for one day, we pretend like it can.  And while Groundhog Day itself had its beginning in Germany, the holiday really has become pure Americana.  It’s such an innocent holiday, or at least it is now that Bill de Blasio is no longer in a position to kill the magic groundhog.

(Boo de Blasio!  Boo!)

Of course, no Groundhog Day is complete without watching the 1993 comedy of the same name.  The film has become such a major part of American culture that even people who haven’t watched it know what it’s about.  (It’s a bit like It’s A Wonderful Life in that way.)  Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, a cynical weatherman who is sent to cover Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney and finds himself reliving the same day over and over again.  Every morning, it’s once again February 2nd.  Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe plays on the radio.  Phil is approached by Ned Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky), an annoying former classmate turned insurance salesman.  Phil steps in the same puddle.  He finds himself covering the same story and, again and again, he’s stranded by the same blizzard.  At first, Phil is angry.  Even multiple suicides can’t stop the cycle.  Kidnapping the groundhog can’t stop the cycle.  Then, he decides to take advantage of living the same day over and over again.  He gets to know the people in the town and realizes that they’re not so bad.  He saves the mayor (Brian Doyle-Murray) from choking at dinner but, in the film’s most poignant moment, realizes that an old homeless man is going to die regardless of how many times he tries to save him.  Phil learns how to learn the piano.  He learns how to speak French.  And, most importantly, he falls in love with Rita (Andie MacDowell).  Of course, when he tells Rita this, she assumes he’s just trying to take advantage of her.  Rita says that they barely know each other but what she doesn’t realize is that Phil has been spending day-after-day with her.

As you might have guessed I relate to Rita.  She loves the silliness of the holiday and so do I.  I also relate to Nancy Taylor (Marita Geraghty), just because of her determination to enjoy the day no matter what.  That said, this is totally Bill Murray’s film and this is one of his best performances, one in which he expertly mixes his trademark comedy with some very poignant drama.  One thing I like about this film is that Phil becomes a better man as a result of living the same day over and over again but it doesn’t totally change his personality.  At the end, he’s still the same sarcastic smartass that he was at the start of the film but he’s no longer a cynic.  He’s learned how to appreciate other people.  He’s fallen in love.  Much like George Bailey, he’s become the richest man in town.  This is a rare film where the main character is as interesting after he’s reformed as before.

It always breaks my heart a little to read that Bill Murray and director Harold Ramis had a difficult time working together while making this film.  It’s truly a perfect film and that’s due to both Murray’s performance and Ramis’s heartfelt direction.  I’m also glad that Ramis and Murray made up before Ramis passed away.  Life’s too short and sadly, unlike in the movies, we don’t always get a chance to go back and correct the past.

Groundhog Day is a holiday classic and may it continue to be watched for decades to come.

Club Paradise (1986, directed by Harold Ramis)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I think I was nine or ten years old when I first saw Club Paradise on HBO.  I remember thinking it was pretty funny.

I recently rewatched Club Paradise and I discovered that ten year old me had terrible taste in movies.

Robin Williams plays Jack Moniker, a Chicago fireman who gets blown out of a building while rescuing a dog.  Living off of his disability payments, he retires to the island of St. Nicholas, which is basically Jamaica but with less weed.  Jack and reggae musician Ernest Reed (Jimmy Cliff) open up their own Club Med-style resort, Club Paradise.  Jack doesn’t know much about the resort business but he does know how to put together a good brochure.  Almost the entire cast of SCTV shows up at Club Paradise, looking for a tropical vacation.  Things quickly go wrong because Jack doesn’t know how to run a resort and there’s also an evil developer (played by Brian Doyle-Murray) who wants Club Paradise to fail so that he can get the land.

Club Paradise has got a huge and impressive cast, the majority of whom probably signed on because they were looking forward to a paid Caribbean vacation.  Peter O’Toole plays the British-appointed governor of St. Nicholas.  Twiggy plays Jack’s girlfriend.  Joanna Cassidy plays a reporter and Adolph Caesar is cast in the role of St. Nicolas’s corrupt prime minister.  Because the film was directed by Harold Ramis, it is full of Ramis’s co-stars from SCTV.  Andrea Martin tries to get her husband to enjoy the islands as much as she’s enjoying them.  Joe Flaherty is the crazed pilot who flies people to the resort.  Rick Moranis and Eugene Levy play two nerdy friends who are both named Barry and who are only interested in scoring weed, getting laid, and working on their tan.  Rick Moranis and Eugene Levy playing nerds?  It’s a shock, I know.

There’s enough funny people in Club Paradise to ensure that there are a few isolated laughs.  Not surprisingly, the movie comes to life whenever Moranis and Levy are onscreen.  (If I had to guess, I imagine they were the reason why ten year-old me liked this movie so much.)  Needless to say, Jimmy Cliff also provides a killer soundtrack.  But Club Paradise ultimately doesn’t work because the script is too disjointed and it feels more like an uneven collection of skits than an actual film.  It’s impossible to tell whether we’re supposed to think of Club Paradise as being the worst resort ever or if we’re supposed to be worried that the bad guys will shut it down.  For a movie like this, you need a strong central presence to hold things together.  Unfortunately, Robin Williams’s style of comedy is too aggressive for the role of Jack.  The role was originally written for Bill Murray and it shows.  Most of Jack’s lines sound like things you would expect Bill Murray to say in his trademark laid back fashion and it is easy to imagine Murray redeeming some of Club Paradise‘s weaker scenes simply by attitude alone.  Instead, Robin Williams is so frantic that you never buy he could be happy living a laid back life on a Caribbean island.  As played by Williams, Jack often comes across as being unreasonably angry at everyone staying at Club Paradise and it’s hard to care whether or not he manages to save his resort or not.

Club Paradise was a bomb at the box office.  Harry Shearer, who was originally credited with working on the screenplay, hated the movie so much that he requested his name be removed from the credits.  (Instead, credit is given to Edward Roboto.)  As a result of the film’s failure, it would be 7 years before Harold Ramis would get to direct another movie.  Fortunately, that movie was Groundhog Day and this time, Ramis was able to get Bill Murray.