For all the people who loved The Untouchables and thought that old Al
Capone had to pay for the rest of his life rotting in prison because of
that tax evasion thing, there's a neglected part of history that many
would be both surprised and then let-down about... being that Capone
actually got out and lived about a decade, and with money to boot... The
footnote of that is that he suffered from dementia and wasn't all
there, which was actually only the last couple years after the first
couple years after lockup...
Most are praising Tom Hardy's
performance because it's hard not to praise Tom Hardy, but he's all
makeup and imitation here, nothing else, really... Matt Dillon plays his
former mentor Johnny and seems in even more of a cruise control mode
than Hardy's Capone, who at least has a reason being he's so messed up
mentally... But nothing much happens except for showing a guy
getting what he deserved after he got what he deserved by the far more
entertaining story of his peak as a gangster... one scene as he lies in
bed, he... well let's just say the audience gets to actually watch brown
stuff spraying from his rear-end and it's not supposed to be hilarious
but it seems like something out of Neighbors or Old School, and, anyhow,
Josh Trask, poor fella, he just can't catch a break... The "It Guy
Director" in Hollywood had a chance here, after failing at the top, to
prove himself with arthouse but... there's simply nobody home here, and
the lights aren't even on.
FONZO (2020)
AMERICAN BEAUTY (1999)
The Oscar-winning AMERICAN BEAUTY, deliberately attempts to play on cliches, never fully progresses past them for the characters to be fleshed out as actual humans...Especially Annette Bening in what could be the WORST performance in an Oscar winning feature, screaming her lines as a shallow, work-motivated suburban real estate agent yuppie-from-hell as if she were in another movie altogether, or auditioning for an overboard parody of upper middle class families, and she seems created just to make our central hero look cooler and become more sympathetic, but he didn't need help since Spacey is actually quite good, charming, the suburb dad version of the usual "lovable loser" herein lusting for his bratty-deep, morbid daughter's sexy blonde friend... And how would his borderline Goth daughter be a cheerleader in the first place?
But
she has her own admirer, crushed on by the next door neighbor's even
more morbid son... And his dad's a Marine who represents what Hollywood
hates: An extreme right winger, homophobic, in the military, cold to his
wife, abusive to his son, and get this... he's a homosexual and... well
let's not spoil the ending... Overall, one of the aspects that
inspired other films is the ghostly piano score, mellow, haunting,
overly-moving, which you now hear the likes of in every "important"
film's trailer (it used to be the more upbeat piano theme for Terms of
Endearment)... Other than that, AMERICAN BEAUTY stole more from
past films (or rather, cliches from past films) than it actually created
yet, still, you can't say it isn't entertaining being a fun ride when
not trying to be too deep, or too obviously trying to prove a point or
agenda... Maybe if it were a more straight-line comedy instead of
telling us to Look Closely the audience could judge for themselves what
to get out of the story, because, for the most part, the themes are as
forced to the viewer as Spacey's character's life was forcing him into
the kind of submission he eventually dug his way out of... Or perhaps... that was the intention all along. Rates: ***
DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA (2022)
For instance, Carson is the most against the production movie company's disruption of the house, so they send him to France... But wouldn't he be better batting heads with the studio? God knows, that would have made for a terrific episode...
As for the overall drama/melodrama that the series is
known for, there aren't too many shocks or surprises except for a
searing epilogue, a few near-trysts along the way and, not counting a
semi-intriguing history lesson about silent film stars fearing the
introduction of "talkies" (already known from Singin' in the Rain), it's
in one ear, out the other, and without any necessary tension or
conflict... Ironically, up on the big screen, the characters seem
much smaller, somehow, while the director doesn't savor the
larger-than-life beauty and elegance of Downton or even France for that
matter...Then again, for lightweight comedy, it's not a bad
90-minutes: Just don't except A New Era to equal the terrific British
series that, for the most part, feels far too "Hollywood" here. Rates: **
RIP DENNIS WATERMAN OF 'THE SWEENEY'
They never stopped starring in hit British show, particularly Waterman who started as a child actor, headlining a series WILLIAM as, you got it, WILLIAM, followed by FAIR EXCHANGE, THE BARNSTORMERS and then in his late twenties and thirties the aforementioned THE SWEENEY...
Which was quickly followed by that production company's crime comedy MINDER, then a comedy called ON THE UP and finishing with a very long goodbye for almost twenty-years on the old-guys-back-on-the-force crime comedy NEW TRICKS...
In-between all this he appeared in two Hammer flicks, one as a child the other his early twenties, THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER (opposite future SWEENEY guest star David Lodge) and then side-by-side with Christopher Lee in SCARS OF DRACULA. Boy was he busy. This is about the only rest he ever had. Farewell.
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