My 1/2-Ass Movie Blog

 MARY REILLY Julia Roberts, John Malkovich, Glen Close, Michael Gambon. Dir. Stephen Frears, Columbia-TriStar, 1996 On twitter tonight people in my timeline doing one of those film challenges where they post a different movie daily, each corresponding to a different subject, posted on "Movie You Wish You Could Get Others to See."  I spent Sunday watching and analyzing one such, John Dahl's ROUNDERS, but I've already defended it. I'm not part of the game & I don't want to crash their party with a one-off reply. The idea got me thinking, though, of movies that few others like or will even explore though I think they should. In my world that's a list of strange & unlikely titles. Few, however, are as unlikely as Stephen Frears's 1994 Jekyl/Hyde mess, MARY REILLY.  Let me be clear. MARY REILLY is not a good movie. It is not a misunderstood film struggling to find its audience. It is not a new lost classic. (It's not even new. It's 28 years ...

 ROUNDERS Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Martin Landau, John Malkovich. Dir. John Dahl, Miramax, 1998 First things first. I had Rounders pretty much wrong the few times I saw it before today. I thought it concerned things it sort of concerns, but in poker talk I left a lot of money on the table. I didn't see it there, or couldn't see it might be there if I had the right eyes.  I won't say I ever disliked ROUNDERS, or its cast, or even the Counting Crows song playing at the end credits. It's more that I never liked it as much or as well as it deserves.  Placing myself in unearned company, I think I saw John Dahl's gambling movie as Roger Ebert did, a colorful but well concealed Disney sports movie, following all the same plot points any of Team Rodent's inspo-sports yarns do. It's more than possible to see that. It's there. Today, though, I think Dahl knows that story's there & plays to it enough to satisfy our love of triumph-of-the-underdog, but...

SUPERMAN II Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Terence Stamp, Sarah Douglas, Gene Hackman. Dir. Richard Lester, Warner Brothers, 1980 Upon first seeing Richard Lester's 1980 SUPERMAN II, the followup to 1978's SUPERMAN:THE MOVIE, I would have fought anyone who said it wasn't one of the best movie sequels. Though I last saw it around the same time I last saw its predecessor, 20ish years ago, I could not remember last night if I held the same opinion in my 30s as I did in my teens. Today, in my mid-50s, I think it's good, enjoyable fun, but not great, not quite the equal of Donner's film.  In my writeup of SUPERMAN '78 I argue that its ending, sometimes criticized as being ludicrous, is no more ludicrous than the idea that being from a planet with a different center of gravity would give Kal El special powers on earth, or than Jor El's ban on influencing human history when Superman's very existence on Earth does just that, is even possible. SUPERMAN II comp...

SUPERMAN:THE MOVIE Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty. Dir. Richard Donner, Warner, 1978 I think Nick Hornby said that pop music must serve more than nostalgia to keep us playing it over & over again. That's true of films, too. Watching Richard Donner's SUPERMAN for the first time in 20 years tonight, I found myself almost as giddy as the 11 year-old me seeing it on a big screen 44 years ago, yet I also found its story still resonant, somewhat to my surprise. Look at the film's gorgeous opening scenes on Krypton, in which Marlon Brando's Jor El warns its rulers the sun will go full nova in days. They retaliate, censuring & silencing him, evoking our leaders' response to Dr. Anthony Fauci or Greta Thunberg & the legion of scientists behind both. Dystopian futures ideally reflect our present in some way, but screenwriter Mario Puzo, with help from Laraine & David Newman & BONNIE&CLYDE's Robert Benton, presents a dyst...