raykeller's reviews

Personally, I kept looking at my watch during my cinematic viewing of the navel-gazing heavy-handed "La-La Land" (never a good sign). Once over, I wondered what the hoopla was. Then come the critics and the awards, and I just still couldn't see the praise being heaped upon it. Then along comes "...Showman" and this film. It took liberties with time-lines, combined characters, created fictional situations.... and so what? Just like the equally dazzling "Bohemian Rhapsody" (congrats, Rami Malek!), it was a very entertaining movie, great songs, and you left the theater feeling marvelous - not like you were wishing you could get back the depressing two hours and four minutes you just wasted. If you want a documentary, switch to TLC. However, do you want to be entertained? Grab some popcorn and tune in!

Tex Avery, IMHO, is probably hands-down the best at his craft. Current stuff -- just that, stuff. The closest I've seen of recent work would have to be the four Roger Rabbit/Baby Herman cartoons (including the short that opened the film, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?").

This simple premise -- starving cat & undersized intended snack -- is complicated by a miraculous growth fertilizer and spirals rapidly out of control to a completely ridiculous conclusion.

I was lucky enough to own the box-set of laserdiscs which included every cartoon Tex Avery made for MGM, and I would have paid three times what I did for it. Although this particular cartoon wasn't my favorite (I might have to lean toward one of the two versions of "Northwest Hounded Police" in which double-takes and eyeball gags are elevated to an art form), it was certainly in the upper levels. Another high-ranking short: "Bad Luck Blackie", in which a black cat simply struts in front of a surprisingly vicious bulldog to bring him instant -- and potentially lethal -- bad luck.

Try to see these shorts unedited, not the hacked 'politically correct' versions being shown on some cable cartoon shows. Absolutely the best animation for sheer hilarity that has ever been committed to celluloid.

I have loved this movie from the first time I saw it at the age of 13! A wealthy producer, whose wife Sheila was killed a year earlier by a hit and run driver, invites a writer and his rich wife, a director, an agent, an actress and her hot-tempered manager/husband for a week of a scavenger-hunt mystery based off his yacht in several ports-of-call in the French Mediterranean. All of the invited guests were also at his house for a party the night Sheila was killed. As the game unfolds, one of the players realizes there is more to the game than just a game... and the game takes a lethal turn. Clever twists and clues abound, right from the opening title sequence that actually help you figure out what's happening. This movie demands multiple viewings, because once you've seen and digested it, the next time you see it you'll knock yourself on the forehead and ask yourself, "That is SO obvious, why didn't I see it before?!" The all-star cast turns in terrific performances, most notably Dyan Cannon as the over-sexed Hollywood agent (an Oscar nomination should have come her way on this one). A few minor inconsistencies don't detract from the overall effect of this dazzlingly brilliant piece of work. Written by Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim and the late Anthony Perkins, this was inspired by Perkins' real-life love of scavenger hunts, which usually took place in NYC and were fairly similar in style to the one portrayed in the film. An absolute must see!

OK, so before Raquel became a "serious" actress, she did a number of fluffy, inconsequential films which displayed far more of her physical attributes than any heavy-duty acting chops. This film (while keeping la Raquel covered, for the most part) pretty much falls into "fluffy": good-hearted but lonely divorceé Diane "KC" Carr tries to make it in the Roller Games circuit, clashing with female cohorts and dodging male advances. Being a huge fan of Roller Games during the early 70s, I was thrilled that this film featured a number of RollerGame stars who were big at the time. Toss in a love affair between KC and a manipulative team owner, stir in strained relationships between KC & her mother and KC and one of her two young children (one played by a young Jodie Foster), add a bitter rivalry with fading Roller Games queen Jackie (excellent Golden Globe nominated performance by Helena Kallianiotes) and there hangs the drama. Kevin McCarthy oozes as the pawn-shifting team owner, and pulls off the love-interest quite believably in spite of the fact he is 26 years her senior! Overall, a good effort (with La Raquel executive producing) and a check-your-brains-at-the-door kind of movie, but one I still love to curl up in front of... even while folding laundry.

As of March 15, 2005, I just learned that the movie is finally scheduled for DVD release May 31, 2005. For those of you who have bought previous DVD versions, you're probably already aware that they're cheesy bootleg copies, mostly taped from TV then transferred to DVD-R; says the seller, "I bought this at a convention, so that's why the picture isn't so great."