ROLLERCOASTER (1977) - REST IN PEACE GEORGE SEGAL - PULL THIS ONE OFF THE SHELF, BLOW THE DUST OFF, IT'S HIS MOST FORGOTTEN ABOUT GREAT PERFORMANCE

 

America lost one of it's great actors this week, George Segal passed at 87 from bypass complications. 1977's Rollercoaster finds him not only in his natural comic element but action too as he plays a safety inspector of coasters trying to hunt down a very cunning serial bomber (Sam Bottoms.) He's kind of forced into the whole thing which is where his wry humor shines. A big role for him, he's practically in every scene. 

Throw in a great Richard Widmark latter day performance, the legendary LA band Sparks, awesome locations like Kings Island and Magic Mountain and you've got one heck of an overlooked and underrated flick. Only available on DVD, in fact I'm going to pull mine off the shelf right now! 😉 3.5 stars/5

A very young Helen Hunt on right.

"Harry's Funny Hat"

Poor Harry is forced to ride the rollercoaster....twice!

SPARKS Ron destroys piano stool, Russell far right

A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK (2021) - WOODY ALLEN RETURNS TO NEW YORK NOT WITH A BANG BUT MORE OF A BLIP

 

Given all the recent hoopla, it would be nice to report that Woody's first film set back in NYC is something along the lines of Midnight In Paris or even the myriad of better than average Allen films. This one unfortunately falls in the miss column, down there with Curse Of The Jade Scorpion and a few other cretins I could mention. 

Timothee Chalamet tries hard but is ineffective playing the classic Woody anti-hero, I actually thought Jason Biggs did a great job with this kind of personification in the underrated Anything Else. Chalamet plays a rich and carefree college dude, boyfriend to Elle Fanning who is the best thing about this new film. Our college boy just wants to show his girl NYC in a fun agenda filled day but his girl gets sidetracked by a chance encounter with a famous actor (Diego Vega, perfect here) and a withdrawn director (Liev Schreiber.) Fanning shines beyond this film, she's totally in her game and she looks stunning. Schreiber is too underused here, way too great an actor for this. And Jude Law? Is he in this film?

The climatic scene in which our protagonist finds out something his mom did ultimately is really not worth the ride and worst of all the Woody Allen one-liners, the precious gems needed for this are lacking and mediocre. Sorry, Woody! I calls them as I sees them. 1.75 stars/5

REVIEW OF PTS 3 & 4 OF "ALLEN VS FARROW" - FINAL OUTCOME OF THIS WAS DECIDED BY FILMMAKERS IN FIRST FIVE MINUTES OF PT 1

 

Which one is telling the truth?

Mia Farrow and daughter Dylan have basically succeeded in trashing a legend and his art with it's subsequent legacy. While he's an old man in his eighties I might add and over an incident, one incident that happened almost thirty years ago and was given all due process at that time - good, bad or otherwise. 

Whatever did happen up in the infamous attic that day, we will probably never really know but we do know what happened afterwards. He kept making movies, stayed with the same woman for just as many years and never was accused or as far as we know even stepped one foot in the horrid waters we know as pedophilia. So he either is guilty and quickly learned his lesson or it's the duck it walks like - a purposeful smear job. Either way he is not deserving of the outcome. 

Do your research on these filmmakers and you'll see they've conducted reality TV like pressure interview methods in their previous films. It's like walking into Hells Kitchen with Gordon Ramsay - Woody never stood a chance. It's not illegal to sleep with everyone you ever made a picture with nor is it to be into legally of age women way younger than you on a regular basis. Not yet at least.

Final rating on series - none.

MYSTERY, ALASKA (1999) - MORE COMEDY-DRAMA THAN HOCKEY MOVIE ORIGINALLY BOMBED AT THE BOX OFFICE - HAS AGE IMPROVED IT?

Burt Reynolds (left) and Russell Crowe lead a hefty all-star cast in this attempted charmer. A small town hockey team is approached by the New York Rangers for a big game as a PR stunt. Is there such a thing as a sports epic? With its two hour running time and gazillion subplots this may have tried but here's the thing - the huge cast is phenomenal and it has genuinely funny moments mixed with drama, okay a lot of drama. But there is action in the third act and good hockey playing. Can we settle for calling it a classic late 90s sports flick up there with The Replacements? We think so. 3.5 stars/5 Editor's note - This title is on sale for 4.99 at Vudu.

MOTHER LODE (1982) - CHARTON HESTON TEAMS WITH SON FRASER TO DIRECT AND PRODUCE A BEAUTIFULLY SHOT CANADIAN ADVENTURE

 

Featuring excellent aerial and underwater photography, this oft forgot Canadian adventure is a labor of love from actor-director Charton Heston and his son producer-writer Fraser. It shows all over the film. A gorgeous looking Kim Basinger stars with Italian actor Nick Mancuso (who starred in many Canadian films) as a pair of adventurers searching for a lost plane and their friend who was flying it. They encounter a crazy old Irishman who not only wants to prevent them from finding the plane but also from finding gold and silver mines he has stashed. A very interesting if not sometimes muddled flick that occupies it's own special little place in cinematic history. 3.0 stars/5

WRESTLING ERNEST HEMINGWAY (1993) - RICHARD HARRIS & ROBERT DUVALL GIVE OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES IN THIS TOUCHING DRAMA ABOUT GROWING OLD

 

The legendary Richard Harris as a cantankerous old man

 in what should have been an Oscar nominated performance. 

We love to lift up lesser known underrated flicks and this one is a doosie. Richard Harris, in a latter day role plays an old man fighting to retain what miniscule amount of his youth remains. He forms an unlikely friendship with a retired and somewhat reserved Cuban barber, played beautifully by Robert Duvall, one of my favorite performances of his and one of the few where he's completely outside his usual Duvall self in the character. Despite some fun and touching moments (a scene during a July 4th celebration on the beach is quite nice) the story overall is very shallow and predictable which may be the reason why it bombed severely at the box office. A good pick for a movie night where you're trying to please different kinds of folk. Easily available in the streaming world. 3.75 stars/5

MY REVIEW OF "ALLEN VS FARROW" PTS I & II - SO FAR NONE OF THIS EQUATES TO HIM BEING A CHILD MOLESTER

 

A hatchet job? Let's put it this way- completely one-sided with the filmmakers who happen to be a director duo that has only produced smear job sexual assault docs up to now making it clear from the get-go that Allen is guilty and presenting no witnesses or anyone that supports him. I don't call heavily sprinkled audio clips from Allen's bio a representation of his side of the story. 

If you do your research you'll find that all of this stuff was disproven back in the early nineties by very reputable entities including law enforcement. Several psychologists said the child lived in a complete fantasy land and Allen was out making movies all the time so how could that have come from him. Recurrent themes in his movies dealing with younger women and older men especially capitalizing on the Manhattan movie in no way equates to him being guilty of child molestation.  

He has been with Soon-Yi for twenty-five years now, the woman who was of age when the infamous pictures were discovered. Child molesters usually don't stay with the same person that long nor do they make a movie a year for decades, we all know the amount of time that goes into that. There is just so little to nothing that supports Farrow's story and a whole lot that points to Allen's innocence and certainly not deserving of the damage done to this legendary filmmaker, one of the greatest to ever grace cinema. 

I will end with this. Putting breaking the law aside, if you met half the people you consider influences, idols or muses, trust me, you would not like them very much and easily find a way to pass judgment. We already have enough of that in this world, let's dig the art for what it is- art. 

So far my rating on this series is 1.0 stars/5

Meanwhile...Five Of The Most Underrated Woody Allen Movies

1. Cassandra's Dream (2007)

2. Shadows & Fog (1993)

3. Anything Else (2002)

4. Magic In The Moonlight (2014)

5. Small Time Crooks (2000)