STARTS THIS WEEKEND - TOMMY'S 11th ANNUAL PICK-FIVE SUMMER MOVIES - THIS YEAR'S LIST IS A DOOSIE

 
Greetings All - That time of the year has come again and this year's list has several brand new additions along with a couple of ole reliable stalwarts. As usual not a list of five best summer movies but five suggestions and ones that I'm hot on this year. Also for the first time I will have an "honorable mention" entry in effect making it a pick-six list this year. Very glad you're along with us, have a great summer! T

RAY LIOTTA PASSES AT 67, BUMMER! - HERE'S ONE OF HIS LESSER KNOWN PERFORMANCES AS AN UNDERCOVER COP IN "TICKET OUT" (2012)

 

Alexandra Breckenridge stars as a battered wife trying to keep her and her kids from an abusive husband played excellently by Billy Burke. She hooks up with the underground railroad by calling a phone number slipped to her and "Jim" played by Liotta shows up. A sort of road trip journey and chase follows. She's unaware that he's also an undercover cop but it won't be for long. Will they make it to the airstrip up north that'll take them to Canada or will the husband find her?

What I would call a serviceable thriller or "a good 2-star movie" Nice one for weekend mornings. Streams free on Tubi.  2.5 stars/5

SEAN BAKER DOES IT AGAIN WITH "RED ROCKET" (2021) - SIMON REX STARS AS A DOWN AND OUT PORN STAR

 

On the heels of his last film, the delicious Florida Project, comes Red Rocket about a porn star who returns home and starts dating a seventeen year old fast food clerk. Nobody in his hometown wants him back there especially his ex-wife whose door he just shows up at. After only a couple days back under her roof he's boning her, starting to see the fast food chick and selling weed following a series of one bad choice after another just like our protagonist in Florida Project. And just like Halley in the end gets everything he bargained for karma-wise. 

I'm still new to this guy's work so I'm not sure if he's trying to teach us a moral lesson in these two films about seedy characters or if he's advocating a do-what-you-want lifestyle. I don't really care, his films have a great style to them and he obviously loves working with actors and characters. Red Rocket is sleazier and doesn't have as much charm as Florida Project but is still just as gripping. I just added Tangerine to my wishlist and look forward to see what this guy comes up with next.  4.0 stars/5

THE RUM DIARY (2011) - BASED ON A HUNTER S THOMPSON BOOK SET IN PUERTO RICO IN THE 60'S JOHNNY DEPP IS A MISGUIDED NEWSPAPER REPORTER

 

Here we go again - a movie most people found convoluted and incoherent I land up liking. And surprisingly I've watched it a few times now and kind of dig it. Depp plays a reporter just starting off in San Juan and his first day doesn't go too well - his new boss (Richard Jenkins, excellent here) has already called him out as an alcoholic, the newspaper is on it's way down the chute and it's check-out time on his paid hotel room. At the same time a local wealthy property developer (Aaron Eckhart) offers Depp another opportunity writing copy for brochures. The developer's girlfriend (Amber Heard) lands up being Depp's downfall, imagine that. 

Michael Rispoli is outstanding as Depp's new roommate and coworker and the always incredible Giovanni Ribisi kills it as a moonshine-demented local, quite funny. The film's decked out in light torquise blues and lipstick pinks which makes for a really cool look. Sure, it's a simple dramedy trying to pose as a rom-com...but we like it. Currently streams free on Tubi and Pluto.  3.0 stars/5

SAMUEL L JACKSON IS A "CLEANER" (2007) - NOT THE KIND THAT WEARS AN APRON, THE KIND THAT CLEANS UP CRIME SCENES

 

From the director of Die Hard 2 comes this tidy little thriller about a crime scene cleaner who slowly starts to realize he's becoming part of a cover-up. The first portion of the movie sets up our characters showing Tom cleaning up at his various crime scenes, he's a single dad with a teenage daughter. One day he does a job at a mansion and leaves his key by accident. When he goes back the next day to retrieve it, the owner of the house (Eva Mendes) seems to know nothing about the clean-up job and claims nothing ever happened at the house. This puts the plot in motion which also involves, yep, a couple of corrupt cops. Played excellently by Ed Harris and Luis Guzman. 

The film has a very slight but tangible noir feeling about it and the production design is quite nice, the vibe of the film feeling like the clean-ups themselves - quick, precise, and wrapped up. I like Ed Harris a lot here. While he can certainly carry a whole film on his own he always seems to be better in those bit parts. Guzman has more lines than normal for him but is excellent as always. All in all, it's a good little thriller, in my opinion, deserving of higher ratings than most reviews. Cleaner streams on Netflix, Fubu and VOD. 3.0 stars/5

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA, MARTIN SCORSESE & WOODY ALLEN EACH CONTRIBUTE A SHORT FILM TO "NEW YORK STORIES" (1989) - YOU'LL NEVER GUESS MY FAVORITE ONE

 
An overlooked and underappreciated trilogy, I think mostly due to the names being bigger than the sum of it's parts. The general consensus thru the years is that everyone agrees Scorsese's "Life Lessons" is the best, Coppola's (which really in essence is a Francis & Sophia directed project) is terrible and Allen's "Oedipus Wrecks," some like and some don't. They're all so different and this might have added to the problem of it's not being received as well. I think both Scorsese's and Allen's would have made great full features had it gone that way, Coppola's "Life Without Zoe" was always a short film and of the three is mostly developed as such. 

A fantasy about a 13-year old girl who lives in the Sherry Netherlands (a slight takeoff on the old Eloise children's book about a girl who lived at the top of The Plaza,) a young and oh, so stylish Heather McComb stars. She helps return a valuable earring to an Arab princess while at the same time making new friends and trying to reconcile her two separated parents. Comedian Don Novello of SNL fame has a great dramatic part here as our protagonist's butler and the music is entirely composed by the then-super-hot King Creole & The Coconuts.

Now, even though I'm probably the only person on the face of the planet that digs the Coppola segment, there's no denying Scorsese's film is the best of the three. Scorsese captured what in my opinion is the best Nick Nolte performance ever, even surpassing North Dallas Forty. Rosanna Arquette is her usual phenomenal best and it's the performances of these two that make the entire segment worth watching. I only recently discovered that the European markets actually had a different version where the running order starts with the Coppola film, then Allen's, then Scorsese and this to me seems more ideal regardless of what one thinks of the Coppola piece.  4.0 stars/5

MAN ON WIRE (2008) & THE WALK (2015) - PHILLIPE PETIT AND HIS INCREDIBLE FEAT OF WALKING THE WIRE BETWEEN TWO TWIN TOWERS

 

Some people realize their dream over a long period of time, say for example, The Rolling Stones, celebrating their 60th year this summer. Some do it in a series of peaks and valleys. And then there's this guy, Phillip Petit, who decided to do it all in one morning's time, one incredible feat to be remembered throughout all of time. 

Man On Wire takes us brick by brick from conception of Mr Petit's vision in a dentist's office (yes!) to his success on the morning of August 7, 1974. Nothing with our goals ever goes smoothly and the story is exciting in a couple of lucky incidents as they tried to set up that saved what looked certain to be a dud. The film certainly more than reminds us of the value of never giving up on our dreams. It also won an Oscar for best documentary that year. 

Oh, Robert Zemeckis. I really like his films but often find the pacing and structure to be anti-climatic and even detrimental. Castaway is a great example. A very engaging film which has us rooting for him to get off the island and when he finally does, the sequence where he's out on the ocean is awesome. That could have been stretched out and led to his climatic discovery for a nice ending. But instead we get this lengthy boring third act about how everyone feels now that he's back and will he get back with Kelly. 

I think Flight is a great movie and I like the story that develops after the plane landing. But the first section with the actual flight is so good that it just feels like the energy of the film is all gone for the whole remaining hour and a half. Fortunately, here with The Walk, he sticks to a much more linear format and in a lot of ways it plays like a Hollywood version of Man On Wire. But it's good and to recreate the towers the way they did and the special effects are beyond awesome. Gordon-Levitt shines in this role and this is an actor whose work I'm really starting to enjoy lately. 

Man On Wire currently streams free on Roku, Tubi and Vudu. It's also on sale for only 6.99 HD on Amazon. 4.0 stars/5  

The Walk is available VOD on all the major outlets. 3.5 stars/5

DANNY GLOVER, STEVE ZAHN & LEELEE SOBIESKI ARE ALL ABOARD THE "NIGHT TRAIN" (2009) ALONG WITH A DEAD BODY AND A MYSTERIOUS BOX WITH TREASURES

 

A sort of Christmas death train as these main characters are all headed home for the holidays, or so they think. An old man dies and leaves a mysterious little box that whoever looks into it sees something they wish for like jewels, etc. The three main characters start to pit against each other for the box and eventually Sobieski's character becomes a total psychopath with Glover the laid back conductor (hey, that rhymes) and Steve Zahn, a pushy and slightly nerdy salesman. 

Done on a super low budget and released straight to DVD, the movie has a pretty nice look to it considering it's obvious the interiors are sets and the exteriors models. The three leads all more than carry their weight and it's these things working together that makes it a pretty entertaining watch. I will warn you however, the ending is frustrating and mentioned the most as viewer's thing they disliked. Night Train currently streams free on Tubi.   2.75 stars/2.75

WILL FERRELL IS HAVING A MASSIVE YARD SALE AND "EVERYTHING MUST GO" (2010) - WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?

 

Will Ferrell plays an alcoholic marketing exec who gets fired and thrown out of his house on the same day. All his stuff is on the front lawn and he has a couple of days so he camps out and starts selling thanks to a local kid played marvelously by C J Wallace. At the same time he develops a friendship with the new neighbor across the street (Rebecca Hall) whose husband has temporarily left her alone while pregnant. 

A comedy-drama shot in Scottsdale and a bit of a box office bomb but mostly approved by critics. Ferrell and Wallace are great together. Michael Pena also stars as detective who is a friend and sponsor and is charged with making sure Ferrell is off the lawn within three days. A more than worthy indie, Everything Must Go currently streams on Netflix, History Vault and VOD.  3.0 stars/5

TOM HANKS AND MELANIE GRIFFITH ACCIDENTALLY RUN OVER A GUY IN THE BRONX AND THEN COVER IT UP IN BRIAN DE PALMA'S "BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES" (1990)

 

Firmly implanted in the miss column of Brian De Palma's filmography, a masterful novel by the late Tom Wolfe goes amiss and fails to translate properly to the screen. This thanks to a clusterf*ck of miscasting although I will point out some of the better performances. There's a strong racial element to the story and film which I'm not going to go into 'cause quite frankly that stuff doesn't interest me. The basic fun and suspense is the main character, a rich white man is involved in a hit and run and then covers it up, will he get caught or not? 

The fact that the movie opens with a drunken Bruce Willis flinging salmon all over the place probably doesn't help things. The scene with the hit and run soon follows and the movie gets interesting for a bit with that scene before quickly descending into it's moral, racial dynamics, chiefly, that a rich white couple ran over a black kid in the Bronx. 

One of the movie's few saving graces is Melanie Griffith who just rocks her part and dress for that matter. Legendary character actor F Murray Abraham who went uncredited due to a post-production dispute also rocks his part as a politician and it's nice to see him with lots of lines. After it's all said and done this one unfortunately deserves the moniker "skip the movie, read the book."  2.5 stars/5

And speaking of Tom Wolfe books, I highly recommend Man In Full, an understated masterpiece that hopefully one day will get a film version. Well, maybe not.