Brian's Thoughts on Movies

Life imitates art as Creed actor Michael B. Jordan follows original series star Sylvester Stallone into the director's chair.  Jordan has put together a thoughtful career path and proves to be a natural storyteller in this next chapter of Adonnis Creed's story, scripted by Keenan Coogler (brother of original Creed director Ryan, who has co-written several of his brother projects including Black Panther) and Zach Baylin writer of the excellent film King Richard), that plumbs into Donnie's past to find his next challenge. Spoilers below: I expected the film to start as Rocky III did, with Creed as champion and on top of the world.  Jordan and the writers instead start the film with a flashback to Donnie's youth where we meet Damian who is a Golden Glove boxer.  Interestingly Donnie is already living with his father's widow Mary Anne at this stage but sneaks out to watch Damian fight.  As I still think of the stern Clair Huxtable every time I first see Phylicia Rashad ...

Stephen King's books have a mixed appeal for me as I think as I have mentioned before.  I believe he is a superb writer and I savor the detail in which he probes into his characters' heads and builds his plots.  As a reader I can feel the joy he gets from the process of writing.  However I have little interest in the big supernatural elements of most of his stories as I find them difficult to relate to.  As such I have never read or seen a lot of his most famous works like The Stand, Pet Cemetary or IT.  I have read a lot of his short stories (Different Seasons and Just After Sunset collection), and also really like some of King's more grounded books like Cujo and Misery.  I also liked the Green Mile and 11.22.63 for their anthology structure and time travel respectively.  In early 1993 I read the recently released Gerald's Game on the recommendation of a friend who  devoured King's books as they came out.  I thought it was an intriguing stor...

Adam Sandler has the most successful film career of any Saturday Night Live performer.  Adam Sandler comedies are often savagely attacked by critics who can be a little high-minded and dismissive of them.  I think it is important to look a little deeper as to why something works or does not.  Sandler created a production company called "Happy Madison" which is named after his first two films "Billy Madison" and "Happy Gilmore", neither of which I have seen yet.  Happy Maidson produces most of Sandler's comedies (and some which star other SNL veterans like David Spade) and it has allowed him to give a lot of opportunities to friends both in front of and behind the camera.  This can be both an asset and a hindrance.  For example, Sandler has made several films with director Dennis Dugan who often does broad comedy well but whose films struggle balancing those with the more dramatic scenes, which can make the films seem like a collection of gags.  But it ...

"We're all put to the test, but it never comes in the form or at the point we might prefer, does it?"  Charles Morse in The Edge On New Years' morning this year I opened my phone and saw a headline that said "Anthony Hopkins' Life in Photos.  I momentarily felt a sense of grief.  Had Anthony Hopkins passed away and more selfishly, would there be no more Anthony Hopkins' performances? I have not seen all of his work but a Hopkins performance can make a great film even better (Remains of the Day, Shadowlands), a good film great (Nixon, Mask of Zorro), and a bad film watchable (Human Stain, Instinct).  The Welsh voice which can be powerful yet soft and, the blue eyes which can indicate deep thought or an intimidating stare, and the stature which is short but imposing, all make Hopkins (who has an obvious adoration of the craft) one of my favorite actors of all time and I believe the best living male actor.  For all of his success Anthony Hopkins will probabl...

Season 5 of Cobra Kai is its biggest yet with Daniel and Chozen teaming up to take down Terry Silver, who has been building up the Cobra Kai brand as he had intended to back in The Karate Kid Part III and using his charm to manipulate anyone siding with Daniel.   A lot happens in the season so below I will just remark on some individual impressions below.   As always there are spoilers. Macchio does some of his best work in this season as Daniel faces up to one of his biggest challenges while also in the first half of the season driving his wife crazy with his obsession, which includes an unconventional houseguest on an extended stay.   Yuji Don Okomoto has a lot of fun playing a more evolved version of Chozen who stills sometimes strikes first and asks questions later but to a much more comedic effect.  Chozen also carries himself with much more gravity and is as devoted to helping Daniel as he was to hurting him in Karate Kid Part II in many scenes....

 Basic Instinct made a loud cultural noise when it was released in 1992, right before the term "political correctness" began to be used widely.  It is a dark story conceived by screenwriter Joe Esterhas  about the investigation into the murder of a former rock star in which the prime suspect is a manipulative,beautiful, and openly bisexual woman who wrote a novel about the same thing.  A lot of suspense films at the time earned their scares by setting up scenes of killers surprising their overpowered victims (Cape Fear, Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Misery, Sleeping with the Enemy).  The protagonist was usually trying to escape the antagonist but Basic Instinct inverts this by having the "hero" deliberately goading the "villain" to come after him. Spoilers for both Basic Instinct films: Dutch Director Paul Verhoven, a man who likes to push the envelope and whose films are often guilty pleasures, interprets this material as a tasteless but engrossing enterpri...

 In the 1980s when I was both a teenager and as a burgeoning film fan there was no comedy star I found more entertaining than Chevy Chase.  Chase was smart, knew how to play irreverence and sarcasm better than anyone, and had a writer's sense of how to build and payoff a joke.  He was also an expert with physical comedy, perhaps highlighted best by the pratfalls he took while playing Gerald Ford as a clutz on Saturday Night Live.  Chase wrote a chapter in a book called "Tools of the Trade" on it in which he explains how to fake getting slammed in the face with a door (a trick I pulled on my mother to her horror one time).  Chase could play terrific tricks with his face, switching quickly from one expression to another to great effect.  In the 80s even the films he was in that did not work well always had funny moments (a moment in the otherwise dull Spies Like Us has him using every trick he can think of to cheat on a test). Fletch, Foul Play, Seems Like Ol...