Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

Great soundtrack? Check. Robin Williams being absolutely wild with his comedic DJ routines? Check. A standard battle of wills between the old and the new? Check. When I sat down for this long-overdue revisit of Good Morning, Vietnam, a film I believe I probably last watched on VHS, I thought I knew what I was getting. Because I still remembered it, the "highlights" anyway. Or so I thought. There was quite a bit here that I'd forgotten, and I'm here to now remind other people about some of those things.

Based on the story of Adrian Cronauer, a radio DJ who spent some time trying to raise the morale of the troops in Vietnam, this was one of only two films written by Mitch Markowitz, although some of his TV work feels like a good practice run for this kind of thing. You could also argue that a lot of the film was made up by an unleashed Williams, who Cronauer claimed made him seem a hell of a lot more fun than he was in reality, but let's give due credit to Markowitz for crafting something with a great balance of comedy, drama, and enough room for a supporting cast to move around without being thrown offscreen by the tornado tearing through many scenes.

When he is given his new job, Cronauer soon finds himself butting heads with Lt. Steven Hauk (who tries to advise him on both comedy and the permitted playlist) and Sgt. Major Dickerson (J. T. Walsh), but he also has some immediate firm friends in the shape of Edward Garlick (Forest Whitaker) and Marty Lee Dreiwitz (Robert Wuhl). When he falls for a local woman named Trinh (Chintara Sukapatan), Cronauer ends up teaching an English class just to try getting closer to her, which leads to him befriending her brother, Tuan (Tom T. Tran, credited here as Tung Thanh Tran), which leads to him getting himself in even more trouble.

Director Barry Levinson knows how to make the most of what he has here, and everything I mentioned in the opening paragraph is a strength for the film. The plotting is quite formulaic, but in an enjoyable way, Williams is on great form, and that soundtrack holds up as one of the best. There's enough scene-setting to remind everyone that we're in Vietnam, but it helps that there are only really a few main locations used throughout the majority of the runtime (the DJ area/military offices, a bar, the English class). There's also enough Williams to ensure that everyone knows this is a Williams movie, but the supporting cast are given some superb moments to help them stand out.

Whitaker is a real delight for every moment that he's onscreen, and he's the one helping to bring out the best in our lead while also reminding him of what he's really doing it all for, and Kirby, as unthinkable as it may seem, almost steals the entire movie with a comedic performance that is all the better for it not being played comedically (his character isn't funny, not intentionally, but he's constantly laughable). Sukapatan is fine, Tran is really good, and it's always a pleasure to watch Walsh onscreen, especially when he's delivering the kind of barely-controlled anger that he has here. Wuhl is good, Noble Willingham is enjoyable in his few scenes as the sympathetic Gen. Taylor, Richard Edson has the benefit of being onscreen alongside Kirby, adding to the comedy, and there's an amusingly camp turn from Cu Ba Nguyen as businessman/bar owner Jimmy Wah. I would not have believed that this was his first film acting role if I hadn't just quickly scanned through his filmography online.

Admittedly a bit tame compared to other films set during the Vietnam War, this is a nice way to shine a light on the whole debacle from a different angle. Making arbitrary rules and regulations about comedy and music is indicative of how arbitrary some (many?) of the military edicts are, especially during a conflict as chaotic and misjudged as the one in Vietnam. 

You'll probably revisit this one day while wanting to enjoy some classic Williams schtick, but you may be as pleasantly surprised as I was by all of the main supporting cast members, especially Whitaker and Kirby.

8/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share 

A Merry Friggin' Christmas (2014)

At this moment in time, I have no idea of how many movies featuring Robin Williams are still due to be released after his untimely death. All I can say is that I hope some of the others are a damn sight better than this one, which I worry will be received positively by people who simply don't want to speak ill of the dead.

And let me clarify something before I go on. Williams is pretty great in this. He's one of three main highlights. So this isn't a review aiming to have a go at him. It's just a review critical of a movie that he happened to be involved with.

Joel McHale plays Boyd Mitchler, a man who has to return to his family home, with his wife (Lauren Graham) and kids, in order to attend the christening of his nephew on December 24th. It doesn't take long until the greetings give way to animosity and resentment. The main friction comes from Boyd and his father (Williams). Boyd's younger brother, Nelson (Clark Duke), reacts to the more volatile moments by running off to hide, while his sister, Shauna (Wendi McLendon-Covey), is fairly nonplussed by the whole situation. She's busy keeping her kids from causing too much damage and telling her father off whenever he accuses her husband (Tim Heidecker) of being a pervert (for reasons that become clear as the movie plays out). To top everything off, Boyd realises that he forgot the main presents for his youngest son. This is probably the last year that he'll believe in Santa Claus and Boyd wants it to be special, unlike his own childhood Christmas experiences. Can he make the trip back to Chicago, and THEN back to Wisconsin, in time? He's certainly going to try his hardest.

Looking at the credit listings for the main talent behind the camera on this movie, it quickly becomes clear just where the problems stem from. Director Tristram Shapeero has a fine body of work to his name, but most, if not all, of it is TV work (including one of the best TV episodes ever for Brass Eye, and many episodes of Community). This would explain why the film never really feels very cinematic. It is, to all intents and purposes, either a TV movie or a couple of episodes serving as the finale/opener of some show. Unfortunately, that means that viewers are taken along for a ride with characters you have no time, or inclination, to get to know better. Oh, they could have been memorable, they could have been people that were worth watching, if the script had been better. That's where first-timer Michael Brown comes in. Seemingly content to line up the hurdles that McHale needs to overcome in order to enjoy Christmas, Brown forgets to create characters that are interesting enough to invest in. He also forgets to create a fluid narrative that leads to a deserved finale, one ripe with the potential for redemption and change. Whatever happens to these characters before the end credits roll, it just seems unearned.

I already mentioned Williams as a highlight. The other main highlights would be Duke and Oliver Platt (as a down and out Santa). Graham, Mclendon-Covey and Candice Bergen (as the mother of the household) also do solid work, but they're given a lot less to do. Heidecker's character really didn't need to be there, which leaves him with very little to do, although all of the child actors do enough to earn their places onscreen. McHale, as much as I like him on TV, can't overcome the script. His character feels more like an irritant than the lead, most of his behaviour is either stupid or simply stubborn (aka stupid), and part of me kept hoping that yet another obstacle would come along to knock him flat on his ass. That surely wasn't the intention.

I would recommend a number of Hallmark/ABC movies over this one, and I'm not joking or exaggerating when I say that. This was really poor, and a waste of some considerable talent. Skip it, unless you're a real Robin Williams completist (and I know there are a few out there).

3/10

http://www.amazon.com/Merry-Friggin-Christmas-Blu-ray/dp/B00NGAJAOS/ref=sr_1_2_twi_2_twi_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418319820&sr=8-2&keywords=a+merry+friggin%27+christmas

You know how you can show your appreciation for bloggers? If you share and share then every additional reader helps. Connect through Google or Blogger or any way you can, and rest easy in the knowledge that you've made little ol' me a very happy man.

And/or you could also buy my e-book, that has almost every review I've written over the past 5 years. It's very reasonably priced for the sheer amount of content.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.

Ani-MAY-tion Month: Robots (2005)

Shiny, bright, easy entertainment, Robots is enjoyable enough, despite the fact that it's a couple of notches below any of the better animated movies of the last decade. It's lovely to look at, with design work that holds up well alongside any other title from the decade, but just doesn't have much else going for it.

Ewan McGregor voices Rodney Copperbottom, a robot who dreams of being a great inventor. He decides to head off on a quest to impress the mighty Bigweld (Mel Brooks), the big cheese in Robot City. Unfortunately, Bigweld is no longer in charge of his own company, which is now being managed by the greedy, devious Ratchet (Greg Kinnear). Rodney still wants to meet Bigweld, and his persistence might just lead to an upturn in the fortunes of the poorer residents of Robot City (including Fender, voiced by Robin Williams).

Co-directed by Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha, there's a wealth of detail and gorgeousness in every scene here. The same can't be said of the script, written by Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel and David Lindsay-Abaire. It's not exactly poor, but it just feels a bit flat. Even the lines rattled off by Robin Williams feel lacking in energy, especially compared to his far superior turn in Aladdin (over two decades old, but still one of the standout performances in any animated work).

While the vocal cast all do well, it's a shame that there aren't a few more easily identifiable voices. Williams is obviously Williams, and Paul Giamatti is always welcome in any movie, but McGregor provides a bland, American accent, and Kinnear seems a bit tame in a role that you'd expect him to seize with his usual relish. Brooks, great director that he is, doesn't make much of an impression as Bigweld, while Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Stanley Tucci, Amanda Bynes, Dianne Wiest and the rest of the cast are in the same boat. They all do a perfectly good job at reading their lines, but they're left bereft of any real personality. Funnily enough, it's Jennifer Coolidge, in a supporting role, who ends up as one of the most memorable robots, thanks to her fun character actually matching her usual onscreen persona.

Robots has all of the parts in place, all of the nuts and bolts are on, but it just put a decent motor into the gorgeous exterior. Aesthetically pleasing it may be, and a lot of the visual gags are very enjoyable, but the fact that it never fires on all cylinders (pardon the pun) means that it's unlikely to be anyone's first choice when browsing the family entertainment section.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Robots-Blu-ray-DVD-Digital-Copy/dp/B005KP778S/ref=sr_1_5?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1400183215&sr=1-5&keywords=robots

Noel (2004)

I was hoping to like Noel. Why? It was a Christmas movie with a good cast, and it was directed by the fantastic Chazz Palminteri. I like Christmas movies, in case anyone somehow hadn't noticed that yet, and I like Chazz Palminteri. I also like Susan Sarandon, Paul Walker, Penelope Cruz, Robin Williams and Alan Arkin, all of whom star in the movie. Sadly, the film just isn't that good. It does for Christmas what the likes of Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve did for their respective occasions. Which is to drain it of all magic and instead fill it up with cheap manipulation and saccharin sweetness.

What's the storyline? It's a selection of criss-crossing story strands. Susan Sarandon plays a lonely woman who devotes most of her attention to her hospitalised mother. She eventually meets a man (Robin Williams) who seems to know just where she is at in her life at that exact moment. She also meets a young woman (Penelope Cruz) who is being driven away from her boyfriend (a cop, played by Paul Walker), due to his explosive temper. Walker, while trying to win back the woman he loves, is approached by Alan Arkin, playing a man who seems to see the reincarnation of his ex-wife in the young man. Oh, and there's also a man (Marcus Thomas) who wants to spend the evening in hospital, because his happiest memory was when he was hospitalised, as a young boy, and got to enjoy the Christmas party thrown for the patients.

Written by David Hubbard, Noel features a handful of good performances that are wasted in a pile of schmaltz. Schmaltz is a hard thing to avoid in any Christmas movie, but this one is especially bad. The musical cues, the journeys of self-discovery, the warm, Christmassy glow suffusing every scene, it all works to remind you that you must feel the joy of the holiday season. You must sense the magic, despite all of it being very basic stuff executed with very little style.

Palminteri, who also gives himself a fleeting cameo, doesn't direct with any confidence. Thankfully, he gains a few bonus points by assembling a good cast, but that's about the only thing that the movie has going for it. Sarandon, Walker, Arkin and Cruz are all very good, Thomas is okay, although he just has to keep repeating the same idea over and over again, and Robin Williams does the quietly contemplative act he's been doing in his serious roles for years now (the regret, the wry grin, the soft and quiet manner).

It's a shame that I've ended up rating this even lower than many of the TV movies created at this time of year, but this one had the chance to be much better. It feels more like a wasted opportunity, which isn't the feeling I want from my Christmas movies as the end credits roll.

4/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Noel-DVD-Pen%C3%A9lope-Cruz/dp/B000BY9CWM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386192829&sr=8-1&keywords=noel

Jumanji (1995)

Welcome to the jungle.

Thanks to a mix of great special effects (okay, they don't hold up quite so well nowadays, but they still do a good job), fun performances and a few good one-liners, Jumanji remains an enjoyable family movie that warns everyone against the perils of boardgames.

Jumanji, for the uninitiated, is a boardgame that allows players to pretend that they're avoiding dangers in a jungle environment. The only problem with playing the game is that it really DOES provide those dangers. Robin Williams plays Alan Parrish, a man who was sucked into the game as a small boy and has spent years living in the jungle. He is finally released when young Judy and Peter Shepherd (Kirsten Dunst and Bradley Pierce, respectively) find the game and decide to have a go themselves. With Alan back in the real world and the jungle also spilling out one dice roll at a time, it becomes essential to finish the game. That means getting hold of Sarah Whittle (Bonnie Hunt), the woman who was once the young girl so shocked by Alan's departure into the game many years ago. Things are about to get wilder with every roll of the dice.

Based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg, it may have taken a few writers (Jonathan Hensleigh, Greg Taylor and Jim Strain) to craft the final screenplay, but the whole thing is nicely handled by director Joe Johnston, balancing some wonderful dialogue with exciting action moments and genuine tension. Kids should enjoy the movie though, be warned, those of a sensitive nature may find it a bit too intense at times, especially if they don't like spiders or mischievous monkeys or roaring lions or creeping, strangling vines.

As well as being packed with great CGI (and it certainly helped show just what was possible when it was released in 1995), the film boasts a top-notch cast including those already mentioned in the lead roles (and Williams is great at the man-child schtick so his performance is guaranteed entertainment, in my opinion), David Alan Grier as a police officer who also remembers the time when young Alan Parrish disappeared, Jonathan Hyde as both an intimidating father figure and also an intimidating, and relentless, hunter, Patricia Clarkson as Alan's mother and Bebe Neuwirth as the guardian of the Shepherd children.

It may give your children a great excuse to use when you tell them to switch off their videogame systems and spend time with more traditional entertainment instead, but this is a fun time for all, especially if you pair it up with Zathura, another movie based on a Chris Van Allasburg book that also focuses on a very special boardgame.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jumanji-Blu-ray-Region-Robin-Williams/dp/B005KJ65KK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1357712152&sr=8-2

The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1988)

I admit that I was hesitant when I slid the Blu-ray of The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen into my player. When it was (barely) released in 1988 I saw a few clips that just didn't sell it to me. In fact, it looked a right mess and the poor performance at the box office did nothing to make me doubt my first impression of the film. Fast forward to all these years later and I now know that boffo box office results aren't always a sign of a great movie, but I still thought I was about to watch a mess. An entertaining mess, perhaps, but a mess nonetheless.

Piffle! The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen is a fantastic film. Directed by Terry Gilliam, who co-wrote the screenplay with Charles McKeown (based on the character created by Rudolph Erich Raspe), it is his usual mix of wild imagination, wonderful visuals and warped humour. Apparently, it forms a thematic trilogy after the excellent Time Bandits and the masterpiece that is Brazil, something to do with the ages of man and the power of imagination, but the most important thing to know is that it's a rip-roaring adventure full of spectacle and larger than life figures.

It is a time of war, a time of misery for the occupants of a city being attacked by a large Turkish army. It is "The Age Of Reason". For the benefit of those seeking a distraction from the war, a play is being performed that's all about the life of the adventurer known as Baron Munchausen. Unfortunately, the play is interrupted by the Baron himself, who is unhappy at the way his adventures have been adapted and proceeds to tell the audience the truth, including how he was responsible for starting the war on the city. Mind you, it's not surprising that few people believe his words when he goes on about his sidekicks - the fastest runner in the world, an eagle-eyed sharpshooter, a man with excellent hearing and the ability to exhale gale force winds and the strongest man in the world. Reality then reasserts itself as the war interrupts the Baron and he wanders off to die. Thankfully, that plan doesn't work (or it would be a very short film indeed) and so the Baron decides to save the city, meaning that more adventures are about to unfold.

This wasn't an easy movie to get made, but from what I've seen and heard over the years, few Terry Gilliam movies are. Having seen his work method, I think it's all down to the fact that he yearns to find the fastest way possible to put his constantly inventive imaginings on to film and that makes for very hard work indeed. He has it all there in his mind and you can see how fast it all wants to come out whenever he quickly sketches a new idea or a revision of the scene before him (check out both Lost In La Mancha and The Hamster Factor And Other Tales Of Twelve Monkeys to see what I'm on about). The difficulties behind the camera just don't show themselves, however, and viewers are simply left to enjoy a great final product.

The cast is wonderful, full of so many familiar faces as well as those who just fit their characters perfectly. John Neville is the Baron, the very heart of the film, and he makes for a wonderful companion and narrator throughout. Sarah Polley is only a teeny tiny girl here and she's very good in her teeny tiny girl role. Eric Idle, Winston Dennis, Jack Purvis and Charles McKeown have a lot of fun playing some rather unique characters while Uma Thurman, Jonathan Pryce, Robin Williams, Alison Steadman, Oliver Reed, Bill Paterson, Valentina Cortese, Peter Jeffrey and many others populate the screen in a variety of weird and wonderful roles.

Fans of Gilliam's films should love this one, fans of films such as Big Fish (which has quite a similiar structure) should love this one and fans of fine cinema, in general, should find plenty to enjoy. I didn't expect to say this before putting in that Blu-ray, but I highly recommend this film.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Munchausen-Anniversary-Edition-Blu-ray/dp/B0012OTRYI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1357696323&sr=8-2

The Best Of Times (1986)

Robin Williams and Kurt Russell star in this sports comedy drama from the pen of Ron Shelton (who, with Tin Cup, Bull Durham and White Men Can't Jump to his credit, will always be a gold-medal winner in this particular sub-genre). Williams plays Jack Dundee, a man played by that one mistake he made as a young man during the BIG football game. Kurt Russell was Reno Hightower, the star player, and he made a beautiful pass in the last moments of the game. A pass that Jack fumbled. His whole life, from that moment on, has consisted of him berating himself as "the guy who dropped the ball and lost the game". In a desperate move, Jack stumbles upon what he thinks is a great idea - replay the game. If he changes his perceived history, then maybe he can be content in the present and make headway towards a positive future. He just needs to convince the rest of the town, the guys who made up the opposing team and, of course, Reno.

If you hate American Football, then don't worry, this does feature the sport, but it's not really ABOUT that. Like every other sports movie by Shelton, this looks at a beloved sport and uses it to look at other aspects of human nature and life. The Best Of Times is actually about a big moment in a life that someone would want to change. Can it be done? Is it worth trying? How does it affect other people when someone allows themselves to be eaten away and defined by one mistake, one youthful "transgression".

Shelton has written a number of better scripts, but this works well because of the unlikely relationship between the characters played by Williams and Russell. There's also a good little turn from Donald Moffat, who agrees with Williams' low self-opinion. Holly Palance and Pamela Reed are very good as the other halves of, respectively, Williams and Russell and it's clear that they've been neglected at times. The nice thing, however, is that when things start coming together and everyone sees the effect of re-staging the big game, the ladies don't stay stubbornly rooted against the men. They're supportive, they just don't want such an event overshadowing every moment of their lives. There's also a small role for the great M. Emmet Walsh. He's great, as usual.

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, this is a good film and has some very funny moments. It even has a typically rousing finale that you can't help getting caught up in (well, I couldn't). Yet, it's never quite as good as it could be. An enjoyable watch, but not one I'd end up revisiting that often, if at all.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Times-Robin-Williams/dp/6305262128/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357941265&sr=8-1&keywords=the+best+of+times