Before watching the movie:
I promised a Leslie Nielsen film this week, but the library didn’t come through for me yet, so here’s this. I’ll see Spy Hard when I can get it.
I’ve been told this is not a good film. Moreover, that it only did as well as it did at the box office because of underage teens sneaking into the South Park movie. It has Will Smith, action, humor, and steam-powered mechs in the Old West, so it can’t be so very disappointing as all that.
Before Watching the Movie:
I came home for Thanksgiving, and found this movie on loan to my parents from my grandparents. I know nothing about it other than what the box says, which isn’t much. I know it’s a comedy, and that Terry-Thomas has some small, lead-dwarfing cameo in it.
It’s about the early days of flying in the second decade of the 20th century, and the first air race. The box says nothing about the plot, but I would guess that it has loads of characters, much like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Before watching the movie:
Popeye, cartoon legend. Robin Williams, cartoonish legend. Still, while nobody does “animated” like Williams, he’d hardly be my first choice for the salty, mumbling strong man of the sea, especially at the peak of his cocaine-addled supersonic phase.
On the one hand, this was around the time he was doing Mork and Mindy, so arguably the funniest part of his career. On the other, Mork is very different from the Popeye I know. I don’t doubt he can do the character, I’m interested in seeing how he keeps it up in a film I think I’ve heard described as “surprisingly bleak.”
Before Watching the movie:
Everything I know about this film comes from the back of the box. I’d heard the title and was probably vaguely aware it was about cars and driving somehow, but nobody ever talked about it, just of it. I guess it will be fun. It will definitely be filled with another era’s popular stars, most of whom I don’t directly care about.
I found it on the shelf and thought I’d watch it based on its apparent popularity, but I’m not especially looking forward to a long, confusing ensemble road movie.
Before watching the movie:
I suppose I should see The Godfather to properly appreciate a parody of it, but Rodney Dangerfield and Dom DeLuise are too well-cast to pass this up. Also it’s the most appropriate thing I’ve found this week.
Dom DeLuise also did a Godfather-parody character in Robin Hood: Men In Tights. The film looks good, but I can’t overlook the fact that it’s got two and a half big names and yet I’ve never heard of it, so I’m not getting my hopes up too much.
Before watching the movie:
Somehow, when this movie came out, I didn’t hear about it. I was 11, a decent age to hear about movies like this coming out, but the first time I heard about it was when its first sequel came out. I didn’t know that Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me was a sequel until I talked to my parents about it and they said they “saw the first one, didn’t like a lot of the content, and figured that the next would be even more” of what they didn’t like.
While I don’t expect to be as appalled as they were, I do expect an unfortunate pile of sophomoric humor on top of a pretty good Bond spoof.
Before watching the movie:
Yes, it’s another John Candy movie. Why? Because not only does one of my primary sources of films have a ridiculous amount of John Candy movies, it’s actually started recommending them to me. This film was recommended to me by Hulu after I watched the last potboiler starring him to appear on this blog, and I chose to review it today because a lot of people, myself included, are falling over themselves about a certain Wild West-themed video game. Will this be fun for fans of that game I will not name, or will it be a counterexample to the genre?
It also stars Richard Lewis, who seems to have blipped through Hollywood in the early 90s, never seen before or since.
Before Watching the Movie:
Rarely do I come across a movie I know nothing about that has me asking questions. Young Einstein is one of those movies. Australian comedian Yahoo Serious plays a character the box assures me is named Albert Einstein, who is apparently a genius bum, but I don’t know if that’s THE Einstein or another one, or if it’s even set in the early 20th century or contemporaneously. I don’t know if I’m going to be laughing with the movie, at the movie, or just crying for the loss of a physicist’s dignity.
Before watching the movie:
Once again, an 80s classic with an iconic scene. Another fantasy comedy. Recommended by the Zeitgeist and provided by a browse through the local library.
I expect to like this film, so I’ll probably be slightly disappointed. I’m not sure if I’ve seen any of Tom Hanks’s early comedy roles before, but even knowing about them, I wouldn’t have necessarily picked him for a story about a kid in a grown man’s body. It reminds me a little of Forrest Gump, but without the depth.
Before Watching the Movie:
While I was disappointed by the selection I found this week, I’m excited to write about this movie. More excited to write than to watch. Supposedly, this is a “great comedy,” the seminal film in Steve Martin’s career. Reading the box though, it looks like the sappiest kind of romantic comedy. I’m expecting boredom, diabetes, and scenic Los Angeles vistas, and to like it better than I expect.
Yesterday's Movies 