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Chuck-149's rating
Frankenstein is one of the best horror stories ever told in the history of mankind. The story of a mad man who was able to bring a dead person back to life has shocked nations and generations and will shock in the future as well. This is probably one of the reasons why Mel Brooks' movie is so great. He was able to take a serious story, almost traumatising and make a classic comedy out of it. His movie is a pure satire from beginning to end and this is where you can see how hard he must have worked on this movie. His more recent movie Spy Hard (1996) was quite disappointing because the humor there seemed much more sexual and the parody wasn't all that great. The only interesting part of that movie was the variety of different scenes Brooks mixed in although they didn't really blend well together.
In most movies in which you have a very rich man and his butler, the butler is quite often very funny and delivers some of the best jokes. The best example for that would have to be John Gielgud's role in Arthur (1981) which won him a best supporting actor Oscar. He played a wise-cracking butler who was able to be snide to his master without being too impolite. However, I seem to find that Martey Feldman as Igor in Young Frankenstein was even funnier than John Gielgud was in Arthur. This is the second part of Young Frankenstein.
Finally, the third part of Young Frankenstein has to with family reputation. Gene Wilder plays Fredric Frankenstein and does not like his name because of the reputation it was given by his crazy grandfather. He wants nothing to do with his past family but when his great grandfather's will is found and asks him to return to Transylvania, he sees no choice but to go out of respect for his predecessor. Upon arriving in Transylvania, he quickly meets Igor and is taken to the Frankenstein castle. There, he soon becomes obsessed with the idea of bringing a dead human being back to life. This obsession is provoked by a woman who works at the castle and who was the mistress of Fredric's grandfather.
The rest of the story is developed in a very similar way to the original terrifying classic only in a highly comic manner. Gene Hackman has a cameo as a blind priest and his scene is one of the funniest ones in the movie. Mel Brooks smartly directs this movie letting the viewer hope some things happen and others won't. Gene Wilder's contribution to the script is another plus and he delivers his role very well. The scene in the classroom is highly comic. Also noticeable is Teri Garr who plays young Frankenstein's "assistant" in the laboratory room. But Martey Feldman walks away with the movie as the snide and hilarious butler Igor. He plays the role of one those people who make you laugh just by appearing on the screen. You won't want to miss this one.
In most movies in which you have a very rich man and his butler, the butler is quite often very funny and delivers some of the best jokes. The best example for that would have to be John Gielgud's role in Arthur (1981) which won him a best supporting actor Oscar. He played a wise-cracking butler who was able to be snide to his master without being too impolite. However, I seem to find that Martey Feldman as Igor in Young Frankenstein was even funnier than John Gielgud was in Arthur. This is the second part of Young Frankenstein.
Finally, the third part of Young Frankenstein has to with family reputation. Gene Wilder plays Fredric Frankenstein and does not like his name because of the reputation it was given by his crazy grandfather. He wants nothing to do with his past family but when his great grandfather's will is found and asks him to return to Transylvania, he sees no choice but to go out of respect for his predecessor. Upon arriving in Transylvania, he quickly meets Igor and is taken to the Frankenstein castle. There, he soon becomes obsessed with the idea of bringing a dead human being back to life. This obsession is provoked by a woman who works at the castle and who was the mistress of Fredric's grandfather.
The rest of the story is developed in a very similar way to the original terrifying classic only in a highly comic manner. Gene Hackman has a cameo as a blind priest and his scene is one of the funniest ones in the movie. Mel Brooks smartly directs this movie letting the viewer hope some things happen and others won't. Gene Wilder's contribution to the script is another plus and he delivers his role very well. The scene in the classroom is highly comic. Also noticeable is Teri Garr who plays young Frankenstein's "assistant" in the laboratory room. But Martey Feldman walks away with the movie as the snide and hilarious butler Igor. He plays the role of one those people who make you laugh just by appearing on the screen. You won't want to miss this one.
John Huston made movies mainly during the 40's and the 50's. He is well known for some of his great movies like The Maltese Falcon (1941) and The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948), two movies who earned themselves a position on AFI's top 100 list and what many consider to be his best picture ever, 1951's The African Queen which was ranked 17th on AFI's top 100 list. His major collaborations with Humphrey Bogart also made him quite popular in the beginning of his career. Unfortunately, he died in 1987. However, he did not leave us without giving us an 80's classic à la John Huston. Prizzi's Honor was his final stand and what a stand it was.
The Mob is probably the topic that has been the most used in Cinema. Movies like Little Caesar (1930) and The Public Enemy (1931) are the young classics that gave us a taste of things to come for the more modern classics such as Goodfellas (1990) and the ultimate movie of all-time, The Godfather (1972) and its terrific sequel, The Godfather Part II (1974). As with every other common movie topic, Hollywood has produced many disappointing movies about the Mob such as Scarface (1983). However, it has produced the ultimate disgrace to the Mob movies with 1998's Mafia which tried to parody The Godfather, Scarface, and many others. This is something that I can not tolerate, to make a parody of such great movies. So looking at Prizzi's Honor, I thought this might be a movie that had a similar objective to Mafia with a few big stars in it. I was mistaken.
Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson) is a wiseguy. At a wedding, he sees a beautiful tall blond woman (Kathleen Turner) with whom he immediately falls in love with. He finally meets this woman. Her name is Irene Walker. He soon finds out that she had made a hit for the Prizzi family, the family of which he is part, the day of the wedding. The two of them fall in love and make plans for marriage. But Irene goes back to California for a few days. During her trip, Charley also learns that a scam has been going on in one of the Casinos owned by the Prizzis and that the man who orchestrated this scam is a man named Marxie Heller. So Charley is sent by the family to get the money back from Marxie.
Charley goes to Heller's house and knocks off Heller. He waits for Heller's wife to return as she apparently had something to do with the scam. But surprise surprise for Charley as Heller's wife turns out to be Irene Walker. Charley spares her after she returns half of the stolen money and goes back to Brooklyn claiming he could only find that and he marries Irene. But complications are bound to arise and they do.
Huston's smart directing does not allow the viewer to call out a mistake in the movie an Richard Condon's script is intelligent as it releases all its small twists and turns in the correct order at the right moments. One of the key actors in the movie is Anjelica Huston's role as the rejected daughter of a second level boss for the Prizzi family. Without her, the movie would probably not end the way it does. Jealousy, greed, love... these are the principal themes of this black-comedy along with, of course, the theme of murder. But as I said at the beginning, this is a typical Huston classic and is not to be missed.
The Mob is probably the topic that has been the most used in Cinema. Movies like Little Caesar (1930) and The Public Enemy (1931) are the young classics that gave us a taste of things to come for the more modern classics such as Goodfellas (1990) and the ultimate movie of all-time, The Godfather (1972) and its terrific sequel, The Godfather Part II (1974). As with every other common movie topic, Hollywood has produced many disappointing movies about the Mob such as Scarface (1983). However, it has produced the ultimate disgrace to the Mob movies with 1998's Mafia which tried to parody The Godfather, Scarface, and many others. This is something that I can not tolerate, to make a parody of such great movies. So looking at Prizzi's Honor, I thought this might be a movie that had a similar objective to Mafia with a few big stars in it. I was mistaken.
Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson) is a wiseguy. At a wedding, he sees a beautiful tall blond woman (Kathleen Turner) with whom he immediately falls in love with. He finally meets this woman. Her name is Irene Walker. He soon finds out that she had made a hit for the Prizzi family, the family of which he is part, the day of the wedding. The two of them fall in love and make plans for marriage. But Irene goes back to California for a few days. During her trip, Charley also learns that a scam has been going on in one of the Casinos owned by the Prizzis and that the man who orchestrated this scam is a man named Marxie Heller. So Charley is sent by the family to get the money back from Marxie.
Charley goes to Heller's house and knocks off Heller. He waits for Heller's wife to return as she apparently had something to do with the scam. But surprise surprise for Charley as Heller's wife turns out to be Irene Walker. Charley spares her after she returns half of the stolen money and goes back to Brooklyn claiming he could only find that and he marries Irene. But complications are bound to arise and they do.
Huston's smart directing does not allow the viewer to call out a mistake in the movie an Richard Condon's script is intelligent as it releases all its small twists and turns in the correct order at the right moments. One of the key actors in the movie is Anjelica Huston's role as the rejected daughter of a second level boss for the Prizzi family. Without her, the movie would probably not end the way it does. Jealousy, greed, love... these are the principal themes of this black-comedy along with, of course, the theme of murder. But as I said at the beginning, this is a typical Huston classic and is not to be missed.
Hollywood has produced many court room movies. However, it has also produced a few court martial movies. The difference in these court martial movies is that it has the advantage of being appreciated by anyone who likes court room movies because these movies do not deal with war or army that much but try to stay focussed on the court room case. This is the subject which feeds the script for A Few Good Men. The other part of the script is more the lines you have to walk to win a court martial without becoming subject to one. This involves walking on a very thin line and sometimes trying to move it to your benefit without being stopped by the man in the big chair.
These two key elements are greatly mixed by Rob Reiner's masterful direction and Aaron Sorkin's excellent script. Furthermore, Reiner has a first rate cast allowing his direction to be. This cast includes Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak, Kiefer Sutherland, and Demi Moore.
The story is simple. Two marines are arrested after the death of a fellow marine which they have supposedly murdered. They are transfered to Washington by the orders of Lieutenant Commander JoAnn Galloway (Demi Moore), a gung-ho navy officer, who smells a code red behind this murder and asks that division assign someone to represent the two marines hoping she will be assigned. The two men are moved up to Washington but Commander Galloway is not assigned to represent them. Instead, Lieutenant Daniel Kaffy (Tom Cruise)is the one who is assigned. Kaffy is young and has been in the navy for a little over a year. He is a very good attorney but has only one problem. His specialty is plea-bargaining. So when Division assigns him to this case, Kaffy's boss has Lieutenant Sam Weinberg (Kevin Pollak) act as Kaffy's co-counsel.
Kaffy does what a lawyer has to. He meets with Galloway and immediately, the two of them develop a hatred for one another. He pays a visit to his clients who were marines stationed in Cuba and starts to believe that the case that he has is hopeless. He decides to go down to Cuba with Weinberg. Before leaving, he bumps into Captain Jack Ross (Kevin Bacon) who at first refuses a plea-bargain for twelve years and after a one minute talk agrees to the deal. But Kaffy's visit in Cuba is the critical element of his case. The marines down there are all fanatics and will do as they please on their base. At the head of their base is Colonel Nathan Jessip (Jack Nicholson) and with him are Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Markinson (J.T. Walsh) and Lieutenant Jonathan Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland). Jessip and Kendrick give monster impressions but not Markinson. Upon his return to Washington, Kaffy goes to court with the word of his two defendants to prove their innocence but with the intention of putting up one big fight.
The best part of the movie is what follows, the whole court-room scenes and what surrounds them. Cruise delivers an excellent performance and deserved an Oscar nomination for his role and I believe that in the final Cruise vs. Nicholson scene, Cruise makes the scene more powerful than Nicholson for he must take some huge risks. Other terrific performances come from Kevin Pollak, Kiefer Sutherland (in a smaller role), and especially Kevin Bacon. The scene in which Bacon cross-examines James Marshall is almost as powerful as the Cruise vs. Nicholson scene. I think he deserved a nomination as well for his role here. The only sour touch in the movie comes from Demi Moore who, although giving a good performance has a very annoying role and sometimes slips away from her character. But even so, this is one movie you will not want to miss.
These two key elements are greatly mixed by Rob Reiner's masterful direction and Aaron Sorkin's excellent script. Furthermore, Reiner has a first rate cast allowing his direction to be. This cast includes Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak, Kiefer Sutherland, and Demi Moore.
The story is simple. Two marines are arrested after the death of a fellow marine which they have supposedly murdered. They are transfered to Washington by the orders of Lieutenant Commander JoAnn Galloway (Demi Moore), a gung-ho navy officer, who smells a code red behind this murder and asks that division assign someone to represent the two marines hoping she will be assigned. The two men are moved up to Washington but Commander Galloway is not assigned to represent them. Instead, Lieutenant Daniel Kaffy (Tom Cruise)is the one who is assigned. Kaffy is young and has been in the navy for a little over a year. He is a very good attorney but has only one problem. His specialty is plea-bargaining. So when Division assigns him to this case, Kaffy's boss has Lieutenant Sam Weinberg (Kevin Pollak) act as Kaffy's co-counsel.
Kaffy does what a lawyer has to. He meets with Galloway and immediately, the two of them develop a hatred for one another. He pays a visit to his clients who were marines stationed in Cuba and starts to believe that the case that he has is hopeless. He decides to go down to Cuba with Weinberg. Before leaving, he bumps into Captain Jack Ross (Kevin Bacon) who at first refuses a plea-bargain for twelve years and after a one minute talk agrees to the deal. But Kaffy's visit in Cuba is the critical element of his case. The marines down there are all fanatics and will do as they please on their base. At the head of their base is Colonel Nathan Jessip (Jack Nicholson) and with him are Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Markinson (J.T. Walsh) and Lieutenant Jonathan Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland). Jessip and Kendrick give monster impressions but not Markinson. Upon his return to Washington, Kaffy goes to court with the word of his two defendants to prove their innocence but with the intention of putting up one big fight.
The best part of the movie is what follows, the whole court-room scenes and what surrounds them. Cruise delivers an excellent performance and deserved an Oscar nomination for his role and I believe that in the final Cruise vs. Nicholson scene, Cruise makes the scene more powerful than Nicholson for he must take some huge risks. Other terrific performances come from Kevin Pollak, Kiefer Sutherland (in a smaller role), and especially Kevin Bacon. The scene in which Bacon cross-examines James Marshall is almost as powerful as the Cruise vs. Nicholson scene. I think he deserved a nomination as well for his role here. The only sour touch in the movie comes from Demi Moore who, although giving a good performance has a very annoying role and sometimes slips away from her character. But even so, this is one movie you will not want to miss.