The Bodyguard (1992)

The Bodyguard

I’ve always been a fan of mushy moments in movies. Sometimes it seems forced, sometime contrived. However when Rachel Marron (Whitney Houston) gets pushed of the stage, her headdress taken and the beads ripped away and spilled all over, I was entranced. Frank Farmer (Kevin Costner) grabs a fire extinguisher, hoses down the audience and then elbows and pushes his way through the crowd to finally gather Rachel in his arms carrying her to the limousine leaving Sy Spector (Gary Kemp) and Tony Scipelli (Mike Starr) standing in the rain with the Metropolis stage setting in the background. Wow…


Director:  Mick Jackson
Writer:  Lawrence Kasdan
Cast:
Kevin Costner -  Frank Farmer
Whitney Houston -  Rachel ‘Rach’ Marron
Gary Kemp -  Sy Spector
Bill Cobbs -  Bill Devaney
Ralph Waite -  Herb Farmer
Tomas Arana -  Greg Portman
Michele Lamar Richards -  Nicki Marron
Mike Starr -  Tony Scipelli
Christopher Birt -  Henry
DeVaughn Nixon -  Fletcher ‘Fletch’ Marron
Gerry Bamman -  Ray Court
Joe Urla -  Minella
Tony Pierce -  Dan
Charles Keating -  Klingman
Robert Wuhl -  Oscar Host
Debbie Reynolds -  Herself









Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)

Beverly Hills Cop III

Go ahead, admit it. You’d like to wear one just to see what it is like. No? OK, I will. I’d love to try on of those fuzzy cartoon animal suits you see in theme parks. Okey-Dokey, a blue elephant, is the choice of Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) as he goes after the bad guys. But then the scene of the four other animals, playing poker and chewing stogies makes me uneasy.


Director:  John Landis
Writer:  Danilo Bach; Daniel Petrie, Jr.; Steven E. de Souza
Cast:
Eddie Murphy -  Det. Axel Foley
Jon Tenney -  Levine
Joey Travolta -  Giolito
Eugene Collier -  Leppert
Jimmy Ortega -  Rondell
Ousaun Elam -  Pederson
Ray Lykins -  Nixon
Tim Gilbert -  McKee
Rick Avery -  Cline
Gil Hill -  Insp. Douglas Todd
Dick Purtan -  Detroit disc jockey
Fred Asparagus -  Bobby
Louis Lombardi -  Snake
Lindsey Ginter -  Holloway
Timothy Carhart -  Ellis De Wald
Michael Bowen -  Fletch









Bad Company (2002)

Bad Company

Faith. It is hard to have faith in people, year over year, day after day. Jake Hayes (Chris Rock) runs away from Gaylord Oakes (Anthony Hopkins) and the CIA after someone tries to assassinate him while masquerading as his dead twin brother. He lands in the home of his foster mother who whacks him for surprising her in the dark and then ask him whether he needs money. She then expresses her faith in him. Unlike his foster siblings, Jake has yet to make something of himself like she knows he will.


Director:  Joel Schumacher
Writer:  Gary M. Goodman; David Himmelstein; Jason Richman; Michael Browning
Cast:
Anthony Hopkins -  Oakes
Chris Rock -  Jake Hayes/Kevin Pope
Peter Stormare -  Adrik Vas
Gabriel Macht -  Seale
Kerry Washington -  Julie
Adoni Maropis -  Jarma/Dragan Henchman #1
Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon -  Nicole
Matthew Marsh -  Dragan Adjanic
Dragan Micanovic -  Michelle Petrov
John Slattery -  Roland Yates
Brooke Smith -  Officer Swanson
Daniel Sunjata -  Officer Carew
DeVone Lawson Jr. -  Officer Parish
Wills Robbins -  Officer McCain
Marek Vasut -  Andre
Majed Ibrahim -  Dragan Henchman #2









The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Big Lebowski

Sometimes an event is so preposterous, so peculiar, so strange or so downright gob-smacking weird, that all you can do is sit there with your eyes popping and your mouth agape. The sight of Maude Lebowski (Julianne Moore) swinging naked on a trapeze with a slight, clench-teethed English accent is just such an event.


Director:  Joel Coen
Writer:  Ethan Coen; Joel Coen
Cast:
Jeff Bridges -  The Dude
John Goodman -  Walter Sobchak
Julianne Moore -  Maude Lebowski
Steve Buscemi -  Donny
David Huddleston -  The Big Lebowski
Philip Seymour Hoffman -  Brandt
Tara Reid -  Bunny Lebowski
Philip Moon -  Woo, Treehorn Thug
Mark Pellegrino -  Blond Treehorn Thug
Peter Stormare -  Nihilist #1, Uli Kunkel/’Karl Hungus’
Flea -  Nihilist #2, Kieffer
Torsten Voges -  Nihilist #3, Franz
Jimmie Dale Gilmore -  Smokey
Jack Kehler -  Marty, The Dude’s Landlord
John Turturro -  Jesus Quintana
James G. Hoosier -  Quintana’s Partner









Be Cool (2005)

Be Cool

Style over substance. A mile wide and an inch deep. Raji (Vince Vaughn) is a gangsta-rap wannabe manager but doesn’t know who the Cyprus Hill Gang is. Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer) quotes a Dylan tune but doesn’t know its origin from the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack. The Russian mob guys want to be taken seriously but use the N-word without realizing its repercussions. But it is Chili Palmer (John Travolta) who knows what he knows and doesn’t BS.


Director:  F. Gary Gray
Writer:  Elmore Leonard; Peter Steinfeld
Cast:
John Travolta -  Chili Palmer
Uma Thurman -  Edie Athens
Vince Vaughn -  Raji
Cedric the Entertainer -  Sin LaSalle
André Benjamin -  Dabu
Steven Tyler -  Himself
Robert Pastorelli -  Joe Loop
Christina Milian -  Linda Moon
Paul Adelstein -  Hy Gordon
Debi Mazar -  Marla
GregAlan Williams -  Darryl
Harvey Keitel -  Nick Carr
The Rock -  Elliot Wilhelm
Danny DeVito -  Martin Weir
James Woods -  Tommy Athens
Wyclef Jean -  Himself









Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

Bubba Ho-Tep

The residents of many nursing homes are placed into a passive mode. They are subject to the whims and vagaries of services provided by others. When they decide to become active for some reason, it takes an enormous amount of convincing of those in control that something needs to change. That is the case for two denizens of a home in Mud Creek, Texas. Toss in the fact that Elvis ( Bruce Campbell) thinks he is The King who swapped his status for an impersonator to get away from the limelight and Jack (Ossie Davis) who claims to be John F. Kennedy and has had his skin dyed and the chance of anyone believing them that something evil is afoot is marginal at best. So the duo decide that it is up to them to tackle it themselves, Elvis with his walker and Jack in his wheelchair.


Director:  Don Coscarelli
Writer:  Don Coscarelli
Cast:
Bruce Campbell -  Elvis Presley
Ossie Davis -  John “Jack” Fitzgerald Kennedy
Ella Joyce -  Massaging Nurse
Bob Ivy -  Bubba Ho-Tep
Heidi Marnhout -  Callie
Daniel Roebuck -  Hearse Driver
Daniel Schweiger -  Hearse Driver
Harrison Young -  Bull Thomas
Larry Pennell -  Kemosabe









Billy Elliot (2000)

Billy Elliot

There have been a number of times when, faced with a decision to make, I’ve chosen an alternative on nothing more than intuition. In retrospect, they have usually been the correct one to make (for me). After doing this a few times in my young and stupid days, I began to trust my subconscious. I thought about the process a lot but I was never able to figure out why it worked for me. Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) seems to have discovered his path to intuition as well. After discovering he sucked at boxing, he’s dared by a girl, Debbie Wilkinson (Nicola Blackwell), to try ballet. Boys never refuse a dare so he joins in and finds that he likes it and has potential, according to Debbie’s mum (Julie Walters), the teacher of the class. Now he has to figure out how to hide this girly activity from his coal miner dad who is near the centre of a 1984 UK miners’s strike.


Director:  Stephen Daldry; Billy Fane
Writer:  Lee Hall
Cast:
Jamie Bell -  Billy Elliot
Jean Heywood -  Grandma
Jamie Draven -  Tony Elliot
Gary Lewis -  Dad (Jackie Elliot)
Stuart Wells -  Michael Caffrey
Mike Elliot -  George Watson
Billy Fane -  Mr. Braithwaite
Nicola Blackwell -  Debbie Wilkinson
Julie Walters -  Mrs. Wilkinson
Carol McGuigan -  Librarian
Joe Renton -  Gary Poulson
Colin Maclachlan -  Mr. Tom Wilkinson
Janine Birkett -  Billy’s Mum
Trevor Fox -  PC Jeff Peverly
Charlie Hardwick -  Sheila Briggs
Denny Ferguson -  Miner









Breakfast with Scot (2007)

Breakfast with Scot

On occasion, it takes the arrival of a new face to shake the cobwebs out of our lives. Over time, we fall into patterns of convenience that let us cope with the travails of life. It isn’t intentional, it is convenient. Along comes Scot (Noah Bernett) who has a flamboyant streak. After his mother’s death, he comes to stay with partners Sam Miller (Ben Shenkman) and Eric McNally (Tom Cavanagh) whose gay life ends at the front door. Sam’s brother Billy (Colin Cunningham) is now Scot’s guardian (thanks to his mom) but he’s resisting the return home from Brazil. So Sam and Eric find themselves trying to figure out how to care for, raise and influence a boy who will be a target for every bully who ever strode a schoolyard. On Scot’s side is his near limitless capacity to forgive and his bright, shiny disposition. But none of this solves his problem of who will parent him for the next dozen years.


Director:  Laurie Lynd
Writer:  Michael Downing; Sean Reycraft
Cast:
Tom Cavanagh -  Eric McNally
Ben Shenkman -  Sam Miller
Noah Bernett -  Scot
Colin Cunningham -  Billy
Jeananne Goossen -  Nula
Megan Follows -  Barbara Warren
Sheila McCarthy -  Ms. Patterson
Graham Greene -  Bud Wilson
Dylan Everett -  Ryan Burlington
Benz Antoine -  Greg Graham
Cameron Ansell -  Finn O’Brien
Mark Forward -  Snickering Businessman
Alexander Franks -  Joey Morita
Kathryn Haggis -  Andrea Burlington
Adam Korson -  Referee
Shauna MacDonald -  Joan






Bounce (2000)

Bounce

We are all plagued by guilt. Guilt over what we’ve done, what we could have done, what we haven’t done. How we handle it is often a measure of how we are able to cope every day. My guilt tends to be associational, that is, something triggers a memory and no matter how hard I try to assuage it, the circumstances I remember cause me to pause and wonder what can be done to eliminate it. But I’m relieved that mine is limited to stuff where I had an element of control over the situation. I wouldn’t want to be Buddy Amaral (Ben Affleck), an ad executive anticipating a one-sight stand with fellow passenger Mimi Praeger (Natasha Henstridge). He gives his airplane ticket to Greg Janello (Tony Goldwyn) who is anxious to get home to his wife Abby (Gwyneth Paltrow) and family. After the plane crashes, Buddy checks into rehab for his drinking. He goes in search of Abby and finds her now working as a struggling real estate agent. Buddy tries to buy some relief by having her as agent for his advertising agency’s new offices but he cannot bring himself to tell her the truth. Serindipitously, Mimi has a chance meeting with Abby, who discovers Buddy’s secret.


Director:  Don Roos
Writer:  Don Roos
Cast:
Ben Affleck -  Buddy Amaral
Gwyneth Paltrow -  Abby Janello
Natasha Henstridge -  Mimi Prager
Edward Edwards -  Ron Wachter
Jennifer Grey -  Janice Guerrero
Tony Goldwyn -  Greg Janello
Lisa Carpenter-Prewitt -  Carol Wilson
Lisa Joyner -  T.V. Announcer
Richard Saxton -  CNN Reporter
Caroline Aaron -  Donna
David Dorfman -  Joey Janello
Alex D. Linz -  Scott Janello
Juan García -  Kevin Walters
Mary Ellen Lyon -  Ellen Seitz
Joe Morton -  Jim Willer
Thea Mann -  Karen