Movie Review: Home Alone (1990)

A family Christmas comedy, Home Alone strikes all the right tones in a tale of a kid forgotten behind at the most magical time of year.

In a Chicago suburb, the McCallister family prepares for a Christmas vacation trip to Paris. Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) is the smart but exasperating eight year old youngest son, generally overlooked by his parents Kate and Peter (Catherine O'Hara and John Heard) and tormented by his siblings. With the family chaotically extended by the presence of Kevin's ornery uncle and his brood, no one notices burglar Harry Lyme (Joe Pesci) disguised as a police officer scoping the soon-to-be-empty house.

In the travel day rush the family bundles off to the airport and then onto the plane with Kevin forgotten home alone. He has to fend for himself, keeping a wary eye on spooky neighbour Marly (Roberts Blossom), and gradually realizes Harry and his partner Marv (Daniel Stern) are intent on burglarizing the house. On the plane Kate awakens to her blunder, and once in Paris immediately starts the long trip back. But unscheduled travel arrangements during the Holidays will prove a challenge.

Writer and producer John Hughes turns his attention away from teenagers and towards the younger kids. Maintaining his sharp wit and ear to the ground, Hughes conjures up a Christmas classic in a story where be-careful-what-you-wish-for applies to both the kids and adults.

In the lead up to the Paris trip Kevin makes a nuisance of himself by just being a kid, but his unintended mess results in hot emotions and sharp words. Kate banishes him to the attic, out of sight and out of mind, and Kevin wishes his whole family would just disappear already. Both their wishes come true, as the next morning the family is free of Kevin's presence and he awakens to an empty house, sure he was responsible for everyone's disappearance.

With director Chris Columbus capably translating Hughes' vision to the screen, what follows is a journey of redemption for Kate, and she has to overcome every conceivable travel nightmare to make it back to her son as soon as possible. Her trip will include a travel leg in a U-Haul van with John Candy's legendary (sort of) polka band, Hughes elegantly tying Home Alone with 1987's Planes, Trains And Automobiles.

Meantime Kevin is growing up in a hurry, confronting fears including the boiler in the basement and the mysterious neighbour-with-the-shovel. But worse is to come, the bumbling burglar duo of Harry and Marv absolutely intent on hitting the prized McCallister house (Hughes never quite explains how this family came to live in a luxurious mansion). Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are admirably dedicated to the doofus antagonists roles, and add immeasurably to the film's madcap physical humour.

Home Alone reaches a quite hilarious climax with Kevin concocting a defence of the house to thwart and humiliate the robbers at every turn, in the hope help will arrive in a true Christmas miracle. Here Hughes even manages a nod to the intervention by the misunderstood next-door presence from To Kill A Mockingbird territory.

With Columbus cajoling a superlative and ridiculously appealing performance out of young Macaulay Culkin, Home Alone ticks along in perfect harmony with the spirit of personal growth through family appreciation, laughing all the way.

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Movie Review: Diner (1982)

A coming of age drama with some humour, Diner navigates the crevasse between youth and adulthood through the story of six men grappling with growing up.

It's Christmas time in Baltimore, 1959. As both the year and decade draw to a close, a group of college friends converge in preparation for the upcoming wedding of sports trivia fan Eddie (Steve Guttenberg). His five buddies include the already married music trivia addict Shrevie (Daniel Stern), the rich, aimless and frequently drunk Fen (Kevin Bacon), charismatic gambling addict Boogie (Mickey Rourke), New York-based Billy (Tim Daly) and circumspect Modell (Paul Reiser).

The local Fells Point Diner is their favourite hangout and meeting point. Eddie is planning to subject his fiancée to a sports trivia test before finalizing the wedding. Shrevie and his bride Beth (Ellen Barkin) are already running into trouble in their young marriage. Boogie is in debt trouble and encourages bets on his dating exploits to raise cash. Billy has trouble defining his relationship with his close friend and television producer Barbara (Kathryn Dowling). And Fen is living a carefree prankster life, refusing to grow up.

With no traditional narrative structure and plenty of improvisation, first-time director Barry Levinson crafts a fine spiritual successor to American Graffiti. Diner features a brilliant cast full of pre-stardom talent, and a fluid tone allowing the men to reveal their stories through natural conversations punctuated by often misguided adventurism.

The film is set in Levinson's home town, and inspired by his own experiences. The common theme is the struggle for emotional growth, as the men confront the collective challenge of transitioning from what mattered in their youth to embracing the responsibilities of being men.

Eddie is hiding insecurities behind the pointless test he is imposing on bride-to-be (and never properly seen) Elyse, and will face his own test on what matters. Shrevie is childishly upset at Beth because she does not understand or appreciate his useless talent for knowing the song, label and colour of every hit single's B-side. She turns to Boogie for comfort, triggering another test of responsibility. Boogie himself is busy pretending to be a law student to attract the ladies while accumulating debt, and before the new decade dawns will need to confront the consequences.

Billy is close to Barbara, a woman embracing her career. Circumstances force them to contemplate the future, and the relatively simpler answers of the 1950s won't work anymore. Fen's life is wasting away in the arena of irresponsibility, and an encounter with his grounded brother reveals the breadth of separation possible between siblings. Modell is more of an observer and witness, pushing buttons as appropriate, but other than never directly asking for anything, his character is the least developed.

Levinson's remarkable achievement is in convincingly portraying the cast members as friends. He encouraged the young men to hang out together before filming, avoided excessive rehearsals and stimulated improvisation. The result is an undeniable vibe of close friendship, and Diner glows with the warmth of men most at ease hanging out together.

Mickey Rourke was third billed after Guttenberg and Stern, but exudes the undeniable star charisma that would soon catapult him into stardom. The other cast members are all steady, with Steve Guttenberg demonstrating sufficient promise to suggest he chose the wrong career path upon veering to mostly trivial comedies.

For the six friends Diner is simultaneously about not much and everything, the future hanging in the balance as young men confront short-term decisions carrying long-term implications.

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Movie Review: D.O.A. (1988)

A murder mystery, D.O.A. possesses some obvious style but is badly let-down by a weak script.

In a rainstorm at Christmas time, Professor Dexter Cornell (Dennis Quaid) stumbles into a police station and announces that he has been murdered. He recounts the past 36 hours of his life and the rest of the film unfolds in flashback. Dexter teaches English literature, and his talented but troubled student Nick (Robert Knepper), an aspiring writer, shockingly appears to commit suicide by throwing himself off a campus building roof. Dexter and his wife Gail (Jane Kaczmarek) are going through a painful divorce, while his friend Hal (Daniel Stern) is celebrating a promotion and the upcoming publication of a book.

After a night of heavy drinking with his attractive and starstruck student Sydney (Meg Ryan), Dexter discovers that he has been poisoned and has just hours to live. His frantic investigation leads him to Nick's funeral, where Nick's sponsor Mrs. Fitzwaring (Charlotte Rampling), her daughter Cookie (Robin Johnson) and the family chauffeur Bernard (Christopher Neame) are hiding shocking secrets of their own.

Co-directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, D.O.A. is as remake of the 1949 film noir. The 1988 version finds modest success with a few stylistic elements, but overall sinks into a sea of familiar and overstuffed plot elements. The mystery is uninteresting, the perpetrator easy to guess, and the evil plot, once revealed, borders on the ridiculous.

The opening 20 minutes are promising enough. The opening scene hits the target, a near-collapse Dexter storming into the police station and announcing his own murder. The professor and his surrounding circle of students, colleagues and family are introduced with admirable efficiency planting the seeds for what could have been an engaging story. Dexter has given up on writing, Gail has given up on the marriage, Nick is tortured and seeking affirmation, Sydney is salivating for a shot at her professor (despite Meg Ryan, at 27, being too old for the role) and the circle of academics contains the usual wolves in tweed clothing.

But after Nick's death, D.O.A. unravels quickly. Both Dexter's behaviour and his emotions are poorly written and sloppily executed, and the film descends into a series of contrived conflicts, more crimes and murders, and clumsy attempts at suspense. The story wades knee deep into convolutions that may have worked with more talent, in black and white, and in the 1940s. Here, the sordid affairs of Mrs. Fitzwaring, her multiple husbands, out-of-control daughter and menacing chauffeur are tiresome and derivative distractions.

The body count mounts at an alarming pace, and if it wasn't already too easy to guess the murderer, it gets much simpler as the rest of the cast members are methodically knocked off, seemingly without attracting a single investigative police officer.

Dennis Quaid struggles against the weak material and comes up empty, and the rest of the cast members barely register. It may not exactly be dead on arrival, but D.O.A. expires early in any event.

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Movie Review: Breaking Away (1979)

A coming of age comedy drama about young men encountering the realities of life, Breaking Away is filled with heart, soul, and bicycle wheels spinning in all the right directions.

In the small town of Bloomington, Indiana, four young men have completed high school and have no future plans. Referred to as Cutters (the town used to be best known for limestone stonecutters), Dave (Dennis Christopher), Mike (Dennis Quaid), Cyril (Daniel Stern) and Moocher (Jackie Earle Haley) spend their days at the scenic water reservoir carved out of the quarry, lamenting their lack of life prospects.

Mike was the high school quarterback and carries a chip on his shoulder as he sees the world passing him by. Cyril is tall and goofy, Moocher is short and planning to get married early. Dave has developed an obsession with cycling and everything Italian. Much to the horror of his car salesman (and ex-stonecutter) father Ray (Paul Dooley), Dave is immersed in Italian culture, trains hard on his bike, and is very excited that the Italian Cinzano team is coming to town for a race. He also romantically pursues college girl Katherine (Robyn Douglass).

The Cutters tangle with snooty college boys including Rod (Hart Bochner), before Dave is exposed to the true colours of professional cyclists and the outcasts are invited to compete in the annual Little 500 college bike race.

Directed by Peter Yates and written by Steve Tesich, Breaking Away is loosely inspired by real events. The film carries a distinctive small town charm, building and maintaining likability momentum. The story of underdogs who deliver when it matters is far from new, but Yates and his cast of then unknowns polish the narrative with the warmth of a sun-drenched reservoir and a large heart pumping the eternally optimistic Dave towards his pedal dreams.

The four young Cutters capture a cross-section of outcasts, and Yates efficiently draws out distinctive personalities without resorting to melodramatics. While Dave pursues both cycling and the girl with a disarming intensity, Mike is the angry young man who knows his life peaked in high school. Moocher will always fight against taunts about his lack of height, but is nevertheless determined to settle down with a wife at a young age. Cyril is quiet, tall and maybe the sleeper in the group, hiding potential behind his superficial dopeyness.

The film benefits from a multi-pronged perspective on the challenges facing Dave. He never questions his own ability, but has to overcome severe cynicism from his father and the arrogance of the college community. But the most unlikely blow comes from his supposed heroes, Dave getting an early lesson in the cutthroat world of high level competition.

The young cast members bring the Cutters to life and launch their careers towards varying degrees of success. Breaking Away proved to be a highlight achievement for Dennis Christopher and Jackie Earle Haley, but more of a starting point for Dennis Quaid and Daniel Stern. All four bring an appealing naturalness to the film.

Deploying humour in just the right amounts, Breaking Away is a winning sprint to the finish line of youth.

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Movie Review: Blue Thunder (1983)

A movie that exists for the primary purpose of showcasing helicopter acrobatics, Blue Thunder provides only a bit of fun as it plunders through the usual macho-cliches and government conspiracy puddles.

In the skies of Los Angeles, a police unit uses helicopters to support ground officers and help keep the peace. Veteran pilot Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) is the local maverick, capable of exceptional flying tricks but haunted by his combat experiences flying in Vietnam. A sinister new chopper is brought in for testing: unlike the regular police helicopters, Blue Thunder is tricked out with a massive amount of weapons, technology and armor.

Murphy's old adversary, the slimy Colonel Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell), seems keen to bring the military-style Blue Thunder into police service, and soon there are hints at a conspiracy to manufacture civil strife in order to justify pushing the heavy-handed chopper into service. After his partner (Daniel Stern) is killed, Murphy gets help from his girlfriend (Candy Clark) and takes matters into his own hands, stealing Blue Thunder to expose the evil plot. 

The storyline of Blue Thunder is crass and conspiratorial, with basic performances to match from cast members who are capable of better, including Warren Oates in one of his last roles as Murphy's long suffering Captain. Director John Badham chooses efficiency over style, and is a lot more interested in the machinery than the people. The agitation by technology is enabled by high-tech and futuristic gizmos packed into Blue Thunder, in a triumph of impressive hardware over good storytelling. 

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Movie Review: City Slickers (1991)

Three friends hit middle age in various stages of crisis: Mitch (Billy Crystal) is stuck in a dead-end job; Ed (Bruno Kirby) has never resolved issues related to his father; and Phil (Daniel Stern) hates his wife and is having an affair. The three head-off to a cattle-drive vacation in the southwest. The trio evolve from hapless city folks to hardened cowboys and are unexpectedly forced to take charge of delivering the cattle.

A comedy that mostly strikes a fine balance between laughs and exploring the meaning of life, City Slickers works thanks to the appeal of the three lead actors, and a sharp cameo from 73 year old Jack Palance, in an Oscar-winning role as Curly, the lead cowboy on the cattle drive. Curly is tough as nails but helps Mitch to rediscover what matters in life.

The film doesn't escape some poor cliches, including an over-the-top raging river scene, secondary characters that are firmly trapped in a single dimension, and simplistic syrupy resolutions to major challenges in the lives of the three men.

But the screenplay (Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel) and Ron Underwood's directing maintain a decent amount of forward momentum, the laughs are plentiful, and some of the cinematography revisits the vistas of the grand classic westerns.

Along with 1989's When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers helped to establish Billy Crystal as one of the comic stars of the early 1990's. He nails the jaded Mr. Everyman who has long since lost his spark, and he delivers an endless stream of clever one-liners with understated finesse. Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby are good in support, but less well-rounded.

City Slickers has a few stray heads of cattle, but the herd generally moves confidently in the right direction.

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