Movie Review: Lured Innocence (1998)

Genre: Suspense Drama  

Director: Kikuo Kawasaki  

Starring: Dennis Hopper, Marley Shelton, Talia Shire, Devon Gummersall  

Running Time: 99 minutes  

Synopsis: In Phoenix, newspaper reporter Elden (Devon Gummersall) is assigned to cover the trial of Elsie (Marley Shelton), who is accused of murder. Flashbacks to Elden's high school days reveal his crush on the alluring Elsie. But she is more interested in Rick Chambers (Dennis Hopper), an older businessman married to the wealthy Martha (Talia Shire), who suffers from a weak heart. Rick and Martha would both like to get rid of each other, inspiring Elsie to hatch a self-serving plan.

What Works Well: The first half generates some small-town intrigue as diner server Elsie (looking for a ticket out of town), businessman Rick (looking for wealth), and his wife Martha (looking for respect) reveal self-serving agendas and plot against each other.

What Does Not Work As Well: This is a low-budget attempted neo-noir with rudimentary production values, but spiced with a few steamy sex scenes. The narration is cringey, the acting wooden, plot ambitions are undermined by shortcuts, and key pivot points like Martha's heart condition and Elden' bizarre affliction (arousal + alcohol = fainting) are loudly pre-announced. All in a matter of a sentence, one key character gets married to a hitherto unintroduced partner, another character is imprisoned, and a murder accusation makes its way to trial except that it's debatable whether a murder ever actually took place.

Key Quote:

Rick (to Elsie): You just want to get away from it all.

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Movie Review: Nonnas (2025)

Genre: Dramedy  

Director: Stephen Chbosky  

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Linda Cardellini, Susan Sarandon, Brenda Vaccaro, Talia Shire, Lorraine Bracco  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: Raised in a food-loving Brooklyn-based Italian family, transit worker Joe (Vince Vaughn) decides to honor his deceased mother by opening a restaurant and having the food prepared by actual Italian grandmothers, or nonnas. Joe's buddy Bruno (Joe Manganiello) helps with renovations, and Joe recruits his mother's best friend Roberta (Lorraine Bracco), hairdresser Gia (Susan Sarandon), former nun Teresa (Talia Shire), and Antonella (Brenda Vaccaro) to run the kitchen. He also reconnects with Antonella's neighbour Olivia (Linda Cardellini), who was his high school prom night date. Despite good intentions, transitioning from an idea to a successful business will not be easy.

What Works Well: Based on actual events, this is a heartwarming dream-turns-real story. Nostalgia, love of family, homeland traditions, and some spiky humour (the nonnas don't all necessarily always like each other) underpin Joe's unlikely aspirations to build and run a business from scratch. A glorious group of veteran actresses brings quality to the stovetops, and the script takes care to round the nonnas into real women with backstories, struggles, and disappointments worth sharing.

What Does Not Work As Well: This is an ultimately small-scale story that marches to familiar against-the-odds beats, with a foregone conclusion. The attempts to wring admittedly humorous tension out of Bologna versus Sicily hostilities and Joe's clashes with Bruno are never more than obvious narrative speed bumps.

Key Quote:

Teresa: We are strong women with Italian blood in us.

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Movie Review: Rocky IV (1985)

A distillation of the Cold War into a boxing fight, Rocky IV is sloppily written and unconvincingly executed.

With boxing world champion Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) enjoying the comfortable life with his wife Adrian (Talia Shire) and young son, the USSR announces a new challenger: the gigantic and hard-hitting Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) has been trained using the latest technology by the Soviet state to dominate the world of professional boxing. His wife and publicist Ludmilla (Brigitte Nielsen) throws down the gauntlet, and retired former world champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), seeking to revive old glories, jumps at the opportunity to take on Drago in an exhibition bout.

Rocky and Adrian are unable to talk Apollo out of stepping into the Las Vegas ring with Drago, and their worst fears are confirmed: Apollo is killed at the end of a short and one-sided bout. Rocky decides he has to defend the honour and reputation of his deceased friend, gives up his title and accepts an unsanctioned fight with Drago, this time in the Soviet Union on Christmas Day. Rocky relocates to Russia and starts intensive training.

The fourth instalment of the Rocky saga shows clear signs of a franchise in distress. Now made entirely of recycled components, writer, director and star Sylvester Stallone simplifies the Cold War into the evil and soulless Soviets out to prove their superiority by knocking the Americans off their boxing domination perch.

While Drago is an admittedly epic villain, Dolph Lundgren's expressionless look and sculpted physique an imposing presence, the script - in its entirety - could fit on a single sheet of paper. The sparse words are made worse by music bloated with the most excruciatingly painful mid-80s pop rock, and the product placement is of the retina-burning variety, Adidas and Hugo Boss the main corporate culprits. Burt Young as Paulie is well past his usefulness as a character, and he is appropriately matched with a robot companion in a bewildering narrative decision.

The material is too thin to occupy 90 minutes, and the filler is all too obvious. One montage scene features Rocky driving around aimlessly as random images from all three past movies are revisited. The de rigueur training scenes intercut Rocky working out in and around a remote cabin nestled in the snowy Russian wilderness with Drago going through his paces in a high-tech gym. Just when it seems the training has gone on for far too long, Stallone resets, reloads and starts all over again.

Rocky IV is all about the final showdown between Rocky and Drago, and here the film leaves all pretense of reality behind. Even by Hollywood standards the fight is a ridiculous brawl with more massively heavy punches landing in one bout than in the entire history of the heavyweight division. The Soviet crowd somehow ends up cheering for the American in the presence of the entire Soviet politburo, and Rocky delivers his weakest post-fight speech, something about all of us needing to change. Good advice for this franchise to heed.

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Movie Review: Rocky III (1982)

The third instalment in the franchise, Rocky III maintains the respectable quality of the series and finds a suitable new foe to juice up the boxing action.

Three years after dramatically winning the heavyweight boxing title, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is living the privileged life with his wife Adrian (Talia Shire) and young son Robert, although brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young) remains stuck in a self-pity rut. Having easily defended his title ten times, Rocky is now more focused on marketing his name through product sponsorships and charity events, including a chaotic bout against wrestling champion Thunderlips (Hulk Hogan).

With Rocky starting to consider retirement, hard-punching challenger Clubber Lang (Mr. T) works his way up the rankings and demands a shot at the title. Rocky's trainer Mickey (Burgess Meredith), now in frail health, warns Rocky not to face Clubber and reveals that all Rocky's title challengers to date were handpicked to prolong Rocky's reign. With his ego bruised and confidence shaken, Rocky has to decide whether to rise to the challenge and prove his true worth in the ring. He finds help from an unexpected source: former rival and champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers).

With the first two chapters having concluded Rocky's underdog journey from washed-up hardhead to champion, the search for new challenges commences. Written and directed by Stallone and economically edited into 100 minutes, Rocky III finds a worthy villain in the trash talking, perpetually angry and snarling Clubber Lang, forever embedding Mr. T's limited but effective persona into the cultural landscape.

And as a soundtrack to Rocky's quest to rediscover his edge, the song Eye of the Tiger by the group Survivor somehow manages to be both extraordinarily irritating and incredibly catchy, it's muscular chords instantly recognizable and allowing the film series to now boast two indelible contributions to the history of cinematic music.

Rocky III moves the action into the ring three times, once against Thunderlips, where humour and pain meet, and twice much more seriously against Clubber. Instead of the prolonged multi-round epics of the first two movies, here all the bouts are brutally short, cramming intensity into a few unforgiving rounds. It's a jarring shift for the franchise, and Stallone the director deserves credit for delivering fierce drama in the two battles with Clubber.

The action is still Hollywoodized in the extreme, with an unending flurry of punches landing in seemingly every second of every round, but there is no doubting the pugilist thrills on display.

Outside the ring the film ambles along a now predictable path. With the characters and relationships well defined into an optimized formula, Rocky III goes looking for new angles and finds a sharp one in the emerging bond between Rocky and Apollo. The former foes turning into friends, with Apollo helping Rocky to rediscover his hunger and evolve his fighting style, peaks with another not-bad training montage.

Whether he knew it or not at this stage, in forging the bond between Rocky and Creed, Stallone the writer was creating the foundation for both the short and long-term legacies of the series.

Neither a knockout nor a dive, Rocky III wins on points.

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The Movies Of Talia Shire

All movies starring Talia Shire and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Rocky (1976)

Rocky II (1979)

Rocky III (1982)

Rocky IV (1985)

The Godfather Part III (1990)

Lured Innocence (1998)

Nonnas (2025)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Rocky II (1979)

The first of many sequels to the surprise hit of 1976, Rocky II continues the story of slow but likeable boxer Rocky Balboa. The film is a polished character study with a rousing climactic fight, but the raw tenderness of the original is naturally missing.

The film starts exactly where the original ended, with unheralded boxer Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) losing a split decision to heavyweight world champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), but winning the public's heart and the love of girlfriend Adrian (Talia Shire). Post-fight Rocky retires, marries Adrian, and quick spends the little money that he earned. He does his best to find respectable employment, but not much works out for him, and he ends up back at the meat processing plant and then running trivial errands at the gym owned by his trainer Mickey (Burgess Meredith).

Apollo is embarrassed because the fight was much closer than it should have been, and starts a campaign to humiliate Rocky into accepting a rematch, vowing that this time he will win in short order. With his money and options running out Rocky reluctantly agrees to a second fight and starts training with Mickey, against the wishes of Adrian, who is now very pregnant. But without Adrian's support Rocky puts no real effort into training. When a health scare strikes the family, his attention is diverted further away from preparing for the fight, leaving him vulnerable to a potentially crushing defeat.

This time Sylvester Stallone writes, directs and stars, and all the gang from the original film is back, including Burt Young as Adrian's brother Paulie and Joe Spinell as Tony Gazzo, the friendly neighbourhood loan shark. The sequel is well-made, invests the time to build to its single fight, and allows the central character to grow and develop further as a person.

But Rocky II suffers somewhat from an egotistical undercurrent. Most of the film is about Rocky struggling to adjust to life outside the ring, and Stallone directs himself with a persistent whiff of humble smugness that gets tiresome. The performance is not the problem as much as the cutesiness of the character, as Rocky seems unable to do anything wrong, but the world around him conspires to turn a cold shoulder on the loveable lug and his equally sappy big dog. Moments of humour do help, and nevertheless it is difficult to dislike Rocky given his propensity for self-depreciation.

Once Apollo goads Rocky to commit to a rematch, the film switches to his lack of motivation due to Adrian's lack of support and then a long stint dealing with a medical emergency. This is by far the weakest part of the film, and although the attempt is laudable, Stallone is simply not ready to write, direct or star in dramatic scenes where emotions drive the plot. The whole segment comes across as childish, including Mickey screaming incessantly but uselessly at his boxer to shape up, and repetitive scenes of Rocky in a chapel waiting for divine intervention.

The climactic showdown kicks the energy level right back up to maximum levels. The rematch in the ring is more of a brawl than a recognizable boxing fight, both fighters throwing punches with wild abandon and ignoring anything that looks like defence or strategy. But it is also undoubtedly exciting, and Stallone finds a rousing ending to conclude the film on a high.

Just as Rocky the fighter deserved a rematch and a second shot at the title, Rocky Balboa the character deserved at least one sequel, and Rocky II is a decent enough effort. It was never going to carry the pathos of the original, but it progresses the story of an unlikely hero into the next phase of his career.

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Movie Review: Rocky (1976)

The embodiment of the American Dream where every underdog can strive for glory, Rocky is a well-constructed romance wrapped into a boxing drama. The film carries added poignancy for rocketing Sylvester Stallone into instantaneous superstardom, the dream coming true in real life through a rich work of fiction.

In Philadelphia, Rocky Balboa (Stallone) is a mediocre boxer. Having never dedicated himself to the sport, Rocky is not quite giving up on his dream but gradually realizing that at 30 years old, he may be getting too old to succeed. He makes ends meet by accepting muscleman assignments from loan shark Tony Gazzo (Joe Spinnell). Rocky is good friends with the bearish Paulie (Burt Young), a butcher who works in the freezer of a large meat processing plant. Rocky is also trying to attract the attention of Paulie's painfully shy sister Adrian (Talia Shire), a clerk at the local pet store.

To celebrate America's bicentennial, world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) and promoter George Jergens (Thayer David) decide to give an unknown fighter a shot at the title, and they choose Balboa. With just five weeks to train, Rocky dedicates himself to get in shape and embarks on a gruelling fitness regime with the help of his old manager Mickey (Burgess Meredith). With the fight approaching, romance blossoms between Rocky and Adrian, while strains develop in the friendship with Paulie.

Sylvester Stallone has rarely been better as an actor. Rocky is the role he wrote and was born to play, and in his first incarnation as the down-and-almost-out boxer, Stallone is a mix of realism, resignation and remote hope. Finding physical mannerisms to convey inner edginess, Stallone has Rocky looking back at what may have been a better career and looking forward to what may be a once in a lifetime opportunity. But to the credit of Stallone the writer, Rocky spends most of his time in the present making a big effort to nurture a romance with Adrian, Rocky intrinsically becoming aware that until he finds personal happiness not much is going to matter in his boxing career.

Director John G. Avildsen gives Rocky's world a forlorn look, the dank and derelict corners of Philadelphia playing a prominent role in portraying a life at the crossroads. The bleak one-room apartment that counts as Rocky's home is not any better than what lies outside, while the slightly larger unit occupied by Adrian and Paulie is only marginally more liveable. It's clear what kind of life awaits Rocky if his current trajectory continues; only he can make the commitment to try a change for the better.

Talia Shire is almost silent as Adrian, her shyness hindering her just as much as Rocky's lack of focus has burdened his potential. Shire speaks volumes without saying much, and her early scenes are a beautiful study of a tormented introvert as she can't even make eye contact with Rocky, let alone carry on a meaningful conversation.

Burt Young provides a forcefully brusque counterpoint to Rocky, a man unhappy with his lot and waiting for things to happen and others to help, instead of taking any sort of initiative. And when Rocky does begin to turn his life around, Paulie can mostly just offer resentment.

The Gonna Fly Now theme by Bill Conti is the simplest of inspirational anthems, but it's unassuming candour has allowed it to thrive through the ages. Avildsen finds the film's best moments in the climactic training montage set to the music, Rocky finally unleashing his potential and transforming the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art into the stairway to heaven.

Rocky is the story of life through dedication, and it's among the rare films that get the priorities straight: the determination needed to love is much more important than the grit required to fight.

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Movie Review: The Godfather Part III (1990)

Michael Corleone's journey reaches its conclusion as he strikes a deal with the Vatican and finds out that grappling with the ruthless forces behind the power of the church is not much different than sleeping with the devil. The Godfather Part III may lack the mysticism of the first two chapters, but it still delivers compelling human drama punctuated by episodes of extreme violence.

It's 1979, and Michael (Al Pacino) has worked hard to legitimize the family's business. Through charitable foundations run by his daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola), Michael doles out money in high circles to gain ever more power and influence.  His sister Connie (Talia Shire) remains loyally by his side, and Michael even tries to create a civilized relationship with his ex-wife Kay (Diane Keaton). Michael is disappointed when his son Anthony (Franc D'Ambrosio) chooses life as an opera singer instead of pursuing law school, but in a sign of the evolving times, Michael does not stand in Anthony's way.

Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia) is the bastard son of Michael's deceased brother Sonny, and with Anthony not interested in the family business, Michael gives Vincent a chance to rejoin the family and prove his abilities. Despite being cousins, Vincent and Mary begin a relationship as Vincent starts to gain influence. Meanwhile, Michael designs a high-stakes deal with the Vatican: in return for saving the bankrupt papal bank, Michael will be given control of the church's mammoth real estate company, effectively making him the world's most powerful landlord.

Michael's growing legitimate wealth and influence breed resentment among his old allies in the Mafia world, but more sinister are the mysteriously powerful forces that suddenly begin to target the Corleones. With Michael's dream of global legitimacy almost within his grasp, he and Vincent must sort out friend from foe and protect the family from new and brutal enemies.

It is easy to imagine that The Godfather Part III would have been much better with Robert Duvall and Winona Ryder. Duvall refused to reprise the role of Tom Hagen, claiming that he was offered too little money. Instead, George Hamilton does a pale imitation of the new Corleone family lawyer, and the film loses one its centres of gravity.

Worse still is the loss of Ryder, who dropped out of the role of Mary just prior to the start of filming. Sofia Coppola creates a black hole every time she opens her mouth, a performance that is wooden in the worst deer-in-the-headlights kind of way. She reads her lines with the monotonous conviction usually reserved for grade school plays, and in their shared scenes, the likes of Pacino and Garcia are almost visibly aghast by her obvious lack of talent.

Other than Garcia, who lives up to the burden and legacy, The Godfather Part III is left with a noticeably weak supporting cast to surround Pacino. Diane Keaton and Talia Shire return but they contribute little weight. Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, Bridget Fonda, Raf Vallone and John Savage populate the middle to low reaches of the cast list in generally nondescript roles, and the absence of the likes of Brando, De Niro, Caan, and Cazale is pronounced and painful.

Despite the thin layer of available on-screen talent, Francis Ford Coppola still manages to construct a fairly engrossing conclusion to the bloody saga of the Corleone family. The forces lined up against Michael are more powerful and determined than any previously encountered by the family, Michael learning that in legitimate circles, the same ruthless laws of the jungle apply, except they are hidden behind a dangerous veneer of institutional legitimacy. By weaving the real-world death of Pope John Paul I and the events of the Banco Ambosiano scandal into the Corleone story, Coppola draws the labyrinthian lines that connect yesterday's criminals to today's centres of financial power, and infuses The Godfather Part III with additional relevance.

The focus on the next generation also refreshes the premise. Although Michael's story finds its denouement in The Godfather Part III, Coppola oversees the handing over of at least some of the reins to the likes of Vincent, who doubtless will one day make his own dark offers.

The Gordon Willis cinematography is artistic without being showy, and the famous Nino Rota theme music is used sparingly to maximize its impact.

The Godfather Part III oozes enough grandeur to overcome its faults, and is a worthy third and final chapter in the epic and bloody history of the Corleone family.

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Movie Review: The Godfather (1972)

The epic tale of a Mafia family in New York, spanning ten years from 1945 to 1955. The business is crime, the price of failure is death, and the violence is brutal and never far from the surface. This adaptation of Mario Puzo's book is at once haunting, beautiful, and unforgettable.

Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) is The Godfather, the New York-based head of one of five dominant Mafia families. He controls an empire with interests and influence in everything from gambling and prostitution to politicians and judges, as well as a sprawling family including sons Santino (James Caan), Michael (Al Pacino), and Fredo (John Cazale).

When they refuse to provide protection to the burgeoning narcotics business, the Corleone's are embroiled in a bloody tit-for-tat gangland war. The Don barely survives an assassination attempt, his hot-headed son Santino is spectacularly gunned-down, and the previously disengaged Michael dives headlong into the violent world of his family, personally gunning down a corrupt police chief and a rival criminal boss before fleeing to Sicily. When an uneasy peace is declared, Michael returns to New York, seeking both ultimate control and cold-blooded vengeance. Michael's rise to power from a disinterested and side-lined observer to the nexus of power is the key story arch.

As one of the greatest movies ever made, and at almost 3 hours in length, it is difficult to believe that The Godfather was the first major movie for both Francis Ford Coppolla and Al Pacino. Coppolla directs in a tableau style that turns almost every scene into a masterpiece of framing, texture and artistry, with the camera placement and movement just as interesting as the on-screen content. Every scene is given time to expand, evolve and add depth and complexion to events and characters.

One of the best cast of actors ever assembled delivers iconic performances. Pacino and Brando have the most interesting material to work with, with Brando as Don Corleone transitioning from a dominant all-powerful figure to a doddering grandfather, while Pacino is riveting as Michael is gradually transformed into a ruthless and power hungry mob leader. James Caan gets the showy role as Santino "Sonny" Corleone, excited by violence and quick to resort to it. Robert Duvall as the family's lawyer, Tom Hagen, embodies the overlap of business veneer and outright crime that defines everyday life for the Corleones.

The movie plays out against the classic music score of Nino Rota. The main theme is one of the all-time most recognized movie tunes, and by itself is capable of evoking the grandness of the Corleone's story.

The Godfather's contribution to both the history of movie-making and mainstream culture is hard to overestimate. The classic line "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse"; the inter-cutting of the church baptism scene with the violent assassinations ordered by Michael; the sympathetic portrayal of mobsters; Brando's menacing performance as Don Corleone; and the operatic assassination of Sonny have all had remarkable and long-lasting influence.

Deservedly considered an all-time classic, The Godfather is a stellar example of what the art of film can achieve when a great story meets inspired movie-making talent.






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