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Excellent! A well-made dramatization, about citizens of Skokie, Illinois, who put on demonstrations against a planned march in their town by Neo-Nazis. One of the main reasons people are demonstrating is because a good deal of the town's citizens are Jewish concentration camp survivors.Based on an actual event that happened in 1977, this is one of the best films ever made for television. Danny Kaye gives his last performance ever on film, as one of the many camp survivors. There are many other good performances too. Eli Wallach as the town's attorney, Brian Dennehy as the sheriff and George Dzundza as Neo-Nazi, Frank Collin. The subject is carefully handled and it argues many points about freedom of speech. If you can find this in your video stores-see it! It is impressive.
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I found another popular TV-movie, based on Stephen King's novel. Unfortunately, I could only find the edited 112-minute version. I guess that's why it was so unimpressive in it's cut form. First, the story: A writer (David Soul) comes back to his home town to write a book, but instead falls into a pit of hell, filled with vampires. He decides that he must stop the vampires from overrunning the town. However, he has to convince some people first, including his girlfriend (Bonnie Bedelia) and his old teacher (Lew Ayres), who as it turns out, don't need much convincing. They've had their own run-in's with the vampires.This film was edited badly. Certain plot elements are never explained and the story seems to be hurried along too quickly, so you never really have time to enjoy it. Still, there are some things that are good. James Mason's performance, as the sinister antique dealer is pretty chilling and their are some scary scenes involving the vampires. Perhaps the unedited version is better, but I have to see it to believe it.
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Tom Robbins' awful novel does not make it on the big screen. Uma Thurman gives her worst performance to date, as a hitchhiker with oversize thumbs. She eventually is hired on a dude ranch, which is entirely run by women, including the peyote-taking, whip-cracking Delores (Lorraine Bracco) and cowgirl Bonanza Jellybean (Rain Phoenix). The women lead a revolt against the upper-class New York transsexual (John Hurt), who owns the ranch.
There is nothing in the world that could make you endure some of the scenes in this movie. Director Gus Van Sant (To Die For) should have picked a better novel to work with. Thurman, usually a competent actor, spoke her lines so blankly, you'd have thought she was in a coma. A candidate for the worst film of the decade, it certainly gets my vote in that category.
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It's been a pretty slow week for me when it comes to movies. The first film to be based on a video-game, this film generates neither fun nor excitement. The story involves the title siblings, plumbers from Brooklyn (Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo), who are transported to a strange world, where the evil reptilian King Koopa (incredibly overacted by Dennis Hopper) rules supreme. They must save Princess Daisy (Samantha Mathis) from Hopper's clutches and restore order to the mushroom kingdom.That's the story in a nutshell. This movie has a lot less appeal than the video-game that inspired it. Sadly to say, Hollywood didn't learn their lessons after this. They continued to produce more video game inspired bombs like Street Fighter and Double Dragon. At least we know this won't have a sequel.
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