Rob Reiner

January 13, 1997

Reiner, son of actor-comedian-director Carl Reiner, was born on March 6, 1945 in New York. He started in films as an actor, appearing in two films of his father's. He gained prominenence during the 1970's as Mike "Meathead" Stivic, on All in the Family. He debuted as a director with the hilarious spoof of rock documentaries, This is Spinal Tap (1984). Each of Reiner's work afterwards has been consistantly different than the last one.

His follow-up to Spinal Tap was the romantic comedy The Sure Thing (1985), a updated version of the road tale-love story, It Happened One Night. His later romantic comedies were hardly similar in the least, save for the concept. The Princess Bride (1987) put a love story into a film that was basically making fun of fairy tales, with everything possible thrown in but the kitchen sink. When Harry Met Sally delved into Woody Allen territory, while The American President (1995) put a Capra-esque spin on politics in America today.

Reiner has also had success with the Stephen King adaptations, Stand By Me(1986) and Misery (1990), and the box-office hit courtroom drama, A Few Good Men (1992). In 1994, he hit a snag in his directorial career, with the expensive debacle North. He is expected to make a comeback this 1996-1997 winter season, with the civil rights drama Ghosts of Mississippi. His career as a director has gotten mixed criticism. On one hand, he's a good storyteller who paints a cinematic picture beautifully. On the other hand, he tends to not make that picture very realistic. But I still think he deserves a little respect, especially with the body of work he's produced.

My rating on a scale of 1 to 10:7

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