Diner (1982)

Star Rating- 3
Length of Film- 110 minutes
Director- Barry Levinson
Cast- Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Timothy Daly, Ellen Barkin, Paul Reiser, Kathryn Dowling, Michael Tucker, Jessica James, Colette Blonigan, Kelle Kipp, John Aquino, Richard Pierson, & Claudia Cron
Oscar Nomination- Barry Levinson (screenplay)









Diner is a movie about 6 friends in 1959 Baltimore. The gang has come back for Eddie's (Steve Guttenberg) wedding. The boys' hangout place is the local diner. 

This movie really jump started famous actors and actresses:

Daniel Stern- Home Alone 1 & 2, and City Slickers

Mickey Rourke- Heart Angel, Sin City, The Wrestler, Iron Man 2

Kevin Bacon- Footloose, Apollo 13, Mystic River, Sleepers

Timothy Daly- Wings, Private Practice, Basic

Ellen Barkin- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sea of Love, This Boy's Life, Drop Dead Gorgeous

Paul Reiser- Mad About You, My Two Dads

Diner dissected the male animal’s squirrelly devotion to sports, movies, music, and gambling. Diner had one man give his fiancée a football-trivia test and had another stick his penis through the bottom of a popcorn box. 

The popcorn scene was the best. I tried and tried finding the famous conversation where "Boog" (Mickey Rourke) tried to talk his way out of being a "pig", but I couldn't find it. I had to go back to the scene in the movie and write down word for word the conversation. So here it is. Hopefully you'll find enjoyment in all his B.S. 

(Carol and Boogie are on a date. Boogie opens the flap at the end of the popcorn to get her to touch his penis. Glued to the movie screen, she reaches her hand in the popcorn and touches his penis. She stands up and runs out. Boogie follows.)

Carol: You're disgusting. 

Boogie: Look I know it was really terrible, it was horrible and all, but it was an accident.

Carol: An accident?

Boogie: Oh Carol, seriously it was an accident, I swear to God.

Carol: An Accident? Your thing just got into a box of popcorn? 

Boogie: Can I be straight with you? There's a real good reason. It's like a little embarrassing to me. So maybe if you don't want to hear it, I understand. 

Carol: Go on, I want to hear this.

Boogie: I don't know, ugh... I don't like to tell this to girls, but you really are a knock-out. (Carol starts to walk away) No! You really are, and sitting down next to you, really got me crazy, I got a hard on. I don't like to admit it, but I did. I mean you don't know me, I don't, I try to come off like I'm being cool, I don't like looking like I'm hustlin' and there I was, sitting next to you with a boner. Am I embarrassing you?

Carol: Go on.

Boogie: I don't know, the pain was just killing me. It was to stop the pain. It was digging into the side of my leg. So what I did was open my fly to loosen everything up. Just to give it a little air, and it worked. Everything settled down, and then I got caught back up in the picture, and then that's when Sandra got her leg caught on the bush, and she lifted up her and dress, you know, it just popped right out and went right through the bottom of the popcorn box. The force of it opened the the flap.

Carol: It just pushed the flap open?

Boogie: It's Ripley's, I tell ya, and I couldn't move the box or you would have seen it.

Carol: That's true. 

Boogie: I was just hoping it would shrink back out. (He puts his hand up to her cheek and lovingly touches it) Come on, let's go back inside. 

This movie is worth seeing just for the bond between these guys, and the conversations they have. Here are the top reasons to watch this movie:

#1- The popcorn penis scene

#2- Shrevie's explaination of the difference between dating and marriage

#3- Eddie's football test for his fiancee

North By Northwest (1959)

Star Rating- 3

Length of Film- 136 minutes
Director- Alfred Hitchcock
Cast- Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, Leo G. Carroll, Josephine Hutchinson, Philip Ober, Martin Landau, Adam Williams, Edward Platt, Robert Ellenstein, Les Tremayne, Philip Coolidge, Patrick McVey, & Ed Binns
Oscar Nominations- Ernest Lehman (screenplay), William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace, Frank R. McKelvy (art direction), & George Tomasini (editing)



 

You probably wondered, what does the title “North by Northwest” mean? Our main character Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) was told by CIA agent the professor (Leo G. Carroll) told Roger to get on a plane, Northwest Airlines and go north of South Dakota.

Roger Thornhill is an advertising man who accidently got mistaken for George Kaplan a spy who was the suspected murderer of a U.N. diplomat, who we later find out, never existed. Thornhill was taken in by the villainous Phillip Vandamm. Trying to get information out of Thornhill, he resorted to torture. Forcing him to drink whole bottle of hard liquor, and put him in a stolen car, and sent him to drive to hopefully crash and kill himself. He ended up wrecking and going to jail.

Thornhill makes a promise to himself that will figure out who this Kaplan is, but as soon as he gets close to clues, the police and Vandamm’s goons are after him. He jumps on a train where he meets the beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Maria Saint). She invites him to have dinner with her, then after endless flirting, she invites him back to her room. “So much of the plot spins on what appears to be a one-night stand initiated by a cool blonde with an itch for anonymous encounters.”-The Greatest Movies Ever: The Ultimate Ranked List of The 101 Best Films of all Time! The romantic kiss scene on the train, between Thornhill and Kendall are really close-uncomfortably close. Even though we don’t see it (it was 1959) we know they hooked up and had sex.

Of course, as always, the leading lady isn’t who she said she is. It wasn’t on accident that she befriends Thornhill…

One of the great scenes in this movie was when Thornhill was set on a wild goose chase to the Midwest. He got off the Greyhound on a dusty farm road where he waits for a “mysterious connection”. He waits and waits. 8 minutes goes by, no music, complete stillness; then in the distance, a crop duster. Thornhill ignores it at first, and then realizes that the plane is aiming for him! He’s been set up, but where does it hide? A lonely cornfield is his only hope to survive. Deadly poison spews from the plane. OH NO!!!!

 

Watch the movie, and make your own opinion about it. It’s not the stereotypical Alfred Hitchcock type movie, but it’s what movies are supposed to be, entertaining.

 

MOVIE MISTAKE! Here’s the scene where Eve has a gun pointed to Thornhill, in the background, on the right, you will see a little boy preparing for the shot by already having his ears covered. HA!

 

 

 

At 0:02:09 minutes into the movie, you get a glimpse of Alfred Hitchcock making his cameo into the movie. He misses the bus, and is just after his credit passes off screen during the title sequence.

Top Hat (1935)

 

Star Rating- 4

Length of Film- 101 minutes

Director- Mark Sandrich
Cast- Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, Eric Blore, Helen Broderick
Oscar Nominations- Pandro S. Berman (best picture), Carroll Clark, Van Nest Polglase (art direction), Irving Berlin (music), Hermes Pan (dance)

This movie was so refreshing and quirky, I loved it! If you enjoyed Bringing Up Baby (1938) and The Lady Eve (1941) you’ll appreciate this movie.

The movie starts out with Jerry Travers (Fred Astaire) tap dancing in his hotel room. Downstairs in the room right below him, the beautiful Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers) was trying to sleep and was annoyed by the ruckus. With her robe on, she marched herself up the stairs and knocked on the door. (You see…the room is Jerry Travers’ producers, Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton) From the beginning, Dale thought Jerry was Mr. Hardwick and that’s where this comedy becomes a “screwball”.

The beautiful and gracious Ginger Rogers

Dale is quite enthralled with this man, but soon finds out that he’s a married man. He’s married to her good friend, Madge (Helen Broderick). Throughout this whole thing, she does not know that who she likes, is actually a single bachelor.

 

Someone gets punched in the face, someone pretends to be a priest, someone breaks into the bridal suite. It’s a great plot and the dancing is unbelieveable! My favorite part of the movie is “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails", Jerry Travers is performing solo tap with a company of dancers. With his can in hand, the company of men, in top hats, ties, and tails stand in a straight line and Travers shoots them dead. He pretends his cane is the gun and the shooting of the gun his feet. Here’s a video I found on youtube. Start at 3 minutes and 13 seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akD7r3PClRc

 

Watch this movie! It’s amazing!!! And the dancing is so elegant and effortless looking. I mean, look at this backbend! FUN FACT: During "Cheek to Cheek", Rogers' gown shed so many feathers that Astaire became exasperated and insisted something be done. The feathers were sewn down, causing delays, but you can still see them flying. The big to-do earned Astaire teh nicname "Feathers".

 

I’m debating whether or not I should buy it, because I was that impressed by it. I only wished Fred Astaire was cuter to look at, but he has the dancing ability, so just look past the face :)

 

 

Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008)

Star Rating- 2

Length of Film- 80 minutes

Director- Sacha Gervasi

Cast- Steve “Lips” Kulow, Robb Reiner, Glenn Gyorffy, Chris Tsangarides, Tiziana Arrigoni

Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a documentary about an influential heavy metal band that toured with some of the greatest bands of the 80’s but never made the cut. In 1984, Anvil toured the world with Bon Jovi, Poison, and Whitesnake, but fell through the cracks. The coolest part of the documentary was when the big name rockers did an interview for the film and referenced Anvil as an “influence”. You will see Slash from Guns N’ Roses, Lars Ulrich from Metallica, and Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead.

The film follows the life of the bandmates, in the late 21^st century. Struggling to make ends meet with odd and end jobs in Canada. The band still met and played at bars, but of course, they’re now in their 50’s.  A lady approaches the band and offers to be their band manager, promising to take them on tour in Europe. They pack their bags, and struggle with # of tickets sold, and the bars/facilties paying. It’s actually really sad to see how they struggled on tour, and getting back in the studio trying to make a new CD. Personalities were clashing and of course, artistic differences.

I didn’t connect with any of the bandmates and I felt like they were chasing a dream that they were not be able to reach. They had unrealistic expectations. Being a part of the music world is hard to get in. At some point, you’re just gonna have believe what the critics and record labels say. Even though it was only 80 minutes long. I felt like I wasted my time.