Category: Movies

The Muppets came out in 2011 and it was their first big screen movie since 1999’s Muppets from Space.  It was written by Jason Segal and Nicholas Stoller, and directed by James Bobin.  It was the first Muppet movie to win an Academy Award for Best Song for “Man or Muppet” written by Bret McKenzie.  It is an all around fantastic film.

The movie starts off with a boy named Walter, who looks like a Muppet, talking about growing up and how The Muppet Show made him feel like he fit in, so when he, his brother Gary (Jason Segal), and Gary’s long time girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) go LA, they go to visit Muppet studios, but to their dismay it is run down and being sold to an oil baron (Chris Cooper), and of course the only way to save the studio is get the gang back together and put on a show.

The plot is simple and predictable, but The Muppets bring such charm and pizzazz to everything they do you don’t really care.  Some people also like to point out that this movie can be more about Walter and Gary, both Jason Segal creations, than The Muppets proper, but since Jason Segal petitioned to Disney to save The Muppets from obscurity, I am good with a little self indulgence on his part.

I also like how this movie seems to understand that The Muppets are from a different time, so a lot of the jokes are based around the fact The Muppets may not be relevant anymore, but luckily this movie proved them wrong and was a success so we are getting another Muppet movie next year.

The song and dance numbers are great, so at least Segal and McKenzie know how to stage a good musical, and just like any good Muppet movie it is jam packed with surprise star cameos..

I love The Muppets and I loved this movie.  It may not be the most gripping or belly laugh funny movie ever, but I almost never stopped smiling while I was watching it, and in my book that is high praise.

I was on a nostalgia kick and I saw Caddyshack II on HBO Go, and I thought to myself, “Hey Caddyshack is funny and I have never seen two, so why not?”  I should have punched myself in the brain.  This movie is bad.

Caddyshack II is obviously the follow up to the classic Caddyshack.  It came out eight years after the first movie, and it features almost none of the original cast except for Chevy Chase.  It was nominated for four Golden Raspberries and it won two: Worst Supporting Actor for Dan Aykroyd, and Worst Original Song for Jack Fresh.  I can’t believe that I made it through the entire movie.

The story still takes place at Bushwood Country Club, and the gopher is in it, but he has now been upgraded to a major character.  Since Rodney Dangerfield refused to be in it after he read the script he was replaced by Jackie Mason, and it was not an upgrade.  He is trying to join the country club for his daughter who likes to play golf, but the snobby members of the club will not let him in because he is building low income housing near the nice part of town.  This causes apparent zany antics to ensue (or maybe not so apparent).

This is one of those movies that is amazing it ever got a major release.  If the script is so bad Dangerfield will not be in it, you know you are making train wreck, and sadly not even the entertaining kind.  On Chase’s last day of shooting he supposedly told the director Allan Arkush to call him when they were going to add the laugh track.

Speaking of Chase, he is in this movie for like five minutes total, and they are by far the best five minutes of the movie.  That man is a gifted comedian, but still there are another ninety-five minutes of movie to sit through.

You would think that Dan Aykroyd would be decent replacement for Bill Murray, not as good perhaps, but he as made some very funny moves, but they gave him nothing to do in this movie.  He just talks weird and bumbles in the least funny manner, and yet we were supposed to believe that he used to be Special Forces, and that as a Special Forces member his plan to kill someone would involve driving a golf ball through their head, and yes I do mean drive as in hit a ball with a driver and aim for their head.

For all those fill makers out their that are planning sequels, and that is a lot of you.  You should not make it if your biggest returning star is barley in the movie, so the real returning star is a gopher puppet.  It will not work.  As for the rest of you, do not see this movie.  I know this warning may have come twenty-five years too late, but if I save just one I will have done my job.

Cloak & Dagger was a 1984 movie that was released as part of a double feature with The Last Starfighter.  It was directed by Richard Franklin, and it was one of my favorite movies as a kid.

The movie is about a Davey Osborne played by Henry Jackson Thomas, Jr. (the E.T. kid) as he tries to deal with the loss of his mother, and he immerses himself in a spy role playing game that has a video game counterpart.  He also uses the main character from those games Jack Flack (Dabney Coleman) as his imaginary friend.  While doing a favor for the local game store owner Morris (William Forsythe) with his best friend Kim (Christina Nigra) he witnesses a murder by some spy thugs, and now he is playing Cloak & Dagger for real.

What I love about this movie is that Kim and Davey run around San Antonio all by themselves and no one seems to care.  They have their bus passes and giant walkie-talkies, so they can get around.  I also noticed that Louie Anderson plays a dirty cab driver in a bad part of San Antonio at midnight, and he refuses to give Davey a ride: shame on you Louie!

Even though this movie was mostly an excuse to sell Atari games like its double feature partner The Last Starfighter, they still made a pretty decent movie, and it holds up surprisingly well.  They all act fairly well and even though hiding secret plans in a video game is the worst plan ever, and Davey could have been thwarted a couple of times if the thugs would just lock their doors every now and then.  It is still a movie that I will watch with my kids someday.

I know nostalgia my be clouding my judgment, but it seems like in the 80’s that all kids movies didn’t have to be garbage like they are now, and I wish more people would take the time make some good ones.