Monster House

Monster House

Sony Pictures etc.

July 21, 2006

Children's, Animation, Comedy, Horror

DVD
C-

I feel like I tried to watch this before, maybe upon first release, but I wouldn't swear to it.  Anyway, it's OK for what it is.  Gil Kenan directed.

I Could Never Be Your Woman

I Could Never Be Your Woman

Weinstein Company

February 26, 2008

Romcom, Fantasy

DVD
B-

This is one of those movies I like so much I want to love it, but it is definitely flawed, with the usually wonderful Ullman here playing the downer Mother Nature character, and the backstabbing All-About-Eve-light receptionist being too cartoony a villainess.  Still, I like Pfeiffer's romantic chemistry with Rudd, and her mother-daughter relationship with Ronan, and there are some other nifty things about it, including of course the Heckerling-designed color scheme and Fred Willard willarding away.  Note that this was made in '05, when Rudd was about 36 but of course was ageless enough to pass for 29, while Pfeiffer was about 47 and of course still gorgeous and believable as 40.*  I tagged as many people as I recognized and could fit.

*Also, the cut to Stacey Dash (at 39ish believably playing an actress who pioneered portraying teens) laughing at an insult to President George W. Bush has of course only gotten more ironic with time.

Best in Show

Best in Show
Warner Bros.
October 20, 2000
Mockumentary
DVD
B

Guest directed and with Levy co-wrote this movie, and the two of them play two of the main characters in it, although each set of dogs & owners gets moments in the spotlight.  I saw this movie at the time and maybe once again in the intervening almost twenty years, and I do think it holds up well, in both humor and story-- all the more impressive considering how much of it was improvised-- but I don't think it has the extra oomph that This Is Spinal Tap (1984, and reviewed here https://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2014/11/this-is-spinal-tap.html) has.  By the way, I think Begley's reference here to a rock band he can't say by name is a Spinal Tap joke. 

I actually forgot which dog won and thought it was Hubert the Hound, but it makes narrative sense for it to be the Flecks' Winky, because that family, especially Gerry (Levy's character), are most the (sorry) underdogs.  And the funniest performance here is Larry Miller's cameo as one of O'Hara's many exes, which surprised me because his humor can be hit or miss for me.  The "not the same Starbucks" line remains classic.

I had to leave Patrick Cranshaw out of the crowded tags, but I will note that he was then 80 and had been playing old men for about thirty years, like on Mork & Mindy.