You Can Count on Me

You Can Count on Me

Paramount etc.

January 21, 2000

Drama

DVD
C-

Too downbeat for me, but the scenery was pretty.  Kenneth Lonergan wrote and directed, sixteen years before Manchester by the Sea, which had pretty snow.

The Lion King (1994)

The Lion King (1994)

Disney

June 24, 1994

Children's, Fantasy

DVD
C-

The Great Chain of Being as a musical.  I tagged only the voices I heard in the first quarter hour.   Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff directed.

The Cable Guy

The Cable Guy

Sony Pictures Releasing

June 14, 1996

Comedy
DVD
D+

I tried to watch this once before, but it definitely falls into the "annoying" category of Jim Carrey movies.  (The Truman Show would not.)  Ben Stiller directed.

The Cable Guy

The Cable Guy
Columbia
June 14, 1996
Comedy
DVD
C-

I have a low tolerance for Jim Carrey, The Truman Show aside, but I didn't hate this (well, the first quarter hour), and it's certainly a time capsule, with "the information highway" of cable when the Internet was still in its infancy as a major cultural force.  Ben Stiller directed and appears as the Sweet twins.

Biloxi Blues

Biloxi Blues
Universal
March 25, 1988
Historical Comedy, Historical Drama
DVD
B

This movie surprised me in that I think I was expecting something more on the sitcom or even cartoony side, but there are serious and even philosophical moments, and even a dark-humored horror feel to the scene where Walken's character threatens Broderick's with a gun.  I'm not sure how well it all hangs together, and despite the tag line that "Daisy gave him basic training," Eugene's first love is dealt with in a cursory manner that makes less impact than the surprisingly sweet and funny scene where he loses his virginity to a hooker (played by Park Overall, who I couldn't place, but it turns out she was Laverne Todd for seven seasons of Empty Nest).  The ensemble cast works well together, and I like that the characters end up having more to them, good and bad, than the stock characters I expected and apparently were all that Roger Ebert could see three decades ago.

I should note that the subject of homosexuality is brought up and handled with tolerance and yet ambiguity, and in the Where Are They Now? voiceover at the end, I did not catch what happened to Hennessy.

Addicted to Love

Addicted to Love
Warner Bros
May 23, 1997
Romantic Comedy
DVD
D+


I'll admit to having lower standards for romcoms than some genres, but, honestly, it's hard to feel sympathy for a man who gets a "Dear John" letter and then flies to New York in order to stalk his ex and her new lover.  (Well, initially he wants to get her back, but then he finds out about the new guy and decides to stay in the City and stalk them.)  I also have an anti-Meg-Ryan bias, but she isn't in the first quarter-hour, so my grade is not influenced by her in this case.  Still, the music was kind of nice, so D+.