Best Comedies Vacation, Survivors & Strange Brew Best Ensemble Cast The Right Stuff – Sam Shepard, Dennis Quaid, Barbara Hershey, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Fred Ward, Pam Reed, and Levon Helm Most overrated movie Terms of Endearment  Notes from awards committee: This was a good year for the big screen movies, despite a massive Oscar miss. To set the record straight, HC awards the Best Motion Picture Simpson award to The Right Stuff. Many of us grew up with the American space program, and I will never forget watching the 1960’s NASA rocket launches on our boxy B&W TV. This movie brought it all rushing back, and that’s a very difficult job to do well. The film is based on the best-selling book (same name) by Tom Wolfe, about the true story of the early rocket pilot daredevils, in particular: Chuck Yeager, and the original seven Mercury Astronauts. The macho pilots make up one of the best male ensemble casts of all time, and the delightful female cast of longsuffering wives adds the family dimension with poignancy and grace. By turns, this film is an epic adventure film, a 60’s postcard, a Cold War snapshot, and a brilliant touch of light comedy. TRS is an incredible feat by Writer/Director Philip Kaufman. The World at Large
Fun Surprises – Silkwood - Donning a perfect West Texas accent, Meryl Streep plays Karen Silkwood, an hourly employee and union leader at a nuclear fuel rod processing plant. The heart of the movie is a romance story between Karen and Drew (Kurt Russell) two working class Americans playing house together with a roommate to share expenses. The roommate is Cher, as butch lesbian, Dolly, who comes out of the closet when she falls for Angela (Diana Scarwid). Angela is a bi-sexual lipstick lesbian, and she moves in with Cher after their first date. The scenes at the Silkwood house are the very best of the movie, and it's here where the dialog really shines, often with comic affect. Of course, conflicts erupt as Karen begins to bring her workplace stress home. The film stumbles through Act 3, until Karen’s life begins to fall apart and she dies in a car wreck. I've always loved this movie because it shows the life of average, American working class people with truth and affection. A Best Actress Simpson Award for Streep. Tender Mercies – is a portrait of a remarkable, adult love story - and of what works in relationships, as the power of a quiet, loving woman embraces and gives life and meaning to all around her, while the "drama queen" lives a lonely life of glitz and glamour. For a welcome change, Hollywood displays rural life, country and western music and Christianity in a favorable light. Robert Duvall won a well-deserved Oscar in this movie. Risky Business - is a film that people often forget when they're listing the best Tom Cruise performances. He is great as Joel Goodson, the boy-next-door whose life spirals wildly out of control when his parents leave him alone for a few days. Is this film believable? Heavens no. It plays more like a young man's sexual fantasy run amok. Blue Thunder – Decades before the Patriot Act and the militarism of urban police forces, this movie points a suspicious finger at a sinister federal agency engaged in developing attack helicopters for the LA police force. The plot builds to a kick-ass helicopter dogfight over downtown LA. This will never be seen again; except in 100% CGI. This was the final movie for the great Warren Oates. Dead Zone - This is a very good supernatural thriller with a career best performance by Christopher Walken. Yes, he won an Oscar for Deer Hunter, but in this movie Walken is in the lead and he is outstanding. He does such a good job of portraying his character, a humble man with an amazing and strange gift, that we forget this is only a science fiction -fantasy movie. He is supported by a strong cast in a believable and scary psycho-thriller. Disappointments - Terms of Endearment – is a well done, watchable film, when in the mood for a sentimental tear-jerker. But so are dozens of made-for-TV movies. Not to be harsh on “chick flicks”, but I was irritated that Terms won Best Motion Picture over The Right Stuff. Return of the Jedi - Jedi is a mixed bag and the weakest of the original Stars Wars trilogy. This is where it all went wrong, way back in 1983 when the target audience shifted away from the adults. Raise your hand if you were expecting to see ridiculous dancing Teddy Bears (Ewoks) in a Star Wars film. A couple comments on the positive side; Luke and Vader fire up the light sabers for a furious duel; brilliant flashes of red and green light illuminate the dark deck of an Imperial battle cruiser while a deep space dogfight rages outside the ship. And for some inexplicable reason, girls love to dress up as sexy Slave Girl Leia. More please! The Big Chill – is about old college buddies (former 1960s hippies now yuppies) gathering to bury Alex, a common friend and ringleader during their college days. They are all shocked about Alex committing suicide, but soon get over it. They drink, dance, feast and get reacquainted. We soon learn that Alex is not the only one of the old gang with serious problems. Nick (William Hurt) quit his job and is dealing and abusing street drugs. More glaring than the drug problem in the movie, is the adultery/cheating problem. Michael has a girlfriend in New York City but has nevertheless brought a stack of condoms on this trip and starts hitting on Chloe, Alex’s girlfriend, during Alex’s funeral service. Sam the actor cheated on his ex-wife, and his marriage broke up. By far the most cringey scene is when Sarah loans her husband Harold to Meg for the night so that he can perform stud service with Meg in order to impregnate the unhappy lawyer, whose most profound wish it is to have a child, though she previously had an abortion. Seen today, four decades later, The Big Chill is striking for its obtuseness. The King of Comedy – is a dark comedy directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Bobby De Niro (as Rupert Pupkin), Jerry Lewis (a TV talk show host) and Sandra Bernhart (another crazy loser). Pupkin is an insane, wanna-be talk show host, and a celebrity stalker. The problem being that Pupkin has no talent for comedy. Is De Niro creepier in Taxi Driver or The King of Comedy? I can’t decide. He eventually becomes a stalker and a kidnapper in an effort to force Lewis to give him his big chance on live TV. Audiences didn’t know what to make of this odd flick with no likeable characters. It bombed at the theaters. Educating Rita – is a modern version of My Fair Lady, with Michael Caine in the role of Alfred P. Doolittle. It’s a bit hit-and-miss with a few chuckles, but falls short of the original charm of MFL. The Osterman Weekend – Nothing. Made. Sense.
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