DrPhibes1964

In the Coen brothers filmography The Hudsucker Proxy is a bit of an oddity and lacks the violence that is found in most of their films. Apart from the lead character getting a belt in the face and a fight between two older men there is nothing that connects it with their films, before or after. It was has the whimsy of Frank Capra or Billy Wilder. I've never understood the negative reaction the film often gets from fans and critics. I remember Siskel and Ebert giving it a real trouncing on their shoe and dismissed it as lightweight. I love everything about the film, from the snappy period dialogue to the overall look. They capture a period that is long gone but not forgotten. Jennifer Jason Leigh is a cross between Barbara Stanwyk and Katherine Hepburn and shines throughout. Tim Robbins is absolutely hilarious as Norville Barnes. I don't know if Paul Newman has played any villains in his career but he easily sheds the good guy image as the bombastic Henry J. Muskberger. This is a very fun film and needs to be watched in that mindset. It is lightweight in the best sense of the word. I'd rank this in my top five favorite Coen brothers films.

To this day I still wonder what motivated me to see Showgirls. I am not easily swayed by hype and can only assume that I was desperate to get out of the house and watch a movie.

This is spectacularly stupid. I've never understood the cult that has formed around it. It's not even one of those so-bad-it's-good type movies. True story: About half way watching this bomb I put on my Walkman and listened to my own music and watched the images on the screen. I could have walked out but it seemed like a waste of money and I just rode it out to its conclusion.

I have no problem with stories that have unlikable characters, but they should at least be interesting in some way. It's obvious that neither director director Paul Veerhoven or scriptwriter Joe Esterhaus knew nothing about the life of a Las Vegas showgirl. I imagine there is some interesting tales that might have been told but these two keep there "insights" at the simplest level. It's like really bad pornography. The sex scene in the swimming pool is embarrassing and typical of the juvenile in its view of human sexuality. The movie is never sure if it wants to be drama or campy satire. It fails at both and becomes little more than a series of sequences strung together with no real point or purpose. Even with my own music playing I had no problem following this deep and intricate story. There is no a single positive thing that I can say about it. Hopefully it becomes a lost film and is forgotten about over time. The cult will fade away and find another target for their misguided adulation. It's trash.

After The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training I was eager to see this third film.and to see where the story and characters might go. Even in 1978 I recognized this as being bad and very little effort went into crafting a fresh story. Even if its set in the exotic location of Japan it was still bland and forgettable. I haven't watched it in its entirety in decades and remember very little about it, but what does stick in my mind is the utterly wretched performance of Tony Curtis. I cannot recall how many of the original cast had returned but not enough to make a hardcore fan like myself find any joy in this. It's a predictable plot (to the best of my memory) and lacks the heart and charm of the other two. It feels more a tv sitcom. Whenever I spot it on some streaming service I try to watch it. Perhaps I was overly harsh in my criticism and thought the passage of time might have softened me. No, it's the exact opposite, and I barely make it a half hour in before I turn it off. Every moment Tony Curtis is on screen I just have to resist the urge to kick in the tv screen. His character IS that obnoxious. I know nothing about the making of the film or if they even had a complete script. It seems very random and made up as they went along. I vaguely recall Kelly Leak having a romance with a Japanese girl. The rest is lost and will remain that way. They should have walked away after Breaking Training, but Hollywood has the compulsion to pump a product dry. This deserves to be forgotten.