L'ultima luna d'agosto

Maybe I'm just a sucker for white sands and blue water, even more of a sucker for sweet stories, but I loved this movie. Yes, I could get critical, but then I could be critical about just about every movie I've ever seen. Bottom line is, I loved this movie, I like Terri Garr, I like Gene Hackman, and I found nothing bad about this movie. I like romantic movies, and this was certainly that.

Gene made a believable everyman buried in sadness about the loss of his wife, while Terri was her usual professional self, playing a woman in love with him but unable to break through his shell. Burgess Meridith, during his life, made a career out of playing crusty characters, and this one was no exception. I only tried this film an someone else's recommendation, and it turned out to be a good one.

In Texas, Floyd (Gene Hackman) is the owner of a decadent bar nearby the coast. He misses his wife Dorothy (Becky Gelke), who disappeared one year ago, and does not pay attention to the business, giving credit to everybody. His senile father-in-law The General (Burgess Meredith) lives with him demanding care. He has two employees, the former inmate of a mental institution Jimmy (Elias Koteas) and the spinster Louise (Teri Garr) that has a love affair with him and has offered her saving to become his partner. Floyd has a huge tax debt and his pseudo-friend Charlie (Kevin Cooney) is forcing him to sell the place very cheap. However Louise finds that a bridge will be built soon and will increase the value of the bar.

"Full Moon in Blue Water" is a film where a great cast is wasted in a poor story. The excellent Gene Hackman is not tailored for a romance and despite the sweet and also excellent Teri Garr, there is no chemistry in their relationship. Burgess Meredith is totally wasted in the role of a senile old man. The absurd situations are too silly and in the end, "Full Moon in Blue Water" is a forgettable movie released only on VHS. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Lua Cheia em Blue Water" ("Full Moon in Blue Water")

Just a few days after the news that Gene Hackman had passed away I watched this movie, strangely enough this movie was completely unknown to me, I can't remember ever seeing it in the video store.

Actually a kind of standard drama story without really getting too heavy because there is also some humor in it.

Floyd can't get over the death of his wife, his bar is a failing business and a real estate shark is after his company.

The roles are nicely filled with Burgess Meredith as his old father-in-law who is in a wheelchair and provides many comic moments, Teri Garr gets to play the new girlfriend and there are a few other characters like the sheriff and Floyd's assistant.

Nice light drama with some comic elements in it.

Dreadful! Any film that contains a sequence (usually 'poignant') of a character (typically a middle-aged man) watching home movies of happier days is a picture that shamelessly courts clichés. "Full Moon in Blue Water" begins with such a scene--before we even know who the characters are or what the central circumstance is (frankly, I was more curious who was shooting the home movies of Gene Hackman and his wife frolicking on the lake). Hackman plays a widower who is still grieving his wife's death by drowning after several years; he runs a tired old lakefront bar on the Texas coast, but is unknowingly sitting on prime real estate that the County commissioner wants to scare him off of. Director Peter Masterson keeps this nitwit story rolling along, but somewhere late in the second reel I felt he and the cast had nothing more to offer. Elias Koteas as a not-too-bright bar-employee nearly shows up the heavyweight stars (not just Hackman, but Teri Garr and Burgess Meredith to boot); unfortunately, his role is made impossible by a ridiculous turn of events. The action is kept very busy, yet the characters never take shape and some of the dialogue is really ugly. Garr made a lot of bad film choices after her Oscar-nominated turn in "Tootsie", but what drew Hackman to such a thin, innocuous project? *1/2 from ****

A bit on the slow side, well very slow actually, but it's worth sticking with it to the very end, but only just worth it. Great acting from all concerned and with a very interesting mix of very odd characters. I would not have liked to have paid to see this in the cinema as it's so slow that my interest in it would have lapsed well before getting to the end, it's an OK watch on TV however.

Even for fans of Mr. Hackman it not a must see film of his so if you are one you are not missing anything great by never seeing it.

I'm struggling a bit to get to the required 600 character so this is just filler to get there.