Pleine lune sur Blue Water

Saw this on the Talking Pictures (UK) channel, for older films and TV.

Some very ill-informed reviews on here, 2 from Moonspinner and Claudio especially. Nothing wrong with this film, it's one of many reflecting small-town life in USA, with characters who are perhaps lost, or aimless, but trying to make the best of their lot.

So, sure, there were no car chases, no shootings, no spaceships, no fantasy nonsense with people riding horses that can fly, or people turning into bats and/or back again, just regular people.

Hackman (just died this year I gather, RIP) and Garr are excellent, as they invariably are, GH can play pretty much anything, and Garr could have been born for this role, plus the support cast hit the right notes.

Can the coastal bar survive, will it be saved by the intended new bridge bringing more custom? About my only criticism would be the Title, which makes it seem like some twee nature film?!

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.

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")

This is a fun little film that gives Gene Hackman, Burgess Meredith and Teri Garr the chance to do what they do best! And an almost unrecognizable young actor from Chicago PD. I had to look up Elias Koreas (Al) to identify him. The setting on the southeast coast of Texas is perfect for this tale. Lots of comic relief, with some very poignant moments. The soundtrack is also very good. I very much enjoyed this movie. At this point I'm just typing words to meet the required character number. I mean, why do that? I can understand a maximum number of letters, but a minimum? Sometimes it only takes a few words to convey how good (or bad) a movie is.

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 ****