Breaking the Rules

How can you enjoy a movie when your ripping it into little pieces and analyzing it.

This movie wasn't about the money apparently.

It was dedicated to S.I. I don't know who that is, but it was dedicated to them never the less. I like the movie a lot. Any movie that can move you that much is a great movie.

I got all I wanted from it.

Beautiful.

Enough said.

"Sketches" (aka "Breaking all rules") was a 80's dramedy that was shot in 1989 but not released until 1992, where it played in a limited release before fading into obscurity. Neither title really makes sense though.

I remember catching parts of it on TV at night in the late 90's. I recently watched the film and I was pleasantly surprised at how well crafted and touching the performances are. "Sketches" deals with the devastating issue of cancer and how 3 friends confront and cope with the disease by going on a road trip. The film is as touching as it humorous. A touch balance the direct seems to pull off. C. Thomas Howell (too bad his career tanked after the classic underrated "Soul Man") and Johnathan Silverman are good in their roles but a young Jason Bateman easily stills the show as the friend stricken with the disease. I was very impressed with how realistically he portrayed a cancer victim (having seen first hand a relative die from the disease).

Overall, "Sketches" is a funny yet tragic 80's buddy film that manages to balance the laughs with the tears. I just wish there was more info on the making of the film and would love to know why exactly it was shelved for 3 years. This film deserves a bigger audience and more praise. 10/10

I'm always a sucker for those `what can you say about a girl/guy who's died' kinda movies. From Love Story to Torch Song Trilogy to Brian's Song, in the movies there is a certain sort of nobility endowed by dying. It's a mystery that we all fear and wonder about and ultimately face more or less on our own. There may be others present but we do it alone in our own, individual ways.

What's important is what goes before and what we have done for those that we leave behind.

This movie deals with that issue and does it in a life affirming way. What Phil (Jason Bateman) does for Gene (C. Thomas Howell) and Rob (Jonathon Silverman) is get them back together as friends, and helps them deal with his impending death while dealing with it himself in the best way that he can. Yes, this theme has been done before. Yes there are aspects that are completely ignored. And Yes, some parts could have been done better, but overall I'm glad that I saw this movie and think that many others would be too.

The movie is bittersweet without being maudlin. It has heart and lets the viewer see the emotions of three young men, no mean feat for a movie. When Mary Klinglitch (Annie Potts) joins the group it somehow allows the guys to drop some of their masculine bravado and her presence seems to make the group `whole'. Perhaps its her presence that makes it ok for these guys to be `Breaking the Rules' about way men behave when together.

Breaking the Rules was one of those films that slipped in and out of theaters before it could develop a following. If it were not for video I think very few would have seen it and that would have been a pity.

Three childhood chums have gone their separate ways. In fact two of them are downright hostile to each other. The third, Jason Bateman, succeeds in bringing the other two to some kind of a truce and all three take an automobile trip out west. Bateman feels compelled to do it, he's under a deadline literally. He's got a rare and rapidly growing form of leukemia and has little time left.

C. Thomas Howell and Jonathan Silverman play the other two friends, but it's Jason Bateman's touching performance as their dying chum that really drives the film.

Bateman's career was in limbo at the time. He had left The Hogan Family and it would be many years before he got another break in Arrested Development. Had this film been better promoted he might have been doing better a whole lot sooner.

Annie Potts plays the waitress all three pick up on their way to California and she scores well in her role. But it's really a triple buddy picture with a tragic twist.

Catch it if you can when it's broadcast.

"BREAKING THE RULES" has a good cast and a competent storyline that provides an "anything can happen" atmosphere, yet the end result is far from satisfying.

With Neal Israel at the helm, and the talents of Jonathan Silverman, Jason Bateman, C. Thomas Howell and Annie Potts, I expected much more, but the overall feel of the film is that of "un-feeling". Most of the situations are just not funny, and I wish I could care for the plight of these characters, but I didn't.

There are all too many implausibilities that plague the film and take away from it's potential. For example, Howell, Bateman and Silverman have several moments in the film where they "croon" out a few tunes, and their stand-in singing voices are beyond unbelievable, which ultimately distracts the possible fun of these scenes.

This is not a bad film, but it could have been so much better.