Tag Archives: Brian Tochi

#181 Favorite Film, 1992 Films, Andie MacDowell, Bert Remsen, Best Feature- Independent Spirit Award Winners, Brian Tochi, Bruce Willis, Buck Henry, Cher, Comedy, Dark Comedy, David Alan Grier, Dean Stockwell, Dina Merrill, Drama, Gary Busey, Gina Gershon, Independent, Independent Drama, Jeff Goldblum, Joel Grey, Julia Roberts, Lyle Lovett, Nick Nolte, Paul Dooley, Peter Gallagher, Ray Walston, Richard E. Grant, Robert Altman, Robert Wagner, Satire, Scott Glenn, Sydney Pollack, Tim Robbins, Top 250 Films, Vincent D'Onofrio, Whoopi Goldberg

The Player-1992

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The Player-1992

Director Robert Altman

Starring Tim Robbins, Peter Gallagher

Top 250 Films #181

Scott’s Review #601

Reviewed January 11, 2017

Grade: A

The Player (1992) ranks up there with other Robert Altman classics such as Gosford Park (2001), Nashville (1975), and Short Cuts (1993).

The film is an excellent piece of Hollywood satire and centers around a jaded movie executive, played by Tim Robbins, who does an incredible job with his role.

Robbins plays Griffin Mill, a man with no scruples. Feeling usurped by a younger executive, played by Peter Gallagher, as well as receiving death threats, he goes on the hunt for the person he feels responsible for, which leads to murder.

The audience is unsure whether to love or hate Mill, thanks to Robbin’s performance. He is snarky, but also vulnerable and a tad sympathetic.

The film contains a slew of real Hollywood celebrities (Cher, Malcolm McDowell, Bruce Willis) playing themselves and is largely improvised (as many of Altman’s films are).

Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovett star as odd police detectives.

The plot is nothing that hasn’t been done before, but it’s the realness and the direction that make this movie a must-see, especially for Robert Altman fans.

The Player (1992) is a hidden gem.

Oscar Nominations: Best Director-Robert Altman, Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published, Best Film Editing

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: 1 win-Best Feature (won)

1984 Films, Anthony Edwards, Brian Tochi, Comedy, James Cromwell, John Goodman, Robert Carradine

Revenge of the Nerds-1984

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Revenge of the Nerds-1984

Director Jeff Kanew

Starring Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards

Scott’s Review #1,354

Reviewed April 8, 2023

Grade: B+

Released in 1984, Revenge of the Nerds is in a similar vein to other raunchy comedies like Police Academy (1984), Animal House (1978), or Porky’s (1981).

Goofy with slapstick elements and involving unpopular or marginalized groups rising above are the thematic commonalities these genre films share.

To say the film is dumb fun is quite apt and watching it again almost forty years past the release date the stereotypes and gags are ever so noticeable. The term ‘date rape’ was not known then but known presently leaves a slightly uncomfortable feeling during one scene.

Also dated is the classification of what a nerd is. In 1984, the last name one would like to be referred to was a nerd. Today, it’s a term of endearment or even something to aspire to be!

Anyone under the age of forty will not appreciate Revenge of the Nerds or even get it’ It was made at a very different time but will be appreciated by the older folks and provide a burst of uproarious nostalgia.

Revenge of the Nerds is one of my favorite selections when I think of the 1980s and yearn for a slice of mind-numbing entertainment.

Geeky college students Gilbert (Anthony Edwards) and Lewis (Robert Carradine) are excited to leave their repressed small town and venture off to the mind-opening University where, in their minds, they are bound to score with countless women.

Once there, they are ridiculed mercilessly by the jocks and evicted from their dormitory when the Alpha Betas, who recently burned down their own fraternity house by accident, confiscate the building.

When the college forces the freshmen to live in the gym, Gilbert, Lewis, and their fellow dorks relocate to a run-down house. When the Alpha Betas, led by jock Stan (Ted McGinley), repeatedly humiliate them, the nerds plot revenge.

Naturally, in an attempt at gender parity, there is a nerd sorority named Omega Mu featuring Judy (Michelle Meyrink) who becomes Gilbert’s girlfriend.

And as a fabulous addition, there is one equivalent to Alpha Beta consisting of cheerleader types who are bitchy and mean to the nerds led by Betty Childs (Julie Montgomery), the object of Lewis’s affections.

Revenge of the Nerds succeeds well because it’s easy to root for the Nerds to exact their revenge on the jocks. But this would not be the case without the characters of Gilbert and Lewis.

Edwards and Carradine infuse them with likability and a flavor of fairness. More than just horny nerds, they choose their brethren from all walks of life. There is a gay nerd, a black nerd, an Asian nerd, and even a nerd who picks his nose and is effectively named Booger (Curtis Armstrong).

Despite the subject matter, it’s easy to see the producers were attempting some early diversity and inclusion. They exist within boxed stereotypes but at least the representation was visible.

McGinley as Stan is the perfect foil. The actor is a blonde and a surfer dude so he is the perfect ‘big man on campus’ type. The secondary jocks are all loud and obnoxious but are happy to be second bananas to Stan.

Adorable is how the distinction bubbles up to the school dean, played by David Wohl, who is at first intimidated by but finally gets the better of loud Coach Harris (John Goodman). And Lewis’s father, Mr. Skolnick (James Cromwell) is his doppelganger.

Revenge of the Nerds is successful at bringing out the thirteen-year-old boy in all of us with its incorporation of mooning scenes, belching, and a hilarious peeping tom scene in the hated popular girls’ sorority.

It’s not film art or anything in the way of classy cinematic camerawork, or visual effects, but what Revenge of the Nerds (1984) does is provide some good-humored laughs.

It’s well-intentioned and holds up surprisingly well on its own merits while some 1980s ‘quality’ films do not.

2005 Films, Animated, Ben Stiller, Bob Saget, Brian Tochi, Cedric the Entertainer, Children, Chris Rock, Comedy, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Tom McGrath

Madagascar-2005

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Madagascar-2005

Director Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath

Voices Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer

Scott’s Review #1,247

Reviewed April 17, 2022

Grade: B-

Madagascar (2005) is a film that I found mildly entertaining but struggled to enjoy as much as others might. Films with a target audience of ages thirteen and under are a tough sell for me because I don’t see them very often.

Having no children I have few opportunities to join in on the children’s games or sit at the kiddie table and get in that mindset.

Nonetheless, this film somehow crossed my radar.

It’s lighthearted and juvenile but playfully fun sending a positive message of friendship and dedication. Not a fan of the zoo at all my curiosity was piqued at how this angle would be represented if at all.

Would the captivity of the zoo face off against the natural African wildlife?

The screenwriters tread safe waters keeping their audience in mind and don’t go for any deep message or environmental or animal issues, playing it quite safe.

Madagascar suffers from blandness and predictability knowing that the audience isn’t quite ready to think outside the box and their parents will obediently sit beside them watching the film.

The result is a film brimming with possibilities that it never realizes. It’s a ready-made family film and nothing more.

Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller) is the king of the urban jungle and the main draw at New York’s Central Park Zoo. He and his best friends Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer), and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) have spent their lives at the zoo with admiring fans and tasty meals provided for them.

In their minds, they have it pretty good.

Yet Marty yearns for more and lets his curiosity get the better of him when he escapes the zoo to explore the world. He and his friends wind up on a ship back to Africa and are then shipwrecked on Madagascar and left to fend for themselves in the wild.

They face dangers and allies during their adventures and wrestle with either returning to the zoo or staying in their natural habitat.

There is plenty of humor to occupy the crowd but most of the jokes are tepid or fall flat altogether. They have very little substance to offer but rather are silly gags meant to keep the adventure going.

Big stars like Rock, Schwimmer, and Stiller are cast most likely to appeal to parents forced to go to the show with their kids. Recognizable voices always sell tickets in the animated world.

Secondary characters work better than the main cast. Sacha Baron Cohen as King Julien XIII is a standout.

Mildly entertaining and soft touch in its approach Madagascar (2005) left me feeling dull and yearning for something a bit more challenging and robust in the field of kid’s film.

Its intent is merely to entertain and not to challenge so the result is a middle-of-the-road experience for me.

I’ll take the Toy Story (1995-2019) films any day.

1971 Films, Anthony Zerbe, Boris Sagal, Brian Tochi, Charlton Heston, DeVeren Bookwalter, Rosalind Cash, Science Fiction

The Omega Man-1971

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The Omega Man-1971

Director Boris Sagal

Starring Charlton Heston, Rosalind Cash

Scott’s Review #1,168

Reviewed August 2, 2021

Grade: B

Watching in 2021, a film about a global pandemic, made in 1971, conjures many interesting nuances and comparisons, and brings fresh relevance to the story.

Throw in the vaccinated versus non-vaccinated debate, and the similarities are downright eerie.

Given its relevance, I wish I had found The Omega Man (1971) more engaging. It’s not a bad watch; it delivers a very progressive interracial romance and incredible exterior scenes of downtown Los Angeles, but the story doesn’t live up to the potential the premise suggests.

I kept thinking of Charlton Heston, who stars in two of his other science fiction roles- Planet of the Apes (1968) and Soylent Green (1973).

Planet is, of course, a classic.

In the first scene, Robert Neville (Heston) wanders the streets of Los Angeles. We quickly surmise that he is the last man left on earth. Armed with an experimental vaccine for the disease that’s turned everyone into light-averse zombies, he fights a biological war, roaming the empty streets by day and fighting off the mutated creatures at night.

The premise immediately reminded me of a famous Twilight Zone episode.

On paper, the storyline sounds fascinating, with many possible directions and nuances to explore. Sadly, the direction Sagal chooses feels lackluster and dull.

Neville hunts and kills as many members of “the Family”, a cult of plague victims who were turned into nocturnal albino mutants, as he can. The Family, in turn, seeks to destroy all technology and kill Neville, who has become a symbol of the science they blame for humanity’s downfall.

They try to kill each other, but “the Family’s” motivations and reasoning make little sense. If they destroy technology, what will they do? And why not just get the vaccination? These bits may have been explained, but I didn’t take notice.

The parallels between the film and the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 and perhaps onward are uncanny. Maybe the unvaccinated of today will turn into creepy-looking creatures with pale, glowing eyes? One can only hope.

There is also a hokey idea that Neville believes he can extend his immunity to others by creating a serum from his blood.

I didn’t feel very engaged by the story, but I was very interested in the romance between Neville and Lisa, played by Rosalind Cash. Lisa is a black woman who arrives on the scene with her infected and dying brother.

In 1971, a mainstream interracial romance was a huge win for diversity and inclusion, though the film stops short of showing the pair consummating their relationship. This is quite conspicuous. There is also not a whole lot of chemistry between Heston and Cash, but I was rooting for them anyway.

It is considered one of the first interracial kisses in cinematic history.

Suffice it to say the conclusion isn’t very satisfying, but I’ll leave it right there to avoid spoilers.

The science fiction genre is a tough one to tackle.

The bar is set pretty high with 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the greatest science fiction film ever made. Too many times, the story is hokey or not imaginative enough, and that’s what makes The Omega Man lose some points.

Parts are inspiring, and parts are goofy, but the progressive slant makes The Omega Man (1971) an above-par cinema experience. The unexpected parallels to a global situation some fifty years later are remarkable in themselves.