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Reviews
The Great Race (1965)
Worth it just to see Jack Lemmon's Professor Fate & the delectable Natalie Wood
The Summary line says it all. While Tony Curtiss is supposed to be the hero, IMHO, Jack Lemmon effortlessly steals the show with his zany portrayal of a mad cap, conniving professor. Both Keenan Wynn & Peter Falk are a delight as the long-suffering side kicks and you can almost see the Peter Falk mannerisms take shape for his subsequent portrayal of Columbo.
Natalie Wood's role itself is a bit of a lightweight one, but that was true of a lot of the period movies, but who cares! When she looks as luscious as a Boston Creme Pie, all you want to do is eat her up, lightweight or otherwise. Too bad, they don't come like that anymore. Sigh!
For Love of the Game (1999)
For the love of a good movie, watch this one!
First of, let me say that I don't understand how most people rate a movie. Not that they are doing it wrong or anything like that - it's just that I seem to think different than most people on such things and this movie brings it out so perfectly. 6.2 avg rating? I rate it 8 to 8.5 at least. To my mind, it's in the same league as Casablanca. No, it doesn't have the same noirish feel, it isn't set in the background of a war (atleast not in the conventional sense) and it certainly isn't a life or death situation. And yet...
It's also not a movie with your typical cliché headline - no one will write phrases like "their life changes for ever" or "a coming of age story" etc. about this one.
What it is, to my mind, is story of one man, Billy Chapel, living in the limelight as it's fading and his war with time and with his own emotions. We all fight this war sometime (I'm on the wrong side of 40 myself); most times it's mainly in our heads with occasional interludes by people near & dear, but there's generally no audience (which is a good thing). If you happen to live in the limelight at such a time, you unfortunately have to fight on two fronts, a public one and a private one. This movie walks us through one such war and it's poignant and heart-warming mainly 'cause Kevin Costner plays it with such understated vulnerability that you root for the character even when he appears a bit clueless.
Not the world's greatest movie, no special effects, no nothing other than simple human emotions. But that holds up well thru the 2.5hrs making it a wonderful watch. What could be better than that? Of course the end of the game was a bit too theatrical, but hey! even the movie guys are human, right?
City Heat (1984)
Breezy Entertainer!
From the other comments, it seems like most people expect movies starring superstars to always be block busters. Sometimes a movie is just a movie i.e. simple entertainment.
This one is in the great tradition of the screwball comedies/caper comedies that used to be popular with Cary Grant, Tony Curtiss, William Powell way back when. It's funny & occasionally witty and the pairing of the taciturn Eastwood & prattling Reynolds along with Jane Alexandar as the sharp secretary makes for a fun couple of hours (OK, 93 mins). Compared to other Eastwood comedies such as "Every Which Way but Loose", this works better. Too bad critics & audiences didn't like it as much or we might have a nice set of sequels in the tradition of the Thin Man.