I wanted to begin by saying that the best of this movie is (Debra Winger). But Oh God, of course there is more and more..
The story is pretty old: 2 brothers who have issues, a girl who's loved by 2 guys, a husband who doesn't express his feelings.. Namely some things that we have watched for countless times in movies and TV. However, this time, all of that is made in *another way*. It has: 2 superheroes that can make fire anytime, anywhere, and at any size. The girl is a fire magnet. One of the brothers is a clown who works at a circus. And it's where the old songs go off surprisingly by the movie's characters!
The quirky taste is lovable and well-done. I felt (Tim Burton), the early (Coan) Brothers, and (Disney) with a black twist. However, it managed to have an originality of its own. There is unmistakable mirth and warmth in dealing with the characters, their feelings, and drama. The passions are expressed with distinct tricks. Remember the long zoom-out in which a breathe of love connects 2 characters in 2 places at one time; from the roller-coaster to the hot iron.
The characters are so fresh, unfamiliar, and brilliantly written, so it's not about changing the form only. The movie's scriptwriter, (Glenn Gordon Caron), wrote before classic TV shows such as (Remington Steele - 1982) and (Moonlighting - 1985), where romantic comedy, with endless fierce disputes of 2 lovers, is mixed with action. This round, he wasn't away from his area. The fun is enjoyable to the utmost. I loved the scene where the 3 main characters were facing each other in police custody, that was the funniest and the most enjoyable. As you see, this movie was clever superficially and substantially as well, being unpredictable, whether in terms of "What will come up next?", and "How it will be pictured?".
The action sequences are dazzling and cartoonish. The editing understood both the romantic and the dynamic nature of the whole thing, hence kept the tone smoothly sad at times, blazingly energetic at times, and even slightly dismal at others. The movie's character is coherent though, standing alone as a colorful circus clown with unhappy face sometimes.
According to this movie, (Arliss Howard) is frankly underrated. Or maybe the producers didn't rate him rightly at all. He was that firefighter who fights his inner fire by suppressing it. (Dennis Quaid) did a one-of-a-kind performance. This guy had the power to be handsome lover, noisy antagonist, vicious clown and good actor all at once. He delivered classic effort no less. All the minor roles was done finely, acting is flawless here.
And now, to the movie's icon: (Debra Winger) as (Vida Foudroyant). Clearly that infantile, crazy, and emotive character was something else on paper, but it became something great on film, because of (Winger)'s magical electricity and truthful performance. For me, she was the movie's real wilder napalm.
So, in general, what could be wrong with this beautiful ride?! I wouldn't say the matter of a rubbery ceiling that exposes the wives' cheating, rather: The climactic sequence.
It seemed absurd when the 2 brothers fight each other, competing at destroying everything around. It reminded me with an old short animated movie that has 2 giant monsters doing a competition of "Who could eat more than the other?", which ended with them eating up the terrestrial globe, having no apparent end for their hunger! If the idea was seeing the sane brother's ability of getting mad, then it's nothing but a repetition of the last battle at home, yet bigger and louder. Plus, showing the heroic core of him by his revenge, and his ability of taking the decision of "stopping", didn't satisfy me a lot. And if it was a try to get a little Hollywood, then this is where the movie gets silly. Because if that was the goal, then why not inventing an evil guy, which the 2 brothers team up to beat, everyone by his own way, and his own power? Imperfect climax for a perfect movie anyway.
This was made while time wasn't watching. It's upsetting that it failed commercially. And it's even more upsetting when you notice that as much as we get away from the 1980s, this kind of experiments fades away. At any case, Hollywood genre movies of today must watch this movie and learn. However, still the worst part is when this movie itself went to be "Hollywood", with the bad meaning of the word.
The story is pretty old: 2 brothers who have issues, a girl who's loved by 2 guys, a husband who doesn't express his feelings.. Namely some things that we have watched for countless times in movies and TV. However, this time, all of that is made in *another way*. It has: 2 superheroes that can make fire anytime, anywhere, and at any size. The girl is a fire magnet. One of the brothers is a clown who works at a circus. And it's where the old songs go off surprisingly by the movie's characters!
The quirky taste is lovable and well-done. I felt (Tim Burton), the early (Coan) Brothers, and (Disney) with a black twist. However, it managed to have an originality of its own. There is unmistakable mirth and warmth in dealing with the characters, their feelings, and drama. The passions are expressed with distinct tricks. Remember the long zoom-out in which a breathe of love connects 2 characters in 2 places at one time; from the roller-coaster to the hot iron.
The characters are so fresh, unfamiliar, and brilliantly written, so it's not about changing the form only. The movie's scriptwriter, (Glenn Gordon Caron), wrote before classic TV shows such as (Remington Steele - 1982) and (Moonlighting - 1985), where romantic comedy, with endless fierce disputes of 2 lovers, is mixed with action. This round, he wasn't away from his area. The fun is enjoyable to the utmost. I loved the scene where the 3 main characters were facing each other in police custody, that was the funniest and the most enjoyable. As you see, this movie was clever superficially and substantially as well, being unpredictable, whether in terms of "What will come up next?", and "How it will be pictured?".
The action sequences are dazzling and cartoonish. The editing understood both the romantic and the dynamic nature of the whole thing, hence kept the tone smoothly sad at times, blazingly energetic at times, and even slightly dismal at others. The movie's character is coherent though, standing alone as a colorful circus clown with unhappy face sometimes.
According to this movie, (Arliss Howard) is frankly underrated. Or maybe the producers didn't rate him rightly at all. He was that firefighter who fights his inner fire by suppressing it. (Dennis Quaid) did a one-of-a-kind performance. This guy had the power to be handsome lover, noisy antagonist, vicious clown and good actor all at once. He delivered classic effort no less. All the minor roles was done finely, acting is flawless here.
And now, to the movie's icon: (Debra Winger) as (Vida Foudroyant). Clearly that infantile, crazy, and emotive character was something else on paper, but it became something great on film, because of (Winger)'s magical electricity and truthful performance. For me, she was the movie's real wilder napalm.
So, in general, what could be wrong with this beautiful ride?! I wouldn't say the matter of a rubbery ceiling that exposes the wives' cheating, rather: The climactic sequence.
It seemed absurd when the 2 brothers fight each other, competing at destroying everything around. It reminded me with an old short animated movie that has 2 giant monsters doing a competition of "Who could eat more than the other?", which ended with them eating up the terrestrial globe, having no apparent end for their hunger! If the idea was seeing the sane brother's ability of getting mad, then it's nothing but a repetition of the last battle at home, yet bigger and louder. Plus, showing the heroic core of him by his revenge, and his ability of taking the decision of "stopping", didn't satisfy me a lot. And if it was a try to get a little Hollywood, then this is where the movie gets silly. Because if that was the goal, then why not inventing an evil guy, which the 2 brothers team up to beat, everyone by his own way, and his own power? Imperfect climax for a perfect movie anyway.
This was made while time wasn't watching. It's upsetting that it failed commercially. And it's even more upsetting when you notice that as much as we get away from the 1980s, this kind of experiments fades away. At any case, Hollywood genre movies of today must watch this movie and learn. However, still the worst part is when this movie itself went to be "Hollywood", with the bad meaning of the word.