jimmmylee Reviews

Mary and Rhoda (2000 TV Movie)

This reunion STUNK!

[16 August 2005]

I'm sorry, but I'd rather not see a reunion of these two stars if it can't be done with some humor, like the original MTM show had. Frankly, these reunion shows NEVER work and "Mary and Rhoda" is no exception. A lame script and cheesy acting make this a HUGE disappointment. And why in the world was Mary Richards in New York? She was a Minneapolis gal and putting her in the big apple just ruined the whole show for me. It's obvious Mary Tyler Moore wanted to make this movie in New York because she lives there. BAD idea Mary.

Well ( heavy sigh ) at least they tried.

Do yourself a favor and skip this sad excuse for a Mary Richards update.

Testosterone (2003)

An interesting flick

[7/10 · 28 January 2005]

Yes I'll agree this movie is not what I thought it would be but it WAS very interesting. It was much darker and serious than I thought it would be. Jennifer Coolidge was not that great in this. Too small of a part.

But what can I say? Antonio Sabato Jr in full man-on-man kissing? I'm in! He is SOOO hot. To me, it was worth it to see him get naked, even if for too brief a time. I think that gay cinema needs variety. Maybe this film is not a masterpiece. But it is a good, weird mind trip.

I hope this movie gets on to DVD soon. It took forever for it to be released.

Lily Tomlin (1986)

Documentary of Lily's one-woman show

[9 August 2003]

This is a movie of the making of Lily Tomlin's Tony awarding winning 1 woman show "The Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life In The Universe". Lily and her writer/partner Jane Wagner toured the country while they were working on this show, calling it simply "works in progress". They played little theatres and Lily would go out before an audience with material Jane had typed out for her and work on the pieces, telling the audience it was very new. This is a documentary and it is a rare and fascinating look at the creative process these two women use to craft their talents into a brilliant evening of theatre; a 2 hour play. Lily is the performer, Jane is the writer. Lily goes out and performs the material, what doesn't work, gets discussed, analyzed and eventually re-written by Jane. There are also clips of Lily's TV specials in the film as well that are a real treat to watch. Lily is a private, guarded person and this film shows it. She's not Madonna, who will do or say anything on camera for all to see. There are times when it is obvious she'd rather not have the camera following her everywhere. But overall, there is not any "personal dishing/information" revealed about Lily that would tabloidize her or the film. This film simply shows how Lily and Jane go from little half written sketches into full blown characters. Lily/Jane created 12 new characters for this show. It is simply amazing to watch them work. The movie ends with opening night on Broadway and Lily bowing to a standing ovation. As I mentioned above, she eventually won the Tony award for her work in the "Search". If you have the rare opportunity to see this film anywhere, do so. It was made about 1984/85 and is hardly ever rerun anywhere but if you're a Lily Tomlin fan this is a "MUST SEE" film. I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

The Lily Tomlin Special (1975 TV Special)

Wonderful TV Special on ABC-This is for LILY-1975 ABC w/Richard Dreyfuss. The special with Doris Roberts is another show!

[10/10 · 29 July 2003]

This was Lily Tomlin's 3rd TV special. She had previously done two specials for CBS and had moved over to ABC for this one. This is a very funny special. As was/is her style, Lily had no musical guest(s) on this show. She, her partner Jane Wagner and a select group of writers wrote sketches that were a departure from the usual variety show format. No dumb, cheesy jokes here. One of Lily's guests was Richard Dreyfuss but other than him there were no big names on this show. This was a very intelligent, expiremental and amusing special. One of the sketches had Lily as a woman who had a one night stand with a guy (Dreyfuss) and the next morning she wakes up and he buzzes her apartment and comes up to tell her he is in love with her and asks her to marry him and he had called his parents to come over and meet her. Lily's character was very stunned by this and it is a very comical sketch. The parents arrive and put the pressure on Lily to come over for dinner that night and Lily says she can't, then Dreyfuss puts more pressure on her and says " cmon TONIGHT" and Lily's character replies "I can't tonight, I've got a date". Very funny. There is also a sketch where Lily does her "Suzy Sorority" character at the sorority house that is a riot. A very young Laraine Newman is in this sketch as a fellow "valley girl" sorority sister. Very funny. Laraine Newman, of course, went on to "Saturday Night Live". I think the best part of the special is a parody of 1950's sitcoms called "Meet Lily". Lily plays a typical 50's housewife ( think "Father Knows Best" or "Donna Reed" ) who almost louses up her husbands chance of getting a raise by screwing up dinner when the boss comes over to their house. The whole sketch seems to be saying "silly housewife, what am I going to do with you?" I think it's possible Lily was trying to do a little send up of Lucy Ricardo too. Again, this special is not available to rent or buy, but it should be. I hope someone out there reads this. Lily Tomlin's TV specials from 1973-75 need to released on video/DVD. They are classic gems from a classic Emmy, Tony and Grammy winning comedienne. 10 stars!

Lily (1973 TV Special)

Classic TV Special

[10/10 · 24 July 2003]

THERE HAS BEEN SOME CONFUSION IN MY REVIEW OF THIS SPECIAL. THE BELOW IS REFERRING TO LILY TOMLIN'S FIRST SPECIAL, "THE LILY TOMLIN SHOW", WHICH AIRED ON CBS IN MARCH 1973. THE IMDb TITLE IS FOR THE SECOND SPECIAL "LILY" ( WITH RICHARD PRYOR AND ALAN ALDA )WHICH AIRED ON CBS IN November OF 1973. SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION.

This was Lily Tomlin's first TV special that she did in the 70's. It was made right after she left "Laugh In" and it aired on CBS in March of 1973."Laugh In" had gone into reruns and Lily was offered her own special on CBS. Thankfully, she took them up on it and produced a TV special that was light on the music and heavy on the character-based sketches that she excelled in so brilliantly. It was definitely a different special than most of that time. Lily did some of her classic characters like Ernestine,(who placed a call to General Motors) and Edith Ann, but she introduced a new character named Bobbie Jeanine who was a cocktail lounge organist. This was a wonderful character who sang and talked to her audience at the "Starlight Lounge" where she played. Bobbie spewed out words of wisdom to her troubled clientle. Richard Pryor was a guest on this show and there is a hilarious sketch in which he plays a wino who gets stuck in an elevator with Lily's "Tasteful Lady". The two get to know each other and it is a hoot. Lily also performed some monologues as herself including one on how her father told her "get up and sing a song babe" after he informed a waitress that his daughter was on television. It is both funny and touching. Unfortunetely, "Lily Tomlin" is not available to rent or buy commercially, but it should be. It showed how much talent Lily Tomlin had that wasn't fully displayed on "Laugh In". Following the good ratings of this show CBS offered Lily another special ( LILY which aired in Nov. 1973 ). The second one won an Emmy award for Outstanding Comedy/Variety Special. Lily then went on to do two more TV specials on ABC.

I give this special 10 out of 10 stars!

Moment by Moment (1978)

an interesting movie

[23 July 2003]

I've read the other comments on this movie and some of you are very cruel and immature. I'm a huge Lily Tomlin fan and will be the first one to say this movie is NOT her best work. However, it is not as horrible as some of you have said. It was 1978. Travolta and Tomlin were both at the peak of their careers. John loved Lily and wanted to do a movie with her. Lily had done two movies previously ( one of which garnered her an OSCAR nomination ) and was given the green light to produce her own movie with Jane Wagner. It was not their best work, but I can see where they both definetely worked hard on their roles. In part this movie was making satiric comments on upper class California values. That's what the reference to the pool filter was for. The husband's concerned more with that, Lily's Trisha is devistated. Her "phone breakdown" scene is very good. To be making fun of Lily or John's physical appearance is a truely sad attempt at reviewing this movie. It is a love story with the sex roles reversed. It was a bold attempt to try a different take the male/female relationship. The dialog is sometimes very dumb but I get what Jane was trying to do. Incidently, Jane Wagner is a brilliant writer who went on to write Lily's critically acclaimed 1 woman show "Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life In The Universe" which won a Tony award on Broadway. Unfortunetly, her 1st attempt at writing a motion picture was not the best vehicle for her talents.

It is a true testiment to the talent of John, Lily and Jane that they each went on to other successes after this movie bombed.

Watch it if you're a fan of John or Lily's or if you like unintended =camp in your movies.