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Reviews
Laughter on the 23rd Floor (2001)
Take A Pass On This Mess
This is really a 3rd rate, made-for-television mess. First of all, there is NO 'Laughter on the 23rd Floor' or any other floor - and for a Neil Simon play that is shameful. Nathan Lane is, Nathan Lane, a short loud mouthed Jackie Gleason sounding caricature of Sid Caesar during Sid's Show of Shows era. It's supposed to be manic and inspired, but it's just loud and pointless. All the reviews here seem to imply that a great cast of fine character actors stood behind Lane and help boost the show along I don't buy that at all. None of the assorted 'fine character' actors helped anything, all their words and actions are forced to the point of being painful, their lines were very poorly delivered and none of them were believable for even one second for which I blame director Richard Benjamin. An almost insulting attempt at adding substance to this train wreck is the tossing in of Edward R. Morrow's legendary Joe McCarthy Show underneath and in between the overacting of Lane's lemming running toward the sea character. Then it's all tossed aside for a nice tidy and gutless ending My mother could write better than this. The one, single redeeming element in this claptrap is the very deftly played character of Lane's brother (Harry Price) played by character actor Richard Portnow. None of the other reviews even mention this guy but his is the ONLY performance worth a plug nickel in the whole show - everybody is running around frantically overacting their asses off to keep up with Lane and this guy steals the whole film out from underneath them with a quiet nod and a sheepish grin. If for some reason you feel compelled to waste your time watching this Don't take your eyes of off Portnow, he is the ONLY reason to sit through it!
Danny Deckchair (2003)
Capra goes OZ
CAPRA. CAPRA. CAPRA. If you sit there like an idiot each Christmas and watch "It's A Wonderful Life", stop while cruising cable channels when you come upon "It Happened One Night" or still get a lump in your throat when you see Jimmy Stewart give his desperate speech in "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington", then, by God, you're gonna LOVE this movie! Yes - they took that goofy roommate of Hugh Grant's in "Notting Hill" and turned him into James Stewart and/or Gary Cooper and they even threw in Donna Reed/Jean Arthur for good measure. Okay, it's in 'color', set in another country and, heaven forbid, the hero gets the gal in the sack, but never-the-less this IS a Frank Capra movie all the way! It's full of charm, sweetness, fable, love triumphant and a touch of morality, but hey, with George W. Bush flushing the country away, we sure could use a little more of this right about now. Enjoy.
Objective, Burma! (1945)
Masterful, gritty, absorbing - Errol Flynn? -You bet!
I first saw Objective Burma as a Saturday afternoon movie, probably on WGN TV in Chicago around 1963 at the tender age of 14. I was expecting the usual Errol Flynn fare (which was fine by me) but this blew my socks off! It rates right up there with Cagney's unbelievable turn in Yankee Doodle Dandy or Bogart's African Queen If you never thought Flynn could act, this flick will turn your head around.
The usual TV Guide description goes something like "American paratroopers are dropped into Burma to destroy a radar station". Yes, but that's only the first half hour! The real story begins when they find out they can't be picked up and are going to have to 'walk out', and it ain't no Robin Hood swash buckles his way through the castle sequence!
The dialog, music, photography, settings, along with major and minor players all work exquisitely to deliver what I humbly consider to be the finest war movie ever made. The depth is incredible, Raoul Walsh's touch is perfect, Flynn soars beyond what anybody ever thought he could. My God, there's even a scene where a tortured comrade begs to be put out of his misery and Flynn pulls it off. This ain't -Santa Fe Trail, Baby!
Yes, there is some dialog that today would not be politically correct, but, come on We were at WAR, and I'm sure the Japanese had some equally colorful words to describe us! Yes, there is little mention of the British who were the major heroes of Burma Well let them go ahead and make their own damn movie and shut the hell up about it! And, sorry, it's NOT 92 minutes long, Walsh takes his time bringing the story along, showing the deteriorating situation, the heat, the worry, the exasperation If you want MTV, go somewhere else.
So many scenes stand out. Jacobs death, signaling to the supply plane with a mirror, the rendezvous scene, the night battle Jeez, they're all so damn good. But maybe the one that gets to me the most is in the heat of a skirmish when Flynn's men ask him where to go, what to do His face contorts into anguish and he gives the unheard of (in Hollywood) answer But I won't spoil it for you, go see it for yourself.
I moved to LA in 1975 and about 20 years later I happened to be visiting the Los Angeles County Arboretum (formerly Lucky Baldwin's Estate in Baldwin Park next to Santa Anita Race Track) and got to talking with someone in the office about all the movies, television shows and commercials shot there (hundreds). I suggested that someone ought to do a book about it. The gal smiled, reached into a cabinet and handed me a well worn, out of print volume "You mean like this"? I eyed the index eagerly and almost couldn't believe my eyes when I found Objective Burma there. Oh my God, I'd been coming to the park for over 15 years and never realized that the main Victorian house (popularized in the TV series Fantasy Island) is the exact same building used in the 'native village scene' where the big fight takes place. Later I walked over to the building, climbed onto the porch and chuckled to myself This is where they set up the machine gun to cover their escape when the Japanese attacked. Over there is where they crossed the 'swamp' and here is where Jacobs died. I actually shivered with the realization that I was standing right on the very spot where a large portion of one of my all time favorite movies was filmed. If you happen to be a fan and are in LA, it's only about 7 dollars to get in, and be sure to bring some unsalted popcorn to feed the ducks, Errol probably did