Between Two Worlds

Cleverness and humor in the manipulation of absurdity can only take you so far. Just about this far, in fact.

The best line in Random Hearts, adapted from the novel by Warren Adler by Kurt Luedtke and directed by Sydney Pollack, comes when the frail-looking but impossibly beautiful novice congresswoman, Kay Chandler (Kristin Scott-Thomas) tries to get tough with the tough old cop, “Dutch” Van Den Broeck (Harrison Ford), from the District of Columbia Police…

This Michael Douglas-Albert Brooks odd-couple pairing has a few good jokes but nothing to say that has not been said, and very often said, before.

An extended dirty joke — that is, a very funny though obscene movie whose humor is, alas, inseparable from its obscenity

Perhaps the most unforgettable moment in In and Out (written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Frank Oz) comes as Joan Cusack, having just been jilted at the altar by Kevin Kline, who has picked that moment to decide that he is gay ( “Was there any other time you could have told me this?”…

This well-made French film by Cédric Kahn re-examines the relationship between civilization and savagery. Again.