Train, The (1964)

Waiting for Guffman is the cheapest of cheap comedy. All it takes is our suspension of disbelief (easy in New York and L.A.) that the rubes in fly-over country could be as witless and unhip as they are presented as being here. Hip is our new class marker: snobbery on the basis of race or…

Small Soldiers, directed by Joe Dante, is typical of Hollywood attitudes towards military values and military people. Even the grief of soldiers for their dead comrades in arms is made fun of as the leader of the toy soldiers brought to life by computer wizardry pronounces over one of his men that: “Nick Nitro’s battery…

[See “Entry from August 25, 2007” under “My Diary”] Discover more from James Bowman Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email. Type your email… Subscribe

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.

The Harmonists, directed by Joseph Vilsmaier, is the “based-on-a-true story” story of The Comedian Harmonists, an immensely popular singing group in pre-war Germany that eventually had to break up, as three of its six members were Jewish. Like nearly every other film set in its time and place, this one is ultimately sucked into the…

Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion by David Mirkin seems to be a sort of female version of Dumb and Dumber about two dumb blondes, Romy (Mira Sorvino) and Michele (Lisa Kudrow), who have lived together since high school, had no success to speak of, but return to their tenth reunion determined to pretend to…