Romantic comedy… coming of age…great script – any two of those three will lure me into seeing a movie. Kevin’s blatant theft of Outside Providence as one of his sleepers (containing all three of the above, by the way) left me with these five relatively unsung flicks that I’d recommend without reservation.
Crossing Delancey – In this gentle look at worlds colliding (uptown and downtown New York), Reigert is regular-guy, handball-playing, pickle-selling Sam, who spurns an over the top matchmaker (a face-melting Sylvia Miles) until she offers to set him up with Sam’s long-time cruch Izzy (Amy Irving), a self-sophisticated but lonely upscale bookstore manager.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cringe… as Sam suffers one indignity after another as the well-meaning but clueless Izzy keeps finding unique but unintentional ways of humiliating him. But through it all, his grace and dignity remain intact. Irving sparkles, but Reigert steals the show… the best romantic comedy you’ve never seen.
Night Shift – The greatest Keaton role of all (except maybe Annie Hall or The General) has Michael Keaton with apparently carte blanche to go bonkers. His manic, hysterical Billy Blaze is a star turn that meshes perfectly with Henry Winkler’s wonky, henpecked Chuck to create what is indisputably the greatest of all the “morgue turns into whorehouse” movies. Whether it’s “the birds, birds, it’s the birds” or “luuuuuuuuuuuuvbrokers” or “to shun, to say no, doesn’t even belong in this word” or “do they have that?” or “we got teenage girls” or “this is Chuck telling Bill to SHUT UP” or “that Barney Rubble, what an actor” or “4K!” or “feed mayonnaise right to the tuna… call Starkist”, this movie is eminently quotable and more fun than watching my brother Kevin drive.
Three Days of the Condor – Immensely satisfying cold war thriller where Robert Redford and his coworkers read books to decipher any nefarious plots that could undermine U.S. world domination. Redford steps out for lunch and returns to find the whole office has been assassinated. Apparently Redford has stumbled onto something… but what and who can he trust? Features great support by a Max van Sydow as cold-blooded killer for hire and Cliff Robertson as his CIA contact. Make plenty of popcorn for this one.
You Can Count On Me – Just a great story that enables Laura Linney to express two sides of unconditional love – for her 8 year old son (a sweet Rory Culkin) and troubled younger brother (a heartbreaking Mark Ruffalo). There’s no easy solutions and each scene feels totally believable and heartfelt. If she didn’t, Laura Linney should have won acting awards for this one.
Keeping The Faith – The plot sounds like the setup to a great dirty joke – there was a priest, a rabbi and a beautiful girl. But it’s actually a set up for a screwball farce, a three-way romantic comedy. Jenna Elfman has never been sexier - you can see why both Edward Norton (the priest) and Ben Stiller (the rabbi) fall for her… and my gawd, those legs! Norton, Stiller and Elfman are childhood best pals whose worlds are turned upside by the return home of uber-successful, uber-breathtaking Elfman. The two men of the cloth then battle for her affection and of course, hilarity ensues. Rent the thing,
Crossing Delancey – In this gentle look at worlds colliding (uptown and downtown New York), Reigert is regular-guy, handball-playing, pickle-selling Sam, who spurns an over the top matchmaker (a face-melting Sylvia Miles) until she offers to set him up with Sam’s long-time cruch Izzy (Amy Irving), a self-sophisticated but lonely upscale bookstore manager.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cringe… as Sam suffers one indignity after another as the well-meaning but clueless Izzy keeps finding unique but unintentional ways of humiliating him. But through it all, his grace and dignity remain intact. Irving sparkles, but Reigert steals the show… the best romantic comedy you’ve never seen.
Night Shift – The greatest Keaton role of all (except maybe Annie Hall or The General) has Michael Keaton with apparently carte blanche to go bonkers. His manic, hysterical Billy Blaze is a star turn that meshes perfectly with Henry Winkler’s wonky, henpecked Chuck to create what is indisputably the greatest of all the “morgue turns into whorehouse” movies. Whether it’s “the birds, birds, it’s the birds” or “luuuuuuuuuuuuvbrokers” or “to shun, to say no, doesn’t even belong in this word” or “do they have that?” or “we got teenage girls” or “this is Chuck telling Bill to SHUT UP” or “that Barney Rubble, what an actor” or “4K!” or “feed mayonnaise right to the tuna… call Starkist”, this movie is eminently quotable and more fun than watching my brother Kevin drive.
Three Days of the Condor – Immensely satisfying cold war thriller where Robert Redford and his coworkers read books to decipher any nefarious plots that could undermine U.S. world domination. Redford steps out for lunch and returns to find the whole office has been assassinated. Apparently Redford has stumbled onto something… but what and who can he trust? Features great support by a Max van Sydow as cold-blooded killer for hire and Cliff Robertson as his CIA contact. Make plenty of popcorn for this one.
You Can Count On Me – Just a great story that enables Laura Linney to express two sides of unconditional love – for her 8 year old son (a sweet Rory Culkin) and troubled younger brother (a heartbreaking Mark Ruffalo). There’s no easy solutions and each scene feels totally believable and heartfelt. If she didn’t, Laura Linney should have won acting awards for this one.
Keeping The Faith – The plot sounds like the setup to a great dirty joke – there was a priest, a rabbi and a beautiful girl. But it’s actually a set up for a screwball farce, a three-way romantic comedy. Jenna Elfman has never been sexier - you can see why both Edward Norton (the priest) and Ben Stiller (the rabbi) fall for her… and my gawd, those legs! Norton, Stiller and Elfman are childhood best pals whose worlds are turned upside by the return home of uber-successful, uber-breathtaking Elfman. The two men of the cloth then battle for her affection and of course, hilarity ensues. Rent the thing,
6 comments:
How is it possible that Money Pit keeps getting left off your lists??
and not one of you 3 knuckleheads list "Local Hero"?? kev, I'm ashamed of you...
I had "Local Hero" in the chute. But after the hue & cry over "Outside Providence" I decided to avoid any DVD Trip owned — to avoid the legendary Teeker flesh pile.
Funny how the Doctor omitted "Local Hero" due to the outcry that HADN'T EVEN HAPPENED YET at the time of his initial post. Boo-hoo.
Newman!!
The reason so many fine films get left of these lists is because someone made the assinine 'rule' that we could only pick 5 titles. So, "Local Hero" [a movie I was sure Kev would pick], "Starstruck" [a movie I was sure that Trip would pick], and "Inside Man" [a movie that I was sure that I would pick] got left off.
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