REMARKABLE REMAKES

        Recently Mr. Movie was taking the movie producers to task for their slavish reliance on sequels. He even found a few that are worth your time. Those same producers also rely way too much on remakes. “The first one was good; lets remake it and sell it again”. Rremakes mostly suck. Mr. Movie is here for you to separate the wheat from the chaff. 

Ikiru  (1952) is a Japanese classic. It’s the story of an aging bureaucrat who stolidly stamps form after form, then gets the bad news that he has six months to live. Although he wants to use his time differently, he realizes he doesn’t know how. Great stuff! Then came Living (2022) with Bill Nighy absolutely knocking it out of the park with one of the great performances. Well, he was nominated for Oscar but lost to Brendan Frazier for Whale. Frazier was very good and lucked into the Academy’s preference for handicapped roles. But Nighy’s peformance is one for the ages. 

True Grit (1969) is a dead-on winner featuring John Wayne’s only Oscar winning performance as retired sheriff Rooster Cogburn. Kim Darby is just right as Mattie Ross, who hires Rooster to track down outlaw Tom Chaney, who killed her father. Glen Campbell plays Texas Ranger La Boeuf who is also pursuing Chaney and his gang. He joins up with Mattie and Rooster and the hunt is on. I dreaded the release of the 2010 remake, but I was wrong. Jeff Bridges makes a splendid Rooster and Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld are also good. This one is directed by the Coen brothers and is every bit as good as the original. These would make a gread double feature!

The original West Side Story (1961) is a joy with the great music of Leonard Bernstein, great dancing and the lovely Natalie Wood as Maria. This one is almost ruined by the dreadful Richard Beymer as Tony, who virtually disappeared after this film. It is, of course, the Romeo and Juliet story played out on the mean streets of New York by rival gangs. The 2021 remake is even better, with mostly unknown actors in Tony Kushner’s sparkling screenplay and the sure-handed direction of Steven Spielberg. The best known cast member is Rita Moreno who also appeared in the 1961 version and is still fabulous forty years later. 

The original film of All Quiet On The Western Front won the Best Picture Oscar in 1930, as did director Lewis Milestone. The only familiar name is Lew Ayres, as the story is told from the German side of World War I. The title comes from Erich Marie Remarque’s novel: “The day he fell, the dispatches read ‘all quiet on the western front’” The 2022 remake was also nominated for Best Picture Oscar but didn’t win. The updated version is just as good as the original, though. Again the cast is made of actors not known to American audiences. Neither movie pulls any punches about the grimness and pointlessness of World War I. 

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for adults. And yes, Mr. Movie has more remarkable remakes up his sleeve!

                                        ROBIN WILLIAMS: SERIOUSLY, FOLKS

Multi-talented Robin Williams  joined a sad list of actors who died too young. He was only 64. He went from struggling stand-up comic to TV star of Mork and Mindy (remember “nanu nanu”?) to lots of good films.  His movies are divided between those where the director runs the show, and those where Mr. Williams appears to be in charge. The latter scenario results in horrors like Patch Adams, Shakes The Clown, and Death To Smoochy, all agonizingly bad.

But Mr. Williams could act up a storm when a good director reined him in. We tend to remember what a good story Good Will Hunting (1997) is, and that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck won an Oscar for their screenplay. We tend to forget that Robin Williams won the only acting Oscar for that film, playing the professor who nurtures the janitor-mathematical genius in his school.

In 2002 Mr. Williams was in two movies that showcased his considerable acting talents. In Insomnia he is a clever killer always one step ahead of the cops, and he holds his own against Al Pacino. Mr. Williams is the whole show in One-Hour Photo. He is a photo tech in a big discount store with no family (and no life) and he “adopts” a local family whose pictures he develops. He is a truly creepy character and it is his underplayed, in-control acting that makes this engine go.

Robin Williams’ first big role was as the title character in the marvelous The World According To Garp (1982). The 30-year-old standup comic seemed a very weird choice for this role at the time, but he is splendid in a difficult part. In fact, Mr. Williams is one of the saner characters in a film featuring a cross-dressing tight end and a mother who becomes spokesperson for liberal causes while in her nurse’s uniform.

Awakenings (1990) is based on the true story of catatonic patients who are miraculously returned to normal life by a controversial experimental drug. I thought Mr. Williams’ portrayal of the doctor carried this interesting movie.

Robin Williams is excellent as an ingenious disc jockey for the troops in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) and as a funny Russian defector in Moscow On The Hudson (1984).

And the exception that proves the rule is when Mr. Williams was given his head as the voice of the genie in Aladdin (1992). His mostly ad libbed lines are awfully funny and what makes the film so much fun. 

If you can buy Robin in drag as a housekeeper in his former wife’s home, you might like Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). The story is that he does this for access to his children after a bitter divorce. And that somehow nobody notices. You can decide if this charade really works.

The handful of Williams films that came out after his death in 2013 are, frankly, dogs. 

All of the movies in this column are available on DVD. The complete Mork And Mindy series is also available. All but One-Hour Photo (grown-ups only) are suitable for 10 and up.

                                                               JAMES GARNER

James Garner always seemed like the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with, the sort of man you’d want for a brother-in-law. He died at 86. The handsome, laid-back actor made a good living in the niche he solidly carved out for himself.

The character he played so well first surfaced in The Great Escape (1963) with Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and Richard Attenborough. Garner is Hendley, called “The Scrounger” by the other prison camp inmates, for his ability to con the Germans and get whatever is needed. This is a great WWII movie. McQueen’s motorcycle ride is worth the price of admission.

In Support Your Local Sheriff(1969) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) James Garner is the easiest-going and funniest lawman the wild west ever saw. Rather than using a gun or his fists, he makes great use of his charm to defuse violent situations. And he somehow gets you to believe that he could make this approach work.

The little-known but excellent TV series Nichols ran from 1971 to 1972 for only 24 episodes. It was one of my favorites, as the laconic Garner played the sheriff of a small western town, eschewing a gun or any other display of violence. 

So when the powers-that-be decided to make Maverick into a TV series, there was no other choice for the easy-going con man brother Bret than James Garner. This very successful series ran from 1978-79 and 1981-82 and spawned a mediocre movie in 1994 with Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster.  

And when the TV networks wanted a detective show with an easy-going laid-back lead who would rather talk than fight, they of course settled on James Garner to play the main guy in The Rockford Files, which ran from 1974 to 1980, and led to a couple of so-so made for TV movies with pretty much the same cast and crew.  

If you dial back to 1961 you can find Mr. Garner in a more serious role in The Children’s Hour, also starring Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. The two women are teachers at a girls’ school and their careers are in shambles after untrue gossip is spread by a disgruntled student. Mr. Garner is the long-suffering fiancé of one of the teachers, and one of the few who stands by them. 

James Garner was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role as a middle-aged man in love with a much younger women (Sally Field) in Murphy’s Romance (1985). This is an endearing movie with good and likeable actors. Mr. Garner lost to William Hurt for Kiss Of The Spider Woman.

All of the movies and TV series in this column are available on DVD. Only The Children’s Hour is unsuitable for under 12.

                                                                   Melinda Dillon

        Her name was never really a household word, but Melinda Dillon had quite a good run until 1999. After that, she continued to work, with over 100 credits, until she died at 83. She was nominated for Oscar twice, but was 0 for 2. 

Her first Oscar nomination came for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). She lost to Vanessa Redgrave for Julia. Ms. Dillon  portrayed Jillian Guiler, the awestruck Mom of the abducted child Barry. She and electrician Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) dream of a strange mountain, which turns out to be the landing area for a UFO. As the US Army tries to cover up the landing and abductions, the UFO lands anyway and Jillian and Roy are there. Barry is returned to his Mom along with dozens of abductees. The aliens select Roy to travel with them (voluntarily) and head out. 

Melinda’s second Oscar nomination was for Absence of Malice (1981). This time she lost to Maureen Stapleton for Reds. Ms. Dillon’s role as Teresa Perrone cast her with heavyweights Paul Newman I(Michael Gallagher)  and Sally Field (Megan Carter). Carter is a reporter who writes an altogether fake story about Gallagher committing a murder,  causing him to lose his business and almost his life. Carter also includes in a later story the fact that Teresa Perrone claims to be Gallagher’s alibi in the fake murder charge because he took her out of town to get an abortion on the crucial date. Perrone is a  devout Catholic who had pleaded with Carter not to reveal her name but Carter uses it anyway. Perrone subsequently kills herself. 

Slap Shot (1977) is a fun movie about a minor league hockey team on its last legs. Paul Newman stars as  player-coach Reggie Dunlop. Melinda Dillon has a minor, but revealing, part as his girlfriend Suzanne. Beware the dreadful sequel. 

In 1983 Ms. Dillon landed the plum part of Mother Parker in Jean Shepard’s A Christmas Story. Her oldest son Ralphie wants just one thing for Christmas- a Red Ryder BB gun. He is repeatedly told by everyone, especially his Mom, that he will “shoot his eye out”. This charming film later became a pretty good Broadway musical. 

In the semi-biographical Bound For Glory (1976) Melinda Dillon has a double role. She plays Woody Guthrie’s long-suffering wife Mary and is also the radio voice of country singer Memphis Sue. Keith Carradine is quite good as Woody. 

Melinda Dillon’s last important roles were fairly minor, but she is very good in The Prince of Tides (1991) and Magnolia (1999).

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for adults.