Tag Archives: Marlon Brando

Movies

Richard Donner

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Superman: Saw this several times a kid but never as an adult. I do remember liking Hackman’s Lex Luthor and some of the story.

Grade: N/A

The Goonies: Some nerdy kids find a pirate treasure map and try to save the neighborhood from a crime family by getting the treasure. Written by Spielberg and Columbus. I remember kind of liking it as a kid. I saw about 75% of it a few months ago, and was pretty lukewarm about it.

Grade: N/A

Lethal Weapon 3: See below.

Grade: C

Lethal Weapon 2: See below.

Grade: B

Lethal Weapon: Danny Glover is the veteran cop, Mel Gibson is the suicidal young cop. Both hate working together, but because this is a movie, they get paired together for a lot of funny one-liners until they catch some drug smugglers. All three movies are ridiculous and fun, though the third one lacks a bit of the spark.

Grade: B

Maverick: Based on the television show, Maverick (Mel Gibson) finds himself weaseling his way out of many sticky situations while hoping to join a huge poker tournament for a big pay day. He gets competition along the way from a thief (Jodie Foster) and a marshal (James Garner, the original Maverick). The movie goes on a bit too long (just over two hours) but I love every minute of it. Donner really knows how to get comedy out of Gibson, and Foster is fantastic. It’s not particularly laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s consistently charming and amusing from beginning to end. The climactic poker tournament is a blast and features many cameos from famous country singers. It also has a great country-music soundtrack with nearly all original music that fits the movie’s theme.

Grade: A+

Other Richard Donner Movies You May Have Seen

Lethal Weapon 4
The Omen
Conspiracy Theory
Superman II
Assassins
Timeline
Scrooged
Ladyhawke

Movies

Francis Ford Coppolla

4 Comments

Jack: Robin Williams plays an overgrown child. It’s like the role was made for him!  Fran Drescher doesn’t help things either. When you hate a Robin Williams movie as a kid, you know it’s bad. Ugh.

Grade: F

Tucker: The Man and His Dream: Once upon a time a guy (Jeff Bridges) tried to compete with The Big Three and create his own line of cars with innovations like a rotating headlight that follows your steering wheel. That man was squashed by The Big Three, though admittedly his car did have some issues which hurt things. Based on a true story; it’s easy to root for Tucker even though you know what’s going to happen in the end.

Grade: B-

The Rainmaker: Matt Damon plays one of John Grisham’s idealist young attorneys who takes on a corrupt insurance company with the help of Danny DeVito. Solid cast and a solid plot, but nothing all that memorable either.

Grade: B

The Godfather: Part II: Camps are about equally divided on which of the two movies is better. I prefer the first one as I felt it was faster paced with more tension. Still, the character development of Michael Corleone is powerful and depressing. Diane Keaton puts in a strong performance as well as she watches Michael’s ascension to power. Robert DeNiro is also quite good, introduced here in the second film.

Grade: B

The Godfather: It took me until I was 24 to watch this and I expected to be disappointed by all the hype. I was not. I watched it with a friend and we were white-knuckling our chairs multiple times. Marlon Brando is fun as the Don, but it’s a young Al Pacino who really shines. It’s easy to follow him through and understand the choices he makes and Coppolla has us simultaneously rooting for and being scared by him at the same time. I also love James Caan’s performance. In fact, the entire cast is pretty much brilliant. This movie not only defined an entire genre of movies, it also redefined real mobsters, who were never this slick in real life but aspired to be so after watching this. Oh, and it also helped Mario Puzo; from what I’ve heard, his books are not that great.

Grade: A

Other Francis Ford Coppola Movies You May Have Seen

The Godfather: Part III
Apocalypse Now
Dracula
The Conversation
The Outsiders
Peggy Sue Got Married
Rumble Fish
Supernova
New York Stories
The Cotton Club