I’ve watched this before — at the time it was released, I think? Probably on VHS. But I’m rewatching it now because of:

Heh heh, they had no idea that the comedically plumped lips would seem modest thirty years later.

Heh he.

Goldie Hawn really is fantastic. I’d forgotten. So funny.

This movie is super duper late 80s. Which is weird for a mid-90s movie. I like it.

The director is… the director from Police Academy.

The writer has done only one thing. But several times. (But perhaps those other instances are adaptation credits… Oh! This is based on a book. Never mind.)

Scenes like this just make me nostalgic… they actually have a set decorator — they put up some wallpaper! Nowadays this would all be greenscreen, and of course it wouldn’t be lit like this, but instead would just be a low contrast field of greyness.

I miss movies.

Heh heh.

This really is a screwball comedy once it gets going. It’s very funny indeed.

Ooo… New York…

But of course, this isn’t the 30s, so you can’t just do a screwball comedy — you’ve got to have a third act when things get serious, and you get that dreaded character development.

I love these New York doors.

Heh heh.

OK, they got the character development over quickly.

Gorgeous.

Eep.

Awww… shooting on location… with lots and lots of artificial lighting. This is a technology that has gotten lost.

Anyway, this is a very amiable movie. The funny bits are really funny, but there isn’t enough of those funny bits.

The First Wives Club. Hugh Wilson. 1996. ⚃

I haven’t watched any movies for yonks because of reasons, but I wanna get back in the saddle again, so here we go with another movie chosen by Hazel Flagg:

This DVD is very unrestored.

This is quite odd — I mean, not the plot. It’s about a young woman who’s won some money and is pretending to be rich, and also a European prince who’s pretending to be a bellboy. Hilarity ensues. You know, the normal stuff.

But the pacing… it’s like every gag arrives ten seconds too late? I mean, I’m enjoying this, but it’s just odd.

It’s funny, but I laughed out only once — at the final hat gag.

Frances Dee is a lot of fun, but Francis Lederer? Eh. I can just imagine the movie with, say, Cary Grant instead — it would have been a very different thing. It’s not that he’s bad, but there just isn’t any chemistry.

The Gay Deception. William Wyler. 1935. ⚃

Oh, directed by Clint!

This isn’t a movie I would have chosen in a million years, but if she says it’s good, I’ll give it a go.

It is a confusing movie. I mean, it’s not “serious”, but it’s not overtly a comedy, either. And Clint plays a guy that both seems extremely competent and who is also a complete moron.

He has the other characters be really vile — at length — and it’s not quite clear what Clint is going for. Does he want the audience to laugh at the guys running off their mouths? Laugh with them? It’s just odd.

OK, he’s the dumbo and she’s the smart cookie.

Yeah, this isn’t a well-liked movie. I mean, by the common people. I don’t think the movie quite works…

I mean, it’s basically a parody on this kind of movie, but it’s also very much this kind of movie at the same time.

The character development scenes are brutally boring.

(And Clint has the cinematographer do some really awkward scenes, like here.)

It’s just such an odd and awkward movie. Clint had directed several movies by this point — he should have been able to make a movie that made more sense than this.

The last ten minutes is just this bus driving very slowly while cops shoot at it. I guess it’s meant to be funny? But but but it’s not.

And then the cops just let him do whatever he wants because cops are good at heart, or something.

It doesn’t work as a comedy, and it doesn’t work as an action movie.

The Gauntlet. Clint Eastwood. 1977. ⚁