I'll Do Anything - February 4, 1994

I'll Do Anything

Tagline(s): She's the most maddening female he's ever met. And she's only 6 years old.


Released: February 4, 1994
Studio: Columbia Pictures

Genre: Drama, Comedy

Directed by James L. Brooks
Stars: Nick Nolte, Albert Brooks, Julie Kavner, Whittni Wright, Joely Richardson, Tracey Ullman

Rotten Tomatoes: 61%
Metacritic: Not rated.

Budget: $40 million

Box Office: $10 million

Synopsis

Nick Nolte is Matt Hobbs, an acting struggling to get that next role. When his ex-wife is headed for jail he is forced to take on his precocious and somewhat obnoxious daughter Jeannie. Relationships also form with Hollywood insiders as Hobbs begins to understand how movies really are made.

Recollections

None

Review

This is the first of three Nick Nolte movies of 1994 and it goes to remind you how much a charismatic screen presence he was before he moved into his latter, grumbling, mumbling, Tom Waits period. He definitely operates at a shouty register, as we'll see even more in evidence in Blue Chips.

I think the idea here was the contrast of big bear Nolte with little kid as the poster heavily implies but really that's a sidenote to the film and really one of a number of subplots. Instead the focus of this film is the process of getting films made and the cynical people involved developing and casting movies. The box office return here goes to show that this kind of Hollywood insider story has limited audience appeal, even if the critics took to it more.

There's a huge Simpsons connection here with James L Brooks as director who also a writer  and producer on the Simpsons. There's also Julie Kavner who voices Marge and then Tracey Ullman upon whose show the Simpsons' shorts were first broadcast.

All in all the many strands of this film don't quite connect and the central story isn't quite interesting enough to justify its existence with only Nick Nolte rescuing it from being a complete dud.

Intersection - January 21, 1994

Intersection

Tagline(s): Make every move as if it were your last.

Released: January 21, 1994

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Genre: Drama

Directed by Mark Rydell 

Stars: Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, Lolita Davidovich, Martin Landau, Jennifer Morrison

Rotten Tomatoes: 10%

Metacritic: Not rated

Budget: $45 million

Box Office: $21.3 million

Synopsis

Richard Gere is Vincent Eastman, an architect, racing along a country road in British Columbia when he swerves to avoid hitting a stalled vehicle and collides with some of the beautiful countryside. But what got him here? Told in a series of flashbacks, we soon find out how his relationship with three women, his wife (Sharon Stone), his mistress (Lolita Davidovich) and his daughter (Jennifer Morrison) led to this event.

Recollections

None

Review

This film might have otherwise been called 'Everybody Loves Richard' in a film that can only be described as a vanity project for Gere.

It starts at the end and laboriously works its way back to the beginning. If that sounds somewhat art-house then let me dispel any illusion of thematic depth here. The film has nothing new or interesting to say.

Lolita Davidovich has a slight Manic Pixy Dreamgirl energy, however fleeting, whereas Sharon Stone was nominated for a Razzie for seemingly playing her roll with the least amount of personality with which one can still be considered legally alive. Richard Gere gives a typical Richard Gere performance, minus his esoteric Mr. Blinky thing he later became famous for.

Throw in a scene where Gere's architect opens his latest building, a museum of Native American artifacts, by declaring his full and unquestionable connection with Native culture and architecture and you have a movie as tone-deaf as it is otherwise dull.

The poster, name and tagline are especially odd for this movie as you could easily go into this film thinking it would be a thriller rather than the melodrama it really is and come out quite disappointed. Not that disappointment wouldn't follow in any mindframe.

Iron Will - January 14. 1994

Iron Will

Tagline(s): It's not a question of age. Or strength. Or ability. It's a matter of will.

Released: January 14, 1994
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures

Genre: Drama

Directed by Charles Haid
Stars: Mackenzie Astin, Kevin Spacey, David Ogden Stiers, Some Dogs

Rotten Tomatoes: 62%
Metacritic: Not rated

Budget: Unknown
Box Office: $21 million

Synopsis

Mackenzie Astin is Will Stoneman. After witnessing his father's death and discovering the financial plight of the family farm, he decides that the solution to their money problems is, of course, to take part in a dog-sled race from Winnipeg to St. Paul, Minnesota where a $20,000 prize awaits the winner.

Recollections

None

Review

This film has the adventure feel of 'The Journey of Natty Gann' coupled with the outsider sports film feel of something like 'The Air up There' with neither the charm of the former nor the complicated racial politics of the latter. 

Filmed during what was considered Disney's Renaissance period in animated films, and with the Lion King still to come in 1994, their live action output was still decidedly average, so much so that now Disney has put much of its emphasis in the production of live action movies on shot for shot remakes of the animated films from this era. 

Mackenzie Astin is a little bland in the lead performance and my enjoyment of Kevin Spacey in a supporting role is tempered by his somewhat recent allegations of being a sex pest. However, this said, it will still reasonably entertain a family with young children, even if it will not live long in the memory.

It very much feels like a Sunday afternoon movie where you don't mind being half distracted by your twitter feed.