Blank Check - February 11, 1994

Blank Check

Tagline(s): Quick thinking landed him a million bucks... now everybody's after it!

Released: February 11, 1994

Studio: Walt Disney Pictures

Genre: Comedy

Directed by Rupert Wainwright

Stars: Brian Bonsall, Karen Duffy, Miguel Ferrer, James Rebhorn, Tone Lōc, Jayne Atkinson, Michael Lerner

Rotten Tomatoes: 9%

Metacritic: Not rated.

Budget: $13 million

Box Office: $30.5 million

Synopsis

Preston is involved in an accident and his bike is crushed. Given a blank cheque by a gangster, Preston takes it to the bank cashing it for $1 million and he soon starts spending but then guess who wants their money back?

Recollections

This was another of my childhood favourites which I undoubtedly uncritically observed and maybe shouldn't have revisited. 

Review

This is one of those films as a means of wish-fulfillment. A child obsessed with money is given, or rather takes, more money than he can ever imagine and suddenly the world is his oyster whereas before his financial situation just brought up a series of barriers. In that way it follows in the footsteps of films like Big and Brewster's Millions. But, what does Preston do with his new found fortune? He accumulates a bunch of stuff and buys new friends but I didn't buy into any real joy as Preston slides down his water-slide or rides his go-karts around his new castle. Which is where this film has nothing on either of the other titles of this genre.

Problematic is also the morality of Preston's actions. He is given a blank cheque from the main protagonist for crushing his bike and instead of the appropriate amount, he takes the cheque to the bank cashing it for $1 million. He may be stealing from a thief but he's still stealing by committing massive cheque fraud and there are no consequence for this. The kid also, by the end of the film, learns that $1 million is not actually a lot of money and his debts soon mount when a lavish birthday party is thrown. Preston in effect secures goods and services based on a deception that he would pay for it when in fact he did not have the money. Again there are no consequences for Preston.

I seem to see everything through the lens of Groundhog Day. We've already seen Brian Doyle-Murray who played Buster Green in Cabin Boy. In My Father the Hero we saw Stephen Tobolowsky (bing!) and in Blank Check we see Rick Ducommun who played the drunken vet Gus in Groundhog Day. I say this for no other reason than the joy of recognizing actors out of the roles you know them for.

Also worth pointing out here that this is Disney's second live action film of 1994, together accumulating roughly $50 million in sales. Given the return they get from Lion King which is yet to be released, it's no surprise that they are remembered more for their animated output from this era.

My Father the Hero - February 4, 1994

My Father the Hero

Tagline(s): Fathers have just one problem raising daughters. They grow up.

Released: February 4, 1994

Studio: Touchstone Pictures

Genre: Comedy

Directed by Steve Miner

Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Katherine Heigl, Dalton James, Lauren Hutton, Faith Prince, Stephen Tobolowsky

Rotten Tomatoes: 14%

Metacritic: Not rated.

Budget: Unknown

Box Office: $25.4 million

Synopsis

Gérard Depardieu stars in the US remake of the 1991 French comedy 'Mon Pere, Ce Heros'. where he also played the lead role. Here he plays André Arnel, a divorced French father taking his American daughter Nicole, played by 14 year old Katherine Heigl, on a summer vacation in the Bahamas. Nicole soon meets a boy and tells him that her father is actually her lover. Word soon gets around and hilarity ensues.

Recollections

I remember loving this movie as a kid, of course completely oblivious to the thematic issues. I was also a big fan of Gérard Depardieu at the time, having already seen him in Cyrano de Bergerac and Green Card.

Review

This undoubtedly an odd movie and one that would never get made today. Its attitude is somewhat hypocritical. There's undoubted revulsion portrayed that a character of Depardieu's age would be dating a 14 year old and throughout the movie the character is shunned. But then there's also a long, lingering shot of Katherine Heigl's derrière in a thong which reveals the director's leering gaze to be equally troublesome.

It is a film in the traditional french farce set-up and there are some entertaining set-pieces with Depardieu on water-skis and then a rendition of Jacques Brel's 'Thank Heavens for Little Girls'. There are some plot holes the size of planets and some of the comic performances fall flat but, maybe because of my prior enjoyment of the film, or maybe because Depardieu is such a charismatic presence, I still had a reasonable enjoyment from my viewing.

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.