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Movie Reviews

‘Tis the season for indoor activities involving a warm beverage

It’s the season for drinking and movie watching. For those of you who want to curl up next to the TV with a Hot Toddy and a few videos, here are few rentable drink flicks. If you want to head out to the theatre instead, Chris Olsen offers a review that is likely to encourage you to grab a drink after the show.

Animal House (1978)
Directed by: John Landis
Written by: Chris Miller
Length: 1:08
Stars: John Belushi, Tim Matheson

Before Revenge of the Nerds, before American Pie, and before just about any other great comedy about drunken belligerence filled with tasteless pranks, there was Animal House. Set in 1962, this film is a story about the Deltas, a fraternity of misfits. The Deltas are hell bent on disrupting the stereotypical status quo many fraternities provide. They do so, by performing a series of entertaining exploits that eventually place them on the Dean’s hit list. After driving the school administration to the edge, the Deltas are eventually expelled from school. But they refuse to say die and manage to have one hilarious final say. This is a great film and one of John Belushi’s finer moments before the infamous Blues Brothers.

Bar Fly (1987)
Directed by: Barbet Schroeder
Written by: Charles Bukowski
Length: 1:40
Stars: Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway

This 1987 film captures the essence of being a true alcoholic. Written by the infamous Charles Bukowski, known for his love affair with alcohol and raw talent, this semi-autobiographical film is funny, sad and romantic all at the same time. Mickey Rourke plays Henry Chinaski and we watch him move from bar stool to bar stool. He gives punchy insults and nearly falls in love with Willa Wilcox (Fay Dunaway), who shares his same love of drinking. They seem to make a perfect match, but their affair is interrupted by a high society editor who recognizes Chinaski’s drunken literary brilliance. This is a film that will appease your girlfriend’s need to watch a romantic comedy while satisfying your boyfriend’s appetite for dark, sarcastic humor. It’s a film that will provide something for all your friends.

Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Directed by: Mike Figgis
Written by: Mike Figgis
Length: 1:52
Stars: Nicholas Cage, Elizabeth Shue

Without question this is a heavy film, but Nicolas Cage (Ben) and Elizabeth Shue (Sera) deliver excellent performances in a deeply moving story. Ben is an unapologetic drunk, who has lost everything in his hometown of L.A., including his job and family. He comes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. It’s here that he meets Sera, a prostitute. Not interested in sex, he relies on her for simple companionship. Thus begins a relationship of two battered and bruised souls who give up on salvation but find something to share in the seedy shadows of Las Vegas. This is a great drama worth watching, but should be followed by a comedy.

Comedian (2002)
Directed by: Christian Charles
Length: 1:40
Stars: Jerry Seinfeld

I thought I knew what I was going to get when I went to see Comedian. As the title suggested, it was going to be a movie about one of the world’s most famous comedians. It would be very funny. This was not entirely true.

Comedian turned out to be a somewhat subdued documentary about Jerry Seinfeld’s return to standup comedy following the epic run of the Seinfeld TV series. The twist was that Seinfeld had abandoned all of the original material on which he initially rose to comic stardom.

Overall, Comedian successfully provided a view of the behind-the-scenes life of a standup comic (albeit somewhat skewed by the fact that, unlike the vast majority of comedians, Seinfeld traveled to his gigs either by Porsche or private jet). Most intriguing was the film’s ability to strip away the star quality of Seinfeld and the other famous comics and show them as flesh and blood humans with frailties like the rest of us. Comedian is interesting and entertaining, but paradoxically, somewhat light on comedy.