The Princess Bride (1987) Film Review

If you have never seen this film, well, that sucks for you. Because I think that if you come to this film too late in life, you just may not get it. See, it is daggy as anything, with cheesy special effects, and over-the-top, magnificently melodramatic acting. And it is totally wonderful.

Story? Well, Buttercup (Robin Wright) is a girl who is love with a farmboy, Westley (Cary Elwes). But when his boat is taken by Dread Pirate Roberts, a pirate known to leave no survivors, Buttercup is bereft. So when evil Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) chooses her as his bride, she doesn’t care. Love is dead for her. Then she is kidnapped by a mysterious party of three – Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), a man gunning for the revenge over the death of his father, Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) a Sicilian who thinks he can outsmart anyone and Fezzik (the late, great Andre the Giant) who loves to rhyme but is not too smart. And things get exciting!

So wonderful, so fantastic. And then add in a legendary performance by Peter Cook, along with Christopher Guest, Fred Savage, Peter Falk, Mel Smith, Billy Crystal… too wonderful.

 

Analyze That (2002) Film Review

In jail, mob boss Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro) is the target of someone who wants to kill him. He fakes mental illness to be released into the care of Dr Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal). Then all matter of crazy happens (again). He’s also a lot meaner and nastier than in the first, and that’s not so enjoyable.

If it works once, doesn’t mean it needs to be revisited. It just was not that good. It had some of the humour and heart of the first one, but there wasn’t enough, and the storyline wasn’t that great. In fact, watching this almost ruined the first one for me.

Analyze This (1999) Film Review

De Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal) is a psychiatrist who accidentally ends up treating mob boss Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro), with all kinds of crazy results.

It’s a good, strong Hollywood comedy. The story is actually vaguely believable, the characters are unlikable but in a very human way, and it’s pretty funny. Something about it seems extremely dated, but it is still worth a watch. Ah, I see why it works – Harold Ramis. He was a great comedy director, and while this wasn’t his best, you can certainly see where it worked.

 

Monsters University (2013) Film Review

So how did Sully (John Goodman) and Mike (Billy Crystal) become such a successful team? This takes some of our favourite characters from Monsters Inc back to their past at university –  with Sully as an arrogant jock, Mike a mega-swot desperate to become a scarer and Randy (Steve Buscemi), the future bad guy, as a geek and a nice guy.

I liked it. It was fun, the characters were as strong as in the earlier film, and it had the great sense of humour of so many of the Pixar flicks. It is a tricky task – to take characters that people love and put them in a different scenario. Especially as, for some parts of the film, the audience really doesn’t like Sully. I’ve heard many criticise that it was too similar to Monsters Inc and I reckon that is a stupid argument. Remember, this is still a film aimed at kids; if you expect something totally different, watch something totally different. Grumble over.

 

Monsters, Inc (2001) Film Review

There’s a monster world where energy is created by collecting energy from the screams of children when monsters visit them at night. It’s an industry. The stars are Sulley (John Goodman) and his sidekick Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), but things are changing and there are bad guys who want to change everything.

This is a fantastic kids film. Pixar have done a lot of good stuff. This is one of the best. If you need to, borrow some kids so you can watch this.

Monsters Inc won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song (Randy Newman) and was Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Score, Best Sound Editing and Best Animated Feature