25 Years Ago This Month: July 1989

Lethal Weapon 2 was the big release of the month, a sequel to the successful buddy cop film starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The sequel added Joe Pesci for some truly annoying extra comic relief, but continued to tackle important topical issues. This time it was South African apartheid. Basically Riggs and Murtagh get to take down the racist institution all on their own. Or at least the criminal diplomat in Los Angeles running a major drug ring.

Monsters University Movie Review

Someone suggested that a more fitting title for Monsters University, the prequel to Pixar’s hit Monsters, Inc., would have been When Mike Met Sulley. Not only do you get the Sully/Sally pun, but of course Mike is voiced by Billy Crystal, who played Harry, the man who met Sally. That’s neither here nor there, having little to do with the movie itself. It’s just an observation, but essentially Monsters University is the story of how Mike Wazowski, the irrepressible and energetic little walking eyeball became best buds with Sully, the big pastel-hewed fierce and furry “scarer” voiced by John Goodman. This is the story of how they came to be the powerful team that generates innumerable canisters of screams to power the Monster city.

25 Years Ago This Month: December 1987

Movie release schedules were not all that different 25 years ago. Studios saved their best films for the very end of the year, just like they do today, in order to be fresh in awards voters' minds. The result is that a lot of deserving films released earlier in the year are largely ignored. The December 1987 film releases garnered a combined total of 28 Academy Award nomination. If we add The Last Emperor, which had a limited release in late November followed by a wider December release, that makes 37 nominations spread over ten films.

In Empire of the Sun, Steven Spielberg returned to WWII, subject matter that has been at the crux of no fewer than six of the films he's directed. Christian Bale starred in the film about a boy from a wealthy British family living in Shanghai who finds himself in a Japanese internment camp after the occupation begins.

Analyze This Movie Review: De Niro as The Godfather of Comedy

This review was first published in the Connecticut College Voice in March 1999.

Listening to a mobster unload his emotional stress to a psychotherapist is not a particularly new concept. Currently, there is an HBO series called “The Sopranos” in which a mobster occasionally visits an analyst, and two years ago, we watched as John Cusack, portraying a hitman, found himself by talking to a psychiatrist in Grosse Pointe Blank. So, it should come as no surprise that director Harold Ramis’s newest comedy, Analyze This, concerns a panicked Robert De Niro seeking help from psychiatrist Billy Crystal.

De Niro plays Paul Vitti, a John Gotti-like New York Mafia boss who finds himself overcome with anxiety attacks and unexpected floods of tears. This is an unacceptable state to be in for a man of his profession. His friends and enemies are like animals – they sense weakness and move in for the kill. By a stroke of fate, Ben Sobol (Crystal) is chosen as the man to help him. Needless to say he is reluctant at first.

Classic Movie Review: Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry

The films of Woody Allen tend to be united by several common themes. Just about all of his films deal with love, relationships and infidelity in one way or another. Many of his films are largely viewed as semi-autobiographical. Or at the very least the characters played by Allen seem very much to be variations on his real life persona. Somehow he manages to unite several of these major themes in the hilarious and deeply philosophical Deconstructing Harry.

When last I saw it during its theatrical release in 1997 I was a Woody Allen amateur. More than a decade later I’ve seen all but one of his 39 feature films, so revisiting it now was quite a treat. It’s still one of most sharply funny movies, written in dialogue littered with great wit and insight.

Allen plays Harry Block, a writer suffering from writer’s block as he prepares to accept an award from his old university. In the meantime, he spends time reflecting on his past wives and girlfriends, the cheating, the deceit and also the characters in his book, who very closely parallel real life.