Category Archives: 1996

1996, Abduction, Amazon Prime, America of the 1950s, Black humor, Bloody scenes, Eccentric cast of characters, Extreme Violence as Comedy, Kidnapping, Local color, Murder, Murder Investigation, Outrageous Behavior, Period Piece, Physical fighting, Small Town Atmosphere, Vintage Film, Violent

Fargo (1996)

From IMDB:

Minnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard’s inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen’s bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this now 26 year old classic crime comedy-satire which lasts for 1 hour 38 minutes.

Jeez! Imagine not having cell phones. Shucks!  Those folks in North Dakota sure had knee-slapping senses of humor. For example:

Marge Gunderson: Say, Lou, didya hear the one about the guy who couldn’t afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J3L2404?

Lou: Yah, that’s a good one.

Violence is an essential part of the plot, such as, pushing a dead body through a wood chopper.  Assumedly the violence was supposed to be so extreme that it would all be taken as a joke.  Course’ those folks in North Dakota ain’t seen nuthin like the US and A in the 21st century.

Could those actors really ever have been that young in 1996:

  • William H. Macy as Jerry Lundegaard was 46 (now 72).
  • Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson was 39 (now 65).
  • Steve Buscemi as Carl Showalter was 39 (now 65).

Great piece of film history!

 

1996, Amazon Prime, Amusing banter, Art theft, Boating, Bumbling Detective, Comedy, Pratfalls, Unloved Child

Two If By Sea (1996)

Leave a comment

From Amazon Prime:

A couple steals a Matisse painting on contract. They manage to escape the police. The sale takes place 4 days later on an island. Things don’t go as planned.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 35 minute comedy.

When you just want to relax and have a few laughs you cannot beat a Sandra Bullock movie.  Pratfalls always provoke a belly laugh from me even though I should not fall (get it?) for such nonsense.

However, here and in many of her films there is some amount of seriousness.  In “All About Steve”  she is encouraged to accept her very different personality. In “Two If By Sea” she works to convince her professional thief of a boy friend to go straight, talk meaningfully to her, and get a job.

What a relief such films can be!

1996, Abduction, Adopted child, Alcoholism, Amazon Prime, Assisted Suicide, Bloody scenes, British Mystery Series, Bullying, Child abuse, Cold Cases, Detective, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Drugs, Emotional child abuse, Ethical struggles, Failing Marriage, Father-son relations, Forensic pathologist, Gay Bashing, Homophobia, Jealousy, Mental Illness, Mother-son relations, Murder, Murder Investigation, Prison, Psychological Drama, Revenge, Romance, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Sexual Tension, Sister-sister relations, Stepchild, Suicide, Suspense, Teenagers, Theft

Silent Witness (1996)

Leave a comment

From Amazon Prime:

Forensic pathologist Dr. Sam Ryan has an all-embracing, passionate notion of justice that can lead to trouble in her personal and professional lives, but to Sam, each dead body deserves the truth.

Believe it or not, this detective series which takes place in Cambridge, England has twenty-two (22) seasons.  In fact from Amazon Prime you can stream seasons 1 through 21. Season 1 offers 4 complete stories, each about 1.5 hours. In seasons from number 2 onward  each of the 4 stories consists of two shorter episodes (about 45 minutes) instead of one long episode.

Normally I don’t review until I have finished all the seasons but 21 seasons could take a long time to get through.  Unfortunately every story we have seen so far has been so good that we are tempted to binge watch. When wife Kathy wants to continue watching “NOW!”, that is a sign we have latched onto something worthwhile. “Law and Order” was another example of years of watchable entertainment.

Amanda Burton, born and raised in Northern Ireland, plays the stunning and determined forensic pathologist Dr. Sam Ryan (yes, HER name is Sam). Many other actors survive from season to season but Burton is the shining star.

Running through the seasons are her relations with her sister and working colleagues and her love affairs. As is often the case in detective stories (she is not a member of the police department) there is the usual conflict of her personal life with her professional life. An added complication is that she gets emotionally involved not only with her cases but also with various colleagues with whom she has serious differences of opinion regarding her cases.

FIRST AMENDED REVIEW: Sam last appears in Season 8 episodes 1 and 2 entitled “A Time To Heal”. She leaves the job eventually a young woman takes her place.  From then on the series goes somewhat downhill: first the plots start to look like any old American gangster story, and secondly the episode descriptions found on the Amazon web site and the descriptions that you download with the episodes are misplaced. We stopped watching at that point.

SECOND AMENDED REVIEW: My advice is now to continue with Season 8. When a story seems boring or mediocre, just skip to the next story. Remember each story consists of 2 episodes. It won’t be long before the stories become better. As of this amendment I am on Season 11 and it is dynamite.

THIRD AMENDED REVIEW: In Season 8 Episode 5 we first meet Dr. Nikki Alexander as a young woman just starting her career as a forensic pathologist.  From then on through all of Season 22 she remains in the series whereas almost all the other actors are replaced.  For the 15 seasons you actually see the actress Emilia Fox age as do the other actors. This character is wonderful to the very end of the series.

Sometimes grim but always engaging drama! DO NOT MISS!

1996, Acceptable Sci-Fi, Acceptable Trash, Amazon Prime, Arson, B-movie, Bad Acting, Conspiracy, Digital Effects, Frenetic, Nasty Aliens, Nothing special, Sci-Fi, Suspense

The Arrival (1996)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

Zane, an astronomer, discovers intelligent alien life. But the aliens are keeping a deadly secret, and will do anything to stop Zane from learning it.

Interested in a sci-fi film with interesting special effects, a story that kept me involved, and REALLY BAD ACTING? Then why not tolerate “The Arrival”  which you can stream from Amazon Prime ?

Lindsay Crouse, who was once married to David Mamet, is local to the Boston area. We often see her live in plays at the Gloucester Stage. She reads her lines a bit stiffly.

Enough said about the rightfully paranoid Zane, almost played by Charlie Sheen.

As chief alien we have Ron Silver, who died in 2009. You will probably recognize him as Bruno Gianelli from “The West Wing”. He actually gets the part right.

Suspend a lot of disbelief and either enjoy or make fun of this second-rate romp.

1996, Abduction, Based on true facts, Bicycles, Book Review, British, Complicated, Conspiracy, Cynical, Daniel Silva, Ethical struggles, Flirting, Gangs, Gay theme, Gritty, International thriler, Love Story, Physical child abuse, Political Suspense, Sea Rescue, Sex Scenes, Small British village, Spy Theme, Suspense, Thriller, Violent, War, WWII

The Unlikely Spy (1996) [Book Review]

Leave a comment

Book Description:

In wartime,” Winston Churchill wrote, “truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” For Britain’s counterintelligence operations, this meant finding the unlikeliest agent imaginable-a history professor named Alfred Vicary, handpicked by Churchill himself to expose a highly dangerous, but unknown, traitor. The Nazis, however, have also chosen an unlikely agent: Catherine Blake, a beautiful widow of a war hero, a hospital volunteer-and a Nazi spy under direct orders from Hitler to uncover the Allied plans for D-Day…

Daniel Silva was a journalist and TV producer before he began his first novel “The Unlikely Spy” in 1994. This book was such a success that Silva left CNN in 1997 to pursue writing full-time. One of his more known series of books are those featuring the character Gabriel Allon.

Although Silva was born and raised in the U.S.A. (he was raised Catholic and converted to Judaism as an adult), in reading this novel you would swear he was British. We had just returned from visiting our daughter in London and it was an extra pleasure recognizing all the London streets, parks, and subway stops that figure in the plot.

Once you get used to the 20 or so characters that stay continually in the plot you may find this WW II spy novel a real page-turner. Besides the usual cloak and dagger details, the novel is saved from dryness by romances, personal ruminations, political one-upmanship, historical tidbits, and an essential focal point: an effort to prevent Berlin from knowing exactly where the allied invasion will be, i.e. Normandy.

Finally I stayed up late reading for three hours just to see how the final great chase after the clever Nazi spies ended.

1996, Abduction, British, Detective, Mental Illness, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Stalker, Suspense, Unusual

The Cold Light Of Day (1996)

Leave a comment

From NetFlix:

A troubled former cop uses an innocent young woman as the unsuspecting bait in his plan to catch a serial killer. A well-crafted thriller featuring gripping performances from a talented cast.

Once again I stumbled onto this off-beat serial killer film offered under NetFlix streaming. While not as professionally smooth as mainstream films, the plot, details, and acting is not bad (or should I say, has the feeling of an indie film).

Filmed in the Czech Republic, the actors speak with British accents. Subtitles are available. (By the way, that is currently one advantage of NetFlix streaming over Amazon – only NetFlix offers subtitles.) None of the actors are familiar to me. Anna, the child character, is acted very well by a child actress. Also the serial killer (whom we see throughout the film) is really creepy.

My only complaint is that a bad policeman who bullies innocents into confessions never gets his comeuppance.

Not at all a complete waste, just different from the usual styles.

1996, British, Explicit sexual discussion, Love Story, Motorcycles, Nudity, Sex Scenes, Transexual Theme, Unusual, Wonderful acting

Different for Girls (1996)

Leave a comment

From NetFlix:

Karl Foyle (Steven Mackintosh) and Paul Prentice (Rupert Graves) were boyhood friends back in the 1970s, but when they run into each other in present-day London, they learn that a lot has changed. For starters, Karl has become Kim and has no desire to go back to her past. As for Paul, he’s just an aging punk with no future. The two rekindle their friendship and are surprised to find their relationship becoming much deeper than they expected.

NetFlix Watch Instantly almost never offers mainstream films but instead has a catalog of rejects, failures, second rates, and an occasional find. If you look up Rupert Graves in IMDB you will find his appearance in 75 productions. For example, he was DI Lestrade in the Sherlock Holmes TV series. Now try to find a film with Rupert Graves in NetFlix Watch Instantly. Voila! Now you are a kid in a candy store. Just for the fun of it choose “Different for Girls”. Talk about different!

Probably you have never seen a film as unusual as this well-done British gem. For those of you with delicate sensitivities, beware. Not only is this an eventual love story between a straight man and a male-to-female transsexual, but there are anatomical discussions and instances of explicit nudity and intercourse. Having been warned you should now ignore the warning because this film is a non-prurient story of an admittedly unusual relationship.

As I watched the performance of the transsexual character Kim, I sensed a slight bit of masculinity, but SHE was a beautiful and very feminine young woman. In IMDB I could not find the woman playing Kim until it hit me. SHE is played to perfection by Steven Mackintosh whose own resume listed 94 entries. Steven Mackintosh was Winston in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).

During filming Rupert Graves was 33 and Steven Macintosh was 29.

If you are in the mood “and now for something completely different” (quoting from Monty Python), go no further.

1996, Crime, Gangs, Revenge, Sex Scenes, Stalker, Suspense, Violent

The Juror (1996)

Leave a comment

From NetFlix:

Annie Laird (Demi Moore), a juror in an anti-Mafia trial, is forced to play along with The Teacher (Alec Baldwin), a gangster who threatens to kidnap and harm Annie’s son if she doesn’t convince her fellow jurors to return a “not guilty” verdict. But it seems The Teacher has become obsessed with her and won’t let her be — even after the end of the trial. Annie’s only way to protect herself and her son may be to take on the mob.

What a blast from the past! As soon as you see Demi Moore, Alec Baldwin, and James Gandolfini, you realize how much they (and we) have aged. That’s even more scary than this really gripping jury-stalker-mob film. Just hold onto your seats and enjoy the descent.

Can there be a better sociopathic monster than Alec Baldwin ? Talk about a super stalker! Fourteen years after this film, we see him doing comedy in “30 Rock” as a much heavier man.

Eleven years after this film, James Gandofini starred in “The Sopranos”.

Lindsay Crouse may not be as familiar as the above three stars, but we have seen her live many times locally as a stage actress. She (and just about every other actor under the sun) has appeared several times in “Law and Order”. For what it is worth, she graduated from Radcliffe in 1970 with the first class to receive Harvard diplomas.

Technology in the form of eavesdropping plays an important part in the plot. Notice that the cellphone is not used. It might be a lot easier to foil a stalker if you have a cellphone.

This one glued me to my chair!

1996, Could Be Hard To Watch, Could Be Sad, Drama, Not Feel Good, Violent, War

The War At Home (1996)

Leave a comment

From NetFlix:

Starring Emilio Estevez (who also directed), Kathy Bates and Martin Sheen, this gripping war drama follows the battles encountered at home as a result of those on fought the battlefield. Vietnam impacted the everyday life of average American families in unimaginable ways: soldiers didn’t always return home alive, and when they did, they were often met with anger, not gratitude – even from their own families

There are several excellent films that deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Besides this film see also two versions of the same story: Brothers (2005) and Brothers (2009).

This particular film is in some sense the most difficult of the three because of the lack of support the returning veteran gets in this case. Martin Sheen is exasperating as the father. Brace yourself.

1996, Book Review, FamousDetective, Mystery, Novel, Sexual Episodes

The Terracotta Dog (1996)

Leave a comment

Andrea Camilleri is a Sicilian author who in fact writes in an Italian that has a sprinkling of Sicilian phrases and grammar that is sufficient enough to make it a real pain for yours truly to translate. He has created another famous detective Inspector Salvo Montalbano, a fractious Sicilian detective in the police force of Vigàta, an imaginary Sicilan town. Of course, the Mafia play a big role as does Sicilian cooking. You can read more about Andrea Camilleri in Wikipedia.

“The Terracotta Dog” is number 2 in a series of 16 Montalbano novels. The last two have not been translated into English. This is my first Montalbano and again I am hooked and will read more. In this particular novel in addition to a main plot, there are side episodes, discussion of food, sex scenes, and problems with personal relationships.