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Jumping Jacks (1952), starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis

Jumping Jacks

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Jumping Jacks (1952), starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis

In Jumping Jacks, Hap Smith (Jerry Lewis), nightclub entertainer, has a new act since his former partner Chick Allen (Dean Martin) joined the army: with lovely new partner Betsy Carter (Mona Freeman), Hap plays a clownish parody of a soldier. Meanwhile, Chick is organizing a soldier show at Fort Benning and finds he needs his old partner’s help. To get onto the base, Hap impersonates a hapless real soldier, Dogface Dolan (Richard Erdman); but circumstances force them to prolong the masquerade, creating an increasingly tangled Army-sized snafu.

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Cabaret (1972)

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Cabaret (1972) starring Liza Minelli, Michael York. Joel Grey

 Cabaret will never be described as a feel-good movie. It’s doubtful that it can ever be described as family friendly, either. It is, however, a very powerful movie, with great performances, very moving.  It deals with broken people in a broken world, set in Germany at a time when the Nazi party is just coming to power.

The main characters are:

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I Bury the Living

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I Bury the Living (1958) starring Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel, Peggy Maurer

I Bury the Living begins like an episode of The Twilight Zone: a successful businessman is pressured to “take his turn” as the head of the Immortal Hills Cemetary. On the map of the cemetery plots, white pins represent plots that have been purchased, and black pins represent where the dead are buried. But when he mistakenly puts a black pin in the wrong place, people begin to die …

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Hands of the Ripper

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Hands of the Ripper (1971) starring Angharad Rees, Eric Porter

Hammers Hands of the Ripper deals with the fictional story of the daughter of Jack the Ripper.  Orphaned at a young age, at the age of 17 starts to be influenced by the spirit of her dead father.  While a kindly psychiatrist tries to help her with tragic results for his household.

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The Time of Your Life

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The Time of Your Life (1948) starring James Cagney, William Bendix, Wayne Morris

The Time of Your Life is a very interesting, very different movie. It involves a small central cast who sit and watch, and occasionally comment, on the various people who come in and out of a bar. Some people have compared it to the television series Cheers but other than the setting, the two really don’t have anything in common. The Time of Your Life is frankly more like Seinfeld — the comedy that seemingly doesn’t have a plot, and simply showcases the lives of the various characters. If anything, The Time of Your Life is better, because we actually get to see glimpses of the stories of the various secondary characters, which are compelling.  And for other characters — we don’t.

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The Love God?

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The Love God? (1969) starring Don Knotts, Anne Francis, James Gregory

Synopsis of The Love God

A quiet bird watching magazine is about to go bankrupt.  Rescue comes unexpectedly in the form of … a pornographer! His new “partner” needs the magazine’s printing permit, and makes the bird watcher the figurehead for his porn empire.  And, incidentally, a crusader for the first amendment?

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Gus

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Editorial review of Gus starring Don Knotts, Tim Conway, Ed Asner, Tom Bosley courtesy of Amazon.com

 When Andy, brother of a Yugoslavian soccer hero, brings Gus, a field goal-kicking mule, to the United States as halftime entertainment for a losing Atoms football team, laughs and lasting fame follow. Gus’s intelligent, almost human interactions with his Yugoslavian ball holder and the devious duo intent on stifling Andy and Gus’s success are amusing and entertaining. An extended mule chase through a busy supermarket and Gus’s drunken acceptance of an award on “Gus Day” are only two examples of the slapstick comedy that pervades this 97-minute film. Talents Edward Asner, Don Knotts, Tim Conway, Gary Grimes, Dick Enberg, and Tom Bosley enliven the somewhat predictable plot of this 1976 Disney film. Other notable appearances include real-life football players Dick Butkus and Johnny Unitas. This is fun, wholesome entertainment for children ages 3 and older. —Tami Horiuchi

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Air Buddies

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Editorial review of Air Buddies courtesy of Amazon.com

 The canine star of Air Bud and its host of sequels is on the screen again, but this time Buddy, his girlfriend Molly, and their human owners Noah and Henry have their hands and paws full with a litter of five mischievous puppies that talk. From Budderball who’s obsessed with food to the meditating Bud-Dha and the dirt-loving Mudbud, each of the puppies is as unique as a sibling can be. When it comes time to adopt the young puppies into new families, humans and dogs alike are distraught and the puppies decide to run away. Enter a spoiled rich boy named Bartleby who wants Air Bud as a birthday present, a dim-witted cousin, and a doltish thug employed by Bartleby’s father, and mayhem prevails as Buddy and Molly get dog-napped and Noah, Henry, and the runway puppies all set out to rescue them. As the chase winds over the river, through the woods, to the drive-in movie, and straight through the farmyard, slapstick comedy and satire reign and the whole gang learns an important lesson about the value of teamwork, love, and courage. While children ages 3 to 10 will delight in the capers of these cute talking puppies, most adults will find the plot predictable and the action less than riveting. Talent includes Don Knotts, Richard Karn, and Michael Clarke Duncan. —Tami Horiuchi

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Walt Disney’s Chicken Little

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Review

Have you ever sat through a children’s movie with a message? A very blunt message? That the movie beats you over the head with, over, and over? And over? That’s Walt Disney’s Chicken Little, unfortunately. It takes a good concept, and ruins it in the execution. It’s the final film of Don Knotts, and it’s a sad farewell to a great talent and very funny man.

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