Change Your Image
MarcPerroquet
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
True Identity (1991)
Light, Funny Comedy
True Identity is my go-to movie for an entertaining escape from reality. All of the actors are good and play off one another very well. Maybe I'm more easily entertained than some people on IMDb but I liked this movie, a lot. My only regret is that I can't find it on DVD.
Lenny Henry plays Miles Pope, an aspiring Shakespearean actor with dreams of one day taking on the role of Othello. Instead, he gets roles that stereotype him as the neighborhood pimp or as a raisin. Not as in "A Raisin in the Sun" but as a raisin in a bowl of cereal. His luck, however, changes during a return flight from Florida when he discovers that the man seated next to him is none other than the famous and powerful producer, Leland Carver! Well, you can't be a struggling actor and let a golden opportunity like that pass you by, so Pope makes sure that Mr. Carver knows every detail about him: His name, his agent's name, his experience, training, where he lives, how to contact him... As bad luck would have it, that's when the pilot loses control of the plane and the passengers all believe they are about to die. With nothing to lose, that's also when Mr. Carver decides to get something off his chest and quietly divulges a deep, dark secret that wouldn't be safe for Pope to know if the plane weren't about to crash...If the plane weren't about to...If the plane...If...Oops...
Undercover Blues (1993)
A Multiple-Watch-Worthy Movie
I think this movie deserves a better rating than the 6.1 that it currently has. If I could, I would rate it 7 1/2 stars. Granted, it is not grounded in reality and its sarcasm (usually delivered by Dennis Quaid as Jeff Blue) gets tiresome but in the end, I was entertained and that's all that matters to me.
Kathleen Turner was a hoot all the way through and Fiona Shaw was wonderful in the role of Novacek, the ruthless, sex-hungry psychopath. When criticized for a particularly cruel and disgusting action she took, she laughed as she said, "I know! It was was in the worst possible taste!" Of course, Stanley Tucci gave his usual brilliant performance, this time as Muerte, the maladroit wannabe-gangster.
As in most movies, I am often equally--if not more--entertained by powerful, lesser appreciated character actors than by the high-paid stars. This was true here. The late Dennis Lipscomb absolutely nailed his small role as the wimpy Foster. I swear, for the rest of my life, I will be cursed to use his voice whenever I ask, "Who is this?" Larry Miller and Obba Babatundé were the perfect choice to play the bewildered cops. They weren't bumbling or incompetent, just confused by the mystery of the Blues.
12:01 (1993)
Skip The Romance
Although I liked the movie, I did not like Helen Slater in this part, nor did I like her character. I saw no chemistry between her and Silverman, nor did I see any reason why he would fall for her from a distance. She initiated conversation, then treated him like dirt for the rest of the movie, and yet he pursued her. It's a hackneyed story technique for creating a bridge between two people who probably would never speak to one another in real life. It's been done to death and it's no longer amusing. Actually, it never was. I would have liked the movie much more if the phony romance thing had been avoided and Silverman had just been a good guy, trying to save the life of an upper tier employee who wouldn't give him the time of day -- THAT would have been believable.
Robin Bartlett was excellent. The love/hate tension between her and Silverman worked beautifully. Like Silverman, Bartlett seemed to be in sync with both the script and the other actors. Only Slater seemed out of place. Every scene she was in felt awkward and unbelievable.
Another Stakeout (1993)
Ruined by Schlock Romance
I suppose if you think it's funny seeing a woman gut-punch a man just because he hasn't asked her to marry him, you might like the 40's and 50's schlock rehashed in this movie. I don't think it's funny in 40's and 50's films and I certainly don't think it's funny by today's standards. Madeleine Stowe and her nonsense "relationship" pretty much destroyed the film. Granted, there were a few humorous moments but they were few and far between and usually involved Rosie. I'm sorry Estevez' role wasn't better.
For me, the dinner scene made the film worth watching. Rosie was great and worked well with Dennis Farina and Marcia Strassman. Overall, my objections are more with the script than the acting. Just ditching Strassman's character would have greatly improved the story. More tension and less cringe would also have helped.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Restless Redhead (1957)
Far-Fetched, but Fun
This is the first episode of the Perry Mason series and it begins with Evelyn Bagby returning home from her waitressing job. It's clear when she gets out of her car that she is frightened. She looks around to see if she's been followed or if she's being watched. That concern continues as she enters her apartment. After poking around and finding nothing, she concludes that her senses must have deceived her - - But, nope, they didn't. She opens a cigarette box on the coffee table and discovers that someone has planted a fully loaded pistol atop the smokes. To make matters worse, she just beat a jewelry-theft rap and fears she is being set up for yet another false charge.
After dutifully getting her fingerprints all over the gun (as any potential Perry Mason client would do), Bagby calls Mason who advises her to immediately go to a hotel, then come to his office with the gun the following morning. She wants to follow the plan - - honest she does - - but it quickly goes awry when a car pulls up next to hers and the driver (someone disguised as a pillow) tries to force her off the road. Bagby is now obliged to fire two warning shots in the direction of the assailant (Oh boy, we know this ain't gonna end well). She then changes course and goes to Mason's office where she quite understandably collapses on the floor, physically and emotionally overwhelmed by the terrifying events of the evening. Luckily, Della is working late and comes to the rescue with a sip of water. Bagby then surrenders the gun to Mason. What follows is an example of some of Mason's better connivery. I know that a few reviewers thought this segment was long and dull, but I quite liked it.
A very far-fetched story made enjoyable by fine actors. Whitney Blake (as Evelyn Bagby) did a good job of keeping the suspense believable. She returned the following year to guest star in "The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde." Jane Buchanan was a master of the sour expression and was so good that it surprised me to see relatively few acting credits listed for her. Vaughn Taylor was superb and went on to guest star in a total of eight episodes.
A particularly entertaining moment comes in the performance of actress Helen Mayon who plays defense witness Mrs. Mary Thompson. She proves the old saying, "There are no small parts, only small actors." After Mrs. Thompson is questioned by Mason, Burger attempts to impeach her testimony using a condescending approach that falls flat when the actress delivers three simple words with razor-sharp precision.
Burger: "You say you only saw him two or three times, isn't that right?"
Mrs. Thompson: "Yes, sir."
Burger: "So you could be mistaken in your identification, couldn't you?"
Mrs. Thompson (with stone-cold intonation and impeccable timing): "No. I couldn't."
Mayon's delivery of those three words and Talman's "comeuppance" expression are as priceless as they are fleeting.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Perjured Parrot (1958)
Tears Aplenty
(As usual, I declare a potential spoiler even when I hope I don't spoil anything. However, in this case, and for Mason fans who may not have seen this episode, this spoiler will definitely give away the guilty party. For that reason, I relegate it to the final paragraph.)
Entertaining in spite of being one of the most melodramatic and convoluted plots in the Perry Mason series. As others have pointed out, this episode mostly takes place outside of LA.
Enter cantankerous Charles Sabin, husband to Stephanie Sabin and stepfather to Helen Watkins. It's clear from the opening scene that Charles is not skilled in the tender art of diplomacy, so it comes as no surprise that he is the script's chosen victim.
Sabin is in a fit over a number of things, including some missing checks. He and the family have plans to leave the next day to go to their fishing cabin in Logan City but Sabin abruptly changes the departure date to RIGHT NOW. Of course, his wife and stepdaughter are not ready which only agitates him more and leads to a bitter argument in which he accuses his stepdaughter, Helen, of stealing money from him by forging checks. This is the final straw for Stephanie who decides to get a divorce. Once Sabin has stormed out of the house, she drives Helen to school, which she later says is not far from Logan City. She then drives back to L.A., but instead of going home, she rents a room at a hotel. A few days later she receives the news that her husband has been murdered--found dead on the floor of his cabin. Probably more disturbing is the news that Casanova, Sabin's beloved parrot, was patrolling the body and repeating a cute new phrase he had learned, namely: "Helen, give me the gun, don't shoot."
Needless to say, for Helen and Stephanie, Casanova's verbal accomplishment falls on less than appreciative ears. So... fast forward two or three seconds and we find mother and daughter sitting in Perry Mason's office. Stephanie Sabin is worried about more than Casanova's words, or the fact that her daughter's hatred for her stepfather is common knowledge, or even that Sabin had accused Helen in front of a witness, of forging checks. While that would be enough to get most of us arrested, if not executed, Stephanie wrings her tear-soaked hanky and proceeds to finish sealing Helen's coffin by piling on yet another reason why her daughter could be a murder suspect. If you are attentive during this tale of woe, you will notice some unanswered questions. But alas, we don't care about unanswered questions because they sink slowly (and I do mean slowly) into a lake of lachrymose melodrama.
When the tear fest finally ends, Perry and Della set off for Logan City to visit the cabin where Sabin's body was found. Upon arriving, they meet the sheriff who introduces them to Edward Langley, a man who teaches criminology at their local college. Langley is there to lend his academic, albeit highly methodological, expertise in gathering and interpreting evidence. (The character of Langley is played to pompous perfection by actor Joseph Kearns.)
Another wonderful actor is Edgar Buchanan who plays the no-nonsense coroner presiding over the coroner's inquest which, in this episode, substitutes for the usual courtroom preliminary hearing. During the inquest the criminologist humorously details the events seriatim concluding, of course, that the killer could be none other than Mason's client. By the way, if you think Helen is Mason's client, you're wrong. It seems that the parrot might have been saying Ellen instead of Helen, which leads us to Sabin's wife - - Not Stephanie, not that wife: The other one. I'm sorry, didn't I mention his other wife?
Let's face it, you'll just have to watch for yourself. By the time it's over, you will feel like you sat through a Tom Lehrer lecture on "New Math."
SPOILER ALERT, SPOILER ALERT: Most Perry Mason fans can't help but notice that the hidden revelation of guilt in this episode is almost a mirror image of the one used in "The Case of the Angry Mourner." The similarity was so obvious, I checked to see if the episodes were written by the same person. Not quite. As it turns out, "The Case of the Angry Mourner" was written by Francis M. Cockrell and aired in 1957. "The Case of the Perjured Parrot" was written by his wife Marian Cockrell and aired in 1958.
Trivia: Both Jody Lawrance (Ellen) and actor Joseph Kearns died at age 55.
Psych: Santabarbaratown 2 (2013)
Arden Myrin
I have to a write a comment about this episode just to counter the negative reviews of Arden Myrin, the comedian who brilliantly portrayed Chelsea, a ditsy blonde with a fetish for old men--really old men. She had me in stitches in "Neil Simon's Lover's Retreat" and her reappearance in Santabarbaratown2 was even better. She was the perfect bridge between tragedy and comedy. Without her, this would have been a fairly long-winded, ho-hum episode with virtually no comic relief. I only wish she had shown up in a couple more episodes. On another note, it's shameful that IMDb failed to credit her for her work in the first Santabarbaratown.
Columbo: Try and Catch Me (1977)
My new favorite episode
I am going to call this a spoiler even though I hope it doesn't turn into one.
What could be better than to have the sneaky, conniving Lt. Columbo be forced to match wits with an equally sneaky and conniving villain? Until I saw "Try And Catch Me," my favorite episode was "Murder By The Book" with Jack Cassidy and Barbara Colby. Unfortunately, it was only the scenes between those two perfectly matched actors that made it my favorite. The rest of the episode dragged.
That wasn't the case with "Try And Catch Me" where there wasn't a dull moment from start to finish. The villain is Abigail Mitchell, a popular and very wealthy mystery writer played by the great actress, Ruth Gordon. An unusual treasure trove of humorous and/or memorable lines is given to Gordon and she delivers every one with spot-on precision. Another unusual thing about this episode is that all the lead characters seem aware of the villain's guilt. Veronica who is Mitchell's assistant and Spradlin, Mitchell's attorney both make statements that imply they know what she did.
Nevertheless, Mitchell continues to believe that her carefully woven scheme is far too clever to be unraveled. She even remains undaunted as she gradually realizes that Columbo's mind isn't as dusty as his old Peugeot. Unlike most episodes where the killer keeps trying to outsmart the persistent detective, Abigail Mitchell merely relies on lack of evidence. Instead of sweating and telling a web of lies, she joyfully plays cat-and-mouse as she goads Columbo to prove she is guilty. In fact, she does it so well that until the end, we're not sure which one is going to end up being the cat and which the mouse. In a scene that comes late in the show, when Columbo makes a clear accusation that Mitchell is lying about some missing keys, Mitchell smiles with confidence, points her thumb at him, and says, "That's very extravagant of you, Lieutenant. Can you prove that?"
Of course, Columbo pieces together a mysterious puzzle and when he presents Mitchell with the surprise evidence, Gordon's acting skills pull us into Mitchell's collapsing world and we feel her emotions even before she speaks and even before we become fully aware of what the evidence really is. In my opinion, this is one of the most emotional and tense finales of any Columbo episode.
But it's not just the writing and acting that make this episode so good. It is also the great camera work and perfect musical score which combine to deliver some chilling moments such as the shot of the diminutive Gordon standing next to the large walk-in, sound-proof safe in which she locks the victim seconds before her attorney enters the room; the moment when she notices the keys on the table; Columbo sitting quietly in the dark, looking into the safe as gray smoke from his cigar curls around him like pensive apparitions.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Angry Mourner (1957)
My opinion of the actors
SPOILER ALERT: Everyone has already told the story, so I prefer to talk about the actors. The entire cast performed very well and the story was good even if it left some unanswered questions.
Malcolm Atterbury and Dorothy Adams as Mr. and Mrs. Burris, the couple who first call the police, were exceptional. It's really their presence in the episode that makes it one of my favorites.
Eve McVeagh had a small part as the overly sexy "housekeeper," but she took the part and flew with it. And this might be the SPOILER. Actress Joan Weldon, a woman who had once been in grand opera in real life, came across as way too elegant, smart, and sophisticated to be in love with the scumbag who got murdered. Nevertheless, she was good and fun to watch.
Sylvia Field as Belle Adrian, the murder suspect and mother of Carla (Barbara Eden), played her part very well. Although, in my opinion, her arrest was on rather flimsy evidence and stood out as a weak point in the episode.
Barbara Eden had more to say with her eyes than her mouth but she did it well. Jamie Forster as the judge was great, even though he delivered a couple of lines rather awkwardly and wasn't given credit. Nevertheless, his obvious interest in the proceedings made his role very entertaining. "No further questions?" He yells at Perry Mason. It seems to me there should be a lot of questions." He then turns to the D.A., "Mr. Hale, did you know anything about this?" To which the D.A. replies, "Naturally not, your honor." "Well, you know it now!" The judge bellows.
I even liked the inevitable wrap-up scene, which always tried to end each episode on a laugh but was never funny to anyone but the main characters. Of course, I liked it for all the wrong reasons. The idea of an hors d'oeuvre party after a man had been murdered and another person was probably going to the gas chamber, seemed so callous and cringeworthy it made me chuckle.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Screaming Woman (1958)
A favorite episode
Overall, this episode certainly had its flaws but ended up being one my favorite episodes for several reasons, two of which were Marian Seldes as Mary K. Davis and Ray Collins as Lt. Tragg. This may be the episode where I really began to admire Ray Collins and his expert portrayal of the lieutenant whose dry,spot-on wit often went unnoticed. It also became clear that Mason and Tragg had a mutual respect for one another, understood and appreciated each other's job, and enjoyed their ongoing cat-and-mouse game. It was here that I first began to feel that even when Tragg seemed angry towards Mason, he wasn't necessarily expressing his own sentiments, but carefully working within the system to deliver a warning of what to expect from Hamilton Burger.
We also got to see Della Street on the witness stand and watch Mason's pit-bull-protection of her. This was in stark contrast to "The Case of the Crimson Kiss" where Street was also called to testify. In that episode she kept looking at Mason for objection or direction but got nothing. However, when Mason's client tried to whisper something in his ear, he quickly hushed her up as he continued to doodle on a notepad, never looking up and not cross examining.
Going back to the character of Mary K. Davis, she was certainly an unlikable person but was played to such perfection by Seldes, I hated to see her killed off. With psychotic coldness she delivers the unforgettable line, "There's no use appealing to my better nature, Miss Walsh. I don't have one." There was also her earlier vicious, pistol- toting threat to the good doctor, after which she calmly turns, smiles at Miss Walsh and says, "Goodnight, Miss Walsh. It was so nice seeing you again."
I loved Marian Seldes and I thought Ray Collins was in top form. Also, Barbara Hale was finally given a little more to do. Not that her character got any credit for her contributions--She never did.
There was one legal point that still bothers me. When Burger asks Street if she accepted a special delivery package, Mason immediately insists that he be more specific about the package. To me, that seems like a flaw in Mason's line of defense that Burger missed. What would Mason have done if Burger had proceeded to be more specific? Namely, if he had asked Street if she had accepted a package addressed to Mary K. Davis, aka her maiden name (whatever it was). But, instead of doing that, for no productive reason he introduces the mailman.
How could Mason have objected to Burger doing exactly what Mason himself requested? The next question would be what Street did with said package? Of course, Mason was trying to get discussion about the package dismissed because its relevance to the trial had not been established. But, wasn't it a misstep to ask Burger to be more specific? Also, wasn't there just as much reason to suspect the package contained important evidence as there was to believe the disks contained evidence?
Mrs. Columbo: Caviar with Everything (1979)
A Favorite
I suppose that calling this a favorite episode isn't saying much since I didn't consider any of the "Mrs. Columbo" episodes to be well written. Nevertheless, and in spite of some negative reviews, this was one of the few that I enjoyed. It had nothing to do with having a plausible plot (which it didn't), but rather to the acting skills of Claudette Nevins who was excellent from start to finish, especially in the final scene which did a good job of showcasing her acting. In fact, the last scene was good enough to have been written by a different writer.
As a previous reviewer said, Sam Groom probably did what he could with the foolish lines he was given but, overall, it was hard to watch him most of the time. While the women were updated to the late 70's, poor Sam was left dawdling in the late 50's, early 60's.
For "goof" fanatics, overhead mics can briefly be seen in the final scene.