Welcome back to another edition of Adam's Reviews!! **queue in intro music**
Tonight's movie review is the afterlife comedy Defending Your Life (1991), written, directed and starring Albert Brooks who plays Daniel, a business man who dies in a car accident while driving his new BMW on his birthday. Sucks right? What sucks more is he finds himself defending the decisions he has made during his lifetime in a courtroom purgatory like afterlife known as Judgement City. The premise of the afterlife place is that once you die, you go to court to defend your actions during your life in order to ascend to a higher plane of existence. Daniel meets Julia, played by the queen herself Meryl Streep and soon they both quickly fall in love. The problem is that Daniel may have fears which will lead to a "going back to Earth and restart again" sentence whereas Julia seems to have what it takes to move to the 'next stage' of existence. This movie was smartly done, very imaginative and a different perspective on what happens once you pass away. Albert Brooks does well with the momentum of the film and executes it at a subtle manner.
Albert Brooks movies are not your go to timeless laugh jams - his direction of his flicks are usually simple and smart. That's exactly what this film is, pleasantly amusing, memorable and thoughtful. The scenes of his trial were innovatively handled as its more of a blooper trailer of the decisions his character makes throughout the course of his life. Streep underplays her character really well and the two have good chemistry. The person who really steals the movie to me is Rip Torn who plays Daniels lawyer Bob Diamond, every scene he is in is all laughs and his comedic timing is on point. The scene where he explains to Daniel that the average person on earth only uses three percent of available brain capacity along with defending him in during trial was hilarious. Smart and subtle comedy for a Friday night, overall 7/10
Tonight's movie review is the afterlife comedy Defending Your Life (1991), written, directed and starring Albert Brooks who plays Daniel, a business man who dies in a car accident while driving his new BMW on his birthday. Sucks right? What sucks more is he finds himself defending the decisions he has made during his lifetime in a courtroom purgatory like afterlife known as Judgement City. The premise of the afterlife place is that once you die, you go to court to defend your actions during your life in order to ascend to a higher plane of existence. Daniel meets Julia, played by the queen herself Meryl Streep and soon they both quickly fall in love. The problem is that Daniel may have fears which will lead to a "going back to Earth and restart again" sentence whereas Julia seems to have what it takes to move to the 'next stage' of existence. This movie was smartly done, very imaginative and a different perspective on what happens once you pass away. Albert Brooks does well with the momentum of the film and executes it at a subtle manner.
Albert Brooks movies are not your go to timeless laugh jams - his direction of his flicks are usually simple and smart. That's exactly what this film is, pleasantly amusing, memorable and thoughtful. The scenes of his trial were innovatively handled as its more of a blooper trailer of the decisions his character makes throughout the course of his life. Streep underplays her character really well and the two have good chemistry. The person who really steals the movie to me is Rip Torn who plays Daniels lawyer Bob Diamond, every scene he is in is all laughs and his comedic timing is on point. The scene where he explains to Daniel that the average person on earth only uses three percent of available brain capacity along with defending him in during trial was hilarious. Smart and subtle comedy for a Friday night, overall 7/10