Monthly Archives: April 2022

Daredevil (2003)

09 Saturday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem detailing an alter ego, so a superhero seemed like a prime subject.)

My alter ego you may know;
His fame surpasses mine,
And yet for all our differences,
Our points of view align.
Where I avoid hostility,
My shadow boasts a spine.

Where I will yield at pressure’s grip,
He clings to his ideals.
The fear that dogs me in the day,
The night for him conceals.
And those who propagate that fear,
He follows on their heels.

The scars that scare the rest away,
My counterpart will earn.
And what he does for you and me
It’s best that we don’t learn.
Since bad for bad is good for good,
A blind eye I will turn.
_________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13 (though R for the director’s cut I saw)

I went into Daredevil fully expecting it to be bad since it has gained a reputation as one of the several lame Marvel adaptations that floundered before the MCU found its stride. I wasn’t aware that the director’s cut had a better reputation than the original, so it was just luck that I opted to see the more complete version of the story, before thirty minutes were unwisely cut for theaters. And I was pleasantly surprised by a comic book tale that may be imperfect but not nearly as dismal as I’d heard.

None of the actors are at the top of their game, but it’s still an impressive cast, including a pre-Batman Ben Affleck as “the man without fear” Matt Murdock, a pre-Happy Jon Favreau as his lawyer friend, and a pre-Penguin Colin Farrell as the ruthless assassin Bullseye. Jennifer Garner is decent as love interest and fellow fighter Elektra, while Michael Clarke Duncan steals every scene as the hulking Kingpin, putting his massive height and strength to good use as the imposing criminal mastermind. There are clear echoes of Daredevil’s comic book origins, such as the opening scene of the blind vigilante clinging to a church’s rooftop cross, and even though it plays itself straight with a dark and brooding tone to rival Batman (and minus the aversion to killing), there’s also definite cheesiness on display, with Farrell the worst offender, taking every opportunity to show how irredeemably evil he is.

With its obvious CGI moments and choppy fight editing, Daredevil doesn’t have the special effects polish we’ve come to expect of modern superhero films, so it’s a product of its time, when the first Spider-Man was the best template for a comic book film but was hard to replicate right. I was also surprised to hear the Grammy-winning “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence, which was part of the soundtrack before the song had even been released. There are genuinely good elements in the mix, from Murdock’s movingly tragic childhood to the Catholic subtext to the brutal face-off between Daredevil and Kingpin. So Daredevil may have been a misfire at the time, but it simply paved the way for other Marvel films to be better. (I really ought to see the Netflix series now that the character seems to be entering the MCU in earnest.)

Best line: (Father Everett, to Matt as Daredevil) “Look, a man without fear is a man without hope. May God have mercy on you for your sins and grant you Everlasting Life, Amen. …I’m not too crazy about the outfit, either.”

Rank:  Honorable Mention

© 2022 S.G. Liput
764 Followers and Counting

Werewolves Within (2021)

07 Thursday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a challenge or rebuttal to a famous saying, and “Nice guys finish last” is one that’s always annoyed me.)

“Nice guys finish last,” you say? I take offense at that.
For I take pride in being nice. It’s never fallen flat.
Good attitudes are rare enough to be of note these days,
To brighten someone else’s life, however brief the blaze.
The cruel may get ahead but likely not to paradise;
The hares can scoff and hasten off, but tortoises play nice.

I’ve never once lamented being nice to someone yet,
For what’s the opposite except immediate regret?
I’d rather be the person who can dry another’s tears
With just a smile or open door or pair of open ears.
The bad boys roll their eyes and think they’ll never pay a price.
Well, bless their hearts right off the charts, ‘cause dang it, I am nice!
_________________________________

MPA rating:  R (for language and violence)

While some like Ghostbusters are exceptions, horror comedy has never been a genre of interest to me since it so often relies on gore for comedic effect, finding humor in shock value, which isn’t my cup of tea. Yet the premise of Werewolves Within caught my attention, since I love the “one-of-us-does-not-belong” style of mystery, even if I’ve never played the video game on which the film is very loosely based. (On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s now the highest-rated film based on a video game.) Set in the notoriously quirky mountains of Vermont, the film features an array of colorful characters, including jovial new forest ranger Finn (Sam Richardson), likable mail carrier Cecily (Milana Vayntrub, a.k.a. Lily from the AT&T commercials), environmentalist Dr. Ellis (Rebecca Henderson), and many more, all snowed in together as a murderer seems to be picking them off one by one.

From the visiting oil man trying to lay a pipeline to the wealthy gay couple to the unstable woman obsessed with her lap dog, there is no shortage of suspects, some of which could have used more character development beyond their quirks, and no one can be entirely dismissed as the culprit when a dead body is discovered. Despite the title, there’s even lasting doubt about whether the werewolf is a possibility at all. Through it all, Sam Richardson’s Finn is especially a joy, displaying and advocating for a folksy niceness that even makes him reluctant to swear while the rest of the cast are in panic mode. He and Vayntrub are an endearing pair amid all the doubt and chaos, even though they remain suspects as well. Werewolves Within has the feel of an instant cult classic, sort of the werewolf counterpart to The Lost Boys, managing decently campy scares alongside endearingly eccentric humor. Despite some R-rated content, it was one horror comedy I enjoyed immensely.

Best line: (Finn Wheeler) “Well, we’re having a good old-fashioned sleepover.”
(Marcus) “With guns, though.”
(Finn) “With guns, yes.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting

Nightmare Alley (2021)

06 Wednesday Apr 2022

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(For Day 6 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was to write an acrostic poem, not spelling out something with the first letter of each line but using the first word of each line to form some phrase or quote, so I chose a classic line of Walter Scott poetry that sums up so many dark stories.)

Oh, I know
What you desire,
A listening ear to stem your fear,
Tangled up and dire.
Web of anger, web of grief – either one
We fall into –
Weave around us
When they’ve found us,
First a lie, then gravely true.
We wish to believe, and we
Practice that creed, if only
To try to
Deceive our own greed.
_____________________

MPA rating:  R (mainly for language and scattered but graphic violence)

Every few years, there comes along a Best Picture nominee that dwells on the sordid saga of someone’s lies taken to an extreme, prompting me to sum up the theme with the Walter Scott quote from my acrostic poem above. The last was Parasite, and while Nightmare Alley didn’t achieve the same awards love of that film, it’s still a chillingly effective and handsomely-made period piece. Based on a 1946 film by William Lindsay Gresham, which already had a film adaptation in 1947, Nightmare Alley follows Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) from an apparent murder scene to a Depression-era carnival, where he learns the ropes of mentalism and carny hokum from a pair of faux psychics (Toni Collette, David Strathairn). After wooing an assistant (Rooney Mara) and taking his own mentalist show on the road, he becomes entangled with aloof psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett) as they seek to pull off bigger and more dangerous cons.

I haven’t seen many of director Guillermo del Toro’s other films, but, comparing this one to Pan’s Labyrinth, Nightmare Alley is unique in its lack of supernatural elements but also shares some of his favorite excesses, like the dark and slick aesthetic and moments of bloody violence that could have been toned down. The noir production design is especially laudable, from the shadowy grotesquerie of the carnival to the art deco elegance of Dr. Ritter’s office, and it could have earned an Oscar or two if Dune hadn’t swept the technical categories.

I was dissatisfied at first with Cooper’s portrayal of Carlisle, who seemed rather wooden, like too much of a blank page, at the beginning. Yet as the film wore on through its overlong two and a half hours, I realized that was intentional, as Carlisle absorbed the carny wiles of his friends in the first half, gradually becoming more and more confident in himself and his powers of persuasion until his house of cards falls. And boy, does it fall hard! I was surprised that Cooper didn’t warrant a Best Actor nomination for the range of emotions his character undergoes, but all of the actors did an excellent job across the board.

Nightmare Alley is certainly a dark drama, with cold people doing cruel things as they weave that tangled web, but I found it surprisingly riveting (minus the violence). It’s hard to say whether a moral can be gleaned from the story beyond “trust no one,” but based on advice from Willem Dafoe’s seasoned carnival barker, one of the themes seems to be how people can know exactly the ruin where their path is leading and still fail to turn from it, first noticed in Carlisle’s growing alcoholism. I’m curious now to see how the original 1946 film compares, since I assume it’s largely the same story without the R rating. Ultimately, Nightmare Alley just couldn’t stand out enough in its crowded field, but it is an awards-caliber film nonetheless.

Best line: (Carlisle) “Sometimes you don’t see the line until you cross it.”

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting

Free Guy (2021)

05 Tuesday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to depict a mythical or fictional person/creature doing something unusual, so I took a cue from the watered-down depictions in video games.)

We are the fierce and mighty ones, the villains and the threats,
Who thrive on crime and murder with no sorrow or regrets.
We’ve kept you up at night and made our way into your dreams,
And broken laws with teeth and claws, with swords and laser beams.
We feed our greed and hunger as our few defining truths,
Our sanity is doubtful, and we haven’t any ruths.
We are the Terminator and the Alien and Joker
(The versions that are threatening and not the mediocre),
The Predator and Dracula and all the heroes’ foes,
Who’d burn the world to ashes if we’d no one to oppose.
Designed to be disturbing and created to be hated,
We nonetheless admit to being thoroughly frustrated.
What do we have in common, we the kings of scourge and glutton?
We’re forced to pose and dance around when gamers hit a button.
______________________________

MPA rating: PG-13

I’ll just start out by acknowledging that I am not a gamer in any way. I fell away from my Game Boy Advance over a decade ago, and while I wouldn’t mind playing games, I just can’t seem to find the time for it. So I am not exactly the target demographic for Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds’ good-natured riff on open-world games like Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto, complete with cameos from real Twitch streamers I barely recognize. Still, there’s great fun to be had in what is essentially a digital reimagining of The Truman Show.

Reynolds plays the optimistic Guy, a bank teller in Free City whose status as a non-player character (NPC) ensures he obliviously enjoys day after day of violence as players wreak havoc around him. When he notices an avatar called Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer), he achieves unexpected sentience as he falls in love, unaware that she is controlled in the real world by a game designer named Millie (also Comer). Millie is searching Free City for evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the game studio’s CEO Antwan (Taika Waititi, acting oddly like a jerkier version of Tom Haverford from Parks and Recreation), and soon she and Guy must risk it all to save his digital world.

My VC has a hang-up with video game-themed films like this or Wreck-It Ralph, simply finding it hard to care at all about characters in a game. I can understand that view to a point, but Free Guy does well in balancing the stakes in both the real world and Guy’s computer-generated sphere. Guy himself questions his own meaning when he learns the truth of his existence, and his buddy… um, Buddy (Lil Rel Howery) provides an answer that puts their purpose on an individual level that is hard to argue with. Of course, Free Guy is full-on comedy action, but I liked little moments like that, as well as an underlying theme challenging the wanton violence in games like GTA in favor of decency.

Not every joke lands among Ryan Reynolds’ mountain of quips, but enough do to still make Free Guy a fun watch. I also liked seeing Joe Keery from Stranger Things as Millie’s programmer friend who works for Antwan, not to mention the loads of cameos, ranging from another Stranger Things alum to a Marvel nod that easily earned the biggest laugh. I especially loved a brief clip of the late great Alex Trebek giving a mock Jeopardy clue, which reflected how long Free Guy had been delayed by the pandemic. Buoyed by impressive effects and an infectious spirit of optimism, Free Guy may be a new skin on familiar ingredients, but it certainly knows how to entertain.

Best line: (Guy) “Life doesn’t have to be something that just happens to us.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting

Finch (2021)

04 Monday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem in the form of a poem prompt. Based on the examples given, I went beyond the limits of time and science fiction for this one.)

Where only his machines remain,
Go forward to the end of man.
Seek out the few who walk the plain,
Who rust and memory contain,
Who live beyond what humans can.

Inspect their logs or ask them straight
The last word they heard humans speak:
A dying breath, a parting hate,
Decision to “deactivate,”
The hopeful blending with the bleak.

Combine each word or final phrase
And let them marry in the mind.
Then add a touch of quiet praise
To those who still recall those days
And leave the poem for them to find.
______________________

Best line:  PG-13

I love Tom Hanks. Who doesn’t love Tom Hanks? Assuming he doesn’t do something wildly unexpected, like slap someone onstage, he has earned his place as one of America’s most beloved actors, and my VC and I would probably watch any new release if he’s in it. So it’s no surprise that a film placing him in a desolate future with only a robot and a dog promised the same kind of strong solo acting that Cast Away boasted. Finch doesn’t reinvent any wheels, but it’s one more proof that Hanks is an acting army unto himself.

A lone survivor on a future earth scorched by an intensified sun, Hank’s Finch Weinberg shelters in an abandoned lab in St. Louis and scavenges for supplies with a radiation suit. Knowing his death is inevitable, he uses his robotics expertise to build a humanoid bot named Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones) to care for his dog Goodyear after he is gone. When a deadly storm approaches, Finch has no choice but to pack up his solar-powered RV and set out on a road trip west, where they at least have a chance at survival, all the while teaching the child-like Jeff how to drive, play, and live.

There’s natural charm in the interactions of Finch, Jeff, and Goodyear, with Finch as the exasperated parent trying to train his wards how to survive in the wasteland. Hanks is more than up to the task and fills his character with stoic pathos, while Landry’s vocal work and the seamless special effects humanize Jeff as an overeager caretaker to join cinema’s great lovable robots. There may not be that much unique about the downbeat, lone-survivor dystopia, but Hanks and his non-human companions nail a range of emotions to make Finch well worth a watch.

Best line: (Finch, angry at Jeff) “I know you were born yesterday, but it’s time for you to grow up.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting

Gattaca (1997)

03 Sunday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a Spanish glosa, which is a form that takes a quatrain from an existing poem and answers or explains it, using each line in the quatrain as the final line in each of the new poem’s four stanzas. I ignored the form’s usual ten-line stanza in favor of imitating the original poem; in my case, I used the third stanza from “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson, which has a short tale of crushing expectation that went well with this film.)

We praised a man geneticists had blessed,
His silver spoon from birth still carrying.
His wealth was how he outshone all the rest,
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—

His skin was flawless, health beyond compare,
With only confidence upon his face.
He seemed at home and happy anywhere
And admirably schooled in every grace:

He had been bred to evermore excel,
In sport and science, art and book and string.
He barely seemed to try, and he did well;
In fine, we thought that he was everything.

But then the fateful day arrived to shock:
Our hero came in second in a race!
How had we fools allowed this laughingstock
To make us wish that we were in his place?
________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

Science fiction is so often associated with massive spaceships, alien invaders, time travelers, and robot dystopias that it can be easy to overlook the more understated entries in the genre. Gattaca, the debut feature of Andrew Niccol, is a prime example of speculative fiction, presenting a believable vision of a world that’s taken some societal vice or virtue to an extreme. In this case, the search for perfection has led to unbridled eugenics, allowing mankind to literally breed its flaws away, for the privileged anyway.

A young Ethan Hawke plays Vincent Freeman, the product of a natural birth or “In-Valid” whose projected probability of heart failure and mental problems immediately labeled him a failure from the delivery room. Dreaming of going to space despite never being able to physically qualify for such a high-value career, Vincent is connected with Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), a Valid whose near-perfect genetics do him little good since he’s in a wheelchair. Taking on Jerome’s identity via borrowed blood, urine, and DNA samples, Vincent fakes his way into the space program of Gattaca and seems poised to make his dream a reality until a murder on the premises results in his former identity becoming the prime suspect.

Niccol’s other work like The Truman Show and In Time (a film I enjoyed more than most) prove how skilled he is at setting determined protagonists against a system stacked against them, and Gattaca falls into that same mold. While it glosses over the rampant abortion necessary for this eugenics dystopia, there are a host of themes at play as Vincent rebels against his assigned potential:  the limitations of science in determining a person’s worth without regard for effort, the pressure on those who have every reason to excel and somehow still fall short, the risks of taking screening procedures and only-the-best scrutiny too far, the quiet desperation of those who don’t approve of a system but feel too powerless to change it.

All of these themes play out while also keeping the murder mystery intriguing as two detectives (Loren Dean, Alan Arkin) rely on advanced DNA testing to track down the killer. Vincent’s clever efforts to conceal his true identity add to the tension, and his camaraderie with the real Jerome grows deeper with time as Jerome adopts Vincent’s dream as his own to an extent, even encouraging him to keep going when continuing their shared fraud gets riskier. Uma Thurman as Vincent’s love interest doesn’t have much to do, but she illustrates her own burdens of self-consciousness.

Gattaca is one of those films that deserves the clichéd accolades about “the triumph of the human spirit.” Michael Nyman’s score is subtly majestic and lump-inducing at key moments, and Vincent’s journey becomes a well-earned inspiration by the end. Despite warm reviews, it’s one more sci-fi winner that failed at the box office and deserves so much more attention than it got. Still, the film has already made an impact on the public perception of the potential prejudices of genetic engineering. From the advent of technologies like CRISPR to the danger of “common-sense” biases, its themes continue to be relevant twenty-five years later.

Best line: (Vincent) “They have got you looking so hard for any flaw that after a while that’s all that you see.”

Rank:  List-Worthy

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

02 Saturday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a poem inspired by a tweet from Haggard Hawks, an account that posts obscure English vocabulary. I liked this post on déjà vu and its variants, like déjà entendu (“the feeling you’ve heard something before”), so I used it for Hollywood’s incessant habit of churning out remakes and reboots.)

An alien far out in space was lounging in his ship,
Content to intercept the many signals from the earth.
He loved the so-called “movies” on his decades-spanning trip,
And though the words were Greek to him, he theorized their worth.

The stories held his fancy, stoking joy and shock and awe,
For nothing from his planet was original like these.
But gradually he noticed creativity withdraw,
With déjà vu and entendu in cyclical reprise.

“Now wait a zeptosecond,” he protested to his screen.
“The earthlings may be different, but I’ve seen this tale before.
That killer in the mask is one I’ve definitely seen.
That RoboCop got two at least; that star who’s born got four.

“That ship that’s flipped and upside down, that planet full of apes,
That ‘alien’ that made me laugh at how wrong humans are,
And all these superheroes with their uniforms and capes;
That spider guy especially must be quite popular.

“I fear that human beings must have reached their mental limit
If they’ve taken to recycling what dazzled in the past.
For any globe, there’s only so much innovation in it.
Perhaps I’ll find some younger planet’s budding telecast.”
______________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

It’s difficult to appraise Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man films in retrospect the same as when they first came out. Five years after Spider-Man 3 seemed too soon for a reboot (never mind that Tom Holland’s Spidey would come just two years after Andrew Garfield’s second film), and Andrew Garfield was a largely unknown actor inevitably compared with the beloved Tobey Maguire. (All three Maguire films are beloved in my house anyway.) Now that No Way Home has been able to play on our short-term nostalgia for Garfield’s films, it’s hard to look at them the same way, but I’ll try to appraise them fairly since I did rewatch them in preparation for No Way Home.

The first Amazing Spider-Man is not a bad film, just a largely forgettable one that treads some of the same ground that the original Spider-Man did better. (It’s no wonder Holland’s films decided to forgo the origin setup entirely.) Garfield’s Peter Parker is a loner geek who still displays a backbone, pining for high school overachiever Gwen Stacy (the always lovely Emma Stone) and bristling at the guidance of his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). I still wish that a fourth Maguire Spider-Man film could have turned the old Dr. Curt Connors (Dylan Baker) into the villainous Lizard since there would have been more history with his character, but Rhys Ifans is serviceable in the role here, sort of a generic alpha predator bent on “curing” humanity.

The Amazing Spider-Man feels like a film that’s desperately trying to set itself apart from its predecessor, including a more realistic tone and lots of peripheral subplots around the all-too-familiar ingredients of the Spider-Man origin story. What happened with Peter’s disappearing parents? What’s up with the unseen Norman Osborne supposedly on his deathbed? Who’s that man in the shadows? It all feels like it should be more interesting, but it comes off as rather prosaic and extraneous. In lieu of an MJ, perhaps the best new addition is Peter and Gwen’s budding romance in the shadow of her stern policeman father (Denis Leary), who proves to Peter how dangerous the hero gig is for those around him. The couple’s awkward banter feels realistic for a pair of high-school students, though it also highlights that the script is generally rather weak on dialogue.

As I said before, The Amazing Spider-Man is a decent superhero film with good performances, an excellent James Horner score, an instantly classic Stan Lee cameo, and the expected impressive, high-flying visuals; it simply pales in comparison with Sam Raimi’s films, as well as the MCU ones. I hate to label Garfield as third-best Spider-Man when his future outings have improved his character and I’ve come to really like him as an actor. This first film simply shows that he and Emma Stone had a bright career ahead of them, considering they were both nominated for Oscars just a few years later. Every Spidey has to start somewhere.

Best line: (Uncle Ben’s voicemail) “If anyone’s destined for greatness, it’s you, son. You owe the world your gifts. You just have to figure out how to use them and know that wherever they take you, we’ll always be here. So, come on home, Peter. You’re my hero… and I love you!”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting

VC Pick: Three Men and a Baby (1987)

01 Friday Apr 2022

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(For Day 1 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was to write a prose poem that is “a story about the body.” While prose poems are an oxymoron and not my cup of tea, I did my best with a focus on a baby’s small body being attended by a frenzied father.)

It was a little body that lay on the changing table, arms flailing, legs kicking, voice attuned to a jarring key to banish all repose. Above the infant, a man scrambled, spurred by the cacophony before him to end it by means he had yet to learn. Forced by need and desire for quiet, he seized the duty he once believed was meant for women, and learn he did. His tools were diaper, powder, wipe, and pin. “I wish I could remember,” he said with hollow chuckle, “what my folks did when I was little like you.” But with every inch and pound his own body had grown, he had forgotten, just as the child he aided now would forget the man tending her. Like a sullied diaper tossed as quickly as it had fulfilled its purpose, the baby’s short memory would drop away. But what the baby had no need of, the man would keep, echoes irksome but dear, long after that body had ceased to be so little.
_____________________________________

MPA rating:  PG (definitely a PG-13 by today’s standards)

It’s been far too long since I reviewed a film suggested by my dear Viewing Companion (VC), whose recommendations have fallen by the wayside amid Blindspots and new releases, so this one is way overdue. Before this, I was only familiar with the 1987 hit Three Men and a Baby via the persistent urban legend that a ghost boy can be glimpsed in a window in one scene. That theory has been explained as just a cardboard cutout of Ted Danson, but the dark legend has overshadowed a largely likable film about three men forced to grapple with responsibility as impromptu fathers.

Directed by Leonard Nimoy of all people, Three Men and a Baby’s title trio are Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson, all at the height of their ‘80s careers and playing hedonistic bachelors sharing a large New York apartment. Soon, little baby Mary is dropped off at their doorstep, the product of a tryst Danson’s character had in London, and, due to his absence for a movie role, the other two are forced to care for her. There’s a further misunderstanding involving drugs to add some threat to the plot, but the real story is the transformation of the main three, who are not particularly likable at first but gradually grow into their roles as adoptive parents.

With how often the idea has been recycled in film and television, there must be implicit humor at the sight of inexperienced people scrambling in the face of childcare. Like the cross-dressing of Some Like It Hot and others, I don’t really get what is inherently funny about the concept, but it can be done well still. Baby Boom is my favorite such film, but Three Men and a Baby has its moments as the three men grow fond of their charge, whose cuteness is undeniable. There are also moments that I highly doubt would fly in a modern semi-family film, such as full infant nudity during diaper changing, but I suppose it’s just proof that times change. It was interesting to see Nancy Travis of Last Man Standing in a small role as the baby’s mother and feigning a British accent. While the lasting popularity of Three Men and a Baby (a Disney+ remake is in the works) is likely due to its stars rather than the film itself, it’s a pleasant slice of ‘80s entertainment to give young people an idea of what their parents went through.

Best line: (Michael, played by Guttenberg, trying to sing Mary to sleep) “Hush little baby, don’t you cry. When Peter gets home, I’m gonna punch him in the eye.”

Rank:  Honorable Mention

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763 Followers and Counting