Three Tenors '98 World Cup Paris (1998), 7+

2h 5min | Music | TV Special 10 July 1998

Third version of a mutual concert of the superstar trio.

Director: Mathias Ledoux

Stars: José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, James Levine.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0500189/

Another good concert, with production flaws: the cameras were not poised to catch the facial exchanges of the trio when they performed together, and one went rogue, as happened in both prior concerts. LP hit an extra high note, surprising the others, but we saw only the backs of their heads. JC appears to have given LP something from his pocket, but we don't see what it is. This camaraderie is half the fun of their concerts, and this crew missed it.

Also, the mics caught their voices well, but not the applause. This was a vast open space, and we get visual audience reactions, but the applause sounds tepid; I doubt it was.

Except for a Xmas disc (which I'll skip), this is the last of the released concerts; more are on YouTube.

Rated 7.9 (64)

(none), dir. Ledoux; 7+

Feet of Flames (1998), 8

1h 54min | Documentary, Music | Video

Feet of Flames grew out of Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance, which itself sprung from the original dance concert Riverdance in which Michael was a performer. Each new incarnation was an improvement over the previous until Feet of Flames was performed before a live audience of 25,000 attendees at Hyde Park in the center of London on July 25, 1998. This show can be viewed as a three act performance with the innovation that for the first time Celtic Dancers were told to use their arms as a part of their choreography.

Directors: Michael Flatley, David Mallet

Stars: Michael Flatley, Bernadette Flynn, Leigh Anne McKenna.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0208140/

Most enjoyable when the dancers tap. The finale + encores utilize an amazing number of dancers on 3 or 4 levels onstage. As usual, too much cutting to various camera angles/distances, but given the style of dance, where dancers mostly move legs in place, over-cutting is not so annoying here.

Supposedly MF's last show, but we have IMDb entries in '11 and '14. The extra doc'y on the making of this show is also good stuff.

Rated 8.5 (438)

(none), dir. Flatley & Mallet; 8

Passion of Love (1981), 9 {nm}

Passione d'amore (original title)
1h 57min | Drama, Romance | 7 May 1981
In the 1860s, Giorgio (Giraudeau), a young Italian soldier, is sent to a remote post, far away from his lover, Clara (Antonelli). He is lodged in the house of the colonel (Girotti). He becomes friends with the colonel and the local doctor (Trintignant). Among the inhabitants of the house there is a strange young woman: Fosca (d'Obici) who is both unattractive and mad. However, she has a passion that Giorgio will have to cope with.
Director: Ettore Scola
Stars: Valeria D'Obici, Bernard Giraudeau, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Massimo Girotti, Laura Antonelli.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082883/
This disc is only 1h 52.5min. It came with a note explaining it was a promo disc for the press, and might be different than the theatrical release.

Antecedent to Sondheim: Passion (1996), 8. I wish I had watched this one first, but maybe not. Maybe the dense unintelligibility of the musical would be absent after the clarity of this. 

I also wish someone would create an English-dubbed version; the Italian dialog is not in sync with the faces anyway, and some subtitles are onscreen so briefly that I couldn't read the whole thing. (English is the 2nd ST track, labeled poorly.)

I'm fascinated with Fosca's vocal (and physical) fits. Once she announced one was coming on. I wonder if there is some form of epilepsy like it.

I like the musical aspect of Sondheim's version, but the ugliness of Fosca is too central to the story, and the Fosca of Sondheim's production is merely plain. Overall, this is better, but I have a strong preference for film over stage, and we got more visual cues here that were useful. I may be too generous with my 9, but there it is.

Rated 7.3 (717)

indie, dir. Scola; 9

Chances Are (1989), 7- {nm}

PG | 1h 48min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance | 10 March 1989
A reincarnated man unknowingly falls in love with his own daughter from his previous life. Once he realizes this, he tries to end their relationship before angels erase his memory.
Director: Emile Ardolino
Stars: Cybill Shepherd, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan O'Neal, Mary Stuart Masterson, Christopher McDonald.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097044/
disc arrived; remembered this fondly, so I sought it.

Didn't hold up quite as well as I remembered, mostly for a plot logic flaw: I didn't really understand why CS suddenly let go of RD in favor of RO. She explains it "objectively" as they've both changed, but I guess it's also weird that she doesn't "discover" she's in love with RO until they kiss. And since she was expecting RD, seems strange that she'd accept substitute RO. (I'm trying to figure out my gut reaction.) The whole "I'll meet you at midnight" thing was pretty weird too.

The clincher for making me buy this was director Ardolino (look at TV too). Highlights: Dirty Dancing ('87), Sister Act ('92) and Gypsy ('93).

Rated 6.4 (9,582)

TriStar & more, dir. Ardolino; 7-

Only You (1994), 6+ {nm}

PG | 1h 55min | Comedy, Romance | 7 October 1994
As a teen, Faith was told that her destiny is a man named Damon Bradley. Years later - Faith is about to marry another man - a Damon Bradley calls to wish them all the best. Faith blows off the wedding and follows Damon to Italy.
Director: Norman Jewison
Stars: Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr., Bonnie Hunt, Fisher Stevens.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110737/
disc arrived, part of 2-film set with Chances Are ('89).

Sweet film, engaging story, cute characters, not quite recommendable, but close.

Rated 6.5 (17,705)

TriStar & more, dir. Jewison; 6+

Sleepless in Seattle (1993), 8 {nm}

PG | 1h 45min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | 25 June 1993
A recently widowed man's son calls a radio talk-show in an attempt to find his father a partner.
Director: Nora Ephron
Stars: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Ross Malinger, Bill Pullman, Rosie O'Donnell.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108160/
disc arrived. Bought while browsing online store.

It's been a long time since I've seen this, and it holds up well. I'm also a fan of the film excerpted within, An Affair to Remember ('57).

Rated 6.8 (140,886)

TriStar, dir. Ephron; 8

Everyone Says I Love You (1996), 6

R | 1h 41min | Comedy, Musical, Romance | 20 September 1996
A New York girl sets her father up with a beautiful woman in a troubled marriage while her stepsister gets engaged.
Writer/Director: Woody Allen
Stars: Woody Allen, Goldie Hawn, Julia Roberts, Alan Alda.
Graciela Daniele ... choreographer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116242/

disc just arrived

25 songs in the Soundtracks; estimated average publication date of these songs is 1930.

Cute film, not great.

2 standout dance numbers: the Groucho ball and the rivershore wire dance (see poster; GH gets pulled and lifted a lot by invisible wires).

Edward Norton, the young romantic interest for Drew Barrymore, was a good replica of young WA, without the glasses and poor posture. But his speech pattern seemed to imitate WA.

Everyone seemed to sing their own songs, but that's not reflected much in the Soundtracks. If they didn't, the dubbers definitely sang "down" to the amateur level.

Good to have this to see what passes for a casual musical in '96.

Rated 6.8 (33,025)

Miramax & more, dir. Allen; 6

Othello (1995), 8

R | 2h 3min | Drama, Romance | 15 December 1995
The Moorish general Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his lieutenant Michael Cassio when in reality it is all part of the scheme of a bitter ensign named Iago.
Director: Oliver Parker
Stars: Laurence Fishburne, Kenneth Branagh, Irène Jacob, Nathaniel Parker, Michael Maloney, Anna Patrick.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114057/

IMDb trivia: "The first time an African-American was cast in the title role in a movie version of Othello."

I had watched this online a week or so ago, and ordered the disc.

I like this a lot. KB's Iago is extra creepy, perhaps because he's a handsome man, and when he addresses the camera it grabs my attention more than others. LF's Othello gives us plenty of emotions.

Rated 6.9 (8,389)

distr. Columbia, dir. Parker; 8

Othello (1951), 8 and Filming 'Othello' (1978), 8 {nm}

1h 30min | Drama, History, Romance | 27 November 1951
The Moorish general Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his lieutenant Michael Cassio when in reality it is all part of the scheme of a bitter ensign named Iago.
Director: Orson Welles
Stars: Orson Welles, Micheál MacLiammóir, Robert Coote, Suzanne Cloutier.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045251/

I can't say I watched this very carefully. The discs have both the '52 European release and the '55 US version, but the differences seem superficial and/or too subtle for me to detect.

At 93 minutes, this is of course a much-abridged version of the 3h+ play. The basics and important details are preserved, but many rich nuances are redacted. If someone were launching their first study of the play, this might be a place to start before trying to absorb the entire text. For me, having seen the Verdi opera in 2 different productions and 3 other films of the play, this is a welcome addition.

The extra features are worthwhile, including the short-ish video essays on disc 1. The best extra is the feature-length essay by Welles listed below.

Rated 7.7 (6,489)

distr. UA ('55 USA), dir. Welles; 8

1h 24min | Documentary | 10 July 1978

Essay film shot for TV including Orson Welles reflections on Othello close to the Moviola, a chat with Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir and fragments of a conversation with the audience in Boston after a screening of the film.

Writer/Director: Orson Welles

Stars: Orson Welles, Micheál MacLiammóir, Hilton Edwards.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077547/

Welles could have made money just by selling recordings of his raconteur ramblings. This is more organized and planned than rambled, but given that some footage is lunch conversation with MM & HE, it rambles, pleasantly so; I particularly liked their definitions contrasting jealousy and envy. Although some of the shorter video essays on disc 1 covered some of the same factual history of the film, Welles' words and voice are extremely welcome. He is, if not completely objective, working hard to tilt neither toward self-aggrandizement nor self-pity.

Rated 7.5 (307)

indie, dir. Welles; 8

None But the Lonely Heart (1944), 7 {nm}

Passed | 1h 53min | Drama, Romance | 17 October 1944
When an itinerant reluctantly returns home to help his sickly mother run her shop, they are both tempted to turn to crime to help make ends meet.
Director: Clifford Odets
Stars: Cary Grant, Ethel Barrymore, Barry Fitzgerald, George Coulouris.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037135/
just got an official release to replace the bootleg I had.

A very different CG performance, playing a lower-class character with very little charm. He makes unexpected choices which make sense with hindsight, but only if you accept that he's changing.

This is also pro-war propaganda, although that is only mentioned as bookends, as though tacked on. This is not gung-ho for war; just says it's sometimes necessary. The time within the film is stil the 30s.

I don't want to discuss the film. I'd seen it before, but didn't remember enough to realize/remember what was going to happen. I'd rather have that experience again in the future. But I previously rated this 7.

Rated 6.6 (1,962)

RKO, dir. Odets; 7

The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot (1998), 8

G | 1h 26min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy | 15 May 1998
An adventurous girl, a young blind hermit, and a goofy two-headed dragon race to find the lost sword Excalibur to save King Arthur and Camelot from disaster.
Director: Frederik Du Chau
Stars: Jessalyn Gilsig, Cary Elwes, Gary Oldman, Eric Idle, Don Rickles, Jane Seymour, Pierce Brosnan, Bronson Pinchot, Jaleel White, Gabriel Byrne, John Gielgud.
Kenny Ortega ... choreographer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120800/
disc arrived; only bought this because it came with another film I wanted.

13 songs in the Soundtracks. 11 Written by Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster (including 1 with Steve Perry also).

Didn't realize KO was choreographer until I saw it scroll past in the credits. Next time watch for "dance" to see what he might have contributed.

JG is the young heroine, CE the young blind hero, GO the evil knight, EI & DR the 2-headed dragon, JS the mother, PB King Arthur, BP the Griffin, JW the bird with an ax-beak, GB as the heroine's father, Sir JG as Merlin. EI, PB and JG voices jumped out at me; surprisingly none of the others.

It took me a while to get over the improbability of a knight of the Round Table being so equality-minded that he essentially encourages his daughter in her aspirations to be a knight. Then we find out he also did so with the blind former stable boy.

The creatures are quite imaginative, and their attributes are used well in the story. The 2-headed dragon walks like the heads are controlling each side of the body independently, which causes other problems of coordination. When the heads finally agree on a common goal, they regain all their dragon-ly powers.

The rock ogre is fascinating to see; apparently CGI created with software intended for live-action special effects, he looks much more 3D than the rest of the film, but he's so different (and onscreen so briefly) that it just enhances his magical nature.

The story has enough going on to be interesting, and requires more than casual attention to get it. I've run the film a few times now, and it holds up to repeated viewing.

Stick around for the credits, because deep in (the last song) they give us Andrea Bocelli singing the mother's Prayer song, and wow does it sound great. I'm not a big AB fan, but when he sings it, it really sounds like something to be offered in church by an expert soloist. He sings it in Italian or Spanish or maybe Latin. Too bad it doesn't last longer.

The songs during the film are a bit much. Especially the love songs seem too frequent, and then when one of the singers says they need to hurry, my reaction is "don't sing so much". They are pretty tunes, but nothing that stays in my head.

Per an extra feature, this is the first full-length animated film for the new Warner Bros Feature Animation unit, formed after all the Animaniacs and other series of the new wave for Warner animation.

Rated 6.3 (13,017)

Warner & more, dir. Du Chau; 8

The Rat Pack (1998), 6

R | 2h | Drama, Musical | TV Movie 22 August 1998

The public and private lives of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford.

Director: Rob Cohen

Stars: Ray Liotta, Joe Mantegna, Don Cheadle, Angus Macfadyen.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146165/

Watched online, horrible print: fuzzy, audio out of sync.

15 songs in the Soundtracks. Only a couple of songs have RL & DC performed, and those are together, one with additional cast. Otherwise, it appears that they have song doubles.

This should not be tagged Musical; it's Music at best. No one sings about the story or their feelings. Then again, if I accept Alice Faye singing in a radio studio as a Musical, so should this be. Except I'd bet she did full songs more often. I think we only get 1 full song here.

The film covers 1960-62, although we see some flashbacks to earlier times. Major world events are covered in headlines floating across the screen, as are some press coverage of the Rat Pack's lives. But the big bookends are Kennedy's campaign for President and Kennedy declining to stay in Sinatra's Palm Springs home after Frank has built onto it just for him. Bobby nixed it based on the Giancana connection with Judy Campbell. (Yes, this is deep enough into '62 that MM has died.)

RL's laugh is so distinctive, not like FS's voice at all. But we can't expect a copy.

This portrays the FS/PL relationship as horribly volatile; they parted at least once before the film begins, apparently because PL escorted Ava Gardner somewhere. The second time, ending the film, is when JFK will be staying at Bing Crosby's PS home instead of Frank's. (PL is brother-in-law to JFK, and has been roped into being messenger, expected to be effective persuader.) 

The film does nothing to improve my impression of FS after reading a biography that ended with his winning the Oscar for From Here To Eternity ('53) and his marriage with Ava crumbling or over. During this film he's shown in bed with her again, but not for long. She leaves abruptly when he won't hang up during a call from a mobster.

Rated 6.7 (2,700)

HBO & more, dir. Cohen; 6

marker: started looking for Musical TV Movies starting with 1998

The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride (1998), 6

G | 1h 21min | Animation, Adventure, Family | Video 27 Oct 1998

Simba's daughter is the key to a resolution of a bitter feud between Simba's pride and the outcast pride led by the mate of Scar.

Directors: Darrell Rooney, Rob LaDuca (co-director)

Stars: Matthew Broderick, Neve Campbell, Andy Dick, Robert Guillaume, Nathan Lane, Suzanne Pleshette, Ernie Sabella.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120131/

Watched online, good print.

6 songs in the Soundtracks, plus a reprise.

Decent sequel. Engaging story.

I'm very fuzzy about whose cub Kovu is. He seems to be the son of Scar's wife, but not Scar's son. And by the end of the film he seems mated to Kiara, Simba's daughter and Scar's great niece.

Interesting that this precedes Lion King 1.5.

I didn't recognize SP or AD, or NC for that matter. But did recognize MB, RG and NL. NL & ES as Timor and the warthog were not quite so obnoxious here. But maybe that's relative to the story, which may not have been so consistently intense as the original.

Interesting (vocally) that James Earl Jones has Matthew Broderick as a son.

Rated 6.5 (51,078)

Disney, dir. Rooney & LaDuca; 6

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie (1998), 5

G | 1h 23min | Animation, Adventure, Family | 16 October 1998
When Rudolph is born with a red nose he is bullied through out his younger years, but when Stormella closes her bridge of to the public and threaten to put Santa out of business for good ... 
Director: William R. Kowalchuk Jr.
Stars: John Goodman, Bob Newhart, Whoopi Goldberg, Debbie Reynolds, Bob Newhart, Eric Idle.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137201/
Watched online, ok print.

12 songs in the Soundtracks.

Not only is this Kiddie Korn, but it's Holiday KK. Not in my enjoyment zone.

And yes, they turned the simple Xmas song into an 83min film. They had to add some characters and situations, but they followed the song fairly well. The "reindeer games" turned into a competition for possible recruitment to the flying team (Santa's sleigh).

JG is Santa, who's not onscreen much, and DR has multiple parts but is still not onscreen much. I did notice BN, who was a polar bear featured in the last few scenes. Did not notice EI, in maybe a few more scenes than BN.

Who stood out was WG as the evil queen Stormella, who controlled the bridge to Santa's Village, and when she decided to close it, the penalty for using it was to conjure a major storm.

Rudolph's response to being bullied is to run away from home, which causes his gf Doe to come looking for him, and she crosses the bridge and does find him.

I've already forgotten how Rudolph won a wish from Stormella after she'd set loose the storm. She was not able to rein it back in, so that's why Santa asks Rudy to guide the sleigh: to get the team out of the storm, considerably worse than the fog of the song.

Although Doe helped to find Rudy, she was pretty passive for the rest of the film, being the actual gf of Rudy's nemesis. Also, she didn't compete in the Games that I noticed. I've forgotten to what extent the 2 elves sent by Santa helped to find Rudy.

Boring. Avoid.

Rated 5.8 (2,088)

indie, dir, Kowalchuk; 5

Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World (1998), 6

G | 1h 12min | Animation, Adventure, Drama | Video 25 August 1998

Pocahontas sets off on a journey to England with Meeko, Flit, and Percy. Hearing rumors of John Smith's death, Pocahontas tries to prevent war and battle.

Directors: Tom Ellery, Bradley Raymond

Stars: Irene Bedard, Donal Gibson, Jim Cummings.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0143808/

Watched online, good print.

5 songs in the Soundtracks, and a reprise.

An ok sequel. Fortunately the comic relief characters don't speak (her escort, the hummingbird, racoon and bulldog), so no outrageous voices to irritate.

I was surprised how big the English settlement had become in the New World.

I was surprised she shifted her loyalty to the new Englander, even after learning the first one was alive.

She's assertive and effective, as are her 2 Englanders in solving the problem that caused her to sail. Would like to see another sequel of her life back home with the love interest.

Rated 4.9 (11,545)

 

Disney, dir. Ellery & Raymond; 6

Cats (1998), 5

2h | Music | Episode aired 27 October 1998
Great Performances (1971– )

"Jellicle" cats join for a Jellicle ball where they rejoice with their leader, Old Deuteronomy. One cat will be chosen to go to the "Heavyside Layer" and be reborn. The cats introduce themselves.

Director: David Mallet

Stars: Elaine Paige, John Mills, Ken Page.

Gillian Lynne ... choreographer / staged by

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0173714/

borrowed dvd

18 songs in the Soundtracks, all Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and T.S. Eliot, or by ALW alone.

Right away I wanted subtitles because of the nonsense words and the British accents. None on the disc.

Then I thought I might be able to appreciate this as a dance musical, but the direction cut/cut/cut to different camera angles, robbing me of the experience I would have had in the theatre, and truly detracting from the dancing.

The only plot that I could detect was the choosing by Deuteronomy of the cat who gets to die and reincarnate. So introducing us to all these lively cats, describing some at length without seeing them, others get to act out their own stories, did not serve that plot in the least. Then we meet at least 2 elder cats, Gus the theatre cat and Grizabella, and I missed the reason behind choosing one over the other. John Mills plays Gus, who is quite pathetic and ready to go.

Some songs seem to go on and on and on far too long. But I don't like the show or the music, which I did see live at the Pantages (I think), where I didn't like it either (but I got to watch the lighting board operators, who were below me). This dvd production definitely does NOT improve my opinion of the show, and as I stated earlier, actually aggravates it with the no subtitles and dance over-editing.

Avoid!

Rated 7.8 (3,247)

distr. PBS, dir. Mallet; 5

SLC Punk! (1998), 5

R | 1h 37min | Comedy, Drama, Music | 24 September 1998
In the early 1980s Stevo and Heroin Bob are the only two dedicated punks in conservative Salt Lake City.
Writer/Director: James Merendino
Stars: Matthew Lillard, Michael A. Goorjian, Annabeth Gish.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133189/
Watched online, ok copy.

42 songs in the Soundtracks.

This is not about punk music, and I don't think any music was performed onscreen.

This poster misses a big opportunity: the actor has died bright blue hair until the very end of the film.

The 2 principals chose to be punks at age 14 or so because being D&D geeks is too dangerous and isolating. So instead they become the aggressors, beating up on neo-Nazis or anyone who makes them itch. They believe in anarchy, which is self contradictory: a system based on having no system. More join them as the punk fad waxes and wanes, then they're the last 2 again.

The film is narrated throughout by the character on the poster. He finishes college and is accepted to Harvard Law (his father applied without his knowledge; dad graduated from there). So when he finally gives up this lifestyle (his friend overdoses dead), he has a ready next step. He claims he'll "do more damage" within the system than he could from the outside.

The narration builds a good case against anarchy. The film does not glamorize the lifestyle it shows. But I did not grow to care about anyone,  have no curiosity about what happens to this guy after the film, and would have been completely happy never to have seen this.

Rated 7.5 (24,100)

distr. Sony, dir, Merendino; 5

Six-String Samurai (1998), 5

PG-13 | 1h 31min | Action, Adventure, Comedy | 18 Sep 1998
In the post-apocalyptic world of 1960s Nevada, a rock 'n' roll samurai on his way to Lost Vegas takes a young orphan boy under his protection as Death and his metalhead Horsemen chase after them.
Director: Lance Mungia
Stars: Jeffrey Falcon, Justin McGuire, whatever.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118736/
Watched online, mediocre print.

No songs in the Soundtracks; occasionally riffs were performed onscreen, otherwise it seemed like the same theme music over and over.

Not my cup of tea. I had hoped it would get beyond the individual samurai fighting in the desert, but other than the complications of the young boy tagging along, it did not.

Spoiler alert: this guy dies near the end, not making it to Vegas because he protected the boy once too often. The boy takes his guitar and sword, and poses as though he's going to become King of Vegas (the supposed goal within the film), and we have some mirage in sight that might be the Vegas they were headed to. (It looks like a desert version of Oz, not an extant Vegas of any era.)

This is the last film for the principal, who is clearly a martial arts guy, and has several Chinese-looking titles in his CV. A little googling led to speculation that he's settled down to business in China, but didn't find anything definite.

The boy doesn't have much else on his CV.

The director (who has co-writer credit with the star), has 1 or 2 credits in various categories, but nothing consistent.

So this is a low-budget vanity project filmed near a wind farm in the desert.

Avoid.

Rated 6.7 (6,239)

indie, dir. Mungia; 5

The Red Violin (1998), 7

R | 2h 10min | Drama, Music, Mystery | 11 June 1999
A perfect red-colored violin inspires passion, making its way through three centuries over several owners and countries, eventually ending up at an auction where it may find a new owner.
Director: François Girard
Stars: Carlo Cecchi, Jean-Luc Bideau, Christoph Koncz, Samuel L. Jackson.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120802/
Watched on AmazonPrime. (Finally, a decent movie there.)

1 song in the Soundtracks, much more played and by cast members (some doubled by Jason Bell's left hand).

Interesting tale, told well, with lots of professional actors I don't recognize (but this is a Canadian production, partially US funded, plus 3 more countries of origin).

It was annoying to spend most of the film reading subtitles, because the dialog was spoken in the country where the segment was located. So when the violin was being created in Italy, everyone spoke Italian. When its ownership transferred to Germany, both German and French were spoken, Mandarin in China and English in England and North America.

The ending seemed premature, because the next chapter of the violin seems it should be fraught with tension.

Repeating the auction between each segment was, I feel, unnecessarily time-consuming. Yes, it connected a new bidder to the segment we had just seen, but only in an ancestral way; we didn't actually learn anything about the bidder themself (with 1 exception, and that was still very little).

Glad to have a Music film where good classical music was played.

Rated 7.7 (29,323)

distr. Lions Gate, dir. Girard; 7

54 (1998), 6-

R | 1h 33min | Drama, Music | 28 August 1998
The famous 1970s New York City nightclub seen and told through the eyes of a young employee.

Writer/Director: Mark Christopher

Stars: Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, Neve Campbell, Mike Myers, Sela Ward.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120577/

Watched online, distorted, sped up, zoomed in, grid covering the image.

40 songs in the Soundtracks, a few performed onscreen.

Sex, drugs and disco. This was more tolerable than the prior disco film, The Last Days of Disco ('98) for at least 2 reasons: the film was so distorted that it was a struggle to figure out what was going on, and the young man around whom the story revolved was likeable/interesting. It may have also been that the speeding up of the disco music made it less cloying, or that they selected tracks that were inherently less annoying.

However, this is not so interesting that I'd pay $5 for a disc (which is available today) to see what it's really like. The topic of this young innocent skill-less wannabe who crosses the river (from Jersey City) to experience life in Manhattan and gets pulled deeper and deeper into sex, drugs, money and betrayal, is just to routine. They are pretty people, so it might be good to look at, but it's more of a shrug from me.

Rated 5.8 (29,858)

Miramax & more, dir. Christopher; 6-

Lulu On The Bridge (1998), 7

PG-13 | 1h 43min | Drama, Music, Mystery | 14 August 1998
A famous jazz saxophonist whose life is forever changed after he is accidentally shot.
Writer/Director: Paul Auster
Stars: Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, Willem Dafoe, Mandy Patinkin, Vanessa Redgrave.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125879/
Watched online, ok print; ordered dvd for c.track, which is good.

No songs in the Soundtracks, and that's about right.

Interesting, quirky, with a disappointing but logical ending. Really a mood piece more than a story piece, although it has definite plot.

Bizarre that it's tagged Music, since we only get a tiny bit at the very beginning. They should have made HK a watchmaker or a diamond cutter who just lost his dominant hand (broken beyond repair to its prior level of dexterity.) But musician allows him to be famous too, so that MS will trust him at first contact.

I'm not going to reveal anything about the story for future viewings. The mood here reminds me of Death Watch ('80), another HK film.

Rated 6.3 (3,674)

indie, dir. Auster; 7

Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998), 6

R | 1h 56min | Biography, Drama, Music | 28 August 1998
Three women each claim to be the widow of 1950s doo-wop singer Frankie Lymon, claiming legal rights to his estate.
Director: Gregory Nava
Stars: Halle Berry, Vivica A. Fox, Lela Rochon.
Russell Clark ... choreographer
Neisha Folkes-LeMelle ... assistant choreographer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123324/
Watched online, poor copy, blurry.

39 songs in the Soundtracks; includes multiple performances of some.

Interesting story, told well, but not something to recommend to others, not something I want to own. Lots of good music from the doo-wop era and through the 60s and early 70s, with heavy emphasis on the title track.

The estate consisted only of unpaid royalties for songs Lyman wrote, and in the epilog they claim only $15k was paid to the eventual winner, not $4M.

Lyman's life was another sad tale of the need for adulation turning into the need for heroin, but the nature of the overlapping timeline (as each widow tells her story in turn) confuses whether the drug use was consistent after a certain point; it seemed not to be. And they seem to have fabricated the final night of his life (was he really at a concert of wife HB before ODing?).

The cast is good, but the characters feel a bit stereotyped, if only for brevity with so many stories to tell.

The director's name is familiar because his immediately prior project was Selena ('97).

Rated 6.3 (3,264)

Warner & more, dir. Nava; 6

Mulan (1998), 6 now 7+

G | 1h 28min | Animation, Adventure, Family | 19 June 1998
To save her father from death in the army, a young maiden secretly goes in his place and becomes one of China's greatest heroines in the process.
Directors: Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook
Stars: Ming-Na Wen, Eddie Murphy, BD Wong, ..., June Foray, James Shigeta, George Takei.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120762/
borrowed dvd.

5 songs in the Soundtracks with 2 version/reprises.

The last 3 cast I listed above were voices I recognized during the film.

EM's dragon was extremely annoying. I liked the film until he arrived. Fortunately the story got serious again, and he was minimized and mostly calmed down. I don't understand why Disney thinks they need these extreme "funny" creatures in each film.

I found the animation/CGI of the Huns charging through the snow sorta creepy; perhaps something too uniform about their movement, and the perspective was at such a far distance they looked like bugs.

I liked very much that Mulan was a smarter warrior, which would have to be the case since she wasn't the biggest/strongest/most experienced. 2 ex: climbing the pole with the weights and stopping the aforementioned Huns.

IMDb trivia: "This film marked Disney's first ever DVD, released in November 1999."

Another: "This was the last Disney animated feature film to contain musical elements, after a decade's worth of Disney animated musicals (the only exception being The Rescuers Down Under (1990)), up until The Princess and the Frog (2009)."

Rated 7.6 (212,239)

Disney, dir. Bancroft & Cook; 6

Update 5.Dec2020: I'm upgrading this. EM was fine; how else would a tiny dragon gain attention except with his smart-alecking. Loved the heroic nature of Mulan, and her incredible smarts. Loved the warrior captain who evolved during the story.

7.6 (252,719); 7+

The Last Days of Disco (1998), 5

R | 1h 53min | Comedy, Drama, Music | 12 June 1998
Story of two female Manhattan book editors fresh out of college, both finding love and themselves while frequenting the local disco.
Writer/Director: Whit Stillman
Stars: Chloë Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale, Chris Eigeman.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120728/
Watched online, ok print.

30 songs in the Soundtracks, none performed onscreen.

I found no character to like here, no one whose fate I wanted to know, no one interesting.

Tagged Music because the majority of screen time is within a disco with music playing and people dancing. I have no idea what moments were supposed to be comedic.

People are cruel to each other verbally/emotionally, sometimes apologize, never seem to be sincere about it.

The NYC "railroad" apartment (narrow, no hallways except exterior) is a nightmare for 3 people to share, especially to be single and bringing home people to sleep with. As much as I envy B'way shows being in NYC, the amount of money needed to live well there seems enormous.

Disco actually dies during the film's time. One of the characters makes a semi-passionate speech that disco will live on in some form even if it's dormant for years. I suppose we do still have "dance music" and clubs that cater to people dancing (and drugging and whatever.) So in a sense that was true? I'll say that at one point in the film I desperately wanted to turn off the disco music. I don't think any film in the disco era had such an insidious soundtrack.

Avoid.

Rated 6.7 (11,040)

distr. Gramercy, dir. Stillman; 5

Velvet Goldmine (1998), 5

R | 1h 58min | Drama, Music | 23 October 1998
In 1984, British journalist Arthur Stuart investigates the career of 1970s glam superstar Brian Slade, who was heavily influenced in his early years by hard-living and rebellious American singer Curt Wild.
Writer/Director: Todd Haynes
Stars: Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Christian Bale, Eddie Izzard.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120879/
Watched online, ok print.

34 songs in the Soundtracks, many performed by the cast with their own voices.

I have EI (b. '62) concerts from '94 to '13. Oddly, he does not glam up in this film; he plays a record exec/manager.

Reading the IMDb trivia, this is sort of based on Bowie, but the Curt Wild character (EM) is not supposed to be Kurt Cobain. He's based on Iggy Pop?

I was never interested in glam rock, so this doesn't spike my interest.

CB is the reporter who apparently had a sexual encounter with the JRM glammer and/or the EM grunger, and was coincidentally tapped to do the decade-later follow-up story.

I don't understand what there is to like about this because the music and the subculture is not to my taste. But reading reviews in IMDb illuminate nothing; they rave without specifics, although some like the inclusion of Oscar Wilde, and some like the parallel of reporter investigating public figure as in Citizen Kane ('41).

Rated 7.0 (31,062)

distr. Miramax, dir. Haynes; 5

Girl (1998), 6-

R | 1h 39min | Comedy, Drama, Music | 16 May 1998
A straight-A teen explores Portland's rock scene.
Director: Jonathan Kahn
Stars: Dominique Swain, Sean Patrick Flanery, Summer Phoenix.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138467/
Watched on AmazonPrime.

29 songs in the Soundtracks, some performed onscreen by cast members.

OK coming-of-age film, covering the latter part of senior year to driving off to college. During these months, DS becomes infatuated with SPF, beds him, he goes elsewhere to make music, eventually he grows to appreciate her, but college is the priority, so she leaves. The End.

The 2 principals are watchable, as are some others. The only familiar faces are her aging parents.

Rated 5.9 (2,529)

indie, dir. Kahn; 6-

He Got Game (1998), 7- {nm}

R | 2h 16min | Drama, Sport | 1 May 1998
A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter sentence.
Writer/Director: Spike Lee
Stars: Denzel Washington, Milla Jovovich, Ray Allen.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124718/
Watched online, mediocre print: sound was out of sync all the time.

Not nearly as tense as most SL films, and without an enormous turning point, this is interesting nonetheless. In addition to the storyline of the father (DW) trying to convince his son to sign with Big State college, we get a dose of the recruiting pressures on a top player, not only from colleges but also the NBA.

We do see the death of DW's wife (the boy's mother), for which he is serving time for murder, and it seems more of a manslaughter case to me. But we don't explore anything about the trial/conviction. Nor does DW try to convince his son it was an accidental death; the son blames him fully, and is very alienated from his father.

The ending is a bit up in the air, which is a good thing dramatically.

Rated 6.9 (40,150)

Touchstone & more, dir. Lee; 7-

Motown 40: The Music Is Forever (1998), 7-

Documentary , Music | TV Movie 15 February 1998

Archival music performances and contemporary interviews cover some of the history of Motown Records and Productions.

Director: Yvonne Smith

Stars: Diana Ross (host).

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142043/

Watched online, multiple parts that repeat, poor print. This is clearly vhs recording of ABC broadcast. Looks like no official release has been issued.

No songs in the Soundtracks, but plenty onscreen. 40 on the CD, cover pictured left.

Because the print is so bad, with repeats and parts that don't really transition properly despite the numbering, I wouldn't even guess how long the special was, or if it aired in 1 night.

But the video looked good enough that I wish they'd put it out on DVD.

Rated 8.6 (78)

distr. ABC, dir. Smith; 7-

Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), 7+

PG-13 | 2h 3min | Action , Comedy , Crime | 6 February 1998
Elwood must reunite the old band, with a few new members, and go on another "Mission from God."
Director: John Landis
Stars: Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, Joe Morton, Kathleen Freeman.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118747/

31 songs in the Soundtracks. Highlights performed by Aretha Franklin, James Brown, BB King & an all-star music jam, DA+JG+JM+kid.

This is fun both musically and stunt-wise (supposedly the biggest car crash to-date.) Twice we get the parallel parking stunt that should be how automated parking works. I don't remember a mission from god, and especially not those words being spoken. Extra fun: the costumes and the witch queen's chair.

Rated 4.8 (28,873)

Universal, dir. Landis; 7+

Vaudeville (1997), 8

TV-14 | 2h | Documentary , Biography | Episode aired 26 Nov 1997
American Masters (1985– )

Using film clips and photos, the art and history of vaudeville (1890-1930s) is illustrated.

Stars: Ben Vereen.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133256/

47 songs in the Soundtracks, some including the film from which the song was sourced. None of that was credited onscreen, although the performer was nearly always identified with a subtitle.

Informative and entertaining, some acts are famous future movie stars, but most are not. Some former vaudevillians are interviewed, plus other interested parties.

Rated 7.7 (61)

distr. PBS, dir. (none); 8

Hidden Hollywood: Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Film Vaults (1997), 7-

1h 31min | Doc'y, Comedy, Music | TV Movie 18 Nov 1997

Joan Collins hosts a collection of film clips, mostly from musicals, that were cut from the released product.

Director: Shelley Lyons

Stars: Joan Collins

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131423/

41 songs in the Soundtracks, many were not cut from films but are played to lead up to something that was. 

I've seen many of the clips as extra features, but not all. My favorite is from We're Not Married ('52) with Walter Brennan and Hope Emerson as a married woman (who gets the letter, but she can't read without her specs) and the neighbor who professes his love for her, while really just eatin' her vittles.

This must have aired on AMC back when the Classics were truly from the studio system, because AMC is in the credits as a co-production company.

I submitted 4 contributions: director, plot outline, and the deletion of 2 images that are posters for the sequel.

Rated 7.9 (48)

Fox & more, dir. Lyons; 7-

Anastasia (1997), 6-

G | 1h 34min | Animation , Adventure , Drama | 21 Nov 1997
The last surviving child of the Russian Royal Family joins two con men to reunite with her grandmother, the Dowager Empress, while the undead Rasputin seeks her death.
Directors: Don Bluth, Gary Goldman
Stars: Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, Bernadette Peters, Kirsten Dunst, Angela Lansbury.

Adam Shankman ... choreographer / dancer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118617/

borrowed dvd

Per the featurette, the first animated feature film from Fox.

12 songs in the Soundtracks. Only KG, BP and AL did their own singing.

The crew is full of names of unknown actors who did reference work: where they filmed a scene which the animators then used to create the drawings. This is what I dislike most about the film. I definitely felt an artificiality about the humans in motion, as though that motion was derivative of something else, and there's the explanation. (At first I thought perhaps it was CGI, but the featurette debunks that; the CGI was used for fluid camera movement on backgrounds, for duplicating drawn animation, and for coloring cells.)

The subplot with Rasputin feels like it could be excised and we'd still have a complete film. The Rasputin portions do not blend/weave in with the rest of the identity/romance portions, and the transitions feel very abrupt. So far as I can determine those scenes are the only reason to animate the film, and it's a poor reason, since special effects can produce similar results with live action.

I suppose the other reason to animate the story is that musicals are not accepted with live actors any more, except on B'way.

This film put me to sleep multiple times. While awake I wondered if MR was the voice of Anastasia (yes). I also recognized KG and AL. Surprisingly, I did not notice that was BP, but it's a fairly small role.

It's an ok story, but made me want to find the Anastasia (1956) version with Ingrid Bergman, but I rated it 6 some time in the past, so I'll just move on.

Rated 7.1 (100,174)

Fox, dir. Bluth & Goldman; 6-

Slaves to the Underground (1997), 5-

R | 1h 33min | Comedy , Drama , Music | 14 November 1997
Seattle: The grunge girl band "No Exits" is just about to get a record deal. At this time Jimmy is appearing again, the former boy-friend of the band guitarist Shelly. 
Director: Kristine Peterson
Stars: Molly Gross, Jason Bortz, Marisa Ryan.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117664/
Watched online, poor print.

25 songs in the Soundtracks, some songs performed by cast onscreen.

Complications of a bi-sexual band member who's involved with a bandmate.

I really didn't understand what "cause" the band was promoting, only that both bandmates shown on the poster mentioned it, possibly more than once. When the blond left to become an activist in DC, she found a senator's aide, and started talking about women's issues, just that terminology, we exited before hearing more specifics.

The blond beat up a guy who attended their show because he had raped the gf some time back.

Gf returns to her old bf, and gets kicked out of the band by the blond. He (bf) was friends with her rapist, who was only back in town briefly. Blond wrote a letter to his employer and he got fired; later we hear he raped a colleague from work and had been arrested.

Gf & bf live together for a while in a friend's garage, and he decides to get a job at Microsoft so they can raise their standard of living. But the band has an audition for a record label, and he didn't tell her about it, so she gets mad and moves back in with the band, but intends to be platonic with the blond.

At their audition gig, bf and his former roomie attend, and blond demands they leave the venue before the band plays. They don't, she storms out, and gf carries on with the others. But some in the audience are hostile and throw things at the band. They finish the song and quit too. But the record label liked it; edgy & chaotic sells.

We see later that gf is giving an interview (or pretending in the mirror) about some other band, and expresses her desire to f*ck the leader (female). So I'm guessing she doesn't go back to bf.

Meanwhile, bf has been given the record store when he used to sell his 'zines and hang, and we see him behind the counter fulfilling the mission of this punk/grunge/whatever store.

Amazed that I got through the film. Avoid.

Rated 5.2 (266)

indie, dir. Peterson; 5-

Tiny Heroes (1997), 5-

Not Rated | 1h 18min | Animation , Comedy , Drama | 1997
The animals of the forest must combine their strengths to defeat a pair of poachers.
Directors: József Gémes, Jenõ Koltai
Stars: Aaron Bybee, Laura Schulthies, Joey Lopez.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138877/
Watched online, ok print.

5 songs in the Soundtracks, all Lyrics by Dennis Spiegel, Music by Alan Williams. Titles include Responsibilities, You're a Most Important You, Really Spectacular Day.

This is aimed at very young audiences. The song lyrics attempt to bolster self esteem and proper behavior. I feel a giant index finger being shaken in the audience's direction.

Country: Germany | Hungary | USA

Language: Hungarian | English

I didn't hear any Hungarian nor did I see any written language (but I might have missed such), so there must be another version in Hungarian... yup, a second cast with Eastern European names are listed (without character names).

I don't see much potential for allegory here. A man gives a list to poachers of animals he wants captured (mo reason given) but not harmed. In this universe, animals talk, but only to each other. To humans they only make animal noises. But they understand human speech and/or intentions, so they rally to defeat the poachers. Some get captured and others come to the rescue.

I was very anxious for the film to be done. It was a long 79 min.

Rated 5.8 (114)

indie, dir. Gemes & Koltai, 5-

Broadway Damage (1997), 6

Not Rated | 1h 51min | Comedy, Drama, Musical | 11 August 1997
A quirky, romantic comedy about the complexity and frustration of finding a true love in the NYC gay community.
Writer/Director: Victor Mignatti
Stars: Mara Hobel, Michael Lucas, Hugh Panaro.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118780/
Watched on AmazonPrime.

No songs listed in the Soundtracks; a couple were performed onscreen by cast members, but not much, and certainly not enough to tag this as Musical.

OK film, but not great. I didn't recognize anyone.

The plot is simple enough: we follow the 3 poster characters through a few weeks in their life in NYC. The 2 on the right get an apartment together with bugs and rats/mice. Across the airspace is a neighbor who records music in his apartment, and he hooks up with the male roomie. The girl finds some romance too, but is not as enthused. The guy on the left is also seeking romance, and doesn't let the guy roomie know he desires him. Instead they talk about other guys they find attractive.

Money is an issue, and the girl is unemployed. The guy roomie works at a B'way ticket broker while seeking work as an actor. The 3rd wheel is a composer; I didn't catch how he makes money.

The girl tries to get jobs with celebrities, and is so persistent with one that she creates a sequence of missives cut from magazine letters and glued to the page like ransom notes. The target gets the FBI to investigate, and then calls her for a meeting which we never see. The boys on the poster finally hook up at film's end.

Big shrug from me.

Rated 6.8 (541)

indie, dir. Mignatti; 6

Radioland Murders (1994), 6

PG | 1h 48min | Comedy , Crime , Drama | 21 October 1994 

In 1939, WBN, a fourth radio network, is about to take to America's airwaves. As if the confusion of the premiere night wasn't enough, Penny Henderson, the owner's secretary, must deal with an unhappy sponsor, an overbearing boss and a soon-to-be ex-husband who desperately wants her back. As the broadcast begins, a mysterious voice breaks the broadcast and suddenly members of the cast turn up dead. 

Director: Mel Smith

Writers: George Lucas (story), 4 more (screenplay) 

Stars: Brian Benben, Mary Stuart Masterson, Ned Beatty, Michael McKean, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Lloyd, Larry Miller, Anita Morris, Corbin Bernsen.

Jennifer Hammond-Moranz ... choreographer 

Brad Moranz ... choreographer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110939/disc just arrived

19 songs in the Soundtracks.

The dead people aren't all cast members of the radio show. Mostly they are management. At least 1 victim was unintentional. The dead include: the trumpeter, the toupeed director, the announcer, the primary advertiser, the station owner. It's not clear to me which clues were red herrings, nor whether the guilty's confession was complete. So the murder mystery was cloudy, and that was likely intentional. This seems a spoof of Agatha Christie (and other) murders, which can be obtuse. The spectre of television is a motivating factor here, and that represents a real disdain/fear of the film studios back then.

The murderer announces his crimes with obtuse couplets a few minutes before they occur. Don't mind that they're muffled and you have no subtitles; when they recap the first 2, they're not very illuminating.

In the underscore, there's a very strong influence of Bernard Herrmann's score from Vertigo ('58), but no mention of it in the Soundtracks or the endcredits. ("Influence" is a euphemism; it sounds quoted to me.)

The primary reason I like this is the radio show itself. It's a very thorough pastiche of radio shows portrayed in films of the 30s & 40s. Rosemary Clooney is there onscreen singing; George Burns does a bit of his act. The variety of acts is amusing, including a Cab Calloway impersonator (named as CC in the credits). The studio band has many guises, including a Spike Jones number and a Latin number; SJ's estate is thanked in the credits. Unfortunately, the murder mystery, the backstage farce of writing the script moment-by-moment, the station manager's wife's infidelities, the broken marriage of the Hendersons, the usher/errand boy who wants to perform, all distract heavily from the radio show.

I like seeing what old H'wood the big directors loved. Lucas clearly liked some film genres beyond adventure stories.

Rated 6.2 (3,023)

Universal & more, dir. Smith; 6

Lorenzo's Oil (1992), 7 {nm}

PG-13 | 2h 9min | Drama | 29 January 1993
A boy develops a disease so rare that nobody is working on a cure, so his father decides to learn all about it and tackle the problem himself.
Director: George Miller
Stars: Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon, Peter Ustinov.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104756/
Watched online, good print.

Previously rated 7 on Netflix, I'll affirm that today. I've thought of the film often, and decided to watch it again.

The story is amazing, and the struggles of the child are difficult to hear; fortunately the filmmakers don't show us his face during those scenes.

The research by the father (NN) is what comes back to me; that was incredible, especially in the days before the internet. How did librarians find an article (in a book) about the very specific issue he sought?

IMDb trivia says that the mother (SS) died of lung cancer in 2000. The husband is depicted smoking outside, she is not shown sitting with him. But perhaps he only smoked outdoors after Lorenzo was ill.

Another IMDb trivia item says Lorenzo died in 2008 at age 30, well beyond the 2-year life expectancy predicted when diagnosed in childhood. The film credits say he had recovered some eyesight and ability to make noise, and was learning to communicate via computer by '92.

The director, best known for the Mad Max franchise, is a former medical doctor.

Rated 7.3 (18,545).

Universal & more, dir. Miller; 7

Telling Lies in America (1997), 5

PG-13 | 1h 41min | Drama , Music | 15 October 1997
A loner befriends a local celebrity, Billy Magic, but soon begins to tell lies in order maintain the friendship and the newfound status.
Director: Guy Ferland
Stars: Kevin Bacon, Brad Renfro, Maximilian Schell, Calista Flockhart, Paul Dooley.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120303/
Watched online, good print.

~20 songs in the Soundtracks, only 1 performed by a cast member.

The loner (BR) told lies to "befriend" the DJ (KB) in the first place. He put what he thought was Spanish Fly in CF's drink. He told a priest, in confession, that something happened which did not. This kid lies as a matter of course, and sticks with them. That's why the DJ chooses him to accept his payola, so that he'll lie to authorities when they come sniffing. (So why wouldn't he also take some or all of a payment?)

The loner is an immigrant, and still has some difficulty pronouncing "th", but KB recommends he put a rubberband around his tongue and then practice, and somehow that works. He's a high school kid, supposedly 17 (oh, maybe that was a lie), but BR was b. '82, and looks young. He was expelled from school right before graduation, so he's supposed to be a senior in hs, whatever his age.

Basically, there's no one to like in this film. The DJ keeps bouncing from town to town because of his payola issues, BR is a liar, CF (b. '64) is aloof some of the time, but sleeps with this kid.

And the ending is fuzzy: BR seems to have changed his mind multiple times about whether to testify against KB, and then lies by telling half-truths, but lies about his testimony. Or not. I really didn't care, and did some other stuff before writing about this, so my memory has already faded.

Avoid.

Rated 6.3 (1,975)

indie, dir. Ferland; 5

Hercules (1997), 6

G | 1h 33min | Animation , Adventure , Comedy | 27 June 1997
The son of the Greek Gods Zeus and Hera is stripped of his immortality as an infant and must become a true hero in order to reclaim it.
Directors: Ron Clements, John Musker
Stars: Tate Donovan, Susan Egan, James Woods, Danny DeVito, Bobcat Goldthwait, Matt Frewer, Hal Holbrook.
Frank Gatson Jr. ... dance choreographer: video reference crew

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119282/
borrowed dvd

8 songs in the Soundtracks, Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by David Zippel.

I did enjoy a lot of the contemporary humor overlaid on these ancient characters.

Although DD was very recognizable, his voice fit his character well.

JW voice was a little distracting for a while, but then I accepted it. His character, Hades, was designed by the animator who did Pink Floyd's The Wall ('82).

I recognized HH, and BG. I'm surprised I didn't recognize MF; good job Matt!

The film lost me with the epic action sequences. I'm counter-impressed with sweeping movement in animation, especially now that they're using CGI more. Per the featurette, the 30 heads for the hydra was one application, and creating a crib from a cloud was also CGI. They describe making 2 paintings, and the computer fills in the intermediate steps. So CGI is very far along by '97; I've forgotten how many years they said this was in production. Probably not super speedy compared with what's done now.

It's hard to like the "strong" female character (Meg), since she was working for Hades most of the time. But she actually rescued Herc when he was without his super powers, so that was cool.

Rated 7.3 (174,406)

Disney, dir. Clements & Musker; 6

Update 5.Dec2020: Today this would be a 5 for me. All the modern references were just too annoying, and DD & JW were far too distracting. I don't remember the original Hercules myth well enough to know if his identity crisis is new to this story, but it doesn't ring true to me. I won't change the rating yet.

Cats Don't Dance (1997), 6-

G | 1h 15min | Animation , Comedy , Family | 26 March 1997
Danny, an ambitious singing and dancing cat, goes to Hollywood and overcomes several obstacles to fulfill his dream of becoming a movie star.
Director: Mark Dindal
Stars: Scott Bakula, Jasmine Guy, Natalie Cole, Kathy Najimy.
Gene Kelly ... choreography consultant (uncredited), but In Memory Of in credits. GK died Feb'96.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118829/
Watched online, ordered disc.

12 songs in the Soundtracks, 6 with Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman. Bakula (b. '54) does his own singing, and sounds good; young like the character.

Takes place in 1939, has multiple celebrity caricatures and film references from the era. At one point I saw the ape King Kong at the studio, which doesn't fit, since the film was released '33 by RKO. All references to specific films involve only those owned by Turner at the time, which would include Warner, MGM, & RKO. [When I get the disc, I want to freeze-frame in places to catch more and check the Connections page.]

At first I was enchanted by all the old H'wood references. That happened in a few places, not persistently.

Then I got really hopeful that the repression of animals in film (the cat is only allowed to say meow) would be an allegory for racial repression in films, but that didn't seem to happen.

I'm surprised GK is supposed to have consulted on the choreography, because I found it stylized and unrepresentative of human dancing, and turned me off completely. (The animals are talking and walking on 2 legs, so they dance that way too.) But maybe with a dvd and ffwd/pause/rewind control, I'll be able to reevaluate that.

I was offended by Darla Dimples being so clearly a smear of Shirley Temple. Darla was a tyrant; I never got the idea ST was.

The ending was really bizarre in this way: we get revised movie posters with the animal characters as stars, and jump from Casablanca ('42) to something in the 80s. So on top of everything else, these animals don't age/die?

Bought because it was GK's last H'wood contribution.

Update 11/27 (original post 11/21/18): watched again, even watched the "Songbook" separately, and the dancing does not impress me, and does not feel like GK would have been happy with this result. Oh, well.

Rated 6.9 (6,320)

distr. Warner, dir. Dindal; 6-

Isle of Lesbos (1997), 5

1h 38min | Comedy , Musical | August 1997
"Rocky Horror Picture Show" meets "Oklahoma" in this outrageous musical comedy. A 1940's Technicolor-style fantasy with a modern and subversive twist. Fifteen original songs, a cast of madcap characters and a story chock full of American family values...just don't bring the kids! 
Writer/Director: Jeff B. Harmon
Stars: Alex Boling, Diana Burbano, Michael Dotson.
Gail Conrad ... choreographer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119390/

Watched on AmazonPrime.

No songs listed in the Soundtracks, but plenty onscreen.

Lit as though filmed for TV or old Technicolor film stock, with lots of highly saturated colors, this is pleasant to look at - sometimes. The performers (perhaps some dubbed voices) can sing, and some posing passes for dancing.

But I don't get it. Although the dialog & lyrics seem to promote lesbianism, the pitch emphasizes all the ugly stereotypes and some of the images are so ugly, looking away is warranted. (Ex: Is that mud in which they're wrestling, or fecal matter? The imagery definitely suggests #2.)

This feels like it might be a stage play. I'm not going to clutter my search history to research that.

Although the songs have "catchy" tunes (meaning the lyrics are repeated often enough that you can sing along fairly quickly), I don't actually remember any by now.

Plot: girl runs from the altar without answering the promissory question, locks herself in a room that's decorated for an immature girl, and removes a revolver from the vanity drawer. She aims the gun into her mouth, the groom and her parents break into the room, we hear a gunshot, the screen is bathed in red, and we land on the Isle of Lesbos. The occupants testify about their own deaths planting them there. But later the dialog claims she went through the mirror like some old relative did.

On the island is only women except for 1 flamboyant gay man, who's there as janitor (lesbians don't scrub toilets), and as nemesis to the "queen" of the island (the big one in the poster, who looks better in her biker outfit). And they keep singing about how great it is to lesbian, without really saying why.

Back home, the bride's parents are wondering when/if they'll hear from her. The groom sends her a telegram demanding she return home. She replies that she will not and he should forget her. The gay janitor delivers that telegram, disappearing before the groom wakes, but also leaving behind his lipstick print on the groom's mouth, and an 8x10 autographed glossy. The groom gets so furious at the bride's response that he dresses up in Rambo gear and wishes himself through the mirror.

On Lesbos, an alien of some sort lands inside what should have been a nuclear missile launched by the bride's father (having a missile silo on the farm pays better than growing sorghum), and sings about something. The groom falls in love with the janitor. The bride pledges her personal allegiance to the queen, and back home her parents have a night of S&M (unrelated to anything else in the plot, just to invoke RHPS?)

The "real" world setting is Bumf*ck Arkansas, a name used extensively in the script, and an entire song is dedicated to explaining how straight-laced the town is. Several mentions/references are made to Bill & Hillary Clinton, who are in the White House when this was made/released.

The bottom line: Danger Will Robinson! Avoid, avoid.

Rated .5.6 (103).

indie, dir. Harmon; 5

Selena (1997), 6-

PG | 2h 7min | Biography , Drama , Music | 21 March 1997
The true story of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, a Texas-born Tejano singer who rose from cult status to performing at the Astrodome, as well as having chart topping albums on the Latin music charts.
Writer/Director: Gregory Nava
Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Jon Seda.
Kristie Capozzoli ... assistant choreographer (as Kristie Canavan)

Miranda Garrison ... choreographer

Francisco Vasquez ... assistant choreographer (uncredited)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120094/

Watched online, ok print.

33 songs in the Soundtracks.

Before watching this, I remembered that Selena had been murdered, but didn't remember by whom. (Just looked up that she died in '95.) When the president of her fan club arrived in the story, I remembered she was the culprit. I suspect that people who followed the story back then already know it was a financial issue: (according to this film) she handled lots of cash for Selena's fan club, and for her boutique, plus had access to her record inventory, and was caught by the family. Selena met with that woman to retrieve financial records when she was shot. The film mentions that the thief had been caught by a prior employer, but things were settled out of court. We also see the basic dishonesty of the woman when she takes money from colleagues to buy a gift for Selena, and then takes credit for the gift alone when she gives it to Selena. 

All of this is in the last 15 minutes or less of the movie. The vast majority of the film is the story of Selena's hard work with her family since childhood to achieve success. In that regard, this is, for me, a boring film. I've seen such stories over and over during this quest, and nothing about her story is more interesting than any others. 

And her music, both the tejano and the American pop, is of no interest to me either.

Rated 6.7 (21,755).

distr. Warner, dir. Nava; 6-