15 New Script Reviews About 15 Old Movies
by Jaden
Snows of Kilimanjaro
1952, starring Gregory Peck, based on a Hemmingway story, Casey Robinson wrote the screenplay that depicts an adventurous writer who reflects on his life and loves as he is dying in Africa. I think I related too much with the hero of this movie because he really annoyed me. It is a good movie, but boy are writers self-aggrandizing, or what? My favorite part of the movie is the appearance of stunner Ava Gardner; they don’t make bombshells like that anymore!
The Last Detail
1973, this weird movie stars Jack Nicholson as a drunken bastard in the Navy who has to take a kleptomaniac to a military prison. For his own amusement, he takes the detainee on a wild adventure. This movie sucks, but it is novel because Jack is in it and it is so bad. The novel was written by Darryl Ponicsan and the boring screenplay adaptation was scripted by Robert Towne.
52 Pick-up
1986, written by Elmore Leonard, 52 Pick-Up is a hidden treasure — a superb script! When the perfect life, the perfect marriage, and the perfect jobs are threatened by murderous blackmailing evil-doers, what’s a couple to do? A story of brain versus brawn, who will win? Twists, turns, and ruthless shockers will keep you at the edge of the couch. Believable and thrilling, this is truly a gritty and regal screenplay that sends your mind reeling.
Liar Liar
1997, Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur wrote this hilarious laugher about a workaholic lawyer dad (animated Jim Carrey) and his neglected son. This is an excellent comedy. What if a compulsive liar couldn’t lie for a day? Watch his world unravel into a happier place.
Blue Velvet
1986, written and directed by David Lynch, Blue Velvet is one of my favorite movies that revolves around a mysteriously chopped-off ear. I have watched this movie innumerable times and every time, I see new things. This is a classic cult film with music used in a disturbingly enchanting way, as Dennis Hopper creepily sings his way into our minds.
“In dreams, I walk with you. In dreams, I talk to you. In dreams, your mine, all the time.” Written and sung by Roy Orbison, the song In Dreams was released 1963.
Made for Each Other
1939, James Stewart and Carole Lombard spontaneously get married within an hour of meeting each other in this script composed by Rose Franken, Jo Swerling, and Frank Ryan. Made for Each Other lifts the curtain to reveal the challenging course all romantic relationships run, requisite with nagging mother-in-law, sick baby, and insensitive boss. This is a good movie if you need a reminder that, as hard as life can be sometimes, we all go through the exact same crap!
Thunderball: James Bond 007
1965, starring our favorite Bond, Sean Connery, this is an exceptional film from the James Bond series. Shot largely under water in the Caribbean, a NATO aircraft carrying 2 atomic bombs has been hijacked, and Bond has to screw lots of hot chicks to save the world. As a cinematic endeavor, this is a mind-blowing film, fulfilling in all ways: script coherence, excitement, morality, mystery, acting, cinematography, and sex appeal. Credited writers are: Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ian Fleming, Richard Maibaum, and John Hopkins.
GoodFellas
1990, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese, this is my favorite gangster movie of all time with scenes and lines I will never forget. Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci are bad ass in this. It helps me understand the incomprehensible, what is so exciting about being in a gang and killing people? This movie explains it with all its terrifying glamour. Based on a true story, it is so well written that you can believe it.
“I’m a little fucked up maybe, but I’m funny how, I mean funny like I’m a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I’m here to fuckin’ amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?” — Lines delivered by Joe Pesci.
Shine
1996, screenplay by Jan Sardi, story by director Scott Hicks, this is an emotive movie about a gifted pianist, his life struggle with his overbearing obsessive abusive father, and his later mental illness. It takes place in Australia and England. This is good for some laughs and cries on a Monday night at home, a great movie to watch for musicians or exceptional people who always place second. The music and cinematography are spectacular.
Army of Darkness
1992, written by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi, this is the kind of movie that five large men have to chain me to the couch and force me to watch against my will. It is a B movie classic that boys tend to like much more than women do. Army of Darkness is bizarre and ridiculous. A modern man fights medieval skeleton armies and icky mythological creatures; it’s a guy thing.
48 Hrs.
1982, Roger Spottiswoode, Walter Hill, Larry Gross, and Steven E. de Souza wrote a bunch of terrible and tired racist jokes that Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte bring to life. The way Eddie Murphy is treated in this movie bothers me deeply. A huge hit at the time, this is representative of America in the 1980s, trying to pretend they are past racism, but clearly still drowning in it. It’s a good movie in cinematic regards; the script is remarkably outdated and does not stand the test of time.
The Ambulance
1990, Larry Cohen wrote this clever starless feature. The acting is B grade, but the script is surprisingly good in that TV movie sort of way. It’s an interesting concept about a mad doctor abducting people off the streets in New York to test his diabetes cure, then he kills the missing patients. There are some good twists and story subplots. It’s an unique movie that has crept quietly through the past two decades unnoticed.
Les Diaboliques
1955, this is a great old French murder mystery worth unearthing. At the end of the movie, a title card requests that critics and viewers don’t spoil the mystery of the movie by telling other people the ending: funny, since 50 years later, reviewers and marketing teams are still spoiling the thrill of movie plot twists. Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac wrote the novel that Jérôme Géronimi, Henri-Georges Clouzot, and Frédéric Grendel adapted for screen.
Overboard
1987, written by Leslie Dixon, starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, Overboard is a classic comedy in the spirit of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Laughing out loud, this is a charming movie to lift your spirit about relationships, financial struggle, and raising children. If you want to write comedy feature films, this is one to study, as it has a perfect story arch, sharp character development, and a universal humor appeal.
Christine
1983, novel by Stephen King and screenplay by Bill Phillips, directed by famous director John Carpenter, Christine is a horror thriller classic. As a child, it had me terrified of the haunting souls of old cars. As an adult, I was surprised how well this movie held up; not quite as scary anymore, Christine has an emotionally complex script, superb acting, and cool special effects.
For more information about each movie, you may click on its title or go to IMDB.
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GoodFellas is one of my favorites! My favorite part is when the teen bartender mouths-off Joe Pesci’s character and he kills the teen because he’s so crazy, enraged and wacko!
I will watch 52 Pickup and Blue Velvet. I’m not easy to impress but you have convinced me with your reviews. I have not seen one David Lynch film!
I refuse to watch anymore Steven King makabouts. The Shining was okay, but it was tooooo long.
SizzleP makes me want popcorn. I will go to Hollywood Video tomorrow and pick these up.
Oh, I did see Juno. Finally. I wasn’t impressed. Why is everyone saying this is the best film of the year? That makes me uncomfortable. Sure, it’s good. And it did make cry at the end when they gave the baby up for adoption. But surely something will come along that’s better?
Maybe it was too pat for me. Everyone was quirky but they got along to well. But maybe that was the point.
I’m late to the game for my Sunday picture! I’m saving it like a cherry on top.
Thanks Ellen!
Juno was great not just because of the story, but because of Ellen Page’s excellent performance and how she can play the roles of women who are 5 years younger than her. Other examples of her works are Hard Candy and The Tracey Fragments (which is an artsy movie….you need to be in an artsy mood to really appreciate it).
…for Ellen Page fans, you may want to check out a movie called Smart People that came out over the winter. She plays the ambitious daughter of a college professor. She was terrific.
I wasn’t sure what to make of Juno either. I liked it quite a bit, and yet I was surprised by the message. (Was there no contraception available in their town or do teenagers still believe in magic?!)
This a list to save for when the snow flies here in the east…off to the video store (or we’ll take it along on our VHS yard sale walks.)
SizzleP – Juno was jtoo “tragically hip” for me. She needed a flaw. There were no flaws in her character. In anyone’s for that matter. But I think maybe, that’s the way the script was structured.
Her one flaw could have been her attraction the the married guy, and then when her step mom says something about boundaries and you don’t know how it is between married people – now THAT could have been a moment. It was too much of a merry-go-round for me. The trajedy/comedy could have been stepped up a bit.
Otherwise, yeah, the acting was very good within the context of the script.
I will have to read the interview with Cody Diablo in Writer’s Digest to shed some light on her thinking process.
I guess I better jump in here for this Juno discussion. I have never written my opinion of Juno because reading other blogs about it, people were heatedly divided on the topic, saying that either the movie sucked and is nothing special or that it was the greatest thing in league with Tarantino films (and like Bush, this latter group took the “You’re either with us or you’re against us” angle) — so I didn’t want to get involved.
As a well studied screenwriter I find the Juno script to be a by-the-book cookie cut script, which is fine, that’s how you make a sale and become rich and famous. It is a financial endeavor more than it is an honest heartfelt creative endeavor.
For me personally, the Juno characters are monodimensional and the story is too simple to excite me. The characters’ voices were that of an older person trying to be young and funny, and didn’t sound like real teenagers to me.
That said, almost everyone I know really liked it.
Winning Best Original Screenplay I think is more of a popularity contest: Does this movie make me feel good? Do I like it? And does not mean that the script itself is original or unique or groundbreaking, rather that the script was written from scratch (not an adaptation of something else).
Juno was not my pick of the year because I need something more experimental and mysterious to fulfill me, but it was a lot of other people’s favorite movie, and therefore deserved its win because it was successful in entertaining.
Here is what I did write about Juno, if you missed it:
http://www.screenwritingforhollywood.com/weird-stuff/what-you-dont-know-about-juno
What I liked most about Juno was the filmmakers’ addition of the creative comic-looking opening credits scene of her walking drinking milk.
– Ellen Wilson — I strongly agree with your fine pinpointed reasons how Juno could have been much better.
– SizzlyP — When Pesci shoots the kid in GoodFellas is so disturbing! In my mind, I had melded that scene with the “You think I’m funny?” scene, but watching the movie recently, they are far apart. My mind had lumped all his crazy actions together.
I’m a huge Gangsta Flick fan. I own them all. Goodfellaz ranks at the top of the food chain for Mafia movies alongside the Godfather II.
There’s something about GoodFellas that I can’t get enough of. I must have seen it almost 10 times, over the years. I never get tired of it.
It’s like watching a car-crash…you know you shouldn’t watch it, but you can’t help yourself. I have a morbid fascination watching these sociopathic gangsters self-destruct.
Yes…Joe Pesci makes the movie! (One of the worst bad-ass characters, ever!)
You can almost see the same movie again, if you watch “Casino” (though it’s not quite as good).
I feel so behind… From your list, I’ve only seen Liar Liar, which I love. It just may be one of my favorite Jim Carrey movies.
Sadly, I’ve only seen parts of Goodfellas, but I never got around to seeing it from start to finish, but very much want to. With that said, I have yet to see any of the Godfather movies which is a big shock to a lot of people that know me and my love of cinema. It’s not like I avoid these movies on purpose, I just never think about it until I see it’s coming on TV… And I don’t want to watch it on TV because it’s censored and has commercials. But one night, I will sit down and have a gangster night, or weekend if I can’t finish it all in one sitting.
Blue Velvet I’ve heard of, but not sure if I wanna travel down David Lynch’s strange road. Mulholland Drive is the only movie from him I’ve seen and that in itself was just weird. I understood what was going on after someone explained it, but overall, I probably wouldn’t want to see it again.
And Juno… I liked the characters and their quirkiness with interesting dialogues. Not the best movie in the world and I wasn’t all that impressed either, but it entertained me.
I tried to sit and watch the Godfather series, but the DVDs messed up. So I have only seen scenes here and there. From what I saw, it was totally amazing, realistic, excellent dialog, enthralling. A little Godfather screening party is in order. Bust out the popcorn and sodapop.
T.S. and Jaden: You must see the Godfather series…required viewing!
There’s also a version (the Saga) that’s combined so that it runs in chronological order.
One is great and Two is even better. DeNiro as the Don in his younger days — the story of his rise to power in Little Italy in the 20s…fantastic.
As for Three…well see the first two and then see three, so you know who is who. I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen the first two…in whole or in bits (when it comes on Tv — well…I should knit more. Sometimes I just listen to the dialogue while doing chores!)
As for Goodfellas, Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco were really wonderful — they all were…what a movie.
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