Quiz Show (1994)

            The infamous Twenty-One scandal of 1956 rocked the nation when viewers across the nation learned that the charming, All-American contestant Charles Van Doren was a fraud.  Now we wonder how audiences could *not* have known this. Kind of like how hard it is to believe audiences were too naïve to realize George Michaels was gay.

 

 

He makes Tinker Bell look manly.

Game shows were so new that no rules governed what studios could and could not do with their audience. Back then we were, quite frankly, naïve fools. TV was new, celebrities were new, and it was unknown that, when combined, the two lead to a total takeover of one’s own dickish nature.

Robert Redford’s 1994 historical drama chronicles the scandal. And while it does stray from facts, it is a very enjoyable film. Redford – famous for his cinematography – recreates the fifties with a glamorized charm. He approaches the story as a detective story; he lets viewers piece together the pieces as the story unfolds. Which I imagine to have been a surprisingly daunting task, since anyone who has heard of the story know what happened and who is to blame.

Ralph Fiennes plays prettyboy Charles Van Doren, college professor who begins the story as a victim, then willingly succumbs to the spoils of fame and fortune. We do not blame him, we do not hate, we feel pity for him. For, while we see his fate far down the path, he does not.

John Turturro plays Herbie Stempel; a man as dorky as his name. Turturro does a magnificent job of showcasing everything we love and hate about nerds; even the 1950’s McFly-brand.

Topping it off are an abundance of fine character actors and two very enjoyable hours.

9/10 – Superb Entertainment

John Carter (2012)

When I saw you, I believed it was a sign… That something new can come into this world.

In this world of dark and gritty adaptations, where violence, sex, and quality are considered to be intertwined, Andrew Stanton’s John Carter stands out vividly against the other films released lately. John Carter does not aspire to reinvent the blockbuster like Avatar did with its revolutionary special effects. It does not try to be harsh and realistic like Chris Nolan’s popular Batman soon-to-be trilogy. Its story, pulled straight from the naïve pre-space exploration mind of Edgar Rice Burroughs, is not changed to match our planetary discoveries. The acting is cheesy, as is the screenplay. The plot is simple and, yes, clichéd. It is an age-old tale of an ordinary man thrown into an extraordinary experience. And this is exactly why I loved the film so much.

And there’s partial nudity.

The swashbuckling action, the red-globe-trotting plot, the damsel in distress, all memories of an era of film that has since vanished. John Carter is not so much a story as it is a journey. An epic tale that sucks us in and has us cheering the hero on every moment of the film. It is a story that stays with you. A tale that really matters.

Sadly, after a disappointing opening, it does not appear that the mainstream audience agrees with me. We live in a cynical world that seems to have lost its sense of mindless adventure. So I can simply offer my thanks, and my $9.50, to Stanton. For he knows what adventure is truly all about.

9/10 – Superb Entertainment