the groundhog day project

I want to say coincidence, but I'm guessing there's something more involved than just chance. But, anyway, weird coincidence that Dirty Dancing came out just a month after Adventures in Babysitting and they both* begin with The Ronettes' "Be My Baby". (* This isn’t true but for whatever reason “Be My Baby” sounded just like “ Then He Kissed Me ” in my head and then even as I realized the mistake I was already writing.) Which at least distracted me momentarily-- trying to see if there was a producer or someone in the music department that worked on both these films --from the voiceover narration that lasts all of three sentences. The worst kind of narration, the useless opener because someone involved, probably the director, couldn't think how to establish place and time succinctly. That was the summer of 1963, when everybody called me "Baby" and it didn't occur to me to mind. That was before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatle...

...the legend of Arturo, who was a Portuguese fisherman. He met this beautiful girl his first night in town--Catarina. And eventually they fell in love. But the problem was that Catarina's father was the territorial governor. He didn't want his only little girl running around with a lowly fisherman. So he told Arturo that he'd have to ship off. Which he did, but not before he told Catarina he'd be back for her. And when he came back, he'd signal with three long blasts, So she could dive off the rocks and swim to the boat, And they'd be on their way. So, a year later, everything went as planned. But when she was swimming out to the boat, The fog got so thick that she couldn't find the boat. Arturo panicked and he called out, "Catarina! Catarina!" Catarina yelled back, "Arturo!" With that, he just dove right off the boat into the icy waters, And they never found each other, And they both drowned. The legend is, They reu...

I think I forgot that Dean (Kurt Russell) makes art with chainsaws. That's how we are introduced to his character before he heads off to work on the yacht Immaculata . Later, there's some artistic stuff going on with the miniature gold course, but the artwork there comes from Joanna (Goldie Hawn); he handles the technical aspect and the building. Which his work in Joanna's closet at the start of the film sets up his engineering ability fairly well. His "objects de art" kinda gets lost. Looking back at Overboard with a modern lens, the plot is problematic, but the classist leanings outweigh the sexist leanings to create something more positive than the plot implies. Especially in the hands of director Garry Marshall. Still, even in '87, not everyone cared for the film. Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times , 18 December 1987: Unfortunately, Joanna eventually turns goody-two-shoes herself. All those layers of snobbery peel off to expose a bouncy, bubbly...

It did surprise me that I didn't have more to say about Innerspace . Or anything to say about it, really. It was like I could tell why I thought it was entertaining back in the day, and it was still fun, but there just wasn't much substance to it. Or I wasn't in the mood for the substance it had. And, so tonight, jump out of order to watch first Rent ( 621 622 623 ) and now back to 1987 for a little Adventures in Babysitting ... Both directed by Chris Columbus. Both co-starring Anthony Rapp. And not just a coincidence. I mentioned that Rapp was in the movie I'd be watching later to my daughter and the conversation turned to Rent and the poor adaptation that Columbus did, and yada yada yada Adventures in Babysitting is on now. And, while it has been years since I've seen this one, too, I feel like there will be things to talk about. Like Chris (Elisabeth Shue as the titular babysitter, not the director, who is clearly more at home directing this (his d...

Moving on through 1987, we get to Innerspace . This movie starts like a it thinks it's a drama. Two hours long, it's 11 minutes before they even mention that any "project" exists, more than 15 minutes before we know what the project is. It's like a weird rom com threw up on a science fiction film and this twisted baby burst out of a bubble on its back. And, then they forgot it was a comedy. Or maybe I remember it as more of a comedy than it is. I mean, we've only had a few seconds of Martin Short so far. The physical comedy was brief, though I know there will be more. So, I wait. The thing is, these "movie life" movies were movies I remembered watching a lot when I was young, but not necessarily movies I remembered in great detail now. I mean, I don't think I've seen Innerspace in at least 25 years. Nineteen minutes before we see the needle, and the script hasn't explained what just happened. Which is nice inasmuch as it...