the groundhog day project

Woman: Libby, this is Natalie Standish. Natalie is Reed’s... Oh, is it alright to...? Natalie: Say that Reed got me pregnant when I was a barhop at your country club, married me to avoid scandal, spent the next ten years sucking the life out of me, got bored with me, dumped me, and screwed me in court? Sure, go ahead. Woman: Uh... Natalie is Reed’s ex-wife. In the modern parlance, a screenwriting fail . But, nevermind that. I just had to rewind a couple times to check a mistake. So, a dozen minutes or so into the movie, Dutch is preparing food while he and Natalie discuss what to do about Doyle. Dutch cuts chicken with a knife at first then resorts to a cleaver, then puts the mangled chicken along with some potatoes and vegetables in a pan... and CUT TO timer, CUT TO those same ingredients in a nice dish. Natalie comments, “Smells good.” But, they’re sitting in a restaurant. They were in a house kitchen a moment ago, and then a restaurant. It’s not an editing error but something b...

Dutch is not an awful movie. I may have oversold its horribleness. Longtime follower of this blog, Maolsheachlann replied to yesterday ‘s blog: “This movie sounds truly awful, and looks awful, and even the title is awful!!” No, no, it’s just very much a movie of a specific time, a specific mindset. It deliberately offers us the character of Reed Standish (Christopher McDonald) just so the worst actions of Dutch Dooley (Ed O’Neill) don’t seem so bad. I mean, really, the whole kidnapping thing, the pellet gun shooting, the abandonment on the side of the road—Dutch means well. Plus, Doyle (Ethan Embry (nee Randall)) is a little jerk who in terms of what’s spiritually a 1980s film, deserves it. Doyle is the kind of kid who would grow up to be the villain in a whole bunch of 80s movies, the upper-class douche who thinks he’s better than everybody else. Dutch, whatever his style, is there to give Doyle some comeuppance. It’s notable that Dutch has only a 14% from critics on Rotten Tomato...