Wonder Man (1945)
Danny Kaye gets to play two roles: a slick nightclub entertainer and his bumbling bookworm twin brother. Both are very funny and they each get a couple fun musical numbers, giving Kaye the opportunity to play both suave and neurotic to the hilt (both of which he does excellently). Wonder Man stands proudly beside The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and The Court Jester as one of Kaye’s most entertaining roles.
Worst
Cutthroat Island (1995)
Geena Davis is woefully miscast in this mess. She is far too quiet and mousy to be believable as a bloodthirsty pirate queen and looks embarrassingly out of place every time she tries to fight. None of the characters are interesting or likeable in any way, and all attempts at humor fall flat. Half the dialog consists solely of grunts and cries. And then there are the action sequences which have so little regard for the laws of physics (almost every cannonball explodes in a giant fireball) that they lose any semblance of credibility.
Coming up next: two movies that transport the audience into a uniquely visual world.
2 comments:
Wait just a minute! I loved Cutthroat Island when it came out. I guess I haven't seen it lately though. In 1995 I was 15 and loved almost every movie I saw. I did not have the refined discriminating taste that I have now. Many of the movies I thought were amazing when I was in Junior High and High School have been no match for the jaded cynicism that seems to increase exponentially with each passing year.
I can see why the 15 year old you might like the movie. I probably would have liked it at 15. But learning about things like plot, character development, and physics helped me to see how not good this movie is.
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