Summer Blockbusted 2020: Now Playing…July 10 (FILM FUN/VIDEO)

Jeff Huston
Summer Blockbuster 2020: July 10 – IN THE LINE OF FIRE (1993), CONTACT (1997), MADELINE (1998), FORREST GUMP (1994), GHOST (1995), TRON (1982), THE FAREWELL (2019), MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME (1985), SILVERADO (1985)

The heat of the summer is really starting to kick in, even as the temperature of the movie options becomes more varied.

Welcome to Week 11 of Summer Blockbusted 2020.

Through the end of August, I am curating a weekly slate of movies from summers past, ranging from big blockbusters to small counter-programming indies, and dramas and comedies in-between. With the multiplexes still closed, these are classics you can enjoy again or discover for the first time in the safety of your home theater.

Every single Friday. All summer long.

(To read more about how each week’s slate is determined, click here.)

This week: films that were released over the second weekend of July. My REC OF THE WEEK is a late-90s adaptation of a beloved children’s book series.

When possible, I’ve included archived video reviews from Siskel & Ebert, whether I agree with them or not.

Also included when possible: links to streaming services where these movies can be seen. (If a link isn’t provided, you can rent the film on most VOD platforms.)

(Find links to other weeks at the end of this article.)

NOW PLAYING…JULY 11, 2020

  • REC OF THE WEEK: Madeline (July 10, 1998) 89 min; Rated PG
    • The adaptation of Ludwig Bemelmans’ classic children’s books is probably the last recommendation one would expect to see at the heart of summertime movie watching, but Madeline is a charming gem that absolutely stole my heart. For a book series that was barely on my radar (I am a boy, after all), this film version of Madeline took me by complete surprise back in 1998. Though rooted in reality, Madeline plays very much like a fantasy for young girls, an idealized (and stylized) take on how adventurous a boarding school experience could be.
      d
      The title character is the smallest and most precocious of the “twelve little girls in two straight lines” who attend a quaint girls-only school in the heart of Paris, set here in the mid-1950s. This is a faithful retelling of various anecdotes from the book series (including the very first from 1939) all within an overarching narrative about the school facing a possible closing.
      d
      Despite everything being prim, proper, and in tip-top order, hijinks ensue whenever Madeline is around, augmented by the antics of the neighbor boy Pepito who the young girls are completely transfixed by. Miss Clavel is their headmistress, brought to life with a perfect mix of decorum and warmth by Frances McDormand, and Hatty Jones is both feisty and adorable in the title role. The rest of the cast — from Madeline’s schoolmates to Nigel Hawthorne as the cold, stoic school proprietor and Chantal Neuwirth as the cook — make for a warm, endearing ensemble.
      d
      Director Daisy von Scherler Mayer (who went on to direct peak TV like Mad Men) gives it all an air of whimsy within an aesthetic of beautiful, meticulous craftsmanship bordering on Wes Anderson at times, made truly idyllic by music from Michel Legrand, the legendary composer of films ranging from French director Jacques Demy’s classics to Yentl and more.
      d
      But what caught me off-guard was how emotional the journey often is, from early unexpected moments of tenderness to ones that becoming increasingly heartfelt as the school and its residents see their future threatened.
      d
      If I were a father of a little girl, this is a movie experience that I would absolutely love to share with her. Yet even as someone who has no daughter, I became completely enchanted by Madeline all the same based strictly on its cinematic charms alone. It’s a movie that turns family fare into an art and does so by embracing the source’s lyrical virtues rather than diluting or modernizing them, and shows just how sophisticated filmmaking can be even as it maintains the integrity of absolute innocence. (Final numbers: $30 million domestic and worldwide.)
  • Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (July 12, 1985) 89 min; Rated PG-13 (35th Anniversary) Streaming on HBO Max
    • Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome? That’s the one with Tina Turner and Mel Gibson‘s hair on steroids, right? Yep, the very same, but then everything in this third Mad Max adventure is performance-enhanced, and all in the best way.
      d
      It may surprise you to learn that Beyond Thunderdome actually made it onto Roger Ebert‘s Top 10 List for 1985 (ranked #9), but it shouldn’t. This is a phenomenally-realized vision in every respect, from its riveting and singular filmmaking to its unexpectedly stirring humanity.
      d
      Mad Max: Fury Road may have taken the series to new heights thirty years later, but Beyond Thunderdome was the first entry to realize the franchise’s full cinematic potential. It’s the Lawrence of Arabia of post-apocalyptic hell-scapes, which is fitting since both movies share the same composer (Maurice Jarre).
      d
      (Bonus: you could make this a mid-July Mel Gibson double-feature twofer with Lethal Weapon 2, which was also released on this same weekend four years later in 1989.) (Final numbers: $36 million domestic and worldwide.)
  • Forrest Gump (July 6, 1994) 142 min Rated PG-13
    • A beloved classic that film snobs turn their nose at, Forrest Gump not only holds up after 25+ years but, from where I’m sitting, has actually improved with age and resonates even more strongly with the passage of time.
      d
      The memorable quotes and unique life’s journey through the latter-half of the 20th Century is what we instantly think of with Forrest Gump, along with the iconic turn from Tom Hanks (which garnered him his second straight Best Actor Academy Award), but it’s this ideal of innocence that Forrest sets for us that has become more important than ever, especially in our increasingly jaded and polarizing world.
      d
      It’s humbling to consider what kind of intelligence we should actually desire: an aptitude of the mind or of the soul and spirit? Forrest Gump makes a strong, moral case for the latter.
      d
      (To read more about my reflections on Forrest Gump, read my article from last year “FORREST GUMP at 25”.) (Final numbers: $330.5 million domestic; $683 million worldwide.)
  • In the Line of Fire (July 9, 1993) 130 min Rated R
    • A boiler-plate action formula – i.e. an aging Secret Service agent who’s haunted by the Kennedy assassination is provoked 25 years later by ex-CIA assassin who makes the current President his target – is elevated by a (mostly) sharp script and even better performances, namely Clint Eastwood giving a humanized texture to his iconic screen persona (coming in the wake of his Unforgiven Oscar wins a year prior) to John Malkovich adding chilling, credible dimensions to a standard villain archetype (earning him a Best Supporting Actor nomination that year).
      d
      As cliché as the structure is, these two actors stage a thrilling psychological mind game through various phone conversations; those dialogue-driven moments are the film’s most compelling. The direction from Wolfgang Petersen is taut and smart if a tad dated in moments, but it’s the kind of movie that aspired to more than the what so many aging actors (Liam Neeson, Denzel Washington, Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, etc) have to settle for today: gratuitous vigilante pics. (Final numbers: $102.3 million domestic; $177 million worldwide.)
  • Tron (July 9, 1982) 96 min Rated PG Streaming on Disney+
    • Of the films that deserve to be lauded as visionary but rarely are (if ever), Tron may be at the top of that list. Released in an age of Star Wars copycats and rip-offs, director Steven Lisberger’s sci-fi adventure was unlike anything else in the early 1980s. It’s particularly impressive when you consider that most of the story actually takes place inside a video game world (rather than merely entering it for key scenes). People may think of it as a kids movie, but it’s an impressive accomplishment straight-up.
      d
      And don’t let the quasi-datedness of the early 80s effects distract you from how truly visionary it actually is. The visual design and world-building is absolutely phenomenal, and singular, and holds up enormously as a completely transportive experience. On top of all that, it actually has some pretty lofty thematic ambitions, all set in a world that’s much more than one of digital graphics serving as backdrop to a hero’s journey. Tron has its own ecosystem of rules, laws, class, and social dynamics.
      d
      Indeed, with its story of revolutionaries fighting against a system of tyranny, control, and conformity, Tron is like the grade school starter parable that preps kids for more classic dystopian works to come like 1984 and Brave New World or even Animal Farm. (Final numbers: $33 million domestic and worldwide.)
  • Ghost (July 13, 1990) 127 min Rated PG-13 (30th Anniversary) Streaming on Showtime Apps
    • Watching Ghost again for the first time in 30 years, it’s a movie that, fundamentally, doesn’t hold up and yet one can still clearly see what appealed to audiences back in 1990 (women especially) that propelled this unexpected sleeper hit to #1 at the box office for the year and five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture (Whoopi Goldberg would win for Best Supporting Actress and writer Bruce Joel Rubin would take the Oscar for his Original Screenplay).
      d
      Desperately earnest and often hokey, there’s a conviction in the ensemble quartet that remains, perhaps in Demi Moore especially whose tears triggered the same from so many moviegoers who came back for the melodrama again and again that year (it helps that peak-Patrick Swayze is the sensitive hunky dreamboat yearning to re-connect with her from The Other Side, after falling victim to a violent act).
      d
      But even with all of the unabashed romantic cliches, entertaining support from Whoopi, and inspired conceptual ideas (ex: The Penny), what may have sold this movie the most to its target is the perfectly-conceived villain who’s responsible for the hero’s death and threatens his soul mate after he’s gone. This cunning, amoral, betraying lowlife is exactly the kind of bad guy (but played so sincerely and deceptively, which is key) that makes audiences seethe with hatred and disgust and love every minute of it! It’s a cinematic soap opera romance (with a sweeping Love Theme cue to boot from legendary film composer Maurice Jarre).
      d
      Sure, the budget didn’t match what you normally associate with Summer Blockbuster (those early-CGI demons are beyond low-rent), but then that just speaks to how little the studio probably expected from this material (and, of all people, Airplane! comedy director Jerry Zucker) that became a classic overachieving phenomenon. (Final numbers: $217.6 million domestic; $505.8 million worldwide.)
  • Silverado (July 12, 1985) 133 min Rated PG-13 (35th Anniversary)
    • Lawrence Kasdan broke into the industry screenwriting The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark. After initial directorial efforts in other genres, he saddled back up for adventure in Silverado, his ode to the Western at a time when the genre was at its lowest point in popularity. It’s rousing enough to be a satisfying entertainment, especially in that it aspires to be a mix of John Ford’s widescreen canvas and Howard Hawks’ rambunctious spirit.
      d
      At best, though, Silverado is nothing more than a genre exercise. It has absolutely no thematic ambitions whatsoever (which is perfectly fine) and, instead, is content with presenting a collection of character archetypes who get mixed up in a bunch of genre tropes all leading to inevitable showdowns. That’s all well-and-good so far as it goes, which in this case is too long at two hours and fifteen minutes. (A shave of 30 to 40 minutes would’ve made this a brisk and more satisfying entertainment.)
      d
      It boasts a solid cast, yet each ensemble member does little more than play his or her stock role. Danny Glover is the only one who exceeds those requirements to embody something resembling a real person who’s living and reacting spontaneously in a real world. Kevin Kline, on the other hand, isn’t convincing for a second as a real Westerner of the era, staying steadily bland as the heroic nobleman.
      d
      But hey, it looks good and sounds good (composer Bruce Broughton’s Western adventure fanfare was Oscar-nominated, as was the Sound Design), and so even if your attention drifts from time to time, Silverado scratches that Western itch quite nicely if you have one. (Final numbers: $32.1 million domestic and worldwide.)
  • The Farewell (July 12, 2019) 100 min; Rated PG Streaming on Amazon Prime
    • One of the better films from 2019, The Farewell is writer/director Lulu Wang‘s fictionalization of a real-life story from her own family that she first shared on “This American Life.” Awkwafina won a deserving Golden Globe for her performance as a Chinese-American who returns to China when her grandmother receives a fatal cancer diagnosis. Per cultural tradition, however, her grandmother is never told.
      d
      What unfolds is an emotionally delicate, humorous, and raw story of a family trying to reckon with their dysfunctions while avoiding the biggest elephant in the room: Grandma has Stage 4 cancer, and she’s the only one who doesn’t know.
      d
      This special indie deserved something at the Oscars, with Wang’s screenplay and Zhao Shuzhen’s supporting turn as the grandmother being the most notorious snubs. But now you can stream it for free with your Amazon Prime subscription. (Final numbers: $17.7 million domestic; $22.5 million worldwide.)
      d
  • Contact (July 11, 1997) 150 min; Rated PG
    • Contact is interesting to watch today primarily because of how bad it plays. A movie largely praised back when it was released in 1997 (just watch Siskel & Ebert rave both about it), I was never a fan of director Robert Zemeckis follow-up to Forrest Gump — but it’s even worse than I remembered.
      d
      Contact isn’t just bad, it’s embarrassing, so dreadfully earnest but with nothing to say. It thinks it does, which makes it even worse, presenting flat platitudes as intellectual debate between science and religion. There’s some impressive filmmaking here, no doubt, but the dramaturgy is cornball formulaic melodrama.
      d
      Matthew McConaughey’s beefcake spiritualist may be the most glaring example of that but, this time around, it’s Jodie Foster who feels miscast, not him. My goodness, her whole performance is angst and burden, even when she’s supposed to be in awe. There’s no joy here, yet the material and premise beg for it.
      d
      Plus, for a movie that wants to respect both science and spirituality it does a pretty weak job at both, especially the latter. What is supposed to be a metaphysically profound experience is reduced mostly to feelings and emotions (and daddy-loss issues) that add up to little more than flaky liberal kumbaya ecumenism, rather than a challenging transcendence that’s mysteriously rooted by peace. (I’m not suggesting that’s easy to pull off, but that’s the target Zemeckis chose to aim for.)
      d
      But more than anything, the biggest problem with Contact is that it’s pretty cheesy. Pure secular pablum.  (Final numbers: $100.1 million domestic; $171 million worldwide.)
      d
    • There is no YouTube link for Siskel & Ebert’s review of Contact, but you can find it here in this full episode at SiskelEbert.org. It’s the first review of the episode. https://siskelebert.org/?p=5488

If you’d like to suggest summer movie titles for future weeks, you can email your requests to: icantunseethatmovie@gmail.com

Other weeks from Summer Blockbusted 2020:

Leave a Reply