Terms of Endearment

Terms of Endearment (1983)

Directed by James L. Brooks

Screenplay by James L. Brooks

Based on the novel by Larry McMurtry

Stars: Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Jeff Daniels, John Lithgow, Danny DeVito, Lisa Hart Carroll, Huckleberry Fox and Troy Bishop

Terms of Endearment has been a movie that I have been avoiding for the longest time, because I cannot stand obvious tearjerker movies. Since I'm doing a blog-a-thon, I might as well add this movie to the list. The movie was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won five including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screeplay for James L. Brooks, Best Actress for MacLaine and Supporting Actor for Nicholson.My only thought is why did this movie get so much acclaim?

An overbearing mother Aurora Greenway (MacLaine) tires her best to raise her only daughter, Emma (Winger) the best way that she can. Their relationship is tempestuous to say the least. Emma tries to beak away from her mother's controlling ways by marrying Flap Horton (Daniels) and moving from Houston to his new teaching position in Iowa. With over a thousand miles separating them, Aurora tries to butt into Emma's business over the phone. Emma thinks that her mom needs to have a man in her life and she finds it in her next door neighbor, Garrett Breedlove (Nicholson) who is an astronaut.

Let's get this out of the way, all of the characters are assholes. They are so mean to each other I didn't care what happened to them. I don't understand what was Aurora's problem with Flap. Was it that he was not good enough for her daughter? Was Danny DeVito in the movie fawning for Aurora and that other guy? Why was John Lithgow nominated for essentially five minutes of screen time?

The ending of the movie was spoiled to me over the last couple of years. The characters dwelt in the chain of events  way too long. I was bored with the movie. There was a lot of eye rolling, yawning, getting distracted by other things, etc. The overly melodramatic score by Michael Gore did not help matters. I was like, come on. Really? This movie won Best Picture. Are you kidding me? It must have been slim picking back in '83.

My Rating

The Shining

The Shining (1980)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick & Diane Johnson

Based on the novel by Stephen King

Currently #45 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting)

Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone and Joe Turkel

Started off my Birthday Moive Blog-a-thon, I wanted to see a movie that is very iconic that I have never seen. The first thing that came to my mind was The Shining. I have seen clips of the movie, but I have never seen the actual movie until now. I don't know if it's just me, but I don't get was the fuss is all about.

A former schoolteacher turned struggling writer, Jack Torrance (Nicholson) moves his family into the Overlook Hotel in Denver as the hotel is closing for the winter. Jack, his wife Wendy (Duvall) and his son, Danny (Lloyd) have the whole hotel is themselves for the next five months. Prior to their arrival, Jack was told by the keeper of the property Stuart Ullman (Nelson) that the previous caretaker killed his wife and children years prior. Keeping that from the family, they discovered that the spirits of  the hotel are out to get them one way or another.

The hype surrounding the movie was palpable. I was fully expecting to have a great time with the movie, but I found the movie was very boring. I know that Kubrick wanted to created a mood of cabin fever, paranoia and the slow decent to madness, but I was wishing for it to hurry the fuck up. I thought that Jack Nicholson was in a completely different movie than the rest of the cast. I thought he was the best part of the film and the others were in some low rent B movie. I couldn't stand Shelley Duvall's characters with her googly eyes and her pretending to be scared of Jack. She was awful. The thing that really distracted me was the horrible clothes that she had on. The little boy, Danny was fine, but he got annoying towards the end of the movie.

I felt that the movie was all built up and no pay off. I enjoyed the sequence in the maze, but I felt that those moments were too far between. The choice of music for the film was jarring, because it was trying to build the suspense that leads to nowhere. The ending of the movie, I saw coming from a mile away. I felt disappointed with the movie, because I felt I would be creeped out and scared, but I didn't. It's a shame. I wanted to like this movie, but I didn't.

My Rating