Adventure/Comedy/Crime/Mystery
PG-13, 94 min
Directed by Joel Coen
After their nouveau noir debut, Blood Simple, the Coen Brothers lightened things up a little with the tale of a loveable loser (a Coen staple ever after), ex-con H.I. McDunnough (Nicolas Cage) who finds unlikely love with police officer Edwina "Ed" (Holly Hunter). The wheels come off their idyllic mobile home lifestyle when they learn they can't have a child. MEANWHILE local unpainted furniture bigwig Nathan Arizona and his wife are overly blessed with a litter of quintuplets and H.I. is prodded back into illegal action to kidnap one of the Arizonas to fill the hole in their happy home. Best sequence: grocery store robbery for Pampers that turns into a slapstick masterpiece.
Replacement status: replaced on DVD
Magic (1978)
Drama/Horror/Romance/Thriller
Rated R, 108 min
Directed by Richard Attenborough
The central conceit of the story is that ventriloquist Corky Withers (Anthony Hopkins) has risen from the circles of nightclub hell up into burgeoning mainstream celebrity (I know alternate universe, right?) On the eve of his big break, a network television development contract, he is asked to undergo some medical tests for insurance... a request he adamantly refuses and, when pushed by his manager (Burgess Meredith), flees to upstate New York. There he secludes himself in one of the cabins in a failing resort run by his old high school flame Peggy Ann Snow (Ann Margaret) and her husband. At the centre of this little whirlwind is Fats, Corky's "dummy," who seems to be more than a tool of the trade. Interesting facts: (1) It was the movie that Attneborough did between A Bridge Too Far and Gandhi. (2) The script was by William Golding (based on his novel), whose other screenplays include All the President's Men and The Princess Bride (3) Ann-Margaret is ditzy funtastic and Hopkins eat two or three walls worth of scenery... in the best way possible.
Replacement status: replaced on DVD.
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