CNN picks upon my recent lament that we see too few comic pairings these days. Forget about Hope & Crosby … we’re lucky to get two films starring Ferrell and Reilly. And lets face it Ferrell and Reilly hardly sounds as sweet as either Abbott & Costello or Cheech & Chong.
The CNN article suggests we’re too cynical to swallow these kinds of pairings. Not buying that argument. Audiences gulp down every half-hearted sequel and reboot, so why would a re-pairing give us pause? I suspect ego and the modern budgetary considerations are mostly to blame. Abbott & Costello cranked out a bunch of films on the cheap, but today even a simple comedy costs millions to make. And that’s before the stars’ salaries kick in.
We may have to wait a long time for the next Laurel & Hardy to emerge.
Television movies from my youth fell into two categories. You had the classics (”Roots,” “The Day After”) and then you had everything else (”You Name the Fatal Illness” flicks and cheesy melodramas).
“The Executioner’s Song” clearly fell into the former slot. Just re-watched the film courtesy of a new director’s cut DVD release (Aug. 5).
Tommy Lee Jones stars as Gary Gilmore, a charismatic killer whose death sentence brought capital punishment back into the headlines in the 1970s. Rosanna Arquette, who I spoke with this week for an upcoming feature, plays his love interest.
it’s a terrific film that hasn’t aged a whit. Jones is flat-out brilliant, and it’s no shock he earned an Emmy for his portrayal. Arquette is nearly as good as the oh, so forgiving girl who couldn’t stop loving a killer.
“Song” doesn’t take hard sides on the death penalty debate. It shows Gilmore’s flickering humanity as well as the full extent of his depraved acts.
