![\"Beethoven](\"https:\/\/external-content.duckduckgo.com\/iu\/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecranlarge.com%2Fcontent%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F08%2F23u3vg5jlr2miibirivdcdyv5b-367.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=d01fc391d68e50a08c7b934a11b988d470d3a8da409f6ad5c6411b7cf1850abc\")
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Beethoven<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(1992)<\/p>\n As Harvey (Oliver Platt) and Vernon (Stanley Tucci) abduct several dogs from a pet store, a large St. Bernard escapes and hides at the home of the Newtons.\u00a0The children fall in love with the dog and convince their sourpuss dad, George (Charles Grodin) to keep the animal, which they name Beethoven.<\/p>\n Reluctantly, George warms to Beethoven and eventually risks his own safety to save him from an evil veterinarian, Dr. Herman Varnick (Dean Jones).<\/p>\n What makes this generic kid’s movie interesting is the quality of the people involved with its production.<\/p>\n John Hughes, the master of 1980s teen angst, turned to writing children’s films movies like this in the 1990s, before slowly withdrawing from Hollywood. His mature output was not sophisticated, but infused with a\u00a0refreshing sense of earnestness.<\/p>\n A master\u00a0of deadpan exasperation, Charles Grodin’s work in The Heartbreak Kid <\/em>(1972) was amazing. He was excellent in Heaven Can Wait <\/em>(1978); and superb in Real Life<\/em> (1979). He should have become a superstar, but made a few bizarre choices in The Incredible Shrinking Woman<\/em> (1981) and\u00a0The Great Muppet Caper <\/em>(1981).\u00a0After the unexpected success of Beethoven<\/em>, Grodin left Hollywood for several years to host a political talk show on CNBC.<\/p>\n Alice Newton was only the second feature film role for Bonnie Hunt.\u00a0Years before they became famous as Debra Barone<\/a>\u00a0and Fox Mulder<\/a>,\u00a0Patricia Heaton and David Duchovny played Brad and Brie, a con artist couple here.<\/p>\n Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt are two of the most respected actors in Hollywood; this film proves even the best have to start somewhere.<\/p>\n To top off the embarrassing amount of talent on display, this was the debut of Joseph Gordon Levitt.<\/p>\n I won’t go out of my way to watch it again, but if\u00a0catch\u00a0it on TV, I\u00a0probably won’t\u00a0change the channel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bad Santa<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(2003)<\/p>\n Every year\u00a0Willie Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton) gets a job as a department store Santa in a different city and robs the shopping mall while\u00a0his partner, Marcus, poses as his elf.<\/p>\n The movie is an excuse for Thornton to say and do outlandish things.<\/p>\n Thornton’s\u00a0at his best playing men with little regard for convention. It’s difficult to make audiences\u00a0relate to\u00a0a despicable character like Willie Stokes, but because of Thornton’s unique charisma, we do.<\/p>\n Director Terry Zwigoff specializes in films about offbeat characters. This is more mainstream than his documentary about Robert Crumb<\/a>, but both films are profiles of men whose genius makes them unpalatable to the world\u00a0at large.<\/p>\n Sadly, this was the last film to\u00a0feature John Ritter, whose legacy is fixed as Jack Tripper<\/a>.\u00a0Ritter wasn’t given a lot of opportunities to prove himself dramatically, but when he did, in movies like Sling Blade\u00a0<\/em>(1996), he shined, and he’s good here as Bob Chipeska, the exasperated manager of Stokes’s latest target.<\/p>\n Bernie Mac is excellent as Gin Slagel, the private investigator hired to expose Stokes.<\/p>\n Brett Kelley\u00a0was surprisingly effective as Thurman, a child Stokes takes under his wing, allowing Thornton to push his grotesque caricature to extreme levels of depravity. Sadly, Kelley’s career never reached these heights again; the role of a wide-eyed innocent is best played by fresh faces.<\/p>\n This schizophrenic movie paints Stokes\u00a0as the epitome of selfishness in one scene, then attempts to humanize\u00a0him via his relationship with Thurman in the next.\u00a0The ending wants to be artfully ambiguous, but winds up a muddled mess, Stokes is redeemed, but still an asshole. The film’s indecisiveness mirrors my own: I can’t recommend it, but I understand why some people will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Beethoven\u00a0(1992) As Harvey (Oliver Platt) and Vernon (Stanley Tucci) abduct several dogs from a pet store, a large St. Bernard escapes and hides at the home of the Newtons.\u00a0The children fall in love with the dog and convince their sourpuss dad, George (Charles Grodin) to keep the animal, which they name Beethoven. Reluctantly, George… Continue reading Bad Beethoven<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1222,1227,1226,1229,1223,427,1228,1225],"class_list":["post-2158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-progress","tag-beethoven","tag-bernie-mac","tag-billy-bob-thornton","tag-black-comedy","tag-charles-grodin","tag-john-hughes","tag-john-ritter","tag-terry-zwigoff","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2158"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14900,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions\/14900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Bad](\"https:\/\/external-content.duckduckgo.com\/iu\/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Foriginal%2Fdt30keB9txHjYXuMzrqv6uJ499B.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=c82f2d99235dfc8ab55c2854e738a94c0c1efbe5caadc114525f1383ab7a58ce\")
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