Kinsey (2004)
After unassuming biology professor Alfred Kinsey (Liam Neeson) falls in love and marries his student, Clara McCmillen (Laura Linney), he discovers an insatiable appetite for sex.
When the surprising results of a classroom survey in his sex education class demonstrate how little research has been done in the field, Kinsey dedicates his life to the new discipline of sexology.
Together with his research team including Clyde Martin (Peter Sarsgaard), Wardell Pomeroy (Chris O’Donnell), and Paul Gebhard (Timothy Hutton), he interviews all types of people about their sexual preferences and peccadilloes, including his uptight minister father, Alfred Seguine Kinsey (John Lithgow).
He encourages sexual experimentation among his staff and has an affair with Martin.
I like Liam Neeson and love Laura Linney, but this is a career low for both. It’s always nice to see Tim Curry, but conservative bogeyman Thurman Rice is a stock role, a plot device to make us more sympathetic to Kinsey’s crusade.
Bill Condon’s film is not a biopic as much as rallying cry for a laissez-faire attitude about sexuality. The film paints Kinsey as a sexual pioneer and suggests every aspect of human sexuality can be understood with rigorous research, mitigating the need for any external morality or guiding principles of right and wrong.
Removing value judgments from sexual studies leads to disturbing inquiries, culminating in Kinsey’s interview of sexual deviant Kenneth Braun. As he graphically describes his bizarre and disgusting sex life including acts with children, Kinsey dispassionately documents his behavior, as if observing a new species. When Braun claims the ability to climax in under a minute, Kinsey nonchalantly pulls out a stop watch to time him, to the dismay of Martin.
Even if research shows some behaviors are more widely practiced than believed, this does not make them morally acceptable. In fact, by normalizing alternate sexual behavior, this research may increase the practice of the behavior in question.
I would have preferred a film which wasn’t as blindly sympathetic and wish it had been more willing to ask the tough questions, engaging Kinsey and his motivations.
Spies Like Us (1985)
Incompetent federal agents Austin Milibarge (Dan Ackroyd) and Emmett Fitz-Hume (Chevy Chase) are recruited by the Defense Intelligence Agency for a secret mission to the Soviet Union.
Despite their bumbling, they miraculously reach their target and, per their orders, unwittingly launch a Soviet missile at the United States. The mission was a front for a splinter group to demonstrates the effectiveness of an anti-ballistic missile system.
Luckily, Milibarge’s extensive knowledge of Soviet equipment enables him to reconfigure the weapon and narrowly avert a nuclear war.
This homage to the Road to… movies fails because Ackroyd and Chase are not as talented as Hope and Crosby.
Ackroyd is fine as a second banana, but he can’t carry a film. Chase was briefly funny in the 1980s, but with a few exceptions, his films don’t hold up well.
The only reason to watch are the cameos by Bob Hope, Frank Oz, Joel Coen, Terry Gilliam, Sam Raimi, and B.B. King.
Gremlins (1984)
For Christmas, quirky inventor Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) brings his son Billy (Zach Galligan) a Mogwai he bought in a Chinatown store. As the store owner explained, there are three ironclad rules to owning a Mogwai, never expose it to sunlight, never let it get wet, and never feed it after midnight.
Unfortunately, Billy immediately gets Gizmo wet, causing five new Mogwai to spontaneously generate. More difficult and unruly than Gizmo, these new creatures trick Billy into feeding them after midnight, which tuns them into monstrous green creatures called Gremlins.
As the Gremlins take over the city, Billy must defend Kingston Falls.
Zach Galligan’s career peaked in his debut film. The first and last lines of his career biography will mention his pet Mogwai.
In her brief film career, Phoebe Cates ensured herself a place in pop culture history with her infamous scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and her work here as Kate Berringer, Billy’s girlfriend. The darkly comic scene where she relates her father’s death in a freak chimney incident is the one of the most memorable scenes from the film.
This film launched Corey Feldman’s film career, but his work as Pete Fountaine is pedestrian. Polly Holliday is delightful as Mrs. Ruby Deale, a Mr. Potter inspired villainess, and Jonathan Banks, now well-known for his work in Breaking Bad has a small role as a deputy.
It was controversial on release because its marketing emphasized the cute and adorable Gizmo, leading many parents of young children to incorrectly assume it was a family film. This controversy eventually led to the creation of the PG-13 rating.
Alongside Ghostbusters (1984), this wickedly funny film blended traditional horror elements with comedy to create a new genre.
I love this movie, but my feelings are so tied up in fond childhood memories, I cannot be subjective.