Absence of Malice (1981)

Joey Diaz, a union official from Miami, has gone missing and is presumed dead.  The federal task force investigating has found nothing after more than 6 months on the job.  Deciding to take a new tact, Elliot Rosen (Bob Balaban) decides to squeeze Michael Gallagher (Paul Newman).  Gallagher's father was a bootlegger, loan shark, and well-connected crime boss.  As such, Gallagher is related to or has contacts with criminal sources.  Rosen leaks his investigation to Megan Carter (Sally Field), a reporter for the Miami Standard.  She prints the story and attributes it "knowledgeable sources."   The story cripples Gallagher's business, since all his union employees strike.  He wants to know who the knowledgeable sources are.  The paper's lawyer explains that there is an 'absence of malice' and thus the paper cannot be sued even if the story proves not to be true.

Paul Newman is good but the role isn't demanding.  He mostly comes off as the righteous man out to correct the record or make someone pay.  It's hard not to like Sally Field in any roles but I didn't much like Megan Carter.  She varies from being charming, manipulative, mercenary, or contrite.  Her arc is the most noteworthy in that she goes from being a full-of-herself reporter to being the interviewee of another full-of-herself reporter.  She gets to see both sides.  Epiphany!  Though he only shows up in the climax, Wilford Brimley dominates the final act.  Newman and Field barely register in the scene.

An interesting film about how the press can parrot false stories from government and take no blame from the harm that may follow.  Wow, 40 year old film covers fake news.  Recommended.

Of course, I watched this today because Wilford Brimley died yesterday.  One of his great roles.  RIP

Smokey and the Bandit Trilogy

Smokey and the Bandit

Big Enos and his son, Little Enos, have a challenge: drive to Texarkana, TX, pickup 400 cases of beer, and return it to Atlanta in 24 hours for $80,000 prize.  The catch is that it is bootlegging.  No one so far has succeeded when Big Enos challenges the Bandit (Burt Reynolds).  Bandit accepts and recruits Cledus "Snowman" Snow (Jerry Reed) to drive the truck while he played blocker in a new Trans Am.  All goes well on the way to Texas but a runaway bride (Sally Field) hitches a ride with the Bandit.  Her would-be father-in-law, Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) is determined to bring her back to the altar, stateliness and jurisdictions be damned.

The movie is a joyride from beginning to end with plenty of humor, exciting car chases, and a bit of romance.  Sheriff Justice's police cruiser suffers throughout the chase, losing the door, the roof, and any semblance of a street-legal auto.  Burt Reynolds is all easy-going charm and fun to Jackie Gleason's hilarious storm and fury.

Highest recommendation!

Smokey and the Bandit II

Big Enos is running for governor of Texas against John Conn (David Huddleston).  After a couple of outlandish pranks, the sitting governor calls both candidates to his office and tells them to knock it off.  However, Big Enos discovers that the governor has a package he wants delivered.  Ha!  This might be just the thing to give him an edge.  If only he knew someone who could get a package from Florida to Texas in short order: the Bandit!  He contacts Cledus who in turn finds the Bandit.  The Bandit is a drunken basket case, a character entirely unlike the one that charmed audiences in his last outing.  In order to get him back in shape for the haul, he calls in the former girlfriend (Sally Field) who happens to be at the altar with Sheriff Justice's son again.  Yes, she runs off before the ceremony.  How original.  If this isn't bad enough already, the "package" is a pregnant elephant.  And it gets worse.  Sheriff Justice calls in his brothers, Reginald the Canadian Mountie and Gaylord the Texas patrolman, both played by Jackie Gleason.  Wait, there's more!  Dom DeLuise plays an Italian gynecologist met on the road and abducted to watch over the elephant.  Ugh.

The movie is a disaster from start to finish, a pathetic effort to rekindle the exciting chase from the last one.  The Bandit is mostly a screwup trying to be famous again and Sally Fields plays their real life breakup on screen.  Mostly sad and depressing, rarely getting the laughs.  The big showdown between police cars and semi-trucks in a demolition derby is something only a 12 year-old could love.

Do not see this movie!

Smokey and the Bandit III

Bufford T Justice is celebrating his retirement when Big Enos and Little Enos crash the party and bet that the sheriff can't drive from Florida to Texas with a stuffed fish.  It's his badge vs. their $250,000.  He accepts.  Justice and Junior travel across the south, constantly dodging efforts to stop them (all engineered by Big and Little Enos).  Desperate to stop the sheriff, they hire Cledus in place of the Bandit and send him to steal the fish.  At the finish line, Justice not only arrives with the fish to win the bet but also confronts the Bandit.  In a strange cameo, Burt Reynolds is sitting in the Trans Am when Justice arrives.  He explains that he is the Yin to the sheriff's Yang.  I complete you.  Ugh.  Justice agrees and lets the Bandit - once again Cledus - drive away.  Let the chase begin again.

I thought the last one was sad.  This is an even weaker plot.  There are many cringe-worthy scenes included, notably a night at a motel/brothel.  There was also the nudist colony.

Avoid this one too.

Hello, My Name is Doris

The movie opens at the funeral of Doris Miller's (Sally Field) mother.  Doris's brother (Stephen Root) wants her to sell the Staten Island home to split the inheritance; his wife is particularly shrewish about it.  Soon after, Doris goes to work and encounters John (Max Greenfield) in the elevator and he talks to her, complimenting her glasses.  Doris is smitten.  Soon thereafter, she discovers that John is a new employee in the office where she works.  Later, she goes with her lifelong friend Roz (Tyne Daly) to a self-help lecture where Willy Williams (Peter Gallagher) tells her that "impossible" should be pronounced "I'm possible."  Doris takes this to heart and so begins her effort to woo John, a man who is half her age.

 

Often funny - especially when Doris has an imaginary make-out session with John - but also sad.  The usual May-December romance has the woman as half the man's age.  That Doris thinks there is a real chance is often uncomfortable to watch.  She misreads signals and misinterprets conversations in such a way to make her fantasy real.  Doris spent the last forty years caring for her invalid mother and missed the life she might have had.  By the end, it does seem the Doris has bloomed and will finally have a fulfilling life.

 

Just okay.  Wait for cable release.