Lately I've been on a Steve Martin kick and watched a number of his films for the first time (or on a re-watch),
Sadly, I enjoyed almost none of them.
Bringing Down The House
This movie I didn't like at all. The first 10 minutes seemed somewhat tolerable. We see Martin (playing a stiff attorney) perusing an old-fashioned online dating site. He manages a date with Queen Latifah's character but doesn't know she's Black and when he first sees her his jaw drops and my jaw dropped at how cringy the scene was. Turns out she's also a felon and wants to live in his house. Meanwhile he's embarrassed by her manners and tries to hide her from his racist next door neighbor (not-funny Betty White) and racist client (Joan Plowright, a role that made me dislike her!). The movie's plot was uninteresting to me and I was distracted by all the scenes where Steve Martin tries to enjoy hip-hop. Doesn't hold up.
Verdict: "Thumbs Down"
My Blue Heaven
I hated this movie when it first came out; I didn't find anything funny about it. So I thought I would give it another re-watch, now that I know more about the history of the film --- it was written by Nora Ephron who partially based it on the life of Henry Hill when he was in witness protection. Apparently she knew him because her husband wrote the book "Wiseguy" which was made into Goodfellas.
So I tried to keep an open mind and enjoy the movie as a satire. But still, I didn't find much to like about it. I could probably find 5-10 minutes of Martin doing an Italian accent tolerable for a comedy sketch, but after two hours, it's too much. By the end of the movie I wasn't believing he was Italian anymore. And all those stereotypical Italian/gangster jokes don't really hold up after 30 years.
Verdict: "Thumbs Down"
All of Me
I didn't like this movie much at all either. Lily Tomlin's character inhabits Steve Martin's body, and there's only one funny joke in the whole movie and that's when Martin has to go pee. The whole movie seemed to be made for that joke. The rest of it was really dull and dated.
Verdict: "Thumbs Down"
Grand Canyon
I liked this movie better the others, but this one is heavy on the drama and lighter on comedy. There's almost no comedic moments, actually. The main characters are Kevin Kline and Danny Glover, and they both deal with their own family issues. Kline's wife wants to adopt an orphan baby, while Glover's family and home is targeted by drive-by shootings. Martin plays a film producer who gets shot in the leg and is a cast for most of the film. His character wants to make less violent films as a result, which I didn't find convincing, honestly.
Verdict: "Thumbs Down"
Mixed Nuts
In my opinion, this is a really crappy ensemble dark comedy that is probably one of the worst "Christmas Movies" out there. This film was based on a play and an obscure French film, taking place inside a suicide hotline clinic on Christmas Eve. Honestly, there's not much funny about people who are depressed and need help. But somehow the film tries to make the situations funny - Martin and his co-worker Rita Wilson have crushes on each other, and Madeline Kahn gets stuck in the elevator for half the movie and it's not very funny. Adam Sandler plays a janitor who doesn't have any funny lines except a ridiculous serenade during a dinner meal. Then there are two ghastly subplots - one involves Juliet Lewis who is pregnant and her fiancé who brandishes a gun for most of the film. And finally - and worst of all - is a transgender character who is played for laughs and is the butt of everyone's jokes and it's painfully unfunny. It's really a shame that this was written by Nora Ephron who wrote a couple movies that everyone seems to love - Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally - about cisgender and hetero couples. It's a shame that the only queer character in the movie appears to only be there to provide homophobic slapstick comedy, when the character could have more profundity. But that would be asking for the impossible in a film where all the other characters are basically unlikeable and none of them have any soul or any heart.
Verdict: "Thumbs WAYYYY Down"
A Simple Twist of Fate
So unlike the other movies, Martin wrote and co-produced this one, so it's his "baby". It's meant to be an inspirational story of how this single guy takes care of an orphan girl whose biological father is a corrupt politician (played by Gabriel Bryne) who wants to gain custody of her when she grows up.
This movie could have had some real potential and have been a classic, but today, the movie isn't considered a classic, or a great movie, or even a cult classic.
When I first watched the movie in 1994, I hated it. It was dull and boring. No laugh-out-loud moments that I remembered. So for almost 30 years I never watched it again.
But recently I gave it another shot. It's still not very funny, but more amusingly funny in an old-fashioned sort of way.
And there's a few moments in the film that are kind of disturbing to watch in 2022.
One scene involves Anne Heche's character (a very minor character) getting involved in a car crash, which is sad because she just died in a terrible crash earlier this year.
Another scene involves Martin and his adopted girl singing an old-fashioned song about an "Indian Maiden" and wearing Native American makeup and feathers. On one hand, it's meant to be a harmless "father-daughter bonding" scene, but on the other hand, it's so unfortunate that this is the only mention of Native Americans in the whole movie and a cringy reminder that the rest of the cast is all-white. I'm sure Steve Martin would probably not include that scene if this film was made today out of respect.
So what about the rest of the movie? Well I really like the music score and premise that the Steve Martin character wants to adopt the child. However I'm not sure he's right for the part. I wonder if someone else should have played it. I really like Gabriel Bryne; he's a fantastic actor. Maybe his role and Martin's should have been switched. Martin could play the snobby, snooty politician and Byrne the dad. That would have been inspired casting! And might have made things more interesting and memorable; today, it's a forgotten vehicle in Martin's filmography that I'm not sure deserves to be proudly resurrected.
Verdict: "Thumbs Half-Way Up/Down"
