Maddy-6 Reviews

Stripes (1981)

Sarcasm rolls off the tongue like a second language...

[18 September 1999]

Have you ever had those moments where you said exactly what you wanted to say, in exactly the right tone, at exactly the right time? Bill Murray has those moments. We're lucky that he has so many of them on screen. Sure, in Stripes, or any other movie Murray has ever made, he works from a script, but among all big-screen comedians, only Murray has the ability to make those carefully memorized lines seem like he came up with them on the spur of the moment. Stripes was the first movie which used this aspect of his screen persona to its best advantage.

The appeal of Stripes is plain. Can aging hipsters get it together and fulfill the promise that they once saw in themselves without becoming squares? The movie says, "Yes," and places Winger and Ziske in that veritable graveyard for hipness, the armed forces. The hook: They're too smart to be grunts, but not too smart to learn some lessons. That gap is where the humor comes from. By turns this movie looks down on the service life and shows the advantages of its discipline. Make no mistake, however, it's the hipsters' show. They walk away the heroes.

Zero Effect (1998)

A pleasant surprise...

[28 January 1999]

The literary gamesmanship, a screenplay which reads like Crispin Glover updating Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia", the setting, the suddenly fashionable Pacific northwest, the star power, Hollywood heavyweights play against type...It all adds up pretty nicely. The best mystery movie in years and one of the funniest films of the 90's to boot. A must rent. Really.

An All-Star Toast to the Improv (1988 TV Special)

Comedy that watches like a hockey brawl...

[28 January 1999]

There is no stage in the world large enough for six comedians to share. Imagine how crowded Budd Friedman's famous nightclub, The Improvisation, was on the night when six great comedy talents (and egos) all gathered to pay homage to its proprietor. The show is a roast for Friedman with frequent jabs at his tight-fisted reputation. Robert Klein is the host and de facto zookeeper, as the remaining comedians take turns at making great comedy at Friedman's expense. Billy Crystal and Robin Williams join forces throughout the show to disrupt the other's bits with their own material. Klein shows great frustration in trying to keep Williams' free-form schtick in check. The sharp incisive Klein, a comedy marksman, is no match against Williams, a comedy grenade. Martin Mull, our best sit-down comedian, makes the best effort to put the stream-of- consciousness comic in his place. Richard Lewis and Paul Rodriguez do their level best not to get washed off the stage by the old guard of Klein, Williams, Crystal, and Mull, but only provide incidental amusement to the main event. This is comedy that watches like a hockey brawl. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll rewind it, you'll play it again.