Tuesday, June 26, 2012

(30) Stars of Summer - Day 26: Melanie Griffith

Just five more days. Everyone get out your copy of Milk Money!

You've got it by now, but once again here are the rules. Check out this list of all the month's actors with links to what's available on Netflix Instant. If you're not a Netflix subscriber, maybe this will help.

Day 1: Jimmy Stewart
Day 2: Catherine Deneuve
Day 3: Christopher Lee
Day 4: Bette Davis
Day 5: Nicolas Cage
Day 6: Diane Keaton 
Day 7: Orson Welles 
Day 8: Catherine Keener 
Day 9: Kurt Russell
Day 10: Pam Grier
Day 11: Clint Eastwood
Day 12: Susan Sarandon 
Day 13: Cary Grant 
Day 14: Barbara Stanwyck 
Day 15: Keith David 
Day 16: Frances McDormand 
Day 17: Gary Oldman 
Day 18: Marilyn Monroe 
Day 19: Dick Miller 
Day 20: Jennifer Jason Leigh 
Day 21: Laurence Fishburne 
Day 22: Whoopi Goldberg
Day 23: Kevin Bacon
Day 24: Christina Ricci 
Day 25: Jack Nicholson

10 comments:

  1. Shining Through (1992)

    This movie tries to be about a love story in the center of World War II Germany, yet ends up being a comedic farce. While the scenery in it is beautiful, the film never gets off the ground from the lack of chemistry between Melanie Griffith and Michael Douglas, to the wasted talents from the likes of Liam Neeson and John Gielgud respectively.

    Interesting fact: Griffith won Worst Actress at the Razzie Awards for her performance in that film, while the movie itself took home Worst Picture.

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  2. "Something Wild" has always been my favorite film of hers.

    However, I am shocked at how many people feel great at the end of "Working Girl." Don't they realize that final camera pull back plainly states that she's on the bottom again?

    Are any of you going to watch "Cherry 2000"? :)

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    1. I'm almost through it right now. Not my favorite of hers. That would be Something Wild, too, though I also dig Body Double. I'll admit to liking Working Girl, too.

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  3. Smile (1975)

    Delightful, breezy satire of a fictional beauty pageant, “Young American Miss.” Melanie Griffith has a small part as one of the contestants, but even with her brief screen time she manages to convey that odd combination of innocence and worldliness that is her trademark. As one whose first real crush was on Agent 99, it’s a treat to see Barbara Feldon in a movie. The scenes between her and Nicholas Pryor as her husband could be read as a rough draft of American Beauty.

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  4. Cherry 2000 (1987)

    Took me a while to warm up to this, but by the end I kind of liked it. For low-budget, post-apocalyptic '80s sci-fi, it has a lot of charm. David Andrews is a total blank as the lead and Melanie Griffith feels way miscast, but the presence of a bunch of familiar genre faces (Tim Thomerson! Robert Z'Dar!) is fun, and Basil Poledouris' score makes everything seem better than it is. Not for everyone, but fans of this kind of thing will find a lot to like.

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  5. Pacific Heights

    A not-very-good entry in the not-very-good pile of yuppies-in-peril thrillers that came along in the 90s. This one features Griffith & Matthew Modine as a couple who rent out a room in their new Victorian-style home to Michael Keaton, despite the fact that he's clearly psychotic and, y'know, Michael Keaton. The performances are fine, but the characters are all fairly unlikable and the movie is pretty flavorless.

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    1. Michael Keaton is good, but couldn't they have picked a better subject for a thriller than rental market fraud? You know, like skipping out on restaurant bills?

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  7. I also went with CHERRY 2000. So, she lives in a post-apocalypse world, she has red hair, she's a tracker, she knows about weapons, and goes off into the wilderness to have an adventure? She's Katniss!

    I kid. The first hour of the movie is very funny, with everything tongue-in-cheek. But it lost its sense of humor about halfway through, and that's when it lost me.

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  8. Sorry to be behind, but nevertheless...

    Mulholland Falls (1996)

    Film Noir with Nick Nolte and a group of reliable character actors seems to have all the tools, but just doesn't make it. Melanie Griffith underwhelms as Nolte's long-suffering wife. Highlights are a pleasant cameo from John Malkovich and being able to look at Jennifer Connelly both with and without clothes.

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