Movies
Don't expect a funny comedy. The comedy is in the exaggeration, other than that it's just two people fighting and shouting at each other through a particularly mean divorce. I guess cruelty has always been part of DeVito's characters and comedy, but having him at the helm of the film brings it out full steam. Oliver and Barbara meet each other at an auction. Barbara outbids Oliver, but the two hit it off, marrying not long after. Life is good to them, but throughout their marriage rut creeps in. When they finally reach the point they worked for all these years (executive job, big house, kids), their marriage is dead. And so, Barbara asks for a divorce. Turner and Douglas fall short here. Not that it's easy, playing characters who are fundamentally flawed and annoying, but they manage poorly. I did like the more over-the-top scenes (mostly near the ending), the introduction is a bit long in the tooth though. Not dark enough for a black comedy, not funny enough for a plain comedy.Read all
An alternate take on James R. Hoffa. It took me a little while to remember where I knew this story from, then I remembered Scorsese's The Irishman. I think DeVito's film turned out just a bit better, though that's mostly the shorter runtime and Nicholson's strong performances. Other than that, it wasn't that great. James Hoffa is famous for unionizing the truck laborers during the 30s. They were being exploited by the companies they worked for, Hoffa wanted to give them a better life. He wasn't a saint though, as he had strong ties with criminal figures who helped him get what he wanted. Hoffa is a pretty typical US crime film, that tries hard to recreate the appeal of its predecessors. Apart from Nicholson's performance, there wasn't really that much that I liked. The pacing is rather slow, the runtime is excessive and DeVito doesn't really add much to the many films that came before. Nice for fans of the genre, not so much for me.Read all