Word: dismalness
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Yale is the most uncertain commodity in the League. Although the Elis finished last season with a dismal 4-5 record, they have a lot of enormous linemen returning from injuries have come back to plague them in pre-season. Yale has switched to the wishbone, releasing Dick Jauron from his fullback duties and perhaps giving him another opportunity to run amuck through the League, as he did as a sophomore halfback...
Even according to the dismal standards established by predecessors like Cool Breeze, Super Fly seems remarkably exploitative and inept. Director Gordon Parks Jr. (his father is the photojournalist turned film maker who directed the two Shaft movies) cuts to a shot of the fancy grillwork on Priest's car whenever he does not know what else to do. Thus there is an abundance of grillwork shots. This is Parks' first feature, and some faults are customary under such circumstances. But Super Fly shows no evidence of perception, intelligence or sensitivity; there is only a kind of frivolous opportunism...
After that, lawyers trundling from session to session heard a dismal litany of problems ranging from continuing prejudice against women and blacks to the new right of indigents to get free counsel for misdemeanor charges. The most widespread gloom at the meeting came from the constantly discussed threat of no-fault automobile-liability insurance (and the end of the billion-dollar collision litigation business). The A.B.A.'s House of Delegates staunchly reiterated its opposition to the basic idea but hopefully proposed a compromise: mandatory automobile liability insurance, which would pay up to $2,000 to each individual covered, regardless...
...strung series of miniature moral defeats that might be called character vignettes if there were any humanity in them. Tully (Stacy Keach) is a drunk, forever down on his luck and looking for a job, who hasn't had a fight in a year and a half. His dismal life with a rummy mis tress (Susan Tyrell) and his struggles to get back into boxing are intercut with the exploits of a younger but no more hopeful fighter (Jeff Bridges), who mar ries because he has to and promises to end up pretty much like Tully himself...
...dismal performance. But in the course of elaborating his one prescription into 224 pages. Dr. Peter provides a kind of model for anyone who might be interested in making a living by writing "humor...