Word: hokeyness
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Throughout, the Brooklyn brashness of Pesci and his fiance, Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei) contrasts with the hokey lifestyle of the local folk. Pesci and Vito are foreigners here, as evidenced by their black clothing, ample gold jewelry, and paucity of Southern charm. But the film's humor and action become engrossing only in its final third, at the trial...
...these movies accepted the recent verdict of Time that "...the 1980s [have] come into focus as a misguided era of borrowed luxury." All of these films self-righteously painted the conspicuous consumer of the 80s as a greedy, uncaring bastard. And all of them were boring, hokey pieces of crap that lost millions of dollars for their studios. (Except for Hook, which starred actors with big enough names to turn it into a financially successful, boring, hokey piece of crap...
WHICH BRINGS ME to Father of The Bride, a 1991 movie which was neither boring nor overwhelmingly hokey nor crap. But--and this But has gotten me into more heated arguments in the last few months than JFK, the '92 election and the Super Bowl combined--I also think it's a pretty disturbing movie. Billed as "a comedy about letting go," Father of the Bride is the story of an immature but lovable daddy who learns that if he really cares about his daughter's happiness, he must let go--not only paternally (by agreeing to stop trying...
Petersen renders his part with power and conviction. His scenes with Portia are t0ender, but never hokey, and the audience feels the love that the two have for each other. As Portia, Peterson is the highlight of the show. Her role is difficult--she must move from a state of disillusion with her many uninspiring suitors to a state of elation upon seeing Bassanio as a new suitor. Peterson exhibits her acting ability most notably during her plea for Antonio--"The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven upon the place beneath." Peterson...
Unfortunately, many of the copycats deliver hokey, improbable scenarios with the depth of a shampoo commercial. The Grim Reaper and the fires of hell have been slickly supplanted by a blissful feel-good death in the form of reincarnation. Dying is depicted as a transitory state, at worst a move to a new neighborhood. "All these ghosts are young, attractive people," observes Scott Frank, writer of the forthcoming Dead Again, starring Andy Garcia. "Who wants to see old ghosts?" One notable exception will be The Rapture, an austere film, starring Mimi Rogers as a woman who murders her daughter...