Black Rain [Special Collector's Edition]

I have enjoyed films and cinema for a very long time. From the time my father took me to the Elks theater to see "Star Wars," I was hooked. Much of the movies I was able to watch were on Saturday afternoons, when I could commandeer the family television. A good number of black and white horror films and "Godzilla" movies were always showing on the limited number of channels that were available in the late Seventies and early Eighties. When the VCR and the concept of movie rentals finally became reality in the earlier Eighties, my nephew Don (who is actually three months older than me) and I would walk to the video store and rent a movie or two for the weekend. We loved to rent science fiction and horror films. Some of my early favorites were "Alien" and that science fiction movie with Han Solo, "Blade Runner." When I was just entering my teens, I was not completely aware of what I director was, but I knew that Ridley Scott had something to do with movies I liked.

Years later, I was in the middle of my High School career and a new Ridley Scott movie hit the theaters. This film was "Black Rain." I had known of Michael Douglas from the two Jack Coltrane films, "Romancing the Stone" and "Jewel of the Nile." I had also known that a crazy blonde woman had stewed his rabbit in another film. "Black Rain" didn´t have Harrison Ford or any other stars that I followed at that time, but Michael Douglas seemed cool enough and I knew that Ridley Scott made great films. In my mind, "Black Rain" would find "Blade Runner" in Japan and instead of chasing down superhuman clones; the hero would be going after the Yakuza. While leaving the theater, I couldn´t help but feel disappointed by "Black Rain." The film had a nice amount of action, but I wasn´t as intelligent to the world as I am today and I didn´t quite understand much of what happened. At sixteen years old, I just wasn´t ready for "Black Rain."

Fast forward a few years and I have learned to appreciate "Black Rain." The racial differences and issues faced by Michael Douglas´ character are well understood and the situations that Nick finds himself in are now meaningful. His mistrust and disliking and eventual befriending of Masahiro (Ken Takakura) are no longer confusing; as I now fully comprehend the change of heart Nick finds when he learns to realize Masahiro´s motivations and cultural differences of character. The complexity and depth of the film´s plot are now meaningful and the film does not escape me as it did so many years ago. When I was only sixteen, the concepts of embezzlement, cultural differences, racial stereotypes, honor and Japanese police procedures were completely alien and unlike Ridley Scott´s "Alien," they didn´t devour the good guys and delightfully scare me. They confused me.

"Black Rain" is the story of two New York policemen, Nick (Michael Douglas) and Charlie (Andy Garcia), who must escort a Japanese Mafia boss, Sato (Yusaku Koyama) to Japanese to face prosecution. Upon arriving in Japan, the boss escapes and Nick makes Japanese headlines as the American who let Sato loose. Nick is escaping demons and allegations of stealing drug money by leaving America and his arrival in Japan is hardly enough to improve his situation. The two police officers are stripped of their guns and given roles as simple observers as the Japanese police continue their investigations. Japanese police officer Masahiro (Ken Takakura) is assigned to monitor and control Nick and Charlie. Charlie is very accepting of his new Japanese guide and beings a friendship, while Nick is far from pleasant to Masahiro. By not being permitted to take part in the investigation and being stripped of any authority, Nick is a stranger in a strange land. When Charlie is killed by the Yakuza, he discovers and understanding of Masahiro and learns that only by helping his Japanese counterpart and working with him can he bring down Charlie´s killer.

Michael Douglas brings Nick to life. Douglas does a solid job of playing a hard and tough police detective with a few skeletons in his closet. His portrayal of Nick in Paul Verhoeven´s "Basic Instinct" is further proof of this. Andy Garcia leaves the audience missing Charlie when the character is taken away. Charlie is a likeable character that perfectly complement´s Nick´s harshness and the film loses something when Charlie dies. Ken Takakura is especially good as Masahiro, a noble and respectable Japanese police officer that struggles to understand the American ideas and Nick´s uneasy personality. It is a shame the actor has only been in "Mr. Baseball" since then, and only five Japanese films since then. Kate Capshaw (Mrs. Steven Spielberg) feels like a late addition to the story and the film. She is the love interest of Nick, but hardly adds any weight to the film. She looks lovely in the film and has a few nice moments of dialogue, but is hardly memorable in her performance. She would later shine as Willie in the second Indiana Jones film, but didn´t add much here.

Not many films use the Japanese Mafia, or Yakuza as it is called, as subject matter. Many Americans are only introduced to Tokyo and the Japanese culture in old "Godzilla" films. The strong cultural differences and struggle to fit into a strange land was more recently the subject of Sofia Coppola´s "Lost in Translation." "Black Rain" focuses on the outsider American in Japan and provides a gripping and captivating crime thriller that focuses on the mostly ignored Yakuza. There have been so many crime films that focus on the Italian Mafia or New York City. "CSI" and other television shows survive nicely on the same old situations. "Black Rain" is unique in taking the crime drama / action film to Japan and looking at an entirely different breed of criminal – the Yakuza. No many films have followed in the footsteps of Ridley Scott and "Black Rain" since the film was released in 1989. This is a shame, as a change of scenery and culture brings life to a tired and rehashed genre.

"Black Rain" is not a perfect film. It does find itself occasionally lost in its plot lines. The relationship between Joyce (Kate Capshaw) and the Yakuza and her relationship with Nick border on being meaningless and non-coherent. The war between the two Yakuza factions is not very detailed and Nick´s involvement between the two factions is also thinly detailed. Aside from these minor arguments, this is a very nice film to sit back and enjoy. The "fish out of water" plotlines with Nick is nicely done and perfectly contrasted with the friendly and personable Charlie adapting with much more ease. The film´s final climax is a great action sequence as Nick goes Johnny Rambo on the Yakuza mob. There are a lot of bullets spent and it is done quite believably. The wonderful neon lit nightlife of Japan is shown briefly, but is a great contrast to Ridley´s own "Blade Runner." "Black Rain" is a different entry in its genre and its plot balance between crime drama and ´stranger in a strange land´ is perfectly done by the masterful Ridley Scott. It took me a few years after I had first seen "Black Rain" to appreciate it, but I certainly do now.

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Failure To Launch

Matthew McConaughey has slowly become one of the go-to guys for date movies, aka chick flicks. "The Wedding Planner," "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and now "Failure to Launch" have all been successful box office hits. "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" broke the one hundred million dollar mark and "Failure to Launch" was not far off. McConaughey has signed on for "The Loop" with Penelope Cruz and looks to continue working on his charm. When he is not doing romantic comedies, McConaughey has not been exactly the leading man many expected him to be. He has had a string of mildly successful films such as "Edtv," "Sahara" and "Reign of Fire," but never a breakaway hit. In recent years, McConaughey has been busy and his star does seem to be rising. However, if he begins to take roles as an aging sports star, it will become apparent he is my generation´s version of Kevin Costner.

Sarah Jessica Parker is an actress I was never a fan of. I didn´t like her in HBO´s "Sex in the City," and I have never found her to be terribly attractive. There are many lovely leading ladies out there that would draw me to watch a film. She has never been one of them. In all fairness, she has never had many leading roles. "Dudley Do-Right" and "Honeymoon in Vegas" are two that come to mind. She was good in Tim Burton´s "Ed Wood" and "Mars Attacks!" Her star too seems to be rising after her long tenure in "Sex in the City" ended and after her successful turn with Matthew McConaughey in "Failure to Launch," it seems apparent that more leading roles will be coming her way.

"Failure to Launch" is a romantic comedy. There is one certainty about this genre of films and that is that the leads must have good chemistry and they must be funny, believable and cute for the film to succeed. Well, "Failure to Launch" nearly reached blockbuster status. It stopped short at the ninety million dollar mark. I´d say that is a success and the reason for this lies greatly in the arms of McConaughey and Parker. They are cute. They are funny. They are at times warm. And they have the obligatory darker side that comes through in the third act and separates them, but only until the closing moments of the film when they find that they really love each other and live happily ever after. They pull of the requisite fight and hurt in a manner that feels genuine and gives the audience enough reason to hope their characters end up together in the end.

Following the typical boy meets a girl where an underlying theme promises to break them up in the last third of the film, "Failure to Launch" doesn´t break any new ground in its storytelling. The dark underlying theme is that Sarah Jessica Parker´s character, Paula, was hired by Tripp´s (McConaughey) parents in order to get him to move out of their house. Yes, Paula is being paid by Tripp´s parents to date him. However, she breaks her business rules and falls in love with Tripp as she stumbles to get him to follow her path to success. Eventually, Tripp finds out his beloved parents Al (Terry Bradshaw) and Sue (Kathy Bates) have hired Paula and he bids their wishes in moving out, but only after letting all involved parties know he is not happy about their ruse. Paula and Tripp find themselves heartbroken, but too proud to swallow their pride and try to work things out.

McConaughey and Parker are a believable couple and their acting is what drives this film to success, but the supporting role is another strength of the film. Tripps friends are brought to life by Justin Bartha and Bradley Cooper. Cooper is ´Demo,´ a man who travels the world and embraces nature. He and Tripp are two adventuresome souls, but where nature lives happily with Demo, Tripp finds himself attacked and bitten by the kindest of animals. Bartha is the geeky and backward ´Ace,´ Ace doesn´t seem to fit well with his two friends as he is awkward and far from having the adventurous spirit that his friends possess. Zooey Deschanel is the moody and mockingbird hating Kit. She is sexually starved and her black wardrobe seems to match her heart. She is the complete opposite of Paula.

Then there is Terry Bradshaw and Kathy Bates. Kathy Bates is always splendid. I can´t think of any role she has had where her performance was otherwise. Her role as a caring and nurturing mother who still does the laundry for her 35-year-old son seems fitting. It is a far cry from her marvelous turn as the aggressive Libby Holden in "Primary Colors" or torturous Annie Wilkes in "Misery," but she shows warmth as Tripp´s mother. Terry Bradshaw made his mark by winning a couple Super Bowls for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has some experience in television and provided a voice to the animated "Robots," but his last big screen role was 1981´s "The Cannonball Run." Aside from two painful moments of being forced to look at his old naked posterior, he showed fine comedic skills as Tripp´s father.

"Failure to Launch" is a good romantic comedy. It doesn´t break any new ground and the only great deviance from the standard formulas are the animal attack scenes that seem more fitting in a Tom Green movie than a successful romantic comedy. There are attacks by chipmunks, dolphins, vegetarian lizards and a mockingbird. The scenes feel a bit off for the film, but I did laugh hard during the chipmunk battle. Tripp´s living at home and Paula´s profession offer enough variance from the normal storylines to keep things entertaining. Sure, you know the basic arc that will eventually unfold, but getting there is still a lot of fun. McConaughey and Parker take another step towards being bankable names on the silver screen and they deserve the success found after their performances in this picture.

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Learn Magic with Lyn

I've never understood the saying, "Those who can't, teach." In fact, the opposite seems to be truer: Those who can, often can't teach to save their lives. Magician Lyn Dillies is a happy (and smiley-faced) exception. If you know a youngster who's been wanting to learn a few magic tricks, Dillies, whom the Society of American Magicians has deemed "America's premier female illusionist," will show them how.

As a kid growing up in Chicago, I was one of those who wanted to learn magic. I visited gag shops and bought various contraptions, but the things never worked, or else they broke the first time you tried the trick. I went to bookstores and purchased guides to magic, but the tricks always seemed stupid or too difficult to perform, while the instructions and illustrations were always so fuzzy that you suspected these people didn't really want to share their secrets with you. That's not the case with "Learn Magic with Lyn."

She says in written and video introductions that magic helped her to overcome her shyness, and she hopes that the DVD might have a similar effect on another child or two. She also tells how disappointed she's been by the lack of good quality magic kits that are available to teach kids, and explains that she created this DVD to remedy the problem. "Instead of having a child become frustrated and give up their quest for magic, I walk them through the process step by step, showing them what the trick is supposed to look like, how to prepare it, and how to perform it," she says.

Now that's teaching! Each of the tricks is shown three times, at a speed that gives children plenty of time to absorb what's happening. She first performs the trick at a slowed-down speed, then goes over the materials you need to do the trick, and shares the secret of how the trick is performed. Then she does it again. With most of the tricks she uses three children as assistants and proof that kids can do the tricks too. There's a craft element involved in some of the illusions, and every step is shown in leisurely detail. Then, after the walk-through, it's one more time performing the trick and sharing the secrets of how to make it work. Given the film's run-time, each trick gets roughly four minutes of attention.

Between tricks, Lyn also gives basic rules of magic--a code of conduct, really, starting with "A magician never reveals the secret to the trick, and never performs a trick twice, no matter how much the audience pleads." Of course, she's revealing secrets here, but not only to starter magic tricks. Don't expect her to ever release a DVD in which she shares some of the tricks she's performed using elephants, or, for that matter, The Window, Metamorphosis, Human Diffusion, or any of the other signature illusions that she's performed at theaters, casinos, resorts, conventions, corporate events, and colleges over the past 20 years.

These tricks are no grand illusions, but they're not so simplistic that they'd seem stupid or corny to the would-be magician or her/his audience. They don't involve skill levels beyond the average kid's ken, nor do they require anything really out of the ordinary. Everything you need can be purchased at local stores--things like a super ball, construction paper, scissors, painter's tape, and a box of large crayons. That's a huge plus. Eleven tricks are included on this disc: Newspaper Ball, Magic Ribbon, Mindreading Crayons, Napkin Production, Dime Go, Ice Water, Tricky Lollipops, Cups and Balls, Eye on the Coin, Wonder Wand, and Ropes Through Body.

some of the later tricks are more difficult to pull off, but none of them really requires any sleight of hand or sophisticated deception. I would feel terrible revealing any of the secrets in a review, and so I'm not going to, except to describe some of the ones that struck me for various reasons.

The most sophisticated one was also the simplest to perform. You hand a box of crayons to a volunteer and turn your back. You ask that person to pick one crayon from the box and place it in your hand, which you're holding behind your back. Then you point to the person and say something like, "Think about the color that you chose, and I'll read your mind and tell you the color." Moments later, you tell them the exact color they chose, and it wasn't because you looked at the box of crayons, because you'd told them to turn it over so you couldn't see. In fact, you could even have them tuck the box under their shirt. It wouldn't matter. You'll still be able to read their mind. And the trick? As I said, I'm not telling anything here, but it's simple and easy enough for a first grader to pull off.

Same with other foolproof tricks like "Dime Go." As long as you arrange your performance space at the right distance from your audience, and don't allow that group to get up and walk around near your "stage," these tricks can be performed by most children after as little as a day of practice. But that's one of Lyn's rules: Practice, practice, practice. Never perform a trick that you haven't practiced, or you'll botch it and reveal the secret.

Some of the tricks, like "Magic Ribbon," will depend a little more on keeping the audience at a distance than other tricks, and there's also a little more precision required in the trick preparation. Other tricks will require preparation as well, and the skill level involved here is what makes the recommended age seven instead of lower. Kids will have to line things up pretty exactly and cut or fold things fairly precisely for some of the tricks to work well. But for children ages seven and older, this is the best introduction to magic that I've seen.

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Maude: Complete 1st Season

Lady Godiva was a freedom rider,
She didn't care if the whole world looked.
Joan of Arc with the Lord to guide her,
She was a sister who really cooked.
Isadora was the first bra burner,
Ain't you glad that she showed up.
And when the country was falling apart,
Betsy Ross got it all sewed up . . .
And then there's Maude

The theme-song was catchy, but you could hardly put the abrasive Maude Findlay in the same category as those other female trailblazers. Maude was the quintessential "bleeding heart liberal" that Archie Bunker railed against, a character whose visits to the Bunkers made her popular enough with fans to earn her a shot at her own spin-off series in 1972, the Bunkers' second season. But she was mostly all talk and vinegar, not a real crusader.

Maude (Bea Arthur) lived in a well-furnished home in the suburbs of Tuckahoe, New York, where her fourth husband Walter (Bill Macy) ran an appliance store. And Maude? With plenty of time on her hands, she did plenty of nothing except rant and rave about social issues. Her 27-year-old divorced daughter Carol (Adrienne Barbeau) and son Phillip (Brian Morrison) lived with them, and arch-conservative neighbor Arthur Harmon (Conrad Bain) was always dropping by, but the show was really all about the title character. The bottom line was (and remains), if you like Maude, you'll like this show. For its first four seasons, viewers liked it enough that it finished in the Nielsen Top-10. But it never finished higher than fourth, and dropped off the fans' radar the last two seasons. Emmy voters weren't as impressed. "Maude" earned 12 nominations but only took home one award, when Arthur won Outstanding Lead Actress in 1977.

I remember liking the show well enough when it first aired, because, like most of the country, I was a big fan of "All in the Family" and other shows from creator Norman Lear. Or should we say "adapter" Norman Lear, since so many of his shows were inspired by British counterparts. Watching it again, 35 years later, I found myself less impressed.

"All in the Family" was a highly staged show with largely a single set and minimal props. Many of the lines were stand-and-deliver monologues, but they worked for the same reason that great stage plays work: the performances made you believe. The dynamic in the Bunker household also seemed more precarious and potentially explosive than the Findlay household. Archie had three people to square off against, two highly critical of him (daughter Gloria and son-in-law Mike) and a wife (Edith) he mostly berated, but who occasionally surprised audiences by putting Archie in his place. In "Maude," Arthur mostly defers to his outspoken wife but occasionally puts her in her place with a well-placed "Maude, sit! But the dynamic between the live-in offspring and the "adults" isn't nearly as strong as in the show that gave birth to it. And as a foil, Bain doesn't function as effectively as well as George Jefferson, who, like Maude, would also get his own show.

Structurally, the show is very similar to "All in the Family," but it just doesn't work as well, partly because it was familiar (as much a creative rip-off as it was a spin-off), partly because the plots and situations were less memorable, and partly because the characters don't lend themselves to the same sort of argumentative depth. Despite the popularity of "Maude," those differences weren't exactly ignored. "All in the Family" was the top-rated show for five years and won a basketful of Emmys. And then there's Maude.

I have to admit that I found Bea Arthur even more grating in DVD reruns than I did when I watched the show on television, and this first season was surprising inasmuch as the strongest shows weren't the first ones. It was as if the writers were still trying to figure out what to do with this group of characters.

The other thing that really stands out, and it's not just this show, is that sitcoms from the Seventies seemed to have at least one major character who had a catch-phrase that repeated. With "Diff'rent Strokes" it was bug-eyed Gary Coleman who kept saying, "What'chu talkin' 'bout." With "Good Times" it was gangly Jimmie Walker and his "Dy-no-MITE!" With Archie it was "Will you stifle yourself," and Maude kept saying, "God'll get you for that." Like the character's general personality, those catch-phrases became either an endearing trait and unning gag, or else they added to the annoyance. You be the judge.

Here's a rundown on the 22 episodes, contained on three single-sided discs and housed in two clear plastic keep cases, with a cardboard slip-case:

1) "Maude's Problem"--Maude violates doctor-patient confidentiality by going to Carol's psychiatrist to find out why she's seeing him.

2) "Doctor, Doctor"--Philip plays doctor with the neighbor's granddaughter, which leads to a conservative vs. liberal tongue-lashing between Dr. Harmon and Maude.

3) "Maude Meets Florida"--Maude doesn't seem so liberal when you consider she has a black maid (Esther Rolle), even if that maid won't take any left-wing garbage.

4) "Like Mother, Like Daughter"—Not only is Carol dating an older man, but it turns out to be one of Maude's old boyfriends, and it starts her thinking.

5) "Maude & the Radical"--When Maude hosts a party for a black militant leader, her black guests cancel, forcing Maude to find a substitute for Florida.

6) "The Ticket"--Maude wants her day in court to prove her innocence in the little matter of a speeding ticket.

7) "Love and Marriage"--Carol gets so tired of being a single mother that she proposes to a man, but will a practical, loveless marriage be the answer?

8) "Flashback"--It's election night, and Nixon is thrashing McGovern, which is enough for Maude and Walter to stroll down memory lane to when they were courting.

9-10) "Maude's Dilemma," Pts. 1&2--Pregnant at 47? What's a liberal to do? In this two-part episode, which caused a storm of protests, Maude decides to get an abortion.

11) "Maude's Reunion"--Noting like a visit from an old high school friend to make Maude reevaluate her life and find it lacking.

12) "Grass Story"--Maude and her middle-aged housewife friends stage a protest when they learn that a local teen might end up in jail for possession of marijuana.

13) "The Slumlord"--Maude and Walter become the target of a one-man picket line when it turns out they unknowingly invested in a rundown tenement building.

14) "The Convention"--As "the wife" who accompanies Walter to an appliance convention for the first time, Maude feels that her life isn't going anywhere.

15) "Walter's 50th Birthday"--One depression leads to another as Maude tries to cheer up Walter by inviting a childhood friend to the party . . . and the friend drops dead.

16) "Maude and the Medical Profession"--Maude gets a rash the night before a trip to Italy, takes too much medication, and promptly sues her doctor.

17) "Arthur Moves In"--After a fire causes damage at his house, Arthur moves in with the Findlays, but it's Maude who starts to feel like the third wheel.

18) "Florida's Problem"--Florida's husband (John Amos) wants her to quit, now that he's making good money, but Maude refuses to let her go.

19) "Walter's Secret"--Carol spots Walter at a lounge with a young woman, and Walter comes up with the world's quickest alibi.

20) "Maude's Good Deed"--Maude tries to bring together her old sorority sister and her estranged daughter, but Arthur gets in the way.

21) "The Perfect Marriage"--Rue McClanahan is introduced as Maude's best friend, who seems headed for divorce.

22) "Maude's Night Out"--Walter doesn't want to go to a dinner party because the host always flirts with Maude, and it starts a fight between them.

Total runtime: 572 minutes.

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