Jim Belushi

  • Wonder Wheel (2017)

    Wonder Wheel (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, February 2021) While Woody Allen’s life has long been shrouded in controversy, there was a definite shift in public opinion against him during 2017’s #MeToo movement, as tolerance for his numerous personal relationships with younger women became unacceptable to a much wider audience. In that chronology, Wonder Wheel may be the last of the pre-controversy Allen movies and also the last with plausible deniability from casual fans. (Meanwhile, everyone who watched Manhattan in theatres is left thinking, “Hey, we knew there was something off with the guy back in the 1970s!”)  It’s also likely to be one of Allen’s last “normal” films — he’s 85, just wrote a controversial autobiography and is going to be scrutinized forever, so it’s unlikely that he’s going to go back to his past production rhythm that led to a very long uninterrupted streak of annual movies. For better or for worse, Wonder Wheel is unmistakably a Woody Allen film: While it starts in a nostalgic vein reminiscent of Radio Days by taking us back to 1950s Coney Island, the lighthearted autobiographical bent soon becomes a lead-in to a more dramatic tale of adultery and jealousy à la Café Society, then of criminal intention à la Irrational Man. In other words, we’re in familiar territory well beyond the Windsor typeface and jazz music. While the spectacular opening shot of Coney Island beach shows that even Allen can use CGI to draw a historical tableau, much of the film is in his usual low-key style, with a character providing a running narration to tie together the scenes without having to shoot the connective plotting material. Acting-wise, it’s a typically gifted ensemble: Justin Timberlake as the dreamy beach monitor moonlighting as an author and narrator, Kate Winslet as the tortured lead, the ever-cute Juno Temple as the object of temptation and Jim Belushi in an unusually effective dramatic role. Think the worst of Allen-the-man (I do!), but as a filmmaker he’s long been able to deliver something interesting, even on full autopilot. The story does show signs of not quite being a coherent whole, with far too many digressions before getting to a quick finale, but it’s still watchable enough. This being said, the meta-narrative surrounding the movie is more interesting: While Allen may be on the verge of being disgraced out of the industry (his two subsequent films have been haphazardly distributed following Amazon’s decision to break their five-film contract), it may be time to start looking at his body of work as near-finite. I’m still not sure how I feel about that—I’ve had trouble enjoying many of his films on their own merits, but he was a major filmmaker for a very long time and even his steady-as-it-goes output away from the high points of the 1970s–1980s has been consistently interesting as long as you go along with his specific blend of nostalgia, philosophy, crime and strong actor showcases. We may come to look at Wonder Wheel as the last of the films he made within the American film industry, and that’s something perhaps more interesting than what the film is about.

  • Red Heat (1988)

    Red Heat (1988)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, February 2020) On paper, Red Heat feels inevitable. Arnold Schwarzenegger was near the top of his early fame in 1988, and the idea of making good use of his accent naturally led to him playing a tough cop from behind the then-Iron Curtain. From that point on, you can almost write the rest of the film yourself, so closely does it branch out from that premise and sticks to the buddy-cop plot template. Of course, his American counterpart will be an opposite of Schwarzenegger’s polished image as a Soviet supercop—slobby, loutish, loose with the rules in ways that only Jim Belushi (also near the top of his unexplainable fame at the time) could play. Alas, inconsistent writer-director Walter Hill doesn’t quite know how to maximize the elements at his disposal: the script is a hodgepodge of predictable sequences strung together in haphazard fashion, with some curious lulls to prop up a surprisingly dull plot. Only the ending, making good use of buses for some glass-smashing action, floats above the morass that Hill serves here. There are a few good things here: Schwarzenegger is picture-perfect as a tough policeman, his character has aged fairly well as a (rare) heroic Soviet character in Hollywood movies, and Gina Gershon looks great in an ungrateful role. It’s also cool to see some footage shot in Moscow, including a saluting Schwarzenegger. Alas, Jim Belushi remains obnoxious throughout—his character being only slightly less obnoxious as the very similar one he’d play the following year in K-9. The action is often dull, the plot never sparks and the cinematography has that telltale 1980s softness. In the end, Red Heat is far more interesting as an example of the Schwarzenegger and/or buddy-cop movies of the 1980s than on its own merits.

  • Mr. Destiny (1990)

    Mr. Destiny (1990)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, May 2019) There’s a surprisingly strong subgenre of movies exploring what it would be like to rewrite your own history and see the outcomes of different choices. From the angels-driven plot of It’s a Wonderful Life to the more recent examples justified by quantum mechanics mumbo-jumbo, you can see the appeal of the plot device in order to deliver a statement on the human condition. But it’s the execution more than the premise that will determine the impact of the film, as Mr. Destiny clearly suggests. Clearly made for a mass audience, the film’s hackneyed approach to alternate realities for our everyman protagonist isn’t particularly impressive, nor is its cavalier approach to respecting the integrity of the parallel timeline (helpfully pointed out by the magical character, asking our protagonist if he isn’t behaving reprehensibly by wooing another woman than his now-wife). Moral issues aside (and it’s tough to put them aside, because they are significant and do lessen the impact of the lesson the film think it’s teaching us) Mr. Destiny’s biggest problem is the complete and unvarying predictability of the result as it goes through the expected paces. It doesn’t help that two of the headliners are Jim Belushi and Jon Lovitz, two actors who are obnoxious on their best days and actively irritating on all others. More fortunately, Linda Hamilton and Rene Russo are sights to behold, but they’re not quite enough to make the film interesting—and their place in the plot, as mere prizes to be juggled by the white male protagonist having a not-even-mid-life crisis, betrays some ugly scripting issues. Michael Caine is perhaps the only likable character, but he comes across as ineffectually pointing out basic problems caused by the protagonist’s selfishness before it doesn’t matter and we get out of the dream sequence anyway. There are some far better movies tackling more or less the same issues out there—there’s no need to even watch Mr. Destiny.