By Grand Rapids Anonymous
tuesday, december 16, 2025 at 2:05:00 a.m. est
Movie quality right now is so low that people in 2025, comparing current films to the Reiner "golden years" makes Reiner look like a combination Howard Hawks, Hitchcock, and John Ford.
And he was a commie.
--GRA
By Grand Rapids Anonymous
tuesday, december 16, 2025 at 2:25:00 a.m. est
Btw, I missed seeing most of those flicks mentioned, but did catch When Billy Crystal Overacted with Meg Ryan in the theater. Crystal's character (and Crystal himself) was very irritating and the back and forth of the relationship seemed unrealistic. If they didn't get along the first three times they met, that should have been it. People move on. Not much to laugh at, except for the restaurant scene.
A Few Good Men was very entertaining, but I'm a Nicholson fan.
--GRA
N.S.: I respectfully disagree, regarding When Harry Met Sally (a masterpiece, but not a Top 100 masterpiece). However, since publishing my 2006 obituary of Bruno Kirby, which was probably the most widely read piece I ever wrote, I learned that Kirby, Crystal, and Reiner were for several years good friends off-camera, and used to get together to shoot hoops. Since Rob Reiner stopped casting Kirby in his movies, even when Billy Crystal wasn't in them, he was as responsible for destroying Kirby's career as Crystal was.
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11 comments:
It's been 36 years since I paid my $3.00 and saw it as a first run. If I get the chance,I'll give it another viewing. But as I remember it, "When Harry Begged Sally"--which would be another alternate title--from my memory of it,most of the dialogue was Crystal's character trying to convince Meg Ryan's character to go out,hook up etc. When they did --every 20 minutes or so of run time--they fought.
Over and over.
That's my recollection. I'm open to re-evaluating,though I have no idea when that might happen.
--GRA
Romantic comedies are near the bottom of my list of favorite genres- if I were going to watch one, I'd watch an old classic like IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT or THE AWFUL TRUTH, not something "modern" with unpleasant, abrasive, physically-unappealing actors!
-RM
PS- People I knew who had the misfortune to work at Crystal's one-man Broadway show (90s or early 2000s) described him as a psychopath of the nobody-MOVES-while I'm-on-stage type. Color me unsurprised. He was very funny on the soundtrack of MONSTERS INC., but at least I didn't have to look at him! He seems like the quintessential hyper, coked-up, angry Jewish stand-up comedian. I'll pass.
-RM
jerry pdx
Billy Crystal was good in the goofy but funny sitcom "Soap" and I thought he was a decent comedic voice or movie actor but as a standup, he was terrible. I remember when he went into standup after making his name as an actor and thought it was strange, especially when I saw him perform. He was hopelessly unfunny, but for some reason people in the audience would laugh. I think the cred he built up as a decent comedic actor had people thinking he must be funny so they should laugh, if he tried to make it big as a standup before making a name in acting, I can't imagine he would have succeeded.
I strongly disagree with the assertion that the quality of film today is at some all-time low. Au contraire, there has never been such an enormous number of creative young as well as established filmmakers as right now. Denis Villeneuve, Damien Chazelle, Alex Garland and Yorgos Lanthimos are but a few of the great directors who have emerged in the last 10 or 15 years. I do, however, agree with the assessment of the overrated "When Harry Met Sally." Rob Reiner was trying to make a Woody Allen-style "relationship" movie a la "Annie Hall," "Zelig" and "Husbands and Wives," but at best half-succeeded. I can't imagine a rom-com of two characters more absurdly incompatible than Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan's, who somehow find true love with each other. And if I encounter one more lowbrow type who thinks that the fake orgasm scene was hilarious, hey, I'll scream.
If I've never heard of any of the directors--or most of their movies--how can they be great? Back in the 60s and 70s,the networks used to show "movies of the week"--with fairly current films--because they got big ratings. Do networks do that now? No. Why not,is the next question. Who would watch these obscure movies on "free tv"? Films these days--except for Marvel crappola--are made for niche groups--not the masses,that's why they're confined to Netflix etal.Of course,the country is not 90% White anymore,either,so the "masses" are not what they used to be
And I love lowbrow humor--some of the biggest laughs I've had were from sight gags,sound effects and exaggerated or nonsensical dialogue--set up(sometimes)by a totally serious subject or scene. I
think the "orgasm scene" was the only good joke in the movie--something Neil Simon might have written(the punchline).
--GRA
jerry pdx
I don't jump on the Reiner is a certified genius either, he made decent enjoyable movies which, for the most part, I enjoyed, but I wouldn't put him in the pantheon of greats. I will say that he was better than the likes of Spike Lee, Tarantino or Shyamalan. Spike Lee made one good movie (School Daze), Tarantino made two (Kill Bill 1 & 2) and Shyamalan made two and a half good movies (Sixth Sense, Glass and Signs). Reiner has made about 20 movies and 10 of them were good, which isn't a bad percentage compared to the above mentioned and considering the high percentage of dreck that gets produced by the movie industry.
Of the ones I've seen that is, I confess I haven't seen all these guys movies but I have watched most of the notable ones.
In response to GRA, these filmmakers are well-known to any serious cinephile. And even those who don't pay much attention to such things probably have seen a couple of their movies anyway. To take one example, Denis Villeneuve, a French-Canadian, directed in 2015 what is arguably the best case for stopping illegal drug and human trafficking from Mexico, "Sicario." Please don't tell me you never saw it. He also did the two recent, acclaimed "Dune" movies. Damian Chazelle, meanwhile, made two of the best music-oriented films of the last decade, "Whiplash" and "La La Land." I enjoy the hell out of your race realist pieces, but when it comes to film I have to stick to my guns against all comers, Right or Left.
I speak with no disrespect and realize who the expert is on the subject of movies. About those films you mentioned--no,I never viewed Chazelle's films or Villenueve. It isn't the same as when I went to the theater. Siskel and Ebert promoted the hell out of the industry and now...zip. Films on tv are extinct(unless you pay per month--which I don't--not interested).
I laugh,because on "Jeopardy" very few clues about recent films get answered correctly--or even attempted by the contestants. Movies these days are obscure. Even trivia whizzes don't know half of the flicks that have come out,the last ten years.
Next year's Golden Globe nominees are absolutely unrecognizable to me. Maybe one or two out of 20.
Either movies are not as good today or studios getting them to the masses is a failure. Maybe both.
--GRA
Well, I used to watch nearly anything, but those days are long past for me. Maybe those are good movies- I still try to have an open mind. And I've discovered older foreign movies I thought were terrific, but for some reason have remained obscure. Look up MACARIO from Mexico, VIOLENCE AT NOON from Japan, OMICRON from Italy, VIJ from Russia or BACK TO THE WALL from France (which I posted a link to here, to no response).
The problem with new movies is this: to like them, you have to like the culture they reflect. I stopped watching network TV in the late sixties because even as a youngster, I hated the "counterculture", which was being pushed relentlessly (you couldn't have paid me to watch THE MOD SQUAD or THE MONKEES!). Contemporary culture today is so repulsive, the only way I could imagine a worthwhile movie is one that would be a really cynical take on modern times (as EASY RIDER was a cynical view of the obscene hippie culture of the 60s). I'd hate to imagine what a "music-oriented" film today would be like!
But maybe something for further investigation. And yes, always "stick to your guns"!
-RM
I was looking up June Lockhart's credits, and like other old-timers who are or were still working, the later credits are an unrecognizable, unfathomable list of junk. Unknown movie titles and god-awful-sounding TV series (all of which seem to run for multiple seasons!). Does anybody actually SEE these things? Actors in the old days used to disdain things they thought were beneath them, some of which turned out to be popular and enduring (was just reading that George Reeves only took the SUPERMAN role because he figured "nobody would see it.").
There used to be a theatrical market for "art house" movies- if they're being imported at all anymore, it's probably direct-to-pay-TV. And the later ones that I saw were so Americanized, they seemed barely distinguishable from the worst of our own culture, so why bother?
-RM
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