About Double FeatureDouble Feature is the title of a column that I write for the newsletter of Lehigh Pocono Mensa, the local group to which I belong. It gets published monthly in "Magniloquence." I used to belong to Central PA Mensa, so I offer the column to the editor of "Penn Central" and it shows up there pretty regularly. As the title implies, each Double Feature column features brief reviews of two movies that I have seen. I try to find a connection between the two films - subject matter, stars, awards, etc. - but, since it's my column, I reserve the right to occasionally choose two films that have no connection to each other at all. The reviews found in the Movies section of this Web site serve as the basis for Double Feature. I try to keep each column somewhere around 500 words (which fills about one page in the newsletter), so I usually have to edit the original reviews to fit into the space allotted. If you'd like to read the individual reviews for the films mentioned in Double Feature, you can do so here. The rating scales are a little different. The conversion chart is as follows:
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Current ColumnApril 2025 - We lost Gene Hackman earlier this year. He had retired from acting some 20 years ago, but the movies he made when he was active stand the test of time. One of my favorites is Bonnie and Clyde. And, of course, he won an Oscar for The French Connection. Here are two more of his many, many films. In 1987, Hackman joined Kevin Costner in the R-rated thriller No Way Out. Sean Young and Will Patton co-star. Fred Dalton Thompson has a small role as the CIA director. Costner plays Lt. Commander Tom Farrell, a young, smart and handsome Navy officer. He's buds with Scott Pritchard (Patton), the counsel for Defense Secretary David Brice (Hackman). At some inaugural ball, Pritchard introduces Farrell to Brice, but Farrell is more interested in Susan (Young), Brice's beautiful mistress. Fast forward a few months and Farrell is now on Brice's staff. He's supposed to get the dirt on a new stealth submarine which Brice feels won't be very stealthy at all. That mission changes when Brice kills Susan in a fit of rage over her affair with another man. No one knows that Farrell is that other man, so Pritchard convinces Brice to go along with the story that Susan's lover was a Russian mole named Yuri and that he's the one who killed her. Farrell is assigned to find Yuri. For everyone involved, the cover-up is definitely worse than the crime. Overall review: Liked it. The movie is just shy of two hours long, but snappy dialogue and a couple of chase scenes keep the film from dragging. Those elements also help to overcome a somewhat convoluted plot. The movie holds up well despite obvious Cold War overtones and despite what is, by current standards, primitive computer technology. If you like your films on quirkier side, check out The Royal Tenenbaums. Hackman plays patriarch to a family of prodigies in this R-rated film from 2001. The cast features Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson. Owen Wilson, who co-wrote the script with director Wes Anderson, also has a role. Hackman is Royal Tenenbaum, the eccentric and estranged head of an eccentric family of New Yorkers. Huston plays his wife, Etheline. They had two children, Chas (Stiller) and Richie (Luke Wilson), and adopted Margot (Paltrow). All three started out as prodigies and ended up as very confused. Royal didn't help much as he left well before the children became adults. Fast-forward 20 years and Royal is trying to get back in the good graces of his family. He tells Etheline that he's dying but, really, he's broke and needs a place to stay. Despite the lies, Royal's reappearance helps the entire family rediscover some truths about their lives. Overall review: Liked it. The story of the Tenenbaums is told in chapters with Alec Baldwin serving as the omniscient narrator. His presence helps tie together what might otherwise be simply a series of disjointed episodes. The actors resist the urge to mock their characters. Paltrow is at her laconic best. Stiller, especially, shines in his role. |
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