ereyna Reviews

The In-Laws (1979)

One of the most funny & zany movies ever made.

[16 April 1999]

If you were ever stuck on a desert island with a TV, VCR (and, let's assume, a power source), this would definitely be one of the movies you would like on hand to jolly your solitary time away. It is an insanely funny film that compares favorably with the classic screwball comedies of yesteryear. Only instead of Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, we get Alan Arkin and Peter Falk. Although they don't quite function as a romantic duo, the pairing of the characters of Dr. Shelly Kornpett, as the deadpan, increasingly desperate dentist, with Vince Ricardo, as a renegade CIA agent extraordinaire, works wonderfully. Along with everyman Shelly, you will be sucked into the zany, alternate world of agent Ricardo. See it with friends or loved ones, because this is the kind of movie that you will be quoting to one another long after you see it. Just remember to serpentine!

Broken Vows (1987 TV Movie)

Worth seeing due to an unusual performance by Tommy Lee Jones

[23 November 1998]

In Broken Vows, Tommy Lee Jones plays a shy, diffident Catholic priest who arrives at a crime scene just in time to give the last rites to the victim (David Straitharn). Intrigued by the slain man's last words, Jones sets out to find out more about him and the circumstances leading to his murder. For the first time, he ventures outside of the sheltered and ritualized world of the priesthood in which he has become immured and begins to meet people from all walks of life. In the course of his investigation, Jones meets the slain man's girlfriend, played by Annette O'Toole. The two immediately strike sparks off one another and an awkward, lively and tender relationship develops between the two. In a departure from his usual blustery macho roles, Tommy Lee Jones is in fine form as a young priest whose entire world is shaken as a consequence of a chance encounter with a dying man. The manner of man's death reawakens Jones' intellect and sensuality. For the first time, he questions the dogma that rules his circumscribed life and partakes of the life that exists beyond the doors of his church.