Morality and cynicism not quite the bedfellows Wilder intended? Wilder's response to his previous film Kiss Me Stupid's criticism was intended to be a bitter attack on American morality, yet many critics of the time felt Wilder chickened out by sweetening the finale. If he actualy did this is obviously down to each individual viewer to decide, but in my case I just feel that it comes together nicely to finish off a very funny and sharp Wilder film. Camerman Harry Henkle is working the sidelines filming a Browns/Vikings game when he is flattened by running back Boom Boom Jackson and taken to hospital. His crafty chiseller brother-in-law Willie sees an opportunity to make big money by suing all and sundry for negligence, that Harry is actually OK is a minor inconvenience. This sets us up to watch the dynamic duo of Walter Matthau (Willie) & Jack Lemmon (Harry) try and fake major injury to garner a big pay out. Naturally there are many problems along the way as Harry fights with his moral fibre and a burning torch for his ex wife Sandy. While convincing the doctors and insurance people that he is actually injured is not going to be easy, thus it makes for some truly funny sequences. As you would expect from Wilder & I.A.L Diamond, the script sizzles with wit and cynicism (perfect material here for Matthau who won the best supporting Oscar), and although the running plot strand of Boom Boom Jackson's guilt and subsequent career jolt does dampen the film down a touch, it's still a winner that can be pleasantly sampled from time to time. 8/10
At fictitious Tait University in the Roaring '20s, co-ed and school librarian Connie Lane falls for football hero Tommy Marlowe. Unfortunately, he has his eye on gold-digging vamp Pat McClellan. Tommy's grades start to slip, which keeps him from playing in the big game. Connie eventually finds out Tommy really loves her and devises a plan to win him back and to get him back on the field.
A look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy, a cheery, colorful, North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around her.
Stephen, an international trader, tracks down his ex-wife Patricia in some Amazonian backwater. He needs her consent to a divorce so that he can marry Charlotte. Unfortunately, he discovers a son he didn’t know he had – Mimi-Siku. The young jungle boy yearns to see Paris so Stephen reluctantly agrees to take him back home with him for a few days. How will Mimi-Siku react to life in the great metropolis?
Carl Allen, a guy whose life is going nowhere, signs up for a self-help program based on one simple covenant: say yes to everything…and anything.
A former college athlete joins forces with a sports consultant to handicap football games for high-rolling gamblers.
A new case for "The Model Boys": The two Cologne commissioners Docker and Dretzke to take the next 14 days a journalist to their missions.
Video game experts are recruited by the military to fight 1980s-era video game characters who've attacked New York.
Bachelor football star Joe Kingman seems to have it all. He is wealthy and carefree, and his team is on the way to capturing a championship. Suddenly, he is tackled by some unexpected news: He has a young daughter, the result of a last fling with his ex-wife. Joe must learn to balance his personal and professional lives with the needs of his child.
When a western Pennsylvania auto plant is acquired by a Japanese company, brokering auto worker Hunt Stevenson faces the tricky challenge of mediating the assimilation of two clashing corporate cultures. At one end is the Japanese plant manager and the sycophant who is angling for his position. At the other, a number of disgruntled long-time union members struggle with the new exigencies of Japanese quality control.
The true story of Jasmine Plummer who, at the age of eleven, became the first female to play in Pop Warner football tournament in its 56-year history.
Con artist Lawrence Jamieson is a longtime resident of a luxurious coastal resort, where he enjoys the lavish fruits of his deceptions - that is, until a competitor, Freddy Benson, shows up. When the new guy's lowbrow tactics impinge on his own sophisticated work and believing him to be the infamous conman 'The Jackal', Lawrence resolves to get rid of him. Confident of his own duplicitous talents, he challenges Freddy to a winner-takes-all competition: whoever swindles their latest mark, American heiress Janet Colgate, out of $50,000 first can stay, while the other must leave town.