RAISING CAIN (1992)

A child psychologist (Lithgow) takes a few years off to raise his daughter.  Sounds innocent enough, except for the fact that he's crazier than a shithouse rat (thanks to the severe abuse he suffered as a child).  Things get even worse when he finds out his wife is cheating on him.

Released just a year after THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, I suspect that the studio was wanting something more like that, but then when De Palma turned in this more challenging (both visually and in the storytelling) mind-bender he was pressured into changing it into a more straightforward narrative.  At least, that's what I've gathered from different interviews and articles over the years.

The official release though is still pretty good and although it's aged horribly it's a fun watch...Lithgow being creepy as fook, dream sequences, zero gore, very little blood, zero nudity, hardly any violence despite the gruesome subject matter, flashbacks, interesting visuals, nods to a bunch of different suspense films, 90's fashions, Cliff Clavin's mother,  90's cars, Satan awful looking 90's clocks, good supporting cast.

I've never been a fan of De Palma's style, but this is still an interesting time capsule of early 90's cinema.  I would love to see his original version.

If you need me, I'll be in my room watching Dexter season 4.

SPIES LIKE US (1985)

When some undercover spies, involved in a plot to take over a Soviet nuclear missile, are in need of a distraction, two bumbling low-ranking government workers are quickly made into "spies" and thrown in the field...without being told they are just cannon fodder.

I haven't seen SPIES LIKE US since it's original relese, but it's held up very well.  Aykroyd and Chase playing off each other is fun to watch and the spies stuff is ridiculous, but still entertaining.  Quick pace, non-boring story, Vanessa Angel in her very first role looking incredibly hot, good comedic timing, 80's fashions, 80's humor, charming 80's special effects, zero nudity but a few stellar bra shots, John Landis before he lost his mojo, a David Bowie poster, nice budget with some nice looking scenes and a impressive supporting cast including Steve Forrest, the beautiful Donna Dixon, Bernie Casey, Bruce Davison, Frank Oz, William Prince, Charles McKeown, Terry Gilliam and a bunch more including cameos by Bob Hope, Ray Harryhausen, B.B. King, Joel Coen, Sam Raimi, etc.  Recommended.

HARD TO HANDLE (1933)

I watched this thinking it was gonna be all about Depression-era dance marathon contests and it was...for like 10 minutes.  Ends up James Cagney is a flimflam man who's got his nose into about every racket in town.  After his partner stiffs him in the dance marathon business, he's off to the set up a fake treasure hunt, then onto some bullshit weight loss cream and so on and so on.  Throughout it all his ups and downs his faithful dame Mary Brian still loves him.  Of course, that's not gonna stop her from running around on him with another guy.

Although HARD TO HANDLE is suppose to be a comedy I didn't find the way Cagney was constantly conning people to be funny in the least and the romance stuff was dead in the water.  The only highlight of the film was some of the Pre-Code banter was interesting in the stuff it implied, but even that doesn't make it worth going out of your way to watch it.  Okay acting, annoying mother character, unsympathetic main character, unfunny comedy.  I can't recommend it.  For hardcore classic Hollywood fans only.