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“Awakenings” a THEWIDESCREEN review   thoughts after the jump.   We miss you Robin Williams. Man what a trip this movie. I had such bad memories from this film I think they tried showing it to us in class once and I just remembered it was about sick people in the hospital. But let me tell you this thing is a masterpiece. It’s writen by the great Steve Zailan, writer of “HBO’s “The NIght Of” and Shindler’s List, among others, and directed by Garry Marshall’s sister, Penny Marshall from Laverne and Shirley. It’s got superb acting by Robin Williams who always handles comedy and drama so well, and BOBBY DENIRO who got an oscar nomination for his performance in this film, the oscar nom was the first time he had been nominated by the academy in almost 15 years since Ragin Bull in the 80s. He didn’t win.   The plot is great stuff. The problem is catatonic states. Deniro and company are completely inmobile, can’t speak can’t move they can’t even talk. ...

a THEWIDESCREEN TV review thoughts after the jump   A great episode. The best episode of the 17th season. This is the season that is airing right now on fox in the usa. This episode is written by long time writer for the show Steve Callahan. He wrote the classic episode "Thin White Line" where Brian is a police dog and gets hooked on cocaine another classic check it out. Steve Callahan’s been on the show since season 3. This is season 17.   No tricycle for me!!  Great plot. Peter sells off Stewie's tricycle as it gets shipped off to trash island and it’s up to stewie and brian to go find it and get it back. They board a ship and set sail on the waters for trash island. Almost dying on the way becoming shipwrecked and unable to get back home. They get the tricycle back at the end. This episode was so good vintage simple classic Family Guy that it made us at THEWIDESCREEN go back and re watch some of season 17’s best episodes.   ...

a THEWIDESCREEN analysis. thoughts after the jump. Yes Tony dies. He gets shot in the last scene it’s so obvious that we don’t know why we didn’t see it back in 2007 when the finale aired. Here is our case for why Tony dies. The first episode of the last season is titled “Members Only” so it’s full circle that episodes later the man in the diner in the last scene in the finale “Made In America” is wearing a members only  jacket. It’s foreshadowing. The last season literally opens with Uncle June shooting Tony. Mistakingly believing it was someone else in his alzheimer world. But Tony almost dies in the season opener. This is  more foreshadowing as he gets to live one last season before finally succumbing at the end. The last episode “Made in America” opens with Tony Soprano in bed asleep in a very coffin like position with funeral organ music playing in the background. The cat. The cat that Tony finds in the safehouse that Paulie starts to th...

A Bronx Tale. A THEWIDESCREEN review. Great fucking film. This movie directed by Deniro with Villalobos as dp is a thing of beauty. It’s heartbreaking, slice of life, funny, tragic, violent. Lemme back up. The plot is a thing of beauty. The problem is the mafia. Deniro plays against character as a bus driver in the 50’s living in New York city who's son is friendly with the local mob group. Sunny played by Chaz Palminteri and based on his own play. Imagine the irony of Deniro telling his son not to be part of the mob of their dirty money and their cars and women. The man behind Goodfellas and Casino. There’s also such good acting in this film. The little kid is played by Francis Capra from Veronica Mars fame and he’s so friggin good.  Kid actors don’t know how to act but this kid was ahead of his time. It’s shot on location and features real Brooklyn sidewalks as kids out of school playing in  water from fire hyd...

THEWIDESCREEN review of "Hoffa".  Jack Nicholson stars as Jimmy Hoffa with prostethics and awesome acting. Devito is his right hand man but this movie is bonkers it's a gangster film since Hoffa worked wiht the mob to fund his deals. He would let them steal the contents of trucks to sweeten the deal and agree to work for him. You learn alot about teamsters and their history and the ending is awesome no one knows what happened to Jimmy Hoffa but they think the mob killed him and the last scene with the guy from Pulp Fiction, that  S amuel Jackson eats his burger and drinks his soda before shooting him, he kills hoffa with a silencer and Devito runs to protect his good friend and also gets two bullets in him.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI9CAfqY3hk Jersey Films is the production  company of Danny Devito. He's from there. 

"Renaissance Man, a film directed by Danny Devito himself. A great picture that THEWIDESCREEN avoided initially because it was an army film. But it turns out it's actually a school film. Danny devito stars as a man without a job that has to   teach school to a bunch of army guys that include Mark Whalberg at 20 and the kid from The Sopranos fame that tried to kill Cristopher and from A Bronx Tale.  Lillo Brancato.  The  movie is primo Devito and funny as hell, as Devito tries to teach this army nuts Shakespeare.  Grade: 16:9 Widescreen, yeah we were surprised too.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NyTDjFJOwY

Last weekend THE WIDESCREEN went and saw DUMBO 2019, Tim Burton's new film.   Here is our review.  It also caused us to watch a Danny DeVito marathon. Thoughts after the break.  Dumbo (2019) is a lot of fun, unlike other new Disney live action adaptions it does not follow the original exactly to the book but does new things with it like Michael Keaton's character who is not in the original film. Dreamland, the theme park in the film, is not in the original 1941 dumbo film. Dreamland is great Tim Burton set design. The mix of CGI and real sets leaves you wondering what;s real and what's not, ina good way, it feels like a wacko Disney World which is fitting considering Burton's working for the house of mouse.  The rest is kept the same, the plot is about stupid dumbo with big ears like rudolph the red nose reindeer every one makes fun of his big ears and he's useless then he flies and is a success and everyone loves him but Keaton's ...

A THE WIDESCREEN review of CBS's reboot of "The Twilight Zone." Episode: The Comedian The plot of this episode is about a struggling comedian who meets Tracy Morgan and aquires speical powers of being funny but … it comes at a cost that everything he talks about in his stand up act disappears…. so he mentions his cute dog, gets a bunch of laughs for the first time he doesn't suck but when he comes home his dog has dissappeared so have all the photos of the dog on his cellphone….   Bits are pretty good, at the end of the episode, he mentions himself in the act and disappears off stage the microphone falls on the floor…. you’ve now entered The Twilight Zone.   Grade: 4:3 not nearly as good as the original Rod Serling version.  Other upcoming episodes in the reboot include a re-imagining of the classic episode nightmare at 20,000 feet where Wiliam Shatner is afraid of the monster outside eating his planes wings and people think he’s crazy but at the en...

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