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But for a stretch of nearly a decade, Reiner was part Frank Capra, part Billy Wilder.
With the release ofShock and Awe,his 20th theatrically released film, we look back at Reiners career.
Theres plenty of debate about the top seven or eight films.
Good luck if you’re free to even remember any of them.
Hated hated hated hated hated this movie.
Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it.
has become more well-known than the film itself, and boy, is Reiner fortunate there.
This movie will not make you miss the rom-com.
(Though in this version, hes played by Kevin Costner.)
You keep thatGraduateout of your mouth, Rumor Has It.
(Reiners main characters even acknowledge their Woodward-and-Bernstein cosplay.)
What savesLBJ, somewhat, is its inherently fascinatingLincoln-like investigation into how bills get turned into laws.
But youll nonetheless wonder how anybody other than Reiner would have attacked this material.
It had some melancholy in it and also had some humor in it.
There are better, wiser films about boyhood.
And I kept thinking, Geez.
What are they going to think whenthismovie comes out?
(See: all the modern-day Annies whove been liberated thanks to social media.)
Batess witty, monstrous performance won her an Oscar the only Academy Award bestowed on a Reiner film.
This is total hokum, but what addictive, relentlessly watchable hokum it is.
Hes the cornpone sentimentalist who grew up lovingBob and Ray.
When he loses control of this instinct, the results are borderline unwatchable.
But when he gets it right, like he did withThe Princess Bride, its simply perfect.
That it happens to have about ten eternally memorable characters including a truly touching performance from Andre the Giant!
is just one more aspect of its impossibility.
Not having this be No.
