Curly Sue (1991)

3/5

Curly Sue is a cheesy but charming 90's movie from John Hughes. The movie follows two homeless con artists, Alisan Porter as the titular adolescent and James Belushi as her father figure, who wander around the country trying to win the hearts and minds of generous people in order to get a bite to eat and a bed to sleep in. When they try to con a seemingly heartless divorce lawyer (Lynch), the lies start to get in the way of genuine feelings.

The movie is sweet and silly in an innocent, naive way, although a little heavy on the visual gags and body humor for my tastes. It's rather barebones from a writing and a technical standpoint, but I don't think Hughes intended it to be a particularly ground-breaking cinematic feat. The heart is in the story and the characters and they satisfy completely. This is an endearing movie that's pleasant enough to fill your next free afternoon with nostalgia.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101635/

Thief (1981)

2/5

What I love about all of Michael Mann's movies is the mood, the sense of cool. Even if you have no idea what's going on, you always get a feeling of just how awesome the people you're watching are. The second quality is the acting--Mann consistently manages to bring out the best in his actors. That's all this movie has. Oh, and good music, although it's heavily dated with its 80's techno synth rock.

The movie attempts to combine heist movie with family drama. It doesn't work because the tension is lost with the dramatic punctuations and the drama never gets fully explored because the heist elements remove a sense of realism. The plot is convoluted and unclear; you have to pay extremely close attention to the dialogue to know what's going on. Even then, you might still have trouble because a lot of the time there are no establishing shots (in the adoption agency, for example). The editing is awful. Scenes go on for way too long, often without introduction and ending suddenly. The sound work is even worse; it reminded me of my own movies. The dialogue is hard to understand as a result, which makes the plot confusing as well. And that's not something you want in a professionally-produced feature film.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0083190/