We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
Comedy, coming-of-age stories, and Super Mario.
18 AGAIN! (1988)
My girlfriend often calls me “an old soul” due to the fact that, with some exceptions, I greatly prefer watching movies and TV shows from decades gone by rather than new stuff, tend to drop old fashioned sayings, and can often be heard listening to classic radio shows while going about household tasks. So it probably makes sense that one of my favorite people in the entertainment world when I was a youngster in the ‘80s and ‘90s was a comedian who had been making audiences laugh since the days of vaudeville. That was George Burns, who was 87 years old when I was born and made it to 100 before passing away in 1996.
I watched a lot of George Burns when I was a child, and one movie that got a lot of play was the 1988 fantasy comedy 18 Again!, which was inspired by the song "I Wish I Was Eighteen Again," written by Sonny Throckmorton and recorded by Burns in 1979. Josh Goldstein and Jonathan Prince wrote the screenplay and Paul Flaherty directed the film, which received horrible reviews when it was released – but it was warmly embraced by my 4-or-5-year-old self once it made its way to VHS and cable.
Burns stars in this one as Jack Watson a millionaire playboy and businessman who is turning 81 years old (so Burns was playing slightly younger than himself, but he could pull it off). Charlie Schlatter, an actor who I generally find to be quite irritating, plays Jack’s grandson David Watson, who is turning 18 and attending college – and one thing I was surprised to find when revisiting 18 Again! after being away from it for many years is just how little screen time Burns has. He’s a major presence in the first 22 minutes or so, but enjoy him while you can, because then a peculiar event sidelines him for around an hour of the running time.
That event comes when Jack and David are involved in an accident that somehow causes their souls to switch bodies. Jack’s soul goes into David’s body, giving the old man the chance to be “eighteen again,” while David’s soul goes into Jack’s body and gets stuck there while the old man’s body lies in a coma in a hospital. So, for most of the movie, we get Schlatter doing (a fairly good) Burns impression as Jack-in-a-young-body and managing not to be irritating.
While living his grandson’s life, Jack continues hanging out with his old pal Charlie (Red Buttons), doesn’t quite understand David’s friend Barrett (Pauly Shore), experiences fraternity life all over again, competes with frat boy Russ (Anthony Starke), charms college girl Robin (Jennifer Runyon), encourages the ideas Jack’s son / David’s dad Arnie (Tony Roberts) has for the family business, and learns that Jack’s lady Madeline (Anita Morris), who will receive half of his fortune according to his Will, is not the person he thought she was.
Critic Roger Ebert complained that the film has no edge and no bite, it’s just enveloped in good intentions and heartwarming sentiments, but that’s exactly why the movie was charming when it was released in ‘88 and remains charming to this day, even if there isn’t as much George Burns in it as there should have been. Instead of leaving him in a coma for much of the action, there should have been some scenes where he wakes up to find that he’s a young person in an old person’s body... but I guess they skipped that scenario because many of the other body swap comedies out there have done that.
18 Again! is a good time. I enjoyed it in the ‘80s, and I continue to enjoy it now that I’ve reached an age when I could also sing "I Wish I Was Eighteen Again" and mean it.
ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET. (2023)
I don’t know how popular author Judy Blume’s 1970 coming-of-age novel Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret is these days. Judging by the fact that it’s long-awaited film adaptation only made $21.5 million during its theatrical run in 2023, I would assume it isn’t so popular anymore – but when I was growing up in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, it was so well known, it sort of seemed like reading it was a rite of passage for young girls. I even read it myself, even though adolescence had different changes in store for me than it had for the female lead character. I read it simply because it was popular and because I liked Blume’s series of Fudge books.
As expected from the title, the lead character is a girl named Margaret. That’s 11-year-old Margaret Simon (Abby Ryder Fortson), who has lived in New York City up to this point in her life, but now her parents Barbara (Rachel McAdams) and Herb (Benny Safdie) have decided to pack up and move the trio to New Jersey, leaving Margaret’s dramatic, beloved paternal grandmother Sylvia (Kathy Bates) behind. Margaret is not thrilled – but something she’s even more concerned about is the onset of puberty. When is it going to happen for her? When is she going to get her period? When is she going to develop breasts?
Margaret bonds with a group of other young girls who are similarly obsessed with puberty: Gretchen (Katherine Kupferer), Janie (Amari Alexis Price), and the growing-up-too-fast Nancy (Elle Graham), who is not a great influence on her friends. While they worry about periods and boys, Margaret is also wrestling with the idea of God. Her mother Barbara was raised Christian and has lost contact with her family due to the fact that they objected to her marrying a Jewish man, Herb. Even though Herb is not a temple-goer. So Margaret is being raised without a religion; the decision will be hers to make when she grows up. But she’s starting to search for answers, reaching out to God for guidance during this difficult time called “being a tween.”
Written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig (who previously earned coming-of-age cred with The Edge of Seventeen), Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret is set in the year the book was published, 1970, and it’s a really good, old-fashioned coming-of-age movie. It has a lot of laughs, mostly from seeing how ridiculous these girls are about the concept of puberty, and a lot of heartfelt dramatic moments. The cast did great work bringing their characters to life, and Craig told the story well.
I can’t say how well the movie reflects the book, since it has been more than thirty years since I read it, but Judy Blume – who had blocked the making of a film adaptation for decades – has said she thinks the movie is even better than her book.
THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE (2026)
In 2007, a game called Super Mario Galaxy was released for the Nintendo Wii... and I never played it. Super Mario 64 is the most recent Super Mario video game I’ve played – and to be honest, I didn’t make much progress with that 1996 release. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t remained a Mario fan in the decades since. A lot of my childhood was spent playing the likes of the Mario games that were released for the original NES and Super Nintendo, as well as watching the Mario Bros. cartoon. (And that ill-conceived live-action movie.) Mario will always have a special place in my heart, so I watched and enjoyed The Super Mario Bros. Movie when that animated film was released in 2023, and I came back for the sequel, even though The Super Mario Galaxy Movie draws inspiration and its title from games that I have never even witnessed, let alone played. And I still enjoyed it.
From the returning creative team of directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and writer Matthew Fogel, this sequel kicks off with Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) is kidnapped by Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), who wants to use the princess’s cosmic powers (she’s made out of stardust) to fuel a universe-destroying cannon. The abduction of Princess Rosalina is brought to the attention of Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) of the Mushroom Kingdom, who will eventually be revealed to be Rosalina’s long-lost sister. But even before she knows their familial connection, Peach sets out to rescue Rosalina with the help of her buddy Toad (Keegan-Michael Key).
Brooklyn plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are left to key an eye on the Mushroom Kingdom in Peach’s absence, which turns out to be quite a draining job. Eventually, of course, they will decide to follow Peach and Toad to help her take down Bowser Jr. - and they’re joined on their quest not only by their new dinosaur sidekick Yoshi (Donald Glover), but also by the supposedly reformed villain Bowser (Jack Black), who was defeated by Mario and Luigi in the previous movie and shrunken to an amusing size by Peach.
The adventure leads to a lot of action and laughs, with our heroes sharing the screen with characters I recognized from those early games I played, as well as characters I had never seen before since I’m so far behind on the gaming world. There’s also a really fun crossover with Star Fox, who was the sole playable character in the 1993 video game Star Fox. Here he’s voiced by Glen Powell and has some fun moments with the Mario characters.
I had a lot of fun watching The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, even if some of the references went over my head, and would really like to see this franchise continue. Although the sequel didn’t make quite as much as its predecessor ($1.001 billion vs. $1.361 billion), cracking a billion is still a hell of a success, so I’m already eagerly looking forward to Super Mario 3. Here’s hoping it’s as awesome as the Super Mario Bros. 3 game was back in 1988.
MERMAIDS (1990)
The comedy drama Mermaids was heavily promoted when it was being released in 1990; I think the music video for Cher’s cover of “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” seemed to be unavoidable at the time. Before I ever saw the movie, I saw Mermaids star Cher and her co-stars Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci dancing around in that music video many times. Despite the abundance of promos, the movie only made $35.4 million at the box office – and it may be because it’s a lot weirder than most movie-goers probably expected it to be.
Based on a novel by Patty Dann, Mermaids was directed by Richard Benjamin from a script by June Roberts. Cher stars as Rachel Flax, 31-year-old single mother to two daughters, 15-year-old Charlotte (Ryder) and 9-year-old Kate (Ricci). Every time Rachel breaks up with a boyfriend, which apparently happens quite often, she moves herself and her children to a new location. As the film begins, she goes through another break-up and picks their next location at random off the map: they move to the small town of Eastport, Massachusetts.
The movie covers a lot of the same ground you would expect a movie like this to cover. Now that Charlotte is a teenager, she finds herself at odds with Rachel most of the time, so we’ll have to see how they’re going to work through their issues and find peace with each other. While finding her way in the new town, Rachel also finds a new man, with Bob Hoskins playing a nice guy named Lou Landsky. Lou brings some civilization and normalcy to the Flax household, but we’ll have to wait and see if Rachel is really able to accept settling down with somebody.
The weirdness comes from the Charlotte character. Even though the Flax family is Jewish, the anxiety-ridden teenager is obsessed with Catholicism and repenting. In her new town, she develops a crush on her 26-year-old school bus driver Joe (Michael Schoeffling), who is also the caretaker at the local convent. Things between Charlotte and Joe go to inappropriate extremes, despite the fact that Charlotte has a meltdown and thinks she’s going to get pregnant just from kissing the guy. Charlotte’s infatuation with Joe goes so far, it even almost gets her little sister killed.
Mermaids had just drama behind the scenes, but surprisingly none of it had to do with the way the Charlotte character was written. Swedish director Lasse Hallström was going to make his English-language debut on the film, but ditched it for another project. Frank Oz was brought in to direct, and actually started production with Emily Lloyd playing Charlotte. Cher complained that Lloyd didn’t look like she could be her daughter, so the teenager was fired and replaced by Ryder. Then Oz quit after creative clashes with Cher and Ryder.
Both Hallström and Oz wanted the film to be even darker and weirder than it ended up being; in fact, Hallström wanted Charlotte to commit suicide. She was supposed to be dead by the time the end credits rolled. Thankfully, Richard Benjamin came in to make a more appealing version of the film that’s charming, but still odd.
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