Two for the Weekend

THE SANDLOT is lazily written, horribly acted, altogether miserable, and a laugh riot if you happen to be a five-year-old boy. It's a story about some Boomer kid in the early '60s who moves to the San Fernando Valley and falls in, improbably enough, with a pack of Babe Ruth worshippers. It was like something a guy who grew up in New York would imagine growing up in California to be. This movie made my soul bleed.


MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, on the other hand, was surprisingly successful. As a reasonably cynical Washingtonian, I didn't expect to be taken in by Capra's paean to Americana; nevertheless, I bought it hook, line, and sinker. I think the movie sold me in a scene in which Mr. Smith has a brief conversation with a senior senator's daughter. Instead of focusing on Smith, the camera focuses on his hat. It shifts from left hand to right, gets dropped again and again, and does more to tell me its owner's state of mind than would an extreme closeup. Some movies are great because people generally think they're great. Some are great because they really are. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, thankfully, is the latter.

Star Wars

STAR WARS is easily the best film in the franchise. While THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK usually garners more recognition, there's something about this first film that's so compelling, it's sense of wonder carries us through five inferior follow-ups.

You know how it begins: "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away ..." That's a great fairy tale setup, playing with our expectations by switching "galaxy" for "kingdom." But make no mistake: a fairy tale this is: you've got your farmboy who dreams of greatness, your princess in distress, your wizard, your pirate, even your trusty dog and heartless villain. You've got magic, swashbuckling, romance, even a little comedy relief, all wrapped up in a shiny sci-fi package to fool us into thinking we're actually seeing something new.

But even though we know better, we can still delight in the wonderful execution of this rightfully classic film. Its breathlessness and sense of adventure, its eager desire to please, and its genuinely likeable cast invite us along for the ride. And what a ride it is, filled with everything we could want from an adventure movie.

The film even ends with appropriate dash, jauntily saying that, yes, it has done everything it intended to do. What a delight, and what a pleasure to discover that, even after all these years, STAR WARS still delivers.