End of the Line (1987)

Wilford Brimley steals a train.

There are some movies where all you really need to know is the premise, and you know whether or not you want to watch it. Seldom films for all audiences, examples range from Transformers (giant robots do battle), to The Expendables (action stars get together for more action), to Yes Man (Jim Carrey has to do whatever people ask of him).

End of the Line is a comedy-drama with such a premise. Wilford Brimley steals a train. Either you’re on board for that, or you’re not.

Goin’ South

There are some things that are always interesting when it comes to movies. Films directed by someone primarily known as an actor, especially if they also star in the same film. Genre-blending, such as comedy-westerns. Film debuts of actors and actresses who would go on to become big names. Seeing actors in roles that are different from what the audience has come to expect from them. Jack Nicholson. Goin’ South, released in 1978, has elements of all of these, being the second film directed by Jack Nicholson, and starring him in the lead role as horse thief Henry Moon.

Moon is the run from the law, as horse rustling was a capital crime in Texas at the time. Riding his horse across the Rio Grande into Mexico, he finds himself safely across the border just as his horse faints, and the posse chasing after him is on the other side, with no authority in Mexico. Except they don’t even slow down for the river, and grab him and drag him back into U.S. soil anyway.

Elf

So, it’s December 4th, exactly three weeks until Christmas Day (well, Christmas night). I’ll admit I’m not quite ready to go into all-out Christmas mode yet. I’m easing into the Christmas music, letting it be randomly selected by Windows media player among my regular mix (in fact, it just queued up “Christmas Dreams” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra as I typed this), but I’m not totally switching over to it yet. I know some people don’t even wait until Thanksgiving to put up their lights, but I’m not going to festoon my blog with holly leaves just yet. But it is time to start filtering a few films with festive feelings into my reviews. So while the Christmas blog banner isn’t on the main page yet, it is here to be hung above the holiday reviews, and a category for Christmas Cinema has been added.

First up is a film I’d avoided for some time, 2003′s Will Ferrell vehicle, Elf. I had stayed away because the promos seemed like it would wear thin on me quickly, that it would be an extended Ferrell sketch. But my brother kept insisting he thought I would like it, and so eventually I relented. I did, however, idly wonder as I started the movie how long it would be until I hit the first bit of toilet humor.