1994 - THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE - is a comedy about bodily functions, ha ha.

The Road to Wellville is a film based on the life of Dr. John Kellogg a holistic practitioner of enemas and healthy eating.   Anthony Hopkins who now specializes in playing eccentric and nut ball roles is Kellogg.

The film focuses on a married couple checking into Kellogg's sanatorium for treatment, an entrepreneur trying to cash in on Kellogg's name and Kellogg's struggle with one of his crazy adopted kids.  The so called humor in the film derives mostly from jokes about enemas, feces and vomiting.     The film was written and directed by Alan Parker, the master of overblown musicals like Fame and Bugsy Malone. 

The film has excellent production design and photography, it's a well made film.  Parker's good with the look of the film, he's not so good with the low brow humor he's trying to pull off.  He doesn't have the chops to put over this kind of comedy.  This is a Porky's film directed like it was a David Lean production.

The budget was 25 million dollars, the film made 6.5 million.

118 minutes, written by Alan Parker.

1991- THE COMMITMENTS, the rise and fall of an Irish soul band.

Just a whole lot of covers of soul music and lots of indecipherable Irish babble in this comedy/drama which is essentially plot less.

The film is considered one of the top Irish films of all time, apparently no one had seen The Quiet Man in a while.  The film is well made and the band created for the film perform the various soul songs very well but this is ultimately kind of a pointless film.  What we have here is an old MGM musical where Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland get the gang together to put on a show.  The Commitments just dresses up the same premise with lots of swearing and a silly ending.  A cliche is still a cliche.

The Commitments was directed by Alan Parker who was the go to guy for film musicals that were considered kind of edgy, stuff like Evita, Bugsy Malone, Fame and Pink Floyd The Wall.  These films were all kind of interesting but but somewhat unmemorable.

 

 

 Unsurprisingly, the film was responsible for 2 soundtrack albums.  There is just lots and lots and lots of music to pad out the sparce  story.  Watching the film is a little bit of a weary experience after a while.

118 minutes, screenplay Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais and Roddy Doyle.