1988 - BILOXI BLUES, a not very funny service comedy

Considering the talent involved this is a god awful comedy and not a good film.  The director Mike Nichols clearly looking for a commercial hit re-teamed with playwright Neil Simon for Simon's sort of autobiographical story about his time in basic training.  Nichols and Simon had been pretty hot stuff on Broadway during the 1960's and 70's.  They brought Simon's The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park and Plaza Suite to Broadway for successful runs.

Over time they both had their successes and failures.  Nichols was no longer the wonder boy director who had made such films as The Graduate, Carnal Knowledge, and Catch 22.  He had a string of failures and was looking to rebuild his career.  Simon had a little better luck than Nichols although he tended to rewrite the same play The Odd Couple, over and over in different variations.  Simon also clearly longed to be taken seriously as a dramatist instead of just a comedy writer so a  "strained seriousness" as Andrew Sarris like to say, had begun to creep into his plays.

Biloxi Blues had been a hit for Simon on Broadway so Nichols looking for a sure fire winner turned it into a film.  The problem was that the film wasn't very funny and the turn towards drama towards the end of the film was abrupt and seemed to be added as an afterthought.  Nichols was a fine craftsman when it came to directing in film or on the stage but he didn't seem to put much effort into this film, it could have been shot by about any mediocre film or TV director.

 

You can't really fault the cast, Matthew Broderick was always a good actor especially when it comes to comedy and he does what he can to make Simon's lame comedy situations and one-liners funny. Probably the only inspiration in the film was the out of left field casting of Christopher Walken as the army drill sergeant.  Walken brings all of his weirdness to a role that was usually standard stuff in this type of film. 

Biloxi Blues did what it was supposed to do, reestablish Mike Nichols as a viable commercial director since it was a minor commercial hit, but the film is for the most part is not amusing and plot wise not very interesting

The screenplay was by Neil Simon was from his play, the running time is 107 minutes.

1990 - POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE, it's all about Meryl

The third collaboration between Meryl Streep and Mike Nichols.  This is a film based on Carrie Fisher's barely fictional account of her drug addiction and relationship with her mother Debbie Reynolds played by Shirley MacLaine. 

At this point in his life Nichols was probably on the downside of career.  He was now putting together films that were slick entertainments for the most part.  But his days of making films like The Graduate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Carnal Knowledge appeared to be behind him.  Nichols was still a very skilled filmmaker who knew how to get the best out of his actors and could get the most out of a comic situation in his films.

 

Nichols apparently had considerable input into Carrie Fisher's screenplay and his satirical scenes of the filmmaking business were at times quite funny.  Since he had a considerable reputation in the theater and Hollywood he was able to attract some major performers in this case Gene Hackman (playing a thinly disguised version of Mike Nichols),  Rob Reiner, Richard Dreyfuss and Simon Callow.  Nichols was even able to get a decent performance out of Dennis Quaid playing Meryl Streep's sort of love interest.

 

This is an entertaining film, however if you are looking for a semi serious examination of a woman attempting to overcome her drug addiction this isn't it.  What this film is actually about is a love letter to Meryl Streep who is in every scene.  Mike Nichols and Meryl Streep were admirers of each other and it certainly shows with Nichols favoring her in about every scene sometimes at the expense of the other performers.

The running time is 101 minutes.