1981 - CONTINENTAL DIVIDE, another love story

The idea appeared to be to put John Belushi into a love story playing a tough Chicago report who falls in love with a scientist studying eagles near Mt. Rainer.  The screenplay was by the then wonder boy writer Lawrence Kasdan.

Continental Divide is not a good love story.  Belushi and Blair Brown the female lead have absolutely no chemistry.  But the bigger problem is Belushi's inability to act.  John Landis probably used Belushi best in the movies.  In Animal House Landis barely let Belushi talk.  This film shows that while he was a good sketch comedian, he simply could not build a character.

Frankly the love scenes are embarrassing to watch.  I don't think I will ever be able to get the picture of a shirtless Belushi mauling Blair Brown in bed.  It was very painful.

The film has some nice shots of Mt. Rainer but that's about it.

103 minutes.

1999 - THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, on BLU RAY

The third of the crummy Pierce Brosnan James Bond series.  Brosnan's Bond films made a lot of money however they were never very good and this is a series that had some dogs like Live and Let Die, and The Man With The Golden Gun.

The first 30 minutes of the film are the best part.  The boat chase down the Thames manages to recapture some of the fun of the Bond series.  Unfortunately after that it's all down hill from there with some incomprehensible plot involving oil pipelines, Russian nuclear missiles and stolen submarines.  The action scenes and special effects are up to the usual high standards but there is a lack of excitement in every scene.  The audience knows that Pierce Brosnan is going to come out unbloodied  Let's face it, in every Bond film James Bond is going to survive but in this film it just seems really obvious.

 

Pierce (Remington Steele) Brosnan was always a decent Bond even though he was really channeling Sean Connery but the scripts they gave him never gave him a chance to make a really memorable film.  Brosnan fought hard for better scripts and directors but he was just a hired hand and easily replaceable.  After Die Another Day the producers let him go and did a reboot with the incredibly humorless Daniel Craig.

What are you going to say about the cast?  It was always good to see the original "Q" in the Bond films even though this was Desmond Llewelyn's final shot.  Yea Denise Richards was kind of hopeless but that was par for the course.  Sophie Marcel and Robert Carlye showed up to cash a paycheck.  

The World Is Not Enough looks clean and pretty on Blu Ray.

128 minutes screenplay Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein.