THE BETSY

Lesley-Anne Down and Tommy Lee Jones

THE BETSY (1978). Director: Daniel Petrie. 

"It's not the stock, it's not the money -- it's the car!" 

Loren Hardeman (Laurence Olivier of Richard III) wants a racer named Angelo (Tommy Lee Jones) to work with him on a new fuel-efficient engine and a brand new car he will name after his granddaughter (Kathleen Beller): the Betsy. However, Loren's grandson, Loren Hardeman III (Robert Duvall), who hates him and now runs the company, is completely against the idea, and pulls a few dirty tricks of his own. Loren III has a wife (Jane Alexander) and a mistress (Lesly-Anne Down of Countess Dracula), who also dallies with Angelo, but Betsy develops feelings for him as well. Meanwhile long intermittent flashbacks take us back to the thirties and to the story of Hardeman's gay son (Paul Rudd), his conspiring boyfriend (Clifford David), his wife (Katharine Ross of Games), who has an affair with her father-in-law, and an act of suicide which will have consequences in the present day. 

Father and son: Paul Rudd and Olivier

Based on a novel by schlockmeister Harold Robbins, The Betsy is actually an entertaining and well-acted potboiler. In addition to the very capable actors already named, there's good work from Joseph Wiseman as a mobster, Edward Herrmann as an assistant, and others. Olivier is simply too old for the flashback sequences -- no amount of hair dye or make up can make him look fifty years younger -- and while Duvall is generally excellent, he underplays way too much in his climactic confrontation with his grandfather. There is a nice score by John Barry. A very strange sequence has Angelo being beaten up not by tough guys but what appear to be businessmen on the verge of senior citizenship! The gay aspects are rather dated, but as this section of the story takes place long before Stonewall this is almost inevitable. Daniel Petrie also directed The Idol and many, many others. 

Verdict: Not too many likable characters in this, but it's absorbing. ***. 

BATMAN FOREVER

Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones

BATMAN FOREVER (1995). Director: Joel Schumacher.

"Why can't you just die!" -- Two-Face.

Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer of Kill Me Again), who is secretly Batman, has his hands full with the combined threat of former employee Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey), who has reinvented himself as the Riddler and marketed a mind-sapping "box" for public consumption, and former D.A. Harvey Dent (Tommy Lee Jones of Eyes of Laura Mars). now the notorious Two-Face. A further complication is the seductive psychiatrist Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman of Birth), who gets excited by first Batman and then his wealthy alter ego. Batman Forever also introduces Dick Grayson (Chris O'Donnell), an acrobat whose family is killed by Two-Face and who becomes Robin. Kilmer is fine as the Gotham Knight, but the picture is pretty much stinked up by the campy approach personified by Jones and especially an over-the-top, epicene, and really irritating Carrey, who not only appears to be channeling Carol Burnett, but who seems determined to turn this in to a Dumb Jim Carrey Project at any cost -- Frank Gorshin was actually better in the role. Kidman is okay as a kind of kewpie doll shrink -- "I'll bring the wine, you bring your scarred psyche," she tells Batman --  and O'Donnell is more than okay as an older "boy" partner; he was actually 25 at the time. Michael Gough, as usual, makes an excellent Alfred. At times the movie is as silly as any episode of the old TV series and aside from some striking scenic design and a brief bit of excitement as the very end, has few redeeming features. The action sequences are not well-handled, Stephen Goldblatt's cinematography is too often murky and cluttered, and Elliot Goldenthal's musical score is effective but highly derivative. Followed by Batman and Robin.

Verdict: Seems like it's six hours long. **.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (2011). Director: Joe Johnston.

The super-hero Captain America first appeared in comics during the golden age of the 1940's. He was brought back in the sixties with the explanation that he had been in suspended animation for decades. Captain America, The First Avenger takes the same tack, but decides to make the movie a long flashback to the forties, presumably hoping sequels and the upcoming Avengers movie will show Cap in action in the modern age. Steve Rogers is a short, skinny but brave and plucky young man who wants to serve his country but is judged 4-F. The character is so likable that you root for him to make it just as he is [the comics never delved too much into Roger's pre-Captain America life], although to be fair it is not his new physique [after he volunteers for an experiment] that wins him admiration, but his actions. For inexplicable reasons the script [by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely and others]  includes a dumb middle section in which the new Cap is not sent into action but only used as a poster boy in war bonds advertisements, allowing other characters to call him "Tinkerbell" and "chorus girl." This has absolutely nothing to do with the comics. One intelligent change is that his boy partner, Bucky, has been turned into an adult, another soldier and good friend of Steve's [he never actually becomes a costumed partner, however].

Chris Evans is quite good as Steve Rogers/Captain America. Hayley Atwell is acceptable as Peggy Carter, who was a spy in the comics but here is a drill sergeant [not likely in the forties!]. Tommy Lee Jones, looking like the wreck of the Hesperus, plays an old warhorse colonel. Hugo Weaving is effective enough as Johann Schmidt, better known as the evil Red Skull, Cap's nemesis. [In this the Skull belongs to the evil organization Hydra.] The trouble with Captain America is that it doesn't have much of a story, the action scenes are all kind of blah and are poorly directed and edited for the most part, and it never catches the sheer colorful excitement of the comic book hero. Believe it or not, despite all the money spent on this production, it really isn't much better than that the low-budget Captain America with Matt Salinger. And it's never as thrilling or entertaining as the old cliffhanger serial, Captain America. It also at times has an old-fashioned sensibility that is not really explained away by the time period. NOTE: To read more of the sixties comic book adventures of Captain America, see The Silver Age of Comics.

Verdict: A major disappointment. **.