Simply A Masterpiece

As Good As It Gets

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Now when this movie first came out, no one really saw it. Critics gave it bad reviews. Part of the issue was the original Terms of Endearment was made back in 1983. So when some of the cast came back 13 years later, it can lose some of its box office draw. However, the time that passed actually made this movie more believable as the characters had also aged. Shirley MacLaine reprises her role and does a nice job, trying to raise her dead daughter's children. The movie stays grounded by dealing with everyday issues as well as getting older and the trials of a non-traditional family. Paxton plays a nice role in this film adding a little flare to the shadowing plot of Shirley MacLaine's character getting older. Nicholson's return, although brief, helped this film round itself out. See this one only if you see Terms of Endearment first.Best Scene: Nicholson and MacLaine re-living the past on the beach.

A sequel is an admirable intention. You loved characters from a certain film and wanted to see them again, or the original film left some open ends you'd like to see tied up. These marketing tools very rarely live up to a real film, never mind surpassing it, like in Christopher Reeve's version of "Superman". Most of the time, they're unnecessary at best, and vomitous at worst. Yes, dear readers, The Evening Star is Cinematic Ipecak. If queasy film-goers think they're made to vomit at horror films, just wait until they see this one. It's not a horror movie in the traditional sense, it's a horror OF a move in every sense.I did mention this contains spoilers, but viewers' appetites don't count here No, really, I remember so little of this except for three scenes which I thought were just hilarious: 1- Melanie, played by the never-to-be-Oscar-winning Juliette Lewis (who I understand was a much worse mental case than Debra Winger), spouts off at Aurora (during a fight the two have about her latest boyfriend) "I love him - I HATE YOU!" 2- The fact that Tommy's been in prison all this time and LIVED TO BE RELEASED! If he acted the way he acted in the first film, he'd have been Bruno's special friend in the pokey, not to mention deserving the death penalty for being such a....such a....AAAHH I can't even find the right adjective. Oh, he was just a pig.3- Aurora's stroke while sitting at the piano with some kid. I needn't add anything else to it. 'Nuff said! James L. Brooks was NOT associated with this. Larry Mc Murtry's actual follow-up novel was NOT the basis for this. Lisa Hart Carroll was NOT Patsy. Yes, the great Miranda Richardson was NOT so great in this.Bill Paxton (wherever HE is these days - Twister II, anyone?) was okay in this, and it's always nice to see Jack, but it wasn't long enough. Now that I think of it, Paxton resembles Jack a little. Maybe there was a missing subplot about him being Garrett's and Aurora's son who was put away in an institution because post menopausal ladies usually give birth to children with severe birth defects. Paxton's choice in acting in this piece of schlock was truly a defective one and he should be institutionalized. HEY WAIT A MINUTE - MAYBE HE WAS (heh-heh).This sits very prettily on the perch of the four very worst sequels ever made: EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC - Blatty didn't write - Friedkin didn't direct. Blair didn't act. Yeah, she's in it, but she still doesn't act.ARTHUR II ON THE ROCKS - Come on, guys! Romantic fantasies are supposed to have the couple living happily ever after. An amusing fairy tale was turned into a soap opera by an individual in his/her first week of literacy classes in hopes of obtaining a GED.STAYING ALIVE - As could be said in Johnny Dangerously, I saw this ONCE! Sequel to Saturday Night Fever - fevers usually make you feel sick and can sometimes kill you, even robbing you of your powers of either sight, hearing, or speech, as in the case of Helen Keller.YEP - this'll do it!

If you read my comments about "Terms of Endearment" (1983), you will notice I said it was a film I avoided for a while, then finally got around to seeing. In fact, I only heard about the sequel, "The Evening Star" shortly after I saw "Terms." In fact, "Star" came on TV shortly after I learned about it and I decided to give it a watch, even though I was probably going to be bored and disappointed. To my surprise, it was quite the opposite. It may start off on a boring start, but soon you will find yourself very involved with the characters and the multi-story plot, just like "Terms." Shirley MacLaine handled herself pretty well in this, maybe even more so than "Terms," but Miranda Richardson and Juliette Lewis seem out of place and they overact sometimes. Jack Nicholson's cameo was quite appropriate within the plot and he does a great job. Like the first film, the ending is memorable and falls in the "tear-jerking" category.

I actually saw this movie well before I ever viewed "Terms of Endearment", a movie slightly before my time. I am so glad that I did! Although I was considerably lost during some of the plot line, especially concerning the personal histories of the characters, I am certain I would not have enjoyed it nearly as well if I had viewed "Terms of Endearment" prior. For anyone that has seen the other film and subsequently enjoyed it, I am sure that the sequel doesn't even begin to live up to their expectations. That's not to say that it isn't a movie without merit. There is quite a bit of subtle (as well as not-so-subtle) humor to be found in this movie, and since it is slightly more up-to-date, newer generations might even appreciate it more (GASP!) than the original. It does have a completely different feel to it than its predecessor, though. If "The Evening Star" accomplished nothing else, it peaked my curiosity enough for me to view the first movie, one that I have since fell in love with. "Terms of Endearment" being a film which, although hearing good things about throughout the years, I probably would have never even given a chance if not for stumbling across it's sequel.