Director of some of the better romantic comedies.
Roxanne (1987) -- The Cyrano story has been used over and over in movies, but this is perhaps the best update--written and starring Steve Martin. First of all, the movie is smart enough to go ahead and stick a big nose on Martin's face rather than relying on something else to do the trick, or simply casting an ugly or fat guy. So suave and handsome Steve Martin gets to do his charming thing while always having the major problem as plain as the nose on his face. The blend of romance, comedy (real comedy, not "romantic comedy" comedy), and sweetness works here, and all the other players (Daryl Hannah, Rick Rossovich) work well too. B
Six Degrees of Separation (1993) -- A movie that could have been good if done more simply. Unfortunately, most of the movie is told through annoying anecdote-style flashbacks (complete with even more annoying flash-forwards). The problem of using real people as anecdotes ends up being the part of the point of the movie, but it's a stupid point. The main problem is that this was adapted from a play: the dialogue would have been bad enough on stage where a certain degree of overdoing it is allowed, but it's completely irksome here--like Chinese water torture. Filled with bad choices throughout, including stupid repetitions of things that weren't clever the first time ("throats, cut"), children who scream at the top of their lungs for no reason, and adults who keep wondering if Will Smith is actually Sidney Poitier's son even after his con has been proven many times over. I guess the many who loved this movie heard "smart" talking and were tricked, or they liked the "six degrees" idea. The best thing to come out of this movie is Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. D
I.Q. (1994) -- A movie that's much better than you'd ever believe a romantic comedy with Walter Matthau as Albert Einstein playing Cupid could be. Tim Robbins and Meg Ryan do their stuff. B
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