Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Valentine's Day Movie #1: As Good as It Gets (1997) - Nicholson makes incredible character journey stick in great audience favorite

2/14/2019

Valentine's Day Movie #1: As Good as It Gets (1997) - Nicholson makes incredible character journey stick in great audience favorite

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Huge Hit of the Year + Best Romcom of the Year

Jack Nicholson's giant grinning face is the whole shebang on this simple poster for James L. Brooks' As Good as It Gets

Melvin is a rich, single, OCD-suffering grouch, who doesn't attempt to curry favor with other people, as his gay neighbor suffers an attack, and he accepts looking after his little cute dog for a while. This spurs an extensive change in his life.

As Good as It Gets is written by Mark Andrus (Late for Dinner (1991)) and great New-Yorker co-writer/co-producer/director James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment (1983)). It is a Hollywood formula romantic dramedy that really works.
It is well-written, sweet and funny and elevated by wonderful performances from particularly Jack Nicholson (Psych-Out (1968)), who is a riot here in the W.C. Fields-reminiscent protagonist, whose small behavioral eccentricities are some of the film's funniest features. Helen Hunt (Ride (2014)) is also a joy, and Cuba Gooding Jr. (Shadowboxer (2005)) is good in a supporting role; Greg Kinnear (Murder of a Cat (2014)) is less credible in the part as the gay neighbor.
As Good as It Gets is a very good-looking audience favorite, which satisfies the need for laughs as well as eye puddles. The expert script is exemplary for use in screenwriting classes.

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 314.1 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 6.28 times its cost)
[As Good as It Gets premiered 6 December (California) and runs 139 minutes. Brooks had Geoffrey Rush flown from Sydney to Los Angeles to audition for the lead part, but Rush declined it. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, New Jersey and New York from November 1996 - January 1997. The film opened #3, behind holdover hits Titanic and Tomorrow Never Dies, to a 12.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 7 weeks in the top 5 (#3-#3-#4-#4-#5-X-#4-X-#5) and grossed 148.4 mil. $ (47.2 % of the total gross). It is Nicholson's 2nd highest-grossing film, behind Batman (1989). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. The film was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning 2; for Best Actor (Nicholson) and Actress (Hunt). It lost Supporting Actor (Kinnear) to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting, Editing to Titanic, Music - Original Musical or Comedy Score (Hans Zimmer (Hidden Figures (2016))) to Anne Dudley for The Full Monty, Picture to Titanic and Original Screenplay to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for Good Will Hunting. It also won 3/6 Golden Globe nominations, 3 National Board of Review awards and many other honors. Brooks returned with Spanglish (2004). Nicholson returned in The Pledge (2001), Hunt in 6 TV and short credits before she returned to the big screen in Dr. T and the Women (2000), Kinnear in You've Got Mail (1998). As Good as It Gets is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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2/14/2019

Valentine's Day Movie #1: As Good as It Gets (1997) - Nicholson makes incredible character journey stick in great audience favorite

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