1. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Robert Zemeckis) - Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Kathleen Turner
2. Die Hard (John McTiernan) - Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman
3. Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo)
4. Rain Man (Barry Levinson) - Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman
5. My Neighbour Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
6. Dead Heat (Mark Goldblatt) - Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo
7. Coming To America (John Landis) - Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall
8. A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton) - John Cleese, Michael Palin, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline
9. Bloodsport (Newt Arnold) - Jean-Claude Van Damme
10. Twins (Ivan Reitman) - Arnold Schwarzenneger, Danny DeVito
Holiday Heart
2000
Cast: Ving Rhames, Alfre Woodard, Mykelti Williamson, Jesika Reynolds
Genre: TV movie
Plot: A drag queen takes in a drug addict and her daughter & helps raise her daughter
'Strong Performances by Rhames and Woodard, But Not Enough Heart'
Holiday Heart is an R-rated, not so family-friendly festive drama with big guy Ving Rhames of Con Air, Pulp Fiction, Mykeli Willamson (Forrest Gump, Con Air, Waiting To Exhale) and Alfre Woodard.
Holiday is a drag singer at a local club by lip-synching to The Supremes, wearing sequined dresses and dazzling her audiences with her personality and charm. Yet off-stage, s/he is still coming to terms with the loss of her long-term partner, who was a cop. Things take a turn when s/he takes in a young girl and her drug-addicted mother and Holiday becomes a surrogate father figure of sorts.
Highlights, which are few, are Rhames drag queen Holiday lip-synching scenes and of him and Silas playing Super Smash Bros and a few seconds later, Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64, in an editing scene that went wrong, but the tone switches from dark to frothy and it feels uneven and all over the place. Despite some light moments and having a good premise, Holiday Heart is mostly a bleak and dispiriting watch and for a festive film, it becomes too heavy-handed and edgy it takes away from some of the feel-goodness it evokes. But even with the good, it can often be corny. As the film progresses the fallouts become repetitive and tiring and thus losing its potency. Alas, director Robert Townsend's approach is dark and not as effective and strong as it should have been.
Rhames's performance is good, but taking away his characters' sexuality and his faith in God and being a devout Christian, characterization-wise, Holiday Heart sadly has little going for her/him and with that, along with the other characters, characterisation remains flat to non-existent. Alfre Woodard is okay as Wanda as she teeters towards selfishness and callousness. Unfortunately, not one single character fully redeems themselves. An interesting fact I discovered is both Ving Rhames and Mykeli Willamson both portrayed boxing promoter, Don King with Rhames in Don King: Only In America (1997) and Williamson in 2001's Will Smith boxing biopic, Ali.
Final Verdict:
It could have benefited Holiday Heart had it not taken itself too seriously, given its premise, & unlike many cross-dresser films, Mrs Doubtfire, Tootsie, To Wong Foo and Juwanna Mann, it sidesteps the comedy aspect and chooses to play it straight. Much to its disappointment as the story just wasn't compelling enough, nor did it hold up right up to the end.
Like I said, the idea is an interesting one, yet unfortunately, it just wasn't executed well enough to elevate itself above many other TV movies.
Overall:
1. True Lies (James Cameron) - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis
2. Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis) - Tom Hanks, Sally Field, Robin Wright
3. The Mask (Chuck Russell) - Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz
4. Speed (Jan De Bont) - Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper
5. Muriel's Wedding (Paul Hogan) - Toni Collete
6. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino) - John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman
7. Leon: The Professional (Luc Besson) - Jean Reno, Natalie Portman
8. Disclosure (Barry Levinson) - Michael Douglas, Demi Moore
9. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (Tom Shadyac) - Jim Carrey
10. The Crow (Alex Proyas) - Brandon Lee
