Why I Don't Love Roxanne Anymore: Revisiting Steve Martin's 1987 Romantic Comedy

Roxanne 

Directed by Fred Schepisi 

Written by Steve Martin 

Starring Steve Martin, Darryl Hannah, Rick Rossovich, Shelley Duvall

Release Date June 19th, 1987

Revisiting Steve Martin’s Roxanne (1987), a comedy once beloved now showing its flaws. A look at its dated humor, “Pratfall-A-Rama” gags, and missed potential as a great romantic comedy.

A Beloved Memory That Didn’t Hold Up

When I was ten years old, Roxanne was a laugh riot. Steve Martin’s slapstick antics, his trademark arrow-through-the-head wackiness, and the sweet romantic comedy veneer all made me adore it. But rewatching Roxanne today, on its 30th anniversary, left me only mildly amused at best, and deeply disappointed at worst.

The same thing happened when I revisited Martin’s 1980 stand-up special In Honor of Steve. My younger self delighted in the silliness, while the adult me recognized a kind of proto–anti-comedy peeking through the pratfalls. But somewhere between those two perspectives, I no longer found myself laughing.

It’s not that Steve Martin isn’t funny. He’s a comic genius. But as an adult viewer, Roxanne doesn’t land the way I remembered. Too much of the film is built on unnecessary physical comedy that distracts from the smarter, sharper humor Martin is capable of.

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The Problem of “Pratfall-A-Rama”

A pair of critics I admire, Allison Pregler and Brad Jones of Midnight Screenings, use the phrase Line-o-Rama to describe comedies that string together jokes without serving the story. Watching Roxanne, I coined my own variation: Pratfall-A-Rama.

The movie is filled with extraneous gags that stop the story cold. Take the opening scene: C.D. Bales (Martin), the fire chief of a small California town, gets into a cartoonish fight with two drunks armed with ski poles, while he wields a tennis racket. It’s mildly amusing, but awkward, and adds nothing to the story.

Later, after the pivotal love-letter scene where C.D. pours his heart out on behalf of his handsome but dim friend Chris (Rick Rossovich), the movie pauses for a bizarre sequence in which Martin pretends aliens want to abduct old ladies for sex. As a kid, I laughed. As an adult, it’s cringe-inducing. Worse, it undermines the emotional weight of the scene it follows.

Even the firefighters, a group of bumbling side characters, feel like padding. Their antics rarely serve the central romance and mostly provide more slapstick filler. Watching them pretend to struggle to hold a fire hose goes on for about an eternity. While we wait and wait to get back to the love story, the bumbling firefighters stood in the way like roadblocks to actual comedy. 

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Where the Wit Shines Through

Yet buried inside Roxanne are glimpses of the great romantic comedy it could have been. Steve Martin has undeniable chemistry with Daryl Hannah, who plays the title character with an earnest sweetness. Their first meeting—Hannah locked outside naked after chasing her cat, Martin handling the situation with witty charm—is delightful. Martin’s “This door doesn’t take Mastercard” punchline remains one of the movie’s genuine highlights.

Had Martin leaned more on this sharp wit and less on pratfalls, Roxanne might have stood tall alongside the best romantic comedies of the 1980s. Instead, its reliance on physical gags undercuts the heartfelt Cyrano de Bergerac-inspired story at its core.

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A Flawed but Fascinating Relic

I don’t hate Roxanne. There’s charm here, and Martin’s talent is undeniable. But watching it now, I can’t ignore the film’s flaws—or its uncomfortable elements, like the deception at the heart of the romance that plays very differently through modern eyes.

What’s left is a movie that’s occasionally funny, sometimes sweet, often awkward, and ultimately disappointing. Roxanne could have been a sophisticated, witty classic. Instead, it remains a relic of its time: a comedy stuck between slapstick silliness and romantic sincerity, never fully committing to either.

Movie Review Kill Bill Volume 2

Kill Bill Volume 2 (2004) 

Directed by Quentin Tarentino

Written by Quentin Tarentino 

Starring Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Gordon Liu

Release Date April 16th, 2004

Published April 15th, 2004

Much griping ensued when Miramax decided to cut Quentin Tarantino's magnum opus Kill Bill into two pieces. I was amongst those who were dismayed by the choice, but now that both halves of the film have been released it's clear that Miramax did the right thing. As one three-and-a-half-hour film it would have been brilliant, but as two films with a total combined length of more than four hours, we see Tarantino's vision uncompromised. The fact is, Miramax could not release Kill Bill as one four-hour film, and they did us a favor by cutting it. Because of that, we get two brilliant films for the price of one.

When we last saw our vengeance-seeking heroine The Bride (Uma Thurman), she had wiped out her former associate O-Ren Ishii and 88 of her henchman in a bloody brutal martial arts sword fight. Now, she is back on the road and on her way to Bill (David Carradine). But first a revision of history. In voiceover, the Bride explains what really happened in "The Massacre at Two Pines" where she and her wedding party were wiped out by Bill and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. In one of many scenes of brilliant Tarantino dialogue, we get the backstory of Bill and the Bride.

Back to the future, the Bride is on the trail of Bill's brother and fellow assassin Budd, code name Sidewinder (Michael Madsen). Budd has given up the assassin game and has taken a job as a bouncer at a strip club. Bill has warned him that yhe Bride is coming for him, and regardless of Budd's current state of mind, he's still very dangerous. Budd is more than ready when the Bride arrives which leads to a torture scene that is like a film school class in sound editing and building tension. After knocking the bride unconscious, Budd loads her in a coffin and buries her alive, but not before yet another brilliant but of Tarantino dialogue as Budd offers the bride a flashlight. Claustrophobia has never been so well rendered on screen.

This leads to another flashback, this one taking us back to the Bride's training with the legendary master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). The master is a brutal taskmaster who, we are told hates Americans, white people, and women. This, of course, makes our hero's training that much more difficult. This series of training scenes have been rendered in any number of classic kung fu movies and Tarantino manages to evoke the look, feel, and sounds of the films he is sampling from.

Needless to say, the Bride escapes from her premature grave and is soon back on her quest for vengeance with Budd and Elle (Daryl Hannah) standing in her way. Budd's end is a little disappointing, but the Bride's fight with Elle is arguably the best of both films. Daryl Hannah gives a comeback performance worthy of Travolta’s in Pulp Fiction. Elle's habit of writing everything in a tiny notebook is the kind of little quirk that most screenwriters neglect; the kind of quirk that makes an average character a memorable character. Hannah has a terrific monologue that she recites directly from her notebook.

Of course, the film’s centerpiece is the confrontation with Bill and to describe any further is to describe too much. Suffice it to say that it lives up to and in fact exceeds expectations with a legendary Tarantino dialogue exchange. The words between Bill and The Bride are better than most fight scenes and the finale is quick but very satisfying.

Where the first film was an exercise in style and direction, with little of Tarantino's trademark dialogue Volume 2 makes up for lost dialogue by providing some of the best screenwriting we have seen since Pulp Fiction revolutionized the art form. Kill Bill is proof that the auteur, the director whose vision is complete from script to screen is where film d'art still lives. Say what you will about great screenwriters, it takes a director to create art and Tarantino is the pre-eminent artist of our time.

Mixing genres from a noirish opening credit and direct-to-camera black and white sequence, to Sergio Leone-style western vistas, to more of the first film’s kung fu grind house vibe, Tarantino is like a club DJ, but instead of mixing Elvis Costello into Public Enemy, he mixes Michael Curtiz into Sergio Leone into Kurosawa. Call it film sampling if you want; the result is a work of art that belongs solely to Tarantino.

Movie Review Kill Bill Volume 1

Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003) 

Directed by Quentin Tarentino 

Written by Quentin Tarentino 

Starring Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A Fox, Michael Madsen

Release Date October 10th, 2003 

Published October 9th, 2003 

It's been six years since Quentin Tarentino last graced the big screen with his considerable directorial presence. In his time away, his existence was pondered in ways only J.D. Salinger could relate too. What was the preeminent auteur of his generation up to all that time? His name was attached to every film that even vaguely resembled his style and, for a time, that seemed his only context. Then finally after a number of delays, Tarentino went into a production that would be the most analyzed, textualized, and criticized film since Kubrick's 2001. How could any film live up to this kind of hype?

Kill Bill stars Uma Thurman as an assassin who survives an attempted assassination by her former friends and employer. The employer is Bill, and her former friends are a group called the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. There is O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) --codename Cottonmouth--Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) --codename: California Mountain Snake--Bud (Michael Madsen) --codename: Sidewinder--and Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) --codename: Copperhead. Our heroine's own codename had been Black Mamba, but we only know her as the bride.

The reason why the bride was targeted by her friends is unclear; what we do know is that she survived a serious beating and a bullet in the head before awakening from a four-year coma. Once awakened from that coma, she is ready to seek her bloody vengeance on the friends and former employer who not only tried to kill her but also murdered her wedding party and her unborn child.

Kill Bill has been called the most violent film in history. I doubt that such hyperbole is justified but the film is very violent. Beheadings, de-limbings, and buckets of blood drop all over the screen as Tarentino choreographs his violence to match the ultra-violent Hong Kong martial arts pictures that inspired him. This is no mere homage; however, Kill Bill is HK cinema raised to an artistic level that the original HK masters could never achieve on their miniscule budgets.

Often, I criticize films for their lack of plot and characterizations, but in the case of Kill Bill all that is missing is forgiven. Kill Bill is one of those films that is not about character and story but rather an exercise in pure style. Where some films are showcases for actors to show off the craft of acting, Kill Bill is the rare occasion where a director showcases his ability to direct. Kill Bill is Quentin Tarentino's film symphony, with actors as his orchestra acting at the wave of his baton.

With help from Hong Kong martial arts master Yuen Wo Ping, Tarentino coordinates one of the bloodiest and most enthralling fight scenes ever. First, though, The Bride travels to Okinawa where she acquires a sword from a master sword maker Hattori Hanzo played by HK legend Sonny Chiba. The sword says Hanzo could slice God. Then it's onto Tokyo and the films centerpiece battle where The Bride battles O-Ren and her henchmen the Crazy 88. In an expertly choreographed and stylishly over the top sequence, The Bride maims and kills the 88 and then claims their severed limbs as a trophy. Then it's on to her revenge against Ishii, another well-choreographed and especially well acted sequence by Thurman and Lucy Lui.

My sister gave me a CD called The Roots of Hip Hop and on it are some of the most sampled songs in history. As fans of hip hop know, a great piece of sampling can become an artwork all its own and much like great hip hop, Quentin Tarentino turns his sampling from HK martial arts movies, spaghetti westerns and Japanese anime (the film’s best chapter, O-Ren Ishii's bloody back story is told in an exquisite piece of anime) into a work of art that can stand alone as a work of art.

Admittedly I would rather see the film in its full three-hour length instead of its current chopped-in-the-middle-release, but, nevertheless, I was satisfied with seeing half now and half in February. If the second half lives up to the promise of the first half, then even the angriest detractor will be satisfied with the latest Tarentino master work.

Movie Review: A Walk to Remember

A Walk to Remember (2002) 

Directed by Adam Shankman

Written by Karen Janszen 

Starring Mandy Moore, Shane West, Daryl Hannah, Lauren German, Clayne Crawford 

Release Date January 25th, 2002 

Published January 24th, 2002 

SPOILER ALERT! I'm required to say that because indeed I am giving away this film’s ending. Of course if you have seen this film’s marketing campaign and you don't already know how this one ends, then you need to buy my new book “Teen Movies for Dummies.” A Walk To Remember is yet another addition to the growing genre I have dubbed the “dead ingénue” movie. Cute, quirky chick rescues and reforms wayward male and then dies.

Pop singer Mandy Moore stars as a nerdy Christian outcast who tutors underprivileged kids, sings in the choir, stars in the school play and has a 4.0 GPA. Shane West from TV's Once & Again is her wayward hunk who, after nearly killing a friend of his is sentenced to community service and forced to star in the school play. If that's what you get for attempted manslaughter, what is the punishment for murder? Detention? Anyway our two stars meet while working in the play together, they fall in love, and then she's dead.

This film seems as if it were made for the WB network. With it's appealing young stars and 94 minute runtime it’s perfect for the two hour block right after Dawson's Creek, if you factor in commercials. Journalistic integrity forces me to admit that Moore and West do have an effective scene in her hospital room. The touching and well-written scene hints at a great future for West who reminds me of a smarter-looking Paul Walker.

As for Moore, well honey, don't quit your day job. If A Walk To Remember is anything to judge Mandy's acting skills, Julia Roberts doesn't have anything to worry about.