Sister Act
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Movie Reviews of Sister Act
Movie Review: Lasting Fun
Summary: 5 Stars
"Sister Act,"(1992), a big hit in its time for Disney's Touchstone Studio, is now 25 years old, and surely worth a closer look. Its plot -- script by Joseph Howard--is, of course, lighter than air, concerning one Deloris Van Cartier, second rate Reno lounge singer (Whoopi Goldberg), who is unlucky enough to catch her married, mobbed-up boyfriend Vince La Rocca (Harvey Keitel), committing an execution-style murder. If she wishes to live to testify against him, she's got to go on the run, and she does -- to a failing, out-of-touch San Francisco convent run by Dame Maggie Smith as its Mother Superior. The first thing to say is the script's not only funny, it's also witty -- particularly in the battles of wits between Goldberg's character, rechristened Sister Mary Clarence for convent purposes, and Maggie Smith's Mother Superior. And the wit has held up. The second thing to say is the movie's celebrated Motown musical interludes have held up even better, and that's no accident.
To begin with, the movie was produced for Disney by New York-born Scott Rudin, who has a sure hand with a light film. You could easily think the lead part was written for Goldberg, as it fits her like a glove, but in fact, it wasn't. It was written for Bette Midler, then the studio's favorite musical/comedy star: the New York-born Goldberg just made it hers. Furthermore, Keitel is frequently accused of a lazy performance in this movie: but when the Brooklyn-born actor gets a chance to sink his teeth into a line like "bupkis--" that's Brooklynite/Yiddish for "nothing" to you, he delivers it with gusto. And the picture introduced the winning Kathy Najimi, as Sister Mary Patrick, to the audience.
But Disney's greatest luck, in regard to this film, has to be the trio of talented men, all born in the greater New York area, who made the musical interludes as infectious as they are. Its director, Emile Ardolino, born in 1943 in Maspeth, Queens, unfortunately passed from us, in 1993, in Bel Air, of AIDS. But it was well-known that he could do magic with musicals. He won an Oscar in 1984 for a documentary, "He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin'." And he's further credited with "Dirty Dancin'," and "Gypsy," two multiple award-winning musicals that also haven't lost their appeal. To arrange the music, the studio kept the musical director of Bette Midler's stage shows, the New Jersey-born Marc Shaiman. We now know that he, too, is extraordinarily talented musically: he's recently written "Hairspray," that's won Grammy, Tony, and Emmy Awards, and is also more than likely to pick up an Oscar or two this year. Finally, the musical scenes were choreographed by Lester Wilson, an experienced man with a Motown connection: among his other triumphs, he choreographed "Saturday Night Fever." You just gotta say that these guys couldn't put a foot wrong, musically-speaking, and it shows -- will continue to show-- on the screen.
Movie Review: One of the Best Comedies of the Early 1990's!
Summary: 5 Stars
"Sister Act" is one of the funniest and best made films of the early 1990's. Starring Whoopi Goldberg as Delores Van Cartier, (a lounge singer working in a Reno, Nevada casino) the film begins with a flashback showing a young and irreverent Delores in a Catholic parochial school being reprimanded by a nun after giving the names of the Beatles for the names of the apostles. The nun warns Delores that she won't amount to much if she maintains her poor attitude.Returning to the present, we see the hapless Delores and her two back-up singers performing before a mostly empty audience in a Reno casino. Unhappy with her career and her married boyfriend, Vince LaRocca (played by Harvey Keitel), Delores decides to leave, but Vince appeases her by giving her a mink coat. When Delores discovers that the coat actually belongs to his wife, she tromps over to Vince's office, where she unwittingly sees Vince shoot one of his employees. Sadly, Delores' unfortunate appearance did not go unnoticed as Vince orders his henchmen to get Delores. She bolts out of Vince's office and into the casino where she manages to escape and flees to the police.
Now knowing that her exboyfriend Vince is a gangster, police lieutenant Eddie Souther (played by Bill Nunn), tells Delores that she must enter the witness protection program to be safe until she can testify against Vince. Eddie takes Delores to San Francisco so that she can assume her new identity as a nun in a convent.
After Eddie leaves, the very unhappy Delores cannot hide her horror of being a nun and Mother Superior (played by Maggie Smith) is not thrilled with the situation either. You can't help but laugh while watching Mother Superior's attempts to find a suitable place for Delores (now known as Sister Mary Clarence) within the convent or Delores' disgust with "looking like a penguin," as she puts it. Meanwhile, two of the convent's nuns, Sister Mary Patrick (played by Kathy Najimy) and Sister Mary Robert (played by Wendy Makkena) become endeared with Sister Mary Clarence.
Mother Superior finally decides to have Sister Mary Clarence join the convent's inharmonic choir, which has been under the tutelage of Sister Mary Lazurus, who was played by Mary Wickes. This wasn't the first time that Mary Wickes portrayed a nun: she also portrayed Sister Clarissa in the films "The Trouble with Angels" in 1966 and its sequel "Where Angels Go Trouble Follows" in 1968.
Will Delores find a way to survive life in the convent and bring harmony to the choir? Will Mother Superior be able to keep her sanity in tact? Will Vince find where Delores is hiding? To answer these questions, sit back, watch this film and be prepared to laugh!
The film's rendering on DVD and sound quality are both very good. The DVD includes a few extras: the film's trailor and two music videos that were released with the film.
Movie Review: Nun Too Many, Nun Too Few
Summary: 5 Stars
What can I say? This is quite possibly the best movie I have ever seen, and I'm sure I'm not the only one saying this.
The story is about a Reno lounge singer named Deloris Van Cartier (Whoopi Goldberg) whose singing career is going straight down the toilet. But that's before the fateful night when Deloris witnesses her married mobster boyfriend, Vince LaRocca (Harvey Keitel), viciously murder an unloyal employee. She then runs to the police, where they ask her to testify against Vince, but she knows he'll come after her when she does. The police then tell her that they can stash her in the safest place on Earth if she testifies--a convent. Deloris reluctantly agrees, but quickly finds that the convent is no place for a loud Reno lounge singer. But just when it can't get any worse, Deloris discovers the horrible, out-of-synch Sunday choir, and soon realizes she was destined to stumble into this convent.
The cast is brilliant; the hilarious Kathy Najimy stars as the bouncy, always-cheerful Sister Mary Patrick; Wendy Makkena as the awfully shy Sister Mary Robert; Mary Wickes as the spunky, wise-cracking Sister Mary Lazarus, and of course, the legendary Maggie Smith as the ever-stern, yet caring, Reverend Mother. And these aren't the only colorful characters; every nun has their own special personality.
And finally, the essential piece of the Sister Act puzzle, music. Every song performed by the sisters will leave you clapping your hands and wanting more. These include "Hail Holy Queen", "My God", and of course, the famous "I Will Follow Him" finale. There are also catchy, modern songs included in the soundtrack, as well. In other words, if you like the movie, you'll like the music.
As for the plot, in my opinion it's very original and interesting. I have to admit it did slow down a couple of times, but for the most part it was convincing and, to me, very well-written.
Overall, this movie is one the entire family can enjoy and watch over and over again. And when it comes to the bare necessities of a picture, there's "nun too many" or "nun too few" here!
Movie Review: Excellent nun comedy!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this movie back when my grandmother bought it on VHS in '92. For the first few minutes, I knew I was going to love this movie. It has become one of my favorites since then. Whoopi plays Deloris Van Cartier, who is a Las Vegas lounge singer whose boyfriend is in the local mob. She walks in and sees him killing a previous employer who went to report him to the police. Deloris gets scared immediately, runs away from Vince's (Harvey Keitel) buddies who are told to "take care of it", meaning kill Deloris. She reports the incident to the police, and the lieutenant gets her into hiding for a short time until Vince goes to trial. Deloris is reluctant, but agrees to go. She is put in a place where Vince wouldn't even think she's at: a convent. She meets with the strict Reverend Mother (played by Maggie Smith), and has to adapt to the simple life of being a nun. She quickly befriends the rest of the sisters, and even manages to help get the convent out of alienation, as well as making the choir sing more beautifully (and even getting a very special visit from the Pope himself several days later). But shortly later on, Vince finds out of where Deloris is, because of some nosy detective, and the terror picks up where it left off. The lieutenant who put her in hiding now has to tell her that she has to leave because Vince knows of where she's at. She gets picked up by Vince's buddies and gets taken to a lounge and Vince is telling the boys to kill her. Deloris manages to get away from the men for a few minutes, and after a while, Vince and his boys are arrested and on their way to prison. Then, Mary Clarence and the rest of the sisters have their special concert at the church, with the Pope in attendance. After the concert, they all get a standing ovation, and the movie ends on a happy note. Filled with interesting scenes as well as great 60s soul music, this movie deserves to be in your personal library. Be sure to get the soundtrack album as well.Movie Review: What do you do with a problem called Mary Clarence?
Summary: 5 Stars
What do you do when you witness you boyfriend killing someone? Go into witness protection at a convent. Lounge singer Deloris becomes Sister Mary Clarence. But when Sister Mary Clarence is Whoopi Goldberg expect a lot of attitude.
Delores finds it hard adjusting to convent life. That is until she gets her hands on the choir. She turns a mediocre off key group into a hip ensemble. This draws too much attention and her mobster boyfriend finds her. This ends up in a wild chase by the Sisters through a Las Vegas casino.
Maggie Smith is always a good choice for any role but she is wasted a bit as the Mother Superior. The best supporting roles goes to the three sidekick nuns Mary Patrick, Mary Roberts, Mary Lazarus - Kathy Najimy, newcomer Wendy Makkena and the proverbial nun Mary Wickes (this is her third of four times as basically the same character and she ended her career as a gargoyle on Notre Dame.)
This is a sit back and enjoy film, no messages, not much to think about.
DVD EXTRAS:
Inside Sister Act - A very standard 12 minute making of featurette with director Emile Arolino, the sisters Mary Wickes, Kathy Najimy and Wendy Makkena and star Whoopi Goldberg.
Music Videos - If My Sister's in Trouble by Lady Soul and I Will Follow Him by Delores and the Sisters.