George-Miller Movie Reviews

This ranks as one of my all time favorite movies! It's an excellent family movie; it's got everything: a little comedy, drama, action and romance. So far, everyone I've watched it with has loved it. In fact, my family has seen it so many times, we've worn out our first two copies! Pay attention to the music -- it really flows with the movie. You may as well order the soundtrack now...The perfect example of the music matching the scene, and the scene being unbelieveable, is the chase down the mountain and through the snow. I first saw this movie when I was 12...I'm 31 now, and I enjoy it as much now, as I did then. And, 19 years later, we're still trying to figure out just how they did Kirk Douglas' peg-leg! I hope you'll purchase this film, and grow to love it as much as my family and I do.

This is definitely one of the best movies ever made. The music is gorgeous, the stunts are amazing, and the acting is excellent. Tom Burlinson plays the man of the title. Kirk Douglas is great as crusty old Harrison and his brother Spur (he has a dual role). The scene where Jim jumps down the mountain always gives me the chills. It's such an amazing stunt! Being a rider myself, I know that took a wonderful stuntman and a very talented and trusting horse. Definitely a must see if you love pretty music, a good story, amazing scenery, and horses!

Man from Snowy River, like most cowboy movies, is best seen on a huge-screen movie theater, but, if you donÕt have that, get the DVD and it can even pass the tiny-screen test of a laptop. It is a beautiful Australian movie that runs with the brumbies through each story line of a young manÕs and womanÕs rite of passage, the stale feud between brothers, petty coworker battles, a mine showing color and horses running and snorting everywhere. So saddle up with some popcorn and ride this movie into its vistas of green, mountains, fog and snow to a nice musical score. You will need the mountain horse that Spur gives you and a really cool dog to cross Snowy River. Hold on when you see how a real riders rides down the mountain.

This ranks as one of my all time favorite movies! It's an excellent family movie; it's got everything: a little comedy, drama, action and romance. So far, everyone I've watched it with has loved it. In fact, my family has seen it so many times, we've worn out our first two copies! Pay attention to the music -- it really flows with the movie. You may as well order the soundtrack now...The perfect example of the music matching the scene, and the scene being unbelieveable, is the chase down the mountain and through the snow. I first saw this movie when I was 12...I'm 31 now, and I enjoy it as much now, as I did then. And, 19 years later, we're still trying to figure out just how they did Kirk Douglas' peg-leg! I hope you'll purchase this film, and grow to love it as much as my family and I do.

This is definitely one of the best movies ever made. The music is gorgeous, the stunts are amazing, and the acting is excellent. Tom Burlinson plays the man of the title. Kirk Douglas is great as crusty old Harrison and his brother Spur (he has a dual role). The scene where Jim jumps down the mountain always gives me the chills. It's such an amazing stunt! Being a rider myself, I know that took a wonderful stuntman and a very talented and trusting horse. Definitely a must see if you love pretty music, a good story, amazing scenery, and horses!

Man from Snowy River, like most cowboy movies, is best seen on a huge-screen movie theater, but, if you donÕt have that, get the DVD and it can even pass the tiny-screen test of a laptop. It is a beautiful Australian movie that runs with the brumbies through each story line of a young manÕs and womanÕs rite of passage, the stale feud between brothers, petty coworker battles, a mine showing color and horses running and snorting everywhere. So saddle up with some popcorn and ride this movie into its vistas of green, mountains, fog and snow to a nice musical score. You will need the mountain horse that Spur gives you and a really cool dog to cross Snowy River. Hold on when you see how a real riders rides down the mountain.

I have been a fan of this film since its original big screen introduction in the early 1980s. In fact, while it was still on the big screen, I would drive great distances if I had to just to watch it again and again. Frankly, I have lost count of those joyous occasions. And with the recent death of Richard Farnsworth, The Grey Fox will remain as a great tribute to this wonderful film and its star. The dialogue is simple and authentic to the time. The cinematography is some of the best in modern filmdom. No special effects required here. Farnsworth does his own riding showing once again, that he was such a great and respected presence on the screen. The photography will simply blow you away. The scene where Bill Minor and his lover are dancing with the glow of the Canadian Rockies at dusk in the background may be one of the most beautiful scenes ever. Other great scenes include the steam locomotive traveling along a steep canyon with the shape of the river below mimicking the gleaming railroad bed and the trail of smoke from the train under a darkening and damp Canadian sky. I get chills every time I watch it. This true story from Francis Ford Coppala's Zoetrope Productions, is beautifully, intelligently and skillfully presented and should be the keystone of every video library. Until the studios re-release this classic, hunt it down at your local video store while you can.

Richard Farnsworth as a character actor was underrated. It was only in his later days when his talents were showcased in movies like the Straight Story and The Grey Fox. The Grey Fox is a warm moving updated western with dignity and charm. The most beautiful scenery accompanies this lovely story. I am not a typical western movie fan, but Richard Farnsworth makes this movie exceptional.

Like other viewers, I wish it would be released in DVD. It is something that I will continue to watch over and over.

Like the reviewer from Florida, I also have this in Beta, but I really want it in DVD. This is one of the best films I've ever owned, absolutely spectacular in its visualizations of the Pacific Northwest, and heartbreaking, funny, and thrilling -- all in the same film. Great soundtrack. This film should be packaged in the DVD mode because it can include the historical background of this based-on-fact episode from our North American past. I may give up and get it in VHS because my Beta is working so poorly, but this is one whale of a film and deserves DVD.

I have been a fan of this film since its original big screen introduction in the early 1980s. In fact, while it was still on the big screen, I would drive great distances if I had to just to watch it again and again. Frankly, I have lost count of those joyous occasions. And with the recent death of Richard Farnsworth, The Grey Fox will remain as a great tribute to this wonderful film and its star. The dialogue is simple and authentic to the time. The cinematography is some of the best in modern filmdom. No special effects required here. Farnsworth does his own riding showing once again, that he was such a great and respected presence on the screen. The photography will simply blow you away. The scene where Bill Minor and his lover are dancing with the glow of the Canadian Rockies at dusk in the background may be one of the most beautiful scenes ever. Other great scenes include the steam locomotive traveling along a steep canyon with the shape of the river below mimicking the gleaming railroad bed and the trail of smoke from the train under a darkening and damp Canadian sky. I get chills every time I watch it. This true story from Francis Ford Coppala's Zoetrope Productions, is beautifully, intelligently and skillfully presented and should be the keystone of every video library. Until the studios re-release this classic, hunt it down at your local video store while you can.

Richard Farnsworth as a character actor was underrated. It was only in his later days when his talents were showcased in movies like the Straight Story and The Grey Fox. The Grey Fox is a warm moving updated western with dignity and charm. The most beautiful scenery accompanies this lovely story. I am not a typical western movie fan, but Richard Farnsworth makes this movie exceptional.

Like other viewers, I wish it would be released in DVD. It is something that I will continue to watch over and over.

Like the reviewer from Florida, I also have this in Beta, but I really want it in DVD. This is one of the best films I've ever owned, absolutely spectacular in its visualizations of the Pacific Northwest, and heartbreaking, funny, and thrilling -- all in the same film. Great soundtrack. This film should be packaged in the DVD mode because it can include the historical background of this based-on-fact episode from our North American past. I may give up and get it in VHS because my Beta is working so poorly, but this is one whale of a film and deserves DVD.

What I love most about Oliver Hardy is the way that he glances at the audience whenever Stan is doing something 'unbelievably' stupid. It implies a complicity between him and us, a sense of self-awareness and superiority that is completely unjustified. It is endearing because it is so wrong-headed - Laurel may be ignorant, but Hardy is deluded: it is he who suffers the most violent knocks; it is he who is humiliated because he knows what humiliation means.

With a cartoon-like inexhaustibility, Hardy undergoes countless indignities in 'Way Out West'. In his first scene he is being carried on a fur mat by a mule, only to be stranded in a creek. He is forced to strip off in front of a lady to retrieve an heirloom. In the various attempts to recover the gold-mine deed on which the action centres, he falls through a shed roof, falls from a balcony, and finds himself the unwilling counterweight to a flying mule. He gets his head stuck in a trap door, which, when hidden by a bucket, is repeatedly kicked by his enemy, Mickey Finn. Most hilariously, his and Stan's hiding place in a piano is exposed when Finn hammers a tune and the keys batter them in the face.

'Wild Out West' has been called a comedy Western, but it doesn't truly engage with the classic images, cliches or narratives of the genre. The heroes may be strangers who ride into a town, but they are neither outlaws, civilisers, hired guns nor men running from their past; they don't transform it before they leave. 'West' is really just another setting for a Laurel and Hardy comedy - the locales could be changed with little alteration, and still be effective. This doesn't mean that the Western is irrelevant. The pointed thing about 'West' is the way it takes a genre dependent on action and a kind of mythic grandeur, and slows it down to Laurel and Hardy's grinding, creeping, present-tense pace. The main fight over the deed involves a childish chase around an apartment by four adults, bruising and scrumming each other, the female villain tickling the deed out of Stan (a weird, suggestively Freudian scene). The climactic break-in sequence, which should be tense and brisk, stands still for meticulously and patiently developed routines. Much of the film's pleasures derive from digressions, such as Stan's multi-octave acompaniment to the Avalon Boys' musical interludes, or the local dogs' interest in his shoe.

One of the problems with Laurel and Hardy features is the way their plotless, vignette-accumulating art is trammelled by the need for plot coherence and linearity, the resolution of which depends on a heroism and adeptness that betrays the leads' personae. 'West' is the best of these features because it is their most (comparatively) cinematic; because some care has gone into creating atmosphere (the soundtrack is especially imaginative); because the script is superb; but mostly because it's consistently, even hysterically, funny.

I believe that Laurel & Hardy, in their prime, were a perfect embodiment of the archetype of the Holy Fool. Innocent and optimistic, they seem to inhabit a world removed from the rules of ordinary reality. Forced to interact with the real world, however, they bumble and goof but ultimately prevail by means of that particular brand of grace known only to the fool.

"Way Out West" (1937) finds my favorite fools traveling westward in search of the daughter (Rosina Lawrence) of an old friend so that they can deliver the deed to a gold mine that he has bequeathed to her. As you might imagine, things don't go exactly as planned and our heroes are soon forced to retrieve the deed from the clutches of a greedy saloon keeper (James Finlayson) and his wife, The Singing Nightingale (Sharon Lynne).

The plot is basic and actually pretty thin, serving really as nothing more than a framework for the gags, mishaps, and antics of Stan and Ollie. This is not a complaint. There is not one false step, comically speaking, in the all too short 65 minutes of this film. The hat eating scene is simply wonderful, and the entire segment where the boys attempt to break into the saloon, ultimately enlisting their mule in the effort, is hilarious ("I wanted to get the mule down." has become one of my favorite movie lines). Some of the best scenes are actually musical in nature: Stan and Ollie, inspired by the old timey crooning of the western Avalon Boys ("commence to dancin', commence to prancin'") performing a little dance that has got to be one of the sweetest moments in cinema; Stan and Ollie themselves crooning "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine", culminating with Stan unconscious on the floor!

This is classic and timeless comedy, almost profound in its simplicity. Don't be a fool - buy it today.

Stan and Ollie are the embodiment of friendship. Always together, and despite being at each other's throats from time to time, always there for each other, united against some common foe or against adversity. This film stands out from the rest because it features some truly great music, and is arguably the perfect length for a L & H picture, 1 hour. The boys had trouble in making longer feature films, which tended to flag and become
bogged down in plot, and the shorts left the audience wanting more. But Way Out West keeps entertaining throughout, and showcases the duo's talents perfectly. There's Ollie's fine tenor voice in The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine, and both actors' mastery of business when they get tangled in Oliver's clothes. There's fine support from James Finlayson and Sharon Lynn, and some authentic western saloon sets and exteriors. This is timeless comedy and ought to be compulsory viewing for anyone who thinks black and white stuff dated.

"Daredevils of the Red Circle" is exciting from start to finish. The action and general entertainment never flag. People often mention the cliffhanger at the end of chapter one, when Gene is desperately trying to outrace the surging water, but there are many other moments in the movie which are equally good: try, for instance, the ending where Gene is chasing some crook up a very tall ladder at the side of a factory building, and the crook, having reached the top, pushes the ladder away from the wall. The ladder, with Gene on it, swings out into space, and your heart (and stomach) go with it! But it's not just the action: one of the main reasons this serial is so entertaining is that the three "daredevils", Gene, Tiny and Burt (Charles Quigley, Herman Brix and David Sharpe) are so incredibly nice and likable. You really care what happens to them. I just can't understand why Republic didn't make a sequel to this (I wish they had done!). All in all, five-star entertainment!

I ENJOYED THIS SERIAL BECAUSE IT HAD ABOUT 15 OR 20 FIGHTS. IT WAS ACTION ALL THE WAY THROUGH. I LIKE ROD CAMERON. STUNTMEN LIKE TOM STEEL, DALE VAN SICKLE(ALL AMERICAN FOOTBALL/UN. FLA 1939) DUKE GREEN MADE MANY SERIALS FUN TO WATCH. I ALSO LIKED THE MASKED MARVEL/THE TIGER WOMAN/MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND. SPENCER BENNETT, DIR. WAS GREAT

Everyone here has been raving about David Sharpe's Stunt work in this Serial. Well I have some bad news for people. Most (if not all) of the stunts/fights for Burt Knowles (his movie role) were done by another Stunt Man (I forget who). The producers were worried that he might get hurt so they "doubled" him for those scenes. This is one of the biggest letdowns since he would have been even better than his double (who DID do a great job).

Chris Farley was one of the first celebrities that I was familiar enough with his work that upon his death, I actually felt a real loss. He was someone of my generation that died long before his time should have come. A gifted comedian with perfect timing, Chris also had a knack for stealing scenes that he was in, even if only in a small role. This collection has a ton of his best skits, and is a great tape to throw in when you have friends over and want to have a good laugh. Chris's motivational speaker is probably the most well known skit on the tape and with good reason, as it's one of the best skits snl had in the last decade. There's lots of other great stuff to be found here, the chippendale's audition with patrick swayze is hilarious, and Chris's performance as El Nino will bring tears to your eyes from laughing so hard.

I've found that most people either totally love Chris Farley or, when you bring him up, make a face and say, "I never really thought he was funny." If you are in the first, and don't own this video yet, RUN don't walk to the shopping cart and buy one. When they ran it the first time on TV, it wasn't long after Farley's death, and I was still sad about it. After the sober opening by Tim Meadows, however, I started laughing pretty much non-stop till it was over. His better-known routines are on here, such as Bennet Brower, Matt Foley, and the Chippendale's dancer, which are all hilarious. But there's also quite a few skits that I never saw, and we watched pretty much every week when he was in the cast. My only complaint is that it isn't longer, and some funny skits, they only show snippets of, like him playing Alan Hale, and the skit with Sandler where Michael Keaton was the host and Sandler plays his cranky grandmother whom he has to watch for 20 minutes. (if you want to see the whole skit, which is one of the funniest things I've ever seen them do, then buy the Best of Adam Sandler as well, because it the whole skit, plus some other great Farley stuff not on this tape is on there). The only noticeable (if you're a Farley fan) omission is a skit called "The Relapse Guy" where he plays a guy who goes to rehab then gets wasted again over and over (it's way funnier than it sounds, trust me). I think they thought it was a little too close to home (though they did leave in the Ditka stuff with him faking a heart attack-that kind of made me wince). Every time I see this, several things happen-- I get sad that he wasn't around long enough to make more movies with Spade, or even by himself, because (this sounds corny) he had so much to give. I also get pi$$ed off at him for not taking better care of himself and dying. I also usually laugh so hard I fall off the couch. No matter how bad of a day I had, I can watch almost any of the skits on here and get cheered up instantly. He was a guy who could just say one line that you would think no-one could say and make it funny, and make you fall down laughing just the way he says it. His costars really had a hard time keeping character, which shows even more in the dress rehersal 'blooper' clips they show. Watch David Spade and Christina Appelgate during the Matt FOley thing- they both have to turn away from the camera to hide their faces because they can't keep a straight face, and when he starts in with the "I bet you're asking yourself 'hey Matt, how do we get back on the right track?' " you can see their shoulders shaking they are laughing so hard. Sandler can't keep a straight face when he's doing the "Lunchlady" song with him, either. Come to think of it, I have no clue how anyone on stage with him could ever keep a straight face. If you were bummed out when he died, get ready to get teary (though you'll already have tears running down your face from laughing) when he sings, "so long, farewell" as Matt Foley at the end, sitting on Phil Hartman's lap (I could watch this without tearing up until Hartman was killed, now I can't see the clip without getting choked up). But even if you do get emotional, keep watching, because after the credits they stick on the one thing I'd been hoping for the whole time-a quick clip of Farley as "Sandman" on "Nat X". What a waste- I hope whereever he is he knows how happy he made people during the short time he was around (and how happy he is still making those of us who thought he was funny).

It's safe to say that Chris Farley is my favorite comedian of all time, bar none, that ever graced the stages of SNL, or every graced the silver screen, for that matter. Watching this DVD is like taking a trip down memory lane - one where you laugh out loud at Matt Foley, or Benet Browler, or even Barney, the overweight stripper trying out for the Chip 'N Dales. These characters are what opitimizes Chris Farley: they are memorable, loud, sweaty, and funny. They don't just blend into the background on numerous one-off skits like so many other SNL actors have, but instead, have created legends that will live in the memories forever of anyone who watched SNL in the 1990s.

And yet, it is in this, that this DVD will make you want to cry when it's over. Tim Meadows' touching speech at the end summed up so well why we loved Chris so much, and what a tragidy his untimely death truly was for the world. This DVD is a must-have for anyone, if for nothing else, than as a testiment to what one man, so depressed and down on himself, can do when he truly enjoys his work, and truly enjoys brightening people's lives.

That said, there are a couple downsides to the DVD:
1) Lunchlady land could have been cut shorter to include more memorable scenes that were left out
2) On the original SNL airing of this, they had the Little Women spoof-skit where Chris Farley falls through the ice. It was HILARIOUS, one of his best ever. Yet, they left it off the DVD and subsequent airings of the SNL episode on comedy central. WHY? Every Chris Farley fan I know has this same complaint!

BUT THIS DVD NOW!

I decided to watch this movie after reading the book "The Brave Cowboy." I had heard that it was a good adaptation, but what I was not prepared for was the emotionally-charged way in which Kirk Douglas acted the part of Jack Burns. Douglas has repeatedly called this his favorite movie, and in fact it was one which the studio was not going to produce, but which a clause in Douglas's contract allowed him to make. In watching the film, you can definitely see Douglas's love for the part.

Jack Burns is a man from a dying era. Caught in a world of highways, steel-barred prisons, and barbed-wire fences, Burns is unable to adapt himself to modern life, and pays for his failure to compromise his cowboy ideals. Burns is a true cowboy--tough, uncompromising, and good-hearted--but this movie shows that there isn't always a place for such people in today's society. In the ultimate showdown between horse and horsepower, there is little question of which will win.

This movie is splendidly done. The directing and acting is great, and the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. Seeing all that rugged terrain really brings Abbey's novel to life. This is not only one of the few movies that remains true to the book on which it is based, it is also one of the great underrated classics in film.

This cowboy is yet born in the era of jet planes, but with no doubt he's from an older time. Old times were ever better? Frankly I think not, but this is the great merit of this superb movie because masterpieces don't need to be "based in true facts". They can or they cannot, you only need a good moviemaker and excellent actors to achieve a jewel of cinema. The fight of the human cowboy, capable to risk his life for a horse against the inhumane times of machines, the sheriff being unable to recognize him finally because he has done his work professionally but doesn't know really who or how is his prey because never has seen Kirk Douglas so near. Well, this can sound even vulgar, but the film is extraordinary and I suppose made with no much money but lots of real wisdom. This was truly a brave, lonely cowboy, don't put him behind a business desk because I'm sure such men ever will be indispensable for all mankind.

A Kirk Douglas film that has somehow been overlooked. The story of a rebellious cowboy, one not ready to accept the changes to the new west, is filled with drama. It had the looks of an academy award winner. Why this is not on DVD is beyond me. A movie with western overtones, based on character development, and the slow dramatic pace undoubtably cost this film commercial success. As a DVD only collector, I've made an exception here. This is a movie I will watch again, even on a VCR. The ending alone is worth the price of admission.

"Awakenings" is one of those movies that will touch most of the people due to the situations that the film shows. The movie is based on a book written by real-life neurologist Oliver Sacks, represented in the movie as Dr. Malcolm Sayer, played by Robin Williams. This is the story of a group of catatonic people living in the '60s, and the struggle of Dr. Sayer to save these people.

It's really a shame that diseases like this can destroy the ability to fulfill the hopes and desires of the human beings, and "Awakenings" superbly captures on-screen the pain and suffer of the relatives of the affected people that can't fully enjoy their physical abilities.

"Awakenings" displays excellent performances from Robin Williams, in one of his finest performances, and the magnificent Robert De Niro as well. However, the movie wouldn't had the same impact if the supporting cast wouldn't delivered such fine performances as they did on "Awakenings", everybody on this movie contributed to print a remarkable realism to the movie.

"Awakenings" is a film that will provoke several feelings, will provide clean entertainment and will make people reflect about the value of life, because the human life could be limited or finished at any time.

A Doctor (Robin Williams) believes people are in Catatonic are alive inside. The Doctor using an Experimental Drug on his Catatonic Patiens. He has successed with his First Recipient (Two Time Oscar-Winner:Robert De Niro) of this Medication.

Directed by Penny Marshall (Riding in Cars with Boys) made a terrific drama, which is Based on a True Story. Wonderful Performances by De Niro and Williams. Great Supporting Cast including:Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson, John Heard, Penelope Ann Miller and Max Von Sydow. A touching, moving, unforgettable film. Grade:A.

I've seen many films similar to "Awakenings". Underdog doctor discovers special patients, learns to communicate with and help them, fights evil system, triumphs, declared hero. Yet I have found no film of that nature to rival "Awakenings", and not only because the good doctor's triumph doesn't last. The beauty of "Awakenings" is that it never becomes precious or schmaltzy; it succeeds, as films rarely do, in truly getting behind the eyes of the characters, in asking questions about life and humanity without being pretentious. "Awakenings" is real, it is beautiful. It documents the human spirit and gives the viewer much more than eye candy or Saturday night entertainment. Credit is due to Robert de Niro and Robin Williams, who turn in astounding performances, as well as to director Penny Marshall and screenwriter Steven Zaillian. Julie Kavner ("The Simpsons") and Penelope Ann Miller also contribute sympathetic performances. A multi-Oscar nominee, "Awakenings" is one of the best films of the '90s.

"Awakenings" is one of those movies that will touch most of the people due to the situations that the film shows. The movie is based on a book written by real-life neurologist Oliver Sacks, represented in the movie as Dr. Malcolm Sayer, played by Robin Williams. This is the story of a group of catatonic people living in the '60s, and the struggle of Dr. Sayer to save these people.

It's really a shame that diseases like this can destroy the ability to fulfill the hopes and desires of the human beings, and "Awakenings" superbly captures on-screen the pain and suffer of the relatives of the affected people that can't fully enjoy their physical abilities.

"Awakenings" displays excellent performances from Robin Williams, in one of his finest performances, and the magnificent Robert De Niro as well. However, the movie wouldn't had the same impact if the supporting cast wouldn't delivered such fine performances as they did on "Awakenings", everybody on this movie contributed to print a remarkable realism to the movie.

"Awakenings" is a film that will provoke several feelings, will provide clean entertainment and will make people reflect about the value of life, because the human life could be limited or finished at any time.

A Doctor (Robin Williams) believes people are in Catatonic are alive inside. The Doctor using an Experimental Drug on his Catatonic Patiens. He has successed with his First Recipient (Two Time Oscar-Winner:Robert De Niro) of this Medication.

Directed by Penny Marshall (Riding in Cars with Boys) made a terrific drama, which is Based on a True Story. Wonderful Performances by De Niro and Williams. Great Supporting Cast including:Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson, John Heard, Penelope Ann Miller and Max Von Sydow. A touching, moving, unforgettable film. Grade:A.

I've seen many films similar to "Awakenings". Underdog doctor discovers special patients, learns to communicate with and help them, fights evil system, triumphs, declared hero. Yet I have found no film of that nature to rival "Awakenings", and not only because the good doctor's triumph doesn't last. The beauty of "Awakenings" is that it never becomes precious or schmaltzy; it succeeds, as films rarely do, in truly getting behind the eyes of the characters, in asking questions about life and humanity without being pretentious. "Awakenings" is real, it is beautiful. It documents the human spirit and gives the viewer much more than eye candy or Saturday night entertainment. Credit is due to Robert de Niro and Robin Williams, who turn in astounding performances, as well as to director Penny Marshall and screenwriter Steven Zaillian. Julie Kavner ("The Simpsons") and Penelope Ann Miller also contribute sympathetic performances. A multi-Oscar nominee, "Awakenings" is one of the best films of the '90s.