When Harry Met Sally review

 Number 664 on the top 1000 films of all time is Rob Reiner's 1989 romantic-comedy When Harry Met Sally.

When Harry Met Sally follows the chance encounters of the two titular characters Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) as they meet and become friends, and potentially even something more, over a period of twelve years.

When Harry Met Sally aimed to answer the question "can men and women ever just be friends?" Harry is adamant they can't as the sex part always gets in the way. However, Sally is equally adamant that the opposite is true. Not every man wants to sleep with his female friends. Reiner explores this question in such an entertaining way. This was a very amusing film, which also had plenty of emotional payoff. However, it never falls into sentimentality or farce. Everything stays real.

Other than the question above, the key conflict is the will they/won't they of Harry and Sally's relationship. And this relationship worked so well because of the chemistry between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. Both of them were great separately and together. Although Crystal is primarily known as a comedy actor, he also made a good romantic leading man. The same can be said for Meg Ryan who lent the script lots of comedy, emotional depth, as well as the film's most iconic scene. You know which one I mean.

One critic described it as being a sitcom version of a Woody Allen film. I can definitely see the comparisons. You have the neurotic male lead, the faux-intellectual characters, a New York setting and plenty of jokes. The difference? When Harry Met Sally actually made me laugh a lot. It also had a very good supporting cast including Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby.

I thoroughly enjoyed When Harry Met Sally. It was a funny yet touching film. Can men and women ever be just friends? What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. 

Mash review

 Number 616 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Robert Altman's war-comedy film Mash.

Mash follows the antics of three medical officers Captain Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland,) Captain Trapper John Mcintyre (Eliot Gould) and Captain Duke Forrest (Tom Skerrit) during the Korean war. Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman and Rene Auberjonois co-star.

If you don't know the film Mash then you certainly know the subsequent TV show. Sufficed to say, it was one of the most popular American sitcoms with the most watched TV show finale ever. This is all in spite of how Altman absolutely despised the show.

And like how he despised the TV show, i despised the film. Many critics including the distinguished Roger Ebert, regard it as one of the funniest satires of war ever. Evidently, we we were watching different films, as I, far from my sides hurting from laughing, my eyes were hurting from rolling back in my head.

I barely cracked a smile through the two-hour run-time. it wasn't a funny film. Through a modern lens, you could certainly argue the humour hasn't aged well. I'm sure many modern women wouldn't be happy with how Margaret Houlihan was the butt of every joke.

Through every other lens, it just wasn't funny. It didn't help all the characters were really unlikeable. Hawkeye and Trapper were supposed to be loveable rogues, but they're also insubordinate jerks who like to cause trouble. They were obnoxious and annoying. They weren't characters I wanted to laugh with or at. And even the poor victim Houlihan was too much of a wet blanket to be truly interesting to watch.

In some ways, their characters reflected the actors playing them. Sutherland and Gould famously clashed with Altman and his improvisational directorial style - going so far as to try and get him fired by studio execs. Scriptwriter Ring Lardon JR also had his own problems with Altman. This is despite how he won the Oscar for best screenplay. It definitely changes your perspective of the film.

And my perspective? It was an unfunny film with unlikeable characters.