Blue Sky (1994) from Tuna and Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

Blue Sky (1994) is a pretty good Drama/Romance about an army major (Tommy Lee Jones), his wife (Jessica Lange), and his two daughters.
As the film begins, the major is flying over a beach in Hawaii in a helicopter, and finds that something has the other choppers interest. Turns out to be his wife doing some topless sunbathing. Jones is called to task by the commanding officer for his wife's behavior, and because he is coming out against above-ground nuclear testing, then returns home to find his wife entertaining the young Nato officers.

NUDITY REPORT

Lange shows breasts from afar in the opening sequence, wears some very sexy dresses, then has some GREAT see-throughs late in the film
The family is transferred from "paradise" to the deep south. Carly (Jessica Lange) changes to a Marilyn Monroe look, and makes an impression at the new base. She joins the officer's wives in rehearsing for a musical, and becomes a favorite, until the base commander (Powers Boothe) and she are caught having sex while her husband is in Nevada.

As you can imagine, this creates one hell of a mess, and the least guilty of the bunch, Tommy Lee, gets the worst of it. His career is going nowhere, especially after he punches out his commanding officer, he is dealing with an unstable and promiscuous wife, and he doesn't really approve of what he does for a living anymore.

DVD info from Amazon.

  • widescreen anamorphic, 1.85:1

  • no major features

Both plot elements worked for me. Jones putting up with Lange because he loved her said a lot about his character, and his stand against nuclear testing above ground showed that he was willing to risk much for his beliefs.

Lange is absolutely delicious.

The Critics Vote

  • Maltin 2.5/4.

  • Lange won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe as best actress for this performance

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 6.4
  • with their $ - never found an audience (about $3 million)
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a B.

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