I started offering my opinion in print in our local newspaper, The Burrillville News in the mid 80's and now in my semi-retirement and with the explosion of social media and my Blogging I will review a Bill Bryson's travelogue book that came out in1998 and was released as a movie Sept.2nd nationwide.
A Walk in the Woods was star studded and I personally watch for a movie that features someone who I have enjoyed watching in other works over the years. Robert Redford had been trying to make this movie for years and would have had Paul Newman play the role of Katz. As we all know Newman passed away on Sept.26,2008.Robert Redford (Bryson) has born in 1936 and has received every award the industry has to offer, 1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1973 The Way we Were, 1973 The Sting, A River Runs Though It and cherry picks his work on his 5,000 ace Sundance Institute in Utah.
When I found out that another of my favorite actors, Nick Nolte received the nod for the role of Katz, I watched for a release and then made our plans to attend on the big screen.
Nolte, a veteran of 40 major films caught my attention in 1976 Rich Man / Poor Man as Tom Jordache and again in 1982 in Cannery Row as Doc with Debra Winger. In 1991 Prince of Tides as Tom Wingo showed his versatility. 48 Hours with Eddie Murphy showed his sense of humor.In 2011/2012 on HBO Nolte teamed up with Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Farino in" LUCK" for only 10 episodes as horse veteran trainer Walter James Smith. HBO cancelled the series after the Humane Society exploited the cruelty to race horses in the sport.
His wife Catherine (Emma Thompson) thinks this is a terrible idea and starts printing out articles about hikers who were killed along the Appalachian trail, which stretches for more than 2,000 miles between Georgia and Maine. (In a nice touch, when Bill reads the stories, we hear them in Catherine’s hectoring voice.) When she doesn’t succeed in deterring her husband, Catherine insists that Bill at least find a travel companion. That’s how he ends up reuniting with the brash, bumbling Stephen Katz (Nick Nolte), a childhood friend of Bill’s. The pair hadn’t spoken in decades. So much for avoiding small talk.
Where Bill is a trim family man with many professional accolades, Katz, as he is known, has had a harder life, leaving him disheveled and bear-like. He explains that he spent most of the intervening decades sleeping around and getting drunk (and, presumably, smoking, judging by his nails-on-a-chalkboard voice). He’s also, incidentally, on the lam from a drunken-driving offense. This setup lays the foundation for an odd-couple dynamic.The story hits home with my generation and reminds us all of our earlier friendships growing up and with the social media we now have can be suddenly be united Worldwide with our past friends with a click on Facebook or a E-Mail. The one-liners and cast of characters that they meet along the trail will keep you in laughter.
I think the camera crews on location did a fantastic job of photographing the many historic points on the trail from start to finish and the Smokey Mountains in particular.
The trail doesn’t offer much in the way of drama, other than a couple of huge bears. They’re an opportunity for a sight gag as the men stand up with their tents on their heads, trying to look intimidating.
A few other eccentric characters cross their path, including Kristen Schaal as an irritatingly judgmental authority on all things trail-related. Mostly, the men just amble along without so much as a blister, wheezing their way through a low-stakes journey that they’re free to quit at any time.
I enjoyed this movie and would recommend it for the comedy, human compassion and direction.
Two and a half stars; Rated R, Contains strong language and some sexual references. 98 minutes
Ratings Guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK,
one star poor, no stars waste of time.
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