One Tough Cop - *

Posted on October 9, 1998 by Madeleine Williams

If you couldn’t tell by the title, One Tough Cop is about, well, one tough cop. It’s a by-the-numbers cop drama filled to the gills with generic characters, generic situations and generic dialogue.

Stephen Baldwin stars as NYPD detective Bo Dietl…supposedly a legendary NY cop, but who apparently did nothing noteworthy enough to include in a film (everything except Dietl’s name has no basis in fact). If you’ve ever seen a cop movie, or watched a police drama on TV, you know Dietl’s type…the gruff but loyal cop who isn’t ashamed to bend the rules as long as justice gets done.

What’s a cop without a doomed partner? In this case, the walking stiff is “Duke” (portrayed by Chris Penn). At least, Duke isn’t three days away from retiring and sailing around the world on a yacht named “Live-4-Ever”…One Tough Cop has standards, you know. Instead, Duke is saddled with a hefty gambling debt and a pathetic John Wayne impersonation. If he didn’t already have a huge red bullseye painted on his chest, you’d probably be eager to paint one there.

Bo and Duke’s alleged case is catching a pair of bad guys who raped and mutilated a nun. Besides providing a few lurid and distasteful shots, the actual crime doesn’t really matter here. Even Bo and Duke’s “unique” path to solving it is rather straightforward and uninteresting.

What does provide a little spice to the proceedings, however, is the fact that Bo’s best friend, Richie La Cassa (Mike McGlone), just happens to be a mafia boss. Bo doesn’t see that as a conflict… neither with his job, nor with sleeping with Richie’s girlfriend, Joey (Gina Gershon).

That love triangle is about as complex as the screenplay here ever gets. Granted, that might be enough basis for an interesting movie…but not here, not with this screenplay. The dialogue seems cut and paste from a thousand different sources. You can almost mouth the words along with the actors, they’re so familiar.

Stephen Baldwin takes his stock character and goes nowhere with it. Perhaps the crackle and pizzazz of a stronger actor might have been able to get mileage out of this treadless role, but not Baldwin. True, he huffs and puffs right on cue, and spouts the necessary dialogue at the familiar times, but nowhere does he try to take the role anywhere new.

The best praise I can lay on One Tough Cop is that, as far as cookie-cutter cop dramas go, it doesn’t really make any missteps. However, it doesn’t make much of a case for going to the movies, either.

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The Mighty - * * * 1/2*

Posted on October 9, 1998 by Madeleine Williams

The Mighty!

The Mighty is a very good film, saddled with a very perplexing advertising campaign. Based upon Rodman Philbrick’s novel Freak the Mighty, someone somewhere apparently objected to the word ‘Freak’, which has been inexplicably jettisoned. To follow that up, the ads have been an odd hodgepodge of Sharon Stone and a bunch of medieval knights, and while she does appear in a supporting part (as do the knights), this hardly gives a clear idea of what the film is about: friendship, identity, and chivalry.

The Mighty is narrated by Max (Elden Henson), a giant of a kid, who’s in the seventh grade for the third time around. Though bigger and stronger than all the other kids, Max doesn’t think too well, and is constantly the object of ridicule. It doesn’t help matters that his father (James Gandolfini) is imprisoned for murder, leaving Max to stay with his grandparents (Gena Rowlands and Harry Dean Stanton).

The new kid next door isn’t much better off. Kevin (Kieran Culkin), is a brilliant boy with Morquio’s Syndrome…his bones have stopped growing, but the rest of him hasn’t. Living alone with his mother (Sharon Stone), Kevin has built a fascinating intellectual world in which to live. But he longs to do the things a normal kid could do.

Though at first Max and Kevin appear to be complete opposites, they’re actually quite complementary. Max has the brawn, and Kevin has the brains. Working together, they make a team more powerful than the sum of its parts. Following the ideals of the legend of King Arthur, the two friends envision themselves as knights bringing chivalry back into an unchivalrous world.

Although this movie shares the theme of childhood friendship with the recent Simon Birch, The Mighty is able to delve for additional meaning while managing to be just as touching.

The largest chunk of the credit has to go to the film’s two leads. Kieran Culkin has the seemingly showier role as Kevin, and, indeed, he manages to express a depth of character that his elder brother Macaulay never did. However, he has the unfortunate benefit of working alongside Elden Henson, who turns in a brilliant portrayal of Max. Elden brings a deep humanity to his role of the slow-witted giant.

Even though the protagonists are kids, one shouldn’t assume that this is strictly a kids movie (the rating is PG-13). Although kids and teens would identify with it (who hasn’t felt like a freak at one point or another), the messages are universal, and the story is fully enjoyable for adults, too.

The film takes a few twists and turns, some surprising, and some not so. However, wherever the film takes you, you’ll be glad to go along for the ride.

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Holy Man - *

Posted on October 9, 1998 by Madeleine Williams

Holy Man

Billed as an Eddie Murphy comedy, viewers should beware of Holy Man. Though it does feature Eddie Murphy, there’s precious little comedy here in this tired romantic comedy set amid a television-age satire.

GBSN (The Good Buy Shopping Network) is in trouble. It’s routine infomercials and pathetic products just aren’t selling anything. This causes headaches for Ricky (Jeff Goldblum), the program director at GBSN, who is given an ultamatum by his boss (Robert Loggia): improve GBSN or be fired.

Kate (Kelly Preston), an analyst for the station, has a few ideas of how a distinctive image could help the network. But Ricky is more interested in getting a date with her than with following her advice.

Enter G (Eddie Murphy), a bald, pajama-wearing, ground kissing, new-age mystic. He literally wanders into Ricky’s life, initially an extreme annoyance. But Ricky is hit with a brainstorm: why not put G on the network. Viewers will be able to enrich their lives while emptying their pockets.

Unfortunately, the whole concept is about as interesting as watching an infomercial. The film tries to pack in a few product gimmicks, but most of the humor is either mundane or missing.

Eddie Murphy is rarely given a chance to cut loose here. Instead, he spends most of the film reciting New Agey platitudes. There are a couple of fun moments (if you’ve seen the trailer…you’ve seen all of them) where he starts to steal the show. But, most of the time he is curiously restrained.

That leaves us with the romance between Goldblum and Preston, a pair who have zero chemistry together. Goldblum isn’t remotely likeable as the lead, and Preston, though more sympathetic, has no defined character at all.

There are moments of Holy Man where the filmmakers seem to be striving toward some sort of social message about the power of television. However, Holy Man is no Network…it’s barely to the standards of Eddie Murphy’s career-derailing flop The Golden Child.

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The Impostors - * * * 1/2*

Posted on October 2, 1998 by Madeleine Williams

The Impostors

Following the art house success Big Night, Stanley Tucci has set his sights on making a screwball comedy. With a top notch cast, and plenty of good humor, The Impostors is warmly reminiscent of the great screwball comedies of old.

Arthur and Maurice (Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt) are two struggling actors in the 1930s. Desperate for work, they perform impromptu live performances in the middle of an unsuspecting sidewalk cafe. They’ve also been known to attempt the occassional con or two in order to get food on their meager plates.

Through a convoluted series of events, the bumbling pair mistakenly stow away aboard a cruise ship. There, they disguise themselves as stewards and mingle with a zany variety of vacationers, including an arrogant actor out for their blood (Alfred Molina), and a man’s man tennis pro (Billy Connolly) who’s after them for very different reasons.

The crew of the ship isn’t too helpful to the pair. Although they do find a sympathetic ear in Lily (Lili Taylor), they find the fascistic head steward Meistrich (Campbell Scott) has no tolerance for stowaways. A suicidal entertainer (Steve Buscemi) and a first mate with a secret agenda (Tony Shalhoub) simply add to the already bizarre mix.

Writer-director Stanley Tucci was apparently aiming to recreate a good ol’-fashioned screwball comedy…and he mostly succeeds. Even when a few of the far-fetched setups don’t quite work…the actors seem to be having such a good time that the frantically festive mood begins to rub off.

Tucci and Platt enjoy a hearty comradery from right off the bat, a fact crucial to making the film work. The pair are introduced in a hilarious silent bit, and we get to know the characters before even a word is uttered.

The title of The Impostors doesn’t just represent the main characters. Virtually everyone in the film is an impostor of one sort or another, pretending to be something he or she isn’t. The various plots and intersections of the characters provide much of the film’s humor.

When the film actually gets to the ship and introduces us to its whirlwind of characters, the introductions are swiftly and deftly handled without confusion. The supporting ensemble deliver terrific performances all around, and are a delight to behold.

There are a few misfired gags here and there, but the film has plenty of good gags to spare. While it won’t rank up with the all-time screwball classics, The Impostors is still a wonderful little comedy.

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A Night at the Roxbury - *

Posted on October 2, 1998 by Madeleine Williams

A Night at the Roxbury

*

Ah, yet another film has emerged from the apparently bottomless fool’s goldmine known as Saturday Night Live. Very rarely, an unexpected movie gem will emerge from the skit-based comedy show. But that is not the case with A Night at the Roxbury, which successfully translates a vapid and empty skit into a vapid and empty film.

For those of you unfamiliar with the skit, the film thoughtfully provides a quick example right off the bat. The main characters are Steve and Doug Butabi (Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan), two pathetic losers who (unaware of their loserdom) constantly try to pick up women at nightclubs.

The movie fleshes out the skit somewhat (not a hard task, given that there’s practically no substance to start with). During the day, Steve and Doug work for their father (Dan Hedaya) at his fake flower shop. But at night, their dreams turn to scoring at the local nightclubs (including the elusively exclusive Roxbury).

One night, their dreams come true, and the bumbling duo manage to get into the club of their dreams. There they mingle with celebritys (Richard Grieco), try to work a business deal with the owner (Chazz Palminteri), and are targeted by a couple of gold-digging women (Elisa Donovan and Gigi Rice).

At first, the Roxbury guys seem to fit the mold cast by successful SNL-to-film skits such as Wayne’s World or The Blues Brothers. There’s a pair of wacky and slightly dimwitted protagonists, and…well, that’s where the similarity ends. But the filmmakers seemed to miss one key difference: those successful films featured both strong, endearing characters, and a pair of the era’s finest comedians performing at their peak. A Night at the Roxbury has neither.

The Roxbury guys is (next to It’s Pat: The Movie) the flimsiest Saturday Night Live skit ever to cross the film adaptation threshhold. It truly is based on one joke: the losers who don’t know they’re losers. As a film, one joke will never make it…particularly when the same joke has been at the core of several films this year already (Almost Heroes, Meet the Deedles and BASEketball come to mind).

That leaves the movie up to Ferrell and Kattan. But their performances are rote and uninteresting. They’ve turned in much better performances on Saturday Night Live…but then, we weren’t confronted with them as the same characters for a full hour and a half.

The movie is amusing for about the length of a 3-5 minute skit. There are a few minor chuckles scattered throughout the picture, so it’s not a total loss…but nothing worth 90 minutes of your time.

A Night at the Roxbury aims little higher than its skit…and you could hardly pick a flimsier skit upon which to base a feature film. It’s a one-joke movie that doesn’t even have a good joke.

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Antz - * * *

Posted on October 2, 1998 by Madeleine Williams

In what seems to be the most unusual film trend of late, two studios are offering competing computer-animated-bug films. The first one out of the gate is Antz, the first animated film from Dreamworks SKG. Although not up to the high standards of Toy Story, it poses a strong challenge to this Thanksgiving’s A Bug’s Life.

Antz follows the life of a single ant, Z (Woody Allen), who is dissatisfied with colony life. As with many animated heroes, he yearns for something different…he wants to be an individual, instead of part of the collective.

He spots his chance when he meets the beautiful Princess Bala (Sharon Stone), who is “slumming it” with the worker ants to get a taste of life before her impending marriage to the ruthless General Mandible (Gene Hackman). Although their meeting is brief, Z believes they’ve formed a connection, and now has a goal for his dreams.

He enlists the aid of his soldier friend Weaver (Sylvester Stallone) in an effort to meet her again. However, when things don’t go as planned, Z finds himself the target of Mandible’s wrath.

This is only the second fully computer-animated film, but somehow the sense of awe and wonder that was present in Toy Story is missing. The water animation here is very realistic, but overall the animation fails to be impressive.

None of the characters are particularly charming by themselves. It’s the voices that truly bring them to life, and Antz has attracted a first-rate cast for the job. In addition to the voices credited above, the film features the talents of Christopher Walken, Danny Glover, Anne Bancroft, Jennifer Lopez, Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin. The vocal performances are all top-notch, and truly bring a spark of life to the film.

There’s plenty of humor here…but most of it is likely to sail completely over the heads of children. Socio-political commentary is rare in animation, but it seems to fit in well here.

Humorous and enjoyable, Antz is able to overcome its limitations and is a rather good cartoon. Younger children might not understand many of the jokes, and might be frightened by some of the battle scenes…but older kids and adults will have a jolly good time.

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Clay Pigeons - * * 1/2*

Posted on September 25, 1998 by Madeleine Williams

Clay Pigeons

Clay Pigeons is the sort of wacky dark comedy that tries to be irreverent right off the bat. But, unfortunately, it’s about halfway through before it settles into a good comedic groove. Luckily, if you stick it out, there’s something worth waiting for.

In a small Montana town, there’s trouble brewing. And poor Clay (Joaquin Phoenix) finds himself in the center of it. He gets into the unfortunate habit of discovering dead bodies. Soon, Sheriff Mooney (Scott Wilson) begins to suspect Clay of murder.

Clay’s acquaintances don’t help things out. His best friend, Earl (Gregory Sporleder) has gone a little gun crazy. It doesn’t help that Clay is having an affair with Earl’s oversexed wife, Amanda (Georgina Cates). But it’s the new guy in town, Lester Long (Vince Vaughn) who offers the most help to Clay…but can anyone who prides himself on the nickname “Lester the Molester” truly be trusted???

As Clay finds himself deeper and deeper in trouble, soon the FBI is called in to investigate. Under the thorough scrutiny of Agent Shelby (Janeane Garofalo), certainly the FBI will find the truth. Or has Clay simply been set up as a clay pigeon in a target shoot?

This dark comedy takes a little while to warm up. It’s not until you’ve gotten past the first couple of twists that things start to ignite. The first character who gets things started is Vince Vaughn’s Lester Long. His presence in the film enlivens the atmosphere with is bizarrely idiosyncratic ways.

Another welcome presence is Janeane Garofalo. Though her FBI character is hardly unique, she brings a breath of fresh air to the proceedings. An efficient outsider, she easily represents the audience as a person incredulous to the happenings in this small town.

Joaquin Phoenix does a good job at playing the hapless everyman. But he can’t compare to the other, better written characters. When he’s on the screen, you’re constantly hoping one of the other actors will appear to spice things up.

The plot of Clay Pigeons tends to stretch credulity, even when viewed as a comedy. The endless string of dead body “discoveries” seems a little forced. It’s not until Lester Long pops up that you’re distracted enough to take everything in stride.

In short, it’s more the cast that makes things work in Clay Pigeons than the story. It certainly could have been a stronger picture, but it’s one that grows on you.

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Urban Legend - 1/2*

Posted on September 25, 1998 by Madeleine Williams

Urban Legend

Did you ever notice how a copy of a copy is never quite as sharp as the original? How about the copy of a copy of a copy, and so on? That’s what we get in Urban Legend, the latest “hip” horror film to follow the overly familiar path reopened by Scream. Urban Legend is an unintentionally goofy horror film that doesn’t even live up to that not-so-stellar standard.

You know the setup: a group of college students are steadily being slaughtered one by one. A faceless killer is to blame. As if the movie weren’t ridiculous enough, this time his trademark is dressing in a shadowy, hooded parka that’s not the least bit inconspicuous on campus.

The film’s gimmick is that everyone is killed in the style of a famous urban legend. If pulled off cleverly, this might have been interesting… but clever is nowhere to be found in Urban Legend. The film rarely sticks to well-known legends, but instead veers off track and invents its own. Those that it does use tend to be of the “ghost story” variety (though, for some reason, they never get around to “the man with the hook”…). However, in order to duplicate these legends, the victims must follow an elaborately scripted path… this results in behavior even more inexplicable than the traditional “wandering in the basement alone” that has been so often used in horror movies past.

Following the lead of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend fills its cast with a slew of up-and-coming young actors. The lead character here is Natalie (Alicia Witt), who is mysteriously linked to all the murders and, shocker of shockers, has a terrible secret in her past. Other victim/suspects include practical jokester Damon (Joshua Jackson), aspiring journalist Paul (Jared Leto), party animal Parker (Michael Rosenbaum) Natalie’s best friend Brenda (Rebecca Gayheart), radio host Sasha (Tara Reid), campus cop Reese (Loretta Devine), and the creepy folklore professor Wexler (Robert Englund).

You can never go into a slasher film with the hopes that you’ll get adequate character development or a sensible plot. Urban Legend doesn’t surprise there. However, you do expect a few thrills or shocks… but Urban Legend doesn’t surprise there either. We’re handed the few expected false alarms, but the real “shocks” of Urban Legend are surprisingly boring.

The script here is subpar even by horror film standards. The closest thing to innovation here are a couple of painfully obvious in-jokes about the cast. The film goes to such tremendous lengths to set up its elaborate death scenes that each one is rather anti-climactical when they finally get around to showing the results.

If you’re addicted to the genre, I probably can’t dissuade you with any comments. But, you’d certainly be better entertained by revisiting some old favorites on video than subjecting yourself to the painfully derivative Urban Legend.

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Ronin - * * 1/2*

Posted on September 25, 1998 by Madeleine Williams

Ronin

Ronin takes the concept of the generic spy thriller to new heights. In the post-Cold War atmosphere, it doesn’t matter who the bad guys are (as long as they’re sufficiently bad), nor who the good guys are (as long as they’re sufficiently good). Ronin depicts a group of people with indeterminate motives working for unknown parties to achieve an obscure goal. It doesn’t really matter what the ends are…Ronin is primarily interested in the means used to get there. And, surprisingly, given how little is actually revealed, Ronin turns out to be an impressive thriller.

As we are informed in some clumsy prologue text: Ronin is the term used to describe masterless samurai…or in this case disfranchised cold warriors. Brought together as sort of a mercenary Mission: Impossible group, these renegade ex-CIA, ex-KGB, and ex-(insert spy agency here) agents are assigned an obscure but dangerous task: to retrieve the ultimate MacGuffin: a mysterious, and heavily guarded, case. What’s in the case? That information is on a need to know basis only. Besides, it’s unimportant…all that they (and we) need to know is that many people are willing to pay a high price (and kill an even higher number of people) to possess it.

Acting on behalf of the mysterious Seamus (Jonathan Pryce), Dierdre (Natascha McElhone) draws together a diverse group of ex-spies to capture the case. Chief among them is Sam (Robert DeNiro), an experienced agent who is likely ex-CIA, and who has survived on his well-honed instincts. Vincent (Jean Reno) is an equipment man, with his fingers dipped into the black market. Gregor (Stellan Skarsgård), East German ex-KGB, is an electronics expert, Larry (Skipp Suddeth) is the expert driver, and Spence (Sean Bean) is a roguish weaponry specialist.

Due to the secrecy involved, we never learn too many details about any of the gang…much less about their mission. This is a spy movie stripped to its barest essentials. There’s no fat here. You’ve got car chases, gun fights, swarms of double crosses and plenty of intrigue…all without the unnecessary complications of plot or characterization. But has some muscle been stripped away as well?

The film thrives on its heart-pounding action sequences, which mostly live up to their billing. However, some of the scenes are so intense that they border on parody. The casual slaughter of innocents is done by both good guys and bad, and seems to be mere punctuation to underscore the seriousness of all involved. But, at times, the film seems to draw from the well of excess once too often.

At least there are some good actors at play here…actors so charismatic that they don’t really need strong characters to hold our attention. DeNiro is simply magnetizing in his portrayal of a desperate ex-spy. Jean Reno and Stellan Skarsgård are also impressive. Natascha McElhone is slightly disappointing, but that is mostly in comparison to the other great talent here.

Ronin is not a film that you will think upon for days afterward, but you’ll certainly have a good time while you’re watching it.

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Rush Hour - * * *

Posted on September 18, 1998 by Madeleine Williams

Brett Ratner, the director behind Chris Tucker’s surprisingly funny buddy comedy Money Talks, tackles yet another Chris Tucker buddy comedy with Rush Hour. Can lightning strike twice? Yes, particularly when Jackie Chan gets involved.

James Carter (Chris Tucker) is a fast-talking streetwise cop who only hates one thing more than authority: the idea of having a partner. Hmmm…since this is a buddy cop movie, guess what…he’s going to get one.

That partner is Detective Lee (Jackie Chan), Hong Kong’s best detective. Lee is summoned to the United States when his friend, and former boss, Consul Han (Tzi Ma) has a problem. His young daughter, Soo Yung (Julia Hsu), has been kidnapped by a Hong Kong criminal organization seeking revenge against Han.

The F.B.I. don’t want to babysit a foreign cop, so they draft Carter for the duty. However, neither Carter nor Lee are content to stay on the sidelines, and they begin pursuing leads of their own.

In his first fully American movie (at least the first since his American “discovery”), Jackie Chan might not have the same volume of stunts as usual, but the quality is just as good. When watching the film, prepare to be awestruck several times.

But Rush Hour takes the traditional Jackie Chan actionfest one step further by adding something usually missing in his films: good, quality dialogue. And this is where Chris Tucker really shines. His fast-talking wit is nearly as spectacular as Jackie’s stunts.

It’s a shame that these two dynamic performers, the excellent stuntwork, and all the humor are put in the service of such a mundane plot. There haven’t been any fresh developments in the buddy-cop genre since the mid-1980s, yet it is this old stalwart that we confront yet again. And that’s not the only hoary cliche which rears its head here. No, the film is chock full of them. (We even meet a demolitions expert, played by Elizabeth Pena, whose career has entirely been made by making that 50-50 gamble: the red wire or the blue wire.)

But, still, there’s more inovation here than in most of Jackie Chan’s recent efforts, and his pairing with the wildly funny Chris Tucker makes this one worth watching despite the familiar plotting.

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