Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Where have all the “Friends” fans gone? Sure, millions of fans tune in each week to watch the comely sextet sort out their problems in their impossibly spacious Manhattan apartments. But when it comes to the stars’ films, fans seem to prefer staying home sipping cappuccinos.
By the end of “Mother and Son,” I felt as lethargic as the half-dead mother in the title. Laboriously slow, the 73-minute movie would’ve made an effective, moving 15-minute short. Instead, the film drags on at a snail’s pace, depicting the almost Oedipal relationship between a dying mother and her caretaker son.
What good is imagination, if you dont have the guts to live it? By the end of “Other Voices, Other Rooms” — a moody piece of cinema based on a novel Truman Capote wrote 50 years ago — young Joel has answered his own question.
Halfway through the satirical film “Aristotle’s Plot,” the narrator asks, “Why are African filmmakers always asked political questions?”
With narration by Patrick Stewart and a theme score by new age musician Yanni, you’d think that “Whales” would be smooth sailing. But the Omnimax film, which opens today at the Museum of Science and Industry, is a visual drag that lasts for 40 very long minutes.
Shot over a nine-month period in Leichhardt, Australia, the documentary “Rats in the Rank” follows the absurd antics of 12 council members maneuvering to get their mayoral candidates elected to office.
The three-dimensional technology is nothing short of amazing. Forget those throwaway 3-D glasses of the past that did nothing but give you a headache. When you strap these high-tech 3-D glasses on (they perch on your head like a visor), you are transported deep into the action. (FYI: Without the headgear, the film is, in a word, blurry.)
Peter Spirer’s documentary “Rhyme & Reason” widens the focus on hip-hop, presenting it as a lifestyle that happens to include music. And by allowing the artists to narrate the piece, director Spirer manages to captivate viewers without glorifying or vilifying the controversial art form.
“Ed” is a cute movie about a minor league baseball player who learns about love, respect and self-confidence from his chimpanzee teammate. If you can’t get past this premise, don’t bother going to see the comedy, featuring “Friends” star Matt LeBlanc (as the pitcher, not the chimp), ’cause it doesn’t get any more real than that.
It wasn’t until recently that the five young actor/filmmakers who made the clever and hilarious “Bottle Rocket” learned that their producer, James L. Brooks, hated their first presentation to him. “I asked Jim, `So, what did you think of that reading we gave?’ ” said co-writer and co-star Owen Wilson, 27, one of three brothers involved in the project. “He said, `It was the worst one I ever heard in my whole life.’ ”
Jackie Chan’s stunt man has the easiest job in film. All of Chan’s action films are full of dangerous free falls, explosions and rapid-fire kung fu fighting, but the stunt man doesn’t have to participate in any of them. Chan insists on doing all the stunts himself and uses his stunt man more as a double. “I believe all the people who come to my movies buy tickets not to see the double,” said Chan. “They want to see me do everything, which is why I do all my own stunts. My double does things like run from a car into a store.”
You’re a novice Beatles fan. You could pick John Lennon and Paul McCartney out of a lineup. But you don’t know which one sang “Strawberry Fields Forever” (John). And you don’t have a clue on where to begin to get a handle on the world’s most famous musical group. What to do? Plenty. ABC’s “The Beatles Anthology” can help get you up to speed on the Fab Four’s career and chronology.
Eric Stoltz has it made. He’s a movie star (“Pulp Fiction,” “Mask,” “Rob Roy”) who has no problems making TV guest appearances (“Mad About You,” “Partners”). He’s an actor with leading-man looks who hasn’t been hampered with pretty-boy roles (OK, he did do “Some Kind of Wonderful,” but he was really young then). And his girlfriend is Bridget Fonda.
Shannen Doherty and Jeremy London (“I’ll Fly Away”) are the two big names in Kevin Smith’s latest movie, “Mallrats.” But Jason Lee is the star. Jason who? “That’s OK,” Lee said, dining on a light lunch of chicken and pasta during a recent visit to Chicago. “I haven’t been in anything.”
“Arabian Knight” is no worse than your standard Saturday-morning cartoon fare. Unfortunately, it’s also no better.
The producers of “Mortal Kombat” know that the strength of their movie is based on the actors’ abilities to execute awesome roundhouse kicks, not soliloquies. So it’s not surprising that the sci-fi action-adventure, which opened Friday and totaled $23 million nationwide over the weekend, is heavy on fight scenes, low on plot.
Ashley Judd is talking to her mother, Naomi (yes, that Naomi), on the phone when a reporter arrives for an interview at her Schiller Park hotel suite. Suffering from a sinus infection that she hasn’t been able to shake for the past week, Judd apologizes for her appearance.
“Fluke” gives new meaning to the phrase “men are dogs.” In this new adventure film, Fluke is the canine reincarnation of a man who died in a freak auto accident. Thomas Johnson (Matthew Modine) and Jeff Newman (Eric Stoltz) are best friends and business partners. After a fight, Johnson gets into a fatal car crash.
So Robert De Niro and Marisa Tomei gained weight for their movie roles. Big deal. Comet – no last name, please – easily can one-up them. The 9-year-old had his luxurious blond mane snipped and dyed murky brown, perfected a limp and convinced the casting director that he could play a 1-year-old in the new comedy “Fluke.” Oh, did we mention that Comet is a dog?
At the beginning of “Picture Bride,” a 16-year-old girl living in Tokyo is shown a picture of a handsome Japanese man who has immigrated to Hawaii. Along with the photograph, he has sent a beautiful, poetic letter that doesn’t win her heart so much as it promises her a better life than what she has now. She sends back her picture, and the two agree to marry.