|
'Bandits' steals from predecessors
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 4, 2002
New releases
[Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]
Billy Bob Thornton, left, and Bruce Willis, right, are bank robbers who holds a hostages before the bank opens for business in Bandits. Cate Blanchett is a disgruntled housewife who tags along, but the police and the media assume she’s a hostage. |
Bandits (PG-13)
Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton co-star as the "Sleepover Bandits," bank robbers who take a bank president's family hostage for a night until the bank opens and they clear it out. The strategy works fine until a disgruntled housewife on the lam (Cate Blanchett) starts tagging along and a romantic triangle emerges. Not as exciting as it should be, or tricky as it could be, or as much as director Barry Levinson thinks it is.
First impressions: "Bandits stole two hours from my life, leaving behind circumstantial evidence of what could have been a better movie. Actually, this uneven caper has been a better movie several times before, in Dog Day Afternoon, The Sting, Bonnie and Clyde, The Fortune, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and other antihero adventures from a generation ago. Director Barry Levinson isn't a hack, so this must be homage. Yet, borrowing from those films serves only to expose the lack of pacing and charisma in Bandits, as if mere quirkiness is enough . . .
"The performances are good, with Thornton achieving some choice moments when Terry's paranoia peaks. Willis' stony mumble suits Joe the way he's written, too aloof for viewers to embrace. Blanchett's eager oddness can be charming or irritating depending upon the circumstances. She embodies the movie, neither comedic nor dramatic but something strange and unsatisfying in between."
Second thoughts: Thornton's performance as a hypochondriac earned a Golden Globe nomination and was a reason, along with Monster's Ball and The Man Who Wasn't There, that he was named best actor of 2001 by the Florida Film Critics Circle and National Board of Review.
Rental audience: The actors' considerable fan bases, although Willis supporters may be disappointed by this wan performance.
Rent it if you enjoy: Any of the films mentioned above that Bandits rips off.
Thirteen Ghosts (R)
[Photo: Warner Bros.]
Matthew Lilliard has a close encounter with a ghost haunting a house in Thirteen Ghosts.
|
An eccentric tycoon dies and bequeaths his mansion to a nephew (Tony Shalhoub) and his family, who must live in the place and contend with its ghosts. Inspired by the 1960 schlock classic 13 Ghosts, created by ballyhoo master William Castle.
First impressions: "The experience of watching the film is literally painful. It hurts the eyes and ears. Aware that their story was thin, that their characters were constantly retracing the same ground and repeating the same words, that the choppy editing is visually incoherent, maybe the filmmakers thought if they turned up the volume the audience might be deceived into thinking that something was happening. . . . This is a movie that is all craft and little art." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
Second thoughts: These ghosts disappeared especially fast at theaters.
Rental audience: The usual suspects: gorehounds, Fangoria magazine subscribers and collectors of serial murder news clippings.
Rent it if you enjoy: The same old thing, only fancier.
DVD
New and noteworthy for digital players
Color commentary for 'Bull Durham'
[Photo: Orion Pictures]
Kevin Costner stars as Crash Davis in Bull Durham, regarded by many as the best sports movie of all time. |
Bull Durham (special edition)
"Well, I believe in the soul, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days."
Those are the memorable words -- slightly edited -- of Crash Davis, the fictional all-time leader in minor league home runs. But who wants to admit staying in the minors long enough to set the record?
That's just one subtext of Ron Shelton's Bull Durham, regarded by many as the best sports movie of all time. With the 2002 pro baseball season going into its windup, MGM Home Entertainment is releasing a special edition DVD version of a film that took audiences inside the game, its intricacies and escapades, deeper, warmer and funnier than ever.
Shelton is the play-by-play announcer on a separate audio track, explaining his creative choices, while co-stars Kevin Costner (Davis) and Tim Robbins (Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh) are the off-color commentators on yet another. The DVD's producers sat the actors in a screening room and wired them for sound to eavesdrop on two buddies kidding about their youth and the 1988 film many still consider to be their best work on-screen.
For example, Robbins' introduction in the film as a baby-faced rookie is a rear-nudity shot while he's trysting with a baseball groupie. "That's not my a-," the 43-year-old actor asserts before mischievously adding: "any more." The disc is filled with such ad libs, making it one of the more entertaining DVD audio options in recent months. That is, when Costner and Robbins pull themselves away from silently enjoying the movie.
"We've got to be careful not to just end up watching this thing," Costner warns.
Shelton crafted a valentine to the game far away from the spotlight, in bus rides and backwater towns where minor league baseball is the only game in town. Costner's Davis is the wizened veteran who'll never last in "the Show," and Robbins' LaLoosh is the pitcher with a "million-dollar arm and a five-cent head." They both fall for a sexy fan, Annie Savoy, played by Susan Sarandon, who has been Robbins' partner since they became romantically involved while making the film, a fact that Costner can't avoid ribbing him about.
"She has that gift of letting everybody know they have a chance," Costner says. Robbins provides a grunt of agreement.
Best of all, Costner displays a modesty that has evaporated from his recent film projects, admitting for example that he never liked the way he delivered Crash's famous list of beliefs: "I never felt like I did this right, and I got so much credit for it. It's just the power of the word, you know?"
The disc doesn't offer many other extras, just a couple of trailers and featurettes produced in 1988 when Costner was still a promising newcomer. A recently produced making-of documentary features interviews with Shelton and his stars, although that setting is too formal for comfort. They're much more entertaining when letting down their guards on the audio commentaries, a double play combination tough to beat.
Rewind
Videos worth another look
When music makes the movie
Go back and watch a few movies featuring composer Elmer Bernstein's music, but make sure you listen well, too.
Elmer Bernstein's score for The Magnificent Seven is one of Hollywood's unforgettable musical themes: abrupt horns and tympani to evoke the bravery of Old West heroes, followed by gliding violins signifying the vast frontier they're riding through. Wish we could play it for you now.
Bernstein celebrates his 80th birthday today, and the Academy Award winner is still going strong, with Martin Scorsese's upcoming Gangs of New York being the latest film to benefit from the composer's talent. No fewer than 238 films and television programs have used Bernstein's music over the past half-century. Here are a few suggestions from his resume of films that are as impressive to hear as they are to watch:
The Man With the Golden Arm -- Bernstein's first Oscar nomination came in 1957 for his jazz-influenced themes for a tale of heroin addiction, chillingly acted by Frank Sinatra.
The Magnificent Seven -- Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and James Coburn lead a band of gunslingers protecting innocent villagers. Nominated for an Oscar, but the prize went to Ernest Gold's equally memorable score for Exodus.
Summer and Smoke -- Tennessee Williams' tale of passion and betrayal in the Deep South features a grand performance by Geraldine Page and another Academy Award contender for Bernstein.
To Kill a Mockingbird -- Always worth another viewing. This time, save some of your attention for Bernstein's gently moving music that seems to mature along with Atticus Finch's children during an eventful summer.
Hawaii -- Based on James Michener's sprawling novel of Pacific colonialism, starring Julie Andrews and Max von Sydow as missionaries caught in a culture clash. Another Oscar nomination, another disappointed trip home.
Thoroughly Modern Millie -- Finally, Bernstein earned an Academy Award in 1969. Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore play Roaring '20s flappers involved with a white slavery ring, all set to Bernstein's toe-tapping rhythms.
True Grit -- Bernstein rarely strays from Magnificent Seven influences whenever he's involved in Western projects like this one. An Oscar nominee for best song -- sung by co-star Glen Campbell -- but saddled with the misfortune of being released the same year as Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Trading Places -- Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd con a pair of scheming tycoons (Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy) while Bernstein's Oscar-nominated score plays in the background.
The Age of Innocence -- Bernstein's latest trip to the Academy Awards was thanks to Scorsese's exceedingly atmospheric look at muted passion at the turn of the 20th century. Co-stars Daniel Day Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer.
National Lampoon's Animal House, Stripes and Ghostbusters -- The composer's career got a boost when such tongue-in-cheek filmmakers as John Landis and Ivan Reitman decided that using his grandiose musical stylings contrasted with social misfits was a good gag. Rather than use a comedic score, these films make the music take the story seriously, stealthily adding to the laugh quotient.
Back to Weekend
© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111
|
