|
Video: Not quite a knockout
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 2, 2002
Ali (R)
 |
| [Photo: Columbia Pictures
] |
| Will Smith received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of boxer Muhammad Ali in the film Ali, now out on video. |
The life and times of heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali are stylishly sketched by director Michael Mann (The Insider) from childhood to the 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" against George Foreman. Will Smith gets serious to play the champ, gaining 30 pounds and doing a decent impersonation of Ali's motormouth. However, the dramatic potential of Ali's converting to Islam and facing draft-evasion charges and his role in changing white America's views of African-Americans during the civil rights era is lost in the shuffle.
First impressions: "(The movie) doesn't float, seldom stings and plays rope-a-dope with the facts, turning what should have been a glorious tribute into a tepid star vehicle. Then the star doesn't even get it right . . .
"Ali isn't a bad movie, just a disappointing one, considering the material available to Mann. Compare this film to the Oscar-winning 1996 documentary When We Were Kings and its depiction of the Ali-Foreman fracas to learn what could have been. The Ali of Mann's movie is merely another good man in tough circumstances. The real Ali turned everyone else's circumstances into his own, lifting a race as surely as he leveled opponents. That Ali was a fighter. Smith is just shadowboxing."
Second thoughts: Nonetheless, Smith earned a best actor Academy Award nomination. The movie still took a dive at the box office.
Rental audience: Boxing fans; Smith's less jiggy admirers.
Rent it if you enjoy: When We Were Kings, The Greatest and ESPN Classic.
Not Another Teen Movie (R)
Shameless, unfunny spoof of teen comedy stereotypes -- jocks, cheerleaders, stoners and nerds -- without much consideration of why they were ever funny. Applying class-clown humor to slasher flicks can be fun, as the Scream and Scary Movie franchises proved. Using the same technique to poke fun at movies about class clowns is like pouring extra salt on your potato chips. Unnecessary, and bad for you.
First impressions: "If there is a hell, Not Another Teen Movie will be playing for all eternity on every screen there. Anybody who had anything to do with this crass spoof will be forced to attend every showing. And director Joel Gallan and his five writers will be condemned to sit in the front row with nigh-unto-bursting bladders and popcorn hulls stuck between their rotting teeth." (Rita Kempley, Washington Post)
Second thoughts: And people think I'm harsh.
Rental audience: Anyone who still loves crude, hormone-hopping campus comedy. Both of you.
Rent it if you enjoy: Eavesdropping on the wit of teen loiterers at Tyrone Square Mall on Friday nights.
Rewind: Videos worth another look
Going Bing's way
The guy with the smooth voice and the protruding ears captured hearts in films that ranged from comedy to adventure and sentiment.
As a singer, Bing Crosby was always easy on listeners' ears. Yet, Crosby's protruding ears almost kept him from becoming a movie star. Filmmakers in the 1930s wanted to include this radio star's voice in short subjects and musical revues such as The Big Broadcast, so they taped Crosby's ears against his head. That practice continued until midway through filming 1934's She Loves Me Not. Wish that one were available on home video so we could watch them grow from one scene to the next.
Crosby was born 98 years ago today, the son of a brewery bookkeeper and later, according to his children's bitter books, someone who often lost count of his own tipplings. Despite his posthumous roasting by family members, Crosby remained a beloved entertainer until his death in 1977 of a heart attack while playing golf in Spain.
Celebrate Der Bingle's birthday with any of these home video selections:
The Road to . . . movies with Bob Hope -- As a wisecracking pair they traveled to Zanzibar, Morocco, Utopia, Rio, Bali and Hong Kong, usually with Dorothy Lamour slinking between them. Crosby and Hope set a standard for buddy flicks imitated as long ago as Martin and Lewis and as recently as Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Any of their teamings are still great fun. Going My Way -- Crosby convinced audiences he was more than a crooner by winning a best actor Academy Award, playing a laidback priest at odds with an old-school Catholic (fellow Oscar winner Barry Fitzgerald). The film won seven Oscars including best picture and song (Swinging on a Star). The Bells of St. Mary's -- Sequels were popular even back then. Crosby reprised his Going My Way role, this time opposite Ingrid Bergman, playing a spunky nun. One of the few times an actor was ever Oscar nominated twice for playing the same character. The Country Girl -- Another Academy Award nomination, this time for a decidedly dramatic role. Crosby was superb as a washed-up singer and actor turning to booze and best actress winner Grace Kelly for support. White Christmas -- Essentially a remake of Crosby's earlier film Holiday Inn, but a perennial December favorite. Crosby and Danny Kaye are Army buddies performing song and dance routines at a Vermont ski lodge. Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen co-star. Robin and the Seven Hoods -- Crosby temporarily joined the Rat Pack, teaming with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and the rest for an Ocean's 11-style heist flick. Stagecoach -- All-star remake of John Ford's 1939 classic. Crosby's last major film role cast him as a drunken doctor. The celebrity cast includes Ann-Margret, Red Buttons, Mike Connors and Robert Cummings, but Alex Cord is a poor substitute for John Wayne's earlier role as the Ringo Kid. High Society -- Crosby, Sinatra and Kelly teamed for the first time in this Champagne-popping musical, a remake of The Philadelphia Story. Great music including Louis Armstrong as a jazzy, one-person Greek chorus.
Back to Weekend
© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111
|
