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Video: I am still an annoying movie
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 20, 2002
I Am Sam (PG-13)
[Photo: New Line Cinema]
Sean Penn got an Oscar nomination for playing I Am Sam’s title role.
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Sean Penn plays Sam Dawson, a hard-working but mentally challenged man who impregnates a homeless woman and is left holding the baby. Seven years later, little Lucy (Dakota Fanning) is smarter than her father, and social workers place her in a foster home. Sam enlists a self-centered attorney (Michelle Pfeiffer) to handle his custody case, and all kinds of life lessons ensue.
First impressions: "Good movies sneak into your heart. I Am Sam furiously burrows at the same target like a fruit rat after a rotted orange on the other side of a fence. It's messy and frantic, with energy that wouldn't be wasted if the rat would just stop and think about the situation.
"Every adult in the movie (except lovable Sam, of course) is flinty, cynical or withdrawn, doing the wrong things for the right reasons until they all collapse into a heap of humbled goo. Penn stays above the mess, stirring it with a performance that, while obviously well-researched, becomes a repetitive series of tics and whines, followed by lucidity that comes out of leftfield."
Second thoughts: Penn was nominated for an Academy Award, more a testament to his reputation among his peers than to this performance.
Rental audience: Penn pals, people with personal stakes in the topic.
Rent it if you enjoy: Dominick and Eugene, What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
The Majestic (PG)
[Photo: Warner Bros.]
Jim Carrey tried but didn’t get an Oscar nod for The Majestic, which co-starred Laurie Holden.
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A blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter (Jim Carrey) suffers amnesia and enters a bucolic town where he's mistaken for a returning World War II hero. Even the veteran's father (Martin Landau) and childhood sweetheart (Laurie Holden) think he's the real deal. Together, they rebuild the town's movie palace, revitalizing the community just before the FBI comes snooping around.
First impressions: "A splashy period piece filled with more corn than the Green Giant's valley: romantic corn, patriotic corn, underdog corn and that forgettable cliche, amnesia. Comedy is out of the question unless one of Carrey's expressions reminds you of an earlier role. Match that strategy with director Frank Darabont, who works as if he qualifies for an award just by showing up, and you have an annoyingly calculated Oscar contender."
Second thoughts: Didn't see Carrey or Darabont at the Oscars show, did you?
Rental audience: Not much, judging from the movie's fast fade at the box office.
Rent it if you enjoy: It's a Wonderful Life, or any Frank Capra flick, for that matter.
Rollerball (PG-13)
American Pie star Chris Klein plays Jonathan Cross, the superstar of a futuristic sport combining elements of roller derby, motorcycle racing and street brawls. Jean Reno (Ronin, The Professional) co-stars as the greedy team owner whose corporate mind-set doesn't align with Jonathan's individualist spirit. Co-stars Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (X-Men) as the obligatory love interest and LL Cool J as a teammate who may as well have "USDA dead meat" stamped on his forehead.
First impressions: "Rollerball is an incoherent mess, a jumble of footage in search of plot, meaning, rhythm and sense. There are bright colors and quick movement on the screen, which we can watch as a visual pattern that, in entertainment value, falls somewhere between a kaleidoscope and a lava lamp." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
Second thoughts: One of the rare times a loud, dumb, violent action movie lost money at the box office. Moviegoers aren't as gullible as they seem sometimes.
Rental audience: X-Games aficionados.
Rent it if you enjoy: Norman Jewison's 1975 original. In fact, rent that instead of the remake.
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