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NEW RELEASES
Can't sympathize with these characters
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 4, 2001
The Way of the Gun
(R) Benicio Del Toro (forthcoming Traffic) and Ryan Phillippe (Cruel Intentions) play kidnappers with a spontaneous scheme that backfires. They snatch the surrogate mother (Juliette Lewis) serving a mobster and his wife, and demand a $115-million ransom. James Caan co-stars as a "clean-up specialist" called in by the gangster to locate the amateurs and return the mother and unborn child. Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, an Oscar winner for The Usual Suspects' screenplay.
First impressions: "McQuarrie puts a bullet or two -- okay, make it a thousand -- in an upsetting trend: The steep decline of movies centered on tough guys, real descendants of the nihilistic souls that peopled classic film noir. Heavy on the dark drama and multiple shootings committed in the scorching afternoon sun, it's a bloody, twisting road film populated almost entirely by unsympathetic oddballs.
"McQuarrie's movie might be thought of as a cross between Quentin Tarantino and Sam Peckinpah. But there's little of the Pulp Fiction director's quirky humor to lighten the proceedings. . . . The Way of the Gun, at its most basic level, is a glorified game of cat and mouse (with a) palpable sense of dread." (Phillip Booth, Times correspondent)
Second thoughts: A home viewing confirmed Booth's review. Del Toro is quickly becoming a dependable movie star.
Rental audience: Action enthusiasts who don't mind glibness mixed with gore.
Rent it if you enjoy: McQuarrie's rat-a-tat dialogue in The Usual Suspects; Del Toro's charismatic grumbling.
Hollow Man
(R) Grisly twist on the old Invisible Man routine, with Kevin Bacon starring as an obsessed scientist acting as his own guinea pig. Elisabeth Shue co-stars as the beautiful woman gaping on the sidelines. Directed with customarily tasteless flair by Paul Verhoeven (Starship Troopers, Showgirls).
First impressions: "Verhoeven uses astounding special effects to (create) a flip-book of computerized gore. The story is an updated version of Claude Rains' 1933 disappearing act as The Invisible Man, but Hollow Man doesn't settle for dreamy fade-outs and unwrapped gauze. Tissue erodes, circulatory systems acidify and bones dissolve. Very messy. Very now.
"The gory action is fine, but isn't there anything else for an invisible man to do than kill or fondle unsuspecting women? As usual, Verhoeven's aim is narrowed to sex and violence, the more degrading and gratuitous, the better.
"What the movie lacks in suspense it makes up with gruesome enthusiasm. Not, however, to the lengths of Verhoeven's cartoonish sadism in Starship Troopers or the stink of Showgirls. Maybe that's what Hollow Man needs, a reason to make us feel outraged instead of merely nauseated." (Steve Persall, Times film critic)
Second thoughts: The DVD version may be fun for Fangoria magazine subscribers, with step-by-step analysis of the barf-bag special effects.
Rental audience: Gorehounds, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon players
Rent it if you enjoy: That cable channel that always shows surgical procedures.
Autumn in New York
(PG-13) Richard Gere slips into another suit-and-mousse role as Will, a playboy chef who falls in love with a much younger woman named Charlotte (Winona Ryder). Romance gets more complicated when Charlotte reveals she's dying of a terminal disease and Will realizes he dated her mother.
First impressions: "There's no need for a hankie when it comes to (this) laughable romantic melodrama. . . . It's not that the tiresome twosome don't try to make us care. Hoo boy, do they ever make earnest work of this superficial sob story.
"Gere plays (his role) with such solemnity that you'd think he was communing with the Dalai Lama instead of coming on to a cheeping baby chick. In contrast, Ryder's sweet Charlotte giggles and twitters enough for a whole slumber party. The picture is a veritable bouquet of ardent cliches and witless sentiments reminiscent of 'Love means never having to say you're sorry.' " (Rita Kempley, Washington Post)
Second thoughts: Love of movies means never having to say you saw this one.
Rental audience: Depressed people; hairdressers still trying to figure out how Gere does it.
Rent it if you enjoy: Doctors' waiting rooms.
DVD: New and noteworthy for the digital player
Flashback to '60s musical TV
Music Scene: The Best of 1969-1970
Hullabaloo: A 1960's Music Flashback, Volumes 1-4
Nostalgia is a key attraction for DVD collectors, usually with regard to classic films. MPI Home Video is banking on the same affection for vintage pop music television shows with two recent DVD releases.
Music Scene and Hullabaloo were two of the memorable ways TV tried cashing in on the counterculture, at least as much as network conservatism would allow. Rock 'n' roll was getting dangerous again, creating fashion politicized by Vietnam and civil rights.
But, middle-class youths wishing to be hippies had money to spend. Networks had to appear cool, even if that meant propping up tie-dye bands in front of the squares.
Hullabaloo was the most obvious sell-out, judging from seven episodes revived for the disc from 1965 and 1966. Everything looks straight from Haight-Ashbury: all bell-bottoms, loud prints and op-art sets. Check out the musical lineup and see how NBC hedged its bets with older viewers still controlling the channel knob.
Scan through the DVD and you'll see such establishment types as Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr. and Michael Landon croaking through top-10 hits of the era. Lewis made his own bid for the charts on the Sept. 20, 1965, show with the vainly uplifting I'll Be Your Light.
A few musical nuggets emerge, tempered by the fact that Hullabaloo showcased the worst lip-synching this side of a Godzilla movie. The Byrds show up obviously stoned to mime The Times They Are A'Changing while the Hollies and the Cyrkle do the same with respective hits. Hullabaloo is more fun to watch for the unlikely couplings, such as Davis and the Supremes doing Toot, Toot, Tootsie or anybody singing the Archies' Sugar, Sugar.
Music Scene is a far superior collection for music buffs, primarily because most of the performances were gloriously live. I dare you not to be swept away by Sly and the Family Stone on the Oct. 20, 1969, episode with two medleys of unadulterated funk. Crosby Stills Nash and Young perform a crunching rendition of Down by the River, and James Brown and Janis Joplin rip through World and Kozmic Blues, respectively, like forces of nature.
There is also an ample supply of kitsch, including Bobby Sherman singing Little Woman to a go-go dancer superimposed on the screen in miniature. Roger Miller plays King of the Road amid animated interpretations of the lyrics. Slumming lounge acts Steve Lawrence and Paul Anka try desperately to fit in with the kids. Michael Cole (The Mod Squad) offers melodramatic readings of Rod McKuen poetry. Their sincerity then is hilarious now.
Hindsight proves Music Scene was boldly political for the era, with jokes from a comedy cast including Lily Tomlin and David Steinberg that must have simply confused censors. Tommy Smothers hosts an episode and ribs ABC's hawkish executives while introducing -- of all songs -- Merle Haggard's uber-patriotic Okie from Muskogee.
Twenty-one bonus tracks of musical performances include Joe Cocker (Delta Lady), B.B. King (Just a Little Love) and Spirit (1984). Unlike the Hullabaloo DVD, these tracks have been remastered into moderately complete stereo sound. Either disc would be a treat for baby boomers. Music Scene is far out for anyone.
Order information for both DVDs is available at http://www.mpihomevideo.com. Suggested list price is $24.98 each.
REWIND: Videos worth another look
[Photo: October Films]
Robert Duvall plays a preacher who flees the law after he kills a man in The Apostle. Farrah Fawcett portrays his wife.
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Friday marks the 70th birthday of Robert Duvall, an actor whose resume could be considered a list of the best films of the past 40 years. From his haunting debut as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, Duvall has been a part of numerous screen classics and some smaller films deserving to be classics.
Most actors would sell their SAG cards to the devil for a career like this:
The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II -- Duvall makes offers nobody refuses as Corleone family consigliere Tom Hagen. The horse's head in bed is his idea.
Apocalypse Now -- "Kilgore" is a perfect name for Duvall's gung-ho chopper pilot, searching for the perfect surfing wave in Southeast Asia. He loves the smell of napalm in the morning, too.
MASH -- Maj. Frank Burns is "a regular Army clown" in Robert Altman's anti-war comedy. Duvall played it straight to a Section 8, turning Maj. Margaret Houlihan into "Hot Lips" on the way.
Network -- Duvall at his grimly ruthless best, playing TV executive Frank Hackett, turning a madman (Oscar winner Peter Finch) into a prophet of the airwaves.
The Apostle -- Duvall wrote, directed and produced this absorbing character study of a preacher paying for his sins. Euliss "Sonny" Dewey was a masterful contradiction of morality in a film that seems touched by divinity.
The Great Santini -- Another military bully. This time the battlefield is home. Bull Meechum treats his family like boot camp rookies. Duvall, rather than Robert De Niro (Raging Bull), should have won the Oscar in 1980.
Tender Mercies -- Duvall did win an Oscar four years later as country music has-been Mac Sledge, who regains sobriety and his muse. Method acting footnote: Duvall composed and performed Mac's songs.
Then, there are fine movies Duvall graced only for a scene or two. Squint and you'll miss him in:
To Kill a Mockingbird -- The neighborhood Frankenstein is just a scared man-child, led by an act of heroism back into the world. Duvall was only in one scene, but it's a grabber.
The Conversation -- Was Duvall's corporate character plotting a murder or set up to be killed? Only Gene Hackman's surveillance tapes can uncover the truth.
Bullitt -- Duvall was behind the wheel of a cab taking Steve McQueen somewhere. Duvall must have been back at the garage during the famous car chase.
Sling Blade -- Billy Bob Thornton impressed Duvall with his screenplay for A Family Thing, another recommended film. Duvall thanked him with a brief role as the father of Thornton's tragic impulse murderer, Karl Childers.
True Grit -- "Lucky" Ned Pepper wasn't, really. He led a gunfire jousting match against Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne), who warned against it. Classic Duvall line: "I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man." Wayne's reply can't be printed here.
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