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'What Lies Beneath' a poor Hitchcock ripoff
[Photo: DreamWorks]
Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer suffer through What Lies Beneath. |
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 1, 2001
'What Lies Beneath'
(PG-13) Harrison Ford plays a college professor literally haunted by a past indiscretion with a student. Michelle Pfeiffer co-stars as his possessive, then possessed wife. Director Robert Zemeckis squeezed out this project during a six-month hiatus from Cast Away while Tom Hanks lost weight. First impressions: "The portly shadow of Alfred Hitchcock looms over each frame of What Lies Beneath, a sloppy assortment of cheap shocks and coincidences. . . . Director Robert Zemeckis uses pieces of Hitchcock's style like a jigsaw puzzle cheater. There's a possible murder eyed through a rear window, a Vertigo-style twin, matrimonial Suspicion, a McGuffin and a bathroom assault. . . . It might be a tribute, if Zemeckis didn't always resort to crude methods the master would have dismissed.
Second thoughts: Knowing what lay beneath Zemeckis' film during a second viewing didn't make it any more entertaining. Still dull and predictable.
Rental audience: Ford and Pfieffer fanatics.
Rent it if you enjoy: Cover bands, Presumed Innocent.
Jesus' Son
[Photo: Lions Gate Films]
Billy Crudup and Samantha Morton in Jesus’ Son.
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(R) Aimless heroin junkie (Billy Crudup, Almost Famous) seeks his runaway girlfriend (Samantha Morton) and encounters colorful losers along the way. Not as flashy asRequiem for a Dream, yet equally bleak. Based on Denis Johnson's novel, featuring an impressive cast of actors (Denis Leary, Dennis Hopper, Holly Hunter, etc.) in brief, corrosive roles.
First impressions: "Watching Alison Maclean's film is like engaging in conversations with its heroin addicts while they nod off. Topics change in the flash of a single, fleeting rational thought. Key details are overlooked, then oddly revealed, providing almost accidental coherence. Jesus' Son is bleak but fascinating, even during its irritating ruts.
"Maclean seems to have more confidence in this material adapted from Denis Johnson's book than it truly deserves. It isn't very different from previous films about drug addiction, just more jumbled.
"Jesus' Son is worth a look for its strong performances, unflinching dourness and the occasional poetic image created by cinematographer Adam Kimmel. A second viewing might make its downbeat ramblings more meaningful, but few moviegoers will be hearty enough to take that chance."
Second thoughts: This movie grows on you. Crudup is a movie star waiting to happen.
Rental audience: Viewers appreciating edgy, non-conformist cinema; nihilists.
Rent it if you enjoy: The Panic in Needle Park, Requiem for a Dream, Trainspotting.
Gable's star still shines brightly
Clark Gable didn't always look like a movie star. Before producer Irving Thalberg hired him for his first major role in A Free Soul (1931), Gable endured a dental makeover and grew a pencil-thin mustache that became his trademark. Gable couldn't do anything about those jug-handle ears. Moviegoers never minded.
"The only reason they come to see me is that I know that life is great -- and they know I know it," Gable said at the height of his popularity.
Today is the 100th anniversary of Gable's birth in Cadiz, Ohio. Forty years after his death in Los Angeles of heart failure, film fans still revere the man who would be The King. Check out these classics:
It Happened One Night -- Gable caused T-shirt sales to plummet in 1934 when he didn't wear one while romancing Claudette Colbert. Both won Academy Awards for Frank Capra's comedy.
Gone with the Wind -- Is there a more dashing movie male than Rhett Butler? Frankly, we don't give a damn if there is. Butler was the only man able to put Scarlett O'Hara in her place. The heat between Gable and Vivien Leigh rivaled the torching of Atlanta.
The Call of the Wild -- Gable joins the Alaskan gold rush with his trusty wolf-dog, Buck. One of eight movie versions of Jack London's tale and still the best.
Mutiny on the Bounty -- A charismatic war of wills between Lt. Fletcher Christian (Gable) and tyrannical Capt. William Bligh, played with pompous bile by Charles Laughton. Gable shaved his famous mustache for historical accuracy, since 18th-century British sailors weren't allowed to grow facial hair.
San Francisco -- Gable plays hard-ball as a gambling hall proprietor standing in the way of Jeannette MacDonald's singing career. The climactic earthquake sequence is a marvel of old-fashioned special effects.
Saratoga -- Horse breeder Jean Harlow gets knocked out of the saddle by Gable's gregarious bookie. Harlow died of uremic poisoning after filming wrapped and fans flocked to theaters for her last appearance.
Teacher's Pet -- Gable plays an old-school newspaper reporter posing as a student in Doris Day's journalism class. Lightweight romantic comedy with a sharp-tongued script by Fay and Michael Kanin.
Run Silent, Run Deep -- Robert Wise's submarine drama had Gable doing a twist on Laughton's Bligh role. Gable played a commander obsessed with sinking a Japanese ship, endangering his crew.
The Misfits -- Neo-Western about wild horse wranglers, tragic for its story and the fates of its leading players: Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift. Gable died soon after the film wrapped and never saw one of his best performances. Monroe overdosed a year later and Clift slipped into a psychological funk that plagued him until his death in 1966. This movie is a fitting tribute to each actor.
Disney's 'Dinosaur' is better on DVD
Dinosaur: Collectors Edition
Walt Disney Pictures spent a lot of money -- reportedly $127-million -- to create the most animated dinosaurs and prehistoric settings ever seen on screen. You'd think the studio would save a few bucks for a better script.
The story is set around Jurassic times, with an amiable creature named Aladar (voice of D.B. Sweeney) joining a trek to greener pastures after a meteor shower smashes into Earth. His sidekick is a loopy lemur (Max Casella) and his love interest is a scaly looker named Neera (Julianna Margulies). Everything impresses until the dinosaurs speak. Better dialogue might make the reversion to disbelief easier to take.
Dinosaur is a computer-animation breakthrough and not much else until now with the release of a jam-packed 2-disc DVD of extras. The movie and alternate commentary tracks with directors Eric Leighton and Ralph Zontag and the computer effects team are only the beginning.
Disc one also includes a sounds-effects-only track, filtering out the undernourished dialogue. The Dinopedia of prehistoric facts included on the original DVD is here, along with DinoSearch, a puzzle game, and the near-virtual reality Aladar's Adventure game.
Disc two gets into the project's nuts and bolts, with segments devoted to 3-D storyboards, location scouting in Tahiti and Hawaii, animation tests and character designing. Deleted scenes and publicity tools such as featurettes and preview trailers complete the Bronto-size set.
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