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Reviews
The Big Kahuna (1999)
Underrated Masterpiece
Check this movie out. Not many people talk about this movie, or praise it for that matter, but, in my opinion, this is not only the best film of 2000 but the best stage-to-screen adaptation I've ever seen (it just squeaks past the similar but more intense "Glengarry Glen Ross," which also featured Spacey and "American Buffalo," an incredibly similar movie).
It's basically an hour and a half of character interactions, so don't let the DVD cover photo and title fool you. It's a very straightforward adaptation of Roger Rueff's "Hospitality Suite," adapted by Rueff himself, directed in a very straightforward manner. The performances drive this great dialogue. De Vito gives the best performance of his life, Facinelli gives nice understated delivery and, well, Kevin Spacey does what he does best and he IS the man.
So if you want to watch a superb story of true character and human emotions among men, watch "The Big Kahuna." If you just want to watch Spacey get angry (and, believe me, that is equally entertaining) this is also for you, but there's also the best film of 1999, "American Beauty." And "Swimming with Sharks."
Duplex (2003)
A Calamity
I saw "Duplex" on Starz tonight. I know, I know. It's been universally panned and hailed as being terribly mean spirited. But, then again, so was DeVito's last directorial effort--the guilty pleasure, yet in itself not flawless, "Death to Smoochy." I love dark comedies. I mostly figured that the synopsis alone--a movie about a couple trying to kill an old woman--was why people were calling it mean-spirited. Then I saw it...(shudders).
What it's supposed to do is have the audience turn on Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller's characters once they decide to whack the annoying old lady living upstairs. Then we can root for the funnier character, the old woman, so we can chant, "Yes, yes! Destroy their lives!" and laugh along with it. It doesn't do that. The thing is, the audience too endures all the annoying things that eat away at the young couple's existence. By the first forty-five minutes of this, we too want to kill this old lady. The young couple is relatable, and although most would not be as quick to or even resort to murder, most people would feel like doing the same things they were.
When they say "mean-spirited" in the bad reviews, they're talking about the unfunny torture the young couple has to go through--when I was rooting for them still. The old lady is so annoying. She is not lovable when she throws Stiller's character's newly written book--on a laptop--into a fire, [NOTE: If he really was an accomplished writer, he'd have enough sense to back up his files on a, what, disk or something]. I did not laugh once--not at the "Home Alone" level slapstick, not at the gross-out sight gags, (Drew throwing up on Ben's face, which was oh-so important to the plot despite it being UNFUNNY and DISGUSTING), not at any of the stale "little Dick" jokes, not even at the enraging "happy" ending.
I appreciate the stylized cinematography found in Danny DeVito's films, even though it's somewhat downplayed in this one. And there's nothing wrong with the cast. I heard the production shoot was pretty tumultuous which makes this excrement marginally forgivable. Still, it was a bad script to begin with. RATING: D
Comic Book: The Movie (2004)
Not that it was bad, but...
I was very excited to see this and sat patiently for two years while it spent months collecting dust on the Miramax shelves, finally being released direct-to-video. I'm in it--kinda. Since I was at the Comic-Con that year--I can see about a fourth of my face in one of the crowd shots--this added to the excitement. And I'm a comic fan, and a Mark Hamill fan and a fan of cartoon voices. So what could go wrong?
So I watched it, finally, and desperately wanted to like it. I mean, it was about comic fans! But...after the first five minutes or so the novelty wore off and I was stuck with a draggy, boring movie. The cast is game, but without much going on it gets a-mighty tedious. Still, it was nice to revisit a great con that I've not been to since two years after it happened.
For a much more entertaining evening, go to the second disk on the DVD package for "Behind the Voices," the hysterical symposium fans sat through to get themselves on film. They cut out most of it, (the guys doing the Animaniacs singing the Country song from memory, Billy West singing "Happy Happy Joy Joy) but it's still great. The movie: C+ The Other Stuff: B+
The Plumber (1979)
One of My Personal Favorites
Hearing about this great little film from many people, I spent tireless hours on retail sites tracking a VHS copy down. Finally I caught a cheap copy on Half.com and it came several days later, (cut to one month later, when Weir's "Cars that Ate Paris" debuted on easily-accessible DVD format with "The Plumber" as a double feature. Go figure.) But I sat down to watch it and proceeded to laugh for quite some time.
The story is basically about this Aussie anthropologist studying Aboriginal tribes as her boring nutritionist husband is constantly talking shop. She's constantly left to her solitude and values her privacy, which makes it all the more irritating when a strange plumber invades her life. Somewhat threatening and somewhat a misunderstood doof, this plumber spends hours holed up in her bathroom doing nothing but lounging around, hammering shower tiles, writing folk songs and ripping pipes from the walls.
It's a precursor to "The Cable Guy," but don't let that discourage you, (I liked "Cable Guy" myself). It's funny as hell and has a great ending. I'll even forgive it for the nutritionist's ponderous subplot that goes nowhere. It's only 79 minutes--whaddaya got to lose?
Movie: A