| Written by John Shea,
on 21-10-2000 08:00
|
Published in : Reviews, Movies |
What went wrong? That's pretty much all I can think after watching this nearly unwatchable comedy featuring pretty much nothing to laugh about. It would have been better labeled a tear jerker because it was just sad.
Travolta plays Russ Richards, the weatherman for a TV station in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He is the town's closest thing to a celebrity. His face is everywhere and people seem to adore him. He even has a reserved parking spot and booth at the local Denny's. All is not well for Russ. Due to a freakish warm spell in December, his snowmobile business is floundering. He has to come up with cash and fast.
He tries to get a loan from the station manager (Ed O'Neill) who just laughs at him. He tries to get a loan from his buddy Gig (Tim Roth), who runs the local strip club. Gig can't help him but suggests a phony robbery to make an insurance claim. For this deed Russ hires Dale (Rapaport), who actually uses the nickname "Thug," to rob him. Unfortunately Dale the Thug gets caught and now he wants $10,000 to keep quiet. Russ has to sell his house and Jaguar to bail out Dale the Thug.
Gig now comes up with the idea to rig the lotto drawing to earn easy millions. For that Russ convinces his girlfriend (Kudrow), the woman who picks the numbers in the state lottery. She's a vicious creature with all the warmth of an irritated cobra. Naturally she agrees. They successfully rig the drawing but then they have to keep cutting people in to keep them quiet.
The idea behind the story seems solid enough. The events that force Russ into this behavior could be hysterical. The desperate attempts to hold on to the money could similarly be very funny. But somehow they manage to illicit nary a giggle. Why? Perhaps because there is no reason to care about Russ or anyone else in this movie.
Why don't we care about Russ? One word. Plastic. That's exactly how Russ comes off, about as natural as plastic. He is so fake that you have to wonder if he actually has a personality. This is a man who actually aspires to be a game show host. Now I'm the last person to diminish the cultural impact of a Wink Martindale or a Chuck Woolery but I doubt anyone actually aspires to that role in life. Kudrow plays her character like her character on Friends, except louder, angrier and less pleasant. Quite a pair, don't you think?
It seems that not a single person in this movie has any brains. Dale the Thug is so dumb he disposes a body in the river with a single brick tied to it to weigh it down. He attacks people with commemorative baseball bats. There is a cop too lazy to bother doing any work. He actually serves Russ with a traffic ticket that isn't filled out. Only Gig seems to have more than a couple marbles bouncing around inside his skull. The always cool Tim Roth turns in the only decent performance in the movie but he doesn't have much to work with or any support from the rest of the cast.
There is exactly one good scene in this movie. I won't describe it because if you suffered through enough of the movie to get to it, you deserve the little reward it provides. Just know that it's a sight gag involving a big truck. As nice a gag as it is, it hardly makes a reason to see this clunker.
If you see this movie after reading this review, I can't sympathize. You were warned.
- John Shea
Related Items:
|
