TheVid

Here's another movie lamely based on another lame law potboiler by John (yuck) Grisham. There's a pretty heady cast here, what with Cusack, Hackman and Hoffman, and that's about the only thing commendable about this movie. The ludicrous set up has us choosing jurors in a covert CIA-style set piece that should be laughable, even for the most gullible of viewers. The less said about the law suit against a gun company, the better; the politics are all elementary level here. All the suspense is derivative of like-minded pictures and without a trace of originality or style. Fleder directs in Hollywood factory style. Hackman outshines everyone else in the cast, but playing the apathetic villain was probably the easiest job on this picture. The New Orleans setting adds to the proceedings a bit, but not enough to make this anything more than a forgettable courtroom thriller. Yawn.

As retro films go, Mondo Cane is still a refreshing take on schlock, documentary filmmaking, hilariously camp in it's motives and of more than passing interest in this age of reality TV. The setups and prurient approach that made these films popular at the time of their release is only re-reflected in the equally blatant, reality trash that has successfully been permeating TV since the turn of the new century. It's stunning just how the tastes of pop-culture audiences have changed in the last 50 years or so. A retrospective of the Mondo film genre is represented beautifully in a nicely-packaged DVD box set, which includes a terrifically interesting documentary on the two filmmakers, Jacopetti and Prosperi, who started the trend with this Italian potboiler back in 1962. MONDO CANE is not as dated as some would lead you to believe, particularly if you examine the motives behind it, and the method of it's humor and social commentary. Perhaps the most significant contribution MONDO CANE offers as a film chronicle, and undeniably the most artistic, is the Riz Ortolani/Nino Oliviero music score which includes one of the great melodies of the 20th Century, MORE. MONDO CANE is a "reality" movie sure to please even the most jaded multiplexer. Beautifully photographed and scored.

You could do worse than this Disney rehash of one of their better older movies. It's well cast and relative in quality to a good TV sitcom, but hardly worth investing in for a night out at the movies. It's no better than the Jodie Foster/Barbara Harris original, and more of a reflection of the lack of imagination now permeating Micheal Eisner's Disney Corporation. Curtis is a talented comedienne, and should be seen more often, but Lohan and the younger players are perky and cute in the worse sense of the word. The teenage episodes are annoying and dim, and there's a dreadful rock-band premise to bring the whole thing to a screeching halt. Unnerving, but good for an adolescent laugh or two.