Doomster
Joined Jan 2001
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Doomster's rating
Danny DeVito's track record as a director isn't all that great, with results like `Throw Mama From the Train' marking his performance. However, this movie is one of DeVito's better works, not necessarily due to his directing but because of actors who play the three main characters (Ed Norton, Robin Williams, Catherine Keener).
The movie revolves around a children's show on a network named KidNet. `Rainbow Randolph' (Robin Williams) plays the main character on the TV show and is the adulated star.until he gets caught accepting bribes from parents who want to ensure better placement of their child/actors on the stage.
Randolph is quickly fired and Frank Stokes (Jon Stewart), the producer of the show, is directed by the corporate heads to find a replacement whose ethics is beyond reproach. He decides on a relatively unknown bit character called Smoochy, who is played by Sheldon Mopes (Ed Norton) and orders his assistant Nora (Catherine Keener) to sign him. Nora, barely hiding her jadedness, gets Sheldon to agree to star in KidNets children's show, with him playing Smoochy, a creature of Sheldon's creation that looks like miscegenation between a rhino and Barney. Sheldon, being a naïve, politically correct altruist, doesn't seem to realize what he's getting into - he expects the show to be a platform for him to promote worthwhile values to his viewers, the children. Norton plays the naiveté part well, much like his performance as the stuttering murderer with multiple personalities in `Primal Fear'. He portrays a look of innocence with his eyes and body language, as someone who is gullible and innocent, yet good of heart. Sheldon does not expect to encounter the crass commercialization of children's TV nor of the various unseemly characters who want to profit from the TV show thru kickbacks and graft. He is shocked at what really goes on behind the scenes at a children's show.
Meanwhile, Randolph, who is now destitute after being fired by KidNet, goes off the deep end. Upon learning of Smoochy replacing `Rainbow Randolph', Randolph's jealousy of this usurper transforms him into a raving maniac fixated on destroying Smoochy's career and getting his old job back on the children's show. With his strong and sometimes contorted facial expressions, his verbal rapidity, and his demented wit, Williams does a very good job portraying the unbalanced, obsessive psychotic bent on getting back at Smoochy.
Catherine Keener also adds to this movie as Nora, the cynical and jaded assistant producer. This role is perfect for Keener's trademark, a personality of sarcasm and surliness that gives her character an edge. She fights Sheldon's attempts to de-commercialize the children's show, at one point locking him out of a meeting room so he cannot complain about the show pushing new `Smoochy' products to the kids. Sheldon describes her jadedness by accusing her of viewing children as `dollar signs with pony tails'.
Nora clashes with Sheldon about the direction of the show throughout most of the movie. Sheldon wants to redefine the purpose of the show to be one that educates children and espouses values like sharing while Nora and the rest of the staff are cynical enough to realize that the show's main purpose (and main source of revenue) is to promote Smoochy-related products that KidNet sells. This becomes an indictment of today's children shows on TV. Nora doesn't believe in Sheldon's good heart - she's too cynical to believe that Sheldon is really that naïve and altruistic; she's seen too many character stars who had professed to care about the welfare of children only to sell out when the price was high enough.
Other stars, like Danny DeVito, play peripheral parts; DeVito plays a slimy agent named Burke Bennett, who is in cahoots with others interested in using the TV show for profit by unethical means. He plays that part well - when was the last time DeVito didn't play a shady and distrustful character? Another question: why wasn't he in `Lord of the Rings' playing the role of one of the trolls?
Harvey Fierstein also plays a minor part as the head of a syndicate that uses a charity as a dummy front to make money. He is in cahoots with Bennett and Burke in a plan to make some money by associating his charity with Smoochy's show. It's obvious Fierstein took this part in this movie to break out of his typecast, which is that of an effeminate, gay male with a husky voice. He does a good job acting as the head gangster in the beginning, using his deep voice to convey a sense of threat. But as the movie goes on, his character talks more and more and his effort to hide his effeminate mannerisms become less effective - by the end of the movie, the change in the pitch of his speech give him away as a gay male and that detracts from his effort to portray a cold, ruthless leader of organized crime.
There is also a female head of an Irish gang named Tommy (Pam Ferris) who intimidates Sheldon into giving a role for her cousin Spinner Dunn (Michael Rispoli), a once-famous boxer who took too many blows to the head and is suffering the consequences. She plays a part in the outcome of the story.
You can see the direction this movie will take and the 2nd half of it is anticlimactic. The bad guys' plot fails, the good guys win, Randolph's rivalry with Sheldon is resolved, Nora's cold heart is reignited by Sheldon's real and virtuous behavior, and Sheldon is able to keep his principles in the midst of crass commercialization so prevalent in today's children's shows. A sappy ending, quite predictable, but still a funny movie nonetheless, especially due to Robin Williams' performance.
The movie revolves around a children's show on a network named KidNet. `Rainbow Randolph' (Robin Williams) plays the main character on the TV show and is the adulated star.until he gets caught accepting bribes from parents who want to ensure better placement of their child/actors on the stage.
Randolph is quickly fired and Frank Stokes (Jon Stewart), the producer of the show, is directed by the corporate heads to find a replacement whose ethics is beyond reproach. He decides on a relatively unknown bit character called Smoochy, who is played by Sheldon Mopes (Ed Norton) and orders his assistant Nora (Catherine Keener) to sign him. Nora, barely hiding her jadedness, gets Sheldon to agree to star in KidNets children's show, with him playing Smoochy, a creature of Sheldon's creation that looks like miscegenation between a rhino and Barney. Sheldon, being a naïve, politically correct altruist, doesn't seem to realize what he's getting into - he expects the show to be a platform for him to promote worthwhile values to his viewers, the children. Norton plays the naiveté part well, much like his performance as the stuttering murderer with multiple personalities in `Primal Fear'. He portrays a look of innocence with his eyes and body language, as someone who is gullible and innocent, yet good of heart. Sheldon does not expect to encounter the crass commercialization of children's TV nor of the various unseemly characters who want to profit from the TV show thru kickbacks and graft. He is shocked at what really goes on behind the scenes at a children's show.
Meanwhile, Randolph, who is now destitute after being fired by KidNet, goes off the deep end. Upon learning of Smoochy replacing `Rainbow Randolph', Randolph's jealousy of this usurper transforms him into a raving maniac fixated on destroying Smoochy's career and getting his old job back on the children's show. With his strong and sometimes contorted facial expressions, his verbal rapidity, and his demented wit, Williams does a very good job portraying the unbalanced, obsessive psychotic bent on getting back at Smoochy.
Catherine Keener also adds to this movie as Nora, the cynical and jaded assistant producer. This role is perfect for Keener's trademark, a personality of sarcasm and surliness that gives her character an edge. She fights Sheldon's attempts to de-commercialize the children's show, at one point locking him out of a meeting room so he cannot complain about the show pushing new `Smoochy' products to the kids. Sheldon describes her jadedness by accusing her of viewing children as `dollar signs with pony tails'.
Nora clashes with Sheldon about the direction of the show throughout most of the movie. Sheldon wants to redefine the purpose of the show to be one that educates children and espouses values like sharing while Nora and the rest of the staff are cynical enough to realize that the show's main purpose (and main source of revenue) is to promote Smoochy-related products that KidNet sells. This becomes an indictment of today's children shows on TV. Nora doesn't believe in Sheldon's good heart - she's too cynical to believe that Sheldon is really that naïve and altruistic; she's seen too many character stars who had professed to care about the welfare of children only to sell out when the price was high enough.
Other stars, like Danny DeVito, play peripheral parts; DeVito plays a slimy agent named Burke Bennett, who is in cahoots with others interested in using the TV show for profit by unethical means. He plays that part well - when was the last time DeVito didn't play a shady and distrustful character? Another question: why wasn't he in `Lord of the Rings' playing the role of one of the trolls?
Harvey Fierstein also plays a minor part as the head of a syndicate that uses a charity as a dummy front to make money. He is in cahoots with Bennett and Burke in a plan to make some money by associating his charity with Smoochy's show. It's obvious Fierstein took this part in this movie to break out of his typecast, which is that of an effeminate, gay male with a husky voice. He does a good job acting as the head gangster in the beginning, using his deep voice to convey a sense of threat. But as the movie goes on, his character talks more and more and his effort to hide his effeminate mannerisms become less effective - by the end of the movie, the change in the pitch of his speech give him away as a gay male and that detracts from his effort to portray a cold, ruthless leader of organized crime.
There is also a female head of an Irish gang named Tommy (Pam Ferris) who intimidates Sheldon into giving a role for her cousin Spinner Dunn (Michael Rispoli), a once-famous boxer who took too many blows to the head and is suffering the consequences. She plays a part in the outcome of the story.
You can see the direction this movie will take and the 2nd half of it is anticlimactic. The bad guys' plot fails, the good guys win, Randolph's rivalry with Sheldon is resolved, Nora's cold heart is reignited by Sheldon's real and virtuous behavior, and Sheldon is able to keep his principles in the midst of crass commercialization so prevalent in today's children's shows. A sappy ending, quite predictable, but still a funny movie nonetheless, especially due to Robin Williams' performance.
This movie showcases Samuel Jackson's acting talent far better than any movie he has been in. Watching him in this movie makes you realize how talented he really is, that he can do a role greater than his usual fare, that of being a hard-boiled, smart-ass black guy in either a comedy or action movie: `Pulp Fiction', `Die Hard With a Vengeance', `The Long Kiss Goodnight', et. al., all movies in which Jackson played his semi-typecast role. In this movie, Jackson branches out as he portrays an insane yet extremely intelligent man who is not malicious but rather marches to a radically different drummer than the rest of the world. His diction & facial tics convey the behavior of a jumpy, paranoid person and his humor is not of the vulgar but of the witty.
Jackson plays Romulus Ledbetter, a paranoid schizophrenic who lives in a cave in Central Park. He's no ordinary homeless person he's a rather brilliant person who suffers from delusions. We find out that he was once a talented and aspiring pianist studying at the famous Julliard but now limits himself to composing music in his head. Romulus (Rom) now thinks that an omnipotent evil that he calls Stuyvesant is out to destroy him by emitting yellow `Y-rays'. These Y-rays can read, poison, and control a person's mind and to Rom, almost everybody else in the world is under Stuyvesant's evil influence without knowing it. Worse, Stuyvesant has a new green `Z-ray', more potent than the `Y-rays'.
The central mystery of the movie starts when Rom finds a dead, frozen body outside of his cave one morning. He calls his daughter, Lulu (Anjaunue Ellis), who is a police officer. The cops arrive and Rom tries to convince to the disbelieving investigators that the death was the dirty work of Stuyvesant. The victim is identified as Scotty Gates (Sean MacMahon), a model/employee for a famous photographer named David Leppenraub (Colm Feore), who specializes in shooting dark, sinister photographs, and the police classify his death as due to the victim freezing to death while sleeping outside. Soon afterwards, Rom finds Matthew (Rodney Eastman), friend of the deceased Scotty, and Matthew reveals to Rom his suspicion that Leppenraub killed him. He further reveals that Leppenraub sexually abused Scotty & made a videotape of the sexual encounter so he would have a video for his viewing pleasure.
Romulus decides to find out how Scotty really died and who was the perpetrator. No one believes his suspicion that it was Leppenraub so Romulus starts investigating at Leppenraub's private farm in the countryside. This is where the movie gets weak. The movie is based upon a mystery novel by George Dawes Green and the complexities and subtleties are lost as it is transposed into film. While the novel might show the plot as logical (I haven't read the book so I don't know), the plot as shown by the film is convoluted. It's as if the movie is saying that the who-dunnit plot is so vermicular that only an irrational person like Romulus could figure it out.
The movie also does not really reveal how Romulus went from a budding pianist to a person living in a cave; there are hints that he was afraid of performing onstage but no clear answers. I don't know maybe this part is more fully explained in the book and edited out in the film for pacing. But showing this facet of Romulus would have added to his character.
There is a good performance in the supporting role by Anthony Michael Hall, (Brian Johnson in `The Breakfast Club'), who plays Bob, a bankruptcy lawyer who gets to know Romulus by loaning him a pen so he could compose some music. At first, Bob seems to be a sympathetic character not quite sure if Rom is completely off the deep end or just a hustler. In the end though, even he is amazed by the talent Romulus has with the piano.
In summary, it's a movie to watch if you really want to see the range of Samuel Jackson's thespian talents. But don't expect the plot to be remarkable.
Jackson plays Romulus Ledbetter, a paranoid schizophrenic who lives in a cave in Central Park. He's no ordinary homeless person he's a rather brilliant person who suffers from delusions. We find out that he was once a talented and aspiring pianist studying at the famous Julliard but now limits himself to composing music in his head. Romulus (Rom) now thinks that an omnipotent evil that he calls Stuyvesant is out to destroy him by emitting yellow `Y-rays'. These Y-rays can read, poison, and control a person's mind and to Rom, almost everybody else in the world is under Stuyvesant's evil influence without knowing it. Worse, Stuyvesant has a new green `Z-ray', more potent than the `Y-rays'.
The central mystery of the movie starts when Rom finds a dead, frozen body outside of his cave one morning. He calls his daughter, Lulu (Anjaunue Ellis), who is a police officer. The cops arrive and Rom tries to convince to the disbelieving investigators that the death was the dirty work of Stuyvesant. The victim is identified as Scotty Gates (Sean MacMahon), a model/employee for a famous photographer named David Leppenraub (Colm Feore), who specializes in shooting dark, sinister photographs, and the police classify his death as due to the victim freezing to death while sleeping outside. Soon afterwards, Rom finds Matthew (Rodney Eastman), friend of the deceased Scotty, and Matthew reveals to Rom his suspicion that Leppenraub killed him. He further reveals that Leppenraub sexually abused Scotty & made a videotape of the sexual encounter so he would have a video for his viewing pleasure.
Romulus decides to find out how Scotty really died and who was the perpetrator. No one believes his suspicion that it was Leppenraub so Romulus starts investigating at Leppenraub's private farm in the countryside. This is where the movie gets weak. The movie is based upon a mystery novel by George Dawes Green and the complexities and subtleties are lost as it is transposed into film. While the novel might show the plot as logical (I haven't read the book so I don't know), the plot as shown by the film is convoluted. It's as if the movie is saying that the who-dunnit plot is so vermicular that only an irrational person like Romulus could figure it out.
The movie also does not really reveal how Romulus went from a budding pianist to a person living in a cave; there are hints that he was afraid of performing onstage but no clear answers. I don't know maybe this part is more fully explained in the book and edited out in the film for pacing. But showing this facet of Romulus would have added to his character.
There is a good performance in the supporting role by Anthony Michael Hall, (Brian Johnson in `The Breakfast Club'), who plays Bob, a bankruptcy lawyer who gets to know Romulus by loaning him a pen so he could compose some music. At first, Bob seems to be a sympathetic character not quite sure if Rom is completely off the deep end or just a hustler. In the end though, even he is amazed by the talent Romulus has with the piano.
In summary, it's a movie to watch if you really want to see the range of Samuel Jackson's thespian talents. But don't expect the plot to be remarkable.