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Reviews
Jamie Foxx: I Might Need Security (2002)
Richard Pryor redux, but has its moments
Foxx's admittedly funny bit on going to Africa is lifted almost verbatim from a Richard Pryor bit -- but Foxx's performance as a whole is strong here.
The highlight, for me, is Foxx's assertion that Bill Clinton could have quelled Islamic fundamentalism by introducing Osama bin Laden to the American staples of whores, pot and booze.
I was never a fan of Foxx's TV work, but this is worth a look.
Loser (2000)
Not as idiotic as the average teen flick...but not much fun
Note: contains a few vague spoilers, although audiences shouldn't be shocked by anything that happens in this all-too-predictable film.
Amy Heckerling is responsible for two of the most brutally honest and satirical high-school films ever in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Clueless," so I expected good things from her newest effort, "Loser" -- at least something more than today's typical teen tripe.
Instead, Loser is mildly charming, slightly funny and mostly boring. Although the two talented leads, Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari, manage to be engaging throughout, and despite a good performance from Greg Kinnear as the unscrupulous professor, there's not much to be excited about in this film.
The plot is your basic teen-love material: Biggs, the "good kid" protagonist, must win jaded Suvari's love, but there are numerous obstacles along the way.
In movies like this, the female is usually blind to the fact that her true love awaits in her geeky platonic male confidant (most recent example: Boys and Girls). Alas, as the film progresses, the guy is too shy to admit to the girl that he loves her, and resorts to clandestine tactics (flowers from someone else, for instance) to woo her.
Of course, the worldly girl has a nasty boyfriend (Kinnear) who mistreats her. Somehow, she prefers the slimeball over the good-hearted friend, who can't understand why the girl of his dreams doesn't reciprocate his feelings.
It's a tried-and-true story that still succeeds in countless films. This time, however, the jokes are too flat, the plot too predictable and the lines between good guys and bad guys too distinct. If Suvari's character is the literary genius she's supposed to be, why is she so ignorant when it comes to her own love life?
There are, of course, obligatory scenes of the would-be lovers enjoying each other immensely on pseudo-dates, which are rehashed in an unnecessary montage at the film's end. Not that the audience needs any extra convincing that they'd make a good couple, since it was evident to all but the couple from the get-go.
As is mandated in such a film, the leading man must endure at least one incident in which his hopes of finally getting the girl are dashed by the reappearance of her old boyfriend, who whisks her away right out of his arms, thereby extending the film's conflict at least another half-hour.
Neither of the two main characters has many friends -- Biggs' roommates are particularly malicious types who exist only to create plot-advancing situations for the two leads, and Suvari's only contacts with the world are Kinnear, an unseen mother and Biggs. Every character but the couple appears onscreen just enough to move the film toward its ho-hum conclusion, so it's no surprise when the finale, in the overdone style of "Animal House" and "Fast Times," doesn't tell us anything we'd care to know.
"Loser" is relatively honest about young life, considering the films it shares its genre with, but it's a far cry from anything as refreshing as "Dazed and Confused" or "American Pie," in which Biggs and Suvari both had much better material to work with.
If you must see this film at the theater, remember that two episodes of "Felicity" will give you just as much college angst for free -- and they'll be far less predictable.
Dirty Work (1998)
You'll love it, or you'll hate it...
I saw Dirty Work in the theater, and I laughed so loudly and frequently that everyone in the theater must have thought I was insane. Never before or since have I had more belly laughs during a film.
Yet many people (including a few of my friends) absolutely HATED this film. I think the fact of the matter is, Norm MacDonald's breed of humor is a rare kind, dry and disgusting and socially satirical all at once. If one of Norm's jokes doesn't make you laugh, none will; if you like the stuff he did on SNL, then Dirty Work will have you rolling on the floor.
MacDonald spends the whole film making fun of himself, delivering his lines as though he were reading them from a cue card, and the plot exists only to further the jokes. Some people are clearly turned off by this, but I was too busy laughing to catch the story anyway.
I can't understand why this movie didn't make any money, or why it's not a cult classic (although time will tell). MacDonald, Warden, Chase and Farley are all at their best, and there are so many funny moments it doesn't even seem fair to single any one out as the best. But I must admit the fish scene is pure genius...