Movie Review My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) 

Directed by Joel Zwick 

Written by Nia Vardolas 

Starring Nia Vardalos Michael Constantine, John Corbett, Lanie Kazan 

Release Date April 19th, 2002 

Published April 18th, 2002 

My heritage is Irish, which by stereotype means I love potatoes and lots of alcohol. I do like potatoes but I don't drink. Not everyone lives into a stereotype. Nia Vardalos, the star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, also doesn't live up to the stereotype of a Greek woman. She is supposed to marry a nice Greek boy, have lots of children and cook until she dies. Nia's character, Toula Portokalos, aspires to be more than the stereotype.

Wedding is the story of Toula Portokalos, a frumpy depressed waitress at her family's restaurant called  Dancing Zorba's. Her father Gus (Michael Constantine) is a very loving man who believes Windex can cure almost any ailment. Gus wants Toula to marry a Greek boy and have Greek babies. Toula would rather go to college and learn about computers and get out from under her family for a little while. Toula's mother Maria (Lanie Kazan) understands her daughter’s ambition and coerces Gus into letting her go.

After a makeover from her frump phase into the attractive girl she had always hidden, Toula goes to college and decides to become a travel agent. After getting a job in her Aunt's travel agency Toula meets Ian (John Corbett). They have immediate chemistry and before long they are ready to head down the aisle. If only it were that simple. First Ian must get past Toula's father, a difficult task because Ian isn't Greek. Then Toula must meet Ian's parents who are WASPs, White Anglo Saxon Protestants. In other words, the Whitest people on the planet.

The problem is I'm not sure what this film was aiming for. Were the scenes with Toula's Aunt played by Andrea Martin meant to be over the top or was she supposed to be taken seriously? The way Martin plays the role it's difficult to tell.

Some of the characters also live into the various stereotypes, while our leads Vardoulias and Corbett play everything straight. Maybe that was the attempt; juxtapose Ian and Toula against the more stereotypical characters in order to show what they are attempting to overcome. If that was the attempt I'm stretching to get it. The film's tone defies that explanation a couple times throughout the film.

The film is still very amusing at times, like when Ian's parents are introduced to Toula's family and extended family and they meet Toula's six cousins and nephews all named Nick and her cousin Nikki. Also, Toula's grandmother, who was brought over from the old country and is always trying to go back.

The laughs are there and so is the heart. Despite the stereotypes each character is shown to have a great heart and is written with love. The film is drawn from Vardoulas' own life so she does genuinely love each of these characters, so her broad interpretation of each character is done with love. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a light, fun little film with some solid laughs. I recommend you check it out, especially if you are Greek.

Movie Review: The Sweetest Thing

The Sweetest Thing (2002) 

Directed by Roger Kumble 

Written by Nancy Pimental 

Starring Cameron Diaz, Thomas Jane, Selma Blair, Christina Applegate

Release Date April 12th, 2002

The battle for the title of Worst Film of 2002 is a three-film race so far. There is John Mctiernan's expression of audience hatred, Rollerball, Dominique Swain's spiraling career suicide in Tart, and now Cameron Diaz's inexplicable The Sweetest Thing. This bizarre, gross, deeply failing comedy somehow manages to make the terrific Cameron Diaz look like a terrible person. That should tell you all you need to know about The Sweetest Thing. 

The Sweetest Thing begins in documentary style with guys talking straight to the camera about a girl named Christina who broke their hearts. This pre-credit sequence seems tacked on as if the director realized that the script didn't bother to introduce the character Cameron Diaz is playing so he had to do something desperate to get some exposition into the movie to provide comic credentials for Diaz's character. 

Once we are into the actual film we meet Christina (Cameron Diaz), your typical flighty movie chick dancing in the streets of San Francisco. Where are these pixie-ish girls who dance in the streets with no regard for the world around them? Oh right, mental hospitals.  Christina and her friend Courtney (Christina Applegate) meet up at Christina's apartment where their friend Jane (Selma Blair) is crying over a lost boyfriend. Christina and Courtney give her the typical advice, forget about Mr. Right and go get Mr. Right Now. How clever! 

The three friends go to a club where Christina meets Peter Donahue (Thomas Jane). Initially, Christina and Peter are adversarial but then they keep meeting and grow to like each other. Peter eventually invites Christina to a party but she decides not to go. Why? Well, if she goes, we wouldn't have this idiot plot where Christina has to try and find this great guy she met a this party. Oh, and she didn't get his phone number either for the same reason. 

One of my movie pet peeves is when an entire film hinges on a situation easily resolved by a brief conversation but left unresolved in service of the plot. In The Sweetest Thing all they had to do is what anyone in that situation would have done, either go to the party or exchange phone numbers. If they did that though we wouldn't have the lame road sequence where the girls have wacky things happen, like Christina's discovery of what a glory hole is. Oh so clever.

I doubt the glory hole has ever been used for a good laugh in a film, there is probably a reason for that, but The Sweetest Thing doesn't stop there. The film includes a sequence where the girls start a restaurant singalong about penis size, and poor abused Selma Blair has a scene where let's just say something gets stuck somewhere.

Writer Nancy Pimental and Director Roger Kumble want to roll around in the same mud as There's Something About Mary and the American Pie movies, but they forget what it was that made those movies funny. There's Something About Mary and American Pie 1 & 2 were funny because the disgusting jokes were in context and framed against characters who earned our sympathy. The Sweetest Thing never bothers to introduce the characters, they expect that we will like them because we like the stars. That was not enough for me.

The Sweetest Thing is legitimately hard to watch. Rather than relating to the characters I was embarrassed for the stars trapped in the film’s humiliating and stupid situations. The Sweetest Thing is a complete embarrassment. 

Movie Review: Frailty

Frailty (2002) 

Directed by Bill Paxton 

Written by Brent Hanley 

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Levi Kreis, Bill Paxton 

Release Date April 12th, 2002 

Published April 12th, 2002

I have never liked Bill Paxton in a movie. In fact, after watching him destroy any chance I had to enjoy Titanic, I outright loathed him. I've gotten over the Titanic thing but my opinion of Paxton hasn't improved much. Paxton's resume boasts a number of titles that I have panned over the years including Vertical Limit, Mighty Joe Young and Trespass. Some have told me he's very good in A Simple Plan, I haven't seen it because he's in it.

The image of Paxton that I can't seem to shake though is his turn as Chet in Weird Science. For as long as I see Bill Paxton I will see that brutish pig, farting and saying intensely stupid things. It's actually his best performance. This is the bias I brought to my viewing of Paxton's directorial debut Frailty.

On a rainy Dallas, Texas night, FBI agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) arrives at his office to interview a man who claims to have evidence in Doyle's current investigation of the so-called God's Hand Killer. In Doyle's office sits a man calling himself Fenton Mieks (Matthew Mcconaughey) and he does have a heck of a story to tell. Fenton explains that he knows who the God's Hand Killer is, because he is his brother Adam (Levi Kreis). Of course Doyle is skeptical, but after a small part of Fenton's story is confirmed he decides to hear him out. From there Fenton rolls into a tale right out of a Stephen King novel.

In flashback, we see Fenton and his younger brother Adam walking home from school. The boy's mother is dead and they are raised by their loving father (Paxton). Things turn bad when, in the middle of the night, Fenton's Dad has what he says was a vision from God telling him that there are demons walking in human form, and that the family has been chosen by God to kill the demons. Young Adam believes his Dad without question but Fenton is frightened and believes his father is crazy. From there Fenton and Adam are forced by their father to witness and take part in brutal killings that Dad says aren't murders, because they weren't human.

Young Fenton is played by Matthew O'Leary. Far from his cute villain in Spy Kids 2, O'Leary carries a great deal of the film's drama and carries it off very well. As for Paxton, while many were impressed by his performance, all I could see was that same rock headed lummox he played in Weird Science and Trespass and just about everything else he's been in. McConaughey is strong but undone by the film's ridiculous ending.

It isn't just the ending that bothered me about Frailty. While I must credit Paxton on his directing, which is sure handed and frighteningly good in a number of scenes, the film has a rote quality to it. As the film is telling a gripping story about Fenton's horrific childhood trauma, Boothe and McConaughey are setting up the finale which goes completely off the deep end. Granted that it had very little choice of where to go. With any conventional ending being way too obvious, Paxton and writer Bett Hanley had to do something twisty. Unfortunately, what they chose is so off the charts ridiculous that the film collapses.

Paxton may have a good future as a director, but more importantly, anything that might keep him from acting is fine by me.

Movie Review: Changing Lanes

Changing Lanes (2002) 

Directed by Roger Mitchell 

Written by Michael Tolkin 

Starring Ben Affleck, Samuel L Jackson, Toni Collette, Sidney Pollack, William Hurt, Amanda Peet 

Release Date April 12th, 2002 

Published April 11th, 2002 

Each and every one of us has been there. We've all done it. All of us have done something that to this day we still regret. Be it cheating, lying or stealing, often all three at the same time. Ethically there is no justification for these actions but at the time it was what suited our needs and we were able to rationalize it to the point where we can live with the consequences. It is such a moral quandary that is at the heart of the gripping drama Changing Lanes.

Lanes stars Ben Affleck as high-powered attorney Gavin Banek who, while on his way to court to file some very important papers, has a minor fender bender with a man named Doyle Gipson played by Samuel L. Jackson. Gipson is also on his way to court, he is trying to save his marriage by buying a home and therefore convincing his wife that he has changed. You see Gipson is a recovering alcoholic. Fate is a funny thing and Gavin, in a hurry, tries to pay Doyle off to forget what happened. Gipson refuses, so Banek takes off and leaves Doyle on the side of the road. When Doyle asks for a ride Gavin replies "better luck next time". What Gavin doesn't know is that he has lost his precious file and Doyle has it.

This setup could have lead to a series of action movie clichés like gunplay and fistfights and vows of revenge, but director Roger Michell and writers Michael Tolkin and Chap Taylor choose instead to make a more grounded film. They allow the characters bruised egos and bravado to carry the story through its series of plausible arcs.

Affleck has never been better. I thought I might have a hard time taking him seriously, as by reputation he doesn't take himself seriously. And for the first half of the film I was having a hard time believing him. However through a series of well written scenes and strong supporting actors (Toni Collette as Gavin's colleague and former lover, Amanda Peet as Gavin's wife and director Sydney Pollock as his boss), Affleck proves he can carry a drama as well as he can do comedy.

Sam Jackson is easy to take for granted. Myself, I walk into his movies and assume he'll be great and he hasn't proved me wrong yet. In Changing Lanes, Jackson plays a man who desperately wants to be a good person but can't resist trouble. As William Hurt as Doyle's AA sponsor says, Doyle is addicted to chaos.

Changing Lanes shows the thin line between right and wrong and does so with honesty and a clear vision. Right and wrong are merely choices with morals and ethics as the lowest common denominator. The film never allows anyone to become a villain. Each character is able to explain the motivation behind their seemingly unethical acts and they do so in ways that are actually very understandable. 

Amanda Peet's character is most effective at getting this point across, explaining her motivations that are on the surface sad and depressing but the underlying reason is a plausible decision she has made to be comfortable instead of happy. In the end there is very little black and white just a lot of gray. We would all like to do the right thing all the time and expect others to do so as well, but we don't live in a fairy tale.

Changing Lanes is no fairy tale, it is an honest observation of humanity, wart and all. Few films have the courage to do what this film does. It avoids formula and actually attempts to say something. For those of you who are just looking for a popcorn movie you may think this to be a little heavy but trust me, the film as a whole is as entertaining as it's message is resonant.

Movie Review National Lampoon's Van Wilder

National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002) 

Directed by Walt Becker

Written by Brent Goldberg

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Tim Matheson, Todd Black, Tara Reid, Simon Helberg, Aaron Paul, Kal Penn, Tom Everett Scott

Release Date April 5th, 2002 

Published April 4th, 2002 

Another college comedy, how original, I mean we haven't seen that in what, a week? 2 weeks? Oh, but this college comedy is from National Lampoon, the people behind Chevy Chase's career meltdown and a long list of tremendously unfunny comedies. Save for the 1977 masterpiece Animal House ironically also a college based comedy.

Van Wilder (Ryan Reynolds) is the big man on campus at fictional Coolidge College and has been for 7 years. Unfortunately for Van, his father (Animal House star Tim Matheson) is no longer willing to pay for his tuition. This means Van and his wacky sidekicks must find a way to pay for Van to stay. This leads to plots, schemes, parties, topless girls and drunken mayhem, as if you could make a college comedy without those things. The film, having covered the college comedy requirements, now must add a love interest and a nemesis. Enter Tara Reid as a journalism major doing a story on Van and her evil frat-guy boyfriend (Todd Black).

I have spent the better part of this review running this movie down when in actuality there was a lot about it I liked. The film’s star, Ryan Reynolds, is amazingly charismatic with impeccable comic timing and a unique way of delivering a line. Even if what he's saying isn't meant to be funny it still makes you smile. Tara Reid may not be the most believable journalism major but as the subject of every man's lust she perfectly fits the bill.

In the legend and lore of college comedy, Animal House and the little seen PCU run as the best of the genre, and the recent Sorority Boys, falls as the absolute worst. I would say Van Wilder falls somewhere in the middle with Rodney Dangerfield's Back To School. It's not great but it's not horribly unwatchable. On a side note, Van Wilder is not for the squeamish. A scene with a character masturbating a dog is rather disgusting but its aftermath may drive some of you out of the theater.

Is Van Wilder worth seeing? Yes, but wait for the DVD, which will likely come within the next 3 or 4 months.

Movie Review High Crimes

High Crimes (2002)

Directed by Carl Franklin 

Written by Yuri Zetser

Starring Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, James Caviezel, Adam Scott, Amanda Peet, Michael Shannon

Release Date April 5th, 2002 

Published April 5th, 2002 

The team of Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman is a strong one. In Kiss the Girls their chemistry made what could have been a mundane suspense thriller into an entertaining suspense thriller. Thankfully. Judd and Freeman bring that same chemistry to High Crimes.

As we join the story Claire Kubik (Judd), is rolling out of bed and searching for her husband Tom (Jim Caviezel). The two are trying to have a baby. Claire is a lawyer; her most recent case has gotten her on TV and dangerously raised her profile. After getting her client off on a technicality her house is broken into. The next night as she and her husband are walking home and the FBI jumps out of nowhere and arrests them. It seems that as the police were investigating the break in her husband’s fingerprints came up as a match with a man wanted by military justice for the execution-style killings that took place during a military raid in El Salvador.

Claire wants to defend her husband but finds military courts to be far different than the court she is used to. So Claire employs the help of an ex-military lawyer named Charlie Grimes (Freeman). Also on the team is a naive young military lawyer played by Adam Scott and Claire's sister played by Amanda Peet.

Ashley Judd is very strong in High Crimes, her character through most of the film is never predictable. Though at the end she has one of those rather obvious but necessary scenes that you must have in average clockwork thrillers. Judd is better than the material she's given, which you could say about most of the films she has made. One of these days she will get a script as strong as she is.

Not that this script is bad, writer Yuri Zeltser takes what isn't very original and twists it just enough to make it interesting. Though the trailer gives away too much (I rented it already knowing the ending intuitively), there is just enough suspense to make the film entertaining. Of course the film is blessed to have such a sensational cast to carry out its clockwork plot.

High Crimes is indeed another by the book suspense thriller, set apart only by the great acting. Director Carl Franklin wrings just enough good dialogue and suspense out of the thin script to make an entertaining Friday night rental.

Movie Review: Big Trouble

Big Trouble (2002) 

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld 

Written by Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, Dave Barry 

Starring Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Ben Foster, Stanley Tucci, Johnny Knoxville, Tom Sizemore, Jason Lee

Release Date April 5th, 2002 

Published October 14th, 2002 

Of the many things to be lost in the shuffle after 9/11, one of the strangest was the movie Big Trouble. 

A comedy based on a book by humorist Dave Barry and directed by Men In Black’s Barry Sonnenfeld, Big Trouble stars Tim Allen as a Dave Barry-like newspaper columnist who becomes involved with a plot to buy a nuclear weapon. Because the nuclear weapon was at a certain point in the film on an airplane, the film became a hot potato and was pulled from it’s September 2001 release. After nearly 8 months on the shelf the film finally made it to the big screen on April 5th and tanked badly. Now the film is available on DVD, and it deserves a second chance.

Tim Allen stars as Eliot Arnold who, after being fired from his job writing for a newspaper, takes up advertising only to find his sense of humor unappreciated by clients who believe naked flesh is the best way to sell products. Outside of work Eliot is dealing with a divorce and a teenage son who thinks he is a loser. Ben Foster is Eliot’s son Matt who is constantly making fun of Dad for driving a Geo Metro, a perfectly Dave Barry bit.

Matt is pursuing a girl in his school named Jenny Herk, whose father, Arthur (Stanley Tucci), is jerk who is in trouble with the mob. Jenny’s mother, Anna (Rene Russo), is slowly realizing that she hates Arthur and can’t remember why she married the jerk. After Matt attempts to shoot Jenny at her house with a water gun as part of a twisted high school game, Eliot comes to pick him up and he and Anna hit it off. 

Meanwhile Arthur is being pursued by two hitmen, played by Dennis Farina and Jack Kehler, and Arthur is attempting to get back at the mob by purchasing a nuclear weapon from a pair of Russian bar owners. As Arthur is making his purchase at the bar, two moron thieves, Johnny Knoxville and Tom Sizemore, decide to rob the place and end up stealing the nuclear weapon. All of these people come together when the morons kidnap Arthur and go to his place to rob it. 

Also in the cast are Patrick Warburton and Janeane Garofalo as cops, and a very funny cameo by Andy Richter as a bumbling mall security guard. Also, Jason Lee as the film's narrator Puggy, a homeless guy who witnesses everything while living in a tree outside the Herk’s home. Let us not forget Heavy D and Omar Epps as FBI agents with an executive order that allows them to do anything they want.

The film is often very funny, but it’s also very muddled. There are numerous moments where the film's story could have been tightened up. For instance, though I thought Andy Richter’s cameo was funny, it has nothing to do with the main story and easily could have been cut without affecting the central story. Director Barry Sonnenfeld likely had to keep the Richter cameo just to keep the film feature length. The film is a mere 89 minutes long.

Despite the running time and the occasionally lackadaisical scripting, Big Trouble is still a very funny movie. It’s all in the dialogue, screenwriters Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone smartly retain most of Dave Barry’s original dialogue. It is the dialogue and the spirited cast that make Big Trouble so much fun. Given the release date shenanigans and the unfortunate 9/11 related issues, it's a wonder that Big Trouble made it to release at all. Now that it is available on home video, I hope people forget the trouble and give this movie a chance.