Movie Reviews by: William Tooke
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Few events this year have been more divisive than the case of Ms. Terri Schiavo. The comatose woman's end-of-life case was a firestorm. The issue was a painful one for many people. When one thinks of this type of event, an image of a light romantic-comedy does not come to mind. Yet, in Mark Waters Just Like Heaven, that is exactly what we have.
JLH stars Reese Witherspoon as Dr. Elizabeth Masterson. A workaholic, Type-A doctor, Elizabeth has no time for anything but her work. In a montage set to a cover version of Iggy Pop's Lust For Life (a song actually about heroin addiction), we see Elizabeth taking care of a myriad of different patients at San Francisco's (fictional) St. Matthew's Hospital. Elizabeth is looking for an attending position, and she's battling it out with the rotten Dr. Brett Rushton (Ben Shenkman) for the job. Elizabeth is about to go on a blind date, her first in a while, when she gets some good news. She got the attending position! This leads to her, of course, crashing head first into a Mack truck.
David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo) a recent widower, happens upon Elizabeth's old apartment. He plans on doing nothing but drink beer, watch sports, and morn in peace. Except, out of the blue, is the spectre of Elizabeth. The good Doctor is not the kind soul we first meet, but an uptight woman with a thing for table rings. Small wonder she's been date-free for so long! Of course, David is concerned. What if he is delusional? He meets up with his shrink friend Jack (Donal Logue) who advises him to get out and live. But, in turns out, Elizabeth isn't going away. David recruits a local medium (Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder) who lets him know that Elizabeth is "one of the most alive spirits I've ever been around." David and Elizabeth go on a journey to discover who she is. When they find her attached to feeding tubes in the hospital, they realize they don't have much time, and need to act quickly.
The entire cast is truly wonderful. Mr. Ruffalo, a rock-solid Method actor, has actually carved out a nice niche for himself as a foil in romantic comedies following 13 Going On 30. Always described as a "new Brando," Mr. Ruffalo has a commanding screen presence that is hard to ignore. Plus he has a sense of comic timing that is strong and a can-do spirit that is infectious. Messrs. Logue and Heder do very well in roles that perfectly meet their personalities. Logue, the super-cool best pal, and Heder as the laid-back California commnicator with the afterlife.
But the real star here is Reese Witherspoon. Ms. Witherspoon, ever since her screen debut in The Man In The Moon made when she was 14 and a half, is an actress of incredible range and charisma. Her obvious beauty is stunning; it's quite hard to believe she is merely 5'2," she seems like a statuesque model. But, her acting chops are what seal the deal. She's got impeccable comic timing, so good that she could be an improv comedienne just as well as an actress. She imbues Elizabeth with the Tracy Flick (Ms. Witherspoon's Election character) ambition coupled with Elle Woods (Legally Blonde) pluck and caring. Ms. Witherspoon gives a wonderful performance, which is a great appetizer for what many are considering an Oscar-caliber performance in the upcoming Johnny Cash biopic, Walk The Line.
Mark Waters' direction is adequate. He keeps an extremely brisk pace (it feels much shorter than 95 minutes), but some choppiness exists. The screenplay is oftentimes either more sentimental, or screwball, rather than actually very funny. But, due to the professionalism of everyone involved, the film works. *** stars out of ****
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The Dukes of Hazzard Reviewed by Bill Tooke 08-06-05, send comments to Bill at codasky@aol.com
The Dukes of Hazzard debuted in 1979 and linked the down-home Southernness of the Jimmy Carter years with the freneticism of the 1980s. The show, which ran until 1985, was threadbare in the extreme. The story of Bo and Luke Duke, their Uncle Jessie, and sexy cousin Daisy - running a moonshine operation in the backwoods of Georgia - was goofy, playful, and satisfying; basically televised comfort food. It was also, Catherine Bach's shorts aside, eminently chaste. Even the most innocuous words, such as "hell" and "damn", weren't present. The 2005 film, directed by Jay Chandresekar, of Broken Lizard fame, and starring Johnny Knoxville as Luke and Seann William Scott as Bo, keeps the rebel spirit alive, but kicks up the raunch quotient a notch. It's, in fact, the hardest PG-13 film I've seen in a while, and one of the funniest. In the film, Luke is a true hitmaker with the ladies. Tom Wopat played Luke in the series as the, if not necessarily more intellectual, at least more sensible cousin. In the film, Knoxville plays Luke as a bad-ass skirt chaser. He's a real hedonist - just looking to party and bed as many women as possible. John Schneider played Bo as more of the ladies' man in the series, but Seann William Scott, in a funny turn, plays Bo as a somewhat neurotic kid harboring an unhealthy obsession with the General Lee, the Duke boys’ famous 1969 Dodge Charger. Willie Nelson basically plays himself and does little but spout funny jokes as Uncle Jessie. Jessica Simpson, who poses no threat to Reese Witherspoon as the top blonde Southern actress, preens and poses more than adequately. She has a stunning look about her, and bears a striking resemblance to the late screen siren Jayne Mansfield.
The "plot," as it were, feels recycled from the original show, almost a parody of it. Hazzard County Commissioner Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds, in a performance that closes the loop on Smokey and the Bandit) plans to strip-mine Hazzard County. The sticking point is that the County would not let this happen without a hearing and majority consent. Knowing that this would never fly, Boss schedules the hearing to take place concurrently with the Hazzard County Road Rally (of which Bo is planning to race the General in). The episodic feel to the film has Bo and Luke traveling to Atlanta to figure out what exactly will be mined (turns out it's anthracite coal), and running into some unhappy African-Americans, who are none too pleased with the General's Confederate Flag decal on the roof. Chase scenes run rampantly through the film, and most work surprisingly well (The chase through the City of Atlanta is surprisingly excellent). Only the climactic road rally scene seems forced and uninspired. The cast seems to have a fun time as well. Hollywood is in bad straits. Ticket prices are at an all time high, and people just aren't going to the movies anymore. Big budget films like ”Stealth” and “The Island” ended up D.O.A. After the fairly funny “Wedding Crashers”, and quite funny “Dukes”, the comedic future for Hollywood is bright.