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The Behrend Beacon
‘Guru’ filled with cheap humor,
guilty pleasures
_ _jRAPH BY RON T. ENNI
Heather Graham, left, with co-star Jimi Mistry in the upcoming movie “The Guru.”
by Chris Vognar
The Dallas Morning News
"The Guru" has much in common with the average, dumb
Hollywood comedy. It boasts a broad and obvious misun
derstanding that sets up and then threatens to destroy a bud
ding romance, and it has the usual assortment of shrewish
and/or devious secondary characters. But there's something
random and hard to resist at the movie's core, something to
do with frank sex and lively dance that transforms it from
just a bad movie to a good bad movie.
From a cultural standpoint, "The Guru" is Hollywood's
most overt attempt to pick up on the international phenom
enon known as Bollywood. Fans of the enormous Indian
film industry know what the B word entails: Melodrama
galore, star-crossed romance and, most important, full-scale
ensemble dance numbers with blow-out-the-budget ward
robes. Some Indian critics have taken Bollywood produc
tions to task for being frivolous, but this quality makes it
perfect for "The Guru," which wears its frivolity on its
sleeve.
The appealing star is Jimi Mistry, an English-bred Indian
actor with the pluck to keep his chin up through a series of
comedy cliches. Mistry plays Ramu, a dance instructor who
moves from India to New York in his pursuit of stardom.
But a wacky misunderstanding finds him auditioning for a
pom director (Michael McKean, who manages to be dead
pan and over the top at the same time) and falling for a pom
star (Heather Graham) who lives a squeaky-clean life out
side the studio. And yet another misunderstanding finds him
D’Onofrio wants to play it bad
Vincent D'Onofrio's character in NBC's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" is
one of the most idiosyncratic on television, a homicide cop with Sherlock
Holmes-like deductive powers and an interrogation style that goes way beyond
"in your face." More like "in your nose." Det. Robert Goren pops up suddenly,
like Horton hearing a Who. But sometimes he's just not odd enough for D'Onofrio,
who's played everything
from a freaked-out Marine
("Full Metal Jacket") to an
intergalactic terrorist ("Men
in Black") to a despicable
chemist/drug dealer ("The
Salton Sea"). He has villain
envy
"Sometimes we have
criminals that I want to play
so badly," D'Onofrio con
fessed to a group of TV crit
ics in Hollywood last week.
"Fred Berner, one of our
producers, is basically in
charge of our casting. And
he always brings in these
really good actors. Once
they start performing, I
think, Well, OK, he’s going
to do it. He's going to do it
great.' I better stop worrying
about it because I ain't ever
going to get there on our
show."
He takes comfort in know
ing he can satisfy his urge to
play weirdos in films when he's on hiatus from the series
"I'm never going to stop being a character actor," he said. "I'm never going
to stop having my imagination. You know, my good friends think that every
choice I make, I make it to destroy my career. It's actually just because I'm
interested in that far-out stuff - you know, sometimes. And sometimes I'm inter
ested in just everyday men that I could play."
by Noel Holston
Los Angeles Times
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assuming the role of a celebrity sex guru for the rich, includ
ing an aimless socialite played by Marisa Tomei. And another
... oh, you get the idea.
There are early indications that "The Guru" will rise a bit
higher than its station. The first comes when a room full of
stuffy sticks-in-the mud breaks into an elaborate and spirited
dance number, traipsing through the house to sharp tabla beats.
Such sequences are few and far between, but they all breathe
life into a largely groan-worthy affair and keep you waiting
for the next bit of inspired goofiness.
"The Guru" could have been called "Sex and Zen," if that
title hadn't already been taken by a naughty Hong Kong movie
involving a horse. The so-called guru gets all of his carnal tips
from Graham's skin-flick starlet, comically implying that the
secrets of desire can be mystically unlocked by watching
"Debbie Does Dallas." There's a sly satire on experts, stardom
and the media lurking in here somewhere, though it gets to
emerge only between strained comic set-ups.
This is the kind of movie for which the term "guilty plea
sure" was coined. Much of the humor is cheap, and yet much
of the same humor is also kinda funny. You won't leave the
theater enlightened, and your brain cells may run for cover.
But they're sure to come back once Hollywood's stupid season
subsides. And in the meantime, you might even learn a few
new moves
Grade: C+
Starring Jimi Mistry, Heather Graham, Marisa Tomei and
Michael McKean. Directed by Daisy Von Scherler Mayer.
Rated R (strong sexual content and language). 91 min.
Friday ; January 31, 2003
On ‘Jimmy Kimmel,’ the
bar is now closed
by Paul Brownfield
Los Angeles Times
ABC ushered in its new late-night franchise, "Jimmy Kimmel Live," on Sunday
night, and already the network is making a tweak: It's evidently doing away with
the show's liquor license, after an audience member vomited on her chair, appar
ently in close proximity to a high-ranking Disney executive.
"They thought it was out of control," Daniel Kellison, the show's executive pro
ducer, said Monday of the network's assessment of the atmosphere and decision to
eliminate a bar for audience members. "People had bracelets (to get drinks), but
they perceived it as chaotic."
An ABC official did not return a call for comment
Depending on whom you believe, ABC either wants to perpetuate a nightly bac
chanal in exchange for ratings or is leery of upsetting affiliates across the country.
Kimmel, at least on his first show, seemed eager to suggest that what he was doing
was too risque for Disney's ears.
To that end, there were other first show highlights. Kimmel's co-host for the
week, rapper Snoop Dogg, flipped off the camera numerous times, in a bit designed
to draw attention to the headaches the show will give ABC censors. Actor George
Clooney passed around a bottle of vodka.
Somewhere in all of this is a talk show-the one ABC hopes will give it leverage in
late night among coveted 18-to-34-year-old viewers.
Kellison, who declared himself pleased with the loose, live feel of show No. 1,
said Tuesday night's show was booked (with the Rock, rapper 50 Cent and Super
Bowl sportscaster A 1 Michaels), but no one was booked yet for Wednesday's show.
When it was suggested that the show is merely being spun as a seat-of-the-pants
endeavor, and that things are more planned out than he was letting on, Kellison
said: "When we say we don't have any guests, we don't have any guests."
Five MTV-approved
groups ride the
latest bandwagon
by Jim Farber
New York Daily News
Every media outlet needs to flog new
trends to keep fans riveted. Given the
gnat-like attention span of its audience,
MTV needs to hawk more than most.
Now the network seems to have
hooked into a doozie. All five groups
MTV picked to click during its
"Spankin' New Bands" week saw a
huge sales spike on this week's Bill
board Album chart.
The numbers: Simple Plan shot up 71
percent, the Donnas rose 70 percent, the
Used went up 51 percent, Good Char
lotte added 46 percent and New Found
Glory rose 26 percent.
All these anointed groups can be
roughly described as neo-punk-pop acts
- clearly MTV's idea of the
sound of now. Accoi
ing to programming
czar Tom
Calderone, the
network decided
to back this mu
sic, to the exclu
sion of all others,
"to overstate the
case that rock is
back."
It showcased
the bands on the
popular "TRL"
call-in show to w
prove that "the \
old 'TRL' image \
of Justin
Timberlake and
the Backstreet
Boys is changing."
The bands were
also plugged on the
Infinity Broadcasting
radio network, which,
like MTV, is owned
by Viacom.
"Between the TV and
radio exposure, this was
a massive assault sayin
'these are the band you
should check out,'" notes Ron
Shapiro, vice president of Atlantic teens scream
Records, which pushes the Donnas.
behrcolls@aol.com
MTV didn't pluck the acts out of no
where. Good Charlotte had already sold
gold with its debut CD, "The Young and
the Hopeless," which stands at No. 12
in Billboard's Top 200. The other
groups had been getting heavy buzz on
MTV.com, MTV 2 and the road.
But with MTV's endorsement last
week, Simple Plan went to No. 44 from
No. 59 on the Top 200 and the Donnas
to No. 67 from No. 117. Expect the
Donnas to take another leap next week,
when sales will reflect their appearance
on "Saturday Night Live."
Calderone believes the favored wave
will turn out to represent the true "new
rock," as opposed to the groups picked
by the media last year, like the Strokes,
White Stripes and Vines. He says the
former acts have more male than female
fans and enjoy most of their follow-
sweeps
out two
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ngs in major cities. The
MTV-backed bands
draw both sexes
and have as much
support in mid
size markets as in
big ones.
To Calderone, the
new acts have the
potential to lead
the biggest rock
wave since the
rock-rap days of
Limp Bizkit,
Korn and Kid
Rock three years
ago.
But what
does this say
about MTV's com
mitment to hip hop?
Calderone says the
network will push a
new clutch of rappers
down the road. And, no, he
doesn't think the new rock
spells the end of teen pop.
"It just shows that it's
more diverse," he says.
Meaning, at this
point, you need no longer
need be a teen idol to make
CBS
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