Daniel J. Stasiewski, A & E Editor
The Behrend Beacon
Always Mr. Nice Guy
Stiles and Lee can’t get it together in “A Guy Thing.”
by Daniel J. Stasiewski
While a normal raunch comedy would bombard its audience
with in-your-face boob and fart jokes, some excessively unsubtle
humor could have helped “A Guy Thing.” That's not to say gross
out jokes are a great addition to every film, but this tentative
romantic comedy makes too many unsuccessful attempts at be
ing edgy.
Combined with a tepid love story, this boring attempt at a
twenty-something “American Pie” is as restrained and unfunny
as a nun trying to tell a dirty joke.
The morning after his bachelor party, groom-to-be Paul Morse
(Jason Lee) wakes up with a Tiki dancer (Julia Stiles) in his
bed. Assuming he cheated, Paul quickly shuffles the girl out of
his apartment just moments before his fiancee Sarah (Selma
Blair) shows up. Paul blames any peculiar behavior on a hang
over and is able hide his impromptu slumber party from his
future wife.
Paul quickly seeks advice from every guy he knows, but even
his brother, who lusts after Sarah, tells him keep the secret and
get married. Reluctantly, Paul agrees until he finds out the girl
in his bed was actually Sarah’s cousin Becky.
It doesn’t take long for Paul to confront Becky, especially
since the family tie makes a confession inevitable. When Becky
tells Paul they only slept in the same bed, Paul is relieved at
first, but discovers the idea of cheating was actually a way of
becoming free. Soon, Paul reexamines his entire relationship
and begins to see Becky as the spontaneous person he always
wanted.
“A Guy Thing” begins at Paul’s bachelor party. The usually
high-spirited, often-wild pre-wedding tradition comes of as in
competently low-key. The most outrageous part of the entire
party is when Jason Lee’s character allows his best man to act
as the groom. It’s this devastating trepidation that sets the tone
of the film.
At least Paul will eventually admit he is boring, but his un
wavering dullness is apparent in even in his fantasies were he
Sundance promotes alternatives to Hollywood mix
By Duane Dudek
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Golden Globes and the Sundance
Film Festival seem to represent drastically
different constituencies, but, in fact, they
do intersect.
Golden Globe winner Nicole Kidman
and Golden Globe nominee Julianne
Moore have both been in films at the festi
val, and nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal is
hosting the festival’s closing ceremonies
Saturday. And Hollywood royalty such as
Dustin Hoffman, Katie Holmes and A 1
Pacino can be seen on the screen and on
the street here.
Festival founder Robert Redford per
sonifies this synergy.
His struggles in Hollywood convinced
him of the need for a home where artists
with vision could be nurtured, and his suc
cess in Hollywood helped him build it. He
founded the festival in 1985 with 40 films
and has seen explosive growth since.
Today, he is largely a figurehead, others
pick the films shown here, but for 10 days
each January, he is king of Sundance.
Sunday, on the festival’s fourth day, he
followed an announcement of a program
to bring independent films to Loews The
ater multiplexes starting this year with an
interview on a wide range of subjects, in
cluding arts, politics and his own career.
Redford said he made himself accessible
“to remind people of who we are, what we
are doing and why we are doing it.”
But he also did so, he said, because he
sensed a “nervousness out there about the
political climate” and felt a need to stress
the relationship between “independent film
and freedom of expression.”
A&E Editor
Debate and dissent, Redford said, are
now being treated as “unpatriotic, and I
think that’s dangerous.” Fear became “a
factor in the marketplace” after Sept. 11,
PRESS
Actor and Sundance founder Robert
Redford
he said, when “some films were pulled off
the schedules” because they “might rock
the boat politically.”
If it’s bad business to put out a film that’s
unpatriotic, that's business and politics
combining to stifle freedom of expression,
Redford said. “My own personal opinion
is to let the audience decide.”
If Redford sounds like a politician, he
is, of sorts. He is planning to direct and
star in a sequel to his 1972 film “The Can
didate,” playing the same character now
in office and set “exactly as much later as
it is.” But a real political life doesn’t inter
est him.
can be anything he wants. Any contact in his fantasies (usually
someone beating the hell out of someone else) looks more play
ful than dangerous. And that is what his fantasies should try to
avoid since he is, in the real world, a by-the-book kind of guy.
But how by-the-book is a guy who gets crabs and scratches
his crotch with a presentation pointer in front of a group of board
members? This is where a rif- occurs that I just don’t under
stand. Jason Lee isn’t a sex symbol, yet his boyish sensitivity
allows for a romantic role to be all too believable, charming
even. When’s attempting to charm us with a ten-minute diar
rhea gag that ends up dying a slow and painful death, his ability
to romanticize the story is Hushed down the toilet.
Lee’s co-star Julia Stiles is treated just as unfairly. Her char
acter is first portrayed as a clumsy bimbo; a role the confident
and dramatic Stiles has trouble pulling off. Stiles’ grace and
agility as an actress is thrown to the waste side for an awkward
klutz usually reserved for Sandra Bullock. SJtiles soon becomes
a fearless and intelligent woman, only to then be transformed in
to a meek little girl. Her character's foundation is as solid as the
rest of the pillow soft plot.
It’s quite obvious that Stiles and Lee end up together. Lee has
a supposed epiphany at the altar in a hackneyed storybook fash
ion and calls it all off for Stiles. Still, Lee doesn't change, Stiles
doesn’t charm, and the jokes don’t entertain. “A Guy Thing”
ends just as it began: safe, insipid, and utterly spineless. Maybe
if Lee had violated a pie it all would have been worth it. But, all
we got was crabs.
out of
4 stars
Friday, January 24, 2003
PHOTO COURTESY OF ZAP2IT.COM
‘A Guy Thing, ’directed, by
Chris Koch, starring Ja
son Lee, Julia Stiles, and
Selma Blair, is currently
showing at Tinsletown.
“It’s a system 1 don’t think I could sur
vive in,” he said. “1 have the wrong tem
perament for it. I’m very political, I exer
cise my rights as a citizen, and I’m inter
ested in the issues of our times.”
But, he added, he loves making films:
“I see myself as an artist, (not as) a busi
nessman or politician.”
His upcoming art includes “The Clear
ing,” an “intelligent thriller, rather dark,”
in which he stars with Willem Dafoe; a
Western called “The Outrider”; and a film
with Lasse Hallstrom. He also will be di
recting a film on George Washington;
“Time and Again,” a project he has tried
to make for 20 years, based on a book by
Jack Finney with a script by Kenneth
Lonergan; and “The Sea of Green,” a
drama based on an upcoming book about
radical political fugitives.
Redford believes “the principal purpose”
of the films at Sundance, and films in gen
eral, “is to entertain. And if you have a
social, cultural or political” message to
interject, “it should be couched within the
frame of entertainment.”
And if it’s getting harder to tell Sundance
and the Golden Globes apart, Redford
views this development “as a sort of ac
ceptance of what we’ve done right.”
Sundance’s growing popularity, he said,
means that people are drawn by the chance
to see films “they can’t see anywhere else,
and, in that sense, (these alternative films)
become kind of commercial. It’s interest-
What’s important at the festival “is the
mix,” Redford said.
“We’re not saying that Hollywood
isn’t any good,” he said. “We’re just
saying there are other films that we want
you to see.”
ABC using big game to promote
'Alias,' 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'
By Ed Bark
The Dallas Morning News
Ratings-impaired ABC hopes to put
a better foot forward this week by using
Super Bowl XXXVII to kick off a new
Monday night lineup, a special episode
of “Alias” and a chancy late night talk
show. Expect to see lots of “Dragnet”
promos, too.
Using the big game as a promotional
platform is business as usual, but sel
dom to this extent. Here are the stakes:
Sunday’s contest between Oakland
and Tampa Bay will leave a big audi
ence available for a post-game episode
of “Alias.” The second-year spy drama
is still struggling in the ratings despite
generally favorable reviews and ABC’s
best efforts to trumpet its slinky star,
Jennifer Gamer. A Super Bowl back
wash should give “Alias” at least twice
as many viewers as the 9.3 million it’s
currently averaging on Sundays.
Later the same night, ABC will walk
its first high-wire with Jimmy Kimmel.
The former co-host of “The Man Show”
will be dangerously live from the El
Capitan Entertainment Centre on Hol
lywood Boulevard. Sunday’s showcase
is 0 preview of the controversial comic’s
new weeknightly adventures in a post
’’jsfightline” time slot.
“There’s no question we’ll be cleaner
than 'The Man Show,”’ he says from
the set of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” “But
it’ll still be dirtier than any of the other
(late-night) shows.”
More on him later. ABC also will use
the Super Bowl to push a new “Super
Monday” lineup of “Veritas: The
Quest,” “The Practice” (transplanted
from Sundays in a risky move) and
“Miracles.” Then next Sunday comes a
new version of “Dragnet” starring “Mar
ried ... With Children’s” Ed O’Neill as
clip-lipped Sgt. Joe Friday.
' KimmeFs"shou\ produced by his
Jackhole Industries in partnership with
Disney’s Touchstone Television, is eas
ily ABC’s biggest crapshoot. He does
have an important friend in a high place,
though. ABC Entertainment Television
Group chairman Lloyd Braun has staked
his reputation, and perhaps his future
with the network, on his firm belief that
Kimmel will prove to be a long-running
late-night sensation. If so, it would heal
the deep wounds Braun suffered after
failing to lure David Letterman from
CBS.
“He and I are very much in love,”
Kimmel jokes, referring to Braun. “I
don’t think it’s any secret that Lloyd has
a very personal interest in the show.”
Braun’s immediate objective is to lower
expectations.
"As good as Jimmy’s going to be on
Sunday night, he’s gonna be raw,” he
says. “He’s going live after the Super
Bowl, and he’s human. A week after his
first show, he’s going to be five times
better.”
“As long as the show progresses,
we’re in it for the long haul,” Braun
adds. “You don’t go with somebody like
Jimmy, who is a relative unknown, and
at the same time have some kind of short
trigger.”
Going live on a nightly basis could
be akin to playing with dynamite. Ex
ecutive producer Daniel Kellison, who
lEB Movie of the Week: ‘Red Dragon’
Hopkins returns as Hannibal Lecter in 'Red Dragon'
(2 1/2 stars out of 4)
Despite the impeccable casting of Ed Norton as an FBI profiler and Anthony Hopkins
as psycho-killer Hannibal Lecter, this film that is both the prequel to “Silence of the
Lambs” and a remake of the effective 1986 thriller “Manhunter,” loses its fire midway,
nearly flickering out by its perfunctory conclusion. As serial killer Francis Dolarhyde,
Ralph Fiennes is oddly toothless, approximately as menacing as a Ralph Lauren model.
2 hrs. 06 R (violence, gore, nudity, sexual candor) Carrie Rickey, Knight Rider
News.
'Red Dragon' will be showing Jan. 30 at 9:30 p.m. and Jan. 31 and Feb. lat 10 p.m.
in Reed 117.
behrcolls@aol.com
previously guided Rosie O’Donnell’s
daytime show, doesn’t expect too much
smooth sailing.
“It will seem bumpy probably to a lot
of you guys, and you’ll say it’s sloppy
and slapped together," Kellison pre
dicts. “And maybe part of that will be
true, but ultimately that’s the nature of
a live show.”
Kimmel will deploy weekly guest
hosts (the first is Snoop Dogg) as well
as his real-life Uncle Frank in the role
of “security guard.” The house band is
led by Kimmel's childhood friend, Cleto
Escobedo Jr., whose six-piece ensemble
includes his father, Cleto Sr.
A-list guests have been elusive so far.
A handful of confirmed bookings in
clude Bemie Mac and Don King.
“I’m not looking to slay people when
they come out here,” Kimmel says. “But
if somebody’s the eighth most famous
person on 'Celebrity Mole: Hawaii,’
we’re going to talk about that. ... It’s
different, because on 'The Man Show’
and Win Ben Stein’s Money,’ I didn’t
have to pretend to be interested in the
person next to me.”
Whatever emerges, it won’t be a fac
simile of Jay Lcno’s “Tonight Show.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF CANADA.COM
Jimmy Kimmel looks to liven up late
night.
“They were not happy when I told TV
Guide that I was going to do a comedy
version of 'The Tonight Show,”’
Kimmel says.
He’s still hoping to juice his studio
audience with free alcoholic drinks, but
ABC is resisting that idea.
“It’s always our intent to get people
as drunk as possible,” Kimmel says.
“We’re trying to work it out legally. But
we’ll have heroin needles and stuff back
there.”
But seriously, folks ...
“You probably haven’t been to a show
in L A. as a regular studio audience
member, but it’s pretty miserable,”
Kimmel explains. “It doesn’t matter if
it’s raining or what’s going on. You
stand out there for three hours. They
poke you with cattle prods to set in and
then you’re forced to laugh and applaud
at certain times. I want to make it more
of an evening out where people actu
ally enjoy themselves from the begin
ning until the end. And most shows
aren’t like that. It’s pretty brutal.”
Off- or on-air, it seems clear that no
show will be quite like “Jimmy Kimmel
Live.” Now it’s all up to the freewheel
ing host to play bumper cars while at
the same time avoiding a train wreck.
“I’m still sitting in my bedroom at
home going, 'Geez, I don’t know if I
can do this,”’ he says. “It’s a weird situ
ation to be in. And I guess we’ll all find
out.”
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