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Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 20:42:19 -0400
From: maillist@moviejuice.com
Subject: [MV] MovieJuice! - Week of September 20, 1998
RUSH HOUR - BEVERLY HILLS CHOP
by Mark Ramsey
http://www.moviejuice.com
September 20, 1998
I was ready to check my brain at the door to this theater. Unfortunately the coat rack was chocked full with a wide variety of frontal lobes in every shape and size. So in I went to take my medicine which I strongly suspected would be fatal.
Whoa! Hey Mikey, I liked it!
Surprise, surprise, Rush Hour is gobs of fun. Gobs and gobs. In fact, this is the kind of fun Lethal Weapon used to be before the Holy Roman Numeral empire invaded and comic-relief guest stars and love interests began popping out like Peter Falk's glass eye when he concentrates really hard.
Now don't get me wrong. This ain't no cinematic revolution, and there's nothing novel about this formula. And no, snoot-heads, Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks ain't in it, and Spielberg wouldn't wipe his ass with this script (if only because he's got people who do that for him). Don't go looking for a paradigm shift or even a March-of-Dimes shift here, unless you mean the shift from Wheel of Fortune to Hollywood Squares.
Think of this as Beverly Hills Cop - The Next Generation. And that's okay with me, because this movie is more fun than a barrel of monkeys - and that includes the upcoming stinks-from-here epic Mighty Joe Young.
Rush Hour features Chris Tucker in a role which more than makes up for his last gig in the constitutionally cruel and humiliatingly unusual punishment called The Fifth Element. Can you believe how high-pitched this guy's voice is? Rumor has it that Puff Daddy sampled Tucker for his new song titled "Silently Calling all Dogs!"
During the recent MTV Music Awards, Tucker was chatting with Madonna when his snake charmer pitch coaxed her nipples free of their faux Hindu wrappings, causing them to jingle jangle across the stage, clapping together like cavernous finger cymbals celebrating the great Vishnu and magnetizing Nielsen families across the land into a chorus of stunned acquiescence that passes for viewership nowadays. Yes, people were peeking and meters were peaking as Madonna expressed her spirituality in the only way that focuses our attention: with boobies blaring! Jimmy Swaggert, take note! May I suggest a muscle-shirt?
Tucker is often confused with Chris Rock, but get it straight: Chris Rock is funny like a sonofabitch. Chris Tucker talks like a girl. That's it. Plus, thanks to his vocal range, Chris could play in a children's movie - as the children, that is.
All Tucker doubt aside, James Earl Jones on helium couldn't do a better job of it than Chris. This guy's got it! This Chris Rocks! How do you not get a kick out of lines like "I'm Michael Jackson, you Tito; your ass belongs to me."
And let's not forget Far Eastern good luck charm Jackie Chan. "You want a Cup O' Noodles or something?" Chris asks Jackie. The Chan-man is my Buddha's Delight, baby! He's the Fred Astaire of the Martial Arts flick, and while Chris may not be Ginger Rogers, he's a dandy Leslie Caron. Look out Chinese Mafia, it's Jackie and Blackie to the rescue!
I saw Jackie belt out some Presley tune on the Howie Doody Mandel show recently (yes, that's right. That was me watching). And all I can say is that Jackie may not be able to speak English, but he sure sings it better than Elvis.
So, as in all cop/buddy movies, our unlikely duo teams up to fight crime and save the girl (the aptly named "Soo Yung"). Jackie and Slappy venture to Chinatown (where every crook owns a restaurant, it seems) to take on the venomous but much admired "Too Hung," the odious "Dog Dung," the diminutive "Tom Thumb," and the emaciated poseur-child for bulimia, "Ally McBeal."
Unfortunately, Ally and Jackie face off. When Ally shakes her fist in a fit of unhinged fury, her wrist breaks clean in half, since gravity is too strong a force for her fragile, bird-like bones. Thank God producer David Kelley was on the scene. Looking on in horror, Kelley quickly penned an episode where Ally's hand comes to life and dances across the sink in the unisex bathroom, thus guaranteeing Emmy nominations by the truckload.
Tired though the whole buddy cop concept may be, Jackie and Wacky are energetic dynamos. They're like humanoid action/comedy Altoids - seriously strong salt and peppermints, with a fresh, what-the-hell attitude only seen in up-and-coming stars with something to prove. The mix may not be new, but as NBC likes to say, Jackie and Tacky make it "new to you."
See Rush Hour. You'll laugh your ass off.
Copyright 1998 Mark Ramsey. All rights reserved. NO PORTION MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.
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Hey, kids, don't forget to visit the MovieJuice! Site at http://www.moviejuice.com. The pictures are half the fun (and sometimes more than half the laughs)!
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Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 20:32:27 EDT
From: FTWeekly00@aol.com
Subject: [MV] Film Threat Weekly : 9-21-98 : Slate II, Take 39
FILM THREAT WEEKLY
"Hollywood's Indie Voice of the New Millennium"
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Slate II, Take 39 : September 21st, 1998
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http://www.filmthreat.com
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"What a dump."
- - Bette Davis raging at her smalltown Wisconsin home in King Vidor's "Beyond
