Mom, Helen Hunt should marry teacher Kevin Spacey in Pay It Forward.
Jackie Chan devises a new fighting style in The Legend of Drunken Master.
And Elizabeth Hurley schemes for Brendan Fraser's soul in Vidasel.
That's me.
And that's three people.
And I'm going to help them.
But it has to be something really big.
Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment share a moment of truth in Pay It Forward, the story
of a boy who wants to change the world.
It's one of five new movies we'll review this week.
I'm Richard Roper, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times.
And I'm Roger Ebert, film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Our first movie is Pay It Forward, and it pairs two Oscar winners, Kevin Spacey and
Helen Hunt, with Haley Joel Osment, the impressive young Oscar nominee from the Sixth Sense.
The performances are therefore strong and effective, but I can't say as much for the story, which
begins as the young boy and his classmates get a year-long project from their new seventh-grade
teacher whose facial scars have given him deep psychic scars.
It's a big assignment.
The realm of possibility exists where?
In each of you.
Here.
So you can do it.
Trevor, the seventh grader, takes the lesson very seriously and suggests doing someone
a favor and having them pass it on threefold until the whole world has been touched.
Were you just being nice?
About what?
About my idea.
Do you think it's good, or were you just being teachery?
Do I strike you as someone falsely nice?
No.
You're not even really all that nice.
The kid puts his theory into practice by inviting a homeless man to live in the garage.
He gave you money?
Yes, ma'am.
That's his savings.
Well, it's clothes and shoes and I got the job off it.
You think you can keep it?
You ever been on the street?
That's Jim Caviezel as the homeless man.
Trevor has another big idea, too.
He thinks his teacher should marry his mother, played by Helen Hunt, who wants to be a good
mom but struggles with alcoholism.
They're a really bad problem.
I gotta stop.
And if you can be with me on this, if you can think it's possible that I can do it,
then I think maybe I can.
Pay It Forward has its heart in the right place, but I had some big problems with this
movie.
One of them has to do with a flashback structure that spends a lot of time showing who did
what for whom without ever making it clear enough soon enough.
Another is the traffic jam that results when the romance involving the adults fights for
screen time with the kid and his world saving plan and the movie then keeps shifting gears.
Then there's an ending that frankly I don't think anyone is going to enjoy or even accept.
There are two movies here that might have been pretty good, but they add up to one movie
that isn't.
Kevin Spacey is so good in this movie and Helen Hunt is so good and I agree with you.
There are problems with the story.
It feels like there are two screenplays that collide and they don't always come together,
but I'm still recommending it because of the really, really strong performances.
And I might not have enjoyed the ending, but I did accept it and it did take me by surprise
and this movie did move me.
Sometimes I was aware of being manipulated by the structure of the screenplay, but again,
going back to Kevin Spacey, going back to Helen Hunt, and I like the way that this movie
is set sort of just outside of Las Vegas and sort of the suburbs, I guess, if you will,
just beyond the strip.
It was very, very effective in showing that Helen Hunt working in the casino world.
That really worked for me.
So there's enough here for me to say go see this movie.
Sometimes the heart triumphs over the nitpicking about the screenplay.
Well, I don't think I'm nitpicking.
I think people are going to come out of this movie pretty unsatisfied and they're going
to really be shocked by the ending.
But you're right about Spacey and Hunt and for that matter, Haley, Joel, Osment.
And what's sad is when you see actors of this caliber who are able to make their characters
so interesting and so dimensional and then they're kind of crammed into these dumbed
down formula screenplays.
Oh, I don't think this is a formulaic screenplay at all.
It may have too much creativity going for it, which may be a problem.
And they could have concentrated more on the relationship with the family.
For the whole business of the kid trying to be the matchmaker, that's a formula.
Yeah, that's been done before, but it's done in a different way in The Classroom Assignment
and The Cameos by John Bon Jovi and Angie Dickinson.
Interesting.
For me, enough to recommend.
Okay.
The legend of Drunken Master with Jackie Chan is a real life Chinese folk hero named Wong
Fei Hung.
He's the inventor of drunken boxing, actually.
Now you're saying, what the heck is drunken boxing?
Believe it or not, it's an actual style of kung fu with some moves patterned after the
lurching kind of loosey goosey mannerisms of someone who's had a few too many drinks.
Imagine Dudley Moore's Arthur crossed with the karate kid and you get the idea.
Chan plays Wong as a bumbling schemer who never goes looking for a fight but seems to
find one every 10 minutes.
For him, drunken boxing works best when he's truly drunk.
Hey Popeye had his spinach and Wong has his wine.
Wong and his family are trying to stop a gang of thieves from stealing precious Chinese
artifacts, but the plot really exists only as a setup for the amazing fight sequences.
The Legend of Drunken Master is one seriously weird movie.
Wong is supposed to be a young man, but since Chan was about 40 when this film was made,
the actors playing as parents seem to be about three years his senior tops.
In fact, I could swear there's something going on with Wong and his stepmom.
There's also this strange juxtaposition between the Buster Keaton style slapstick and the
brutal and grueling fight sequences, some of which seem to go on and on, but in the
end it's those razor blade ballets of flying fists and crackling kicks that make this action
romp worth recommending.
I recommend it too and I'll tell you, you know, there are people who have never seen
a Jackie Chan movie and I suppose that if you're only going to see one, this is the
one to see because it ends.
Or they've only seen the American Jackie Chan movies.
They've only seen the watered down Jackie Chan, Rumble in the Bronx and so forth, which
had its good qualities, but there's a 20 minute sequence at the end of this movie, a fight
sequence, involving Jackie Chan and his real life bodyguard, Ken Lowe, who stepped in when
the real actor was injured.
And it is the most amazing sustained martial arts sequence that I can remember ever having
seen in a movie.
Maybe ever done.
And it involves flames and fire and Jackie Chan is actually burned while shooting this
movie and railroad cars and falling from heights and red hot pokers and of course whole room
full of furniture, you know, knocked over everybody's head.
All done with this amazing high energy, incredible verbal and physical agility that Jackie Chan
brings to it.
And they're having so much fun doing it.
They're not asking you to take it seriously as any kind of a fight.
It's more of an exhibition.
It's like watching Gene Kelly in action when Jackie Chan is really moving and twirling
and doing all that stuff.
You put your finger right on it.
This is not violence in the ugly, brutal sense.
This is like kind of a tongue in cheek ballet of violence.
It's so well done.
There's a lot of fun in this movie.
Later on the show, Brendan Fraser sells his soul to Elizabeth Hurley in Bedazzled.
And up next, Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix become partners in crime in the yards.
Miss me?
You quit smoking.
Really?
She didn't quit.
She uses Targon Mouthwash.
Look how Targon removes tobacco tar from these tiles.
Your teeth are so white.
Hello fresh breath.
If you smoke, use Targon.
Do you know me?
Probably not.
In my daily life, I like to be recognized.
But when I shop on the internet, I prefer a little privacy.
Nice.
That's why I use the American Express card.
With private payments, I get the security of a unique number created for each purchase
I make.
It's just one way American Express helps me protect my identity online.
And soon they'll help me surf the net anonymously, giving me the recognition I'm looking for.
None.
American Express.
Don't leave home pages without it.
The most anticipated video and DVD event of the year is too good to see just once.
Yes.
Yes.
You'll love watching it again and again.
Toy Story 2, now on video and DVD.
Read a G.
Communities reaching out to people.
That's what the Crop Walk and seven everyday hero Kathy Roy are all about.
The Crop Walk raises money to help fight hunger in Colorado and worldwide.
Kathy is a huge supporter, coordinating the state's largest walk.
About 39,000 children die every day of hunger related issues and we have to do something
about it.
She's been doing it enthusiastically for years.
Absolute dedication.
Nominate your seven everyday hero, sponsored by your greater Denver Toyota dealers.
I'm Steve Gotz.
Join me Monday night down here at Red and Jerry's in Inglewood and register to play
Who Wants to Be a Mile High Millionaire.
You can test your Broncos knowledge on Monday Night Live with Tom Green and you'll have
a chance to win some great prizes.
Don't let it get to the point where you're afraid.
No one deserves to be treated like that.
This important seven solution special could change your life or your opinion about domestic
violence.
Watch The Face in the Mirror, Saturday on Channel 7.
Say hello to your uncle for me.
See you around, Willie.
All right, take it easy.
Is he gonna cut everything?
Listen, you know, I'm not gonna cut anything.
I'm not gonna cut anything.
I'm not gonna cut anything.
I'm not gonna cut anything.
Listen, don't worry about it.
He's a city official.
It's just the way the system works.
In the new crime movie, The Yards, Mark Wahlberg is fresh out of prison and his best friend,
Joaquin Phoenix, shows him the ropes.
Phoenix is a muscle guy for Wahlberg's uncle, played by James Kahn, whose company repairs
New York City transit trains.
One night the two friends go out on a job, a yard master is murdered, and a cop is badly
beaten.
When the cop recovers, he's able to only ID one person.
Wahlberg, the ex-Kahn.
Well, when can I come back?
Leo, you gotta stay away for a little longer, okay?
Well, how's my mother?
I wanted to call her, but they probably got the phones tapped.
This case could break apart the cozy little racket that James Kahn runs with his henchman,
played here by Victor Argo.
So they want a cover-up.
I'll also put out a statement, uh, we're all very saddened by the turn of events, etc.,
and so forth.
Please, no, that's gonna hold.
At some point it's gonna lead back to us.
All we gotta do is talk to this cop, see what it'll take to make him remember things differently.
The Arge is introspective in a way most crime movies never are.
It's not about having fun with guns, cars, and wisecracks, but about lives destroyed
by a deeply corrupt system.
Nobody is really evil in this movie, although a lot of people are amoral or willing to go
along, and the real story is about the Wahlberg character trying to fight his way free from
the world he lives in.
Director James Gray based the story in part on a racketeering scandal that touched his
own family, and you can feel his ambiguity and his pain.
That's what makes the Arge so touching.
It's not a thriller, but a drama.
I don't know how you can say nobody's evil in this movie.
There are people who get killed, there are people who kill, there are people who are
ordering other people to be killed, and to me, if you're going to say, I want somebody
dead, that makes you an evil human being.
There are a lot of bad people in here.
There are also a lot of people who aren't very bright, including the Mark Wahlberg character.
The minute he gets out of jail, he gets caught right up again, and it doesn't take him long
before he gets in this involvement in the yards, this whole event that takes place where
he beats up the cop while Joaquin is with this other guy, and he stabs that guy, and
that just felt drawn out to me and a manufactured part of the plot so that the rest of the story
could go on when in reality, they could have just run away and come back and handle it
tomorrow.
In any action movie, people could run away and then there wouldn't have been anything
that happened.
Of course they could run away, but they wouldn't have run away in that situation because you
can see that they would be in big trouble if they ran away, and of course one thing
leads to another.
They're in bigger trouble because they stay.
They're not evil in the sense that you have in a different kind of crime movie where that's
their nature.
It's that the whole system has corrupted and eaten away at these people, and that's what
the Mark Wahlberg character is fighting, and it's eventually what the end of the movie
is about.
I think he's just fighting his own stupidity most of the time.
Whether or not they're evil, I don't think is really the point here.
Is it allowed for people to be stupid in the movies?
Yes, it is, and if they're interesting enough, then we care about them.
I didn't care about Mark Wahlberg, and then there's this whole idea that he knows what's
going on in the yards.
He could turn evidence against James Kahn and all these other people.
He's been working there for two days.
I had no idea where he got all this information.
He's lived in that neighborhood his entire life.
No, but this is specific information that he has about the yards, Roger, that he's going
to use.
We would know if you live there, if you're involved with those people, look at the people.
He was involved with an auto theft ring that involved many of the same people.
That's why he went to prison.
But when he gets out of prison, they're going to teach him about the yards, and two days
later he knows all about the yards, and that doesn't work for me at all.
You know and I know certain numbers of things about corruption in this city.
Certainly if you lived in the families about, if you lived in the neighborhood, if you had
worked on the crew, if you had kept your ears open, you would know a lot.
He's their prize guy because he has inside information.
I didn't see where he got it from.
Okay, coming up next, a devilish Elizabeth Hurley heats up Brendan Fraser's love life
in D'Dazzle.
Thanks, Roger.
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I hop.
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Where should we spend the rest?
Try IHOP's country griddle cakes, served with grilled ham, eggs, and hash browns in the
country breakfast planters, starting at just 399 weekdays.
Anytime's a good time for IHOP.
No one should go hungry this holiday season.
This year, the Denver Rescue Mission wants to see that no one will.
Please, help the Denver Rescue Mission see that homelessness and hunger take a holiday.
What if I told you that I have the cataclysmic power to give you anything and everything
you've always dreamed of?
Who are you?
Promise not to tell anyone?
Elizabeth Hurley is a salacious Satan who signs Brendan Fraser's hapless dork to a
lifetime contract in Bedazzled, the latest comedy by Harold Ramis.
Fraser plays Elliot Richards.
He's an obnoxious but good-hearted loser who has everyone diving under their cubicles whenever
they see him approaching at work.
He's that annoying.
For three years, Elliot has had a rather pathetic crush on a co-worker named Allison, played
by Francis O'Connor, who couldn't pick Elliot out of a lineup.
You know, I'm here with some friends and I was wondering if maybe one of them.
Dear God, I would give anything to have that girl in my life.
Elliot's contract gives him seven wishes.
His first choice is to be rich, powerful, and married to Allison, so the devil turns
him into a Colombian drug lord.
Buenos dias, señor.
¿Me apetece algo de comer?
Como dices, no hablo español.
Un momento.
¿Realmente estoy hablando español?
Hola.
Mucho gusto.
No, gracias.
Soy el rico a los crustáceos.
It takes Elliot a long time to figure out that if he's not very specific in voicing his
wishes, Satan will find a loophole that will result in the wish backfiring.
Let's see, big, strong, rich, athletic, something you like, lots of fans.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Oh, I hope so.
In the form of a wish.
I wish I could play professional basketball.
Then I'll just say the magic words, Dennis Rodman.
Be Dazzled is a remake of a 1967 British comedy starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, but the
comedy in this update is timid, dated, and uninspired.
This is especially disappointing because Harold Ramis has been a major factor in such richly
funny movies as Stripes and Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day.
Frazer scores a few laughs with the different versions of Elliot that are created by his
wishes, but he's no Eddie Murphy, and there's nothing in the Francis O'Connor character
to explain why he's so obsessed with her.
His relationship with the breathtaking Satan seems to have more potential.
Maybe he should have pointed one of his wishes in her direction.
I agree with you about O'Connor, but I also was disappointed in Hurley.
He doesn't have the sense of danger and risk that you need with Satan.
Looking at the movie, I was thinking, how about Courtney Love in this role?
Somebody who really would be able to kind of heck somebody.
Yes, somebody who could play the devil.
Elizabeth Hurley is too bland.
She's playing the devil as a costume role rather than really bringing the kind of zest to the
role that I think it requires.
I think they could have made it work with the gorgeous Satan if there was something
there between maybe the Frazer character.
That would work.
Just to have her look good and wear all these little costumes.
So what?
Anyway, our next movie is called Two Family House and like the yards, it's inspired by
the director's memories.
This one is based on the story of the director's uncle, Buddy.
The movie stars Michael Rispoli from The Sopranos as Buddy, who dreams of opening a bar on Staten
Island and singing there on Saturday nights.
His wife is played by Katherine Narducci, also from The Sopranos, and she ridicules
it.
You make it a fool of yourself in front of the whole neighborhood.
What is with you, huh?
If I was making thousands of dollars doing this, you'd be proud of me.
That's exactly my point.
The only reason you should be dancing around like a monkey is if you're getting paid for
it.
Buddy buys a building and finds he's inherited two upstairs tenants, a nasty drunk and his
much younger pregnant wife played by Kelly McDonald.
When the abusive husband disappears, Buddy helps the woman get set up in a new place.
No, no, I wasn't making a pass at you.
I was making a pass at you.
You know I was making a pass at you.
Don't flatter yourself, huh?
I think you like your meat a little darker anyway.
Her baby, conceived out of wedlock, is half black, which creates a scandal in that place
and time.
But Buddy is touched by her decision to keep the child and decides to stand by her.
The neighbors think he's gone nuts.
I was thinking maybe you guys want to come down.
You know, see the place.
I'm going to sing, marry, she's going to cook.
I'm staying open Christmas Eve.
Oh yeah, well maybe after you close, huh?
Yeah, maybe.
Michael Rispoli plays Buddy as a guy who more or less shares the prejudices of the people
around him until he begins to care about that young woman and her non-white child.
Then he acts according to his own better nature.
His family and friends write him off, but in the long run he turns out to be happy and
successful and there's a happy ending to the story of the woman and her child too.
Raymond DeFelitta, the writer and director, heard stories about his uncle Buddy for years
and now he tells this one himself.
Ending with a shot of the real tavern, the Buddy opened.
Two Family House is a good movie.
It's a really good movie.
I'm not surprised to find out that it's inspired at least by some real life events because
it kind of rings authentic, but it's such a different take on, you know, we've seen
these neighborhood stories before and these kind of characters, but what happens with
this young woman who lives upstairs and the baby and Rispoli is so good.
This is a real treasure of a film, I thought.
It shows how you can be prejudiced in general, but it's very hard to be prejudiced in particular
because then you're dealing with human beings and you accept them as the people who are
right there in front of you and in this case Buddy can't help but have his heart go out
to this woman because he's seen the hell that her husband created for her and although he
doesn't know the whole story, he begins gradually to feel well, you know, I kind of admire her.
But he's also in a hell of his own with his own relationship and he's falling in love
and he follows his heart.
Okay coming up next, an all-star lineup hits the gridiron in my video pick of the week.
I've taken control of my life and I keep up on things that affect my health like estrogen
loss at menopause.
It can lead to osteoporosis.
Estrogen loss can also cause hot flashes, night sweats and vaginal dryness.
Studies show that menopause contributes to heart disease.
Studies are investigating the connection between menopause and colon cancer, memory loss, sight
loss and tooth loss.
Ask your doctor what you can do to protect your health during and after menopause.
Believe me, the time to protect your future is now.
Miss me?
You quit smoking.
Really?
She didn't quit.
She uses Targon Mouthwash.
Look how Targon removes tobacco tar from these tiles.
Your teeth are so white.
Hello fresh breath.
If you smoke, use Targon.
Football is played for laughs and romance in the replacements and it's the springboard
to racial understandings and remember the Titans but the cutthroat nature of the game
takes center stage in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday.
Al Pacino is the legendary coach who's near the end of his career and he's struggling
to relate to a new generation of gridiron mercenaries on and off the field.
Cameron Diaz is the cold-hearted owner of the team and Jamie Foxx is the cocky young
quarterback with a me first attitude.
I was wondering if we could go out, do a drink or something, hang.
I'm flattered, really.
I am but I've never dated players.
It gives the wrong impression.
I guess you're saying you're influenced by what other people think.
I think we all are in business.
Stone uses roller coaster camera moves along with a hip hop heavy metal soundtrack to underscore
the bone crushing violence on the field.
Any Given Sunday boasts a deep lineup that includes Dennis Quaid as an aging star quarterback,
James Woods as a corrupt team doctor and Charlton Heston as the lead commissioner.
But the movie works primarily because of Pacino's leathery, world-weary coach and those action
montages which capture the sport like no other movie I've seen.
It's one of the best football movies ever made and it's my video pick of the week.
Geronimo!
The number one video and DVD event of the year.
Can you believe it?
Is too good to see just once.
I'm tour guide Barbie.
I'm a marriage butt, I'm a marriage butt.
Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 2.
Now on video and Disney DVD Rated G.
You need some help?
Yeah.
Just put it in neutral.
The new Chevy Tracker LT.
Now with a powerful B6 engine.
It thinks big.
Make sure your parking brake's off.
Chevy Tracker, like a rock.
Miss me?
You quit smoking.
Really?
She didn't quit.
She uses Targon Mouthwash.
Look how Targon removes tobacco tar from these tiles.
Your teeth are so white.
Hello fresh breath.
If you smoke, use Targon.
From the top of the Rocky Mountains to the valleys below and every home in between, American
Furniture Warehouse would like to say thanks for your support Colorado.
Your patronage has given us the confidence to grow and expand through the years.
And this year we've won the prestigious National Home Furnishings Retailer of the Year.
What a way to begin the new millennium.
Businesses are selected based on contributions to the industry, community service, and overall
achievements.
And we couldn't have done it without you.
Thank you Colorado.
Employees respect Denver Tech grads.
It's hands on, not just a book education.
The instructors make it click.
They don't treat you like a number.
You get respect.
Instructors with real world experience, a degree that puts you in demand.
Denver Tech is the right choice.
You learn about the latest technology.
No problem.
It's never boring.
It's always changing.
I couldn't have chosen a better school than Denver Tech.
Great school.
I'll leave her ready to take on an exciting career.
Denver Technical College, the right choice now.
Call 303-329-3000.
Now let's take another look at the movies we reviewed on this week's show.
A split decision on Pay It Forward.
I thought it was all over the map, but Richard kind of liked the map.
Two thumbs up for The Legend of Drunken Master, which may be Jackie Chan's best film.
We split on The Yards.
I thought it was an effective drama.
Richard found too much implausibility.
But two thumbs down for Bedazzle, which should have held out for a better deal with The Devil.
And finally, two affectionate thumbs up for Two Family House and Michael Rispoli's touching
performance.
Two Family House and The Yards, and if you ever want to see a Jackie Chan movie, this
is your chance.
And if you want a good old fashioned cry at the movies, Pay It Forward.
According to you anyway.
That's right.
Okay, remember you can hear our reviews at ebert-roper-movies.com and read us in print
at suntimes.com.
Next week, more new movies, including Lucky Numbers, starring John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow,
and also the sequel to one of last year's huge hits, it's Book of Shadows, Blair Witch
2.
That's next week, and until then, the balcony is closed.