Your reindeer, here's your motivation.
Your name is Rodolf, your freak with a red nose and nobody likes you.
Then one day Santa picks you and you save Christmas.
Jim Carrey is the Grinch who stole Christmas and that's one of five new movies this week
plus an internet report from Michaela Pereira.
I'm Richard Roper, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times.
And I'm Roger Ebert, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Jim Carrey is beyond debate the most energetic actor in the movies today and he goes into
overdrive in Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, a high velocity holiday extravaganza
that does everything except cheer us up very much.
What a strange, grim, drab movie this is with occasional shots of humor cutting through
the gloom.
Four o'clock, wallowing self-pity, four thirty, stare into the abyss, five o'clock, solved
world hunger, tell no one.
That's Jim Carrey of course as the Grinch, a bitter recluse who lives on top of a garbage
mountain and resents the folks of Whoville for being cheerful and good and for taking
their Christmas decorations so seriously.
Isn't this the chandelier from the dining room?
It's all for the cause dear.
The director Ron Howard has marshaled an impressive special effects effort with Carrey at its
center.
We're gonna die!
I'm going to throw up and then I'm gonna die!
Mommy, tell it to stop!
The movie provides a little psychology to explain the Grinch.
He was teased by the kids at school because he was green and had hair all over his body.
Now what kid wouldn't tease somebody like that?
And there's a perky little heroine named Cindy Luhu.
She has faith that the Grinch can't be all bad but more of the childhood and more of
Cindy's optimism might have been a good idea.
The movie is eerie and weird and the Grinch is more likely to scare little kids than to
charm them.
In Dr. Seuss' drawings, the story seems strange but cheerful, the movie plays more like a
horror picture.
Well I don't know if it plays like a horror picture but Jim Carrey from the start is kind
of trying to win us over.
I don't see him as being really depressed up there.
He's doing a one man show.
He's doing shtick and he's playing in the camera and he's doing ad libs and so there's
no real transformation.
There's no arc of the Grinch if there should be an arc of his character.
And you mentioned the resonance of Whoville.
In the drawing and in the animated TV special that a lot of people love, the original drawings,
they are strange looking but to have human characters have that weird snout thing going,
they're uglier than the Grinch.
So I think that was a big miscalculation because they're terrible looking people.
They're kind of scary too.
Yeah, it's just not the kind of holiday picture I think people are looking for that's kind
of upbeat and happy and cheerful and optimistic and filled with peace and good will and so
instead of all that it's just kind of all grungy and murky.
Yeah, and it is dreary and dreary and dread.
The art direction is kind of, you know, all those reds look kind of burnt out.
And a lot of scenes of people just flying through the air and landing on fake snow.
It was really a big disappointment given the talents of everybody involved.
Okay, our next movie is Red Planet.
It's set in the year 2050 but it really has the tone of those cheesy 1950s sci-fi flicks
like the Angry Red Planet and Red Planet Mars.
Here this time around Planet Earth is dying and Bowman, who's played by Carrie Anne Moss
from The Matrix, leads a team of scruffy astronauts on a mission to see what happened to the algae
that was producing lots of oxygen until it suddenly disappeared.
That's a six month journey and a girl's got a shower along the way.
This only works if we both believe it doesn't matter.
So I should pretend you're virginal.
Well you could make it matter more than that.
Okay, why don't we practice?
You can get back in the shower naked and come out and I'll pretend it doesn't matter.
That's Val Kilmer as Gallagher, whose rap is so bad it wouldn't get him a good table
at Hooters.
Now an emergency landing puts Gallagher and four other male scientists on Mars while Bowman
circles in the command module.
No food and water.
Amy's got a Mustang and oh yeah we can breathe.
How can that be?
The oxygen levels are, that is impossible.
Another problem, Gallagher's robot has gone haywire and is stalking the astronauts like
a mechanical Jason from Friday the 13th.
Amy!
The astronauts also have to contend with a complete lack of food and water, the deadly
and double crossing antics of one team member and thousands of creepy crawly little monsters
with a taste for human blood.
Well you know what they say about real estate, location, location, location.
One thing they apparently can't find on Mars here is a decent script.
Red Planet is like a loud and particularly silly episode of Star Trek.
Well you know I like your comparisons to Star Trek and the 50s science fiction movies but
I would look at them favorably rather than negatively.
This is a science fiction movie that deals with ideas.
It's kind of like the sort of hard boiled factual science fiction that we had in the
50s in magazines like Astounding edited by John Campbell where a bunch of scientists
go up and try to figure things out.
It doesn't involve a lot of special effects and the monsters that you kind of mentioned
have a very interesting rationale behind them that I found interesting.
Now it's marginal, it's not a great film but I enjoyed it, I enjoyed it as old fashioned
science fiction.
I think it's funny that you mentioned factual in the context of this wacky movie where they're
bouncing out of the spaceship and landing and they get out and they're walking around.
Even the bouncing itself, you mentioned that.
Their landing craft has big balloons to help it bounce when it lands.
Now that's interesting.
Wouldn't that be a way to do it?
We dropped out of the sky from like hundreds of miles and we landed on Mars and we think
we've got some rubber padding.
No, no, no, you're being completely unfair.
It's not hundreds of miles.
They come down with the retro rockets and when they get right above the surface they
have to have some way to bounce rather than make a hard landing.
It makes perfect sense.
I think you're being very generous.
You're in a comic book mode.
You're enjoying it like that.
That's fine.
Those bouncing inflatable landing things are factual and I think they make sense.
It's a silly movie and either it works or it doesn't.
There are just many, many moments where I thought you've got to be kidding me.
Right from the start when they're doing the narration they're like a good pilot but a
hot head as they're showing these different guys.
It goes right back to that great stuff from the 50s.
That stuff wasn't great.
Loves it on that level.
It was great.
Yes it was.
Coming up later in the show, Ben Affleck keeps a secret from Gwyneth Paltrow in Bounce.
You want to give me some business?
Yeah, I'll bet.
Coming up next, a movie about Thanksgiving named What's Cooking.
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Get the door, Jenny, get the oven door.
A Vietnamese American family prepares the Thanksgiving turkey with chili sauce and what's
cooking.
A heartwarming new film about four families celebrating the only American holiday that
has no official religious or patriotic connections.
The movie intercuts between families as turkeys provide the centerpiece for ethnic feasts
while the characters engage in feuds and secrets, romances and rivalries, old wounds and new
beginnings and of course the generation gap.
At Alfre Whittard's house there's tension in the kitchen because her mother-in-law played
by Ann Weldon doesn't believe she's a very good cook.
Grace, it's done.
Don't poke my turkey.
It's still pink.
That's not done.
Mercedes Ruel is a separated Latino mom whose son invited dad to the dinner without telling
her while she invited her new boyfriend without telling her family.
And I'm Javier, her husband.
Who are you?
I'm a teacher at Elizabeth's school.
Jewish parents Laini Kazan and Maury Chaykin welcome home their daughter played by Kira
Sedgwick and her girlfriend played by Juliana Margulies.
I can hear the clock going tick tock tick tock.
Meaning?
Meaning we're all tired of waiting for your Mr. Right to come along.
Well, stranger things have happened.
Movie was directed by Gurinda Chadha, an Indian woman born in Kenya, raised in London, now
living in San Francisco, where her husband and co-author Paul Maeda Burgas is part Japanese.
So there you go.
What's Cooking celebrates America as a multiracial, multiethnic melting pot.
It also has the best gourmet photography since Soul Food.
I'm looking forward to the cookbook.
Yeah, this movie made me hungry as you're watching them prepare all these dishes.
But it's not a we are the world, everything's perfect and here are four different types
of ethnic families.
It's smarter than that.
A lot of tensions you mentioned.
Terrific performances throughout.
You get the sense it's the kind of movie that actors do, worst movies, so they can afford
to do a smaller film like this.
There's probably 15 or 16 really well written and very well acted roles.
The women in particular, Kira Cedric and Juliana Margulies as the lesbian couple.
Mercedes Ruehl, best role she's had in a long time.
So I like this film a lot.
I do too.
You know, this director did a movie called Baji at the Beach a few years ago and I liked
that too.
It was about Indians in London.
And what she does is she finds people who have moved and brought their culture along
and yet are making adjustments to the new place.
And to take these four, you're right, it's not just like the UN or something.
Each story is handled so well.
And they don't all end in big hugs and everybody deciding they love each other.
It's smarter than that.
Yes it is.
All right, coming up next, womanizer Ben Affleck becomes interested in widow Gwyneth Paltrow
in Bounce.
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Only took two puffs to your last one.
That's because I don't really smoke.
This is just to get me off the gum.
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Sounds like a good plan.
Next week you'll be on heroin.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck take the first steps in a tricky verbal dance of courtship
in Bounce, a sweet romance with a sharp edge.
Affleck plays Buddy Amaral, a cocky ad executive who gives up his airline seat so he can stay
behind and score with a babe.
But Buddy's world is rocked when the plane crashes killing everyone on board.
After he merges from a year long and boozy haze, he's compelled to look in on Abby who
is the widow of the man who took his seat.
I'll call you at your office tomorrow and fax over the specifics.
Thank you.
Alright.
Good night.
You want to give me some business?
A Buddy doesn't tell Abby his secrets.
She just thinks he's an interesting, nice man she'd like to know better.
And there are a lot of smile inducing touches throughout this story as when Abby explains
one of Buddy's more endearing traits.
You know when you go to a table and a guy does that like halfway thing like he's going
to stand up?
I can't when guys do that.
Paltrow is so winning yet believable in this part.
She's not a saint, she's just a good person who's been slammed by a tragedy.
Affleck is better at playing the egotistical jerk than the heroic good guy he becomes,
but he's also saddled with the more difficult part considering that Buddy's very presence
in Abby's life is a cruel lie.
But the script from director Don Ruse is such a marvelous piece of writing and laced with
insightful revelations and lines that I was really rooting for Abby and Buddy.
Even though I had some misgivings about the plot, Bounce won me over.
I like you too.
This is like Ruse's last film, The Opposite of Sex, but I'm going to tell you I have one
criticism of the film.
This is one of those films like Return to Me where the people fall in love but there's
a terrible secret that involves the death of one of their partners.
And so we know that the big scene is going to be the revelation of that secret.
Now in Return to Me, which was five months ago, it was handled perfectly.
Here for an inexplicable reason, Don Ruse has Gwyneth Paltrow off screen.
We never see the scene where she finds out and when Buddy finds out that she knows she's
not on screen.
It seems to me that the two people need to be on screen when that happens and I think
that is a miscalculation, although in general I like the film.
Yeah, I do get what you're saying about that, but I did like the script overall and the
two lead performances.
Okay, our next movie is Rugrats in Paris, which is bright where the Grinch is dreary
and funny where the Grinch is scary.
I mean, one of the Rugrat parents is called the Paris to repair the giant robot raptors
at a theme park.
The whole Rugrat gang goes along.
As usual, Angelica is the bossy one and some of the others are more concerned with issues
like stinky deities.
You babies are as dumb here as you are at home.
Except him, he's speaking French already.
The movie makes fun of lots of other movies, sometimes three at a time.
This scene, for example, simultaneously satirizes King Kong, the Iron Giant, and Little Indian
Big City.
I was not very much thrilled by the first Rugrats movie, but I liked this one more,
not only for the relentless energy level, but also because of scenes like the dance
line of sumo wrestlers and the usual choreography that the Rugrats also love involving bodily
function.
Rugrats in Paris is not only fun for its target audience, but entertaining for grownups as
well and since they're buying the tickets, that's a break that they get for a change.
The world was waiting for that Little Indian Big City parody.
I know they're trying to appeal to adults.
For me as an adult, I don't really like the Rugrats.
I think they're little snots.
They're always breaking things.
They're getting into trouble.
They don't amuse me that much.
It's not a terrible movie.
It wasn't offensive, but I can't give it a recommendation.
Do you know that kids are little snots that are always breaking things and getting into
trouble?
I know.
They know better than that and they get into trouble when they knock over wedding cakes
and when they climb over seats in airplanes and tease adults.
The reason kids love this movie is because it takes the point of view of kids who are
kind of baffled by the world that confuses them and they're always getting into trouble
and people are bawling them out, but somehow they save the day.
I was baffled by the Ural Park in Paris.
I thought it was a strange thing too, but that's just me.
Not a fan of the Rugrats, what can I tell you?
Coming up next, we welcome back our internet correspondent, Michaela Pereira.
Michaela?
I'll have a report on which websites parents can visit this holiday season to determine
which movies will be appropriate for their kids.
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If the movie rating system sometimes seems less than helpful as a guide to new movies,
the internet can come to the rescue.
Our internet correspondent, Michaela Pereira, has a special report.
Hello fellows.
Well, just this past weekend I heard a Christmas carol in the mall that means it's a sign that
the holiday season is officially upon us and the rush of holiday movies is as well.
Recently there's been much talk about protecting younger audiences from violent and sexually
explicit material in the media.
Luckily my friends, in this internet age, parents can use the web to find out more about
movies their kids might be clamoring to see.
Take for example, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
I asked for three quarters, not five eggs.
Stay focused.
For the meat and potatoes of movie ratings, FilmRatings.com is a great bet.
Simply type in the film title and you'll learn that the Grinch is rated PG for some crude
humor.
Because FilmRatings.com is generated by the Motion Picture Association of America, the
site lists the MPAA ratings earlier than anyone else.
Next up, ScreenIt.com.
If you could look beyond the annoying ads and uninspired graphics, you'll find a comprehensive
database of movies, plots, production info, and content evaluation.
A chart covers 15 different topics, everything from profanity to violence and even smoking
and intense family scenes.
For example, you may have learned back at FilmRatings.com that the MPAA rated bedazzled
PG-13 for reasons that include alcohol and drug abuse.
But ScreenIt.com describes all seven scenes where such abuse takes place.
So how about if you're not so concerned with ratings or questionable content but want more
detailed information about a movie before you fork over $8.50 to see, for example, The
Sixth Day?
The Internet Movie Database, or IMDB as we say in cyberspace, is the definitive source
for movie facts on the Internet and both FilmRatings.com and ScreenIt.com have links to it.
The site is really well laid out and is quite easy to maneuver.
Not only can you search by movie title but you can also find out what movie and TV appearances
any given actor has made.
For example, just how many other sci-fi movies has Arnold Schwarzenegger been in?
IMDB also provides access to selected film reviews but my favorite website for film criticism
is the Movie Review Query Engine or MRQE.com.
Type in Pay It Forward and you'll find 115 reviews from the likes of Chuck Schwartz,
the cranky critic, to streaming audio from this show, to Roger's copy for the Chicago
Sun-Times.
In addition to reviews of current titles, MRQE's archives include compilations such
as the AFI's 100 Greatest American Movies and reports from select film festivals.
So guys, I know that both of you spend a lot of time on the web.
What are some of your favorite movie websites?
You know, Michaela, I go on about a dozen of these every week but the one I go to first
is usually RottenTomatoes.com.
That's a good one.
I like that one.
Isn't that a good one?
It's really well laid out.
And it's a lot of fun.
It's easy to navigate.
It gives you a lot of basic information and the great tomato meter where you can find
out what all the critics are saying.
And that's the one I go to first.
It's just a lot of fun.
Do you really?
And it's got a good attitude and some good writing on there.
In terms of a website, it's laid out really well.
It's easy to decide.
Is this a good movie?
It's got a nice red tomato.
Is it bad?
Is it a little green rotten tomato?
You know, I like Rotten Tomatoes too and all of the sites you mentioned, Michaela, and
one daily stop for me is David Poland's column.
David was a guest host here on the show.
Yes, he was.
And he writes every day a column called the Hot Button which is at RoughCut.com.
Right.
And he seems really wired and plugged in out in Hollywood.
He talks about things.
He's very passionate, very opinionated, has a lot of reports on what the grosses really
mean.
Every time a studio claims they won the weekend, he tells you whether he thinks they were lying
or not.
He also seems to really understand the web as well and he's a really effective online
movie reviewer.
I found another one just the other day that I wanted to tell you fellas about.
It's called MovieLens.org.
Have you heard about this one?
No.
Basically, it's run by a group of people from the University of Minnesota and they predict
using comparative thinking, collaborative thinking rather, to tell you what movies you're
going to like.
You review a couple of, you see a couple of movies, base them on a five star system and
then they predict to you what movies you're going to like.
Wow.
They're excited and they actually said that I was going to, I'd probably like Billy Elliot,
which I haven't seen yet but it's number one on my list to see and it said that I would
like The Terrorist, which is one of my favorite movies from this last year.
Is it going to figure out that Roger liked Red Planet?
That's the real question.
Don't even ask me about that one.
There's no sense there.
Thanks a lot, Michaela.
Thank you.
We'll be back in a moment.
Listen.
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The national press news gives it seven very bright stars.
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Now let's take another look at the movies we reviewed on this week's show.
Two thumbs down for The Grinch.
It was drab and depressing.
We split on Red Planet.
We both thought it was old fashioned science fiction but Roger thought that was a good
thing.
Two thumbs up for What's Cooking, a rich Thanksgiving feast.
Two more thumbs up for Bounce with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck.
And finally we split on Rugrats in Paris.
Roger was amused.
I was not.
And I was really disappointed by The Grinch which just has an ugly look and very few laughs.
So if I made you, you'd choose Rugrats over The Grinch.
I'd just go to see Bounce again actually if those were the choices.
And What's Cooking is a good movie.
I like it.
Okay remember you can hear our reviews on eber-roper-movies.com and readers and print
it on times.com.
And Michaela is online at techtv.com.
Next week more new movies including the sequel 102 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close.
And also Unbreakable, a supernatural thriller starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson.
That's next week and until then the balcony is closed.