Paparazzi Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)September 3rd, 2004
PAPARAZZI
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
20th Century Fox/Icon Productions
Grade: B-
Directed by: Paul Abascal
Written by: Forrest Smith
Cast: Cole Hauser, Robin Tunney, Dennis Farina, Daniel Baldwin, Tom Hollander, Kevin Gage, Blake Michael Bryan, Tom Sizemore
Screened at: Loews 34th St., NYC, 9/3/04
The expression "Be careful what you want: you may get it" has scores of specific examples to justify the axiom. One of them centers on celebrity fantasy. Many of spend our earlier years yearning for high profile professions–NBA, NFL, Hollywood. The future actor-wannabes pay good money for head shots to send to the studios and then wait, usually in vain, for that call that casts them into a role other than that of a spear carrier. For the few of us who hit pay-dirt and become superstars, you don't have to worry about getting enough photos of yourself. The paparazzi (photographers of the rich and famous) will be all over you, flashing their bulbs into your eyes so many times that you may wonder whether you'll soon need a cane and a Labrador Retriever to guide you down the streets.
One such person who receives Arnold-type fame as an action- adventure movie hero is Bo Laramie (Cole Hauser), who in Paul Abascal's movie written by Forrest Smith is currently in a shooting of "Adrenaline Force 2" in which, among other things, he slides swiftly down the ladder of a fire escape to catch an escaping criminal. He revels in the photos taken of him and his wife Abby (Robin Tunney) when he walks down the red carpet for a movie premiere. But there's one type of paparazzo that he abhors: that's the kind who stalks him wherever he goes, snapping pictures of his kid's soccer game. Far worse, is the kind who puts his photo in a (phony) compromising position with a 16-year-old convenience store clerk and hits the shutter like mad when his wife is taking prescription medicine to relieve the pain of a car accident–the results of which decorate supermarket tabloids. His revenge fantasies are to come true, since in formulaic fare like this you stay a couple of steps ahead of the story, but this Bo Laramie takes such violent exception to what a particular quartet of photographers is doing that you'd think Sean Penn contributed to the costs of the film instead of Mel Gibson.
"Paparazzi" is a swiftly-paced pleasure catering to the avenger fantasy in each of us. When a particularly villainous man behind a camera, Rex Harper (Tom Sizemore), deliberately provokes Bo into hitting him, Harper's back-up team videotaping the whole procedure, Laramie is hit with a lawsuit and the threat of criminal prosecution for assault–for something, truth to tell, he brought upon himself for violently attacking the paparazzo who is taking fairly innocent pictures of his family.
"Paparazzi,' then, is the sort of vehicle that could have been given to a Charles Bronson a couple of decades ago, an interchangeable part with so many other pics but with one originality. Instead of the villains' carrying AK-47's, they bear state of the art cameras, following their celebrities wherever they go–at home, on the athletic field, on the movie sets. Formulaic that the pic may be, it's a easy-going 90 minutes that has sufficient tension despite our figuring out just about exactly what's coming next. Even the detective (Dennis Farina) assigned to a case involving murders perpetrated by the avenger knows who's guilty but is keeping his mouth shut, thus signaling to the audience that it's fine to take the law into your own hands.
Rated R. 90 minutes. © 2004 by Harvey Karten
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