Random Thoughts: Laramie Project, Shark Tale, Without a Paddle

The Laramie Project - 7/10

This adaptation of the play follows the residents of Laramie, Wyoming and the aftermath of the murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998. The teleplay is unusual in that it is transcriptions of the actual residents of the town, with the concept of the writers trying to document the incident thrown in. No words were changed even if they don't exist, such as my favorite: intoxificated. The cast is large and filled with talented actors including Peter Fonda, Christina Ricci, Laura Linney, Joshua Jackson, Janeane Garafalo, Amy Madigan, Dylan Baker and Camryn Manheim among many others. Madigan gives the best performance as the first cop on the scene of the murder who may have been infected with HIV. Any power the film exudes comes straight from the events it is based on but luckily the method of which its told is interesting enough to make it a good film.



Shark Tale - 3/10

The computer animation trend reaches its low point in DreamWorks latest entry in the until now successful streak. A top notch voice cast is wasted as all of them seem to have been typecast based on their offscreen personality (i.e. Will Smith as the jive talking fish; Angelia Jolie as the sexpot; Renee Zellweger as the sweet and naive love interest; Robert De Niro as the ethnic, intimidating bad guy; Jack Black as the goofy, child-like sidekick.) Perhaps the biggest surprise when considering all that talent and creative energy is how dull the overall project is. Nothing of interest happens, and the film lacks imagination. It is made to look even worse of last year's Finding Nemo. Shark Tale does have two clever gags: Katie Couric repeatedly pops up as a news fish named Katie Current. The second is a newspaper advertisement seen twice: It is a movie ad with a picture of a hook reading "Before you die, you eat the hook." I ruined those ten seconds so that you don't have to waste the other 90 minutes of your life.



Without a Paddle - 3/10

The fact that this movie became a semi box-office sleeper is really sad. People must be that easily amused or have found any one of the three annoying leads bearable to sit through this unfunny comedy for 100 minutes. Dax Sheppard, who I've never even heard of (apparently he was on Jackass,) is really, really annoying and makes Sean William Scott's Stiffler character from American Pie seem enormously tolerable. The other two characters are so cliched they practically disappear from the screen. Not helping the situation is that Matthew Lillard and Seth Green have played the same token characters repeatedly in their careers. Its one of those movies that feels so derivative of the olders and betters of its given genre, you are best off just to go directly back to the source. That even may be a movie that was not that great to begin with.