Not The Bill Collins Blog No.13: "All Of Me"

For me the greatest comedic performers in US cinema during the period 1970-1985 were Woody Allen (a non brainer) and the self-confessed 'wild and crazy guy' Steve Martin. Whilst the former has been through numerous phases in his career, having gone from ribald semi-intellectual, semi-surrealistic comedy such as "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask" through Bergmanesque dramas such as "Interiors", with the occasional dip into musicals, screwball romances, Carol Lean-inspired British drama or simple paeans to the various women he has loved, Stebe Martin has had really only two periods in his Hollywood career. The first was before "All of Me", the second afterwards. "All of Me" which was released in 1984 took a comedian who was fairly successful on TV, very successful in stand-up and on record and mildly successful in film and made Martin into a bankable Hollywood celebrity film star.
"All of Me" is one of those movies that has a major star turn (i.e. Martin as the attorney Roger Cobb), a couple of secondary characters with not much to say about them or their associated performers, and a plot device that has been used repeatedly. If you have ever seen "Heart Condition", "Heaven Can Wait" or "Switch" then you have the basic gist of what happens in "All of Me". Someone dies (in this case it's Lily Tomlin's Edwina Cutwater), the errant soul is attached somehow to the unintended 'hero' (i.e. Martin's Cobb) and then as the two supposedly conflicted characters/souls/identities work through the problem facing the live character (in this case Roger Cobb can't control if and when Edwina surfaces, and when she does it causes all kinds of slapstick craziness) by film's end there is a resolution that makes all happy (and no, I won't spoil this flick even though you probably have seen it anyway).

So what was it that made this film work so well and transformed Steve Martin into the actor who would be called in to make "Sgt Bilko" or "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels". Simple...Martin is able to adapt his unique sense of physical humour with several belly-laugh inducing scenes to give the audience a film low on subtleties but high on fun. This isn't as surreal as "The Jerk" or as mannered as "The Lonely Guy"; "All of Me" succeeds because Steve Martin excelled at that stage in his career in adult slapstick.

I haven't said too much about the supporting actors and their characters, and to be honest I don't think that is a great disservice. Lily Tomlin is barely present physically in the movie, instead it's her voice over work as her character Edwina riffs off Martin's Roger that forms the bulk of her performance. I guess the best thing that can be said about her is you can almost suspend your belief as the audience and enjoy the absurd love/hate relationship between the two unwillingly joined characters. Victoria Tennant is fairly cardboard-esque in her role as Terry, and to be blunt Tennant is at her best when she is in lingerie. Her best performance was to come later in "LA Story", and considering she and Martin were romantically linked at the time of "All of Me" their scenes together are fairly average.

The best of the supporting actors and characters is Richard Liberti as Prakha, the Indian mystic who effectively stuffed up the soul transference process that forms the central plot device in "All of Me". Just like Peter Sellers in "The Party", Liberti makes great play out of a faux Indian repeatedly saying something barely intelligable. Prakha's "fix bowl" is up there with "Birdy Num Num", and it does continually wring giggles out of the viewer. Okay, so perhaps it's a tad prejudiced but we are talking 24 years ago.

This was actually the first Steve Martin film I saw in the cinema, whereas films I consider to be better from this stage in his career (i.e. "The Jerk", "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" and "The Man With Two Brains" and "The Lonely Guy") I only caught thanks to video. Again due to the paucity of a place to see movies in Armidale at the time I had to wait till I returned to Sydney and took in a $5 cheap Tuesday session at the Hayden Cinema (them's were the days folks!). I can't recall too much about that session but for some years afterwards I always looked forward to the next Steve Martin release that followed "All of Me". Unfortunately as his film roles and the actual movies themselves became more mainstream my interest in Martin's films have waned. "All Of Me" is not the most successful Steve Martin flick, nor is it my favourite. Yet just as it marked a watershed in his career so it also forged a new (if slowly diminishing) appreciation of his performances.

My Rating: 2.5 Bills

Not The Bill Collins Blog No.12: "Alien Versus Predator"

I believe that whenever you hear the word 'franchise' linked to a movie or TV series generally speaking one should run away, run fast and run long. A movie franchise (such as say, "Police Academyu", "Halloween", even my mostly beloved "Star Trek") is a cultural or cinematic replication of the fast food chain. When you go to see a 'franchise' movie you will probably get the usual expected ingredients reiterated again and again, with a couple of minor variations and some different personnel serving up what will satisfy you quickly without too much substance.

Hence my less than rapturous appreciation of "Alien Versus Predator" (or as marketed and as referred to hereon, "AVP")
The most frustrating aspect of this film is that the two central 'bad guys', i.e. the Xenomorph alien and the Predator are arguably the most terrifying creations in sci-fi history and yet in "AVP" they become mere carictatures. The exploitation of such iconic cinema monsters is already highly suspect; but to then couple them with a plot as flimsy as a pair of Paris Hilton's thong panties and human characters who should be tested by WADA for cardboard overdose and you get mightily peeved at such a missed opportunity.

I can't however simply turn this into a full-on dump piece, excoriating "AVP" as an utter waste. There are some intriguingly good special effects (the flashback to the Predator versus Alien battles in a Mayan-like metropolis is a high point), and at least Sigourney Weaver had the good sense to avoid this flick. But with almost every scene you feel like you're watching your wallet being emptied cent by cent and all you get in return is an ear ache and some flashing lights in front of your eyes.

Aside from Lance Henrickson the cast are no-names with a similar level of talent, providing just enough vitality to act as targets for either the rapacious Aliens or the coolly cruel Predators. The "who will survive" plot motif is reduced to "who will survive and I don't really care anyway". Plus the conclusion is like a 2-for-1 voucher for the return buyer in the previously referred to junk food outlet. You just know there will be a sequel to the sequel to the sequel to the...ahhhh, forget it!

The most depressing aspect of "AVP" is that for an audience of young males (which is no doubt where the studio heads at Fox first picthed this flick at) in the first decade of this century it probably strikes a fairly effective chord. Mindless violence coupled with characters suffering from personality-void-itis reduces what were two remarkable cinema creations of the seventies and eighties into one note cartoons. I wonder how many of those who had endured the amazing stress of the first "Alien" film, or were fixated by Arnie's one handed defeat of a supreme off-world killing machine in "Predator" could care less about "AVP. Conversely, could the fans of "AVP" have the patience for the earlier films? I think not.

In summary "Alien Versus Predator" is another example of how we the film-goers are being disrespected by the Hollywood sausage machine. They take something we hold to be special, unique, interesting, exciting and then take a Xerox approach to movie making to throw out fading copies without more than a simple mercernary agenda. I wanted to like "AVP" so much, but in the end it left me with the same feeling as if I'd eaten too many McFeasts...and I refuse to see "AVP II: Requiem".

My Rating: 1.5 Bills