2 bucks is 2 bucks

The PlayerAh yes, The Player. One of those brilliant classics from Tim Robbin’s golden years of the early 90’s (the others being, of course, Jacob’s Ladder, Bob Roberts and The Hudsucker Proxy) that I really can’t tire of watching. And also one of the the best movies to watch about movies. Tim Robbins is Griffin Mill, the titular Player… An arrogant Hollywood producer who is completely wound up in his power and ego, and holds great pride in that. But once he starts receiving anonymous death threats (in the mail, via fax…) from someone who claims to be a spurned writer, we start to see just how short his hold on both his power and ego really are. The persistence and mystery behind these messages starts chipping away at his unshakable and shark like image, at the worst time for him as there is a newcomer on the studio scene who he fears is threatening to take his career. As he starts trying to discover who is threatening his life, he is falling apart mired in nerves and fear which only get worse once the police (in the form of Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovett, both of whom are pretty great here) begin investigating him for a rather serious crime… As he fears for his life, sanity and career, the studio (as well portrayed by Fred Ward and Brion James) begins to fear for its reputation. Mill has little capacity for having so little control and he starts to make a lot of bad decisions, including falling for someone who is a very awkward someone to fall for…

The movie is good all around: A great cast, a great script and an entertaining an engaging story on its own. But all of this is really just a coating under which to make a scathing satire on the ludicrous state of the American movie industry. The film executives are portrayed as either shallow morons who can only understand films in terms comparing them to films that they’ve already seen:

It’s like The Gods Must Be Crazy except the coke bottle is an actress.

Right. It’s Out of Africa meets Pretty Woman.

or

So it’s a psychic, political, thriller comedy with a heart.

With a heart, not unlike Ghost meets Manchurian Candidate.

Or else as just plain greedy and irresponsible…

The story has lots of twists and few “good guys” (except for Mill’s girlfriend… A very decent character who gets the crappy end of all the sticks), but it is all brought together in a warped version of the “Hollywood ending”. A great movie to pair with Robbin’s following picture, Bob Roberts, for a clever and fun night of social satire.

Riding The BulletIt’s not like I don’t already have enough DVD’s of Stephen King related movies (currently about 12, I believe), but now I’ve added one that I hadn’t heard of (I hadn’t even heard of the story), Riding the Bullet. Of course King movies tend to be a mixed bag, and this was no exception. Feeling at times like a good indie film, and at other times like a corny TV movie, it as actually more entertaining than most of them. This was the first film that I’ve seen by Mick Garris, which scared me a little as his career seems to be all about B-movie/TV horror, and it maybe exceeded my expectations of him a little.

The story of a college student who, after a failed lovelorn suicide attempt, sets off on a 100-mile hitchhiking trip to visit his mother who has suffered a stroke (Barbara Hershey, who looks more like she is suffering from failed attempts to not look 60 years old). Of course, in this day and age, hitchhiking is an awkward proposition but even more so in King’s world. Encountering dark rural roads, hostile rural folk, creepy old men who talk too much, himself (as his conscience) and too many, too odd encounters with a tough in an old muscle car (David Arquette). Throughout this journey, he spends a lot of time reliving his past (especially moments with his mother) and having strange visions that lead one to think that maybe things are not as they seem. Well, maybe not as you are supposed to think that they seem. The movie is pretty predictable and the twist doesn’t come as much of a surprise. But it is certainly watchable enough… Just don’t take the blurbs on the case too seriously: “Scary, Haunting and Surprisingly Emotional” (Tobe Hooper?).