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Friday, August 6, 2004
Movies
‘Black Book’ is woefully uneven
BY CHRISTY LEMIRE
AP Entertainment Writer
When Tom Cruise is good, he’s very, very
good. But when he’s bad, he’s better.
“Collateral” gives him his first chance to be
truly, deeply evil. Not just cocky and flawed,
as he was so stunningly in “Magnolia.” Not
just broken and lost, as he was in “Minority
Report.”
As a hit man assigned to take out five federal
witnesses over the course of a night, Cruise’s
Vincent is the devil in a gray tailored suit.
Gone are the self-satisfied smile, the
complacent tics of extraordinary stardom. He
has dropped his voice to a totally different
register, and with his silver-streaked hair and
facial scruff, he sometimes looks like a totally
different person — namely William Petersen in
1986’s “Manhunter,” an early film by Michael
Mann, the director of “Collateral.”
Casting Cruise as the villain may sound like a
gimmick, but it’s the essential part of a film that
— for its first two-thirds, at least — pulsates
with unpredictability and suspense.
Like Mann’s “Heat,” which was also set in Los
Angeles, “Collateral” viscerally captures a
certain urban dichotomy: the veneer of gauzy
glamour covering the city’s dangerous
underbelly. The sun is going down, smothering
everything in a smoggy, orange haze. Cars
lazily navigate the streets of downtown L.A. as
The Roots’ “The Seed 2.0” plays in the
background. But something darker is going on
underneath, and Mann understands and
conveys those discordant rhythms.
Vincent arrives in town and trolls this terrain
with the help of a conscientious, slightly nerdy
taxi driver named Max (Jamie Foxx, the “Any
Given Sunday” star, also playing against type).
He asks Max to drive him around all night to
visit friends and business associates before
his 6 a.m. flight the next day — but really, he
hijacks the cab through a combination of
charm and implied threat. Max is reluctant but
says yes when Vincent fans a handful of cash
before his eyes.
During their first stop, when a dead body falls
on top of the cab from a fourth-floor window —
the messy victim of Vincent’s normally
methodical handiwork — the stunned Max
realizes the true nature of his passenger and
gets dragged along for the ride.
Max can’t predict where they’re going, and
neither can we. Their conversations in the cab
between hits don’t seem to be about much, but
notice the way each of them changes subtly as
the night goes on. The abrupt Vincent listens a
bit more, the respectful Max gets more
assertive — though he can’t get away, and
barely tries. The camera frames them as if
they were sitting in each other’s laps, giving
the film a claustrophobic tenseness.
All the while, they’re being chased by LAPD
detective Fanning, played by the always-solid
Mark Ruffalo, who doesn’t get nearly enough
screen time. Jada Pinkett Smith is typically
lovely as a lawyer who rides in Max’s cab at
the movie’s start and Javier Bardem makes a
too-brief cameo as a drug cartel leader.
Then “Collateral” changes, too: It becomes
laughably ridiculous. Starting with a shoot-out
during a hit at a crowded Asian nightclub, the
script from Stuart Beattie (co-writer of “Pirates
of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black
Pearl”) spirals frustratingly out of control.
Vincent somehow acquires the invincibility of
the T-1000 in “Terminator 2.” He’s involved in a
car crash but he crawls from the upside-down
wreckage and, without the slightest hesitation,
runs through the deserted downtown L.A.
streets, gun in hand, hunting down his next
victim. Shooting him in the head also does little
to deter him. And the film’s final moments,
which presumably were intended to be
poignant, are instead unintentionally funny.
Everything that came beforehand, though,
was so arresting that you’ll want to forgive the
film’s final flaws.
AP Photos
BRITTANY MURPHY
and HOLLY HUNTER
N T E R N A C I O N A
Mann’s ‘Collateral’ is good and bad, in a funny way
Alejandro/Pág. 17D
I
SERIOUS PAYBACK
In “Little Black Book,” Brittany
Murphy seems bent on being Holly
Hunter, while Hunter seems bent on
being Murphy, and it’s not a pretty
sight.
Both play scrappy producers on a
syndicated New Jersey-based TV
talk show hosted by Kathy Bates in
sensationalistic Jerry Springer mode.
Murphy is the newcomer with whom
Hunter instantly bonds.
Before you can ask “Didn’t she have
a life before Murphy came
along?”Hunter plunges into Murphy’s
affairs, urging her to snoop on the
past of her evasive boyfriend (Ron
Livingston) via his Palm Pilot, or
electronic “little black book.” If that
means unethical use of her
journalistic powers — such as
questioning past paramours under
false pretenses — so be it.
Speaking of false pretenses,
Hunter, 46, is old enough to be
Murphy’s mother but acts as if she’s
her sister. She bounces and squeals
with her in girlish glee while flaunting
waist-length hair, bare middrifts and
tight-fitting jeans. Trying desperately
to be the edgy peer of someone
who’s 26, she also chain-smokes
furiously — even in the workplace!
Meanwhile, Murphy tries to expand
her acting chops beyond the radiant
smiles and bubbly exuberance which
have served her well since a teen role
in “Clueless.” As a young
professional enduring office politics
andworrying about her lover’s fidelity,
she gets to emote like crazy here —
much as Hunter got to do in her
Oscar-nominated performance for
1987’s “Broadcast News.” (Murphy
also gets to sing in several scenes,
setting the stage for her upcoming
album.)
But like Hunter trying too hard to be
young, Murphy tries too hard to be a
Serious Actress, especially during her
weepy wallows. What “Little Black
Book” needed was a lighter touch.
What it got from director Nick Hurran
and his cast are sledgehammer
blows to our emotional guts.
Chiefly, the film is woefully
uneven. “Little Black
Book” starts as the
playful romantic
c o m e d y
suggested by its
ads, then veers
into an ensemble piece about
ruthless careerism (in which Murphy
often is mere bystander) before
settling for melodramatic selfobsession.
That’s not to say it lacks moments.
Screenwriters Melissa Carter and
Elisa Bell articulate the frantic life of a
TV crew with witty, snappy repartee
— almost like “His Girl Friday” for the
broadcast
age.
“Regurgitate
something fresh!” is one barked
command to the staff.
Whenever the film stalls from
Murphy’s
droning
voice-over
narraÅion or an overload of backstory, clever visual flourishes dress it
up. There’s also shrewd use of Carly
Simon songs, especially her Oscarwinning “Let the River Run” from
1988’s “Working Girl,” a far better
example of an underdog woman
juggling career ambitions with longing
for love.
The support cast also excels, from
Bates’ egotistical battle axe to Kevin
Sussman’s downtrodden co-worker
to Julianne Nicholson’s needy exgirlfriend of Livingston. As for him, he
has so little screen time that his
character, though crucial, hardly
registers.
Even more troubling are the
slapstick slants given Murphy’s
meddling, at least until preachy
comeuppance. Hunter justifies such
snooping with the quaint adage to
“look under the hood before you
purchase the car” and an insistence
that “omissions are betrayals.” Yes,
but who “omits” the fact that’s she’s a
lying spy?
If “Book” were a dark comedy, it
could get away with such an
unsympathetic side. But it sails along
as an ultimately upbeat Murphy star
vehicle, whose only warning of
choppy seas ahead lies in its opening
Shakespearean quote: “Hell is empty.
All the devils are here.”
Foto de QPI/UNIVISION RECORDS
‘PARA SOBREVIVIR’
Grupo Duelo, de Roma, lanza tercer álbum
Especial para QPI
l haber cantado de mesa en
mesa y además de la propina,
haberse granjeado el interés y
respeto de la gente, gue sin duda
alguna una de las mejores
experiencias formatives que Duelo
vivió en su etapa inicial. Así es como
se marca el primer capítulo musical
que motivó a Oscar Iván Treviño y a
Dimas
López
a
seguir
perfeccionándose y a realizar el
sueño de llegar a ser uno de los
mejores grupos Norteños juveniles
del momento.
“Para sobrevivir”, su tercera
producción para el sello Univision
Records, marca la continuanción del
potencial artístico y musical de esta
joven agrupación que ya ha
cimentado su lugar en la conciencia
popular del público que gusta de la
buena música Norteña. Y cuando de
música Norteña contemporánea se
trata, Duelo es sin lugar a dudas el
E
LM
BY BRUCE WESTBROOK
Houston Chronicle
Jennifer
Lopez
La actriz y cantante
Jennifer López se
encuentra entre
‘Las Mejores
Vestidas’ de la
revista People.
La acompañan
Ricky Martin,
Jessica Alba,
Paulina y más.
grupo juvenil que reina en el mercado
de Texas y la parte norte de la
República Mexicana. El álbum sale a
la venta el 29 de junio de 2004.
El primer sencillo promocional es el
corte que la título a esta producción,
Para sobreviver de Treviño, la cual es
una balada norteña no apta para los
débiles del corazón ni para personas
con problemas cardiacos, puesto que
es una canción que relata la nostalgia
de un amor perdido y los vestigos de
un romance que sólo sobreviven
gracias al recuerdo del pasado.
Este tercer esfuerzo musical bajo el
sello Univision Records muestra a un
Duelo más maduro, más sofisticado y
más romántico. El disco, compuesto
por 12 cortes de línea romántico
norteña, en su mayoría compuestos
por Treviño, es básicamente un
álbum
repleto
de
canciones
despiadadamente sublimes como es
evidente en “No se encuentra,
“Hablar de ti.””Dejame volar”,”Lo que
nunca
comenzó”
y”Entonces
comprendí” y el sello melancólico
inconfundible del grupo en “Si te
olvido,” y “Despues de la tormenta,”
mismas que llevan la sangre y
corazón del estilo ultra romántico de
esta joven y talentosa agrupación
Norteña.
Quizá no todos los muchachos de
Duelo sean originarios de Miguel
Alemán en el estado de Tamaulipas,
México, pero si hay algo que en
realidad tienen en común aparte de
su gusto y pasión por la música es
que están completamente de
acuerdo en que: “No hay mal que por
bien no venga”. La suerta a veces
demora, pero cuando llega, llega”.
Los integrantes del grupo Duelo
son: Oscar Iván Treviño, cantante,
compositor y bajo sexto, 21 años;
Juan Barrera, batería, 26 años; Edgar
Rodriguez, percusiones, 23 años;
Cristian Rivera, bajo eléctrico, 23
años; Dimas López, acordeón, 20
años y Luis Guerra, segunda voz,
coros y animador.
Página 20D
Viernes 6 de agosto de 2004 • Laredo Morning Times • La guía de entretenimiento de Laredo