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8.20.99 ▲
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Don't fugetta 'bout it — ganster movie that is
Grant saves Mickey Blue Eyes from mobster comedy cliché
By Brendan Walsh
Kansan movie critic
The matie can't rub out Hugh Grant's smile in his latest movie Mickey Blue Eyes. Grace plays an Englishman who falls madly in love with the maffa boss's daughter.
Contributed art.
Hugh Grant could write the book on how to be the male lead in a romantic comedy. Always charming, attractive enough to get geten's attention and insecure enough to seem non-threatening to men, Grant can make a ho-hum comedy into a real winner.
And that's what he does in the title role of Mickey Blue Eyes.
An auctioneer in New York City, Michael Felgate (Grant) is so enamored with girlfriend Gina Vitale (Janeine Triplephorn) that he asks her to marry him after just three months of dating. He is shocked and dismayed when she says no, but vows to change her mind. He finally finds that the reason Gina won't marry him is because she's part of a mob family and
fears getting the super-innocent Michael involved in her family's crookedness. Thirty seconds of intense conversation follow, and—not to worry—the couple agrees that they can overcome Gina's genealogy and live crime-free lives.
Things do not go as planned after Gina's uncle finds out what Michael does for a living. He decides that selling Gina's cousin's garish paintings through Michael's auction house is the ideal way to launder money. But mayhem ensues, the engagement is called off and someone gets killed. Michael still loves Gina though, so he must do what is necessary to win back her love.
What follows is predictable as can be, but that is the way audiences want it. Mob humor is hardly new territory—see Analyze This, Mafia!, etc.—and writers Adam Scheinman and Robert Kuhn don't go beyond what is already out there. The gags rely predominantly on the various awkward situations that Michael endures as he adjusts to the lives of the Mafiosi.
But Grant's gift for comedy saves Mickey Blue Eyes in the end. He bumbles when speaking, bungles important situations but remains smiling
throughout. His comic timing is impeccable, his acting appropriately subdued and dry. Keep him out of roles in action movies like his ill-conceived appearance in Extreme Measures and Grant truly shines.
Triplelhorn is overshadowed by Grant, but holds her own in the end. Smart-looking and classy, she is the perfect compliment to Grant's foolishness. James Caan has a major role as Gina's dad and performs adequately. Certainly not a stunning performance, but well done.
Joe Viterelli, fresh from his appearance alongside Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal in Analyze This, plays a member of Gina's family's gang. He looks amazingly authentic as a tough guy, but shows his range when called on as a comedic sidekick.
Less romantic than funny and more hit than miss, this lighthearted look at mobsters is worth the ticket price.
Grade: B
Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes.
Film facts
Where: Southwind 123433 Iowa St.
Rating: PG-13
Hugh Grant plays the role of Michael Felgate in the romantic comedy Mickey Blue Eyes, a Castle Rock Entertainment release. Contributed art.
Chemical Brothers cover all of electronica's bases
By Bryan Anderson
Kansan music critic
Grade: A
Remember when electronica was supposed to be the next big thing? In 1997, the Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy lead a second British invasion and succeeded in bringing electronic music to the attention of mainstream America. However,
like Star Wars: Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace, the electronic insurgence did not live up to the tremendous hype.
It is two years later, and hiphop music is the next big thing. The time is perfect for the new
The next track Out of control seems like a show of reverence for electronic music pioneers New Order. It has a simple groove with an intense breakdown that gives the listener a chance to catch his or her breath. On orange wedge the Brothers make listeners aware that they have funky beats to bug out to. They slow it down a bit, but turn the funk
Chemical Brothers album, Surrender. While The Prodigy seemed more like rock stars than electronic artists, the Chemical Brothers, with their big beats and relaxed style, seem to have more in common with hip hoppers, a reminder of their days as DJs in British clubs. With help from a diverse crowd, from Noel Gallagher of Oasis to Missy "Misdeamonor" Elliot, the Brothers ease into an album that covers all spectrums of electronic music.
The opening track Music response shows their hip-hop influence immediately. With help from Elliot, the Brothers lay disco guitars and a simple melody with a heavy bass line and enough electronic noise to let listners know that they mean business. On the next track the Brothers head to the opposite side of the electronic spectrum. The track conjures up images of a club with flashing lights and wall-to-wall bodies moving in unison.
up in retaliation.
The Chemical Brothers enlist the vocal help of Gallagher for Let fcrever be, a pop tune with a busy bass guitar line, which is a departure from their usual style.
They mellow out a bit on sunshine underground, asleep from the day and the title track surrender, while still managing to slip into a bit of a frenzy on them. On Got glint? they take a cue from their French counterparts Daft Punk and unload some quarter notes and funk with a breakdown that includes space-age sounds and solid hand claps.
The centerpiece of the album is the first single Hey boy hey girl. With a sample of the old school, hip-hop tune The roof is on fire, the song's block-rocking beats let the people know that they came to rock the party. On the last track, Dream on, they settle everyone down and send them home satisfied.
While Surrender is not the second coming of the electronic revolution, it is a sampler of the different genres of electronic music, some of which the Chemical brothers have pioneered. Surrender is their strongest work to date.
Dawson's Creek star grows up on screen
Actress leaves teens, but not teenage roles
The Associated Press
Katie Holmes is growing up - whether she likes it or not.
She still plays a teen-ager on TV, but Holmes is no longer a teen in real life. She put college on hold to relive the joys and heartaches of high school on the WB network's Dawson's Creek, but finds herself back at the crossroads between adolescence and adulthood in art and life as Joey, Dawson and the gang enter their senior year, and her real world begins changing dramatically, too.
"I'm still having fun playing a teenager and I'm still having fun being that little kid, and continuing to kind of embrace my youth," the 20-year-old actress says, sprawled across a couch in her Manhattan hotel suite. "Parts of me do want to be that 25-year-old who is in complete control and, you know, ready to conquer the world, and there's the other part that still wants to be that demure little 16-year-old, that is still protected. I don't know, is that normal?"
Complicating any hopes for an easy adjustment into the adult world is her thriving film career. She co-stars opposite Helen Mirren in the new movie Teaching Mrs. Tingle, and opposite Michael Douglas in the recently completed Wonder Boys.
In an interview, Holmes reveals the central contradiction that surfaces continually in her film and TV work, seeming at once unattainable and the quintessential girl next door, a wholesome daughter of the Midwest who can't help her undeniably savvy sex appeal. She displays the same disarming blend of pixie-like innocence, brains and guile that makes high school boys weak-kneed and melts the hearts of casting agents.
What has been toughest for Holmes is how easy her leap to stardom was, an unknown Catholic schoolgirl from Toledo landing a movie role in The Ice Storm at her first Hollywood audition, then starring in a teen TV hit right out of high school.
More movies (Disturbing Behavior, Go) followed, accompanied by trappings of fame that included magazine covers and a slew of Web sites devoted to her.
"I did struggle for a while with the
knowledge and the guilt," Holmes says. "You know, why did this happen for me? Why didn't I struggle for five years? Is this in any way indicative of a long career or is this just a short thing? What is this? What does this all mean?"
Entering it's third season, Dawson's Creek will continue without creator Kevin Williamson, the writer of such horror films as Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, who leaves popcorn hack-and-slash behind in Teaching Mrs. Tingle, his directorial debut.
His departure — to focus on his new TV project, Wasteland — makes some wonder how long Dawson's Creek can survive without him, especially as its rising young stars (Holmes, James Van Der Beek, Michelle Williams) get more movie roles.
A Dawson's Creek run that avoids becoming a lifelong saga a la *Beverly Hills* 90201 would suit Holmes just fine.
"I want to take it slowly and learn as much about it as I can, and really take the time to grow up and take the time to challenge myself with different roles at the times when I am ready," she says. "I also really want to go to college. It all depends on what's going on with Dawson's Creek and where my career is headed after that, if any where."
Holmes sees the irony of playing Leigh Ann Watson in Teaching Mrs. Tingle, which features Mirren as a heartless teacher out to crush Holmes' spirit and prevent her from getting out of their one-horse town.
"Leigh Ann was essentially me when I was in high school, in that I was very ambitious and
driven and I wanted a life outside of what I knew," she says, rolling her eyes at how things turned out for her, how her all her dreams came true. "It was so out of the blue, so unexpected. I mean all of a sudden my life changed, and it was unbelievable, and I was like a deer in the headlights, so many emotions going on."
"I still am not used to it, I guess. It's been really wild. Such a great ride." Holmes says, choosing her words carefully despite her obvious excitement.
"Right now I just want to be smart about it. I know that I've been given so many unbelievable opportunities and what I hope to do is just take advan-