WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2004
ENTERTAINMENT
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
15
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MOVIE REVIEWS
Revamped Cinderella story degrades classic children tale
Many movies are timeless and ageless. They are pictures you can watch with a 10 year old and love, then watch with a 40 year old, and still love. School of Rock is one example of a movie that is hilarious to children and adults alike. Hilary Duff's newest debacle, A Cinderella Story, is not one of those movies.
The plot follows the basic Cinderella story, almost exactly, but interjects a few modern elements.
For example, what was Cinderella's glass slipper is now a cell phone and what was the Evil Stepmother's dirty house is now a diner. All the other elements remain the same — a dead father, an evil stepmother (Jennifer Coolidge), two stepsisters, and of course, Prince Charming.
Charming here is really Austin Ames, and is played by Chad Michael Murray. Murray has about as much charisma as a salt shaker, and about the same screen presence. The audience is expected to believe that Duff and Murray are Princeton hopefuls who met online, go to the same high school, and have never even met. This would be fine, except for the part where they meet in the beginning at the diner Duff works at. So when the two are at the Masquerade
'A CINDERELLA STORY'
■ Theater: South Wind 12
■ Rating: PG
■ Grade: D
Homecoming Dance and all Duff has on is a little eye mask to conceal her identity, one wants to chuck a brick at Murray's head for not recognizing her.
This movie asks the audience to suspend their disbelief for too long. No one quotes Tennyson, especially not the star football player. Murray apparently wants to become a writer, but there is never an instance where the audience can tell.
There are never any surprise poems or stories that Murray reveals, proclaiming his true love for Duff.
Murray and Duff's devastating performances are just the beginning. Coolidge, a hilarious comedic actress, appears to phone this performance in. The diner crew is just strange, and appear to have no other purpose than to be there for convenient plot twists or sight gags with fish or roller skates.
Basically, there is not one redeeming character or plot point in the entire movie. If you are looking for a Cinderella story, stick to the Disney classic.
At least that one is more believable.
Summer sci-fi blockbuster just another police movie
I, Robot remains an ordinary police action movie despite animated robots and a futuristic Audis. It has all the movie police touchstones.The hero has arguments with superiors who just don't get his problems.His theories about the crime,which are of course correct,are scoffed at.
A woman is involved in the investigation who is wrong about everything. Sadly, the writers only bother to add one or two sinister characters to keep the audience from guessing the identity of the mastermind. That's just sloppy. There is nothing besides the title and a hollow nod to Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" that ties the movie to his series of short stories.
In 2035 Chicago, human-like robots do routine chores around the house and in the streets of the city. The mystery facing Detective Del Spooner (Will Smith) revolves around the death of a prominent robot designer. It appears to be suicide, but a cryptic holographic suicide note leaves Spooner with doubts. With the help of a skeptical scientist, played by Bridget Moynahan, he tracks down a robot named Sonny, which the dead scientist had built himself. Spooner is left with more questions after a series of action-packed robot attacks no one else is around to see.
The most irritating thing in I, Robot is
'I, ROBOT'
Theater: South Wind 12
Rating: PG 13
Grade: C-
Although the car Spooner drives and the car chases were exciting, the computer effects were hokey. The futuristic city was not as cool looking as those in Blade Runner or Minority Report. Those movies were probably more of an influence on the movie than the stories it was loosely based on.
Will Smith's complete lack of humor. Smith's acerbic comments are usually the saving grace of the overblown summer hits he favors, but the few sarcastic zingers he does throw out fall flat. He's trying to be heavy and serious, but the story makes him grim and mopey. It would be one thing if he toned down his witticisms without losing his charm, but the dialogue makes the sarcasm just sound bitter.
Isaac Asimov, the author whose literature inspired the movie, wrote about how humanity would be saved from their own irrationality by benevolent, supremely reasonable robots. It's predictable that a big Hollywood summer movie would deviate from its source material. The tone, and especially the ending of I, Robot, is the antithesis of what Asimov believed about science and reason.
Bob Ward
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