What I wouldn’t give for a large polo mallet.
“Scream 4.” Why? Because someone smells money in this tired old ghost.
“The Princess of Montpelier.” A generic costume drama from France about a pretty princess with lips to die for and the men who die for them.
“Henry’s Crime.” A romantic comedy about doing the time, then doing the crime.
“Rio.” Kids will love it. If you’re their sad-sack guardian, don’t do this one with a hangover -- a hyperkinetic candy-colored assault on sobriety.
The thing about “Scream 4” is it can’t help but suck compared to the original. What made the first in the series so compelling isn’t the memorable characters or the unique plot, it was the meta-approach to the genre.
Characters talking about genre strictures and analyzing the movie as they went along was a refreshing, post-modern take on slasher films that had not been seen before.
How do you follow that? The short answer is you don’t. What set “Scream” apart was a stylistic premise which, by definition, defies the notion of a sequel. Sequels are based on characters and/or plot lines, not style. This is why all the “Scream” sequels are the same only worse, and it is why the latest installment is no different.
But never mind that. Most alarming is Wes Craven’s dull and uninspired stewardship. In the first movie, he constantly subverted genre clichés. In the new one, he relies on them. “Scream 4” looks like anyone could have made it.
No doubt the new movie will make a strong showing at the box office even though it doesn’t deserve to.
But let’s leave Hollywood for a moment and travel to 16th Century France where the Huguenots and the Papists are tearing each other apart without the benefit of ghost-face masks.
As for "“The Princess of Montpensier,”celebrated filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier adapted the 17th century novel, delivering a fine -- and forgettable -- movie.
The princess is newcomer Melanie Thierry, a woman of breath-taking beauty who is catnip to the prince, (her husband), Guise (her lover), Anjou (some Duke) and Comte Chalbanne, (her overseer).
In short, everybody wants the princess. But not everybody can have the princess; there’s the rub.
The new film offers a fine use of mise-en-scene, lovely landscapes and a pretty girl. But generally, “Princess” is a silly movie, what with everyone falling in love and poking each other with swords half the time; hardly as serious as its elegiac tone would imply.
Nor as serious as the new comedy “Henry’s Crime” by Malcolm Venville.
Keanu Reeves stars as Henry Torne, a hapless toll booth collector who goes to jail for a crime he didn’t commit: bank robbery. Upon his release, he commits a crime: bank robbery. To pull it off, the robbers join a production of “The Cherry Orchard” in the theater next door where a hidden tunnel leads to the bank’s vault.
