FAST & FURIOUS (2009). The best part of Fast & Furious is its tagline – “New Model. Original Parts.” – which means that the studio wonk who created it deserved the big bucks more than anybody else who worked on the film. It’s a catchy line because it advertises the fact that all four stars of 2001’s The Fast and the Furious – Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster – have reunited for this fourth entry in the series. Unfortunately, this is one star vehicle that seems permanently stuck in “reverse.” The best performer of the quartet, Rodriguez, disappears from the proceedings fairly early, as director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan apparently decided to make this even more of a Toys for Boys romp than its predecessors: Brewster’s character is, as before, an utter stiff, while the other women (occasionally seen making out with each other) are merely decorative props. That leaves more time for Diesel (as outlaw hot-rodder Dominic Toretto) and Walker (as lawman hot-rodder Brian O’Conner) to engage in competitive bouts of piston envy, each trying to prove to the other that only he has a crankshaft large enough to take down the drug kingpin responsible for the murder of a close friend. The opening vehicular set-piece is a doozy, but subsequent racing sequences resemble nothing more than video game sessions. Diesel tries to recapture the brooding brand of charisma that made him a star, but he seems to be losing his grip on that elusive quality. As for Walker, he’s more boring than ever: His acting is so somnambular that even his car’s steering wheel stands a better chance at grabbing an Oscar nomination.
Extras in the two-disc Special Edition include audio commentary by Lin; the 20-minute short film Los Bandoleros, written by, directed by and starring Diesel; a 10-minute featurette in which the four leads discuss being reunited for this film; two pieces on the cars seen in the movie; and a 5-minute gag reel.
Movie: **
Extras: ***
PARIS 36 (2009). Co-written and directed by Christophe Barratier (The Chorus), Paris 36 centers on the coping mechanisms of a French theatrical troupe as they try to pry loose the fingers of the fascists who threaten their very lifeline. And how do they cope? By embracing that age-old adage, the one stipulating that the show must go on. Before the right-wing Galpiat (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) gets around to co-hosting Nazi rallies, he’s busy closing down the neighborhood theater, the Chansonia. But Pigoil (Gerard Jugnot), the venue’s dedicated stage manager, gathers a group of loyal comrades – a labor organizer (Clovis Cornillac), a lovely ingénue (Nora Arnezeder) and a spectacularly unfunny comedian (Kad Merad) – and together they work to bring the establishment back to its former glory. Barratier crams in so many subplots and ironic twists of fate that the result is often like watching hot water flowing over the sides of a pot boiling furiously on the stovetop – the story strand involving Pigoil’s abandonment by an unfaithful wife seems extraneous, and the identity of the ingénue’s father is simply absurd. But for all its shortcomings, Paris 36 is breezy entertainment, full of memorable characters, deft at doling out drama and comedy in equal measure, and sparked by original musical compositions drafted in the style of the day. It’s clearly old-fashioned entertainment, and while the blue-hairs will dig it, I suspect many of us with brown, blonde, black or red hair will embrace it as well.
DVD extras include audio commentary by Barratier and Arnezeder; 14 deleted scenes; a half-hour making-of featurette; and a 10-minute piece on rising star Arnezeder.
Movie: ***
Extras: ***
17 AGAIN (2009). The first half-hour of 17 Again is simply atrocious, lazily cobbling together pieces from Back to the Future, Big and all those forgettable ’80s body-switch comedies in an effort to jump-start its tale. Zac Efron plays Mike O’Donnell, a high school basketball star who, two decades later, has transformed into a depressed doormat whose teenage children Maggie and Alex (Michelle Trachtenberg and Sterling Knight) hate him and whose wife Scarlett (Leslie Mann) is divorcing him. (The middle-aged Mike/Zac is played by a suitably pudgy Matthew Perry.) In the blink of an eye, Mike is suddenly 17 again, retaining his adult mindset but trolling the halls of his school looking like one of the gang. Armed with this opportunity, Mike hopes to set things right, first by helping out his two children (Maggie’s romantically involved with the school bully while Alex is the perpetual target of said thug) and then by convincing Scarlett to give him (or, rather, his older self) a second chance. Efron is appealing within the confines of his limited range, but like the film itself, a severe case of blandness puts a lid on any breakout potential. Mann (aka Mrs. Judd Apatow) provides the piece with its heart, and she proves once again that she deserves a shot or two at more substantial roles. Beyond her, the film is completely disposable, with not enough timeline complications in its scripting and too much footage devoted to the antics of Mike’s best friend Ned (Thomas Lennon), a fanboy who never grew up. The bed shaped like a Star Wars landspeeder is a cute visual gag, but by the time Ned started speaking Tolkien’s Elvish language, I was ready to check back in with reality.
The only extras are theatrical trailers.
Movie: **
Extras: *
This article appears in Aug 18-25, 2009.
