DVD Quickie Reviews

RAY

MPAA Rating: PG-13

This film has been discussed as one of the best of the year and is in serious Oscar contention, so when it came out on DVD, I figured it was a sure bet. Well, for me at least, not so much. The movie is well made, filled with great music (as would be expected), and a decent story. Jamie Foxx, surprisingly, can act and does a decent job of portraying the blind actor's amazing rise to fame and struggle with drugs. But despite all of this, the film failed to draw me in. There are some movies that you watch. There are other movies that draw you in and you EXPERIENCE as though you are living vicariously through one of the characters. In this one, I just watched. Frankly, I usually felt more in common with people in Ray's entourage than I did with him, and I never felt like the film gives you a reason to love Ray Charles, if you are not already a die-hard fan.



Of course, I did not grow up with Ray Charles as my parents generation did. He was not a formative presence in my life. He was just one of those singers that was already out there, and he was notable for being the one who moved really strangely when he sang. I suspect for someone who already loves Ray Charles, this would be a great film. But not for me.



PAULY SHORE IS DEAD

MPAA Rating: R

Yeah, I know, I know. I have never watched a Pauly Shore movie before, either. None of them in any way appealed to me. But this one seemed interesting. How do you make a film about the death of an actor, who is still alive? Plus, it was $9.97 at Wal-Mart and I was in the mood for something new. Anyway, the plot of this film is an interesting one. Pauly Shore finds himself with his career in ruins, and decides to fake his own death so that he is remembered as "a comic genius who died before his time" rather than a one-line-wonder comic who overstayed his welcome. Hollywood predictably takes the bait and praises the star of such cinematic excrement as "Bio-Dome", until it learns about the hoax at which point he becomes the most hated man on Earth. (Even though Carrot Top is still at large.)



The film is funnier than I expected. It is Shore's first attempt at a semi-serious film, and he acted, wrote, and directed the piece. He somehow got a lot of Hollywood A-list talent to appear in it, and ultimately produced something worth watching. This is hardly a film that people will be watching 10 years from now. But the self-referential humor and blatant digs at the entertainment scene are worth a watch. This is a Netflixer for most of us.