Paparazzi (2004)
Picture: B-
Sound: B Extras: B- Film: B
Are good, edgy, low-to-medium budget thrillers and action
films trying to make a comeback? The
new Thomas Jane version of The Punisher (2004) was better than many gave
it credit for, but another good film that received less attention is the
directorial debut of Paul Abascal. Paparazzi
(2004) stars Cole Hauser as Bo Laramie, a hot new action movie star who has a
great family and a very promising future.
Of course, not all can be happy and his problem will soon come from that
little thing called Freedom Of The Press.
This will specifically come from celebrity photographer
Rex Harper (Tom Sizemore) who immediately thinks it is appropriate to torment
Harper and his family at will. Early
on, he goes after him very aggressively and it results in the beginning of a
long struggle between the two sides.
Forrest Smith’s screenplay has some great pacing and does not pull one
punch (literally as the situation would have it) in constantly setting up the
storyline as totally believable. Then,
the film takes off from there and actually gets better with each screening.
Hauser and Sizemore definitely have some tension between
them and Sizemore has taken his real-life problems and cleverly channeled that
into the obsessive drive of his character.
Hauser is the nice guy and good family man, but the film asks how far
can he allow himself top be the victim before he does something about the
situation. Also, how much of what this
kind of overaggressive press does cause permanent damage to others? The film is very interested in taking that
to a level of anything repressed let loose and is effective in doing so for its
short-but-effective 80+ minutes. There
is more to this film than most 135-minute bores and Abascal makes an impressive
debut. I also liked the triangular
conflict that comes in when a smart detective (Dennis Farina) gets involved.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image looks pretty
good, as shot by cinematographer Daryn Okada, A.S.C., though it looks like some
stylized image manipulation was applied to the detriment of the fine
shooting. This looks as good as a
recent film ought to on DVD, though that is not always the case. Since many did not see this on film in the
theater as this critic did, that will help it earn the new audience it
deserves. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is
on the aggressive side and I only wished Fox had made this one of their DTS
releases. Brian Tyler’s music score is
good and adds to the tension of the story.
The picture and sound gel as well as the many elements of the film
itself do. Extras on the widescreen
side include a feature length commentary by Abascal which is not bad at all,
lacking the pretensions of recent such tracks that go on and on, three deleted
scenes with optional Abascal commentary also available here. I can see why he trimmed them. You also get the original theatrical trailer
and a making of featurette. An Inside
Look at Elektra can be found on the main menu on that side, repeated on
the awful pan & scan side. A stunts
featurette running about 9 minutes, is included on this side, and is the only
reason to spin it.
That this is so effective and is still a PG-13 film is
additionally impressive, bringing one to believe that this may be the beginning
of bigger things to come cinematically from most of the participants
involved. Let’s hope so.
- Nicholas Sheffo
