What happens when good actors are saddled with a bad script?
Well, if they're good enough, they can make it almost worthwhile despite the story's flaws, and that's what happens here.
Peter O'Toole stars as JJ Curtis, a showbiz veteran who's finally found huge success as the host of The Big Prize, a family-oriented game show (think Family Feud meets Nickelodeon). But the show's slipping in the ratings, losing ground to Current Account, a trashier show hosted by young upstart Dave Turner (Aiden Gillen). Dave and JJ find themselves in competition to be picked up by an American TV company, and set out to destroy each other's show, and utlimately to destroy each other. Narrating the story is Jonathan Stitch (Adrian Lester), a young novelist who's been hired by JJ to help write his autobiography.
The movie's going for a very dark comic tone, but the problem is that it keeps getting darker and darker without ever really getting funny. None of the movie's big surprises are all that surprising, and the elaborate schemes of the two men come off as cruel, especially as non-combatants wind up taking the most vicious punishment.
Still, the three principal actors do fine work, especially O'Toole and Lester, and the movie's just barely worth seeing because of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment