Paparazzi
Review by Jason Blake
 Somewhere
between Hollywood and Australia, a sticker fell off the film
can containing the prints of Paparazzi.
A sticker that read: Straight To Video.
Seems that producer Mel Gibson was exchanging paparazzi war
stories with his fellow celebs when one chump piped up with
the inevitable LA conversation closer: "Hey, that would
make a great movie!"
And perhaps it would have had Gibson - who demonstrates an
uncharacteristic lack of horse sense on this Icon-produced
project - not handballed the idea to his old hairdresser,
Paul Abascal.
Abascal traded scissors and comb for director's megaphone
after helming a behind-the-scenes doco for the Lethal Weapon
series. In cahoots with former soap actor-turned screenwriter
Forrest Smith, they've concocted a lazily thought-out, near-incompetent
non-thriller that has all the impact of an episode of TJ Hooker.
The charisma-free Cole Hauser (the villain in 2Fast, 2Furious
and Pitch Black) is Bo Laramie - yes, really, Bo Laramie
- a nice guy action star from Montana whose blockbusting action
thriller 'Adrenaline Force' has propelled him into the limelight.
The trappings of mega-celebrity are aw… kinda hard for
Laramie to deal with, him being such a modest guy an' all,
but he's committed to playing the fame game as best he can
– for the sake of his family, naturally.
But he discovers that the rules of the game change with alarming
speed. Now he's an A-lister, his family are considered fair
game by the paparazzi – and in particular, a renegade
crew of shady snappers led by the greasy Rex Harper (Tom Sizemore).
Endlessly provoked by Rex, things come to a disastrous head
for Bo when his car is involved in a serious accident, caused
(Princess Di-style) by the pursuing snappers. He's okay, but
his toddler son, Zach, is left – gasp – in a coma.
Is it time for Laramie to get even? You bet it is, but he
does so in such an illogical way that we loose all sympathy
with his supposed plight and start rooting for the slimeball
lensmen whose over-the-top antics and tactical idiocy provide
the only entertainment in this sorry affair.
Acting honours - such as they are - go to Sizemore, who chews
through the scenes like he's in a toilet paper-eating competition,
and Dennis Farina who plays a star-struck cop charged with
solving a crime that Scooby-Doo could see through in an instant.
And as if to underline the ineffectiveness of the film, the
story is gingered-up with gratuitous cameos: Gibson himself
(fleetingly); Chris Rock (playing a pizza delivery driver),
Matthew McConaughey (as himself) and Vince Vaughn. They distract
rather than enhance and their inclusion smacks of desperation.
The idea behind the script is valid – this could have
been a great “dark-side-of-Hollywood” thriller -
but the execution of it is risible at best.
1 out of 5
Paparazzi
Australian release: Thursday November 11th
Cast: Cole Hauser, Robin Tunney, Tom Sizemore, Dennis
Farina, Daniel Baldwin, Tom Hollander.
Director: Paul Abascal.
Website: Click
here.
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