Autumn Tale
What Movies Look Like This Fall
By Marc Savlov, Fri., Sept. 21, 2001
Funny Bones
I can see it now: two studio suits, yakking into their cells as they merrily skip down the corridors of power at 20th Century Fox. "We haven't pillaged Mark Twain lately!" "So true. How about Martin Lawrence in an edgy, urbanized version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court?" "Hey! Let's call it Black Knight! It'll be like a double entendre." "(A what?) That's phat, baby. That's the bomb. You should be studio head!" "No, you!" "Oooh. Hugs?" Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly like that, but you get my point. Still, when Lawrence isn't pulling guns in rush hour intersections, he often whips up an inspired comic performance. We'll see. (Nov. 21)... Haven't had enough awful SNL-character spinoff films yet? Sucka. Kris Kattan as Corky Romano looks to be one giant spazz-fest, which could be a very funny thing, actually. First-time director Rob Pritts helms, and the great Peter Falk plays Pops Romano. Ai-yi-yi, where's Wim Wenders when you really need him? (Oct. 12)... Not to be outdone, Barry Levinson's Bandits looks to be both hilarious and intelligent (a deadly box-office combo, to be sure). Bank robbers par excellence Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton fall in love with mentally unbalanced hostage Cate Blanchett and -- you guessed it -- hilarity ensues! If anyone can pull this sort of highbrow schtick off, it'd be Levinson (Wag the Dog), and the cast is certainly no pushover as well. Fingers are crossed. (Oct. 12)... Ed Decter's The New Guy was one of the very first films to utilize the new Austin Studios out at the old Robert Mueller Airport, and should be seen by everyone in Austin for that reason alone. Scrawny humanoid D.J. Qualls (Road Trip) stars as a much-bullied high school schmoe who turns the tables on Max Keeble and -- wait, that's not right. It's more like "Bad boys get the chicks, so Qualls gets Bad." The tagline to this proclaims "A Zero Will Rise," which to my mind sounds a bit too much like something Vanilla Ice said in Frozen Custard (or whatever his one and only film was titled). Nevertheless it's got an interesting cast -- including Lyle Lovett, pro skater Tony Hawk, and Henry "Rise Again: Yeah, Like That's Gonna Happen" Rollins -- that should be fun to watch. (Nov. 21)... Finally, Jay Chandrasekhar's Super Troopers, which screened at last year's SXSW, has been called both "the funniest film since Caddyshack" and "Police Academy Lite," so how this tale of madcap Vermont State Troopers is going to play in Peoria (or Austin) is anyone's guess. Lynda Carter (yes, that Lynda Carter) cameos as the governor. (Nov. 30)
