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Cinema
Releases - February 16, 2001
Dungeons &
Dragons
*
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 12. 107
minutes. Directed by Courtney Solomon. Written by Copper Cartwright, Topper
Lilien. Starring Justin Whalin, Marlon Wayans, Jeremy Irons, Thora Birch,
Kristen Wilson, Richard O'Brien.
State and
Main
***
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. 105
minutes. Written and directed by David Mamet. Starring Alec Baldwin, William
H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julia Stiles, Charles Durning, Patti LuPone,
Sarah Jessica Parker.
"Dungeons & Dragons" has all
the hallmarks of a movie that was budgeted at a hundred million dollars before
the filmmakers spent ninety-seven million on drugs and were left with bugger
all for the shoot. The clumsy costumes appear to have come from 1950s sci-fi
television, the balance of colours gave me a headache and the special effects
look the way a 3-D movie does before you put on the glasses. Roger Ebert
put it perfectly in his review, saying that it doesn't even look as good
as a video game, but more like the artwork from a video game's
packaging.
The video game that inspired "Dungeons & Dragons"
was extremely popular in the late 80s and early 90s, but is such old news
now that I scratch my head at why anyone thought it could make a box-office
success. With the nature of the source material in mind, the structure of
the screenplay is surprisingly sound; it's a standard but reliable story
of a pair of heroes saving their medieval kingdom from evil sorcerers by
going on a quest to find some helpful mythical item. You know the
score.
There are potentially great set pieces here --
not just the obvious sword fights and chases around castles, but also a
remarkably well-conceived maze of lethal booby traps that caused me to wince
even though it was so poorly photographed. But the bad filmmaking makes the
impact of these moments suffer to embarrassing degrees -- this is an
incompetently put together picture, which looks cheap and clunky and laughable.
It goes on too long, especially in the climax, where phoney-looking bats
swoop at both the heroes and villains against what seems to be a painted
backdrop; the pantomime banter between the heroes didn't make a single person
laugh in the audience I sat with; and I have no idea what the hell A-list
actors like Thora Birch and Jeremy Irons were thinking when they agreed to
appear. That's the kind of offence, Jeremy, for which you should have your
Oscar revoked.
.
The best movie of the week is David Mamet's
"State and Main", which depicts the chaos that occurs when
a Hollywood movie crew descends on small town America. Although the rhythm
of the picture is familiar, with Hollywood references and lampooning of
ludicrousness, it doesn't feel clichéd… The references aren't
easy jokes based on real movies, but fictional ones with purposes. And the
way the situation goes out of control is pleasingly unexpected -- instead
of yokels responding with confusion to the urbanites' moviemaking, it's the
small town folk who are savvy and level headed, and those working on the
film who get neurotic, disorganised and frenzied.
Amusing plot threads include those involving an
actor whose penchant for barely-legal teenage girls gets him in trouble (Alec
Baldwin), a twitty starlet who frets about having to show her breasts (Sarah
Jessica Parker), and the wound-up director of the project, played by the
great William H. Macy, who runs round talking a mile a minute, getting a
whole lot less done that if he'd just calm down already. There's also some
heart in this affectionate send-up of the movie business, with a frank,
intelligent romance between a Hollywood writer and a local bookstore owner
familiar with his work. Add another gold star to Mamet's
filmography.
COPYRIGHT©
2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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