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Dead Man
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With February turning out to be a major dud at the movies -- among those in the dumpster: Valentine, Head Over Heals, Sugar & Spice, and Saving Silverman -- it's the perfect time to get in some couch duty.
First up, Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man finally gets the DVD treatment it deserves. After the quick death of its 1996 theatrical release, it's a chance to check out Jarmusch's much-neglected foray into the Western genre. Next is the latest adaptation from British novelist Nick Hornby to hit video, Fever Pitch. For those inclined, it's the perfect warm-up for March Madness. Last, and certainly least, is veteran horror director Tobe Hooper's Crocodile. Tread warily.
Dead Man
Rated R
1996, Miramax
In the opening sequence, when Crispin Glover appears with a soot-stained face and muttering poetics, you know you're in for an unique experience. This brooding 19th-century Western contains many of filmmaker Jim Jarmusch's trademark characteristics: black-and-white photography, deadpan humor, eccentric storytelling, existential meanderings. And unlike his earlier films, it's genuinely affecting.
The story begins with William Blake (Johnny Depp) looking for work as an accountant in a musty industrial town called Machine. Soon after discovering that the job has already been filled, Blake embarks on an unexpected spiritual awakening. The cast of characters (which also includes Michael Wincott, Billy Bob Thornton, Robert Mitchum and Gabriel Byrne) Blake encounters along the way are constantly effective and always funny.
Jarmusch imbues Dead Man with an odd stillness: A sense of foreboding and desolation hang over the proceedings like a vulture preparing to pounce on its prey. Neil Young's spare and strangely hypnotic score adds to the mysterious tone. His echoing chords will ring in your cortex for days, just like everything else in Dead Man. (Grade: A).
Fever Pitch
Rated R. 1997,
Trimark
Nick Hornby writes great losers. Like his recently adapted High Fidelity, Fever Pitch centers on a thirtysomething slacker with a commitment problem. This time, soccer (sorry Nick, I won't say football) replaces music as the fixation of choice.
Paul Ashworth (Colin Firth) is a London English teacher obsessed with his hometown soccer team, The Arsenal. Paul's preoccupation is so acute he begins to exclude his new girlfriend and fellow teacher, Sarah (Ruth Gemmell), from his life. It seems his beloved Arsenal, for the first time in 18 years, are contending for the championship. Firth infuses Paul with a likable gruffness, and Gemmell is suitably snide, but Fever Pitch lacks a couple of key ingredients that made High Fidelity so enjoyable: fully-fleshed characters and director Stephen Frears.
Written by Hornby from his best-selling memoir, Fever Pitch may be a bit too Brit to translate well over here, but sports fanatics everywhere will appreciate Paul's soccer-based mood swings and his feeble attempts at an extended adolescence. (Grade: C).
Crocodile
Rated R 2000
Trimark
Either Tobe Hooper is getting senile, or he has one restless accountant. It's impossible to see this thoroughly ludicrous Lake Placid rip-off as anything but a joke. It even fails as a late-night fright fix.
In typical B-movie fashion, Crocodile's story focuses on a group of rowdy college kids on spring break. Soon after their arrival in a Florida marshland, a massive crocodile gets upset that the kids have parked their rented houseboat on its nest of eggs. You can guess rather easily what happens next: blood, bad music, bad camera angles, inept police, blood, bad special effects, bad dialogue, bad acting and more blood.
Hooper, the man behind such horror classics as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist, hits an all-time low with Crocodile. We're even beyond Joe Bob Briggs territory here. Avoid at all costs! (Grade: F).
Contact Jason gargano at: jgargano@citybeat.com
