Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 3, 2006)
6 Art^^ntertainment Clackamas Pri Wednesday, May 3, 2006 Hugh Grant still only DVD-worth Matt Olson The Clackamas Print With a tagline like “Imagine a country where the President never reads the newspaper, where the government goes to war for all the wrong reasons, and more people vote for a pop idol than their next President, “American Dreamz,” by Paul Weitz (both with a Z) is a satiri cal comedy that falls short of any biting irony, but succeeds at being a harmless comedy. With a decent ensemble cast to compel the viewer through the predictable but enjoy able twists of fate in the film, “American Dreamz” comes to an explosive climax that doesn’t really prove anything, but wraps things into a nice little bow. What it comes down to is that this movie is only kind of funny, and not as politically poignant as one might think. It’s shot well, has a decent script, a good cast and has some interesting, if a bit cliched, things to say about America, though it never becomes offensive. It’s so inoffensive in fact, that I would feel safe giving Dick Cheney a shotgun and sit ting in front of him during the movie, secure in the knowledge that all I’d get hit with would be some spittle as he laughed at super-metro Tony Yalda as Iqbal (hands-down the funniest char acter in the movie). With a cast including Hugh Grant as the Ryan-Seacrest- knockoff Martin Tweed, Mandy Moore as the starlet Sally Kendoo, Dennis Quaid as the inept President Staton and Willem Dafoe as the puppe teer Chief of Staff “American Dreamz” is a movie wholly driv en by it’s characters. The movie starts with the dis passionate Tweed breaking up with his girlfriend because she’s perfect and he’s, well, lovably flustered (just like every other Grant character). Despite the familiar per sona, Grant manages to make you interested in his backwards Hollywood life over the course of the movie. Bringing in two- faced Kendoo compels Tweed to become frustrated with the stag nant show “American Dreamz,” which he hosts and judges, and search for some “humanity” in his contestants. Omer, a wacky wannabe ter- Intel Hugh Grant and Mandy Moore star in the would-be political satire “American Dreamz.” 1 film was directed by Paul Weitz, of American Pie fame, but is surprisingly predictable, j rorist (played by Sam Golzari) comes to America to “contact a sleeper cell,” but ends up being caught up in the “American Dreamz” TV show (competing against a Jewish rapper, peace in the middle-east anyone?). Ironically, the disillusioned President Staton is now coming off of a three week long self imposed isolation, and is booked to be a judge on the last episode of “American Dreamz” so he can reconnect with the public. Obviously such an opportunity cannot be ignored by the sleeper cell, and Omer is contact The movie is preJ funny, ironically inoffenl only half as good as it have been. I’d say wait comes out on DVD, and be afraid to sit down andI it with the family. I Concrete couch teaches students life lessons, post-modernis Mike Kimberling The Clackamas Print Mike Kimberling Clackamas Print Clackamas student Lucas Adams relaxes on the concrete couch in front of the Art Center, find ing musical inspiration. “It’s a really cool couch, but I’ll never sit on it again,’’ Adams said. Sitting as a testament to time the way the great pyra mids sit in Giza, the concrete couch of Clackamas defies all rules of modern “couch-ism.” Where a residential couch is governed by the comfort of its cushions or the fashion of its upholstery, the concrete couch brings an innovative approach to tradition by chal lenging our very notions of comfort. The surprisingly realistic concrete couch may appear to the naïve as an oasis during a hectic school day. If ever a student should be so overcome with visions of idle-couch joy to actually attempt’leap ing upon the cushions, that student would not find the bouncing pleasures of a lazy Sunday afternoon but the cold reality of cement scraps and cracked ribs. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from the school’s petrified sofa. I rl The concrete coucqi |j the question of complac to within our modern sol ® Does mankind sit upon buttocks too much? Had found a false idol, ^®| comfort zone from protect him from the r^K of the outside world^M the act of simply sitting® cushions take us further! where we should be go^K With such phil^H cal questions on ha^H cement couch may in^H our guide. The concret^H teaches all who gaze^B upon it that appeara^M deceiving and that si^H never greater than or moving on. Whether serving enchanted outdoor for goo-goo-eyed stun® an oracle for the phi^H cally curious, the conl| couch of Clackamas ran! a postmodernist feella|. sense of compromise bet® what is traditionally ac®i as comfort and exactly® arbitrary comfort can be.| n RV’: overdone, predictable, cliche comedy that’s campy fu| Adam I. Manley The Clackamas Print I’ll say it right up front: “RV,” starring Robin Williams, is campy, predictable and at times overdone. But it’s damn fun to watch. Movie camp has received a bad rap for a long time. The mere mention of bat-nip ples is enough to send comic geeks and movie connoisseurs alike into a frothing rage that should rightly make everyone involved with “Batman and Robin” quake with fear. And yet who among us doesn’t have fond memories of Adam West and Burt Ward, living legends of camp, run ning around in bad costumes and vanquishing villains with a mighty “POW!” or “BASH!”? “RV” doesn’t come close to that level of camp, but it is fun in very much the same way. Williams plays Bob Munro, the head of an upper-class family that has become emo tionally distant. His formerly doting daughter is caught in the throes of teenage righteous alienation, his Eminem-esque son deals with an inferior ity complex resulting from his small stature, and his married life has become a mind-numb ing routine. He struggles to connect with his family while keeping ahead in a workplace that is passing him by in favor of a young business prodigy. So when he is ordered by his boss to cancel his family’s Hawaii vacation to attend a meeting in Colorado, he opts to turn the family vacation into an RV trip to Colorado - with out, of course, telling them about the meeting. Add frequent run-ins with an overly friendly family of rednecks, headed by Jeff Daniels, and it sounds like a painfully overused Hollywood equation. Take one alienated family, drop them - begrudg ingly - into a situation involv ing cramped quarters and con stant closeness, and then add a few quirky supporting charac ters .^Hilarity ensues. The setup is so bad that when I told people what movie I was going to review the first words out of their mouths were “Oh, I’m sorry.” I’ll admit, I was doubtful for the first few minutes. I was beginning to think that Williams had finally disap pointed me with his choice of roles. When the film hit its first truly overdone' bit of campy schtick, it seemed to go on forever. I couldn’t stop won dering how long they could possibly draw out a sequence of such obvious, predictable “humor.” But then something won derful happened: in spite of myself, I began to laugh. The director, it seems, wasn’t as dumb as he seemed. The length of the sequence became so absurd that I, and the rest of the audience, had no choice but to laugh. That’s the genius of “RV.” Barry Sonnenfeld, director of such movies as “The Addams Family,” “Get Shorty,” and “Men In Black,” didn’t try to take a campy script and make a serious film out of it. He took a campy script and made camp. Ridiculous, over« predictable camp. He to® to such a high level of exil that I couldn’t take it sen doll on any level, and insteat ee sat back and allowed m to enjoy it. And this is ing from someone who p cally cannot sit through] episode of “The Flint« because of its campy pri ability. M *9' So yes, there are conn «11 that in any other mo vim be too long. There are ova stereotypes. It’s often | fully predictable. It freq« defies the laws of physiM because it’s intentionally® that way, it works. It’s not cinematic ma® It’s not movie gold. It’s® And surprisingly, that^® There are no bat-li®
