WCBE 90.5 FM: "Prime," "The Weather Man," "Stay," "The Legend of Zorro"

WCBE#240-FINAL
It's Movie Time
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe For WCBE 90.5 FM

Reviews: “Prime,” “The Weather Man,” “Stay,” “The Legend of Zorro”
Taped: 1:30 pm, October 26, 2005
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 28, 2005
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

The script:

John
"Prime” is a prime romantic comedy for our time. . .

Clay
"The Weather Man” is cloudy and gray with no help on the way . . .

John
“Stay” does not STAY with you . . .

Clay
“The Legend of Zorro” is a rumble, jumble of romantic adventure . . .

MUSIC UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak
"It's Movie Time" in Central-Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John
I'm John DeSando

Clay
And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("Prime")
Clay, recently Shopgirl explored the ramifications of older man/ younger woman romance; Prime deals directly with younger man/older woman. Prime Hollywood again takes an old genre, the romantic comedy, and updates and invigorates it.

As this is New York and every family member jumps into the opinion pit, you can guess 23 year old David Bloomberg is Jewish and his family not happy about his romancing shiksas Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman), much less a 37 year-old divorcee. It’s Woody Allen territory.

Rafi’s therapist, Lisa Metzger (Meryl Streep) turns out to be also David’s mother. Streep’s performance is one of the best of the year, funny and poignant. Bryan Greenberg’s David is not strong by contrast to the stellar Streep.

Prime is as delicate and thoughtful a discussion about modern romance, with all the “diversity” issues as could be hoped for.

It’s been a good year for this genre.

Clay ("The Weatherman")
Well, folks, the romancing has grown all soggy in Gore Verbinski’s “The Weather Man.” It’s hard to believe this is the same director who brought together Johnny Depp and Keira Knightly in that swashbuckling adventure hit “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Something must have gone dreadfully wrong when he wandered north and left behind those warm, Southern waters because “The Weather Man” is nothing but a big foul-mouthed inexplicable mess.

Set in the midst of an icy grey winter in Chicago’s windy city, sad sack Nicholas Cage plays a TV weather man who just can’t seem to get over his recent divorce. Ex-wife, Hope Davis, treats him both coolly and cruelly, and even his two kids have a hard time getting excited about having to spend time with him.

Sound like a loser? He is, and so’s the picture. Too bad because Cage really tries hard to save it.

John ("Stay")
Psychiatrist Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) may be going psychotic, but he has to move fast to catch his girlfriend, Lila (Naomi Watts) and his new client, young Henry (Ryan Gosling). Lila has attempted suicide; Henry predicts exactly when he’ll do it. Sam must keep from a mental slide by rejecting his alleged encounters with people already declared dead and his growing identification with his suicidal client.

I can’t be certain about anything I say factually about the plot because most of the film is inconclusive about what is actually happening. The ending chooses the most common explanation for inscrutable films like this.

That you might “stay” to see the entire film is a tribute to your abiding interest in seeking truth; frankly, in Stay, the truth strays. Or maybe Oscar Wilde was right when he cynically declared the difficulty of shared truth: “A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.”

Clay ("The Legend of Zorro")
Well, John, legends become true when everyone believes them, and if you’re a true romancer you’ll want to believe in “The Legend of Zorro.”

Full of glowing candles, swirling capes, flashing swords, and passionate lips caressing,“The Legend of Zorro” is a nineteenth century gothic romancer.

Antonio Banderas plays it tongue-in-cheek again as an arrogant hero who is so focused on helping his people that he quite, unwittingly, puts at risk his relationship with his wife and child. Oh, the domesticity of it all. Too bad, because his screen wife is the lovely Catherine Zeta-Jones, who is as every bit as striking as Vivian Leigh, Ava Gardner, and Rita Hayworth in their most glamourous on-screen moments.

Sure the storyline is jumbled, and sure the movie’s frenzied seeming never-to-end fight scenes are all a little too much. But it’s fun, fun, fun, and that’s why a lot of the people will go see this movie. And they should.

But enough of Uma Thurman, Nicholas Cage, psychotic movie makers, and heroes in black masks, John, because it’s grading time.

John
Hooray!

John
Prime” earns a “B” for successfully pairing a BOY with a real woman UMMMMMM A . . .

Clay
"The Weather Man” gets an “F” because it’s the first letter in the Spritz’s FAMILY’S FAVORITE FOUR-LETTERED word . . .

John
“Stay” earns a “D” for the plot that DEAD ENDS . . .

Clay
"The Legend of Zorro” gets an “A” because it’s Batman, Spiderman, and The Incredibles, all rolled into one . . .

John
Clay, I hope you won’t criticize me for fraternizing with a Russian Translator a couple of decades younger than I.

In fact, I’m going to fraternize right now. I’m outta here.

Clay
Fraternity, Egality, and Liberty means what’s good for you, John, is good for me . . .

I'm outta here, too

See you at the movies, Folks.

HIT MUSIC

Richelle:
The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus and 106.7 FM in Newark.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

© 2005 John DeSando and Clay Lowe