WCBE 90.5 FM: "Final Destination 3," "Pink Panther," "Something New," "The Matador"

WCBE#255-FINAL
“Final Destination 3,” “The Pink Panther,” “Something New,” "The Matador"
It’s Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
WCBE 90.5 FM
Air Time: 3:01 and 8:01 pm, February 10, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and “It’s Movie Time” on-demand at: www.wcbe.org

The Script

John
“Final Destination 3” should be the final destination for this franchise   . . .

Clay
Steve Martin’s “Pink Panther” should be seeking its final destination too . . .

John
“Something New”  is something new . . .

Clay
“The Matador” is a dark comedy about an assassin in need of a friend . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:
“It’s Movie Time” in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.’’

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER FOR

John
I’m John DeSando

Clay
And I’m Clay Lowe

John (“Final Destination 3”)
Director James Wong’s Final Destination 3 may be the end of a franchise that has profited from a formula so trite as to elicit laughsthat may not have been intended. You know them: the smart-mouthed, big-breasted teenagers just asking to be cut down in their prime; the ominous carnival setting where the devil can openly operate a death coaster; the brunette who is the only one to foresee the final destinations; and the race with time to solve the devil’s murders before they happen.

Maybe I can save Final Destination 3 by likening its theme to Woody Allen’s in Match Point. Both films make visual statements about luck and the randomness of the universe, Allen with the uncertain trajectory of a tennis ball and James Wong with domino-effect sequences.

Wong will make more money on this film than Allen in all his sophisticated pictures. There's Luck.

Clay “The Pink Panther”
Well, folks, as luck would have it Pink Panther X has finally lost its charm and that’s too bad, because in ‘63 and ‘64, director Blake Edwards and Brit comic Peter Sellers  had us howling in the aisles, but  that was before the studios ground out seven more sequels.
Blake Edwards made a career out of attempting to squeeze all the juice he could out of the scripts and even Peter Sellers tried to help keep the series alive, but then he up and died and so should have the series.

So, is Steve Martin able to resurrect the bumbling Clouseau?  Nope, because he’s left to do it alone.  Sure, Beyonce belts out a sexy song and competently speaks her lines.  But, lawdy, lawdy, Kevin Kline is not only miscast, he also spends most of the movie trying to decide whether he should or should play it with an accent.

Hey, John, you were right to stay home.

John (“Something New”)
I was busy reading The Detroit Free Press report that 42.4% of black women have never been married.

Clay
That adds up to 21.2 per cent for each of us . . .

John
Is that all?

Clay
That's enough.

John
With stats emphasizing marriage a challenge for blacks, the film Something New deftly shows what a bright and accomplished young black professional, Kenya (Sanna Lathan), goes through before she finds the right man, in this case not an IBM (ideal black man), but rather very white hunk Brian (Simon Baker), a landscape architect just too nice to be believable.

The value of this film over recent attempts involving barbershop clients and hip-hop heroes is that as a romantic comedy, it is breezily enjoyable with something new to say about lingering racism in love and work.

The film uses effective dialogue about interracial romance AND the universal struggle of substantial women to find substantial men.

Clay (“The Matador”)
Folks, I hope “The Matador” is still playing this weekend because it’s a substantially enjoyable film.

Set in Mexico City, Vienna, Denver, Vegas, and Budapest, “The Matador” has done for the early-forties’ set what Wes and Paul Thomas Anderson have done for the late-teener and early-twenties male bonders.

Gregg Kinnear plays “Danny” a domesticated husband who loves the sense of danger he smells in the air when he meets “Julian the Assassin,” played to a “T” by the usually ever so slick Pierce Brosnan. Throw in Hope Davis, who also falls for Julian’s dangerous scent, and then add in Phillip Baker Hall’s tough guy and you end up with a bright and colorful comedy-dark that should leave you silently smiling.

But enough of panthers, romancers, and hipster assassins, John, because it’s grading time.

MUSIC OUT, CUT TO DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John
Holy Hip-Huggers, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John
“Final Destination 3” earns a “C” because COMEDY and CLOSURE are tough twins . . .

Clay
“The Pink Panther” gets an “F” because the FUNNIEST scene in the FILM FEATURES Clouseau FIGHTING a bad case of FLATULENCE . . .

John
“Something New” earns a “B” because a BABE is a BABE regardless of her race . . .

Clay
“The Matador” gets an “A” because it’s a well-cast, well-acted buddy boys-get-the-girl ASSASSINS ADVENTURE . . .

DRUMS OUT

John
Clay, if my lover looks like, say Halle Berry rather than Queen Latifah, how really hip am I ?
I’m outta here.

Clay
I'm way ahead of you, John. I fell in love with Diahann Carroll when I saw her romancing Richard Kiley on Broadway in “No Strings” in 1962 . . .

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC ("AIN'T WE GOT FUN"), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle
The award winning “It’s Movie Time” is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT


Copyright John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006