WCBE 90.5 FM: "Catch and Release," "Smokin' Aces"

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Catch and Release," "Smokin’ Aces"
Co-hosted, produced & directed by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, January 26, 2007
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

John

"Catch and Release" is the worst romantic comedy of the year . . .

Clay

"Smokin’ Aces" is the bloodiest . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("Catch and Release")

She has dimples, an upper lip looking like a hammer hit it, and she gets the best Hollywood roles. As that Julia Roberts glides into middle age, her younger version, Jennifer Garner, may be the heir apparent but not for her role as Gray Wheeler in Catch and
Release.

Gray's fiance has died and she discovers his indiscrete past. The film has nothing new or comic to say or laugh about grief and discovery, just about unchecked lusts for love and food (Clerks’ Kevin Smith is a sloppy, overweight, loveable friend, infrequently funny, as when an erotic massage therapist literally jumps his bones).

Catch and Release is a romantic comedy whose romance is low-grade (she just lost her fiancé, for goodness sake) and comedy low-ball.

Clay ("Catch and Release")

John, low-grade indeed.  "Catch and Release" writer, Susannah Grant, who brought home the goods with her feminist friendly "Erin Brockovich," has waded in way over her head this time around.  And this, her first attempt to direct one of her own scripts, only further muddies the waters.

Too bad for ingenue Jennifer Garner, because not even Julie Roberts, nor even the great Hepburn, could have helped to save this picture.

Garner's character, understandably, is in a gray funk during most of the film's opening scenes.  But neither the director, nor the script, nor the movie's fairly talented cast is able to metamorphose the movie's tragic opening into a heartwarming comedy.

The good news is, the movie's trendy Colorado setting will have you thinking about planning a vacation there, come June. 

John ("Smokin’ Aces")

OK—How about Nevada’s Lake Tahoe, then?

It’s not the witty Departed or the verbally abusive Reservoir Dogs, but Smokin’ Aces is bloodier than both and may rival Dogs and even Pulp Fiction for amusing absurdity. Aces is aces for a kind of sick mayhem that can be funny, often because of the street trash talk and off-the-wall plot.

The film traces several hit men and women converging on a Lake Tahoe resort where a notorious gangster is dieing but calling for the heart of a rival for $1 million. It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World with guns, a treasure hunt that brings in FBI agents, hookers, and international stars of the mob world.

Director Joe Carnahan doesn’t have the finesse of Quentin Tarantino, yet he does have a deft hand at making violence interesting.

Clay ("Smokin’ Aces")

Violence interesting, John, where have you been during the evening news?  Violence, it would seem, is intrinsically fascinating.

What a no brainer.   Our culture is in love with violence.  So, if you accept that, "Smokin' Aces" is just perversely bloody fun.

But, because Carnahan, like Tarantino - and Kubrick before him, has a talent for morphing the elements of extreme pop culture: music, fashion, jivey talk (and our the love of guns), into grand cinematic blood baths . . .  perhaps they'll finally help us get the picture that violence is indigenous, at least to culture as we know it today.

"Smokin' Aces," along with "Kill Bill" (and Mel Gibson's recent "Apocalypto"), may be nothing more than outrageous appeals to our baser instincts.  But that turns out to be a message of its own, eh?

But enough of swelling lips, bloody hipsters, and pop-cultural introspection, John, because . . . it's grading time . . .

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR:

John

Holy Herpes, Hooray

"Catch and Release" earns a “D” for DEADLY DIALOGUE . . .

Clay

"Catch and Release" gets a "D" because good writers do not always make good DIRECTORS . . .

John

"Smokin’ Aces" earns a “B” for BLOODY BUSINESS that’s not BAD . . .

Clay

"Smokin’ Aces" gets a "C" because it's CLEVER, but not CLEARLY intended . .

John

Clay, I hope after YOU leave this world YOUR girlfriend doesn’t find out about all the indiscretions YOU’VE left behind . . .

I’m outta here.

Clay

Having a girlfriend would be an indiscretion for me, John, and whatever I leave behind will be under lock and key.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING MUSIC: "AIN'T WE GOT FUN," THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe iswritten produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 John DeSando & Clay Lowe