Talking animals are one thing, but Murphy is too shrewd a comedian to try to score points off a battalion of noisily adorable children. Apart from one physical gag in which he unintentionally walks a little boy into a door, his presence in this agreeable family entertainment is benign and respectfully recessive. It's almost as if the spirit of Fred Rogers—whom Murphy once so brilliantly parodied on Saturday Night Live—hovered over the set, ready to drop down a cardigan and tennis shoes.
Murphy plays a hotshot ad man who loses his job after a kids' test group rebels against a new vegetable-flavored cereal. He and his work partner (Garlin), both smarting from their new Mr. Mom status, decide it can't be hard to put their situation to entrepreneurial use. They open a daycare center. In tumble the child actors, their individual screen time as carefully parceled out as if they were all-stars in a disaster movie. The movie is a pleasant enough sort of daycare, a softly sunny, inoffensive way for a family to pass 93 minutes. There's bathroom humor, of course, but it's broad and unobjectionable. In a Jackass world, a potty-training joke set to the shrieking violins of Psycho is almost inspired.
With Murphy thoroughly mellowed out, the real comic burden falls to his costars. Garlin, the roly-poly foil to Larry David on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, is brash, enthusiastic and bumptiously cheerful, something like John Goodman without the bear claws. Jonathan Katz (the voice of Comedy Central's old Dr. Katz) plays a state daycare inspector named Dan Kubitz, a timid, decent man whose words crumble away even as he speaks them, as if his tongue were a Pecan Sandy. Given the chance to put on a puppet show, he acts out his life's frustrations with a Mr. Spock action figure. (PG)
BOTTOM LINE: Acceptable little Care package
Rachel Weisz, Paul Rudd, Gretchen Mol, Frederick Weller
The main male character here is named Adam (Rudd) and the female is Evelyn (Weisz). Adam and Eve. Get it? The two students meet at their college art museum, where he's a guard and she's about to vandalize a statue. Soon they're a twosome and she's artfully resculpting his life: persuading him to lose weight, dress better and even get a nose job.
Director Neil LaBute (Possession) transfers, with few changes, his stage play to the screen, and it is performed with skill and perceptiveness by the cast that did it Off-Broadway. His latest examination of the battle between the sexes is a malignant, if minor, piece of work, but it will hold your interest. And there's a nasty surprise near the end that will make your toes curl. (R)
BOTTOM LINE: A good cast in provocative Shape
Jean Rochefort, Johnny Hallyday
A weary, small-time hood (Hallyday), looking like an old crow whose dulled eyes have trouble picking out shiny objects, arrives in a French town with bank robbery on his mind but no place to stay. He meets a gray-haired bachelor (Rochefort) who graciously, if oddly, invites him home. The host quickly figures out what's up—when a guest leaves pistols lying about, that happens—and is mesmerized by the crook's dangerous, downtrodden glamor. The crook perhaps envies the bachelor's lonely, genteel hours, given over to jigsaw puzzles and Schubert.
Yet neither picks up on the obvious homoerotic current that underlies their strange attraction. It's hard to say whether director Patrice Leconte, who gives this shruggable psychological fable a cool, silken surface, has a clue, either. Didn't anyone in France see La Cage aux Folles? (R)
BOTTOM LINE: Wrong track
Agnes Bruckner, David Strathairn, Margaret Colin
Critic's Choice
This delicate drama is heartbreakingly perfect in story, tone and performance. First-time director-writer Karen Moncrieff follows Meg, a sensitive 18-year-old who's torn up over her parent's breakup. In Blue Car, she misses her absent dad (the title is based on a poem Meg writes about seeing him drive off); resents her hardworking, preoccupied mom (Colin); and reaches out for support to a sympathetic teacher (Strathairn). Bruckner is a find, full of pent-up hurt and sexuality, while that redoubtable duo, Strathairn and Colin, valuably contribute multihued portrayals of adults grappling with problems of their own. (R)
BOTTOM LINE: A moving ride
Documentary
With some songs, all it takes is a few notes or a chorus and—wham!—you're right back to that junior high dance or rust-bucket Dodge Dart where you first listened to the tune. Music is a powerful memory trigger, and bygone times come flooding back watching Only the Strong Survive, a stirring documentary that travels to Memphis, Chicago, Manhattan and elsewhere to catch up with a dozen topflight rhythm-and-blues artists of the '50s through '70s who are mostly still out there thrilling audiences. Those profiled include Wilson Pickett, Isaac Hayes, Mary Wilson of the Supremes and Sam Moore of Sam and Dave. Some have sailed through life while others have struggled (Moore lost years to drugs), but all convey the joy they still take in—and their dedication to—making music. For anyone hearing these folks for the first time: Expect a treat. (PG-13)
BOTTOM LINE: A soulful pleasure
MATT DILLON
Matt Dillon, 39, makes his directorial debut and stars as an insurance scammer in City of Ghosts, the first western film shot in Cambodia since 1964.
ON CALLING THE SHOTS: "There were a few wars on the production. I'm a bit of a maniac on the set. Not in a bad way, but I can say this: It was not easy. I'm very passionate, and I'm a greedy filmmaker. And sometimes in that kind of heat you start to forget your perspective."
ON THE CAMBODIAN CUSTOM OF EATING INSECTS: "I'd just stay away. With some you've got to take the wings off. Others taste better with them on. I wouldn't know which are which. [Costar James] Caan and I pretty much stuck to pizza. Gérard Depardieu, he just stuck to the Imodium."
ON HIS RETURN HOME TO NEW YORK CITY: "I'm happy to say I didn't bring back malaria. But I did bring back memories of a great experience and the ricksha driven in the film. It's pretty big. I'll have to wait until I get my own kingdom to bring it out."
Kiss commercial breaks goodbye: TV shows are making a huge splash on DVD. These recent sets will keep you glued to the tube.
•Sex and the City: The Complete Fourth Season (HBO, $49.99) Randy talk took a backseat to poignant storytelling: Miranda's pregnancy and Carrie's ill-fated engagement. Extras Executive producer Michael Patrick King's commentaries are as dishy as the Sex quartet's coffee-shop gabfests.
•NYPD Blue: Season One (Fox, $59.98) In 1993 this cop drama reinvigorated the genre with salty language, a dash of nudity and, most notably, stellar work from David Caruso. Extras An hour-long documentary recaps Blue's juicy behind-the-scenes struggles, both with ABC and moody star Caruso.
•I Love Lucy: Season One, Vol. 5 and 6 (Paramount, $14.99 each) Lucille Ball's beloved sitcom, remastered and released in four-episode volumes, looks better than it has in decades. Extras Lots to Love, including episodes of Ball's My Favorite Husband radio show, which inspired many Lucy plot lines.
•Cheers and Frasier: The Complete First Season (Paramount, $40 each) A decade after Cheers' last call and spinoff Frasier's successful launch, both series still elicit belly laughs. Extras Cheers cheats the viewer, but Frasier is full of fun facts: Brit Daphne was originally Hispanic!
•Friends: The Complete Third Season (Warner, $44.98) Ross and Rachel's heartbreaking split proved the show could be as touching as it is hilarious. Extras A great trivia-filled tour of Chandler and Joey's bachelor pad.
- Contributors:
- Leah Rozen,
- Sona Charaipotra,
- Jason Lynch.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
