Friday, June 26, 1998 
 
DOCTOR DOLITTLE

        ...Speaking of over budgeted, special effects-ridden summer 
releases, no matter how much I want to like DOCTOR DOLITTLE it won*t 
change the fact that this is nothing but one long juvenile toilet joke.  Sorry 
Eddie, but this just looks stupid.  I*m sure there are some funny moments, 
but how far can you take rude, bad-mouthed animals and keep it funny.  
Get this, Dr. Dolittle (Eddie Murphy) has to play the straight man while the 
talking animals get all the laughs.  Give me a break.  Eddie you are a 
funny man, how can you allow yourself to be upstaged by special 
effects.  Oh yeah, I forgot about your smash special effects laden hit 
THE NUTTY PROFESSOR.  Whatever you do wait until this is on video 
and then get smashed with a good buddy and hopefully neither you will 
remember it. 

SMOKE SIGNALS

        On the other hand SMOKE SIGNALS is a film worthy of all your 
attention.  A film about Native Americans made by Native Americans and 
staring Native Americans shows us what life can really be like for 
indigenous people as opposed to the purely noble images we see in 
such films as DANCES WITH WOLVES or the negative roles we have 
been shown in typical Westerns.  Here we see Native Americans 
struggling in a world inside our own culture and dealing with 
contemporary Native American culture and its past in surprising and 
quirky ways.  
        The film follows Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas 
Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) who were forced to grow up together 
when Thomas*s parents died in a fire started after one of their drinking 
binges.  Victor*s father rescued Thomas from the fire, but it is Victor who 
is trying to save Thomas, years later as adults, from the lies about Native 
Americans he has wrapped himself up in from popular culture. Victor 
and Thomas are opposites and have been rivals ever since they were 
forced to live together as children.   First surveying the relationship of 
Victor and Thomas on the reservation, the film then moves to the outside 
world as they embark on a journey to reveal the fate of Arnold Joseph, 
Victor*s father who left the reservation years earlier.  SMOKE SIGNALS 
explores their relationship and how it has been formed by the outside 
world, their parents, their past and themselves.        There are no fancy 
special effects. There are no overpaid, ego inflated stars to goggle at. 
There is nothing to buy at McDonalds from this film.  This is life for many 
Native Americans in today*s world and we are allowed to see it in all its 
inglorious dignity. 

BUFFALO 66

        Christina Ricci if you are not careful you will be destined to play 
blond sexpots for the rest of your life.  I guess there are worse things 
though.   BUFFALO 66 directed and written by Vincent Gallo who also 
stars as Billy Brown is about a young, shaky man just released from 
prison who is in desperate need to find a home.  Upon going home, he 
basically kidnaps Layla (Christina Ricci) and forces her to act like his 
wife at a dinner with his parents (Angelica Houston and Ben Gazzara).  
He threatens to kill Layla if she doesn*t agree and basically treats her like 
shit, but she falls in love with him none the less.  His parents are no 
better. His mother is a diehard Buffalo Bills fan who regrets having Billy 
since he was born on a big game day and she had to miss it.  His father 
is an apathetic loser prone to fits of violence and who really likes his 
son*s new wife.  Man I can*t wait to go visit my parents soon.  Other cast 
members include Rosanna Arquette, Kevin Corrigan, and Mickey Rourke.  
BUFFALO 66 explores the notions of family and what home really means. 
 This aint the Brady Bunch folks so get ready for some grit. 

GONE WITH THE WIND

        I bet you are wondering why I*m writing about the reissue of 
GONE WITH THE WIND.  Surely one would think I have seen this old 
chestnut, but alas I have never seen it and thus it is fair game.   No 
matter what I think about GONE WITH THE WIND this is one film that must 
be seen on a big screen to be truly appreciated and not on a television.  
One should see it now while it is in the theaters and not wait until it is on 
video especially with the $10 million worth of restoration they have done 
with the film*s color, the reformatting to restore it to its original screen 
ratio (which is more like the that of a television screen than the normal 
wide-screen in theaters today) and the remastered digital sound.   
Visually, going to see GONE WITH THE WIND will be like seeing it for the 
first time, the way it was meant to be seen in 1939.  In essence, it will be 
like traveling back in time and viewing a master*s work just after being 
finished.   
        But let*s put all this restoration hooey aside for a minute and get to 
the point.  Is GONE WITH THE WIND actually a good movie or just a 
melodramatic piece of crap?  This aspect of the film has been enough to 
keep me away for twenty-eight years, so I*m a bit leery to believe that a 
few nips and tucks will bring me to the theater anytime soon to sit 
through three hours and forty minutes of Vivian Lee and Clark Gable 
over acting. Oh, I can hear you bleeding heart GONE WITH THE WIND 
fans screaming at me right now.  Well buck up!  GONE WITH THE WIND is 
nothing but a overly long soap opera without all the sex and half naked 
babes.  Why the hell can*t they restore FRANKENSTEIN or reissue THE 
PLANET OF THE APES?  Next thing you know they will restore and 
reissue DOCTOR ZHIVAGO.  Oh God I hope not.   
        Regardless of all this, now is the perfect time for me to get off my 
ranting ass and see GONE WITH THE WIND so I can truly have something 
to complain about or enjoy.  If I*m wrong at least I waited until I could see 
the film as it was originally intended to be seen and not interrupted with 
commercials or squeezed onto a little television set.  But I have too say, 
even though I should go and see it, frankly I don*t give a damn. 

But I haven*t seen these films, so I could be wrong 
 

SOURCES:  An endless barrage of film ads, commercials and previews.   
                        THE NEW YORK TIMES 
                        NEWSWEEK 
                        USA TODAY 

Copyright 1998, Sockeye Publications a division on Shake It Up 
Productions.