Paparazzi (Widescreen Edition)
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Actor: Cole Hauser, Dennis FarinaBrand: HAUSER,COLE
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 84 minutes
Published: 2005-01-01
DVD Release Date: 2005-01-11
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product features:
- TESTED
DVD Reviews of Paparazzi (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: Want to destroy a life or eat a soul? Then take photographs
Summary: 3 Stars
In the past decade or so I have found that for me the most distrubing genre of Hollywood films have been those revenge films that set up a situation where the hero has to take the law into their own hands because the cops, the government, or whatever civil authority would have jurisdiction is incapable of ensuring justice. On the one hand I understand the narrative need to establish a situation in which the hero gets to act like a hero, as opposed to waiting patiently back home for the cops or whoever to do their job. But on the other hand the idea that if you want things done right you have to do them yourself is rather troubling in an age of international terrorism. Yet we have seen movies where even such horrors can be dealt with by the hero, although it could be in that case that he has to be Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"Paparazzi" tells you who the bad guys are right up front, and if you are not thinking about the photographers that hounded Princess Diana at the start of this 2004 film you will be by the time we get to the pivotal car accident. The target for the particular pack of paparazzi in this film is Bo Laramie (Cole Hauser), an action star who has just become a major box office star. He understands that this is the price for fame, the counter balance to the up side of being a celebrity, and establishes what he thinks is a simple and fair rule. The shutterbugs can take all the photographs they want of him, but they should leave his family alone. But a rule like that is just a red flag to sleazy Rex Harper (Ted Sizemore) and his gang of lap dogs.
When Laramie goes to his son's soccer game, Harper is there taking photographs of the boy (Blake Bryan), even after being asked not to: after all, Laramie has no legal right to the courtesy. So Laramie socks him one, only to discover it is a set up and the entire incident has been caught on camera. Refusing to apologize, Laramie has to undergo anger management, while Harper takes hounding the family to the next level with almost fatal results. The more familiar you are with tabloid photo-journalism the more you will recognize the incidents depicted in the film. Detective Burton (Dennis Farina) believes Laramie's story, but Forrest Smith's first screenplay dictates that there is no evidence that would allow the police to charge Harper and the others. So we get to the point where if Laramie wants justice, he is going to have to provide it himself.
Fortunately, Fate gives Laramie a helping hand and he discovers that once you are responsible for the death of one paparazzi, why not try to take out the rest of them? But in the final analysis the problem with this film has to do with how Laramie executes his grand plan and not a lack of motivation for his character to try and get away with murder. Specifically, my big complaint is that things are just too easy for Laramie. I swear, the only time this breaks a sweat is when he is trying to hide the truth from the detective (this is literally true). For that matter, a lot of the time I have to assume the character is enraged, because it gets hard to tell given what is on his face.
Maybe the problem is that Laramie is just not that smart. After all, he is an action star and not an actual actor. He even gets a couple of hints from Burton that are so helpful you have to wonder if the Detective is aiding and abetting, but his ploys are pretty simplistic. Still, I have to believe the shortcoming is the inability of Smith to come up with anything better. To be fair, it could be said that the writer is keeping things relatively "real" in this film, which would allow you to characterize "Paparazzi" as something of a "how to" film. But that would be stretching it for me.
This film was supposedly inspired by an exchange of paparazzi horror stories in which Mel Gibson declared it would make a great revenge film (the fact this is his production company would also explain his cameo in addition to supporting the movie's thesis). I suppose a great revenge film about stars getting back at the paparazzi could be made, but this film is not close to being that one. The villains are way too cartoonish, with every single one of them having an unsavory past that makes you wonder why they ever bothered to learn how to shoot a camera. Then there is the hero, who finds it amazingly easy to taken them down and out. Once you decide to kill off the bad guys HOW you do it needs to become more important than WHY you do it, and that simply does not happen here.
I should explain my tastes are rather particular when it comes to revenge films. My preference is not for Charles Bronson in "Death Wish," but rather for Vincent Price in "The Abominable Dr. Phibes." Of course, if I was having my photograph taken constantly then I might see "Paparazzi" as the most inspirational film of 2004, but I think even Mel Gibson would have to dismiss that idea.
Description of Paparazzi (Widescreen Edition)
Action film superstar Bo Laramie (Cole Hauser) seems to have it all: beautiful wife, adoring son and a Malibu beach house. But his newfound fame comes with a price Â? heÂ's the target of paparazzi bent on making Bo and his loved ones fodder for the tabloids. Led by Â"superstarÂ" photographer, Rex (Tom Sizemore), the paparazzi become increasingly relentless, until one night their ruthless actions turn Bo and his family into victims of a terrible accident. With the police unable to help, Bo seeks vengeance on his own Â? and the paparazzi start fallingÂ...one by one.Bestsellers in DVD
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