Uncle Nino
by Robert Shallcross
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DVD details
Actor: Anne Archer, Joe Mantegna, Pierrino MascarinoDirector: Robert Shallcross
Brand: Questar
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-04-07
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: QD3831
Studio: Questar
DVD Reviews of Uncle Nino
DVD Review: Eye Candy For Low-Lifes
Summary: 1 Stars
I am at a loss to explain the emotional reaction to this deranged movie; perhaps it is a form of mass hysteria, attaching so much emotional baggage to such a trifle of a picture. And the right wing justifications for this movie's existence - from one of the co-stars, yet - are over the top: it was Anne Archer who, in a Newsweek article, stated that "'Uncle Nino' is for those people who elected George Bush." And in his customer review Kerry Bean stated that the film played for an entire year in Michigan but fails to inform us that it played once a week - for a year. This does not explain why the film languished in the shelves for two years before opening nationally, to the tune of a pitiful $100,000 box office its first week - and sat neglected with no DVD release for another four years. In short, nobody cares about this film, nobody wants to see it, and everyone avoided it. They probably know something the rest of us should know. A stinker is a stinker.
For some reason it seems that the most fascistic individuals are the ones who embrace sentimental movies such as IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE and crap like UNCLE NINO. They force them upon us as role models and tell us we could do better. But who are we to resist? Why even Hitler loved Mom, apple pie and puppies. Which brings us to Pierrino Mascarino's cloying performance as Uncle Nino. Much has been made of how Mascarino ambushes audiences for this film and insists on hugging everyone in the theater as they exit. I saw this performance at a free Century City screening one morning. Frankly, I was embarrassed at seeing my neighbor willfully lower himself into a screaming, red-faced Mussolini on behalf of the family values movement.
The title performance by Mascarino is terrible. He is one of those actors who has to turn every emotional subtlety into World War III. You would think the Sensurround and Rumble-Rama subwoofers were turned on high. And when he is required to be hysterical - well, it is hysterical, all right. Fortunately for the audience, when Pierrino Mascarino gets his head chopped off in TEARS OF THE SUN, the camera cuts away to a shot of birds in flight. A cheap cliché, to be sure, but better than having to watch every contortion of yet another hammy Pierrino Mascarino performance.
There is something of a dead weight attached to UNCLE NINO. The film has no momentum, no direction. It is dark and depressing and shallow, considering the cheap alternatives the film gives us for lives of chosen emptiness. The director, Robert Shallcross, has worked in slimy, feel-good movies before, so this is familiar territory. However, I was not convinced by the characters' misery. It is not as if they are engulfed by circumstances beyond their control. In fact, they have chosen the odious lifestyle that has entrapped them. When the mother, Anne Archer, breaks down into tears by a life devoid of meaning yet full of toys such as cell phones and big cars and big hair, I could not feel a drop of empathy for her or her family. This was entirely their decision. Completely lacking in any self awareness or self-reflection, these unhappy individuals are supposed to be sympathetic, not part of a national problem. And the film expects us to suspend our disbelief to the point to where we believe that a vain actor - er, uh, a moronic foreign relative, can rescue these lives and introduce another grubby lifestyle as a fresh alternative.
I don't know what kind of a dead-end those who celebrate this picture have entered into. I can certainly think of dozens of other movies that are more moving, even in a cheap, knee-jerk fashion. This picture is for the idiots who say the world is moving into the future too fast; this picture celebrates the past and cheap solutions. And I am sure the small minds of those who play roles in this film think they are onto Something Big. Instead, they are onto something stupid and venal. In an ideal world these characters would all be on Prozac or in jail. I don't know what kind of drug would cure an Uncle Nino; perhaps Ritalin would do the job. This picture is eye candy for lowlifes.
Description of Uncle Nino
Features include:
?MPAA Rating: PG
?Format: DVD
?Runtime: 104 minutes
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