ONE HOUR PHOTO

title: ONE HOUR PHOTO

year: 2002

cast: Robin Williams

rating: *

This film, the TAXI DRIVER for the TEVO generation, is one of the worst movies ever made. A straight-laced seemingly-normal extremely lonely psychopath working at a "SAV-MART" in the, yep, ONE HOUR PHOTO center stalks a picture-perfect family which includes a husband (always donning a superb 5 O'Clock Shadow), a wife (Anne Archer of the Emo set) and son (with cute shaggy hair) who all look straight out of a Starbucks ad. We know Robin Williams CAN act seriously (as "The World According to Garp", "Dead Poet's Society" and "Good Will Hunting" will prove) but his performance as "Sy Parrish" (can you get a more symbolic name?) is downright laughable. The first half, centering on "Sy" working within the store and taking his job way too seriously (delving into the punctuating technicques of processing photos and comparing it to humanity in general), collecting run-off photographs of the targeted family and following them around the connected shopping center, far exceeds the second half wherein "Sy" is being chased by the "Threat Management" after finally taking things too far. "Sy" goes from a quiet spooky Norman Bates type into a cross between Freddy Kruger and any villain in a Bruce Willis action flick. His performance from hot to cold is downright embarressing, but not as much as the writing and directing, which tries VERY HARD to weave within a crazy person's mind but ends up scratching the surface... with nothing beneath. I'm still waiting for this movie to get the "so-bad-it's-good" credit it deserves.

SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME

year: 1978
rating: ***

After John Carpenter shot to stardom with the groundbreaking horror film "Halloween", a made-for-TV movie was the next step... Huh? But it's not bad. Plot centers on a director played by Lauren Hutton - the David Letterman of supermodels - who is, as the title implies, being watched by someone in the building across from her own. Some of the dialog is silly and the characters aren't fleshed out, but the pace keeps flowing, the tension mounts well, and there's that neat Carpenter steady-cam throughout (although sadly there's no spooky-synth Carpenter score). At times this feels like a theatrical thriller edited-for-television; other times it's like watching a TV movie that, with more work, could have made it to the big screen. All in all it's a Hitchcock homage, but looks more like a Brian DePalma-doing-Hitchock. Either way, "Someone's Watching Me" is not too shabby for a small screen effort. Hardcore JC fans shouldn't be dissapointed.