Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:33:52 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Christopher Orr :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Christopher+Orr istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/wrong-note-for-the-king-of-the-mix-tape-movie/21544/ Fri, 14 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST It takes a brave movie to open with a voice-over clarifying "the difference between a failure and a fiasco." As Drew Baylor explains at the beginning of "Elizabethtown," any fool can achieve failure; it takes a special genius to create a fiasco. The distinction is of interest to Drew, a clever young sneaker-designer at a company mischievously patterned after Nike, because the shoe he has spent eight years designing, the "Spasmotica," turns out to be so unpopular that it loses the company $972... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/serenity-now/20810/ Fri, 30 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST "Serenity" may not be the first word that comes to mind when you envision several desperate men and women fighting for their lives against a horde of ax-wielding, half-human cannibals, but Josh Whedon has always been a bit of an ironic fellow. His rousing new space opera, "Serenity," is the best interstellar epic to come along in many moons. Mr. Whedon is best known as the creator of the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its spin-off, "Angel." Less successful was his sci-fi... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/dont-throw-baby-from-the-plane/20451/ Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST As if the airline industry didn't have enough problems. Several carriers are in bankruptcy, fuel costs are sky high, and now Hollywood is back on the warpath. Between last month's terrorist-in-the-seat-next-to-you flick "Red Eye," this week's daughter-abduction-at-36,000-feet thriller "Flightplan," and the "Lost" series treating viewers to regular flashbacks of an airliner splitting apart mid-flight, it's almost as if someone in the travel industry forgot to pay Tinseltown its protection money... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/arms-race-to-nowhere/20103/ Fri, 16 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST This is shaping up to be the year of the look-how-badly-the-West-treats-Africa movie. First there was "Hotel Rwanda" (technically an under-the-wire 2004 release), a wrenching and altogether too accurate portrait of Western indifference to African suffering. More recently, we got "The Constant Gardener," a preposterous but nonetheless earnestly crafted broadside against the pharmaceutical industry. Now comes "Lord of War," a Nicholas Cage vehicle about the international arms trade that never... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/beauty-and-the-bellowing-beasts/19208/ Fri, 26 Aug 2005 00:00:00 EST It's not easy being young and beautiful and talented and in love. I conclude this not on the basis of personal experience, alas, but rather on the evidence of "Undiscovered," a mawkish, self-loving bit of flimflam about artistic up-and-comers trying to make their way in the glittering jungles of Los Angeles. The movie opens in New York, where smoldering balladeer Luke Falcon (Steven Strait) and his daffy brother Euan (Kip Pardue) fleetingly cross subway paths with the lovely Brier Tucket (Pell... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/decline-of-superhero-civilization-as-we-know-it/17772/ Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST It's official: The era of the superhero film has entered its decadent phase. Five years after "X-Men" revivified the genre and three years after "Spider-Man" rode it into box-office history, superfolk are everywhere, fighting crime, saving the world, and driving global Lycra prices through the roof. It's to the point where you can hardly swing a cat without some costumed clown striking it with lightning. There are so many of them running around that they need their own school system. That, at... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/bit-of-a-stretch/16709/ Fri, 8 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST It has to be hard on filmmakers when their movie gets beaten to the multiplex by its own parody, as happened when "The Incredibles," an animated film clearly derived in large part from the "Fantastic Four" comic books, hit theaters some eight months before the more faithful, live-action adaptation. What has to be harder still is when the straight version fails to measure up to the satire not only in terms of humor but in narrative cohesion, emotional depth, and visual imagination. It's as if... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/mr-mrs-smith-go-to-counseling/15222/ Fri, 10 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST It's taken a long time, but Hollywood has at last made a serious movie about the difficulty of balancing career and home life. It's a familiar story: Up early for a long workday at a large, secretive assassination bureau; home just in time to install new drapes in the living room and cook dinner for the husband. And just when you think the day's finally through, you get an overtime call and have to head back downtown to pose as a dominatrix and kill some guy before he catches a plane. The... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/between-a-whinny-a-roar/14534/ Fri, 27 May 2005 00:00:00 EST You can take Ben Stiller out of the city, but you can't take the city out of Ben Stiller. He's uptight. He's angry. He's a touch defensive. It's a shtick Mr. Stiller has perfected in a numbing litany of recent comedies. If you've been within 100 yards of a multiplex in the past few years, you're probably familiar with it. In "Madagascar" Mr. Stiller actually begins on a fresh note. A successful Manhattan professional, he is confident, charming, and above all happy with his life. Sadly, his good... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/laying-it-on-thick/13801/ Fri, 13 May 2005 00:00:00 EST There's a moment about midway through "Layer Cake" when a powerful industrialist who dabbles in crime (Michael Gambon) explains to the movie's protagonist (Daniel Craig) the various ways he's been set up. "I'm sorry, what?" replies a befuddled Mr. Craig. Mr. Gambon tries again, but the response is the same. "I'm still not with you," Mr. Craig pleads. Viewers are likely to feel the same way. "Layer Cake" is a sorely muddled entry in the hip Brit thriller genre by first time director Matthew... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/crashing-burningwith-a-great-formal-script/13454/ Fri, 6 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Back in 1985, Brett Easton Ellis opened "Less Than Zero," his novel about young Southern Californians unable to connect, with the less-than-subtle double entendre: "People are afraid to merge on freeways in Los Angeles." Twenty years later, Paul Haggis's film "Crash" extends the simile: Unable to merge, Angelenos instead smash headlong into one another. "In L.A. nobody touches you," a groggy accident victim ruminates in the movie's first scene. "We're always behind this metal and glass. ... I... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/when-oliver-met-emily/12664/ Fri, 22 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST What do you call a shameless imitation of a shameless imitation? A rip-off squared? An homage once removed? Whatever label you choose, it can be comfortably affixed to "A Lot Like Love," an Ashton Kutcher-Amanda Peet vehicle that is a lot like "When Harry Met Sally," which was itself a lot like "Annie Hall." Sadly, the resemblance does not extend to quality. Indeed, those with a scientific turn of mind may take the devolution from "Annie" to "Harry" to "A Lot Like Love" as yet another... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/all-thats-not-possible/11951/ Fri, 8 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST About halfway through "Sahara," the character played by William H. Macy receives some surprising news and declares, "That's not possible." Faced with another unlikely scenario toward the end, Steve Zahn announces, "It'll never work." Regrettably, most moviegoers will already have come to similar conclusions about the film itself, a slapdash affair that fails to clear even the low hurdles of plausibility that prevail in the action genre. Based on the novel by Clive Cussler, "Sahara" follows the... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/staying-for-dinner/11184/ Fri, 25 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST The Bernie Mac-Ashton Kutcher comedy "Guess Who" is a remake, though probably not of the movie you'd expect. It's true that its title is a play on the 1967 Poitier-Hepburn-Tracy classic "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," and its setup an inversion of that film's premise: This time the young lady is bringing a white boyfriend home to meet her black family. But "Guess Who" gets this joke out of the way within the first 15 minutes, and from that point bears little resemblance to its politically... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/overly-mechanical-enterprise/10455/ Fri, 11 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Director Chris Wedge has said that, following the success of his 2002 animated feature "Ice Age," he wanted to do something "bigger." His new movie, "Robots," is certainly that. The cast overflows with celebrity vocal talent, and every frame is crammed with meticulous detail. Sadly, it all amounts to a reminder that in Hollywood more can often be less. "Robots" is like a long day at an overcrowded amusement park: By the end you may feel less entertained than exhausted. The movie tells the story... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/you-wont-become-governor-this-way/10102/ Fri, 4 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST "It's not a toomah! "With those words Arnold Schwarzenegger wormed his way into the hearts of millions of teens and tweens (some of them future California voters) in 1990's "Kindergarten Cop." The steroidal star of body count films was hardly an obvious choice for the role (it was first offered to Bill Murray), but he made it a cross-marketing smash, raking in close to $100 million and introducing a whole new generation of moviegoers (and their parents) to his Teutonic allure. Fifteen years... Christopher Orr http://www.nysun.com/arts/odds-on-the-oscars/9735/ Fri, 25 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST BEST PICTURE 'MILLION DOLLAR BABY' Vegas odds: 7 to 5 Our odds: 5 to 7 WHY IT WILL WIN For emotional heft, it's in a different weight class than the competition. WHY IT WON'T WIN Its dramatic plot twist may be too much of a sucker punch. 'THE AVIATOR' Vegas odds: Even Our odds: 3 to 2 WHY IT WILL WIN It's big, it's full of stars - and most of all, it's about Hollywood. WHY IT WON'T WIN For all the plane crashes and bedded starlets and jars of urine, it never really gets inside Howard Hughes's... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/true-romance-for-americas-leading-man/9071/ Fri, 11 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Valentine's Day is upon us, and while you may have forgotten, you can be sure Hollywood hasn't. Where there is love, after all, there is box office. This year the studios are giving us a break from the usual romantic menagerie (the Good Girl in Love with the Wrong Guy, the Corporate Titan Who Needs a Down-to-Earth Woman) in favor of a more exotic species, the Love Doctor. Last week, it was Dermot Mulroney's Jedi gigolo in "The Wedding Date"; this week, it's Will Smith's Cupid-for-hire in "Hitch... CHRISTOPHER ORR http://www.nysun.com/arts/he-may-be-just-a-gigolo-but-boy-oh-boy-does-he/8777/ Fri, 4 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Given that the money spent annually on video sales and rentals now outpaces box office receipts, it's hardly surprising that many films are engineered less for the multiplex than for the neighborhood Blockbuster. It's only a small step from there to the studios beginning to tailor movies specifically to the "if you liked" shelf - the one that improbably assures that if you liked "The Godfather," you'll love "The Freshman," "Wise Guys," and "The Sicilian." "The Wedding Date" seems already to...