Review: Bobby


A day in the life of several staff and inhabitants of the Ambassador Hotel in LA. But this is no ordinary day. It is the day that Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Among the characters we meet (whose stories sometimes intertwine) are; former doorman Sir Anthony Hopkins who still hangs around so he can play chess with old friend Harry Belafonte. Shrill, drunk lounge singer Demi Moore and her long-suffering husband Emilio Estevez. Hotel manager William H. married to manicurist Sharon Stone (one of her better performances, though not saying much), but schtupping switchboard operator Heather Graham. Hispanic dishwasher Freddy Rodriguez has tickets to an important Dodgers game but can’t go because his racist boss Christian Slater has him working a double shift, so he gives the tickets to wise and friendly chef Laurence Fishburne. Shia LaBeouf is a Kennedy campaign worker who buys LSD from Ashton Kutcher (!). A far too contemporary Lindsay Lohan plays a young woman who agrees to marry long-time friend Elijah Wood so he doesn’t have to go to Nam. Finally, Martin Sheen is the loving husband to Helen Hunt, a seemingly obsessive-compulsive woman who simply must have a pair of black shoes to go with her dress (yes, this really is a story strand, people!).

 

Sincere, potentially fascinating 2006 flick from writer/director/co-star Emilio Estevez, who previously directed himself and his brother Charlie in the much underrated comedy “Men at Work” back in 1990, and directed himself and then girlfriend Demi Moore in the forgettable “Wisdom” back in 1986. Unfortunately, Estevez tells the story in just about the least effective manner possible. It’s a mixture of all-star Robert Altman flick and all-star Irwin Allen disaster flick (think “The Towering Inferno” or the non-Allen granddaddy of all multi-story ensemble pieces, “Grand Hotel”), and as a result there are some characters more interesting (Macy, Slater- playing the most 3-D character in the film, Fishburne, Wood) than others (Hunt, LaBeouf, Cannon, Rodriguez, Moore, Graham), some performances better (Macy, Hopkins, Belafonte, Fishburne, Sheen- the latter making lemonade out of a lemon) than others (Moore- hideous, Hunt- far too actory, Kutcher- ridiculous, Lohan- completely unconvincing).

 

Overall, there’s not nearly enough interesting stories and characters to keep one particularly engaged. The director even gives himself one of the least-developed and least interesting roles in the film (and doesn’t play it terribly compellingly, either. Shockingly bad finale too, by the way. Shame, because it’s nice to see the underrated Estevez back in mainstream cinema (in my opinion, he was always the most talented ‘official’ Brat Packer), and the idea of a Bobby Kennedy biopic seemed like a can’t miss notion.

 

Rating: C+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more