Release Date: September 3, 2004
Starring: Cole Hauser, Robin Tunney, Dennis Farina, Tom Sizemore, Blake Bryan
Directed by: Paul Abascal
Written by: Forrest Smith
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Films
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (intense violent sequences, sexual content, language)
The idea for Paparazzi can be traced to producer Mel Gibson, who came up with it after talking with a few other celebrities about their experiences with the tabloid media. They were discussing the encounters each has had with those pesky freelance photographers trying to snap the ultimate candid shot, and wondered what a movie about them might be like. Then, Gibson thought, what would happen if they got so persistent that they physically hurt a celebrity’s family, and that celebrity sought swift revenge?
It’s probably the dream of many a famous person to get back at the paparazzi, and here that idea is turned into a halfway decent film. Its characters and story are the typically hollow sort found in action dramas like this, but it eventually amounts to something pretty entertaining.
Cole Hauser plays the lead, Bo Laramie, and it’s a part that was first offered, perhaps inappropriately, to megastars George Clooney, Tom Curise, Kurt Russell, and others. Laramie is a rising action star and someone new to the Hollywood scene, and he’s much easier to believe as played by Hauser, an actor who has never had a lead role before. The character has a wife (Robin Tunney) and young son (Blake Bryan), and it’s not long before he runs into the notorious freelance photographer Rex Harper (Tom Sizemore). Harper and his small crew are out to ruin Laramie’s life for the sake of a big payday, and eventually they cause a car accident that nearly kills Laramie’s wife and child. Pretty soon it’s a fight for revenge on Laramie’s part.
Clearly this movie was bent on portraying the paparazzi as ruthless, despicable demons. In this story they go as far as trespassing on Laramie’s property and snapping nude photos of him and his wife, sneaking hidden cameras into his house, and blinding him with flash bulbs on the road while he’s driving his family at night. They’re such scum that they photograph the scene of the accident and flee before even thinking to call for an ambulance.
For celebrities, this may not sound all that far from reality, and it certainly must have been satisfying for the makers of Paparazzi to portray those greedy photographers as absolute lowlifes -- and for a chance to imagine the kind of revenge Bo Laramie gets. Indeed, the idea of the movie must have appealed to much of Hollywood, because if you watch carefully you can spot at least four or five familiar faces in brief appearances.
But the good part is that Bo Laramie’s revenge is satisfying even from a non-celebrity’s point of view, though the story is admittedly on the far-fetched side of things. The character of Bo would have been more interesting if he displayed some kind of remorse for his actions, but instead he’s more like a Steven Seagal or Arnold Schwarzenegger character (who, granted, can be passably entertaining in their own contexts).
It’s also best to keep in mind that Paparazzi could have been a lot worse. It has a sense of quirkiness thanks to the over-the-top story, and part of that is the pleasingly sympathetic detective played by Dennis Farina. We smile along with the cop as he suspects Laramie of the misfortune that has suddenly befallen the paparazzi creeps, and we like him more when he ignores those clues.
The movie’s overall sense of playfulness is also due to the celebrity cameos, and that helps us to remember that it’s not meant to be taken completely seriously. Why else would producer Mel Gibson appear briefly as himself in an anger management doctor’s waiting room? A fun, trifle of a revenge pic is all that should be expected of Paparazzi, and it delivers on this promise.
-- Andy Zientek (zfilm@earthlink.net)