Opening soon:
Funny Girl (Columbia) : A star was born 33 years ago when gay icon Barbra Streisand made her Oscar-winning movie debut as Fanny Brice in this old-fashioned movie musical. A restored and rejuvenated version of this Hollywood classic has been re-released in major-metropolitan areas with visible gay populations (San Francisco and New York). Chicago gets its turn Sept. 7 when it opens at Landmark Century.
In theatres:
All Over The Guy (Lions Gate) : A somewhat disappointing romantic comedy about two gay men– Eli (Dan Bucatinsky, who also wrote the screenplay) and Tom (Richard Ruccolo) — who are introduced by their straight best friends– Jackie (Sasha Alexander) and Brett (Adam Goldberg) — and struggle to make a go of a relationship. While Jackie and Brett’s relationship quickly develops into something that ends in marriage, Eli and Tom are constantly insulting each other, making scenes, and only end up having sex twice. Both men blame their parents (Eli’s are psychotherapists and Tom’s are alcoholics) for making them the kinds of people that they’ve become– Eli’s neurotic and Tom has a drinking problem, and both men have intimacy issues. Did I mention that, while both men are attractive, neither of them is especially likable? In fact, the most genuinely pleasant character in the whole movie is a woman named Esther (Doris Roberts), who works at the health clinic where Eli gets tested for HIV. She offers Eli a sympathetic ear and sage advice. While I’m grateful for the increase in gay characters (nice and not so nice) in movies, is it too much to ask for the movies to be entertaining and have substance, as well? For my money, I’ll go see Big Eden again. On a scale of 1 to 10: 5.5 (Wide release)
Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back: A malicious, 90-minute anti-gay joke that is sure to appeal to fans of morning FM-radio shock jocks. Homophobic stoners Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (writer/director Kevin Smith) set off on an idiotic odyssey that transports them from their home-base in front of a convenience store in New Jersey to the Miramax lot in Hollywood where they hope to prevent the making of a movie based on the comic book characters Bluntman and Chronic, both of whom are based on Jay and Silent Bob. Along the way the weed/dick/fart-joke driven duo encounter several bizarre characters including an oral sex-friendly hitchhiker, a nun, drug dealers, movie stars, a racist movie director, a flaky Federal Wildlife Marshall, a liberated orangutan and a quartet of “walking/talking bad girl cliches” who are also international jewel thieves. What openly gay director Gus Van Sant and openly gay E! commentator Steve Kmetko are doing in this flick is anyone’s guess. At one point in the action, after watching Jay and Silent Bob jump into a sewer to escape law enforcement officers, it occurred to me that a sewer was the perfect setting for this putrid piece of cinematic shame. On a scale of 1 to 10: 0 (Wide release)
American Pie 2: Sexual debacles, golden showers, “possible lesbians,” and what happens when a person mistakes “super glue” for lubricant, are some of the tasteless ingredients in this ho-hum and homophobic sequel to the 1999 teen hit comedy. Not even the same-sex sexual hijinks involving male cast members, Stiffler a/k/a “Mr. Homophobic Wizard” (Seann William Scott) and Jim (the increasingly unappealing Jason Biggs) make this painfully post-freshman-year of college comedy any easier to digest. Director James B. Rogers previously worked as first assistant director on a couple of Farrelly Brothers films and it shows. Long before Jim, the “band geek who never joined the band,” comes to terms with his true (and predictable) attraction, the audience will realize that the filling in this pie is rancid. On a scale of 1 to 10: 2 (Wide release)