Its release calculated to coincide with the X Games, "Supercross: The Movie" is advertainment to the extreme.
Produced in association with Clear Channel Entertainment's Motor Sports division, which sponsors the Supercross bike-racing competition, the production attempts to dress up the corporate synergy in the guise of a fictionalized story of two racing brothers, but the resulting mix of ESPN-style visuals and WB Network-style dramatics never convincingly comes together.
Thanks to an eleventh-hour pruning that has left the film about 15 minutes shorter than its officially stated running time, any real sort of plotting or character development appears to have been left on the cutting-room floor along with all traces of Daryl Hannah's performance.
What's left is a lot of racing footage interspersed with a flimsy David vs. Goliath story which begs the question: Will its target audience willingly pay to see what they can watch on TV for free, minus the intrusive made-up bits?
Set in an odd, Southern California parallel universe where virtually everybody is Caucasian, the picture follows the intersecting paths taken by K.C. (Steve Howey) and Trip (Mike Vogel) Carlyle, a pair of brothers who run a pool-cleaning business but whose hearts are in Supercross.
The more disciplined of the two, K.C. ends up getting a flashy "factory" (corporate sponsored) ride, which drives a philosophical as well as a competitive wedge between the siblings. Trip ends up going the less glamorous, unsponsored "privateer" route, but fate ultimately intervenes, forcing these would-be rivals to put aside their difference and join forces to defeat the powerful bad guys.
Directed by stuntman-turned-filmmaker Steve Boyum, the vehicle dutifully goes along an uninspired path mapped out by screenwriters Ken Solarz and Bart Baker that still allows for earnest emoting from its young cast members. Joining Howey and Vogel are Cameron Richardson and Sophia Bush as the brothers' love interests, and the more seasoned Robert Carradine and Robert Patrick as the controlling corporate heavy and the noble independent spirit, who serve, for better or worse, as the boys' respective father figures.
Getting to the main event, filmed at the real-life Supercross finals in Las Vegas, the high-energy footage is competent but falls short of spectacular. Maybe it would have been a better idea to simply skip the fiction altogether and just show those real-life bikers doing their extreme thing, uninterrupted by cutaway close-ups of the actors pretending to be them.
Supercross: The Movie
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox presents a TAG Entertainment production in association with Clear Channel Entertainment Motor Sports
Credits:
Director: Steve Boyum
Screenwriters: Ken Solarz, Bart Baker
Story by: Bart Baker, Keith Alan Bernstein
Producers: Steve Austin, J. Todd Harris
Executive producers: Richard Gabai, Marc Toberoff, Jonathan Bogner, David Borg
Director of photography: William Wages
Production designer: Max Biscoe
Editors: Alan Cody, Brett Hedlund
Costume designer: Elaine Montalvo
Music: Jasper Randall
Cast:
K.C. Carlyle: Steve Howey
Trip Carlyle: Mike Vogel
Piper Cole: Cameron Richardson
Zoe Lang: Sophia Bush
Owen Cole: Aaron Carter
Rowdy Sparks: Channing Tatum
Earl Cole: Robert Patrick
Clay Sparks: Robert Carradine
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 80 minutes...
Produced in association with Clear Channel Entertainment's Motor Sports division, which sponsors the Supercross bike-racing competition, the production attempts to dress up the corporate synergy in the guise of a fictionalized story of two racing brothers, but the resulting mix of ESPN-style visuals and WB Network-style dramatics never convincingly comes together.
Thanks to an eleventh-hour pruning that has left the film about 15 minutes shorter than its officially stated running time, any real sort of plotting or character development appears to have been left on the cutting-room floor along with all traces of Daryl Hannah's performance.
What's left is a lot of racing footage interspersed with a flimsy David vs. Goliath story which begs the question: Will its target audience willingly pay to see what they can watch on TV for free, minus the intrusive made-up bits?
Set in an odd, Southern California parallel universe where virtually everybody is Caucasian, the picture follows the intersecting paths taken by K.C. (Steve Howey) and Trip (Mike Vogel) Carlyle, a pair of brothers who run a pool-cleaning business but whose hearts are in Supercross.
The more disciplined of the two, K.C. ends up getting a flashy "factory" (corporate sponsored) ride, which drives a philosophical as well as a competitive wedge between the siblings. Trip ends up going the less glamorous, unsponsored "privateer" route, but fate ultimately intervenes, forcing these would-be rivals to put aside their difference and join forces to defeat the powerful bad guys.
Directed by stuntman-turned-filmmaker Steve Boyum, the vehicle dutifully goes along an uninspired path mapped out by screenwriters Ken Solarz and Bart Baker that still allows for earnest emoting from its young cast members. Joining Howey and Vogel are Cameron Richardson and Sophia Bush as the brothers' love interests, and the more seasoned Robert Carradine and Robert Patrick as the controlling corporate heavy and the noble independent spirit, who serve, for better or worse, as the boys' respective father figures.
Getting to the main event, filmed at the real-life Supercross finals in Las Vegas, the high-energy footage is competent but falls short of spectacular. Maybe it would have been a better idea to simply skip the fiction altogether and just show those real-life bikers doing their extreme thing, uninterrupted by cutaway close-ups of the actors pretending to be them.
Supercross: The Movie
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox presents a TAG Entertainment production in association with Clear Channel Entertainment Motor Sports
Credits:
Director: Steve Boyum
Screenwriters: Ken Solarz, Bart Baker
Story by: Bart Baker, Keith Alan Bernstein
Producers: Steve Austin, J. Todd Harris
Executive producers: Richard Gabai, Marc Toberoff, Jonathan Bogner, David Borg
Director of photography: William Wages
Production designer: Max Biscoe
Editors: Alan Cody, Brett Hedlund
Costume designer: Elaine Montalvo
Music: Jasper Randall
Cast:
K.C. Carlyle: Steve Howey
Trip Carlyle: Mike Vogel
Piper Cole: Cameron Richardson
Zoe Lang: Sophia Bush
Owen Cole: Aaron Carter
Rowdy Sparks: Channing Tatum
Earl Cole: Robert Patrick
Clay Sparks: Robert Carradine
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 80 minutes...
Without a Trace star Poppy Montgomery has joined the cast of the indie romantic comedy 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover for writer-director Jordan Hawley. The project is before cameras in Los Angeles. Montgomery joins Paul Schneider, Jennifer Westfeldt, Tori Spelling and Fred Willard in the J. Todd Harris-produced project, which is being described as in the vein of Swingers. It follows a sleazy biographies writer (Schneider) who decides to ditch Los Angeles, burn all his bridges and start a new life on the East Coast. His plans go awry when he meets the woman of his dreams (Westfeldt) at the airport and decides to stay in town one more night to date her. Montgomery plays the sexy, free-swinging best friend of Schneider's character. Australia-born Montgomery is repped by CAA and Peg Donegan at Framework. In addition to her regular role on the CBS series Without a Trace, her credits include Glory Days, The Other Sister and Dead Man on Campus.
- 5/29/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
George Bernard Shaw once sagely remarked that the most rancorous, bilious and treacherous fighters are academics, because the stakes are so small. So it seems in "Bad Manners", a "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"-ish drama centering on two couples who grapple in the halls of ivory.
While a scathing satire of the modern-day professoriate, "Bad Manners" is lightweight piffle as human drama, thin on character depth and pounded into pablum by its overwrought, hysterical dialog. Playing at the Chicago International Film Festival, it's the kind of film that inspires post-viewing discussion: Namely, can one recall ever spending an evening with four more odious, obnoxious twits than the four lead characters depicted here?
The best venues for this tweedy tale are near serious college communities, where students and faculty might take perverse delight in viewing such a searing portrayal of petty pedantry. Unfortunately, writer David Gilman (who adapted the script from his long-running Chicago play "Ghost in the Machine") has fashioned a scenario so superficial and dependent on dramaturgic gimmickry that a "Cliffs Notes"-like encapsulation of the project might outweigh the real thing.
Aptly titled "Bad Manners" centers on the comfortable domicile of a couple of Cambridge, Mass., educators, Wes (David Strathairn) and Nancy (Bonnie Bedelia). In the Shakespearean sense, theirs is a "stale marriage bed," and their testy relationship is further unsettled by the fact that Wes has been passed over for tenure at the girls finishing school where he toils.
Indeed, he's duly defensive about his low spot on the academic pecking order in this multicollege environ. Wes' sensitive state is further challenged when, as bad luck would have it, an old flame of Nancy's, Matt Saul Rubinek) comes to town to deliver a lecture at Harvard, no less. And, even more dispiriting, Matt has arrived with Kim (Caroleen Feeney), a delectable disciple who fancies herself a sexual provocateur.
Introductions are made (snide putdowns); histories are revealed (embarrassingly sexual); accomplishments are enumerated (shot down fast); and goals are delineated (belittled).
While one could argue these characters are quite remarkably the blurt-out-everything types whose snipings are not refined by any social sophistication, that supposition rings false among these educated folk; it's the hysterically charged and often unbelievable dialog that pummels this slight story down to bonehead dimension. In short, Gilman's blunt scripting -- further juiced by the old-reliable character-inflamant, alcohol -- is so crudely calibrated that not only do we dislike the characters, we don't care what makes them tick.
Despite the C-screenplay, the acting is high-grade, a credit to director Jonathan Kaufer and the quality cast. Strathairn invests his character with a snide, sarcastic manner that nicely captures his quiet desperation. As Nancy, Wes' tenured wife, Bedelia displays an aptly edgy serenity. Rubinek is well-cast as a pompous musicologist who seeks fame and glory through the "discovery" of a Martin Luther refrain in a computer-generated, random-number musical opus. Feeney, as the femme fatale of the faculty, snipes and dishes with soap-operatic fury -- which is, unfortunately, right for this soapy production.
BAD MANNERS
Davis Entertainment Classics
In association with
Skyline Entertainment Partners and Wavecrest
A J. Todd Harris/Stephen Nemeth production
Producers J. Todd Harris,
Stephen Nemeth, Alan Kaplan
Director Jonathan Kaufer
Screenwriter David Gilman,
based on his play "Ghost in the Machine"
Director of photography Denis Maloney
Editor Robin Katz
Music Ira Newborn
Music supervisor Dondi Bastone
Production designer Sharon Lomosky
Costume designer Katharine Jane Bryant
Sound mixer Ben Patrick
Casting director Georgianne Walken
Color/stereo
Cast:
Wes David Strathairn
Nancy Bonnie Bedelia
Matt Saul Rubinek
Kim Caroleen Feeney
Dr. Harper Julie Harris
Running time -- 88 minutes...
While a scathing satire of the modern-day professoriate, "Bad Manners" is lightweight piffle as human drama, thin on character depth and pounded into pablum by its overwrought, hysterical dialog. Playing at the Chicago International Film Festival, it's the kind of film that inspires post-viewing discussion: Namely, can one recall ever spending an evening with four more odious, obnoxious twits than the four lead characters depicted here?
The best venues for this tweedy tale are near serious college communities, where students and faculty might take perverse delight in viewing such a searing portrayal of petty pedantry. Unfortunately, writer David Gilman (who adapted the script from his long-running Chicago play "Ghost in the Machine") has fashioned a scenario so superficial and dependent on dramaturgic gimmickry that a "Cliffs Notes"-like encapsulation of the project might outweigh the real thing.
Aptly titled "Bad Manners" centers on the comfortable domicile of a couple of Cambridge, Mass., educators, Wes (David Strathairn) and Nancy (Bonnie Bedelia). In the Shakespearean sense, theirs is a "stale marriage bed," and their testy relationship is further unsettled by the fact that Wes has been passed over for tenure at the girls finishing school where he toils.
Indeed, he's duly defensive about his low spot on the academic pecking order in this multicollege environ. Wes' sensitive state is further challenged when, as bad luck would have it, an old flame of Nancy's, Matt Saul Rubinek) comes to town to deliver a lecture at Harvard, no less. And, even more dispiriting, Matt has arrived with Kim (Caroleen Feeney), a delectable disciple who fancies herself a sexual provocateur.
Introductions are made (snide putdowns); histories are revealed (embarrassingly sexual); accomplishments are enumerated (shot down fast); and goals are delineated (belittled).
While one could argue these characters are quite remarkably the blurt-out-everything types whose snipings are not refined by any social sophistication, that supposition rings false among these educated folk; it's the hysterically charged and often unbelievable dialog that pummels this slight story down to bonehead dimension. In short, Gilman's blunt scripting -- further juiced by the old-reliable character-inflamant, alcohol -- is so crudely calibrated that not only do we dislike the characters, we don't care what makes them tick.
Despite the C-screenplay, the acting is high-grade, a credit to director Jonathan Kaufer and the quality cast. Strathairn invests his character with a snide, sarcastic manner that nicely captures his quiet desperation. As Nancy, Wes' tenured wife, Bedelia displays an aptly edgy serenity. Rubinek is well-cast as a pompous musicologist who seeks fame and glory through the "discovery" of a Martin Luther refrain in a computer-generated, random-number musical opus. Feeney, as the femme fatale of the faculty, snipes and dishes with soap-operatic fury -- which is, unfortunately, right for this soapy production.
BAD MANNERS
Davis Entertainment Classics
In association with
Skyline Entertainment Partners and Wavecrest
A J. Todd Harris/Stephen Nemeth production
Producers J. Todd Harris,
Stephen Nemeth, Alan Kaplan
Director Jonathan Kaufer
Screenwriter David Gilman,
based on his play "Ghost in the Machine"
Director of photography Denis Maloney
Editor Robin Katz
Music Ira Newborn
Music supervisor Dondi Bastone
Production designer Sharon Lomosky
Costume designer Katharine Jane Bryant
Sound mixer Ben Patrick
Casting director Georgianne Walken
Color/stereo
Cast:
Wes David Strathairn
Nancy Bonnie Bedelia
Matt Saul Rubinek
Kim Caroleen Feeney
Dr. Harper Julie Harris
Running time -- 88 minutes...
- 10/16/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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