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know that I love to share my bad movie experiences and
this is no exception. But as horrible as it was, Paparazzi
did prompt me to seek the origin of the title word and
forced me to examine my own voyeuristic tendencies. Have
you ever purchased one of those rags - Enquirer, Star,
Globe? I certainly have not and am a huge snob about it.
With that said, I have purchased plenty copies of People,
Us, etc., so I should probably check myself. While not
on the same level of ridiculous garbage, the latter magazines
still feed into the regular guy's interest in stars' gossip.
The major difference being that the headlines in People
or Us wouldn't read that Janet Jackson just fathered an
Alien child by Nostradamus. But, they might take a close-up
of Jennifer Aniston's belly after she just finished eating
a big steak and claim that she is pregnant. It's still
kind of trashy, intrusive. Yet, every now and again I
have to buy one, devouring every picture and every tidbit.
Hmm...is that a flaw?
But, let's talk about the movie. Bo (Cole), a small-town
Montana boy becomes a huge action hero. Unfortunately,
the attention that this brings Bo, his wife Abby (Robin)
and their son is not always pleasant. Enter the Paparazzi
led by a very unappealing Tom Sizemore as Rex Harper.
I'm sure it was intentional, yet I have never noticed
how much Tom resembles the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
He along with his other horrible, nasty buddies, including
pitiful Daniel Baldwin (not his character, the actor
himself) make Bo's life hell and eventually cause an
accident that leaves the actor's son in a coma. So instead
of being an action hero on the screen, Bo becomes a
vengeful father leaving dead bodies all over Los Angeles.
Maybe it would have been a better movie if a celebrity
that we know gets a lot of unwanted attention had portrayed
the main character. I'll bet a case of Cokes that Cole
Hauser could walk anywhere in LA, New York, or Iowa
and never stir even remote interest. Poor fella.
It was just bad for the big screen, perhaps better
for TBS or TNT. We did, however, get a couple of surprises:
a few seconds of Mel Gibson (co-producer) in a therapist's
waiting room, Matthew McConaughey as himself, and Chris
Rock as the pizza delivery guy. Those were the highlights,
which left me about 90 minutes to think about the word
Paparazzi.
In 1960, Federico's Fellini's La Dolce Vita (The Sweet
Life) introduced the character Signor Paparazzo. In
describing this photographer, Fellini said "Paparazzo
is a buzzing insect, hovering, darting, stinging."
From that, it is believed, the annoying, pushy photographers
were finally given a name and in 1961 when the film
was released in America, Time magazine presented "Paparazzi",
the plural of Paparazzo, to the world along with a picture
of obnoxious photographers.
While I believe that celebrities get paid not only
to make that CD or movie, but to also sign autographs
and make public appearances, it must be very difficult
to have no peace, no privacy save behind fenced properties
and huge security guards. You know, maybe if I were
affluent and celebrated, hunted by slimy people with
cameras, I would have enjoyed this movie more. But,
alas. I'm just a poor, struggling writer and this movie
really reeked.
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