Word: genericizing
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...mistake. The movie makes viewers obliged to feel sorry for them, a surefire way to kill the fun. Bean's curator host is incredibly whiny and annoying, and quite undeserving of all the screen time he soaks up. MacNicol, whom one wants to strangle, is straight out of the generic fretting and put-upon straightman mold, and his presence truly cheapens Atkinson's admirable efforts...
...form and style of Bean are remarkably generic and trite. However, Atkinson's antics, though truncated, make it barely watchable. When he is by himself and allowed to perform up to his usual levels, the audience can almost forgive the staleness of his vehicle. Scenes including those wherein he monkeys in front of mirrors, goes on secret undercover missions of silliness and gets himself arrested in an airport simply for being Beanish are the film's only redeeming moments. Unfortunately, the contrived sappiness of the plot takes what should have been divinely inspired idiocy and makes it merely dumb...
...ruled by the demographic imperative, it is bound to confuse, if not actually offend, its natural constituencies--nostalgic oldsters, transgressive youngsters--who are antithetical in the first place. Nor in its weirdness does it offer anything but befuddlement for the general movie audience out for a good, conventionally generic time...
Accordingly, the relationship between Gere and Ling is one of the few things that elevates the movie above the generic. The culture clash becomes all the more striking, as we see how the two learn to work together thus providing a foil for the isolation that all the other Chinese elements create...
...more strongly than it begins, that's one more testament to the resilience of its creators. Their insistence on respect--as women, as artists and as romantic partners--is a welcome change from much of today's black music scene, dishearteningly crowded with all-cried-out martyr-masochists and generic balladeers. Brand New scales few new heights for the self-proclaimed Queens of Queens, but the album leaves no doubt that Salt 'N' Pepa are the real spice girls. Everyone else is a wannabe...