Word: rapaporte
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...work. How can this lost soul, with her Vargas body and "state-of-the-art fellatrics," be the wellspring of a brilliant child? Lenny must save this creature, for Max and from herself. His anguished pursuit of Linda, in which he tries mating her with a dim boxer (Michael Rapaport), is tracked by a Greek chorus that's all singing, all dancing and so Yiddish you could plotz. "I see catastrophe," one chorus member darkly intones. "Worse--I see lawyers...
...rest of the main characters are even more dry and lifeless than Allen. The desire to slap Helena Bonham Carter out of her self-pity is overwhelming, and only increases as the movie progresses. And Michael Rapaport, while likable at first as the "dumb-blond" boxer Allen tries to fix Linda up with, winds up sounding plastic and rehearsed, without a shred of believable character in him. By the trite end, it is clear that you are supposed to be happy for them. But you can't be happy for people you never liked-or even got to know...
With three stunning performances this film would have been good--with six it's great. Helen Hunt of "Mad About You" as Kilmartin's wife demonstrates that a film career is hers for the taking, and Michael Rapaport oozes sleaze as Ronnie. This character is such a jerk that it's almost possible to forgive Little Junior for beating the pulp...
...being exploited; his very smart, very pretty girlfriend (Tyra Banks), who is coolly intent on using the system to her advantage; a young white woman (Kristy Swanson), victimized by date rape, tempted by lesbianism, ultimately redeemed and betrayed by her idealistic political activism; a socially maladroit loner (Michael Rapaport), who finds a dank spiritual home with the local neo- Nazis. The rapper Ice Cube is on hand as a perpetual graduate student and guru to the black activists. Laurence Fishburne represents adult authority as an arrogant, challenging and ultimately wise and sympathetic political-science professor...
These aren't really characters; they are points on a rigidly conceived political spectrum. From the moment you meet him, you know, for example, that Rapaport's miserable character has only one fate and one function: to bring the movie to a predictably bloody, conventionally instructive but emotionally abstract conclusion. Singleton has made all the right political moves given his complicated circumstances, but he hasn't really made a movie of them...