Word: tritely
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...premise sounds surely irritating, but the final product betrays the trite-sounding plot line. Wallace Ritchie (Bill Murray) is a high school actor whose ambitions landed him smack dab behind the counter of his local Blockbuster video store. His brother (Peter Gallagher of sex, lies and videotape fame), on the other hand, is a smooth talking well-dressed I-banker in London. Wallace decides to drop in on his brother for his birthday (thankfully Gallagher saves us a reprise of his recent flop To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday). The brother, James, freaks, being on the cusp of a multimillion...
...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...
...schmaltz blemish parts of it, but Buttercup's pop sensibility keeps the tunes fresh and energetic and Obetz gives the band a dimension that other alternapop outfits don't have. The slight twang on "Deal With the Devil" gives a coyness to the tune's moodiness, elevating an otherwise trite pop tune to something far more musical. This seems to be the name of the game for Buttercup: reconfiguring pop cliches in extremely inventive ways. Even their love songs are tinged with irony, infusing pop fantasy with real world bitterness. Their ability to use pop as a medium for genuine...
...amusing and capable lyricist, although other aspects of his talent supercede his verbal stylings. Unfortunately, Yeah, It's That Easy seems to be a step backwards in this regard: the inside-joke content of the already-mentioned "I-76" and "Lay Down The Law" is one indication, while the trite societal criticism of "200 Years" and "Yeah, It's That Easy" is another. "200 Years" (referring to the U.S. bicentennial) starts off with a chanted refrain of "the emperor wears no clothes" and turns into an incoherent criticism of government dishonesty. "Yeah, It's That Easy" treats the issue...
...Trite or touching, lang's message wasn't lost on her audience members, who left decidedly more mellow than when they had entered. lang's metaphors had also come full circle by the conclusion of the evening, and no longer evoked the same images of mystery and innuendo. In one of her last songs of the evening, "The Air that I Breathe," she instead described the gentleness of a longer relationship...