The Movie Guys: Wicked ‘Wag’ a satiric gaggle of giggles

Jeff

Friday, Jan. 9, 1998 | 9:32 a.m.

Wag the Dog'

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* Grades: Jeff, A; Dave, A.

* Starring: Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Anne Heche, Denis Leary and Woody Harrelson.

* Screenplay: Hilary Henkin and David Mamet.

* Director: Barry Levinson.

* Rated: R for profanity and adult themes.

* Running time: 95 minutes.

* Playing at: ACT III Boulder Station, ACT III Sunset Station, Village Square, Century Orleans and Rancho Santa Fe.

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Synopsis: There's a crisis in Washington D.C. A White House advisor and a Hollywood producer conspire to stage a war with Albania to take the public's focus off the President's scandalous affair with a teenage girl weeks before the election. They even fabricate a hero -- who turns out to be a deranged soldier, who has been in prison for the last seven years.

Dave: Here is a perfect example of fine filmmaking. We have an impressive cast, including Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro, teamed with talented director Barry Levinson and a witty script co-written by David Mamet, delivering the most mainstream satire in years. All this at a budget of a mere $15 million, and shot in less than a month -- yielding loads of creativity and excellent performances.

Jeff: The plot feels like it was snatched right from the front pages of the National Inquirer. This is made in the tradition of other insane government-media hoopla films: Tim Robbin's "Bob Roberts" and Michael Moore's "Canadian Bacon," neither of which can match the witty, fast-paced dialogue of screenwriters Hilary Henkin and Mamet.

"Wag the Dog" deals out hysterical moments with such fury that I can't possibly choose a favorite scene: The war anthem song composed by Willie Nelson, recorded in "We Are the World" fashion; pairs of old shoes decorating trees in place of yellow ribbons; a studio filming session of an actress (Kirsten Dunst) playing a war-torn Albanian refugee, dodging make- believe bombs and carrying a bag of Tostitos corn chips, which they digitally remove from the scene, replacing it with a kitten.

Most of the jabs are aimed at the media that savors the images provided by the President's team. They don't question the events, but just take it and run with it as fast and far as they can. The events that unfold are funny and ludicrous enough to split your gut, and just credible enough to be unsettling.

Dave: As the relaxed and ultra-loose presidential spin doctor, Conrad Brean, DeNiro is a comical match to Hoffman's over-the-top Hollywood producer Stanley Motss. The two are an entertaining pair, whose personal agendas differ: Brean looking to protect the President's image and protecting his own anonymity; Motss taking on the challenge of manipulating the media to protect the President's image and satisfying his ego.

It is a delight to see two A-list actors work off of each other with such natural ease, and at the same time, appear to be having fun. Alongside is Anne Heche as top presidential aide Winifred Ames, whose only concern is the president's re-election. Her humorous reactions to both Brean and Motss' continuous chain of events is a conduit to the audience, as the situation escalates to comical and preposterous highs.

Jeff: It's phenomenal to have two of cinema's greatest actors sharing the screen under the attentive direction of Barry Levinson. This is Hoffman's best role in years, and DeNiro has some of the best moments on screen, most of which are not through his spoken word, but through a look that will send you to comic heaven.

The scene-stealer award goes to Woody Harrleson, who plays a deranged military convict selected as the war hero. He has the least screen time, but makes the biggest impression. Laughs galore! "Wag the Dog" is a fast-paced romp of lies, laced with deception, tanning booths, veggie shakes and media hype. Its final message: You can fool all of the people some of the time. It's a tail-wagging good time.

Dave: Credit to screenwriters Henkin and Mamet for an original and wicked concept that blends satirical humor in the political and multi-media arena. The sharp attention to dialogue and quick delivery by the cast shows what a superb script can produce. One of the better films to come out of 1997 that exposes politics, Hollywood and the mass media to the point that even Bill Clinton, Don Simpson and Ted Turner would laugh.

MOVIE BUZZ

* Hitchhiking to the big screen: According to Daily Variety, a big-screen adaptation of the Douglas Adams sci-fi novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is in the works. Hollywood Pictures President David Vogel has purchased screen rights to the book, with "Austin Powers" director Jay Roach on board. Adams will write the script with Roach, hoping to make it a summer event film for 2000. The novel's main character, Arthur Dent, lays in front of a bulldozer that is set to flatten his house, to make room for a highway. Suddenly, Dent is whisked away by an alien who tells Dent that Earth itself is scheduled to be "flattened" to make way for a new intergalactic bypass.

* Jack of steel: Director Tim Burton has been saying Jack Nicholson would be perfect for the role of Superman's hairless arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor, in the new Superman film Burton is directing. Nicholson played the Joker in Burton's original "Batman." "I've only heard the Lex Luthor thing as a rumor. Nobody has contacted me officially. I've heard they've put the film into some kind of turn-around," says Nicholson, in a recent interview with the Calgary Sun.

* 'Summer's' end: Kevin Williamson, the writer of the teen horror films "Scream," "Scream 2" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer," says he has turned down an offer to write a sequel to "Summer." In an interview with the New York Post, Williamson says that " 'Scream' was in some ways the rebirth and the death of the slasher film. It exposes all the rules and conventions of the genre, so you can't do it straight anymore. But if you follow the 'Scream' route, it'll look like a blatant ripoff." Williamson's next big screen project will be "Killing Mrs. Tingle," which he will write and direct.

NEW ON VIDEO

"Fire Down Below" (Warner Home Video; Rated R; VHS/Laserdisc; Grade, D +): Steven Seagal looks, talks and acts the same as always in his latest flick, in which he plays a government official for the Environmental Protection Agency out to foil Kris Kristofferson's plans for dumping toxic waste in the Kentucky hills.

One can appreciate Seagal's attempt to call attention to environmental issues in his movies, but you can hardly take this seriously. Not only are there two dozen edits in a single fight scene, but they speed up the action by under-cranking the camera. It's as if the director did not even care to make Seagal look convincing!

In addition, the dialogue is embarrassingly bad and the story is so contrived, it's a wonder what veteran actor Harry Dean Stanton would be doing in a heap of a movie like this. By the way, who wants to see an action star singing in good 'ol country fashion?

"Soul Food" (Fox Home Video; Rated PG; VHS/Laserdisc; Grade, A): It's Sunday and the Joseph family has once again gathered around the dinner table for the weekly feast of soul food. The tight-knit family is presided over by "Mother Jo" (Irma P. Hall), or "Big Mama" as she is called by her young grandson, Ahmad (Brandon Hammond). She spoons out generous helpings of love and advice, as well as the best-looking meals ever to grace a motion picture screen.

Big Mama has her hands full with her three very different daughters: Teri (Vanessa L. Williams), a career-driven lawyer; Maxine (Vivica A. Fox), a homemaker; and Bird (Nia Long), the struggling owner of a hair salon. When Big Mama takes ill, the family ties begin to unravel. As his parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins battle over money, affairs and other family problems, it's up to 12-year-old Ahmad, who has a special bond with Big Mama, to come up with a plan to keep the family together.

"Soul Food" is filled with writer/director George Tillman's own experiences as a child growing up in a very large Midwestern family. Do yourself a favor, bring someone you care about and sit down to a generous helping of "Soul Food." It will be a meal you will never forget.

VIEWPOINT

As 1998 begins, we couldn't help but remember some of the memorable and outstanding people in Hollywood we lost last year. We would like to pay tribute to them, and through the magic of film, their work and influence will be preserved for ages to come, never to be forgotten. They will be missed:

James Stewart, 89, actor; Robert Mitchum; 80, actor; Red Skelton, 84, comedian and actor; Brandon Tartikoff, 48, TV and film producer ; Tishiro Mifune, 77, actor; Brian Keith, 75, actor; Chris Farley, 32, actor; William Hickey, 69, actor; Burgess Meredith, 88, actor;

Charles Kuralt, 63, journalist; Pat Paulsen, 69, political satirist and presidential candidate; Harry Blackstone Jr., 62, magician and illusionist; Catherine Scorsese, 84, actress and Martin Scorsese's mother; Sheldon Leonard, 89, actor and TV producer;

Audrey Lindley, 79, actress; David Doyle, 67, actor; Alexander Salkind, 75, producer; George Fenneman, 77, TV announcer; William S. Burroughs, 83, author; Biggie Smalls, 25, musician; Michael Hutchence, 37, musician; John Denver, 54, musician; Gianni Versace, 51, fashion designer; Adriana Coselotti, 80, actress; Lillian Disney, 97, wife of Walt Disney; James Michener, 90, author.

NAME THAT FLICK

We thought we had you stumped last week. Boy, were we wrong! We had tons of phone calls and even e-mail from out of state. Last week's movie quote: "Bye-bye California. Hello, new West Coast... my West Coast." It was spoken by supervillain Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) in "Superman: The Movie." The quote was correctly identified first by "Bicycle Bob" Reynolds, who just happens to share the same birthday as Hackman (Jan. 30).

Way to go, Bob!

Next? Who said this and in what movie: "Well, boys, we've got three engines out, we got more holes in us than a horse trader's mule, radio's gone and we're leaking fuel, and if we was flying any lower, why, we'd need sleigh bells on this thing"?

Have you heard it before? If you have, call us at 225-9026 or e-mail us at movieguys5@aol.com. Be sure to spell your name and leave a daytime phone number, and if you're the first one with the right answer, we will print your name right here in our column. Would we lie to you?

And remember: No talking during the movie.

Thank you -- The Management.

THE MOVIE GUYS, starring Jeff Howard and Dave Neil, appears every Friday in the SUN (additional material provided by Thomas Feeney). You can also read their capsule reviews of movies in Scope magazine; listen to their reviews and commentary every Saturday and Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m. on their radio show "Quiet on the Set" on KVBC 105.1-FM; and watch their reviews every Friday on Channel 3's 11 p.m. newscast. Plus, check them out online at: www.lasvegassun. com/sun /sunlife/ movies.