Two Words, One Answer.
O'Connell
 Bone By Bone $9.99 I approached Bone by Bone with some nervousness. I love Carol O'Connell, and her Mallory novels are outstanding; so I wondered about this departure from what I'm used to. Well, I had no cause to worry. While some novelists seem to lose their ability to write when they turn to a new protagonist, O'Connell has no such problem. Bone by Bone is an excellent mystery, and Oren Hobbs along with the other characters are fascinating. And the good qualities that O'Connell brings to her mysteries are still very much apparent. Just as we want to know more about the elusive Mallory in the earlier novels, we want to know more about Oren Hobbs in this one. The mystery about what happened to Oren's brother all those years ago grows more and more intense as the novel progresses. O'Connell has a way of revealing just enough along the way to thicken the plot just right and draw out the suspense. Each of her characters are a pleasure to meet; she gives us enough description and detail that they seem like real, very unique people. And, while I definitely want another Mallory novel, I would also like to meet Oren Hobbs again or any new protagonist that O'Connell may have in mind!  Man About Town $14.98 The joke on the Mallrats DVD commentary was that Mallrats was considered such a terrible film that not even a flop like Phantoms would list it on its cover as one of Ben Affleck's previous roles. Man About Town can now take that dubious distinction. This makes Affleck's other films like Paycheck and Gigli look as good as Good Will Hunting. This film wastes so much talent in Affleck, Rebecca Romijn, Bai Ling, John Cleese, Jerry O Connell, Kal Penn, and Gina Gershon. The writer/director Mike Binder is a much better actor as he gives himself a small role in this film as Morty Affleck's best friend. Binder also is responsible for the only real laugh of the movie as he wields a fire extinguisher against a jilted actor destroying his office. Affleck stars as Jack, he is supposed to be a wealthy and successful agent even though he has only two big name clients to speak of. One client a T.V. writer (Adam Goldberg) is sleeping with Jack's wife (Romijn) and his other client (Jerry O Connell) is going to leave him and seek other representation. Jack's partners in the firm are played by Gershon, Binder, and Penn. Since their business is going under they are desperate for Jack to forgive the T.V. writer for making a cuckold of him as he is their only high profile client. In the midst of all this confusion Jack enrolls in a journal writing course taught by Cleese. He doesn't know exactly why he is there but at the end of the film conveniently he realizes that he is hoping to find out who he really is and how to make his marriage work. He comes to the conclusion that he is imperfect. Before he makes all these life changes in his journal it is stolen from him by Barbi Ling (Bai Ling). She plans on blackmailing Jack and selling his secret business practices to a newspaper since Jack refused twelve of her screenplays over the years. The most embarrassing moments of this film involve Affleck with two giant white buck teeth doing Tom Cruise impersonations and an embarrassing and slightly racist scene where they challenge Ling and her whole family to a karate match in an alley after being chased through Chinatown by Ling who refuses to give Jack his notebook back. This film just sucks completely and it is no wonder that it went straight to DVD. Affleck is just embarrassing to watch. The extras have eleven more tortuous minutes of deleted scenes and perhaps most tellingly three featurettes and a gag reel neither one with participation from Affleck or director Mike Binder.  Man About Town $2.99 The joke on the Mallrats DVD commentary was that Mallrats was considered such a terrible film that not even a flop like Phantoms would list it on its cover as one of Ben Affleck's previous roles. Man About Town can now take that dubious distinction. This makes Affleck's other films like Paycheck and Gigli look as good as Good Will Hunting. This film wastes so much talent in Affleck, Rebecca Romijn, Bai Ling, John Cleese, Jerry O Connell, Kal Penn, and Gina Gershon. The writer/director Mike Binder is a much better actor as he gives himself a small role in this film as Morty Affleck's best friend. Binder also is responsible for the only real laugh of the movie as he wields a fire extinguisher against a jilted actor destroying his office. Affleck stars as Jack, he is supposed to be a wealthy and successful agent even though he has only two big name clients to speak of. One client a T.V. writer (Adam Goldberg) is sleeping with Jack's wife (Romijn) and his other client (Jerry O Connell) is going to leave him and seek other representation. Jack's partners in the firm are played by Gershon, Binder, and Penn. Since their business is going under they are desperate for Jack to forgive the T.V. writer for making a cuckold of him as he is their only high profile client. In the midst of all this confusion Jack enrolls in a journal writing course taught by Cleese. He doesn't know exactly why he is there but at the end of the film conveniently he realizes that he is hoping to find out who he really is and how to make his marriage work. He comes to the conclusion that he is imperfect. Before he makes all these life changes in his journal it is stolen from him by Barbi Ling (Bai Ling). She plans on blackmailing Jack and selling his secret business practices to a newspaper since Jack refused twelve of her screenplays over the years. The most embarrassing moments of this film involve Affleck with two giant white buck teeth doing Tom Cruise impersonations and an embarrassing and slightly racist scene where they challenge Ling and her whole family to a karate match in an alley after being chased through Chinatown by Ling who refuses to give Jack his notebook back. This film just sucks completely and it is no wonder that it went straight to DVD. Affleck is just embarrassing to watch. The extras have eleven more tortuous minutes of deleted scenes and perhaps most tellingly three featurettes and a gag reel neither one with participation from Affleck or director Mike Binder. |
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