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A Look at Albert Brooks' THE MUSE

Published at:  Mar 05, 1999 3:24:43 PM CST

For all you Albert Brooks fans... here's the latest on THE MUSE... We've had some other reports on the film that were both positive and negative, but here's a look at the latest cut of the film....




After having been an Albert Brooks fan for several years I was lucky
enough to be invited to a screening of his newest movie, called THE
MUSE, at the studio theatre on the Paramount lot.

I had heard a couple of things about this movie, namely that Sharon
Stone and Andie McDowell were in it, along with Mr.Brooks, and that it
deals with a real-live muse living and working in Hollywood. Never
having been a huge fan of Andie McDowell, I was a bit apprehensive of
her involvement, but I was curious and interested how Sharon Stone
would do in a comedy.

Turns out that my concerns were unfounded, and my curiosity pleasantly
satisfied. McDowell wasn't too obtrusive, playing Mr.Brooks' screen
wife, and Sharon Stone surprised me in playing comedy well. To quickly
summarize - this was a very funny movie, and I found myself laughing a
lot. It had plenty of that wry humor that I have come to appreciate in
Mr.Brooks' movies, but it also had some great situational comedy,
spiked with humorous cameos by various big-wigs of the movie business
- James Cameron, and Martin Scorcese were some of my favorites.

As you can guess, the movie makes fun of the Hollywood movie industry,
and while this is not necessarily a new concept for a movie, Mr.Brooks
finds brand new twists and angles in his 'take' on it all (no pun
intended)- not the least of which is how readily his characters jump
at the concept of the muse being real, in hopes of unblocking his
writer's block, and as a result, reigniting his career.

I really enjoyed the music. Apparently Elton John (a personal favorite
of mine as well) provided the score, and it's a match made in heaven.
Obviously, I wasn't the only one who felt that way, since the rest of
the room reacted very positively to the screening (so, at least I know
it wasn't just me). Overall it was a hell of a lot more fun than
wa



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    Readers Talkback

  • Mar 05, 1999 4:01:11 PM CST

    Burn Hollywood Burn!

    by l'auteur

    I'm always up for a good Hollywood bashing movie (although a Cameron cameo has me perplexed, because THIS GUY needs bashing!). Anyway, about a half-hour ago I came up with an idea for a Hollywood bashing movie. I call it City of Incest. I'd put that title over an opening shot of the Hollywood sign. Not too subtle, I admit, but that can be justified by Hollywood's refusal to ever show subtelty (sp?) in any of its movies; therefore, i think a good wallop over the head might actually be good satire of their system (although how effectively that worked in Natural Born Killers is questionable). I actually have no plot worked out (!) but i just like the title. Hollywood is a city of incest because all they do is breed movies with movies. This is best shown in Robert Altman's The Player ("It's Pretty Woman meets Out of Africa! It's the Graduate, 25 years later!") No one in Hollywood ever breeds cinema with an independant idea; they just breed movies with other movies, hence incest. Marketers are the cause of this. They, by definition, cannot create original ideas; they merely tweak old ideas that have worked in the past and hope they work again. That is why all movies today look like incestious breeds of other movies. Some people think that all the good ideas have been used and that is the reason for this; not true. Look at Pulp Fiction. That very recent movie proves that there are an infinite number of things possible with cinema if only we had the courage to explore them. But they never breed cinema with innovation, only cinema with cinema. CITY OF INCEST: Coming to a theater near you!

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  • Mar 05, 1999 10:22:48 PM CST

    City of Incest?

    by toby o. notobe

    I think you're right on a lot of movies, but some original stuff does come out of Hollywood, even in genre movies. Se7en, for example, was a serial killer movie that was highly original, imho. The mixing and matching of different movies is used as more of a selling technique than a way to generate ideas. ('Here are two successful movies. Mine will be like those two mixed together. Therefore, if you buy it, it will be successful.'). It works with just about anything else as well. Books, for example. The Celestine Prophacey is the Bible meets Treasure Island. See? Just out of curiosity, what would you call "Muse" in Player-speak? 'Bye Lane, do what you feel is right. (Sorry if I don't respond, I live in Hong Kong and it's late.)

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  • Mar 06, 1999 1:39:09 AM CST

    Brookes

    by majitt

    I, for one, cannot wait for this film to be released. Over the years I have grown more and more anxious for the release of ne Albert Brookes films. It is starting to feel very like the old days when I would walk out of the latest Woody Allen film and IMMEDIATELY start thinking about how long I was going to have to wait for the NEXT one.
    I just re-watched "Defending Your Life" the other night and it has whet my appetite for more Albert.

    I must admit, I feel "dread" when I here that Andie McDowell will be involved. What does Hollywood see in this tart? Whatever it is, it's lost on me.

    PS...How about Albert Brookes as Peter Parker?

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  • Jul 10, 2006 8:53:16 AM CDT

    Insert "The Snooze" joke here.

    by wolfpack

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