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Artie Bremer takes a peek at a very early screening for THE CREW!!!
Hey folks, Harry here with a look at the Barry Sonnenfeld produced comedy, THE CREW. This has been a film that I've been curious about ever since hearing the names of the 4 male leads... RICHARD DREYFUSS, BURT REYNOLDS, DAN HEDAYA and SEYMOUR CASSELL. Now sure... all four of them are at... weird stages in their careers... but, just maybe there might be some great chemistry at work here. Well, this was an EXTREMELY ADVANCE SCREENING, so know that the film that Artie saw... will most likely undergo quite a bit of tweaking here and there before we all see it. So... with that in mind... here's the review...
Hello, Harry
Longtime reader, first-time poster
My wife and I were invited to a sneak preview of "The Crew," a new movie
starring Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, Dan Hedaya, and Seymour Cassell
last night and I thought I'd write in and tell you about it.
The basic plot is that these four former "wise guys" (lots of "Goodfellas"
shots and allusions) end up spending their golden years in Miami, but are
slowly being forced out by more and more club kid-types moving in and
jacking up their rates. So, they stage a fake shooting of a corpse (Dan
Hedaya's character works in a morgue) that turns out to be the missing
father of a big-time drug lord. Comedy ensues.
Okay, there are a lot of problems with the movie that I'll go into, but I
need to say right off the bat - it was truly hilarious. The audience was
comprised of mostly older folks with a few twenty-somethings thrown into the
mix and everyone laughed their way through the entire thing. It comes down
to one thing-CHEMISTRY. Who would've thought that putting Dreyfuss,
Reynolds, Hedaya, and Cassell in a buddy movie would turn out this way.
They have impeccable chemistry together and all of the best scenes in the
movie are when the four of them are capering together. The supporting cast,
Jeremy Piven, Carrie-Ann Moss, Jennifer Tilly, and others, simply weren't
that great in comparison, Moss being positively wooden in her performance as
a police detective.
Here's what's wrong with the movie - the plot. We were told that this was a
rough cut with a temp track (the temp track was actually very good), but it
looked fairly well put together. Here's the problem, things happen that
make no sense. There are leaps from scene to scene and it feels like scenes
are completely missing. The entire motivation to shoot the corpse isn't
very well explained until later. The guys will be going along doing
something and then they'll jump to something else. Rather confusing. I was
looking for a thread of something to follow, but it was hard to do. The
entire Jeremy Piven subplot is not fleshed out at all and I generally hated
his character all the way through as well as the Carrie-Ann Moss one because
whenever she was onscreen, nothing funny was happening.
However, when the four wise guys were on screen, it was almost always,
always, always funny. Dan Hedaya splits the comic relief with the seldom
speaking Seymour Cassell while tough guy Burt Reynolds (you have no idea how
loud people were laughing at the "Burger King" sequence) and cool-hand
Richard Dreyfuss hammer out the complications. There are shots in the movie
that make no sense, too. Sometimes it is a straight-up caper comedy, while
other times it is an artistically-directed "stylish" kind of film. The
creative shots need to go (ie. camera flying out of Cassell's mouth) and
just the story needs to be told.
Let me reiterate, this was a very, very much advanced screening. Apparently
afterwards there was a focus group, but my wife and I weren't picked, so we
don't know what they were talking about. The producers all seemed to be
lined up there (I know Barry Sonnenfeld is a producer on this, but I
wouldn't recognize him if I saw him). Hopefully, everything will get fixed
and a very funny, albeit very light movie will come out. It reminded me of
a movie I saw in college, "Tough Guys," with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas
at times. I haven't seen that movie in years, but it was about old cons
kicking young ass. Same thing with "Original Gangstas" a few years back
with all the blaxploitation stars.
Like I said, though, the chemistry of the cast took the film to another
level when the script let it down. Burt Reynolds is just darn funny.
-Artie Bremer
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+ Expand All
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I think this is a great opportunity for Burt to prove to people that his performance in Boogie Nights wasn't a fluke and he CAN pull off good acting. I thought his performance in Striptease was good too though, underated.
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... just not as funny because they normally get put into some for of stereotype which has been built by Walter and Jack, ... But R.Dreyfus.. dont know.. he deserves more credit, hes a kick ass actor who hasnt been very popular in the bussines... WHY? wasnt it clear alreay from Jaws that the man was a GOD?
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If this were "The Sopranos," they'd haul his ass out and Tony Soprano would whack him.
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I just want to go on record (a few years late) as saying that Burt Reynolds was ABSOLUTELY ROBBED of an Oscar for his performance in Boogie Nights! And to make it so much worse, he was robbed by Robin Williams - the actor I hate most!!! I think Burt Reynolds gave one of the best acting performances I have ever seen in Boogie Nights, but they gave the statue to that hairy babysitter fucker!
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of his diginity...see "smokey and the bandit"."cannonball" etc.....the only way he will ever make a acceptence speech will be,"sorry steven stagall cant be here to accept the best oscar for "under seige 3:the one on a plane"so i will gladly accept it....."
burt panned boogie nights after he made it so for that iam glad that ole mork took it from him....fuck him ya know...
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Feb 04, 2000 3:02:44 PM CST
Hey! Has anyone else heard that Fox has greenlit a "Lone Gunmen"
by monster rain
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...when he didn't win is classic. I have never forgotten the look on his face when they didn't say his name. He was FUCKING STEAMED. It was really funny how he didn't even pretend to clap like everyone else always does. He just sat there looking rigidly ahead, completely pissed off.
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The headline says it all.
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...and sing us a song! Yay! Seriously folks, this isn't the most original idea out there. C'mon, a lot of these guys haven't been funny for a while. And, on another note, that Lone Gunmen series better be cool. --Saulot--
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Okay, so let me apologize in advance for being way off the subject, and for cross-posting this, but I'm stumped. I want to know in what movie Dennis Hopper (at least I THINK it's Dennis Hopper) tells this guy that his "mother's cunt stinks like ... carpet cleaner." Anybody? My friends and I have been trying to figure this out for two fucking years. I thought I could figure it out, but, alas, no dice. Somebody please help me before I go completely batshit. Thanks.
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It's a bit off topic but Norm doing Burt on Celeb Jeopardy Was a FUCKING RIOT. I dosent suprise me that thoes guys have great chemestry. Anyone ever see LET IT RIDE with Dreyfus?? It's a pisser. The seen w/ Buster Poindexter in the ski mask kills me every time.
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What's Dreyfus been up to lately?
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Moreno, YOU KICK ASS, my friend! Thanks for sticking up for RickyD! He is an amazing actor, both in comedy & drama, whose career has taken its ups & downs. You must be too young to remember when he was extremely popular, back in the 70's. After he got the Oscar, every young wannabe thespian in the country wanted to BE HIM. (He's still the youngest Best Actor winner at 29.) He blew a few yrs up his nose unfortunately, then was reborn in the mid-80's with DOWN & OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS, STAKEOUT, TIN MEN, etc. He was everywhere in the media & big box office again back then. Wheel99 was right on about LET IT RIDE - that is one of the most hilarious comedic performances ever put on screen, though the film itself failed to find an audience. Finally, & long overdue, MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS got him back at the Oscar's in '96. So he has ridden several waves of popularity & I believe has lasted nearly 40 yrs in the business (lots of TV work as a teen in the 60's) because of a pure & natural gift. As to Yodasdad's question, he just finished work in Argentina on the beautiful script, THE OLD MAN WHO READ LOVE STORIES. Also had a great run on the London stage last yr in THE PRISONER OF 2ND AVENUE w/Marsha Mason. So anyone who thinks someone loses their talent or drive just coz they go prematurely gray has a screw loose! You bet RickyD kicks ass, then & now, now & again, & even if THE CREW tanks, it certainly won't be because of its rockin' oldies!!!!
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