NORMAL LIFE
YOUR SEPTEMBER 2001 RMC RESULTS ARE IN!
Here's what you missed...
For the Preshow Entertainment, we watched a little of 1983 YEAR IN ROCK, something I taped off of MTV I'm guessing in Dec 83 or Jan 84. I wish I had taped more than 12 minutes, and I wish I taped the commercials as well. Anyway, it's still fun to watch these things. It wasn't as bad as the '70s, but you still question "what was I thinking?" They had a clip of Elton John doing a promo. He's wearing big tinted glasses and a straw hat and says to the camera, "Hello, I'm Elton John." Then breaks up laughing, saying, "Who else would I be???" It was pretty funny.
Since I only had minutes of this, we also watched Eddie Murphy being interviewed by Mark Goodman in 1983. This was so bad it wasn't even a train wreck. It was difficult to watch. Mark G. was treating him like royalty, doing that tentative thing, for example, if Eddie spoke, Mark would clam up no matter what either was saying. And Eddie had no idea what to say. Mark G. wasn't really a good interviewer, and Eddie was difficult. But in a different way than you'd expect. I had two impressions:
1- Eddie was out until 6am, and the interview was at 8am.
2- He shot to superstardom so fast, he was lost. He wasn't "on," and he was desperately trying to find his "on" switch, grabbing at anything, trying to say something funny, or even cool, and failing miserably. The few times he got it, he'd either run the wrong way with it, or overkill it. The only laugh- in the middle of Mark asking him a question, Eddie looked around the room asking, "Where Nina Blackwood at?"
Of course, Mark didn't know what he meant by that, so he thought he was insulting Nina, and Eddie was forced to explain that he LIKED Nina.
This month's movie was NORMAL LIFE. This was our second John McNaughton movie (WILD THINGS). He also did HENRY, PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, which I recommend.
Ashley Judd plays a psychotic woman with a death wish (she's playing Angelina Jolie in real life...she even looks like her in many scenes. Of course this movie, 1995, pre-dates AJ, so it's really wacky to think that, but it's true). She meets up with Luke Perry, a cop who falls in love with her. There's a lot of stuff on the surface here, and with that, it appears to be a TV movie. But dig deeper and you'll find that it's about the power of sex. Who's really in charge? Is it man's world? How mixed up can a guy get when he's taken in by sex? Umm....no need to answer that. It's the power of sex. I think it would have been a very different movie if they didn't fuck. It's the theme of LOLITA. (In LOLITA she knew this, in NORMAL LIFE she was too psycho to see it, I think). But it restates what we always knew- sex IS a weapon. In the game Clue, it would be, "Miss Scarlett in the Study wearing a miniskirt."
Now, this doesn't mean it was a great movie. I certainly liked it more than the two distaff members (no puns intended) in attendance. And it wasn't because you see Ashley's Juggs many times (okay, that helped). I liked watching Luke Perry's character change; a man who starts out not only as a cop, but one who abhors dirty cops. The pinnacle of a law abiding citizen, and his descent.
NORMAL LIFE was inspired by a true story, which of course means it's more fiction than not. McNaughton's choice to open with the end of the movie, then tell the story in flashbacks, baffles. Luke was pretty solid. Ashley, I think, is a fraud. I mean, she was okay, but she's not GREAT. She's a movie star. I'd like to see her ACT more, but maybe she can't. I'll give her RUBY IN PARADISE, but not DOUBLE JEOPARDY or KISS THE GIRLS. I don't think I'll ever see SOMEONE LIKE YOU or EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.
"I am not a normal person!" -Pam (Ashley Judd)
(OKOKOKOKOKOKOK. It DID help that Ashley showed her tits. And therein lies the theme: Guys are overpowered by sexual charges)
Tags: random movie club, normal life, MTV, ashley judd
