In the hallowed tradition of quest movies comes "Booty Call". While Indiana Jones may have quested for the Lost Ark and Jason quested for the Golden Fleece, Bunz and Rushon quest for a latex condom. Given the fine and foxy ladies they're on a mission for, modern-day urban audiences might consider Bunz and Rushon's quest much more important than the mere retrieval of old religious arcana.
Accordingly, there should be considerable first-weekend box-office booty for Sony from black, teen audiences, and, to boot, "Booty" should call up some nifty cash from the frat-boy crowd and MTV-heads everywhere.
A risque romp centered around a double date, this Columbia movie is a bawdy blend of hormones laced over with pseudo-sociological sermonizing about the necessity for safe sex. The comic carnality centers around Rushon (Tommy Davidson) and Nikki (Tamala Jones). Rushon and Nikki have gone together for what passes for a long time by today's romantic standards -- seven weeks. Both are upwardly mobile and somewhat strait-laced, but both feel the urge to "do it."
These feelings are fired up by their two libidinous, good-time friends: Womanizer Bunz (Jamie Foxx) goads Rushon to quit jerking around and get Nikki in bed, while Nikki's gal-pal Lysterine (Vivica A. Fox) doesn't believe in holding out for more than 30 minutes.
Unabashedly crude and lewd, "Booty Call" is, especially in its first 45 minutes, a hoot. A strong dose of sexual slapstick lathered up with safe-sex strictures, "Booty" sashays as a first-rate farce. Screenwriters Takashi Bufford and Bootsie have smartly wadded up a batch of sexual frustration, crammed it together with opposite character types, and then massaged it with some tried-and-true comic pleasers like a feisty pet, a hyper Chinese waiter (Gedde Watanabe) and two Punjabi convenience clerks.
Indeed, there's not a lot of correctness gunking up the hilarity and, as you might expect, the subject matter does not hold up throughout, even at 77 minutes.
Not dilly-dallying around with much aesthetic foreplay, director Jeff Pollack keeps things tight and light, but it's the four lead performances that are this callipygean carnality's most alluring charms. Davidson is finely cast as the well-meaning but frustrated Rushon, while Foxx is perfect as a dreadlocked, 'hood rat.
On the distaff side, Jones is a perfect blend of sweetness and sexiness as good-girl Nikki, while Fox smolders as the highly charged Lysterine. Watanabe is terrific as an addled Chinese waiter, a perfect reactive character for the sexual shenanigans.
BOOTY CALL
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures
A Turman/Morrissey Co. production
A film by Jeff Pollack
Producer John Morrissey
Director Jeff Pollack
Screenwriters Takashi Bufford, Bootsie
Director of photography Ron Orieux
Production designer Sandra Kybartas
Editor Christopher Greenbury
Costume designer Vicki Graef
Music Robert Folk
Co-producer John M. Eckert
Casting Mary Vernieu, Ronnie Yeskel
Sound mixer Douglas Ganton
Color/stereo
Cast:
Bunz Jamie Foxx
Rushon Tommy Davidson
Lysterine Vivica A. Fox
Nikki Tamala Jones
Chan Gedde Watanabe
Akmed Art Malik
Singh Scott LaRose
Running time -- 77 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Accordingly, there should be considerable first-weekend box-office booty for Sony from black, teen audiences, and, to boot, "Booty" should call up some nifty cash from the frat-boy crowd and MTV-heads everywhere.
A risque romp centered around a double date, this Columbia movie is a bawdy blend of hormones laced over with pseudo-sociological sermonizing about the necessity for safe sex. The comic carnality centers around Rushon (Tommy Davidson) and Nikki (Tamala Jones). Rushon and Nikki have gone together for what passes for a long time by today's romantic standards -- seven weeks. Both are upwardly mobile and somewhat strait-laced, but both feel the urge to "do it."
These feelings are fired up by their two libidinous, good-time friends: Womanizer Bunz (Jamie Foxx) goads Rushon to quit jerking around and get Nikki in bed, while Nikki's gal-pal Lysterine (Vivica A. Fox) doesn't believe in holding out for more than 30 minutes.
Unabashedly crude and lewd, "Booty Call" is, especially in its first 45 minutes, a hoot. A strong dose of sexual slapstick lathered up with safe-sex strictures, "Booty" sashays as a first-rate farce. Screenwriters Takashi Bufford and Bootsie have smartly wadded up a batch of sexual frustration, crammed it together with opposite character types, and then massaged it with some tried-and-true comic pleasers like a feisty pet, a hyper Chinese waiter (Gedde Watanabe) and two Punjabi convenience clerks.
Indeed, there's not a lot of correctness gunking up the hilarity and, as you might expect, the subject matter does not hold up throughout, even at 77 minutes.
Not dilly-dallying around with much aesthetic foreplay, director Jeff Pollack keeps things tight and light, but it's the four lead performances that are this callipygean carnality's most alluring charms. Davidson is finely cast as the well-meaning but frustrated Rushon, while Foxx is perfect as a dreadlocked, 'hood rat.
On the distaff side, Jones is a perfect blend of sweetness and sexiness as good-girl Nikki, while Fox smolders as the highly charged Lysterine. Watanabe is terrific as an addled Chinese waiter, a perfect reactive character for the sexual shenanigans.
BOOTY CALL
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures
A Turman/Morrissey Co. production
A film by Jeff Pollack
Producer John Morrissey
Director Jeff Pollack
Screenwriters Takashi Bufford, Bootsie
Director of photography Ron Orieux
Production designer Sandra Kybartas
Editor Christopher Greenbury
Costume designer Vicki Graef
Music Robert Folk
Co-producer John M. Eckert
Casting Mary Vernieu, Ronnie Yeskel
Sound mixer Douglas Ganton
Color/stereo
Cast:
Bunz Jamie Foxx
Rushon Tommy Davidson
Lysterine Vivica A. Fox
Nikki Tamala Jones
Chan Gedde Watanabe
Akmed Art Malik
Singh Scott LaRose
Running time -- 77 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 2/24/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Canadian filmmaker John Greyson follows up his AIDS musical "Zero Patience" with another gay-themed film with theatrical roots. Winner of the 1996 Genie for best picture, "Lilies" is based on the 1987 play by Michel Marc Bouchard about a bitter prisoner confronting an old friend over a long-ago romance that ended badly.
With attractive performers and a lively agenda, "Lilies" nonetheless gets bogged down in its unwieldy structure.
The film premiered in
Los Angeles at UCLA's recent series "Borderlines: New Canadian Cinema," as well as screening in the World Film section of the Sundance Film Festival.
From the outset, the film's premises and developments are fantastical despite the drama's somber setting in a prison chapel. Greyson carefully sets up the central gambit of Simon (Aubert Pallascio), which is to restage the great love of his young life for the benefit of a captive bishop (Marcel Sabourin), who knew him when the events took place.
At first the re-creations are indeed stagy, with prisoners playing the roles of men and women, but soon the film indulges in full-blown flashbacks. Sometimes the effect is startling, but most often it's annoying.
The viewer also must deal with the basic confusion that the bishop's younger self (Matthew Ferguson) is not the intense lover of young Simon (Jason Cadieux).
A delicate nobleman of some sort, it's Vallier (Danny Gilmore) who puts the moves on Simon after rehearsing a steamy scene for a church play.
Vallier's mother is played in drag by Remy Girard, and it's she who picks the titular flowers and causes much hardship for her son.
Set in the early decades of this century, the love of Vallier for Simon is scandalous, and the latter embarks on a tempestuous relationship with one Comtess de Tilly (played soulfully by Brent Carver), an elegant but difficult black lady.
There are several interruptions to monitor the effect of Simon's theatrical creation on the bishop.
An elderly holy man, he tries to stop Simon's elaborate "confession," but for the performers and the watchers, there's no turning back.
It's eventually revealed that the young bishop acted rashly after the lovers had finally experienced happiness. The old bishop is forced to confess to the man whose life he destroyed.
While the performances are engaging, when the film strays from the attractive duo of Cadieux and Gilmore, the heavy themes and choral music take over and one feels as trapped as the bishop.
LILIES
Alliance Communications presents
A Triptych Media/Galafilm co-production
Director John Greyson
Producers Anna Stratton, Robin Cass,
Arnie Gelbart
Writer Michel Marc Bouchard
English version Linda Gaboriau
Director of photography Daniel Jobin
Production designer Sandra Kybartas
Editor Andre Corriveau
Costume designer Linda Muir
Music Mychael Danna
Casting Dorothy Gardner
Color/stereo
Cast:
The Bishop Marcel Sabourin
Simon Aubert Pallascio
Young Simon Jason Cadieux
Vallier Danny Gilmore
Young Bishop Matthew Ferguson
Comtess de Tilly Brent Carver
The Baroness Remy Girard
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
With attractive performers and a lively agenda, "Lilies" nonetheless gets bogged down in its unwieldy structure.
The film premiered in
Los Angeles at UCLA's recent series "Borderlines: New Canadian Cinema," as well as screening in the World Film section of the Sundance Film Festival.
From the outset, the film's premises and developments are fantastical despite the drama's somber setting in a prison chapel. Greyson carefully sets up the central gambit of Simon (Aubert Pallascio), which is to restage the great love of his young life for the benefit of a captive bishop (Marcel Sabourin), who knew him when the events took place.
At first the re-creations are indeed stagy, with prisoners playing the roles of men and women, but soon the film indulges in full-blown flashbacks. Sometimes the effect is startling, but most often it's annoying.
The viewer also must deal with the basic confusion that the bishop's younger self (Matthew Ferguson) is not the intense lover of young Simon (Jason Cadieux).
A delicate nobleman of some sort, it's Vallier (Danny Gilmore) who puts the moves on Simon after rehearsing a steamy scene for a church play.
Vallier's mother is played in drag by Remy Girard, and it's she who picks the titular flowers and causes much hardship for her son.
Set in the early decades of this century, the love of Vallier for Simon is scandalous, and the latter embarks on a tempestuous relationship with one Comtess de Tilly (played soulfully by Brent Carver), an elegant but difficult black lady.
There are several interruptions to monitor the effect of Simon's theatrical creation on the bishop.
An elderly holy man, he tries to stop Simon's elaborate "confession," but for the performers and the watchers, there's no turning back.
It's eventually revealed that the young bishop acted rashly after the lovers had finally experienced happiness. The old bishop is forced to confess to the man whose life he destroyed.
While the performances are engaging, when the film strays from the attractive duo of Cadieux and Gilmore, the heavy themes and choral music take over and one feels as trapped as the bishop.
LILIES
Alliance Communications presents
A Triptych Media/Galafilm co-production
Director John Greyson
Producers Anna Stratton, Robin Cass,
Arnie Gelbart
Writer Michel Marc Bouchard
English version Linda Gaboriau
Director of photography Daniel Jobin
Production designer Sandra Kybartas
Editor Andre Corriveau
Costume designer Linda Muir
Music Mychael Danna
Casting Dorothy Gardner
Color/stereo
Cast:
The Bishop Marcel Sabourin
Simon Aubert Pallascio
Young Simon Jason Cadieux
Vallier Danny Gilmore
Young Bishop Matthew Ferguson
Comtess de Tilly Brent Carver
The Baroness Remy Girard
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/18/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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