Sunday, June 24, 2012

(30) Stars of Summer - Day 24: Christina Ricci

Today's entry has the distinction of being a) the youngest star in (30) Stars of Summer and b) the only one to be chained to a radiator by Sam Jackson.

You've got it by now, but once again here are the rules. Check out this list of all the month's actors with links to what's available on Netflix Instant. If you're not a Netflix subscriber, maybe this will help.

Day 1: Jimmy Stewart
Day 2: Catherine Deneuve
Day 3: Christopher Lee
Day 4: Bette Davis
Day 5: Nicolas Cage
Day 6: Diane Keaton 
Day 7: Orson Welles 
Day 8: Catherine Keener 
Day 9: Kurt Russell
Day 10: Pam Grier
Day 11: Clint Eastwood
Day 12: Susan Sarandon 
Day 13: Cary Grant 
Day 14: Barbara Stanwyck 
Day 15: Keith David 
Day 16: Frances McDormand 
Day 17: Gary Oldman 
Day 18: Marilyn Monroe 
Day 19: Dick Miller 
Day 20: Jennifer Jason Leigh 
Day 21: Laurence Fishburne 
Day 22: Whoopi Goldberg
Day 23: Kevin Bacon

9 comments:

  1. No Vacancy (1999)

    Film centers on a cheap motel, which apparently caters to actors who are looking to utterly humiliate themselves. The motel also exists in a time vortex, which has the effect of making 83 minutes seem like 800. Are there any positives? Christina Ricci and Timothy Olyphant aren't bad, mostly because they're the only ones not frothing at the mouth.

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  2. Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain (1995)

    A truly underrated kids film stars Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky ("My Girl") as two young girls who plan on discovering lost gold on a very dangerous mountain in 1980 Washington state.

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  3. Buffalo '66 (1998)

    Christina Ricci as a girl who gets kidnapped by ex-con Vincent Gallo to pretend to be his wife for his horrible parents(Ben Gazzara and Angelica Houston). Gallo also wants vengeance against the man he feels is responsible for his incarceration. The whole film relies on your belief that while Gallo is beligerant and downright cruel to Ricci that she immediately falls for him, which is near impossible and sinks the film. All the performance are great and the film has a lot of beautiful shots. I just wish that I liked it more than what I did.

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  4. Bless The Child

    The worst kind of movie. A boring, bland religious horror movie devoid of even a single scare. Kim Basinger is a boring woman trying to save her boring niece from a boring cult and borZZZZZZZZ....

    Director Chuck Russell also gave us the 1988 remake of The Blob, a favorite of mine, and I can't believe this hokey mess was made by the same guy. As for Ricci...well, she's kind of awful in her 2 scenes as a strung-out junkie who Knows Things. Her performance is just as flat and uninspired as the movie around it.

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  5. Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain (1995)

    Made during Christina Ricci's "kids' movie" period, this is an uneasy mix of tones and plots that doesn't work. Is it a children's adventure movie? A heavy drama about abuse? A story about two girls becoming very close friends way too quickly? It's all of these and none of them. It depends very heavily on dialogue instead of action, and the dialogue is mostly bad. The best part? Seeing a very young Jewel Staite show up in a couple of scenes.

    The only way this movie works is if it's really about two girls falling in love without realizing it. There's a lot in the film to support this theory, but the filmmakers never quite pull the trigger.

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  6. THAT DARN CAT (1997) on Amazon Instant Video.

    Guess not all Disney remakes of their decades-old live-action classics can turn out as great as "Freaky Friday" or "The Parent Trap" (a personal favorite). The '65 "That Darn Cat" is dated but remains a fun and engaging kids movie. The '97 remake jumps back-and-forth between being a dumb Nickelodeon children's flick (Doug E. Doug's Zeke Kelso seems to have been lifted from a "Keenan & Kel" sketch) and a somewhat-serious crime caper (Christine Ricci's Patti is somber and serious when she should be mischeveous and driven), sometimes unevenly in the same scene. A small army of thesps in cameos/supporting roles (Peter Boyle, Estella Parsons, Michael McKean, John Ratzenberger, Dyan Cannon, etc.) perk interest here and there, but "That Darn Cat" seems like a star vehicle built around Ricci that then forgot to exploit its then-young star's charm.

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  7. Sorry to be behind, but nevertheless...

    Addams Family Values (1993)

    Slight improvement over the original showcases Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams in a story about the kids going to summer camp. I liked it but much preferred the main plot of Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd, great as always) marrying a serial husband murderer (Joan Cusack, showcased better than she probably ever has been). A nice diversion.

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    Replies
    1. Totally agree. It's one of the few cases where the sequel is not just as good but actually superior to the original.

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