The Great White Hype

Maybe not quite as good as the title suggestsand the great hype proves to be black as well as whitebut this satire directed by Reginald Hudlin about the corruption of the boxing business (and of show business, for that matter) is lots of fun, thanks to a sharp script (by Tony Hendra and Ron Shelton) and juicy comic acting by Samuel L. Jackson, Damon Wayans, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Berg, Jon Lovitz, Corbin Bernsen, and Cheech Marin. I suppose one could argue that this movie is guilty of the sort of hoopla it’s lampooning, and I couldn’t share its amusement at the expense of homeless people, but I enjoyed myself most of the time. (JR) Read more

Larger Than Life

Bill Murray plays a guy who inherits a circus elephant; hoping to sell it, he takes off on a cross-country safari. Not terribly funny, but the intimations of an older, saltier America in the picaresque plot make this watchable. Humorist Roy Blount Jr. wrote the screenplay, based on a story by Pen Densham and Garry Williams, and is perhaps responsible for both the literary undertones and the absence of a unifying visual style. Howard Franklin directed; with Janeane Garofalo, Linda Fiorentino, Anita Gillette, Pat Hingle, and Lois Smith. (JR) Read more