coachclown

I have to be completely honest when I say that I never intended to watch this movie at all. My cable provider has TNT right next to Discovery Channel and I thought I was watching a movie about Liberia (I'm a bit of an Africa buff). That being said, I watched a good ten minutes of "The Librarian" before I realized it was not a Steve Erwinesqe safari program. That's how persuasive the sets were! My poor reading of TV Guide, and my waning remote control skills, turned out to be a blessing as I was engrossed for a full hour and a half in this wacky adventure story.

I am not going to repeat here how awesome Newhart was (duh!), and how much growth we see in Wyle as an actor, but I do want to address head-on the whole Anwar Controversy. Some negative people on this site have hinted that Gabrielle was too skinny. Well have you ever thought that maybe she lost weight for this role on purpose?! Everyone is ready to lavish praise and Oscars on actresses like Hillary Swank who gained 15 pounds of muscle mass for "Million Dollar Baby," or for Rene Zellweger who packed on some baby fat for "Bridget Jones Diary" but you all seem ready to pillory Gabrielle for trying her best?! Hasn't anyone here ever tried to LOOSE weight. It's not easy, I can assure you of that. Furthermore, in my studies I have read that the women of the Masia tribe are typically thin and angular, much like Miss Anwar in this film. Perhaps it was her commitment to true character acting (see her portrayal of Mariska in "If Looks Could Kill - Teen Agent" if you doubt me) that pushed Gabrielle to "scale down" her physique for this unique role. She's a very good actor and no one can take that away from her. I would not be at all surprised to see her next week on the red carpet, back to her normal weight in no time.

I do have a bone to pick with this film though, and that bone is the directing. If a film were a skeleton, directing would be a large, important bone like the femur. The cast is the ribcage and the backbone (spine) is the plot. You can have a great plot and a great cast, but if your directing is bad, you've got no femur, and everything is just a little bit off. Simply put Jonathan Frakes drops the ball here. The producers should have stuck with Witner (I went back and saw the prequel). Anyway, it does not sink the film, just something producer Wyle might want to consider for the third episode in this very entertaining series of films.

****SPOILER**** I gave out a hearty chuckle when I finally realized they had completely copied the final scene of "Casablanca." Brilliant! If you didn't catch it the first time, it's worth another viewing.

ps - I noticed when I came here to post that the Canadian version of this film is 106 minutes. Could a Canadian fill us in on which 16 minutes of this movie was left on the cutting room floor? Thanks