Boxoffice-November.2001

ROCK OPERA
**l/2
—
Starring Jerry Don Clark, Ted Jarrell,
Chad Holt, Paul Wright, Luis Olmeda, Rob
Gasper, Mike Guihan and Bob Ray.
Directed and written by Boh Ray. Produced
by Barna Kantor. A Crashcamfilms release.
Comedy. Unrated. Running time: 90 mitt.
There is a sub-culture in and around
the outskirts of Austin, Texas. It involves
guys between the ages of 17 and about 25,
lots of beer and even larger quantities of
marijuana—one nickel bag at a time
unemployment and a particular kind of
rock music: The sort played by bands that
have names like Butthole Surfers, Uncle
Cracker and Nashville Pussy. These are the
things that native Austin filmmaker Bob
Ray's "Rock Opera" are about.
Strung together by several low-end
music videos and a loose storyline, "Rock
Opera" is funny, insanely violent and profoundly
stupid. The film has the production
value of a junior college class project:
It's shot on 16mm film stock (what's the
point of that in a digital world?) and is
populated by a number of local bands and
what are likely buddies of writer/director
Bob Ray. It's the kind of movie that might
best be described as a "hoot." Terms like
"good" or "bad" just don't apply.
"Rock Opera" is a slacker/stoner caper
fiick about a band called PigPoke that tries
raising money for a tour by selling weed. It
doesn't work out. The film's lead, played
with deft incompetence by local actor
Jerry Don Clark, loses the weed, then
botches a second assignment intended to
make up for losing the weed—all because
he's constantly smoking weed.
If this were the early '70s, "Rock
Opera" might be a sleeper hit like the
Cheech and Chong classics "Up in
Smoke" and "Nice Dreams." As it stands,
it's a neat little rock-a-billy dark comedy
that'll mostly play in the basements of
loser kids who smoke too much weed and
start rock bands of questionable quality.
— Tim Cogshell
•**
HARDBALL
Starring Keanu Reeves, Diane Lane,
John Hawkes, Trevor Morgan, D.B.
Sweeney, Michael Jordan and Stephen
he agrees to coach a I iltlc League baseball
team, the Kckambas, from I he infamous
Cabrini Green housing project. Yes. it's the
"Bad New Bears" meets the "Mighty
Ducks," Willi a touch of "Dangerous
Minds" all embarrassingly dumb movies.
REVIEWS
Yes, there's the requisite love interest, trite
story arc and more than a few cliches
about poverty, discrimination and reactionary
liberal angst. But it works.
The half-dozen young African
American actors who are the real stars of
the film manage to avoid the trap of
sounding like they're reading dialogue
written by a 35-year-old white man, even
though they are. That's just plain good acting.
For that matter, one of these days
we're going to have to stop making fun of
Keanu Reeves' wooden acting style. The
fact is, Mr. Reeves has acquitted himself
very well in his last several films: From
"The Matrix" to "The Gift" and even "The
Replacements," he's been very good, and
he's good here as well. The film moves
Keanu Reeves is on the Irn, , m h'.ii.iinounfs "Hardball.
deftly from drama to comedy and back
again. Director Brian Robbins manages to
keep the film's edae despite having to cut it
for a PG-13 rating.— Tim Cogshell
THE GLASS HOUSE *l/2
Starring Leelec Sobieski, Diane Lane
and Stellan Skarsgard. Directed by Daniel
Sackeim. Written by Wesley Strick.
Produced by Neal H. Moritz. A Columbia
release. Thriller. Rated PG-IJ for sinister
thematic elements, violence, drug content
and language. Running time: III min
The victim in this movie is first seen
munching theatre snacks with her teen
Cinahro. Directed by Brian Rohhins. friends as they watch a standard slasher
Written by John Gatins. Produced by Mike fiick in which a cutie in a prom dress is
menaced every which way she turns. It
Tollin, Brian Robbins and Tina Nides. A
Paramount release. Drama. Rated PG-13
for thematic elements, language and some
doesn't excite them much. They are weary
of the cliches, disappointed that they didn't
violence. Running time: 1 15 min.
get much of a thrill ride scare out of
Keanu Reeves plays Conor ()' Neil, a watching the rubbish on the screen. But
"The Glass House" is also nothing more
ticket scalping, chain-smoking, alcoholic
gambler whose life is passing him by. As
his debts catch up with him,
than unpleasant rubbish another example
of the low moral standards, paucity of
start to he
turns lo a wealthy friend for a loan. What imagination and sheer nastiness which
he gets is a deal: He can have the money if Hollywood throws up on the screen week
after week with little thought of its impact
on those who watch it.
dies
it's