Paparazzi

Review by: Faetra Petillo
FaetraPetillo @TheCinemaSource.com

And just when we thought nothing could surpass Gigli… Let me start out by saying that truly, honestly, I wish I could be sitting here writing something different about this movie than what oh… every other critic in the free world wrote. I wish I could say that the idea was brilliant, and if only the movie was made years ago the world would be a better place free of awful paparazzi photographers. Unfortunately, my integrity gets the better of me.

The film is based on the hard life of one millionaire actor Bo Laramie (played by Cole Hauser). New to fame, Bo is strangely surprised and agitated that paparazzi photographers have become obsessed with stalking and finding virtually every opportunity to photograph him and his family. One night, after a film premier Bo is car chased by four photographers into an awful car accident that leaves his seven-year-old son in a coma. (Princess Diana much?). When the authorities can do little to nothing to help him, Bo (are you ready for this one?) takes matters into his own hands and vows revenge on the photographers that are destroying his family. In the end, Bo’s intelligence, passion, and action-star body prevail over everything, apparently even the law.

This review cannot go any further without some much needed medical advice. If you are epileptic, please for your own personal safety, refrain from seeing Paparazzi. I promise you, you won’t be missing out on much. I say this because roughly ever twenty minutes or so you will experience what I affectionately refer to as “ a flash sequence,” during which you as a viewer, will become the actor, with literally hundreds of photographs being taken directly at the camera at once. I guess they wanted to evoke sympathy for actors who have to constantly deal with having their picture taken. You know, make us feel their pain and how irritating it is to be photographed incessantly and blinded every time you open your eyes. Yea, it was irritating. Except where are my millions of dollars for putting up with it? All it did was make me develop a hatred for whoever’s idea this was, and by the movies end, a slight twitch in my left eye.

I think what is so aggravating about this movie was not that it was SO bad, but that it should have been amazing. For at least the past decade, the American public has seen countless star vs. paparazzi blowups, fistfights, and lawsuits. We can’t pick up an issue of “Star” magazine without feeling some form of disgust towards this form of media. Paparazzi photographers are pretty awful. They violate almost every form of privacy a person has, print lies, stalk, provoke fights…the list is endless. What better way to drive the point home than to create a movie about how awful they are, right? ...