Third Time’s A Charm? Don’t Count On It
In Hollywood, as in real life, it seems as if people are raised up only to be struck down.
This is especially true for performers. Julia Roberts, who just a couple of years ago was being hailed for her unpretentious appeal, is now struggling to find her place in a market dominated by the likes of Sandra Bullock, Gwynneth Paltrow and even Alicia Silverstone.
But the same holds true for directors, too.
For example, “Higher Learning,” which is now on the video rental shelves, is John Singleton’s third film. His first was the powerful “Boyz N the Hood,” an inner-city saga that introduced us to such acting talents as Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ice Cube.
Second up was the heartfelt-if-flawed “Poetic Justice.” Not so much a film as it was an attempt to mix the blindness of rage with the tenderness of young love, it, too, featured new faces, Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur. And if “Poetic Justice” wasn’t an advance in Singleton’s career, neither was it too much of a setback. Sophomore slumps occur to most everyone.
But now, speaking of the sophomoric, we have this look at what Singleton sees as the simmering pot of violence called modern campus life. And if Singleton earned the right to be raised up as a young director with promise, he now deserves to be knocked down - if only a bit - for what at this point is a career clearly going in the wrong direction.
“Higher Learning” reeks of stereotypes, from the freshman white kid from Idaho who is the son of a survivalist and himself a closet neo-Nazi to the belligerent black senior (played by Ice Cube) who talks the talk of revolution but has taken six years (shades of “Animal House”) to walk the walk of graduation.
But there are others, too, from the cute blonde from Orange County who learns the hard way about rape to the arrogant track star on partial scholarship who learns … well, it’s really not clear what he learns, if anything.
Aside from limited characterizations, Singleton fails to develop any real ideas other than the quaint notion that a melting-pot climate offers no solution in and of itself to bigotry, fear and hatred. In the end, he falls prey to his own emotions, letting anger lead him to a simpleminded study of how polarization leads to conflict.
Singleton might have had something truly important to say if he’d attempted to explore the complex and more realistic question of how individuals achieve self-sufficiency in the face of near-overwhelming obstacles. * Rated R.
BYE BYE LOVE
**
There’s a load of material here about dads and divorce that the filmmakers gloss over, caricature or just plain ignore. Matthew Modine, Paul Reiser and Randy Quaid star as three single fathers trying to cope with divorced life, and each represents a different type: Modine is the habitual womanizer, Quaid the boor and Reiser the nice guy still in love with his ex-wife. The problem is that legitimate issues are brought up - repressed anger, visitation rights, dating, etc. - only to be dropped in favor of the next music video. Rated PG-13.
JUST CAUSE
**
Most of this courtroom mystery involving Sean Connery as a Harvard lawyer is fairly suspenseful. It features Connery traveling to Florida to investigate the case of a condemned murderer (Blair Underwood). Once there, he discovers a mystery behind the crime involving a tough cop (Laurence Fishburne) and a psycho serial killer (Ed Harris). In the end, however, the story turns into an implausible tale of revenge with plot holes big enough to drive a Ford Bronco through. Rated R.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEW TO VIEW Available this weekend: “The Swan Princess” (Disney), “Bye Bye Love” (Fox), “Just Cause” (Warner), “Higher Learning” (Columbia TriStar). Available on Tuesday: “Man of the House” (Disney), “Nobody’s Fool” (Paramount), “Billy Madison” (MCA/Universal), “Outbreak” (Warner).