Enjoyment Of Movies A Matter Of Personal Tastes, Preferences

Aesthetic taste is a curious concept.

One person looks at, say, “Patch Adams” and sees a funny, inspiring film starring the multi-faceted Robin Williams. Someone else looks at the same film and sees a manipulative, perversely phony exercise in marketing starring an Oscar-winning actor on the slum.

You know what I mean.

Much of what we call movie criticism is simply personal opinion expressed in what the critic - whether Pauline Kael or the loudmouth at the end of the lunch counter - thinks, perhaps with self-delusion, is intelligent discourse. It is personal in that it is based largely on whatever pleases each of us.

For example, I listened recently to someone tell me what he looks for in film. He said that he works hard, has the normal doubts that plague us all, and what he wants from a movie is escapist entertainment - an explosion, a car chase.

Or, presumably, an Oscar-winning actor on the slum.

I couldn’t agree more. I have smirked at effete film-festival types as they, in turn, smirk at the latest Spielberg dinosaur flick. If you can’t enjoy a little bit of digitalized fantasy once in a while, really, can you really call yourself a lover of film?

Yet what I wanted to say to this guy but could not (his ride came at an inappropriate moment) is that as much as I like the “Jurassic Park” clones of the world, I also like films that demand more of an emotional/intellectual commitment.

Films, in other words, that look at people who live average lives, work hard and suffer from all the normal doubts that… well, you know. As much as I like blockbusters, I also like small, intimate studies of human interaction.

The difference involves my mood of the moment and how well that mood blends with the film’s ability to transmit its intention.

As I say, underneath everything we’re talking about individual taste. Let me illustrate my point by seguing to a film that is out on video this week. “Rush Hour” pairs Chinese star Jackie Chan with Chris Tucker (“The Fifth Element,” etc.). The film (see capsule review below) is hardly worth considering for several reasons, but here is one: Tucker is a poor man’s Eddie Murphy.

If you are entertained by Tucker’s posing, high-pitched squeals and physical contortions, then go to your nearest video store and check out the following: “48 Hrs.” “Trading Places” and “Beverly Hills Cop” (the original only). Those movies feature Tucker’s main inspiration, a model of comedy genius who once boasted a level of success that Tucker is unlikely to ever attain.

Or so says my aesthetic judgment.

The week’s major openings on video:

Marie Baie des Anges

**

Written and directed by Manuel Pradal, the French-language “Marie Baie des Anges” tells the story of two young misfits - the Marie of the film’s title (Vahina Giocante) and Orso (Frederick Malgras), a street kid whose tough exterior is a mask that covers up, but not very effectively, his need for love. Set in the side streets of a sun-dappled French Riviera town, which is built on a legend about sharks that have turned into rocks, Pradal give us a series of stunning visuals. But he doesn’t give us enough of a backdrop to cause us to care much about his protagonists. What’s worse, he blends in - although probably unintentionally - some sailor scenes that are as hilarious as anything Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly offered in “On the Town.”

Ultimately, “Marie Baie des Anges” is a kind of “Kids” by way of “South Pacific.” Bali H’ai, yo. (In French with English subtitles.) Rated R

Rush Hour

*

Doing a lame Eddie Murphy impersonation, Chris Tucker stars as a - what else? - maverick Los Angeles cop who finds himself paired with a Hong Kong policeman (the great Jackie Chan) in search of the kidnapped daughter of a Chinese diplomat. The conceit is that Tucker’s character thinks he’s being given a promotion, when he’s actually being sidetracked to keep him out of everyone’s way. Tucker’s means of finding his character is to affect a bug-eyed, whiney-voiced caricature of the very worst racial stereotyping (he makes Martin Lawrence look like Sidney Poitier). And Chan’s usual action schtick seems half-hearted and all-too-familiar (especially the post-film outtakes). “Rush Hour” would be a questionable video rental, even as a 49-cent special. Rated PG-13

Whatever

*

“Whatever,” a dark fable about teen angst in New Jersey, opens with a graphically portrayed date rape and goes down from there. The film, written and directed by Susan Skoog, purports to tell it like it is, which is a good thing - for a documentary, anyway. For fiction, it’s usually good to provide someone - anyone - with whom it is worth identifying. The two friends here, the artistic-oriented Anna (Liza Weil) and the trouble-attracting Brenda (Chad Morgan), are so self-absorbed that it’s hard to sympathize with their respective situations. This is especially the case with Anna, who has only to grab the opportunities that are presented to her. For a better realized, more entertaining look at the same subject, see “Welcome to the Dollhouse.” Rated R