Paparazzi

Paparazzi stars Cole Hauser as Bo Larami who is affected by a gang of slimy paparazzi's. Realistically, it is a revenge film from Mel Gibson against the paparazzi who have annoyed many celebrities and politicians.

Larami is a small town guy from Montana who is thrust into stardom with his first action movie, "Adrenaline Force" (what a lame title). At first, he digs the attention, but then the flashing bulbs blind him and he becomes distraught.

He eventually punches a PAP for taking pictures of his son at a soccer game and is forced to attend anger management. He thinks it's over, but when the paparazzi surround his family and cause an horrific accident that leaves his son in a coma, Larami loses it.

Through a series of events, Laramie begins picking off the four PAP's who caused the wreck. One by one they all go down.

The movie rises a severe moral question as Laramie kills these guys for injuring his family. "You don't mess with a man's family." He refuses to turn in his small town values for the values of the new Hollywood culture. He is fed up with these guys trying to ruin his life, so he takes matters into his own hands.

At best, this is one of those bad 80's revenge B-movies that Mel Gibson made a living with. He should have played the part. Though he does have a cameo as an anger management patient outside the doctor's office. Probably the truth.

This movie does a really lame job at projecting family love and unity as well as the small town homeyness of the grocery store. This director is a hack and I will not bother posting his name. This is his only motion picture. The rest of his work is dedicated solely to TV shows.

This movie surely ruined any career he may have had (though I doubt he would have had one anyway). His direction of the acting is so poor. Cole Hauser is a joke. This was supposed to be his break out role to establish him among the elite. So much for that. This probably ruined his future as well.

Gibson got a bad rapt for this and he was hated for months for it, but he always comes back.

Tom Sizemore plays Rex Harper, the lowest, foulest paparazzi of the whole bunch. Sizemore is as slimy and greasy as ever. Daniel Baldwin is his buddy who is just as dirty. The movie projects the paparazzi as the lowest of the low. The dirt on the bottom of the shoe. The scum of society. They cause a wreck and then they take pictures of the mangled bodies in the car. All the while, the other driver died.

One could consider this movie a good look at the invasion of privacy and how it affects people's lives. Do they deserve the right to take pictures of your life? Question, question. Of course, this movie is biased against them, but are they right?

One thing I could not figure out was the random cameos. Gibson was understandable, but Vince Vaughn? Chris Rock? Matthew McConaughey? What is this? Just for kicks?

A short running time (1:21) is about the best part of this movie aside from the ridiculous revenge murders (that he gets away with). If you like those kind of movies, you may get a kick out of this, but the poor direction will make you run for higher ground.

4 of 10