Robin Chirps Seriously

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Robin Williams and Toni Collette in "The Night Listener"
courtesy of Disney Home Entertainment

"Robin Chirps Seriously"

Many people forget that Robin Williams won an Oscar for his performance in the film "Good Will Hunting." He does have the talent to play a serious role and make it believable, but in his latest film on DVD he never sells the performance. In "The Night Listener" Robin Williams does play a deeply dramatic character. Every so often Williams will take on a role that challenges his dramatic skills, and presents him in a manner opposite his better known persona as a comic. Sometimes he is successful in doing this but at other times he fails. His role in "The Night Listener" goes into the failed category.

Williams plays Gabriel Noone, a man who reads stories he has composed over the radio airwaves. One of his fans is a fourteen-year-old boy named Pete (Rory Culkin). Pete lives in the Midwest with his foster mother Donna (Toni Collette). He has had a difficult life as he was sexually abused as a child. Now he is in frail health and goes in and out of hospitals.

Pete and Noone strike up a friendship. Noone's ex-lover Jess (Bobby Cannavale) is suspicious of Pete and says that he and Donna sound too much alike on the phone. He thinks the whole thing is a hoax. Gabriel is at first angered by Jess' suppositions but eventually begins to question the whole situation. He decides he will fly to the Midwest and try to track down Donna and Pete.

The movie is a contest between Gabrielle and Donna to find out what is the truth about Pete and how the relationship between him and Gabriel is intended. It is a complex, complicated story and somehow Williams just doesn't rise to the level of sincerity the role requires. Plus Collette is stuck in another nutty, desperate woman role.

"The Night Listener" is interesting to watch but it never fulfills its dramatic promise. The talent is there but the execution isn't.

Still "The Night Listener" is head and shoulders above "Employee of the Month." This Dane Cook/Jessica Simpson vehicle is lame, lame, lame. This so-called comedy is a boring endurance test of how long Jessica Simpson can hold one single expression. Her face is frozen the entire length of the film and I don't think she can blame it on Botox.

Simpson plays a cashier named Amy at the Super Club store. Also working there are another checker named Vince (Dax Shepard) and a boxboy named Zack (Dane Cook). Both are bowled over by Amy's good looks and frozen goofy smile. Rumor has it that Amy is only interested in "Employee of the Month" winners. Vince has held this title for many months but Amy's smile inspires Zack to get into the competition.

There you have the plot of this movie - a boxboy and a checker duke it out for the title of "Employee of the Month" to win the favor of a girl named Amy. If that doesn't sound like an episode of a sitcom nothing does. I used to be a big Jessica Simpson fan. Her "Newlyweds Show" showed her in an endearing light. But DVD's like this one are going to lead her to a short walk off the career pier.

Sisters Kay and Danielle Panabaker star in the Disney movie, now on DVD, titled "Read It and Weep Zapped Edition." "Read It and Weep" was one of the more popular movies seen on the Disney Channel, and now on DVD in "The Zapped Edition" it adds interviews and musical videos to the mix to give you even more to enjoy.

The film concerns a teen writer (Kay Panabaker) whose class assignment of a journal gets turned into a best selling book. Danielle Panabaker plays the teen girls' alter ego in the story. It is all played for laughs and fun and viewers will have a solid good time watching it.

Also out on DVD from Disney is "That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana: Mixed Up, Mashed Up Edition." As you can tell from the title this DVD features a cross-over of stars from "That's So Raven," "Zack and Cody's Suite Life" and "Hannah Montana."

In this new and wonderful DVD, Raven Baxter the star of "That's So Raven" visits the hotel where Zack and Cody live, and also Hannah Montana is shopping for a new outfit designed by Raven. There are new music videos plus a never before seen episode of "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody."

Believe me your kids will go wild when they get a chance to see all of these stars joining each other in "That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana - Mixed Up Mashed Up Edition." Get it!

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