The Paper
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Movie Reviews of The Paper
Movie Review: Great Movie Amazon description wrong!
Summary: 4 Stars
My daughter just purchased this for me from amazon. I love this movie. However in description above under product details it says full screen and wide screen yet format is 1.33/1 which is full screen! I had already unwrapped so too late to send back and that description got her because she knows I only like my movies in wide screen. Someone at Amazon should fix this error.Movie Review: All too familiar
Summary: 4 Stars
A concise note to those perhaps not familiar with the journalism business: This movie is a wonderful depiction of what goes on before deadline. And I've worked with characters just like those portrayed in the film, and although not every day is that exciting, some certainly are. It's a fun ride.Movie Review: The Paper review
Summary: 4 Stars
All of the actors gave a great performance; there was comedy in several spots, and we've watched the film several times. if you can't see it on HBO, buy the disk.Movie Review: Sum less than the (good) parts
Summary: 3 Stars
Odd film, this. The cast is first-rate and the individual performances good, at times excellent (Close, Duvall, Tomei); the main theme of the story is interesting, as are the sub-plots; Ron Howard's direction is of the high quality audiences would expect; and the settings are authentically New York, appropriate for a "newspaper" flick. So, why doesn't it all work any better than it does?One reason is that the individual scenes have greater dramatic impact than the complete film does. At times, the scenes appear to have been taken from different films and pasted together into this one.
Robert Duvall's attempts to reestablish contact with his estranged daughter - an angry woman if ever there was one - are both touching and unsettling. The restaurant scene with Michael Keaton and Marisa Tomei presents a detailed, albeit quick, portrait of their complex relationship, although Keaton's out-of-body experience seemed out-of-keeping with the overall tone of the film. The newspaper editorial staff meeting provides opportunity for several of the supporting characters to distinguish themselves. Tomei's solo screen time is excellent and the Keaton/Close knock-down, drag-out fight on the catwalk by the presses is genuinely frightening.
But, the drama in these scenes does not carry over to the film as a whole. Since each of these story elements receives almost equal attention, the main thread of the story - whether or not the paper will effect the fate of the accused man - does not take center stage. With the film's focus shifted to the struggles among the people who think they hold the accused's fate in their hands, the audience does not have an opportunity to empathize with the accused himself.
In the theatre, this lack of empathy can make the whole venture fall flat. Fortunately, with the DVD format, one can re-watch his favorite scenes without investing time repeating the entire film. In this film, the individual performances are sufficiently powerful to warrant that approach.
Movie Review: Good movie, Bad DVD...
Summary: 3 Stars
Ron Howard isn't the most dynamic of directors -- his style is pretty vanilla and he hasn't picked the greatest projects in the world (i.e. Ransom) but he was right on the money with The Paper. While he tends to cram a little too much into one day -- nobody has that exciting a day -- you have to give him a bit of artistic license -- it is a movie after all.Michael Keaton is well-cast as the big city paper editor with too much on his plate. He can do the manic side of his character (see, well, any movie he's ever done) and he's also up for the serious stuff too. Obviously, he must enjoy playing a journalist as he did a great job as one in Live From Baghdad as well.
The cast is what makes this film work so well. Aside from Keaton, the other real stand-out is Randy Quaid as a fellow reporter and friend. For years now, Quaid as been typecast in dumb guy roles. It so refreshing to see him actually play an intelligent, street savvy reporter in this film. He gets all the great lines and steals all the scenes he's in. The film really kicks into gear when he and Keaton team-up to blow the lid off of a high profile story. I'd love to see these guys do another film together.
While the film does get a tad on the preachy, idealistic side, it still is a very entertaining look at working on a major newspaper in New York City. It's a shame that the DVD is such a letdown. No extras and pan and scanned. Ugh. However, Opie seems to be revisiting his films on DVD with new special editions (i.e. Splash, Ransom). Hopefully, this one will get the deluxe treatment.