Cote d'Azur (***)

This is a frivolous French sex comedy about a family whose summer holiday reveals some sexual secrets. The family's staying at a seaside villa for the summer. The daughter’s gone off with her boyfriend, while the teenage son’s having his best friend over. Mom and Dad speculate about exactly what kind of friend this boy is, and what, if anything to say. Meanwhile they've got lusty secrets of their own. Comical twists follow. There’s even, apropos of nothing, a couple of kooky musical numbers featuring most of the cast. Worth watching to see a light approach to sexuality (and nudity) that's pretty rare in American cinema.

IMDB link

viewed 7/15/05 at Prince Music Theater [PGLFF] and reviewed 12/05/05

The Fog (**1/4)

This is a mostly bloodless (literally and figuratively) remake of John Carpenter’s 1980 film. It retains the same plot of ghosts haunting an island town a hundred years after its founding. The main characters are handsome twentysomethings played by Tom Welling (Smallville’s Clark Kent) and Maggie Grace (Shannon on Lost), although Selma Blair, playing a hip radio deejay, is probably the best known actor. (I liked her character best too, though the boring soundtrack undermines her claim of being a gal of taste.) There are two problems with the movie. First, the whole fog thing? Not that scary. Sure it’d be scary if you knew it was hiding some dead geezer trying to kill you, but, in and of itself, fog’s not that frightening. At least not here. The repeated sound effect, really loud knocking, only helps somewhat.

The other thing is that what the ghosts do doesn’t make much sense. They sometimes kill people with tools, sometimes magically convert them to dust. Considering how long ago they all got wiped out, they’re pretty good at messing with computer monitors as well. Who they kill doesn’t make much sense either, except that they carefully limit themselves to the supporting cast. The barest suspense is provided by waiting to learn exactly what happened. One character meets a surprising fate. My favorite part of the movie was when someone happily reunites with a family member but never asks about the other family member who was with the person. Someone must have shown her the script.

IMDb link

circulated via email 10/20/05 and posted 11/16/13