Most of us live rather mundane lives under the radar of even our neighbors and dream of ‘fame, fortune and everything that goes with it…’ Even I have my moments where I think it would be cool to be a professional actor. The problem is that living in the limelight has its drawbacks, most notably living in the limelight itself. Thanks to the voyeuristic nature of people around the world, having a personal life is all but impossible to most working actors. Everywhere they go, fans are generally rude enough to interrupt a simple dinner or day on the beach. And while it is somewhat true that most celebrities owe it to their fans to give out the occasional autograph or handshake, there is no reason why these same fans shouldn’t have the decency to wait until the proper moment. Yet as intrusive as it can be mobbed by fans, there is another, even more insidious parasite constantly at work. These people are known as ‘paparazzi.’ And while not all paparazzi are bad, as a whole they tend to be amongst the rudest and most annoying people on the planet.

As a rule, these leeches aren’t even fans of their celebrity of choice. They’re in it for the money. Their sole purpose is to track celebrities wherever they go and snap photo after photo in the hopes they can sell them to the highest bidder. It’s even better for them when they can catch a photo that sparks a controversy. While there are those who consider it nothing more than a job, I think they are lower than low.

I’m actually surprised that these bloodsuckers haven’t been the subject of more films, especially considering the fact that they have become even more brazen, and in some case have had their methods come into question surrounding the deaths of certain celebrities. When I head about Fox’s “Paparazzi”, I had high hopes that it would shine a little bit of the light back on these bottom-feeders.

The story of “Paparazzi” is an intriguing one, as we are introduced to action star Bo Laramie (Cole Hauser), whose life is turned upside down following the release of a career making movie. He and his family are stalked by a group of paparazzi, intent on getting that perfect shot. During an outing at a public park, Laramie asks a photographer to stop taking pictures of his son and is met with rude remarks. They get bad enough that Laramie (rightfully) hits the photographer, only to find that he has been ambushed by a larger group ready to catch pictures of the altercation. Laramie is forced to pat damages and attend ‘anger management’ classes.

Of course, these paparazzi aren’t quite finished with Laramie and continue to stalk him, and eventually cause a car crash that injure his wife and puts his son into a coma. When the police end up being no help in stopping these jerks, Laramie decides to take matters into his own hands.

Unfortunately, “Paparazzi” was in and out of theatres so fast that I never got the chance to see it on the big screen. Now that I’ve had the opportunity to catch it on DVD, I’m kind of glad I didn’t. While I enjoyed “Paparazzi” immensely for what it was, and cheered the good guy getting the bad guys, it let a lot to be desired. The film did a great job of setting up the group of paparazzi to be hated by the audience, but ultimately they, like the film itself became a bit of a caricature.

I would have liked to have seen the film become a more straight forward drama, but as the situation between the paparazzi and Laramie escalated, the believability factor dwindled. It went way over the top in terms of plot and in some cases, acting. Again, this isn’t to say “Paparazzi” is at all a bad film, it just could have been a much better film. There was so much potential, but in the end it became a lot more like the fictional films that Laramie starred in.

The new DVD release, offers up a director’s commentary by Paul Abascal, which was very informative, as well as deleted scenes and two featurettes focusing on the film’s stunts and briefly on the making of. The disc is double-sided, offering viewers both a widescreen and full screen format (though why anyone would want to see it in full screen is beyond me).

Not to give you the wrong idea, I did like “Paparazzi”, but only by occasionally planting my tongue firmly in cheek. The exaggerated plotting made for an enjoyable ride, just not a very believable one.

Directed by: Paul Abascal
Starring: Cole Hauser, Robin Tunney, Dennis Farina, Daniel Baldwin, Tome Sizemore
Extras: Director’s Commentary, Deleted Scenes with Commentary, “The Stunts of Paparazzi”, Making of Featurette
Specifications: Widescreen (2.35:1), Full Screen (1.33:1), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Fox
Release Date: 1/11/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (For Intense Violent Sequences, Sexual Content and Language
Website

We'll give Paparazzi a C.