MY GIANT is two movies for the price of one, but neither is worth
the cost of admission, even if you get in free. As lamely directed by
Michael Lehmann, the picture tries to be a comedy by using and reusing
every giant joke in the book. ("Without Goliath, David is just some
punk throwing rocks.") Languidly paced throughout, the movie becomes
increasingly lugubrious as the screenplay by David Seltzer (THE OMEN)
meanders toward its sad ending. Since it's rarely funny or
convincingly dramatic, what the filmmakers thought they were doing
remains a mystery. Other than a few nice visuals, there's nothing to
recommend the picture.
With great film comedies under his belt from WHEN HARRY MET SALLY…
to the original CITY SLICKERS, Billy Crystal has shown that he's more
than the world's best Oscar host. He does, however, have a propensity
for choosing hopeless material as in last year's FATHER'S DAY and this
year's MY GIANT. One wonders if he reads the script before agreeing to
go ahead with a project. Surely reading the one for MY GIANT would
have shown that there was nothing there. Perhaps he thought he could
ad lib it into success. Or maybe he wants to be a dramatic actor and
thought he could do something serious with the movie's somber tone.
The most charitable thing that could be said about it is that it is so
ineffectual that people will probably forget they saw it by the next
day.
This one-joke movie's single idea is to place real-life basketball
player Gheorghe Muresan, who stands seven and a half feet tall, into as
many visually striking situations as possible. Sammy (Crystal), an
agent currently without clients, is rescued after a car accident by a
sweet Romanian giant named Max (Muresan). After throwing out constant
one-liners ("Either God is in the salvage business or Big Foot just
took my car."), Sammy decides to get serious, seeing Max as his meal
ticket. And although he doesn't like it, he's willing to sign Max up
to do disgusting events like a wrestling match with a half-dozen
dwarfs. (The movie itself knows no bounds as it contains one of the
most putrid and lengthy vomiting scenes ever.)
After a series of missed opportunities, the comedic part of the
movie is over, and it turns into a cheap and maudlin disease movie. We
learn that Max's condition is terminal, and he will soon die.
To be fair, the movie does contain a few good scenes - all of
which you can see in the trailers. Let's hope Billy gets himself a
pair of reading glasses before he signs up for another movie.
MY GIANT runs too long even at just 1:37. It is rated PG for
violence and profanity and would be acceptable for kids around ten and
up.
My son Jeffrey and his friend Matthew, both 9, gave the movie a
single star and had nothing good to say about it. Matthew pointed out
that it "is not as good as it could have been or should have been."
(Amen.) He went on to comment that he did not like the way the movie
changed completely in the middle. Jeffrey complained particularly
about how gross the movie was.
Copyright © 1998 Steve Rhodes
out of 4
