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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview with Paul Clinton
Aired May 24, 2003 - 09:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BRUCE ALMIGHTY")
JIM CARREY, ACTOR: Sam.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: A toilet-trained dog, every pet owner's dream. But this isn't your ordinary mutt. It is Sam, one of the stars of the new movie "Bruce Almighty." The comedy kicks off the summer movie season, along with Michael Douglas's new movie, "The Inlaws."
For feedback on the films, let's check in with CNN's film correspondent, Paul Clinton.
Paul, it's a very delicate question. Did the dog actually use the toilet?
PAUL CLINTON, CNN FILM CORRESPONDENT: No, the dog doesn't actually use the toilet. There's a whole thing with tubes and water. They taught the dog in stages. First of all, learning how to lift the lid, then getting up on the toilet, and then learning how to flush. It was a long process, but the dog is quite fun.
The movie is really good. I like this film. It's Jim Carrey returns to his roots, broad comedy, with a little social message mixed in. And -- oh, there's Buster, right there. His name is Buster in reality. He's a year and a half old, and -- but he did the movie when he was eight months old.
Now, Jim plays a reporter at a local news station who does all kinds of pop culture, and he does, you know, the soft kind of news. He doesn't do the hard news, and he's very jealous of the anchor, and he feels like his career is at a dead end, because he feels like he's always doing these puff pieces. Sort of like, you know, my life here at CNN.
And -- but he finally, you know, rails against God time and time again, and Morgan Freeman, in a divine piece of casting, plays God. And says, OK, fine, you think you can do a better job, go do it.
And one of the first things he does is try to not just housetrain his dog, but potty-train his dog, and he (UNINTELLIGIBLE) also, you know, does all kinds of things that are very selfishly motivated. And then eventually, you know, learns all these lessons in life and caring for others and so on and so forth. It's a very sweet movie, and it's Jim returning to his strengths, broad comedy with a little social message mixed in. Jennifer Aniston is very good in this. I think this will be a big hit, and Carrey's fans will be glad to see him back.
KOPPEL: Well, I have to ask you about the dog, because then we perhaps were misleading all our viewers out there who were so excited at the prospect of potty-training their dog. But, now, would you say that -- you said that Jim Carrey's returning to his roots, which is sort of a mix of comedy, but he's also quite serious. Does it work?
CLINTON: It does work. I mean, "Liar, Liar," the same director, Tom (UNINTELLIGIBLE) did "Liar, Liar" and also did the first pet -- "Ace Ventura, Pet Detective." And Jim does well when he mixes in a little message, as with "Liar, Liar," don't lie to your kids, with the broad comedy.
He can go back and forth. But he's an extremely talented guy. He gets lost a little bit with "The Majestic," people didn't quite buy that, they didn't want to see it. "The Truman Show" didn't do that well.
But this is really a return to the "Liar, Liar"-type film, and I think it's going to do quite well, unlike, maybe, "The Inlaws"...
KOPPEL: Ahh.
CLINTON: ... which is the other movie this weekend. Ooh.
KOPPEL: I was just going to segue over to the remake. So you don't think it is as good as the original.
CLINTON: Oh, no, not at all. This is a perfect case of leave well enough alone. The original, with Alan Arkin and Peter Falk, was quite amusing, and they played it straight. They didn't play for it the broad comedy. And because they played it straight, it really worked. It was funny. And in this one, you can hear the, you know, barum-ba-bum, rim shot, after every joke.
Douglas, I don't want to say he phoned the role in, but you can hear a faint dial tone in the background. Now Albert Brooks is a very talented guy, but in this film, I mean, he really needs to be in the correct film. Like "Defending Your Life" was one of his films that I really liked a lot. But he's very, very sticky, he's very shrill. There's no, you know -- it's all out just, you know, off the wall.
And it really doesn't work. It's rather annoying, actually.
KOPPEL: OK, so we get, what, two thumbs down for "The Inlaws" and two thumbs up for "Bruce Almighty."
CLINTON: Yes, if you want to turn me into Roger Ebert, that's what it is. It's two thumbs up and two thumbs down.
KOPPEL: They always do one, you know, up, down, who knows?
All right, Paul Clinton, thanks so much. Giving us some more things to do for our holiday weekend.
CLINTON: Check it out.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 24, 2003 - 09:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BRUCE ALMIGHTY")
JIM CARREY, ACTOR: Sam.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: A toilet-trained dog, every pet owner's dream. But this isn't your ordinary mutt. It is Sam, one of the stars of the new movie "Bruce Almighty." The comedy kicks off the summer movie season, along with Michael Douglas's new movie, "The Inlaws."
For feedback on the films, let's check in with CNN's film correspondent, Paul Clinton.
Paul, it's a very delicate question. Did the dog actually use the toilet?
PAUL CLINTON, CNN FILM CORRESPONDENT: No, the dog doesn't actually use the toilet. There's a whole thing with tubes and water. They taught the dog in stages. First of all, learning how to lift the lid, then getting up on the toilet, and then learning how to flush. It was a long process, but the dog is quite fun.
The movie is really good. I like this film. It's Jim Carrey returns to his roots, broad comedy, with a little social message mixed in. And -- oh, there's Buster, right there. His name is Buster in reality. He's a year and a half old, and -- but he did the movie when he was eight months old.
Now, Jim plays a reporter at a local news station who does all kinds of pop culture, and he does, you know, the soft kind of news. He doesn't do the hard news, and he's very jealous of the anchor, and he feels like his career is at a dead end, because he feels like he's always doing these puff pieces. Sort of like, you know, my life here at CNN.
And -- but he finally, you know, rails against God time and time again, and Morgan Freeman, in a divine piece of casting, plays God. And says, OK, fine, you think you can do a better job, go do it.
And one of the first things he does is try to not just housetrain his dog, but potty-train his dog, and he (UNINTELLIGIBLE) also, you know, does all kinds of things that are very selfishly motivated. And then eventually, you know, learns all these lessons in life and caring for others and so on and so forth. It's a very sweet movie, and it's Jim returning to his strengths, broad comedy with a little social message mixed in. Jennifer Aniston is very good in this. I think this will be a big hit, and Carrey's fans will be glad to see him back.
KOPPEL: Well, I have to ask you about the dog, because then we perhaps were misleading all our viewers out there who were so excited at the prospect of potty-training their dog. But, now, would you say that -- you said that Jim Carrey's returning to his roots, which is sort of a mix of comedy, but he's also quite serious. Does it work?
CLINTON: It does work. I mean, "Liar, Liar," the same director, Tom (UNINTELLIGIBLE) did "Liar, Liar" and also did the first pet -- "Ace Ventura, Pet Detective." And Jim does well when he mixes in a little message, as with "Liar, Liar," don't lie to your kids, with the broad comedy.
He can go back and forth. But he's an extremely talented guy. He gets lost a little bit with "The Majestic," people didn't quite buy that, they didn't want to see it. "The Truman Show" didn't do that well.
But this is really a return to the "Liar, Liar"-type film, and I think it's going to do quite well, unlike, maybe, "The Inlaws"...
KOPPEL: Ahh.
CLINTON: ... which is the other movie this weekend. Ooh.
KOPPEL: I was just going to segue over to the remake. So you don't think it is as good as the original.
CLINTON: Oh, no, not at all. This is a perfect case of leave well enough alone. The original, with Alan Arkin and Peter Falk, was quite amusing, and they played it straight. They didn't play for it the broad comedy. And because they played it straight, it really worked. It was funny. And in this one, you can hear the, you know, barum-ba-bum, rim shot, after every joke.
Douglas, I don't want to say he phoned the role in, but you can hear a faint dial tone in the background. Now Albert Brooks is a very talented guy, but in this film, I mean, he really needs to be in the correct film. Like "Defending Your Life" was one of his films that I really liked a lot. But he's very, very sticky, he's very shrill. There's no, you know -- it's all out just, you know, off the wall.
And it really doesn't work. It's rather annoying, actually.
KOPPEL: OK, so we get, what, two thumbs down for "The Inlaws" and two thumbs up for "Bruce Almighty."
CLINTON: Yes, if you want to turn me into Roger Ebert, that's what it is. It's two thumbs up and two thumbs down.
KOPPEL: They always do one, you know, up, down, who knows?
All right, Paul Clinton, thanks so much. Giving us some more things to do for our holiday weekend.
CLINTON: Check it out.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
