My Giant . Newcity Chicago . 04-20-98

My Giant

DIRECTED BY: Michael Lehmann

REVIEWED: 04-20-98

Your midget. I like seeing Billy Crystal on the Oscars; it keeps him off of film sets for a couple of days. I don't think anyone could have made much of this distasteful bit of sentimentality, but as director Michael Lehmann marshals the complications with alacrity, punching the clock manfully for the first forty-five minutes or so, it seems we'll actually be spared the worst excesses of the man behind Face Productions. Naaaah. Crystal's Sammy Kanin, a two-bit schmuck of a Hollywood agent, finds himself stuck in Romania, meets a poetry-loving, gentle-as-baby-powder giant named Maximus (Gheorghe Muresan), who he shepherds to America only to reduce him to cuddly friend, life lesson and symbol of life's injustices. This is all done in the process of Sammy humiliating Maximus in a no-rent wrestling gig, insulted by Stephen Seagal, refused an audience by a woman he once loved who now thinks he's an evil monster, and given Sammy's wife to.... Well, it's relentless. I miss Michael Lehmann's earlier work. "Heathers" was many years ago and I would rather see a movie of that ilk than this yuckkkkkkkkk. I'd rather see "Hudson Hawk." Among those paying more good money than audiences to have their names dropped in "My Giant": Caesar's Palace, Sprint, Hilton Hotels, Greyhound, Miller Genuine Draft, Lite beer, Chaps, British Airways, the All-Star Cafe, MG, Hertz and Nissan. Vote with your dollars, folks. 103m.

--Ray Pride

Full Length Reviews
My Giant

Capsule Reviews
My Giant

Other Films by Michael Lehmann
The Truth About Cats & Dogs

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