JUNIOR is the story of a scientist (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who, as
Jenner did with his small pox vaccine, decides to be a human guinea pig
for his own medicine. His medicine is for controlling pregnancy hence
he must have an egg planted in himself and actually get pregnant to
prove his drug works. And thereby make himself millions from the
biotech industry.
His partner is an OB/GYN played by Danny DeVito. The fellow
scientist working on frozen human eggs is played by Emma Thompson.
As a person who had a recurring dream when he was in his 20s that
he was pregnant, and as one who loved the director's (Ivan Reitman)
last movie (DAVE), I was really looking forward to JUNIOR. The set up
of the plot is fascinating. It is cast with great people, and it had
terrific trailers.
This is a single joke movie. We have an increasing larger and
very realistically pregnant Schwarzenegger as a caricature of a
pregnant woman. He gets to utter every cliche possible. People tell
him he looks "radiant". He complains to DeVito that he doesn't take
him out of the house enough. He stuffs himself silly on ice cream,
pickles, Chinese food, and the entire contents of the refrigerator. It
works okay for the first 5 minutes and then you start checking your
watch. I don't blame Arnold - an actor I absolutely love. It is the
scriptwriter's and the director's fault, not Arnold's.
DeVito plays DeVito. In general he is hot and cold as an actor.
In JUNIOR he is not believable or funny as an obstetrician.
The sad part is that Emma Thompson, whom I think is brilliant, is
totally wasted in this movie. It is frequently embarrassing watching
her. She has no dialog worth remembering. They have her doing one
sight gag after another. Typical ones are where she falls asleep on
her cheese sandwich and wakes up and talks to people not realizing she
has a large piece of cheese stuck to her cheek. In another she dances
with her paper napkin stuck to her high heel shoe until while trying to
shake it off she throws the shoe onto some one's table. Gosh, I sure
had some belly laughs over that original material.
On the good side, you get to see a lot of scenes of Berkeley's
Life Sciences building plus beautiful images of living in the best
parts of San Francisco.
I give the show a single * and do not recommend it. It is
correctly rated PG-13 for adult themes. It runs a very long 1:50.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film.
*** = Excellent show. Look for it.
** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable.
* = Poor show. Don't waste your money.
0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
out of 4
