Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 4, 1993 TAG: 9309240364
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mike Mayo Correcpondent
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
It's 1962. Three Nevada teen-agers, Roy (Jason Priestley), Dood (Jerry O'Connell) and our narrator Ned (Gabriel Olds), dream of Marilyn Monroe. From their first prepubescent glimpse of her famous calendar, they've been hooked on the actress.
On the eve of his Army enlistment, Roy talks the other two into accompanying him to Hollywood to meet and date the object of their affection.
Two semi-comic gangsters have been tossed in to pad Paul Shapiro's thin story, which needs more help than it gets.
Throughout, the film has an oddly lifeless quality. There's no real sense of the time or the powerful changes of adolescence or even any real sexual energy.
It's as if everyone involved, particularly director John Whitesell and the three leads, were just going through the motions and pretending they were making a movie.
This one is a cinematic sleeping pill, so slow, rambling, and talky that it's hard to stay awake until the pointless conclusion.
Calendar Girl: *
A Columbia TriStar release playing at the Salem Valley 8. 90 min. Rated PG-13 for strong language, brief nudity, subject matter.
by CNB