Jordan-36

This is a film from Canada that proves our neighbors to the north can be just as preachy as our very own Hollywood. Basically, Jeffrey is an annoying little snot, raised in India and sent to Canada after the death of his father. Jeffrey moves in with his aunt, who is presented as a free spirit but basically comes across as a flake. Evil developers want the aunt's house so Jeffrey leads a nonviolent protest and basically brings enlightenment to the world. Or at least Canada. Jeffrey is played by Ryan Reynolds, an actor who projects such an air of sainthood that most viewers will probably want to beat the living Hell out of him.

Improv is one of those wonderful acting tools that, in recent times, has grown to become painfully overrated and overused. While occasionally, a Robert De Niro or Harvey Keitel might be able to pull it off, improvisation is a tricky thing to make compelling and in the wrong hands, it can be painfully pretentious, dull, and trite. Parallel Lives is a film that was improved by the wrong hands.

Basically, the plot deals with a bunch of people gathering for a fraternity/sorority reunion. Secrets come out, subplot converge, and Treat Williams ends up getting murdered. Jack Klugman shows up as a senile Senator, Mira Sorvino gets to look sexy as hustler Ben Gazzara's blonde girlfriend, and Dudley Moore floats around as some bizarre fantasy creature. Oh, and Jim Belushi's there for some reason. Technically, he's the focus of the film's plot. Too bad that plot vanishes under a heap of acting exercises.

Apparently, director Linda Yellen specializes in making improvised films -- all featuring her all-star gallery of friends attempting to impress us with how witty and insightful they are. This film has an amazingly diverse cast

-- famous non-stars and has-beens continually wander through, creating the impression that the film was shot in a West Hollywood Unemployment agency. Along with those already mentioned, the film features everyone from Liza to Levar Burton to Ally Sheedy to Robert Wagner to a bunch of other actors no sane person would currently pay money to see. Imagine that, folks, 20 or so unimportant actors getting together to make one unimportant movie.

Its a pity that with such a huge cast, nobody apparently had anything to say.

Oh, what pain the delusions of NBC programmers have let loose upon the airwaves! With an unearned tip of the hat to Austen and Chekhov, Three Sisters deals with the weekly adventures of boring Steven who marries even more boring Bess and, as part of the package, ends up literally living with her obnoxious sisters -- caustic Nora and flighty Annie. In an attempt to make this show something more than a shallow midseason replacement, each show is blandly narrated by Steven. As his narration seems to consist mostly of self-centered whining and tritely predictable insights, watching this show soon becomes the equivalent of getting cornered by a really boring drunk at the neighborhood bar.