Paparazzi (2004)

Directed by Paul Abascal. Starring Cole Hauser, Tom Sizemore, Dennis Farina, Daniel Baldwin, Robin Tunney, Tom Hollander, Kevin Gage, Andrea Baker, Jordan Baker. [PG-13]

Movie star Hauser gets his first taste of the ugly side of fame when his privacy is invaded by a quartet of sleazy tabloid photographers led by Sizemore, and when their shady targeting antics go too far and leave his wife and child hospitalized, he’s out for payback. Mindless, exploitative button-pusher tries to stack the deck so far we’re supposed to overlook the “hero” committing murder (or setting others up to be murdered) in the name of righteous retribution. Even with clues a bumbling amateur could follow, detective Farina moseys his way through the investigation, hinting he knows exactly what’s going on, but there’s no justice quite like vigilante justice, is there? Enjoyment on the lowdown trashy level is negated by Hauser’s monotone performance—I didn’t buy him as a fledgling movie star, a nice-guy family man, or a ruthless avenger—and the pic’s willful idiocy about the very industry “under attack” by the camera-wielding goons (right from the opening scene, someone can be heard lauding the “breakthrough performance” of the lead actor…at the movie’s premiere). Not even an in-joke about Alec Baldwin in a movie co-starring his brother works. Features cameos from Chris Rock as a pizza delivery man, Matthew McConaughey as himself, Vince Vaughn presumably as himself, and co-producer Mel Gibson as an anger management attendee (um, also presumably as himself).

29/100