Mel Gibson's production company made this crude, violent movie about a hunky Hollywood star who takes vengeance against aggressive shutterbugs responsible for an accident that injured his wife and son. The paint-by-numbers script comes from Forrest Smith, a former professional football player, high school English teacher, motivational speaker, and soap opera actor who should have stuck with any of those noble professions rather than turning to a typewriter. The improbably named Bo Laramie (Cole Hauser, son of B-movie star Wings and equally untalented), who's at the start of a promising career in Jerry Bruckheimer-style actioners, takes matters into his own hands when he and his family are targeted by a scumbag tabloid cameraman (the supremely sleazy Tom Sizemore) and his equally disgusting pals (and the police, represented by fumbling detective Dennis Farina, prove to be no help). Paparazzi obviously panders to our worst vigilante instincts, and does so in the most coarsely calculating way, but rather than making us despise the paparazzi, the film simply comes across as morally contemptible. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)
Paparazzi
Fox, 85 min., PG-13, VHS: $50.99, DVD: $27.98, Jan. 11 Volume 19, Issue 6
Paparazzi
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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