'DIVAS': HER UNDERLING'S A MANIAC, THAT'S FOR SURE.Byline: David Kronke TV Critic IF ``They Shoot Divas, Don't They?'' were worse, it'd be better. Outside of the basic skeleton of a premise, the film lacks the cheek of the title. And its performances are drearily earnest and mainly not bad enough to qualify the film as camp. Jennifer Beals stars as Sloan McBride, a Madonna-esque diva pushing 40, with a battery of cowed subordinates and a video-director fiance (Jonathan Schaech) whose close-cropped hair suggests Guy Ritchie Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968 in Hatfield, Hertfordshire[1]) is an English writer-director of Scottish descent. Early life Ritchie was expelled from Stanbridge Earls School at the age of 15. . Sloan's pushing 40 - ``That's 90 in civilian years,'' she opines Opines are low molecular weight compounds found in plant crown gall tumors produced by the parasitic bacterium Agrobacterium. Opine biosynthesis is catalyzed by specific enzymes encoded by genes contained in a small segment of DNA (known as the T-DNA, for 'transfer DNA') - and facing irrelevance. Enter Jenny (Rene Zellweger doppelganger doppelgänger Psychiatry A delusion that a double of a person or place exists elsewhere; it is related to other defects in recognition and suggests organic disease in the nondominant parietal lobe. See Depersonalization disorder, Schizophrenia. Keri Lynn Pratt), a freshly scrubbed personal assistant's personal assistant with an ax to grind - and a knife to wield, and a gun to shoot. She systematically dismantles Sloan's pampered pam·per tr.v. pam·pered, pam·per·ing, pam·pers 1. To treat with excessive indulgence: pampered their child. 2. well-being, humiliating hu·mil·i·ate tr.v. hu·mil·i·at·ed, hu·mil·i·at·ing, hu·mil·i·ates To lower the pride, dignity, or self-respect of. See Synonyms at degrade. her ostensible Apparent; visible; exhibited. Ostensible authority is power that a principal, either by design or through the absence of ordinary care, permits others to believe his or her agent possesses. idol and leaving a body or two along the way. ``Divas'' plays like a revenge fantasy written by some long-suffering piece of chum in Hollywood's celebrity food chain (you can just imagine how many similar scripts languish unproduced out there), until it goes soft - and becomes even more predictable than it already was - near the conclusion. Beals, professionally enough, reins in her performance, when a really extravagant turn would've been more fun to behold. Only when Pratt begins to lose it near the end is an inadvertent chuckle raised; until then, the proceedings are fairly prosaic. THEY SHOOT DIVAS, DON'T THEY? - Two stars What: Jennifer Beals stars as a fading pop icon tormented by an unhinged hanger-on. Where: VH1. When: 9 and 11 tonight; also Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Oct. 12. In a nutshell: A premise that's hard to take seriously isn't treated ironically enough. |
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