STIGMATAStigmata is yet another torturous two-hour example which tells us of Hollywood's script bankruptcy. Ripping off old blockbusters is big business. Here it's William Friedkin's 1973 classic The Exorcist.So incredulous Vatican investigator Gabriel Bryne is sent in to investigate and he discovers that Arquette is in fact being posessed by the defrocked priest who is the custodian of the original testament of Jesus Christ found near the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Vatican, personified by priest Jonathan Pryce, naturally doesn't want these damaging texts out in the open, and so try to supress the case and the victim.Arquette is passable as the posessed hairdresser and Gabriel Byrne looks like he shot this movie back-to-back with End of Days, where incidentally he plays the Devil. The movie offers music video director Rupert Wainwright an opportunity for flashy visuals but has little else to pass muster.BLUE STREAKTwo years ago, Hong Kong's hottest action export ChowYun-Fat regretted that roles for Oriental actors in Hollywood was extremely limited, they either played cops or gangsters. The same thing seems to be true of black actors as well. Funnyman Martin Lawrence was the cop in Bad Boys and the thief in Nothing to Lose. Here he plays a bit of both.He's a jewel thief who successfully robs a 20 million dollar diamond and hides it in an under-construction building before being double-crossed by a team mate and arrested. Released from jail two years later, Lawrence discovers that the building is the newest Los Angeles police precinct. So he assumes the identity of an ace police detective to retrieve his diamond.The script gives Lawrence plenty of room to do his thing- one liners, expletives and body language- even as the massive supporting cast of pygmy character actors stands back and applauds. But the thing about his role is that it could have been done by anybody especially a burgeoning line of black stand-up comedians- Chris Rock, Chris Tucker oreven Eddie Murphy.Anyway, his act generates just enough lift to keep this above average entertainer off the ground.THE BONE COLLECTORNearly a decade ago, Jonathan Demme made Silence of the Lambs and the diet of the movie's principal star Anthony Hopkins made the actor extremely unpopular in dinner joints. Then there was David Fincher's dark and chilling Seven, a movie set in the same grisly flesh and gore genre.The film is helmed by Philip Noyce who brought Tom Clancy novels like Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger to the big screen. Washington, as always, delivers a competent face-only performance and Jolie (who incidentally is the real life daughter of actor Jon Voight) is passable. However, hard it tries, Bone Collector still cannot squeeze into the august company of thrillers like Silence.. or Seven.
