Movies starring Paul Dooley
Dooley was a keen cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at college. Moving to New York, he soon found success as a regular on the stage. Also having an interest in comedy, Dooley was a standup comedian for five years, as well as having brief stints as a magician and as a clown. Not afraid of trying different areas of entertainment, he has also worked as a writer. After appearing in many movies, including most notably "Popeye", Dooley is appearing as recurrent characters on various shows, includ ...
show all Dooley was a keen cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at college. Moving to New York, he soon found success as a regular on the stage. Also having an interest in comedy, Dooley was a standup comedian for five years, as well as having brief stints as a magician and as a clown. Not afraid of trying different areas of entertainment, he has also worked as a writer. After appearing in many movies, including most notably "Popeye", Dooley is appearing as recurrent characters on various shows, including "My So-Called Life", "Dream On", "Grace Under Fire", and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine".
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A knock-out performance from Canadian actress Sarah Polley (Go, The Sweet Hereafter) is the main reason for seeing this insightful, if sentimental, coming-of-age saga. Polley plays affection-starved 21-year-old Harper Sloane, who meets middle-aged photographer Connie Fitzpatrick (Stephen Rea) at her sister’s wedding. Attracted by his bohemian charisma, she becomes his apprentice and lover. But does he really think she’s something special? Or is she just another conquest? The directorial debut of screenwriter Audrey Wells (The Truth about Cats and Dogs) is a familiar May-December romance containing as many deft broad strokes as it does missteps. However, the presence of Polley makes such mistakes easier to bear.
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It isn’t just the production values that are cut-price in this supermarket-set comedy. The laughs are cheap, and romantic leads Dane Cook and Jessica Simpson have barely enough charisma between them to sell a tube of toothpaste, let alone the flimsy plot. Cook plays a shiftless shelf-stacker who suddenly ups his game when it turns out that the good-looking new girl (Simpson) only dates guys who make employee of the month. He faces stiff competition from Dax Shepard, who does at least have a few funny moments as a quick-on-the-draw checkout attendant. But instead of sending up sales culture, director Greg Coolidge resorts to poking fun at the stereotypical dopey Mexican (Efren Ramirez) and having bespectacled Andy Dick bump into things like a live-action Mr Magoo, making this just another half-baked comedy off the Hollywood conveyer belt.
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After a near unprecedented string of critical and box-office smash hits, beginning with Toy Story in 1995, animation studio Pixar produced its first disappointment with Cars. In a bizarre and slightly creepy world where all the characters are motor vehicles, red racer Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is a preening, hot-shot track star who, on the way to a big meet in LA, becomes stranded in the small town of Radiator Springs off Route 66. There, the residents, including a cute female Porsche (Bonnie Hunt) and a wise old-timer with a secret past (Paul Newman), teach McQueen a few lessons about the value of taking things slow and enjoying life. The middle act is too sedate and the jokes are below par. But, on the plus side, the racing sequences are mini-masterpieces of editing and the animation is consistently impressive. And if you’re watching the UK release version of the film, you’ll recognise Harv’s dulcet tones — yes, it’s Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson.
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