SUBMITTED BY Andre

February 23, 2001 — This was one of the earlier words on the project also. Moriarity seems to have really enjoyed the script. More scipt reviews to follow!! "THIS TIME, IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE A BOMB!! I’ve given Barry Sonnenfeld a fair amount of shit on this website in the past, but that’s because I was covering things like WILD WILD WEST and his thankfully-aborted attempt at ALI. There’s no denying that Sonnenfeld has done good work, both as a cinematographer and as a director. I’d say his most consistently entertaining film is GET SHORTY, the Elmore Leonard adaptation that was so much dizzy fun and that somehow managed to use Travolta as a gangster post-PULP FICTION without imitating that film. Sonnenfeld made a great human cartoon out of Leonard’s novel, helped in large part by the wonderful witty work by Scott Frank on the script and the ensemble cast, all of them turning in great, funny work. And now he goes back to the same well, and it looks like he’s made a hell of a great choice in doing so. Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone have adapted the first novel by Floridian columnist Dave Barry, a story that could be compared to the dizzier work of Leonard or Carl Hiaasen. Barry’s trademark sarcasm is on full display, and the result is a fast and funny read with something like 3,000 major speaking roles. We’re talking about an ensemble cast made up of Andy Richter, Tom Sizemore, Rene Russo, Dennis Farina, DJ Qualls, Patrick Warburton, Jason Lee, Tim Allen, Janeane Garafolo, Heavy D, Johnny "JACKASS" Knoxville, Zooey Deschanel, Omar Epps, Stanley Tucci, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Jack Black, Peter Stormare, and Kate Hudson. That’s a lot of damn talent in there, and I can’t wait to start sorting out who plays what in the thing. Everything revolves around a nuclear bomb in a suitcase that makes its way from one set of unwitting hands to the next until things come to a head at Miami International Airport. The great thing about a script like this is that there’s plenty of storylines, and if there’s something you’re not interested in, chances are the next scene will draw you back in. Some of the script is violent, some of it is absurd, but all of it had me laughing out loud. There’s something about Florida as a setting for films like this that informs them enormously. I spent many, many years in that insane swamp of a state, and it’s got a personality all its own. These writers do full justice to Dave Barry’s writing, and it should provide the perfect platform for Sonnenfeld to restablish himself as a wry comic force with major commercial clout. All producers Tom Jacobson, Barry Josephson, and Jim Wedaa have to do is wrangle this giant fistful of entertainment from the page to the screen intact, and this could be one of next year’s most potent comic packages."