Home
FAQ
About Paradevo
Devotee Fiction
Message Board
REAL Devo Photos
Celebrity Photos
Devotee Movies
....Blindness Movies
....Other Movies
Devotee Library
Media Alerts
T-Shirts
Devotee Links

paradevo@yahoo.com

Index:

The Bone Collector
USA
1999
*
In this gruesome film based on a book, Denzel Washington plays quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme, who is drawn into solving one last crime from his bed. Lincoln enlists the help of a young female detective named Amelia, played by the sexy Angelina Jolie, and sparks fly. This movie pushes the brink of everything disturbing and disgusting, then it goes too far. If you want to see a good movie about a psycho killer, see Seven or Silence of the Lambs. If you want to see a good devo movie, this isn't worthwhile either. Denzel Washington is very sexy as always, but there's more to playing an interesting quadriplegic than lying in bed all day and not moving. For all practical purposes, Lincoln might as well have just been sick in bed. This movie just didn't give Paradevo that special devo thrill.

Born on the Fourth of July
USA
1989
***
Tom Cruise plays Ron Kovic, a young man who goes off to fight in the Vietnam War and returns home as a paraplegic. Ron is initially devastated by his injury, but comes to see his purpose as a protestor against the evils of the Vietnam War. There are some great scenes and Cruise plays the part brilliantly, but Paradevo has two major complaints with the movie. First, it's primarily a movie about the evils of war and Ron's injury is secondary. Second, Cruise is usually one of the most attractive men in Hollywood, but he badly needs a shave and a haircut in this movie. Tom Cruise at his best as a paraplegic is orgasmic, but as is he gets only three stars.

Breaking the Waves
Denmark
1996
no stars
Directed by art-house darling Lars von Trier, so already you know it's going to be more painful than entertaining. Bess (Emily Watson) is a simple-minded girl living in a tiny town in the north of Scotland. She falls in madly in love and marries Jan (Stellan Skarsgard) who has come to the town to work on an offshore oil rig. Shortly after they are married, he breaks his neck on the job. Medical care in the tiny town is limited so he spends the rest of the movie in bed, clinging to life. Bess is of course convinced he will recover, and nurses him herself. She doesn't seem to notice that the combination of a head injury and drugs has made him insane, so when he encourages her to have sex with every man she meets because he can't have her himself, she does so. This movie is creepy and gross. It's all about style and ideas, and nothing real about SCI. Jan's injury is just a plot device, nothing more. Plus he's not even attractive. We here at Devo Labs were unable to determine why this movie was so highly acclaimed. We hated it.

Crippled Masters
Hong Kong
1984
****
This is a low-budget Hong Kong kung fu movie, so consider yourself warned. But don't let the terrible dubbing, the utter lack of any plot, the low production values and the chop-socky sound effects deter you: this is the REAL DEAL. The two main characters really are disabled; there is no ES involved. Also, although the movie would have us believe otherwise, they were clearly born with their disabilities. One man is a DAE amputee--see him water the fields and tend the farm with his feet! The other cannot use his legs (perhaps polio?)--see him walk on his hands! For various silly reasons, they are forced to learn kung fu and become an invincible fighting team. Their dexterity and skill are truly a wonder to behold, made all the more amazing by the knowledge that these are real people.

Forrest Gump
USA
1994
***
The Academy Award winning film about the unusual life of an idiot savant named Forrest Gump, played by Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, Big). During Forrest's stint in Vietnam, he saves the life of his Lieutenant, a fellow named Dan (Gary Sinise). Although Dan survives the war, both his legs are amputated and his wishes that Forrest had let him die. Sinise plays the role brilliantly, and arguably the most memorable scene in the movie is when his stumps are revealed before the camera. Unfortunately, true to some sort of Hollywood rule, Dan's appearance becomes increasingly unkempt while he is confined to the wheelchair, spoiling his good looks. Only when he is fitted for prosthetics at the end does he bother to clean himself up, but by then it's too late. Still, it's a great movie for devos, especially those who don't mind the hippie look.

Gattaca
USA
1997
**
This is actually a great sci fi movie, and on a more objective scale would get more stars, but its devotee appeal is fairly low. The movie is set in the not-too-distant future, when DNA testing has become so advanced that doctors can tell everything about a person's physical and mental potential just by their genes. In a world where every baby is genetically engineered for perfection, and job applicants are screened by their genes, our hero Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is an outcast whose defective genes relegate him to a life of menial labor. Convinced that he is just as good as anyone else, and obsessed with becoming an astronaut, he buys the identity of a man with better genes and fakes his way into Gattaca, the company that will send him into outer space. The man whose identity he buys is Jerome (Jude Law), whose perfect genes once made him a success, but who lost it all after he became a paraplegic. Now Devo Girl finds this very disturbing. The idea that genetics could determine how our whole society is set up is a scary one, and becoming more plausible every day, and of course the first to lose out in such a society would be those born with disabilities. The whole moral of the movie is that a person is more than just his physical potential, and even though Vincent is physically disadvantaged because he has a heart condition, he is still able to do as much as anyone else. But then we have Jerome, who becomes totally useless as a human being because he can't walk. Is this because Jerome still believes that he must have a perfect body in order to live a meaningful life? Or would the movie have us believe there is a fundamental difference between an invisible disability such as a heart condition, and an all too visible SCI? The fact is that Jerome is angry, embittered and not very likeable. But ethical questions aside, it's worth the price of admission just to see hunky Jude Law fling himself out of his chair and drag himself up a flight of stairs. Uma Thurman also appears as the love interest (for Vincent of course--damn, she went for the wrong guy!)

Idle Hands
USA
1999
***
In the spirit of Evil Dead 2, this movie involves a teenager named Anton (Devon Sawa) whose hand becomes possessed. After Anton's hand kills his two best friends, he becomes fed up and slices it off with a butcher knife so that he walks around through half the movie with an impressive stump. Anton is very sexy to begin with and even more so with only one hand. His love interest is played by Jessica Alba, the star of Dark Angel, a favorite TV show of devos everywhere. In Paradevo's opinion, this movie is a hilarious portrayal of laziness and mild drug use, but it's the amputed hand that makes it great.

Kingpin
USA
1996
**
In this comedy by the infamous Farrelly brothers, Woody Harrelson plays an ex-bowler named Roy Munson whose bowling hand has to be amputated after a hustle goes wrong. Depressed by his own lot in life, Roy searches for a bowling prodigy to restore his lost glory. He finds this prodigy in a young Amish man named Ishmael (Randy Quaid). True to the Farrelly brothers' style, there are plenty of tasteless jokes involving Roy's rubber hand being popped off and Roy accidentally destroying things with his hook. Other than that, Roy seems completely oblivious to his missing hand and we never even get a glimpse at the stump. One redeeming devotee feature of this movie is that Roy gets the beautiful girl (Vanessa Angel) at the end, but she doesn't seem like much of a devotee at all. She can't appreciate him like we would.

The Men
USA
1950
****
In Marlon Brando's first major film, he plays Bud, a paraplegic WWII veteran adjusting to his new disability in a hospital for veterans with spinal cord injuries. Bud initially feels that his life is over until his fiance Ellie (Teresa Wright) convinces him that he can still lead a full and happy life with her. Life is blissful until Ellie begins to have doubts of her own. This movie has got it all for the discerning devo. It's got the very handsome young Brando rolling around in a wheelchair, determined to stand up on his own for his wedding ceremony, even getting himself into a barroom brawl. And Jack Webb, in a supporting role, is surprisingly sexy as a sarcastic paraplegic ex-Sargeant who is taken advantage of by a pretty face.

The People vs. Larry Flint
USA
1996
**
This movie tells the true story of Larry Flint (played by Woody Harrelson), the founder of the sleazy pornographic magazine Hustler. The movie includes incredible performances by Harrelson and Courtney Love (lead singer of the band Hole), who plays Flint's wife Althea. However, as a devo movie it falls flat. Flint builds an empire around his magazine Huster as he fights for the rights given to him by the First Amendment, but his struggle is cut short when a sniper shoots him in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. But don't expect any scenes involving Flint dragging his paralyzed legs. Throughout most of the movie, Flint is fairly oblivious to his injury-he may as well be an AB sitting in a chair. If you want to see a great movie, The People vs. Larry Flint won't disappoint you. If you want to see a great devo movie, look elsewhere.

Rory O'Shea Was Here
UK
2004
***
Rory O'Shea (James McAvoy) is a young man with muscular dystrophy who enters a home for the disabled and changes the life of a resident named Michael (Steven Robertson), who has cerebral palsy. Rory is the only person who can understand Michael's speaking voice and talks him into entering a project for independent living. All goes according to plan until they hire an attractive young woman named Siobhan (Romola Garai) to care for their needs--and Michael falls in love with her. Rory does a fine job playing the part of an attractive young quad and his performance never disappoints. There's tremendous chemistry between Rory and Siobhan as she simultaneously spars with him, undresses him, and helps him with his transfers, yet it's all a tease--nothing ever comes of it, which is why the movie falls short of a four star rating.

Saved!
USA
2004
****
Aside from being a funny and creative satire about Catholic school, centering on a high school senior (Jena Malone) who becomes pregnant, this is a great devo movie. Macaulay Culkin, all grown up but still cute at age 23, plays a paraplegic student named Roland who shuns his overprotective sister and finds love (or at least lust) with the school "bad girl" Cassandra (Eva Amurri). In one scene, Roland wheels closer to Cassandra so that his foot brushes against hers, his own creative attempt at "footsie"; in another scene, he sports Cassandra's hickies on his neck. Paradevo applauds this movie for recognizing paraplegics as being sexy.

There's Something About Mary
USA
1998
**
A pretty funny comedy by the Farrelly brothers starring Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller, about a guy who just can't forget the girl he had a crush on in high school. Part of the joke is that Mary has men throwing themselves at her all the time, but she hardly seems to notice them. One of these poor losers uses braces and crutches. He's a minor character, but there are some really funny scenes with him. It's not at all PC, but trust me it's hysterical.

Twin Falls Idaho
USA
1999
****
An independent film about conjoined twins, which is not a typical disability, but this movie gave Devo Girl that tingly devotee thrill. Plus it's really excellent as a movie. Mark and Michael Polish, who are twins in real life (the normal kind, not joined, but the illusion in the film is so good you start to wonder) wrote, directed and starred as Francis and Blake Falls. Francis and Blake are joined at the chest, but have retired from their job as sideshow freak due to illness. They meet up with Penny (Michelle Hicks) the cliched hooker with a heart of gold, and she falls in love with Francis, which causes problems for Blake. Devo Girl wants to know, why couldn't she just love them both? But then we wouldn't have a movie. The plot is not so important as the visual images of Francis and Blake and how they negotiate every day life and try, unsuccessfully, to fit in. It's very touching, and covers a lot of the same emotional territory as other disabilities.

Usual Suspects
USA
1995
**
Maybe you were living in a cave and missed this one, but just in case, it's a smart, post-modern take on the action thriller, with Chazz Palmintieri as a police detective on the trail of a big time crime lord, and Kevin Spacey as Verbal Kint, the informer whose story gets more and more convoluted. There are amazing plot twists and a surprise ending, so we won't go into detail, but this is a truly great movie. Unfortunately, its devo value is low: Verbal Kint has CP, but it's just not a major part of the plot. Go see something else to get your fix, then come back later.

The Waterdance
USA
1992
***
This is not a great movie, but it is an honest look at the realities of spinal cord injury. Writer and co-director Neal Jimenez himself has an SCI, and this movie is clearly based on his real life experiences. Joel (Eric Stoltz) breaks his neck while hiking, and the movie covers the time he spends in rehab. The plot is pretty predictable: he faces the difficulties of adjusting to SCI, has problems with his girlfriend Anna (Helen Hunt), we see a little bit about his roommates and their similar struggles. The characters are two dimensional and not terribly engaging. But this movie is highly recommended for those of you who have never met a real person with SCI, if only to get a small dose of reality. However, Devo Girl has one major problem with this film, and that is the weird framing device. When Joel enters the rehab center, and again when he leaves, we see a much more severely disabled boy in an electric wheelchair silently staring at him. What is the point of that? To make a distinction between ordinary people who just happen to be injured and the "real" crips, i.e., the freaks born disabled? Or is he silently chanting "One of us, one of us"? Either way we find it disturbing, and totally unnecessary.

Whose Life is it Anyway?
USA
1981
**
Originally a play by Brian Clark, Whose Life is it Anyway? tells the story of Ken Harrison, a sculptor played by Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, Mr. Holland's Opus), who is paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a car accident. Ken is terribly depressed as a result of his accident and wants to end his life. Since Ken is unable to kill himself, he hires a lawyer to help him win the battle to have himself taken off life support. This part is a little different from Dreyfuss's other films, but he grows into the role and handles it very well. Unfortunately, the plot of the movie is extremely depressing. Ken doesn't learn to adjust to being a quadriplegic, but instead only thinks about dying. He never even gives it a try. If only Ken could have met someone like Devo Girl, his life may have turned out differently.

Wild Wild West
USA
1999
*
A remake of a very silly TV show that was itself a parody of the Western, with lots of gadgets. Ex-Shakespearean actor Kenneth Branagh (oh how the mighty have fallen) is the mad scientist evil megalomaniac, a Southern gentleman whose legs were blown off in the Civil War, effects created by computer. He has a pretty cool steam-powered wheelchair that we get to see in detail, but really this is just another case of deformed = sociopath.

Back