The Toronto Star from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 57

THE TORONTO STAR Friday, September 10, 1S33 Dl i Coming-of-age stoiy doesnt grow up Trippin AA Starring Deon Ilk-linu mil, Main CampU'll and Donald Faison. Written ly Gary (. I lanhviik. Directed ly David Haynr. At Cinqdex (lik-on tianitivs.

-k -k SINGLE TICKETS ON SALE NOW 1 1M SCKEMUKS MMIUU HM MUFMM KSIWmMMMMRf MHCTOMi EMU MOM, MU MUMSMlXL MCNO. MNNIIMOITOII, RON NMN, STIVEN MOOKMH, WERNOI HOtZOO, NCMO. MB IMS MH FIGGIS 968TTILM amK open wm nx. mi to sr COUEOE NML MMN Wfl, 444 YONGC S10EET VSA e3 Jr "kjjp 'i, v-4 recognizable from his Hill Street Blues days). Eventually, Greg learns the classic lesson of all After-School Specials and Disney movies Youve Got To Be Yourself and is ready to face life as a man, rather than a boy.

Trouble is, that's not the movie on screen, but the story locked inside it. The movie were watching needs to keep playing one disposable pop song after another at full volume and trotting out that sassy cousin (played by Moesha veteran Countess Vaughn) to rag on Greg and June for their amateur attempts at fooling Cinny. And then theres the matter of the bad guys, who are so car-toonish that they cant possibly be taken seriously, even when Junes boss holds a knife to Gregs throat. If theres no real threat, why even bother staging the scene? Trippin doesnt have an answer for that. It just keeps on going forward to the big prom scene, where Greg, indeed, acts himself and gets real for Cinny.

There are exaggerated characters and hit singles there, too, and the sassy cousin, but if you squint you might be able to block all that stuff out. friends who is staring down his last month of high school with no idea where hell go or what hell do afterward, much to the annoyance of his parents, who expect him to go to college. Any college. Gregs not a bad kid. He just larks direction.

His friends dont offer much in the way of an example: June (Donald Faison, from Clueless) is a carefree tier whose hyperactive mac-daddy vibe gets him into more trouble than would seem' to be humanly possible, while Fish (GuyTorry) is just hyperactive. They need prom dates. Greg fixates on the lovely, intelligent Cinny (Maia Campbell), whom hes been lusting after since forever. She shoots him down nicely, and they become friends instead which, as anyone whos ever seen a movie about teenagers knows, is the only true path to love. The movie progresses along the usual teenager path: There are minor crises of conscience, such as June's flirtation with a local crime lord and a brief misunderstanding between Greg and Cinny which threatens their blossoming relationship.

Sage advice is provided by a sympathetic teacher (Michael Warren, barely the summers most refreshing surprise!" By Norman Wilner SPECIAL TO THE STAR Its always disappointing when a good movie is undermined by its more crass nature, and thats the case with Trippin', which takes a perfectly good coming-of-age story and wrecks it by piling on a lot of dopey trimmings. Fantasy sequences shot and cut like music videos or action-movie parodies. Sexed-up interludes. Characters who act in an exaggerated fashion when everyone else is being normal. Imagine a television episode of Martin colliding with an episode of Moesha the tones dont match.

Was all this thrown in to make the movie more commercial? Do the people who make movies like this believe their target audience specifically, black people between the ages of 16 and 24 wont be able to sit through a movie that doesnt feature a pretty girl with a sassy cousin who bugs her eyes out and makes dis- Rm Reed, NY OBSERVER LACKS DIRECTION: Ac tor l)e-on. Richmond play's a kid staring down his last month of high school. paraging remarks about a potential suitors financial status? Its a shame, really, because theres a sweet and earnest movie buried under all that extraneous stuff. Trippin focuses on a kid named Greg Reed (the winning Deon Richmond) to his Special Sneak Preview TOMORROW NIGHT PIERCE BROSNAN RENE RUSSO THfrunA A AFFAIR MwawmiiHM NOW PLAYING! FORLOCMXmSMWTME8 WM TJJri -V tm CHSaF CANADAS II MOVIE FOUR WEEKS IN A ROW! rawnu, nmmm mmMWl PARAMOUNTTri 1 PLAZA II CARLTON I wmiupi i r-MMwn-- wauwiw rcOL04gia-7 BAYVCTVtiAGM SHERIDAN I GLENWAY7 wnnmm wmiKam cwc-LUncow wunMn riovaartrvl lvukhy" vi IeLoin millbI IwctowatehrvI immiuw immwi riwmn Q8AWAMXTHE1 kBPY00MM0NM I RRSTmWWAM il i rOTHWh. p-owmRom- wwwmw IwMOwiiwGSPEI IaImuc io I cousbjm 1 I WWHimtW HMMftHIIW i i laVEWOlY1 iQAKVmTOWM GATEWAY 1 jasoiiid'vl IsuiBcnY TWWOff 1 NM .1." I'll 1 38TAR II IMPERIAL 1 1 TWPlf DRWN I SWIVE-IN NOW PLAYING! I CHECK THCA1HC OlRCCTURICB FON SHOMfliMFS FOKSUrjWTIMKS ATfCtCETS CLL-M4-FILH "UNDENIABLE SCREEN CHEMISTRY BETWEEN ROBERTS AND GERE" KMONTOSUHUINMUN "A DELICIOUS SUMMER CONFECTION.

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