THE CIVILIZATION OF MAXWELL BRIGHT
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
Mr. Bright isn't. Even with sales at his big electronics store quickly going into the toilet, he decides to spend a hundred thousand dollars to buy himself a mail order bride from Asia. Since the film opens with a naked Max Bright (Patrick Warburton) being stabbed with a "garden utensil" by his equally nude girlfriend, he figures that a docile and subservient Asian woman is just what he needs.
Lovably obnoxious, but obnoxious nonetheless, Max, in THE CIVILIZATION OF MAXWELL BRIGHT, thinks he has died and gone to heaven when he meets Mai Ling (Marie Matiko), who he says looks like a Chinese Mary Poppins under her parasol. In the audience, we wait in dread for the moment we know is coming in which Max will make a demand of Mai Ling so outrageous that she'll have to finally refuse him, embarrassing us and her by the degrading act she has been asked to perform. But before and after this inevitable incident, Max is wonderfully funny. One of the best of these times occurs when he explains to her that his big mound of chest hair is a really good thing. "More fur, more brains," is how he puts it, going on to contrast himself to Asian men who are never hairy. The bigoted Max will, of course, get his comeuppance. This funny film suffers from being too long and having uneven quality, but it is an entertaining roller coaster of a ride.
THE CIVILIZATION OF MAXWELL BRIGHT runs 1:39.
The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival (www.Cinequest.org), which runs March 2-13, 2005.
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