Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
HOLLYWOOD Q&A
Q: Did the kids from “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” do anything else? I can’t think of anything else I’ve seen them in, but it was a long time ago.
A: The actors tasked with being shrunken in 1989’s familyfriendly hit “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” didn’t go on to do much else on the screen. They all gave it a go, though, and one is still trying.
The film is about Russ and Ron Thompson (Thomas Wilson Brown and Jared Rushton) and Amy and Nick Szalinski (Amy O’Neill and Robert Oliveri) getting shot with a shrink ray invented by the Szalinskis’ father.
Wilson Brown had one of his biggest roles just a few years ago: a four-episode arc as Cole Dillard in CMT’s lavish 2017 miniseries “Sun Records.” Other than that, it’s mostly been bit parts, and the majority of those were in the years before and after “Honey,” when he could plausibly play a teen (and an often-troubled one). Most notably, he had a two-season run on prime-time soap “Knots Landing,” playing an abused teen taken in by one of the series’ central couples.
The other shrunken kids all gave up acting after aging out as child stars.
Rushton had the most successful career, appearing in high-profile film hits “Overboard” (1987), “Big” (1988) and “Pet Sematary II” (1992), while Oliveri arguably had the least success, only doing a few other things, though they included the beloved 1990 blockbuster “Edward Scissorhands.”
O’Neill was perhaps the biggest child star going into the film, having had a 30-episode run as a teen on “The Young and the Restless” in 1986, but she quickly soured on the acting game.
At one point in “Honey,” someone counsels the Szalinski kids to run away and join the circus, and that’s exactly what O’Neill did in real life. She quit acting to join Girls on Stilts, a trio of performers who juggle, dance and eat fire, all on 10-foot stilts.
Q: I just re-watched “Broadcast News,” and I’m confused. I was sure that Kathleen Turner was in it, but she’s not — it’s Holly Hunter. Am I thinking of a different movie?
A: You aren’t the only person to feel a little confused by “Broadcast News” (1987) and “Switching Channels” (1988).
Both tell the story of a love triangle in a TV newsroom while at the same time turning a critical mirror at the news business, and they were released just months apart. But while “Broadcast News” was a hit with both audiences and critics, “Switching Channels” was a hit with neither.
“Channels,” being released later, was subject to relentlessly unfavorable comparisons. The best that the great Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel said about “Channels” was that it “proves just how good and funny a film ‘Broadcast News’ really is.” All this despite the fact that “Channels” was built on some pretty good bones.
As you point out, it had the legendary Kathleen Turner (“Romancing the Stone,” 1984) at the peak of her powers, with the love triangle completed by legendary leading man Burt Reynolds (“Smokey and the Bandit,” 1977) and future Man of Steel Christopher Reeve (“Superman,” 1978).
Not only that, it was in fact a remake of one of the most beloved screen romantic comedies of all time, 1940’s “His Girl Friday,” and thus also a remake of the often-revived stage play “The Front Page.”
Q: Is there a definitive film version of “The Odyssey” I can watch? It’s one of my favorite stories.
A: Considering its “epic” stature in world literature, it hasn’t gotten a lot of attention from Hollywood. That said, you have options.
If you’re looking for “definitive” as in complete, you’ll want to see NBC’s 1997 miniseries adaptation “The Odyssey,” starring Armand Assante (“Gotti,” 1996) as legendary hero Odysseus.
Old miniseries can be tough to get a hold of, but fortunately this one was a little more significant than most — it was produced by Hollywood royalty Francis Ford Coppola (“The Godfather,” 1972) — so it can still be found on some streaming services and on DVD.
But if you’re thinking “definitive” as in the best screen adaptation, you’d do better to check out 1954’s “Ulysses” (that’s just an alternate translation of the original Greek title). It’s quite a bit less faithful to the original text, but it is faithful to Hollywood’s swords-and-sandals epic template, including casting that genre’s biggest star, Kirk Douglas (“Spartacus,” 1960), in the title role.
As a wild-card choice, you could also consider 2000’s “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” which is a very loose retelling of the story set in the Depressionera American South.
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