Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 8th, 2006
Bad News Bears is not necessarily a fine film, but it is a lot better than the host of other remakes Hollywood has thrown at us as of late. Billy Bob Thorton stars in the film, and I quote, “as a drunk who makes a living killing rats to live in a trailers.” The film seems to take his character from Bad Santa and the football coach in Friday Night Lights and seems to merge the two. However, neither of his tactics in either film are used in the film. This results in the audience liking his characte...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 7th, 2006
Synopsis
I think the only thing I remember about Ronin initially was that Robert DeNiro (Heat) was involved in some scandal involving a French "house of ill-repute" or something along those lines. But when Ronin was released, people quickly forgot about that mess, as what came from it was an action film that put a little more effort into the characters than other action films. But that’s not to say the action scenes were neglected; the car chase scenes that negotiate through winding French cou...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 6th, 2006
Peter Weir’s Gallipoli is a remarkable film. Starring an inexperienced model, who was only intended to be used for a photo shoot to promote the picture and shot on a small budget, this film's longevity and frequently attained levels of excellence could have never been predicted. That doesn't mean Gallipoli will be turning up on any all-time best lists any time soon, as the first half has a tendency to drag its feet. However, a solid hour two punctuated by one of the most haunting images I have seen in a...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Can someone stop the multimedia empire that Oprah Winfrey imparts on the rest of the world? I mean really, you’ve got the TV show, you’ve got the books, and you’ve done the movies, what else is there to do? Oh, provide reading and watching lists of material you enjoy? Um, OK. But why?
Take the case of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Based on a novel by Zora Neale Hurston and directed by Law and Order veteran Darnell Martin, the film covers the story of a black woman in the tu...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 4th, 2006
Synopsis
Diane Lane has been divorced for eight months and still isn’t in a new relationship, which, according to everyone around her, is a situation on par with lymphoma. At any rate, her sister posts her profile on an Internet match-making site, and a date with the recently divorced and incurably romantic John Cusack ensues. Things get off to a rocky start, though, and there’s the hunky divorced father of one of her preschool students who also catches her interest. What road will lead to true love?...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 3rd, 2006
Synopsis
The Stiffler character from the Amercian Pie movies has, it turns out, a younger brother, who is also a loathsome creep. After sabotaging the high school band’s performance, his punishment is to attend band camp himself. He makes the best of a bad deal, planning to videotape raunchy goings on.
What can you say about a movie where ex-porn star Ginger Lynn Allen is the most convincingly human character present? Eugene Levy returns from the other movies to collect a paycheck as...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 2nd, 2006
Synopsis
Julian Morris is the new guy at an exclusive high school. Exclusive, presumably, because all the students look five to ten years too old to be high school students. At any rate, he falls in with the hip crowd, led by ice queen Lindy Booth, and they decide to play a game with the rest of the student body by sending out a hoax e-mail leading all and sundry to believe that a serial killer is loose on campus. But then it begins to appear that there IS a killer, and that he isn’t too happy about ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 1st, 2006
One of the few positive side-effects of the popular era of reality TV that we live in today is that the desire for the real has also crossed over to film. This has provided an excellent opportunity for documentary filmmakers to get their product seen by a large audience that just a few short years ago would never have taken the time to watch a documentary film. In fact, documentaries have become so mainstream that Murderball is produced in association with MTV Films. While a wheelchair rugby documentary sounds...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 1st, 2006
Synopsis
After an unsuccessful exorcism ends with the death of its subject (Jennifer Carpenter in the title role), priest Tom Wilkinson is charged with negligent homicide. The prosecutor is a devout Christian (Campbell Scott). Wilkinson’s lawyer is the agnostic Laura Linney. As the court battle progresses, we witness Carpenter’s story in flashback, with her possession beginning while she’s away from home in college. Linney, at first dismissive of Wilkinson’s claims, gradually finds her peace of mind ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 1st, 2006
Synopsis
Having zipped through The Emperor’s New Groove awhile back (yes, I have Disney DVDs), I was somewhat familiar with the story and the cast behind it. I was aware that the original film enjoyed some theatrical success, but I didn’t understand why the film necessitated a sequel. But here I am, trying to wrap my head around the logic for this sequel.
And surprisingly enough, I got a nice kick out of this animated film. Instead of focusing largely on the Emperor Kuzco (voiced by David S...
