Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 22nd, 2005
Synopsis
Two girls meet on the beech, and a lifelong friendship is formed. Hilary is the shy rich girl (horse riding and the whole thing, don’t you know) and she grows up to be Barbara Hershey. CC is the working class extrovert, and becomes Bette Midler. As adults, they become roommates, and we follow the entire arc of their friendship through their lives, with conflicting romances, plenty of ups and downs, and then, in the last act, the inevitable Hollywood Fatal Illness.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 15th, 2005
In the unnecessary sequel department comes Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Why make this movie? Because Sandra Bullock needs a hit? It doesn't come here. Bullock, once again (and hopefully for the last time), plays Gracie Hart. Her involvement in a well known beauty pageant has made it impossible for Gracie to maintain a low FBI profile. So she has become the PR person for the bureau. But Gracie is "called back" into the line of duty (against the FBI's wishes) when two of her friends (played by ...illiam Shatner and Heather Burns) are kidnapped. This uncomfortable blend of action and comedy does not work. It's a waste of almost two hours of your life.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 6th, 2005
The Parent Trap is a remake of the Hayley Mills classic. It stars none other than Lindsday Lohan. She's actually pretty good here. In a pre-sex appeal role, Lohan plays two twins who have never met, but then do. They concoct a plan to switch identies on their respective divorced parents. Lohan pulls off both twin personalities quite well. The movie also stars the always reliable Dennis Quaid and the extremely talented Natasha Richardson. It might be fun for kids, and Lohan fans, but this is NOT a case of...the remake being better than the original. It's an okay movie, and way too long.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 2nd, 2005
I didn’t think that Scarlet Johansson had an active eye or ear for drama films, that she does different stuff and has generally been incredibly lucky. Apparently, she’s got a good knack for appearing in films that have good stories also, as she had been attached to this film for quite some time.
Based on the novel by Ronald Everett Capps, A Love Song for Bobby Long tells the story of Pursy (Johansson), who has recently found out her mother died, so she travels back to New Orleans and meets Bobby Long...(John Travolta, Michael), a former college professor who, along with his teaching assistant Lawson (Gabriel Macht, The Recruit), have left their college lives in Alabama and decided to come to New Orleans, and have stayed for years in the house that Pursy’s mother, Lorraine, owned. In the midst of it all, Pursy is a kid barely out of high school (who actually dropped out in 10th grade) and sees her mother’s former friends as scumbag alcoholics. Lawson has been trying to write a novel for several years, and Bobby seems to be slowly pickling himself to death.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 27th, 2005
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 22nd, 2005
Assault on Precinct 13 is a remake of the 1976 John Carpenter classic (which is remake of the Howards Hawks western Rio Bravo). The plot scenario is something we've all seen before. Our heroes are holed up in an indoor arena (in this case, a precinct), trying to keep the outside forces at bay. In this case, the hero is Jake Roenick (played by Ethan Hawke). On New Year's Eve, and with the closing of the precinct looming, crimelord Bishop (played by Laurence Fishburne)is dumped off at the office. A s...owstorm has forced the criminals here. Meanwhile, Bishop's men try to bust him out, hence the assault. As we all know, hell will break loose.
Assault sports an excellent cast. The always engaging Mario Bello plays a psychiatrist caught up in the seige. Soprano's star Drea De Matteo is along for the ride as a sexy secretary, crusty Brian Dennehy is crusty Brian Dennehy, and Ja Rule and John Leguizamo round out the other baddie detainees. The success of the film, however, can mostly be attributed to the slick and taut direction of Frenchman Jean-Francoise Rinet. The film moves along at a stylish pace. Despite lacking in the Carpenter moral ambiguity, and the synth score, this Assault on Precinct 13 is a solid, modern action movie for the 21st century.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 21st, 2005
Pocahontas is Disney’s animated version of the Pocahontas myth. This movie is not history, but a Disney-fied version of it. European settlers came to North America and disrupted the Native American way of life. John Smith (voiced by Mel Gibson) and his British plunderers attempt to rob the “New World” of its riches. Chief Powhatan, and his daughter Pocahontas (voiced by Irene Bedard), might have something to say about this. In the end, in typical Disney fashion, a moral emerges: both cultures have a lot...to learn from eachother.
Pocahontas hits all the right Disney animated film notes, but not as strongly as other films. The villain, the scheming leader of the expedition Ratcliffe (voiced by David Ogden Stiers), is no one to be scared of, really. He comes off more like a goofball. Ratcliffe is not in the tradition of the great Disney villains we’re used to. The cute cuddly comic relief characters (a raccoon, a hummingbird, and a dog) are not as funny or endearing in comparison to, say, Poombaa or Scuttle (from Little Mermaid). And the romance between Pocahontas and John Smith isn’t as charged as Belle and the Beast, for example. It seems a little forced here. So without a great villain, funny comic relief characters, or a believable romance, what does Pocahontas have? It has scope. The “New World” is a wonder to behold. The animators have done an amazing job. And the “Colors of the Wind” song (an Oscar winner) is quite lovely.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 14th, 2005
In Good Company is a "feel good" movie about the ruthless corporate world. Now, is such a thing possible? Writer/Director Paul Weitz almost pulls it off. The movie stars Dennis Quaid as Dan Foreman, the head of advertising sales for a sports magazine. All goes down the toilet for Dan when the sports magazine is swallowed up my a major media conglomerate. Enter Carter Duryea, played by Topher Grace. Carter is brought in as the new "boss", but he's young and in way over his head. Carter decides to keep Dan...around. There's also a romance too, as Carter hooks up with Dan's daughter Alex (played by the lovely Scarlett Johansson). That's the basic gist.
The performances are all excellent here. Topher Grace seems perfectly cast. Johansson, as always, is a complete delight. But Dennis Quaid really seems to be coming into his own lately in these "older man" roles. Quaid has definite screen presence. David Paymer's performance is also worth noting, as the sad sack long time employee of the magazine.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 7th, 2005
Racing Stripes is a “family film” about a zebra (with the original name “Stripes”) who’s only dream is to race with the other horses. Stripes, you see, was abandoned and then rescued by horse farmer Nolan Walsh (played by Bruce Greenwood). Nolan’s younger daughter, Channing (played by Hayden Panettiere), takes the young zebra under her wing, and she helps Stripes realize his dream: to race with the horses. Stripes’ litany of zany friends include a pelican, a lazy bloodhound, flies, roosters, a wise goat, an... some Shetland ponies. That’s the story in a nutshell.
But is the movie any good? Well…the human actors are solid. And the list of voice actors is like a roll call of the star studded. There’s Dustin Hoffman, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Foxworthy, David Spade, Snoop Dogg, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Clarke Duncan, Mandy Moore, and Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle himself) as Stripes. What a cast! But what’s the problem? Other than having a live animal’s mouth move in a computer generated manner? That looks a little weird. But, as they say, it all starts with the script.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 6th, 2005
There are a lot of dumb movies out there. But there's a good kind of dumb and a bad kind of dumb. National Treasure falls into the good dumb category. Nicholas Cage plays Ben Gates, a treasure hunter, an archaeologist I'm really not sure. But his mission is to steal the Declaration of Independence in order to prevent the "bad" archaeologists from taking it. Make sense? There are hidden clues, apparently, in this document which lead to hidden treasure. A treasure Gates' grandfather (played by Christophe... Plummer) told him about when he was a child. In essence, this movie is part Indiana Jones and part Da Vinci's Code.
There are plenty of explosions and chases, no worries there. There's a high level of silliness here, not to mention Scooby Doo logic. But Nicholas Cage is perfectly cast. He is an actor who can walk that fine line between gravity and camp. There's also a love interest and a wise cracking sidekick (played by Diane Kruger and Justin Bartha, respectively). Both performances, particularly Bartha's, take a refreshing crack at the action movie archetypes. Sean Bean is also along for the ride as the main baddie. Bean is always worth watching.
