Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 25th, 2004
Billy Bob Thornton is a strange ranger, even by Hollywood standards. He is a self-made man, resulting from his breakthrough role as writer/director/star of Sling Blade. With Daddy & Them, Thornton returns to his role as a triple threat, and the result is a film that is not only funny, but features more stars than a stint in rehab. The list of notables includes Thornton, Laura Dern, Dianne Ladd, Kelly Preston, Jim Varney, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Affleck, Brenda Blethyn, musician John Prine and even America... legend Andy Griffith.
The film follows Thornton and Dern, an insanely jealous married couple, as they travel to visit his family in Little Rock, AR, as his uncle (Varney) has been incarcerated while awaiting trial for attempted murder. This is not just a story about white trash family, but they are unbelievably dysfunctional as well. The comedy comes quickly and masterfully from all directions, resulting on one of the best independent films that I have seen in quite some time.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 24th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 23rd, 2004
Sightings: Heartland Ghost is based, apparently, on a true story. One is reminded of that other “true story” haunted house movie, The Amityville Horror. But both films have the same hokey quality in common. (no blood in the toilet in Sightings, however). Sightings starts with the “new couple moving to the neighborhood”. They slowly learn that there is something “not quite right” about their new house. Enter paranormal debunker (Beau Bridges) and his T.V crew. Bridges’ character host... a quasi-reality show about ghosts and other worldly behavior. Like the couple, Bridges comes face to face with the history of sin and murder that took place in this house. He is forced to deal with his cynicism about the paranormal and becomes changed by the whole experience. Sounds good, huh. It’s not.
Beau Bridges is a fine actor. Why is he in such a cheesy movie? Times must be tough. Beau, like his brother Jeff, always brings a sense of humanity to his roles. The case is still true here. The movie is laughably bad at times (see spoiler notes). But Bridges grounds the movie and gives it a depth it doesn’t deserve.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2004
The third season of South Park was a bittersweet one. It seemed that season 2 had floundered just a little. Most of us wondered if the talents of Stone and Parker had already run out of gas. Season 3 turned out to be one of the funniest yet. This was also the year that Mary Kay Bergman committed suicide. Mary Kay had provided ALL of the female voices for the show. This left the crew in a scramble to deliver episodes before they could find a replacement. This unfortunate turn did produce some memorable episodes, howev...r.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 22nd, 2004
The Stupids are a family with, as you can guess, a below-average intelligence. I think this might be due to inbreeding. The plot is fairly simple, more a series of vignettes: the family gets into some mess because of a mistake they make, and then get out of it in some silly manner. It sort of comes together in the end, but that's how the whole movie goes.
The Stupids is a kid's movie, and it was made with that exact audience in mind. It's not really there to entertain adults and...the level of humor is about the same as your average Saturday morning cartoon. It's full of puns, silly situations, and obvious references. Of course, a good kid's movie entertains both kids and adults, and The Stupids doesn't even attempt that. The movie is nothing more than a series of sketches, and once you accept that, you're in good hands. It's hit-or-miss like any sketch movie, but when it hits the silly and surreal stride it strives for, it's a lot of fun.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2004
The 1980’s saw a second British entertainment invasion reach the shores of America. That’s when the BBC began to unleash its peculiar brand of humor mixed with sci-fi on PBS stations in the US. College campuses all over the land were tuned to the likes of Dr. Who and later Red Dwarf.
There’s no question that this stuff is not for everyone. Red Dwarf brought us the cheesy f/x and dry humor of Tom Baker’s Dr. Who and added a generous helping of Monty Python and Benny Hill. With the third season, however, thi...gs began to change for Red Dwarf. Set production designer Mel Bibby joined the program, giving it a much sharper look than the previous two years.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 22nd, 2004
What happens when a maladroit lackey, an entrepreneur and his wife, a polymath, a store clerk from Kansas, a motion picture starlet, and a ship captain get stranded on a desert island? The next edition of Survivor, right. Okay…I didn’t fool you. It’s Gilligan’s Island. And the first season is on DVD, all 36 episodes (including the infamous pilot)! Is this cause for celebration? Perhaps for some…
Gilligan’s Island ran for 3 seasons, and close to 100 episodes, on CBS from 1964 to 1967. Th... show grew more popular in syndication, and it spawned three T.V movies, an animation series, and a musical. Is the show any good? There are a lot of fans out there. I’m not one of them, sorry to say. But that’s okay. Not everyone likes salmon either.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 22nd, 2004
The third and hopefully final entry in the American Pie series, American Wedding keeps with the sweet charms and gross out comedy of the first two movies, but can’t live up to the humor of the original or its sequel. Average Joe Jim, (Jason Biggs) and former band geek Michelle, (Alyson Hannigan) are now engaged to be wed and must decide whether raucous Stifler (Seann William Scott) should be invited to the wedding. Shenanigans ensue involving a night out at a gay club, a bachelor party, pleasing the in-laws, and pubi... hair on a wedding cake.
Sure, Stifler eats dog poop and does for curse words what bullet time did for special effects, but missing characters and lack of novelty cannot lift this one into the rare category of sequels being as good or better than the previous installments. While it offers plenty of funny moments, most courtesy of Stifler, the movie just seems tired and worn out. The filmmakers should excuse themselves from the table after this. No more pie for them.
