Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 30th, 2004
Synopsis
Dumped on the night he was to announce his engagement, Jamie Foxx turns his pain into abestselling breakup manual. When his cousin, Morris Chestnut, thinks his girlfriend GabrielleUnion is going to break up with him, Foxx is enlisted to help, which leads to a massive chainreaction of mistaken identities and misunderstandings.
The structure is clearly and consciously that of a classical farce. Though the film neverachieves the proper frenzy requires of a farc...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 24th, 2004
Synopsis
Garfield goes about his happy existence, scarfing lasagna, tormenting the neighbourhooddog, and taking advantage of fellow cat Nermal’s stupidity. Chaos arrives when Jon (BreckinMeyer), hoping to impress vet Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt) adopts Odie the dog. Garfield doesall he can to remove Odie from the home, but when Odie actually is kidnapped by an evil animalshow host, Garfield heads off to the city on a perilous rescue.
Other than Garfield’s look and an appropria...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 24th, 2004
Synopsis
Into a sleepy town, and into the home of the formidable senior citizen Irma P. Hall comecriminal mastermind/Foghorn Leghorn impersonator Tom Hanks and his dastardly crew.Pretending to be musicians, the crooks use Hall’s basement to tunnel their way to a casino shipand a big heist. Their carefully laid plans naturally start going terribly awry thanks both to Halland to the incompetence of the gang.
The original Ladykillers is one of the greatest comedies every...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 20th, 2004
The Whole Nine Yards was a pretty funny film. It wasn’t outstanding. It wasn’t classic cinema. It certainly didn’t cry out for a sequel. The Whole Ten Yards goes one yard too far. Most of the original cast is back, but the film has no life. Even the laughs are forced. By now the novelty of the characters has long since worn thin. Bruce Willis seems to be acting for acting’s sake. The mood swings and unnecessary facial exaggerations seem to provide Willis with some distraction from how empty the rest of the film is. I...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 20th, 2004
Synopsis
Diane Lane’s jerk of a husband, always imitating his best friend, buys her a gun she does notwant. Bizarre neighbour James LeGros asks to borrow the gun. Lane turns down the request, butLeGros helps himself anyway, and a chain of events as bizarre as it is low key is sent inmotion.
Owing some of its dry, absurd humour to David Lynch, My New Gun is also morefirmly grounded in a recognizable world than is Lynch’s work. The pace might be a tad too muchon the l...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 17th, 2004
Synopsis
When sinister businessman George Sanders offers to produce a film starring Sonny and Cher,Sonny can’t wait to get started, though Cher has severe doubts. It turns out the shooting scriptis impossibly bad, and Sonny has ten days to come up with an alternative. We see his fantasiesof various film possibilities (western, mystery, jungle adventure), each one clearly a catastrophein its own right.
This was the directorial debut of William Friedkin. Of course it was! Obvi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Naked in New York follows the ups and downs of the relationship between EricStoltz and Mary-Louise Parker. Stoltz is our narrator. He is raised by deeply neurotic singlemother Jill Clayburgh, and he works out his conflicted feelings about his family in some(apparently) promising plays during his college years. It is hear that he meets Parker, who hashuge talent as a photographer, but is very insecure and self-deprecating about her own talent.Their relationship is put...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 13th, 2004
Scooby-Doo 2 is pretty-much the same as the original film. Oh, sure, the plot differs slightly, but for the most part, this is the same film. If you liked the first one, you will like this one. However, if you hated the first one, like I did, then this is regrettably more of the same mindless fluff.
Recently, movie studios have caught on to the idea that if they make children’s movies with subtle in-jokes for adults, their profits will rise. This was the case with Finding Nemo, Shrek an...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 3rd, 2004
Synopsis
After a catastrophic flight, during which his rear end is stuck on the toilet and his dog issucked into an engine, Kevin Hart sues the airline and wins a hundred-million dollar settlement.With this windfall, he establishes a new airline: NWA. The film then follows the maiden voyageof NWA’s purple pimpmobile plane, complete with every hip-hop video stereotypeimaginable.
Clearly aspiring to be an urban Airplane!, this dog rarely rises above the level of thewo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 28th, 2004
Chris Rock is quite possibly the most important comic of all time. There are quite a few entertainers that have shown up in the public spotlight over the past few years that have blurred the lines between comic, social satirist and political lecturer. Bill Maher and Dennis Miller come to mind. However, Chris Rock is a special comedian, due to his masterful knowledge of how to manipulate an audience. Anybody can make wise cracks about racial differences, but it takes a special person to be able to change the minds of ...