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Comedy

American Women

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2006

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American Women is a difficult film to write about because it evokes such little passion from its viewer. By no standards is it a good film, but pinpointing its frailties becomes quite the daunting task. Set in a small Irish village, the story centers on a group of sexist men, who want to import girls from America because the ones accessible to them do not meet up to the appropriate standards. The plot is farfetched, even as goofball comedies go, and none of the male characters are likeable. Also, with so many …
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Dirty Deeds

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 27th, 2006

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Synopsis

At West Valley High (how generic a name is that?), homecoming week is marked by a special challenge: can you perform ten outrageous dirty deeds in twelve hours. The record is eight. Zach (Milo Ventimiglia) has no interest in any of the school traditions, but when the younger brother of the girl he is sweet on volunteers to take the challenge, Zach steps in to save the boy from certain doom and do the deeds himself, in the process taking down the king of the jocks a few notches.

Wha…
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Puddle Cruiser

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 25th, 2006

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Broken Lizard’s Puddle Cruiser follows Felix Bean, a smitten young college student, whose entire life changes when he sees pretty Suzanne at a party. He immediately tries to impress her, but only ends up incurring the wrath of Traci Shannon, her rather large rugby-playing boyfriend from a rival school. He does manage to wiggle some of her affections away, enough so that she halts her go-nowhere relationship. Together, the two embark on a passionate love affair, but Suzanne still has difficulties letting go of …
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Chumscrubber, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 23rd, 2006

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Synopsis

Dean Stiffle (Jamie Bell) is a teenager in an affluent suburb who appears to be completely disconnected (due in no small part to the happy pills prescribed by his celebrity psychiatrist father). When he finds his best friend Troy dead (a suicide), he doesn’t even tell anyone about it. He is forced to become involved when three other teens kidnap a boy they think is Dean’s brother in order to force him to find Troy’s drug stash. Turns out they’ve kidnapped the wrong boy, and so begins a chain…
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In Her Shoes

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2006

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Synopsis

Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz are sisters. Collette is the older, sensible one, who has made a career as a lawyer. Diaz is the hard-drinking, terminally selfish party girl. After a series of disasters, which culminate in Diaz sleeping with Collette’s beau, the sisters have a seemingly irreversible falling out. Collette’s life is in ruins, but the pieces are gradually picked up by a co-worker who has loved for from afar for years. Diaz, meanwhile, discovers that she has a grandmother she nev…
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Made

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 10th, 2006

This is the perfect time for Lion’s Gate to release Made on UMD for the PSP. Not only does the film feature such trendy personalities as Faizon Love and Puff Daddy/Puffy/Sean “Puffy” Combs/P-Diddy/Diddy, but it also stars the current comedic genius of the week… Vince Vaughn. That’s not to say that I don’t like Vince Vaughn, it’s just that he is riding such a high wave since his hilarious work in Wedding Crashers that this is the perfect time for the studio to cash in on some of his lesser known films …
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Bad News Bears (2005)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 8th, 2006

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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…
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Rock ‘n’ Roll High School

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 6th, 2006

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Synopsis

Welcome to Vince Lombardi High School, where new principal Mary Woronov (coming on like a cross between Miss Jean Brodie and Ilsa) is determined to stomp the student body into submission. In order to do this, she wants to banish rock music. Her chief antagonist is PJ Soles, a huge fan of the Ramones, and she eventually enlists the band itself to help defeat Woronov and her fascistic hall monitors.

The chaos may reach epically destructive proportions (KABOOOM!), but this is all in g…
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Must Love Dogs

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 4th, 2006

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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?…
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American Pie Presents Band Camp

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 3rd, 2006

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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…
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Deuce Bigelow – European Gigolo

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 31st, 2005

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The first Deuce Bigelow film was something of a surprise hit. Rob Schneider’s first outing as a leading man was never expected to be as, well… genuinely entertaining as it was. Sure, the movie was a little hokey, but that was to be expected. After all, we’re talking about a film that tells the story of a pool boy that becomes a gigolo. What was not expected was that the film would actually have a heart. As would be expected, the film had its fair share of comedy, but the tender love story was unexpected and …
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Undiscovered

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 30th, 2005

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Meiert Avis’ new romantic comedy-drama Undiscovered has been turning up on more than a few worst lists for 2005, and while that may be an unfair assessment, as just about every film out this year could have made it onto the same list, it’s still no picnic. Some of the numbers are hip enough, and the two lead actors deliver likeable, though poorly written performances. However, Ashlee Simpson’s performance drives it all down into the mud and solidifies her standing as not just the least talented Simpson daughter, but also one of the most obnoxious wretches, who dares call herself a celebrity.
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Wedding Crashers

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 29th, 2005

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John(Owen Wilson) and Jeremy(Vince Vaughn) are divorce mediators faced with the daily struggle of attempting to reconcile fractured partners for long enough to enable them to reach some kind of settlement. But let’s not worry about that too much because it’s nearly wedding season, a time when their entire agenda shifts focus. Why? Because John and Jeremy are wedding crashers. We’re not talking about anything half-hearted either. These two are professional wedding crashers. They have rules, game-plans, and even fake f…
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Dukes of Hazzard, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 21st, 2005

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Where does Dukes of Hazzard fall on the spectrum of TV show adaptations? Somewhere in the middle, which came as a surprise. I expected a stupid flick with no entertainment value, but I got a stupid flick with more than a few glimmers of amusement. The film’s plot borders on irrelevant, but I’ll recap it anyway. The flick focuses on the adventures of cousins Bo (Seann William Scott) and Luke (Johnny Knoxville) Duke. They deliver moonshine for their Uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson), and Bo also succeeds as a local ra…
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Wedding Date, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 18th, 2005

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Synopsis

I would hope that with films like The Wedding Date, that the genre of films set around weddings is over and done with. There’s nothing left to mine, the horse is very dead, and in this case, the film is rather predictable. Or to put in another way, my wife said “this film will probably be stupid, but I’ll like it”. And when I was watching parts of the film, the story was so easy to follow that I could go and make a batch of chili, come back, and be caught up to the story.

Based on …
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Airplane! – The “Don’t Call Me Shirley” Edition

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 14th, 2005

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The spoof film means something different to audiences today than it did in the early 80’s. Anything, if done enough times over, starts to become stale. For instance, the first Scary Movie, while having a couple of really lame scenes, was actually pretty funny overall. With each sequel, however, came diminished returns. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a film that spoofs spoof films (though I’m not sure how one would do that).

Airplane!, however, was the first of the genre. Not onl…
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Frostbite

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 11th, 2005

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Synopsis

Sometimes studios will hit big on a film, and other times, they’ll be so far off the mark as to miss the boat completely. Take the case of Frostbite. Summarized, as one cast member puts it, as “part Caddyshack meets part American Pie meets part Dude, Where’s My Car? in the snow.” You know, I remember a movie kinda like that, and I rented it back in 1984, when t was called Hot Dog..The Movie.

To their credit, the producers did try to create a link to the …
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What’s New Pussycat?

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 1st, 2005

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Synopsis

Peter Sellers turns in a performance that opens at high do and never looks back as a lunatic psychiatrist. He is treating Peter O’Toole, a man who wants to be faithful to his girlfriend (Romy Schneider) but cannot say no to the innumerable women who throw themselves at him. Into the mix comes Woody Allen, who, unsurprisingly, plays a sexual loser.

Woody Allen’s first feature script has all the characteristics of his work to come: the sexual hang-ups, the non-sequitur dialogue, the …
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Satisfaction

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 26th, 2005

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Synopsis

Satisfaction is a transitional project in so many ways. This was one of the first American films of Liam Neeson, who would go on to mildly excite the world as Henry Ducard in Batman Begins. Before Mystic Pizza came out, the world was exposed to Julia Roberts as Daryle.

And what of the main attraction of the film? Well, the film was apparently intended to be a starring vehicle for Justine Bateman, whose previous claim to fame was from Family Ties, playing the do…
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Honeymooners, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 24th, 2005

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Synopsis

Cedric the Entertainer is Ralph Kramden. Mike Epps is Ed Norton. They have the get-rich-quick schemes that never work. Gabrelle Union and Regina Hall are Alice and Trixie, the long-suffering and very sensible wives who are increasingly exasperated by their numbnuts husbands. The latest scheme involves things like turning a pet greyhound into a competitive racer, all in the hopes of purchasing a duplex.

Cards on the table: I was never a fan of the TV show. Born too late, I suppose, …
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Perfect Man

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 22nd, 2005

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Jean Hamilton, after having a bad relationship, decides to move to New York City with her two daughters. We quickly learn that this particular mother feels the need to move after EVERY bad relationship. The whiny eldest daughter gets sick of it, so she decides to set up her mom with an imaginary guy so she can get her mother on the possible right path.

The Perfect Man is the type of film that you watch once and literally cry through. No, it’s not the type of film that you cry because it is really s…
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And Now for Something Completely Hilarious! Collection

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 14th, 2005

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Synopsis

And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) was Monty Python’s first theatrical release, and consists of remounted, often more elaborately staged versions of many of their most beloved TV skits. You want your Dead Parrot, it’s here. So is the Lumberjack Song, How Not to Be Seen, and so on. As a one-stop intro to Python, it’s hard to beat.

Funny as the above film is, it is eclipsed in most people’s hearts by Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974), easily the most…
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Sex and the Teenage Mind

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 14th, 2005

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Virgin geek Virgil (Jay Michael Ferguson) sticks up for hot girl Kellie (Allison Lange) when a teacher rips into her for cheating on her history exam. Thankful for his bravery, Kellie invites Virgil over to her house to thank him.

If you haven’t guessed it by now, Sex and the Teenage Mind is a complete rehash of just about every teenage sex comedy ever made in the last 25 years. Even the red bikini featured on the DVD cover will have you screaming Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Ther…
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Office Space

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 14th, 2005

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Written by Clayton Self

The cult classic “Office Space” from creator Mike Judge (Bevis and Butthead) found a huge following on its initial release on DVD. The movie stars Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons, a software analyst for the computer giant Initech. Fed up with his condescending boss (Gary Cole) and the frustrations of his job in general, he visits a hypno therapist who puts him in a state of well being and relaxation. The therapist dies of a heart attack before the procedure is complete, leaving Peter permanately care free. Peter …
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Two for the Road

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 28th, 2005

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Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney are a couple whose marriage appears to be reaching its end. They travel through France, which was the scene of so many other memories, and they (and we) experience, through interlocking flashbacks, the history of their relationship.From the moment the animated credit sequence and Henry Mancini score begin, one is clearly watching a Stanley Donen film from the peak of his career (the presence of Hepburn is yet another reminder of Charade from just a couple of years prior).
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