Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 18th, 2006
Synopsis
Adam Sandler plays Robbie Hart, wedding singer in 1985, making a living covering other people’s songs, but happy with his life, until he is dumped at the altar. Total professional meltdown then ensues (in the big money scene that everyone saw in the trailers). Hope for romance still exists, however, in the person of Drew Barrymore, a waitress about to be married to a total jerk.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 14th, 2006
Here's the dilemma with these kinds of movies; it's hard to successfully fit a hard R story into a PG-13 package. Usher is a big draw in the under-18 market, so the challenge is to take a strong dramatic story and mold it to hit that balance between Hard Eight and Raise Your Voice. However, I have said it before, and here we go yet again... movies that try to appeal to everybody will successfully appeal to nobody. This is a movie that is a bit too racy and violent for your average 12-year-old girl, but way too soft for adults.
The plot is the same kind of thing you have seen time and time again. Usher plays a Hip-Hop DJ trying to break into the music business on a national scale. One night at a party, he saves the life of his friend's father, who is a Mafia boss. As a result of his heroism, he is made to be the bodyguard of the boss' daughter (despite the fact that he has no experience in such a role). Naturally, he soon falls in love with the bosses' daughter, and a conflict of interest ensues.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 11th, 2006
Synopsis
Felicity Huffman plays Bree, formerly Stanley, who, after years of therapy, surgery and hormone replacement, is one week away from undergoing the operation that will finally and definitively make her a woman. Out of the blue, a phone call comes revealing that Stanley fathered a son seventeen years ago. Bree’s therapist won’t let the surgery go ahead until Bree comes to terms with her past and her responsibilities. She travels to New York City to bail out Toby (Kevin Zegers), a street hustler... but keeps the true nature of their relationship a secret as they begin a cross-country journey back to LA.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Game tester Allen Covert is evicted from his apartment, and winds up rooming with his grandmother (Doris Roberts) and her two friends, the stone-on-meds Shirley Knight and the sexually predatory Shirley Jones. He attempts to keep this rather humiliating set-up secret from co-workers and sexy new boss/potential love interest Linda Cardinelli.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 3rd, 2006
Synopsis
FBI agent Martin Lawrence has given up the dangers of field work because of his family responsibilities. Now he’s a safety mascot. But when his first partner is killed, Lawrence surreptitiously dons his Big Momma persona gain, posing as a nanny in the family of the chief suspect, a man who is developing software that could compromise national security.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 30th, 2006
There was a day in the not so distant past when there were about six big name comedians in the country, and everybody pretty much knew who they were. In the past several years, however, stand-up has really taken off in the United States, and it has become increasingly more difficult to keep track of who is who. Jeff Cesario is one of those that has garnered some popularity over the past several years, and is starting to make a big name for himself, but has certainly not arrived on the big stage just yet.
Sinc... comedy is so subjective, it doesn't really seem fair for me to say “this guy's funny” or “his show is lame”, because who am I to decide what you are going to think is funny? All I can do is speak for myself, and I personally didn't care for him. I found him pleasant enough, and some of his jokes were very funny, but generally speaking, his brand of humor just wasn't for me. Others may really enjoy him, and that's fantastic, he just happens to not appeal to me. As a result, my advice to you is that if you have not seen Cesario perform before, you might want to rent this title before you buy it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2006
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother has everything that Young Frankenstein had except Mel Brooks (although he does make a very brief vocal cameo). With the combined comedic genius of Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman, how could this film go wrong? Like Young Frankenstein, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes offers a rich classical mythology to mine for material. A wonderful supporting cast featuring the likes of Dom Deluise can’t miss, right? No so elementary, my dear Watson. Focus. ...hat’s the rub. I’m not referring to the work of the cameramen here. Gene Wilder appeared so sure of his own brilliance that he forgot to bring the story.
The game’s afoot, and it smells like it, too. Never before has so much talent been squandered on so little substance. I understand this is a farce, and I’m fully prepared for the absurd. I’m just not prepared to go nowhere. I was extremely disappointed at every turn. Toilet humor replaces wit. There are also no straight men. What’s Costello without Abbott? Everyone is so into trying to be funny no one offers to be the foil. Simply uninspired. The entire film makes one feel they are witness to one large in joke and we’re on the outside of the punch line. The musical numbers make the film all that much more intolerable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 27th, 2006
Synopsis
Sarah Jessica Parker is the very Manhattan, high stress and rather repressed fiancee of Dermot Mulroney. They head off to small-town New England for Christmas with his family, headed by matriarch Diane Keaton. This is the family Stone of the title, and their free-and-easy lifestyle clashes with Parker’s, and she is seen as an interloper. She is subjected to no end of humiliations, principally at the hands of Rachel McAdams. But when Mulroney’s brother Luke Wilson shows up, Parker finds herse...f a rather oddball ally.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 25th, 2006
Synopsis
Judi Dench is the Mrs. Henderson of the title. Newly widowed in 1937, she decides to put her considerable fortune into owning a theatre. She buys a dilapidated building, has it redone, and hires Bob Hoskins to run it. He is just as headstrong as she is, but their memorable clashes work out to the benefit of their musical revue. When the box office begins to flag, Dench suggests having naked women on stage. A phenomenon is born, one that will not close even during the worst of the Blitz.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 23rd, 2006
When I received Bachelor Party Vegas in for review, I took a quick glance at the cover and the basic plot and thought to myself ‘Oh, I haven’t seen something like this before.’ I suppose a film like this is a guaranteed profit maker since these films are usually pretty cheap to make and don’t need to involve much big talent or production.
The film beings with the apparent 10 Commandments of the Bachelor World. Some of them are amusing barely cracking a smile, while others are down right bordering st...pidity. We meet five best friends who want to take their best buddy played by Jonathan Bennett (Mean Girls) out to Las Vegas for “the wildest, craziest weekend of their lives”. Along the way, we get many a scene that seemingly gets dumber as the film progresses. First up, when the boys arrive in Las Vegas, it appears they’re going to get a lap dance from a stripper. Turns out that this stripper is a old woman. The rest of the scenes, including another lap dance from a bald, fat guy, should have be thrown on the editing floor.
