Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 10th, 2006
Waist Deep tells the story of a man named Otis Senior (Baby Boy’s Tyrese Gibson), an ex-con who is trying to straighten out his life after being releasing from jail. Otis, known by his previous street name of ‘O2’, is working as a security guard at a place he got from part of his ex-con program. One day O2 goes to pick up his son, Otis Junior, from school when his child and his car get ‘jacked’ in a carjacking. O2 chases down these men and, despite killing two of them, doesn’t get his car back. He then ...ealizes, after seeing a woman named Coco (Meaghan Good) who tried to sell him some suits cheap, that he was set up. Obviously this doesn’t sit well with O2 who forcefully (read gun point) convinces her to come with him in hopes of getting his son back and getting her off of the hustling that has consumed her life.
O2’s cousin Lucky (who was suppose to pick up Otis Junior but failed to) tells him that a gang leader named Big Meat (rapper The Game) heard that O2 has a lot of money (try $100,000). In your typical movie plot line, Big Meat gives O2 48 hours to give up this money in exchange for his son. While all this seems kind of terrifying, there is some actual humor to this. As all of this is occurring to O2 and Coco, in the background there is an anti-violence rally going on throughout downtown Los Angeles.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 9th, 2006
Peter Bogdanovich’s The All Laughed is a classy, bittersweet film. It’s plot is pretty thin, but here’s the gist: a New York City private detective agency is hired to keep tabs on two women suspected of infidelity. Things get interesting when the gumshoes on the trail begin falling for their lovely targets.
The best part of this film is its cast. Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, John Ritter, Dorothy Stratten, Patti Hansen, Colleen Camp, Blaine Novak and George Morfogen all fit their parts so well, it’s not surprising to learn in the bonus material that Bogdanovich wrote the parts with exactly these actors in mind. Hepburn and Gazzara anchor this picture with a measure of class that’s so rare in films today. This was Hepburn’s final starring film role, and she’s as effortless as ever. Gazzara is old-school cool, making moments out of so many of his lines.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 9th, 2006
I don’t watch a lot of horror movies, but when I do I want them to be scary or amusing, or both. I found Blackwater Valley Exorcism to be none of the above.
The story centers around the demonic possession of a young woman, and the efforts a group of people make to save her. This group includes her family, her father’s farmhands, a sheriff, a veterinarian and a priest who’s never dealt with this sort of thing before. Luckily, one of those farmhands just happens to be a former priest who has conducted an exorcism.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2006
One of the nice side effects of the popularity of DVD is that the general public is seeing many films that they would not have seen before. The more people that have DVD players in their homes, the more budget titles hit store shelves. Therefore, people are more apt to pick up a title sight-unseen, and some pretty descent direct-to-video films that would never have made it into theaters have found new life in the home theater market.
Warner Brothers knows a good thing when they see it, so they have created a company that produces horror movies with the specific intention of releasing them in the direct-to-DVD market. The first film in the three-picture package is Rest Stop: Dead Ahead This is the story of Nicole, a young girl that runs away from home with her boyfriend to make it big in Hollywood. On the way, the couple pull over at a rest stop. As it turns out, this is a very bad idea.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2006
Cedric the Entertainer – Taking You Higher is Cedric’s first solo HBO Comedy Special. He made his mark in the biz as a top-notch, critically acclaimed stand-up comedian, and has also appeared in a series of lackluster films like Be Cool and Big Momma’s House. I don’t think many would argue against the assertion that Cedric is at his best on stage, doing stand-up.
For proof, look to this hour-long HBO Special. Cedric the Entertainer lives up to his name in this show, which offers up about four parts stand-up, one part song and dance. Backed by an eight-piece band and a group of scantily clad dancers Cedric calls “the Cedibles,” he opens the show with a high-energy musical number. Turns out, Cedric can actually sing a little bit. He throws in a few jokes during the song, and it sets the flavor of the show to come.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2006
A letter from the filmmakers included with this disc reads, ”I guess some people will find… The King pretty extreme.” I had barely heard of this indy film going in, so I had few presuppositions to influence my experience. But before hitting play I read the letter, and that statement stuck with me as I watched. I wanted to know whether I was one of those people.
It turned out that I was. Sort of. There are aspects to this story that are so dark and twisted that I often found myself squirming as the scenes unfolded. At the same time, though, I found The King mostly the opposite of extreme. I had fully expected to see a blood-spattering climax of emotions fueled by secrets, sin and betrayal. In fact, after reading the filmmaker’s letter, I figured the picture would get messy pretty early on.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2006
If Jackass was on the Travel Channel, the result would be Wildboyz. I think this show can best be described as “perversely fascinating”. On the one hand, any sane person would never sit in a hot tub full of alligators, or step into the ring with a champion Thai boxer. On the other hand, it really is fascinating to see these morons visit the wilds of Africa, see rat-infested temples in India or face off against the Russian hockey team. While most travel programs would discuss the history of the locations...they visit, these guys truly experience the places for themselves, no matter the risk to personal safety. For instance, while many know of the ancient ritual of bathing in the Ganges river, only these fools are crazy enough to dive into the disease and sewage-filled water for a bath today.
Finally, a word of clarification; “uncensored” does not really mean uncensored. The language in these episodes is uncensored, but nudity is not. Believe me, it's all for the best. While the thought of visiting a nudist camp or seeing a tribe of cannibals may sound like fun in theory, believe me, once you see the boys visit a nudist camp in Louisiana, you will be thankful that the blurry boxes have been left in.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2006
Sam Elliott is a fine actor, but he is almost always typecast as a cowboy. He is an excellent cowboy, tall and thin with a weathered face and a deep drawl. The thing is, he is a fine actor in more traditional roles as well. While I frequently enjoy his work as a cowboy, I have always felt that he may have turned in his finest performance as White House Chief of Staff Kermit Newman in The Contender.
He breaks out of his traditional role yet again with The Avenger, a TNT original film that stars Elliott as a mercenary hired to find a lost aid worker in Serbia, and discovers much more than he is looking for in the process. The typical plot lines of powerful men in high places plotting in smoke-filled rooms are plentiful, but it is enjoyable trash all the same. There was a time in the not-too-distant past that “made for TV” equaled “don't waste your time”. Networks such as TNT and HBO have tried their best to change that mindset, and I am happy to find that the stereotype is shifting toward the positive.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2006
If Jackass was on the Travel Channel, the result would be Wildboyz. I think this show can best be described as “perversely fascinating”. On the one hand, any sane person would never sit in a hot tub full of alligators, or step into the ring with a champion Thai boxer. On the other hand, it really is fascinating to see these morons visit the wilds of Africa, see rat-infested temples in India or face off against the Russian hockey team. While most travel programs would discuss the history of the locations...they visit, these guys truly experience the places for themselves, no matter the risk to personal safety. For instance, while many know of the ancient ritual of bathing in the Ganges river, only these fools are crazy enough to dive into the disease and sewage-filled water for a bath today.
Finally, a word of clarification; “uncensored” does not really mean uncensored. The language in these episodes is uncensored, but nudity is not. Believe me, it's all for the best. While the thought of visiting a nudist camp or seeing a tribe of cannibals may sound like fun in theory, believe me, once you see the boys visit a nudist camp in Louisiana, you will be thankful that the blurry boxes have been left in.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 6th, 2006
Synopsis
I thought I knew all about Stick It based on the cover of the disc: “From the Writer of Bring It On”. That’s it, game over. What I could expect was a film where the girls ruled the show, the adults, if they could be found, were pretty marginal, and there would be a lot of ass shots. But despite all the semi-glorified ass shots, Stick It isn’t necessarily a bad movie. In fact, I kinda liked it. Maybe it’s all the ass exposure, I don’t know. Whatever the reason, the 103 minutes ...f Stick It start with Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym, Catwoman), your proverbial rebel with a load of talent who keeps pissing it away by rebelling on anything and anybody. And as punishment for vandalizing a house, her father (and yes, that is Uncle Rico himself, Jon Gries, from Napoleon Dynamite) gets her to rejoin a gymnastics academy she dropped out of as part of her restitution, community service, etc.
