Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 16th, 2006
Synopsis
This is a portrait of the rookie year of Yao Ming, a Chinese basketball superstar who is imported to play for the Houston Rockets. He arrives not just with the expectations associated with being a first-draft pick, but also with the hopes of (we are told) one billion countrymen on his shoulders. His debut is a disaster, but he soon establishes himself as a force to be reckoned with, as well as charming American fans with his self-effacing personality and humour.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 15th, 2006
Synopsis
Inspired, rather than based, on the life of bounty hunter Domino Harvey, this exercise in monumentally brain-dead excess sees Keira Knightley in the title role. The daughter of Manchurian Candidate star Laurence Harvey, she rebels against the posh Beverly Hills life of her mother (Jacqueline Bisset) to become the bounty hunting partner of Mickey Rourke and Edgar Ramirez, working for Delroy Lindo. Christopher Walken is the TV producer who designs a reality show around the trio and two ...ormer Beverly Hills 90210 stars, and then everything gets insanely complicated when our heroes are sent to nab the wrong guys, who happen to be mob-connected.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 14th, 2006
Synopsis
I was amazed that a film starring three Academy Award winners (Robert De Niro (Raging Bull), Kathy Bates (Misery), F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) would be so ignored and passed over by the movie going public. Based on a novel by Thornton Wilder and adapted for the screen and directed by relative unknown Mary McGuckian, the film recounts a tragic incident where several people fell to their death from a bridge collapse. A monk by the name of Brother Juniper (Gabriel Byrne, The Us...al Suspects) tries to piece together the lives of the people involved in the accident, to determine if it was a larger act of divine intervention.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 29th, 2005
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...mily trees to help them crash any party. Anglo or African-American, Italian or Spanish, Chinese or Korean, it does not matter to them—they just pretend to be some distant relative of a dead aunt and bluff their way through the rest. The purpose behind this cleverly conceived fraud? Simple, they want to get laid. They want no-strings-attached sex with beautiful, twenty-something women. Tons of them.
After a long and eventful season of fun weddings, these two come across the ultimate wedding to crash. The eldest daughter of a prominent Senator is getting married, and John and Jeremy simply cannot afford to miss such an illustrious event. When they arrive, however, it is not long before the plan goes out of the window and everything starts to fall apart. Although they appear to find their designated targets, and set about on their elaborate plans to seal the deal with these lovely ladies, it turns out that things are much more complicated than they seem because the girls are the two younger daughters of the Senator and they each come with their own share of woes. The boys may just have their work cut out for them if they want to close the deal but the real trouble comes when they start to realize that they may want more than just the one night.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2005
Posted by Kim Lee
This unauthorized biography by New Line Home Entertainment covers the life of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. The documentary describes 50 Cent’s expedition of dealing drugs at the corner of Jamaica and Queens, to boxing, to becoming a gangster rapper, and in the end a music industry icon.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 5th, 2005
Greg Marcks directorial debut 11:14 is a tricky little puzzle of a film. Amazingly enough, the pieces do all fit together, despite Marcks' (who also wrote the screenplay) bewildering youth. What significance (if any) 11:14 has over other times on the clock, I don't know. In fact, why the five stories play out as they do, I wasn't sure until the final segment, which neatly ties all parts together. While it may not be the type of film that's as much fun to watch the second time around, you'll have a ball the first.
Of course, as Rachel Leigh Cook's wannabe love slave (sorry wife), I have to say the last segment is my favorite. In addition to this portion's role as crazy glue for the rest of the film, we get to see Ms. Cook's Cheri at her devilish best, and it's superb at just how naughty she can be. The joyride segment is also a winner, thanks in part to the three hot-rodders' just comeuppance, even though I did get a kick out of their antics. They're definitely the types of kids you'd wish a deadly one-car accident on during a traffic-laden Saturday night, but in the confines of this film, these characters are much more amusing than any real-life counterpart could ever be.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 3rd, 2005
Synopsis
I’m a very white guy. But in growing up, one of my first music gods was Jimi Hendrix. Then, one day I saw Bustin’ Loose with Richard Pryor and Cicely Tyson (a.k.a., Miles Davis’ punching bag) when I was 10, so I wanted to see any comedy Richard Pryor had made. And I did, from Car Wash to Uptown Saturday Night. These were my first real lessons or experiences, watching a cast (or film) with African Americans in it. It wasn’t Star Wars or anything, it was memorable for its ...wn reasons.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 27th, 2005
Synopsis
Irritable, repressed Sylvia Stickles (Tracy Ullman) is conked on the head, and the concussiontransforms her into a sexual dynamo, one of the followers of sexual healer and prophet Ray-Ray(Johnny Knoxville). The streets of Baltimore are the battleground of a culture war between theanti-sex Neuters, led by Sylvia’s mother-in-law Big Ethel, and the forces of the polymorphouslyperverse. The result is a little bit like a George Romero zombie movie, where getting headingthe bonked transf...rms you back and forth between human and zombie. Here, the Neuters are thezombies.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2005
Some sequels should not be made. I mean, was there any reason to have another Caddyshack? So who thought having a sequel to The Mask was a good idea. And not have Jim Carrey. Son of the Mask goes into the category of unnecessary sequels.
The premise is simple: the missing mask (which can give the wearer powers) is found floating in a stream by Otis, a dog. The dog takes it back to the Avery family. Tim Avery, a cartoonist, is played by Jamie Kennedy. The new mask gives him new powers,...and the baby he creates with his wife becomes a mask baby. The baby's face contorts and he can jump around (the baby is basically a cartoon). Meanwhile, the god of mischief Loki (played by the usually solid Alan Cumming) is sent by his father Odin (Bob Hoskins desperate for a paycheck?)on the trail of this mask.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 25th, 2005
Blade: Trinity caught a lot of flack from most critics, and even the movie going public as per the box office returns (only grossing $52 million domestically). When I went to see this film in the theatre, half of my party was extremely disappointed with the flick. The other half, including myself, thought the film was quite entertaining. I must admit, this film does not come close to the original Blade, but I did find it a little bit more entertaining the Blade 2.
The biggest change...to this sequel is the addition of Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel to the cast of Vampire Hunters. Reynolds is a breath of fresh air to this series with his wit and humor, and Biel, well, she looks great. Reynolds one-liners were a little much at times (which turned many viewers off), which made this picture more of an action-comedy then an action-horror. You could tell they were stretching for a premise this time around, but the cast pulled through for the most part. I don't think you will get a consensus on this films quality, but if you are looking for some over the top action and some cool special effects, this film is worth a watch.
