Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 1st, 2006
Synopsis
After an unsuccessful exorcism ends with the death of its subject (Jennifer Carpenter in the title role), priest Tom Wilkinson is charged with negligent homicide. The prosecutor is a devout Christian (Campbell Scott). Wilkinson’s lawyer is the agnostic Laura Linney. As the court battle progresses, we witness Carpenter’s story in flashback, with her possession beginning while she’s away from home in college. Linney, at first dismissive of Wilkinson’s claims, gradually finds her peace of mind ...rumbling as she begins to witness strange events.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 1st, 2006
One of the few positive side-effects of the popular era of reality TV that we live in today is that the desire for the real has also crossed over to film. This has provided an excellent opportunity for documentary filmmakers to get their product seen by a large audience that just a few short years ago would never have taken the time to watch a documentary film. In fact, documentaries have become so mainstream that Murderball is produced in association with MTV Films. While a wheelchair rugby documentary sounds...like something that is ideally suited for the typical middle-aged PBS viewer, this film is rife with themes that will strike a chord with viewers from many different backgrounds.
This is not a film about sports. This is certainly not a film about feeling sorry for those less fortunate. This is a film about drive, about living life to the fullest, and about speaking your mind no mater what the consequences. It is not pretty, it's not sexy... in fact, some parts of it will probably make viewers downright uncomfortable. That's the point of this film. To make viewers look past their limits and preconceived boundaries, and to see the world and their place in it as something more than it is.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 31st, 2005
Synopsis
Jennifer Connelly is going through a messy divorce with Dougray Scott. They are feuding over the custody of their daughter. Trying to piece her life together, Connelly rents an apartment in a down-at-the-heels building on Roosevelt Island in New York City. A leak develops in her ceiling that keeps getting worse. Her daughter develops an imaginary friend. The supernatural events gather force, apparently determined to drive her out of her mind.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 31st, 2005
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 ...enuine. Could lightning really strike twice?
In a word, “no”. This is the film that audiences were expecting the first time around. It is childish, contrived, and decidedly low-brow, with none of the genuine affecting elements of the first film. This time around, as the title suggests, Deuce spends some time in Europe; Amsterdam to be exact. No longer a gigolo, Deuce is now helping out his old pimp TJ by trying to catch a serial killer of “man whores”. As bad as that plot sounds, trust me... it's worse. So many of the jokes just make no sense. For instance, at one point TJ finds some french fries just lying around, and decides to eat them. He then accidentally drops them into the toilet. Naturally, he then dips them out and eats them. Why would he do that? What's more.. who cares? Certainly not me.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 30th, 2005
8MM 2 is a sequel to Schumacher’s 8MM in name only. It tells the story of an aspiring politician and his loving fiancée on a mission of sexual experimentation in Budapest, which quickly turns into a trust-no one game of seduction, blackmail, and murder. The crux of the story is a steamy threesome between the two lovers and a strange dark-haired beauty. The only eight millimeter tie-in is from the film which is shot during the escapade – unbeknownst to the lovers – which is then used to string the politi...ian along in the unknown blackmailer’s deadly game.
As a sequel, this story completely fails to work. Gone is the creepiness of the first’s horrific plot. Now it’s just about sleaze and blackmail, neither of which are executed in very interesting fashion. Lori Heuring and Johnathon Schaech are good-looking enough, but their presence seems better suited to a made-for-Lifetime movie. Their looks are too clean and simply fall short of the sleaze level the film hopes to obtain. While production values are slick, director J.S. Cardone’s ego is dripping from every frame. I’m glad he takes his work so seriously, but when that work is as cheap and trashy as 8MM 2, such behavior is more obnoxious than endearing.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 30th, 2005
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.
While anyone who's ever created anything can certainly relate to the noble Luke Falcon in his efforts to make it big on his own terms, no viewer can get past the egotistical pseudo-charms of Simpson, whose very performance seeks selfish standing as Undiscovered's novelty act. I didn't want to turn this into an Ashlee bash-fest, but she makes it too darn easy, and clouds the quality of what otherwise may have been a decent romantic comedy-drama. She spends all of her too-freely-given screen time shooting frequent looks to the camera and smiling a big stupid grin as if she's flirting with us. While Jessica may be somewhat charming and physically attractive (jury's still out), Ashlee falls far short of what could be construed as her sister's qualities, and seems like she's doing her best stupid impersonation. And while she certainly makes a convincing idiot, it's her sister's act, and she needs to find one of her own. Of course, when the only reason she's even succeeded depends on the existence of her sister, originality may be a hard attribute to come by.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 30th, 2005
Synopsis
David Carradine headlines yet another Roger Corman-produced action comedy. Here he’s the good seller of moonshine, up against the bad seller of same, who also happens to be the fater of Carradine’s girlfriend (Kate Jackson). Daddy is in bed with the mob, and is cheerfully selling rotgut on the streets (some of which as been fermenting in a tank with a car battery – blechhh). A battle for supremacy ensues, complete with many boat and car chases and plenty of fisticuffs.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 30th, 2005
Frasier is, quite simply, the one of best sitcoms of all time. This show proves that the studios don't have to dumb down their product to appeal to a mass audience.(Are you listening, Hollywood?) If the writing is of a great enough caliber, the audience will always rise to meet the material. More shows in this sad era of reality television overkill would do themselves well to follow the lead of this wonderfully funny program.
What Frasier is better at than just about an other film or televisio... show I have ever seen is it's mastery of farce. It is extremely difficult to make farce genuinely funny, and this show did it masterfully on a weekly basis. Any show can throw some lame jokes into a show, but it takes thought and attention to detail to craft jokes where the elements build up over time, and the punchline hits the audience out of nowhere.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 29th, 2005
Note: the following synopsis contains spoilers. Only read this first section if you know have happens in season four.
I shall first give a bit of the background of the show for any readers who are a bit interested in the background of the show. The show debuted in the fall of 1985 during an era of non-violent and very-feel good nature type television shows. Even though a show like Macgyver did follow this standard 80’s television show rule, the show manages to distance itself from the standard cop sh...w/soap opera show solely because of the lead character Macgyer. Instead of using brute force to overcome his adversaries, Macgyver simply stops and takes a moment to use his head to decide what to do next. Since Macgyer he has an astounding mind (most specifically in the science field), he is able to always get the upper edge over his foes with his ability to make easy use of any of the materials surrounding him to create solutions to the numerous problems he encounters. While I must say this is a bit different from your average show, this routine does get a bit tiring after awhile.
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.
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