Fool’s Gold (Warner Bros.)
June 26th, 2008
“Florida didn’t ruin your life, you did. You married a guy for the sex and expected him to be smart.”
Romantic comedies are definitely a controversial genre and Fool’s Gold is definitely a romantic comedy. If you are a classically trained straight male who hates romantic comedies then do not rent this movie. Do not watch this movie with your girlfriend and sigh and pout your way through it. And maybe, don’t even read this review: you will most certainly judge me for not being disgusted with every second of this movie. (emily) Read on…
Jumper (20th Century Fox)
June 25th, 2008
“Once I was a normal person, a chump, just like you”
Teleportation has to be the most logistically brilliant treat science-fiction ever gave our culture. If everyone could teleport, we would never have to use fuel of any kind, ever again. 911 calls could be responded to instantaneously. There are many practical and philanthropic uses for teleportation, so why is Jumper about robbing banks, quietly abandoning one night stands, and having picnics on the head of the sphinx? (emily) Read on…
Semi-Pro (New Line)
June 19th, 2008
“I’m talkin’ rainforest sweaty”
Will Farrell movies are always hit or miss. When they are good, Will Farrell is cast in a role with overly emotional substance and timely one-liner wit, as in Elf. When they are bad, they play out like a series of ad-libbed sketches based on inside jokes, as in Anchorman. Semi-Pro is a mixture of these two Farrell archetypes. (emily) Read on…
High Noon (Lionsgate)
June 18th, 2008
If you’ve never seen High Noon, there’s no time like the present to discover one of the best westerns ever made and a true classic of American cinema. The funny thing is, it almost never was: in the accompanying documentary on the making of the film, we learn that because of his age, Oscar-winner Gary Cooper was never on anyone’s short list – the role had been offered to a half-dozen of Hollywood’s foremost leading men and all of them turned it down. If an “angel” investor had not put up the $250,000 needed to finance the flick with the condition that Cooper play the lead, High Noon might never have happened.
Cooper is Will Kane - the Marshal of a small town and it’s his wedding day; he’s marrying a much younger woman (Grace Kelly in her first movie) and retiring at the same time, leaving the town without a lawman for a week. Unfortunately, Frank Miller, a criminal supposedly in prison for life, has been pardoned and on his way back to this same town to exact revenge on the man who put him away….Kane. Torn between his duty and his wife, Kane chooses to stay and fight, but discovers that not only are the people he had protected for years too cowardly to stand up and fight alongside him, but also that his wife won’t stay either and plans to leave town on the next train – the same train that’s bringing the gang leader back to town. Cooper is magnificent as he confronts the townspeople with confidence one minute, then breaks down in despair the next, as he desperately tries to find a way out of his situation. Since the story unfolds in nearly-real time, tension escalates with the rapid camera cutaways to clocks ominously ticking down the minutes to high noon and the arrival of the train. The ending is explosive and Cooper steals the show, but the supporting cast also has a lot to do with the success of the picture. In addition to Kelly, Lon Chaney Jr., Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado (the fabulous Helen Ramirez), Lee Van Cleef and Sheb Wooley all have memorable roles. Don’t miss the second disc of extras, as the story behind the production and its creators is a fascinating one and Tex Ritter even gets a couple of nods with a visit to his museum and a clip of him performing “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’” on the Jimmy Dean show.
Come Drink With Me (Dragon Dynasty)
June 18th, 2008
Touted by everyone as the inspiration for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the groundbreaking 1966 Come Drink With Me delivers a great story, some decent action, a touch of magic and the kind of hokey dialog that actually becomes endearing. Classically-trained ballerina and martial arts queen Cheng Pei-pei is Golden Swallow – the sister of a government official kidnapped by a clan of bandits and who, attempts to take them all on single-handedly. Her Kung Fu (or “Kong Fu” here) is mighty, but she’s thwarted repeatedly by the evil Sleek Face (dude looks like a Chinese version of The Joker) and his crew. Luckily, she’s rescued by Drunk Cat (Hua Yueh), an itinerant beggar who appears to be a bum, but in reality, is a Kung Fu master with extraordinary powers. There wasn’t a lot of wire work in 1966, so many of the stunts are edited to create the illusion of the actors running up the sides of buildings and leaping across rooftops. The swordplay is pretty good and Golden Dragon is fairly deadly with her double dagger style, as is Drunk Cat with his special green pole. One of the best films in the Shaw Brothers library, its significance is explained in detail by Bey Logan, an expert in Hong Cinema, whose comments in the bonus features are illuminating and insightful. Although quaint compared with current standards, Come Drink With Me was influential in raising the bar for female martial arts actors and in combining two different styles of Chinese storytelling in the movies – one based in reality and the other in the supernatural.
Making Of (Koch Lorber)
June 18th, 2008
What turns a man into a terrorist? This is the question posited by director Nouri Bouzio in this engaging film shot on location in Tunisia during 2006. Making Of is the story of Bahta, a young man with no job and no apparent future, save for his talent for breakdancing. He and his friends are harassed regularly by the police for dancing on public property and carrying mobile phones (a cultural issue I don’t fully understand) and the U.S. invasion of Iraq has given him a reason to try and leave his country to join the forces currently battling the Westerners. He’s a bit of an asshole and emotionally malleable, so when he meets the leader of a fundamentalist cell, he quickly comes around to their way of thinking and decides to become a martyr. Bouzio demonstrates how the terrorists deliberately blur the line between religion and politics,, using Islam to wage war on non-believers, much the same way other faiths have done so as an excuse to conquer other nations in the name of God. Bouzio emphasizes the importance of keeping religion and politics as separate entities and demonstrates the insidiousness of combining the two to further agendas of those who wish to do others harm. He also thought it important that this was a story told from the inside by a Muslim and not someone from the West, who would be perceived as naturally biased. He was rewarded for his efforts by wins for Best Picture and Best Actor at the Taormina Film Festival and similar awards at the Carthage and Tribeca Film Fests as well. Making Of is a cautionary gem that’s well worth seeking out.
Rescue Me: The Complete Fourth Season (Sony Pictures)
June 18th, 2008
I love this show and applaud both Denis Leary and Peter Tolan for creating some of the most original and despicable characters on TV, but something about this season seemed…..off. Leary’s character Tommy Gavin continued to be tormented by the deaths of friends and family members, his ex-wife’s new baby was likely fathered by his late brother, he’s under investigation for arson and trying to stay sober through it all. Tommy’s relationship with women is the hardest bit to swallow: in the beginning, he played a macho pig who screwed everything in sight, but suddenly, he’s surrounded by ladies who dominate him both physically and emotionally and he seems incapable of standing up to any of them. His sister (Tatum O’Neal) is drinking herself out of her marriage to fellow firefighter Sean, his buddy Lou is hitting the skids after losing his life savings to a female con artist and Gavin’s ex-girlfriend Sheila is lying about the circumstances that nearly killed both of them in a fire, while trying to lure him back with the money from the insurance settlement. It’s almost as if the writers are trying to cram each episode with unbelievable situations and plot devices. What does ring true throughout however, are the fire sequences, as the crew risk their lives to save others in situations that are taken from real-life experiences of the FDNY. If you’ve enjoyed the past three seasons, you’ll want to watch this set and the accompanying tidbits. It’s entirely possible that you won’t be as disappointed as I was, but despite my misgivings, I’ll be there when season five premieres and rooting for Leary/Tolan to bring back the sharp edges that got me hooked in the first place.
Weeds: Season 3 (Lionsgate)
June 18th, 2008
The second season of Weeds ended in a cliffhanger: pot-dealing mom Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) and her partner Conrad (Romany Malco) were staring into the barrels of a dozen loaded weapons aimed at their heads by two rival drug cartels, both of whom were looking for a large cache of ganja and cash. What none of them knew, was that Nancy’s son Silas had slipped into the grow house, taken the stash and was in the process of bringing it home, when he was pulled over by the police. The first episode picks up right at the point where they left off and it’s not long before both confrontations are resolved with the first of many quirky, unexpected moments that delight some and frustrate others, but serve to make Weeds appointment television.
The ante was upped for both danger and absurdity, as it seemed everybody wanted a piece of the action this year: U-Turn, Guillermo (head of the Latino familia), her neighbor Celia (Elizabeth Perkins) and even Peter, Nancy’s recently deceased husband and DEA agent, all tried to shake her down, but wound up worse for it. Yet, every time she solves one crisis, a larger one is right around the corner. Yes, some of the subplots were goofy: Matthew Modine played a slimy developer determined to swallow the gated community of Agrestic, Celia’s estranged husband Andy was run off the road by a group of bikers, forcing her to play nursemaid, Mary-Kate Olsen turned up as a sweet, church-going waif who dealt pot to nursing home residents and the always hilarious Kevin Nealon sought revenge for losing his seat on the city council by redirecting raw sewage into the center of a new housing project. Despite the running battle between serious and silly, Weeds maintained its reputation as one of the shows to watch, providing of course, that one either subscribed to Showtime, or turned to the many P2P services that posted the program for download mere minutes after broadcast. For everyone else, now’s your chance to catch up with the Botwin family and prepare for season four that’s about to commence. The three-disc set is packed with a slew of extras that while worthy of your time, don’t contain any of Conrad’s tips on how to increase the yield of your crop, or advice on the materials needed to build your own grow house….sigh.