VH Corner

Nationwide Releases

The Lookout
Directed: Scott Frank
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Isla Fisher, Jeff Daniels

A star high school athlete losing his dreams when a car accident leaves him with certain mental deficiencies. He's working as a janitor at a bank when he gets pulled into a robbery scheme.

RT Score: 87%
RT Consensus: The Lookout is a genuinely suspenseful and affecting noir due to the great ensemble cast and their complex, realistic characters.

It's the characters and what they say and think that matter. The job is only an afterthought.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

Tight, taut noirish thriller also creates some memorable characters.
- Boo Allen
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

In a knockout directing debut, Frank cooks up his own mischief. The web he spins will pull you in. Guaranteed.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

A lean, to-the-bone, expertly acted small-town noir that takes unusual care to cast the moral compass of its characters in various shades of gray. There's just no fat on it.
- Andrew Wright
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as a fellow who has suffered serious head trauma, comes up with such a moody Method assemblage of twitches, tics, and guilty Memento mannerisms that he's not much fun to watch.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Blades of Glory
Directed: Will Speck
Starring: Will Ferrell, Jon Heder

Will Ferrell and Jon Heder get into a fight after an ice skating competition, so they are banned from mens' single competition. They decide to join forces in the couple's skating arena just so they can compete again.

RT Score: 69%
RT Consensus: With a talented cast, Blades of Glory successfully milks its one-joke premise into a feature-length comedy.

The directors make bold choices that keep the audience guessing. For instance, there's no groin-punch joke until 40 minutes in. For a Will Ferrell movie, that's a record.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

Blades of Glory has funny moves even when its characters can barely move, but the film seldom gets past its one basic laugh: that a real man figure-skating is a contradiction in terms.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

As silly as would be expected, but, as usual, from this comedy machine, some good laughs along the way.
- Boo Allen
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

Blades takes a hard fall long before it can even nab a medal for fluff.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

The filmmakers wisely surrounded themselves with people who know how to wring solid belly laughs out of a paper-thin premise.
- Ethan Alter
Film Journal International

Meet the Robinsons
Directed: Stephen J. Anderson
Starring: Angela Bassett, Spencer Fox

A boy gets sent to the future and has to find his way back home.

RT Score: 66%
RT Consensus: Meet the Robinsons is a visually impressive children's animated film marked by a story of considerable depth.

For the beleaguered Disney Animation unit, Meet the Robinsons is indeed a step forward, a step in the right direction.
- Glenn Whipp
Los Angeles Daily News

Though state-of-the-art technically, I think you'll find there's a healthy, old-fashioned feel to this movie — one that will make you walk out of the theater feeling satisfied, and all warm 'n fuzzy inside.
- Bill Zwecker
Chicago Sun-Times

A rock-solid piece of animated sci-fi comedy that'll tickle the kids, amuse the parents, and leave everyone walking out of the theater on a sweet little flick-buzz.
- Scott Weinberg
Cinematical

It's certainly one of the more imaginative-looking Disney cartoons in recent memory. It also has one of the better stories for a Disney-released cartoon produced by Pixar, even if portions seem ripped off from the Back to the Future movies.
- Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Most of Meet the Robinsons plays like a movie made by ADD adults for ADD children.
- Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer

Limited Releases

After the Wedding
Directed: Susanne Bier
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Sidse Babett Knudsen

A Danish man who is called back home in order to get a donation for his Indian orphanage, but runs into his past at a wedding.

RT Score: 84%
RT Consensus: The cast brings After the Wedding's melodramatic script to life, creating a movie that is emotionally raw and satisfying.

Talented filmmaker Susanne Bier, armed with an outstanding compositional sense, keeps control over the storms of melodrama that swirl in this rich weepie.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

The storyline is a highly melodramatic, but some solid performances and the relentless intimacy of the camerawork give this a Dogme sense of significance.
- Patrick Peters
Empire Magazine

A paradoxical, if ultimately plausible portrait of a fractured family which deals with baby-daddy drama in a way which puts similar, relatively-flip Hollywood fare to shame.
- Kam Williams
EURWeb

Dark secrets eat away from within, but after 120 minutes of self-loathing this soapy tale fails to engage with either genuine mystery or genuine reconciliation.
- Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics

The filmmakers pile on a heap of life's complications but for all the recriminations, the movie remains involving because of its convincing compassion for its characters.
- Glenn Whipp
Los Angeles Daily News

The Hawk is Dying
Directed: Julian Goldberger
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Michele Williams

A guy becomes obsessed with training a hawk, and it unnerves his friends and family.

RT Score: 32%

Giamatti, as always, is great. He brings George to life, which isn't all that difficult for one of the few dumpy, balding actors getting leading man roles in Hollywood.
- Pete Vonder Haar
Film Threat

Isn't anywhere close to perfect, but giving yourself over to its performances is wonderfully rewarding.
- James Emanuel Shapiro
Reel.com

Ultimately, this inscrutable film is just an exercise in self-indulgence.
- Doris Toumarkine
Film Journal International

The film is draining.
- Audrey Rock-Richardson
Tooele Transcript-Bulletin (Utah)

The Hawk Is Dying is a fragile little movie, occasionally ridiculous, but with M. Night Shyamalan's Lady In The Water, Giamatti proved that he can make even the weirdest material believable.
- Noel Murray
Onion AV Club

Race You To the Bottom
Directed: Russell Brown
Starring: Amber Benson, Cole Williams

A couple having an affair go on a road trip where they might figure out that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

RT Score: 57%

While clocking in at a relatively painless 75 minutes, Brown fails to come up with anything so fresh and bold in his approach as to make a single one of those worth watching.
- Jay Antani
Boxoffice Magazine

Brown's screenplay and direction, both economical and unshowy, sketch character dynamics in crisp terms that resist the temptation to explain all, beg sympathy or - heighten drama for purely histrionic purposes.
Dennis Harvey
Variety

An illuminating glimpse into some of the more challenging complications that contemporary relationships can present.
- Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times

While the filmmaking shows natural skill, the movie lacks the energy and passion needed to really engage the audience.
- Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

A wisp of a film, dramatically threadbare, and saddled with a brittle and affected performance by Williams.
- Timothy Knight
Reel.com

Live Free or Die
Directed: Andy Robin
Starring: Aaron Standord, Paul Schneider

A small-time crook has dreams of being a notorious bad guy except he really sucks at pulling off crimes.

RT Score: 33%

There are many small laughs, two or three big ones, and a lot of wide open space in between where the film ambles along unremarkably.
- Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

Live Free or Die — opens and closes zippily, but in between frequently stalls out, and the wannabe-hoodlum antics of Rugged and LaGrand — play with diminishing returns.
- Kimberly Jones
Austin Chronicle

Very much like its hapless lead character, a small-town, small-time hustler who yearns to present himself as a dangerous outlaw, Live Free or Die tries too hard, to little effect.
- Joe Leydon
Variety

It just feels contrived when a good comedy like this should feel clever.
- Don R. Lewis
Film Threat

[Live Free or Die] is a mildly entertaining little flick but a slight effort.
- Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

Recommended Buy

Artist: Mika
Album: Life in Cartoon Motion

RIYL: Kaiser Chiefs, The Fratellis, Lily Allen, Air, Queen, Jellyfish

Might Buy in the Future

Artist: Kaiser Chiefs
Album: Yours Truly Angry Mob

RIYL: The Fratellis, The Kinks, Wire, Magazine, Bloc Party

Artist: Klaxons
Album: Myths of the Near Future

RIYL: LCD Soundsystem, Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, The Good the Bad & The Queen

Other Decent Stuff

Artist: Kate Havnevik
Album: Melankton

RIYL: Air, Aqualung, Amy Winehouse, Arcade Fire, Lily Allen, Bloc Party

Artist: Let's Go Sailing
Album: Chaos in Order

RIYL: Modest Mouse, Air, Elliott Smith, Grandaddy, Iron and Wine, Sufjan Stevens

Artist: Grant Lee Phillips
Album: Strangelet

RIYL: Grant Lee Buffalo, Neil Young, Son Volt, Fountains of Wayne

Artist: Antelope
Album: Reflector

RIYL: Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, The Good the Bad & The Queen

 

Dear Ghost Rider,

You are a super fun movie because you have motorcycles and flames and Nic Cage. 

I also like you because you were starting at a good time when Melissa and I wanted to see a movie when she was visiting from Denver. So go you!

Your bad guys were kinda silly - what was up with the one guy always having his head cocked to the side?

Good use of the dad/son relationship angst to drive the story!

One thing that I will copy from you is drinking jelly beans out of a martini glass - that was super funny.

People should see you if they just want a fun adventure movie while they enjoy some popcorn and cherry coke.  I hope you make a lot of friends, but be aware that these will be shallow relationships, no one is going to ask you to be best man at the wedding.

Flame on!

Amy

ps when you are done with the motorcycle of flames, please give to me, thanks!

Here is a list of my current favorite songs:

Mika

Mika was born in Lebanon, but raised in Paris and London. He seems a cross between Freddie Mercury, Elton John, and Jellyfish. It is completely catchy pop music. His album, Life in Cartoon Motion, has hit number one in the UK and is released in the US this week. There are a few songs on You Tube that you can listen to. My favorite is Grace Kelly.

• Grace Kelly
• Love Today
• Relax, Take It Easy

Regina Spektor

Regina Spektor was born in Moscow in the former Soviet Union, but her family moved to the Bronx when she was a teenager. The Strokes decided they loved her and had her open up for them on their last tour. The first time I heard Fidelity, it bugged me. The second time, I loved it so I say give it a second shot after you hear it for the first time since the different singing style can grow on you. These songs come off her fourth album, Begin to Hope.

• Fidelity
• Better
• Samson
• On the Radio

The Kooks

The Kooks hail from Brighton, England. Their name comes from a David Bowie song, Kooks. Their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, spent more than half of 2006 in the top 20 in the UK. They are just starting to get notice in the U.S. where they are currently touring and selling out gigs all over the place, including the stop in Portland in May. Naive is the first song that I heard from them and loved. I am also a big fan of Eddie’s Gun, which you can hear on MySpace. They are guitar pop goodness.

• Naive
• Seaside
• Sofa Song
• Ooh La

The Fratellis

The Fratellis are from Glasgow, Scotland. They have been greatly loved in the UK and dubbed as the “next Oasis”, but many other bands have been dubbed that in the UK press. They are fickle there. They won the Brit Award (Grammy equivalent) for Breakthrough Act. Their sound is along the same line as The Kooks with guitar pop, head bopping good times. Their debut album is Costello Music. Their first song, Flathead, was used in an iPod commercial. I never saw it. The first song I heard by them was Chelsea Dagger, which is my favorite. Flathead seems quite catchy too.

• Flathead
• Chelsea Dagger

Peter Bjorn and John

Peter Bjorn and John are two guys from Stockholm, Sweden. They met in 1999 and have made three albums together. Their third album, Writer’s Block, has the whistling song on it! I first heard the song on a weekend on the radio. I was bouncing my head to it, and Jer said the song was annoying. I said I liked it! I didn’t know who sang it. Then I heard it dancing a week or two later. I kept referring to it as the whistling song, until I finally figured out who sang it. Now I know it is Young Folks and I’m happy.

• Young Folks
• Objects of My Affection

Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace, Rolling Stone

King of the Hill and American Dad return from hiatus. Raines moves to its regular time slot of Friday at 9/8c.

New Shows

Planet Earth
Channel: Discovery
Time: 8 E/P
Premieres: Sunday, March 25

Eleven part miniseries covering parts of earth rarely seen.

The Great American Dream Vote
Channel: ABC
Time: 8/7c
Premieres: Wednesday, March 28

People get to voice their dreams and viewers vote to see who will get to realize theirs.

Sources: The Futon Critic

Nationwide Releases

Reign Over Me
Directed: Mike Binder
Starring: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle

Charlie (Adam Sandler) lost his entire family in 9/11 and hasn't dealt with it well. When Don Cheadle, his old college roommate runs into him, Charlie doesn't recognize him as someone he even knows.

RT Score: 65%
RT Consensus: Reign Over Me is a charming, affecting tale of friendship and loss, with solid performances from top to bottom.

Cheadle and Sandler bust each other's chops, share video-game controllers in a preset ritual and trade glances and phrases that hint at inside jokes developed in the study sessions, bar benders and spontaneous road trips of youth.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

A strange, black-and-blue therapeutic drama equally mottled with likable good intentions and agitating clumsiness.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

As Charlie Fineman, a Manhattan dentist who lost his wife and two children when their jet crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11, Sandler is stuck in a movie that won't come unstuck.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Tackles issues of tragic loss, survivor's guilt, and psychological defense mechanisms with disarming sincerity.
- Nick Schager
Slant Magazine

Binder fumbles in telling a complex dramatic story by adopting formulaic comedic devices. The result is a film that is disjointed, unconvincing and incomplete.
- Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca

The Last Mimzy
Directed: Robert Shaye
Starring: Timothy Hutton, Joely Richardson

Two kids have some kind of special powers from a magical box.

RT Score: 56%
RT Consensus: The Last Mimzy juggles too many genres and subplots, eventually settling as an unfocused, slightly boring movie.

Watching the film, filled with time travel, universe-saving and just-crazy-enough-to-work inventions, took me back to my eighth birthday, watching "Flight of the Navigator" with unfettered wonder.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

A pleasantly dorky adaptation of Lewis Padgett's 1943 sci-fi story directed by New Line honcho Bob Shaye.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

There are too many distracting elements to allow a viewer total immersion in the story.
- John Anderson
Variety

On the surface, it sounds like an E.T. clone. Oh, if only. Where Steven Spielberg's 25-year-old masterpiece had heart to spare, Mimzy is an emotionless empty shell.
- Teresa Budasi
Chicago Sun-Times

The Last Mimzy, directed by New Line head honcho Bob Shaye, is very obviously aiming square at the ET target, which wouldn't be bad if Shaye had a clue what made ET work.
- Devin Faraci
CHUD

Pride
Directed: Sunu Gonera
Starring: Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac

Based on true events, during the 1970s, a schoolteacher starts an all-black swim team.

RT Score: 47%
RT Consensus: Pride features a typically stellar performance from Terrence Howard, but ultimately falls victim to its over usage of sports movie clichés.

Rocky Balboa and Daniel-san steered away from the sport for good reason.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

Pride doesn't have much surprise, but it's a formula picture of genuine feeling, with Terrence Howard proving once again that he wouldn't know how to keep it less than real.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

There's absolutely nothing new here, but though Howard can't make this swimming tale seem fresh, he does make it feel slightly less mildewy.
- Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

Terrence Howard makes every one around him in every scene a little bit better (even Tom Arnold!).
- Willie Waffle
WaffleMovies.com

The feature debut from South African director Sunu Gonera is straight from the sports-film playbook, the one in which an underdog team coached by an obstinate overachiever overcomes obstacles and adversity to take home the gold.
- Robert Wilonsky
Village Voice

Shooter
Directed: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Michael Pena

A retired sniper was hired to stop an assassination attempt, but then he is framed for it so he has to prove his innocence.

RT Score: 48%
RT Consensus: With an implausible story and numerous plot holes, Shooter fails to distinguish itself from other mindless action-thrillers.

Swagger, after all, has undergone the most intensive training known to man: He's watched "First Blood" every day for 14 years.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

The ultimate crime of this paranoid enemy-of-the-state pulp, directed with more style than brains by Antoine Fuqua, is how dull it is.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Suspended over a deep gully of disbelief, where logic takes more bullets than the bad guys, Shooter still makes the grade as hard-ass action escapism.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

The saving grace of most bad movies is that they're brief and undemanding. This one makes you work at it.
- William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The bad guys are bad and the guns are smokin' hot, hey, that's why they call it a thriller!
- Jeanne Aufmuth
Palo Alto Weekly

TMNT
Directed: Kevin Munroe
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Mako, Chris Evans

The turtle brothers have grown apart, but come back together when ancient monsters are released upon the city.

RT Score: 29%
RT Consensus: TMNT's art direction is splendid, but the plot is non-existent and the dialogue lacks the irony and goofy wit of the earlier TMNT movies.

This all-CG reboot is missing the goofy excitement of the old TMNT.
- Gregory Kirschling
Entertainment Weekly

This is no mythic rebirth like Batman Begins or Superman Returns, simply another generically smart-alecky chapter directed with a visual style attuned to speed.
- Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Impersonally animated and arbitrarily plotted, the story appears to have been made up as the filmmakers went along.
- Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

The predictable story and hackneyed dialogue — the interplay between April and Casey is particularly bad — get in the way of the movie's slick and sleek visual style.
- Mack Bates
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The turtles themselves may look prettier, but are no smarter; torn irreparably from their countercultural roots, our superheroes on the half shell have been firmly co-opted by the industry their creators once sought to spoof.
- Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times

Hills Have Eyes II
Directed: Martin Weisz
Starring: Daniella Alonso, Jacob Vargas, Michael Bailey Smith

A National Guard unit went to the New Mexico desert to investigate an abandoned research camp and find the cannibal mutants.

RT Score: 8%

Being gross and gory is one thing, but the problem with The Hills Have Eyes II is that those elements are literally all it has going for it.
- Brian Tallerico
UnderGround Online

There's gore galore, but not much more. And it's a bore.
- Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

Wes Craven would like the audience to think they're having a nightmarish good time, but I don't recall repeated internal urgings to run screaming from the theater in unstoppable bad movie agony in the recipe for fun.
- Brian Orndorf
eFilmCritic.com

It is only another by-the-numbers, don’t-mess-with-the-formula screen filler aimed at the gore-hound fan boys who sustain all these franchises while bemoaning their sameness.
- Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press

Though written by Wes Craven and his son, Jonathan Craven, this is pretty standard stuff.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Limited Releases

The Page Turner
Directed: Denis Dercourt
Starring: Catherine Frot, Deborah Francois

A young girl fails a piano Conservatory entrance exam due to being distracted by one of the judges. She finds a way to exact her revenge ten years later when she is employed by the judge's husband as the judge's page turner.

RT Score: 81%
RT Consensus: Reminiscent of Hitchcock and Chabrol, The Page Turner is elegant yet suspenseful, a revenge potboiler of a high degree.

An elegantly constructed and acted French film about revenge and what is lost in the act of bringing others down.
- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

A suspenseful French drama with a Hitchcockian flair for manipulation that manages to be simultaneously elegant and shamelessly entertaining.
- Rene Rodriguez
Miami Herald

The characters are sophisticated. The subtexts involve class and snobbery and sex. The mood is uncomfortably chill.
- Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger

Drained bourgeois chill is so 2001.
- Chris Cabin
filmcritic.com

A tight little emotional thriller about a music lover who becomes a musician-hater.
- Lisa Nesselson
Variety

Offside
Directed: Jafar Panahi
Starring: Sima Mobarak-Shahi, Shayesteh Irani, Ayda Sadeqi

Iranian girls are not allowed to watch sporting events since it is deemed too violent. Girl soccer fans love to sneak in under the guise of boys so they can watch.

RT Score: 97%
RT Consensus: A spirited film that explores gender politics with comedy, intelligence, and a variety of interesting characters.

[A] wonderfully funny, outspoken shaggy-dog story.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

The interaction between soldiers and captives becomes a microcosm for an entire culture. It's a wisp of a movie but it has stayed with me longer than much supposedly weightier fare.
- Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor

Greatness is a word often associated with Iranian cinema. But fun? Practically never. Jafar Panahi's exuberant and subversive Offside, however, scores on both points.
- Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

This light, personal satire of prejudice and sports, is all the more poignant since no ball is seen in the entire tale; it continues Panahi's exploration of the absurd restrictions imposed on women in contemporary Iran.
- Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

The great virtue of Offside is that it never degenerates into an us-versus-them situation. [Director Pahani] understands that a repressive system victimizes the oppressors as much as the oppressed.
- Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times

First Snow
Directed: Mark Fergus
Starring: Guy Pearce, Piper Perabo, J.K Simmons, William Fichtner

Guy Pearce is a salesman who gets his fortune told when his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. He is told his fortune will turn around, but he will die before the first snow. He turns into a paranoid freak.

RT Score: 55%
RT Consensus: A subtle, dialogue-driven thriller that delivers with scene after scene of gut-wrenching anxiety and tension.

A moody psychological thriller about a salesman's paranoid attempts to circumvent his predicted demise, First Snow engages but underwhelms.
- Ronnie Scheib
Variety

A deft piece of storytelling that tightens the noose slowly, growing more absorbing and suspenseful as it goes along.
- Rene Rodriguez
Miami Herald

A small film with Hitchcock-ian overtones, but it's got a strong pulse and keeps you wondering beyond its end.
- Rob Lowman
Los Angeles Daily News

Is it written somewhere that every indie quasi-noir must include a dripping faucet, ceiling fans, shadows of slatted blinds, and a traveling shot of highway lines?
- Jim Ridley
Village Voice

A fresh and surprisingly effective character-driven thriller featuring Guy Pearce in one of his strongest roles since Memento.
- Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

Colour Me Kubrick
Directed: Brian Cook
Starring: John Malkovich, Jim Davidson, Richard E. Grant

John Malkovich is a guy who passes himself as recluse director Stanley Kubrick.

RT Score: 55%
RT Consensus: Colour Me Kubrick has a fascinating premise, but provides little insight into Kubrick and the man who impersonated him.

The film reveals, rather delectably, how potent the power of suggestion can be in a world gone madly groupie.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Great fun for the first 20 minutes but seems long at 86.
- Lou Lumenick
New York Post

But cleverness aside, the film is so slight it practically vanishes before your eyes.
- Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

A mean-spirited, trashy and intermittently funny film.
- Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com

There is a giddy pleasure in watching people, great and small, most who should know much better, fall over themselves to be film-flammed.
- Andrea Chase
Killer Movie Reviews

 

Air Guitar Nation
Directed: Alexandra Lipsitz

Documentary about the Air Guitar Championships. Amy, watch the trailer for the Hello Kitty guy.

RT Score: 93%

Documentarian Alexandra Lipsitz believes that air-guitar competitions are worth a whole feature-length movie. She's wrong, of course. But the fun lasts longer than you might think.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Air Guitar Nation is a wonderfully wild ride of a documentary, and the greatest trick of the picture is found in how it makes the audience succumb to the power of the sport.
- Brian Orndorf
DVDTalk.com

the film will be remembered for the overall sense of camaraderie overcoming competition, fraternity trumping rivalry, and the discovery of graciousness in victory and defeat
- Dan Jardine
Cinemania

I wouldn't exactly call Air Guitar Nation the next important documentary, but as a colorful look at an admittedly goofy activity, the flick's a pleasant little winner.
- Scott Weinberg
eFilmCritic.com

As dumb as the idea of grown men dressing up and pretending to play guitar may be, there's no arguing that some of these grown men do so with a truly awesome degree of energy and flair.
- Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star

Boy Culture
Directed: Q. Allen Brocka
Starring: Patrick Bauchau, Derek Magyar, Darryl Stephens

A hustler has fallen in love with his roommate, but he isn't used to having an actual relationship.

RT Score: 79%

In a role that could easily have slipped into bitchy smugness, [actor] Magyar gives the character a self-deprecating charm that's enormously appealing.
- Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times

It sentimentalises and moralises at times, but the characters remain nicely complicated right to the end.
- Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

A film made by people just smart enough to acknowledge that the tropes of modern queer filmmaking have been reduced to cliché, but who themselves lack the courage to push beyond tried-and-true box-office formulas.
- Ernest Hardy
L.A. Weekly

A refreshingly realistic, homoerotic adventure featuring recognizable gay characters actually acting gay, not behaving in some sanitized fashion intended to appeal to straight audiences. The gay version of Jungle Fever!
- Kam Williams
NewsBlaze

As a character, X is rather reticent and buttoned-up. If he'd stayed that way as a narrator, a rather nice film would have been even better.
- David Wiegand
San Francisco Chronicle

Journey From the Fall
Directed: Ham Tran
Starring: Kieu Chinh, Long Nguyen

In 1975, when the Vietnam war ended, thousands of Vietnamese fled the Communist regime that was taking over. One man stayed behind so his family to try to escape to the U.S. and freedom.

RT Score: 78%

Journey From the Fall deserves commendation for its intelligent and nuanced account of the Vietnamese refugee experience. Kudos to Tran and his fine cast, many of whom had never acted before, for making this moving and artfully crafted film.
- Timothy Knight
Reel.com

Depicts one family's endurance in sturdy, old-movie style, with sweeping camerawork, a monumental and occasionally intrusive orchestral score, brazen escapes and crowd-pleasing acts of defiance to fuel several action-adventure pictures.
- Matt Zoller Seitz
New York Times

An example of sophisticated, impassioned filmmaking involving mainly people who lived through the harrowing experiences so unsparingly depicted, Journey From the Fall powerfully illustrates the refugee/immigrant experience.
- Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times

There are some genuinely moving moments in [the] latter part of the film, but the inconsistencies and the overwrought structure of the screenplay seriously dilute the overall effectiveness of 'Journey from the Fall.'
- Arthur Lazere
culturevulture.net

It's a snippet of one family forever altered, and despite all the political undertones, it's the human level on which the film succeeds most of all.
- Mark Bell
Film Threat

Memory
Directed: Bennette Joshua Davlin
Starring: Billy Zane, Dennis Hopper, Ann-Margret

Billy Zane starts experiencing another man's memory including murders he executed three decades earlier.

RT Score: 14%

Stylish and twisty, but not clever enough to support its more outrageous plot machinations.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Adapting his own novel, [director] Davlin seems blessedly unaware of how silly his story is, attacking it with such escalating melodramatic fervor that Memory rises from the disastrously campy to the bizarrely hypnotic.
- Tim Grierson
L.A. Weekly

Filled with labored exposition, stilted line readings and the most unconvincing romantic hookup since Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley.
- Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times

The director states in the film's press notes that 'all the science you will see in this motion picture is cutting edge,' a statement that holds true if you simply replace the word 'science' with 'silliness.'
- Nick Schager
Slant Magazine

… tosses us so many hints and red herrings that, by the end, we really don't care who turns out to be the killer. All solutions are equally satisfying, which is the same thing as being equally unsatisfying.
- Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

300
Directed: Zack Snyder
Starring: Gerard Butler, Vincent Regan

Based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City) about the Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans fought off thousands in the Persian army to save Greece from Xerces.

For a movie squarely aimed at guys, almost all the guys that were invited to go see the movie, didn't show up. It ended up being me, Amy and Stacy seeing it with Jer. Apparently it is also for women that love violent movies starring scantily-clad buff men. Unlike Troy though, there were no stars in this movie. It was strictly the visuals and story to entertain us. I mostly wanted to see it because it had a great look to it. It was different, but reminiscent of Sin City. There were a few scenes that looked like they came from a comic book panel. I have no idea if they did, but they were staged very well.

I was surprised about how much story the movie had. I had low expectations about it being much more than one fight scene after another, which it did have, and at one point, I was hoping there would be something else besides a fight scene. At that point, it stopped and some strategy came into play, which was more interesting than just stabbing. At times, there was even some light humor thrown in there with two fighter guys saying they were better than the other one. Another point, King Leonidas was talking about how they have some respect for their enemies while walking across tons of his enemy's corpses while chomping on an apple.

I have read about all the "changes" made to history about Xerces, the hunchback, and the very buff Spartans. I didn't mind how much of it was true, and I took what I saw with a grain of salt, but I loved the underdog storyline.

It is a great action movie, with a good, solid story, great acting from people I don't know, and I loved the way it looked. I couldn't tell that the backgrounds were all created and not real. I thought I was in ancient Greece. I'm ready to see it again before I need to be violent.

Rating: A

I watched new shows that premiered last week.

Andy Barker, P.I.
Channel: NBC
Day/Time: Thursday, 9:30/8:30c

This show is taking place of 30 Rock temporarily, which makes me sad, but I’m glad it was funny. It was a slow start, but it has promise. It mostly made me miss Andy Richter Controls the Universe and Arrested Development (his video clerk buddy is Buster). What I have seen from previews, there are lots of funny stuff coming up. I read that the deadpan lady in the first episode becomes his assistant and I think she was the best part of the pilot.

October Road
Channel: ABC
Day/Time: Thursday, 10/9c

Horrible! I was forcing myself to watch the entire episode when I decided that I should quit torturing myself. I turned it off 3/4 of the way through. Everyone in the show sounded like they were in a critical reading class. They all talked in psychobabble, which is highly annoying. When Hannah (the girl left behind), talks to the author guy that left her and wrote a story about their home town, she recites a passage about herself word for word. Stupid! Then, a college girl asks author guy a question, and she sound like she is part of a book discussion group talking about the book’s “plot contrivance”. What really nailed it for me was when the 10-year-old kid makes a comment about “disengaging [himself] from conversation” between his mom and author guy. That’s when I turned it off. Ugg! On a side note, I have come to learn that Laura Prepon can’t act. I always thought she was awkward on That 70’s Show, and I really believe it is just bad acting.

Raines
Channel: NBC
Day/Time: Thursday, 10/9c

Jeff Goldblum is okay in very small doses. For those that hate him, I can give you some reassurance that it is good in large doses too, on this show. He is fairly calm in his cop character and not so much “Jeff Goldblum”. He does see dead people like Rescue Me. They are the people that have died. He just lost his partner, so it is almost like he’s talking to the dead people instead of a partner to figure things out in cases. I found it entertaining. I did think one part was dumb. He solved a case of a young girl and takes a mixed CD she made to play it in his car. He starts to cry. That was unbelievable and came completely out of nowhere, but I decided to ignore that scene, since the rest of it seemed interesting.

The Riches
Channel: FX
Day/Time: Monday, 10/9c

The show was darker than I thought it would be. I thought it would be a light-hearted story about gypsies impersonating rich people, but there is some drama going on here. Minnie Driver is the mother that just got out of jail on probation and is a junkie. This is supposedly a secret, but her daughter knows her secret. The whole family leaves the gypsy camp after one of the leaders wants to marry off the daughter to another family and Eddie Izzard (dad of the family) is having none of it. I previously thought they found the dead people they end up impersonating, but while watching the pilot, I learned they are the cause of their car crash. Oops! I’m not completely sure what to think yet, but I’m intrigued enough to continue watching to see if I like it or not.

 

Little Miss Sunshine

Directed: Jonathan Dayton
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Alan Arkin

A little girl is a finalist in a beauty contest and her entire dysfunctional family makes the road trip to California.

When I first saw the trailer for the movie that had the dinner scene near the beginning of the movie, I wanted to see this movie. I saw it as a black comedy and I love that. It also had Alan Arkin and I love him. He cracks me up in no matter what I watch him in. 

When watching the entire movie, I found that was the strongest scene in the movie. There are many other cute, funny moments along the way, but none summed up the family's dysfunction as much as the family dinner scene.

The movie wasn't all about funny stuff though. It also had some heartbreak involved. Some of it was genuine and some of it forced. I believed Greg Kinnear when his life dream fell apart around him. I did not believe that goth boy wanted to be a pilot nor did I believe his little hissy fit that came later on. It just didn't fit in with his moody, angst-ridden character.

I enjoyed Alan Arkin, and it was too bad he wasn't in it more. I really wanted to see what the big fuss was about her dance routine, so that was pretty goofy. I had no idea why crazy lady from Donnie Darko was upset by it after all the other little girls looked like whores in the pageant, but maybe that's just me. I also laughed when lab guy from CSI and Chloe from 24 showed up working the pageant.

While I found the movie darkly funny, and at times sad, it did not hold up well enough to be a Best Picture at the Oscars so I'm glad it did not win. It was super cool that it was nominated though. 

Grade: B+ 

Six Degrees returns from hiatus to a new time slot and time of Friday at 9pm.

Returning Shows

Dancing With the Stars
Channel: ABC
Time: 8/7c on Monday, results show 9/8c on Tuesday
Premieres: Monday, March 19

The stars that are dancing this season: Laila Ali, Billy Ray Cyrus, Clyde Drexler, Joey Fatone, Shandi Finnessey, Leeza Gibbons, Heather Mills, Apolo Anton Ohno, Paulina Porizkova, John Ratzenberger, and Ian Ziering.

New Shows

This American Life
Channel: SHO
Time: 10:30 E/P
Premieres: Monday, March 22

Ira Glass tells stories about America just like he did on National Public Radio for 15 years.

Sources: The Futon Critic