VH Corner

Nationwide Releases

Ratatouille
Directed: Brad Bird
Starring: Patton Oswalt, Brad Barrett

A rat in Paris who is a really good chef helps out a young guy who wants to cook, but doesn’t have the talent.

RT Score: 95%
RT Consensus: Pixar succeeds again with Ratatouille, a stunningly animated film with fast pacing, memorable characters, and overall good humor.

The wild, devoted praise afforded Bird’s solid yet tepid films puzzles me. It’s as though society is playing a joke that everyone but me and a few others are in on. I smell a Ratatouille.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

What makes Ratatouille such a hilarious and heartfelt wonder is the way Bird contrives to let it sneak up on you. And get a load of that score from Michael Giacchino, a perfect compliment to a delicious meal.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Ratatouille has the Pixar technical magic without, somehow, the full Pixar flavor. It’s Brad Bird’s genial dessert, not so much incredible as merely sweetly edible.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Not quite the comedic animated masterpiece, rather a cute quaint film that drags a bit at the second act, but offers up an unexpectedly warm plate of climax in the wind up.
- Ross Anthony
Hollywood Report Card

From the moment Remy enters, crashing, to the final happy fadeout, Ratatouille parades the brio and depth that set Pixar apart from and above other animation studios.
- Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine

Live Free or Die Hard
Directed: Len Wiseman
Starring: Bruce Willis, Justin Long

Bruce Willis continues to jump off of things and curse about bad guys.

RT Score: 78%
RT Consensus: Live Free or Die Hard may be preposterous, but it’s an efficient, action-packed summer popcorn flick with thrilling stunts and a commanding performance by Bruce Willis.

Live Free or Die Hard gets the action job done and you better believe that Bruce is still the man.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

An agreeably retro kick … the main virtue is Willis, who continues to refine his grumpy, balding, blessedly un-Matrix-y mojo. He’s still not too old for this $%&#, thank god.
- Andrew Wright
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

It’s brainlessly exhilarating until the fighter-jet scene, at which point the high-octane idiocy becomes too preposterous to bear… and there’s still a solid half hour to go.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

At a time when the action genre has come to be dominated by sleek, matte surfaces and set-’em-and-forget-’em computerized effects, Live Free or Die Hard seeks to remind viewers of the simple, nostalgic pleasures of watching stuff get blown up.
- Ann Hornaday
Washington Post

Action movies don’t get any more mindless than this, but sometimes mindlessness is fun too.
- Mike McGranaghan
Aisle Seat

Evening
Directed: Lajos Koltai
Starring: Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Meryl Streep, Vanessa Redgrave

A dying mother shares a story from when she was a young woman, which causes her daughters to re-examine their own lives.

RT Score: 29%
RT Consensus: Beautifully filmed, but decidedly dull, Evening is a collossal waste of a talented cast.

Susan Minot’s resplendent novel of a dying woman remembering her defining romance with the man who got away stumbles on its way to the screen. Hungarian director Lajos Koltai pushes emotions that need to flow.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Even the lineup of superlative thesps can’t mask the pandering, manipulative ploys at the film’s cheesy heart.
- Erica Abeel
Film Journal International

A bore. I kept saying to myself: “Die already!”
- Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com

Evening reaches for depth, at times plodding, never cloddish. The lessons about choice and loss and getting on in life have some decent heft, and there is a sunset magic in Redgrave’s eyes.
- David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune

A woman’s deathbed reveries provide a poignant but rather obvious counterpoint to her daughters’ present-day emotional concerns in Evening.
- Justin Chang
Variety

Limited Releases

Vitus
Directed: Fredi M. Murer
Starring: Bruno Ganz, Teo Gheorghiu

A 12-year-old piano prodigy wants to be a normal kid, but only his grandfather will help him while his parents push only the piano.

RT Score: 53%

Veteran Swiss filmmaker Fredi M. Murer’s sentimental fable about a child prodigy and his difficulty fitting in with a world of ordinary people is poised somewhere between Searching For Bobby Fisher and Little Man Tate.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Vitus packs an emotional wallop of the standing ovation variety during its final 20 minutes, even if the road there is long and windy.
- Boyd van Hoeij
europeanfilms.net

There are few movies more infuriating than those that completely misjudge our reaction to their main characters — and Vitus, alas, is at the head of that class.
- Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger

A charming coming-of-age drama featuring a protagonist who becomes a modern-day anti-Icarus.
- John P. McCarthy
Boxoffice Magazine

To those of us for whom there can never be enough film dramas with a classical music backdrop, Vitus comes as a bit of a disappointment.
- Jan Stuart
Newsday

One to Another
Directed: Jean-Marc Barr
Starring: Lizzie Brochere, Arthur Dupont

A girl’s brother is killed, and she tries to figure who killed him since the police are taking too long.

RT Score: 38%

It’s a bold and watchable look at a group of friends in their late teens/early 20s — four men and one woman — who share a codependent, sometimes sexual, always provocative relationship.
- Gary Goldstein
Reel.com

The flaw is underscored by the one-bod-fits-all casting that renders everyone indistinguishable, especially when they have their clothes off (which is a good deal of the picture).
- Jan Stuart
Newsday

Only the French could or would make a movie like this. You’ll enjoy it if you turn off your brain and concentrate on the eye candy.
- V.A. Musetto
New York Post

The confusing time line of Pascal Arnold and Jean-Marc Barr’s bizarre tale of sibling romance, murder and obsession is just one of its problems. The others are the romance, the murder and the obsession.
- Jack Mathews
New York Daily News

Dumb instincts dominate One to Another, whose comely performers don’t so much act as erupt.
- Melissa Anderson
Time Out

Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox
Directed: Sara Lamm

Documentary about a German soap maker who escaped a mental institution in 1947 and fled to California, preaches his teachings about united all of mankind on spaceship Earth on the bottles of his soap.

RT Score: 100%

You know there’s a story behind Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap, and filmmaker Sara Lamm hopes you’re interested in hearing it. Luckily the story behind the suds is a pretty good one.
- Ken Fox
TV GUIDE’S MOVIE GUIDE

The documentary leaves you feeling hopeful and tingly all over.
- Sara Schieron
SLANT MAGAZINE

Ghosts of Cite Soleil
Directed: Asgar Leth

Documentary about the gang leaders of the Haitian area Cite Soleil.

RT Score: 80%

A spectacularly turbulent portrait of the chaos and bloodshed that have come to define Haiti.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Danish filmmaker Asger Leth’s gritty documentary is an all-too-real — and rarely seen — glimpse into the dark side of Aristide’s Haiti.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

For a documentary, this film has one of the most gripping narratives of the year.
- Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

A daring documentary about two violent young Haitian gang leaders and their lives in a slum that is a truly a hell on earth.
- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

The 85 minutes of this documentary are searing, not on gore quotient but through an aura of appalling violence in every frame.
- Donald J. Levit
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

The Departed

Directed: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen

Leonardo DiCaprio is a cop undercover in a mob gang run by Jack Nicholson. Matt Damon is a mole in the police department working for the mob, trying to figure out who is the undercover cop.

This movie is long, but involved. I can’t think of any way for it to be shorter without losing something. There were some quick cuts that can be distracting at times, but then I was thankful they were there to keep the story moving along. I first thought the quick cuts were bad editing, then realized they were there on purpose.

The story starts showing how Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon start off in the police force, but in different areas so they don’t know each other. They have very different paths where Matt Damon’s path leads to detective while DiCaprio’s path leads him to undercover cop. In order to keep undercover cops safe, no one in the police department knows that he is a cop or anything about him. They pretty much erase his identity, or at least hide it until he catches the guy they are trying to catch. The only two people that know about him are those that recruited him: Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg. Mark Wahlberg was the only actor in the movie that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. His character is hilarious, but he wasn’t the best one in the movie.

Both Damon and DiCaprio are impressive. I think I’m more impressed with Matt Damon in each movie I see him in since he loses himself in the characters so well. He is so smooth and slimy when he’s screwing over the police in order to cover and save Jack Nicholson’s mafia character. He is the same smooth and slimy when he’s wooing his one-time therapist who he fires so he can date her. She goes for it, but she can always tell there is something off with him. DiCaprio’s character sees her once as a patient, but then starts to see her as a friend. They have tons of chemistry together and, well, let’s just say that DiCaprio has a really nice body.

Everyone in the movie has a Boston accent that can be quite thick. No one had a horrible accent though. It was believable, even though I did laugh at how they talked at times.

Going back to the movie’s length, it reminded me of Goodfellas in how we got to see how the main characters get in deeper and deeper (be it deeper in double-crossing or deeper undercover) and it gets messier and messier. After a while, you don’t know how any one can get out of it all cleanly. It just isn’t possible. When it gets near the inevitable end, everything goes crazy. I loved the way it ended. I was sad, but it fit the movie so very well.

I’m not a fan of all of Scorcese’s films, but I did always love Goodfellas. I loved this movie like I loved Goodfellas. I liked how it sucks you in and you are engrossed with all of it.

Rating: A

Episode 2: Sunny Delights

Top Chef: Miami
Channel: Bravo
Day/Time: Wednesday, 10/9c

I had heard this show was good, but I hadn’t checked it out the first two seasons. I thought I would try it out since I had become hooked on Hell’s Kitchen. I love this show and it makes Hell’s Kitchen pale in comparison. While watching Hell’s Kitchen, you can’t believe some of the people even hold any kind of cooking job. You feel you could walk in and do a better job, and I’m nowhere close to being a great cook. After watching Top Chef, I don’t even know what they are talking about most of the time. They get to be creative and it is more focused on the individual than teamwork (which is how Hell’s Kitchen is set up) so I find it way more entertaining. I watched the first and second episode so close to one another, I thought I’d dig into the second one.

Quickfire Challenge

The day began with the contestants coming into the kitchen surrounded by every kind of citrus imaginable. They had 30 minutes to gather whatever citrus they wanted plus any of the staples in the Top Chef pantry to make a unique dish. Guest judge Norman Van Aken (who owns some fancy restaurants in Florida called Norman’s Restaurant) would make the final decision on who would win the challenge. He would judge it based on presentation, taste, and how well it used the Florida citrus provided.

Hung won the challenge with a slow roasted sea bass with citrus crumble, watercress and radish salad. He was safe from elimination. Another standout was Tre’s dish of salmon served hot on one side of the plate and cold on the other. He had made a macadamia pesto to go with it. Howie’s plate of vanilla butter poached lobster tail with blood orange citrus salad and Brian’s Alaskan halibut with pomegranate blood orange molasses were also highlights.

One of the scarier dishes was Micah’s avocado soup which was more mush than soup. Sara N. couldn’t really remember what she had just made so had a hard time saying what it was, which cost her the challenge. Casey made a fancy s’ more with orange in the chocolate sauce and orange/chocolate on the side, but the orange wasn’t present enough in the s’ more to qualify in the judge’s mind, even though he said it was delicious.

Elimination Challenge

The chefs had to create an upscale BBQ dish that would be served to 60 people at an upscale BBQ on the waterfront. They had 30 minutes and $200 to go to the fresh market to get what they needed that wasn’t already in the pantry. Then they had two hours of prep time that day. The BBQ was the following day where they had two hours to cook before the guests arrived.

I was impressed that people came up with ideas immediately on what they could make. I have no idea how people can be so creative with dishes! This is why I am not a chef. I need to get inspiration from looking through recipes. I do love seeing the weird and yummy stuff they come up with though. I would love to be one of the guests trying the dishes.

Many people went for meat, so others went a different route with seafood. A couple of contestants were worried they weren’t going to make their dishes perfect. One of them being Micah since the day before she was an emotional wreck saying it was because she was away from her daughter. This might be more believable if it had been towards the end of competition, but this was the second episode. I think it was more likely that her Quickfire Challenge dish was roasted. Her dish impressed the guests with its taste, but it did seem a very large dish for those trying to eat standing up without utensils.

Micah from South Africa
Lamb with Grilled Halloumi & Pomegranate Sauce

Another one that was freaking out was Sara N. She was a nervous mess during the Quickfire, which caused her to forget what she made. Then she was having a hell of a time preparing things for the BBQ later that same day. She seemed to pull it together the next day at the BBQ since she got rave reviews for her Vietnamese BBQ beef. She was worried that her cucumbers and chiles were going to be way too hot, but no one complained.

Sara N from Santa Monica, CA
Vietnamese BBQ with Pine Nuts, Radish & Cucumber Salad

Camille and Casey’s dishes were also good, mixing a bunch of different flavors in a BBQ setting without it being lost in the charcoals.

Camille from Elizabeth, NJ Grilled Swordfish with Chorizo & Artichoke Potato Salad

Casey from Cedar Hills, TX Strip Steak, Polenta, Bacon Wrapped Shrimp with Tomato Salad

Some of the cocky ones were Howie, Tre, Joey and Hung. Tre kept talking about how he was from Texas and going to do his home state proud with the BBQ challenge, yet he grilled salmon instead of meat. He also had a problem with some dishes being too bland. When he heard this, he started adding salt, which led to others complaining of it being too salty.

Tre from Duncanville, TX
Peach BBQ Glazed Salmon with Crab Avocado Salad

Howie who bragged in the first episode about being a perfectionist with time, except that he ran out of time and didn’t plate half of his dish, bragged this episode about his skills. Yet, he sliced his pork tenderloin before grilling it, and then put it on way too early so it ended up dried out. Winner!

Howie from Miami, FL
Jamaican Jerk Pork, Mango Slaw with Citrus Vinaigrette

Joey made easy to eat drumsticks, but they didn’t seem very upscale. Hung’s dish did seem to live up to his claims. He also made a tasty drink that was a big fan with the guests. Joey made something similar during the Quickfire Challenge so he ended up yelling about Hung stealing his drink idea. It was a watermelon shooter.

Joey from Long Island, NY Korean BBQ Chicken with Charred Corn, Tofu & Bean Sprout Salad

Hung from Pittsfield, MA Flank Steak with Grilled Corn Salad & Bagel Chips

Other contestants were not thrilled with Sandee’s dish, not because of flavor but because it did not seem to be BBQ. She had poached her lobster and was just heating it up over the grill. It was already done by the time she arrived.

Sandee from Saint Simon’s Island, GA
Vanilla Poached Lobster, Pancetta Wrapped Date & Truffle Slaw

Brian made a dish that everyone loved, and he wasn’t nervous or cocky while making it. His seafood sausage was tasty, and was very upscale. He also was able to talk up the guests while serving to them, so his designated area was very popular.

Brian from Bend, OR
Scallops, Shrimp & Seabass Sausage with Ginger Slaw & Chili Glaze

Winners & Losers

The top choices were Brian, Micah and Sara N. Brian ended up winning the overall challenge. The bottom of the pack were Howie, Tre, Joey and Sandee. The main complaint with Tre was his dish was either bland or too salty depending on when you ate during the event. Howie’s dish was over dry and did not seem upscale to fit the challenge. Joey’s dish was tasty, but also did not fit the upscale criteria. Sandee’s dish was decent, except that some of her flavors overpowered the taste of the lobster where half the judges couldn’t tell it was lobster. It also did not fit the BBQ criteria. The judges had to decide what was worse: not being upscale or not being BBQ. They decided that not being BBQ was a worse sin so Sandee was sent off packing.

Source: Top Chef

New Shows

Shaq’s Big Challenge
Channel: ABC
Time: 9/8c
Premieres: Tuesday, June 26

Shaq works with six obese middle schoolers to get them to play outside compared to inside with video games. He also tries to get their schools to get healthier lunches and bring back physical education.

Burn Notice
Channel: USA
Time: 10/9c
Premieres: Thursday, June 28

A CIA spy is fired with no reason, along with his bank account frozen and credit cards canceled. While trying to figure out why this happened, he takes up some private investigator jobs to make some money. Bruce Campbell also stars.

Sources: TV Guide , Entertainment Weekly, Futon Critic

Hi Coni! I can use the Italicas!

Nationwide Releases

1408
Directed: Mikael Hafstrom
Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson

After hunting for any signs of paranormal activity from the other side, a grieving father declares there are no such things as ghosts. Then he gets trapped in room 1408 where no one has survived past an hour in the room.

RT Score: 74%
RT Consensus: Relying on psychological tension rather than overt violence and gore, 1408 is a genuinely creepy thriller with a strong lead performance by John Cusack.

It pins you into a claustrophobic chamber of terror for a surprisingly stomach-turning thrill ride.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

Reassuringly old-school gothic.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Swedish director Mikael Hafsrom, who scored with Evil in 2003 and fizzled badly with Derailed two years later, seems to have regained his footing.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Finds some ingenious methods of visualizing the story’s literary whim-whams. Before it finally succumbs to CGI bloat in the last act, it offers up one of the creepiest hours in recent memory.
- Andrew Wright
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

The horror wouldn’t work without Cusack, who makes what could have been a rote acting exercise — Be tough! Now angry! Now defensively funny! — a cathartic ritual instead.
- Robert Wilonsky
Village Voice

A Mighty Heart
Directed: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman

The story behind the journalist who was kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002.

RT Score: 78%
RT Consensus: Angelina Jolie conveys the full emotional range of a woman in a desperate situation in A Mighty Heart, an urgent yet tactful film about a difficult subject.

It plays as a pandering vanity project for Angelina Jolie.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

The twisting of narrative perspective that pushes the missing man’s wife so insistently into the foreground makes A Mighty Heart a mighty challenge.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

The film’s strict avoidance of exploitation and sensationalism only adds to the film’s emotional impact.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

It’s not easy to make a dramatic, tense movie when many in the audience already know the ending, but director Michael Winterbottom has created one of the most compelling and emotional movies you will see
- Willie Waffle
WaffleMovies.com

Jolie is such an expressive actress that there’s always a danger she’ll overplay the part, but one major misstep aside, she slips into Winterbottom’s wide-ranging procedural and asserts herself only when dramatically necessary.
- Scott Tobias
Onion AV Club

Evan Almighty
Directed: Tom Shadyac
Starring: Steven Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham

A not-really sequel to Bruce Almighty where God tells the former anchorman, Evan, that he needs to build an ark before the big flood comes.

RT Score: 21%
RT Consensus: Big on special effects but short on laughs, Evan Almighty underutilizes a star-studded cast that includes Steve Carell and Morgan Freeman.

The idea to show characters dancing to a song with lyrics that go “Everybody Dance Now!” is indicative of the movie’s creativity level.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

The shamelessly juvenile, pseudo-religious, mock-sincere Evan Almighty is the most expensive Hollywood comedy ever made. Problem? It’s not that funny.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Nothing can offset the picture’s dutiful Sunday-school intentions or the generic qualities of the CG animals that follow Noah in twosies.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

For a movie that’s supposed to be about reconnecting with God and ourselves, and cherishing the Earth we live on, Evan Almighty is a surprisingly dispassionate picture.
- Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com

There really aren’t any laugh-out-loud moments. Even comic pros like Wanda Sykes, John Michael Higgins and Goodman are straining a bit here.
- Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Limited Releases

You Kill Me
Directed: John Dahl
Starring: Tea Leoni, Ben Kingsley, Luke Wilson

A hitman in Buffalo is fired until he cleans up his drinking problem, finds love and hope in San Francisco, but just wants to get back to killing people.

RT Score: 74%
RT Consensus: Featuring wonderful performances from Ben Kingsley and Tea Leoni, You Kill Me is a charming, funny take on the familiar inner-lives-of-hit-men premise.

[A] precious, inert dud of a hitmen-are-people-too comedy.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

For an hour and a half it exerts its own preposterous reality, making you believe it — and like it.
- Richard Schickel
TIME Magazine

With an eclectic mix of strong-minded thesps all pulling in slightly different directions, this shape-shifting genre hybrid successfully commingles 12-step therapy, romantic comedy and hit-man thriller.
- Ronnie Scheib
Variety

This crime comedy has such a goofy script and such an eccentric cast that it kept me curious about what would happen next.
- Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader

This modest hit-man comedy may be a one-joke film, but it’s a good one, representing a return to form for John Dahl after a decade of disappointing studio pictures. Acting ensemble, particularly Ben Kingsley as alcoholic killer who finds love, is good.
- Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Broken English
Directed: Zoe Cassavetes
Starring: Melvil Poupaud, Parker Posey

A woman who can never find the right guy hits it off with a Parisian two days before he goes back to France.

RT Score: 63%
RT Consensus: Though Broken English eventually settles into basic rom-com territory, it’s pleasant and good-natured, and Parker Posey is spellbinding throughout the movie.

The tour of Manhattan and Paris is fun in a privileged Sex and the City way, but the wish-fulfillment content is awfully flimsy in this debut from writer-director Zoe Cassavetes.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

It’s a rather typical Posey role, and yet somehow I never tire of seeing her in them.
- Kim Voynar
Cinematical

A psychologically rich drama that presents an illuminating anatomy of the anguish of loneliness and the way it often gives a desperate edge to our search for love.
- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

[Director] Cassavetes shows genuine, even original, talent in the way she creates emotional connections between camera and character, via fluid movement and unhinged perspective. But the advantage of having Posey as her lead shouldn’t be underestimated.
- John Anderson
Newsday

By the time Nora finally makes a decision about her romantic future, we’ve already moved on.
- Josh Bell
Las Vegas Weekly

Sicko
Directed: Michael Moore

Documentary about the health care situation in the U.S.

RT Score: 89%
RT Consensus: Driven by Michael Moore’s sincere humanism, Sicko is a devastating, convincing, and very entertaining documentary about the state of America’s health care.

In a summer of dumb, shameless drivel, Moore delivers a movie of robust mind and heart. You’ll laugh till it hurts.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Michael Moore is an incurable optimist who believes in the ability of America’s core values to come up to par and exceed other countries in the way our government takes care of its people.
- Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Michael Moore is the P.T. Barnum of America’s liberals, bombastically attacking his opponents and frequently letting his ego spill out onscreen.
- Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

At the very least, he’s raised a warning flag that shouldn’t be ignored.
- Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com

Full of half-truths (e.g., the French government his characters praise was thrown out of office after the film wrapped), this is just more of Moore’s pathetic propaganda
- Tony Medley
Tolucan Times

White Palms
Directed: Szabolcs Hajdu
Starring: Zoltan Miklos Hajdu, Kyle Shewfelt, Gheorghe Dinica

An Olympic gymnast injures himself so becomes a coach in Canada where he has to train a gifted, but annoying young gymnast.

RT Score: 89%

An exhilarating, formally exciting sports drama as well as a telling look at North American society as experienced by someone who grew up behind the iron curtain.
- Boyd van Hoeij
europeanfilms.net

A sneaky delight that glides effortlessly between the past and present without a single detour into either the uplifting clichés of American sports movies or the creepy voyeurism that sometimes attends films about young, well-built athletes.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

An uncommonly resonant sports drama in which a talented yet troubled gymnast comes to terms with a turbulent past, White Palms proves a distinctive and absorbing third feature by Szabolcs Hajdu.
- Eddie Cockrell
Variety

The term ’sports film’ doesn’t do justice to White Palms, a punishing, beautiful drama about a troubled 30-something Hungarian gymnast.
- Matt Zoller Seitz
New York Times

[A] largely autobiographical, melodramatic saga.
- Aaron Hillis
Village Voice

Black Sheep
Directed: Jonathan King
Starring: Oliver Driver, Nathan Meister, Tammy Davis

In New Zealand, an experiment gone bad has turned the sheep into killers.

RT Score: 76%
RT Consensus: With an outrageous premise played completely straight, Black Sheep is a violent, grotesque, and very funny movie that takes B-movie lunacy to a delirious extreme.

A welcome entry into the burgeoning horror-comedy field, blending its mad environmental science with a lot of fun laughs.
- Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

Hilariously reminiscent of the early career splatterfests of Peter Jackson.
- Chad Greene
Boxoffice Magazine

Maybe it’s not exactly what Romero had in mind, but for pure insanity, Black Sheep does its job and it does it well.
- Chris Cabin
filmcritic.com

It’s still relatively early in 2007, but this wry comedy about sheep gone baaaaad promises to be the best vampire-flesh-eating livestock movie of the year.
- John Anderson
Newsday

A one-joke skit that trots in a straight line, and your enjoyment of it will depend entirely on how many times you need to see gonzo sheep rip out human entrails.
- Kyle Smith
New York Post

Colma: The Musical
Directed: Richard Wong
Starring: Jake Moreno, H.P. Mendoza

Three friends living outside of San Francisco try to figure out what to do with their lives.

RT Score: 92%

Like Hedwig and the Angry Inch and other recent musicals, Colma winks at the audience when its characters slip into song, still showing plenty of love for its genre.
- Marc Breindel
Gay.com UK

Surprisingly delightful, hilarious.
- Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Amerindie Colma: The Musical just gives the kids music they like and characters they can identify with, forgetting any grandiosity.
- Dennis Harvey
Variety

There is more wit, energy and imagination in any one frame of director Richard Wong and writer-composer-star H.P. Mendoza’s original screen musical than in an entire decade’s worth of lame Hollywood attempts to revivify the genre.
- Scott Foundas
L.A. Weekly

This is one modern movie musical that has what its slicker, star-studded, far more lavishly financed brethren, such as Chicago and Dreamgirls, lack: real joy and a giddy love for the genre that imbues every frame.
- Pam Grady
Reel.com

We have started our Movie Watching Group (MWG). Marci is up first! She has picked Night of the Comet from 1984.

Netflix Synopsis: Earth has been ripped to shreds after a run-in with a killer comet, and those who have survived are in a fight for their lives in this campy cult classic. Valley Girl Reg (Catherine Mary Stewart) and her sister (Kelli Maroney) discover they’re two of the lucky few. But scientists are after them, and now they must run. Why? Because the researchers believe they need the blood of survivors to concoct a drug that can save them all from further ruin.

RT Score: 83%

Here is our group that needs to watch the movie and review it: Amy, Mievil, Pira, Jim, Keiran, Lynz, Jer and me. Review away!

New Shows

Meadowlands
Channel: SHO
Time: 10/9c
Premieres: Sunday, June 17

A British family is in the witness protection program, yet the new neighborhood harbors many, dark secrets.

Flight of the Conchords
Channel: HBO
Time: 10:30/9:30c
Premieres: Sunday, June 17

Two guitarists from New Zealand try to make it in New York City.

Age of Love
Channel: NBC
Time: 9/8c
Premieres: Monday, June 18

30-year-old tennis star, Mark Philippoussis, will take younger women in their 20's and older women in 40's. He will decide if age matters in love.

Heartland
Channel: TNT
Time: 10/9c
Premieres: Monday, June 18

Treat Williams is the head of a heart-transplant unit who works alongside his ex-wife and his current girlfriend.

Returning Shows

The 4400
Channel: USA
Time: 9/8c
Premieres: Sunday, June 17

Last season: Jordon Collier showed up and tried to sell the idea of Promicin to the public, which can give people 4400 powers or it can kill them. Isabella tried to bring about the apocalypse, but she was finally brought down by her father.

This season: After the impending apocalypse fear is gone, the focus will shift to Jordan Collier. Is he good or evil? Is Promicin good or evil?

Dead Zone
Channel: USA
Time: 10/9c
Premieres: Sunday, June 17

Last season: Stillson becomes Vice President after the old one dies.

This season: Stillson is on his way to become President while Johnny has to deal with the news.

The Closer
Channel: TNT
Time: 9/8c
Premieres: Monday, June 18

Last season: Brenda picked Fritz over her ex-lover and decided to have him move in.

This season: Fritz would like them to move to a bigger place so he can get his stuff out of the garage.

Sources: TV Guide , Entertainment Weekly, Futon Critic

Nationwide Releases

Nancy Drew
Directed: Andrew Fleming
Starring: Emma Roberts, Josh Flitter

Update on the old Nancy Drew novels. Nancy doesn't fit in with the girls of Hollywood, but she doesn't care. She just wants to solve an old unsolved crime involving a movie star.

RT Score: 53%

The tone is most similar to the "Scooby-Doo" films, which isn't a compliment.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

Why does a movie so dolled up with oodles of stylistic doodles fall so flat?
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

This film's lack of gaiety and surprise makes it a dud for old and new generations of the books' fans.
- Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

Most of all, what keeps the movie afloat is Emma Roberts’ sincerity in her portrayal of Nancy.
- Bob Bloom
Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

The cumulative effect of Fleming's direction and Roberts' casting is to make eternal heroine Nancy into a chipmunk-chipper detective and a social nincompoop.
- Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Directed: Tim Story
Starring: Michael Chiklis, Jessica Alba

The Fantastic Four must battle the Silver Surfer before Earth dies.

RT Score: 39%
RT Consensus: While an improvement on its predecessor, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is nevertheless a juvenile, simplistic picture that has little benefit beyond its special effects.

Fantastic? Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. Thrilling, engaging and totally adequate are more fitting adjectives to the latest superhero special effects bonanza.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

It's not egregiously awful like the first film. Just plain awful in that formula way that kills your spirit and all hope for summer movies.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Tim Story seems on the verge of "getting" it by introducing two of the comic-book series' most involving characters, , but fails in creating a satisfying back story, or any story at all for that matter.
- Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca

something we haven't seen in comic book movies in recent years - an honest attempt to capture the childhood essence of the fantasy
- Kevin Carr
7M Pictures

It's all very silly and the Four's life together has all the gravitas of an episode of the Monkees. Entertaining, though.
- Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]

DOA: Dead or Alive
Directed: Corey Yuen
Starring: Devon Aoki, Jaime Pressly

Based on a fighting video game where the girls fight in bikinis.

RT Score: 41%

Unquestionably brain-dead, but also a great example of unpretentious, second-gear celluloid, generated quickly, cheaply — and for the fun of it.
- Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

D.O.A.: Dead or Alive can easily be described as 'Hot chicks kicking ass in string bikinis.' And there's nothing wrong with that.
- Kevin Carr
7M Pictures

A film that boys aged 12 to 15 are going to lap up thanks to endless shots of Valance and her curvy co-stars in their swimsuits. But with a plot even flimsier than the bikinis, there’s nothing here for the rest of us.
- David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]

The action has more to do with digital effects than true martial artistry, and is targeted squarely at adolescent boys too young to rent porn and gamers too lazy to yank their own joysticks.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The performances are so wooden that things improve when Eric frickin’ Roberts turns up with a bad wig.
- Chris Hewitt (UK)
Empire Magazine

Limited Releases

Beyond Hatred
Directed: Olivier Meyrou

Documentary about a family dealing with feelings of hatred and revenge after their 29-year-old son is murdered.

RT Score: 88%

a contemplative, almost poetic examination of the proper workings of justice, and an exemplary depiction of a ruined family rebuilt on the foundations of its own humanistic values.
- Anton Bitel
Channel 4 Film

Through a series of interviews, we see the effect inexplicable hatred and murder has on an ordinary family.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Meyrou’s suitably sombre film leaves you with a sense of enormous respect for a couple refusing to be consumed by hatred, prepared instead to offer their forgiveness.
- Tom Dawson
Total Film

Paced like a drama, imbued with a spellbinding intimacy, and impressionistic in its visual portrayal of crime and punishment, it follows the 2002 murder of Francois Chenu, a gay man beaten by Nazi skinheads and left to drown in a nearby pond in Reims.
- John Anderson
Newsday

Beyond Hatred is perhaps best used as a case study in psychology schools, because it is too convoluted to really make much sense for the general public.
- Boyd van Hoeij
europeanfilms.net

Gypsy Caravan
Directed: Jasmine Dellal
Starring: Fanfare Ciocarlia, Taraf de Haidouks, Johnny Depp

Documentary about gypsy music.

RT Score: 79%

An irresistibly vibrant concert-tour documentary by Jasmine Dellal.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

Music is the conduit for repudiating stereotypes and fostering cultural unity in Gypsy Caravan.
- Nick Schager
Slant Magazine

A great sampler of Roma (Gypsy) music with outstanding road footage would be enough, but the insight into the Roma heart is priceless.
- Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics

There's material to discover about the Gypsies in this laudable attempt, but the film is long, repetitious, and not selectively enough edited.
- Donald J. Levit
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

It's a two-hour movie, and I'm only sorry it isn't two or three times as long. Let me read your thoughts: You're not much interested in Gypsy music, and the historical and cultural stuff might be pretty dry. That's what I thought too: Wrong and wrong.
- Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com

Fido
Directed: Andrew Currie
Starring: Billy Connolly, Carrie-Anne Moss

A town where zombies are tamed so they can be slaves to humans.

RT Score: 66%

Director Andrew Currie is better at laughs than scares, but he can’t sustain either as Fido runs out of steam in the final stretch.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Andrew Currie’s genial zombie comedy freshens up some familiar genre elements with considerable style and wit.
- Jason Anderson
eye WEEKLY

It's crazy and gutsy and campy and gross in all the right places.
- David Cornelius
eFilmCritic.com

There's nothing here that couldn't have been done better in an eight-minute sketch on "Saturday Night Live."
- Lewis Beale
Film Journal International

The concept is great and the movie has its moments. Just not enough of them.
- Pete Hammond
Maxim

Eagle Vs. Shark
Directed: Taika Waititi
Starring: Jemaine Clement, Loren Horsley

Two socially awkward people find very strange love with one another.

RT Score: 59%

It's a tale that reduces angst, not to mention love, to a generational tic.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

I don't care how you do it, you have to see Eagle vs. Shark. At worst, you'll walk away amused. At best, you'll have a new favorite movie. Regardless, you will have a fun time.
- Mark Bell
Film Threat

The actors' subtle, deadpan performances keep pure caricature at bay — and also produce as much excruciating discomfort as laughter.
- Jane Borden
Time Out New York

It becomes increasingly difficult to care one way or another about characters who act like they have undergone frontal lobotomies.
- James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Cringe-inducing comedy by New Zealander Taika Waititi more or less exemplifies the divide currently dictating taste in movie comedy, a schism reducible to a single question: Do you want to laugh with people, or at them?
- John Anderson
Newsday

Lights in the Dusk
Directed: Aki Kaurismaki
Starring: Janne Hyytiainen, Maria Heiskanen

In Helsinki, a night watchman finds himself unwillingly involved in random acts involving a dangerous woman and a thief.

RT Score: 70%

There's great music, an excellent dog, and that indescribable Kaurismäki tension between misery and a cosmic joke.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

Lights In The Dusk plays out in the expected Kaurismäki style, with flavorful musical interludes, great affection for the city's outcasts, and lots of bleakness chased by the faintest sliver of hope.
- Scott Tobias
Onion AV Club

Stripped of much of the director's trademark deadpan humor and saddled with such an extremely passive protagonist, getting through the drama becomes an exercise in patience.
- Pam Grady
Reel.com

It all sounds brutally miserable, but a spry comic flicker, and Koistinen's dim but undying hope keep things surprisingly light, while brilliantly efficient storytelling gives the human tale almost all of the short 77 minutes to unfurl.
- Jonathan Trout
BBC

So stylized and slow-moving (even at a spare 75 minutes) that you may have trouble adapting to its hypnotic rhythms — but if you can, there are sumptuous visual rewards to be found, plus the faintest emotional uptick right at the end.
- Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Directed: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley

Everyone goes to bring back Jack Sparrow from the dead and have a mighty battle between pirates and everyone else.

While I thought the first two movies were tons of fun and perfect summer movies, this one was so convoluted that it takes away from the fun of the movie. It seems that the lack of plots in the first two movie ended up crammed into this one. I don’t know if the makers thought the movie needed to be bigger and better since it was the third one in the trilogy, but it ends up being too much.

First, the group has to bring Jack back from the dead because they need to call all the pirate lords together to fight off the East Indian Trading Company that is killing off all pirates. They need a key that all the pirate lords have and Jack didn’t pass his off to anyone before dying. Barbossa knows a way to bring a creature that can fight Beckett and his men, but he needs all the keys from the pirate lords to do it.

Second, we learn more about Davy Jones’ love that was briefly mentioned in the second movie. The lovers want to be reunited, but maybe not. It is a storyline that was explained from the second movie, but it isn’t a storyline that I really needed explained. It could have been cut out or shortened greatly to keep the overlong movie from getting out of control.

Thirdly, there is the storyline of Will Turner who is trying to free his father from being under the control of Davy Jones. This could have been the major plot of the movie along with the pirate lords fighting the British at the end and I think I would have enjoyed the movie more. This plot line was displayed like a random subplot that actually wasn’t even shown for two thirds of the way into it. Especially with the way the movie ends, it seems like it should have been given more air time.

Finally, Will Turner and Elizabeth have a rocky relationship that finally gets made up by the end of the movie. These two have no chemistry. I think they once did in earlier films, but it seems to have faded. Orlando Bloom did look very hot in all black pirate gear at the end of the movie. Too bad he wasn’t wearing that for more of the movie.

Jack seems to be having an entertaining time in undead land, which is amusing and funny, but also stops the movie in its tracks. Whatever forward momentum the movie the movie has comes to a halt when one of Jack’s “other” Jacks starts having a conversation with him or each other. It is just a joke that goes on too long for an already long movie. Jack Sparrow is still the best part of the movie though. When he’s actually interacting with others (and not his other Jacks), I really enjoy the movie the most.

There is one random scene with Keith Richards playing Jack Sparrow’s father, but it isn’t clear that it is his father. I knew he would be playing his father, but for my parents and Jer who didn’t know, they kept asking if he was his father. Once we figured out he was, the scene was over. It was more distracting than anything else.

If the movie had been edited a bit more, or had a more concise storyline, it could have been as entertaining as the first two. The fight scenes were still exciting and enjoyable, but they couldn’t save the entire movie.

Rating: C+

Tags: at world's end, jack sparrow, johnny depp, keiran knightley, orlando bloom, pirates, pirates of the caribbean