VH Corner

Ball of Fury is directed by the guy from Reno 911! who plays Junior. He was also Ben on The State. Ben falls down a lot.

Nationwide Releases

Balls of Fury
Directed: Robert Ben Garant
Starring: Christopher Walken, Dan Fogler
Trailer: Quicktime

The real story behind the secret society of underground ping pong champions.

RT Score: 26%
RT Consensus: Tasteless, yet harmless, Balls of Fury nevertheless fails to generate enough laughs despite its lowbrow intentions.

It’s the kind of comedy that finds Asian people hi-lar-ious because they’re…Asian. (Are you laughing yet?)
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Goodness, gracious, there’s no greatness in Balls of Fury, a lifeless pingpong comedy that ricochets from one flat gag to the next. The only novelty it can boast of is that it’s a sports spoof without Will Ferrell.
- Kevin Crust
Los Angeles Times

Opens without a pulse, fires intermittent blanks throughout, musters up momentum with a silly sense of humor that eventually, just barely, wins over its audience.
- Ross Anthony
Hollywood Report Card

It’s schlocky and tasteless but also good-natured and harmless, and the people who come out to see it will get just what they want: 90 minutes of freewheeling, switch-off-your-brain laughs.
- Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune

It’s a shame that a movie with so many genuinely funny and talented people involved wasn’t better.
- Stax
IGN Movies

 

Death Sentence
Directed: James Wan
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund
Trailer: Quicktime

During a gang initiation, a man’s son is killed. The killer gets off so he goes after the thugs himself after shaving his head to prove that he means serious cat business.

RT Score: 16%
RT Consensus: A nonsensical plot and an absurd amount of violence make this revenge pic gratuitous and overwrought.

For a guy who analyzes risks for a living, Nick [Kevin Bacon] takes a lot of stupid ones, and yet he’s still not the dumbest thing in Death Sentence.
- Alex Markerson
E! Online

Why does it think it’s serious drama when it’s actually something closer to a parody of Charles Bronson movies?
- MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

In the same way that Quentin Tarantino and Kurt Russell elevated Death Proof, James Wan and Kevin Bacon go beyond what would have been satisfactory to crowds craving a good bloodletting.
- Erik Childress
eFilmCritic.com

Death Sentence takes the pulp revenge thriller to the edge. And then falls off.
- Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Might have been accepted as a classic modern grindhouse flick if any of its inherent humor were even remotely intentional.
- Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

Halloween
Directed: Rob Zombie
Starring: Tyler Mane, Sheri Moon
Trailer: Quicktime

Not sure if it is a remake of the original or a prequel about how Mike Meyers became a killer, but I’m sure he walks slowly after people until he stabs them.

RT Score: 20%
RT Consensus: Rob Zombie doesn’t bring many new ideas to the table in Halloween, making it another bloody disappointment for fans of the franchise.

Finally we know why homicidal maniac Michael Myers wears a mask. Straight-up embarrassment.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

[It] will come as a welcome relief to fans who’ve diligently sat through seven Halloween sequels in hopes of one day recapturing some of the terrifying magic of the original.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Have you ever been driving down the road and a song you know starts to play on the radio? Wait a second! What the heck is this? This isn’t the original. Who is this? Your heart drops. Oh man, this is just some lame cover version. You flip the channel.
- Jeff Otto
cinemaobsession.com

Save the first two Halloween films, Zombie’s take is the best film of the franchise. That’s not saying much, I know, but it is a compliment that Rob deserves.
- Mark Bell
Film Threat

Although it’s not saying much, this is director Rob Zombie’s most impressive outing behind the camera.
- James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Limited Releases

Exiled
Directed: Johnny To
Starring: Anthony Wong, Francis Ng
Trailer: Quicktime

In China, two hit men are sent out to get rid of a man who ran away trying to start a new life with his wife and baby, but there are other hit men sent to stop the first two. Sounds messy.

RT Score: 78%
RT Consensus: Exiled has non-stop action, tension and style — making it an excellent summer action movie.

…there’s nothing predictable about the film.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

One of those wearisome Hong Kong action movies where characters engage in Mexican standoffs not so much to ratchet up excitement or generate tension but rather to look cool for as long as possible.
- Gregory Kirschling
Entertainment Weekly

What’s Cantonese for “badass”? It fits adjectivally with this very enjoyable action thriller with a bracing touch of political satire, from Johnny To
- Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]

…Exiled is compromised by the feeling one gets that Johnnie To has been watching too many westerns. Like in a Sergio Leone movie, all the characters try to strike iconic poses, clad with shades, munching on cigars, tilted gun in hand.
- Beverly Berning
culturevulture.net

If you’ve never seen a Johnnie To crime picture, Exiled is a simple, stylish, and utterly delightful introduction.
- David Edelstein
New York Magazine

Ladron que Roba a Ladron
Directed: Joe Menendez
Starring: Fernando Colunga, Jojo Henrickson
Trailer: Flash

Heist movie where smaller thieves steal from a big thief who has been stealing from the poor for years.

RT Score: 67%

This good-natured genre piece gets the job done while sneaking in a couple of pointed observations about contemporary Latino immigrant life.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Grand Hollywood entertainment for and about a long-ignored culture that’s just now starting to sense the potential vastness of its own economic and political influence.
- Josh Rosenblatt
Austin Chronicle

It’s good vs. evil on a plain, flat playing field, but this welcoming minimalism only seems to embolden the entertainment factor of the film, instead of simplifying its appeal.
- Brian Orndorf
eFilmCritic.com

Ocean’s Seven at best…a puny heist comedy that’s nowhere near as clever or amusing as it thinks it is.
- Frank Swietek
One Guy’s Opinion

It’s refreshing to see a bit of escapism that takes place in contemporary Southern California as seen, and lived, by those uninterested in aping the Ocean’s 13 vibe of ice-coolness.
- Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune

Self-Medicated
Directed: Monty Lapica
Starring: Diana Venora, Monty Lapica
Trailer: Quicktime

In Las Vegas, a teenager is already a violent alcoholic, so his drug-addicted mom has him kidnapped by one of those locked down psychiatric facilities to fix him.

RT Score: 41%
RT Consensus: Self-Medicated features some nice performances, but is too sentimental and unfocused to be a truly compelling film.

There are nice touches, particularly in Venora’s performance and Timothy Kendall’s editing, but the film’s maudlin edge illustrates the dangers of directing your own material.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Heartfelt it clearly is. Disciplined and focused on what’s truly intriguing about the story, not so much.
- Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

One problem is that these are supposed to be high school students, and not one of them looks under 25. A story isn’t a good one just because it’s supposed to be true, here’s proof.
- Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com

As director, Lapica labors to affect a kind of stark, airless ‘realism,’ yet long before Andrew’s eleventh-hour encounter with a saintly, homily-spouting homeless man, Self-Medicated reveals itself as a uniquely narcissistic fantasy.
- Scott Foundas
L.A. Weekly

Though the script and storytelling could have used more polish, Lapica’s honesty provides the lasting impression.
- G. Allen Johnson
San Francisco Chronicle

The Nines
Directed: John August
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis
Trailer: Quicktime

A guy thinks he’s being haunted by himself and some kind of craziness with virtual reality and maybe a computer game. Huh? Bad trailers suck.

RT Score: 63%

You’ll go ”Huh?” but you won’t feel cheated.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

The payoff fizzles, but the buildup is intriguing until it topples under its own weight.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

It’s that increasingly rare animal, a comedy that is engaging, funny, and smart. And since this is only August’s first film, it bodes well for the future.
- Pam Grady
Reel.com

Isn’t funny enough to be classified as a comedy, weird enough to attract cult attention, nor spiritual enough to be mind-blowing.
- Lewis Beale
Film Journal International

The most interesting aspect is how things from one segment appear later in another and how he’s able to pull everything together in the end.
- Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

Quiet City
Directed: Aaron Katz
Starring: Erin Fisher, Cris Lankenau
Trailer: Flash

A young woman from out of town shows up in Brooklyn to hang out with her friend, but can’t find her. She ends up hanging out with a guy she meets while lost.

RT Score: 90%

Callow, self-centered, often infuriatingly inarticulate but filled with possibility; Katz and leads, who improvised much of their own dialogue, capture the contradictions with enough fragile charm that it’s hard not to wish them well.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Proof positive that life’s mundanities are even more tedious projected onto a movie screen.
- Mark Holcomb
Time Out New York

In order for such a small film like this to work, you have to kind of fall in love with the leads, and both Fisher and Lankenau make that easy to do.
- Don R. Lewis
Film Threat

A contemplative widescreen experience that views its landscape — the borderline-industrial hipster neighborhoods of Brooklyn, N.Y. — with painterly patience.
- Andrew O’Hehir
Salon.com

 

Freshman Orientation
Directed: Ryan Shiraki
Starring: Sam Huntington, Marla Sokoloff
Trailer: Flash

A college freshman geek tries to act gay to get the attention of a sorority girl.

RT Score: 44%

There are other things to like about writer-director Ryan Shiraki’s college comedy, mainly that it feels more real than most… Just one problem: It isn’t particularly funny.
- Luke Y. Thompson
L.A. Weekly

Blessedly shrewd where it counts and deserves notice. The lessons develop naturally and aren’t jammed down the viewer’s throat like the hypocritical sermonizing in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
- Dustin Putman
TheMovieBoy.com

Freshman Orientation feels a bit like a missed opportunity. It’s too bad the motion picture as a whole isn’t as quirky and clever as its double-edged title.
- James Berardinelli
ReelViews

A genderbending teensploit turning on a clever twist of the genre’s trademark theme. For while most makeover movies feature a female making herself more attractive, this flick has a male deliberately doing the opposite.
- Kam Williams
NewsBlaze

…too often feels more like a tapped-out keg than a provocative romp.
- Robert Abele
Los Angeles Times

Forgiving the Franklins
Directed: Jay Floyd
Starring: Robertson Dean, Teresa Willis
Trailer: none

A God-fearing family are involved in a fatal automobile accident, but don’t exactly die. They also aren’t the same again. I have no idea since there isn’t a trailer.

RT Score: 3%

Floyd does provide some huge laughs along the way but loses all potential for poignancy by never getting past what eventually becomes a one-joke premise.
- Erik Childress
eFilmCritic.com

This dark comedy seems to be poking fun at the religious fundamentalists, but there’s also an underlying message about living your life without shame, being who you are, and even about faith.
- Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com

Black comedy doesn’t get much clumsier than Jay Floyd’s Forgiving the Franklins.
- Robert Koehler
Variety

Monday, May 13

We did more of the same the next morning with breakfast where Amy, Lynz and Keiran skipped it while the rest of us went to get something. We were heading to Epcot, which I was most interested about since I really knew nothing about it, so I was very intrigued. On the ride over, Amy pointed out all the birds that were real or animatronic. She had done this the day before, but I forgot to mention it. She decided that all birds were really animatronic since we were at Disneyworld. Amy2 found this very amusing and would always point out birds so Amy could claim they weren’t real.

When we arrived at Epcot, I discovered it was split up into two sections. There was the front section that had rides. The back section was the World, which had various countries represented. Amy and Sharon’s driver from the airport told them to play a drinking game where they would drink from each country they visited. I thought this was an excellent plan. Others did not agree since they found it too humid. I thought if I had enough water, that I was downing constantly, it could work out. That was later on in the day though.

First up, was Mission: Space, which was g-force virtual ride. We were going to get a Fast Pass for it, but there was no line so we just went in. We had to decide if we wanted the scarier version or the tamer version. The difference was the amount of g-forces used on the ride. Amy, Amy2, Lynz and Sharon all went for the tamer version, while I went with the boys. It was four people per ride so it worked out since we were split in half. Lt. Dan was the guy who talked to us on the video screen about us getting in a space shuttle and taking off into space. There was a delay on our side. We were guessing someone got sick on the ride. Awesome! I hope it wasn’t the one we were about to climb into. It was very reassuring when there were vomit bags in each shuttle. Once inside, we all had a job. I now forget what job I had, but I had to push a button when they said. Jer was in charge of hyper sleep. The g-force part of the ride was cool, but after that, it wasn’t too exciting. We zoomed around for a while and crash landed somewhere.

After that ride, it is a blur about what order we went in for rides. I know we were disappointed for Test Track. It was just a big ad for GM, which could have been forgivable, if the ride had been entertaining, but it wasn’t. It was just goofy. At least we had a Fast Pass for it, so we went through it fast.

We got another Fast Pass for Soarin, but that was for much later, so we had to do a bunch of random quick rides. We ended up on a kiddie ride, Journey Into Imagination with Figment, which had Eric Idle talking us through the five senses with a talking dragon. It was goofy, but it started our love of slow-moving rides, which is how they were described on the map. After the ride, there was a place to play around with things called ImageWorks – The Kodak “What If” Labs. It was a fun place for us to play, even though it was meant for kids. There were places where you waved your arms around and conducted a virtual orchestra. Another area had big sound buttons on the ground, that made the sound when you jumped on them. We were stuck in that area for a long time. We were very mature.

After all that jumping, we really needed another slow-moving ride. We went back to the pavilion that had Soarin’ in it, but we still had more time before we could go on it. We found Living with the Land, which was a boat ride that showed us a bunch of greenhouses, agriculture, aquaculture and desert farming. It could have been a walk through, but for some reason it was a boat ride through a lovely slow river. It was awesome since we were all for sitting after walking so much the day before. We saw pumpkins and squash that were being grown in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears. It was crazy!

Off to Soarin’, which some of us had been on before in California Adventure. I would have liked it if the scenery was different. It made sense that it was flying over areas in California when we were in California Adventure. In Florida, I thought they should have had areas in Florida to fly over or just somewhere else besides California.

We moved over to The Seas with Nemo & Friends, which had the trick of looking like it had no line, but it was twisty and windy with many hidden places. When you thought you were almost done, there was another room of line! Also, all the groups had kids except us. Then there was this one middle age guy that was all alone. We were convinced he was a pedophile. We tried to stay away from him. The ride was another slow-moving ride with not much going on.

The last ride we hadn’t gone on yet before moving onto the World area was Spaceship Earth, the ride that is inside the big white Epcot ball. It was a ride that looks like it was built in the 70s with hard blue plastic moving vessels that fit four people. No cushions, but just molded plastic. There were large dioramas everywhere that told us about the history of communication. It moved up in a spiral to the top of the ball and then it turned around and went back down the other side of the spiral but facing backwards. Since it was made so long ago, it went very slowly through the ages talking about communication. Then there was one random thing at the end talking about the intarweb. It was so very tacked on. We laughed at the cheesiness of it all, but we did love it when it went backwards going down. Every once in a while the ride stopped. Probably because someone couldn’t board the moving vessels on the moving walkway. We enjoyed this best when we were in a super dark part of the ride in between sections. Amy dubbed this ride Spaceship Nap! It became our favorite ride of the entire park.

After our nap, it was time to explore the food and drink of the World! This was my favorite part of the park. I decided I would get something small to eat and something to drink in each country. I followed the plan thoroughly and was drunk by Japan.

The first country was Mexico. I bought tacos and Dos Equis at the cantina. I also ate some of Sharon’s nachos. After that, we went on the Gran Fiesta Tour, which was another slow-moving boat ride! Yeah! It was like It’s a Small World, but stuck in Mexico. It also had Daffy Duck and two other cartoon characters jumping around the entire ride. We also wandered through the pavilion that had some stuff to buy. My eyes glaze over during shopping, so I don’t remember what was there.

Next to Mexico is Norway, of course. We went into a bakery shop and bought some pastries. I thought I’d skip drinking in this country since I had downed my Mexican beer, but then there was Norwegian beer and I hadn’t had that before. I had to try it! We could not ride the Viking cruise ride since it was closed for remodel, which Amy2 referred to has rehab. Poor rehab Viking cruise.

After Norway was China. I swore I was going to skip the beer on this one and just have some won tons, but then I wasn’t sure if I ever had Chinese beer, so I had to have it. We walked through the Reflections of China, which had nice garden area. There was a little museum attached to it too. We walked through there, and then we were off to the next country.

I actually took a drinking break in Germany! Since the beers they offered, I could get around the corner from my house, and I wasn’t in the mood for Jagermeister, I continued to drink my Chinese beer that I was still working on. I also skipped food in this area. Many others had bratwurst at the Biergarten Restaurant. I think some apple strudel might have been eaten too. I think the Amys disappeared for some shopping. I relaxed by sitting. There wasn’t much to do in this area besides shopping.

We headed over to Italy, which is at least close to Germany in reality. On the way there was a tiny replica of the Romantic Road in Germany. We walked through it and tried not to step on anything like Godzilla. After we reached Italy, I stopped at a little stand for some biscotti and Italian beer. The people running the thing were more interested in talking to each other than paying attention to us, but I did get my beer.

We didn’t stay in Italy for too long before it was time to cruise through the U.S. Why the U.S.? We were already there! Boring! I think Amy2 bought some pop corn. Maybe it was Sharon. Someone did! We ran through that area and didn’t even look around because it was time to cross the Pacific!

Over in Japan, it was time for sushi and Japanese beer! I think I ended up with more than one beer. Oh, I remember! I didn’t like my Italian beer, so I downed it fast to move onto the Japanese beer. After sushi, it was time for almost everyone else to disappear in the store to search with Amy for Hello Kitty. Sadly, I had to stay outside and drink my beer. I was entertained by crazy Taiko drummers. I found them mesmerizing or I was in that phase of drunkenness where I was just staring at everything.

Everyone joined back up again after surviving Hello Kitty and the drums to walk through Morocco. I was full so I had to pass on food and drink at this stop. I was nicely buzzed though. Sharon and Amy went to go get some hummus and other yummy stuff. We sat on a wall in the shade while they at that since the area was not too big.

After that, it was over to France. We had noticed before that all the workers in the various countries actually came from those countries. Disney’s thing is to have someone’s home town underneath their name on the name plate. Since I was buzzed, and others might have been too, I was running around the various drink places to see what part of France the girls working the area. They giggled when I said, “Where is she from? Nice. This one’s from Paris.” They also made awesome drinks! There was a citron slushy and I think another one. I didn’t get a drink of my own. I was concentrating on getting a crepe. So it was crepe and drink time! I was drinking other people’s drinks. Other people had multiple drinks. They were very popular.

We thought we were done. We were going to cruise through the rest. We had the U.K. to go through, but I had to stop for a cider. Lynz was also won over by a cider. We didn’t stop long, but just downed our ciders. We were a tad done for the day, and no one wanted to stop in Canada for personal reasons, so we didn’t even slow down.

After running through Canada, Amy stopped to get a fake tattoo. Jer made her very happy and got one too. I jumped in and got one too since they were little baby versions of Tigger, Eeyore and Pooh. Amy got Tigger since she loves him. I had Pooh so I could be classy and say I had a little Pooh on my arm.

We practically ran out of Epcot after pausing for a short time to see if wanted to go on Space Nap again, but we didn’t. It was afternoon nap time after all that drinking!

Top Chef: Miami
Second Helpings

The teams had a second shot at their restaurants. They were handed the bloggers comments as constructive feedback on how to improve on their second try. Howie kept going off on the feedback, but Sara seemed to take it to heart. Hung jumped in there with Sara about how they needed to listen to what the judges and the blogger said in order to improve. Team April wasn’t really shown digesting the blog much. Brian commented that he sweated too much, but he smiled. They didn’t say anything about what they needed to improve or do differently.

Quickfire Challenge

The winning team from the Quickfire would get an extra $200 for wine that evening and an experienced sommelier, which I never knew what that was until I watched the first season of this show and listened to Stephen talk and talk and talk about wines. I learned it is a person that knows everything there is know about wines and make the best recommendation of wine for each course. I would like someone like that to pick out wines for me since I can’t do it. I just don’t need to hear all about it, like Stephen loves to go on and on about it.

Continue reading “Top Chef: Restaurant Success”

I have picked the next movie for our Movie Watching Group (MWG) as Summer School from 1987. I loved this movie when it came out, recorded it off of cable, and watched the video copy of it very many times. It introduced me to high quality films, such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and makeup artist and creature creator, Rick Baker. I found it very educational at the time. Let’s see if I still do after watching it again.

Netflix Synopsis: Mark Harmon plays a high school coach who gives up much-needed R&R in Hawaii for a chance to earn some extra money teaching English to summer school kids. Although the teens would rather be anywhere but stuck in class for the summer, in time their instructor’s amiable, approachable and low-key way of teaching results in true learning taking place, despite their resistance — which comes as a surprise to both them and their teacher.

RT Score: 56%

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

Amy does not want to watch Right at Your Door since it is the kind of movie that would freak her out.

Nationwide Releases

The Nanny Diaries
Directed: Robert Pulcini
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney
Trailer: Quicktime

Based on the novel, the story of a nanny who can’t leave her horrible job since she’s afraid to leave the boy alone with his self-absorbed mother.

RT Score: 32%
RT Consensus: The Nanny Diaries‘ miscast lead and unrealistic, one-dimensional characters make this class satire far less effective than it should’ve been.

Yes, there are wealthy New Yorkers as toxic as the X’s, but by making them so one-dimensional that it threatens to strain the word dimension, The Nanny Diaries becomes as flaccid and predictable as something you’d expect from Hollywood hacks.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

The movie belongs to Linney, who brings a full-blooded dimension to what could have been a misogynistic cutout. Holding one’s own opposite her is no mean feat, but Johansson acquits herself well.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

The Nanny Diaries delivers some highly entertaining moments but I expected so much more from Berman and Pulcini at the helm of this adaptation.
- Beth Accomando
KPBS.org

Carries the residue of something much harsher, something that was once there and scrubbed clean.
- Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Aside from the many implausibilities, and Scarlett Johansson’s forced and sitcomish performance, this satire about spoiled millionaire mommies is ordinary and unexceptional.
- Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca

War
Directed: Philip G. Atwell
Starring: Jet Li, Jason Statham
Trailer: Quicktime

Jet Li and Jason Statham fight. Do you really need to know the plot?

RT Score: 21%

It all looks pretty good, and delivers exactly what it promises.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

If you’ve seen the trailer, then you’ve already seen a much more entertaining version of War.
- Scott Weinberg
Cinematical

A generic action flick made much worse by a couple of ridiculous plot twists that are disingenuous and a total rip-off, ruining what little fun it otherwise would have been.
- Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

The teaming of action stars Jet Li and Jason Statham may raise audience expectations for a lean, mean ass-kicking machine, but War turns out to be a flabby and formulaic programmer.
- Joe Leydon
Variety

This isn’t great cinema, but it adequately fills a niche. Those who like their action loud and bloody won’t be disappointed. There’s a high body count and lots of explosions and, for some, that’s what this is all about.
- James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Resurrecting the Champ
Directed: Rod Lurie
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Hartnett
Trailer: Quicktime

A sports reporter is trying to keep his job when he stumbles upon a homeless man who claims to be a former boxing champion.

RT Score: 60%
RT Consensus: While sluggish in spots, Resurrecting the Champ is a sports/newsroom drama elevated by high-caliber performances by Samuel Jackson, Josh Hartnet, and Alan Alda.

Ever bobbing and weaving, “Resurrecting the Champ” packs a wallop.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

Speechy monologues on the responsibilities of journalism, the particular evil of infotainment, and the gooey sanctity of the bond between fathers and sons all but nullify Jackson’s zesty performance.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

Hartnett just seems sullen and sneaky, and the powerhouse performances that Jackson, Alda and Paymer deliver without apparent effort underscore the weaknesses in Hartnett’s characterization.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Comes across an awful lot like a sentimental, manipulative teleflick. The good news is that it’s a fairly well-executed example of the type.
- Frank Swietek
One Guy’s Opinion

Pardon me for being offended when a flick revolving around the question of journalistic ethics takes so many liberties with the truth simply to spin a tall tale designed to tug on unsuspecting heartstrings.
- Kam Williams
AALBC.com

Mr. Bean’s Holiday
Directed: Steve Bendelack
Starring: Rowan Atkinson, Emma de Caunes
Trailer: Quicktime

Mr. Bean goes to France.

RT Score: 52%
RT Consensus: Mr. Bean’s Holiday means well, but good intentions can’t withstand the 90 minutes of monotonous slapstick and tired, obvious gags.

If you’ve seen 10 minutes of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean routine, you’ve seen it all. Any larger dose can lead to irritation, dry mouth and depression.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

The real culprit is Atkinson’s grotesque mugging and lazy pratfalls, combined with the misguided decision to tweak the voice tracks so that most of Bean’s sparse utterances come out as guttural, near-incomprehensible grunts.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Atkinson’s goofball grotesquerie never lets up.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

For younger audiences, Mr. Bean’s Holiday will be a pleasure, and of course, Bean addicts will, as always, be happy to see Atkinson’s alter ego return to the big screen.
- Bill Zwecker
Chicago Sun-Times

A half-hour of this nonsense would be fine. An hour is a bit much. Nearly an hour and a half is an endurance test.
- Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

September Dawn
Directed: Christopher Cain
Starring: Jon Voight, Terence Stamp
Trailer: Quicktime

The Mormons have admitted to the massacre in 1857 against anyone who didn’t believe the way they did, but they say it was not ordered by Mormon leader John Smith, which is what this film portrays.

RT Score: 15%
RT Consensus: With its jarring editing, dull love story, and silly dialogue, September Dawn turns a horrific historical event into a banal movie.

A stirring love story that dabbles uncomfortably close to hate.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

The film Mitt Romney does not want you to see. And it’s easy to see why.
- Boo Allen
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

If the Western genre is struggling, it’s because of terrible movies like this one.
- Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

[Director Cain] stops short of calling Osama bin Laden a Mormon sympathizer, but maybe that’ll be on the DVD.
- Adam Graham
Detroit News

Cain has turned the Mormons into baby-eatin’ Nazis to suit his argument, parading around these black-clad, chin-bearded, testicle-slicing gunslingers without any thoughtful consideration.
- Brian Orndorf
eFilmCritic.com

Limited Releases

Deep Water
Directed: Louise Osmond
Trailer: Quicktime

Documentary about a 1968 round-the-world boat race with nine solo sailors, including one amateur who ends up losing it during the nine months of isolation.

RT Score: 100%

Echoes the dark poetry of Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner and Poe’s Arthur Gordon Pym, men who sailed to sea in search of fortune only to encounter the abyss within themselves.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Deep Water successfully combines the pressure of the competition with an intriguing character study of the increasingly desperate Crowhurst.
- Ed Scheid
Boxoffice Magazine

Given that the tedium of months on the open seas could and did drive a man insane, co-directors Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell have done a commendable job of making Deep Water… well, not boring.
- Julia Wallace
Village Voice

A true-life tale of inadvertent self-destruction, Deep Water’s generic title belies its haunting incisiveness.
- Nick Schager
Slant Magazine

Stories celebrating heroic journeys are commonplace, but this is a sobering, anti-heroic tale of an ordinary man who set out to attempt the extraordinary… and failed through a cruel combination of bad luck and bad judgement.
- Jamie Russell
BBC

Right at Your Door
Directed: Chris Gorak
Starring: Mary McCormack, Rory Cochrane
Trailer: Quicktime

Dirty bombs are released in L.A. after a wife has driven off into work. Her husband seals himself inside the house and refuses to let her in so he won’t be poisoned too.

RT Score: 65%
RT Consensus: Though Right at Your Door dips into melodrama at the end, it’s an otherwise tense, effective, and eerily plausible doomsday scenario.

There are no zombies to distract from the plausibility of Right at Your Door. And that’s what makes this smart, coolly horrifying American indie thriller one of the scariest movies you’re likely to see all year.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

McCormack and Cochrane can’t transcend the cliched, meandering dialogue, so Brad and Lexi’s dilemma never feels like anything but a didactic contrivance.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

After the Katrina tragedy, the filmmaker’s fears are both well-grounded and keenly realized.
- Jay Antani
Boxoffice Magazine

Right at Your Door instead, grows more and more incredible leading up to a twist ending worthy of an O. Henry short story that is as appropriate as it is ridiculous.
- Pam Grady
San Francisco Chronicle

Another overstretched Rod Serling episode with misplaced irony that provides so many false moments of its own that its impossible to take seriously.
- Erik Childress
eFilmCritic.com

Dedication
Directed: Justin Theroux
Starring: Mandy Moore, Billy Crudup
Trailer: Quicktime

A messed up children’s book author is teamed up with a new illustrator who is not amused by his “quirks”.

RT Score: 48%

Perhaps it’s time to send the oh-so-amusing head case into the same oblivion as the hilarious drunk, along with the notion that the love of a good woman fixes all.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Check it out and enjoy the hijinks of this messed up children’s book writer but don’t look that far into it because you will be disappointed.
- Zack Haddad
Film Threat

When Henry says he can’t throw away a towel because he’s afraid it might have feelings, even Miranda July will want to throttle him.
- Aaron Hillis
Village Voice

You can see where all this is going — author meets illustrator, crazy person meets sane person, withholding person meets giving person — but there isn’t one interesting thing about the journey.
- Joanne Kaufman
Wall Street Journal

Theroux doesn’t maintain firm control of the tone, particularly going astray in attempts at comic interludes as well as in the ending.
- Todd McCarthy
Variety

Naming Number Two
Directed: Toa Fraser
Starring: Ruby Ann Wallace, Tuva Novotny
Trailer: Quicktime

An older woman in New Zealand wants to name her successor of the family and the family house by throwing a traditional feast, but some family members are too busy or disconnected to one another.

RT Score: 56%

Naming Number Two peddles familial reconciliation while making one pine for familial annihilation.
- Nick Schager
Slant Magazine

Suffering from a formulaic story, ridden with clichés, the film has enough remarkable performances to make up for where it lacks. Not entirely, though.
- Michael Ferraro
Film Threat

As usual, it’s always up to the small budget indies to act as a corrective to Hollywood misperceptions and misconceptions, in this case the longstanding stereotypical depiction of elders.
- Prairie Miller
WBAI Web Radio

A dull and utterly routine ensemble dramedy.
Reel.com

Dee turns in a fine performance as Nana Maria.
- Audrey Rock-Richardson
Tooele Transcript-Bulletin (Utah)

The Bothersome Man
Directed: Jens Lien
Starring: Petronella Barker, Trond Fausa Aurvag
Trailer: no trailer

A guy ends up at a bus stop with no idea how he arrived there, is driven into a town where an apartment, clothes and a job await him, and tries to figure out what is going on in the weird town where no one has any emotions and only wants to talk about decorating tips.

RT Score: 64%

Oddball futuristic fun with a serious, if confused, message.
- Nigel Floyd
Time Out

It’s a delectable premise, rendered with smooth efficiency but we never really get beneath the surface of this shallow parallel reality.
- Steve Rose
Guardian [UK]

This Ikea-furnished existential crisis marks Lien out as a talent to watch for the future.
- Wendy Ide
Times [UK]

A dark, nasty little movie that’s never quite as deep or as clever as it imagines itself to be.
- Martha Fischer
Cinematical

A few flaws but this is visually captivating and psychologically disturbing.
- David Parkinson
Empire Magazine

Closing Escrow
Directed: Kent Llewellyn
Starring: Wendi McLendon-Covey, Cedric Yarbrough
Trailer: YouTube

Very unusual real estate agents starring some of the stars of Reno 911!

RT Score: 57%

While far from the cream of the mockumentary crop, it’s still a pleasant diversion.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

There are occasionally mildly trenchant observations made about social status and racism, but overall this fixer-upper has very little curb appeal.
- Tim Grierson
L.A. Weekly

Closing Escrow is one of those self-aware mockumentaries of the sort Christopher Guest likes to make — only it’s not that funny.
- Tim Cogshell
Boxoffice Magazine

No matter how ridiculous the characters come off, they’re more than just punch lines. In fact, despite their quirks, [they're] improbably endearing.
- Laura Kern
New York Times

The film would have worked better if it had stuck more closely to real estate as both the source and target of the satire.
- David Wiegand
San Francisco Chronicle

Illegal Tender
Directed: Franc. Reyes
Starring: Wanda De Jesus, Rick Gonzalez
Trailer: Quicktime

A young man’s gangster father was killed on the night he was born. He has lived a life of riches by the money his father left with his mother. One day, the people that shot his father coming looking for him and his mother, and he realizes the truth behind his nice upbringing.

RT Score: 15%

Produced by John Singleton for writer-director Franc. Reyes, this preposterous tale of crime-family values should be far more entertaining than it is.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

A laughable low-budget mess about third-rate drug thugs, put together with the sheen and polish of a fourth-grade Christmas pageant. Except with really loud reggaeton.
- N.V. Cooper
E! Online

It wants to be Scarface but makes The Pacifier look plausible by comparison. (Do real bodyguards hold their guns sideways?)
- Peter Debruge
Miami Herald

Plenty of movies have combined a blazing-guns revenge story with a family dynamics drama, but Illegal Tender never gets the mixture right, lurching between bullet-happy shootouts and overwrought domestic content.
- Walter V. Addiego
San Francisco Chronicle

For a second, the movie has the snap of a truly surprising thriller… But then we go back to following the kid, who manages to both mope and strut along the path to manhood.
- Marc Bernardin
Entertainment Weekly

Hannah Takes the Stairs
Directed: Joe Swanberg
Starring: Kent Osborne, Greta Gerwig
Trailer: Quicktime

During one hot summer, a young woman becomes more interested in two male co-workers than her unemployed boyfriend.

RT Score: 55%

The loose, rambling conversations that substitute for action might be more interesting if any of the characters were capable of real introspection.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Hannah Takes the Stairs decidedly lacks narrative and closure, but it works very well at moderating an environment of casual, if mundane, affairs.
- Rumsey Taylor
Not Coming to a Theater Near You

This do-it-your effort, shot in HD, would be nothing without hazel-eyed Greta Gerwig as Hannah, Meg Ryan-cute with a tousled Jean Seberg hairdo.
- Kent Turner
Film-Forward.com

The loose, rambling conversations that substitute for action might be more interesting if any of the characters were capable of real introspection.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Gerwig actually gives her insufferable character some verve–the actress has potentia__but the remainder of the movie is a slice of life that doesn’t show much life.
- Frank Lovece
Film Journal International

The Hottest State
Directed: Ethan Hawk
Starring: Catalina Sandino Morena, Mark Webber
Trailer: Windows Media, Real Player

An actor falls in love with a singer, but she breaks his heart.

RT Score: 42%

Pretentious in the way in which only first love, and bad writing, can be, and all too often sinks into dialogue that is unintentionally funny.
- Lewis Beale
Film Journal International

Lacking depth or anything that’s actually funny or sad, and with lead performers who are given more responsibility for the success of the film than they can handle, the film will be a tough sell.
- Ray Bennett
Hollywood Reporter

Hawke does some nice things with the camera — the film has style — but what it doesn’t have is the essential thing you need in a drama. Namely, drama.
- John Anderson
Newsday

Boy meets girl. Boy shacks up with girl. Boy almost marries girl. Girl loses interest in boy. Boy loses girl.Boy and girl lose audience.
- Pete Hammond
Maxim

Hawke quite capably taps into the bittersweet complexities of young, love-struck idiocy.
- Aaron Hillis
Village Voice

Eye of the Dolphin
Directed: Michael D. Sellers
Starring: Carly Schroeder, Adrian Dunbar
Trailer: Quicktime

A girl is sent to live with her dolphin researcher father after her mother dies, and bonds with wild dolphins in the oceans of the Bahamas.

RT Score: 31%

The underwater parts of Eye of the Dolphin are kind of pretty. Unfortunately, the rest of this waterlogged drama is pretty ugly.
- Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

For all its good intentions, Eye of the Dolphin is unsteady and amateurish, with its own problems in getting its message across.
- Nell Minow
Chicago Sun-Times

Carly Schroeder is strong and the film’s genuineness compensates for the ‘after school special’-style script and production values, making it a pleasant, even uplifting film.
- Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

A lonely dolphin serves as a mediator in the reconciliation of a father and daughter who don’t know how to connect with each other.
- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

If only the wooden acting moved with the fluidity of the underwater footage, the only bright spot in this clunky drama.
- Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune

Top Chef: Miami
Restaurant Wars

In the past seasons and past episodes, there has been many times where Tom has pointed out that it is not Top <insert clever phrase here>, but Top Chef. The restaurant wars challenge confuses me. While I know a chef that owns his/her own restaurant would have some say in the design of the restaurant, so take someone away from the kitchen for a challenge so they can host the front room and not even cook seems odd. I think it should be changed so they do have some say in the design, but have staff on hand to host. They did seem to have staff to serve, but they had a person in front of each restaurant seating people and being the host of it. Get all the chefs back in the kitchen to cook and present their food.

Quickfire Challenge

The guest judge for this episode was French Chef Daniel Boulud. The Quickfire Challenge this week was renamed the Red Robin Quickfire Challenge. They needed to make a burger that they could add to their Adventuresome Burgers section of their menu, if they so desired. Most of the chefs decided to go with some kind of seafood burger, which worked out well since Daniel really liked all the seafood ones.

Continue reading “Top Chef: Restaurant Mess”

New Shows

Anchorwoman
Channel: FOX
Time: 8/7c
Premiered: Wednesday, Aug 22
Trailer: Windows Media

Reality show following a former Miss New York, bikini model and WWE diva joining a low-rated small-town Texan news station as an anchorwoman. With no prior experience in news, the station manager hopes she’ll still improve their shows dismal ratings.

Sources: TV Guide , Futon Critic

Superbad is from the same people that brought you 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. I see a sex theme going on here. It is also the only move Certified Fresh this week. There is also a weird mix of Brazilian films this week in the limited releases section. Love For Sale is a movie about a woman trying to start her life over again, while Manda Bala is a documentary covering the extreme crime and kidnapping happening every day in San Paulo, Brazil.

Nationwide Releases

Superbad
Directed: Greg Mottola
Starring: Michael Cera, Jonah Hill
Trailer: Quicktime

Two high school seniors try to lose their virginity before they go off to college.

RT Score: 85%
RT Consensus: Deftly balancing vulgarity and sincerity, Superbad is an authentic take on the awkwardness of the high school experience.

What they came up with is one of the most authentic and hilarious high school films in memory.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

It’s mostly very crude, often very funny and a little bit smarter than you might otherwise think.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Superbad is cute if you like guys who aren’t even remotely bad, in a coming-of-age tale so old-fashioned the girls might just as well be wearing bloomers.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

It helps that the fun doesn’t stop. It helps even more that the pitch-perfect script doesn’t step out of character for a joke.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Superbad is the perfect crude teen comedy to end the summer on. It’s funny, a little bittersweet and it signals something coming to an end.
- Beth Accomando
KPBS.org

The Invasion
Directed: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig
Trailer: Quicktime

After a space shuttle crashes to Earth, human beings lose all emotions and start to act a little extraterrestrial.

RT Score: 20%
RT Consensus: The Invasion is slickly made, but it lacks psychological insight and thrills.

The Invasion gets you rooting for the aliens to be defeated, but the film’s soul feels as if it had already been snatched.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

A frantic mess that opens with a scene plucked from the film’s third act that smacks of having been moved up to pacify audiences too restless for a slow build.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

This is the first alien invasion I can remember in which I actually found myself rooting for the aliens.
- William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The mismatched blending of Hirschbiegel’s low-key horror and the Wachowski Brothers’ anything-but-low-key action sequences results in a cinematic dud.
- James Berardinelli
ReelViews

After three successful cinematic renditions of Jack Finney’s 1955 sci-fi novel “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (the 1978 version with Donald Sutherland being my favourite), they’ve finally managed to mangle it up.
- Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca

The Last Legion
Directed: Doug LeFler
Starring: Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley
Trailer: Quicktime

The story behind the sword in the “Sword and the Stone”.

RT Score: 29%

This Anglo-Italian co-production has quite a bit of fun finding a direct path from the fall of Rome to the birth of Arthurian legend.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

A depressing pageant of bad dialogue, uninspired sword fights, corny getaways, and loads of completely unintentional sexual innuendo.
- Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

All are given swords to swing and mouthfuls of fake archaic dialogue to speak and none of it makes a whisper of sense.
- Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail

There is a disconnect that comes with watching Firth – who is usually associated with classy British romantic comedies – anchor something so tacky.
- Josh Larsen
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL)

Once you accept The Last Legion for what it is, namely a Saturday adventure matinee show aimed at impressionable 10-year-old boys, then you’ll have a passable time at the cinema…Sort of.
- James O’Ehley
SA Movie & DVD Magazine

Limited Releases

Death at a Funeral
Directed: Frank Oz
Starring: Rupert Graves, Matthew MacFadyen
Trailer: Quicktime

Nothing is more hilarious than a funeral where all sorts of family secrets and memories come out.

RT Score: 66%
RT Consensus: Death At A Funeral is a rousing British farce, with enough slapstick silliness to overcome its faults.

While trying so hard to have such a good time, the movie simply forgets to be funny, and begins to grate before the body even cools.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Working with a broad script by Dean Craig, director Frank Oz goes for American-style physicality, marching his players around a country house in which a toilet, alas, plays a big part.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

A crisp and clever hour and a half that, like the best screwball comedies, barely pauses for laughs.
- Rex Roberts
Film Journal International

Screenwriter Dean Craig and director Frank Oz are not at all shy about possibly offending midgets, the elderly or the dead. From a hilariously insipid rambling eulogy to a naked man on the roof, this funeral turns into a demented upper-class riot.
- Adam Bregman
Orlando Weekly

Death at a Funeral is flawed, but I’m willing to forgive a lot of flaws when a movie makes me laugh as much as this one.
- James Berardinelli
ReelViews

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Directed: Seth Gordon
Trailer: Quicktime

One guy has held the Donkey Kong world record for 20 years, but a middle school science teacher thinks he has the stuff to beat him.

RT Score: 97%
RT Consensus: The King of Kong is a funny and surprisingly compelling documentary with more than a few poignant insights into human behavior.

A funny and madly arresting new documentary.
- Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Who would have guessed that a documentary about gamers obsessed with scoring a world record at Donkey Kong would not only be roaringly funny but serve as a metaphor for the decline of Western civilization?
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

The stranger-than-fiction cast of characters is fascinating, and their high-stakes machinations are nothing short of mind-boggling.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

[Director] Gordon has made a most improbable film: a documentary — about frigging Donkey Kong of all things — that is as compelling and involving as the original Rocky.
- Pete Vonder Haar
Film Threat

Thankfully The King of Kong plays it straight and let’s the players speak for themselves. In this case, the filmmakers may be giving their subjects just enough rope, as the saying goes.
- Jeffrey Chen
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

The 11th Hour
Directed: Nadia Conners
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mikhail Gorbachev, Stephen Hawking
Trailer: Quicktime

Builds on An Inconvenient Truth with how we are destroying the Earth, the worst is yet to come, and how we can make changes today to stop it from happening.

RT Score: 79%
RT Consensus: Well-researched and swimming in scientific data, this global warming documentary offers some practical and wide-ranging solutions to our climate crisis.

Hugely effective documentary is a terrifying vision of exactly what’s in store if we don’t pay greater attention to what we’re doing to the planet in our blind rush toward ‘progress.’
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Alternately impassioned, despairing, edifying, and hectoring about all the ways humans are screwing up the earth in a death rattle of hubris.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

Challenges us to change our consciousness and transform our lives by living lightly on the Earth in harmony with nature; offering a road map to a sustainable future, this is one of the most important documentaries of the year.
- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

11th Hour presents the viewer with reams of depressing data, loads of hand-wringing about the woeful state of humanity and, finally, some altogether fascinating ideas about how to go about solving the climate crisis.
- Justin Chang
Variety

a film that wraps its message around a hurled brick.
- Chris Barsanti
Filmcritic.com

Delirious
Directed: Tom DiCillo
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Alison Lohan, Gina Gershon
Trailer: Quicktime, YouTube

A small-time celebrity photographer takes a homeless kid on as an assistant, and they help each other out getting into parties and maybe making the kid an actor.

RT Score: 86%
RT Consensus: A funny, energetic satire of the paparazzi life and the entertainment industry, Delirious is another winner for indie helmer Tom DiCillo.

Short, sharp snapshot about celebrity and life on the fringe has nothing new to say, but it says it with considerable charm and affection.
- Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

A sharp satire from writer-director Tom DiCillo (Living in Oblivion) that takes a tired subject (the fame game) and makes it fiercely funny and touching.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

A joyously raucous, sexy, deliciously biting fable…Delirious is superbly entertaining and completely satisfying
- Clint Morris
Moviehole

Just when you’re sure you know how Delirious is going to close, DiCillo comes up with a capper that’s as satisfying as it is understated.
- Scott Weinberg
Cinematical

The prickly camaraderie between Buscemi and Pitt puts Delirious back on track, abetted by a hilarious turn by Gina Gershon.
- Jan Stuart
Newsday

Love for Sale: Suely in the Sky
Directed: Karim Ainouz
Starring: Hermila Guedes
Trailer: none

A woman and her son return to her hometown waiting for her husband to join them. She realizes she has been abandoned and decides to not relive her past, but start a new life with a new identity.

RT Score: 77%

Gripping. Proves that subtlety is yet another of this fine filmmaker’s strengths.
- Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Love for Sale is a small film, but is one with a big heart.
- Pam Grady
Reel.com

Guedes is electrifying, and so un-Hollywood you have to cheer for the continuing health of Brazilian cinema.
- John Anderson
Newsday

The story’s one-note — once you know the title, you pretty much get the gist.
- Aaron Hillis
Village Voice

Love for Sale has a deep sympathy for sexual free spirits in a rigid macho society.
- Stephen Holden
New York Times

Manda Bala
Directed: Jason Kohn
Trailer: Windows Media, Real

Documentary covering the high violence in Brazil and San Paulo being the kidnapping capital of the country.

RT Score: 82%

Manda Bala effectively captures the enormous class divide in Third World Brazil, and the unarticulated simmering class tensions that the oblivious upper classes seem to take pains in denying.
- Prairie Miller
WBAI Web Radio

In an account that is by turns funny, shocking, and revolting, director Jason Kohn documents the state of modern-day Brazil, ravaged by poverty, horrendous crime, and political corruption.
- Mark R. Leeper
rec.arts.movies.reviews

The picture walks on air describing inexcusable violations of political faith and public safety, brilliantly forming a claustrophobic visual representation of a country struggling to live under the growing cancer of crime.
- Brian Orndorf
eFilmCritic.com

Kohn takes seemingly disjointed and mildly bizarre elements to create a crafty, infuriating portrait of a society seemingly poised, like a scorpion, to be consumed by its own toxins.
- Gene Seymour
Newsday

Despite structural problems (too many disparate strands) and sensationalistic style and music, this docu offers a new, powerful angle on Brazil’s social problems of poverty and technology, violence and crime by centering on the haves and the haves-not
- Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

7 dias
Directed: Fernando Kalife
Starring: Eduardo Arroyuelo, Martha Higareda
Trailer: Quicktime

A guy gets a seven day grace period to pay back his gambling debt. He only has to bring U2 to Monterrey, Mexico to play a concert.

RT Score: 25%

It’s certainly not a bad film, but one that could have benefited from some surprises to help make it stand out even more from the usual, gritty offerings of Mexican cinema.
- Collin Souter
eFilmCritic.com

U2, notoriously tight with the rights to their music and image, were reportedly so impressed by the script that they allowed their music and some concert footage to be used for very cheap. They got gypped.
- Ernest Hardy
L.A. Weekly

Has no sense of its own ridiculousness.
- Robert Koehler
Variety

There’s virtually no story in the movie, at least none that isn’t utterly, completely predictable.
- Jim Hemphill
Reel.com

Bono need not appear in a film for his massive-sized ego to be felt.
- Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

Click

Directed: Frank Coraci
Starring: Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken

Adam Sandler gets a hold of a universal remote that controls everything in his universe, but it starts going wacky and he can’t control it.

I didn’t go out of my way to see this movie. I didn’t plan on ever watching it unless I stumbled across it. While staying at my parents house in Phoenix when we were there in June for Angela’s graduation, we watched it on the HD channel, just so we could watch something that looked crystal clear. Too bad it was for this sappy movie. I knew it would be sappy though so I was prepared.

Continue reading “Click”

Tags: Adam Sandler, Christopher Walken, click, Frank Coraci, Kate Beckinsale

New Shows

Californication
Channel: SHO
Time: 10:30pm ET/PT
Premiered: Monday, Aug 13
Trailer: Flash

A novelist with writer’s block tries to get back together with his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his daughter.

Returning Shows

Weeds
Channel: SHO
Time: 10pm ET/PT
Premiered: Monday, Aug 13
Trailer: Flash

Last season: Nancy started her own business with Conrad in a grow house. She married her DEA boyfriend since he knew what she did, so he wouldn’t have to testify in court against her. He tries to take down Heylia, which she doesn’t like so warns her, but he doesn’t like her protecting Heylia. They fight and break up. The Armenians, who have never liked the grow house in their neighborhood decide to steal her entire stash, except that Silas has already stolen it to save his mom. He doesn’t realize what deep crap he just put her in. DEA boyfriend comes in at the last moment, and it looks like the Armenians shot him.

This season: Matthew Modine plays a developer for a nearby neighborhood that is heavily religious. Mary-Kate Olsen plays a love interest for Silas. Andy will continue to try to figure out what to do with his life, now that he’s got out of the military.

Sources: TV Guide , Entertainment Weekly, Futon Critic