Posted on August 29th, 2006 by dan.
Categories: , , .
So, as you can see I have posted 3 more reviews of movies.

I only have Transamerica and Memoirs of a Geisha to go before I can start watching and reviewing the three movies that arrived last night (Brokeback Mountain, Aeon Flux, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip).
I am anxiously wanting to watch Studio 60, since it is written by Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing (my second all-time favorite show). I am hoping that it will be as good as I am hoping it will be.

I am not sure what to expect of Brokeback Mountain. I ve heard it was great, and I have heard it sucked. We ll see how it goes.

As for Aeon Flux, it didn t do too well in the theatres, but I have heard good things about it. I am hoping that what I have heard will pan out.
Next up, I just finished reading Black Wind by Clive Cussler, and will probably do a review of that as well (and maybe even a couple of rants about the book format and authors who write themselves into their novels).

Finally, I am going to try, yet again, to keep up with the site on a daily (or as near to daily as I can) basis.
After all, I live in NYC. I am sure I can find about a million things to write about, even if it is all just bitching!

When I first saw the trailer for this movie 3 years ago, I wanted to see it. Then it came out in the theatres and I never got the chance. Then came out on DVD and didn t get a chance.

Now I have seen it, and all I can think is Thank god I didn t actually waste my cash to buy this thing!
Visually, this is one of the most stuning movies I think I have ever seen. The whole film makes you think of old sepia tone photos, and the costumes and locations are amazing.

Unfortunately, that is all this movie has to offer.
The plot is so far-fetched that even bad sci-fi looks good in comparison. The acting is unbelievably horrible, especially from Angelina Jolie.

Watching her is like watching two red balloons fighting to take over her face. She s all lip in this movie (as she is in all her movies, of course).
I couldn t even finish watching it.

That s how bad this movie is.
Out of 10, this movie gets a 2 only for its look. In that it is a work of art.

For everything else, a big, fat 0.
Buyable: Hell No!
Rentable: Don t even bother, unless you want to see an amazing set of scenery.

Not exactly the worst movie I have ever seen, but not the best either.
Tomboy Viola (Amanda Bynes) finds out her school s female soccer team is being disbanded. She tries to talk the coach into letting the girls play on the boys team.

Of course, the coach says no way.
In a stroke of luck, Viola s brother Sebastian is going to be attending a new school, but decides to run off to London for a few weeks to play with his band. He tells her to call the school and make an excuse as to why he can t be there for 2 weeks.

Instead, she decides to become her brother so that she can join the soccer team of the new school, in order to beat the team of her old school.
While attending the new school, she falls in love with the captain of the soccer team, who thinks she s a guy.
Trying to explain everything that goes on in this movie would take way too long, and bore you to death.

Suffice it to say, the movie has predictable story lines, and an even more predicatable ending.
Amanda Bynes performance seemed a little off throughout the movie. Almost as if she never really got into the role.

Channing Tatum was there simply for eye candy, as his stiff, wooden acting would only get beavers and woodpeckers excited.
And Laura Ramsey, well, I can t even remember the character of Olivia.
Buyable: Not worth the cost, at any price.

Quite honestly, if it weren t for one particular scene, this movie would only be a 6 (out of 10), but that one scene is all it took for me to bump this movie to an 8. I had to stop the movie because I was laughing so hard I was crying!
It took me 20 minutes to recover and resume the movie to the end.

It just struck me as THAT funny!
In a nutshell, Jennifer Lopez plays Charlotte, a kind of Jill of all trades fashion designer wannabe who meets and falls in love with Kevin.
Kevin s mother, Viola (magnificently played by Jane Fonda), decides that Charlotte is not good enough for her son, and devises a plan to destroy the relationship by making Charlotte go crazy.

It is during this perios in which the laugh my ass of scene of all scenes comes into play.
Viola manages to worm her way into the house that Kevin and Charlotte live in just as Kevin (rather conveniently) has to leave town. Viola keeps Charlotte up most of the night, and Charlotte ends up passed out on the sofa.

So here is Charlotte, trying to get some much needed sleep sleep on the sofa, when suddenly an air horn screams through the house. Charlotte, scared awake by the noise, flies off the couch and onto the floor, where she looks around to see what the hell is going on. The scene changes to Viola, holding an emergency air horn.

She looks from Charlotte to the can of noise, and back to Charlotte.
I m sorry! she says.

I thought it was air freshener! Then she laughs and walks away.
It s the laugh that gets you!

Jane Fonda at once seems to have genuine frivolity and pure evil in that laugh. And it is that laugh that makes the movie worth watching.
And listen to the lines of Wanda Sykes as Ruby.

She ll get you laughing as well.
Buyable: If you can get a good price.
Rentable: Go with Netflix to rent it.

That way you can watch it over and over without fear of late charges! Posted on August 27th, 2006 by dan.
Categories: .

Hey all! I ve been a bit of a slacker lately, and haven t really written anything on the site, even though I have 5 movie reviews to post!
The movies include: Transamerica, She s the Man, Monster-in-Law, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

I am going to try to get these written and posted over the next week, and will have 3 more to add to the list by the end of the week. These include Brokeback Mountain, Aeon Flux, and the pilot episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
Plus, I am really close to finishing the book I am reading, and will do a review of that as well.

I plan to get a little more active with my web site, keeping it a little more up-to-date, but there is a lot going on right now, with a lot of traveling and houseguest s over the next month, so it might get a little more spotty before it becomes more regular.
I am also getting together my bible for my writing, so that I can finally get something written. Once it s written, I have to figure out how to get it loaded to the site so that it looks the same as the site, but functions more like static pages and not a blog.

I will keep everyone posted.