Check Out the Trailer

When I first heard that director Paul Thomas Anderson (BOOGIE NIGHTS, MAGNOLIA) was doing a romantic comedy with Adam Sandler (HAPPY GILMORE, WEDDING SINGER) I thought, oh God, Anderson is selling out? What I wasn’t taking into account was that Anderson is brilliant and he saw something in Adam Sandler films that I never did.

The story follows Sander’s Barry Egan, an executive at a novelty toiletries company. He struggles to overcome his emotional problems, which stem from the intrusive presence of his seven hen-pecking sisters. When Barry feels trapped, he erupts in uncontrollable fits of anger. His problems make it hard for him to hold down a relationship with his sister’s co-worker, Lena (Emily Watson, BREAKING THE WAVES), who he has struck up some real chemistry with even after behavior on their first date that would have scared away 99% of other women. But a later exchange of bizarre “romantic” notions with show how perfect they just may be together. In a parallel storylines, a fraudulent sex line company tries to extort money out of Barry, he finds and caringly restores an abandoned harmonium and discovers a loophole in a Healthy Choice pudding contest that will give him untold frequent flyer miles.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

This film isn’t just a great animated film — it’s a great film. If you think that LORD OF THE RINGS is the best fantasy/ adventure film you’ve ever seen than think again. MONONOKE has all the originally and action of RINGS, but also has an amazing intelligent message about harmony, peace and preserving nature. This is the kind of animated film that you forget is animated about a minute into it.

Prince Ashitaka (English voiced by Billy Crudup, ALMOST FAMOUS) saves his village from a demon boar god, however he’s infected by the beast and is banished from his people. He and his loyal red elk, Yacul, venture out into the world to find the people who turned the boar into a demon and ask the forest god to heal him. Ashitaka arrives in Iron Town where Lady Eboshi (English voiced by Minnie Driver, GOOD WILL HUNTING) is creating guns and wagging war against the forest gods. San, or Princess Mononoke (English voiced by Claire Danes, 1996’s ROMEO & JULIET) is a human who has been adopted by the wolf god, Moro (English voiced by Gillian Anderson, TV’s X-FILES) and has vowed to kill Eboshi for destroying the forest. Then along comes conniving priest Jigo (English voiced by Billy Bob Thornton, SLING BLADE), who has been contracted by the emperor to cut-off the head of the forest god and bring it back to him. Ashitaka works vigorously as a peace broker between the many warring parties knowing that the survival of all depends on their cooperation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

To think that Sylvester Stallone wrote this film is staggering. He has never been able to repeat such greatest. But it’s not necessarily the all-American underdog story that makes this film so beloved. The characters are the real heart. After this film, Stallone spent the main chunk of his career playing superheroes (even if they didn’t have capes all the time). For a tough guy, Rocky’s emotional vulnerability is that makes the story resonant outside the ring.

The film follows small-time boxer Rocky Balboa (Stallone, OVER THE TOP) as he trains for his one shot at the heavyweight championship of the world. The champ Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers, PREDATOR) losses his ranked opponent before a big bicentennial spectacle. No other contender wants to take the bout because of the short five-week training time, so as an “American dream” marketing concept Creed decides to give the shot to a local Philadelphia boy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

This is the romantic comedy that all romantic comedies should be held up to. Why is this film so much better than others in the genre? The genre stands pretty predictable with boy meets girl and either something keeps them apart or something tears them apart until they are reunited in the final scene. This is true even about this film, however it’s all built around great characters. Though the conventions are there you don’t even notice them because not once do you feel some external script device is keeping these two people apart. It’s the characters own internal issues that dictate what happens.

I love how the film has Harry and Sally meet than meet again and then finally develop a friendship. The story does a brilliant job showing both the male and female point of view on friendship, love and sex and even shows how those opinions can change over the course of time. As college students, Harry and Sally are almost polar opposites. He’s kind of rough around the edges and blunt while she is prim and proper and reserved. The college Sally isn’t the same Sally who fakes an orgasm at the table of a diner. Like I said the characters mature over the course of the film, however they still remain the same person at their core with the same issues as they had at the beginning. The older Harry and Sally are just mellowed out versions of their college-aged selves.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

I guess this film would be considered a romantic comedy, but I really think it’s much more than that. Harold Ramis’ brilliant comedy is accessible while still having an existential quality. If you were immortal, what would you do with your time? What is the point of life… especially when déjà vu becomes a daily occurrence? Would you feel inspired or trapped?

The story follows Phil Connors (Bill Murray, GHOSTBUSTERS), a self-centered weatherman for a Pittsburgh TV station, who has to cover the Groundhog’s Day celebration in Punxsutawney. After being trapped in town due to a blizzard, Phil starts living Groundhog’s Day over and over again thousands of times. What’s ingenious about the story is what Phil does with the chance to live a day over again. At first he’s weirded-out, but soon he takes advantage of it to get women into bed, especially Rita (Andie MacDowell, FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL), his new producer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

This is the kind of film that you think back on and say to yourself “hey, that was a great scene” and by the time you’re done you’ve said that about two-thirds of the scenes in the film. Director Rob Marshall brings the famed Maurine Dallas Watkins and Bob Fosse production to the scene with classic musical flare.

The picture follows the infamous rise to celebrity of Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger, NURSE BETTY) after she kills her lover, who had promised to get her a starring gig on the stage. She ends up in the same prison with the infamous Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones, TRAFFIC), a successful stage star who killed her sister and her husband. Matron Mama Morton (Queen Latifah, SET IT OFF) is the warden of the prison and for a “small” fee she sets Roxie up with Billy Flynn (Richard Gere, PRETTY WOMAN), the most successful lawyer in town. After Roxie gets her nobody husband Amos (John C. Reilly, WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE?) to foot her defense bill, Roxie becomes a media darling thanks to Flynn — even overshadowing Velma.

Read the rest of this entry »