The Express
If you don’t know who Ernie Davis was, you should. It’s particularly timely for this film to come out on Blu-ray the week of the presidential inauguration, because Ernie Davis was the first African American player to win college football’s Heisman Trophy. He won it playing for Syracuse University, in the year that Syracuse won its first, and to date, only, national championship.
13 Going on 30
I love 13 Going On 30, and it’s great to have it out now on Blu-ray. I love Jennifer Garner’s goofy, infectious grin as Jenna and Mark Ruffalo’s reluctantly won over Matty. I love the garish 1980s fashions. Heck, I even love (or at least admire) Judy Greer’s back-stabbing Lucy.
Without a Paddle: Nature’s Calling
Without a Paddle: Nature’s Calling is a direct to video (or, in this case, Blu-Ray) release that bears only slight resemblance to the original Without a Paddle. Different cast, much lower stakes story. The only real similarities are that it’s got three guys out in the woods and rafting down a river, and two girls living in a tree house.
Pineapple Express
What would happen if you made an action movie where pretty much everyone was stoned pretty much the whole time? It would be Pineapple Express, written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg from a story they developed along with Judd Apatow. And, it would be pretty darn funny, even laugh-out-loud hilarious at times.
Swing Vote
Swing Vote deserved more critical and audience attention than it got, so if you skipped it in the theater, give it another look. Yes, the premise is hard to believe – a U.S. presidential election results in a dead heat in both the popular vote and the electoral vote, bringing the final decision down to one person in a small town in New Mexico whose vote wasn’t counted.
Last Holiday
What would you do if you knew you only had a few weeks left to live, and had spent your entire life up to that point doing things for other people, thinking that some day it would be your turn? That’s the situation facing Georgia Byrd in Last Holiday; an accident at work leads to an MRI that shows she’s in the last stages of cancer. After getting the diagnosis, Byrd withdraws all her money from ...[Read More]
Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading is a Coen Brothers’ film featuring a bunch of really stupid people living in Washington, DC. Some have an association with intelligence work (CIA and State Department), several work at a gym, and throw in a really mean pediatrician and a children’s book author. Oh, and many of them end up dead, some on-camera, some off. Doesn’t sound appealing for the holidays? Did I mention...[Read More]
Mamma Mia! The Movie
If you’ve never seen Mamma Mia! on stage, or missed the movie when it was in theaters last summer, here’s the quick story. Sophie is getting married, and wants nothing more than to have her father give her away. The problem is, she doesn’t know who he is. As it happens, neither does her mother, Donna. See, there were these three guys … the one she loved who broke her heart and then two others ...[Read More]
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Prince Caspian is the second installment in Disney’s film adaptation of C. S. Lewis’ classic The Chronicles of Narnia. You might have seen the initial film in the series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Most Narnia fans were very happy with that picture, which brought the beloved story to life, partly through close adherence to the book but also through strong casting and attention to deta...[Read More]
This Christmas
This Christmas is one of those messy big family reunion movies, where there’s lots of sibling rivalry and unresolved issues simmering, but where you also know everything’s going to turn out right at the end.The family here is the Whitfields. Home is L.A., although only the youngest brother, “Baby,” still lives there with the matriarch, MaDere, and her gentleman friend, Joe Black. As for the othe...[Read More]
Sweeney Todd
As re-created by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is macabre-ly marvelous. They’ve taken what is arguably Stephen Sondheim’s best musical and made it into a disturbingly fabulous film. As Sondheim himself notes on the disc, it’s not a movie of Sweeney Todd the stage musical, it’s a musical film based on that stage play.Quick synopsis for those not famil...[Read More]
Eastern Promises
Eastern Promises is a David Cronenberg-directed film that will stay with you long after you’ve watched it. That’s partly due to the compelling story, but more to the outstanding performances. Chief among those is Viggo Mortensen’s portrayal of Nikolai. According to Nikolai, “I’m just a driver,” but it’s quickly clear that he is much more than that. What that something more is is not clear, but...[Read More]