Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Hesher, Saved From Drowning

Go For it, Hesher! (2011)
Starring: Joseph Gordon Levine, Rainmaker, Natalie Portman
Directed by: Denny Terrio
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Other: Inspirational Dancing 
Review
In pre-war France the great Rene Clair made a series of films about a drunken clown who defiles middle class families, all with the name Boudu Sauve des Eaux. Forty years later a giant bearded genius named Zero Mostel destroyed the lives of his teenager daughters in David Lean's "Fiddler on the Roof."

Now, fifty years on, out of nowhere, disco dance sensation Denny Terrio pulls a rabbit out of that same dirty, dirty hat with "Go For It, Hesher!" a quirky, quixotic romp through the sewers of the mind - with bells on!

Terrio ("Stayin' Alive 2: Ontario Dreams!") elicits  electric performances from teen dream sensations David Gordon Levine and Natalie Portman as star-crossed lovers on a road paved with the diamonds of the stars trampled beneath their feet by dreams they can only imagine, and nightmares they can only dream do not occur to their imaginations. Levine ("Walking Tall 5: Pusser vs. Billy Jack", "Lightning Bug: The Adam Ant Story") is particularly fine as a pouty-lipped young circus roustabout with a skateboard, a penchant for Virginia Slims hidden in a pack of Djarum Blacks and a one way ticket to Palookaville.

Portman, so good as tragic Norwegian skating sensation Sonje Heine ("Quisling On Ice"), takes it down a couple of notches here as Rita a girl who, on the cusp of her "Quincenera" - a latin ritual for girls in which the young initiate learns that only her brothers will be allowed to attend college, must choose between the Talmud and the dark red mesh open-toed dance shoe.

What you think you've seen before turns before your eyes into a delicate mix of black blood sausage and jasmine incense - something unexpected yet fragrant, but not unplesantly so.  I won't give away the shock ending, but be sure to bring a friend with plenty of kleenex and a change of socks.

Enjoy!

p.s. Yes, that is Sting reciting the Kaddish during the shivah montage.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

The Devil In Disguise

Diary of a Priest (2011)
Starring: Paul Bethany, Noel Coward, Dorf, Kal Urban
Directed by: Charles Nelson Reilly
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Religious
Review
Odd remake of Fifties Bresson film casts former "Big Brother" runner-up Bethany as renegado religious tootsie roll Simon Stylites. Stylites, who dressed as a donkey and pulled carts of "special" wood knows as "faggots" used to incinerate witches, unbelievers and forest gnomes, would be somewhat baffled by Director Reilly's complete and utter misreading of Jesus' time in the desert trying to find John the Baptist's head.

That said, Bethany is very good as a man who discovers that "under every rock is another rock under which a scorpion may lie" (Book of Mormon) and Australian premier league legend Kal Urban holds his own as a crippled boy whose accidental encounter with some holy spittal results in the ability to decapitate unbelievers via an awesome bicycle kick.

For those who think "turn the other cheek" refers to half a pressed ham this may be just the ticket. Recommended.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Low Blow

SuckerPunch (2011)

Starring: Emily Brownbottom, Abbie Cornwall, Scott Glenn
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Thriller

Review
Terrific remake of "Shock Corridor" director Sam Fuller's "Snake Pit" with newcomer Emily Brownbottom in the Olivia D'Havilland role as a pretty young loony who connives with a young Carl Jung (John-John Ham) to convince an even younger and prettier heiress (Abbie Cornwall - "Fly Robin Fly - the Silver Convention Story") that her money is actually a nest of robot spider that can only be controlled through a series of grisly seduction/murders of the rest of the staff.
Confusing, absurd and absolutely riveting in its exploration of the wisdom of young women and the bad choices we all make when we imagine that they are looking at us across a Starbucks when in fact we are all but invisible to anyone younger than 40. 

Snyder, who previously turned a tiny incident in Spartan history into international hysteria (and inadvertently gave Colin Powell the "verve" pipe he needed to launch the second invasion of Iraq), here shows an uncanny ability to put his hand up a young actress and make her do his bidding. 

Not for children, or adults of children, or for older ladies who incessantly question plot points and point out the children of former leading ladies, or really for anyone disturbed by the idea that our psychiatric institutions may be susceptible to "social engineering hacks". But for those remaining, a more-than-adequate substitute for the kind of pleasure we used to receive through physical contact on an occasionally Friday night drive-in rendezvous.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Last One Out, Turn off the Lights

Green Hornet (2011)
Starring: Sith Rogan, JayChow
Directed by: Mitchell Gondry
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Suspense
Other: Superhero
Review
Fat, gray onanist Rogan turns his belly button into a foul spewpipe, "riffing" on one non-sequitur after another as he desperately seeks to talk his way clear of this pig offal of a script (by once-brilliant "novelist of the future" Jay "Gatsby" McInerney). Former Michael Jordan bodyguard and sidekick JayChow hangs on to Rogan's side blubber like a homesick remora.

What exactly are we to make of what probably once looked like a "can't miss" idea before the likes of casting Godfather "Lyn" Stallmaster and evil supergenius Michael Ovidz put their morganetic spell upon it? Imagine a carpet the size of the Astrodome made of upturned mouths all screaming their agony in unison, only to be met by a hailstorm of Wilf Errol's special "menudo" stewed in the flopsweat of a hundred Zach Galfianikakiliases. Congratulations, you're a tenth of the way there.

Leave EVERYONE home, and enjoy the simple pleasures of Mr. Tony Randall. You'll thank me.

Friday, January 14, 2011

The Englishman Who Walked Up A Word and Came Down A Soliloquy

Kingspeak (2011)
Starring: Colin Filth, Geoffroy Rush, Helen Bon-ham Carter
Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Rating: PG-13
Genre: History

Review
Offensive drivel that would have us believe that "the king's english" was a plot invented by Churchill to change the official language of Britain to American. Filth plays an actor with a passing resemblance to His Royal Personage. Rush, as The Stogied Walrus, mocks every elementary school speech pathologist who ever stuck a tongue depressor down a second grader's throat. Stay away - with extreme prejudice!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Good Sports

Dilemma (2011)
Starring: Vince Hogg, Jack Black
Directed by: Ronald Howard
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Dramedy
 Other: Gay & Lesbian
Review
Two married men discover, through their mutual obsession with sports, that man-meat is the choice of champions. Hogg ("Swingles", "Hot Topic: The Movie") is once again a slick, likeable mug with tight leather pants (in black AND brown!) in the back of his closet. Black ("Child-Eater", "Loaf: The Marvin Lee Aday Story") is as hot as sizzling bacon fat as his best friend and confidante.

Howard, never strong on plot lines, manages to set 'em up and knock 'em down proficiently enough to stay out of the lovers' way. And do they ever! Congratulations, Mr. Howard, for showing us that sports can emulate life, and love will find its measure.

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

To Thine Known Self Be True

What Do You Know (2010)
Starring: Gabrielle Reece, Paula Rugg, Jack Nicholson, Stubby Shavers
Directed by: Jim Brooks
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Tragedy
Other
Review
Once a year a fish known as a "grunion" beaches itself by the millions in the wet sands of San Diego in order to bring forth the next generation. And just as regularly "Jim" Brooks beaches himself on the boards of Hollywood to produce a film that will spawn a million imitations by never-shall-be's like Judge Apatown and "Jim" Jarmusch.

"What Do You Know" (a subtle but appreciative nod to Dante's "Milton Lost") concerns a number of attractive people and Jack Nicholson doing what they do best - being the kind of people you know and that you are. And Jack Nicholson. 


Like the piscatorial connoisseur, reap this little harvest of joy before Mr. Brooks shuffles off this little blue coil. You won't be disappointed.


Note to Arwen - No, Ms. Witherspoon is clean-shaven.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Light My Flyer

Tron: Legacy (2010)
Starring: Willie Nelson, Boy Sting, Olivia DeHavilland, Jr.
Directed by: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Rating: PG
Genre: SciFi Fiction
Review
Fifty years ago a Palo Alto, California engineer named Hewlett J. Packard shrunk himself to the size of an engorged tick and "uploaded" his midget brain into the first IBM computer. Though Packard was later to achieve fame for inventing the concept of the expensive printer cartridge, those in the know are convinced that his time navigating the memory gates of that first electronic behemoth formed the basis of the original "Tron."

How true this is, I do not know, but it's hardly surprising to insiders that the great Polish director Kieslowski would choose a remake of this original story as his comeback venture. Kieslowski, best known in Poland as the inventor of the color film, has always sought to recover the humanity that the Polish people felt was lost when they gave up the double-entry bookkeeping system shortly after World War II. And, truly, what better way than to team with the "FX" wizards at Disneyland and leave nothing but a immense plain of scorched eyeballs in their wake?

But does it work? Until that wonderful rascal Willie Nelson burst fullblown like a chaw-cheeked Venus upon the screen, I had my doubts. But the moment Nelson (as Packard-like engineer "Wink" Winkerbean) "dismounts" from his "light cycle" and grins at the camera we know we're like babies snugly and securely pinched between his huge, dope-stained fingers.  There seems to be no line that Nelson cannot improve by his growly, stentorian delivery (e.g. "I did not know. I DID NOT KNOW!!!").

Somewhat more perplexing was the choice of newcomer Boy Sting as his son "Dingo." Mr. Sting, who rose to prominence largely due to a YouTube video in which he is seen ejecting pickles from his bottom while "beatboxing" to  Cee-Lo's "Forget you", is not (to put it kindly) a "natural" actor. Every line he delivers sounds like a cat force-fed helium and slowly strangled with a string of stale red vines. And if I'm not mistaken, there happens to be another performer with the same surname, whose dignity cannot be impugned by this turdlet of a talent (as a fan of Sting lute music can attest, the man has nothing more to prove and can retire to his chateau to finish the sonnet cycle on the Vedic bards we all await with bated breath).

But even the guinea-pig like squealings of the lesser Sting cannot detract from the sheer ferocious intelligence of Mr. Kieslowski's script. And those of us who have already installed track-lighting are well on our way. Tally Ho!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Ugly Duckling

BlackSwan (2010)
Starring: Natalia Portman, Milan Kundera
Directed by: Darrell Arfelofsky

Rating: R

Genre: Horror
 
Review
Fascinating remake of Shirley McClain's standout directing debut "The Turning Point" casts human sliver Portman as  "BlackSwan," a Russian agent in charge of decimating the backlog of American prima ballerinas in a desperate attempt to restart the Cold War. The film Arfelofsky ("Fountain: The Ayn Rand Story") has apparently wanted to make since he was a child. Cold as a Smirnoff ice house and just as glittering, this brilliant shard of a movie carved up the part of my brain that stayed engaged with it as thin a fine prosciutto. One doesn't "like" an Arelofsky movie - one just goes, sees, and is conquered.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Deaf in Venice

The Tourist (2010)
Starring: John Depp, Angelina Jolie, Richard Jenkins
Directed by: DIRECTOR
Rating: RATING
Genre: GENRE
Other Count Florenz von Donner Ziefeld
Review
The great otherly-abled English boor  Boswell Johson once informed Queen Elizabeth that "both fish and guests stink after three days" but in that, as in so many other ways, he has been proved wrong yet again as mega-stars John Depp and Angelina Jolie rend the veil between acting and being as a pair of Americans who turn Venice (Italy) into a land of mystery and romance.

Depp, whom we last saw as a murderous C.S. Lewis in "The Ripper", plays "Lance," a deaf-mute attorney with a facial tick who meets Jolie ("Envelop Me") in a communal sauna (known as a "vaporetto") when they both end up in the same towel. I won't give away the surprise, but let's just say that things are not quite what they seem with either of them, or Italy itself.

Jolie is a dangerous actor who can steal the skin off a cat, dye it purple and sew it back on before the feline can order a half-decaffeinated soy chai, so German director von Ziegfeld ("The Lumpen") knew he needed what they call "weight" in the business. Rumor has it that the count had to buy Depp's way out of a Marseille prison. But it's all up there on the screen.

Delightful scenery, mystery, strangely uncomfortable sexuality and suspense make this a delightful way to waste a Friday night. Congrats all around!

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Enceintevized

DUDE DATE (2010)

Starring: Jack Black, Robert Downey 
Directed by: Sean Phillips 
Rating:
Genre: Comedy
Review
The great French philosopher Henry Bergson once defined comedy as "tragedy plus humor." Dude Date is a bit o'  Christmas fun with Jack Black back in form as a sleek walrus pup man-child shepherding the righteous Bob Downey through a series of hilarious escapades ending in a huge comedy action scene designed to astound and delight. The right medicine for a holiday filled with unemployment, murder, madness and the threat of future taxation. I may have to reconsider Mr. Downey's previous work in the light of his serious commitment to finding the deep truths that lie like gems waiting to be discovered in even the most mundane of situations (urinating on your shoes in a public restroom, for instance).

Warning: Those sensitive to animal endangerment may want to avoid the middle third of this flick (a dog is mutilated and partially consumed by Mr. Black) though I am assured that this was all accomplished with a team of French special effects experts.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Nein? Nein!

Nine (2009)


Starring: Daniel Day-Lewes, Nicole Kid-Man, Penelope Cruise, Dame Judy Dench, Horatio Sanz, Rip Taylor, The June Taylor Dancers
Directed by: Rob Marshall
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Musical
Other

Review
If Ingmar Bergman is Swedish, then Rob Marshall must be Amsterdam and today must be Tuesday because Mr. Marshall is one of the last of the big game hunters left in Holly-wont. Who else would be bold enough to present the life of Sesame Street's "Count" as a musical styled after Marcelo Mastriani's weirdball life as an Italian and an actor at Cinecitta studios making films about sex maniacs in love with giant blonde Swedish actresses?

Daniel Day-Lewes ("New York Murder Company, Inc.", "My Beautiful Foot") stars as the caped nightsucker whose obsession with numerology here is represented by scantily-clad globally-dispersed stars ranging from the fabulous Linda Hunt (as a crazy prostitute who eats children) to the gorgeous Sophia Loren (who plays a crazy prostitute who makes love to religious icons).

I admit I was never quite clear what was going on, or who was singing or why, but Marshall made me so confident that he knew what it was about it that I slept quite comfortably. It won't be for everyone but those who could never watch the "Street" without wondering what it might have looked like dubbed by a drunken genius who has run out of ideas might find this just the ticket for a late afternoon work break.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

The Gland That Time Forgot

Did You Hear About The Parkinsons? (2009)

Starring: Hugely Grand, Sarah-Jessica Michelle Gland
Directed by: Marky Marc
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Other

Review
After Gland ("Sin-derella", "The Sixties And Their Discontents", "Porpoise-Eaters") witnesses Grand strangling a prostitute during a payoff gone wrong, the two hightail it out of Gotham only to land in a small town besieged by insane hill people.

Presposterous, violent, stupid and sexy, this seemingly-forgotten Christmas flick has it all. I won't give away the shock ending but suffice it to say you'll never try to catch a glimpse of your anus in a floor-to-ceiling mirror again! Check it out!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Complexification Redux

It Is Complicated (2009)


Starring: Merrill Streep, Alex Baldwin, Steve Martin
Directed by: Nancy Myers
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Other

Review
Former Clinton spokesperson and eighties basketball phenom Nancy Myers returns with another in her series of delightful dramedies about the difficulties that wealthy white women have in finding and hanging onto good Mexican help and sex partners able to keep up with their hectic schedules.
 MacArthur "genius" winner Merrill Streep plays Jane Waldo, a wealthy and famous person who often cooks her own meals. After a hilarious run-in with a recalcitrant Brondell heated toilet, Jane is given the "411" by a sassy yet well-educated African-American nurse - her friends were right all along. All of her problems were caused by her jerky ex-husband. Alex Baldwin (the smart one) plays that jerk - Rip Masterson, a wealthy real estate developer with one eye for the ladies, another eye for the market, and (surprisingly) a third eye devoted to mastering the art of shiatsu, or Japanese deep massage (Masterson/mastering is just one of the clever allusions and puzzles Myers litters throughout the articulate and thoughtful script).

The only turd in the ointment is Steve Martin's mute architect semi-love interest, "Steve." While Mr. Martin is better known for his theatrical "act" (in which he plays - of all things -  a banjo and tries to suck up to the college kids with references to Tutankamen and smoking) he might have been better advised to actually study both the art of acting and an actual vocally disabled person before sauntering his way onto the set, castanets a-blazing. To the best of my knowledge mute people can read lips, Mr. Martin! Sorry to disappoint you, but I guess MOMSMA (the Museum of Modern Steve Martin Art) will have to get an Oscar on loan again this year (try giving a professionally trained actor, like your friend Mr. Robin Williams, a call. I understand he has one!). Better yet, get started on Bowfinger 2. You were onto something there!

One question that turns up repeatedly when discussing this movie is, "who is it aimed at?" Ms. Meyers, you are right to take this as the sling-ed arrow it's clearly meant to be. The truth is the demographic is everyone - from Nelson Mandela to Tiny Tim (the Dickens character, not the deceased ukulele-playing cherub who was reincarnated as art director Tim Burton). Shine on, you crazy diamond. We'll all be lucky to catch just a bit of your reflected glow!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

From The Vault - No Fool Like a Young British Fool

Pride and Prejudiced (2005)

Starring: Keira Winslet, Dame Joan Sutherland,
Directed by: Mighty Joe Young
Rating: RATING
Genre: GENRE
Other

From The Vault - From The Vault is a special feature of Oswald's Screen Scene. Here we present reviews of movies past that we feel might interest, provoke or dismay our readers.

Review

The British they are different than you and me. Take for instance this prickly bit of pear dug up from the boneyard orchard of 18th century writing which seeks to compare the horrors of being ignored at a fancy dance ball to slavery.

Not sure what particular brand of "tea" young director Mighty Joe Young ("King Kong In Love") might have been sipping when he "greenlighted" this thing, but I suggest he take a look at Mr. Stephen Spielberg's "Amadeustad" for a history lesson. Stick that in your british crumpet and smoke it!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

His World And Welcome to It

Avatard (2009)


Starring: Siggy Weaver, Sam Worthingham
Directed by: James "Jim" Cameron
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Sci-Fi
Other

Review
Just as the Mighty One bestowed upon apes the knowledge of how to bash each other's heads in with their own bones, He seemingly has given James "Jim" Cameron the power to change the way music videos and infomercials will be made until the end of days.

What once was Darwin's crazy folly has jumped into Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's hyper-driven super-egg and warped us all into a future where Jar-Jar Binks can seemingly read our minds from the other side of the looking glass, even when we're thinking about something as trivial as the shiny gloss of a really fresh Junior Mint, or loved ones far away, then Junior Mints again.

After Einstein's annus mirabilis, we all slapped our collective foreheads when we realized how we'd all fallen for Newton's "apple" scam - the Earth was indeed as round as The Frizzled One's predictions had predicted. Crowds of infuriated Londoners dug up Newton's body and shipped it to France where it probably belonged in the first place, right next to Liebniz' dog-faced boy. In the same way, Mr. Cameron's theory that we live in a "3-D" dimensional world now seems as obvious (for instance, why is it only you notice that your toilet swirl counter-clockwise?).

Putting the technical flash aside, Cameron has warped the weft of Sid Field's screenplay rulebook whole cloth, abandoing entire chunks of Platonic "wisdom" for something I have a feeling Mr. Cameron would call "Life." Well what is it, then? Imagine that you had given the Wachowski brothers permission to harvest your skull and hook it up to a giant movie machine housed in a theater shaped like a starship made of M&Ms. Does that help?

Yes, there are still actors in Mr. Cameron's brave new world. But don't fall in love with them too much, because I suspect they will not be with us for long. Instead I foresee virtual "harvest farms" where plasmids are raised on the sloughed off cells of hair harvested from the combs of the greats (think Orson Wellies, Jeanette McDonald or, say, a young Wings Hauser). You'll be able to carry the entire Actor's Studio in a small snuff box!

I recognize that I may be riding the giddy afterglow of movie magic, but, as this holiday season reminds us, don't look a gift mitzvah in the mouth.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem LovelyBones

LovelyBones (2009)


Starring: Matt Damon, Rachel Winslet, Stanley Tucker, Ash Wednesday
Directed by: Peter "Pedro" Jackson
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Other

Review
Like a slighty creepy guy sporting a pencil-mustache and red velvet smoking jacket toying with a rich yet subtle Bordeaux, this critic detected notes of tamarind, tobacco and bacon in this fascinating study of the confluence of tragedy and hope. Somelier Jackson ("Mighty Orson Wellies", "The Laird of the Rings", "The Willies") uncorks a jeraboam of pain with real legs and a smooth finish that hints at wet dog rolled in dead sea lion.

Based on an unpublished novel by "Little House on the Prairie" author Jim Thompson, the movie stars Little Samantha "Ash" Wednesday as "LovelyBones," a girl who fakes her own death by killing herself and then from the half-life spirit world leads her family to blame a local killer who confesses before he kills again in order to spare everyone another two hours of worry.

Jackson, who has proved to be something of a chowderhead lately,  is really onto something here. He reminds me of a land crab wandering across eons of desert only to suddenly make a mad dash into a boiling sea. That hiss you hear is the sound of genius.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Friday Night Special - Night Of a Thousand Cuts

In The Cut (2003)


Starring: Megan Ryan, Marco Ruffantaglio, Keith Bacon
Directed by: LaCatherine Breilliant
Rating: R
Genre: Romance
Other

Friday Night Special - Friday Night Special is a special feature of Oswald's Screen Scene. Here we present reviews of movies that we feel may be of particular interest to those special lovers looking for that magical mood-setter of a date flick that just might ignite the passions bubbling under the surface during the last work day of the week. Is this "The One"? Or just "One of Those Things?" Let us be your guide!


Review
The strange and sexy world of "cutters" (people who cut themselves in order to remind themselves that they have blood) is explored by French director LaCatherine Breilliant ("The Waterlogged Piano", "J'aime Les Murs Salles", "Mon Père a etais Le Dernier Salle Roi de Maroc", "Les Spankings") in this nod to the lush Technicolor "womens" films of Douglas Sirk and Aldo Rey.

Megan Ryan plays a writer recovering from an attack of bees incurred after following a bear into the woods who meets enticing Marco Ruffantaglio after he tears his t-shirt while repairing her dumbwaiter. Initially wildly attracted ("your mustache is like the parted hair of a well-groomed yeti"), she begins to suspect that he may have been involved in the ritual killings of a group of itinerant milkmaids.

The story, based on a play by German plagiarist Frank Wedekind, is mostly an excuse for Breilliant to crank up the heat between the two stars. And it's true that we haven't seen such varied canoodling since Marlon Brando made "Irish" love to himself in the Jodorowsky-like epic "Missouri Jacks". But Ryan and Ruffantaglio make it work, sweating and struggling like a pair of weasels trying to dig their way out of a bed full of party coats.

At four hours an twenty-two minutes, it could well seem a bit self-indulgent, but don't let that scare you off. Breilliant may be a touch "L'amour tojours" but this is one duck whose seductive quack is no decoy.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Christmas Mystery Revealed

Every Body Is Fine (2009)

Starring: Robert Dedeniro, Sam Rockpile, Drawn Buttermore, Katherine La Beckensdale
Directed by: Kirk Hammett
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Other

Review
If men are from Mars, then Robert Dedeniro is from Super-Mars. Dedeniro and an exciting cast that includes fine "indie" actors Sam Rockpile ("Pass: The Alan White Story"), Drawn Buttermore ("Thin and Thinner") and Katherine la Beckensdale ("X-Badger", "The Nose Job") jab, jab, jab for two hours and fifty-five minutes before delivering the climactic uppercut about an hour after the last jab.

Dedeniro is "Frank" an older gentleman who seems to have taken to sipping from Robert Burton's dark cup of melancholy. After killing and dismembering his wife, he decides, rather than shipping her to each of his four children scattered across the country,  he will deliver them in person.

To his surprise, he finds that each of his offspring has troubles of his/her own. Through their shared misery, Frank discovers the humanity that exists in even one's own children and slowly comes to understand his wife's seemingly bizarre Christmas request - the gift she gave was not unlike the wafers he'd unthinkingly been consuming each Sunday before football.


Metallica guitarologist Kirk Hammet does a surprisingly deft job of delivering the script, based on an incident related by Dr. Phil, like a fine time-released laxative - before you know what's hit you, you're feeling better than you have in weeks.


Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Go Ahead. Stare.

Armoralled (2009)

Starring: Columbus Short, Ving Fishburne, Matt Dollard
Directed by: "Nimrod"
Rating: R
Genre: Action
Other

Review
Here we go again, kids. Just when you thought product placement had hit an all-time low, along comes action maestro "Nimrod" ("Funguz") one flap down, with a paen to automotive cleaning and buffing products giant Armorall.

I won't dignify this extended infomercial with a review, but I'd be remiss if I didn't toss a sharp stick at Messers Stamoulis & Weinblatt who represent slick ad cats "Denizen" who got us into all of this mess in the first place. Well done, gents. What's next - Fred Astaire pitching  vacuum cleaners?