Category Archives: DVD
Hard Candy (2005)
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Hard Candy
Hayley’s a smart, charming teenage girl — but even smart girls make mistakes.
She’s hooking up in a coffee shop with Jeff, a guy she’s met on the Internet. And even though he’s a cute, smooth high-end fashion photographer in his early 30s, Hayley shouldn’t be suggesting that the two of them go back to his house-alone.
Here is where the Word of Mouth Scale gets confusing; this was quite a good movie but, due to the subject matter and graphic presentation, I can’t recommend it to most of my circle. I can’t imagine my mother enjoying it, after all.
This is an interesting concept, fairly well executed. You need to have pretty tight writing and extraordinary performances when the entire story involves two characters on one set. The dialog is crisp and intense and the actors are up to the challenge.
Movies generally require a suspension of disbelief, and this one is no exception. It clings precariously close to the edge for so long, I thought it would make it all the way. Unfortunately, just before the bathroom scene (you’ll know it when you see it) the train jumps clean off the tracks. There were moments after when I thought they were going to manage to regroup and bring the story to a convincing conclusion – no such luck.
I still think it is a really good movie, an original concept, a risky staging……just not great.
And it is very graphic – so
“Disturbing, controversial, but entirely engrossing, Hard Candy is well written with strong lead performances, especially that of newcomer Ellen Page. A movie that stays with the viewer long after leaving the theater.”
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 68%; Audience 76%
Friends With Money (2006)
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Friends With Money
A drama about three married women, their husbands, and their lone single friend.
This movie is every bit as exciting as that tagline makes it sound –
I found this review by Tony Medley that sums it up nicely, though the film apparently kept his attention more than it did mine. Besides the criticisms he mentions, I found the story to be tedious, boring, monotonous, characterless, cloying, colorless, drab, dull, humdrum, insipid, prosaic, routine, spiritless, stale, stereotyped, stupid, tiresome, trite, unexciting, vapid…..
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 71%; Audience 37%
Slither (2006)
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Slither
A mysterious meteor infected with a deadly alien plague brings chaos to a small hunting town in the feature-length directorial debut of screenwriter James Gunn (Scooby-Doo, Dawn of the Dead). Booted out of bed by his young, trophy-wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks), and in desperate need of some female companionship, wealthy Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) picks up bar local floozy Brenda (Brenda James) and heads into the woods for a hedonistic night of extramarital excitement. When a flaming meteor lights up the sky before crashing to the ground nearby, Grant’s curiosity gets the best of him and he sets out to find the space rock. Subsequently infected with a rampaging space virus, which he passes along to Brenda, Grant transforms into a horrific, cow-munching monster and begins terrorizing the town. As thousands of squirmy space slugs burrow into the brains of the unsuspecting Wheelsy denizens creating an ever-amassing horde of mindless space zombies, panic grips the small town and it’s up to Starla, Sheriff Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion), and gung-ho mayor Jack MacReady (Gregg Henry) to put an end to the infection and save the planet. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Campy, Sci-fi, Horror – the perfect way to spend an evening. There are definitely some gorey bits, and the script wouldn’t win any awards, but it is a hoot.
This is a great, goofy B movie, a clever homage to the flicks that filled double bills in the 1950s, combining low-brow slapstick and gory scares in equal measure. Art it’s not; but it certainly is fun. ~ Full Review
Lower on the Word of Mouth Scale due to gore and foul language, but good fun for those who can appreciate such entertainment.
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 84%; Users 77%
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The Family Stone (2005)
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The Family Stone
A woman meets her future in-laws and discovers they don’t much care for her in this comedy from writer and director Thomas Bezucha. Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney) is a successful young businessman who is dating Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker), and has asked her to spend Christmas with his family, with plans to ask his mother, Sybil (Diane Keaton), for the titular family wedding band and propose to Meredith on Christmas Day.
I hadn’t really intended to see this film, had it in my Blockbuster queue just as a filler. Looked like an OK chick Flick, but nothing I needed to see. Then my step-sister told me she loved this movie. “Love-love-loved it!” Alrighty then, I’ll give it a go….
…and I will end up feeling like I just wasted an hour and a half.
The premise is fairly simple, and something that would be quite familiar to a lot of people. Boy brings home Girl to meet the Family before he proposes to her; Girl is uncomfortable, Family doesn’t like her, hilarity ensues, cue laugh track. Unfortunately, the writer/director(?), or whoever, wasn’t satisfied with that. What they end up giving us is a cast of unrelate-able characters, most of whom have no redeeming qualities whatsoever – in fact it seemed as if they lacked humanity altogether. Even the most heinous villain should have some vulnerability or charm to make us care about the story, I couldn’t have cared less about the majority of this group.
They finally become a bit human in the last ten minutes of the film, but the various nauseating & absurd (though predictable) couplings spoil even that.
It manages a 1.5 simply because of the two girlfriends I have who may want to see this, and who I wouldn’t actively dissuade. They both love Sarah Jessica Parker and this is her in her neurotic element.
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 51%; Audience 61%
A few gems:
“A feel-bad holiday film about a repellent family, with a milquetoast dad and a smug, devious harpy of a mom.” — Mick LaSalle, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
“There are many ways to define the shrieking awfulness of The Family Stone, from the general lack of wit to the cheap exploitation of cancer to its casual cruelty.” — Stephen Hunter, WASHINGTON POST
“It doesn’t matter how many fine actors are assembled in a film, if the script is terrible, then the movie can’t be good.” —Jeanne Kaplan, KAPLAN VS KAPLAN
“Rarely have I seen such a maudlin, manipulative, mean-spirited mess masquerading as a holiday comedy.” —Susan Granger, MODAMAG.COM
Last Holiday (2006)
Last Holiday
“…when she learns she only has a few weeks left to live, Georgia gathers her money, quits her job, and flies to a swank European resort she’s always dreamed of visiting. Naturally, her new carelessness with money and fearless candor lead everyone around her–including her senator (Giancarlo Esposito, Do The Right Thing) and her former boss (Timothy Hutton, Ordinary People)–to think she’s a mover and shaker. Last Holiday unfolds the way you expect it to (dozens of movies and TV shows have similar plots), but Latifah and the capable cast keep it alive.” –Bret Fetzer
I wasn’t expecting much from this movie, though I had heard it was funny. I was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining it was – though I would hesitate to call it a “good movie”. I would say it is what it claims to be, a fun little romp. It is also quite palatable for the whole family – not so chick-flicky that it would be hard for guys to sit through, not full of bad language or scenarios that would make it uncomfortable in mixed company.
Based on Word of Mouth Scale, I would recommend it to just about everyone in my circle.
A couple of silly complaints:
- I think Queen Latifah has shown she has acting chops and she is well cast here, but if you are going to have her in your movie, find a way to get her to sing.
- I don’t know how they would have gotten it into the script, but why have LL Cool J in your movie and not have him shirtless at least once?
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 55%; Audience 70%
pieces of april
few movies actually have an effect on me emtionally. usually i’m just a passive movie watcher who usually doesn’t allow myself to get too involved with what’s happening on the the screen.
to put it simply, i have never cried at the end of a movie.
that was until i saw big fish. that movie is something i call my “dad” movie. the ending just made me think of what it would be like for me and my father. i completely broke down. the end of the royal tennenbaums gave me that feeling too just not as much big fish.
i’ve been in search of my “mom” movie and feel that i’ve found it in pieces of april.
the movie revolves around an estranged daughter named april (katie holmes) who is currently living in new york city and spending the entire day cooking thanksgiving dinner for her mother, joy, (patricia clarkson) who is dying of cancer.
they haven’t talked in years and all joy can remember are the bad times. the family is really hesitant about going. the other daughter, beth (allison burns), does everything in her power to try and talk her mother out of going.
it could possibly be joy’s last thanksgiving so you get the feeling that she wants to be there.
the thing about this whole story is that i could see myself cooking some sort of big dinner for my mother if the time ever comes that she becomes sick or, god forbidden, dying.
even though i didn’t cry at the end of this movie, i did feel compelled to write something about it. if you love your mother or haven’t talked to her in a while, you may want to watch this movie and then call her afterward.
