Ananas

ROC, could you perchance give insight as to what a particular * rating has to the old /10 system? Also, what is your cut off for recommending a film?

The Pacifier - **1/2 (5/10) The Pacifier is the comedic debut of doughy eyed action star Vin Diesel, an actor who as appeared out of place in nearly every one of his films so far. In this movie however, he seems right at home. In fact, this may very well be the first example of Diesel being better than the material he's working with. The film tells the story of Shane Wolfe (Diesel), a Navy S.E.A.L assigned to protect the children of a deceased scientist from an as of yet unknown terrorist threat. Faith Ford plays the concerned mother who leaves the children in Wolfe's hands, while the 3 eldest children are played by Brittany Snow, Max Thieriot and Morgan York. Lauren Graham ("Gilmore Girls") plays the school principal, while Brad Garrett ("Everybody Loves Raymond") plays her VP. The cast is really charming, and that is where The Pacifier's draw lies. It seems Vin Diesel is a much better comedic actor than he is in action films, and almost rescues what is really a nothing happening screenplay. The kids are also really good, and elevate some of the more lame potty humour. Nothing new happening here, it never reaches any real peaks over 90 minutes, but if you're looking for an innoffensive laugh, can stand Vin Diesel and have no aversion to unoriginality, this might be for you. For the rest of the movie viewing population, this is a rental at best. Thumbs down, although one with distinction for effort.

Reggie And the Full Effect, so we wouldn't have to get another disappointing Get Up Kids album.

1. Catherine Bell 2. Sarah Polley 3. Elisha Cuthbert 4. Keira Knightley 5. Emmanuelle Chriqui 6. Rose Byrne 7. Portia De Rossi 8. Rachel Weisz 9. Shannyn Sossamon 10. Emmy Rossum No negatives for me. Ugly people don't exist in Hollywood, just slightly varying degrees of hot.

When Will I Be Loved - *1/2 (3.5/10) When a movie's best moment comes from a bit of obscenity courtesy of Mike Tyson, the writing is most certainly on the wall. James Toback ("Bugsy") wrote and directed this taudry tale of the sexual awakening of a woman named Vera Barrie (Neve Campbell), who is goated into sleeping with a billionaire old man (Dominic Chianese) for $100,000 by her boyfriend Ford (Frederick Weller). Unfortunately, this movie isn't even on a level with "Indecent Proposal", the movie it not so subtly lifts material from. It's presentation is like a mix of Before Sunrise, Closer and a couple of softcore porn films thrown in for good measure. However, the director's attempts to lift the material out of mediocrity fail miserably; this isn't smart wry drama with sex thrown in for good measure, it's a sex drama with pretension. The sound quality also stands out to me; whenever the characters are talking over a backing soundtrack they have to compete to be heard. It's a shock that a movie featuring a cameo by music mogul Damon Dash would be so amateurish on that front. I also take issue with the movie's overall portrayal of the Vera character. For 81 minutes, she essentially walks around hooking up with and/or flirting with everyone in sight. Then she runs back to Ford/her parents seemingly helpless. This isn't a tale of female empowerment; it's a wet dream. Nothing to see here, unless you're a Neve loving heterosexual man, and in that case there's always P2P programs. Thumbs down.

Be Cool - ** (4/10) Coming from John Travolta, a man who's career is the very definition of bipolar, I suppose we can be very happy that he opted to make this film instead of Battlefield Earth 2. The star of films both fantastic and attrocious returns as Chili Palmer in Be Cool, the PG-13 sequel to the R rated 1995 film Get Shorty. The film's change of tone due to its rating is one of the biggest problems facing it. If we're crossing various forms of organized crime and use our MPAA assigned "fuck" on an industry inside joke within the opening minute and a half, how are audiences to identify? This, combined with one dimensional characters and a bit too much Travolta are what's wrong with Be Cool. That being said, there are plenty of things that could have gone wrong with this film that didn't. It could have descended into 120 minutes of lame potty humour marketed to adults like "The Whole Ten Yards". It could have become a self-referential turd like "Analyze That". Hell, it almost certainly should have become a trainwreck of bad casting like "Mortal Combat: Annhilation" when the project called for a mostly new cast. It could have, but it didn't. As far as sequels go, this isn't bad. The humour is surprisingly high brow at points, and the opening scene is oddly reminiscent of another Travolta film, Pulp Fiction. Instead of relying too much on the original, this is essentially a new story with a new cast and a new set of cirumstances. The cast itself is well put together; while Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000 of Outkast) charms in his acting debut, the rest of the supporting cast including Vince Vaughn, The Rock, Christina Millian, Harvey Keitel and Cedric the Entertainor absolutely carry the film. It seems like the good outweighs the bad here, and perhaps it does, but the bad is like an unerasable stain that just ruins the picture. John Travolta gets right into the character, as does his lead Uma Thurman as Edie Athens, but the characters bring nothing worthy to the table. In fact, they look to be quite thinly written whenever they're placed in close proximity to the awesome support cast. When we're more partial to the story's villain than the hero we can't possibly get the intended viewing experience. Unfortunately, "Be Cool" is a movie for no one but perhaps rabid fans of Vaughn, The Rock or the two leads. Thumbs down. Snow Day - *** (6/10) This 2000 film is easy to forget, mainly because it's a forgettable movie. No new ground is broken with "Snow Day"; guy persues girl, kids do horrible things to principal, good guy dad and weather man finally gets his due in the end, Emmanuelle Chriqui is hot, blah blah blah we get it. It's charm that makes this film watchable, charm in both cast and premise. The film isn't a new concept; it's a well made spin on an old one. Therein lies a certain level of comfortability along with that, and as such it's comfort that doesn't make the film any less enjoyable due to any lack of originality. The cast, as I've said, is very charming. I suppose the most bankable cast member is the underused Chevy Chase, but also includes Jean Smart, Chris Elliott, John Schneider and (at the time) newcomers Mark Webber, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Schuyler Fisk, Connor Matheus and Zena Grey. The secret weapon here is Schuyler Fisk (pre-Orange County I might add), who makes herself entirely sympathetic without taking away from Webber's Hal. Snow Day is a children's comedy which, like many of the films that have been made in the past few years, has plenty of appeal for adults. You might even say it was ahead of its time. Thumbs up.

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster - ***1/2 (7/10) Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster" is a gritty documentary that pulls no punches, in turn doing a greater service to the band being examined. The film follows Metallica members James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett through the arduous process of recording the band's 2003 album St. Anger, including their numerous group therapy sessions as well as James' rehab stint and bass player Jason Newstead's sudden departure. What I really like about this film is how effective the human drama goes over. At the top of the food chain, if you will, are James and Lars, the two remaining original band members. Their egos come into conflict recurrently throughout the film, and when James goes into rehab, Lars seems to feel more inconvenienced than concerned. Somewhere below them in influence is producer Bob Rock, the man who has shaped the band's sound over the past 10 years, for better or for worse. Phil Towle, the band's therapist, is brought in to manage these egos, and frequently chimes in on band issues, even the music related ones. At the bottom of this chain is Kirk Hammett, the virtuoso guitarist who so effectively replaced Dave Mustaine in 1983. The most poignant line in the film is when James is complaining of feeling that everything is out of his hands and that Lars is in charge, to which Kirk replies "To me, that just sounds like the past 15 years". Interesting human drama along with kick ass rock music make this one of the best documentaries of last year. Thumbs up.

See kids, this is what happens when you add an "h" to Coen.

I think anyone who's seen Reeves in his element knows that he not only has the potential to be a better than average actor, he is one. The Matrix, Speed, and The Devil's Advocate are examples of his action film chops, while the Bill & Ted movies make him a multi faceted performer. When you put him out of his element the results are disastrous, but you can say that for just about any actor (save maybe Johnny Depp).

Congrats, you found 2 shitty movies that had no imagination while scoring a romance scene. ←

A Tribe Called Quest - "Midnight Marauders"

Are you kidding me? It would KILL the NHL. It would ruin professional hockey because one owner owning a hockey league would eliminate the competitiveness of the sport. No need for GM's if one owner is controlling who plays for what team. What incentive will players have to put in career seasons if there won't be competition between owners to sign them at the end of a contract? I thought this had been already rejected, and hopefully the owners come to their senses soon.

Lucas isn't a hack, he's a dinosaur. He made technological breakthroughs with the first film, and managed to establish the science fiction genre as a viable box office contender. Whether his poor adaptation to modern cinema make him obsolete is one thing, but to call him a hack is to almost imply that he wasn't the man who made 3 brilliant films during the 70's and 80's. I also take exception with whomever said that Lucas has done more harm than good for Star Wars. That's only accurate if you believe that with how disappointing the prequel trilogy has been, it would have been better had the films never been made. If you don't believe that, it's impossible to argue that Lucas has done more harm than good for the series, since its very existance is contingent upon Lucas having developed the first film way back when. If you're to discredit Lucas for the new trilogy, you must credit him for the original.

I think it had to be what you would call "emo-ish", simply because it's about a person really experiencing life for the first time in 15 years. According to Zach's commentary, the ending was written the way it was to see Large finally taking control over his life, and to go back to Los Angeles in Zach's eyes would be like "running away".

Well the point I was trying to make is that Zach wasn't only a selling point for the movie, he was THE selling point. He wrote, directed and starred in the movie, and produced the soundtrack.

Million Dollar Baby - ****1/2 (9/10) Million Dollar Baby is a film that looks astounding on paper, and after a viewing, it's even better. Clint Eastwood directs the film and stars as Frankie Dunn, the ex-boxer who reluctantly takes on Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) as his student. Morgan Freeman is astounding as Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris, Dunn's ex-fighter friend, and these three together give probably the best ensemble performance of the year. The screenplay is written by Paul Haggis (Crash), and his work is so good here that he's already been hired by Eastwood to write his next film. The film's look (due in large to Tom Stern's cinematography) enhances the story's dark image. Even at 132 minutes, this film does not run long in the slightest. I've lost my list of films for 2004, but this would have almost certainly been #2 for the year. Thumbs way up.

Really? I have never heard Zach Braff being used as a selling point for Garden State. It's always the writing or the soundtrack. ←