Reviews: Now on Video
| Very Bad Things |
| Belly |
| A Cool, Dry Place |
| Orgazmo |
| Life is Beautiful |
| A Simple Plan |
If you didn’t see this movie in the 9 months it was in the theatre, you missed out. If all the academy awards didn’t convince you it was good, I’m not going to be able to either, but it was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. I know, I know, subtitles. Don’t worry, it you’re really anti reading, there are a few lines in English, but if you don’t mind it, you will forget that you are even looking at the words once you get sucked into the plot. Incase you don’t know, it is about the Holocaust, and as you can imagine in a very sad movie, however, it is powerful enough to make you cry every time you see it, and thus, is obviously incredibly written, acted and directed. Rent it, damn you.
Here’s a movie that makes you regret being human. When three men come across a downed plane carrying some 400 million dollars. They hatch a plan to keep the money without anyone finding out, but in order for it to work, they have to kill people who might find out their plot. The individuals in the movie have no morals at all, and are almost disgusting to watch, seeing as they are all pure evil. However, the movie was good, if you could get past the human aspects. It was wonderfully filmed, and acted, and the plot was good as well. Also, a positive thing being that they made no attempt to making killing look glamorous or humorous, something which far too many movies are guilty of these days. Check out A Simple Plan, but leave your morals at the door.
According to the section in which this film was located, it’s a comedy. Interesting, I didn’t laugh once. A group of friends including Christian Slater (who has incidentally passed his dreamy bad-boy Pump Up the Volume days), Jon Favruea (or whatever), and Jeremy Piven (who is usually funny) and some other guys go to Vegas for a predictable bachelor party including the token stripper, because the one is getting married to Cameron Diaz in a week (poor guy). An average party including a whole lot of cocaine (I use average loosely, although I think if any one could relate to these guys it would make a whole lot more sense), turns bad when the balding guy (who’s obviously not gotten laid in years) takes the stripper/prostitute in the bath room for a little sumpthin’ sumpthin’ and ends up killing her (accidentally, of course). Then, Christian Slater, (who is pure evil), refuses to allow them to call the police, thus setting off a chain of heinous crimes (etc., etc.) Even though I heard this movie was bad, I still wanted to see it. I even thought it had the potential to be good. Sometimes, even I am wrong. This was the most tense, annoyed hour and a half I have ever spent. The entire cast spent the movie screaming and swearing at each other. As much as I enjoy times when the people in my life are screaming at each other, I really do not need to watch it on TV. For some reason, I watched the whole thing, despite pleas from my cohorts to shut it off. Rather than watching this movie, you should start fights with other people in the room, as you will get more out of it. The only positive thing I can say about this movie is, at least they didn’t kill the dog.
What do you get when you combine today’s hottest rappers, hot rap video director Hype Williams, and a movie sized budget? A 2 hour music video, including more uses of the word man then should ever be included in one production. Imagine the annoying inbetween tracks on all rap albms, non stop for a full legnth feature film. Although Naz, T Boz, DMX and about ten other influential members of the rap community, it is nothing but an example of why entertainers should no longer be allowed to cross mediums. Athletes should act (or rap, remember Shaq), actors should sing (Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jennifer Lopez, this means you) and rappers shouldn’t be in movies. Not that the acting was particularly bad, but "oppressed black man music" (as my mother calls it) does not need to be translated to film, and although I’m not even sure on the plot, or if it had one, I’m giving this movie two thumbs down.
This movie starring Vince Vaughn (he’s so cute) gets my vote for chick flick of the year. On top of starring Vince Vaughn, it also includes a cute kid and torrid romance. Although the previews made it look more like another twisted sex drama, it is actually a almost family friendly story in which a single father (Vaughn) must leave his big city job when he must take proper care of his son. He then moves to a small town, where he meets Beth (Joey Lauren Adams) and they begin their romance. Predictably, his estranged wife returns, and he must chose between the two, although the decision is basically made for him. What really made this movie for girls was the fact that Vaughn spent a good amount of it with his shirt off, dancing, or in the shower. Although some males may find redeeming value in the sex scenes, or even the car crash, this movie was certainly made with women in mind. Guys should certainly skip this and instead watch The Siege or some other purposeless action movie, however more sensitive males may appreciate the film’s acting, scripting and filmimg as it is all excellent.
At first glance, one might wonder why I even watched this movie, much less am reviewing it. One year after the South Park phenomenon, I wonder how South Park’s creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker actually got the money to make a full length feature film, however, they did, and the product was Orgazmo. After the success of Striptease, Showgirls, and of course Boogie Nights, one would think the porn industry is covered, although I guess there was room for one more. Trey Parker stars as a Mormon Missionary who is sent to L.A. for his mission. Concerned with how he would finance his young fiancé’s desire to be wed in the chapel, he is thrilled when he is offered a movie role. Unfortunately, it is an action, adventure porno, a medium of which the holy father would certainly not approve. My original prediction was that this movie would start out funny, and end up stupid. Well, it started stupid, and ended stupid, but it did mock on Mormons, very accurately, and so I didn’t feel like I had wasted an hour and a half when it was done. While this movie was all about stupid humor, at least they did it right.