Video Reviews
*** WARNING *** THIS PAGE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
An Interesting Look at of Sports most amazing Athletes
Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius begins early in the life of one of golf’s greatest performers. Bobby Jones Jr. was a frail young man who had a disease that made him much more fragile than other young boys. Therefore, he was not allowed to do things like play baseball with his friends. Instead, he was stuck inside the house reading nearly anything he could get his hands on. However, there was one thing that was worth the chance of getting caught and the punishment he would surely get, watching people play golf.
Luckily for him, the local golf course was located next door to his home and he could run off into the woods and end up in the trees next to a hole. He would watch the local players for hours from the brush and imitate their actions. He became very good at this and it was a nice little bit of play for him.
As he grew, he got better and better, even winning a local amateur event and getting to go away to play in a bigger tournament. There, people noticed a few things. One, he had more potential than any child they had ever seen, and he had a amazing temper, which he had learned from watching everyone play on the course near his house. However, this wasn’t as well respected when he started playing major events.
He got better and better, but remained an amateur throughout. He met a girl and made a friend who was also a rival. Things continued up and down for Bobby Jones as he became know as one of the best golfers of all time, while he was still young. However, he had childhood illnesses that started coming back and a wife that missed him. So after winning all of the majors in a year, he did what he promised her, he retired. He then build a golf course in his home town of Augusta, called Augusta National.
This was a very good film. It really showed you not only the golf aspects of the great golfer, but showed you what type of man he was and where he came from. It really hits on all gears throughout the movie. It was very interesting and a must see for any true golf fan. I give Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius an 8.
Why couldn’t the sharks have eaten the film?
You know, looking back, I couldn’t tell you why I ended up watching this cheesy piece of celluloid. My only excuse is that I had been watching CBS for nearly four days nonstop as I watched every single game that has come on so far during this year’s NCAA tournament. This commercial was on about every other break, so I probably saw it fifty times over a four day period. So, from the previews all that I could really find out was that there are a group of friends at a party beach somewhere when large amounts of sharks begin to attack. From the looks of it, there are possibly up to nine sharks, which by the size of the fins could only be Great White, Tiger, or Bull sharks, if they stick with real creatures.
Danielle(Shannon Lucio) is a young girl who is trying to break away a bit from her parents. She is in probably her first year of local college and is still living at home with the folks, unlike her friends who have gotten out on their own. She is taking some basic courses at the time, but her father wants her to work for a specific law firm. She has not decided on this yet, and has begun to enjoy the anthropology classes that she has been taking. She hears from some of her friends who tell her that they are going to have a beach house to themselves and that she should come and join them. She brings this up at dinner and her father flatly refuses to let her go. So, she does what any crazy college girl would do. She sneaks out and goes down to the beach. She decides that she deserves to get away for a few days and it is time for her to take a stand.
So, she shows up at the beach and surprises her two girl friends. She tells them that she snuck out and they are happy for her. They tell her that she is very pale and to follow them to the beach. She walks along with them for a while, as one of them tells her that there is every type of guy there and she should take the chance to experiment a bit. After they walk for a bit, she tells the girls that she needs to go catch up with her brother while she is in town and takes off. She misses him, but ends up talking to a young man who is working on a boat named Shane(Riley Smith). He tells her that her brother is out in a boat at the time, but will let him know that she stopped by. She also mentions that she will be at a party later that night.
She goes back to the beach and hangs out with her friends some more. They end up going swimming for a bit after they meet up with one of the girl’s boyfriend. He is pretty pissed, because he and a friend had been doing their own version of Girls Gone Wild at the beach with a video camera and it will be more difficult to do this and hit on other girls with his girlfriend around. The other guy seems into it, though, when he sees Danielle. He tells them about the party that night and that he can get them all VIP tickets to it. So, she shows up that night and hangs out for a bit before seeing Shane again. The two talk, but the guy that was digging her at the beach, keeps showing up and trying to get between the two. So, eventually they part ways and she goes home.
However, during the party, we see that the boy with the camera flirts with a girl literally behind his girlfriend’s back and before long they are out in the water swimming around. They flirt for a bit until she is pulled under water. After a few moments he is pulled under as well.
Meanwhile, the woman that owns the store where Shane works has been getting a bit of odd business from a man who works at a shop at a beach not too far away that doesn’t get very much in the way of tourism. He has been renting the boat for cash early in the morning and refusing to allow either of the people at the shop to come with him. After one such event, we see him washing blood out of the boat.
Back to the girls. They meet up with the two boys again at the beach and the boy that is hitting on Danielle tells them that there is another party that night and that they are invited. They decide to throw a pre-party cocktail and invite a couple of people. Before they know it, they are the party, with people showing up with kegs and their own beer. Quickly the place it packed and the music is blaring. This is a bit much for Danielle, who decides to go get a soda at a nearby restaurant. When she arrives, she finds out that Shane works there as well to pick up some tip money. He is trying to go to college as well, for engineering. They start talking, but before long, the guy from the beach shows up and starts hitting on her again. He buys them a couple of cokes, but Shane refuses to charge them, so the boy throws a ten in the tip jar to show that he has money. While Danielle and Shane talk, the boy takes on of the cups and sprinkles some powder in it. He gives the cup to Danielle and they walk out.
The next thing we see are Danielle and the boy dancing. She tells him that she is not feeling good, so he gets ready to take her up to bed. However, as she swoons a bit, she knocks over someone’s drink and tells him that they should clean it up. He goes to get a napkin, but while he’s gone, she starts walking off towards the beach. Once there, she finds Shane hanging out with some friends as she stumbles around. She comes to him and tells him that she is falling for him before lunging forward and kissing him. He only allows the kiss for a moment, thinking her drunk and picks her up. He carries her back to the party where the other boy sees her, as does one of the friends.
Shane and the friend help Danielle up the stairs to the bedroom. He lays her on the bed, while the friend goes to get a wet cloth. The friend brings it back and they both leave. Seeing them depart, the boy sneaks up the stairs and begins talking to the unconscious Danielle. He then starts to kiss her and begins to start undressing her when Shane appears back up the stairs with a glass of water. At this, the boy states that he was merely checking up on her and takes off. Later in the night, after everyone has gone home, Danielle calls her parents while she is barely conscious. Her father picks up and she tells him where she is in a whimper. He tells her that he is coming to pick her up and she slips back into unconsciousness and the phone disconnects.
The next morning, the boy goes to see Shane at the shop and begins to try to pay him off for not saying anything about him trying to take advantage of the unconscious Danielle, but he quickly realizes that Shane did not see anything and segues into renting one of their boats for the day. He eventually is able to get a boat since a fraternity called to cancel, but only if Shane accompanies them. Shane eventually agrees because he needs the money and the guy goes back to tell the girls.
Meanwhile, Danielle comes back down stairs and the other girls mentions that she was a party animal. However, she states that she didn’t even drink. The girls immediately believe that someone had slipped her some roofies, but she doesn’t know when it could have been. So, a bit wary, they depart on the boating trip.
Shane gets them out into open water, where Danielle is having allot of introspection when the boy tries to talk her into coming into the water with him. She says that she doesn’t want to, but when she tries to help him back in the boat, he pulls her in. Then, the other two girls jump in as well and they swim around for a few minutes until Shane notices something in the water. He quickly realizes that it is a bunch of blood and yells at them to get in the boat. Everyone makes it back quickly except for Danielle, who was the furthest away. She makes a run for it, but it is too late, there are about a dozen large sharks in the area that make a run for her. Shane realizes that she is too late and tells her not to make a move. He throws her a life saver and tells her to hold onto it, but not to move at all. Eventually, the sharks become bored with the nonmoving girl and begin to swim away. Shane then tells her to make a run for it and she swims toward the boat as quickly as she can. She is able to get in right as the shark gets to her, but is unharmed.
So, the sharks begin ramming the boat and it springs a couple of leaks. Shane cannot get the engine to start, so he has Danielle flip a switch and the other boy to tape some wires and he finally gets the thing started and they outrun the sharks. However, they are taking on too much water and they can’t make it back, so they stop at an island on the way for the night. Danielle takes the chance with some peace and quiet to talk to the boy about the night before after she finds some unmarked pills on the boat. He doesn’t say much, so she goes to talk with Shane. Shane figures out that the guy had spiked her drink and goes after him. He gets in a few good punches before the girls pull him off and he tells them what had happened. The boy tries to turn the tables on him saying that they bought the drinks from Shane, so he was the one who did it. Shane replies that he sold the drinks to him, so he had them. The boy comes back that he still could have put in the drugs, but Shane concludes by telling him that there would have been no way to know which one would get which drink. The boy realizes that he is stuck and walks off as the girls all cut him looks.
One of the girls takes a walk down the beach and finds her boyfriend, or what’s left of him washed up on the beach. She screams and they all come running. About this time, Shane has figured out that they were not leaking from the sharks, but from a well that had been left open. This is what released the blood or chum and it was filling the boat with water. However, since they landed the boat high enough, it had drained out and they could go back to shore. When they arrive, Danielle takes off to find her brother who had warned her earlier about the sharks and the two girls go to the police station.
The brother had recently discovered seven large sea turtles weighing up to fifty pounds, which he handles like they are 10 pounds and look fairly fake. He realizes that they were attacked by sharks, which he believes were brought in when they placed a man made reef near the beach to attract fish. The sharks therefore, came to feed on the fish and found something much more filling.
Danielle finds her brother and tells him about the sharks that attacked her. He tells her that he has a system he had been working on to fend off sharks and they start walking towards the beach. Meanwhile the girl who lost her boyfriend is told to go home by her friend while she stays to report the body. However, she doesn’t get very far as about one hundred people are running up the rocky point to see about fifty shark fins coming in towards the partying kids.
Shane has an idea and brings Danielle and her brother along in her brother’s boat. They load up on chum and blood and put it in a cage. They quickly head over to where they saw the sharks, only to find a couple score kids already dead. They drop the cage in the water and begin to slowly move out from the kids. The sharks smell the fish and for some reason decide to follow it instead of getting the easy meal they had already found.
Other kids are limping to shore with various wounds as the boat gets farther and farther out. Then the cage, which was floating, is pulled under water and the line that is holding it begins to quickly unwind. It gets to the end and begins to pull to boat backwards. Finally, the metal frame that it is attached to begins to come loose as bolts shoot up into the sky. Finally, the frame tears away, bringing both motors with it. They are sitting ducks and the sharks begin to come in to bump the boat. They quickly decide to use Danielle’s brother’s idea to repel the sharks. They drop buoys and metal containers into the water, but quickly find out that one of them has a short. So, in the meantime, the boy that had been hitting on Danielle and gave her the roofies is being digested by a shark from their earlier raid, Shane is shot by a spear gun spear, and Danielle decides to put on a wetsuit and go down to fix the short.
She has no experience in this kind of thing and is scared to death of the sharks. Somehow, she is able to make it down without being eaten and fixes the short without shocking anything or shorting the whole system with the water. They pull her back up as the sharks swim away. Moments later, the coast guard arrives to take them in.
Once back on shore, the woman who owns the boat realizes from what Shane has told her about the boat that the mysterious man was chumming near the beaches to try to bring in some sharks to scare off the kids so they would come to the beach that he was on. It appears that they will be arresting him. Danielle and Shane become closer and there appear to be sparks between the two as the credit roll.
Man, this movie was a bunch of crap. The dialogue was horrible and the acting wasn’t much better. The turtles they used for the one scene were obviously fake, but the sharks look pretty good, besides the scenes of the huge number of fins, where some of the fins didn’t even seem to touch the water. The only thing that was good about this movie was that it introduced me to Shannon Lucio. She was pretty cute. She had long strawberry blonde hair and was pretty pale, as they joke on in the movie. She definitely has the cutie girl next door thing going on with the red hair and green eyes. Surprisingly she has only been in a few other things, so I’m hoping to see a bit more of her soon.
That was about the only part of the film that wasn’t horrible, though. So, unless you are just really bored or desperate to see a bad B movie about sharks, don’t bother. I give this monstrosity called Spring Break Shark Attack a 3.
Shaun at least Catatonic
Shaun of the Dead was one of the movies that I was looking to the most this year. I saw the preview for the first time at the comic shop where I get my books. The manager had seen it and when I walked in, he was geekin’ out about it and when I saw the trailer, I was doing the same. Shaun of the Dead is a comedy/horror with a British guy beating up zombies with a cricket bat and crappy old records. What’s not to love about this idea?
Well, I was soon to find out that much was not to love. The opening is ok, with Shaun(Simon Pegg) at the local pub with his friend, girl-friend, and two of her friends. However, it quickly gets bogged down with the story focusing on his rocky relationship and his lazy best friend. However, we finally get a little motion going when zombies start walking down the street.
This started off well, with the two men taunting a young female zombie and then when they throw records at her and another zombie. However, after this things begin to go downhill. Shaun decides that he must go “rescue” his mother. They drive over there to find out that her husband has been bitten and regardless they take both of them and begin to drive to his girl-friend’s house. Once there, he talks her and the two friends into coming with him, even though they are in a second floor apartment and are very safe at the moment. Instead they make a mad dash for the car.
Soon, they have to ditch that as well and end up walking between yards and jumping over fences to get to Shaun’s idea of the perfect safe haven, the pub. Shaun then leads the zombies away as the others sneak into the bar. He is back in a matter of moments, but to their chagrin, the zombies followed him back. What ensues is more like a horror movie that pretty much any part of the film. They start shooting at them, he finds out that his mother was bitten; they light the bar on fire.
Shaun of the Dead was a very disappointing film. The best parts were in the previews and I could never really get into the flow of the film. It definitely had its moments, but it couldn’t pull them all together to make better than an average film. This was a big let down after how good the trailer was. I give Shaun of the Dead a 6.
Napoleon is merely a sparkler
This was a film that looked as if it would be very odd; however, I tend to enjoy odd movies, so I figured that it would be right up my alley. I didn’t notice any of the actors so it lived up to its indy look.
The previews for this were a bit hit and miss. It looked like the movie could be really funny, but it could also get really old quickly.
Napoleon Dynamite is the story of the titular character. He is a young man in high school who is a bit of an outsider. He wears funny clothes, does silly stuff, and is constantly picked on a beaten up.
His brother is just as strange, as is his uncle and they all end up under the same roof from time to time. He has also made friends with a Hispanic boy with tough family and a “sweet” bike. If this weren’t crazy enough, their family has a pet llama and Napoleon falls for a girl that breaks down on his doorstep after offering him discounts on glamour shots and bracelets.
All of this craziness is good and all; however, there is no real plot to tie it to. The relationship between Deb(Tina Majorino), and Napoleon(Jon Hedar) was good and I would have liked to see more of it.
Overall, Napoleon Dynamite wasn’t a bad movie, just very strange and I didn’t go for some of the gags. I was surprised that it wasn’t a bit better, but alas, I give Napoleon Dynamite a 6.
Open Water a bit Turbulent
I didn’t know a whole lot going into this film. Most of what I know came either from the title and poster or from one night at the theater. The title and poster lead you to believe that the film will be about a couple who go deep sea diving and are left in the “open water” where they encounter sharks. Now, my information from the ticket booth operator was more forthcoming. She stated that the movie was really bad, really, really, bad and that I should not ever see it. So, my choice that night was to stay and talk to her or watch the movie. Well, let’s just say that this is my first time seeing the film, and it is on DVD.
Open Water starts out with the hand camera shot of a man and a woman. We soon find in this low budget shot that the two are a couple who are taking a much needed vacation. However, the woman is having difficulties breaking from her job long enough to actually get going. Eventually they are packed up and headed to the airport where they board and airline heading to some sunny locale. Once there, they have a nude night in bed, thrown in who knows why before they set out on their scuba trip.
The two take a diving ship out into the ocean where they jump in and begin looking around. Meanwhile, a very aggressive man is upset when he cannot find his mask and therefore cannot dive. One of the boat workers counts the 20 passengers before the dive and off they go. Eventually, one pair resurfaces after the woman cannot get her ears to pop and cannot go down. The angry man asks to borrow her mask and after a little coaxing talks her partner to go back down with him. This messes up their tally, as the angry man was originally counted as on board and then the couple were counted as surfaced, so after the new pair go into the water there is only one passenger on board, but three are tallied.
Eventually, the rest of the people surface and having tallied back to 20, they prepare to leave. A short while after, our original group surface, but there is no boat anywhere in their vicinity. They try to wave for two boats in the distance, but are not seen. At this point they begin to float with the current.
A couple of hours into their float, with no boat coming, they begin to see signs of what appeared to be a midsized bull shark. It swims around for a while, but eventually goes away. A while later, it comes back and after circling takes a bite out of the man’s leg. It is not a deadly bite on its own, but it hurts badly and puts the man in shock. He is now a blood beacon for sharks for miles around. There is no more activity until the man passes out. At this point the woman stays with him for a while, but eventually lets him go. His body bobs in the waves until it begins to be attacked by many sharks. At this point she begins to try to swim away. As the camera dips slightly below the water we see scores of sharks in a feeding frenzy. She is right in the middle of it. However, she eventually seems to get out of the area and removes her diving gear. She then slips silently below the waves and is gone.
This film was very basic and there was an extremely limited amount of plot in the 80 minute film. The performances weren’t bad, but they really didn’t have to do much. The shark footage that they melded with the film footage looked really good, but they did very little with it. Besides the lack of any plot, the thing that upset me the most was the end. The girl just slips below the water. She just took off her gear, and then she’s gone. There is no splashing, no thrashing, no fin, nothing.
There are very slim pickings when trying to comment on this film, so I will leave it at this. If you want to see this subject covered well, there was a Dateline or 20/20 on a month or so ago that was really good. But only see this one if you really love the ocean or sharks, maybe. Anyway, there was not enough for me to call this a really bad film, and I did like the tension, so I give Open Water a 6.
They are both bad for you and so is this film
Coffee and Cigarettes is a film broken into about seven different segments. Both involved people drinking either coffee or tea and smoking cigarettes, oddly enough.
Out of the several groups that sit down to this setting, only a few were memorable and even those weren’t much so.
On group was Cate Blanchett and her relative. Both were played by Cate, who had a skit about the big time movie star and the downer relative whit a bad disposition.
Another was Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan, where Molina divulged that they were related a bit. He had found this out from a family tree. Coogan believed that Molina was hoping for a handout role, but once Molina took a call from a famous director, the roles reversed.
One had Iggy Pop and Tom Waites sitting down and talking about music and whatnot for a short time.
One had Steve Buscemi as a hick waiter, talking to a set of twins, male and female, which acted and dressed the same.
The final one was Bill Murray, undercover at a breakfast restaurant who had a conversation who two members of the Wu Tang Clan about how coffee is bad for you and what you can do to clean yourself out from the two bad habits.
This was just a bad film. The stories had no point and the only thing that tied them together was title items. The skits were too short to have much meaning and none of them really stuck out.
I could have definitely done without this one; it was a pretty complete waste of time. I give Coffee and Cigarettes a 3.
De-Lovely is De-Likable, but not De-Lovable
De-Lovely is the story of the life of Cole Porter(Kevin Kline). Porter was one of the top song writers of his time. However, he spent many years hiding from his talent over seas. He spent ten years in Paris goofing off and having fun. However, in Paris he met the love of his life, Linda(Ashley Judd), sort of. At a dull party, Cole and a friend liven things up a bit with an upbeat improvisational song that gets everyone going. The main person that he revs up is Linda. She is a divorce who is immediately smitten by Cole and his songs.
Quickly in their relationship Cole tries to disclose his plural sexual nature and she cuts him off and lets him know that she is well aware of his nighttime activities. They make a sort of pact that as long as he loves her, does not let his other activities affect his music, and keeps his affairs public, then nothing will change between them.
After a while, the couple decides to leave Paris for Venice and spend the days and nights having fun. Eventually, though, she begins to tire of the way that he is living is life and not taking advantage of his talent, so she talks him into moving to New York. While in Venice, Porter was visited by Irving Berlin, who sets up Porter for a writing job as soon as he arrives in the Big Apple. Porter becomes an instant hit and things continue to go up and down for the couple. Eventually, Linda becomes upset with Cole again and takes the opportunity to get him to move to Los Angeles.
In L.A., Cole begins working for MGM, writing the songs for musicals. Again, he is a hit and things seem good. That is until Linda finds that Cole is becoming more and more open about his nightlife and she finds L.A. too easy for him to indulge, so she leaves him for a while. Meanwhile, a best friend’s child dies of tuberculosis, Linda has come down with a lung condition, and Cole is nearly paralyzed from the waist down after an accident while riding a horse.
De-Lovely was a very interesting movie to watch for the structure of it, but was not over all a great film. The movie goes back and forth from an older Cole with a director, to his actual life. It almost seems like a life flashing before your eyes kind of thing. I really enjoyed this kind of storytelling. However, I didn’t not like the songs all that much. They didn’t usually have too great of a tune and they were difficult to understand. By this I mean that you couldn’t make out most of the words.
The acting was good by Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, but the quality of the film made their performances a little less. This was a movie that had allot of hope and possibility. However, it couldn’t seem to reach its own hopes. Therefore, I give De-Lovely a 7.
This door needed some W-D40
The Door in the Floor was an odd film that brought together Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger as a separated family with an uninteresting addition to the family unit, who becomes much more interesting by the ending.
Eddie(Jon Foster) is a young man, fresh out of high school who wants to do an internship before he starts at college. His father knows a writer of children’s books, who lives out near the water, who he eventually sets up as a mentor for his son. The man, Ted Cole(Jeff Bridges) is a strange man who started in a completely different genre before beginning to write children’s stories. He has a young daughter, Ruth(Elle Fanning), who is still very inquisitive, a wife, Marion(Kim Basinger), who doesn’t care to be around him, and two sons who died in an accident months before.
Eddie arrives at the house, after getting a ride from the airport by Marion and quickly finds out that the couple had separated and that he would be working at the main house, but staying at a house further in town. The couple swapped days at the home and the town house and so he would be back and forth. He quickly began running silly little errands for Cole, such as buying squid ink for his drawings. Eventually, though, things begin to heat up.
One night when nobody is in the town house, Eddie decides to get a little self gratification while looking at Marion’s fluffy pink blouse. During this act, Marion walks in and catches him in the act. While both are a bit shocked and embarrassed, eventually Marion comes back in the room to talk to the boy. She admits that it feels good to know that somebody thinks about her in that way and at the same time lets him know that she wonders if her two boys had a chance to have sex before they died. She then asks this of Eddie, who has not. Eventually, they end up in bed together and she begins to teach him some things. This goes on for days, until they are caught in the beach house by her daughter, who believes that Eddie is trying to hurt her due to the position that they are caught in.
After this, Cole begins to become angrier and angrier with Eddie and they eventually get into a brief tussle. After this it is not too long before it is time for Eddie to go. Not before Cole gets into a fight with a wealthy neighbor, though, who he has been drawing nude for the past few weeks.
Door in the Floor was named after the children’s book that Cole wrote. However this is the only thing in the film made for children. Between the family fighting, loss of loved ones, affairs with minors, nude painting, and psychotic children, this film is not for the feint of heart.
The performances were fairly good by the elder cast members; however, Jon Forster was not up to the task in this film where they needed someone of a bit more experience to really pull off the role. This was a role that could have spring boarded him into Hollywood such as Patrick Fugit in Almost Famous, but Forster was not ready and probably won’t be for a good while.
The plot was not bad, but a bit too over the top and far fetched for me. For some reason it was difficult identifying and enjoying these characters when it really should not have been. I’m not sure exactly what it was; however, I believe it was that the mixture of all of the bad aspects of the movie really spiraled it out of control. The poor acting by the boy, the too over the top performance by Bridges, the emotional detachment of Marion.
All in all, this was not a bad film, but not a very good one either; therefore since I did enjoy parts of it I will not give it the middle of the road five, but rather a slightly better 6.
Is this the best show on television? It very well could be.
The first season of 24 may very well have been the best singe years of a television show that I have ever seen. It was quick, explosive, and well acted. It was the epitome of all that I wanted in a television show. The one, some would say, drawback to this show is the extreme level of addiction that you get very early on in the show. I would sit down and promise myself that I would only watch two episodes, then it was 4 episodes, 6, 8… it was very hard to stop. It got so bad that one night I was going to a town about an hour away for work and got into an accident. I did not get back home until about 4-5 the next morning and before long, there I was watching an entire disc of the show.
The second season was good as well. It was not nearly to the level of the first season, but it didn’t have to be. Season One was that rarified, best ever level of great, whereas season two was merely great. They tried to really bump up Elisha Cuthbert as a star, which I like, but it just didn’t reach the same level of greatness that season one did.
Season Three began a year or so after season two. David Palmer is still the President of the United States of America and has a large scar on his hand from his poisoning at the very end of season two. He is coming to Los Angeles for the first time since the incident to debate the other party’s main challenger. Meanwhile, Jack Bauer(Kiefer Sutherland) and his partner Chase(James Badge Dale) are trying to get a drug smuggler, Ramon Salazar(Joaquim de Almeida) to accept conditions to give up information, but instead he stabs his lawyer in the throat. They know that this is no coincidence and he chose that day specifically. So, they begin to find out why. Eventually they find out that a boy had brought drugs over from Mexico that were actually a virus that would kill millions, so they begin to track him down.
During this situation, Kim Bauer(Elisha Cuthbert) is tied up by Gael Ortega(Jesse Borrego) and things go crazy. They find out that it was Gael and bring him in for interrogation. Meanwhile, Tony(Carlos Bernard) is in the hospital after being shot while trying to get they young boy to come in to get tested. However, when he finds out what is going on, he immediately leaves the hospital and goes back to CTU. Once there, he tells everyone that Gael was actually working for him.
Meanwhile, Jack knocks out Chase and ties him up in a cell, while he helps Ramon to escape the prison. They do get in a bit of a fix when the prisoners, who Jack let escape their cells as interference, take them prisoner and force them to play Russian roulette against each other. Chase then leads a team of prison guards in to diffuse the situation and get Ramon and Jack under custody, but when he comes in, they disappear. Jack later leaves the prison with Ramon in a helicopter after threatening to kill Ramon.
They eventually make it to the city, set down, and drive away to an airport where Ramon’s brother Hector(Vincent Laresca) has a plane waiting for them. Jack is taken prisoner by the Salazars and brought down to Mexico with them.
Back at CTU, Tony is explaining that he, Jack, and Gael were the only three people that knew about the plan they were working on. It was a way to get a biological weapon off of the black market. At this point, they have to give the basics of the plan to the President, who is very unhappy about the whole situation.
So, back in Mexico, Jack is spared his life by Hector, who is actually teaming with Jack to buy the weapon so that they will become even more powerful. However, things begin to go back. Ramon wants Jack dead and Jack is having troubles kicking his heroine addiction, which he started when he originally went undercover with the Salazar family.
Jack eventually sets up a meeting between the seller and the Salazars, but not before Chase arrives. He took a jet from a Salazar accountant living in the L.A. area who reluctantly helps him find out where they may be located. He flies it in, but once he lands, he is captured by Salazar’s men and brought to them. Here Jack is forced to make the choice of shooting his partner in the head, or blowing his cover. He chooses to shoot, only to find out that it wasn’t even loaded. They take Chase to a storage shed and begin to torture him.
Meanwhile, the young boy with the virus has been abducted, along with his girlfriend at the mall where Tony was shot, by the shooter and a few others. They are taken to an old industrial building where a containment unit has been set up. There the two youngsters wait. That is until the boy gets one of his best ideas ever. He decides to hang himself. He hasn’t yet become contagious, but before long he will. This would infect his girlfriend and anyone else that the group would let them near.
However, his girlfriend will not allow this and pulls him down. This is a good thing for him too, as not too long later, CTU pieces the puzzle together and comes in guns blazing. They quickly get him into containment, run tests, and let his parents say goodbye. However, this ends up all a bit premature, as they find out that the boy is not infected by the virus.
Back in Mexico, Jack brings the Salazar’s to meet the seller only to find out that there is another player. This person is represented at the meeting by Nina Myers(Sarah Clarke), Jacks former girlfriend, co-worker, and then traitor and murderer of his wife. She is spooked when she sees that Jack is there, and only remains because she knows that her boss would have her killed if she left. However, she knows that no matter what he says, Jack will never turn and that the whole sell is a set up.
However, they do continue and instead of a straight buy, they have a blind auction. Nina ends up victorious by 10 million dollars, but the Salazar’s do not give up that easily. After Jack gets a fix on her location, they come in and shoot up her entourage. They then force her to continue with the transaction for her life. At the same time, Hector has refused to continue with the transaction after loosing his wife while she tried to escape with Chase and he is shot in the back by his brother Ramon. Nina goes along and the seller gives her a sample to test, which comes back positive for the virus and then after checking the transfer gives it to her. However, after this, the CTU agents arrive and begin killing and capturing people. However, Nina and Ramon are still on the loose. They finally catch up to Ramon, who has the virus, but the vial explodes and they realize that it was a dummy vial and that they had all been set up.
Nina is a bit more difficult. She captures Chase, but luckily Jack is in the area and takes her down. However, she knows a bit more about what’s going on than she is letting on and they put her on a plane. She tells them a way to contact the man that the seller is connected to, but instead, the instructions start an intricate mole virus that she had built into the CTU system when she was there which will reveal the true identity and location of all of their undercover operatives.
So, she wants them to bring her back to Mexico and let her go to stop the virus. To her amazement, though, after she slows it down, Jacks secretary/assistant Chloe(Mary Lynn Rajskub) is able to shut it down and get their computers back to running normal. So, they are able to get the plane back to Los Angeles where they bring Nina to CTU. Once there, they begin to interrogate her and after they bring in Johnson, a bit of a technologically advanced torture expert, she leans on a needle in order to bust a vein and pretend that she is near death. When they bring the medical staff in, she murders them and runs. However, Kim Bauer runs into her and pulls a gun. She wants to kill her more than anything since Nina killed her mother, but as Nina raiser her weapon to kill Kim, Jack arrives and shoots her dead.
So, they are very nearly back to square one until the man who has the virus begins calling President Palmer and getting him to do little things for him in order to show his dominance and to build up to bigger things. They also find out that the first place to be hit by the virus is a hotel. A group from CTU race to the hotel in an attempt to deactivate the device before the virus is set loose in the air. However, Gael shows up a few seconds too late and while he is trying to deactivate it, the virus blows up into his face. At this point, they actually catch the guy set up and begin interrogating him. At the same time, they lock down the building and make sure that nobody escapes.
After getting the information from the man at the hotel, Jack and Chase bring a team to a large office building and surround it.
Back at the hotel, people begin to feel the effects and begin bleeding profusely from the nose and mouth. They begin to die. Eventually, the word is given that those who test positive can choose to receive a cyanide capsule to end their lives.
Michelle Dessler(Reiko Aylesworth) was one of the CTU agents who was in the hotel when the virus was released, but somehow, she was one of the approximately 5% of people who are immune to it, the other 95% have a 100% change of dying from the virus. So, as she is leaving, she is abducted by a group sent by the man who arranged the virus situation, Stephen Saunders(Paul Blackthorne).
Therefore, as he is surrounded in his building, he calls Tony and sends him video of what his group is doing to her. He cannot stand her to be tortured, so he gives the men in a certain area of the building the order to move away so that Saunders can leave. When CTU finally goes in, they find the place empty and are furious, because they know that they finally had him.
Also, during this time, they find out that Saunder has a daughter, Jane(Alexandra Lydon) who they abduct and replace with Kim. They put her under surveillance as they try to get information out of Jane, but she knows very little about her father, she only has an emergency number for him. Kim, in disguise goes to shelve a book, and when the camera pans back to her she is gone. She is taken out front by the guy who attempts to kill her, but luckily for her she remembered some of that self defense training and takes the gun from the man and shoots him with it.
Things are getting pretty tight now, CTU has Jane and Saunders has Michelle. Jack is trying to figure something out and Tony is going crazy. Tony then receives a call from Saunders who tells him to meet him with Jane for a swap for Michelle. He grabs Jane and heads to the meeting spot. However, Jack finds out and cuts him off in advance. He then receives a call from Michelle, who faked having the virus to distract the guard and get away. She is waiting outside of the building where she was being held to be picked up, but Jack tells her that she must give herself up to them for the trade so that they can get access to Saunders. So, Jack jumps in the back of Tony’s SUV and Chase brings a team to the meeting spot. Once there, they begin the transfer, Michelle for Jane and they are almost all of the way there, when Jane changes her mind and runs back to Jack. It ends up that he had convinced her that what they were saying about her father was correct.
So, the CTU guys jump out, shoot all of Saunders’ men and take him. Jack states that he will send Jane into the hotel with the virus and when two men begin to drag her in, Saunders finally decides to give up the information on the other men that he had sent out to various cities in order to release the virus. He gives them the GPS tracking numbers for devices that he placed on the virus carriers and CTU divisions throughout the country begin to move in. Soon they have the first guy, take him down and recover the virus intact. They then have the second, third, forth, and before long they have 11 of the 12 devices contained. The twelfth device is in Los Angeles and they track it to the subway. CTU shuts it down and they begin following people off of the train. They eventually track the guy down and take him. However, they quickly find out that the guy was a decoy. This person was more slippery than the others. He had found the GPS tracking device and had separated it from the rest of the machine. He then put it in a cigarette pack, wrapped it in a jacket and placed it in the shopping bag of one of his fellow passengers on the subway. Next, the man pulls out a knife and fights to the exit. Jack quickly puts the pieces together and he and Chase take off after the man.
They eventually chase him into a school, where he disappears. Eventually, Chase traps him in a biology lab, where he handcuffs himself to the device while he fights with the terrorist for it. Eventually Jack comes in a puts away the terrorist, but cannot get the device off of Chase. They both agree at what they have to do next. Jack goes and gets the emergency axe and chops off his hand to remove it. He then takes it, runs out of the room, into a break room that he had located before and places the device in the refrigerator, which will contain the virus with its air tight seal. The virus is contained and Bauer can now deal with all of the craziness that happened during the day.
Other than the virus, President Palmer had a rough day. A high powered man with senators in his pocket, who had highly supported him in the past claims that he will remove his support of major bills and push the other way unless David fires his brother. He does this after he finds out that David’s brother had an affair with his wife. David refuses to fire him for this and instead calls in his ex-wife Sherrie to participate in this dog fight. She goes to a man who lost his brother after the man hit her and drove off. She was going to use this against him, but after making a cell phone call, she goes into his trailer and he is gone. All that remains is a bloody handprint. At that point, she goes to the powerful man’s house to speak with his wife. She takes his phone to get the numbers of anyone he may have called that night and eventually wakes up and find the two in the kitchen. At that point, Sherrie lays into him verbally and he has a heart attack. His pills are only feet away, but Sherrie keeps his wife from giving him any or trying to help him. The wife wants out of the relationship desperately, but has become accustomed to the lifestyle, so this is the way to get both.
After this, Sherrie goes back to David and they find out what she did. He is then forced to personally lie to the chief of police that Sherrie was with him all night so that she does not go public with what happened and claim that it was done on behalf of the President. The only evidence that she has that she was actually there was the pill bottle that the man reached for. So, the brother and an investigator of sorts trick Sherrie out of her house to meet David. Once there, she tries to talk him into letting her have a major title on his staff and to be his wife again. He starts to agree and she knows that things are going too easily and takes off. Back at her house, they are tearing the place apart, and finally get somewhere when they find a chamber under her mini stairs. They find a safe and after making some calls get the master combinations to the model of safe. However, the pill bottle is not there. By this time, Sherrie has returned and confronts the two. At this point, the “investigator” knocks her out and checks her body. He finds the pill bottle taped to her back. Things haven’t concluded, though, the wife arrives and kills Sherrie before turning the gun on herself. Thus the day is very tough on David Palmer as well.
24: Season 3 was very good from beginning to end. However, it did not come near the greatness of Seasons 1 or 2. There were many very good parts in it; the hotel, the prison break, the daughter, the exchange, and many others. The thing that really held this season back was the tension. The beginning did not have as many big scenes, but the tension was better. Towards the end the tension was off and on.
The performance by Kiefer Sutherland was great again. He really holds this series together. Elisha Cuthbert did a little bit more, but I probably liked her better in the first season. I could go with her working at CTU, but what she was doing was so high end, that it was hard to believe that she could do it without more training. The David Palmer section of the show was pretty bad. They should have come up with something better or introduced some new characters. It was fun to see the character of Nina Myers back and she was one of the people that I was sad to see go. The character of Tony was good again as well. The supporting cast at CTU was good, but not as good as it was the previous two years. I did like Gael, but he died about halfway through.
I still think that 24 is one of the best series, if not the best on television. It has a couple of issues that it needs to fix if it is going to remain at its high level, but overall it was a very good season. I give 24: Season 3 a 9.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
Harold and Kumar were much funnier than I expected
This was a film that I expected to be on the bottom ten list that I create each year. The previews looked very stupid and they chose two guys that I only remembered doing stupid bit parts in cheesy comedies. Therefore, there was very little to look forward to in this film. However, I did begin hearing some good things from a few friends. It was nothing specific, but enough for me to at least check it out. So, I would give it a shot, but would I regret it?
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle began with Harold(John Cho) who worked in a big office environment where he thrived. However, things would not go well for him. After one of his bosses is told about a good time over the weekend, he passes along his work to Harold so that he can go. Harold is pissed, but there is not much that he can do about it.
Kumar(Kal Penn) is in an interview for medical school where he impresses the pants off of a doctor, until his cell phone rings. It is Harold talking about his bad day and he tells the doctor to hold on. He then goes on to cuss Harold and talk about getting high when they get home. The doctor about blows a gasket and tells him that there is no way that he could help him after hearing the conversation.
So, Harold and Kumar arrive at their apartment, where Harold ogles his neighbor Maria(Paula Garces). They smoke some pot and then get hungry. After thinking about it for a while they decide that they want to go get some White Castle. So, they stop by their other neighbor’s place, also pot smokers, and ask if they would like to join them. The two decline, stating that they are watching The Gift and waiting to see Katie Holmes naked.
So, Harold and Kumar are off by themselves, heading White Castle. They pass the multiplex near where the White Castle is and then to their dismay, it is gone. There is another burger joint in its place. They ask the drive-thru guy about it and he states that they had been there for four years. The two guys are bummed, but then the drive-thru guy tells them where a 24 hour one is before he starts wrecking the place.
So, they are off to another nearby city to get some grub, but decide to stop along the way at a college to buy some more pot, since they were out. There, Harold meets up with a girl that he tries to avoid and Kumar buys the pot. However, when smoking it in the stairwell they nearly get busted and must hide out in the women’s restroom. Once inside, two girls who had invited them up to their rooms after a while came in and had a go at the toilets surrounding them. After a few minutes it was more than they could stand and they took off back into the chase. Eventually they bumped into the guy who sold them the pot and pushed him over. They decided to settle for the guy with the huge bad of pot instead.
So, Harold and Kumar were back on the road, heading to White Castle. After being attacked by a raccoon, they pass none other than Neil Patrick Harris, better known as Dougie Howser, M.D.
They stop at a gas station to make a telephone call, but when they do Doogie steals there car and takes off in it. Harold and Kumar end up stealing the SUV of a group of jerks who always pick on them and drive away. However, they eventually get a cop on their tales and they have to go off road in order to loose him. They are very nearly still caught and they have to hang glide off a cliff to get away.
At the bottom of the cliff and across the road is their destination, White Castle. Once inside they order tons and tons of food only to realize that they don’t have any money. But to their surprise someone is there to help them, Neil Patrick Harris. He apologizes for stealing the care and pays for their meal; he also gives them some money to fix the car, which he has left in a state of disrepair.
After taking off, Harold and Kumar dive into their huge stacks of food and begin to tear it up. After they are done, they both of looks of euphoria on their faces and are very pleased with the end of their night. Then Harold’s boss and the boss’s friend walk in and Harold gets pissed. He tells off his boss, who can only stare, mouth agape at the talking to he gets from Harold.
At this point, Kumar decides that going to medical school wouldn’t be too bad. He figures that he might as well not waste the talent for it that he has and decides that he will actually put forth some effort at his interview that day.
Then Harold finally gets up the nerve to talk to his neighbor Maria and they even kiss, but it will have to be put on hold because she is leaving for Amsterdam for a few weeks. So, after telling Kumar this, he states that they must go to Amsterdam too, leaving the way open for a possible Harold and Kumar sequel.
First off, stay away from sequels, especially when you are this type of movie. This film barely worked. Harold and Kumar go to White Castle did actually have a few pretty funny scenes. However, overall the movie wasn’t all that good. I think it was a bit different though, very rarely will you see a movie with two Asian men as leads and this one did. However, the plot was pretty bad, the acting wasn’t very good and most of the comedy did not work.
With all of these drawbacks, the film was still better than I expected it to be, so that’s something. I would have liked to have seen more of Paula Garces, though, she’s a looker and it could have added a bit more to Harold’s character. Overall, though, my opinion of this film is dropping every 12 hours or so. It started as a 7, then went down to a 6, and now I am giving it a 5.
Diane Kruger makes me fall in love
Wicker Park is a film that I had only heard bad things about. For some reason, I put the film in my mind along side Unfaithful, which most people did like, but I did not at all. I don’t know why I made this connection in my head, I guess it is a very strange place. Anyway, the cast was mostly no names. The only one that stuck out was Joshua Hartnett. So, going in I though that I would be wasting two hours of my life.
Wicker Park begins with Matthew(Josh Hartnett) who is moving up at his job. He is finally getting clients of his own to make presentations to and to bring in to the company. He has diner with one such client along with his girlfriend, soon to be fiancé, and her brother who also happens to be his boss. During this meal, he begins feeling uncomfortable and decides to clear his head. He tries to make a call, but his cell phone does not work, so he tries to use the phone between the bathrooms. Once in there, he hears a voice that he remembers all too well, the voice of his ex-girlfriend who left him.
He runs out of the restroom to see her already halfway through the building. She breaks her pump, but quickly exits the building. While he tries to follow, he is cut off by his girlfriend.
At this point, he must leave that night in order to catch a plane to China where he will meet the clients. He is going across town when he sees a face he has not seen in years, his best friend Luke(Matthew Lillard). Luke is just leaving a store and tells Matthew to stop by his store sometime to say hi.
Back at the restaurant Matt had come across one piece of information with which to track his ex-girlfriend, Lisa(Diane Kruger). It was a hotel key. So, he goes to the hotel and after nobody answers his knock, he enters to find that the room was left in a hurry. He finds a compact that he knew belonged to Lisa and fell asleep on the bed. He had become very tired after taking some pills at the restaurant to help him sleep on the plane.
He wakes up the next morning in the room and quickly leaves. He does find a torn up piece of newspaper, though. It is an article about a man who had just lost his wife. Matthew quickly jets over to Luke’s store, where he begins to tell him about the craziness of what is going on in his life.
We get a few flashbacks that give us much insight into the couple that once was Matthew and Lisa. The pair met in a rather odd way. Matthew first saw her face while working at an electronics and video store. They were fixing her camera and her face was splashed on the televisions. Then, one day he saw her face in person. Then, as she walked past the shop, he ran out and began following her. He followed her to a building and went inside to find out that she was a dancer and this was her practice. Afterwards, he continued his stalking and found out where she lived.
Not long after, he was at Luke’s shoe store, telling him about the girl that he was smitten by when she walked in. She asked to see a pair of shoes and Matthew helped her with a bit of assistance by Luke. She noticed the face of her stalker and when he asked her for coffee she rebuked him. The shoes were not in her size and she left, leaving Matthew dejected until he saw the note she left for him on the shoebox, to meet her for coffee. They hit it off and then he took her home. He went to leave, but quickly pulled back into his space, ran up the steps to her room and they kissed passionately.
Later, he is offered a job, but would have to leave the area and asks her to move in with him. She got a little nervous and said that she would think about it and left the room quickly. That day, she was approached to dance in Europe and she could not pass up the opportunity. She had to leave immediately and she entrusted a goodbye letter with her best friend Alex(Rose Byrne).
Matthew, used his only lead to attend the funeral of the deceased woman. He then followed the man from the picture as he drove away. The man brought him to a very nice apartment complex, where the man knocked on the door before leaving a letter under it. Matthew quickly took the letter and changed the information to his own. He also took the key to the apartment out of the envelope and took it with him.
After Lisa did not meet him in the park that day, he returned to the apartment and began looking around. While he did, someone walked in. He waited for her to get into a more open room before he talked to her. He startled the woman, who tried to injure him until he was able to calm her down. Eventually, they both took a breathe and Matthew realized he had the wrong woman and tried to leave. She stopped him and said that she would fix his had, which had been injured when she was attacking him. They then began to talk and before long she was putting the moves on him. They then separated as she went into the bedroom and he slept on the couch. Not long later, he awoke as she made her way to the couch and they made love.
The next morning, he was ready to go. When she left for her shift at the hospital, he took off, never planning on returning again. He decides that it is time to give up the search and that he must finally leave for China to go to his meetings. However, he gets a call from Luke who wants him to stay and watch his girlfriend perform in a play. So, he stays and eventually decides to stay and find Lisa.
After noticing that the apartment is nearly devoid of clothing and personal effects, he begins to suspect that something strange is going on. So, he takes the broken pair of pumps that Lisa had broken at the restaurant and buys the new girl claiming to be Lisa an identical pair. He then puts them on her to find that the shoes are about a size to big. This is the final straw. He knows that something is wrong and he leaves.
Later that night, Alex sleeps with Luke for the first time and is there in the morning to answer his phone when Matthew calls. She knows that she cannot be seen by both of them together, so she runs out to see Matthew. However, Matthew is on the way to see Luke. Luke receives a phone call from Lisa who received a letter left for her by Matthew at the bar where she broke her heel. She went back to see if she had left her compact there, and got the letter with Luke’s number.
Eventually Matthew and Luke do meet up at a restaurant where Alex is as well. At this point, the chips are on the table and the players begin to reveal their hands. Matthew cryptically lets Alex know that he knows what is going on and Alex reveals the reason for her deception in another flashback.
We find out that Alex had a similar infatuation with Matthew that he had with Lisa. She was going to talk to him and get her camera back when Matthew ran out to follow Lisa. She then watched as her friend became closer and closer to him. So, when the friend was out of the picture, she made sure that they stayed apart by keeping the letter from Lisa to him and erasing her original messages off of his machine when she had originally went to give him the letter.
After receiving the message from Luke, Matthew runs out to their meeting spot, Wicker Park. However, she is already gone, so he goes the only other place that he may find her, at the airport before her flight. He sees her and begins to go after her until he is stopped by his would be fiancé who believes that he has just gotten off of his flight from China. He has to break things off quickly and she is very upset. At the same time, Alex has called Lisa to tell her what had happened and Lisa is about to loose it. Finally, Matthew finds her again and they embrace.
Despite the bad things that I heard about it, I ended up really enjoying Wicker Park. It is deffinitly on my list of films that I really enjoyed from 2004, possibly in the top 20. The individual performances were nothing to scream about, but combined it all fit very well and was very enjoyable.
The plot of the movie was what grabbed me. The constant running around, trying to catch up with what was going on and the inserted flashbacks all fit together seamlessly. There were parts here and there than didn’t make a whole lot of sense or seemed odd given the other aspects of the movie, but these were minor and easily overcome.
Another big plus to the film was Diane Kruger. She is quickly going up the list as one of the most attractive actresses in Hollywood. She is still fresh in the industry, but her looks combined with a so far good track record of choosing good films is very promising.
Josh Hartnett is an actor that is being sorely overlooked. Unlike the others of his age, he has shown time and again that he can pull off leading roles easily while showing a wide range of emotions and abilities.
I was very happy with this film and was glad that I decided to check it out. After the poor reviews by critics, friends, and the common man I very nearly did not watch it. I would have truly missed out. This very interesting and entertaining film reminded me of another that everyone else seemed to trash and I really enjoyed at the time, Instinct with Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Maura Tierney. I wouldn’t even mind seeing this film again sometime soon, it will be a definite purchase, and one to help start my Diane Kruger collection. I give Wicker Park, a very good surprise, an 8.
Anacondas 2: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
Anacondas 2: Does Anyone Really Care?
This was another movie that I didn’t know much about. It appeared from the previews, though, that it would include more animals from the jungle than just the anaconda. It also showed that none of the original cast from Anacondas would be back; no Ice Cube or J. Lo L. Instead we get a bunch of no names and a person trying to act his way back into obscurity with bad film after bad film after bad film, Morris Chestnut.
Anacondas 2 begins in a board room. There are a group of scientists and businessmen who have discovered a plant that could possibly work in the same way as they mythic Fountain of Youth. They call this the blood orchid. Unfortunately the Blood Orchid can only be found in one part of the world that they know about, so they must travel to a small town in the middle of a jungle and rent a boat to bring them to it.
Things start out badly from the beginning. The boat that they hired does not receive their money and by the time it does, the rainy season has begun and the river begins to flood. In the ever changing waters, he refuses to bring them out. However, they do finally find one man crazy enough to bring them and so they begin out in the river. They travel uneventfully for a while, until they hit something in the water and a woman talking on a satellite phone falls overboard. While trying to make it back, something begins stirring in the water. It ends up not being the titular anaconda, but instead a huge crocodile. The captain of the boat quickly jumps overboard and begins battling the giant croc. Eventually he stabs it enough times with his long dagger that he is able to kill the beast and the two people make it back on board.
However, as the boat leaves behind the dead carcass of the huge croc, we see something take it underwater. Later, the boat has troubles navigating the every changing water and eventually must decide whether to turn back or try to continue. The leader of the expedition tells the captain that he will double the pay if they continue and so they do. However, before long, they approach a waterfall and drop over the edge. The boat is ruined and they try to salvage all that they can. They begin to trek through the jungle and swamp in an attempt to rendezvous with another captain that works the river.
However, on the way, an idiot who had been taunting one of the women with the Jaws theme is taken underwater. He appears, is submerged, and appears again only to be bitten in the face by a giant anaconda. He is then eaten whole while the rest of the group flees. Eventually they have to stop and one of them almost puts himself into grave danger. Their local guide points out that in the shoe he was about to put back on was the rock spider. It is a spider with venom so potent that it will paralyze you for three days.
So, they continue towards the other captain until they see a huge explosion. They quickly reach the site to find that boat completely destroyed and the captain gone. We know that he was eaten by an anaconda. Even though their captain did not believe it was possible to have more than one anaconda of that size, we begin to believe that it is. There next best bet is to attempt to make it to a nearby village of people that were once cannibals.
So, off they go, only to find another huge anaconda dead from the villagers and the village itself empty. At this point everyone wants to just get home except for the guy who had paid off the captain earlier. He wanted to keep going, so, he sets up Morris Chestnut’s character to get bitten by the rock spider that he had captured. Then when an anaconda comes down to eat him and everyone tries to save him, he makes off with the raft they had all been building. At this point, they continue through the jungle in an attempt to head off the man due to the winding river. However, they meet up with more and more anacondas. They actually manage to kill a few of them and eventually make it to the valley the blood orchids.
This is where the plot all ties together. The snakes are mating in a pit in the middle of the valley. The rejuvenative properties of the orchids are making the anacondas live indefinitely and one of the peculiarities of the anaconda is that it will continue to grow as long as it lives. This is what is causing the huge snakes to be so much bigger than any others.
So, after a brief fight with the crazy man who came by raft, eventually they are able to douse the pit with gas and one anaconda in particular and shoot it with a flare gun. They all blow up and the few people that are left alive sign in relief.
Well, most people would have guess that this film would pretty much be crap. The acting was bad, the plot was pretty bad, everything was pretty bad. Most of the effects were good, but a few were very unrealistic.
One of the big problems that I had with the movie was that from the trailer I believed that there would be a wider variety of animals this time around and there was not. This would have also made since with the explanation given in the film. There was just very little to actually like about this film. There is not much more I can say. I give Anacondas 2: Hunt for the Blood Orchid a 4.
Shakes and Burgers and Fries… Oh, My!
Super Size Me is a documentary that was supposedly started by a lawsuit. Two idiot kids who had eaten too much junk food and expanded to the size of tanks decided that it was not their fault that they were so large. It was the fault of the billion dollar fast food companies such as McDonalds. The question here is, “Where is the line between personal responsibility and corporate responsibility?”
So, one of the statements that the judge made was that he could try the case if it could be proven that it was the intent of McDonalds for their customers to eat all their meals there everyday and that at this point, their food would be harmful to the customers. This is something that would be almost impossible to prove. The second part can be tested, but to claim that a company intends for its customers to eat every meal there every day is something altogether different.
Well, the second part was taken as a challenge by Morgan Spurlock. Mr. Spurlock immediately dismissed the first part of the statement by the judge and therefore made it a one part answer. He would eat all his meals at McDonalds for one month and see how his body reacted to the food. This was an interesting experiment, but one that would in the end prove nothing for the case. He tried to set himself up as a champion for the girls, but in reality it ended up looking more like a publicity stunt.
So, Spurlock began his experiment by consulting three doctors who would monitor the status of his body along the way. At the beginning, he was a man in very good shape. All of the chemicals in his body were at good or very good levels and he was one of the more healthy people that any of them had ever met. Then the test began.
He started one day with an egg McMuffin, and off he went. He would have to stick to a few key rules. One, he could only eat or drink items that were offered on the menu at McDonalds. Two, he had to try every item at least once. Three, if asked if he wanted to super size, he would always have to say yes. Four, he would have to finish every meal. Five, and this one was a bit odd, to try to feel more like the average Joe, he decided to only get as much exercise as the normal person.
Things were going ok at first. Then came the big daddy of all McDonalds meals, the double quarter-pounder with cheese super sized. He started off ok, stating that he loved the taste. After about ten minutes, though, things began to change. He became very full and had a difficult time trying to finish the remaining quarter of a burger and half of his fries. About half an hour later, he was trying to put down the finishing touches when he spewed out the window of his parked car.
However, he had to keep going, so for the next couple of days he continued to eat McDonalds. He began to feel depressed and gained weight. He did state though, rather cheerily, that after the third day things got better, he said it was similar to quitting cigarettes. About nine days in, he had already finished everything on the menu at least once and was beginning to get some weird feelings in his body.
These things got worse and worse and when he finally went to the doctor again around 21 days in, they said that things were getting very bad. He had gained 10% of his former body weight in three weeks, the levels in his body were going haywire, and he was quickly pickling his liver. He was told to stop the experiment or at least take a multivitamin. He was also told to drink water instead of shakes and coke.
However, I don’t know how accurate these depictions were, for he seemed to wave them off and continue trudging along. He did eventually finish the experiment adhering to all of the rules he had set out.
Well, there were a few things in the movie that I didn’t know whether or not I could trust. One, in a documentary where the person filming it is in control, he can have anyone on screen and call them anything. He can also pick doctors that are sympathetic to the cause that he is fighting for and get impartial information from them. One thing that tends to lead this way is a survey that he did in the film. He claimed that McDonalds put out a statement that there food could be eaten twice a week as part of a healthy diet. He then called and asked 100 doctors, ideally, how many times someone should eat at a fast food restaurant a week. Well, duh, I could have told you that ideally eating at a fast food restaurant would not be on the list, but the question was if it could be contained in part of a healthy diet.
Another thing that showed that there would likely be bias in his opinions and that his body may have more difficulty with the diet than normal is that he lived on a mostly vegan diet. His girlfriend constantly cooked vegan food that he ate and he exercised regularly. These factors would skew data from that of a normal person. One, by the fact that his body was not used to dealing with the items from fast food, and two, he did not only change his diet, but his overall lifestyle.
Therefore, in a purely scientific sense, the study was flawed and could never be seriously used. I’m not saying it was useless, though. Something of this nature could be used to show certain aspects of what can happen. Also, the way the film was made was very entertaining.
Despite all of the shortcomings that I found with the film, I did truly like it. The subject was interesting, and some of the things that he showed in it were very entertaining. However on a sliding scale of actual documentary and fiction, he was getting close to the line. He did not go nearly as far as either of the Michael Moore films, but started coming close a few times.
This film was entertaining, but it will not have any real effect on society, science, or law in the future, so for pure enjoyment, I give Super Size Me a 7.
Silly Horror film shows its low quality
I really didn’t expect much from this film; it was a low budget horror/comedy that had no names in it, except possibly for Brooke Burke who had a small role in the beginning of the film. All I knew before putting in the disc was that the Hazing had something to do with possession, besides that it was all a mystery.
The Hazing begins with Professor Kapps(Brad Dourif), in his home with a beautiful woman, Jill(Brooke Burke). They are talking about the theories that he has and about her speculation that his ideas are just superstition and nonsense. She then asks him if she can use his restroom to change into her Halloween costume. He agrees, and she emerges in the guise of a belly dancer/harem girl. She doesn’t last long, though as he quickly knocks her out with a strange looking staff. It appears to actually be a spine with a head on the top.
We are then taken away to a line of men and women, all in women’s undergarments screaming. This is a frat/sorority hazing ritual. The leaders of the Greek societies discuss a few things and before we know it, the screamers are sent to change into Halloween costumes. They are given a list of items that they must obtain, each with a point value. At the end of the night, they need 50 points, or none will be allowed into their fraternity or sorority. Once the items are gathered, they must meet in an old haunted house, where a man caught his cheating wife and murder her and her partner before committing suicide.
So, they get dressed as an Army zombie, a demon, a beautiful bunny, a space woman, and one gets a clear mask. They split into two teams and speed away in their cars. They then go around town stealing guitars and Frisbees, capturing a live rat, taking a mannequin, and the like. However, they want to make sure that they are able to get the fifty points, so they go for the item that has far more points than any other. The item is an old book, reported to be a book of sorcery. The only problem is that it is located in the house of Professor Kapps. So, two of them, Marsha Glazer(Tiffany Shepis) and Doug Leary(Philip Andrew) decide to sneak into his house and steal it.
They pull up to the house and use Marsha’s skill of breaking and entering, than she learned from an ex-boyfriend, to get in through a window. They begin to look around, but cannot find anything. Marsha, however, soon finds a secret passageway downstairs that leads her down a dark dang corridor, where she finds the bodies of about seven girls. She then finds the professor himself, who begins to chase her out of the passageway. They get back into the main portion of the house where, they retrieve the book and tussle with the professor. This ends, when the professor fall off of the stairs one a set of horns that he has displayed. Marsh calls 9-1-1 and the two of them take off.
Before long, they arrive at the haunted house and meet up with the three others; Tim Fields(Parry Shen), Roy Moore(Jeremy Maxwell), and Delia Rogers(Nectar Rose). The other group is excitedly counting their points and appears to be very happy with their items. Marsha and Doug are still freaked out from the possible death of the professor.
Weird things begin to happen around the house, but we see that this is due to the heads of the fraternity and sorority who have set up things around the house.
Meanwhile, across town, the body of Professor Kapps is being rushed to the hospital where they attempt to revive him, but are not too worried after finding the dead bodies in the passageway. In this half alive state, the professor sends his spirit through space to the house where the book is located. Once there, he manages to get the book to the basement, where he talks Doug into reading a passage out of it. This passage allows him much more power and opens a door between their world and the underworld. Soon crazy things begin to happen. The head of the fraternity comes up dead, stabbed in the eye with a lawn dart. After mocking a mannequin, the head of the sorority turns into one herself and is later destroyed by Delia with an axe. The biggest of all, though, is Roy. He is pleasuring Delia when all of a sudden his tongue begins to grow in length. He backs up from the bed a few feet and she is still in ecstasy. Then, Roy rips out his tongue and it travels up Delia’s body where she throws it off of her.
From here, things go crazy, nearly everyone is eventually possessed and after a while there are only three of them left; Delia, Tim, and Marsha. The spirit goes into Marsha and she eventually seduces Tim. However, back at the hospital, things go wrong and the spirit must leave for a short time. This allows Delia time to get outside. However, the others are trapped when the professor’s spirit makes it back. Everyone eventually ends up back in the basement, where Tim is able to fight the professor into the portal that he opened between realms and it closes, locking him in hell.
Everyone is happy, until the doors still refuse to open. They soon find out that this is because while the portal was open, the ghosts of the murdered and suicide from the house made it back in and are now in control.
The Hazing was a pretty bad film. It was very low budget and the script was not very good. The acting was pretty bad as well. The whole point of the movie was to have a bit of the scary and a bit of the unclothed flesh.
Well, it did have a bit of the second part, but all of the horror was so cheesy that it was more funny than scary. Anyway, this was a film that had very little to offer and I would not really suggest it to anyone. I give the Hazing a 3.
Little Black Book of Evil
Little Black Book was a film that I missed in theaters, but slightly wanted to see. I tend to like Brittany Murphy’s performances, even in really bad comedies. This one looked like it might even have some teeth to it. So, I decided to check it out once it came out on DVD
Little Black Book begins with Stacy(Brittany Murphy), a young girl growing up with an instable mother. Her mother began her instability as her marriage worsened and got even worse when he left them. Her only defense to the troubles of her life is to listen to Carly Simon. The words and music help to relax and be able to continue her day.
As this young child, Stacy quickly finds what she wants to do in life. She wants to work for Diane Sawyer. So, as she grows, she works on things to be able to meet this goal. After working a dead end job for a while, mostly fetching things for people, she gets offered a step in the right direction. She takes a producing job at a local daily chat show. The show, through the years, had changed from an Oprah-type show to a Springer-type show.
Nobody really seemed to care that the show had gone down the toilet, not even the host of the show, Kippie Kann(Kathey Bates). The show had done this out of necessity. Her show was in the big time, major markets and good ratings. However, as the ratings slipped and she lost markets, she eventually had to change as well and to try to attract more viewer, they went with the more risqué subject matter.
So, Stacy begins her job there, and immediately is introduced to another new producer, but one who seems as if she has been there forever, Barb(Holly Hunter). Barb shows her around, shows her the ropes, and eventually becomes her friend.
At home, her personal life is going pretty good as well. She is dating a man that she is thinking of marrying. Derek(Ron Livingston) is a hockey scout, and seems to love her.
Then, one day at work, an idea is passed around the office for a show, little black books. They are not talking about the old fashioned paper variety but the much more personal palm pilots. The idea met with much enthusiasm and it began to grow.
Back in the personal life, Derek had to leave town for a few days and while he is gone, Stacy must take care of his dog. During this idol time, she comes across some photos of him with various women in a box taped up and marked personal. This gets her mind moving way too fast and before she knows it, she is looking into his little black book. What she finds there is upsetting. First she finds out about an ex-girlfriend who happened to be a famous model, Lulu Fritz(Josie Maran). He tells her that they broke up because of the sex, but it become clear after speaking with her that the reason that they broke up was because of another ex, Joyce(Julianne Nicholson). She would call him all the time and cry.
Next came another ex-girlfriend who she found some info on. She was Dr. Rachel Keyes(Rashida Jones) and was more into herself and her business than her boyfriend. So, thinking that she was a podiatrist for some reason, she scheduled an appointment with her to try to find out more information. While there, she found out that Dr. Keyes was actually an OB/GYN, making her story of making an appointment due to warts even more embarrassing. However, she did find some useful information. Dr. Keyes still had a picture of her and the dog in her office and confided in Stacy that she had joint custody of the dog and had went to a picnic with him and Derek the previous week.
Derek had never told her about the doctor ex-girlfriend with her own book and line of pills. He definitely had never told her about his picnic getaways. So, she was on to the next person, Joyce. She found lots of pictures of her and Derek. Most important are the pictures of the two of them with his family on multiple occasions, which is shocking because he claims that he never takes his girlfriends to meet his parents.
This is the toughest one to deal with. However, she immediately hits it off with the young woman. She seems nice and kind and would be a great friend if she was only meeting her under better circumstances.
She finds out that Joyce and Derek were very close, much closer than she had ever been with him and is told of a system that they had come up with where they both had boomerangs. The theory was that if either of them ever got away and needed to come back they would be like the boomerang and come back to the other person. She then found Derek’s still at his apartment.
Then the day finally came when everything would happen. Barb’s idea was chosen for the live show and they were both psyched. However, it wouldn’t turn out like anyone expected. Ira(Kevin Sussman) had actually come up with the Little Black Book idea, but it was stolen by Barb and nudged along. She decided on it at the last moment as far superior to her previous idea and knew that it would make great television.
So, as Stacy showed up to work, she was guided to the stage where she was let in, unbeknownst to her. Once on stage, she couldn’t get away. They had her in their trap and she had to sit and take it. The next person out was Lulu, who acted mindless as usual. Then came the doctor, who they were able to trick on the show by telling her that they were talking about her book. Then came the toughest one, Joyce. Joyce had to be told on national television what had been going on over the past few days. To add insult to injury, she thought that she was on the show to be in a cook-off.
Stacy could barely stand telling the woman the truth, but what came next was even more difficult. Derek emerged from the door, believing that he was arriving for a surprise birthday party for Stacy. What he got instead were all of the dirty secrets that she had found and all of her suspicions. He tried to leave, then when he was not allowed, he tried to reason with her, but there were lots of little things, never cheating, but enough to show that he was not totally committed to her.
So, she did the only thing that she could. In order to save her conscious, she said that she would leave so that Derek and Joyce could get back together. While the audience loved this ending, things weren’t quite done yet. As she was leaving, Stacy was approached by Barb, who she chastised as the camera was still rolling.
She later saw an old college boyfriend and tried to get back with him, only to quickly find out that he owned a coffee chain, was married, and had a wife on the way. At this point she went back home for a while to lick her wounds. Not long after, she was back at it again, and lucked out when a position to assist Diane Sawyer opened up. However, the woman was out of town. The good news was that the girl doing the interviews was told that if anyone perfect for the job came in, to hire them without her. So, her lifelong goal had finally been reached, and then something else happened. Who else would happen to come into the room to talk about an interview than Carly Simon. Stacy immediately passed out and when her hysterical mother on the other line of her cell phone hears the voice of Carly Simon she does the same.
Little Black Book was a pretty decent little movie. It ended up being a very mean film at times, but the way it unfolded made it work. Brittany Murphy was again very charming and fun to watch in a staring role. Holly Hunter, though, had the best role in the film. She got to be the eccentric best friend and then the Judas. She pulled off both roles amazingly well. Julianne Nicholson was very good as well in this film. She played the character so well, that even though you like Brittany Murphy, you still end up wanting Joyce with Derek in the end.
The story was pretty good, surprisingly. It really had three acts, more so than hardly any movie I’ve seen. It had the cheesy relationship, followed by the snooping, concluded by the chaos of the show. I loved how they worked it all together and went slightly back and forth between the three former girlfriends instead of just doing them one at a time like most movies would have.
Little Black Book was a fun little film with a nice pop at the end. It really surprised me. I give Little Black Book a 7
Employee Fired
I had never heard of this film before popping it in my DVD player. I went to my local Blockbuster, where it just so happens that I used to work and saw a rather large display for something that I had never even heard of. I saw from the cover that it had Christina Applegate, who I have really liked since she started making films. However, I did not rent it the first go around. Then, when I came back with few movies that I wanted to see, I thought about giving it a go. However, there were no copies in to rent. After looking around a bit more, I found a friend who I had worked with before who I asked about what was good. After a brief conversation, he suggested this film. He also told me that they had just gotten a few copies in, so I decided that I might as well check it out.
Employee of the month begins with David Walsh(Matt Dillon), who has just gotten engaged and enjoys his job at the bank. He has a very odd friend, Jack(Steve Zahn), who crashes the party and catches David out back, where he has been force to go when he smokes. After David forces him to leave, he goes back indoors. Then Jack does another typical Jack thing, he pees in the fountain, causing the water to change colors in the recycling pattern and disgusting the guests.
Back at work, David is not having a good day. One of his supervisors is ticking him off again. He likes the people that he works with, but the management just seems to be bad people. Then, he has to decline a woman for a loan that she needs and should get because her husband had bad credit before he died and she is stuck with it.
At home, things aren’t going well either, Sarah(Christina Applegate) is unhappy with the way that things are going and then finds a pair of panties in David’s jacket. She quickly realizes that they are Wendy’s(Andrea Bendewald).
Meanwhile, Jack is off to work, finding accidents as they occur. He is a thief who pretends he is a coroner and after getting into the deceased bodies in an ambulance, he removes anything of value. He is startled by the real coroner who jokes around with him before choosing the best piece out of the take.
So, David comes into work the next day, and he has his evaluation set up. He is expecting a raise or even a promotion. The manager of the bank goes over his good attendance, but it shows that his performance is lacking. David knows that the person submitting this information is the same guy who has had a problem with him, who also happens to be the manager’s son. David calls him on this, but to no avail. Then, unexpectedly, the manager abruptly fires him.
David is shocked; he needs this money for his new house and soon to be wife. Meanwhile, his wife has called him to set up dinner for him with her and her parents. This is all that David needs after his horrible day, but he shows up anyway. He gets there on time only to find out that they are already getting the check. To his amazement, Sarah is using the opportunity to break up with him. She has written him a letter and reads it to him. Through this process, he finds out that she has found Wendy’s panties in his jacket pocket, which has caused the rift.
After the diner, he rents a motel room and goes to see his friend Jack at a strip club. There, they talk about what has happened to him, and David is more and more upset. He goes back to the motel where he begins to drink and pulls out a gun. He calls Sarah and hangs up, so she comes to the motel to confront him. After seeing the gun, she reprimands him for his ignorant behavior before leaving.
Later on, someone else shows up. She is a stripper, sent by Jack to make David feel better, but he does not want her. They talk for a bit and she leaves. The next morning, David is feeling like crap, but decides to go to his last day at work anyway. He shows up and begins berating his fellow workers until he finally gets a moment to go in and talk to his manager. After picturing himself shooting his boss, he ends up pistol whipping him instead.
He then brings him out to the lobby, where there is a bit of a commotion. It appears that about four people are robbing the bank. The manager’s son is eventually shot and David tries to decide what to do. He eventually gets a fellow worker to trip the silent alarm, but before she can get back, she is seen by one of the robbers who starts to take her as a hostage. However, David comes to the rescue and they end up taking him instead.
We then see David on the news watched by Sarah. She is upset, he gave his life for another and now he is found dead in a burned where house along with the getaway van.
However, we quickly see David again. It ends up that this was an elaborate plan to rob the bank. He is in an apartment along with Jack and Wendy. There is a dead man in the toilet, who we find out was the driver. Wendy steps out for a drink when we see David shoot Jack in the head. This is even more surprising because half of David’s face is extremely scarred. We have also found out that even though Jack was the one who accidentally caused it, he was also the only one to visit him in the hospital after the accident occurred.
So, Wendy comes back with a couple of Sprites to find out that David has murdered his best friend and she responds by giving him a Sprite. It appears that they had set this up in advance as well. What David does not expect, though, is Wendy’s next move; she shoots him in the head. So, Wendy walks out of the apartment with all of the money and heads to the dentist’s office. Another of the gang had been a dentist who lost his license, but was able to set up false dental records for David. We see someone emerge from the office, but it is clearly not the dentist, it is Sarah. She gets in the car and the two kiss.
It is now revealed at the very end that the heist was set up by Sarah and Wendy, put into play, and pulled off without a hitch. Score one for the lesbian lover bank robbers.
Employee of the Month was a decent film, but never could muster any substance. We meet the couple at the engagement and there is never any spark. The friendship between David and Jack is weak, and we never really even see the affair between David and Wendy, so to me it was meaningless.
This was a film that was 90 minutes, but only really had about 30-40 minutes worth of information. It seems like it was just the first half and in the second half we will get the payoff, but alas, this is all that there was. The performances weren’t very good. You have David who was underplayed by Dillon and Jack who was overplayed by Zahn. Of course, I didn’t expect much more from these two who have still yet to ever impress me with a performance. Surprisingly, the character that I enjoyed the most was Wendy. She actually showed a change and was a bit tougher than the rest. I almost liked Sarah, but Applegate, just didn’t give her the heart that she needed to pull it off.
This was a film that I was very disappointed with. The plot was pretty decent and if performed by better people, it probably would have worked fairly well. However, it was not and therefore, I give Employee of the Month a 5.
Friday Night Lowlights
This film had received many good reviews over the last few months from theater goers, movie critics, and even the on-line crowd. This was a bit surprising for a football movie. I tend to like football movies, so with one getting some critical acclaim as well, the film seemed like a sure thing. Add in Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, and Lucas Black and this looked like a film with some possibilities.
Friday Night Lights is the story of a small town Texas high school football team and its season going for the state championship. They had hired a new coach in the off season, Gary Gaines(Billy Bob Thornton) and had some good upperclassmen coming in to run the team that season. The talk was high, this was the year that they would win it all again. Coach Gaines was a big talking point. Was he worth the money that they were giving him? Would he really bring in another title?
For all of the talk, though, the star of the team was Boobie Miles(Derek Luke). He was an outspoken and arrogant young man who was already scouting Mercedes dealerships and houses for when he turned pro. The rest of the team wasn’t quite so sure of themselves. They were mostly starting for the first time and had much to learn and prove if they were hoping to go to state.
Coach Gaines gets the team ready and before you know it, the first game of the year is here. In the game, the home team blows out the visitor and Boobie has a wonderful game. The coach is ready to take him out, but the backup cannot find his helmet. So, Boobie is happily back in the game. However, when he goes to make a cut, a lineman jumps on him and cracks his knee.
Boobie is on the ground in pain and must be carried off the field. The team, which should have high spirits after the win are low with the loss of Boobie. They must continue, though, and the next week they are trounced by their opponent.
I’m going to stop right here, this film didn’t deserve to have a full plot synopsis, so I will sum it up a bit more quickly than normal. Boobie wants to come back, but the doctors say that his knee is bad. The coach and his uncle both want him back, but don’t know if he can make it. The team wins most of the remainder of their games, but cannot beat an area opponent at the end of the season to guarantee a playoff game. So, three teams tie for the lead and only two go to the playoffs. The coaches for each team must flip a coin, and whoever ends up on heads or tails by himself first looses. They flip the coins and after a bit of confusion, the team makes it into the playoffs with their rival.
So, they are now in the playoffs and begin a winning streak. They make their way through the teams until the finals. They meet with the coaches of the opposing team to set the ground rules; where they will play, who will be the referees, and such. The other team is much bigger than they are and a few players are faster than anyone on their team. The beginning of the game goes badly for our boys; they are nearly getting carted off on a stretcher with the hits they are taking. However, they do not give up and are only down by a few scores going into half time. After the half they start playing better and actually cut the lead by a touchdown. They cut and cut until they are down by only a few points with about a minute left. They drive down the field and run for about fifteen to twenty yards with seconds left to bring them down to the two. However, there is a holding penalty and the play comes back. So, on their last play of the game, the quarterback tries to pass, but the rush gets to him quickly and he is forced to scramble. He has to tuck the ball and try for the goal line. He is stacked up around the five, but the line surges forward. However, he cannot stay on his feet and goes down. When the pile begins to clear he is inches short of the goal line and they game ends. They go home without the title, but as a team. We then get a little information about what happened to the players after the game and we find out that the following year the team did win state.
I must say that this may have been one of my most disappointing movie moments of 2004. When the movie was getting ready to come out, I got excited. It may have been the one movie in 2004 that I had really meant to see when it was in theaters, but it was during a time that I saw very few films in the theater. So, when it came out I decided to rent it very quickly. It jumped in front of the other two films that I had already rented and into the DVD player. However, throughout the movie I was constantly disappointed.
Firstly, the football action wasn’t very good. The plays that they set up were outrageous at times. The spin moves that they would show in slow motion were way too wide open; they weren’t compact enough to be realistic. We also don’t get to see enough of the players. We only really ever get to see a few of the them and only a handful are really looked at with any depth. One of the biggest things that blew my mind, though, was that for the first half of the movie, the regular season the only team that was talked about besides the main one in the film was their rival team, the one that also won the coin toss. However, once the toss was over, they disappeared, they were never mentioned once. The team that they begin to focus on is the team from Dallas that they play in the finals. Although, they appear to be head and shoulders above the rest in the state, they were never mentioned until the playoff actually began.
Now, being from a state similar in its love for football to Texas, I know a bit about high school athletics. You do get pumped for playing your rival team, but you keep up with them in the playoffs, especially if they are as good as this team’s rival was. Also, you know who the big teams are each year. The papers have their rankings going all year long and the Dallas team would have definitely been at the top of that list.
I did like the way that they didn’t pull any punches on the town, though. The tough drinking father, the uncle who wanted the money, the kids getting handouts for being players, and especially the sports call in show. Man, those people were tough; those were some of the best moments of the film.
Overall, though, I was very disappointed in this film. It didn’t live up to half of the hype that it built. The football action scenes were dull, the storyline wasn’t very good, and the acting wasn’t that great. There were a few good things about the movie, though; enough to keep it from being a truly bad film. The film barely managed to stay above average, though, so I give Friday Night Lights a 6.
What makes a prostitute tick?
I had never heard of this film until a few days ago. I was walking in my local video store looking for something to rent and the cover stood out to me. There were a bunch of attractive women huddled together, but they looked a bit over made up. I figured either they were clubbin’ or doing something a bit more over the top. I checked out the back and it was the second option. I found out that these were Las Vegas prostitutes. The film was a Showtime made for tv movie about what it is like to be a prostitute, how they live. So, I figured it would be interesting to see what they came up with and took it home.
We start out at the ranch with Shayna(Jennifer Aspen). She is a girl on her way out. She had met a man at an airport on the way back from visiting her family on an off week and they had fallen for each other. They spent time with each other when time permitted and eventually he asked her to marry him. She accepted, not believing that she would ever find true love, but now would come the hard part. She would have to lie to everyone and not let them know that she had been a prostitute. So, she met her fiancé at the airport and they went to his parent’s house where she also met up with her sister. Before this, though, the fiancé had to tell her that he was laid off of his job. He suggested that they wait a bit and she could try to get a route in the area or one back home for a bit, but she would have none of it. So, they decided to keep going. Then, when she was having dinner with her sister, Beth Ann (Carly Pope), she finally broke down and told her the truth. When she was in college, she went with a friend who was a part time prostitute to The Ranch in Vegas. Shayna had just broken up with her boyfriend and needed some cash, so with it being Super Bowl weekend, they could use the extra help and let her come in to tryout. She made so much money that she quit school and started doing it full time.
Emily did not know what to think about the revelation, but was disgusted. She ran away from her sister and went so far as to say that she didn’t want to see her again and left on the next plane out of town.
Back at the Ranch, we have Taylor(Samantha Ferris) who is the only prostitute there with a child. She is at the salon with her daughter having her nail painted bright red. The woman asks what color the child would like and she says clear. Taylor wants none of that, she wants her to show off with some bright red too, but the girl goes into a rant about how she is only doing it to piss off her father. However, after she is done with the lecture, she decides on the red. The father is none too pleased. He is a down on his luck painter who hates that the mother of his child is a prostitute. Luckily, they never married, because they can’t stand each other anymore. When Taylor drops the girl off it is with a present for the party she is to go to the next day. However, the girl calls the next day, while her mother is in the middle of a BJ and she quickly finishes and talks to her daughter who complains that her father would not let her go to the party. So, Taylor shows up and takes the girl to the party. Once there, they kids have fun, but the parents begin to chastise her for being a prostitute. She compares it to being any other business, but none of them buy it. She then hears her daughter doing karaoke that just happens to be to a song about prostitution. She goes out to watch her daughter and a man walks by. He just happens to be one of their clients and makes sure that she will not rat him out. She says that she never would but decides to go wait by the car anyway, to stay away from the rest of the moms. Not long later, the father shows up, infuriated that she would take their daughter to the party. She had talked back and had to deal with her punishment. She is finally able to talk him into not busting in and at least letting her finish at the party. So, she goes back to work where eventually one of the moms comes to see her. To her surprise, she is not there to ask about the unfaithful man, but rather to ask her if she will help her by giving her lessons to make her better in bed. After a false shock by Taylor, she realizes that she is being silly and agrees. Then, when she goes back to pick up her daughter on her day, she arrives to find the house empty, the father had taken the girl and ran.
Emily(Bonnie Root) is the brunette tough girl. She is usually the one in leather, studs, and boots. However, when a shy young man comes in with his overenthusiastic brother, she shows that she has another side. She tries to turn the boy on, but quickly finds out that it is not working. It appears that he is just a bit too shy and so she tries to take off his pants. He pushes her away and she asks if he is a virgin. He says no. So, she asks if he is gay. He gets a bit upset, but eventually admits to it. So, they sit there a talk for a while so that his brother won’t know and she tells him that she’s always wanted to be a singer. So, she gives him her demo tape and he brings it to a friend. Later, after Other David(Ty Olsson) tries to break up a fight and gets hurt, she bandages him up. When she puts the band-aide on his forehead, he leans in and kisses her. She asks where that came from, and he admits that he had a thing for her since he started working the bar. They spend the rest of the night together, drinking and talking in the Jacuzzi. However, after a while, and one bad line, she realizes that it will never work and walks away from him.
Then we have Kim(Jessica Collins). She is bubbly blonde bombshell. She was almost preordained to be a prostitute as she is the third generation to do it. She enjoys her life more than any of the others, but there is one thing that keeps her from being truly happy. This is figured out in a few days by the new girl Velvet(Nicki Micheaux). When she sees Kim rubbing tanning oil on Emily’s back and how they both smile and Kim seems to go gaga over it, Velvet realizes that Kim has fallen in love with Emily. However, Emily has never figured it out and just assumes that they are really close friends.
Rickie Lee(Paige Moss) is the young looking girl. She plays the little girl bit up for big bucks. Older men tend to want her services