Movie Review: Knight and Day

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Category: Reviews
Published: Wednesday, 14 July 2010 20:42

Knight and Day movie posterTom Cruise (Mission Impossible) is funny! At this stage in his career I think it is his most endearing quality. We already know that Cameron Diaz (Charlie’s Angels) can mix action with comedy. The two of them together are delightful. This is a fun, crazy, manic film! I found myself smiling throughout.

Fan Reviews And Video Clip: Knight and Day

NIGHT AND DAY is a clever mix of everything we love about action films with an amusing blend of sight gags and character driven comedy. I love the over the top absurdity of this film which bordered on the line of satire. It thrilled and tickled you at the same time. Thinking back now on some of the visuals still has me chuckling. What should have been menacing becomes ridiculous by the pure improbability of it. I thought that some of the sight gags were brilliant.

Cameron Diaz plays a classic car mechanic who is unwittingly used as a mule by super spy Tom Cruise to get a top secret device past airport security. At first she falls for his charm and is flattered by his attention, but when she discovers his true purpose and the danger she is in, she becomes hysterical and he drugs her to shut her up. She wakes up in her own bed, and for a moment thinks it’s a dream. But when he leaves little notes around her house and she is visited by the FBI, she knows she is in the middle of something big.
I really got a kick out of the running gag which had her constantly being drugged and then waking up in a strange place. It reminded me of when I was a kid traveling across country in a camper. I would wake up and have to look out the window to see what state I was in. But in this film she wakes up in Spain, Austria, South America and other exotic locations. It is a very funny bit that is put to good use.

For villainy we have Peter Sarsgaard (An Education) as a rogue agent, and Jordi Molla (Che: Part Two) as a Spanish arms dealer. Viola Davis (Doubt) portrays FBI Director George, who backs the wrong agent, and Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) plays a young genius who invents a brilliant new technology. He is the one that Cruise is protecting, and it is his invention that everyone is trying to steal.

Besides great car chases, explosions, and hand to hand combat, Knight and Day also takes us all over the world. It is fun, adventurous, charming and cool. What a great summer romp and date movie. Both the guys and the girls will love this one.

 

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Movie Review: Love Ranch starring Helen Mirren

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Category: Reviews
Published: Wednesday, 14 July 2010 20:26
Love Ranch movie posterGrace Botempo, Helen Mirren (The Queen) is standing at the overlook of Donner Pass. She is explaining to Armando Bruza, Sergio Peris-Menche (Al salir de clase) that when the Donner Party was trapped here in 1847 that they actually started eating each other in order to survive. Neither of them flinches at the idea of cannibalism. Both of them know what it is to live off the flesh of others.

LOVE RANCH is not a horror film, or a zombie movie; rather it is the fictional re-telling of the story of Joe and Sally Conforte, owners of the famous Mustang Ranch of Nevada. Opened in 1971 as the first legalized brothel, it became notorious for its prostitutes and party time environment. In 1976 Joe Conforte tried to expand his business empire by buying the contract of boxer Oscar Bonavena. Joe wanted Oscar to train at the ranch in order to draw attention to his thriving business. Unfortunately, the close proximity had an unforeseen result. Oscar ended up having an affair with Joe’s wife Sally and it got him killed.

The Love Ranch is an interesting character study of a couple that seems to have it all. But running a whorehouse has its drawbacks. In this story Grace is the glue holding it all together. She seldom leaves the place, watching diligently over the girls that live on the premises. Charlie, Joe Pesci (Goodfellas) is more of the front man, flashy, brash and glad-handing the public. He is the visionary. Grace is the nuts and bolts.

When Taylor Hackford (Ray) cast Joe Pesci as Charlie opposite his wife Helen Mirren, at first the idea seemed odd. Its hard to imagine the gangster playing opposite of the queen. But in this film, it really works. They have an strange chemistry that compliments each other. They are two sides of the same coin. As business partners they are a formidable team and you can really see the affection that they have for each other. But for me the biggest revelation in this film came in the form of Spanish actor Sergio Peris-Mencheta. He easily holds his own with Pesci and Mirren and he brings a nice vulnerability to his hulking boxer. At first he’s all about the hustle, flashing the smile, exuding the charm, but when he lets his guard down, Grace knocks him out with a sucker punch.

Taylor Hackford goes to great lengths to recapture the look of the seventies. He also gives us a view of the unglamorous side of prostitution. It’s like turning up the lights in a dingy bar. Some things just look better in poor light. For me, I had a problem with the clinical nature of the film. This is a story about sex and passion, but when played against the day-to-day operations of a brothel, a lot of the heat was dissipated. I would have liked to see a more dramatic change in Grace. Grace is a woman who has been a madam since she was twenty years old. It would take a lot to get past that armor.

At the Love Ranch, Charlie and Grace take sex and marginalize it into a business transaction. For them, nothing is personal. Yet, in their own lives they truly care for each other. They are husband and wife. Some how in all of the business of selling other people’s bodies, they lost site of each other and things got screwed up. I wish I could have seen more of the passion that got them together. The back-story of the politics of prostitution didn’t interest me at all. For me it’s all about what draws people together and what rips them apart. The Love Ranch touches on this, but I wish it had gone deeper.

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New on DVD: 17 AGAIN Movie Reviews and Clip

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Category: Reviews
Published: Thursday, 02 April 2009 13:28
Written by Lupe Haas

17 Again On DVD August 11th

What would you do if you got a second shot at life?  Class of 1989, Mike O'Donnell (Matthew Perry) is a star on his high school basketball court with a college scout in the stands and a bright future in his grasp. But instead, he decides to throw it all away to share his life with his girlfriend Scarlett and the baby he just learned they are expecting.

Almost 20 years later, Mike is given another chance when he is miraculously transformed back to the age of 17. Unfortunately, Mike may look 17 again, but his thirtysomething outlook is totally uncool in the class of 2009. And in trying to recapture his best years, Mike could lose the best things that ever happened to him.

In this movie clip from 17 AGAIN, the young Mike played by Zac Efron returns to high school with outdated ideas of cool. 

 
Studio:    New Line Cinema
Genres:    Comedy And Teen
MPAA Rating:    PG
Starring:    Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Matthew Perry, Michelle Trachtenberg, Melora Hardin
Directed By:    Burr Steers
Produced By:    Jason Barrett, Adam Shankman, Jennifer Gibgot
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Movie Reviews and Clip: Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself

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Category: Reviews
Published: Thursday, 10 September 2009 06:59
Written by Lupe Haas

When Madea (Tyler Perry), America's favorite pistol-packing grandma, catches sixteen-year-old Jennifer and her two younger brothers looting her home, she decides to take matters into her own hands and delivers the young delinquents to the only relative they have: their aunt April (Taraji P. Henson).

A heavy-drinking nightclub singer who lives off of Raymond, her married boyfriend, April wants nothing to do with the kids. But her attitude begins to change when Sandino (Adam Rodriguez), a handsome Mexican immigrant looking for work, moves into April's basement room. Making amends for his own troubled past, Sandino challenges April to open her heart. And April soon realizes she must make the biggest choice of her life: between her old ways with Raymond and the new possibilities of family, faith... and even true love.

In this scene (Aunt April) from Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself, we meet Aunt April who refuses to help her niece and nephew after Madea catches them stealing in her house.

(Lionsgate)

Release: 09/11/2009

 

Genres: Comedy, Drama And Adaptation
Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving a sexual assault on a minor, violence, drug references and smoking.
Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Adam Rodriguez, Brian J. White, Hope Olaide Wilson , Mary J. Blige
Directed By: Tyler Perry
Produced By: Michael Paseornek, Tyler Perry, Reuben Cannon
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Movie Reviews and Clip: Inglourious Basterds

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Category: Reviews
Published: Wednesday, 12 August 2009 11:37
Written by Lupe Haas

German-occupied France, Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa. Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich.

Interview with Quentin Tarantino:  'I've Topped Myself'

Watch Brad Pitt and his Basterds team interrogate a Nazi officer in a clip from Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.

Inglourious Basterds (Weinstein Co.)

>Release: 08/21/2009

Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama And War
Starring: Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Mike Myers, Michael Fassbenderr, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Til Schweiger, Melanie Laurent, B.J. Novak and Samm Levine
Directed By: Quentin Tarantino
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Towelhead Movie Trailer and Reviews

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Category: Reviews
Published: Tuesday, 03 June 2008 07:46
Written by INMX

Based on the critically acclaimed book by the same name, Towelhead follows a young girl (Summer Bishil) as she tries to define herself in a new environment with her Lebanese father.  She conducts her sexual awakenings the false confidence that pop culture and her neighbor's magazines have provided.

 

Seen the film? Post your review.   

 

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Movie Reviews & Trailer: Halloween II

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Category: Reviews
Published: Wednesday, 26 August 2009 13:58
Written by Lupe Haas

It is that time of year again, and Michael Myers has returned home to sleepy Haddonfield, Illinois to take care of some unfinished family business. H2 picks up at the exact moment the first movie stopped and follows the aftermath of Michael Myers murderous rampage through the eyes of heroine Laurie Strode.

Rob Zombie's Favorite Horror Movies

Rob Zombie on Halloween sequels: "I don't care for them." 

The Weinstein Company

Release Date: August 28, 2009

Genre: Horror 

Starring: Scout Taylor-Compton, Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie, Danielle Harris

 

 

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