|
|
|
The '60s
: :Tackling an entire decade--and a turbulent one at that--within a three-hour movie is a challenge, and while The '60s is frequently entertaining, it unfortunately is not completely up to the task. The movie follows the lives of four young people, three from a white suburban family with parents out of The Wonder Years and one African American from the South. The characters are forced into one-dimensional clichés; they are their personas to the nth degree. Katie (Julia Stiles), the pretty young blond, is the lost hippie; Brian (Jerry O'Connell), the former ...
|
|
|
Almost an Angel
: :Tackling an entire decade--and a turbulent one at that--within a three-hour movie is a challenge, and while The '60s is frequently entertaining, it unfortunately is not completely up to the task. The movie follows the lives of four young people, three from a white suburban family with parents out of The Wonder Years and one African American from the South. The characters are forced into one-dimensional clichés; they are their personas to the nth degree. Katie (Julia Stiles), the pretty young blond, is the lost hippie; Brian (Jerry O'Connell), the former ...
|
|
|
Mother Goose: A Rappin' and a Rhymin' Fairy Tale - Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
: :Creativity oozes from this rollicking rhymefest, an animated retelling of some well-loved classic nursery rhymes. The 30-minute rappin' romp is part of the Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child series. A star-studded cast of celebrities lend their voices, including Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Smits, and Denzel Washington. The merriment takes place in Mother Gooseberg Land, where Old King Cole reigns over the likes of Little Miss Muffet, Georgie Porgie, and the rest of the gang who take their poetic direction from the grand dame of rhyme herself, Mother Gooseberg. Yet ...
|
|
|
Jack and the Beanstalk - Happily Ever After Fairy Tales for Every Child
: :Jack and his mother live on a farm where they are struggling to make ends meet. The mother decides that selling their beloved cow Bessie is the only way to earn enough money to sustain them. On the way to town, Jack happens upon a man who trades him five magic beans for the cow. Needless to say Jack's mother is less than pleased with Jack's trade and throws the beans outside. We all know what happens next. This lively retelling of the classic fairy tale is courtesy of the 'Happily ...
|
|
|
Tales From the Hood
: :Revenge/horror motif played out again and again and again, but this time with racial implications. Three drug-dealing thugs look for a stash in a funeral parlor and get the grand tour from Mr. Simms, the truly creepy mortician. As they pass the open caskets, Simms relates gruesome stories about the occupants' deaths to the increasingly restless young men. Each one of them falls to the vengeance of the supernatural theme, and it gets truly old. Nothing original is introduced, except that most of the stories take place in an urban setting. ...
|
|
|
Freeway 2 - Confessions of a Trickbaby
: :Revenge/horror motif played out again and again and again, but this time with racial implications. Three drug-dealing thugs look for a stash in a funeral parlor and get the grand tour from Mr. Simms, the truly creepy mortician. As they pass the open caskets, Simms relates gruesome stories about the occupants' deaths to the increasingly restless young men. Each one of them falls to the vengeance of the supernatural theme, and it gets truly old. Nothing original is introduced, except that most of the stories take place in an urban setting. ...
|
|
|
Return to Me
:Description:Who knew that when he ordered the special, he d get the dish of his life? David Duchovny ('the X-Files ) and Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting) ignite sparks in this warm-hearted winner (JeffCraig, 'sixty Second Preview ) about a widower and a waitress who meet and fall in love. Featuring an incredible all-star cast, this hilarious romantic comedy delivers a lot of laughs, tears and joysthat will make your spirits soar. It took a lot of cajoling to get Bob (Duchovny), a recently widowed architect, to go on a blind ...
|
|
|
Stuart Little
: :This live-action version of E.B. White's novel doesn't have quite the magic of, say, Toy Story. Instead of entertainment the whole family can be enthralled with, Stuart Little is squarely aimed, and successfully so, at the 4- to 10-year-old watcher. Does this make it a bad family film? Not in the slightest. The gee-whiz visual effects (created by original Star Wars wizard John Dykstra) and the film's ebullient wholesomeness make this a welcome addition to the home library. In E.B. White's world, it's hardly surprising that human parents would adopt 'outside ...
|
|
|
Jumanji
: :Based on the children's book by Chris Van Allsburg, Jumanji stars Robin Williams as a man who escapes his confinement within a devilish board game, only to be followed by all kinds of exotic problems: elephants, lions, zebras, monkeys, floods, giant insects, killer plants, and a big-game hunter. The computer-generated effects all wreak havoc through quiet streets, and while most of this is pretty fun, relationship conflicts and character development are weak and forgettable. The high point, in comic terms, is probably David Alan Grier's hilarious performance as a cop catching ...
|
|
|
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz
: :There were good intentions in this Muppets adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s classic Emerald City story of Dorothy’s journey to see the Wizard with hopes of fulfilling her dream of stardom: the film is a nostalgic nod to the original 1979 Muppet Movie, where Kermit leaves the swamps for Hollywood to become a star, picking up some friends along the way. Grammy winner Ashanti plays Dorothy Gale, an aspiring singer who serves meatloaf to truckers and lives in a Kansas trailer park with her Aunt Em (Queen Latifah). In the ensuing ...
|
|
Diesel vehicles have nearly a 50-percent market share in Europe, thanks to tax incentives and diesel-friendly legislation across the EU. Diesels are so passé there that you can buy a BMW 730d and no one will think it odd that your luxury car burns oil. Pull up in a diesel 7-Series in America and people would leer at you like you've alighted from an amphibious vehicle reeking of saltwater and dead trout.