I’d like to start this post off by saying that this film is by far the best movie about porn I think I have ever seen.

Well now that I have your attention let’s talk about this flick.

First the movie came out a little while ago (2005) and was released with the title “The Moguls”.  Then late last year the film was re-released here in the US under the tile “The Amateurs”. 

Second when I said that I feel that this movie is by far the best film about the subject of porn that I have ever seen I meant it.  And seeing as I’ve had what some could consider an abundance of experience watching adult films, that’s saying something.

But enough about that let’s make with a quick synopsis shall we?

Sex sells in America and these guys know it. When Andy (Jeff Bridges) discovers that his ex-wife has married an extremely wealthy man who is now his son’s “cool” stepfather, he becomes motivated to make a change in his life. With the help of his friends (Ted Danson, Joe Pantoliano) a small town group of loveable losers, they hit upon an idea to make their dreams come true. The grand plan that will lead to a life of riches and fame is to make the world’s most innocent adult film. Everyman’s fantasy turns into a hilarious misadventure when they find that they’re way in over their heads.

Now when my wife showed me this movie in the local Blockbuster as a candidate for our weekend viewing, my initial response was that of “eh”.  Then she told me that the movie centered around a gang of misfits trying to make their own adult film, and the movie itself stared Lauren “she will always be Lorelei Gilmore to me” Graham.  So once I pondered the possibility of seeing Ms. Gilmore in a movie about making a porno film crossed my mind…(really do I even have to finish this sentence?)

Now I’ll admit that when the movie first started I was underwhelmed to say the least.  It had a few funny parts at the onset but nothing was really blowing my skirt up so to speak, not to mention it was starting to become abundantly clear that I wasn’t going to hear Lauren talk dirty like she did in Badder Santa.

However my wife and I stuck with the film and I’m glad that we did.  It’s not because that film had and gratuitous nakedness or anything.  It was the way that this entire small town just rallied behind the de-facto leader in Andy(Jeff Bridges) and his crazy get rich quick scheme of making a full length adult film.

Take just that subject matter in an of itself and it lends itself to what could be some very funny moments if done correctly, and this movie didn’t disappoint.  Add to that William Fichtner as Otis has some of the funniest lines in the whole movie and I think you’ve got a winner.

In any event, if you’re looking for some silly, funny, misfits to just sit back and laugh at as well as root for, you could do a lot worse.

I have no idea why it is that Hollywood decided that this year needed to be the year of the "three-quel", but alas it appears that there’s just no escaping it. 

I suppose the good thing about this year being nothing more than Hollywood churning out sequel after sequel, then odds were in our favor that  eventually we would luck up on a few that didn’t make us long for another season of 24. (and by the way how is that both three-quels I saw this year that didn’t suck completely happen to both star Matt Damon?)

To get you up to speed:

Danny Ocean’s (George Clooney) crew gather around a hospital bed where Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) lies after suffering a heart attack. A flashback to four weeks earlier shows Reuben meeting with Vegas’ most hated businessman, Willy Bank (Al Pacino) on the construction site of their new hotel. After Reuben secures crucial deals for Bank, he is told to give up his share, or he’ll be thrown off the roof of the building; a strategy employed by the vindictive Bank in previous deals. The shock causes Reuben’s heart attack.

The gang swears to take revenge on Bank by utterly ruining his hotel, "The Bank", on the night of its grand opening. They aim to rig the various games at the casino so the players will win instead of the house. Bank was forced to take some hostile investors onto his Board of Directors to open the hotel, and if the house does not make at least $500 million in the first quarter, Bank will be removed from the chairmanship of his own hotel. The team also wishes to destroy any chance of Bank’s winning the prestigious Five Diamond Award, the highest distinction granted a hotel. All of Bank’s other hotels have won this award, and he has purchased valuable diamond necklaces to commemorate the successes. All the necklaces are housed in a glass case in the penthouse and are worth $250 million collectively. He has already optimistically purchased a necklace for his new hotel as well.

The  thing that I appreciated about this particular flick was that the used the original cast from the first film (sans Julia Roberts).  After watching the last film from this camp, that seemed like nothing more than a bunch of actors hanging out with Clooney at his villa in Italy while someone happened to have a camera present, I feel like this film got back to the basics that made the first one so entertaining – a caper flick that while totally outlandish, you can’t help but see yourself laughing and hanging on all the way to the end.

OK, first I really wanted to do a 10WMR for this movie, but after viewing it there was just no way I could condense everything about this flick in just ten words.

First things first lets get you up to speed.

Courtesy of wikipedia:

Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) is a clairvoyant living under an assumed name, Frank Cadillac, in Las Vegas. He has a minor magic show at one of the hotels, but he makes his living at “low stakes” gambling against the casinos. He manages to stay beneath the radar, never revealing his gift: the ability to see two minutes into his own future.

During one of his magic shows, two FBI agents observe him, although he doesn’t realize that’s who they are or that they are even after him. One of them, Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore), is convinced Cris is the key to help the FBI stop terrorists from detonating a stolen nuclear bomb. All the information she has obtained until this point proves Cris has some unexplainable ability to see into the future.

That’s right ladies and gentlemenen, the man can see two minutes into his own future, which in and of itself is a pretty cool ability. I liked the way that they portrayed this on film by letting Chris (Cage) basically walk around and sort of run a scenario for a given situation, see the outcome of it and just keep going until he gets it right. The simple fact that Hollywood hasn’t turned this premise into a bad TV show yet just baffles me.

Now all of that seems cool until you use actors that are either not really trying or walking around the movie ” looking royally pissed off, like she got tricked into making the movie on a sucker bet.” If there was one thing that I could have changed about this movie it would have been the cheesy hair that Nicolas Cage was walking around with. For a man that can see his own future, you’d think he could see that that haircut wasn’t going to work out for him.

One of the other things that really stood out in this movie is the bad guys in it. I call them bad guys because none of them had any names, no country of origin, and no real reason to be terrorizing the US other than the fact that that’s what their roles called for. Apparently when writing this movie, when it came time to cast/write for the antagonists, the writers must have called up either Bad Guys R Us., Terrorists Inc., or Rent A Thug – since all of the “Villains” looked the same and were about as generic as the expendable black guy.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “naNye I thought you said this was a Movie You Should See?”

See that’s the cool thing about this movie, it’s one of those rare flicks that has a decent premise and the overall acting isn’t horrible so what you end up with is a movie that you can just shut your mind off and watch. It’s a film that’s so cheesy that it’s actually awesome. Therefore here at ATE we have now created a new term to refer to these priceless pieces of cinema: Chawesome.

Hardware

Also known as M.A.R.K. 13, is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film from director Richard Stanley starring Dylan McDermott (The Practice, In The Line Of Fire), Stacey Travis (Earth Girls Are Easy), and punk musician Iggy Pop.

The story takes place in the 21st century after a nuclear war has turned the world into a radioactive wasteland. A travelling soldier named Moses (Dylan McDermott) finds the remains of a robot in the desert and collects the pieces and brings them to his girlfriend, Jill (Stacey Travis), who is a metal sculptress. She takes the pieces of the robot and makes a sculpture, unaware of the malice within the pieces of the robot. Moses does some investigating into the name that he found on the robot, M.A.R.K. 13, and learns that it was a government killing machine that was scrapped due to malfunctioning. The robot reconstructs itself and goes amok.

The flick was well received by critics in the sci-fi community but didn’t have any mainstream success. It has a soundtrack with music from Iggy Pop (who plays an unseen DJ named Angry Bob), Ministry, Motorhead (lead singer Lemmy plays a cab driver), and Public Image Limited. The movie is based on a story in the comic book 2000 AD called SHOK! Walter’s Robo-Tale, which is tied into the Judge Dredd saga. If you liked The Terminator you’ll like Hardware.

Mel Gibson is one kooky bastard but he also can make one hell of a good movie and this flick delivers. The story is set just before the conquest of the region by Spain and is about a young Mayan named Jaguar Paw and his race to get back to his pregnant wife and child.

He is pursued by a group of violent Mayan warriors through the lush and dangerous jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula which basically makes the last half of the film a “chase movie” but it’s extremely well done. There are some very intense scenes but all is shot very beautifully and the first 15 minutes gives you a great introduction into who Jaguar Paw and his people are. It’s an action and adventure tale that totally immerses you in the world of the Mayan from the language (the movie is entirely subtitled) to the jungle filled landscape itself. This can also be taken as a “message movie” but it doesn’t beat you over the head with it. In my opinion it’s as good as epics such as Braveheart or Dances With Wolves. Check this one out!

I’ve never considered Samuel L. Jackson sexy, the coolest mofo on the planet, yes, but never sexy. Contrarily, I’ve always thought Christina Ricci was cute, until this movie.

So, I guess that evened things out for me on Black Snake Moan. It’s directed by the guy that did Hustle & Flow (incredible movie), and has that same raw-edged, realistic feel. The acting is phenomenal, both Jackson and Ricci are extraordinarily convincing – and I should know I AM southern poor white trash! No big suprises, although I was happily shocked to see little Justin Timberlake on the big screen – yeah, he should really stick to singing, although I must give credit where credit is due, the sex/love scenes were convincing. Although the ending was somewhat disappointing, I’m a huge Sam fan (even sitting through the entire viewing of Snakes on a Plane), so I’m glad I rented it, but I’m happy I didn’t spend a lot of money on it in the theater.

It’s cheesy, has corny ass dialogue, very dated special effects, and it’s a whole lot of fun. In 1980 Producer Dino De Laurentis released the intentionally campy flick, Flash Gordon, and it bombed.

But years later the film is a cult classic and comic book fans look at the movie fondly for it’s tongue-in-cheek presentation and rocking soundtrack by the rock group Queen. Anyone who has seen the old 30s and 40s Flash Gordon movie serials or ever read the Flash Gordon comics will see the dedicated homage that this movie is to a much loved character and universe. Flash (Sam Jones) ends up on the planet Mongo by pure chance with the lovely Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) and the misunderstood scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol), who had built a spaceship to travel to the source of what was causing violent natural phenomena on Earth. This leads them to being captured by Ming the Merciless (Max Von Sydow) who is emperor of Mongo, a planet that is an imperial police state much like Nazi Germany. The group get caught up in an adventure to bring about the downfall of the evil Ming. This flick is a lot of fun if you go along for the very cheesy ride that it is. The design of the film is pleasing to the eye with bright colors very reminiscent of the comic books but this is not for little children as there is some elements that might be scary to a child and there is a fair amount of sexuality. It also stars Timothy Dalton and fanboys will spot many others from various sci-fi flicks in this one. Check it out–this is a good time!

Until next time….Peace—

This film by M. Night Shyamalan was his follow up to the very successful-”The Sixth Sense” and debuted in theaters in November of 2000. This film did not enjoy the success of it’s predecessor but it is M. Night’s best film in my opinion but considering that it explores the mythology of comic books and I’m a comic book guy of course I’m going to dig it.

The original script by M. Night originally encompassed a comic book’s traditional 3 part structure of the birth of the superhero, the struggle against general villains and then the big confrontation and battle with the arch enemy. He found the “birth” more interesting so he based the movie solely on that. The film stars Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Robin Wright Penn and M. Night really delves into the “devices” of the comic book world such as use of color for characterization, how opposite the hero and the villain are and even a subtle use of alliteration in the name of the main character–David Dunn much like we have Peter Parker, Clark Kent and Bruce Banner. This is a flick worth checking out but remember that it is very subtle. Don’t expect special effects and flashy costumes. This is a very realistic take on superheroes and it is done extremely well.

Until next time…Peace–

“What if you had to tell someone the most important thing in the world, but you knew no matter what they wouldn’t believe you?”

By way of Wikipedia:

Denzel Washington plays Doug Carlin, an ATF offical who is called in to recover evidence in the investigation of a New Orleans ferry bombing. After finding evidence that shows it was terrorism, Doug finds the body of Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton), staged to look as if she too died in the bombing. Investigating the possible lead, Doug heads to her house to gather evidence. While there, he discovers blood soaked gauze and towels and a message on her refrigerator saying “U CAN SAVE HER.” Upon playing back the messages on her answering machine, he finds out that she called his office shortly before the bombing. Also, although he had gloves on, his colleagues tell him that he has been careless, leaving lots of fingerprints in the house.

Confused, he helps the FBI with the ferry investigation and finds out his partner was also killed in the bombing even though his partner was apparently away on vacation. FBI Agent Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer) recruits him to participate in a special task force, in the process revealing a futuristic device that allows one to observe anywhere four days and six hours in the past.

According to the investigative team’s explanation, the device (which is supposedly a composite of satellite images and other surveillance) can not be fast forwarded or rewound due to the immense volumes of data being streamed. In other words, the team has a single opportunity to look into the past before the data is lost. Pryzwarra’s team asks Doug to show them where to look in order to catch the culprit responsible for the ferry bombing.

This movie is what I call simple Saturday afternoon entertainment. It has a decent cast of stars, a halfway decent plot/story, but most important, an ending that wasn’t that bad.

Another beautiful movie from brilliant director Guillermo del Toro (Hell Boy). One of the most creative in this business, del Toro caught me off guard with this intriguing story. His incredible gift of storytelling and imaginative eye will surprise you. Netflix this one, even if you’re not into fantasy because the story is simply phenomenal.