Narrated by the now grown-up Adam Goldberg, he recalls his family tales via his own videotaped history.
Adam and his older brother Barry and oldest sister Erica live in their ranch-style home with their furniture-salesman father, Murray, and s-mother, Beverly.
Into its second season, there are some great scene stealers by Barry (played by Troy Gentile) and the family s-mother (played by Wendy McLendon-Covey).
Possibly one of my favorite episodes was Kara-te. Barry, convinced, he is a karate expert because he endlessly watches Karate Kid and KickBoxer, decides to wow the High School Talent Show with his self-taught moves. Troy Gentile, as Barry, is so over-the-top self-involved that instead of cringing in empathetic embarrassment, I just sit back and laugh at his delusions of grandeure and then hope he wins the school show.
Rugby shirts, warm-ups, leg warmers and VHS all make their appropriate appearance.
This is a sharp, snarky romcom that takes a look at today's high school culture that, despite its 21st century facade of liberalism, has an untapped, hidden puritanical agenda.
A modern-day twist on The Scarlet Letter, Emma Stone plays Olive, who belongs to the invisible clique--the kind of girl who goes unnoticed.
Until one day, she makes up a whollop of a tale to get out of going on a camping trip with her best friend's bizarre family. She tells a tale of her own deflowering, which then spreads like wildfire through out the school, turning her into the school skank.
The next thing Olive knows, she is getting propositioned by nerd-boys to pretend to sleep with them so that their own reputation will be enhanced.
Funny, sad and full of teen-age angst, I was pleased at how smart it was. Probably one of my favorite scenes was when they did a montage tribute to all the great John Hughes movies.
Thomas Hadyn Church, Lisa Kudrow, Sam Tucci and Patricia Clarkson brought some great talent to the table.
It was odd, I was talking about the movie Dick Tracy today. Remember that movie? They combined animation with real people? I loved that movie for being so innovative, smart and funny.
Combining film, with comic "Batman Show"-type sound ballons--think "BAM!", "THUNK!"-- and video gaming animation and you get the idea.
The story, which I believe is losely based upon Pilgrim's Progress (tho don't hold me to that since I have not yet read it), is about Scott's battle with the evil seven exes of his new girlfriend.
Each time he takes one down, he earns the right to move on to the next level and move closer to his heart's desire.
The movie is hilariously over the top. Smart, funny and edgey, be prepared for lots of loud music and young, cultural references.
Oh, also worthy of note: the new word these days is "scandalous". I heard it no less than three times in three different movies. Plus, I heard it last night at a bar. As in, "these women are scandalous", meaning that they are edging very close to skanky. Too funny!
Just got back from the latest cinematographic attempt to lure prepubescent males into the theaters and, yes, it was my idea.
About a kid who wants to know why know one actually becomes a super hero, he decides to go for it.
He buys a green and yellow scuba suit and a pair of stick weapons and starts looking for trouble.
And he finds it in spades.
This movie is hilariously funny, wrought with the raunchiness of teen-age boys, blood lust and waves of unexpected violence--so unexpected my friend actually screamed.
The movie's violence and premise is outrageously ingenious and at times almost too horrific to watch. In many ways, the movie reminded me of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill but without the cultural references. Well, I guess it did if you were an adolescent boy.
But no parent in their right mind would let their kid see this. Of course, that's never stopped kids before.
So beware. But also be ready to laugh your ass off.
In an effort to ride of wave of Seth Rogen and Will Ferrell's low-brow bromances, here comes "I Love You, Man" starring Paul Rudd.
Although I do like Paul Rudd, I think he sold his soul to the devil to make this movie.
Yeah, there were some funny spots that did have me laughing out loud. Really. When Rudd is posing in his tux, I was cracking up. The whole story about his boy/friend Sydney's dog, Anwar Sadat was funny.
But in all fairness to the fairer sex and to any form of intelligent life that still remains out there in moviewatcher-land, this is not one of the movies that you want to go see.
Perhaps, as a chick, I am a little biased. Perhaps, as an older, more literary woman, this movie is beyond me.
But I don't think so. I like "The Big Lebowski". I thought "Hungover" was actually really funny. I count "Wayne's World" as one of my favorite movies. But this movie just got silly towards the end and the last 5 minutes were painful.
Another one of Jennifer Anniston's bittersweet single woman out-on-her-own romances, Anniston, as Sue, continues to explore the span between a young working woman's defeated ambitions and almost shameful yearnings for protection and love.
In this movie Steve Zahn plays Mike, a hapless manager at his parent's roadside motel. Only one step shy of creepy Bateman-type stalkerness, Zahn gets one good roll in the hay with Anniston and he is head over heels.
Traipsing from Arizona to Maryland to Washington, Zahn pursues Anniston's character with a boyish sweetness. Oddly, the movie follows more of his character arc than Anniston's.
With some truly funny scenes between James Hiroyuki Liao and Zahn, reminding me a bit of Harold & Kumar Go To Whitecastle, the movie also stars Fred Ward and Woody Harrelson.
I thought Pitt did an excellent job--I loved his bravado and his accent. A cross between John Wayne and Clark Gable, he was the funniest thing going. The plot was just silly, tho--a movie about wishful thinking and alternative histories.
The people who were laughing are predisposed to Tarantino. No matter what he says or does, to these folks, he's golden.
I was waiting for a spectacular soundtrack and was, again, disappointed.
Tarantino had his time in the sun. Now the sun has set and it is nightfall. He needs to stop while he's ahead.
I won't see another Tarantino. Not unless he really changes his ways.
Clive Owen stars in this charming story about British prisoners who landscape their way to redemption.
Incarcerated in a high-security prison, after 15 years, Colin Briggs, played by Owen, is transferred to a low-security prison to learn a trade. Hardened by guilt, he refuses to participate until his elderly roommate gives him a packet of violets as a Christmas present.
Colin carelessly plants this seeds in the middle of winter and forgets about them until some other prisoners nearly trample the violets during a soccer game.
He fights to defend his flowers and, in the midst of this battle, he suddenly realizes he wants to garden. One day, out of the blue, his little prison garden is championed by renowned gardener Georgina Woodhouse, played by Helen Mirren.
A charming tale based upon the true story of Her Majesty's Prison Leyhill in the Cotswolds, the real prison actually has won two which won several prizes for their garden prions.
So named for its predominantly widowed population, Mrs. Doyle-Counihan, played by Joan Plowright, governs the town with an iron fist.
With hilarious character actors Jim Broadbent as a smitten dentist and Anne Kent as Mrs. Doyle-Counihan's agressive female driver, there are plenty of laughs.
The shabby widow Miss O'Hare (Judith Plowright) and the newly arrived and seductive Edwina Broome (Natasha Richardson) take an instant dislike to one another. Broome is convinced that O'Hare hates her and is plotting to destroy her. O'Hare is convinced that Broome is trying to kill her.
Who is right? Who is harming whom? What evil is at the secretive root of it all?
I had semi-guessed it but was still a bit surprised by the ending. It was an enjoyable way to spend the evening.
After watching Hilary Duff in War, Inc. (reviewed earlier) and her next big gig as Bonnie Parker in The Story of Bonnie and Clyde, I was curious about her previous acting career . So I watched The Cinderella Story.
Light fare with a "GrlPower" message, the script is riddled with lines like "We have faith in you. You gotta have faith in yourself." Definitely movie with Duff's target audience in mind, it follows the Cinderella Story but has given it a decidedly pro-female twist.
Austin Ames' (Chad Michael Murray) character is pretty shallow; but having a 17-year old nephew, I don't think Chad Michael Murray missed the mark and did a passable job.
Jennifer Coolidge, as the evil stepmother Fiona, always delivers a robust, over-the-top performance that have all we come to expect and love.
Hilary Duff, too, gave a solid performance, hitting her cues and delivering believable emotions. I am curious to see if she can move past her Shirley Temple phase and make the huge leap from teen star to adult actor. Its a scary jump and the chasm is littered with others who have failed.
The film is sweet, not too thought-provoking and has a nice message film for your teen-age girls. There's no harm in this movie and its mildly entertaining.
I just kind of wished that the boy had more backbone. But then, girls mature faster, don't they?
The HBO series, Entourage, is like a dream come true for high school kids that don't want to grow up.
Three kids from Queens make to LA on one of their buddy's back. Blessed with "face, talent, and a big head", Vince Chase (Adrian Grenier) is one of the new stars on the Hollywood scene.
The series opens as Vince previews his third movie. His buddies, Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly), Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and his brother Johnnie Drama Chase (Kevin Dillon) live with him, travel with him and do everything him: choose his films, run his errands, cook his meals, keep him company. They are--as indicated by the series title--his entourage.
Jeremy Piven plays his sex-crazed agent who is always looking to score new talent. Constantly scamming, he is sleaze in a suit.
I don't know.
I laughed a couple of times but, really, its a little too masturbatory for me. Girls mean nothing. They live for nothing. They do nothing.
It just seems kind of empty and immature.
I'm sure the Hollywood folks love it because its about the biz and behind the scenes and they get to watch for little cameos of one another.
Its all seems pretty narcissistic. Maybe that's the joke--they all know its narcissistic and the show's making fun of it. But I just think of all the people that are watching and how they get so hung up on the "truth" of it all.
So I had to see this, seeing as he starred in it, co-wrote it and produced it.
He's just so damned cute. and it was pretty funny, too.
War, Inc. is a political satire, Brand Hauser (Cusack)--don't you love his name?--walks onto the scene to the tune of a whistlin' Western song, strolls through town and makes his way to the local Greenland saloon.
He sits at the bar, orders a shot glass, fills it with triple-A grade hot sauce, slams it down, then shoots a bullet hole into the side of a German's head, taking down a row of Germans like a bunch of dominoes.
So the movie opens and we see Cusack reprising his role of a disenfranchised assassin. The opening credits warn us of what is coming, the rebuilding of a mythical country, Turaquistan, destroyed by a war funded by a corporation, now to be rebuilt by that same corporation.
Hauser is hired to kill the soon-to-be president of the newly rebuilt company. His cover? Oversee the company's opening ceremony to introduce their new brand of freedom.
But plans quickly fall awry when Brand, while being chaperoned by his colleague in crime Marsha Dillon (played by the ubiquitous and always funny Joan Cusack), spots the lovely reporter Natalie Hegalhuzen (played by Marisa Tomei) and Yonica Babyyeah (played by Hilary Duff) spots him.
Funny, clever and ridiculous, some of my favorite bits were the relationship forged between Hauser and is OnStar guide (played by Montel Williams), Hauser's explanation for why he drinks tobasco sauce and Hauser's final conversation with Turaquistan's would-be president Omar Sharif.
Marisa Tomei is always delightful. Hilary Duff does a passible and even entertaining take on a Middle Eastern version of Britney Spears -- her performance of "Blow Me Up" is nothing short of explosive. Ben Kingsley and Dan Aykroyd have small, entertaining but important roles.
A little emerald in the sea of movies.
Best quote: Did you know that the word "person" comes from the Latin word "persona", which means mask? So maybe being human means we invite spectators to ponder what lies behind. Each of us will be composed of a variety of masks, and if we can see behind the mask, we would get a burst of clarity. And if that flame was bright enough, that's when we fall in love. What's your opinion on these divine matters?
