Entrapment (1999)

Director: Jon Amiel

Writers: Ronald Bass, Michael Hertzberg, William Broyles Jr.

Composer: Christopher Young

Starring: Sean Conery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ving Rhames, Will Patten, Maury Chaykin, Kevin McNally, Terry O'Neill, Madhav Sharma, David Yip, Tim Potter

More info: IMDB

Tagline: Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. Then again, practice makes perfect.

Plot: An insurance agent is sent by her employer to track down and help capture an art thief.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Nah.  Twice is fine.

The last time I saw this was in the theater.  I liked it but it left me feeling like it was missing something.  Having just watched it again, I've got that same feeling.  I like the idea behind heist pictures but it's really hard to get them just right (for met, that is).  First of all you've got to like the characters who are pulling off the job.  Then you've got to like the reasons why they're doing it.  The final biggie in a successful heist film is the heist itself, not only in it's cinematic execution but it's also got to be believable.  Modern heist films tend to fail in the latter category because the tech is too technical (over-thought) or it's ridiculously over-the-top in that way of you've-got-to-be-fucking-kidding-me.  ENTRAPMENT falls in the middle of that.  Stealing a tenth of a second (OK, it could be done I suppose), the intricate ballet of traversing through the laser beam field and so on.  The ending isn't as exciting as it should have been but it felt less important of a set piece than for what it served to get the characters to the conclusion.  Connery and Jones are very good and they've got great chemistry. 

The ending caught me by surprise (thanks to a crappy memory I'd forgotten most of the film) and I dug it.  It would probably seem a shame to do anything differently considering these two actors worked so well together.  Christopher Young's score was nice and beefy and the location shooting delivered great eye candy.  I dig the picture but there's that one little something that I can't put my finger on that's keeping me from rating it higher and letting my future self to watch it again.  I think I'd rather give another heist movie I haven't seen a shot before returning to this one even if that's 16 years from now.  The 20th Century Fox special edition DVD comes with a nice anamorphic widescreen transfer of the film, a neat menu where you can choose to view the DVD options normally, in night vision or in 3D view.  That's pretty cool.  The extras you get are the director's commentary, two deleted scenes with optional director's commentary, an alternate ending (which is a much better and emotional than what was used in the film), two trailers (both non-anamorphic widescreen), five TV spots (all non-anamorphic) and a 13-minute featurette which is largely a fluff piece wasting much of its time with clips from the film.

Presidential Bloopers (1999)

Director: ???

Writers: Lorna Anozie, Mike Jerrick

Composer: ???

Starring: Mike Jerrick

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A hilarious look at our nation's leaders

Plot: A look back at some of the funniest presidential moments in history.

My rating: 4/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Bloopers are fun.  Seeing political leaders screw up is even better because most of them are full of shit most of the time.  If you like that obnoxious show AMERICA'S FUNNIEST VIDEOS then you're going to love this.  I didn't and it's not because of the content.  It's the horrendous cartoon-y sound effects, silly music and stupid commentary by the host.  I'd rather watch the funny bits on their own merit.  This video also repeats clips which isn't necessary when you've only got 42 minutes to fill.  And there's more than a few clips that aren't even bloopers but instead are well-known politicians (mostly presidents and vice-presidents) cracking wise. That's all fine and good but with all of the other obnoxious things this video presents it just adds up to either a desperation to fill 42 minutes or a lack of talent in the production team.  Ronald Reagan comes off best overall.  He's hilarious.  Seeing Nixon play the piano for Pearl Bailey and hang out with Sammy Davis Jr. was a hoot and the bit with Chris Farley and Newt Gingrich was a riot.   Fortunately you don't have to pony-up the dough for the Time Life DVD to watch it, just check it out on YouTube above.  And I'm sure you can find every single clip from this video online and without the bullshit noises added for this release. 

Tank Battalion (1958)

Director: Sherman A. Rose

Writers: Richard Bernstein, George Waters

Composer: Richard LaSalle

Starring: Don Kelly, Leslie Parrish, Edward G. Robinson Jr., Frank Gorshin, Regina Gleason, BarBara Luna, Robert Paget, Mark Sheeler, Baynes Barron, Tetsu Komai, John Trigonis, Don Devlin, Troy Patterson, Warren Crosby

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Terrible in War. Tender in Love. Battleground Heroes Busting Thru!

Plot: Four men in their tank, during the Korean War in 1951, find themselves behind enemy lines.

My rating:  5.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Clocking in at 80 minutes this very low budget B-war picture has more drama than war action.  The budget really shows when you see how cheap the interior set is for the tank.  Much of the exterior tank action is either stock footage or an actual tank used for the film that pretty much sits in one place until the end when it moves forward a few feet.  Sorry about the spoilers there.  There's no tank battalion either.  It's four guys in one tank.  That's it.  One of the four is Edward G. Robinson Jr. who's only in the cast because of his famous pop and his performance is very wooden (much like dad's when he was conceiving junior...OH!).  Frank Gorshin has his moments.  I love that guy.  There's a lot of war movie cliches that involve romance and action.  BarBara Luna as the local native girl is smokin' hot and judging by her photos in films she played over the years, she keeps getting hotter.  Hubba Hubba.  The ending is ridiculous as the three or so Korean soldiers who have the tank pinned down are dispensed of far too easily.  The movie wants it both ways, having them good enough to keep a tank at bay for hours on end then then be killed in a moment that's about as ridiculous as it gets.  They could see it coming a mile away.  Just watch the last couple of minutes and you'll see.  It's on Netflix streaming but you can see it in its entirety on YouTube above.  It's a cheap war drama with some action that's hardly worth wasting 80 minutes for.

Shattered (2007)

Original title: Butterfly on a Wheel

Director: Mike Barker

Writer: William Morrissey

Composer: Robert Duncan

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Maria Bello, Gerard Butler, Emma Karwandy, Claudette Mink, Desiree Zurowski, Nicholas Lea, Peter Keleghan, Samantha Ferris

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  Lives will be broken

Plot:  A perfect family's dynamic is ruined by a kidnapper's brutally efficient plot.



My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

The good?  The first twenty minutes or so of what the fuck is going on here and why is Pierce Brosnan doing this to these people and the balls out great fucking ending.  The not so good?  Most of what's in between.  I was bored halfway through and contemplated cutting my losses and watching something else but, as always, I stuck with it.  When it's revealed near the end that Tom (Brosnan) was fucking with this family because the husband, Tom's victim Neil (Butler), had been fucking his wife Judy (Mink), I threw my hands up.  Really?  All of Tom's psychological torture of Neil and Neil's wife Abby (Bello) was all because of this?  OK.  Fine.  At that point I wouldn't have gone any more than giving this a 5/10 but then something happened.  On the way back home from Tom & Judy's house where the shit went down hard in the big, final blowout, Neil is doing everything he can to smooth things over (through lying about the affair) with Abby.  The thing is, she's known about it for a while and she and Tom worked together to royally fuck with their cheating whore spouses.  FUCK YEAH!!!  Oh, wait, the mid section wasn't nearly as good as it should have been.  Sure, the mystery as to why Tom is doing this is all over the place but it felt like it wasn't as thought out as it should have been or perhaps it just wasn't as effective or entertaining as it should have been considering they had a great kick in the guts ending.  It might, just might, be a little fun to watch it a second time, knowing that Abby is in on the prank but I don't have the patience now to find out.  The Lionsgate DVD has a good deal of extras including two featurettes (Breaking Apart the Wheel and Hero to Villain (22 minutes total between both)), a commentary with the director and writer, 2 deleted scenes, 3 alternate scenes and some trailers (none of which belong to this film).

A League of Their Own (1992)

Director: Penny Marshall

Writers: Kim Wilson, Kelly Candaele, Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel

Composer: Hans Zimmer

Starring: Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Megan Cavanagh, Tracy Reiner, Bitty Schram, Ann Cusack, Anne Ramsey, Freddie Simpson, Renee Coleman, David Strathairn, Gary Marshall, Jon Lovitz, Bill Pullman, Rea Leoni, Harry Shearer, David L. Lander

More info: IMDb

Tagline: To achieve the incredible you have to attempt the impossible.

Plot: Two sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amidst their own growing rivalry.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

I haven't seen this in probably 20 years and it's better than I remembered.  Penny Marshall knocked this one out of the park.  Not only does it have great drama, performances, writing, scoring, but it's hilarious and the ending is touching as hell.  I can't recall having ever seen Madonna act well in a movie but she's great in this one.  Hell, just about the entire cast is fantastic.  For as much as I LOVE Jon Lovitz, I wish he would have toned down his schtick in this picture.  The pacing is great, especially for a film that's over two hours long.  Oh, and the editing is well done, particularly during the montages.  I really dig this picture.  I'm not one to want to watch a sports movie but pictures like this can just keep coming my way.  The two-disc Columbia Special Edition DVD has both the widescreen and fullscreen versions of the film and comes with a commentary track with the director and some of the cast, 15 deleted scenes with an optional intro from Marshall (and a play all feature), a 52 minute making of feature, Madonna's music video for "This Used to Be My Playground", and sports-themed trailers for BRIAN'S SONG (fullscreen), A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN and THE NATURAL (both non-anamorphic widescreen).

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Director: Wes Anderson

Writers: Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson

Starring: Gene Hackman, Angelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, Seymour Cassel, Kumar Pallana, Alec Baldwin

Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Family Isn't A Word... It's A Sentence.

Plot:  An estranged family of former child prodigies reunites when their father announces he is terminally ill.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

With a cast like this it's a no-brainer.  They're all wonderfully odd in their own way.  It's not as magical and delightful a picture as his most recent two films but this was Anderson's third picture and you can tell with each film he gets better and better. I dig the guy's style.  There are a few out of nowhere belly laughs but the film is more of a light, quirky drama considering the issues I guess.  It's a fun watch but if you've already seen MOONRISE KINGDOM (2012) or THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (2014), shake them out of your system before (re)visiting this one.  It's been ages since I saw this but I do have a better respect for the picture than I did all those years ago.  I dig the picture but I've seen it twice now and if I'm going to re-visit some Wes Anderson someday, it'll be something else. The Criterion 2 DVD set has a ton of great extras.

The Enemy (2001)

Director: Tom Kinninmont

Writers: Desmond Bagley, John Penney

Composer: Gast Waltzing

Starring: Luke Perry, Olivia d'Abo, Roger Moore, Horst Buchholz, Tom Conti, Hendrick Haese, Louisa Milwood-Haigh, James Carroll Jordan, Bruce MacEwen, Guido Molinaro

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  A family secret. A government cover-up.

Plot: A CIA agent and a geneticist battle to keep a deadly biological weapon from falling into the wrong hands when the weapon's inventor is kidnapped.

My rating: 3/10

Will I watch it again? No.

I was in the mood for some Roger Moore.  Netflix is piss poor in carrying his films but this is one of the two or so non-Bond pictures on Netflix Moore made and it's just awful.  He's good but the rest of the cast has moments of over-acting or just plain bad performances.  The thing is they're all capable of doing better but here it's as if they were told to cartoon it up for the folks who don't know what the word 'subtle' means.  I can't blame them too much as the dialogue and situations are often silly and hokey.  It's amateurish all the way around from in front of the camera to behind it and beyond to the point that some of it will make you laugh unintentionally.  There's nothing thrilling or interesting about it and everything smacks of 'we've got $100 k to make a picture with and if we don't spend it within 30 days we'll lose it'.  Put this in the category of things that shouldn't exist.  Don't waste your time.  I only finished it because I always hope that something will ultimately redeem it and because it's got Roger Moore.