film
06/11/2007
THE TEN: Watch out for bolts of lightning
From the minds behind The State and Wet Hot American Summer comes this collection of vignettes about the Ten Commandments, narrated by indie dreamboat Paul Rudd. The cast is impressive (and large), with everybody from dramatic heavy-hitters like Liev Schreiber and Oliver Platt to youthful eye candy like Jessica Alba and Adam Brody. But more importantly, it's a comedy that might actually be funny.
With Schrieber coveting his neighbor's CAT scan machine, Ken Marino as a surgeon who murders "as a goof," and -- going by the uncensored trailer up at DotComedy -- what looks like an awful lot of dick jokes, this movie looks like a pretty good time.
12/19/2006
Rocky Balboa - Old Man Fight
Clearly, with tomorrow's release of Rocky Balboa, Hollywood is telling us that there is no franchise too dead and rotting to resurrect. Movies like Rocky Balboa, Live Free or Die Hard, and Basic Instinct 2 are like a new breed of zombie film, only this time the puffy, botox-ridden movie stars are eating away at your brains in an entirely different manner- through your own nostalgia.
I've only seen one Rocky film, and it was called Rocky. It was a simple underdog story made poignant only because he lost the big match but still found self-respect and the love of a dorky pet store girl. Was it better than All The President's Men, Network and Taxi Driver which it trounced at the '77 Oscars? Hell no.However, despite my wariness of Rocky Balboa's senior citizen bout, the early press has been resoundingly positive. Not to mention, one Daily Reel contributor has been threatening to be first in line on opening day for the past 3 weeks. But will he be first in line for Rambo IV: Pearl of the Cobra when it arrives next Fall? Doubtful. I, for one, will remain in my tower with my sawed-off shotgun, ready to take these franchise zombies out at any cost.
