Miss - Adam Sandler, Tea Leoni, Paz Vega, Cloris Leachman

This film lacked a solid plot and cohesive storyline. Spanglish is a “slice of life” film detailing the relationships between a poor immigrant mother, her young daughter and their rich white employers. The entire film is set within the framework of the daughter’s (Shelbie Bruce) college admission essay to Princeton and based on her questionable citizenship status I’m not sure how that is going to end up.

Tea Leoni (as Deborah Clasky) delivers an over the top neurotic characterization of a 100% self involved Brentwood career “woman” who recently lost her job and has decided to be a stay at home mom. In fact her character is so brazenly ignorant to the feelings of those around her that she becomes single dimensional and sucks what little chance this film had of being a realistic snapshot of life into a bottomless void. Weaksauce attempts at cooking up moving dialog and strong relationships fail horribly.

Adam Sandler delivers a palatable performance, but he has to move beyond simply changing the volume of his voice to represent different emotions.

This film offered a single glimmer of hope in the portrayal of Deborah’s alcoholic mother by Cloris Leachman. Paz Vega provides mostly eye candy, but I won’t make a full judgment of her at this time because this film doesn’t exactly give any of the actors an opportunity to refine their craft in a new and meaningful way.

The bottom line is I don’t recommend this one for viewing in theatres or rental, but if it happens to be on while you are stuck in a transatlantic airplane flight then I be strong you will persevere because at least it was better than Raising Helen.

Best Scene: Grandma (Leachman) giving singing lessons to her grandson.

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and brief language.
Comedy
Running Time: 2 hours 8 minutes

Photo © Columbia Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Hit - Starring Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Barbara Streisand, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo,Robert De Niro

Two years after their engagement Gaylord and Pam still haven’t set a wedding date. Pam’s family insists on meeting the Fockers before giving their blessing. Therefore, it is time to meet the Fockers.

Who would have thought that things could get any worse for Gaylord? This movie goes over the top with embarrassing moments for Greg/Gaylord Focker(Stiller). In this second installment of Meet the Parents, title characters - the Fockers, provide some fun situational comedy. Barbara Streisand and Dustin Hoffman are perfectly cast as Greg’s quirky parents. The actors of this film provide nice comedic timing and physical antics… but, this movie really revolves around sexual and bathroom humor. Every joke is somehow related to one of these two areas, which you may find play well with an older audience. Those of us under the age of 33 may find this movie has mild moments of laughter, whereas, those of us older than 33 may find this movie to keep you laughing the entire time. Bottom Line: Pretty much as good as the first.

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and a brief drug reference.
Comedy
Running Time: 1 hour 54 minutes

Photo © Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Miss (an unfortunate event) - Starring Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Jude Law, Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, Shelby and Kara Hoffman, Billy Connolly, Catherine O’Hara

Based on the stories by Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events follows the unfortunate events of the Baudelaire children. Three wealthy children lose their parents in a large house fire and are sent to live with a distant relative of theirs, Count Olaf (Carrey). Count Olaf plans to kill the children and steal their fortune to avoid having to raise the children on his own. When the children are taken out of Olaf’s custody, he creates new and interesting characters to get them back. Which is all part of his plan to obtain their fortune.

I have not read any of the Unfortunate Event books but I found this movie to be visually stimulating with excellent acting. The events in the story and the story itself were not compelling enough to keep me entertained and interested. After some time I found that this movie had a lot of different circles. We would start at one point, and come full circle to an unfortunate event, and then wind up exactly where we started. This really means that the movie took the audience nowhere. A new title for this movie could be: A Series of recurring Unfortunate Events. Yikes.

Here is a comment taken from IMDB.com from Shelly Hall, a woman who has read the books and feels: “After reading the fantastically tragic, Series of Unfortunate Events, I was eager to see the movie as soon as it was released. When I left the theatre, however, I felt a profound sense of disappointment. Huge holes were left out of the story line, events were mixed up, and the whole delightful sarcasm Lemony Snicket infuses into his books [was] lost somewhere along the way. I nearly gagged at the oh-so-typical Hollywood ending, where they all live happily ever after. It was no wonder when I heard that the producers hadn’t liked Lemony Snicket’s original script, and had hired someone else to write a more typically Hollywood script. If you have never read the books, and you like Jim Carrey, you might enjoy it. If you’re a fan of the books, don’t waste your time,” (IMDB.com).

After seeing this movie, and not reading the books I have this to say… Bottom Line: Wasting money on this movie would be an Unfortunate Event.

Best Scene: Anything with the hypochondriac Aunt Josephine.

Rated PG for thematic elements, scary situations and brief language.
Dramedy
Running Time: 1 hour 53 minutes

Photo © Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

To see the nominee’s for this year’s Golden Globe Awards click here.

Miss Movies Predicitons for this years Golden Globe Awards as of 12/19/2004

Best Picture Drama: Finding Neverland
Best Picture Musical or Comedy: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Ray

Best Actor Drama: Johnny Depp - Finding Neverland
Best Actor Musical or Comedy: The obvious choice - Jamie Foxx - Ray

Best Actress Drama: Currently conflicted over the choices
Best Actress Musical or Comedy: Kate Winslet - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Supporting Actor: David Carradine - Kill Bill vol. 2Supporting Actress: Natalie Portman - Closer

Best Screenplay: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Charlie Kaufman

Best Original Song: The Polar Express - Believe
Best Original Score: Finding Neverland - Jan A.P. Kaczmarek

Best Foreign Language Film: The House of Flying Daggers (Shi mian mai fu - Hong Kong)

Best television drama: 24
Best television series musical or comedy: Desperate Housewives
Best mini-series or made for tv movie: The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

Best actor in a television series musical or comedy: Zach Braff - Scrubs
Best actress in a television series musical or comedy: Terri Hatcher - Desperate HousewivesBest actor in a supporting role for a television series: Jeremy Piven - Entourage

Photo courtesy of www.hfpa.org

Hit- Wesley Snipes, Ryan Reynolds, Jessica Biel, Kris Kristofferson, Dominic Purcell, Parker Posey, Natasha Lyonne

Blade has been able to stay under the radar of the FBI… until now. In order to save himself, and still maintain a lifestyle of killing vampires, Blade must join forces with the Nightstalkers to take down his most powerful enemy to date: Dracula.

Blade is a edge of your seat movie that takes the audience on a adventurous journey. I have not seen the first two Blade films but I really enjoyed this third installment. The introduction of new characters, Hannibal King (played by Reynolds), and Abigail Whistler (played by Biel) adds a nice flare to the movie, and it also allows this new installment to play towards a younger crowd.

I never thought there would be a “poor man’s Jason Lee,” but Ryan Reynolds certainly plays his character of Hannibal similar to the style in which Jason Lee would. I would love to see these actors in a film together, the outcome would humorous. Jessica Biel does a great job of kicking booty, but after seeing Uma Thurman in Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2, I realize that no actress can live up to the way that she seriously kicked booty and took names. Bottom line: This is a great vampire movie for those who like that particular genre. Overall, great action and nice weaponry work.

Best Scene: When Hannibal has a showdown against the “dogs.”
*See Comments for more other Blade: Trinity review insights*

Rated R for strong pervasive violence and language, and some sexual content.
Action / Science Fiction
Running Time: 1 hour 53 minutes

Photos © New Line Cinema. All Rights Reserved.

For a good laugh click here.

Hit (so far, so good)- Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Elliot Gould, Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, Don Cheadle, Shaobo Qin, Carl Reiner, Eddie Jemison, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones-Douglas

Danny Ocean (Clooney) is back and he is in search of one more team member to pull off three major European heists. Three years after their Ocean’s Eleven heist, Ocean’s Twelve is brought out of retirement to pay back a very persuasive Benedict (Garcia). Even though Benedict received all of his money back from insurance, he is still a greedy bastard. Other characters of note that make their quest more difficult: the beautiful and smart Europol agent (Zeta-Jones) who has a link to Rusty (Pitt), and the mysterious well-known French thief called “Night Fox.” And all the while: Ocean’s Twelve is running out of time to pull off the biggest heist ever.

This movie does not offer much in terms of understanding more about each character (because there are too many) but I particularly like the fact that the movie has delved into the character of Linus (Damon). We are seeing more of Linus and his need to be a principle character in the heist, and I really liked where this is going. The introduction of characters and their need to pull off another heist was lengthy. This movie went horribly bad when Julia Roberts plays Julia Roberts. This could have been better executed by having Julia Roberts play a fictional movie star.

I didn’t take this movie too seriously because I understand that it was not made to be a good film, rather it was made to make a lot of money, which is just what it did. But, overall I found this movie to be mindless abbreviated entertainment.

Best Scene: The unveiling of the real heist.

Rated PG-13 for language.
Comedy
Running Time: 2 hours

Photo © Warner Bros. Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Now all USC needs is a National Championship win.

Is Heritage Hall big enough for 6 Heisman trophies?

Do you think Mike Williams would have been in the running for the Heisman if circumstances were different?

Photo courtesy of www.wearesc.com

…and now, back to movies…

To see what movies will be showing in theatres this December click here.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Aviator, Closer, Meet the Fockers, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Ocean’s 12

Photos © Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures, All Rights Reserved.

Extending the Streak

…and Happy Birthday Alan Chang!

Photo © The Cosmic Giggle. All Rights Reserved.