Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 03/24/2009 Run time: 108 minutes Rating: Pg13 
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/04/2007 Run time: 102 minutes Rating: Pg13 
An unconvincing exercise in moral complexity, 21 is based on Ben Mezrich's book Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions. Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) plays brilliant, blue-collar scholar Ben Campbell, whose doubts that he'll win a scholarship to Harvard Medical School compel him to join a secret, M.I.T. gang of math whiz kids. Under the silky but chilling command of a math professor (Kevin Spacey), Jim and the others master card counting, i.e., the statistical analysis of cards dealt in blackjack games. The team lives a humdrum existence during the week, but on weekends in Sin City, the students are rolling in cash, going to exclusive clubs, and feeling on top of the world. (Ben even gets the girl: a comely, fellow counter played by Kate Bosworth.) Despite all that success, Ben feels ethically compromised, and indeed director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde), in the old tradition of American movies, plays it both ways where fun vices are concerned. On the one hand, it feels so good; on the other, ahem, we know it's wrong. That studied ambivalence proves wearing after a while, making the most interesting character in the film a casino watchdog played by Laurence Fishburne. A master at reading the emotions of gamblers beating the house with a scam, he's admirable for being good at his job, but repellent for wrecking the faces of counters in casino dungeons. He's all about moral complexity in the tradition of anti-heroes, and a truly provocative element in an otherwise superficial movie. —Tom Keogh 
Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 10/26/2004 Run time: 585 minutes Rating: Nr 
Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 06/06/2006 Run time: 1015 minutes Rating: Nr 
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 06/03/2003 Run time: 60 minutes Rating: Nr |
Katherine Heigl is delightful as Jane, a self-effacing Gal Friday so addicted to organizing weddings in her off time, that 27 Dresses opens with her character juggling two nuptials on the same night. A perpetual bridesmaid, Jane's hobby is discovered by a matrimony reporter named Kevin (James Marsden), who hides a romantic side behind his wall of cynicism. While Kevin gradually develops feelings for Jane, the latter's superficial sister, Tess (Malin Akerman), pursues George (Edward Burns), Jane's boss and the object of her love. This romantic circle could go on forever, except that Jane is unexpectedly moved by Kevin despite her general irritation with him and without knowing that he's on the verge of sandbagging her with a ridiculing article in his newspaper. The situation is absurd, but the emotions are not. Heigl is very good, rooted in a long tradition of comely comediennes playing characters who fly under the radar of life. She makes Jane's pain palpable and conveys her character's inability to say no without making her look unappealing or weak. Marsden perfectly captures the part of a rumpled, underdressed writer with repressed passions, Akerman is as convincingly shrewish here as she was in The Heartbreak Kid, and Burns is fine as one of those guys so busy saving the world he barely pays attention to the people in his life. The script by Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) is fun if predictable, and Anne Fletcher's direction is vibrant. —Tom Keogh 
Before the action-oriented "buddy movie" formula settled into place in the 1980s and 1990s with the Lethal Weapon films, Walter Hill's 48 HRS. presented a much more irreverent and politically incorrect version of the genre. Eddie Murphy made an auspicious film debut alongside veteran Nick Nolte's consummate performance as a worn cop. Murphy plays a convict on a two-day furlough from prison to help capture his former partner (James Remar). The intense animosity between his character and Nolte's impatient detective is rude and violent—albeit in a comic way—and the film's racist and sexist banter is so ubiquitous that some viewers might be turned off. (This early, raw Murphy is not the Murphy of The Nutty Professor.) Then again, sometimes deliberate overkill is funny in itself, which is certainly closer to Hill's intention. There are a couple of scenes for the ages in this film, especially Murphy's single-handed shutdown of the action in a redneck bar. —Tom Keogh 
It's hard to know who thought it would be a good idea to make a live-action version of Disney's animated classic. The one bright notion anyone had was casting Glenn Close as Disney über-villainess Cruella de Vil; her flashing eyes and angular features are a perfect match and do credit to what is one of the most indelible animated characters Disney has ever created. The story remains essentially the same, focusing on Cruella's plot to kidnap the puppies of a young married couple (Jeff Daniels and Jolie Richardson) and make them into a coat. But the dreaded John Hughes, who wrote this script, fills it with sadistic slapstick and far too few genuine laughs. The human actors work hard, but to little avail; thankfully, there's a passel of puppies to regularly steal scenes when the going gets dreary—although there are only so many laughs to be had from inappropriate dog puddles. —Marshall Fine 
101 DALMATIANS has charmed audiences for generations with its irresistible tail-wagging stars memorable music and a wonderful blend of fantasy humor and adventure. Now with spectacular new bonus features and brilliantly restored Walt Disney's beloved animated classic shines like never before in an all-new two-disc Platinum Edition. Cruella De Vil Disney's most outrageous villain sets the fur-raising adventure in motion when she dognaps all of Pongo and Perdita's puppies. Through the power of the "Twilight Bark" Pongo leads a heroic cast of animal characters on a quest across London to rescue them. Bring home the exciting two-disc Platinum Edition with something for everyone including the all-new virtual Dalmatians game over 101 pop-up trivia facts an all-new music video and much more!System Requirements:Running Time: 79 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: G UPC: 786936735413 Manufacturer No: 05439400 
Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/16/2008 Run time: 70 minutes Rating: G 
A girl whos stood up by her date agrees to babysit. The fun begins when a friend calls to be rescued from a bus depot. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 03/01/2005 Starring: Elisabeth Shue Keith Coogan Run time: 102 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Chris Columbus |
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