Alan Rapp

Young Frankenstein

  • Title: Young Frankenstein
  • IMDb: link

young-frankenstein-dvd

Young Frankenstein is Mel Brooks’ most complete work.  Though not his funniest movie (The Producers) the movie works from beginning to end and doesn’t fall apart during the last act (Blazing Saddles); it remains as the hallmark of his career and his one truly flawless film.

The brainchild of Gene Wilder entertains and enthralls the audience for every single frame.  Wilder was a huge fan of the Frankenstein movie franchise and his love for the characters is palpable in this delicious satire.  Brooks would return to satirize other works such as Star Wars and Dracula, but those films lack the emotional connection to the originals that this one produces so effortlessly.

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

  • Title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  • Wikipedia: link

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth entry and, if we believe the author, the next to last book in the Harry Potter series.  So how does it rank?  Well I have enjoyed the series for the most part, but was disappointed with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which seemed hastily written to appease the publishers and fans rather than craft a good story.  After reading this installment however I was once again happily transported back into the world of witches and wizards, goblins and house-elves, and a wonderful school for magic.  The book recaptures the magic and mystery as we are thrust once more into the world of Harry Potter.

All of our old friends are back, but the world that we return to isn’t quite as cheery as the one we left.  Lord Voldemort has organized his Death Eaters and begun to attack and kill off any obstacles to his return to power.  The newspapers are full of new casualties every day, and a cloud of fear seems to surround everything.

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Stealth

  • Title: Stealth
  • IMDB: link

stealth-posterEver wonder what would happen if you took half the script for Iron Eagle 2 and half the script for Short Circuit and removed anything remotely good, or funny, or interesting?  I didn’t either, but obviously the makers of this film needed to solve this philosophical dilemma.

Stealth is the worst type of summer movie: a summer action adventure film that breaks all the rules of reality and the world in which it takes place indiscriminately.  The movie steals plot, story, scenes, and characters from everything from 2001: A Space Odyssey to War Games to Firefox, and yet can’t seem to capture any single moment of believability, fun, or excitement.

Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx, and Josh Lucas play Navy pilots who have been specially trained to fly a new jet fighter.  The commander of this project (Sam Shepard) shows up to introduce them to their new team member.  EDI (who will be referred to as Johnny Number Five for the rest of this review)  is a new jet that is controlled completely by a state of the art computer intelligence.  The crew is uneasy about letting a computer into the squad, and even more so after Johnny Number Five is hit by lightning and starts to think for himself.

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Welcome to Fantasy Island

  • Title: The Island
  • IMDB: link

So…how much for a clone of Scarlett Johansson?
There are two ways to review a film:  The first is to judge it on whether it met your expectations going in and the second is to look at the film and ask if it still works despite its flaws.  Under the first category The Island fails early on, but under the second it succeeds spectacularly.  I went to see what I thought was going to be a big budget high-thinking moral sci-fi tale about cloning, but what I got was a huge summer action adventure chase movie inside a sci-fi structure that just blew me away for two hours.  Does it deal with the moral issues?  Kinda’.  Would I have liked to see them develop the philosophical and ethical implications more deeply?  Probably.  But did I enjoy the movie?  You better damn believe I did.  I had a blast.

Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) is unhappy.  He’s one of the lucky ones; he survived the cataclysm and radiation that devastated the earth and lives in relative comfort with the other survivors who hope every night that they can win a chance to live outside on the island, the last free uncontaminated zone on the planet.

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It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp

  • Title: Hustle & Flow
  • IMDb: link

Can a you root for a pimp?  The answer Hustle & Flow gives is a resounding yes.  Djay isn’t a bad man, just one who is stuck in a life he never really wanted and wishes to live out his lifelong dreams.  Well, that’s a pretty universal story I think most people will be able to relate to.

Djay (Terrence Howard) is a middle-aged pimp who treats his hookers better than some parents treat their children.  Djay’s main source of income is Nola (Taryn Manning) the skinny young ghetto white girl who he pimps out of his car.  Also part of his family are hookers Shrug (Taraji P. Henson) who is pregnant and the loudmouthed Lexus (Paula Jai Parker).  Djay waxes nostalgic daily about life and dreams about becoming a rap star.

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