December Lambeth

It’s no Gigli, thank goodness, it is something much much better. Given just about anything is better than Gigli, except for Battlefield Earth. Ben Affleck has redeemed himself with his female audience. After Gigli and the whole Bennifer fiasco, Jersey Girl is a pleasant cuddly film that many can enjoy. Ben you are forgiven! Kevin Smith steps out of his crazy cult film attire, puts Jay and Silent Bob in a closet, and tries on a more wholesome and grown up approach to movie making. Kevin admits it’s because of his new found experiences of being a father himself that has led him down this road.

Jersey Girl
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Jersey Girl is a film about a man who thinks he has it all and he himself was everything, but learns that he was nothing and having it all can be empty without the right person to share it with. That right person so happens to be new comer 13-year old Raquel Castro, an adorable little girl that captured hearts and tickled funny bones on the big screen. Jersey Girl is still in the independent film genre for writer and director Kevin Smith, but it has a big time commercial film shine to it. Icing on the cake is the adorable Liv Tyler playing the sexually curious and dazzling cute video store clerk that assists with mending a broken man’s heart. Yes, yes, I have not forgotten about Jennifer Lopez, she is in the film; thankfully it wasn’t a long enough role to destroy any high ground that Ben has began to earn.

 

Rumor has it that Ben’s career had hit rock bottom since he began to date Jennifer, part 2 now. Rather or not it was her fault or the fact that so many of us appreciate Ben for his charms and attractiveness and watching a captured man that you want to dream about wasn’t as great knowing he was no longer available. My personal opinion is that Ben hit a slump, the opportunities were there, they just didn’t work out the way they should. Ben should keep with the sweet happy feel good romantic roles and stir away from playing super hero. Unless, he is riding up on a large white steed and saving the damsel in distress, it doesn’t work for him. Jersey Girl, I am sad to say, will be another downer for Ben; it’s cute and adorable and a great deal of the female population will love it, but that minority isn’t the only group that has to like it. It is a happy-go-lucky movie with popcorn and candy oozing out of it, nothing but a mouth full of cavities; so set up your dentist appointment and check it out! Jersey Girl is worth the fillings. Way to go Kevin and Ben!

We’re here to keep you informed on hot choices for renting or buying new DVD releases. Released this week: Tsotsi, She’s the Man, Sybil, Ren & Stimpy ‘Adult Party Cartoon, The Pretender: Season 4, Carnivale – The Complete Second Season, Jack of All Trades – The Complete Series & The Incredible Hulk – The Complete First Season.

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Here’s what is getting released today on DVD:

Film:

Tsotsi – Tsotsi is a film with more quality than most of the streamline Oscar Nominees. Beautifully shot and clear storyline, Tsotsi takes the audience through 6 days of a young gang leader’s transformation in the ghetto of Johannesburg. South Africa’s foreign film Oscar nomination is violent and gritty, but in the same form it’s very graceful and pure. Get the rest of December’s opinion on Tsotsi.

She’s the Man – It’s hard enough being the nerdy new guy on campus without also being the new girl on campus, who has fallen for the coolest guy on campus, who is totally obsessed with the most beautiful girl on campus who is “crushing” on the nerdy new guy on campus.

Viola Johnson (Amanda Bynes) had her own good reasons for disguising herself as her twin brother Sebastian (James Kirk) and enrolling in his place at his new boarding school, Illyria Prep.  She was counting on Sebastian being AWOL from school as he tried to break into the music scene in London.  What she didn’t count on was falling in love with her hot roommate, Duke (Channing Tatum), who in turn only has eyes for the beautiful Olivia (Laura Ramsey).  Making matters worse, Olivia is starting to fall for Sebastian, who – for reasons Olivia couldn’t begin to guess – appears to be the sensitive type of guy she’d always dreamed of meeting.  If things weren’t complicated enough, the real Sebastian has come back from London two days earlier than expected and arrives on campus having no clue that he’s been replaced…by his own twin sister.

 

Special Edition:

Sybil (30th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition) – Crazy Sally. Sally Field plays a young woman who was traumatized as a child and adopted 16 different personalities. Based on a true story, Sybil is an eye opening film about personality disorders.

 

Animation:

Ren & Stimpy ‘Adult Party Cartoon – Here is a collection, “The Lost Episodes” of Ren & Stimpy, but really, they are just the newest of a failed attempt to make us laugh. There isn’t anything like the old Ren & Stimpy, nothing compares, no matter how hard big time execs try to make up for canning the brilliant creative team that created this crazy duo.

TV:

The Pretender: Season 4 – Imagine if you could take on someone elses personality? Jarod can take on other personalities and he uses it to help those in need & track down what happened to his parents. He originally was taken out of his home as a young child to use his talents for a secret agency called The Centre.

Carnivale – The Complete Second Season – I can’t believe those bastards at HBO isn’t going to finish this show out. It was suppose to be on for 3 seasons, but now we are left hanging in the middle of a cornfield not knowing what happens to the characters next. Very close to a Twin Peaks like atmosphere, Carnivale is set up with brilliant costuming and backdrop; you really believe that this show is being filmed during the Great Depression in 1934.  Carnivale is full of magic, evil, good, weirdness and carnival folk; it’s a weird show that you have to watch from season 1 or you will be completely lost.

The Incredible Hulk – The Complete First Season – Finally the complete first season of The Incredible Hulk. It’s the old TV show about the hitchhiker who could turn big mean and green on you. Dr. David Banner went a little too far in the lab; his experiment goes horribly wrong and created a monster, not unlike Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When David’s body is under a great deal of stress he turns into this huge and powerful creature, that still knows right from wrong and saves the helpless, then he usually runs off in the end.

We’re here to keep you informed on hot choices for renting or buying new DVD releases; unfortunately, this week blows in rentals. Released this week: Grilled, Basic Instinct 2, Weeds-Season 1 and ER: The Complete Fifth Season.

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Here’s what is getting released today on DVD:

Film:

Basic Instinct 2 – – How bad does a film have to be for Joe Eszterhas to refuse to make it?  How silly is it for a 50 year-old woman to strut around in skimpy outfits like a horny teenager?  How untitiliating is it to see a nude 50 year-old woman pretending to be a 20 year-old woman, and how sad is it to watch?  How unnecessary is this sequel?  What does Sharon Stone’s pet project really have to offer?  These questions and more can be answered if you’re willing to watch one of the most ridiculous films in recent memory. Get the rest of Alan’s opinion on Basic Instinct 2.

Grilled – Hurray for all of us, its Ray Romano and Kevin James in a comedy, a direct to video comedy, mind you. Dark comedy that isn’t really all that it’s cracked up to be. I know, you ask why, it’s got Everybody Loves Raymond and Queen of Kings in it, don’t forget, it also has Burt Reynolds and Juliette Lewis and there is a reason it was direct to video, NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO EVEN ATTEMPT THE BIG SCREEN!!! Meat salesmen go out to make the big sale and win back their jobs, run into a bit of mob trouble. That’s about it, one problem arises after another and they keep trying to bail themselves out. Done and done, it’s your risk.

 

Special Edition:

Weeds-Season 1 – In trying to keep up with HBO, Showtime comes up with the excellent Weeds. Mary-Louise Parker plays a widowed mom of two sons and she’s a suburban pot dealer to pay the bills. Both sons are a royal pain in the ass (everybody should have daughters), one is a sexually exuberant teen and the other a want to be terrorist on video and he’s only in grade school. This series has off beat comedy, dark side and light sides, drama and suburban life being poked fun at. Packaged includes 10 episodes on 2 discs and that’s that.

ER: The Complete Fifth Season – This is a rip-roaring season for many. Dr. Ross (George Clooney) exits right and leaves head nurse, Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) in a suicidal fit. Dr. Benton’s (Eriq La Salle) son is deaf; Dr. Weaver (Laura Innes) loses the opportunity to be head of emergency, but no worries she gets to be super bitch later. This season is where we see the lovely red headed intern, British Dr. Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston), start all over again with practicing medicine in the US and Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) is the peanut butter that keeps this TV series bread together. There are 22 episodes on 6 disks with a few Outpatient outtakes and unaired scenes. A short gag reel, nothing too special, but for you hard-core fans, the series on DVD itself should be awesome enough.

We’re here to keep you informed on hot choices for renting or buying new DVD releases. Released this week: Failure to Launch, Imagine Me & You, Madea’s Family Reunion, Cache (Hidden), Annapolis, Untraviolet (Unrated, Extended Cut),  Ren & Stimpy ‘Adult Party Cartoon, Beavis & Butt-head (Volume 2), Broken Saints, Strangers With Candy (Complete Series), Blue Collar Comedy Tour-One For The Road and, finally, Yellowbeard.

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Here’s what is getting released today on DVD:

Film:

Failure to Launch – Failure to Launch is yet another regurgitated romantic comedy where people are put together and kept apart through elaborate and contrived circumstances that could only happen in a film.  You’ve seen (and if you are like me hated) this exact film many times before. Get the rest of Alan’s opinion on Failure to Launch.

Imagine Me & You – Imagine Me & You is a hopeless romantic comedy about love at first sight between two women.  The problem?  One is getting married to her fiancé at that very moment.  Not a great film and it certainly has more than a few rough edges yet the performances and charm of the picture make it worth checking out; though despite my puntiffic title the movie itself is rather tame given the subject matter.  Piper Perabo, Lena Headey, Matthew Goode, and Anthony Head star. Get the rest of Alan’s opinion on Imagine Me & You.

Madea’s Family Reunion – Director Tyler Perry, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, gives us another gun-totting grandma moment. Not quite as humorous as his plays and his latest piece, but does have a few moments. Here it is with 2 relationship troubled nieces and an unruly wild and uncontrollable foster teen living under the same roof, what is Madea to do? A mix of humor and serious situations, just like life.

Annapolis – How tough can it be to go through Naval basic training? Pretty damn tough if you ask Jake (James Franco), the lead in Annapolis, he gets dealt a tough hand cause he’s just that good and he’s from the wrong side of the tracks. Ssshhhhh, don’t tell, but it’s actually a boxing film, I think. Cole (Tyrese Gibson) plays the training officer that does everything in his power to make Jake quit, cause he sees a little of himself in Jake and thinks he can do better. The two box it out in the ring during the annual boxing competition.

Special Edition or Series Release:

Ultraviolet (Unrated, Extended Cut) – Why? I’m not sure why they created an extended cut, of a film that didn’t deserve the original cut. I must admit it was better than Aeon Flux and it had an interesting idea with the whole vampire hemophagia thing. Ultraviolet is protecting a 9-year-old boy who could be a threat to humans, but finds out to be the cure to their own disease. There is some pretty awesome affects and butt kicking action if you’re looking for a brainless bullet and beat’em up flick. Don’t get too excited the extended edition is a whole extra 7 minutes.

Animation: Better Late Than Never:

Ren & Stimpy ‘Adult Party Cartoon – Here is a collection, “The Lost Episodes” of Ren & Stimpy, but really, they are just the newest of a failed attempt to make us laugh. There isn’t anything like the old Ren & Stimpy, nothing compares, no matter how hard big time execs try to make up for canning the brilliant creative team that created this crazy duo.

Beavis & Butt-head – The Mike Judge Collection, Vol .2 (Released ???) – “40 cartoons hand-picked by Mike Judge”, what makes him an expert? What is this, wrong week? Beavis and Butt-head, Ren and Stimpy Adult Party, Yellowbeard, Strangers with Candy and Ultraviolet a special edition? It’s Bevis & Butt-head folks, what else is there to say, either you like them or you don’t. Then again, how could you pass on owning a DVD with titles such as, “Premature Evacuation”, “TP” and “Bungholio: Lord of the Harvest”. Fire! Fire!

Broken Saints – Company Line from their site: Broken Saints is a 24-chapter serial graphic novel that was launched on January 17 2001, new installments were posted every few weeks. Games, art, story and hidden secrets, the whole thing was online. Storyteller Brook Burgess worked with Ian Kirby and Andrew West to prove that something really outstanding, compelling and cool could be found online and that was their story of 4 warriors and there challenge against the Darkness through love, loss and sacrifice. Here is a concept from finish to not quite end, almost completely independent coming to you first ever on DVD. The creators will and have followed through with story, animated series, live-action television, graphic novel (print), interactive entertainment and toys/collectibles. Visit a Broken Saints for details.

TV:

Strangers with Candy – The Complete Series – Jerri Blank, a 46 year old “boozer, user and loser” tries to go back to school and be cool. There is everything wrong with this series, it’s just that damn funny. Jerri learned nothing from her past years as an addict, tramp, alcoholic and all around no common sense gal; to top it off, she tries to return to high school and fit in with a crowd more than a third of her age. Really, you can’t help, but laugh your butt off with this collection and all it’s very wrong lessons in life. There are deleted scenes on this collection, joy for us!

Blue Collar Comedy Tour – One for the Road– With each previous comedy tour, Blue Collar progressively got worse. The first one was a riot, the second was a tickle and this one blows. One for the Road, more like a case of Wild Turkey, so you can pretend to laugh. Of course, yes, there are a few moments that you can giggle at, but for the most part, there isn’t enough to add up to anything substantial. How many times can you hear the same “red neck” joke told over and over again, in different forms?

Finally:

Yellowbeard Yes, they have finally done it, Yellowbeard, freaking awesome. What the hell took them so long, a laugh out loud riot from 1983, with a mix of adventure, pirates, silly humor, Cheech and Chong, add a dash of Mel Brooks (no he didn’t create it, but just add the dash) and certainly a bit of Monty Python; you can’t help, but laugh. It’s completely silly and nonsensical. You would never believe that the director has done Charmed and Lois & Clark since his early 80’s glory days.