The most common comment I’ve seen about this movie is that a whole lot of people seem to complain that Steve Martin isn’t Peter Sellers. Maybe it’s just me, but that seems to be pretty obvious. I mean even if you haven’t seen the movie, even if you don’t know the two, you should be able to tell that.

While I think Peter Sellers was pretty funny, I happen to think that Steve Martin is pretty good too. And in fact, I think I may go so far as to say that I think that Steve Martin is pretty good as Clouseau. Is he as good as Sellers? That’s a tough call. He’s different, to be sure. But the movie is every bit as enjoyable as one of the Sellers’ films, perhaps more.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jack Black is always fun to watch. This time around he plays Nick Vanderpark, who just can’t seem to keep his focus at work.

Meanwhile, best buddy Tim Dingman (played by Ben Stiller) has great focus, as evidenced by the new office chair. It also happens that he lives right across the street. Tim also has a certain amount of contempt for Nick, so when Nick finally gains his focus with an idea for a new product, he dismisses it without a second thought.

Read the rest of this entry »

This fluff piece actually isn’t that bad. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that great either, but it could be worse. It could be a whole lot worse.

Pop princess Hilary Duff blogs about her life as a put-upon teen who is constantly uprooted as her mom (played by Heather Locklear) moves them about the country in her search for the perfect man.

Read the rest of this entry »

In The Client, Brad Renfro burst onto the scene with quite a good performance. I mean he was only 12, and he could have been excused for just about anything. In reality he did well. The years haven’t been particularly kind to his acting career.

Teaming up with Nick Stahl (post-Sunset Strip, pre-Carnivale), they wander through South Florida in this teen movie where Bobby (played by Stahl) regularly beats up on everyone, but most notably “best friend” Marty (played by Renfro).

Read the rest of this entry »

This movie was a bit odd in that it was enjoyable from a family perspective – that is to say the kids enjoyed it and it wasn’t too bad for them to watch it – but it didn’t really fit together all that well. It starts off well enough, with Will Ferrell falling short of his father’s expectations (played well by Robert Duvall).

And the laughs start in right away, but then he starts falling into a bit of a funk as his son is benched on the dad’s championship team. You know where it’s going, and that isn’t a big deal, really, but it’s how it gets there that leaves you wanting a bit. It’s no surprise that the dad uses the ringers to get the team all the way to the finals. It’s no surprise that he comes around in the end and the team pulls together to win.

Read the rest of this entry »

This movie doesn’t exactly have the most quickly unfolding plot line, but the end is a decent one.

The story has a woman (Mira Sorvino) getting a job as a waitress at a mob-influenced restaurant, where she quickly makes friends with the other two waitresses who work there. As it turns out, one of the waitresses is an undercover police officer and the other (Mariah Carey, in one of her few acting roles to date) is involved in some of these mob dealings.

Read the rest of this entry »

This retelling of the Batman tale isn’t quite as cool as the 1989 version with Jack Nicholson and his “Did you ever dance with the devil in the pale moon light”, but let’s be honest – if you don’t have Jack, how can it be? So keeping that in mind, it’s not bad.

Borrowing a page from the George Lucas playbook with the inclusion of Liam Neeson as a philosophical mentor to a younger hero works here, as Bruce Wayne rises from a Chinese prison to assume a role within Wayne Enterprises, the titanic corporation his father created years before.

Read the rest of this entry »

Louis Gossett Jr. (formerly just “Lou”) may not be a high-brow actor, but he usually at least picks movies that are entertaining. The 80s-style earring and strange eye coloring in this one, along with the bad script make this one aspire to be entertaining.

The only other marginally recognizable name, Amy Locane, is perhaps left wishing that Melrose Place hadn’t been canceled.

Whatever the case, it is Locane’s father, an archaeologist obsessed with the tomb of an Egyptian queen, who has suddenly taken ill with some strange markings on his wrist. We are to find out later that these are actually fingernail scratches – seven of them, from the dead queen herself, who had seven fingers on one hand.

Read the rest of this entry »

This isn’t as much fun as George Clooney’s other late-90s romp, Out of Sight, but it’s not bad, all things considered.

For one, it’s a lot lighter, involving two single parents and their kids, and what happens one day when they both end up having to actually care for the kids – a state neither of them is used to experiencing. Typically they are more wrapped up in their careers and just let the kids go to school or they are taken care of by someone else. For another, the situations revolve around more wholesome pursuits and less around criminal activity.

Read the rest of this entry »

It is remotely possible that the Child’s Play franchise is finally dead. After 5 movies, you’d think we might have made it. But it’s also possible that we’re just entering an entirely new era of the family slasher flick.

We start off in England, where we meet Glen (or perhaps Glenda), likely an homage to none other than Ed Wood, that most horrible of Hollywood directors. Anyway, Glen (or Glenda) is a dummy in every term of the sense, acting out at a circus sideshow, and is wondering where his parents are – or if he even has any.

Until, that is, he sees Chucky and Tiffany on the telly one night on an entertainment show as they make their movie. So he packs himself up and ships himself to Hollywood to introduce himself.

Read the rest of this entry »