Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Posted to Adventure on April 8th, 2006 by Chad Everett

This one won’t make many classic lists. It won’t make many lists at all, unless you count lists of movies that need to be thrown out. But it is typically good for an afternoon (or morning, as the case may be) of fun. Starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter (talk about diverging career paths) as two high schoolers on the verge of flunking history.

Lucky for them, Rufus (played by the inimitable George Carlin) is on his way from the future with a time-traveling phone booth that will allow them to pick up some of history’s most notable characters, bring them back to present-day San Dimas, and pass their history report.

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Final Destination 3

Posted to Horror on April 7th, 2006 by Chad Everett

In this release, the third installment of the series, the action gets more gruesome (as you would expect), but the basic premise is the same: A bunch of people are affected by the visions of one person. That person gets nervous about an event that is about to happen, and as such those people don’t die as they are supposed to, thus circumventing death’s design and laying the groundwork for the rest of the movie.

This movie loses touch with the first two in that there isn’t any connection, other than the fact that those who got off of an ill-fated roller coaster just before it plunged several students to their deaths manage to look up the initial incident on the internet (there is only a brief mention of the second group). But it stays fairly close to the basic premise of the series.

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The Rock

Posted to Action on April 3rd, 2006 by Chad Everett

I don’t know why, but I always seem to like productions from Jerry Bruckheimer. Cat People was probably the first film of his that I saw, but I think that it was Days of Thunder that was the first film that really had his “feel” to it. I’m not sure what it is, exactly, either – I think it is likely the score, usually quite powerful, but not enough to overpower the video. In any case, this one was square in his busy period.

Starring Sean Connery and Ed Harris, the film is set almost entirely on Alcatraz island, currently taken over by Harris’ band of Marines, intent on securing honor for their fallen comrades who have managed to miss out on military recognition because of the circumstances surrounding their deaths. Oh yeah, and they’d like $100 million too.

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American Wedding

Posted to Comedy on April 2nd, 2006 by Chad Everett

This is probably my least favorite movie of the series, but it’s growing on me. Probably because I’ve caught bits and pieces of it this weekend on some station or another (USA, I think), and those bits and pieces remind me of the parts of the series I like, without force-feeding me the whole thing, which reminds me why I don’t like the whole thing.

In this third go-round, Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) are, as you may imagine by the title, getting married. As you may also surmise, simply because you’ve been paying attention previously, things probably aren’t going to go quite as expected along the way, and you’d be right, even if you hadn’t seen a single preview of the actual movie.

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Fever Pitch

Posted to Romance on April 1st, 2006 by Chad Everett

Last night we had a chance to sit down for some adult time, and caught (sorry) Fever Pitch. It wasn’t our favorite, by any means, but it wasn’t bad, either. It’s probably worth watching if you have a discount theater nearby, or catch it in a discount DVD bin, but I don’t know if I’d go much further than that.

Drew Barrymore plays high-powered businesswoman Lindsey Meeks, who gets together with less-than-ambitious schoolteacher Ben Wrightman (Jimmy Fallon). Both are 30 and neither is taken, so obviously each has problems. Lindsey’s issue is her job. Ben’s problem is that he’s a Red Sox fan.

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Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

Posted to Comedy on April 1st, 2006 by Chad Everett

Average Joe’s gym, owned by regular guy Peter La Fleur Vince Vaughn, suddenly needs $50,000 to pay off their mortgage. It looks like the only way there is through a dodgeball tournament, so they put together a rag-tag team and sign up. The rest of the movie is, well, pretty predictable, though it takes a roundabout way to get there.

The most notable speed bump on the way is through White Goodman (Ben Stiller), owner of the competing gym that wants to buy Average Joe’s (and coincidentally, the reigning dodgeball champs).

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The Edge

Posted to Drama on April 1st, 2006 by Chad Everett

Billionaire Charles Morse (Anthony Hopkins) is married to a model (played by Elle Macpherson), and for his birthday, he’s persuaded to go along on a wilderness photo shoot. All goes along swimmingly until Morse and his wife’s suitor Bob (Alec Baldwin) take off in search of a regular guy for use in a picture.

A medium role is played here by Harold Perrineau, who is perhaps better known as Michael from Lost. Apparently he likes playing people whose planes have crashed.

Anyway, their plane crashes, and they find themselves having to get back to the lodge – but they have no food, no water, not a single luxury. Sorry. Wrong show. The only other kink is that Bob wants to kill Charles to get his wife and his money. Of course, Charles also happens to be a fount of knowledge, that up until now is theoretical. Now he has a chance to use it.

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Ice Age: The Meltdown

Posted to Family on March 31st, 2006 by Chad Everett

The original Ice Age is one of my favorite movies ever. I know, it’s sappy. It’s a kid’s movie. The animation, while somewhat groundbreaking at the time, isn’t so astonishing now. But it’s just a good movie. A solid story, some good humor and a nice time.

The sequel? It matches up well in some areas (the humor), it’s better in some areas (some of the animation), it’s spotty in other areas (the rest of the animation) and the rest is pretty much a lesser film (the storyline).

The addition of Queen Latifah as Ellie the Mammoth (opossum) led to some great humorous bits, but the animation of Queen Latifah was priceless. While it wasn’t exactly a mammoth, I’m sure, her personality came through and made the character shine. Meanwhile, the inimitable John Leguizamo did another great job with Sid the Sloth.

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Joe’s Apartment

Posted to Comedy on March 24th, 2006 by Chad Everett

This offering from MTV studios probably won’t win too many awards. But it is fun. The animation of the cockroaches is really pretty good – especially when you consider that this was done ten years ago. And if that wasn’t enough by itself, the musical numbers they put on aren’t bad either.

Jerry O’Connell may not be your favorite actor, and it’s not like the role of Joe is much out of the ordinary for him. But the movie does feature Megan Ward as naive politician’s daughter Lily Dougherty who Joe is hoping to date if his, uh, roommates don’t keep getting in the way.

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Mystic River

Posted to Drama on March 19th, 2006 by Chad Everett

The acting in this drama was superb, especially from Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn. I find that as I watch more and more of Tim Robbins, I find that he has his characters nailed (he won an Oscar for his performance here) but they just don’t vary a whole lot. They always have the same off-kilter look, and they each make you wonder what is going on underneath the surface, but there just isn’t a lot of real depth. While I’m not the world’s largest fan of Sean Penn, I was impressed by his role here (he won too, deservedly so).

The thug-like character played by Penn is matched by Bacon’s police persona, and wouldn’t you know it? They knew each other as kids. As it turns out, Tim Robbins rounds at the trio as one of the friends who was abducted and abused one fine day while they were in the middle of some mischief making.

Penn’s character, Jimmy Markum, finds that his daughter is missing, and then that she is dead. Meanwhile, Bacon’s detective, Sean Devine claims the job of trying to figure out who did it – or at least find a reasonable suspect – before Markum uses his contacts to bring someone to justice.

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About Celluloid Heroes

Welcome to Celluloid Heroes! Here you will find movie reviews of all shapes and sizes. No stone is left unturned, and that is meant quite literally. In fact, you are probably quite unlikely to find the best of the best, as that's something that you can find elsewhere. Here you're more likely to find the dregs of the movie world than anything else.

As to the name? It's actually from a song by The Kinks, and while it may or may not have anything to do directly with the movies, it does mention quite a few movie stars, and things that make you think about movies, and well, it just seemed appropriate. Hopefully you'll agree, and if not, I suspect it won't get in the way too much.

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your stay, and come back often.