|
  
|
Latest Videos
See More Video »
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replying the story in its archived form does not constitute a re-publiccation of the story.
Couples Retreat
Allow me coin a phrase: Cannonball Run Syndrome. CRS is when the actors in a film are having more fun than the people watching it. Now, it’s not always a bad thing. Cannonball Run is silly, mindless fun but, while it’s true that actors were having more fun than the audience, that’s not to say that the audience was having no fun at all. In fact, the fun the actors were having was contagious and elevated the overall quality of the film. But, more often than not, it’s generally to the detriment of a film. Those instances I like to classify as Cannonball Run II Syndrome. Which brings us to Couples Retreat. There are two things to look for when attempting to discern if a film is afflicted with CRS. 1) The actors are all already friends (“Cool! We get paid to hang out!”) Or 2) the film takes place in an exotic local (“Cool! We get a paid vacation!”). Couples Retreat *gulp* has both.
Read the full review here.
A Serious Man
Set in 1967, A Serious Man tells the story of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) a Midwestern college math teacher. Gopnik becomes embroiled in a moral dilemma when a failing student attempts to bribe him. Gopnik is so naïve that he doesn’t even comprehend what’s going on until the student is gone and he’s left holding an envelope full of cash. The student, in turn, uses his inadvertent acceptance of the money as an opportunity to blackmail Gopnik. This problem is only one of many. Gopnik is saddled with a wife (Sari Lennick) who wants a divorce, two disrespectful teenagers and a mentally unstable, live-in brother (Richard Kind) who refuses to move out. Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, the film is a darkly comic tale of the unraveling of a man’s life; easily analogous to the story of Job.
Read the full review here.
The Time Traveler’s Wife
In The Time Traveler’s Wife, Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana) has a genetic disorder called Chrono-Displacement that results in him bouncing through time against his will. He cannot control when he’ll time travel, what time he’ll travel to or when he’ll return. Time travel can be headache inducing subject matter. However, the film does a solid job of not letting the paradoxes pile-up. In a genre such as this, paradoxes have a way of quickly becoming plot holes. Often times films have to violate their own rules in order to move the story forward. It’s a tricky line to walk and The Time Traveler’s Wife walks it well. Unfortunately, walking that line comes at a price. That price? Character development and intensity/excitement. For all of its attempts to be an epic, grandiose, wonderfully weepy love story, it’s remarkable devoid of emotion. Like a story retold so often that even the teller has become unenamored with it.
Read the full review here.
Also out on DVD today:
· Heist
|
SELECT blogPost.id, blogPost.blog_id, blogPost.slug, blogPost.member_id, blogPost.title, blogPost.votes, blogPost.comments, blogPost.body, blogPost.photo_id, blogPost.photo_width, blogPost.photo_position, blogPost.body_type, p1.origName as photo_name, p1.extension as photo_extension, p1.width as photo_size_width, if_comments, start_publish, end_publish, updated, blogPost.created, blogPost.display, member.screenname, member.first, member.last, member.signature, CONCAT(member.photo_id,'.',p2.extension) as photo, COUNT(DISTINCT blogPostPhoto.id) as gallery_count, blogCategory.id as category_id, blogCategory.name as category, blogCategory.link as category_url, blog.name as blog_name, blog.title as blog_title, blog.url as blog_url, blogPost.sticky FROM blogPost LEFT JOIN photo as p1 on (blogPost.photo_id=p1.id) LEFT JOIN member on (blogPost.member_id=member.id) LEFT JOIN blogPostPhoto on (blogPostPhoto.blogPost_id=blogPost.id) LEFT JOIN photo as p2 on (member.photo_id=p2.id) LEFT JOIN blogCategory on (blogPost.blogCategory_id=blogCategory.id) LEFT JOIN blog on (blogPost.blog_id=blog.id) WHERE blogPost.id='36844' AND blogPost.start_publish < now() AND (blogPost.end_publish = '0000-00-00 00:00:00' OR blogPost.end_publish > now()) AND blogPost.display = 'Y' GROUP BY blogPost.id
What do you think?
We want to hear from you! Take five seconds to join ToastedRav.com or log in.