For all it is in the end, “Around the Bend” sure is trite, cheesy, and cliché, but it’s also entertaining and most of the time it’s hard to beat the combined talents of people like Michael Caine, Josh Lucas, and the ubiquitous Christopher Walken, respectively. In the spirit of films like “Five Easy Pieces” and “Diamonds”, we’re given the usual trifecta generational clashing between father, son, and grandson as they venture out on the open road to fulfill a request courtesy of their great grandfather (cue Caine). So we have this sometimes beautiful road flick involving these actors as they discover each other while being forced to stop at every KFC’s that is drawn out for them on the map left behind by Henry after his death. Though the whole road trip concept is tired, what the plot does with it is a rather original twist by having these three generations of men bond while at a fast food restaurant and occasionally coming across an oddball here or there.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2004)
Ranger Brad: We take our horrible mutilations seriously around these parts.
What “Cadavra” has above the rest of the lot for spoofing old B movies, is it just screams for the dudes at “Mystery Science Theater” to spoof it. “Cadavra” is essentially a B movie spoofing B movies from the fifties and many times it really manages to pull off the gags. The director has obviously done his research to a great extent with much of the flaws, plot holes, and immense lack of continuity provided with schlock sci-fi films even going down to the horrible props including cheesy alien costumes, a spaceship that looks like cardboard, and often times the props re-appear in another scene ala Ed Wood; and there are many scenes that just mimic those of the fifties including animal stock footage used for the actual film, which was a common practice then.
Lara Croft Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003)
I really disliked the first film, I mean for a franchise that had the ability to be a winning formula, it’s sad the studios completely botched it with a low grade, sub-par, and lackluster film. Sure, it had a sense of entertainment, but that only a hint of it, and it attempted to become a feminine “Indiana Jones” while instead transforming in to a poor man’s “Indiana Jones”. When a video game with controllable characters has more life in it than a movie with real actors, that’s just pathetic. With “The Cradle of Life” I didn’t really expect anything different in terms of quality and depth of story. Angelina Jolie is cute, but hardly has the charisma needed for Lara Croft, and “The Cradle of Life” proves it. And surprisingly Jolie is not sexy here.
I ♥ Huckabees (2004)
Very crafty of the little gray rabbit, or something to that effect. With films these days you have only black and white, heads or tails, films that are just dumb, and films that are thought provoking, hardly ever in a blue moon are we given a film that looks like entertainment but is really thought provoking brain candy. But David O. Russell is the crafty madman behind “I ♥ Huckabees”, a film that examines existentialism through a company conglomerate of department stores that are just a microcosm for life and the big picture. We never really see many Huckabees stores here, but that’s because the Huckabees presence is only that, a presence which serves as a link to connect all the characters here in this story. It’s the Nucleus for the story that serves as a source to connect the characters in an uneasy situation whether they like it or not.
WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception (2004)
“WMD” is a shocking, sometimes much too disturbing account of the biggest crime that went completely unnoticed, and will continue to go unpunished. This is not a study of Weapons of Mass Destruction, but what this does probe in to is the utter destruction and obliteration of the American journalistic sentiment. Growing up, I was taught that journalists are the people who keep those in power, in line, and catch them in their misdeeds and wrong doings to better serve the public and teach them that we are being looked out for, so that those in power do not abuse what they’ve been given. People like Woodward and Bernstein who helped unravel the Watergate scandal and the legendary Edward R. Murrow who gave the art of journalism the reputation that it was a dynasty of honesty, and truth, and seeking to help those who don’t have a voice. What documentarian Danny Schecter does is give the audience a message we’ll never be given.
The Man with the Screaming Brain (2005)
Bruce Campbell attempts yet again to make another movie with his deal of difficulties, and finally had it released. Granted it was released on the “Sci-Fi” Channel, but it still ends up being a pretty entertaining throwback to the fifties with a mix of schlock for much effect to what the topic of the film entails, because–seriously–comedy or drama, would you watch this film with a straight face? This is science fiction comedy, or comedy with a science fiction twist? Because the screenplay never seems to know.
Shark Tale (2004)
I’m as to Will Smith’s real appeal these days. Every role he’s in, he basically plays himself, and in “Shark Tale”, Will Smith plays Will Smith… as a fish; How incredibly original. Oscar, his character is very superficial. He has no real redeeming qualities, is more based on his personality than actually making him a three-dimensional character with traits, and never really convinces me that I should like him, and I ended up liking Lenny (Jack Black) much more. Every other character is just there to pop jokes in now and again.