Not exactly a remake per se, but based on the concept of the original 1969 film starring Michael Caine, “The Italian Job” is a fun popcorn action flick. The filmmakers play it smart by comprising an all-star cast of actors that play their roles well; there’s a round up of charismatic and memorable actors who all play some great characters. Mark Wahlberg leads the cast as Charlie the gifted thief and leader of the group, Charlize Theron is Stella, the daughter of John who is a legitimate safe cracker for the police. Edward Norton plays the slimy and sneaky Steve.
Tag Archives: Comedy
Auto Focus (2002)
Based on the book “The Murder of Bob Crane” by Robert Graysmith, the film “Autofocus” chronicles the life of Bob Crane who had an early career as a radio DJ with a hit show and then made his foray into television with the hit series “Hogan’s Heroes” one of the most successful television series of all time. It’s by the life on the road where he formed an addiction to sex often luring women to his mansion and engaging in orgies, threesomes, and much more until his death at age 49 where his skull was crushed by a tripod by an unknown assailant.
Big Fat Liar (2002)
Jason Shepherd (Frankie Muniz) is a slacker and he always tends to get into mischief; the problem is, he’s a liar who tends to fib to get him out of the toughest situations. Eventually, all of it comes back to him when he is hit by a car and made late for school. He hitches a ride with a limo seating a Hollywood producer named Marty Wolf (Paul Giamatti ) who steals young Jason’s essay called “Big Fat Liar” and makes it into a movie. Jason misses a school deadline and decides to go to Hollywood to get revenge on the ruthless producer. Now he and his best friend Kaylee (Amanda Bynes are out for revenge and will stop at nothing to get back his paper.
Finding Nemo (2003)
Pixar studios has managed to change the way people think about animated films not just by the incredible animation, but the great stories and utterly memorable characters. “Finding Nemo” is one of those films that parents can watch with their children and not want to run out of the theaters screaming at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. What shines most throughout this film is the mature and sometimes meaningful theme and moral of the story.
The voice work from the cast is great, especially by Albert Brooks who plays the inept and retentive Marlin. Meanwhile Degeneres supplies the excellent quirky offbeat and flawless voice characterization for female fish Dory. The film has an all-star cast of big name and talented character actors that voice various characters, most notably Willem Dafoe, and Geoffrey Rush. Pixar is so skilled in their ability to portray the human spirit and are adept in making seemingly mundane objects around us be portrayed as human as represented in the movies “Toy Story”, “Monsters, inc.” and especially this.
Stanton and the Pixar crew develop hilarious and memorable supporting characters that help leave a mark upon the audience. They fiddle with Oceanic life very cleverly and the comedy and adventure are awe inspiring. “Finding Nemo’s” animation in the film is practically flawless presenting some amazing and often eerily realistic animation given to the audience. When the film is bright and sunny it’s amazing, thus shown in the Coral reef scenes, and when the film is dark and murky as shown in the underwater caves in the water it’s absolutely stunning and amazing to see and such a spectacle to behold.
Pixar has created a dynamic and entertaining film for all ages that’s pleasantly accessible to all audiences with its themes about parenthood, the dangers of the outside world, and self confidence. The kids will appreciate the vivid characters and brilliant animation, and you’ll surely appreciate the witty adult humor and human themes.
The DVD has hours of great extras including screensavers, deleted scenes, a fun charades game with Crush, a commentary, and both a widescreen and full screen version of the film.
Men in Black II (2002)
This is such a fiercely and aggressively bad movie that I could have torn my eyebrows off my forehead to pass the time. It doesn’t help that this film is an hour and a half because watching this makes it feel like it’s two and a half hours long. It’s amazing how such a skilled actor like Will Smith has managed to build a career upon mediocre and sometimes awful summer blockbusters, yet he continues to rake in the dough movie-wise. “Men in Black 2” is a prime example of a terrible summer blockbuster that should have never been made.
Life or Something Like It (2002)
This movie isn’t as deep as it wanted to be, if it even wanted to be deep at all; it’s actually just pseudo-spiritual nonsense when you get right down to it. Angelina Jolie picks one of the rotten scripts out of the entire flock with a story that is nothing but fluff and unbearable melodrama. What should have been a meditation on a woman seeking self-analysis becomes nothing more than a comedy that tries every time to tells odd jokes but fails miserably.
Waking Up in Reno (2001)
For a film with such a great cast like Natasha Richardson, Patrick Swayze, Charlize Theron, and Billy Bob Thornton, it’s hard to believe this is such a bad film. The great cast manages to make due with the horrible script and directing including Theron and Richardson who are great as best friends who discover one another and their personalities. What’s worse is this is not just a bad film but a bad comedy and what makes it a bad comedy is that the script and antics performed by the actors force no laughs from the audience and basically will leave the audience with a stone cold face.