Boiler Room
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The movie's also as trivial as it is engaging; hack off 30 minutes and it might have had the delirious precision of early Marx Brothers classics. Instead, Allen's goofy conceit--enemies falling in love by hypnotic suggestion--is stretched to absurdity when efficiency expert Betty Ann "Fitz" Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt) is hypnotically attracted to seasoned insurance investigator C.W. Briggs (Allen), despite their office enmity. Plus, a jewel-heist caper masterminded by the nightclub hypnotist (David Ogden Stiers) casts them both as suspects! Woody harvests a bumper crop of old-fashioned laughs from this predicament, and despite their conspicuous age difference and occasional awkward delivery, Hunt and Allen exchange volleys of dialogue like a seasoned comedy team. Dan Aykroyd is also good in a stodgy supporting role, but Jade Scorpion remains a mixed blessing--a welcomed throwback to comedy's yesteryear, from a master funnyman who! 's struggling to maintain relevance in the present. --Jeff ! Shannon< /I> Putting his own comic spin on a mix of "His Girl Friday" and "Double Indemnity," writer/director/star Woody Allen plays a crack insurance investigator in '40s New York. His feud with company efficiency expert Helen Hunt takes an unexpected turn when a nightclub magician hypnotizes them into revealing their true attraction to each other--while at the same time compelling Allen to commit a series of jewel thefts for him. Dan Aykroyd, Elizabeth Berkley, David Ogden Stiers, and Charlize Theron also star. 102 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital mono, French Dolby Digital mono, Spanish Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English. NOTE: This Title Is Out Of Print; Limit One Per Customer.With The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Woody Allen pays another visit to his idealized past, and his retro blend of humor and nostalgia will surely satisfy the filmmaker's most loyal fans. Like The Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days, and Sweet and! Lowdown, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is physically impeccable: its period-perfect costumes and sets capture 1940 New York with splendid authenticity and are further enhanced by the burnished glow of Zhao Fei's cinematography. And like those earlier films, Jade Scorpion mines comedic gold from its timeframe, molding it into a plot laced with expert zingers that could only spring from a keen awareness of comedic tradition. Add an appealing roster of costars (including Elizabeth Berkley and Charlize Theron) and you've got vintage Woody that perks right along.
The movie's also as trivial as it is engaging; hack off 30 minutes and it might have had the delirious precision of early Marx Brothers classics. Instead, Allen's goofy conceit--enemies falling in love by hypnotic suggestion--is stretched to absurdity when efficiency expert Betty Ann "Fitz" Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt) is hypnotically attracted to seasoned insurance investigator C.W. Briggs (Allen), ! despite their office enmity. Plus, a jewel-heist caper masterm! inded by the nightclub hypnotist (David Ogden Stiers) casts them both as suspects! Woody harvests a bumper crop of old-fashioned laughs from this predicament, and despite their conspicuous age difference and occasional awkward delivery, Hunt and Allen exchange volleys of dialogue like a seasoned comedy team. Dan Aykroyd is also good in a stodgy supporting role, but Jade Scorpion remains a mixed blessing--a welcomed throwback to comedy's yesteryear, from a master funnyman who's struggling to maintain relevance in the present. --Jeff Shannon
The De! vil Came on Horseback depicts the tragic impact of an Arab! governm ent bent on destroying its black African citizens, the maddening complexity of international inaction in response to blatant genocide, and the awkward, yet heroic transformation of a formerMarine turned humanitarian. It is a gripping and moving memoir that bears witness to atrocities we have too long averted our eyes from, and reveals that the actions of just one committed person have the power to change the world.
The Devil Came on Horseback depicts the tragic impact of an Arab government bent on destroying its black African citizens, the maddening complexity of international inaction in response to blatant genocide, and the awkward, yet heroic transformation of a formerMarine turned humanitarian. It is a gripping and moving memoir that bears witness to atrocities we have too long averted our eyes from, and reveals that the actions of just one committed person have the power to change the world.
Living in the segregated South of the 1920's, where most people were sharecroppers. Uncle Jed had to travel all over the county to cut his customers' hair. He lived for the day when he could open his very own barbershop. But it was a long time, and many setbacks, from five-year-old Sarah Jean's emergency operation to the bank failures of the Great Depression, before the joyful day when Uncle Jed opened his shiny new shop -- and twirled a now grown-up Sarah Jean around in the barber chair.
With James Ransome's richly colored paintings brimming with life, this is a stirring story of dreams long deferred and finally realized.Ice Cube triumphantly returns as Calvin Palmer, proud proprietor of a neighborhood barbershop in Barbershop 2. The first Barbershop was a surprise smash; even more surprising is how good this sequel is. The plot isn't much--there's a corporate haircutting chain opening acro! ss the street, leading to the usual sentiments about the impor! tance of small businesses and neighborhoods--but the well-conceived characters and the loose, genuine banter give this movie a striking richness of feeling. Barbershop 2 cuts back and forth in time, flashing back to when Eddie (garrulous Cedric the Entertainer), the shop's oldest and most outspoken barber, first came to work for Calvin's father. Glimpses of black history give weight to the modern-day struggles; most impressively, this device doesn't feel forced or cynical. Also returning are Eve, Troy Garity, and Sean Patrick Thomas; Queen Latifah (Bringing Down the House) is a new face on the block. --Bret FetzerThese great collections let men sing four-part a cappella harmony with a professionally recorded barbershop quartet. The books include TTBB parts and the CDs feature full performances. Just turn on the CD, open the book, pick your part, and sing along!. Volume 2 songs include: The Banana Boat Song * Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight (Goodnight, It's Ti! me to Go) * Happy Together * Hello Mary Lou * In My Room * The Longest Time * Silhouettes * Under the Boardwalk.
THEY ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
No matter the format, Stephen King's work is spellbinding because the author himself is spellbound. The first hugely popular writer of the TV generation, King published his first novel, Carrie, in 1974, the year before the last U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam. Images from that war -- and protests against it -- had flooded America's living rooms for nearly ten years. In Hearts in Altantis, King mesmerizes readers with fiction deeply rooted in the Sixties! , and explores -- through four defining decades -- the haunting legacy of the Vietmnam War.
As the characters in Hearts in Atlantis are tested in every way, King probes and unlocks the secrets of his generation for us all. Full of danger, full of suspense, and most of all full of heart, Stephen King's new book will take some readers to a place they have never been able to leave completely.With his idiosyncratic blend of patrician airs and boyish charm, narrator William Hurt provides a wonderful complement to this wildly imaginative collection of short stories by author Stephen King. Hurt carefully weaves the disparate elements into a cohesive whole, embracing the subtle complexities of each character; one moment a wizened sadness leaks into his voice as a haunted old man, pursued by demons, asks his 11-year-old lookout, "You know everyone on this street, on this block of this street anyway? And you'd know strangers? Sojourners? Faces of those unkno! wn?" Then, in a profound yet almost imperceptible switch, he ! exposes the boy's naive enthusiasm, "I think so." Right about here your neck hairs will stand at attention. Hurt's peculiar vocal style is in perfect pitch to King's dark, surreal vision of growing up amid the monsters of post-Vietnam America. (Running time: 21 hours, 20 CDs) --George Laney Bobby befriends a new lodger in the boarding house where he lives and learns that he has strange powers and is being hunted by people called the lowmen.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 3-FEB-2004
Media Type: DVDFans of The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption will feel a similar affection for Hearts in Atlantis, a Stephen King adaptation that again finds the horror writer in more mainstream waters, with a bit of dabbling in the supernatural. When mysterious out-of-towner Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) moves into the boarding house that 11-year-old Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin) shares with his self-i! nvolved mother (Hope Davis), Bobby jumps at the chance to befriend an adult who talks to him straightforwardly. Ted enlists Bobby to read him the newspaper daily--and to keep an eye out for the "low men" bent on capturing Ted, who possesses a strange mind-reading power. Hopkins is in fine form, ably matched by the phenomenal young Yelchin, but director Scott Hicks (Shine) more often than not flattens out the dramatic arcs of the story, despite all the intriguing turns the film takes. Thankfully, though, the schmaltz factor is kept to a minimum, making Hearts in Atlantis a heartfelt coming-of-age drama. --Mark Englehart