Jack Black, when let loose to do his thing, is hilarious. As the front man for hard rocking humorist legends Tenacious D, he brings foul-mouthed rock bravado to new levels. In “The School of Rock,” the PG version is on display. And while it’s not the full-on JB, it’s more than he’s given in a […]
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This latest Woody Allen misfire features Jason Biggs in the lead role of a neurotic joke writer and Christina Ricci as his oddball girlfriend. Their rocky relationship from beginning to end is chronicled with all the newness of an REO Speedwagon song. Allen has mined this same set up for many movies before, but the […]
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It’s rare when a movie can be this subtle, and yet also completely engrossing. Sofia Coppola has written and directed another superb tale of loneliness and alienation, following 1999’s excellent “The Virgin Suicides.” I’ve read that Coppola wrote this movie with star Bill Murray in mind. And it’s easy to see why. At times, he […]
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With 3 hours to kill before a show in Little Rock, Ark., I entered a theater with my band-mates to see this movie, mostly because the ads on TV featured positive quotes from Peter Jackson and Premiere magazine. It was a gamble, for sure. But every now and then it’s kind of fun to go […]
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In 1992, director Robert Rodriguez released an ultra low budget, high-octane action movie called “El Mariachi.” In 1995, he filmed a high budget remake entitled “Desperado,” starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. Now in 2003, comes “Once Upon A Time in Mexico,” the third and final movie featuring the mysterious El Mariachi, played once again […]
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It’s a premise ripe with comedic possibilities: a washed up former child star tries to get a career-reviving part in an upcoming movie. Frank Sinatra’s big Oscar-winning comeback in 1953’s “From Here to Eternity” is even mentioned as an example. But instead of using mob ties to ensure he gets the role like Sinatra did, […]
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Released slowly across the country earlier this summer, these two original European imports are currently causing quite a stink on the art-house movie circuit. Ironically, both films seem to want to give you one thing, and then sneakily deliver another while you get sidetracked with what you think to be the main story. At first […]
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Jason wins.
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It seems absolutely insane to me that the man who directed 1997’s box office and critical disaster/head scratcher “The Postman” could be behind such an assured and old-fashioned movie as this one. “Open Range” is a throwback to the same kind of John Wayne picture that you’d see some afternoon on Turner Classic Movies or […]
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Set during the Great Depression, when America was in desperate need of an underdog, “Seabiscuit” is an entertaining, yet mildly overwrought movie based on a true story. Writer/director Gary Ross (“Pleasantville”) has taken Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling novel about a little horse that beat all the odds, changed a couple of facts, but left the spirit […]
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Today was a day off toward the end of our tour, and Nick and I got up at 8 in the morning in our Cleveland hotel room and drove to Sandusky, Ohio to ride the tallest and fastest rollercoaster in the entire world at Cedar Point amusement park! After speeding our ass off to get […]
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From Gore Verbinski, bankable and stylistically devoid director of “The Mexican” and “The Ring,” comes a silly little trifle of a movie based on a Disney theme park ride. If that sounds like fun to you already, then you may want to check out “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.” Johnny Depp, […]
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So Bill brought his DVDs of the first two Terminator movies in the van on this tour, knowing that we would see this one while we were out. I hadn’t seen them in a long time, and liked them both a lot. Sure, they are both basically just escapist fun, but they make sense and […]
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Not to be confused with the recent Sandra Bullock rehab comedy “28 Days,” which could be considered a zombie movie of a different ilk, director Danny Boyle’s recent U.K low budget horror hit finally made its way to America last week. I hope that it captures U.S. audiences’ attention, too, because it’s a way more […]
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Despite the fact that it is adapted from a classic Marvel comic book, director Ang Lee’s new dysfunctional family psychodrama “Hulk” more closely resembles Universal Studios horror classic than a superhero movie. Sure, there are amazing scenes of the Hulk performing superhuman stunts. But, unlike the standard superhero drama, he’s not really trying to save […]
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