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Posts Tagged ‘Videos On Demand’

And Then There Were Four Sale-$1.99! Compare & Purchase And Then There Were Four at Amazon by clicking here! List Price: —- Amazon Price: $1.99 Click Here To Purchase At Amazon!

And Then There Were Four Description:

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14475 in TV Series Episode Video on Demand
• Released on: 2009-12-10
• Running time: 25 minutes

Customer Reviews:

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Bleeding Lowest Price! Compare & Purchase Bleeding at Amazon by clicking here! List Price: —- Amazon Price: $1.99 Click Here To Purchase At Amazon!

Bleeding Description:

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14450 in Movie
• Released on: 2009-12-30
• Running time: 21 minutes

Customer Reviews:

Intruiging
Quickly provides suspenseful interest that continues throughout the film. Very different story from most such films and very well cast. The actors do not appear to be acting. Possibly the doctor was a real German doctor? I thought the mother was really a mother. And the friends were all really into what was a real life scary experience. However, if this is a prelude to a longer movie, it did not go far enough. I could not tell where the story was heading.

Excellent short movie!
Great story line. I felt the directing was right on the money.
My only problem was that the film was too short! It left me wanting more…..
Would love to see this made into a full length motion picture.
Loved Ellie and Dr. Gerlach.
Great creepy music also.

Wonderful Combination of Writing, Directing, and Acting
Wow! What an intriguing, suspenseful story. The directing was superb, and Ms. Frame is obviously a future film star. Hey, you Left Coast studio people, sign her fast!

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Angels And Insects Sale-$2.99! Compare & Purchase Angels And Insects at Amazon by clicking here! List Price: —- Amazon Price: $2.99 Click Here To Purchase At Amazon!

Angels And Insects Description:

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18697 in Movie
• Released on: 2009-12-16
• Running time: 118 minutes

Customer Reviews:

A VISUAL AND THESPIAN MASTERPIECE…
This is a stunning period piece, awash with lush scenery and extravagantly beautiful costumes. It is also marvelously acted by all with virtuoso performances by Mark Rylance and Kristin Scott Thomas. The cinematography is breathtaking, and the movie could be characterized as a masterpiece. It is simply a cinematic gem.

The storyline revolves about an impoverished naturalist (Mark Rylance) who returns from the far reaches of the Amazon to England. Having lost his life’s work in a shipwreck that he survived, he is taken in by the patriarch of a wealthy, upper class family. In return, he helps his benefactor catalog his eclectic nature collection.

The naturalist, a sensitive, intelligent, and kind individual, falls in love with one of his benefactor’s daughters, the mysterious Eugenia, played to perfection by the beautiful and talented Patsy Kensit. He is, however, despised and mistreated by her boorish brother, ostensibly because of his low birth.

After the marriage, he begins an intense study of an ant colony, with the assistance of a poor relation of his benefactor. This poor relation is an intelligent, articulate, and well-educated woman (Kristin Scott Thomas). It is plain to the viewer that she, and not her wealthy and beautiful cousin Eugenia, is the one whom the naturalist should have married.

Meanwhile, there is clearly a deep, dark secret within the household. It becomes apparent early on what the secret must be. It is revealed several years into the marriage in a shockingly dramatic fashion, causing the forbearing naturalist to have the veil lifted from his eyes. This in turn acts as the catalyst for the poor relation to reveal her own secret passion.

This is a magnificent film that should not be missed by those who love period pieces and award caliber performances.

Unsettling and seductive bee hives
I strongly recommend this odd but fascinating film. The story is full of strange twists; the images are beautiful, the acting is superb, and A. S. Byatt’s underlying message is disturbing.

We all know Victorian England was full of sexual repression and hidden obsessions but this film reveals just how pathological sexual secrets can become.

The story is that of a young working class entymologist whose research is supported by Sir Harald Alabaster. William Anderson, the insect specialist, discovers a beautiful moth in the Amazon and brings it back to England for Sir Harald, naming it after his beautiful eldest daughter, Eugenia. Sir Harald’s wife is a rotund mountain of fat, producing children while being served hand and foot by servants, as if she were a giant termite queen. William falls for Eugenia, against all odds marries her, and then becomes part of a strange sexual pattern with his wife where he is invited into her bedroom for a night of wild sex, followed by her separation from him during her pregnancy. He is not usually invited back again except in this cycle of one-night-stand,pregnancy, new birth, and then one-night-stand. William’s children and the younger children of Sir Harald have a nanny, Maddy, played superbly by Kristin Scott Thomas. Eventually William comes to understand the secret behind his wife’s sexuality and through the support of Maddy, is able to divorce himself from the Alabaster household.

What is A.S. Byatt telling us? I think the film is telling us that as social creatures, we organize our work and society much like bee hives or ant mounds, full of hierarchy and division of labor and every opportunity for reflective thinking to be drowned out and for pathology to survive unchallenged.

Wierd and beautiful is hte best way to summarize this film.

Steamy & Sexy
When a husband declares, “We’re going to be so happy,” to his new bride early on in any movie, it doesn’t take Jeane Dixon to know there’s trouble ahead. And trouble there is for this pair, an impoverished naturalist (Rylance), just returned to Victorian England after years spent up the Amazon studying insects, and his high-strung, aristocratic wife (Kensit).

A tale of sexual passion and perfidy, Angels is a handsome costume drama based on A.S. Byatt’s 1992 novel Morpho Eugenia. The naturalist, who is living off the generosity of a rich nobleman while cataloging the older man’s insect collection, falls in love with and marries the man’s daughter.

Rylance soon finds himself studying at close range some two-legged specimens far nastier than any to be found among his beloved creepy crawlers. His new wife and her boorish brother (Henshall) harbor a Big Secret, one that most viewers will guess early on, but it takes Rylance several years (and nearly the entire film) to figure it out.

The film’s standout performance comes from Thomas (Four Weddings and a Funeral), who plays a poor relation of the rich family. Looking like a young Margaret Hamilton, she’s the one who smartly sees Rylance for the true gentleman that he is and sets her bonnet for him.

Steamy, sexy, and strangely satisfying.

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Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Product: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Discount. List Price: —- Amazon Price: $2.99 Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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• Amazon Sales Rank: #750 in Movie
• Released on: 2009-03-11
• Running time: 103 minutes

Gee, thanks Paramount…
Film buffs, DVD collectors, and John Hughes fans beware! The “Bueller…Bueller…” edition DVD does not include the commentary track by writer/producer/director John Hughes which was included on the original 1999/2000 DVD release. It is a great commentary and is sorely missed from this edition.

Cough Cough Cough Cough Cough…Bleah, Bleah! Bleah, Bleah!!!
I first saw “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” in 1991, and I’ve LOVED it ever since. I was so thrilled to see that Paramount was giving this classic film an upgraded DVD Special Edition. Upon seeing it however, I must say that I’m pretty disappointed. The extras, although enjoyable, are sorely lacking what they could and SHOULD be. Most of the film’s major stars (and sometimes even minor ones like Kristy Swanson and Richard Edson) provide some updated interviews that are fun to watch. But, the bonus material and interviews featuring Mia Sara are all from 1986! She obviously CAN’T be that busy these days, so doesn’t it make sense that an updated interview with her could have been included?

Also, the shooting script for this movie contains MANY deleted scenes and dialogue, some of which were a GREAT read and are bound to have been filmed. Ferris going through the house looking for money in some STRANGE places (all while the Pink Floyd tune “Money” was playing), as well as Cameron’s dad seeing his 1961 Ferarri being driven through Chicago’s streets by the two parking garage employees would have been GREAT to see. However, the ONLY deleted scene we get here is a behind-the-scenes version of the waiter at Chez Qui telling the trio that the food they were eating was pancreas (which of course was referred to later by Ferris in the taxi). No true special edition DVD should be without a deleted scenes section. VERY disappointing.

Next, this edition (like the original) does NOT include a theatrical trailer. It’s rare for even a bare bones DVD not to include at least one trailer, but nearly UNHEARD of for a special edition! It’s bound to still exist, and I can’t beleive that it’s THAT hard to find that they could not have dug it up for this “special” edition.

Finally, the original DVD, while lacking a trailer, DID include a GREAT feature-length commentary track by writer/director John Hughes. However, that commentary track is NOT included here! That was either a severe oversight or a downright mean move by Paramount. How hard would it have been to reproduce it here? In effect, its omission forces anyone who bought the original DVD and wants to upgrade to the special edition to keep the original instead of selling or trading it, all because they want to retain the commentary. Paramount should have at least made it possible that owning this new DVD would provide the most complete “Ferris” experience presently possible by itself, but without the original’s commentary it doesn’t.

In summary, if you bought the original DVD, then I advise you to keep it and just rent this new version to give the special features a look. Save the rest of what you would otherwise spend on this to put towards something more worthwhile. If you have NOT bought the original DVD however, then this would be a worthwhile purchase to own the extras that were not present on the original. But, do rent the original to give a listen to that AWESOME commentary track by John Hughes.

Don’t trust the review; still relevant and hilarious!
I am a teenager. I still enjoy(?) the joys(?) of high school. And let me say that Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is still pertinent, as well as enjoyable.

I’ve seen the ending numerous times on TV, but this very night I decided to watch the whole thing. I rented it with a friend and loved it. Tomorrow I will go out and buy the DVD.

John Hughes was one of the precursors of such great writer-directors as Kevin Smith, and this film is evidence. It may have different focuses and some might find this difficult to interpret, as some reviews have said.

I say “Bull.” This film captures high school. Even if all the teachers aren’t as boring, the administration is still spreading the same lies that the principal character does in the film. He tries for authority and only pulls off incompetence.

With humor, light youthful cynicism, and carefree but intelligent views on life, I can attest to Ferris’s own accuracy. I may not be as successful, but I see myself as a Buellerist(even if it wasn’t intended).

So what if the movie ends seriously? That’s what high school is! There’re good times, hilarious times. And then there’s learning who you are. Coming to terms. I was moved by Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. In a world where accuracy often means disgusting, hack films like American Pie, this movie captured school days masterfully. Films that take the act of growing up and make it a sick joke are insulting, in my opinion. American Pie featured the darker side of growing up. People who are self-centered and petty. What a life, to start in such a way. Ferris Bueller is shown to be human and moral as he speaks about his friends, however. His analyses are wonderful, and caring while not being sugar-coated. The film was true but tasteful, succinctly and accurately showing the trials of growing up.

It’s over-the-top, but anyone who was interesting in high school(and childhood in general), I’m sure, can attest to memories that seem larger-than-life. While it may be difficult to watch Ferris Bueller run up slides and jump on trampolines all to get home with a serious eye, one must admit that when one looks back at school, some things are like that, even if only in your mind.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off works on levels that only one who is or has been young can appreciate.

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Broken Embraces Product: Broken Embraces Review. List Price: —- Amazon Price: $14.99 Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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• Amazon Sales Rank: #9332 in Movie
• Released on: 2010-03-23
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Running time: 128 minutes

“A film must be finished, even if it must be finished blind” – a seductive film noir about filmmaking and obsession
Harry Caine is a blind screenwriter, watched over by his former production assistant, Judit, and her son, Diego. His simple routine is upset when he hears of the death of a wealthy tycoon, and is later visited by the dead man’s son in disguise. Pressed by Diego to explain, Harry recounts the tragic tale of how he, then known as Mateo Blanco, had fallen in love and had an affair with the tycoon’s former lover, when she played a role in a film he was then directing, and of the accident that left him blind. The story itself is convoluted but clear enough – and I can’t quite understand all the complaints about the story being confusing since film noir often tells a story within a story and keeps the audience guessing. Things are resolved in the end, and nearly every loose strand is tied. This one adds to the usual complexities a reflection on cinema, and two films within the film, and explores what it takes to revisit and remake the past so as to go on living.

It is a very poignant and at times quite amusing film about memory, lies, double lives, jealousy and revenge. Beautifully filmed with the eye for vibrant color and beauty that Almodovar is known for, the film also serves as a reminder of the changes in film technology that have occurred over the past few decades, and of the changes that have taken place in Almodovar’s own style as a filmmaker, given that the film within the film suggests the more melodramatic and stylized work of his past. The film within a film bears a striking resemblance to Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the film that placed Almodovar on the world stage as one of the most intriguing of auteurs. Perhaps not among his greatest masterpieces – like All About My Mother or Talk to Her (Hable con Ella), which are my personal favorites – but still a very entertaining and provocative new film by one of the greatest living filmmakers. Highly recommended.

Update: I just saw this again and was struck by Almodovar’s mastery of conflicting moods in this film – nostalgia, melancholy, hilarity, rapture, tension and suspense. Somehow it manages to be all of these without becoming muddled. The film also manages to channel a wide range of associations with other films and filmmakers while remaining thoroughly in the grasp of Almodovar and his distinctive sensibilities. On this second viewing I detected hints of Antonioni (especially L’Aventurra), Hitchcock (especially Vertigo), Michael Powell (with an explicit reference to Peeping Tom), and, of course, to Almodovar’s own earlier work. A beautiful and intelligent film, that holds up on multiple viewings.

Not Bad, but Stale and Underwritten in Parts.
In “Broken Embraces”, Pedro Almodovar rehashes a lot of themes and devices from his earlier films to create a pastiche that is pleasant enough but not as strong as his more daring and original works. Harry Caine (Lluis Homar) is a blind screenwriter who had been film director Mateo Blanco before he lost his sight. Now he dictates screenplays to his assistant Diego (Tamar Novas), the son of his longtime manager Judit (Blanco Portillo), who wishes Harry would write scripts for more popular genres. One day as aspiring filmmaker (Ruben Ochandiano) proposes that Harry collaborate on a script about a son who avenges himself on his detested father posthumously. That inspires Harry to tell Diego the story of how he fell in love and lost his sight 14 years earlier, a subject of which he has not spoken in all those years.

In 1994, Harry met Lena (Penelope Cruz), the beautiful mistress of financier Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez), when he directed her in her first film, a comedy called “Girls and Suitcases”. They fell in love and incurred Ernesto’s wrath. The film shifts back and forth, between 1994 and 2008, as Diego takes in the story, and Judit grows wary of what Harry might tell him. Harry and Lena’s affair is deliberately clichéd, but I waited for Almodovar to give it his unique spin. Unfortunately, it never quite delivers. Lena seems more an object than a fully realized character, which might be fitting, as she is in Harry’s memory. But as a main character, she is underwritten. Jose Luis Gomez is perfect as a man in the grip of obsession for Lena, so much so that I wish Ernesto had a more prominent role.

Sometimes Pedro Almodovar has a stroke of brilliance. And sometimes he seems to make movies because he likes making movies, even if he doesn’t have anything fresh to contribute. I’ve seen too much of “Broken Embraces” in his other films, and it just never engages the audience. Harry and Lena’s love has no spark. I could see the “surprises” coming a mile away. Some actions seem to lack motivation. Penelope Cruz is luminous. There’s never any doubt as to why she’s a movie star in Almodovar’s films. Jose Luis Gomez is very good, and so Blanco Portillo would be if the writing for her character were a little better. I think those familiar with Almodovar’s work are going to find this one stale. But I can’t really recommend it to those new to Almodovar, as you would be better off seeing the great “All About My Mother” (1999) or, if you want noir, the labyrinthine noir homage/spoof “Bad Education” (2004). In Spanish with optional subtitles.

The DVD (Sony 2010): Bonus features include 3 deleted scenes, a theatrical trailer (2 min), and 4 featurettes. “The Cannibalistic Councillor” (7 min) is a scene from the fictional “Girls and Suitcases” movie, in which Chon, a woman of conservative politics and Councillor of Social Affairs, goes on about her sexual obsession and foot fetish. This is pure, hilarious Almodovar and not to be missed. There is another scene from the fictional movie among the deleted scenes. “Pedro Directs Penelope” (6 min, English subtitles) shows us what Almodovar is saying offscreen while two actresses play a scene. “On the Red Carpet: The New York Film Festival Closing Night” (3 min) has a few brief interviews. “Variety Q&A with Penelope Cruz” (6 min) is an interview of Cruz by Todd McCarthy. Subtitles are available for the film in English and French. Dubbing available in French.

A great director running over too-familiar ground
Harry Caine (Lluis Homar) is a blind screenwriter leading a quiet life in 2008 Madrid who is brought back – rather against his will – to contemplating the events of 1994 that changed his life when one of the people intimately involved in them, a rich industrialist named Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez) has died. He starts to open up to his young friend Diego (Tamar Novas), the son of his agent Judit (Blanca Portillo) about Magdalena (Penélope Cruz), first an employee of Martel and then his mistress, who came into his life as a would-be actress and ended up much more. And through the telling, secrets involving Diego and his mother also come to light, tragedies and perhaps resolutions that had lain dormant for a decade and a half…

Although I don’t have any truly enormous complaints about BROKEN EMBRACES, I don’t have a whole lot that’s really wonderful to say about it either. This feels to me like Almodóvar running on autopilot; all of the major themes of his past several films (haunting pasts, accidents and illnesses and disabilities, the life of the writer, the sacrifices women have to make) are in evidence here but there isn’t much that’s fresh or interesting in his handling of any of them, many of the revelations are telegraphed a mile away (if you can’t figure out Diego’s secret before the halfway point you probably haven’t seen ten movies in your life), and the emotions seem muted and dry. There’s little of his earlier trademark panache or humor, and the film seems to move relentlessly towards a fairly predetermined ending which comes off as too easy and not necessarily believable or even deserved..

Cruz and Homar probably come off the best in the central roles, maybe because they have the closest things to real characters to play, though even they feel underdeveloped. Gómez’ Martel just seems like a possessive rich guy caricature, and none of the other characters register at all beyond the parts they play revolving around the central love triangle. Blanca Portillo, fantastic in VOLVER, seems wasted here – I don’t have any complaints about her acting, but her role seems underwritten and bland. The director’s use of color, even, strikes me as a little less impressive than usual and the film feels like it could have been set and shot just about anywhere, the feeling for place isn’t all that strong.

I wasn’t too too bored despite the 127 minutes that seemed like it could have easily been pared to 100 or less, so it wasn’t a complete washout, and Penélope is as lovely as ever, so points there. But not enough, when all is said and done. Easily my least-favorite Almodóvar film so far; I don’t mind that he keeps traveling the same roads of memory and loss — many directors have made wonderful careers with less variation than he has typically offered in his recent work — but I think this one just ended up a little too straight and narrow and the scenery just wasn’t memorable enough. If you’re a fan, it’s worth a watch I guess; if you’re new to the director, I’d recommend any of his other films since the late 90s before this one

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Primates Gone Wild Product: Primates Gone Wild Discount. List Price: —- Amazon Price: $1.99 Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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• Amazon Sales Rank: #14647 in TV Series Episode Video on Demand
• Released on: 2010-04-16
• Running time: 19 minutes

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The 40-Year-Old Virgin Unrated Sale-$2.99! Compare & Purchase The 40-Year-Old Virgin Unrated at Amazon by clicking here! List Price: —- Amazon Price: $2.99 Click Here To Purchase At Amazon!

The 40-Year-Old Virgin Unrated Description:

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3527 in Movie
• Released on: 2009-05-15
• Rating: Unrated
• Running time: 133 minutes

Customer Reviews:

A 40-Year-Old Virgin’s review…
My first viewing of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” was late in its theatrical run. By then it had been banished to the smallest theater in the multiplex, so me and (I assume) the only other middle-aged virgin in town were its sole audience. I wish I’d seen it sooner, because it’s now one of my all-time favorite comedies.

Forty-year-old Andy Stitzer lives a comfortably regimented singleton life – similar to the main character from “About a Boy,” except chaste, uncool, and with no internal monologue. He works in the service department of Smart Tech, a Circuit City-like electronics store. One day, a couple of coworkers ask him to be the fifth man at a poker party. He accepts, but during the game is outed as a virgin. The rest of the movie revolves around his friends’ outrageous attempts to get him hooked up, along with Andy’s determined efforts to overcome his fear of women and woo Trish, an attractive customer who owns an online auction store across the street.

This could easily have been another lowbrow copulation comedy. However, it’s much better than that. Steve Carell (also a co-writer) does a fine job of making Andy into a sympathetic character. Indeed, I easily identified with his motivations and actions: the bad experiences that led him to forsake dating, his escape into fantasy, and even the mundane activities he uses to fill his solitary life. Andy’s friends are also intriguing because they represent flawed approaches to women. David (Paul Rudd) is obsessed with a gal who dumped him years ago, Cal (Seth Rogan) objectifies females, and the serial cheater Jay (Romany Malco) can’t commit to his longsuffering girlfriend.

The movie has been lengthened in this DVD edition by 17 minutes with additional and extended scenes. As for DVD extras, this edition is packed with a decent assortment. Deleted scenes like Andy’s public karaoke debut added depth to the characters. A series of outtakes include the usual blown lines, gaffes, and laughing fits. The lively commentary contains interesting bits of trivia on the filmmaking process. However, it was a bit too crowded for my taste (just about everybody shows up), and Seth Rogan has a tendency to dominate the proceedings. Unfortunately, Catherine Keener is a glaring absence. Her portrayal of Trish is excellent, and I really wanted to hear her perspective. Finally, the other featurettes, such as the waxing scene “making-of” bit, are stock, but passable.

Although it’s somewhat raunchy, as a Christian I have to commend “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” for a single crucial thing: it’s the only mainstream movie I know of that makes chastity until marriage look like a grand idea. That alone is enough to recommend it (even if my pastor disagrees). But the humor, story, characters, and performances are also worth the watch – especially if someday, like me, you hope to sing “Age of Aquarius” on your honeymoon.

One Very Smart, Dumb Movie
Surprise, it’s a morality tale disguised as a sex comedy.

Imagine you combined a few of the best parts of Something about Mary, 40 days and 40 nights, Sideways and ( as strange as it might sound) an after school special. Now, throw in more profanity than really necessary and imagine that the combination worked.

Plus, unlike the Josh Hartnett film, 40 days and 40 nights, there is some actual thought given to the kind of person who is shown.

It’s not Shakespeare. It’s not Once Upon a Time In Mexico. And it’s not the Usual Suspects, but for what it is it works.

And what it is, is the smartest dumb movie I’ve seen in a very long time.

Among its many surprises, is you have a peer group of men who actually look out for each other.

You also have an attractive grandmother who is not the standard cookie-cutter grandmother.

These are just two of the many departures from the expected that make this anything but the one-note comedy that the commercials make it seem like.

The 40 year-old is cut from the same cloth as Steve Martin’s early masterpiece, the Jerk, and as someone in his thirties, it’s refreshing to see a funny movie, where the main character is not a 20-something.

Plus, the soundtrack is a surprising combination of some of the forgotten treasures of pop and broadway.

Perhaps, the best of all, it’s nice to be reminded that everyone is running on their own schedule in life.

2nding the notion that the unrated version pales in comparison to the original
This is one of the funniest movies I’ve had the pleasure of catching at a movie theater in a long time. I thought I was purchasing more laughs for my buck buying the UNRATED version, but much to my disappointment this is definitely a case of MORE is LESS. The added scenes do nothing to enhance the original; in fact, I’d say 90% of these added scenes should have been left as “deleted scenes.” They hurt the comedic pacing of the original. If you thoroughly enjoyed the original at the theaters, stay away from this unrated version. In fact, I’m so disappointed in this unrated version, I’m tempted to buy the r-rated “original” version even though it only comes in full screen (why the original is unavailable in the widescreen format is also cause for this fan to roll his eyes in disbelief).

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Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day Product: Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day Review. List Price: —- Amazon Price: $3.99 Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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• Amazon Sales Rank: #6707 in Movie
• Released on: 2010-02-23
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Running time: 103 minutes

A Farewell Note to Trailer Park Boys and it’s loyal fans?
It’s hard to say bad things about the boys in Canada’s beloved pseudo-reality TV series, which ran 7 seasons, not counting the one-off “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys” episode, which preceded this movie chronologically and plot-wise. There was also an Ivan Reitman-produced Trailer Park Boys Movie in 2008 (which didn’t quite live up to the madness of the TV episodes).

Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles get out of prison and attempt once again, to stay out of prison. To their dismay, times have changed, and Sunnyvale has pretty much been abandoned. Bubbles’s kitties are missing, and Lahey is now really off the bottle, swindling his ex-wife Barb out of property and using that deal to create the Lahey Luxury Estates. Unfortunately, the new property’s main sewer runs underneath Julian’s old trailer, so Lahey now has to plot to obtain Julian’s land to complete his new utopia.

How is this movie different from the other brilliant Trailer Park Boys TV installments? Sarah Byrne, who was responsible for on-the-fly editing style, creating the comic timing of the earlier TV episode returns here. Blain Morris, who composed for the iconic TV theme, scores an understated soundtrack, inserting vintage country and western pieces when necessary, creating some gorgeous vistas alongside Ted McInnes cinematography. Rob Well’s Ricky actually shines in some of his more serious – albeit deadpan – moments. The “battery charger advice scene” had me laughing out loud, rolling on the floor in it’s sobriety: you can’t jump start a dead car battery by hooking it up to your own dead battery! And the “No.1″ Car Chase Scene of all time is worth the price of ticket admission alone, as the characters duel it out with a urinary swordfight in a high speed chase through downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I think Countdown to Liquor Day is a Love Letter to all TPB fans. It shows that the boys are symbolically forced to “return” to something that is no longer there anymore. The sense of wonder and enchantment with the real trailers in the backdrop when the camera used to follow Bubbles in his go-cart, has now been replaced by repetitive pre-fab trailers with no distinction from one to another. Mike Smith’s own Bubbles seems more like a forced caricature of Bubbles than the fresh, innocent, kitty-loving compassionate, pacific guy who won our hearts over in the film short “The Cart Boy” that started it all, some ten years ago. The other guys – J-Roc, T, Julian, seems growingly impatient with the impending typecast of their roles. The comedy in the earlier versions comes from a certain innocence of the boys thinking they will succeed, even when we know they can’t. “Countdown” has a darker, more pessimistic tone: the boys seem to realize they are more apt to fail, and along with that comes a meaner, angrier streak. Where they use to look out for each other in the tight-knit trailer park community, the ethos seems to lean more towards “looking out for No.1.” Phrases like “I’m not sure what success is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not this,” “I’m not feeling it anymore” may be read a number of ways. The boys pleading the film crew to stop filming them in the future is another Easter Egg in plain sight.

Sam “Caveman” Losco, Jacob and the Mustard Tiger, the original TV-Cyrus, and George Green, Barrie Dunn all appear, but only briefly in the backdrop. The comic duo of Trevor and Cory is long gone. Lucy, Sarah, and Trinity appear merely by duty, almost like former popular classmates showing up a for a class reunion. Even the front lawn bee with the spinning wings gets a bow out. Brian Vollmer of Helix and Alex Lifeson of Rush also make guests cameos. And of course, the two Chrysler New Yorkers almost disintegrated as a mile-marker of the evolution of TPB.

The movie is called Countdown to Liquor Day, so naturally the focus is on Jim Lahey and his lover Randy. Though John Dunsworth has pretty much exhausted every possible improvisation of FUBAR drunkenness in all previous episodes and outtakes, he carries the movie when scenes tend – as Clattenburg commented in the first TV season – to walk the tight rope between comedy and drama, and come dangerously close to toppling onto the serious side. Pat Roach is his able male lover, bickering with and nagging Jim in a domestic tale of a same sex couple.

Some of the whackiness of the earlier days are, as always, hidden in the “Deleted Scenes” section; Ricky tricking policemen into arresting innocent hunters during a liquor store holdup is a signature move, Ricky demanding from the film crew just what it is they are filming, Cyrus pulling his gun out during an academic test. There’s also IMHO, a superior alternate ending that brings the focus back to Lahey and ends “Countdown” on a positive note, sending a morse code to fans like Seinfeld’s final episode. There’s a fun, alternate commentary track featuring the three familiar folks at the fansite trailer park boys org: Fishy Neil, Shake, and Tiggy.

The boys and creator Mike Clattenburg is in the process of creating a new show entitled “The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour” scheduled to air later this year. I look forward to new and great things from this troupe. My friend and I drove 1000 miles to Halifax for the premier of this movie, too poor for hotels and as a homage to Ricky…we slept in the car.

The Countdown Is On
After the season 7 finale, which seemed to tie the show up in one big happy ending, it certainly was a surprise that one additional episode (“Say Goodnight To The Bad Guys”) and one final movie would be tacked on to send the Trailer Park Boys out in style. While I was perfectly satisfied with the “happy” ending provided in season 7, I suppose that this is the TPB, and there’s no such thing as happy endings for Ricky and Julian.

It is two years since the events of “Say Goodnight…” and the Boys are about to get out of jail. Bubbles is bailed first and returns to Sunnyvale trailer park to find the place in a state of abandonment. His cats are gone, the kittie door to his shed has been mysteriously boarded up, and Phil & Jacob Collins are hightailing it out of there. What happened?

Lahey, sober as a judge, came into some money and invested in a new park called Lahey’s Luxury Estates. However, now Julian is back, and he wants to turn his old trailer into a legit business, a garage, employing old friends Ricky, Bubbles, J-Roc and T. He just needs to commit some crimes for some start-up money. And Lahey needs that trailer. The sewage for the new park is going to go right through where it stands….

This setup is all that is needed to bring Lahey back to the liquor, send Randy into a tailspin, and bring Ricky and Julian loads of trouble that they did not ask for, but are going to get anyway.

Highlights of this movie, for me, included:
1. Cameos by Brian Vollmer of Helix (presumably as himself, who the boys seem to recognize from their previous encounter) and Alex Lifeson in drag as an undercover cop.
2. Bubbles’ mission to rescue his cats with new friend Jenny.
3. J-Roc, whose career in the rap game takes a surprising turn.
4. Rickyisms hit a brand-new low (which only makes them funnier).
5. Lahey is drunker than ever, and gets his just desserts.

It’s not all laughs, however. One major flaw with Countdown To Liquor Day is the near-absence of the supporting cast. J-Roc and T play a substantial role, but Barb Lahey, and of course Corey and Trevor as well, are nowhere to be found. There are also no Corey & Trevor substitutes or “jail cover” which was crucial to the humour of previous episodes. Lucy and Sarah play no important role, and neither does Trinity who appears all grown up and gothed out. Basically, the cast has been reduced to the three Boys, plus J-Roc and T, vs. Randy and Lahey and that is it. For a show that was originally supported by a large cast and supporting characters, this did not feel like classic TPB.

Having said that, TPB is a decent movie. It’s just not the movie I wanted the Boys to go out on. To me, season 7 was a much more suitable goodbye. While all loose ends are indeed tied up (it is quite clear by the ending that this will be the last documented adventure of the TPB), it is not the happy ending that season 7 was. Perhaps only Bubbles ends up in a better place than he was. And Lahey? He got what he deserved!

The DVD for this movie is excellent, with a great alternate ending that has aspects that should have been incorporated into the film. While the film’s original ending had brief cameos by Sam Losco and officers Green & Johnson, the alternate ending is expanded to include those plus Cyrus, Terry and Dennis. Since Terry and Dennis hadn’t been seen since season 5, that was very cool. However why was “Say Goodnight To The Bad Guys” not included? It is a direct prequel to this film, and is completely unavailable on any DVD of any kind.

I recommend Countdown To Liquor Day to all Trailer Park Boys fans who don’t mind change. Because in this trailer park, the times they are a changin’.

5 stars.

Side note: Check out the boys and Alex Lifeson of Rush in “The Drunk And On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour” in 2010!

The only difference between them and you is a coupla drinks.
The tag line prety much sums it up, and like the funniest of jokes, it is so true. Ok so most of us have’nt robbed a bank, but you’ve thought about it have’nt you?
The boys are back, out of jail and wasting no time in resuming thier criminal careers. They quickly come up against a sober Jim Lahey and a home in shambles.
Always the entrepeneur, Julian comes up with a plan to put them on easy street, and the hijinks ensue. You have to admire thier tenacity at avioding “real” jobs.
Missing in action are the faithfull scapegoats Corey and Trevor, and the star cameo’s from the previous film.
A fun ride, from the people who put “real” in reality TV.

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Funny People Unrated Sale-$14.99! Compare & Purchase Funny People Unrated at Amazon by clicking here! List Price: —- Amazon Price: $14.99 Click Here To Purchase At Amazon!

Funny People Unrated Description:

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12599 in Movie
• Released on: 2010-01-17
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Running time: 153 minutes

Customer Reviews:

Jake LaMotta would’ve made a hell of a comedian
Judd Apatow’s Funny People is going to divide audiences (it certainly has divided critics). Those going in expecting a comedy along the lines of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up or any other of the films in the Apatow-verse will enjoy it but not love it. But that reaction may be more a product of the misdirection in the marketing of the film than anything else. Funny People is going for something more emotionally complex, and it succeeds on that count.

Without dwelling on plot, the film focuses, by and large, on the professional and personal lives of a group of comics and comic actors at various rungs of the show business ladder, from Adam Sandler’s George Simmons, a hugely successful film comedy star who came out of the stand-up comedy world, to Seth Rogan’s Ira Wright, a novice comic who is drawn into George’s world, to Ira’s friends, who are his roommates, who are his competitors.

The common thread running through these characters is anger and aggression, both explicit and sublimated. They steal jokes, jobs and women from each other (listed here in order of importance to the comics). The relationship between the performers and their audiences is similarly complicated (it’s become a cliched observation that comics talk about “killing” the crowd).

Interestingly, although all the comedians share this anger and aggression, it’s only those who ride those dark emotions into similarly dark comedy that have preserved their spark. The farther the comics stray from their anger, the worse their comedy – as evidenced by Sandler’s character, who churns out family-friendly claptrap and co-star Jason Schwartzman’s Yo, Teach!, a self-important sitcom (both brilliantly captured in clips woven into Funny People).

In Funny People, comedy is the universal language by which these emotionally-constricted characters communicate. There are awkward hugs and half-hearted attempts at compassion, but the most tender moment, coming late in the film, involves one character expressing love by writing jokes for another.

All this aside, I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that this is a funny, entertaining, emotionally-involving film. But that said, in an odd way, Funny People echoes Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull. Both films are about angry and aggressive people who channel those drives in socially acceptable ways. (Even more oddly, Billy Crystal’s horrific and mawkish Mr. Saturday Night attempted more overtly to be the Raging Bull of comedy, and the less said about that effort the better.)

It wasn’t until the ride home from the movie that it occurred to me that the “funny” in the title Funny People could have two meanings; there’s funny ha-ha, and funny-odd. Here, the people are intentionally, compellingly both.

Flawed and Meandering Yet Still a Worthwhile Look Inside a Stand-Up Comic’s Mind
The psyche of the stand-up comedian is the subject of Judd Apatow’s third and most ambitious directorial effort, but the elliptical, rather skewed characters that inhabit this serious-minded 2009 comedy obscure the personal revelations that he ironically attempts to mine. In certain ways, it’s a dramatically audacious film, yet in others, Apatow comes back to the comfortably off-kilter humor of his previous ensemble efforts, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Sometimes the balance feels very off here, primarily because the protagonist is so hard to read from the outside. It was inevitable that the director cast his former roommate Adam Sandler as George Simmons, a comic who has become a major movie star based on the type of juvenilia he constantly ridicules. Sandler accurately captures both the demented comedy mind and the innate cruelty that keeps everyone at arm’s length. It’s a tricky part that has quite a few autobiographical elements for both director and star, but he plays it with melancholic deftness.

The meandering plot begins with George receiving bad news. He finds out he’s dying of a rare blood disease and recognizes a need to reassess his priorities. George spots a struggling young comic, Ira Wright, at a local comedy club and hires him to write material and become his gopher. They bond quickly, and Ira becomes George’s confidant, the only one who knows of his fatal diagnosis. Ira also has two roommates, another stand-up comic and an actor who has already caught his break starring as a teacher in a high school-set sitcom. Both become envious of Ira’s budding relationship with George. Meanwhile, an old flame reenters George’s life, Laura, a former actress who has turned into a suburbanite married to an Aussie exporter and raising two daughters in Marin County. Sparks are rekindled, and relationships start to get messy all around. As both writer and director, Apatow handles the situations dexterously but excessively. The film runs on far too long at a marathon 153 minutes and then simply trails off.

Newly trimmed down, Apatow protégé Seth Rogen plays his familiar dweebish persona as Ira, although he brings more depth to his submissive character with each humiliating act. Leslie Mann, Apatow’s wife, has been promoted to leading lady this time as Laura, and she excels with her endearingly brittle style. In another justified act of nepotism, the director recruited their children to play the two precocious daughters. Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman play the roommates with their usual deadpan aplomb. The film’s biggest surprise is the usually dour Eric Bana (Munich) lightening up quite a bit as Laura’s suspicious husband. Cameos from well-known comics (Ray Romano, Andy Dick, Paul Reiser, Sarah Silverman, etc.) and even comic turns from the likes of Eminem and James Taylor are sprinkled throughout to give the film an air of Hollywood-style realism. The esteemed cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List) provides the film a bright, sharp look throughout.

The two-disc 2009 DVD set smacks of overkill, but there are highlights to consider, chief among them the amusing commentary from Apatow, Sandler, and Rogen, in which they hilariously separate fact from fiction. The first disc also contains a four-minute gag reel. Disc Two contains 21 minutes of deleted scenes; six extended and alternate scenes; another gag reel; and a line-o-rama, a standard extra on Apatow’s DVDs where the actors riff on the same lines for maximum comic effect. A lengthy, one-hour-plus video diary from the director is the centerpiece of Disc Two. Other featurettes center on Aziz Ansari’s obnoxious stand-up comic; archival footage of Sandler and a thirteen-year-old Rogen; and a faux-documentary on George Simmons’ film career. There are also music clips from Taylor, as well as Sandler performing with musician Jon Brion.

Apatow’s Weakest Film Is Also His Most Mature Effort
Judd Apatow has been consistent in releasing hilarious films over the last few years as a writer, director, and producer. Funny People, his third film as writer/director, gave me considerably high expectations, especially with the talent behind and in front of the camera. I saw the film as possibly being a return to form for Adam Sandler, who hasn’t made a well-written, original, or truly funny comedy in some time now. Funny People is not a typical Apatow comedy and is an example of the director broadening his range as a filmmaker. Despite the title, this is much more of a drama than a comedy and is easily Apatow’s most mature effort as a filmmaker.

The film opens with actual footage of Sandler making prank phone calls when he and Apatow were roommates. It quickly changes gears and introduces us to George Simmons (Sandler), a famous stand-up comedian diagnosed with AML, a blood disease similar to leukemia. George doesn’t have much longer to live and he’s got no one to help him cope with it. He has a large mansion overlooking Los Angeles and he’s recognized in public all the time, but George lacks any real human connection. Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) is an aspiring stand-up comedian who isn’t very funny, but George sees him at a club, likes him, and commissions him to write jokes for him. George latches onto Ira for emotional support, while never really letting him in to his life. Their relationship is summed up with George’s line “I don’t have a best friend. You’re my best friend and I don’t even like you!” As George struggles with his mortality, he reconnects with Laura (Leslie Mann) the one he let get away, now married with two children.

The film also stars Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman, as Ira’s roommates and is littered with celebrity cameos (the most amusing being Eminem and Ray Romano). Funny People runs about 140 minutes and this bloated running time gives Apatow a lot of material to fit into the movie. While I applaud the man for trying something different, he has a lot of room to grow as a dramatic filmmaker and there are moments of this film that it seems he’s taken a few steps back as a comedic filmmaker. The movie has scattered scenes of stand-up comedy that are really, almost ridiculously unfunny. Initially, this made sense as a way of illustrating the fact that Ira isn’t particularly funny…But every scene of stand-up comedy, including those with George Simmons weren’t funny. And I don’t just mean that the comedic style didn’t appeal to my comedic palette, I mean the jokes are horribly un-funny and poorly written. They are jokes that sound like they were written by teenagers and there doesn’t seem to be a reason why they’re so bad. There’s nothing smart or witty about any of the jokes in the stand-up scenes. If this was intentional, I stand by my reservations about the jokes because how often did Apatow have to subject us to un-funny scenes of stand-up?

There are some strong performances in this film and you see several of them growing as actors. Seth Rogen is not far removed from his usual role, but he is certainly trying to play a different character here. He has a smaller physical frame, yes and sideburns which should’ve been given screen credit, but this performance is much more human than his performances in other films. Sandler has been showing lately that he’s very effective in dramatic roles and he brings moments of genuine pathos to his performance as George Simmons. I don’t think Apatow fleshed-out Simmons as much as he could have, but I did get the feeling that Sandler is more like Simmons than other characters he has played. Jason Schwartzman (who also does the music for the film) abandons the quirky, sarcastic character he usually plays for the quietly arrogant wannabe actor. It’s hardly a big change, but it’s nice to see him playing something slightly different. Finally, in a film with some very funny people it is Jonah Hill and Eric Bana that really bring genuinely funny moments to the film. Hill has a comedic style he brings with him from film-to-film, but his awkward, shy sarcasm brings some much-needed humor to the film when you don’t expect it. Bana is the real surprise as Laura’s Australian husband Clark and his performance is the most memorable and certainly the highlight of the film.

What could have really salvaged this film is a rewrite of the script or some editing. The script isn’t bad, but it doesn’t seem like Apatow wrote more than one draft and he could have taken more time to flesh out his characters and find a better story arc. Editing, at the very least, would have drastically helped this film and if the plot had focused more on the internal struggle of George Simmons it could have brought the filmmakers some awards. I found the first scene with Sandler and Mann together worked very well as a drama. There’s a sense of realism and plausibility to the idea that the two are former lovers who still have strong feelings for each other. The scene is very subtle, there are no dramatic exchanges and it was this scene that showed me how Apatow could one day be a very good dramatic filmmaker, but he’s got a little more to learn.

The film’s biggest flaw is really its running time and, from someone who has nothing against long movies; this movie is way too long and I’m not entirely sure what Apatow intended people to take away from Funny People, nor am I entirely sure what his intention for the film itself was. It’s not meant to be hilariously funny, but it never quite takes itself seriously enough to be taken seriously as a drama. Funny People is not a horrible film, although many will think it is just like Sandler’s other ventures into drama haven’t been looked on with affection. However, mature or not, this is Judd Apatow’s weakest film and will have the shortest shelf-life of the films he has made thus far.

GRADE: C+

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RV Description:

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6330 in Movie
• Released on: 2009-05-11
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Running time: 100 minutes

Customer Reviews:

“I’ve got my ferns…”
Okay, I actually loved this movie…I thought it was funny and entertaining and just what I needed to see, something pointless and yet does the trick perfectly. You can always rely of Robin Williams for that. No, it’s not the smartest comedy but it’s not like we thought we were walking into ‘Fargo’ people, we were walking into a family vacation comedy that’s full of slapstick laughs and gross humor, and that should be what you expected. Robin Williams plays Bob, a man whose a slave to his job, a job he’s afraid he may lose. He’s so afraid that he actually cancels his family’s vacation to Hawaii and takes them on an RV trip to Colorado with hopes to sneak off to a meeting with his germaphobe boss in order to keep his job. Along the way (of course keeping his true intentions secret) he tries to recreate the bond he once had with his family. This of course starts of shakey since neither his wife (Cheryl Hines) nor his children, teenage daughter Cassie (JoJo) whose going through her rebelous “i hate mommy and daddy” stage and his young son Carl (Josh Hutcherson) whose insecure about his small size, are supportive. But after all the problems with sewage, weird hillbilly RV neighbors the Gornicke family (led by Jeff Daniels and Kristin Chenoweth) and some pesky racoons their is a family bonding moment that is shattered by a bowel problem (sort-of) a sinking RV and the exposure of Bob’s secret meeting. In the end, RV may be predictable family fun, but the point still remains that it’s family fun, and that’s gotta amount to something.

National Lampoon’s Vacation for the 21st Century
I’ve read reviews of RV, and they uniformly panned the movie as piffle; humorous tripe that reinforced family values and light humor, wasting the talents of Robin Williams.

Give me a break.

See, the implication that the family road trip movie is somehow a form of high art is fallacious to begin with. Although my family (and my wife’s family) venerates the National Lampoon vacation movies as the ultimate in comedy, the truth of the matter is it’s all a string of silly gags and ridiculous foils. It takes real skill to play a perpetually optimistic patriarch in the face of modern indignities and family squabbles. If anything, the family road trip movie is really just a condensed version of half the sitcoms on television. And there’s a reason those sitcoms are still around, even though the critics patiently explain over and over how dumb they are.

They’re right. It IS dumb. But then, so is having to deal with the inanities of modern life. RV is merely an update of a long established tradition of pitting a man (Bob Munro played by Robin Williams), his hot wife (Cheryl Hines), his teenage daughter (Joanna Levesque) and pre-teen son (Josh Hutcherson) against the world and seeing who comes out on top. And we root for Bob all the way.

What makes RV so appealing is that it doesn’t deviate at all from the formula but cleverly updates all the trials and tribulations. Bob’s affection for his adorable daughter at two years old is sharply contrasted by her wisecracking personality as a teenager. How many parents stare at their kids and wonder what happened to the darling who never wanted to leave their side? Bob’s career hinges on finishing a presentation, and much of the movie is taken up with his personal struggle to find a signal for his Blackberry. Road warriors feel his pain. And as an older, funnier man, Bob constantly has to watch his back as younger, inexperienced climbers try to steal the spotlight.

In short, the Monroe struggles are the new struggles of the middle class. Sure, Clark Griswold didn’t have these problems, but then the National Lampoon movies were made decades ago. RV brings it all up to date with one difference: unlike Cousin Eddie and his brood, the country folk are actually the wiser and more decent family. We could learn a lot from their home values, preaches Brother Sonnenfeld. Maybe he’s right.

When RV was playing at my parents’ house, we were waiting for my brother to join us to watch a DVD. Instead, we watched (and laughed at) RV all the way through.

FUNNIER AND BETTER THAN EXPECTED
In the mode of NATIONAL LAMPOON’S FAMILY VACATION is not a negative thing. This is an energetic and often quite funny family film. The theater we saw it in (Palm Desert, California) was nearly full with a cross section of seniors to kids. People laughed together and often.

The movie is fast paced with great outdoor cinematography. The plot has some twists and surprises and a real treat is Jeff Daniels and Kristen Chenoweth as parents of a permanent RV living (Christian?) family that are not treated as buffoons or easy targets for satire.

And that’s the other thing that I liked about this light-hearted comedy; i.e., it has a moral center. Without being preachy in any way, the right things happen as all the loose ends are tied up in an unexpected (to me, anyway) and satisfying ending.

It’s nice to see Robin Wiliams in a family film comedy again.

Jaded newspaper and TV reviewers weren’t all that enthusiastic about this film, but audiences sure are. It was the top box office new movie the week it opened.

Better than expected and recommended.

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