When a star soccer coach is murdered and his priceless Pink Panther diamond stolen, France is in an uproar. Fortunately, Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin, Bowfinger, Cheaper by the Dozen) is on the case. He doesn’t have a clue, but for Clouseau, that’s just a minor detail. With his partner, Gilbert Ponton (Jean Reno, The Da Vinci Code, The Professional), he careens from one misadventure to the next, leaving mayhem in his wake from the boulevards of Paris to the streets of New York. Will he seduce the pop diva, Xania (Beyoncé, Austin Powers: Goldmember)? Will he push Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Oscar(r) winner Kevin Kline, 1988 Best Supporting Actor, A Fish Called Wanda) over the edge? Will he catch the killer and recover the diamond? With Inspector Clouseau, anything is possible. Read the rest of this entry

Regardless of whether it was “too early” in 2006 to dramatize the events of September 11th, 2001, World Trade Center succeeds as a tribute to the courage and sacrifice of those who served at “ground zero” in the wake of terrorist attacks on the WTC’s twin towers in New York City. Removed from the politics of war and terrorism (yet still, like all films, inherently political in expressing its point of view), Oliver Stone’s potent drama focuses on the nightmarish ordeal, and subsequent rescue, of Port Authority policemen John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Peña), who were buried deeply within the rubble of the WTC after the twin towers collapsed. Granted, it’s only the film’s historical context that distinguishes it from any other dramatic rescue story, but in focusing on the goodness of humanity in response to the evil of terrorists who remain unnamed and off-screen, Stone and first-time screenwriter Andrea Berloff create an emotional context as powerf (more…)

At the time of its release, Mission: Impossible III’s box office was plagued by the publicity backlash against couch-jumping star Tom Cruise. It’s too bad, because this third installment of the spy thriller franchise deserved a better reception than it got. First-time feature director J.J. Abrams (bigwig TV director/producer of Lost, Alias, & Felicity) proves more than able-bodied in creating a Mission: Impossible that’s leaner and less over-stylized than John Woo’s sequel and less confusing than Brian De Palma’s original. Plot is still a throwaway here (Cruise’s Ethan Hunt rescues his kidnapped former trainee and works to steal a device that… well, we don’t really know what it does, but it’s something about mass destruction that costs $850 million), but the action sequences, particularly one where Ethan faces down a helicopter on a bridge and gets flung hard against the side of a car, are particularly impressive since Cruise, at 44, is still doing most of his own stunt (more…)

Based on the novel by Jerry Jenkins “Though None Go With Me” tell the story of a young woman growing up in the 50’s who devotes her life to the service of God. All of the hardships and sorrows that befall her test her and cause her to question her faith. Read the rest of this entry

The most successful invigoration of a cinematic franchise since Batman Begins, Casino Royale offers a new Bond identity. Based on the Ian Fleming novel that introduced Agent 007 into a Cold War world, Casino Royale is the most brutal and viscerally exciting James Bond film since Sean Connery left Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Meet the new Bond; not the same as the old Bond. Daniel Craig gives a galvanizing performance as the freshly minted double-0 agent. Suave, yes, but also a “blunt instrument,” reckless, and possessed with an ego that compromises his judgment during his first mission to root out the mastermind behind an operation that funds international terrorists. In classic Bond film tradition, his global itinerary takes him to far-flung locales, including Uganda, Madagascar, the Bahamas (that’s more like it), and Montenegro, where he is pitted against his nemesis in a poker game, with hundreds of millions in the pot. The stakes get even higher when Bond lets down (more…)

The always dependable Tom Selleck returns as Robert B. Parker’s small town police chief Jesse Stone in Death in Paradise, the made-for-TV sequel to Stone Cold, his 2005 debut as the character. Stone is a grittier, more human (and vulnerable) role than the one that made Selleck famous (playboy detective Thomas Magnum of Magnum, P.I.), but his tenacity and character flaws (a drinking problem and latent feelings for his ex-wife) seem a comfortable fit for the older Selleck. And the mystery itself–which surrounds the death of a young student whose connections to big-city crime–is crisp and convoluted (if not particularly novel), which provides Selleck with enough action and drama to please his longtime fans. William Devane and Gary Basaraba (Boomtown) are among the guest stars, while Viola Davis, Vito Rezza, and Kohl Sudduth return from Stone Cold as Selleck’s police officers. Selleck also contributed to the script and co-produced along with director Robert Harmon, who helm (more…)

How Tom Selleck’s world-weary cop Jesse Stone became the police chief of sleepy Paradise, Mass., is revealed in this engaging prequel to the first made-for-TV Stone feature, Stone Cold (2005). Selleck is once again well cast as the rough-around-the-edges Stone, whose drinking problem gets him ejected from the Los Angeles police force; he soon finds himself the head lawman in a small New England fishing village, where his slow dissolution continues until a routine domestic disturbance case reveals connections to money laundering and murder, with several of the town’s most affluent names as possible suspects. Selleck is well-matched by veteran scene stealer Saul Rubinek, and there’s good work by Polly Shannon as a city attorney who becomes Stone’s romantic interest, and Stephen Baldwin as an ill-tempered local. Fans of author Robert B. Parker (on whose books the Jesse Stone films are based) and Selleck won’t be disappointed by this smart thriller. –Paul Gaita Read the rest of this entry

An all-star cast–including such A-list stars as Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, and Meryl Streep–lend their voices to The Ant Bully. Social misfit Lucas gets bullied by the bigger boys in his neighborhood, so he takes out his frustrations on the only things around smaller than him: An ant hill on his front lawn. After being flooded and stepped on, the ants fight back when ant wizard Zoc (Cage, National Treasure) develops a potion that shrinks Lucas down to bug-size. But Zoc’s thirst for revenge gets foiled when the beatific ant queen (Streep, The Devil Wears Prada) decrees that Lucas must learn to live like an ant, and Zoc’s girlfriend Hova (Roberts, Runaway Bride) takes up the task of teaching the unhappy boy how to value others over himself. The animation of The Ant Bully makes good use of scale as Lucas grapples with the gigantic world around him, but the writing is not so imaginative; the name actors are thrown away on bland characters and lackluster dialogue. The less (more…)

The fact-based mystery of Hollywoodland takes place in 1959, when the death of Adventures of Superman TV star George Reeves cast a pall over the waning days of golden-age Hollywood. As written by Paul Bernbaum, this intriguing whodunit effectively evokes the tainted atmosphere that surrounded Reeves’ death (officially ruled a suicide but never conclusively solved), and speculates on circumstances to suggest that Reeves may have been murdered. In combining the melancholy course of Reeves’ career with the investigation of a down-and-out private detective into the possible causes of Reeves’ death, the film evolves into an engrossing study of parallels between lives on either side of the Hollywood dream. Building upon a distinguished career in TV including episodes of HBO’s The Sopranos, Rome and Six Feet Under, director Allen Coulter finds a satisfying balance between the tragic overtones of the Reeves case and the time-honored elements of the gumshoe genre, with Adrien Brod (more…)

Once in a while, a movie comes along that reminds us how powerful love can be. In the midst of war in Afghanistan, Captain Cody Cullen (John Newton, “Desperate Housewives”) is touched by lovely card sent by Faith Spelman (Alice Evans, “The Chris Isaak Show”) from the small picturesque town of Nevada City, California. As months pass, the card never leaves his side, giving him the strength to survive and setting him on a mission to find her. The Christmas Card has received massive critical acclaim and audiences are raving. Now for the first time on DVD, Emmy-nominated (TBD) The Christmas Card is available with great bonus features and is the perfect gift for this holiday season! Read the rest of this entry