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12.28.02 by Widge @ 6:11 am 
Written by: Bill Condon, based on the musical by Fred Ebb & Bob Fosse, which was in turn based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins My Advice: Don't miss it. Roxanne "Roxie" Hart (Zellweger) wants to hit the stage in a big way. She idolizes jazz divas like Velma Kelly (Zeta-Jones). Trouble is, she's married to the loyal but dim-witted Amos (Reilly), who's a mechanic--not really connected in the biz. She's hooked up on the side with Fred (Dominic West), who promises to get her in touch with somebody down at a certain club. However, Fred turns out to be knocking the bottom out of Roxie with no payoff in sight--and thus humiliated and lied to, Roxie pulls out a gun and plugs Fred. Now she's in the slammer and might just be heading for a noose, unless she can somehow get the prison matron, Mama (Latifah), to help Roxie get represented by hotshot lawyer Billy Flynn (Gere), while also avoiding the crosshairs of a D.A. (Colm Feore), who wants to wind up in the governor's mansion. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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11.17.02 by Catalyst @ 1:10 am 
Written by: Steven Kloves, based on the novel by J.K. Rowling My Advice: Don't miss it. To give a plot summary of this movie is almost pointless--everyone knows what's going to happen because they've read the books. But for that one guy who hasn't, Harry is back at school for the second year. Now there's another threat in the works: someone has opened the legendary Chamber of Secrets, and there's a monster roaming the school petrifying (yes, literally turning them to stone) "mudbloods", i.e. witches and wizards who don't come from magic families. The good news is that Daniel Radcliffe is still able to channel Harry perfectly, and in fact grows a little with the role--especially since he doesn't spend half the movie asking expository questions or being lectured at. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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09.20.02 by Widge @ 3:30 pm 
Written by: Hayao Miyzaki; adapted into English by Cindy David Hewitt & Donald H. Hewitt My Advice: Matinee. Chihiro (Chase) is a bright, precocious kid whose been uprooted by a family move. Her parents (Michael Chiklis & Lauren Holly) try to console her, but she's destined to grump for a while. However, her grumping is interrupted by her father trying to take a shortcut to their new home--and finding a road that dead ends on a narrow tunnel. Seemingly drawn through the tunnel, they make their way to a place where nothing is as it seems. Separated from her parents by a buffet accident, Chihiro finds herself in danger from a strange witch named Yubaba (Pleshette) whose head is roughly the size of a VW bug, who wants to steal Chihiro's name. She quickly finds friends, or does she? Most mysterious is Haku (Marsden), who seems to have the run of the place to a degree--and some very strange powers. How is Chihiro going to escape Yubaba, remember her name, rescue her parents and then get home in one piece? Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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07.07.02 by ScottC @ 10:28 pm 
Written by: Alfonso Cuarón & Carlos Cuarón My Advice: Get off your gringo ass and see this movie! Vamanos! Despite what you've heard, Y Tu Mamá También isn't really about sex. Oh, there's a lot of sex to be sure. The opening scene has two naked teenagers making the Beast with Two Backs, to use Widge's turn of phrase. But this movie is about truth and how well or poorly we handle it. How this theme is illustrated throughout the movie adds surprising depth and maturity to what is on the surface looks like a teenage sex comedy a la American Pie. Tenoch (Luna) and Julio (Bernal) are two friends living in the lively, chaotic messy megalopolis that is Mexico City. They come from different backgrounds (Tenoch is upper class, Julio is lower middle class), but they are united in their pursuit of pleasuring themselves, be it through fart jokes, marijuana, or masturbation. Their girlfriends have left for Italy and the duo is ready to party. At a family wedding, they meet Luisa (Verdú), the sexy older wife of Tenoch's cousin. Trying to impress Luisa, they invite her to go with them to Heaven's Mouth, a great beach that they invent to impress her. At the wedding, she takes their immature flirting with good grace, but after several upsetting pieces of news, she decides to take the boys' offer. As they travel through the Mexican countryside, we get a view of Mexico behind the sheen of NAFTA and the trio will expose themselves in ways they weren't anticipating. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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07.06.02 by Widge @ 11:32 pm 
Written by: Barry Fanaro & Robert Gordon, based on a story by Gordon, which was in turn based on the comic book by Lowell Cunningham My Advice: Rent it. It's been five years since we last saw the intrepid members of the Men in Black. Agent Jay (Smith) has apparently been going through partners like you or I would go through toothbrushes. It's only when a roaming galactic menace known as Serleena (Boyle) comes back to Earth looking for something called The Light of Zartha which supposedly was sent off-planet twenty-five years earlier, Jay realizes he's in over his head. Why? Because the only one who knows what happened to this Light is Kay (Jones), his partner who "retired" in the last film. So Jay has to go nab Kay, get him back in the suit, and figure out what's going on with the Light, because for some reason that's never really explained, it's going to destroy the planet at midnight. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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