X's & O's (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)A hillarious comedy. Great job for a directors debut. Can't wait to see what they make next

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Xs & Os is a hip romantic comedy that takes a humorously genuine look at post-college relationships. A circle of friends in San Francisco finds out the hard way that it s not all hugs and kisses in the game of love and that everyone needs a strategy to score. Bookish biologist Simon (Clayne Crawford - A Walk to Remember) lusts after Jane (Sarah Wright - The House Bunny), a blonde beauty who barely knows he exists. Against the advice of his womanizing best friend, Lorenzo (Warren Christie - TV's October Road), Simon decides to make Jane jealous by dating his lab partner, Trese (Judy Marte - Raising Victor Vargas). But every part of Simon's plan falls apart, trapping him between the pursuit of a hopeless dream and unexpected, real feelings for someone. Also starring Kel Mitchell (Good Burger, Kenan and Kel), Lynn Chen (Saving Face) and Jill Bennett (And Then Came Lola)

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Paranormal Activity (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)A well-written review of any film should never label its subject "good" or "bad". Rather, it should give you an idea of whether or not you can expect to enjoy it, based on your own preferences and expectations. Paranormal Activity is a particularly controversial film when it comes to the potency of its terror. Most reviews either complain, with great disdain, "I hated it - it wasn't scary at all" or exclaim in total satisfaction, "It scared the pants off me - I loved it". There seems to be little in-between.
I saw the film today, having read enough reviews to know pretty much what to expect. But before I reveal my own reaction to Paranormal Activity, I would like to offer a few ideas that those who know little about this film may find helpful.
Alfred Hitchcock, the celebrated director who was known as "The Master of Suspense" held many interesting theories about what frightens an audience. Hitchcock believed that, when properly stimulated, the viewer's imagination was far more powerful - and far scarier - than many direct images that may or may not frighten the average viewer. Directly depicting a ghost, a monster or a demon for example, even with today's special effects, may scare many viewers, but that will depend solely on the quality of the effects. And even if well done, many viewers may find the images unconvincing or downright laughable, for they may have other ideas about what a ghost, monster or demon should look like.
However, if the filmmaker merely implies that a supernatural event is taking place, and sets up the situation with enough skill, the viewer's imagination can take over and sometimes yield a far more frightening experience than any vivid imagery ever will. After all, people go to horror films to be frightened, and what could be more frightening than unseen terrors from one's own imagination? By setting the mood with dark rooms, low lighting, eerie shadows and other effects that many people will associate with their greatest fears, an innocent image of two people peacefully sleeping, unaware of what may be going on about them or to them, can become very frightening indeed, even if few special effects are used. This is especially true if the moviegoer has developed enough empathy with the characters to place themselves in the same situation.
Many modern horror films rely on blood, gore and violence, with horrible creatures conjured up by special effects and vivid scenes involving battles with ugly demons or manic killers in order to provide thrills. That can be a lot of fun, and certainly very scary. But it can also be argued that, as CGI effects advance and become more vivid and frighteningly realistic, many viewers become inured to violence, blood and "creatures" while depending less and less on their own imagination, and in the process, they will sometimes forgo a far scarier experience. I know that no special effect ever came close to my own nightmares, because my nightmares are stirred by the things I fear most, and not the things that I've been conditioned to find scary. In short, no amount of vivid terrors can match the human imagination, provided that the imagination is properly stimulated.
Well, this is the basic idea behind Paranormal Activity. Largely on a shoestring budget, the writers/director/actors of Paranormal Activity have managed to create an old-fashioned thriller that relies almost exclusively on the viewer's imagination. Those who like their "scary movies" full of CGI, monsters, blood and violence are warned; you will probably be extremely disappointed. But if you have enough respect for your own imagination, and can allow yourself to be frightened not by what you see, but by what you think is there, you just may find Paranormal Activity to be every bit as frightening and well done as many people say it is.
By the way, I saw it with a friend. He did not find it frightening at all. On the other hand, I definitely expect to have trouble sleeping tonight. Whether or not you will agree may depend on how effective your own imagination can be.
Recommended.


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This intense edge-of-your seat horror film follows a young suburban couple who record the sinister disturbances in their home while they sleep – even as the domestic haunting becomes more frequent, more threatening and all too personal. Hypnotic and harrowing, Paranormal Activity uniquely delivers frightful suspense punctuated by moments of sudden and unexpected terror, all the way to the shocking ending.Featuring a version not shown in theaters with an exclusive alternate ending, Paranormal Activity is the one supernatural thriller DVD to own that plays on your most primal fears, and guarantees you\'ll need to sleep with the lights on.

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Requiem for a Dream (Director's Cut) (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)Hubert Selby Jr.'s elegiac and mesmerizing novel about four addicts of different varieties appeared in 1978 and ranked alongside Selby's "Last Exit to Brooklyn" (also made into a superior film) as one of his best books. Darren ("Pi") Aronofsky was himself a Selby fan and eventually persuaded the Thousand Arts production company to finance his $5M film of the novel.
The resulting film is as horrific and fascinating as anything ever put on a screen. The plot isn't complicated: Junkie Harry (a nearly unrecognizeable Jared Leto) takes to pawning his mother's TV set for heroin. His buddy Tyrone (Marlon Wayans, in a performance that makes his turn in "Scary Movie" and other junk look like total red herrings) hatches a plan with him to score for a pound of pure and put them on the fast track to riches. Harry's girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) has vague plans of opening a boutique with her share of the gains. And Harry's mother (a truly amazing Ellen Burstyn) is obsessed with appearing on her favorite TV show.
Movies like this are not about plotting but emotion. We know there is no happy ending possible here; what matters is not what happens but how and to what extent. The final 20 minutes -- which have been written about endlessly elsewhere -- are a masterpiece of Soviet-style intercutting and gradually mounting, excruciating tension that does not even end with the release of death, but with the promise of unending, ongoing pain.
This isn't a pretty movie. This isn't a movie for your mother (well, I guess that depends on the family), or a movie for the whole family. This is a movie about despair and destroyed dreams. In short, this is a movie about something -- and it tells its story with such fierce style and power that it almost makes issues of taste or subject matter irrelevant. You may not like the film -- and there are many who don't -- but you can't deny its power, or the skill involved in making it.

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Ghouls (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)Ghouls (Gary Jones, 2008)
Oh, William Atherton. Long ago was the time when your name on a production meant quality. Nowadays, it seems to do exactly the opposite. (Hmm, maybe The Last Samurai WASN'T Tom Cruise's fault?
...naah.) So when your name popped up in the opening credits of Ghouls, I pretty much knew what I was in for. I just didn't expect it to be this awful.
In any case, the painfully thin synopsis is that Atherton plays Stefan. Stefan's mom dies in the old country, and he rounds up his college-aged daughter Jen (the eye-popping Kristen Renton) and girlfriend Liz (Erin Gray-- yes, that Erin Gray) and they all head for some small, nameless country in Eastern Europe where the entire country shuns the village, and the entire village shuns them. Except, of course, for the family members-- and they're none too friendly, either. Things get a bit less dull when Jen runs into Thomas (James DeBello), a druid who's fighting the ghouls that haunt the town. (No, this isn't a spoiler, we find this out in the film's opening minutes, long before Jen does-- which was probably a bad idea on the part of the scriptwriter.)
Let me start by saying that the only possible reasons to watch this are to stare at Kristen Renton and if you're using it as the basis for a drinking game. Otherwise, give it the widest berth possible. Painful plot holes, inconsistent (and incompetent) characters, truly awful dialogue, the works. And, if I may be allowed a moment of sheer geekery, one should not call one's wraiths "ghouls", though these particular CGI monstrosities seem to be able to take either form at will. DeBello, who I thoroughly enjoyed in Cabin Fever, comes off here as a sort of low-rent Ray Liotta or Liev Schreiber (both of whom, I'm sure, turned this down and ran screaming, if it was offered to them), while Renton seesaws between disbelief and amusement (not at the events onscreen, at the script and the direction).
While in the annals of Sci-Fi Channel Original Films, this will not go down in history as the worst movie they've ever bankrolled (you'd have to sink a lot lower than this to get to the level of The Bone Eater), but it's in the bottom ten somewhere. Entirely awful. (half)


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A young American girl goes on a journey to Eastern Europe to visit her family. While there, she meets a strange and mysterious ghost hunter who speaks of terrifying mystical creatures who roam the surrounding forests, preying on the town s innocent victims. Together, they discover her supernatural heritage and connection to the evil spirits who plague the town. The creatures once ruled the earth and are planning to rule again with her help, willing or not!

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Relative Stranger (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)I took the opportunity to watch this movie and was very touched. I thought Eriq La Salle played his roll very well. From the beginning his character (Walter) was a very mild manner guy whom couldn't face the fact that he wouldn't be able to live up to his family's expectation after suffering the career ending knee surgery. To come back home and be face with the scrutiny from his family, finding his wife is now seeing, dating, and planning a future with his brother, Walter was very calm. I don't really know if he was understanding. On the other hand, his brother displays lots of anguish. This was a tear jerker. This story is not typical of an African American family in the mere fact that a brother marries the wife of his brother. None the less, I thought it was excellent.

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David & Layla (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)"David and Layla" is a romantic drama that explores the love between two people from very different cultural backgrounds. David Fine (David Moscow) is a Jewish guy and host of a show "Sex and Happiness" who spends his workdays interviewing people on the streets of Brooklyn. He is engaged to a domineering, Type- A personality, Abby (Callie Thorne), also a Jew. Things are moving along, not altogether satisfactorily (especially in his love life), when David sees a beautiful, exotic young woman walk down the street one day. The lady in question is Layla (Shiva Rose), a Kurdish refugee from Iraq who is living with her affluent relatives whilst she tries to figure out a way to get a green card - her visa expires in 30 days, and she faces deportation.
David finds himself falling hard for Layla, and the story centers on their courtship and the problems that inevitably arise in a cross-cultural romance, especially considering that David is a Jew whilst Layla is a Muslim. Needless to say, both families are not too thrilled at the couple's romance - David's mother, Judith (Polly Fine) is a typical Jewish mother who is horrified at the prospect of getting a shiksa daughter-in-law, especially a Muslim! Peter Van Wagner turns in a fine performance as Mel, David's laidback and empathetic father.
The two leads share a credible on-screen chemistry that makes the viewer buy into the love at first sight premise (well for David at least). Shiva Rose (ex-wife of actor Dylan McDermott) is compelling and sexy as the lovely Layla who harbors within her a poetic and sensitive soul, who loves to dance and resorts to lying to her relatives (telling them she attends nursing school) whilst moonlighting as a traditional dancer in a local establishment. Unfortunately, so much is crammed into the storytelling, that not enough time is spent focusing on what draws Layla to David and vice versa, in terms of genuine feelings and depth of emotion. The story is packed with too many characters, and though the supporting cast does a good job, I felt this was a classic example of "too many cooks spoiling the broth".
The cultural differences are explored using humor - the scene where Layla attends Passover dinner at David's house, bringing inappropriate hostess gifts is one among many scenes peppered throughout the movie. But, once again, this felt a bit derivative to me - if Layla truly loved David, then why did she not make the effort to find out what would make an appropriate Passover gift? Also, it felt to me like David was the one willing to make the most accommodations in the relationship.
Ultimately, I thought the movie was a fun exploration of an inter-religious romance, but it does approach the story in an almost trivial manner - there is no real, genuine, in-depth exploration of the complexities inherent within such relationships. I should know, being in a cross-cultural marriage myself. Final verdict - a fun movie with generally good acting, and should make good entertainment for those who like rom-coms.


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Outsourced (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an entertaining, light-hearted, and honest look at India from an American perspective.
I visited India (New Delhi) three times this summer (and counting..) for business projects, and I was able to watch this movie twice during the course of my flights. With each viewing I smiled and laughed at the way the American characters adapted after their first few "transition" days in India, and how the Indian characters earnestly tried to make them feel welcome.
As a previous reviewer mentioned, the movie doesn't mention the grittier side of India, such as the huge slum bordering the Mumbai (Bombay) airport, or the muddy, pot-holed, trash-filled streets and sidewalks of every town. However, it does shows the predominantly sweet nature of the Indian people which IMO is one of an India traveler's best rewards.
Aside, if you are planning to travel to India for the first time, take anti-malaria pills with you, a couple rolls of your favorite toilet paper, a phone that works in the 091 country code, and an openness of different cultures. Also, sit in the back seat of your hired car, because the view out the front will be like a widescreen viewing of the craziest "close-but-no-contact demolition derby" you've ever seen. Most, but not all, of these points are implied in the movie.
I recommend watching this movie after your trip, you will probably appreciate the movie more than if you watch it before. If you watch it before your trip, make sure you watch it again when you get back!

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Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton-Kicking and Screaming, The Bourne Identity) gets the bad news from his boss: his job has been outsourced. Adding insult to injury, Todd must travel to India to train his own replacement. Through a series of hilarious misadventures, this charming, critically acclaimed romantic comedy reminds us that sometimes getting lost is the best way to find yourself.

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Love and Other Four Letter Words (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)I rate this as a B movie. It starts off as a family "feel good" type of movie, but in the middle there's a scene which should be cut out totally.

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She's Got It All... Except the Groom! Successful TV talk show host Stormy LaRue (Tangi Miller, Madea's Family Reunion, Felicity) has everything a woman could want- except a man of her own. But when her beloved dying "Nana" (Scrubs' Aloma Wright) expresses her deepest wish - to see her favorite granddaughter happily married - Stormy's life gets turned upside down. In this hilarious romantic comedy, Stormy tries to pull off the biggest show of her life... by faking her own wedding!Things go completely out of control when she tries to dupe her childhood pal (Flex Alexander, She's All That), who happens to be the minister of the ceremony.

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