'GridIron Gang'

Dwayne ’The Rock’ Johnson
Xzibit
L. Scott Caldwell
Leon Rippy
Kevin Dunn
Jade Yoker
David V, Thomas
Setu Taase
Mo
James Earl
Trever O’Brien
Brandon Smith
Jurnee Smollett

PG13           1206min           2006

‘GridIron Gang’ is inspired by actual events, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, plays Sean Porter, a juvenile detention officer, who decides to start a football program at his juvenile facility to teach his inmates, focus, discipline, self-worthy, to keep them from going back to the life that got them there.

This is an entertaining film that also inspirational. You don’t want this film to end. This movie tugs at your heart. It shows that juvenile criminal don’t have to be written off. That if you give them hope and some guidance that you can change the outcome.

‘GridIron Gang’ showed how a sport gives individual a new perspective on life. It’s a story of a man realizing that the system is flaw and striving to make a difference. How the right motivation can change a person for the best.

It showed that given the opportunity anyone could change. That once individuals are incarcerated something needs to be there to facilitate change or once released an individual will fall back into their old destructive ways.

‘GridIron Gang’ is just as inspiring as ‘Rudy’ or ‘Invincible’. It’s about one man striving to help juvenile criminals over coming the statistic and makes something of their lives. Its not totally successful but it is more successful than the national statistic. It’s these changes that spawn other changes. No one knows how there life will make a difference to other individuals

The DVD is loaded with special features. There’s an audio commentary with the director. It has four interesting featurettes, and some deleted scenes. There are also trailers for ‘Stomp the Yard’, ‘Ghost Rider’, ‘Crossover’, ‘The Messenger’, ‘Facing the Giants’ and ‘Rudy’.

I give it 5/5 Gs.

'The Covenant'

Steven Strait
Laura Ramsey
Sebastian Stan
Taylor Kitsch
Chace Crawford
Toby Hemingway
Jessica Lucas

PG13           97min           2006

“The Covenant” is about a the four sons of Ipswich, the founding families of covenant of warlocks, and only the eve of one’s ascension, when his power become 1000s time more power, the heir of the banished fifth family returns for revenge.

This film is entertaining and interesting but the trailer made it seem their was more to the plot. It also felt more like a prequel to another film like this was the back-story to a further adventure for the ‘Sons of Ipswich’. This film could have used more money.

‘The Covenant’ as some much potential at the end of this film. An adaptation to and thing serial, such as books or television, would help the continuing story of the ‘Sons of Ipswich’. I would like to see a sequel to this film and the way it ends left the door open.

It’s a good popcorn movie in its own right. The wirework was cool. It’s their physical manifestation of their powers, I have a problem with, I felt I was watching Street Fighter, with Ken and Ryu fighting each other. For that reason it made the action sequence feel hokey and comical, something I could look over because special effects need money something I guess they didn’t have. If studio are going to back a horse they should give full commitment.

‘The Covenant’ DVD is a little bare on special features. It has no deleted scenes. It has one making of featurette. It has an interesting audio commentary by Reny Harlin, the director. It has trailers for ‘Stomp the Yard’, ‘The Messenger’, ‘Spider-Man 3’ and ‘Ghost Rider’.

I give it a 4/5 Gs.

Barnyard

PG           90min           2006

“Barnyard” is the coming of age story of a transgender cow leading the farm animals after coyotes kill his transgender father cow.

This film was totally uncalled for and was done better as the ‘The Lion King’. The target audience, children, doesn’t need to know about upright transgender animals. The theme of it is a little more for adults. It miss represented itself.

If I were a parent I wouldn’t want my child to know about transgender until they were old enough to understand the concept of a transgender. Even some adults have trouble understand transgender. If they were suppose to be male then animators should have represented them as bulls as they did have some in they group of animals.

This theme was represented more maturely than ‘The Lion King’ and was a little too mature for kids. The comedy was a little more moronic that it needed to be. Its as if the writers just thought of funny thing to put in a dramatic tale to lighten up the movie. Its like two different movies are taking place.

It starts out as a comedy, about barn animals that walking on their hind legs acting human. Then after the father cow dies in turns into a revenge action movie with comedy added to lighten the mood for kids. Several times the Otis the cow has a chance to make the farm safer for the rest of the animals by killing the head coyote and doesn’t.

The film was thrown together to cash in to the growing popularity of animated film. This proves that you can’t just take a story getting big name celebrities to voice the animation and it will be good. The story has to at least have something to offer and ‘Barnyard’ doesn’t in my opinion.

I give it 2/5 Gs.