'Take the Lead'

Antonio Banderas
Rob Brown
Yaya DaCosta
Alfre Woodard
Dante Basco
John Ortiz
Laura Benanti
Jenna Dewan
Marcus T. Paulk

PG13           108min           2006

‘Take the Lead’ is based on a true story, about a ballroom dance teacher motivating the troubled students in a school detention to make changes, in their lives, by introducing them to ballroom dancing.

A story about helping the “discarded” students find motivation, inspiration and hope in ballroom dancing. Antonio Banderas it the only person you can see playing this part. It a stirring drama with some amazing dance sequence. It an entertaining film that is over even before you know it.

‘Take the Lead’ is another tale of how someone takes it upon himself or herself to change the course for those students that are “discarded”. It is yet again another example of giving kids motivation to change and something to raise their self-esteem. When everyone else thought these kids were nothing he gave them something. It something that parents, teachers, and communities have been slacking in as of late.

Antonio Banderas is the only action that you can see playing this part. When you here what this movie is about the first actor that comes to mind is him. He is the only choice and does a good job in the role. Although he is the lead in this film the dancing its the star of the show.

What makes ‘Dancing with the Star’ so popular is what makes this film so good. The choreography is spectacular. You want to learn ballroom dancing. It shows the flexibility and the showmanship of it. The actors are believable in their dancing.

From the beginning you know ‘Take the Lead’ was successful because only happy ending are told in movie. This one is no different but what is entertaining is the journey that the students make during this film and the things that they have to overcome to see the light of day. It’s a dramatization of life that you will enjoy.

It has the standard stuff of featurette, deleted scenes, and trailers. It has nothing that stands out to make the special features original.

I give it 3/5 Gs.

"Miami Vice (2006)"

Jamie Foxx
Colin Farrell
Li Gong
Naomie Harris
Luis Tosar


Unrated           134min           2006

“Miami Vice” is a grittier update of the 80s television show. This incarnation find Crockett (Farrell) and Tubbs (Foxx) drug running and blurring the undercover lines to bring down a drug kingpin supplying the eastern seaboard.

Those that loved the show may not prefer the movie. As a kid of the eighties and a post 9/11 world prefer the movie. It dramatized what the war on drug and what, even fictionalized, that those soldiers go through. This version is the one I would watch on television.

It was a good action drama, Under Michael Mann’s direction, Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell held their own. I didn’t see the theatrical release and cannot say what was added but I think the movie may have felt convoluted with anything missing.

The action in “Miami Vice” was action with suspense. The camera shot and use of hand-held made you feel that you were part of the action, which added to the suspense and kept you in the moment. Where it shines is that it feels more documentary that a movie. It added to the realism of it, just another case in these officers’ lives, going undercover in the war on drugs.

I give it 4/5 Gs. If you liked this you’ll like Rush (1991).

'Stay Alive'

Jon Foster
Samaire Armstorng
Frankie Muniz
Jimmi Simpson
Sophia Bush
Wendell Pierce
Adam Goldberg
Milo Ventimiglia

Unrated           100min           2006

“Stay Alive” is about a group of young adults, into video games, play a video game that starts to kill the players as they died in the game.

The things I seen in my life lend me to believe in the supernatural and I rarely watch scary movies. Its more shocking than scary but it left me leaving horror video games alone. I watched too many horror movies as a little kid that scarred my psyche.

‘Stay Alive’ was filmed in Louisiana it has that bayou feel. It just has that spooky feel. Having never been to Louisiana, it does seem to be a spooky place from everything I’ve read and heard about the place. It’s the birthplace of American voodoo.

The most disappoint thing about this film, there is no clear ending. It leaves an ambiguous ending. It’s either harmless or will leave the world decimated without young people as in 'Nightmare on Elm Street'. If it was done to setup sequels then it was a poor setup and made me question the relevance of these characters.

‘Stay Alive’ was inventive in its story. It was more suspense than horror. It was predictable from the moments you saw the characters interact with each other and the characters’ reactions to situations were really unbelievable.

A few featurerttes and some deleted and extended scene make up the special features. The standard boilerplate stuff.

I gave it 2/5 Gs.

'Accepted'

Justin Long
Jonah Hill
Adam Herschman
Blake Lively
Columbus Short
Maria Thayer
Lewis Black

PG13           90min           2006

‘Accepted’ is a comedy about a high school senior than doesn’t get into any college he applies to and instead of going to community college he decides to start his own.

It a funny film you enjoy even with the unbelievable plot. It’s so irreverent that you wish it were possible to pull off. Justin Long, of the Mac/PC commercial and Ed, stands out in this film of relative unknowns. It has all the comedic moments that make it just as memorable as the American Pies.

Every most high school senior are faced with rejection from a school, but at South Harmon Institute of Technology they say yes. Everyone is accepted. This is the college everyone wants to go to. Half the classes offered I would have taken. Then I wonder all colleges have to start somewhere

Justin Long leads this cast of characters that have comedic punch year ahead of their years. This cast did a great job of selling this movie. You believed these friends would get together and start a college, to get out of disappointing their parents.

‘Accepted’ gives that idea college experience with humorous moments. Not all the funny moments are in the trailer. Your constantly laugh wondering how they will pull the next crisis out. “Ask me about my wiener?” has an extended version on the DVD that is totally hilarious.

This DVD is packed with special features. The auto commentary is just down right funny. The featurettes get truly behind the scene and gives you the realization that it was a funny set to be on. The cast and crew were friends and had a good time making this film.

I give it 3/5 Gs.

"The Lake House"

Keanu Reeves
Sandra Bullock
Shohreh Aghdashloo
Christopher Plummer
Ebon Moss-Bachrach

PG       105min      2006

“Lake House” had Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock reuniting again since Speed. Keanu an architect that buys a lake house to refurbish and finds a letter left by future tenant Sandra Bullock.

“Lake House” has a nice love story wrapped in a science fiction time travel film. It was a house built on a deck of cards. It loses some of its logic during the movie; this is the major problem, because of it the story gets implausible and loses it momentum. It changes it own theories to fit itself. Left major plot holes that you could drive a eighteen-wheeler through.

The science-fiction part loses some of its logic middle ways through the film. That as side you can still enough this movie but just a little less. The question left open nagged at me throughout the rest of the picture. It kept distracting me every time something contradictory came on the screen.

Once the time-travel logic unraveled the rest of the story started to not make sense. This the characters should have done and didn’t. People they met and should have remembered. Little things that gnawed away at the story.

At the end of the movie it left question to the story that took away from the enjoyment of the movie. It made you question ‘what you just saw’. I don’t think the writer gave his audience enough credit. Even a simple child could break the foundation of this movie.

Movie are about escapism in the post 9/11 world. Audiences want something that is grounded in reality. That mean that it has to be plausible even if its improbable. That’s why we send the dollars to see these films. Hollywood has lost its creativity and is suffering for it. In this era of time we anyone can setup a home theater, why spent the money going out when you can stay in for a fraction of the cost.

It’s basically a bare DVD. It has a few bloopers. A few behind the scene feature, but nothing extenisive.

I give it 2/5 Gs.