3:59 AM
Blog Fasion
- All-Star Voice Cast!
- Naration and Title Song Sung By Travis Tritt
- Lacy Chabert
- animated
- children
Features: Wide Screen PresentationConsidering that Andrzej Sekula, director of The Pleasure Drivers, was Quentin Tarantino's cinematographer on Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, it's not too surprising that this 2005 film sometimes echoes the latter's approach. Indeed, were it not for the fact that the story makes little sense, the dialog! ue isn't funny, the characters are poorly drawn, and the acting is almost uniformly sub-par, you might think this was the work of Tarantino himself. As it is, Sekula has made a movie that clearly values style over substance, achieving a modicum of the former and almost none of the latter. Screenwriter Adam Haynes' story revolves primarily around a low-life "caregiver" (Lauren Holly) tending to a mentally unstable young man (Angelo Spizzirri) whose father, some kind of cult leader, has been less than forthcoming with the financial support she depends on; her solution is to kidnap the kid's equally weird sister (Steffany Huckaby). Meanwhile, a full-of-himself professor-therapist (Angus MacFadyen) who constantly whispers Freudian drivel into a tape recorder finds himself rejected by his wife and glommed on to by an oversexed student (Lacy Chabert). These folks, along with "a vicious lesbian hit woman" (no, really), come together somewhere in the Southern California desert, whe! re the film mercifully comes to a close. Sekula favors moody l! ighting and odd camera angles, the better to illuminate a cast of scenery-chewing, unlikable characters drifting through a tale that will intrigue almost no one. The cover blurb notes that The Pleasure Drivers has been "described as funny, sexy, edgy and dangerous." Maybe so, but that description must have come from someone who didn't actually see it. --Sam GrahamBE MY BABY - DVD MovieJANUARY 2007 ISSUE OF MAXIM MAGAZINE. COVER FEATURES LACEY CHABERT, ARTICLES INCLUDE 20 GREATES SPORTS MELTDOWNS, WARREN BUFFETTS, AND MORE.Junior senator Maggie Davidson (Lauren Holly), a hard-liner against terrorism has become a figurehead for anti-terrorist action. Unbeknownst to Maggie, she has been singled out to be another figurehead-- a terrorist sleeper cell in the suburban D.C. metro area mobilizes a plan to blow up a dirty bomb on the National Mall with Maggie being killed in the blast. Fatwa explores the concepts of power, control, fear, ethics, and duty in a post-9/11 world. G! one are the days when we can remain ignorant of such issues.We Wish You a Merry Christmas (1998) [VHS] (View amazon detail page) ASIN: 0784013101 Binding: VHS Tape The question the video We Wish You a Merry Christmas sets out to answer isn't exactly on the order of the chicken and the egg in terms of head-scratchers, but it's a worthy one nonetheless. And because it's put to the audience by the country singer Travis Tritt, it'll be that much more compelling for some viewers. "How did Christmas carols come to be?" asks the twangy crooner, disguised as a sleighbell-bejeweled cartoon reindeer who moonlights as a Christmas-special host. Don't sweat it if you're stumped--who would have guessed that, instead of spiraling from age-old spirituals, it all started with three hapless orphans in the tiny, make-believe town of Harmony? Ollie, Ted, and Cindy, down on themselves for forever being on the receiving end of Christmas exchanges, are intent on giving something back to their harried but good-hearted fellow townspeople--but what, given their nearly resourceless scenario? Cindy taps out a tune on a found xylophone, her two compatriots noodle ! around with some accidental lyrics, and voilà --their gift is a wrap. Folks, at first reluctantly, forget about the holiday frenzy and, through the magic of music, let the true spirit of the season flood in. This pat, predictable video is perfectly acceptable for all ages--essentially light, take-it-or-leave-it holiday fare. In the end, one wishes a different mystery, one that's dogged singers of the title tune for generations, had been explained: What's all the figgy pudding business about? -Tammy La GorceThe question the video We Wish You a Merry Christmas sets out to answer isn't exactly on the order of the chicken and the egg in terms of head-scratchers, but it's a worthy one nonetheless. And because it's put to the audience by the country singer Travis Tritt, it'll be that much more compelling for some viewers. "How did Christmas carols come to be?" asks the twangy crooner, disguised as a sleighbell-bejeweled cartoon reindeer who moonlights as a Christmas-specia! l host. Don't sweat it if you're stumped--who would have guess! ed that, instead of spiraling from age-old spirituals, it all started with three hapless orphans in the tiny, make-believe town of Harmony? Ollie, Ted, and Cindy, down on themselves for forever being on the receiving end of Christmas exchanges, are intent on giving something back to their harried but good-hearted fellow townspeople--but what, given their nearly resourceless scenario? Cindy taps out a tune on a found xylophone, her two compatriots noodle around with some accidental lyrics, and voilà--their gift is a wrap. Folks, at first reluctantly, forget about the holiday frenzy and, through the magic of music, let the true spirit of the season flood in. This pat, predictable video is perfectly acceptable for all ages--essentially light, take-it-or-leave-it holiday fare. In the end, one wishes a different mystery, one that's dogged singers of the title tune for generations, had been explained: What's all the figgy pudding business about? -Tammy La Gorce
