The movie: "A League of Their Own"
Where you can stream it: Hulu, Paramount+
The pitch: Baseball may be America's pastime, but during World War II, Major League Baseball was nearly forced to shut down because so many of the men involved had been drafted to fight overseas. To bolster profits and help morale stateside, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (Aagpbl) was formed, creating a full league of female baseball players who stepped up to the plate from all walks of life. "A League of Their Own" is a fictionalized account of one of the teams, the Rockford Peaches, told mostly through the perspective of their catcher and star, Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis). Dottie and her kid sister, Kit (Lori Petty), go from working on their farm in Oregon to being stars in the baseball league, and along the way they meet and befriend women from all over the country.
Where you can stream it: Hulu, Paramount+
The pitch: Baseball may be America's pastime, but during World War II, Major League Baseball was nearly forced to shut down because so many of the men involved had been drafted to fight overseas. To bolster profits and help morale stateside, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (Aagpbl) was formed, creating a full league of female baseball players who stepped up to the plate from all walks of life. "A League of Their Own" is a fictionalized account of one of the teams, the Rockford Peaches, told mostly through the perspective of their catcher and star, Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis). Dottie and her kid sister, Kit (Lori Petty), go from working on their farm in Oregon to being stars in the baseball league, and along the way they meet and befriend women from all over the country.
- 1/5/2023
- by Danielle Ryan
- Slash Film
Happy Memorial Day, everyone! While you’re off enjoying some much-needed downtime with friends and family, we’ve gone ahead and put together a recap of this week’s horror and sci-fi home entertainment releases that are coming our way on May 30th.
For those of you cult film aficionados out there, get those wallets ready, because there’s a bunch of great titles arriving on Blu-ray this Tuesday, including Blackenstein, Evil Ed, The Blood of Fu Manchu / The Castle of Fu Manchu double feature, The Hearse, The Undertaker, Slaughterhouse Rock, and Hide and Go Shriek.
As far as new genre films go, The Blackcoat’s Daughter (one of my personal favorites of 2017) and Rupture are making their way to Blu-ray and DVD, with the Shock-o-Rama box set also coming out on DVD.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter (Lionsgate, Blu-ray & DVD)
Beautiful and haunted Joan (Emma Roberts) makes...
For those of you cult film aficionados out there, get those wallets ready, because there’s a bunch of great titles arriving on Blu-ray this Tuesday, including Blackenstein, Evil Ed, The Blood of Fu Manchu / The Castle of Fu Manchu double feature, The Hearse, The Undertaker, Slaughterhouse Rock, and Hide and Go Shriek.
As far as new genre films go, The Blackcoat’s Daughter (one of my personal favorites of 2017) and Rupture are making their way to Blu-ray and DVD, with the Shock-o-Rama box set also coming out on DVD.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter (Lionsgate, Blu-ray & DVD)
Beautiful and haunted Joan (Emma Roberts) makes...
- 5/30/2017
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Before Stephen King (on the printed page) and John Carpenter (on the big screen) introduced horror fans to a ’58 Plymouth Fury with a violent temper in Christine, George Bowers set out to give them goosebumps with The Hearse (1980), coming to Blu-ray this May from Vinegar Syndrome.
Blu-ray.com reports that Vinegar Syndrome will release The Hearse on Blu-ray on May 30th. No special features or cover art have been released at this time, but you can be sure that we'll keep Daily Dead readers updated as more details are revealed.
Synopsis (via Blu-ray.com): "Jane Hardy, recovering from emotional problems following a difficult divorce, leaves San Francisco for a summer in the country house left to her by her late aunt. On the road, she has an eerie, near-collision with a hearse. Arriving at "the old Martin place," she discovers it's been left as it was when her aunt died 30 years before.
Blu-ray.com reports that Vinegar Syndrome will release The Hearse on Blu-ray on May 30th. No special features or cover art have been released at this time, but you can be sure that we'll keep Daily Dead readers updated as more details are revealed.
Synopsis (via Blu-ray.com): "Jane Hardy, recovering from emotional problems following a difficult divorce, leaves San Francisco for a summer in the country house left to her by her late aunt. On the road, she has an eerie, near-collision with a hearse. Arriving at "the old Martin place," she discovers it's been left as it was when her aunt died 30 years before.
- 3/10/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
The new branded line Shout Selects chooses Buckaroo for special-special edition treatment, with a long making-of docu just like the ones from the heyday of DVD. And this oddest of oddball sci-fi pictures has a backstory worth documenting. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Blu-ray Shout Select 1984 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date August 16, 2016 / 34.93 Starring: Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Lewis Smith, Rosalind Cash, Robert Ito, Pepe Serna, Ronald Lacey, Matt Clark, Clancy Brown, Carl Lumbly, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Bill Henderson, Damon Hines, Billy Vera Cinematography Fred J. Koenekamp Production Designer J. Michael Riva Art Direction Richard Carter, Stephen Dane Film Editor George Bowers, Richard Marks Original Music Michael Boddicker Written by Earl Mac Rauch Produced by Sidney Beckerman, Neil Canton, W.D. Richter Directed by W.D. Richter
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Not content with its already well appointed special Blu-ray editions,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Not content with its already well appointed special Blu-ray editions,...
- 8/2/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Where were Andy Griffith, Larry Hagman and other well-known celebrities in this year's Oscars In Memoriam montage? They were online at Oscar.com.
Every year it's one of the more reliably ridiculous award show controversies: Who didn't make the cut for In Memoriam?
When it comes to the Oscars, these "snubs" are particularly sensitive given the prestige and viewership of the show, and the fact that the montage inevitably leaves out names and faces of recognizable stars -- usually those known far more for their work in television than their work in film, which is the medium that the Academy Awards actually celebrate.
However, the Academy is hip to the annual controversy and this year produced a supplemental slideshow on their website featuring 114 names and photos of entertainers and film craftspeople who passed away in the past year.
Among the late greats included in the slideshow but not on the...
Every year it's one of the more reliably ridiculous award show controversies: Who didn't make the cut for In Memoriam?
When it comes to the Oscars, these "snubs" are particularly sensitive given the prestige and viewership of the show, and the fact that the montage inevitably leaves out names and faces of recognizable stars -- usually those known far more for their work in television than their work in film, which is the medium that the Academy Awards actually celebrate.
However, the Academy is hip to the annual controversy and this year produced a supplemental slideshow on their website featuring 114 names and photos of entertainers and film craftspeople who passed away in the past year.
Among the late greats included in the slideshow but not on the...
- 2/25/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
Reel Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies who have left us in recent weeks. It is unfortunate that we lose so many great film contributors, on-screen and off, that it's impossible to pay extensive tribute to every one. But I think it's important to recognize them at least in this monthly digest, not to mourn but to remember their work. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in their own way. George Bowers (1944-2012) - Filmmaker who directed My Tutor and Private Resort. He was primarily an editor, often of films by Joseph Ruben, such as Money Train, Sleeping with the Enemy, The Good...
Read More...
Read More...
- 9/28/2012
- by Christopher Campbell
- Movies.com
African American Editor George Bowers Dies At 68 ('Harlem Nights,' 'A League Of Their Own,' More...)
George Bowers - film editor of roughly 30 feature films, dating back to the early 1970s, and mentor to long-time Spike Lee editor (as well as director and producer in his own right) Sam Pollard - has died, according to The Hollywood Reporter, who say that he actually died on August 18 of complications related to heart surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Apparently, his daughter announced it just today. Bowers was 68 years old. Editors, who are often working behind closed doors, alone, and in near-silence, rarely get the same quality and quantity of press that actors and directors do, but their work is absolutely integral to the film...
- 9/13/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
George Bowers, a film editor in Hollywood for nearly four decades whose credits include Sleeping With the Enemy, A League of Their Own and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, has died, his daughter announced Thursday. He was 68. Bowers, who also directed a young Johnny Depp in one of the actor’s first films, Private Resort (1985), died Aug. 18 of complications related to heart surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Bowers collaborated with director Penny Marshall as she made a transition from acting to directing. He served as an associate producer on her feature debut, Jumpin’ Jack
read more...
read more...
- 9/13/2012
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Opens
Friday, April 2
This might not be your father's Buford Pusser, but the remake of "Walking Tall" remains the tale of a vigilante with a badge -- and a very big stick. As a man of few words who takes on the forces of pure evil in his rural hometown, WWE star-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a self-possessed, charismatic screen presence. Drawing on his fans and tapping into hero hunger, the film should find solid footing at the boxoffice.
Like the 1973 Joe Don Baker starrer -- a hit that spawned two sequels, a telefilm and a short-lived series -- this version is inspired by the true story of Tennessee sheriff Pusser. But here the central character, unmarried and ultra-buff, is not an unlikely savior. To the well-chosen strains of Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider", we first see Chris Vaughn as a solitary figure on a ferry to Washington state, returning home after eight years in the Army Special Forces.
It's a relief that "Walking" strips Mort Briskin's original screenplay of its cloying family-man angle and tragic elements. That helps to lessen the self-righteousness of an uneasy, if popular, combination of moralizing and head-slamming. But that combustible mix is still the heart of the story.
Paying tribute to the central character's weapon of choice -- a hunk of wood -- the story has been moved to lumber country (Vancouver subs for Kipsat County, Wash.). Expecting to work in the town's mill, like his Father John Beasley), Chris finds it's been shuttered by Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough, whose ice-blue eyes spell "villain"). After inheriting the plant, the town's lifeblood, Jay has turned his entrepreneurial efforts to a lucrative casino, the front for an even more lucrative drug operation. Emblematic of the Wild Cherry's grip on the town, Chris High' school girlfriend, Deni (Ashley Scott), dances in a peep show at the sensory-overload venue.
For Chris, the casino is an assault on small-town integrity. Ever-vigilant to corruption and wrongdoing, he crosses the powers that be and winds up sliced and left for dead by Jay's goons. Denied legal recourse by the sheriff (Michael Bowen), who considers the casino a "no-fly zone," Chris puts a huge stick of cedar to use in the name of justice and ends up in jail. After baring his impressive torso and its gruesome scars for a jury, he's elected sheriff.
He deputizes his pal Ray (Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass"), a recovering addict, to help him crack Jay's speed-manufacturing business. Adding drugs to the corrosive stew of gambling and prostitution, the adaptation ups the ante on moral certainty with broad strokes: Chris' young teen nephew (Khleo Thomas) has an unspecified medical emergency relating to the ingestion of crystal meth, and Chris and Ray are wholesomely abusive cops as they set out to rid their town of vice.
This lean retelling mercifully compresses the physical attacks on the hero and his family, albeit into unbelievably brazen simultaneous ambushes on the precinct and the Vaughn home. As the senior Vaughn, Beasley makes an impression as a former soldier who must overcome his aversion to guns to protect his wife (Barbara Tarbuck) and single-mom daughter (Kristen Wilson).
Director Kevin Bray keeps the action tight and brutal, from the first casino brawl to the final face-off between Jay and Chris (hatchet vs. tree branch). The cast acquits itself well, with the Rock evincing a quiet balance between humor and brawn. Unlike Baker's Pusser, Chris is not a conflicted man, and the pared-down action loses some of its dramatic tension because there's no doubt that the Rock will prevail -- driving home the point is a low-angle shot of the jeans-clad sheriff, wooden club in hand.
Production designer Brent Thomas and costume designer Gersha Phillips achieve a lived-in look that never calls attention to itself. Glen MacPherson's camerawork captures the setting's natural riches and economic straits, while well-chosen '70s rock tunes help propel the proceedings.
WALKING TALL
MGM Pictures
A Hyde Park Entertainment/Mandeville Films production in association with Burke/Samples/Foster Prods. and WWE Films
Credits:
Director: Kevin Bray
Screenwriters: David Klass, Channing Gibson, David Levien, Brian Koppelman
Based on a screenplay by: Mort Briskin
Producers: Jim Burke, Lucas Foster, Paul Schiff, Ashok Amritraj, David Hoberman
Executive producers: Keith Samples, Vince McMahon
Director of photography: Glen MacPherson
Production designer: Brent Thomas
Music: Graeme Revell
Co-producer: Bill Bannerman
Costume designer: Gersha Phillips
Editors: George Bowers, Robert Ivison
Cast:
Chris Vaughn: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Ray Templeton: Johnny Knoxville
Jay Hamilton: Neal McDonough
Michelle Vaughn: Kristen Wilson
Deni: Ashley Scott
Pete Vaughn: Khleo Thomas
Chris Vaughn Sr.: John Beasley
Connie Vaughn: Barbara Tarbuck
Sheriff Stan Watkins: Michael Bowen
Booth: Kevin Durand
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Friday, April 2
This might not be your father's Buford Pusser, but the remake of "Walking Tall" remains the tale of a vigilante with a badge -- and a very big stick. As a man of few words who takes on the forces of pure evil in his rural hometown, WWE star-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a self-possessed, charismatic screen presence. Drawing on his fans and tapping into hero hunger, the film should find solid footing at the boxoffice.
Like the 1973 Joe Don Baker starrer -- a hit that spawned two sequels, a telefilm and a short-lived series -- this version is inspired by the true story of Tennessee sheriff Pusser. But here the central character, unmarried and ultra-buff, is not an unlikely savior. To the well-chosen strains of Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider", we first see Chris Vaughn as a solitary figure on a ferry to Washington state, returning home after eight years in the Army Special Forces.
It's a relief that "Walking" strips Mort Briskin's original screenplay of its cloying family-man angle and tragic elements. That helps to lessen the self-righteousness of an uneasy, if popular, combination of moralizing and head-slamming. But that combustible mix is still the heart of the story.
Paying tribute to the central character's weapon of choice -- a hunk of wood -- the story has been moved to lumber country (Vancouver subs for Kipsat County, Wash.). Expecting to work in the town's mill, like his Father John Beasley), Chris finds it's been shuttered by Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough, whose ice-blue eyes spell "villain"). After inheriting the plant, the town's lifeblood, Jay has turned his entrepreneurial efforts to a lucrative casino, the front for an even more lucrative drug operation. Emblematic of the Wild Cherry's grip on the town, Chris High' school girlfriend, Deni (Ashley Scott), dances in a peep show at the sensory-overload venue.
For Chris, the casino is an assault on small-town integrity. Ever-vigilant to corruption and wrongdoing, he crosses the powers that be and winds up sliced and left for dead by Jay's goons. Denied legal recourse by the sheriff (Michael Bowen), who considers the casino a "no-fly zone," Chris puts a huge stick of cedar to use in the name of justice and ends up in jail. After baring his impressive torso and its gruesome scars for a jury, he's elected sheriff.
He deputizes his pal Ray (Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass"), a recovering addict, to help him crack Jay's speed-manufacturing business. Adding drugs to the corrosive stew of gambling and prostitution, the adaptation ups the ante on moral certainty with broad strokes: Chris' young teen nephew (Khleo Thomas) has an unspecified medical emergency relating to the ingestion of crystal meth, and Chris and Ray are wholesomely abusive cops as they set out to rid their town of vice.
This lean retelling mercifully compresses the physical attacks on the hero and his family, albeit into unbelievably brazen simultaneous ambushes on the precinct and the Vaughn home. As the senior Vaughn, Beasley makes an impression as a former soldier who must overcome his aversion to guns to protect his wife (Barbara Tarbuck) and single-mom daughter (Kristen Wilson).
Director Kevin Bray keeps the action tight and brutal, from the first casino brawl to the final face-off between Jay and Chris (hatchet vs. tree branch). The cast acquits itself well, with the Rock evincing a quiet balance between humor and brawn. Unlike Baker's Pusser, Chris is not a conflicted man, and the pared-down action loses some of its dramatic tension because there's no doubt that the Rock will prevail -- driving home the point is a low-angle shot of the jeans-clad sheriff, wooden club in hand.
Production designer Brent Thomas and costume designer Gersha Phillips achieve a lived-in look that never calls attention to itself. Glen MacPherson's camerawork captures the setting's natural riches and economic straits, while well-chosen '70s rock tunes help propel the proceedings.
WALKING TALL
MGM Pictures
A Hyde Park Entertainment/Mandeville Films production in association with Burke/Samples/Foster Prods. and WWE Films
Credits:
Director: Kevin Bray
Screenwriters: David Klass, Channing Gibson, David Levien, Brian Koppelman
Based on a screenplay by: Mort Briskin
Producers: Jim Burke, Lucas Foster, Paul Schiff, Ashok Amritraj, David Hoberman
Executive producers: Keith Samples, Vince McMahon
Director of photography: Glen MacPherson
Production designer: Brent Thomas
Music: Graeme Revell
Co-producer: Bill Bannerman
Costume designer: Gersha Phillips
Editors: George Bowers, Robert Ivison
Cast:
Chris Vaughn: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Ray Templeton: Johnny Knoxville
Jay Hamilton: Neal McDonough
Michelle Vaughn: Kristen Wilson
Deni: Ashley Scott
Pete Vaughn: Khleo Thomas
Chris Vaughn Sr.: John Beasley
Connie Vaughn: Barbara Tarbuck
Sheriff Stan Watkins: Michael Bowen
Booth: Kevin Durand
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Opens
Friday, April 2
This might not be your father's Buford Pusser, but the remake of "Walking Tall" remains the tale of a vigilante with a badge -- and a very big stick. As a man of few words who takes on the forces of pure evil in his rural hometown, WWE star-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a self-possessed, charismatic screen presence. Drawing on his fans and tapping into hero hunger, the film should find solid footing at the boxoffice.
Like the 1973 Joe Don Baker starrer -- a hit that spawned two sequels, a telefilm and a short-lived series -- this version is inspired by the true story of Tennessee sheriff Pusser. But here the central character, unmarried and ultra-buff, is not an unlikely savior. To the well-chosen strains of Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider", we first see Chris Vaughn as a solitary figure on a ferry to Washington state, returning home after eight years in the Army Special Forces.
It's a relief that "Walking" strips Mort Briskin's original screenplay of its cloying family-man angle and tragic elements. That helps to lessen the self-righteousness of an uneasy, if popular, combination of moralizing and head-slamming. But that combustible mix is still the heart of the story.
Paying tribute to the central character's weapon of choice -- a hunk of wood -- the story has been moved to lumber country (Vancouver subs for Kipsat County, Wash.). Expecting to work in the town's mill, like his Father John Beasley), Chris finds it's been shuttered by Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough, whose ice-blue eyes spell "villain"). After inheriting the plant, the town's lifeblood, Jay has turned his entrepreneurial efforts to a lucrative casino, the front for an even more lucrative drug operation. Emblematic of the Wild Cherry's grip on the town, Chris High' school girlfriend, Deni (Ashley Scott), dances in a peep show at the sensory-overload venue.
For Chris, the casino is an assault on small-town integrity. Ever-vigilant to corruption and wrongdoing, he crosses the powers that be and winds up sliced and left for dead by Jay's goons. Denied legal recourse by the sheriff (Michael Bowen), who considers the casino a "no-fly zone," Chris puts a huge stick of cedar to use in the name of justice and ends up in jail. After baring his impressive torso and its gruesome scars for a jury, he's elected sheriff.
He deputizes his pal Ray (Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass"), a recovering addict, to help him crack Jay's speed-manufacturing business. Adding drugs to the corrosive stew of gambling and prostitution, the adaptation ups the ante on moral certainty with broad strokes: Chris' young teen nephew (Khleo Thomas) has an unspecified medical emergency relating to the ingestion of crystal meth, and Chris and Ray are wholesomely abusive cops as they set out to rid their town of vice.
This lean retelling mercifully compresses the physical attacks on the hero and his family, albeit into unbelievably brazen simultaneous ambushes on the precinct and the Vaughn home. As the senior Vaughn, Beasley makes an impression as a former soldier who must overcome his aversion to guns to protect his wife (Barbara Tarbuck) and single-mom daughter (Kristen Wilson).
Director Kevin Bray keeps the action tight and brutal, from the first casino brawl to the final face-off between Jay and Chris (hatchet vs. tree branch). The cast acquits itself well, with the Rock evincing a quiet balance between humor and brawn. Unlike Baker's Pusser, Chris is not a conflicted man, and the pared-down action loses some of its dramatic tension because there's no doubt that the Rock will prevail -- driving home the point is a low-angle shot of the jeans-clad sheriff, wooden club in hand.
Production designer Brent Thomas and costume designer Gersha Phillips achieve a lived-in look that never calls attention to itself. Glen MacPherson's camerawork captures the setting's natural riches and economic straits, while well-chosen '70s rock tunes help propel the proceedings.
WALKING TALL
MGM Pictures
A Hyde Park Entertainment/Mandeville Films production in association with Burke/Samples/Foster Prods. and WWE Films
Credits:
Director: Kevin Bray
Screenwriters: David Klass, Channing Gibson, David Levien, Brian Koppelman
Based on a screenplay by: Mort Briskin
Producers: Jim Burke, Lucas Foster, Paul Schiff, Ashok Amritraj, David Hoberman
Executive producers: Keith Samples, Vince McMahon
Director of photography: Glen MacPherson
Production designer: Brent Thomas
Music: Graeme Revell
Co-producer: Bill Bannerman
Costume designer: Gersha Phillips
Editors: George Bowers, Robert Ivison
Cast:
Chris Vaughn: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Ray Templeton: Johnny Knoxville
Jay Hamilton: Neal McDonough
Michelle Vaughn: Kristen Wilson
Deni: Ashley Scott
Pete Vaughn: Khleo Thomas
Chris Vaughn Sr.: John Beasley
Connie Vaughn: Barbara Tarbuck
Sheriff Stan Watkins: Michael Bowen
Booth: Kevin Durand
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Friday, April 2
This might not be your father's Buford Pusser, but the remake of "Walking Tall" remains the tale of a vigilante with a badge -- and a very big stick. As a man of few words who takes on the forces of pure evil in his rural hometown, WWE star-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a self-possessed, charismatic screen presence. Drawing on his fans and tapping into hero hunger, the film should find solid footing at the boxoffice.
Like the 1973 Joe Don Baker starrer -- a hit that spawned two sequels, a telefilm and a short-lived series -- this version is inspired by the true story of Tennessee sheriff Pusser. But here the central character, unmarried and ultra-buff, is not an unlikely savior. To the well-chosen strains of Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider", we first see Chris Vaughn as a solitary figure on a ferry to Washington state, returning home after eight years in the Army Special Forces.
It's a relief that "Walking" strips Mort Briskin's original screenplay of its cloying family-man angle and tragic elements. That helps to lessen the self-righteousness of an uneasy, if popular, combination of moralizing and head-slamming. But that combustible mix is still the heart of the story.
Paying tribute to the central character's weapon of choice -- a hunk of wood -- the story has been moved to lumber country (Vancouver subs for Kipsat County, Wash.). Expecting to work in the town's mill, like his Father John Beasley), Chris finds it's been shuttered by Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough, whose ice-blue eyes spell "villain"). After inheriting the plant, the town's lifeblood, Jay has turned his entrepreneurial efforts to a lucrative casino, the front for an even more lucrative drug operation. Emblematic of the Wild Cherry's grip on the town, Chris High' school girlfriend, Deni (Ashley Scott), dances in a peep show at the sensory-overload venue.
For Chris, the casino is an assault on small-town integrity. Ever-vigilant to corruption and wrongdoing, he crosses the powers that be and winds up sliced and left for dead by Jay's goons. Denied legal recourse by the sheriff (Michael Bowen), who considers the casino a "no-fly zone," Chris puts a huge stick of cedar to use in the name of justice and ends up in jail. After baring his impressive torso and its gruesome scars for a jury, he's elected sheriff.
He deputizes his pal Ray (Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass"), a recovering addict, to help him crack Jay's speed-manufacturing business. Adding drugs to the corrosive stew of gambling and prostitution, the adaptation ups the ante on moral certainty with broad strokes: Chris' young teen nephew (Khleo Thomas) has an unspecified medical emergency relating to the ingestion of crystal meth, and Chris and Ray are wholesomely abusive cops as they set out to rid their town of vice.
This lean retelling mercifully compresses the physical attacks on the hero and his family, albeit into unbelievably brazen simultaneous ambushes on the precinct and the Vaughn home. As the senior Vaughn, Beasley makes an impression as a former soldier who must overcome his aversion to guns to protect his wife (Barbara Tarbuck) and single-mom daughter (Kristen Wilson).
Director Kevin Bray keeps the action tight and brutal, from the first casino brawl to the final face-off between Jay and Chris (hatchet vs. tree branch). The cast acquits itself well, with the Rock evincing a quiet balance between humor and brawn. Unlike Baker's Pusser, Chris is not a conflicted man, and the pared-down action loses some of its dramatic tension because there's no doubt that the Rock will prevail -- driving home the point is a low-angle shot of the jeans-clad sheriff, wooden club in hand.
Production designer Brent Thomas and costume designer Gersha Phillips achieve a lived-in look that never calls attention to itself. Glen MacPherson's camerawork captures the setting's natural riches and economic straits, while well-chosen '70s rock tunes help propel the proceedings.
WALKING TALL
MGM Pictures
A Hyde Park Entertainment/Mandeville Films production in association with Burke/Samples/Foster Prods. and WWE Films
Credits:
Director: Kevin Bray
Screenwriters: David Klass, Channing Gibson, David Levien, Brian Koppelman
Based on a screenplay by: Mort Briskin
Producers: Jim Burke, Lucas Foster, Paul Schiff, Ashok Amritraj, David Hoberman
Executive producers: Keith Samples, Vince McMahon
Director of photography: Glen MacPherson
Production designer: Brent Thomas
Music: Graeme Revell
Co-producer: Bill Bannerman
Costume designer: Gersha Phillips
Editors: George Bowers, Robert Ivison
Cast:
Chris Vaughn: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Ray Templeton: Johnny Knoxville
Jay Hamilton: Neal McDonough
Michelle Vaughn: Kristen Wilson
Deni: Ashley Scott
Pete Vaughn: Khleo Thomas
Chris Vaughn Sr.: John Beasley
Connie Vaughn: Barbara Tarbuck
Sheriff Stan Watkins: Michael Bowen
Booth: Kevin Durand
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 3/29/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
For years, the Walt Disney Co. has recycled its cartoon and live-action characters into TV shows, video releases, theme park rides, action figures, T-shirts -- you name it. Now Disney is reversing the flow with theme park attractions heading for the big screen. Later this year, a movie based on the fabled Pirates of the Caribbean ride goes into production. Even before that film, though, the company is releasing "The Country Bears", a family film based on its audio-animatronics novelty show "The Country Bears Jamboree".
Like that show, in which animatronic bear characters put on a hootenanny, the film confines itself to entertaining small children and perhaps a few adolescents. Anyone older will find himself glancing at his watch more than once. Theatrical prospects appear modest, but there may be gold in that ancillary mother lode.
The Mark Perez script lacks the clever humor and odd twists that can help a family film transcend age. Peter Hastings directs competently but without much visual style or playfulness.
While the movie is derived from the park attraction, its inspiration comes from the original "The Blues Brothers", with a group of characters hitting the road to get a legendary band back together. The Country Bears was a country group in which every musician other than the drummer was, yes, a bear.
The driving force behind the reunion is Beary Barrington (voiced by Haley Joel Osment), an 11-year-old cub who acts as if he were human because he has been adopted by a human family. Beary can't seem to take a hint about his "difference" from his older, disgusted brother Dex (Eli Marienthal). Beary, a huge Country Bears fan, wants to reunite the group for a benefit concert to help save Country Bear Hall, the venue where the band got its start.
Each bear character is a collaboration among four people: the suit performer, the puppeteer, the voice actor and the musician doing the singing. The characters are fun but a little dorky because bears are not the easiest animals to animate. The music is the best thing the film has to offer. John Hiatt has written six original songs, and such talents as Don Henley, Willie Nelson, Brian Setzer, Bonnie Raitt and Krystal Marie Harris mix it up with rock, country and blues music.
A guitar duel in the Honey Bar (where Queen Latifah turns up as the bartender) between a bear fiddle player and Setzer is fun. A retro coffee shop comes alive with "Kick It Into Gear", thanks to Jennifer Paige's singing waitress. The latter won't make you forget Aretha Franklin's memorable "Think" in "Blues Brothers", but it does give the movie a momentary charge.
Daryl "Chill" Mitchell and Diedrich Bader provide slapstick comedy as a pair of bumbling cops sent to look for the family's runaway son. Their chase of the Country Bears' tour bus through a car wash should have children squealing with delight.
Seeing Christopher Walken essay the film's twisted villain is strange, to say the least, but he plays it straight without any camp. Veteran actors Stephen Tobolowsky, Meagan Fay and Alex Rocco -- the latter not given nearly enough to do -- slip comfortably into the human roles.
THE COUNTRY BEARS
Buena Vista Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Credits:
Director: Peter Hastings
Screenwriter: Mark Perez
Producers: Andre Gunn, Jeffrey Chernov
Director of photography: C. Mitchell Amundsen
Production designer: Dan Bishop
Music: Christopher Young
Songs by: John Hiatt
Costume designer: Genevieve Tyrrell
Editors: George Bowers, Seth Flaum
Cast:
Reed Thimple: Christopher Walken
Norbert Barrington: Stephen Tobolowsky
Officer Hamm: Daryl "Chill" Mitchell
Raodie: MC Gainey
Officer Cheets/voice of Ted: Dietrich Bader
Rip Holland: Alex Rocco
Mrs Marrington: Meagen Fay
Dex: Eli Marienthal
Voices:
Beary: Haley Joel Osment
Trixie: Candy Ford
Big Al: James Gammon
Fred: Brad Garrett
Tennessee: Toby Huss
Henry: Kevin Michael Richardson
Zeb: Stephen Root
Running time -- 88 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
Like that show, in which animatronic bear characters put on a hootenanny, the film confines itself to entertaining small children and perhaps a few adolescents. Anyone older will find himself glancing at his watch more than once. Theatrical prospects appear modest, but there may be gold in that ancillary mother lode.
The Mark Perez script lacks the clever humor and odd twists that can help a family film transcend age. Peter Hastings directs competently but without much visual style or playfulness.
While the movie is derived from the park attraction, its inspiration comes from the original "The Blues Brothers", with a group of characters hitting the road to get a legendary band back together. The Country Bears was a country group in which every musician other than the drummer was, yes, a bear.
The driving force behind the reunion is Beary Barrington (voiced by Haley Joel Osment), an 11-year-old cub who acts as if he were human because he has been adopted by a human family. Beary can't seem to take a hint about his "difference" from his older, disgusted brother Dex (Eli Marienthal). Beary, a huge Country Bears fan, wants to reunite the group for a benefit concert to help save Country Bear Hall, the venue where the band got its start.
Each bear character is a collaboration among four people: the suit performer, the puppeteer, the voice actor and the musician doing the singing. The characters are fun but a little dorky because bears are not the easiest animals to animate. The music is the best thing the film has to offer. John Hiatt has written six original songs, and such talents as Don Henley, Willie Nelson, Brian Setzer, Bonnie Raitt and Krystal Marie Harris mix it up with rock, country and blues music.
A guitar duel in the Honey Bar (where Queen Latifah turns up as the bartender) between a bear fiddle player and Setzer is fun. A retro coffee shop comes alive with "Kick It Into Gear", thanks to Jennifer Paige's singing waitress. The latter won't make you forget Aretha Franklin's memorable "Think" in "Blues Brothers", but it does give the movie a momentary charge.
Daryl "Chill" Mitchell and Diedrich Bader provide slapstick comedy as a pair of bumbling cops sent to look for the family's runaway son. Their chase of the Country Bears' tour bus through a car wash should have children squealing with delight.
Seeing Christopher Walken essay the film's twisted villain is strange, to say the least, but he plays it straight without any camp. Veteran actors Stephen Tobolowsky, Meagan Fay and Alex Rocco -- the latter not given nearly enough to do -- slip comfortably into the human roles.
THE COUNTRY BEARS
Buena Vista Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Credits:
Director: Peter Hastings
Screenwriter: Mark Perez
Producers: Andre Gunn, Jeffrey Chernov
Director of photography: C. Mitchell Amundsen
Production designer: Dan Bishop
Music: Christopher Young
Songs by: John Hiatt
Costume designer: Genevieve Tyrrell
Editors: George Bowers, Seth Flaum
Cast:
Reed Thimple: Christopher Walken
Norbert Barrington: Stephen Tobolowsky
Officer Hamm: Daryl "Chill" Mitchell
Raodie: MC Gainey
Officer Cheets/voice of Ted: Dietrich Bader
Rip Holland: Alex Rocco
Mrs Marrington: Meagen Fay
Dex: Eli Marienthal
Voices:
Beary: Haley Joel Osment
Trixie: Candy Ford
Big Al: James Gammon
Fred: Brad Garrett
Tennessee: Toby Huss
Henry: Kevin Michael Richardson
Zeb: Stephen Root
Running time -- 88 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
- 7/26/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Having settled for second banana status in the past two Adam Sandler movies, fellow "Saturday Night Live" alumnus Rob Schneider has the spotlight all to himself in "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" -- as opposed to, what, a female gigolo? -- an unapologetically sophomoric but admittedly funny gross-out comedy very much in the sweet-centered Sandler vein.
Given that the scrappy Schneider doesn't possess the kind of childlike vulnerability that has earned Sandler a sizable female following, "Deuce" will likely have to settle for being a guys' movie. But its ideally timed placement in a market that is short on comedy should ensure that "Deuce" pulls in impressive numbers.
Schneider, who shares screenwriting credit with Harris Goldberg (Sandler's on board as exec producer), is the Deuce Bigalow in question -- a dedicated fish tank cleaner who dreams of moving to an oceanside property with his fine finned friends.
As fate would have it, Deuce ends up house-sitting for Antoine Laconte (Oded Fehr), a high-priced gigolo who expects his expensively appointed pad to remain impeccably intact upon his return.
Naturally, it isn't long before Antoine's $6,000 custom-made Living Color aquarium ends up in thousands of pieces on his priceless oriental rugs and you can see where this literal-minded fish-out-of-water story is headed.
Desperate to come up with the cash to repair the damage, Deuce ends up doing the male escort thing with a little assistance from T.J. Hicks (Eddie Griffin), a pimp who prefers to be known as a "man madam."
Since he's new on the job, the clientele isn't exactly top-drawer, as evidenced by the freak show-worthy lineup of narcoleptic, Tourette's syndrome-suffering, physical abnormality-touting females willing to pay for his services.
Along the way, Deuce makes the fatal mistake of falling in love with one of them -- the shy, one-legged Kate (Arija Bareikis) -- and for the first time in his life he's faced with a crisis of conscience.
While he's not blessed with that Sandler/Carrey brand of instant, follow-them-anywhere charisma, Schneider's got a sort of uppity Jack Russell terrier energy that can be effective in a controlled climate -- meaning he has wisely surrounded himself with an able ensemble.
In addition to Griffin's gender-sensitive T.J. Hicks, other bright comedic turns include Amy Poehler's sweet, obscenity-sputtering Ruth, the sizable Jabba Lady (Los Angeles radio personality Big Boy) and Deuce's restroom attendant dad (Richard Riehle).
And, in a reputation-skewering cameo, Marlo Thomas makes an unbilled appearance as a customer with a Teutonic fetish.
Coordinating all the requisite innuendo and poopy jokes with a bouncy eagerness is first-time feature director Mike Mitchell, whose extensive background in animation is put to good, appropriately cartoonish use.
DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO
Buena Vista
Touchstone Pictures presents a Happy Madison production in association with Out of the Blue Entertainment
Director: Mike Mitchell
Screenwriters: Harris Goldberg & Rob Schneider
Producers: Sid Ganis, Barry Bernardi
Executive producers: Adam Sandler, Jack Giarraputo
Director of photography: Peter Lyons Collister
Production designer: Alan Au
Editors: George Bowers, Lawrence Jordan
Costume designer: Molly Maginnis
Music supervisor: Michael Dilbeck
Music: Teddy Castellucci
Casting: Marcia Ross & Donna Morong, Gail Goldberg
Color/stereo
Cast:
Deuce Bigalow: Rob Schneider
Detective Fowler: William Forsythe
T.J. Hicks: Eddie Griffin
Kate: Arija Bareikis
Antoine Laconte: Oded Fehr
Claire: Gail O'Grady
Bob Bigalow: Richard Riehle
Elaine: Jacqueline Obradors
Bergita: Dina Platias
Ruth: Amy Poehler
Jabba Lady: Big Boy
Running time -- 83 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Given that the scrappy Schneider doesn't possess the kind of childlike vulnerability that has earned Sandler a sizable female following, "Deuce" will likely have to settle for being a guys' movie. But its ideally timed placement in a market that is short on comedy should ensure that "Deuce" pulls in impressive numbers.
Schneider, who shares screenwriting credit with Harris Goldberg (Sandler's on board as exec producer), is the Deuce Bigalow in question -- a dedicated fish tank cleaner who dreams of moving to an oceanside property with his fine finned friends.
As fate would have it, Deuce ends up house-sitting for Antoine Laconte (Oded Fehr), a high-priced gigolo who expects his expensively appointed pad to remain impeccably intact upon his return.
Naturally, it isn't long before Antoine's $6,000 custom-made Living Color aquarium ends up in thousands of pieces on his priceless oriental rugs and you can see where this literal-minded fish-out-of-water story is headed.
Desperate to come up with the cash to repair the damage, Deuce ends up doing the male escort thing with a little assistance from T.J. Hicks (Eddie Griffin), a pimp who prefers to be known as a "man madam."
Since he's new on the job, the clientele isn't exactly top-drawer, as evidenced by the freak show-worthy lineup of narcoleptic, Tourette's syndrome-suffering, physical abnormality-touting females willing to pay for his services.
Along the way, Deuce makes the fatal mistake of falling in love with one of them -- the shy, one-legged Kate (Arija Bareikis) -- and for the first time in his life he's faced with a crisis of conscience.
While he's not blessed with that Sandler/Carrey brand of instant, follow-them-anywhere charisma, Schneider's got a sort of uppity Jack Russell terrier energy that can be effective in a controlled climate -- meaning he has wisely surrounded himself with an able ensemble.
In addition to Griffin's gender-sensitive T.J. Hicks, other bright comedic turns include Amy Poehler's sweet, obscenity-sputtering Ruth, the sizable Jabba Lady (Los Angeles radio personality Big Boy) and Deuce's restroom attendant dad (Richard Riehle).
And, in a reputation-skewering cameo, Marlo Thomas makes an unbilled appearance as a customer with a Teutonic fetish.
Coordinating all the requisite innuendo and poopy jokes with a bouncy eagerness is first-time feature director Mike Mitchell, whose extensive background in animation is put to good, appropriately cartoonish use.
DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO
Buena Vista
Touchstone Pictures presents a Happy Madison production in association with Out of the Blue Entertainment
Director: Mike Mitchell
Screenwriters: Harris Goldberg & Rob Schneider
Producers: Sid Ganis, Barry Bernardi
Executive producers: Adam Sandler, Jack Giarraputo
Director of photography: Peter Lyons Collister
Production designer: Alan Au
Editors: George Bowers, Lawrence Jordan
Costume designer: Molly Maginnis
Music supervisor: Michael Dilbeck
Music: Teddy Castellucci
Casting: Marcia Ross & Donna Morong, Gail Goldberg
Color/stereo
Cast:
Deuce Bigalow: Rob Schneider
Detective Fowler: William Forsythe
T.J. Hicks: Eddie Griffin
Kate: Arija Bareikis
Antoine Laconte: Oded Fehr
Claire: Gail O'Grady
Bob Bigalow: Richard Riehle
Elaine: Jacqueline Obradors
Bergita: Dina Platias
Ruth: Amy Poehler
Jabba Lady: Big Boy
Running time -- 83 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 12/8/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.