Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases 8/22/08

Rocker (PG-13)
Starring: Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate, Jeff Garlin, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone
Director: Peter Cattaneo
The director who made “The Full Monty” misses the point in this tale of a former sweat-drenched rock and roll drummer trying to make a comeback “with his nephew’s high school garage band. The cast tries hard, but the script is lame and the songs are even worse. The big problem may be trying to attract the PG-13 audience.
1 and 1/2 pieces no back beat toast

House Bunny (PG-13)
Starring: Anna Faris, Colin Hanks, Emma Stone, Katharine McPhee, Rumer Willis
Director: Fred Wolf
Once again, the PG-13 audience puts the brakes on what should be a free wheeling, raunchy romp about a former Playboy Bunny who tries to teach some clueless sorority girls what men (or boys) really like. Since the short answer is way too obvious, she teaches them that it’s what inside that counts ” and she’s not talking about blood and guts, she’s talking about having a nice personality.
2 and 1/2 pieces of “Revenge of the Nerds” with girls toast

The Longshots (PG-13)
Starring: Ice Cube, Keke Palmer, Dash Mihok, Tasha Smith, Jill Marie Jones
Director: Fred Durst
The talented young actor who starred in “Akela and the Bee” gets to play the first female ballplayer in Pop Warner history. This “based on a true story” film has her uncle, a former high school athlete, coaching her, and her small town team, to the Pop Warner Super Bowl. I haven’t seen this, so I can only assume that there is a final game where the score is tied and this talented youngster has to either make a touchdown, or kick a field goal to win the championship,
Unavailable for preview

Elegy (R)
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Penelope Cruz, Antonio Cupo.
Director: Isabel Coixet
Set in a time and place where professors are seemingly allowed (and even tacitly encouraged) to have affairs with their students, a confirmed bachelor he begins a passionate affair with a beautiful Cuban-American woman which slowly evolves into something much more possessive. Slow-moving and voyeuristic at times, this is or those who enjoy literary novels, good wine, and well acted cinema.
3 pieces of patriarchal toast

NOTE: You can also also Catch Penelope Cruz in Woody Allen’s
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (R)

Death Race (R)
Starring: Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Ian McShane
Director: Paul W.S Anderson
A man is unjustly incarcerated for the brutal murder of his beautiful wife in the not-to-distant-lfuture when prisons are run by corporations who broadcast the survival games of prisoners driving armored cars loaded with every destructive weapon possible as they race “to the death.” Ugh. Skip it.
1/2 piece of rent “Mad Max” instead toast

New on Video/DVD

Recount (NR)
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley, Laura Dern, John Hurt
Director: Jay Roach
This made for TV docudrama about the vagaries of hanging chads and hits from The Supremes (the Court of course) exceeds all expectations and makes a really entertaining, interesting and often quite scary look at how George W. Bush became President of the United States. The casting is superb all around, but Kevin Spacey really shines.
3 and 1/2 pieces of “we stole it fair and square”toast

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (PG-13)
Starring: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, Ciaran Hinds, Shirley Henderson, Mark Strong
Director: Bharat Nalluri
On the eve of Britain entering WWII, a hapless governess is justifiably fired and since no one else will hire her, she takes a job as a social secretary for an American who has too many suitors. A light and cheeky confection with little nutritious value.
3 pieces of British mannered toast