Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases 6/20/08

Get Smart (PG-13)
Starring: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp
Director: Peter Segal
The latest “Get Smart” movie starring Steve Carrell as secret agent Maxwell Smart, Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 and Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson as Agent 23, opens today, and other critics have compared it harshly with the original series. But that’s partly based on nostalgia. For no matter where you first saw the original TV shows Don Adams talking on his shoe phone or Barbara Feldon wearing a trenchcoat, they were really funny (courtesy of ideas and scripts by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry) and we were all quite a bit younger. But this new movie manages to capture that elusive special feeling while (thanks in large part to the talents of a superb cast) creating something fresh and fun.
3 and 1/2 pieces of no need to be “sorry about that, Chief” toast

The Love Guru (PG-13)
Starring: Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, Romany Malco, Meagan Good
Director: Marco Schnabel
If you appreciate the subtle humor of the following joke, then this one’s for you: Question: “Where do elephants go to make love? “Answer: “Anywhere they want too.” And since the answer includes “in this movie,” you get the problem. Based on the jokes, Mike Myers has recently been reincarnated as a fifth grader. But what can he do? It’s his karma.
1 and 1/2 pieces horny guru toast

Diva (R) Special one week showing at the Rialto in Santa Rosa
Starring: Fredric Andrei, Wilhelmenia Wiggins, Richard Bohringer, Thuy An Luu, Jacques Fabbri
Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix
In 1981, a truly original work of art burst upon the world stage. Worthy of an important place in cinematic history, it is all French glitz and glamour wrapped in a thriller of a plot thrumming with a post-punk beat and peopled with characters seldom seen before or since. It must be felt to be believed “and a full size theater screen is the best way to see it.
4 pieces of we aren’t in Kansas anymore toast

When Did You Last See Your Father (PG-13)
Starring: Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson, Gina McKee, Claire Skinner
Director: Anand Tucker
Those of us of a certain age with fathers or grandfathers reaching the ends of thier lives will probably want to avoid this slice of life film by any means necessary. But Jim Broadbent raises this to an experience you really should see, even if it’s message is painful to the “Norwegian Batchelor Farmers” in all of us who believe our fathers (and, by extension ourselves) will never die.
3 pieces of do not go quietly into that goodnight toast

New on Video/DVD

Be Kind Rewind (PG-13)
Starring Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow, Melonie Diaz
Directed by: Jean Michel Bernard
The concept “magnetized nerd erases all the videos in his friend’s video store and they have to create new movies to replace the missing ones to keep a customer happy “feels like it would make a great 20 minute indie, but it has been padded with director’s tricks to stretch it to feature length. The best bit is the remake of “Ghostbusters” but why the guys don’t just get copies of the movies from other stores (heck, even Wal Mart has “Ghostbusters” for sale) is not convincingly explained.
2 and 1/2 pieces of what works is worth watching toast.

Fanny (NA)
Starring: Leslie Caron, Horst Buchholz, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Boyer, Georgette Anys
Director: Joshua Logan
This 1961 version of Marcel Pagnol’s French trilogy, has Leslie Caron falling for Horst Buchjolz in a fishing village and when he goes to sea and she finds herself pregnant she marries an older man who she eventually falls in love with “until the young man returns to claim her. This is essentially Joshua Logan’s 1954 Broadway musical without Harold Rome’s fine musical score. Too bad, there are some great songs missing like “Panise and Son,” and “Be Kind to Your Parents.” Whats left is pretty and dull in other words, pretty dull.
2 pieces of starts starts with music, then falls flat toast