Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases 5/09/08

“Speed Racer” crashes, “Redbelt” is Mametized “Rocky”

Speed Racer (PG)
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Matthew Fox
Director: Larry Wachowski, Andy Wachowski
The reclusive brothers who brought us the “Matrix” trilogy, create a headache causing semi-live action pastiche of the popular animated TV series by the same name. Imagine that someone spilled the melted contents of the Crayola crayon factory in front of a class 10 tornado, just as it hit the Indy 500 and then lit the scene with ten thousand flashing searchlights and you wil get some idea of the visuals. As for storyline and acting “did I mention the visuals?
1 piece of completely off track toast

What Happens in Vegas (PG-13)
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Ashton Kutcher, Lake Bell, Queen Latifah, Dennis Farina
Director: Tom Vaughan
An ethical question starts off this series of unlikely events: “If you win a mega-prize at a casino by playing with someone else’s coin, who gets the money?” I bet “get married to share the wealth” never crossed your mind, but don’t forget, this is a sit-com-like romantic comedy. Kutcher expands his role from TV’s “That 70’s Show,” while Diaz combines sexiness with slapstick. The duo actually manage to make this work.
3 pieces of rom-com toast

Then She Found Me (R)
Starring: Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick, Ben Shankman
Director: Helen Hunt
“Watch out what you wish for,” seems to be the mantra in this overly complicated, yet often fluffy) tale of an adopted, recently divorced, mother-to-be whose biological mother turns out to be a Bette Midler type (played by Bette Midler) who claims her daughter is the result of a one-night-stand with Steve McQueen. Helen Hunt directs and stars and the Oscar winning actress shows she has great potential behind the camera too.
2 and 1/2 pieces of they should have kept it simple toast

Redbelt (R)
Starring: Chjwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen, Rodrigo Santoro, Emily Mortimer, Alice Braga, Joe Mantegna
Director: David Mamet
The word-wise director/screenwriter tackles the unlikely subject of the Los Angeles fight scene The result is sometimes surreal, with cage-fighters, bouncers, cops and green-beret-types conversing in the instantly identifiable, clipped speech cadence Mamet loves to use. The star, Chjwetel Ejiofor, continues to amaze me with his range of roles from cross-dressing singer (in “Kinky Boots” to hard core revolutionary (in “Children of Men”), to button-down radio station manager (”Talk to Me“). Here, he plays a classicly-trained ju-jitsu instructor who is first repelled and then forced into the world of arena-style martial arts by mounting debt, a very practical wife, and a $50,000 purse. .Mamet regular Joe Mantegna plays to type, while Tim Allen gives a surprisingly dark performance as a movie star exploring his seamy side.
3 Pieces of Mametized, Rockyish toast

New on Video/DVD

P.S. I Love You (PG-13)
Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Kathy Bates, Gina Gershon
Directed by: Richard La Gravenese
The idea of a dead spouse leaving you a “To Do” list for your life “and then following his directions, is the basis of this film and the idea seems a creepy non-starter to me. Someone who follows a “Year of Mourning” letter seems better suited to one of those TV true confessions shows than a Hollywood movie,. By the way, Swank is totally miscast.
1 piece of cliché-covered toast

Over Her Dead Body (PG-13)
Starring: Eva Longoria Parker, Paul Rudd, Lake Bell, Lindsay Sloane, Stephen Root, Jason Biggs
Directed by: David Kitay
When his bride-to-be is killed on the day of the wedding, the distraught fiancé consults a psychic. But he gets a sort of two-for-one deal “a new girlfriend and the old one (as a ghost).
2 pieces of corpse bride toast.

I’m Not There (G)
Starring: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Charlotte Gainsborough, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw
Directed by: Todd Haynes
This inventive and quite entertaining film is something completely different
Six actors portray Bob Dylan as he evolves into different personas during his long career. Cate Blanchett is probably the most amazing chameleon of the lot as she recreates that sequence in the documentary “Don’t Look Back” where Dylan is in a limo driving through a cemetery and Alan Ginsberg happpens by on a golf cart. It’s surreal, but real at the same time. This is one to catch and revel in.
3 and 1/2 pieces of Dylan lives toast