Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast
New Releases 8/24/07

Resurrecting the Champ (PG-13)
Samuel L. Jackson Josh Hartnett
Directed by Rod Lurie
Imagine TV’s fictional sportswriter Ray Romano divorced from his wife and trying to keep a relationship with his son by lying about the important people he meets and you’ve got the problem with this movie. Even Samuel L. Jackson’s fine performance as a homeless ex boxing champ can’t save it and shows instead what it should have been.
2 and 1/2 pieces of could have been a contender toast.

Mr. Bean’s Holiday (PG)
Rowan Atkinson Emma de Caunes
Directed by Steve Bendelack
An acquired taste to begin with, audience surveys indicated that Mr. Bean in his first movie was “mean” and so they’ve softened the edges and turned it into blah. (Some funny bits still manage to slip through).
2 pieces of Beans on toast.

The Nanny Diaries (PG-13)
Scarlett Johansson. Laura Linney, PAul Giammatti
Directed by: Sheri Springer Berman
New York biased attempt at socioeconomic humor between the fearful and suspicious haves and the earnest but not overly bright have-not they hire as the Nanny and then spy on with cameras hidden in the teddy bear.
1 piece of moldy toast.

2 Days in Paris (R)
Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg, Daniel Bruhl, Albert Delpy, Adan Jodorowsky
Directed by: Julie Delpy
We do wonder where her “Before Sunrise and “Before Sunset” costar Ethan Hawke went as Julie Delpy travels to Paris with her fiancé (Adam Goldberg) in an attempt to rekindle their romance (aka sex). Delpy is both behind and in front of the camera for this one.
3 pieces of are those balloons and condoms necessary toast?

Rocket Science (R)
Reece Thompson, Anna Kendrick, Vincent Piazza, Nicholas D’Agosto, Aaron Yoo
Directed by: Jeffey Blitz
The director of the Academy Award nominated documentary “Spellbound,” casts a young Dustin Hoffmanish teen as a bright lad who joins the debate team to be close to a girl even though he stutters terribly and has a brother who torments him about it
3 pieces of winning toast

NEW ON VIDEO/DVD

The Lives of Others (R)
Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film!
Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Muehe, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme
Directed by: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Box Office: $11,174,539
Five years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the GDR’s secret police decide that a popular writer must be hiding something (everyone does) so they wiretap his apartment “every inch of it. Fascinating, entertaining and original, this one has a heart, soul and a brain.
3 and 1/2 pieces of imaginative toast

Perfect Stranger (PG)
Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Giovanni Ribissi
Directed by: James Foley
Box Office: $23,705,592
Investigative reporter uncovers evidence that a mega-zillionaire murdered her childhood friend in this boring, listless, hand-held jerk of a movie with a “surprise” ending that wasn’t that surprising the first dozen times you saw it.
1 piece of Berry bad toast