Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast
NEW RELEASES 12/22/06

The Good Shepard (R)
Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro
Directed by: Robert De Niro
This fictional account of the birth of the CIA is directed by De Niro with a relentless and icy cold sense of paranoia. Damon keeps to this one note and seems miscast as someone who could dramatically change our country (and the world’s) agendas. DeNiro throws everything he always wanted a director to do into this, and the 3-hour long end result is as predictable as novacaine–numbness.
1 and 1/2 pieces of needed a brave and strong editor toast

Night at the Museum (PG)
Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams
Directed by: Shawn Levy
An accident prone museum guard unwittingly lets loose an ancient curse that makes all the exhibits come alive. Pursued by dinosaur skeleton, Teddy Roosevelt, and a minature horse and cowboy, the most ridiculous scene involves a caveman using a fire extinguisher to spray the guard with foam. How clever and innovative (NOT!) Innocuous enough, and with an occassional chuckle or two, it’s OK if you need a place to sit down after shopping all day.
2 pieces of mildly amusing toast

We Are Marshall (PG)
Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox
Directed by:McG
The Marshall varsity football team loses an important game, boards a chartered airplane and never arrives home. The 1970 crash killed the team, coaches and major supporters. This movie tells the inspiring true story of how the community fought back to rebuilditself after the tragedy. A truly inspiring story derailed halfway through by every sports movie cliche possible. Too bad.
2 pieces of the story deserved better toast

Rocky Balboa (PG)
Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Tarver, Burt Young
Directed by: Sylvester Stallone
It’s been 30 years since Rocky used meat as a punching bag and trained on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. His beloved wife, Adrien has died, time has taken its toll but inexorably, Rocky enters the ring for one last time as Bill Conti’s music swells to a crescendo. Surprisingly, it still works and we root for the old man.
3 pieces of Eye of the Tiger toast

Volver
Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Duenas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo
Directed by: Pedro Almodovar
Pronounced VOLE VERRR this Golden Globe Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actress in a Drama – Penelope Cruz, reigns in the director’s penchant for showing bodily fluids and lets Penelope Cruz shine in her native tongue as three generations of Spanish women conquer wind, fire, men, and even death, Momma returns from the grave, but unlike “Like Water For Chocolate,” she is a positive force. (at the Rialto in Santa Rosa)
3 and 1/2 pieces of spicy sweet, Spanish toast

Little Children
Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Gregg Edelman
Directed by: Todd Field
Nominated for 3 Golden Globe Awards including Best Picture – Drama, Best Actress in a Drama – Kate Winslet and Best Screenplay!
Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta, this film opens as a satire on suburban infidelity (with artfully photographed sex scenes included) and slides into an plea for people to grow up. The main couple is trapped with him re-living high school football glories and her mourning a writing career that never happened, but they suddenly have a purpose (of sorts) when a young man arrested for indecent exposure is paroled into the neighborhood–and close to a playground. What happens next (depending on your own point of view) is either is dark and disturbing or open and revealing.
3 pieces of you’ll want to talk about this movie afterwards toast

Sweet Land
Alan Cumming, Ned Beatty, Lois Smith, Tim Guinee, Elizabeth Reaser
Directed by Ali Selim
This is a love story set mostly in rural Minnesota circa 1920, but don’t let that keep you away. First time director Selim follows a German mail-order bride (Elizabeth Reaser) and her future husband, a Norwegian-immigrant farmer (Tim Guinee), as the the two slowly get to know each other and learn to communicate while working on the land. Beautiful. Poignant. Life affirming. (at the Rialto in Santa Rosa )
3 and 1/2 pieces of romantic toast

NEW on VIDEO & DVD

A Scanner Darkly (R)
Keeanu Reeves, Winnona Ryder,
Directed by: Richard Linklater
Box Office: $5,281,53
“A Waking Life,” Richard Linklater’s 2001, masterpiece of animation, set a high standard that his newest film just doesn’t reach. Based on a Philip K. Dick sci/fi story, the movie is set in a future Orange County where big-brother watches 24 hours a day and addictive designer drugs are legal. Despite (or because) of the identifiable actors rotoscoped into animated figures, the surreal effects get in the way of telling a good story.
2 and 1/2 pieces of rotoscoped toast

Little Miss Sunshine (R)
Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, Steve Carrell, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin
Directed by: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Box Office: $59,315,777
When their seven-year-old gets a chance to compete in a California beauty pageant, her cash-challenged family climbs into a rusting VW van for a cross-country odyssey. The ensemble cast manages to make their kooky characters believable and endearing as each take turns stealing scenes which include a some drugs, some sex and some rockin’ and rollin’.
3 and 1/2 pieces of are-we-there-yet? toast