Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast
NEW RELEASES 11/24/06

Deja Vu (PG-13)
Denzel Washington, Jim Caviezel, Paula Patton
Directed by: Tony Scott
It’s fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), and a ferry leaves the New Orleans dock loaded with school children on a field trip, Navy sailors by the hundreds going on leave, newlyweds, geriatric couples, and a young girl who cries when her doll falls overboard. Then, after a suitable amount of tension building, a terrorist bomb explodes and sends the ferry and hundreds of passengers to their deaths. Enter ATF Agent Carlin (Washington) to save the day and fall in love with a dead woman.
3 pieces of Jerry Bruckheimer style toast

Deck the Halls (PG)
Matthew Brodrick, Danny DeVito Kristen Davis, Kristen Chenoweth
Directed by: John Whitesell
Two neighbors feud over competing Christmas displays in a film which makes you remember “National Lampoon’s Family Christmas” with nostalgic fondness.
1 and 1/2 pieces of bah, humbug toast

Bobby (R)
Emelio Estevez, his dad (Martin Sheen), Demi Moore, Lawrence Fishburne, William H. Macey, Ashton Kutcher, Sharon Stone, Heather Graham
Written, Directed by: Emelio Estevez
Striking parallels are drawn between America in 1968 and our country today in this interesting focus on the nameless, faceless, behind the scenes people who just happened to be at the Ambassador hotel the fateful moment that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.
3 pieces of Estevesian toast

Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny(R)
Jack Black, Kyle Gass, Tim Robbins
Directed by: Liam Lynch
An ego-driven waste of film stock hopefully seen only by diehard Tenacious D fans. The rest of us should save our money.
1 piece of fatuous toast

For Your Consideration (R)
Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Bob Balaban, Michael McKean, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard
Directed by: Christopher Guest
The ensemble of mockumentary players who have gently skewered little theater groups, dog shows, folk singers and rock stars, now takes aim at Hollywood. As Oscar nominations are being selected, the “buzz” starts to build over a very low budget documentary. Mostly improvisation by some very talented buddies, (the script was only 20 pages long) this is for those who revel in understated, intelligent humor.
3 pieces of the envelope please toast

Fountain (PG)
Hugh Jackman, RAchel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Comparisons to the last scenes of Kubrick’s “2001″ are inevitable. This confusing, nonlinear, back-and-forth between the centuries telling of three different tales seems like a film school project gone horribly askew. The quest (or is that McGuffin?) is to find the tree of immortality in the New World or Africa or in a test tube. Unfortunately the audience doesn’t know (or care about) what’s going on.
1 and 1/2 pieces of confusingly beautiful toast

NEW ON VIDEO/DVD

An Inconvenient Truth (NR)
Al Gore
Directed by Davis Guggenheim
Box Office: $23,727,472
Former VP and Presidential candidate Al Gore displays that when he’s not trying to sell himself, and fervently believes in his message, he’s very convincing. Gore narrates a whiz-bang slide show on the potential results of global warming. This time, after New Orleans, the concept of flooded downtowns doesn’t seem so farfetched. Designed to spark debate on a critical issue, Bush has boldly announced he won’t see the movie.
3 pieces of warming toast

Ice Age: The Meltdown (PG)
Voices of: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Dennis Leary
Directed by Carlos Saldanha
Box Office: $195,251,850
Ask anybody what he or she liked most about the original “Ice Age” movie and they will probably mention the acorn-obsessed squirrel named Scrat. The kids around me enjoyed the film while in the theater, but had forgotten about it by the time we hit the lobby. Except for Scrat, whose Heaven-bound final scene saves the movie from mediocrity.
3 pieces of Scrat toast