Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases 9/04/09

All About Steve (PG-13)
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, Thomas Haden Church, Ken Jeong
Director: Phil Traill
The Press Notes say: “Sandra Bullock plays an eccentric crossword puzzle constructor who falls for handsome cable news cameraman after one short blind date.”
Unavailable for screening
 
 
Extract (R)
Starring: Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, J.K. Simmons
Director: Mike Judge
Judge is known for his workplace comedy (“Office Space”), and he has assembled a marvelously talented cast to play his quirky characters, but after a decade of “Dilbert” comics, too many of the laughs are obvious and the righteous indignation is a little too subdued. After all, no one is sent to an infamous fourth-world country, (like Elbonia?), in this film.
2  and 1/2 pieces of Labor Day toast
 
 
Gamer (R)
Starring: Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Kyra Sedgwick
Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
The “300” star still can’t seem to keep his shirt on for what the studio calls “a high-class, action thriller” about a future-day gladiator whose life (or death) is remotely controlled by a young gamer with rock-star stature.
Unavailable for preview
 

 
Soul Power (PG-13)
Starring: James Brown, B.B. King, Bill Withers, Celia Cruz
Director: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte
This needs to be seen as the companion piece to “When We Were Kings” the Oscar winning, 1996 documentary of Mohammed Ali and George Foreman and their 1974 “Rumble In the Jungle.”  For while most of the world focused on the boxing ring, Hugh Masekela, and Don King brought James Brown, B.B. King, Bill Withers, The Crusaders, and Sister Sledge to Africa to let their hair down and feel their roots in an international musical extrtavaganza. Directed by one of the editors on “When We Were Kings,” it doesn’t quite shake the feeling of being an afterthought composed of out-takes from the original masterpiece, but it still offers must see performances (many of them shot by Albert Mayles) that almost never saw the light of day, after the Zairean dictator withdrew financial backing and the film ended up lost in decades of lawsuits.
3 and 1/2 pieces of musical history toast
 
 
 
NEW ON DVD
 
Coraline (PG)
Voices of: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Keith David
Director: Henry Selick
Tim Burton’s stop-motion animator tries it on his own (and does it in 3-D as well). The story is based on Neal Gaiman’s popular children’s book about a little girl who moves to a new house and finds a parallel universe on the other side of the living room wall. Adults should love this movie, but kids may find it too leisurely compared to video games.
3  and 1/2 pieces of “Pink Palace”  toast