Alan Rapp

Top 10 Films of 2005 (That You Probably Missed)

/ / Top Tens & Lists

As I made up my list of my top ten films of the year I noticed something – not one was a box office hit in terms of Hollywood executive standards.  None of my ten grossed $100 million at the box office, in fact only one grossed more than $50 million.  Though most pulled in an excess of what it took to make, or at least enough to break even, very few people saw the films that I would consider to be the class of 2005.

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Top 10 Films of 2005 (That You Probably Missed) Read More »

What’s on the Tube

/ / Uncategorized

The holidays are over and winter is freezing us numb.  Not to fret, here’s what TV has coming to your warm and cozy homes in the coming weeks including the return of some familiar faces and some brand new shows for 2006.

TV Mid-season Replacements and Returns
N/A

New seasons for Scrubs, Battlestar Galactica, 24, Monk,and the final episodes of Alias.  We also see some familiar faces (Jenna Ellfman, Scott Foley, Seth Green, Fred Savage, Rob Estes, George Wendt, Aidan Quinn, Jane Curtain, Jane Leeves, and Jason Priestly and Tom Cavanaugh) in new shows replacing those less fortunate shows that got the axe this holiday season.

Returns:

Scrubs Tuesday 1/3 9:00/8:00 NBC

Stargate SG-1/Stargate Atlantis Friday 1/6 8:00/7:00 Sci-fi Channel

Battlestar Gallactica Friday 1/6 10:00/9:00 Sci-Fi Channel

The L Word Sunday 1/8 10:00/9:00 Showtime

Monk Friday 1/13 10:00/9:00 USA

24 Sunday 1/15 8:00/7:00 ABC

The Sopranos Sunday 3/12 9:00/8:00 HBO

Alias—Jennifer Garner returns for the last few episodes before the series finale in May.  Time and Date TBA ABC

New Shows:

Four Kings

Four Kings—four friends move in together in Manhattan.  Seth Green stars.  Thursday 1/5 8:30/7:30 NBC

The Book of Daniel—Aidan Quinn as a minister who talks to Jesus with the help of his Vicodin addiction.  Friday 1/6 9:00/8:00 NBC

Emily’s Reasons Why Not—Successful career woman Heather Graham just can’t find love.  Riiight.  Monday 1/9 9:00/8:00 ABC

South Beach—2 Brooklyn buds move down to the sunshine state.  Wednesday 1/11 8:00/7:00 UPN

Crumbs—Fred Savage returns home after Hollywood failure to parents Jane Curtin and William Devine.  Thursday 1/12 9:30/8:30 ABC

Love Monkey

Hustle—Con-man Robert Vaughn and crew.  Saturday 1/14 10:00/9:00 AMC

Love Monkey—Tom Cavanaugh as a record label rep who spends time with friends (Jason Priestly, Christopehr Wiehl, Lawrence Tate) and looks for short-term love.  Tuesday 1/17 10:00/9:00 CBS

Courting Alex—Jenna Elfman as a successful lawyer who also can’t find love (anyone sensing a theme here?).  Monday 1/23 9:30/8:30 CBS

The Unit—latest from David Mamet starring Robert Patrick and Scott Foley as part of a Special Forces Unit.  March ‘06 Time TBA CBS

Old Christine—Single mom Julia Louis-Dreyfus deals with her frustrating life in L.A.  March ‘06 Time TBA CBS

The Bedford Diaries

The Bedford Diaries—college drama centering around sex-life of coeds.  Time and Date TBA WB

The Loop—Twenty-something dramady with Bret Harrison and Mimi Rogers.  Time and Date TBA FOX

Free Ride—Another twenty-something, this time Josh Dean, moves home with his parents.  Time and Date TBA FOX

Misconceptions—Jane Leeves seeks out her daughter’s sperm donor father and then can’t get away from him.  Time and Date TBA WB

Pepper Dennis—Rebecca Romijn lives with sister Brooke Burns and works as a TV reporter.  Time and Date TBA WB

Modern Men—Jane Seymour and George Wendt.  Time and Date TBA WB

Conviction—yet another Law & Order spinoff.  Date and Time TBA NBC

The Evidence—Rob Estes as a tramatized detective in San Francisco trying to put his career and life back ontrack after his wife’s murder (sounds a little too much like Monk to me).  Time and Date TBA ABC

Windfall—20 friends share huge lottery win, but find time to pout and whine at the camera about thier lives.  Time and Date TBA NBC

Teachers—Justin Bartha and Sarah Alexander as middle school teachers in a show so anticipated that IMDB doesn’t even have it listed!  Time and Date TBA NBC

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Match Point

/ / Movie Reviews

Match Point is the latest film by Woody Allen and it has some very fine performances if few surprises.  The film takes place in England (rather than New York) the film doesn’t star Woody Allen (or an impersonation of Woody Allen) and the plot is rather low-key.  An enjoyable little film that is quite different from Allen’s later style.  I just wish it wasn’t so predictable.

Match Point
3 & 1/2 Stars

Match Point is an interesting character study of a somewhat unscrupulous man trying to get everything he wants, without having to do too any real work.  It’s just a little too predictable for my tastes, but it is very well done.  Everything that happens in the first ten minutes foreshadows all that will happen the final hour and forty-five.  Even small moments in the plot are given away well before the scene ends (or in some cases, even begin).

Chris (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is a former tennis player turned tennis pro at an exclusive club.  There he meets Tom (Matthew Goode) and strikes up a friendship with Tom and his family.  He starts dating Tom’s sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer) and becomes a favorite of his father (Brian Cox) and mother (Penelope Wilton).

The problem is Chris falls madly in love with American actress Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson) who Tom is dating.  From their first moments on screen together you know the whole affair is going to end bloody.

The film is well cast and the performances from all are first rate.  Brian Cox provides a nice supporting role as the loving and doting father and Mortimer works well as the loving, but needy, Chloe.  The films best role goes to Rhys-Meyers as the complicated and scheming Chris who wants the security and wealth of his marriage but can’t ignore his lust for Nola.Johansson gives us a complex woman, who knows her effect on men and uses it to her advantage.  Though I did find her performance too whiney in the last act.  Both flawed main characters are very human in their need for passionate love and their inability for emotional commitment and responsibility.

It’s nice to see Woody Allen moving away from the same types of movies he has made in recent years (The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Anything Else, Small Time Crooks, Celebrity)  and make something different; though fans of Crimes and Misdemeanors may find it a little too similar.

This is a hard movie for me to review because of how well it is made must be balanced at how predictable and telegraphed the film is.  I sat down to watch the film a second time to make up my mind.  What I’m left with is this:  Match Point is a lovingly made film by a great director and, although quite flawed, is still worth a first and even second look.

Is it Woody Allen’s best work?  No, but it is better than his recent entries and shows he still has stories left to tell.  He finally seems to be back on the right track.  Not a must-see by any means, but a good film by an American icon that I think you will be able to enjoy despite its flaws.

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Bareback Mountain

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Brokeback Mountain
  • IMDB: link

brokeback-mountain-poster

Brokeback Mountain seems to be this year’s belle of the ball garnering seven Golden Globe nominations.  Is it the best film of the year?  No, but it’s pretty darn good.  Garnering huge attention for it’s detailed look at the secret homosexual relationship between two cowboys Ang Lee gives us an intriguing tale that just like Heath Ledger’s character desperately wants to say more than it is knows how to.

The story involves the secret relationship of Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) which begins one summer as the two cowboys herd sheep up on Brokeback Mountain.  A physical relationship develops between the two that picks up years later as both men have moved on with their lives, settled down and married.  On fishing trips back to Brokeback the two bask in the joy of being together knowing that the outside world will never accept them and they can only truly be together on the mountain.

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A History of Violence

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: A History of Violence
  • IMDb: link

a-history-of-violence

A History of Violence is only 96 minutes long and everything you need to know about the film can be found in that amount of time.  It’s a streamlined and stripped down story that doesn’t waste a single frame or a single performance.  And for its short running time it is amazingly effective, disturbing, distressing, and haunting.

Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) and his wife Edie (Mario Bello) own a diner in a sleepy little town of Millbrook, Indiana.  They are raising a son (Ashton Holmes) who is tortured by bullies but has been taught to turn the other cheek, and a young daughter (Heidi Hayes).  Their life seems idyllic until a pair of thugs attempt to rob the diner and kill the witnesses.  Tom kills both men with brutal efficiency that is unusual in a diner owner of a sleepy town.

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