Greatest Movie Endings: 'Roman Holiday'
Spoiler Warning: This post divulges the entire plot of Roman Holiday.
"I will cherish my visit here in memory as long as I live."
Audrey Hepburn and I once lived together. And oh the sex we had. Okay, not really, but our existences did overlap for a few years - almost a decade in which it was at least physically possible (if nothing more) for me to be in her presence. There was a stretch of time in which I could have sent her a fan letter (as letters were still written, then) and expected a response - a stretch of time in which we could have been watching the same episode of Murder She Wrote or I could have somehow touched her life by some strange stroke of the Butterfly Effect.
But the Audrey Hepburn I fell in love with about 8 seconds into my first viewing of Breakfast at Tiffany's... we were never even in the same dimension. That Audrey Hepburn was a fever dream even in her own time, distant and impenetrable in a way possible only for our most iconic movie stars. But like all things, she was always more potent as an apparition - a collective reverie that can't be bottled. And I don't think there's a sequence in any of her films that captures the sad and private sweetness of myth and memory better than the ending of William Wyler's Roman Holiday.Continue reading Greatest Movie Endings: 'Roman Holiday'
There are so many raunchy, sex-driven teen comedies out there, most of which are pure garbage. Miss March? Ridiculous. The whole straight-to-DVD American Pie series? Junk. I Love You Beth Cooper? I shudder at the title alone. But Fired Up? What was so terrible about that one? In fact, I think it's quite good. The film is downright hilarious, it has some heart and is entertaining through and through.
It stars Nicholas D'Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen as Shawn and Nick, two jocks so obsessed with the ladies, they opt to ditch football camp for cheerleading camp. They convince their high school squad, The Tigers, they're committed solely for athletic purposes, but they've got another plan in mind; hook up with as many ladies as possible before ditching and attending an epic football party. Problem is, not only does Nick develop a little crush on the head cheerleader, Carly (Sarah Roemer), but both guys find themselves getting into the whole cheer thing.Continue reading Defending Bad Movies: Fired Up 
Regardless of whether or not you think she deserves what she's getting, Lindsay Lohan must be feeling pretty rotten these days and I can't help but to feel a little sympathetic, even if it's just the slightest bit. So, in honor of Lohan's downfall, while everyone else is knocking the once promising actress, I'm going to give her a little credit. In fact, I'll do so for a film that not only marked the starting point of her demise, but one that got universally panned as well, Georgia Rule.
The film stars Lohan as Rachel Wilcox, a rotten city kid who's sent to spend the summer with her grandmother, Georgia (Jane Fonda), in hopes it'll straighten her out. Rachel's mother, Lilly (Felicity Huffman), may let her get away with misbehaving at home, but at Georgia's Idaho abode, things are different and Rachel must abide by "Georgia Rule." When Rachel isn't getting her mouth washed out with soap, she's either working at the vet Simon's (Dermot Mulroney) office or trying to corrupt the local golden boy Harlan (Garrett Hedlund). Rachel manages to squeeze by committing only a handful of atrocities until one of her stories takes things a bit too far. When Rachel tells Simon her mother's boyfriend molested her, he tells Georgia who tells Rachel's mother who returns to Idaho to straighten things out during which the harbored frustrations between three generations boil over.Continue reading Defending Bad Movies: Georgia Rule 
If you harbored hopes, no matter how unrealistic, no matter how unfounded, that M. Night Shyamalan, for the first time working from a source other than an original screenplay, would make a quality film, then your hopes were unfortunately misplaced. His latest, possibly last film, The Last Airbender fails without reservation or qualification in every conceivable category: story, characters, dialogue, and performances. Only the visual effects (thanks Industrial Light & Magic) save The Last Airbender from being completely unwatchable, but even there, the post-production 3D conversion makes The Last Airbender look dim, very much like M. Night Shyamalan's career prospects after this debacle.
The overwhelming commercial and critical success of The Sixth Sense (1999), a supernatural thriller and Shyamalan's third film, gave him the freedom to write and direct without studio interference. Although I wasn't a big fan of The Sixth Sense and its derivative, Twilight Zone-inspired twist ending (i.e., the central character has been a ghost all along), I could (and did) appreciate why it resonated with so many moviegoers. It wasn't the twist per se or even Malcolm Crowe's (Bruce Willis) personal journey toward self-realization and self-awareness, but instead, the possibility, no matter how unlikely or improbably, of contact with those who've passed on, of closure to key relationships in our lives.Continue reading M. Night Shyamalan: The End is Near (for His Career) 
I've been defending The Heartbreak Kid ever since it hit theaters back in 2007, however, I didn't feel comfortable putting my argument in writing until having seen the original film. I've come across a handful of reviews and a number of moviegoers who chastise the Farrelly brothers for not having stuck closer to the iconic source material. I thought that perhaps after having seen the 1972 version, I wouldn't be as eager to sing the update's praises, but what happened is actually the opposite; seeing the original only made me appreciate the newer version even more.
For those out of the loop, The Heartbreak Kid, both the original and the Farrelly brother's film, is about a guy who marries a wonderful girl only to learn about a few new quirks while on their honeymoon. Actually, that's not all he discovers; our leading man finds a new girl, a better girl. Where the films veer in completely opposite directions is in the comedy. Think about past Farrelly films, the best and the worst. There's Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary, Shallow Hal and more. What do all of these films have in common? The humor is outrageous and that's exactly how The Heartbreak Kid remake was approached, which instantly differentiates from the original.Continue reading Defending Bad Movies: The Heartbreak Kid