IN: Review: The rumor is true: girls like COYOTE UGLY more than guys. And the reasons are obvious as soon as the plot is given. Jersey girl goes to New York to become a song writer. And after initial frustration of having no luck, overhears some girls partying about the $300 each they made last night. She gets an audition at the bar they work at and surprise! The place is completely full of "two year old toddlers" bursting at the sight of babes dancing.

The story is not bad and some characters are likeable, especially Cammie (the "fashion coordinator" part was cute) and the bouncer but let's face it, the drama was horrible and completely laughable from the beginning. Violet and her father looked far too ridiculous while they were relating throughout the movie. And check out Violet too jamming on that keyboard with the break dancer!

For the first time I could think of, how could the production be so terrible? For a brief moment with this movie, Hollywood could stand on its two feet and show a new low without any major public outcry without saying, "You were warned!" Instead, it seems COYOTE UGLY has a purposeful intent on trying to kiss every major rear in the world. Advertising babes in a bar, but showing a paper thin "pursue your dream" story disappointed every male teen you targeted!

And finally, the music. There was absolutely no break of music I found in this movie, especially when it was needed (the hospital scene). Every scene felt like some short music video you just wish would stop until the bar opened. But the climax was an ultimate laugher: an '80s like song you would expect Cyndi Lauper to jump on the stage and jam with Violet. Heck, I personally thought Bon Jovi was going to jump out with the long hair and jam too!

Other than some really smart camera work with the coyote girls when dancing (especially the wet scene), and a couple cute cliches, COYOTE UGLY is something to be purely embarrassed about. Whether you watched or made it, it looked like nothing but time killing. Or wasting depending on how you look at it.
What is this review like?
OUT: negative

IN: Review: This series was a cut above the rest of the TV detective series of the day but somehow didn't find an audience.

The idea of a blind detective may not be totally new but added so much to the story. And who could forget Pax, the beautiful guide dog in the series!

Whilst the stories themselves may have been no better than the average series, the settings , in New Orleans, the acting and the music (I note the comment about the music score in other comments ...I remember that clearly) all work to make a good television series even better!

Well you never know ...one day Paramount might just dig into its archives and release it on DVD!
What is this review like?
OUT: positive

IN: Review: I saw this film after watching Capote and Infamous. It is just incredible how the homosexual relationships between author and protagonists are sublimated in the movie. The reporter is straight, the protagonists are more beatniks than gay.

The film starts slowly, but on reviewing it a second time, we get all sorts of interesting information from similes that the writer/director Brooks creates.

Notice the incredible cutting at the beginning where killers and to-be-killed are linked. Cutter on the phone is matched-cut to Perry on the phone. Cutter washing his face is matched-cut to Perry washing his face. Only Perry's looking in the mirror and seeing his eroticized male body sets off a fantasy of his playing a guitar in Las Vegas to empty chairs. This failure/fantasy matches the failure-fantasy that Perry tells us about his father who built a beautiful motel in Alaska only to find it perpetually empty.

Dick talks about shooting pheasants and the fact that the pheasants don't know that that they're going to die. we cut to the Clutters.

Perry talks his dream about a yellow bird, "Taller than Jesus" who attacks the Nuns who have persecuted them. "The Nuns begged for mercy," he tells us, "But the bird slaughtered them anyway." The bird lifted Perry to paradise. Strangely, Perry says that he has an aversion to Nuns, God and Religion. This echoes later in his last words when he wants to apologize but does not know to whom.

The director puts in all sorts of what-ifs and only-ifs.

Nancy Cutter gets an offer to sleep at a friends house. She is holding a horse. Perry will comment on a picture of her and the house later on. Nancy can't sleep over at her friends' house because her boyfriend is coming over for dinner. The decision seals her fate.

Perry talks of Bogart in "Treasure of Sierra Madre". But it is another Bogart picture, "Beat the Devil" which Truman Capote co-wrote, where a fictional treasure hunt is the McGuffin. But Dick knows that the protagonists of that film ended up with nothing. Dick wants the hard cash, the $10,000 he thinks is in the Clutter's safe, (which ironically turns out to be as much as a fantasy as Perry's Mexican Treasure.

Cut to Herb Clutter signing a $40,000 life insurance policy. He's thinking about mortality at the moment. Ironically his mortality is about to end in a few hours. The insurance agent on behalf of the company wishes him a long life, again ironic when we know what will happen in a few hours.

Dick has said that they wanted no witnesses so nobody would remember them. Later, in fact, it is because they eliminated all the witnesses that they were remembered.

"There was one witness," the detective keeps telling Dick later. But was that witness the jail-house friend, Dick, Perry, Truman Capote, or God? The viewer becomes the witness after watching the movie.

Fascinating film.
What is this review like?
OUT: positive

IN: Review: ***1/2 Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Hope Davis, Adam Scott, Philip Baker Hall. Directed by Richard Shepard.

A well formulated story and film all together, Brosnan has never been better in a film role outside of his "Bond" movies. After 2004's "After the sunset" his newest role brings in the laughs and a great time. Professional hit-man, so to speak, Julian Noble on a job in Mexico City winds up meeting the exact opposite of himself a high strung business man Danny Wright (Kinnear, possibly one of his best roles) also on business there. The two on-screen duo produce a comically charged, laugh riot and fail to not deliver the laughs. Davis in one of her best roles since "American Splendor" gives another charming and witty performance. One of the years most enjoyable and best films. My final rating 9/10
What is this review like?
OUT:
positive