Biopic films are a great way of remembering a legend, and im mocking those biopic films Walk Hard has created a legend out of Dewey Cox.
Walk Hard is the story of Dewey Cox (John C Reilly), a Johnny Cash-esque singer who after accidentally killing his brother has to prove his greatness, or be doubly great for himself and his brother. After playing “the devils” music a 14-year-old Dewey leaves home with his 12-year-old girlfriend Edith. Only to get a house and a job, and shortly a record deal by a group of jewish men. Along the way Dewey meets Darlene (Jenna Fischer) , an obvious reference to Walk the Line. has numerous children, wears two wedding rings, tries his hand at sexual carpentry, tries all manner of drugs and goes to rehab twice.
Towards the end of the film Dewey realises he should be spending more time with his family and so decides to play catch with them all one by one, he buys a large farm and the all live happily, until the return of Darlene and the family is then complete. A now 75-year-old Dewey listens to the rap remix of Walk Hard and a tribute to him before agreeing to one final performance on stage.
There are a lot of cameos in this film Johan Hill plays Deweys older brothers ghost, Jack White playing Elvis Presley, Frankie Muniz as Elvis as well as Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Justin Long and Jason Schwatzman playing the Beatles. as well as GhostFace Killah, Lyle Lovett, Jewel and Jackson Brown performing a Walk Hard tribute.
The film was written by comedy legend Judd Apatow, and Orange County director Jake Kasden, who also directs Walk hard. It should have been a sure fire hit, Unfortunately due to low box office sales the film is not seen for the comedic masterpiece it is.
The last thing im going to say in this review is I love Cox, why? Because its true, Walk Hard straight away jumped in to my top 25 films of all time with no competition. The story is great, John C Reilly is great and the soundtrack is my all time favourite movie soundtrack, which knocked the Lion King off of its 14 year reign. Id love to hear the other songs recorded for this movie, maybe one day there will be an extended, extended cut for that purpose.

Wrestling is not something i generally associate with priests, and wrestling priests is not something id associate with comedy.

The film follows Jack Blacks character Ignacio, as he goes from the monasteries disliked cook, to hero of the orphanage. Ignacio is a typical Jack Black character a disliked, guy who dreams of better things, that by the end of the film he has accomplished in generally humorous way. next is the character of Sister Encarnación a newly arrived tutor to the orphans, there is obviously some connection between Jack Blacks character and this one although as a Nun and a priest naturally they cant be in a relationship. Next is Steven, Steven is a street thief who steals the orphans bag of broken tortilla chips, its clear at this point he has some wrestling skills as he wrestles Jack Black to the ground.

Later on Ignacio goes back to Steven to ask him to be part of a wrestling team to make money for the orphanage, after deciding to meet Ramses, a famous wrestling champion, they break into his party to talk to him, they are prominently thrown out killing Ignacios hero worship of Ramses. and so the two compete in a number of wrestling matches to gain the ability to fight Ramses.

much like Jared Hess’s Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre is very hit and miss with its comedy, it looks strained, like it should just be a short sketch or maybe a one off TV show. Maybe the fact its a Nickelodeon movie caused the comedy to be off, but comedy doesn’t have to be rude to be funny, School of Rock was a brilliant movie. This film seems to be one of those people think is hilarious or not funny at all, unfortunately, I fall in to the latter category.

When you think of a film based on a comic book, you think of superheroes, Superman, Batman Spider-man, Generally people don’t think about films like Ghost World and Monkeybone. Directed by Henry Selick, the film is shot in live action and Selick’s trademark animation style seen in his more famous films such as James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Monkeybone, is the story of cartoonist Stu who’s cartoon Monkeybone has become a smash hit, Stu is in love with Dr. Julie McElroy, a sleep institute worker who taught him to deal with his terrible nightmares by using his left had to draw. On the night of the cartoons premiere, Stu is about to ask Julie to marry him, Unfortunately a chain of events occur that send him into a coma. Whilst in the coma his spirit ends up in Down Town, a purgatory style carnival land that is the home of his character Monkeybone, the people here watch nightmares for entertainment, and they say that Stu’s were like caviar, This is until Julie fixed his sleeping problems. Stu is later tricked into staying in Down Town, by Monkey Bone, so he can provide new nightmares for the Down Town citizens to watch. As per any film, the next hour or so shows Stu trying to get back to his body, eventually meeting yet again with Whoopy Goldbergs character of Death who decides the fate of our “hero”
Overall the film looks great the animation is dark and signature to the director giving it a familiar feel to his previous films, the chracters costumes look great, and the animation of Monkeybone is spot on. all in all Brenden Frasers monkey antics and Dave Foley’s nightmare scene also helps this film branch in to the comedy catogory
Monkeybone has a strong cult following, and I would go as far as to say it is a film that I would place in my top twennty films. sadly it did not live up to expectations of many who expected another Nightmare Before Christmas or James and the Giant Peach. branching out from Disney could have been Henry Selick’s after all he did go on to direct Coraline. Overall its a fun movie, if taken for what it is a quirky, comedic comic book adaption.

48 Years ago Elvis starred in Blue Hawaii, since then Elvis has been cemented in time as a legend, not just for his music but also for his films. And milking this fact is Lilo and Stitch a film from Disney “classic” series. Not many Disney films make it to the classic branding now, with just six films becoming classics since the year 2000. generally traditionally animated, Lilo and Stitch is no exception the water colour backgrounds and the flawless movement of the characters shows why Disney can still get away with traditional animation over big CGI effects. As with all Disney films Lilo and Stitch has its share of lovable characters and family fun.
Lilo and Stitch introduces two characters to Disneys vast library of characters, Lilo is a little girl who just wants to fit in, she lives her sister after the death of her parents. Lilo is not liked by the other girls in her dance group, at the beginning of the film she even bites one of them, receiving the same reaction Stitch did after he bit Captain Gantu. “Does this look infected to you?” Then there is Stitch or 626 an experimental creation of the evil Dr. Jumba Jookiba, Stitch is Waterproof and Fireproof as well as being 3000 times stronger the his size should allow. Exiled to an asteroid an escapee “experiment 626″ manages to crash land on earth where he is hit by a lorry and mistaken for a dying dog. and so fate brings Lilo and Stitch together and all manor of problems Begin.
Other characters include, Lilos sister Nani, who after loosing job after job is struggling to look after her sister, there is Cobra Bubbles, grumpy looking social worker who is in charge of the Lilo case, then there is David, friend of Nani and Lilo who tried his best to help out whilst obviously liking Nani, who obviously likes him back. on the other side of the universe are the aliens, Dr. Jumba Jookiba, creator of Stitch, he is imprisoned but released to capture Stitch with the help of earth “expert” Agent Pleakley.
So after crash landing on earth and being chosen and Lilos pet dog Stitch doesn’t really understand what he is, and after being told the story of the ugly ducking he realises that hes alone and that he needs to find his family, whilst at the same being taught about Ohana, which is not really explained fully in the film, but is shown. The true meaning of Ohana would include ones family and friends and so the characters of David and Stitch would obviously be included in the “ohana” idea. Its far to easy to give the plot of a Disney film away, because its hard for it to end anyway but predictably. and so all ill say about the plot is it follows Nani as she tried to get another job so she can keep her “broken” family together.
with 3 spin-off movies a television series and a re imagined Japanese TV series. Its obvious that Lilo and Stitch is one of Disney’s big properties, and it was never going to be anything but a classic. overall its a fun family film, that will have you laughing if you take it for what it is a children’s film. I can see a big future for Lilo and Stitch, not only does it have a cult following but it also has a future audience, people who grew up with Disney films, always end up buying them “for there kids” just relive that part of their childhood

Dog shows have never intrested me, they seem to bring out the worst in dogs. Dogs where not made to perform tricks, they were made to sit at there masters side and and have accidents on your carpet.

Its for this reason that Best in Show is such a clever film, Christopher Guest’s mockumentry ridicules the ficitonal Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show in Philidelphia. the film uses every stereotype and satirical joke it can find often built around the brilliant improvisation seen in the film the movie introduces severel dogs and there owners, who are seen in there natural habitats and then follows there journeys to the kennel club and through the show. where a clueles, missinformed Buck Laughiln played by Fred Willard emcees the event, asking questions about bribing judges, confusing Columbo with the pilgrims and deciding the blood hound would have better chance wearing a sherlock holmes hat and pipe.

Often the owners of the dogs seem more inbread then there purebread counterparts, for exanple Gerry Fleck (Eugene Levy) who was born with two left feet quite littery, and his wife cookie (Catherine O’Hara) whos well known among the kennel clube for her mating habbits, a running joke through out the film is gerry angerd look as another man talks to his wife about time they spent together. The Characters of Meg and Hamilton Swan, Played by Parker Posy and Micheal Hitchcock respectivley, fell in love when there eyes met through Starbucks windows on opposite sides of the street, are horrified when there beloved dog Beatrice can no longer function after she watched them have sex, even therapy couldnt get her through it. Thes Harlan Pepper played by writter and director Christopher Guest, whos love for his blood hound and nuts knows no bounds. Then there is Stefan Vanderhoof (Michael McKean) and Scott Donlon (John Michael Higgins) a gay couple with twin Shih Tzus who gossip frequently about the other dogs and owners throughout the film. Finally there is Sherri Ann Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge) and her OAP millionaire husband, and there lesbian dog training dominatrix who has bought there poodle “Rhapsody in White” to victory for two years running.

As with most mockumentries, the ending is in fact the dog show itself, the final brings all the owers and dogs together. whilst occassionally films of this genre slow down towards the end the tension created by the competition keeps it on track, up the finally and the “what happened next” section.

Guest proves he is king of the mockumentry, a genre he helped create with “This Is Spinal Tap” and other films like “Waiting for Guffman” which started a cast of similar character and a similarly improvised script. Guest managed to take something as borring as a dog show and turn it into a tension filled, comedic film, I look forward to his next mockumentry

Anchormen are supposed to be serious, they must not laugh at the serious stories and must always follow that tele prompter.

Following a tele prompter is something Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) has down to a tee. Co-written and directed by Adam Mckay of Saturday night live fame, and produced by big time comedy mogul Judd Aptow, Anchorman subtly mocks the American news team of the past in a cleverly amusing way.

The story follows Ron Burgundy as he pursues his dream to become the number one network anchor in all of America, as well as his down fall at the hands of a woman. the opening introduces the all star channel 4 news team, there’s Champ Kind (David Koechner) The sport commentator known for his catch phrase “Whammy”, Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) in the field reporter and owner of a vast array of different Cologne’s, Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) who with an IQ of just 84 could rival many weathermen today, finally there is Ron Burgundy San Diego’s top news anchor and jazz flute playing extraordinaire. But when the network decides it need a more diverse news team the introducing of a woman knocks them all for a loop. Cue Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) an ambitious woman who shares Ron’s dream to be a top network anchor.

The film climaxes with a story that could make Ron as Americas top network anchor, but will he be able to leave his “glass case of emotion” behind? jam packed with guest stars including several members of the Hollywood “Frat Pack” (Jack Black, Luke Willson and Ben Stiller) and a list of one liners longer then your arm Anchorman is sure to be a cult classic.

Anchorman will be hard for Farrell to top, the line “I’m kinda a big deal” surely applies to him now and with talks of Anchorman 2 on the way its true that “60% of the time it works all the time”