Title: The Thomas Crown Affair
Genre: Drama
Rating: 9/10
Review: This is what dreams are mode of. To be that charming, confident and successful. So what does a man who can get anything he wants do? Simple, get the unobtainable. So Thomas goes out and steals a priceless piece of art, a Monet. The other main character is Catherine Banning's who is a bounty hunter for the insurers of the painting and her job is to get it back, in what ever way possible. As the story unfolds, she begins to fall for Thomas as the story unfolds, with her trying to pin the theft on him and him enjoying the challenge. This movie is well filmed, with great music, and well thought out script. There is a number of places where I really enjoyed the film, one of them was right at the beginning them Thomas enters his building and tries to get past a security guard to get into the elevator, and he says “what do you think, you own the place”. The security guard gets taken to the side and as the camera focuses on Thomas lips, you hear, “yes he does” and there is a great shot of he side of his lips going up in a beautiful grin. One of the other great parts is the psychiatrist that keeps making fun of him. Anytime there is a scene with her, she takes little pot shots at him and his ego. Another great little part. I truly enjoyed this movie on many levels, from just wishing I could be like Thomas Crown, to being able to steal a priceless piece of art. I liked it so much I bought it.

Title: Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Genre: Comedy
Rating: 7/10
Review: Well, normally I stay away from anything that has Ben Stiller in it. I don't find him that funny, and he plays the same role in all his movies. Ok, so I downloaded it, so why not watch it. The movie is a stock Hollywood underdog makes it big, with slapstick comedy. The premise of the movie is of a gym called Average Joe's whose owner is layed back to the point where he does not collect memberships, do books and allows his finances deteriorate to the point where the bank is ready to reposes the property. The antagonist is Ben Stiller who owns Globo Gym across the street who seems Average Joe's as pathetic and deserves to be shut down. So with the bank demanding $50,000, or foreclosing the property, Average Joe's needs to come up with the cash. As fate would have it, there is a $50,000 dodgeball competition. So they begin their training, some antics occur, and the work their way to Las Vegas and the main competition. I was surprised at how many big actors ended up in this movie, David Hasselhoff, Chuck Norris, and William Shatner for starters. One really anecdote was over dinner I was telling Jodie about Night Rider and David Hasselhoff and how Germans seem to worship him. And ironically enough, in the movie he was the German coach and yelling at them after they loose to Average Joe's gym, and he takes a framed picture of himself and smashes it on the ground as he keeps yelling at them in German. This of course brought a round of side bursting laugher from both of us. Well, Globo Gym decides to take down Average Joe's for ever and joins the competition and of course it ends up Average Joe's vs. Globo Gym. Of course Average Joe's gym wins, but there is a few surprises and twists. Over all, this was not a waste of time, it was a good laugh, the movie did have a lot of little jokes all over the place, for Dodgeball, Go Balls Deep on the banner to David to little background comments about Canadians. This is a renter, that's about it.

Title: Why Can’t I Be A Movie Star?
Rating: 2/10
Genre: Drama
Released: 1998
Review: Why Can’t I Be A Movie Star? is an action packed rendition of Trailervision’s most acclaimed trailers as well as a shocking story of movie star weirdness. Trailervision, a production company based on the idea that the trailer is usually better than the movie, features trailers for fictional movies that don’t exist. On-screen will be the best no holds barred, visually exciting, barrier-pushing, action-packed, Hollywood-bashing movie-trailers Trailervison has to offer.
In 1999, Trailervision sent a group of fake movie stars to the Hollywood-dominated opening gala of the Toronto International Film Festival accompanied by a group of fake paparazzi, who screamed the stars names when the they alighted from their rented limousine. Security freaked and immediately rushed them into the green room with real Hollywood stars Alec Baldwin, Dave Foley and Bob Hoskins where they “got drunk like showbiz kings” Why Can’t I Be A Movie Star also follows one of those fake actors as he enters the frightening odyssey of trying to live by the rules of celebrity.

Title: The Life of Brian
Rating: 7/10
Genre: Drama
Released: 1998
Review: A classic comedy from the irreverent Monty Python crew. Brian is a Jew born on the original Christmas… in the stable next door. The wise men come in to distribute gifts, but the star moves next door, so they take them back and move on. So begins the life of Brian. The Jews, desperately seeking spiritual and political freedom, are on the constant lookout for the Messiah, and a group decides that Brian is the leader they seek. He cannot convince them that he is not, and he joins the Judean People’s Front, a revolutionary group that really does absolutely nothing except hate the Roman occupation. Brian becomes a reluctant messiah. Features Eric Idle’s classic song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.

Title: Phil the Alien
Rating: 7/10
Genre: Drama
Released: 1998
Review: Crashing to earth from somewhere far, far away, Phil arrives in a small town in Northern Ontario. Perhaps predictably in this Canadian comedy, he makes friends with a young boy and a talking beaver (voice supplied by SCTV’s Joe Flaherty). It’s a strange town where everyone, including children, drinks hard liquor and carries a gun. Phil is an innocent and he quickly develops a drinking problem. Surrounded by hunters, prostitutes, an ex- CIA operative and other northern misfits, Phil finds refuge with the local bar band.

Title: Wilby Wonderful
Rating: 7/10
Genre: Drama
Released: 1998
Review: On the small island town of Wilby there lives a dyslexic sign painter in love with a video store owner who is trying to find a quiet place to kill himself. There also resides a single mother with a knack for making married men happy, and her daughter. Despite her apparent disapproval of her mother’s actions, the daughter is beginning an affair of her own. There is a heroic but disillusioned police officer, and his wife, a real estate agent desperate for acceptance from the mayor. A formidable group of outsiders and Islanders, their stories converge over the course of 24 hours.

Title: Investigation Into the Invisible World
Rating: 2/10
Genre: Documentry?
Released: 1998
Review: Investigation Into the Invisible World delves into Iceland’s unselfconscious belief in hidden beings— elves, ghosts, sea monsters and aliens. Given the Icelandic church’s openness to pagan traditions, these descendents from Nordic conquerors and Irish slaves openly embrace all things mystic in both public and private life. With respect for his subjects, director Jean-Michel Roux has children and adults relate stories of elf friends, sea-monster sightings, or conversations with ghosts. A police officer remembers a time when a woman emerged pregnant from visits to the elves’ rocks. The film’s artistry reveals Iceland’s breathtaking landscape, and employs haunting, evocative sounds that simulate an alternate reality and lend insight into the Icelandic soul.

Title: Kopps
Rating: 9/10
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1998
Review: It is every citizen’s paradise but a restless policeman’s hell. The sleepy Swedish town of Hogbordorna is so crime-free that the local authorities only worry about what to have for breakfast. Jacob, Benny, Lasse and Agneta are the hilarious group of uniformed cops who find themselves threatened with a station closure due to the lack of criminal activity. Rather than accepting the inevitable, they decide to fake a crime spree and then solve the cases. What begins as a series of minor incidents soon turns into a full-blown fiasco, as Jacob and his partners ignite a forest fire, shoot random bullets into the woods, and encourage the local drunkard to shoplift. This latest film by the director of Jalla Jalla! delivers the most laughs through its Matrix-like special effects while blatantly satirizing Hollywood action sequences.

Title: Tiger Land
Rating: 8/10
Genre: War
Released: Review: This movie is yet another Vietnam genre. The main difference is that it exclusively takes place in the US. Tigerland is a movie depicting an individual who is too smart for his own good in “this mans army”. He has this gift of getting anyone out of the army, but himself, but he blames it on being a coward. Since he does not play soldier, some of the other grunts and all the command staff despise him. The common grunts for making a mockery of the system and therefore their decision to join up. The senior officers take a dislike to him for many obvious reasons, such as not taking part in their soldiering, helping people get out through every loophole possible and “attitude”, such as questioning why would one want to hurt another human being. Overall this movie is a good watch, it's not graphic, it's not full of death and destruction, it's about one man who questions the system and does not want to take part in hurting other human beings. A good watch.

Title: Secondhand Lions
Rating: 9/10
Genre: Drama / Comedy
Released:
Review: Once in a while, Hollywood manages to make a movie that doesn't want you to have a shower after it. Too often have I felt like I just got raped by a 300 pound gorilla, and had to pay for it, AND had to smile through out the entire time. Speaking of Star Wars, but I am sure that will be another rant. This movie was a delight to watch, a light hearted story about a child whose mother is a perpetual whore. He ends up on their farm, where they have a large fortune stashed away, which no one is sure how they managed to procure. The adventures the men shared, to only be able to live a small part of what they have. My only issue with this movie is the ending, it was too Americanized. Everything had to be spelled out in the end, the mystery, and one of the main fundamental concepts of the movie, which was reiterated throughout was blatantly ignored in the end. If the movie ended about 3 minutes before the credits rolled, it would have been a much better movie over all. Other than this one little issue with the film, it is a very good on, light hearted, funny at times and an over all good story.