Generally Meh Reviews for Role/Play

Role/Play, the new romantic comedy from writer/director Rob Williams (Make the Yuletide Gay) is getting a tepid response from critics.  In the film, a recently outed soap opera star (Steve Callahan) goes to a resort and meets a gay marriage activist (Matthew Montgomery) headed for divorce and the usual fighting with and falling for each other ensues.

eFilmCritc’s Charles Tatum gives the film two stars, stating:

“Williams’ direction is as static as his screenplay, which seems more like an aborted stage production than a filmed comedy-drama . . . Both main characters discuss the price of fame ad nauseum, and I was eventually turned off by the whining quality of some of the klunky dialogue.”

As part of a dual review with BearCity, Jonathan Youster of Sound on Sight cites both films as evidence of the sorry state of gay romantic comedies:

“However, for whatever merit they may have, the films unfortunately come wrapped in such formulaic scripts and pedestrian execution that the finished products are, at best, passable date movies, and, at worst, guilty of committing what is an unforgivable sin for any movie, gay or straight: being bland and dull.”

This Week in Texas’ Duane Simolke has kinder words for the film, saying, “Even amid the fighting, the chemistry between real-life couple Montgomery and Callahan comes through on the screen. They both work well as romantic leads,” while admitting, “In a few spots, those debates drown out the natural rhythms of story-telling, and the two lovers sound like they’re reading essays out loud, instead of carrying on a conversation.”

Oh, and it has Jim J. Bullock.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 Top-Selling DVD in the Land

Hollywood Reporter, um, reporting that Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 isn’t just the top straight-to-DVD title in the land, it’s the best-selling DVD overall, beating RED, which had topped the chart previously.  Limited to the world of Blu-ray the title comes in at number 3, while on the rental chart it scores at 16. 

Open Season 3 debuted as the top-selling straight-to-DVD title the previous week with $3.7 million in sales.  Its predecessor, Open Season 2, opened with $11.1 million before going on gross $27.4 million.

Farm Girl in New York Reviews: Schlock or Not?

Critics—at least the two who bothered to review it—are split on Farm Girl in New York, the directorial debut of Broadway star J. Robert Spencer (Jersey Boys, Next to Normal).  In the film, a couple of guys (Jeffrey Schecter and Joshua Wade, who co-wrote the screenplay with Spencer) move to New York and hold auditions for a play that doesn’t exist in order to meet women.  Then, as is wont to happen when you hold fake auditions, they fall for one of the dupes (Allison Munn).

Noralil Ryan Fores, writing for ShortEnd Magazine, calls the film “24 frames per second schlock,” adding:

While conceptually strong, Farm Girl in New York‘s writing in the hands of Spencer, Schecter and [Joshua Wade] Miller lacks development and depends heavily on schmaltzy cinematic structures and beats that undermine the high concept.

The anonymous review at Videoviews has an opposite take, calling the film “well-written” and complimenting the director on “keeping the film moving at a fast pace and mixing the comedy with the romance,” as well as praising all the actors, especially Wade who “steals every scene he is in.”

IMDb has only 14 votes in so far, but they place the film at 6.4 out of 10 stars.

Coming Soon: Drop Dead Gorgeous

Imagine if you took the premise of Weekend at Bernie’s and applied it to the world of fashion.  Well, that’s pretty much what you get with Drop Dead Gorgeous, coming to DVD on February 8th.  The film stars Jeremy London and Steven Berkoff (bad guy in Beverly Hills Cop), and is written and directed by Philip Alderton, a former fashion photographer, which raises all sorts of questions about his inspiration for the story of a dead model whose handlers continue to use her corpse in photo shoots regardless.

Early buzz is pretty bad.  With 67 votes in on IMDb it’s tracking 1.4/10 right now and Johnny Web over at Scoopy (NSFW) says that’s probably too high.

Unthinkable Wins the 2010 Straight-to-DVD Movie Awards

Terrorism thriller Unthinkable has taken the crown in the 2nd Annual Straight-to-DVD Movie Awards, grabbing Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Action/Thriller. This year’s winners were spread among a variety of films, unlike the inaugural awards, which were dominated by horror anthology Trick ‘r Treat.

Donnie Yen took home the prize for Best Actor as the lead in Ip Man while Natasha Lyonne won for Best Actress for the horror satire All About Evil, which also won Best Comedy. The Worst Picture kudo went to Corey Feldman’s other horror flick this year, Terror Inside.

The Monica Bellucci/Sophie Marceau headlined Don’t Look Back won for Best Horror while on the other end of the spectrum, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue won for Best Family Film, an award won by its predecessor, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, last year.

Best Documentary went to Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, which also won the top prize at the Reaper Awards. DC Comics’ animated Crisis on Two Earths won for Best Sci Fi/Fantasy.

While a number of Title-So-Bad-It’s-Awesome votes went to Sharktopus, it turns out that film premiered originally on television, and isn’t even out on DVD just yet, so that award went to the latest installment in the series that won last year, Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus.

Here is the full list of winners:

Best Picture: Unthinkable

Best Actor: Donnie Yen, Ip Man

Best Actress: Natasha Lyonne, All About Evil

Best Director: Gregor Jordan, Unthinkable

Worst Picture: Terror Inside

Best Comedy: All About Evil

Best Horror: Don’t Look Back

Best Action/Thriller: Unthinkable

Best Family Film: Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue

Best Documentary: Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

Best Sci Fi/Fantasy: Crisis on Two Earths

Title-So-Bad-It’s-Good: Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus

Coopers’ Christmas Reviews: Refreshingly Lowbrow

The reviews for the Jason Jones co-scripted holiday romp Coopers’ Christmas applaud the decidedly lowbrow take on the genre. DVD Verdict’s Paul Pritchard calls it “a refreshingly un-PC antidote to the saccharine sweet Christmas movies we get year after year.” The film stars Jones as the patriarch of the eponymous clan whose myriad dysfunctions are laid bare in a found video of their 1985 Christmas holiday. The gutter nature of that dysfunction is something HK Film News’ Porfle highlights, noting that the film “just might become a holiday tradition for those who find the adventures of Clark Griswold and his family too highbrow and sophisticated.” The Toronto Star’s Bruce DeMara, writing about the film when it was released in the Great White North as Coopers’ Camera, gives the film 2.5/4 stars, noting that it…

“…is unlikely to join the pantheon of treasured holiday classics. But for those who like their season of red and green to have a little black and blue, this film just might be a welcome gift.”

The film also stars Jones’ wife and Daily Show co-star Samantha Bee, Dave Foley, Mike Beaver (the other co-writer), Jayne Eastwood, and Peter Keleghan.

Coopers’ Christmas is available now.

IFC Unveils Top 10 Straight-to-DVD Titles of 2010

Remember how I said the Straight-to-DVD Movie Awards were the only non-theatrical kudos out there? Funny story. Turns out IFC has been giving out their ten best direct-to-video picks for five years running. Here’s their latest, which features nary a U.S. title. This might not be too surprising, as the barrier for entry into the theatrical market for foreign films is higher than that for domestic flicks, meaning more good films from over there get missed than from over here. Still, we managed to make it into the honorable mentions with Searchers 2.0.

Read the full list.

Mean Girls 2 Trailer Arrives

The Mean Girls 2 trailer is here, and the funniest moments appear to be in the clips from the first movie that open the video.  As we reported earlier, only Tim Meadows has returned from the original, somehow having less to do than Lindsay Lohan these days.  It’s really kind of remarkable to think of who else got a boost from the original: Tina Fey, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried.  The new leads — Jennifer Stone (Wizards of Waverly Place), Meaghan Jette Martin (Camp Rock franchise) — will probably get more mileage out of their previous work, but we’ll see once the sequel arrives on February 11th.

ExTerminators Interview: Writer, Director, Cast

Back when ExTerminators — recently released on DVD and Blu-ray — was in the 2009 SXSW Film Festival, Film School Rejects caught up with the director, John Inwood; writer, Suzanne Weinert; and actors Farah White and Sam Lloyd.  Here’s the interview.  The dark comedy, about a group of women in an anger management class who form a side business doing away with their fellow classmates evil exes, also stars Heather Graham, Martha Coolidge, Amber Heard, Joey Lauren Adams, and Matthew Settle.

Sparkle: The Straight2DVD Review

Isn’t it about time someone remade The Graduate? Maybe not, but that’s sort of what you get in Sparkle — a modern-day, set-in-London spin on the tale of a young man trying to find his place in the world, and along the way finding romance with an older woman — and her daughter (no, not at the same time, this isn’t that kind of film).

Sparkle focuses on Sam Sparks (Shaun Evans), a twenty-something who picks up and moves to London with his wannabe-singer mum, Jill (Lesley Manville). Working as a waiter, he meets Sheila (Stockard Channing, sporting a decent English accent), a powerful PR pro who quickly begins a fling with him and hires him, in that order.

Soon after, Sam meets Kate (Amanda Ryan), a pretty girl closer to his age, and he’s instantly smitten with her. As his love for Kate grows, his passion for Sheila dims, and we learn Sheila is Kate’s mom. Then Sam learns the truth about Sheila and Kate, Sheila learns he’s dating her daughter, revelations abound all around … You can probably figure out where things go from there.

If you’re looking for originality, Sparkle’s not the ticket. Beyond the obvious Graduate influence, Sparkle is also yet another riff on the chick flick romantic comedy triangle: boys falls in love with girl/complications ensue/it all works out in the end.

What sets Sparkle apart, and makes it an enjoyable watch, is the sharp, funny dialogue by co-writers/directors Tom Hunsinger and Neil Hunter, which rarely rings false; and especially the delightful low-key performances from its impressive cast. Besides Channing (doing an impressive variation on her “evil woman with a heart of gold” Rizzo role from Grease as this film’s Mrs. Robinson), other welcome and familiar faces here include Bob Hoskins in an absolutely charming turn as Vince, a simple man who’s quietly in love with Sam’s mum, and Anthony Head (Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) who turns in a sweet, understated performance as Lisa’s flamboyant, protective uncle.

Also excellent are Evans, who you can believe charmed everyone he came in contact with (a total 360-degree change from his chilling performance as the lead creep in Clive Barker’s Dread film, out on DVD); Ryan, who has a very natural presence and shows some good, real emotion; and Manville, who is a delight, loopy and lovable, mixes pipe dreams of making it as a singer with grounded concern for her son and his future.

Sparkle (no relation to the 1976 semi-biopic of The Supremes of the same name) won’t surprise you in the least — you’ll see every plot point coming from a mile away. And while it lifts a healthy amount of plot from The Graduate, it lacks that 1960s classic’s evocation of the dreams and dread of a lost generation.

Sparkle doesn’t want to do anything but make you smile, laugh a little, enjoy the quirky characters, and enjoy yourself for 90 minutes or so, much like Love Actually did a few years back. Hunsinger and Hunter should also be credited for making a handsome-looking film that captures the sights and sounds of modern London well. Light and fluffy as a souffle, it’s a very pleasant diversion, nothing more, nothing less.

You can find Sparkle on Amazon or Netflix.

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