Heather MacDonald’s
Been Rich All My Life
Opens July 21, 2006
Quad Cinemas

An ice cream cone of a film with double scoops of sass and class!

Starring: Bertye Lou Wood; Cleo Hayes; Marion Coles; Elaine Ellis;
and Fay Ray

Heather MacDonald’s Been Rich All My Life is a feel-good documentary about a
talented and fun group of Harlem dancers named the Silver Belles. These ladies
became friends back in the 30’s when they were chorines at the Apollo Theater
and the Cotton Club. They continued their friendship as the world of big bands
and chorus shows died off, taking up other lines of work to support themselves.
But then in 80’s they reunited to form the Silver Belles.

Here is a quote from their press release: Been Rich All My Life, the new film by
Sundance Award-winning director Heather Lyn MacDonald, follows the most
unlikely troupe of tap dancers you'll find today, the Silver Belles, a group of sassy
hoofers who met in the chorus lines of the Apollo Theater, the Cotton Club and
other legendary Harlem venues of the 1930s. Now aged 84-96, they're still not
ready to give up dancing and have been performing together again to standing
ovations in the concert halls of New York City.

MacDonald follows the dancers as they rehearse and perform. We get to know
them both by seeing them in the film and also through the stories they tell
about both themselves and each other (these ladies are great gossips). And
what stories they tell. They travelled through the Jim Crow South, but they
also took a triumphant tour of South America and perfomed with the USO
during World War II. We hear about the Harlem Clubs that employed black workers
but only allowed white patrons. We here about their how their dear friend Bertye
Lou Wood took each of them under her wing when they joined the chorus and
then we watch them stand by Bertye as she became ill and passed on.

One of the most remarkable things about watching this film was seeing how their
friendship and their love of perfoming has kept them forever young. Or maybe
they were just born that way - forever young.

Quad Cinemas |34 West 13th Street New York, NY

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Dito Monteil’s
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Opens Friday September 29, 2006

Starring: Robert Downey Jr.; Shia LaBeouf; Chazz Palminteri; Rosario Dawson; Dianne Wiest; Channing Tatum; Eric Roberts; Martin Compston; Adam Scarimbolo; Melonie Diaz.

Reviewed by Wendy R. Williams

Dito Monteil undertook on a huge challenge when he decided to direct the film based on his "novel" about his life, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. The movie tells the story of the teen-aged Dito’s life in 1986 Astoria Queens. So by directing the film, Monteil is directing two actors Shia LaBeouf (as the younger Dito) and Robert Downey Jr. (as the older Dito) in what was his own real-life role.

For the young Dito, Astoria was a claustrophobic world. His parents live insular lives illustrated by his father Monty‘s (played by Chazz Palminteri) explanation of why Dito never needs to leave New York, ““If you want to go to China, go to Chinatown. If you want to see Italy, go to Mulberry Street."

Monty dotes on Dito, but he is fascinated with Dito’s friend, Antonio (played by Channing Tatum), who he seems to view as his alter ego/son. Antonio is an incredible life force; he blasts through the streets of Astoria like a Sherman tank, kicking aside anyone and everything that gets in his way. Antonio is aided in this anarchy by his could-be-retarded brother Giuseppe (played by Adam Scarimbolo), Nerf (a throwaway role played by Peter Anthony Tambakis) and an increasingly reluctant Dito. They hang with the local Astoria girls, including Dito’s girlfriend Laurie (Melonie Diaz), and look for trouble with the local Puerto Rican graffiti-writing gang, the Reapers.

Not surprisingly, Dito hopes there is something more to the world and he sees a glimmer of it when he befriends a Scottish boy Mike (played by Martin Compston). With Mike, Dito begins to explore his world by subway (taking trips to Manhattan and Coney Island) and for the first time Dito is exposed to a world of poetry and punk rock. Mike and Dito start to work for a gay Manhattan dog walker (played by Anthony De Sandi), who has aspirations to be in the music business. These little glimmers of a world outside Astoria give Dito hope and when his Astoria world finally explodes, he finds the courage to leave Astoria and by so doing so he also leaves his father.

There are two stories interwoven throughout this film: the story of the younger Dito and the story of the older Dito played by Robert Downey Jr. The second story is about Dito’s return to Queens and his attempts to reconcile with his now elderly sick father Monty. In the second story, Dito’s girlfriend is played by Rosario Dawson and Antonio is played by the always scary Eric Roberts.

But back to first time director Dito Monteil directing the ever-so-slightly fictionalized story of his life; it works! The film is blessed with an incredible cast and as many experienced film directors have said, casting accounts for 90% of the success of any film. Chazz Palminteri brilliantly portrays the Italian father, a man whose world has become very small and who does not want to lose what little has has left. Dianne Wiest plays the mother with a quiet gravity, being careful not to do too as she portrays Dito’s downtrodden mother. Channing Tatum does a great job of portraying the kind of guy that causes pedestrians to cross the street. And the suffering in Shia LaBeouf’s eyes is eerily mirrored in Robert Downey Jr’s eyes; they are totally believable as the younger and older version of Dito.

And just what does the title mean? The theme of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is that as we walk through our lives, we meet our Saints along the path. Sometimes we recognize them immediately and sometimes it is only in hind sight that we can see what they meant to us and how they were there when we needed them.

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Tony Brill’s
Flyboys
MGM
Opens Friday, September 22, 2006

Starring: James Franco; Jean Reno; Martin Henderson; Jennifer Decker; Philip Winchester; Absul Salis; Tyler Labine; David Ellison; and Martin Henderson.

Reviewed by Wendy R. Williams

Tony Brill’s Flyboys tells the story of the legendary Lafayette Escadrille, a company of volunteer American pilots who fought for the French in the dark days of World War I before America entered the battle.

Here is a quote from the movie’s website:www.mgm.com/flyboys/home.html. "Their motivations for enlisting may have been different: Blaine Rawlings (James Franco) is searching for his purpose following the bank’s foreclosure of his family ranch, Briggs Lowry (Tyler Labine) is shamed into joining by his disciplinarian father, while African-American expatriate boxer Eugene Skinner (Abdul Salis) vows to repay his debt to his adopted, racially-tolerant country. But under the command of French Captain Thenault (Jean Reno) and the leadership of American veteran Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson), these young American men took to the air with honor everyday as they risked their lives, not just in facing the formidable German aggressors, but also in boarding their newly-invented, mechanically-imperfect aircraft, which were being used in combat for the first time.”

There had not been much practical use of aviation before World War I; airplanes (which were invented by the Wright brothers in 1903) had pretty much been regarded as novelties up until then. And planes were still primitive, made of canvas and wire and featuring open-air cockpits. It was a time when pilots were seemingly still listening to the advice of Colonel Prescott during the American Revolution, “Don’t shoot until you can see the whites of their eyes.” It was almost a sky based “hand to hand” combat and the complete opposite of today’s warfare with our smart bombs shot from distant aircraft carriers.

These pilots were definitely heroes. Regardless of what their motivations was for coming to France, when they got their they quickly learned that they had a life expectancy of three weeks and they still stayed to train and fight. They quickly learned that the seasoned pilots on the base did not want to get to know them, a self protective mechanism on their part so they would be less devastated when the “new guys” were killed. And killed they would be; World War I fighter pilots literally flew through the sky in not much more than a motorized kite, with one hand on the controls, one hand on their gun and the snow, wind and rain on their faces. One “tell’ of their bravery is the fact that they carried a hand gun so they could kill themselves if their plane caught on fire and so not have to burn to death on the long way down.

Flyboys aerial battles are utterly thrilling and this film is sure to be a hit with aviation and history buffs. There is also a bit of a romance between James Franco’s character and a winsome french girl played by Jenniefer Decker. And there is a lot of eye candy in this film, the stars (James Franco, Jean Reno, Martin Henderson, Jennifer Decker, Philip Winchester, Absul Salis, Tyler Labine, David Ellison, and Martin Henderson) are all hot in their own ways. James Franco (TV movie James Dean) and Martin Henderson should both be poised for future stardom; Henderson brooding portrayl of Reed Cassidy is particularly mesmerizing. And Jean Reno is always a joy to watch, he is the kind of actor who can bring gravitas to the act of crossing a street.

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Allen Coulter’s
Hollywoodland

Reviewed by Frank J. Avella

On June 16, 1959, television’s Superman was found dead in his Hollywood home,
an apparent suicide, or so it was ruled. Surges of conspiratorial speculation has
surrounded George Reeves demise ever since. Did he off himself? Or was it the mob-connected MGM studio exec Eddie Mannix that ordered the hit? Was Reeves’
mistress, Mrs. Mannix, involved? Or perhaps he was clipped by his lunatic galpal,
Lenore Lemon.

More than just a tinseltown murder mystery, Reeves’ death severed an American
nerve that would never heal--especially among young boys who were forced to grow up and realize that Superman was just a man--not a man of steel. He was vulnerable. And now he was dead. The faux-ideal fifties were over. Gangbangway for the 1960’s--but that’s another movie...

The curious story of Reeves is the stuff of exciting filmmaking, yet the new Noir-esque Hollywoodland disappoints as much as it captivates, mostly because it’s focus is skewed and it too-often, ironically, gives in to the clichés of Hollywood filmmaking as well as the stereotype movieworld characters we’ve come to expect.

The latter can be forgiven since Hollywood creme-de-la creme were powermad and decadent--who wouldn’t be? One can also appreciate the noir-fidelity of the story, even if it sometimes replaces meat with melodrama.

The chief problem with this admirable endeavor is in it’s creation of the fictional
detective--a semi-anti-hero--Louis Simo (Adrien Brody). In choosing to force filmic focus on a down-and-out, dull Hollywood dick who seems to be the only one crying foul, the real-reel compelling saga is zapped of a lot of its power. Blame not Brody’s since the character is written with nary a nuance. It’s a who-cares role.

On the plus side the terrific score, the gritty and grimy photography and lush
period-perfect art direction and costumes could not be better.

The film is worth seeing mostly for it’s dynamic performances (Brody notwithstanding). Ben Affleck, in particular, is shockingly good and manages to convey an extraordinary range of emotions as the tormented Reeves. Affleck takes us deep inside a man who craves truly honing his craft, yet is stuck in the muck of commercial entertainment.

The gorgeous Diane Lane, always fascinating to watch, dazzles as Toni Mannix. Even when the screenplay (by Paul Bernbaum) forces the final barrage of paint-by-numbers b-movie breakup dialogue on them, Lane and Affleck transcend the
gobbledygook they speak and show the audience what they are really feeling...with their faces, their bodies...

Bob Hoskins is nicely menacing as the brute, Mannix and Robin Tunney delightfully rips through her role as the nasty spitfire bitch-girlfriend.

Ultimately, Hollywoodland refuses to choose a death hypothesis--although it
does lean towards one scenario more than the others, indicative of the overall tentative feeling of the picture.

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Andrucha Waddington’s
The House of Sand
Opens Friday, August 11, 2006
Portugese with Engish Subtitles

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Neil Burger’s
The Illusionist
Opens Friday, August 18, 2006

Starring: Edward Norton; Paul Giamatti; Jessica Biel; and Rufus Sewell

Reviewed by Wendy R. Williams

Neil Burger’s The Illusionist asks the question: Did we see it or did we not? Set in
nineteenth century Vienna, the film takes us on a trip to a land of magicians, evil
princes and swooning damsels-in-distress.

Here is a quote from their press release: "Director Neil Burger's screen adaptation
of Steven Millhauser's short story 'Eisenheim the Illusionist'. Eisenheim (Edward
Norton) is a magician in early 1900's Vienna, who falls in love with a woman well
above his social standing. When she becomes engaged to a Crown Prince, Eisenheim uses his powers to win her back and undermine the stability of the royal house of Vienna.”

Edward Norton plays Eisenheim, a magician who entrances Vienna with his magic
shows, quickly developing a reputation as a sorcerer who posseses other-wordly
powers. He becomes wildly popular and attracts the jealous attention of the despot Crown Prince Leopold, played in smarmy magnificence by Rufus Sewell. Eisenheim also attracts the attention of Leopold’s fiancée, Sophie von Teschen (the before-mentioned damsel-in-distress), who soon recognizes Eisenheim as her
childhood love. Sensing Sophie’s attraction to Eisenheim, Leopold becomes even
more enraged and instructs Chief Inspector Uh, played by Paul Giamatti, to either
expose Eisenheim as a fraud or arrest him.

We are then treated to a battle of mind and will, between Leopold and Eisenheim.
Chief Inspector Uhl manfully tries to make his problem go away but he certainly
possesses no magical powers. The plot thickens and evil rules the land, or does it?
In the world of illusionists, everything is not always the way it seems and what
you think you know.....well, that is why you need to see this film.

The Illusionist is a vintage fairy tale and the filmmakers artfully chose to film it in
a patina of gold and brown, resembling the daguerreotype photographs of the
previous century. The scenes in the theaters are particularly evocative. Magic
tricks are performed and lit with candle light; it is truly smoke and mirror.

There are many great performances in this film but of particular note are
Edward Norton’s brooding Eisenheim and Giamatti’s Chief Inspector Uhl. Norton
plays the magician with a quiet fierce strength, awing his audience as much with
his brooding stare as with his tricks. Giamatti imbues his character with a jovial
and corrupt sophistication hiding a basic decency. Norton and Giametti’s
performances are the heart of the film; they are so believable, we believe in
their magic.

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Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grody’s
Jesus Camp
Opens Friday, September 22, 2006

Featuring: Pastor Becky Fischer, Mike Papantoni

Reviewed by Wendy R. Williams

Documentary filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s (The Boys of Baraka) Jesus Camp tells the story of an Evangelical pastor named Becky Fischer and her mission to train young children to be warriors for Christ. The filmmakers follow Fischer from her church services in Missouri through her preparations for and hosting of a Christian children’s camp named “Kids on Fire’ in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota.

The filmmakers were given total access to Ms. Fischer and her camp and the film is presented without a narrated point of view. The only voice of dissent is from Christian radio host Mike Papantoni. So watching Jesus Camp is a chance to see and hear from the Christian right in their own world.

And it is a frightening world, but one that most Americans (including the vast majority of New Yorkers) are most likely unaware. According to the film, twenty percent of Americans call themselves Evangelical Christians. These Evangelicals are organized through their churches and determined to change society, not because they consider themselves political activists, but because they believe it is God’s will for them to change his world.

We see Becky Fischer explaining that she is just doing what the radical Muslims do in their Madrases. Jesus Camp is a difficult film to watch. Pastor Fischer holds teaching sessions that last several hours, using Christian rock music, compelled confessions of sin and speaking in tongues to work the children into a crying frenzy of Christian fervor. We also see the mothers of some of the home-schooled children explaining that creationism and global warming are simply secular myths.

There are also some really funny moments. When teaching the children to change the world for Christ, she utilizes a card board cut out of President Bush. (I know it has been done before, but it works for me every time.) And when nine-year-old Rachel is participating in a demonstration against abortion in Washington DC, she approaches a group of black (perhaps homeless) men who are sitting on a park bench. She asks them if they are Christian and they wisely say yes. She then walks away and speaks into the camera and says, “I think they are really Muslim.”

And what does Pastor Becky Fischer think about this film? Does she feel like she was portrayed as some sort of manipulative zealot? Well, no. According to the filmmakers, Pastor Fischer likes the film and is promoting it. And that is certainly one of the most profound statements I can make about the world of Jesus Camp.

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Niall Johnson’s
Keeping Mum
Opens Friday, September 16, 2006

Reviewed by Frank J. Avella

Grace (Dame Maggie Smith) has just moved into the Goodfellow home, run by a devout Vicar (Rowan Atkinson) and his bored wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) to work as their new housekeeper. Grace is sweet, soft-spoken, quite proprietary, fiercely and curiously protective of the Goodfellow family. She is also a spontaneous and unapologetic murderess!

Keeping Mum is a bizarre, often-hilarious and refreshingly nonjudgmental tale of the strangest potpourri of folk. The film slyly depicts how one person can profoundly effect another.

Adeptly written by Niall Johnson and Richard Russo and expertly directed by Mr. Johnson, Mum is simultaneously warm & fuzzy and sick & twisted.
It’s terrific cinema that mercifully avoids any Hollywood trappings (thank God for the British indie!) and instead is true to it’s, decidedly quirky, characters.

The luminous Kristin Scott Thomas etches a rich, complex portrait of a woman who craves affection. Rowan Atkinson is nicely subdued as the awkward and self-consciously dull man of the cloth. Tamsin Egerton is quite impressive as the nypho daughter, who also happens to be a third generation loon! And Patrick Swayze fits the role of cad to perfection!

Yet it’s Maggie Smith who defines Mum’s spirit. She manages to be deliciously wicked without taking Grace too over-the-top. Always fantastic as the prudent spinster or the craggy and complaining snob, Smith’s decision to underplay Grace gives her an almost saintly core (ironic if you consider her crimes) and results in one of her best performances in years. Oscar take notice.

From it’s delightfully deceptive prologue to the outrageously memorable moment when the Vicar becomes sexually stimulated from reading a biblical passage, Keeping Mum enjoys pushing the limits of acceptable behavior. In doing so, though, the movie questions traditional norms and examines how wisdom can sometimes come from the most unexpected and unconventional persons and places.

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Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s
Quinceanera
Opens August 4th
www.sonyclassics.com/quinceanera/

Starring: Emily Rios; Jesse Garcia; Chalo Gonzalez; David Ross; Jason L. Wood

Quinceanera is a narrative film that views like a documentary. The film opens with a Quinceanera (celebration of a Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday) party in the Hispanic Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Magdalena’s (the talented young Emily Rios) cousin’s parents have thrown an expensive party for their daughter which included transportation of their daughter’s Quinceanera Court in a rented Hummer limo. Magdalena’s own fifteenth birthday and Quinceanera party is approaching and she dreams that she too will have such a beautiful party. But Magdalena’s father is a store front pastor who moonlights as a security guard and he does not have the money or the desire to put on such an elaborate party.

So plans are made to have a modified celebration. Magdalena’s aunt volunteers to
alter her daughter’s dress to fit Magdalena; but every time she brings it over for a
final fitting, it no longer fits in the waist. The aunt and mother confer and decide
that Magdalena must be pregnant, which she is (by her boyfriend Herman (J. R. Cruz). But this pregnancy is one of those unfortunate pregnancies that occur without any actual penetration, the stories of which strike fear in couples making-out in the back seat of cars.

When Magdalena truthfully tells her father that she has not had sex with Herman,
he throw her out of the house and she is forced to move in with her uncle Tomas
(Chalo Gonzalez) who is already supplying a home for her cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia), who was also thrown out of the home of Magdalena’s dress-lending Aunt because he is gay.

The saintly Tomas sells champurrado (a Mexican hot drink) by pushing a shopping
cart down the streets of Echo Park. Tomas’s home is a small two room cinderblock
building in the backyard of a house. His home is plain, but Tomas has created an
incredible fantasy garden in the backyard with beautiful plants, patios and sculptures made from glass bottles.

The property is soon sold to a gay couple who began to renovate the main house
and have parties. They are immediately attracted to Carlos and invite him to attend their parties and also their smaller more intimate celebrations with predictable complications (there is one of him and two of them and they were looking for a party, not a romance).

There are many controversial themes at play in this movie (Quiceaneras, gay rights, gentrification) and none of the characters (except Tomas, Magdalena and Carlos) end up looking very good: the boyfriend and his parents who decides that the baby could not possibly be his and disavow all responsibility; the Bible toting father who throws out his fifteen year old daughter; the mother who supports
her husband in such a despicable decision; the sister and brother-in-law who disown their gay son; the gay couple who moves into the front house and wreak havoc on the life of the old man in the back house. If people should decide to picket this film because they feel their particular group was demeaned by the filmmakers, it would be a diverse group of picketeers.

But the film should not be dismissed because of these stereotypes. It has one
incredible underlying charm: It was filmed in the actual homes of Echo Park and many in the cast were from the neighborhood. So the homes we see are the real homes, the foods are the actual foods and the Quinceanera celebratory promenades and dances are performed by the girls and boys from the neighborhood, wearing borrowed gowns and suits. So this film should be seen, because it is a charming visit to a part of our country that many of us may never see and tells a story about a world that we will most likely never be privy to. And the film tells its story in such a real way that I felt that I had actually met the incredible young stars (Emily Rios and Jesse Garcia) and know their story.

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Woody Allen's
Scoop
Opens Friday July 28, 2006

Last year's astonishing thriller Match Point proved a triumph for Woody Allen and
silenced detractors who insisted the master's shining era as an extraordinary and
significant American filmmaker was over. Now comes Scoop, a very funny comedy
that I am guessing critics will maul with shouts of alleged redundancy and
appropriation (mostly from his own oeuvre). God forbid Woody borrow from his
own genius style!

Now, truth to be told, Scoop is more Hollywood Ending and Manhattan Murder
Mystery than Annie Hall and Manhattan, but you can't knock every one completely out of the park every time. It's important to either remember or do some research to learn that now classic Woody flix like Love and Death, Interiors and Stardust Memories (to name a few), were initially met with quite the cool critical reception.

I'm not exactly sure where Scoop falls in the Woody canon, but I am sure that it's
certainly not the debacle Curse of the Jade Scorpion was. Scoop IS consistently
amusing, devilishly entertaining and nicely acted

The film kicks off with a killer opening: Ian McShane, an egocentric journalist finds
himself dead and crossing the River Styx with the eccentric Fenella Woolgar, who
claims she was assassinated because she knew the identity of the Tarot Card Killer, a serial murderer on the loose in London.

The way the still-story-hungry McShane crosses back over into the land of the living to deliver the 'scoop' to Scarlett Johansson is one of the many joys of the movie.

McShane is terrific in way-too-small part. Johansson, as she did in Match Point,
perfectly embodies the Woody heroine - eager, driven & uncertain---all simultaneously. Hugh Jackman charms as the suave would-be killer. Allen, looking a bit weary, is his hilarious self.

The production design is splendid and Woody pays homage to George Steven's
masterpiece A Place in the Sun in a key scene, although the end results are quite
different.

The scoop on Scoop is that it's absorbing, winning Woody by way of Woody past. I eagerly await the next Woody. I have a feeling we may all be happily surprised.

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David R. Ellis's
Snakes on a Plane
Opens Friday, August 18, 2006


Just so you know -- it was well worth the wait.

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson; Julianna Margulies; Nathan Phillips; and Rachel Blanchard.

Reviewed by Elias Stimac

Yes, I am one of those movie geeks that likes to go to the first showing of certain films the night before the actual opening so I can say I was one of the first to see it. Since there were no official critic screenings for Snakes on a Plane, looks like I am one of the first to review it as well.

In case you are the only person on the planet who hasn't heard about it, Snakes on a Plane is a little movie that redefined how movies are marketed thanks to a massive online response based on speculation and anticipation leading up to the actual release of the picture. In other words, everyone has been talking about it and blogging about it for about a year now. No other feature has ever enjoyed that unprecendented build-up.

Of course, any movie that received the mega-hype that SoaP got is going to find it extremely difficult to live up to fan expectations. That being said, the movie was actually pretty much what fans expected and pretty damn good to boot.

This mile-high thriller is a cross between 1970s disaster movies (remember all those Killer Bee flicks?) and the current wave of horror movies that seem to flood the theaters with more and more frequency these days. Director David R. Ellis maintains a fast and furious pace fast while telling this tale of a murder witness whose flight to L.A. to testify is diverted by a crateload of crazed rattlers and bloodthirsty serpents. Luckily for viewers, there are enough scares, enough laughs, and enough plotline to keep them not only occupied but intrigued as well.

The main reason the film does not plummet to the ground is Samuel L. Jackson, who has been in enough of these genre movies to know how to balance the shock with the schlock. His air of authority is hilariously punctuated by angry outbursts such as the catch-phrase we all know from the trailer where he screams that he's had it with the m-f-in' snakes on the m-f-in' plane.

The rest of the cast are game and hang on for dear life as the stakes and the cheese rise along with the dramatic tension. Particularly noteworthy are Julianna Margulies as a flight attendant on her last run, Kenan Thompson as a PSP-playing bodyguard, and David Koechner as a male chauvinist pilot.

The music soundtrack is a bit disappointing given the massive awareness it garnered on the Internet, but there is a cool video at the end featuring Cobra Starship (the video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV24FN4rDzE).

Snakes on a Plane will probably do very well at the box office and even better on DVD, where home viewers can shout at the screen and mimic the idiotic lines that spring up every now and then like a killer cobra (watch for my favorite, the breathy "good luck" from a dying victim).

Okay, now get ready for the sequels, spoofs, and parodies!

Elias Stimac is an entertainment reporter and reviewer for hollywoohoo.com. Send comments to hollywoohoo@aol.com.