Vincent Paterson
- 2000
- AddSuzi Lonergan's Body Power Pilates!to QueueAddSuzi Lonergan's Body Power Pilates!to top of Queue
Suzi Lonergan's Body Power Pilates! offers a variety of exercises broken down into two different categories - basic and intermediate. There are nine different basic maneuvers, and twenty-three different intermediate ones. This program will ideally increase strength and flexibility, and facilitate fighting illness. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Reportedly the third in acclaimed director Lars von Trier's "Golden Hearts" trilogy (preceded by Breaking the Waves and The Idiots), this film is a hip reworking of the classic Hollywood Musical, starring international pop diva Bjork. Set somewhere in rural Washington state, Czech immigrant Selma (Bjork) works in a pressing plant, struggling to make ends meet for herself and her 10-year-old son, Gene (Vladica Kostic). Her best friend is coworker and fellow European Kathy (Catherine Deneuve). While outside work, she is maintaining a cautious friendship with local yokel Jeff (Peter Stormare). She also landed a starring role as Maria in an amateur production of The Sound of Music. Selma's life would be one of relative contentment if it were not for the ugly secret she harbors -- she is on the verge of blindness due to a genetic disorder, and her young son will suffer the same fate without an operation. Selma has quietly been stashing away money for the surgery and has already amassed $2,000. When her savings, squirreled away in a can in the kitchen, suddenly disappear, she confronts her cash-strapped landlord Bill (David Morse). Of course, like all musicals, the plot periodically takes a backseat to the seven production numbers, including a show-stopping sequence in Selma's factory. Shot entirely on digital video, the film reportedly used up to 100 cameras for each musical number. Dancer in the Dark received top prizes at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival including Best Actress for Bjork and the coveted Palme d'Or for Best Picture. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Björk, Catherine Deneuve, (more)
Director Mike Nichols teams up with his former partner/screenwriter Elaine May for the first time in many years and for the first time together in films to create this sophisticated, remake of the phenomenally popular French musical farce La Cage aux Folles that stars Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman and Diane Wiest as two dramatically disparate couples who manage to reconcile their vast differences for the sake of their children who are getting married. Williams plays Armand Goldman, the owner of a popular South Beach drag club known for putting on elaborate showcases starring his long-time lover/wife Albert (Lane) who appears as "Starina." Lately poor flamboyant, flighty Albert has been in crisis over the inexorable onset of middle age. He has been moody, paranoid and unbearably. When he gets too inconsolably distraught, handsome but clumsy houseboy Agador quietly slips Albert "Pirin" tablets (which he explains to Armand are simply Aspirin tablets with the "as" scraped off). Still though Albert can be a royal pain, Armand dearly loves him and the two live happily in their splendiferous apartment above the club. One day Armand's son Val (the result of Armand's single foray into straight sex) comes visiting with joyous news: he has found his dreamgirl and is getting married. The only trouble is, Barbara Keeley's father is the blustery ultra-religious right-wing Senator Keeley (Hackman), the founder of the Coalition for Moral Order. Senator Keeley and his colleagues are not as upright as they seem and when his closest associate is found dead beside a black, underage prostitute, Keeley finds his house surrounded by ravenous newshounds, hungry for dirt. Knowing that they are poised to ruin him, Keeley and his proper but slightly addled-wife (Wiest) decide that a big, elaborate, church wedding will be just the ticket to save his reputation. Barbara has neglected to tell them that Val's parents are gay, preferring to claim that they are members of the South Beach social elite. In a panic, she panics and calls Val who breaks the bad news to Armand and begs him to make the apartment less flamboyant and worst of all to hide Albert (who functioned as Val's mother while the youth grew up) during the visit. Armand is angry, but loving his son, finally, reluctantly agrees, knowing that he will deeply wound his companion. Unfortunately, Albert finds out and as a compromise tries to learn how to be macho so he can pretend to be Val's uncle, he is too much the Great Dame to ever pass as one of the guys and so is banned from the party. Armand then locates Catherine and asks her to masquerade as his wife. She agrees to show up later that evening. Meanwhile their friends busily redecorate the apartment until it looks as if it were done in "Early Inquisition." During the fateful dinner party, Catherine is late and Albert gets uproarious revenge. Achingly comic chaos ensues as Armand tries to hold the increasingly tenuous evening together while outside the newshounds bay and threaten to make even more trouble for Senator Keely. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, (more)
Evita is based on the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Actually, the film is more of an opera, with only short moments devoted to dialogue. "Evita" is the friendly, family version of the proper name "Eva," and this film tells the story of Eva Peron (1921-52), a woman whose name evokes powerful feelings in her native Argentina. Throughout this film, as in the musical, the story is explained and commented on by a character known as "Che," played here by Antonio Banderas. The film begins with the news of Evita's death, and then turns to a much earlier scene at her father's funeral. Eva (Madonna) was an illegitimate child (one of many) of a rural landowner and her seamstress mother. Hers is not a wealthy childhood by any means, and she is constantly discriminated against because of her lowly birth. She is refused admission to her father's funeral for this reason. This scene is contrasted with her own funeral, a spectacular affair, not different from the funeral of a beloved head of state. Eva Peron leaves her village at age 15, in the arms her lover Agustin Magaldi (Jimmy Nail), a traveling singer. With his help, she goes to Buenos Aires and begins her campaign to become a performer, actress, and public figure. Many men help her during these years, and she is reported to have given her favors freely. That changes when she becomes involved with Juan Peron (Jonathan Pryce). In 1944, when they meet, Peron is an ambitious young army officer, serving in the right-wing government of the time. When he falls afoul of the government and is imprisoned, Eva uses her position as a celebrity and radio performer to get him released. Peron marries his feisty mistress when he is freed from prison. Eva is a formidable supporter, and her help is crucial to his later becoming head of state. Once Juan Peron becomes the President of Argentina, Eva expects better treatment from Argentina's high society, but they snub her brutally. She, in response, diverts government money from society-led charities, and starts the Eva Peron Foundation. As its president, she works tirelessly to directly better the lot of Argentina's poor. For this work, and for having risen from poor origins to glory, she is beloved by huge masses of her fellow citizens, if not by those in high society. She also arranges for the enfranchisement of women in Argentina. Thus, her death of uterine cancer at age 33, while she was at the height of her power and influence, strikes the whole world as tragic. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madonna, Antonio Banderas, (more)
This is a children's video about the life and work of the author commonly known around the world as Dr. Seuss. The video also contains original musical productions based on Dr. Seuss' books, including Oh, The Places You'll Go, Green Eggs and Ham, and The Cat in the Hat. On this video, you will see Dr. Seuss characters featured in original animated and live-action tales and fun games for fans of the author's books. Some of the participants featured in this video are Kathy Najimy, Robin Williams, Christopher Lloyd, David Paymer, Patrick Stewart, Eileen Brennan, Billy Crystal, and Howie Mandel, among others. ~ Cecilia Cygnar, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathy Najimy
Here's a fictionalized account of Jack Ruby's perspective of the events leading up to his assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald. Danny Aiello appears convincingly as the nightclub-owner Ruby who (according to this telling) points the finger at an FBI conspiracy as the force behind the Kennedy assassination. The film includes some actual footage from Ruby's Oswald shooting. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Aiello, Sherilyn Fenn, (more)
Steven Spielberg filters J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan through a distinctly 1990s sensibility in Hook. Peter Pan has become Peter Banning (Robin Williams), a 40-year-old mergers and acquisitions lawyer with a permanent scowl on his face and a cellular phone in his belt. Banning has lost any memory of being Peter Pan, and he is also in danger of losing his wife Moira (Caroline Goodall) and two children, Jack (Charlie Korsmo) and Maggie (Amber Scott). Peter and his family travel to London to visit Granny Wendy (Maggie Smith) who recalls Peter's lost youth and asks him, "Peter, dear, don't you know who you are?" With Peter's children asleep in the same bedroom where the original Peter Pan story began, there is a blinding flash. Peter comes into the room to discover a note from Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman), informing Peter that he has kidnapped his children. Granny Wendy now tells him who he really is and encourages him to re-discover his happy thoughts, transform himself into the Peter Pan of the past, and go rescue his children. With the encouragement of Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts), Peter recalls the birth of his son and once again takes wing. Then it's off to Never Land to rescue his kids. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, (more)
Truth or Dare is an outrageous, insightful, carefully controlled and (to non-fans) overlong documentary of singer Madonna's 1990 Blonde Ambition tour. Though much of the film is a paean to self-love and self-aggrandizement, we are permitted to see Madonna at her worst as well as her best. Just when the audience is on the verge of giving up the flamboyant vocalist as a bad job, she displays a sudden attack of sensitivity, such as her protective attitude towards a timid homosexual in her troupe. Among the many celebrities who poke their heads into the proceedings are Warren Beatty, Sandra Bernhard, and Kevin Costner, who makes the fatal error of coming backstage to tell Madonna that he thinks she's "neat." If you've had your fill of the Material Girl, take a look at the parody documentary starring MTV's Julie Brown, Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madonna, Warren Beatty, (more)
A cynical gambler reluctantly comes to the aid of a mysterious beauty in this interpolation of Casablanca and the real-life Cuban revolution. Big-stakes American gambler Jack Weil (Robert Redford) is comfortable in the anything-goes Havana of 1958. But with Fidel Castro out in the wilderness broadcasting revolutionary messages, it seems the good times may be on the way out. On a boat back to the island nation from the U.S. mainland, Weil agrees to help beautiful Bobby Duran (Lena Olin) smuggle in some contraband by trading vehicles with her on their way through the checkpoint. He's amused to discover not jewelry, but radio transmitters squirreled away in her car. Eventually, he learns that she's the European wife of monied Cuban communist Arturo Duran (Raul Julia), who believes his class and status will protect him from the ruling party. When that assumption turns out to be false, Jack finds himself sucked in by the plight of the suddenly widowed Bobby, who remains committed to her dangerous ideals. Risking his cushy lifestyle to protect Bobby from the coming tumult -- and from herself -- Jack must grapple with the dictates of his newfound conscience. With a supporting cast that includes Alan Arkin and Tomas Milian, Havana reunited director Sydney Pollack with Redford and David Rayfiel, star and co-screenwriter of The Way We Were. Rayfiel has also worked on a number of Pollack pictures, stretching from 1969's Castle Keep to 1995's remake of Sabrina. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Lena Olin, (more)
Xavier Quinn (Denzel Washington) is police chief of a tiny Caribbean island. Quinn's efforts to straddle the fence between the local blacks and the moneyed whites have lost him the respect of both groups. When a murder is committed, Quinn suspects that the killer is Maubee (Robert Townsend), a notoriously elusive criminal who has become a folk hero to the locals. Despite various political pressures -- and the fact that he and Maubee were childhood friends-Quinn vows to solve the murder, and, if necessary, bring Maubee to justice. A mess of merry plot twists distinguish this diverting fox-and-hound caper. Filmed entirely on location, The Mighty Quinn was based on Finding Maubee, a novel by A.H.Z. Carr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denzel Washington, Robert Townsend, (more)
- 1988
Even non-fans of Michael Jackson will be caught up in the exuberance and virtuosity of Moonwalker. This 84-minute music video casts The Gloved One as host of a futuristic TV special. Highlights include an extended Claymation sequence and a 3-D vignette put together by the Disney Company. The most endearing aspect of Moonwalker is Jackson's willingness to poke fun at his own tabloid-headline image. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Jackson, Sean Lennon, (more)
In Mannequin, a lame attempt to revive the style and panache of fantasy-tinged romantic comedies of the '30s and '40s, Andrew McCarthy stars as a department store window-dresser who discovers that one of his mannequins (Kim Cattrall) is actually a woman from ancient Egypt when she becomes animated one evening. She then inspires him to become the most expressive window-dresser the business has ever seen. Of course, there is intrigue involving a rival department store's attempt to drive the good guys out of business, and together the two store-crossed lovers must combat the forces of evil to save the day. There is no real mystery about what will happen in the course of the film; it all seems color-by-numbers. The only thing unique about Mannequin is its uniquely bad and illogical script, which has holes larger than the Grand Canyon. Mannequin was a surprise box-office hit, earning nearly 25 million dollars in just under a month of its release -- no small feat considering its miniscule budget and seeming lack of appeal to any particular demographic. It spawned an inferior sequel, Mannequin Two: On the Move, reaffirming the belief that anything is possible. In spite of being panned by critics across the board, it did manage to receive one accolade -- its theme, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," was nominated by the Academy for Best Song. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrew McCarthy, Kim Cattrall, (more)
