January, 2001
Good to see you, America! How have you been? Come to think of it, where have you
been? If I had to judge by my recent trips to see such blockbusters as Lost Souls and
Battlefield: Earth, I'd think moviegoers had gone on strike or something! Let's see a
little hussle out there, folks! They can't keep bringing us the magic if we're just
going to sit at home watching "Sex in the Cindy" or MASH, now can they?
In Theaters Now:
Almost Fabulous
The hit British TV show hits the big screen with this story of an aspiring young SNL
writer who follows Chris Farley on a cross-country expedition. Along the way he learns
the true meaning of love, and also how to fall down a lot. Meanwhile, his mom and her
best friend do a lot of coke and go skiing. Trust me, it's funny in an "English" kind
of way.
Beboozled
Spike Lee finally goes the Eddie Murphy route and and becomes a white man (with some
help from special effects magician Jim Bakker) who says some funny things in Spanish.
Martin Lawrence is a stitch as the sexy she-devil who tricks Lee into trading his soul
for the key to Bill Cosby's vault of "Our Gang" episodes. This is a probing social
critique about how hard it is to be a black person wearing a rubber white person suit
in America today.
The Legend of Bagger Vance
Tom Cruise and Adam Curry star in this inspiring tale of the grocery store bagger who
rose above his humble aisle-mopping beginnings to dethrone his nemesis as the quickest
bread-loaf masher in three counties. The rumor mill has it that Cruise really became a
meth fiend to add authenticity to Vance's pre-shift crank sessions in the front seat
of his Camaro.
Requiem for a Dreamcast
Toy Story and The Brave Little Toaster meet in this kid pleaser about a young boy's
obsolete video game systems coping with the threat of a new Playstation 2 in their
bedroom. When the chips are down, these clunkers prove that what they lack in vector
units and rastar conversion they more than make up for in heart, gumption,
semi-functional light guns and somewhat dangerous cords that were chewed by the dog.
By the end, little Billy comes to realize that newer isn't always better, and that
old Genesis is still good for propping open the back door when his dog doesn't come
home one night.
The Watcher
This harrowing tale of weight loss mixes Atom Egoyan's confrontational style with Mike
Meyers' taste for the macabre. The result is as gripping as it is placid. A must-see
for anyone who's ever made their weight-loss shake with Chunky Monkey and a Skor bar,
this pot-boiler's got it's Oscar shoes on!
Now on Video:
Committed
Can Heather Graham (with chest midgets in tow) keep this bickering Irish pub band
together and pull them back from the brink of disintigration on the eve of their
greatest success? Nope.
Drowning Boner
Looking to escape the pressures of superstardom, former "Growing Pains" star Andrew
Koenig moves to the small town of Small Hampton, New Hampshire and starts a lawn care
service called "Stabone's Stones". His welcome wears thin, however, after the locals
tire of his continual public outbursts of "Don't you REMEMBER me? I'm Boner!" and
eventually one of them does him in via a suspicious turnstile "accident". Always
compelling, whether he's playing the imposing Godfather in "The Godfather" or the mob's
psychotic muscle midget in "Goodfellas", Danny DeVito is gripping as the local sheriff
grasping at straws to unravel this mystery.
Reindeer Games
Aiming to be the Grinch Who Stole Christmas Box-Office from the upcoming James Cagney
vehicle "The Grinch", this Christmastime treat features red-hot comedian Howie Mandel
(and a team of Silicon Valley effects technicians) as everyone's favorite red-nosed
reindeer, Rudy! This time though, Rudy's story has a 90's twist, and some cursing!
Will this effort continue Mandel's can't-miss streak even further? In a word: Maybe.
Co-starring Charlize Theron as Ashley Judd.
Snow Day
Don't call it a comeback, because this Canadian reggae-rapping teen sensation has been
here for years. Now Snow's ready to inform us in his big-screen debut, and your mother
has most definitely been given word. When aliens from deep space invade earth and
smoke the president in a giant doobie, it's up to our hero to confound them with his
indecypherable rhymes and crush them under truck-loads of bargain-bin copies of his
debut CD, "12 Inches of Snow". Not since Brian Bosworth has a newcomer lit up the
screen quite like this.
Terms of Engagement
Never before has a film been a more perfect hybrid of two winning formulas than this
meld of Father of the Bride and Terms of Endearment. Steve Allen reprises his role
here hilariously as the nervous father presiding over his gay son's first wedding.
Tommy Anderson-Lee and Samuel Taylor Coleridge upstage the screen as the interracial
gay couple who just can't seem to decide on a china pattern, with touching results.
Milestones
the commune's scratch 'n sniff look at last year's office potluck
Opportunities
Pants a Capitalist
Free Virus Baggies
Take a Kitten, Please
the commune book selections
the commune's Bear in Rearview
the commune's Big Book of Duke
Faces of the commune
the commune 100: Leaders and Revolutionaries
the commune 100: Traitors and Noodledicks
FAQ Shwartz |
Site Map's Somewhere in the Glovebox |
Search In Vain |
Contract Ick
Privacy Police |
Terms of Gary Busey |
Reprints & Persimmons |
Press Eject Now
May 2000
American Psycho, Emperor and the Assassin, Ghost Dog, High Fidelity, Mission to
Mars, Romero Must Die, The Whole Nine Yards, American Beauty, Anna and the King, Girl
Interrupted
January 2000
Being John Malkovich, Bicentennial Man, Man on the Moon, My Dog Skips, Sweet and
Lowdown, The Talented Mr Ripley, American Pie, The Iron Giant, The Red Violin, T with
Mussolini, Wild Wild West,
June 1999
The Phantom Menace, The Mummy, Message in a Bottle, Deep End of the Ocean, Never
Been Kissed, 10 Things I Hate About You, Fanmail, Come On Over, No Limit Top Dogg,
Meet Joe Black, Gloria The Waterboy
1999 Oscars Special
It's Oscar time, America! And you know what that means: It's time to assert our
inborn artistic superiority over every other country on the globe!
April 1999
Prince of Egypt, Star Trek: Ressurection, The Thin Red Line, Mask of Zorro,
The Truman Show, Buffalo 66, Womb Raider, Grimm Fandango
December 1998
Very Bad Things, Rugrats, Enemy of the State, SpiceWorld, The Parent Trap, Legend
of Zelda: Orinthal of Time