New releases — Tuesday, june 6, 2006

Glory Road

 

Rating:  PG           Run Time:  119 Minutes

 

GLORY ROAD is about more than a college basketball team in the mid-1960’s playing its way to the championship: it is the true story of a coach and his team taking a stand against discrimination in order to play their best game.  As the new men’s basketball coach at Texas Western, Don Haskins has one goal: to win.  At a time when most Southern universities had few black players on their teams and rarely played more than two at the same time, Haskins recruits an unprecedented seven black players for his team and often has three of them starting.  His new additions have played on the streets of the South Bronx between breaks at a Detroit steel company, and added fancy moves with the hope of playing for the Harlem Globetrotters.  In addition to adjusting to life at Texas Western in El Paso, the players have to integrate with their white teammates and face discrimination from all fronts: the school administration, donors and alumni, spectators, and random strangers, not to mention other basketball teams.  To everyone’s surprise, the underdog Miners taken on team after team, making it all the way to the 1966 NCAA championships.  In an historic NCAA final game against the University of Kentucky Wildcats, Haskins played the first all-black collegiate basketball starting lineup, in many ways opening new doors for black players everywhere.

 

James Gartner’s feature film directorial debut has impressive performances, great basketball action, snappy dialogue, and just the right amount of humor to complement the seriousness of its main subject.  Most important, it pays tribute to an inspirational team and its coach, capturing a moment that changed the sport of basketball forever.  Be sure to stick around through the credits to see interviews with the actual team members.

 

 

Running Scared

 

Rating:  R             Run Time:  ?? Minutes

 

Not the 1986 Billy Crystal-Gregory Hines buddy cop movies of the same name, 2006’s RUNNING SCARED is writer/director Wayne Kramer’s (THE COOLER) take on the violent gangster crime genre.  Paul Walker (THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS) plays Joey Gazelle, a low-level Mafia thug who finds himself in the middle of a drug deal gone wrong, with a hail of gunfire and some dead undercover cops as the net result.  Fleeing from the scene, Joey is charged with getting rid of one of the steel snub-nosed revolvers used to kill the cops.  Instead, he stashes the gun in his own basement, just in case he ever needs insurance against his own gang.  Unfortunately, Joey’s 10-year-old son, Nicky (Alex Neuberger), and his best friend, Oleg (Cameron Bright), see where the weapon is hidden.  Oleg, whose Russian mob-connected stepfather is physically abusive towards him and his mother, steals the gun to exact revenge.  Shooting his father in the shoulder, he runs away with the ‘hot’ gun.  This forces Joey to embark on a nightmarish 18-hour journey to locate Oleg and the gun before his own gang, the Russian Mafia, or bad copy Detective Rydell (Chazz Palminteri) finds them or the true link between the gun and the crimes.

 

In a film dedicated to directors Sam Peckinpah, Walter Hill, and Brian De Palma in the closing credits, Kramer splatters the screen with a level of violence that would make those masters proud.  Drained of bright colors,  stylish, and feverishly fast-paced, RUNNING SCARED is one bloddy thrill-ride.

 

 

 

Underworld: Evolution

 

Rating:  R             Run Time:  106 Minutes

 

Bloodthirsty vengeance is measured out in buckets, not spoonfuls for this hard-hitting vampire movie sequel.  The story picks up right where the first UNDERWORLD left off, in the midst of a war between Lycans (werewolves) and vampires, with the gorgeous death-dealer Selene (Kate Beckinsdale), on the run with her vamp-wolf hybrid lover, Michael (Scott Speedman).  This go-’round, there are flashbacks to three centuries earlier and the separation of two ultra-bad brothers, one vampire and one Lycan.  The Lycan gets locked in a hidden tomb/prison and the feud begins.  In the present, the winged vamp brother Marcus (Tony Curran) is determined to find his Lycan sibling and free him, which would wreak unimagineable havoc on the world.  Selene’s got to stop it, and the result is mayhem, with great gun battles, bashings and hackings, mysterious artifacts, orgies, and sneaking around in the dripping wet crypts and catacombs.  Beckinsdale looks great with her jet-black hair, skintight leather bodysuit, red lips, and glowing blue eyes.  Director Len Wiseman obviously has great love for this alternate universe; he keeps the action humming, the blood running, and the cast well-stocked with seasoned British actors like Sir Derek Jacobi, Bill Nighy, and Steven Mackintosh.  The sex and violence may still be a bit intense for youngsters, but for the vampire crowd, it’s a moveable feast of generous, still-twitching proportions.

 

 

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

 

Rating:  R             Run Time:  ?? Minutes

 

Oscar® winner Tommy Lee Jones (Best Supporting Actor, THE FUGITITVE, 1993) directs and stars in this poetic and striking modern-day Western.  Peter Perkins (Jones) is a veteran cowboy who embodies with values of the old west, living in a small Texas town bordering the U.S. and Mexico.  He hires Melquiades Estrada as a ranch hand and quickly befriends the man.  But when Estrada is gunned down under mysterious circumstances, Perkins takes justice into his own hands and kidnaps a trigger-happy border patrolman (Barry Pepper—SAVING PRIVATE RYAN), forcing Perkins to unearth Estrada’s body and accompany Perkins on horseback on the long and treacherous journey through the frontier mountains and back roads of Mexico to bring his friend’s body home.

 

 

Like Mike 2: Streetball

 

Rating:  PG           Run Time:  95 Minutes

 

Young Jerome Jenkins Junior (Jascha Washington) has dreams larger than his diminutive frame, but learns the price of their fulfillment in this sequel to the hit 2002 film LIKE MIKE.  Aspiring to rule the street basketball courts but spurned for his small size and lack of talent, Jerome’s luck changes when he finds a pair of lucky sneakers.  Suddenly, he has more game than he can handle!

 

 

Big White

 

Rating:  R             Run Time:  105 Minutes

 

This little-known feature consists of an all-star including Robin Williams and Holly Hunter.  THE BIG WHITE is a dark comedy that explores the relationship between an Alaskan travel agent (Williams) and his mentally unstable wife (Hunter).

 

 

Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic

 

Rating:  Not Rated              Run Time:  ?? Minutes

 

Sarah Silverman is a comedienne who doesn’t just court controversy, she positively wallows in it.  Memorably putting in a brief yet discomforting and highly memorable appearance in THE ARISTOCRATS, Silverman offers viewers the chance to witness her stand-up act with JESUS IS MAGCI.  The show itself was taped in 2004, and is interjected with off-set skits, songs, and general goofing around from Silverman and her friends in the comedy world.  As soon as Silverman takes to the stage, sacred cows come tumbling down, and continue to do so throughout the set.  Race, sex, class, 9/11, rape, the Holocaust — no topic is considered untouchable for the seemingly fearless Silverman.  Amazingly, she also manages to come across as likeable and even prone to bouts of insecurity (‘I just want you to think I’m thin’, she pleads at one point), which undoubtedly makes some of the stronger material much easier to swallow.

 

Director Liam Lynch, who has worked with Tenacious D, and made a memorable foray into the music industry with his song ‘United States of Whatever,’ keeps the visual trickery to a minimum, simply shooting Silverman with a basic crew and including a few swooping shots over the heads of the audience.  The skits peppered throughout bring the cult TV shows such as KIDS IN THE HALL and MR. SHOW to mind (Bob Odenkirk from the latter makes a brief appearance), and nicely break up the stand-up routine.  Silverman never explains her humor or feels the need to put in a disclaimer to make everything seem okay, which is a device that not only makes some of the laughter a guilt-edged pleasure, it also forces the audience to think about many of the issues she is tackling, making Silverman’s act enjoyable, unique, and deliciously funny.