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DVD Welcome to Collinwood
A nifty little film about a gang of would-be crooks and a heist that goes awry. That probably sounds like a premise you've seen about a hundred times in the past few years, but Welcome to Collinwood rises above most other caper movies due to a strong script, clean and inventive direction, and above all an outstanding cast: Sam Rockwell (Galaxy Quest, Safe Men), William H. Macy (Fargo, State and Main), Isaiah Washington (Clockers, Out of Sight), Luis Guzmán (The Limey, Punch-Drunk Love), Jennifer Esposito (Summer of Sam, Shaft), Patricia Clarkson (High Art, Joe Gould's Secret), and several other great character actors have such chemistry, wit, and sheer talent that it's a pleasure to watch them scheme, wriggle, and woo each other through an elaborate plan that's doomed from the start. George Clooney also appears (and coproduced the movie). Smart and charming. --Bret Fetzer
I was delighted to find some of my favorite actors together in this film: Luis Guzman: Michael Jeter (who recently died)and William Macy. Luis is a scary-looking dude--that was the first thing I noticed about him--but he is a good actor. His reply to anyone he's mad at in this is "Your mother is a w_____! For some reason, I found that hilarious. Then at the end they say about his character--"poor guy, his mother was a w_____." The movie has a lot of physical comedy that is well-done. Michael Jeter is such a natural--he is a pleasure to watch. (See "The Green Mile.") William Macy carrying that darling baby around with him added a quaint touch. This movie will surprise you.
Stick with the original!
Probably not too many viewers realize that 'Welcome to Collinwood' is a remake of a brilliantly funny Italian movie 'Big Deal on Madonna Street'. Unfortunately, the features that made the original sparkle (great characters depicted with love and care), are not present in 'Welcome to Collinwood'. What's left is an uninspired mess. The characters that were supposed to represent the Italian soul were not successfully transformed to American soil. Instead, they were shamelessly copied from the original. As a result, the characters and many scenes in 'Welcome to Collinwood' do not make sense and look contrived.
Welcome to Palookaville; Delightful Heist Spoof
This "small-heist-went-terribly-awry" film has its own charm, which might or might not appeal to you. It is not the story that counts; it's the characters you enjoy watching, and the terrific cast give this light-weight film some good reason for you to watch.
The film's opening scene should not be missed; four guys in tattered and sooty clothes standing in the street, all staring vacantly in the air. What happened to them? The film goes back to the chain of events leading up to the first moment.
And the story is simple; Cosimo (Luiz Guzman) hears a story about a big deal from the guy in jail. The deal of stealing from a jewelry shop, and Cosimo knows how to break in there. Cosimo tells it to his love Rosalind, who tells it to another, who tells ... and finally, five guys in Colinwood get together around the plan. Now let me introduce these lovable guys. They are: down-and-out boxer Pero (Sam Rockwell, great as usual); Riley, failed artist who had to sell his camera to buy diapers (William H. Macy, never better with Mel Gibson-like sideburns); Leon, Dandy of Colinwood (Isaiah Washington); Toto, too kind and too old maybe for the job (Michael Jeter): and Basil, who falls in love with the sister of his buddy Leon at first sight (Andrew Davoli). And they are all broke.
You got also the cameo of cast-against-type George Clooney (see his disguise), and Gabrielle Union ("Bring it on").
The film's approach to the material is downplayed, so the humor is the kind of what you call 'dead-pan' or "off-beat.' You might not find the film not so amusing. After all, potentially the film is talking about the losers who remain losers. They are likable in spite of (and because of) their utter silliness, and their silliness is mingled with sadness. But that is exactly the charm of the film. To realize this, the actors did splendid job, especially Macy, Rockwell and Jeter.
Another merit of the film is its music by Mark Mothersbaugh, ex-"DEVO." His bouncing jazzy guitar music gives another joy for watching the film.
"Welcome to Colinwood" is, as its credit shows, a remake of Italian film "I Soliti Igonoti," usually called Vittorio Gassman's "Big Deal on Madonna Street." This old-Italian film, itself a parody of noir genre, has already spawned several similar films -- such as "Palookaville" and "Crackers." Compare them with "WTC."
A sleek George Clooney and a seductive Catherine Zeta-Jones square off magnificently in the divorce comedy Intolerable Cruelty. The plot is simple: Lawyer supreme Miles Massey (Clooney, Out of Sight, Ocean's Eleven) skillfully outmaneuvers gold-digger Marylin Rexroth (Zeta-Jones, Chicago, Traffic) when she divorces her wealthy husband--and she sets out to get revenge. But this movie comes from the creative minds of the Coen Brothers (Fargo, Raising Arizona, O Brother Where Art Thou?), and so Intolerable Cruelty includes a Scottish wedding chapel in Vegas, an asthmatic hit man, fluffy-dog-stroking European nobility, and a legendarily unbreakable pre-nuptial agreement. Still, it's pretty restrained for the Coens; smooth and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): George Clooney - Catherine Zeta-Jones - Billy Bob Thornton Director(s): Ethan Coen - Joel Coen DVD Release Date: Released the 10 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The memoirs of game-show creator-host Chuck Barris (the man responsible for The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show) are the inspiration for this sneaky biopic, which not only covers Barris's television career, but also his exploits--unsubstantiated, but also not disproved--as a government assassin. As Barris, Sam Rockwell gives a gutsy, manic-depressive, warts-and-all performance, depicting how Barris cheated repeatedly on his longtime girlfriend Penny (Drew Barrymore), was recruited into the CIA by a stone-faced agent (George Clooney, who also makes a stylish directorial debut), created some of the most popular yet reviled TV shows of the 1970s and '80s, and had a torrid affair with a mysterious, beautiful operative (Julia Roberts). For a screenplay by Charlie... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): George Clooney - Sam Rockwell - Drew Barrymore Director(s): George Clooney DVD Release Date: Released the 09 September 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Marking a welcome return to the breezy style of Thelma & Louise, Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men reminds us that the director of Gladiator is equally adept with quirky comedies and offbeat characters. Smoothly adapted from the novel by Eric Garcia and set amidst the sunlit, 1950s-style architecture of L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, this gently dramatic comedy centers on Roy (Nicolas Cage), a divorcée whose career as a con artist is complicated by: (1) his ongoing struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder, which manifests itself through various quirks and rituals; (2) a wily partner (Sam Rockwell) whose criminal ambitions are greater than Roy suspects; and (3) the arrival of 14-year-old Angela (Alison Lohman), claiming to be the daughter he's never known. Turns out... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Nicolas Cage - Sam Rockwell - Alison Lohman Director(s): Ridley Scott DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Sean Penn and Benecio Del Toro, two of the most gripping actors around, play wildly different men linked through a grieving woman (Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive, The Ring) in 21 Grams. Del Toro (Traffic, The Usual Suspects) delves deep into the role of an ex-con turned born-again Christian, a deeply conflicted man struggling to set right a terrible accident, even at the expense of his family. Penn (Mystic River, Dead Man Walking) captures a cynical, philandering professor in dire need of a heart transplant, which he gets from the death of Watts' husband. 21 Grams slips back in forth in time, creating an intricate emotional web out of the past and the present that slowly draws these three together; the result is remarkably fluid and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Sean Penn - Naomi Watts - Benicio Del Toro Director(s): Alejandro González Iñárritu DVD Release Date: Released the 16 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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One of the most acclaimed films of 2003, American Splendor is also one of the most audaciously creative biographical movies ever made. Blending fact, fiction, and personal perspective from the comic books that inspired it, this marvelous portrait of Harvey Pekar--scowling curmudgeon, brow-beaten everyman, insightful chronicler of his own life, and frustrated file clerk at a Cleveland V.A. hospital--is an inspired amalgam of the media (comic books, TV, and film) that lifted Pekar from obscurity to the status of a pop-cultural icon. As played by Paul Giamatti in a master-stroke of casting, we see Pekar and his understanding wife (played by Hope Davis) as underdogs in a world full of obstacles, yet also infused with subtle hope and (gasp!) heartwarming perseverance. We also see the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Shari Springer Berman - Paul Giamatti - Harvey Pekar Director(s): Robert Pulcini - Shari Springer Berman DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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