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DVD The Big Bounce 2-pack (1969 & 2004 Versions)
The Big Bounce (1969) An Elmore Leonard novel, subsequently remade for a 2004 Owen Wilson release, gets the swinging sixties treatment. Ryan O'Neal, in his first big film after achieving TV stardom, plays a Vietnam vet drifting from job to job; Leigh Taylor-Young is the rich man's mistress who takes a fancy to him. The plot sort of revolves around an amazingly vague plan to steal money from the rich guy, but the purpose seems to be showing thrillseeker Taylor-Young in various stages of undress. This is a vacuous movie, ineptly written and shot, in which poor O'Neal wanders around looking understandably bewildered. (His career bounced back with Love Story the following year.) Decorating this mishmash is the exceptionally maladroit musical score by Mike Curb (remember the soft-rock stylings of the Mike Curb Congregation?), whose soupy melodies undercut the tension at every turn. In short, a pretty good selection for Bad Cinema Night. --Robert Horton
The Big Bounce (2004) There really can't be enough movies adapted from Elmore Leonard novels; his sinuous storylines and fluid, surprising dialogue give any movie a boost from the start. In The Big Bounce, laid-back Owen Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums, Shanghai Noon) plays Jack, a small-time crook trying to lead an easier life in Hawaii. Trouble is, he can't keep out of trouble, and when he does stay clean, trouble finds him--in this case, in the bikini-clad form of Nancy (Sara Foster), the mistress of a local developer who gets turned on by the whiff criminal activity. She lures Jack into a scheme that ultimately involves a solid cast including Morgan Freeman, Charlie Sheen, Gary Sinise, Bebe Neuwirth, Willie Nelson, and more. Foster doesn't bring much to movie besides her alarmingly sculpted body and the ending peters out, but The Big Bounce has enough snap and crackle that you don't miss the pop. --Bret Fetzer
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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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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Despite box-office dominance during its opening weekend, The Butterfly Effect is better suited to guilty-pleasure viewing at home. When writer-directors Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber (who penned Final Destination 2) aren't breaking their own haphazard rules of logic, they're filling this sordid thriller with enough unpleasantness to make eternal damnation seem like an attractive alternative. In a role-reversal from his That '70s Show persona, Ashton Kutcher plays a college-age psychology student who discovers, by re-reading his childhood journals, that he can revisit his past and alter traumatic events, hoping to improve their previously unfortunate outcomes. Instead, this foolhardy experiment in chaos theory (the titular "butterfly effect," popularized by Jeff... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Ashton Kutcher - Melora Walters - Amy Smart Director(s): Eric Bress - J. Mackye Gruber DVD Release Date: Released the 06 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Professional wrestling star the Rock, who was such a lump of flesh in The Scorpion King, proves surprisingly light on his feet in The Rundown, demonstrating charm and humor as well as the requisite toughness. Beck (the Rock), a repo-man for deadbeats, is sent to South America to find a treasure hunter (Seann William Scott) who's seeking a priceless golden idol--which the local head honcho (Christopher Walken) would like to get his hands on as well. Add in the lovely but dangerous barmaid with a secret (Rosario Dawson), and Beck has some obstacles to overcome. The plot of The Rundown isn't anything special, but the script is enjoyably clever and reasonably coherent; the capable cast keeps things lively; and the movie's relaxed but sinewy pace sets it apart from the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): The Rock - Seann William Scott - Rosario Dawson - Christopher Walken Director(s): Peter Berg DVD Release Date: Released the 23 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Julia Roberts's command of the screen is so effortless, it's easy for moviegoers to take her for granted--but we shouldn't. Mona Lisa Smile--about a noncomformist teacher at a private school who encourages students to pursue their individuality--is pretty much an all-girls version of Dead Poets Society that mixes '50s fashions with '70s feminist thought. However, its lack of ambition doesn't diminish the talent that's gone into it: The writing and directing are well-honed and skillful; the actors--a talent-studded cast featuring Marcia Gay Harden, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julia Stiles, and Juliet Stevenson--are uniformly excellent. But without question, Mona Lisa Smile rides on Roberts's shoulders and she carries it with ease. She's possibly the only... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Julia Roberts - Kirsten Dunst - Julia Stiles - Maggie Gyllenhaal - Marcia Gay Harden Director(s): Mike Newell DVD Release Date: Released the 09 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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