5/30/05---Nancy hates this---MOVIE REVIEWS!!!

Before you ask, if the font on this particular entry looks slightly different...its because....YET AGAIN....I'm having trouble accessing my laptop.  AAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!
Anyway, here's what I've seen...at the movies:
1) Love, Actually--this is one of the best romantic comedies I've seen in a long time.  It also has a really good soundtrack also, which is never a bad thing.  Pretty much every big name in British acting is in this film, including....
Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman,
Keira Knightly and many others.  Its a look at the lives and loves of about 15 people, all told in different stories that end up being interrelated at the end of the film.  These include--a married couple who are in the middle of a midlife crisis, a writer who begins to realize that he's falling in love with his Portugese maid--even though neither of them speak each others language, a best man who realizes (too late?) that he is hopelessly in love with the bride to be, and the brand new Prime Minister of England---single and wrapped up in a life of public service--and falling in love with one of his servants.  Its really good stuff with good performances all around.  ****3/4
2) The Longest Yard-It was an "okay" movie...part of the problem with the film, especially when comparing it to the first one is that in the first one, you could at least accept a little bit that Burt Reynolds used to be an athlete (which of course he once was).
I had a real problem watching the movie thinking that Adam Sandler's character was a former athlete, much less a former NFL MVP. The other problem I had with the film was that the warden is played by James Crowell, who is a very fine and underrated actor....but who must be a full head taller than Sandler. In the original, Eddie Albert was either the same height or shorter than Reynolds...in the remake it looks like the warden is the former athlete...not the prisoner.

Now, all that being said...there are several good things about the movie. The guys playing the guards are all good, and as much as I hate to even type these words....Kevin Nash is very funny in his role. Steve Austin is Steve Austin..Michael Irvin is definitely Michael Irvin
(and I'm not neccessarily saying that as a compliment). Burt Reynolds was also very good in the role that was played by the late Michael Conrad in the original.  I'd give it maybe 2 stars. Good popcorn movie that you'll forget about 1/2 hour after its over.

3) Honeymoon in Vegas--I had never seen this movie before and caught it on cable last night.  Actually a pretty cute movie.  Nicholas Cage & Sara Jessica Parker play a young couple who head off to Vegas to get married.  They end up running in to Caan, who somehow sees his deceased former wife when he looks at Parker and decides that he has to steal her away before the wedding takes place.  Cage goes off in pursuit--unknowningly getting derailed by Caan's friends at every turn.  Its all good fun and concludes with a bunch of parachuting Elvis impersanators called "The Flyin Elvis's"....anytime you have people impersanating the King AND parachuting into a casino on the strip...baby, it doesn't get much better than that!  ***1/2

Later,
Jeff