You've seen the show.  You know who you are.  You never miss an episode of American Idol.  Well, now there's American Dreamz with a "z."  At least that's what some of the contestants of the latest singing contest show sing in the new film from director Paul Weitz (American Pie, About A Boy).
While he may not be Ryan Seacrest, Hugh Grant (Two Weeks Notice, About A Boy) stars as the superficially despicable, yet charismatic, Martin Tweed—host of the number one rated television show in the United States, American Dreamz.  
After being dumped by his girlfriend, Martin becomes increasingly bored with the same types of singers that appear over and over again on his show.  He craves something fresh and demands that his talent scouts get both an Arab and a Jew to be contestants the upcoming season.
At a secret terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, Omer is the worst trainee and only dreams about singing.  While the terrorists have no plans to actually use him, they give him his papers to the States just to get rid of him.  There he settles in with his cousins in Orange County.  When the American Dreamz camera crew comes looking for one of his cousins, they find Omer singing and sign him on as a contestant.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Staton has just won his second term in office and has suddenly discovered that he can learn things his briefings don't tell him, by reading the newspapers. In fact he gets so caught up in reading that he shies away from public appearances as his approval ratings plummet to all-time lows.  To help him recover, his Chief of Staff gets him a spot as a guest judge on American Dreamz.
Upon learning that Omer could get to shake the President's hand if he makes it to the finals, the Afghan terrorists approach him and ask him to martyr himself by wearing a bomb when he goes to meet the president.  But where are Omer's true loyalties?
Out in the Midwest, Sally Kendoo has just learned she'll be a contestant on the show. Realizing she and her boyfriend are headed in separate directions emotionally, she breaks up with him.  Trying to win her back, he enlists in the army and is sent to Iraq, where he is shot in the arm on his first day.  Now with the human-interest story that could get her the championship on American Dreamz, how far will she go to deceive her boyfriend to win?
Okay, now that the complicated setup is out of the way, how does the movie measure up?  First of all, it seems hard to ignore the blatant political undertones in this movie.  This film may well risk alienating Republicans with its Bush-type president who did not had a single thought of his own during his entire first term in office, though over the course of the movie he tries to break away from that.
As you might have already guessed, it also makes light of the situations both in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The film even pokes fun at Canada when the Chief of Staff rhetorically asks the President, "Who cares about the Canadian Press outside of Canada?"  About the only current political controversy the movie doesn't bring up is President Bush's guest worker program.
Now I may have a slight Democratic bias, but that being said, I think that if Republicans are able to have a sense of humor about any shots made towards current politics, they should still enjoy the film.
Not that I'm saying this movie is any great work of art, but it is a fun flick made for fans of American Idol, while trying to cash in on that show's success.  Apart from the political undertones, the jokes manage to stay mostly clear of bathroom and sex humor.  Weitz also tries to slip in a few morals.
As for cast performances, Grant does quite a good job as a man struggling with wanting to care about people and the world but who doesn't want give up his uncaring nature because he's profited so well by it.
Dennis Quaid (The Rookie, Wyatt Earp) has the challenging task of playing President Staton; a president who honestly wants to do good but up until this point has been puppeteered by his chief of staff.
Sam Golzari (Closer, The Invisible Man) plays Omer, a character struggling to find his identity either as anti-American, since it was an American bomb that killed his mother or pro-American, since his mother loved American music and singing and taught him to love it as well. While his singing may not be the greatest, it almost works in the context of the film.
Mandy Moore (The Princess Diaries, Saved) also has quite the role to play as Sally Kendoo.  At times it is difficult to understand her motivation.  At times she seems just like a ditzy blonde, while at others she seems genuinely motivated by her character's conscience.  And oh yeah, she's got a great singing voice.
Willem Dafoe (Spiderman, The Aviator) has a fairly stereotypical role as the president's chief of staff.  Pity such a great actor wasn't able to bring more to this role and break it out of its predictable nature.
Chris Klein (American Pie, United States of Leland) also has a fairly stereotypical role as Sally's boyfriend.  Yet he still managed to bring a certain quality to it that allowed it to stand out.
Finally, Jennifer Coolidge (A Cinderella Story, Date Movie) played Sally's mom.  Again at times it was difficult to understand her character's motivation, but ultimately we see that she will do anything for her daughter.
Unless you're a diehard fan of American Idol, this movie may not be worth your box office dollars, but it certainly is worth a look at on DVD.

The baseball season is upon us.  That means it's time for cheer on our local teams. It may even be a time to remember our little league days—or lack thereof.  Well the latest baseball-themed movie to come out of Hollywood is designed to do just that.  
Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions presents a story of three guys who grew up on the fringes of society who decide to seek some retribution.
Meet landscaper Gus (Rob Schneider).  After scaring off some little league bullies who were teasing another boy, Gus remembers what it was like to be on a baseball field—30 years ago.  So he gets his two best friends, video store clerk Richie (David Spade) and paperboy—or should that be "paper-man"—Clark (Jon Heder), neither of whom have ever touched a baseball, to play some ball with him.
When the bullies return to claim the field, Gus challenges them to a game—Gus, Richie and Clark against a whole little league team.  Amazingly, they happen to win.  
Enter bazillionaire Mel (Jon Lovitz), the father of the kid getting bullied earlier.  As he pulls up in his replica of K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider, he makes a proposal for Gus, Richie and Clark to enter a tournament against every little league team in the county in an effort to show them that all kids deserve a chance to play baseball.  The winner gets to own a brand new little league stadium that Mel will have built.
Benchwarmers is certainly a great family movie in spirit with the take-home moral message of not to exclude kids from sports and activities just because different or essentially "nerds."  
However, this film is rated PG-13 for a reason.  Its rating is well deserved given the outlandishly numerous sexual innuendos and bathroom humor, including a talking urinal that tells you if you're not eating healthy.  While some of these were definitely in bad taste, the majority of them I was able to laugh off and move on.  The other part of the film that may be offensive to some is the near constant use of the "n" word.  Nerds beware.
This film has actually been "warming the bench" (pun intended) for at least 10 years as IMDb.com reports that Jon Heder's role was originally scripted for the late Chris Farley.
A couple of cameos to watch out for are Reggie "Mr. October" Jackson as himself and James Earl Jones as the voice of Mel's Darth Vader gate controller.  Also director Dennis Dugan takes on a part as one of the little league coaches and co-screenwriter stars as Richie's brother Howie, a character who's afraid to step outside.
Rob Schneider (SNL, Deuce Bigalow movies) isn't too bad in the role of the straight man of the three, who actually harbored a surprise plot twist up to near the end.
David Spade (SNL, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star) had the dubious role of a would-be 39-year-old womanizer who hadn't yet kissed a girl.  
Which brings us to Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) as 20-something guy with the mentality of a 10-year-old.
Shining above them all, I think, is Jon Lovitz (SNL, The Critic) as the Star Wars and old T.V. show-obsessed bazillionaire, who in addition to the K.I.T.T. replica also sports a replica of the batmobile from the '60s Batman series.
This film boasted enough bad-taste humor for me to give it as low as four out of ten.  But there was just enough good-taste humor and morals for me to up it to six out of ten.  It may not be worth your box-office bucks, but could make a good rental.

Running Scared follows the story of a .38 caliber snub-nose pistol over an 18-hour period as it works its way from shooting a dirty cop to being used by a 10-year-old to shoot his abusive step-father in the shoulder to being lost in a poker game to ending up in the hands of a pimp.  
Joey Gazzelle is in with the mob on the streets of New York and New Jersey.  When he’s asked to dispose of a hot gun in the river, he instead hides it in his basement, where his son Nicky and his best friend Oleg see him put it there.  But when he Oleg takes the gun and uses it on his abusive stepfather, Joey has to retrieve the bullets and track down the gun before the police can trace it back to him.
Sound simple?  Well, if it was it wouldn’t take over two hours to tell this tale.  Along the way, he has to track down Oleg who ran away with the gun, who keeps running from one troublesome situation to another, from cocaine junkies to a prostitute, from the police to a perverted couple that kidnaps children to play with and then murder.
All the while Gazzelle must work to stay not only one step ahead of the police, but also the mob for whom he was supposed to dispose of the gun as he tries to convince everyone that the kid had used a different gun.
The plot for this movie, which by the way took over half an hour to figure out, was actually quite complex, in an odd sort of way, as they tried to incorporate as many clichés of things that could possibly go wrong as possible, which had the effect of removing any semblance of point to the movie.  Despite this it does seem that writer/director Wayne Kramer can at least tell a story, but tends to go overboard and incorporate too much into it; such as the perverted couple and Oleg’s mother Mila being a former prostitute in Moscow until she got pregnant and ended marrying the man who was supposed to kill her for getting pregnant, even though he proved to be abusive to both her and her son.
The film carries an “R” rating, but almost more properly deserves an “NC-17” rating as it replete with extreme brutal gun violence, near constant profanity, sexuality and drug use.  There’s also a minor racist attitude expressed by the lead character toward the Russians.  Like I said, Kramer has a tendency to go overboard, and that he did with the violence and use of the “f” word. (My virgin ears and eyes, oh no.)  While Joey’s wife Teresa does try and discourage Nicky from swearing, she ultimately sets a poor example for him.
Trying to find redeeming features about this movie is almost like pulling teeth.  It does end on a positive note, and Kramer did make good use of foreshadow for a plot point that is revealed in the last twenty minutes of the film.  Also as disreputable as the character of Joey appears to be throughout most of the movie, he turns out to have several redeeming traits at the end.
Paul Walker (The Skulls, The Fast and the Furious) does a pretty fair job of playing a man who is desperate and “running scared” to find the gun and protect both his own son as well as Oleg.
Cameron Bright (Birth, Godsend) actually did quite well given his rather demanding role in a film he won’t be old enough to see for five more years. Of course, given the extreme violent nature of some of the scenes he starred in, maybe it wasn’t acting.
Vera Farmiga (Touching Evil, The Manchurian Candidate) was mostly okay as more or less a typical concerned mom, but really showed her stuff in the scene where she had a showdown with the perverted couple.
Chazz Palminteri (The Usual Suspects, Mulholland Falls) played a dirty detective trying to bring Joey down.  His character seemed a little minor and not well motivated.
Overall this film is not really worth the celluloid it’s printed on, let alone your box office dollars.  However, if you’re still interested in seeing it after reading this, than at least wait until you have a coupon for a free DVD; but even then.

Just about everyone today is probably still familiar with the lovable, mischief-raising Pink Panther from a cartoon series they would have seen on Saturday mornings.  What you may not realize is that the Pink Panther actually got its beginnings with a series of movies, starting Peter Sellers as a clueless French detective after a jewel thief, the first of which came out in 1963, titled, The Pink Panther.

Fast forward 43 years.  Now Steve Martin is taking up from Sellers as the bumbling French Inspector Jacques Clouseau, in what is essentially a prequel to the 1963 original as the story explains how, despite his inept disposition, actually moved up the ranks to a first class Inspector with the French Police.

Immediately after winning a key football game (err, that’s soccer here in North America), the head coach of the French team is murdered right on the field in front of millions of fans and his priceless Pink Panther diamond, which he was wearing only moments before he was killed, is missing.

Chief Inspector Dreyfus of the French Police knows this won’t be easy to solve.  So he decides to begin a quiet investigation while promoting clueless Officer Jacques Clouseau to full Inspector to make some general noise on the case.

As Inspector Clouseau follows lead after lead that eventually take him as far New York City where his French accent runs him into trouble, he is making a name for himself as a reputable Inspector.

What really holds this movie together and keeps your attention is the amount of unending energy Steve Martin (Cheaper by the Dozen, Father of the Bride) gives the role. He does very well to hold his French accent throughout and does well to get some good laughs out of it such as in a scene where he is trying to learn an American accent.  He also has the ability to, through his wildly clueless antics, pass his energy level on to his costars in a way that most of the other actors only come off as good in the scenes that they share with Martin.

This is especially true of Kevin Kline which is disappointing given his outstanding performances in films such as The Emperor’s Club and Dave.  In this movie however, unless he’s sharing a scene with Martin, Kline comes off as very dry and uninteresting.

An exception however might be professional recording artist Beyoncé Knowles (Austin Powers: Goldmember) who stars as the widow of the murdered soccer coach.  In fact, she may have given her role just a little too much energy as she displayed very little, if any, grief over her murdered husband nor was it a plot point for her not to.

Born in Morocco to Spanish parents, Jean Reno (French Kiss, Mission: Impossible) has starred in mostly French films.  Here he plays 2^nd class Inspector Ponton assigned to assist and observe Clouseau.  His character’s intentions are a bit confusing at times, but he obviously has a good heart and proves to be an excellent sidekick to Martin’s Clouseau.  Side note: watch for Reno in the upcoming Da Vinci Code.

British actress Emily Mortimer (Dear Frankie, Disney’s The Kid) is actually quite perfect Clouseau’s equally awkward secretary.  Although she doesn’t really have any scenes without Martin it is difficult to say whether she would have come off as flat as Kline.

Canadian actor Henry Czerny (Mission: Impossible, External Affairs) had a small, but pivotal role as a Russian soccer trainer.  With so few scenes it is difficult to judge his performance.  But, given how pivotal his role was, it would have been nice to see him in a few more scenes.  Perhaps, though, he was, and we’ll get to see those on the DVD when it comes out…perhaps.

While kids may enjoy Martin’s extensive stunts and antics, they may nut understand the plot; even older kids may have a tough time with this.  Certainly anyone high school age and up should be able to appreciate and understand this comedy with some great gags, including one about James Bond.  Overall, for Martin’s performance alone, I do feel this movie was worth my box office bucks.

Having lost his wife less than a year ago, undertaker Cedric Brown is unsure what to do about his seven unruly children who have exhausted 17 different nannies.  The agency has closed their doors on him, claiming they have no more nannies for his children. 

The children themselves are determined to rid themselves of every nanny that comes their way, and have made it clear that they do not wish their father to remarry, as every stepmother they have ever read about in fairy tales turned out to be wicked.  They also feel believe their father no longer loves them as he hasn’t spent any time with them since their mother passed on.

In a time before iPods and Playstations, before computers and even televisions, before even radios and automobiles, Nanny McPhee descends upon the Brown house, looking rather witch-like in appearance.  With seemingly magical powers, Nanny McPhee quickly convinces the children to start behaving and put themselves to bed. 

Her terms are simple:  She is there to teach the children five simple lessons; any other lessons they learn as a result are their own doing.  She also tells the children that as long as they need her but don’t want her, she will stay.  But as soon as they want her, but don’t need her, she will leave; that’s simply how she works.

Meanwhile, the father, Cedric, is faced with another dilemma.  As his job at the funeral parlor does not earn him enough money to support seven children, the children’s Great Aunt Adelaide has agreed to send the family a monthly check to allow them to get by.  However, she has recently written to say that if he does not find a new wife and mother for the children within a month, she will cut off that support, resulting in the loss of their house and the breakup of their family.

Filled with lots of fun moments for kids, this film is not devoid of appeal for adults.  In fact it tends to border on the same level of quirkiness that Tim Burton brought to last year’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

As you might of guessed the children aren’t really all that rotten, they really are just reaching out for someone to show that they’re loved.

Emma Thompson (Junior, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) has done quite the job of taking on the dual role of both screenwriter and title character.  Having not read the Nurse Matilda books, upon which this film is based, I can’t tell you faithful she was to those, however, I can tell you she has done a great job of supplying director Kirk Jones with what he needed to create the world of the Brown family their servants and their neighbors.  My only complaint would probably be that too much attention seemed to be drawn to the fact one of Nanny McPhee’s warts disappeared after the children learned their second lesson.  I suppose this point helps the younger audiences whose attention spans are not that of most adults, but for older viewers, it seems to be overdone.

Colin Firth (The English Patient, Bridget Jones’s Diary) does quite well as the Dad trying to hold on to his last bit of sanity in the face of having lost his wife, seven children who refuse to behave, and the prospect of losing everything he cares about if he doesn’t marry within a month.  Not an easy task to portray the weight of all that, but Firth pulls it off.

Kelly Macdonald (Trainspotting, Finding Neverland) plays Evangaline, Mr. Brown’s maid, who does actually care for his children, and secretly harbors a crush for her employer, but does not see a way given their working relationship and the fact that she is uneducated.

Veteran Actress Angela Lansbury (“Murder, She Wrote”, Beauty and the Beast) is nearly unrecognizable as Great Aunt Adelaide.  But she plays the part of an obtuse, prim and proper old woman perfectly.

He may be young, but with already ten films and three television series under his belt, Thomas Sangster (The Miracle of the Cards; Love Actually) did quite well at taking the lead child role in this film.  A character whose siblings look up to and must learn to make some adult decisions along the way for the good of his father and his family.

If you’ve got kids or just enjoy solid, well-written family films, it’s definitely worth your box-office bucks.  However, if you’re not much on family fare, you may want to wait for the DVD rental.