JACF

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Movie Reviews

Derailed
STARRING: Clive Owen, Jennifer Aniston, Melissa George, Vincent Cassel, Robert 'The RZA' Diggs, Xzibit, Addison Timlin, Tom Conti, Giancarlo Esposito, Rachel Blake, Georgina Chapman
DIRECTOR: Mikael H�fstrom
STUDIO: THe Weinstein Compant/ Miramax
RATING: R
GENRE: Suspence/ Thriller/ Drama
RELEASE DATE: November 11, 2005
DVD RELEASE:

 There are parts of Derailed that seem unlikely, but a man falling for Jennifer Aniston isn't one of them.
 The minute Clive Owen's character spies her stocking-clad stems peeking from behind a seat, we know he's in a passel of trouble. He sinks deeper in the quicksand when she pays for his train ticket because he has forgotten to bring any money. ...Aniston makes Derailed work because she's so appealing and because she gives a credible performance that's closer to The Good Girl than her cotton-candy role on Friends. Owen, Oscar-nominated for Closer last year, plays the lapsing husband with a nice blend of hesitancy and guilt...Derailed is one of those movies that would be 15 minutes long if somebody called the cops. But nobody does. Because Jen says not to.
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Along Came Polly
STARRING: Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing, Hank Azaria, Alec Baldwin, Bryan Brown, Jsu Garcia, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Mitch Silpa, Cheryl Hines
DIRECTOR: John Hamburg
STUDIO:Universal Pictures
RATING: PG-13
GENRE: Comedy / Romance
RELEASE DATE: January 16, 2004
DVD RELEASE: June 8, 2004

 by Steve Davis
 ...Along Came Polly brings writer/director John Hamburg back together with actor Ben Stiller, who worked together on their two previous flicks, Meet the Parents and Zoolander. The difference is that this time Hamburg finds himself in his directorial debut with his very own script, which he wrote with Stiller in mind.
 It was no mistake that Stiller got this part and it is his great ability to work as the awkward straight man, a part he mastered in There's Something About Mary and Meet the Parents, that makes it so successful and just like those films Along Came Polly is just as fun and just as comical.
 With the comic abilities of Ben Stiller matched with the beauty of Jennifer Aniston where could it go wrong? Aniston is the perfect opposite to Stiller and carries the funny and the drama of Along Came Polly and melds it with her attraction to Stiller's character. That said I do have to point out that her attraction is perplexing, and never really explained, but the two do have sufficient chemistry.
 For the most part this movie is exactly what you might expect from the previews. However, there are two big surprises.
 The first is the performance by Phillip Seymour Hoffman who playing Ruben's best friend Sandy. He is by far the funniest part of the movie, and steals every scene he's in. The second is the performance of Hank Azaria as a Frenchman Scuba Diver. Azaria is hardly recognizable, and his accent is hilarious.
 The best way to describe Along Came Polly is fun and a source of big laughs. It should do well at the box office and gives Aniston one more notch in her belt of successful films after Bruce Almighty in her soon-to-be post-"Friends" soiree.
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Bruce Almighty
STARRING: Jim Carrey, Jennifer Aniston, Morgan Freeman, Lisa Ann Water, Nora Dunn
DIRECTOR: Tom Shadyac
STUDIO: Universal Pictures
RATING: PG-13
GENRE: Comedy / Romance
RELEASE DATE: May 23, 2003
DVD RELEASE: August 24, 2004

 by Rod Blackwelder
 "Bruce Almighty" is one of Carrey's funniest and smartest movies -- right up to the point when the screenwriters and director Tom Shadyac ("Ace Ventura," "Liar Liar," "Patch Adams") reel in the clever comedy and roll out the stock plot conflicts (Grace walks in on Bruce being kissed by a sexpot anchorwoman and now he must win her back!) and the cloying, heavy-handed moral-of-the-story messages.
 Carrey can't carry this cheaply sentimental stuff (and he shouldn't have to), so as a result the movie almost crashes and burns in its last reel. (Closing-credit outtakes to the rescue!) But even blinded by mawkishness, Shaydac manages to land this plane on one engine with the help of his great cast.
 Before he's called on to get gushy, Carrey finds a hilarious but entirely human happy medium between his wacko side and his Everyman appeal. Flexing the talent she proved she has in last year's indie hit "The Good Girl," Aniston is quietly brilliant without doing any scene stealing. Her character has so much depth and resolve that you root for Grace when she leaves Bruce after the co-anchor kiss, because she brought such an emotionally true, genuine-couple dynamic to their relationship. And Freeman is wry yet fervent and humble yet commanding in his performance as the stern but serene and self-amused God.
 These three make it easy to forgive "Bruce Almighty" its shortcomings (especially since Aniston helps the film to find its true heart at the very last minute) -- even if it's hard to forgive the writers for running out of droll, dry ink and filling their quills with sap as they wrote the picture's last chapter.