Category: External Movie DVDs (Page 50 of 74)

Larry the Cable Guy may have his legion of fans, but even they must’ve realized by now that the blue-collar comic just isn’t cut out to be a movie star. In his latest film, Larry plays a small-town sheriff who rescues a damsel in distress (Ivana Milicevic) from a group of supposed kidnappers. As it turns out, they’re actually FBI agents escorting the woman to Chicago as the lead witness of a corporate scandal, but when it’s uncovered that they’re also in cahoots with the company’s criminal boss (Peter Stormare), Larry takes it upon himself to protect his hostage from further danger. As you can probably imagine, “Witless Protection” is one of the worst movies you’ll see all year. The film isn’t just plain bad, either – it’s the most overacted, under-directed film in cinematic history. Larry acts like a class-A dumbass every chance he gets, while B-list co-stars like Stormare, Joe Mantegna and Eric Roberts should be shot dead for stooping so low. It’s one thing to appear in a movie like this when you don’t know any better, but veteran actors like them should show a little more integrity when earning their next paycheck.

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In true Hong Kong fashion, “Invisible Target” starts off with a bang when an armored truck is hijacked by a murderous gang of criminal brothers (led by Jacky Wu Jing). Double-crossed and left with nothing to show for it, the gang returns six months later to smoke out the inside man who sold them out. Standing in their way are three cops who are all after the gang for different reasons. Chan Chun (Nicholas Tse) wants to avenge the death of his fiancée, who was killed during the robbery; Carson Fong (Shan Yue) wants to prove himself as a detective; and rookie officer Wai King Ho (Jaycee Chan) is looking for his missing older brother, who was working undercover as a member of the gang.

Hong Kong action thrillers have become extremely formulaic over the last few years, and while a majority of them still manage to be better than average, they’re rarely ever memorable. They’re also some of the worst paced films in cinema, so when it was my brought to my attention that “Invisible Target” clocked in at 130 minutes, I was dreading the worst. As it turns out, the film actually keeps things moving along thanks to some high-energy action sequences, but it slows down considerably after the first hour. Still, while “Invisible Target” is far from Dragon Dynasty’s best modern release, it’s definitely worth checking out. Director Benny Chan conducts some of the best action sequences in the business, while U.S. audiences will get their first look at Jaycee Chan (son of Jackie Chan), who is more than talented enough to take over his father’s legacy.

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It wasn’t that long ago that I saw a poster for “Mama’s Boy” promoting its upcoming release at a major theater chain (after all, you don’t forget a poster featuring Jon Heder wearing a goofy Viking outfit), but its recent debut on DVD seems to indicate those plans have since been abandoned. Of course, with a recent string of box office duds under their belt, Warner Bros. probably felt that a theatrical release wasn’t worth the effort, and they were right. It’s not that the movie is unwatchable, but rather that it’s so much like the ill-received “Mr. Woodcock” that the chances of it turning a profit weren’t strong enough to warrant a publicity campaign. The film stars Heder as Jeffrey Manus, a 29-year-old mama’s boy who, following the death of his father, has pledged to remain at home with his mother (Diane Keaton) for the rest of his life. But when her new boyfriend, Mert Rosenbloon (Jeff Daniels), suddenly moves in, Jeffrey engages in a childish rivalry to win over his mom’s attention. Though the film shares many similarities with “Mr. Woodcock,” the one thing “Mama’s Boy” is not is a dark comedy. Instead, the film takes a more straightforward approach, and it’s all the better for it. It’s not a great film by any means, but “Mama’s Boy” is innocent enough that fans of Heder won’t feel entirely guilty picking it up.

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