The premise is simple but effective: Joey McIntyre attends his uncle’s wake and is heavily moved by the coming together of family & friends. He decides to encapsulate his experience by writing a play, and furthermore, bringing it to stage in hopes of reinvigorating his sour relationship with his father.

Along the way this movie features spurts of comedy, drama, emotion, and most importantly – inspiration. Sure the plot setup may have dragged a little slowly in the beginning, but the latter two thirds of the movie creates a relationship with the viewer that we all can relate with because we’ve all had similar challenges.

Though it’s a low budget independent film, the feel good smile on your face as you leave the theater is worthy of a big time blockbuster.

On Broadway is about family, heritage, pride, and taking chances.  I recommend it.

The movie trailer is out – see below

One of things I hate about seing movies that are ripe with so much fanfare is that I tend to go into the theater with such elevated expectations, and typically they never live up to the hype (read: Little Miss Sunshine).

Couple that with the fact that for Best Picture this movie is currently the leader in the clubhouse, and thus you can imagine my apprehension about getting too excited to see it.

I’ll say this: This is a good movie. Is it great?  Gosh, I don’t know.  The acting is solid (as evidenced by all the Academy Awards nominations). And the storyline is, well, okay I guess.  If I had to encapsulate it in a sentence, it would be along the lines of “Man stumbles upon a briefcase with a lot of money, only to have a psychotic bounty hunter chase him, while the local sheriff gets philosophical about life” or something like that.

If anything, I think Josh Brolin’s performance has gone somewhat unnoticed, and Kelly McDonald somehow skillfully shed her heavy Irish accent to play a housewife from Texas.

If this movie wins Best Picture, definitely no complaints from me. The Coen Brothers have certainly earned it with this one.  But… if there’s an upset and this movie doesn’t win, then no harm no foul.

Make sense?

You be the judge…

The verdict?  No.

I knew I was in trouble right away when the storyline was revealed in the first 5 minutes – an eye-catching cashier transfers to a store where it is learned (via her “personnel file”) that she tends to only sleep with men who are Employee of the Month winners.  That’s all you need to know.

I’ll give Dane Cook a pass here, though his acting was well below par. Perhaps his poor acting was heavily overshadowed by Jessica Simpson’s terrible performance. Not only was her role not convincing, but it was annoying. 

There is one saving grace in this movie – the outstanding performance of Dax Shepard.  He plays the villain in this movie, but sells the part with great machismo and believabilty, while keeping me laughing the entire time!  He makes seeing this movie worth the experience, but unfortunately that’s the only worthwhile reason.

I won’t recommend this movie, but if you must see it, enjoy Dax Shepard’s performance, and little else.

Admittedly, I took this show for granted. Often it would be the show that I’d fall asleep to when watching on Wednesday (seldom would I ever catch an entire episode). But in looking around, in an age when the marriage between football and television has become more spectacle than substance, Inside the NFL never compromised… sticking to a formula that worked.

Sure, the hosts may have changed over the years, but the production value was classy, the insight was hard-hitting, and there was no fancy theme music nor ex-athletes posing as commentators trying to yell over one another.

This show is (was) a class act.

And it will be missed.

And if you’re hoping to find “Nobody puts Baby in the corner” listed as one of the worst one-liners ever, well, think again.

You be the judge. The full list is available at ew.com

Enter Juno.

I had first heard about Juno about a year ago when listening to a Jason Reitman podcast about the making of Thank You For Smoking. In that podcast, Jason started talking about his next feature film, Juno. 

Juno works on many levels. Nevermind the social issues surrounding pro-life vs pro-choice, but apply it against the backdrop of a devilishly hip teenage girl who is as fierce as she is determined.  Couple that with great dialogue (screenwriter Diablo Cody) and a witty, humorous beat that is not funny ha-ha but instead funny in the heart.

The actors also sell this movie. JK Simmons and Allison Janney prove the worth of great supporting actors, while Michael Cera stays out of the way enough not to make this into a Super Bad spinoff. Enter Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner, who both are perfectly cast  in this movie.

But without a doubt, the refreshing highlight of this little gem was its star Ellen Page.  Admittedly, I never really heard of her prior to this movie. But after sitting through 90 minutes of her craft, it’s became no surprise that she was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Actress.

Juno is a movie that not only would I see again, but would even do the unthinkable: I would place my advance DVD order now.

Juno is what truly is wonderful about film… It’s a reprieve – an emotional “time-out” that will make you leave the theater glowing with a smile.

Thank god for Juno.

However, after watching The Kingdom, my assessment of this movie can only be characterized as “okay” or “decent” but not great.

A few reasons, but primarily storyline.  I know we live in a day of suspending disbelief and taking creative license, but c’mon, when three FBI agents take on at least a dozen soldiers in a shootout (equipped with machine guns nonetheless) and none of the good guys are shot, one has to wonder about authenticity.  It’s not director Peter Berg’s fault.  Movies such as Syriana prey heavily upon the reality of terror, and not the procedural storyline of getting from point A to point B with no bullet wounds.

One of the redeeming parts of The Kingdom is it’s eloquent ending. Without providing spoilers, let’s just say that the movie does a great job (and fair) of showing us both sides of the story.

Chris Cooper is solid as always, and Foxx cashes in a good performance as the leader. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman add lukewarm performances in a supporting role (I’d rather see those two together in Juno).

The Kingdom is okay, but not great.

Sound familiar?   Of course it does, because it happens to all of us. 

This is what happened when I came across the small masterpiece known simply as “Clerks II.”

First, a bit of disclosure:  I have never seen the original Clerks (which I’m told is a must-see because it clarifies much of the storyline in Clerks II).

I guess what makes this movie a guilty pleasure is it’s very screwy sense of humor combined with its surreal perspective of life.  Also, this movie doesn’t doesn’t sell out or compromise; there’s no abiding by any type of “formula” in that it spits out humorous set pieces without any preconceived explanation or cliche’ setup.

Needless to say, the original Clerks is next on my Netflix list.

Enjoy.