Short Redhead Reel Reviews
©1986 through 2012 by Wendy Schadewald
www.shortredheadreelreviews.com
Rating Legend: (4=Don't miss, 3=Good, 2=Worth a look, 1=Forget it)
“Baja’s Ocean Oasis” (NR) (3) [DVD only]
Stunning photography dominates this informative 2000 IMAX documentary that focuses on the diverse landscape of California’s Baja peninsula that ranges from untouched desert to evergreens and Mexico’s Sea of Cortez and the myriad of creatures living in this region, including humpback and gray whales, manta rays, dolphins, hammerhead and gray sharks, scorpion fish, elephant seals, frog fish, Creole fish, sea urchins, sergeant major fish, hawk fish, seahorses, king angelfish, jellyfish, terns, ospreys, gulls, rattle snakes, and kangaroo rats.
“Ballets Russes” (NR) (3.5) [DVD only]
Marian Seldes narrates this informative, in-depth documentary that gives a four-decade history of the origins of ballet beginning in the early 1930s by interweaving interviews with legendary ballet dancers such as Nathalie Krassovska, Dame Alicia Markova, Tania Riabouchinska, Irina Baronova, Yvonne Chouteau, Yvonne Craig, Frederic Franklin, Marc Platt, George Zoritch, Alan Howard, and Maria Tallchief with black-and-white photographs, films clips, and snippets of live performances from famous ballets, including Union Pacific, Le Beau Danube, Camille, the Nutcracker, 7th Symphony, Aurora's Wedding, Rodeo, and Song of Norway.
“BloodRayne” (R) (1.5) [Strong bloody violence, some sexuality, and nudity.] [DVD only]
A violent, blood-gushing, subpar horror flick based on the videogame about a curvy half-human vampire (Kristanna Loken) who is being doggedly pursued by stalwart bloodsucker hunters (Michael Madsen, Matthew Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, et al.) while seeking revenge against her power-hungry father (Ben Kingsley) after he raped and killed her mother in 19th century Romania.
“Daffy’s Rhapsody” (NR) (2.5)
A funny, 4-minute, 3D, Looney Tunes cartoon in which talented Daffy Duck (voiceover by Mel Blanc) sings a rhyming song onstage while trying to evade frustrated, rifle-toting, tuxedo-wearing hunter Elmer Fudd (voiceover by Billy West).
“Duma” (PG) (3.5) [Mild adventure peril.] [DVD only]
After his father (Campbell Scott) dies and a young boy (Alex Michaeletos) moves to the city with his mother (Hope Davis) in this family-oriented film, he hastily begins a harrowing journey in South Africa to return to the wild a pet cheetah he has raised since it was orphaned as a cub.
“Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag” (G) (3) [DVD only]
Michael Hanrahan narrates this educational IMAX documentary that focuses on pilot John Stratton who joins other fighter pilots in the Nevada desert to train and practice combat exercises and aerial maneuvers during simulated air battles by using stealth, F15, viper, B1, and U2 aircraft.
“The First Grader” (PG-13) (4) [Some disturbing violent content and brief nudity.] [DVD only]
An inspirational, heartwarming, poignant, factually based, 2010 film in which partially deaf, tenacious, 84-year-old, former Mau Mau freedom fighter Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge (Oliver Litondo), who is haunted by the horrors he experienced while imprisoned for years under British rule when he steadfastly refused to renounce his allegiance to Kenya, desperately wants to learn how to read and convinces compassionate, kindhearted schoolteacher Jane Obinchu (Naomie Harris) to allow him to join her enthusiastic 6-year-old students into her already overfilled classroom despite opposition from the school administration and parents and the concern of her husband (Tony Kgoro).
“Glory Road” (PG) (3.5) [Racial issues, including violence and epithets, and momentary language.] [DVD only]
When passionate, no-nonsense, forward-thinking coach Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) moves his supportive wife (Emily Deschanel) and family to El Paso, Texas, to coach the Miners basketball team along with two skeptical assistants (Red West and Evan Jones) at Texas Western University in this factually based, feel-good Walt Disney film, the coaches and their talented team (Derek Luke, Alphonso McAuley, Damaine Radcliff, Al Shearer, Samuel Jones III, Schin A.S. Kerr, Mehcad Brooks, Austin Nichols, Kip Weeks, et al.) blaze new ground and face blatant discrimination when several leery black players are recruited and end up in the starting lineup at the NCAA national championship in 1966 against the Kentucky Wildcats coached by arrogant coach Adolph Rupp (Jon Voight).
“Grandma’s Boy” (R) (.5) [Drug use and language throughout, strong crude and sexual humor, and nudity.] [DVD only]
A weed-smoking videogame tester (Allen Covert) who works with an eclectic group of eccentric employees (Joel Moore, Linda Cardellini, Nick Swardson, Jonah Hill, Kelvin Yu, et al.) at a design firm in this painfully unfunny, inane, crude comedy ends up moving in with his kindhearted grandmother (Doris Roberts) and her two roommates (Shirley Jones and Shirley Knight) after his smarmy landlord (Rob Schneider) kicks him out of his apartment.
“Hoodwinked!”(PG) (2.5) [Some mild action and thematic elements.] [DVD only]
While a long-eared goodie bandit and his accomplices steal recipes and are on the loose in the woods in this satirical, pun-filled, animated musical sprinkled with classic characters, the soft-shoed detective (voiceover by David Ogden Stiers) and his furry team interrogate Little Red Riding Hood (voiceover by Anne Hathaway) and a yodeling Paul Bunyanesque woodsman (voiceover by James Belushi) after an investigative reporter (voiceover by Patrick Warburton) in wolf’s clothing is caught impersonating a risk-taking, extreme-sports-indulging granny (voiceover by Glenn Close).
“Hostel” (R) (1) [Brutal scenes of torture and violence, strong sexual content, language, and drug use.] [DVD only]
Quentin Tarantino backed this gruesome Eli Roth horror film in which two typical girl-seeking American friends (Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson) and a horny Icelander (Eythor Gudjonsson) are backpacking their way through Europe and get more than they bargained for when they are lured to a not-on-the-map hostel in Slovakia in the hopes of bedding beautiful women (Barbara Nedeljakova and Jana Kaderabkova) after foolishly acting on a tip from a guy (Lubomir Bukovy) in Amsterdam; only for diehard horror fans.
“Journey 2: Mysterious Island” (PG) (2) [Some adventure action, and brief mild language.]
After a rebellious Ohio teenager (Josh Hutcherson) receives a coded message from his long-lost, adventure-seeking grandfather (Michael Caine) in this family-friendly, silly, farfetched, 3D, fantasy film, which is based on the Jules Verne classic, he and his muscle-laden stepfather (Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson), who owns a construction company with his new wife (Kristin Davis), go to Palau where they hire a scruffy pilot (Luis Guzmán) and his comely daughter (Vanessa Hudgens) to help them find the mysterious, uncharted island in the South Pacific.
“The Killing” (NR) (3.5) [Plays only on Feb. 15]
Bodies eventually pile up and money goes flying in Stanley Kubrick’s smartly written, tension-filled, black-and-white, 85-minute, 1956 noir classic film when an ex-convict (Sterling Hayden) with a needy girlfriend (Colleen Gray), a henpecked cashier (Elisha Cook Jr.) married to a shrill wife (Marie Windsor) who is cheating on him with a younger lover (Vince Edwards), a gambling-addicted patrolman (Ted de Corsia), a horse track bartender (Joe Sawyer), an elderly husband (Jay C. Flippen) with a sickly wife (Dorothy Adams), and a meticulous gunman (Timothy Carey) plan to rob the Mafia of $2 million at the racetrack.
“The Matador” (R) (3) [DVD only]
When a Denver salesman (Greg Kinnear) takes a trip to Mexico City with his business partner in the hopes of changing his string of bad luck for him and his wife (Hope Davis) in this delightfully quirky film, a chance encounter with a sloshed, smarmy assassin (Pierce Brosnan) at a hotel bar begins an unlikely friendship that helps them both through troubled times.
“Mrs. Henderson Presents” (R) (3.5) [Nudity and brief language.] [DVD only]
A factually inspired film about a feisty, forward-thinking, wealthy English widow (Judi Dench) who surprises her equally wealthy friends when she renovates a rundown London theater in 1937 and hires a general manager (Bob Hoskins) to implement her controversial, bawdy vaudeville show concept and to make her risky investment a success.
“Pina” (PG) (3) [Some sensuality/partial nudity, and smoking.]
Striking contemporary and ballet dancers (Regina Advento, Rainer Behr, Andrey Berezin, Bénédicte Billet, Maiou Airaudo, Ruth Amarante, Ales Cucek, Lutz Förster, Pablo Aran Gimeno, Josephine Ann Endicott, Mechthild Grossmann, Silvia Farias Heredía, et al.) of the Tanztheater Wuppertal dance company highlight this creative, engaging, Oscar-nominated, 3D, 104-minute, Wim Wender documentary, which has minimal dialogue and archival film footage, pays tribute to legendary German choreographer Pina Bausch and showcases excerpts from her choreographed dance routines, including Café Müller, The Rite of Spring, Full Moon, Volmond, and Kontakthof, that were brilliantly performed on stage and outdoors in Wuppertal, Germany.
"Safe House" (R) (3.5) [Strong violence throughout and some language.]
Car chases abound and bullets fly in this intense, riveting, action-paced, fast-paced, unpredictable, blood-splattered, star-studded (Rubén Blades. Robert Patrick, and Liam Cunningham) film when a wet-behind-the-ears CIA agent (Ryan Reynolds) tries to determine whether he can trust his CIA bosses (Sam Shepard, Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga, et al.) after a safe house is breached in Cape Town, South Africa, while trying to keep tabs on a rogue CIA agent (Denzel Washington) who is wanted on four continents for espionage.
“Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace” (PG) (3) [Sci-fi action/violence.]
Amazing special effects compensate for a weak plot in this rerelease of the fast-paced, action-packed, 3D, 136-minute, 1999 prequel in which a skillful Jedi master (Liam Neeson), his devoted apprentice (Ewan McGregor), and a young boy (Jake Lloyd) help a teenage queen (Natalie Portman) defend her planet against the predaceous Trade Federation.
“The Thaw” (R) (1.5) [Violence, disturbing images, language, and brief sexuality.] [DVD only]
When scientists (Val Kilmer, Anne Marie DeLuise, et al.) discover a very dangerous and highly adaptable insect alive in a prehistoric mammoth found in the Arctic while studying the impact of global warming on polar bears in this run-of-the-mill, tepid, 2009 horror film, the discovery threatens the lives of his daughter (Martha MacIsaac), ecology students (Aaron Ashmore, Steph Song, Kyle Schmid, et al.), pilots (Viv Leacock, Kurt Evans, and Shawn Stone), and ultimately, the world.
“Tristan & Isolde” (PG-13) (3) [Intense battle sequences and some sexuality.] [DVD only]
After a skillful medieval English warrior (James Franco) unknowingly falls in love with a comely Irish princess (Sophia Myles) in this factually based, battle-heavy love story with hints of Romeo and Juliet, he ends up competing in a hand-to-hand combat tournament in the hopes of winning the beautiful daughter of the power-hungry Irish king (David O’Hara) for his benevolent English lord (Rufus Sewell) thereby avoiding bloodshed in another war.
"The Vow" (PG-13) (3.5) [An accident scene, sexual content, partial nudity, and some language.]
When his artistic, sculptor wife (Rachel McAdams), who is estranged from her parents (Jessica Lange and Sam Neill) and her engaged sister (Jessica McNamee), loses her memory due to a traumatic brain injury after a tragic car accident in Chicago in this heart-tugging, factually based, romantic chick flick, a frustrated, desperate, and sad recording studio owner (Channing Tatum) tries to renew and nurture his lost relationship with his wife, who was engaged to a jealous lawyer (Scott Speedman) at one time.
The following films play as part of the IMAX 3D Film Festival held Feb. 10-March 8 at the IMAX Zoo:
“Born to Be Wild” (G) (2.5)[Plays as part of the IMAX 3D Film Festival held Feb. 10-March 8 at the Great Clips IMAX Theater at the Minnesota Zoo.]
Morgan Freeman narrates this educational, smile-inducing, inspirational, 3D, 40-minute IMAX documentary that chronicles the efforts of Dame Daphne Sheldrick to help traumatized orphaned baby elephants in Kenya for more than 50 years after poachers have killed their mothers and primatologist Dr. Birute Mary Galdikas to help save orphaned and captive orangutans in Borneo after they have lost their Indonesian rainforest habitat through governmental corruption and illegal logging and to release the great apes back into the wild through rehabilitation.
“Hubble 3D” (G)(3.5) [Plays as part of the IMAX 3D Film Festival held Feb. 10-March 8 at the Great Clips IMAX Theater at the Minnesota Zoo.]
Leonardo DiCaprio narrates this enthralling, educational, 3D, 45-minute, 2010 IMAX documentary that shows stunning Hubble photographs from space, including the Orion Nebula, the Pillars of Creation, Andromeda, Virgo’s Cluster, and the Milky Way, and chronicles the May 2009 mission of the Atlantis space shuttle crew (Scott D. Altman, Andrew J. Feuste, Michael T. Good, John M. Grunfeld, Gregory C. Johnson, Michael J. Massimino, and Megan McArthur) to repair and enhance the Hubble telescope.
“The Ultimate Wave Tahiti” (NR) (2.5) [Plays as part of the IMAX 3D Film Festival held Feb. 10-March 8 at the Great Clips IMAX Theater at the Minnesota Zoo.]
Beautiful scenery and striking cinematography highlights this educational, 45-minute, 3D, 2010 IMAX documentary narrated by Michael Hanrahan that focuses on diehard surfer Kelly Slater, who has won the World Surfing Championship nine times, and legendary Tahitian surfer Raimana Van Bastolear as they seek the perfect waves of the shallow Teahupo’o barrier reef off the idyllic Polynesian island of Tahiti.
The preceding films were reviewed by Wendy Schadewald, who has been a Burnsville film critic since 1986. To see more of her film reviews, log on to www.shortredheadreelreviews.com.