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Reviewspreviews
The Longest Yard
True to form, Adam Sandler appears in another sports-cum-comedy film, but this time with a difference. In this one he’s not acting like an overgrown baby (Happy Gilmore) or some mentally challenged individual (Waterboy).
Going an extra mile (or should one say yard?) he plays the role of a disgraced football quarterback (Paul Crewe) devoid of the physique and believability as an ex-NFL football player, who gets into trouble for stealing his girlfriend’s (Courtney Cox in a cameo) car in a drunken rage. He is lovingly escorted to prison were he is coerced by the warden (James Cromwell) into coaching the inmates to play against the prison guards in hopes of boosting the team’s morale for future games, with personal gain at the root of it. Of course the prison guards — loaded with steroids — are ready for a smooth victory … with a body count.
Paul gets help from Caretaker (Chris Rock) and Burt Reynolds (the lead in the 1974 original) who lend helping hands to our baffled hero to recruit and train a team made up of petty criminals, murders, sociopaths and gang members, along with a cross-dressing cheerleader’s squadron for team support.
Directed by Peter Segal of Anger Management and 50 First Dates fame, here he gives us nothing memorable except for Chris Rock. The guy scores a touchdown whenever he’s on screen. Still, the movie has some surprises towards the end, which turns it into a somewhat civilized watch for the weekend.—Farheen Jawaid
TremorsTremors gave the horror genre a new bunch of villains known as Graboids. Its success propelled the writer-director team of S. S. Wilson, Brent Maddock and Ron Underwood to come up with three more movies — two sequels and a prequel. Recently a four-disc DVD box set was released to celebrate the success of the films, which began with the ground-breaking first picture in 1990 that featured Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward and Michael Gross, who team up to defeat the monsters in the town of Perfection, Nevada.
In Tremors II (1996), the stinky subterranean man-eating monsters return to haunt an oil company in Mexico and Fred Ward and Michael Gross are engaged to kill them. This time they’re called Shriekers since they are a little different from their predecessors, but equally as dangerous. Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001) features flying Graboids/Shriekers/whatever and although the special effects are not up to the mark, the movie is worth watching because of Michael Gross. He heads the team of locals who had earlier featured in the original Tremors, in removing the creatures from the face of the earth.
In Tremors 4: The Legend Begins, Gross returns to the past as Burt’s great grandfather Hiram to do the one thing a Grummer knows – kill Graboids. Set in 1899, in a site named Rejection Valley, which afterwards became Perfection Valley, the movie shows how the legend of Graboids originated.
All four movies are fun to watch and their availability on DVD makes them a must buy. Do watch them as they will change your concept of Tremors.—Omair Alavi
The 40 Year-Old VirginThe 40 Year-Old Virgin is basically a one-joke movie drawn out to approximately two hours. Our protagonist (Steve Carell) looks happier at rearranging his memorabilia collection rather than chasing dames for close encounters, as most men between their teens and forties do. That is until his friends at work get a whiff and begin coercing him to entrap women with practical, side-splitting antics, which — as everyone knows — almost always backfire.
Though decent for its genre, this film is still not meant for family viewing, unless of course the family happens to be one of those new-type socialites who openly recommend American Pie or Eurotrip for viewing at gatherings.
Carell, previously seen in Bruce Almighty and Anchorman, plays his part so humbly barefaced we would almost end up believing his predictability as he states “I am a virgin. Always have been.” It would be a shame if he doesn’t get his hands on substantial productions in the future.
Judd Apatow, who wrote the screenplay for the film with Carell and who directs as well, aims for a mundane look of sobriety which practically works miracles by identifying with the normal cine-going public, rather then presenting a farce as most of these types of movies do. Also worth mentioning is the considerable support of comedians Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen and Catherine Keener, who plays an online auctioneer working just across the street.—Mohammad Kamran Jawaid
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