Gallo, George

My Mom's New Boyfriend

The premise is delicious: A young, by-the-book FBI agent (Colin Hanks) is assigned his new highest-profile assignment yet--spying on his own mother (Meg Ryan). My Mom's New Boyfriend is a romantic comedy long on both romance and comedy, and gives Ryan her first film in a long time where she can take the laughs and run with them. Viewers will remember, with a grateful sigh, why she long reigned as the queen of American romantic comedy. Ryan plays Marty, devoted mom, who last saw her son, Henry (Hanks), three years ago when she was unhealthy, coarse, and overweight (looking like she might have borrowed Monica's fat suit from Friends). When Henry returns home from his secret op, fiancée in tow (Selma Blair), Marty's still coarse, but has become a babe with a healthy libido. ("Oh Henry, lighten up!" is Marty's oft-repeated refrain.) Henry is horrified, but his girlfriend, Emily, is entranced. In fact, some of the film's best chemistry is between these two gifted actresses, as they spark and feed off each other's energy. When Marty takes up with the sultry Tommy (Antonio Banderas), Henry gets the ultimate "TMI" assignment: spying on his mom and her honey, suspected in an art-theft ring. Hanks squirms convincingly, Banderas smolders, and Ryan truly sparkles, giving her wacky side free rein. If the plot has a few potholes, it doesn't matter, since the cast is so stellar and has such magnetism. By sheer determination and talent, the ensemble delivers laughs and poignancy, by turns. Extras include deleted scenes (and a few memorable bloopers), and a behind-the-scenes featurette on filming on location in northern Louisiana. --A.T. Hurley

After a three-year assignment in the field FBI agent Henry Durand (Colin Hanks) returns home with his fiance (Selma Blair) only to find his once-dowdy over weight mother Martha has transformed into the highly attractive enlightened Marty (Meg Ryan) who dates every night of the week. When Marty meets the mysterious Tommy (Antonio Banderas) Henry is ordered to spy on his mother after learning Tommy may be involved in an international art theft ring.

29th Street

Anthony LaPaglia of WITHOUT A TRACE stars as Frank Pesce, the $6.2 million winner of the first New York State Lottery. Unfortunately, Frank is also a full-time dreamer cursed with a lifetime of great luck, a bickering Italian-American family, and a love-hate relationship with his loser gambler father, Frank Sr. (Oscar® nominee Danny Aiello of DO THE RIGHT THING and MOONSTRUCK). But when Frank Jr. makes a deal with local mobsters, will his lottery prize be his unluckiest break ever? Fuhgeddaboutit! The biggest jackpot of all may be waiting for Frank and his father among the good guys, bad guys and wiseguys of 29th STREET. Lainie Kazan (MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING), Oscar® nominee Robert Forster (JACKIE BROWN), Tony Sirico (Paulie Walnuts of THE SOPRANOS) and Frank Pesce himself co-star in this acclaimed comedy written and directed by George Gallo, the screenwriter of MIDNIGHT RUN.

Dysfunktional Family

Double Take

For reasons that are still fuzzy even by the time final credits roll for Double Take, Wall Street hotshot Daryl Chase (Orlando Jones), framed for both financial wrongdoings and murder, heads to Mexico after exchanging identities with fast-talking Freddie (Eddie Griffin), who is either the key to his freedom or the engineer of his demise. The incomprehensible and supposedly madcap twists and turns that follow make mindless buddy flicks like Rush Hour seem giants of brainy plotting in comparison. The film even features one of those unintentionally hysterical moments in which the villain stops to explain the entire charade to characters who supposedly already know what's going on--and it still doesn't make any sense. None of this would matter, of course, if everything was propelled by some sort of internal screwball logic that had it playfully bouncing over its plot holes. But writer-director George Gallo can't streamline his potential assets--Jones's suave likeability and Griffin's take-no-prisoners crassness--into something that moves. Some of the throwaway comic asides work ("You keep campaigning for this ass-whuppin', you gonna get elected"), but every single one of the extended bits is painfully strained and overdone. Griffin, in particular, becomes desperately obnoxious, and saddling him with clumsy comments on race and social status in a comedy that is ultimately about neither doesn't help. Try 48 Hours instead. --Steve Wiecking

Outrageously funny and charged with explosive action, hot young comedy stars Eddie Griffin (DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO) and Orlando Jones (THE REPLACEMENTS) team up for a fast-paced adventure in the tradition of BLUE STREAK and RUSH HOUR. Framed in a multimillion-dollar money-laundering scheme, upstanding investement banker Daryl Chase (Jones) suddenly finds himself running from the FBI -- and swapping identities with loudmouthed, low-life petty thief Freddy Tiffany (Griffin). Then, as he dashes for the Mexican border in search of the one man who can clear his name, Daryl discovers his new alias is even more wanted than he is. With hilarious performances and nonstop excitement at every turn, buckle up for a riotous road trip as this wildly mismatched pair deliver the laughs in double time!

Trapped in Paradise

Three brothers (Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz, Dana Carvey) with a streak of lawbreaking in them head to a small town in Pennsylvania called Paradise, intending to rob a ripe bank there. But the people in the community turn out to be so nice that the thought of ripping them off proves difficult to imagine. The three leads each get to do their uniquely comic shticks, and that makes this film marginally watchable. But the pace is enervating and the story's main idea isn't all that well developed. --Tom Keogh

Three inept New York brothers easily rob the bank in Paradise, but getting out of the snowbound town is a problem.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD

29th Street [Region 2]

Dude, Where's My Car/Trapped in Paradise