Robbins, Brian

Good Burger

Based on a cable-channel Nickelodeon project, Good Burger teams Kel Mitchell and Kenan Thompson as a contemporary Abbott and Costello team, working a fast-food stand while competing with a major chain outlet right across the street. It's sight gags and physical humor galore, and while the film is aimed at kids there's no reason adults can't enjoy if caught in the right mood. --Tom Keogh

GOOD BURGER is the story of two goofy friends, Dexter (Thompson) and Ed (Mitchell), while they spend their summer working at a local burger joint for some extra cash. When Mondo Burger, a mammoth fast-food chain opens across the street, it looks like Good Burger is soon going to be history. Now it is up to Dexter and Ed to save the day, as they develop a delicious special sauce that brings hundreds of new customers to their door and makes their new competition desperate to steal the recipe and all of their customers.

Varsity Blues

In small-town Texas, high school football is a religion. The head coach is deified, as long as the team is winning and 17-year-old schoolboys carry the hopes of an entire community onto the gridiron every Friday night. In his 35th year as head coach, Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight) is trying to lead his West Canaan Coyotes to their 23rd division title. When star quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) suffers an injury, the Coyotes are forced to regroup under the questionable leadership of John Moxon (James Van Der Beek), a second-string quarterback with a slightly irreverent approach to the game. "Varsity Blues" explores our obsession with sports and how teenage athletes respond to the extraordinary pressures places on them.

This MTV-produced drama only looks like an adaptation of H.G. Bissinger's expert dissertation of the church of high school football, Friday Night Lights. The energetic, breezy movie has none of the seriousness of Bissinger's book except on its basic level: in West Texas, high school football is life. Into this world comes Jonathan "Mox" Moxon (James Van Der Beek), a brainy, uncharacteristic jock who sits on the sideline reading Slaughterhouse Five until the West Caanan High School Coyotes All-Texas QB goes down with an injury. Suddenly the spotlight and the tyrannical ways of coach Bud Kilmer (another ace evil turn by Jon Voight) are on Mox and the light is white-hot. There have been several films that show tough, honest kids doing their best against the worst of small-town coaches (Tom Cruise in All the Right Moves, for one) but Varsity Blues, in its glossy style, takes a more curious turn: studying what happens when celebrity comes to the well-adjusted high schooler. Mox starts seeing the rewards of stardom: a six-pack under the counter, acceptance in school, even easy sex from the girl who goes after the starting quarterback (Ali Larter). Will Mox win the big game? Will he bend to the wills of his coach? Will he stay with his old girlfriend? The questions are easy enough to answer, but the film has an ace up its sleeve: Van Der Beek has the stuff to carry the movie. Fans of TV's Dawson's Creek will see a slightly grittier dreamboat here, and Van Der Beek's care with the role makes the most ludicrous parts--including a trip to a strip club--manage a certain aura. --Doug Thomas

The Shaggy Dog

Directed by Brian Robbins (VARSITY BLUES THE PERFECT SCORE) this updated spin on THE SHAGGY DOG and THE SHAGGY D.A. features Tim Allen as Dave Douglas a Deputy District Attorney who spends way too much time at the office and way too little time with his family. His son Joe (Spencer Breslin) feels completely misunderstood and his wife Rachel (Kristin Davis) feels like a single parent. To make matters worse his teenage daughter Carly (Zena Gray) considers Douglas the enemy because he is representing a pharmaceutical company Grant and Strickland in their case against her social studies teacher who is accused of burning down their lab to protest animal testing. Douglas life changes in an instant when animal-loving Carly brings home a friendly shaggy dog that bites the dog-disliking D.A.What Douglas doesn t know is that the dog has a secret. This Tibetan wonder dog is 300 years old as smart as a human and as playful as a pup. Soon Douglas is exhibiting canine tendencies himself - a heightened sense of smell a tendency to growl at opposing counsel in court and an overwhelming urge to defend his front yard. His full transformation to a dog allows him rare insight into what his family really thinks and feels and gives Douglas the opportunity to decide what is truly important. To further complicate matters Grant and Strickland the very company Douglas is representing are certain that the dog that bit him holds the secret to the Fountain of Youth and are determined to learn what it is. Robert Downey Jr. stars as Dr. Kozak Grant and Strickland s evil mastermind and Philip Baker Hall plays head honcho Strickland. Jane Curtin and Danny Glover are also featured.System Requirements:Running Time 99 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 786936709940 Manufacturer No: 05107500

Tim Allen barks, growls, and slobbers his way through the latest remake of the classic Disney suburban fable The Shaggy Dog. A mystical long-lived dog is kidnapped from Tibet by a nefarious corporation; when it escapes, it bites aspiring District Attorney Dave Douglas (Allen, The Santa Clause, Toy Story), who finds himself regressing into a dog in the courtroom. There's more to the plot--something to do with creating a youth serum from the dog's blood--but let's face it, that's not what anyone's going to see the movie for, and the "bad dad remembers how to love his family" theme is equally perfunctory. This is all about Allen running around like a dog and a cute sheepdog running around trying to do human things, and the movie does a competent job of playing with that scenario. Allen throws himself into doggieness with amusing abandon. Also featuring Kristin Davis (Sex and the City), Spencer Breslin (The Cat in the Hat), Jane Curtin (3rd Rock from the Sun), Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), and Robert Downey Jr. (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Wonder Boys), who seems to be enjoying himself as a nefarious scientist at the nefarious corporation. --Bret Fetzer

Ready to Rumble

Gordy (David Arquette of the Scream movies) and Sean (Scott Caan of Varsity Blues) are rabid fans of professional wrestling--in particular, white trash champion Jimmy King (Oliver Platt, Funny Bones, Flatliners). But the show's producer Titus Sinclair (Joe Pantoliano, The Matrix) decides it's time for King to lose his crown and allows Diamond Dallas Page (playing himself) and assorted cronies to tromp all over the fallen King. Crestfallen, Gordy and Sean track King down to convince him to take another shot at the big time. Although in the process they discover that King may not be the man they thought he was, their faith never falters. With the training assistance of an old-school wrestler (Martin Landau), they get King back into the ring to face the triple steel cage. Ready to Rumble is clearly aimed at wrestling fans, who will doubtless enjoy numerous professional wrestlers playing themselves, including Goldberg and Sting, as well as the scantily clad Nitro Girls. The movie isn't exactly Shakespeare, but it has a raffish, affable charm. The jokes stick to the basics, such as people being kicked in the groin and nuns singing Van Halen's "Running with the Devil" with their crystalline soprano voices. And what's wrong with that? As a comedy team, Arquette and Caan aren't Abbott and Costello--they're not even Bill and Ted--but they give it their all and you may find them surprisingly engaging. --Bret Fetzer

Hardball

An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.

Keanu Reeves stars in this story that might best be described as Bad News Bears in the projects. Conor O'Neill (Reeves) is a charming ne'er-do-well with a disturbing gambling addiction. His penchant for betting on the wrong teams leaves him owing several thousand dollars to very violent people, and he ends up coaching a children's baseball team to pay off his debt. The movie skimps a bit on process: the kids start out as terrible players and become better but we don't see how; Conor starts caring but we don't see why. As by-the-numbers movies go, though, it isn't a bad one. The young actors in the cast are talented and understated. Most of the kids' characters are only barely fleshed out by the script, but this keeps the movie from being hijacked by extra-cute mugging. Parents should be cautioned--this movie has some very violent scenes that will frighten young children, and swearing is depicted as precocious and adorable. Still, like a baseball game, it isn't a bad way to spend your time. --Ali Davis

Popular - The Complete First Season

The world of high school gets a treatment both glamorous and terrifying in the TV series Popular. The show spins around two characters: Blonde cheerleader Brooke (Leslie Bibb) and brunette alterna-girl Sam (Carly Pope), each the center of their social groups. To their mutual horror, Brooke's divorced father and Sam's widowed mother fall in love, turning these cultural opposites into stepsisters. The large supporting cast includes overweight but determined Carmen (Sara Rue), conniving Lady-Macbeth-with-pom-poms Nicole (Tammy Lynn Michaels), earnest jock Josh (Bryce Johnson), all-encompassing activist Lily (Tamara Mello), frustrated sensitive boy Harrison (Christopher Gorham), and many others. The key to Popular is how it merges melodramatic soap-opera stories with wrenchingly blunt and honest portrayals of the cruelties of adolescence.

While some viewers may find it galling to listen to a gorgeous young actress who's been on magazine covers moan about how she can't be as perfect as a model, the series tackles everything from anorexia to peer manipulation to teen sex with directness and an eye for moral and emotional complexity. An episode about a Sadie Hawkins dance becomes a satirical farce about body image (female and male); a slumber party turns into brutal humiliation; a teacher decides to get a sex-change operation, prompting anxiety throughout the school. Almost every character gets a moment of heartfelt grandstanding, yet the actors pull them off with commitment and guts (Rue routinely turns speeches that could have been cheesy schlock into genuine pathos). Sure, some fantasy sequences are silly, but the show skillfully creates characters and situations that defy easy definition. Repeatedly, Brooke and Sam each set out with good intentions, only to end up hurting their friends and fueling their antagonistic relationship. Popular cunningly subverts expectations; it's a smart show for both teenagers and adults. --Bret Fetzer

Inside the walls of Kennedy High, there's a war being waged for the most elusive prize of all...popularity. Get into the heart of the battle as Nicole, Josh, Sam, Mary Cherry and all the characters you love (and love to hate) fight to claim their rightful place on the popularity scale!

Popular - The Complete Second Season

The Perfect Score (Widescreen Edition)

A mutant hybrid of a heist movie and The Breakfast Club, The Perfect Score follows a clutch of kids who steal the answers to an upcoming SAT test: An aspiring architect (Chris Evans) who isn't quite achieving his dreams (or his parents' expectations); his middling pal (Bryan Greenburg) whose girlfriend is already in college; an overachiever (Erika Christensen, Traffic) who freezes under pressure; a basketball star (NBA player Darius Miles) whose grades don't match his game; a stoner (Leonardo Nam) who falls into the scheme by accident; and a rich punk girl (Scarlett Johansson) who wants to strike back at her neglectful father. The heist itself is nonsensical, but the interplay of personalities manages to keep the movie afloat. Still, only Nam and Johansson (who, after Ghost World, Lost in Translation, and Girl with a Pearl Earring, is becoming a true movie star) stand out of the bland pack. --Bret Fetzer

The Show

This spirited documentary examines the world of rap music using both interviews and performance footage of many popular rappers at a Philadelphia concert. The singers address many aspects of their music and lifestyle including the apparent connection between rap performers and crime the differences between East Coast and West Coast rap the rampant use of marijuana amongst rappers the genre's popularity and its influence outside the Black and Latino communities and the disdain "old school" rappers have toward the current more hardcore crop. In addition the film often goes behind-the-scenes showing rap performers at work and play.System Requirements:Running Time 93 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 043396064737 Manufacturer No: 06473

The Perfect Score (Full Screen Edition)

A mutant hybrid of a heist movie and The Breakfast Club, The Perfect Score follows a clutch of kids who steal the answers to an upcoming SAT test: An aspiring architect (Chris Evans) who isn't quite achieving his dreams (or his parents' expectations); his middling pal (Bryan Greenburg) whose girlfriend is already in college; an overachiever (Erika Christensen, Traffic) who freezes under pressure; a basketball star (NBA player Darius Miles) whose grades don't match his game; a stoner (Leonardo Nam) who falls into the scheme by accident; and a rich punk girl (Scarlett Johansson) who wants to strike back at her neglectful father. The heist itself is nonsensical, but the interplay of personalities manages to keep the movie afloat. Still, only Nam and Johansson (who, after Ghost World, Lost in Translation, and Girl with a Pearl Earring, is becoming a true movie star) stand out of the bland pack. --Bret Fetzer