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Radio - 4 Stars (Excellent)
"Radio"—the true story of high school football coach Harold Jones and a mentally-challenged young man named James Robert "Radio" Kennedy—might well be one of the most under-rated and under-appreciated movies in film history.

James Kennedy was nicknamed "Radio" by the townspeople of Anderson, South Carolina because he was always listening to discarded radios. As a youth he would push or ride a grocery cart down the street, talking to no one. It was 1976 and Radio did not attend school because he was mentally challenged, and an easy target for kids more fortunate.

After some football players on coach Harold Jones' T. L. Hanna High School team harass, intimidate and scare the living daylights out of Radio (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.), Jones befriends and protects Radio by slowly winning his trust and inviting him to the team's football practices.

Coach Jones (played magnificently by veteran actor Ed Harris) eventually has Radio helping out as a "coach" and sitting on the bench during the games. When Radio's new-found acceptance leads to his self-image and self-confidence rising, his enthusiasm creates a distraction for the team at a critical moment, and some boosters (like the father of a star player) want Radio gone.

Fortunately for Radio, his unpretentious love and loyalty to the coach and players resonates, and Radio is allowed to remain part of both the team and the school. At this point in time, Radio is attending school, not as a student, but as a positive influence on the students and a welcome school-helper.

All of this is reminiscent of the biblical admonition "if you hear His voice today, harden not your heart." Radio is about love, acceptance, approval, understanding, compassion, kindness, loyalty and finding peace in our time.

Radio the movie was inspired by Gary Smith's 1996 article titled "Someone to Lean On" that first appeared in Sports Illustrated magazine. The film benefits greatly from the script by Mike Rich and direction by Mike Tollin, also one of the producers with Herb Gains and Brian O'keefe. Radio managed to generate $52+ million at the box office, but received mixed positive and negative reviews by the critics (of which I am one).

Radio was a terrific movie with a genuine message of value. Radio gets a positive answer to my most searching question as a movie reviewer: Am I a better person for having seen this film? You better believe it.

I am incensed that Radio was absolutely snubbed at major awards time. It is not like Ed Harris is a nobody. Before Radio was made, Ed Harris had been nominated for 3 Oscars as Best Supporting Actor ("The Hours", "The Truman Show" and "Apollo") and been nominated for Best Actor in "Pollock". Add to those honors 4 nominations by the Golden Globes and a Best Actor Golden Globe for The Truman Show.

Cuba Gooding Jr. had won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor in "Jerry Maguire" (remember his famous line "Show me the money"), and was nominated for a Golden Globe for the same award.

The really good news about Radio is that Radio is still helping coach the Hanna High School team and bringing his presence to the school. He remains a story that continues to grow and radiate with positive vibes.

Kingdom of Heaven - 1 Star (Terrible)

Unfortunately for the "Kingdom of Heaven", what started out as an ambitious epic film about a little known time in history, became an almost disaster at its release and was only average at best. There is enough blame to spread around.

First, there is a reason why the immortal "Gone with the Wind", which involved a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction, took almost 4 hours to see. You apparently cannot make a quality, classic film about the Civil War in less time. Ken Burns' acclaimed documentary film "The Civil War" consisted of 9 episodes and took 11 hours to view.

Second, there may be a market for a film in the Middle Ages about the Christian Crusades, a series of military expeditions by Europeans to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims in the 11th, 12th and 13th Centuries. That market, regrettably, is very small compared to an epic about the Civil War, World War I or World War II.

Third, when 3-time, Best Director Oscar-nominee Ridley Scott ("Black Hawk Down", "Gladiator" and "Thelma and Louise") presented the film to the studio at 194 minutes (3 hours and 14 minutes), the studio execs demanded that it be cut to two hours, believing that moviegoers would not sit through a 3-hour film.

This proved to be a critical mistake in judgment. It was nearly impossible for Scott to tell the Kingdom of Heaven story in 2 hours, and when the movie received really mixed reviews and proved to be a financial disappointment in the United States, the error was clearly noticeable.

Fourth, not only was this film to be an epic story, its production cost was enormous. Most of the filming was in Morocco, and Mohammad VI, King of Morocco, provided 1,500 of his military personnel with accompanying equipment to help in the filming.

In addition, there were apparently 15,000 handmade costumes for the film that also required helmets, boots, gloves, chainmail, belts and scabbards. The flag budget for the film was $250,000. There were 7,500 weapons, 3,000 shields and 20,000 arrows used in the film. In one scene alone, there were 143 extras, 60 military personnel, 125 horses and 60 camels.

A massive replica of Jerusalem was constructed in the Sahara Desert, containing 28,000 square meters of wall that required 6,000 tons of plaster. The front set was 1,200 feet long and the walls were 56 feet tall. Good grief.

Fifth, writer William Monahan's first draft of the script was 186 pages. Executive producer Lisa Ellzey thought Fox would never approve the script because of its length, so she cut it to only 20 pages before submitting it.

Sixth, Orlando Bloom was not ready to play the leading role as Balian of Ibelin, and his performance did not reflect the kind of command and presence necessary to pull it off.

Seventh, I had great difficulty as a moviegoer following the story as its presentation required much more help in context, or from a narrator, to understand what was happening when and why it was important.

Eighth, the sound in the film was terrible. There were times when it was impossible to understand the dialog and, without this essential element, there is no way the film would be rated good by my standards. Sound is too basic of a need to succeed and, when it goes unnoticed because it is well done, it is not an issue.

Ninth, this whole project was sad from start to finish. What could have become a good film could not overcome the obstacles along the way. Two bright spots in the film were the performances of Liam Neeson as Godfrey de Ibelin and Ghassan Massoud as Saladin, the great Muslim leader.

In his quest to be noble, Liam Neeson was able to deliver this dialog as Godfrey de Ibelin: "Be without fear in the face of our enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath." (Spoken to his son, Balian, when making him a knight.)

History records that Saladin and his Muslim troops did recapture Jerusalem after defeating the King of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin near the Lake of Galilee. When Saladin's soldiers enter the City of Jerusalem, they were not allowed to kill civilians, rob people, or damage the city.

In many ways, the Muslims come out looking better than the Christians in Kingdom of Heaven, and historically, they were.

Action, drama and glamour, Kambakkht Ishq seems to have it all! A big budget movie with Sultry Kareena Kapoor and handsome hunk Akshay Kumar, Amrita Arora, Aftab Shivdasani, not to forget the impressive Hollywood star cast as Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards and Brandon Routh, this movie is sure to be a complete entertainer.
The movie takes bollywood to a new level and standards. While still in production, this movie has created a rage and many like us are anticipating its release date.

The story of the movie is the main attraction of the movie. Viraj Shergill (Akshay Kumar) is an eminent stuntman in Hollywood and thinks that women are only good for making love and nothing else. While Simrita Rai (Kareena Kapoor) is supermodel who labels all men as dogs. Viraj and Simrita meet but cannot stand the sight of each other. But inevidently, destiny always brings them together in most unforeseen circumstances! So what happens when Viraj and Simrita meet at Simrita’s best friend Kamini’s and Viraj’s brother Lucky’s wedding? Will they try to stop the wedding? Watch out for funny situations and comedy capers!

This movie is completely shot in Los Angeles A.K.A Hollywood with its lush Beaches and Picturesque landscapes. While many movies have been shot in prominent USA cities like New York and Miami, etc. This movie seems to be the first to be shot at Hollywood, the commercial headquarters of the USA based movies. Some of the movie parts have also been shot in Beautiful Venice. This is indeed a big achievement for Indian movie Industry. With Akshay Kumar acting as a stuntman, this movie displays lots of fight and daring scenes which were done by Akshay Kumar himself. Kareena Kapoor seems to be in her best form and playing a role of a glamorous model puts her in limelight!

This movie is estimated to be of 60 crores and this movie has promised quite some special acts for the movie which are creating a bang! There is a special song recorded by bhanga -pop group from Briton RDB, acronym for Rhythm Dhol Bass. RDB walked in to Kambakkht Ishq movie after Carmen Electra and other international artistes who were supposed to participate in the track walked out. A favorite with Akshay Kumar, RDB were first heard in our cinema for Vipul Shah’s Namastey London followed by Singh Is Kinng.

Kareena Kapoor has sported a dress worth RS. 800,000 in a song “Kambakkht Ishq". With such impeccable and expensive work done in a movie, who wouldn’t be tempted to watch it?

Finally, Kambakkht Ishq film is India’s first movie into Hollywood with a great star cast and a wonderful story, the music of the movie seems to be on everyone’s lips and everyone is eagerly awaiting its release. Many of the Indians are expecting this movie to be the biggest blockbuster of this year. This seems to be Indian Industry’s first step towards globalization and certainly Hollywood. The movie has given entry to a new era of Indian film Industry. Let us see now how much this film exceeds our expectations.

Warner brothers harry potter film is set to open July 15th, 2009. Like the previous film, this film will be simultaneously released in regular theatres and IMAX 3D. They are showing some great behind the scenes footage and new scenes from the new film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The video highlights both the dark and comedic moments of the film. Movies like this one are correcting the balance. It offers the best of both worlds.

David Yates is returning for the sixth film Half-Blood Prince, and I am sure that moviegoers will welcome him with open arms. I'm guessing somebody else noticed the improvements. David Yates is the director for which this amazing series has been searching. While Columbus's first two were cute sometimes too cute and imaginative, Cuaron's story driven focus on the third was very well-done, and Newell's streamlined fourth was well acted with poor effects, Yates's vision of the fifth novel was exactly as I imagined everything in my head. David Yates is the fourth director to take on the task of bringing Harry Potter's adventures to the screen. Yates has relatively little feature film directorial experience particularly compared to his predecessors but he still manages to put in a solid effort.

Director David Yates is a seasoned hand at TV realism, his credits include Sex Traffic and The Way We Live Now. Director David Yates has a great way of telling the story. Director David Yates is presently working on the Half-Blood Prince movie but many expected he would step aside for someone else to handle the film version of the seventh and final installment.

Movie fans expect Harry Potter will magically rule box offices this summer. Thirty nine percent of respondents in an online poll named Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the summer movie they most want to see.

On Harry Potter JK Rowling does an excellent job with this new story. She mixes action and romance with a dose of mystery and a side order of excitement. This could be the last film in the series because the actors getting so old now that it would be hard for future movies to be believable.

So, I saw this movie the other week because a friend told me it was online for free as some kind of a promo. I wasn't expecting much - it looked like another standard teen sex romp movie on the outside - but I found that there was a lot more to "The Graduates" than other movies in its genre.
Let's face it, a lot of comedies made today suck. I mean: "Scream 4"!? "Disaster Movie"? Come on! What happened to the smart, clever movies that people like Steve Martin USED to make, like "The Jerk?" Now all you have to do is say or do something outlandish or weird in order to get a movie made (cough - Will Ferrell).

Judd Apatow's crew are on the right track. They've put the emphasis back on character and relationships, but the people that did "The Graduates" seem to be pushing for more - something with quality acting and grounded relationships - things that people can relate to and connect to and FEEL for.

I don't remember the last time I saw a teen sex comedy or coming of age comedy where I really gave a hoot whether the characters/actors lived or died - and that's just what happened for me with "The Graduates." I liked "The Graduates." I really did. I liked it even MORE when I found out that it was made for under $100,000.00. Now that's impressive. Think of how much money is wasted on such terrible movies, then see this movie - wow.

I saw all these bizarre reviews/comments on their page which really didn't make sense - a rating of 4.4? Weird, vague comments by other users who didn't seem to be talking about the same movie I saw and openly admitting that they only watched 30 mins of a 90 min film? I hope that this blemish doesn't hurt the success of this otherwise well-received film.

The plot is pretty typical, but it's what they DO with it that matters. The cinematography and direction is pretty straight forward, which makes sense for a film like this on this scale - you can only do so much with a small budget and you only SHOULD do so much with a character-driven piece.

The acting? From these unknowns? Really kind of impressive - I saw that Nick Vergara, who plays Mattie in the film, got commended by my favorite website: FilmschoolRejects.com. I agree with their review. There really are no weak links in this film in terms of the talent.

I found more info at www.TheGraduatesMovie.com about the film and got a free soundtrack and I will see it again when/if it plays near me.

For several years now, a batman vs superman film has been rumored, but has never come to fruition. Dating back to 2001, the film came to be after a JJ Abrams script rebooting the superman franchise was shelved. Abrams' film had nothing to do with batman vs superman, but rather an origin story for the man of steel. Andrew Kevin Walker, however, pitched the idea of a batman vs superman film and Abrams' idea was shelved.

In 2002, Akiva Goldsman wrote a draft for the potential batman vs superman film that depicted a Bruce Wayne retired from being batman and dealing with the deaths of Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth and Commissioner Gordon. Clark Kent had divorced Lois Lane and was Bruce's best man at his wedding to a woman named Elizabeth Miller, who was tragically killed by the Joker on their honeymoon. This led to Bruce Wayne putting on the cowl and cape once more, and thus setting the stage for the batman vs superman film.

Matt Damon was one of the choices for either role in this projected batman vs superman film. Director Wolfgang Peterson wanted someone who could really act, citing Tobey Maguire from the Spider-Man films as reference. Other actors considered included Johnny Depp, James Franco, Colin Farrell, Paul Walker and Jude Law. The studio approached Christian Bale to take on the role of batman in both this film and batman: year one, which he ultimately chose and was renamed to batman begins, and Josh Hartnett for Superman.

The batman vs superman film was supposed to begin filming in 2003 with a summer 2004 release date. The film was to serve as a reboot for both popular, but all but dead franchises. However, Peterson left the project to direct Troy, and instead of finding another director, the studio shelved the film and went ahead with batman begins, and then superman returns, one of which went on to critical acclaim, the other being a bitter disappointment.

In the Will Smith driven film I Am Legend, there was a billboard with both the batman and superman symbols on it, which led many people to believe that the long rumored batman vs superman film was coming down the pike. But as it turns out, it was an in-joke by Goldsman, who also wrote the script for I Am Legend. So as it stands now, the batman vs superman film is not going to happen, or at least not anytime soon, much to the chagrin of fans long awaiting the groundbreaking film.