annapolis Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Recent Theatricals

• Annapolis (Buena Vista) -- James Franco and Tyrese Gibson invade the Naval Academy, blissfully unaware that An Officer and a Gentleman is still a fairly well-remembered film. (Filmmaker commentary, deleted scenes, two featurettes)
• Failure to Launch (Paramount) -- Professional floozy Sarah Jessica Parker is hired to seduce Matthew McConaughey right out of his parents' home. Of all the movies that show Terry Bradshaw's naked ass, this one's the finest. (Five blathering featurettes)
• Find Me Guilty (Fox) -- I don't care that it bombed and I don't care that it stars Vin Diesel; Sidney Lumet directed it! ("Conversations with Lumet" featurette)
• Madea's Family Reunion (Lionsgate) -- Tyler Perry is the Uwe Boll of urban melodrama. (Director's commentary, deleted scenes, four featurettes)
• Ultraviolet (Sony) -- Milla J. stars in a bunch of stand-alone action sequences that boast some pretty swanky set design. (Jovovich commentary, featurette, 7 minute-longer "extended" cut)

There's a strange mix of movies in this week's roundup: three big studio flicks and one movie from a couple of big names opening on a small scale, trying to cause a lot of trouble. The quick version: Annapolis is bad, but Big Momma's House 2 is much, much worse; Nanny McPhee is at the very least alright, while Bubble is weird and possibly fascinating. For details and links, read on.

• Annapolis: Man, James Franco is really having a tough month - first Tristan & Isolde opened to resounding disinterest, and now Annapolis is being roundly panned. Virtually every review compares the film unfavorably to An Officer and a Gentleman, and the criticism rarely stops there. The New York Times' Stephen Holden calls it "a trailer tricked out with protracted boxing sequences and an undernourished romantic subplot," and others are equally unkind, calling the movie things like "forgettable," "cobbled together," and "all clichés."

• Big Momma's House 2: In what I'm sure comes as a absolute shock to everyone who's had the pleasure of seeing a preview for Big Momma's House 2, it's not very funny. In fact, included on the New York Post's list of things that are "more amusing" than this movie are not only Fletch (you don't say), but also open heart surgery. Yeah. It's really, really bad.

• Nanny McPhee: Reviews for this one are mixed. Though most critics think it's solidly OK, a few - including our man Mick LaSalle - find it really rather wonderful. Pretty much everyone, whether they like the movie or not, praises Emma Thompson's calm in the title role, which they all describe as "the anti-Mary Poppins." (Is that a good thing? What the hell is wrong with Mary Poppins?)

• Bubble: It may not be opening wide, but Bubble is nevertheless a huge deal this week because of its multi-media release schedule. Is it worth sitting through, either in the theater, on TV, or on DVD? Well, there's some disagreement over that. Though a handful of critics find it ponderously dull (writing at CNN, Paul Clinton describes it as the equivalent of "a movie about the phone book"), many others - including Roger Ebert and our own Karina - think that it's oddly thrilling. The great thing is that, if you're sort of interested, there's no need to risk $10 to see how it is. Instead, just flip over the HDNet tonight and see what you think.

It's a college movie. No, it's a boot-camp movie. Wait, it's both. Annapolis takes place at the U.S. Naval Academy (commonly called Annapolis) in Maryland, one of the five American institutions of higher education for kids who just can't seem to make up their mind whether to join the armed forces or attend university following high school. Well, that is putting it rather simply. Like the U.S. Military Academy (West Point), the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Annapolis preps its students to become officers in its respective branch of the military in addition to awarding them bachelor degrees. It doesn't charge tuition — in fact it pays those enrolled a weekly salary — but the Naval Academy is one or the toughest schools to get into, and it is even tougher to remain in.

This doesn't stop Jake Huard (James Franco), one of the incoming freshman, or plebes, in Annapolis' class of 2008. He manages to be admitted despite his lack of good grades. I assume he also falls short in the areas of SAT and ACT scores, leadership experience and any number of other expectations the school is likely to have of its applicants. What he does have is a dream, which he's had since he first laid eyes on the campus from his home across the river, as well as a nomination from a congressman — a requirement, not a guarantee, for acceptance. Oh, and he likes to box.