Boxboarders!
Posted on August 13, 2008 at 2:00 pm
The writer of the delightful Clockstoppers has written and directed an unpretentious little comedy about a crazy “sport” — racing boxes on wheels. It makes the most of its low budget with an easy-going good humor in this goofy but sweet story about two teens who accidentally invent the “boxboarding” and end up in a big race against their nemesis. And of course it also involves getting a little bit closer to the girls they like.
The young cast performs with gusto, ably assisted by top adult character actors like Stephen Tobolowsky as the ever-patient psychologist dad and “The Office’s” Melora Hardin as a litigator always eager to go to court. Clearly, everyone had a blast making the film. One of the DVD’s highlights is an entertaining making-of featurette that I hope will inspire those who watch it not to try taping a refrigerator box to a skateboard but to pick up a camera and make a movie.
Parents should know that in addition to the completely idiotic and very dangerous “sport” in the film, it also has some bad language, teen partying, and sexual references.
It may be quaint and stylized but it perfectly suits the storyline, especially the numbers we see Wall∙E watch, with the characters singing about taking chances, trying out new experiences, and falling in love.”Hello Dolly!” was not successful on its original release. It was the victim of poor timing. First, though it was filmed earlier, the release was delayed because by contract it could not be in theaters as long as the play was running on Broadway. Second, it was released in 1969, when audiences were caught up in the political and cultural turmoil of the 60’s, and it felt too big (it is over two hours long) and out of touch. There was also some hostility to the casting of the 20-something Barbra Striesand in the title role, a character who is supposed to be middle-aged, replacing the star of the play, Carol Channing. But today it is easy to be as charmed as Wall∙E is by this story of four different couples taking a chance on love and the character who encourages them all and then has to learn a few lessons herself. Here are his favorite numbers: 
“Definitely, Maybe” is the story of the three great loves of a man’s life. That’s “story” in the literal sense, as in the bedtime story he tells his young daughter, who wants to know how he met her mother and, implicitly, why they are getting divorced.
‘s Abigail Breslin), just out of her first sex education class, asks him how he met her mother, and he answers by telling her about all three of the women he loved, making her guess which one became his wife. Both of them realize that it is not really how they met but a better understanding of what went wrong that matters.
The big-screen version of the classic 1960’s 
created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry is more than an update. It shrewdly tweaks the original, making its hero, Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) smarter and more capable than the bumbling and befuddled but always game and confident spy played by Don Adams and ramping up the action, and the result is a refreshingly entertaining summer popcorn movie. 
were wildly popular and ripe for parody. But fact and fiction have made the audience less easily dazzled by spycraft and the non-stop silliness of the “Naked Gun” and “Scary Movie” series have made the audience too familiar with that category of comedy convention. Movies are longer and special effects are bigger, so there is the time and capacity for some action sequences.