Tracs Movie Reviews

Really good performances by actors Maxwell Caulfield, Linda Purl, and Early Holliman in this taut, above par thriller. Technical aspects are also better than most films of this particular ilk. Turn off the lights, grab a bag of popcorn (and a loved one) and enjoy!

Claire lives in a small backwoods town, full of criminals and drug dealers. She meets Billy, and finds him attractive enough for a 1 night stand. Billy tries to talk her into going back to Toronto with him, to see how exciting life can be in the "bright lights and big city" She stays, but the drug dealers burn her apartment. All she has is Billy's address in Toronto. She goes to find him. Once there, she is in awe of the big buildings and fast pace and millions of people. Only one problem. Claire doesn't speak English. Now it's a film of fast paced coincidences, as Claire tries to find Billy, but gets herself mixed up in a murder. As she looks for Billy, the police look for her, and the criminals look for her, she moves thru the city while nobody can understand her. Juliette Lewis is great while basically having no lines, and if you can suspend your beliefs, and go with the ride, its a lot of fun

Just three years or so away from stardom in "Stagecoach", this 1936 movie shows all of the things that made fans love John Wayne.

The story follows John Blair (Wayne), and his pal Larry Adams as they leave the Pony Express when it folds. Given two thoroughbred horses each by the defunct mail service, The DUKE sets his mind to opening up a stage line.

When crooked stage line operator Drake sells them the Crecent City run, it looks like John and Larry have wasted their money. Crecent City went bust after the local gold mine played out, and Drake forced all the business to his city. Too bad Drake didn't know he was tangling with The DUKE!

Blair almost singlehandedly brings the town back to life one piece at a time. The one final step in his plan is a stage line mail contract, and it's the Drake line vs. Blair & Adams in a race to Sacremento. The winner gets the big contract, and Drake is out to stop DUKE by hook or by crook!

There's a pretty good plot in this one, and a surprising amount of humor along with the action. Although clocking in at only 55 minutes, there's a lot of young DUKE action!

A fun ride, "Winds of the Wasteland" on this DVD is a great bargain for the price, and no DUKE fan should miss it.

Well it was actually a totally weird movie and ... uhm ... yea in a way it's like in the same style of The Big Lebowski for example ... either you love it or hate it ... I hated it ... BUT the last half an hour or so was actually quite entertaining! Wait to buy it untill it only cost 5-10 $

I liked the fact that this movie, although laced with sexual themes and R-rated humor, is ultimately about a father who loves his kids and kids who love their father. And even the scenes of ribald humor and sexuality are mostly character-driven and kind of sweet. Well acted, funny, and quirky, "Slums of Beverly Hills" is a great little movie to discover on DVD.

This movie is wonderful! Natasha Lyonne shines as she greets us with a comical character. Her name is "Viv" and Rita shines also!!! I love this movie and if you like American Pie or Not Another Teen Movie then you will surely love this one!

This movie was a little bit disapointing when i saw it. People kept on saying how funny it was but i found it sort of boring. The plot was ok and the love story was pretty good but still, It really could have been better. The girl's profession in the story was kind of weird. All in all, this movie was ok...

American Pie. Road Trip. Not Another Teen Movie. Add 40 Days and 40 Nights to the list of Hollywood's most egregious sex comedies.

Celibacy is defined as "the state of not being married" and an "abstention from sexual intercourse." Ask any semi-with it teenager what abstinence means and he or she will tell you it means avoiding sex altogether (and if they're really with it, they'll add "until marriage"). They'll also tell you it doesn't mean to "hold off through the middle of next month." It's a commitment, not a game, as 40 Days would have you believe. One cannot give up extramarital sex for Lent, as Matt does here. Why not? Because one does not give up sins for Lent. Such a premise defies rational thought. But I digress-an easy thing to do when faced with the daunting task of constructing a review of such an "unreviewable" film as this.

Matt is a ladies' man. One is in his bed at least once a week. But he's hung up over one ex-fling, Nicole. He just can't get her out of his head while he's having sex with other women. Frustrated by his lack of clarity, he decides to swear off sex for 40 days during Lent. Celibacy. No sex. No masturbation. No fondling. No kissing. His friends quickly place bets on how long he'll last (Seinfeld, anyone?). And naturally, he immediately meets Erica, the girl of his dreams.

Star Josh Hartnett was so intrigued by the "novel" idea of "temporary abstinence" that he decided to give it a go in his real life. He failed miserably, lasting only a couple of weeks. "I wasn't gonna go 40 days and 40 nights," he said. "It made me a little bit crazy, you know what I mean? It made me understand some of the feelings-just the deprivation. You're depriving yourself of this one thing, and it becomes all you can think about." Hmmm. Only a couple of weeks? Try years. Sexual abstinence until marriage isn't a joke, Mr. Hartnett. It isn't impossible. Or even improbable. And it isn't "cruel and unusual punishment." It's the way God designed us. One partner, for life.

40 Days buys into the idea that abstinence is a malleable obstacle to circumvent. Some teenagers today truly believe that sexual acts such as oral gratification and "outercourse" are okay to experiment with while maintaining their "vows of virginity." In the movie, Matt reinforces that idea by sharing an intensely sexual experience with Erica-even arousing her to the point of orgasm-without touching her. Thus, technically, his vow remains unbroken.

Beyond that, Matt's roommate tells him he's got to give up his vow because his new girlfriend will think he's weird-or gay-if he doesn't sleep with her at least by the third date. And even waiting that long would be inscrutably "old fashioned." And in the end, Matt regrets ever having tried to be abstinent. "I was trying to take a part of me and make it go away," he explains to Erica. "I closed my world off and put it in a little box. For awhile everything seemed clear, but then you came along. . . . I screwed up." To prove it, the happy couple commence a marathon sex-fest-which Matt's friends once again place wagers on.

Anyone who tries to convince you that this film has anything to do with contrasting emotional relationships with sexual ones is deceived. Salon.com critic Charles Taylor even goes so far as to call it an "anti-sex sex comedy." It's not. 40 Days and 40 Nights does nothing more than celebrate illicit sex by, among other things, demonstrating how intolerable life is without it. That's a boldface lie, but it's a lie that a lot of folks have given in to.

The plot of this movie has been described elsewhere, so I'll just get straight to my pros/cons in the movie.

To me, it seemed like the person who wrote the script was not the same person who conceived it and began the project. Considering that this is a comedy-"romance" marketed at teenagers, the plot is actually rather interesting. There are some good ideas, and occasionally the movie has a burst of humor.

But then the rest of it is so chock-full of stupid ideas that I'm not sure what happened. It seems like any part of the script that attempted to say, "Hey... sex ISN'T everything" was erased and replaced by a lame joke.

I give it 3 stars because some parts of it were actually funny, it is an interesting premise, and because the acting is actually all pretty good - even Josh Hartnett, of whom I'm always suspicious.

But the way it switches it's message back and forth is irritating, and it seems to cheapen the point of the movie. Matt is supposed to be falling in love, yet they never seem to make a point of explaining what love is - in fact, the one time when they try to explain how Matt and Erica are in love is simply this: Erica can have an orgasm without Matt touching her.

My biggest complaint, though, out of all of this... is that Erica is quite easily the absolute least understanding girlfriend character in the history of cinema. It seems like Matt can't do anything without her considering it an insult. The worst example of this is

(Spoiler alert)

when Matt is practically raped and Erica finds him in the aftermath, still bound to a bed. Instead of being sympathetic in the least, she accuses him of cheating and then storms away, leading to Matt's solemn attempts to ask for forgiveness.

VIOLENT CONTENT - None.

SEX/NUDITY CONTENT - Plenty. Toward the end, Matt has visions of naked breasts everywhere, and since the premise of the movie involves sex you can expect that there's a lot of talk about it. Like, say, the entire screenplay.

LANGUAGE CONTENT - Pretty standard R-rated movie cursing.

this is a poorly made version of a classic. though the actors are well known they sure know how to pick movie parts. Famke Janssen(Deep Rising) is very bitchy in this one and when she got hers I was satisfyed. I liked the fact that Taye Diggs(New Best Friend) and Ali Larter(American Outlaws) survived because they were the best people in that movie. Chris Kattan(Corky Romano), Geoffrey Rush(MysteryMen), Bridgette Wilson(I Know What You Did Last Summer), Peter Gallagher(tv's The O.C.), Max Perlich(Drugstore Cowboy and tv's Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Lisa Loeb(the singer), Jeffrey Combs(Re-Animator 1,2&3) and James Marsters(Spike on Tv's Buffy The Vampire Slayer) also costar. the slayings are somewhat disgusting, the dialouge suck and some good actors are wasted playing dumb roles.

Amusement Park developer Steven Price throws a birthday bash for his venomous wife at the notorious House on Haunted Hill, a former lunatic asylum. Price has invited numerous greedy guests with the promise of a cool million for anyone that survives the night. Trouble is that the house's very real ghosts trash the party and begin offing the guests.

When taken as a simple thrill ride House on Haunted Hill delivers some wonderfully creepy and disturbing moments, but the movie does suffer from fuzzy character development and plot holes big enough to fit the house itself. What it most resembles is a feature length episode of HBO's now defunct Tales From the Crypt, not surprising when you consider that the producers and director both worked on the show. Still it makes for a great Halloween party movie. Recommended.

This film could have been called "Who wants to stay in a haunted house and be a millionaire?" Based on the 1958 classic by the same name, the 1999 version is a heart pounding, edge of you seat update. In one of the more interesting extras, a comparison made between the two "houses" reveals the similarities and differences between the two. The 1955 version comes off more like a comedy then a "horror classic." Making for this interesting question "how hokey will today's special effects look in the year 2040?" One thing that we can be sure of, is that this DVD will still look and sound very good, even forty years from now. In his role of a theme park designer, Steven B. Price is a master of illusion. And, his newest park creation is living proof. Unfortunately, for him though, his life is really the biggest of illusion of all. You see his wife married him simply for money, but due to a pre-nuptial agreement can't divorce him. Her efforts to kill him have been, to date, unsuccessful. Her upcoming birthday may just provide the opportunity that she is looking for, or will her husband get the last laugh. Enter the real star of this picture, the house on house on the hill. It is a house with a rich and sorted history. A one time mental institution, were strange experiments and ultimately mass killings took place many years ago, leaving this house with the stigma of crazed death. Is this house truly haunted, or just a victim of its sorted past? Either way, it would be hard to think of a spookier place to host a birthday party for your estranged spouse. Then we meet our five unwilling partygoers, a group of strangers, strangers to each other and even to their eccentric hosts. Why would they spend the night in this creepy house? Trust me there are five million reasons. What makes a horror movie really work? More than any other single element, the creepy sound effects can make or break the mood of the film. The 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack on this DVD, is more than adequate to accomplish this goal. The house's daemons will come at you from all directions, at a heart pounding pace and with gut retching bass. If you are planning a mystery murder party for a few intimate friends, you may want to use this DVD to get a few hints. Even if a twisted party is not in your future, House on a Haunted Hill will provide you with a healthy scare. And you think that you have some bones in your closet . . .

This movie, which is about travel, shows just about every irresponsible thing a young person can do. First, the girls get into a car and none of them ever wear seatbelts. Especially with being in a convertible, they would be dead in any collision under those circumstances. Later in the movie, one of the girls accepts a ride with a stranger -- another extremely dangerous decision. I understand that when people watch movies they like to be taken away into a fantasy. But it would not have altered the story to have the girls put on seat belts, or to have a former neighbor show up coincidentally to give the girls a ride. I also do not agree with the decision throughout the movie to refrain from calling the parents in times of trouble. Sixteen and seventeen year old kids are not equipped to handle these kinds of problems, and it is irresponsible to portray that as a goal, especially considering the audience that Mary Kate and Ashley typically attract. I have purchased just about every movie that Mary Kate and Ashley have made, and my whole family normally enjoyes them. I have never been as disappointed as I was when I saw this one -- unlike the others, this one will not remain in my family's movie library.

I'm a HUGE fan of Mary-Kate & Ashley, and have a lot of movies. But I have to say, that this is the best one so far!!!!! I absolutly love the Mustang!!! The music in the movie's awesome!! Mary-Kate & Ashley play really great aswell. On the DVD you get a lot of extras. Behind the Scenes, Alternative ending and more.......... If you don't own this, get it now!!!

I am a big Mary- Kate and Ashley fan. I love every movie they did. I think I like them the most is because I have been everywhere they have gone so it brings back good times for me. When this movie came out I wasn't really into getting it. I have been where they were but from what I saw on TV it didn't look as good as there over seas ones. Back in March for my 19th birthday my mom bought it for me for me. I didn't want to be mean to my mom so I watched it. I loved this movie. Being someone who travles a lot I can so see this happing. Some of you say that parents would be mad about losing the car and all. I don't know about your parents but my mom would be thankful that I was ok. This is a great and funny movie. Just because it doesn't seem real doesn't mean it can't happen. Thank God it has never happened to me. If you are looking for some laughs and some adventure get your hands on this movie and hold on!

Don't expect great acting, there isn't any. However this movie does dish up some good parts. The atmosphere of the movie is pretty cool. A very Techno Cyber Electronic Punk feel to the movie. The special effects are really sweet considering when the movie was made. Also the music is really cool. Such bands as "Stabbing Westward" and "KMFDM" really set the mood for the film. If you can look past the terrible acting you'll find an enjoyable movie. Techno-Industrial fans will be pleased. Everyone else, move along.

This movie is a very good one, if your looking to get into the Gibson style of "Cyberpunk", stories and movies. After all William Gibson started it. Though the future is sure to turn out differently, this movie could be considered a forewarning of what melding men and machine will do. Especially when wealth and power is stuck in-between.

he's like a robutt because he has a computer part in his brain and he's like the UPS man except they let him wear long pants. i think keanu probably has nice knees but you don't see them in this film. he's very pale. they shot a lot of asian men in this movie which doesn't bother me one way or the other. i'm not prejudust.
iced tea acts better when he's wearing his sunglasses. when he takes them off you forget that he can act. maybe he reads q cards?
then he gives the computer chip and what's left of his brain to a good guy. keanu does. not iced tea who gets murdered.
i like this movie better than matrix because my coke tasted like windex when i saw the matrix movie and i rented this movie and had cranberry apple juice which i like without ice.

Don't expect great acting, there isn't any. However this movie does dish up some good parts. The atmosphere of the movie is pretty cool. A very Techno Cyber Electronic Punk feel to the movie. The special effects are really sweet considering when the movie was made. Also the music is really cool. Such bands as "Stabbing Westward" and "KMFDM" really set the mood for the film. If you can look past the terrible acting you'll find an enjoyable movie. Techno-Industrial fans will be pleased. Everyone else, move along.

This movie is a very good one, if your looking to get into the Gibson style of "Cyberpunk", stories and movies. After all William Gibson started it. Though the future is sure to turn out differently, this movie could be considered a forewarning of what melding men and machine will do. Especially when wealth and power is stuck in-between.

he's like a robutt because he has a computer part in his brain and he's like the UPS man except they let him wear long pants. i think keanu probably has nice knees but you don't see them in this film. he's very pale. they shot a lot of asian men in this movie which doesn't bother me one way or the other. i'm not prejudust.
iced tea acts better when he's wearing his sunglasses. when he takes them off you forget that he can act. maybe he reads q cards?
then he gives the computer chip and what's left of his brain to a good guy. keanu does. not iced tea who gets murdered.
i like this movie better than matrix because my coke tasted like windex when i saw the matrix movie and i rented this movie and had cranberry apple juice which i like without ice.

Don't expect great acting, there isn't any. However this movie does dish up some good parts. The atmosphere of the movie is pretty cool. A very Techno Cyber Electronic Punk feel to the movie. The special effects are really sweet considering when the movie was made. Also the music is really cool. Such bands as "Stabbing Westward" and "KMFDM" really set the mood for the film. If you can look past the terrible acting you'll find an enjoyable movie. Techno-Industrial fans will be pleased. Everyone else, move along.

This movie is a very good one, if your looking to get into the Gibson style of "Cyberpunk", stories and movies. After all William Gibson started it. Though the future is sure to turn out differently, this movie could be considered a forewarning of what melding men and machine will do. Especially when wealth and power is stuck in-between.

he's like a robutt because he has a computer part in his brain and he's like the UPS man except they let him wear long pants. i think keanu probably has nice knees but you don't see them in this film. he's very pale. they shot a lot of asian men in this movie which doesn't bother me one way or the other. i'm not prejudust.
iced tea acts better when he's wearing his sunglasses. when he takes them off you forget that he can act. maybe he reads q cards?
then he gives the computer chip and what's left of his brain to a good guy. keanu does. not iced tea who gets murdered.
i like this movie better than matrix because my coke tasted like windex when i saw the matrix movie and i rented this movie and had cranberry apple juice which i like without ice.