Madea's Family Reunion
REVIEWS
If a Lifetime Movie and a Comedy Central series mated, their offspring would look like Madea's Family Reunion.The movie goes from melodrama to slapstick and back again in seconds.
The main story centers on the love lives of two sisters, Vanessa (Lisa Arrindell Anderson) and Lisa (Rochelle Aytes), and the sisters' relationship with their controlling, self-Interested mother, who either is the devil or is doing a very good impression. Cutting through the drama of their lives like a chainsaw through a couch is their aunt Madea, a brash and brassy matriarch who dispenses justice and aphorisms, armed with a belt and the back of her hand. Previously
seen in Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea is the brainclild of actor Tyler Perry who wrote and directed this film. He plays three characters, including Madea herself.
Considering this is a movie where one of the female leads is played by a man, Madea's Family Reunion is surprisingly earnest
in its sentimentality. Although it gets to be too much.During the course of the movie, Vanessa learns to trust again and Lisa learns to stand on her own two feet, and they both do so in dramatic Hollywood style.
Madea's Family Reunion is sweet, sometimes funny, sometimes unbearably earnest and always predictable.
Kit Fluker
South Wind 12
Rated: PG-13, 107 minutes
Some by Sea MUSIC On Fire (Igloo!)
Like a lot of other indie pop bands, Some By Sea has some good ideas. The band from Tacoma, Wash, has been building its fan base over the last few years by releasing two albums on its own label before joining The Pale Pacific and Neva Dinova at SideCho records.
Unfortunately, like a lot of other indie pop bands, Some By Sea simply doesn't know how to execute its good ideas. The average length of a song is 5-6 minutes — and nothing interesting happens the whole time. Most of the songs are full of excessive intertwining guitars and violins, sloppy drum playing and lyrics that ramble with no coherent end.
These problems continue through the final song, in which the band commits the number one cliché in rock music a 10-minute last song. The album formula of mediocre songs ending with a 12-minute "masterpiece" is overused and boring.
On Fire (lglool!) employs some good ideas, but they're sandwiched between several layers of dull throwaway parts. If you want indie pop that goes somewhere, get anything by Death Cab For
Cutie or Matt Pond PA. They have good ideas and execution.
Chris Bower
SHeDaisy Fortuneteller's Melody
MUSIC
In a grand kiss-off to the people that used to buy their records, Nashville's rebel trio, The Dixie Chicks, finally waved goodbye to country music. "We don't feel a part of [that] scene anymore," quips lead-singer Natalie Maines to a foreign magazine.
Leave it to the absolute authority on such matters to cover the situation; Rolling Stone told the story as if Nashville was supposed to be upset.
Let's pretend, for a moment, it wasn't sales that decided The Dixie Chicks weren't country. It's goodbye for good, which brings us to SheDAISY, the verifiable anti-Chicks. Fortuneteller's Melody, their fourth album, looks set to fill the female-triot slot
void on country radio since the Chicks' departure.
Mid-tempo rockers"Bring it On Back"and "Healing Side"are intelligent, melodic reflections on real people drama.
Melody continues in the same summery,pop-drenched country of SHeDAISY's previous work only more solidly.There's not a dud among these tracks. These hooks can satisfy country radio for a while."23 Days,""Kickin'in"and the lead single,"I'm Taking the Wheel," move along with brisk, breezy instrumentation,plenty of attitude and refreshing vocals (unlike Maine's unpleasant nasal twang).
And in "God Bless the American Housewife," the ladies
assert themselves with a perfect blend of wit and depth. As they run through a list of housewife-like chores, it's in the line Look at me, I'm sexy as the devil when I mow the lawn that they truly distinguish themselves as modern-day super women. It's powerfully and purposefully anti-feminist.
In their recognition of real-life women, SHeDAISY does something the Chicks wouldn't dream of: empathize with their listeners. And for that, their album is loved — and bought.
★★★
Nick Connell
The Weather Man
Dave Spritz (Nicholas Cage) makes $240,000 a year to read a teleprompter for two hours everyday. He's a Chicago meterologist with a bit of local celebrity. But, he is in reality far from the chipper Spritz people see on television.
DVD
Poor rich boy, right? I mean he receives a huge paycheck for very little thought or effort. It seems he has it made.
But then you begin to understand. He gets fast food thrown at him when he's walking on the streets. People resent his "easy" life and tend to hold him accountable for the dismal winter. His ex-wife, Noreen (Hope Davis), is remarrying. His 11-year-old daughter, Shelly (Gemmenne de la Peña), is overweight and depressed. His teenage son (Nicholas Houtt) is in rehab. And then there's his father, Robert (Michael Caine). Robert is a Pulitzer-Prize winning author and is considered a national treasure. He sets a standard
too high for Dave to ever reach.
Dave Spritz doesn't even have a degree in meteorology. He sees his life as having little substance — much like the fast food being constantly chucked at him.Nothing in his life is consistent or stable,or even consistently unstable.
It's only when he takes up the sport of archery that he can control something and count on accuracy. The weather is "just wind. It's more of a technical art than it is a science." And so is life.
Special features on the DVD include cast and crew interviews. There's a feature about the importance of color palettes on movie sets (The Weather Man's palette was mostly beige to represent the monotony of Dave's life). And for anyone interested in weather, there's even a feature that teaches you how to be a meteorologist.The interviews are compelling and explain the symbolism
well.
This movie isn't exactly uplifting. It represents the monotonous side of life and the reality that nothing can be predicted. But it does so in a sarcastic way, mostly thanks to Caine's wit and bluntness. You'll laugh at the often pathetic characters, and you'll relate to at least one of them.
At least, that's what I forecast.
★★★
Ashley Thompson
03.02.2006 JAYPLAY <17