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The Slayers - Movie 3 - Great
Anime.Action A.D. Vision NR
In this movie Lina and Naga fought against each other in two giant golems. As usual the story is weak, but the story is never the reason why people become Slayers fans anyway. Lina and Naga fought throughout this movie to the amusement of their fans. The movie has some very funny moments and wonderful voice actings in both the English and Japanese tracks. The spells effects were spectacular.
This movie is a must for Slayers fans. I think even non fans will find this movie amusing.

The Slayers - Movie 4 - Gorgeous
Anime.Action A.D. Vision
Maybe, I'm just spoiled by all of the new Slayers movies, but this latest one seems significantly more derivitive and less funny than the rest. Not that it's bad, far from it; it just seems like this movie has less original material to offer. We've got another royal family feud, Lina and Naga choose opposite sides again and have another duel (though this one has a definitive winner), and so on. The last few releases gave me full on laughs where this one gives me a few chuckles (Lina's slipper slappings are one thing that never get old for me) but I didn't fall out of my chair this time. Still, you've got to love the princess in this one and the conclusion of her battle with Lina is pretty hilarious. Lina's "dragon-spooker" reputation also gets a good workout (much to her dismay) on this one as she faces off against a whole army of them. Cool stuff, but kind of a letdown in comparison to "Slayers Great". If you haven't seen that one, pick it up instead of this one.

The Slayers - Movie 5 - Premium
Anime.Action A.D. Vision
After three broadcast seasons, six OVAs, and four earlier features, "Slayers Premium" (2001) concluded the misadventures of red-haired sorceress Lina Inverse. While at a seaside fishing village, Gourry eats some octopus sushi--and is struck by a demonic plague that causes him to speak in nonsensical "octopese". The disease quickly spreads from human to human, and the voice actors obviously enjoy delivering their fractured dialogue. The affliction introduces a broad, slapstick, spoof of countless sword-and-sorcery anime plots, complete with a long-imprisoned god, demonic creatures feeding on human emotional energy, ancient curses, and battles between white and black magic. But the principal villains are octopi who've gotten tired of being treated as seafood by humans. The take-no-prisoners silliness of "Premium" makes it an appropriate finale to the long-running "Slayers" continuity. (Rated 15 and older: minor risqué humor, cartoon violence) "--Charles Solomon"

The Slayers - OAV 1 - Book of Spells
Anime.Action A.D. Vision NR
Join Lina an Naga as they thwart a plan to create the ultimate chimera. Watch as they attempt to turn the effeminate son of a noble family into a man deserving appointment to the Royal Guard. And double the trouble when our heroines take on a rogue magic user with a mirror that duplicates his enemies in reverse.

The Slayers - OAV 2 - Excellent
Anime.Action A.D. Vision
After three feature-length movies, we get back to short, half-hour O.A.V. episodes.
Finally, at long last, we get to see how Lina Inverse and Nahga The White Serpant first met. (In SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE, where Nahga made her first appearence, Lina and Nahga already knew each other from sometime back, and we were never told how they first came to meet.) We begin in the present, when Nahga destroys the inn Lina's staying at, and destroys the meal she was about to eat as well. This triggers a flashback to when Lina first met Nahga, who was determined to get a reputation as the world most powerful sorceress by defeating Lina. Later the two of them are hired by some village people to kill a vampire. (Yes, this is the only time in all of the Slayers anime where a vampire makes an appearence.)
Next, Lina is hired by a rich man to escort his teenage daughter Serena (spoken for by veteran actor Tiffany Grant) to their vacation villa. The problem is that Serena has a personality and laugh quite simular to Nahga, she splurges like crazy (she even refuses to wear the same set of clothing more than once and buys lots of suveners which she then expects Lina to carry,) and she slows them down greatly. Finally Lina gets sick of it so she actually hires some guys to kidnap Serena. But then Serena gets kidnapped by some different bandits, so Lina must save her with the help of Nahga.
Finally we get to see Lina's last adventure with Nahga ever. Lina comes to town and finds Nahga has a new cult of teenage girl followers (led by preppy valley girl-type Marti) who think her taste in clothing is really cool, and Lina is horrified by the idea of a future world where everyone dresses and acts like Nahga, so she joins up with a seemstress sorceress and her followers who want everyone to stick to formal attire to stop Nahga and Marti and the others.
The shows are funny, the animation is...well, excellent, and the voice actors are superb-particularly Kelly Manison, (who was born to play Nahga,) Cynthia Martinez, who had really grown into the role of Lina Inverse by the time she returned to play her in SLAYERS RETURN, and Tiffany Grant as Serena. Finally, there are the interviews mentioned in the other reviews with Miss Martinez and Miss Manison. They are almost as much fun to watch as the episodes themselves, since it's neat to see what the voice actors look like and see them speak as themselves and hear what they think of the shows and the characters. A great DVD to own.

The Slayers Next
Anime.Action CENTRAL PARK MEDIA
Let the forces of evil tremble in fear (along with wealthy merchants and innocent bystanders)... The Slayers are back! Join the not-so-heroic adventures of Lina Inverse, the super-cute sorceress who steals from the rich and keeps it for herself! Along with her sword-swinging (but dumber than dirt) sidekick, Gourry, her hyper-enthusiastic protege, Amelia, and the tormented and overly-serious golem, Zelgadis, there's nothing Lina can't do!

The Slayers Try
Anime.Action CENTRAL PARK MEDIA
In search of fame, fortune, and foreign food, Lina Inverse sets sail on a collision course for the new world! What she finds there are vengeful enemies, a bunch of high-and-mighty dragon lords, and a new quest to save the world from destruction. What's a girl gotta do for a little vacation?

DVD Bonus Features Include: Behind the Scenes Video (The Making of the English Dub, Interviews With U.S. Voice Actors & Director), Character Sketches, Comics, Sneak Peeks, Interactive Menus, Chapter Stops, Languages: English & Japanese with English Subtitles

DVD-ROM Features Include: Art Gallery, Production & Cast Credits, Character Sketches, & Graphic Novel Page

Sleepover
Comedy MGM (Video & DVD) PG
"Sleepover" is a four star flick--if you're thirteen. I'm not saying that it's a bad film, it's just very, very demographically targeted at a specific audience. The producers knew exactly what they were doing when they green-lighted this project. It stars "Spy Kids" alum Alexa Vega, and "Darcy's Wild Life" and "Aquamarine" star Sara Paxton. It also features Sam Huntington ("Jungle 2 Jungle," "Superman Returns"), and pre-teen starlets Kallie Flynn Childress, Mika Boorem, and Scout Taylor-Compton. The adult cast features a pre-"40 Year Old Virgin" Steve Carell, fellow "Virgin" star Jane Lynch and "Daddy Day Care" star Jeff Garlin.



The plot revolves around a, you guessed it, sleepover, in which a jilted Paxton decides to gang up with her friends to challenge Vega and her brood to a scavenger hunt. The prize in the balance is to either sit at the fountain during lunch or near the trash bins. Sophomoric, I know, but it works perfectly in this little comedy. The tasks in the hunt range from swiping a tag off of a rent-a-cop car to "borrowing" a pair of underwear from the apple of Vega's eye.



From there, the story becomes pretty formulaic. The girls go from one task to another and achieve them with pre-teen humor in full force. Carell fails horribly in his attempt to catch the girls in the act. It all plays out like an expanded episode of "Full House" where D.J. and her pal Kimmy get into typical pre-teen sitcom trouble. In the end it works as a pre-teen story, but most people older than fifteen will probably not care to watch it more than once.



Although it's a pretty good flick, I'd only consider buying it when my daughter hits the age of ten or eleven. Even then, however, this movie would probably only warrant a four year shelf life before my daughter grew tired with it. It's perfect for sleepovers, and coupled with Paxton's "Aquamarine" (which is actually pretty good), it's a guaranteed good time for young girls.

Someone Like You
Comedy 20th Century Fox PG-13
Despite its foregone conclusion, "Someone Like You" is an agreeable romantic comedy about how people construct elaborate defenses to cope with emotional anguish. Based on Laura Zigman's novel "Animal Husbandry", the movie is purely formulaic, with a heroine's best friend (played here by Marisa Tomei) and other supporting roles that come straight from central casting. Even the lovelorn heroine is standard-issue for the genre, but as emotionally devastated talk-show booker Jane Goodale, Ashley Judd brings intelligent charm to a role that could have been maudlin and pathetic. For a while, Jane "is" pathetic: after being dumped by her seemingly devoted boyfriend Ray (Greg Kinnear), she turns heartbreak into a hobby, creating self-assuring theories about male behavior based on the mating habits of cows. She comforts herself with the certainty that all men are scum, when really she just can't accept rejection.
Cast adrift, Jane accepts a roommate offer from her womanizing colleague Eddie ("X-Men"'s Hugh Jackman), who's been nursing his own heartbreak with lots of casual sex. You can see where this is going, and actor-director Tony Goldwyn (following his underrated drama "Walk on the Moon") doesn't offer any surprises. But Goldwyn is alert to the comedy of human foibles, and the movie peaks when Jane's defenses are down and Judd's appeal shines at full intensity. At her best, Judd makes an average script better than it has a right to be, and while Kinnear perfects his smarmy routine, Jackman matches them both with star-making sincerity. "Someone Like You" won't win any awards for originality, but it's universal in its comedic sympathy for the brokenhearted. "--Jeff Shannon"

Something New
Comedy Universal Studios PG-13
The tricky topic of interracial romance gets a sexy, charming, and unexpectedly realistic treatment in "Something New". Kenya (Sanaa Lathan, "Out of Time", "Alien Vs. Predator"), a successful accountant, gets set up on a blind date with Brian (Simon Baker, "The Ring Two")--only to discover that he's white, leading her to cut the date short. At a party, Kenya admires the garden and gets introduced to the landscape architect: Brian. Thus begins a bumpy but increasingly sparky relationship, despite opposition from Kenya's friends and family, as well as Kenya and Brian's own internal resistance. Make no mistake, "Something New" is a mainstream romantic comedy, with ridiculously attractive people grappling with problems that get solved with just a little too much ease--but along the way, Kriss Turner's script, Sanaa Hamri's direction, and Baker's and especially Lathan's performances ground the movie in something resembling the real world. Kenya's and Brian's emotional terrain has a genuine texture to it; the rhythm of the dialogue and the visual pacing allows their characters to breathe and become more genuine and vivid than your standard rom-com lovers. The strong supporting cast--including Alfre Woodard ("Crooklyn"), Donald Faison ("Scrubs"), Mike Epps ("Next Friday"), and Blair Underwood ("Full Frontal")--doesn't hurt. But Lathan owns the movie; this actress deserves true stardom. "--Bret Fetzer"

Soul Survivors
Horror Lions Gate R
Think of "Soul Survivors" as a more sincere version of "A Nightmare on Elm Street". The night before Cassie (the Gwynethesque Melissa Sagemiller) starts college, she gets into a terrifying car accident with her boyfriend (Casey Affleck) and best friends (Wes Bentley from "American Beauty" and Eliza Dushku from "Bring It On" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). But was it an accident? And who survived? Cassie starts college--but she also keeps hallucinating about frightening men she saw at a party prior to the accident, as well as about undergoing surgery after it. Is college itself the hallucination? These slips from one reality to the next build an increasing sense of discomfort and anxiety--though some viewers may be made more anxious by a scene in which Sagemiller and Dushku step into a shower together. Or do they... "--Bret Fetzer"

Space Camp
Action.Adventure MGM (Video & DVD) PG
"SpaceCamp" shares a striking similarity to Ron Howard's "Apollo 13"--it's about NASA trying to bring some people down from outer space, except in this case "13" represents the median age of those in danger. Kate Capshaw plays Andie, who throws off the curve by being on the high end of that age scale. She's always a bridesmaid, but never a bride in the shuttle program, an astronaut doomed to play wet nurse to a gaggle of kids enrolled in NASA's summer program. Of course, out of all these teeming hordes of children (there don't appear to be any particular qualifying standards to attend the camp), the film focuses on five. Kathryn (Lea Thompson) is a hopeful pilot who wants to be at the controls of the shuttle one day. Tate Donovan plays Kevin, a daft young carouser who is supposed to be so incorrigible he's winning (he's not). Kelly Preston is Tish, a valley girl with a photographic memory, and Larry B. Scott is Rudy. Rudy's there to meet the Hollywood quota for capsule diversification, but neither he nor Trish does much. Most oddly, Joaquin Phoenix is Max, the young "Star Wars" nut whose brain and fast friendship with a NASA robot get them all sent into orbit. It's unfortunate that a lot of topical swear words are peppered throughout "SpaceCamp", as it could operate as a diverting night's watch for the young astro-nut in your house. Director Harry Winer, who rose from television and sank back to television after this film stiffed over the summer of 1986, directs in 20-minute blocks like he's pacing himself for a commercial break. Once the embarrassing, extremely '80s, opening 40 minutes are dispensed with, however, and the crew accidentally gets blasted into space, the effort to return home is involving, even if it is pretty silly. "SpaceCamp" won't win any merit badges for script writing, acting, or direction but it's got the right li'l Camp NASA spirit. "--Keith Simanton"

Spaceballs
Comedy MGM (Video & DVD) PG
Mel Brooks's 1987 parody of the Star Wars trilogy is a jumble of jokes rather than a comic feature, and, predictably, some of those jokes work better than others. The cast, including Brooks in two roles, more or less mimics the principal characters from George Lucas's famous story line, and the director certainly gets a boost from new allies ("SCTV" graduates Rick Moranis and John Candy) as well as old ones (Dick Van Patten, Dom DeLuise). Watch this and wait for the sporadic inspiration--but don't be surprised if you find yourself yearning for those years when Brooks was a more complete filmmaker ("Young Frankenstein"). "--Tom Keogh"

Spirited Away
Anime.Adventure.Fantasy Studio Ghibli / Walt Disney PG
The highest grossing film in Japanese box-office history (more than $234 million), Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" ("Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi") is a dazzling film that reasserts the power of drawn animation to create fantasy worlds. Like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" and Lewis Carroll's Alice, Chihiro (voice by Daveigh Chase--Lilo in Disney's "Lilo & Stitch") plunges into an alternate reality. On the way to their new home, the petulant adolescent and her parents find what they think is a deserted amusement park. Her parents stuff themselves until they turn into pigs, and Chihiro discovers they're trapped in a resort for traditional Japanese gods and spirits. An oddly familiar boy named Haku (Jason Marsden) instructs Chihiro to request a job from Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette), the greedy witch who rules the spa. As she works, Chihiro's untapped qualities keep her from being corrupted by the greed that pervades Yubaba's mini-empire. In a series of fantastic adventures, she purges a river god suffering from human pollution, rescues the mysterious No-Face, and befriends Yubaba's kindly twin, Zeniba (Pleshette again). The resolve, bravery, and love Chihiro discovers within herself enable her to aid Haku and save her parents. The result is a moving and magical journey, told with consummate skill by one of the masters of contemporary animation. MPAA Rated: PG ("Some scary moments") "--Charles Solomon"

St. Elmo's Fire
Drama Sony Pictures R
A collective vanity piece for the so-called Brat Pack of the 1980s, this coming-of-age movie--written and directed by Joel Schumacher ("A Time to Kill")--is a largely unbelievable ensemble piece about college grads having trouble getting a lift-off into adulthood. As in John Hughes's "Breakfast Club"--which has a lot of casting overlap with this film--each actor plays a rather narrow type with problems common to his or her classification. Some (as with Rob Lowe's seemingly doomstruck character) are more absurd than others. But absurdity isn't the issue in this movie; a general sense of indulgence is. Schumacher not only presumes an undeserved mystique about this cast, but he also exploits it and comes up empty. "--Tom Keogh"



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