Around The Bend
Directed by Jordan Roberts

By Travis Mackenzie Hoover

Looking to frighten your Women’s Studies prof? Look no further. This sentimental dog piles on every male weepie cliché in the manual while affirming the father’s authority even when he’s a jerk, with a few caricatured females thrown in for yucks. Josh Lucas plays an uptight banker who was abandoned as a child by his junkie father (Christopher Walken); the father suddenly appears on the son’s doorstep just in time for the eccentric grandfather (Michael Caine) to kick and send them on an ashes-scattering road-trip ritual for their inheritance. It’s all about forgiveness, apparently. Walken doesn’t so much as murmur the words “mea culpa” before he’s dragging the rightly recalcitrant Lucas (and his annoyingly wise beyond his years son Jonah Bobo) across the countryside, but it’s understood that whatever daddy did was okay largely because he was daddy. And despite the mild Starbucks franchise ambiance, the “loosen up” message comes across like an alcoholic goading you to drink — something you might do if only it didn’t mean satisfying a jerk. Fall into the patriarchal line, it says, and stop whining. Women are completely beyond the purview of this film, which relegates them to role of comic relief: Glenne Headley is humiliated as an excitable au pair, and a feeble-minded older woman gets played for uneasy laughs. We all know what the main event is, but even the fighters can’t go two rounds without getting winded. Extras include a director’s commentary, which points out all the bad symbolism and Syd Field commonplaces; an hour-long making-of featurette that’s more observational than most and outshines the movie; a deleted scene reel with more pretentious blather by the director; a soundtrack spot; and the trailer. Do not approach without masculine self-pity. (Warner)


I, Claudia - Dir. by Chris Abraham
I, Claudia isn’t much more than a performance by an actor with masks, but the performance is a killer (and so are the masks). Emerging out of Kristen Thomson’s one-woman stage show, it centres on the eponymous 12-year-old girl who’s facing both the onslaught of puberty and the imminent remarriage of her divorced father; she tells us her hopes, her fears, her anxieties and her deep resentment towards her father’s fiancée. ...Read More
Friday Night Lights - Dir. by Peter Berg
Sports movies, especially those involving a high school sports team, have little room to expand on their predecessors’ successes. The formula has become simple and often boring: underdog team gets underdog coach; a series of trial-and-error situations raise them from the bottom; and they triumph in some championship game against all odds; the end. Friday Night Lights, for the most part, follows this formula, but it also somehow manages to make it seem fresh. ...Read More
24 Season Three
A Letter to Three Wives - Dir. by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
A New Kind Of Love - Dir. by Melville Shavelson
Ali G Indahouse - Dir. by Mark Mylod
Alien Versus Predator / Predator 2 - Dir. by Paul W.S. Anderson / Stephen Hopkins
Angel Season Five
Assault on Precinct 13 - Dir. by John Carpenter
Backbeat - Dir. by Iain Softley
Bopha! - Dir. by Morgan Freeman
Bright Young Things - Dir. by Stephen Fry
Carnivàle: The Complete First Season
Carrie - Dir. by William Wyler
Catwoman - Dir. by Pitof
Chariots of Fire - Dir. by Hugh Hudson
Cheers: Season Four
Code 46 - Dir. by Michael Winterbottom
CSI: Miami: The Complete Second Season
Cube Zero - Dir. by Ernie Barbarash
Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Third Season
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Collector's Edition - Dir. by Michel Gondry
Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars - Dir. by Brian Henson
Fidel Castro - Dir. by Adriana Bosch
Flight Of The Phoenix - Dir. by John Moore
Frasier Season 4
Get Shorty - Dir. by Barry Sonnenfeld
Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex 3
God, The Devil And Bob
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle - Dir. by Danny Leiner
Head In The Clouds - Dir. by John Duigan
Howard’s End - Dir. by James Ivory
I Love Lucy: The Complete Third Season - Dir. by William Asher & Mark Daniels
Leave Her to Heaven - Dir. by John M Stahl
Léon The Professional: Deluxe Edition - Dir. by Luc Besson
Lightning In A Bottle - Dir. by Antoine Fuqua
MacGuyver: The Complete First Season
Married With Children: The Complete Third Season
Mean Creek - Dir. by Jacob Aaron Estes
Men Behaving Badly: Season One
MI-5: Volume 2
Miami Vice: Season One
Millennium: Season 2
Mr. 3000 - Dir. by Charles Stone III
Night Court: The Complete First Season
One Tree Hill: The Complete First Season
Paranoia 1.0 - Dir. by Jeff Renfroe and Marteinn Thorsson
Pauly Shore Is Dead - Dir. by Pauly Shore
Ray - Dir. by Taylor Hackford
Return to Peyton Place - Dir. by José Ferrer
Riding Giants - Dir. by Stacy Peralta
Secrets & Lies - Dir. by Mike Leigh
Shall We Dance? - Dir. by Peter Chelsom
Shark Tale - Dir. by Bibo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson & Rob Letterman
She Hate Me - Dir. by Spike Lee
Starkweather - Dir. by Byron Werner
Strayed - Dir. by Andre Techine
Stripperella: Season One Uncensored
Taxi - Dir. by Tim Story
Taxi: The Complete Second Season
Ten - Dir. by Abbas Kiarostami
The Cookout - Dir. by Lance Rivera
The Crying Game - Dir. by Neil Jordan
The Fifth Element: Ultimate Edition - Dir. by Luc Besson
The Forgotten - Dir. by Joseph Ruben
The Grudge - Dir. by Takashi Shimizu
The Jamie Kennedy Experiment: The Complete Third Season
The Karate Kid Collection - Dir. by John G. Avildsen/Christopher Cain
The Laughing Policeman - Dir. by Stuart Rosenberg
The Matchmaker - Dir. by Joseph Anthony
The Notebook - Dir. by Nick Cassavetes
The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season
The Star Chamber - Dir. by Peter Hyams
The Story Of The Weeping Camel - Dir. by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni
The Take - Dir. by Avi Lewis
The Twilight Zone: The Definitive Edition Season 1
The Wire: The Complete Second Season
Vanity Fair - Dir. by Mira Nair
We Don't Live Here Anymore - Dir. by John Curran
When Will I Be Loved - Dir. by James Toback
Wild At Heart - Dir. by David Lynch
Zelary - Dir. by Ondrej Trojan
The term "videogame music" is often intended as an insult, deriding electronic beatscapes as rudimentary by comparing them to the 8-bit by necessity, bleep-based soundtracks of early Atari and Nintendo games. (See: Castles, Crystal) That Super Mario's theme music remains embedded in the frontal lobes of anyone under the age of 40 proves the critical weakness of the diss ― but it's also hopelessly archaic considering how much videogame music has evolved over the years.... Read More
Explosive and precise, Etaoin Shrdlu knowingly wink at the perception that their post-hardcore math rock musical approach might be a throwback while simultaneously contributing something vibrant to punk rock with Mating Calls. Featuring members of significant bands like Blake, I Can Put my Ar... Full Review
"I've got a fever and the only cure is dead angels."
-Bayonetta

Ever since the Christmastime gaming deluge ended, I've been killing a lot of angels. Though God's messengers have been bad guys in other pop-cultural products ― His Dark Materials book trilogy, the pas... Full Review
Social Networking
• Be our friend on MySpace
• Be our fan on Facebook
Tweet us on twitter
Viewing the February 2005 Issue: Contents PageNewsClick Hear • Articles --> On the Cover  •  Front Five  •  Points  •  Comics  •  Point of View  •  Questionnaire  •  Readers Poll  •  Timeline • Music Reviews --> Recently Reviewed  •  Aggressive Tendencies  •  Beats & Rhymes  •  Destination Out  •  Frequencies  •  Groove  •  Pop Rocks  •  Wood, Wires & Whiskey  •  Concert Reviews • Motion Reviews --> Recently Reviewed  •  Dvd Reviews  •  Film Reviews  •  Music DVD Reviews • Music School --> Label Life  •  Meet & Greet  •  Need to Know  •  What I Play Contests • Contact --> About Us  • Advertising  • Distribution  • Getting Reviewed  • Getting Published  • Letters To The Editor  • Partnerships  • Subscriptions • Exclaim! Radio --> Aggressive Tendencies Radio  • Beats & Rhymes Radio  • Frequencies Radio  • Destination Out Radio  • Groove Radio  • No Future Radio  • Pop Rocks Radio  • Wood, Wires & Whiskey Radio Exclaim! TV • Home & Latest Issue Browse Issues