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Release Date: September 26, 2006
There is a bit of genius in the formula that Producer Neal H. Moritz has found. That formula is where he has found a way to take a mediocre story, slap some hot cars and a hot cast in for good measure and come out the other end with a film [...]

Kevin Costner’s The Guardian tells a story which has been told before and doesn’t bring anything unique to the telling. The script is formulaic and the characters, though not precisely one dimensional, are nevertheless stereotypes that could be traded with characters from other like movies without much damage being done to the project. Despite these unremarkable aspects, the movie was competently filmed and the subject matter is just interesting enough to entertain us most of the time. Hollywood could do, and has done, a lot worse.

This weekend Ashton Kutcher makes his return to the big screen, could this be his big test as a box office draw? Will he benefit from the Kevin Costner rub? Who knows. I am intrigued, but not especting much. Going against it we have an underdog comedy and an animated family film. Will this be [...]

Release Date: September 15, 2006
Hollywood themes come in twos. I don’t feel like doing the actual research, but I have noticed several times in the past that two movies of a similar theme will open in the same year and sometimes in the same season. Right now, two movies dealing with Hollywood murders [...]

After the wild critical acclaim of Rushmore, Wes Anderson set out to direct his most personal piece to date. With an ensemble cast anchored by Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums made Hollywood and moviegoers stop and say “Who is Wes Anderson?”
The Tenenbaum family is both blessed and cursed. Two prestigious parents, Royal (Gene Hackman) and [...]

Allow me to step up onto my soapbox for a moment and bask in the glory of actually winning a Weekly Over/Under despite going against the general consensus. Allow me to bring Cole Abaius up onto the soapbox as well, and share it as a team victory…
Give us a moment to savor it…
Alright, that is [...]

Release Date: September 1, 2006
This Film Is Not Yet Rated, is at its heart, a documentary.
That’s a powerful statement, right there. And you’d better pay attention to it, if you use movie reviews to decide what you’ll spend your hard-earned money on. What you may have heard about the movie, and indeed, it’s [...]

Here’s a blast from the past. A movie about a teenage computer hacker, original huh? Well back in 1983 this was relatively new. Computers were in the early stages of making it into the home and we were still in the Cold War, with the threat of nuclear war hanging over us. Then along comes [...]

Release Date: February 21, 1996
Like a cheap bottle of beer exploding all over a frat guy’s “College” shirt on Sixth Street, there has been a recent explosion of filming in Austin. That being said, the movie Bottle Rocket was not actually filmed in Austin. It was, however, filmed mostly in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and [...]

This week is loaded with titles worthy of adding to your collection, and mine if any of you are feeling particularly generous. Old titles, new titles, television titles, a whole assortment. There is one that stands above the pack, and it is a movie that I have not even seen yet.
The official [...]

Brian De Palma is no slouch when it comes to delivering stylish, captivating films that keep his audiences entertained and yearning for more. Of that, we can be certain. Scarface is quite possibly the second greatest gangster movie ever and The Untouchables was, to say the least, spectacular among modern westerns. De Palma’s latest offering, [...]

Release Date: September 22, 2006
Let me start this by saying that I do not like the possessive that was added to the title. I can understand it from a marketing perspective, but I just do not like that it was officially tacked on to the official title. In China it was known [...]

Shriekfest, now in it’s 6th year, is a small horror-themed film festival that takes place over two weekends. The first weekend was September 22-24 and the festival wraps up September 30 til October 2nd. Each day is filled with several film “programs,” generally either about 90 minutes of shorts or a short paired [...]

Rushmore single handedly launched the mainstream career of director Wes Anderson and his star Jason Schwartzman. Not to be left unmentioned, this film also provided a much needed jumpstart towards the end of a disappointing decade for Bill Murray. While Rushmore is not Anderson’s first film, it is his most groundbreaking.
At the surface, Max Fischer [...]

Before really going into my usual writings, I would like to take a bit of offense to something I read over at IMDB.com. In their box office recap they have the headline “Box Office Flunks Intelligence Test” as they describe the dominance of the teenage boy demographic at the box office and the rise of [...]

Ever since Bottle Rocket, I have found myself to be a big fan of Owen & Luke Wilson. Shortly after the mild success of Bottle Rocket, I was introduced to the man who was responsible for their Hollywood careers.

Wes Anderson has provided a fresh and original mix of films to an industry that has been [...]

Hello all, and welcome back to Film School Rejects and do we have a treat for you. This week will debut our newest feature to the site. We will be presenting some of our favorite directors and reviewing some of their work. The week will begin with a director profile, and be followed by reviews [...]

Release Date: September 22, 2006
How do you review a movie like this? Do you speak of the clever, yet sophomoric, play on words in the title? Do you detail the stunts that are contained within? Do you mention the waves of laughter that ripple through the audience like nausea? Do you go on about the [...]

First off, when I saw the listing for this at the theater, I had no idea that it was the result of Project Greenlight. Of course, I found that out relatively quickly (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon among the producers was a hint). I just saw the name Feast and the horror [...]

Release Date: February 21, 1996
Like a cheap bottle of beer exploding all over a frat guy’s “College” shirt on Sixth Street, there has been a recent explosion of filming in Austin. That being said, the movie Bottle Rocket was not actually filmed in Austin. It was, however, filmed mostly in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and [...]

I so wanted to love this movie. Seeing the ads and early talk looked very good. I have liked Stephen Sommers movies (The Mummy films, Deep Rising), they may not be high art, but they have always been fun, add Wolverine, the lovely Kate Beckinsale, and Universal’s most famous monsters, it appears like a slam [...]

I went into this movie not quite sure what to expect, from the commercials it struck me as a formulaic action movie with shades of The Professional. What we get is a violent revenge movie with a surprisingly touching story at it’s heart. The centerpiece of this movie is the wonderful relationship between Washington’s Creasey [...]

Release Date: September 22, 2006
It was disgusting, degrading, shocking, and insanely irresponsible. I wanted to look away, but I just couldn’t. I loved it.
Plot really isn’t an issue with Jackass, and neither is the content. Have you have ever been to a party and seen someone who drank too much, and you know they are [...]

Release Date: September 22, 2006
In the clearest example yet this year of a movie that is dying to win Best Picture at the Oscars, an overpowering score by James Horner, a weighty historical script by Steven Zaillian and big name star power have come together to give us All the King’s Men. We [...]

Wow, what a twisted little movie! I first heard about this film some months ago, around the time of its limited theatrical run. Unfortunately, it never came around my area, so it sort of slipped to the back of my mind. Then, a co-worker asked me if I had seen it, of [...]

This movie, I haven’t seen or heard anything about yet. Maybe because the screenings I see don’t have trailers. Anyways, I saw this trailer and it actually got me pretty excited. I knew I’d be seeing more of Justin Chatwin after his roles in War of the Worlds and The Chumscrubber, but I [...]

Release Date: June 13th, 2006
Cemetary Man is a rarely seen, recently released Italian horror flick new to DVD here in America. A cemetary worker, Francesco Dellamorte, and his Igor like simpleton assistant, Gnaghi, watch over a cemetary where the recently buried rise again. Francesco calmly puts bullets in their heads as they rise.
From [...]

Release Date: September 12th, 2006
This is a film I wanted to catch in theaters but didn’t manage to. In the end, after watching it on DVD, I’m not all that upset I missed it. Make no mistake, lots of people will love this movie. It’s got a lot of style and it [...]

Release Date: August 29, 2006
I believe Josh Tyler from Cinema Blend said it best when he said that there are just some movies that you want to be good. In fact, there are some movies for which I don’t even need to see a trailer in order to yearn for excellence, just the involvement of [...]

Sean Penn and Jude Law are going for Oscar’s gold in a tale about a man of the people, who will do whatever it takes to bring down a corrupt government in 1950’s Louisiana.