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Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987) --> The Police Academy franchise should have stopped at one movie. The first was not a great comedy but it did have its charms, introducing us to the great sound effects work of Michael Winslow's mouth would be a good example. But there are only so many times you can see Steve Guttenberg in a film before his 'college try' at acting makes you sick. This film rehashes familiar ground with new recruits hitting the streets to fight crime with the original cast helping out.


Full Spectrum Staff

Revolver (2005) --> Guy Ritchie made two brilliant films with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000), but he also has the ability to disappoint as Swept Away (2002) proves. Ritchie tries to regain form with Revolver even having Jason Statham return to star. But Ritchie seems to have run out of ideas (or maybe put too many together at once) as Revolver is a failed attempt to regain the reputation he had with his first two films. You could call Revolver a complicated gangster film with a philosophical bend. It is a film the gets better with repeated viewing but even after you are still mildly disappointed. Where comparisons to Tarantino were deserved during the late '90s, Ritchie has failed to live up to the standard that Tarantino continues to set. Sympathetically speaking, Ritchie couldn't make another Lock Stock/Snatch film but when he tries something different he is lambasted. Between a rock and a hard place would best describe Ritchie's career presently, it will be interesting to see if he can re-invent himself.


Full Spectrum Staff

March of the Penguins (2005) --> One of the best documentaries of 2005, March of the Penguins is the debut for French film director Luc Jacquet. Jacquet braves the coldest weather on the planet to film the Emperor penguins' journey from the Antarctic seas to the place of its mating rituals on the Antartic ice. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the film chronicles the Herculean struggles the penguins must endure in order to continue their species. Beautifully filmed, March of the Penguins is both inspiring and sad and gives you a better understanding of the natural world at the bottom of the planet.


Full Spectrum Staff

You've Got Mail (1998) --> For many guys, when you mention a romantic comedy, they bolt from the room until their significant other, through prodding, coaxing and charming persuasion, reluctantly return to the room in order to be forced to watch an hour and a half of what can truly be called a horror film. But if there is such a thing as an exception, Nora Ephron's movies would be them. Although When Harry Met Sally (1989) is her best movie (Rob Reiner directed and she wrote it), You've Got Mail is also an enjoyable watch. She has a way of making her films less sappy than most of the genre's movies.

This is the second movie directed and written by Ephron that stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and the two actors rekindle the magic they displayed in Sleepless in Seattle (1993). It is true that You've Got Mail can be called a repeat of the earlier Hanks/Ryan mentioned film (with twists) but Ephron, has a knack for creating interesting ways for a man and woman to meet and fall in love. This one centers on internet dating where a small bookstore owner falls for a man she meets through email. He turns out to be the owner of a big box book chain that is opening an outlet near her independent shop eventually putting her out of business.


Full Spectrum Staff

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