Chaplin - 15th Anniversary Edition
  Robert Downey, Jr
  4 out of 5 stars
  Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson

Charlie Chaplin is to comedy what The Beatles are to music. Chaplin was Hollywood's first million dollar superstar, and his slapstick comedies revolutionized silent film. Without Chaplin, there might not have been a Marx Brothers, certainly no Three Stooges and maybe no Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, or Dave Chappelle. Instead, we might be talking about Charlie Chase, Harold Lloyd, or Ben Turpin as the founding fathers of comedy. Who? Never heard of those guys? Lloyd actually made more money during his career than Chaplin, yet today, it's the "Little Tramp" that's remembered.

Fifteen years ago, Sir Richard Attenborough (who'd directed "Gandi" and would go on to star in "Jurassic Park"), took on the seemingly impossible task of telling Chaplin's life story. Any number of the highlights (or lowlights) in Chaplin's 88 years of existence could have been a film by itself - living in abject poverty with his step brother, Sydney, and his mentally ill mother; trolling London's impoverished streets; creating the character of "The Little Tramp," a comic, sentimental every man; getting married four times; his endless stream of underage lovers; been dogged out of the country by J. Edgar Hoover; or returning to the U.S. in his 80s to receive the longest standing ovation in history of the Oscars. Compressing Chaplin's faults and accomplishments into two plus hours was one hurdle -- finding someone the public would accept as The Little Tramp was even harder. When Robert Downey, Jr. an American actor, was chosen to play Chaplin, a collective "What the #$!!!" shook the entire movie community. The choice of Downey seemed absurd; not only was he battling a mind-numbing substance abuse problem, he'd never shown a knack for physical comedy, and that not being English thing would be a real slap in the face to Brits if he tripped over Chaplin's accent.

Not only did Downey master Chaplin's aristocratic accent, he xeroxed his brand of acrobatic comedy, reflected the hurt of his early years, and captured his lonely existence at the top. Downey didn't just study Chaplin, he absorbed him, from his duck-footed walk, to his visual tics, and horny as a goat hedonism. Downey's saturation of Chaplin comes to the fore when Chaplin resists the advent of talkies. It's easy to play a flamboyant, larger-than-life personality in his heyday, but Downey's portrayal of Chaplin becomes more multi-dimensional as his career begins to go into eclipse. When J. Edgar Hoover mounts a crusade to deport Chaplin, The Tramp becomes more fastidious, more of a perfectionist, determined to promote a message behind the laughter. While creating "The Great Dictator," Chaplin realizes talking in a film will be the end of The Tramp, "But at least he'll go out saying something I believe in."

  Inside Actors Studio
  Robin Williams
  4 out of 5 stars
  Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson

How funny is Robin Williams? During his five hour off-the-cuff Inside the Actor's interview one audience member laughed so hard he literally busted a gut and had to be hauled off in an ambulance.

Shot January 29, 2001, Robin Williams' interview with James Lipton on his "Inside the Actor's Studio" show has since become the program's most requested episode. Shout Factory has gathered together 100 minutes of the original interview with an additional 40 minutes of bonus footage and commentary from the appreciative Lipton.

After "Mork and Mindy," neutron box office bombs like "Popeye," winning an Oscar for "Good Will Hunting" and delivering mind-twisting performances like "The Fisher King," Williams still processed the comic delivery of a Gatling gun with a perpetual load of adlibbing ammunition. By the time host James Lipton gets his second question in, nearly ten minutes have passed, and you'll have nearly passed out from Williams' non-stop hysterics. One of the most memorable moments is when Williams borrows a shawl from a member of the audience (coincidently one of Lipton's relatives). Williams creates half a dozen characters in a matter of a few dizzying minutes, including a veiled Iranian woman: "I would like to welcome you to Iran...Help me!"

  The Good Life
  Bill Paxton Mark Webber
  2 out of 5 stars
  Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson

Characters like Jason Prayer, the suffering protagonist in the downbeat drama "The Good Life," are designed to make us feel better about our humdrum, recession-challenged lives. Jason's dad committed suicide, a rare blood disease had made him as hairless as an unblemished cue ball, his mom's a deadbeat looking for her next sugar daddy, the electricity in their Tobacco Road hovel has been turned off, his brother-in-law's a lout, and he gets picked on by a psychotic, tire-smoking, football star wanna be. Charlie Brown looks like Diamond Jim Brady compared to this guy. Jason doesn't fit in, and the worse part of it is he knows it. To top it all off, he lives in nowheresville Nebraska, and divides his grey days working as a gas jockey and projectionist at his friend Gus' empty theater. Gus (zoned-out Harry Dean Stanton) has become his surrogate father figure - and he's losing his memory as well as his will to live. We know Gus is ready to bring down the curtain because he stares watery-eyed into space, waxes longingly about his dead wife, forgets to wear pants, and says things like "Maybe I shouldn't think that just because it's still breathing it wants to live" when he's talking about his plant.

The only activity worth experiencing in town is college football, and Jason hates sports. (It's pretty obvious that if you threw a football at this guy he'd run, fearing it might explode. And with his luck, it would.) Then Jason meets Frances, a beautiful, troubled, free spirit who calls him her "soul mate." (Zooey Deschannel plays Frances, with her luminous ice blue eyes transmitting vulnerability and her erratic actions promising trouble.) Frances has the wide-eyed come hither stare of a silent film damsel in distress and a loony twitter of the Glenda the Good Witch in her voice. There should be a DANGER WILL ROBINSON alarm going off in Jason's head the moment Frances suggests they vandalize a coke machine in order to get money to pay the electric bill. Then she admits she's lied to him not once, but twice about her past. We have a phrase for ladies like Frances, and it's not "soul mate" -- it's "unstable nutbag." When someone says they had to "take time off" and "take a lot of pills," its fourth down in your relationship and you've got no time outs left. It's a signal to end the game of love. But like all lovestruck outcasts, Jason can't get enough of Frances and the half dozen psychotic personalities that inhabit her body.

  Stuck
  Mena Suvari Stephen Rea
  3.5 out of 5 stars
  Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson

"Stuck" was inspired by a true story. In 2001, Chante Mallard spent an evening drinking in (and apparently inhaling) too much southern hospitality. She got good and liquored up, piloting her car through the streets of Fort Worth as if she was in a demolition derby. Oblivious to her surroundings, she hit Greg Biggs, a homeless man, who became "stuck" in her windshield. Rather than take the dying man to a hospital, Mallard bolted for home and parked in her garage with Briggs still protruding from her the front of her vehicle. Biggs died two hours after he was mowed down. Mallard was contrite when she was tried for murder, but she couldn't duck her deserved 50 year sentence for murder.

2007's "Stuck" expands on Mallard's tragic tale, mixing in darkly humorous twists that turn an unsavory act into an amusing cat and mouse struggle between the victim and his increasingly inept captors.

Brandi Boski (Mena Suvari, showing unexpected range) is a nurse at a retirement home who's so well thought of by her patients and peers that she's in line for a promotion. Away from the job, Brandi's an Extasy swallowing, booze swilling party girl, hanging out at the local club with her co-worker Tanya (adorable Rukinya Bernard, raising the bar on the best black friend role), and drug-dealing boyfriend, Rashid, (riotous Russell Hornsby).

  Street Kings
  Keanu Reeves
  2 out of 5 stars
  Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson

"Street Kings" is one of those cop movies where all the main characters are out to get laid, paid, and made. There's a lot of dangerous hardware fired (both the character's mouths and their guns), but once the smoke clears and the principals speak, its obvious "Street Kings" should abdicate its claim of being an exciting, original urban action shoot 'em up. A cliché-riddled script and sleepy performances with all the inspiration of a tired factory worker clocking in at Three Mile Island means this street is empty.

A badly hung over Detective Tom Ludlow (ossified Keanu Reeves) rises laboriously from his bed to meet a pair of Korean gangsters who want to buy a machine gun from him. (Dude, would you buy a used anything from Reeves?) In a misguided attempt to intimidate the gangsters, Ludlow repeatedly slurs them. In a rare movie moment when you'll actually root for the bad guys, the gangsters vigorously introduce their fists to Ludlow's face and steal his car. Ludlow trails them to their hideout and storms in, riddling the bad guys and rescuing two kidnapped children, which was his covert mission. Knowing he's on the hook for murder, Ludlow stages the crime scene, making it look like the gangsters fired first. It's all in a day's work for Ludlow, who may not be on the take, but certainly rigs the law to meet out his fatal brand of street justice.

Ludlow is hailed as a hero, especially by his no-holds barred commanding officer, Captain Jack Wander (a tightly wound Forest Whitaker), who heads a unit of maverick cops willing to do anything in the name of the law. (Yes, here's yet another movie Whitaker appears in. This has to be some sort of a cinematic conspiracy.) Ludlow's former partner, Terrence Washington (tough guy Terry Crews), doesn't think he's a hero, and he's been talking to Captain James Biggs of Internal Affairs ("House" doctor Hugh Laurie, barely registering a brain wave), about investigating Ludlow and the rest of Wander's circumspect unit. Upset at Washington for ratting him out, Ludlow trails him to a bodega, intent on battering some sense into him. A pair of heavily armed robbers enters the store and it's obvious they're not packing all that heat just to snap into a Slim Jim. The assassins pump so many bullets into Washington that he dances like Pee Wee Herman with his BVD's full of Red Hots. Ludlow finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time -- on the store's security tape, accidentally putting another round into his badly holed partner.

  Forgetting Sarah Marshall
  Collector's Edition
  2.5 out of 5 stars
  Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson

What would you do with a boyfriend whose one desire in life is to stage a musical about Dracula...starring puppets? Yeah, I thought so...

Popular TV actress Sarah Marshall (live wire Kristen Bell) comes to the realization her relationship with her couch potato boyfriend Peter Bretter (Jason Segel, who overdoes the loser act) is draining the life from her, so she dumps him faster than a bouquet of skunk cabbage. Peter, who happens to write the music for Sarah's show, "Crime Scene," is caught off guard and so devastated by the abrupt death of their relationship that he spends days in his apartment wallowing in booze and Fruit Loops. Hoping to bid aloha to heartache, Peter decides to take a vacation in Hawaii, and promptly runs into Sarah and her slinky, sexy, rock star boyfriend Aldous Snow (comedic genius Russell Brand). Seeing Sarah rekindles the hurt, but meeting Rachel Jansen (game, but miscast Mila Kunis), helps Peter regain his sense of self. But will Peter be able to forget Sarah Marshall?

Peter's inability to let go is played for laughs, and thanks to Russell Brand's scene stealing, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is worth devoting a few bowls of poi to get through. You'll cringe in recognition (and smile) at some of the dialogue between Peter and his one night stands, and if you have a sibling, you'll be amused by the cutting communication between Peter and his step-brother, Brian (snide, smirking Bill Hader). It's difficult to get a handle on why Peter falls for Rachel, so you'll have to pick a reason. Is it her bottomless, expressive, mismatched eyes? Her earthy, non-celebrity? Or is he just rebounding from Sarah harder than a Superball shot from a howitzer? Common sense says if you went out on your first date with Rachel, wound up jumping off a shear cliff and nearly drowning, then got beaten up, you'd steer well clear of her. But that's comedy!

The script is partially based in fact. Jason Segel's real life break up with his girlfriend wasn't nearly as traumatic. But he actually thought a musical about Dracula with puppets was something the world needed and craved. "Dracula's Lament," Segel's "Phantom of the Opera" sound alike signature piece built around his bellicose Bela Lugosi vocals, is one of the most wretched wrongdoings I've ever heard. The score for "Dracula's Lament" will suck the life out of you, but thanks to Jim Henson's puppets, at least it's enjoyable to watch - imagine Count Chocula with his own musical! "Dracula's Lament" is the loser musical Max Bialystock should have financed in "The Producers," a guaranteed close-after-one-performance financial flop. You might think it's funny the first time you hear it because Segel only gurgles out a few lines, but by the time you near the end of the movie and hear the whole time-sucking suite you'll be crying out for someone to put a stake through your heart.

  South Of Pico
  Henry Simmons
  2 out of 5 stars
  Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson

It says on the box cover that "South of Pico" won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Picture at The American Black Film Festival in 2007, and that leading man Henry Simmons won a Best Actor award at the same soiree. (He should, this gig will probably put him on the bread line for a few years to come.) Also, Ernst Gossner won First Feature Best Director accolades at the Pan African Film Festival for creating "Pico." I've never heard of either festival. After watching the film, I came to the conclusion that it must be real easy to win one of these awards.

Not to pile on too many negative points, but it's dangerous to mount an advertising campaign comparing "South of Pico" to "Crash." "Crash," one of the most highly acclaimed films of 2005, featured Sandra Bullock and Brendan Fraser going against their G-rated images. "Crash" contained some genuinely disturbing commentaries on race, class and violence. "South of Pico" merely mirrors the same events with a minor league cast, a far less engaging script, and a wafer-thin budget. There's an occasional noteworthy scene, and when I say occasional, that means they occur as often as it snows in Los Angeles. Surprisingly, most of the best scenes involve the cast's child actors - and we all know that W.C. Fields, who used to whack Baby LeRoy around the set, was more fond of kid thesps than I am - so that tells you just how far south of credible the adult's performances are.

As with many pictures these days, the film's ending -- a violent confrontation between strangers on a quiet Los Angeles street -- is its jump point. The action then backtracks several hours, documenting the circumstances that brought the six characters to the film's decisive moment. Carla, (stiff Gina Torres, acting as if she's receiving a full cavity search), is an anti-social waitress whose only friend is her eleven year old neighbor, Francine. Carla's dedication to her solitary existence is tested when a customer takes an interest in her...

  30 Rock
  Season 2
  3 out of 5 stars
  Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson

The Golden Globe, Emmy award-winning comedy "30 Rock" is a modern day "Mary Tyler Moore Show" with star Tina Fey as the virginal, innocent (well, mostly) and trusting Mary, and Alec Baldwin as grumpy boss man Lou Grant. Jane Krakowski is a less malignant and self-centered Sue Ann Nevins, Scott Adsit mirrors Murray, the seasoned producer, and Jack McBrayer fits the role of good-natured, two-below-plant life-I.Q.'ed Ted Baxter. Guess that makes Tracy Morgan a homeboy version of Gordie the Weatherman. You get the picture, the only real difference is nearly forty years, more liberal censorship rules, and instead of acting out their lives in a newsroom, the characters at 30 Rockefeller Center play out their existence on the set of a fictional NBC TV show. Whether it brings back memories of Mary or carves out its own niche in your heart, "30 Rock's" misanthropic point of view beats out a lot of the empty headed bathroom humor that's infested the tube (although there's plenty of that on display too.) "30 Rock" also topples current taboos, such as homeland security, liberal Democrats, uptight Republicans, and our love for power, greed and celebrity, while fielding other pressing issues in life, such as hard-core coffee addiction, hoagie-stuffing gluttony, chunky chick charm, and what to do with a $4,000 wedding dress you'll never use.

Those issues, and many others, are satirized in the 2 DVD, 15 episode set of 30 Rock's second season, which includes deleted scenes, cast commentary, and a live benefit performance at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater.

For those who don't know, the industry insanity at 30 Rock centers around network executive Jack Donaghy (Baldwin), writer Liz Lemon (Fey), NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer), and the stars of "TGS With Tracy Jordan," Tracy Jordan, (Morgan) and Jenna Maroney (Krakowski). Rounding out the show are the producers and writers of "TGS," Pete Hornberger (Adsit), who enjoys "dating" his wife in Liz's bedroom; Frank (Judah Freidlander), who assists Tracy in creating a video porn game, and spends three months in his office; Cerie (Katrina Bowden), the flighty office hottie, and snippy Harvard graduate Toofer (Keith Powell).

Although "30 Rock" may not be a new idea, and there's nothing that'll make you roll around the floor the way Moore's "Chuckles the Clown" funeral episode did, there's plenty on the 2 DVDs that rocks. Each episode has two or three plots spinning off of one another, so if Jack's jibes don't jive, then Liz Lemon's loser luck might. Among the memorable episodes is "Rosemary's Baby," in which Liz meets her heavily medicated, rebellious childhood idol and insists she write for the show. Meanwhile, Jack helps Tracy gets to the bottom of his rebel nature through role playing - with Jack playing all the roles.

  Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
  Morgan Spurlock
  3 out of 5 stars
  Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson

Morgan Spurlock gained his fame - and a ton of fat - in "Supersize Me," the often amusing documentary that showed the dangers of a fast food "diet." Spurlock sacrificed his waistline so that we might hesitate to ask for fries with that. So searching for the bearded fiend who wants to put all infidels' heads on a pike is another, much more dangerously permanent matter. In his latest film, "Where In the World Is Osama Bin Laden?" Spurlock amps up the danger quotient by attempting to locate America's Public Enemy No.1. Last time I checked, being beheaded with a dull scimitar is a far more dangerous prospect than a Big Mac attack.

The film is billed as a comedy, but there are few belly dancing laughs. You'll definitely shake your head in disbelief, grimace, be temporarily amused, maybe even wish a few undesirables dead, but laugh? Uh-uh. Nevertheless, Spurlock's journey is one we all need to take. If you're one of those smug war hawks who drives around with your American flag decal on your bumper flipping the bird to foreigners, pining for the day we turn the Middle East into a parking lot, then Spurlock's documentary is sho' nuff gonna flatten the tires on your pick up truck. If you're convinced there are a lot of folks living in paralyzing poverty who hate the U.S., well, you probably need to double your estimate of how many there really are. The good news is they don't necessarily hate Americans - they just hate our buttinski government. What's really surprising is the number of people who are ambivalent toward America. No, the world doesn't revolve around you, George W. There are bigger concerns in the Middle East, especially for villagers with no drinking water who send their children to a bullet-riddled school with no roof or walls.    

Our intrepid filmmaker's search for Osama coincides with exciting, life-changing news -- Spurlock and his wife are going to have their first child. But Spurlock's Middle East odyssey could very well keep him from being by his wife's side when their baby is born.

Bringing a child into the post 9-11 world changes Spurlock's agenda. He wants to see Osama grovel in an American court, but he's also concerned for his child's safety in a die-Yankee-dog world. 

I Got the Feelin'
James Brown in the 60s
3.5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson

The scenario was a grim one. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the black community's spiritual and political leader, had been assassinated the day before. Rioting in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Detroit, and other major cities had turned them into funeral pyres. One of the cradles of democracy, Boston, was next. Enter James Brown, who was scheduled to perform at the Boston Garden the day after Dr. King's death. In the hopes of unifying his city, Mayor Kevin White announced the show would go on.

Shout Factory has released a three DVD set "I Got the Feelin': James Brown in the 60s," containing a documentary that chronicles the events leading to the historic concert, as well as two DVDs of live performances featuring Brown and his band of renown performing at the Boston Garden and Apollo Theater. You get every slide, shuffle, slip and spin, executed at a time when Brown was in his prime. Moonwalk? Brown's sweat-spraying dance steps put Michael Jackson's ballyhooed boogying to shame.