Shameless Self Expression

Dusty Crophopper (voiced by Dane Cook) is a crop-duster who dreams of being a racer in the Wings Around the Globe, an international flying race. In his qualifier he finishes sixth, but after a disqualification, he slots into 5 th and qualifies for the race. This earns him the ire of the current champion Ripslinger, who scoffs at the notion of a crop-duster entering such a race. But this only makes Dusty more determined to win. Stacy Keach voices Skipper, a supposed war veteran who reluctantly coaches Dusty towards victory, Teri Hatcher voices the supportive mechanic Dottie, Priyanka Chopra is the voice of Indian plane Ishani (whom Dusty is sweet on) John Cleese voices the pompous but loyal British plane Bulldog, Carlos Alazraqui is the voice of Dusty’s fellow competitor and friend El Chupacabra, and Jessica Marais (!) voices the Aussie object of El Chupacabra’s affections, with the not very Aussie name of Rochelle (Does she fly from Milan to Minsk?).   I didn’t much like...

Set in Alaska in the early 1980s, the film deals with Alaska’s most notorious serial killing investigation. Nic Cage plays a veteran state trooper nearing retirement, who doggedly pursues the killer, who has been getting away with it for about 13 years. We know pretty early that the killer is John Cusack (although at first it’s just an abduction case), a rather unassuming family man with all kinds of issues bubbling beneath the surface (and a criminal record that no one seems to have noticed), who abducted more than 20 women, played with them for a bit, then took them out into the wilderness and treated them like wild animals to be hunted down. Vanessa Hudgens plays a teen prostitute whose claims of narrowly escaping being killed have thus far gone unchecked, but whom Cage sees as key to bringing this guy (who claims to have an alibi) to justice. Kevin Dunn, Kurt Fuller, and Dean Norris all play cops, Radha Mitchell plays Cage’s annoyed wife, Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson plays Hudgens’...

Lake Bell stars as the daughter of a revered movie trailer voiceover guy, a pompous arse (played by Fred Melamed) who went up in stature with the passing of the late, great Don LaFontaine. Bell is doing OK as an expert coach in accents and also an ADR dubber, but dreams of breaking into the thus far male-dominated world of movie trailer voiceovers. She’d like to be the first woman to utter LaFontaine’s infamous line ‘In a World…’. When an upcoming quadrilogy of YA Fiction adaptations is on the horizon, Bell sees this as her big opportunity. The title phrase hasn’t been used since LaFontaine’s death, but this upcoming series will apparently see its return. Meanwhile, her dad has always dissuaded her from joining the fold, and is mentoring a rival voiceover talent, played by Ken Marino. Alexandra Holden plays Melamed’s much younger bimbo girlfriend, Rob Corddry plays the husband of Bell’s sister, Geena Davis plays the big-time producer of the upcoming film franchise, and Jeff Garlin ...

Graeme Blundell plays the title character, a likeable and not terribly bright sort, who seems to attract the attention of horny women everywhere. Employed as a door-to-door salesman of waterbeds, he finds himself practically raped by his customers. But none of this makes Alvin happy, so he seeks psychiatric help. Unfortunately, his shrink (Penne Hackforth-Jones) is sexually repressed herself, and her boss (George Whaley) ropes Alvin into ‘helping’ some of his sexually repressed patients, which essentially turns Alvin into a male prostitute, getting himself in trouble with the law. The one girl Alvin does have feelings for (Elli Maclure) is so horrified by his man-whoring that she runs away to become a nun. Lynette Curran and Jacki Weaver play a couple of the horny women who make advances of Alvin (the former being his neighbour), Christine Amor plays one of a throng of schoolgirls who pursue Alvin on the way home from school each day when he’s a teen, Abigail is a sexy young woman ...

Teen Adele (played by then 18 year-old Adele Exarchopoulos) attends a gay bar with a male friend and meets blue-haired college student Emma (Lea Seydoux, ten years her co-star’s senior), and there’s an immediate attraction. Before long, the older and more experienced Emma is leading Adele into her first lesbian experience. They form a tight, passionate bond, though as with many relationships, there are setbacks, conflicts, and confusion throughout the duration of their relationship.   I’ve been wanting to see this 2013 lesbian romance/drama from director/co-writer Abdellatif Kechiche (“Black Venus”) for quite a while now, because I’m a pervert. Turns out that it’s a solid movie, while the sexual content actually has its plusses and minuses. Co-scripted by Ghalya Lacroix from a 2010 graphic novel by Julie Maroh (I need to start reading these graphic novel things), it’s not the masterpiece I was expecting from its reputation, and I think three hours is far too long for w...

When opportunistic boxing manager Donati (Edward G. Robinson) witnesses hayseed bellhop Wayne Morris knock out the heavyweight champ after the latter insults Donati’s good-hearted mistress nicknamed ‘Fluff’ (Bette Davis), Donati sees dollar signs in the big lug. Dubbed ‘Kid Galahad’, he becomes a big deal pretty quickly. Donati organises a fight with the champ’s mobster manager Turkey (Humphrey Bogart), but because the jealous Donati suspects that The Kid has a thing for his sister (Jane Bryan) and that ‘Fluff’ has a romantic interest in The Kid too, Donati may not have The Kid’s best interests at heart, even less so than usual as he starts seeing red. Harry Carey plays the veteran ‘cut man’ working for Donati, whilst Soledad Jiminez plays Donati’s loving, immigrant mother.   Pretty enjoyable boxing movie from 1937 directed by Michael Curtiz ( “The Adventures of Robin Hood” , “Casablanca” ) and scripted by Seton I. Miller ( “The Adventures of Robin Hood” , “Ministry of Fe...