CASINO (1995)

 

Directed by: Martin Scorsese Written By: Nicholas Pileggi & Martin Scorsese Based on the Book “Casino” By: Nicholas Pileggi Cinematography: Robert Richardson  Editor: Thelma Schoonmaker 

Cast: Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone, James Woods, Frank Vincent, Don Rickles, Alan King, Kevin Pollak, Pasquale Cajano, Richard Riehle, L.Q. Jones, John Bloom, Dick Smothers, Vinny Vella, Melissa Prophet, Bill Allison, Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, Frankie Avalon, Jerry Vale, 

A tale of greed, deception, money, power, and murder occur between two best friends: a mafia enforcer and a casino executive compete against each other over a gambling empire, and over a fast-living and fast-loving socialite.

THE SPECIALIST (1994)

Directed By: Luis Llosa 
Written By: Alexandra Seros 
Based on The Specialist series of books By: John Shirley 
Cinematography By: Jeffrey L. Kimball 
Editor: Jack Hofstra 


Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods, Eric Roberts, Rod Steiger 

 Ray Quick is a bomb expert who worked for the CIA along with a guy named Ned Trent, who's extremely demented. When they have a falling out, Ray becomes a freelancer who lives off the grid. A woman named May Munro contacts and wants him to kill the three men who killed her family years ago, who work for the Leon crime family. Ray does it and after killing the first one, the Leons need to find the one who did it and it turns out Ned is now working for them and they task him with finding the bomber. The Leons get him to work with the police and he looks for the bomber. In the meantime Ray, while working on getting the others, can't help but follow May wherever she goes.

JEFF OF THE CINEFILES &UNFINISHED BUSINESS: HALL OF FAME: FILE #0049: THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (2000)

Written & Directed By: Sofia Coopola 
Based on the book by: Jeffrey Eugenides 
Cinematography By: Edward Lachman 
Editor: Melissa Kent & James Lyons 


Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, Scott Glenn, A.J. Cook, Chelse Swain , Hanna Hall, Melody Johnson, Jonathan Tucker, Hayden Christensen, Michael Pare, Robert Schwartzman 


A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents in suburban Detroit in the mid-1970s.

THE HARD WAY (1991)

Directed By: John Badham 
Written By: Lem Dobbs & Daniel Pyne 
Story By: Lem Dobbs & Michael Kozoll 
Cinematography By: Don McAlpine & Robert Primes 
Editor: Tony Lombardo & Frank Morriss 


Cast: Michael J. Fox, James Woods, Stephen Lang, Annabella Sciorra, LL Cool J, Delroy Lindo, Luis Guzman, Penny Marshall, Mary Mara, Christina Ricci, Lewis Black, Kathy Najimy, Yasin Bey, Michael Badalucco 


Nick Lang is a famous Hollywood actor, well known for his action movies. For his next movie, he needs the proper motivation and inspiration for his role. Thus he teams up with the reluctant New York policeman Lt. John Moss. Not only does he have to put up with Nick, who is laborious and out of touch with realities, but he also has to catch a coldblooded murderer.

THE GETAWAY (REMAKE) (1994)

Directed By: Roger Donaldson 
Written By: Amy Holden Jones & Walter Hill 
Based On The Novel By: Jim Thompson 
Cinematography By: Peter Menzies Jr. 
Editor: Conrad Buff 


Cast: Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Jennifer Tilly, Michael Madsen, Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Woods, Richard Farnsworth, David Morse, Burton Gilliam

SCARY MOVIE 2 (2001)

Directed By: Keenan Ivory Wayans 
Written By: Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans & Craig Wayans, Alyson Fouse, Greg Grabinski, Dave Folsky, Michael Anthony Snowden 
Based on Characters Created By: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Phil Beaumn, Aaron Seltzer & Jason Friedberg 
Cinematography By: Steven Bernstein Editor: Tom Nordberg, Richard Pearson & Peter Teschner 

Cast: Anna Faris, Christopher Masterson, Chris Elliott, Regina Hall, David Cross, Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Tori Spelling, Kathleen Robertson, James Woods, Natasha Lyonne, Richard Moll, James DeBello, Andy Richter, Veronica Cartwright, Robert Schimmel, Tim Curry

RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS (2001)

Directed By: Penny Marshall
Written By: Morgan Upton Ward
Based On the book By: Beverly D’Onofrio
Cinematography By: Miroslav Ondricek
Editor: Lawrence Jordan & Richard Marks

Cast: Drew Barrymore, James Woods, Steve Zahn, Brittany Murphy, Adam Garcia, Lorraine Bracco, Sara Gilbert, Rosie Perez, Peter Facinelli, Vincent Pastore, David Moscow, Marisa Ryan, Mika Boorem, Desmond Harrington, Paz De Le Huerta

VAMPIRES (1998)

Directed By: John Carpenter
Written By: Don Jakoby
Based On The Novel "VAMPIRE$" By: John Steakley
Cinematography By: Gary B. Kibbe
Editor: Edward A. Wasrchilka

Cast: James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, Maximillian Schell, Tim Guinee, Mark Boone Junior, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

PRETTY PERSUASION (2005)

Directed By: Marcos Siega
Written By: Skander Halim
Cinematography By: Ramsey Nickell
Editor: Nicholas Erasmus

Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, James Woods, Jane Krakowski, Ron Livingston, Selma Blair, Stark Sands, Jamie King, Danny Comden, Ari Schnall

SCARY MOVIE 2 (2001)

CAST: Anna Faris, Shawn Wayans, Regina Hall, Marlon Wayans, Chris Elliot, David Cross, Richard Moll, Tori Spelling, Christopher Masterson, Natasha Lyonne, James Woods, Tim Curry, Andy Richter, James DeBello, Kathleen Robertson, Veronica Cartwright, Beetlejuice

Directed By: Keenan Ivory Wayans
Written By: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Alyson Fouse, Dave Polsky, Craig Wayans, Michael Anthony Snowden, Greg Grabianski
Based On Characters By: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer, Phil Beauman
Cinematography By: Steven Bernstein
Editor: Tom Nordberg, Richard Pearson & Peter Teschner

To say this film was a disappointment would be a understatement now I didn’t love the first scary movie but I liked it and enjoyed it. Despite a few reservations and this film unfortunately this film doesn’t even come close to the quality of the original. It feels like a movie just based on squeezing some more dollars out of a franchise. I mean it has 7 writers which is never a good sign. That many cooks working on the same dish. I would bother telling you the storyline but as it seems non existent and the film doesn’t follow it. It would be a waste of time.

The main problem with recent spoof films and this one in particular is to stay on subject and still have a main plot. This film brings jokes about the subject it is spoofing but it has no real main storyline it starts off with one then seems to forget it and seems too busy with the jokes and spoofing more modern day people and events then actual scary movies which is also the problem with comedies like MADTV and the wayans own IN LIVING COLOR while both are legendary and hilarious they won’t age gracefully as all of there comedy are based on modern celebrities and events that 10 – 20 years from now audiences will be scratching there heads to understand the jokes or if they weren’t around when the film was made will be wondering who they are talking about.

Tori spelling is in this movie and was supposed to be a small comeback but I wonder if it was just stunt casting because she barely makes a mark in a role almost any actress could have played. Most of the cast reprises there roles from the first film even the ones who were killed return with hardly any explination. The bad thing about this movie is with all the talent involved it should have been funny or at least funnier but it’s not. There is a chuckle here and there but as a whole I can’t say it is successfully funny the jokes just seem stale.

I also had one of many bad experiences seeing this film in a theater I had some woman sit next to me who i didn’t know and our seats while separate were connected together and all through the movie she laughed loudly at everything even things I thought were funny I would start to laugh and then so would she so hard that she drained whatever I found funny about it out. So that I would pray no more jokes would come to make her almost have a coronary. I have since seen the film at home and still have the same opinion of it that I had that day.

The opening sketch was supposed to have Marlon Brando in a way spoof the exorcist but when he got to sick to do the role he was replaced by James Woods now if Brando would have done it. He is the only thing that would have made this movie noteworthy. This was also the last semi decent Scary Movie Sequel all after this one are horrible.

Bottom line if you liked the first one you will probably like this one.

GRADE: D