- Deemed nouveau riche and shunned by elitist New York society, sisters Nan and Virginia St. George, along with their friends Lizzy Elmsworth and Conchita Closson (Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino), try their luck in London. The girls' New World spontaneity and impertinence constitute nothing less than a social invasion of Old World society and they soon find themselves courted by a coterie of fasc
JADED - DVD MovieA funny sexy romantic comedy for MEN and Women!
From writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez comes a comedy about a serpentine day in the life of ten seemingly disparate women including a porn star, a flight attendant, a psychiatrist, a masseuse, a bartender and a pair of call girls - all with one thing in common: trouble. WOMEN IN TROUBLE stars Carla Gugino ( Sin City ), Adrianne Palicki ( Friday Night Lights ), Connie Britton ( 24 ), Marley Shelton ( Grindhouse ), Emmanuelle Chriq! ui ( Entourage ), Simon Baker ( The Mentalist ), and Josh Brolin ( Milk ).A CONNIVING CIRCUS OWNER AND CON-MAN STUMBLES UPON A REAL, LIVE MERMAID. IN THIS QUEST FOR ABUNDANT RICHES AND POPULARITY, HE SECRETLY STEALS THE SEA-CREATURE AND HEADS OFF BY BOAT TO AMERICA WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND LILI AND A SMALL CREW. THE CON MANAND AND HIS CREW REALIZE THEY HAVE NO DOCILE CREATURE.This surprisingly satisfying horror movie centers on a mermaid--but it's hardly one of the giggly types from
Peter Pan. Rufus Sewell and Carla Gugino play a couple of small-time circus people who discover that an eccentric old man keeps a genuine mermaid in a water-filled tank. Dreaming of an invitation from Ringling Bros., Sewell steals the mermaid and loads her on a ship for America. But in the middle of the Atlantic, the hungry mermaid shows her darker side--and Gugino learns that she may be linked to the mermaid in unexpected ways.
She Creature was no doubt made on a low budget, bu! t it looks excellent and the above-average script gives the s! trong ca st firm ground to stand on. The mermaid herself (Rya Kihlsted) is both lovely and eerie. All in all, an enjoyable homage to classic horror films.
--Bret FetzerA funny sexy romantic comedy for MEN and Women!
From writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez comes a comedy about a serpentine day in the life of ten seemingly disparate women including a porn star, a flight attendant, a psychiatrist, a masseuse, a bartender and a pair of call girls - all with one thing in common: trouble. WOMEN IN TROUBLE stars Carla Gugino ( Sin City ), Adrianne Palicki ( Friday Night Lights ), Connie Britton ( 24 ), Marley Shelton ( Grindhouse ), Emmanuelle Chriqui ( Entourage ), Simon Baker ( The Mentalist ), and Josh Brolin ( Milk ).THRESHOLD is a suspenseful drama about a team of experts who are assembled when the U.S. Navy makes a chilling discovery: an extra terrestrial craft has landed in the mid-Atlantic ocean. Dr. Molly Anne Caffrey (Carla Gugino) is a government contingency analyst! whose job is to devise response plans for worst-case scenarios. In a single instant, her life changes when one of those plans--THRESHOLD--is activated by Deputy National Security Advisor J.T. Baylock (Charles S. Dutton). Armed only with her hypothetical strategy to address the appearance of aliens on earth, Caffrey now finds herself thrust in the midst of a global crisis. She hand-picks a team of eclectic specialists to prepare for first contact: Dr. Nigel Fenway (Brent Spiner), a disillusioned NASA microbiologist; Lucas Pegg (Rob Benedict), a brilliant but neurotic physicist; Arthur Ramsey (Peter Dinklage), an expert in languages and mathematics; and Cavennaugh (Brian Van Holt), a highly trained covert operative with a mysterious past. Together, they decipher the intention of the craft, the fate of the ship's crew and begin preparations for the possibility of a crisis situation--an alien invasion.Deemed nouveau riche and shunned by elitist New York society, sisters Nan an! d Virginia St. George, along with their friends Lizzy Elmswort! h and Co nchita Closson (Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino), try their luck in London. The girls' New World spontaneity and impertinence constitute nothing less than a social invasion of Old World society and they soon find themselves courted by a coterie of fascinated admirers. But as the old and new worlds come to clash, something has to give.As four young American women find their way through the labyrinthine social world of 1870s England, their fortunes rise--and sometimes, with brutal abruptness, fall. Based on Edith Wharton's unfinished novel,
The Buccaneers, this lavish BBC production follows Nan and Virginia St. George (Carla Gugino,
Spy Kids, and Alison Elliott,
The Spitfire Grill), two American sisters who follow their friend Conchita Closson (Mira Sorvino,
Mighty Aphrodite), a Brazilian bad girl who marries a dissolute British lord, to England in search of aristocratic husbands--partly due to the influence of their canny governess, Laura Testval! ley (Cherie Lunghi,
Excalibur).
The Buccaneers has a good dose of the delicious satirical wit to be found in many BBC dramas, but tempered by the presence of the naive American girls, who find themselves trapped by the very things they thought they wanted. Though mocked by some critics for its heaving bosoms and towering hairdos, the five-part series stealthily paints a sometimes devastating portrait of women's lives. When Idina Hatton (Jenny Agutter,
Logan's Run), the older lover of the aimless Lord Seadown (Mark Tandy,
Shackleton), learns that Seadown is going to marry the young and lovely Virginia, it's a heartbreaking moment, yet one that isn't overdone.
The Buccaneers is full of such gracefulness--Wharton observes the fickle turns of life in society with a judicious eye, empathizing with the pain but never losing sight of the hard realities of money and marriage. In a strong cast, Gugino particularly shines; with her round, rosy cheek! s and expressive eyes, she makes a smart yet vulnerable heroin! e.
-- Bret Fetzer
