Reviews

They are pretty, they are successful, they are smart – and yet, some women just seem to fail in the dating world. VH1 Tough Love tries to show them what they are doing wrong, and what a man's point of view is.

Alleged "master matchmaker" Steve Ward is the host of VH1's latest dating show brainchild, who wants to teach eight apparently hopeless women how to date. All of the contestants seem to fit a different stereotype: There's the party girl who has never had a serious relationship, the marriage minded one who already has designed her wedding dress, the gold digger, the career woman, the stalker type, the motherly caring girl, the tough one and the picky one.

Steve is dishing out what they keep doing wrong – and he's not gentle doing it. They learn to build a relationship from ground up – from first impressions to sharing secrets in a positive way to trusting someone.

VH1 Tough Love was a topic of heated discussion even before it hit the airwaves in March. People worried it would have a misogynic undertone and try to form women after some male ideal that was impossible to reach.

It turned out differently: Yes, Steve Ward candidly tells contestants what their faults are, and yes, the tone of the show is not always amiable – but there's a reason it is called Tough Love.

As reality shows go, this one is definitely one of the most tolerable ones in recent history. The contestants seem like real people instead of drama queens who seek media exposure, and the objective of the show is always to help people with their issues.

And then, it even teaches the viewer a little about dating – the most comforting thing being that you never have to change who you are, just how you present yourself.

Even the biggest stars have to start somewhere. That is certainly true for Jim Carrey who was one of the biggest comedy stars in the '90s with such hits as The Mask, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Dumb and Dumber. He later expanded his range to more serious movies like the critically acclaimed The Truman Show, about a man who unknowingly has been the center of a TV show all his life, and Man on the Moon, about the eccentric life of comedian Andy Kaufman.

But in 1983, Carrey was a nobody and had his very first leading role in the Canadian movie, Copper Mountain, which is both very lucky and very unlucky: lucky for the producers who can now slap Carrey's face on the DVD cover and therefore sell a few more copies at Wal-Mart, and unlucky for Carrey, because it must be pretty embarrassing to have this film on your resume.

Actually, it seems doubtful if you can even call Copper Mountain a film. First, there's the running time of just under an hour – and that includes the very long end credits, which, sadly, are also one of the more coherent parts of the movie.

The real problem is where it comes to the plot: There is none. The film vaguely deals with two friends (Carrey and Alan Thicke) going to a skiing resort. While one of them has problems meeting women, the other wants to enter a skiing tournament. This is not a short summary of what happens. That is all that happens.

It seems the producers had some random footage of skiing people and open-air concerts by totally unknown people at their disposal and were forced to edit it together. They threw in some scenes of Carrey imitating Sammy Davis, Jr. (one of the few, dare I say it, bright spots of the film) – but simply forgot to tie all of these ingredients together with a plot.

Copper Mountain is currently at number 70 of the worst movies of all time on IMDb.com. It elicits such comments as, "It doesn't even count as ski porn," and "I really wish I would have shot myself in the face instead," from the site's visitors.

On the other hand, it has to be seen to be believed. Don't worry about the costs – it's available for as little as 1 Cent on Amazon Marketplace.

Written by: Johanna Schoenfeld http://thecelebritycafe.com/movies/full_review/12937.html

There he is, former President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella), at the end of his political life. It has been a few months since Watergate and his resignation and he has been reduced to being a guest speaker at low-profile conferences. Cue David Frost (Michael Sheen): The British talk show host is known for interviewing the crème de la crème of Hollywood and pop music and hosting shows about escape artists. With virtually no credentials in political journalism, he still decides to take on what could be considered the most important interview of the time. It's Richard Nixon's first big post-Watergate talk. Because money talks and also because Frost seems to be a safe bet as a soft-hitting interviewer to Nixon's team, he gets the job. Frost ends up "giving Richard Nixon the trial he never had," as Sam Rockwell's character puts it.

"Trial" is definitely the operative word here. "Frost/Nixon," which re-tells the story of one of the most memorable interviews in American history, plays like a cross between a boxing match and the best courtroom drama you have ever seen. It centers, of course, on the interviews themselves but also allows a glance backstage. You get to see how both parties prepare for the interviews, which is actually a bit like preparing for a boxing match, and what strain they are under. Nixon wants to rehabilitate himself. Frost needs the interviews to be spectacular, mostly because he has problems selling them to TV stations.

Above all, "Frost/Nixon" has the feel of a highly enjoyable play which after all, is where it originated. Still, it transforms seamlessly to the screen, mostly because of the excellent performances by Langella and Sheen. Even though Langella has been accused of "overdoing" his Nixon, he succeeds in capturing the spirit of the 37th U.S. president and has rightfully earned an Oscar nomination. The difficulty of accuracy versus artistic interpretation of the material is the same here as with all biopics and "true stories," or even more so, seeing as everyone can go back and look at the real Frost/Nixon interviews. Director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan, whose work includes "The Queen," succeed in finding a balance between realism and Hollywood-esquire appeal to audiences.

Sometimes, it feels like the film industry has already told every story about the atrocities of the Holocaust there is to tell. The only way to still pulling it off is finding a small story inside all of the big history and tell it, and that is exactly what the 2008 foreign-language Academy Award winner, "The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher)" does.

Salomon Sorowitsch, played by Karl Markovics, is a master counterfeiter and he is living the sweetest life it can buy him. But then, he gets arrested and ends up in the concentration camp Sachsenhausen. The Nazis are not about to let his talent of forging currency and documents go to waste. They set up a workshop where they have Sorowitsch and others forge British money, among other things. In exchange, the counterfeiters get a little oasis in the middle of hell such as more food and better beds.

This puts the group in a dilemma in two ways. They want to survive, they want to live and they know they only will if they obey the Nazis' orders. But on the other hand, they are painfully aware they are financing the war on the Germans' side by providing them with valuable foreign currency. There's also the guilt of hearing the screams from the other side of the camp while lying in their comfortable beds or having a cigarette.

"The Counterfeiters" was Austria's first Oscar win for Best Foreign Language Movie and deservedly so. It features a number of strong performances, especially by lead Karl Markovics, who is one of the country's most promising acting talents. The visuals are far from glossy, and seem impressively rough and realistic.

The story suffers from a few lengthy sections and the rather unrealistic portrayal of Adolf Burger, a counterfeiter colleague of Sorowitsch's, from whose point of view the story is told. While all the other characters are realistically torn between doing the "right thing" by resisting the Nazis and their will to survive, Burger seems to be some kind of angel who always argues for the morally sacrosanct choice, apparently without any fear of being killed for it. One can assume without too much speculation that he made himself look a bit better on purpose, since the movie is based on Burger's own memoirs. No one can really blame him for that.

http://thecelebritycafe.com/movies/full_review/12789.html

Terrorism is not a new phenomenon. Germany, the 1970ies: The left-wing Red Army Faction (RAF) becomes the most feared group in the country by bombing government buildings, robbing banks and organizing kidnappings. They protest US Vietnam policy, the treatment of the so-called Third World, and capitalism. Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin are the group's founders and leaders. They believe in their causes and are convinced that violence is necessary to fight the evils of the world. But then, things get out of control and people get hurt and killed. Can the spiral of violence be stopped? 2008's The Baader Meinhof Complex hasn't found a U.S. distributor yet, but it is up for a foreign language Oscar on Feb 22. The nomination is well-deserved, a win however wouldn't be.

The film does a good job at portraying a piece of German history that has been more or less neglected by the movie industry. It gives you an overlook of three generations of RAF terrorists and their fate. This is where the film's first problem arises – it tries too hard to stuff in too many facts and events into 150 minutes, and that doesn't quite work. Especially the last third feels more like a series of snapshots than like a movie. The second problem is related to that – the film tries so hard to document absolutely everything, it seems to forget it is supposed to be a drama.

The strongest suit of The Baader Meinhof Complex are definitely the actors (especially German stars Moritz Bleibtreu and Martina Gedeck), who make their terrorist characters so human and passionate you can't help but root for them a little bit.

http://thecelebritycafe.com/movies/full_review/12801.html

Somewhere in the middle of the Colorado mountains: Welcome to Everwood, a small town complete with quirky inhabitants and easy-going lifestyle, where everyone knows everyone. But then, a new face appears in town. Dr. Andrew Brown (Treat Williams, with a beard!), a world-famous neurosurgeon and his children Ephram, played by Gregory Smith, and Delia, played by Vivien Cardone.

Andy is here to start a new life. After his wife died in a car accident, he realized how little he knew his own children. Now, he wants to reconnect. There's just one problem. His son hates him.

Meanwhile, Ephram has other problems. He falls in love with the most popular girl in school, Amy, played Emily VanCamp, who, of course, has a boyfriend. Not only that, this boyfriend is in a coma. So when she hears about a surgeon coming to town, she has new hope.

The aforementioned quirky Everwoodians have various reactions to the new residents. There's the town's doctor, played by Tom Amandes, who isn't happy about the new competition as Andy opens an office. There's his estranged mother, played by Debra Mooney, who is married to the only black guy within a 30-mile radius. There's Andy's neighbor, Nina, played by Stephanie Niznik, with whom he always finds a sympathetic ear.

"Everwood" was easily one of the best dramas on TV. Mostly because it had a lot of drama (Deaths! Comas! Unrequited love!) without ever being cheesy, and just enough comedic elements without being ridiculous.

Another strong suit of the show are its characters, whom you just can't help but fall in love with as you get to know them along the way. A lot of that is due to great writing, but just as much credit goes to the actors who craft their characters with a certain fondness. Tom Amandes in particular succeeds in making the town doctor, who seems to be nothing but a funny sidekick at first, into a multi-layered, interesting person.

There's one thing you can count on with "Everwood." Almost every single episode will make you cry like a baby, or, at the very least, make your eyes water. It's just that good.