Imagine being a struggling Iowa corn farmer and one day, while tending to your crop, you hear a voice, seemingly coming from the tall, green stalks surrounding you, repeatedly whispering the same mysterious words in your ear: “If you build it, he will come.” Your first question would undoubtedly be: Build what? Then you’d wonder: Who’s “he”? (You may also begin to question the origin of the strange voice, but we’ll leave that one alone.) In one of Kevin Costner’s best films, the “it” the voice is referring to is a baseball field, but the person Costner is building the…
Author: Jamey Codding
I’ve probably seen the legendary comedy “Animal House” at least two dozen times now, and I imagine I’ll see it another two dozen times before I die. My college buddies and I used to watch it religiously in our dorm rooms and then later in our rundown house, cracking up every time John Belushi impersonated a zit in the Faber College cafeteria. We memorized virtually the entire script and repeatedly recited classic lines like, “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son,” and “Do you mind if we dance with your dates?” We despised Doug Neidermeyer…
The horror genre has always operated in cycles. When one movie breaks new ground, the industry quickly follows suit until that particular fad has been completely tapped. It happened in the 70s with occult films like “The Exorcist” and “The Omen,” in the 80s with slasher films like “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th,” and again in the 90s with Wes Craven’s “Scream.” Such is the genesis of “Urban Legend,” an incoherent “Scream” wannabe with a ludicrous premise and a twist ending that is so much like the Craven classic you’d think it was the next installment in the series. The…
Stoners love stoner movies, and if a stoner movie is any good, non-stoners will like it as well. “Half Baked” surely isn’t an award-winning comedy with top-notch writing and a complex plotline, but it’s damn funny. And while potheads the world over can quote just about every line from the film, you don’t have to toke to appreciate “Half Baked.” Though it certainly helps. In a role that helped propel him to superstardom, Dave Chappelle plays Thurgood Jenkins, a Master of the Custodial Arts — “or a janitor, if you want to be a dick about it” — with the…
It’s been a long time since the Coen brothers delivered a film worthy of any critical recognition. The last one that comes to mind is the musical comedy “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” but for fans of the Coen’s trademark blood-and-money crime dramas, it goes as far back as 1996, when “Fargo” gained both critical and commercial success on its way to receiving seven Oscar nominations. Since then, the brotherly duo has been stuck in a bit of a creative rut, but with the release of their latest film, “No Country for Old Men,” it seems like their streak of…
You have to be a certain type of person to thoroughly enjoy an Adam Sandler movie. First, you must have a sense of humor, preferably with a tendency toward off-the-wall comedy. Second, you have to be able to go into a movie expecting nothing more than to laugh with no preconceived notions of catching the next greatest American comedy. Finally, you have to be ready for just about anything. In “Happy Gilmore,” Sandler plays the title character, a life-long hockey fan who just doesn’t have the skating skills to compete on the ice. But, as his coaches say, he’s got…
Comedian Lewis Black, who many probably know from his time as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” as well as his work on the network’s “Indecision 2000” coverage, considers himself “America’s foremost commentator on everything.” While that may be slightly ambitious, Black certainly is one of the premier political comedians around. With his second HBO stand-up special, “Red, White and Screwed,” set to debut June 10, Black took some time to chat with Bullz-Eye about who he’d like to see run for president in 2008, why Hillary Clinton’s got no chance in hell of being elected, and how…
It’s been nearly 15 years since the last 2D Mario title demanded the attention of every gamer in the world, but as soon as you pick up “New Super Mario Bros.” for the Nintendo DS, you’ll be back in old school gaming heaven. It’s almost as if the NES was never made obsolete, and while Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto hasn’t strayed too far from the old formula that made the original title such a classic, he’s certainly improved upon it with better graphics, innovative levels and exciting new gameplay elements. One could even be considered foolish to suggest that there…
A confession: I can’t remember the last time I played Ten start to finish. It’s been years, quite a few of them, in fact. And yet, I’m one of the biggest Pearl Jam fans you’d ever meet. So why have I neglected Ten, one of the defining albums of the 1990s and the most significant release in my own music universe, for so long? I guess I’ve outgrown it. It’s no big deal. I’m not putting it down, and I’m certainly not forgetting the impact it had on me and so many others more than a decade ago. The album…
First, he was Opera Man, Canteen Boy and Cajun Man. Then, he was Billy Madison. Riding a swelling wave of popularity from his five years on “Saturday Night Live,” Adam Sandler co-wrote and starred in “Billy Madison” in 1995, a comedy about a 27-year-old slacker in desperate need of a kick in the pants. That kick is eventually delivered by Billy’s father, hotel tycoon Brian Madison (Darren McGavin), who threatens to hand his empire over to vice president Eric Gordon (Bradley Whitford) if Billy doesn’t pull his life together. To prove that he’s responsible enough to inherit his father’s company,…