Author: Jason Zingale

If John Travolta skated as well as he danced, then “Saturday Night Fever” would have been a lot more like “Roll Bounce,” though the similarities are unavoidable. Both films are about ridiculous fads in the 70’s (disco and roller disco, respectively), and rely on their coming-of-age male protagonists to carry the emotional load of the film. Travolta did a much better job with the latter task, but “Roll Bounce” succeeds on another level as an ensemble piece. Director Malcolm D. Lee has to know that his pint-sized star Bow Wow can’t carry the film on his own, but it doesn’t…

Quick. You’ve just involuntarily killed a man in the bathroom of a local diner and you’ve only got so much time before the cop on duty meanders inside to check things out. What do you do? Should you drag the body out of sight? Perhaps clean up the floor? Or maybe wash your hands? What about the danged murder weapon? And should I pay my check on the way out? These are but a few of the decisions you’ll be forced to make within the first five minutes of “Indigo Prophecy,” a reinvention of the adventure genre that takes a…

Over the past decade, writer/director Kevin Smith has established a loyal cult following, but there’s no doubting that “Mallrats” has been singled out as the fans’ least favorite film. And unlike the director’s other projects, which were released under the Miramax brand, “Mallrats” was produced as a studio picture with Universal, thus making it a completely different style of Smith film. Despite the indisputable differences though, “Mallrats” is the funniest movie in the entire View Askew catalog and boasts perhaps one of the finest comedic performances of the decade, thanks to skateboarding pro Jason Lee’s unexpected jump to the big…

Director Andrew Niccol’s latest film, “Lord of War,” is one giant public service announcement on the how-to of gunrunning. It even opens with the following statistic: “There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That’s one gun for every twelve people on the planet.” And in sticking with the reality of the subject matter, Niccol also states that his film is based on actual events, so much so that the hyperrealism is unsurprisingly more enjoyable to watch as a narrative than if a documentary were made on the same topic. The fact that Niccol borrowed actual weapons of war…

A comedy should only be measured by the number of laughs it receives, because no matter how funny the concept, the film is a complete failure if it doesn’t achieve this simple task. Using this principle, “The Man” is one of the biggest failures of the year. Not only was the movie not funny enough to laugh at, but it generated only a few smirks along the way and made me seriously contemplate the future of Samuel L. Jackson’s career. There are more humorous stories about paint drying I’d rather hear than watch this piece of shit, but at least…

Luc Besson is probably one of the most talented, but hit-and-miss, filmmakers in the business. To his credit, he has created some of the coolest characters in action movie history, including Nikita (“La Femme Nikita”), Leon (“The Professional”) and even Frank Martin (“The Transporter”). His problem is that he’s too unreliable, and “Transporter 2” offers more than enough evidence why. The sequel to the sleeper hit works just as well as a popcorn flick, but it loses some of its simplicity along the way. And isn’t that what was so appealing about the original? Its candid B-movie roots paired with…

There’s a reason why romantic comedies seem so one-dimensional: the leading man always gets the girl. But what happens to the nice, dependable guy who’s left at the altar when the hero shows up to sweep the beautiful bride-to-be off her feet? The State-alum Michael Showalter aims to answer that question with his directorial debut, “The Baxter,” a unique and unconventional film that tries to emulate the romantic comedies of the 1930’s and 40’s. Unfortunately, Showalter is by no means a Jimmy Stewart-type, and he horribly miscasts himself as the lead, lacking the acting chops necessary to carry the story.…

The comic book film explosion of the past five years has delivered superhero movies that fans can finally enjoy, but the video game genre is a little different. There hasn’t been a first-rate superhero game to hit shelves in a long time, but with each passing year – and with it a handful of bad games – the industry has managed to gradually excel with its latest offerings. Vivendi Universal’s most recent attempt at scoring with a superhero game, “The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction,” is by no means a shining gem of excellence, but it does show signs of improvement…

The virtual pet market has been ablaze since the advent of the Tamagotchi in 1997, but the 8-bit pixilated toy is a joke when compared to Nintendo’s latest invention: “Nintendogs,” the first killer app for the DS system and the ultimate test in masculinity. Unfortunately, unless you’re an emotionless bastard, it’s highly likely that you’ll be drawn into the world of these computer-generated puppies as if they were the real thing. Complete with lifelike fur, the ability to learn tricks, participate in contests, and respond to their master’s voice, these dogs are both realistic and addicting to play with. The…

A long, long time ago, John Singleton was the hottest upcoming director in the industry. Fresh off his directorial debut “Boyz n the Hood” – which made him the youngest man to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Director – Singleton was close to catching up with Spike Lee as independent Hollywood’s most influential urban director, before vanishing from the scene for almost five years. He returned at the dawn of the new millennium with a handful of not-so-impressive commercial films, including “Shaft” and “2 Fast 2 Furious,” but 2005 might just be the year of Singleton’s much-anticipated revival.…