Author: Jason Zingale

Nothing screams summer comedy quite like a sci-fi rehash of timeless Christmas films (just kidding), and yet, despite the glaring similarities to “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the new Adam Sandler vehicle appears more scrambled than a late-night porno on an old 15” black-and-white TV. Of course, “Click” could have easily been transformed into an Oscar contender had it been put in the hands of someone a little more capable than Sandler’s usual gang of comic goons (Charlie Kaufman, anyone?), but instead, the comedian seems content with cataloging yet another mediocre effort. Sandler stars as Michael Newman,…

“Jack Black as a Mexican wrestler? Are you kidding me, this is comedy gold!” What a staggering miscalculation on our part. Far and wide the biggest disappointment of the summer (and it’s only June!), writer/director Jared Hess’ wrestling comedy, “Nacho Libre,” isn’t necessarily a horrible film, but it in no way reflects his talent as a filmmaker. Only two years prior, Hess became a cinematic phenom when his debut feature, “Napoleon Dynamite,” wowed audiences at Sundance and went on to become a commercial success. For his sophomore effort, Hess teamed up with comic duo Jack Black and Mike White (“School…

In the summer of 2001, “The Fast and the Furious” raced into theaters with incredibly low expectations. The cast was young, the story was dumb, and the film’s B-movie production values weren’t very appealing. Of course, it knocked the socks off of anybody who saw it, making stars out of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, and catapulting the movie into guilty pleasure cult status. Two years later, a sequel was born, and while this particular installment wasn’t nearly as charming as its predecessor, it still proved to be an entertaining summer thrill ride filled with fast women and even faster…

The most highly anticipated game of the year has finally arrived, and yet part of me still wishes it was months away, mostly because “Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” is perhaps the most challenging game I will ever review. The game is that big, and the world is even bigger. Hell, even developer Bethesda doesn’t know how long it would take to complete every main story and side mission in the game – going only so far as to guess upwards of 100 hours – and even after you’ve finished all of this, your character is still free to roam around…

The racing genre has come a long way over the past decade. With simulation driving games looking and feeling more real, and arcade racers introducing new twists every year, no racing game has been more daring than the “Burnout” series by Electronic Arts. Continuing to provide an outlet for the destructive driver in all of us, “Burnout Revenge” has a hard time improving on the near-flawless “Takedown” title from last year, but still manages to impress by making an exhausted gimmick feel brand new. With an added gameplay mode, a smarter A.I. system and better tracks, “Burnout Revenge” is already…

Humor in video games is a tough sell, but when done right, it can yield satisfying results. Just one look at the smaller aspects of the “Grand Theft Auto” series will justify this statement, where you can do just about anything you want (and get away with it), including the ability to pay for sex, and then beat up that very same prostitute to take your money back. Most developers won’t invest in such a large risk, and so the gaming industry is instead flooded with copycat versions of “Halo” and franchise turkeys starring the Nintendo All-Stars. “Mario Party 42,”…

With “Napoleon Dynamite” finally behind him, writer/director Jared Hess will try to duplicate the cult success with the release of the new Jack Black comedy, “Nacho Libre.” Jared found time in his incredibly busy schedule to sit down and talk with Bullz-Eye.com, and after speaking with him for only a couple of minutes it was clear that this guy is Napoleon Dynamite (though he only admitted to being 85%). Jared also discussed more about the world of Luche Libres, his earlier experiences working on independent features, and what the future has in store for him. Bullz-Eye: Hey Jared, how are…

297 million dollars. That’s the domestic box office total for the last three films starring, written, and directed by the family comedy team of Marlon, Shawn and Keenen Ivory Wayans. I know what you’re thinking: who cares, right? Well, somebody obviously does, or these guys would’ve been thrown to the curb a long, long time ago. They also deserve a certain amount of respect for what they’ve accomplished these past five years, including figuring out a way to lower production costs while maximizing their profits, and targeting a dependable niche audience dumb enough to see films like “Scary Movie” and…

If you could pick just one film that best defined the ‘70s, what would it be? Color me crazy, but Richard Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” is a prime candidate, even if it wasn’t actually made during the decade in question. An entertaining slice-of-life movie about growing up in the 1970s, “Dazed and Confused” nails almost every aspect of teenage culture. And while it may not seem like there’s much going on in the story, that’s kind of the point. The film is one of the most realistic portrayals of the high school experience, and that’s why it’s continued to endure…

By the end of the 1960s, the Western was practically dead. Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch” (widely considered to be one of the last great films in the genre) had just premiered, and John Wayne, who spent a career playing hard-edged cowboys, was but a few film roles away from retiring his six shooters. And if the Western was on the brink of total collapse, then George Roy Hill’s “Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid” was the one that delivered the final blow. A curious statement to make, really, but the film is so untraditionally Western that, while it does…