The Longshots (2008) Movie

Formulaic, tired, and for sure something that we have all seen before in a inspiring sports movie, The Longshots still has good intentions and the likeable presence of Ice Cube and upcoming star Keke Palmer. The film is inspired by the true story of an 11-year old girl from Illinois, who was the first girl to play quarterback in the Pop Warner national championship game.

The film takes place in Minden, Illinois, though the film was shot in Minden, Louisiana and follows the lonely middle school student of Jasmine (Keke Palmer). Minden is a tight knit small town that has hit an all time low financially ever since a local factory closed and left many of the community unemployed. Included as one of the factory’s lay offs is Jasmine uncle Curtis Plummer (Ice Cube), who spends his days moping, drinking, and carrying around a football to relieve his high school playing days. After Jasmine’s mother picks up more work to cover the expenses, she asks Curtis to watch after each afternoon, in which he reluctantly accepts. With the bookworm Jasmine and the lazy Curtis the two clash over everything, but find a similarity in each other once they start to throw the football around. Curtis teaches Jasmine how the throw like a poised quarterback within a few weeks and begs the local football coach (Matt Craven) to give her a try out despite being a girl. Thinking that Curtis is insane at first, Jasmine’s natural talent is quickly endeared by the coach as she works her way into being the starting quarterback in a all-male football world. Trials and tribulations ensue for Jasmine’s new talent as well as when the local media attention brings back her no-go father back to Minden.

Death Race (2008) Synopsis:

It is evident that we are officially in dump season with the arrival of the lousy and stupidly contrived Death Race. Dump season usually occurs from the end of August to November each year, in which studios dump films that they do not deem to worthy, hoping to make money on them, but most usually end up being some of the worst films of the year. Case and point with Death Race, which is an ultra-violent action race film that is based off of the Roger Corman’s 1975 cult film Death Race 2000.

The film takes place in 2012 and the economy is in an all time low. Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) is an ex-Nascar driver and dedicated family man that has just be laid off from a local factory. The same night, he is framed for his wife’s murder and his baby girl is left fatherless as Jensen is taken to Terminal Island prison. The prison is run by the collective, but slithering warden Hennessey (Joan Allen), who has tapped into the local pay-per-view medium to earn money. The prisoners now participate live in Death Race, in which the contestants race in industrial areas and close-in tracks with cars loaded with machine guns, napalm, smoke, oil, rocket launchers, etc. The goal is for a prisoner to win five races, and Hennessey will let them go free. The audience loves the smashing action and gory deaths of the contestants, which occurs more often than ones that win. Hennessey makes Jensen a deal to take on the identify of a fame masked driver named Frankenstein. The real Frankenstein met his death in the last race, but it was kept away from the public. Hennessey informs Jensen that Frankenstein already had won 4 races, and all that Jensen needs to do is win one more to get his life back. Hesitant at first, but with no real choice Jensen joins the race under a different identity, but gains a trusty pit crew leader in Coach (Ian McShane) and a sexy navigator in Case (Natalie Martinez). Jensen biggest competition is not only racer Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson), but the obstacles themselves, in which Hennessey controls combat, fire, and when the participants can use their weapons.

HOLLYWOOD

comedian Ricky Gervais got the fright of his life when publicity for his new movie was ruined by paranormal activity in a Hollywood Hotel.

Extras star Gervais was recently hosting a series of press junkets for his new movie, Ghost Town, at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, but left in a hurry when spooky happenings scared him and his co-workers.

A terrified movie executive revealed that their work was disrupted by a string of supernatural occurrences.

The exec tells British newspaper the Daily Star, "We wanted the junkets at the Roosevelt because of its ghostly reputation. But we got so much more than we bargained for. A photoshoot we prepared was wrecked and two runners say they saw the figure of a lady in the full-length mirror.