There is a stereotype out there that men only want to see “shoot’em-up, blow’em-up” or gory movies, whereas women only want to see romantic-type movies.  This is so common that if you utter the phrase “chick flick,” the other person already knows what to expect.  As a guy, drift outside of these boundaries and people being to wonder about your “other” interests.

Me?  I am a fan of good stories, regardless of how they are packaged.  I do prefer comedic efforts, so I tend to like romantic comedies.  Also, I am a romantic — I like that the guy gets the girl, regardless of how stupid he has been.  Why?  Because that means there is hope for me.

I saw Love Actually in the theater and loved it the instant I saw it on the screen.  How could I not?  I love the casting, the way the stories intertwine — heck, it even has one of my favorite Christmas songs.  But it is more than that — I loved the realistic aspects of some of the stories set against the backdrop of Christmas.  The backdrop is potent because our senses are heightened during this time, thus bringing our emotions closer to the surface.

There are eight stories, with a funny bit running along as comedic support:

• Colin Firth — discovers his girlfriend is cheating and goes away to write a novel
• Hugh Grant — is elected Prime Minister and discovers things about himself
• Alan Rickman — is tempted by the forbidden fruit of a mistress, leaving Emma Thompson wondering what her future holds
• Liam Neeson — has just lost his wife and is left to care for his step-son, who is having his own crisis of love
• Andrew Lincoln — watches the love of his life, Kiera Knightley, marry his best friend
• Martin Freeman — has an unusual job that leads to more than just a “happy ending”
• Laura Linney — is trying to move on with her life while being held back by family
• Bill Nighy — is an aging rock star trying to make sense of his life
• Kris Marshall — is the free spirit of the movie, ever hopeful that America will give him what he has been denied in England

Of course these stories and the characters intertwine in ways that do stretch the realm of reality, but reality is never shattered.  Each story has a satisfying conclusion, albeit not always a happy one.   The director did an amazing job of picking the right songs to accentuate certain moments; these songs are so well-picked that they actually become the character of the narrator.

Naturally, I have this on DVD and watched it last week as part of my holiday traditions.  This time around, I listened to the audio track of the director, Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, and the little boy.  It was a fun listen, but I prefer the main movie.   Other features include:

• 5.1 sound
• deleted scenes
• discussion of how each song was picked for the soundtrack

My advice:  If you have not seen this, you are missing out.  Get it today and curl up with a loved one or by yourself and see that “Love is……actually……all around.”

As kids, parents use cards to teach us counting and colors.  They also use them to teach strategy — How else would you explain people growing up with a love for Uno?  As we get older, we start wanting to play more advanced games of cards.

When I was 8, one of my Christmas gifts was a game called Riverboat Showdown.  It featured a deck of cards, plastic chips and rules for a game called poker.   I would play this game a lot, learning what beat what.  At the same time, I also learned Yahtzee!, which is just a dice version of poker.  When I hit my teenage years, my friends and I would play in the garage when it became too hot to play basketball outside.  Then I stopped playing for some years.

I picked up the game again in 2001 when some friends invited me over for “home” games.  That’s when the bug hit.  I enjoyed my weekly games for a few years, but then life caused the games to spread out more and more.  Then in March of this year, I found a way to play in an amateur league for free.  So now I get to play every week.

Of course, one of the fun parts of playing cards is the social aspect.  Get a bunch of card players together and ask them about movies, they start talking about Rounders.  I had watched Rounders a couple of years ago and agreed that it was a good movie about poker.

Rounders centers on Matt Damon’s character.  Like all good stories, we see Damon’s fall from grace, his fight to climb back up, and his biggest obstacle.  Damon and Ed Norton do a great job of portraying the deep friendship of their characters.  The brilliance is in the casting of the side characters: Famke Janesson, Gretchen Moll, John Tuturro, Martin Landau, and John Malkovitch.  The story is kept simple, and, much like a poker game, the stakes are raised higher at every turn for our main character.

The DVD contains the following extras:

• audio commentary with poker players — very good commentary — it is how I watched the movie this time
• audio commentary with actors/director
• poker tips — not very revealing
• heads-up hold ‘em game — clunky game and not very good
• behind the scenes features

My advice: regardless of your interest in cards, this is a good character story; check it out one afternoon — you will not regret making this bet…

Ever since James Bond hit the silver screen in Dr. No, Hollywood has done its best to try to capitalize on the movie-going public’s interest in secret agent movies.  These efforts have ranged from the dramatic to the action flick to the parodies.  In the 70’s, cinema goers were treated to a new genre of movies generally referred to as Blacksploitation.  These movies helped set up some of the stereotypes that still occur in movies today.

The late 80’s and 90’s brought us the efforts of the Wayan Brothers, most notably I’m Gonna Get You Sucka!  While their films achieved cult status, box office success was not easily gained.  Instead, the public preferred to embrace those efforts on the small screen by making In Living Color a big hit, launching the career of Jim Carrey, among others.

Then Austin Powers hit.

Mike Meyers seemed to figure out how to make the parody of secret agent films work so that it could be a commercial success.  Previous parodies had removed all humanity from the main character; Mike Meyers found a way to bring it back.

Which brings us to Undercover Brother.

I got to see this as a sneak preview when it came out in 2002 and I loved it from the first image.  A friend I was with enjoyed looking around and seeing the “white folk” laugh about a half-beat after the “black folk,” as if waiting to see if it was ok.  I ended up seeing this a couple of more times in the theater and felt it was more of a success than Minority Report, out at the same time.   So, this was an easy purchase when it came out on DVD.

This is one of those movies that needed to have the planets aligned to work: the right director, cast, and story.  I can not say enough about the cast.  Eddie Griffin does a good job of balancing the cool spy/action hero with someone all can identify with.  The supporting cast is even better — Dave Chapelle before his Comedy Central deal; Chi McBride as the Chief; Chris Kattan in the only role I have ever enjoyed him in; and probably the best casting of all: Neil Patrick Harris as the intern.  This movie laid the groundwork for him to appear in Harold and Kumar, which then led to How I Met Your Mother.  While we knew him as Doogie, we never appreciated his comic timing until this movie.

The story is simple: Keep The Man from perpetuating black stereotypes and promote brotherhood for all.  Of course this allows for some interesting setups mirroring real-life, such as the debate of Colin Powell running for President.  Denise Richards is more believable in this movie than in the actual Bond flick she was in, and Billy Dee Williams does well as the General.

The DVD has the following extras:

• 5.1 Dolby and DTS surround sound
• Outtakes
• Deleted Scenes
• Snoop Dogg’s video
• The original short films that inspired the movie
• Audio commentaries
• A way to navigate to certain scenes with musical highlights.

My advice: Spend a couple of hours with Undercover Brother and enjoy the laughs.  This movie will please you, no matter what color you think you are…