dave-1232

First of all, let me say that I was one of the few people in the theater the weekend this came out and that surprised me because, although this is not the best movie ever made, it was far from the worst. Without a Paddle is a good example of what I'm talking about. Intern Academy was WAY funnier that that movie and WAY more people went to see that piece of crap. So how come so few people came out to see Intern Academy? I guess it's the usual Canadian thing where a Canadian Distributor thinks if they put fifty bucks into promoting something, they've given it their best shot. Well too bad for Intern Academy because it deserved better. Starting with the title which put it in a league with Police Academy which has now produced 6 or 7 movies and, as always is the case, the farther down the sequel line they go, the worse the movies become. So giving it that title was definitely a bad idea. I read an interview where Dave Thomas said he didn't like that title and it was forced on him by the distributor. Figures. Also where were the TV commercials? I didn't see a single one. And the ad in the paper was pathetic. I almost didn't go when I saw that tiny little ad because it made me think that they were ashamed of it. All in all, the cast was good and although there were some gratuitous sex jokes and gory parts, the movie had a nice likable tone to it. The girls were cute and the guys were okay (I'm not gay). And the older doctors played by Thomas, Dan Aykroyd, Dave Foley and Maury Chakin were pretty good. I had a lot of laughs which is more than I can say for a lot of American movies that I have seen in the past few years. I would say go check it out, but the movie is gone from the theaters already. Too bad. It deserved a better shot.

Sometimes movies that touches on race-sensitive issues comes out trite and panders to the liberal conscience. This is not one of them. Courtney Vance delivers a thoughtful performance as a cop who is struggling with his own race issues as he works to save a kid brainwashed by the KKK father. Virginia Madsen is sexy as usual and Robert Patrick (The Terminator, X Files) is excellent. William Forsythe is also great as a no bullshit cop. The movie score is cool and reminds me of Ry Cooder. It is well put together and director Ernest Dickerson deserves credit for that. I am a fan of his work. He earned his chops as Spike Lee's DP and if you want to see another Dickerson movie check out "{Never Die Alone". All in all, "Ambushed" is a fine little movie and deserves audience consideration as a rental. Check it out. I recommend it.