CD Giveaway - 33Miles, "One Life"
Ends Aug 4, 2010
The country-pop sound established in their eponymous debut is a mainstay for this album as well, and even adds a little more southern flavor.
CD Giveaway - Phil Wickham, "Cannons"
Ends Aug 3, 2010
With an opening shot that hits the sonic pinnacle, this collection of spiritual Brit pop/rock is heavily influenced by Keane, Travis, Coldplay, and U2.
Rating: Country: USA Release Date: December 8, 2009 Distributor: MTI Home Video Director: · Vincent Scordia Cast: · Corey Feldman · Brian O'Halloran · Bronson Pinchot Related Sites: ·IMDb: Hooking Up
Grade: C
If the highlights of your DVD collection include "Porky's" and "American Pie," then "Hooking Up" is just the kind of cinematic sexplay you're looking for. Starring Corey Feldman as a coked-out 25-year-old who abuses his starry-eyed high-school girlfriend Caroline (Alison Whitney), Brian O'Halloran ("Clerks") as a principal blind to his surroundings, and Bronson Pinchot as new teacher trying to fend off the sexual advances of the principal's 15-year-old daughter, "Hooking Up" isn't so much of a plot as it is a week in the life of a number of hormone-stuffed sex-obsessed teenagers.
Early in the film we meet 16-year-old John (Parker Croft), a walking encyclopedia of pornography's more estoteric fringe cultures -- John actually makes Jason Mewes look like Anita Bryant. Naturally, he's a virgin, but his imagination is enough to keep his friends' jaws agape.
We also meet April Winters (Allyson Muñoz), another 16-year-old (director Vincent Scordia seemed intent on keeping the action right at that jailbait level) who has pledged herself to be a virgin -- so she only engages in oral and (later) anal sex.
If you're waiting for a plot to be resolved, you'll be disappointed. Even the manipulative and abusive Ryan's only comeuppance is a notification of an STD (pity poor Caroline). John gets something of a happy ending, when he finally finds a girl who will indulge his foot fetish -- and meets his fantasy criteria of having a certain rare physical abnormality.
All the raunch of "American Pie" but without the airbrushing, "Hooking Up" isn't exactly going to be raking in the dough or the viewers. It's the sort of thing you might find on late night weekend Cinemax (although Cinemax would go further, and use better looking actors -- or put on the soft lens filters). I could forgive it much if it could have found one central storyline and followed it through from beginning to end -- even "H.O.T.S." could deliver that much; Caroline's relationship with Ryan -- and the ending thereof -- doesn't count, and I'm not quite sure where Pinchot's character ever disappeared to mid-film.
