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Not Horrible At All

11 Jul

Apparently, there are some people in the world who don’t like their job.

Imagine that.

These people are either going to really love Horrible Bosses, or cringe because it just hits too close to home.

In the film, three friends played by Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day, plot to kill their bosses because, well, those bosses are horrible people.

They’re overbearing, they’re abusive, they stifle growth, they demean, they’re disrespectful, they sexually harass, they insult … and that’s for starters.

To avoid getting caught, Nick, Kurt, and Dale (Bateman, Sudeikis, and Day’s characters, respectfully) take a cue from Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train and plot to murder each other’s boss.

But nothing goes as planned, of course. Continue reading →

Mercy Mercy Me

30 Jun

In Larry Crowne, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts team up to save the world from an invasion of alien robots. And it’s all in 3-D!

No, not really. In this modern-day dramedy, Hanks stars as the title character, who gets laid off from his job at a Target-like big box retailer because his lack of a college degree makes him unpromotable (he opted for the Navy when he was 18). To right the wrong, and help his future prospects, he enrolls in a community college, where he meets (and falls for) his speech professor, played by Roberts.

I call Larry Crowne a “modern-day” dramedy because the film has a plot that reflects the current reality of so many people who’ve been laid off from their jobs. And yet, Larry Crowne also feels like “The Bad Economy for Dummies,” because it is such a feel-good, accessible film that you don’t really worry about the main character because you know everything’s gonna be alright.

As if that’s not enough, there are lame references to “new media” and use of terminology like “knockers.” Plus, you’ve got Hanks and Roberts in the leads (and on a motor scooter) and a soundtrack that’s heavy on boomer-favorite Tom Petty.

Oh, and there’s a happy ending too where (spoiler) the two main characters fall in love. Suffice it to say, this isn’t Up in the Air or The Company Men. Continue reading →

Conan the Destroyer

27 Jun

Last year, when Conan O’Brien was (unfairly) fired as the host of NBC’s The Tonight Show, he didn’t take it very well.

Viewers saw that in the days and weeks leading up to his last show, as he piled on the jokes at his soon-to-be-ex-employer’s expense.

And those of us who saw O’Brien’s Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour got a taste of that too, as each show included a few jabs at NBC and a bunch of self-deprecating jokes about the situation.

But behind the scenes was an even angrier person, and in the new documentary Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, we get a chance to see a little more of that side. Continue reading →

Six Degrees of Mutants

15 Jun

The superhero prequel X-Men: First Class imagines a reality in which mutants, led by Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender), played a critical role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Fascinating stuff, and a pretty cool concept. It’s the execution here that’s the problem, and I hold Kevin Bacon to blame. Cast in the role of scientist and fellow mutant Sebastian Shaw, Bacon is worse than a villain; he’s someone you don’t even like watching. Oscar nominee (for Winter’s Bone) Jennifer Lawrence has the opposite problem; she doesn’t make much of an impact as Mystique, the shape-shifter who will grow up to look like Rebecca Romijn. The action and special effects here are cool, and I did like the revisionist history angle. But the metaphors were less a turnoff when they were more subtle, like in the second X-Men movie (seems no one learned from the last X-Men film). So I’m giving X-Men: First Class a B.

Super, Indeed

13 Jun

The next time you hear someone say, “They sure don’t make ’em like they used to,” tell that person to go see Super 8, a throwback movie so retro that you may think it was made 25 years ago (even the poster gives you that impression).

That’s intended as a compliment, of course, as is the fact that writer/director J.J. Abrams has made a movie reeking with old fashioned Spielberg-ian charm, in the best way.

After all, as the saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Continue reading →

Life and Death, and Dinosaurs Too

8 Jun

You know the classic Burt Bacharach song “Alfie?”

Well, after seeing Tree of Life, you may be asking, “What’s it all about, Terrence?”

The film, written and directed by Terrence Malick (Badlands, The Thin Red Line), is a meditation on fathers and sons, the meaning of life, what it means to be a man, and probably a whole lot of other stuff too. (You get that sense from the poster.)

Actually, instead of a movie, it’s more like a two hour and 15 minute tone poem: There’s little dialogue (no kidding, two characters never speak to each other for the entire first hour of the film), lots of atmospheric shots, little to no plot, short monologues (delivered in a whispery voice over as if they’re a prayer to God), and a whole lot of choral and swelling orchestral music on the soundtrack.

Throw in Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and some dinosaurs too (yes, really), and the whole thing feels like an exercise in filmmaker indulgence. (Or hubris, depending on your preference.) Continue reading →

After Midnight

6 Jun

I’ve always been a sucker for nostalgia — looking through old photos, rereading old journals, watching old home videos, remembering “good ole days” gone by.

And it’s this time of year when I get especially nostalgic, what with my birthday just days away, the anniversary of my college graduation just passed, and me taking stock of how my present compares to my past, and if I’m better off now than I was.

So you might say that it was more than appropriate timing for me when I saw Woody Allen’s very enjoyable new film, Midnight in Paris, a modern-day fable that celebrates nostalgia. Continue reading →

Living Here in Alan Town

31 May

In the classic Murray Head song, there’s the lyric “One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble.”

That’s the basic plot of The Hangover Part II, in which the Wolfpack, in Thailand for Stu’s (Ed Helms) wedding, wake up in Bangkok and can’t remember anything that happened the night before.

If you’re thinking, “Isn’t that basically the same exact plot as the first Hangover movie? How could that happen again?” then you’re right. But if you like the characters and the movie’s funny, then the plot’s not exactly important.

So let’s move on, then, shall we? Continue reading →

Livin’ Aqua de Vida

23 May

You always hope it’s great when beloved characters return to the big screen after an absence.

Remember how good it felt to see Woody and Buzz again last summer in Toy Story 3?

Well, when Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow — excuse me, Captain Jack Sparrow — reappears on screen at the start of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the first Pirates film in four years, you can’t help but smile.

His creation is so full of whimsy, style, and swagger, and while Depp’s performances in the series have always been fun, the movies themselves have been hit and miss, with none able to recapture the delight of the first, The Curse of the Black Pearl. Continue reading →

Maid of Dishonor

12 May

Like going to a friend of your girlfriend’s wedding, the movie Bridesmaids goes on too long and it’s filled with all kinds of jokes that she may find funny, but at which you barely crack a smile.

Produced by Judd Apatow and co-written by star Kristen Wiig, the film tells the story of Annie, a single woman whose luck only gets worse when her best friend from childhood, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), gets engaged. Forced to deal with a motley group of fellow bridesmaids (including an ultracompetitive one who wants to be maid of honor), Annie finds herself and Lillian drifting apart.

Chick flick? You betcha. And as noted, the film just goes on waaaaaay too long. Thankfully, this review will keep it short.

I’m giving Bridesmaids a C–.

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