Martin's Musings

It’s the most expensive comedy ever made, but Evan Almighty is certainly not the most hilarious one. Steve Carrell stars as Evan Baxter, last seen as a befuddled news anchor in Buffalo, N.Y. In the time between Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty, Evan’s gone and grown a spine, gotten married, and had two kids. And now he’s won a seat in Congress, so he packs up the family and moves to the D.C. suburbs, where he’s a pawn in a hungry Congressman’s bad-for-the-environment plan and a delinquent dad. Enter God (Morgan Freeman, still the best possible casting for the role), who tells Evan to build an ark because there’s going to be a flood. He even gives him tools and wood, courtesy of 1-800-GO-4-WOOD. Soon, pairs of animals appear and Evan finds shaving is futile. Yadda yadda yadda. Evan is a total high-concept comedy, and appropriately, there are plenty of sight gags about animals helping to build the ark, about Evan’s basic Biblical wardrobe, and generally anything sight-gag-able. And some of it is goofy and silly, in a good way. It’s pretty funny watching the ark sail down the Mall in Washington, D.C., for example. And some of the movie is expectedly cute. But to its credit, there’s not a groan or a cringe to be had. Carrell and the cast try their hardest to wring some kind of quality from the material, and they don’t embarrass themselves. And just in case, there’s also Jonah Hill (from Knocked Up), who provides some laughs, and Wanda Sykes, who is always there with an easy one-liner. But if you want real Noah’s Ark–related humor, you’re better off listening to Bill Cosby’s classic skit. Evan Almighty is no miracle, but it’s hardly the disaster it could have been. It’s going to play really well on cable. So I’m giving Evan Almighty a B–.

Bonjour! There’s an old movie (and TV show) called The Naked City, and the famous line from it is, “There are eight million stories in the Naked City; this has been one of them.” I suppose you could paraphrase that for the film Paris Je T’aime: There are eight million stories in the City of Lights; these are a dozen and a half of them. That’s basically the gist of the movie. Eighteen directors from around the world each contribute a 5–10-minute short film about love in Paris. Some are about young love, others about older couples, one is about a couple of mimes, another is about vampires, and one is about a woman who learns to love herself. None of them are related, except by theme. And it’s a pretty nice mix of films. I didn’t enjoy them all — the mime one is pretty lame — but I thought a few — including Gus Van Sant’s one about a French guy hitting on an American who doesn’t understand the language, the Coen brothers’ one about Steve Buscemi’s run-in with a couple in the Metro, and Alexander Payne’s one about a Denver woman’s vacation — were real good. Each short film takes place in a different neighborhood, and overall, Paris Je T’aime makes for an attractive promotional film about the city. The movie isn’t mind-blowing or anything, but it’s a pleasant escape. So, if you’re looking for something a little offbeat and different, or if you have no travel plans and just want to get away, Paris Je T’aime is the movie for you. I’m giving it a B+.

If you, like me, thought a movie about singing, dancing penguins was a wacky idea, then you ain’t seen nothing yet. Surf’s Up is a movie about, yes, surfing penguins, and in concept alone it scores big points. I mean, have you seen the trailer? It rocks. So you pretty much know going in that Surf’s Up is not your average animated flick. For one thing, it’s “shot” like a documentary, and features interviews with the cast, grainy “archival” footage, and other hallmarks of the genre. And that all is done so well that you forget there was a team of animators who had to create it all from scratch. And then there are the colors and the surfing “photography,” both of which are really fun and cool and make you want to walk out of the theater, put on a wet suit, hop on a board, and ride a wave. (I’ve done it. It’s cool. Trust me.) So yeah, Surf’s Up is a totally fun movie.

But let’s not kid ourselves, and that is a pun, folks. Surf’s Up is also a very, very kid-friendly movie. The crowd I saw it with was about 50% kids (or at least it felt and sounded that way), and they loved it. They were laughing at the cute baby penguins, and the physical humor, and the silly Chicken Joe character. Which is not a bad thing, of course. It’s just that I wouldn’t say the film was as sophisticated as, say, Ratatouille looks or even Happy Feet was. Sure, the surfing stuff is wicked cool, and the documentary look is really well done, but I wouldn’t put Surf’s Up in any upper pantheon of animated films. And that’s why I’m only giving it a B — a solid B, but a B just the same.

I’m not going to lie: I was pretty excited by the story in Thursday’s Boston Herald about how Regal Cinemas is going to start having selected moviegoing patrons monitoring the conditions in the theaters. Sure, I don’t exactly agree with the methodology (how will they choose the one person to hold the device?), but I appreciate that at least one theater chain is willing to take action against bad moviegoers and will fix things when the presentation quality is off.

I agree with the person in the article who said you take a risk when going to watch a movie in a public place that people will be discourteous or that there will be disturbances. So that makes it difficult to gauge how successful this device will be. I hate when the sound in a theater isn’t right. I’d definitely press the button for that. But would an average moviegoer be as sensitive about that as I am? And if someone behind me is laughing annoyingly, or there’s an intermittent request to repeat a line of dialogue, is that worth alerting an usher? I don’t think so. After all, I’d be more annoyed if I had to explain to an usher why I had pressed the button in the first place. And I’d be even more annoyed if the person behind me was explaining it to the usher. But if it’s nonstop talking or repeated looks at a cell phone, then of course I’ll do it. And an unruly kid who should be in bed instead of at a 9pm movie? Sure, that’s worth pressing the button for too (even if it’s during an animated film).

So I’m excited for this new device and secretly (or maybe not) hope that I’m asked to hold it once or twice. But I’d hate for a normal Sunday afternoon at the movies to turn into Symphony Hall, so I’d try to use some restraint. Which means things probably won’t change at all. And that sorta sucks.

Let’s get a few things straight: In the real world — at least the one that I live in — a schlubby guy like Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) and his pothead friends would never get into a hot club like the one they’re at toward the beginning of Knocked Up.

And said hot club would be much, much more crowded, and populated with hotter people like Alison Scott (Katherine Heigel), an E! producer who should probably be at a hotter club than that.

And if said hot chick were at this hot club (with her equally hot sister), she would undoubtedly be mobbed with guys, and would never — never — give the time of day to a schlubby but good intentioned guy like our friend Ben. (Jeff Wells is so right-on about that.)

Which makes Knocked Up the year’s best sci-fi/fantasy flick. Continue reading →