Movie Review Justice League

Justice League (2017) 

Directed by Zack Snyder, Joss Whedon

Written by Chris Terrio, Joss Whedon 

Starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Mamoa, Ray Fisher, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, J.K Simmons 

Release Date November 17th, 2017 

The problem with Justice League and the problem with the entirety of the DC cinematic universe is the vision of Zach Snyder. I realize that laying the blame for what many perceive as a significant failure on one person is a little unfair, but hear me out. I like the movies that Zach Snyder has made in this universe. I like Justice League but the fact of the matter, for me, is that these movies fail to transcend into being truly great movies because Zach Snyder isn’t a great director, just a pretty good one.

Justice League picks up the story of the DC cinematic universe in the wake of the death of Superman (Henry Cavill). The world is darker and a little more chaotic following the loss of Superman, and no one feels that loss quite as much as Bruce Wayne-Batman (Ben Affleck). Bruce feels that he is responsible for Superman’s death and the danger that the world faces without its savior. Worse yet, there are new beings that have arrived on Earth that feed on the fear that has risen in the world minus Superman.

These new beings are commanded by a being called Steppenwolf (the voice of Ciaran Hinds) who intends to take over the world by uniting three cubes known as the Mother Boxes which when combined will remake the Earth as a hellscape under Steppenwolf’s command. The first Mother Box is located in Themiscyra, the homeland of Diana Prince-Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). Alerted by her mother Hypolyta (Connie Nielsen), Diana seeks out Bruce Wayne and the two set about putting a team together.

Up first is eager motormouth Barry Allan AKA The Flash (Ezra Miller). Barry is easily won over by a visit from Bruce Wayne though he warns that he’s never done battle before. Much more difficult to convince is Arthur Curry AKA Aquaman (Jason Mamoa). Until his home of Atlantis comes under attack by Steppenwolf, Aquaman appears content to stay in the ocean. Afterward however, Arthur Curry is spoiling for a fight.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review Disenchanted

Disenchanted (2022) 

Directed by Adam Shankman 

Written by Brigitte Hales, J. David Stern 

Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Maya Rudolph 

Release Date November 18th, 2022 

Published November 17th, 2022 

Disney Plus 

I'm growing concerned that Disney has somehow found an algorithm that determines the exact level of mediocre. Look at their recent spate of live action movies and you can see what I am getting at. From Jungle Cruise to Hocus Pocus 2, Disney has been able to craft movies so inoffensive, bland, mediocre and passably 'entertaining' that they simply pass through you like a fast food meal, not bad, but not exactly a memorable meal. 

Further evidence of this algorithmic mediocrity comes in their latest Disney Plus release, a sequel to the wonderful 2007 comedy, Enchanted, called Disenchanted. Bland, mediocre, passable, each of these benign phrases are perfectly fitting of this deeply run of the mill effort. Directed by a master of bland, middle of the road, mainstream mush, Adam Shankman, Disenchanted is not a bad movie, just a supremely bland, deeply unmemorable movie that fails to justify its existence. 

Where Enchanted was wildly inventive, a loving tribute to Disney Princess tropes, Disenchanted sends up fairy tale tropes with all the skill of someone taking up juggling for the first time. Using Disney created tropes from Cinderella, Snow White, Maleficent and any number of classic fairy tales, Disenchanted appears to have been made by people whose idea of satire is aiming a fire hose of every idea without hitting any specific target. 

Disenchanted picks up the story of former fairy tale Princess, Gisele (Amy Adams), living her happily ever after in New York City. It's been 10 years since she fell through a portal into the real world and met and fell in love with her handsome Prince, New York lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey). However, things are not the as Happy as the phrase Happily Ever After implies. Gisele has grown weary of the big city and her relationship with her adoptive daughter, Morgan (Gabriella Baldacchino) has grown strained. Morgan has become a movie teenager, a bland amalgamation of sarcasm and unfocused rebellion. 

In order to get her Happily Ever After back on track, Gisele asks Robert to move the family to the suburbs, specifically, a tiny hamlet called Monroeville. There, they buy what appears to be a run down former castle and set about a new ending for their story. Things do not go well and with everyone in the family at each other's throat, Gisele grows desperate for a magical fix to her problems. That magic arrives with a visit from her friends, Prince Edward (James Marsden) and his wife, Nancy (Idina Menzel). 

Visiting from Gisele's animated home world, Andalasia, they've brought a gift, a magic wand, to be given to Gisele and Robert's baby daughter. Once they leave however, Gisele decides to use the wand for herself. She wishes for her new home to be just like Andalasia and the next day, it's a full on fairy tale. Robert is now an adventurer, Morgan has become a Cinderella like figure, and, since Gisele is technically Morgan's stepmother, she begins to turn evil. A helpful scroll informs Gisele and us that if she doesn't reverse the wish by Midnight she will turn evil and all of Monroeville will remain in this fairy tale world. Oh, and that means destroying Andalasia for some reason. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.media

Movie Review: Big Eyes

Big Eyes (2014) 

Directed by Tim Burton 

Written by Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski

Starring Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Krysten Ritter

Release Date December 25th, 2014

Published December 25th, 2014

Few people have a face as punch-able as Christoph Waltz. The supercilious grin he affects in "Inglourious Basterds" and brings back for his villainous role in Tim Burton's "Big Eyes" desperately invites one to pop him. Of course, it's not just his face that makes you want to poke him one, it's that arrogant manner, that superior tone and hardcore obnoxiousness. But, for a moment, just watch that jaw as he slips toward that grin and tell me you don't know exactly where you want your fist to land. 

That's the power of Waltz, a man remarkably capable of making you loathe him, a capability that is both a blessing and a curse to the new movie "Big Eyes." On the one hand, Waltz is playing a real-life character quite worthy of a sock on the jaw. Art phony Walter Keane ho attempted to steal credit for his wife's remarkably popular art. On the other hand, Waltz's Keane is so loathsome I could barely stay in the theater to watch.

"Big Eyes" tells a story of fraud and how a meek woman through inner strength, and an assist from Jehovah, overcame her domineering fraud of a husband to claim her life's work. Amy Adams portrays Margaret Keane as an impulsive woman who flees her first husband for unspecified reasons and heads for San Francisco with her daughter in tow and no plan whatsoever for how to provide for them.

In very short order Margaret meets and marries Walter Keane (Waltz) who dazzles her with stories of living in Paris and supporting himself as an artist/real estate agent. At first, Walter is supportive and the two work together. However, when Margaret's unique paintings of saucer-eyed children gain attention over Walter's street scene of Paris, he decides he should pretend the “Big Eyes” are his work ... for promotional purposes only, of course.

That Walter Keane was a fraud is relatively well known, because he was an especially successful fraud. "Big Eyes" demonstrates how Margaret enabled the fraud and why it persisted for so long.

Adams is wonderful at portraying multitudes of emotion on her splendid features, especially with her narrow blue eyes, which ache and delight with equal fervor. With her voice barely a quiver, Adams brings Margaret's strength forward in brief dissertations about how personal her art is, and we know eventually that strength will transition into action.

After years of letting Walter co-opt her work and bastardize it into a pop phenomenon, Margaret left Walter and moved with her daughter to Hawaii. There she became a Jehovah's Witness and decided it was time to tell the truth about her paintings.

Here director Tim Burton directs a delightful scene in which Margaret reveals the truth to a random Hawaiian radio DJ who thought he was simply interviewing the wife of Walter Keane.

"Big Eyes" is certainly not without its delightful moments -- not just in its depiction of the radio show, but its scenes of the aftermath of people seeing Margaret's story on the AP wire. Then it appears in newspapers finally reaches Walter in San Francisco, where his indignant reaction to the story is completely hysterical. Also delightful is the courtroom follow-up as Margaret sues Walter for the proceeds of the “Big Eyes” paintings. Waltz acts out both sides of a cross-examination of himself about his creative process.

In the courtroom scene, Waltz becomes his most unctuously punch-able. If you didn't truly despise Walter prior to this scene, you will truly wish him ill by the end of his courtroom shenanigans. I have no idea how much of Walter Keane's work in court as his own idiot lawyer is actually based on the real-life case, but if it was anything like in the movie, he's lucky he wasn't strung up in the town square. 

While I was delighted by the courtroom scene and Waltz has moments of glorious, comic oiliness, there are times when the drama becomes too much. The scene in which Walter first seizes credit for the paintings is infuriating to watch, as are all scenes in the film featuring Waltz opposite Danny Huston. He portrays the film's narrator, a gossip columnist for a San Francisco newspaper. Huston has an unctuousness to match Waltz's, and the two of them together is more insufferable than entertaining. 

I can't say Tim Burton needed to cut back on Walter. That's relatively impossible given the true story. But some kind of modulation on the tone of his performance is, I believe, a reasonable request. The performance is at times so detestable that I wanted to leave the theater. 

So, do I recommend "Big Eyes?" That's a good question. I really don't know. I appreciate the effort the film puts forth to tell this worthy, true-life story, but some of the film is nearly impossible to sit through. Waltz is incredibly effective, almost too effective, at making us despise him. Still, I can't help but credit the film for provoking such a visceral reaction in a viewer. 

I really hate Walter Keane as he's portrayed in "Big Eyes." In that way I can't help but recommend the movie, with the caveat that this film will turn off as many people as it entertains. Adams is wonderful and the film is the best thing with Tim Burton's name on it in quite some time.

I still want to punch Christoph Waltz. 

Movie Review Julie and Julia

Julie and Julia (2009) 

Directed by Nora Ephron

Written by Nora Ephron

Starring Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Linda Emond

Release Date August 7th, 2009

Published August 7th, 2009 

Julie Powell did something that I am sure many daily bloggers dream of. Her chronicle of cooking her way through Julia Child's French cookbook earned her national attention and eventually a book and movie deal. The book became a bestseller and now the movie is in theaters with Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and director Nora Ephron.

Whether the movie is successful or even any good doesn't really matter to Julie Powell, she's good.

So what about the movie of her life? Julie and Julia tells the parallel stories of Julie a bureaucratic drone who dreamt of writing novels for a living and Julia Child as she began life as the wife of an ambassador in Paris. Julie failed to find her muse out of college and now sits looking lost as her friends talk of big plans and success. Julia too, is a little lost. With no job and no need for one she is bored.

Thus, both women turn to food for comfort. For Julie comfort comes in the form of successfully adapting one of Julia Child's legendary recipes and deciding to blog about it. For Julia it is the bold move to attend masters classes at the legendary Cordon Bleu despite having no background as a chef.

Will and determination define both women as well as having loving and patient husbands who nurture and support them in whatever they do. The husbands are played by Chris Messina and Stanley Tucci as men just bland enough not to intrude upon their wives spotlights.

Bland is, sadly, an all too appropriate word for the whole of Julie and Julia which unfolds with the tension of a soft, well worn blanket. It's pleasant but there seems to be no real tension. Sure, both women struggle but Julie's struggle is an off-putting battle with her own whiny nature and Julia's battle is never all that well dramatized. We know Julia Child will succeed eventually, the movie merely delays it till the ending.

On the bright side, Meryl Streep brings some joy to the delays. Her Julia Child is vibrant and fun and that voice is simply divine, both homage and parody but never mocking or over played. Meryl Streep has found a joy in performance in the past few years that never seemed present when she was at her dramatic peak.

While other actresses struggle to find a place in the acting world as they age, Streep has transformed herself into a box office star. It's one of the more remarkable under-reported stories in Hollywood: Meryl Streep, box office star. Her audiences love her like they never did when she was the finest actress alive and it is a true joy to behold.

As for Adams, this is a second weak performance following the unfortunate Sunshine Cleaning. At least in that film I didn't feel it was all her fault. Here, well, her Julie is somewhat unpleasant. It's daring for an actress who has built a following by being sweet and spunky to take on such a downbeat, self involved character but that doesn't make it watchable. Julie wears out her welcome quickly and while Streep holds the audience in thrall we endure the Julie portions to get to the Julia stuff.

Nora Ephron has taken a story that was modestly compelling to begin with, Julie Powell's journey in her book is slight but entertaining, and teamed it with Julia Child's biography seemingly because neither story alone was interesting enough to make movies of their own. Both stories lack tension, they lack a real dramatic drive. And thus, instead of one story founding for a reason to exist, we get two.

I admit, I am being a little hard on the movie. I did love Meryl Streep's performance and the movie overall is good natured and breezy. If that is enough for you as a moviegoer , enjoy. If you prefer a story with more meat on its bones see The Hurt Locker or 500 Days of Summer.

Movie Review: Doubt

Doubt (2008) 

Directed by John Patrick Shanley 

Written by John Patrick Shanley 

Starring Meryl Streep,, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams

Release Date December 12h, 2008

Published January 5th, 2008 

I did not attend Catholic School but some of my favorite people have and the experience shaped their lives. The most famous example is George Carlin whose catholic school experience fostered the rebellious spirit that would lead comic explications of the churches and indeed religions many failings.

Doubt, the film version of John Patrick Shanley's stage play, displays catholic school as it was just after Carlin left. Set in 1963 we witness the clash of 50's parochialism and the mind expanding 60's and the result is surprisingly fair to both sides. If you believe completely in the discipline of the 50's or subscribe entirely to the freedom of the 60's you will leave this movie with doubts.

Meryl Streep stars in Doubt as Sister Aloysius the principle of a New York catholic school in flux. The school has its first african american student, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster), and the parish home of the school has a priest. He is father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his approach to catholicism and to the school is open minded and compassionate.

The approach rankles Sister Aloysisus who believes in fear as the best teacher and motivator. The interesting thing is that both approaches really have merits. In fact both are demonstrated by Sister James (Amy Adams). Caught in the middle of the changing times, Sister James is an example of the balance that could be struck if both sides weren't so intransigent.

The plot of Doubt centers on Father Flynn's relationship with Donald Miller. He immediately takes the boy under his wing. Donald is an alter boy and I know your mind has already jumped to a particular conclusion. Sister James and Sister Aloysius jump to the same conclusion only Sister Aloysius is certain of her suspicions, Sister James is conflicted.

When Father Flynn is confronted about these suspicions the scenes are explosive and Doubt becomes a fiery, passionate battle of wills. Streep and Hoffman are perfectly cast as two willful personalities incapable of conceding. In Father Flynn's case conceding is inconceivable not just because he is willful but because of what conceding means.

For Sister Aloysius self doubt is a sin. Her life is lived in service of a belief. When she comes to believe her suspicions about Father Flynn she cannot allow herself to be proven wrong. To be wrong would be as if to prove God himself were wrong.

Streep is cast as the villanous in much of the press about Doubt. In reality her Sister Aloysius is just a fervent defender of what she believes and if you concede that she has something to be worried about in Father Flynn's relationship with her students then you must sympathize with her even if her severity is off putting.

Shanley doesn't aim to make Doubt a mystery. There are no gotcha moments. You will likely leave the theater debating Father Flynn's guilt as much as you talk about whether you liked the movie. I will keep my thoughts to myself on the matter. If you want to talk about it off the blog where spoilers can be shared, please email.

Doubt is one of the best movies of 2008. A powerful, thought provoking and moving drama that has numerous levels to its drama and passion. Meryl Streep will win and deserve to win Best Actress for her role. The greatest actress of her time has once again shown why she is worth such hyperbolic praise.

Movie Review Sunshine Cleaning

Sunshine Cleaning (2009) 

Directed by Christine Jeffs

Written by Megan Holley 

Starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Jason Spevack, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Clifton Collins Jr, Eric Christian Olson, Alan Arkin

Release Date March 13th, 2009 

Published March 13th, 2009 

The opening scene of the dramatic comedy Sunshine Cleaning involves a man walking into a gun store, picking up a shotgun, placing a shell inside that he had brought with him and in the end this man shooting himself. The scene is contentiously at odds with the rest of the movie which attempts to make the cleaning up after such an incident a quirky romp. It's not.

Oscar nominee Amy Adams stars in Sunshine Cleaning as Rose Lorkowski, the head cheerleader turned maid for hire. Life hasn't worked out as Rose planned. She had planned on being with her high school sweetheart Mac (Steve Zahn), especially after he went and knocked her up. The two are still sleeping together but Mac is married to someone else.

Now, Rose works wherever she can to make money to raise her slightly odd son Oscar (Jason Spevack). Then there is Rose's sister, Norah (Emily Blunt) who's like having a second child. Norah cannot hold a job, cannot stand authority and is generally a drag on her big sister.

Then, an opportunity arises. Mac informs Rose that the guys who clean up after crimes make  really good money, more than enough for Rose to put Oscar in a private school. Rose enlists Norah's help and, after some brief whining by little sis, Sunshine Cleaning is born.

Director Christine Jeffs elicits strong performances from Adams and Blunt while getting solid supporting turns from Zahn and Oscar Winner Alan Arkin. The characters played by each are believable in the context of the film and each has that just slightly off center quality that fascinates an audience.

Unfortunately, the actors are often overshadowed by the film's wildly gyrating tone which bounces from an almost slapstick approach to Rose and Norah's early business going to deathly serious as Rose and Norah's past with their mother is revealed. Norah's ark becomes bizarre and awkward when she becomes determined to inform the daughter of a dead woman (Mary Lynn Rajskub) of her mom's death and finds the woman taking an interest in her.

Meanwhile Rose develops a platonic friendship with a cleaning supply store owner played by Clifton Collins Jr. The relationship doesn't really develop beyond her using him for his knowledge and eventually as a babysitter. These subplots fail to reveal much about either sister aside from their own helpless self involvement.

There are good things about Sunshine Cleaning from the cast to the few laughs elicited to the demonstration of a career that holds a morbid fascination for more than a few people. Sadly, the film never finds the right tone to unite the characters, the humor and the morbidity and thus Sunshine Cleaning feels unsatisfying in the end.

Movie Review The Fighter

The Fighter (2010) 

Directed by David O. Russell

Written by Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Scott Siliver 

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo

Release Date December 10th, 2010 

Published December 7th, 2010

'Irish' Mickey Ward's battles with Arturo 'Thunder' Gatti are three of the greatest in ring wars that the boxing world has seen in the past 2 or 3 decades. These two warriors bloodied and battered each other for 12 rounds in three consecutive fights, two of which were named by Ring Magazine as fight of the year. The second fight likely would have also won fight of the year if it had not taken place the same year as the first.

How Micky Ward rose to those fights against Gatti, the apex of his career, is the story of “The Fighter” a sports drama from director David O. Russell and starring Mark Wahlberg in a role that he trained for four years for; all while trying to wrangle a director, turned down by Scorsese, abandoned by Darren Aronofsky, and a studio to make the movie.

As we join the story of “The Fighter” Micky Ward (Wahlberg) is a scuffling welterweight fighter in the midst of a losing streak. Many in the boxing world peg Ward's troubles to his brother/trainer Dicky Eklund a failed pro fighter who peaked in the late 70's in a fight with the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard before succumbing to crack addiction.

More than a decade after his boxing peak Dicky holds out hope of making an in ring comeback, a lie perpetuated by Micky and Dicky's mom/manager Alice (Melissa Leo). For now however, Dicky wastes hours and days in a dingy crack house when he is supposed to be prepping Micky for a bout on national television in Atlantic City.

The fight is a debacle as the fighter that Ward was supposed to face dropped out due to illness. The replacement is a full weight class above Micky but because no one will get paid if he doesn't fight, Dicky and Alice push Micky into the ring and Micky's career is nearly ended. This conflict unfolds in the first act of “The Fighter” and director David O. Russell elegantly flows these burgeoning conflicts into the second act where Dicky gets arrested, Micky gets hurt in the melee around Dicky's arrest and the family is shattered.

What separates “The Fighter” from your average sports movie? Not much really, despite a heavyweight cast “The Fighter” is essentially, at its heart, a classic sports movie. Director David O. Russell's challenge then was to find little ways for “The Fighter” to break the mold of the typical and he finds that in an indie style, low budget look that fits the rundown setting of aging Lowell Massachusetts, Micky and Dicky's longtime hometown.

Another departure from the typical sports movie comes in the clever mimicry of Micky Ward's actual fights. David O. Russell teamed with the real life sports director from HBO for scenes depicting Micky's Championship fight against Brit Shea Nealy. Using the actual call of the fight from the HBO boxing announcers brings an extra bit of authenticity to the brutal fight scene and underscores the reality of what we are seeing in the ring.

So many boxing movies amp up the noise of the punch or speed up the action to a point where two men could not possibly punch each other continuously without passing out from exhaustion; but not here, not in this movie. Restrained by Mark Wahlberg's strict adherence to the way Micky Ward actually fought and kept in pace by the actual call of the fights as they happened back in the late 90's, the boxing in “The Fighter” looks and feels true.

Also feeling true in “The Fighter '' is the family of Micky Ward. David O. Russell could not have been more blessed with a cast. Oscar nominees Melissa Leo and Amy Adams, who plays Ward's tough as nails girlfriend Charlene, are an electronic duo who clash personalities like a car wreck on the Lowell Parkway. Melissa Leo is backed up by an army of unknown actresses who take on the roles of Micky and Dicky’s sisters and their authentic look, just slightly behind the times, and their raw trailer park energy make their scenes as lively as any in “The Fighter.”

Christian Bale is the stand out as Dicky, a flashy role that Bale nevertheless makes real with his mastery of the real Dicky Eklund a gregarious yet troubled soul who maintained a strong sense of humor and self even as he was in the grips of addiction. That is attested to in a 1994 documentary that aired on HBO about Dicky's addiction to crack. "High on Crack Street" played a big part in Bale's research of the role as did the presence of the real Dicky Eklund who Bale bonded with off-screen.

The underrated MVP of “The Fighter” is Mark Wahlberg not for his performance which is hampered somewhat by being the least colorful of a group of colorful characters but for the work he did in dedicating himself to telling this story. Wahlberg grew up not too far from where Micky Ward did and like Micky he found trouble early in his own life only to get things turned around in a big way.

Wahlberg had to tell this story and you can see his blood, sweat and tears determination to get Ward right in every frame of “The Fighter.”

If the film is ultimately a conventional sports movie so be it, “The Fighter” has the heart and energy of the best of the genre but with David O. Russell, Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg breaking their backs to tell this story there is something more here, an intangible quality that sets “The Fighter” apart and lifts it well above just a sports movie.

Movie Review Leap Year

Leap Year (2010) 

Directed by Anand Tucker

Written by Harry Elfont

Starring Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, Adam Scott 

Release Date January 8th, 2010 

Published January 8th, 2010

The women's liberation movement in the universe of film consists of empowering women economically; they all get fabulous jobs in fashion or real estate or owning uncommonly successful restaurants. The liberation stops however once they have found a man. Such is the case of the new romantic comedy Leap Year starring the plucky Amy Adams.

Adams stars in Leap Year as Anna whose job is setting up apartments for sale. She doesn't sell the apartments; she merely dresses them for sale and makes fabulous amounts of money doing it. In a rare twist, Anna has already met a man, Jeremy (Adam Scott), who shares her love of status symbols and just the right apartment.

Anna and Jeremy have been together four years and just before he leaves for Ireland on a business trip Anna gets in her head that he is finally going to propose to her, so convinced that she and a friend actually practice being surprised when he asks. No surprise to anyone who's seen the film's trailer, Jeremy doesn't ask and Anna is briefly devastated.

After Jeremy's left a plan is hatched, Anna will fly to Ireland just in time for Leap Day, February 29th, a day in Irish tradition when a woman can ask a man to marry her. Now, the liberated woman of today might ask why a holiday is needed for a woman to ask a man to marry her. The makers of Leap Year ladies are unconcerned with such questions.

The leap day thing is merely a device to propel Anna on a madcap dash to Dublin. First her plane is diverted to Scotland then she gets stranded in an Irish village called Dingle where she seeks a ride from one of the locals. The only driver available is also the local pub and hotelier, Declan (Matthew Goode).

Surprise, surprise, Anna and Declan immediately choose to dislike each other. She's a shrewish, entitled bitch and he's easygoing, handsome charmer with a secret reason for not trusting women. If your eyes weren't rolling through the back of your head as you read that you have more self control than I.

So, off they go on a trip across the Irish countryside arguing and uh-oh falling in love with all of the requisite dopey rom-com roadblocks checked off like a shopping list at a cliché outlet. No surprise then to learn, the script comes from the makers of Made of Honor and Josie and the Pussycats.

We all know how this will end, anyone who’s seen the trailer for Leap Year knows how it will end. It's a romantic comedy and experience tells us that it is the journey and not the destination when it comes to the modern rom-com. Sadly, the journey in Leap Year is mostly tedious.

I say mostly tedious because along the way, though all the predictable beats are there, somehow a few grace notes sneak in. A script polish by Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy likely brought the scene where Anna and Declan clash at a wedding and then share a romantic walk in Dublin before she meets up with Jeremy.

These few good scenes however cannot make up for the inept series of clichés that precede them. Add to that the anti-feminist vibe of the whole thing. In the end, after all of the predictable crap plays out Anna throws everything away, the job she loved, the things she worked hard for just so that she can live the life of a doting wife. Yes, she's in love but why does that require her to give up all that she was.

Leap Year is yet another movie that falls back on supposed traditional values, the lazy notion that true fulfillment for a woman can only come in a traditional marriage, their hopes and dreams be damned.  . Don't be mistaken, choosing to be a wife and mother is as feminist as getting into the rat race but when a character is presented like Anna as having her own life and job, a genuine career that she appears to love and be quite good at, that the movie simply has her chuck aside for the desperate pursuit of traditional marriage, is this movie lazily reinforcing traditional stereotypical and anti-feminist values. 

I don't think the makers of Leap Year set out to undermine the notion of a working woman. Rather, I think Leap Year is a dimwitted comedy that lazily falls back on traditional gender roles because it's easier than trying to create fully fleshed out characters with lives of their own who have to choose to make compromises and sacrifices if they want to have a family and a marriage. Leap Year has no time for complexity or even a modicum of depth. And since the film also fails at being funny, there is little else to think about than how the movie lazily reinforces stereotypes. 

I realize that I am not supposed to care. I get that the filmmakers don't want to talk about this but the ignorance of these facts is a plague that infects far too many modern so-called romances. Leap Year is just the latest symptom of said plague.

Movie Review: Enchanted

Enchanted (2007) 

Directed by Kevin Lima 

Written by Bill Kelly 

Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Idina Menzel, Susan Sarandon

Release Date November 21st, 2007

Published November 21st, 2007 

Historically, Disney has not been comfortable having their history poked fun at. Indeed, there have been lawsuits and recriminations when anyone would dare to make light of Disney's fairy tales. Well that was the old Disney. The new Disney attitude arrives with the release of Enchanted a film that doesn't so much make fun of Disney's past but rather is playfully irreverent toward it; while also reinventing and reinvigorating the formulas.

Most importantly, Enchanted brings to a mass audience the charming young star Amy Adams who following this starring role should break out into major stardom.

The kingdom of Andalasia is a cartoon paradise where a beautiful young peasant sings a song with her animal friends and awaits the arrival of her prince and her happily ever after. The peasant girl is Giselle (Amy Adams) and her prince is Edward (James Marsden) a vainglorious but good natured blowhard. The two fall immediately in love and are to married moments after meeting.

The couple's marriage plans are derailed however when the prince's step mother Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) see's Giselle as a threat to her thrown. Taking on the classic look of crone, the Queen tricks Giselle into falling into a magical waterfall that transports her to an entirely different dimension. When Giselle comes around she finds herself in a strange place, New York City circa 2007.

Trapped with no way home, Giselle wanders the streets and hopes for Edward to rescue her. In the meantime she is taken in by Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his six year old daughter Morgan(Rachel Covey). Morgan is convinced that Giselle is a real princess, Robert is more than just skeptical, he thinks she's a loon.

Enchanted, directed by animation vet Kevin Lima (Tarzan), sends up a number of classically Disney set pieces. From helpful woodland creatures, given a disturbingly New York twist, too characters breaking into impromptu song and dance routines choreographed as if Busby Berkley just happened to walk down the street spilling his imagination all over the place. Everything classically Disney is given a playful tweak.

Shrek tried and sometimes succeed in pulling  off the same irreverent trick but Enchanted is free of the snarkiness of the green ogre's jibes and the baggage of the Jeffrey Katzenberg litigiousness. It's nice to see Disney finally have a sense of humor about it's past and director Kevin Lima and writer Bill Kelly made that possible by not trying to destroy the tradition of the mouse house but reinvent it with a more modern sense of humor.

Of course, the real reason that Enchanted is so enchanting is star Amy Adams. This lovely young actress who burst on the scene with her Oscar nominated performance in Junebug, is the perfect choice to play a princess. With her warm welcoming eyes and her wonderful heart on her sleeve, Adams is exceptional in the role of Giselle. So good in fact is Ms. Adams that she could win an Oscar for this feather light comedy, she's that good here.

Patrick Dempsey, so charming as television's McDreamy on Grey's Anatomy, tones down the charm to play a classic romantic male lead, the hard hearted stuffed shirt who is softened by love and romance. Providing some grounding for the more magical elements of Enchanted, keep an on Dempsey for some of the films big visual gags as slowly but surely he gives into to all of the singing and dancing magic.

Enchanted is one of the best live action family films to come along in this decade. It's also one of the better romantic comedies as well. The magical premise, the bursts of music and humor make Enchanted truly a joy to behold. Best of all, the film delivers Amy Adams to mass audiences that didn't see Junebug or somehow missed her terrific supporting turn in Catch Me If You Can.

The tremendous star turn of Amy Adams combined with the heart filled yet irreverent script of Bill Kelly and the well managed direction of Kevin Lima make Enchanted a delight for families and romantics alike.

Movie Review Nocturnal Animals

Nocturnal Animals (2016) 

Directed by Tom Ford

Written by Tom Ford 

Starring Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Armie Hammer, Michael Shannon

Release Date November 18th, 2006 

Published November 16th, 2006 

“Nocturnal Animals” is a daring film of unique power and affect. Directed by fashion designer Tom Ford, the film stars Amy Adams as Susan, a desperately unhappy Los Angeles art dealer whose past comes back to haunt her in the form of a book written by her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal). Reading the book, alone in her enormous and empty home over a weekend where her new husband (Armie Hammer) is out of town, Susan is struck by feelings for Edward she thought she’d lost years ago.

The book is called “Nocturnal Animals” and it is dedicated to Susan. The book is a revenge thriller about a family traveling through a West Texas desert when they are menaced by a group of criminals. We see the story play out in Susan’s imagination with Edward in the lead role of Tony, a good man but not one well suited for a confrontation with criminals. We watch as the confrontation between Tony’s family and the criminals grows from harassment to kidnapping and to something extraordinarily disturbing.

The film goes on to lay in the back story of how Susan and Edward met, fell in love and eventually fell apart. Susan devastated Tony and created a resentment that lasted nearly two decades. The book he’s written is in many ways a reflection of his hurt feelings but you will need to see the movie for yourself to follow that line of logic as I will not spoil anything here.

Michael Shannon plays a role in “Nocturnal Animals” that I am reluctant to go into in order to avoid spoilers. That said, Shannon is Oscar-level brilliant. Shannon acts with every inch of his gaunt frame and with his devastating glare. The character is not unlike a Quentin Tarentino character full of pith and anger in equal measure but slightly less morally ambivalent. It’s an exceptional performance, easily one of the best single performances of 2016.

“Nocturnal Animals” is the second feature film for Director Tom Ford following his artful debut, 2009’s “A Single Man” which won an Oscar for Colin Firth’s remarkable lead performance. Coming from the world of fashion, Ford has a phenomenal eye. Both “Nocturnal Animals” and “A Single Man” are gorgeous to look at even as they explore the uglier side of life. Even the grittiest moments of “Nocturnal Animals” have a beauty to them that most filmmakers would have foregone in trying to underline the grit. Ford smartly uses the crisp, clear cinematography to show that beauty exists even in the dark.

I must add a bit of a caveat to this review. Though I am recommending the movie highly, “Nocturnal Animals” is not for all audiences. The first moments of the film are taunting and provocative and will cause some people to walk out of the theater in protest. Full disclosure, I turned away from the screen on my first viewing and had to force myself to confront the images the second time I watched the film for this review. The opening has little to do with the rest of the movie but I appreciate how this credits sequence jolts us in the audience to wide attention.

Moviegoing is often a passive experience and the credits sequence of “Nocturnal Animals” breaks through that passivity in no uncertain terms. Could the film have done without the jolt? Probably. The story being told is quite good and the performances of Adams, Gyllenhaal, and especially Michael Shannon are strong enough to jolt audiences on their own. That said, I understand the inclusion of the opening and on reflection I appreciate the jolt even as it is quite forceful.

Movie Review The Ex

The Ex (2007) 

Directed by Jesse Peretz

Written by Michael Handelman 

Starring Zach Braff, Jason Bateman, Amanda Peet, Mia Farrow, Charles Grodin, Donal Logue, Amy Adams, Paul Rudd 

Release Date May 11th, 2007 

Published May 11th, 2007

The tortured history of the movie The Ex is almost too much to explain in this space. The film began life as a workplace comedy about four guys trying to get ahead in business. That film was called Fast Track. Somewhere along the line that film disappeared and in its ashes rose The Ex, a romantic comedy with just a touch of workplace stuff from the original script.

Gone from the movie, aside from cameos, were stars Paul Rudd and Josh Charles. In are supporting performances from Charles Grodin, acting for the first time in over a decade and former Oscar nominee Amy Adams in an absurdly small and underwritten cameo. The film was purchased by the Weinstein company and released as Fast Track back in January.

For whatever reason the film was pulled from that platform release and pushed into theaters with little fanfare five months later.

Tom (Zach Braff) is about to become a father for the first time. Unfortunately, he just lost his job. With his wife Sofia (Amanda Peet) having already given up her law practice to take care of the baby, Tom is forced to accept something he never wanted to accept. Tom must move his family back to his wife\'s hometown in Ohio where he will take a job working for her father (Charles Grodin).

The job, at a new agey marketing agency, has Tom working alongside his wife\'s ex-boyfriend Chip Sanders (Jason Bateman), a parapelegic who really has it out for Tom, likely because he still carries a torch for Sofia. Chip makes Tom\ 's work life difficult, sabotaging his presentations, stealing his ideas; and he gets away with it because of everyone\'s sympathy for his handicap. Chip hopes his devious plan will drive a wedge between Tom and Sofia.

Directed by Jesse Peretz, The Ex is an occasionally funny mess. Stars Zach Braff and Jason Bateman have a natural chemistry that makes for a few really big laughs. Those laughs however, are random and not necessarily organic to this plot. The film falls back on physical humor often to cover lapses in the plot. Thankfully, both Braff and Bateman are game physical comics, they manage to sell the silly slapstick regardless of the plot constructs.

The Ex wants to be a black comedy about an evil parapalegic. It also wants elements of lighthearted romantic comedy, and there are still elements of the workplace comedy that the film used to be. It\'s a complicated mix that is likely why the film, though often laugh out loud funny, is so disjointed and confoundingly edited.

Jason Bateman would have made a terrific villain for a Farrelly Brothers comedy about a Machiavellian paraplegic. That is sort of the character he plays in The Ex, or it would be if the film had a more consistent tone. As it is, Bateman does what he can with a one note villain role that just happens to be a guy in a wheelchair.

Zach Braff is one of the most likable comic actors working today. Those of you missing his work on TV 's Scrubs are missing the biggest laughs on any sitcom on television. In The Ex, Braff uses that likability to sell a difficult and confused plot and helps to smooth over many of the bumps created by the films tortured rewrites and reshoots.

The behind the scenes story on The Ex may likely make for a funnier dark comedy than anything that is left on the screen in The Ex. Still, this is not a terrible film. A terrific cast delivers a few pretty solid laughs and works hard to help you overlook the many odd shifts in tone and focus. Zach Braff has bigger, better and funnier movies ahead of him, while Jason Bateman is assured a future as the go to supporting actor in a comedy. Together in The Ex they turn a potential disaster into a minor, forgettable trifle.

Movie Review Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008) 

Directed by Bharat Nalluri 

Written by David Magee, Simon Beaufoy 

Starring Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, Ciaran Hinds, Mark Strong 

Release Date March 7th, 2008 

Publoshed March 8th, 2008 

From the awkward title to the pre-world war two England setting there is nothing all that hip about Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day. However, with a cast that includes Oscar winner Frances McDormand and Oscar nominee Amy Adams there is more than just potential. A terrific trailer with the palette, now the movie is in theaters and this seemingly un-hip period piece proves to be a smart, funny, romantic and sexy romp. Directed by first-time feature helmer Bharat Nalluri, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day offers surprises at every turn and top notch performances from two of the best actresses working today.

London in the late 1930's lived under the cloud of potential war. With Germany on the march on the continent, the British Isles were in a war stance that left many residents out in the cold. Jobs were as scarce as most resources and among the affected as our story begins is Miss Pettigrew (Frances McDormand). Having been fired from her third stint as a governess, Miss Pettigrew finds herself on the streets. When told by the employment agency that she is no longer desired as a child care worker, Miss Pettigrew takes a chance and steals a job off her ex-boss's desk.

She assumes the lead is for another governess position. However, when she arrives at the flat of Delyssia Lafosse (Amy Adams) she has a few unexpected moments. Miss Lafosse has no children. Her need is for someone to keep an eye on her. She is balancing romances with three different men who offer three very different but important choices for her. There is Tom (Phil Goldman) a playwright and producer who has the power to give Delyssia her big break in his next West End offering. Then there is Nick (Mark Strong) the owner of the nightclub where Delyssia performs and the man who bankrolls her flat and her lifestyle.

And finally there is Michael (Lee Pace) , a piano player fresh from a prison stint. He has been her loyal piano man for a long time as well as her best friend and likely her true love. Michael wants Delyssia to run away to America with him and she with him but it would mean giving up her comforts and her shot at fame and fortune. Each of these relationships comes to a head in one day with the arrival of Miss Pettigrew who accepts the job of social secretary, her real job is more well described as boyfriend wrangler. As Delyssia romances one man, Miss Pettigrew distracts and disposes of the others.

My description makes Delyssia sound like a bad person but as played by the high energy, super-cute Amy Adams she is a fresh and spirited young woman doing anything she can to survive in hardscrabble times. Adams and McDormand are perfect foils as Adams is high spirited and sexy, McDormand is level headed with a quick, observant wit. Both women bring dignity and strong willed self respect to these two desperate characters but it is their spirit in front increasingly desperate moments that is truly winning. There is nothing like watching talented actresses in roles that are their equal. It is so rare and such a treat.

The supporting cast of boyfriends and even a love interest for Miss Pettigrew, is top notch lead by the especially winning Lee Pace. Fans of the show Pushing Daisies know that Pace can play deadpan as well as loving puppy dogs. He plays both exceptionally well in Miss Pettigrew, providing the rooting interest among Delyssia's many suitors. Ciaran Hinds gets a rare good guy role as a rich, lingerie designer who decides to give up his life of models and socialites for a woman who is his equal in every way including age.

Bharat Nalluri's last effort was the massive TV movie Tsunami: Aftermath a true life tale of the survivors of the devastating wave that ravaged the coast of Thailand in 2005. That film showed he could handle large scale effects and grand emotional arcs as well as smaller human moments. Here Nalluri shows an unexpected talent for old school farce with a touch of the British Upstairs/Downstairs comedy. It's a deft, quick witted effort that also manages to be romantic and even sexy. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is a terrific little movie and one of the few must sees of early 2008.

Movie Review Serving Sara

Serving Sara (2002) 

Directed by Reginald Hudlin

Written by Jay Scherick, David Ronn

Starring Matthew Perry, Elizabeth Hurley, Bruce Campbell, Amy Adams, Cedric The Entertainer

Release Date August 23rd, 2002 

Published August 22nd, 2002 

Matthew Perry has long been my favorite member of the Friends cast. Unfortunately I've only ever liked him on Friends. In movies Perry tries really hard to not be Chandler, but comes off as if he were conscious trying not to be Chandler. The result is often forced physical humor and strained vocal and physical affectations that are simply not funny. The trend continues with Serving Sara.

In the film, Perry portrays a process server attempting at first to serve divorce papers on the gorgeous trophy wife of a Texas millionaire played by Bruce "Ash" Campbell. Things change when the trophy wife hires Perry's process server to serve her husband first. Elizabeth Hurley, continuing her attempt to make sure everyone knows she can’t act, plays the trophy wife. She proved that in Bedazzled, and reaffirms it here with a tremendously unfunny, damn near hard to watch performance. Are there any more frightening words than model/slash actress?

As for Perry once again you can see the effort. Perry, in the classic football sense, leaves it all on the field. Pratfalls, bad impersonations, and various wacky setups put Perry through his paces. Unfortunately none of this is funny. Serving Sara serves up a film that might work as an episode of a bad sitcom but as a two hour movie it's dull and feels much longer than it actually is.

I can say one good thing about the film. It's always good to see Bruce Campbell on screen, this man doesn't work enough. Check out his book If Chins Could Kill, this guy is hysterical.

Movie Review Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian

Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian

Directed by Shawn Levy 

Written by Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant 

Starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Amy Adams, Hank Azaria, Christopher Guest 

Release Date May 22nd 2009 

Published May 21st, 2009 

It was a novel idea. Museum characters come to life at night thanks to a magical golden tablet from ancient Egypt. The premise of the 2006 Night at the Museum was destined to succeed on novelty alone. What a shame it was that no one thought to add depth, complexity or humor beyond the fall down, go boom variety.

But, as I said, the original Night at the Museum had novelty on its side. Now comes Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian and the novelty has definitely worn off. What's left is a sloppy mess of out of control comic actors riffing into oblivion, searching blindly for jokes as they dress in funny costumes.

Ben Stiller is back as Larry Daley. Since we last met Larry he has given up the night watchman gig for one as an inventor and cheese ball late night infomercial star. Sure, he goes back to the museum on occasion where he is for some reason allowed to come in at night and wander around after everyone has left and apparently he was never replaced? On his next visit to the museum, Larry finds that his old friends who come to life at night are being carted up and shipped off to storage at the National Archives, beneath the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Larry spends one last night with his friends and then accepts that it's over.

Well, of course it's not over. Larry's old pal the slapping capuchin monkey stole the gold tablet before he left and now he and the other museum dwellers are under siege beneath the Smithsonian, attacked by an evil awakened Egyptian pharaoh, KahMunRah (Hank Azaria). Now Larry must travel to Washington, sneak into the archives and save his friends.

Along the way, wouldn't you know it, he makes a bunch of new friends including Abe Lincoln, from the Lincoln memorial, Rodin's The Thinker (the voice of Hank Azaria), General George Custer (Bill Hader) and most importantly, Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) whose nose for adventure turns her into Larry's partner and briefly his love match.

My explanation of the plot gives it far more order and structure than is actually in the movie. The film itself, once again directed with hack imprecision by Shawn Levy and written by the slipshod, logic free duo of Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, rolls out plot points and characters and leaves them dangling with little to do but look funny, even as they don't do or say anything funny.

As they did in the first film, Levy, Lennon and Garant are convinced that the premise is the movie. Museum characters come to life, boom we're done. That's it, they set up the premise and hope that a movie develops around it. It doesn't. This strands Stiller and Azaria especially, who spend minutes of screentime performing improv material, searching in vain for a joke not supplied to them.

As Azaria and Stiller grope for jokes, Oscar nominee Adams steals scene after scene on sheer energy and cuteness. She's just as stranded as everyone else in this plotless mess but at least she's got that smile and natural beauty to fall back on. Stiller and Azaria are clearly better when the joke is given to them and not when they have to dig it out of a plotless morass.

Now, this is me asking the question that I am not supposed to ask. The director and writers of Night at the Museum don't care about this, hence why they don't supply the answer. Nevertheless, I am baffled by the physics of the tablet. It brings museum pieces to life at night right? But, how close do they have to be to the tablet? Once you are brought to life does the tablet matter? How close does a museum piece have to be to come to life? In the first film it was just the New York Museum of Art, in the sequel it is the Smithsonian but as we learn the Smithsonian is several museums plus the Lincoln memorial. Do they have to have seen the tablet to come to life? I know I am not supposed to care but it irritated me.

This is definitely a brain free environment but I was irritated by the anything goes, nothing matters approach of Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian. Maybe, I would be more forgiving if the movie were funnier. I understand that what is required here, because this is merely a product, is that it is safe for kids (Won't scare'em or offend their delicate sensibilities) and that it is bright, cheery and loud but I can't get past the idea that every movie, even those created only as products, should aspire to something slightly more.

Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian has zero aspiration, zero rules, zero plot and most egregiously, zero laughs.

Movie Review: Vice

Vice (2018) 

Directed by Adam McKay

Written by Adam McKay 

Starring Christian Bale, Amy Adam, Steve Carell, Allison Pill, Jesse Plemons, Sam Rockwell, Tyler Perry

Release Date December 25th, 2018 

Published December 22nd, 2018 

Vice is an attempt at a satire of the former Vice President Dick Cheney. Unfortunately, though Dick Cheney is a large enough target for satire, Vice doesn’t have the teeth to make the satire work. Limp jabs at his time running the White House and the straightforward presentation of Cheney’s life, from his time as an alcoholic lineman in Wyoming through his time in the White House and his final heart transplant, the satire is so weak that it never lands a single blow on the former VP.

Christian Bale stars in Vice as Dick Cheney and the transformation is remarkable. Bale, one of the more handsome men in Hollywood, turns seamlessly into Dick Cheney. Putting on weight and undergoing four hours a day of makeup, Bale enhances the look with his voice and manner which brings Cheney to life on screen better than you could imagine. In fact, Bale is so good that he’s part of the reason that the satire of Vice doesn’t land.

Vice proceeds to tell the life of Dick Cheney in a manner that mixes up the timeframes of Cheney’s life. We start with Vice President Cheney on September 11th, after he had been rushed to an underground bunker and took over calling the shots on how the United States responded to the terror attack. The scene reflects rumors of how VP Cheney was usurping Presidential powers and the machinations are vaguely treated as menacing but the movie goes on to, unintentionally, sell the idea that Cheney, being more experienced and prepared for this moment than was President Bush, was right to takeover from Bush in this moment.

Then we flash back to how Dick Cheney got his start. In the early 1960’s Dick Cheney appeared headed nowhere. Cheney was working as a lineman in Wyoming. We see Cheney working for unscrupulous phone company engineers who care little for the employees who have little to no training or safety equipment. Cheney worked and then spent hours in bars getting drunk and getting into fights and getting arrested. 

It isn’t until his wife Lynn (Amy Adams) has to bail him out after a DUI that Cheney’s life is finally turned around. Lynn demands that Dick get cleaned up or she will take their daughter and leave and from there, the film cuts to Washington D.C where Dick is now working as a congressional intern. In the time between when Cheney  was a drunken lineman until he began  working in Congress, Cheney graduated from college and discovered an appreciation for politics.

Cheney’s start in Washington D.C came when he fell in with then Congressman Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell). Cheney was Rumsfeld’s intern and it is unexpected to see the Cheney we know today as a toady for someone even more unscrupulous and crude than himself but these scenes aren’t humorous, they are just sort of there. These scenes lay in important details about Cheney’s history during Watergate, his fast rise in the ranks of the Ford Administration, and his machinations within the Reagan White House, but they are the least interesting parts of Vice.

Vice doesn’t pick up strong momentum until Cheney becomes George W. Bush’s choice to be Vice President in 1999. Sam Rockwell plays George W. Bush as the flighty fratboy that the left has always believed him to be. It’s not a bad performance but there are more laughs in Rockwell’s manner, his style, the charming way he plays Bush than from anything Bush and Cheney actually do. The scenes between Bale and Rockwell are rarely funny but they aren't dramatic either, they play off of media perceptions of both men without providing much insight. 

That said, it was during the Bush Administration when Cheney, the character we know from many books and profiles, begins to emerge. We see his moves on the Iraq war, the way he used the law manipulate the country into a place where torture was legal and the film does begin to satirize the Cheney of lore as a power hungry, no-nonsense, bully. Is it funny? Kind of, in the absurdly straight-forward way that McKay frames the scenes and uses history to reflect these as poor decisions, but it is in conflict with Bale's performance as Cheney who doesn't appear to be in the fact that he's supposed to be the villain. Playing Cheney as having strong convictions is not exactly the satire we are expecting. 

It is during the time when Cheney is deciding whether to become Vice President that McKay relies on an odd but surprisingly effective device similar to one that he used in his Academy Award nominated The Big Short. McKay uses fantasy sequences as punchlines to punctuate the life of Dick Cheney. The first is a fake out ending that has Cheney retiring quietly after having been George H.W Bush’s Defense Secretary and leaving politics to become the CEO of Halliburton and leaving politics behind forever. 

This scene only evokes a bit of a chuckle and not a big laugh but I did enjoy seeing the credits begin to roll at the start of what was to be the 3rd act of Cheney’s life. This fantasy moment plays like wish fulfillment for those who despised the Bush-Cheney team and the joke is well-timed with the credits rolling far longer than you expect them to before we cut back to Cheney taking a call from George W. Bush and arranging a meeting regarding the Vice Presidency.

McKay goes back to the well of the fantasy sequence once more not long after this. The film employs a mysterious narrator, Jesse Plemons, who makes brief appearances throughout the movie, setting up a surprisingly effective reveal near the end of the movie. The narrator explains that we can’t really know what Lynn and Dick talked about the night that he decided to become the Vice President so the film goes into a remarkable, and quite funny, Shakespearean sequence in which Bale and Adams banter in the words of Shakespearean villains planning to carve up the world in their image.

For a brief moment Vice achieves its satirical potential. Cheney as the over the top Shakespearean Machiavelli figure is the perfect portrayal of the former VP. This moment combines our perception of Cheney with a touch of the reality. It's the Cheney of leftist lore and reality. Cheney is seen in Vice as a nasty politician with the ability to snake his way through the halls of power, taking power where he can and biding his time until he could turn things to his advantage. Shakespeare offers the perfect comic template to combine the aspects of Cheney that have taken hold in the public imagination.

This, however, is only one scene. It’s quite a funny scene and exceptionally well performed but it can’t make up for what is lacking in Vice which is a stronger through line of humor. The film doesn’t push the envelope beyond these fantasy sequences. It’s fine if the filmmakers are intending for us to make up our own mind about Cheney but I was expecting something more forceful, more directly critical. At the very least, I expected the Darth Vader-esque take on Cheney that holds the public imagination but the film, and especially Christian Bale, fails to push hard enough on that villainous side of our perception rendering the intended satire a toothless quality.

Vice is far too dry for my taste. Cheney is a huge satirical target and Vice doesn’t land a glove on him. George W. Bush gets far more of a roasting in Vice than Cheney does. In the bare minimum of scenes Sam Rockwell gives us an SNL worthy roasting of the former President as the slightly dopey daddy’s boy who was President in name only, a persona that many left leaning audiences will enjoy. It’s more savagely critical than anything Bale does with Chaney though both performances are solid. I just don’t know what the filmmakers, specifically director Adam McKay, is attempting to say about Dick Cheney in Vice.

Movie Review: Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me if You Can (2002) 

Directed by Steven Spielberg 

Written by Jeff Nathanson 

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Amy Adams, Martin Sheen

Release Date December 25th, 2002 

Published December 24th, 2002 

Less than a week ago, Leonardo DiCaprio entered theaters with Gangs of New York, his first truly adult performance. He returns in his new film portraying a kid again. In Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, DiCaprio is famed teenage con man Frank Abagnale Jr, the youngest man ever to make the FBI's most wanted list. Though DiCaprio is playing a teenager in this film, it is yet another grown up performance that announces DiCaprio as an actor of great depth.

The true story of Frank Abagnale Jr. is one made for the big screen. Before the age of 19, Abagnale had been an airline pilot, a lawyer, and a doctor. He was also a master check forger. The story is told in flashback as FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) arrives at a French prison to retrieve Abagnale who had served two years in the prison for the same crimes he was charged with in the States. We flashback to young Frank and his picturesque family life. Frank's father, Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken), and his mother (Natalie Baye) seem to be happy. Unfortunately his father's business is going under and the IRS is beating down their door. The stress is breaking up the marriage. This leads Frank Jr. to hit the road and begin his life of crime.

Frank writes a series of bad checks before the banks finally cut him off. Then, inspiration strikes in the form of an airplane pilot. Seeing the respect and admiration people showed for airline pilots, Frank sets about becoming a pilot (or at least looking the part.) After conning officials at Pan Am into giving him a uniform and enough background information to be able to talk a good game, Frank sets about being a pilot. Using his uniform and sheer bravado, Frank starts forging checks from Pan Am. The uniform gave him instant credibility and Frank's ability to charm the female bank tellers meant never even having to produce an ID to have a check cashed in any bank in the country.

With the FBI onto his pilot scheme, Frank settles in Atlanta where a chance encounter with a sweet little nurse named Brenda (Amy Adams) leads Frank to become a doctor. He fakes a degree from Harvard Medical School and watches Dr. Kildare. Suddenly, he's working the night shift as the head on call doctor in the emergency room. Thankfully, being in charge of a group of doctors means that Frank is never left to tend to a patient. Frank's relationship with Brenda leads to yet another close call with the feds, and has Frank headed for Europe.

Despite his adept criminal mind and quick wit, Frank is still a kid and still a sloppy criminal and the FBI is quickly on his path. In one amazing encounter, Frank actually comes face to face with the FBI agents on his tail and crafts an amazing lie to make his escape by posing as a secret service agent. The scene relies on a great deal of convenient timing and luck, but then I'm sure the real Frank Abagnale was the beneficiary of convenient timing and luck throughout his criminal run.

Indeed, Frank Abagnale's story is true. He was the youngest man ever to make the FBI's infamous most wanted list. He did cash forged checks over a three year span that totaled over 4 million dollars and he did impersonate a doctor, an airline pilot, and a lawyer and even for a short time a French teacher in his own high school. His first taste of how to run a good con, he made it a full week as a French substitute without actually speaking any French.

Why did Frank Abagnale do all of this? The likely answer is because he thought he could get a way with it. Spielberg however can't help tossing in a little pop psychology as a partial explanation. The film posits that the break up of his parents' marriage and his desire to reunite them by buying their problems away caused Frank to become a criminal. That and his father's hatred for the government kept Frank on the run. 

DiCaprio however never communicates a tortured victim, but rather, an excitable teen who lacks a good solid hobby. If there had been extreme sports in Frank's day, he may have just risked his life on stupid stunts. In place of that, his need for a constant rush leads him to crime. FBI agent Hanratty becomes his unwilling accomplice, providing Frank with the reason to keep running. What fun is being a great con artist or a great anything for that matter, if no one is around to appreciate it?

Spielberg is a preeminent story teller and in Frank Abagnale he has a great story. Unfortunately, Frank is too good of a guy for there to be any great drama. The film makes great use of the audience as Frank's co-conspirators. With his charm and wit, DiCaprio has the audience cheering for him to get away and you can't help but laugh at the way Frank toys with the people who attempt to deny him. However, the audience never really understands the gravity of his situation. Stealing four million dollars is a serious thing; it's grand theft. Yet, Frank is so likable and the narrative is so forgiving to him one would think it was okay for him to get away.

In many ways, Catch Me If You Can reminded me of a far better film, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Both films are about troubled youth con men. Both guys are loners who are desperate for attention and both draw the sympathy of the audience; however, Ripley is far more dramatic than Abagnale. His longings and crimes add weight to the character that Abagnale lacks. Catch Me If You Can is far more flashy than Ripley is and, for that reason, the drama is lacking. Frank never seems to be in any real danger.

Both DiCaprio and Hanks are strong but Catch Me If You Can still seems weightless. It isn't a comedy but it's not nearly dramatic enough to be taken seriously. Yes, this is a true story. But something tells me the real story is a little more dramatic than the featherweight screen version. All of that said, Catch Me if You Can is wildly entertaining and with Spielberg, Hanks, and DiCaprio, you have a trio incapable of making a bad movie together. Catch Me if You Can may not live up to all of your expectations but it is nevertheless entertaining. 

Movie Review Talladega Nights The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Talladega Nights The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) 

Directed by Adam McKay 

Written by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay 

Starring Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Amy Adams, Gary Cole, Leslie Bibb

Release Date August 4th, 2006 

Published August 3rd, 2006 

Will Ferrell struggled through 2005 with a pair of potential blockbusters that went belly up. Kicking And Screaming and Bewitched were Ferrell's attempt to solidify his star status outside the auspices of his frat pack pals Vince Vaughn and the Wilson brothers and they failed. With his first effort of 2006 Ferrell returns to safer territory. Under the guidance of his Anchorman director Adam McKay, Ferrell gets back in the comedic driver seat in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Using their Anchorman formula, McKay and Ferrell simply adapt Anchorman to the Nascar track. Take an arrogant simpleton seemingly on top of the world. Pull the rug out from under him and then watch as he crawls back to the top as improvised comic madness rains all around him. Some may fault the formulaic approach but you can't deny that this formula works.

Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) is the number one driver in all of Nascar. His risky style has him finishing first or crashing the car and not finishing at all. With the help of his teammate Cal Jr (John C. Reilly), Ricky Bobby's place in the winner circle every week is assured. That is, until the arrival of the French formula one champion Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) who arrives gunning for Ricky Bobby.

In their first showdown, Girard gets the best of Ricky when Ricky is involved in a major crash. The aftermath of the crash has Ricky thinking he is paralyzed and leads to his being unable to drive fast anymore. Can Ricky get over his fears, get back in the car and win at Talladega again or will he be delivering pizzas on a huffy bike the rest of his life.

That is what passes as a plot for a plot in Talladega Nights though plotting is not something director Adam McKay and star Will Ferrell are all that interested in. Working from a script left open for much improv, the point of Talladega Nights is crafting gag after gag after gag. Some of the gags don't work, many more do work and produce big, big laughs. In particular watch out for Will Ferrell improvising a unique dinner blessing and Ferrell's inspired reaction to his harrowing 'fiery' crash.

The talented cast of Talladega Nights, lead by Ferrell, Reilly and Cohen and backed up more than ably by Michael Clarke Duncan, Jane Lynch and Gary Cole, turns out some terrifically inspired moments of sheer goofiness and energetic weirdness. Much of the humor is based on what must have been hours of improvisation.

If there is one problem with the cast it's with the film's use of Oscar nominee Amy Adams. Hired to play Ferrell's secondary love interest, Adams is introduced early on and then abandoned. She returns but not until the third act and even then is limited to one terrifically eccentric monologue. There is no question from this monologue that Adams can hang with this terrific troop of improv actors but it seems that much of her role is on the cutting room floor.

Talladega Nights is deeply flawed as a typical three act film. The story arc is weak and the storytelling is disjointed. But, none of that really matters once you accept that all of this goofiness isn't really a movie as much as it is a series of gags. Some of these gags are funny, some are very funny and some fall flatter than a blown tire.

Sacha Baron Cohen has star potential rolling off his every mangled syllable. His upcoming comedy Borat, based on a character from his HBO show The Ali G Show, is generating big buzz. Talladega Nights is an excellent introduction of his talent for weird accents and highly eccentric characters. Watching Cohen and Ferrell riff back and forth, Cohen with his astonishingly incomprehensible French accent and Ferrell with his simpleton's twang, in several confrontational scenes is pure comic gold that, no doubt, left plenty of material for a DVD worth of improv riffs, some of which you can see over the films credits.

In a cast filled with scene stealers Gary Cole nearly walks away with the entire picture as Ricky's no good, low down, drug dealing, car racing daddy Reese Bobby. Known more for his buttoned down simps, Bill Lumberg in Office Space or the Vice President on The West Wing, Cole shows a surprising talent for being a dirtbag. With a beer in his hand, a twang in his voice, and clothes that almost stink through the screen, Cole is pitch perfect as a redneck deadbeat.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby is very funny as a series of Nascar based improv skits. As a movie it's a disjointed, often ridiculous exercise in plot mechanics and minor melodrama. I found the film left a lot to be desired in terms of great filmmaking but that is a minor concern when a movie makes me laugh as much as I laughed during Talladega Nights.