Movie Review: View from the Top

View from the Top (2003) 

Directed by Bruno Barreto 

Written by Eric Wald

Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate, Mark Ruffalo, Candice Bergen, Joshua Malina, Kelly Preston, Rob Lowe, Mike Myers

Release Date March 21st, 2003 

Published March 21st, 2003 

Of the many odd ripples from our country's greatest tragedy, none seems less important than it's effects on Hollywood movies. It's an effect still felt today, as films that were made around the time of 9/11 finally reach theaters. One of the films shelved after 9/11 was the flight attendant comedy View From The Top. One is left to wonder what kind of movie View was when it was conceived and what it became after the tragedy. Suddenly jokes involving air travel simply aren't funny and as a filmmaker, you have sensitivities to care about that never existed before. It must have been more excruciating for such a light comedy to have that mantle to bear, and it's one that likely ruined any chance the film had of being a hit.

View From The Top stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Donna Jensen, the daughter of a Vegas go-go dancer and an alcoholic father. Donna, living in a trailer with her well-past-her-prime mom, desperately wants out of the trailer and thinks she has a way with a new boyfriend. Unfortunately like everything else in her life, the boyfriend (played in cameo by Buffy's Marc Blucas) let's her down and dumps her in a birthday card. Nevertheless, Donna's pluckiness and spirit lead her to another opportunity to better herself. After seeing a woman on TV talk about the wonders of being a flight attendant, Donna sets out to travel the world. Of course at first, she has to settle for the Laughlin to Fresno route of an economy airline that specializes in drunk gamblers. Hey, everyone has to start somewhere.

Along the way, Donna makes friends with her flight attendant mentor (Kelly Preston) and another trainee (Christina Applegate). She also makes a new love connection with a struggling law student played by Mark Ruffalo. Donna doesn't have time for a relationship though as she and her friends fight their way into another airline, the high class Royalty airlines. Here, Donna actually meets the woman who inspired her to become a flight attendant (Candace Bergen). In addition, Donna becomes the star pupil of a flight attendant teacher played by Mike Myers.

Though Donna seems destined for the big time, international first class to Paris, she somehow fails and ends up doing commuter flights out of Cleveland. It's not all bad though as while stationed in Cleveland she reunites with the law student and they begin a tentative romance. However, it is then that Donna does get her international route and must choose between her career and personal life.

On the surface, View From The Top seems pretty straightforward, but upon watching you see it become quite confused. Director Bruno Barreto never settles on a tone for the film. Early scenes of Paltrow's Donna living in squalor seem like a Jerry Springer satire. Then as Donna becomes more sophisticated and grown up, something Paltrow is so good at projecting, she is confronted by characters that seem to be in entirely different films.

While somewhere toward the middle of the film, Paltrow and Candace Bergen seem to channel the elegant humor of an Audrey Hepburn movie, Mike Myers is doing Jerry Lewis and Christina Applegate seems a refugee from the aforementioned Springer show. Ruffalo seems to fit somewhere in the middle while seeming capable of fitting either tone if given proper direction.

Again, I wonder how much the film changed after 9/11. It was always a comedy but how much of the humor or even the story was forced to change for the sake of sensitivity. Is it possible that a more coherent version of the film existed before? I guess we will never know. As it is, View From The Top is yet another line on Gwyneth Paltrow's resume. While not great, it does note her amazing range. If given the chance I'm sure she could have made one of the two movies in View From The Top work.

Movie Review: The Sweetest Thing

The Sweetest Thing (2002) 

Directed by Roger Kumble 

Written by Nancy Pimental 

Starring Cameron Diaz, Thomas Jane, Selma Blair, Christina Applegate

Release Date April 12th, 2002

The battle for the title of Worst Film of 2002 is a three-film race so far. There is John Mctiernan's expression of audience hatred, Rollerball, Dominique Swain's spiraling career suicide in Tart, and now Cameron Diaz's inexplicable The Sweetest Thing. This bizarre, gross, deeply failing comedy somehow manages to make the terrific Cameron Diaz look like a terrible person. That should tell you all you need to know about The Sweetest Thing. 

The Sweetest Thing begins in documentary style with guys talking straight to the camera about a girl named Christina who broke their hearts. This pre-credit sequence seems tacked on as if the director realized that the script didn't bother to introduce the character Cameron Diaz is playing so he had to do something desperate to get some exposition into the movie to provide comic credentials for Diaz's character. 

Once we are into the actual film we meet Christina (Cameron Diaz), your typical flighty movie chick dancing in the streets of San Francisco. Where are these pixie-ish girls who dance in the streets with no regard for the world around them? Oh right, mental hospitals.  Christina and her friend Courtney (Christina Applegate) meet up at Christina's apartment where their friend Jane (Selma Blair) is crying over a lost boyfriend. Christina and Courtney give her the typical advice, forget about Mr. Right and go get Mr. Right Now. How clever! 

The three friends go to a club where Christina meets Peter Donahue (Thomas Jane). Initially, Christina and Peter are adversarial but then they keep meeting and grow to like each other. Peter eventually invites Christina to a party but she decides not to go. Why? Well, if she goes, we wouldn't have this idiot plot where Christina has to try and find this great guy she met a this party. Oh, and she didn't get his phone number either for the same reason. 

One of my movie pet peeves is when an entire film hinges on a situation easily resolved by a brief conversation but left unresolved in service of the plot. In The Sweetest Thing all they had to do is what anyone in that situation would have done, either go to the party or exchange phone numbers. If they did that though we wouldn't have the lame road sequence where the girls have wacky things happen, like Christina's discovery of what a glory hole is. Oh so clever.

I doubt the glory hole has ever been used for a good laugh in a film, there is probably a reason for that, but The Sweetest Thing doesn't stop there. The film includes a sequence where the girls start a restaurant singalong about penis size, and poor abused Selma Blair has a scene where let's just say something gets stuck somewhere.

Writer Nancy Pimental and Director Roger Kumble want to roll around in the same mud as There's Something About Mary and the American Pie movies, but they forget what it was that made those movies funny. There's Something About Mary and American Pie 1 & 2 were funny because the disgusting jokes were in context and framed against characters who earned our sympathy. The Sweetest Thing never bothers to introduce the characters, they expect that we will like them because we like the stars. That was not enough for me.

The Sweetest Thing is legitimately hard to watch. Rather than relating to the characters I was embarrassed for the stars trapped in the film’s humiliating and stupid situations. The Sweetest Thing is a complete embarrassment. 

Movie Review: Anchorman The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Anchorman (2004) 

Directed by Adam McKay 

Written by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay 

Starring Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Steve Carell, Fred Willard

Release Date July 9th, 2004 

Published July 8th, 2004 

In the early 1980's, my older sister became a reporter for a local TV news station. At that station were the last bastions of 70's TV anchors, guys who could clearly remember a time when there were no women in the newsroom. One of those guys could be the template for Will Ferrell's ingenious Ron Burgundy character in the new movie Anchorman. This guy smoked during commercials, sipped scotch during sports, and partied like a college kid when the show was over. He was also legitimately clueless without a teleprompter in front of him. He was a character, like him or not, and now that character has a loving tribute in Anchorman. 

Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is San Diego's most trusted newsman. His evening news broadcast is the most watched in the city. Ron Burgundy and his news team, sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner), Weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), and roving reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), are the envy of every station in San Diego. They are also quite a hit with the ladies. 

Their idyllic boys club newsroom, presided over by producer Ed Harken (Fred Willard), is thrown into chaos when network execs force them to hire a female reporter. Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) is no mere reporter, she has her eye on the anchor desk and on the man behind it. After attempts by each of the news team to try and bed the new girl, Veronica falls for Ron. However, when she gets her shot at the anchor spot the competition tears them apart. 

Oh and there is also a massive brawl between San Diego's news teams that features so many cameos you will need a scorecard to remember them all. Who knows why there is a brawl, who cares, it's funny. What else stands out are the names of the characters, which have the perfect mixture of realism and pomposity. Brick Tamland! Brian Fantana! Champ Kind! Ron Burgundy! There is also a rival character named Wes Mantooth! Brilliant. 

That is the best plot description I could come up with. In reality there is not much of a plot but rather a series of strung together sketches that would have made a legendary Saturday Night Live character. This makes sense since the film was directed by former SNL writer Adam McKay who also collaborated on the script with Ferrell. When I say that Ron Burgundy is like an SNL character I mean that to be more in the Wayne's World quality of SNL character and not in the It's Pat sense. Anchorman is far better than most of the film trash produced from any SNL characters. 

The gags in Anchorman are a scatological patchwork of 70's newsroom parody and obviously improvised dialogue. It's almost hard to believe there was an actual script considering the number of improvised scenes. This amazingly talented cast can riff with the best of them though the improvising does occasionally take a little while to find a punchline. 

Will Ferrell proves once and for all that he will not be resigned to the Rob Schneider comedy ghetto, Will is a star. It helps that he has found a group of comedy all stars to call on for backup. Listing the number of hysterical cameos would take awhile and ruin the surprise. Needless to say, there are some you expect and one or two that really surprise you. Who is that guy in the ‘fro working for the public television news team? You might take a second to recognize him. 

If you’re looking for a message about gender equality, woman’s lib, or just the minor victory of integrating of the newsroom, you won't find it here and you wouldn't want it here anyway. It would get in the way of the juvenile slapstick humor. The juvenility is intentional, it's a Will Ferrell trademark and it works for him. 

Anchorman is about the same thing that this summer's other big hit comedy Dodgeball is after, and that is off the wall scatology. Whatever the actors, writers and directors think is funny, goes. And if somewhere we stumble upon a plot, so be it. It's not great filmmaking but for the most part it's very funny.

Movie Review Hall Pass

Hall Pass (2011) 

Directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly 

Written by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, Pete Jones, Kevn Barnett 

Starring Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate, Richard Jenkins

Release Date February 25th, 2011 

Published February 24th, 2011

Peter and Bobby Farelly haven't been relevant since they rode the public's brief fascination with Jack Black in the early 2000's to a hit with “Shallow Hal.” Since then the brothers have floundered half focused on new material and half obsessed with making a movie about the Three Stooges. The Stooges movie has been gestating since the late 90's with a variety of acting combinations dropping in and out with nothing to show for it.

Finally, the guys who started the man-child comedy revolution with movies like “There's Something About Mary” are back at full strength and making the kind of movie that was their forte. “Hall Pass” is a small miracle of outrageously raunchy humor with a good heart that made ``Mary,’ “Kingpin” and “Shallow Hal” hits.

Owen Wilson stars in “Hall Pass” as Rick, an early 40's father of three happily married for more than 15 years to Maggie (Jenna Fischer). Three kids have taken the spark out of the marriage lately and more and more Maggie is catching Rick lusting after other women like a horny old teenager.

More troubled are Rick and Maggie's best friends Fred (Jason Sudeikis) and Grace (Christina Applegate). They have no kids and no spark; leaving Fred to masturbate in the front seat of their minivan lest she catch him. (If you're wondering how that bit of information pays off, see the movie.) Rick and Fred commiserate over their troubled love lives at a local coffee shop while lusting after an Aussie barista named Leigh (Nicky Whelan) whose nubile-ness represents everything they fantasize about.

After speaking to a mutual friend “The View's Joy Behar in an unshowy cameo) Maggie and Grace come up with the idea of a Hall Pass. The concept is simple, one week off from marriage to do whatever the guys want, guilt free. Either they will spend the week striking out or they will get whatever cheating they were going to do anyway out of their systems.

This is the kind of simple, straight forward set up that Ron Howard and Vince Vaughn botched in “The Dilemma.” The Farrelly Brothers demonstrate that it takes more than just the idea to make the movie; you need characters and big gags that pay off to really make it work.

Owen Wilson shows a heretofore untapped talent for playing a middle aged dork. Usually cast as the life of the party guy, Wilson slips effortlessly into the role of Rick like one in the long line of 80's rock 'n roll t-shirts Rick thinks is cool. What Rick and Fred think is cool goes a long way for laughs in “Hall Pass.”

Jason Sudeikis is a real scene stealer in “Hall Pass;” offering the same kind of randy, goofy, raunch-ridden asides that he brought to his equally funny supporting role in last year's “Going the Distance” with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. Sudeikis plays a great douchebag but when the role calls for him to morph into a good guy you believe it fully.

The gags in “Hall Pass” range from the classically Farrelly bathroom jokes, including some truly explosive diarrhea, to more self aware stuff reflecting the ways in which guys really talk. A scene taking place in the home of a mutual friend that neither Rick or Fred really like demonstrates that guys can be as catty as women are about the people they envy, they just have a more blunt and colorful way of being catty.

”Hall Pass” is uproariously funny with big gags mixing with strong characters and in the end a believable amount of heart minus the treacle that most other, similar films pack on when they don't have the goods to really earn audience sympathies. The Farrelly Brothers haven't been this funny in over a decade. See “Hall Pass” and rejoice and who knows, maybe that Stooges movie will actually come out someday.

Movie Review Going the Distance

Going the Distance (2010) 

Directed by Nanette Burstein 

Written by Geoff La Tulippe 

Starring Justin Long, Drew Barrymore, Charlie Day, Christina Applegate, Jason Sudeikis

Release Date September 3rd, 2010 

Published September 2nd, 2010 

The trailers and commercials for “Going the Distance” do not promise much. It's fair to predict, upon seeing the film's cutesy promos, that you are getting a trite and predictable romantic comedy. The actual movie however, though it is a romantic comedy, is something more than a series of rom-com clichés. In Going the Distance, stars Drew Barrymore and Justin Long display stunning romantic chemistry that brings life to the story of two people attempting a long distance relationship. These two terrific actors, once a real life couple, have each other’s vibe down and they bring a real feeling and romantic vitality to the conversations that these two characters have.

Garrett (Justin Long) has just bombed badly on his girlfriend's birthday; he didn't get her a gift. Dumped because he thought she meant it when she said not to get her anything, Garrett finds himself downing beers with his pals Dan (Charlie Day, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Box (Jason Sudeikis) when he spots Erin (Barrymore), a hard drinking, foul mouthed, one of the boys who happens to be tragically pretty and utterly irresistible.

Unfortunately, Erin is not in New York for long, only six weeks before she has to move back to San Francisco to finish school. The two agree to keep things casual and spend the next 6 weeks attached at the lips. When the day comes for Erin to go home, Garrett pitches a long distance relationship and “Going the Distance” eases comfortably into the expectations of a romantic comedy but with just enough surprises to keep things lively and fun.

Nanette Burstein is best known for the unconventional documentary “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” based on the life of Hollywood legend Robert Evans. In that film Burstein steered around the limitations of typical documentary filmmaking by toying with the form and allowing the pompous yet fascinating Evans narrate his own life as if he were sitting on the couch next to you recounting his life story while images flashed all around as if in 3D broadcast from his mind.

Experimenting with the form of a romantic comedy seems, to me, to be an even greater challenge but one that Ms. Burstein was up for and though “Going the Distance” is no radical rejiggering of the form, her more modest innovations liven things up. For instance, when Garrett and Erin go on their first date Burstein switches from conventional film stock to handheld digital. The movie is briefly wrenching but it does increase the intimacy of this romantic moment by taking advantage of natural light and seemingly un-choreographed street scenery. She sticks with the device for the following few scenes, a montage of the six weeks of getting to know you time and that works as well.

The other innovation is the use of four letter words. Yes, we have heard cursing in movies to the point of being completely jaded but there is something in the way Drew Barrymore says the F-word, something so delightfully naughty and unexpected that it plays kind of sexy in a strange way. Co-star Jason Sudeikis also makes clever and unexpected use of obscenity that, because of years of SNL censoring, has a jarring yet hilarious effect. Sudeikis has never seemed more natural and appealing on screen as he does in “Going the Distance” describing the challenge of a long distance relationship and dreaming up what Erin might be doing in California in filthy/funny detail.

Finally and even rarer still, the trailer material for “Going the Distance” has the rare quality of being the least interesting and least funny bits from the film. So often we have complained about movies using the best gags for the trailers and commercials but in “Going the Distance” the weakest and most conventional gags are used in the promos while the best stuff is in the movie. A surprisingly R-rated and unconventional romantic comedy, “Going the Distance” thrives on the exceptional chemistry of Drew Barrymore and Justin Long and the daring if not boundary breaking direction of Nanette Burstein. 

Going the Distance is a wonderful and welcome surprise. 

Movie Review: The Rocker

The Rocker (2008) 

Directed by Peter Cattaneo 

Written by Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky 

Starring Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate, Jeff Garlin, Josh Gad, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone 

Release Date August 20th, 2008 

Published August 19th, 2008 

The premise of The Rocker sounds like a movie Jack Black turned down. A 40 something former drummer for an 80's hair band ends up broke, living in his sister's attic before ending up playing drums for his nephews band. It reads like a sequel to School of Rock, with a few minor tweaks. The Rocker doesn't star Jack Black however but Rainn Wilson, from TV's The Office. Even though the premise sets him up for failure, Wilson acquits himself well in the shadow of JB, and gives  a good time rocking performance.

22 years ago Vesuvius was a heavy metal band on the verge of major record label success and their drummer, Robert 'Fish' Fishman was about live his rock star dream. The success came but not for Robert who the band dropped in favor of the label owners nephew. After losing out on rock stardom,  Robert spent the next 22 years a bitter mess, working as an office drone, longing to recapture the glory of rock. 

After losing his job Robert is forced to move in with his sister (Jane Lynch), her husband (Jeff Garlin) and his nephew Matt (Josh Gad). Matt is in a band and in a not so surprising twist of plot, the band just lost their drummer, two days before their first gig, playing the prom. Matt's bandmates, brooding singer Curtis (Teddy Geiger), and female bassist Amelia (Emma Stone, Superbad), want to find a more age appropriate drummer but Matt pushes for uncle Fish.

Though he nearly blows the prom gig, Fish turns out to be a great drummer and a strong positive influence on the band. When a YouTube video of Fish playing drums naked gets the band's music heard by millions, stardom comes knocking for a second time and Fish has the kind of second chance that doesn't come around very often.

The Rocker has a strict adherence to convention that is really the antithesis of rock n' roll. The film proceeds from one plot point to the next like clockwork. If you can't predict every step of this movie from beginning to end you are not trying. Director Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), directing a script by former Simpsons scribe Wallace Wolodarsky and Maya Forbes; moves the undistinguished screenplay from paper to screen with little innovation or invention.

All of the success of The Rocker lies in the performance of Rainn Wilson and lucky we are that he is up to the challenge. Wilson's Rocker is sloppy and dull witted, obtuse and self-involved, but he's also sweet, funny and earnestly committed to the life and love of being a rock star. Fish seems to genuinely care about the kids in the band and despite his excesses, he eventually proves himself as a positive force.

Wilson's performance plays well with the overall familiarity of the plot, making the predictability easier to take because the vibe is so congenial. The Rocker is so gentle and feather light that it floats by. 88 minutes is really all this plot could sustain and the filmmakers were smart not to let the movie linger. As much as we like Wilson's performance, by the end we are ready to say goodbye. 

Another smart decision by the makers of The Rocker was hiring Chad Fischer to write the music for the film. Often a movie about musicians will skimp on the music. The pop tunes of The Rocker, sung by star Teddy Geiger, are really good pop tunes, songs you can believe would become top ten radio hits. If the film is a hit don't be surprised to hear a song like 'Tomorrow Never Comes' or 'Bitter' make a radio splash.

The Rocker is annoyingly formulaic but star Rainn Wilson and the music of Teddy Geiger and Chad Fischer keep it from becoming tedious. Wilson is a star on the rise and he appears to have a bright future as a goofball leading man. See The Rocker for Rainn Wilson and stay for the surprisingly strong pop tunes of Geiger and Fischer. Yes, you will see every turn of plot coming, but Rainn Wilson, at the very least, will keeping you smiling through the predictability.