Movie Review: Curious George

Curious George (2006) 

Directed by Matthew O'Callaghan 

Written by Ken Kaufman 

Starring Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, Billy West, David Cross, Eugene Levy 

Release Date February 10th, 2006

Published February 12th, 2006 

Curious George is a wonderfully imaginative children's classic. With his wide eyed wonder and his incurable imagination George inspired small children to investigate the world around them with a similar abandon. Now on the big screen for the first time, the curious little monkey and his friend in the bright yellow hat are as imaginative and inquisitive as ever.

The man in the bright yellow hat aka Ted (Will Ferrell) has some big trouble. He needs a new attraction at the museum where he works or his new boss (David Cross) is going to fire him. Sending him on a trip to Africa to find this new attraction, Ted returns with big ideas and a brand new little friend. George, as the little monkey comes to be known, is an imaginative little primate whose inquisitive nature leads both he and Ted to some unique adventures.

Curious George director Matthew O\'Callaghan is a former Disney animator whose love of water colors made for the lovely, warm tones of Mickey' s Twice Upon A Christmas. directs Curious George with the same warmth and joy. O\'Callaghan has respect for this character and while there are updates that are necessary but they are never overdone or precious.

The voice cast of Curious George is a wonderful mix. Will Ferrell strikes just the right flummoxed, earnest and patient tone as Ted and Drew Barrymore is in lovely voice as his love interest Maggie. Comedian David Cross is appropriately sniveling and conniving as the villain of the movie and Futurama star Billy West is almost unrecognizable as the benevolent boss who supports Ted but must also listen to Cross's Junior, his son.

Another draw of Curious George is the throwback hand drawn animation. Perfectly capturing the water color aesthetic of H.A Rey\'s legendary book series, Curious George is one of the loveliest looking animated features of this decade and the rare hand drawn feature that is as visually vibrant as any computer animated feature in the business, even the Pixar stuff.

Curious George was sadly overlooked when it was released in theaters in early 2006 but it\'s out there on DVD and the perfect gift for any child who loves a great cartoon. Wonderfully imaginative and artfully, crafted, Curious George should be an animated classic and a staple of all children's DVD collection. If you don\'t have it, run out and get it for your child, or the child in you.

Movie Review American Wedding

American Wedding (2003) 

Directed by Jesse Dylan 

Written by Adam Herz

Starring Jason Biggs, Allyson Hannigan, Seann William Scott, January Jones, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Fred Willard, Eugene Levy

Release Date August 1st, 2003 

Published July 31st, 2003 

The first American Pie movie flew in under the radar in the summer of 1999 and with it's combination of sweetness and sickening humor charmed teenage audiences to the tune of well over 100 million dollars. The second film was not at all a surprise when it became a hit at the box office, but was surprising because it also managed to balance the sweet and sick as well as the original. Now comes American Wedding and you might think there is no way writer Adam Herz can do it for a third time but he does, a sweet sick, funny movie that while not as consistently funny as it's predecessors is still a disgusting, funny movie with a good heart.

Wedding finds our hero Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) just out of college and preparing to ask his girlfriend Michele to marry him. However in typical American Pie fashion things go horribly awry in Jim's restaurant proposal. Jim's penchant for very public humiliation finds him with his pants down, Michele under the table and his Dad (Eugene Levy) accidentally popping the question for him. Despite it all Michele agrees to marry him and were off.

Back for the sequel are Jim's friends Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas). There job in the wedding will be to make sure their nemesis Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott) is kept as far away as possible. They fail that mission miserably and it's not long before the Stifmeister has worked his way into the wedding party and into the good graces of Michele's virginal sister Cadence (January Jones).

The amazing thing about this film series is this endlessly appealing cast. It's one of the great quirks of filmmaking that the producers of the American Pie films have lucked into one of the best casts ever. Each cast member is so likable that no matter how outrageous or stupid their exploits become we in the audience will forgive them anything. Jason Biggs is especially appealing as Jim. From the beginning Jim's haplessness has earned our sympathy, his every humiliation bringing him closer to the audience. Our embarrassment for Jim makes us cheer for him ever more to succeed in the end and Biggs is perfectly cast.

Thomas and Nicholas are somewhat shortshrifted in American Wedding, the plot doesn't leave them much to do other than observe, especially Nicholas who disappears numerous times throughout the film. Alyson Hannigan's role also seems slightly underwritten but in her scenes she like the rest of the cast is endlessly sympathetic and lovable.

Where the first two American Pie films could be considered ensemble works American Wedding is clearly lead by Biggs and Sean William Scott's iconic Stifler. The raging ID Stifler is in full on personality overload. Scott mugs and preens like Jim Carrey on crack. Stifler hasn't aged one day past junior high school and his hijinks are the films high and low points. If you thought Stifler beer and semen cocktail from the first film was bad, or his urine bath in number two, just wait til you see his homage to John Waters in American Wedding.

Missing from this sequel are Mena Suvari, Chris Klein, Natasha Lyonne, Shannon Elizabeth and Tara Reid and that their MIA status isn't even eluded to is one of the films few major problems for those of us who have invested in this franchise. That said the remaining cast is strong enough to carry on without them and they are helped out greatly by newcomer January Jones who helps to fill in the babe gap left by Reid and the rest.

The films staging and logic isn't as strong as the first two films. There are times when the film feels like less than a narrative or more like a series of sit comic sketches. That said, the key to American Wedding are these beloved characters and whatever the film lacks in cohesiveness is easily forgiven for the chance to hang out with these funny and memorable characters that some of us have grown up alongside during the American Pie franchise. 

Sometimes, a little goodwill goes A LONG WAY. 

Movie Review: Dumb and Dumberer When Harry Met Lloyd

Dumb and Dumberer When Harry Met Lloyd (2003) 

Directed by Troy Miller 

Written by Troy Miller 

Starring Eric Christian Olsen, Derek Richardson, Cheri Oteri, Luis Guzman, Eugene Levy

Release Date June 13th, 2003 

Published June 13th, 2003 

Last week there were debates as to whether 2 Fast 2 Furious suffered for not having star Vin Diesel and Director Rob Cohen. One could very well argue that indeed it did lack for not having them. No such debate is necessary for Dumb and Dumberer. Even the most obstinate viewer can't argue that this film suffers the loss of stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels and writer-directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly. But moreover, it's the audience that really suffers.

Without Carrey and Daniels the money grubbing, greedy executives at New Line reposition the story as a prequel that goes back to the characters as High School students. Eric Christian Olson is Lloyd Christmas and Derek Richardson is Harry Dunne. Friend from their first meeting, Harry and Lloyd are placed into a class for special needs children. This is no benevolent gesture to help the kids learn however. The schools principal played by Eugene Levy (slumming desperately) has setup the class to scam the government out of $100 grand that the school gets for having the class. The principal’s goal is to steal the money and run off with the school lunch lady played by Cheri Oteri.

Of course their scheme is foiled by Harry and Lloyd, although unknowingly, with the help of an investigative reporter for the school newspaper played by Rachel Nichols. Of course Dumb and Dumberer is not about having a plot but rather setting up one relentlessly stupid joke to get the next relentlessly stupid joke.

I know, I can't criticize Dumb and Dumberer for being stupid, because that is the point of the film. However I can criticize it for being tremendously unfunny. I can criticize it for lacking any redeeming value. I can criticize it for stealing 80 some-odd minutes of my life from me. What I don't want to do too much of is rip the film’s young stars. Eric Christian Olson is a game performer. The kid gives everything he's got and he does a pretty good impression of Carrey. Rachel Nichols, as the boy’s love interest, is a beautiful girl who deserves better than this.

Director Troy Miller is also not entirely to blame for this film. Though it is his name on the film, he is merely in place to transfer a knockoff script to the screen. Imagine directing a high school production of the original Dumb and Dumber and you can understand what it must have been like for Miller.

The real blame goes to New Line for allowing their greed to get the best of them. They cynically shoved this film into production with the sole purpose of making money. It is this kind of assembly line filmmaking that is destroying Hollywood. Films are not mass produced product you buy off the rack at K-Mart, but that seems to have been New Line's approach in making the dreadful Dumb and Dumberer.

Movie Review: A Mighty Wind

A Mighty Wind (2003) 

Directed by Christopher Guest 

Written by Christopher Guest 

Starring Bob Balaban, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey 

Release Date April 16th, 2003 

Published April 23rd, 2003 

The genius of Christopher Guest, as exhibited in the brilliant Waiting For Guffman and the even better Best In Show, is once again on display in the folk music sendup A Mighty Wind. That genius is tempered though by a pervasive attitude of insincerity in the film’s closing moments. Nevertheless, a flawed Christopher Guest comedy is better than most Hollywood comedies. Using the same faux documentary style that has become his trademark, Guest and his usual company of actors deliver a satirical take on the 60’s folk music scene. 

As the story goes, legendary folk music promoter Irving Steinbloom has passed away. Irving’s son Jonathon (Bob Balaban) is memorializing his father by reuniting his three favorite groups for a concert to be broadcast live on public television. We then meet each of the groups, including the Folksmen (Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean), who’s one big hit was inspired by the burned out neon of a restaurant sign “E At O’s”. The New Main Street Singers are the result of a pair of folk groups who joined forces back in the sixties. Now most of the original members are gone, replaced by frighteningly cheery cultists Terry and Jane Bohner (John Michael Higgins and Jane Lynch). Paul Dooley plays the only remaining original member, while Fred Willard plays the group’s manager, a clueless self-absorbed former child star who can’t let go of the spotlight and especially his annoying catchphrase “Wha Happened”.

The centerpiece of the show and the film is the duo Mitch (Eugene Levy) and Mickey (Catherine O’Hara). The biggest stars on the roster, Mitch and Mickey haven’t worked together since a legendary onstage kiss during a televised performance of their biggest hit “A Kiss At The End of the Rainbow.” Nowadays Mitch is a mess. just out of a mental institute and Mickey is happily married to a medical supply salesman. Ed Begley Jr. rounds out the cast as Lars Olfen, the head of the public TV network and a Swede in origin who nevertheless loves to speak Yiddish. Begley is priceless as he criticizes the small-scale production of the show, insisting he can get a big crane at a moment’s notice.

The great thing about Christopher Guest’s films are the actors and Guest’s insistence on unscripted dialogue, which though it can be hit and miss, it hits far more than it misses. Watch John Michael Higgins and Jane Lynch as they recount how they met with increasing looniness. Guest let’s them go on and on until it’s clear they have run out of ad-libs. Then of course there is Guest, Shearer and McKean, clearly enjoying the Spinal Tap reunion with even worse hairstyles. The ease of rapport between the three is astonishing and hilarious, what a great team.

Not only is the dialogue ad-libbed but also so are the songs in a way ad-libbed. In a risky and unique choice Guest and the cast wrote their own folk tunes which we hear in the film’s climactic concert scene. The songs are surprisingly good, and Levy and O’Hara truly amaze with their poignant rendition of their hit song. While the Folksman and The New Main Street Singers are plated to the height of satire, Mitch and Mickey have an edge of reality to them. The story behind the duo, how they met, and how they broke up, is a sweet story and very well played by these two amazing comic actors.

The first 75 to 80 minutes of A Mighty Wind, from the beginning through the concert is very funny and enjoyable. However, after the concert the film doesn’t end. The scenes that close the film wrap up what happened to the groups after the show and feel like a slap in the face to anyone who enjoyed the film through the concert. The cynical scenes that make these likable characters into buffoons are a betrayal to what came before them.

The ending is actually the most conventional element of the film. Like any Hollywood film that doesn’t end when you think it should, it fills the audience with a sense of dread that turns to sadness and near disgust because you wish it had ended when you expected. Still, for most of the film it’s a funny, sweet, entertaining satire filled with great performances. And of course when compared to most modern comedies, even with it’s flaws, A Mighty Wind is genius.

Movie Review: Bringing Down the House

Bringing Down the House (2003) 

Directed by Adam Shankman 

Written by Jason Filardi 

Starring Steve Martin, Queen Latifah, Eugene Levy, Jean Smart, Joan Plowright, Missi Pyle 

Release Date March 7th, 2003 

Published March 6th, 2003 

Racial humor these days is more difficult than peace in the Middle East. Sensitivities are high and watchdogs are everywhere seizing on any hint of political incorrectness. Into this climate wanders the mismatched buddy comedy Bringing Down The House starring Steve Martin and Queen Latifah. A film that is desperate to be edgy with it's racial humor but paints too broadly to make anything close to a point.

Martin is Peter Sanderson, a workaholic LA lawyer who has recently divorced his wife Kate (Jean Smart) leaving her custody of their two kids, Sarah (Kimberly J. Brown) and Georgy (Angus T. Jones).

Peter isn't an absentee father, he still sees his kids but because of his job, he breaks a lot of promises. Constantly attached to his cellphone, Peter has little time for anything other than work though he has found time to strike up an Internet connection with a fellow lawyer named Charlene. Or so he thinks. Peter believes Charlene is a lawyer because her screen-name is lawyergirl. 

In reality however, Charlene is actually an ex con looking for someone to help get her out of jail. What Peter also doesn't know, until they meet on a blind date at his home, is that Charlene isn't the petite waspish blonde he had imagined but rather a sassy busty black woman in the form of Queen Latifah. If this sounds like the setup to a bad sitcom then you're onto something.

Peter is, not surprisingly, unhappy with Charlene's deception and wants her to leave immediately, until Charlene makes a scene and he is forced to let her stay. In a series of implausibility's, she stays in his house bonds with his kids and eventually the two come to an understanding. She helps him try and get his wife back while he works to clear her name. Eugene Levy is thrown into the plot as Charlene's love interest and The Practice's Steven Harris slums as Charlene's gangbanger ex-boyfriend.

Despite it's bad sitcom level plotting Bringing Down the House has it's share of laughs, most of them coming from Martin and Latifah who at times seem to be in an entirely different and far funnier film. The chemistry between the two is excellent in scenes where they seem to be flying off the script. However, when they are in the forced confines of the film’s plot, they seem bored.

The supporting cast is made up of caricatures and plot points and Eugene Levy is both. Thrown in to give the script a reason for Latifah and Martin not to get together, he also provides the screenwriter with the lame white guy he needs to foolishly send up stereotypical black speech as you have seen in the film‘s inescapable ad campaign. Also forced into the film as a caricature is Joan Plowright as Martin's bigoted client. Plowright's character exists for the purpose of one scene in which she smokes marijuana at a nightclub. It's funny because she's white, old, and smoking a joint..... hahahahaha.

The films racial humor is clumsy to the point of offensive and if it weren't for Latifah, you might not be able to tolerate a lot of it. The script seems determined to either make you laugh or make you extremely uncomfortable, which could be a commendable trait if the film weren't tied to such a mundane plot and bound to it's genre.

Director Adam Shankman needs to learn to control his camera. Early in the film he falls in love with these nauseating tracking shots that will have you wishing for Dramamine. His technique gets better as the film goes on but sadly, he is in place merely to transfer the mundane script to the screen.

Anything interesting in Bringing Down The House is provided by Martin and Latifah who through comedic force of will make this lame predictable material occasionally funny. The most surprisingly funny moment comes toward the end when Martin dresses up in the stereotypical “young black guy” costume and enters a black club. The scene has the potential to be extremely unfunny but Martin plays it so well you laugh, whether you wanted to or not. 

Movie Review Taking Woodstock

Taking Woodstock (2009) 

Directed by Ang Lee 

Written by James Schamus 

Starring Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Eugene Levy, Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Groff

Release Date August 28th, 2009 

Published August 28th, 2009 

The cultural touchstone that is Woodstock has been examined and reexamined in many different forms. Books, TV shows, movies, documentaries, records, have been used to cover every possible angle of this iconic moment in recent American history. So, it is quite notable that director Ang Lee and his writing partner James Schamus have found something of a new angle for their take on Woodstock.

In Taking Woodstock the festival of peace, love and music provides the background for the self exploration of Elliott Teichberg, played by comedian Demetri Martin. Using the concert as the backdrop for a character based story isn't new but the character and the approach to him is something kind of revelatory.

In early August 1969 the organizers of Woodstock found themselves run out of Wallkill New York. Locals pulled the group's festival permit. Luckily for them a young man named Elliott Teichberg happened to have a festival permit and as chairman of the chamber of commerce in tiny Whitelake New York, he had the power to keep it.

A partnership was forged that would change history. Elliott was not meant to be in Whiteside. His parents Sonia (Imelda Staunton) and Jake (Henry Goodman) have run a failing resort in the area for years while Elliott has moved to New York City. When it looked like the place was finally going under, Elliott moved back home.

He became a part of the town and the youngest chamber of commerce chairman in history when he took the risk to bring Woodstock to Whiteside and with it a life changing experience that he could never have envisioned.

I am making Taking Woodstock out to be a little bigger than it is. It's big for Elliott but the story's scale is exceptionally small. Tiny, well observed moments of Elliott Teichberg finding out little things about himself, taking small but escalating risks and dragging his parents, especially his stingy, entrenched mother, along as well.

Some, maybe most, will find Taking Woodstock to be slow, even meandering. For me, the pace was slow but my interest never seemed to wane. Taking Woodstock is a gentle, immersive experience that floats along on a cloud of marijuana smoke and good vibes.

Comic Demetri Martin perfectly captures Elliott's lost soul innocence and longing. He has a wonderful playful spirit hidden behind a nebbish reserve. When he lets loose it's a gentle catharsis perfectly pitched to Ang Lee's waves lapping against the shore pacing.

Yes, Taking Woodstock is slow but it is intended to be slow. It's intended as a gentle study of a gentle man. In that it is highly successful and for me a warm wonderful moviegoing experience. I don't recommend this one to fans of Transformers 2, but for those who enjoy their movies with a little more leisure, Taking Woodstock is the movie for you.

Movie Review: The Man

The Man (2005) 

Directed by Les Mayfield 

Written by Jim Piddick, Stephen Carpenter

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy. Miguel Ferrer, Luke Goss, Anthony Mackie 

Release Date September 9th, 2005 

Published September 8th, 2005 

Both Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy have appeared in some very bad movies. Jackson has missed a number of opportunities to establish himself as an above the title star by choosing to star in subpar films like No Good Deed and Formula 51 and worse choices accepting supporting roles in bad movies like Twisted, Deep Blue Sea and Basic. 

Eugene Levy has always been a dependable supporting player but roles in bad movies like Bringing Down The House, New York Minute, and Like Mike have some wishing he would only accept work with his good friend Christopher Guest where Levy really excels. Given the actors' track records teaming them in a buddy comedy did not exactly scream hit movie. The Man is not as bad as some of their previous poor outings but certainly not among either actor's highlights.

In The Man Samuel L. Jackson essays the kind of take-no-crap badass cop, ATF agent Derrick Vann, that has become his own personal cliché. When a cache of guns is stolen and a cop is found dead it's up to Agent Vann to find who did it. In his take-no-prisoners way, Vann quickly gets a bead on the bad guys but he is about to be derailed in a most unexpected way.

Andy Fidlar (Eugene Levy) is a good husband and father who loves his job selling dental supplies. The pinnacle of Andy's career is a speech he is going to give in Detroit in front of hundreds of colleagues. Unfortunately for Andy things do not go as planned as he ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time. Accidentally intercepting Agent Vann's meeting with the bad guys, Andy now must join Vann to bring down the bad guys but only if Vann can resist the urge to kill the annoying and bumbling Andy.

The plot of The Man is established quickly and efficiently with characters suitably introduced and motivations well understood. Credit director Les Mayfield whose strength is in his quick pacing as he showed in the comedies Blue Streak and Encino Man. At 87 minutes The Man is another example of Mayfield's talent for efficient film-making.

Of course efficiency alone does not a great film make. Mayfield's quick pace has a lot to do with the film's very thin story. The plot is about puddle deep and relies heavily on well-worn clichés and the likability of Jackson and Levy. The script does neither actor many favors. It's a very flimsy premise and writers Jim Piddock, Margeret Oberman and Stephen Carpenter also resort to bathroom humor and light gay bashing. Call it the trifecta of bad screenwriting.

Even in this clichéd story both stars remain appealing. Jackson's taciturn bad-ass is overly familiar but not without its entertaining moments. Levy's chatterbox obliviousness has most of the film's funniest moments, though, like Jackson's cop character, we have seen Levy do this before. The mismatched buddy humor works occasionally in The Man simply because both actors are so talented.

In scenes where Jackson and Levy bond unintentionally thetwo actors show a talent for elevating material that is often well below their respective talents. If The Man has any moments of solid humor it is because both actors work hard to bring life to the material, something they can almost always be depended on for. In the merely functional role of the bad guy little known British actor Luke Goss acquits himself about as well as he can given the dull witted way the character was written. Goss has little to do but exist as a rerun of bad guys past. His role is distinguished only by moments where Goss and Levy trade confused tough guy dialogue. It's only two or three scenes but Goss at least shows up well enough not to be embarrassed.

The same cannot be said of supporting roles for Saturday Night Live's Horatio Sanz, comedian Suzy Essman, and Miguel Ferrer all of whom are stuck with commonplace roles indistinguishable from lame TV tropes of similar characters. The Man is not as bad as many of the horrible films released in 2005 and that is owed entirely to Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy. Even in a bad movie both actors remain entertaining. If both were to fire their agents and focus on finding better material maybe they could work together again in a film worthy of such strong and appealing talents.