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: Ask the Dust

Ask the Dust (2006) 

Directed by Robert Towne 

Written by Robert Towne 

Starring  Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, Donald Sutherland, Idina Menzel 

Release Date March 17th, 2006

Published September 16th, 

Though one of the great screenwriters of the 70's; Robert Towne's directorial career is spotty at best. His Personal Best was groundbreaking in subject but banal in execution. Without Limits was well acted but laconic. And the less said about the Mel Gibson-Michele Pfeiffer thriller Tequila Sunrise the better. Back behind the camera for the first time in 8 years; Robert Towne's latest effort, the romance Ask The Dust, is likely his greatest failure yet.

A miscalculation of idea and performance, Ask The Dust is Towne indulging his love of Los Angeles and its history at the expense of telling an interesting story.

Colin Farrell stars in Ask The Dust as Arturo Bandini. Coming to LA in 1930, Bandini intended to write the definitive novel of that famed city. Unfortunately the city of Los Angeles in the 1930's is not as inspiring as he had hoped. The streets are dusty and dull, the people are either decrepit and living out their string or they're writers like Bandini trying to write the great American novel.

The lives of some Angelenos are less easily devised. Camilla (Salma Hayek), a waitress at a dive bar where our friend Bandini drops his last nickel on some bad coffee, claims to be an aspiring actress held back by her latino heritage. However, her real aspirations are far less obvious and eventually undone when she falls into a romance with the struggling writer.

The relationship between Bandini and Camilla is defined by conflict. Their first meeting, the bad coffee, Bandini insulted Camilla and poured his coffee all over the floor. Later, after Bandini gives a weak apology, the two share a romantic drive to the beach where Camilla implores Bandini to join her for some skinny dipping. She plays a cruel trick on him, pretending to drown, and the angry Bandini walks home the seven miles from the beach to his rundown hotel. Still the romance somehow persists.

Meanwhile Bandini has another girl, though not one he really wants anything to do with. The other woman is Vera Rivkin a needy Jewish princess, who Bandini finds passed out in his hotel room. She offers him a sad story and begs for sex which he turns down. Later, however, Bandini, after another strikeout with Camilla, does fall into Vera's arms but is blunt in telling her that he was dreaming of Camilla. Vera's character and her fate are two of the more puzzling aspects of Ask The Dust.

There are any number of puzzling things about Ask The Dust. It's clear that Director Robert Towne is crafting a dusty paean to his beloved city of Los Angeles. With the help of Cinematographer Caleb Deshanel, Towne turns his South African location into a lovely image of 1930's California. At some point however, Towne became too enamored of his scenery and neglected his characters and their romance. Thus why we get stilted angry exchanges that turn quickly to passionate love making and back again with little rhythm and zero chemistry.

Colin Ferrell's performance in Ask The Dust is, at once, the most entertaining and confusing part of the film. On the one hand, Ferrell's offbeat delivery and flashes of Johnny Depp-like tics and mannerisms are quite humorous. Unfortunately, it's unclear whether or not we are supposed to be laughing. Ferrell as Bandini schizophrenically moves from shy to belligerent, from belligerent to sweet and from sweet to cocky without warning. Caught in the maze of Robert Towne's direction, Ferrell likely just did what was asked of him in each scene, regardless of whether the performance would coherently cut together later.

The one thing that really works in Ask The Dust is Caleb Deschanel's lush and beautiful cinematography. While Farrell and Hayek bicker and antagonize us and each other, we can at the very least distract ourselves by gazing at the gorgeous sandy vistas of early South Africa standing in for 30's Los Angeles. The dusty streets and blaze orange sunsets are the stuff of picture postcards, lovely images of warmth and comfort, completely at odds with the war of the roses characters.

Movies are not supposed to work to the audiences' preconceived notions of what we think the movie should be. Movies are the visions of the filmmakers with only a modicum of consideration of what the audience might want. That still doesn't quell my disappointment over not getting what I expected from Ask The Dust. I was hoping for a classical, passionate romance with two hot stars burning up the screen and the kind of literate, well read dialogue that you get with the best literary adaptations.

What I got with Ask The Dust was angry banter that works like a sad, unintentional parody of the Cary Grant-Irene Dunne romances of the 30's and 40's.

Robert Towne is a very talented writer but his direction in Ask The Dust is as lazy as the dusty, windblown, sun drenched streets of 1930's Los Angeles. The script relies heavily on the performances of Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek who, whether they were directed this way or not, come off like petulant children playing dramatic versions of the Bickersons. Blowing the dust off of cliches of 40's melodramas, they bicker like cats and dogs and fall in love anyway. The film is updated only for the sex which runs hot and cold, but mostly cold.

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 Frozen 2

Frozen 2 (2019) 

Directed by Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck

Written by Jennifer Lee 

Starring Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff 

Release Date November 22nd, 2019

Published December 6th, 2019 

Two weeks in theaters and Frozen 2 has single handedly revived a sleepy North American box office. To say that Disney has a magic touch with sequels and familiar I.P is not saying much, they’re the master of wringing every last dollar out of their properties. What perhaps sets Disney apart from other companies that increasingly rely on well known properties rather than risking money on new developments, is that Disney trusts creators more. And if that doesn’t work, they can amp up the marketing budget. 

Frozen 2 is a strong example of trusting their creators. By any account of the first Frozen, there did not appear to be much of any sequel potential in the story of Queen Elsa and Princess Anna, at least not theatrically. In a cynical world, Disney could spin romantic, Y.A tales of the love adventures of Anna and Elsa for infinity on the straight to video market. But Disney has grown ambitious since the Toy Story movies proved there was an appetite for sequels in theaters as opposed to the video market that Disney owned for the better part of two decades. 

The creators of Frozen did not rest on the ease and familiarity of the characters of Anna and Elsa by feeding the need to pair Elsa off romantically. That was a natural storytelling alley but the filmmakers sought an adventure that would be more ambitious and capitalize on the strengths that Idina Menzel fueled with her remarkable voice and the original screenplay had given us an Elsa beyond the need for her to have a Prince. 

The original Frozen was an adventure story and the filmmakers knew that an adventure story was where they wanted to go again with the sequel, even if it didn’t necessarily have a natural jumping off point from the original story. The clever idea here was to investigate the back story of Elsa’s powers as it related to the deaths of her parents and the history of the Kingdom of Arendelle which it turns out is darker than we’d ever suspected. 

The story of Frozen 2 has Elsa hearing a voice that drives her to seek out a magical forest locked behind an enchanted mist that she can access because of her powers. Naturally, Anna (Kristen Bell)  insists on joining Elsa on the journey along with Olaf (Josh Gad),  Christoph (Jonathan Groff) and his reindeer pal Sven. Together they will discover the spirit of the elements, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. There is a fifth element and that is at the heart of the mystery of Frozen 2. 

The story is wonderfully told with big, Broadway style musical interludes that help the story along. While the first film had a surefire pop hit in Let it Go, the makers of Frozen 2 have boldly chosen not to concern themselves with pop hits and have gone solely for songs that help drive the story. It’s a shockingly uncommercial choice and it gives Frozen 2 an even stronger independent identity from its corporate origins. 

The voices of Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell have only grown stronger and more confident in the roles of Elsa and Anna. The comfort in their vocal work lends authenticity to the characters. The same could be said of Josh Gad’s Olaf who rounds into the big beating heart of the Frozen franchise. Olaf, while remaining a predominately comic character, has moments of genuine emotional power in Frozen 2 as he comes to stand in as an avatar for the youngest audience members of the Frozen fandom. 

Olaf is very funny and the youngest audience members will absolutely adore him as they did in the original. Gad carries the comic burden of Frozen 2 while facilitating the other characters to linger in more dramatic adventures. Much of the success of Frozen 2 can be attributed to the laughs brought on by Olaf underlining the action of the other characters who are sprinting toward more dramatic and life changing adventures. 

In some ways, Frozen 2 is actually superior to the original Frozen. The characters are more fleshed out and relatable. Elsa is more human and relatable than in the original and the music explores her depths in ways that Let it Go and the other original Frozen songs could not. The creative team of Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee have also expanded the visual palette of the Frozen universe with daring visuals that include even more gorgeous explorations of ice and a horse made of water that is one of the most beautiful pieces of animation in this young century. 

Frozen 2 has that unique ability to appeal to children with stories of wonder and necessary lessons about life and family while also reaching adults who can appreciate the visual mastery and the wonderful characters who have an adult accessibility. It’s rare to see that combination of traits outside of Disney’s partners at Pixar but Frozen 2 achieves it. Frozen 2 is the number 1 movie in America, and the rest of the world, because of those accessible traits.