Movie Review: Cowboys and Aliens

Cowboys and Aliens (2011) 

Directed by Jon Favreau

Written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby

Starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Paul Dano

Release Date July 29th, 2011

Published July 28th, 2011

Why isn't Cowboys and Aliens the biggest event in popular culture ever? With the elements that the film has in place there is simply no excuse for this film to not be the biggest moment in pop culture, at least in this short century. Consider that we are talking about the combination of two of the most popular genres ever, western and science fiction. And that the film stars both James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), not to mention Han Solo and Jack Ryan.

How about the fact that Cowboys and Aliens was produced by a Hollywood dream team that includes Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Steven Speilberg. To top it all off, this geek god of a movie was directed by the director of Iron Man 1 & 2--himself a cult figure for his role in Swingers--Jon Favreau. I ask again: Why isn't Cowboys and Aliens the biggest pop culture event ever?

Somewhere in the old west a man who doesn't yet know that his name is Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) awakens in the desert. His memory is gone, he's wounded and he has some sort of device strapped to his wrist. Eventually, Jake makes his way to the town of Absolution where everyone is under the boot of Col. Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford).

Unknown to Jake, he and Dolarhyde have a history; Jake robbed a stagecoach full of Dolarhyde's gold before his memory loss and subsequent desert awakening. Before Dolarhyde and Jake can have it out however, an alien spaceship attacks and begins kidnapping townsfolk. Suddenly, Jake's new jewelry comes to life and he's able to destroy one of the alien ships.

Now, Jake and Dolarhyde must team up with a posse that includes a little kid, a dog and a woman, Ella (Olivia Wilde) along with a preacher (Clancy Brown), a saloon owner (Sam Rockwell) and several random posse members who act as cannon fodder for subsequent alien attacks. Together this disparate band must traverse the desert, find the alien HQ and get their people back.

Cowboys and Aliens was adapted from a graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg though how much of his original story remains is anyone's guess. At least six different writers have credits on the screenplay of Cowboys and Aliens including Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, the Star Trek reboot team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, The Simpsons staff writer Bill Oedenkirk and the Iron Man team of Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby.

Wrestling these different visions into one mostly cohesive whole is director Jon Favreau who does pull off the Herculean task of making Cowboys and Aliens a believable combination of old school western and high end sci-fi while wrangling this wild horse of script into one well told story. Unfortunately, what is lost in the mix is a sense of humor as well of a sense of the film's place in popular culture.

For some reason, Jon Favreau wants us to take Cowboys and Aliens seriously. Both stars, Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, deliver taciturn, old west tough guy performances that feel authentic but lack the awe, wonderment and humor that this goofy sci-fi story calls for. The film needed a Will Smith injection; a character who we can believe will hold up in a fight and yet has the aplomb to be impressed by the situation he finds himself in.

Cowboys and Aliens also suffers from a lack of cultural awareness; director Favreau wants to pretend that he is making an old school western that happens to have aliens. Favreau also wants to pretend that his stars are not weighted by pop culture history; why else has the film's marketing failed to mention that one of the stars is James Bond and the other is Indiana Jones?

You simply cannot cast Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford and not find some way to pay homage to their place in the culture. This head in the sand approach blunts the impact of everything they do in the film. We in the audience crave the release of having someone reference how huge all of this is and no one does. This is where the lack of a sense of humor comes into play; a sense of humor would find some way to make a joke about spies or the territory of Indiana, or an offhand reference to something about a Star War.

That however, would not have played into Jon Favreau's misguided choice to play the material of Cowboys and Aliens as a straight western that happens to have aliens attacking. On its own merits Cowboys and Aliens is well crafted, a little fat in the run time at over two hours, but solidly built aside from its lack of humor. Matthew Libatique's cinematography is terrific, the special effects are eye catching and believable, the film simply lacks the proper amount of awe.

In the end, if Jon Favreau did not want the weight of pop culture on his old school, John Ford Western that happens to have Aliens, he shouldn't have cast James Bond and Indiana Jones. Favreau set the pop culture table and then refused to serve it and that leaves Cowboys and Aliens a well made but slightly bland feast.

Movie Review: Four Christmases

Four Christmases (2008) 

Directed by Seth Gordon 

Written by Jon Lucas, Scott Moore, Matt R. Allen, Caleb Wilson, 

Starring Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Mary Steenburgen, Jon Favreau, Tim McGraw, Sissy Spacek

Release Date November 26th, 2008 

Published November 27th, 2008

It's just not that funny. I watch and I want to laugh. I feel for that tickle at the back my throat. I try and force it a few times. It just doesn't come. You know why? Because, Four Christmases starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon just isn't funny. The trailer was funny. I laughed a few times during the two and a half minute teaser.

I watched the movie, nothing. No laugh. Not even a chuckle. I sighed deeply once and it could have been mistaken as a laugh. But no. The movie isn't funny.

Brad (Vaughn) and Kate (Witherspoon) have been together for three years with no want for marriage or children. They really aren't keen on family at all. Thus why every Christmas they lie to their families and escape to some exotic isle. This year, they are off to Fiji until weather grounds their plane and they are captured on TV being forced to stay in country.

Plot forces require that each of four parents, now all separated, see the same news report and press the guilt button. Each parent will be visited and each will bring about a new kind of torture.

Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek are Vaughn's parents while Mary Steenburgen and Jon Voight act as Witherspoon's sires. Each offers opportunities for laughs and yet none provide. Director Seth Gordon assigns each of these legendary performers a personality but forgets to offer any plot assistance.

Duvall is a bully, as are the assigned brothers Jon Favreau and Tim McGraw, randomly assigned as cage fighters. Are you laughing yet? Spacek is a space cadet who has married again to one of Brad's friends (Patrick Van Horn in a 'hey that guy was in Swingers' cameo'). Are you laughing now? How about if mom and new boyfriend repeatedly mention their sex life? Nothing?

Steenburgen, as Witherspoon's Kate warns us, is a cougar. She immediately is welcoming to Brad, willing to humiliate her daughter to make Brad ever more uncomfortable. Ha! No. Yeah, me neither. What if I throw in the fact the cougar mom is also a jesus freak and is dating a pastor played by Dwight Yoakam? What if the pastor forces Brad and Katie to play Mary and Joseph in a church pageant? Still nothing?

Finally there is Jon Voight who apparently said no to his assigned persona. Instead Voight plays benign presence to play against the craziness of everyone else. It works only to highlight the irritating, over the top absurdity of the other characters. But atleast Voight doesn't embarrass himself, which is I'm guessing, his goal for this role.

Seth Gordon is a comedically tone deaf director who pays off would be jokes two minutes before they actually happen. Truly, if you cannot see these 'jokes before they actually happen you may be having a stroke, seek medical help. Predictability is a sin that few can be forgiven for. I expect it from say, The Transporter where I would be disappointed if Jason Statham didn't drive fast and blow stuff up good.

I doubt the makers of Four Christmases put even that much thought into making this movie. They merely manufactured an idea. Cut characters out of a book of personality traits, filmed them and assembled them in number order. Whether the result was funny or even modestly amusing not so much a concern as getting the Christmas set film into theaters by the holidays to capitalize on tired, turkey and shopping attled masses seeking mindless distraction.

Say, I can recommend this movie. If you are in a tryptophan coma or blinded by the blue light special, Four Christmases is playing in a theater where you can sit in peace and quiet and not be bothered for 90 minutes.

Movie Review The Break Up

The Break Up (2006) 

Directed by Peyton Reed 

Written by Jeremy Garelick 

Starring Jennifer Aniston, Vince Vaughn, Joey Lauren Adams, Judy Davis, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jon Favreau

Release Date June 2nd, 2006 

Published June 1st, 2006 

When Jennifer Aniston split with Brad Pitt she had the sympathy of the celebrity obsessed world. Pitt left Aniston for his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie who in her looks and manner is the perfect villainess foil to Aniston's all american girl. Sympathy however, does not mean much at the box office. People may have been annoyed with Pitt and Jolie for breaking poor Jenny's heart but that did not stop audiences from making Mr. & Mrs. Smith a box office blockbuster.

The sympathy has done little for Aniston's own films. Both the thriller Derailed and the high profile romantic comedy Rumor Has It were box office non-starters and this spring's Friends With Money was barely a hit by small scale indie standards. Aniston's box office troubles should end with the new comedy The Break-Up, co-starring new beau Vince Vaughn, but that does not mean that Aniston's astonishing career slide is anywhere near over. The Break-Up is a dyspeptic, almost angry anti-romance featuring two lead characters more unlikable than most horror film villains.

In The Break-Up, Aniston plays Brook, an artist who works in one of Chicago's swankiest Gallery's. While attending a Cubs game, Brook meets Gary (Vaughn), a bus tour guide, who boorishly forces an unwanted hot dog on Brook and her loser date before accosting and encouraging her into dumping the boyfriend for him.

Two years later the fastidious Brook and the disorganized Gary are living together in a beautiful condo but all is not well. Ego-centric Gary cannot seem to do anything but play video games and leave his clothes on the floor. Brook on the other hand, cannot stop nagging Gary about the ballet, doing the dishes and other such activities he hates and she enjoys. A major meltdown following a dinner with their respective families leads to a break up. However because both Gary and Brook are on the condo lease neither wants to move out. Worse yet for Brook, she does not want to give up on Gary and the relationship.

This is where I part ways with the picture. Aniston's Brook seems like a reasonably sane person. When she breaks up with Gary she has a number of good reasons for doing so, and yet, the film forces her to hope that he will simply apologize and they can get back together.This renders Brook a rather silly person. At one moment she’s standing up for herself against a slovenly and seemingly uncaring partner and the next she’s forced to whip herself into wanting to stay with the guy. 

Gary is never anything other than obnoxious, self centered and egotistical. He never shows an ounce of caring for Brook, aside from the opening montage of photographs over the credits that serve as the couple's two year backstory. He is a major jerk who puts a pool table in the dining room the day after the break up and follows that up with a stripper party in the living room to make Brook jealous. The film gives neither Brook nor us a reason to like Gary other than the fact that he is played by Vince Vaughn. That is just not enough, unless you believe Vince Vaughn is god's gift to women.

That said, Brook is no prize either. Just simply wanting this jerk back is off putting enough but the way she parades men through the apartment to make Gary jealous is just sad and pathetic. Watching her I wanted to call in Dr. Phil to sit Brook down for a talk on self esteem and bad judgment. Hurting Gary’s feelings is not something I cared about but the guys she was using for that purpose were innocent bystanders. It’s just not funny watching her so obviously use these men for such unseemly purposes.

Peyton Reed is a fascinating and challenging director. His Bring It On was a tart little comic truffle with more bite than you expect from the teen comedy genre. And more interesting, his Down With Love was a stylish, ballsy attempt to recapture the camp romance of the fifties Doris Day-Rock Hudson flicks. Neither Bring It On or Down With Love succeeded fully but both films are risky in ways most mainstream films are not.

The Break-Up too is risky in very unexpected ways. The film has a very serious edge to it. A very unexpected level of realism comes in the arguments that Vaughn and Anistons characters engage in. The fights sound like real couples arguments and not the cute banter of the usual rom-com. The fights are nasty and personal in the ways only intimate partners can be. This is very bold but also very out of place. Fans showing up for light funny romance tinged with Vince Vaughn's usual acerbic wit and outlandishness will be dazed and confused by the film's daring realism.

What is good about The Break-Up? There are a number of very funny supporting characters. Jon Favreau, as Vaughn's best friend, steals a couple scenes by giving Gary some awful advice. And John Michael Higgins, best known as one of Christopher Guest's regulars, is funny as Brook's in the closet brother who sings pop tunes acapella with his singing group 'The Tone Rangers'.

Both Favreau and Higgins characters are funny in individual scenes but they are so far apart from the central plot that they are almost from another, far funnier, movie. When The Break-Up takes its major turn toward drama in the final act both Favreau and Higgins are left behind and nearly forgotten. There is no place for their broad characters in what suddenly and quite unfortunately becomes a nasty and borderline abusive situation. 

I cannot forget to mention the brilliant Vincent D'onofrio who plays Vaughn's brother. D'onofrio is a mess of ticks and gestures in a role similar to his Law and Order Detective character but gone to pot. Disheveled and disturbed, D'onofrio makes this oddball character the most likable person in the entire film in just a few scenes. He too is lost in the wake of the film's dramatic turn and the film is worse for his loss.

Both Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn are naturally likable actors. However, in this film not even their maximum charisma can overcome the nastiness that is at the heart of The Break-Up. The film is far too mean spirited and angry to be entertaining. The ad campaign positions the film as a so-called anti-romantic comedy, whatever that means. The film is certainly anti-romantic but it's also anti-humorous and anti-entertaining.

I credit the film and especially director Peyton Reed for being daring but the mixture of broad comedy and the nasty realism just doesn't come together. The characters are too poorly sketched and rely far too heavily on the real life likability of Vaughn and Aniston. As characters Gary is an egocentric dick and Brook is a simpering wimp. There is nothing romantic or comedy in this pairing. It's just sad.

Movie Review: Wimbledon

Wimbledon (2004) 

Directed by Richard Loncraine

Written by Adam Brooks, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin

Starring Paul Bettany, Kirsten Dunst, Sam Neill, Jon Favreau

Release Date September 17th, 2004

Published September 16th, 2004

With what I have written in the past about my disdain for the clichés of sports movie and of the modern romantic comedy, you could sense that a movie like Wimbledon would be a special sort of torture. Simply take the worst of both genres and combine them and ugh. However Wimbledon is the creation of Working Title Films, a company that has discovered it's own unique formula for romantic comedies that really works.

Working Title is the company that made Hugh Grant a star in Four Weddings and A Funeral and Notting Hill and delivered last year’s wonderful romantic ensemble Love Actually. It must be a British thing. There is something about Working Title's approach to romantic comedy that usually works. It works in Wimbledon albeit not as well as it has in the past.

Paul Bettany stars as over-the-hill (32-years-old) tennis star Peter Colt. Peter is playing Wimbledon for the final time in his fifteen-year career. In fact, Wimbledon will be his final tournament period, Peter is retiring to be the club pro at a posh resort. He only hopes not to embarrass himself and just maybe win one last match before he quits.

Before he steps on the court he has the pleasure of meeting a beautiful young American tennis star named Lizzie Bradbury. The two meet in a cute way when Peter accidentally gets the key to her hotel room and walks in while she is in the shower. From there, the two start bumping into each other and soon its a little romance, under the radar of course, the British press can be murder.

Complicating things further is Lizzie's overbearing father (Sam Neill) who warns Peter not to interfere with Lizzie's concentration. That is a subtle way of saying stay away from my daughter, something Peter just can't do. Peter especially can't stay away from Lizzie because after meeting her, he begins to play well and wins and wins again. Soon people are talking about him again and he has a shot at going all the way.

Naturally, since this is a romantic comedy you know that there will be some artificial roadblock thrown in front of the lovebirds to separate them until the big finish. This contrivance is usually where the Working Title formula separates itself from other romantic comedies but this time they fail a little. The contrivance is less than believable this time. It's saved only by Bettany who comes through in the film’s final reel to save the movie from the typical pitfalls of the romantic comedy.

In a role that many will recognize as one Hugh Grant turned down, Paul Bettany becomes a star in his own right. Not quite as charismatic as his Chaucer from A Knight's Tale, his Peter Colt is charismatic but subdued. He is weary and sees only dreariness in the near future. That is until he meets Lizzie who opens his eyes to an entirely new and brighter future. At first, the relationship is ambiguous as to whether we have a love match or superstition. Are Peter and Lizzie in love or do they get together because they play well after being together. Bettany plays the ambiguity well but plays the love and devotion even better as the film progresses.

For her part Kirsten Dunst does well to put over Bettany's starring role. She seems to act as a way for Bettany's character to get to the next big scene. It's as if she is a supporting character rather than a lead and that works surprisingly well. Especially well because of how poorly written Lizzie's backstory is written. She's playing her first Wimbledon and is one of the top players in the world but how old is she? Most champions of her ilk are 18 or 19, Lizzie seems older. This maybe a sticking point for tennis fans only.

I happen to love watching tennis. I have vivid memories of Boris Becker's first Wimbledon victory, of Jimmy Connors at the U.S. Open and Pete Sampras failing to win the French Open for so many years. My love of tennis makes this film so much more pleasurable because Paul Bettany is a terrific tennis player. Much praise must be given to technical advisor and former player Pat Cash for developing Bettany into a competent enough player that his scenes look believable.

The film’s final tennis match is spectacularly well realized, aside from the unnecessary commentary by tennis legends John McEnroe and Chris Evert. Bettany's play is excellent and director Richard Loncraine embellishes it with terrific camerawork and a plot device that let's us inside Peter Colt's head, a weary stream of conscience that is funny and endearing.

I must say what a pleasant surprise it is to watch a romantic comedy and a sports movie that is not absolute torture. Wimbledon may not avoid the cliches of it's combined genres but at the very least it embellishes them enough to make it interesting. Paul Bettany is the film’s real find and the element that lifts Wimbledon above it's many cliches and contrivances. This could be a star making and Hugh Grant had best start looking in his rearview mirror for Paul Bettany who could be scooping up a few of those roles that used to go right to him.

Movie Review Open Season

Open Season (2006) 

Directed by Roger Allers, Jill Cullen

Written by Steve Bencich, Ron J. Friedman, Nate Maulden

Starring Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Gary Sinise, Debra Messing, Jon Favreau 

Release Date September 29th, 2005

Published September 30th, 2005

Sony Pictures Animation is brand new to the computer animation game. Their first feature Monster House, with producer Robert Zemeckis, was a fun, clever, kid friendly concept that would have benefited from a better release date. The second feature from Sony is equally as fun, though not quite as clever, and shows that Sony may be the first big studio animation arm to be truly competitive with Pixar in terms of creating fully integrated animated films with appeal beyond the child audience.

Monster House is a better, more accomplished example of the quality of Sony's work, but the new animated picture Open Season has just enough quality work to show Sony's potential.

Martin Lawrence gives voice to Boog in Open Season, a bear who has been domesticated. Living in the garage of a caring forest ranger (Debra Messing); Boog has his TV, nine square meals a day and he's even learned how to use the toilet. His domestic bliss is upended when he meets Elliott (Ashton Kutcher). Poor Elliott has been captured by an evil hunter (Gary Sinise) and strapped to the hood of the hunters truck.

Boog, on a day in the city with his forest ranger pal, see's Elliott and helps him escape. Elliott, thinking he has made a new best friend forever, follows Boog home and entices him out of the garage for a night on the town. The two end up vandalizing a mini-mart, an offense that causes the local sheriff to force the forest ranger to release Boog into the wild.

Never having had to survive on his own, Boog finds his new life in the forest to be, pardon the pun, un-bear-able. So, with Elliott's help, Boog tries to find his way back to the garage. Along the way he earns the ire of almost every other creature in the forest, especially after he crushes the local beaver dam and flushes everyone into the valley where hunters are awaiting the opening of hunting season.

Part of the strategy of Sony Pictures Animation is working with talented artists with great track records. On Monster House they worked with a rookie director, Gil Kenan, but backed him up with the proven talent of producer Robert Zemeckis. On Open Season Sony worked with director Roger Allers who directed the all time animated classic The Lion King.

Open Season does not compare with The Lion King in terms of the quality of its storytelling but the animation of Open Season is at times the equal of any and all of the great animated pictures, digital or otherwise. The forest landscapes of Open Season are absolutely gorgeous which is strangely at odds with the otherwise mundane  talking animals storyline. The animation tends to overwhelm a story beneath the dignity of the artistry of the animation.

Not that the story of Open Season isn't cute or funny, it is, but the grand animation of Open Season would be better suited to a more dramatic feature, ala The Lion King.

Part of the fun of Open Season is the voice work of Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher. These two actors, who have struggled mightily in their live action work, are dynamic vocalists in Open Season. Lawrence does a terrific job of channeling the child-like innocence of Boog and combining it with an attitude of entitlement of a very spoiled child. As Boog becomes more mature, Lawrence channels his usual bravado and good humor into Boog to great effect.

Kutcher is a natural for voicework. He is naturally over the top and exemplifies boundless energy, as he so often showed on That 70's Show. Elliott, like TV's Michael Kelso, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he has a big heart and that comes through in his voice. He just wants to be liked, he just wants to make friends and in that sense he is very reminiscent of another beloved animated sidekick Eddie Murphy's Donkey from the Shrek movies.

If the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals made an animated feature, I'm guessing it would look alot like Open Season. The film is like PETA propaganda. The hunters are mouth breathing morons and seething villains who hunt for the joy of the kill and not merely for sport. The animals are, of course, cute and smart and essentially more human than their human counterparts.

I am a little concerned about one thing about this animated tale of a grizzly bear who is kept as a pet. There was a documentary last year called Grizzly Man in which a man named Timothy Treadwell failed to understand how dangerous the grizzly bear truly is. Treadwell convinced himself that the bears were his friends, he even named them like pets. Timothy Treadwell died, eaten by his pals the grizzly's. Parents, be sure to make your children understand that Grizzly bear's are not pets.

If Sony Pictures Animation is going to compete with the gold standard set by Pixar they will need to do a little better than Open Season. That said, Open Season; in its lovely animation and wide appeal story, does demonstrate the potential of Sony's animated arm. Working with talented directors like Roger Allers is definitely a sign of the commitment of the company to the quality of their work.

The kids will love the talking animals and the adventure stories and mom and dad won't be bored thanks to the remarkable animation that often invites audiences just to gaze at it forgetting for a moment the mundane story.

Movie Review Made

Made (2001) 

Directed by Jon Favreau

Written by Jon Favreau 

Starring Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Puff Daddy, Peter Falk, Famke Janssen 

Release Date July 13th, 2001 

Published October 25th, 2001 

I hate living in the Midwest, always hopelessly behind the times. I get Variety a month behind and no Hollywood reporter at all. But the worst is not getting indie films 'til they're very successful or headed to video. But thanks to Nova Cinetech I get too see some indies, though still much later than those of you in big cities. 

Which brings me to my review of Jon Favreau's Made which, for a lot of you, is a couple months ago memory and for me not exactly new having read so much about it. Nonetheless Made is the first post Soprano's gangster story all be it on the periphery of "gangsterism," as a pair of would be goomba's take on their first assignment a simple money drop that, of course, if it were that simple there wouldn't be a movie.

For Jon Favreau, it's not really the gangster part that interests him. It's the interaction between his character and his best friend played by Vince Vaughn, who seems to have been instructed to not just act his lines but to make sure he gets in the way of everyone else acting their lines. Favreau plays the flustered straight man to Vaughn's wacky troublemaker beautifully, tweaking their Swingers dynamic with a bit of danger and a dollop more of forced machismo, fitting of the gangster setting. 

Made is populated with great performances including a surprisingly good turn by Sean Puffy Combs. But it's clearly Vince Vaughn's show. As Ricky Slade, Vaugh he is a force of annoying nature. Ricky is the first post Soprano/Gangsta Rap wannabe gangster who believes that if he just knows the lingo and acts tough he can be a gangster.

Made is a funny and entertaining film that I highly recommend.

Movie Review Something's Gotta Give

Something's Gotta Give (2003) 

Directed by Nancy Meyers

Written by Nancy Meyers 

Starring Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Frances McDormand, Amanda Peet, Jon Favreau

Release Date December 12th, 2003 

Published December 11th, 2003 

A strange thing can happen to an actor when they get almost too good at what they do. Audiences no longer perceive what they do as a performance. Jack Nicholson is one of those actors with that wonderful problem. After years of showing off that roguish, untamable charm, many people believe that is the man in real Life. Nicholson's personal life, from a tabloid perspective, does nothing to change that perception. Nicholson's new film Something's Gotta Give, co-starring Diane Keaton, and directed by Nancy Meyers, slyly plays to Jack's perception and then against it to terrific romantic and comedic effect.

Nicholson stars as Harry Sanborn, a record company owner with a fetish for younger woman. Specifically, Harry only goes for woman under 30. His latest little twinkie is Marin Berry (Amanda Peet) who brings Harry to her mother's beach house in the Hamptons for a romantic weekend. Unfortunately, she didn't know her mother, Erica (Keaton), would be there, leading to an awkward meeting in the kitchen between Erica and Harry in his underwear.

From there, things go from bad to worse after a disastrous dinner. Harry and Marin retire to the bedroom and Harry has a heart attack. On the orders of doctors, Harry can't travel and must stay at the beach house, even though Marin is returning to the city. Left alone, Harry and Erica bicker in your traditional romantic comedy fashion until they find a little common ground, and after Harry accidentally catches Erica in the nude. This begins a romantic series of events that aren't what you expect.

This being a romantic comedy, there must be arbitrary roadblocks to keep the lovers apart. One of those is Harry's doctor, played by Keanu Reeves, who takes an interest in Erica. Others are less obvious and are played as emotional roadblocks but are really choices that are made according to the needs of the script.

Director Nancy Meyers knows her chick flicks, having directed Mel Gibson in the blockbuster What Woman Want. Meyers knows the right comic beats to hit and how to get what she wants from her actors. That said, she brings little else to the table as a director. Meyers must rely heavily on the skill of her actors to carry off the material and lucky for her, she is truly blessed in Something's Gotta Give.

To watch a pair of pro's like Nicholson and Keaton fall in love onscreen is a true joy and while not all of the situations the characters find themselves in work, these two brilliant actors make a good deal of them work. Most of the best comedic moments in the film are played with merely a sideways glance, a skill that you just can't teach.

The first half of Something's Gotta Give plays off of what you expect of Jack Nicholson, that free swinging playboy reputation that will follow him for the rest of his life. However, once the two leads are left alone, the film becomes more about Keaton's wonderfully neurotic Erica. A playwright, Erica begins writing her moments with Harry into her latest play leading up to one of the film’s great gags on the set of the play just before it opens.

Something's Gotta Give has elements of your typical romantic comedy, a few too many of those elements for my taste. It wants to be insightful about romance in the later years of life and aging in general but its tone is a little too light for any real insight. What the film has going for it is two terrific actors who never seem to have peaked even as they get older. For that reason, I recommend Something's Gotta Give.

Movie Review Iron Man

Iron Man (2008) 

Directed by Jon Favreau 

Written by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Shaun Toub

Release Date May 2nd, 2008 

Published May 1st, 2008 

Tony Stark has lived a life of glorious privilege since birth. His father was part of the group that invented the A Bomb. That allowed Tony's dad to build a weapons manufacturing empire. By the time Tony Stark became a grown-up, he was a billionaire. He was also an orphan as his parents were killed in an accident some years before this story begins. 

With power, money and women all at his feet things could not be any more perfect for Tony Stark. He was left only for a fall. That fall comes when Tony is captured by Afghan terrorists after demonstrating his latest weapon for the military. The terrorists want Tony to build them his new weapon from the scraps of his weapons that they have somehow purchased.

Tony has other plans. With the help of a fellow captive (Shaun Toub, Crash) Tony builds a new kind of weapon, a giant iron suit that he will use to escape. This prototype suit allows Tony to fight his way out of the clutches of the bad guys and into a well timed rescue by the military, lead by Tony's pal General Rhodes (Terrence Howard).

Returning home, Tony decides to change his ways. While perfecting his iron suit weapon he makes the rash decision to take his company out of the weapons business, against the advice of his father's business partner Obediah Stane (Jeff Bridges). Vowing to protect the people he put in harms way with his weapons of mass destruction, Stark creates Iron Man and goes to war with terrorists and their benefactors.

Directed by Jon Favreau, Iron Man is classic blockbuster, summer movie fare. Larger than life characters, good versus evil, big time action and a sense of humor. Iron Man has it all and in the person of Robert Downey Jr. it has a soul and depth that similar movies (I'm looking at you Fantastic Four) don't have.

Downey is not your prototypical action star and given his history of drug and alcohol abuse, he's the last actor you would imagine as the star of a summer blockbuster. That is however what makes his casting so inspired. Hiring a real actor as opposed to some hunky stand-in (Tom Welling anyone?), gives Iron Man the kind of depth that it would take other actors a lot more work to establish.

Surrounded by an exceptional supporting cast of Oscar nominees, Terrence Howard, Oscar winners, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, and crafty veterans, Jeff 'The Dude' Bridges, Shaun Taub, Downey sparkles and Iron Man transcends the typical summer movie. Iron Man is not without flaws, it takes a while to get to the red and gold suit, the editing of the big fight scene is a little muddled, but overall this is a terrific summer entertainment.

Movie Review: Daredevil

Daredevil (2003) 

Directed by Mark Steven Johnson

Written by Mark Steven Johnson 

Starring Ben Affleck, Jon Favreau, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Garner, Michael Clark Duncan 

Release Date February 14th, 2003 

Published February 13th, 2002 

Ben Affleck has this amazing quality that very few actors have, he feels like an old friend. His participation in the commentary tracks for Kevin Smith's Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma, where his self -deprecating wit and frat boy charm remind you of someone you know. It is those same qualities that he has brought to every role he has played and it is endearing to those in the Kevin Smith fandom, maddening to those outside that cultish group.

This may explain the mixed reviews of Daredevil, where people like myself are willing to cut Affleck a lot of slack artistically, and allow the film to skate on his charm and the unreal beauty of co-star Jennifer Garner. Daredevil is yet another Affleck guilty pleasure.

When Matt Murdock (Affleck) was a kid, he was a nerd who was picked on by neighborhood bullies and never fought back because of his father's advice. One day Matt was taking a shortcut home when an accidental toxic waste spill cost him his sight but enhanced his other senses to superhero proportions. Young Matt's tribulations don't end with losing his sight however, as Matt witnesses his father's murder. Of course, he never actually saw the killer, only sensed the killer's calling card, one red rose.

Years later Matt is a lawyer who, by using his uniquely enhanced senses, defends only clients he knows are innocent. When things don't go well for Matt in court and it seems a bad guy got away with a crime, he uses his alter ego to deliver the justice the courts did not. Matt's alter ego is the urban legend Daredevil, a red leather-wearing hero who the police refuse to believe exists.

The difference between Daredevil and most other superheroes is his willingness to cross that line between good and evil and actually kill the bad guys that most superheroes are content to leave for the police. Though Matt/Daredevil has been able to convince himself that his quest is just, his skirting the line between justice and vengeance is exposed when he is confronted with real good in the form of Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner). Though she isn't pure as snow, her fighting skills are lethal as shown in a killer fight sequence set in a park. Her father is a partner of the evil Kingpin, whether she knows that or not is in question. Elektra is a good person and Matt falls for her immediately.

The relationship is put to the test however when Elektra's father is killed and she blames Daredevil, though the real killer is Kingpin's number one henchman Bullseye (Colin Farrell). This leads to another sensationally choreographed fight sequence between Affleck and Garner and leads into a shocking climax, which sets up the film's final battle inside of a church. Director Mark Steven Johnson is a perfect technician, he knows how to film the action and step back and allow his actors to do their jobs.

Johnson rightly keeps the film faithful to the comic's noirish antihero roots. How odd is it to see a superhero kill a villain intentionally.

The films supporting cast is excellent, including Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin, Joe Pantoliano in a rare good guy role as journalist Ben Urich and Jon Favreau rounding out the cast as Affleck's oafish law partner. Colin Farrell as Bullseye shows he learned something from Al Pacino in The Recruit and that is how to unapologetically chew scenery. Bullseye is a terrible villain, but Farrell is so terrifically over the top you can't help but enjoy his performance and revel in the character's fate. Daredevil gets extra points for Kevin Smith's giddy cameo as a morgue worker.

What Daredevil relies on in the end is it's two leads, Affleck and Garner, and they work perfectly. Though Affleck's overly earnest voiceover threatens to push the film over into self-parody, his humor and charm carries the film over the rough spots. As for Garner, words have not yet been created to describe how beautiful she is.

The films CGI effects don't always work and the editing is choppy and at times, but I liked enough of the effects and stunts to give them a pass. I also liked the film's soundtrack of rock ballads that while somewhat lame in their MTV style editing still are kind of cool because they are well placed throughout the film.

As much as I liked Daredevil, it pales in comparison to it's superhero brethren like Superman, Batman and Spiderman. However, in the same way Blade is cool, so is Daredevil. It's moody and atmospheric, has it's share of shocks and surprises and some well-timed humor.

In the end what it all boils down to is, Affleck is da bomb in Daredevil, Yo!

Movie Review Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Directed by Jon Favreau 

Written by Justin Theroux 

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson

Release Date May 7th, 2010

Published May 6th, 2010 

Star power is that intangible quality that can turn even a bad movie into a brilliant one. Imagine Pirates of the Caribbean without Johnny Depp, Independence Day without Will Smith or any of the Ocean's 11 sequels. Star power can drive any movie to brilliance without the audience ever realizing that what surrounds the star is mostly a giant mess.

Iron Man 2 is not exactly a giant mess, but imagining it working without the incalculable star power of Robert Downey Jr is impossible.

When last we saw Tony Stark he was revealing himself to be the superhero Iron Man in his usual ostentatious fashion. Since then, Tony has run about the world privatizing world peace in our time. And boy is he ever aware of his power. Called to testify before Congress, Stark has no trouble humiliating Senators with his ever present wit and tech.

Even as his pal Major Rhodes (Don Cheadle in the military garb once worn by Terrence Howard) is called to testify against him, Stark flips, dodges and eventually walks out to cheers and applause.

Watching on TV in Russia is Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), a man that Tony Stark is not aware has a connection to his father. Vanko's own father was in business with Tony's late father, together they invented the very arc reactor that Tony now uses on a smaller scale to keep him alive. Vanko's father was banished before he could reap any rewards and Ivan wants payback.

As for Tony, while he seems to be having a great time, he is growing ever weaker. The arc reactor is slowly killing him and if he cannot find a new power source he and Iron Man are finished. Keeping this fact from his longtime assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and his new assistant Natalie (Scarlett Johannson) is only a minor subplot meant to keep the ladies busy.

Plot aside, Iron Man 2 is about attitude, it's about cool and it's about big time action. Taken on these terms it is impossible not to enjoy. Robert Downey Jr has perfected the swagger of Tony Stark and found the sweet spot between ego and hero. Arrogance is his stock and trade but Downey's ability to make us part of the joke and not the subject of his arrogance is the paper thin difference between charisma and just being a jerk.

Jon Favreau's direction is mechanical and somewhat perfunctory but he knows how to keep his massive special effects under control while allowing RDJ to carry the weight of the movie with his persona. It may not be anything remotely related to artfulness but Favreau knows how to make Iron Man 2 what it is supposed to be, Robert Downey Jr’s magnum ego opus.

Iron Man 2 is not a work of art, it's not major cinema, its hardcore popcorn entertainment in the most joyous sense. Downey and Favreau and their cohorts deliver what fans want of Iron Man's big swinging ego, massive explosions, and inside baseball allusions to the planned Avengers movie, by the way, stay through the credits.

Movie Review: Zathura

Zathura (2005) 

Directed by Jon Favreau 

Written by David Koepp, John Kamps

Starring Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo, Dax Shepard, Kristen Stewart, Tim Robbins 

Release Date November 11th, 2005 

Published November 10th, 2005

It is one thing for Hollywood studios to slap together big, dumb, loud blockbusters for teens and adults. But when they extend that brainless genre to kids that is where we as an audience must draw the line. The new kid targeted adventure flick Zathura is a rarity for its kind: a big, dumb, loud action movie aimed at the pre-teen market.

Two bratty brothers, Walter (Josh Hutcherson) and Danny (Jonah Bobo), bicker and annoy one another until Danny discovers a unique board game in the basement of their dad's (Tim Robbins) house. The game, Zathura, is a 50's era space adventure, a metal gears and paint concoction that was likely the X-Box of it's time.

Danny the younger brother wants to play but older brother Walter just wants to watch Sportscenter. When Danny turns the key and presses a button to start the game Walter finds he will have to play whether he likes it or not. The game has shot the boys into space and the only way to get home is to finish the game before the various meteor showers, robot malfunctions, or bloodthirsty aliens finish them.

Along for the ride is the boys' sister, Lisa (Kristen Stewart), who was supposed to keep them out of trouble but because of the game, she now finds herself frozen in cryo-sleep, as one of the game cards helpfully explains. Also joining the boys for this adventure is an astronaut (Dax Shepard) who was lost in space some 15 years ago after he and his brother had played the game.

Directed by Jon Favreau, Zathura is a surprisingly bombastic and ridiculous exercise in over modulated special effects and a complete lack of subtlety. The light touch that Favreau brought to his last kiddie flick, the very funny Elf, has been replaced in Zathura by a sledgehammer, hammering into place a pair of unlikable, often nasty, child characters into a predictable plot that is desperately padded to reach a feature length run time.

Zathura was adapted by David Koepp from a short illustrated novel by Chris Van Allsburg. The padding is necessary because Van Allsburg's book is a far from feature length at a mere 32 pages. Many of those pages are filled only with Van Allsburg's lovely charcoal drawings. That does illustrate the challenge that Jon Favreau and David Koepp faced in this adaptation but it does not excuse the choice to make the characters insufferable little brats who push the plot forward with the worst decisions imaginable all while the entire movie shrieks and rumbles like a sugared up kindergarten class. 

The special effects in Zathura are the film's strong point. Jon Favreau creates a terrifically cartoonish outer space that is perfectly in line with a child's imagination. The robots and aliens are cool looking, with the robot also providing the films few moments of genuine laughter. If I have any issue with the aliens it's that they may be a little too scary for the young audience that is being sought after by Zathura.

Unfortunately, the weak points of Zathura are a group of unlikable, unendurable characters. The brothers bicker constantly and meanly and when they aren't bickering with each other they are bickering with their dad played by Tim Robbins in a forgettable cameo or they are bickering with their even less enjoyable sister played by Kristen Stewart. Are kids, especially young brothers, often at each other's throats? Yeah, maybe. Does that make me want to watch a movie about them being at each others throat's? No, especially when the film is supposed to be a fun filled space adventure.

The game plot of Zathura is a direct lift from Jumanji and that is not surprising as both are based on books by Chris Van Allsburg. The books were, in fact, sequels though in the movie there is no recognition of one to the other aside from essentially similar plots.  Where Jumanji succeeds and Zathura fails is in creating characters we like and enjoy spending time with. Robin Williams may have his moments of being cloying and pandering but he can always pull out a big joke here and there and when he's on he is one of the funniest actors in the business. Jumanji only has a few moments of the best of Robin Williams but I will take those few moments over just about anything in the laughless Zathura.

Where is the wonder of a trip to space? Where is the excitement of adventure? In Zathura we have nothing but kids running from loud explosions in between bursts of ugly brotherly spats. Couldn't we have just one scene where the kids enjoy the magic of space? I realize the astronaut has long since been replaced by the sports or TV celebrity in the imaginations of children but come on, space is space and what kid couldn't find being in outer space more important than fighting with their sibling?

Zathura is a frustrating 84 minutes of big, dumb, loud action, special effects and sibling rivalry. Most frustrating, however, is the missed potential of such an interesting plot and such an interesting director. Jon Favreau has the potential to be a very good director if he can develop his characters better than he does in Zathura. He has the right ideas in there but the wrong approach and thus Zathura is a less than stellar effort. Safe for kids between 10 and 13 who enjoy loud noises and big bright explosions Zathura certainly has an audience but it's an audience that would be better served with more attention to character than to how loud you can crank the volume before the speakers blow.

The Lion King (2019)

The Lion King (2019) 

Directed by Jon Favreau 

Written by Jeff Nathanson 

Starring Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner 

Release Date July 19th, 2019 

Published July 18th, 2019 

The Lion King 2019 is an incredibly emotional and moving film. Putting aside the comparisons to the animated original, this version of the story is exceptionally well told. Director Jon Favreau has brilliantly captured this Shakespearean tale for the whole family with epic music and resonant themes and given it a modern flavor via a remarkable voice cast who elevate the material with their inventive riffing and gorgeous singing. 

You likely already know this story, Mufasa (James Earl Jones) is the King of The Pridelands. He and his beloved Sarabi (Alfre Woodard) have just had a son who will one day himself become the King. Simba, voiced as a cub by J.D McCrary, is a curious young lion who easily finds trouble but with the wisdom of his father, he will one day make a fine King. Unfortunately, Simba’s uncle,  Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) has other plans. 

Scar seeks the throne and will use any nefarious means necessary to get there. Scar’s first attempt to get rid of young Simba sends the young lion and his friend, Nala (Shahadi Wright Joseph), into an elephant graveyard where hyenas reign. Simba and Nala are rescued by Mufasa but Scar seizes the opportunity to convince the hyenas to become his very own army. It will be the hyenas who lead to the death of Mufasa while he tries to protect Simba. 

Mufasa dies and Scar runs off Simba by accusing him of causing his father’s death. Scar also sends hyenas to kill Simba but the young lion manages to escape into the desert. Here, Simba begins a new life. With the help of Timon (Billy Eicher) and Pumba (Seth Rogen), Simba is able to leave his grief and shame behind and grow into a mature lion without the strictures of royalty and duty while nursing the scars of his past. 

Nala voiced by Beyonce as a mature lioness, eventually finds Simba is still alive and you know where the story is headed from there. The key to this telling of the story of The Lion King is how we get to the ending and in getting there we have a remarkably rich and fulfilling journey. The story of The Lion King 2019 is told with music and the music of this version of The Lion King is superb. I won’t be hyperbolic and declare that the music here is superior to the original, I will only say that I preferred the ways in which Hans Zimmer and Beyonce, among others, have updated this score and the original songs. 

The changes are seemingly minimal but they make a huge difference in how you accept The Lion King 2019. For instance, the Can You Feel the Love Tonight segment. In the 1994 version of The Lion King the scene is suitably romantic and filled with heartfelt emotion though it is slightly shorter than the new version. The slightly longer version here takes full advantage of this new style of The Lion King with Caleb Deschanel's rich and glorious cinematography underlining the romance and deepening the impact of the moment. 

It also helps to have Beyonce and Donald Glover not just as the singing voices of Nala and Simba, but their speaking voices as well. The jarring shift from one vocal style to the other isn’t damning in the original, just notable. Here however, the seamless shift singing to speaking adds a little more verisimilitude. That and, of course, we are talking about Beyonce whose voice is transcendent. That’s not a dig at Sally Dworsky who is a Broadway veteran of immense talent, it’s merely that Beyonce is a global superstar whose voice connects to audiences in an epic fashion that fits the grandiosity of this CGI approximation of live action. 

Donald Glover is also incredible but in a unique and different way. Glover’s voice acting in the song is superior to the original because he is singing in character and accounting for the fear and angst of Simba in a way that perhaps Joseph Williams cannot because the character is not fully his. He’s more focused on singing the song,Glover is singing the character and I found the difference to be notable. 

Another notable improvement for me over the original was the performance of the song Hakuna Matata which benefits from the unique and recognizable voices and personas of Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen. Neither is well known for their singing but the way they perform this song feels as fresh and even more alive than the original. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella but they are notably stage-bound in their energy, limited by the animation style. 

Eichner and Rogen meanwhile had the advantage of working in the CG realm and director Jon Favreau’s ability to allow them to explore a little and riff within the music. Eichner and Rogen have talked in interviews about how they were allowed to improvise their dialogue and even improvise in their songs and that playfulness is part of what makes this take on The Lion King so lively as opposed to the original. 

The best change however, from the original movie is the song Be Prepared. Performed here by Chiwetel Ejiofor, the song is transformed from a pop ditty talk sung through a thick English accent by Jeremy Irons, to an operatic dirge that is shortened to more specifically state Scar’s nefariousness. Where the original overstayed its welcome and tried to fit the pop nature of the rest of the soundtrack, this version of Be Prepared better serves the character of Scar while also cutting to the chase on Scar’s story. 

Is there a calculated cynicism driving Disney to remake their animated catalog in live action and CGI? Yes, it's unquestionably a mercenary effort. That said, the artists who have contributed to this version of The Lion King have transcended how The Lion King 2019 came to exist by delivering a resonant and lovely take on this grand material. They have brought the music into a modern context and stayed true to the remarkable themes of the original story and delivered a compelling, humorous romantic and touching film.