Movie Review The Jesus Revolution

The Jesus Revolution (2023) 

Directed by Jon Erwin, Brent McCorkle 

Written by Jon Gunn, Jon Erwin 

Starring Kelsey Grammer, Joel Courtney, Anna Grace Barlow, Jonathan Roumie 

Release Date February 24th, 2023 

Published February 19th, 2023 

The Jesus Revolution is a violently mediocre movie. Based loosely on a true story about hippies who found religion in California in the late 1960s, The Jesus Revolution positions, of all people, Kelsey Grammer, as the open armed preacher who welcomes hippies to his church. To say that's not who Kelsey Grammer is publicly is a bit of an understatement, a hippie loving, all-inclusive, kind of guy is not who Kelsey Grammer is and he doesn't really have the range to make you buy in on this persona. 

The Jesus Revolution stars Kelsey Grammer as Pastor Chuck Smith. Pastor Chuck's parish is nearly empty. There appear to be about 10 people in his church before Chuck meets the man who will change all of that. After an argument with his daughter, Chuck is introduced to Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), a free-spirited hippie preacher that Chuck's daughter brings home to stay. Lonnie surprises Chuck with his grasp of biblical scripture and the depth of his belief in Jesus so much that Chuck invites Lonnie to speak at his church and invite some fellow hippies to come in. 

Lonnie is a hit and his recruitment of more hippies to the church starts to bring in major crowds. Among the new believers is Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney), a former military school student turned hippie. Greg left school to chase a girl, Cathe (Anna Grace Barlow), and through her, he ends up at Calvary Church. Falling under the spell of Lonnie, Greg himself will become a Preacher and he and Chuck eventually form a partnership that will grow the so-called Jesus Revolution beyond what either of them would have imagined. 

As for Lonnie, he proves to be a troubled figure. Whether he was on drugs or suffering from mental instability, Lonnie begins to believe that God is acting through him. He starts believing he can heal people and takes on the persona of a cult leader rather than a preacher. This will lead to a falling out between Lonnie and Chuck that threatens the future of Chuck's newly successful church. That sounds far more dramatic and interesting than anything actually in The Jesus Revolution. Sadly, the movie delivers the falling out between Chuck and Lonnie in the least dramatic or interesting fashion. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review I Don't Know How She Does It

I Don't Know How She Does It (2011) 

Directed by Douglas McGrath

Written by Aline Brosh McKenna 

Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Christina Hendricks, Kelsey Grammer, Olivia Munn, Seth Meyers 

Release Date September 16th, 2011 

Published September 17th, 2011

I Don’t Know How She Does It begins with the oddity of characters speaking directly to the camera about the main character, Kate, played by Sarah Jessica Parker. It’s done in a documentary style but the thing is, there is no documentary aspect to the movie. Essentially, this is a hoary device that the movie can rely on without having to explain.

I Don’t Know How She Does It is marked by this kind of sloppiness. This very typical romantic comedy flubs details repeatedly in order to reach the moments that it wants to reach; never mind the fact that the audience is not reaching those moments with the movie, but in spite of it.

Sarah Jessica Parker is Kate Reddy; super-mom. Kate works a big job as an investment banker yet still finds time for bake sales and birthday parties. Even though her job requires her to travel a lot, Kate’s kids and her husband Richard never want for her time and attention.

That changed a few months late last year–apparently the story is told in flashback though again, the structure is so sloppy–when Kate took on the biggest project of her career. Kate has landed a major meeting with Jack (Pierce Brosnan) from the New York office. When she nails the meeting, Kate finds herself busier than ever.

Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna has long been fascinated by the ways in which women balance career and private life. Her script for The Devil Wears Prada turns on the question of work ambition versus life away from work. In 27 Dresses, Katherine Heigl’s character created a personal life at work only to find it was a fantasy.

In Morning Glory, Rachel McAdams’ TV producer was ready to dump her man because he refused to accept her dedication to her job. When I read that McKenna had written I Don’t Know How She Does It, I assumed this would be her thesis statement on the topic of balance between work and home.

Instead, I Don’t Know How She Does It is a sub-sitcom level comedy about a mess of a woman, her messy life and the boring complications foisted upon her by the conventions of a boring movie. The ideas that McKenna enjoys examining are there but they exist not as ideas worth discussing but as boring romantic comedy roadblocks.

The only interesting performance in I Don’t Know How She Does It, among a cast that includes Greg Kinnear, Busy Phillipps, Christina Hendricks, Seth Meyers, Olivia Munn and Kelsey Grammer, is from Pierce Brosnan. The former 007 is completely charming in I Don’t Know How She Does It and for a time, he elevates the plot from the cliched depths of lame romantic comedy.

I can’t say that I Don’t Know How She Does It is disappointing, as the trailers did little to instill confidence. However, I did hope that screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna might sneak a few ideas into the film. Sadly, she failed and what we get is a mediocre sitcom pilot complete with storylines that could continue for endless banal weeks on any network or maybe Lifetime.

Movie Review: Fame

Fame (2009) 

Directed by Kevin Tancharoen

Written by Allison Burnett

Starring Debbie Allen, Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton, Megan Mullally, Asher Book

Published September 25th, 2009 

Published September 27th, 2009

In the first 10 to 15 minutes of Fame I was reminded of another movie about young artists and their art, Robert Altman's daring and ingenious Ballet observation The Company. That film exists really only as an excuse for the master Altman to indulge his love of ballet. The story was utterly meaningless to him. He likely failed to find funding for a straight up documentation of a ballet performance so instead filmed the ballet as part of what was supposed to be a movie.

That film has Neve Campbell and James Franco as the center of a romantic plot but Mr. Altman doesn't care in the least about that. Ms. Campbell is trained in ballet and her performance and practice scenes are observed with far more care and concern than the romance subplot on which Mr. Altman can barely keep his camera still, as if he were searching for ballet somewhere in the corner of the scene being played.

That may not interest you, it didn't interest much of the mainstream audience that ignored The Company in it's 2002 release. For me however, I found the film's anti-structure daring and Mr. Altman's antsy direction is mesmerizing for it's energy and life. It's as if he was telling his actor's 'not now, somewhere there is art happening, let's find it'.

The first few scenes of Fame have this feeling. The camera wanders the halls of the legendary Performing Arts High School in New York City searching for and quickly finding art in progress. In one room actor's deliver monologues and are critiqued by the great Charles S. Dutton. In another, piano's moan with the work of Mozart or Beethoven under the knowing ear of Kelsey Grammer. In another room singers sing and in still another Dancers leap and glide across the floor.

These scenes are intoxicating and a director with the boldness of Mr. Altman might have stuck with this energy. Bring in a few characters at the periphery but keep the camera roaming from room to room taking in the energy. Sadly, Director Kevin Tancharoen is no Altman. Bowing to convention and studio marketing concerns, Mr. Tancharoen cranks out what amounts to High School Musical crossed with  episodes of So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol.

7 relatively inconspicuous characters adopt high school movie types and play out the string of a very typical charmless plot. If you want the good version of this movie rent the indie flick Camp. Writer Director Todd Graf's 2003 musical set inside a camp for aspiring artists has all of the daring of Altman mixed with a plot with ten times the life of Fame and characters whose problems and joys resonate far beyond the character types played by the actors in fame.

But even before you rent Camp, maybe consider The Company. As I suffered through Fame, my thoughts kept falling back on this forgotten masterpiece from the late master Altman. It's a remarkable movie and one that was too quickly dismissed and forgotten. In a just world movies like Fame are the one's that get dismissed and forgotten.

Movie Review: X-Men The Last Stand

X-Men The Last Stand (2006) 

Directed by Brett Ratner 

Written by Simon Kinberg, Zak Penn 

Starring Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer, Elliot Page, Shawn Ashmore

Release Date May 26th, 2006

Published May 25th, 2006 

Director Brett Ratner is a hack. That is the reputation he has earned over a career of nine features including two Rush Hour films (and soon a third), Red Dragon, The Family Man and After The Sunset. Each of these are examples of the basic mainstream formula pictures that few would call innovative or relevant. Ratner is a mainstream showman who works only from studio approved genre templates and thus, the label of hack, is appropriate. 

Ratner's style is safe, conventional and boring. So it was quite understandable that when Ratner was hired to direct the third film in the X-Men series, X-Men The Last Stand, longtime fans gnashed their teeth and prayed to whatever mutant god that controls such matters that Ratner not be allowed to screw up their beloved franchise too much. The fans prayers have been answered, for the most part. Though X-Men: The Last Stand has plot holes you could drive a truck through and cringe inducing moments unsuitable to the franchise, Ratner has not screwed the thing up too bad. Actually it's not that bad at all.

X3 turns on the idea that a wealthy industrialist has discovered a cure for the mutant X gene. It's a revelation that rocks the burgeoning mutant community at a time when a tentative peace had come between mutants and humans. The President of the United States (Josef Summer) even has created a dept. of mutant affairs headed up by a mutant, Dr. Hank McCoy aka Beast (Kelsey Grammer). The cure while good for some mutants is a divisive and even deadly issue for others.

Standing against the cure is Magneto (Ian McKellen) who, with his brotherhood of mutants, including Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) and Pyro (Aaron Stanford), plans to use the cure as a rallying cry for mutants to renew the war against humanity. Then there are our heroes the X-Men. Conflicted and confused, most are opposed to the idea that mutants are in need of a cure but against any kind of war with humanity, the X-Men are caught dead set in the middle.

In the midst of the controversy the X-Men face an even bigger crisis. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), thought dead after the last major X-Men conflict, is alive but she is no longer the Jean Grey the team once knew. Her near death experience has released her secondary personality known as the Phoenix, a being of unimaginable and uncontrollable power and rage. With war on the horizon and Jean Grey an even greater danger than that war, X-Men The Last Stand is bursting at the seams with plot. 

Throw in the introductions of several long awaited X-Men characters and you can understand the herculean task that Director Brett Ratner endured in making X-Men The Last Stand. That X3 is as coherent as it is with all of that plot and so many characters is a credit to Ratner. Not that I can let him off the hook completely for the films many flaws but even the biggest Ratner hater out there must cut the guy some slack for the sheer massiveness of X-Men The Last Stand.

Where Ratner succeeds in X3 is in crafting some serious blockbuster action scenes. A fight with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Storm (Halle Berry) facing down Magneto's brotherhood, including Pyro and new members including the super strong Juggernaut (a massively muscled up Vinny Jones) and the empathic speed demon Callisto (Dania Ramirez), is terrific, fast paced action and a terrific lead up to the films most shocking moment.

The ending is the films strongest moment as Wolverine is forced to face off with Jean Grey/Phoenix as she prepares to destroy the entire planet. The scene is exciting and emotional incorporating massive special effects and the entwined histories of these two characters into one powerhouse scene. Predominant amongst the films flaws however, are the younger X-Men, especially Shawn Ashmore as Iceman. The dewey eyed teenage Iceman is an emotional cypher who lacks power and presence. Iceman's main plot function is as the opposing element to Aaron Stanford's Pyro but since Stanford is also an underwhelming presence their time together onscreen is forgettable at best.

The less said about Iceman's romantic triangle subplot with Anna Paquin's Rogue and Elliot Page's Kitty Pride (the girl who can run through walls) the better. I could go on for several more paragraphs picking apart the flaws of X-Men The Last Stand even though I honestly believe that the good outweighs the bad. Brett Ratner's work is not exactly a masters class in direction but it is competent and professional and even thrilling when it really needs to be. The performances of the leads Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry are as good as they have been in the first two films with Jackman's wit becoming more prominent each time out. His work here makes talk of a Wolverine stand alone franchise something to look forward to.

Kelsey Grammer even cuts a surprisingly strong action hero figure as Beast. Fans of the comics have long looked forward to seeing the blue haired monster Dr. Hank McCoy with his unique combination of super strength, agility and erudite intelligence. Embodied by Kelsey Grammer, Beast has the gravitas of Dr. Frasier Crane combined with agility and strength of a classic comic book character. If you can put aside the flaws and concentrate on the terrific performances and often exceptional action scenes and shocking surprises of X-Men The Last Stand you will have a great time. X-Men The Last Stand is big time summer blockbuster entertainment.