Movie Review Hocus Pocus 2

Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) 

Directed by Anne Fletcher 

Written by Jen D'Angelo 

Starring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimi, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sam Richardson

Release Date September 30th, 2022 

Disney Plus Sequel to Hocus Pocus 

The cult of The Sanderson Sisters is far more vast and wide than I ever would have imagined. For me, 1993's Hocus Pocus was a completely forgettable experience. It wasn't that the movie was bad, it merely wasn't for me. Watching it again as I got older I was never very impressed by the over top acting of Midler, Najimi and Parker or the wooden blocks posing as human supporting characters. The story was rather mundane, family friendly Disney stuff that to this day holds no interest for me. 

What shocks me however is the impact the film had on so many women, my age and younger. Something about the high camp aesthetic reached an audience that immediately become loyal and dedicated to the preservation of Hocus Pocus in popular culture. The cult of The Sanderson Sisters has grown over the past 29 years to such a degree that the fans have willed a sequel into existence nearly three decades later. It's a sequel that is just as camp and formulaic as the original but perhaps a little more energetic thanks to a supporting cast that can actually keep up with Midler, Najimi and Parker. 

Returning to Salem at Halloween The Sanderson Sisters are still the talk of the town. The legend of the Sanderson Sisters has become something of a tourist attraction thanks in part to the work of Gilbert (Sam Richardson), who has taken over the former cabin of the Sanderson Sisters and turned it into a magic shop. He also happens to be in possession of Book, the enchanted spell book that made the Sisters into a powerful witches coven. The book is under lock and key but, secretly Gilbert has plans to let the book free. He wants to bring the Sanderson Sisters back, unaware that the legends about them eating children and generally being evil are true. 

His plan is coming to fruition on this Halloween night because a teenager named Becca (Whitney Peak) is about to turn 16 and with her dalliance with magic as part of a trio of witch loving friends including lovable Izzy (Belissa Escobedo) and Cassie (Lilia Buckingham), Gilbert believes she is the key to raising the Sandersons. As a birthday gift, Gilbert gives Becca a black flame candle. What she doesn't know is that this is the same black flame candle, returned to life by Gilbert, that brought the Sanders son sisters back to life nearly 30 years ago. 

The improvements over the original Hocus Pocus are many, as far as I am concerned. It starts with the look of the film. Hocus Pocus 2 is filled with crisp bright colors even as it remains loyal to a classically fall color palette. The costumes pop, the locations are lovely and the detail on the production design demonstrates the higher budget that clearly has been dedicated for this sequel. That budget in part coming from product placement for Walgreens that, though it is immensely tacky, it does get used for several quite good gags and an important plot device. If you're going to do such naked advertising in your movie, at least make it appear necessary. Hocus Pocus 2 does that at least. 

Click here for my full length review of Hocus Pocus 2 at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review The Family Stone

The Family Stone (2005) 

Directed by Thomas Bezucha 

Written by Thomas Bezucha 

Starring Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker

Release Date December 16th, 2005

Published December 16th, 2005 

Streaming on Starz via Amazon Prime 

The amazing Diane Keaton has become an icon of grace and sensibility. Her Oscar nominated roles in Reds , Annie Hall and Something's Gotta Give are marvelous examples of her range and exceptional talent. Even lesser works like The First Wives Club are elevated by her presence. Casting Diane Keaton is like buying insurance against a bad script. Even a script as weak as the one for Keaton's latest film The Family Stone, looks a lot better for having her in it.

It doesn't hurt that Keaton's involvement helped entice an A-list of actors to play her children, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney and Luke Wilson, in this tepid holiday dramedy. Proof that a great cast can make the bitter pill of cliche go down like eggnog.

Diane Keaton stars in The Family Stone, as Sybil the matriarch of a large brood of grown children. With her college professor hubby, Kelly (Craig T. Nelson), Sybil is welcoming her five kids, and their various tagalongs, home for christmas. This year the Stone's are playing host to one particularly interesting guest. Her name is Meredith and if all goes according to plans she will soon be the oldest Stone son Everett's (Dermot Mulroney) fiancee.

Unfortunately for Everett, Meredith's stick in the mud, buttoned up personality has already rubbed his family the wrong way. Everett's youngest sister Amy (Rachel McAdams) has met Meredith and decided she hates her. Amy has busily poisoned the family well, including older sister Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser), middle child Thad (Tyrone Giordano) and his partner, Patrick (Brian J. White). Dad and his other son Ben (Luke Wilson) at least attempt to be open to Meredith.

The Family Stone breaks down to a sort of red state-blue state conflict. The Stones are liberal, ivy leaguers with a gay son who is also deaf and dating a black guy and Meredith represents the uptight, conservative business-minded red staters. The conflict is a battle for Everett's soul. Will he return to his old liberal open-minded self or marry Meredith and become a Bush voter?

Supposedly helping Meredith fight this battle is her sister Julie (Claire Danes) but unfortunately her late arrival only serves to make things worse.

The Family Stone attempts to mix screwball family comedy and heartfelt family drama with subplots including a dramatic disease and a chase scene to stop a character from leaving town forever. It's a difficult and well-worn mixture and one the film bears only because of the expert cast. There is nothing new or innovative about writer-director Andrew Bezucha's approach to this commonplace material, so he relies on this likable group of pro actors to carry it off and, to a certain degree, it works.

Sarah Jessica Parker delivers the film's best performance. Her Meredith is sympathetic as the outsider in a group of overbearing tightly knit liberals. In the hole from the moment she arrives, she has our sympathies.  However, Meredith is never merely a victim. Her lack of social graces and occasions of running at the mouth when she shouldn't combined with a complete lack of a sense of humor make some of the family's negativity toward her understandable. Parker plays the conflicts well, especially playing against her natural likeability.

Parker is let down on more than one occasion by the script that forces in nearly every well-worn trope of this genre. There is the aforementioned chase scene, a comically inept fight scene and of course plenty of spilled food for characters to roll around in. That we forgive many of these cliches is a function of the lovable qualities of this terrific cast.

The Family Stone is a cousin to a number of memorable family Christmas comedies like Home For The Holidays starring Holly Hunter, the romance and family drama from Love Actually and the movie-of-the-week style tragedy of Meryl Streep's One True Thing. Andrew Bezucha does not lift elements from these films as much as mimic them with his own twist. These are well known tropes that each of these films use to push dramatic buttons and The Family Stone is merely the latest film to engage them.

The cast of The Family Stone makes the familiarity work for them. Like watching old friends gather at a holiday party you can't help but enjoy the way the cast bonds, bickers and eventually falls in food. A more pessimistic viewer might expect more from this excellent cast but that is reviewing the film that The Family Stone is not. Remarking on the film it is, The Family Stone is not to be taken seriously and likely not to be remembered by this time next year.  It is just an average good natured holiday comedy.

Not for the cynical, The Family Stone is an overly familiar holiday family movie that pushes all of the same emotional buttons as is the norm of the genre. That it manages to be quite often funny and occasionally heartfelt is due to a cast of real pros. Like the revival of a favorite play, you know what is going to happen next because you have seen it so many times before, you watch to see this new group of actors give new life to the material. The Family Stone makes familiarity work by dressing it in a whole lot of star power.

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: Did You Hear About the Morgan's?

Did You Hear About The Morgans? (2009) 

Directed by Marc Lawrence 

Written by Marc Lawrence

Starring Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sam Elliott, Mary Steenburgen, Elisabeth Moss

Release Date December 18th, 2009

Published December 18th, 2009

Hugh Grant's usual charm combines with Sarah Jessica Parker doing a variation on her Sex and the City persona to craft an overly familiar romantic comedy in the uninspired “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” Directed by Marc Lawrence, this witless fish out of water story invites more scorn than it deserves as it limps to its conclusion.

The Morgans, Meryl (Parker) and Paul (Hugh Grant), split up several months ago. Paul cheated while on a business trip and Meryl rightly gave him the boot. Paul, despite his one time indiscretion, wants desperately to get his wife back or, at the very least, have dinner with her. When Meryl finally relents the two have an exceptionally awkward dinner followed by a walk in the rain that seems only to divide them further.

Unfortunately for both Morgans the walk ends with them witnessing a murder and, having got an up close look at the killer, they are now prime witnesses in a major murder case. How major? The feds want the Morgans in witness relocation. Over their repeated objections the Morgans are soon on a plane for Ray Wyoming a town that would comprise about two blocks of New York City.

The Morgans are welcomed by their new protectors, the town Sheriff Clay (Sam Elliott) and his deputy and wife Emma (Mary Steenburgen). Let the fish out of water fun commence! If by fun you mean listening to Meryl complain about everything that is not New York and watching Paul attempt to charm a grizzly bear into not eating him.

”Did You Hear About the Morgans?” was a bad movie from the moment that writer-director Marc Lawrence chose the hoary conceit that is witness protection. The ‘been there-done that’ factor of witness protection comedies is off the chart. Only the least inventive of filmmakers would attempt to plumb these depths. Then again, Marc Lawrence did write the script for both Miss Congeniality movies.

I could sit here and take potshots at “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” all day, that would be easy. The fact is, however, that even with the ancient plot device the film is somewhat pleasant in tone and Hugh Grant can still bring it even in the weakest, most familiar of roles. Yes, he could play Paul in his sleep and launch the same self-deprecating jibes but you will laugh at them.

You won't laugh loud, long or all that much but you will laugh and smile a few times during “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” Grant is a star whose ability to poke fun at himself seems an endless well of material. That said, the whole of “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” remains stale, predictable and not worth the price of a theater ticket.

Movie Review Sex and the City 2

Sex and the City 2 (2010) 

Directed by Michael Patrick King

Written by Michael Patrick King

Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristen Davis, Cynthia Nixon 

Release Date May 27th, 2010

Published May 26th, 2010 

Since I am sure I will have to wield this truth as a weapon against those angry and accusatory after reading this I will get this out of the way: I really liked both the series Sex and the City and the first Sex and the City movie. The series created four unique and wonderful female characters whose outsized romantic issues were winning and funny. The film brought each character to a new and challenging emotional place in their lives. Our four heroines met these new challenges as adults with humor and sisterhood. The film was, for me, the perfect coda as it left these wonderful women in just the right emotional and romantic places in their lives.

It is unfortunate then that producers needed to bring these characters back for another film. It is especially unfortunate that they brought the ladies back without any of the wit, insight, sexuality or romance of even the series' least moments. Sex and the City 2 is little more than attempt to squeeze more money out of a franchise title.

When last we left Carrie Bradshaw she had made up with Mr. Big and the two were settling into a life together. Two years later it seems the sparkle has dimmed. Big wishes to spend all of their time on their new luxury couch watching old black and white movies. Carrie meanwhile longs for the glamor of her old life.

Samantha (Kim Cattrall) meanwhile is fighting off the march of time. At 52 years old she has turned to a drug regimen that would shame your average 70's rock band in order to maintain her youth and vitality. She remains a force in her business as her PR has turned ex-flame Smith Jarrett into an international superstar.

Charlotte has two baby girls that are slowly driving her insane, though she feels horrible admitting it. Worse yet are her fears about her new nanny (Alice Eve). The new live in caretaker has a penchant for going braless while playing with the kids, a sight that has not gone unnoticed by Charlotte's husband Harry (Evan Handler).

Finally there is Miranda who is dealing with a rude boss at her law firm. She is being dismissed by him for being a strong woman with strong opinions and the boss is busily making her miserable with constant emails and phone calls. Should she simply quit the job she has worked so hard for? Who cares because the movie has zero interest in exploring this or any of the challenges it introduces with any depth or insight.

These are the new challenges for our longtime friends and the solution given to each is a week's paid vacation in Abu Dhabi where Carrie soothes her bored soul with a flirtation with an old flame. Samantha finds herself without her drug regimen but still in rare form thanks to a new romance with an age appropriate man.

As for Charlotte and Miranda, the screenplay really doesn't have much to offer them after they arrive in the Middle East. Miranda has a few moments of wit while Charlotte is left to pray for a cell phone signal that will allow her track Harry and the nanny even though the film has zero interest in creating any real tension in Charlotte's marriage. 

The Abu Dhabi portion of the film, shot on location in Morocco, is a massive waste of celluloid. The women engage in mindless consumption against a desert background. They go out of their way to offend the locals while writer-director Michael Patrick King fails to create one Middle Eastern character of any resonance. Carrie's reunion, spoiled in the trailers and commercials, is a false dramatic device that goes nowhere as the real focus seems to be ugly, over the top opulence.

All of the wit and style of Sex and the City seems to have been sucked out of the sequel. This is well attested by the opening 20 minutes of the film spent at the wedding of Carrie's gay best friend Stanford (Willie Garson) and Anthony (Mario Cantone). Where once Sex and the City was cutting edge in understanding and existing within gay culture, things have deteriorated to the point of stereotype and decrepit gay pop culture references. 

Liza Minnelli as gay icon was played out nearly a decade ago. Having Liza officiate a gay wedding and then sing Single Ladies by Beyonce just seems desperate. The jokes about gays, weddings, Liza and Single Ladies, thud one after another as we wait patiently for something remotely plot-like to emerge. In the end the gay wedding exists only for these jokes which magnify the giant waste it all is. 

Where the issues crafted for the first Sex and the City movie revealed interesting new things about these four wonderful women and challenged them to face life in ways they'd never had to before, Sex and the City 2 has no real interest in finding new ways to reveal and challenge them. It appears that once producers decided to go to Abu Dhabi, or rather Morocco, any interest in an actual plot was forgotten in favor of drowning in excess and flaunting opulent consumer culture. Ugh! It's just awful. 

A massive groaning bore of a movie, Sex and the City 2 disgraces the series and the first film by wasting the talent of all involved and 2 hours and 20 minutes of the lives of loyal fans who will attend the film out of love and loyalty to these characters and find themselves slapped in the face by what appears to be nothing more than an excuse for all involved to take a Middle Eastern vacation together.

No insight, little romance and a complete lack of the wit that made these characters so dear to us, Sex and the City 2 rots out loud. Writer-director Michael Patrick King seems to have forgotten entirely what made this franchise so wonderful. Sure the cast and crew got an expensive vacation out of the deal but what’s in it for us?

Movie Review Sex and the City

Sex and the City (2008)

Directed by Michael Patrick King

Written by Michael Patrick King 

Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristen Davis, Chris Noth

Release Date May 12th, 2008

Published May 11th, 2008 

It's been four years since we last saw our friends Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattralll), Charlotte (Kristen Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon). In that time Carrie has been in a monogamous relationship with her Mr. Big (Chris Noth). Samantha also has been in a long term relationship with her actor boytoy Smith Jerrod. That relationship has taken Samantha from her beloved New York to Los Angeles where Smith's career has flourished. When last we saw Charlotte her adoption from China came through and her daughter is now almost 4 years old. Meanwhile Miranda has been married to Steve and living in Brooklyn for the past four years.

Memories refreshed with a quick montage we jump into the story and the latest complications. For Carrie, she and Big are moving in together. Moreover, they've decided to get married. Samantha and Smith? They are living together but Samantha has become infatuated with a sexy neighbor, an Italian hunk, who reminds her of her old self. He has sex with a different woman every night and this sparks feelings of nostalgia in Samantha who uses repeated trips to New York, amongst other things to avoid cheating on Smith.

Charlotte has a big surprise coming, one that will no doubt strike right at the heart of many SATC fans. Miranda meanwhile is focused on her career and trying to balance being a high powered lawyer with being a wife and a mother. Steve has a big surprise coming for Miranda which will then reverberate through the rest of the story in unexpected ways.

I am careful not to reveal too much. It's not that there are major, unpredictable twists and turns in SATC the Movie. Rather, just knowing too much might remove the impact of the many dramatic, romantic and comedic moments. Writer-director Michael Patrick King slips us right back into the lives of these characters with an effortlessness that is to be commended. For the uninitiated, the recap at the beginning is quick witted, light hearted and contains just the information you will need to enjoy the movie. And I think you will enjoy this movie, regardless of whether you are already a fan.

Sex and the City is a smart, sexy, funny adult comedy that does not pander to the audience. No attempt is made to soften the edges and make Sex more appealing to a wider audience. All of the sex, language, smoking and drinking of the TV series are in the movie. Sex and the City The Movie defines itself in its maturity in more ways than one. Not only does it not pander to find a wider, younger audience but also these characters play their age. They are 40 and fabulous and make no attempt to cover that up, no vain attempts to age down for these ladies, why Cattrall's Samantha celebrates her 50th birthday in the movie.

Unlike the vain egotist Sylvester Stallone, there is an effortless quality to the way Cattrall remains an object of desire. Where Stallone gets plastic surgery and pumps steroids and comes off as desperate not to show his age, Cattrall revels in the idea that she can look as good as she does and still be open about being 50. Guys, I know you may make fun but if someday your wife, at 50, puts in the hard work that Cattrall does to look like she does, you will appreciate it.

All four of these women work hard to look as good as they do but you never really see the effort on screen. The results however? Wow. Both Cattrall and Nixon have nude scenes in the film and Davis a near nude scene and all look amazing. One of the things that survived from the show is how Parker's Carrie always manages to be the one to keep her clothes on. I'm not complaining, it's just an observation. Any theories as to why she's able to escape the showing off, aside from her name being above the title, are appreciated. I'm curious if there is a deeper meaning to Carrie's private life being so often offscreen.

If there is one major issue with Sex and the City The Movie it is the length. At nearly 2 and a half hours, SATC is a slog. There is a good 25 to 30 minutes that could easily come out of this movie without damaging the stories that Michael Patrick King wants to tell. The length is merely indulgence. Do we need repeated scenes of a dog humping things? Do we need one character's severe gastro-intestinal troubles? The two fashion shows? Really? Get an editor or go back to HBO where you could cut together an economical season's worth of episodes that at 26 minutes apiece would make this indulgence easier to swallow.

That said, it's only a minor quibble. Spending time with these four terrifically funny, sexy, smart characters is not something to complain about too much. The Sex and the City movie pays tribute to the television show and sends it off in a proper fashion with romance, style and yes sex, plenty of sex.

Movie Review: Failure to Launch

Failure to Launch (2006) 

Directed by Tom Dey 

Written by Matt Ember

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Terry Bradshaw, Kathy Bates, Zoey Deschanel

Release Date February 10th, 2006 

Published February 10th, 2006

To buy into the premise of the new romantic comedy Failure To Launch you have to be willing to believe that there are so many men over the age of 30 still living with their parents that a woman could start a profitable business helping parents get rid of them. I just did not buy it and, thus, I felt that Failure To Launch was a failure in making sense.

Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Paula, an expert in removing deadbeats from mom and dad's house. She is hired by the parents of Tripp (Matthew McConaughey) who, despite having a good job selling boats for a living, driving a Porsche, and having his pick of beautiful women, still lives with his mom and dad, played by Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw.

Paula’s method for dealing with these momma's boy losers is to pretend to be the guy's girlfriend, build their self esteem in a simulated relationship and urge the men to get out on their own if they want to keep her. Once they are out of mom and dad's place, she dumps them. If you think that sounds ludicrous and, potentially, a little cruel this movie may not be for you.

Essentially, the premise of Failure To Launch is too stupid to support the movie. Things are not helped by the film's many diversions to goofy supporting characters like Paula’s roommate, Kit, played by Zooey Deschanel. Kit drinks constantly and, for some reason, is plagued by a bird that she chooses to hunt with the help of one of Tripp’s friends, played by Justin Bartha. The film gives ample screentime to this bizarre subplot, which has nothing to do with the main romance.

Then there are the animal attacks. For some strange, inexplicable reason Failure to Launch director Tom Dey thinks it is hysterically funny to have a character repeatedly attacked by various animals. A small chipmunk, a bottlenose dolphin and a small vegetarian lizard each randomly attack Tripp in what his buddy Demo (Bradley Cooper) says is nature punishing Tripp for his unnatural lifestyle. If you find these scenes funny you are on a very different wavelength than me.

I get that romantic comedies are often absurd from conception. Pretty Woman posited the lovely Julia Roberts as a grungy L.A prostitute. While You Were Sleeping pushed Sandra Bullock as the fake wife of a coma patient and one of my recent favorites, 50 First Dates, had Drew Barrymore as a woman with a severe short-term memory loss.  That was not the absurd part--finding Adam Sandler memorable enough to fall for, that was absurd.

So I get that logic, reason. and even coherence are not the strengths of this genre. Abandoning these things for a moment to evaluate Failure To Launch on its own terms I will admit that both McConaughey and Parker strike a likable chord. They spark well together in romantic scenes and give off the air of a loving couple even as the film spins out of control.

However the film is too out of control for my taste. Again I return to Deschanel's Kit whose fight with an obnoxious mockingbird interrupts the film's romantic plot once too often. A bizarre example is a scene set in a sporting-goods store where Kit attempts to buy a shotgun and is mistaken by the store clerk (the Daily Show's Rob Corddry in an unnecessary cameo) as someone contemplating suicide. The scene goes on for three or four minutes with this misunderstanding. Why this scene exists only director Tom Dey knows for sure.

Then there is the ending which undoes much of the good work that McConaughey and Parker do by making both look nearly as foolish as the rest of the film. The film plays on one of my movie pet peeves--the argument that would be solved if the characters simply spoke to one another. Tripp and Paula's romantic trouble could be solved with one easy conversation. Instead, the film pushes them together in an elaborately comic fashion, where neither is willing to say the few words that could solve the problem.

And only in a film this absurd could this important conversation be broadcast over the internet so all of the supporting players and more than a few extras can watch and cheer along their friends. One gets the sense that moments like these would work better as parody of romantic comedies and not as a sincere romance. The comedy of Failure To Launch seems designed like another take on what The 40 Year Virgin accomplished last year. A sweet-natured examination of arrested development with broad comic intentions specifically designed for the talents of comic actors accustomed to such material.

The actors involved in Failure To Launch, aside from the oddly well-suited Terry Bradshaw, are too straight laced and earnest for this expansively comic material. Both Parker and McConaughey have cultivated screen personas that make money playing real romance, not broadly comic slapstick with a hint of romance, ala Adam Sandler or Steve Carell.

With a pair of terrific lead actors there was certainly potential for Failure To Launch. But, doomed by an absurd premise better suited to the broad comic talents , Failure To Launch is an out-of-control mess of a film, distracted by its own precious idea of what is funny.

Movie Review Smart People

Smart People (2008) 

Directed by Noam Murro 

Written by Mark Poirer 

Starring Dennis Quaid, Elliot Page, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church

Release Date April 11th, 2008 

Published April 10th, 2008

A terrific cast attempts to cover the flaws of an irritatingly self satisfied screenplay and amateur direction in Smart People. Working against type Dennis Quaid impresses but is left adrift while Oscar nominees Elliot Page and Thomas Haden Haden Church try too hard to leave behind their defining performances behind. Then there is Sarah Jessica Parker who essays the only interesting character in this movie but is undone by the movie itself when, late in the film, things go completely off the rails.

Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) is a brilliant but socially inept literature professor at Carnegie Mellon University. His wife died a while back and he has yet to even try to move on, every item of her clothing remains upstairs in a second bedroom that was her closet. Lawrence's daughter Vanessa (Elliot Page) has taken on most of the wifely tasks, cooking, cleaning and such, even seeming to raise herself in her father's pompous, intellectual image. While Lawrence awaits word from publishers on his latest intellectual screed on an obscure literary legend, Vanessa is waiting for word from Stanford and studying far too diligently for a perfect SAT score.

Their version of domestic bliss is upended when jerk Lawrence tries to retrieve his car from an impound lot and ends up falling after climbing over a fence. The fall causes a seizure and that means he can no longer drive. When Vanessa refuses to be his chauffeur she allows Lawrence's adopted brother Chuck to move in in exchange for becoming his driver. The situation is entirely unsuitable for Lawrence who has long ago tired of his brothers constant mooching and get rich quick scheming. Meanwhile, in the hospital Lawrence meets Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker), a doctor and former student of his whom he graded poorly but now he is desperate to somehow impress.

These four Smart People begin a series of collisions and disruptions of each other's lives that seem as if they should be entertaining. Instead, Smart People is a movie that just sort of happens and then it's over. It seems as if it should be funnier than it is. The talented cast makes you believe it is more charming than it really is. Director Noam Murro's competent direction contributes to the idea of Smart People as a smart movie. Further post film reflection however brings about the revelation that there really isn't much too Smart People at all.

Mark Jude Poirier wrote the script for Smart People but his real contribution to the film is a quote in the New York Times in which he marvels at the fact that Smart People is a movie where not much really happens. A film about nothing? Seinfeld this is not. Smart People is actually about something but figuring what that is would require us to spend more time with these rather boring, self absorbed characters. Lawrence's defining trait is pomposity and Dennis Quaid eats a good deal of screen time demonstrating that quality. Thomas Haden Church gets to be the funky, pot smoking uncle but it makes him no less self absorbed.

Elliot Page takes on the role of Vanessa as if it were a repudiation of her Juno character. Don't worry, the smartassy sing-song sarcasm is still in place but it comes with a character who is an overachieving young republican with no friends and a seriously odd obsession for the clothing of a casual Laura Bush. As for Parker, she doesn't come off as terribly self absorbed except when she is the victim of some seriously poor editing and directorial decisions late in the film. It seems that several important scenes that might explain some of her character's bizarre actions late in the film were cut for one reason or another. This leaves the character of Janet looking shrewish and off putting because her actions are almost entirely without motive.