Movie Review: Vice

Vice (2018) 

Directed by Adam McKay

Written by Adam McKay 

Starring Christian Bale, Amy Adam, Steve Carell, Allison Pill, Jesse Plemons, Sam Rockwell, Tyler Perry

Release Date December 25th, 2018 

Published December 22nd, 2018 

Vice is an attempt at a satire of the former Vice President Dick Cheney. Unfortunately, though Dick Cheney is a large enough target for satire, Vice doesn’t have the teeth to make the satire work. Limp jabs at his time running the White House and the straightforward presentation of Cheney’s life, from his time as an alcoholic lineman in Wyoming through his time in the White House and his final heart transplant, the satire is so weak that it never lands a single blow on the former VP.

Christian Bale stars in Vice as Dick Cheney and the transformation is remarkable. Bale, one of the more handsome men in Hollywood, turns seamlessly into Dick Cheney. Putting on weight and undergoing four hours a day of makeup, Bale enhances the look with his voice and manner which brings Cheney to life on screen better than you could imagine. In fact, Bale is so good that he’s part of the reason that the satire of Vice doesn’t land.

Vice proceeds to tell the life of Dick Cheney in a manner that mixes up the timeframes of Cheney’s life. We start with Vice President Cheney on September 11th, after he had been rushed to an underground bunker and took over calling the shots on how the United States responded to the terror attack. The scene reflects rumors of how VP Cheney was usurping Presidential powers and the machinations are vaguely treated as menacing but the movie goes on to, unintentionally, sell the idea that Cheney, being more experienced and prepared for this moment than was President Bush, was right to takeover from Bush in this moment.

Then we flash back to how Dick Cheney got his start. In the early 1960’s Dick Cheney appeared headed nowhere. Cheney was working as a lineman in Wyoming. We see Cheney working for unscrupulous phone company engineers who care little for the employees who have little to no training or safety equipment. Cheney worked and then spent hours in bars getting drunk and getting into fights and getting arrested. 

It isn’t until his wife Lynn (Amy Adams) has to bail him out after a DUI that Cheney’s life is finally turned around. Lynn demands that Dick get cleaned up or she will take their daughter and leave and from there, the film cuts to Washington D.C where Dick is now working as a congressional intern. In the time between when Cheney  was a drunken lineman until he began  working in Congress, Cheney graduated from college and discovered an appreciation for politics.

Cheney’s start in Washington D.C came when he fell in with then Congressman Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell). Cheney was Rumsfeld’s intern and it is unexpected to see the Cheney we know today as a toady for someone even more unscrupulous and crude than himself but these scenes aren’t humorous, they are just sort of there. These scenes lay in important details about Cheney’s history during Watergate, his fast rise in the ranks of the Ford Administration, and his machinations within the Reagan White House, but they are the least interesting parts of Vice.

Vice doesn’t pick up strong momentum until Cheney becomes George W. Bush’s choice to be Vice President in 1999. Sam Rockwell plays George W. Bush as the flighty fratboy that the left has always believed him to be. It’s not a bad performance but there are more laughs in Rockwell’s manner, his style, the charming way he plays Bush than from anything Bush and Cheney actually do. The scenes between Bale and Rockwell are rarely funny but they aren't dramatic either, they play off of media perceptions of both men without providing much insight. 

That said, it was during the Bush Administration when Cheney, the character we know from many books and profiles, begins to emerge. We see his moves on the Iraq war, the way he used the law manipulate the country into a place where torture was legal and the film does begin to satirize the Cheney of lore as a power hungry, no-nonsense, bully. Is it funny? Kind of, in the absurdly straight-forward way that McKay frames the scenes and uses history to reflect these as poor decisions, but it is in conflict with Bale's performance as Cheney who doesn't appear to be in the fact that he's supposed to be the villain. Playing Cheney as having strong convictions is not exactly the satire we are expecting. 

It is during the time when Cheney is deciding whether to become Vice President that McKay relies on an odd but surprisingly effective device similar to one that he used in his Academy Award nominated The Big Short. McKay uses fantasy sequences as punchlines to punctuate the life of Dick Cheney. The first is a fake out ending that has Cheney retiring quietly after having been George H.W Bush’s Defense Secretary and leaving politics to become the CEO of Halliburton and leaving politics behind forever. 

This scene only evokes a bit of a chuckle and not a big laugh but I did enjoy seeing the credits begin to roll at the start of what was to be the 3rd act of Cheney’s life. This fantasy moment plays like wish fulfillment for those who despised the Bush-Cheney team and the joke is well-timed with the credits rolling far longer than you expect them to before we cut back to Cheney taking a call from George W. Bush and arranging a meeting regarding the Vice Presidency.

McKay goes back to the well of the fantasy sequence once more not long after this. The film employs a mysterious narrator, Jesse Plemons, who makes brief appearances throughout the movie, setting up a surprisingly effective reveal near the end of the movie. The narrator explains that we can’t really know what Lynn and Dick talked about the night that he decided to become the Vice President so the film goes into a remarkable, and quite funny, Shakespearean sequence in which Bale and Adams banter in the words of Shakespearean villains planning to carve up the world in their image.

For a brief moment Vice achieves its satirical potential. Cheney as the over the top Shakespearean Machiavelli figure is the perfect portrayal of the former VP. This moment combines our perception of Cheney with a touch of the reality. It's the Cheney of leftist lore and reality. Cheney is seen in Vice as a nasty politician with the ability to snake his way through the halls of power, taking power where he can and biding his time until he could turn things to his advantage. Shakespeare offers the perfect comic template to combine the aspects of Cheney that have taken hold in the public imagination.

This, however, is only one scene. It’s quite a funny scene and exceptionally well performed but it can’t make up for what is lacking in Vice which is a stronger through line of humor. The film doesn’t push the envelope beyond these fantasy sequences. It’s fine if the filmmakers are intending for us to make up our own mind about Cheney but I was expecting something more forceful, more directly critical. At the very least, I expected the Darth Vader-esque take on Cheney that holds the public imagination but the film, and especially Christian Bale, fails to push hard enough on that villainous side of our perception rendering the intended satire a toothless quality.

Vice is far too dry for my taste. Cheney is a huge satirical target and Vice doesn’t land a glove on him. George W. Bush gets far more of a roasting in Vice than Cheney does. In the bare minimum of scenes Sam Rockwell gives us an SNL worthy roasting of the former President as the slightly dopey daddy’s boy who was President in name only, a persona that many left leaning audiences will enjoy. It’s more savagely critical than anything Bale does with Chaney though both performances are solid. I just don’t know what the filmmakers, specifically director Adam McKay, is attempting to say about Dick Cheney in Vice.

Movie Review The 40 Year Old Virgin

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) 

Directed by Judd Apatow 

Written by Judd Apatow, Steve Carell 

Starring Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Romany Malco, Catherine Keener 

Release Date August 19th, 2005 

Published August 18th, 2005 

The vanguard of TV writing is now headed for the big screen in big ways. J.J Abrams the creator of "Alias" is directing the next Mission Impossible film. Joss Whedon the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the underground hit, "Firefly", has Serenity in theaters in September and is soon to tackle Wonder Woman. First up, however, is television's most under-appreciated comedy writer, Judd Apatow.

In two network series, "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared", Judd Apatow has had two of the most critically beloved and audience ignored series in history. Two extraordinarily witty and charming shows about growing up and not growing up. Both shows can now be seen as warm ups for Mr. Apatow's switch to big screen comedy in The 40 Year-Old Virgin, another witty and charming story of arrested development.

Steve Carell stars as the title virgin, Andy Stitzer. Andy lives in perpetual teenager-hood. Living amongst his action figures and video games and riding a bike to work, Andy barely even looks his age. At work Andy is the subject of derision and beliefs that he may be a serial killer. When his co-workers, Dave (Paul Rudd), Cal (Seth Rogan) and Jay (Romany Malco) invite Andy to play poker with them, the conversation quickly turns to sex and Andy is outed as a virgin despite his best efforts to the contrary. The trio seem less than sincerely sympathetic to Andy's plight, but eventually they do try and help Andy to relative degrees of success.

Each of Andy's new friends has some very... interesting advice that works in weird ways but almost always to Andy's detriment. While Dave is pining desperately for an ex-girlfriend he thinks Andy can be helped with a big box of porn. Jay thinks the cure is "drunk bitches" and Cal has a surprisingly effective idea: emulate David Caruso in Jade and women won't be able to resist.

Eventually, despite and not because of his friend's advice, Andy meets a lovely woman named Trish (Catherine Keener).  The two spark an immediate connection and thus begins a romantic plot that is smart and adult even as it is conventional romantic comedy. Carell and Keener are very good together and you have to love the way Keener throws herself into this role. She is an outsider amongst the male ensemble, most of whom have worked together before, yet she fits right in.

Judd Apatow directs 40 Year-Old Virgin with a very steady hand. Very well paced and always clever, at times the film is extraordinarily funny and often very crude but in the funniest ways imaginable. The film earns its R-rating with its language and raunchiness but that is perfectly balanced by the wonderfully sweet romance at the center.

The 40 Year-Old Virgin could have gone entirely wrong were it not for the strong lead performance of Steve Carell. The former "Daily Show" correspondent and star of NBC's doomed "The Office" manages to make Andy's virginity more than just a one-note sex joke. The character could have been a caricature akin to Pee Wee Herman or some other outrageous over the top character who you would believe never had sex. Instead Carell paints a very sympathetic portrait of a shy introverted guy who was just unlucky in his youthful exploits with women.  Andy is never a pawn of the plot or of the characters around him. He is fully formed and totally genuine. The film works because we believe in Andy and we align ourselves with Andy.

The supporting cast of The 40 Year Old Virgin is amazing, especially Paul Rudd who gets more and more outrageous and courageous in every role. Here is a comedic actor of real chops and leading man looks who is willing to completely humiliate himself if it means a big laugh, a rare breed. Romany Malco and Seth Rogan round out the top supporting roles and manage to create fully formed characters with depth and humor. The interplay of the four guys is unforced and familiar and almost always hysterically funny. It's no surprise that they have worked together before and the joy they have working together comes off the screen and affects the audience.

The real revelation of 40 Year-Old Virgin however, is director Judd Apatow who takes his place as one of the leading voices in big screen comedy. In a genre that desperately needs a new voice, Apatow is a sight for sore eyes and ears. His talent for character development and ability to sustain big laughs without having to abandon his plot is something a lot of veteran comedy directors could learn from.

Movie Review Over the Hedge

Over the Hedge (2006) 

Directed by Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick 

Written by Len Blum, Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton, Karey Kirkpatrick 

Starring Steve Carell, Bruce Willis, Nick Nolte, Wanda Sykes, Garry Shandling 

Release Date May 19th, 2006 

Published May 18th, 2006 

The daily newspaper comic Over The Hedge is a smart, self aware, culturally savvy cartoon starring woodland creatures and their incisive observations of humans in suburbia. Though the 3 panel brains of Over The Hedge, Michael Fry and T. Lewis may not be ideal for the too often soft headed children's animation market, Over The Hedge does have the built in cuteness factor of talking animals that all children love. Leave your brains, and the brains of the comics themselves, at the door - Over The Hedge is the latest cute but forgettable CG tune from DreamWorks animation.

Bruce Willis stars as the voice of R.J, a mischievous raccoon with a bit of a self-destructive side. While foraging for some food R.J gets the brilliant idea to rob a hibernating bear. In the process of stealing the bear's entire store of mostly human snacks, R.J manages to wake the not surprisingly cranky bear and destroy the whole supply of food.

The bear, voiced with gruff annoyance by Nick Nolte, is not supposed to come out of hibernation for another week so being tired he cuts a deal with R.J, restore the food supply in one week or becomes part of the food supply. R.J is lucky to make it out with his hide but where will he get all of these mostly human snacks, chips, pop, candy and such. Luck smiles on R.J when he discovers a brand new human enclave that has sprung up over the winter, a brand new suburban subdivision has cut the forest in half.

This comes as a surprise not just to R.J but also to the hibernating creatures who have made this forest their home for years. Having spent months in hibernation, Vern the turtle (Gary Shandling), Hammy the squirrel (Steve Carell) and Stella the skunk (Wanda Sykes) - amongst a large star filled ensemble- find their forest cut in half and the potential food supply nearly gone.

Enter R.J who sees this clan of woodland pals as his chance to get some help in replenishing the bear's stock. All he has to do is lead the gang into suburbia where they can help him raid homes and garbage cans for the needed supplies and once he has what he needs simply steal it all away to the bear. What R.J could not count on with this group is finding the family he never had and never knew he wanted.

I gagged a little as I wrote that last line. That type of treacle is what most Hollywood studios think you must have in all family cartoons. That warm-hearted easily digested family friendly message is a prerequisite of the genre to most studios no matter how clumsily such a simplistic message is incorporated into the film.

The fun loving creatures of Over The Hedge chafe against the constrictions of this genre required plot strand. Not that the cute characters of Over The Hedge don't lend themselves to a simpleminded family friendly message. The characters are cute and cuddly like your average family cartoon character, and such the problem is really just a lack of subtlety. The film hammers home its homespun wisdom in thuddingly obvious dialogue.

Family friendly messages are certainly not a bad thing. Both Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, a pair of Pixar animated classics, deliver family friendly messages couched in terrifically funny adventure plots. There is a way to make it family friendly without pounding the message into the ground. It's just that only Pixar seems to understand the formula.

When not forced by genre convention to blast home a message, Over The Hedge has some inspired moments of humor and insight. A funny montage in which R.J introduces the gang to the various ways humans obtain and consume food is a terrifically funny and biting commentary. Another scene in which R.J shows insight beyond his animal nature is when he introduces the gang to an SUV. Vern asks how many humans can fit such a huge vehicle, R.J's snappy reply "Usually... just one".

Those good moments are surrounded by a strong adventure plot as the gang works to obtain food while avoiding an evil exterminator voiced by Thomas Haden Church and a witchy suburban resident voiced by Allison Janney. The film gets good mileage out of both these villainous characters.

Over The Hedge is a pretty good movie but in the genre of CG animation pretty good is not often good enough. The Pixar company has set the bar so high in this genre that non-Pixar films simply cannot compete. Pixar's lovely candy colored animation is one of the great artistic creations of the past century and while other company's have attempted to match it no one has come close.

As I say a lot in reference to CG animated films, Over The Hedge is good but it's not Pixar good. I am recommending the film but with reluctance. Over The Hedge is good but not great family entertainment.

Movie Review: Before the Devil Knows Your Dead

Before the Devil Knows Your Dead (2007) 

Directed by Sydney Lumet 

Written by Kelly Masterson 

Starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Amy Ryan, Marisa Tomei 

Release Date October 26th, 2007 

Published November 5th, 2007

Sydney Lumet has already been given a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars. Those awards are given to artists whose best work is long behind them. Not Lumet who with his latest film Before The Devil Knows Your Dead crafts arguably the most engaged and fascinating work in his nearly 60 year directorial career. A thriller starring Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman as brothers trying to find some way to pay off their debts, Before The Devil Knows Your Dead unfolds from sleeze to tragedy and back again all the while holding the audience enthralled beginning to end.

Andy Hanson (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has the look of a successful man. His wife Gina is gorgeous and he's pulling down six figures a year in his high finance gig. On the other hand he has a serious drug problem and more than a little debt to take care of. Andy's brother Hank (Ethan Hawke) is far worse off. Even more in debt with an ex-wife (Amy Ryan) draining his bank account and a young daughter to support, Hank is in dire straits. Andy has a way to solve both of their problems but it won't be easy. It involves a robbery. To say much more than that would spoil a stunner of a plot.

Albert Finney plays the boys father and delivers a performance of devastating depth and conviction. It is some of the finest work in a multiple Oscar winning career. With Hoffman and Hawke in the lead and Rosemary Harris, Oscar nominee Amy Ryan and Oscar winner Marisa Tomei on board Director Lumet assembled a can't miss cast and unleashed them on a Greek tragedy of mismatched fates, fortunes and family ties. A debut script from Kelly Masterson invigorates the old master Lumet and with this cast in place Before The Devil Knows Your Dead becomes something beyond extraordinary.

Movie Review: Brooklyn's Finest

Brooklyn's Finest (2009) 

Directed by Antoine Fuqua 

Written by Michael C. Martin

Starring Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Lily Taylor, Ellen Barkin 

Release Date March 5th, 2010 

Published March 4th, 2010 

There is sluggishness to the alpha male posing of Brooklyn's Finest the latest in a long line of troubled cop movies. Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke play a three headed monster of ethically compromised cops in one of the toughest precincts in New York City. Stop me if you've heard that story before.

Richard Gere plays Eddie in Brooklyn's Finest, a depressed cop seven days from retirement. An inveterate drunk, Eddie plans on not getting killed in his last week as a cop and if that means letting a few calls go by so be it. Bad luck for Eddie that he gets stuck breaking in rookies in a week in which his Brooklyn precinct is all over the headlines.

A cop has been arrested for robbing what he thought was a drug dealer but turned out to be an honor student. Meanwhile another cop, Sal (Ethan Hawke) has just murdered and robbed an informant (Vincent D'Onofrio) and is ready for more robbing and killing as he looks to move his growing family, 5 kids with twins on the way, out of a rickety row house.

While Eddie longs for retirement and Sal risks his life in more and more dangerous fashion, Tango (Don Cheadle) seems safe by comparison, working undercover on the streets hoping to take down a major drug gang. Sure, he's dealing with deadly thugs on a daily basis but his cover is so strong he seems impervious to the danger.

In fact, Tango's cover is so good one might wonder which side he's on, especially after he gets close with Caz (Wesley Snipes) a major drug dealer fresh out of prison. Caz saved Tango's life when Tango began his undercover stint in prison. Now, as Cas is getting acclimated to the streets again, Tango questions whether he can take him down.

There is drama to be found in director Antoine Fuqua's violence fueled narrative but not much of it resonates beyond what has come before it in other, better cop movies. Fuqua's own Training Day, with Ethan Hawke no less, is a far more interesting and daring film in comparison to the well worn path walked by Brooklyn's Finest.

Don Cheadle delivers a standout performance as the least conflicted of the conflicted cops. Cheadle is a compelling actor whose intense gaze brims with calculating intelligence. To look at Cheadle is to want to know what he's thinking and follow his every deliberate move.

Ethan Hawke and Richard Gere are far less successful. Hawke is among the least convincing Italian cops in movie history putting on accent only when calling out to his stereotypically named kids Vinnie and Joey. Gere's Eddie is merely pathetic. One can argue that he is pathetic with a purpose, his redemption will rely on rock bottom dwelling, but a scene in which he proposes to a hooker is more laughable than sad.

A mixed bag of cop movie clichés, New York stereotypes and the occasional bit of hardcore violence, Brooklyn's Finest holds promise for fans of Don Cheadle and little else. One would be better served picking up Cheadle's exceptional performance in Out of Sight for a similarly smart and more nuanced performance.

Movie Review: Daybreakers

Daybreakers (2010) 

Directed by The Spierig Brothers 

Written by The Spierig Brothers 

Starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Isabel Lucas, Claudia Karvan

Release Date January 8th, 2010 

Published January 7th, 2010 

It's such a disappointment. The first 70 minutes or so of Daybreakers is a quite compelling Vampire thriller. The last 20 minutes, give or take a few, are such a massive wrong turn that they make me wretch at the thought. I was set to recommend Daybreakers but the ending is such a poor decision, such a disastrous wrong turn that Daybreakers becomes an early worst of the year candidate.

Ethan Hawke stars in Daybreakers as Vampire Hematologist Edward Dalton. Edward lives in a future, 2017, in which vampires are the majority and humans are hunted and farmed for blood. Unfortunately, the demand for blood is soon to exceed the supply. It is Edward's job, at the behest of his demanding boss (Sam Neill), too invent a viable blood substitute.

Elvis (Willem Dafoe) has a better idea, he has a cure. Through some remarkable accident Elvis has regained his humanity and he thinks that with Edward's help he can figure out exactly what cured him and begin to return the human race to dominance. Elvis and his partner Audrey (Claudia Karvan) kidnap Edward and he is more than willing to help. Unfortunately, he is being tracked by his brother Frankie (Michael Dorman) a member of the military human hunters.

As Edward seeks the cure and his brother and boss come together to plot against him there is an effective thriller with strong stakes and strong characters. Approaching the finale the film has great momentum all it needs is a satisfying end to cap the whole thing and make a pretty terrific genre thriller.

Sadly, all that co-directors Michael and Peter Spierig come up with is a gore-laden, special effects finale that undermines Daybreakers' thriller tension in favor of splatter movie ugliness. I don't mind gore, early on in Daybreakers a minor character explodes and the scene is quite effective. The ending unfortunately takes the gore too far, using it as a means to finish the movie as if they just couldn't think of anything else.

The bloody finale is a trapdoor, an easy escape for filmmakers without the imagination or talent to come up with something better. What a shame, there is a pretty solid thriller under all of the viscera in Daybreakers.

Movie Review: Waking Life

Waking Life (2001) 

Directed by Richard Linklater

Written by Richard Linklater

Starring Wiley Wiggins, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Nicky Katt, Adam Goldberg

Release Date October 19th, 2001 

Published December 25th, 2001 

I am a collector. I collect DVD's, sports memorabilia and movie collector cups, etc. But above all I collect intelligent opinions. I love to listen to and interact with intelligent people. Richard Linklater's breakthrough animated film Waking Life is a series of intelligent conversations set against one of the most visually striking backdrops I've ever seen.

The film is taken from the perspective of an unnamed character played by Wiley Wiggins from Linklater’s Dazed & Confused. (I'll explain the “played by instead of voiced by” credit later). Wiggins’ character is trapped in a dream, though he doesn't realize it right away. In the dream he interacts with a series of run-at-the-mouth philosophers who while at times obnoxious, actually do have interesting opinions.

The conversations are meaningful discussions of philosophy, religion and the meaning of life. None of the characters claim to have the answers to the many unanswerable life questions but they are at least brave enough to discuss topics like death and existence or nonexistence of a higher power. Questions that many people would prefer weren't asked.

While the film is, at times, aimless, the animation is so lively that you are at rapt attention throughout. Linklater and his team of animators did something very unique in Waking Life, first filming the movie with live actors, Wiggins, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy amongst others. Then the animators used computers to animate over the shot footage, which gives the film it's dreamscape and allows for visual experimentation that could never work in a live action feature.

You know how in dreams when you know where you are but it looks nothing like it does in real life? Waking Life seizes upon that dreamy feeling and uses it's dialogue to lead it's main character and the audience to a surprisingly satisfying open-ended conclusion. It's up to you the viewer to decide for yourself what happens to Wiggins’ character at the end of the film.

Richard Linklater is weaving an amazing career, from Slackers to Dazed & Confused to Tape and now Waking Life. Linklater has established himself on the new frontier of film as art.

It's a small, unnamed generation of young filmmakers like Linklater, Allison Anders, P.T Anderson and Darren Aronofsky who are championing filmmaking as art over mere commerce. They swim against the tide of Hollywood and attempt to say something. Film as sociological art. It's not merely about entertaining the audience but about inspiring them and touching them emotionally and intellectually. If only more filmmakers shared their vision and courage.

Movie Review The First Purge

The First Purge (2018) 

Directed by Gerard McMurray 

Written by James DeMonaco 

Starring Lex Scott Davis, Marisa Tomei, Steve Harris, Joivan Wade

Release Date July 4th, 2018

Published July 3rd, 2018 

The First Purge stars Lex Scott Davis as Nya, an activist opposed to a new social experiment in crime. The New Founding Fathers of America, a right wing political party, has come to power, replacing Republicans and Democrats in the American power structure and they believe they have a solution for America’s crime problem. The idea comes from a scientist named Dr. Updale, Marisa Tomei, who isn’t convinced her idea is a cure-all.

The experiment which will come to be called ‘The Purge’ entails allowing people the opportunity to get out their pent up aggression with a night of legalized violence. For the experiment, the NFFA will cordon off Staten Island, New York and pay residents and visitors $5000.00 to stay on the Island and take part in 12 hours of legalized debauchery of all types. For her part, Nya believes The Purge is an attack on the poor and oh, how right she is, even if she doesn’t know it yet.

As the experiment of The Purge unfolds in this already crime riddled area, things begin with a strange peace. Few, if any, residents are actually engaging in criminal behavior. The NFFA has a lot riding on the night being an example of the effectiveness of their new rule and when things appear to be working in favor of the better angels of our nature, aside from a murderous crackhead named Skeletor, the NFFA decide to tip the scales a little with some outside help.

Soon, the streets of Staten Island are littered with bodies as the world watches on news networks supplied a ringside seat via drones that capture the action from on high. There is also the added attraction of first person perspective on the most gruesome crimes as some Island residents have been fitted with special contact lens cameras to capture the mayhem. The contacts are also a neat visual to help differentiate the truly dangerous from the endangered.

The First Purge is the fourth film in The Purge franchise, though the first in the continuity of the story which began being told in 2014 with Ethan Hawke and Lena Headley. The original The Purge posited an almost lackadaisical air surrounding the nationwide mayhem known as The Purge. Families discuss The Purge with the urgency of going to the supermarket or the video store. By the time of that film, The Purge is just another part of life.

The First Purge enlivens the franchise by taking it back to the beginning. Director Gerald MacMurray, taking the directorial reins from franchise creator James Demonaco, who did stick around to write the script for this outing, embraces the social satire of the original concept more blatantly than the first three films in the franchise. Indeed, MacMurray’s take on The Purge concept is straight ahead satirical polemic with the visual style of blaxploitation movies of the early to mid-seventies.

There is no hiding the politics at play here, the NRA gets name-checked as the financial backers of the New Founding Fathers of America and a scene where Nya is assaulted by a sewer dwelling, masked stranger contains a reference to President Trump that is sharply pointed. All of the New Founding Fathers of America seen on screen are doughy white guys reminiscent of a current White House casting call.

The First Purge pulls no punches in its social commentary with scenes ripped from recent American history from the smoky streets of Ferguson circa 2014 to the unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, just last year. Though tiki torches are surprisingly circumspect, there are men in Klan robes and men in uniforms reminiscent of the German S. S that are as striking as ever and similarly worn by hate groups at the Charlottesville riots in real life.

If the characters and storytelling had been as pointed and forthright as the social satire, we’d be talking about a much better movie. Unfortunately, the characters in The First Purge wind up underwritten in favor of the atmosphere of dread and, as mentioned, the high level of social satire. That’s not to say that Lex Scott Davis or Joivan Wade, who plays her brother in the movie or Mugga, who plays a Nya’s neighbor, are bad actors. Rather, they’re just pawns of the plot rather than people whose action drives the plot.

The editing of The First Purge is also a tad suspect, contributing to a choppy style that can be a tad hard to follow and not all that pleasant to look at. The Cinematography and production design appear to be areas where the filmmakers were attempting to save money as the film’s visual style rarely stands out, aside from one scene that appears to be a full-on homage to the low budget aesthetic of a Gordon Parks or Melvin Van Peebles.

Newcomer Y’Lan Noel plays drug dealer turned leader Dmitri and gets all of the best visuals in the movie. Late in the film, as Dmitri and his crew are traveling the streets battling the mercenaries of the Klan, the Alt-Right and the NFFA, Dmitri turns full on action hero and MacMurray films him like a combination of Shaft, Bruce Lee and Killmonger. He even gets to be John McClain for a little while as he makes his way through an apartment building picking off bad guys one floor at a time.

The homages and the social satire are the best and boldest part of The First Purge which is an otherwise middling affair. The characters are thin, the dialogue is often stilted and awkward, especially the supposedly ‘Street’ dialogue which plays the hits of all the worst cliches of gang speak. I want to embrace big parts of The First Purge but too much of the movie is too subpar for me to fully celebrate what works.

Movie Review Juliet Naked

Juliet Naked (2018) 

Directed by Jesse Peretz

Written by Tamara Jenkins, Jim Taylor, Evgenia Peretz

Starring Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke, Chris O'Dowd 

Release Date August 17th, 2018 

Juliet, Naked stars Rose Byrne as Annie, a museum director in a small suburb of London. Annie’s life is growing a bit stale. Her job is boring, her sister is a mess, and her boyfriend, Duncan (Chris O’Dowd), is obsessed with a rock star named Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke) who disappeared into obscurity after making just one really successful record. For 25 years Duncan has collected and obsessed over scraps of information that he puts online at a website he made and dedicated to Tucker Crowe. 

At first, Duncan’s obsession was cute but after a few years of living together, Annie has grown tired of it and of Duncan. The plot kicks into gear when a mysterious package arrives at Annie and Duncan’s home. Annie finds it first and inside finds something called “Juliet, Naked.” Juliet was the name of Tucker Crowe’s only record and the ‘naked’ of this title refers to demo tracks of Tucker’s first record more than 25 years old. 

For an obsessed fan like Duncan, Juliet, Naked is like finding ancient religious scrolls or an authentic shroud of Turin. It’s legitimately, to Duncan, an act of betrayal when Annie finds the CD and listens to it before he gets the chance. The betrayal deepens when Annie states that she finds the record insufferable and says so in a review that she posts on Duncan’s own website under an assumed name. 

Things take a turn for the surreal when the real Tucker Crowe reads Annie’s review and sends her an email telling her he agrees with her. Tucker has been a ghost for 25 years for a reason and part of it is how much he doesn’t like his own music. Tucker and Annie begin to correspond and as they grow closer, she and Duncan grow further apart until apart is all that they are able to be. With Duncan out of the way can Annie actually be in a relationship with the target of her ex’s obsession? 

Clever sounding premise aside, Juliet, Naked is one of the bigger disappointments of 2018 for me. I have been anticipating this movie since I heard about it. The film is based on a novel by Nick Hornby, my favorite writer whose books have inspired a couple of terrific movies, including an all time favorite of mine, High Fidelity starring John Cusack. I desperately wanted this movie to be great and sadly, it's only okay. 

What are the specific issues with Juliet, Naked? For starters, a complete lack of ambition. The movie is so elegiac, so lacking in vitality that it feels at times to be at a crawl. I don’t need this to have the pace of a Fast & Furious movie but the montage of Annie and Tucker’s email exchange is glacially paced even as it features very charming actors providing voiceovers for the scene. Even with Ethan Hawke and Rose Byrne, the scene is lifeless. 

And then there is the character of Tucker who is a complete disaster. Ethan Hawke plays Tucker as a sincere and forthright failure, a loser who has multiple kids by multiple mothers and lives off the residuals of his one big album, sleeping on a pull out bed at his ex’s farm so he can be close to his youngest son. That’s a lot of stuff to play as a character but Hawke doesn’t do much of anything with it. The film appears to rely solely on the charm of Hornby’s character to make Tucker interesting but somehow he appears stuck in the pages and not on the screen. 

The film reaches toward a moment of transcendence when Annie invites Duncan to come over and have dinner with her and Tucker at her home as a goodwill gesture. Duncan can hardly hold back on his fanboying and tells Tucker how much he loves his record and what it means to him. Tucker replies that he hates the record and the person he was when he made it. Duncan is wounded but defends himself and his love of Tucker’s record. It’s a good moment capped off by Duncan saying that art is not for the artist but for those who appreciate it before storming off. 

The film approaches something fascinating here about the relationship between artist and fan but director Jesse Peretz fumbles the moment slightly. Is Duncan a fool or are we meant to sympathize with his love of Tucker’s music? Is Tucker a jerk? Yeah, kind of. He’s kind of like those people who can’t graciously accept a compliment and instead come off as rude and unappreciative of genuine kindness. 

That could be a perfectly acceptable response on Tucker’s part but the way it plays in the moment makes both Duncan and Tucker look equal parts jerk and offender. We do find out why Tucker hates his own creation in the following scene but he really loses our sympathy in the previous scene and the rest feels like the character and the movie are making excuses for his rude behavior, excuses that don’t hold water. 

If Duncan is a buffoon then let him be a buffoon. Juliet, Naked takes such pains to be evenhanded about these characters that it lacks any perspective whatsoever and leaves a wishy washy impression of all three central characters. Director Jesse Peretz took a similarly even handed approach to his comedy Our Idiot Brother starring Paul Rudd to a similarly wishy washy effect. It’s as if he doesn’t want to offend anyone to a point of pointlessness and an aimless narrative. 

This is supposed to be Annie’s story and yet until the end of the movie, Annie is a mostly listless character. The world continually happens to Annie aside from when she posted her negative review of Tucker’s record. Everything that happens with her after that is dictated not by Annie but by everyone else. Rose Byrne is capable of carrying this story but the movie continually lets her down scene after listless scene. 

All of that said, Juliet, Naked is not a bad movie. It suffers from a conventionalism that is rampant in modern movies, an eagerness to not offend anyone or make anyone uncomfortable. Everybody is flawed and no one judges anyone and even when they do, they are justified in doing so. This is supposed to be akin to realism but in the sacrosanct world of romantic comedy, realism doesn’t translate. Pretty much all romance is hyper-realized or idealized because real romance is hard work and we don’t go to the movies for hard work. 

There is no hard work in Juliet, Naked. The filmmakers want both to be ‘realistic’ and exist in the idealized world or romantic comedy. The dissonance is maddening and leads to a movie that moves with little momentum, features idealized characters in a contrived narrative and yet the filmmakers want to play at being taken seriously because the problems these characters have, their flaws and how they work towards overcoming them have a whiff of the real. 

Perhaps it is possible to make a funny romantic comedy that is also based in something real and insightful but Juliet, Naked never bridges that divide. Instead, it’s a maddening, slow moving, not entirely terrible movie featuring some genuinely good actors and some genuinely good moments. There is a good movie here but it’s missing a director who knows how to get at what is good about it.

Movie Review Taking Lives

Taking Lives (2004) 

Directed by D.J Caruso 

Written by Jon Bokencamp 

Starring Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland, Olivier Martinez, Tcheky Karyo'

Release Date March 19th, 2004

Published March 18th, 2004 

Director D.J Caruso is one of the most promising young directors in all of Hollywood. The Salton Sea with Val Kilmer is one of the most underrated films in years. Combining modern day Tarentino rhythms with classic Hollywood noir, Salton Sea was a rarity that combined smart writing, direction and acting. That success makes Caruso's new film, Taking Lives such a massive disappointment. Whereas Salton Sea was inventive, unique and intelligent, Taking Lives is mundane, predictable and clichéd.

Angelina Jolie stars a FBI agent Illeana Scott, an unusual criminal profiler who has no qualms about crawling in and lying down in an open grave or spending all of her free time staring at pictures of dead bodies. Illeana has traveled to Montreal at the request of a cop friend (Tcheky Karyo) to investigate a serial murderer. The killer’s M.O is to choke his victim, cut off the hands and smash the skull.

It's up to Illeana to draw up a profile of the psycho to help the Montreal cops, who include Paquette (Olivier Martinez) and Duval (Jean-Hughes Anglade), find some sort of rationale for finding the killer. They get a big break when the killer is interrupted during a murder by a guy walking home. The witness is James Costa (Ethan Hawke), a skittish young artist who claims to have never seen a dead body before. 

With Costa's help the cops draw up a sketch of the killer that they hope will lead to his capture. Another break comes when the mother of the alleged killer claims to have seen her son who she had thought was dead, an early victim of the killer. If it all sounds familiar, it is. There is nothing in Taking Lives that is the least bit original. It plays like an homage to Fincher's Seven (the credit sequence is an almost direct lift) but without Fincher and Andrew Kevin Walker's ingenious pacing, mystery and artful grunge.

Caruso seems to think that if you show really graphic shots of dead bodies that people will think of Seven and give his film a pass. This is not Seven, this is formula Hollywood with typical thriller twists and turns. Typical character mistakes and an ending so boneheaded that it would be laughable if the actors involved weren't such professionals. David Fincher this is not. 

It's hard to believe that it has been over four years since Angelina Jolie has made a good film. That was her Oscar winning turn in Girl Interrupted. Since that career highpoint, Jolie has fashioned an underwhelming career in big budget action movies, low wattage romances and a whole lot of unnecessary (though not unwelcome) nakedness. Her future still looks bright with Sky Captain and Alexander, but Taking Lives is yet another misstep in a career full of them.

Why an actor with such good radar as Ethan Hawke would choose to make this movie may be the biggest surprise of all. It's not that Ethan hasn't made a bad movie before but, generally speaking, he has a good eye for scripts and avoids formula Hollywood trash. Rounding out the cast of Taking Lives is Kiefer Sutherland in the Kiefer Sutherland role. Honestly Kiefer, fire your agent if he ever sends you a script like this again. How many times can Sutherland play oily creeps?

The film’s biggest disappointment is Caruso who wastes the talent. In transitioning from low budget to big budget, Caruso forgot the things that got him where he is. This film has none of the flare, inventiveness, or smarts of his first film. It's sad to watch Caruso simply translate a script to the screen with little to no style or substance. Taking Lives is one large step back for a director on the way up.

Movie Review: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) 

Directed by Marielle Heller

Written by Noah Harpster 

Starring Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Cooper 

Release Date November 22nd, 2019 

Published November 20th, 2019

The new Mr. Rogers movie, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, is a revelation. The story of an Esquire reporter, Lloyd, played by Matthew Rhys, who is assigned to profile Mr. Rogers for the magazine defies conventions in ways that are entirely unexpected and delightful. Director Marielle Heller has truly come into her own with this remarkable artful yet accessible movie that is not merely about the legendary PBS kids show host Mr. Rogers, but about all that he stood for and embodied. 

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood opens with that oh so familiar theme song of the same name. Here, however, it is sung by Tom Hanks, who portrays Mr. Rogers in a role that artfully incorporates elements of fantasy and reality. The opening Mr. Rogers Neighborhood segment is a fantasy that has Mr. Rogers introducing us to his new friend, Lloyd, a deeply troubled soul who writes for Esquire Magazine and struggles with being a new father while being estranged from his own father, Jerry, played by Chris Cooper. 

Lloyd has alienated so many people in his career that, according to his editor, played with gravitas by Christine Lahti, no one wants to be interviewed by him anymore. Only one person of note has agreed to an interview with Lloyd and that person is Mr. Rogers. The nice guy kids show host puff piece is not Lloyd’s style but with no other option on the table, he agrees and travels to Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood in Pittsburgh for the interview. 

Things are somewhat off-kilter from the start in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and it is a risky proposition. Director Marielle Heller, fresh off of the Oscar nominated success of Can You Ever Forgive Me starring Melissa McCarthy, risks alienating the audience by immediately having Hanks’ Mr. Roger break the fourth wall and act as narrator of the movie, introducing the more straightforward, dramatic and familiar scenes. 

Heller then chooses to transition from scene to scene using the models right out of the Mr. Rogers Neighborhood set. It’s a style that evokes the esoteric direction of a Charlie Kaufman or Michel Gondry but in a decidedly more accessible fashion. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is stylistically bold yet lacking in pretension. That’s likely owed to the subject, Mr. Rogers himself was notably unpretentious, a quality that Tom Hanks captures in his performance. 

Another bold choice that Heller makes is casting Hanks and Mr. Rogers in what is essentially a supporting role. The heavy dramatic lifting here is done by Matthew Rhys as Lloyd. The Emmy Award winning co-star of the hit drama The Americans, Rhys has the burden of being both a character in and of himself and the audience avatar, the one who must bring us closer to Mr. Rogers and help us to understand what made him special. 

Rhys’ performance is brimming with life and complex emotions. His backstory is brilliantly layered into the storytelling and Rhys evokes his past trauma effortlessly with his expressive, sad eyes. The scenes of Lloyd interviewing Mr. Rogers are challenging and fascinating. There is a threat that Mr. Rogers might come off as too all-knowing and benevolent as he gently yet inquisitively probes Lloyd’s obvious emotional wounds. Rhys and Hanks are remarkable for how well they ground these charged conversations in a way that feels authentic to the movie and to the memory of Mr. Rogers. 

Lloyd is exactly the kind of person who needs the kinds of lessons that Mr. Rogers taught on his show. These are lessons of compassion, forgiveness and understanding that Lloyd missed out on as a child due to his myriad traumas. Having to learn these lessons as an adult via becoming a parent with his wife Andrea, played by Susan Kelechi Watson, and by the re-emergence of his estranged father, Jerry,  finds Lloyd emotionally ill-equipped and Mr. Rogers offers unexpected guidance. 

What an absolutely lovely way to tell this story. Director Heller and screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, could have taken the easy way out, cast Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers and call it a day. Instead, they chose daring and artful devices to reveal the way Mr. Rogers affected so many lives in so many ways and do it in a fashion that takes his lessons from the simplicity of childhood to the complexity of adulthood. 

Now that I have seen it, I can’t imagine it being dramatized any other way. I had feared that 2018’s Mr. Rogers Neighborhood documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, would render A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood redundant. Instead, what we have is an even greater tribute to the legacy of Mr. Rogers, a film that masterfully evokes Mr. Rogers’ best qualities while not making Rogers out to be a saint or a metaphorical martyr for some notion of family values. 

Beautifully captured, boldly emotional and deeply affecting, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ranks as one of the most moving filmgoing experiences of my life and one of my favorite films of 2019, a year that is truly coming alive with incredible movies. 

Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code (2006) 

Directed by Ron Howard 

Written by Akiva Goldsman 

Starring Tom Hanks, Jean Reno, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellan

Release Date May 19th, 2006 

Published May 18th, 2006 

Having read Dan Brown's worldwide best seller The Da Vinci Code my expectations for the film version were quite low. Despite his admittedly intriguing premise involving the bloodline of Jesus Christ, the holy grail, and secret societies, Dan Brown's writing style is a tedious mixture of portentous dialogue and sub-Crichton chase scenes.

Thankfully the movie version of The Da Vinci Code is blessed with talent creative enough to salvage the usable elements of Brown's intriguing premise and prop up his weak points to watchable levels. Director Ron Howard, Academy Award winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, and star Tom Hanks are such professionals that even Dan Brown's tiresome, predictable clichés become relatively captivating mysteries.

Tom Hanks stars in the Da Vinci Code as Professor Robert Langdon. A Symbology expert, Professor Langdon is in Paris promoting his book when he is picked up by the Paris police. Taken to the world famous Louvre museum, Robert's help is sought in the investigation of the death of the museum's curator Jaques Saurniere (Jean-Pierre Marielle).

Langdon was to have a meeting with Saurniere while in Paris but as he tells police investigator Bezu Fache (Jean Reno), Saurniere never showed. What Langdon does not know is that Fache already has a suspect in the case, Langdon himself. The body found in the grand gallery amongst some of the world's greatest artistic treasures is surrounded by pagan symbols and clues, that Robert believes he is there to help interpret.

Coming to Robert's aide is a police code breaker, Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou). Having observed the evidence at headquarters, Sophie has determined that Fache has settled on Langdon being guilty. She's also figured out that Langdon is very much innocent based on the same evidence. 

Saurniere happens to be Sophie's estranged grandfather. The symbols he left behind, in his own blood as he slowly died, were meant for her but she needs Professor Langdon's help in solving all of the riddles grandpa left behind. This includes a secret passed down through the ages that Saurniere has kept and was in the past the provenance of people such as Victor Hugo, Sir Isaac Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci.

With Sophie's help Langdon escapes the Louvre, with some helpful artifacts from Saurniere and clues from Da Vinci himself. They must follow the clues if they are going to prove Robert's innocence and discover the amazing secret Jaques Saurniere died to protect, a secret that could lead them to the legendary Holy Grail. 

They will also need the help of an old friend of Robert's, conspiracy theorist Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen). An expert in all things related to the holy grail, Sir Leigh lets Robert and Sophie in on the scope and scale of the mystery they are trying to solve and the tremendous danger that secret threatens to unleash.

Keep in mind, of course, that the real killer of Jaques Saurniere is still out there. Silas (Paul Bettany) an imposing, self flagellating monk of the order of Opus Dei murdered Saurniere to get to the secret himself on behalf of a shady bishop (Alfred Molina). Working in secret for the Vatican, the bishop intends to destroy the holy grail if he gets his hands on it.

But just what is the holy grail? That is a mystery I will leave for you to discover by watching the movie. For storytelling purposes it's simply the McGuffin, that thing as described by Hitchcock, that drives a mystery movie plot. Be it a mysterious brief case, some sort of world killing virus or in this case the holy grail. It's that thing that every character in this kind of film seeks and that some characters will kill for. It's the motivation for chase scenes, gun fights and love stories.

This makes The Da Vinci Code a rather typical movie mystery. The film does indeed have more than a few chases, a few bullets fired and the makings of a minor love story. The Da Vinci Code is a conventional thriller except that it's driving force happens to be rather controversial.

Writer Dan Brown spins an outlandish tale that calls into question the divinity of Jesus Christ and spins a fantastical story of a Vatican cover up, the holy grail, and a secret society call the priory of scion whose membership reads like history's hall of fame.

It's a terrific story that in his book Brown drowns out with droning dialogue and a highly predictable murder mystery. The challenge to the filmmakers was to remain faithful enough to satisfy the millions who managed to fight through the books clichés while patching Brown's many plot holes.

Writer Akiva Goldsman does what he can to repair the books worst aspect, the dialogue. Cleaning up Brown's dense, halting prose, Goldsman cuts to the quick. This at times leaves people who haven't read the book in the dark but keeps the film from having to be four hours long to explain all of the various details. At 2 hours and 30 minutes, the film is long and filled with a lot of dialogue but we can thank Goldsman for getting the films many jargon filled conversations moving.

Also thank Ron Howard for keeping things moving as well. Only pausing when he absolutely has to, Howard keeps the film humming along with chase scenes, narrow escapes and tantalizing historic scenery from Paris to London. There was no way that even talents like Howard and Goldman could plug the many holes in the convoluted Da Vinci Code plot but they are blessed with a dream cast who allow us to relax and forget about many of those rather large holes.

Tom Hanks with his friendly, aw shucks charm is always an inviting screen presence. He's become an old reliable friend on screen and no matter how implausible the plot may be you want to follow along just to hang out with our buddy Tom Hanks.

Ian McKellen may not be our pal like Tom but playing a charming English eccentric, McKellen is perfectly at home and highly entertaining. His Sir Leigh Teabing has some of the more lengthy and difficult dialogue in the film but who better than the classically stage trained englishman to deliver even the most tedious monologues. His grand accent alone is enough to lull you into believing the fantastic lies he spins.

The Da Vinci Code is no groundbreaking adventure in the way Indiana Jones was but it's not the stultifying borefest that was National Treasure. It falls somewhere in the entertaining but forgettable middle ground of those two similar adventures. Good enough for me to recommend to fans of mystery, fans of the book and especially fans of our old pal Tom Hanks.

Movie Review: Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me if You Can (2002) 

Directed by Steven Spielberg 

Written by Jeff Nathanson 

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Amy Adams, Martin Sheen

Release Date December 25th, 2002 

Published December 24th, 2002 

Less than a week ago, Leonardo DiCaprio entered theaters with Gangs of New York, his first truly adult performance. He returns in his new film portraying a kid again. In Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, DiCaprio is famed teenage con man Frank Abagnale Jr, the youngest man ever to make the FBI's most wanted list. Though DiCaprio is playing a teenager in this film, it is yet another grown up performance that announces DiCaprio as an actor of great depth.

The true story of Frank Abagnale Jr. is one made for the big screen. Before the age of 19, Abagnale had been an airline pilot, a lawyer, and a doctor. He was also a master check forger. The story is told in flashback as FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) arrives at a French prison to retrieve Abagnale who had served two years in the prison for the same crimes he was charged with in the States. We flashback to young Frank and his picturesque family life. Frank's father, Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken), and his mother (Natalie Baye) seem to be happy. Unfortunately his father's business is going under and the IRS is beating down their door. The stress is breaking up the marriage. This leads Frank Jr. to hit the road and begin his life of crime.

Frank writes a series of bad checks before the banks finally cut him off. Then, inspiration strikes in the form of an airplane pilot. Seeing the respect and admiration people showed for airline pilots, Frank sets about becoming a pilot (or at least looking the part.) After conning officials at Pan Am into giving him a uniform and enough background information to be able to talk a good game, Frank sets about being a pilot. Using his uniform and sheer bravado, Frank starts forging checks from Pan Am. The uniform gave him instant credibility and Frank's ability to charm the female bank tellers meant never even having to produce an ID to have a check cashed in any bank in the country.

With the FBI onto his pilot scheme, Frank settles in Atlanta where a chance encounter with a sweet little nurse named Brenda (Amy Adams) leads Frank to become a doctor. He fakes a degree from Harvard Medical School and watches Dr. Kildare. Suddenly, he's working the night shift as the head on call doctor in the emergency room. Thankfully, being in charge of a group of doctors means that Frank is never left to tend to a patient. Frank's relationship with Brenda leads to yet another close call with the feds, and has Frank headed for Europe.

Despite his adept criminal mind and quick wit, Frank is still a kid and still a sloppy criminal and the FBI is quickly on his path. In one amazing encounter, Frank actually comes face to face with the FBI agents on his tail and crafts an amazing lie to make his escape by posing as a secret service agent. The scene relies on a great deal of convenient timing and luck, but then I'm sure the real Frank Abagnale was the beneficiary of convenient timing and luck throughout his criminal run.

Indeed, Frank Abagnale's story is true. He was the youngest man ever to make the FBI's infamous most wanted list. He did cash forged checks over a three year span that totaled over 4 million dollars and he did impersonate a doctor, an airline pilot, and a lawyer and even for a short time a French teacher in his own high school. His first taste of how to run a good con, he made it a full week as a French substitute without actually speaking any French.

Why did Frank Abagnale do all of this? The likely answer is because he thought he could get a way with it. Spielberg however can't help tossing in a little pop psychology as a partial explanation. The film posits that the break up of his parents' marriage and his desire to reunite them by buying their problems away caused Frank to become a criminal. That and his father's hatred for the government kept Frank on the run. 

DiCaprio however never communicates a tortured victim, but rather, an excitable teen who lacks a good solid hobby. If there had been extreme sports in Frank's day, he may have just risked his life on stupid stunts. In place of that, his need for a constant rush leads him to crime. FBI agent Hanratty becomes his unwilling accomplice, providing Frank with the reason to keep running. What fun is being a great con artist or a great anything for that matter, if no one is around to appreciate it?

Spielberg is a preeminent story teller and in Frank Abagnale he has a great story. Unfortunately, Frank is too good of a guy for there to be any great drama. The film makes great use of the audience as Frank's co-conspirators. With his charm and wit, DiCaprio has the audience cheering for him to get away and you can't help but laugh at the way Frank toys with the people who attempt to deny him. However, the audience never really understands the gravity of his situation. Stealing four million dollars is a serious thing; it's grand theft. Yet, Frank is so likable and the narrative is so forgiving to him one would think it was okay for him to get away.

In many ways, Catch Me If You Can reminded me of a far better film, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Both films are about troubled youth con men. Both guys are loners who are desperate for attention and both draw the sympathy of the audience; however, Ripley is far more dramatic than Abagnale. His longings and crimes add weight to the character that Abagnale lacks. Catch Me If You Can is far more flashy than Ripley is and, for that reason, the drama is lacking. Frank never seems to be in any real danger.

Both DiCaprio and Hanks are strong but Catch Me If You Can still seems weightless. It isn't a comedy but it's not nearly dramatic enough to be taken seriously. Yes, this is a true story. But something tells me the real story is a little more dramatic than the featherweight screen version. All of that said, Catch Me if You Can is wildly entertaining and with Spielberg, Hanks, and DiCaprio, you have a trio incapable of making a bad movie together. Catch Me if You Can may not live up to all of your expectations but it is nevertheless entertaining. 

Movie Review: The Terminal

The Terminal (2004) 

Directed by Steven Spielberg 

Written by Sacha Gervasi, Jeff Nathanson 

Starring Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta Jones, Stanley Tucci, Chi McBride, Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana

Release Date June 18th, 2004 

Published June 17th, 2004 

I thought it was an urban legend. My brother and I were discussing the new Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks flick The Terminal when he told me the story of Merhan Karimi Nasseri. Mr. Nasseri has spent the past 15 years in the international terminal of Charles De Gaulle Airport in France after his bag was stolen with all of his identification.

The Iranian born Mr. Nasseri has lived off the kindness of the airport staff for 15 years, has inspired 2 documentaries and a French film called Tombes Du Ciel or Lost In Transit starring the legendary Jean Rochefort. Now Mr. Nasseri is a getting a big time American treatment from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Sadly, this trifle of a film is exposed for it’s light as featheriness by the dramatic true story on which it is loosely based.

In The Terminal, Tom Hanks is Viktor Navorsky who has come to New York City from his Eastern block home of Krakozhia. Unfortunately while Mr. Navorsky was flying to America, Krakozhia plunged into civil war and the government dissipated. Now in America, Mr. Navorsky is a man without a country, his Visa is invalid because the U.S government can’t recognize a ruling power in Krakozhia. Until the war ends and a new government is established, Viktor must remain in the airport terminal.

Breaking the bad news to Viktor is the not so kindly head of the airport’s Homeland Security Office Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci). It is Frank who could find away to really help Viktor but instead strands him with bureaucratic red tape and then takes a sadistic interest in preventing Viktor from making the most of his desperate situation.

Stuck in the International terminal, that looks more like a mall than an airport thanks to the numerous real brand name stores, Viktor waits and involves himself in the lives of the airport staff. There is Diego Luna as a food delivery worker who trades Viktor free food in exchange for Viktor’s help in romancing an INS Agent played by Zoë Saldana. Although Viktor knows he can’t leave, he visits the INS office every day to have his passport declined.

Chi McBride is a baggage handler with a soft spot for late night card games. He sees Viktor as a soft mark for poker games but soon becomes a real friend. And then there is the janitor, an Indian man played by Kumar Pallana, a lovable oddball with a secret past. Pallana provides the biggest laughs of the film and none of them at his expense.

Finally, there is Catherine Zeta Jones as Amelia, a flight attendant who takes a shine to Viktor but can’t get involved because she is hopelessly involved with a married man played briefly by Michael Nouri. While she tries to resist the urge to be with the married man, Amelia and Viktor come close to romance until the plot conspires to split them.

Despite the film’s dramatic underpinnings, everything is kept very light and airy. In fact, it’s so light that it floats off the screen and almost immediately from your memory. Tom Hanks, arguably our most talented actor, here plays a sort of lovable puppy of a character whose moral fiber is so unquestionable, he is too good to be true. There is nothing wrong with a character that is virtuous but Viktor is Touched By An Angel good. Maybe that explains why Stanley Tucci's officious bureaucrat hates him so much anyone this perfect would eventually get on your nerves. Still, Tucci is too evil to be true until the plot calls for him to look the other way.

Too good to be true describes most of The Terminal which suffers from a script full of contrivances. Viktor quickly learns English, lucks into the food deal with Diego, lucks into a job working construction in the terminal and in typical forced romantic comedy fashion, he has a meet-cute with Amelia that becomes a running gag.

I have been quite hard on The Terminal to this point so I should point out that their are a number of good things about the film. Steven Spielberg's direction is typically strong in its structure and look. Cinematographer Janusz Kaminsky relishes the freedom given him by a set that was built specifically for the film and for his camera to be positioned as he pleased.

The film’s biggest star may in fact be the set created by production designer Alex McDowell. Rather than trying to wrangle shooting time in a real airport terminal, McDowell and his team of designers built a terminal inside of a Los Angeles airport hangar. The flawless design is a seamless recreation of any major airport terminal in the country right down to the uncomfortable benches, the ungodly level of branding, and astoundingly high prices.

However, without a well-told story to decorate the terrific set, the movie isn't worth anymore than it's production design. The Terminal is likable and sweet, and occasionally quite funny, but it is also inconsistent, simpleminded, and lighter than air. Tom Hanks is his typically likable self and Mr. Spielberg's direction is of his usual quality. It's unfortunate that the script by Sacha Gervasi and Jeff Nathanson is far below the quality of their work.

Movie Review Larry Crowne

Larry Crowne (2011) 

Directed by Tom Hanks 

Written by Tom Hanks, Nia Vardalos 

Starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Gugu Mbatha Raw, Taraji P Henson

Release Date July 1st, 2011 

Published June 30th, 2011 

"Larry Crowne" is a disappointment on multiple levels. First, and most important, is how truly awful a movie "Larry Crowne" is. Boring, banal, pointless and at times bordering on amateurish. Then there is the fact that the film stars two of the biggest stars of the past 25 years of film, Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks.

And finally, there is the fact that Tom Hanks co-wrote and directed this failure of sub-sitcom humor and cloying romance. Tom Hanks had shown so much promise as the director of the charming period rock n' roll movie "That Thing You Do." To see him deliver something as charm-free and banal as "Larry Crowne" is just sad.

Tom Hanks stars in the title role of Larry Crowne. Larry is maybe the nicest, sweetest guy you would ever want Tom Hanks to play; he's Forrest Gump minus most of the mental handicaps. Larry was in the Navy for more than 20 years but when asked about it he's quick with a humble smile and an admittance that he was just a cook. Awww.

Larry's wife divorced him several years ago, before they could have kids but after they had bought their suburban dream home. Since then, Larry has thrown himself into his work, taking great pride in being an eight time employee of the month at U-Mart, a Wal-Mart/Target Superstore clone.

Unfortunately for Larry, he never went to college. At UMart you can only move up to management if you have a degree and without one, Larry can't move up so he must move on. Fired from his beloved retail job, Larry finds the job market unwelcoming. Lucky for him, his neighbor has an idea, Community College.

If Larry can get a degree maybe he can get his job back or an even better job. Is the movie over? No, it has only begun as Larry returns to school and immediately acquires a new best friend, a perfect pixie named Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who immediately sets about changing Larry's life around; new clothes, new haircut, new friends and boom, slightly new Larry. She's a manic pixie dream-best friend. 

Meanwhile, in another movie, Julia Roberts plays a slightly alcoholic Community College professor who happens to have Larry Crowne in one of her classes. From time to time the camera ditches Larry to follow the professor into her sad life with her porn addicted, unemployed husband, Dean (Bryan Cranston).

Oh if only she could get a little Larry time; his cuddliness and good humor would without a doubt brighten her day and solve all of troubles. Oops. I maybe should have offered a spoiler alert there. Then again, did you think "Larry Crowne" was going to star Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts and they weren't going to be matched up?

The fact is, romantic comedies aren't about suspenseful plotting, they're about setting believable, interesting, roadblocks between potential love mates and watching them humorously negotiate said roadblocks on their way to a chirpy happy ending. Rom-coms are about the journey and in the case of "Larry Crowne," it's not a great journey.

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts demonstrate a stunning lack of chemistry in "Larry Crowne." In fact, Hanks has a great deal more chemistry with young Gugu Mbatha-Raw than with Julia Roberts. That however, would be a different, possibly more interesting movie. That movie would at least have the tension of a cross-racial May-December romance.

"Larry Crowne," on the other hand, has no tension whatsoever. As Roger Ebert points out perfectly in his review, Larry Crowne begins as a good guy and progresses through the movie as a good guy before ending as a good guy. There is no arc to "Larry Crowne." We know where the movie is going and it gets there with a minimum of humor and zero tension, as if complicating the plot might make the audience uncomfortable.

Oh, but there is the porn addict husband, right? He's a source of tension isn't he? He's played by Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston. That must be contentious? But it's not, the script deals the husband out of the story with such simplicity as to have simply forgotten he was even there.

It's shocking and sad just how bad "Larry Crowne" is. I am a huge Tom Hanks fan but I cannot deny just how banal the whole thing is. The humor is amateurish, the romance is lifeless and perfunctory and the movie just sort of stands around smiling pleasantly and hoping that all of the Tom Petty songs on the soundtrack, there are like a dozen of them, will be entertaining enough to distract from the dullness of what little story there is.

Movie Review Hall Pass

Hall Pass (2011) 

Directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly 

Written by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, Pete Jones, Kevn Barnett 

Starring Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate, Richard Jenkins

Release Date February 25th, 2011 

Published February 24th, 2011

Peter and Bobby Farelly haven't been relevant since they rode the public's brief fascination with Jack Black in the early 2000's to a hit with “Shallow Hal.” Since then the brothers have floundered half focused on new material and half obsessed with making a movie about the Three Stooges. The Stooges movie has been gestating since the late 90's with a variety of acting combinations dropping in and out with nothing to show for it.

Finally, the guys who started the man-child comedy revolution with movies like “There's Something About Mary” are back at full strength and making the kind of movie that was their forte. “Hall Pass” is a small miracle of outrageously raunchy humor with a good heart that made ``Mary,’ “Kingpin” and “Shallow Hal” hits.

Owen Wilson stars in “Hall Pass” as Rick, an early 40's father of three happily married for more than 15 years to Maggie (Jenna Fischer). Three kids have taken the spark out of the marriage lately and more and more Maggie is catching Rick lusting after other women like a horny old teenager.

More troubled are Rick and Maggie's best friends Fred (Jason Sudeikis) and Grace (Christina Applegate). They have no kids and no spark; leaving Fred to masturbate in the front seat of their minivan lest she catch him. (If you're wondering how that bit of information pays off, see the movie.) Rick and Fred commiserate over their troubled love lives at a local coffee shop while lusting after an Aussie barista named Leigh (Nicky Whelan) whose nubile-ness represents everything they fantasize about.

After speaking to a mutual friend “The View's Joy Behar in an unshowy cameo) Maggie and Grace come up with the idea of a Hall Pass. The concept is simple, one week off from marriage to do whatever the guys want, guilt free. Either they will spend the week striking out or they will get whatever cheating they were going to do anyway out of their systems.

This is the kind of simple, straight forward set up that Ron Howard and Vince Vaughn botched in “The Dilemma.” The Farrelly Brothers demonstrate that it takes more than just the idea to make the movie; you need characters and big gags that pay off to really make it work.

Owen Wilson shows a heretofore untapped talent for playing a middle aged dork. Usually cast as the life of the party guy, Wilson slips effortlessly into the role of Rick like one in the long line of 80's rock 'n roll t-shirts Rick thinks is cool. What Rick and Fred think is cool goes a long way for laughs in “Hall Pass.”

Jason Sudeikis is a real scene stealer in “Hall Pass;” offering the same kind of randy, goofy, raunch-ridden asides that he brought to his equally funny supporting role in last year's “Going the Distance” with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. Sudeikis plays a great douchebag but when the role calls for him to morph into a good guy you believe it fully.

The gags in “Hall Pass” range from the classically Farrelly bathroom jokes, including some truly explosive diarrhea, to more self aware stuff reflecting the ways in which guys really talk. A scene taking place in the home of a mutual friend that neither Rick or Fred really like demonstrates that guys can be as catty as women are about the people they envy, they just have a more blunt and colorful way of being catty.

”Hall Pass” is uproariously funny with big gags mixing with strong characters and in the end a believable amount of heart minus the treacle that most other, similar films pack on when they don't have the goods to really earn audience sympathies. The Farrelly Brothers haven't been this funny in over a decade. See “Hall Pass” and rejoice and who knows, maybe that Stooges movie will actually come out someday.

Movie Review: Drive Angry 3D

Drive Angry 3D (2011) 

Directed by Patrick Lussier

Written by Todd Farmer, Patrick Lussier

Starring Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner, Billy Burke, Tom Atkins, Charlotte Ross

Release Date February 25th, 2011 

Published February 25th, 2011 

Didn't Nicolas Cage already play a guy who escaped from hell? What movie was that? Didn't “Con Air” guy escape from hell? What about that “Bangkok Dangerous” hitman character? “Ghost Rider?” I don't remember or really care. Nicolas Cage is the only actor on the planet who could so nonchalantly play a guy who escaped from hell and leave you wondering if he's done it before.

”Drive Angry 3D” stars Nicolas Cage as John Milton and if you get the reference in the name you are not likely the target audience for this movie; an almost delicious bit of irony. Milton, as he prefers to be called, John is just too ordinary, is hunting for a cult leader (Billy Burke) who murdered his daughter and has taken Milton's baby granddaughter hostage with the intent on sacrificing her in order to literally raise hell to earth.

How intent is Milton to save his granddaughter? Well, he literally escaped from hell and to top that off, he stole Satan's very own God Killer shotgun. After torching his own muscle car in order to kill some bad guys, Milton needs a ride. Enter Piper (Amber Heard) who has a 69 Charger and enough bad attitude to match Milton bad guy for bad guy.

Together Milton and Piper set on the cult leader's trail all the while being tracked themselves by a cryptic man in a suit who calls himself 'The Accountant' (William Fichtner). We learn that 'The Accountant' works for the Dark Lord Satan but whether he is out to help or hinder Milton's quest is debatable until the end.

”Drive Angry 3D” is directed with great energy by Patrick Lussier who brought a similar edgy, low brow, ugliness and grit to his remake of “My Bloody Valentine.” Unfortunately, that film was a million times more inventive than anything in “Drive Angry 3D” which plays like a series of car chases broken up by Nicolas Cage grunting and standing slump shouldered, lost in thoughts none of us could even imagine. Don't get me wrong, there is a heavy amount of kitsch to be mined from Cage in “Drive Angry 3D” but not the so bad its good kind.

Cage brings zero humor to the role of Milton and co-star Amanda Heard is similarly far too earnest for this material. “Drive Angry 3D” cries out for the kind of over the top Nicolas Cage that drove his “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” to heights of manic, lunatic, craziness. Instead, a subdued Cage in “Drive Angry 3D” cannot make even a scene of fully clothed love making while shooting bad guys work as a comic set piece.

There is a good deal of effort on display in “Drive Angry 3D,” especially from Director Patrick Lussier who deserved better from his star. “Drive Angry 3D” has the elements in place for some seriously B-Movie fun but Cage refuses to have any fun and the movie sinks under the weight of his seriousness.

Movie Review The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau (2011) 

Directed by George Nolfi 

Written by George Nolfi 

Starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Terence Stamp 

Release Date March 4th, 2011

Published March 3rd, 2011 

Fate versus free will is the debate at the heart of “The Adjustment Bureau,” or so the movie wants you to believe. There is little ambiguity about the side the film comes down on: Both Sides. Surprise! A mainstream entertainment that tries to be all things to all sides; hey taking a side might cost a potential ticket buyer.

As irksome as the compromised plot of “The Adjustment Bureau” is, I can't stay mad at the movie because the makers placed Matt Damon and Emily Blunt at the center of their faux conflict. Damon and Blunt have such wonderful, unforced romantic chemistry that “The Adjustment Bureau” adjusts from a bad idea to a not terrible bit of romantic goofery.

Matt Damon stars in “The Adjustment Bureau” as Congressman David Norris, a rising star and bad boy Democrat. We meet David as he is running for Senate from the great state of New York and falling victim to one of the lamest scandals ever to befall a politician, especially one from New York.

With his campaign derailed, David is preparing his concession speech in a hotel men's room when he meets Elise (Blunt), hiding out in said men's room to avoid hotel security. She hears much of David's lame speech and unintentionally nudges him toward something slightly more genuine.

What we see of the speech doesn't really warrant the political superstardom the movie claims for David but maybe the better stuff is on the editing room floor. It doesn't really matter, the film's depiction of politics is not central to the plot which really kicks in after David takes a private sector gig, working for his pal Charlie (Michael Kelly).

Men in hats played by Anthony Mackie and Mad Men's John Slattery have been shadowing David since we met him and after he loses they step in to inform us that David has to have his path adjusted. It will be Mackie's job to slow David down on his way to work so an adjustment can be made at work. When that slowdown doesn't happen, David winds up meeting Elise again and his path gets out of control.

The man in charge or the Chairman or God or whatever, doesn't want David and Elise together; it's not part of David's life plan which may or may not involve the Presidency. Should David choose to continue pursuing Elise he will be lobotomized and the process will begin all over again, just with someone other than David.

Unfortunately, David's attraction to Elise is more powerful than the threat to becoming President or potential frontal lobe dismemberment. He chases her down and when one of the adjusters decides to help him out, plans begin to diverge toward chaos.

The ideas in “The Adjustment Bureau” are interesting but they are not all that well explored. The film is based, not surprisingly, on a short story by Phillip K. Dick which explored the theme of fate versus free will in a more thorough and concise manner in a much shorter amount of time.

Writer-director George Nolfi appreciates the ideas of Dick's story but his movie doesn't really explore the themes. Instead, we get a lot of chase scenes and scenes between Matt Damon and Emily Blunt that do well to distract us and then scenes with Damon and Anthony Mackie that remind us that the movie isn't very good.

Nothing against Mackie, it's not his fault that his character is more functionary than character. The same goes for John Slattery and Terrence Stamp who don't so much have character arcs as spots they have to hit in order to throw a wrench in Damon's plans. That wouldn't be so bad if they at least had interesting things to say, maybe if they were funny or brought any real energy to their work. 

But no, these adjuster characters have few emotions beyond being tired from their ungodly workload; there are several billion people with paths to adjust. Their dialogue is mostly expository with Mackie coming off, at times, like he has one of those videogame bubbles over his head in order to illustrate the instructions Damon must have for his next move in the game. 

Now, it sounds like I hated “The Adjustment Bureau” but I don't. Despite the major plot issues I walked out of “The Adjustment Bureau” smiling thanks to stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Damon is at his charismatic best investing David Norris with the oily charm of a politician and the ability to convert genuinely into an average guy. 

When Damon is opposite the beautiful Ms. Blunt his eyes light and the whole movie seems to perk up. Emily Blunt has that essential quality of a star ingenue; beauty combined with that something behind the eyes that holds an audience in rapt attention to whatever she is trying to communicate. These two brilliant people together are irresistible and when the rest of the plot gets out of their way, it works. 

Is that really enough to recommend “The Adjustment Bureau?” Well, for me it is. It's hard to say whether this appeal will be there for all audiences; fair to guess that many people will be so disappointed with the failed sci-fi plot that they can't like the movie. For me, Damon and Blunt are worth the price of a ticket and in the future, easily worth a look at the Redbox.

Movie Review: Take Me Home Tonight

Take Me Home Tonight (2011)

Directed by Michael Dowse 

Written by Jackie Filgo, Jeff Filgo 

Starring Topher Grace, Anna Faris, Teresa Palmer, Dan Fogler 

Release Date March 4th, 2011 

Published March 3rd, 2011 

Nostalgia is a great selling point; so long as the seller knows truly what is being sold. You are essentially selling memories back to those who had them. You are selling familiarity and the comfort of things remembered. The makers of “Take Me Home Tonight” are aware of what they are selling and the pitch is funny enough that you won't regret buying it. 

Topher Grace is the star of “Take Me Home Tonight” as confused underachiever, Matt Franklin. Sure, Matt graduated from M.I.T but he's now back home in California and working at Suncoast Video at the mall. Matt has no idea what to do with the rest of his life but his day takes shape when into his store walks his high school crush, Tori Fredericking (Teresa Palmer.) 

She is attending an annual party being thrown by Matt's twin sister Wendy (Anna Faris) and her jerk boyfriend Kyle (Chris Pratt), a party Matt has always skipped. He will be attending this year however because tonight he will finally ask for Tori's number. Along for the ride will be Matt's only friend Barry (Dan Fogler) who skipped college but is intent on getting the experience of college back in a single night. 

It's an epic night with fights and drugs and sex and all kinds of classic 80's music from the title song, courtesy of Eddie Money, to The Safety Dance, to INXS and even a breakdancing scene. I think I heard a little Duran Duran in there as well; you can't have an 80's set movie without Duran Duran can you? 

Continuity nerds may want to skip “Take Me Home Tonight” as there are plenty of anachronisms to catalog but for those who don't know what year a particular song was released or when a particular TV show debuted, you should be able to focus on the more charming elements of this warm bit of Nostalgia.

Of all of the cast members on “That 70's Show,” another warm bit of nostalgia, Topher Grace has always been my favorite. Grace has an every guy quality, a nebbishy charm, that makes him more relatable than Ashton or Danny Masterson and the rest who all seemed to work very hard at appearing cool. 

Grace did yeoman's work on “That 70's Show” demonstrating how ‘trying’ to be cool is a futile effort. Called upon to continually sacrifice his dignity, Grace did so with a genuine comic flair. He has brought that same genuine quality to his film work, though few have noticed, his movies like “Win a Date With Tad Hamilton,” “In Good Company” and “P.S” have been almost universally ignored. 

Box office success however is not the measure of a good performer and Grace shows in “Take Me Home Tonight” why he is so damn likable, he works harder at it than most do. Grace is funny; he has a good instinct for the laugh. He's handsome in a non-threatening way, i.e. you could leave your girlfriend alone in a room with him without worry. 

It all adds up in “Take Me Home Tonight” to a lead character who is easy to like and easy to root for and it's shocking when you realize how many movies fail at creating that character. On the weekend “Take Me Home Tonight” hits theaters so does a movie called “Beastly” where not one thoughtful, interesting or even modestly likable character emerges. 

See “Take Me Home Tonight” for that warm, nostalgic feeling it offers and for Topher Grace, a funny guy who deserves a better box office fate than some of his former co-stars who have seen so much unearned adulation and star-power despite having a lesser resume.