Movie Review Searching

Searching (2018)

Directed by Aneesh Chaganty

Written by Sev Ohanion, Aneesh Chaganty

Starring John Cho, Debra Messng 

Release Date August 31st, 2018

Published August 30th, 2018

2018 has seen some remarkable experiments in form. Steven Soderbergh’s ingenious thriller Unsane was filmed on multiple IPhones and crafted one of the most exciting and suspenseful movies of the year. And, the movie we’re talking about today, Searching, from director Aneesh Chaganty, ranks right alongside Unsane as a terrific experiment in form and as a thriller. The film was shot entirely from the perspective of a computer monitor. That sounds as if it would be a tough watch but Searching is so much better than you think it is.

Searching stars John Cho as David Kim, a devoted father and a recent widower. David dotes on his daughter, Margo (Michelle La), mostly via video chat and social media messenger. Margot is an overachiever, or at least that’s what David believes. Soon he will come to find he doesn’t know his daughter as well as he thought he did. Searching is not just an experiment in form, it’s a challenging subject for parents who might want to take a closer look at their kids on social media.

After some mundane exchanges about taking out the garbage and money set aside for piano lessons we get to the meat of the plot. Margot is supposed to be studying late with friends but then, she doesn’t come home. We see, in the middle of the night, David gets a pair of skype calls from Margot but he misses them, he’s asleep. When he wakes and calls Margot, she doesn’t answer and when he finds she’s not at school, he calls the police.

So much of Searching is just John Cho’s worried face and it is a testament to his charisma and star power that Searching is so compelling. Cho’s frantic expression is engrossing and his search for clues is our search for clues. Instead of being over his shoulder as he searches, we’re in his computer following the evidence that he gathers via Margot’s computer, her social media, her bank account and her phone.

The mystery of Margot’s whereabouts is riveting and the shooting style, that inside the computer screen looking out of perspective, feels urgent and exhilarating. It’s exactly what you and I would be doing in the same situation. Scouring social media, opening our kids computers and digging through their email for any digital trail they may have left. What David finds is what any of us might find if we investigated a typical teenager and the mystery of whether Margot ran away or was kidnapped raises the stakes throughout the story as evidence tips one way and then the other.

Searching is one of the least talked about success stories of 2018. The film was made for a budget of $1 million dollars and the film grossed over $70 million dollars, making it one of the best return on investment movies of the year. That the film also happens to be a tremendous work of art makes Searching truly admirable. And, now that the film is available on Blu-Ray and DVD it should only become more successful.

Indeed, television may add a dimension to the movie in some ways, making the experience more intimate, like looking at your own computer. The theatrical experience of Searching worked but this is one of the rare movies where home video may enhance the experience. That’s saying something considering Searching is already a really great movie. I can’t recommend it enough for the high level mystery and John Cho’s brilliant performance.

Searching should inspire modern filmmakers to take more chances with form. This film and Unsane are rare among modern movies, taking advantage of modern tech to create a whole new genre of movies that I expect is still in infancy and will only become a bigger genre over time. Unsane will likely be the more influential of these movies but Searching demonstrates boundaries in form that can be pushed and that will undoubtedly have a legacy.

Movie Review Scream 4

Scream 4 (2011) 

Directed by Wes Craven

Written by Kevin Williamson

Starring Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere

Release Date April 15th, 2011

Published April 14th, 2011 

The original "Scream" in 1996 transformed a moribund genre. Horror had grown stale and predictable when "Scream" arrived and with its mix of horror movie inside jokes, ironic asides and better than average scares reinvented horror movies; giving the genre back the edge it lost with the 5th or 6th time Jason Voorhees came back from the dead and then went to space.

"Scream 2" had similar juice as the first; cleverly twisting the conventions of goofy horror sequels and using them to create laughs before dousing the humor with blood and screams. The third film lost the thread by going so far inside itself that neither the laughs nor the scares could escape.

Now we have "Scream 4" which picks up the action 10 years after the story of "Scream 3" and you have to wonder why Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) would ever go back to Woodsboro. Sure, she still has family there, her Aunt Kate (Mary McDonnell) and teenage cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) but still, going back to so much history and on the anniversary of the original killings no less, seems like a really bad idea.

Indeed, it is a bad idea as just before Sidney arrives two Woodsboro teens are killed while watching the movie 'Stab 7' based on the books by Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) on the Woodsboro killings. Well, to be fair, as one of the soon to be murdered teens points out, the first three 'Stab' movies were based on the books; the next 4 were pale imitations of the first that even had Ghostface as a time traveler.

Back to Sidney, she has written a self help book based on her recovery from the trauma of surviving three separate mass murders. She has come back to Woodsboro at the behest of her publicist (Alison Brie) who can't wait to call the publishing company to tell them about the murders that she knows will spike sales of Sidney's book. Her bloodthirstiness is more of a commentary on modern marketing practice than any kind of clue to her being more of a character in this movie. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media

Movie Review Sanctum

Sanctum (2011) 

Directed by Alister Grierson 

Written by Andrew Wright

Starring Richard Roxburgh, Rhys Wakefield, Ioan Gruffudd

Release Date February 4th, 2011 

Published February 4th, 2011

A group of angry, bitter and hateful characters stock the foreground of “Sanctum,” the James Cameron produced 3D thriller about cave diving that while visually impressive is too ugly and stupid in character and plot to succeed in any way even if the visuals are stunning and inventive.

Richard Roxburgh is Frank, the driven and angry leader of a cave diving team somewhere in New Guinea. With his benefactor, Carl (Ioan Gruffaud) soon to arrive, Frank has a new discovery to show off, a possible link between an ancient cave and the ocean, a sight no one may have ever seen before.

Unfortunately, Carl's arrival is met with the accidental death of one of the divers. With a storm coming and  a body that needs to be moved, the exploration should be on hold but Frank refuses. Carl is his willing accomplice, admonishing any worry warts that with speed the expedition can be done before the storm arrives.

Oh, how wrong he was. Carl, with his new girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson) and Frank's son Josh (Rhys Wakefield) arrives in the cave just in time for the storm to hit, stranding them all thousands of feet below the surface. With the caves filling with rain water, the only escape may be Frank's theoretical passage to the ocean but to get there will require remarkable diving skills, something Victoria does not have.

Naturally, the crew is as short on supplies as Frank is short on patience. They move forward into the water but not before idiot characters make idiot decisions based on stupid notions. I don't want to spoil things for those determined to see “Sanctum” but one character makes a decision so wholly idiotic that the groans from the audience lasted almost until the character's inevitable fate. 

”Sanctum” is based on the real life experience of producer and co-writer Andrew Wight, a protégée of James Cameron and an experienced diver and underwater filmmaker who had a very similar experience trapped in an underwater cave during a storm. Wight and his party survived and he felt there was a good idea for a movie in the experience. 

Wight is right, there is a good movie to be made of his experience but “Sanctum” is not it. Rather, this plodding exercise in thriller genre clichés reveals the true intent behind “Sanctum” which is merely an excuse to show off the 3D technology that Cameron has been pushing as the future of movies.

Stupid, ugly, moronic characters with vague and even moronic motivations stumble through “Sanctum” merely as clotheslines to carry us from one awesome visual to the next. Unfortunately, so execrable and irritating are these characters that even the stunning 3D technology on display cannot distract wholly from how awful they are.

The only reason “Sanctum” is not a documentary featuring real divers exploring real caves in search of visuals never before seen is that the viewing public tends to see such documentaries as boring or too much like going to school. A documentary simply doesn't draw an audience the way any boring old mainstream thriller does.

James Cameron was looking for a way to demonstrate his technology and its potential outside his own work and a documentary playing on the IMAX screen simply wouldn't cut it. He needed to show 3D working in a genre movie to demonstrate how it could be the future of movies going as he sees it.

Boy, did he hook his wagon to the wrong horse. “Sanctum” may be a triumph of 3D technology but the thriller stuff, the characters, they are so bad that this reviewer, and indeed many others simply cannot recommend it. Better luck next time King of the World.

Movie Review Salt

Salt (2010) 

Directed by Phillip Noyce

Written by Kurt Wimmer

Starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andre Braugher

Release Date July 23rd, 2010 

Published July 22nd, 2010 

Can a movie run on pure rocket fuel adrenalin? The answer is yes but only when your star has the astonishing star power of Angelina Jolie. “Salt,” directed by Phillip Noyce, begins with a jolt and after a few moments of exposition to set the stakes it sets off on a pace that makes “Fast and the Furious” look like “The Remains of the Day.”

Angelina Jolie is Evelyn Salt, a CIA Agent who is accused by a Russian defector (Daniel Olbrychski) of being a Russian sleeper agent tasked with killing the Russian President. Naturally, Salt claims she is being set up and just as naturally no one, aside from her partner Winters (Liev Schreiber) believes her.

Internal Affairs Agent Peabody (Chiwitel Ejiofor) certainly doesn't believe her and intends on detaining her but with her husband (August Diehl) having gone missing and the defector having escaped, Salt takes it on herself to escape to chase the baddie, find her husband and prevent the job she's allegedly been tasked with from taking place.

There is a great deal going on plot wise in “Salt“and not one iota of it matters in the least to the success of the film. “Salt” is a film that exists purely as propulsion. The action proceeds at a pace that distracts from the whacked plot and seems intended to do just that.

Director Phillip Noyce and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer have constructed a movie so convoluted that the entire film functions as a weird Rube Goldberg experiment that relies desperately on the next ludicrous yet intricately designed, rapid fire action scene. In one of the biggest and most outlandish scenes in the film Jolie leaps from one moving truck to another and then another all while being chased and shot at. The physics are laughable but if you treat it like the inside joke between filmmaker and audience that it may in fact be and you can really have some fun.

Angelina Jolie is both gorgeous and badass with just a touch of vulnerability. Those lips and that body draw you in and the rest keeps you riveted to the screen waiting to see what she will do next. “Salt” was initially written for a male protagonist and Tom Cruise was rumored for the lead. Seeing “Salt” on the big screen it's impossible to imagine anyone but Ms. Jolie, she owns this role with style, sex, charisma and an almost physical command of the screen.

Of course, if you pause for a moment and pull the plot apart it would crumble like a bad game of Jenga but like I said “Salt” has little time for a plot. “Salt” is a perpetual motion machine of gunfights, car chases, foot chases ,and Angelina Jolie's unstoppable charisma. Take it for what it is and ask for nothing more and you will be satisfied with “Salt.”

Movie Review Roma

Roma (2018) 

Directed by Alfonso Cuaron

Written by Alfonso Cuaron

Starring Yalitza Aparicio 

Release Date December 14th, 2018

Published December 11th, 2018 

Film Critics tend to be accused of automatically loving movies that are subtitled and in black and white. It’s a trope of my kind that we will always heap praise upon a foreign film while bagging on the latest Hollywood offering that earns millions of dollars. People assume this has to do with critics establishing our highbrow credentials but my more than 16 years of experience has taught me why this trend takes hold. 

Having spent well over a decade seeing every Hollywood wide release movie in the theater I can attest, it begins to wear you down over time. You, dear reader, may only see one teen oriented slasher film but I see 5 or 6 per year. You see perhaps three blockbusters per year on average, I see them all. You see maybe one Young Adult romance per year, I am inundated with them. Eventually, after experiencing the same Hollywood formula year after year after year, your brain begins to beg for something different and since subtitled black and white movies are a rarity in this day and age, it makes sense that we critics gravitate towards them, if only to break the monotony. 

Roma is the latest of the black and white subtitled movies to receive lavish praise from my kind. Roma has 99% positive reviews on RottenTomatoes.com and has been honored with a Best Picture nomination at the Critics Choice Movie Awards, the first Foreign Film in the CCMA's 24 year history. Critics adore this minimalist and deeply personal story from the brilliant director Alfonso Cuaron and I think I am a fan. Or, is it just so welcomingly different that I just appreciate the difference. Let’s find out. 

Roma tells the story of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a young maid working in the home of a well off family in Mexico in the early 1970's. Cleo’s life is a routine of cleaning and cooking and bonding with the four young children in the family. As we watch we get the sense that Cleo is almost like part of the family… almost. Little scenes in Roma give us a sense of the boundaries that the adults in the family work awkwardly to maintain. 

The family is beginning to splinter as the story goes on but that’s well in the background. The forefront of the story is Cleo and her day to day routine which she breaks only occasionally to go on dates with Fermin (Jorge Antonio Guerrero), a handsome but unusual young man, deeply dedicated to the martial arts. Fermin pursues Cleo but when she ends up pregnant, that pursuit ends abruptly and Cleo is left to take care of herself and worry as to whether she will be able to keep her job. 

Although I have given it a linear description, there really isn’t much of a story in Roma. This isn’t a traditional kind of movie. Director Alfonso Cuaron’s aim appears to be an authentic portrait of the life of a low wage working woman in the early 1970’s, perhaps a callback to someone he knew when he was young. It’s deeply affecting as a portrait of the character of Cleo who is compellingly portrayed by newcomer Yalitza Aparicio. 

Cuaron, rather impassively, floats his camera like a fly on a wall, observing at a distance the life of Cleo and the travails of her day to day routine. The panning shots of the home of the central family are quite beautiful and they set you up for even more beautiful, sweeping images when the film ventures out of the home, including a beautifully surreal firefighting scene in which the attendants of a New Year’s Eve Party are drafted in to help put out a forest fire. It’s a scene that would be comfortably at home in a Fellini movie, especially when a costume wearing man begins to sing. 

Alfonso Cuaron handled his own cinematography on Roma and his work is immaculate. The look of the film is gorgeous with the black & white photography giving the movie age and depth and a unique beauty that a director could likely only get from Black & White film. The film is flawlessly lensed and the technical filmmaking aspect of Roma is the real reason to see it. Rarely are movies this beautiful to just admire.

With all of that said, I am not sure how to recommend Roma. I have come to the conclusion that the film worked on me. I do like Roma a great deal, and not just because I am bored with every other type of movie in the market. The beauty and warmth of the film are more than enough for me to give a recommendation but there must be a caveat. Roma takes a long time to warm up. The film is deliberate and anyone looking for instant gratification should find another movie. 

The film is kind of gross early on with an extra special focus on a very, very messy dog. Then there is some highly unnecessary full male nudity which really puts me off. I understand why it is there, from a character standpoint and from a story standpoint, but I think the point could have been made elsewhere in the movie that this particular character is a childish lout. I don’t need to see him or anyone performing nude martial arts. 

So, who do I recommend Roma to, since I am recommending the movie? The audience is fans of awards shows. If you are someone who really loves awards shows and wants to see all of the nominees, you will need to see Roma. It would come as no surprise, given the critical consensus, if Roma is nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It deserves that level of praise. If however, you aren’t an awards junkie, you probably aren’t a hardcore film buff either. That probably means that Roma is not for you. 

Essay on Celebrity Documentaries

Listen to Me Marlon (2015)

Amy (2015)

I don’t know what to make of our celebrity culture anymore. Having recently seen the documentaries, Amy, Listen to Me Marlon and Soaked in Bleach, I can’t help but border on the idea that there is a real life conspiracy in the world to make some people seem crazier than they really are. In Listen to Me Marlon, Marlon Brando comes off as lucid and thoughtful, unlike the boorish, self-absorbed maniac that so many others portrayed him as.

In Amy we don’t see a girl who was a wreck and destroying herself, we see a slightly troubled girl of a slight emotional impairment ravaged on all sides by deceitful members of her family, and a media that are nothing short of vultures. In Soaked in Bleach we meet a Courtney Love that is not too much unlike the public persona, only slightly more human and filled with guilt and regret that she papers over with booze and drugs the way any other guilt-ridden person might use to cover their shame.

We’ve become trained to not see celebrities as fellow human beings, to not feel compassion for them because they are privileged. We’ve allowed ourselves the excuse of that privilege as giving us the right to pry into their lives for little details that we can then use to create versions of these celebrities that we can love or hate or project whatever feelings of inadequacy we have onto them.

It’s terrifying the lengths that we allow ourselves to go in order to create a more relatable or outsized version of these people to satisfy our needs. We harden opinions based on conjecture from people who make a living by inventing stories about these people for us to consume. It’s a demonstration of the ugliest sides of us.

These documentaries, especially Amy and Listen to Me Marlon, are more than just films, they are signposts of our cultural ruin and must be seen so that we can all take stock of who we’ve become and why and maybe find a way to strike a balance in our desire for these beautiful ciphers for our dreams and the reality that they live, love and hurt as much as we do, if not for many of the same reasons.

Movie Review Rush Hour 3

Rush Hour 3 (2007)

Directed by Bret Ratner

Written by Jeff Nathanson

Starring Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, Max Von Sydow, Noemie Lenoire, Jingchu Zhang

Release Date August 10th, 2007

Published August 9th, 2007

Chris Tucker has become something of a mystery. After 2001's Rush Hour 2, Tucker could not have been hotter. Tucker was commanding a salary of 20 million dollars per picture. He had offers coming in left and right and then nothing. For six years Tucker seemingly vanished from Hollywood. Six years later, after spending some time as a philanthropist in Africa, Tucker is back and returning to the character that made him a 20 million dollar man.

The endless troubles, budget and screenplay-wise, of Rush Hour 3 likely contributed to Tucker's absence. This sequel has been in the works since Rush Hour 2 opened to nearly 70 million dollars back in August of 2001. However, they just could not work out the many issues, until now, six years later.

It's been six years since Detective Carter (Chris Tucker) and his international partner, Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) threw down against some bad guys. Today, Carter has gotten himself in so much trouble that he is directing traffic on the busy streets of L.A. Meanwhile, his pal Lee is back in town, protecting the life of Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma) who may have information that could bring down the evil Chinese Triad.

When the Ambassador is shot, though not killed, Lee and Carter re-team to search for the Triad leaders who organized the hit, knowing that if they don't the triad will return to finish the job and kill the Ambassador's daughter Soo Yung (Jingchu Zhang). The investigation takes Carter and Lee to Paris where the triad is searching for a secret linked to a cabaret performer (Noemie Lenoire) and the French Ambassador Varden (Max Von Sydow).

You can definitely see some wear and tear on the Rush Hour concept as the creators and stars have stretched this buddy cop premise about as far as it can go. Carter and Lee have been friends for nearly a decade now, since the original Rush Hour in 1998, and yet we are to believe they still cannot understand each other.

The jokes have run their course and what is left is Tucker trying to motormouth his way through some mediocre improv jokes and an aging Jackie Chan trying desperately to hide his use of stunt men and CGI to help him with the acrobatics that made him a star. To Chan's credit, the action is the film's best asset, even if you can occasionally see the CGI at the seams.

Joining Tucker and Chan in Rush Hour 3 is a motley crew of supporting players and cameo day players. Director Roman Polanski is a standout as an officious French police officer who confronts Carter and Lee at Air France airport security in a most uncomfortable fashion. It's uncomfortable not merely for the joke but for the fact that it is Roman Polanski and this joke. And, of course, the trailer plays up Chan and Tucker's encounter with the former world's tallest man Sun Ming Ming which is about as funny as it is in the trailers and TV commercials.

Then there is Yvan Attal as the snooty French cab driver George. His anti-American schtick takes the film dangerously close to social commentary for all of about 20 seconds before he is tearing through the streets of Paris and screaming I love being an American! Americans by his definition, being the kind of people who are constantly involved in car chases and gunplay.

The problem with Rush Hour 3 is that it just isn't funny enough. You know that when the biggest laugh in the movie comes from a woman with a wig and an oh so timely reference to The Crying Game that the humor is beyond stale. Thankfully, Jackie Chan and director Brett Ratner do well enough with the fight scenes that even the most bored and jaded moviegoer will find themselves compelled, especially in the big Eiffel Tower finale.

The Rush Hour series is tired and running on fumes, like so many third films in Hollywood sequel land. Remember Lethal Weapon3? Ugh!. Rush Hour 3 isn't quite that disastrous but it's not that much better either. Here's hoping that Chan and Tucker move on to bigger and better things. Chan might consider training someone else to take all of those falls that have taken such a toll on him.

As for Chris Tucker, it's nice to see him back on the screen as he does remain a welcome presence. Let's just get past the motormouth cops and get him into something more challenging, or at the very least, something funnier than the retread jokes of Rush Hour 3.

Movie Review: Underdog

Underdog (2007) 

Directed by Frederik Du Chau

Written by Adam Rifkin

Starring Jason Lee, Jim Belushi, Peter Dinklage, Patrick Warburton, John Slattery, Taylor Momsen

Release Date August 3rd, 2007

Published August 3rd, 2007

Was there any need to make the 60's cartoon Underdog into a big budget live action movie? I've heard no clamor or call. No one outside the official Underdog fan club has even thought of Underdog in the near 20 years since the last reruns were exorcised from TV screens. And yet, here we are with Disney dusting off this forgotten pop culture relic with visions of the family dollar dancing in the heads of Disney accountants.

I hope they got their money's worth because we, the movie-going public, certainly do not. This 88 minute cash grab is one of the most dreary projects to come out of the Disney company since the bastardized sequels of their Pixar and other animated properties. Underdog is a deeply misguided, mercenary effort where profit trumps good taste, and stock prices are calculating on box office returns. 

Jason Lee stars as the voice of Underdog a former K9 cop turned lab rat who, after getting zapped by some chemicals, develops super powers. Escaping the lab of the evil doctor Simon Barr Sinister (slumming Station Agent star Peter Dinklage), Underdog ends taken in by a security guard (Jim Belushi) and his troubled son (Alex Neuberg). Nicknamed shoeshine for his proclivity for licking shoes, Underdog slowly learns that he has powers before the boy helps him become a superhero.

No points for for guessing that the troubled boy is healed by his new best friend and that father and son are brought closer together as they are forced to team up against Barr Sinister and his henchman Cad (Patrick Warburton). You could guess how this plot plays out without having to sit through this mind-numbing cliché of family movie drivel.

The key to such a predictable plot is trying to reinvent, or at the very least dress up, your familiar elements with jokes, action or effects. Underdog fails in all three of those attempts. The jokes of Underdog are limited to eye rolling dog puns about what dogs like to eat, where they like to poop and how they interact i.e the butt sniffing joke you can anticipate well before it comes.

The action is even more lame than the jokes. Mirroring the equally painful family dog picture Firehouse Dog, Underdog is just a series of bad CGI talking dogs against ugly fake green screened environments. The action and the effects of Underdog are inextricably linked thus if the action is lame, the effects must be as bad or even worse.

Looking at the cast of Underdog you can't be surprised to see the name of Jim Belushi on the cast list. What is shocking and sad is the career destruction of Jason Lee. Yes, it's only his voice in the role of Underdog but nevertheless, you have to dock him a bunch of cool points for his willingness to utter such lame jokes. Worse yet, Lee will follow Underdog by starring as Dave in a live action Alvin & The Chipmunks. Ugh.

I've already heard from one former Jason Lee fan who has completely written him off now that he seems to be taking the Eddie Murphy path to the easy family movie paycheck. Even more desperate than Lee is Peter Dinklage who truly lowers himself to play the villain in Underdog. The man who became an actor to watch after his terrific performance in The Station Agent, is now flailing and gesticulating desperately as he tries to cover up this failure with wild gesturing.

I'm sure that someone thought that making a live action version of Underdog would be fun but most of the people behind this lame adaptation likely only saw dollar signs. There was no call for a live action update of Underdog. No large contingent of fans lying in wait for Disney to wake up and realize the property they held was so valuable. Like the brutal Rocky & Bullwinkle movie from a few years back, Underdog is not a cartoon that cried out for live action adaptation. Rather,Underdog is a 60's relic barely notable enough to require a DVD collection.

Even a straight to video launch would have been too much for this waste of screen space.

Movie Review Hot Rod

Hot Rod (2007)

Directed by Akiva Schaffer

Written by Pam Brady

Starring Andy Samberg, Ian McShane, Isla Fisher

Release Date August 3rd, 2007

Published August 3rd, 2007

Andy Samberg was the MVP of Saturday Night Live recently thanks to his terrifically funny digital short films Lazy Sunday and Dick In A Box. Samberg has brought SNL the kind of cultural cache that the show hasn't had in over a decade which makes his move to the big screen a well anticipated event. It also unfortunately stokes my disappointment in Samberg's feature film debut.

Hot Rod, the story of a teenage stuntman, is a lame attempt to expand on Samberg's talent for physical humor with none of the wit that made Lazy Sunday a YouTube classic.

Rod (Samberg) dreams of one day becoming a world famous stuntman. For now he is content putting on stunt shows for the younger kids in the neighborhood. Though, as we meet him, his stunts consist mostly of his ugly crashes, Rod never loses hope that one day he will hit the big jump that will make him a legend and earn him the respect of his step-father (Ian Mcshane).

Rod's relationship with his step-dad is strained. The two do battle in hand to hand combat on a regular basis, putting a real hurt on one another; with real weapons and fists, in the family basement while Mom (Sissy Spacek) remains clueless. Despite the acrimony, when his step-dad grows ill and needs an operation to save his life, Rod steps up with a plan to use his stunt skills to raise the money to save his life, if only so he can finally kick the old guy's ass.

Naturally, there is a love interest for Rod. Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers) plays Denise, Rod's neighbor who remains oblivious to Rod's obvious crush on her. As a plot this typically dictates, Denise has a jerk boyfriend (Will Arnett) who will no doubt lose his girl to the sweet, earnest Rod.

Hot Rod was directed by Akiva Schaffer who is one third of the Lonely Island Comedy team with Samberg and Hot Rod co-star Jorma Taccone. The trio has worked together since they were teenagers and when Samberg got his SNL gig, based on one of their popular internet videos, he brought Schaffer and Taccone along with him as writers.

In their work; Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone have shown a real knack for modern culture and ironic wit. Why that did not translate in Hot Rod likely has a lot to do with trying to meld their talents with what is a rather mundane formulaic concept. Reduced to trying to squeeze their brand of irony in between all of the goofball slapstick, Samberg and company are left with snarky music cues and vague homages to 80's cultural icons, though thankfully no Hasselhoff.

Hot Rod is yet another of those really disappointing Hollywood comedies where the best stuff is the trailer. Searching my memory for one funny scene that I hadn't already seen in the film's ad campaign; I'm at a loss. The ramp collapsed? Funny in the trailer; less funny in the movie. The exploding stunt and subsequent exchange with a malcontent viewer? Funny in the trailer, forgettable in the context of the movie.

And on and on, anything funny in the trailer is all that was mildly amusing in the film itself. What is left of Hot Rod are allegedly humorous bits of music placement. If you think the simple fact that someone listens to the long lost hair band Europe is funny, then you will get a chuckle out of Hot Rod. If you think a character singing a karaoke version of George Michael's One More Try to his stuffed animals is a laugh riot? Then Hot Rod is your movie.

Whoops, sorry, I may have given away this movie's two jokes that aren't in the trailer.

Hot Rod is a real disappointment. Andy Samberg is a talented kid who can and likely will do better. Being that Hot Rod was a script originally intended for Will Ferrell, Samberg would be well instructed to find and develop something of his own. Or, at the very least, something more suited to his quirky talents. Hot Rod is, I hope, beneath the talent of Mr. Samberg and not the definition of his talents on the big screen.

Movie Review I Am Legend

I Am Legend (2007) 

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Written by Mark Protosevich, Akiva Goldsman

Starring Will Smith, Alice Brag, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok

Release Date December 14th, 2007

Published December 13th, 2007

Will Smith is the biggest star in the world for a reason. People just love this guy. It's an inexplicable kind of chemistry. He has that indefinable quality that draws people to him and that quality makes a big difference in his latest effort I Am Legend. Playing the last man in New York City, Smith is robbed of the tools that have made him a star. Gone is the charm, the timely quips lost on his only companion, his dog. Of course, he may not need his usual charm and quirks. After all I Am Legend has Will in his comfort zone, saving the world.

Dr. Robert Neville is resistant to both the air borne and blood borne virus that has in just three years wiped out most of the world's population. Those who weren't killed and weren't immune like Robert have mutated into bloodthirsty night dwellers who roam the streets in search of what fresh meat remains. Only Robert remains in New York City and he is a little lonely.

Spending his days hunting deer on Broadway and growing crops by the shore, and his nights trying to cure the virus, Robert is slowly going insane from the human void around him. Like Tom Hanks in Castaway, a movie I'm sure Robert has watched a dozen or so times, Robert longs for human contact and even begins infusing human qualities in inanimate objects.

Of course things don't stay this way. The mutants that Robert had thought were brain dead, bloodthirsty monsters are evolving in their hunt for blood and a confrontation is brewing between the scientist and the evil dead. Eventually, another human does arrive and they will make a stand together.

I Am Legend was directed by Francis Lawrence, a director who knows post-apocalyptic doom from his underrated work on the Keanu Reeves flick Constantine. I Am Legend leaves that film in the dust by depicting a decrepit world in ruins. The New York City of I Am Legend is like a second star of the film constantly vying for your attention.

Seeing the streets overgrown with weeds, the buildings moldered and dust covered, the streets covered in dirt, is truly mind blowing. Lawrence and his effects team create a stunningly realistic landscape for Smith and his undead friends to inhabit.

Ah, but Lawrence did not leave the direction to just the effects. He does a terrific job creating opportunities for Will Smith to do his action thing. The tense confrontations between Will and the bloodthirsty monsters are directed with so much tension and energy that you will watch through your fingers, slumping in your seat as your heart beats quickly.

This is a terrific piece of direction. Early on, as Will and his dog are chasing deer, the dog chases a fawn into a dark worn down building. We intuit quickly that the monsters can only thrive in the dark and that this is a dangerous situation. Using little light and some forced perspective camera work, Lawrence creates a fast paced, tension filled sequence.

I Am Legend is terrifically exciting and smarter and more thoughtful than you might expect from such a genre flick. Will Smith brings a number of fine character touches to Robert that make him real to us, real enough that we fear for him and are thus engulfed in his plight. For fans of both horror and action, I Am Legend is arguably the movie of the year. For the rest, it's a satisfying bit of Saturday night entertainment.

Movie Review Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) 

Directed by Tim Burton

Written by John Logan

Starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen

Release Date December 21st, 2007

Published December 21st, 2007

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is filled with such self congratulatory irony that one is forced to call it arrogant. Arrogance is often seen as a negative quality and it is certainly nothing less than a pejorative here. However, the line between arrogance and confidence is thin here because of the talent involved.

It grows odd then that some of the arrogance of the creators of this Steven Sondheim adaptation comes from insecurity. Tim Burton is no fan of musicals. He never wanted to make one. He chose to make Sweeney Todd because of the almost anti-musical qualities of Sondheim's creation. This however, leads to a violent form of ironic detachment from the music and sentiment of the songs that leaves the filmgoer outside the emotion of the piece.

In not wanting to make a musical, Burton has attempted to make an anti-musical and as such forgotten that involving an audience is necessary even when you are rebelling against a form many audiences find so easily involving.

Johnny Depp stars as Sweeney Todd, though Barker is his real name, he became Todd in a British prison colony. When he was a young man Benjamin Barker's wife and child were taken from him by the jealous machinations of one Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman). Envious of the young barber, his beautiful wife (Laura Michelle Kelly) and baby, Turpin had Barker arrested on a trumped up charge and sent to Australia, then a British penal colony.

Returning 15 years later as Todd, Benjamin Barker seeks his revenge on Turpin and the hellhole London that has risen up around him. Returning to his old shop where his former landlady Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) has kept his beloved silver razors, Sweeney will pick the shave business and use it as a base of operations for his revenge.

The sub story of Sweeney Todd involves the young sailor Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower) who rescued Sweeney at sea and brought him to London and who also happens to fall for Sweeney's now teenage daughter Johanna (Jane Wisener), now a captive in Judge Turpin's home staring listlessly from a gilded cage. The teenage lovers work to leave the oppressive violence and sadness of the Sweeney story and the young actors are effective in that.

Now if only Tim Burton gave a damn about them, we'd have something here. Unfortunately, Burton doesn't take much care with the young lovers, bungling their coupling and their involvement with Sweeney to the point that what should be a major revealing moment hits with little flourish and is shuffled quickly offstage in favor of more revenge and viscera.

Fans of Viscera, I'm talking serious blood and guts here, will be more than satisfied with Sweeney Todd. The film is soaked in viscous fluid. However, do not mistake Sweeney for the blood stopped likes of Hostel or Halloween. No, Tim Burton is more humorous in his detachment than the frightening seriousness of Eli Roth or Rob Zombie who come off as real life Sweeney's seeking revenge on humanity in their hateful attacks on audiences.

Oddly enough, Burton would have to be more engaged in Sweeney Todd for that level of commitment to hatred. Thus Sweeney has an ironic detachment that leaves audiences little place to be appalled, repelled or won over by it. We are left merely as observers of rich cinematography, performances of great commitment and songs that offer glimpses of emotional involvement and dark humor.

Tim Burton has always been the disaffected genius working within the system and subverting it with his art-pop. Conversely, at a certain age disaffection becomes an old pose struck with boredom and stagnation. Sweeney Todd is far too big budget busy to be boring but stagnant is not far off. From a creative perspective Tim Burton's imaginative whimsy and his attempt to subvert it by covering it in blood fails to beat away the stagnating emotional distance.

In interviews Burton has discussed how the Broadway approach to Sweeney's blood soaked tragedy, the belt it back of the room, typical Broadway approach, was inappropriate for such dark brooding material. Yet here he seems to demonstrate that a more dramatic, Broadway approach, heightened emotions, heightened reality, may be the only way to render such awesome grand guignol tragedies.

I can tell you that Burton's minimalist approach takes the wind out of the sails and translates what should be grand emotional developments into something we in the audience merely observe without involvement.

Movie Review The Bucket List

The Bucket List (2007)

Directed by Rob Reiner 

Written by Justin Zackham

Starring Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Rob Morrow 

Release Date December 25th, 2007

Published December 24th, 2007

"Dying is easy, Comedy is hard" the alleged dying words of British actor Sir Donald Wolfitt are somewhat ironic when related to the new to DVD movie, The Bucket List. Directed by Rob Reiner, The Bucket List is a comedy about dying. It's also a comedy that proves just how hard comedy is as a pair of old pros, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, fail to get hardly any laughs at all in this desperate comedy.

Jack Nicholson is Edward Cole and Morgan Freeman is Carter Chambers. Aside from age, Edward and Carter have nothing in common except that they are both dying from cancer. After digging through the perfunctory getting to know you scenes, Edward, a millionaire who actually owns the hospital the two men are in, and Carter, a middle class mechanic, bond and decide not to spend their last days in bed.

Together they will blow off their families and friends in favor of a round the world jaunt that will help each accomplish all of the things on their 'bucket list', the list of things they wished to do before they 'kicked the bucket'. For Carter just leaving the country is one thing, Edward on the other hand wants to climb Kilimanjaro.

So what about their families? Edward is a loner who hasn't seen his only daughter in over a decade (no points for guessing that we will meet the daughter before the film ends). Carter's wife, played by Beverly Todd, is rightfully indignant until Carter plays the 'I'm dying, I'll do what I want' card.' It's a jerk thing to do to the person you supposedly love, leaving them right before you actually die to travel around the world with a virtual stranger, but nothing about these characters is all that likable anyway. 

The around the world journey is filled with charm even as it is slightly offensive in nature. Really, how many people really dying of cancer could just pick up and go around the world? Granted, movies are all about wish fulfillment, but there is something unseemly about the carefree attitude of The Bucket List in relation to cancer and the honest suffering of so many real people.

That aside, from a strictly filmmaking standpoint The Bucket List is a mixed bag. There are laughs, mostly from the two stars bantering off of one another, but The Bucket List is arguably the laziest movie Rob Reiner has ever made. The film moves from one expected scene to the next with little more than the charm of Nicholson and the sturdy presence of Freeman to carry us past the predictability.

Eventually, even these two awesome talents can't prevent us from getting bored with the progression from one expected scene to the next. There is an inevitability to the story, of course it's about two guys dying of cancer, but Reiner makes little attempt to mix up the journey with something we don't expect or that he doesn't tip his hand to several scenes ahead of time.

The dull predictability combined with the overall morbidity of the central story can't entirely dim the charm of these two stars but not even the talents of Freeman and Nicholson can overcome the rote anticipation of The Bucket List.

Movie Review: Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Written by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, George Nolfi

Starring Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, David Straithairn, Scott Glenn, Albert Finney, Joan Allen

Release Date August 3rd, 2007 

Published August 3rd, 2007

Though Daniel Craig has brought some of the cool back to the James Bond franchise, most I'm sure will agree that the spy franchise of this decade is not Bond but Bourne, Jason Bourne. The Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and now Bourne Ultimatum are pulse pounding, non-stop thrill rides where big time action meets grand drama and suspense to create a near masterpiece of genre fiction.

When last we left Jason Bourne he was getting revenge for the murder of his girlfriend and just beginning his determined search for his past. Now in Bourne Ultimatum, Jason is after his past again. He wants desperately to know how he became a globetrotting assassin, who he killed, why did he kill them and who told him to do it.

What this information will do for him is Jason Bourne's private business. Matt Damon and his poker face keep things close to the vest. That is fine with us in the audience because plot is not the point of the Bourne movies. Like Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy before it, The Bourne Ultimatum is about non-stop propulsive action of the most skilled and determined kind.

Director Paul Greengrass is a master of the big action scene; as he demonstrated with the jaw dropping Russian car chase scene in Bourne Supremacy. In Bourne Ultimatum, Greengrass tops himself with a fight scene set in the row houses of Tangiers that must be seen to be believed. The fight between Bourne and a man sent to kill him is so fast paced, up close and quickly cut that audience members will feel as if they need to duck some of the punches that fly.

As the first two films have been set apart by exceptional car chases, The Bourne Ultimatum too has a killer car chase. Set on the streets of New York this tightly paced, high speed ride has our hero driving a stolen police cruiser chased by CIA spooks and one determined assassin who is the last line of defense between Bourne and his past. How this scene plays out is a perfect microcosm of the complex action of this terrific film series.

As Bond has had some memorable villains, Jason Bourne can lay claim to some of the finest character actors ever in the business as his top adversaries. In Bourne Identity it was Oscar nominee Chris Cooper and Brian Cox as Bourne's former controllers turned pursuers. In Bourne Supremacy Oscar nominee Joan Allen joined the returning Cox as CIA Bourne chasers.

Now in Bourne Ultimatum add two more Oscar nominees to the list. David Straithairn plays the head of CIA black ops who hopes to keep Jason Bourne from exposing some of the illegal activities of his clandestine enclave of the CIA. Also joining team Bourne in Bourne Ultimatum is Oscar nominee Sir Albert Finney as a man with up close and personal knowlege of Jason Bourne's true identity.

With a cast like this; story depth is built into the margins; freeing director Paul Greengrass, himself a recent Oscar nominee for United 93, to focus on making the action kick as much ass as possible. He satisfies action fans with some serious ass kicking, car chases and edge of your seat suspense of the kind that sets the Bourne franchise apart from other classic franchises.

Matt Damon has been adamant that The Bourne Ultimatum will be his last Bourne film. Whether the franchise will continue without its star seems without question. What a shame that will be. Damon is Jason Bourne and it's unlikely any other actor can bring the same fierce intensity and integrity to this role that Damon has. Like Connery with the original Bond or Michael Keaton's Batman, Damon's Jason Bourne is definitive.

The Bourne series will not be the same without him. For now at least, bask in the action glory that is The Bourne Ultimatum, the perfect kickass coda for one of the best action franchises of all time.

Movie Review: Becoming Jane

Becoming Jane (2007) 

Directed by Julian Jarrold

Written by Kevin Hood, Sarah Williams

Starring Anne Hathaway, James MacAvoy, Julie Walters, Maggie Smith, James Cromwell

Release Date August 3rd, 2007

Published August 3rd, 2007

The real life of legendary romance writer Jane Austen is shrouded by mystery and mostly lost to history. All that remains of the real Jane Austen are scraps of letters she wrote to her sister, most of which her sister burned at Ms. Austen's request. Also left is the one and only portrait of Jane Austen, a hand drawn caricature also done by her sister. That portrait remains a treasure in England where it hangs in the Jane Austen museum, the home of her brother where Jane wrote her masterpiece Persuasion before passing away at age 41.

Jane Austen remains a national treasure in England where her Pride & Prejudice has seen remarkable sales for over a century. The books many adaptations have won accolades, television ratings and banked large box office sums as well. Now comes an American attempt at telling the life story of this British legend. Becoming Jane stars American Anne Hathaway and posits a fictional romance in order to tell the story of Ms. Austen's inspiration for Pride & Prejudice.

This may sound like blasphemy to any Englishman with good sense, and indeed it may be. However, much of Becoming Jane is a splendid little trifle of a romance that is never dull and often quite enchanting.

Anne Hathaway, the gifted young star of the Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada, takes on the challenging role of Jane Austen the author of such timeless romances as Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility and Persuasion. Becoming Jane is a fictional take on how Jane Austen was inspired to write her first masterpiece, Pride & Prejudice, and the decisions about love and family that would shape her too short life.

James McAvoy (Starter For 10) plays Tom LeFroy, a real life aquaintance of Jane Austen, though they were never romantically linked as far as any historian knows. In the fictional world of Becoming Jane, LeFroy is a boy lawyer living off his uncle, a judge, when he meets Jane, the eldest of the Austen sisters and the one required by family to marry above her station in order to keep the family solvent.

Jane's younger sister Cassandra (Anna Maxwell Martin) is already promised to a young man who will take over their father's church one day. Thus, it is left to Jane to make certain that her mother (Julie Walters) and youngest brother, a handicapped boy, are taken care of through her marriage. Jane however, refuses to marry without love.

Unfortunately, Tom is not of rich enough stock for Jane to marry. Being a young man in the law profession, it will be many years before he is solvent and able to take over the family fortune and good name of his uncle. Even then, he will need to be well married in order for his uncle to approve and their is simply no way that his uncle would approve of Jane, the peasant daughter of a church minister.

Thus the story of Pride & Prejudice played out in the life of Jane Austen. In reality, it is far more likely that Jane witnessed similar stories from afar or simply imagined the class warfare and invented her work. Historical fact however, is irrelevant to a light hearted, childish, Disney romance like Becoming Jane. This a simpleminded romance with only the goal of placing obstacles between two star-crossed lovers and hoping that we are compelled to ooh and ahh at their potential for life long companionship.

That Becoming Jane manages to be quite winning even as it tramples upon the real life story of a literary legend is quite a feat. Nevertheless, Becoming Jane is a real charmer.

Put aside for a moment the many blasphemies of Becoming Jane, such as a plot so easygoing and unpretentious that Ms. Austen herself likely would have trashed the paper it was written on. Forget the historical inaccuracies and the fake romance and the carelessness inherent in adapting the life story of a legend and then bending the facts of her life to the conventions of a typical romantic comedy.

Forget all of that for a moment, and understand that Becoming Jane may be an awful idea in theory, it is quite successful in execution. Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy spark a lovely little onscreen romance of salty banter, smoldering gazes and painful partings. Meanwhile, director Julian Jarrold keeps the mood light and airy but with a professional flair, with just a hint of the goofy vibe of his previous international success, Kinky Boots.

The Jane Austen cult is likely to revolt over seeing the life of their legend so simplistically drawn on screen and they have a point. Becoming Jane plays fast and loose with the life story of a historic literary figure. But therein lies the boldness of the enterprise. Their is a cheeky vibe to the lack of kneeling and bowing at the feet of legend and that gives just a slight spark to an already sparky, charming little romance.

For non-Austen-ites, Becoming Jane is just the kind of movie treat that goes down easy on a friday night.

Movie Review: Who's Your Caddy?

Who's Your Caddy (2007)

Directed by Don Michael Paul

Written by Robert Henny 

Starring Big Boi, Tamala Jones, Jeffrey Jones, Faizon Love

Release Date July 27th, 2007

Published July 29th, 2007

There have been too many Caddyshack ripoffs to count since that comedy classic arrived more than 20 years ago. Few however, have been so blatantly thieving as the comedy Who's Your Caddy. Though it is given a racial twist, Who's Your Caddy lifts the raucous, us vs them scenario of Caddyshack and does little to distinguish itself from the dozens of other imitators.

C-Note (Big Boi) is the impresario of one of the largest empires in all of hip hop. Puff Daddy asks this guy for a loan. C-Note has it all but what he wants more than anything else is admission to a prestigious golf club that he has always dreamed of playing at. Unfortunately, the club's stuffy owner Mr. Cummings (Jeffrey Jones) and his stable of cronies refuse to let him in.

If you think C-Note would accept such rejection you are mistaken. Buying property that includes a small portion of the golf course, C-Note won't give up his new digs, and give back the courses 18th hole unless they let him become a member. In the meantime, the club dispatches their new chief legal counsel, Shannon (Tamala Jones) to try and negotiate things. No surprise, C-Note falls for the lawyerette.

If you guessed that everything comes down to a contest on the course, well duh! Of course it does and I bet you can guess how that turns out as well. Sometimes it's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it. Who's Your Caddy offers little of anything new in what it's about but does have some charm in how it goes about it.

Who's Your Caddy is amateur in direction but what it lacks in cinematic chops, it attempts to make up with energy and good humor.  The cast is game, the humor is inoffensive and the hip hop soundtrack, including new music from star Big Boi, is not bad. Indeed Who's Your Caddy is not a bad movie overall. It's just not a very good movie.

Rapper turned actor Big Boi has three major credits under his belt, ATL, Idlewild and now Who's Your Caddy, and while he lacks the polish of his fellow portly rap star turned actor, Ice Cube, or the raw energy and charisma of his Outkast partner Andre Benjamin, he does have a laid back comfort on screen that plays like charm. His work is effortless and at ease and he makes Who's Your Caddy float by in its just over 90 minute runtime.

Not a truly bad movie but far from a good one, Who's Your Caddy is another forgettable Caddyshack rerun that fails to provide any motivation for audiences to get excited about it. The cast is amiable and good natured and they seem to be having a lot of fun on screen but that fun doesn't always pass on to the audience.

There is potential in Big Boi as an actor but he needs to leave behind forgettable, juvenile junk like Who's Your Caddy.

Movie Review: The Simpson's Movie

The Simpsons Movie (2007) 

Directed by David Silverman

Written by James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean 

Starring Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks, Harry Shearer

Release Date July 27th, 2007

Published July 27th, 2007 

20 years in the making, America's funniest TV family is now on the big screen and funnier than ever. The Simpsons, Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, have been a dominant force in American pop culture for years now. With the release of their first movie, their place in our cultural history grows in proportion. The Simpsons Movie transcends the small screen not by leaving behind the aspects that made it such a wonderful television enterprise but rather by blowing it up to a new size for a different screen.

That the transfer is so amazingly successful is a testament to the brilliance of the material and the creative minds who have made it so.

The Simpsons Movie finds our hero family in more jeopardy than they have ever faced this side of a Halloween episode. Lake Springfield has been so badly polluted that just one more dumping of chemicals could make it completely toxic. Naturally, that one last dumping would come from Homer Simpson, defying a new city ban on dumping in the lake, Homer drops off a silo full of pig droppings, courtesy of his new pet pig, into the lake and thus sets off an environmental disaster.

The situation in Springfield Lake is so bad that it reaches all the way to Washington D.C where President Arnold Schwarzenegger conspires with the head of the EPA Russ Cargill (the blessed Albert Brooks), to deal with the Springfield problem in ways the President doesn't have to read about. Thus, Springfield is cut off from the outside world by a giant dome dropped over the city. Soon the EPA will launch a plan to destroy the city whole, that is unless the Simpsons can save the day.

That is a very simple description of a plot far more rich than my description. The Simpsons Movie, like the TV show, is rarely about its plot. Rather, the Simpsons thrives on what can be done in and around a particular plot. In this case, the environmental destruction plot offers the opportunity for political humor aimed at both sides of the political spectrum.

Both environmental activists and the political hacks and contractors who thrive on environmental destruction are painted with the same skeptical brush. Admittedly, the creators of The Simpsons Movie have a more liberal perspective, but they do go out of their way to try and be fair and balanced, in the tradition of their sister news network.

The real source of humor in The Simpsons Movie is the Simpson family themselves. The love and exasperation of being a family is what has always been at the heart of America's favorite family and the writers of the Simpsons and now The Simpsons Movie, know how to tap that for big laughs. The deep abiding love the Simpsons have for each other binds them together and opens up wide avenues of humor.

Little moments like Lisa decking Bart after he mocks her crush on an Irish heartthrob or bigger moments like Homer's entreaties to get the family to follow him to a new home in Alaska and the line "I've come to really like you guys", are the kind of familial grace notes that the series has built over the years. There really is nothing they can do that they won't forgive, no matter how outlandish. It is the cartoon's most human and yet broad element.

The Simpsons have made a nearly flawless move from the small screen to the big screen and have begun, what I hope, is a renaissance for america's favorite family. The TV's show's ratings have slipped in the past few years and many long time fans have said the show has lost a step. The Simpsons Movie is proof, that simply isn't the case.

The Simpsons are funnier than ever in The Simpsons Movie. You've got to see it for yourself.

Movie Review I Know Who Killed Me

I Know Who Killed Me (2007)

Directed by Chris Sivertson

Written by Jeff Hammond

Starring Lindsay Lohan, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough, Brian Geraghty

Release Date July 27th, 2007

Published July 26th, 2007

It was the great John Waters, in a cameo on an episode of The Simpsons, that gave me my definition of camp. "It's Camp, the ludicrously tragic, the tragically ludicrous". It is that line that resonated deep within my mind as I watched the new Lindsey Lohan pseudo-thriller I Know Who Killed Me. There are few things in Hollywood at the moment more tragic than Ms. Lohan. And, there are few movies more ludicrous than I Know Who Killed Me, a wacky torture porn wannabe, too squeamish to commit to full on exploitation and too balls out goofy to be merely bad.

Aubrey Fleming  (Lindsay Lohan) has these really vivid dreams that she turns into stories for her creative writing class. They tell the story of a girl named Dakota whose life of crack houses and strip clubs provides a rich background for Aubrey's burgeoning storytelling talent. Aubrey's writing is taking her to Yale in the fall, or it would have; if not for one fateful night after a football game.

Aubrey was supposed to meet friends for a late night movie. When she didn't show, her friends got scared. They called the police; who called Aubrey's parents, Daniel (Neal McDonough) and Susan (Julia Ormond), who also did not know where she was. Weeks go by until a body is found along the highway, a leg and hand severed, but still alive.

The girl looks exactly like Aubrey but when she comes to, she claims to be Dakota. As the cops press her for information on who cut off her hand and leg, Dakota maintains that she is not Aubrey and spins a fantastic tale of how her hand and leg simply shriveled up and fell off. This as she sleeps with Aubrey's boyfriend (Brian Geraghty) and searches for the killer in her own unique ways.

That is the spoiler free version of the plot of I Know Who Killed Me and as often happens with movies this bizarrely bad, my description is far more concise than anything in the movie. It took me two showings of I Know Who Killed Me just to come up with that description. Watching the film for the first time, with a critic friend of mine, I could not stop laughing long enough to try and put the pieces of this ludicrous trash epic together.

Directed by Chris Sivertson, I Know Who Killed Me has delusions of grandeur as an art film, a torture porn ala Hostel with a dash of M. Night Shyamalan and just a hint of Brian De Palma at his most over the top. None of it ever approaches coherence but it's never boring. Imagine all of that crammed into one picture and then blended with a group of performances so off key you almost hear dogs barking and you get just a sense of how truly, brilliantly awful I Know Who Killed Me is.

It is so rare in modern Hollywood to find true camp or kitsch. Modern films are so self aware, so self consciously willing to wink at audiences that camp becomes manufactured or forced. Rarely do you get the earnest achievement of true awfulness. A group of actors and filmmakers who have truly deluded themselves into believing that what they are doing is working.

More often you get movies like Snakes On A Plane where the kitsch became the marketing hook, thus subverting the camp into simple bad filmmaking. Either that or you get a movie like Redline or Because I Said So, movies that are just so horrendous that you can't even take joy in the badness. There is no commitment on the part of the actors who are too bored or dull-witted to care whether the movie they are in is any good.

In I Know Who Killed Me however, you can see the grand delusions of all involved. You can see from the care taken to craft out their visuals and the attempts to create a color motif (blues and reds dominate the screen in a self conscious battle for control) that director Chris Sivertson and his team were convinced they really had something here.

Not unlike the work of the great Ed Wood who believed earnestly in his own talent, the creators of I Know Who Killed Me evince utter cluelessness as to how brilliantly awful this trash epic truly is. It is that joy of creation, that misguided judgment, that makes I Know Who Killed Me a truly wonderful bit of camp. That, and of course, the schadenfreude of watching star Lindsey Lohan hit bottom on the big screen as she hits bottom in real life.

You can see in Ms. Lohan's performance a level of commitment that says she truly believed the things her characters were saying. More important though, from a camp perspective, you can see how desperately out of her depth she is trying to give life to the goofiness she is trying to play as serious drama and mystery. And worse yet, you can see how her real life drug problem may have contributed to how truly awful her performance is.

On the one hand, I don't want to take pleasure in Ms. Lohan's problems. On the other hand, she is young, rich, privileged and not dead, so I don't feel too bad. Plus, her real life tabloid problems give trashy subtext to an already trashy movie and increase the camp pleasure of I Know Who Killed Me to a degree where I could actually recommend it in an ironic way.

Poor Ms. Lohan, she's not a bad actress, just one who doesn't make good decisions. Watching I Know Who Killed Me; one cannot escape the idea that the poor girl is being taken advantage of. Watch the stripping scenes, Dakota is a 'dancer', and you cannot help but be more embarrassed for Ms. Lohan as opposed to being titillated by her gyrations. She simply looks lost and sad on the stage and it's unclear whether those emotions are intentional or just a sad realization of how low her career has sunk.

I cannot recommend I Know Who Killed Me, from a typical movie standard. However, I can tell you that if you are looking for an ironic laugh, you might wait for this DVD to come out, gather some friends and have fun at this film and Ms. Lohan's expense. It sounds a little mean, but it's undeniably funny.

Movie Review I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) 

Directed by Dennis Dugan 

Written by Barry Fanaro, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor 

Starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Dan Akroyd

Release Date July 20th, 2007

Published July 20th, 2007

For every little bit of progress Adam Sandler makes as an actor; he seems to take one step back. His performance earlier this year in the 9/11 drama Reign Over Me was a tremendous step forward for Sandler as an actor, if a bit of a step down from his usual box office stature. Like his very impressive turn in P.T Anderson's Punch Drunk Love which Sandler followed with the juvenile animated effort 8 Crazy Nights and the dull, unfunny rage of Anger Management, Sandler chooses to follow Reign Over Me with the childish attempt at P.C laughs in stereotypical clothes, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.

Larry Valentine has a big problem. As a firefighter who rushes into the blaze to save lives, his life is often on the line. His work is very dangerous and with two kids at home to take care of, Larry wants to make sure they get his pension should something happen to him. Unfortunately, a paperwork snafu, in the wake of his wife's untimely death, has left Larry in a real bind. Should he be killed in action, his kids won't get his pension unless he gets married.

Unfortunately for Larry, there is only one person he would trust enough to make sure his kids were taken care of. his lifelong pal, Chuck Levine. This is where Larry crafts a real hairbrained scheme. Seeing a story in the paper about how the city of New York has legalized domestic partnerships for gay couples, Larry gets the idea to marry his pal Chuck.

Chuck is not exactly the ideal choice for this scam. He has a rather legendary reputation as a ladies man. In fact, when we first meet Chuck a pair of sexy twin sisters are fighting over him after he slept with both of them. Later, when Larry goes to tell Chuck his plan, he interrupts him while he is romancing several women at the same time.

Nevertheless, Chuck owes Larry his life after a fire call went bad, so he agrees and the two head for Canada to make it legal. Things get complicated when the city challenges the authenticity of their relationship and Larry hires a sexy lawyer named Alex (Jessica Biel) who immediately strikes a chord with Chuck and puts the whole scheme on thin ice.

This being a typical, brainless Adam Sandler effort you expect and get just about every stereotype known to man thrown in as comic asides. However, surprisingly enough, the biggest problem with I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is not insensitivity, the film actually offers a pro gay agenda. Rather, the problem is much simpler than that. It's just not a very well made movie.

Directed by Adam Sandler's pet director Dennis Dugan (Big Daddy, Happy Gilmore), I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry never establishes a solid tone or any kind of charm. The film is crude and resorts more often to dull slapstick than to anything organically plot driven. The plot should be the focus, it's a big broad topic with many opportunities for satire. That, sadly, is well beyond the intellectual scope of Dugan and Sandler.

While there will be many who will be offended by the many stereotypes at use in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, you will be surprised how fairminded and pro gay the film really is. Though the support is shallow because of the gutless direction of Dennis Dugan and the strip mined script by Sandler and Barry Fanaro, the film's heart is in the right place.

What really stinks is that you can see the potential for something a little more thoughtful, deeper and more satisfying. Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne, the team behind Election, About Schmidt and Sideways, delivered a version of this script that, those who have read it, say is sharper and more pointed in its humor and perspective. That version was flamed in favor of a more Sandler friendly version with all of the slapstick and self serving ego indulgences that are Sandler's hallmarks.

My biggest fear was that I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry would be a series of stereotypical jokes with a liberal use of the word f****t. Watching it, that is what we get. However, a heavy dose of positivity manages to balance things out in a very surprising way. That positive feeling however, is not enough to make the film funnier than it is or more believable than it is.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry suffers the ego of its star Adam Sandler who compromises much of what might have worked in the film in favor of fellating his own ego. What a shame, there was a good deal of potential here.

Movie Review Roll Bounce

Roll Bounce (2005) 

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee 

Written by Norman Vance Jr. 

Starring Bow Wow, Chi McBride, Mike Epps, Meagan Good, Nick Cannon

Release Date September 23rd, 2005

Published September 23rd, 2005

In preparing my review of the new roller-disco flick Roll Bounce I came across an article in the New York Post about roller skating movies of the past and it mentioned a true forgotten classic, Skatetown U.S.A. This 70's gem starred Scott Baio, Patrick Swayze, Ron Palillo (Horshack from "Welcome Back Kotter") and former Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick. The film is about rival roller disco gangs competing in a skating tournament set to disco rhythms. I thought I only dreamed of this movie.

Maybe someday someone will look back on Roll Bounce and be as nostalgic, or sarcastic take your pick, as I am for Skatetown U.S.A but without the perspective of time, Roll Bounce is a relatively relatively unmemorable 70's throwback that needed more of a sense of humor about its subject as opposed to trying to ring actual tension out of a movie about roller skating.

Rapper Bow Wow stars in Roll Bounce as Xavier or X to his crew of rolling skating friends including Junior (Brandon T. Jackson), Boo (Marcus T. Paulk), Naps (Rick Gonzalez) and Mixed Mike (Khleo Thomas). Together the boys spend every summer at the roller rink where they perform choreographed routines for fun. The fun stops, however, when the local rink is closed down and the boys are forced to go to the upscale rink on the other side of town where skating is a competition not a pastime.

The boys are harassed by the locals as they attempt their routines and get shown up pretty fierce in their first visit. However, you just know that when the time comes, as in the 500 hundred dollar cash prize skating competition, the guys will be more than ready.

Parallel to the skating story is the story of X's home life where he and his sister and his father (Chi McBride) are coping with the loss of their mother. Not only that but dad has also just lost his high paying gig as an airplane designer and has not told his son. The family drama is a tad bit cheesy in a movie as gregarious and loose as Roll Bounce and the father son tension only serves to weigh the film down when it should roll with the skating.

Roller skating is a goofy subject for a movie and the last thing any movie should try and do is take it seriously. Yet that is what director Malcolm D. Lee and writer Norman Vance Jr. try to do. They try to make you care about the outcome of this superfluous, overblown and rather ridiculous competition. Don't get me wrong, the action on skates is impressive but it's also quite goofy.

Juxtapose the roller disco of Roll Bounce with the disco of Saturday Night Fever and they may look similar in their weightlessness. However, where Fever earned its melodramatic side by delivering a complex and fascinating lead character, Roll Bounce never establishes X as either fascinating or complex. X is a nice, kind of goofy kid who's a great dancer on skates. The detail of X attempting to cope with his mother's death seems tacked on to give him a dramatic weight and works only to take us away from the more genial and fun story of the roller disco.

Malcolm Lee is a terrific director as he showed in the friendly comedy The Best Man and the awesomely funny 70's send up Undercover Brother. One is left to wonder where that sense of humor is in Roll Bounce. There are occasional funny moments but the film goes for very long stretches without laughs. Lee and writer Norman Vance too often get bogged down in trying to create a family drama and trying to make you care about roller skating that they forget that their real subjects are fun and nostalgia.

Both Lee and Vance could use a refresher in how to write female characters. None of the women in Roll Bounce are anything more than minor characters. Jurnee Smollett, Meagan Goode and "The Bernie Mac Show"'s Kellita Smith each play a different variation of a love interest for the main characters and they are defined by being the love interest and nothing more. None of the women take part in the skating and are left in another typically female role as a cheerleader.

When Roll Bounce is in its retro groove with its killer soundtrack of seventies classics, Bee Gees, Chic, Kool and The Gang and such, it's an enjoyable little throwback. However, when Malcolm Lee attempts to shoehorn in the family drama the movie becomes bogged down and the good time vibe comes to a complete halt.

Roll Bounce does manage to find entertaining moments that showcase these young actors' talent for having a good time. The skating is pure kitsch and when the actors are allowed to take part in that kitsch spirit the film comes alive. That spirit is captured by Nick Cannon's cameo as a seventies style ladies man and Wesley Johnson as the skating rink superstar called Sweetness who enters the rink with his own 70's style theme music and two female valets on his arms like some roller skating pimp.

The retro good time vibe is there in spirit in Roll Bounce but it is too often undermined by forced melodramatics. Still if you were a fan of great disco, roller skating, or high camp you may find something to really enjoy in this inoffensive retro retread.

Me? I'm going on Ebay to find a copy of Skatetown, USA.

Movie Review Role Models

Role Models (2008)

Directed by David Wain

Written by David Wain, Ken Marino, Paul Rudd

Starring Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Christopher Mintz Plasse, Elizabeth Banks

Release Date November 7th, 2008 

Published November 6th, 2008 

Paul Rudd had threatened to become a big star a couple of times. His work in Clueless received a great deal of positive buzz and his turn in Neil Labute's caustic drama The Shape of Things had a number of major critics talking about his dramatic chops. Rudd went a different direction. After a very funny role as Phoebe's boyfriend Mike on Friends, Rudd found his new home in comedy playing Brian Fontana in the wildly funny Anchorman.

Since then Rudd has been part of the Judd Apatow comedy repertory troupe, taking on supporting roles Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And now Rudd moves into the lead of the new comedy Role Models. It's not quite the fulfillment of his leading man potential but it's a good start.

Danny (Rudd) hates everyone. He's been miserable much of his life but finding he has spent ten years at the same company, hocking horrible energy drinks to high schoolers, his misery becomes a full on meltdown of anger and desperation. He gets little help from his pal Wheeler (Seann William Scott) who only adds to Danny's stress with his constant smiling and good natured oafishness.

When Danny gets it in his head that marrying his girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks) he is stunned back into his angry haze when she says no. Ticked off, depressed and high on energy drink, Danny gets kicked out of a high school assembly for praising drugs and insulting his own product. Then the company truck is being towed away so Danny jumps in and tries to run the car off the back of the tow truck.

He ends up shoving a police officer, recklessly endangering said cops life and property damage to the school when he drives his bull themed truck up onto the back of the school horse sculpture. Beth, a lawyer, manages to get the boys community service which is assigned to Sturdy Wings, a big brother style program where each will have to connect with a troubled kid.

Christopher Mintz Plasse, Superbad's charming McLovin, is Augie Fowler and Bobb'e J. Thompson is foul mouthed 10 year old Ronnie. If you think the two slacker doofuses are going to be energized and reborn through their connection to these two kids, well, you're right. Role Models is, if anything, a formula comedy. However, formula doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.

Writer-director David Wain, best known for absurdist fare like Wet Hot American Summer and the little seen spoof The Ten, makes the formula feel fresher than you expect. Seizing on Augie's love of an elaborate role playing game, one where teens and adults dress up and play in the park with rubber swords and medieval costumes, Wain finds a twist on the formula that spurns your expectations of where you think Role Models are headed.

Keep an eye out for a nod to the Kiss Army that will have fans and non-fans rolling on the floor laughing.

Nearly stealing the whole show is a supporting performance by the sublime Jane Lynch. Playing the owner operator of this big brother program, Sturdy Wings, Lynch digs into her character's bizarre background to find big laughs. Constantly reminding whoever is listening the horrible things she did when she was a drinker and a druggie, Lynch's character takes no BS.

Her rants and Rudd and Scott's stunned, off balance reactions to them earn laughs that come in strings of unending giggles. It's fair to say that director Wain overindulges the comic wealth of Lynch's performance but it doesn't matter when it's so consistently funny.

As for Paul Rudd, his raging angry id is quite funny, especially his many pet peeves, but it's the restraint shown by Rudd and director Wain in not reveling in his anger that keeps Danny from turning into a downer. Yes, he's angry but that anger isn't his defining characteristic as it may have been in the hands of a less talented actor and director.

Role Models is a formula comedy that doesn't settle for the formula but improves on it. The final third of the film takes place during this medieval role playing game and you will be surprised by how natural and comfortable the ending in this setting is. Rudd, Scott, Plasse and Thompson work terrifically well together with Plasse delivering the heart of the film in his earnest passionate embrace of his geekiness.

Well observed with just enough big laughs to make you forget about the few issues in the plot, Role Models is worth checking out in theaters.