Movie Review The Grand

The Grand (2008) 

Directed by Zak Penn

Written by Zak Penn

Starring Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Richard Kind, Woody Harrelson, Ray Romano 

Release Date March 21st, 2008 

Published May 5th, 2008 

Zak Penn crafted the detailed and clever scripts for the X-Men flick directed by Brett Ratner. A comic book nut, Penn was in his element and will hopefully show the same talent in his script for the upcoming Incredible Hulk redux. Moving into the realm of directing, his talent seems somewhat less pronounced. The new comedy The Grand features an exceptional comic cast but too often feels like something Christopher Guest thought of and cast aside.

The Grand is a mockumentary that follows the progress of several different players in a 10 million dollar Las Vegas poker tournament called The Grand. Jack Faro (Woody Harrelson) is a legend on the Vegas Strip. Not for his card playing or the fact that he owns a casino, the Rabbit's Foot, but rather for his copious consumption of drugs and alcohol.

Oh and I neglect to mention Jack's 75 ex-wives. Sprung free from a two year stint in rehab, Jack needs 7 million dollars or he loses his casino to mogul Steve Lavish, an eccentric billionaire played by Chris Guest regular Michael McKean.

Facing off with Jack in the tournament are a collection of veterans, sharks and internet novices with their own unique histories and agendas. Lainie Schwartzman (Cheryl Hines) is a champion player looking to win The Grand for the first time. With her nebbish husband Fred (Ray Romano) and their three kids in tow, Lainie is a favorite to win. As is Lainie's brother Larry (David Cross). Though Lainie has more often than not beaten her brother, he remains a top player. Together they have weathered the creepy, intense competitiveness of their father (Gabe "Mr. Kotter" Kaplan) that has left them both a little emotionally crippled but great card players.

Then there are the legends. Dennis Farina looks every bit the Vegas veteran who longs for the days when mobsters busted knee caps and poker victories came with complimentary hookers. His old friend, The German (Werner Herzog, yes THE Werner Herzog) is an equally ruthless player who travels with a cadre of small animals, one of which he murders everyday to keep his instincts sharp. The wildcards in this multi-million dollar tourney are an internet poker amateur named Andy Andrews (Richard Kind) and a socially inert savant named Harold (Chris Parnell).

6 of these players will be at the final table playing for the big prize and we are told by director Zak Penn that the game being played is for real. The Grand is credited as written by Penn and pal Matt Bierman but according to Penn the actors improvised all of their dialogue based on character sketches and a barebones plot. The final card game is in fact a real game with the outcome determined by actual hands of cards between the actors. Each of the actors then delivers on whatever is expected of their character according to what the cards do for them. It's a unique idea and lends a bit of suspense to scenes that could have been quite predictable.

Other than that final hand however, The Grand remains nothing more than a clone of Christopher Guest only slightly more subdued. A talented crew of comics and actors fumble their way toward jokes, occasionally finding them, more often earning a laugh for the fumble as for the found humor. The Grand isn't bad really. The actors are fun and the poker setting is strong even as the competitive poker trend ticks down its 15 minutes of fame. I can give it a partial recommendation on the strength of a really good cast but keep your bets low on this hand.

Movie Review: Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns

Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (2008)

Directed by Tyler Perry 

Written by Tyler Perry 

Starring Angela Bassett, Rick Fox, Lance Gross

Release Date March 21st, 2008

Published March 22nd, 2008 

In Diary of A Mad Black Woman a brave dramatic performance by actress Kimberly Elise. as an abused wife of privelege forced to start over from scratch was undermined by writer-director Tyler Perry and his indulgent alter-ego Madea character who literally takes a chainsaw to the movie and destroys everything in his/her path. In Madea’s Family Reunion Perry’s call for social change and understanding amongst African Americans is once again undermined by broad comic moments between Madea and Perry’s other alter-ego old Joe.

It seemed that Perry simply couldn’t get out of his own way. Then came Why Did I Get Married? A complete departure from Perry’s first two movies and I had hoped it was a sign that Perry had matured enough to bring his honest messages of love, community, social change and humor with style and filmmaking substance. Meet The Browns squashes that maturity in the first act.

Oscar nominee Angela Bassett stars in Meet The Brown’s as Brenda, a single mom of three kids, by three different fathers, living in inner city Chicago. Things are tough and getting tougher when she loses her job. With the lights turned out and her baby daddies nowhere to be found, Brenda finds that her own father has passed away. His name was Pop Brown and he lived in a small town in Georgia where he may have left Brenda something in his will that might help her out. Traveling to the small southern town Brenda is immediately greeted by her new family.

LeRoy Brown (David Mann) is a polyester wearing, bald headed clown with a heart of gold. Though he says inappropriate things and is prone to wild, inhuman swings of mood, from wild laughter to tears, no real anger, LeRoy is a big loving teddy bear as he takes these strangers right to the Brown family home. There Brenda and the kids meet LB (Frankie Faison), his loving wife Mildred (Irma P. Hall) and Vera (Jennifer Lewis) a drunk witch whose claws come out when it comes to protecting what might be in her daddy’s will. Ultimately, Vera is harmless but she is a terrible bother throughout, functioning as the agitating force of the last third of the film.

Brenda’s son Michael (Lance Gross) is a basketball prodigy and down south he catches the eye of a scout/coach and former NBA star named Harry (Rick Fox). Actually, it’s the lovely Brenda that caught Harry’s eye but helping Michael develop his talent and deal with agents and NBA scouts that begin snooping around is a good excuse to be around Brenda. Her experience with men causes her to keep him at a distance but the romance is inevitable.

It is as if there are two movies happening in Meet The Brown’s. In one Angela Bassett is giving a pro level dramatic performance as a loving, struggling mother who discovers she can still find a good man in Rick Fox’s Harry. In the other movie are the broad, over the top and often terribly unfunny Brown family who act as ludicrous filler material distracting from the earnest, socially relevant drama happening in the other movie. Where Bassett does yeoman's work to dramatize Brenda’s struggles, the Brown’s blow into the movie, screaming and yelling, splitting their pants and ranting about pimps, ho’s and money.

Perry has a filmmakers version of multiple personality disorder. On the one hand you have an eloquent social activist with a genuine talent for telling relevant truths with great heart and humor. Then you have the A.D.D comedian Tyler Perry who nervously inserts broadly written comic moments into the drama because he doesn’t trust to stay with him when things get serious. Somehow, he overcame that nervousness in Why Did I Get Married but the jittery comic is back, to his great detriment in Meet The Brown’s.

Movie Review: Drillbit Taylor

Drillbit Taylor (2008) 

Directed by Steven Brill

Written by Seth Rogen

Starring Owen Wilson, Leslie Mann, Danny McBride 

Release Date March 21st, 2008

Published March 21st, 2008

There are three different movies going amidst the chaos of the new comedy Drillbit Taylor. One is a retreaming of producer Judd Apatow and his writer pal Seth Rogan and their style of raunchy, genital based humor. Another is an Owen Wilson movie starring Wilson in his usual charming rogue comic persona. The last is the most distasterous, an Adam Sandler movie. Stephen Brill, Adam Sandler’s pal and director of Little Nicky and Mr. Deeds, attempts to force the disparate work of Apatow/Rogan, Owen Wilson and Brill’s brand of the Sandler schtick, sans Sandler, into Drillbit Taylor and the result is utterly brutal.

Owen Wilson stars as the title character in Drillbit Taylor, a homeless criminal who accepts a position as a bodyguard for three nerdy High School freshman being bullied by a nasty senior. Nate Hartley, Troy Gentile and David Dorfman play the desperate nerds Wade, Ryan and Emmit who need protection from Filkins (Alex Frost) who has decided to make their lives hell. Offering their whole allowances week after week in exchange protection, the best bodyguard they could afford is Drillbit who claims to be an ex-military ranger and hides his homelessness.

Initially, Drillbit just wants to rob the boys and sets about stealing their stuff under the guise of helping them. Eventually however, after seeing the boys get brutalized, he decides to train them to take care of themselves. His methods are a joke but damned if they don’t give the boys the confidence to stand up to Frost leading to an inevitable final confrontation.

As often is the case my description brings order to a plot where little order exists. Drillbit Taylor stops and starts and sputters through nearly two hours of unfunny violence and cruelty. The script by Seth Rogan and Kristofer Brown plays as if half finished, filled as it is with cliches like the clueless parents and uncaring teachers, just the kinds of characters Rogan and his co-writer pal Evan Goldberg avoided like the plague in his brilliant script for Superbad. Writing with another Apatow protege Kristofer Brown, with an alleged touch up by the legendary John Hughes, the script for Drillbit Taylor features strongly sympathetic kid characters who unfortunately are transported to the Adam Sandler movie world and are repeatedly abused until we just can’t watch, let alone laugh.

Stephen Brill’s direction has the subtlety and grace of an elephant on a frozen lake bed. Scenes slam into and bang off one another in a nearly random order early on as our heroes are kept from meeting Drillbit till the beginning of the films second act. More diversions keep Drillbit out of the school, where Wilson’s charming con man thrives ever so briefly as he romances Leslie Mann’s clueless teacher, until the third act. The third act which then takes forever to play out to a stunningly violent tet still predictable conclusion. .

What director Brill thinks is funny about the abuse he puts these poor kids through is an absolute puzzle. The film lingers on scenes of violence so ugly and scarring that that the movie loses touch with any sort of reality. Drillbit Taylor becomes merely a blunt instrument attempting to bludgeon audiences into submission. Meanwhile, as Steve Brill tries to bend Rogan and Brown’s characters and Wilson’s act to fit his Sandler movie mold it is as if Brill were bullying them into his movie.

Oddly enough dear reader, if Drillbit Taylor had starred Adam Sandler and not Owen Wilson, it might actually have come out better. Wilson simply isn’t cut out to play Drillbit who is called on to be a rude, uncaring, brute who learns to care. Wilson is better suited to playing con men with a heart of gold who can only be redeemed by a good woman as he was in Wedding Crashers or The Big Bounce (not a great movie, but not bad either). No, Drillbit is perfectly suited to Sandler’s manchild, raging id persona who can be believable as an uncaring jerk, as a brutish enforcer and as the teddy bear who learned a valuable lesson.

That is likely due to the direction of Brill who has only really known how to direct Sandler. He was at a loss trying to find a Sandler-esque character in the dismal 2005 comedy Without A Paddle and he is further at a loss in trying to turn Drillbit Taylor into a Sandler movie without Sandler. What you get when he attempts to bend Rogan, Apatow and Wilson to his will is a trainwreck of slapstick violence, low key deadpan and genital based character humor. Oh what an ugly wreck it is.

Movie Review: Doomsday

Doomsday (2008) 

Directed by Neil Marshall

Written by Neil Marshall

Starring Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Adrian Lester 

Release Date March 14th, 2008

Published June 12th, 2008 

Director Neil Marshall is a talented scenarist with a flair for hardcore violence. His The Descent is one of the best horror films of the decade. For his latest effort Doomsday, Marshal tries his hand at post-apocalyptic sci fi and finds he has little new to add to this aggressive sub-genre. Though Doomsday is skilled in its violence and has a strong visual sense, the story is beyond laughable, the characters wooden and forgettable.

In some not so distant future a virus dubbed 'Reaper' has devastated much of Scotland. The blood borne, possibly airborn disease has who of the Isle terrified and left London with a damnable decision. Sentencing millions to die horrifying deaths, the government built an 18 mile wall encompassing the whole border between England and Scotland.

Years later drug enforcement cops stumble on a cache of disease victims. The reaper virus is back and another horrible decision must be made. There is however a sliver of hope. Satellites have picked up movement in Glasgow, survivors. The thought is that the legendary Dr. Kane (Malcolm McDowell may have developed a cure.

The government throws together an elite fighting force to go into the infected area, find Kane and the possible cure. Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) is charged with leading this force into battle. What she finds are a loose confederacy of survivors for whom violence, human sacrifice and cannibalism are the order of the day.

The skill of Neil Marshall's direction in Doomsday is undeniable. What is lacking is any good sense in the storytelling. Doomsday unfolds in anarchic fashion but lacking a truly anarchic spirit. Marshall can't seem to decide whether he is going for the hardcore cool of 28 Days Later or the ironic, distanced, black humor of Mad Max.

What comes of Doomsday is a failed melange of the darkly comic and the attempted tragic.

Star Rhona Mitra has the physicality and good looks necessary for this role but she is at times far too sullen and lacking in the badass cool that might turn Doomsday from gloomy to just goofy enough for guilty pleasure. I wanted to revel more in her  badassery but Mitra just won't let us in. We admire her stunt work and occasionally smirk at her attempts at humor but the performance is too flat to inspire anything more than modest admiration.

If you like bizarre you may admire Neil Marshall's use of music in Doomsday. Fine Young Cannibals, Siouxie and the Banshees and Frankie Goes To Hollywood each receive prominent placement in Doomsday in some bizarre, overly ironic tribute to the 1980's.

There was potential for Doomsday to be the kind of badass action movie that combined the spirit of Big Trouble in Little China with the horror aesthete of 28 Days Later. Unfortunately, Marshall can't quite get the mix right. His visual style is impeccable but for all the attention paid to stunts and effects, the story falters and Doomsday disappoints.

Movie Review Made of Honor

Made of Honor (2008) 

Directed by Paul Weiland

Written by Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont

Starring Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin McKidd, Kathleen Quinlan, Sidney Pollack

Release Date May 2nd, 2008

Published May 2nd, 2008

Forget about An Inconvenient Truth or Leonardo DiCaprio's recent enviro-doc The 11th Hour or any nature movie you've ever seen. The most environmentally conscious film ever is without a doubt the new romantic comedy Made of Honor, the first movie ever made entirely of recycled materials. Recycled script, recycled characters, recycled plot, recycled everything. There is in fact next to nothing in Made of Honor that isn't recycled from some other romantic comedy right down to the stock scenes of a chase to the church and a character who gets punched in the nose at a wedding.

Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey stars in Made of Honor as Tom, an amoral ladies man who lives to sleep with a different woman every night. He has the perfect set up, he sleeps with random babes but has his best friend Hannah to provide him with the kind of female companionship he truly desires. Unfortunately, Hannah has a trip to Scotland that disrupts Tom's set schedule. With Hannah out of the country and mostly out of touch Tom realizes that his life stinks without her. He decides that he loves her and will tell her when she returns. However, Hannah doesn't return alone.

While in Scotland she fell for a hunky Scot named Colin (Kevin McKidd) and accepted his proposal. On a whim, she is getting married and she wants Tom to be her Mate of Honor. If you can't predict what happens from there then you have likely never seen a romantic comedy before. From the chase to the church to someone getting punched out at the wedding, Made of Honor recycles every imaginable rom-com cliché. The movie, directed by Paul Weiland even tosses in some questionable low brow humor for good measure.

Made of Honor is so astonishingly clichéd and predictable that had it included an all cast sing along to a well known pop song it would tip completely over into an ironic rom com parody and I could recommend it. As it is, Made of Honor is an earnest attempt at romantic comedy that fails on familiarity alone. On most every level the film is... competent. Patrick Dempsey is appealing. Michelle Monaghan is love and everything from the supporting cast to the direction is competently crafted. The problem is we've seen it all before. The script from three different writers recycles every cliche in the book and somehow expects us to simply accept it.

No acceptance here, Made of Honor stinks like the compost of dozens of similar romantic comedies. No matter the appealing  elements we've seen it all before and thus there is no reason to see Made of Honor.

P.S

As for the bizarre title "Made of Honor". Now having seen the movie, I still can't make sense of it. Tom is the Maid of Honor but why the title goes with 'Made' is a complete mystery.

Movie Review Madea Goes to Jail

Madea Goes to Jail (2009) 

Directed by Tyler Perry

Written by Tyler Perry

Starring Tyler Perry, Tamela Mann, David Mann

Release Date February 20th, 2009

Published February 21st, 2009

I am one of the few critics in the country who has willfully gone out of my way to be fair to Tyler Perry. While others could not stand his Madea character, not an unfair judgment really, I stuck it out with Perry and have come to terms with his dress wearing alter-ego. My patience was rewarded with Perry's exceptionally thoughtful, funny and well considered drama Why Did I Get Married. The film was a Woody Allen moment for Perry, an adroit, adult oriented movie of honesty and emotional truth. Best of all, no Madea to blow things sky high with her over the top comic persona.

I had hoped Why Did I Get Married would be a watershed moment for Perry. A moment where he finally corralled his tremendous social conscience and channeled it through characters people could connect with. Instead, Madea was soon back on screen and blowing up everything around her. Madea re-takes the main stage in Madea Goes To Jail and Perry has regressed right back to his sad, unfortunate, Diary of A Mad Black Woman days. That film is one of the more bizarre movies of the last decade, a serious drama about a serious topic and serious characters that gets blown sky high by Perry's insistence on putting on a dress and being funny. 

Diary Of A Mad Black Woman was about a troubled marriage, an abused woman and how she was able to get out from under all the sadness in her life and come into her own. Kimberly Elise delivers a powerhouse performance as the abused woman and Steve Harris is menacing as the cheating abusive husband. The drama of the relationship is stunningly effective in some scenes, despite the awkward direction of Perry in his first time behind the camera. And then came Madea. Perry's broad comic drag character brought the movie to a dead stop every time she came on screen and despite her often insightful dialogue, the sight of Perry in the dress was distracting and his flights of broad comic fancy were just too much for the movie to take.

It was like putting a kitchen sink drama and a Jerry Lewis movie in a blender. Ugh. For Madea Goes To Jail Perry has unfortunately pulled the blender out of storage. Madea Goes To Jail tells the disparate stories of Madea getting into ever more increasing lunacy before ending up in prison and tells the story of Josh and Candace (Derek Luke and Keshia Knight Pulliam), college friends whose lives took very different paths after an incident at school. Josh went on to a law degree and a job with the District Attorney's office in Atlanta. Candace ended up on the streets as a prostitute and drug addict. The wounds of their shared trauma are ripped open when Candace is brought before a judge and Josh is the prosecutor.

After passing off the case, Josh pays Candace's bail and offers to help her in any way he can. This upends his relationship with a fellow D.A, Linda played by Ion Overman. Linda has an important secret that pays off the whole plot and ties everything together but by the time it is revealed you won't care. This is Perry's clumsiest scripting yet as he bounces between the comedy and drama in discomfiting fashion before a wrap up that you can predict as if there were an onscreen map attached. Once again the drama is well played. Luke and Keshia Knight Pulliam, yes, Cosby kid Rudi, deliver scenes of real honesty and pain. Unfortunately, they are trampled offscreen by Madea, her daughter Cora (Tamela Mann) and the ever annoying Mr. Brown (David Mann) from Perry's last unfortunate turn Meet The Browns.

As much as I am down on Madea in this review, I must say that I found the character to be funnier than ever before. Perry has found his comfort in the dress onscreen for the first time. He has her down and knows which way to twist his words to get a laugh. The long off-color backstory of Madea is an unfortunate aside but the wit is quick and the broad jokes and physical humor can't help but make you smile as I did. That said, it is not Madea that doesn't work, it's shoehorning her into this dark, urban drama with Luke and Pulliam that is the problem. It is that comedy/drama blender that is the problem. Even a great filmmaker could not pull off the mixture that Perry attempts here, the best filmmakers would have the good sense not to try.

I can't believe I have come this far and not mentioned that Oscar nominee Viola Davis is also in Madea Goes To Jail. The wonderful Ms. Davis plays a Church Minister who walks the street handing out free condoms and clean needles to prostitutes and addicts. She's no liberal sap or a saint, Davis plays the kind of character that Perry is exceptional at creating but incapable of exploiting. Her deep social conscience and unending well of caring is remarkably real. She doesn't so much preach as instruct with the help of Jesus as a backup. Perry should make an entire movie with this character and Ms. Davis and no Madea. That would be something. Something far more than the ugly sum of Madea Goes To Jail.

Movie Review Mamma Here We Go Again

Mamma Mia Here We Go Again (2018) 

Directed by Ol Parker

Written by Ol Parker 

Starring Amanda Seyfried, Cher, Christine Baranski, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walter, Dominic Cooper

Release Date July 20th, 2018

Published July 19th, 2018

Low expectations and an upgrade in the director’s chair have combined to make a Mamma Mia sequel so unexpectedly good that I am still humming about it. Mamma Mia Here We Go Again has no right to be as fun and entertaining as it is, based off of the horror show that was the sloppy, 2008 original, and yet here we are. Director Ol Parker has brought order to the chaos of the original Mamma Mia and delivered a prequel/sequel far superior to the dismal original.

Mamma Mia Here We Go Again picks up the story of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) five years after the action of the original story. Now 25, Sophie is running her mom’s, Donna (Meryl Streep), hotel and is about to hold a gala grand opening. Unfortunately, mom won’t be there. Nor will two of her three adopted fathers, Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Harry (Colin Firth). Luckily, Sam (Pierce Brosnan) is at hand, along with Auntie Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Auntie Rosie (Julie Walter).

Worse yet though, Sky (Dominic Cooper), despite being Sophie’s one true love and business partner, will not be there either and is considering a job offer in New York. This leads Sophie to once again pick up her mom’s diary for some bolstering. The diary is the lead-in for a flashback to that glorious Greek summer when Donna met Harry, Bill and Sam, and became pregnant with Sophie. Best of all, it brings us the vibrant Lily James as the young Donna.

Do you recall that time you first saw Julia Roberts’ megawatt smile in Pretty Woman? If you’re my age you likely do and you remember the electricity of seeing a movie star emerge before your eyes. That’s Lily James in Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, a star bursting to life before our eyes. Sure, she was great in Cinderella and has honed her craft in other films, but here, she bursts forth with charisma to spare in a one of a kind performance.

James is so great she overwhelms all three of her male co-stars, none of whom make a dent in your memory despite being young and handsome. I could list their names but I couldn’t pick them out of a lineup even after having just seen the movie. James’ vibrancy is such that her co-stars don’t really matter, they are but mirrors through which to bask in Collins’ star-making performance. Can she sing? Yeah, well enough, but like Streep in the first film, she can sell the singing with passion and performance and that’s what matters.

I kept getting annoyed with the present day Sophie storyline for getting in the way of the flashbacks which were far more compelling. Slowly but surely however, the main story begins to turn an emotional corner. The flashback story begins to underline the action of the modern story in lovely ways and what emerges is a story for mothers and daughters and one that isn’t about the absurd and nasty notion of turning into one’s mother. One would count themselves lucky to become Donna.

As for the music of Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, my favorite performance is Waterloo, though it is arguably the most superfluous in terms of the plot. Indeed, I can recognize that praising the one performance that violates the order and structure that I have praised as a remarkable improvement over the original, is slightly contradictory. That said, Lily James and Young Harry (Hugh Skinner) really steal the show in this performance.

Director Ol Parker sets the scene in Paris where Harry and Donna met in 1979, the same summer she left for Greece. Though Donna is leaving, Harry nevertheless, throws himself at her feet and tells her he loves her and then they sing Waterloo at a French restaurant where waiters are dressed as Napoleon (Ho, Ho!). It sounds cheesy and it is, intentionally so. Director Parker directs the performance like an old school, early 80’s music video, a-la Adam Ant’s Goody Two Shoes, with wacky set pieces and even slightly grainy cinematography to really sell the bit.

Waterloo is wildly funny and a wonderfully shorthand way to bring Donna and Harry together before taking them apart. The other standout is My Love, My Life, which will leave many audience members, especially moms and daughters, a weepy mess. The trailer has spoiled that Sophie is pregnant and the correlation between her pregnancy and her mother’s pregnancy, is brought to bear on this wonderful performance with James and Seyfried singing in different time frames with the same meaning.

Ol Parker had an uphill battle to bring the unwieldy mess that was the Mamma Mia backstory into some semblance of order and he’s done an exceptional job. Sure, he takes the easy way out by mostly ignoring the problematic elements of the original backstory, but what he cobbles together works and the orderly plot helps strengthen our bond with these characters, something that was missing in the first film while we puzzled over how all of the pieces fit.

Thanks to director Parker, we can forget about the nonsense of figuring out when the film is set. It's 1979 when Donna meets Sophie’s dad, by the way, and the movie simply gets on with enjoying some Abba. The disco backlash of the early 80’s robbed us of the joy of Abba’s pop silliness and soapy dramatics and I’m glad to have it back, even if it isn’t the most respectable comeback. Abba was a heck of a lot of fun if you give over to them and we’re able to do that here with far less work involved than in the original.

By the time we reach the credits climax with Super Troupers, a reprise from the original movie, featuring the full cast in full Abba regalia, the movie has won us over with its bubbly spirit and Lily James star-calibur, Awards calibur performance. James is a powerhouse movie star. I won’t go as far as to say she deserves an Academy Award, though I am not opposed to the idea, but wow, we don’t need to see anyone else when it comes Golden Globe time, this is your Best Actress in a Comedy or a Musical, hands down.

I went into Mamma Mia Here We Go Again with a sour attitude, assuming it was going to be as insufferable as the original. What a joyous surprise to find that the sequel makes logical sense, fixes the holes punched in the space time continuum in the original, and crafts a heartfelt and quite funny story out of a bunch of goofy, funny, melodramatic tunes from one of the most underrated groups of all time. This is what Mamma Mia should have been all along, a brassy, blowsy, ballsy, belting it to the back of the room Broadway comedy in execution as much as in idea.

Movie Review Marley & Me

Marley & Me (2008) 

Directed by David Frankel

Written by Scott Frank and Don Roos

Starring Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Alan Arkin

Release Date December 25th, 2008

Published December 24th, 2008

I haven't had a dog since I was a kid. His name was Rusty. I have this painting that someone bought at goodwill or a garage sale that just happens to be of a dog that looks exactly like Rusty. I cannot walk past it without smiling. Rusty was the dumbest dog in history. He would answer to any name shouted loud enough and he chased parked cars. But he was my dog and I loved him. The new movie Marley & Me with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston inspires that sort of pet related introspection. The movie based on John Grogan's bestselling book is filled with spot on recreations of the kinds of memories dogs leave behind.

John Grogan wanted to be a globetrotting journalist who wrote the stories that changed the world. Instead, he went to work at the Sun Sentinel in Florida and covered city council meetings and wrote the occasional obituary. When he got his big break it wasn't going to Columbia to track the drug trade like his pal Sebastian (Dr. McSteamy, Eric Dane).

Nope, John Grogan's big break came when a columnist quit the Sentinel on short notice and his editor (Alan Arkin, in all his cantankerous glory) needed someone to fill 600 words in the lifestyle section. That was when John wrote his first article on his dog Marley, aka the world's worst dog, and launched himself to national syndication.

Marley was the world's worst dog. He ate everything from shoes to drywall. If there was a thunderstorm he might do more damage than the storm itself. John and his wife Jenn, also a journalist, got Marley when Jenn began talking about having a baby and John decided, behind her back, that he wasn't ready. Sebastian suggested getting the dog as a way of putting her off and it worked for a while. Eventually however, the Grogan's did have a baby and the family and Marley continued to grow.

Directed by David Frankel, the movie made from John Grogan's bestseller is filled with heart and humor in a most earnest fashion. It's something unlikely in the age of irony and disaffection for a movie to be so bravely serious about the day to day life of a family. The risk is being labeled cheesy, sentimental or cornball. Director David Frankel doesn't seem to care about the labels and in not caring the film is almost heroic.

There is nothing wrong with irony but once in a while a movie like Marley & Me is a welcome respite from the modern form of humor all detached and 'meta' and weird for the sake of weird, or awkward for the sake of awkward. Marley & Me treats the family life of John and Jenn Grogan with a seriousness that keeps the movie from becoming the Beethoven sequel so many of us imagined.

If Frankel and writers Scott Frank and Don Roos had given the same care to John Grogan's work life I might have a lot more nice things to say about Marley & Me. Unfortunately, the filmmakers give such a strange and distorted idea of how journalism works that it becomes distracting. Trust me when I tell you that no journalist has ever shown hesitation about being promoted and been handed double his pay as an enticement. Even if there were an ounce of truth to this story, the movie doesn't make it remotely believable by playing it as Arkin and Wilson play out the scene in Marley & Me. 

It's a little thing but it irritated me.

Aside from the job stuff, Marley & Me is a fun, thoughtful, well crafted family movie that gets right every aspect of owning and loving a dog. Even if you don't own or love dogs you will appreciate the way Director David Frankel and stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston never condescend to the audience. The film is serious about the way it treats the Grogan family and the humor emanates from a place of truth because of that seriousness.

Movie Review Just Like Heaven

Just Like Heaven (2005)

Directed by Mark Waters

Written by Peter Tolan, Leslie Dixon

Starring Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Jon Heder

Release Date September 16th, 2005

Published September 16th, 2005 

A romantic comedy that marries elements of the music of the Cure with the romance of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir has far more ambition than anything that genre has seen in a long while. Throw in that it's directed by the director of Mean Girls and Freaky Friday and stars Reese Witherspoon and you have an absolutely can't miss formula.

Just Like Heaven is very much a formula picture but it's the best version of that classic romantic comedy formula than anyone has made since Tom and Meg last embraced.

Reese Witherspoon stars in Just Like Heaven as Dr. Elizabeth Masterson, a resident at a San Francisco hospital with zero social life. 24 to 36 hour shifts are nothing new to Elizabeth, nor is falling asleep in her lunch. But despite her dedication one cannot help but notice the twinge of loneliness in her eyes as her  co-workers discuss family and friends. Not that Elizabeth does not have them.  She simply has no time to spend with them.

Finally, after getting a much sought after promotion, Elizabeth gets a night off. She is on her way to her sister Abby's (Dina Spybey), for dinner with her family and a blind date. Unfortunately, Elizabeth never makes it to dinner that night. After assuring Abby she was on her way, Elizabeth crosses the path of an oncoming truck and suffers a major accident.

Cut to three months later and the story shifts to David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo) a widower searching for a new apartment. Fate leads David to choose the apartment that once belonged to Elizabeth and, to David's frightened surprise, is still her spirit's home. At first it's an occasional run in here and there that David thinks could be just a misunderstanding or voices in his head as he has been drinking a lot recently.

Soon it's clear that this is all for real and David and Elizabeth set out to find out just what happened to her and in the process they fall madly in love. There's more to the plot than my description states but I don't want to spoil the fun. If you've read a number of reviews already you probably know the twists and turns but I'm still not going to spoil them myself.

Living man falls in love with a ghostly girl is not an original plot but I doubt it's ever been as wonderfully entertaining as it is in Just Like Heaven. Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo have chemistry to burn as the man and his ghost and director Mark Waters have just the right touch of classic romantic comedy and modern movie magic. Waters is quickly becoming a master of light hearted material mined for big laughs and a tug at the heartstrings.

Waters is absolutely blessed in the casting of Just Like Heaven, not only with his terrific stars but in the supporting cast, which features Donal Logue, Dina Spybey (who happens to be the director's wife), and the brilliant Jon Heder who combines just enough of his iconic Napoleon Dynamite with a relatively normal looking character to deliver some of the film's best moments.

The script by Peter Tolan and Leslie Dixon is based on a novel by Marc Levy called "If Only It Were True" which was actually optioned by producers even before it was published. With the paucity of new and different ways for romantic comedy couples to meet, it is rather cute finding one where a live guy falls for a seemingly dead girl.  At the very least it is refreshing.

As put in play by Mark Waters and his excellent team, including Tolan and Dixon, cinematographer Daryn Okada and production designer Cary White, this concept comes magically and romantically to life. The characters are smart and wonderfully likable and the San Francisco locations, including screenwriter Dixon's own apartment standing in as Elizabeth and David's apartment, are gorgeous. The filmmakers could cut back on the fake smoke and soft lighting that creeps in a few too many times but overall the attention to detail is lovely.

I absolutely must praise the film's soundtrack headed up by Composer Rolfe Kent and Cure singer Robert Smith. The soundtrack features The Cure's original "Just Like Heaven" and a lovely cover by Kate Melua. I've never been a big fan of cover tunes but the soundtrack overflows with good ones from the title track to Kelis covering the Pretenders' "Brass In Pocket" to Bowling For Soup's very funny take on "Ghostbusters".

The soundtrack also features Beck, Pete Yorn and original recordings from Composer Rolfe Kent, who was nominated for a Golden Globe last year for his work on the Sideways soundtrack.

Despite the live boy/ghost girl approach, Just Like Heaven is still a traditional romantic comedy and as tired as that genre is this film has none of the lethargy or stagnation that most recent romantic comedies suffer from. That has everything to do with this exemplary cast. Reese Witherspoon is back after dipping into the Oscar bait in Vanity Fair. She has fully inherited the romantic comedy crown from Julia Roberts and has become the rare actress to receive bigger billing than her male co-stars.

Mark Ruffalo continues to show astonishing range by choosing unique material. He was last seen as a gritty cop chasing Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx in Collateral. Before that he made another bubbly effusive romantic comedy, the candycoated 13 Going On 30. That film was not as smart or well made as Just Like Heaven, but both showcase Mark Ruffalo's quirky approach to the genre. Ruffalo treats even the lightest material with an actor's eye toward motivation and logic. He has a natural approach to the material that refuses to be manipulated by the plot.

Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder has been hyped prominently in the film's marketing and though his role is not as big as it may seem from the commercials and trailers, Heder nevertheless makes a great impression. Playing an oddball bookstore employee with empathic powers, he can sense the presence and feelings of ghosts.  Heder does not so much shed his Napoleon-ism as play to it and then away from it. This character is smarter and more stylish but retains the endearing oddness of Napoleon.

There are plot holes in Just Like Heaven as there are in any typical genre picture. The key to overcoming those holes is to create characters who can see audiences past any illogic simply with their appeal. Witherspoon, Ruffalo and the amazing supporting cast with their easy rapport and synergy completely gloss over any logic problems or editing missteps, allowing the audience to rejoice in the magic realism and the sheer joy of romance.

I despise the term chick flick! The simpleminded anti-feminism of the phrase grates me. It's a term people use to simply dismiss a film that they have not seen. What a shame because films as funny and well crafted as Just Like Heaven deserve the widest possible audiences they can get. With so few good movies made every year, to dismiss a movie simply for its surface is such a waste.

Movie Review The Dilemma

The Dilemma (2011) 

Directed by Ron Howard

Written by Allan Loeb

Starring Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Winona Ryder, Jennifer Connelly, Channing Tatum

Release Date January 14th, 2011

Published January 14th, 2011 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, my job is to talk about the movie “The Dilemma” but I'm not so much interested in this movie as I am in the fact that Jennifer Connelly, excuse me, OSCAR WINNER JENNIFER CONNELLY, is the fourth lead in a bad romantic comedy. This, I guess, shouldn't be news; she was after all the sixth lead in the far worse romantic crime “He's Just Not That into You,” but the sad trajectory of Connelly's career since her Oscar win for “A Beautiful Mind” is a strong parallel to the struggles of this well meaning but failing movie.

In “The Dilemma” Jennifer Connelly plays a Chef who is living with Vince Vaughn's typical commitment-phobic smooth talker, this time named Ronnie. It is Ms. Connelly's job to look concerned and be constantly confused by Mr. Vaughn's increasingly bizarre actions related possibly to a gambling problem he's had for years. That's what Connelly's Beth thinks anyway. Sadly, Ms. Connelly is introduced and then forced to the sidelines for most of the second act before returning for the third act in an even more diminished and forgettable fashion. 

The reality is that Ronnie has discovered that his best friend's wife, Geneva (Winona Ryder), is sneaking around with a young, tattooed stud (Channing Tatum) . Ronnie discovered the secret but when he confronted Geneva about it she threatened to lie and say Ronnie has been flirting with her. Geneva also has a blackmail secret that she hangs over Ronnie's head but none of this really matters, it's merely a way to keep the plot wheels spinning after the 'Dilemma' of the title is revealed.

Thus Ronnie sets about trying to tell Nick (Kevin James) that Geneva is cheating on him without actually telling him. This leads to a lot of sitcom level shenanigans where Ronnie tries to manufacture a scenario where Nick can catch Geneva in the act, thus relieving him of the burden of this secret. That idea has comic invention to it but it never elicits any laughs. Instead, the turgid direction of Ron Howard and Vince Vaughn's sweaty, shifty performance make the movie feel desperate as it fails to get laugh after laughter and potential laugh. 

Failing to find a tone between comedy and drama, “The Dilemma” flails about between the professional direction of Ron Howard and Vince Vaughn's sad attempts to continue his aging brand of fast talking, Peter Pan Complex humor. Certainly there is a middle ground between Howard and Vaughn but they never find it here and their styles clash like a head on collision.

The styles clash in the career of Jennifer Connelly have come as she has tried to keep one hand in the mainstream in films like “The Hulk” and “Dark Water” and one in the world of serious dramas with roles in “Little Children,” “House of Sand and Fog” and “Reservation Road.” Neither path has worked for Connelly, now she finds herself fourth name down below stars with half her talent.

Maybe it was the decision to suborn herself to the girlfriend role in “The Hulk, thus showing herself willing to accept less than equal billing with male co-stars of lesser star power, or maybe it was the failure of her first solo lead in “Dark Water,” something caused Jennifer Connelly to stop believing in herself and begin believing that she deserves 5th wheel roles like Beth in “The Dilemma.”

Before the release of “The Dilemma” I wrote a piece on the ‘Dilemma’ facing Vince Vaughn as his aging man-boy persona begins to fade. A similar dilemma seems to be afflicting Ms. Connelly except that she seems far more accepting of her sad fate. You can see it in her listless performance in “The Dilemma” and in her acceptance of material that would likely leave any actress a little bored.

Ms. Connelly you are better than this. Stop letting Hollywood dictate to you that you are not strong enough for anything more than the 4th lead in a crappy movie like “The Dilemma.” Flash that hardware around and find some indie movie producer who can give you the kinds of roles that excite you in ways this role clearly does not.

Movie Review: Country Strong

Country Strong (2011) 

Directed by Shana Feste

Written by Shana Feste

Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Garrett Hedlund, Leighton Meester, Tim McGraw

Release Date January 7th, 2011 

Published January 8th, 2011 

Country Strong is a stunningly bad movie. An overwrought tale of addiction, failed romance and country music, Country Strong was written and directed by Shana Feste as two different movies. One version of Country Strong is a straight drama about a falling star and the other is a gritty indie drama about an alcoholic struggling to get clean in the harsh light of fame. Director Feste crashes these two movies into one another and the result is a massive wreck at the corner of Lifetime Movie Network and the Independent Film Channel.

Gwyneth Paltrow stars in Country Strong as Kelly Cantor a country diva who evokes what Taylor Swift might look and sound like in 20 years. As we join the story Kelly is in rehab for some yet to be revealed reason. In treatment she is being romanced by an orderly named Beau (Garrett Hedlund, Tron Legacy) who happens to be a small time country singer. We know there is romance here because of their moony exchanges while Beau tries out a song for the diva in her room.

The rehab idyll is broken up by the arrival of Kelly's husband James (Tim McGraw) who announces that Kelly is leaving rehab early to get back out on the road and reclaim her career. In a fit of bad judgement James is sending his wife back out on the road just 6 months after her breakdown on stage during a concert in Dallas. Moreover, genius James is sending her back to Dallas for her big comeback show at the end of the tour.

Joining Kelly as her opening act is 19 year old Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester) a mousy wannabe Carrie Underwood with the brains of Kellie Pickler. James chose Chiles personally and the sexual tension between the married man and the rising teen diva is yet another of James's brilliant moves that seem orchestrated to drive his already fragile wife over the edge. Thankfully, Kelly has brought Beau along as both a lover and protector.

The creepy love quadrangle is one of the stranger touches of Country Strong as bot James and Beau lust after the teenager while sleeping with Paltrow's troubled 40 year old alcoholic. This is part of the wannabe indie vibe that writer-director Shana Feste wants to make even as most of the movie is a big, glossy, classically showbiz drama.

The dissonant tone of Country Strong clangs and bangs along and Shana Feste matches it with a shooting and editing style as clunky and discordant as the two movies she is banging into one. Scenes begin and end in strange places at odd angles and at times all we in the audience can do is laugh at the oddity of what we are witnessing.

How strange and out of tune is Country Strong? The one actual country music star in the cast doesn't sing until the closing credits. While actors Gwyneth Paltrow, Garrett Hedlund and Leighton Meester play singers and get on stage, the one person to actually sell a few country records, country superstar Tim McGraw is the one person on the screen called upon just to act.

That's not to say that the music of Country Strong suffers for having actors playing singers; each of the stars actually come off surprisingly well. Gwyneth Paltrow gave fans an earful of her warble in the long forgotten karaoke drama Duets singing alongside Huey Lewis. In Country Strong Gwyneth's voice is stronger and more confident bringing to mind a slightly less engaging Shania Twain.

Garrett Hedlund as Beau is the films one true revelation. Hedlund has a terrific deep drawling voice that fits perfectly the old school, twangy laden country songs that are Beau's forte. Leighton Meester's meek voice is well cast. The Gossip Girl star fits perfectly the role of the pretty pop country star whose best work is created in the studio with the aid of a great producer who can hide her faults.

When Country Strong takes to the stage things get lively and fun. Off of the stage Country Strong is a disaster of high camp melodrama and wannabe indie movie grit. If writer-director Shana Feste had embraced this trainwreck with a bit of irony and humor she might have turned Country Strong into a honky tonk Black Swan with Gwyneth as the cracked diva, Leighton Meester as a ditzy version Mila Kunis's scheming wannabe and McGraw taking on Vincent Cassell's taskmaster with a Tennesse twang replacing the haughty Frenchness.

It would cost the film Hedlund's voice, his character is far too earnest to survive this version of Country Strong, but it would be a better and far more interesting movie and it would free Hedlund to go make a real country record of his own. I know, I have to review the movie that was made and not dream of the movie I wish were made but I had little else to do while I waited out Country Strong's final odd yet somehow conventional twist.

Movie Review Mars Needs Moms

Mars Needs Moms (2011) 

Directed by Simon Wells

Written by Simon Wells

Starring Seth Green, Dan Fogler, Mindy Sterling, Joan Cusack

Release Date March 11th, 2011 

Published March 11th, 2011 

Motion Capture, or MoCap for you nerds out there, seems like a lot of extra work for little extra benefit. Take for instance the new movie “Mars Needs Moms” which employed actor Seth Green to portray the 11 year old protagonist only to realize as production began that Green, even attempting a voice, sounded nothing like an 11 year boy. This came after they hired Green, dressed him in a green screen jumpsuit and digitized his image as he acted out the role.

The lack of a proper voice forced the producers to hire a real 11 year old, actor Seth Robert Dusky, to provide the voice of the young protagonist Milo, meaning that the studio paid a premium for Seth Green to jump around in a digital costume, a price they could have cut in half had they simply hired an 11 year old to begin with or, if the role was too taxing for someone that young, hired a stuntman to simply handle the running, jumping and climbing the role required.

None of this would have been necessary at all had Imagemovers and Disney, the companies behind “Mars Needs Moms,” simply used traditional computer animation like the groundbreakers in Disney's own house at Pixar. Instead, millions of dollars were spent to deliver a movie that feels as disjointed and failing as the attempt to have Seth Green pretend to be 11 years old.

“Mars Needs Moms,” based on the popular children's book by Berkley Breathed, is the story of Milo who, after fighting with his mom, finds aliens in her bedroom as they are scampering out the window with mom as their prisoner. Giving chase, Milo finds himself swept up by the alien ship and eventually finds himself on Mars where the population of mostly women has been abducting Earth moms for years in an attempt to clone their parenting techniques.

After briefly being held prisoner himself, Milo is rescued by Gribble (voice of Dan Fogler, Balls of Fury), an overgrown child who claims to be an astronaut but actually has a story very much like Milo's. Gribble agrees to help Milo and they are soon joined by Ki (voice of Elizabeth Harnois), a Martian with a rebellious streak and a love of “flower power”

Together, these three misfits have to rescue Milo's mom (voice of Joan Cusack) from the nasty Supervisor (Mindy Sterling) before mom's memory is destroyed and implanted into a Martian robot.

There is a terrific story somewhere in “Mars Needs Moms.” The action has a strong motivation and the story plays out with a relatively precise logic. The problem is none of the movies are very entertaining. In attempting to give Mars a little grunge the filmmakers made the planet less interesting to look at; Milo and Gribble spend much time in an alien garbage pile which is as visually enticing as it sounds.

The humor of “Mars Needs Moms” is pitched to the ear of young kids who may chuckle here and there but there is not a memorable gut buster, even for the littlest of little ones, in all of “Mars Needs Moms.” This is a movie with a rather dramatic conceit about a boy losing his mom and fighting to get her back; you need a good sense of humor to pair with that or risk boring your core audience whose eyes and ears are yet to be tuned fully for drama.

Robert Zemecki has been trying to make Motion Capture his niche in the animated business, something to separate his brand from that of Pixar, Blue Sky Studios (“Ice Age”) and Dreamworks Animation (“Shrek,” “How to Train Your Dragon”). Unfortunately, three movies into his deal with Disney his company ImageMovers has been temporarily shuttered.

His “A Christmas Carol” was modestly profitable but at an extravagant cost the film was not a world beater at the box office. Now, “Mars Needs Moms” arrives to poor reviews and first weekend box office results that some say could be the worst cost to profit ratio in Hollywood history, barring a strong international rally.

Zemeckis’s insistence on Motion Capture was likely the death knell for “Mars Needs Moms,” a modest story that needed a more modest production if it needed to be made at all. The story simply doesn’t justify the effort involved and likely could have been produced for less than the reported 135 million dollars without all of the trappings and cost of Motion Capture.

It’s a moot point now of course, the film is out there and it has failed. ImageMovers has closed and Mr. Zemeckis hopes to relaunch it as a home for the adult themed, Beatles remake “Yellow Submarine” in 2012. It will likely be a long time before Disney or anyone else attempts another Motion Capture feature for kids like “Mars Needs Moms” and that is as much a commentary on this overwrought technology as it is on the minor pleasures provided by the story of “Mars Needs Moms.”

Movie Review Mary Poppins Returns

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

Directed by Rob Marshall

Written by David Magee, Rob Marshall, John DeLuca

Starring Emily Blunt, Lin Manuel Miranda, Pixie Davies, Ben Whishaw

Release Date December 19th, 2018

Published December 17th, 2018

If you had told me there would be a sequel to Mary Poppins and that I would enjoy it even more than the version I grew up singing along to, a week ago I would have told you that you were crazy. But now, well, now I have seen it for myself and, indeed, it’s true, I enjoyed Mary Poppins Returns starring Emily Blunt and Lin Manuel Miranda even more than I enjoyed the original. That’s high praise as I used to pretend I was Dick Van Dyke and sing along with the songs in that movie when I was 7 or 8 years old. Mary Poppins Returns had to overcome a lot of nostalgia. 

Mary Poppins Returns is a direct sequel to the 1964 Disney original. It’s not a remake, it’s not re-imagining, it’s a sequel featuring the original characters played by new actors. Emily Blunt takes up the role that Julie Andrews made famous as Mary Poppins, a nanny who can fly. In the original movie, Mary came to help the Banks children, Michael and Jane cope with their fun-hating father and flighty mum. 

Twenty years have passed between the original and the sequel and Michael (Ben Whishaw) is all grown up with his own three children. Jane (Emily Mortimer) has inherited her mother’s activist spirit which has left her without much of a social life. Recently, Michael’s wife passed away and it has thrown his life and the lives of his children, Annabel (Pixie Davies), John (Nathanael Saleh) and Georgie (Joel Dawson), into chaos. So much chaos in fact, they may lose their home unless they can find their grandfather’s long ago shares in Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, where Michael now works as a teller. 

Into this maelstrom comes Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt), arriving, as she does, on the end of a kite being flown by Georgie. Mary Poppins sensed trouble when the kids, rather than just being kids, were beginning to act like adults. Mary Poppins immediately sets about giving the children childlike adventures which include a trip under the sea via their bathtub and some magic bubbles and a lovely cartoon carriage ride inside a cracked old bowl that their mother gave them. 

The cartoon carriage ride is the most inspired part of Mary Poppins Returns. It recalls, of course, the legendary dancing penguins, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious performance from the original, with a penguin cameo no less. Herein, Blunt performs the big showstopper of Mary Poppins Returns alongside Lin Manuel Miranda who plays Jack, ostensibly the Bert of this sequel. The song “A Cover is Not the Book” is completely delightful, a rollicking and slightly risque tune that wonderfully combines animation and live action even more seamlessly than the original. 

The best song in Mary Poppins Returns however, is the one that is likely going to make you cry. It made me wipe away a tear. The song is called “The Place Where Lost Things Go” and it’s an emotional piece that gets at the heart of grief and loss and parental love. Relatively easy targets for a tear jerker but wait till you hear Emily Blunt sing it before you get cynical. Blunt’s beautiful voice soars and the kids’ back-up on the song hits right at the heart. 

Mary Poppins Returns was directed by Rob Marshall and marks a return to form for the director who was last seen torturing the movie musical genre with his unbearable Broadway adaptation, Into the Woods. Marshall hasn’t directed anything nearly as good as Mary Poppins Returns since he won an Academy Award for adapting Chicago to the big screen in 2003. He’s helped by having much better music here than he did in Into the Woods. Marc Shaiman and lyricist Scott Wittman have truly hit it out of the park with not one bad song in the movie. 

I wasn’t expecting much from Mary Poppins Returns. I was kind of expecting the film to fall on its face while rehashing the original. Instead, what we get is a gleefully fun romp that recalls the spirit of the original movie and, in many ways, improves on the original. Emily Blunt is fantastic, Lin Manuel Miranda is lively and energetic and the music is spectacular. Have no hesitation, Mary Poppins Returns is everything you could want from a Mary Poppins sequel and so much more

Movie Review Max

Max (2002)

Directed by Menno Meyjes

Written by Menno Meyjes

Starring John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski

Release Date September 20th, 2002

Published November 4th, 2002 

There are problems inherent in dramatizing the life of any real person. But imagine trying to dramatize the life of a man who is considered the most evil person in history. The thought of making a movie about a man who so coldly and calculatedly orchestrated the murder of millions of people, not through war, but through genocide. War is one thing. Soldiers die in a war and are willing participants. 

Adolf Hitler's murder of Jews, gypsies, and countless others, an estimated more than 12 million people, during World War II was an act of pure hatred and incomprehensible evil. To dramatize the life of Hitler would mean an attempt to humanize this man whose history has borne out a monster on par with Satan himself. The movie Max from writer-director Menno Meyjes makes just that attempt, to humanize Hitler as a struggling artist whose gifts were recognized by many but never fully understood.

The Max of the title is Max Rothman played by John Cusack. Rothman, a former German officer who served in World War I, was an aspiring artist until he lost his arm in the great war. Now running an art gallery out of a converted train station, Rothman meets a young artist who shyly asks him to show his work in the gallery. The artist is a corporal in the German army who also fought in World War I and now lives in near poverty on an army base. 

His name is Adolf Hitler and though Rothman finds the kid to be a little odd and disturbed, he recognizes potential in Hitler's art and encourages him to go deeper and paint something that channels the rage that he exudes. Hitler would like nothing more than to support himself as an artist but he is also a German patriot who doesn't like the direction his country is taking.

The conversations between Hitler and Rothman about politics and art being related and the nature of both being one aim are intriguing but never fully explored. The ideas put forth in Max about art and politics can't be dealt with because the surface of the film is dominated by the fact that one of the men involved in this conversation is Adolf Hitler. It is inescapable; you can't watch Hitler, played by Almost Famous' Noah Taylor, without thinking, my god that's Hitler as an artist. It's too surreal to think of Hitler as anything other than the evil slimebag he obviously was.

That surrealism only turns further and further in on itself the more Rothman and Hitler talk. When Max offers to buy Hitler lemonade you can't help but think, a Jew is buying Hitler lemonade. As Rothman makes comments that would be ironic if the character knew what was going to happen, you can't help but chuckle at the surreal aspect of the statements. No doubt the ironic dialogue is intentional but that just calls attention to how surreal it is.

Cusack is one of my favorite actors of all time but he seems miscast in his role. He makes no attempt at an accent which I can understand. If he can't do an accent, he shouldn't, but everyone else in the film from Leelee Sobieski as Rothman's mistress to Molly Parker as Rothman's wife are doing some sort of vocal affectation which make Cusack's lack of accent all the more noticeable.

Taylor does what he can in a thankless role. He does evoke Hitler's most memorable traits as we remember them from historical footage. Particularly, he captures Hitler's insane rage that was fiery enough to scare an entire country into thinking he was a genius.

I did like Rothman's observation of Hitler's work, especially when Hitler showed Rothman his vision of the future, his drawings of the Swastika, the army uniforms and such that Rothman later refers to as kitsch. Essentially, Rothman thought Hitler was kidding or just putting on some kind of artistic act. Yet another point of irony.

History tells us that the Max Rothman character in Max is an amalgamation of a number of different men who attempted, and obviously failed, to mentor Hitler during his starving artist period. The fact that Rothman isn't a real person is yet another roadblock for Meyjes, whose drama hinges on audience sympathies being with Rothman. Knowing that this story is only vaguely near the truth negates the film's climax that, while beautifully shot by cinematographer Lajos Koltai, feels as false as history says it is. Where there should be poignancy there is a flat feeling of detached irony.

There is something too far out there in hearing someone tell Hitler he needs to get laid, or hey, Hitler, how are you, or hey, Hitler, let me buy you a lemonade. It's just too surreal for a drama and the fact that Cusack's laid-back, detached performance is laced with ironic dialogue that the character doesn't know is ironic only serves to further distance the audience from the material, making any sort of emotional involvement impossible. Max is a misguided effort, a film that is well shot but impossible to take seriously. -

Movie Review Max Payne

Max Payne (2008)

Directed by John Moore

Written by Beau Thorne

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Olga Kurylenko, Mila Kunis

Release Date October 17th, 2008

Published October 17th, 2008

Is it cynical to assume that studios only make movies out of video games because of the built in audience? No, nothing is too cynical when it comes to movie studios. The real question is: How do the studios get filmmakers to go along with a movie that is little more than a marketing ploy? You could ask director John Moore. He is the man behind the latest video game adaptation to hit video store shelves. Moore and writer Beau Thorne have taken the characters of the popular first person shooter game Max Payne and used the character names and changed just about everything else that fans of the game knew.

Moore and Thorne have made a movie with characters named Max Payne and Mona Sax but if they resemble anything from the videogame it is merely a coincidence. Since that is the case, then why waste money on the rights to the game. Was that just for the name Max Payne?

Mark Wahlberg plays the titular Max, a cop tortured by the murders of his wife and daughter. They were alleged to have died in a robbery but Max comes to suspect a more sinister motive.  He's become so consumed by the conspiracy that his career has stalled. He now works in the Cold Case department, a bad assignment we assume because his office is located in the basement of the precinct.

The story kicks in when Max gets a tip from an informant about some dopeheads. He finds them and they lead him to a party and to a girl with a tattoo that is a big clue. The girl (Olga Kurylenko) is linked to a major drug dealer (Amaury Nolasco) who may be the man who really killed Max's wife. Before Max can get anything from the girl she is murdered. Since she happened to have stolen Max's wallet and was carrying it when she was killed, he is the top suspect.

More bodies pile up, each with a link to Max. As he avoids the cops he befriends the dead girl's sister, Mona (Mila Kunis), a killer for hire. Together they hunt down the drug dealer and his supplier. The plot involves a corporate conspiracy, drugs, super soldiers and other such things, many of them actually taken from the video game. However, fans of Max Payne looking for anything to be what they remember of the game will be sorely disappointed.

The 'adaptation' was merely a ploy by 20th Century Fox to find a property with built in salability. It never really mattered that the writer and director were in no way bound to actually adapt a story people were already quite familiar with. What mattered was the name Max Payne.

Now, as someone who never played the game, I could not really care less. The efficacy of video games to movies will affect fans of the game. For me, the issues are different. Max Payne, to me is a dreary action spectacle of dull anarchic plotting and lame attempts to marry classic detective movie tropes to modern special effects driven madness.

I like Mark Wahlberg but with The Happening and now Max Payne, Wahlberg is devolving from promising star to victim of bad management and bad advice. His Max Payne is a slow witted, lumbering piece of meat with a gun in his hands. On top of that, he's also a major bummer.

That last thing isn't his fault, I might not be alot of fun if my wife were murdered by drug dealing corporate conspirators but you wouldn't want to watch a movie about me either. The script of Max Payne piles on the depressive Max by killing his family and friends and then director John Moore piles on an oppressive atmosphere of unending cold darkness.

There are allusions to Norse mythology, lifted from the videogame but also altered from what gamers remember. The allusions are supposed to give the movie (game) depth but they really just show how shallow the whole enterprise is. The depth is feigned to the point of apathy and you almost feel sorry for whoever thought such a gambit would work.

Really, I almost feel sorry for everyone involved in Max Payne. I'm not sure what they set out to accomplish but still their failure is evident. Max Payne is a dreary, ugly, dumb movie that exists because of it's built in marketability and loyal following. Whether satisfying that built in following ever mattered is a question for director John Moore or 20th Century Fox.

My guess is, Nah.

Movie Review Slay Belles

Slay Belles (2018) 

Directed by Dan Walker

Written by Dan Walker 

Starring Hannah Wagner, Richard Moll, Barry Bostwick

Release Date December 15th, 2018

Published December 21st, 2018

Slay Belles is the latest in a surprisingly long line of Christmas themed horror movies. For me, this type of faux rebelliousness, ‘aren’t we cute making the most innocent holiday into a horror movie’ nonsense, wore out its welcome with the Silent Night Deadly Night franchise. Somehow though, filmmakers continue to fool themselves into cashing in on the novelty of Christmas related blood and guts. The latest failed effort at this novelty is streaming now and called Slay Belles. 

Slay Belles stars Kristina Klebe as Alexi, the stick in the mud of a trio of friends who refuse to steal when they go shopping. Alexi’s friends are Dahlia (Susan Slaughter) and Sadie (Hannah Wagner), a pair of cosplay loving, minor YouTube celebrities. Dahlia and Sadie host a YouTube series they call Adventure Girls in which they travel to abandoned locations and strut around in odd costumes while preening for the camera. 

This time, Dahlia and Sadie have dragged Alexi along for the show and they have a wacky new location, a former Santa’s Village that has gone out of business. What they don’t know and are about to find out, is that Santa Claus is real, here played by Barry Bostwick of Spin City and Rocky Horror Picture Show and now desperately slumming it. Santa is in the midst of a pitched battle with The Krampus, a monster that is somehow physically connected to Santa and is murdering most of a small town just before Christmas. 

The girls must team up with Kris Kringle and a local forest ranger, Sean (Stephen Ford of MTV’s Teen Wolf), to battle The Krampus and stop him before he begins murdering children around the world. I will give the movie one bit of credit, The Krampus costume that they made or purchased or whatever, looks pretty great. Yes, it probably resembles more of a werewolf but, then again, what the heck is a Krampus anyway. The monster looks appropriately monster-like and that’s all that matters. 

Unfortunately, the rest of Slay Belles is far less inspired. The performances are insipid, the direction is all over the place stylistically, with a camera bouncing around in every scene, and Barry Bostwick appears to be in some sort of stupor. The veteran actor limps through scene after scene with just enough energy to just avoid yawning over his own lines. Bostwick never really clicked in the mainstream on the big screen but even he seems to be above the nonsense of Slay Belles. 

I referred to Slay Belles as a Christmas themed horror movie but the aim appears to be ‘horror comedy’ and not merely blood and guts scares. I add the caveat ‘appears to be’ because despite what seems like a light tone, I didn’t find a single laugh in the entire movie. I did almost give a small laugh at the expense of how tired Barry Bostwick appears to be in Slay Belles but I don’t believe that laugh was what the filmmakers were going for. 

Slay Belles is rated R for Language and brief nudity. The film is streaming now on Amazon and will soon be on the shelves at what remains of video stores across the country. 

Movie Review Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) 

Directed by Kerry Conran

Written by Kerry Conran

Starring Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Bai Ling, Michael Gambon

Release Date September 17th, 2004

Published September 17th, 2004 

Call me a Luddite if you wish, but I just don't like the way computer technology is encroaching on modern filmmaking. With the release of Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow, we have our first example of a movie made with real actors and no real locations. We are not far from a film with no real actors. Final Fantasy was technically speaking animation, I am speaking more of technology of the kind used in the little seen Pacino movie Simone where America's top actress was entirely created on a computer.

This is disturbing to me because when you pay so much attention to technology, what most often gets lost is real art. Dialogue, characters and acting are the casualties of too much technology. Look at Bruckheimer films, so much attention paid to blowing things up and not nearly enough attention to creating plots, dialogue or characters. Some could point to Pixar's animated features as an example of great plot and dialogue combined with top of the line computer technology and they have a point. Still, an animated character will never replace a great human character like Indiana Jones or The Bride from Kill Bill, at least not to me.

That brings us back to Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow, which is technologically well realized. However, when it comes to dialogue, plot and characters, the film is shallow and conventional.

Gwyneth Paltrow stars as intrepid reporter Polly Perkins. Polly has stumbled upon the story of the century, the world's top scientists are disappearing and Polly has the inside track toward finding the supervillain behind the kidnappings. Her story is interrupted when giant metal robots invade New York City and only Joe Sullivan (Jude Law) a.k.a. Sky Captain can stop them.

Joe and Polly have a personal history, they used to be an item years earlier but broke up badly. Now because Polly has information Joe needs and Joe has the story Polly needs, the two are reunited and bickering like a divorced couple. Regardless, they must work together to find the missing scientists who will lead them to the supervillain known as Totenkopf. They are aided by Joe's sidekick and gadget man Dex Dearborn (Giovonni Ribisi) and British flying ace Frankie Cook (Angelina Jolie) who, like Polly, has a personal history with Joe.

For a film as unconventional in its technological creation, its plot is actually rather mundane. It's an adventure lifted directly from a 1940's Errol Flynn movie. A nice homage but it fails to hold up for a full-length modern feature. The plot is highly predictable and relies on any number of contrivances to arrive at its predestined outcomes. The technology has evolved but the ability to create a screenplay that doesn't rely on an obviously stupid decision by a character that should know better still persists.

The acting is a little off, likely because of the technology. There is a big difference between acting on a set and acting against a blue screen. You’re reacting to things that aren't there and when you're forced to remember exactly where you're standing or where the fake tree is or the fake animal attacking you is, it's difficult to concentrate on delivering lines and reacting to real flesh and blood co-stars.

The technology has improved so that acting against a blue screen is not as awful looking as it was in the 60’s drive-in movie era. However, just because everything looks seamless onscreen doesn't make the acting any easier and the strain is evident on each of these actors.

Jude Law, who I believe is in every movie being released this fall, has the kind of glamorous good looks to play the heroic Sky Captain but there is something in his performance that is just a little off. Law has this mischievous glint in his eye, he's always had it and it's always been an asset. However, in a role that calls for earnest heroism, that glint seems out of place. There is just a hint of irony to everything he says, an irony that is out of place in a film that is so ingrained in its faked time period.

Gwyneth Paltrow, one of my favorite actresses, also is just slightly off. Her trouble comes more from the script than from her performance. Her Polly Perkins is required to do things that keep the plot going, things that if the character were as smart as she's supposed to be, she wouldn't do them. She does these stupid things because if she didn't, the movie would be over. If you can't make the plot work without compromising your characters then you need to keep working on it. Of course, when you have so much technology to worry about you just don't have time to devote to your plot.

In a recent column, I wrote of how disturbed I was about Sky Captain using the image of the late Sir Laurence Olivier as a character in the film. I am happy to report that my concerns were greatly overblown. The film does not employ Sir Laurence's image in any way that is overly disturbing or abusive. I don't want to give anything away about how he is used because it might reveal too much, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

The computer technology of Sky Captain is impressive. Some of the imagery is quite striking. I especially enjoyed the flying British aircraft carriers and the blimps. Very impressive stuff. I also enjoyed the film’s gauzy look that makes it feel aged to its 30’s. The film looks like one of Ted Turner's colorized black and white movies, and although colorization is blasphemy, this film just has a similar look.

Writer-Director Kerry Conran is clearly a fan of classic sci-fi of the 30's and 40's and if you share that love you are going to like Sky Captain a whole lot. There are numerous homages to old movies like King Kong or Errol Flynn's numerous adventure movies. The Wizard Of Oz is used effectively in more ways than one. This love of film classics is admirable and quite enjoyable if you know your history. Keep your eyes open for a number of visual references to classic films.

With the technology and the homages to classic films, I can't be surprised that some things would get lost in the shuffle. Unfortunately, what gets lost is characters, dialogue and plot. There is no doubt that if you’re into technology you will be blown away by what you see in Sky Captain and what could possibly be done with this technology in the future. For me though, no amount of technology can replace the thrill of charismatic characters delivering smart dialogue inside a complicated plot.

Movie Review Sidewalks of New York

Sidewalks of New York (2001) 

Directed by Ed Burns 

Written by Ed Burns 

Starring Ed Burns, Rosario Dawson, Heather Graham, Brittany Murphy, Stanley Tucci

Release Date November 21st, 2001 

Published February 3rd, 2002 

Sidewalks is the story of interconnected New Yorkers being interviewed for the same documentary on sex and relationships. Ed Burns is a TV executive who is newly single and living with his boss played by Dennis Farina who in turn meets a divorcee played by Rosario Dawson. David Krumholz plays Dawson's ex-husband who is attempting to woo a waitress played by Brittany Murphy. Murphy's waitress is also seeing a married man played by Stanley Tucci who's married to Heather Graham who's a real estate agent showing apartments to Ed Burns character.

Once were introduced to the characters they set about on a series of mundanities meant to be insightful about relationships, fidelity, and sex but it's all really hot air from a bunch of characters so self centered it's amazing they have time for relationships with anyone else. Burns' relationship with Dawson is particularly insignificant, with two dates, sex and that's it. We have just witnessed the least interesting relationship in each character's lives, and only at the end does the director try to make the relationship something worth caring about. The gimmick is cheap and obviously only in the film to provide the relationship with significance.

The biggest problem with Sidewalks of New York is its documentary gimmick which is both confusing and unnecessary. Confusing because the documentary camera never stops filming, which doesn't jibe with the characters who are called on not to notice they are on camera unless they are performing their testimonials. The gimmick becomes even more confusing when you try to figure out how the documentary filmmakers just happen to catch the first meeting of 3 of the couples. Was it luck and why didn't they notice they were on camera? Why does the camera follow Burns on his search for an apartment when the documentary is about relationships? And if those scenes weren't actually a part of the documentary, why do we still have to put up with the documentary style shaky cam?

Sidewalks of New York is a complete mess and a sad misstep for the very talented Burns whose two previous films, The Brothers McMullan and She's The One treated the same relationship turf as Sidewalks but with more insight and realism. Burns should consider going back to his humble roots and leave the talkative uptown New Yorkers to Woody Allen.

Movie Review Sicario 2 Day of the Soldado

Sicario 2 Day of the Soldado (2019) 

Directed by Stefano Sollima 

Written by Taylor Sheridan 

Starring Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner, Jeffrey Donovan 

Release Date June 19th, 2018 

Published June 18th, 2018

Sicario was a movie where one character tied herself in multiplying more knots in order to do what she thought was right in the pursuit of justice. Sicario may be the Spanish word for hitman but the movie of that title was not about the hitman but rather about an FBI agent who is young enough to still be idealistic about her job until she is confronted by the futility of her work and how even doing the right thing can be a misguided notion when the line between right and wrong is so desperately murky.

It’s unfortunate that Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado doesn’t have an Emily Blunt like character for us to identify with. Without Blunt’s everyman innocence, the story of Sicario 2 is left to a pair of characters who are charismatic but not very believable as arbiters of the moral ground. Sicario 2 asks us to believe that the characters of CIA Fixer, Matt (Josh Brolin) and hitman, Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) are somehow guided to do the right thing when their cold-hearted depravity was the point of the characters when they were conceived.

The story of Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado begins with a pair of terror attacks at the border between the U.S and Mexico. In a shocking sequence we watch three terrorists walk into a super-market and each detonate bombs strapped to their chests. This is the act that convinces the Secretary of State (Matthew Modine) to go after the people who are believed to be helping terrorists into the country, the drug cartels.

For this dirty work he turns to CIA Fixer Matt and tasks him with a black op. The idea is that Matt and his team will kidnap the daughter of a drug kingpin and drop her off in the territory of a rival kingpin. The goal is to get the cartels into a war with each other and in so doing, keep the cartels from providing cover for terrorists to cross the border into Texas. The idea is solid in planning but the execution is bad. Mexican police are supposed to provide a safe lead into Mexico but instead, they go into business for themselves and nearly kill Matt and his team.

This leaves Matt’s friend and professional killer Alejandro to care for the kidnapped girl while Matt high tails it back to Texas to deal with the fallout of Americans killing Mexicans in Mexico. What you have here is a plot with a lot potential, plenty of rich ground to cover in crafting these characters and evolving them from the first film. Unfortunately, the makers of Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado can’t seem to make up their mind about what film they are making.

Turning Matt and Alejandro against each other is a clever idea, their alliance may feel close but there is underlying tension to be exploited. The story is timely and potentially bold but the makers of Sicario: Day of the Soldado can’t seem to decide what movie they are making. Is this a gritty, hard-bitten drama about hard men doing the hard things or is this a critique of the secretive and dangerous methods of an American law enforcement acting from a place of fear and weakness.

As I said earlier, this is a rich playing field for characters like these. Unfortunately, director Stefano Sillima is unable to capitalize on the work of his terrific cast. Sillima’s direction is lazy and deeply conventional. Where the original Sicario was an artful study of characters struggling with their morality in an amoral world, Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado is a macho, posturing, pointless action movie.

Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado trades the best part of the original, the character based acting and observational plot in favor of the more familiar gun fights and chases of the action genre. What they fail to consider are the expectations of people who’ve seen the first Sicario. I loved Sicario for its thicket of moral grey area and how Blunt’s character would navigate that thicket. I enjoyed her struggle and understood her frustration.

Without Blunt or a similar character in this sequel what is left is rather weak sauce. There are far less complicated notes being played. The motivations of the characters are lacking as is the clever visual technique of Academy Award winner Roger Deakins who made the grit and grime of Mexico come to life as if Mexico itself were a dangerous character. All of the best stuff of Sicario is missing from Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado and what a shame that is.