Talking Pictures

Rich’s Quickie: I liked it better when it was called “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”…

Let’s Do! YES, Robert Downey Jr. is funny and charming. YES, Zach Galifianakis is pretty good at playing… basically the same character he always plays. YES there are some funny scenes, moments and supporting roles…

But Give Other Movies Their Due: Let’s play Name That Movie!
An overweight, socially awkward guy gets paired on an airplane with a more socially acceptable and successful person, driving him nuts from the get-go. They both get kicked off said plane, but Mr. Successful in unable to rent a car, so he has to pair up with Mr. Awkward and share a trip cross-country, which is crazy `cause they’re total opposites! Road trip shenanigans and hilarity ensues. Eventually, this unlikely pair comes around to tolerate and even like each other.

If you think you’ve seen this before, you have; and John Candy and Steve Martin did it better because the surrounding circumstances were not so unbelievable. Hitchcock often thrust regular people into unusual situations, and the thrill was seeing what they would do being so totally out of their element. But to put Downey’s Peter Highman and Galifianakis’ Ethan Trembly together and then subject them to things that just couldn’t happen? Credulity is strained, and you’ll find your self fighting the film: Highman would so NOT have been allowed on a plane after being accused of smuggling drugs. Their first in a series of car crashes probably should have killed or at least crippled them. You probably couldn’t steal a Mexican Police car and drive it very far across the border and not get tailed. These are just a few of the sequences that pull you out of the movie with a “Yeah right” feel to them.
If the script doesn’t make you resist the film, as funny as Downey’s Highman can be, both he and Galifianakis’ character do things that make you resist THEM. And Highman comes around to being Tremblay’s buddy way too soon, and for no good reason. Add in a nearly unnecessary Jamie Foxx and an underused Juliette Lewis for kicks, and “Due Date” is retreaded mediocre idea with top-drawer talent who unfortunately couldn’t save it.

Movie Grade: D+

Director: Todd Phillips

Writers: Alan R. Cohen (screenplay) & Alan Freedland (screenplay) and Adam Sztykiel (screenplay) & Todd Phillips (screenplay), and Alan R. Cohen (story) & Alan Freedland (story).

Rated R for language, drug use and sexual content.

Rich’s Quickie: Megafun!

Mega! Despite a LOT of stuff you’ve seen before and some sophisticated humor that will probably sail right over the heads of most kids, a wonderful voice-cast and popping animation helps “Megamind” succeed. The script offers many an opportunity for the animation to tell the story, with colorful characters (that characters that are actually different colors!), crazy costumes, comic-book action, and all manner of inventions and robots. Jonah Hill gets a surprising amount of lines (especially considering the rest of the cast), while the comedic talents of David Cross and Tina Fey cannot be quashed by not actually being onscreen. Will Ferell finally has another hit (and no, I don’t count “The Other Guys”), and if this had come out sooner, you’d likely have seen a bunch of kids dressed up as the title character for Halloween.

Micro: But you probably won’t see much of them next Halloween, since – although a good time at the movies – “Megamind” doesn’t seem to rate with the best of them, and probably doesn’t have that kind of staying power. That may be because one of its main stars – Brad Pitt – is regulated to almost a supporting character role (supplemented by Jonah Hill, no less), and even when his character is onscreen, I think his performance falls short of the over-the-top and out-of-this world courageous hero it was supposed to be. That is still surprising; although Pitt has done little by way of strict voice work, his recent, other characters (like Lt. Aldo Raine in “Inglorious Basterds”), were almost ALL voice; the performance hinged on his every inflection. Ferrell I bought; Pitt I didn’t; and since he was the Yin to the yang, that’s half of the movie, even though he was only in maybe a quarter of it.

Movie Grade: B

Director: Tom McGrath

Writers: Alan J. Schoolcraft, Brent Simons

Rated PG for action and some language.

Rich’s Quickie: Stuck in an elevator with the Devil; goin’ down!!
Up: It sounds like the start of a bad joke; “Okay; you’re stuck in an elevator with the Devil…”, but it’s actually the beginning of a pretty decent genre pic. Based on an idea from beleaguered director M. Night Shayamalan (but not directed by him… so he’s also not in it), and part of a series of forthcoming movies in the horror genre, from the opening titles “Devil” uses sounds (or lack of them), strong visuals (or a complete lack of them), and enclosed spaces to set up tension and suspense. There are genuine jolts and creep outs; moments in the film that made me pleased to be there. Compared to all the other supposed ground-breaking horror pics out lately (“Paranormal Activity”, “The Last Exorcism”), “Devil” is the only one I’d see again with a few friends who were curious. It’s a bit of shame that the only movies of M. Nights’ that are any good these days don’t have him in charge.

Down: But there are enough of his fingerprints on “Devil” to bug me a bit. The whole childhood story as narration smacked of the ever-growing story throughout “The Lady In The Water”. They also felt a need to provide us with an actual Devil in that elevator, rather than just a metaphysical, malevolent force that torments us poor humans (as was done in “Signs” with the aliens). It ends up being okay, but I had this feeling it might have been better to NOT personify Satan. In any event, it didn’t kill the film for me, and it still gets a decent rating for the genre.

Movie Grade: B-

Director: John Erick Dowdle
Writers: Brian Nelson (screenplay), M. Night Shyamalan (story)

Rated PG-13 for violence and disturbing images, thematic material and some language including sexual references.

Rich’s Quickie: Almost everything you hoped it would be!
Grind! When you have no less than 6 beheadings and some nekkidness before the titles, you know you’re in for a ride of Rodriguez proportions. Not for the faint of heart, “Machete” was borne from a fan favorite fake trailer in the Rodriguez/Tarantino splat-fest “Grindhouse “ …and don’t worry – “Thanksgiving “ is also on the way! When even the likes of Steven Seagal fare well, you know the cast relished the party they were invited to, and for the most part it delivers just what you’d expect from a movie paying update homage to the exploitation grindhouse flicks of yore…

Grist: …but in some ways, I wish it went further. After an appropriately scratchy, choppy beginning, “Machete” almost gets a little too slick for its own pedigree. But even with what little it may lack, I’m sure what it does deliver is more than enough for most.

Movie Grade: B

Directors: Ethan Maniquis, Robert Rodriguez
Writers: Robert Rodriguez, Álvaro Rodríguez

Rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, language, some sexual content and nudity.

Rich’s Quickie: A mushy romantic comedy with raunchy sensibilities.
Go: I’ll admit I’m a fan of Drew Barrymore, and even the raunchiest of stuff that comes out of her mouth in this “Hangover” with heart is somehow adorable. Justin Long is a bit less charming in his role, but he’s believable enough; although he has competition for on-screen laughs with the likes of the supporting cast (including Jason Sudeikis, a pitch-perfect Christina Applegate and especially Charlie Day from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia). A flick that earns it’s R rating, Distance was a surprise, and funnier than I thought it would be given its romantic comedy roots.

The Distance: But those roots may be it’s only major flaw; it is predictable. Our couple getting together, coming apart and eventually getting back together is no surprise, and neither are some of its setups. But the cast more than makes up for the lack of surprises.

Movie Grade: B

Director: Nanette Burstein
Writer: Geoff LaTulippe

Rated R for sexual content including dialogue, language throughout, some drug use and brief nudity.

Rich’s Quickie: A solid performance by Clooney in a movie that is not your usual fare, and may suffer from inaccurate billing.

Now THAT’S America! My buddy Luke Hickman at thereelplace.com may have said it best; “For a movie in which not much happens, it’s still pretty tense!” George Clooney shows us a different side of himself in an assassin near the end of his career, with no future and no human connection in his life. A study of the life of a loner and lonely man, “The American” has few actual action scenes, and spends much of its time showing Clooney doing the solitary work of assembling a weapon in preparation for one last “job”. But normally oozing-with-charm Clooney is convincing as “Jack/Edward”, staring down the maw of the life his character has chosen; and his good looks totally undermine the elegance and flash of other, “look how cool it would be to be an assassin” movies.

Ya pinko! The action shot of Clooney in the poster art is about as fast-paced as this movie gets, and that may bug American audiences more accustomed to the action scenes in “The Expendables”. It also has quite the “European” ending, which also may not satisfy American audiences accustomed to everything being wrapped up in a bow at the end. But truth be told, it was the only ending his character’s story could have had, and “The American” is more of a character study than the action thriller it’s touted as being. Then again, what it lacks in action it makes up for in boobies.

Movie Grade: B

Director: Anton Corbijn
Writers: Rowan Joffe (screenplay), Martin Booth (novel)

Rated R for violence, sexual content and nudity.

Rich’s Quickie: The folks who enjoyed “The Blair Witch Project “ and “Paranormal Activity” will likely respond well to this one, too; but don’t include me in that number.

Firstly: Shot in ShakyVison! and brought to you in faux-documentary style, “The Last Exorcism” starts of well, following the exploits of a charlatan priest who has lost whatever faith he had, and now spends much of time ripping off his flock. It’s a clever idea; one that takes you behind the scenes and into the slight-of-hand used to deliver the goods during an exorcism, and into the justifications of those who would set such a stage. But when troubled evangelical minister Cotton Marcus (played by Patrick Fabian), comes across The Real Deal during the filming of his supposed last exorcism, his cheap tricks don’t wash and possibly unleash hell upon himself, his camera crew, and the family of Nell Sweetzer (a very flexible Ashley Bell), the afflicted young girl (isn’t it ALWAYS a young girl?) in question. The pacing and build-up is good; combining the slow-boil of the classic “The Exorcist”, the backwoods seclusion of “Deliverance” and the dark house of many creaks from “Halloween”, all in a market-friendly PG-13 package that goes easy on the crucifix.

Lastly: Too bad that literally the last few minutes, it goes so off the rails as to sour all that comes before it. Thus, it continues a series of similarly shot movies (such as “The Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity”) that wuss out in the end. Of course, if you liked those movies (or if you find something even remotely scary in the trailer for “Paranormal Activity 2”), then you will likely lap this up. Not me though, since I found all of those movies to be lackluster, and “The Last Exorcism” suffers from similar problems.

Movie Grade: C-

Director: Daniel Stamm
Writers: Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland

Rated PG-13 for disturbing violent content and terror, some sexual references and thematic material.

…and so does this movie.

`Nuff said!

Rich’s Quickie: If you like Gladiator and/or Braveheart, you’ll probably like this. But if you like your Robin Hoods a bit lighter, though; you may not like this!

Robin: Did we need a Robin Hood origin story? Ridley Scott has given it to us anyway, a full 140 minutes of it. Both director and star Russell Crowe are in fine form here (as well is the rest of a stellar cast including Cate Blanchett as Marion Loxley, William Hurt, Mark Strong, and Danny Huston, among others), and the film has a lush look to it. The action sequences are thrilling (if a bit too few and far between), and few of the battles will certainly draw you right in. Max von Sydow arrives in the nick of time and provides much needed humor, depth and soul to the story.

Stealin’: But Robin Hood is likely to remind you a LOT of other movies, such as Gladiator, Braveheart and even the parts of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Obviously, with such similar themes that’s bound to happen; but some of it was too much (like Marion hiding behind a knight’s helmet on the battlefield and taking on the main bad guy). Actually Marion is a sore spot for me in general; trying to make her a strong-willed character it took me right out of the literal time of the movie – in THAT day and age, she simply would have been killed for behaving so.
The movie is also strangely loaded with characters, subplots, and double-crosses between noblemen; you may need a spreadsheet just to keep track of them all. And finally, Crowe is simply in Gladiator mode for most of this movie, a couple of moments of levity notwithstanding. I didn’t want to see him singing in tights necessarily, but I did want my Robin Hood to have a touch more merriment, and to not be so heavy.

Movie Grade: B-

Rated PG-13 for violence including intense sequences of warfare, and some sexual content.

Directed by: Ridley Scott
Written by: Brian Helgeland (screenplay & story) and Ethan Reiff & Cyrus Voris (story)

Rich’s Quickie: Maybe not a classic, but it’s also not Leap Year, either.

Letters: Surprise guys; when your young lady drags you to this one you may NOT want to slit your wrists. Letters was shot on location and the scenery lends to the romantic groove of the film, and star Amanda Seyfried is earnest in her portrayal of Sophie, a young lady somewhat adrift in her own love life while helping to steer others on that same stormy sea. There may not be many surprises here, but Letters has a sense of itself that keeps it from being too corny; there are times when Letters could walk right off the balcony, but it quickly catches itself before the fall. And when veteran Vanessa Redgrave shows up for the second act, the movie really finds its footing and leads you into its satisfying third act.

Scribble: The script is not without its scrawl. In the first act, Seyfried’s character comes off as a spoiled brat who understand the difference between traveling for business or pleasure, and who also can’t seem to have a good time in Italy without her man on her arm 24/7. And possibly because of that, the next acts are devoted to showing just how lousy her current overworking boyfriend Victor is (played by Gael García Bernal), paving the way for her to be okay with falling for Charlie (played by Christopher Egan). Apparently, all you need to do to win a woman these days (if we are to believe this and other movies such as Leap Year), is spend a few days with her in a foreign country, and try to treat her badly at first.

Movie Grade: B-

Rated PG for brief rude behavior, some language and incidental smoking.

Directed by: Gary Winick
Jose Rivera (written by) and Tim Sullivan (written by)