EVERYTHING MUST GO (2011) (a review)

EVERYTHING MUST GO (2011) (a review)

This is another of Will Ferrell's serious, only slightly comedic roles (ala STRANGER THAN FICTION). The movie was written and directed by Dan Rush.

The story: after losing his job, a man comes home to find he is locked out of the house and all his stuff is on the lawn. He has no money and his credit cards are declined, so he decides to stay there and have a 5-day yard sale to get rid of his stuff and figure out what to do.

Was it good?

No.

The movie was just too slow and if there was supposed to be something deep and powerful in it, it didn't come through at all. LOST IN TRANSLATION is slow, but it has some powerful emotional moments and a great ending. This one didn't.

There are a few weird choices. For instance the lead (Ferrell) is supposed to be an alcoholic who had a relapse and that's why his wife threw him out. Except we never meet his wife. We never see their relationship. He could have been a single guy getting thrown out of an apartment. Why make him married? Why bother if you aren't going to exploit it? I thought the idea of selling his stuff was a metaphore for moving on, but since we don't know the wife we have no idea what he is moving on from or why he would have trouble letting go. I mean, the only thing we know about her (at the beginning) is that she locks him out and tosses his stuff and destroys his credit cards and bank account...so she seems like a real b*tch! He's lucky to be rid of her! He shouldn't be sulking, he should be out celebrating that the witch is gone!

This is just such a fundamental problem and it's something I see all the time -- writers not setting up their stories properly. Often its because they move too fast, which is just as bad as moving too slow. In this case it guts the entire metaphore.

Now that can be fine if the focus of the movie is on something else. However here there really isn't anything else. There's no deep insight. No powerful relationship. And the main character isn't actively working toward anything.

The other angle is that he is an alcoholic. That's why he got fired and why his wife locked him out. And he spends a good amount of time drinking, and yet there really isn't anything in the movie that deals with alcoholism or anything like that. He might as well have just been bouncing a ball, because that's all they did with the alcoholism -- use it as a way to keep time.

Even the supporting characters don't have much. There's a kid who helps him who doesn't really have a story and a pregnant woman he befriends who doesn't really have a story...

I appreciate that this isn't just a typical Hollywood movie and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that the script made good use of the metaphore and maybe had some powerful moments, but they just didn't translate onto the screen.

This movie wasn't horrible, but there are plenty of character driven movies out there that are a lot better.

*** AVOID ***

CEDAR RAPIDS (2011) (a review)

CEDAR RAPIDS (2011) (a review)

An indy, quirky comedy starring Ed Helms (The Office, the Hangover 1 & 2), John C Reilly (Cyrus, Step Brothers, Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story), Anne Heche and Sigourney Weaver.

The story: an idealist insurance salesman (Helms) is sent to an insurance conference when the other lead salesman dies in an auto-erotic asphyxiation accident. He is told he must win the prestigious "Two Diamond" award. However, his idealism will be challenged by the other agents partying ways, various woman, and ultimately the corruption of the award and his business itself.

Was it good?

No. It has the problem that a lot of these little quicky indy films have -- they are so target specific often that if you aren't in just the sweet spot for who the target audience is then it will fall completely flat. And I am not in the target audience for this film. I just didn't care about any of it. I just didn't care about any of it. I didn't think it was funny. And while I like Helms at times, here it felt like he was doing the same awkward guy schtick I've seen in the past, but more awkward and it just wasn't working.

I don't want to make it sound like it was the actors fault -- the script just didn't push Helms in any interesting directions. For instance, John C Reilly plays a kind of party animal, but I thought the movie would have been much more interesting if Reilly had been the guy who was really going after the award and Helms was the party animal. That at least would have switched things up and been a little more fun.

I simply didn't care about the award, I didn't see why it mattered so much (although we find out by the end), and I didn't get the big idealism about insurance, which is what the main character's focus is. Maybe it's because I'm from Florida where insurers drop people's home policies because of the threat of hurricanes, or because I know something about health insurance, but that kind of naivite and idealism just rang false. And without buying into that, the movie just isn't going to work.

And for me the comedy bits just didn't connect. I didn't laugh. A lot of it seemed predictable and never really hit any interesting parts.

I like the actors in the movie, and I think they did a good job portraying their characters, and there wasn't anything specific about the directing. It all came down to the script for me, which I just didn't connect to at all.

*** AVOID ***

JUST GO WITH IT (a review)

JUST GO WITH IT (a review)

A remake of a French film. A rom-com starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston with Brooklyn Decker (Sports Illustrated cover model). Also has Nicole Kidman.

The story: Danny (Sandler), after getting left at the alter, realizes a wedding ring is a perfect way to pick up women uses that lie to have a string of one night stands. Then he meets Palmer (Decker) who he connects with and thinks she might be the one (after he sleeps with her, of course), but when she discovers his wedding ring she thinks he is another cheating man and wants nothing to do with him. To get her back, he uses his assistant, Katherine (Aniston) to pretend they are married and getting a divorce...of course things go wrong when Katherine's kids become involved and her son blackmails him into taking them on a trip to Hawaii where he begins to have feelings for Katherine.

Was it good?

No. But it wasn't bad. It was just kind of blah.

They throw in a lot of comedy -- the kids blackmailing Danny and the constant complication from trying to keep the lie going -- and setting half the movie in Hawaii lets them show Decker in a bikini several times (and Aniston once) which all men will appreciate, but the problem is the story just isn't compelling.

The problem is there's nothing at stake. Jerry (Sandler) is a liar and scammer, but not even a particularly clever or fun one (comared to WEDDING CRASHERS). And while Palmer (Decker) is beautiful, there's never anything about her that makes you think the connection is more than physical. (Oddly, the one beat they include to make it seem more than just sex is that she can tell when he is lying...except she can't and it's never really brought up or used in the movie again which is weird since he spends the whole movie lying to her.) So he likes this girl, but it's not like he has a prolem getting women and he's a successful plastic surgeon in LA so even if he decided to stop lying he could still probably meet tons of women.

So you're never really rooting for him to win over Palmer. In fact, most of the time I was rooting against him because having him get caught would have been more fun.

Then there's the switch from him liking Palmer to him having feelings for Katherine. It basically happens at one event where they go from zero to sixty with feelings for each other. Except there was nothing really that special about that night. The whole falling in love stuff between them seemed incredibly inrealistic, so while I didn't really care about Jerry and Palmer, I also didn't care about whether he would choose to be with Katherine instead. They also have a running joke for most of the movie that Palmer is incredibly hot and Katherine is a frumpy woman...except Katherine is still Jennifer Aniston who might not be as hot as the cover girl for Sports Illustrated, but she's still hot. So all those jokes failed miserably.

So what you have is a rom-com that follows all the beats of a generic rom-com (the creative lie, falling for the other person, etc), but has nothing else to it other than a few gratuitous shots of a swimsuit model in a swimsuit.

Still the movie wasn't horrible. It had a likable energy and they keep things moving with lots of comedic set pieces. The problem is there's just nothing else there -- it's generic romantic comedy 101. It's a movie that has nothing to say. It's like a sequel that only has the inspiration that it can make money. Still, Sandler and Aniston are enjoyable enough that it's fine to watch as long as you know what you're getting into.

**** RENTAL ***

Watch instead: WEDDING SINGER -- just a great, great romantic comedy. Or any episode of FRIENDS, if you're a Jennifer Aniston fan.

DESPICABLE ME (a review)

DESPICABLE ME (a review)

An animated superhero movie about a villain and some kids. Stars Steve Carrell as the kind-of super villain.

The story: a super villain is getting shown up by a better super villain who has just stolen an Egyptian pyramid. Worse, the bank now nolonger believes in the villain and has pulled their funding for his latest scheme -- a plot to steal the moon. Now he has to use three innocent girls to try to steal a shrink ray from his villian-nemesis to pull off his plan to steal the moon, but of course being with these girls will change his villain ways.

Was it good?

Yeah, it was good. Not amazing, but it was solid. Carrell was great for the vioce work and it had a nice twist on the super-hero/super-villain roles. Unfortunately, it becomes a little too obvious and pits villian against villain in a very light way -- these guys aren't even really villainous enough to be on CHUCK much less mess with Dr Doom or any real big bads. All this makes the movie drag as the movie moves through the second half with no real stakes -- we don't want the guy to steal the moon (and don't think he'll really do it in a significant way) and if he fails, well so what?

For young kids that won't be a problem as the movie moves along, but for older kids and adults will amuse but won't be at the same level as the best animated films.

*** RECOMMEND (especialyl for young kids) ***

Still, there's a lot to

MY SUPER PSYCHO SWEET 16 (a review)

MY SUPER PSYCHO SWEET 16 (a review)

A teen slasher movie made by and for MTV.

The story: a guy starts killing people in a roller rink. Years later, the daughter of that guy is a school outcast, but then the hottest guy in school starts to kiles her. Meanwhile the bitchy, pretty, popular girl decides to hold her sweet sixteen party at the roller rink where all those people were killed. The hot guy wants to be with the outcast, but before their first date he has to go the bitchy girl's sweet sixteen party, so the outcast girl decides to crash it. Except, what do you know, her father is back and he starts killing people again.

Was it good?

Kind of. I mean, as a horror movie is sucked. Boring, predictable...almost laughably bad. But as a teen movie it wasn't that bad. It got the feel of the teens right for the most part and the dialog was definitely a step above. I could see where the script might have been a really good read to get the attention of MTV. And it was interesting to see their take on a lot of elements (the outcast girl wanted to fit it, her romance with the popular guy, the bitchy girl wanting to get the popular guy back, etc) that I have been trying to work on in one of my scripts. So it's a mixed bad -- there was enough for me to be willing to check out the sequel, but not enough that I would recommend it in general.

*** AVOID ***

GET HIM TO THE GREEK (a review)

GET HIM TO THE GREEK (a review)

Just a couple quickies today.

The story: a sort-of continuation of FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL. A chump of a music executive employee has to get a drunken, washed out rock star to a gig.

Was it good?

Sort of. This is a movie that kind of has all the pieces -- a (kind of) likable leading guy with a positive goal he wants to accomplish, a (sort of) funny outrageous second character, some other wacky people, lots of sex jokes and some boobs. The problem is that I spent most of the time watching it thinking this should be funny, but not actually laughing. I know that's a vague way to talk about the movie, but this felt like something where everything was set up right and everything was in place...but nothing was actually funny. If anything, it felt like almost all the characters were pushing too hard to make it funny. Comedy is a tricky thing and what works for one person will fall flat for another. This fell flat for me. It just didn't have that bit of charm and sweetness and sillyness and brightness that FSM had. Still, there was enough here that I would tell people who are interested to rent it. Just don't expect it to be as good as FSM.

*** RENTAL (I guess) ****

SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD (a review)

SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD (a review)

A 2010 comedy directed by Edgar Wright, director of the cult comedies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This is based on a comic book and stars Michael Cera. It's a weird mix of teen angst love story with action and other weirdness. Stars Michael Cera, Jason Schwartzman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Anna Kendrick, Brandon Routh, Chris Evans, Brie Larson, and Ellen Wong.

The story: Scott Pilgrim falls in love with a beautiful girl who falls for him too, but then he must fight off her ex-boyfriends who have pledged to take Pilgrim down. And by fight I mean literally fight, like over the top kung-fu action fighting.

Was it good?

Almost. I can see why a lot of people would like the movie. There's a lot of comedy and it is a love story, but twists and turns differently than most romantic comedies. In fact, the rom-com aspect is probably the best part. For instance, at the start of the movie Scott is dating a high school student, then he meets the main girl and falls for her, so now he has to break up with the high school girl who wants to get him back. It's a plotline you just don't see that often and it's a nice complication...as opposed to the idea of Scott fighting off the evil ex-es which is kind of amusing, but it's stuff we've seen before (plot-wise). Even MEET THE PARENTS had Stiller competing with the girl's exes who wanted her back, and it's hard to be cool or edgy when you are copying from M-T-P.

So for the first half, even though a lot of the humor didn't hit and a lot of the I'm-so-hip style was annoying instead of endearing, there was enough good stuff with the characters that I was onboard. However, by the second half they veer more toward action with long fight scenes and the relationships became cliche and I got bored.

If you want a guy's version of JUNO that tries even harder to be hip and has over the top action, then this movie might be for you. Otherwise...


*** AVOID ***