Happythankyoumoreplease

Happythankyoumoreplease - Dir. Josh Radnor (2010)

The last few years have seen a rise in the so-called mumblecore movement, a brand of low-budget independent film marked by character-driven stories about twentysomethings in a post-collegiate malaise. Happythankyoumoreplease isn't mumblecore. It belongs to mumblecore's big brother, hipstercore, a term I haven't seen used in conjunction with cinema. It is certainly apropos for a far too preciously titled film about trendy, young urbanites set to a soundtrack of acoustic guitar driven coffee shop pop.

Josh Radnor from CBS's How I Met Your Mother makes his debut as a writer and director with Happythankyoumoreplease. He also takes the starring role of Sam Wexler, a struggling author living in New York City. He's looking to make a big break with his novel entitled, The Other Great Thing About Vinyl. However, Sam's problem is he is a white guy from the suburbs and has nothing truly profound to say. Sam's life changes when he meets Rasheen (Michael Algieri), a little boy who is separated from his family on the subway. Rasheen has been bounced from foster home to foster home and refuses to be taken to child services or the police station. Sam ludicrously decides to let Rasheen stay with him for the time being. Sam's friends know this is a bad idea and their lives intersect with the main story.

Annie (Malin Akerman) is a bright-eyed office girl with alopecia, a condition that causes loss of hair throughout her body. She's a nice girl, who only seems to go out with jerks. Annie receives unwanted flirting with a nebbish co-worker also named Sam (Tony Hale). The original Sam's cousin, Mary Catherine (Zoe Kazan), loves the Big Apple and is troubled by her boyfriend Charlie's (Pablo Schreiber) desire to move to L.A. Sam's love life is in turmoil as well. He tries to romance a lovely bartender by the name of Mississippi (Kate Mara).

Reviews have inevitably compared Happythankyou with Zach Braff's Garden State. Aside from the fact that both marked the filmmaking debuts of sitcom stars, they don't have that much in common. For one thing "Happythankyou" lacks the strong female performance from Natalie Portman. As a director, Radnor is missing the visual cleverness of Braff. Radnor's style is competent, but bland and has all the visual flair of your average single camera sitcom.

Radnor's screenwriting feels like an earnest attempt to recapture the feel of Woody Allen's prime. The characters all have their neuroses, but never seem to rise above perfunctory quirks to become multi-dimensional human beings. One of Allen's most iconic characters was the city of New York itself. Happythankyou may be set in NYC, but it isn't uniquely New York and could have been set in almost any bustling metropolis. Radnor also spreads the script too thin by getting sidetracked with all the parallel subplots. The relationship between Mary and Charlie is the least developed and least interesting and could have easily been excised. The blossoming couple of Annie and Sam #2 wind up being more compelling than the A-story between Sam and Rasheen. This is due in no small part to the performances of Malin Akerman and Tony Hale. Akerman (who was so wooden in Watchmen) brings an infectious perkiness to her character. Meanwhile, Hale plays a low-key variation of the awkward Buster Bluth from Arrested Development.

The story of a struggling artist is always hard to sympathize with, especially when he's the mopey kind who lives in a spacious apartment he couldn't possibly afford. Happythankyoumoreplease tries so hard to be hip and insightful, but comes off as a derivative bore.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses - Dir. Seth Gordon (2011)

This summer has been the season for raunchy comedies. The Hangover Part II is one of the highest grossing films of the year, despite a severe critical lashing. Bridesmaids is in the top ten for domestic grosses and received far more critical praise. The summer has also yielded Bad Teacher, the upcoming body switch laugher The Change-Up, and the workplace comedy Horrible Bosses.

Horrible Bosses plays into the dark fantasies we've all had about gaining a measure of revenge against an abusive supervisor. It also touches upon the frustrations that have been cultivated by the turbulent economic climate. However, don't expect a sharp treatise that handles those themes with a wry intelligence. Horrible Bosses earns its R rating by being a silly and profane comedy.

Jason Bateman is Nick Hendricks, a white-collar worker at a financial firm under the tyrannical reign of Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey). Harken represents the worst aspects of the corporate world. He dangles and denies a vital promotion to Nick, then laughs about his dead grandmother. Jason Sudeikis is Kurt Buckman, an account manager for a chemical company. Unlike his buddies, Kurt actually loves his job probably because he works for kindly Donald Sutherland. Unfortunately, the old man dies of a heart attack leaving the company in the hands of his odious sleazebag son. Not Kiefer, but Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell sporting a beer belly and a comb-over). Bobby plans on running his dad's legacy into the ground to feed his appetite for cocaine and hookers. Finally, there's Dale Arbus, a chaste dental assistant, who suffers from daily sexual harassment from his nymphomaniac boss, Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston).

All three buddies have their reasons for not simply quitting their jobs. Harken promises to blackball Nick from the industry should be leave. Kurt doesn't want to see Bobby destroy the company. Dr. Julia has taken pictures of herself molesting an unconscious Dale and threatens to show them to his fiancée (Lindsay Sloane). Poor Dale is also a registered sex offender, the reasons for which are too funny to spoil.

After reaching their breaking point, the protagonists decide to kill their bosses. Of course, none of them have any clue about how to do that. Kurt comes up with the harebrained scheme of going into a bar in East L.A. and ask around. They meet an ex-con named Dean "Motherfucker" Jones (Jamie Foxx), who agrees to be their murder consultant.

Anybody who has ever watched an episode of CSI will figure out their plans aren't likely to be successful. What follows is a farcical series of events as these frat pack Three Stooges fumble their way through their half-assed murder plots. It is the interactions between the leads that sells Horrible Bosses. None of the main actors are doing anything new. Bateman reprises the role of the exasperated everyman he has portrayed since his comeback on Arrested Development. Sudeikis is doing his horndog shtick though Horrible Bosses is a better showcase for his comedic skills than the Farrelly Brothers' inert Hall Pass. Meanwhile, Day is basically reprising his role from FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Day also provides some of the funniest moments of the movie from his manic motions after accidentally breathing in Bobby's coke stash to singing the Ting Ting's "That's Not My Name" while alone in a car.

Day's performance also saves his particular subplot, which might be the most tenuous of them all. Let's face it, Aniston's perpetually horny cougar is the dream boss for any heterosexual male. But, Day imbues Dale with a dim-witted naiveté that makes it somewhat believable for him to be offended by Julia's advances. For Aniston, this is a drastic departure from her usual girl-next-door roles. It's not exactly the most nuanced character or the most politically correct, but she plays it with gusto. To no one's surprise, Kevin Spacey turns in a solid performance as an asshole boss, a return to his Buddy Ackerman from Swimming with Sharks with a dash of John Williamson from Glengarry Glen Ross. Colin Farrell is sadly short-changed in screen time. He is wonderfully over-the-top.

The film is competently directed by Seth Gordon, who made his debut with the excellent documentary King of Kong. He has since turned into a director of slick Hollywood comedies.

Horrible Bosses is a safe, mainstream Hollywood picture masquerading as an edgy black comedy. The characters are cartoonish and the plot moves ahead through a series of sitcom contrivances. But, it's entertaining and humorous enough to warrant at least a rental.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Kill the Irishman

Kill the Irishman - Dir. Jonathan Hensleigh (2011)

"...if any of these maggots in the so-called mafia want to come after me, I'm not a hard man to find."

Cleveland is known as the home of the Indians and the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Most folks don't realize that the city was also known as a hotbed for the mafia back in the 70's. In fact, Cleveland earned the dubious nickname of "Bomb City, USA" due to the violent struggle between rival mob factions and their use of bombs as the preferred method of murder. Thirty-six explosions were set off in 1976 alone. Hip deep in the thick of things was an Irish gangster by the name of Danny Greene, who serves as the basis for Kill the Irishman, a fictionalized account of those violent events. Kill the Irishman was co-written and directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, who also wrote and directed The Punisher, starring Thomas Jane in the titular role. Oddly enough, the star of his newest film is Ray Stevenson, who took over as Marvel's premiere vigilante in the sequel/reboot, Punisher: War Zone.

Stevenson plays Greene as a physically imposing man with a barrel chest and a shock of strawberry blonde hair. His rise in the world of organized crime began as the head of the dockworkers' union. To consolidate power, Greene struck a deal with the Italians in exchange for goods pilfered from errant shipping containers. It was through this relationship that Greene met John Nardi (Vincent D'Onofrio), who would become one of his staunchest allies and the only Mafioso that actually liked the Irishman. A scathing news article exposed Greene's corruption and he was banned from the union for life. He escaped jail time by agreeing to become an FBI informant. In real life, Greene was one of the highest profile informants for the feds along with Whitey Bulger, the recently arrested mob boss who served as an inspiration for Jack Nicholson's character in The Departed.

Greene would eventually work as a leg breaker for notorious loan shark Shondor Birns (Christopher Walken). A sour business transaction would end their relationship and ignite a blood feud between a mafia desperate to retain control of the city against Greene's gang, which was quickly consolidating power. After surviving multiple attempts upon his life, including an explosion in his home, Greene brazenly dared the mob to come after him during a televised interview. Of course, the all good things must come to an end.

Kill the Irishman is a familiar story told in a familiar way and full of familiar faces. To put it bluntly, it's a knockoff of Scorsese films and assorted episodes of The Sopranos. Hensleigh recycles plenty of ideas from movies like Mean Streets and Goodfellas. There's a montage showing Greene's rise to power and chart-topping pop songs ironically contrasting violent scenes. The dialogue consists of clichéd tough guy lines like, "Your enemies are my enemies."

Pretty much anyone who has ever played a gangster is in Kill the Irishman. There's Walken, D'Onofrio, Paul Sorvino, Steven Schirripa, Mike Starr, Tony Lo Bianco, Robert Davi, Tony Darrow, and Vinny Vella, along with Vinnie Jones (sporting an awful looking tan and an even worse Irish accent) and Bob Gunton. Linda Cardellini takes on the Lorraine Bracco role of the put upon wife who can only stand by her man for so long. Finally, Val Kilmer appears as Det. Manditski, a former childhood acquaintance of Greene's who serves as narrator. This cast of noted character actors is the film's sole saving grace and serves as fine support for a strong performance by Stevenson. The former Titus Pullo imbues the role of Danny Greene with a natural charisma, even if the character is thinly written. Greene is painted as a Robin Hood figure and a blue-collar underdog in t-shirts and jeans defiant against the elitist Italians in their tailored suits.

Hensleigh adds to the authenticity by dotting the narrative with archival news footage of the actual events.

Kill the Irishman fails to live up to the renowned gangster pics it tries so hard to emulate. It's neither original nor memorable, but is worth a look because of a game and talented cast. Hey, Christopher Walken is always fun to watch.

Rating: ** (*****)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Dir. Michael Bay (2011)

"Years from now they're gonna ask…where were you when they took over the planet?"

The summer blockbuster season reaches its nadir with the third installment of Transformers, based on the popular toy line from Hasbro, and directed by Michael Bay, purveyor of overblown schlock. Bay’s first Transformers film was lifted above its leaden coming-of-age narrative by a Spielbergian sense of wonder as an unassuming suburban boy meets a race of giant robots from outer space. The sequel, Revenge of the Fallen, was an atrocity of epic proportions that was hastily slapped together before the Writer’s Strike of late 2007 to early 2008. Even Bay and star Shia LaBeouf apologized for the rancid turd they unleashed from their bowels. Not that it matters, audiences ate it up as if the manure pile were a tasty bowl of ice cream. Thanks to them Revenge made over $800 million worldwide. Dark of the Moon has already grossed half that in its opening week. In financial terms, it's a rousing success, but what about the actual movie?

I can honestly say that Dark of the Moon is better than Revenge of the Fallen. However, that's the equivalent of saying being smashed in the face with a pipe wrench is better than having your genitals hooked to Bumblebee's car battery.

Much like X-Men: First Class, Transformers plays with revisionist history by planting the idea that the entire space race was predicated on the discovery of an ancient Autobot ship that crashed on the moon. The prologue is peppered with archival footage and actors who look nothing like their real-life counterparts. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (who makes a cameo appearance) explore the massive spacecraft and sworn to secrecy about what they've seen. And just when you think the story is building momentum, it all comes crashing back to modern-day Earth as we follow the plight of Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) in the current economic crisis.

Poor Sam has helped the Autobots save the world twice, but he can't find a job and mopes a lot. You'd think he would be way happier considering he has yet another insanely gorgeous girlfriend. Following the acrimonious departure of Megan Fox, Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley replaces her as the pouty lipped, hot chick that runs away from the robots. She plays Carly Spencer, a former British attaché now working for millionaire playboy Dylan Gould (Patrick Dempsey). The film spends an interminable amount of time introducing us to a cavalcade of new characters like John Malkovich as Sam's orange-skinned boss, Frances McDormand as a director of intelligence, and Ken Jeong doing his usual Ken Jeong schtick. We are also reunited with several returning characters such as soldiers Lt. Col. Lennix (Josh Duhamel) and Robert Epps (Tyrese Gibson), Sam's parents (Kevin Dunn & Julie White), and the eccentric Agent Simmons (John Turturro). It goes on and on until finally scenes of actual importance occur in rapid succession as Decepticons murder human beings and Optimus (voiced once again by Peter Cullen) revives his long-lost predecessor Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy). It all builds to 45 minutes of pure, unadulterated Bay-hem as a full-scale Decepticon invasion force lays waste to downtown Chicago.

Dark is just as loud, obnoxious, and over long as the previous pictures and filled with plot holes big enough for Optimus Prime to drive through. On the positive side, Bay has toned down the puerile humor as well as the blatant misogyny and racism. The ridiculous, buck-toothed Twins from Revenge are thankfully gone though the Joe Pesci-esque Wheelie (Tom Kenny) is still around to provide a poor excuse for comic relief. Still, Michael Bay cannot help being Michael Bay and there is underlying sexism throughout the narrative. Dark of the Moon has no strong female character whatsoever. Women in Bay movies are generally nattering twits (Sam's mother), shrewish harpies (McDormand's Charlotte Mearing) or blatant sex objects (everyone else). This is never more apparent than the replacing of Megan Fox with a lingerie model, who can serve as each one of those archetypes. At least, Bay had no pretensions at all to the role. Why hire an actual actress when all you need is someone to walk around in their underwear. Bay's sensibilities for fast cars and beautiful women are comparable to a hormonal adolescent boy getting aroused by covers of Lowrider displayed at the local supermarket magazine rack.

The first shot of the film following the prologue is a gratuitous butt shot of Huntington-Whiteley as she pads up a staircase barefoot and clad in skimpy panties and a man's dress shirt. Fox may not be an incredibly nuanced actress, but at least she displayed some semblance of personality and got involved in the action scenes. Huntington-Whitely is a complete cipher whose only talents are squeezing into form-fitting dresses and staring blankly into the distance as objects explode behind her in slow motion. Her romance with LaBeouf's Sam arbitrarily runs hot and cold according to narrative conventions.

The main problem with Bay's Transformers films has always been the inordinate amount of screen time wasted on human characters that nobody cares about. You would think a Transformers movie would be about the Transformers. Not that the machines are depicted as multi-dimensional beings. Giving them funny accents are about as deep into characterization as the writers go. There is just something about giant death metal robots clashing and causing massive amounts of property damage which appeals to simple-minded pleasures. Bay provides that in spades with an extended battle in the Windy City as skyscrapers topple and Transformers perform Mortal Kombat-style fatalities on each other. It's certainly the most ambitious action Bay has ever directed. It feels like he watched Independence Day, Cloverfield, Inception, and Spielberg's War of the Worlds and said, "I can do better." However, the climax is lacking in any kind of coherent flow. There's never a sense of where everyone is located in relation to each other and how each section connects with the other. It's more like a jumble of incomplete sequences strung together. Bay appears to be afflicted with the worse case of ADD as scenes and subplots abruptly end as if he walked away halfway through and moved on to the next thing.

Bay also has a habit of recycling the same action sequences over and over. How many times have we seen a highway chase where cars attempt to dodge heavy objects hurtling at them? There's one in every Transformers movie. It's gotten to the point where Bay has lifted entire shots from The Island and reused them for Dark of the Moon. Granted, he was unable to complete the sequence due to the horrific accident to an extra. Nevertheless, the fact that Bay so easily integrated old footage from an entirely different picture speaks volumes to his unoriginality.

The one shining light in Dark of the Moon is Leonard Nimoy, who is related to Bay by marriage, proving you can pick your friends, but not your family. Nimoy previously voiced Galvatron in the animated Transformers: The Movie and imbues a gravelly gravitas to the inane dialogue he's forced to spout. There are also a couple Star Trek references thrown in, a call back to Wrath of Khan and another that cleverly foreshadows a crucial plot twist.

Michael Bay has lashed out at his critics by claiming his movies are meant to be fun summer films, which means his films aren't supposed to have highbrow nonsense like logic, great acting, and a coherent storyline. There's no reason for these things to be mutually exclusive. Iron Man and The Dark Knight are proven examples that big-budget blockbusters don't have to be mind-numbing special effects extravaganzas. Unfortunately, Bay seems more than content to wallow in soulless spectacle and audiences are happy to line up around the block. The two highest grossing movies in 2011 are The Hangover Part II and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Transformers: Dark of the Moon has taken the fourth spot less than a week after release. I admit Dark of the Moon provides a visceral gratification to our base desires of seeing things get blown up, but I crave something with more substance.

Final Thoughts: I caught Dark of the Moon in IMAX 3D and if you are going to see the most excessive movie of the year, see it in the most excessive way possible. The 3D effects are surprisingly effective. The opening sequence, in particular, has a very noticeable depth of field. It's one of the most pleasant 3D experiences I've had and I'm no advocate for the process. There's no feeling of flatness and very little dimming since Bay implored theater owners to burn out their projection bulbs to display the film at the proper brightness levels. The 3D also forces Bay to rethink how he directs action sequences since rapid editing, tight close-ups, and jarring camera movement do not work with 3D cameras.

Rating: ** (*****)

Cars 2

Cars 2 - Dirs. Brad Lewis & John Lasseter (2011)

Pixar stands as one of the few certainties in this topsy-turvy world. They consistently churn out some of the highest quality pictures out there. Their films always find themselves on numerous critics' year-end lists and have earned the studio 26 Academy Awards. Yet, there always seems to be some doomsayer just waiting for Pixar to slip up. These cynics are likely sitting in the back of the theater (next to Armond White) waiting for the moment when the credits roll so they can finally stand and give a round of slow, sarcastic applause to Pixar's first failure. Everyone seems to be pegging Cars 2, as the first misstep. It's received the worst reviews of any Pixar film thus far. Why should Pixar sequelize one of their weakest efforts, when something like The Incredibles is far more deserving of a second installment? As Spaceballs' guru, Yogurt, would say, "Merchandising, merchandising, merchandising." Hot Wheels toys based on the characters sell like hot cakes to kids and adult collectors alike, but the movies don't share the appeal to a wide range of age groups. Most Pixar productions feel like movies made for adults, but enjoyed by kids. Cars 2 feels like a movie made for kids that will be enjoyed solely by kids.

As all sequels tend to do, Cars 2 goes global as Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) enters the World Grand Prix, a three-pronged race sponsored by former oil tycoon Sir Miles Axelrod (Eddie Izzard). Axelrod is now an advocate for alternative fuels and is using the race to promote his newly invented, Allinol. McQueen takes along his best buddy, Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), who proves you can take the redneck out of Radiator Springs, but you can't take the Radiator Springs out of the redneck. Mater's slack-jawed yokel act winds up being an embarrassment for McQueen.

Meanwhile, British super spy Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) is investigating the notorious Professor Zundapp (Thomas Kretschmann), who is attempting to sabotage the Grand Prix in order to protect big oil's interests. The two storylines intersect due to a Hitchcockian case of mistaken identity when Mater comes into possession of photographic evidence that could reveal the identity of the evil mastermind. Mater teams with McMissile and his assistant Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) to save the life of Lightning McQueen and stop the villains.

Cars 2 continues the themes of its progenitor by extolling the virtues of small town values and folksy Americana. The sequel keeps the spirit alive and places it on an expansive, international scale. The stakes are raised immensely by the new element of espionage, which allows Pixar to further delve into this world of cars. It's clear the Cars franchise is a passion project of noted auto enthusiast John Lasseter (who co-directed with Brad Lewis) due to the attention to detail. Pixar remains the gold standard when it comes to gorgeous animation. Every shot is vividly rendered, especially the scenes set in Tokyo, which is shown as a neon metropolis full of cutesy anime-style characters. Much like the third Toy Story, the majority of the 3D effects in Cars 2 are rather subtle and aren't worth either the extra price or the dulling of the bright animation.

Cars 2 might be the most action-packed Pixar flick yet. There are enough car chases through European streets to make the late-John Frankenheimer drool. The movie opens with a spectacular sequence as McMissile battles an army of henchmen on an oil rig. There's also an exciting climax in Italy on a race track clearly modeled after Monaco. Parents should be warned that several cars meet unfortunate demises, but never in a graphic manner.

While Pixar may have put it into neutral for Cars 2, they are hardly deserving of all the critical drubbing. The screenplay by Ben Queen (with story credits by Lasseter, Lewis, and Dan Fogelman) tosses in a few clever gags. The best joke revolves around an alliance of disgruntled Pacers, Gremlins, and Yugos, who serve as the car versions of the mob as well as the muscle for Prof. Zundapp.

The voice acting is sold with Owen Wilson returning as the affable Lightning McQueen, no longer the jerk he was in the first film. The denizens of Radiator Springs are also back in much smaller roles though three cast members have sadly passed away in the intervening years, Joe Ranft, George Carlin, and Paul Newman. Red the fire engine appears, but has no lines while Carlin's Fillmore the hippie dippie van has been recast (Lloyd Sherr). Newman's Doc Hudson receives a poignant remembrance. Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer are welcome additions, but the most memorable is John Turturro as formula one racer Francesco Bernoulli. Turturro is wonderfully over-the-top as McQueen's arrogant rival. The funny accent turns him into a G-rated version of The Jesus from The Big Lebowski. Pixar even finds a way to work in the legendary Bruce Campbell as American muscle car spy Rod "Torque" Redline. The one question mark that hovers over the film does so above one Larry the Cable Guy. The buck-toothed Mater graduates from comic relief sidekick to main protagonist. His backwoods persona does grow tiresome and a little annoying as Cars 2 zooms towards the finish line.

There's good and then there's Pixar good. Cars 2 is merely good, simply lacking the emotional depth of triumphs such as Toy Story and Up. Still, it's no lemon like the henchcars it features. Cars 2 is a lightweight, lighthearted, and candy-colored adventure that possesses just enough charm to appeal to younger audiences and the occasional adult.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)