Hop

Hop - Dir. Tim Hill (2011)

Rabbits are adorable and all, but is the Easter Bunny truly such an integral holiday icon? Do kids stay up late at night hoping to catch a glimpse of the Easter Bunny? Would they be psychologically scarred if you were to tell them that the Easter Bunny didn't exist? To me, he's on the low rung of the totem pole right next to the Tooth Fairy. If there are children eagerly waiting the time when the Bunny delivers garishly colored eggs, then Hop might be right up their alley.

Russell Brand voices E.B., a young rabbit who is heir apparent to the Easter Bunny Empire. Generations of male bunnies have carried the Easter tradition of delivering chocolates and sweets to children all over the world from their stronghold on Easter Island. E.B.'s father (Hugh Laurie) wants to pass the baton to his son, but E.B. is more interested in playing the drums. So he decides to run away and hop through a magic portal to Hollywood. From there, he meets Fred O'Hare (James Marsden), an underachiever who has been unable to hold down and job while still living with his parents. His younger sister, Samantha (Kaley Cuoco), gets Fred a cushy gig housesitting her boss's mansion.

E.B. invites himself in and quickly becomes a nuisance. Eventually, Fred and E.B. come to a mutual understanding. Fred will help his new furry friend win a talent contest hosted by David Hasselhoff, who appears as himself. In exchange, E.B. will assist Fred in living out his dream of becoming the first human Easter Bunny. If that wasn't bizarre enough, there's also a subplot involving a megalomaniacal chick with a Spanish accent named Carlos (Hank Azaria). Much like an evil Cesar Chavez, Carlos plots a revolution with his fellow chicks to gain control of the Easter factory.

Hop comes to us from Universal's new animation arm, Illumination Entertainment, which made a strong debut in 2010 with the delightful Despicable Me. It's written by the same screenwriters, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, along with Brian Lynch, a comic book writer who also co-wrote the surprisingly good Puss in Boots. Unfortunately, Hop just isn't on the same level as those pictures. As an unconvincing mix of CGI and live-action, it's more on par with the Alvin and Chipmunks movies. That shouldn't be surprising since Hop was directed by Tim Hill, who also helmed the first Chipmunks flick as well as Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties.

Hop suffers from a lack of ingenuity and originality. The Easter Bunny seems to have cribbed his entire operation from Santa Claus, right down to an enchanted sleigh. In fact, the movie feels like someone recycled an old Santa screenplay and replaced it with rabbit-related elements. Hop also tries to appeal to audiences old and young. When E.B. initially arrives in L.A., he attempts to gain entry into the Playboy Mansion. Where else is a bunny to go? It's one of the rare gags in Hop aimed at adults, but the rest of the movie is purely for kids. Their parents will likely cringe during a silly musical number set to Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" or at the revelation that talking rabbits poop jelly beans.

Hop isn't all bad. James Marsden brings a goofy earnestness to his role as Fred the slacker. Gary Cole and Elizabeth Perkins are solid, if slightly wasted, as his parents and fans of The Big Bang Theory might get a kick out of seeing Kaley Cuoco as Fred's more responsible sister.

Hop has a lot in common with the chocolates and candies that are usually passed around on Easter Sunday. It's brightly colored, overly sweet, and not very nutritious. Hop is pure junk food cinema that might entertain the kiddies, but will give older audiences a terrible toothache.

Rating: * (*****)

Love and Other Drugs

Love and Other Drugs - Dir. Edward Zwick (2010)

Sometimes I just don't understand the strange decisions made by Hollywood executives. Love and Other Drugs had all the makings of an interesting film centered on a very timely concept. The film was based on the non-fiction book, Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, written by Jamie Reidy, a former pharmaceutical salesman. With health care being a hot button topic, it seems like the perfect time for an inside look at the pharmaceutical industry. Instead, the studio plays it safe and whitewashes the story into yet another banal romantic comedy.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Jamie Randall, a med school dropout who has just been fired from his job in retail electronics after boning the boss's girlfriend in the stock room. Jamie quickly gets a job shilling medication with the corporate juggernaut known as Pfizer. In the pharmaceutical game, medical knowledge is hardly a necessity, but good looks and a winning personality are everything. A dizzying montage shows candidates memorizing sales pitches and dancing the Macarena at a garish orientation. Jamie aspires for the bigger market of Chicago, but gets the accounts in Iowa instead. There, he's to push Zoloft, an anti-depressant that is a distant second in sales to the more renowned Prozac. He shamelessly flirts with the receptionists to get his foot in the door and offers bribes to various doctors. Fortunes rise (pun slightly intended) with the creation of Viagra and Jamie leaps at the opportunity, "Who can sell a dick drug better than me?"

While pretending to be an intern, he meets Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway), a patient suffering from stage one Parkinson's disease. Jamie inadvertently glimpses her breast and gets pummeled in the parking lot when Maggie finds out he's a drug rep. Only in the movies does this ignite a star-crossed romance. At first, both parties are only interested in empty sex, but true feelings develop to complicate their relationship. Jamie worries about how he'll care for Maggie when her condition inevitably deteriorates while Maggie is concerned about holding Jamie's career back.

Love and Other Drugs feels like four or five different movies stitched together in a haphazard manner. The film starts off strong with an engaging first act that serves as a satire of the pharmaceutical industry. Once Maggie is introduced the story veers into the territory of a standard romantic comedy. When the Parkinson's subplot is emphasized, Other Drugs becomes a weepy melodrama similar to the all-time cheesy classic Love Story. The sentimental portion does provide one of the few genuine moments of the picture when Maggie leaves a medical convention for a support group for those afflicted with Parkinson's. Topping it all off is a heavy element of raunchiness straight out of the Apatow comedy playbook. The film's stars get naked frequently and there are the requisite boner jokes involving Viagra. They've also brought in Josh Gad, who acts like the love child of Jonah Hill and Jack Black, as Jamie's lazy brother. Every word out of his mouth is an annoying and horribly unfunny attempt at lowbrow humor. On the other hand, Gyllenhaal and his Brokeback Mountain beard Anne Hathaway are both good in the lead roles as is Gabriel Macht as a rival salesman. However, Judy Greer is underutilized as are George Segal and the late-Jill Clayburgh, who only appear in one scene as Jamie's parents.

Love and Other Drugs is a different kind of film from director Edward Zwick, who helmed Glory and The Last Samurai, but it fits right in with thirtysomething, the sappy and soapy television series he produced back in the early-90's. This is a completely disjointed affair that fails to find any semblance of balance between light comedy and heavy drama.

Rating: * ½ (*****)