Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids - Dir. Paul Feig (2011)

Bridesmaids is a rare species, an R-rated, female-driven comedy. More importantly, it's one that scored big with audiences and critics alike. Bridesmaids is a product of the Judd Apatow comedy machine and directed by Paul Feig, who worked as director and producer on Apatow's short-lived (but much loved) TV series Freaks & Geeks. The script was written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who first met as members of famed improvisational group, the Groundlings. This is the first starring role for Wiig, who remains one of the few bright spots on the otherwise stale Saturday Night Live.

Life has been rough on Annie (Wiig), a single woman living in Milwaukee. Her bakery went out of business and she's stuck living with an oddball brother and sister (Matt Lucas and Rebel Wilson). Her only relationship consists of self-destructive booty calls to a douchebag playboy (an uncredited Jon Hamm), who kicks her out the morning after. Annie enters a new level of hell when she becomes the maid of honor for the wedding of BFF, Lillian (Maya Rudolph). This role is far more involving than best man. As maid of honor, Annie is in charge of planning luncheons, fittings, the bachelorette party, and the bridal shower.

Poor Annie hardly has her own shit together so mounting Lillian’s pre-wedding escapades is a daunting task akin to the Twelve Labours of Hercules. Her job is made all the more difficult when she meets the eclectic bridal party consisting of Lillian’s cousin Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), an embittered housewife; Becca (Ellie Kemper), a naïve, whitebread newlywed, and Lillian’s soon-to-be sister-in-law Megan (Melissa McCarthy). But, the one Annie has to watch out for is Helen (Rose Byrne), the trophy wife of the groom’s boss. Helen is everything Annie isn’t. She’s rich, glamorous, well-connected, and appears to be gunning for Annie’s spot as best friend.

Bridesmaids acts as a counterpoint to Apatow’s male-dominated comedies, which some (Katherine Heigl, I’m looking at you) have described as “sexist.” However, the film is more than just the same Apatow formula with the genders switched. Neither is it simply a female version of The Hangover. It's a poignant story about the turbulent relationships between women and the disillusionment of middle age. The protagonists are well-rounded characters antithetical of the general stereotypes like the idealized object of lust or the domineering shrew. Take for example, Megan, who is played with gusto by Melissa McCarthy (Gilmore Girls, Mike & Molly). At first, she appears to be a crude and oversexed caricature of the overweight person. It doesn't help that she's wearing a golf cap like Homer Simpson in that episode where he purposely gains weight (at least, she skips the flower-print muumuu). But, she has one of the more touching scenes during a third act confessional that forces Annie to re-examine the decisions in her life. By the way, McCarthy deserves major kudos for fearlessly putting herself out there to portray this character. She gets some of the biggest laughs during the movie.

Wiig has previously shined in supporting roles in movies such as Knocked Up, Ghost Town, and Adventureland as well as a meatier role earlier this year in Paul. Here, Wiig displays a wide range of talents beyond mere comedienne. She excels at low-key humor, over-the-top zaniness, and physical humor, all of which are on display here from exasperated facial expressions to a wild meltdown after Helen steals her thunder one too many times. Wiig has also shown she is capable of more dramatic roles as evidenced by her turn as the den mother to a team of rambunctious roller derby girls in Drew Barrymore's Whip It. As Annie, Wiig imbues a sense of pathos not commonly found in a raunchy comedy.

This being an Apatow production, Bridesmaids has its fair share of salty language and gags built around bodily functions. The most uproarious sequence takes place at a snooty dress shop after Annie and the gals unknowingly ate tainted meat at a strip mall Brazilian restaurant. There's plenty of vomit and poop, but none of it is more amusing than Wiig's quiet and sweaty desperation as she vainly pretends to not be sick. Wiig is even funnier during an airplane sequence when she suffers a bad reaction to a mixture of Valium and Scotch. She also has great chemistry with former SNL castmate Maya Rudolph and it makes you wish they do buddy comedy to establish themselves as a 21st century Lucy and Ethel.

Symptomatic of other Apatow pictures, Bridesmaids runs over two hours, which is about fifteen to twenty minutes too long for a comedy. Despite some much needed trimming, Bridesmaids is funny, insightful, and stands as one of the best comedies of the year.

Bridesmaids marks the final role for Jill Clayburgh, who appeared briefly as Annie's mother, before passing away in November of 2010 due to a long-time battle with leukemia.

Rating: *** (*****)

Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch - Dir. Zack Snyder (2011)

It's ironic that Zack Snyder calls his production company, Cruel and Unusual Films, because his latest picture is a cruel and unusual experience. Sucker Punch is a tedious and exhausting exercise in sensory overload. Snyder has been marketed as a "visionary director" for helming a surprisingly good remake of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead as well as the meticulously faithful comic book adaptations, 300 and Watchmen. Visionary? I actually agree. It takes a man of unique vision to make such a dull movie, despite the fact that it revolves around beautiful young girls armed to the teeth with automatic weapons, swords, and mechsuits.

Snyder unleashes his first film based on an original idea, fleshed out by himself and co-writer Steve Shibuya. However, all Sucker Punch proves is that Snyder doesn't have an original idea floating around in his head. Just bits and pieces of all those issues of Heavy Metal he grew up on with whatever hip video games, anime, and comics the kids are all talking about these days.

Sucker Punch opens with a wordless prologue set in the 1960's and featuring Emily Browning as a blonde, pig-tailed girl known only as Baby Doll. The actress provides something akin to narration with a melodiously melancholy version of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by The Eurythmics. Baby Doll's mother has passed away, leaving her and a younger sister in the charge of their wicked stepfather (Gerard Plunkett), who is angered at being cut out of the will. Baby Doll accidentally shoots her sibling while trying to stop stepdad from molesting her. As a result, he has Baby Doll committed to a mental institute. It's a feel-good movie for the whole family.

The ticking clock counts down when the stepfather bribes a crooked orderly, Blue (Oscar Isaac), to forge a signature from Dr. Gorski (Carla Gugino) in order to have Baby Doll lobotomized. She must find a way to escape from this gothic horror show and does so in more ways than one. Baby Doll imagines the insane asylum is now a high-class nightclub/bordello where she and her fellow inmates are forced to work as dancers and hookers. Blue is re-imagined as the owner/pimp with Gorski as their demanding dance instructor. As Baby Doll is forced to strut her stuff, her mind travels deeper into a second fantasy world where we go from Black Swan to Kill Bill with our heroine dressed in a black schoolgirl outfit and looking like the pinky violence version of Sailor Moon. There, she is tasked by the Wise Man (Scott Glenn in the David Carradine role) to gather a collection of objects which will facilitate her escape.

Soon, she is joined by Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), and Amber (Jamie Chung). Trading in burlesque outfits for dominatrix combat gear, they become an elite fighting force battling Nazi steampunk zombies on an apocalyptic WWII battleground, Orcs and fire-breathing dragons in a dark Lord of the Rings inspired castle, and gleaming robots on a speeding futuristic bullet train.

The action sequences are undeniably the main attraction of Sucker Punch and it's obvious they were Snyder's primary concern. The marketing has revolved entirely around ass-kicking girls. The over-the-top fantasy realms Snyder has dreamed up are stunning, confectionary visuals for the undemanding movie-goer seeking sweet, sweet eye candy. These scenes revel in their ludicrousness. In the first fantasy, Baby Doll delivers a death blow to a giant samurai armed with a Gatling gun then walks away in slow motion as everything explodes behind her and all set to Bjork's "Army of Me." The very idea seems fun at first until you realize that there are no stakes or emotional engagement. Snyder makes no attempt to blur the lines between reality and fantasy. We know we are in the protagonist's imagination as such we know the girls are in no danger because none of it is real. Once the novelty wears off, the spectacular set pieces become more and more dull to the point where the final sequence descends into a chaotic mess as Snyder crams as much as possible into every shot. Snyder tops it off by drowning everything with fem-rock covers of tunes by varied artists like the Stooges, the Beatles, and the Pixies ("Where is My Mind" to really drive the point home). Some of the songs are quite good such as a cover of "White Rabbit" by Emiliana Torrini (another Icelandic artist), but an obnoxious gangsta rap mash-up of Queen's "We Will Rock You," succinctly signifies exactly what went wrong with this jam session of half-baked concepts.

Simply because the film features women wielding weapons larger than their petite frames, it is somehow meant as a rallying cry for girl power. On the contrary, Sucker Punch is merely an indulgent adolescent fanboy wet dream masquerading as female empowerment. It doesn't help that the leads have even less defined personalities than the Spice Girls. The outfits are certainly fetishized with Baby Doll and company going from bustiers, silk stockings, and high heels to bustiers, silk stockings, high heels, and machine guns. There's nothing wrong with that and it isn't dissimilar to the sweaty bare-chested Spartans of 300. No, the main problem is that nearly all the butt kicking the heroines supposedly do only occurs in a second level fantasy, a solitary refuge from a fatalistic world where abuse and sexual assault are constant threats. Even in this dreamland it is the Wise Man who offers the girls sage advice and points them in the direction towards the path to liberation. It's a surprise Snyder didn't go the more obvious route and place Carla Gugino's character into the role of the mentor. Alas, the strong matriarch is reduced to either an ineffectual authority figure or a weeping mess brought to her knees by male brutality.

Has Warner Brothers' golden boy, Zack Snyder, lost some of his luster? It bares bad omens for his upcoming Superman reboot. With a production budget of over $80 million (not factoring in marketing costs), it had to be a more than a disappointment that Sucker Punch (even with overpriced IMAX screenings) was sucker punched by the family friendly, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2. The negative critical response probably helped in spreading bad word of mouth about the film. It will likely be a long time before Snyder is given free reign as he clearly bit off more than he could chew. Sucker Punch tries to be far too many things as if Snyder polled Comic-Con attendees about their favorite things and smashed them all together. It's Moulin Rouge meets Inception. It's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with the Pussycat Dolls. It's Girls with Guns, Interrupted. It's just a terrible mess, a thinly veiled video game haphazardly brought to movie screens.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

The Town

The Town - Dir. Ben Affleck (2010)

”I’ll see you again, on this side or the other.”

As an actor, Ben Affleck won’t be remembered in the same breath as Clint Eastwood. However, as a director, Affleck is almost assured the same longevity. Affleck made a strong debut in his first directorial effort with the Dennis Lehane adaptation, Gone Baby Gone, a film not too different from Eastwood’s own adaptation, Mystic River.

The Town isn’t based on a novel by Lehane (it’s based on The Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan), but it shares similar themes. The action shifts from Gone Baby Gone’s Dorchester to Charlestown, a section of Boston just north of the city proper and once a breeding ground for bank robbers. Affleck stars as Doug MacRay, the brains behind a quartet of stick-up artists. His right-hand man is childhood friend James “Jem” Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), a hothead whose rash actions initiate the film’s central plot.

The film opens with the crew holding up a bank. When a silent alarm is tripped, Jem takes bank president Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) hostage, making their getaway, and dropping her off soon after. Doug agrees to keep a close on her after learning Claire lives a mere four blocks away from them. There’s a quick meet cute in a Laundromat as Doug becomes a strong shoulder for the vulnerable Claire to cry on. In turn, she becomes a chance for Doug to escape his old life. She's a far cry from his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Krista (Blake Lively), a drug-addled single mother and sister to Jem. With a tanned face caked in make-up, she's like the baby version of Amy Ryan's character in Gone Baby Gone.

The Town consists of many familiar elements of the crime drama, but the film is so well-crafted that it surpasses conventions. Affleck's knowledge and love of the city comes through in every frame shot. His action sequences (which are a dash of Michael Mann, a dash of John Frankenheimer) are skillfully composed without resorting to overused techniques like the shakycam. After the opening bank job, the next set piece is an armored car heist leading into a rousing car chase through the narrow Bostonian streets. It culminates in an out of left field, but very funny, conclusion. The Town climaxes in a daring daylight robbery of Fenway Park.

Affleck and the wonderful Rebecca Hall are great in their roles, even if their relationship isn't as interesting as Doug's interactions with his cohorts, in particular Jeremy Renner's Jem. The Oscar nominated star of The Hurt Locker seems to channel the spirit of James Cagney in his portrayal of the volatile Jem. However, he's a puppy dog compared to Pete Postlethwaite who plays the role of crime boss Fergie the Florist with a menacing restraint. Chris Cooper nearly blows everybody else away in his lone scene as Doug's father who is serving a life sentence for a double murder. Jon Hamm (fulfilling the legal obligation to include a cast member of Mad Men in every movie) rounds out the cast in a rather thin role as the FBI agent on Doug's trail.

Rating: ***

The A-Team

The A-Team - Dir. Joe Carnahan (2010)


”…if you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them…maybe you can hire…THE A-TEAM!”

The record for adapting old TV shows into successful feature films has been less than stellar. The Fugitive is the only true standout. Several rungs down the ladder are middling efforts like Starsky and Hutch and Miami Vice. Dwelling in the basement are truly terrible movies such as Land of the Lost, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Dukes of Hazzard. Joining the ranks of big-budget Hollywood remakes is The A-Team which finds itself somewhere in the middle. It’s certainly not high-brow cinema, but it is pure popcorn entertainment. The A-Team manages to capture the campy overtones and ludicrous elements of the original series. In return, the movie version asks nothing more from its audience than to turn off their brains and not over think a non-stop barrage of nonsensical action sequences.

A movie version of The A-Team has been in development for well over a decade. It’s taken so long that the team was originally changed from Vietnam vets to veterans of the Gulf War. Later, they were stationed in the Middle East just before the Iraq invasion. Now, they’re station in Iraq at the time of the troop withdrawal. All the players remain relatively the same.

Liam Neeson fills the very big shoes of the late-George Peppard as the cigar chomping team leader, Col. Hannibal Smith. Bradley Cooper is Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck and District 9’s Sharlto Copley is their crazy pilot, Capt. H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock. Finally, we have MMA fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as the Mohawk-wearing bruiser, B.A. Baracus.

The film opens with a messy prologue showing how the A-Team was assembled. While working to take down a corrupt Mexican general, Face is captured in the enemy camp. Running through the desert to his rescue, Hannibal just happens to come across B.A. driving his trademark black van. B.A. is stuck south of the border, forced to steal cars as a ransom for his van being held hostage. It doesn’t really make sense since B.A. just beats all the guys up and takes his van anyway. But, logic is a foreign concept in this film. Face is saved and the trio rendezvous at a military hospital where they pick up the nutty Murdock.

Fast-forward eight years and we pick up at the troop withdrawal. The A-Team is approached by a CIA agent named Lynch (Patrick Wilson) requests their help in stealing back printing plates that could be used to counterfeit U.S. currency. Predictably, our heroes are double-crossed by a private security force led by Pike (Brian Bloom, also one of the credited screenwriters). The plates are blown up along with their commanding officer, Gen. Morrison (Gerald McRaney). Now, the team must break out of separate federal prisons and clear their names with Face’s former flame, Capt. Sosa (Jessica Biel), hot on their heels.

Neeson brings more than a sly smile to the picture; he lends a sense of credibility which is sorely needed. Only Neeson can make you buy into a discussion he has about Gandhi with a fellow that has “PITY” and “FOOL” tattooed on his knuckles. The same goes for Cooper and Copley, the latter of whom is hilarious and far more manic than the original Murdock. Jackson feels dispensable as Baracus, No one can replace Mr. T, but Jackson brings nothing unique to the table.

Hannibal’s famous catchphrase has always been, “I love it when a plan comes together.” He coins a new one in the film, ”Overkill is underrated,” and overkill is a specialty of Joe Carnahan, who previously directed Narc and Smokin’ Aces. He’s like Tarantino with A.D.D., but without the encyclopedic knowledge of cinema. Strike that. Carnahan is a knockoff of a Tarantino knockoff (ahem…Guy Ritchie). He furiously whips us about from one over-the-top action scene to another. We watch as the A-Team play the world’s biggest shell game with cargo containers and attempt to steer a tank as it plummets through the air.

The A-Team is the dictionary definition of the Hollywood summer blockbuster. It’s loud, dumb, and goofy fun for the undemanding moviegoer.

P.S. – Make sure to stick around until the credits end for a pair of quick cameos.

Rating: ***

A Single Man

A Single Man - Dir. Tom Ford (2009)


If A Single Man were to win any awards this year, it would definitely get one for Artsy Fartsy Trailer of the Year. Fashion designer Tom Ford makes his directorial debut with A Single Man, based on the acclaimed 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood. Ford, along with co-writer David Scearce, adapted the source material into a poetic portrait of loss while offering a glimmer of hope and a touch of humor at all the right moments.

Colin Firth (usually cast as the stiff love interest in almost every romantic comedy) plays the titular single man, George Falconer, an English professor who has not gotten over the death of his long-time lover, Jim (Matthew Goode). They had been together for sixteen years and he was killed in a car accident eight months ago. It is now November 30, 1962, a month into the Cuban Missile Crisis. As most of the country worries about nuclear annihilation, George simply stares into the mirror and wills himself to ”…get through the g-damned day.” He means to commit suicide once it’s over.

George goes to the university where a class on Aldous Huxley leads to a lecture about fear and thinly-veiled allusions to homophobia. It falls mostly on deaf and perplexed ears save for a handsome, young student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) who can sense the deep seeded loneliness in his teacher. George stops at a liquor store and converses with a Spanish hustler (Jon Kortajarena) in front of a billboard for Hitchcock’s Psycho, the wide eyes of Janet Leigh upon them. The evening is spent dining and dancing with his best friend and former lover, Charley (Julianne Moore), a lush of a divorcee who yearns for the carefree days of the past in swinging London.

Ford directs the film with mechanical precision. He is immaculate in composing his shots and meticulous in the way he moves his actors through each frame. Ford certainly seems to have been inspired in his style by Wong Kar-Wai even bringing on Shigeru Umebayashi (who worked on In the Mood for Love and its pseudo-sequel 2046) to compose several tracks for the score. Ford has created an overly ordered world mirroring the structured, well-mannered lifestyle George lives within the rigid confines of 60’s suburbia. However, behind the stoic face he shows the world, he is heartbroken. George lives in a home that looks to have been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is flawlessly made, a shelter ironically lined with large windows. A ”glass house,” as George jokes to Jim in a flashback.

The repressed despair is symbolized in the cold color palette Ford has chosen for the majority of the film. The gray tones warm from time to time reflecting George’s change in mood. Littered throughout the movie are extreme close-ups of lips and eyes, a slow motion pan up on a little girl in pig tails and blue dress. In the face of mortality, George finds new beauty in the tiniest of things.

The results are a striking picture though slightly artificial, sometimes bordering into the territory of a bad 80’s perfume commercial. A Single Man’s most memorable images occur at the beginning of the film as George floats naked in the water, a symbol of death and rebirth. It cuts to him walking across a snowy road towards an upturned vehicle with Jim’s body lying beside it, a dead fox terrier lying next to him. George calmly lies next to Jim, gently planting a kiss on his lips before waking in a start. And this is how his day starts.

Firth offers a sublime restraint in his performance as George. He is the centerpiece and it truly makes the film. He’s already received nominations for the SAG Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, and Golden Globes. He will surely receive a nomination at the Oscars. Julianne Moore provides strong support and television fans should watch out for Big Love’s Ginnifer Goodwin as George’s next-door neighbor, Pushing Daisies’ Lee Pace as a fellow professor, and the uncredited voice of Mad Men’s Jon Hamm.

Rating: *** ½

The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Day the Earth Stood Still - Dir. Scott Derrickson (2008)


I’m not entirely opposed to the idea of remakes. One of my favorite movies of all time, The Magnificent Seven, is a remake and I thought Jet Li’s Fist of Legend, a remake of Bruce Lee’s The Chinese Connection, was a better film than the original. If you are going to remake a film, then at least take your version in a different direction. I can’t think of anything more pointless than Gus Van Sant’s ill-advised shot-for-shot remake of Psycho. To many cinephiles, remaking classics such as Psycho is like treading on holy ground. Fox’s modern production of The Day the Earth Stood Still shows exactly what is wrong with the majority of remakes. It may have a bigger budget and better special effects, but it lacks the soul of the original.

While the original version was made at a time when the Cold War and nuclear armament was at its nascent point, the remake takes on more environmental themes. In both films, an alien named Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) lands his spaceship in the middle of Central Park. He’s accompanied to Earth by a massive robot named Gort, who looks remarkably like the Justice League Unlimited version of Amazo. No sooner does Klaatu set foot on Earth than he is shot and taken into custody by the U.S. government. He escapes from a military hospital with help from a micro-biologist named Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly). He befriends Benson and her step-son, Jacob (Jaden Smith), revealing that his plan to save the Earth involves wiping out all of humanity.

The casting of Keanu Reeves as the alien visitor is actually an inspired choice. Reeves’ wooden, monotone performance is perfect for the role. Michael Rennie’s Klaatu was warm, intelligent, and shown to be more human than the very humans he met. Reeves’ Klaatu is cold and detached. Not that I blame him, nearly everyone he meets is an idiot. The government and the military have a shoot first, don’t bother to ask questions policy. However, there’s a difference between making the characters misguided and making them stupid beyond reason. This is where we come to Jacob played by Will Smith’s son, Jaden, who made his film debut with daddy in The Pursuit of Happyness. His performance here isn’t that terrible, but his character is so annoying that no matter what he does, you just want to smack him in the back of the head.

While the remake as gathered an impressive collection of actors for its supporting cast, they are completely wasted by the weak, preachy script. Jennifer Connelly practically sleepwalks through her role and while I enjoyed seeing Jon Hamm, Kyle Chandler, and Robert Knepper, I’d rather see them on their respective shows (Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, Prison Break). About the only scenes that come close to popping are the brief heart-to-heart conversations Klaatu has with James Hong (as a fellow alien) and John Cleese (as a Nobel-prize winning scientist).

Rating: * ½