Life After Beth

Life After Beth - Dir. Jeff Baena (2014)

Zombies have always worked well as metaphors for hot button issues, such as rampant consumerism or the darker side of humanity. It's not surprising that a few ingenious filmmakers decided to use the zombie apocalypse to deal with romance and relationships. Edgar Wright did it best with Shaun of the Dead while 2013's Warm Bodies had fun with the premise in our post-Twilight era of cinema. Life After Beth mixes the genres of undead horror with young romance, but in a different manner. Whereas Warm Bodies is set years after the fall of civilization and told from the point of view of the handsome zombie boy, Life After Beth takes place just before the outbreak and told from the point of view of the relatively normal Dane DeHaan.

DeHaan is Zach Orfman, whose entire world has been shattered following the death of his girlfriend Beth Slocum (Aubrey Plaza). She died of a rattlesnake bite while hiking in the woods by herself. Zach is hit just as hard by the lingering regrets he feels because Beth was going to break up with him. There were a lot of things he could have done to improve their relationship like going on a hike with her.

Everything changes when Beth returns, alive and well, with no memories of her death or romantic problems with Zach. Her parents, Maury and Geenie (John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon) aren't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. They're more than content to accept that she's been resurrected though Zach is obviously freaked out. Then, he realizes he's been given a second chance with Beth to do all the things they only talked about. Although, there are little instances that Beth isn't quite right. For example, she has a predilection for sleeping in the attic and listening to smooth jazz. She's also prone to fits of rage and feats of incredible strength. And that skin complexion doesn't look quite right…

Life After Beth was written and directed by Jeff Baena, who also co-wrote David O. Russell's I Heart Huckabee's. There's a similar quirkiness on display in "Beth" with the film set in a heightened version of milquetoast suburbia. The story is almost a prequel to the zombie apocalypse showing the initial return of the dead and their subsequent transformation into a ravenous horde. Baena does an interesting job in setting the parameters of the world, but he never delves further than surface level.

Zach is a blank cipher, a largely reactive protagonist who comes off on the whiny side. Baena hardly gives his supporting characters much beyond what's written on the page and leans heavily on his actors. Luckily, he's cast a wealth of talent accomplished enough to make something out of the one-dimensional denizens of Life After Beth. This includes John C. Reilly, Paul Reiser and Cheryl Hines as Zach's parents, and a throwaway cameo by Garry Marshall. Molly Shannon is pitch perfect as Beth's sweet-natured mom, even maintaining her ultra-sunny disposition after having a hand eaten off. Matthew Gray Gubler is cast against type as Zach's older brother, Kyle, a rent-a-cop with delusions of grandeur and a hard-on for his Desert Eagle .50. Kyle is nothing more than a cartoon thrown into the mix to be quirky for quirky's sake.

Aubrey Plaza is great as Beth, getting a chance to play character outside of her usual sarcastic tone. Anna Kendrick pops in for a handful of scenes as a childhood friend of Zach's. You can't help but imagine the possibilities of a buddy comedy starring Plaza and Kendrick with the former's sardonic humor pitted against the latter's adorable perkiness.

Life After Beth had an intriguing premise with an excellent cast, but never lived up to its potential as a hybrid of horror, comedy, and romance. Unfortunately, the movie decomposed quicker than its title character.

Rating: ** (*****)

Hotel Transylvania

Hotel Transylvania - Dir. Genndy Tartakovsky (2012)

This year saw the release of a trio of horror-themed animation films: ParaNorman, Frankenweenie, and Hotel Transylvania. Produced by Sony, Hotel Transylvania is the weakest of the bunch, but it was the most financially successful. Its strong box office run could certainly be attributed to the glossy computer animation whereas the other films were done stop-motion. While all three pictures dealt with themes of tolerance and death, Hotel Transylvania does so with a much gentler hand and doesn’t go to the darker places that Frankenweenie and ParaNorman did.

At the end of the 19^th century, Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) opens a luxurious hotel deep within the woods of Transylvania to serve as a sanctuary for his fellow monsters. More importantly, he sees it as a safe haven to raise his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) following the burning of his castle and the death of his wife at the hands of an angry mob. Over a hundred years later, Mavis is about to turn 118 and the Count is planning a gala birthday bash with all his best friends: Frankenstein (Kevin James), the Invisible Man (David Spade), The Mummy (Cee-Lo Green), and the Wayne the Wolf-Man (Steve Buscemi).

An American backpacker named Jonathan (Andy Samberg) inadvertently uncovers the secret location of Hotel Transylvania forcing Dracula to disguise him as a long-lost cousin of Frankenstein. However, Jonathan sparks a romance with Mavis as well as fueling her desires to finally leave the confines of her home.

Expectations were low for Hotel Transylvania considering Sandler has fallen further into self-parody as he slowly becomes the fictionalized version of himself in Funny People. Thoughts of That's My Boy floated in the air with the reuniting of Sandler and Andy Samberg. A script written by Peter Baynham (Borat) and TV Funhouse's Robert Smigel brings the distasteful fart jokes you'd come to expect from the Happy Madison camp. Somehow Hotel Transylvania manages to come together thanks to the direction of Genndy Tartakovsky of Dexter's Lab and Samurai Jack fame. Tartakovsky adopts the manic pacing of a Tex Avery cartoon and brings such energy to the picture you forget how flat a lot of the humor is. Steve Buscemi is a highlight as a sad sack werewolf worn down by his rambunctious litter of pups.

Hotel Transylvania may be too schmaltzy and saccharine for adults. The groan inducing song and dance number (complete with auto-tune) at the conclusion of the film will test your tolerance for cheese. However, the brightly colored animation and high energy are sure to entertain younger audiences.

Rating: ** (*****)

The Five-Year Engagement

The Five-Year Engagement - Dir. Nicholas Stoller (2012)

Director Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segel first worked together on the short-lived television series Undeclared, which was produced by Judd Apatow. They firmly established themselves in feature film with their smash-hit comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Though Stoller worked with Segel again on "The Muppets," he was only a writer and executive producer with James Bobin of Flight of the Conchords fame directing. The Five-Year Engagement is their first official follow-up to Sarah Marshall as they once again explore the volatile minefield that is the adult relationship.

Five-Year Engagement begins where most romantic comedies end with the proposal. Tom Solomon (Segel) is a successful sous chef making a name for himself in the trendy restaurant scene of San Francisco. He's been dating psychology student Violet Barnes (Emily Blunt) for a year and pops the question during a romantic rooftop dinner with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. A wedding date is set and invitations are sent out, but things hit a snag when Violet gets accepted into the post-doctorate program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. They decide to move to the Wolverine State and postpone the nuptials until she receives her degree in two years.

Violet rises through the ranks of grad students after proposing an experiment to study self-control issues with stale donuts (an offshoot of the Stanford marshmallow experiment) that serves as an obvious metaphor. On the flip side, Tom has a miserable time dealing with the cold weather and lack of job prospects. He's stuck making sandwiches at a deli. The couple drifts further and further apart as the audience wonders whether or not these wacky kids will eventually tie the knot.

Of course, they do, which shouldn't come as a shock unless you've never seen a movie before. While the parts have been rearranged, the underlying spine of the film remains true to formula. As stated in the title, we know it will take Tom and Violet five years before they can enjoy wedded bliss. However, sometimes it's the journey that counts and not so much the destination. The Five-Year Engagement takes a meandering route towards the conclusion and falls into the trap of many Apatow productions by just being too long. The movie runs over two hours all while the story is crying out for a peppier pace.

Segel and Blunt have previously played romantic interests in the embarrassingly bad Jack Black vehicle, Gulliver's Travels. Luckily, they get better material here and display an easy chemistry with each other. The script is even keeled and doesn't paint either one of them as the villain in the relationship. However, they are written rather blandly until the comedy is ratcheted up into slapstick realm. At one point, Tom descends into a self-pitying spiral to the point he's grown muttonchops and shuffles around in a bunny suit.

Engagement scores major points thanks to a supporting cast flush with talented performers. First and foremost are Chris Pratt as Tom's best friend, Alex, and Alison Brie as Violet's younger sister, Suzie. Their impulsive affair acts as a counterpoint to the cautious relationship of the protagonists. Pratt is the overgrown man-child that is the classic Apatow archetype, but he's a nice guy deep down and not nearly as dim as the character he plays on Parks and Recreation. Though it's disconcerting to hear Brie speak with a British accent, she displays the same comedic gifts that have made her a hit on Community. Pratt and Brie also have great chemistry together and it almost makes you wish the movie had been about them instead. Brie and Blunt participate in the picture's most inspired gag in which they argue in the voices of Elmo and Cookie Monster. Second place goes to a running joke where the passage of time is marked by the death of one of Violet's grandparents.

Another NBC alumnus Mindy Kaling shines as one of Violet's fellow grad students along with Kevin Hart, Randall Park, and Rhys Ifans as their professor. Some of the funniest lines come from Tom's new Michigan friends, Brian Posehn as a geeky co-worker with an encyclopedic knowledge of pickles and Chris Parnell as a domesticated husband teaches Tom the delights of deer hunting and knitting. Rounding out the ensemble are Academy Award nominee Jacki Weaver as Violet's mom, David Paymer & Mimi Kennedy as Tom's parents, and Dakota Johnson as a young and sexy party girl. Plus, watch out for cameos by Kumail Nanjiani, Molly Shannon, and Tim Heidecker from Tim & Eric's Awesome Show.

The Five-Year Engagement could have benefited from some judicious editing and a quicker pace. Also, anyone thinking this will be as rambunctious as Bridesmaids may be in for a disappointment. Still, the winning cast and some humorous moments sprinkled throughout make it a notch above the standard rom-coms.

Rating: ** (*****)