For a Good Time, Call...

For a Good Time, Call... - Dir. Jamie Travis (2012)

Are we living in a post-Bridesmaids world? While it wasn't a wholly new concept, Bridesmaids did become a benchmark for female-centric comedies in current cinema. The girls could be just as raunchy as the guys and the plot didn't have to entirely revolve around a woman's search for Mr. Right. For a Good Time, Call… is one of several movies that have been compared unfavorably to Bridesmaids, despite going into production before its release.

Lauren Powell (Lauren Miller) is a young professional woman who hits a sudden rough patch when she loses her job and gets dumped by her boyfriend for being boring. She's asked to move out of their apartment, but cannot afford a place of her own. Her gay best friend, Jesse (Justin Long), points Lauren in the direction of Katie Steel (Ari Graynor), who is behind on rent for her ritzy flat following the death of her grandmother. Lauren and Katie are actually old college acquaintances, except the latter got drunk and poor Lauren ended up with a face full of urine. Needless to say, she is not happy about the situation.

Things get weirder when Lauren discovers Katie makes most of her money as a phone sex operator. Unable to find a decent job, Lauren reluctantly serves as Katie's assistant and routing her calls. After a crash course in dirty talk, Lauren becomes a second operator and finds she actually enjoys the work. Meanwhile, Katie warily drops her guard for a romance with a frequent caller named Sean (Mark Webber).

Lauren Miller not only starred in the film, but also co-wrote the screenplay with Katie Anne Naylon, a former college roommate who really did work as a phone sex operator. Is phone sex still something people pay for, especially with the wealth of pornography on the internet? Or so I have heard. Considering the subject matter, For a Good Time, Call… could have easily been set in the 80's and it does have a retro tone mixed with a filthy mind. All too often, Miller and Naylon go for the easy jokes involving bodily fluids.

However, what really sells For a Good Time isn't the sex or the filth, but the friendship between the female protagonists. If I Love You, Man was all about the bro-mance, this is all about the girl-mance. The two leads have great chemistry together. While Miller is perky enough in her role, it is Ari Graynor who finally gets a chance to shine. She's displayed her comedic talents via smaller roles in films like Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Whip It, and Celeste and Jesse Forever. She gets to run a gamut of emotions here from her unique line readings and physical humor to selling her sweet-natured relationships with Lauren and Sean. Where For a Good Time fails is in its adherence to formula with Lauren as the uptight conservative who has to learn to let her hair down. There's also a second act break-up of their friendship that feels contrived simply to lead into the climatic reconciliation.

The supporting cast is great with Don McManus and Mimi Rogers as Lauren's parents, Nia Vardalos as a prospective employer, and cameos by Ken Marino, Kevin Smith, and Miller's husband, Seth Rogen, as phone sex customers.

For a Good Time, Call… is an R-rated twist on the Odd Couple concept. Most of the humor falls flat and the film never delves too deeply into its characters. However, it's energetic pace and breezy runtime might make it worthy of a rental.

Rating: ** (*****)

Kung Fu Panda 2

Kung Fu Panda 2 - Dir. Jennifer Yuh (2011)

Dreamworks Animation has done a lot recently to shake off the stigma of being second banana to Pixar. Last year's How to Train Your Dragon was their best film to date and the house that Jeffrey Katzenberg built hasn't lost any momentum with Kung Fu Panda 2. Like many sequels, Kung Fu Panda 2 is a bigger and bolder production with Guillermo del Toro serving as executive producer and Charlie Kaufman (believe it or not) as script consultant. Jennifer Yuh, a storyboard artist on the original movie, directs off a script by returning writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. Unlike the diminishing returns of the Shrek series, Kung Fu Panda 2 is actually better than its progenitor.

While the first film opened with a vibrant pop art prologue, Kung Fu Panda begins with a somber sequence in a paper cut out style. The opening introduces us to the movie’s villain, Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), a peacock, who was banished by his royal family for an unspeakable act of genocide. A prophecy foretold that Lord Shen would be defeated by a warrior of black and white, so he wiped out the panda population.

Meanwhile, Po (Jack Black) has grown into his role as the Dragon Warrior, fighting alongside the Furious Five in protecting the Chinese countryside from marauding bandits. However, he is plagued by repressed memories coming to light and begins questioning where he came from. Shock of all shocks, Mr. Ping (James Hong), the noodle shop goose is not the real father of his giant panda son.

These dueling storylines collide when Lord Shen returns with an army of wolves and gorillas. Utilizing gunpowder, Shen plans to destroy kung fu in order to conquer all of China.

In addition to Black, all the main heroes from the previous picture are back including Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu, Angelina Jolie as Tigress, David Cross as Crane, Jackie Chan as Monkey, Seth Rogen as Mantis, and Lucy Liu as Viper. Joining them are Michelle Yeoh as a wise soothsayer, Danny McBride as the Wolf Boss, as well as Victor Garber, Dennis Haysbert, and Jean-Claude Van Damme as heroic martial arts masters. The voice-over work is solid all around. Black imbues the character with an exuberant energy that’s been lacking in his recent live-action ventures. Gary Oldman is gleefully villainous returning to the type of scene-chewing performance that made his turn in The Professional so deliciously evil. You half expect him to scream, ”EVERYONE”, at his henchmen. Jolie’s hardcore Tigress shows she has a soft and squishy side as the story hints at a blossoming romance between her and Po. The best performance though belongs to the prolific James Hong. His scenes with Black are funny, touching, and form the emotional core of the film. Unfortunately, with so many characters involved not everyone receives their fair share of the spotlight. Liu and Chan, in particular, only get a handful of lines.

The animation of Kung Fu Panda 2 is extraordinary. Dreamworks mixed CG with anime influenced hand-drawn animation and the result is a gorgeous feast for the eyes. The backgrounds are beautifully rendered from the misty mountains to the classic Chinese architecture of Gongmen City. This is one of the rare instances when I’ll say that the 3D actually enhanced the experience with the visuals possessing a very noticeable depth of field. The action is spectacular with elaborate fight sequences featuring the Furious Five battling wave after wave of enemies. The biggest set piece has to be a scene in which our heroes attempt to escape a toppling tower while fireworks explode all around them.

Kung Fu Panda followed the traditional hero’s journey and its sequel further explores the mythology of the universe. Kung Fu Panda 2 hits on a variety of emotions and is a darker than the original (Del Toro’s influence?) and a bit more surreal. A dream sequence involving Po battling a radish feels like it sprung from the imaginative mind of Kaufman. Even with all the amazing action sequences, Kung Fu Panda 2 never loses its sense of heart. Aside from a nod to Pac-Man, the writers avoid the snarky, anachronistic references that become the crutch for the uncreative. Highly recommended for adults and kids alike.

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

Paul

Paul - Dir. Greg Mottola (2011)

Along with director Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost came to prominence in geek culture with their Channel 4 sitcom, Spaced. Their leap to feature films with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz was wildly successful. Having tackled zombies and cops, Pegg and Frost finally get around to tackling sci-fi with Paul, based on a script they wrote with Greg Mottola (Adventureland Superbad) behind the camera.

Paul makes it known right away who its target demographic with an opening sequence set at Comic-Con. Pegg and Frost are Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings, a graphic artist and science fiction writer, respectively. The best friends traveled to the United States to attend the Mecca of nerd-dom. They ogle the Slave Leias and get starstruck at meeting the robot from Buck Rogers ("…bidi, bidi, bidi."). Afterwards, Graeme and Clive embark on a bromantic road trip in a rented RV to visit famous UFO sites such as Area 51 and Roswell. Coming across a car accident, they are shocked to discover, Paul (Seth Rogen), an alien who has been locked away in a government facility since his spaceship crashed in the 1940's. Graeme and Clive agree to help Paul get to his mothership. Along the way, they also pick up Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig), a Christian fundamentalist whose faith is shaken by the appearance of a creature from outer space.

The supporting cast is a tremendous ensemble of players that include Jason Bateman as a no-nonsense man in black on the hunt for Paul with a pair of bumbling FBI agents played by Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio. They take their orders from Sigourney Weaver, who appears for most of the picture as a hidden voice sort of like Dr. Klaw from Inspector Gadget. We also have Jeffrey Tambor as sci-fi author Adam Shadowchild and Jane Lynch in a tiny role (a little Jane Lynch goes a long way) as a diner owner. Everyone is good, but none more so than Wiig as both a comic foil to Paul and love interest to Graeme. Wiig takes a rather one-dimensional character in Ruth and makes her extremely likable. She also possesses tremendous comic timing shown off when Ruth awkwardly tries cursing for the first time and launches into a series of nonsensical profanities ("Well, ain't that a bag of tits.").

Seth Rogen may be suffering from overexposure as of late. While you certainly cannot fault the man for venturing out of his comfort zone, the results have been mixed at best (i.e. Observe and Report, The Green Hornet). Here, Rogen goes back to basics providing only motion capture work and his distinctive voice. His Paul pulls a 180 on the prototypical alien by turning him into a rude and gross little guy with a cigarette constantly in his hand. He's E.T. if he were a potty-mouthed, bulb-headed stoner from a galaxy far, far away.

Paul definitely has its weaknesses. As foreigners, Pegg and Frost go the easy route by portraying most of the Americans they come across as bible-thumping zealots or gun-toting rednecks. David Koechner and Friday Night Lights' Jesse Plemons a bit wasted as the latter. Some of the subplots don't pay off, especially the one involving Ruth's domineering father (John Carroll Lynch), which could have easily been cut from the film to tighten the plot. In the end, Paul will live and die by its geek chic sense of humor.

While Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz poked fun at genre conventions, Paul is more concerned with making specific references, many of which will go most everyone's heads. There are tons of requisite Star Wars gags with entire lines of dialogue quoted by various characters. One of the best features a country western band playing their version of the Mos Eisley Cantina song. Other iconic sci-fi flicks like Back to the Future and obscure ones like Mac and Me are referenced as are numerous Spielberg movies to the point where the director himself makes a voice cameo receiving story advice from Paul.

Make no mistake about it, Paul is a movie for geeks and by geeks. As someone who is steeped in the culture (I'm a Comic-Con veteran for nearly two decades), it's hard for me to say how mainstream audiences might take the film. Hopefully, they'll find Paul as hilarious and surprisingly poignant as I have.

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

The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet - Dir. Michel Gondry (2011)

In the pantheon of superhero movies, The Green Hornet ranks above the atrocities known as Steel and Catwoman, but never reaches the heights of Iron Man. Therein lays the dilemma with The Green Hornet, it is a film that seems happy to remain in the middle of the pack, content with its own mediocrity.

The Green Hornet began life not as a comic book character, but as a 1936 radio serial created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, who also created The Lone Ranger. In fact, the Hornet was meant to be a direct descendent of the masked gunfighter. Perhaps, the most well-known incarnation of the emerald vigilante was a brief television series that aired on ABC from 1966 to 1967. That series starred Van Williams as the Green Hornet and introduced the world to Bruce Lee as the kung fu fighting sidekick, Kato.

A feature film version has been in development for nearly two decades with the property bouncing around from Universal to Miramax to Sony. George Clooney, during the early days of his fledgling movie career, was attached to star before making the fateful decision to film Batman & Robin instead. Both Jason Scott Lee (who ironically played Bruce Lee in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story) and Jet Li were attached as Kato at one point or another while the studio looked at Greg Kinnear and Mark Wahlberg as possibilities before landing in the hands of the Weinsteins. Kevin Smith was brought on to write and direct, but his version never came to fruition though his script eventually resurfaced as a comic book published by Dynamite Entertainment. This brings us to Seth Rogen and co-writer Evan Goldberg who are white hot following the success of Superbad. The duo surprisingly chooses The Green Hornet as a future project. Fanboys are skeptical about Rogen dipping his feet into the action realm, but perk up when Rogen's first choice for Kato is Stephen Chow. The star of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle not only signs on to play the crimefighter chauffeur, but to direct as well. Sadly, Chow eventually parted ways due to the lack of creative control he was used to in the Hong Kong film industry. Michel Gondry (who was actually attached to direct back in 1997) is brought on board to replace him as director while Taiwanese pop star/actor Jay Chou is cast as the new Kato.

Rogen plays Britt Reid, the spoiled son of newspaper mogul, James Reid (Tom Wilkinson). Growing up under the harsh hand of his father, Reid has become the male equivalent of Paris Hilton, wasting his life away on an endless parade of parties, booze, and loose women. Everything changes when James dies due to a bee sting. Britt befriends Kato, who worked for his father as a mechanic and barista. Yep, this Kato not only kicks ass, but makes a mean cup of coffee too.

Britt and Kato bond over their mutual dislike for the elder Reid and engage in a night of debauchery and vandalism. They wind up saving a couple from an attack by a gang of hoodlums and decide to mask up as a pair of costumed vigilantes. Britt also hits on the idea to pose as villains in order to get closer to the criminals while preventing them from using innocents as bargaining chips. In his civilian guise, Britt uses his late-father's newspaper, the Daily Sentinel, to publicize the Green Hornet's exploits as he wrecks havoc across Los Angeles.

Though Gondry has proven to be an incredibly imaginative and playful filmmaker, The Green Hornet is Seth Rogen's show through and through. Flashes of Gondry's signature style emerge here and there, such as in clever split screen sequence that breaks into a cluttered mosaic of assassins hunting for the Hornet. Gondry's largest contribution to the film is the use of "Kato-Vision," taking the audience into the mind's eye of the Hornet's sidekick during his fight sequences. It isn't simply slow motion, but slow motion and fast motion simultaneously as Kato moves at lightning speed before the bad guys even have a chance to react. We see Kato zeroing in on critical attack points, charting out his strategy within a split second. Alas, these moments are fleeting as Green Hornet drudges along as a formulaic buddy comedy.

The joke has always been that Kato does most of the work and the movie plays into that. Kato is the ultimate fighting machine and he creates the team's entire arsenal, including a gas gun. The crown jewel is definitely the Black Beauty, '65 Chrysler Imperial tricked out with bulletproof windows, machine guns, and rocket launchers. Meanwhile, Britt Reid stumbles around throughout the film as an obnoxious doofus. All well and good if he goes through a character arc and learns to grow as a person. He doesn't and neither does Rogen grow as an actor. Yes, Rogen is a funny guy, but he continues to play the same frat boy man-child he has in previous pictures like Knocked Up and Pineapple Express.

The burden is left to Rogen's co-stars to carry the weight. Jay Chou isn't up to the task, however. As the silent straight man, he plays well against the glib Rogen, but his iffy English is painfully obvious when given any substantial dialogue. Chou delivers his line with wooden conviction and little screen presence. Cameron Diaz pops in as Lenore Case, Britt Reid's new secretary who is originally assigned from a temp agency. I'd love to know what temp agency sends you Cameron Diaz. Unlike most obligatory love interests, Lenore has little tolerance for Britt's horndog flirtations. In fact, she seems to be more intrigued by Kato, but that subplot never leads anywhere. She winds up being nothing more than a throwaway character, a far cry from Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts. Tom Wilkinson and Edward James Olmos (as the Perry White-esque editor are equally wasted in bit roles.

The biggest waste, without a doubt, is Christoph Waltz, still fresh off his Academy Award winning turn as Col. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. Here, Waltz is Chudnofsky, a gangster who has risen to control the entire underworld of L.A. His ruthlessness is matched only by his insecurities. He is constantly worried that other people don't find him scary enough. Chudnofsky also arms himself with a custom-made double barreled Desert Eagle. Waltz's brilliant portrayal of the Nazi officer was helped by Quentin Tarantino's amazing script. He truly sunk his teeth into the role, but Rogen and Goldberg are unable to offer anything as meaty. Aside from an early scene opposite an uncredited James Franco, Waltz is never given the proper material to create something more than a run-of-the-mill villain.

Once slated as a summer tentpole film, The Green Hornet was pushed back to a holiday release before quietly being scuttled off into the doldrums of January. Despite Gondry's best efforts, his unique visual style is crushed underneath the heel of committee filmmaking and Rogen's unconvincing attempt at playing the action hero. While the film is hardly the stinker many predicted, the final product is ultimately generic and forgettable.

The Green Hornet was pointlessly converted to 3D in post-production. It looks better than the hackjobs of previous conversions like Clash of the Titans and The Last Airbender, but the 3D adds nothing to the experience.

Rating: ** (*****)

Funny People

Funny People - Dir. Judd Apatow (2009)


Judd Apatow is the reigning king of comedy. He has a knack for portraying modern day relationships from the perspective of the overgrown man-child in desperate need of maturity. There’s also a healthy dose of raunchy, low-brow humor thrown in for good measure. Though Apatow has only written and directed two previous films (The 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up), he’s stamped his name on numerous others, some successful (Superbad, Pineapple Express) and some not so much (Drillbit Taylor).

For Apatow’s third film, Funny People, Adam Sandler lampoons his own on and off-screen persona as George Simmons, a former stand-up comic turned A-list movie star. His juvenile movies usually involve him turning into a baby or a merman. George is the Charles Foster Kane of comedians. He lives in his own personal Xanadu surrounded by expensive cars and posters adorned with his face, but he is all alone. George’s life doesn’t improve when he’s diagnosed with leukemia. Along the way, he hires Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), a struggling stand-up, to be his personal assistant and joke writer. Ira becomes George’s de facto confidant and the closest thing he has to a friend. When his leukemia goes into remission, George attempts to reconnect with a former flame, Laura (Leslie Mann), now married to an adulterous Australian (Eric Bana).

Funny People is Apatow’s most polished looking film thanks to bringing on Spielberg’s long-time cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, as DP. It’s also his most ambitious and mature picture to date. Apatow balances the story of Ira’s rising star with George reflecting on his own narcissism and self-pity. He manages to stray from a formulaic plot with a loose narrative that is both the film’s strongest and weakest point.

Funny People isn’t the lighter fare that audiences are used to from Apatow, but those light moments are some of the film’s best. The movie drifts off on humorous asides such as Ira and George riffing on each other or comparing a German doctor to a Die Hard villain. Apatow also gives us a unique, inside look at the world of stand-up comedy. Littered throughout the film are a series of cameos from various comics like Sarah Silverman, Paul Reiser, and Andy Dick. However, Eminem outdoes them all with a profanity-laced rant directed at Ray Romano.

Yet, Apatow is unable to prevent his film from collapsing underneath the weight of its nearly two and a half hour runtime. At 146 minutes, Funny People is about 30 minutes too long. While engaging for the first two acts, the final act sputters towards a contrived and overly sentimental resolution.

Commenting on his past obnoxious and immature characters, Sandler gives a well-rounded performance, one that is less self-conscious than his most publicized dramatic turn in P.T. Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love. Shining in supporting roles are Jason Schwartzman as a smarmy roommate who stars in a cheesy Saved by the Bell-esque sitcom and Aubrey Plaza as a sardonic female comic.

Rating: **

Fanboys

Fanboys - Dir. Kyle Newman (2008)


A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a pair of writers, Ernest Cline & Adam F. Goldberg, wrote a script called Fanboys. The screenplay was snatched up by Kevin Spacey’s Trigger Street Productions and the Weinstein Company. The film was scheduled for release in 2007, but in a rare move, the Weinsteins gave the filmmakers more money to shoot additional scenes. Internet circles were abuzz, but reshoots were delayed until all cast members were available. Even then, original director Kyle Newman was unavailable and reshoots were taken over by Steven Brill (Drillbit Taylor) whose lack of Star Wars knowledge and profanity laced emails (in response to fan attacks) won him no popularity contests. Harvey Weinstein stepped in, looking to excise a cancer storyline in favor of more nudity and crude humor which prompted fans to start a ‘Stop Darth Weinstein’ petition. The film was finally released in an extremely limited run at the beginning of 2009 before being dumped to DVD this May.

So, was it worth the wait? This fanboy says, ‘no.’

Fanboys stars a core group of four friends; Eric (Sam Huntington), Linus (Chris Marquette), Hutch (Dan Fogler), and Windows (Jay Baruchel). All of them diehard Star Wars fans eagerly awaiting the release of the upcoming of Episode I. Eric was once best friends with Linus before drifting apart after ditching their dream of becoming comic book creators for a safe job at his dad’s car dealership. Eric returns to the fold when he’s informed that Linus has cancer. The quartet make a pact to break into Skywalker Ranch and steal a print of Phantom Menace for Linus to see before its too late. From there, the movie becomes a standard road trip film as the boys get into all sorts of misadventures such as a brawl with Star Trek fans, taking peyote in the desert with Danny Trejo, and meeting an angry Harry Knowles (Ethan Suplee) in Austin, Texas. Along the way, the film is littered with cameos from Star Wars personalities such as Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, and Ray Park as well as Kevin Smith (who was the second choice to play Knowles after Lost star Jorge Garcia) and Apatow players Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson.

Fanboys acts as both an homage and send-up of obsessive geek culture. It takes a few jabs at the exceedingly high expectations that fans had for the new Star Wars films without actually commentating on its quality. Much like Phantom Menace, there was a lot of anticipation for Fanboys so it’s a shame that the humor is so unoriginal. Gags include characters arguing over incestuous feelings between Luke & Leia and a Trekkie (sorry, Trekker) angering our heroes by calling Han Solo a ‘bitch.’ I wasn’t expecting any deep insights into the thought processes of the average nerd, but I was expecting some inventiveness in the jokes. Fanboys won’t be very accessible to anybody who hasn't memorized every line from the trilogy.

Those of you familiar with Jay Baruchel’s gawky beanpole act in Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder will get more of the same. He provides some of the film’s most amusing moments including a funny Willow reference. Kristen Bell also shows some sparks as the token female of the group. Meanwhile, Dan Fogler sucks the life out of nearly every scene he’s in with his Jack Black-lite act.

Rating: **

Monsters vs. Aliens

Monsters vs. Aliens - Dir. Rob Letterman & Conrad Vernon (2009)


Imagine if the title characters from Attack of the 50ft. Woman, The Blob, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Fly, and Mothra all teamed up to fight invaders from space. Dreamworks unleashed yet another CG animated project to the multiplexes which seems to be a seasonal thing. Monsters vs. Aliens seems to have sprung from the minds of fanboys who cherish their bootleg copies of black & white B-movies and back-issues of MAD Magazine. It’s light on plot, but the kind of fun film that kinds will definitely enjoy and it won’t bore or annoy the adults.

Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is about to get married to Derek (Paul Rudd), a self-absorbed weatherman who is about to go to the big show in Fresno. Suddenly, a meteor from outer space conks Susan on the head and mutates her to just one inch shy of 50 feet. She’s captured by the military and shipped off to Area 51 which is under the command of Gen. W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland). For decades, Gen. Monger has been collecting monsters including fish-man the Missing Link (Will Arnett), the gelatinous B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), and an enormous bug known only as Insectasaurus. Together, they are man’s only hope against the evil alien warlord Galaxhar (Rainn Wilson).

Monsters vs. Aliens has all the trappings of the typical modern animated film with its all-star cast and numerous pop culture references. Aside from the original Shrek, Dreamworks hasn’t been able to match the heartfelt substance that their rivals at Pixar have repeatedly instilled in their films. The closest they’ve come was through their brief partnership with Aardman Studios which produced the charming Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and the underrated Flushed Away. No, most have been the same cookie-cutter talking animal pictures. Monsters vs. Aliens does stand out with its high-concept story though it takes a simplistic popcorn film approach to telling it. It touches on themes of friendship, alienation, and female empowerment yet is unable to fully explore them. The animation is, of course, exceptional. I’m afraid to admit I didn’t get the chance to view it in 3D. In one scene, the filmmakers are wryly self-reflexive to the process when they show a technician playing paddle ball.

The voice-over cast is good and none of the players feel like they were stunt cast. From Dr. House to Dr. Cockroach, Hugh Laurie seems like he’s having the most fun while Will Arnett channels his Gob Bluth character for the Missing Link. Seth Rogen, who is apparently contractually obligated to be in every movie made now, gets off some of the best one-liners and non-sequitors as the dim-witted B.O.B.

Rating: **1/2

Observe and Report

Observe and Report - Dir. Jody Hill (2009)


”The world has no use for another scared man. Right now, the world needs a fucking hero.”

Much like Adventureland which was released a week before, Observe and Report is advertised as something it’s not. Trading on the popularity of Seth Rogen, Observe has plenty of low-brow, raunchy humor, but it's not the wall-to-wall laugh riot the trailers make it out to be. It’s far darker than any of the Apatow or Apatow-like films. The comparison could be made that this is Seth Rogen's Cable Guy. The film is the sophomore effort from writer/director Jody Hill who inexplicably wowed a select group of Sundance festival-goers with his debut, The Foot Fist Way about an abrasive Tae Kwan Do instructor played by Danny McBride.

Seth Rogen’s Ronnie Barnhardt has a similarly abrasive attitude sometimes hidden behind a mask of geniality. Barnhardt is a mall cop, but he’s not quite as likeable as previous Rogen characters and he’s certainly nothing like Paul Blart. He’s bipolar with a deep-seated vicious streak and delusions of grandeur. Ronnie has held an unrequited crush on Brandi (Anna Faris), the buxom blonde behind the make-up counter. A serial flasher begins turning the mall into his own personal playground by exposing himself to unsuspecting women. When Brandi becomes his latest victim, he vows to bring the pervert to justice. This puts him at odds with Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta), the officer assigned to the case. Harrison becomes even more exasperated when Ronnie makes it known that he intends to join the police force. Throughout the film, Ronnie battles his own personal demons just as he battles teenage skateboarders.

Observe and Report answers the question of what Taxi Driver would have been like if Scorsese made it into a comedy. Ronnie Barnhardt is a disturbed individual and walks that thin line between being funny and repulsive. It's only through the sheer force of personality that Rogen keeps him from becoming completely unsympathetic. The first half of the film belie the darker corners in which it delves in the latter half. Jody Hill's script is uneven. At times, it's sharp and outrageous. Yet, Hill fails to curb his baser impulses and the film just goes too far, particularly in the end.

Rogen's best scenes really are when he's attempting to keep things more lighthearted. He trades F you's with a Middle Eastern vendor (Aziz Ansari) who he derisively calls Saddam. Anna Faris is perfectly suited for the shallow bimbo role and proves again she's one of the most talented female comics today. The real surprise comes from Michael Pena who is known more for dramatic fare such as Crash and World Trade Center. Here, Pena dons a mop top and lisp to play Ronnie's second-in-command Dennis.

Rating: ** 1/2

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Zack and Miri Make a Porno - Dir. Kevin Smith (2008)


Potty mouthed, but with a heart tends to be an apt description of Kevin Smith’s oeuvre. After the underrated Jersey Girl bombed, Smith returned to the View Askew universe he had attempted to distance himself from with Clerks II. Rather than go back to the well again, he tries once more and hits al the right smutty notes with Zack and Miri. The title is self-explanatory though the reasoning behind the plot is pretty flimsy. With the economy in the toilet, I’m still waiting for the legions of amateur porn movies to hit the interwebs. The unpaid bills are forgotten as the film progresses. Everybody is more preoccupied with getting the money shots and not the actual money. They don't have money for the electricity, but enough for an R2D2 costume with prosthetic testicles?

However, that’s not really the point behind Zack and Miri. Like Chasing Amy, it’s about how sex can complicate a relationship. It’s about best friends finally facing up to the deep seeded feelings they have for each other. And there are plenty of bad words and hilarious one-liners to make sure things don’t get too mushy.

Aside from Jason Mewes, Jeff Anderson, and his wife, Smith forgoes uses his usual players and borrows a few from Judd Apatow’s repertory. Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks are both great as the title characters, but supporting actor Craig Robinson (Knocked Up, The Office) has all the best scenes as a henpecked husband turned porn producer. The film’s best and funniest scene involves a husky voiced Justin Long and Superman himself, Brandon Routh, as a gay couple.

Zack and Miri isn’t going to be accused of being high art, but it is good entertainment for those who aren’t skittish about scatological humor. Or Jason Mewes’ scrotum.

Rating: ***