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: ** (*****)

Rampart

Rampart - Dir. Oren Moverman (2011)

"I am not a racist. The fact is, I hate everyone equally."

Screenwriter Oren Moverman made a strong directorial debut with 2009's The Messenger, a heavy drama with Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster as army officers charged with notifying families that their loved ones were killed in action. In my opinion, it was one of the best films of the year and netted Moverman an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and Harrelson one for Best Supporting Actor. Moverman and Harrelson have teamed again for Rampart, a gritty drama set during the Rampart scandal of the late-90's.

The LAPD became notorious nationwide for the infamous beating of Rodney King. They again rose to public consciousness following the uncovering of widespread corruption in the anti-gang unit of the Rampart Division. Charges included bribery, falsifying evidence, armed robbery, and drug dealing.

Amidst the chaos, we meet Officer Dave Brown (Harrelson), a former Vietnam vet, who sees the streets of L.A. as his new battleground. Rampart opens in a seemingly conventional manner with Brown berating a female trainee (played by Julian Schnabel's daughter, Stella) for refusing to eat french fries because she is on a diet. But, this is not a retread of Training Day. The rookie isn't seen again and the rest of the film becomes a trip into an urban Dante's Inferno with its protagonist descending deeper and deeper into the pit.

Dave Brown is definitely the bad cop. He has earned the nickname, "Date Rape Dave," because he allegedly murdered a business partner suspected of multiple rape. A former law student, he can cite obscure legal precedent off the top of his head. He failed the BAR exam, but it's obvious it wasn't due to a lack of intelligence. It seems Brown was more interested in cracking heads.

He's also the patriarch of an unconventional little family. Brown has two ex-wives (Anne Heche & Cynthia Nixon), who happen to be sisters and live next door to each other. He has a daughter with each of them and, with the exception of the youngest girl, they all hate his guts. When Brown fails to get in bed with one sister, he moves on to the next one.

Brown ignites another scandal after a hit-and-run collision that sees him chase the suspect and mercilessly beat him with his flashlight. The incident is captured on video and played endlessly on the news. Already under scrutiny, Brown is hammered by investigators from Internal Affairs and the D.A's office. Needing cash to support his family and his legal defense, Brown robs a high stakes poker game and kills an unarmed man, forcing him to cover up yet another crime.

The cast also includes: Steve Buscemi as the District Attorney, Ben Foster as a homeless vet, Brie Larson as Brown's angry teenage daughter, Ned Beatty as a retired cop and confidant, and Sigourney Weaver and Ice Cube as investigators against Brown.

Woody Harrelson really carries the film. Rampart is seen entirely from Dave Brown's perspective and Harrelson appears in every scene. Harrelson isn't afraid to make Brown a nasty and sometimes pathetic individual. Yet, he's charismatic and articulate so it's easy to see why he's able to bed a number of women night in and night out. It's too bad this great character wasn't given a more compelling story.

There's strong storytelling in the first half of Rampart, but the second half of the movie unravels. The narrative drifts into a series of plot threads that never seem fully formed. One subplot that doesn't go anywhere involves an on/off romance between Brown and a defense attorney played by Robin Wright. There's nothing of note here unless you want to hear Wright state that she likes to "suck cock."

Moverman is struck with the sophomore slump that has befallen many independent filmmakers before him. Despite a magnetic performance by Harrelson, Rampart deals with issues, such as police corruption and their effects on the soul and family, that have been seen numerous times in film and television. The script feels like an entire season of The Shield condensed into an hour and forty minutes.

Rating: ** (*****)

Grown Ups

Grown Ups - Dir. Denis Dugan (2010)

I may be a cinephile, but I'm no stick in the mud. I admire the works of Bergman, Tarkovsky, and Carl Theodore Dreyer. Yet, I can also laugh at the genius of Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and The Waterboy. Sue me.

Over the years, Adam Sandler has attempted to stretch his acting muscles in roles that are drastically different from his usual shtick. Some are successful (Punch-Drunk Love) and others not so much (Reign Over Me). In Funny People, Sandler lampoons himself and his on-screen persona to surprisingly poignant effect. As the star and co-writer of Grown Ups, Sandler appears to fall back on old habits while mixing in a touch of the family friendly fare like Bedtime Stories.

Sandler reunites with his former Saturday Night Live cast mates as standout basketball players in junior high who have drifted apart over the years. Sandler is Lenny Feder, a big-time Hollywood agent. How do we know he's a Hollywood agent? Because when we first see him, he's shouting into his cell phone that he's a big-time Hollywood agent. Lenny is inexplicably married to Salma Hayek as Roxanne, a high class fashion designer. They've got three kids with the older sons being a pair of snotty, spoiled brats. Kevin James (in a role originally intended for the late-Chris Farley) is Eric Lamonsoff, the obligatory, fun loving fat guy. His wife, Sally (Maria Bello), still breastfeeds their son despite the fact that he's four. Chris Rock is Kurt McKenzie, the domesticated, stay-at-home husband to wife Deanne (Maya Rudolph). Rob Schneider is Rob, a vegan hippie with a fetish for older women, much older women. He's in a grotesquely risqué relationship with the septuagenarian Gloria (Joyce Van Patten). David Spade is Marcus Higgins, once again playing the smarmy ladies' man.

The old buddies are reunited following the death of their coach. Lenny rents a lake house for the Fourth of July weekend so they can reminisce. Meanwhile, the gang deals with the repeated challenges of their now adult opponents in the big championship. All sorts of shenanigans happen as everyone learns valuable lessons about life. The script co-written by Sandler and Fred Wolf (Joe Dirt) sets the tone for mawkish sentimentality right off the bat with a scene where Lenny's cutesy daughter tries to use the GPS to find heaven. Yet, they still have time to break out old-fashioned scatological humor. We get fart jokes, dog poop smeared into people's faces, adults peeing in a community pool, and Maya Rudolph sprayed with breast milk. The rest of the gags feel like in-jokes between the lead actors that the audience isn't let in on. Sandler and company insult and rib each other throughout the film, but it comes off as self-indulgent when Dugan continually cuts to reaction shots of the actors as they provide their own laugh track.

The film is built around immature humor, which is ironic for a film titled, Grown Ups. Still, the movie isn't a total loss thanks to a hilarious Steve Buscemi who pops in for a couple scenes. There's also an amusing exchange between Chris Rock and Tim Meadows as they argue over who is the town's black guy and who is the other black guy.

Rating: * ½

Saint John of Las Vegas

Saint John of Las Vegas - Dir. Hue Rhodes (2010)

Next to Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi has to be my favorite character actor ever. His unconventional facial features and unique inflections make him stand out from the majority of actors working today. He's had so many memorable roles: Fargo, Reservoir Dogs, The Big Lebowski, Ghost World, and a dramatic turn in last year's The Messenger. No matter how bad a movie is, you can at least depend on Buscemi to be entertaining. Never has he had to work so hard to make such subpar material work than with Saint John of Las Vegas.

Saint John marks the feature debut of writer/director Hue Rhodes who took inspiration for the movie from Dante's Inferno. Buscemi plays John Alighieri, a former compulsive gambler now working as a claims adjuster for an insurance company in Albuquerque. He's engaged in a relationship with perky co-worker, Jill (Sarah Silverman), who has an infatuation with smiley faces and is carrying on an affair with their boss, Mr. Townsend (Peter Dinklage).

After bucking for a raise and a promotion, John winds up being sent on the road to investigate the claim of a stripper named Tasty D. Lite (Emmanuelle Chriqui), who lives outside of Vegas. She was supposedly left confined to a wheelchair with a neckbrace following a rear collision with another car. John is paired up with a veteran investigator in Virgil (Romany Malco). John is apprehensive about all this because he fears he will fall back into old habits the closer he gets to Sin City. While on the road, John and Virgil encounter all sorts of oddballs, such as a nudist colony of gun toting cowboys and a carnival worker (John Cho) sealed inside a flame-retardant suit. His scenes are as witty as the film gets to referencing Dante. No one can help the poor guy until the incendiary rig he's hooked up to, which engulfs him in flames every few minutes, runs out of fuel. Ironically, all he really wants is a cigarette.

Saint John has a hard time focusing on what it wants to be. The beginning of the movie has potential to be an amusing work place comedy ala Office Space due to the eccentricities of John and his co-workers. However, the rest of the film unfolds as a derivative indie road movie. The run-ins with all these strange characters are supposed to suggest the various Circles of Hell described by Dante, each one representing Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, etc. This is all well and good, if not for the fact that there is no flow in the story. The plot feels like a series of random vignettes tied loosely together without any sense of cohesion. There's not a strong enough character arc to carry the audience through the journey either. It's all just quirky for quirky's sake.

It's a credit to Buscemi's wealth of talent that he's able to make Saint John vaguely watchable. Peter Dinklage and Sarah Silverman are also very good in their supporting roles. Buscemi's sourpuss act contrasts well with Silverman's sunny disposition. But, they aren't enough to make Saint John of Las Vegas worth your time.

Rating: * ½

The Messenger

The Messenger - Dir. Oren Moverman (2009)


There has been a spate of socially conscious films focusing on the war in the Middle East and the current socio-political climate. Rendition, Stop Loss, Redacted, Lions For Lambs, and Home of the Brave, to name a few. The majority of these films have flopped financially from audiences already inundated with these issues on the news. They’ve flopped critically due to filmmakers shoving their own agendas down the throats of whoever was unfortunate enough to sit through the picture. 2009 saw a pair of relevant films that won critics over and were certainly deserving of wider release. I’m speaking of The Hurt Locker, which has made its way onto dozens of “Best Of” lists and a sure contender for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and The Messenger.

Ben Foster stars as Staff Sgt. Will Montgomery who is sent home after being injured in Iraq. He returns not to a hero’s welcome, but to a sparsely decorated apartment, finding some catharsis listening to loud heavy metal music. His girlfriend, Kelly (Jena Malone), has moved on with her life and plans to wed another man.

With his tour of duty almost up, the Army assigns him to the Casualty Notification Team. Alongside Capt. Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson), a recovering alcoholic who narrowly missed seeing action in Desert Storm, SSgt. Montgomery has the unenviable task of informing family members that their loved one was killed in action. The Notification Team treats their duties the only way they can…with military precision. They are to get in and get out. They refer to the family only as NOKs (Next of Kin) and are not allowed to make physical contact at all. They follow a script that is specific in the language used. Soft terms like “passed away” or “no longer with us” are not to be spoken.

It is an emotionally draining job for SSgt. Montgomery still struggling with the traumatic experience that took him off the battlefield. The team’s heartbreaking news is met with inconsolable sadness or even blind rage. Montgomery and Stone are taken aback when the widowed Olivia Pitterson (Samantha Morton) reacts with surprising stoicism. She manages to hold it together and even shakes their hands, knowing the difficult position they are put in. SSgt. Montgomery disobeys orders and begins spending time with Olivia and her son.

Writer/director Oren Moverman previously co-wrote Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan-inspired I’m Not There and once served in the Israeli army. The Messenger is his directorial debut and is an assured first effort that heralds the arrival of a filmmaker with plenty of potential. For the notification scenes, Moverman abstained from the rehearsal process and didn’t inform his leads who they would meet or how they would react. He allows the camera to observe unobtrusively. If there is camera movement during these sequences, it’s slight and almost documentary-like.

The acting is strong all around with Ben Foster bringing his usual intensity and Woody Harrelson deftly blending his flair for the comedic and the dramatic. Samantha Morton shines in her role as the newly widowed Olivia. It’s a subtle, low-key performance. She hits all the right notes without resorting to the melodramatic histrionics of the usual Oscar bait performance. Morton has proven to be one of the best actresses of the past decade her roles in Minority Report, In America, Control and even her cartoony portrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots in the bombastic Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

The Messenger isn’t concerned with pushing a pedantic, political agenda for the left or the right. The film is all about the human element which is why it succeeds.

Rating: ***