The Campaign

The Campaign - Dir. Jay Roach (2012)

"War has rules. Mud wrestling has rules. Politics has no rules."

            -Ross Perot

Will Ferrell comedies are pretty easy to conceive. Simply drop the comedian into an environment like NASCAR or professional ice skating and then let him run loose with his trademark absurdist ravings. And what better place for those lunatic rants than the wacky world of politics.

Ferrell is Cam Brady, the Democratic Congressman for the state of North Carolina. He has run unopposed since his election and is about to enter his fifth term. That all changes when billionaire tycoons, Glen and Wade Motch (John Lithgow & Dan Aykroyd as thinly veiled parodies of the Koch Brothers) take a vested interest in the election as means to bring cheap Chinese labor to the U.S. The Motch Brothers choose Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), the tourism director for the small town of Hammond as their candidate. Huggins is the son of Raymond Huggins (Brian Cox), a bigwig in the Republican Party who has always seen Marty as a constant embarrassment. In steps campaign manager Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott), a shadowy fixer sent in to butch up the effeminate Huggins. His chubby family is kept out of the public eye while his pugs are replaced by more American dogs, a golden retriever and a chocolate lab.

The Campaign was written by Shawn Harwell (HBO's Eastbound and Down) and Chris Henchy (The Other Guys) while Jay Roach handled directorial duties. Roach is best known for directing Austin Powers and Meet the Parents. He's had experience in political comedy as he helmed Recount and Game Change for HBO. The Campaign isn't exactly razor sharp satire and Roach's work here lies somewhere in between. The humor doesn't break any new ground as the film depicts politicians has inept, greedy, and just plain horny.

Ferrell plays it to the hilt as Brady is a concoction of Bill Clinton, John Edwards, and Ferrell's own impression of George W. Bush. He's an unrepentant philanderer spouting pedantic sound bites to rile up the rubes ("America. Jesus. Freedom"). Meanwhile, Galifianakis recycles his portrayal of his mustachioed "brother" Seth as Marty Huggins. Their rivalry begins with trash talking and rises to absurd levels as Brady drunkenly steals a police car and punches a baby in the face. At one point, Brady runs a campaign ad connecting Huggins' facial hair to that of Saddam Hussein and bin Laden.  There's a dinner table scene at the Huggins house that's reminiscent of Talladega Nights. Dylan McDermott and Karen Murayama provide funny supporting performances with the latter as a housekeeper paid extra to speak like a stereotypical mammy.

The Campaign lacks any teeth as the filmmakers try their best to straddle the thin line between red and blue states. They attempt to skewer everyone with gags relying on raunchiness and slapstick. If you want profanity and intelligence in your satire, Armando Iannucci's In the Loop is a better bet. Still, The Campaign is amusing enough and moves at a brisk pace.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Everything Must Go

Everything Must Go - Dir. Dan Rush (2011)

Whenever successful funnymen look to branch into dramatic fare, they generally choose a low-budget indie project that requires them to give a subdued performance. Will Ferrell has followed the same career path as Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Adam Sandler, and Bill Murray before him. After wildly popular comedies like Anchorman and Talladega Nights, Ferrell has tried to show his acting range with off-beat films like Adam Rapp's Winter Passing and the Charlie Kaufman-esque Stranger Than Fiction. Now, the man known for his hilarious George W. Bush impression gives his best performance yet in Everything Must Go by first-time writer/director Dan Rush.

Ferrell is Nick Halsey, a middle-aged sales exec for an office supply manufacturer based in Arizona. Rather ironic, considering his recent guest stint on The Office. Anyways, Nick has struggled for years with his alcohol addiction and his boss (Glenn Howerton) has been more than patient with him. Some wild shenanigans at a conference in Denver are the last straw and Nick is summarily fired.

Arriving home, Nick finds his wife has left him, changed the locks on the house, and dumped all his belongings all over the front yard. Nick deals with the situation the best he can by kicking back in his recliner and shotgunning tall boys of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Not exactly the most ringing endorsement for PBR, but it's better than Blue Velvet. Neighbors call the cops and it's a lucky thing Nick's AA sponsor is Det. Frank Garcia (Michael Pena). He buys Nick time to get his shit together by citing a law that allows homeowners to hold a yard sale for no more than five days. In between moments of drunken self-pity, Nick forges a friendship with Samantha (Rebecca Hall), a pregnant photographer who has moved in advance of her husband still in New York. Nick also becomes a surrogate father to Kenny (Christopher Jordan Wallace), an awkward overweight boy aimlessly riding his bike around the block.

Everything Must Go was based on Why Don't You Dance?, a slight short story (just 4 pages long) by Raymond Carver, an author noted for battling his own alcoholism. Dan Rush elaborates on the basic premise of a down-and-out man divesting himself of his possessions as a means of shedding his own faults and demons. Rush's screenplay doesn't go for a driving plot, but a character piece with an indirect journey. Rush does tend to spell things out for the audience by dotting his film with some obvious symbolism and an ending coda literally taken from a fortune cookie. Nick points out that he bares his whole life (warts and all) through his inverted world. As we learn, his neighbors, safe and warm behind their walls, have plenty of skeletons in their closets. Nick's nostalgia for his youth and his disillusionment of the present is summed up with a collection of vintage records he is reluctant to part with. He also gives Samantha an old Polaroid camera, which she uses to capture just the right image of Nick in all his schlubby glory.

Ferrell's performance is both sardonic and packed with quiet desperation. Nick Halsey is a logical extension of the idiot man-child persona Ferrell has perfected. This time around, the character is forced to examine himself with a newfound level of maturity. Ferrell brings a low-key sense of humor to the drama without resorting to the maniacal fits of rage that have become his trademark. In fact, Ferrell doesn't even raise his voice once. To no surprise, Rebecca Hall is wonderful as is Laura Dern as a former high school sweetheart of Nick's. The great Stephen Root is hilarious, despite only appearing in a handful of scenes, as Nick's condescending neighbor. Aside from Ferrell, the actor who has gotten the most positive press is young Christopher Jordan Wallace, the son of Faith Evans and the Notorious B.I.G. In only his second film, Wallace gives a natural performance that avoids the cloying precociousness usually found with children of indie pictures.

"They say everything can be replaced…"

So goes the opening lyrics of The Band's "I Shall Be Released," which plays over the end credits. It's safe to say without a spoiler warning that Nick will eventually learn to define himself through his choices rather than his material belongings. His road to redemption is mapped out clearly for the audience and while Everything Must Go may be a tad predictable and on-the-nose; it's a strong character-driven drama. It may not be worth dashing to the theater to see, but it's worthy of at least a rental.

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

Megamind

Megamind - Dir. Todd McGrath (2010)

Dreamworks Animation always seems to play second banana to the juggernaut known as Pixar. It's not surprising that Katzenberg and company would be drawn to the story of an ingenious protagonist forced to constantly live in the shadow of a more popular rival.

Will Ferrell heads the all-star cast as the titular Megamind, a blue-skinned, cranially-enhanced supervillain who has plagued Metro City for years. The one person who stands in the way of Megamind's quest for world domination is the heroic and square-jawed Metro Man (Brad Pitt). Their feud has been raging since they were babies. On a far away planet, a couple launches their infant son towards the Earth in a rocketship shortly before their solar system is destroyed by a collapsing star. Meanwhile, another couple on a nearby planet has the same idea. Baby Metro Man lands safe and sound in an opulent mansion where he is raised by loving parents. Baby Megamind's ship is knocked off course and lands in a prison yard. There, the inmates teach the young lad their own twisted sense of right and wrong. Their rivalry extended to grade school as young Metro Man is praised by his classmates and teacher while young Megamind gets quiet time in the corner due to his malfunctioning inventions.

Cut to present day where Metro Man is honored by Metro City with the grand opening of a Metro Man museum. The festivities are interrupted when Megamind once again abducts news reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey). As the Lois Lane of the story, she's grown a blasé attitude to playing the damsel in distress, especially knowing Megamind always loses. That is, until now. Megamind traps Metro Man inside a dome made out of copper, which turns out to be the superhero's one weakness. A death ray fires from above and blasts Metro Man into smithereens.

Along with his right-hand fish, Minion (David Cross), a talking piranha who moves about in a robotic gorilla suit, Megamind struts through the streets of Metro City to the tune of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell." However, his elation turns into a melancholy funk when he realizes evil isn't as much fun without someone to challenge him. Megamind devises a scheme to create a new costumed do-gooder to replace Metro Man. The plan goes predictably awry after Roxanne's goofball cameraman, Hal Stewart (Jonah Hill), is given superpowers. Now known as Titan (though he misspells it as 'Tighten'), Hal decides that destroying the city would be way more cool. Thus, Megamind is forced into the unfamiliar territory of playing the good guy.

Just as Shrek had a fractured take on fairy tales, Megamind plays fast and loose with the conventions of the superhero genre. Director Tom McGrath ("Madagascar") and screenwriters Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons crib the Superman mythos frequently, from the opening origin sequence to the archetypes of the main characters. Ferrell even gets to riff on Marlon Brando as Jor-El when he dons a holographic disguise to play Tighten's "Space Dad." The disguise looks more like Ted Kennedy with a pompadour than it does the late-Brando though. Comic book heroes aren't the only ones to get jabbed as the writers sprinkle plenty of pop culture references into the film. Some are obscure (Minion's body is meant to evoke the 1953 B-movie Robot Monster, the name Hal Stewart refers to two popular Green Lanterns) and others will get a chuckle (there's a twisted take on the iconic Obama posters and a quick Donkey Kong inspired action scene), but most fall flat, such as a final dance montage set to Michael Jackson's "Bad." Do all of Dreamworks' animated movies have to end with a dance party?

The story may not be particularly captivating, but the animation in Megamind is exceptional and the character designs are reminiscent of Monsters vs. Aliens. I found myself noticing minor details that I normally don't such as skin tones and the sheen of Megamind's bald, blue skull. Another scene featuring Metro Man flying between the skyscrapers of Metro City is almost breathtaking as are the action sequences. The titanic tussles cause mass destruction and it is all exceptionally detailed. The color palette of Megamind still managed to be bright and sharp, despite the fact that the 3D process tends to dull the images. While I'm not a huge proponent of 3D, the work here is very well done. The animators have created a clear depth of field without the 3D becoming obtrusive.

Megamind features some lush visuals and if eye candy is what you crave, I'd say see it at a theater armed with an excellent 3D projector. The kiddies will likely have a good time as evidenced by the happy rugrats that attended the same screening as I did. However, if you're looking for substance over style and you don't have children, then Megamind should be considered rental material. The animation is great and the voice work solid (with Ferrell bringing his trademark inflections and humor), but the script substitutes real jokes with the same type of tired pop culture references that sunk another Dreamworks' production, Shark Tale.

Pixar already said all there needed to be said about animated superhero movies with The Incredibles. In terms of 'supervillain turned good' movies, Megamind pales in comparison to Universal's Despicable Me. Ranking Dreamworks' 2010 slate, Megamind rates well above Shrek Forever After, but fails to reach the quality of How to Train Your Dragon, one of the year's best films. A mish-mash of unrealized ideas, Megamind lacks the heart and the wit to truly succeed on those levels.

Rating: **

The Other Guys

The Other Guys - Dir. Adam McKay (2010)


Riggs and Murtaugh. Tango and Cash. Add Hoitz and Gamble to the buddy cop pantheon.

The Other Guys opens in true action film fashion with a rousing car chase through the streets of New York City as top cops, Danson (Dwayne Johnson) and Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson), run down the perpetrators. A massive amount of property damage is done to bring in a few crooks possessing a miniscule amount of marijuana. Back at the station house, Danson and Highsmith are greeted with a hero’s welcome. None of the accolades are thrown the way of Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) and Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell). They don’t blow shit up, they don’t get the girls, nor do they make the big arrests.

Hoitz could be doing those things, if not for an embarrassing shooting mishap, which relegated him to desk duty. His partner, Gamble, is a forensic accountant who gleefully enjoys paperwork and has no desire to see any action in the field. While investigating a minor oversight in construction permits, Gamble and Hoitz uncover a Bernie Madoff-style plot by millionaire mogul David Ershon (Steve Coogan) to embezzle $32 billion.

The main cast also features Michael Keaton as the precinct captain who moonlights as the manager of a Bed Bath and Beyond, Eva Mendes as Gamble’s inexplicably hot wife, Ray Stevenson as an Australian mercenary, and an uncredited Anne Heche as a corrupt CEO employing Ershon.

The Other Guys is the fourth collaboration between director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell following Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers. Other Guys isn’t as hilarious as the first two films, but it’s several notches above the somewhat crass Step Brothers. As a spoof of buddy cop films, it works better than Kevin Smith’s Cop Out. However, the genre has become such a self-parody of itself that McKay is simply beating a dead horse. Seeing Wahlberg in a slow-mo John Woo shootout isn’t as funny as it should be because the gag has been done to death.

Where the film excels is in the interactions between the lead actors. Wahlberg has given some terribly wooden performances recently in The Happening and The Lovely Bones. He’s better suited for action and comedy and he’s excellent as the hotheaded straight man. Ferrell’s idiot man-child routine wears thin so he wisely tones it down for Other Guys. There’s a slow burn for his character as they slowly reveal the darker side he’s hidden.

McKay tops it off with his own brand of absurdist humor displayed in many hysterical gags sprinkled throughout the film. Some of the funniest bits include: Coogan bribing our heroes with tickets to Jersey Boys, a run-in with a group of horny hobos led by a fellow named Dirty Mike (played by McKay himself), an ending credits sequence utilizing Powerpoint-style animation to explain Ponzi schemes and government bailouts, and Ferrell constantly being hit on by gorgeous women like Brooke Shields (wife of co-writer Chris Henchy).

Rating: ***

Step Brothers

Step Brothers - Dir. Adam McKay (2008)

Dewey Cox and Ricky Bobby are overgrown man-children.

Joke could have worked as a series of short SNL skits, but lacks the legs for a feature film.

Shorter run time and quicker pace would have made for a passable comedy.

Semi-Pro

Semi-Pro - Dir. Kent Alterman (2008)

Will Ferrell continues the same old schtick as the owner/coach/star player of a crappy ABA basketball team.

If you've seen Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory, you've seen this one.