Monday, July 16, 2012

That's My Boy

Complete Synopsis: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232200

That's My Boy is content with being a belligerent vulgarian comedy that it is willing to concoct any setup, any one-liner, or any character as long as it's on par with its irredeemable crude standard. It's first fatal flaw is that it erects so many raunchy situations that it completely undermines the characters that are involved in them, which is the whole reason we laugh. We laugh not at the situations themselves, but how these characters react to them. But this is only the icing on the cake of disgust.


Such topics covered in the film are teacher-student molestation, strippers, poor parenting, child abuse, browbeating the less fortunate, incest, and many more. Only Sandler would take such heartless and degrading topics and throw them all into a film where no wit, soul, or morals can be found. They are employed with such carelessness and such a disregard for humanity that it becomes utterly revolting. The only laughs to be found come from, not a main character, but one that shows up at the end of the film (something you should expect from a Happy Madison picture). He is Abdoulaye N'gom, who was also in the Sandler produced Grandma's Boy. How come somebody didn't think to put him as one of the side characters? The story can be summed up in fragmented words such as lazy, overwritten, camaraderie, inconsiderate, offensive, demeaning, and mean-spirited, but let's focus on the plot itself. It starts out on the ever-so bright note of teacher-student molestation, where young nitwit teenager Donny Berger is happily seduced by his teacher, Miss Mary McGarricle in a closet. It results in an unexpected pregnancy, where Miss McGarricle goes to prison, and their baby is left with the teenage Donny, who can barely take care of himself, let alone another child.


Donny names the kid "Han Solo Berger," and at eighteen, the kid becomes estranged from his parents, telling people they died in an explosion, changes his name to "Todd Peterson," and begins a new life. Donny (Sandler) went on to live off a six figure deal to sell his story to a Television show, and carelessly blew all the money, forgetting that he needed to pay taxes on the earnings. Donny now owes the IRS $43,000, and winds up striking a $50,000 deal with a filthy reality show executive to get him, Todd, and his mother (currently in prison) to do a reunion event on camera. It's scummy and outlandishly selfish.


Todd is Andy Samberg, who is stunned to see Donny show up uninvited and quickly tells his wife's family that he is a close friend of his, and this leads to some contrived shouting matches between the two as to how Donny was the worst parent ever. This is true. It's a too little, too late effort, but Donny decides it's time to make nice with Todd, so he stays at their house during the wedding to reconnect with his son, while trying to conceal the fact that he's only there for money.


This is yet another Sandler film I like to dub an "anti-character" study. First off, there is hardly a likable character in the film, except for Todd, who is just a poor man's version of a neurotic success story. The character Donny comes equipped with Sandler's most horrendous accent since his character in The Waterboy, and this could very well be Sandler's worst film in years (I have not seen Jack and Jill). It aims to go for the baddest of laughs, but due to the lack of discipline, plausibility in the writing (why isn't the baby given to child services?), and the removal of heart in its material, it's a middle finger to morals and an ode to chaotic, mean-spirited circumstances.


That's My Boy inhabits a world of such cruelty to almost everyone involved. The males are incompetent caricatures, motivated by ego and greed, the women are no better than the size of their breasts and buttocks, shown in a misogynistic light almost saying that women exist to either show off parts of their body or to be ditzy, foul-mouthed bimbos, and every middle-age side character is shown as an amoral horn-dog, both men and women alike. Remember Big Daddy? One of the few Adam Sandler films sort of slanted and aimed more for children? It involved a louse who is stuck raising an illegitimate kid for his best friend. You could sort of label That's My Boy the raunchy sequel to Big Daddy, an explain it extracted the heart and sentiment out of it. But saying that would give the film more purpose than it's entitled to. It's a loathsome, painfully unfunny affront to comedy.

Kid Friendly: No
Bad Ass Factor: None
Date Friendly: Yes
Overall Rating: 1.75 out of 5 stars

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Prometheus

Complete Synopsis: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/


Prometheus puts you on the edge of your seat from its first scene, where we see a humanoid looking alien creature disintegrating into nature of planet earth, and thereby its DNA starts off the chain-reactions that inevitably lead up with the creation of the man kind. And then it swiftly jumps into the future to introduce our characters and keeps building on that mystery in a perfectly paced manner, and there is so much mystery in the air that you feel it in your stomach. Add to that the overwhelming art design, scenery and VFX of the film, and the straight to the bone performances by our the cast, and especially, Michael Fassbender as "David", which is by far the most established and interesting character and the most outstanding performance in the film.


That being said, Prometheus is far from being perfect, as it was after all, a movie designed (and edited) more as a "summer block buster" than than a movie to tangle with your intellect. Just as soon as our team reaches their destination planet to uncover the truth about our creators, you start feeling the film maker loosing his grip over the film to the studio execs, the film starts jumping off from one story element to the other with no warning, paying little-to-no attention to details to the point that you cannot not notice it anymore, and the pace starts picking up so quickly that it leads to a no-more than a standard Hollywood ending :(


The film tone changes noticeably right about the third act, from the focused, mysterious character-driven plot, to something that is random, broad and grand in scale and does not give enough attention to its character's stories, most events start serving as plot devices (with more gaps between them than solid grounds) to an ending that looks to be decided by the studio board. Oh and I almost forgot, throwing in 3-D into that blend and in a movie that has a rather-dark color pallet just to sell tickets with a higher price was, as always, more annoying than anything else.


There definitely will be a director's cut release that will give us a more settled version and give the franchise fans much more of what they deserve, but this is a review of the theatrical release, and I have to say, in the end, as good as it is, was rather disappointing.




Kid Friendly: No
Bad Ass Factor: Yes
Date Friendly: Yes
Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars






Amazing Spider Man

Complete Synopsis: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0948470/


The Amazing Spider-Man's origin story is undoubtedly an improvement on Raimi's Spider-Man, a decade prior. The characterisation is a lot more realistic, which makes it easier for the audience to feel Parker's teenage pain, awkwardness and ultimate escapism when he dons the guise of Spider-Man. Emma Stone's Gwen Stacey is also a welcome replacement for Mary-Jane, who's sole purpose in Raimi's films was either to moan or scream. Stacey by contrast, is an intelligent character in her own right, who doesn't shy away from getting her hands dirty when Spider- Man's in trouble. Rhys Ifans portrayal of Curt Connors has the same Jekyllian vulnerability seen in Mark Ruffallo's Bruce Banner earlier this year, although his motives are distorted somewhat as the film progresses.


However, such interesting character development unfortunately does not hold together perfectly with the action. Of course, Spider-Man is foremost a movie that has to entertain; yet the cocky web-slinging CGI hero seems too unlike Garfield's brooding Peter Parker. The quality of the special effects is largely inconsistent, with POV scenes of Spider- Man diving around the city impressing greatly, whilst his actual battles with The Lizard are considerably less ambitious. The weighty retelling of Parker's familiar back-story also means that during the d̩nouement several large plot points, which could have expanded the action, are left undeveloped Рand so the ending is a little too simple and unsatisfactory.


Webb has successfully addressed the new demand for superhero movies to be deeper and more human; yet he is not a director adept at providing big-budget action to an audience in the same way as Joss Whedon or Christopher Nolan. The Amazing Spider-Man is therefore the sum of two films, a satisfactory coming-of-age movie and an unchallenging action film. Unfortunately, Webb is not strong enough to convincingly hold the two together.


Kid Friendly: Yes
Bad Ass Factor: None
Date Friendly: Yes
Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

To find a complete synopsis: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/moonrise_kingdom/


Moonrise Kingdon is a film that is full of quirkiness, which I find to be parables of the troubles we encounter in life. I came to this film without any expectations, having read nothing about it in the news so I was pleasantly surprised that the main protagonists are a couple of tweens. Any fears of mine finding a sappy or saccharine story were vanquished and replaced with wonderment following the journey of the two main characters. Both actors didn't seem to have formal training but this didn't stop them from serving the story well. It is down to the genius of Mr. Anderson capturing their human performances which are nothing less than beautiful. 


I highly recommend this film!



Kid Friendly: No
Bad Ass Factor: None
Date Friendly: Yes
Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

View from the Top (2003)

View complete synopsis: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264150/

I stumbled across this movie last night and had to write a review. I have always had a soft spot for Gwyneth Paltrow so i figured I would see what this movie was all about.  Firstly: what a piece of crap! Secondly: what a piece of crap!  How this movie got made is beyond me! Its worse than a made for TV movie. Worse than a movie my 16 year old daughter and her friends would make with their Iphones and post on Youtube!  Please, if you ever see this movie on Netflix, or stumble across it late night on TNT, do  yourself a favor and DO NOT WATCH IT.


Kid Friendly: NO (nobody friendly)
Bad Ass Factor: None
Date Friendly: NO
Overall Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

Bernie (2011)

To view a complete synopsis visit:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1704573/

Bernie (2011) stars Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and Shirley MacLaine and is a sorta-true story about a Carthage, Texas mortician who befriends a millionaire widow, unfortunately kills her, and spends about a year covering up his crime. I have to admit I had no desire to see this movie, and had to be talked into it by a friend.  We went to see the movie at Regal Arbor 8 in Austin and was surprised to find a packed house! The strangest thing was the fact that we were the youngest people in the theater, by about 20  years. Now I was convinced, this movie was going to suck!.... I hate to admit this often, but boy was I wrong!

If you have lived in a small town, especially a small town in Texas, you will adore this movie. If you hate Texas or absolutely LOVE Texas, you will adore this movie. If you enjoy dark humor, above average acting, euphemisms, old people telling stories...you will adore this movie!  This movie has great pacing, and makes you really appreciate the way Linklater tells a story and develops characters. Anyone that has known an established older gay man, or a small town florist, or has a crazy Aunt..will be familiar with the characters. The movie surprises you, entertains you and challenges you. I recommend this movie wholeheartedly.

Kid Friendly: No
Bad Ass Factor: None
Date Friendly: Yes
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars