American Reunion

A lot of movie franchises stretch and stretch until there is nothing left to say or do. No blood left in the turnip. When I saw that the American Pie Gang was back for a fourth installment I immediately had thoughts that this series was teetering in that territory. But in a weird way American Reunion made me feel like I needed this update. The characters we’ve grown to know and love since the raunch-fest that started it all back in 1999′s American Pie are relatable in such a way that you almost feel like they went to school with you.

The crew is headed back to East Great Falls for their high school reunion. Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) have a young son now and their sex life is in a rut. Oz (Chris Klein) has become a D-List celebrity as a sportscaster and participant in a Dancing with the Stars knockoff. Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) is in a marriage overpowered with estrogen-fueled TV shows and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) has supposedly become a world traveler. All the guys have changed so much. All the guys except for one, that is. Stifler (Seann William Scott) is still the same old inconsiderate, immature, meat-headed jerk. Without Stifler these sequels wouldn’t get consistent laughs. Seann William Scott has made the character into his own little generational icon. He seems to have spawned from the Animal House toga party and won’t stop until the everyone gets laid and is nice and drunk. Everybody seems to be struggling with their adult problems as they hang on to the nostalgia of their youth the weekend of the reunion. Lots of fun stuff happens, Stifler throws a party, Jim’s Dad (Eugene Levy) ends up in a room alone with Stifler’s Mom (Jennifer Coolidge), and there are plenty of gross-out and nudity gags to fill your penchant for those types of things. But Biggs’ neurotic Jim putting himself in harm’s way and Scott’s Stifler being a complete dick to everyone continue to supply enough glue to keep this successful comedy series interesting and funny.

The jokes still work and the old gang still has some gas left in the tank. If you aren’t totally distracted by Chris Klein’s inability to act and you’re a fan of the other movies then American Reunion will probably be fun for you. The strange thing about the fourth installment of this series is that it was supposed to totally suck…and it didn’t. Party on guys, party on. I just think American Election might be pushing it. You know, the one where Oz runs for Mayor with Jim as his campaign manager and The Stiffmeister is his security.

-JB

Casa de mi Padre

Will Ferrell is a bit of an anomaly lately. I thought he was going to be stuck in a Sandleresque mainstream comedy cash-in with some of the complete junk he was in over the past couple of years. Please see Land of the Lost and The Other Guys to understand what I am talking about. But seeing his continued participation in worthwhile projects like Eastbound and Down and Everything Must Go in between the junk let’s me know that Ferrell’s heart remains in the same place. I walked away from Casa de mi Padre with the same feeling, but unfortunately I also walked away thinking the film was a swing and a miss. But I like that Ferrell and company took a swing. So, although I cannot recommend the film, I definitely admire where the filmmakers were trying to take audiences.Casa de mi Padre is a parody of Spanish Melodramas that make American Soap Operas look undramatic. Accompanied with purposely poor production quality and dialogue spoken in American-Accented Spanish throughout, it’s a pretty big departure from Ferrell’s normal comedy fare.

Armando (Will Ferrell) is a dim-witted ranch hand who is an embarrassment to his father (Pedro Armendariz) and is dismissed by his financially successful brother Raul (Diego Luna). When Raul returns home with his new bride-to-be Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez) Armando finds out that his brother is a drug dealer who has gotten into a war with the dangerous drug czar Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal). Not only does Armando find himself in love with his brother’s girl, but he also has to find away to protect his family’s land from Onza and his tyranny. There are some funny moments in the film, mostly sight gags or goofy banter between Armando and his buddies played by Efren Ramirez and Adrian Martinez. But the most peculiar thing about this outside-the-box comedy is that for most of its 84-minute run time they don’t go for too many laughs. Sure there’s the animatronic cat that approaches Armando and his boys right after they do a musical number by the campfire and the toy horses that Armando and Sonia ride against a fake background, but there seems to be 15 minute spaces with absolutely no jokes in sight throughout the film. I took the film to have a tone of dry humor mixed in with goofiness, but it just seemed strange that so much of the film seems too subtle in the joke delivery department. The cast does a great job of delivering all their lines in all of their deadpan glory, but that only works a few times. It seems to be more of the same joke over and over. Garcia Bernal and Luna look like they are having a lot of fun and Ferrell proves that Spanish II classes in high school and college paid off, but the movie just falls short on laughs and that is what you come for on this one.

I think there was a little bit of Blazing Saddles‘ spirit hidden somewhere deep within this one, but it never gets realized. You can tell that director Matt Piedmont and writer Andrew Steele wanted to pay homage to Telemundo soaps and the old west mixed in with some Anchorman, but it just ends up taking itself too seriously. I think if the tone would’ve been loosened up and there would’ve been about twice as many actual jokes written that it could’ve been something. It really should have been cut in and half and posted to Funny or Die. But I didn’t think to myself how I wanted those two hours of my life back afterwards, it was barely over an hour. Casa de mi Padre was an original venture, I just wish everyone involved would’ve been a little bit less stingy with the jokes.

-JB

Saying Goodbye to Luck

Luck is a really really good TV show…or at least it was a really really good TV show. I would put it in the upper echelon with other HBO heavyweights like The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire. Unfortunately I was in the minority and unfortunately it doesn’t matter now. Luck will not get a chance to win over fence-riding audiences everywhere, nor will future seasons get an opportunity to grow on HBO subscribers like a fungus. Due to the bad PR HBO was receiving from the problems with horses continuing to die on set well into season two’s production, the network seemingly had only one play – cancel the show. The third and final horse to die on the set of Luck was reportedly on a routine morning walk when it suddenly reared up then fell hard to the ground, the horse had to be euthanized. I mention that only because it didn’t seem to be anything different from what a racehorse would normally go through. It wasn’t because too much was asked of the animal in shooting a race scene or anything of that nature. I happen to really like horses and I happen to like the sport of horseracing too. Is that a too much of a paradox? Luck‘s legendary horse trainer Walter Smith (Nick Nolte) didn’t seem to think so. He spent all his life caring for animals preparing them to run like the wind against the speed of other champion racehorses. But he struggled with demons, not only his own but fallen horses of the past. Luck actually did a great job portraying the cold hard world of horseracing filled with cut-throat decisions, underhanded deals, and degenerate gamblers and then balancing it with the care and sensitivity most of the race track folk have towards the well-being of the animals. Either way the masterful job of director/producer Michael Mann and writer/producer David Milch was just getting started and it’s a shame we will get no more.

I’m inflicted with the David Milch fan curse just like David Milch’s TV shows seem to be cursed to an early grave. The critically-acclaimed and Emmy Award-Winning Deadwood seemed extremely abbreviated with only three seasons. Milch’s writing, a hybrid of old west vernacular and gratuitous obscenities, coupled with a stellar cast that included Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane made Deadwood one of the best trips into the old west in years. But after three seasons, HBO did not renew the actors’ contracts and Deadwood fans were left to draw their own conclusions of what could’ve been. Now I am left searching for glimpses of Sheriff Bullock in Olyphant’s Raylan Givens to give me my fix. I have to turn to DVDs to play the “Deadwood Drinking Game” inspired by McShane’s Al Swearengen’s affinity for the word cocksucker. It’s a sad state of affairs for a storyline that could’ve went for a solid 2-3 more seasons.

The same thing happened for fans of 2006′s John From Cincinnati. We only got one season of Milch’s collaboration with author Kem Nunn that told the story of a dysfunctional family of famous surfers visited by a mysterious young man who seems to possess mystical qualities. I, for one, loved John From Cincinnati. It started out with a lot of WTF moments, but slowly revealed itself, crescendoing into a season finale that left you asking even more questions. I wanted those answers too, but unfortunately I will always have to wonder:How was Kai the mother of god? We never get to find out if Butchie (Brian Van Holt) would’ve found sobriety, if Bill (Ed O’Neil) ever stopped talking to himself and his birds, and would John (Austin Nichols) ever break free from his Rain Man act and morph into The Silver Surfer at some point. We will never know what genius of a web Milch had planned to spin over Imperial Beach, and I’ve had to come to terms with that. Maybe John From Cincinnati fan fiction can help clarify(shudders)…well no, never mind.

So coming to terms with yet another Milch show that was taken from us too early is what I will try to do. As I watched Luck‘s season finale on Sunday I realized just how bitter sweet this last episode was. It was top-notch television as usual, but I had to face the fact that I would never see where The Ace (Dustin Hoffman) and Gus (Dennis Farina) story arc would go next season. Dustin Hoffman took this tailor-made character and returned to 1970′s Hoffman cool. Ace never let things out of hand and would surely get his revenge in the end…or so I would think…or maybe he’d decide to give up the horse-racing game and settle down on a farm with Ms. Lachay (Joan Allen)…that would’ve been a fitting ending. After all it seems like peace is what Ace is inevitably searching for. Never again will I get to plop down on my couch to hear the calming of Nick Nolte’s gravelly voice as he tough talks someone who has no doubt referred to him as an old-timer. Would Escalante (John Ortiz)continue to soften up? I’d like to think not. Ortiz’s performance of the hard-nosed horse trainer was like almost every other character in the series – impeccably cast. From Richard Kind’s stammering agent to Michael Gambon’s villainous gangster the pitch-perfect cast brought amazing performances in ever episode. I’d like to hear what the Foray Stables boys had to say in the end. I imagine them gathered around that empty Motel swimming pool, cooking burgers, and having some beers. They’d talk about the overwhelming perplexity of one of the finest shows running being canceled and somehow the conversation would shift to that day when Mon Gateau took home 1st and for one day mere mortals seemed to rule the world. That would’ve been nice.

-JB

The Hunger Games

Some things about The Hunger Games: 1) It’s a step up from The Twilight Series 2) It’s very well-made 3) It’s not a bad movie 4) It’s not a great movie. When you get an adaptation of a wildly popular book series you get a lot of hype and a lot of expectations. Rabid fans turned out in droves for the screening I attended. I saw a lot of things at this screening that I typically don’t see at others. I saw two people cry before the movie started; one a teenage girl who had apparently got lost in the shuffle and had to sit separate from her friends and the other a middle-aged woman for reasons I couldn’t explain. Then right as the feature presentation started to role, a teenage girl seated in the third row, decked from head-to-toe in Hunger Games gear, stood up, turned around, and shouted to the audience, “Let the Hunger Games begin!”. At the end of the film there were dozens of the 700 people seated in the sold out IMAX theater that applauded. This is where I seem to have a disconnect. For so many of the book series’ fans this has been the moment they have been waiting for, to finally experience their beloved characters on the big screen. I have no desire to read this particular book series by Suzanne Collins, the story and its characters aren’t all that compelling to me. What I was interested in was seeing a good popcorn flick that would entertain and enthrall me. What I got was a movie that was entertaining at times, but for the most part I found it to be fairly dull and mediocre.

Every year in a dystopian future a drawing is held to take one female and one male between the ages of 12-18 and put them in an arena to fight until there is only one remaining. The chosen contestants that participate in this are referred to as tributes. All of the action is watched live by the entire nation as the tributes battle it out. Jennifer Lawrence comes back in strong fashion as Katniss. Katniss volunteers to replace her little sister after she is drawn to represent her district 12. It was nice to see Lawrence back in Winter’s Bone form after almost single handily ruining X-Men:First Class for me (See: 4StarBlog X-Men First Class Review). She’s convincing as the protagonist, but even though her character is the most compelling of all, in the end I felt like I still wasn’t too jazzed up about Katniss or any other characters. There’s the possible love interest with fellow district 12 tribute Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), former Hunger Games winner and now drunken mentor Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), and Seneca (Wes Bentley) the puppeteer of the entire Hunger Games production. Each have their moments, but never do the actors or the character’s back stories themselves put out enough charisma to pull you completely in. The shaky camera action sequences and pacing lulls had me growing impatient, waiting for the movie to finally get going…but it ends up never getting to that point. The Hunger Games is supposed to play like Battle Royale meets The Truman Show, but the film misses out on a grand opportunity when it trades more survival in the forest scenes in lieu of more science fiction.

The steady hand of very capable director Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) made sure that this movie was soundly put together and really looks good. This series’ first installment doesn’t stack up with a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings flick, but hopefully the next two will bring a little bit more fire in the belly and give us more to get excited about. When books are adapted to the big screen there will surely always be many details that get left out and in the end I think keeping the right details out and putting the wrong ones in this movie ultimately kept The Hunger Games from taking flight. I hope that each of the next films give the movie-going audiences a larger dose of all the greatness that diehard fans of the books keep talking about. Maybe I just need to read the books to get a better appreciation for the film adaptation…but you should be able to appreciate one without the other.

*Is it just me or is it really odd that Jennifer Lawrence stars in both Winter’s Bone and The Hunger Games? At their core they both have essentially the same plot. I find it to be a peculiar coincidence that both films involve her trekking through the woods battling to save her little sister and killing and eating squirrels along the way.

-JB

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21 Jump Street

When Hollywood rehashes old stale ideas over and over again we tend to get conditioned to it. So when I heard that the 80′s TV show 21 Jump Street was getting the feature film treatment, I thought it would continue with the low bar the unoriginality of studios have set for mainstream audiences. A funny thing happened with this TV show turned movie project though…Jonah Hill got involved and decided to change it up a little bit. Hill not only stars in the film, but he co-wrote it as well. This movie is such a surprise because instead of lame attempts to coast on fan’s nostalgia from the original show, it uses the premise as a platform for a fresh take on an old idea.

We first meet Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) back in 2005 on opposite ends of the spectrum of their high school days. Schmidt struggles to find a date for prom and Jenko is the most popular jock roaming the hallways. They both end up in the police academy a few years later. They find a reason to work together; Jenko is no scholar and needs Schmidt’s tutoring while Schmidt could use some help with the physical demands of the training from the athletic Jenko. The next thing you know they are heading back to school via an undercover unit labeled 21 Jump Street. The unit is headed up by the always irate Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) and he’s not too excited about sending two bicycle cops who were already responsible for botching a drug bust into a school to take down a major trafficker. The gags start with Tatum (31) and Hill (28) looking way too old in the first place to pull off teenagers. Then for its entirety we get dick, gross-out, and “trippin’ balls” jokes galore – but they’re really good ones and more than likely even to some of the most prude audience members, undeniably hilarious. But don’t just take this raunchy buddy comedy at face value, Hill and Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World) pen a script that not only gives the second chance at high school device a much needed update, it also delivers all the potty-mouthed jokes with charm and hidden warmth that Hill always seems to do so well. In a clever twist Schmidt and Jenko get their class schedules mixed up and as they re-enter high school they both get to experience the other side of popularity. Meathead Jenko ends up hanging with the science nerds and Schmidt, used to being the door mat of the in crowd, ends up being the new class favorite. It’s simple to keep a fish out of water like that and keep the story moving, but the dozens of TV remakes/reboots that have come before this one rarely took the time to care. Embracing all of the stereotypes of both high school and action comedies and then turning them on their side make 21 Jump Street a quick-witted comedy destined for multiple viewings. Jonah Hill continues his hot streak fresh off of Oscar Nomination. Skinny Hill passes the litmus test of literally lightening his comedic load and proves that hes’ not just a funny fat guy – he’s just plain funny. He brings us a fun movie that doesn’t take it self too seriously and the casting of Channing Tatum and his unexpected comedic chops is nothing short of a cineplex miracle. The hunky actor forced to toil in such crap as G.I. Joe and Step Up (I had seen glimpses of promise in 2009′s under-appreciated Fighting) may have carved out a new niche for himself. The two leads give us the perfect back and forth and a fun supporting cast gives us just enough with Rob Riggle as the goofy track coach and Dave Franco as the environmentally-conscious dealer.

21 Jump Street is one of those comedies that you definitely want to see in a full theater. With big laughs throughout it is the funniest movie of the year and seeing it with a friend in a large group the laughs seem infectious. In the tradition of such classics as Back to School and American Pie this is a movie that will surely end up in many of our home collections at some point. Even though it is a remake of an old TV show, you wouldn’t really know it aside from some unforeseen cameos. Because 21 Jump Street was wise enough to be more Superbad and less The A-Team, it’s an R-rated comedy that I rate very highly.

-JB

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