Jun 20, 2011
In 1978 Lenny (Adam Sandler), Eric (Kevin James), Kurt (Chris Rock), Rob (Rob Schneider) and Marcus (David Spade) were five kids in middle school who won the basketball playoffs. At the awards dinner, their coach advised them to play life like the championship. Fast forward thirty years later… Lenny (Adam Sandler) is a hot-shot Hollywood agent married to Roxanne (Salma Hayek). He has two spoiled sons who text demands to their nanny and think playtime means being inside where the electrical outlet are – for video games – as a backyard and the great outdoors are a total mystery. Unless of course there’s a built-in pool and a masseuse on hand. But when Sandler’s childhood coach dies, the five men reunion a la comical Big Chill to figure out where their lives went wrong and what they can do to change things. Enter midlife crisis. David Spade the single womanizer, Rob Schneider with a mommy fetish, married to a woman old enough to be his grandma, Kevin James with a dysfunctional life/wife Sally (Maria Bello) and Chris Rock a stay-at-home dad whose wife Deanne (Maya Rudolph) hen-pecks him. The odd thing about this film as while it’s filled with a lot of ruffling and guy gags (and way too-many plot points) the essence of the story is finding a comfort zone in midlife…of dealing with regrets, facing challenges and never letting go of our own true self. This SNL alumni are fun to see together on screen, relaxed, and competent yet as zooey as ever. But beyond all that, this film’s ending does what a lot of movies fail to do….Give the big moment to “the loser” who didn’t deserve it, but maybe by getting it, will finally let go of the past and move on. That final moment elevates this script to Three tiaras.
In 1978 Lenny (Adam Sandler), Eric (Kevin James), Kurt (Chris Rock), Rob (Rob Schneider) and Marcus (David Spade) were five kids in middle school who won the basketball playoffs. At the awards dinner, their coach advised them to play life like the championship. Fast forward thirty years later… Lenny (Adam Sandler) is a hot-shot Hollywood agent married to Roxanne (Salma Hayek). He has two spoiled sons who text demands to their nanny and think playtime means being inside where the electrical outlet are – for video games – as a backyard and the great outdoors are a total mystery. Unless of course there’s a built-in pool and a masseuse on hand. But when Sandler’s childhood coach dies, the five men reunion a la comical Big Chill to figure out where their lives went wrong and what they can do to change things. Enter midlife crisis. David Spade the single womanizer, Rob Schneider with a mommy fetish, married to a woman old enough to be his grandma, Kevin James with a dysfunctional life/wife Sally (Maria Bello) and Chris Rock a stay-at-home dad whose wife Deanne (Maya Rudolph) hen-pecks him. The odd thing about this film as while it’s filled with a lot of ruffling and guy gags (and way too-many plot points) the essence of the story is finding a comfort zone in midlife…of dealing with regrets, facing challenges and never letting go of our own true self. This SNL alumni are fun to see together on screen, relaxed, and competent yet as zooey as ever. But beyond all that, this film’s ending does what a lot of movies fail to do….Give the big moment to “the loser” who didn’t deserve it, but maybe by getting it, will finally let go of the past and move on. That final moment elevates this script to Three tiaras.
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Jun 20, 2011
(rated R, 1 hr. 26 mins.)
Another one of the many drug infested love stories. I was “Trainspotting’s” worse enemy. Not as heavy as that, but still the go-no-where type story. It’s a hot Friday night when everybody gets the e-mail blurb telling of a big bash on Saturday evening. The party will take place in an abandoned warehouse in San Francisco. David Turner portrays a midwest transplant hoping to be the good boy ‘hopes and dreams’ type, who after four years finds himself writing instruction manuals for a computer company. Overworked and with little social life, David spends his time alone, his dream of being a novelist a distant memory. Then, like all these plots, David gets an unexpected Cinderella type invite to the party where all hell breaks lose. Under the influence of ‘Ecstasy’ suddenly David is thrust into a whole new underground adventure, (thus the movie), where he is torn between reality, a remembered freedom, a chance relationship and a dark secret (who cares.).
Jun 20, 2011
part grizzly man, part girly man, this documentary focuses on the best of hundreds of hours of real life footage, on the life of Timothy Treadwell, a man with a bear fetish so much so that he wanted to be one. With minimal contact and non-invasive force, but with the energy of Richard Simmons on helium, Treadwell acts like a ‘kind warrior’ in an effort to educate the public about a grizzly’s natural world. His bible of bear beliefs tell us he intends to be their master, their friend yet never plans to die by ‘their claws and paws.’ Directed and narrated by Werner Horzog, we slowly unravel the psychological makeup of Treadwell’s history (long before his thirteen summers in the Alaskan peninsula, of Kodiak mountain). Unlike Dian Fossey who pioneered and died at the hands of gorillas in hopes of saving them from poachers, we never know what it is Treadwell stands for, since he preaches from a wildlife sanctuary where the bears are protected anyway. Treadwell had drug, alcohol and acting issues, after never landing a role as Woody on “Cheers”, so that it seems like his obsession with bears is to escape his own inner grizzly world. He was a showman for his own camera, acting out a role, and he created a world with Barney the Dinosaur attitude, constantly reminding the shy fox and the big bears “I love you, and you love me” to the point that we’re sure he was a madman. He wanted to ‘die for a bear’ but not at the hands of one. We can only hope his heavenly fate is filled with a comeback, in his next life, as a bear.
Jun 20, 2011
Writer/director Noah Baumbach has done it again. And with a level of astounding success that it almost makes his past movies – Margot’s Wedding, & The Squid and the Whale – pale by comparison; if you can imagine that. This time he teams with his (real life) wife Jennifer Jason Leigh, in a story about Roger Greenberg, who’s visiting his brother’s house in Los Angeles after having a nervous breakdown in New York City, so he’s a bit “delicate.” He’s also a carpenter, and he’ll attempt to build a dog house for his brother’s dog while the brother is away on vacation with his family. Enter Florence (Greta Gerwig) the family’s assistant. Her number has been left on a page of house instructions – to call her in the event anything goes wrong. In this case, everything goes wrong. And everytime Roger reaches out to her, whether its for his supply of ice cream sandwiches or instructions on how to feed the dog, he remains a complete jerk while she is dead-on honest and refreshing. Baumbach has a knack for focusing on the upper-class and not just by way of studying them, but by dissecting them. The beauty of a film like this is while nothing really happens – except for vet visits for the family’s sick dog – the plot is deeply explored minus the need for explosives, special effects or blockbuster names. Gerwig is delightful and original. Move over Julia Roberts. As for Mr. Stiller, this is the first time he’s attempted comedy with really raw nerves and minus his usual fish out of water, spoiled-brat demands. Four tiaras
Jun 20, 2011
Whenever the year ends with a Clint Eastwood movie, it usually spells Oscar threat to all other films. In the case of “Gran Torino” it’s no different. The story opens at the funeral of the wife of Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) where it’s quite clear he’s not happy about the current state of our world, cringing at simple things that annoy him like his granddaughter’s belly ring or the fact that a tweny-nine year old Priest calls him “Walt” instead of Mr. Kowalski. Or the Jews, or the Chinese or the Puerto Ricans, and well, you get it. But there’s one thing all these people have in common: Their love for Mr. Kowalski’s 1972 Gran Torino, a car he’s restored and preserved in his garage for decades. But when his Vietnamese neighbors are assaulted in some ongoing neighborhood gang wars, Kowalski can’t help but slowly get involved. At the center of the mess, and being victimized, is a young man named Thao (Bee Vang) and his sister, Sue (Ahney Her) a throwback to the ‘good’ kids of Kowalski’s days that understood discipline and values, despite the fact that they’re ‘Gooks.’ That’s when Kowalski realizes he has more in common with this very family he once was a bigot over, then he does with his own spoiled and grownup kids. It’s also when his history in the Korean War kicks in, bringing this movie to a bitter sweet ending in Kowalski’s quest to redeem himself with a great twist. The Eastwood theme rings true in this film much like it did in “Unforgiven” where Eastwood takes a man torn between right and wrong, but is pushed over the edge into violence, all for the sake of a woman. A simple little story with a big meaning and one of the year’s best, as expected, because it’s Clint. Four tiaras
