Send this one back to the kitchen...

By Phantom

Steve Carell stars as “Big Dumb Steve Carell” in Steve Carell’s Big Dumb Movie a/k/a Dinner for Schmucks.  I’m not sure what possessed anyone involved to barf up this big dumb meal on to cineplex screens...

As mentioned above, Steve Carrel plays Dumb Steve, here known as Barry, in what might be the dumbest Steve he’s ever played.  The only problem is, it isn’t funny this time.  It’s excruciating.  (“Oh look!  Dumb Steve Carrel broke something and doesn’t know what he did! HAHAHAHAHAHA.  Best movie of all year!”)  In order to amplify the (non)laughs, Paul Rudd plays hapless Paul Rudd who bears the brunt of Steve Carell’s antics.  Why either wastes their considerable talent and charm in dreck like this is unbeknownst to me.

The one trick pony of a plot (Steve Carell is dumb and breaks stuff) is pulled along by the Rudd’s character, “Stockbroker Tim,” and his desire to impress his boss and a potential client by bringing an idiot to a dinner that awards a prize to whoever brings the biggest dumbass.  Tim wants to win the contest, yet somehow the audience ends up losing.

I guess the camera work was well done, but at this point it’s like saying I liked the font in my calculus textbook.  It’s boring and unfunny.  (Derivates! HA!).  Unlike learning calculus, however, repetition does not bode well for this film.  The same thing happens, over and over again.  And then the same thing happens again.  Steve Carell breaks stuff and Paul Rudd gets mad.  For.  Two.  Hours.  Herein lies the main fault of the movie, and the cardinal sin of any film: it’s boring.

It’s a well known, if unspoken axiom that in film criticism the bad movies are some of the best reviews to read if only to hear the reviewer’s version of an insult comic.  And yes I’ve played the game above (You’re welcome sadistic readers.  I’m half sorry to cast and crew – this movie is pretty bad...) but to be honest, leaving the theater, I couldn’t even think of snarky jokes.  This movie is just too bland to even laugh at.  Its juvenile slapstick can’t even appeal to youngsters since abundant (and unfunny) ribald humor appears throughout making it inappropriate for them. 

I suppose there was a good film that could have been made.  The use of Carell’s stuffed mice as a representation of his inner thoughts might have brought out a little heart in the film.  There was one brief picture of a lonely mouse drinking a cheese milkshake that seemed sincere but was lost in a sea of mundane “jokes.”  This angle is underdeveloped and when Rudd and Carell *Spolier Alert!* finally become best friends at the end of the film it feels false and flat.
 
Go rent Hot Tub Time Machine if you’re a grown up wanting dumb laughs, and Despicable Me is a much better, much funnier film for kids.

© 2010 Beyond the Films.

Salt (2010) Review

 By Phantom

Salt is the latest action-thiller from Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider series), veteran Tom Clancy director Phillip Noyce (Clear and Present Danger), and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium, The Recruit). 

Salt follows Jolie as Evelyn Salt a CIA-operative that might be a Soviet Double Agent.  She might even be a Triple or Quadruple Agent.  The action begins when a mysterious Russian defector walks into a CIA building, discredits Salt in seconds and she immediately begins to flee from a Soviet plot 20 years out of date.  From here, the film begins a chase sequence that lasts until the credits.  Among her pursuers are Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Chiwetel Ejiofor, CIA agents who were formerly worked with Salt.  Along the way, there are twists and turns, ranging from completely obvious (do you ever truly question what country Salt is going to side with in the end?) to the ones that actually work… possibly in part by doing a slight of hand that keeps us quasi-guessing about Salt’s identity and our focus off of Twist B.  That really is the gist of this movie.  Chasing with some sequences that work well, and some that work less so.  The film is never  afraid to delve into the ridiculous and I found myself frequently saying “really?” but to its credit I was never bored.  Possibly the most ludicrous sequence is CGI Salt jumping from rafter to rafter in an elevator shaft with moves that would give Spider-Man a run for his money.  At least when she was jumping from semi-truck to semi-truck on a triple-decker overpass it looked like a real stuntwoman…

While the action is hit and miss, the film does take a few risks that set the film apart.  Without giving too much away, the film wasn’t afraid to let the main character be a bad guy even if we know who she will side with in the final act.  The other main “risk,” as many people have written about, is that the main character is female.  Originally written for a man, Salt’s role is typical action hero bits, but made fresh by letting a female play the part.  She pines over her beloved spouse, as many an action hero has done but seeing a woman in the role gives a little freshness what might have been stale material if the Action Hero of the Week played the role.  I would, however caution that the film might not be quite as progressive as it sounds.  Yes, many action heroes have been tortured on screen, Mel Gibson’s protagonists are famous for them, but here it seems that Salt sheds more blood than guys stabbed in the neck or shot at point blank range… it’s not that I have an issue with our heroine suffering wounds, it’s that the film disproportionately shows hers compared to those of the men in this film.  You can probably read this a few ways, and I’d have to see the film again to offer any further insight… but regardless if there is some subtextual betrayal of our heroine, at the end of the day, a woman gets the chance to save the President.  And that’s pretty cool. 

Recommended for action-junkies who have already seen Inception.  Fans of Jolie’s action career and B-Scripter Kurt Wimmer won’t be disappointed either.  Everyone else can safely give it a pass.

(c)2010 beyond the films.

Despicable Me Review

-by Ann Marie

I’m having a bad bad day, it’s about time that I get my way. Steam rolling whatever I see, huh despicable me. (Pharrell Williams)


Steve Carell is back on the screen as Gru, competing to become the world’s greatest villain. This might seem like a piece of cake, but for Gru it’s harder than it seems because he’s up against Vector, voiced by Jason Segel, a hotshot newcomer. The movie begins with tourists in Egypt looking at the pyramids. A family with an anxious child breaks away from his parents and climbs up a scaffolding and falls onto one of the pyramids. At the point the audience realizes the pyramid was stolen. The audience then meets Gru and his theme song plays while we follow him home. That’s when Gru learns the pyramid has been stolen and it wasn’t him. Realizing he was schooled, Gru consults with his minions, little yellow blobs that actually go by the name "minions", in his lair and talks about his plan to capture the moon. Gru goes to the bank like any good civilian or in this case villain asking for a loan, but instead is told he needs to steal a shrink ray before he can receive a loan from the bank. Unfortunately for Gru the race is on to get to the moon and steal it before Vector does.

Some of the popular voices behind the characters are Steve Carell (Get Smart) and Jason Segel. Joining those two on the screen are Julia Andrews as Gru’s Mom, Will Arnett as Mr. Perkins, Russell Brand as Dr. Nefario and many more. Everyone worked well on the screen for a children’s movie.

The editing pieces of the movie are quite simple because of the animation for the movie. They were done beautifully, no mistakes or confusion on story.

The humor throughout the movie was good for both adults and children. The simplistic humor in the movie helped lighten the story and helped movie it along. I especially liked the scene when the minions were photo copying their butt and kept holding up the picture saying butt and then giggling. Although this humor would seem a little immature, it added to the movie because these minions don’t speak English well, but know a word or two from listening to Gru or the other characters. The whole scene reminded me of how immature and at the same time adorable the minions are throughout the movie. The simplest humor makes them laugh and even after chaos happens behind them, they still laugh about the photo copy.

Despicable Me was directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, both of which played voices of the minions in the movie. Coffin also worked on Gary’s Fall back in 2003. Despicable Me is only his second movie he has directed. Renaud helped with many movies such as Horton Hears a Who! and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. However, if you watched the bonus of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs you would have seen No Time for Nuts which was his piece he directed. These two currently don’t have any other projects they are working on at this time.

I recommend this film to both adults and children. The film has humor for all ages, but is geared toward rude humor even though it’s rated PG. I also recommend this film for people who are fans of Steve Carell or Jason Segel.

© 2010 Beyond the Films.

Toy Story 3 Review

 By Anne Marie

"Our friendship will never die. You're gonna see. It's our destiny. You've got a friend in me. You've got a friend in me. You've got a friend in me."

However, in Toy Story 3, Andy is packing and getting ready to head off to college. Does this mean the friendship is over between Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang? As the story begins, the audience jumps right into the action as Woody battles against Mr. and Mrs. Potato head, until we realize it is just a videotaped recording of Andy and the good old days when he was younger. We then see the whole gang inside Andy's toy chest and realize things are different, because he has grown up, but these guys try one last time to get Andy to play with them. The plan backfires and they realize they are doomed and will be living up in the attic. Andy starts packing and cleaning up his room and chooses Woody to join him on his college adventures and the rest of the toys are to be placed in the attic. However things take a different turn as Andy's mom picks up the trash bag and puts it outside for the garbage truck. The toys escape and head toward the car, when they discover a box labeled for Sunnydale, a day-care facility. They jump inside and head toward daycare, but things aren't so sunny at Sunnydale. At first, meeting Lotso, a cute and cuddly bear, seems to be a real friend, pal, talking about how Andy's toys are going to have a great time and be played every day. This is exciting for everyone and they are placed in the Caterpillar room, but once the door closes and the bell rings, the toys get more than what they bargained for. From here out the Woody, Buzz and the gang try to escape the torture of day-care and bring Lotso's power down. As for Andy he makes his final decision concerning his toys before he leaves for college.

Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Tom Hanks (Angels & Demons), Don Rickles and John Ratzenberger all returned to the screen as their previous characters from the last two Toy Story movies. The last installment of Toy Story has some new voices and characters in the movie. Joining the cast was Michael Keaton playing popular Ken, except folks will be dying of laughter when they meet him. Ken becomes more in tune with his feminine side with all his different outfits. Also joining the ranking is Ned Beatty playing big bad Lotso, who at first glance looks like an innocent bear, but turns into a devious evil villain, making sure the daycare is in complete control.  Another addition to the cast is Blake Clark as Slinky. He joins the cast after Jim Varney passed away in 2000. Varney played Slinky Dog in both Toy Story and Toy Story 2, but Clark did a great job keeping the spirit of Slinky alive.

The audience has finally made it to the last installment of the Toy Story series. Toy Story 3 did a good job keeping with the tone of the other entries in the franchise.  Most movies in a series tend to drift from the original plot by the last movie.  In Toy Story 3, the audience has a clear understanding that  Andy has grown up and is ready to move on to bigger and better things and the toys also know things have changed.
There are some interesting sequences but the pacing seems to be too long in certain areas of the movie. For instance, there seems to be a slowing period like in most films to build up to the climax of the plot, but it seemed to drag on a little longer than needed. Granted this film is an hour and forty-three minutes, but just seemed certain areas of the film could have been excised.  There is a climactic sequence at the dumpster, at which one point the Andy’s toys look they are done for, until they are saved. This sequence adds to the film because we see how Lotso’s power is put to rest, but the amount of time used for the scene was too long. The closing sequence was a great way to end the movie, but once again we were dealing with too long of an ending. There were parts of the ending sequence that could be used during the credit roll.

Overall the rest of the movie had great editing sequences, great use of animation from Pixar, although it is owned by Disney. There weren’t any deviations from the original way the toys looked or how they acted.  For a third installment, it was the perfect way to close the book on Toy Story.

Toy Story 3 was directed by Lee Unkrich. Although he didn’t work on the original Toy Story, he did help co-direct Toy Story 2. He also helped with the making of UP and directed Finding Nemo and A Bug’s Life. At this time, Unkrich isn’t currently working on any other projects.

I recommend this movie for everyone even if you haven’t seen the first two Toy Story movies. There is a pre-caution on this although, for those who are sensitive or seeing this movie with their children, the ending is a tear jerker. You might not think you will cry, but there is a great connection found between Andy and his mom and his toys. Overall I am very pleased with the movie.

© 2010 Beyond the Films.

Up in the Air Review

By Phantom

Up In the Air is one of 2009’s most unique films.  Directed by Jason Reitman (Juno), the film follows Ryan Bingham (George Clooney: Syriana, The Men Who Stare at Goats) as he crosses America several times over for a most peculiar job – he is a professional at firing people.  He spends the majority of his time travelling and has a personal goal of collecting a certain amount of frequent flyer miles.  Though his apartment is empty and he considers long term relationships “baggage” (too heavy for a backpack to be exact), he is content with his life.  The firings Bingham conducts are a work of extremely dark comedy.  The chances are you have been or know someone who has been laid off during the current “economic downturn” or whatever euphemism is de jour for folks being broke and unable to find work.  But I dare you not to laugh at some of the outlandish characters as they are fired.  J.K. Simmons, Zach Galifianakis, and others turn in wonderful bits as the fired employees that range from hilarious to heartbreaking.

Everything is going great fro Bingham, but then life gets flipped upside down, Fresh Prince-style as young hotshot Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) is revolutionizing the industry by suggesting that the firings take place via the web instead of in person.  Forced to have to live out some of the half sincere crap he slings to the newly unemployed (“Change will allow you to reinvent your life!”), Bingham is forced to train what might be his eventual replacement.  Complicating matters is the impending marriage of his sister and his attraction to woman (Vera Famiglia) who shares the love of travel almost as much as he does.

I am absolutely amazed some of the shots in this film could even be made Post-9/11.  Filming going through airport security seemingly on location, and getting copious airport shots on celluloid this day in age is like getting Big Foot footage.  On the negative side, the film did seem a little like an infomercial for X Brand of travel related services, which I found to be mildly distracting (you’ll know what companies I’m talking about when you get into the film).  The all star cast provides top notch acting and the screen play is one of the best of 2009.  Camera work and cinematography are solid, and Up in the Air has one of the best Title Sequences since Saul Bass passed on. 

I liked this movie but I didn’t love it.  Maybe my expectations were too high from all of the (mostly) well-deserved praise.  As original as the film is in some areas, it was hard for me to sympathize with some rich guy who gets a little taste of his own medicine, and tries to fix his life – mirroring the essential character arc we’ve seen in countless made for TV craputainment (dad is working too hard and missed out on son’s/daughter’s most important recital/game ever!  And now he realizes he wants to change).  This film does get points though for presenting this arc in an adult manner which is almost NEVER done when it is used in said movies, and also for dealing with some real human emotions instead of cheap sentiment.  Relationships are not repaired in the course of two hours and things can’t always be fixed. 

Recommended for adults looking for a drama with some substance.  While the movie didn’t blow me away, it is filled with some sharp perceptions and is one of the best constructed dramas of the year.

(c) 2010 beyond the films

Inception Review

 By: Phantom

Inception is a wholly original sci-fi actioner, in an era where sequel-itis rules and cheap CGI special effects come a dime a dozen.  The following review is mildly spolier-y... so jump to the last paragraph if you don't want to ruin anything.  This film is worth going in knowing nothing about other than "It's Good."

The film follows professional Dream Extraction expert Dom Cobb, played by Leonard DiCaprio (Shutter Island), on his latest mind heist.  Extraction in this film means going inside of someone else’s dream to find that person’s deepest secrets…  a profitable business if you can find trade secrets and the like…  After being hired by Saito (Ken Wanatabe), Cobb assembles his Ocean’s 11-like team for “one last job” – only instead of performing an Extraction this time he has to perform a much more dangerous "Inception," the planting of an idea.  Among his team and rivals are Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Berenger and Cillian Murphy.  Longtime favorite of the director’s Michael Caine also drops by for a bit part.
 
The first half of the Inception is tad exposition heavy, explaining how the dream world works for seemingly an hour.   As this hour wore on, I began to get the feeling that this would merely be a decent thriller with some great production values. However, my fears were unfounded, and when the crew enters the final dream sequence, the second half of the film, the movie not only takes off but soars into one of the best films of the year.  

Always one to play with narrative structures, here director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) has his characters go into dreams within dreams, and has each layer of dream interact with each other.  For example if a dreamer is moved to the left by someone, his dream world might experience an earthquake.  The levels of interaction go even further by playing around with time.  If you’ve seen an action move, the chances are that you’ve noticed a sequence where a red countdown timer has 15 seconds to detonation, yet somehow our hero has 10 minutes real-time to get to the bomb.  Here, this phenomenon is exploited on purpose and adds to the time-space continuum bending of Nolan’s film.  By going deeper into dreams (I won’t explain how or why) characters experience a slowdown in time.  So for on one level of a dream someone could have 5 minutes to complete a task where another level of the dream could have up to 20 minutes in the same amount of “real time” (I didn’t get the exact numbers in one of the exposition scene).  The scenes become thrilling to watch and the special effects, while certainly “showy,” work to enhance the concepts and in favor of the world created.

I can’t recommend this film enough.  Now that the academy is choosing 10 films for Best Picture, I would be honestly surprised if this was not listed at one of “blockbuster” picks… I would suggest this film even transcends the blockbuster tag and belongs as an honest contender.  This film is fits safely in it’s PG-13 rating I believe, and anyone over 13 should find something to enjoy.  The screenplay is solid and the acting is Grade A.  As mentioned before, this movie’s special effects work to create spectacle moviegoers haven’t seen before, yet do so in service of the story.  Worth seeing for all but the most jaded of movie fans.

Poster © 2010 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Words © 2010 Beyond the Films.

Predators Review

By: Phantom

“I ain’t got time to bleed.” Again!  Predators was everything I wanted in a new Predator movie.  It’s a violent action romp that will thrill newcomers and old fans alike. 

The film starts out with Adrian Brody (also in this summer's Splice) in freefall, who crash lands in the jungle after fussing with his parachute.  Soon met by Danny Trejo, Alice Braga, Walton Groggins, Oleg, Taktarov, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, and Topher Grace who have all just parachuted in inexplicably, the rag-tag team sets out to find out where they are and why there are there.  As you can tell by the names of the actors, the characters in the film come from a variety of backgrounds - from Mexican Cartel enforcer to a hillbilly death row inmate to a guy from a Death Squad in Sierra Leone.  The majority of the characters are basically the scum of the universe… oops that’s another movie, but anyway, they are Earth’s most lethal, cold-hearted killers. As anyone who has seen the original or read a shred about the titular aliens in the past 23 years knows that the Predators like to hunt the most lethal humans for sport (they like a mild challenge).  But wait?!  Why is Topher Grace’s mild-mannered doctor with them?  Needless to say, you will likely have this “twist” figured out long before the screen characters do.

The film tries to go the route of Pitch Black, by making each self-serving character have to help each other escape the monsters, although I think to less success in this movie.  The plot is pure B-Movie territory, and it works for what it is.  Even the samurai battle with the predator works better than it should (!).  The acting is fairly solid, but let’s be honest this isn’t exactly best actor material for these folks to work with. The pacing is excellent (this movie would have flopped if this department failed) and director Nimrod Antal does a fine job mixing tension with action.  Also to the film's credit, it treads the fine line of giving exposition for people new to the series, while not over explaining the Predators for long time fans, although I would say that knowledge of the series certainly helps (A predator is hitting his pip-boy wrist communicator thing! Some crap is about to get blowed-up!)  There are some janky explosions and less than stellar CGI in places, but fortunately the Predator costumes look great.

I felt that the film worked well, and I can newcomers to the series wanting to look up the original after viewing this one.  I certainly can recommend this film to anyone looking for R-rated action or decent summer Sci-Fi action-adventure.  This film was a near pitch perfect B-Movie, R-Rated summer action-adventure.  Sin City's Robert Rodriguez was one of the producers of the film.

Solitary Man Review

By: Phantom

Solitary Man, of his own design.

Michael Douglass’ character Ben Kalman wears all black and is introduced to us with to Johnny Cash’s cover of Neil Diamond’s “Solitary Man” playing in the background.  Ben is kind of like Johnny Cash… if Cash had no sense of personal responsibility or dignity or morality.  That is to say, Ben is nothing like Johnny Cash.  But he wants to be Johnny Cash, or at least to have that ethos.  He wants to be seen as a man fighting the system that keeps him down.  Only Ben can never be Johnny Cash because, unlike Cash, all of his problems are self created and he refuses to take any blame for his misfortune and does nothing to fix them other than blame others.

Let’s go back to the beginning though… Ben Kalman gets the news that “something is wrong” from a doctor, and instead of going to get it fixed at the hospital he decides to live life in the fastlane until whatever disease he has finally does him in.  The only problem with this is, six years later, this unknown disease still hasn’t gotten him and he has destroyed every aspect of his life in search of a good time.  Once prominent car salesmen, self-created legal woes have crumbled his car empire.  And on the personal front, he divorced his wife to try to hook up with every 20-something woman he comes across, no matter who they are and what relationship they have.
This movie was an interesting exercise to say the least, an exercise in creating a fully unlikeable character.  I suppose this film fits into the genre of “Old Guy with One Last Shot at Redemption” (along with Crazy Heart, The Wrestler and most of Clint Eastwood’s late period).  However, this character is unlike any of the others – he makes no attempt to fix his problems by taking proactive steps, and only blames others for everything that has gone wrong.  He goes after college girls and tries to party with college guys.  It isn’t him shamelessly trying to reclaim youth, no it’s his wife’s fault for not being good enough so he insinuates.  Instead of trying to finalize the loose ends and enjoy his final chapters of life, he wants to be young and cool – a rebel without a cause.  And succeeds only at destroying his life.

Needless to say, as I have been talking about Micheal Douglass’s character this whole review, this film is his showcase, his post-downfall.  But the supporting cast that Ben uses and abuses also shines and, I have always felt that no character study could stand up without good supporting base.  The women who actually care about Ben, his wife and daughter, are played by Susan Saradon (The Lovely Bones) and Jenna Fischer (The Office) respectively.  We know they love him and want him to come back to them, though their pleas mostly fall on deaf ears.  Then there is the nearly criminally underutilized Danny DeVito as Ben’s old friend Jimmy, who Ben inposes upon primarily for self-interest while scoffing at Jimmy’s hospitality.  Jessie Eisenberg also stars as one of the college kids.

Do I recommend this film?  Yes, I suppose so.  The film is well made, there is no doubt about that.  The acting and the screenplay are top tier.  Will you enjoy it?  Hard to say, this isn’t really a film you enjoy in the traditional sense.  Ben is a lowlife with nearly no redeeming qualities, making it a difficult viewing.  For this audacity, however, the film should be applauded among cinema lovers.  Worth checking for cineastes looking for a smaller drama during the summer blockbuster season.  Written by Brian Koppelman and directed by Koppelman himself with David Levien.