"Dark Shadows":Story a snooze, script subpar, performances mediocre; a horror-comedy that's neither scary nor funny. Nice try, but no fangs! 3 weeks ago
So much for the backlash (see below post). The Help, the Civil Rights era comic drama adapted from the Kathryn Stockett novel of the same name, picked up more than $5.5 million at the box office on opening day, Wednesday.
The film, directed by Tate Taylor and starring Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, and Viola Davis, has received generally positive reviews, with a few raves. It notched a 64 metascore at Metacritic, and a 73% Tomatometer rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
“Laughter, which is ladled on thick as gravy, proves to be the secret ingredient – turning what should be a feel-bad movie about those troubled times into a heart-warming surprise,” Betsy Sharkey wrote in the Los Angeles Times. Andrew O’Hehir, in his Salon review, said “The Help definitely worked on me as a consummate tear-jerker with a terrific cast, and it’s pretty much the summer’s only decent Hollywood drama.”
Starring Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, and Courtney B. Vance. Directed by Steven Quale. R; 92 minutes; Grade: C-
Near the end of Final Destination 5, a ritualistic exercise in relentless mutilation and mayhem, a potential victim has a frightening encounter with a meat grinder in a restaurant kitchen. It’s a pointed reminder of how this series, regularly churned out since its somewhat intriguing debut 11 years ago, routinely and methodically grinds up its young victims. Who needs a serial killer when supernaturally induced chains of coincidences can so effectively do the trick?
The latest entry, helmed by first-time director Steven Quale, a journeyman cinematographer and special effects wizard best known for collaborating with James Cameron, is no exception. Death, which “doesn’t like to be cheated,” as a spooky coroner (Tony Todd) counsels, takes pleasure in dispatching various underdeveloped characters via multiple grisly methods. Naturally, impalings abound, but there are also torso slices, fire deaths, a particularly disgusting gymnastics accident, and several bodies that go splat.
The tragedies are set in motion after Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto), employed by a company called Presage — get it? — has a frightening vision and convinces seven colleagues to abandon the bus they’re taking to a business retreat. Minutes later, the suspension bridge they’re on collapses, and 17 of the octet’s coworkers plunge to their deaths. The two sequences, the accident in Sam’s premonition followed by the real thing, are horrific if spectacular, as cables snap, concrete cracks, and vehicles and bodies go flying. 3D, introduced to the series with the fourth installment, is particularly effective here.
The plot, as such, thickens with the arrival of an FBI investigator (Courtney B. Vance) initially determined to discover what Sam knew, and when he knew it. As the death toll mounts, the law man grows increasingly baffled. And the survivors, including characters played by Miles Fisher and Emma Bell, become increasingly frantic, particularly when they realize that it’s all a zero-sum game (I won’t spoil this minor twist).
Levity isn’t exactly the forte of Final Destination movies, but No. 5 certainly offers several darkly comic moments, including an office manager (David Koechner of “The Office”) who keeps forgetting that a nerdish tech support guy (P.J. Byrne) isn’t one of the dead, and a smiling Buddha statue that plays a part in one killing. “Dust in the Wind,” the Kansas hit, makes several cameos.
Is this the last chapter? This film’s coda seems to suggest that it’s over, via a montage of horrific deaths from the first four movies. Then again, I have a premonition that a box-office bash could very well lead to FD6. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Final Destination 5 opens wide Aug. 12 (and, in some locations, tonight at midnight).
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas offers the further hijinks of John Cho and Kal Penn, a claymation sequence, and a twisted reprise of the funniest scene from A Christmas Story.
All that and Neil Patrick Harris, too. The movie opens Nov. 4.
Navy SEAL Team 6′s successful mission to find and kill Islamic super-terrorist Osama Bin Laden, the architect of 9/11, is the subject of a forthcoming feature film from Kathryn Bigelow (below) and Mark Boal, the same directing-writing team behind brilliant 2008 Oscar winner The Hurt Locker.
So far known as “Untitled International Thriller” on IMDB, the film’s cast includes Australian-born actor Joel Edgerton, who appeared in the much admired Animal Kingdom and will be seen later this year in Warrior and a remake of The Thing.
Here’s the most interesting aspect, so far: The film, which focuses on an American military triumph credited to the Obama Administration, is slated for release on Oct. 12, 2012, just a few weeks before the next U.S. presidential election. Political strategists have already pointed to the Bin Laden killing as an accomplishment likely to receive top billing during Obama’s campaign.
Is the timing a coincidence?
Perhaps even more controversial is the possibility, as suggested in a piece by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, that the filmmakers received classified information about the mission from the administration. Representative Peter King (R-NY) is seeking an investigation into that question, according to a story by Mike Fleming, of Deadline.com.
Bigelow and Boal, in response, released the following statement: ““Our upcoming film project about the decade long pursuit of Bin Laden has been in the works for many years and integrates the collective efforts of three administrations, including those of Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, as well as the cooperative strategies and implementation by the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency. Indeed, the dangerous work of finding the world’s most wanted man was carried out by individuals in the military and intelligence communities who put their lives at risk for the greater good without regard for political affiliation. This was an American triumph, both heroic, and non-partisan and there is no basis to suggest that our film will represent this enormous victory otherwise.”
White House spokesman Jay Carney dismissed King’s concerns as “ridiculous.”
Of course, there’s one way to ensure that folks don’t view the film as meant to boost the prospects of one presidential candidate: delay the film’s release until after the election.
The Help, Tate Taylor‘s adaptation of the Kathryn Stockett ’60s-set novel about black maids and their white bosses in Jackson, Miss., has prompted some African-American observers to express reservations about the lens through which the story is told.
Screen veteran Viola Davis, a star of the film, is frustrated by those responses, which largely have come from those who haven’t had the benefit of first seeing the movie or, in some cases, reading the book.
Davis, a Tony winner with dozens of film and television roles to her credit, including last year’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story and Eat Pray Love, and 2008′s Doubt, is one of several black actresses out front in the movie. The list also includes Octavia Spencer, the great Cicely Tyson, now 77, Aunjanue Ellis, and Roslyn Ruff. The seemingly ubiquitous Emma Stone (Crazy, Stupid, Love, Friends With Benefits) gets top billing.
“There are few movies coming out this year with African-American women in them,” Tyson told Entertainment Weekly. “Very few are being made. Black actresses have enough obstacles in our way without someone protesting an opportunity for us to show our work on screen. It’s one thing if you go see The Help and you don’t like it. But give it a chance!”
Your Highness (2011) — A clumsy, clueless wannabe knight (Danny McBride) helps his heroic, handsome older brother (James Franco) rescue a dimwitted princess (Zooey Deschanel) from an evil wizard (Justin Theroux). A pretty swordfighting ace (Natalie Portman) helps. Stupid, aggressively unfunny, nasty, clumsily plotted, and a colossal waste of talent, this stoner medieval tale is 2011′s worst movie, so far. Whatever happened to David Gordon Green, the director of such Southern-tinted minor masterpieces as Undertow and George Washington? R; 102 minutes. Grade: D- (Also on Blu-ray)
Super (2010) — A lonely short-order cook (Rainn Wilson) loses his recovering addict wife (Liv Tyler) to a local druglord (Kevin Bacon) and reacts like anyone else would: He has a supernatural encounter with The Holy Avenger (Nathan Fillion), cobbles together a homemade superhero costume, uses a wrench to beat the snot out of bad guys, including those who merely butt in line, and along the way picks up an excitable motormouth sidekick (Ellen Page). Somewhat reminiscent of Kick-Ass, Super is an excessively violent, darkly comic, deeply bizarre tale from one-time Troma Entertainment director James Gunn. It’s all a bit too surreal to be as subversive as it wants to be. R; 96 minutes. Grade: C+ (Also on Blu-ray)
Mars Needs Moms (2011) — The motion capture animation is impressive, as are voice performances by the likes of Joan Cusack and Dan Fogler, but the simple story, based on a book by Berkeley Breathed and directed by Simon Wells (The Prince of Egypt) is really stretched thin. The visuals, and some of the dialogue, make references to the psychedelic ’60s, and, oddly enough, the male Martians are fun-loving, sensitive party dudes, while the majority of the female Martians are mean-spirited automatons. And the bigwig Martian could be E.T.’s really mean grandma. Grade: C (Also on Blu-ray)
Paul (2011) — Sci-fi geeks played by regular collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, on a road trip to Comic-Con, encounter a nasty, dope-smoking slacker alien (voiced by Seth Rogen). Directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad), the stoner comedy also features Kristen Wiig and Jason Bateman. (Also on Blu-ray)
Also available: Sentimental urban comic drama Jumping the Broom (2011), Mafia comedy The Last Godfather (2010), with Harvey Keitel.
Blu-ray debuts: If… (1969), Brit director Lindsay Anderson’s classic youth-rebellion drama starring Malcolm McDowell; high-school comedy gems Dazed and Confused (1993), set in 1976, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982); and documentary-style The Battle of Algiers (1965).
Why redo Straw Dogs, Sam Peckinpah‘s controversial 1971 tale of domestic horror and revenge?
The Miami Herald‘s Rene Rodriguez, one of the first critics to see and write about the remake by Rod Lurie (Nothing But the Truth, The Contender), left the screening with mixed emotions and, mostly, curiosity about how the film will be received when it’s released Sept. 16.
“I’m extremely curious to see how modern audiences react to the movie, which is exceptionally well-acted and shot, but still uses violence as a way to bait the viewer’s bloodlust and thirst for revenge, then leaves you with an ashen, queasy aftertaste,” Rodriguez writes in a short piece published today (and tweeted by Lurie himself).
“Peckinpah’s picture was a product of the Vietnam era; Lurie’s comes after a protracted war in Iraq. Both films were made during a time of tumult and tell a near-identical story, yet they send you home in radically different moods. Sometimes, remakes make sense.”
Starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Julianne Moore. Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. PG-13; 118 minutes; Grade: B+
He loves her, but she appears to love someone else. Amplify that scenario twice over, and this one, too: man sleeps with woman, and later is shocked by the people they have in common. The result is a growing stack of romantic entanglements and surprises — some for the audience, some for the characters, some for both — that liven the otherwise conventional “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”
Yes, intense states of romantic passion can make otherwise stable humans act like crazy people. Yes, the coincidences in the movie, nearly as contrived as those in Paul Haggis’s overrated “Crash,” also set in Los Angeles, might be thought of as incredibly unlikely, even stupid. And yes, when it comes to romantic comedies, the film, co-directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (“I Love You Phillip Morris”), amounts to the season’s most watchable movie of its genre. It’s a frank, frequently funny entertainment bolstered by able, even surprising performances and a script that only occasionally insults the audience’s intelligence.
Not that there aren’t elements of “Crazy, Stupid, Love” that we haven’t seen on the big screen time and time again. For starters, Cal Weaver (Steve Carell), married but separated from his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore) since her admission of a hook-up with a colleague, David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon), might be cousin to the sad widower Carell played in “Dan in Real Life.” Both are nice-guy goofballs, likable middle-class guys imbued with a certain melancholy and holding back reserves of emotion. Come to think of it, Cal might even be a smarter, far more sympathetic version of Carell’s Michael Scott from “The Office.” And the image-makeover storyline, as old as “Pygmalion,” played out recently in “Hitch”: See, clothes make the man, as do swagger and the ability to project confidence even when one is frightened on the inside.
Cal, post-split, drowns his sorrows at the local upscale watering hole, where the lighting is elegant, the couches are modern and comfy, mojitos are king and every night there are dozens of unusually attractive, available women openly vulnerable to the right combination of looks, style and pick-up lines. That’s where Jacob (Ryan Gosling) comes in. He’s a slightly scruffy but impeccably dressed, remarkably fit fellow — unbelievable abs, as one admirer points out — who uses his attractiveness and aggressive wordplay, capped with a simple, hushed “Let’s get out of here,” to instantly turn strangers into bedmates.
The Romeo, who never fails to close the deal, nevertheless is distracted by Cal, who, seated at the bar, constantly moans about his break-up and carps about his wife’s new man. “I don’t know whether to help you or help euthanize you,” Jacob says, pointing to one of the film’s several flaws: Why, exactly, does Jacob offer to prep the older man on the finer points of successful one-night stands?
The tutelage pays off quickly, as Cal’s inner Lothario emerges. His first conquest is an attractive, age-appropriate woman, Kate (Marisa Tomei), who, as it turns out, is a bit crazy, which brings us to another of the movie’s disappointments. Whether because of a failure of Dan Fogelman’s script or not, Tomei, an enormously gifted comic and dramatic actor, offers a one-dimensional characterization, playing a woman who’s largely defined by her desperation. Tomei, in short, is wasted. That failure is probably a function of the fact that the movie, despite its nearly two-hour running time, is overstuffed with characters, few of whom are given enough time or lines to emerge as fully formed characters.
The subplots soon begin to multiply. While Cal is busy guiding Jacob in the ways of no-strings-attached sex (hey, there’s an idea for a movie or four), Jacob is unexpectedly falling hopelessly in love with a law student, Hannah (Emma Stone), who may or may not envision a future with her smart but bland beau. Meanwhile, Lindhagen is pursuing Emily, who may or may not return his affections. Robbie (Jonah Bobo), Cal’s precocious 13-year-old son, pines for his 17-year-old babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), and Cal is the subject of a crush by a teenager.
It all comes crashing down during a riotous final scene and, when the dust clears, the hard feelings, mostly, have been wiped away. Funny stuff, and that’s probably good enough.
Starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde. Directed by Jon Favreau. PG-13; 118 minutes; Grade: B-
Movie mash-ups can be invigorating, and even unsettling, a way to relocate old genre conventions to new terrain, creating strange, jarring juxtapositions. Cowboys & Aliens, equipped with the best title-tells-all moniker since Snakes on a Plane, gets off to a quirky, appealing start. A mysterious stranger (Daniel Craig), wakes up in the New Mexico desert, circa the late 1800s, and uses futuristic weaponry to smoke a trio of would-be assailants — a grizzled ne’er-do-well and his two sons. The takedown is quick and violent, the Western country looks as arid, untamed, and vast as it should, and all is efficiently directed by Jon Favreau (the Iron Man movies, Elf), whose film’s script was based on a graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg.
So far, so good. As the convention requires, the stranger, later unmasked as a violent thief named Jake Lonergan, moves to the cowtown called Absolution. There, if he’s lucky, he’ll find absolution, not to mention redemption, for the sins he’s committed but has forgotten, along with everything about his past life. But first, he must face obstacles, starting with a drunken, loudmouth punk (Paul Dano) prone to wild-eyed shooting sprees, and his tough-as-nails cattle baron dad, the colorfully named Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), a Civil War veteran who rules the region with economic might and an iron fist. And, yes, he wields some scowls and scary grimaces, too.
The showdown between the meddling stranger and the local power broker finally arrives, and just on its heels is an unexpected interruption, as brightly lit flying things swoop down from the night sky, pausing only to shoot out lasso-like chains used to abduct local townsfolk, who are lifted in the air and then secreted away inside the UFOs’ compartments.
Lonergan and Dolarhyde, default leaders of the human resistance, are supported in their quest by an eclectic mix of types, including a beautiful, firepower-packing woman, Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde, also in the just-out The Change-Up), with secrets of her own; timid, bespectacled saloon keeper Doc (Sam Rockwell) hoping to rescue his wife (Ana de la Reguera) from the aliens; tough old preacher Meacham (Clancy Brown); an Indian man (Adam Beach) who was raised by the Colonel; and 13-year-old Emmett, who wants to be reunited with his absconded grandfather, Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine). Lonergan leads mostly by talking tough, and through a final act of bravery. Dolarhyde leads by teaching tough — he gives shooting lessons to Doc, and gives a treasured knife to the kid, who, as the script requires, is sure to find a good reason to use the blade.
Unlike the U.S. Congress of recent vintage, the various factions here — good cowboys, bad-guy gang, marauding Indians, led by Apache Chief Black Knife (Raoul Trujillo) — join forces for a we-are-the-world common cause, the destruction of aliens who, if not defeated, will overwhelm the planet. But isn’t that always the case with visitors from space?
Could all of this really be about a struggle against the impending big changes coming to the West, with the arrival of the trains and the resulting mobility and, maybe, industry, that will ensue? Maybe, or maybe it’s just about throwing aliens into the Old West, and seeing what sticks: enough to make the thing broadly entertaining, if not particularly memorable.
The film, directed by Tate Taylor and starring Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, and Viola Davis, has received generally positive reviews, with a few raves. It notched a 64 metascore at Metacritic, and a 73% Tomatometer rating at Rotten Tomatoes. 
