Looks as if Adam Sandler who wrote this film learned a few things working with James L. Brooks on Spanglish (2004) and with Frank Coraci on Click (2006) because Grown Ups, Sandler’s 30th or so feature film, has that life lessons learned feel to it with the substance of family and friends as its framework. Here’s a bunch of guys—Kevin James, Rob Schneider, Chris Rock, Sandler, and David Spade—who as friends in real life get together in Grown Ups for the funeral of a childhood mentor. They each bring their wives and kids, except Spade who’s single in the film, and all stay afterwards at the summer lodge they visited as tweens, before tween was a word. The premise sounds like grown-up stuff, which I was concerned about after seeing the trailers, but Grown Ups never gets too serious to lose the Sandler brand of comedy usually involving an adolescent sense of man-child humor: jokes that often play on bodily fluids, noises, shapes, and functions. And believe it or not that’s a good thing. It’s consistent with what Sandler knows, what he’s had a success with, in films like The Waterboy or The Wedding Singer, both from 1998. But Sandler’s greatest strength as an actor, and as a filmmaker, is what he seems to carry with him in life, which is humility, a certain shyness you often see in him…in interviews, sometimes mumbling his words, fidgeting in his seat, holding his hands nervously together in his lap. When he puts that on display in front of the camera it solidifies a personality trait we don’t often see in movie characters, or in celebrities, today. An unpretentious way of behaving we expect grown-ups to be examples of.

Nothing much to say about Knight and Day except that it’s a fun date film. Mostly a romantic adventure film with some fish-out-of-water comedy and explosives to keep the guys interested it tells the story more from her point of view than his. Her being Cameron Diaz who plays June Havens, a young woman on her way to visit her sister in Boston who is randomly chosen by secret agent Roy Miller, played by Tom Cruise, for what appears to be some sort of amusing cloak and dagger development involving the CIA. Knight is obviously a play on words, as Cruise is the knightly agent supposedly gone rogue but who is always there saving the damsel in distress. For Cruise this film is a smart move because the focus is not entirely on him; he doesn’t come off as a star or a celebrity, no politics, nothing to prove, he’s just a mechanism in the plot to set the girl off on an adventure. And if there’s one thing Cameron Diaz does well it’s play the girl. The girl next door I should say.

This is the oddest little comic book action film I’ve ever seen and I say little because the running time feels like an hour. Because of the time to money ratio alone I’d say it’s a definite no go as far as dollars you’ll spend at the theater. But when it comes around to DVD or cable I’d say check it out mostly because of its bizarre Civil War setting and the unlikely hero of Josh Brolin’s character, Jonah Hex, a DC Comic character on the South’s side of the war come to life through death, who speaks to the dead, and who yields two rotating Gatling guns on his horse as if the animal were a Marine Super Cobra helicopter over Al-Qaeda territory on the boarder of Pakistan. If it weren’t for the fast pace of the film, and Brolin himself, star of W (2008) and No Country for Old Men (2007), the film would severely suck. As it is though, it stands on two very wobbly legs.

Hard to believe it’s been fifteen years since Pixar first introduced us to Woody and Buzz and the rest of the living toys of the Toy Story world. Now they’re back in 3D in 2010 and this third time is most definitely a charm. It’s by far the best of the sequels combining the buckets of sweet, melancholy warmness of sentiment the Pixar folks rung out of Up with the oodles of adventurous predicaments the hidden plastic ecosystem of the many toy species generally find themselves in when children leave them behind every day. Or when they leave them behind for good. Toy Story 3 is similar to the atmospheres of other Pixar films Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles, but better. So good in fact that I predict it wins Best Picture at next year’s Oscars, being the first animated film to ever do so. At the very least, it’s the best film of 2010 thus far.

Look out Hollywood, there’s a new franchise on the block and it doesn’t include superheroes or characters from video games.  Instead, it’s old fashioned adaptation of TV shows for blockbuster theatrical release and this one includes top shelf production value that’s well worth the money.  I’ll give you The Call early and say this big screen revival of the show The A-Team that ran on NBC from 1983 to 1987 is a no brainer: spend the ten and have fun, then later contemplate why summer movies can’t all be this action-packed and agreeable.  With mediocre film after mediocre film it’s easy to forget that there is such a thing as skill in the art of Hollywood filmmaking, and that cream really does rise to the top.  The A-Team’s leader John ‘Hannibal’ Smith played here by Liam Neeson loves it when a plan comes together, but I love better when a movie comes together.

The Story:  A rag-tag bunch of Army Ranger misfits join together and bond in...


 

Get him off of drugs, get him out of your girlfriend’s bed, get him out of trouble in the clubs but at the very least get him to Los Angeles’ famous Greek Theater, known for its intimate outdoor setting (roughly seats 5800 people) with past performances by the likes of Phoenix, Pearl Jam, Wilco, The Who, The White Stripes, and The Dave Mathews Band, to name a few. Reprising his role as Aldous Snow from Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) is Russell Brand, big coiffed, thin rocker-esq English comedian-actor who looks like he just stepped out of British TV’s The Goodies (1970) or The Young Ones (1982)—certainly a cross between George Harrison, Ricky Gervais, and Nigel Planner who played Neil the stoner from the latter of those two shows—with a little Monty Python in him for sure. This Judd Apatow production extracts the usual charm and sweetness from the grit and grossness of situational humor like his other films 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) or Knocked Up (2007) without making you feel hung over. If anything, Get Him To The Greek might leave you feeling a little hungry for more.

Look out because here comes another three or so parted series of films. You can always tell by the colon in the title that you’re about to get sucked into a saga that won’t find closure until the studio is bankrupt. And not even then will it end because someone or some part of the film can be sold or spun off into another colonated series. This time it’s Disney, Jerry Bruckheimer and the people behind Pirates of the Caribbean doing a big screen adaptation of the video game by the same name, Prince of Persia. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kinsley, and Alfred Molina who all three, quite frankly, save this picture. Yeah, it took me a while to get into the story but you know what? It’s not bad. Not bad at all.

MacGruber is the little Saturday Night Live parody skit that made it big. Probably the shortest skit in SNL history whose origins are in poking fun of the 1980’s show MacGyver. In that legendary TV series which ran from 1985 to 1992, actor Richard Dean Anderson (Stargate) played special agent Angus MacGyver who at the climax of each week’s episode would disarm bombs using everyday items such as gum wrappers, toothpicks, a used AA battery, or loose coins—anything handy that he could methodically intertwine and cleverly craft into tools to stop an explosion. The movie MacGruber which makes more fun of 80’s Action Films than of MacGyver specifically has Will Forte recreating his SNL mini-skit character who on late night TV never quite gets the job done; who instead of dismantling bombs oftentimes lets his personality differences with the show’s many guests or his own stupidity get in the way until time on the bomb’s clock has ticked away. That’s not the case in the big screen version. Instead, MacGruber manufactures his own explosives using the devices of gross humor, vulgarity, silliness, childishness and randomness to implode the genre in on itself rather than diffuse it of its many clichéd customs. Meaning everything you would imagine seeing in an 80’s action film is here adolescently blown up in your face. So much so that at times you might find yourself averting your gaze.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie over two hours in length and came out of the theater awake and somewhat satisfied. Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Max von Sydow and Mark Strong, among others, directed by the great Ridley Scott (Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Gladiator (2003)) clocks in at a Lord of the Rings size duration of two hours and forty minutes. Surviving the adventure of movie time itself regardless of action on film can be tricky because it fools you into thinking you’re getting your money’s worth. And I say yeah, you are. Sort of.

You’re getting your money’s worth in Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes (2009), Kick Ass (2010), RocknRolla (2008)) as the bad guy, and Max von Sydow (The Virgin Spring (1960), The Seventh Seal (1957), Shutter Island (2010), Minority Report (2002)) as the old guy. And what guy doesn’t like Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth (1998), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003), The Aviator (2004)) who plays Maid Marion, the perfect girl for every guy.

This could quite possibly be my shortest blog entry to date. The good news is, the Iron Man franchise is safe. The bad news is…well there is no bad news, no really bad news anyway. Sure, I have my criticisms about this second “tales of suspense” installment involving the 1963 Stan Lee and Marvel comics created iron-suited superhero but they’re petty. Here are nine short things you need to know to prepare for 2010’s first blockbuster of Summer.

1. Iron Man 2 is so good it doesn’t need 3D.

2. But first, lower your expectations. While you’re waiting in line for popcorn just think of all the worst movies you can think of starring the Iron Man 2 actors—Robert Downey Jr. in Soapdish (1991), Don Cheadle in Mission to Mars (2000), Scarlett Johansson in In Good Company (2004), Gwyneth Paltrow in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), Jon Favreau in Couples Retreat (2009)…you get the idea. With lower expectations comes a greater opportunity to be entertained.

The problem with this film is that it uses nearly the same script and dialogue from the original 1984 film, verbatim, rather than adapting it to the faster, more tech savvy world of today. The film even incorporates the same type of actors—young, unfamiliar, trying too hard, no talent amateurs who are working with dated material. I felt bad for them, really. If it weren’t for Oscar nominated 70’s child star actor Jackie Earle Haley, this Nightmare on Elm Street would really suck. Wait, it does suck. Because as I recall, the original sucked too. Sorry about that ANOES purists (and Wes Craven), but search your dreams, go back a bit. Remember? It wasn’t until three and four that the series mixed in humor with the horror. And that is always a good thing.

A brilliant little film. Already in my top five of 2010 so far. Exit Through The Gift Shop is about Street Art, and I’m capitalizing those words because as you’ll see the film talks about this very specific “art” on the street movement that is not just graffiti and the defacing (whatever your interpretation of defacing is) of public property. It is more like iconic commentary deposited by modern day cave men that feel the primordial need to leave their mark on the caves of contemporary society. Using anything they can find to adhere, paint, or dispose of their signature creations in a graphically eye-catching, thought provoking, and public way. And in the end, the film is art about making art, commenting on how people perceive the value of art through exclusivity—I was there, I saw it, one of a kind, me and it and nobody else; I am now part of the hype and buzz that surrounds this object and I am now part of the story, regardless of how meaningful, or meaningless, the art really is.

I suspect a large number of postings on The Losers this weekend will undoubtedly use the title of the film to project or report on the performance of the film. If a rough cut of the film revealed something even remotely shy of being a winner, I as the director, if I were so fortunate, would beg the producers and Warner Brothers who were footing the bill to change the title. Either way, win or lose, you’ll see The Losers make headlines because of said relationship to box office results—something like “The Losers is a ‘Loser,’” or “The Losers ‘loses’ out to Kick-Ass and The Back-up Plan,” or maybe even, “The Losers is no ‘loser’ at the Box Office”—but also newsworthy, win or lose, and I say win with a rocket’s red glare, is that it’s Zoe Saldana’s first action film appearance since Avatar.

What makes Kick-Ass so good is that it’s based in reality and posits the notion that anyone can be a caped crusader or superhero in tights. If you’re willing to get your ass kicked. Here’s a very violent film that humorously shows what really happens when regular folks like you and I, some younger, some older, throw on colorful costumes and take crime-fighting matters in to their own hands. And regardless of how crazy, embarrassing, preposterous and yet retro geek-cool the title sounds, Kick-Ass is about to put a sleeper hold on this year’s competition. The following are nine reasons why.

I don’t even want to write about Date Night. I want to write about Kick-Ass! As much as I’m entertained by Steve Carell and Tina Fey, it’s Kick-Ass that gets me energized. That’s what I’ve discovered about myself is that no caffeinated drink or drug can get me pumped like a good action film. Which is why I’m using the lift of my recent viewing of Kick-Ass to tell you that Date Night, though not high in the action department, is a good-natured movie for a date…night. It’s safe enough for two people wanting to share an evening together to see, with no noticeable story bombs to risk ruining the date. But is it enough these days at the movies to just play it safe?

I’ve yet to be impressed with the new 3D fad. It seems like a gimmicky ploy now more than ever to get people back in the theaters and away from their huge 1080P HD flat screens—not unlike the 50’s and early 60’s when Hollywood tried all kinds of things, including Smell-O-Vision to get people away from addictive tech devices at the time called Televisions. Which is fine today, but at such costs? Fourteen dollars and fifty cents now for the price of admission, and for what? A headache? Oh, but about Clash of the Titans: It’s a Greek Mythology adventure film about Perseus, son of Zeus, who takes on his evil uncle Hades to stop the obliteration of Argos, prototypical good city of peace and mankind grown restless with the Gods. Note: This is not your grandfather’s Clash of the Titans from 1981. It’s better. But the 3D does nothing for the film except dull the images.

It’s simple. Four dudes in the present travel back to 1986 via a hot tub that doubles as a time machine. And if that sounds like a good time to you then you’re in. You’ll love this movie. And you’ll love it even more if you actually were around in 1986 doing the same things these guys were doing or seeing the 80’s movies the guys, and the film, reference such as Back to the Future (1985), Say Anything (1989), The Karate Kid (1984), or Terminator (1984). And if a decade or so later in the 90’s you fell out of your seat laughing at the gross-out comedy of Farrelly brother films like Kingpin (1996) and Something About Mary (1998), you’ll love it more. Do you still remember the big-hair Poison and Motley Crue guys like it was yesterday? Even better. And guys, did I mention it’s a guy’s movie? Sex and drugs and rock and roll catered just to your liking with a chance at redemption thrown in for good measure.

Blood often splatters on walls as if from the flicked wrist of Jackson Pollack in large, fanned, atomized brush strokes. Something about the humor, irony, and satire of the film reminded me of Stanley Kubrick. Story takes place in a science fiction world that is partly Blade Runner, Logan’s Run and part RoboCop. And why doesn’t Forest Whitaker win more Oscars? These are just some of the notes I scribbled while watching this oddly entertaining action-suspense-horror film about repossession men, Jude Law and Whitaker, who don’t take back cars or houses when folks fail to pay their creditor but instead reclaim your liver, your heart, your lungs and other man-made biotech body parts when you fail to make payments. Bloody, and violent, Repo Men is a film that at times would make David Cronenberg blush. Be warned, this R-rated film is not for everyone.

Matt Damon and Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass team up again, this time for a war thriller that takes place in Iraq’s Green Zone, circa 2003 on the dawn of U.S. occupation of Baghdad. Named after a boundary intensive, heavily guarded center of U.S. military and diplomatic government refuge, the base of which is Saddam’s presidential palace, it becomes the backdrop for U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Ron Miller’s quest to find WMDs, Weapons of Mass Destruction. But as forceful as the politics of the film are, I almost rather it have been a search for a good chicken salad sandwich.

So I went 15 for 24 on the 2010 Oscars and missed all of my favorite categories which are Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay. Had I just gone with my gut instinct I could have aced those three. Plus I think Avatar was robbed in the Sound Editing and Sound Mixing categories. No matter how much you love The Hurt Locker or hate Avatar, the sound was absolutely on the money in Avatar. We’re talking about a film created nearly entirely on a computer. But I think the Academy nailed it with Best Picture and Best Director going with Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker. But let’s move on, that’s old news. The Oscars are over and it’s time to look forward to the coming months.

Here are 9 films I can’t wait to see: