Coincidently, when the last Steve Carell film Date Night was released earlier this year I was more eager to write about my pre-screening of Kick Ass. Here on the eve of Dinner for Schmucks, starring Carell and Paul Rudd, I’m more impassioned to write about a recent screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a genre bending film of similar graphic book origins like Kick Ass recently getting buzz from San Diego’s Comic Con. But that will have to wait until August 13th (Please Note: Scott Pilgrim actors Michael Cera, Jason Schwartzman and Pilgrim director Edgar Wright will be appearing at Criminal Records on August 10th from 3PM to 4PM). It does beg the question though, in light of thunder-stealing hipster friendly films like Kick Ass what demographic does the future hold for Steve Carell? Is he being pigeon holed as a comedian playing it safe, destined to perform in films that take the fewest risks when reaching out to a larger audience? I say no. Not yet anyway as you’ll see in Dinner for Schmucks, a silly but heartwarming, human interest comedy that tugs on your sympathies much the same way a Judd Apatow film might. Or an old Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin film might. Carell plays Lewis to Rudd’s Martin so well that the film almost seems nostalgic. Some of it is a mess, no doubt but to director Jay Roach’s credit, director of the Austin Powers films and Meet the Parents (2000), this familiar but insufferably sweet, gag fest of a movie is like eating spaghetti with your hands—once you get the sauce on you and let yourself go it makes the rest of the meal easier to enjoy.

I can’t remember the last time I heard the words “money shot” but Salt has what could be the best money shot of the year. That’s the wow-factor shot where everyone and their mother working on a film strive to achieve the most outrageous, spectacle of a moment usually contained in one shot. It’s a manifestation of sight and sound you only see in movies and is suppose to give the audience a jolt of excitement, usually during or around the most climactic moment of the film. And Salt has that kind of shot. You’ll know it when you see it, if you go see the movie or at least when you get around to seeing it if you ever see it. And I say see it for this reason alone. The rest of the film is a simple, by-the-numbers spy thriller with story and plot we’ve witnessed several times in better films like The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and its 2004 remake, or to similar films like The Package (1989) and Most Wanted (1997). To Jolie’s credit, she does Barbie on steroids well and knows how to focus a stare so well that her big blue windows-into-her-soul eyes nearly hypnotize us into believing the film is worthy of its briny title. Salt, it’s heavily seasoned with sharp action but in desperate need of a little more spice.

Inception is an overly ambitious, wordy, and claustrophobic work of art meant to impress as equally as entertain. And I like it for those reasons. It seems like Christopher Nolan, the director of The Dark Knight (2008), Insomnia (2002), and Memento (2000) is at least trying to be inventive with this novella-like presentation of what could be considered a heist film. That and it reminded me of how good The Matrix films might have been had Nolan resolved that trilogy. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page, with great turns by Ken Watanabe and Cillian Murphy, Inception is The Story about a crack team of dream technicians hired by a global magnate to infiltrate a business man’s dreams and plant the seed of an idea that will alter the direction of that individual’s corporate decisions. Packed with an almost tangible feeling of suspense right from the get-go, the path we take to get through Inception is seemingly intricate and full of explanation. Just like it is when explaining a dream, the simplicity of the sleep events suddenly become more elaborate as we try to describe them. You would be smart to prepare for a film like this by getting into your favorite Stanley Kubrick frame of mind. Even if it doesn’t make complete sense, you’ll at least experience the feeling of being there. Having already planted the seed of The Story, here now are The Goods, The Flaws, The Call.

Predator (1987) and Predator II (1990) were pretty good. In my opinion. The rest, AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and AVP Requiem (2007) were examples of exploitation of past film and video game success, a way to draw you in by title alone and barrage you with special effect after special effect to make an extra buck. The kind of thing you do when you’re at the end of your franchise’s run; when you start to see box office results dwindle film after film. Here, in Predators we go a little nostalgic, revisiting the 1987 original in look, feel, and pacing; action sequences and scenes full of conflict occur in more succession with shorter periods of dialogue and get-to-know-each-character moments as the film progresses. I loved Predators for this reason alone, the plot structure, and the simplicity of the story. The clever dialogue and situational humor that develops is just the icing on the proverbial melting lights-are-on Krispi Kreme donut. Let me just say, if you’re a fan of sci-fi and action films, and liked any of the Predator films, then Predators produced by El Mariachi wunderkind director Robert Rodriquez, starring Oscar winner Adrian Brody and Oscar nominated actor Laurence Fishburne, is a must see. Talk about a reboot, Predators is defibrillator extraordinaire bringing back to life a franchise on the brink of extinction.

There’s nothing despicable about Despicable Me. Actually, for Universal Pictures, a studio not known for animated films, they should be proud to have a product that can go toe to toe with DreamWorks Animation and Disney. Far better than Sony Pictures’s animated films of late, Open Season 2 (2008) and Surf’s Up (2007), and looking just as good as the Golden Globe nominated Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009), Despicable Me represents a new dawn for Universal who haven’t had an animated hit since The Land Before Time (1988). Not that they haven’t tried. Both Universal films Curious George (2007) and Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000) made a combined $84.5 million in their entire domestic runs while the gigantic Toy Story 3 made $110 million its first weekend, now sitting at $313 million since June 18th. Despicable Me is no Toy Story 3 for sure but I would almost say it goes down a bit easier, and more entertainingly than TS3. Don’t get me wrong, I think TS3 is the best film of the year so far but Despicable Me might be the summer sleeper of animated films, and I don’t mean zzzzzzzzzz.

Superman II begat Howard the Duck which begat The Golden Child which begat Power Rangers which begat Mortal Kombat which begat The Matrix Reloaded which begat Star Wars: Attack of the Clones which begat this total blow of hard earned dollars. The only way I can describe it is to use the same kind of parable Bible speak M. Night Shyamalan uses for this his 9th feature-length film as writer-director, and that is to say a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. And therein lies the problem. Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense (1999) and Signs (2002) had success and to a certain degree, and rightfully so in terms of portraying characters outside-the-genre. But somewhere along the way the long, amateur delivery of dialogue, the lengthy takes where actors reel off long pages of words and give expressions of stoic inner turmoil, finally caught up with him becoming his signature traits rather than his flaws. And part of the problem I have to say is that it’s because he’s a writer-director. Not everyone is cut out to do that. Shyamalan’s credit at the end of The Last Airbender is Written by, Produced by, and Directed by. Way too many “bys” for M. Night. He only needs one and that should be either Written by or Directed by. Hey, but kids will probably like The Last Airbender because it centers around a ten to twelve-year-old named Aang played by Noah Ringer who is the reincarnated Avatar, a supreme master of the elements Air, Water, Earth and Fire—the four parts of power and peace that in The Last Airbender world (like the ring in Lord of the Rings) bind all people and nations together. Kids will enjoy the adventurous Tai Chi, Martial Arts journey Aang must take to restore peace. But adults might be journeying back to the box office seeking a refund, as some threatened to do at the sold out, packed screening I sat in.

The Cullen kids are back and this time they’re teaming up with Jacob’s wolf pack to protect Bella and save the rest of the humans from an army of New Borns—red-eyed newbies so blood thirsty in their initial phase as vampires that they’re oblivious to the rules of civilized interaction with humans, thus more prone to ripping the heads off of unsuspecting victims and sucking them dry. Victoria, the elusive, burdened, cold-hearted bitch is still out for Edward and somehow figures into the mix of things. Do I care? Not really. But I think fans who read the books and follow the characters faithfully will not be disappointed. This the third installment with regulars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner has a little more action and less of the brooding, longing, tear-eyed stares. It does have some cheesy dialogue for sure which only Pattinson seems to deliver solidly and mask the ridiculousness of it all. But Eclipse like the other Twilight films doesn’t escape it’s SyFy channel feel. As movies, I just don’t see it. Here are nine things, however, to know about Eclipse that might make a difference.

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.