Death at a Funeral - Review

You have to wonder why Chris Rock chooses some of his pictures. Death at a Funeral might be a noble effort but fails in a variety of ways to capture the original's clever and offbeat humor. If that seems like an unfair criticism by comparing it with the original, then it fails to be funny on its own terms.

Death at a Funeral is about a family's struggle to deal with the loss of one of their loved ones. Chris Rock is Aaron, the insecure want to be writer who recently lost his father. He is married, a tax accountant and trying to have a baby with his wife. Martin Lawrence is Ryan, his younger brother who enjoys the bachelor life and is a successful novelist in New York City. Ryan comes back home for the funeral and while his brother struggles with the financial burden and organization of the funeral, Ryan is more focused on hooking up with a hot young thing. The two brothers argue about money, who should give the eulogy, writing, and family responsibilities.

There is also Aaron's cousin, Elaine (the oh so beautiful Zoe Saldana) who is nervous about telling her father that she is engaged and pregnant to drug induced Oscar (James Marsden). Luke Wilson is Derek trying to win Elaine back. Tracy Morgan is Norman, the fat friend adding absurdity to any situation. Danny Glover is the angry Uncle Russell and Peter Dinklage is Frank, the former gay lover of Aaron and Ryan's father.

A whole bunch of shenanigans ensue, starting with misplacement of the deceased, a couple of hallucinogenic highs and blackmail. Humor is supposed to surround these antics but most fall short except for Marsden who takes takes acid thinking it was a Valium in an attempt to relieve his anxiety. Much of the humor is poorly timed. Many of the actors never seem comfortable or able to make the subtle humor funny. Poor and choppy editing also disturbs the flow making the some of the punchlines stand alone, causing them to fall flat.

The movie is very brave in casting the actors against type. Chris Rock as the straight man? Martin Lawrence as a ladies man? James Marsden playing a straight laced guy on a drug high? Owen Wilson as an arrogant stock broker? The only one that succeeds is Marsden. As funny as Rock can be and he can be very funny, he is still trying to find his straight man ability. Chris Rock has been acting in movies for almost 20 years and still has yet to find his breakout comic performance. Eddie Murphy had Beverly Hills Cop. Jim Carrey had Ace Ventura. Will Pharrell had Anchorman. It seems hard to pin point a huge comedic success for Chris Rock on the silver screen. Are films like this, a remake of an English Comedy, along with other films like Down to Earth (remake of Hollywood classic Heaven Can Wait) and I Think I Love My Wife (remake of French classic Chloe in the Afternoon) attempts to show audiences that Chris Rock is more than his upfront and aggressive humor portray? I think so. Is Chris Rock like every other comedian, trying to prove he can act as well as be funny? Probably. Is he successful? No, not really but you have to admire his desire to be more than just a comedian. Adam Sandler knows a little bit about this too.

Death at a Funeral fails in several ways. It isn't that funny. Marsden and Morgan provide some laughs but not enough to keep the film from dragging. Poor editing and a lack of direction fail at creating what kind of film Death at a Funeral could be. Is it slapstick? Is it a family comedy? Is it all that and more? In the end, it is none of these things. In the end, Aaron (Rock) learns something but we aren't exactly sure what. In the beginning of the film, he seems like a perfectly good guy, a good husband and son, a want to be writer with some confidence issues. In the end, he discovers his confidence but the viewer never witnesses his lack of ability to understand his growth as a writer. Ryan, his brother seems to learn nothing and Elaine learns to stand up to her father out of must have circumstances rather than choice.

In conclusion, Death at a Funeral is nothing but disappointing.

Date Night - Review

Date Night stars Tina Fey and Steve Carrell as a married couple looking to spice up their usual date night but get involved in a black mail scheme involving sex and the mob. Ultimately the film is funny but leaves you wanting more, maybe more than is really possible.

Tina and Steve are great on the their hit shows, The Office and 30 Rock but this is the big screen and Date Night has them trying to be funny in slightly different ways. Steve Carrell is easily type casted in the nerdy, nice, goofy and sometimes clumsy male. Tina Fey is the smart mouthed, un-hip, sexually tame mother. The two are married with kids. They both feel a bit trapped as their marriage has lost that spark. A married couple close to them split and as a reaction they go out to the city instead of the local eatery for a night of fun and adventure. What they get is a night of guns, blackmail, crooked cops and Mark Wahlberg bare chest. They get involved in a black mail scheme that has nothing to do with them but are confused for some one else and the adventure begins. They have to find the couple with the restaurant reservation they stole, the blackmail goods that could solve the mystery and save their hides while alluding, crooked cops and Mark Wahlberg's oily chest.

Date Night has some funny moments, both involving speedy or not so speedy chases. One involving a motor boat, the other involving a spiffy Audi colliding into a taxi cab with hilarity to ensue. Fey and Carrell are fine. Might the movie have been better if they were allowed to improvise or roam free with the script? I don't know. I am not sure improvisation are their strengths. Fey's best talents are as a writer, not an actor or even a comedian. Carrell also seems like someone who best works with set material and is funny when working with quality material like on The Daily Show or The Office, not so much with Get Smart or Evan Almighty. Towards the end of the film, Carrell and Fey are involved in a strip tease scene involving a stripper pole that is humorous but a little bit of a let down. It should be the scene everyone talks about the next day or at the water cooler but it's not that memorable. It might be because the pole dance sequence requires a good sense of physical humor and neither of these two comedian are known for their physical humor.

Date Night is not bad but it is not memorable. The crooked cops chasing the simple married couple from New Jersey might be the dumbest bad guys ever and their stupidity isn't even played up for any amount of humor. None of the one liners are that funny and many of the smartest jokes are after the fact (punchline) jokes. Even the gag reel during the credits is not up to par and displays Fey's and Carrell's lack of ability to improv or do physical humor. If you don't believe me that Fey is nothing special at improv then why was her best character on SNL, a portrayal of herself on the Weekend Update Segments. It is only till recently that she discovered new success as Sarah Palin.

Date Night will go down as one of those movies that could have been so much more but until then will go down as pretty good, well sort of.

Kick Ass - Review

Kick Ass is the new comic book movie aimed at not being a comic book movie but being a analysis of a comic book movie dressed up as a comic book movie. Confused? It seems like a lot of comic book movies have been diving deep into self exploration and if that is not your cup of tea then Kick Ass is not for you. If you like comic book action, self aware humor and 11 year old with ninja stylings and the mouth of a sailor than maybe this film is for you.

Aaron Johnson is Dave, a geek who wonders why no one has ever tried becoming a super hero. It seems logical that someone at least one person would have dressed up in cape and cowl and fought crime. So one day, after getting beat up and no one doing a thing, or even caring, he decides to buy a wet suit, put on a mask and fight crime. He doesn't have any powers or even any gadgets. His method of fighting crime is really no different than a neighborhood watch. Except when he patrols the neighborhood, he does it in a mask.

Along the way, he meets a father and daughter duo called Big Daddy and Hit Girl (Nicholas Cage and Chloe Moretz). Big Daddy and Hit Girl are the real thing and out for revenge. Big Daddy is a former cop who wants to avenge his wife's passing, while his daughter is along for the ride and is there to make her father happy. They are after mob boss Frank D'Amico. Some wild action, a trap involving D'Amico's son (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Superbad's McLovin) as a fake comic book hero Red Mist, some girl chasing and comic book references galore occur in Kick Ass.

Kick Ass is enjoyable. The movie doesn't really discover an identity. Is it an homage or a critique of comic book culture? In his narration, Kick Ass tries to persuade us that his motives are not spurred by revenge or the sudden appearance of super powers but simply by the frustration that no one seems to care about how bad this world has become. It seems like a noble premise until you meet Big Daddy and realize that this is really a revenge movie after all. And then what may seem like an original premise falls under every comic book convention.

The worst thing about Kick Ass the movie is the Kick Ass character himself. The movie follows his dull and rather pointless narration and his feeble attempts at self training. There has to be at least 3 different instances where he is checking himself out in the mirror trying to psyche himself up while displaying his "awesome" fighting movies. A joke that is funny at first but after many other displays of his inadequate training, the joke wears very thin. His attempts at getting the girl are just as awkward, unimportant and a stretch, not only for relevancy but humor.

The best part of Kick Ass is the father and child relationships shared by Big Daddy and Hit Girl, as well as Mob Boss D'Amico with Red Mist. Big Daddy has been training his daughter for these moments since she was 6 and is very proud of her killing ways, While papa D'Amico is hesitant to trust and allow his son to join his mob. It's a shame that the movie focuses so much on Kick Ass that these story lines are a underdeveloped and not the central focus of the film. It is understood that Kick Ass is supposed to be the ordinary Joe, the common figure of which we the viewer should relate to, but his story is just so bland. So he is an awkward teenage that cannot get girls, with no super powers and reads comics. So was I and so were a lot of my friends.... I don't need to spend my time watching a movie that fails to be profound on the subject. Does Kick Ass save the day at the end? Yes, well sort of but his journey to super hero is more out of accident rather than defiance or great act of courage.

Kick Ass does not examine the mind state of super hero's like The Dark Knight was determined to achieve but it does hint at the disturbed nature of the masked hero far better than Watchmen did. Nicholas Cage as former police officer Damon MaCready is a twisted character of pure hate and determination that finds no peace except for time spent with his daughter. The blind faith his daughter has in his plan and violent methods is fascinating. The seemingly ordinary relationship D'Amico has with his son is odd but pleasant. Moretz as the 11 year old Hit Girl is just a treat. She wields a knife as if it were a 6th finger. She swears like she has 50 years of experience with an attitude that somehow doesn't come off as cute but fierce.

The final action sequence is the best part of the film. It truly captures the essence of the film; from the off beat comedic absurdity to the comic book plot, the oddity of people dressed up in costume to fight crime, the outrageous violence and casual misplacement of logic. Kick Ass is a bit long but enjoyable. It might be a fan boy type thing. I never read the original comic strip for which the film is based but you shouldn't feel lost or confused. You don't need to know everything about comics to get the humor or the references. It is a fun movie. At least one I would say is worth watching, even if you dislike it.

Hot Tub Time Machine - Review

Hot Tube Time Machine is a whacky comedy that goes beyond logic to be funny. The film finds three adult males going through hard times heading back to the past for a moment to relive their glory days.

John Cusack (Adam) is in a similar role as a broken heart, recently divorced man taking care of his nephew. Clark Duke (Jacob) is the nephew who would rather play video games than go out and be a teen. Craig Robinson (Nick) is a former musician turned pet groomer who is let down by his marriage and wonders what happened to his rock star days. Rob Corddry (Lou) plays a drunk low life who fails at everything even suicide. After Lou fails to kill himself, the guys get together and decide to take a man trip out to their favorite ski resort. They don't realize that like their own lives, the resort has seen better days. The resort is falling apart but the hot tub outside their suite is fully functional. They get wildly drunk and with the aid of a knock-of Russian power drink like Red Bull which causes a malfunction in the hot tub, they are sent them back to 1986.

Hot Tub Time Machine is actually pretty funny. Much of the humor works because despite being an absolutely stupid and awesome premise, the movie doesn't rely on crude, disgusting or crass humor. When the film does that like when a bell boy's arm is ripped off it comes off as a shock rather than funny. Disgusting humor exists but shock humor isn't the only thing that makes this film funny. While Corddry might be a little exhausting as he tries to find ways to make money in the past by using his knowledge of the future, the humor finds laughs because the chemistry from the four is very believable. The characters are very sarcastic and are capable of using the f-bomb to a smart and playful degree. There are also some very funny situations, for instance when Nick who has been struggling with his wife's affair calls his wife, in the past, at the age of nine and unloads on her for being a cheating bitch. The banter Lou and Jakob share as they insult one another is fun and spirited. Cusack provides little humor but his role as Adam is the emotional center. Even as the film's producer and biggest star, Cusack doesn't let his character dominate the film which could have caused the film to drag.

Hot Tube Time Machine struggles with some logical errors. Despite taking place in 1986 there is a rousing gambling scene that involves the 1987 AFC championship game. Cleveland Browns fan (like myself) might enjoy this moment as John Elway's historic drive falls short. There is also a joke that Lou forms Motley Lue and enjoys the celebrity of being a rock star. This is not necessarily possible because Motley Crue was formed in 1981. Despite these errors, the goof ball premise of a hot tub time machine already dismissed any sense of logic or reason. It's a funny movie. It doesn't matter that the Chevy Chase character is never really explained or why the group is so reluctant to relive their past, make the best of it or improve on their future by fixing the past. It is probably a smart move that the movie doesn't really take the time to examine their emotional state or explain the time wizard that is Chevy Chase's character.

The real break out star of Hot Tube Time Machine is Craig Robinson. You might recognize him as a recurring character on The Office or small roles in Pineapple Express and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. In this film, as part of an ensemble cast, he gets to display a wide range of comedic skills. He can get your sympathy, be enraged, be sarcastic and be funny at the same time. There is a fair amount of sincerity in his comedic delivery. This sincerity makes a great deal of what he does either funny or charming.

Hot Tub Time Machine is funny if you accept that logic does not exist and just go with the flow. It's a guy movie, not like Wild Hogs or even The Hangover. The guys aren't good looking, on a road trip or in a fashionable hot spot like Vegas. Even the ski resort, past or present looks like a bad movie set or sound stage but this adds to the movie's charm. It has the Cusack production stamp all over it and I am sucker for Cusack's personal and sometimes morbid romantic explorations. Plus any film where the Cleveland Browns go to the Super Bowl cannot be all bad.