Showing posts with label Comedies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comedies. Show all posts

Friday, May 26, 2017

"Snatched" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the new Amy Schumer-Goldie Hawn comedy "Snatched" as well as DVDs "Why Him?" and "Shut In."  The Book of the Week is "My Mother's Kitchen: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and the Meaning of Life" by Peter Gethers. I also bring you up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "The House is Black."]



Snatched


Emily Middleton (Amy Schumer) is happily planning her upcoming vacation to Ecuador with her boyfriend...until her boyfriend dumps her.  She has an non-refundable ticket.  Who can she get to go with her?  Surely, not her overprotective Mom...

Emily lives in New York City and is your typical millennial - and no offense to millennials, but she is a little, well a lot, self centered and clueless with an Instagram addiction.  When her musician boyfriend breaks up with her she doesn't quite get it.

"I'm breaking up with you," he says over lunch.

To which she cluelessly replies, "When?"

Like I said, clueless.

Well, even though she didn't get it, the break-up is immediate and now Emily is stuck with a non-refundable ticket to Ecuador and can't find anyone to go with her. Worse, she has also lost her job.  She goes home to visit her Mom, Linda (Goldie Hawn), and to lick her wounds.  Linda lives alone and is an empty-nester with a lot of fears.  She occasionally checks online for love, but she is still clearly in Mom mode. She spends her time checking the many locks on her doors and taking care of her agoraphobic grown son, Jeffrey (Ike Barinholtz). She also fusses over Emily while Emily takes her mother for granted and basically doesn't approve of her. 

However, while looking through one of her mother's closets, Emily finds an old scrapbook and sees pictures of her Mom from her younger days, traveling and having a great time (this is also a chance for us to also see Goldie back in her heyday which I would bet Goldie wanted us to see since she hasn't made a movie in 15 years).  Emily gets the idea that maybe her mother could be fun and go with her to Ecuador.  After a funny scene where Emily tries to convince Linda to leave her safe environment and have some fun, off they go to Ecuador where Linda plans to sit by the pool and read her book. No mingling with the locals for her!

Meanwhile, Emily meets James (Tom Bateman), a handsome guy who comes on to her in the bar.  He is so handsome and she is so stunned that he wants HER that she throws caution to the wind, much to Linda's chagrin, and goes off with him on a whirlwind tour of the area that includes a party with the locals, where Emily gets very drunk.  But James is a gentleman and returns Emily safely to her room with an invitation for a sightseeing trip the next day. Linda is also invited and reluctantly tags along and that's when it happens....some bad guys ram the car and the next thing Emily and Linda know, they are locked up in a dirty cell.

The two manage to escape the cell, hop a truck and suddenly find themselves in Colombia.  The rest of the film is all about Emily and Linda trying to elude the very bad guy, Morgado (Oscar Jaenada), who didn't take kindly to Emily killing his son.  Emily develops an uncanny and very funny ability to kill bad guys, but more importantly, Emily finally learns that she had her mother pegged all wrong.  Her mother is AWESOME!

Directed by Jonathan Levine and written by Katie Dippold (though I am sure Amy had a hand in it), this is the best comedy to come along in a long while.  Why?  Because it is actually funny.

I know that Amy Schumer is an acquired taste for many.  I actually think she is funny, but sometimes she does go too far with the sex jokes.  Her last stand-up - The Leather Special - was not my cup of tea.  But, hey, I'm old.  I'm not a millennial and probably don't get what millennials like. But that's not to say she isn't funny because she is.

Speaking of millennials, Goldie Hawn might not be a name that young people recognize today.  She hasn't made a movie for 15 years, but for us Baby Boomers she was a household name and made some of the funniest and most enjoyable rom-coms of all time -  "Foul Play," "Private Benjamin," and "Overboard."  Starting out on TV's "Rowen and Martin's Laugh-in," Goldie took ditzy blonde to a new level. 

But no matter what you think of Amy Schumer or whether or not you know who Goldie Hawn is, here is the most important thing - THIS MOVIE IS FUNNY.  Can you believe it?  A comedy that is actually funny.  I haven't seen one of those is a very long time, though I could have done without the scene with the tapeworm.

And in addition to being funny, the film also has a message.  It actually has many messages: it's about the empty nest, mothers and daughters, girl power and even pokes fun at the U.S. State Department, as in don't expect much help from the U.S. if you get kidnapped overseas.

  • The Empty Nest

It's not easy being a Mom and then all-of-a-sudden you aren't one anymore when your kids grow up.  Linda is having a hard time finding herself and restructuring her relationship with her children now that they are adults, and there is a touching scene toward the end of the film when Linda shares with Emily how difficult it is for parents when their children move on without them.

  • Mothers and Daughters
My daughter and I live thousands of miles apart so because of that we try to do a mother/daughter trip together every year so this film really resonated with me, not just the mother/daughter trip but also because of the generation gap, how difficult it is for mothers and daughters to understand each other.  Mothers have a hard time thinking of their daughters as anything other than that little girl who used to sit on their laps and daughters have a hard time thinking of their mothers as anyone other than someone who is getting in their business and trying to tell them what to do.  I know that now that my daughter is an adult, those trips have helped us understand each other better.

  • Girl Power
Once Emily and Linda decide they need to do something about their predicament and take on the bad guys, they do the requisite "Power Walk."  The Power Walk has now become a cliché.  When the filmmakers want us to be sure to know that the heroes or heroines are now going to kick some butt, there is always the Power Walk, where the actors walk in slow motion toward us, shoulder to shoulder, with determined looks on their faces and an iconic soundtrack behind it.  In the most recent "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (which I will review next week)," there wasn't just one Power Walk but TWO!  Anyway, Emily also demonstrates more girl power when she discovers that she has a knack for killing bad guys in a couple of very funny scenes.

  • The U.S. Government
When Jeffrey gets the ransom call from the kidnappers, he immediately calls the State Department where he speaks with Morgan Russell (Bashir Salahuddin), a beleaguered bureaucrat who doesn't take kindly to Jeffrey asking that they send in the A-Team.  The only help he can give is to tell him the women need to get to the consulate in Bogata.  Not very helpful considering the women are miles from Bogata with no money.  Jeffrey and Morgan have a contentious and very funny relationship as Jeffrey continues to try to get him to do something to find his mother and sister. 

Amy is very funny and even a bit toned down, but for me, Goldie was the revelation.  No ditzy blonde, here. She is funny, yes, but she also shows her acting chops and why she was and still is, such a big star. She was totally believable as Emily's Mom, and I loved her.

Ike and Bashir were also stand-outs who provided some of the funniest moments in the film.

And then there is Roger (Christopher Meloni).  When the women are on the run, they meet Roger, who is dressed very much like Indiana Jones. They are thrilled to get his help, because Roger appears to be someone who knows his way around South America.  He has a boat (reminiscent of the boat in Herzog's "Aguirre, Wrath of God") and offers to take them down the Amazon to Bogata. Unfortunately, Roger is not what he appears to be and one of the funniest moments in the film is when he reveals his true identity and why he is in South America.

Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack also provide some comedy but seem like after- thoughts as characters.

Rosy the Reviewer says...this is a very sweet film that mothers and daughters should see together (I wish I could have seen it with mine), but more importantly, FINALLY, a comedy that is actually funny.




***Some Movies You Might Have Missed***
(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!

On DVD






Why Him? (2016)


What does a Dad do when he doesn't approve of his daughter's choice of husband?

Stephanie (Zoey Deutch) is attending Stanford and, while Skyping from her dorm room with her Dad, Ned (Bryan Cranston), on his 55th birthday, what should he see?  Her boyfriend, Laird's (James Franco), bare bum coming into view as he enters her room with no pants on.  That's our and Ned's first glimpse of Laird.  Not a good start and that sets the stage for what a nut he is and why perhaps Ned would not approve of him.

Ned and his wife, Barb (Megan Mullally, whose voice to me is the equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard) are straight-arrow Midwesterners from Grand Rapids, Michigan (my old neck of the woods, so I know all about those kinds of parents), and when next we see them, the family has flown out to Palo Alto to visit Stephanie, and Stephanie wants them to meet Laird, who it turns out is a billionaire owner of a tech company.

They meet Laird at his impressive compound.  In a classic East meets West culture clash, as in buttoned-up, up-tight East meeting overly-friendly, hugging West, Laird appears and happily shows the family his new tattoo: Stephanie's family's Christmas card picture tattooed on his back, including "Merry Christmas."  Laird is watched over by his major domo, Gustav (Keegan-Michael Key, who is always funny), and one of Gustav's jobs is to attack Laird without warning as a way to keep Laird fit and on his toes, so that is a bit of a shock to our Midwesterners . Laird is also very liberal with the F-bomb and other profanities, which doesn't go over really well either.  Not a great start.

But Laird is trying very, very hard to win Ned and Barb over.  He has put in a bowling alley at his home, because he knows Ned likes to bowl and even has Richard Blais on tap to fix them their meals.  Unfortunately, Blais has prepared edible soil and plantain foam (You "Top Chef" fans will remember that Blais always liked his foam).

So overall Ned is not impressed.

Here is your classic comedy where a seemingly normal young woman has her boyfriend meet her parents and the  boyfriend is decidedly NOT normal and strangely everyone can see that except the girl.  Think "Meet the Parents."

But Ned loves his daughter and wants her to be happy, so despite his misgivings, he says he will give Laird a chance.  Unfortunately, Laird has no filter, overshares, and is very inappropriate, and when he tells them that Stephanie and he are living together and he plans to pop the question, Ned goes ballistic. However, Laird wants Ned's blessing and says he won't marry Stephanie without it.  Just give him until Christmas Day to prove he is worthy.

So now the incentive for Ned is to not give his blessing and to dig up dirt about Laird to prove to Stephanie that she shouldn't marry him.  But naturally it all backfires on Ned.

Laird throws a big Christmas party and does everything he can to impress Ned and Barb.  Kiss, Barb's favorite band, even shows up. It seems that everyone is won over by Laird except Ned. 

James Franco loves to play odd characters that bely his good looks - that nice head of hair and that dazzling smile.  So many in fact that at this point, it would actually be difficult for me to take him seriously in a romantic drama.

Bryan Cranston must have wanted to shed his "Breaking Bad" character and remind us that he can do comedy (he did do comedy earlier in his career with "Malcolm in the Middle."). How else can you explain his being in this film after recent successes in dramas such as "Trumbo" and "All the Way? " And unfortunately, I don't think comedy is his forte.  He seems forced here and is actually just not very funny, even when subjected to some cringe worthy scatological scenarios, one of which has Ned trying to cope with a paperless Japanese toilet.

Despite my not being able to cope with her voice, Mullally is an excellent comedienne and provides much of the humor in this film.  She is expert at under-her-breath, throwaway lines, so listen for those, and she has some of the best lines.

Directed by John Hamburg and written by him with Ian Helfer (Jonah Hill is credited for having something to do with the story too), this is the story of an uptight Midwest conservative learning from a spaced-out West Coast millennial, which could have been rich fodder for some fun, but doesn't hit the mark. It's even got a bit of a metaphor, though it falls into overly sentimental territory: Ned runs a printing company in a world that is becoming increasingly paperless.  I get it. The lack of understanding between the older generation (paper) and millennials (paperless), right?  

For the first hour, this film was mildly amusing as we got to know Laird and could see the steam coming out of Ned's ears, but then I got bored waiting for this thing to resolve itself.   This plot - daughter brings unsuitable suitor to meet the parents - has been done to death and didn't bring anything new to it.

You know you are in trouble when Kiss and a Japanese toilet play a major role in a film.

Rosy the Reviewer says...not why him?  Why ME?





Shut In (2016)


A widowed mother and her disabled stepson live an isolated existence  with a storm coming in this thriller where some strange and scary things start to happen.

Naomi Watts stars as Mary, a child psychologist with a very difficult stepson, Steven (Charlie Heaton) and difficult issues of her own.  Steven has just unwillingly gone off with his Dad to boarding school while she stays behind. En route there is a car accident.

Flash forward six months later...

Lifetime movie cliche anyone?  (for more information on Lifetime Movie cliches, see my blog post "Lifetime Movies: A Baby Boomer's Appreciation"), and that flash forward is not the only Lifetime movie device you will encounter in this film.

Anyway, Mary's husband has been killed in the car accident, and now the stepson is living alone with Mary.  Unfortunately he was badly injured in the car accident, and he is a paraplegic with brain damage.

Mary is informed that one of her patients, a little boy named Tom (Jacob Tremblay), who is hearing impaired, is going to be transferred to another school in Boston. Mary is not happy about that, but there is nothing she can do. Later, Mary hears glass shattering and her car alarm going off. Naturally she goes outside in THE DARK all by herself or this wouldn't be a classic thriller about a woman living one her own with a disabled son who would be no help to her should something bad happen.  

Entering the garage, Mary finds one of her car windows smashed in and Tom, that little hearing-impaired boy I mentioned earlier, fast asleep on the backseat. She brings him inside, but after discussing him on the phone inside her office, when she returns, she finds her front door standing open and Tom is nowhere to be found. Mary informs the police and they search for Tom while Mary continues to hear sounds in the night and to experience strange, dream-like horrors.

What the hell is happening?

This genre - a woman all alone plagued by things that go bump in the night -  always has certain criteria.  Glad you asked.  Let me share those with you:

The Top 20

#1 - An idyllic but very remote location.  What could possibly happen in a beautiful place like this?

#2 - The woman is alone or with someone who can't really help her, in this case the only other person with her is her stepson who is a paraplegic.

#3 - Next, expect the unexpected - it's always the least likely person or our heroine does something least likely.  Just think least likely. 

#4 - Our heroine has to be troubled - in this case, she is having problems dealing with her stepson and actually dreams of drowning him.  She is also an insomniac which calls everything she sees into question.

#5 - The woman goes out into the dark alone to investigate a noise and opens up the gate thus possibly allowing bad guys to get in.  And right here, I have to say, I shouted at the screen (I am prone to that kind of thing when I get frustrated), WHY???  What woman in her right mind would hear a noise out there in the dark and go out by herself to investigate - without a gun?

#6 -  A black cat jumps out making us all jump and then we and our heroine breathe a sign of relief thinking that it was only the cat that made the noise.  If only.

#7 - A knock on the door.  DO NOT ANSWER THE DOOR! (I am shouting at the screen again)

#8 - Another strange sound and she goes outside AGAIN, this time leaving the front door open, forcing you to scream "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS WOMAN?!"

#9 - A nightmare scene occurs, so now we are questioning truth vs. reality.  Is Mary imagining all of this?

#10 - I am now reminded that next time I am home alone at night I am going to be terrified.

#11 - Oh, geez, now she is going down into a dark basement by herself!

#12 - A dark figure runs across the screen behind her.  SHE IS NOT ALONE!

#13 -  Many gotcha moments that make you jump, most of which turn out to be nothing, thus letting your guard down so when the big payoff comes you really jump out of your seat.

#14 - A reminder that all bad things happen at 2am (my mother warned me about that).

#15 - There is a warning that a big storm is coming.  Of course there is.  And the power could go off. And of course it does because in movies like this the lights always go off so that our heroine can go down in dark basements by herself like an idiot.

#16 - Phone goes dead. Of course.

#17 - Cat and mouse game begins.

#18 - Friend who comes to check on our heroine gets killed.

#19 -  Big twist.  Things are not as they appear - and it all goes crazy.

#20 - Our heroine stops being a victim and goes ballistic.

There you have it.  Any questions? 

Directed by Farren Blackburn with a screenplay by Christina Hodson, this film asks the question: who is really the shut in here?  It also asks, just how many movies exactly like this have you already seen?

Rosy the Reviewer says...a psychological thriller that checks all of the above boxes and, despite the usual good performance by Watts, prompts me to ask:  Why?  You've probably seen this film already a million times on Lifetime.




***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***



201 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?





The House is Black (1964)



A short documentary about a leper colony in northern Iran.

Written and directed by Forugh Farrokhzad, this 22 minute black and white short combats the "ugliness" of lepers in a leper colony by using poetry, religion and gratitude, challenges you to see beauty in creation.  The film was meant to shed light on leprosy so that something could be done about it.

The film starts with a black screen and a narrator warning about the images to follow. It makes the case that leprosy is a disease of the poor and with proper care and medical treatment it can be cured.  However, the way that people with leprosy were treated was to segregate them and neglect them in leper colonies.

People in the leper colony are seen eating, having medical treatments, in class and going about their daily lives.  There are children playing but also people with rotting flesh and parts of their faces and bodies eaten away. The images are sometimes difficult to look at.

All of the images are accompanied by narration by Farrokhzad of her own poetry and religious readings and begs the question:  Is there still beauty in creation when the creation isn't beautiful? Can beauty be found in ugliness?  Despite deformities, can one still be grateful for what one does have? 

It was the only film directed by Farrokhzad before her death in 1967.  During shooting she became attached to a child of two lepers, whom she later adopted.  The film received little attention outside of Iran but has since been recognized as a landmark in Iranian film and helped to pave the way for the Iranian New Wave of filmmakers.

I think this film would have been more meaningful having done a little research beforehand.  Seeing the film cold, it was difficult to see the point but understanding why the film was made and something about the filmmaker makes the film more potent.

Why it's a Must See: "At once lyrical and extremely matter-of-fact, devoid of sentimentality or voyeurism yet profoundly humanist [this film] offers a view of life in the colony...that is spiritual, unflinching, and beautiful in ways that have no apparent Western counterparts; it registers like a prayer."
--"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die."

Rosy the Reviewer says...a grotesquely beautiful film, but certainly not for everyone.
(b & w, in Persian with English subtitles)



 
***Book of the Week***





My Mother's Kitchen: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and the Meaning of Life by Peter Gethers (2017)



Nothing like a son writing admiringly about his mother.

Peter Gethers is an author, screenwriter, playwright, book editor and film and television producer.  His mother, Judy Gethers, was the daughter of the founder of Ratner's restaurant, a legendary Jewish kosher dairy restaurant on New York City's lower East Side. She herself became a legendary figure in the L.A. cooking scene, when, at the age of 53, she took her first job, working with Wolfgang Puck at Ma Maison, running and teaching at its cooking school with Julia Child, Maida Heatter and Paula Wolfert.  She was known as the "Ma of Ma Maison."  Later she followed Puck when he opened Spago and wrote several cookbooks.

Judy faced several health challenges over her lifetime, but when she suffered a stroke in her 80's, she was robbed of her ability to cook, but through regular visits with her son, Peter, she and he talked about food and her life which culminated in this book.  Through their visits, Peter learned about his mother's favorite dishes, and though he did not consider himself much of a cook, Peter decided to honor his mother by preparing her breakfast, lunch and dinner, each consisting of her favorite dishes - and in so doing mother and son drew closer.

The menus?


Breakfast

  • Ratner's Matzo Brei
  • The Beverly Hilton Coffee Shop's and the Cock'n Bull's Eggs Benedict.

Lunch

  • Barbara Apisson's Celeriac Remoulade
  • Louise Trotty's Chocolate Puddy
  • Joel Robuchon's Mashed Potatoes
  • Yotam Ottolenghi's Quail

Dinner

  • Before-Dinner Drink: Peter Kortner's and The Martini Brothers' Perfect Martini
  • Wolfgang Puck's Salmon Caulibiac
  • The Tornabenes' Buccatini with Cauliflower, Pine Nuts, Currants, Anchovies and Saffron
  • Solferino's Steak with Truffle Cream Sauce
  • My Almost-Made-Up Fava Bean Puree
  • Nancy Silverton's and Abby Levine's French Boule and Challah
  • Romanee-Conti's Greatest Red Wine: La Tache
  • Smoothest White Wine There Is: Batard-Montrachet
  • Burgundian Store-Bought Cheese: Epaisses
  • Martha Stewart's Tarte Tatin

Quite a daunting set of menus for someone who can't cook! 

But therein lies the humor...and the love that exudes from this book. And yes, there are recipes as well as stories about the people, food and drink mentioned in the menus, as well as tales about his family and his growing up years all interwoven throughout the book as he goes on a quest to prepare these special meals for his mother. 

For each meal, Gethers shares the menu and then gives often very funny accounts of trying to find the right ingredients, the proper tools and then trying to prepare the meal exactly as it is supposed to be prepared as per his mother.  It is funny and very touching to envision this grown son wanting to do something like this for his mother.  We mothers can only hope our own sons would care as much.

Gethers also shares what he learned about himself:

"Here's what I learned from cooking with my mother and talking to her and absorbing her wisdom.  Here is what I learned in my search to find meaning in my mother's kitchen: Food is not a be-all and end-all.  It does not provide meaning, though it does provide pleasure.  Nothing that provides pleasure can do so in a vacuum.  It is sharing our pleasure that provides real pleasure.      Love can fade.  Families can break apart.  Nothing you do in the kitchen can really alter that.  But love can also last...And food can be used to celebrate and cement love and family, strength and comfort.  It did for my mother.  It does for me now."

Gethers' recollections of his mother who he clearly admired and loved, and his attempts to get the food just right for her was all very touching.  I cried.

Food is love.  Preparing a meal for someone is an act that shows that love. I have a similar story in my own life, though the cuisine is hardly as fancy. My Dad was an only child and his parents - my grandparents - lived across the street from us.  As they aged (my grandmother was blind), my Dad would stop by their house on his way home from work and prepare their dinner. I wish now that I had spoken more to him about that, what he prepared and how he felt about it.

This book is very much a literary version of one of my favorite documentaries, "Nothing Left Unsaid," where Anderson Cooper talks with his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, about her life, to really try to know and understand her so that when she is no longer around, there is nothing he will regret, nothing left unsaid.

Rosy the Reviewer says...an inspiring book about food and love and a reminder to make the most of our time with our parents.  NOW GO CALL YOUR MOTHER!  Or better yet, prepare her a favorite meal.


Thanks for reading!

 

See you next Friday 

 
for my review of
 

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2"


and



The Week in Reviews
(What to See or Read and What to Avoid)


 and the latest on



"My 1001 Movies I Must See Before 

 I Die Project." 


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Friday, December 16, 2016

"Office Christmas Party" and The Week in Reviews

It's comedy week with a touch of the holidays thrown in!

[I review the new comedy "Office Christmas Party" as well as the DVDs "Love the Coopers" and "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising."  The Book of the Week is "Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Love, Losses and Liberation of Joan Rivers."  I also bring you up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with Lucino Visconti's epic "The Leopard."]
 
 

What do you do when your mean old CEO of a sister wants to shut down your branch of the company and says absolutely NO CHRISTMAS PARTY?  Why you throw a Christmas party to end all Christmas parties, right?!

Clay Vanstone (T. J. Miller) is a trust fund baby whose father, when he died, left him the Chicago branch of  his company, Zenotech, to run.  However, he must have loved Clay's sister, Carol (Jennifer Anniston) more because he made her CEO of the entire company, and she is, shall we say, not the warm and fuzzy type.  She is all about the bottom line and has no problem whatsoever shutting down branches and laying people off, even if it's her brother's branch and it's the Christmas holidays.  When she shows up, people quake in their boots.  And wouldn't you know, she shows up at Clay's branch.

Josh Parker (Jason Bateman) is a recently divorced guy and also the Chief Technical Officer for Zenotech.  He is loyal to Clay, despite the fact that Clay is a total bonehead.  But Clay is a kind of sweet bonehead who means well.  When Carol decides that not only is she going to shut down Clay's branch but she is shutting down the annual Christmas party, Josh teams up with Clay to save both. They decide that if they can land a big account from wealthy Walter Davis (Courtney B. Vance), all will be saved.  To do that, they decide to impress him with a big Christmas party. 

Carol is on her way to London, or so they all think, but wouldn't you know,   snow sets in and Carol's flight is canceled so she returns to the office when the party is in full swing.  She is not amused.

There is a side plot about one of the employees, Nate (Karan Soni), who is being bullied by a couple of his co-workers who not only don't believe that Nate's girlfriend is a model, they don't believe he even has a girlfriend. Of course they are right, he doesn't, but when he is forced into bringing his "girlfriend" to the Christmas party, he hires a prostitute, Savannah (Abbey Lee), to pretend to be his girlfriend, who proceeds to cause all kinds of havoc at the party. 

With the party in full swing, Clay and Josh have a misunderstanding, Clay drinks (he shouldn't) and goes off with Savannah's pimp (Jillian Bell) to party while she proceeds to try to find out where he keeps his money.  The rest of the film is a car chase to save Clay.

The plot itself has been done in various iterations many times.  People are being mistreated by the boss or some officious person, so screw it! Let's get even by having one big blow out to end all blow outs.  It's part "The Hangover" and part "Adventures in Babysitting."  However, the potential for funny in this film isn't the plot but the characters.
 
Here is a rundown on the characters:
 
  • Clay (Miller), the long-haired hippy dippy boss who is an idiot but means well
  • Josh (Bateman), the deadpan, put upon friend and co-worker who appears to be the only sane one in the company
  • Carol (Anniston), the mean sister and CEO
  • Tracey (Olivia Munn), the geeky and brilliant IT woman who has a crush on Josh
  • Mary (SNL's Kate McKinnon), the uptight HR person who is always breathing down everyone's neck about PC issues
  • Allison (SNL's Vanessa Bayer) a single mom with a crush on Fred (Randall Park), until she discovers he has a mom/baby fetish
  • Jeremy (Rob Corddry), Head of Customer Service, who hates people and complains constantly
 

You know that I am always on the look out for a good comedy and am usually disappointed because I just don't find very many comedies funny.  If I end a review with "I laughed," that is high praise.

Just to give you some background, my idea of funny and what makes me laugh is this:  early Woody Allen and Peter Sellers ("Sleeper" or "The Party" are some examples).  Also Christopher Guest's mockumentaries are hilarious to me ("This is Spinal Tap"), and I also loved Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor before they got all sentimental.  Anyway, those are the kinds of movies that make me laugh, and I know those are hard acts to follow. And in fact, I haven't really laughed much at the movies in the last 30 years.  Well, that is sort of an exaggeration, but not much. But hope springs eternal as they say, so I keep trying (and by the way who are "they?).

So how does this film measure up?

Directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, the movie is very character driven and has some funny characters, so whether or not you think it is funny depends on whether or not you think the characters are funny. For example, Jennifer Anniston is once again a "horrible boss."  Does the idea of her being a mean boss again and being able to beat men up make you laugh?  If so, you might like this.  Do you think someone accidentally inhaling a busload of cocaine and then turning from an uptight dude to a party animal funny?  Then you might like this. How about people taking pictures of their butts on the photocopy machine (do people even do that any more?). Again, if you think that's funny, then you might laugh.  I, on the other hand, do not find those things very funny.

However, I do give props to T.J. Miller as Jennifer Anniston's brother, the clueless boss.  He did make me laugh. Fans of the TV show "Silicon Valley" will recognize him. He was also very kooky in "Deadpool," where he had one of the funniest lines in the movie, which he supposedly adlibbed (when describing Wade's disfigurement he says, "You look like an avocado had sex with an older, more disgusting avocado.")  He is very hot right now.  He is so hot that he hosted the "Critics Choice Awards" this last week and was just as nutty as the characters he has played on TV and in the movies.  I am always drawn to the actors who aren't afraid to "go there," and Miller is willing to not only "go there," but go beyond there. 

I also enjoyed Jillian Bell as the female pimp who is super friendly until you cross her and Fortune Feimster as a first-time Uber driver makes an impact in a very small role.  They both made me chuckle.  Jason Bateman is the king of the put upon, sad sack guy. He pretty much plays straight man to the antics of everyone else but that in and of itself is very funny. 

But was that enough?  Not really.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you liked "The Hangover" or really over-the-top Christmas parties are your thing, you might like this but if you don't, don't say I didn't warn you.



 
***Some Movies You Might Have Missed***
(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!



On DVD



Love the Coopers


What do you think might happen when four generations of the Cooper clan come together for their annual Christmas Eve celebration?  Right. 

Charlotte Cooper (Diane Keaton) wants to have the Perfect Christmas for her family just like they used to have.  However, we all know that reality can never live up to happy memories and that's what we have here. Families getting together for Christmas is fraught with drama.  But the real problem is that Charlotte and her husband, Sam (John Goodman), are going to get a divorce after 40 years - you know, it's an empty nest thing - but Charlotte wants to have one last big party before announcing the divorce to the family (sound familiar?).

Son Hank (Ed Helms) spends a lot of time looking for a job and daughter, Eleanor (Olivia Wilde, whom I really like), is avoiding going home and while dawdling in an airport bar meets a soldier (Jake Lacy). Grandpa Bucky (Alan Arkin) is mourning the days when he was a hot commodity with the ladies and acts out a bit with Ruby, the young waitress (Amanda Seyfried) at the restaurant he frequents every day. He has a crush on her and wants to tell her, but it's also her last day on the job.  Marisa Tomei plays Charlotte's sister, Emma, who has a problem with shoplifting and Anthony Mackie is the cop who arrests her and befriends her.  Far-fetched as can be.

If all of that sounds funny or even interesting to you, you might like this, but for me...yawn.

This is the age old story of a married couple losing themselves and their relationship while raising their kids and Christmas bringing up memories, regrets, family slights and expectations, but in the end, no matter how dysfunctional we are we are still family.  Yawn.

I am an Olivia Wilde fan and she has done some great work, but here she seems to be channeling Diane Keaton's mannerisms so that we will really believe she is her daughter, and since I am not a fan of Diane Keaton's mannerisms, I didn't much care for the performance and it didn't really make sense to me.  In fact, most of the characters and situations just didn't make sense. It's a star-studded cast with little for any of them to do.

The script by Steven Rogers was probably supposed to make us feel all warm and fuzzy about family and Christmas, but despite a few good moments, it was disjointed and there weren't enough of the good moments to override the bad ones such as precocious kids (which I hate) and farting old people, which I also don't find funny, probably because I am one. 

Directed by Jessie Nelson, the film just didn't come together in a satisfying way.  I just didn't know what I was supposed to feel when it was over.  That the holidays are fraught with emotion?  That families are dysfunctional?  Duh. I already knew that.

With a holiday theme and disparate characters and their stories coming together, this could be compared to a low-rent Garry Marshall movie like "Mother's Day," so...

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like Garry Marshall's movies like the aforementioned "Mother's Day" (or "New Year's Eve" or "Valentine's Day"), you might like this, but I don't so I didn't.  If you are dying to watch a Christmas movie, watch "It's a Wonderful Life" instead.







Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2015)


They're baaaack!  As Yogi Berra famously said, "It's deja vu all over again."  Mac (Josh Rogan) and Kelly (Rose Byrne), who fought off their old neighbors, a rowdy fraternity in the first film, have new neighbors.  No it's not another fraternity.  This time it's a sorority and the girls are even worse than the boys. They are so bad in fact that Mac and Kelly ask their old nemesis, Teddy (Zac Efron), to help.

I liked the first "Neighbors." But you know how I feel about sequels.

Kelly and Mac decide it's time to sell their house.  They have some buyers and the deal is just about to go through...

Meanwhile, Shelby (Chloe Grace Moritz) joins a sorority and is told that sorority girls are not allowed to party in the sorority houses, but they can go party with the boys in the frat houses.  That is not OK with Shelby so she declares war and decides to start her own sorority.  Guess what?  It's going to be in the house next to Mac and Kelly, the same house where that darned fraternity was last time!  What are the odds? 

The girls party like mad making Mac's and Kelly's lives a nightmare.  The girls harass them, throwing used tampons at their windows and exhibiting other gross behavior.  Mac and Kelly are worried that they won't be able to sell their house if the buyers find out there is a sorority next door. 

How do you hide the existence of the sorority next door and eventually get rid of them before those buyers back out?  Why you ask your arch nemesis and his friend to help.  They ask Teddy and Pete (Dave Franco, who has the same smile as his brother, James - it's something about the teeth), their enemies from the last movie, to help them bring the girls down.  Teddy is out of college now and is a model.  Not sure what Pete is doing.  I think he is gay and I don't remember that from the first one.  Anyway...

It's WAR!

The girls really can't afford that house so they decide to sell weed to finance the sorority so Mac, Kelly, Teddy and Pete decide to infiltrate a party the girls are throwing and throw a wrench in their big drug deal. 

And  that's the crux of this story. 

Directed by Nicholas Stoller, with a few new tweaks, it's basically a rehash of the first film.  Hey, the first movie was a success, why not do it again but this time with girls? 

You are probably sick by now of how much I talk about HATING SEQUELS!!  Not to mention that gross-out humor and talking about penises (that's not the word the girls use) is not my idea of funny.  This film had good box office and I give the feminist angle some props - I mean girls like to party, too, so why should the guys get all of the fun? That is a plus, but that doesn't make it a good film, though I'm not the demographic this film was aimed at either.

But ...just when I was going to give up on this mess, Zac goes up on the stage at the party shirtless and does a strip tease...nothing like a little naked Zac to add some life to a movie.  Maybe I am that demographic after all.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you want to see a rehash of the first "Neighbors" again, you might like this, though the first one stands as the best one.



 
***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***


223 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?




The Leopard (1963)


A Sicilian nobleman tries to maintain his integrity and class in the upheaval of 1860's Italy.

(I know I said this post was all about comedy and it is.  You wouldn't think an epic like this could be classified as comedy, but I think one can say that life is a comedy in many ways and this film is actually quite comical).
 
This is the story of Prince Fabrizio di Salina (Burt Lancaster) who by trying to avoid a confrontation with Garibaldi's army has to move his family to their retreat at Donnafugata.  But he also understands that if he wants to maintain his position in life, he needs to make some compromises, so he marries his nephew, Tancredi (Alain Delon), off to Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), the daughter of the local mayor, an alliance between "The Leopard" and "The Jackal," an alliance between the old ways and old rich and the new ways and the new rich. 

That is fine with Tancredi, who is not only suave and handsome but smart and opportunistic about what lies ahead.  It is the wedding ball that covers the entire last third of the film and which also brings the central metaphor to life - the end of an era.  When the Prince dances with Angelica at the ball, it is the  last dance of an aging man who remembers his youth and what might have been with a beautiful woman like Angelica (and she knows it too), but it's also the last dance of a particular kind of social order. 

The Prince: "We were the leopards, the lions.  Those who will take our place will be jackals, hyenas.  And all of us - leopards, lions, jackals, and sheep - we'll go on thinking ourselves the salt of the earth."

This film, directed and adapted by Italian auteur director Luchina Visconti from the novel by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa, is considered a masterpiece of filmmaking.

Why it's a Must See:  "A cult classic, [this film] is a sumptuous fresco of a world that's active at twilight...No other filmmaker handled [Burt] Lancaster the way Visconti did, making him look so aristocratic, so distinguished, but also so human.  His wonderful performance made Prince Salina one of the emblematic noble characters in movie history...The film's refined chromatic and visual style, based on Visconti's competence in the fine arts, became his signature.  One of the most expensive, sumptuous movies ever produced in Europe."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

Burt Lancaster is almost unrecognizable here, so maybe it is his amazing acting, but it's difficult to judge his acting since it is obvious his Italian is being dubbed by an Italian.  But he is still affecting because acting is not all about how an actor delivers dialogue.  It's also about the face and Lancaster's face delivers.

"It was my best work," Lancaster himself told me [Roger Ebert] sadly, more than 20 years later. 'I bought 11 copies of The Leopard because I thought it was a great novel. I gave it to everyone. But when I was asked to play in it, I said, no, that part's for a real Italian. But, lo, the wheels of fortune turned. They wanted a Russian, but he was too old. They wanted Olivier, but he was too busy. When I was suggested, Visconti said, 'Oh, no! A cowboy!' But I had just finished 'Judgment at Nuremberg,' which he saw, and he needed $3 million, which 20th Century-Fox would give them if they used an American star, and so the inevitable occurred. And it turned out to be a wonderful marriage." 

Alain Delon is French so he's probably being dubbed too, though who cares?  He is SOOO handsome.  I first fell in love with him when he starred in the British film "The Yellow Rolls Royce," and he has been a swoon worthy leading man for me ever since.  His big break-out roll was "Rocco and his Brothers," which I reviewed last year as part of this "project." Swoony McSwoonerson.

Claudia Cardinale, who coincidentally was also in "Rocco and his Brothers," became an international sex symbol after she starred in "The Pink Panther" and is at the height of her beauty here. She looks like a young Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like historical epics that are beautiful to look at and with political significance that could well resonate today, you will love this film.  They don't make movies like this anymore.  But spoiler:  it's LONG.


 

 

***Book of the Week***






Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Loves, Losses and Liberation of Joan Rivers by Leslie Bennetts (2016)




The life and career of Joan Rivers, the first biography since her untimely death.

Even though comedian Joan Rivers was 81 when she died, she not only had no intention of retiring, she didn't plan on dying anytime soon either.  She did a sold-out show the night before a botched endoscopy ended her life.  Rivers was not just a legendary comedian whose career spanned 60 years, she was a feminist pioneer in the male dominated world of stand-up comedy with her conspiratorial humor and her relatable looks.  However, she wanted to be beautiful and not being beautiful haunted her and drove her.

"If I had to choose between being funny and beautiful - beautiful." 

Hence her dedication to plastic surgery, something she made no bones about admitting and her drive to be funny.

It's all here - growing up in middle class Larchmont with a conventional Jewish mother who wanted her to give up comedy and get married to a nice Jewish boy, her big break on the Johnny Carson Show and their subsequent feud, the suicide of her husband, her estrangement from her daughter who blamed her for her father's death - all of that drove her to work, work, work - and Rivers decided that if she couldn't be loved because she was beautiful, she would be loved because she was funny. 

But Rivers was also a feminist trying to make it in the male dominated world of stand-up comedy, so she was tough and didn't care who she insulted.  Funny is funny was her motto.  Most female comedians credit Rivers with paving the way for them in a world where men didn't think women could be funny.  And we ladies know that men are wrong a LOT because women are funny!

Rosy the Reviewer says...an engrossing biography that reveals the woman behind the jokes.



 
See you 

***Tuesday***

 
for a special

Holiday Treat!
 


 
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