The Sorcerer's Apprentice

After The Bad Lieutenant (and adaptation, and the rock, and the clips I've seen of Wicker Man, heck even after Con Air) Nic Cage has won pretty much permanent immunity from me (as much as the National treasure films have sorely tested that statement), so when I saw that he was starring in a Jerry Bruckheimer produced film playing a wizard I was hopeful that there would be enough trademark Cage insanity to offset what was a mediocre, at best, premise. The reviews were mixed to say the least, and that's probably the best way to think of the film. Its pretty up and down, and feels like they cut quite a few scenes in order to get down to its sub-ninety minute run time. Still, even though Cage feels restrained (I mean he's playing a two thousand year old wizard in New York, he should be anything but restrained) there's still enough touches to make the film watchable. If anything some of the throw-away gags (a modern wizard is posing on a Magic - The Gathering poster) are actually fairly clever. Its not quite enough to make me call The Sorcerer's Apprentice a good film, but its moderately entertaining and has enough Cage so that if I saw it on a plane I wouldn't be wholly disappointed.

Additional Note: I thought about this a bit more and I think the real reason the film isn't successful is that they try to force it to be a big budget action film, when the most interesting aspects are the character gags, and the few times they let Cage, Molina, Jay Baruchel, and Toby Kennel riff. Had this not been produced by Disney and Bruckheimer I think there actually could have been something interesting about an insane Wizard training a physics nerd in modern day new york. Probably would have been infinitely quirkier, with less rote action sequences and cliched love story. On the other at least they didn't cast Kevin James.

Hitch

I will have to admit that I only watched about thirty minutes of this. I came home from a gig it was either Hitch or a family guy rerun and since it was one from after season 3 I went with the film. Look from what I saw it wasn't that interesting and completely predictable but I do have two observations:

1) Will Smith is a charismatic guy. Seriously, he really has an easy charm and dynamism that even though he was playing a fairly thinly written uninteresting character I still found him watchable. This may limit the range of roles he's able to play convincingly since he's inherently likable, but still you can see why the guy's films gross a billion dollars.

2) Of course I may have felt that way because the third main character was played by the charisma sucking black hole that is Kevin James. Seriously we get it, he's fat and he falls down, but when your entire shtick is based on pratfalls (and not very imaginative ones at that) it gets old real fast. I actually cringed every time he came on screen and flipped back to Family Guy for a few minutes. I get that his films make a lot of money and more power to him, but he's rapidly becoming one of those guys who automatically causes me to consider seeing the new Kate Hudson film in order to avoid his presence.

The Kids are alright

Much like the titular kids, this film is alright! (I am going to published on a one sheet one day, I don't care how sad I sound). I don't feel like doing a whole rundown but here's some quick thoughts:

Plot

The story follows a lesbian couple (Julianne Moore and Annette Benning) who have two children from an anonymous sperm donor (Mark Ruffalo) The oldest daughter is about to go off to college, and decides to contact the donor; whose introduction into the family's life brings complications (to say the least).

The Good

Even though the concept sounds a bit pretentious, the film avoids any smugness that I was a little afraid of when I saw the trailer. It also has a nice sense of humor (I laughed out loud several times), and is well acted. I also like how it managed not to get all preachy about the fact that we were dealing with a lesbian relationship, and just treated the dynamic like any other family (albeit an unconventional one). Finally, I appreciated the way the film didn't try to give a tidy ending to all the characters, and made it clear that all the conflict that occurred was going to have very real repercussions for the rest of their lives.

The Bad

This is going to be a bit spoilery, but I really felt that having Moore have an affair with Ruffalo was unnecessary, and kind of a lazy way to exacerbate the instability in her relationship with Benning. I think the film could have been just as effective if it stayed focused on the way that Ruffalo's introduction was disturbing the family dynamic (for Benning's character in particular) and not felt the need to introduce such a heavy handed, distracting, denouement. That said I think the whole situation was handled with more restraint that it certainly could have been, which made it more tolerable.

One more note: I though Ruffalo's character was a bit under written towards the end and I think that the film didn't know what to do with him by the end.

The Ugly

Your face

The Office

So I just knocked out the entire UK office in about five days and obviously it was amazing but I was really struck by how much the US version has managed to differentiate itself. The UK version is rougher, the characters generally less likable, and given the constraints of the show (only having about ten hours of total content) you don't get as invested in the characters so their situation doesn't feel as tragic as the US version. Also while I found David hysterical, I get why the US version made michael softer and more sympathetic since six plus seasons of David might have killed me (not in a bad way, but he's a lot to sit through).

All that said I thought the UK christmas special was gold (particularly how they portray David dealing with his B-Level celebrity), and I fully intend to use 'as the actress said to the Bishop' instead of 'thats what she said' for the foreseeable future.

Winter's Bone, Despicable Me

Winter's Bone

Another film that I didn't know much about going into, except that the reviews had generally been positive. The story follows a 17 year girl (Jennifer Lawrence) whose father is out on bail and she has to find him or she, her two siblings, and mentally ill mother are going to get kicked out of their house. The rest of the film deals with her journey into the backwoods of Kentucky (or thereabouts) where helpful people with no dark secrets help her as much as they can, and no age old resentments come to the fore. Or Not. Yeah you can throw Winter's Bone up there in that Genre of films that makes me scared to death to ever stop my car when driving through the Ozarks. Anyway the film is well executed and performances are solid. It keeps a tight focus and doesn't feel the need to explain everything to the audience. Plus if you're already fully behind the idea that people living in the hills are crazy and will beat the crap out of you this will fit into your wheelhouse nicely.

Despicable Me

I don't have a lot to say. Its funny, well paced, and doesn't have an abundance of pop-culture gags or extraneous musical numbers. It doesn't have quite the depth of Pixar's best work, but then again neither did Rush Hour 3. There are definitely worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

Cyrus/The A-Team

Cyrus

The plot revolves around a socially awkward man (John C. Reilly) who meets a women (Marisa Tomei) with a 21 year old son (Jonah Hill) still living with her who is overly attached to mommy (to the point of being borderline Oedipal) and sees Reilly as a threat to their 'idyllic' existence. Given the concept and actors involved I expected this to to degenerate into a battle of wills as the two principals fight to screw each other in an effort to drive the other one out. While this happens a little bit, it doesn't play out at all like I expected. The first hour is manifested with the type of humor found in shows like The Office, where you're just watching people lacking basic social skills interact and you just can't help but cringe at what they're doing and their general unawareness at how their actions are being perceived. While funny, its still uncomfortable to watch and its a testament to the actors that you still have some sympathy for the characters even after all this is done. The second half shifts a little bit to the aforementioned battle between Hill and Reilly, but rather than having them engage in ever escalating stunts, the film is more concerned with showing the consequences of their actions, and illustrating how screwed up many of them (particularly Hill) actually are. Again not exactly the lightest fare when it comes right down to it. Anyway overall the film is well acted and executed, and does its best to keep what is really a fairly unrealistic premise grounded. Its not the most comfortable viewing experience but at least thats by design.

The A-Team

I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this film. From the opening scenes it embraces the ludicrousness of the whole premise and just runs with it. As Hannibal says at one point in the film "Overstatement is underrated" the film takes the excess of the TV show and turns it up twenty notches. It thankfully doesn't spend much time trying to interject too much seriousness into the proceedings, and the ridiculously overqualified cast (Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlito Copley, Patrick Wilson, and Major Dad's own Gerald Mccraney) make the characters enjoyable to spend a few hours with. Really my only issue with the film is that the fight scenes are poorly staged and shot in a manner akin to the way Paul Greengrass shot green zone (look you have a UFC fighter playing BA for crying out loud, how about pulling the camera back and letting us see what he's doing). Still its light, enjoyable, entertainment and one of the few TV reboots I wouldn't mind seeing turned into a franchise.

Grownups

I went into this film with no expectations, and the only reason I acquiesced to see it is because there was the only other option was Twilight. Of course once I saw this trailer I knew that I was in trouble. Still I had a hope that it could be at least moderately entertaining since three of the leads (Sandler, rock, and Spade) can be really funny and it also had Salma Hayek which is generally a good thing. Unfortunately it really sucked. It didn't help that kevin James and Rob Schneider had the other two leads, but a poor script left the other guys feeling neutered and restrained. Also way too much of the film was devoted to trying to be a heartwarming family film, when in reality it should have just let the talent cut loose. Look its not the worst film ever, but its generally boring and not that funny. Look elsewhere for entertainment.

Toy Story 3

There's not much more to say here that hasn't already been said. Like its predecessors this is an excellent film, and the level of detail that Pixar puts into every aspect of its production is something to behold. I put it a notch below the second one just because it revisits many of the same themes without doing anything new, but rather than being the Godfather 3 its more like The Return of the Jedi. Maybe not quite up to par with its illustrious predecessor, but still very entertaining. The only part that rubbed a bit wrong is at the very end when Andy (on his way to college) stops off at someone's house he hasn't talked to for years and then proceeds to give their small child a lecture about life and plays with her for hours in the yard. I know that's supposed to be sweet but I couldn't feel as if I were the parent I would have been a little creeped out by the 17 year old kid just randomly showing up and spending a lot of alone time with my three year old. On the other hand I'm a bad person, and this is probably only something that would bother someone as heartless as me.

Finally, 3-D adds absolutely nothing (with the exception of $4 to the price of the ticket) to the film. I get why the studios are embracing it, but I do hope that audiences eventually become fatigued and the demand drops off for films that are just converted to the 3D specifically for marketing reasons.