Hotel For Dogs (2009)

Very few live-action kids' movies are what I'd call "amazing." ("Babe" would be an example of one that is.) So since I spend a lot of time as a dad watching a lot of mediocre kids films, I have learned to prepare myself to be mostly underwhelmed or, at least, to accept these movies for what they are. I know, in other words, that I am not the target audience for these movies. They weren't made for me.

That said, HOTEL FOR DOGS falls into the category of being quite tolerable for a children's film. If you love dogs, I'm not sure how you couldn't appreciate the film. The dogs are better actors than the majority of the humans in the movie (except for maybe Don Cheadle...how in the hell did they get HIM in here?).

The story is insanely removed from plausability, but my daughter, for one, bought it so much that she's seen the film three times now. In it, two orphans find no satisfaction in their foster care situations and create their own family -- mostly out of dogs. I'm over-simplifying a bit here, but not by much. The simpatico of a well-placed, abandoned hotel allows the kids to play house, or in this case, doggy hotel.

You've got your requisite bad guys, your requisite clueless adults, your adorable animals and fantastic action sequences. What more could you ask for in a kids' movie? You've even got a great speech by Cheadle at the end that is barely a veiled plea for all of us to head straight from watching the movie to an animal shelter. If I could be guaranteed that the dog I'd pick up would be as awesome as some of the dogs in this movie, I just might consider it. For what it aims to be, "Hotel For Dogs" does the trick. It's perfectly pleasant, and you gotta love those dogs!

2.5 out of 4

Read More

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

I finally caught up with one of the big comedy hits of 2008, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL. I had nothing to lose since it aired on HBO and I had a few hours to kill. I was pleasantly surprised. As a matter of fact, I would have to say that only "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" is a better Apatow film than this one. For me, this worked better than "Knocked Up" or even "Superbad."

Director Nicholas Stoller adheres closely to the Apatow playbook, which I will admit is starting to get a little stale. Once again, it's the loser boy-man as the star of the show, here played by the loveable and doughy Jason Segel. The team takes the common, relatable theme of getting over being dumped and takes an approach that combines modern, sexually-explicit comedy with old-fashioned screwball movies. The result, to me, was a delight.

As all of you who have seen the film already know, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL developed its reputation largely around the use of full-frontal male nudity, something that is not as common in films. The shock of seeing Jason Segal naked (and may I add that he is a BRAVE actor...kudos!) overpowers what I think is actually a moment of comic genius -- using the male body to play for laugh both visually and situationally. To have Segal naked in the opening scene of the film and to repeatedly show everything takes "sight gag" to a whole new level. It was hilarious, and it worked.

The supporting cast also worked for me, particularly Russell Brand, which is a good thing because up until now, I have found him to be nothing short of obnoxious and unfunny. The "Apatow Players" (Paul Rudd, et. al.) make requisite appearances as well, and they all work.

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is the kind of movie that I would stop to watch if it was on HBO (and it will be again, many times). It's a film that is easy and fun to watch, and you could tune in to it at any moment and not have to wait but a second or two for a moment of outrageous comedy. A pleasant surprise!

3.5 out of 4

Read More

Why Did I Get Married? (2007)

While I have been vocal about the limits I feel Tyler Perry places on himself as a filmmaker and cinematic thinker, I can't say that I didn't enjoy WHY DID I GET MARRIED? for what it was. And "what it was" amounted to what turns out to be Perry's most subtle blend of humor and melodrama in another of his TV-movie-of-the-week-style films.

You get the sense when you watch any of Perry's films that his clout alone gets these Lifetime movies onto the big screen, when it makes more sense that Perry should just function as the CEO of his own television network that would air his sitcoms and his films. (Maybe that's already happened or it's in the works?)

Perry does little to break from his formula with WHY DID I GET MARRIED?, though the outrageousness is definitely toned down in the absence of Madea, the typical Perry film foil.

Sadly, however, it's Perry's moments of broad comedy that I personally like the best. I could do without the ridiculous, over-the-top melodrama of every Perry film, where no couple is without horrible secrets, no marriage is monogamous, and no blatant sinner is without a hypocritical sermon to preach to his/her friends. So naturally, I gravitated toward Tasha Smith, who plays a loud-mouthed drunk wife named Angela and walked away with this film's best comedic moments. Angela is your stereotypical "oh no, you dih-int!" characacture of an unmanagable, speaks-her-mind-despite-the-consequences black woman, and Perry uses her alcoholism to explain or excuse the behavior. Regardless, she was a riot.

The rest of the cast, I have to say, was solid. Janet Jackson gets the stoic role and is conspicuously tame except for her one big scene of confession (Perry gives every actor a scene like this, and that's part of the problem with his movies.) Jill Scott is fantastic as an overweight wife who is in denial about her marriage and is eventually brought into the light. Most of the male actors were interchangeable -- most behaved in a similar, often neanderthal-ish manner and came alive when in scenes without the women, who dominated the stories and the film as a whole.

In ranking WHY DID I GET MARRIED? among Perry's works, this definitely belongs in the top half, though I have not scene all of his films. I suppose it is a more solid attempt at something that could succeed outside of the black community. Certainly, its subject matter is universal, though Perry always flavors it with his worldview, which is certainly his prerogative.

In short, WHY DID I GET MARRIED? is a perfectly entertaining two hours as it airs on cable film channels. TV is where his stuff seems to belong and where it probably works best, anyway.

2.5 out of 4

Read More

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)

The title of HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU is also my review of the film. I would be "He" and the film is "You." Not since "27 Dresses" has my wife made such a big deal about apologizing to me for making me sit through a movie she wanted to see.

For me, the worst part about HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU is Ginnifer Goodwin, a WHINY stereotype of a woman who always sits by the phone, waiting for a man to call. As my wife accurately pointed out, all of the men in the film appear to be major assholes and manipulators, and the women all appear to be some sort of emotional Voltron...like they share one brain among them and have to merge together over lunch to assemble the brain pieces into one and then collectively decide how to handle this guy or that guy.

Everything you expect to happen in this film does. You'll figure out who is going to end up with who, and you'll be right. You'll see a married couple faced with infidelity and think, "now wouldn't it be refreshing if he DOESN'T cheat on his wife?," but of course he does. There's got to be conflict coming from somewhere!

This film was two hours of irrational behavior swirling around a series of mini-conflicts that pop up and are settled like half-hour television episodes. The message that it sends about dating and relationships is mostly deplorable, simplistic and laughable. And that's probably the only part of this romantic comedy that's actually funny.

1.0 out of 4

Read More

Let the Right One In (2008)

I first saw LET THE RIGHT ONE IN during my year-end movie blowout and while I liked the film, it didn't really hit me. I'm not big into vampire stuff. The thought of watching a Twilight film or reading one of those books makes me want to barf. Now I kind of wish I had seen "Twilight," because as I rewatched LET THE RIGHT ONE IN today, I imagined that this film is probably FAAAAR superior to that other, more commercial vampire film. But I have to be honest in admitting that I can't make that comparison firsthand.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is a fantastic film, though. Shot in mostly frigid long shots, it follows the savage bullying of a 12-year-old boy in a Stockholm suburb who befriends a mysterious girl he meets at night on a playground by his apartment building. She turns out to be a vampire -- one of those reluctant ones who feels guilty about what she has to do to survive. There is certainly no joy in it for her, and she holds Oskar's advancements for friendship and, possibly, romance, at arm's length while managing to strengthen his resolve to stand up to his tormenters.

I found this film to be as much about what kids who are bullied must endure as it was a vampire film, if not more. Oskar has no one but his vampire friend to turn to -- so much so that he shrugs her off when she asks "what if I'm not really a girl?" and begins to exhibit stranger and stranger behavior. She makes him stand up for himself and he begins to take revenge on the bullies. In her debt, he also begins to assist her in locating prey for her own survival.

The final moments of the film, while perhaps a bit expected, are nonetheless dramatically satisfying. A sort of Faustian bargain, we are left with the sense that Oskar and his friend need each other to survive. Bonus kudos, by the way, to the music of Per Gessle, who's Swedish band Glynne Tyner (sp?) appears in a few scenes. Nice to hear a little Roxette(ish) every now and then!

I don't expect many American film viewers to come across this one, but if you call yourself a fan of vampire films, you aren't much of one if you skip this one just because it's not in English. And I suspect the Robert Patinson fans are the moviegoers in biggest need of checking this gem out.

3.5 out of 4

Read More

Paranoid Park (2007)

"No one's ever really ready for Paranoid Park," says a friend to Alex, the main character of Gus Van Sant's quiet film, PARANOID PARK. This memorable line of dialogue, rich with narrative metaphor, spoke double for me. As a viewer, I'm not sure I was fully "ready" (read: appreciative) for or of PARANOID PARK.

Upon finishing it, I dismissed it as a film that did too many things that don't really appeal to me. Its elliptical structure -- filled with repeated visuals, out-of-sequence narrative and slowly-paced looped moments instantly struck me as "arty," but it wasn't "my kind of art."But then I starting thinking about the film, and I actually had to go back and watch it again. And it was at that point that I realized that PARANOID PARK might just be the mastery of Gus Van Sant's long-time pursuit of telling stories about "lost boys."

From male hustlers in "My Own Private Idaho" to the Kurt Cobain riff, "Last Days" to "Elephant," his take on Klebold and Harris of Columbine infamy, Van Sant has firmly established himself as the cinematic master of the lonely, conflicted and disenfranchized young male. Even when you throw in his mainstream, commercial features, the theory holds. "Good Will Hunting" features a young man with an extra something that sets him apart from the gang he hangs with. Van Sant's seemingly-inexplicable shot-for-shot remake of "Psycho" provided him with the chance to mess with Norman Bates, the ultimate in lonely, tortured young men. And "Milk," the Oscar-winning biopic that ultimately stole this film's thunder, featured a number of young men who were isolated from society and trying to adjust, however confident or not some of them were in doing so.

In PARANOID PARK, an unassuming skater kid figures out that he inadvertently had something to do with the horrible death of a security guard near a Portland skating park. The boy, Alex, must face the authorities when pulled out of class for questioning. He must also face a nagging girlfriend who decides at a bad time that the two should lose their virginity. And he has nothing to go home to but his slowly rotting family situation as his parents drag out the details of their inevitable divorce.

What irritated me at first about PARANOID PARK is that all of what I just told you is presented in a very jumbled-up way. Those events happen out of that order, and they happen multiple times. It's not a tidy film. Alex's decision to keep his involvement in the guard's death to himself means that the film...just...ends. So there is no satisfaction there. In fact, the film is incredibly slow and quiet. Though it clocks in at under 90 minutes, it feels longer because Alex's moral confusion and torture is scrambled and repeated for the audience.

Upon further consideration, though, I get it. And Van Sant presents with this film what might be the mastery of his long-worked-at little genre. Sadly, however, I doubt that too many will have the patience to understand it. Artistically, however, I'll go on record and say that this is a better film than "Milk," though no one will probably listen to me.

The cinematography in PARANOID PARK was the one thing that hooked me immediately and took no time to wow me. Scenes of the teens skateboarding are often shot in Super-8 and then there are moments shot in such crystalline 35-millimeter that the colors almost look enhanced, the film almost digital. You go from moments of home-movie blur to moments where you can literally identify individual blades of grass in saturated green. Cinematically, it's a beautiful film.

Ultimately, PARANOID PARK appears to be about little. It comes off as the film equivalent of a short story. A trifle. Not much action. Lots of artistic film making and character brooding. But Van Sant wants us to dig deeper. And there we find the very foundation of teen isolation. A nice boy, but lost. A genuine mistake, but deadly. A cover-up that will cost a boy his soul. Friends and family who can't really "be there" for him. It made me wonder how many boys like this walk through my classroom door every day.

When you think about it that way, PARANOID PARK is as heavy as "Milk" or any other film that lays on the drama and tells a much more viewer-friendly, cinematic story. This is a devestating grower, a film that sticks to your sides and makes you think. I realized that PARANOID PARK actually IS my kind of art, and I'm glad I saw it.

3.5 out of 4

Read More