Jun 20, 2011
(rated PG-13, 110 mins.)
Very loosely based on the 1960s television show that starred Bill Cosby, about two men tossed together, one black and one white, to assist in top secret espionage for a government agency. The difference: in this, they’ve reversed the roles. The plot, what little there is, involves the Air Force’s missing stealth bomber, the country’s new top-secret weapon. The fate of the free world is in the hands of Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy) a championship boxer and Alex Scott (Owen Wilson) a CIA super-agent. Why they are teamed in the first place is never clear? As a matter of fact, Robinson was about to go into the rink for his 58th undefeated boxing match. This seems like a better storyline. Director Betty Thomas best known for “The Brady Bunch Movie” and Howard Stern’s “Private Parts” re-teams with Murphy from her “Doctor Doolittle” days, but clearly focuses on hoping the two comic leads will bounce off each other. Oh, they bounce alright. Murphy’s loud and charming energy can’t seem to balance out Wilson’s subtle, dry humor. Aside from a couple amusing scenes (like when George W. Bush phones Wilson) these buddy “Rush Hour 2” type flicks, are getting annoying. Famke Janssen is the love interest with Malcolm McDowell, underused, but doing good job in a bad movie, as the bad guy “Switchblade.” Somebody needs to tell Eddie “Pluto Nash” Murphy, that his “48 Hours” of fame are over.
Jun 20, 2011
Chuck (Adam Sandler) is the poster child for every bachelor’s lifestyle, while Larry (Kevin James) is a widowed father of two children missing his deceased wife. The two men couldn’t be more different, except for the one thing they have in common: their firefighter brothers who share a passion for saving lives. When a political snag prevents Larry from leaving his pension to his children, he asks Chuck to share a “domestic partnership” in order to technically change the rules. It’s all working fine until the investigator (Steve Buscemi) snoops around their trash barrels and is about to pull the plug on their scheme that Chuck is forced to marry Larry. But as the whole Gay-Rights issues grow, they find themselves in need of a lawyer (Jessica Biel) who adds to the predictable and formulaic plot of one of the guys (Sandler) falling for her. Now it’s I-want-to-date-her-but-I-can’t-because-I’m-gay-and-have-to-pretend-I-don’t-like-girls. The movie is surprisingly hilarious from beginning to end perhaps due to intelligent writing by Alexander “Sideways” Payne. Dan Ackroyd is the feisty Fire Chief, David Spade does a hilarious routine at a gay pride party, but it’s the appearances of both Richard Chamberlain and Lance Bass (N Sync) that add to the coming-out-of-the-closet moments taking the movie over the top. When the story is over – despite all its political statements – gay or straight won’t matter. These are just two guys you’ll care about. 3.5 tiaras
Jun 20, 2011
Zooey (Rashida Jones) is about to marry Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd). And while she’s chosen her brides maids (Jaime Pressly and Sarah Burns) her husband hasn’t chosen his best man. That’s because he’s short any real male companionship in his life. After an attempted series of bad ‘dates’ with possible beer drinking, football watching, and card playing dudes, he happens upon a potential B.F.F. in Sydney Fife (Jason Segel). They get along a little too well and have their own language (like when they’re just hanging out – “We’re just chill-axing.”) Soon Zooey finds herself jealous of ‘the other woman’ except the ‘other woman’ is a guy. The movie is surprisingly better than anticipated and the chemistry between Rudd and Fife make for more believability than most of these raunchy guy flicks. Paul Rudd seems to be two for two with this and his last hilarious movie “Role Models.” He’s a guy’s guy and apparently a girl’s guy, too. Three tiaras
Jun 20, 2011
Steve Russell (Jim Carrey) is a police officer, part of the local community and a church-going man. He’s even married to Debbie (Leslie Mann). He’s also gay. But he won’t know that until a car accident forces a series of events that end him on the wrong side of a cell block… doing time in prison. It’s here that he’ll meet his soulmate, Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). The two star-crossed lovers are determined to be together at all odds. And so this hard-to-believe-true-story takes us on a Catch Me If You Can con-artist romp in a role that Carrey has undoubtedly worked his entire career for. But alas, the film doesn’t belong to him….but instead to an unrecognizable McGregor, whose performance steals the show (not to mention Carrey’s heart.) From his blonde-frosted locks, to his genteel body movement, his steel-blue stare and passionate persona – he’s a Southern boy innocent and he’s about to be deflowered by love. Overall, not sure how the studio will market this small gem, postponed for release since 2009. Its heavy-duty R rating and raw material (naked Carrey having sex) might offend some since they expect Carrey in The Mask, Dumb & Dumber or at the very least Horton Hears A Who. Two tiaras .
Jun 20, 2011
(rated R)
Albert (Jason Schwartzman), is a hysterical tree-hugging guy screaming out insanities like he’s got a bad case of Tourette’s syndrome. Albert is the head of a group that preserves green-open-spaces in America’s land of the mall. Brad (Jude Law) is Albert’s nemesis, a handsome well-spoken rising young exec that manages not only the corporation (Huckabees) but sleeps with the Huckabees poster girl (Naomi Watts). Brad even wins over the two ‘existential detectives’ (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) that Albert has hired to spy on himself to find out what is exactly wrong. Make sense? Didn’t think so. And even though the movie delivers more and more story in exhausting craziness, it really never does. Waiting for the movie to kick in, one begins to question if perhaps we needed to be high to watch it, let alone understand it, since the reiterating premise is the ‘perception of reality’ and that we need to have our world’s dismantled because we are all connected. (Insert love beads, finger snaps and tambourines.) Leaving me feeling confused, let alone dismantled myself, this movie feels like it’s trying to be hip, cool, brilliant – a la “Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind” or “Being John Malkovich” but manages to miss its mark. The only thing hitting its mark, is Mark Wahlberg as a do-gooder fireman with violent-streak-sincerity, who tackles a role that gives us hope every time he’s on the screen. But alas, he can’t carry a movie alone, even with the weight of Watts, Hoffman, Tomlin and Law. If you think the title throws us off, (with heart? or is it love?), wait until you see the movie.
