Exploit Stupidity: Yoga Hosers Is Awful.

The Good: Production design, Competent supporting performances
The Bad: Terrible characters, Astonishingly horrible plot, Most of the special effects, Lackluster acting, Exploitative quality. Most of the film is not funny at all.
The Basics: Kevin Smith's Yoga Hosers clogs the cinematic marketplace with garbage based on name recognition instead of anything approaching quality.


It used to be, as a cinephile, that when there was a new film written and directed by Kevin Smith, it was an event. Smith had a very interesting (as it turns out now, early) career arc as a darling of indie cinema and he hit a creative peak with Dogma (reviewed here!). But, when film distributors wanted to make more than ten million dollars at the box office for an opening weekend and Smith went commercial with Cop Out (reviewed here!) (it's funny how few people ever consider Mallrats a sell-out, as it was just a Kevin Smith film with an actual budget!), Smith quickly eroded his street cred. By the time he switched his storytelling focus with Red State (reviewed here!), he could barely open a film in wide release cinematically and he pretty much milked to death the cottage industry surrounding his name recognition (i.e. public appearances and DVDs of his public appearances talking about his past works). Around the time Red State was released, Kevin Smith publicly talked about how he was pretty much done with writing and directing - he announced that he had a "hockey movie" and Clerks III he wanted to do and then he was hanging up his spurs. His plans changed, apparently, and Tusk, various episodes of The Flash and Yoga Hosers were the result.

Yoga Hosers is a Kevin Smith film - written and directed - that serves as a vehicle for young actresses Lily-Rose Depp and Harley Quinn Smith (Kevin Smith's daughter) to break out on their own . . . while still surrounded by the famous actors, directors, and other creative types who make the viewer care at all about giving these young actors a chance to dazzle us. Unfortunately for everyone involved - and those who bother to view Yoga Hosers - there is nothing dazzling about Yoga Hosers. Instead, Yoga Hosers implicitly makes the potent argument that Kevin Smith has already given us the best he had . . . and he has nothing significant left to give.

Colleen Collette and Colleen McKenzie work at the Eh-2-Zed convenience store in Canada, when they are not so busy on their phones taking pictures with Instacan 2.0 and rocking out in the store's back room. They are excited when one night seniors from their high school, Hunter Calloway and Gordon Greenleaf, visit the Eh-2-Zed and invite them to a grade 12 party. Colleen McKenzie is allowed to go to the party if she takes her mother's switchblade, The Moyle, with her for protection. Colleen Collette wants to go to the party, but the day of, her father's girlfriend Tabitha decides to take off from work, with Bob, forcing the Colleens to work that night.

In the days between, the Colleens attend Terry Fox Preparatory school where they learn of the Canadian Nazis, led by Andronicus Arcane. After briefly losing their cameraphones and meeting the ridiculous author Guy Lapointe, the Colleens go to work the night of the "grade 12 party." When Hunter calls McKenzie, the Colleens invite the seniors to the Eh-2-Zed to party and are surprised when the guys take them up on the offer and only the pair arrive at the convenience store. They are quickly put in mortal peril when it turns out the boys are Canadian satanists who want the Colleens for virgin sacrifices and then the store is besieged by a small army of sentient Nazi bratwursts who want to kill them.

Yes, Kevin Smith's latest magnum opus centers around fifteen (and a half) year-old girls fighting off Bratzis in between reminding viewers just how unpleasant and superficial teenage girls and their cameraphones can be.

Immediately, I had high hopes for Yoga Hosers in that five production companies were credited at the beginning with working together to produce the film and my thought was "even Kevin Smith couldn't bamboozle five companies to throw money at absolute shit" and there are a couple of funny lines in the film right up front. I was wrong. Kevin Smith must be the world's most convincing huckster in his spare time to have gotten so many people to fund this absolute piece of shit (and how is it that Terry Gilliam still cannot get the funding together for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote?!).

What Smith gets right in Yoga Hosers is the production design and the casting. Fans of Kevin Smith's View Askew productions will see a lot in Yoga Hosers that creates a similar sense of reality. Yoga Hosers is packed with visual gags - the cereal boxes and product designs for products on shelves at the Eh-2-Zed and similar iconography at The Gimli Slider, etc - that make the film feel like a Kevin Smith film. The supporting cast of Yoga Hosers is well-cast, though the film feels like a series of obscure cameos before the plot actually bothers to hit its stride and start going anywhere.

But therein the fun ends.

Yoga Hosers is populated by unlikable characters who are virtually impossible to empathize with. Smith makes a smart statement implicitly through the beginning of the film, that the current generation of young people is self-absorbed and caught on their phones rather than truly ever interacting. But, Smith undermines his own point by underlining it and making it explicit with a tirade from the physical education teacher, Ms. Wicklund. In a similar fashion, the Colleens are learning yoga from an incompetent poseur, Yogi Bayer, which is delightfully satirical until the Colleens mouth off to Ms. Wicklund about the yoga she is trying to teach in school. But unlike something like Clerks II (reviewed here!) where the protagonists transition out of their stagnating lives to make fundamental changes, Yoga Hosers simply glorifies the stupidity of the protagonists and invites the antagonists to buy into their ridiculousness. The Canadian Nazis want nothing more than to get their photo into the same stupid tabloid the Colleens love (does the Instagram/Facebook generation even know what magazines are?!) and the schlock horror of the Bratzis comes far too late in the film to be even remotely interesting.

And there is an exploitative quality to Yoga Hosers. Right after the 2016 Presidential election, Harley Quinn Smith went out protesting and Kevin Smith wrote a beautiful disclaimer when he shared photographs of her protesting via social media. Smith wanted to remind people who were going to react to the photos he posted that his daughter is a seventeen year-old minor and he was sharing the pictures because he was proud of her activism. When I read that, I applauded it; the last thing a seventeen year-old needs is death threats or to be exploited/commented upon for how she looks. Kevin Smith had the right idea with trying to remind his fans that his daughter is a minor who does not deserve to be exploited or be subjected to vicious comments.

But, it does not take long into Yoga Hosers to notice that Harley Quinn Smith is being exploited in a way that Lily-Rose Depp is not. Harley Quinn Smith is outfitted in short skirts and midriff baring costumes for the bulk of Yoga Hosers. And Harley Quinn Smith is outfitted in the low-cut shirts that showcase her breasts. Outside a single shot where Lily-Rose Depp is laying on her back after a battle and her shirt rides up to expose her stomach and one mid-yoga strech shot that is hard to see as anything but an ass-shot of a girl in tight yoga pants, Depp is fully covered the entirety of Yoga Hosers. Smith is, noticeably, not. For girls who share everything, the contrast between Depp's yoga stretch pants (black) and Smith's short shorts (white) is painfully obvious and more disturbing than Kevin Smith attempting to elicit humor by moving around the moles on Guy Lapointe's face (didn't a Rob Schneider flick do that already?!) between shots. For someone who works to protect his daughter in the one context, Kevin Smith seems very willing to exploit his daughter in the other.

And therein lays the problem with Yoga Hosers on the acting front. Harley Quinn Smith is not given any big opportunities to showcase any performance talents in Yoga Hosers. Kevin Smith is adept at presenting (in script and on screen) big, deep, compelling human moments - Alan Rickman's Metatron talking to Bethany about having to be the voice of god to talk to the confused, hurt, child Jesus in Dogma perfectly illustrates that! - and Yoga Hosers is noticeably lacking in any such depth. As a result, Harley Quinn Smith and Lily-Rose Depp pal around playing exactly what they are; teenage girls doing stupid teenage girl shit. There is little real acting involved and whatever differences between the performers and their characters is not substantive or interesting in a way that allows either to plumb any sort of acting depth.

The visual effects in Yoga Hosers are pretty horrible; the Bratzis are not integrated into the main photography well (and the physics of some of their movements are obviously off) and the explosions are supposed to be comical, but they look cheesy (not even campy). On the visual effects front, Kevin Smith aspires to get to Sharknado quality CG effects. The golem looks awesome and gross, but by the time it comes into play, most viewers will already have tapped out.

Yoga Hosers is the second in a new trilogy of Kevin Smith films and viewers can only hope that his Canadian horror trilogy remains only three films (the View Askew films began as a New Jersey trilogy, but expanded beyond the three movies!) before Kevin Smith either calls it quits or creates a sequel to Dogma that rises to the level of greatness Smith has been shown to be capable of. But for those expecting anything of that quality of Yoga Hosers are only setting themselves up for disappointment.

For other works with Natasha Lyonne, please visit my reviews of:
Antibirth
Orange Is The New Black - Season 4
Orange Is The New Black - Season 3
Orange Is The New Black - Season 2
Orange Is The New Black - Season 1
Blade: Trinity
But I'm A Cheerleader

1/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Best 10 Movies Of 2014!

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The Basics: 2014 might have been a rough year for quality cinema, but here are the ten films you should see from the year!


Coming into 2015, I was a bit down on movies. 2014 was not an exceptional year for movies and outside one of the nominees, there is no Best Picture Oscar nominee that I would even want to see again. That said, despite a dearth of great films in 2014 (I had to go into the 7.5/10’s to make this list!), there were two films that actually made it into the “perfect” camp this year (out of more 2000 movie reviews, only 35 have gotten perfect 10/10 ratings!). Despite having three movies from 2014 I actually still want to see, I decided to follow-up on my Worst Movies Of 2014 List (that’s here!) with the Best 10 Movies Of 2014.

It is imperative to know, at the outset, that I consider movies for my lists based on their wide-release date. As a result, some films, like Predestination (reviewed here!) and Inherent Vice (reviewed here!) would have been on this list, but they only had limited release in 2014, with a wide-release in 2015. I’m not a fan of supporting the “New York City and Los Angeles get to see it, so it should compete against the full field” concept. It’s also worth noting that Still Alice (reviewed here!) should have made the list (by the numbers), but given how I would not recommend it and never want to see it again, despite being able to acknowledge that the acting in it is wonderful and it accomplishes its goals well, I can’t consider it one of the best movies of the year. So, while this list is undoubtedly the only one with these precise ten movies, the Best Ten Movies Of 2014 are:

10. The Best Offer (reviewed here!) – If you had told me on January 1 of last year that the first movie released in the New Year would make the list, I would have said, “no way!” Quiet and contemplative, the film that focuses on a reclusive auctioneer trying to clandestinely rebuild an ancient automaton, before his life takes a right turn, is actually one of the cleverest and most deceptive films in years. Arguably the most underrated performance of Geoffrey Rush’s career, The Best Offer might be the year’s best gem import,

9. Veronica Mars (reviewed here!) – Arguably the most controversial film to be included on this list, Veronica Mars is vastly underrated. Rob Thomas had a herculean task in bringing his popular television show to the big screen, not the least of which was telling a complete story in a shorter amount of time than any of the story arcs on the series! Veronica Mars (reviewed here!) had big, season-long mysteries and the idea that a full story could be told, while introducing the essential characters from the television series to a potentially new audience, in only a couple hours required the right story. Far from being a mess, Veronica Mars is a rousing success of continuing the story of Veronica Mars after a gap of several years. And, to the detractors, at least Thomas didn’t use the “season four” b.s. idea . . .,

8. The Skeleton Twins (reviewed here!) – This might be the only film I was looking forward to seeing all year, missed in theaters, and then lived up when I finally caught it! The Skeleton Twins is heartwrenching and heartwarming and it illustrates just how much two performers can push themselves and each other when they are working with people they like and trust. Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader were robbed this Award’s season! The Skeleton Twins might be dark, but it does not feel oppressive and that is a rare thing these days,

7. This Is Where I Leave You (reviewed here!) – Jason Bateman might be the biggest star to appear in films that made both my Worst and Best Movie lists! Bateman gets top-billing in This Is Where I Leave You, which was the story of a family reuniting to sit Shiva after the death of the family patriarch. The dialogue, casting and performances are excellent,

6. The Double (reviewed here!) – It is rare for me to sing the praises of a creepy movie, but The Double is that good! The strength of Richard Ayoade’s interpretation of the Dostoyevsky original is that: 1. It can be interpreted several different ways and 2. Even when one feels like they aren’t sure exactly what is going on, the film is entirely engaging. The result is a movie that is unsettling, but has some real, enduring value,

5. Comet (reviewed here!) – One of the late releases of 2014, Comet was entirely overlooked during Award’s Season and that is their loss (and ours)! Comet is the smart exploration of a tumultuous relationship that is packed with wonderful dialogue, impressive performances, and memorable characters. This is a love story that feels fresh and real, even when it is difficult and the strength of the movie is that it still manages to entertain while embodying a strong sense of reality,

4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (reviewed here!) – So, here it is! My quest to watch all eight movies that got Best Picture Oscar nods yielded one that I think deserves it! I’m not big on slapstick comedies or classical movies (the novelty win of The Artist (reviewed here!) a few years back still pisses me off!) and I went into seeing The Grand Budapest Hotel biased against it. But, it won me over. The quirky comedy about a lobby boy and a concierge on the run from a family who want their mother’s inheritance is Wes Anderson’s best film in years,

3. Her (reviewed here!) – The Grand Budapest Hotel is lucky that the limited release of Her put it on the ballot last year, instead of this one! Her is original and clever as it tells the story of one man’s burgeoning love with the artificial intelligence on his phone. Spike Jonze has a flair for finding a concept that is smart and foreseeable, while reaching the only possible and logical conclusion to that story . . . with consequences that give us instant empathy for the film’s protagonist. Given how most of Joachim Phoenix’s performance is opposite a screen and he makes the relationship between his character and the voice of Scarlett Johansson seem entirely real, this might be his best performance ever,

2. X-Men: Days Of Future Past (reviewed here!) – While Guardians Of The Galaxy (reviewed here!) was amusing, X-Men: Days Of Future Past had a level of substance that makes it a far superior film. Despite awkwardness in the X-Men timeline and the desire for most fans of the franchise to forget about X-Men III: The Last Stand, X-Men: Days Of Future Past manages to incorporate the disparate elements, characters and timelines and make a story that is the logical conclusion to Magneto’s original threats against humanity back in X-Men. The film, which puts Logan at the center of a time-travel adventure where he must stop the rise of the forces that will lead to a slaughter of mutants is well-executed visually and from a performance and character standpoint. Plus, despite all the Easter Eggs in Marvel movies last year, there was no moment on screen in 2014 that delighted me like the cameos at the climax of this movie! Regardless of what comes next and all the recasting, X-Men: Days Of Future Past is the crown jewel of Marvel movies,


. . . and . . .


. . .the best movie of 2014 is . . .


1. Cheap Thrills (reviewed here!) – Seriously. Cheap Thrills might be one of the least pleasant movies in years, but it was the best, most important film of 2014. If it had reached an audience and people had understood the film’s metaphorical level, the Tea Party would never have managed to get a stranglehold on the U.S. Congress in the 2014 midterm elections. Yes, seriously. That is a lot to credit to one movie, but Cheap Thrills does that. The story of an everyman who is in debt, facing a financial crisis that threatens himself and his family begins innocuously enough. On the day he is fired, he goes to a bar, meets an old chum from school and he and his friend encounter a seemingly benevolent rich guy and his wife. In celebrating the wife’s birthday, the two men are given competitions for increasing amounts of money and the film turns into a powerful metaphor for how business and the media treat everyone but the 1%. The story of how business sets people against one another and how other powerful forces delight in it and reinforce the inhumanity of their actions is gripping, entertaining, difficult-to-watch and entirely brilliant. Cheap Thrills is the must-see movie from 2014.

For other lists, please check out my:
The Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Enterprise
The Top Ten Episodes Of Frasier
The Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek

To see how all movies I have reviewed have stacked up against each other check out my Film Review Index Page where the movies are organized from best to worst!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Easily Earning Their Accolades: Justin Long And Emmy Rossum Thrill In Comet!

The Good: Great performances, Interesting characters, Wonderful dialogue, Decent narrative technique, Score/direction
The Bad: Minutiae
The Basics: Active viewers will find the well-woven story of Dell and Kimberly’s romance in Comet to be compelling and worth the investment!


Amid the December push for Oscarbait films, there are usually a number of art films that are released and many of the smaller films fail to get recognition or attention. As the big studio releases and the quirky art film with the “amazing performance by X-established actor” gobble up the limelight, there are perfectly wonderful films that get swept under the publicity rug. This weekend, Comet is that film. Comet drew me in by giving Justin Long a starring role. Long seems to excel in smaller films that give him a chance to explore and emote; Dreamland (reviewed here!) a few years back bought him enough goodwill in my book to get me to invest in a couple of years of smaller projects in which he was involved. Comet is his latest and it is good, though it is certainly one of the films Long has been in which requires the viewer to pay attention.

Comet starts out engaging-enough and writer-director Sam Esmail (who is dating Long’s co-star Emmy Rossum) mortgages what could be an even better film in order to serve his leads. The film’s opening scene features the protagonist – Dell (played by Justin Long) – having an engaging conversation with Stephanie before he meets Kimberly (his love interest for the film). The chemistry Long and Kayla Servi have on-screen is so palpable and compelling that Comet seemed to have the potential to be a film with a strong, platonic friendship story (only because Servi is so young). Instead, Servi’s time on-screen is quickly over and Long and Rossum’s characters turn their attention to one another.

A few parallel universes away from ours, Dell waits outside a door with flowers in his hand, trying to convince himself that this is not a dream. While waiting in line for the Magritte Meteor Shower, Dell learns that his mother has cancer and he has a fairly nihilistic conversation with Stephanie, a young stranger waiting in the same line, eavesdropping on his phone call. When the man behind him in line calls for a friend to come up, Dell gets his first look at Kimberly. Kimberly saves his life by yelling for him to get out of the way from an oncoming car before they have an awkward introduction (Kimberly is dating an even more obnoxious man than Dell).

Years later, after they have had a relationship, Dell and Kimberly meet up outside a train and reminisce about a wedding they attended together. Kimberly calls it the beginning of the end, which leads Dell to flash back to their time in line at the Hollywood Cemetary. Listening to the douchebag that Kimberly is with inspires Dell to ask her for her number. From the charming meeting, the film leaps to the fateful wedding in Paris the two attended. A conversation about dreaming turns ugly fast and the foreshadowed break-up occurs. As Comet progresses, it bounces back and forth between meetings and reunions and two wrenching-to-watch break-ups. The result is a tumultuous love story that feels very real, but is not as unpleasant to watch as reality can be to experience!

Comet starts out as one of the funniest films in years before evolving into a smart, emotionally-relevant romantic story. Dell is instantly characterized as observant and intelligent and that leads him to a sense of wit and sarcasm that is delightful to watch. After so many movies where smart people are characterized as miserable, Dell shines as an intelligent guy who is emotionally-aware enough to slam the idiots around him, but not let them bring him down too much. In fact, from the moment he “rescues” Kimberly from her date in line at the meteor shower, Dell is characterized as a man who seizes upon opportunities. And, despite his apparent core of sarcasm, Dell is presented as caring quite a bit as well; he talks with Stephanie like she is an adult and while he observes things like her mother’s death, he is not mean or entirely insensitive about it.

So, Dell is hilarious in an often tongue-in-cheek way. The set-up where he boldly asks Kimberly for her number and then talks his way out of getting beaten-up is brilliant and it is more than enough to buy the audience’s interest in what comes next.

Comet is a rare indie film that both manages to feel satisfying for what it is and yet robbed by what it is not. The movie is so smart and well put-together with such amazing performances that it is hard to complain. Indeed, it is one of the better romantic dramas with comedic dialogue in recent years. But the pay-off to the engaging opening is neither the unpredictable buddy/friendship/mentor/big brother piece that viewers might hope for if the focus remained on Dell and Stephanie or a happy, constructive relationship story for Dell and Kimberly. If it’s indie, it has to have misery and Comet plumbs those depths well. From the moment Dell mentions that he does not believe in love and Kimberly asks him about having a child, there is a doomed sense to their relationship that puts the viewer into emotionally-guarded territory. No, Comet is not going to be an erosion of Dell’s beliefs that love can endure and grow based on Kimberly’s charming craziness that he sees initially keeping him engaged and guessing. Instead, Esmail goes for conflict and Comet has its share of difficult moments to watch, rooted in break-ups that are emotionally real.

The reason Comet is getting any attention at all – and almost universal praise in that attention – is from the on-screen chemistry between Emmy Rossum and Justin Long. Sam Esmail has got to be one of the most confident men in the entire world to write and direct the woman with whom he is in a relationship in a role that requires very real on-screen chemistry and which she rises to the challenge. Rossum is electric as Kimberly and her furtive eye movements and the subtle upturn of her mouth give her the chance to emote more than in her recent role in Beautiful Creatures (reviewed here!) and with more emotional range and realism than in The Phantom Of The Opera (reviewed here!). On her own, Rossum is watchable and heartstopping as Kimberly.

But with Justin Long, Rossum creates one of the most intriguing on-screen couples in recent memory. Dell and Kimberly are great with their chemistry and agonizing in their arguments. From the moment Kimberly challenges Dell to give her a reason – other than her looks – that he wants to keep talking with her and he attempts to describe rationally his emotional tug to their ultimate staredown, they are a couple to watch. Kimberly is a woman who seeks balance, who is very much out of it, and Dell is more neutral and philosophical on the surface, but is motivated by profound feelings. That makes their relating to one another enjoyable.

A rival for best independent film of the year with Cheap Thrills (reviewed here!), Comet is a strong mix of delightful love story and realistic break-up with performances that are consistently great, which makes it a must-see film.

For other films currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
To Write Love On Her Arms
The Seventh Son
Match
Vice
Paddington
Inherent Vice
Selma
Still Alice
Predestination
The Interview
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies
Expelled
Annie
Horrible Bosses 2
10,000 Days
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
Interstellar
The Mule
Hit By Lightning
Horns
Stonehearst Asylum
Birdman

8.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Serious Sandler: Funny People (Mostly) Succeeds.

The Good: Good performances, Interesting characters, Moments of empathy/themes
The Bad: Mood is often oppressive, Pacing issues
The Basics: Adam Sandler effectively delves into his dramatic side with Funny People, a Judd Apatow flick that reasserts the writer/director’s ability to plumb the depths of drama . . . with mixed results.


Regardless of how both films might have underwhelmed at the box office, Judd Apatow’s Funny People owes quite a debt to P.T. Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love (reviewed here!). Punch-Drunk Love was the first major film to truly use Saturday Night Live alum Adam Sandler in a dramatic role with any real success. Funny People also explores Sandler’s ability to play a deeply serious role and had Punch-Drunk Love not softened American audiences up for such a twist from the comedian, it might have been even more off-putting than the film already was.

Unfortunately, Judd Apatow’s endeavor into getting a serious performance out of Adam Sandler feels more clogged and problematic than Anderson’s more compact, focused role for Sandler. Sandler’s ability to play rage in Punch-Drunk Love plays somewhat better than his character’s apathy in Funny People and the somewhat sprawling nature of this film. Even so, George Simmons is one of Sandler’s better performances and more memorable roles following his career in dippy comedy blockbusters. Sandler makes Simmons substantive and compelling to watch, even if he is not always interesting.

George Simmons is a highly successful comedian who came up from the stand-up circuit before he started making million-dollar blockbusters and became one of the highest grossing actors in America. Depressed and somewhat lethargic, Simmons encounters aspiring comedian Ira Wright and his roommate, Leo Koenig. Wright hates his job serving sandwiches and he leaps at the opportunity to write jokes for Simmons for a MySpace event – if for no other reason than to show up his hack roommate Mark. After the big event, Ira begins working for George and George admits to his new assistant that he is dying of leukemia. As George has Ira start selling off his stockpiles of swag, he starts pining for the woman who got away, Laura.

Ira finds working for Simmons to be a largely losing proposition. Working for George keeps him distracted, which gives Mark time to move in on his love interest, Daisy. It does, however, get him some exposure on the stand-up circuit, but he finds that hanging out with Simmons doesn’t get him laid and he gets mired in Simmons’ depression. But as Simmons wrestles with his own mortality, Ira helps him find Laura and George disrupts her unhappy marriage. The result makes Ira a witness to a life he has always dreamed of having and forces him to decide if it is the way he wants to live going forward.

Funny People departs from Judd Apatow’s other films by, despite the title, being anything but a comedy. The film reminds viewers of the more character-based, dramatic moments that made Apatow’s Freaks & Geeks (reviewed here!) a cult-smash. Unfortunately, while Seth Rogen has no trouble embodying a serious Apatow-written character (Rogen plays Ira), the role has him meandering around the much more cinematically-powerful Sandler. Even when Sandler’s Simmons is acting bored and depressed, Rogen is unable to steal the spotlight from him. The more significant character journey in Funny People is, arguably, Wright’s arc, but Rogen does not make the film feel like it is truly his.

To his credit, writer-director Judd Apatow manages to create a film where almost every significant (male, at least) stand-up comedian alive shows up. For sure, many – like Paul Reiser, Norm MacDonald, and Dave Attell – have roles that are little more than cameos, but the fact that they show up at all makes the world of Funny People feel very real and the drama within it compelling.

That said, Funny People takes far too long to get going. Apatow thoroughly develops the relationship between Simmons and Wright and by the time the viewer is bored with the two of them, the film makes the shift into the relationship between Simmons and Laura. When that transition is made, Wright becomes something of a hapless sidekick and his role as witness robs him of a character arc where he actually keeps real control over his life. Instead, he reacts to how Simmons throws a bombshell into Laura’s family and the result hardly makes Wright compelling. Apatow alum Leslie Mann plays a less-bitchy version of her prior characters and Apatow makes viewers wait for Eric Bana long past the point that he is able to carry any enthusiasm from seeing his name in the opening credits.

Bana and Mann have pretty poor on-screen chemistry, but their characters are supposed to be estranged, so it is hard to complain too much about that. Unfortunately, Sandler and Mann have no real on-screen charm together and the result is that it is hard for viewers to be convinced that they have more of a chance than the married couple that seems set in every way, but the passion department. The problem with Funny People is that none of the characters have innate chemistry with the others: Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman lack real chemistry with Seth Rogen in Funny People, so it is off-putting at the beginning even to make the viewers believe that they are all actually roommates!

Despite the chemistry problems and the fact that Mann plays a very familiar type of character, Funny People is well-acted. Seth Rogen plays the up and coming, very awkward comedian well and Jason Schwartzman plays the jackass roommate with complete plausibility. Jonah hill is fine as Leo, though his character does not get nearly angry enough when Ira’s big secret is finally revealed to him.

But that is the way of Funny People: the film takes a long time setting up, developing, redirecting and expositing until, like life, if just goes nowhere. That makes it a film with so many winning elements, but an ultimately underwhelming resolution and execution.

For other works with Eric Bana, please visit my reviews of:
Hanna
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Star Trek
Hulk

6.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Veronica Mars Comes Full Circle With The Film Continuation Of The Series!

The Good: Funny, Wonderful character development, Good acting, Engaging story/references
The Bad: Some underdeveloped threads, Much of the case hinges on a retcon that is unsatisfying.
The Basics: Surprisingly satisfying on its own, Veronica Mars progresses the story of the title character and Neptune, California in a compelling way.


From the moment it was first announced, there have been few films I have eagerly anticipated the way I have looked forward to Veronica Mars. In fact, the only reason it has taken me two weeks to watch and review the cinematic rendition of Veronica Mars is that I was going through the entire television series (reviewed here!) with my wife (who had not seen it before) (and in Michigan, it didn’t remain in theaters very long). Given the terrible and abrupt nature of the show’s series finale to Veronica Mars, the show made for a natural subject for a cinematic follow-up. Like Serenity (reviewed here!), Veronica Mars is based on a television series that had an uncommon level of complexity and a number of characters that could not be properly serviced in a single 107 minute film.

Fortunately for fans of Veronica Mars who might have been wary of a film based upon the fourth season presentation presented in the bonus features to the Season Three DVD set, the film Veronica Mars is a return to form . . . and Neptune, California. In fact, the film Veronica Mars makes a conscious choice to disavow the Season 4 Presentation as part of the Veronica Mars canon. Early in the film, Veronica details her nine years since she was last seen and it is a very different path – Stanford, then Harvard Law – than the FBI Academy. My big fear before watching Veronica Mars was that, with so many characters to service, they would gloss over most or try so hard to give everyone a fair amount of screentime that they would not tell a coherent narrative. Veronica Mars is a surprisingly balanced film, with only one of the primary characters from the series being given a truly underwhelming place in the film. Regardless, it did not feel like a film that was just a random collections of allusions to the television series or cameos by beloved characters from the series.

Living in New York City now, and having recently reconnected with Piz, Veronica Mars has gone nine years without taking a case. Instead, she is now interviewing at a prestigious New York law firm where she illustrates her resolve and lack of ability to be flustered when one of the partners brings up her sex tape from college while in the interview. Having pointedly ignored the pleas from Wallace and Mac to return to Neptune for their ten year high school reunion, Veronica Mars feels a tug to return to her hometown when a pop star she went to high school with is killed. The primary suspect is Veronica’s former boyfriend, Logan Echolls. Feeling like an addict, Veronica takes a call for help from Logan and leaves Piz in New York to help Logan find a good lawyer to represent him.

Arriving in Neptune, Veronica finds herself returning to many of her old ways. Logan is, despite the murder charges against him, a stand-up guy who has joined the military and flies missions over Afghanistan (and he looks damn good in his uniform when he meets Veronica at the airport). Wallace is now a teacher at Neptune High, Mac has taken a job for Kane Software and Dick is still Dick, spending his days surfing and screwing. Underwhelmed by the lawyers she meets, Veronica starts to help Logan develop his defense, which is finding a more compelling suspect than Logan. Investigating the murder itself, Veronica encounters the pop star’s number one fan (and another former-classmate of Veronica’s), Gia Goodman, and others from her past, including Madison Sinclair and Weevil. Digging into the relationships of those she left behind in Neptune brings to light a missing person’s murder from ten years ago and puts Veronica in the crosshairs of a killer looking to protect their interests and secrets.

Keith Mars is, fortunately, not neglected in Veronica Mars. He is given a subplot, with Weevil, that puts him at odds with the new Sheriff Lamb (Dan Lamb, Don Lamb’s brother). Sheriff Lamb is not only incompetent, he is outwardly corrupt and Neptune, California is a much darker place than it used to be. Gone is the bright veneer that covered the seedy underbelly of the filthy rich city and Keith Mars’s plotline in Veronica Mars reflects that.

First and foremost, Veronica Mars is a darker, more adult continuation of the characterlines from the television series. The big moments of Veronica Mars (the film) are violent and abrupt. This is a film with a body count, wounds, and some particularly gruesome and tense moments. But, it’s still Veronica Mars. As such, the film is packed with witty banter, tongue-in-cheek humor, and lovable moments that remind viewers just why they loved the television show upon which the movie was based. Most of the relationship moments satisfy as well. Wallace has grown, but still has loyalty to Veronica, Mac is dismayed with herself for having gone over to the Dark Side for cash, and Dick is as vacuous as ever (in fact, despite him being a reasonable suspect in the film’s backstory murder, during the inevitable exposition wrap-up of the backstory, the guilty party goes to sufficient lengths to exonerate Dick for any involvement). Piz is still rather white bread, Gia is still pretty shallow, and Logan and Veronica instantly have more chemistry than Veronica and Piz, so most of the pieces in play are familiar.

As one might suspect, the film Veronica Mars is largely about Veronica. The story is one that gives her a decent character arc. She was out of the private investigation business and, more than any of the influences exerted upon her by other characters, Veronica Mars is about her willing return to the lifestyle she has run away from. Thematically, Veronica Mars is largely about one young woman discovering her passion in life and realizing that the things and people once important to her were not necessarily self-destructive as they might have seemed.

In fact, the biggest gripes I had with Veronica Mars was how it fit in with the larger series, as opposed to anything within the film itself. That means that while those who might watch Veronica Mars will not appreciate the full depth and range of the allusions in the film, those who are attentive to details will find some aspects of Veronica Mars unsatisfying. I was less than enthused by the resolution of the Weevil character arc in the film, after initially being impressed by his character growth. But there are other details that the film inexplicably flubs. Chief among them is in the corrupt sheriff plotline. The television series “resolved” itself with an election between Keith Mars and Vinnie Van Lowe for sheriff of Neptune. The presumption, given the plot that preceded it, was that Keith would lose the election because of corruption charges that surfaced the night before the election. The problem, though, is that we see Veronica’s ballot: Keith and Vinnie are the only two people on the ballot. One of them must have been elected – Dan Lamb could not have become sheriff after that election. As a result, Vinnie’s place in the film (without any acknowledgment of his disastrous tenure as sheriff) makes painfully little sense.

As well, the murder plot in Veronica Mars hinges on an unsolved case . . . that was never once mentioned in the television series. Sometime between the second and third season of Veronica Mars, presumably, there was a boat trip that resulted in a death. It’s never mentioned before and the retcon case is an unfortunate contrivance for the film. In addition to forcing fans to believe in yet another young person killed at Veronica’s high school (so soon after Veronica’s tenacious pursuit of the bus crash victims) was part of a case that neither Veronica, nor Keith, pursued, the resulting case hinges largely on characters that the viewer is not invested in. Gia Goodman was only present in the show’s second season and was not particularly missed in the third; Logan is never treated as a viable killer in Veronica Mars, and Dick Casablancas continues to be such a hapless dupe that he is never believably a suspect. Thus, all the suspects are reliably among the newcomers to the film, which leaves the viewer without a real emotional tether to the crimes past and present.

That said, Veronica Mars has wonderful acting. Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring, Ryan Hansen and Chris Lowell each fall perfectly back into their old, familiar roles. Percy Daggs III, Francis Capra, and Tina Majorino evolve their characters credibly to make their new personalities seem less abrupt and more plausible. Jerry O’Connell, Gaby Hoffmann, and Martin Starr blend well with the seasoned cast. Martin Starr is like he has never been before; he is downright creepy, with a dangerous quality to him that he’s not portrayed before. Starr gives one of the notable performances in Veronica Mars, even if some of his character’s arc is telegraphed by his performance.

Ultimately, Veronica Mars is well worth watching. It’s enough to please fans and get a whole new audience to pick up the television series. For a film that had such a public battle to get made at all, that is truly a mission accomplished!

For other works with Krysten Ritter, be sure to visit my reviews of:
She’s Out Of My League
Confessions Of A Shopaholic
27 Dresses
Gilmore Girls - Season 7
Veronica Mars - Season 2
Someone Like You

8/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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So Many Wonderful Actors Create Something Horrible: Movie 43

The Good: Moments of actual humor, Wonderful cast used fairly well.
The Bad: Drawn-out concept, No character development, An equal number of misses as hits
The Basics: Movie 43 is a sketch comedy film that pushes the envelope of good taste with drastically mixed results.


When it comes to comedy films, there are very few that live up to the hype for repeated viewings. When, during a first viewing, viewers find themselves bored or frustrated with the premise of the film, it does not bode well for the film’s longevity in the collective unconsciousness. Slapstick comedies especially suffer from the problem of having limited rewatchability, as do sketch comedy programs. So, last year’s star-studded film Movie 43 had two potential strikes against it before the movie even began. Despite having an incredible cast of classy actors, Movie 43 is little more than an extensive, R-rated episode of MadTV or Saturday Night Live.

Movie 43 trades on its extensive movie-star cast to try to fool viewers into believing they are watching something other than lowest common denominator humor for under an hour and a half. The film, which is loosely held together with a plotline of a failed writer trying to sell his first script to a movie studio executive at gunpoint, is filled with raunchy humor that frequently crosses the line of good taste.

Opening with Charlie Wessler pitching to Griffin Schraeder, Wessler tells stories that he thinks are supposed to be heartwarming and crowd-pleasing. The first is a blind date between a woman who is excited to go out with one of the world’s most eligible bachelors. Davis is rich, successful, single . . . and has a scrotum on his neck, which causes Beth quite a bit of discomfort to see during her dinner with him. That is followed by a couple talking with another couple about their homeschooled son. They tell their new neighbors all about how they haze their son and provide him with awkward high school-level first sexual experiences (which is beyond troubling to the neighbors and the audience). Then comes the “romantic comedy” pitch where a woman asks her boyfriend to poop on her and, after getting some advice, filling up on burritos and laxatives, he feels he needs to rush into meeting his girlfriend’s bizarre request.

The pitches continue with a young man working at a grocery store when the young woman who loves and loathes him comes in and the two give each other sexually explicit small talk . . . over the public address system in the store. There is a parody of an Apple product; the iBabe, which is a life-sized MP3 player in the shape of a naked woman. After the initial advertisements, the makers of the iBabe wrestle with the public relations nightmare of young men whose penises are mangled when they fuck the iBabe and encounter the unit’s cooling fan inside the vagina of the unit. Superhero fans are treated to a sketch wherein Robin is out on a speed date with Lois Lane and then Supergirl when Batman comes and cockblocks him. In another sketch a boy has a girl over for a first date when she has her first period and bleeds through her pants. The three males in the house freak out having no idea how to deal with the event and it only serves to embarrass and horrify her. A brutal segment follows in which two men capture and torture a leprechaun for his gold. Then comes a first date in which a man and a woman play an escalating game of truth or dare. They end up horribly disfiguring and humiliating one another before finally consummating their relationship. The penultimate segment is a hilarious mockery of sports movies. In it, a coach motivates his high school basketball team by pointing out that the students are black and they are going up against a white team so they are guaranteed to win. Partway through the closing credits comes the final segment, a sketch involving a couple that is interrupted by their (animated) cat, Beezel. Beezel has a crush on his owner, Anson, and when Amy walks in on Beezel masturbating to pictures of Anson in a swimsuit, a very violent series of encounters follow.

Such is the type of humor in Movie 43. Sadly, there is not really much more to the movie than the sketches themselves. Movie 43 scores as high as it does with me because it actually is amusing in points. Movie 43 is entertaining and it is funny when it is not being entirely disturbing.

Moreover, Movie 43 is a cinematic example of “better ingredients, better pizza” as it were. Getting Liev Schreiber, Terence Howard, Elizabeth Banks, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Kristen Bell and other a- and b-list actors to perform in the sketches makes them seem like something more than cheap shots and gross-out humor. But, that’s mostly what Movie 43 is; it’s just fortunate that the jokes land as often as they do, or else the movie would be far less than it appears.

For other works with Leslie Bibb, please visit my reviews of:
Iron Man 2
Confessions Of A Shopaholic
Iron Man
Talladega Nights: The Legend Of Ricky Bobby

2/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing.

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Dreams Die In The Desert In Dreamland: The Best Film Of 2006 That No One Heard Of!

The Good: Excellent acting, Intriguing characters, Decent pacing, Tone
The Bad: Nothing happens!
The Basics: In an understated and underrated drama, Dreamland satisfies, even if the DVD has no significant extras. :(


2006 was not the best year for movies. Looking at the nominees for Best Picture was just an argument for making the Oscars every two or three years. And while the mainstream movies may have been uninspired, the art films had one or two gems. Dreamland, which I was introduced to via a trailer on DVD to a much worse film, caught my attention. While it might not stack up in other years as a contender, it should have been last year. My instant vote would have been to replace Little Miss Sunshine (panned, er, reviewed here!) with Dreamland in the big categories.

Audrey has just graduated high school and returned to her trailer park to tend to her alcoholic father and dying friend when in drives a truck carrying the shirtless Mookie. Mookie is a creative young man who is training to return to playing college basketball and he instantly captures Audrey's attention. Unfortunately for Audrey, when she pushes Mookie toward her friend Calista, both Mookie and Calista take her up on it and Audrey watches as the two fall in young love. As Audrey watches Calista no longer needing her, she begins to dream that her poetry can be her way out of the trailer park and for the first time she seriously considers leaving.

What's good about Dreamland are the characters. It's important to say right off the bat that nothing happens in this movie. This is not a big "things happen" movie. Instead, nothing happens. If you're waiting for things to happen, it'll be a long wait (though the movie is only 88 minutes). This is a movie filled with quiet moments, waiting, and a whole lot of no action. In fact, there's not even a lot of movement in the film. There are a lot of static shots where the sky moves around Dreamland, the trailer park, where days fade and begin and nothing happens.

Which is why the characters have to be pretty extraordinary to sell Dreamland and they are interesting enough to fit the bill. Why? They are complex and multifaceted. A perfect example is Audrey's father, Henry. Henry is portrayed as an alcoholic who has lost his wife and is completely broken by it, so much so that he never leaves the trailer park. But he's not an idiot, as many drunks are portrayed as in films and television, and he's not inhuman. Instead, he's perceptive and watching Audrey struggle allows him to reach out of his own problems. There's a wonderful moment when Audrey reads him a poem about Mookie and he just quietly says, "Your narrator's not Calista." It's the moment that we realize that this is not a guy who has always been lost and that it's unfortunate that he is lost now.

Calista is a lot of fun, from the beginning. Calista, we learn quickly, is dying slowly of MS and in the opening scenes, Calista changes her name ostensibly because "Calista" sounds more like a porn star. The dialogue between Calista and Audrey as they sit in bikinis in their hot tub in the desert instantly gets the viewer into the place and mood of the characters. Calista is dying, so she dreams big, wanting mostly to be Miss America and win for being beautiful, having a strong social agenda and getting the pity vote. She's weird and fun and tragic.

Mookie is pretty generic, though it's refreshing to see a young person with dreams and ambitions. Mookie's defining moment, more than in the love he shares with Calista and longs for with Audrey, is as he practices basketball without a ball at night because he does not want to wake any of the trailer park residents up. It's cute and pulled off well.

Audrey is the central character, though and she is easily one of the most kind, giving young people portrayed in film in the last decade. Audrey is prepared to stay in Dreamland to tend to her father and Calista and keep her dead-end job in the convenience store nearby so she can be near those who need her. Audrey is faced with a very real choice and she pulls it off well. The story works in part because she is not perfect; she's having fairly meaningless sex with her coworker, she tries smoking because Calista cannot and she gets into a drug situation that puts her in danger.

On that note, I've been awfully critical of movies where youth are portrayed as idiot drug users fairly homogeneously (I believe I was most scathing about it in my review of Garden State, available here!). In Dreamland, Audrey does not go into her experimentation blindly and she certainly seems to learn from it. Moreover, there are consequences for her actions and I like that. That's the element too often missing from such films where every kid does it.

And what makes Audrey so believable is the acting. Portrayed by Agnes Bruckner, Audrey is an introverted enabler who quietly lurches through her life. Bruckner plays her with an expert awkwardness most like Clea Duvall. Bruckner has a subtle delivery that is excellently timed for realism. Lines do not come out of her mouth with the precision of a writer, but instead with the agony of a young woman caught in a genuine dilemma day after day.

Similarly, Kelli Garner is wonderful as Calista. Garner's real talent comes in her physical acting. She portrays weakness amazingly and as her condition gets worse at various points, her face actually becomes puffier. I was impressed. Justin Long proves he can do more than run around without a shirt or sell Macs as Mookie. Long, the Mac persona on the recently popular commercials, is understated here and he sells the idea of Mookie quite well.

Bit roles by Gina Gershon and Chris Mulkey are decently presented as well.

It is John Corbett who is amazing beyond the others in Dreamland. Corbett creates Henry almost exclusively through body language and he's phenomenal in the role. He slouches and sticks out his stomach to become the drunk Henry, perspiring profusely. And as the character transforms, Corbett transforms his whole body and persona. It's impressive.

Dreamland is a great drama and a wonderful character study and it works in part because of the static shots of director Jason Matzner. Matzner is a minimalist of movement here and that powerfully creates the mood. The viewer feels as trapped as Audrey and the sense of confinement works expertly. The script by Tom Willett is strong, giving him a lot of field to play in emotionally.

Anyone who likes a good drama and intriguing, distinct characters will find something to enjoy in Dreamland. Just don't expect a lot to happen. It's still a better choice where things happen, but they add up to nothing. Here, nothing happens and the cumulative effect is vivid and worth your time and attention.

For other works with Justin Long, check out:
New Girl - Season 1
Going The Distance
Old Dogs
Planet 51
He’s Just Not That Into You
Zack And Miri Make A Porno
Waiting . . .
Galaxy Quest

8/10

For other film reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Why Trekkers Love Galaxy Quest

The Good: Funny, Decent acting, Good concept
The Bad: Predictable plot and character arcs
The Basics: In a clever science fiction comedy, a crew of actors from a science fiction show are impressed by aliens to save their race from a brutal enemy.


As I consider Galaxy Quest, a story Robert Picardo (Star Trek Voyager) told at a Star Trek convention comes to mind. The venerable actor was on stage talking about being on a plane when the in-flight movie was Galaxy Quest. Several people on the plane had recognized him from his work on Star Trek and as he watched, he noticed people on the plane watching him with a generally nervous sense about them. He commented on how when he started laughing and made it clear that he was enjoying the film, the plane began to openly enjoy the movie. It was like the people on the plane who respected Picardo and his work needed his permission to enjoy the parody. Picardo, for his part, enjoyed the film quite a bit; he has quite a good sense of humor (actually, he's one of the funniest people alive today and he was perfectly cast as The Doctor on Star Trek Voyager). The thing is, most Trekkers - which I count myself as - have a sense of humor about our subculture and were thrilled to have a movie that actually includes us (even if in parody).

Years after the cult-classic science fiction show Galaxy Quest is canceled, the actors from the show are finding themselves virtually unemployable as actors and working the convention circuit making money signing autographs and dealing with their fans one on one. The star of the show, Jason Nesmith - who played the captain of the ship - is egocentric and thrives on the celebrity, while his sidekick, the accomplished actor Alexander Dane laments the loss of his legitimate career. When actual aliens arrive to enlist Nesmith in a fight against an oppressive adversary - misinterpreting the old television show broadcasts for historical documents - Nesmith reunites the cast to try to bluff their way through saving the galaxy.

The fundamental problem, of course, is that Nesmith is an actor, not a starship captain, just as Fred Kwan is not an engineer, Tommy is not a pilot and Dane is not actually an alien (though for the convention, he has donned his prosthetic). When it becomes clear that the stakes are life and death, the actors must rise to the occasion and work together to save the galaxy.

There are too few science fiction comedies out there. There are even fewer that are smart science fiction comedies (Dude, Where's My Car? - reviewed here - for example, would fall into the "not smart science fiction" category). Galaxy Quest manages to be a smart science fiction comedy in addition to being a clever commentary on the role of television - specifically shows that have a cult following - in American society and culture. Part of what makes this show work is the concept of how roles like the fictional show Galaxy Quest provide can both make actors and destroy their careers, sprout a loyal and devoted audience and isolate that following from living balanced lives. That's clever and well-executed in this film. It's what we in the subculture "get."

Some Trekkers object to the parody, as most of the fans in Galaxy Quest are overweight, living with their parents and dateless males. Writers David Howard and Robert Gordon call it as they see it and their representation is an accurate parody, the hyperbole of the most visible and disturbing element of the subculture (i.e. it's hard to parody the NASA engineer who was inspired by Star Trek as effectively as the socially-isolated teen whose sole interface with others is the convention experience).

As for the story itself - outside the commentary it seeks to make - Galaxy Quest is solidly entertaining. Nesmith and his crew of actors face the amusing foibles of acclimating to a real ship based on the one they operated for years on their television show. As they experience wonder at stepping on alien worlds and horror at the brutality of the enemy's attacks, the audience finds their fish-out-of-water struggle entertaining.

A lot of it, though, is tied closely with the commentary, though. So, for example, Gwen DeMarco, Jason's quasi-love interest and costar, finds herself feeling useless and angry as her role on the show - and on the ship - was to ask the computer for information. This is a terrible role to play in reality and one that is frequently redundant. Yet, watching her adapt to being the interface on the ship is amusing. Equally amusing is engineer Fred Kwan's easy adaptation to the ship, as if jumping off into outer space and becoming chief engineer of a space vessel happens every day to him.

While the character arcs are largely predictable - Nesmith learns the value of teamwork, Dane discovers the importance of the role he has so long despised - the characters here are intriguing. Nesmith is an entirely self-absorbed egoist and it's refreshing to see how he reacts when faced with reality. After all, how does a man whose career is based on the force of his personality react and survive when real peril presents itself? There's the famous quote to the effect of faking confidence and actual confidence yield the same result and Galaxy Quest seeks to explore that using the foil characters of Nesmith and Dane.

What sells Galaxy Quest to the larger audience is certainly the acting. Tim Allen pulls off the preening egoist Nesmith with amazing efficiency and realism. Allen, as Nesmith, energizes the convention audience when he appears on stage and it is Allen's innate charisma that convinces the movie audience that this is realistic. Allen can work a crowd and in his early scenes as Nesmith, he embodies that type of performer.

Sigourney Weaver, who portrays Gwen, is wonderful as a frustrated actress who lives very much in the real world. Weaver's strength in Galaxy Quest comes from being able to effectively play off Allen and convince the audience of the reality of their love-hate relationship.

Alan Rickman is great as Alexander Dane, though it seems like the role is not a stretch for such a dignified actor. Similarly, Tony Shalhoub (best known for his performance of the quirky detective Monk) is great as the easygoing engineer Kwan. Like Rickman, however, the role does not seem to push the actor into any terribly new territory. Instead, this is a role he makes appear effortless and the enjoyment in watching him perform is for the humor he is able to bring out as a result.

One of my favorite performances in Galaxy Quest comes in the form of Enrico Colantoni's portrayal of the extraterrestrial Mathesar. Colantoni is probably best known to American audiences as the promiscuous photographer Elliot on Just Shoot Me, though he gave an incredible dramatic performance of a mentally retarded son of Andy's sponsor on NYPD Blue for a few episodes in the second season. Colantoni is able to combine the two performances into a humorous, unsettlingly weird presentation of an alien on Earth with Mathesar. He steals the scenes he is in.

All in all, Galaxy Quest is solidly entertaining and genuinely funny, though the humor does not hold up terribly well over multiple (5+) viewings. It's worth your attention and a lot of fun for science fiction fans. Or those who like mocking us.

For other science fiction comedies, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Men In Black III
Paul


7/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of films I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Kevin Smith Makes Some Magic When Zack And Miri Make A Porno!

The Good: Funny, Generally decent acting, Character!, Message
The Bad: Very predictable plot
The Basics: Funny, surprisingly heartwarming and wonderfully clever when it isn't busy being foul(though you'd expect that!), Zack And Miri Make A Porno is one of the best movies of 2008!


Kevin Smith fans tend to be people who have drunk the Kool-Aid. The moment one admits they are a fan of Kevin Smith's movies, the rest of what they say about whatever current endeavor he has presented can pretty much be discounted. While that might be true for the works of most writer-directors, it seems to be especially true of Kevin Smith. After all, outside of the major film franchise by George Lucas that Smith himself references in his works, there is no other writer-director's franchise that is as merchandised as the works of Kevin Smith.

The problem with this, of course, is that when one discusses Kevin Smith's films they tend to be either preaching to a rather large (and admittedly somewhat juvenile) choir or are proselytizing to people who cannot conceive of a truly great film packed mostly with dick-and-fart jokes. Yet, there is Dogma and Chasing Amy that virtually everyone can agree fills a niche that is otherwise empty or underrepresented in American cinema and Smith's works readily fill. And fill well. And now, added to that list, is Zack And Miri Make A Porno.

Friends since childhood, Zack and Miri have done little to nothing with their lives since graduating. Stuck in Monroeville, the pair gets by as roommates working at the Bean 'N' Gone, though they never make enough to pay all of the bills and as the ten year high school reunion approaches, they find their bills are overwhelming them and the power is (literally) being shut off on them. Zack decides that the best way to deal with their cash flow problem is to shoot a porn flick using their friends and people who will work on the cheap.

Miri is initially reluctant, but facing eviction and Zack's actual business model for selling a porn with the two of them convinces her that it is worth trying. They soon begin impressing their friends into service for the movie, casting people willing to expose themselves for the cause and make the dream a reality. As the work progresses and Miri and Zack work toward the moment they have to have sex on film, the tensions between them rise and they are forced to deal with all of the emotions that being platonic friends allowed them to sublimate.

First, it is worth noting that anyone who is going to complain about a Kevin Smith movie for the dialogue is about as ill-prepared for watching a movie as can be. Expecting Smith's movies to not have sexually frank dialogue (and Star Wars references) is like expecting a Saw movie not to have blood or a Spike Lee movie to not have people of color. Here, Kevin Smith does the viewer the favor of putting it right in the title; this is a film that pretty literally follows the Truth In Advertising laws. Going in to Zack And Miri Make A Porno ought to leave the viewer absolutely prepared for graphic language and/or nudity and Kevin Smith does not disappoint.

What the viewer might not expect is how funny Zack And Miri Make A Porno actually is. Smith wrote an incredibly funny script this time out with jokes that are more than just a string of expletives or conversations about sexual positions. And yes, there is that, but there is far more than that in this film.

Kevin Smith never seems to get enough credit for his repetitive statements on human interactions. Chasing Amy is great, not for the ridiculous male fantasy of a man seducing a lesbian, but rather because it explores the nature of human relationships in an unflinchingly realistic way. In Chasing Amy, Smith adequately explores that emotions are far more complicated than the boxes we stick ourselves into and knowing who we actually are is subject to change based on how our lives change. Similarly, in his masterwork Dogma, Smith explores just how complicated and frightening living as a holy person could be in today's world and the shock that would come from learning the supernatural and mythological beings were real and one was a part of that ongoing narrative.

By extension what far too few people seem to be saying so far about Zack And Miri Make A Porno is that Kevin Smith has a real grip on what makes friendships work and how the love of a friend transitions into a romantic love. In this case, just because the viewer sees a romance between Zack and Miri coming does not mean that it would necessarily be done well or with any sense of realism or insight. Smith, however, manages to do that extraordinarily well by illustrating the friendly love Miri and Zack have and how their friendship works as a solid partnership well before the whole filming a porn idea comes up. Kevin Smith wrote a script that beautifully explores the banter, camaraderie and, yes, love between friends in such a way that the viewer actually is looking forward to the pair pairing up. It's a clever turn of conceits and Smith works it well.

One of the ways he plays it out well is by fleshing out (pun intended) Miri and Zack's world with other friends. These two are not just two pathetic underachievers living in Pennsylvania. No, they are part of a community and they are surrounded by other (fairly) young people whose lives have similarly failed to launch. This fills out the regular Kevin Smith niche that was previously carried by Jay and Silent Bob. Removing some of the pressure of keeping Zack and Miri on the screen the entire time are Delaney, Deacon (who takes on editing the porno), and Lester, all of whom contribute to the process of making the porno as well as more or less facilitating the budding romantic relationship between the two leads. And yes, for fans of Kevin Smith, Lester is played by Smith mainstay Jason Mewes, just as Deacon is played by Jeff Anderson. One is left wondering where Walt Flannigan and Brian O'Halloran are (perhaps because it was not set in New Jersey there were no Hicks family members out there!).

Just as in Clerks II Smith illustrated that his mainstays are not needed to carry a film of his, the top three performers in Zack And Miri Make A Porno are all new to the Viewaskewverse. Craig Robinson explodes onto the screen as Delaney, a coworker of Zack and Miri's who offers some of the film's best lines. Robinson has an amazing sense of comic timing and he plays Delaney out well as a parody character in a way that his brief role in Knocked Up or his role as a heavy in Pineapple Express did not allow him to. Here he is straightforward comedic and it works great for him, especially in that he and Seth Rogen seem to play off one another remarkably well.

Rogen is relegated to the same type role he has been stuck in since he left television for movies. Judd Apatow, who pretty much single-handedly made Seth Rogen a household name, took some risks with Rogen, having him go from the quiet yet emotive student in Freaks And Geeks before he lobbed him into the stoner rut that Rogen has been stuck in since. Smith does little to shake Rogen from that niche, instead playing in it with a slacker-type character that is instantly familiar to fans of Kevin Smith's works.

What Smith is able to do as far as actors go, is get Elizabeth Banks a role that challenges her range. I've only recently become acquainted with the works of Banks, but she seems to have generally taken roles that are, well, classy. As Miri in Zack And Miri Make A Porno, Banks is given the task of mouthing some particularly titillating dialogue. She gets through it and is able to balance the more dramatic moments that she seems accustomed and comfortable with with some genuinely funny bits. Banks is quick on her lines, playing off Rogen with an equal wit that one might not expect from her performances in things like Meet Bill. Instead, here she holds her own, sometimes with a wonderful physical sense of just a glare. She keeps the movie grounded as well, despite having Hollywood good looks.

What Zack And Miri Make A Porno does not have is a terribly original plot. Anyone who has seen two Kevin Smith movies knows that Smith is not a master of originality as far as plot is concerned. But what Smith is an expert at is repackaging the same plot so it feels fresh and different and here the setting and concept is just different enough to make the viewer feel like Smith has not lost his touch as a writer or director.

On DVD, the film is packed with bonus features. There are several deleted and extended scenes which (in true Kevin Smith style) are hilarious and add to the characters involved. There is a blooper reel and an extensive documentary on the making of the film as well.

Zack And Miri Make A Porno is an adult film with adult humor and it manages to be funny and sweet in a way that fans expect from Kevin Smith, but far too many others write off because of the writer-director's notoriety. The thing here is, the notoriety is what makes this movie so funny and one suspects even from the first viewing that Zack And Miri Make A Porno is one that will hold up remarkably well over multiple viewings!

For other works with Seth Rogen, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Paul
The Green Hornet
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Pineapple Express
Step Brothers
Donnie Darko
Freaks And Geeks

7/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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