Masterminds Is Marginally Amusing.

The Good: Some funny lines, One or two moments of performance
The Bad: Lousy characters, Not overly original plot, A number of the jokes do not land.
The Basics: Masterminds is a funny-enough movie that might be worth watching once, but it does not have any enduring qualities to it.


When it comes to comedy, there are few works I tend to feel I missed and actually want to go back for. Masterminds was one of them, which I probably missed because right around the time it hit theaters, another Zack Galifianakis action comedy was released and being heavily promoted. As part of my post-Thanksgiving celebration, I decided to do a little crime comedy film festival to catch up and Masterminds was the first movie on the docket.

Masterminds is not an incredible film by any means, but it does have a couple moments that are laugh-out-loud funny.

David Ghantt is a Loomis Fargo armored car driver who dreams of adventure when Kelly Campbell is hired to work with him. Kelly suggests that she and David rob one of their armored cars carrying a million dollars. David is engaged to Jandice, who has accepted David as a consolation prize after the man she loved was killed by a snake bite. When Kelly gets fired, she begins hanging out with Steve, a petty criminal who wants to use her to steal a Loomis Fargo truck. Steve uses Kelly to get to David to steal from Loomis Fargo.

After Kelly manipulates David into robbing Loomis Fargo, David flees to Mexico with $20,000 from Kelly. David knocks out most (but not all) of the video cameras during the heist and that allows the FBI to easily figure out that David is guilty and begin a manhunt for him. While David lays low in Mexico, Kelly, Steve, and his crew begins spending the $17 million. When Steve decides to collect the $3 million bounty from the FBI on David, he decides to turn him in, despite Kelly's protestations. With David on the run from the Mexican police, he discovers Steve's i.d. in the wallet he was given and Steve hires an assassin to track down and kill David. Learning the truth about Kelly, David starts to stand up for himself and take back what is his.

Masterminds has some amusing lines, most of which are delivered by Zach Galifianakis and Kate McKinnon. McKinnon is delivers the bulk of her lines with a cold monotone deadpan that is unsettling and very funny. McKinnon makes creepy into an art form as Jandice and she has a way of freaking the viewer out by staring directly at the camera and remaining perfectly still otherwise.

Galifianakis plays to his wheelhouse with his physical performance. David trips all over and is incredibly awkward in the way that Zach Galifianakis has played in many other movies. There is nothing overly new in Galifianakis's portrayal of David. In fact, some of the incidents in Masterminds play to Galifiankis's sense of physical performance without having any real connection to the rest of the film - most notably the attack on David by a moray eel and the rather gross poop joke that inevitably follows David drinking water for the first time in Mexico. Similarly, Jandice's Vagaway endorsement stands out as if it were a faux-commercial on Saturday Night Live.

Kristen Wiig is good as a tease as Kelly. She performs well as a flirt who is manipulating Galifianakis's David. Wiig plays the role of a criminal remarkably straightlaced and there are moments where she plays Kelly as clearly thinking about how to manipulate David and with a simple eye movement, she conveys the wheels turning in her character's mind. Jason Sudeikis might be the best performer in Masterminds as his assassin character, Mike, is nothing at all like his Mitt Romney persona from Saturday Night Live.

Masterminds is marginally amusing in a "watch it once and forget about it" kind of way. While there are moments of enjoyment to be had in it, there are no superlative aspects to the film.

For other crime comedies, please check out my reviews of:
The Bounty Hunter
A Bag Of Hammers
We're The Millers

4/10

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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Surviving Space: The Martian Balances Practical Science And Entertainment Shockingly Well!

The Good: Decent performances, Interesting characters, Good pacing for the relative lack of plot
The Bad: Glossed-over characters/initial pacing seems very fast
The Basics: The Martian does what several of the recent science fiction space exploration films have failed to do in creating a plausible narrative that remains entertaining.


Whatever NASA is currently spending on advertising - if it even has an advertising budget at this point - it might as well reroute that money. Hollywood films are produced with a much more significant budget and between Gravity (reviewed here!), Interstellar (reviewed here!) and now The Martian, the enthusiasm for practical space travel seems to be the highest it has been in years. Despite all of the initial hype for Gravity and the fantastic elements that made Interstellar a box-office hit, the superior film of the three is The Martian.

I was drawn to The Martian based on the strength of director Ridley Scott's prior science fiction work, Prometheus (reviewed here!) and I was somewhat surprised that my appreciation of that film did not get me excited about any of Scott's projects in between. I was pretty psyched to go into The Martian without any knowledge about the film outside the tagline on the movie poster and the fact that Matt Damon was the lead in it. That led me to the rare pleasant surprise of a survival film whose ending was not immediately apparent the moment the initial concept of the film was revealed.

Eighteen days into the Ares III exploration of Mars, NASA suddenly detects a storm that will sweep over the mission's landing site. The crew of the lander is notified minutes before the storm hits and they evacuate the land station for the lander. In the process of struggling through the storm, astronaut and mission botanist Mark Watney is impaled by a transmitter antenna and blown back. Mission Commander Melissa Lewis opts to save the remaining crewmembers by lifting off after trying everything they can to search for him in the space of a minute. The rocket lifts off and the next morning, Watney wakes up to his suit's oxygen alarm going off. He makes it back to the shelter, removes the metal that pierced him and his suit and he resolves to survive for the four years needed before the next manned mission to Mars arrives. He builds a greenhouse, creates a water supply, and plants potatoes.

On Earth, NASA's director Teddy Sanders declares Mark dead and the director of the Ares project, Vincent Kapor starts to look ahead on funding the subsequent missions to Mars. When Mindy Park at the satellite station on Earth notices movement at the Ares III landing site, Kapor and Sanders work to control the narrative and figure out how they may best help Watney out. Sanders remains adamant that the crew of the Ares III not be told Watney is alive (as they are not equipped to mount a rescue mission and NASA does not want to risk losing them in such an attempt). Months in, though, Watney tries to figure out how to get to the Ares IV landing site (some 3500 kilometers away) and how to communicate with Earth (which he does by scavenging the old Pathfinder probe. But as NASA prepares to drop supplies to Watney, the airlock to the greenhouse blows off and Watney's chances of surviving until supplies can arrive plummet. When Chinese scientists step in to assist with the problem of resupplying Watney, the mission has the potential to change and everyone involved is faced with critical choices.

The Martian is a geek's dream for a practical space film that also manages to be entertaining. Until very late in the film, the practical problems are practically addressed. Unlike Gravity which relied a great deal on spectacle, The Martian features scientists who are utilizing mathematics and science to solve problems. The Martian has spectacle, but it is minimized in favor of quiet moments, references to budget problems, and a surprising amount of time where Matt Damon's Mark Whatney talks to himself.

What The Martian does exceptionally well is balance the story of Watney on Mars with the rescue attempts being made by the people on Earth. Initially, Watney's story seems ridiculously simple. He finds himself abandoned on Mars with all of the supplies he actually needs and the moment he sees the first potato plant growing, it's hard to feel a sense of urgency about him being lost in space. In fact, the two biggest plot issues seem to be with the set-up and the solution.

Mark Watney gets left behind on Mars in a very reasonable way. The mission commander makes a tough call and opts to save five lives over prolonging the search for Watney. The storm that causes the initial conflict is incredibly severe and seems to come out of nowhere, such that the team barely makes it from the habitat to the lander ship. That's a tough conceit to buy right off that bat; that NASA either so blunders the weather models or that the Mars team doesn't have weather monitoring instruments of their own forces the film's premise. As well, the moment Watney is discovered alive on Mars, the question becomes how to help him survive or rescue him, which is reasonable. While one might expect a film to not have to address all contingencies, in a film as science-laden as The Martian, it seems odd that no one on screen pitches that Ares IV would come with a more advanced rover to pick Watney up at the Ares III site. Unburdened by the thoughts of how to move himself to the Ares IV site, Watney could have been more cautious and, perhaps, done some things like focus on building a secondary greenhouse to double down on his survival chances.

All that said, The Martian is otherwise gripping. Matt Damon does an excellent job of playing an astronaut who retains his humanity and wry sense of humor in the face of exceptional odds against his very survival. It takes a pretty impressive performer to carry a film on one's own, but Damon pulls it off. Every minute one spends watching Watney try to figure out how to survive is gripping.

Watney's story is balanced - mostly effectively - by the NASA storyline where Teddy Sanders basically acts like the average Star Trek captain and forces engineers to do things faster than they are comfortable and with a seemingly unlimited budget (budget problems are referenced, but what the film lacks is a single, key scene with the American President where Sanders bluntly states that he does not want to be the President who let an American astronaut die in space out of respect for budgetary concerns). Jeff Daniels plays Sanders with credibility, as Chiwetel Ejiofor does as Vincent Kapoor. Kristen Wiig is entirely underused, as are the talents of most of the crew of the Ares III mission. And there is something unsettling, these days, about watching a film where Sean Bean plays a character that has every reason to be expected to survive the film.

Ultimately, with minimal flare, Ridley Scott paints a picture of what space exploration looks like when smart people work together to survive a very basic problem with finite resources. And Scott and Damon make it entirely watchable and entertaining.

For other films featuring Chiwetel Ejiofor, be sure to see my reviews of:
Doctor Strange
12 Years A Slave
Salt
2012
Children Of Men
Serenity
Four Brothers
Love Actually

8.5/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Brilliant And Depressing, The Skeleton Twins Showcases Career Bests For Hader And Wiig!

The Good: Great editing, Impressive acting, Good direction
The Bad: Virtually plotless/awkward/oppressive tone
The Basics: The Skeleton Twins lives up to its hype as a disturbing and wonderfully funny dramedy.


As I rush toward the completion of viewing the last few films from 2014 that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, I find myself distracted by a movie or two that I missed last year that I would rather watch than one of the Oscar nominees. Chief among them was The Skeleton Twins. The Skeleton Twins came out when my wife and I were on vacation in Minnesota and while we wanted to see it in theaters, none of the ones near where we were staying were showing it (we managed to catch This Is Where I Leave You - reviewed here! – instead). Well, we’ve finally rectified that and The Skeleton Twins has leapt into our permanent collection. The fact that it was not nominated for Oscars only shows how narrow the attention spans of the members of the Academy are.

Milo Dean attempts to kill himself on the same day that his estranged twin sister, Maggie, is about to take an overdose of pills across the country. Maggie rushes to Milo’s side – alerted because he left his music playing loud and his suicide attempt was discovered – and she invites him to return to New York with her. Milo comes reluctantly, where he meets Maggie’s outgoing, good (if somewhat white bread) husband, Lance. Milo is put off by Lance and he is shocked when he learns that his sister is trying to get pregnant with him (the last he knew, she despised the idea of having children). Milo tempts fate by going to visit Rich, who is now the owner of a small book store while Maggie is out taking scuba lessons.

Maggie’s scuba lessons lead her to an affair with the instructor. As she confesses to Milo and Milo admits to her that he has seen Rich (who had an inappropriate relationship with Milo while Milo was still a minor). Milo discovers that Maggie is still on birth control pills and when Maggie criticizes his choices, he puts Lance on the path to the truth. The result is both Milo and Maggie have the chance to fall apart and reunite after decades apart.

Milo is deeply sarcastic and he is wrestling with powerful depression. He is aptly played by Bill Hader and Hader manages to find the perfect balance between his established track record of goofy performances and a serious, deeply wounded person affected by his past. One of the aspects of The Skeleton Twins that works so perfectly for the film is for a movie that had some impressive and long preview trailers, the film is packed with surprisingly good lines and moments. The incredibly awkward dinner between Milo, Maggie, their mother Judy and Lance was absent from the extensive trailers and yields some of the film’s best moments (from the drop of the aquarium to Milo snarkily repeating Judy’s New Age nonsense line, anyone who has had a strained relationship with family can relate).

Joanna Gleason (Judy), Ty Burrell (Rich) and Luke Wilson (Lance) give wonderful supporting performances in The Skeleton Twins. Burrell is anything but goofy in the role of Rich and Wilson represses his own morbidity to play the straightman opposite Hader’s sarcastic Milo. Gleason is surprisingly able to repress all of the intelligence and professional qualities that made her an excellent fit for her arc on The West Wing to play the flighty mother of the two disturbed twins.

Kristen Wiig, who has been exploring the depths of her dramatic potential since leaving Saturday Night Live manages to set the bar higher for herself with The Skeleton Twins. The challenge for Wiig coming into The Skeleton Twins was to play a heavy dramatic character without simply reprising her awkward and dramatic role from Hateship Loveship (reviewed here!). Maggie is much more grounded in reality and much more in touch with her emotions than her character from Hateship Loveship. Instead, Wiig is able to play Maggie as depressed and full of self-doubt in a way that is different from the social isolation of her other dramatically-grounded character.

What brings The Skeleton Twins down a bit is the length of investment the audience goes through for the entertainment value of the film. Long stretches of the film follow two depressed protagonists who lead charmless lives and are stuck without any sense of catharsis. Milo and Maggie spend much of the movie lying to one another and while the viewer waits for them to either admit they have been lying or deal with whatever led to their fall-out, the film wanders. While the scene at the hygienist’s office eventually lead to Maggie’s big confession about her present, it is a long way to go before the movie progresses. Milo, alas, never manages to admit his truths to her or Rich, but the backstory about Milo and Rich is discussed, so at least the characters and their fall-out from before the film makes some sense.

Watching The Skeleton Twins is not about things that happen, it’s about how people interact and watching some comedic actors who clearly love working with one another play impressively different roles than they have before. The Skeleton Twins works well and is worth seeing and while the Academy might have forgotten it, it is a film that deserves attention and accolades.

For other works with Bill Hader, please check out my reviews of:
22 Jump Street
Her
Monsters University
Star Trek Into Darkness
This Is 40
Men In Black 3
Hoodwinked Too: Hood Versus Evil
Year One
Adventureland
Pineapple Express
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Knocked Up

8/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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More Of The Same: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues Still Entertains!

The Good: Very funny, Decent performances
The Bad: Predictable plot and character arcs
The Basics: Cameos and incongruently hilarious lines (along with a surprising amount of social commentary), make Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues a worthwhile sequel!


As we reach the end of the year, I find myself catching movies I missed over the last year. I was actually surprised to discover that Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues came out a whole year ago! I guess that illustrates how excited I was about the Anchorman sequel. My wife, however, is a huge fan of Will Ferrell, so with the release of the trailer to Get Hard, she’s been eager to catch up on the Ferrell films she’s missed over the last two years. We started with Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. We opted for the extended edition of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues because what the hell is the point of the theatrical version when you can have half an hour more of Ron Burgundy?!

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues picks up right after Anchorman (reviewed here!) and for those who have not seen the first film, there is almost no humor in the movie that depends upon the first film. In fact, outside the introduction of Brick Tamland, the humor in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues stands entirely on its own. But for those who are fans of Anchorman, while Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is enjoyable, it is largely a continuation of what came before without much new . . . other than the lines. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is funny and continues the humor of Anchorman which worked best as a collection of hilarious lines, more than a humorous narrative. Like the first one, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is the funniest when it is just playing with funny lines as opposed to moving the film in wacky directions.

After the success of Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone working on the nightly news in San Diego, the pair moves to New York City. There, Veronica is offered a position as a major network news anchor and Ron Burgundy is fired. Six months later, Ron Burgundy is working at Sea World, getting drunk, fired and then unsuccessfully trying to kill himself. Offered a position at GNN, a new 24-hour news network in New York City, by Freddie Shapp immediately after his aborted suicide attempt, Ron Burgundy reunites his old news team to take the job at the cable news company. After getting Champ Kind, Brian Fantana, and Brick Tamland out of their current situations, the quartet goes to New York City where they meet their new boss, Linda (where they are shocked by working for a black woman).

Ron Burgundy adapts poorly to working at the cable station where the primetime anchor, Jack Lime, is better-looking and more popular than he is. While Brick falls for a secretary working for GNN, Ron ends up in a fight with Jack. Challenged to beat Jack’s ratings, despite being at the 2 A.M. timeslot, Ron creates soft news (infotainment) in an attempt to win. When infotainment makes Burgundy a national hit, his formula leads him to unprecedented success. He begins to present his own stories – like smoking crack on the air – and the results are awards, women, and even more success. But Burgundy’s new relationship with his boss and his attempts to keep his old family (winning them back) leads him to real conflict that puts him at odds with his oldest friends. When sweeps week puts him at odds with his ex-wife and his news team,

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is, at best, a series of hilarious lines strung together by a thin plot involving Burgundy’s attempt to dominate cable news. As such, the film includes a pretty time-consuming subplot involving Brick and Chani, musical numbers, and otherwise incongruent comedic exchanges (condoms, horse piss, and the shock of working for a black boss). The film is funny, but is actually quite a bit smarter than one might expect.

Loaded with a social commentary that actually explores the degradation of journalism. While Burgundy creates feel-good pieces and ratingsbait, the commentary is actually impressive. Burgundy sinks a hard-hitting piece on how airplane parts are falling off planes and killing people because the corporate sponsors of GNN have a major stock interest in the airline that is criminally negligent. But, to appease the corporate owners of GNN, Burgundy eagerly jettisons the significant story in favor of a car chase. That Ron witlessly does the wrong thing is one thing, but as an audience able to evaluate the work, it is clear that writers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay had something to say.

It’s easy to overlook the commentary in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues amid troublingly blatant jokes surrounding Ron Burgundy’s racism and the ridiculous plot development of Rob going blind. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues starts to feel repetitive for those who have seen the first Anchorman as Ron refocuses his life on Veronica and his son. The film loses some of its focus as it transfers from being a story of an ambitious idiot working his way up the cable news ladder to achieve popularity when it takes a right turn with Ron and his son Walter rehabilitate a shark they find washed up on the shore of the lighthouse Ron moves into after he goes blind.

The performances in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues are exactly what one expects from a Will Ferrell film that utilizes the strongly comedic cast that was assembled for the first film, along with newcomers (to the franchise) like Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, and Meagan Good. Even Dylan Baker, who usually plays straightlaced, powerful dramatic characters, plays Freddie as goofy and hilarious which is unlike any other performance of his I have seen.

The leads in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues: Will Ferrell, David Koechner, Steve Carell, and Paul Rudd each reclaim their roles from the first film and they manage to make their characters distinct and funny. The film is funny, entertaining, and has more substance and commentary than the first, though it is more repetitive and familiar than it is audacious and originally. Still, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continued is worth watching!

For other works with David Koechner, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Cheap Thrills
Piranha 3DD
Paul
Extract
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
Sex Drive
Get Smart
Let’s Go To Prison
Farce Of the Penguins
Thank You For Smoking
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Waiting . . .

5.5/10

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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A Study In Average Sequels, How To Train Your Dragon 2 Predictably Underwhelms.

The Good: Moments of character, General plot construction
The Bad: Predictable, Moments of forced humor, Erratic animation quality
The Basics: How To Train Your Dragon 2 continues the story of Hiccup and the dragons near Berk by introducing an unexpected ally and a ruthless new villain.


It is a pretty impressive thing when a single film’s release can change the direction of a production company. In the case of Dreamworks Animation, the somewhat ridiculous (but entirely impressive) winning streak the company had ended rather abruptly with the cinematic release of How To Train Your Dragon 2. Personally, I am surprised Dreamworks did not get their comeuppance a few years back when Prometheus (reviewed here!) was released in the U.S. opposite one of the Madagascar sequels, but regardless of my opinions, it took years later and the ridiculous 22 Jump Street to end the box office dominance of Dreamworks Animation.

Now comes the time for the Monday Morning Quarterbacking; was it the film or the statistical inevitability that led How To Train Your Dragon 2 to fail to take the top spot (or get there in its second week of release). Given that I was not the world’s hugest fan of How To Train Your Dragon (reviewed here!), I tend to fall on the side of statistical inevitability and weather for why How To Train Your Dragon 2 is being perceived as a box office failure (and causing a stock dip in Dreamworks!). Summer has not been intensely hot yet, so families aren’t feeling the push to go out to the air conditioned movie theaters with their children, whereas young adults and nostalgic adults with money in the mood for ridiculous comedies will drop dollars regardless of the weather. Another factor in play is audience age; How To Train Your Dragon was produced at the peak of the children’s book series popularity and the kids who grew up on that series are a few (significant) years older, which makes them less eager to go see the sequel. Regardless, even without having seen the first film in years, How To Train Your Dragon 2 holds up surprisingly well on its own. How To Train Your Dragon 2 might not be a stellar movie or an incredible sequel, but it is a not-disappointing work that is entertaining enough to be diverting, if nothing else.

Opening with a spectacular sports sequence, the Vikings of Berk are at peace with the dragons they have trained. Young dragon riders like Astrid and Hiccup ride their familiar dragons in Quiddich-like sports much to the delight of the Vikings of Berk. Stoick The Vast, Hiccup’s father, is enamored with the idea that Astrid might someday be his daughter-in-law and he wants the young Hiccup to take his place as Berk’s protector. After the entertainment, Astrid and her dragon find Hiccup and his dragon, Toothless, at the edge of the realm. There, seeing a fire, they investigate and Astrid’s dragon is knocked out of the sky. Astrid and Hiccup meet Eret, a dragon trapper who is working for Drago Bludvist. The youths leave with their dragons and report back to Stoick that Bludvist is amassing a dragon army.

When Stoick is upset by the news that Bludvist is raising an army, Hiccup and Astrid head back to Eret’s ship to try to negotiate with him for a meeting with Drago Bludvist. The negotiations quickly fall apart when Hiccup’s friends arrive (and are almost captured) and Stoick himself tries to mount a rescue attempt for the not-captured Hiccup. After learning of the dark relationship Stoick and Bludvist once had, Hiccup is headed home when he and Toothless are attacked by a mysterious, masked dragon rider who leaves Toothless to die in the icy water. Hiccup finds himself in the custody of a woman who claims to be his mother and her horde of dragons. Valka tells Hiccup of how she came to be with the Alpha Dragon twenty years before while Hiccup’s friends worry about his whereabouts and prepare for a war with Bludvist. With a conflict eminent, Hiccup and his friends work to enlist the aid of Valka’s dragons to stop Bludvist from conquering Berk with his army of enslaved dragons.

How To Train Your Dragon 2 is not bad as much as it is predictable and formulaic. With the first film virtually ending the conflict between the dragons and Berk, the sequel has a predictably external conflict. The introduction of Drago is an interesting adversary, though the fact that he comes into the narrative a decent amount of time after the much lighter antagonist, Eret, causes the film to have a few pacing issues. Because the film is very much a family-friendly film, Drago Bludvist is characterized as a psychopath without being shown to be much of one for most of the movie. Instead, he is a generic, short-tempered Viking lord who employs mercenaries and is told to viewers to be a crazed villain. He is rough on his subordinates and his goals are sinister, but he mostly fills the generic villain role without being shown on-screen as being truly monstrous.

At the other end of the spectrum is Valka. Hiccup’s mother is a protector of dragons and might well be best embodiment of Stockholm Syndrome seen in recent years in film, but she is presented with a similarly simple nature. Valka is a pretty universal good character, despite her twenty year absence from Hiccup and Stoick’s lives. A realistic amount of time is spent re-assimilating Valka to Viking culture (getting her away from considering herself a dragon), but that leaves shockingly little time for the actual conflict between Drago and the heroes of Berk (while keeping the film at a family friendly 90 minutes). The result is that the characters in How To Train Your Dragon 2 are almost universally simplistically rendered.

Hiccup seems much younger than the twenty years old he is supposed to be, until he has the threat of invasion to respond to. Predictably, Hiccup rises to the occasion of saving the dragons that Valka has been living with. That predictability makes How To Train Your Dragon 2 seem unremarkable and some of the lines – most notably the romantic obsession Ruffnut has for Eret – seem like throwaway bits of filler. As one might figure for a family film, How To Train Your Dragon 2 is largely lacking in complexities. Hiccup is interesting in that he is a pacifist among Vikings, but even having not seen the first film in years, that seems more a function of his initial characterization than actual character growth.

On the acting front, the talents employed by Dreamworks Animation are predictably impressive. Djimon Hounsou’s deep voice is perfect for connoting menace in every line Drago speaks. Cate Blanchett is good at delivering exposition as Valka, but director Dean DeBlois fails to capitalize on her ability to deliver lines with real emotion by not giving her character the chance to make some of the moments sufficiently deep. Returning actors like Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, and Gerard Butler are pros who return to their roles easily, even when they are forced to deliver simplistic or unchallenging lines.

It seems like much of the purpose (within the universe of How To Train Your Dragon) of How To Train Your Dragon 2 is to raise the visual stakes of the world of Berk. The Alphas certainly do that, though their visual majesty is trumped by their use as background props for some of their most significant battle moments. Unlike something like, for example, Star Wars where the director might let the special effects department play long enough to create a lavish sequence involving the mammoth visual elements of the Alphas, DeBlois establishes the scale of the Alpha then uses the two massive dragons as background elements (deferring to their control over the rest of the dragons to express their influence in the film more than their physical presence).

Ultimately, How To Train Your Dragon 2 is incredibly average and the result is a movie that suffers as one might expect a sequel to: it is a return to a familiar place where one is left feeling like they did not need more of an expanded story than they already had.

For other Dreamworks Animation films, please check out my reviews of:
Rise Of The Guardians
Rio
Rango
Shrek Forever After
MegaMind
Shark Tale
Shrek

4.5/10

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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The Tough Sell Of The Independent Film: Hateship Loveship Has Good Components For A Cliché Story.

The Good: Kristen Wiig’s performance, Decent direction, Moments of realism
The Bad: Storytelling gaps, Oppressive mood, Unremarkable and uninteresting characters
The Basics: Despite a strong last third, Hateship Loveship remains a difficult-to-watch, awkward film with pretty stellar performances and direction.


As the weekends devolve into blockbuster releases that generally trade on spectacle over substance, I find myself turning toward independent cinema with the hope of seeing worthwhile movies. To that end, I took in Hateship Loveship this afternoon. Hateship Loveship is the latest Kristen Wiig vehicle and the indie film follows Wiig’s post-Saturday Night Live career. Wiig seems to alternate between taking reliable blockbuster projects and independent films (like Girl Most Likely). Wiig seems to be determined to get taken seriously as an actress and in Hateship Loveship there is no hint of any of her goofy comedic characters that made her so successful as a sketch comedy performer. Come to think of it, even in Bridesmaids (reviewed here!), Wiig presented a more serious character; the zaniness occurred around her serious character.

Hateship Loveship is a straightforward drama and Wiig is wonderful in the movie, even if the film is not a spectacular story. In fact, were it not for the quality of the performances, the moody movie would probably have been relegated to the deepest reaches of Indie Cinema Hell and never even released on DVD. As it is, between Liza Johnson’s direction and Wiig and Guy Pearce’s performances, Hateship Loveship is compelling to watch, though the story’s stark realism is often difficult. The film is based upon a short story and it is worth noting that I have never read that short story, so this is a very pure review of the film Hateship Loveship, unencumbered by any comparisons or preconceptions of what the movie was “supposed” to be.

Opening with Johanna Parry attending to the last moments of an elderly lady and then dealing with the hospice of the body after her death, Parry is set-up with another family for her next job. Johanna moves in with the elderly Bill McCauley, who has a complicated relationship with his widower son-in-law, Ken (who is about Johanna’s age and has a daughter, Sabitha). Sabitha and her friend, Edith, are virtually inseparable and when Edith refuses to let Ken drive her home one night, Johanna peeks in on a conversation between Ken and his father-in-law to learn some of the complexities of their relationship. Parry feels very separated and detached from the family in which she is now working (and living); she has a more natural dialogue with McCauley than she does with Sabitha (whom she is supposed to look after).

When Ken includes a brief note to Johanna in with one of Sabitha’s letters, Parry leaps upon the communication with an eagerness that she does not have for anything else. She immediately writes Ken back, but hands Edith the letter to mail. Edith and Sabitha read the letter and begin corresponding with Johanna as Ken . . . After a fallout between Edith and Sabitha, Edith continues to impersonate Ken via e-mail, with Johanna getting increasingly invested in the online relationship. That leads Parry to Chicago to try to find Ken. There, she finds Ken strung out on coke, living in the run-down motel he bought and promised to fix up using McCauley’s money. Learning that Ken does not even have a computer, Johanna is shocked, but she stays with Ken and begins fixing up the motel so he has the chance to turn his life around.

One of the striking aspects of Hateship Loveship is how long it takes to establish the characters (if not the mood). Eighteen minutes into Hateship Loveship, Johanna and Sabitha have not really had any scenes together to make one believe they have been interacting. So, the idea that Parry is Sabitha’s nanny pretty nebulous and underdeveloped until the plot contrivance from Sabitha and Edith comes into play. When Sabitha and Edith begin writing to Parry as if they were Ken, there is no apparent motivation and the act seems instantly cruel (especially for teenagers who are old enough to know better). It calls into question just what type of movie Hateship Loveship will be. Fortunately, the plot contrivance of the teenagers impersonating Ken is pretty much over by the midpoint of the movie and the mood piece continues as a stark and off-putting character piece.

Johanna Parry is competent and caring, but immediately sheltered and socially-awkward. Guy Pearce’s Ken is charismatic and smart enough to be believable (he figures out almost instantly that the girls were likely responsible for the e-mails Johanna received). The characters in Hateship Loveship are anything but moral absolutes. Johanna, despite seeming entirely sheltered and somewhat naïve (especially about Ken’s drug use and romantic relationships), appears to think nothing of stealing the furniture that belonged to Bill’s daughter (which McCauley covets and keeps in the garage) and paying to have it shipped out to Ken’s motel. Parry is educated; she seems to be a competent home healthcare worker, but even there her character is inconsistently defined. Parry cares for Mrs. Willets from age fifteen until the old lady’s death, so how and why she makes a transition into working with a young person is an abrupt transition for the audience to make. Ken has all of the erratic qualities of an addict and the viewer watches as he flounders around trying for redemption as he turns toward Johanna and away from his druggie girlfriend, Chloe. To the credit of Guy Pearce, while the viewer might be ambivalent as to what they want to see from Johanna, Pearce makes the audience root for Ken to succeed and turn his life around.

Director Liza Johnson does very well with the fractured script she is given. Hateship Loveship would be a dud – it starts off with so many characters and threads, like the relationship between Sabitha and Edith that has so much potential before it falls out of the film completely for the middle third of the movie – were it not for the caliber of the acting and Johnson’s direction. Johnson not only gets a serious performance out of Kristen Wiig that is spectacular (the scene where Johanna practices kissing herself on the mirror could easily have turned into a comedic moment of utter farce, but Johnson keeps it tight and Wiig lands the moment dramatically), but she holds on the characters and their emotional expressions for enough time to truly flesh out the realism of their emotions. When Parry learns that Ken does not have e-mail, Johnson captures the shock and realization on Wiig’s face without her saying a word.

Hateship Loveship is a good example of how the production end of a movie matters less if one does not start with a strong script. Wiig, Pearce, Nick Nolte (McCauley) and Hailee Steinfeld (Sabitha) might all do wonderfully with the characters they are given and Liza Johnson captures their performances well, but the story is not a particularly compelling or original one and it contains significant gaps. The story leaps almost immediately from Parry moving in with McCauley to weeks later (with no scenes that have interactions between Johanna and Sabitha) and has an abrupt fallout between Edith and Sabitha and a plotline with Bill and the bank teller, Eileen, that seems thrown in just to justify the expense and presence of Nolte and Christine Lahti in the film. Hateship Loveship has a number of trademark indie film moments: Ken tries to turn his life around by throwing away his drugs, but ends up doing some of the coke off the toilet seat in one of the film’s most telegraphed moments.

Despite the oppressive mood throughout, Hateship Loveship recovers much of its watchability in the film’s last third. As Johanna and Ken begin to forge a real relationship, Hateship Loveship becomes watchable, even if it is never really enjoyable. But that, too, is the hallmark of many independent films; Hateship Loveship captures that stark realism of people struggling to survive and relate. Despite the initial, sometimes problematic or cliché, conceits, Hateship Loveship recovers well and is worth watching once for all it gets right.

For other works with Nick Nolte, please check out my reviews of:
Hotel Rwanda
Hulk
U Turn
Nightwatch

4.5/10

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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Not Bending The World As Much As We Think, Why Her Is The Best Film Of The Year!

The Good: Excellent acting, Intriguing plot, Interesting characters
The Bad: Somewhat oppressive tone
The Basics: Her is a smart, clever film that has a lonely man bonding with his smartphone’s operating system and developing real love for the artificial life form.


A few days ago, my wife and I celebrated our four and three quarter year anniversary of our marriage. Even though it was an obscure anniversary, we continue to give gifts to one another and she actually surprised me by getting me the Blu-Ray of Where The Wild Things Are (reviewed here!). I was the only person I knew who actually liked the movie and my wife got it for me to connect me to a youthful sensibility I sometimes lack. So, I was actually primed to take in Spike Jonze’s latest film, Her . . . and I know that I will not be the only person I know who loves this film. Her is smart, quirky, and deep, instantly reminiscent of Jonze’s Being John Malkovich in tone and weirdness.

Her is released as Oscarbait, but while the studios might be marketing it toward award season, there is a sense of wry observation and universal loneliness that would have made it the film of the year regardless of when it was released. While films like Gravity (reviewed here!) have been leaving audiences marveled for the spectacle they bring to the big screen, it has lacked something beyond the confines of the story it tells. Spike Jonze has never been limited in that way and Her is no exception. Her tells a story set in a slightly sideways view of the world, but resonates with genuine human emotions and a story that is far less quirky (and much more insightful) than one might think from its plot.

Theodore is a professional transcriber for BeautifulWrittenLetters.com where he spends his days handwriting affectionate letters for customers. He is going through a rough divorce, though Catherine has clearly moved on from him, and he is lonely. Outside work, he spends time with his friend Amy, who spends her free time playing an online game where she earns points for being a good mother in the virtual world. Theodore’s own outlet with the virtual world or artificial intelligences comes when he activates his new operating system for his smartphone. Samantha talks to Theodore and he finds in the responsive program a companion more than a technological tool.

As Theodore asks his phone questions and responds to Samantha’s observations, he starts to bond with Samantha the way he would with an actual person. Theodore begins to become emotionally entangled with Samantha and that eases his loneliness. But as Theodore develops the relationship, he is forced to wrestle with the feelings he is has for Amy, Catherine, Samantha, and, perhaps most importantly, himself.

Her had a familiar quality to it; the emotional distance and sense of connection coming through technological devices is a similar plot to this year’s A Perfect Men (reviewed here!). The sense of familiarity also resonates for anyone who saw and understood A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (reviewed here!); Samantha in Her is treated like a life form in some very real ways. Interestingly, the elements that seem familiar combine to create something that is remarkable fresh.

The thing is, Her seems audacious and original in its plotting and set-up, but Spike Jonze drives the movie with a character who is easy to empathize with and a tone that is universal (though hardly pleasant). Theodore seems to meet the stereotype of being a smart man who is socially or emotionally disconnected, with limited ability to express the depths of his feelings. While Jonze created yet another smart character who clearly feels, he is put on the spot to define his emotions and falls down. Her might use a technological conceit, but it explores a complicated series of emotions and has something to say about relationships that is seldom brought to the screen with such realism.

While there are moments that get bogged down in the oppressive tone inherent to loneliness, Her succeeds because it balances the loneliness with the excitement of the discovery that comes with a new relationship. While there is a somewhat bipolar nature to the plot, the overall cinematic experience is surprisingly enjoyable.

A lot of the credit for the success of Her goes to Joaquin Phoenix. While I have never been a fan of Phoenix’s works, in Her he performs with an incredible range of emotions that is uncommon for him. Phoenix plays the quiet loneliness of Theodore’s initial character exceptionally well, but it is when he transforms into a bright-eyed, eager man outside his home that Phoenix gives us something completely new. I cannot recall a time when I’ve seen Phoenix on screen smiling and portraying a truly vibrant human being.

In a similar fashion, Amy Adams’s role in Her is unlike others she has had. More than just appearing with disheveled hair, Adams uses her time on the screen to play a type of obsession she has not played in her other works (at least none I have ever seen).

Her has a touching human message and it is delivered expertly in a way that makes it a film bound to stand the tests of time.

For other works featuring Olivia Wilde, please check out my reviews of:
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
The Words
People Like Us
In Time
Butter
The Change-Up
Cowboys And Aliens
Tron: Legacy
The Next Three Days
Year One
House, M.D. - Season Four

9/10

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

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Particularly Disappointing Sequel, Despicable Me 2 Fizzles.

The Good: Moments of character, Voice acting.
The Bad: Overbearing soundtrack, Forced 3-D, Forced humor, Formulaic and predictable.
The Basics: While Despicable Me 2 might have opened strong, it lacks the spark of the original and the real cuteness of a successful animated film.


As Summer Blockbuster Season is now in full swing, it is hard not to see how the various movie studios hedge their bets and calculate their releases to make winning opening weekends for their companies. In fact, more than any Summer Blockbuster Season in recent memory, this year seems like a season of gamesmanship and the movies released by the major studios have been anything but inspired. Only two weeks after the release of Monsters University, Universal Pictures releases its big animated sequel of the summer, Despicable Me 2. Unable to simply cede the weekend, Disney went unsuccessfully up against it with The Lone Ranger. But the idea that Summer Blockbuster Season has just become a ridiculous game between the major studios should not be lost on the Despicable Me 2 audience; the release of the film during this season at all shows just how petty the studios have become.

At its heart, Despicable Me 2 is a Mother’s Day movie. Universal, however, did not seem to want to go up against Paramount’s two big May movies (Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness) and instead released the sequel now. And while Despicable Me 2 had an admittedly awesome first weekend at the box office, it is not hard to predict that this will come to be viewed (more objectively with time) as one of the least impressive sequels in recent memory. And, it is worth noting right up front that I thoroughly enjoyed Despicable Me (reviewed here!) and I was excited to see Despicable Me 2 with my wife.

Gru is happily raising Margo, Agnes, and Edith (starting with a birthday party for Agnes) and avoiding his busybody neighbor who tries to set him up with other people when he is kidnapped by a secret organization. The Anti-Villain League wants Gru’s help in tracking down the supervillain who has stolen an entire Arctic research facility, a facility where a dangerous mutagenic serum has been created. Gru rejects their job, though Lucy (one of the agents) is persistent and pushy enough to force herself upon Gru as his partner. Gru’s desire to stay on the straight and narrow alienates his longtime assistant, Dr. Nefario, who abandons Gru and the Minions. After that happens, Gru reluctantly accepts the assignment with the AVL and goes to their secret facility in the mall with Lucy to hunt for the mad scientist responsible for stealing the Arctic facility.

Unbeknownst to Gru, his Minions have been abducted from his house en masse (using a cleverly disguised ice cream truck) and Margo has become infatuated with a boy at the mall. Despite Lucy’s attempts to get Gru to focus elsewhere, Gru believes that the owner of Salsa Y Salsa is none other than the (supposedly) dead supervillain El Macho and he sets out to prove that Eduardo has the mutagenic weapon. As Lucy and Gru become enamored with one another, the villain sets his diabolical plan in motion and it is up to Gru and his daughters to save the world.

Fundamentally, the problem with Despicable Me 2 is that virtually everything in the movie is forced. The humor is not particularly funny; it does not resonate very strongly and none of the jokes resonate in a memorable way. Having just seen the film, only one of the movie’s final jokes remains in my head and that does not say much about the ninety-six minutes that preceded it. Most of the humor in Despicable Me 2 is exceptionally juvenile and based on physical (slapstick) humor as opposed to situational or referential jokes. In fact, outside a lone Alien joke and the subtle allusions to Attack Of The Clones (reviewed here!), most of Despicable Me 2 seems geared entirely toward a children’s audience.

But even there, the film fails to land. Despicable Me 2 tries to capitalize on the cuteness of Agnes, the wide-eyed youngest adopted daughter of Gru. While her role in Despicable Me led to some of the most memorable cute lines of that film (“He’s so fluffy, I’m gonna die!”), in Despicable Me 2 the writers seem determined in a most desperate way to try to recreate that cuteness. And, outside the last joke by her in the movie, it falls flat. Virtually all of her lines seem tailor-made to be another cute catchphrase and until she mentions making toast, they all fall pathetically short of being memorable or genuinely cute.

Also forced are the visual effects. First, the soundtrack is entirely intrusive. Throughout the film, various pop and dance songs start playing and they drown out all plot momentum, lines or reason at the point they pop up. As for the 3-D, I hailed Despicable Me for its innovative use of the 3-D animation. Unfortunately, in Despicable Me 2, the same cannot be said. Despicable Me 2’s 3-D effects are a distraction from the story and plot. Indeed, the film has random stops (not just one, but multiple) for scenes of Minions having parties that seem much more deliberate in their attempt to present layered 3-D sequences than actually advance the plot or characters of the film. The 3-D here is as gratuitous as in any super hero film where the 3-D was done in post production to try to ramp up the grosses on the otherwise mediocre movie.

As for the voice acting, Despicable Me 2 is fine. Steve Carell is good as Gru, Ken Jeong and Russell Brand give good supporting performances and Kristen Wiig steps up with a sizable role as Lucy. But Wiig’s performance had a strange sense of typecasting over real acting. For sure, Lucy is just as animated as any of the other characters in the movie, but Wiig’s performance of her seems entirely familiar and like any number of characters she has already played.

In the end, Despicable Me 2 might kill an afternoon, but its obsession with trying to combine marketable elements makes for a sloppy, predictable and blasé film that might well be summer’s best bet for flash-in-the-pan entertainment.

For other animated films, please check out my reviews of:
Hoodwinked
Disney's Frozen
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters

4/10

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

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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It’s Back! But Season Four Of Arrested Development Is Hardly Great.

The Good: Wonderful character development/progression, Great in-jokes
The Bad: Very different tone (to start out with).
The Basics: With fifteen episodes, Netflix returns Arrested Development with the entire original cast but short on the charm that made the first three seasons a classic.


When it was announced that Arrested Development (reviewed here!) was being given a fourth season, I was working at a blogging job for a small computer company. In the days that followed the announcement, Netflix revealed that its subscriber base had abruptly increased. I recall writing about how it was incredible that the loyal fan base of Arrested Development would show support for the preproduction by subscribing years ahead of the programs actual release. Today, I find myself wondering what will happen tomorrow. With Season Four of Arrested Development dropping in a single fifteen episode block on Netflix (an event my wife and I enjoyed partaking of beginning at 3 A.M. this morning), I wonder how long that fan base will stick with Netflix. It seemed to me like a tactical miscalculation to release the entire season all at once instead of drawing the season out in order to actually keep those subscribers.

My musings on the relationship between Netflix and Arrested Development is a valid one, but it is also a delaying tactic. The delay comes from not wanting to (inevitably) lose the readers who stop reading after they see the line, “it’s enjoyable, but it lacks the spark that Arrested Development had originally.” Because Season Four has to figure out where all the characters have been since the previous season’s finale, it spends a great deal of time re-establishing characters and filling in the plot and character developments from the past few years and telling new viewers what the loyal fans already know (“Stan Sitwell suffered from alopecia . . .”).

That is not to say that season four is without charm. Mary Lynn Rajskub joins George Sr.’s storyline as a silent character named Heart Fire, who is subtitled hilariously and there is quite a bit of humor pertaining to the housing market collapse in the late 2000’s. The appearance of the cast of Comedy Central’s Workaholics (season 1 reviewed here!) as airport personnel, the watermarks on the screen for all footage from the prior three seasons (“Showstealer Pro Trial Version“), and in-jokes to the original series (like Lindsay wearing the blouse from the first episode) are all cute, but there is nothing in this season as distinctive as “There’s always money in the banana stand” or “No touching!” In other words, it has moments where it is good, but the new version of the show is hardly as distinctive or fresh as it originally was (though “Three does sound bigger” came close). The refreshing aspect of Season Four of Arrested Development is that, after a clunky start, it does get better so that by the longer episode “Red Hairing” the show is actually funny and fun again.

Flashing back to the final episode of Season Three, the fourth season of Arrested Development is built around how none of the members of the Bluth family showed up for Lucille’s hearing in maritime court. The episodes then work up to all of the characters converging on the Quatro De Mayo harbor celebration!

After indebting himself to Lucille Austero and missing his mother’s hearing in maritime court, Michael Bluth finishes the Sudden Valley housing development and when it goes bust, he moves in with George Michael in his son’s college dorm room before fleeing to Pheonix. George Sr. flees to the Mexican border after buying property there to try to sell to the U.S. government to use to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants. After Lindsay goes to India on a spiritual retreat, she and Tobias buy a mini-mansion in 2006 and end up at a Methadone Clinic (Tobias thinks it’s “Method One Clinic”) where Lindsay meets Mark Bark, the son of Johnny Bark, the guy she once spent time with in a tree. Tobias ends up as methadone addict and actor while Michael goes to work for Imagine Entertainment. G.O.B. pops up, having started an unsuccessful Christian magic act before George Sr. asks Michael to give him a job. The episodes build up to the hearing and then deals with the aftermath, building up to the Quatro de Cinco and the aftermath of the collapse of Herbert Love’s campaign.

Opening with “Flight Of The Phoenix,” Michael Bluth finds himself in debt to Lucille Austero to the tune of $700,000. After debasing himself with her, he flees to the old model home he and G.O.B. uses a roofie on him. Six months prior that forgetful Quatro de Mayo, Michael was attending the University Of Phoenix while living in George Michael’s college dorm room at UC Irvine. George Michael, his new roommate and Maeby (posing as George Michael’s boyfriend) vote Michael out of the room and he flees to Phoenix, as he has long threatened to do.

“Borderline Personalities” picks up the story of George Sr. and his twin brother, Oscar where the pair is working on fleecing executives in a sweat lodge on the border of California and Mexico. The complicated scheme – whereby Oscar and George swap positions between a sweat lodge and an “inspirational classroom” type situation to get money out of the CEOs – is how George Sr. is avoiding of government questioning after stealing Stan Sitwell’s border wall contract out from under him!

A particularly humorless episode, “Indian Takers” tells the story of how Lindsay ended up in Shuturmurg, India on a mystical journey that ends up in a shopping trip. Returning to the U.S., she trades positive testimony at Lucille’s hearing for a house with Tobias and a fling with Mark Bark. She finds herself on an ostrich farm, missing Lucille’s hearing.

“The B. Team” returns to Michael’s story as he gets a producing credit in Beverly Hills as he goes to work for Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. Loaded with in-jokes and the return of Kitty Sanchez, this episode follows Michael’s quest to get his father to sign his life rights to the project in order to make it happen. Along the way, he assembles a creative team with Warden Gentles, Carl Weathers, and Andy Richter in a pretty righteous lampooning of the Hollywood “creative process.” And he starts dating a mysterious woman who turns out to be the most obvious person possible given the set-up . . .

In “A New Start,” opens with Tobias getting entrapped on a local To Catch A Predator television show and is flashed back to how he went to India! After fracturing his skull in three places, Tobias ends up in City Of Hopelessness Hospital in India! Returning to the United States, Tobias recommits to being an actor and ends up working with Debrie where he tries to make money having his picture taken as the Thing while Debrie goes as the Invisible Woman and the two get repeatedly arrested and fined.

George Sr.’s story is picked up in “Double Crossers.” George Sr. works to aid Republican Herbert Love. After effectively bribing the politician, George discovers that Oscar’s land is not actually on the border. Oscar, posing as George convinces Lucille to send G.O.B. to work on the border. When that does not work out, G.O.B. comes to work for Michael trying to sell the units in Sudden Valley.

Gob’s story comes out in “Collony Collapse.” Before the Queen Mary sailed, George Michael attacks Gob when he finds out his uncle is dating Ann Veal. After deflowering Ann, Gob tries to break up with her (the funniest line of the season comes in this episode when Gob sees a print of Jesus), but ends up engaged to her. When he gets out of the engagement, he falls in with a youth entourage and he almost gets them all killed.

“Red Hairing” catches up with Lindsay in the desert working on the ostrich farm with Marky Bark and their ostrich. After Lindsay finds a check for a facelift from Lucille to Maeby, she goes with Marky to commit an act of nonviolent protest against Herbert Love. The disaster reunites Lindsay and Maeby. It also puts Lindsay in the position to be Herbert Love’s mistress.

Tobias returns to the forefront in “Smashed.” After a stint in prison, is registered as a sex offender (unjustly), and goes to work at Lucille 2’s Austerity rehab clinic. There, he is reunited with DeBrie and begins staging a Fantastic 4 musical. In order to advance that project, Tobias has to meet with Ron Howard and that leads to a catastrophe in the making.

At long last, Lucille gets an episode of her own in “Queen B.” Flashing back to fleeing the S.E.C., Lucille tries to use Buster for her alibi. When he does not come through, she is sentenced to three to five years at a very light security prison. There she joins a Chinese gang that is willing to finance the wall on the Mexican border and gets transferred to Austerity.

“A New Attitude” refocuses on Gob. Committed now to destroying Tony Wonder, he tries to get Michael and his son Steve Holt to help him ruin Tony Wonder. After signing his rights away for the movie, he has George Michael come with him to the Gothic Castle where he actually has a conversation with Tony Wonder and comes up with a new revenge scheme.

Maeby’s years are accounted for in “Senoritas.” After trying to get her parent’s attention, she flunks out of high school, briefly works for Imagine Entertainment, gets fired and goes through high school for five years. After a brief scare where she is worried she will be exposed by an undercover cop at high school, she pimps out her mother and helps George Michael start his own internet company.

“It Gets Better” fleshes out George-Michael’s five years. Right before his software company launches, he was in a band, becomes an exchange student and creates a software that is not what other people think it is.

At long last, the final Bluth gets his episode when Buster is the focus of “Off The Hook.” Flashing back to Buster getting cut off from Lucille, he goes a bit crazy and simulates having her around, but after a night of juice, he gets a juice hangover and misses Lucille’s hearing. After trying to make a go of his relationship with Lucille 2, he re-enlists in the Army as a drone pilot and after an injury is given a new (oversized) hand to replace his hook. He is given an anti-bullying badge and falls in with Herbert Love’s wife, Ophelia. On Cinco De Cuatro (sic), Lucille Austero reveals the truth of her manipulations of Buster to him.

The season finale is “Blockheads” and it opens with George-Michael and resolves the relationship he has with Rebel and has all of the main characters colliding at Herbert Love’s campaign event . . . with all of the self-serving characters focusing on their own stuff.

Like the series that preceded it, Arrested Development includes a wealth of guest stars. In addition to familiar recurring guest stars like Henry Winkler, Ed Begley Jr. and Judy Greer, the fourth season of Arrested Development has cameos by Alan Tudyk, Ben Stiller (he shows up for a shot in a print ad, several background shots and two decent exchanges in a later episode!), Mae Whitman, and Scott Baio. Isla Fisher has a decent recurring role as Rebel and Mary Lynn Rajskub’s Heart Fire steals the scenes she is in. John Slattery’s Doctor Norman also becomes a memorable supporting character. Seth Rogen and Kristen Wiig open the new season exceptionally well as younger versions of George and Lucille.

The main cast is incredible. Given that all of the main performers return and they are great in returning to their familiar characters. Portia de Rossi looks unfortunately gaunt at the outset of the season and Mae Whitman fails to look as plain as Ann Veal originally did. But they perform their characters flawlessly and in a familiar way. Jessica Walter is given the best chance to show serious range when the show finally focuses on her. When Lucille has to illustrate complex human emotions, she sells it at least as much as she has previously sold her character’s loathsome indifference to everyone and everything. Will Arnett and David Cross get to perform opposite one another and their time together on The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret (season 1 is reviewed here!) clearly paid off as they are given more scenes together this season and they play off one another incredibly well. For most of this season, the performers look like they are having fun and they play their characters well.

The biggest danger of watching Arrested Development Season 4 as a fan is that one will spend the episodes gleefully pointing out connections between these episodes and the prior ones. By the time I recognized the waitress from a first season episode where Lucille did not understand her question, my wife began glaring at me (you can’t talk over the new episodes of Arrested Development!).

Arrested Development is a welcome show to get new episodes and the fourth season might start a little rockier than fans might want, but it builds up to the logical concluding point and it peaks in the middle well, making it well worth watching and getting Netflix for . . . even if for only this month. In fact, it is executed so well that it feels far more fresh than it actually is (the main plotline between Michael and George Michael was actually done in the first season), though it progresses the characters fans knew and loved. Season Four is more than enough to hold fans over until the movie is released and fans successfully get a fifth season.

For other continuations of once-cancelled shows, please visit my reviews of:
Family Guy - Volume Three
Serenity
Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

6.5/10

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

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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