Almost Subversive, The Lego Movie Hedges Its Bets!

The Good: Good voice cast, Themes, Good plot progression
The Bad: Overstates itself, “Twist” guts the adult aspects, Predictable
The Basics: The Lego Movie has a strong start, but becomes unfortunately obvious and thematically heavy-handed.


There are only a handful of films from 2014 that I am still looking forward to seeing. Near the top of the list was The Lego Movie and so, as the new year gets under way and my wife and I have more date nights, it was one of our first choices to pick up and watch. The Lego Movie initially lives up to its promise of being a smart, thematically-subversive film intended far more for adults than the obvious children’s audience. With its impressive voice cast, most of whom are familiar to adults as opposed to children, The Lego Movie is a fun film.

In fact, the real issues with The Lego Movie come from overstating itself. In the last fifteen minutes of the film, there is a twist that nails the themes home in such a way that The Lego Movie pretty much mortgages its own themes and cleverness. While The Lego Movie makes allusions to things like The Empire Strikes Back (reviewed here!) and has some generally adult themes on the nature of capitalism and social order, it plays a number of its jokes over and over again, making it a tougher sell than it should have been.

Emmet is an ordinary worker in the Lego block world that is surprisingly mundane. He is a construction worker who follows all the rules and has a very regular schedule. President Business runs both the government and the big business in the world and the citizens are thrilled when he announces the forthcoming Taco Tuesday. As Emmet is leaving his construction site, he sees a mysterious stranger, Wyldstyle, who is sifting through the rubble for something. Emmet wakes up with a device – the Piece Of Resistance - stuck to his back, in the custody of Bad Cop. Emmet is rescued by Wyldstyle, who takes him to Vitruvius.

Vitruvius explains that Emmet is The Special, a man of prophecy. It is his destiny to bring the Piece Of Resistance to Lord Business’s Kragle weapon and stop the villain from unleashing his weapon upon the many Lego realms. Pursued by Bad Cop’s forces (after President Business removes his “Good Cop” alter-ego), Emmet, Wyldstyle, and Vitruvius try to escape using their imaginations to reorganize their vehicles. Rescued by Batman, the heroes head to Cloud Cuckooland where all of the disparate Master Builders are meeting to plan how to get the Piece Of Resistance to the Kragle. But Bad Cop’s forces break things up and soon the heroes are fleeing once again. While Emmet slowly learns how to live up to his potential, Lord Business begins to reveal his maniacal plans!

For a film that is basically an advertisement for every property Warner Brothers is affiliated with (the DC Comics universe, Harry Potter, LEGO The Lord Of The Rings), The Lego Movie does a decent job of attacking corporate mechanisms. Lord Business utterly screws over his most loyal lieutenant and that plays well throughout the film.

The Lego Movie utilizes an incredibly talented voice cast. Led by Chris Pratt as Emmet, The Lego Movie has fun vocal performances from Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks, Charlie Day and Will Arnett. Each member of the cast is expert at emoting using only their voice talents and whatever problems exist with the film, the cast and their line deliveries are not at fault.

The Lego Movie looks good and has moments of charm, but it plunges into average territory as it progresses and takes a safe, albeit somewhat surprising, route. The departure from the main narrative beats home the themes the film was building to and it undermines the imagination and style of the film. The result is that The Lego Movie is good, but far from flawless.

For other works with Chris Pratt, please visit my reviews of:
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Her
Movie 43
The Five-Year Engagement
Moneyball
Bride Wars
Wanted
Strangers With Candy

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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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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My Wife Might Love Step Brothers, But I'm More Ambivalent To It!

The Good: Funny, truly, absurdly funny.
The Bad: Predictable, Mediocre (or unsurprising) acting
The Basics: Ultimately average-at-best, Step Brothers is more a predictable Will Ferrell movie than a surprising one.


My wife and I, fortunately enough, still have plenty that differentiates us from one another. Among her many loves - which I do not share - are mushrooms, loud music and the movies of Will Ferrell. I have nothing against Will Ferrell, I reviewed The Other Guys (available here!) earlier. But I do have an appreciation for the acting talents of John C. Reilly. So, when I picked up Step Brothers for my wife as her final DVD (we're on Blu-Ray now!), having heard her rave about it for the entire first year of our knowing one another, I figured I was in for a fifty-fifty split. Having seen the movie with her now, I'm still there.

Step Brothers follows in a pretty long tradition of movies where adults act like children and it reunites Ferrell with Reilly along with the director who put them together in Talladega Nights. And while Reilly does a decent job playing the manchild, in this case, Dale, Ferrell's character Brennan is very much what one expects from Ferrell in this type comedy. In fact, the most severe problem with Step Brothers is that it is only what one expects from a Will Ferrell comedy.

Brennan is a middle-aged guy living with his mother, just as Dale lives with his father following the death of his mother. Robert, Dale's father, meets Nancy, Brennan's mother, while on a business trip and the two hit it off immediately. In fact, they marry exceptionally quickly and Nancy and Brennan move in with Robert and Dale. While the newlyweds do their thing, Brennan and Dale square off and Dale exerts his dominance, by threatening Brennan and warning him about such things as touching his drum set. But when Dale takes on Brennan's successful young brother, Brennan changes his mind about Dale.

At that point, the two begin to work together to have fun and make the best of their time together. They create a company, based upon having a great name for an entertainment conglomerate ("Prestige Worldwide") and they plan to turn their lives around. But it is at that point that Robert and Nancy decide to move out and sell the house, forcing Dale and Brennan to get real jobs. Failing to do that, violence breaks out and Robert decides he cannot live this way any longer and the family falls apart, pitting Dale and Brennan at one another's throats again.

This is, in many ways, a formulaic comedy that only seems fresh for moments because the movie takes time to create characters who have such a grasp on absurdist humor that one cannot help but laugh at their antics. For sure, the viewer does not so much care about what happens to Dale or Brennan, but we laugh at them as they do their things, especially in such scenes as the sleepwalking destruction scene. It is so over-the-top crazy that it has the freshness of being funny and wonderful, which is something I seldom see.

But comedic interludes like that which are actually fresh are all that breaks up long stretches of the movie where the comedy is obvious and obviously delivered. Ferrell bugs out his eyes and says something silly in an inappropriately menacing tone, Reilly nods and plays straightman to an over-the-top sexual advance from Brennan's brother's wife and the viewer is unsurprised. These performances and jokes fall within the range of comedic actors of their caliber and, sadly, do not hold up so well over multiple viewings. Instead, once the initial shock of the awkward situations that most of the movie is preoccupied with, the movie sags.

The only real surprise for me is how Adam McCay got Richard Jenkins to do Step Brothers. Jenkins plays Robert and he is largely the straightman of the film. No matter how absurd Reilly's Dale or Ferrell's Brennan are, Jenkins keeps Robert real, rational and adult. But that is why the character of Robert fails to work. He is so much the by-product of reality that it does not seem realistic at all that he would have allowed Dale to develop as such a stunted individual. Jenkins gives a wonderful performance, though, especially when Robert snaps and actually disciplines the adult children. But even the quality of Jenkins' performance cannot forgive the fact that the character makes little sense.

Everyone else in the film is startlingly average, from Ferrell - whose performance is so familiar to anyone who has seen any of the other films Ferrell has done in the last five years - to Mary Steenburgen (who has appeared in plenty of lemons as essentially this same character) to Kathryn Hahn whose performance is one joke repeated over and over again. None of the performers or their performances surprised me or even interested me enough to think that I might like to see them in anything else.

On the two-disc special edition, there are plenty of bonus features for those who love gag-reel type humor. In addition to a commentary track which has Ferrell, Reilly, McCay and others actually making verbal humor over the movie, there are deleted and extended scenes and a gag reel. The extended scenes continue onto the second disc with featurettes such as the full video presentation from Prestige Worldwide (it is panned off of in the actual film) and featurettes on the music and the two main characters. Most of these are funny in the same way the movie is funny, so those who like the movie will tend to like the features and those who do not will not.

For me, I am glad I saw the movie once, but after that, it has been a tough sell and never captivated my interest the same way. While my partner laughs at jokes she remembers from it or quotes lines occasionally, it just didn't resonate with me. In fact, I'd bet it resonates more with the inner child in most adult viewers than any rational being and I have a tough time turning the rational off.

For other comedies, please check out my reviews of:
Hot Tub Time Machine
Year One
Planet 51

5/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Will Ferrell Makes A Terrible Mexican Melodrama With Casa De Mi Padre.

The Good: Concept, One or two laughs
The Bad: Too closely mimics the subject matter to be a true parody.
The Basics: Failing to make a commentary on the Mexican melodramas, Will Ferrell’s Casa De Mi Padre merely becomes another terrible melodrama from south of the border.


The best parodies are clever because they find ways to lampoon their subject matter by using the conceits of the parodied work to put it to shame. The dangers of the parody are that the material is not strong enough to provide enough material for lampooning and thus that parody has to fill with non sequitor jokes that have nothing at all to do with the parodied work – the second Family Guy Star Wars parody, Something Something Something Dark Side (reviewed here!) fell into this problem – or that the parody will simply become the very thing it seeks to mock. It is a fine line and it is a tough one to balance upon, but sometimes, a work very clearly falls one way or the other. In the case of Casa De Mi Padre, one of the latest Will Ferrell vehicles, the film is simply not funny enough to actually lampoon the low-budget Mexican melodramas it attempts to and, instead, it becomes one.

In the tradition of terrible Mexican dramas, Casa De Mi Padre includes obvious set paintings, fake animals, terrible editing, and a strong story about a family torn apart by corruption and the shared love of a woman. Unfortunately, outside of two or three silly lines and the recurring gag where Armando and his two friends laugh unrealistically long over very minor jokes, Casa De Mi Padre does not adequately comment upon, mock, or truly satirize Mexican melodramas. Instead, despite the attempts at humor, Andrew Steele does not make it funny enough and Casa De Mi Padre falls very flat.

Armando is racing home with his two friends when they witness a murder: drug dealers killing a man on the outskirts of their land. Returning to the house, Armando meets with his father, who is deeply disappointed with him. They celebrate the return of Raul, who comes to the house with Sonia, his new love. They want the father’s blessing, which they receive, but Armando is suspicious of Sonia.

Sonia does not commit to loving Raul, as she is intrigued by Armando. Sonia is on the run from her uncle and Raul has gotten deep into the drug business with the nefarious Onza. As Sonia’s backstory and Armando’s backstory – pertaining to the death of his mother – intersect, they fall for one another and work to destroy the cartel.

Complete with subtitles, Casa De Mi Padre is weird and purposely cheesy. Will Farrell acts purposely melodramatic, but most of the other performers – most notably Diego Luna (Raul), Gael Garcia Bernal (Onza), and Genesis Rodriguez (Sonia) – play their roles in such a way that they feel and look like they came right out of a Mexican drama. In a similar way, none of the characters actually pop with originality or real development. They aren’t supposed to, though; that’s part of the joke.

Unfortunately, the joke is not a very sophisticated or complicated one. Low-budget films are frequently bad, be they American, Mexican, Japanese, whatever. Casa De Mi Padre just makes a more expensive, purposely bad film. That does not make it clever or good.

Casa De Mi Padre is not painful to watch, which is all that saves it from the worst ratings. The lowest ratings are reserved not just for the mundane or boring, but the films it aches one to sit through. Casa De Mi Padre is not that, but it is not much better.

For other works with Will Ferrell, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
The Campaign
Megamind
Everything Must Go
The Other Guys
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
Land Of The Lost
You're Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush
Step Brothers
Stranger Than Fiction
Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
Elf
Family Guy - Season 4
Zoolander
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back

1.5/10

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

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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After A Good Start, The Campaign Becomes Stubbornly Mediocre.

The Good: Humor, Zach Galifianakis’s performance, Initial plot
The Bad: In the middle, it stops being as funny
The Basics: Not a bad Will Ferrell comedy, The Campaign starts as a smart treatise on American politics before degenerating into a very standard comedy film.


Now that the 2012 election cycle is finally over, my wife and I took in the latest Will Farrell magnum opus, The Campaign. My wife is a big fan of Will Farrell and I tend to enjoy politically-themed movies. For sure, I never expected The Campaign to be as civically-minded as, for example, Swing Vote (reviewed here!), but given how the comedy actually begins with some decent moments that imply the importance of political activism, the movie quickly raised my hopes. Sadly, though, for as good as The Campaign begins, it quickly degenerates into a very standard Will Farrell comedy.

Actually, The Campaign stops being funny right around the middle as it strives for absurd humor instead of keeping a tight, political comedy that worked. After a time, The Campaign simply drags and recycles its own jokes.

Cam Brady is a North Carolina Congressman in the House of Representatives who spews obvious slogans and has affairs with young women who show up at his ridiculous campaign rallies. Looking forward to his next unopposed election to the House, Cam is shocked when the odd local, Marty Huggins applies to run against him. Supported by the Motch brothers, who have an agenda to turn the district into a Chinese sweatshop district, Marty begins a campaign, ostensibly to make his former politician father less disappointed in him.

While the odds seem exceptionally long for Marty, calling Cam out on his non-answer at their first debate gives the outsider some real support. That support is quickly increased when Marty accidentally punches a baby following the debate. As the neck and neck campaign commences, both Marty and Cam try various tactics that further take their campaigns away from the issues and gut their integrity.

The Campaign has some smart issues, but it buries them so far down as to make one think they were more of an afterthought. For example, writers Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell insert the idea that the Motch Brothers run the company that makes the voting machines. This is a very real problem, as made obvious by politics in Ohio. Yet, The Campaign refuses to actually address this serious issue. It appears near the climax of the film as a single, visual joke and it does not quite work as well as it could have because it is not followed up on with anything remotely resembling intelligent discourse.

Such is the real folly of The Campaign; it starts off with decent issues – the corruption of American politics by big business and the importance of people actually joining in the political process – but then ignores them in order to make silly jokes that slowly bleed the film dry. Using Cam to hit a dog late in the film feels less clever than like a motif and the fact that Mitzi goes through with sleeping with him seems unfathomable, despite the fact that the writers do continue to have her character frustratingly mention that she wishes Marty was around more.

The Campaign is seldom about actual character development; it is very predictable on that front and in no way audacious.

Fortunately, the acting in The Campaign is solid. John Lithgow seems professional in a way that I’ve not seen him in other films of late. Far away from the doddering, aging characters, like the one he played in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (reviewed here!) , Lithgow seems like exactly what he is supposed to: a businessman in the prime of his power.

Zach Galifianakis shows a delightfully ridiculous side as Marty Huggins that is different enough from his other fool or ridiculous characters that makes him seem distinctive and worth watching. The best that may be said about Will Ferrell is that he is not simply recapping his usual George W. Bush impersonations as Cam Brady. Ferrell’s character is a smart parody of John Edwards and he plays it well.

Ultimately, The Campaign is fine, but in no way exceptional. It is a fine cap to this year’s political season and worth one viewing, if not purchasing for one’s permanent collection.

For other political comedies, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The American President
American Dreamz
Man Of The Year

5/10

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

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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More Funny Than Not, Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby Amuses.

The Good: Funny parody, Opens John C. Reilly up to comedy beautifully, Decent DVD bonus features
The Bad: Some predictable humor, pacing
The Basics: Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby might not be a perfect comedy, but it has a lot of humor that endures from the broad attacks on NASCAR/NASCAR culture!


When one becomes involved romantically with another, they tend to share things. I think that is actually one of the more exciting aspects of relationships and I have found myself more delighted than not to share my DVD collection with my partner and have my partner share DVDs with me. This has led me to watch any number of movies - mostly comedies - that I would not have otherwise checked out. Indeed, when I sat down to watch the copy of Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby from my partner's shelf, I did so with the thought that this was one of the last movies in the world that I would have guessed I would ever watch.

That said, this Will Ferrell comedy that saw Ferrell pairing with one of my favorites - John C. Reilly - actually was amusing and offered enough for me to watch it not just once, but pretty much whenever my partner sits down to watch it. If that's not love, I don't know what is! In truth, though, Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby does what it sets out to do; it is funny and the performers in it get behind their roles in completely convincing ways. In other words, despite any of the movie's faults, I laughed . . . a lot. This is, at the very least, what one ought to demand of their comedies and the truth is, I had fun watching this movie.

Growing up without a father, NASCAR racer Ricky Bobby feels the need for speed and does little in his life well outside race cars. With his hot wife, Carley, and best friend Cal Naughton Jr., Ricky Bobby wins every race he is put into. But when a French Formula One driver comes to America to race Ricky Bobby, Bobby and Naughton feel threatened. Engaging the Frenchman in a race, Bobby's car is damaged and he is psychologically wounded, arguably also as a result of his deadbeat dad showing back up in his life.

Recovering from his failure to beat the Frenchman, Ricky Bobby works his way back from losing everything to try to race again. In the process, Cal takes his wife, wins a race on his own and Ricky Bobby must learn to stand on his own two feet (not as much of a problem given that his crash did not actually break his legs). As he comes back from incredible odds, he learns the true value of friendship and romance and racing.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby is, at its core, a parody of the sports movies where the protagonist struggles against very real obstacles and odds to overcome adversities that illustrate their prowess and skill. Writers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay (who directed the film) picked the perfect sport to make a parody of sports movies with. Ricky Bobby is part of a national phenomenon where people sit and watch other people drive fast in a circle. Having been a runner, I can understand racing around a track (though cross country was always more interesting as a runner than track was) and the athleticism involved. But NASCAR racing is much more about equipment and avoiding other contestants than anything having to do with skill or even willpower. As a result, characters like Ricky Bobby who are hapless idiots make for probable and fun protagonists in movies just like this one. In other words, by picking NASCAR to make fun of, writer/director McKay hits a goldmine; the struggle back to greatness is as simple and witless as the task of getting to "greatness" in the first place.

Ricky Bobby, then, is a great protagonist for just such a struggle of ridiculous proportions. Bobby possesses no special skills, but a desire to go fast and his complete pursuit of that goal. Moreover, because Ricky Bobby surrounds himself with doormats like Carley and Cal, he is able to achieve greatness equally through his own efforts and those of others not improving themselves. So, because Cal promises to let Ricky Bobby win and he is content to be in second place for years, Ricky Bobby becomes a celebrity. Cal enjoys the light near the spotlight and Cal enjoys the vicarious benefits of winning. But when Cal challenges the dynamic and Ricky Bobby is challenged by the Frenchman and the reappearance of his father, the utter lack of skill that got Ricky Bobby where he ended up becomes pretty evident.

Obvious comedies have to be looked at for exactly what they are and Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby does not promise to be anything either terribly unique or extraordinarily complex. Instead, it takes a simple premise - mocking sports movies and NASCAR culture - and running with it. Will Farrell is the perfect performer to embody such a quirky and dim sports figure and he hams it up, though in truth this is not an exceptional leap from his caricature of George W. Bush. As Ricky Bobby, Ferrell screws up his face in a blank expression and looks confused for laughs. Between that and selling such gags as telling off his father-in-law when his children act up at the dinner table, Farrell reminds viewers why he is considered a wonderful comedian without truly offering the viewer anything new outside delivering new lines.

The person who does rock Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby is actor John C. Reilly. Perfect as a dramatic heavy, Reilly becomes the ultimate costar for Ferrell by playing off him and accenting Ferrell's absurd sense of physical comedy with a strong deadpan ability. Reilly is surprisingly adept with his comic timing, something bound to surprise fans of his more respected works. Together Reilly and Ferrell lead the supporting cast of Sacha Baron Cohen, David Koechner, and Gary Cole to a good number of laughs.

On DVD, the movie has a decent number of bonus features, including a commentary track and a number of deleted scenes. There are alternate takes which are certainly not appropriate for the PG-13 audience, but the movie is not exactly oriented toward that market anyway. The DVD has enough in the way of featurettes and comedic gags to make the DVD worthwhile for comedy fans.

But the movie is predictable and the humor is not classy. But for those looking for sophomoric and fun, Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby actually delivers and it makes good use of talented performers who pull out the stops to entertain!

For other works with Gary Cole, please check out my reviews of:
Extract
Psych - Season 3
Pineapple Express
The West Wing
Crusade
Office Space

7/10

For other films, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Another Inane Comedy With A Simple Premise: The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard Stinks.

The Good: It’s always nice to seek David Koechner getting work…
The Bad: Not funny, Not clever, Predictable plot, Universally unlikable characters
The Basics: Not funny, not clever and utterly predictable, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, is another dumb comedy with sex-crazed men who are unethical idiots learning lessons most people get in first grade.


One knows they must seriously be in love when they go to see what their partner wants regardless of how little they themselves want to see it. For me, that is the realm of inane comedies which I’ve pretty much had my fill of in this life. And yet, my partner loves the comedies and when we see a preview that I groan over or a movie poster that leaves me feeling no real sense of intrigue, these are the films I know almost instantly my partner will want me to take her to. In this case, it was The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard and we didn’t even see a preview of it. Instead, we just saw the movie poster and after our disastrous screening of District 9 (reviewed here!), she wanted me to take her to it.

In the case of The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, I actually had a selling point; Jeremy Piven. Piven is a man whose work I’ve enjoyed since pretty much the moment he first popped up in the third season of Ellen as cousin Spence. He was funny with a cold wit and a strong knack for irony. While he seems to have achieved a lot of recognition now on Entourage, I’ll always think of him as Spence because the role was so very distinctive. Unfortunately, as he returns to films – he has never truly left, but it has been a while (if ever) since he has been top billed – he comes with a role that is so much less distinguished as to have the opposite effect. I suspect an entire franchise of films could be made out of Don Ready, but Piven would never truly be associated with this role.

When used car salesman Dick Lewiston goes off the deep end with some customers at Selleck Motors, lot owner Ben Selleck grudgingly admits to his staff that they need to bring in a gun-for-hire to turn things around or else the showroom will go bust. Don Ready, known in such circles as “The Goods” is given a call by Ben and he goes from Arizona to Temecula (CA) to help turn things around for Selleck Motors. Don and his team of mercenary car salesmen – Brent, Jibby, and Babs – arrive to try to sell as many cars as they can for Ben over a single weekend. The goal is two hundred cars over the Fourth Of July weekend and Don and his team seem up for the challenge.

Complications almost immediately ensue when “The Goods” (Don) begins to fall for Ivy, Ben’s daughter who is predictably smoking hot. Can Don give up the lifestyle of drinking, casual sex and fast talking to become an actualized adult who might be worthy of her attention? Well . . . who cares?

The fundamental problem with The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is that none of the characters are terribly likable and most of the humor is so generic as to be either overdone or have nothing to do with the somewhat unique setting the film is set in. Sure, there are plenty of jokes that can come out of being a used car salesman, but when the movie opens with jokes about “coloreds” and a man randomly punching a customer and is followed by a less-than-clever bit about a car being bought using stolen funds, the chance to capitalize on the setting is almost immediately lost. Instead, the humor treads toward the drunken fratboy type humor that characterizes many adult comedies aimed at men these days. Here is yet another posse of smarmy men who have no emotional depth and take no responsibility for their actions.

So, Don is more of an archetype than an actual character and the lines that come out of his mouth are just that; lines. Don is less a cohesive being than he is a series of one-liners which flop out of his lips and garner a smile at their best. Add to that, there is no real resonance between him and his associates. So, why Brent and Jibby hang out with Don is as much a mystery at the end as it is at the beginning. They work together, but given their individual strengths at swindling potential customers, the need for a team effort is minimal and one suspects that they are only together because it is that type of buddy comedy and they are the buddies.

As far as the plot goes, there are no real surprises there. After the set-up and the arrival of Don and his men, the film quickly takes a turn into foul-mouthed humor and coke snorting, like some demented Kevin Smith film absent the social commentary or the charm. So when Ivy enters and Don becomes almost instantly attracted to her, there are no surprises. It is That Kind Of Movie where what we think might happen does. And the obvious plot questions like “Does Don save Selleck Motors?” and “Does Don get the girl?” become inconsequential amid the rapid-fire of jokes. We don’t even care about the plot – though this is a remarkably predictable film in that regard – because the plot is almost an accessory to the cinematic murder we are witnessing where random lines are thrown around.

Truth be told, there are some funny moments in the movie, but they are the non sequitors, like the cameo appearance by Will Ferrell. The humor that comes from the random elements is good, but the bulk of it could have been done in virtually any other comedy. Still, the movie has a few moments that garner laughs (sadly almost none of them involve Piven speaking).

In this way, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard makes good use of its setting. Like some vastly superior comedies, this film utilizes the parade of new faces on screen – in this case the potential customers who come looking at cars – as a medium to make jokes. The humor is largely comprised of jokes spoken to whomever is passing through and they are non sequitors that have little to do with the rest of the film and only serve to show how funny Andy Stock and Rick Stempson are (or imagine themselves to be). But what the writers fail to do is string together an even remotely interesting narrative in the process and as a result, the movie seems more like a visual jokebook than anything else and it falls flat.

In addition to the pathetic lack of original plot, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard suffers because the characters are generic as well and the acting is mostly typecasting of the performers. Jeremy Piven plays Don like a smarmy version of Spence with much of the same banter-like delivery of dialogue as his Entourage character. Having just recently seen Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy, it is easy to see how David Koechner ended up in this cinematic trainwreck; his character is remarkably similar to the one he played in the other film and he is used almost identically in this as he was in that (and other movies). It is one thing for an actor to be used well for his comic sensibilities, but Koechner is used to deliver his lines with a strange combination of dryness and over-the-top with the occasional bugging out of his eyes and we get that that is within his range. Give us something new. Unfortunately, this movie does not do that with any frequency.

Similarly, Ving Rhames, Craig Robinson, and Tony Hale are all similarly misused as simply thrust into their roles with little other than prior performances respected. Most of the performers here are simply performing “The Best Of ” as opposed to showing us something new from their repertoire. But given that most of the jokes are centered around the supposed shock value of swearing and the idea of matching people with cars – most of which are defective in one way or another – instead of anything specific or interesting having to do with anything new, simply recycling their performances works.

The result is one of the last summer comedies that may be safely avoided by all adults looking for something – anything – interesting to watch on screen this year and another film that can still be avoided on DVD.

For other works with Kathryn Hahn, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Step Brothers
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy

3/10

For other movie reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy: Very Funny, But Very Average Comedy.

The Good: Funny, DVD bonus features, Generally the acting
The Bad: Somewhat repetitive humor
The Basics: Funny, but often a one-trick pony, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy excels on the acting front more than on the character or plot points.


Some part of me has come to entirely embrace the old axiom that it is easier to get work if you already have it. I come to this acceptance by way of watching more and more movies my wife loves. She is a big fan of films I derisively call "dumb comedies." She doesn't argue; she's looking for light fare full of dick and fart jokes, unburdened by social commentary. She wants foul language, nudity and jokes that are racy and while I have not, traditionally, been a fan of such fare, I have found a few that I enjoy. Largely, the ones that she enjoys are the works that feature Will Ferrell in them. She's a fan and there are a few works by or featuring Ferrell or from his production company that I have come to enjoy.

The latest in the parade of movies my partner has subjected me to is Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy. This brings me back to my original premise. Having just seen The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard which is by the same creative team as Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby, it is easy to see how the production company makes its friends and sticks with them. The primary cast for the three films is startlingly similar, especially with the troupe surrounding Ferrell. It seems David Koechner and Kathryn Hahn, for example, have comedic talents Ferrell and his team enjoy exploiting. The only problematic aspect of their continued cinematic associations is that they never seem to be asked to do anything other than their initial shtick. Fortunately, Ferrell and his team mix it up by infusing other talent, like Steve Carell and Christina Applegate into their otherwise familiar mix.

In Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy, Will Ferrell plays Ron Burgundy, a newscaster in San Diego who is at the top of his game. He wins the nightly ratings battle for the attention of his audience and reports the news with his team, smoking and drinking his way through his sappy deliveries of the nightly news. In the 1970s, Burgundy becomes a legend and his arrogance grows, in part because he is surrounded by sycophants like Champ Kind, Brian Fantana, and weatherman Brick Tamland. But when diversity becomes the word of the day, Burgundy is teamed up with investigative reporter and newscaster Veronica Corningstone.

While Ron works to seduce Veronica, she finds his advances both annoying and charming. When they do hook up, Ron almost immediately violates their privacy by reporting the act. After further incidents which disrespect her, Veronica sets out for revenge. She gets it through Ron's Achilles heel; having Ron swear on air by simply changing his call line on the teleprompter. As Veronica takes over, Ron flounders and his team struggle to get on without him.

Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy is essentially a mock documentary of the life of Ron Burgundy and the humor is derived largely from uncomfortable deadpans and such things as one of the characters (Brick) being mentally retarded and socially awkward. The reversals, like Ron promising Veronica he will not say anything about their sex immediately followed by him telling all of his friends, tend to happen quickly and be very predictable. This is not to say the film isn't funny, but it is a very standard sort of absurdist humor for which Will Ferrell is famous. That said, there's not much surprising here.

Ferrell presents Ron Burgundy as a stiff, strangely formal character whose on-air persona never goes away. As a result, when he tries to interact with friends or with Veronica, there come strange deliveries that seem inappropriate for the setting (imagine having a newscaster on a dinner date who spoke with the same deliveries as they did on-air). Ferrell is adept at the deliveries and he makes Ron Burgundy funny as a result. However, because most of the humor is related directly to either delivering the news or scoring with Veronica, much of the movie seems repetitive.

This is where DVD truly pushes a film up; in the bonus features, where Will Ferrell plays Ron Burgundy for an interview, the result is absolutely hilarious. Ferrell is fearless in his presentation of the parody opposite a serious interviewer and the result is comic gold. Similarly, the outtakes and deleted scenes are very funny.

What Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy does best is lampoon the pretensions of the news industry, especially in the way it attempts to make information entertainment. Things like the repeated joke where Burgundy and his team stride toward the camera and look earnestly at it and one another effectively skewer the way actual news organizations try to blur the lines between disseminating information and keeping an audience hooked with personalities. Of course, the movie is not at all just social commentary, which is made evident by the battle royale that occurs between Ron Burgundy's news crew and those of the competing stations (which is little more than an excuse for cameos by people like Ben Stiller). That scene creates a parody of violence and offsets the predictable and slow moments revolving around the news story of the decade, a pregnant panda at the San Diego zoo.

All of the actors are thoroughly invested in their roles and it is hard to actually criticize the acting here. While Ferrell and Koechner do their usual schtick - they play off one another wonderfully - and Fred Willard plays the station manager pretty much exactly as any fan of his would predict, other performers nail their roles. Steve Carell, for example, establishes his dry wit on the big screen perfectly as Brick. He has a dry delivery that underplays any form of sarcasm and given that this is one of his roles before The Office, it is easy to see how he got that role. He plays Brick as a hapless mentally challenged individual and that works.

But the real standout for acting has to be Christina Applegate. Yes, Christina Applegate, whose fame was predicated on her looks, appears in Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy as Veronica and she is impressive. Veronica is basically the straightman to Ron's absurdity and Applegate plays off Ferrell's over-the-top comic sense with an understated delivery that makes her the perfect foil. More than that, she plays Veronica as incredibly smart and she seems mature and intelligent enough to plausibly be in the place she is. Applegate is a surprise who steals all of her scenes.

This is quite a feat when one considers that much of the movie is spent with the characters staring at the camera delivering lines. When not doing that, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy is simple hoping to grab laughs off the look of the 1970s personas. Ron dresses in a maroon suit and he and his companions have big-70s hair. Those jokes replay less well than the satirical comments on the news industry but they still work.

Largely, though, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy is good, escapist humor that sets out to get some laughs and it does that. It does little more than that, but it works for what it is.

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

6/10

For other movie reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Better Than Adaptation, Stranger Than Fiction Is Not Strange Enough

The Good: Decent acting, Great story, More clever than funny, Decent directing.
The Bad: Plot is a bit weak, Resolution, DVD Extras are nothing stellar
The Basics: When literary character Harold Crick hears the narration of his life and understands his death is imminent, he sets out to find his author and change her mind.


In the last few years, Hollywood has opened up quite a bit to stories that employ alternative narrative techniques and/or bend the sense of reality of the viewer. The last few years have yielded films about writers and their characters, though after Adaptation (reviewed here!), I was wary about such films. Then I started to see previews for Stranger Than Fiction. After working through my fears that it would be as much of a letdown as Adaptation, I decided to give it a try. I had seen Marc Forster's previous directoral work, Monster's Ball (reviewed here!) and I felt that had bought me his trust just enough to give Stranger Than Fiction a fair shake.

Harold Crick is going about his mundane life working for the IRS with his wristwatch that has been feeding into his compulsions and sense of daily order when he begins to hear a voice. The voice is narrating his life and is foretelling of his imminent death. Harold suddenly finds his life spinning out of control as he becomes infatuated with an artistic tax evader, takes a vacation from work and searches for answers with the help of Professor Jules Hilbert, an expert in literature. Hilbert encourages Crick to determine whether he is a character in a comedy or a tragedy and they soon learn that he is the subject of famed recluse author Karen Eiffel, who is suffering from a nervous breakdown over killing off Harold at her publisher's behest.

Stranger Than Fiction is one of those movies that bends reality but never bothers to explain how or why it is happening. Harold Crick is a literary character existing in the real world such that he is able to interact with the author who is to kill him and yet is also at the whim of her typewriter. He is acknowledged as a character by those in the know, yet without Eiffel's narrations, he still exists and even has a measure of free will. It's one of those movies where the DVD extras (mostly previews and featurettes about the making of the movie) are not terribly exciting and not worth coming back to more than once.

Director Marc Forster does well with Stranger Than Fiction. It is original and between Forster's visual style that animates such things as Crick's counting steps and not telegraphing where the surprises are coming from visually and the generally strong script by Zach Helm, the film largely works. There is enough here to keep the viewer fairly consistently engaged throughout the movie.

First, though, those planning on seeing the film should be disabused of the notion that this is a comedy. Stranger Than Fiction is largely not funny. Helm wrote a script and Forster directed the work in a way that highlights the humanity and horror of the concept of killing a literary character. Harold Crick begins to live in utter dread once he learns of his impending death and his quest to find Eiffel and stopping her from killing him is one of desperation and fear. Are there lines that are funny? Yes. But more often, the film is serious and satirical in a way that is far more dramatic than comedic. Is that a problem? Not really, save that the previews make this look like it might be more a Will Ferrell comedy than it actually is. This is more analogous to the way Punch-Drunk Love fits into - or stands aside - the pantheon of Adam Sandler's movies.

In all, the biggest flaw with Stranger Than Fiction is not so much that it is not as funny as it appears to be in the previews, but rather that the dry tone accents a fairly thin plot. This movie can be easily summarized by the blurb "Literary character realizes he's about to be killed and tries to find his author to stop her." Despite the issues with reality versus fiction, this is a fairly simple plot that is dragged around for the almost two hours of the film. Fortunately, the film is paced well enough that that does not feel like forever.

Conversely with the plot, Harold Crick becomes an immediately likable and interesting character who the audience begins to empathize with. Crick is a man who is finally beginning to live when he learns his life is in jeopardy. He is vastly more interesting than Karen Eiffel and watching his journey becomes a real treat. In fact, Crick becomes so interesting that the resolution to the movie - which is surprisingly unpredictable - becomes somewhat a disappointment. Crick, though, is interesting to watch as he struggles to reconcile his existence with his desire to live, now that he is.

Crick is played off by Ana Pascal, a baker who is resisting government tyranny by not paying a portion of her taxes that pays for things she does not believe in. Pascal is smart and creative, which disrupts Crick's rather ordered world. The combination sounds hackneyed and cliche, but Forster makes it work. Professor Hilbert and Crick's coworker Dave flesh out the world created in the film quite well.

Stranger Than Fiction has a pretty impressive cast and it uses the cast quite well. Queen Latifah and Maggie Gyllenhaal give decent - though unchallenging - performances as Eiffel's editorial assistant and Crick's love interest, respectively. They are good, but nothing stellar. Dustin Hoffman gives what is essentially a supporting performance that is one of his more memorable ones as the serious and educated Professor Hilbert. Hoffman carries himself with the bearing and authority of a seasoned literature professor and his ability to take potentially dry exposition and sell it as organic dialogue in character is impressive.

Emma Thompson proves her acting ability in Stranger Than Fiction like she never has to me. Sure, her performance in Love Actually (reviewed here!) was heartwrenching, but that was because her character was so easy to empathize with and feel sympathy for. How I know Thompson is wonderful as Karen Eiffel is that I found her utterly repulsive. Yes, there was not a spark of the customary attraction to Thompson that comes when she plays a smart, strong woman. As Eiffel, she's a chain smoking, nervous wreck who is difficult to watch and virtually impossible to adore. As a result of how convincingly she sells us on how dismal her character is, Thompson reveals her acting genius.

Will Ferrell does well as Harold Crick. He takes the dramatic role with the requisite seriousness, never dumbing down the potentials of his character with his trademark comedic timing. Ferrell resists any urge to present the film as a straight comedy and it's astonishing how well he is able to pull off the desperation of the character who knows he is to be slaughtered. Ferrell redirects his usual physical comedy into physical control and an impressive range of emotional expression. He gives a performance worthy of watching.

Stranger Than Fiction is a nice change for those disappointed by Adaptation or any number of other films that involve writers bending reality, but it is mostly a straightforward movie that tells a real simple story. This is likely to disappoint those looking for an engaging comedy but bring in just enough for those looking to be entertained to actually enjoy.

For other works with Will Ferrell, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Megamind
Everything Must Go
The Other Guys
Land Of The Lost
You're Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush
Step Brothers
Elf
Family Guy - Season 4
Zoolander
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back

6/10

For other films, please be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page by clicking here!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Joke Is On The Audience . . . But We Wanted It! Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back

The Good: Funny, Allusions, Character progression
The Bad: Predictable, So much was cut!
The Basics: Funny and enjoyable for movie buffs and people who enjoy Kevin Smith's movies, Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back ages well.


Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back is one of those films that people tend to take or leave and they take it if they enjoy Kevin Smith's prior works (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma) and leave if they haven't seen or didn't enjoy Smith's previous works, this one is certainly not going to get people to watch his films. The 2-DVD set is pretty much the best argument ever for DVD short of The Criterion Collection DVD set of Brazil. The magic of the DVD is that there's a whole second film of Kevin Smith et al. introducing cut scenes from Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back.

Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back is a hard sell, so I won't try to sell it to those of you who haven't seen Kevin Smith's prior works. If you haven't seen Clerks, Chasing Amy, or Dogma, go see at least one of them and then come back to this. This film is appreciable if you know the players involved.

Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back follows the exploits of Jay and Silent Bob from New Jersey through Hollywood. The plot is simple; the pair has a comic book based upon them and when they learn there is a film being made of their characters, they discover the internet and criticism there. So, the pair heads to Hollywood under the logic that if the movie isn't made, no one can badmouth them. It's solid logic from stoners. Once you accept that, you're fine. The rest of the film is the caper of Jay and Silent Bob falling in with a group of diamond thieves, losing them, and getting to Hollywood.

Criticizing Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back is as stupid as those two yo-yos that went and sued the makers of Duce Bigalow, Male Gigolo (or was it The Animal?) because there was a faux reviewer who recommended the film. If you go to see a Rob Schneider flick, you're not expecting high brow or, if you are, you're an idiot. Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back is a stupid film making fun of stupid films being made. It's stupid, but it doesn't have the pretense of being anything more. So, why should the audience?

My theory is, we shouldn't. Accept the premise and you'll enjoy it. The film makes hilarious pokes as sequels and how lame they usually are, they mock themselves and other works expertly.

The real gem of the DVD is watching the film and then going through the bonus disk for all of the additional stuff that is packed on there. The whole commentary on the cuts scenes was easily more funny than the actual film and worth the price of the DVD alone. The different clips are great.

Here Kevin Smith makes a satire of the people he has worked with and it's amusing to see Ben Affleck and Matt Damon make fun of themselves while also playing other characters they have played in Smith's earlier films.

One of the surprises here is the quality of the acting. Ben Affleck convincingly plays Holden from Chasing Amy in a cameo early in the film as well as creating a very different character in the parody of himself. Similarly, Jason Lee's presence in the film as both Banky Edwards and Brody is strangely unconfusing; his physical appearance is not significantly altered between the two roles, but he actively portrays them as different people and he successfully sells them.

While many would applaud Will Farrell as Marshal Willenholly, I think he's simply being Farrell as a Federal Wildlife Marshal and if you've seen Farrell in a few roles, you've seen his range. He does nothing extraordinary here. However, Shannon Elizabeth is great as Jay's love interest, Justice. She is more than simply a pretty face and a body here; she's actualized enough to keep our interest for the film.

The acting talent that dominates Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back is Jason Mewes. Most of the airtime is his and here he recreates the quirky, angry, foul-mouthed drug dealer we've known from the other films.

This is not a film for the young. It's hilarious, but it uses a lot of harsh language and foul sexual references. It's not a terribly intellectual film, but it is one that those who despise pop culture will appreciate a lot: many recognizable faces from today's popular culture appear to do parodies of their more serious work.

If you want a treat and you've enjoyed Kevin Smith's other works, there's no better way to cap off the adventures of Jay and Silent Bob than this. And as a hint, stay through the end of the credits. :)

For other movies by Kevin Smith, please visit my reviews of:
Clerks
Chasing Amy
Dogma
Clerks II
Cop Out
Red State

6.5/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2003 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Elf Is A Fun Christmas Movie That Feels Like P.R. For The Actors Involved.

The Good: Moments of humor, Moments of mood/message
The Bad: Very predictable, Virtually all of the performances are good casting over good acting, Very repetitive
The Basics: Elf is fun and has its moments, but ultimately, it is a bunch of great lines strung together through a thin, predictable plot.


It actually surprised me that I had not watched and reviewed Elf before tonight. But my wife and I had hot cocoa and homemade cookies and she was in the mood to watch her favorite Christmas movie, so I decided to watch Elf with her. She is a big fan of Will Ferrell's works, so it did not surprise me that Elf would be her favorite. We had just finished watching Frosty The Snowman, so I was pretty well done with kid's programming for the night.

Elf is pretty much a fish-out-of-water Christmas story and while the setup is interesting enough, it feels like writer David Berenbaum had a good idea and did not know quite what to do with it. The movie has some very fun lines, but most of them have a disconnected, almost generic humor quality to them that made me feel like they could have been a part of virtually any Will Ferrell movie. And Elf feels very much like a Will Ferrell film. When it does not feel like a Will Ferrell movie, Elf seems very much like an advertisement for Zooey Deschanel's music career. When the movie is not focused on Ferrell, it is tightly focused on Deschanel, so the film has the sensation of jerking between two channels of commercials more than being a truly engaging or cohesive story in and of itself. In other words, the plot is so simple, thin and repetitive that it falls to the performers to wow us and they stay so squarely within their known talents that Elf fails to shine beyond that.

Buddy lives and works in the North pole at Santa's Workshop for thirty years oblivious to the fact that he is a human living among the Elves. When one elf lets it slip that Buddy is human, Buddy is shocked and goes to New York City in search of his biological father. After an extended "fish out of water" montage sequence, Buddy goes to meet his father with the implicit quest to get his father, publishing tycoon Walter Hobbs, off the naughty list.

Tossed out of his father's offices, Buddy goes to a department store where he begins working in the seasonal department. He decorates the store and meets the jaded Jovie. When he gets arrested for assaulting the false Santa that comes to the department store, he is bailed out by Walter. When Walter takes Buddy back to his home and family, Walter finds his son does not truly fit. After condemning Buddy to the publishing company's mailroom, Buddy gets into more trouble until Santa's sleigh crashes and Buddy must come to the rescue to save Christmas.

In the final act, Elf falls apart into an unpleasant mix of schmaltzy Christmas movie and utterly nonsensical comedy. When the Central Park Police Horses enter the movie, the film becomes a mess. So, while the movie starts out engaging with a number of truly great, hilarious lines delivered by Will Ferrell with an enthusiasm that only Ferrell could reasonably sell to the viewer, in the last act, Elf becomes a surprisingly typical Jon Favreau action film and it lacks the charm the movie began with. But, it does offer an opportunity for Zooey Deschanel to sing and show off her pipes, which seems like her big part in the movie. Jovie is pretty much a generic love interest for Buddy outside her singing and her presence feels very much like an oscillation between utterly generic and "hey! Look at me! Listen! I can SING!"

That said, Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel do play to their strengths. Ferrell has a great sense of absurdist humor and he has very funny deliveries in Elf. He sells absurdist non-sequitors like "So, good news; I saw a dog today!" exceptionally well with his boyish enthusiasm. Unfortunately, many of the lines like that could have been put into virtually any Will Ferrell movie or SNL sketch and sold the same way. Similarly, Zooey Deschanel - who is disturbingly blonde for Elf - performs musically much the way she did in Yes Man (reviewed here!).

In a similar fashion, James Caan and Bob Newhart offer nothing truly new in their performances. Instead, Caan plays Walter as a pretty generic workaholic and Newhart delivers with is trademark mumbled deliveries and the movie seems more like a triumph of good casting over decent acting. At the end of it, Elf is more of an average Christmas film than anything enduring or extraordinary.

For other Christmas movies, please check out my reviews of:
Disney's A Christmas Carol
Four Christmases
Love Actually

5/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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