What Happens in Vegas
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To illustrate the importance of timing, What Happens in Vegas would have seemed a lot worse if it hadn’t opened a week after Made of Honor. At least it’s a romantic comedy vehicle for two stars, not one, even if Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher aren’t an ideal match; and its humor is a little edgy. They’re in Vegas because Joy’s fiancé couldn’t stand her hyperness and Jack’s boss/father couldn’t stand his slackerness. Joy’s there to forget and Jack to party. A lot of liquor flows, and they wake up married. They’d go their separate ways, but he hits a jackpot with her quarter, and when they go to court to settle community property, the judge (Dennis Miller) sentences them to stay married for six more months, trying to make a go of it. Dana Fox’s screenplay includes a few curve balls, and even if they don’t all go across the plate, they keep What Happens in Vegas from lapsing into total predictability. To say What Happens in Vegas has a lot more going for it than Made of Honor is like saying Mike Tyson could beat Emmanuel Lewis in a fair fight. Maybe it should have stayed in Vegas.
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Horton Hears a Who
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Turned into beloved half-hour television specials in his lifetime, the stories of Theodore Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, are becoming overproduced, overinflated movies after his death. In the tradition of The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, though more appropriately animated, Horton Hears a Who! is too long and too loud but should amuse its intended young audience. Carol Burnett has perfect pitch as Kangaroo, the self-appointed community spokesperson, but her male co-stars go too far in trying to fill the big screen with their voices. Although both are fun, Jim Carrey is too manic for Horton, the elephant who should be laidback but determined, and Steve Carell gives the ineffectual Whoville Mayor so much personality he seems-- effectual. Horton hears a voice coming from a speck blowing through the Jungle of Nool and eventually establishes communication with the Mayor of Whoville, as the speck is known. While Horton tries to carry the speck to a place of safety and the Mayor tries to warn Whovillians of danger, both are shouted down by conservatives on their respective spheres until the people of Whoville unite to make their voices heard. A movie’s a movie, no matter how big.
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Baby Mama
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Baby Mama (PG-13, 106 minutes) ** 1/2 Baby Mama may look to women like a date movie, but with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler starring it’ll be easier to sell to guys as a "Weekend Update” movie. It’s totally predictable but will keep you chuckling consistently. All about women, it was written and directed by a man, Michael McCullers. Kate (Fey), 37, wants to start a family, which she’s put on hold to focus on her career with a chain of natural food groceries run by an unbilled Steve Martin in a ponytail and New Age attitude. When a gynecologist tells Kate her chances of conceiving are one in a million and she doesn’t have the patience to wait for adoption, it’s on to surrogacy at a top-drawer agency run by remarkably fertile Sigourney Weaver. Angie (Poehler), the “white trash,” common-law wife of Carl (Dax Shepard), gets pregnant and moves in with Kate. This female odd couple bonds while Kate is bonding another way with Rob (Greg Kinnear), who quit practicing law to open Super Fruity Smoothies. There are some plot twists, but none startling enough to send expectant mothers into premature labor. Despite treading relatively fresh movie ground, Baby Mama is a breath of stale air.
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Forbidden Kingdom
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Not the battle of the giants its billing suggests, The Forbidden Kingdom is a Nim’s Island for SOBs (Slightly Older Boys). Boston teenager Jason (Michael Angarano) watches Asian martial arts films but is defenseless against the local bullies. In Old Hop’s (Jackie Chan) pawn shop Jason sees an ornate golden staff. He falls off a roof clutching it and lands in ancient China, where he must return the staff to the Monkey King (Jet Li), who was frozen in stone 500 years ago by the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou). (Americans are so good at solving the problems of Eastern countries.) Jason’s two mentors, drunken poet Lu Yan (Chan) and the Silent Monk (Li), engage in old-fashioned kung fisticuffs before joining forces. Tagging along is Golden Sparrow (Liu Yifei), out to avenge her parents’ murder by the Jade Warlord. There’s a fight about every five minutes, a few involving magic. Chan revives his Drunken Master shtick but doesn’t work it for comedy much in the fight scenes. Li gets more laughs with his Monkey business. Young teenage boys, who will enjoy the copious action, are the target audience, but The Forbidden Kingdom is also pleasant enough for adults seeking mindless entertainment.
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88 Minutes
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Consumer Alert: Orange (Screened too late for our deadline) An Al Pacino movie they’re afraid to screen for critics? How about a movie Variety calls Pacino’s “career worst,” which came out on DVD in Brazil over a year ago? Pacino plays a professor whose expert testimony sent a serial killer to Death Row. On the eve of the killer’s execution, Pacino’s own life is threatened by a call telling him he has 88 minutes to live. Now he has to find a potential killer to save his own life, and he has a deadline. Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, and Amy Brenneman co-star. Director Jon Avnet peaked in 1991 with Fried Green Tomatoes.
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21
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21 proves that if you’re going to set a movie in Las Vegas and put a number in the title, that title had better start with “Ocean’s.” Actually, about half of 21 takes place in Boston, where Ben Campbell (likable Jim Sturgess of Across the Universe) is a senior at M.I.T., with hopes of going to Harvard Medical School. All he needs is $300,000 or a full scholarship. Ben’s genius impresses Prof. Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), who takes five students to Vegas every weekend to clean up at the blackjack tables by counting cards. There’s an opening on the team and reluctant Ben is persuaded by Jill (Kate Bosworth) to join. You don’t have to understand card-counting to follow the action. It works and it’s legal, but casinos hire people like security consultant Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) to discourage it. While not always believable 21 is fun for more than an hour, when things are going well, but it becomes dark and unpleasant as complications arise. Director Robert Luketic (“Monster-in-Law”) keeps things moving and coated with the requisite Vegas glitz, but allows too hard a fall from the initial high, even if he brings it back up at the end.
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Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo
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White Castle isn’t famous for desserts. The sequel to Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, the best stoner comedy since Up in Smoke, won’t change that. It has a clever premise: Indian-American Kumar (Kal Penn) and Korean-American Harold (John Cho) are mistaken for terrorists on a plane because of Kumar’s “smokeless bong.” They’re sent immediately to Guantanamo Bay and escape just as immediately to avoid becoming the bread in a “cockmeat sandwich.” All these “terrorists” drop are “F-bombs” in dialogue that too often sounds like crudeness for its own sake. Pursued by Rob Corddry, whose zeal could give flag lapel pins a bad name, and the less enthusiastic Roger Bart, the guys try to reach Texas to seek help from well-connected Colton (Eric Winter), who’s about to marry Kumar’s ex (Danneel Harris). The trail leads from Miami through Alabama, with stereotypes at every stop. Playing himself again, Neil Patrick Harris takes them to the worst little whorehouse in Texas before they meet the state’s number-one soon-to-be private citizen. The concept plays out in the first 20 minutes, and there are only a few bright moments in what’s left. Watching it isn’t exactly torture, but it’s a big letdown.
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Redbelt
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He’s smarter than I am, but David Mamet may have outsmarted himself with his screenplay (he also directed) for Redbelt. As usual he employs a magician’s tactic of misdirection to distract the viewer, but in this case the diversion is more interesting than the truth, which never becomes entirely clear. Distraught lawyer Emily Mortimer hits a car outside Mike Terry’s (Chiwetel Ejiofor) Southside Jiu-jitsu, then accidentally shoots out the window. Mike interferes in a bar fight on behalf of action movie hero Chet Frank (Tim Allen, playing it straight), who invites Mike and his Brazilian wife, Sondra (Alice Braga), to dinner. Soon Mike is co-producing Chet’s new film, and Sondra’s in business with Chet’s wife, but their good fortune reverses just as quickly, and Mike has to accept his first professional fight to pay their debts. By fight night, a month later, many things have changed, but many questions are left unanswered. There are conspiracies in play, but who’s involved and when did they become involved? In true Hollywood fashion, only a fight can resolve everything, but Hollywood would have tied up the plot threads in a neat bow. Mamet has tied them in a knot no Boy Scout could untangle.
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Speed Racer
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The geeks shall inherit the earth. In the Wachowski Brothers’ film version of Speed Racer, live actors replace the animated characters of the 1960s Japanese TV series but remain cartoonlike, straight out of a 1950s sitcom. Most of their surroundings have been created in a computer. One of the most colorful films ever, it looks like an explosion in a paint factory and sounds like an explosion in a screenplay factory. Eight years after his brother’s death, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) takes the driver’s seat to defend his family’s Mom (Susan Sarandon)-and-Pop (John Goodman) operation, Racer Motors, against Roger Allam’s evil corporation, Royalton Industries. Auto racing is portrayed as vicious and dishonest. The racers play dirty– except Speed, whose Mach 5 has “defensive modifications” to protect against the slings, arrows, and spear hooks of outrageous opponents. Speed Racer will score highest with viewers whose ages are lowest, but the kids won’t make it through 135 minutes without a bathroom break. When it should be ending, around the 90-minute mark, the movie’s just idling before the climactic Grand Prix. The technical wizardry is impressive and disheartening. Whoever programs a computer to program computers, please turn out the lights when you leave.
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Made of Honor
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Hollywood professionals can crank out a movie like Made of Honor in their sleep...but that doesn’t mean they should. The trailer captured the first half in two minutes without missing any major jokes or plot points. The second half is a slow march to the inevitable. The first half goes down easy; the second half just goes downhill. Tom (Patrick Dempsey) is a commitment-phobic womanizer who doesn’t want to be like his six-times-married father (Sydney Pollack). Tom’s best friend is a woman, Hannah (Michelle Monaghan). They’ve been friends for so long – ten years – they don’t realize they’re in love with each other. He wakes up when she goes to Scotland for six weeks and is ready to pop the question until she returns with a Scottish fiancé in tow: Colin (Kevin McKidd), who isn’t developed into a full-fledged character, just an obstacle for the hero to overcome. Hannah asks Tom to be her “maid of honor” and he goes to Scotland to help her with the wedding. It’s by-the-numbers from there on, and not particularly clever. Dempsey, who’s likable without breaking a sweat, and Monaghan, who’s always good but never memorable, keep Made of Honor from being a total loss.
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Iron Man
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The “summer” blockbuster season starts off well, with another in Marvel’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of comic book superheroes. Robert Downey Jr. earns his racing stripes with a great performance as playboy Tony Stark, who inherited his father’s weapons manufacturing firm but wants to change its focus after he sees how the weapons are used in Afghanistan. That draws resistance from Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), who built the company with Tony’s late father and doesn’t like seeing its stock drop. Tony perfects a metal suit– literal body armor that makes him look like RoboCop on steroids– that he used to escape Afghan rebels. It’s a one-man flying arsenal, hardly a step away from weaponry, but it makes him a superhero. When the full extent of Obadiah’s villainy is revealed, it’s a matter of time until he and Tony climb into metal suits for a final face-off that looks like something from Transformers, not up to the originality level of the rest of the movie. Bridges and Terrence Howard are overkill casting, but Gwyneth Paltrow is fine as Pepper Potts, Tony’s personal assistant who creates sexual tension whenever they’re together. You can bet this is just the beginning of the “Iron” age.
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Forgetting Sarah Marshall
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After writing and directing The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, Judd Apatow is sitting back and producing while members of his repertory company take over, with mixed results. Jason Segel wrote this feature-length, illustrated locker room conversation and stars as Peter Bretter, who’s been with TV star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) for five years, until she calls it off. When Peter goes to Hawaii to get over her, Sarah shows up with her new boyfriend, British rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). Rachael (Mila Kunis), the beautiful desk clerk, feels sorry for Peter, but it’s hard to tell which of her actions are motivated by pity because all Segel, typical of Apatow and his writers, knows about women is how they function sexually. Calling the main character Peter telegraphs the script’s phallocentricity. Peter’s crying scenes are no more appealing than his nude scenes, which are way unsexy. Kunis registers more strongly than Bell, who barely meets the limited demands of the script, which needs someone to fill in the outline of a woman Segel has created. The Apatow thing didn’t work for me this time, but I laughed too much to give Forgetting Sarah Marshall a totally negative review.
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The Visitor
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Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) has the role of his lifetime in The Visitor, which should finally raise him out of the “Look, there’s Whatsisname” category. Connecticut economics professor Walter Vale (Jenkins) has been going through the motions since his wife, a classical pianist, died. Paying a rare visit to his Manhattan apartment, Walter finds two strangers, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) from Syria and Zainab (Danai Gurira) from Senegal. They’re in the country illegally but thought they had sublet the apartment legally. Walter takes pity on them and lets them stay. He bonds over a shared love of music with Tarek, who teaches him to play African drums. This feelgood movie takes a darker turn when Tarek is arrested and his immigration status discovered. His widowed mother (Hiam Abbass) comes looking for him and meets Walter, raising intriguing possibilities. Similar to Under the Same Moon, though less sentimental, The Visitor also evokes sympathy for at least some “illegal immigrants” living in the U.S. As in The Station Agent, filmmaker Tom McCarthy is concerned with people coming together and forming a de facto family under extraordinary circumstances. He revisits the theme with diminishing returns, following an extraordinary film with one that’s merely good.
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Redbelt
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He’s smarter than I am, but David Mamet may have outsmarted himself with his screenplay (he also directed) for Redbelt. As usual he employs a magician’s tactic of misdirection to distract the viewer, but in this case the diversion is more interesting than the truth, which never becomes entirely clear. Distraught lawyer Emily Mortimer hits a car outside Mike Terry’s (Chiwetel Ejiofor) Southside Jiu-jitsu, then accidentally shoots out the window. Mike interferes in a bar fight on behalf of action movie hero Chet Frank (Tim Allen, playing it straight), who invites Mike and his Brazilian wife, Sondra (Alice Braga), to dinner. Soon Mike is co-producing Chet’s new film, and Sondra’s in business with Chet’s wife, but their good fortune reverses just as quickly, and Mike has to accept his first professional fight to pay their debts. By fight night, a month later, many things have changed, but many questions are left unanswered. There are conspiracies in play, but who’s involved and when did they become involved? In true Hollywood fashion, only a fight can resolve everything, but Hollywood would have tied up the plot threads in a neat bow. Mamet has tied them in a knot no Boy Scout could untangle.
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The Counterfeiters
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The Counterfeiters is the true story of a Jew who believed his fellow Jews were persecuted “because they refuse to adapt.” Salomon “Sally” Sorowitsch’s (Karl Markovics) talents were adapting and counterfeiting. We meet him after the war-- so his survival is never in question-- then flash back to 1936. Sorowitsch is Berlin’s “king of counterfeiters” until he’s arrested and sent to Mauthausen concentration camp. Five years later, he’s transferred to Sachsenhausen, where the Nazis are trying to reproduce enough British and American currency to destabilize their respective economies. He’s one of an elite group of prisoners who live a relatively privileged existence. Adolf Burger (August Diehl), whose memoir director Stefan Ruzowitzky adapted, refuses to collaborate, trying to sabotage the German war effort instead. Sorowitsch disagrees but protects him, while also trying to help a tuberculosis-stricken prisoner. Sally deals with Herzog (Devid Striesow), a camp commandant whose adapting skills rival his own. Neither underestimates the other’s ability to help him achieve his goals nor puts loyalty to a cause ahead of his own survival. As Salomon Sorowitsch– note the irony of his initials– Markovics walks a fine line to keep the viewer’s sympathies on edge. The Counterfeiters is the real thing.
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