I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS

Photos courtesy of Europa Corp.

Jim Carrey falls for a fellow inmate in the romantic comedy I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS.

Carrey is former police officer, now inmate, Steven Russell. After a near-death experience in an automobile accident, Steven decides to come out of the proverbial closet. After divorcing his wife, played by Leslie Mann, and being booted from the police force, Steven desperately needs an income. Unable or unwilling to find employment, Steven generates money through faulty lawsuits involving injuries.

Eventually his life of fraud lands him in prison where he meets his soul mate in Phillip Morris, played by Ewan McGregor.

Romantic comedies typically don’t lend themselves to twists and turns, but thanks to Carrey and a script that wouldn’t seem plausible if it weren’t actually true, I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS delivers a refreshing blend of surprises, humor and romance.

Carrey, channeling his inner Ace Ventura, delivers a truly unique character, one which would typically be classified as a crook, but through his performance earns several big laughs. Steven’s fraudulent escapades seem more ornery than mean-spirited, and thanks to Carrey’s wild, funny and heartfelt antics we root for Steven to find his path in life.

Carrey’s counterpart McGregor doesn’t fare quite as well. McGregor’s Phillip is supposed to be as naïve and innocent as Steven is eccentric and outlandish, but the talented Brit has a hard time pulling it off. McGregor, just months shy of his 40th birthday, has been cast in a role that seems appropriate for someone half his age.

Nevertheless, screenwriters and directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa structure the screenplay to make the romance between Steven and Phillip not only plausible, but sincere.

I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS isn’t a romantic comedy for everyone, but for those a bit more adventurous, this gay prison laugher is no fraud.

Grade: B

THE GREEN HORNET

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures
A medial mogul’s son takes over the family business and also becomes a crime fighter in the latest superhero film, THE GREEN HORNET.

Seth Rogan is Britt Reid, a reckless twenty-something thrust into the role of newspaper owner after the untimely death of his father. Although Britt takes over a powerful role in the media world, he becomes more fascinated with his father’s cars and Kato, the mechanic behind the machines.

Britt decides with Kato’s souped-up rides and fighting skills, the two should masquerade as superheroes during the night, beating up bad guys and more or less having fun.

Just as Britt and Kato are thinly disguised as superheroes, so THE GREEN HORNET is thinly disguiseed as a superhero movie.

THE GREEN HORNET is first and foremost a buddy comedy, attempting to capitalize on Rogan’s recent popularity and boyish charm. This works in flashes, but the film begs for something more.

A flimsy script is held together by adequate action sequences that fail to ignite, and performances that deserve to be in a better film. Rogan and Jay Chou, as Kato, make for an unlikely, but effective duo, with Chou’s pitch-perfect deadpan reactions to Rogan’s wisecracking and childish tricks. Adding some extra fun to the mix is Christoph Walz as the Green Hornet’s nemesis Chudnofsky, the crime kingpin of LA. As he did in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, Walz chews up every scene he’s in. Chudnofsky is as over-the-top as one should and could expect.

In spite of the right performers in the right roles, THE GREEN HORNET’s screenplay seems to be on auto-pilot, and the direction by the talented Michel Gondry is lackluster.

THE GREEN HORNET may be a buddy comedy, but it’s one that could have used a little more sting.

Grade: C

HOW DO YOU KNOW

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures
A former team USA softball star finds herself in limbo in love and softball in the latest James Brooks romantic comedy, HOW DO YOU KNOW.

Resse Witherspoon is Lisa, a softball veteran recently cut by team USA, who isn’t sure what to do now that she isn’t playing the game. Lisa is dating Matty, a womanizing, but likable Washington Nationals relief pitcher played by Owen Wilson. She’s also been set up by one of her friends on a blind date with George, a businessman who is about to be indicted by the feds.

George, played by Paul Rudd, is in legal hot water, and is left to sink or swim by the company’s CEO and owner, Charles, his father, played by Jack Nicholson.

HOW DO YOU KNOW would be an interesting companion piece to Ricky Gervais’s THE INVENTION OF LYING. Gervais’s comedy was a somewhat scathing look at what life would be like if everyone told the truth. THE INVENTION OF LYING was occasionally funny, but drenched in cynicism.

HOW DO YOU KNOW features four characters who also always tell the truth, ones which wear their emotions on their sleeves, and a script that is hopeful about human nature. Although the dialogue in HOW DO YOU KNOW doesn’t always sound realistic, it does evoke emotions from the characters that are honest and revealing.

By allowing his characters to speak their minds and their hearts, director James Brooks has concocted a messy, but thoroughly enjoyable romantic comedy, one which adeptly balances both humor and heart.

A film like this wouldn’t work without strong and likable leads. Witherspoon and Rudd are naturally charming, but do not have an instant spark. This actually plays to the strength of HOW DO YOU KNOW by allowing both Lisa and George time to learn about one another and fall in love.

Owen Wilson also creates a winner in Matty, a confused womanizer who believes he’s finally met the woman for him. By creating such a strong supporting character, Matty creates suspense for Lisa’s romantic decision.

The only disappointment is Nicholson, who is saddled as the controlling father figure, and is alloted only a last minute moment of redemption.

HOW DO YOU KNOW is not a conventional romantic comedy, allowing the viewer to not only see within the characters, but also hear it.

Grade: B-

LITTLE FOCKERS

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures
Ben Stiller is still vying for Robert Deniro’s approval after all these years in the comedy LITTLE FOCKERS.

Stiller again reprises his role as Greg Focker, the lovable, but flawed son-in-law of Jack Byrnes, played by Deniro. While reviewing the Byrnes family tree, Jack has a mild heart attack and begins to assess his family’s structure. As the family patriarch, Jack believes Greg is the man to take over that role once he has moved on. Greg still has a few things to prove though.

The title LITTLE FOCKERS would lead you to believe that this third installment of the MEET THE PARENTS series would focus on Greg’s kids and his life as a father. Wrong, this is more of a side note, and an excuse to drag out another series through Hollywood’s comedy remanufacturing plant.

The jokes are as flat as this three-film drawn-out plot of Greg trying to win over Jack’s approval. For every minor joke that hits, there are several wrong-headed jokes and scenes that don’t. Whether it’s Jessica Alba assisting Greg with inserting a tube up a man’s rectum, Greg providing Jack a shot after taking a pill for erectile dysfunction or Greg and Jack engaged in a slugfest at Greg’s son and daughter’s fifth birthday party, there’s little that director Paul Weitz and a collection of screen writers get right.

A proverbial who’s who of actors encompass the cast including Dustin Hoffmann, Barbara Streisand, Harvey Keitel, Laura Dern, Blythe Danner, Owen Wilson and the aforementioned Alba, but their appearances serve more as cameos than characters. Although Stiller and Deniro go unscathed with their performances, the scenarios they find their characters involved in are either ludicrous or tired.

Here’s to LITTLE FOCKERS being the last Greg and Jack reunion, for their sake and ours.

Grade: D+

THE TOURIST

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

Angelina Jolie seduces Johnny Depp aboard a European locomotive in the thriller THE TOURIST.

Depp is Frank, an American tourist headed towards Venice in hopes of soaking up the sights and forgetting his ex. Jolie is Elise, a woman caught up in her husband’s escapades and also in harm’s way. In order to throw off her pursuers, Elise chooses Frank, an apparently innocent, but willing participant in her twisted game.

THE TOURIST feels like a softened and less thought out version of the unheralded, but clever little thriller A PERFECT GETAWAY.

Both films are thrillers set across exotic landscapes, with attractive leads and a mystery biting at its core. Not only does THE TOURIST not thrill like A PERFECT GETAWAY, but the revelation in this romantic thriller feels false and forced.

All may have been forgiven had Depp and Jolie been able to create any sparks in the chemistry department. Both former Sexiest People of the Year, the steam between the two is surprisingly absent, and the rest of the screenplay, penned by four writers, including director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck doesn’t provide any assistance.

Henckel von Donnersmarck, who directed the brilliant thriller THE LIVES OF OTHERS, fails to find the right tone for THE TOURIST. The proceedings are too laid back, capturing the beauty of the European countryside and Venice canals, but failing to nail down any intensity in the mystery, the love affair or the police investigation. Depp, Jolie and Henckel von Donnersmarck are wasted, as are a name supporting cast consisting of Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton and Rufus Sewell.

THE TOURIST is nothing more than pretty faces and landscapes.

Grade: C-

TRON

Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

The creator of video games and a major corporation finds himself trapped in one of his own creations in the science fiction adventure TRON: LEGACY.

Jeff Daniels is Kevin Flynn, the owner of a successful technology company who still enjoys working on the ground level of the industry, continuing to experiment with the possibility of virtual explorations for mankind. Kevin is a father to his 12-year old son Sam, and a widower. One night after putting his son to bed, Kevin heads to his arcade for more research and experimentation. He never returns.

Twenty-years later Sam is now the majority owner of his father’s corporation, when his surrogate father and a board member of the corporation receives a page from the arcade that Sam’s father once owned. Sam travels to the arcade, and discovers the porthole to the virtual reality his father created.

TRON: LEGACY is a visual and auditory feast, the quintessential moving picture of 2010. TRON: LEGACY is such an entertaining film in those regards that you almost forget that it doesn’t amount to much.

This science-fiction flick is much more fiction than science, leaping into a virtual world and never looking back. Where a more cerebral film would have explored technology’s impact on society, or at the very least explored something more than surface material, TRON: LEGACY is what it is, a video and audio celebration of technology.

The world of Tron is a unique experience, creating a land that is imaginative and futuristic, but also simplistic enough to follow its concepts and limitations. Means of transportation appear from thin air, the characters often move in sync to the film’s soundtrack and the palette of colors is limited, but effective.

First-time film director Joseph Kosinski’s experience with art direction in video games and commercials pays off in TRON: LEGACY, even if a collection of screenwriters don’t provide much assistance in regards to plot or characterization.

Letting the soundtrack play and the images unwind, TRON: LEGACY is easily enjoyed as a mind-numbing, but sensory-invigorating trip inside a video game.

Grade: B-

MONSTERS

Photos courtesy of Magnolia Pictures


Another alien invasion wreaks havoc on planet earth, this time south of the United States border in the horror film MONSTERS.

The aliens have infected a large portion of Mexico, after a NASA probe collecting alien samples crashed in Central America. Many US residents are fleeing the area, including Samantha, the daughter of a wealthy United States media mogul. She’s escorted home by Andrew, a freelance photographer who is currently working for her father’s business. Andrew isn’t pleased that he’s been awarded the assignment.

Our third love story on this edition of “Now Playing” (in addition to TANGLED and LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS), doesn’t play as well as the first two.

Surprised? Yes, MONSTERS is more or less a generic love story played against the backdrop of a monster movie. When I say backdrop, I mean backdrop, as the monsters are more or less an afterthought. It’s really a shame, because writer-director Gareth Edwards understands how real horror works, establishing an atmosphere of terror, and allowing it’s menace to lurk slowly around the trees, in the seas or up in the clouds.

Unfortunately MONSTERS isn’t much of a monster mash as it is an awkward love story, and this is where Edwards seems out of his element. The interaction between the two leads, Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy, is at its best acceptable, and at its worst, grating. There’s little chemistry between the two. This isn’t as much a fault of the two actors, but rather the impromptu screenplay that left much of the interaction in the hands of Able and McNairy’s improvisational skills.

MONSTERS moments of horror are actually fairly well done, building suspense through exotic locales and glimpses of the creature, rather than going full bore with outlandish special effects and gore.

I only wish the film was as frightening as the romance.

Grade: C-

TANGLED

Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

A very hairy situation traps a beautiful princess in Disney’s latest animated feature, TANGLED.

TANGLED is Disney’s version of the classic tale of Rapunzel, the long-haired princess who was kidnapped and left marooned in a tower. In Disney’s adaptation, Rapunzel, voiced by Mandy Moore, is captured by a gypsy after the gypsy discovers that Rapunzel’s hair possesses great powers. Rapunzel is forbidden to leave the tower, allowing the gypsy to hoard Rapunzel’s powers.

Flynt Rider, a thief and rebel, stumbles upon the tower. Flynt, as you may have guessed, is Rapunzel’s ticket to freedom. In exchange for her freedom, Rapunzel will return something to Flynt that he seized from the king and queen.

Mixing an old-fashioned fairy tale with modern-day technology and sharp wordplay, TANGLED is an entertaining princess flick worthy of both girls and boys attention.

This Grimm fairy tale seems aimed at young girls, with a princess heroine as the protagonist, and two cutesy sidekicks. Although the film works as standard princess fare, it also offers a few hair-raising action sequences, and some occasionally effective 3D work, that plays well to anyone, but even more so to boys.

TANGLED’s sense of humor and romanticism overshadow the bland nature of Rapunzel and Flynt, enough that the storybook fable works. The humor, built into Flynt’s dialogue and the animal sidekicks, a non-speaking horse and chameleon, are abundant, but subtle in comparison to today’s standards.

There’s even a touch of the old Disney magic. The opening sequence where Rapunzel’s birth parents send out a distress signal for their daughter, and later when both Rapunzel and Flynt view the signal while at sea is not only an affecting emotional moment, but also an aesthetically pleasing one.

Much like last year’s THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, Disney appears to be back on their game in the animated genre.

Grade: B