Movie Review: This is Where I Leave You

This  is Where I Leave You
Directed by: Shawn Levy.
Written by: Jonathan Tropper based on his novel.
Starring: Jason Bateman (Judd Altman), Tina Fey (Wendy Altman), Jane Fonda (Hillary Altman), Adam Driver (Phillip Altman), Rose Byrne (Penny Moore), Corey Stoll (Paul Altman), Kathryn Hahn (Alice Altman), Connie Britton (Tracy Sullivan), Timothy Olyphant (Horry Callen), Dax Shepard (Wade Beaufort), Debra Monk (Linda Callen), Abigail Spencer (Quinn Altman), Ben Schwartz (Rabbi Charles Grodner).

You would be hard pressed to find a better ensemble cast in any movie this year than the one Shawn Levy assembles for This is Where I Leave You. By themselves, Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Corey Stoll, Kathryn Hahn, Connie Britton and Timothy Olyphant are fine actors, more than capable of carrying their own movies.  But the movie throws them all together, adds in a few more characters, and forces them through a story with so many meaningless subplots, so many tonal shifts that do not work, that the actors are forced to try very hard and not get anywhere. I have a feeling that perhaps all of this worked better in the novel the film is based on – novels are better than movies at containing so many characters and so many subplots and doing justice to them all. But in a movie than runs just over 100 minutes, everything in This is Where I Leave You feels rushed – by trying to cram so much into the movie; the movie doesn’t really do any of it justice. The cast is game – but they`re let down by the movie.

The movie centers on the Altman family. The father has just died, and the mother Hillary (Fonda) has called her four adult children back to their childhood home, and insists that they sit Shiva for him for 7 days – even though they weren’t really Jewish. All four of the Altman children have issues – and are going through a lot in addition to their dead father. Judd (Bateman) has just found out his wife has been cheating on him for a year with his boss – so now he has no wife and no job. He meets a woman from his past (Rose Byrne) – the type of free spirited woman who always exist in movies like this to break the main character out of his funk. Wendy (Tina Fey) is married to a man who is always working, and trying to raise her two children – but is still in love with the neighbor Horry (Olyphant) who she dated years ago, and left when he got a brain injury. Paul (Corey Stoll) has been trying for years with his Alice (Hahn) to have a baby – but the two cannot conceive no matter what they do. The much younger Phillip (Driver) is an irresponsible, yet charming, screw-up who shows up with his new fiancée – the older Tracey (Britton). And all of this covers only about a half of all the subplots contained in the movie.

I enjoyed most of the performances in the movie. The actors are all talented, and have an easy chemistry together. Best in show is probably Driver, because he gets most of the films best lines and moments – and it’s always fun to see Driver behave like a buffoon. Everyone else in the film is fine – although because the movie focuses almost all of its attention on Judd – the rest of the cast is pretty much shunted to the background, and is never really given a chance to fully develop their characters. They do what they can however.

The movie is a strange mixture of comedy and drama – containing moments of near slapstick right next to more serious moments of introspection. In theory, a film could pull both of these off – but director Levy (best known for his comedies) never quite finds the right tone, and at times I got whiplash trying from all the shifts.

This is Where I Leave You is not an unpleasant experience really – it certainly has its moments. But it’s basically like one of the many American indie movies, about screwed up families, that we see many times a year – except this time, we have a cast of nothing but movie stars, in a major studio release that seems to want to sand off all the edges. It is a movie that contains no surprises, but watching this cast work is at least never boring – but if the best I have to say to say about a movie is that it isn’t boring, that’s not saying too much, is it.

DVD Review: Real Steel

Real Steel ** ½
Directed by: Shawn Levy.
Written by: John Gatins & Dan Gilroy and Jeremy Leven based on the short story by Richard Matheson.
Starring: Hugh Jackman (Charlie Kenton), Dakota Goyo (Max Kenton), Evangeline Lilly (Bailey Tallet), Anthony Mackie (Finn), Kevin Durand (Ricky), Hope Davis (Aunt Debra), James Rebhorn (Marvin), Marco Ruggeri (Cliff), Karl Yune (Tak Mashido), Olga Fonda (Farra Lemkova).

The concept of replacing human boxers with robot ones isn’t all that farfetched. After all, haven’t we learned by now the physical toll a career as a boxer can have on the human body? Brain injuries are common place for former boxers – so much so, that I have never really been able to enjoy boxing, or other hand to hand combat sports. I can’t help thinking of what they are likely to become later on in life. But with robots, it doesn’t matter how much damage you inflict. After all, robots aren’t human, they can’t feel pain, and if a part breaks, you can simply replace it. The problem I had with Real Steel is that while the idea of robot boxing is actually kind of interesting – and the fight scenes between the robots are the highlight of the movie, expertly choreographed, and not cut to crap like a Michael Bay movie, the story itself is so clichéd ridden and tired, I had a tough time really caring what happened.

The movie stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, once a boxer himself before, like many factory workers, he found himself replaced by machines. He is still involved in the fighting world, and he tours around with his outdated robot looking for fights. But his robot is old – it can’t beat a bull – and when he replaces it, he goes too big too fast, and destroys that one as well.

It should also be mentioned that Charlie is one of the world’s worst fathers. His ex-wife has just died, and that leaves his son Max (Dakota Goyo) with no one to look after him. Charlie hasn’t seen him in years, and doesn’t even know how old he is (when Max says he’s 11, Charlie responds “Are you sure?”). His ex’s sister (Hope Davis) is married to a very rich man (James Rebhorn), and they want to take Max in. Fine by Charlie – but he wants $100,000 to sell his parenting rights, which he gets, but for some reason I never caught or have already forgotten, Max has to spend the summer with Charlie first. And wouldn’t you know it, Max is a huge fan of robot boxing. When they head to a robot junkyard, Max unearths an old sparring robot named Atom – and convinces Charlie that they can rehab him to fight. Eventually, this underdog will work his way up to a title fight. Yes, that’s right, the movie is essentially Rocky with robots.

Hugh Jackman is a charming actor – so much so that you almost forget what a shit father he is. Dakota Goyo is a charming child actor, but like so many movies, Real Steel makes the mistake of pretending that Max is really just a small adult, not an actual kid. Evangaeline Lily is in the movie, I suppose, because a movie like this needs to have a love interest for Charlie, and some pretty eye candy – and that she is.

Real Steel is far from a horrible movie – I even actually enjoyed it for a little while. But the film cannot support its own length – over 2 hours – with its paper thin plot, and after a while, I simply got bored, and wanted to get to where we all knew the film was going to end up from the preview. Yes, the fight scenes are good, and if you go in with low expectations, you may well end up enjoying the film. For me, it never quite came together and became the guilty pleasure it was trying so hard to be.

Movie Review: Date Night

Date Night ***
Directed By: Shawn Levy.
Written By: Josh Klausner.
Starring: Steve Carell (Phil Foster), Tina Fey (Claire Foster), Mark Wahlberg (Holbrooke), Taraji P. Henson (Detective Arroyo), Jimmi Simpson (Armstrong), Common (Collins), William Fichtner (DA Frank Crenshaw), Leighton Meester (Katy), Kristen Wiig (Haley Sullivan), Mark Ruffalo (Brad Sullivan), James Franco (Taste), Mila Kunis (Whippit). Ray Liotta (Joey).

Date Night is an example of a movie that is saved by its cast. Director Shawn Levy is one of the biggest hacks in Hollywood. This is his sixth comedy in recent years and the only one that is any good. He still doesn’t really understand how to direct or edit his movies. But in the case of Date Night it doesn’t matter – Steve Carell and Tina Fey are so good in this movie, have so much natural chemistry that they make the movie work almost in spite of itself.

Carrel and Fey play Phil and Claire Foster, a typical suburban couple living in New Jersey, raising their two kids and leading a fairly boring life. Once a week they have a “Date Night”, and every time they go to the same restaurant and order the same things and make fun of the people around them and are home before 11, where typically they don’t have sex. It isn’t that they don’t love each other anymore, it’s just that they have gotten into a routine, and are having a hard time breaking out of it. Their best friends announce they are getting divorced because they were just “really good roommates”. Determined not to let the same thing happen to them, they decide to make this date night special. They head into Manhattan where they try to get a table at a trendy restaurant, and are told to wait at the bar, knowing they will never get seated. But when the head waitress walks around the bar calling out the name “Triplehorn” over and over again, and they see no one is coming forward, they decide to pretend to be the Triplehorns themselves. This seemingly innocent move ends up getting them involves with corrupt cops and gangsters who want to kill them.

Date Night is, of course, utterly preposterous. But you know that heading into the movie. This innocent, boring suburban couple are thrust into a complex web of lies, deceit and murder – but everyone chasing them seem to be out of the Keystone Cops – as they are a bunch of bumbling fools, much like the Fosters themselves.

But what Date Night lacks in believability, it more than makes up for in terms of humor. Carrel and Fey are two of the most talented actors on television – from The Office and 30 Rock respectively – and they work well together – very well. You never doubt for a second that these two could be a long married couple in a rut. No matter how outlandish the action around them becomes, the two actors ground the movie with their performances. We really do come to care for the Fosters. It certainly doesn’t hurt that either of these two can deliver one liners with the best of them. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that they even came up with some of the best ones themselves.

Carrel and Fey are also surrounded by an excellent supporting cast. Taraji P. Hensen is given the most thankless role as the one cop they may be able to trust. It is rather a boring role, but she does what she can with it. But everyone else is great. I especially loved James Franco and Mila Kunis as the real Triplehorns – a couple of spaced out freaks who barely seem to know what is going on, but are disgusted that the Fosters stole their reservations. Mark Wahlberg seems to have been cast because he looks really good without his shirt on, but he is also quite enjoyable as a security expert who helps the Fosters out, and is a valued presence because of what he brings out in Carrel and Fey.

Date Night is not a great movie. With Shawn Levy at the helm, that would seem to be nearly impossible to accomplish. But it is an enjoyable one from beginning to end. Carrel and Fey are great together. If they got a script up to their level, and a director who knows what the hell he’s doing, they could make a great movie together. Until then, we’ll have to settle for Date Night.

Movie Review: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian ** ½
Directed By: Shawn Levy.
Written By: Robert Ben Garant & Thomas Lennon.
Starring: Ben Stiller (Larry Daley), Amy Adams (Amelia Earhart), Owen Wilson (Jedediah Smith), Hank Azaria (Kahmunrah / The Thinker / Abe Lincoln), Robin Williams (Teddy Roosevelt), Christopher Guest (Ivan the Terrible), Alain Chabat (Napoleon Bonaparte), Steve Coogan (Octavius), Ricky Gervais (Dr. McPhee), Bill Hader (General George Armstrong Custer), Jon Bernthal (Al Capone), Patrick Gallagher (Attila the Hun), Jake Cherry (Nicky Daley), Rami Malek (Ahkmenrah), Mizuo Peck (Sacajawea), Jay Baruchel (Sailor Joey Motorola), Mindy Kaling (Docent), Jonah Hill (Brandon), Keith Powell (Tuskegee Airman #1), Craig Robinson (Tuskegee Airman #2).

Gene Hackman once said something along the line of you can tell how good a performance is giving by how much fun they are having. The more fun they are having the better the performance. If that were really true (which I don’t think it is), then Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian would have been the best acted movie of the year. Everyone in the movie seems to be having the time of their lives playing these strange historical characters come back to life. Their enthusiasm is somewhat infectious. You cannot help but have at least a little fun watching this talented cast riffing on each other. That the movie that surrounds them is for all intents and purposes quite bad and not very well thought out almost ceases to matter. They’re having fun, and to a certain extent so are we.

The movie opens with Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) who has left his job as a night guard at the museum of natural history to start his own company – Daley Devices – which has become wildly successful. He doesn’t have much time to visit his old friends anymore, but whenever he does, he has fun. That’s why it’s so disparaging to find out that most of the exhibits are being shipped off to the Smithsonian for permanent storage in the vast archives that run underneath the 19 museums that make up the Smithsonian. Worse still is that Ahkmenrah and his magical tablet are going to be staying, meaning that none of these exhibits will ever be able to come back to life again. That is unless a certain monkey steals the tablet, and essentially sets off a battle in the underground storage area. When Jebediah (Owen Wilson) calls Larry to tell him what is going on, Larry drops everything to head to Washington to try and save his friends from Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), Akmanrah’s evil brother who wants the tablet to unlock the door to the underworld and unleash his army of the dead in a quest for world domination. Larry teams up with Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) to try and put a stop to all of this.

The only reason to watch Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is to see its talented cast riffing on each other. I have no way of knowing this for sure, but the movie certainly does feel like a lot of it was improvised, and the entire cast is game. Ben Stiller plays the type of character he’s best at – a guy who gets more and more frustrated as the movie goes along, and always seems to be exasperated. Nowhere is this more enjoyable than in his scene with Jonah Hill as Brandon (pronounced Brundon), a security guard who gets mad at him because he was moving in on an exhibit with ITT (Intent To Touch). Amy Adams is the best new addition to the cast as Amelia Earhart, although she appears to be playing more Katherine Hepburn, or another screwball comedy actress, than Earhart herself. But as always, Adams is adorable and likable throughout. Hank Azaria is also good fun as Kahmunrah who seems disappointed that no one seems to be overly impressed with his coming back to life after thousands of years. Bill Hader also has a lot of fun as General Custer, who is fond of saying things like “We’re Americans, we don’t think, we do!”. When these, and the rest of the new additions, are added to the cast from the last movie, you have many of the most talented comedic actors working right now. They even raid the casts of The Office, and the stock company of Judd Apatow, to help fill out even the smallest roles.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is aimed at the family movie market, and there is no doubt that the kids will end up loving the movie. Parents, stuck with their kids watching the film, will likely be pleasantly surprised by how quickly the time passes, and how many laughs, or at least chuckles, they get out of the film. Is it good enough for adults without children to spend the night at the movies watching? Not really. It’s a pretty lame plot, and because its aimed at kids, they feel the need to tack on some unnecessary “lessons” to the movie. But watching the movie is a pleasant enough experience. It does what it sets out to do.