Quick Reviews: J. Edgar, Muppets, Puss in Boots

Blogging for me is in fits and spurts right now. Either I have to be really inspired or it has to be something quick (such as those featuring a photo or two), and my lack of time (due to work and other issues) makes it worse. As far as these movie posts are concerned, I finally decided that I'm just not going to get to separate posts for these right now. So...

J. Edgar: The story (more like a psychological profile) of infamous FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is well-acted but the jumping back and forth in time made it much too disjointed. I read lots of comment about Leonardo DiCaprio's makeup for Hoover's latter days but to be honest I thought the makeup job done on Armie Hammer was worse. My grade: B-minus.

The Muppets: I loved the old Muppet Show and enjoyed this movie, but it was a bit too much of an exercise in nostalgia to be truly spectacular. I appreciate Jason Segel's efforts in getting the Muppets back on the big screen, but somehow I felt this didn't quite fully win my heart. The best celebrity cameo (and one that got quite a reaction from the audience) was by Jim Parsons as...well, I won't spoil it. My grade: B-plus.

Puss in Boots: It took weeks but I finally got to see this yesterday. Spinning Puss (voice of Antonio Banderas) off from the Shrek films wasn't a surprise, but stripping the film of the "Shrek" barrage of pop-culture references was. It was a wise decision. But why didn't anyone tell me they used a Lady Gaga song in the film? I might have seen it sooner. My grade: B-plus.

Quick Review: Bad Teacher

I was sort of looking forward to "Bad Teacher," starring Cameron Diaz in the title role. It begins on the last day of the previous school year, when Diaz's Elizabeth Halsey -- foulmouthed, drinking, drug-using teacher that she is -- is leaving her job because she's getting married to her wealthy boyfriend. His mother helps put a stop to it, so Elizabeth is back in school in September, and so is a new substitute, Scott, (Justin Timberlake) who is earnest and squeaky clean. In the same way she rebuffs the gym teacher's (Jason Segel) interest, Elizabeth isn't interested in Scott, until she notices his expensive watch and learns his family owns the company. Elizabeth is interested. Very interested. (Now I ain't saying she a gold digger, but...okay, Kanye, take it from here.) There are lots of individual funny lines and scenes, and Elizabeth's turn from showing movies all day to taskmaster (taskmistress?) -- when she learns of a cash prize awarded to the teacher whose students score highest in the state's standardized testing -- is played for comedy and not serious, personal-improvement inspiration. It falls short of "Bridesmaids" in the R-rated comedy department, but it's not bad. My grade: B.

Quick Review: Despicable Me

I guess I can state this as a fact: usually, the first trailer for a movie will be a small tease, often showing very little of the film itself. Something like this one, for example. Then, as the film's release date nears, its trailers get more detailed -- and in some cases, too detailed, giving away key plot points unnecessarily. In the case of the computer-animated (and 3-D, although I've pretty much decided that 3-D isn't worth the extra money) "Despicable Me," the first teaser only showed a bit of the film's opening scene, capped off by a silhouette of the supervillain Gru (voice of Steve Carell). Later trailers introduced the little yellow minions that we're all now familiar with, and then the three little orphan girls, and by that point I wasn't quite sure how all of this was supposed to fit together. Fortunately, it fits together very well. Gru, with the help of his minions and his assistant, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), plots to steal the moon (by shrinking it) in order to regain his status as the number one supervillain from Vector (Jason Segel), but Vector has stolen the shrink ray Gru needs. Enter the three orphan girls, selling cookies door-to-door; Gru adopts them just to get into Vector's lair but then finds himself becoming attached to them. So there's the requisite warm-and-fuzzies, and a good number of laughs to boot. (I loved the sight gag showing what the Bank of Evil, where Gru visits to try and obtain funding for his moon-stealing plot, used to be.) It's not quite "Toy Story 3," but it's close. My grade: A-minus.

Quick Review: Get Him To The Greek

One of my favorite movies of 2008 was "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," in which the title character breaks up with Jason Segel's character and moves on to a rock star named Aldous Snow, lead singer of Infant Sorrow. The movie did well enough to lead to another one -- except it's not a sequel but a spinoff featuring Snow (Russell Brand). In "Get Him to the Greek," Snow is in a downward spiral after the commercial failure and critical revulsion at his new song, "African Child." He goes off the wagon, drinking and drugging, and his pop-star girlfriend leaves him, taking their son with her. Enter Aaron Green (Jonah Hill, who was also in "Sarah Marshall" but as a different character), who works for Snow's record company. It's Aaron's assignment to escort Snow from London to New York (to appear on the "Today" show) and then to L.A. for a concert at the Greek Theater to mark the 10th anniversary of Snow's legendary concert there. There was an underlying sweetness to "Sarah Marshall" that made that film really shine. That is non-existent in "Get Him to the Greek." The film tries at times, with scenes involving Aaron and his girlfriend ("Mad Men" star Elisabeth Moss) and Aldous and his ex, but it's overwhelmed by the raunchiness. Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but there are some real laugh-out-loud moments, and a wild performance by Sean "Puff Daddy/Puffy/Puff/P. Diddy/Diddy" Combs as the head of the record company. My grade: B.