Quick Reviews: Gift For Ricki's U.N.C.L.E.

Fun with post titles...

A key plot twist in The Gift was somewhat spoiled in the trailer. This seems to be happening more and more, and I find it a terrible way to sell a movie. The good thing about this movie, at least, was that there were twists following it. Married couple Simon and Robyn (Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall) have relocated to Los Angeles because of his new job. While shopping they run into Gordon (Joel Edgerton, who also wrote and directed it), aka "Gordo," a (barely remembered) former high school classmate of Simon's. Gordo begins dropping by their home unannounced, usually dropping off gifts. Robyn thinks he's just socially awkward while her husband thinks it's creepy. Things begin to deteriorate. As I said, there were a surprising number of twists and turns that kept me entertained to the end. But the reveal in the trailer, that Simon knows more than he lets on, took away some of the thrill. Plus, Simon -- even at the very start -- comes off as kind of a dick anyway. My grade: B-plus.

Then there's Ricki and the Flash -- which is, sadly, not about this guy...

...but about Ricki, an aging rocker (Meryl Streep) who left her family to take a shot at stardom and ends up playing a regular gig with her band, The Flash, at a little bar in California and working checkout at a market. Then she's summoned home to Indianapolis by her ex (Kevin Kline) due to a crisis involving her daughter (Mamie Gummer, Meryl's daughter). This just strikes me as a vanity project so Meryl and her daughter could play mother and daughter, and so Meryl could sing (both classic stuff and modern hits such as "Bad Romance" -- Meryl does Gaga!) It has some good moments but it's pretty predictable fluff that all wraps up in a neat little bow at the end. And if I'm being honest...which I am, so why do I need to say that? I blame Simon Cowell for saying it on "American Idol." I got it from him. Anyway, I'm rambling...the best acting in this film was done NOT by Meryl but by Rick Springfield, as Ricki's bandmate and would-be lover. My grade: C-plus.

As for The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the big-screen adaptation of the TV series which ran for four seasons from 1964-68, my big question is...why? A TV series that hasn't been in prime time in nearly 50 years is made into a movie and fell well short of the rather modest box office predictions. Did the studio really think anyone under, say, 40 (to be generous) would go and see this? It's set in 1963 and features, just like the TV show, a team-up of American (Henry Cavill) and Soviet (Armie Hammer) spies to thwart a nuclear threat from Nazi sympathizers.

Pick your favorite tag line:
a) A Brit playing an American and an American playing a Russian!
b) Superman and the Lone Ranger save the world!

It's not a bad film. It breezes merrily along, the banter is witty, there's some action and some humor and the boys look good and eventually learn to trust each other. I just can't wrap my head around why it was necessary. My grade: B-minus.

Quick Reviews: Identity Amour Beasts

Finally got my last two Oscar Best Picture nominees in the books. So after this post you'll finally get my best/worst of 2012 (only two months late!) and my ranking of the Best Pictures.

I was very disappointed by Identity Thief. The trailer seemed promising but the film didn't live up to expectations. Jason Bateman's character (the identity theft victim) was just too stupid; that was established in the opening scene, which showed how the theft occurred -- basically, he gave it away. And I like Melissa McCarthy, but her character was just a series of weight/looks jokes with motives that were inconsistent. Is she really a bad person or a victim of her childhood? After her star-making turn in "Bridesmaids," she'd better look at her scripts more carefully. My grade: D-plus.

The story in Amour is meant to be heartbreaking. An elderly woman (Emmanuelle Riva) suffers a stroke that leaves her partially paralyzed, and her husband (Jean-Louis Trintignant) takes care of her at their Paris apartment to honor her wish not to go into a hospital or nursing home. He struggles more and more as her condition deteriorates. It's well-acted but takes a jarring and then confusing turn near the end that kind of ruined it a little for me. My grade: B-minus.

I'm still puzzling a little over Beasts of the Southern Wild, to be honest. When I first finished watching it (note: for time-saving purposes I bought it on pay-per-view instead of seeing it in the theater) I was glad it was over, but upon some reflection I find my initial reaction was wrong. At first it reminded me of "Winter's Bone" in that it takes place in a very poor community -- this one's set in a part of the Louisiana bayou called "The Bathtub" that's cut off from everyone else by a levee. However, the fantasy element (the "aurochs," behemoths frozen in the ice caps long ago but freed by global warming) distracted from the story of the little girl (Quvenzhane Wallis), her ailing father, their impoverished but happy and self-sufficient community and the threat of destruction from a coming storm. Perhaps I'm missing the symbolism or something. My grade: B.

Quick Review: The Change-Up

So, it's not such a great summer for Ryan Reynolds, is it? "Green Lantern" was a disappointment and so was "The Change-Up," in which he and Jason Bateman undergo a body switch. Reynolds, as the single slacker actor, and Bateman, as the married-with-kids workaholic lawyer, aren't bad actors but they need better material than this. There are some gross-out moments and a few fun bits, but mostly it's a predictable tale in which they're forced to live each other's lives and learn the obvious lesson that the grass isn't actually greener on the other side of the fence. My grade: C-plus.

Don't worry, Ryan, we still love you for this...

Quick Review: Horrible Bosses

For the first movie I've seen in a couple of weeks, I ended up at "Horrible Bosses." I worked for a couple of truly bad bosses in the past, although when you work for the Social Security Administration that's almost a given. But none of my bosses were quite as bad as those that the three friends in this movie suffer with. Nick (Jason Bateman) works for a guy (Kevin Spacey) who treats him like crap and then doesn't give him an expected promotion. Dale (Charlie Day) is being sexually harassed by his dentist boss (Jennifer Aniston). And Kurt (Jason Sudeikis), well, his boss (Donald Sutherland) is awesome, until he suddenly dies and his son (Colin Farrell, wearing a comb-over and given a pot belly), a cokeheaded, womanizing, obnoxious creep, takes over. The three friends joke about killing their bosses, and then decide to actually do it. And that's where the movie, which had me in stitches to this point, went south for a while. There was a decent gag at the end, but for some reason the humor began to fall flat once they tried to hire an ex-con (Jamie Foxx) to commit the murders. Aniston is great playing against her usual good-girl type, though. I will say that although I laughed much less as the film went on, the rest of the audience enjoyed the second half of the film much more. My grade: B.

Quick Review: Paul

Another example of a movie that started out slowly and then grew on me as it went on is "Paul." It starts out with Graeme and Clive (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who've done this before in "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz") coming from Britain to the US to attend the San Diego Comic-Con, and then take a road trip in a rented RV to sites of famous alien encounters such as Area 51. On the trip they have a run in with a couple of homophobic rednecks -- the running joke is that everyone thinks they're a couple -- at a diner (Jane Lynch makes a great waitress),  and then witness a car crash where they meet Paul, a real live alien...well, animated, with Seth Rogen's voice. Paul is escaping from the government agency that's been keeping him around since 1947, when his ship crashed on Earth, and needs help getting to the rendezvous point where he's to be picked up by a rescue ship. At a trailer park they meet Ruth (Kristen Wiig) who runs the place along with her father. They're devout Christians to the point where they don't believe in evolution -- or aliens. This is a problem when Ruth sees Paul, and Graeme and Clive end up taking Ruth along for the ride lest she alert the authorities. The beginning, with all the comic-book stuff and the rednecks, was too obvious and cliched, and the running gag about Graeme and Clive being a couple irritated me. But it's well-acted, and as the movie got into the chase aspect (Jason Bateman, as the lead agent trying to track down Paul, and Sigourney Weaver, as his superior, are excellent), and as Ruth, now questioning everything she believed since she now knows aliens are real, starts to let loose, the humor begins to shine. Lots of nods to sci-fi of all kinds, especially Steven Spielberg (who has a cameo). My grade: B.

Quick Review: The Switch

How fun would it have been if "The Switch" had its original title, "The Baster," and at the same time perhaps had a little more subversiveness that such a title would indicate? A single New York City woman named Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) decides she wants to have a baby and hires a married man in need of funds (Patrick Wilson) to be the sperm donor, to the consternation of her best friend Wally (Jason Bateman), who loves her but hasn't told her because she put him in the "friend zone." Instead of doing it properly, Kassie holds an "insemination party," a drunken Wally stumbles into a bathroom and finds the cup with the magic material, and accidentally spills it. He then replaces it, with the help of Diane Sawyer.

Quick Review: Couples Retreat

"Couples Retreat" was rather disappointing, to say the least. Three married couples and a divorced guy with a new, younger girlfriend go off to a beautiful island, at the behest of one of the couples (Jason Bateman, Kristin Bell). They're trying to save their marriage and decide on a couples' therapy retreat, called Eden. However, to afford it they have to book a group rate so they persuade their friends to go along by saying the other couples (Vince Vaughn and Malin Ackerman, Jon Favreau and Kristen Davis, Faizon Love and Kali Hawk) can do all the fun stuff without participating in the couples' therapy activities. When they arrive at Eden, they're told all the couples must go through the therapy sessions or they all must leave.

Had this movie been raunchier, more adult in nature, it might have worked better. Instead there are obvious turns -- the happiest couple starts arguing, the young girlfriend just wants to party, etc. There are some fun moments, but not nearly enough. My grade: C.

To make us feel better, here's a picture of Vince Vaughn from the movie "Clay Pigeons," back when he was younger and firmer-bodied:

Quick Review: Extract

"Extract" is a pretty solid, amusing film from Mike Judge, creator of "Beavis & Butthead" and "King Of The Hill." Jason Bateman plays Joel, the owner of a factory that makes, you guessed it, extract. He's become unhappy with everything he puts up with at work, and to make things worse he isn't getting any sex from his wife (Kristen Wiig). He gets an offer to buy the factory, but it's complicated by a freak accident -- which also results in the hiring of a temp worker, Cindy (Mila Kunis), whom Joel becomes infatuated with. With the his friend (Ben Affleck with long hair and a beard) and some mind-altering substances, Joel concocts a plan that will allow him to sleep with Cindy and not feel guilty. Jason Bateman does good work -- I like how he overcame his really slow career stretch after his child TV stardom and now gets good roles on a regular basis.

This movie has been described as something of a reverse on Judge's earlier "Office Space," this time with a more pro-management view. Since I still haven't seen "Office Space" I can't really compare them, but I think it's more balanced than that. "Extract" made me laugh a good deal, though, and in that it performs the primary duty of any comedy. My grade: B.