Movie Catching Up, Part Three

And now to begin the home stretch of my movie catching up!

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Star Trek Beyond is the latest installment of the recent reboot. The Enterprise is heading for a starbase to restock supplies; meanwhile, Captain Kirk is having doubts as to whether he wants to continue on the ship's five-year mission. The ship is dispatched to respond to a rescue signal when it is ambushed by a villain named Krall. Despite some decent action sequences it seems like a flimsy plot. I've read a couple comments that compare it to a TV series episode. I don't think I would go that far but it seems like a standard plot for Star Trek.

Probably the most notable thing about it isn't part of the plot but the revelation that Sulu has a husband and family. It's a nod to the openly gay George Takei, the original Sulu, but he was not pleased, because he wanted a new gay character, not changing the orientation of one of the established ones. My grade: C.

War Dogs is based on a true story  (with embellishments, I'm sure), David (Miles Teller) is laboring away in 2005 as a massage therapist as well as a failed venture to sell high-quality bedsheets to nursing homes. At a funeral he reconnects with a high school friend, Efraim (Jonah Hill), who offers David a job at his new venture, buying arms and reselling them to the US Government during the Iraq War. David's learns his girlfriend is pregnant. The couple are both anti-war but David takes the job anyway. lying to her about his "business trips" (soon the guys are in the Middle East running guns to fill their orders) and his sudden income increase.

Both leads are appealing, though Hill often finishes a sentence with a laugh that's painful to hear. The "lying to girlfriend" angle is stale and the plot seems too far-fetched for a "true " story. My grade: C-plus.

And then there's Sausage Party, an animated movie for adults (very deserving of the R rating) which actually has an interesting premise. Inside a supermarket, all the products for sale worship people as their gods. They believe when they're "chosen" (i.e. purchased) they go to the "great beyond." Some items, though, are nonbelievers, non-perishables who claim to have returned from the great beyond and seen the horrible truth.

A sausage named Frank (Seth Rogen) and his girlfriend Brenda, a hot dog bun (Kristen Wiig) are happy to be chosen despite being warned by a nonbeliever. A mishap causes their packages to be left behind, unfortunately. Frank decides to journey to the liquor aisle because a bottle of liquor named Firewater is said to be an expert about the reality of the great beyond.

Oh, did I mention that Firewater is a Native American?

And here's the problem. Whatever statements the filmmakers (cowritten and coproduced by Rogen) are making -- about religion and beliefs and how they can divide us -- are completely overwhelmed by the "humor." Stereotypical humor (see: Firewater; a lesbian taco, and bickering bagel and lavash). Scatological humor. Sexual humor (ha ha, look at the giant orgy! Look at the douche, name of Douche, unload his product into the...I've said enough.) I think I actually laughed out loud twice, and that doesn't cut the mustard. My grade: D-minus.

That's all the movies I've seen in the theater. But I'm not done. I recently watched some movies On Demand and I've decided to write about those as well. Stay tuned!

Quick Review: 22 Jump Street

I know, I know, I saw this two weeks ago. I'm still trying to get back into the habit of posting. Anyway, "21 Jump Street" was one of my favorites of 2012. Seeing that Channing Tatum had a knack for comedy and that he and Jonah Hill really meshed as undercover cops masquerading as high school students to stop a drug ring was exciting. Unfortunately, I wasn't as enthralled with the inevitable sequel, the cutely-named 22 Jump Street (an explanation is in the movie). This was mostly because of the constant references -- to the actors, to the first movie, to the quality (and expense) of sequels in general -- in lieu of a more interesting plot. This is a very meta movie. Still, some bits worked and Tatum and Hill still go well together. Hopefully when the inevitable "23 Jump Street" is greenlit, they'll put a little more effort into a credible storyline. My grade: C-plus.

Quick Review: This Is The End

And now back to our regularly scheduled movie review programming. (I hope.) I expected a lot from the trailer for This Is The End and, unlike a lot of movies recently, this one mostly lived up to my expectations. A comedy in which the Apocalypse takes place is one thing. When it focuses on how this event affects Hollywood celebrities, that's another story. And when those celebrities -- James Franco, Seth Rogen, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel and Danny McBride are the stars, with many other cameos, from Rihanna to Michael Cera to Channing Tatum -- are playing exaggerated versions of themselves, it goes to the next level. Lots of raunch, but also lots of laughs and some meta commentary about the celebs themselves, their importance (or lack thereof), how they're perceived by the public and media, etc., and a little stab at religious beliefs (after all, the Apocalypse is happening). Had me laughing almost from the start to the finish. My grade: A-minus.

Quick Review: Moneyball

Remember those days when I went to see at least one movie each week, if not more? It's been a while. Back then the Phillies were still winning games. Speaking of baseball, today I went to see "Moneyball." It's based on the Michael Lewis book about Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane and his use of sabermetrics to put together a competitive roster despite extremely limited financial resources, focusing particularly on the 2002 season. That year the A's, despite losing big names Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Jason Isringhausen to big-market clubs, won 103 games, including an AL-record 20 straight.

In other words, the stat geeks who are doing their best to ruin the game now have their own movie. And it stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane. So there's been a lot of hype about it in baseball circles as well as the usual places where movies are discussed.

Pitt is fine, but the movie itself doesn't entirely hold up. A lot of scenes -- Beane and his assistant GM (Jonah Hill, whose Peter Brand is either based on Paul DePodesta, the actual assistant GM, or some amalgam of DePodesta, Theo Epstein and possibly others, depending on what you read), going about rebuilding the club, aggravating the old-time scouts, or Beane's clashing with A's manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman) have snap to them, but to balance it out (or to try to attract people who don't like sports, or women, or something) there are also a few softer scenes featuring Beane and his daughter. These scenes, and the entire ending, in which Beane is wooed by the Red Sox after the 2002 season, drag the film down. And there's some other fictionalization. Trades that actually occurred two months apart are depicted as happening almost simultaneously at the trade deadline.

So the movie, like the concept, is flawed.

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.