Quick Reviews Catch-Up Part 2: Summer Flicks

Continuing my rally to get to the land of semi-timeliness...and now we get to the movie industry's prime time.

Star Trek Into Darkness: A couple of the nods to the TV series were actually a bit much for me. I don't think it was good as the previous film. My grade: B+

Now You See Me: At times fun, stupid, mystifying, ridiculous...I had an idea of who was behind everything but was only half-right. I can't explain more without spoilers. My grade: B

The Internship: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson reunited. No "Wedding Crashers" - not as raunchy nor as funny - somewhat predictable, at times charming but too stupid too often. My grade: C+

The Great Gatsby: Visually spectacular. I say this despite the fact that I got a 3D upgrade for free because the theater loaded up the 3D version by mistake for a 2D showing, so they had to give everyone the glasses. I'm not a 3D fan. Anyway, visually spectacular. Some of the music from the touted soundtrack fit well, some of it was jarring. Acting, though, was not good. If I never hear Leonardo DiCaprio call someone "old sport" again it'll be too soon. My grade: C+

Iron Man 3: Robert Downey Jr. is fantastic in this role, as usual, but the plot was lacking. Not as bad as Iron Man 2 but not as good as the first (and nowhere near "The Avengers"). My grade: C+

The Purge: The premise that for one night a year all crime is legal is provocative, but I was unsurprised at almost everything that happened. Not many sympathetic characters in this. My grade: C-

After Earth: Who comes up with a script that has Will Smith play a cold military dad and Jaden Smith play his son, a sour, whiny military cadet, in a future where the earth is a very bad place and humans live elsewhere, and the plot keeps Will in one place doing nothing most of the time? Will's talent and charisma (and whatever talent and charisma Jaden has) are totally wasted. My grade: D.

Not-So-Quick Review: The Dilemma

Yeah, not so quick. There's some writing going on here...

Remember the controversy over the initial trailer for "The Dilemma," the Ron Howard film starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James? It had the joke in which Vaughn's character, Ronny, says that "Electric cars are gay. I mean, not homosexual gay, but my-parents-are-chaperoning-the-dance gay." After GLAAD (the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, in case you don't know) complained, the studio removed the joke from the trailer but deferred to director Howard, who wouldn't remove it from the film itself because of artistic integrity or something. I wasn't thrilled by that, though I can understand someone not wanting to be harassed into making changes they feel aren't warranted. But Vaughn made some comments in response to the uproar that really turned me off, and I decided that I did not want to pay money to see this movie.

Still, I was a little curious. So when I went to see "The King's English" last week, I "multiplexed." That's the term I use for "sneaking into another theater to see a second movie without paying." It's something I've only done a couple of times, and once it was just to re-watch the end of another movie I had already seen (and paid for). But Hollywood owed me one for over two years: "The Spirit" was such complete garbage that I walked out more than halfway through. With "The Dilemma," I collected.

Well, I collected in that I stayed throughout the entire film. But it wasn't easy.

The film's premise is that Ronny and his best friend Nick (James) are partners in an auto design firm who get a meeting with GM to make a pitch for an electric car that seems like a muscle car. Hence the "electric cars are gay" joke --

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: