Quick Reviews: The Totally Brave Campaign Edition

So I got to three more movies in the last week and a half. One of them was even before noon, allowing me to pay the $5.00 discounted price. See? Some days I do get out of bed at a decent hour.

Brave: Another winner from Pixar. (They pretty much all are, I know. I even liked "Cars" when I finally saw it  -- on TV, not in a theater. "Cars 2" I haven't seen, and haven't heard many good things about, so...) A first for Pixar: a female protagonist, Merida, teenage daughter of a Scottish king who wants to find her own destiny instead of settling for being betrothed to a son of another Scottish clan leaders, causing a great bit of consternation between Merida and her mother. Merida encounters a witch who offers her a spell that will help in the matter. When I read that, I expected one plot twist and, instead, got another one entirely, and one that, in hindsight, was more predictable. But that's my fault. My grade: A-minus.

Total Recall: Colin Farrell is lust-worthy, as always. The rest is pretty mindless, and almost completely different from the original, which I totally recall (heh) as being fun, though I haven't seen it in ages. This could have used a lot more of that fun. My grade: C-minus.

The Campaign: Will Ferrell is a congressman, and not a very good one, who expects to once again run unopposed in his North Carolina district, until he suddenly gets an opponent (Zach Galifianakas). The biggest thing the movie has going for it is it made me laugh a lot. It has some things to say about our current political state of affairs, but the events are so broad as to be totally unrealistic. Then again, considering some of what's going on in this country right now, it seems like a documentary by comparison. My grade: B.

Quick Review: Everything Must Go

It's nice to know that Will Ferrell has some acting chops, and actually wants to use them for movies other than wild, over-the-top comedies. He's done it before, in the interesting and underrated "Stranger Than Fiction." In "Everything Must Go" he's Nick Halsey, an alcoholic whose relapse leads to his being fired. He goes home to find he's lost his wife as well; and he's locked out of his house and all his belongings have been left on the lawn. After a little wallowing and some more drinking, he sleeps outside on his recliner and decides that's what he's going to do. He's nearly arrested until his AA sponsor (Michael Peña), who's also a cop, intervenes. Nick decides to hold a yard sale to get rid of his stuff. Over the course of a few days' time we see Nick dealing with what he's lost, as well as possible new beginnings: with a new neighbor (Rebecca Hall) and a local kid (Christopher Jordan Wallace) who spends his days riding his bike around the neighborhood while his mom works. I'd like to see more work like this from Ferrell. Surely he's made enough money from all of those movies where he plays an overgrown child that he could do films like this a little more often. My grade: B.

Quick Reviews: Megamind, Morning Glory, Harry Potter 7

I don't like to do this but I'm going to be brief with these and combine them into one post. I have jury duty tomorrow and if I'm lucky enough to get picked to serve on a jury, it will create something of a time crunch. So...

Megamind: Animated, so it's easier to appreciate Will Ferrell because it's only his voice. Megamind (Ferrell) is the arch-nemesis of Metro Man (Brad Pitt), superhero protector of Metro City. Metro Man always defeats Megamind, until one day when Megamind actually wins. Then he has to find an answer to the same question Robert Redford asked at the end of "The Candidate:" what do we do now? It amusingly plays off the legend of Superman's arrival from Krypton and even has Ferrell spoofing Marlon Brando's Jor-El. My grade: B.

Morning Glory: Kind of a mish-mash. A little bit of a comment on the news industry, mixed with an attempt at romantic comedy (between Rachel McAdams, the new producer of a network morning show with minuscule ratings, and Patrick Wilson) that falls really flat. Harrison Ford plays an old-school news anchor, being paid to do nothing until he's forced, due to a clause in his contract, to take the co-anchor job on the morning show. Diane Keaton is the other co-anchor, who doesn't mind the fluffy, non-news morning segments, so she clashes with Ford. They're the best parts of the movie, particularly Ford. The rest is just meh. My grade: B-minus.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1: It's the beginning of the end. While there are a few humorous moments, it's mostly tense, with action-filled scenes mixed with some moments that I found rather dull, as Harry, Hermione and Ron are on the run from Voldemort and his minions. A lot of what went on was a bit vague to me. I only saw each of the previous movies once, and never read the books, so one of those "Previously, on..." montages like TV series use would really have helped. If you haven't seen the other movies or read the books, don't bother seeing this because you'll be hopelessly lost. My grade: B.

Quick Review: The Other Guys

In "The Other Guys," Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are NYPD detectives Allen Gamble and Terry Hoitz, who don't get to do anything exciting, while other cops (Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson) are in wild car chases and shootouts, and get all the hero worship and media fawning over them. Allen doesn't care, but Terry wants the action. (His career derailed after an unfortunate -- at least if you're a Yankees fan -- incident involving Derek Jeter.) Allen and Terry stumble upon a huge financial fraud scheme in progress, and try to prevent the crime before it takes place. Basically, "The Other Guys" is a somewhat smarter version of "Cop Out." It falls into the action-comedy-mismatched partners genre but plays around with the formula a little. It also has Michael Keaton as the precinct captain, whose name is...Gene Mauch (baseball fans will get it); and Eva Mendes as Allen's wife, and a running joke about how she's incredibly hot while he insists she's not. Will Ferrell can be annoying when he goes really gonzo, but he was a good fit here. I'm not quite yet sold on Mark Wahlberg as a comic actor, particularly compared to his small role in "Date Night," but perhaps he'll develop  more comedy chops. My grade: B.