Joyful Noise

The two women rarely see eye-to-eye, and it gets even worse when G.G’s rebellious grandson Randy (Jeremy Jordan) comes to town and sets his romantic sights on Vi’s “good girl” daughter Olivia (Kiki Palmer).

Ultimately, everyone must work together to achieve harmony if they are to have a prayer of winning the prestigious Joyful Noise national church choir competition in Los Angeles. The whole town is counting on them. Can they do it?

If you have a little faith in Hollywood endings, you probably know the answer.

It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights…

It’s been more than a decade since Kermit and the gang were together on the big screen and this movie’s plot is all about reuniting them. It begins with a trip to the now decrepit Muppet studios in Hollywood by the world’s biggest Muppets fan, Walter (a Muppet himself although he doesn’t realize it yet), and his friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams). While they’re there, Walter overhears a plot by nefarious oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to gain ownership of the place so he can tear it down and drill for oil.  Walter is devastated.

The only way to save the studio is for Kermit the Frog to come up with ten million dollars. Walter, Gary and Mary track him down at his run-down Bel Air mansion and convince him he’s got to try to do it. They set out to find the rest of the gang so they can stage a Muppet telethon to raise the money. The first stop is Reno, where Fozzie Bear is performing with a “tribute” act called “The Moopets.” They track down Gonzo, who’s now a plumbing magnate, and Animal, who’s in rehab for anger management. Then they tell us it’s ”time for a montage” as they pick up the rest of the cast – except for Miss Piggy. She proves a bit more difficult to convince. After all, she’s built a new life for herself as the plus-size editor of Vogue in Paris.

Then it’s a race against time to convince a network, any network, to air their telethon and find a celebrity host. Will they get the show together in time? Will they raise the money to save the studios? It’s a Muppet movie – what do you think? It’s all about the journey, not the destination with the Muppets. And there are classic Muppet elements all along the way: musical numbers – some that, admittedly, I thought dragged a bit – characters breaking the fourth wall – like that “time for a montage” reference – and celebrity cameos galore.

For me, a Muppets fan from back in the day, it was just right and it plays well to the next generation too. My eight-year old movie companion says he loved it too because it was “funny and so cool.” He particularly enjoyed when Miss Piggy jumped on Kermit, and Fozzie’s fart shoes were “hilarious and so farty that they made me laugh like heck!” This movie’s a winner for all ages. Enjoy the show!

Consider it an early Christmas present for the not-so-easily offended, namely the devoted fans of the stoner franchise (the cult classic, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and its not-so-classic sequel, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay). I watched this movie with said fans (two gals and a guy) and here’s the consensus: 3D Christmas is not as good as the White Castle original, but it’s much better than Guantanamo Bay. All things considered, thumbs up, dude!

John Cho (Star Trek) and Kal Penn (House doc turned temporary White House staffer) reprise their roles as Harold and Kumar. It’s six years after their last adventure and the friends have drifted apart. Harold is now a banker, married and living in suburbia. Kumar hasn’t changed.

The pair is reunited in adventure and mayhem when Kumar stops by Harold’s house to drop off a package that arrived at their old address, and inadvertently sets Harold’s Christmas tree ablaze with a giant joint. The rest of the movie centers around their efforts to find a replacement tree before Harold’s family returns from midnight mass.

This movie is what it is – and it owns it – simultaneously mocking and embracing everything from 3D technology (watch out for flying smoke rings) to “spectacular” holiday production numbers (featuring the spectacular Neil Patrick Harris reprising his role as Neil Patrick Harris) to an irreverent (and very R-rated) twist on the tongue-stuck-to-a-flagpole scene from A Christmas Story.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is a dish best served to those with a Beavis and Butthead, Cheech and Chong, or South Park comic sensibility, if ya get my drift. If that’s not you – don’t go!!!! If it is you, you’ve probably already made plans to see it.

With its limited appeal, R rating, and 3D pricetag, I don’t think H&K will be setting the box office on fire.  There were only about 25 people in the theater for the showing I went to (on opening night no less). At least three walked out. The rest of us just sat back and enjoyed the 90-minute ride, safely shielded by darkness and 3D glasses.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is rated R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug use and some violence.  Merry Christmas, everybody!

To see the official trailer (i.e. a free, brief sanitized version of the entire movie), click here.

Ben Stiller is no George Clooney, but he does do a respectable job as the ringleader of a group of working stiffs out for revenge against a Bernie Madoff type character, played by Alan Alda.

Stiller plays Josh Kovacs, the long-time manager of a ritzy Central Park high-rise that has a large, devoted staff catering to the every whim of its wealthy residents, including penthouse occupant and Wall Street titan, Arthur Shaw (Alda). When it’s revealed that Shaw has swindled his clients out of two billion dollars – including the pensions of the building staff – Josh devises a scheme to break into the über-secure penthouse and find Shaw’s hidden stash of cash. After all, nobody knows the building’s layout and security better than Josh and his cohorts. What they don’t know is how to commit a crime. So Josh recruits a petty thief from his own sketchy hood (Eddie Murphy) to mentor the Robin Hood wanna-bees. This is probably Murphy’s best role – albeit a relatively small one – in several years and it brings back memories of his old SNL “Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood” persona (remember that one?).

The supporting cast – including Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, Michael Pena, Tea Leoni, Stephen Henderson, and Gabourey Sidibe – is decent, but the movie falters near the end, when it abandons any attempt to keep the action even remotely plausible.

Tower Heist certainly plays for more laughs than other recent ‘ripped from the headlines’ movies ‘occupying’ theaters (In Time, Margin Call, etc.) but it’s not a must-see. It’ll make for a good little rental or travel time-filler, or maybe a matinee – unless you desperately need a PG-13 alternative to this weekend’s other new comedy release, the very R-rated buddy adventure, A Very Harold and Kumar 3-D Christmas. Oh joy.

Click here to watch the official Tower Heist trailer.

British actor/comedian Rowan Atkinson reprises his role as Johnny English, Britain’s most confident, yet unintelligent spy. He’s been off the grid for a while, seeking inner peace, wisdom, redemption and stuff from a group of Tibetan monks after a failed mission in Madagascar. For some reason (that isn’t quite clear), English is summoned back to active duty with His Majesty’s Secret Service to help avert a global crisis.

In a fun little bit of stunt casting, Gillian Anderson (X-Files) plays it comically straight as Johnny’s boss at the agency.

She gives him the authority and resources (including a junior spy/intern) to track down an international group of assassins before they can carry out a deadly plot against the Premier of China. Comedic mayhem ensues.

This movie is kinda dumb. But if you’re looking for a harmlessly crude (PG) comedy to take the kids to (especially the teenage boys), then Johnny English Reborn does fit the bill. I didn’t love it. I wouldn’t even say I liked it. But I didn’t hate it – even though it could easily be subtitled, “Balls of Steel”. Let’s just leave it at that, shall we?

The premise may sound off-putting… a buddy movie about a guy with cancer. But it works. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer, 3rd Rock from the Sun) plays Adam, a 27-year-old public radio producer whose life is turned upside down when he’s diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cancer.

The movie finds its heart and humor in Adam’s relationships with his crude but caring best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen), his conflicted girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), his uptight mother (Angelica Huston), and his novice but well-meaning therapist (Anna Kendrick). It’s all very real and raw and poignant and funny, and the performances are first-rate across the board.

50/50 is loosely based on the real-life experiences of its screenwriter, Will Reiser, a cancer survivor and real-life buddy of Rogen’s. Writers are often encouraged to “write what you know” and Reiser knows cancer and comedy. The result is a remarkably moving, entertaining, and ultimately uplifting film that should appeal to a broad audience.

50/50 is rated R for language, sexual content and drug use that is never gratuitous and definitely serves the story. It’s a great movie for adults, so don’t let the premise scare you off. I’m counting on word-of-mouth to help this movie succeed at the box office. It deserves a positive outcome.

Paul Rudd (who I find quite likable but whose recent roles have fallen flat) plays Ned, a flaky but good-hearted organic farmer who puts too much trust in people and generally gets burned for it. Case in point – when he sells weed to a uniformed cop. D’oh!

Down on his luck, and kicked off the farm by his kooky girlfriend, Ned turns to his three sisters – Liz (Emily Mortimer), Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) and Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) – for shelter and support.

One by one, Ned manages to unravel the threads of his sisters’ seemingly comfortable existences. But he does so unwittingly, or with the best of intentions, so it’s kinda hard to fault the guy. Eventually, the sisters (and we) come to realize that maybe Ned isn’t such an idiot after all… Perhaps there’s something to be said for the way he lives his life… Or not. I’m not sold either way. That could be why the movie just didn’t work for me, despite its best intentions.

Horrible Bosses

The movie doesn’t rise to any level of fine art, but it is mindlessly entertaining – provided you keep your expectations low. The audience hooted, hollered and laughed a lot more than I did, so either they’re way more twisted – or they were coming off a bad day at work.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s the solid cast that saves this movie from being just plain stupid. Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day are generally fun to watch as three friends who devise a convoluted scheme to knock off each other’s bosses. Needless to say, things don’t exactly go according to plan. The bosses include a dentist (Jennifer Aniston) who sexually-harasses her dental assistant (Day), a cokehead loser who doesn’t give a darn about the company he’s just inherited (Colin Farrell), and a CEO who’s just pure evil (Kevin Spacey). Jamie Foxx has a minor role as a presumed hit-man who, for a flat fee, agrees to be the guys’ mentor in the how-to-go-about-killing-your-bosses-without-getting-caught department.

Imagine the 1980 classic ultimate-revenge-on-the-boss movie Nine to Five (Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin) as an R-rated buddy movie with crude language, sexual content, and drug-related material – and you’ve got Horrible Bosses. If only it had a campy theme song…

Any Suggestions?

The movie opens with a long, loooooong jazzy montage of modern-day Paris as the city of lights transitions from morning to night, sunshine to rain. It could almost be the opening to a travel show that’s about to highlight all the city has to offer – the architecture! the food! the wine! the outdoor cafes! the romance! Oui, oui. C’est Magnifique.

When the music montage finally draws to a close, we are introduced to an American in Paris- several of them actually. Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams play Gil and Inez, an engaged couple who’ve tagged along with her parents on a business trip to the French capital. Gil, a writer (or aspiring writer, depending on how you look at it), is immediately smitten with the city and the role it played in inspiring some of the greatest artists, writers and musicians of the 20th century. Ah, wouldn’t it be great to be transported back in time…

And that’s exactly what happens. Every night as the clock strikes midnight, Gil hitches a ride into the 1920s, where he mingles with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dali, Cole Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and Pablo Picasso. The more you know about them going in, the more you’re going to get out of the film.

Woody Allen knows how to attract good actors, so the performances are all pretty solid and witty. Even Owen Wilson, who tends to be hit or miss for me, is sufficiently endearing as a guy who romanticizes the past but comes to appreciate what the present and future may offer as well.

Midnight in Paris is a decent film with limited appeal for the masses. Ironically, it will likely find its niche with the intellectual and pseudo-intellectual types that the movie often pokes fun at. C’mon, you know who you are.

Bridesmaids

The movie is actually far better than the online trailers would suggest. In fact, I think they do it a major disservice. Somebody should go back and recut them!

Kristen Wiig (SNL) co-wrote the movie and stars as Annie, a woman whose current struggles in love and life seem all the more painful when her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph) gets engaged and taps Annie to be her maid of honor. What follows is a two-hour laugh and groan fest (in a good way) as Annie attempts to lead a colorful and disparate group of bridesmaids through the requisite shower, dress fittings, and bachelorette party.

The outstanding ensemble cast includes Rose Byrne as Helen, a bridesmaid who is passively-aggressively determined to wrest control of the festivities from Annie; Ellie Kemper as Becca, a newlywed whose annoying ‘happy face’ belies a battle within; scene-stealer Melissa McCarthy (Mike and Molly) as the groom’s sexually-ambiguous and quirky sister Megan; and Wendi McLendon-Covey as Rita, a disenchanted wife and mother who sees the wedding festivities as a much-needed opportunity to escape her abysmal home-life. These women are like the Sex and the City gal pals – except they’re virtual strangers thrown together for the bridal party rituals. (Anyone who’s ever been a bridesmaid knows how awkward that can be).

The main sub-plot of the movie revolves around Annie’s love life and her encounters with two very different men.  Jon Hamm (Mad Men) is hysterically spot-on as a wealthy, smarmy jerk who’s just using Annie for casual sex, and Chris O’Dowd (who I’d never heard of) is absolutely charming as a sweet and sensitive policeman who falls for Annie but can’t seem to get through to her.

Bridesmaids is more than just a comedy. It’s got heart and humor and a brutal honesty that can be uncomfortably, yet hilariously funny. It has elements of a romantic comedy, but doesn’t fall into the traditional and predictable romcom trappings of the recently-released and similarly themed Something Borrowed. It’s about what defines friendship, happiness, and survival in a world where the grass is always greener. Who can’t relate to that??

Producer Judd Apatow of Superbad, Knocked Up and Get Him to the Greek fame definitely has a knack for balancing raunch and wit. He does it again here. But ultimately, this is Kristen Wiig’s movie. And it’s a really good one.