This is the End

For Seth Rogan's first directorial effort, he really went for it with This is the End.  He wrote and directed the apocalyptic comedy with his creative partner Evan Goldberg, who has written everything with Rogan up to this point in their careers.  I am a fan of Rogan - especially in Knocked Up, Take This Waltz and 50/50.  Here, not so much.  I found This is the End to be a big disappointment for one fairly important reason: I just didn't find it that funny.  Sure, there were hysterical parts, like the exchange between James Franco and Danny McBride about the latter's willy-nilly expulsion habits.  That was easily the funniest moment for me.  There were other funny lines and deliveries, but overall, I didn't laugh as much as I thought I was going to.  McBride stole the film when he was on screen.  And a hat tip to Craig Robinson for bringing some great lines.

I am not going to write much about this movie.  I sure hope it doesn't steal audiences away from the summer's best comedy, The Heat.  Go see The Heat.  

The Intouchables

The lead in The Intouchables is a French actor named Francois Cluzet, but if you know him, you may know him as the man who looks EXACTLY like Dustin Hoffman.  If you are like me and have never heard of him, look him up online and prepare to be overwhelmed by the striking resemblance.  Cluzet stars as a wealthy quadriplegic named Philippe who hires the unlikeliest of personal caretakers, a wayward ruffian named Driss, played with tremendous charm and flair by Omar Sy.  Philippe is tired of having medical assistants who shower him with pity and condolences.  It is time to hire someone with an attitude, someone with no medical background, someone who will often forget about Philippe's physical limitations.  That person is Driss, a 20-something man from the French projects who goes into the interview to obtain the last remaining signature he needs in order to be eligible to collect unemployment.  After he is hired, what follows is a deeply affecting friendship between two men who enter one another's lives at precisely the right time.  What a thing to behold.  

This film is simply fantastic.  It was originally released in France in 2011, but didn't make its way to the United States until it traveled the festival circuit in 2012.  I've had my eye on it for a while now and jumped at the opportunity to see it while having dinner in the courtyard of a terrific French restaurant around the corner from my house (Bistrot La Minette).  I found out that they play French movies once a week outside under the stars.  It was such a great night.  

World War Z

It is never a good sign that a movie has exactly one big star.  Other than some semi-recognizable actors, Brad Pitt is the face of this mega-budget zombie flick.  Another ominous sign for a movie is when its release date is delayed by 7 months.  And it doesn't help curb negative rumors when the studio hires big-gun writers Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard to rewrite much of the script.  Oh, and finally, it's a bad thing when a movie's ending is completely re-filmed after the studio screened the first cut and realized that the third act was too action-packed and chaotic.

Having said all of that, I must say that they pulled it together enough to create a pretty entertaining movie.  I especially enjoyed the subdued characteristics of the final 30 minutes, which is very much the antithesis of most big studio blockbusters.  The formula for big-budget action movies is to ramp up the action through the entire third act (see The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Transformers, etc).  This was a refreshing take on how to end a big movie, with quiet, cerebral moments with the main character.

I did have quite a few issues with the movie, though.  First, and most glaring, I was extremely aggravated by the fact that this was PG-13.  Who wants to see a zombie movie and not actually see any blood?  Not me.  There were dozens of moments in the film where the director cut away from the gore or simply framed the violence just out of view, which I found very distracting.  It took me out of the movie every time.  Clearly, movies make more money if they appeal to a larger audience.  I get that.  But this was one of those instances where I wish realism took priority over a film making more money. I guess that is what happens when your budget balloons to nearly $200 million and your only chance of turning a profit is to make it PG-13.

My second issue with the movie was how manic the blocking was for the main action sequences.  The camera was so shaky and the position of the actors and zombies in relation to each other was confusing.  Everything was moving so fast and there was such great care to cut away from the action the instant actual violence was about to occur, which caused a visual frenzy.

(semi-spoiler territory ahead........maybe? but not really)

My third and final gripe was the voice-over narration at the end.  It frustrates me when there is no voice-over throughout an entire movie and then the last 60 seconds are explained to us by one of the characters.  You haven't been our narrator at any point in the story, don't start now.  Instead, the coda should have been exposited by news reel, just like we see in the opening credits.

I'm a big Brad Pitt fan and enjoyed watching him carry a flawed movie.  

A Late Quartet

A Late Quartet has been on my radar since it came out in the fall of 2012.  With a cast that includes Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener, count me in.  Mark Ivanir, who was a new face for me, rounds out the foursome with a strong performance as the lead violinist.  His place as the first violin pretty much makes him the leader of the quartet, much to the chagrin of the second violinist, played by Hoffman.  Keener's character, who plays the viola, has been married to Hoffman for about as long as the quartet has been together - 25 years - and they have a daughter around that same age, who is being taught the violin by Ivanir.  Walken, the cellist, finds out pretty early on in the story that he is exhibiting early signs of Parkinson's disease, which will bring his legendary music career to an end in the next year.  This announcement provides the spark for the movie's drama.  Since they are going to have to replace Walken with a new cellist, Hoffman proposes that it would be a good time to begin splitting time with Ivanir as the lead violinist, which even his own wife thinks is a bad idea. The lack of spousal support causes Hoffman to cheat on his wife.  She finds out about the infidelity and asks him to move out.  As if this weren't enough drama for one movie, we find out that Ivanir and his pupil are having a love affair.  The fact that his own daughter is in love with the first violinist enrages Hoffman and further fractures the already embattled quartet.

This probably sounds like a lot to cram into one movie, and it sure felt like it.  Especially in the middle of the film, where everything was piling on top of itself, causing it to come across with great (unintended) humor.

I loved the final scene and ultimately came away from this film with a positive opinion, even though it was a bit over the top.  I truly got the sense that these interpersonal issues carried serious enough consequences to support my investment in the story.  To these people, music is everything.

A Late Quartet is currently streaming on Netflix. 

The Heat

Melissa McCarthy is an absolute powerhouse.  In the new movie from Bridesmaids director Paul Feig comes a hilarious buddy cop movie called The Heat.  Written by Katie Dippold (MADtv, Parks and Recreation), this movie is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.  Sandra Bullock and McCarthy are fantastic together.  The movie kind of starts out with a big scene that misses the mark comedically, after which I became concerned.  McCarthy plays a Boston cop who is chasing down a fleeing drug dealer in her car.  The sequence wasn't all that funny, which made me a bit worried about how the rest of the movie was going to be.  The laughs picked up and never relented until the end credits.  This is a rare comedy that truly gets funnier and funnier as the movie progresses, which I can't remember being true of many movies.  Most comedies lose their funny elements once the plot starts to take over in the third act.  Not this one.

I saw it about four weeks before it comes out (June 28th) with a packed audience, which helped to enhance the laughter.

Most people know how funny McCarthy is but Sandra Bullock brings some serious comedic chops here too.  She combines great physical comedy with her deadpan sarcastic wit to create a hilarious FBI agent.

Funny cameos and bit roles from Bill Burr, Kaitlin Olson, Tony Hale and Joey McIntyre provide some support for the two stars.  It was also good to see Demian Bichir again, who I loved in one of the best movies of 2011, A Better Life.

The movie tested so well that 20th Century Fox has already given the green light for a sequel, which is exciting.

I predict that this will perform somewhere in the $200,00,000 range domestically, which would rank it better than Bridesmaids and almost as good as The Hangover.  Yes, it's that good.