Cynical Cinema

Hancock has a great star.  It has a great soundtrack.  And it has a great premise.  Will Smith stars as a superhero with a drinking problem, a man who saves people just because that seems to be the thing he should be doing, while showing complete disregard for the property he destroys while doing so, or the massive amount of destruction he creates while rescuing innocent people and stopping criminals.  I absolutely love the idea that this is the first movie I’ve seen that really shows the consequences of the actions of a superhero.  Sure, he stopped the gun-toting bad guys, but in doing so he’s caused four million dollars worth of damage to L.A. highways and buildings.

A few funny scenes open the film, with Smith flying through highway signs, destroying cop cars with his drunken buffoonery, and eventually setting down the SUV full of bad guys on top of a building in the sky over Los Angeles.  But the movie quickly takes a turn when he meets Jason Bateman - in another hilarious scene where Hancock saves Bateman from a train, then unnecessarily destroys the train rather than getting out of the way.  The one thing I wish I had seen in this film is a little more of the consequences of these actions.  With the train derailment, the cop cars exploding, wouldn’t there be a rather heavy toll in terms of human life?  Why are we hearing about the monetary vaule of the damage when people clearly would have died?  Well, as it turns out, Peter Berg wanted to maintain a light tone in the movie, and keep some humour in there.  And it would be tough to do that if Hancock was actually killing people.

 When he meets Bateman, a P.R. man, the movie changes as Bateman tries to change Hancock’s public image.  He realizes that deep down beneath the drunken exterior, Hancock really just wants to be liked.  And he convinces Hancock to respond to the 6,000+ outstanding warrants out for his arrest.  The theory being that if Hancock goes to jail, he will be seen by the public as admitting his sins, and that eventually the public will miss him when crime rises.  And, for the most part, it works.  We learn a little bit about Hancock’s back story, and yet another story line develops, this one involving Bateman’s wife, played by Charlize Theron.  And by this time there is too much going on.  And we stop caring, even when things start coming together.

A drunken superhero is a great idea - how would one arrest this man?  Who could possibly convince him to sober up?  Would the lives he saves be worth it compared with the lives he inadvertently takes?  All of these things are touched upon in Hancock, but it isn’t quite enough.  In the end, there is nothing terribly interesting about the movie.  Watching Will Smith is always a good time, and he is reliably engaging as the imbittered, sour Superman figure.  But the bizarre story twists near the end feel like a clumsy way to create some actual drama.  You have an invincible superhero, and he’s the only one of his kind on Earth.  So in order for there to be a real bad guy who can actually kill Hancock, and therefore create some drama in a will-he-make-it sort of way, they had to find a way for this to come about.  And it’s contrived and irritating.

Hancock is decent.  It features a great Will Smith (but we all knew he would be), and a solid premise with interesting ideas.  But I would have really liked to see those interesting ideas explored more, and (amazingly) I’d have liked to see Charlize Theron less.

Romantic comedies are one of those genres that make me cringe just thinking about them.  They often involve Hugh Grant or Meg Ryan and some crying.  There is always some major event or misunderstanding that takes place twenty-one minutes before the end of the film that shakes the foundation of the relationship we’re watching, and of course it gets resolved within that 21 minutes and everyone lives happily ever after.  And girls laugh, and then cry, and then laugh again as they watch.  And I usually curl up in a ball and try to suppress my rage.  This time, however, this was not the case. 

With Forgetting Sarah Marshall, my girlfriend did indeed laugh and cry.  But that was because she laughed until she cried.  And her sides hurt.  And mine too.  This movie is absolutely hilarious.  Judd Apatow (of Knocked Up and 40-Year-Old Virgin fame) produced this film, directed by Nick Stoller.  It stars Jason Segal as Peter, a guy who does the music for one of those CSI-type crime shows.  You know, the guy who plays the intense, moody music when David Caruso takes off his sunglasses?  He is dating Sarah Marshall, the star of that crime scene show.  Until, two minutes into the movie, she breaks up with him, leading to perhaps the funniest nude scene I have ever seen in a movie.  You see, he figures she can’t really break up with him until he puts clothes on to have a conversation.  So he just won’t put clothes on.  (Yes, it IS full-frontal male nudity, the best kind of comedic nudity!)

Then, with help from his not-terribly-helpful step-brother, Peter decides to go on vacation in order to get his mind off Sarah, and of course manages to end up at the exact same resort she does.  Sarah is there with her brand new boyfriend Elvis Snow, a huge international rock star played to perfection by the absolutely hilarious Russell Brand.  While Elvis is now Peter’s biggest rival for the affections of Sarah, and Peter should by all reasonable logic feel some resentment toward him, he ends up kind of liking him.  And so do we.  Brand plays Snow as such an un-self-conscious doofus of a rock star, that it is impossible to make him into the villain of the piece.  In fact, there really isn’t much of a villain at all, unless it’s Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) herself.

The supporting cast is amazing too, including Paul Rudd as a perma-stoned surfing instructor, John Hill as a waiter with a rather unhealthy obsession with Elvis Snow, and several gigantic men who serve as comedic relief in dozens of scenes.  The one scene here that I think perfectly exemplifies the reason this movie is so great is the scene where one of these gigantic Hawaiiam men recruits Peter to help him prepare the pig for dinner.  And Peter has to actually kill the pig.  In so many other movies, this scene would have lasted nine minutes.  And it would have squeezed every bit of comedy it possibly could out of the “he has to stab the pig and he hates it” joke.  But in this movie, the scene lasts maybe twenty seconds.  There is probably only twenty seconds of real, true hilarity to be derived from a scene such as this one, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall makes absolutely sure that those twenty seconds are the only ones we see.  It’s a remarkable demonstration of restraint in a 2008 R-rated romantic comedy.

And then there’s Mila Kunis.  Jackie from That 70s Show is a revelation in her role as the desk clerk at the Hawaiian hotel where Peter and Sarah and Elvis are staying.  And it’s pretty clear early on that she will become the catalyst for Peter to either get over his ex-girlfriend or break down completely.  The chemistry between Kunis and Segel is magnificent, and she is incredibly charming.  To the point that we, the audience, immediately root for her, no matter what her role will be in this movie.  Watching her face while Peter performs a song he wrote for a Dracula-themed puppet-show musical is just awesome.  Hilarious and charming and brilliant.  Just like this movie.

Watching The Kingdom confirmed a few suspicions for me. I have always suspected that everyone the United States trains for any kind of gun-related activity has the capacity to be Rambo. (The CIA, the FBI, the military, mall security guards.) No, more than that, my suspicion has been that not only are they all trained to be Rambo should the need arise, but also that they are all waiting. Just waiting for a chance to break out the headband and the M-16 and take out all their enemies in a hail of gunfire. I have also suspected that the FBI was the only agency in the U.S. with balls, and that they are held back from doing the real work by namby-pamby pansies in the upper echelons of government. No, more than that, I have always thought that were they given the chance, rather than being blocked at every turn, the FBI could have just shown up in Afghanistan and caught Osama Bin Laden within a week.

And now, here comes The Kingdom, to not only confirm my suspicions, but to hammer me over the head with these incontrovertable facts. Which is not to say The Kingdom is a bad movie. It isn’t. But it’s not a good one either. The thing is, it’s two different movies. It starts out as smart as Syriana, and ends as dumb as well…Rambo. The beginning of the film makes you think you’re in for an intense, political, smart movie about terrorism and the relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. It opens with a bang, so to speak, as a suicide bomb attack blows up an American softball game in Saudi Arabia. This is truly shocking, with men, women and children all being slaughtered. It’s an upsetting scene and a reminder of what terrorism is the world over. Also shocking and captivating is the subsequent torture scene, where the Suadi guard who saved the day by killing the terrorists gets interrogated by his own army. He shot the terrorists, and therefore they could not be questioned. Maybe he is in league with them - making sure they are dead so they can’t talk. It is very effective, and promises an interesting subplot. Since American citizens (and one FBI guy) were killed over there, the FBI wants to send a small team of elite agents into Saudi Arabia to investigate the crime.

This takes place in movie world, where the people who are going to be sent in like elite FBI commandos are the same people who make their case during top-level government discussions. Either they are extremely high-ranking FBI officials who still somehow see active firefight duty, or they are elite commando FBI operatives who somehow have access to the brass at the Pentagon and the White House. Either way, it doesn’t matter, it’s a movie. So Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman and the bizarrely cast Jennifer Garner show up in Saudi Arabia. There is a power struggle going on with the colonel in charge of the barracks that were attacked, the general of the Saudi Army who has assumed control over the investigation, and the newly arrived Americans. This could be interesting also. But it does not last long. Quickly, Jamie Foxx is able to convince the Saudi royal family that the colonel is the man for the job, and that they should be given access to the whole city.

From then on, all subplots are abandoned. That guy who was unjustly tortured? He comes along for the ride. He drives. The power struggle between the general and the colonel? The general just disappears. Now it’s just American commando rah-rah guns blazing through Riyadh. All four Americans are Rambo, especially Jennifer Garner, who rescues Jason Bateman from a particularly unpleasant fate in a very commando sort of way. Picture Jennifer Garner, the chick from Alias, cauterizing her wound by lighting gunpowder and then mowing down half of Afghanistan, a la Rambo 3. Are you smiling? Yeah, you should be. It’s asinine. So these Americans have been in Riyadh for five days. And they have solved the crime, located the terrorist cell responsible, and killed everyone involved. And America can’t find Osama? Geez. I hope they do, because capturing him would obviously involve car chases, rocket launchers, snipers, machine guns, machetes and would make for terrific TV.

The main problem with The Kingdom is that the cartoonish last half completely devalues the otherwise excellent buildup in the first half. The movie promises so much more than it delivers. A better movie of this nature is Collateral Damage, with Arnold Schwarzennegger. Now, I know what you’re saying. Really? You’re saying. But Collateral Damage was by no means a classic. In fact, I found it awful, you say. That is fine. But at least it delivered exactly what it promised. Terrorists blew up a family. The father of that family went after the terrorists. There was lots of action. The terrorists died. In the Kingdom, we think we are going to get something so much smarter and so much more interesting than Collateral Damage, that when all we get IS Collateral Damage, it’s that much more of a disappointment. It’s worth renting just for that first half, but prepare for disappointment in the second.

I like Dustin Hoffman. We all do. Dustin Hoffman is likeable, and one of the greatest actors of the past 50 years. However, late in his career he has had some trouble choosing good movies. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium is one of them. Visually, this movie is very impressive. Hoffman plays Mr. Magorium, the proprietor of a magical toy store where kids congregate every day to experience wonder. And there certainly is wonder aplenty in the ol’ Emporium. Dinosaur skeletons that play fetch with frisbees, slinkies that are too nervous to come off the table, magical balls that never stop bouncing, and dozens of other really neat toys. The store itself appears to be alive, some kind of entity unto itself, and it is a very impressive beginning to the movie. But then, when the movie needs to rely on characters and a plot to move things forward, it stalls. In fact, it pretty much comes to a dead stop.

It isn’t Hoffman’s fault. He is obviously having a lot of fun playing the titular character, and he enjoys himself thoroughly in a role that’s more reminiscent of watered-down Marx Brothers schtick than Willy Wonka. The dialogue in his scenes is delightfully inane and whimsical, and the kids loved it. It isn’t Natalie Portman’s fault either - she is perfectly cast as the girl who works at the counter of the store, who has magic in her heart…and Zach Mills is terrific as a young boy named Eric, who appears to be some kind of child genius with no friends, who serves on the de facto board of governors for the Emporium. Mills is a great surprise. His face is so expressive, and he handles his adult lines with great dexterity and real charm. But all of this fills up ten minutes of screen time. Then Jason Bateman shows up. He is stiff as a board and very unconvincing as an accountant brought into the store to put the store’s papers in order. This leads to a few great scenes with Hoffman, but it also leads to that most-obnoxious of movie questions - will he learn to loosen up and take life less seriously? All that would take would be one game of checkers…

And therein lies the biggest problem with Mr. Magorium. All it takes for Bateman to see the light and embrace the magic and lose the suit-attitude is to put on a hat with the kid. Natalie Portman yearns for something more than her job as a clerk in a toy store. An amazing toy store, to be sure, but she is still in retail when she dreams of being a concert pianist. And the prevailing thought here is that this sadness she feels can be resolved if she takes over the store from Magorium and becomes the owner. Umm…sure. So, she wants to be a concert pianist, and not work at the toy store any more, so the way to make her pleased with her life is to - tie her to that same store for the rest of her life? This is the sort of idea the movie is quite pleased to trot out at the right moment in the plot. None of it is cohesive, none of it rings true, and in the end the “wonder” of the story is dulled by the predictability of the characters and their actions. Even the kids, who just wanted to watch the cool toys do cool things, got pretty bored toward the end. I don’t blame them. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium was done at the fifteen minute mark.

I have known many girls, in high school and beyond, who were almost exactly like Ellen Page in Juno.  And I have been head-over-heels for them all.  Diablo Cody is the screenwriter, and this is her first screenplay, and it is incredibly bang-on.  At one point Juno acknowledges and actually calls attention to the fact that the jocks want to sleep with her and girls like her.  Girls who are attractive but seemingly put no effort into being so, who are blessed with incredibly dry sardonic wit, and who use their above-average intelligence to do what they feel like doing rather than striving for high marks.  This character is not new in movies, and it is not new in life.  This type of movie is in no way groundbreaking.  But it is classic.  Classics are created when a movie becomes something you’ve never seen before, or like this one, becomes the absolute best example of a particular genre.  Casablanca was not terrifically ground-breaking, remember.  It was just the absolute best, head and shoulders above the other movies like it.

 And so too is Juno, a cut far above many other similar movies - Thumbsucker, Me and You And Everyone We Know, Eagle vs. Shark, Our Very Own, Ghost World.  (The last time I was into a character this much was Scarlett Johanssen in Ghost World.)  The best thing about Juno is that it is hilarious.  There are genuine belly laughs to be found in the script and the actors are perfectly cast.  Ellen Page is bang-on perfect as a young high schooler who does her own thing, lives her own life by her own rules, and has an incredibly hilarious dry wit.  But her obvious intelligence can’t answer everything for her when she unexpectedly gets pregnant.  Michael Cera (Superbad) is hilariously nervous and shy as Bleeker, the father of Juno’s baby.  He is incredibly nervous around her, which makes sense.  She is so dry, and so (apparently) apathetic, that he lives in fear of revealing anything close to his true feelings to her, for fear of being mocked, or worse, ignored.  Also terrific are Alison Janney and J.K. Simmons as Juno’s father and step-mother, Olivia Thirlby as her best friend, and especially Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as a young couple looking to adopt Juno’s unborn child.

This movie has a tremendous heart, every single minute of screen time rings absolutely true, and it is hilarious.  Consistently, beginning-to-end, belly-laugh hilarious.  I think the last time I laughed this hard this often in a movie was at Superbad, and although that one was certainly great, it had nowhere near the heart and the pacing and the performances that are on display in Juno.  This is an absolutely magnificent film, and it was deservedly the breakout for Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman.  This is one of the best movies on DVD shelves right now.