Baby Mama

I'll be the first to say that 30 Rock is one of the best sitcoms on TV right now. I'll also be the first to say that Amy Poehler is still one of the funniest members of SNL (a torch that's soon to be passed to newcomer Kristen Wiig, but that's another story.) The casting decision to put both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler opposite each other is always a smart one since they work so well together. Unfortunately, this was probably the only smart decision encompassing the entirety of production on the film Baby Mama.

Though not without it's charm, Baby Mama can be summed up as the uglier younger sister to last year's Knocked Up. Written and directed by SNL writing alum Michael McCullers, this outing's disappointment doesn't come as a surprise when his resume includes such "hits" as Undercover Brother and the second and third Austin Powers films. The plot is pretty formulaic and the gags are moderately underwhelming, though it's impossible to hate the movie for its shortcomings when the two main characters are as damned cute as Tina and Amy.

The final ace up Baby Mama's respective sleeve is the supporting cast. I found myself saying "Holy crap, *insert celebrity name here* is in this?" at least four times, and these aren't mild mannered cameos either. Among the star studded day players are Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear, Maura Tierney and (most surprising of all) Steve Martin all providing a handful of laughs a piece to prevent any unnecessary gut-busting.

Overall is was considerably endearing and pretty funny for the most part, though I'm glad I didn't end up paying $9 to see it in a theater. Worth at least a rental if all your other options have been exhausted.

Tropic Thunder

Though Ben Stiller has had about as many career misses as Nicholas Cage in recent years, the only difference is that Ben Stiller manages to climb out of the hole he's dug himself every once in a while and make something worth paying ten bucks to sit in a crowded theater. Even then, he usually has to make the movie himself to give himself any credit (excluding The Royal Tanenbaums of course) because lord knows, no one else will until they shovel out the next in the Focker series (and you know it's coming so buck up and deal with it already.) But all bitchery aside, Stiller knows his satire as proven by The Cable Guy, Zoolander and the latest and most likely to offend just about anybody, Tropic Thunder.

When early promotion for the film first popped up I had just about no interest in it because I failed to notice two things. 1) The film was co-written by Stiller himself, which I'm more likened to give a fair shot and 2) The black guy in the background on the first promo shot was freaking Robert Downey Jr, and while this was impressive and altogether ballsy, I still wasn't completely sold until the first red-band trailer was downloaded onto my computer. Yes, the movie was rated R and a hard R at that. Now, I'm not one to sing the praises of a movie just because it's garnering a MPAA tag that promises at least a handful of F-bombs and some morally questionable material, but when you're aiming for the level of comedic satire that this movie was advertising, it's kind of a must.

Now that you've got the backstory, now about the movie itself. Like Zoolander, it doesn't take it's material seriously enough to get lost in the actual "plot" at hand but rather revels in it's own absurdity while it takes merciless pot-shots at Hollywood and the entertainment industry as a whole. I'd never have left it to Ben Stiller to blatantly point out how ridiculous the idea of being a celebrity is, but he did an admirable job. Kicking off with a fake energy drink commercial followed by three trailers for movies featuring each of the "lead stars" previous films set the tone for the 2 hours that followed. Stiller the action star that's literally made the same movie six times (via the Hollywood sequel machine,) Jack Black the slapstick comedy genius with a drug problem (with some low blows to Eddie Murphy and Young Hollywood in general,) and Robert Downey Jr the method actor who literally becomes every character he's ever played, dying his skin brown the play an african-american in the film within the film "Tropic Thunder." And what surprises me was the lack of offense to a white actor in blackface for almost two hours in lieu of several minutes of dialog involving the word "retard." They're making fun of actors (Tom Hanks, Sean Penn and Dustin Hoffman come to mind... they're also mentioned in said dialog) not the handicapped.

Stiller handles his character well, though his screen presence can be a bit cumbersome at times. Jack Black serves up his best performance since High Fidelity. Robert Downey Jr goes without saying, but I'll say it anyways, is a brilliant performer and provides the most quotable performance of the summer (I found myself saying the "I know who I am!" speech at least 10 times the week after viewing.) Though the most surprising cast member was the underplayed but genuinely funny Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up, TV's canceled UnDeclared and Million Dollar Baby) as rookie actor Kevin Sandusky. The kid's got promise and I look forward to more of his work. Danny McBride's (The Foot Fist Way and Pineapple Express) gung ho pyrotechnic specialist was well played and Nick Nolte was in it, so there's that. More surprising were the unexpected appearances by both Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise (the latter almost unrecognizable.)

Overall, Tropic Thunder was one of the better comedies I saw this summer and I didn't feel bad that it knocked The Dark Knight out of the number one slot the week it came out. If you're looking for a good laugh and you don't get offended too easily, go ahead and give Stiller one more chance.

Pineapple Express

It's come to my attention lately that there are very few mainstream comedies worth seeing lately. Maybe it's due to a maturing sense of cinematic awareness on my part or it could be that studios don't know what's funny anymore. Either way, there are few names left in the comedy game that I can trust anymore, luckily one of those names is still Judd Apatow. Following the success of last years breakout comedy Superbad, which thrust the uber-talented Michael Cera and Jonah Hill into the public eye and unleashed the writing styles of Apatow alum Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg on an unsuspecting world (both with writing credits on the underappreciated TV series Undeclared.) Now comes their sophomore feature length Pineapple Express.

I’ll go ahead and say right now that Pineapple Express is the type of movie that I’m normally likened to hate at first glance and without Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow’s names involved I may not have stepped into the theater in the first place. If it’s one sub-genre that I don’t find entertaining, it’s “stoner comedy.” I have trouble laughing at what is generally two guys sitting in a room bantering about how high they are, and unless there’s a pretty engrossing plot going on (a la Dazed and Confused ) I can usually find better things to be doing with my time. While marijuana is a prominent factor in Pineapple, the usual stoner mechanics takes a backseat to the actual story. The thing that proved funniest was that while they never draw attention to how much pot they’re smoking, what you realize is that 90% of everything they do is motivated by how high they are. This way, when either of the characters do something outlandish or unrealistic when faced with a situation, you don’t have to suspend your disbelief that far at all.

The script is consistently solid. Rogen and Goldberg have proven that Superbad, their 10 year pet project, was not just a fluke. Instead of injecting the mainstream with yet another in a long line of teen-comedy clones (College, The Rocker, the umpteenth American Pie sequel, etc. etc.) they’ve concocted a well timed action-comedy satire. Playing up the ridiculousness of most action movies (the never-ending ammunition, the conveniently placed and accessible firearms, the over the top splatter-gore) definitely kept the laughs coming.

It was good to see Seth Rogen and James Franco side by side again after eight or so years (since the disintegration of Freaks & Geeks, one of the most promising shows that never got a chance) and their chemistry is still right on. I've been defending Franco for years, in light of his role choices in a flurry of inspirational military academy flicks and the Spider Man franchise, and I was happy to see him knock this role out of the park. Rogen was good as usual, I'm curious as to how much was actually ad libbed and how much was scripted. There were some nice "guest" appearances, most notably Ed Begley Jr. ,Nora Dunn and the surprising return of Rosie Perez. I was also very impressed by newcomer Danny McBride (the new recruit in the Apatow Army after his breakthrough mockumentary The Foot Fist Way, of which I have yet to see.)

All in all, Pineapple Express is not just a Pot Comedy. It's a well developed action-comedy-satire that happens to have a fair amount of pot smoking in it. Needless to say I'm looking forward to Seth Rogen's take on the classic character The Green Hornet.

Charlie Bartlett

Films about high school have been a mainstay in the halls of cinema for as long as it's been able to be captured on film. From American Graffiti to American Pie, these movies generally represent the way we wish high school could've been for us ideally, in a comedic background. Then there are the high school "issue" movies like Pump Up the Volume and Heathers that aim for the societal issue. Charlie Bartlett steps up to the plate with the intent to have its cake and eat it too by cramming a comedy with a message.

The most salvageable thing about Charlie Bartlett are the actors. Grade-A performances are shelled out by Robert Downey, Jr. (of course,) Hope Davis, Anton Yelchin (Hearts in Atlantis) and Kat Dennings (40 Year Old Virgin.) Yelchin especially, playing the neurotic outcast, Ferris Bueller clone that becomes the high school's impromptu bathroom therapist, I can tell this kid has a healthy career ahead of him. Hope Davis as the prescription drug addled mother was wonderful and of course RD Jr. never lets me down. The dialog is witty and convincing, charming and alarmingly funny, though this is where the problems begin.

Charlie Bartlett is a film that suffers from cinematic schizophrenia. I assume in an attempt to emulate a certain kind of high school movie, it decided to emulate ALL of them. There are scenes that I was sure I'd viewed before, and then I realized that I had. I'd like to say that this is all homage, but I can only picture the writer sitting down at his computer after enduring a 48 hour educational system movie marathon, becoming the proverbial Victor Frankenstein of the screenwriting trade. A little bit of Mean Girls meets a little bit of Thumbsucker meets a little bit of Rushmore thrown in for good measure. All in all, there was the central character arc involving Charlie, but then that was diluted with about ten other thematic elements. It seemed that the movie stumbled over all of these elements in an attempt to find its own footing and make its own point, but in the end it outstayed its welcome and ran about thirty minutes too long. Then in a freak occurrence of meta-screenwriting, the movie seemed to notice its unnecessary longevity and ended so abruptly that it felt as if nothing was actually resolved. Also, my biggest beef was with a scene late in the second act that would've held a fair amount of gravity had it not been abruptly killed by a raucous punk song and a rather pointless riot.

Now don't get me wrong. Charlie Bartlett is not a bad movie. It's a fair movie with a problematic script that was overshadowed by the talent of the actors involved, which is similar to the stance I have on Juno. I'd definitely recommend seeing this movie, but here's a list of movies to see first.

Rushmore
Thumbsucker
Heathers
Pump Up the Volume
The TV series Freaks & Geeks
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Mean Girls
The Chumscrubber
Sixteen Candles
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Grosse Pointe Blank (whatever, there's a high school in it…)

Step Brothers

If anything, you can't deny that Will Ferrell does his job well. Whether the result is funny or not is up to opinion, but chances are, you've all laughed at SOMETHING the man's done over the course of his career. Once Ferrell teamed up with director Adam McKay (Anchorman – The Legend of Ron Burgundy) and producer Judd Apatow (Knocked Up and TV's erroneously canceled shows Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared) we got to finally see what kind of comedy Will Ferrell goes for and has since given us a plethora of hedonistic man-children. What surprised me about this routine was the introduction of veteran character actor John C. Reilly. Having appeared in high grade films such as Gangs of New York, Boogie Nights and The Thin Red Line it never occurred to me that this man was absurdly funny. It also helps that Ferrell and Reilly have possibly the best onscreen chemistry of any comedy team since Abbott and Costello, except with more swearing and genitalia.

The concept of Step Brothers is basically a close cousin to 2004's The 40 Year Old Virgin. Ferrell is Brennan Huff and Reilly is Dale Doback. Both are in their late 30's and live with their parents and act like a finicky pre-teen. Their respective parents Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins of the late series Six Feet Under) and Nancy Huff (Mary Steenburgen of Back to the Future III fame) fall in love and get married forcing Brennan and Dale into each other's presence. What results is a particularly hilarious clash of dominant personalities. Dale portrays the more dominant bully type and Brennan is the uber-defensive, passive aggressive side of the coin. As their antics progress, it devolves so far into absurdist immaturity at certain points it actually becomes relatively predictable. This can also be attributed to the trailers and promotional materials that usually divulge the funnier moments, which isn't to say Step Brothers doesn't have its fair share of gags up its proverbial pant leg. Some of the funnier moments were brought about by Richard Jenkins exasperation with the "boys" which thrust him into fits of swearing and vulgarity, usually uncharacteristic of a man of his age and profession.

Unfortunately, the film suffers from some pacing issues at the midway point. It shifted from being genuinely funny to TRYING to be genuinely funny. Though, this is only for about 20 minutes in the middle-end and it gets back on track nicely in time for the finale. While not the crowning glory of the summer movie season, Step Brothers is a thoroughly entertaining 90 minutes of raucous, vulgar and absurd humor for the immature kid in all of us.

But it's no Superbad.

The Dark Knight

Christpher Nolan waltzed onto the film scene in early 2000 with his (purposely) muddled psychological character drama Memento (based on a short story by his brother Jonathan) and it seems that he’s since made a career out of the dissection and analysis of the human psyche. In the age of the Comic Book Movie, no hero is better suited for Nolan than the Batman. After the franchise took a turn for the worse in the late 90’s, making Batman appear more like a member of the Pussycat Dolls than the fearsome Caped Crusader, it seems the character was shelved in Hollywood. However, a plethora of comic books took a turn for the dark side (The Long Halloween, Dark Victory and Hush, all compliments of senior scribe Jeph Loeb) and thus was the basis for the relaunch in 2005. Originally handled by Darren Aranofsky as an adaptation of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, the project was halted after the script was deemed “too violent” (ironic, really…) and was then handed off to Chris Nolan and writer David S. Goyer (Dark City and the Blade trilogy), which became what was to be Batman Begins. Now in 2008, Nolan returns to continue the saga with The Dark Knight.

Batman Begins was the unexpected kick in the teeth that the franchise needed out of a re-boot. Finally fleshing out Bruce Wayne’s transformation into the intimidating force we’ve all come to know and love, Nolan’s desire to ground the material in the “real world” as much as possible lent to the film’s staggering success. It’s just as important to understand where your character came from as to where they’re going, and Begins paved the way or at least laid the groundwork for what will become the standard for the Batman mythos on film. That being said, The Dark Knight does everything the perfect sequel should do. It’s bigger, darker, heavier and faster and it barely slows down at all before the final credits roll.

The only words I can think of to describe the story are Sprawling Epic. The scale of the film is monumental, and the comparisons you’ve been hearing in all the other reviews (Heat, The Departed, Godfather II) are all completely accurate and relevant. It seems the superhero element was lightly dusted around the Gotham City crime saga, whereas you can omit Batman and Joker and still have the makings of brilliance all around. Now that we’ve got the origin story out of the way, it’s time to take on the big guns, and as promised, those big guns are manifested in Bruce Wayne’s arch-enemy and eternal tormentor, The Joker. The story takes so many twists and turns, it feels as if you’re trapped in the backseat as the Clown Prince of Crime drives headlong off a cliff, laughing manically all the way down. Once it starts, there is very little time to catch your breath.

Now, without question, the late Heath Ledger took the Joker and knocked it out of the goddamn park. Watching him onscreen, he was nearly unrecognizable; disappearing into the character completely in what will likely be the quintessential Joker from this day forward. Joker has been somewhat of a wild card (both in character and portrayal) over the years. Cesar Romero’s depiction in the 1960’s camp-fest TV series was rather silly, with the white makeup encrusted in his moustache while just kind of laughing at everything. Jack Nicholson’s performance in Tim Burton’s 1989 film was good, but still didn’t bring anything new to the character. The Dark Knight gives us a Joker that we’ve never seen before, or even dreamed of. The result is actually quite frightening. With his scarred visage, psychotic laughter and sadistic temperament, Chris Nolan and Heath Ledger have given us a villain that is so maniacally unpredictable, you wouldn’t want to be in the same room as him, let alone try and stop his criminal rampage. His actions teeter on the brink of hilarious and terrifying, more than a few times I found myself laughing and cringing at the same time. In doing so, the Joker has become what his namesake represents; the wild card. He leaves a path of destruction in his wake and lets the pieces fall where they may, whether they serve his intentions or not. And it’s extremely tragic that we’ll likely never see a performance of that caliber again.

As far as the rest of the cast, each one knocks out a solidly comparable performance alongside their fallen cast-mate. Christian Bale has finally gotten comfortable in the skin of millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. In this chapter, it becomes apparent that Batman is the driving force in his existence and Bruce Wayne is just a circumstantial passenger to his dark alter ego. Michael Caine’s Alfred the Butler is spot on, as expected. Gary Oldman returns as police lieutenant Jim Gordon, his character played up this time around, as he represents the dichotomy between the police force (order) and Batman’s vigilantism (chaos.) Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) is back, serving up more Bat Gadgets and also flexing his Wayne Corp muscles, keeping Bruce afloat and under-wraps. One of the ballsiest moves was the recasting of assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes. Replacing Katie Holmes is Maggie Gyllenhaal who truly takes the character to its depth, caught between her deepset emotions for Wayne and her current love interest; which brings us to Gotham’s “White Knight” District Attorney Harvey Dent (Thank You for Smoking’s Aaron Eckhart.) Polarizing the Batman dichotomy as the city’s hope for sanity, he represents one of the key themes in The Dark Knight. There are two sides to every coin. Right, wrong, order, chaos, due process, vigilantism, life and death are all represented and flipped on their sides, crossing lines that should not be crossed and thrusting characters into moral dilemma’s from which the results could be catastrophic.

Improving upon its predecessor by leaps and bounds, yet still remembering where it came from, The Dark Knight is essentially the perfect sequel. It has transcended the comic book/superhero movie genre into something else entirely; something truly epic.

The Incredible Hulk

2003 marked the year that Marvel first stumbled over it's own ambitions before sprawling flat on it's face by over saturating the movie-going community with poor adaptation after poor adaptation. One of the first of these missteps was Ang Lee's version of The Hulk. Too much stylization, not enough character or plot and portraying Hulk as a giant half naked emo-kid with daddy issues combined with an incoherently confusing and frustrating ending made for the flop of the century. Even solid casting choices like Jennifer Connelly weren't enough to save this mess. With Batman getting the reboot in 2005 after an eight year break from the multiplexes, I wasn't expecting another Hulk attempt for at least another four to five years. But lo and behold, 2008 has brought us The Incredible Hulk, oven fresh with a new cast and director. And believe me when I tell you, it's better for it… by leaps and bounds.

From the start, this movie paves right over top it's predecessor by re-establishing the origin story WITHIN the opening credits (and let me tell you, there is absolutely NO recycled footage from the first film, if anything it's a giant homage to the 70's television series.) Replacing Eric Bana as the internally tormented scientist Bruce Banner is Edward Norton, who falls into the role as if it were second nature. And quite honestly, it kind of is, with psychologically split roles in Fight Club and Primal Fear under his belt, this over exemplified Jekyll and Hyde persona is right up his alley. William Hurt plays the dodgy General Ross who is tracking Banner as best he can along with the aid of the war ravaged foot soldier Emil Blonsky (renowned Brit badass Tim Roth.) Both with ulterior motives of their own design, their dynamic performances reflecting and refracting each other every step of the way, not a beat is wasted on these two. My only qualm is that William Hurt's moustache will never live up to the epic proportional standards of previous Ross portrayer Sam Elliott (but then again, whose moustache ever will?) Dr. Betty Ross, the resident lost-love interest, returns to the scene at the hands of Liv Tyler who handles the emotional beats surprisingly well. If there's a movie for her to re-prove her worth since her role in Lord of the Rings, this one is it. Another notable appearance is that of character actor Tim Blake Nelson (O, Brother Where Art Thou? as well as bit parts in Minority Report and Syriana) whose role will remain nameless for the sake of possible spoilers.

One of the major improvements on the relaunch was the focus on Bruce Banner as a character, not just as the seed for that which is The Hulk. With little dialog up until the first actual "Hulk Out," we're given the portrait of a desperate man on the run. A man willing to do whatever is necessary to find a cure for his wrecking ball of an alter ego. Norton embodies this entirely, providing what could be the quintessential Banner for the first time onscreen since Bill Bixby's television portrayal. Possibly even moreso.

Throughout the film, there are nods to every medium that Hulk has been represented in. References to the television show are as subtle as a flannel shirt or as simple as a brief onscreen appearance by the original Green Monster, Lou Ferrigno (he's even given a couple lines this time, as opposed to his literal "walk by" in the 2003 edition.) I was particularly taken by the representation of Hulk's mental evolution, from haphazardly picking up and tossing whatever may do the most damage to protecting himself or developing crude weapons out of whatever is available and may do the most damage. Yet, he remains a creature (literally) of pure instinct, and it doesn't let you forget that, even at his most human of moments. Also fun is the incorporation of a few of the trademark "abilities" that he's demonstrated in the comics over the years (I won't ruin them for you, but if you know them, you'll be giddy when you see it happen.)

All in all, I'd say this movie was almost, if not just as enjoyable as Iron Man (there's even a slight tie in, for the Avengers' sake. Also keep your ears open for a Captain America reference.) And if you're not as compelled by the story elements as I was, then just revel in the blatant bad-assery that this film provides in it's plentiful action sequences. There's just something ridiculously awesome about an Abomination being bashed repeatedly in the face with the front end of a police cruiser.