Review: This is the End

I think we’ve all had a moment where we look at our friends sitting around the apartment drinking beers and talking smack about anything and everything and come to the brilliant realization that making a movie about our regular interactions would be pure cinematic gold.  Because of course every single thing we say is incredibly witty and every punch line completely hilarious.  Yet somehow, despite this obvious wealth of entertainment value, this never comes to fruition.  The reasons for this are threefold:

1.  Most of us are not nearly as funny or witty as we think.

2.  No one cares what kind of idiocy most strangers would spew during a drunken stupor or otherwise.

3.  Unlike writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, we don’t have a bunch of famous comedic actor friends to attach to the film in order to convince a studio like Columbia Pictures to distribute said movie.

Luckily for the writing tandem that brought you Superbad, Pineapple Express, and The Green Hornet (2011), they do have such friends.  The result then is one hundred and seven minutes of footage showing a group of mostly funny actors hanging out under the guise of making a movie.  The plot of said movie finds Seth Rogen and Jay Barauhel (as themselves) attending a party at James Franco’s house along with Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, and a number of other celebrities that one would associate with this group.  When the end of the world seemingly strikes the Hollywood hills, the group must fight to survive the end of days while managing to keep their respective friendships intact. 

So when you take a bunch of actors who are adept at adlibbing and throw them in a confined space to film scenes that are loaded with comedic banter, most times the script gets thrown out the window.  And it’s evident that this is precisely what is going on in this film.  Portraying the worst caricatures of their respective public personas, it’s clear these actors are riffing on each other in very natural ways with no topic off limits.  The chemistry that they share really makes this the best aspect of the movie.  The jokes are cutting, incisive, and outlandish but then again, so is the premise (armageddon) and thus it all comes together in what can best be described as a frenetic hot mess.

Ironically, the very vehicle that allows for the over-the-top hilarity (specifically the end of the world as a backdrop) is ultimately what drags this movie to a screeching halt in the third act.  The first two thirds of the movie focus on establishing friendships and on comedic hijinks (the high point of the film), while the last third is dedicated to bringing some closure to all the fire and brimstone, and unfortunately that’s the least interesting aspect of the film.  The further you move away from the reckless banter, the more you become aware of how flimsy the whole narrative is.  That’s not to say that there aren’t some strong moments in the final act, but that by then, the movie’s sheen has definitely faded.

As for the work of the principle cast, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride particularly stand out for their comedic timing, prowess with physical comedy, and overall screen presence.  If I had to take a guess, I would say that this trio provides the lion’s share of laughs attributed to the principle actors.  James Franco and Seth Rogen hold their own in this film though their work is a step down in the laughter department.  Seemingly not as adept at adlibbing as their peers, Franco and Rogen seem to rely more on the written script and thus many of their lines lack the natural spontaneity that the others project.  As for Jay Baruchel, he is the straight man of the group and thus responsible for setting up the jokes rather than delivering punch lines.  He plays the same character from She’s Out of My League and in this way he is perfectly adequate.

As for the celebrity cameos, the best of the bunch come from Michael Cera (hilarious), Emma Watson (because she’s Emma Watson), and one actor who surprisingly shows up in the third act (click here if you want to know), but there is no shortage of familiar faces (including Jason Segel, Paul Rudd, Rihanna, Aziz Ansari, et al) parading across screen during the first act to add a bit of punch to the chicanery unfolding onscreen.

In its totality, the movie is really funny.  If you are an avid fan of the movie industry you will especially appreciate some of the verbal barbs tossed around in this film.  However, This is the End is not for everyone.  As I mentioned, the plot is soft and the jokes are incredibly crude so if either of these elements are absolute deterrents to you enjoying a movie, you may want to rent it on DVD or take a pass altogether.  But in all honesty, they don’t really make films like this and probably won’t ever again (unless it grosses $250M).  So that plus some genuinely hilarious moments make This is the End worth a look this weekend…just not before you check out Man of Steel (review coming on Friday).

Standout Performance:  Danny McBride.  He proves once again that he is incredibly underrated.

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Review: Spring Breakers

Sometimes something is so bad that it’s actually starts to seem good; or so outrageous that it actually makes sense.  And for about two seconds in the middle of Spring Breakers, I started to wonder if this was one of those instances.  But then James Franco went on a ten minute monologue about guns and Calvin Klein Escape and I was reassured that this was nothing more than cinematic refuse.  In fact, this film is so bad that there is no lens I can think of, through which this movie can be rationalized as anything more than terrible.  Sure, there are the apologists and contrarians who will look at the bright colors and the gratuitous sexual innuendo and convince themselves that this is art nouveau on crack, but then those are probably the same people who think dog poo smeared across a blank canvas is artistically meaningful.

The plot of the movie follows four incredibly misguided youths (Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine) as they go to extreme measures to participate in the annual rite of spring break in Florida.  When a local drug dealing wanna-be-rapper (James Franco) bails them out of jail, they embark on a low-rent-low-level crime spree that puts them on a collision course with a local heavy. 

The problem then with the synopsis in the preceding paragraph is that it gives the impression that this movie has an actual plot when it is in fact a muddled mess of graphic sexual exploitation and every ignorant stereotype that you can come up with.  That is not the fatal flaw of this movie, as many a movie have been built on rocky foundations but still managed to entertain.  No, the problem here is that it looks and feels as though director Harmony Korine simply has no idea how to direct, cut, and score a feature film.  So then it should come as no surprise that this is his first time in the big chair. 

Rather than a movie, this set of scenes plays like the fetish fantasy of a seventeen years old boy who takes too many drugs and plays too many video games.  The visuals are a cheap rip off of Miami Vice with neon and pastels and the dialogue is so amateurish that the crowd spent half the film laughing through scenes that are unintentionally funny.  The edits are incoherent and sloppy, and the musical score completely bungled. 

As for the cast, James Franco follows up his subpar effort in Oz with a performance that is even worse.  I give him credit for taking a risk and going for it, but this character Alien is an unbelievable caricature of ten outdated stereotypes.  The stench of his performance may be as much a product of Korine’s writing as it is his performance, but there are just too many cringe inducing scenes to give Franco a pass.  As for the cast of former tween stars headlining this movie, Selena Gomez gets the nod for worst in show.  I’m not going to mince words here.  She simply cannot act.  Regardless of film or role, she simply does not have enough talent to convince anyone of anything.  My guess here is that her biggest claim to fame going forward will be as Bieber’s on-again-off-again girlfriend until his five minutes of fame mercifully come to an end.

Then there is the trio of Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine.  The three of them essentially delivered the same performance.  When they weren’t naked and participating in some kind of erotica, they were desperately overacting to convince viewers they were street ready and hardcore.  Was it embarrassing?  Yes.  Were they worse than Franco or Gomez?  No.  So in this context, that has to be viewed as a win.  As for the rest of the cast, there were a bunch of exaggerated stereotypes walking around with guns, bongs, and bibles but none of them bring anything to the table and thus are not worthy of a mention.

In my experience I have come to find that voices that are the most loud and obnoxious tend to have the least meaningful thoughts to express and that’s what this movie is.  It’s loud, bombastic, and over-the-top but it doesn’t have anything important to convey and doesn’t really have a compelling story to tell.  This movie is nothing more than a director (and I use that word loosely) indulging his own personal fantasies onscreen and does not need to be seen let alone paid for.  Watch pretty much anything else (yes, even Project X) and you will find yourself far more entertained.

Standout Performance: Anyone who passed on this movie.

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Review: Oz the Great and Powerful

Raise your hand if you’re fan of Sam Raimi, he of The Evil Dead, The Quick and the Dead, and Spider-Man fame.  I too once was a fan of his work especially after Spider-Man 2 – a movie, which at the time I considered to be the pinnacle of superhero films.  Then the colossal disaster that is Spider-Man 3 happened; a movie loaded with scenes that made me cringe as if an army of fingernails were raking across a giant chalkboard.  When he followed that up with a pedestrian effort in Drag Me to Hell, I completely lost interest in his work.  But really, the damage had been done as the stink of that one huge debacle had completely soured me on the director’s work.  So when I first heard about Oz the Great and Powerful, I had very little interest in seeing it.

So does Raimi acquit himself with this movie based on Frank Baum’s novels?  Not quite, but he doesn’t exactly embarrass himself either.  The plot of the movie is set some twenty years before The Wizard of Oz and details Oscar Diggs’ journey from Kansas to Oz.  When he arrives in the mythical land he finds that a wicked with is tormenting the land that the natives believe him to be the wizard who will free them from their plight. 

Despite the fact that there are a number of things that could not appear in the film (footage from the The Wizard of Oz, the ruby red slippers, certain design specs of the yellow brick road), because of WB’s ownership rights, the latest Disney cash cow ($84M opening weekend) plays very much like an homage to its predecessor with a number of winks and nods.  I have to wonder though if Raimi makes the same mistake that Bryan Singer made with Superman Returns.  While I understand the desire to create this palpable connective tissue between the two films, this almost dogmatic approach to evoking images from the past makes things feel familiar but dated.  More importantly, I think it represents a missed opportunity to build out a fresh new approach to some very familiar source material.

Obviously, I am not exactly in the target demographic here as this film is clearly family fair.  But I do think that the movie slow plays a bit too long for any demographic and as a result, the first two acts feel like one big set up – albeit one unfolding at a snail’s pace.  Normally, this would not completely spell doom for a film, unless said movie features James Franco in the lead.  Once upon a time, Franco was an up-and-comer lauded for wanting to improve his craft.  Then Spider-Man 3 happened (and subsequently Pineapple Express, hosting the Oscars, Your Highness).  Coincidence?  I think not.  In this film, Franco hams it up as the con man Oscar Diggs but unfortunately he is not fooling anyone.  Of the cast, his overacting is the worst performance by a mile.

The damage of Franco’s ineptitude could have been mitigated had the three witches dazzled onscreen.  Unfortunately, those three performances were very much a mixed bag.  At times, Michelle Williams (Glinda) is electrifying onscreen.  Then there are those moments where she is muted and disconnected.  Rachel Weisz (Evanora) seems to be channeling a bit of Charlize Theron from Snow White in the Huntsman, but fails to tap into that unbridled rage, which made that performance work.  And Mila Kunis (Theodora) seems sorely out of place in this film.  Everything about the way she speaks and moves is so contemporary that through the proceedings, you are constantly aware that you are watching someone play a character from the fantastical past.  And that is not a good thing for a movie that demands the suspension of disbelief.

Rounding out the rest of the cast is Zach Braff (where have you been?), Joey King, Bill Cobbs, and Tony Cox.  Each is competent in limited roles, but it is of no consequence as the stink of James Franco permeates this entire film.  I will say that the narrative does pick up in the third act as all the moving pieces come to a head.  It was at this time that I finally became engaged by the plot.  Unfortunately, it is a bit too little and way too late, because when you know where a film is going to end up (based upon the beginning of The Wizard of Oz), the journey has to be as good as the payoff.

So in considering all this I would give this movie an extremely mild recommendation as a Netflix rental only.  There are some strong visuals and a few fun moments (especially if you have children), but not enough to warrant paying cinema prices or going out of your way to view it.  Anything more than that and you will come away from the movie disappointed.  Talk has begun in regards to a sequel (perhaps sans Raimi) so here’s hoping James Franco suddenly remembers how to act in the interim or that they pull the ole switcheroo.

Standout Performance: Michelle Williams.  She is not always great, but she is my favorite in this movie though this may be a function of her character more than anything else.

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Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The first time I saw the trailer for “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” the crowd at the L.A. Live AMC cinema erupted into laughter. I have to admit, that amidst the mass chortling, I myself let out a semi-audible groan. I could not fathom why 20^th Century Fox would want to revisit the franchise when this latest entry into the series would star James Franco – who is plenty competent as an actor, but incredibly difficult to take seriously after some of his well-publicized shenanigans; and because the film would inevitably evoke memories of the disaster that was Tim Burton’s foray starring Mark Wahlberg back when people were still (for good reason) referring to him as Marky Mark.

My expectations for the film were low and perhaps this was a mitigating factor in my reaction to the movie, but I found it entertaining. The first plaudit I have to lay upon the film is that the digital effects are seamless. We know that great CG can make a movie (Avatar) and bad CG can cripple one (Green Lantern), but I think CG is most effective when you are not even aware that you are watching it. And such is the case here and what makes this fete even more impressive is that the protagonist is all-digital. And this leads into my second accolade for the movie.

The next best thing I can say about the film is that James Franco is not the star. Instead he plays a supporting character, albeit an important one because the star of the film – Caesar – is a silent one. To me, this is the kind of role where Franco excels – as key figure to plot advancement without the weight of the entire film on his shoulders. As for the rest of the cast, Lithgow and Cox are solid in limited role; Tom Felton plays a cheap man’s Malfoy without the accent; and Freida Pinto serves as little more than a pretty face.

I would recommend seeing this movie at the cinema, because there are some magnificently framed shots that deserve a proper viewing and as I mentioned before, the digital effects are great. Director Rupert Wyatt does a nice job of inserting a few cookies in the prequel to place it within the “Planet of the Apes” timeline, but I suspect that it was done so with a trilogy in mind – especially so since the film has spent its first two weeks in release atop the box office.

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