Review: R.I.P.D.

I try to avoid Ryan Reynolds' movies.  I have seen him bomb in too many to have any faith in his ability to act.  Once upon a time, he was funny and entertaining, but it seems that as his career has progressed he has regressed.  Green Lantern and The Change-Up are two examples of his cinematic demise that immediately come to mind.  So why then, did I give R.I.PD. a shot given that nothing from the marketing, tracking, and word of mouth suggested that it was worth the one hundred and ten minutes of running time?  Boredom.  And truth be told, the movie did little to cure that ailment. 

At the film’s outset, it did not look like a complete miss.  The narrative starts out well enough painting a picture of the life of Boston Police detective Nick (Ryan Reynolds), a loving husband to his wife Julia –played by the fantastic Stephanie Szostak.  Partnered with fellow detective Hayes (played Mr. Six-Degrees himself, Kevin Bacon), Nick is struggling with the temptation to be a dirt cop, when without warning, he is killed in the line of duty.  Newly deceased, Nick get’s enlisted into the R.I.P.D. – a force of former law enforcement officials charged with sending the undead to judgment.

The most frustrating aspect of this movie is that for those first fifteen minutes, it feels like there is a real story here to tell.  Sure, Reynolds' turns in his usual mediocre performance, but with Bacon in the mix as his partner and Szostak bringing emotional value to the plot, I was interested in seeing how things would play out.  But then the film veered off into the world of the undead and tossed credibility out the window.   Sure, it may be difficult to fully blame director Robert Schwentke and writer Phil Hay as they were working off of the comic made famous by Peter Lenkov but the finished product ultimately proves that the duo were not equipped to pull this off.

Putting the source material aside, Hay’s adaptation is sloppy and his plot develops some gaping holes and Schwentke’s tone and pacing are wildly inconsistent.  Worse still are the special effects, which look like they came straight out of the early 2000’s, thus shattering what shred of credibility the movie manages to maintain.  So to say that this production is more or less a disaster from start to finish would be a very fair assessment. 

Still, no one individual does more damage to the film than Jeff Bridges.  As an actor, Bridges is an interesting case study in that even when he is a bit off with his effort and performance, he remains a threat to steal every scene.  Yet despite this talent and his very impressive resume, Bridges puts to film a performance that is so hammed up and misguided that the sound of his voice becomes grating to the senses.  It’s as if his sole purpose in this film was to be so bad that Ryan Reynolds would come off as the second coming of Dustin Hoffman.  And he almost pulls it off, because Bridges – his look, his accent, his delivery, is just that bad.

As for his partner in crime (or in this case, justice), the aforementioned Reynolds is a carbon copy of every performance he has given over the past five years.  As an actor, he has three facial expressions to convey emotion – one smirk, one glare, and one look of heart ache, and is content to cycle through the three to address whatever the script calls for.  As the deceased detective, he is affable enough and emotive enough to make sure you’re not completely apathetic to his plight, but he’s also not interesting enough to carry this film.  While I am not sure that any other actor could have replaced Reynolds and made this film more palatable, his performances reinforces my belief that the actor is best suited to play supporting roles and nothing more.

As for the supporting cast, I really enjoyed most of their work.  Mary-Louise Parker as Proctor has the repressed authority figure vibe down pat.  She is dry but fun and manages to share a bit of chemistry with Bridges despite his horrendous turn.  That alone deserves a measure of recognition.  And if there is anyone who can be dubbed the heart of this film, it would have to be Stephanie Szostak.  I am a huge fan of her work and found myself impressed with how she is able to play the sympathy card in a production that borders on the ridiculous.  Her presence makes it feel like something real is at stake amidst the cartoonish action.  And as for Kevin Bacon, he starts off well enough – straddling the line that is moral ambiguity, but to say that his performance unravels in the third act is a gross understatement. 

In discussing the cast, I would be remised if I did not mention Marisa Miller and James Hong.  Every minute they were onscreen proved to be my favorite parts of the movie.  The easy assumption would be that it’s because Miller is so incredibly easy on the eyes.   And while that might be part of the equation, the other half of that formula is the incredible sight gag that the two represent.  Much credit has to go to veteran actor James Hong, who shows his experience by flexing his comedic tics at just the right moments. 

There really is nothing more to say about R.I.P.D. other than that it’s just not good.  Bad writing and directing, poor special effects, and pockets of bad acting really sums it up.  Is there anyone type of movie fan out there in the world that I could confidently say would like this film?  No.  Are there any circumstances in which this film could be viewed as a good value play?  Probably not.  This one feels like it’s proper place in the world is at the bottom of the Wal-Mart $3.99 DVD bin and nothing more.  Stay away from it and hope that no one you care about ever makes the same mistake I made.

Standout Performance:  Marisa Miller and James Hong. 

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Review: X-Men: First Class

I was a fan of comics as a kid – definitely DC over Marvel.  I would save all the coins I could find until I reached seventy-five cents and then I would harass my mom into stopping at the local comic book shop on the way back from the supermarket.  Some forty-five minutes later, I would have whichever issue of Superman featured the slickest artwork that month.  So whenever a film comes out based on a hero straight out of the funny pages, I am always excited to see these visuals on screen that during my youth could only be realized through the imagination.

X-Men: First Class is a good movie.  It will not crack my Top 5 Superhero Movies list (Thor, The Dark Knight, Spiderman 2, Iron Man, and of course Superman the Movie) but it is a very strong entrant in the genre.  That it did only $146M domestic and $206M foreign speaks more to a bit of franchise fatigue and the stink of Brett Ratner emanating from the debacle that was X-Men: The Last Stand.  It also had to overcome the stigma of prequels that historically do not do justice to the original (i.e. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd).   What makes this film better than its peers is that it features a storyline reasonably grounded in reality executed by a solid cast.

One does not necessarily think of a superhero narrative as a period piece, but the film is firmly grounded by the fact that it is loosely set against the backdrop of significant historical events of the 1960’s.  James McAvoy and his “John Lennon sideburns” do an admirable job of playing an unfamiliar version of Charles Xaviero – a fully ambulatory non-follicularly challenged one, while Michael Fassbender brings a sense of brooding to the proceedings minus the camp that plagued Ian McKellen’s Magneto.  Director Matthew Vaughn has the two friends/foes leading a group of young mutants mostly unfamiliar to the general public, and he strategically breaks from the canon of X-Men mythos for the sake of good story telling.  

As for the rest of the cast, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult stand out amongst the young X-Men; Kevin Bacon is thoroughly unlikable as the chief villain amongst villains; and Rose Byrne and Oliver Platt do a fine job of playing G-Men working furiously to prevent the Cuban Missile Crisis.  My one complaint about the cast is about January Jones who fails to deliver a single line with any kind of conviction.  I have not seen this kind of apathy in an actor since Natalie Portman played Padme in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.

I would absolutely recommend this film.  You don’t have to be a fan of the genre or familiar with the history of the X-Men to enjoy it.  The film has good pacing and a bit of humor to accompany the action that drives the film, thus avoiding the overwrought sense of gloom that at times overrides Nolan’s Batman films.  Watch it as a stand-alone though because while it was a very good film, it may not have performed well enough at the box office for 20^th Century Fox to greenlight another installment.

Standout Performance: Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence stand out amongst the accomplished cast.  Look for them in the upcoming “Prometheus” and “The Hunger Games” respectively.

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Review: Crazy Stupid Love

I had it in my mind when I woke up Saturday morning that I was going to see “Crazy Stupid Love” in the evening. On tap before that was a trek off the island to Brooklyn into hipster central for a food flea market that is aptly and oh-so-cleverly dubbed “Smorgasburg.” If you’re having trouble wrapping your head around this, think a gated dirt lot, a cluster of booths peddling culinary delights, and a parade of V-necks. This waistline-challenging excursion proved to be quite the foreshadowing moment as my entertainment for the evening proved to be a smorgasbord of a movie.

“Crazy Stupid Love” has something for everyone and - like most of its predecessors that aspire to feed the masses, it struggles with pacing. I have to admit that I have a bias against films that have a slew of intertwining plot lines like “Crash,” Valentine’s Day,” and the soon-to-be-released “New Year’s Eve.” I would rather see one or two good storylines woven into a film and fully fleshed out rather than one good plotline orbited by four mediocre ones. CSL isn’t necessarily one of the aforementioned films with an ensemble cast that seems to feature 40 people, but at times it has that quality of being three different movies rolled into one.

With that being said, it is a very entertaining film and it is at its riveting best when Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling share the screen. The dynamic of their interactions is reminiscent of “Hitch” (Smith and James) and if you look closely you might see a little Vaughn and Favreau from “Swingers.” The respective performances of those two actors made the film worth the price of admission. As for the rest of the cast, kudos to Jonah Bobo for being the heart of the film, while Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon deliver pedestrian performances and Emma Stone spends far too much time off screen.

The bottom line is that you’re getting three films in one. When the movie operates as a buddy flick, it is at its best; when it reverts to its rom-com roots, it is very paint-by-numbers; and when it panders to its ABC Family–watching contingency, warm and fuzzies ensue. I would definitely recommend this movie for date night, but one would probably draw best value viewing it on Netflix, On Demand, Vudu, et al. It does not have the visual effects or the grand sweeping epic feel of a Thor, Captain America, or Harry Potter that demand a cinematic viewing.

Standout Performances: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling

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