Eye on Film

Just when you thought it was safe to venture back into your local multiplex, along comes another mindless, raunchy teen sex/pot comedy. Wait, no, that’s not right, not exactly, anyway. What we’re talking about is no ordinary sex or pot flick, but the much anticipated sequel to Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. Four years in the making, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is every bit as raunchy, vulgar, crude, viciously parodying racial stereotypes, left, right, and center and then some. It’s that “then some” that ultimately undermines Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay: the jokes are too crass and the political humor too obvious, and thus, sadly, it’s no match for its predecessor. Well, with the exception of Neil Patrick Harris’ return as “Neil Patrick Harris,” a libido-driven, drug-addicted caricature of his public persona.

The sequel picks up minutes after the end of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. After a long, very long night of getting high, running into all sorts of mischief, finding and devouring White Castle hamburgers, Harold Lee (John Cho), one-half of Harold and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn), finally got the nerve to talk to the woman of his dreams, Maria (Paula Garcés). Unfortunately, she was headed to Amsterdam for work, postponing the consummation of their relationship (if that’s what you want to call a few smoldering lips, a conversation on an elevator, and making out). The impulsive Kumar convinces Harold to ditch work and follow Maria to Amsterdam.

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Released last summer in the UK and Europe, but only now seeing a stateside release, The Descent is an action/horror hybrid written and directed by Neil Marshall. If Marshall’s name doesn’t sound familiar, it will if you’ve managed to come across and rent a low-budget, little-seen, under-distributed action/horror film from 2002, Dog Soldiers. Dog Soldiers pitted an under-trained squad of weekend soldiers against marauding werewolves in a setting borrowed from George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and James Cameron’s Aliens (you can throw in John Carpenter’s The Thing as a possible influence on Dog Soldiers as well, both in the depiction of violence and the Hawksian approach to intra-group dynamics).

Although Dog Soldiers didn’t make it into movie theaters stateside, genre fans appreciated Marshall’s efforts (it’s one of this critics favorite horror films made and released in the last five years). Dog Soldiers quickly obtained a cult following among horror fans for its mix of action, humor, and over-the-top gore (e.g., sucking stomach wounds temporarily fixed by the judicious use of Super Glue). For his follow-up, The Descent, Marshall switched the genders of his characters from male to female. Marshall still focuses on the fissures that threaten to break down groups under external and internal pressure, but this time excises the irreverent, ironic humor that made Dog Soldiers so much fun to watch. For The Descent, Marshall wanted to create an immersive, irony-proof experience and he succeeded far beyond what jaded genre fans have come to expect.

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Written by Michael Arndt and helmed by first-time feature directors (and husband-and-wife team) Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ Little Miss Sunshine turned out to be the exception to a lackluster 2006 Sundance Film Festival, with Fox Searchlight winning distribution rights. An indie-produced family comedy/drama centered on a road trip to a beauty pageant, Little Miss Sunshine mostly lives up to the hype, thanks to a stellar cast, including Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, and Alan Arkin, plus relative newcomers, Abigail Breslin and Paul Dano. While the premise suggests easy, even cheap, sentimentality, Little Miss Sunshine takes the less-traveled, more scenic, road to get to its final images of reconciliation, all of them earned.

Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear), a struggling motivational speaker/author hoping to break into paying gigs, speaking tours, etc., has mortgaged the family’s finances in exchange for his dream. Sheryl (Toni Collette), Richard’s wife, worries about the rapidly dwindling nest egg, but more importantly, keeping her dysfunctional family together. Dwayne (Paul Dano), Richard and Sheryl’s surly, Nietzsche-loving teenage son, has taken a vow of silence until he gains admission into the Air Force (Dwayne dreams of becoming a pilot). Olive (Abigail Breslin), Richard and Sheryl’s pre-teen daughter, has a dream of her own, to win a beauty pageant. Olive has entered and won second-place in a local contest. Richard’s father (Alan Arkin) has moved in with his son’s family after being thrown out of his nursing home. Sheryl’s brother, Frank (Steve Carell), a Proust scholar whose life has taken a turn for the work, also moves in.

As Richard awaits news of a book contract from his agent, Olive gets a call informing her that she’s been chosen to participate in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty contest in Redondo Beach, California. With finances tight, Frank suicidal, Grandpa ornery and unreliable (and both needing constant supervision), Richard and Sheryl decide to take the entire family on a two-plus day road trip in their beat-up, rundown VW bus. An event-laden road trip follows, with the Hoovers forced to face intra-family and personal issues, car trouble, and several life-changing events. With a deadline for registration fast approaching, the Hoovers have to find a way to overcome their difficulties and make it to Redondo Beach on time.

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Teen pregnancy, homosexuality, class, racism, gentrification, assimilation, acculturation, tradition, religion, and tolerance: alone, they seem like subjects ready-made for an ABC Network “After School Special.” While that’s partially true, it doesn’t come close to describing Richard Glatzer (The Fluffer) and Wash Westmoreland’s (Gay Republicans, The Fluffer) Quinceañera, an indie film that won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Despite rough edges due to an inexperienced cast, indie production values, and the occasionally mishandled scene, the audiences and jury at the Sundance Film Festival were right to give Quinceañera dual awards. Yes, it’s that good. Yes, it’s that thought-provoking, even challenging, but it’s also not didactic or preachy (thankfully).

Magdalena (Emily Rios), a bright Mexican-American girl living in Echo Park, Los Angeles, is looking forward to the traditional rite of passage for Latin American girls turning fifteen, Quinceañera. Her cousin, Eileen (Alicia Sixtos), has just had her Quinceañera, a semi-lavish bash complete with a stretch hummer and a live band. Magdalena’s family isn’t quite as well off. Her father, Ernesto (Jesus Castanos), works a job as a security guard to make ends meet, but his passion lies in his small church where he’s the pastor. Not surprisingly, he’s strict, jealously guarding his daughter’s honor (and her virginity). As a typical teenager, Magdalena has already developed an interest in boys, specifically Herman (Ramiro Iniguez), a high schooler dreamer who hopes to travel the world (and become a doctor to live up to his family’s expectations).

At Eileen’s Quinceañera, Carlos (Jesse Garcia), Eileen’s estranged brother shows up. One rough confrontation later with his angry father, Walter (Johnny Chavez), and Carlos is kicked to the curb, shirt covered in blood. Luckily, Carlos has a place to sleep, with his great-uncle, Tomas (Chalo González). Tomas may be in his early 80s, but he’s still spry enough to walk the neighborhood with his makeshift shopping carts selling drinks. Carlos lives with Tomas for a reason: his traditional family not surprisingly refuses to accept Carlos’ homosexuality.

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Will Farrell (Kicking and Screaming), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Elf, Old School) is back. Did you miss? Be honest, you probably didn’t know he’d been off screen for the better part of a year. Doesn’t seem that long ago that Farrell was starting to match fellow comedian Ben Stiller with multiple appearances a year. Luckily, Farrell seems to have slowed down somewhat, but we’ll see Farrell in two films in almost as many months, first Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and later this year, Stranger Than Fiction, a promising meta-fictional comedy co-starring Emma Thompson and directed by Marc Foster (Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball). Sound familiar? It should, as it sounds remarkably like what Jim Carrey attempted to do with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind two years ago.

But hey, this is a review of Farrell’s latest team-up with his Anchorman co-writer Adam McKay, not an examination of whether Farrell has overexposed himself to Stiller-like proportions (he hasn’t, at least not yet). Building on his hyperactive, semi-clueless, oversized man-child persona that he first played on Saturday Night Live, Farrell has transitioned smoothly to A-list comedian/actor. The quality of his work as writer or actor matters less, significantly less, than whether his films “sell” or not. Chances are, Talladega Nights will help solidify Farrell’s positioning in Hollywood with respectable box-office numbers, but that’s not saying much or at least not answering the question readers want answered: Is Farrell’s latest consistently funny or did we see all the best jokes already in the trailer or on television commercials. Short answer: no and yes.

First, though, you probably want a breakdown of the storyline, right? Here goes. Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell), an inveterate dreamer from a broken home working in a NASCAR it crew, finally gets the chance he’s been waiting for, the opportunity to drive a stock car in a NASCAR race after the driver walks off in disgust. Bobby miraculously comes in third, but he has bigger ambitions in mind. At a career day years earlier, an impressionable Bobby listened as his drunken father, Reese (Gary Cole), a semi-pro racer and sometime pot dealer, regaled his classmates with his simple, if compelling, philosophy, “If you’re not first, you’re last.” In quick succession, Bobby goes from pit crewmember to frequent winner and top earner for the Dennit family, Larry (Pat Hingle) and his son, Larry Jr. (Greg Germann). Bobby also gets married to an opportunistic bottle blonde, Lucy (Jane Lynch), while his best friend and fellow stock car driver, Cal Naughton, Jr. (John C. Reilly), looks on.

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Scoop, Woody Allen’s (Bullets Over Broadway, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Annie Hall) latest film, continues his twin love affairs with a picture-postcard perfect London (his second film made there, after last year’s Match Point) and latest muse, Scarlett Johansson (who also appeared in Match Point). Some critics saw Allen’s first foray away from his beloved Manhattan as reboot to a flagging career. Match Point was basically Allen playing to his commercial instincts mixing telegenic stars and slick visuals with a streamlined, simplified version of Allen’s existential morality play, Crimes and Misdemeanors. It worked, garnering Allen newfound praise from critics (this one excepted) and moviegoers. But can Allen obtain the same kind of success with the London as a backdrop and Scarlett Johansson in the lead role in less than a year? Short answer: close, but not quite.

Joe Strombel (Ian McShane), a well-respected journalist, is dead, but his spirit lives on. Crossing the Great Beyond aboard a barge transporting the recently deceased to the afterlife. Strombel strikes up a conversation with another passenger, who claims she died under mysterious, possibly murderous, circumstances. Temporarily escaping Death, Strombel makes his way back to earth and the first reporter he can meet. Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson), an American journalism student spending the summer in London, is in mid-dematerialization (she’s the handpicked audience participant in a magic act involving a magic act), when Strombel visits her. Strombel shares his suspicions about the secretary’s untimely demise. Strombel offers Sondra the opportunity at the “scoop” of the title.

At a loss, Sondra returns the next day to the magic show. Her attempts to convince the magician, Sid “Splendini” Waterman (Woody Allen), don’t work until she recreates the magic act and Strombel reappears. Now both Sondra and Sid are privy to Strombel’s suspicions. Strombel’s suspicions on a wealthy, English aristocrat, Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman) and a recent spate of Jack the Ripper-like serial killer the tabloids have dubbed the “Tarot Card Killer.” Sondra uses her connections to get her close Peter. Sid masquerades as Sondra’s eccentric, card trick-obsessed father. Sondra and Peter naturally hit it off, but the clues begin to point to Peter’s involvement in the murders. Sondra hopes for the best. Sid believes the worst. One of them, of course, is right.

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Written and directed by Michael Mann (Manhunter, Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Collateral), Miami Vice is loosely based on the 1980s television series that made ultra-slick production values and pastel-oriented costuming all the rage. Although Michael Mann didn’t create the television series (Anthony Yerkovich did), Mann was instrumental in controlling the look and feel of the series, including a top-40-heavy soundtrack that, for its time, had a lasting effect on television production (and cross-media marketing). But update a television series that captured and (arguably) shaped the 80s “me-first” zeitgeist?

Hard to say, but Mann had little interest in paying homage to the series, instead taking the characters and premise and updating them for contemporary audiences. What does that mean? It means full-on, realistic violence, plus two sex scenes (tastefully directed, but a rarity in today’s Hollywood). If Mann wanted to craft a meditation on the moral and ethical complexities of working undercover (mixed in with gunplay, firefights, and sex), he almost, just almost succeeds. Unfortunately, a self-indulgent tangent into an underwritten, unconvincing romance, one too many genre cliches, a convoluted storyline, and the nearly impenetrable argot used by undercover agents and drug dealers eventually undercut Miami Vice’s entertainment value.

Longtime partners James “˜Sonny’ Crockett (Colin Farrell, sporting a blond-streaked mullet and a Tex-Mex mustache) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) get pulled into an undercover operation when a sting involving a joint federal-state task force goes awry, leaving three undercover agents dead. The trail leads back to a sophisticated, Latin American drug and arms trafficking organization. Crockett, Tubbs, and their support team, take the assignment. Crockett and Tubbs set up a meet-and-greet with Jose Yero (John Ortiz), a middleman in the cartel. Yero immediately distrusts Crockett, but Isabella (Gong Li), a Spanish-speaking Chinese woman who works for a cartel, pushes a deal through. Crockett and Tubbs agree to transport merchandise for the cartel in exchange for a hefty fee.

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What if your neurotic girlfriend turned out to be a superhero? Worse, what if your neurotic, superheroic ex-girlfriend decided she didn’t want to break up and instead wants to cause you physical and emotional pain? Ivan Reitman’s (Ghostbusters I and II, Legal Eagles, Twins, Dave, Evolution) latest film, My Super Ex-Girlfriend takes that high-concept premise and turns it into a mostly entertaining twist on the superhero/romantic comedy genres. It doesn’t hurt that My Super Ex-Girlfriend has Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson’s (Owen’s younger, taller brother) in the lead roles plus an above-average supporting cast in Anna Faris and Rainn Wilson (The Office).

Recovering from a recent breakup, Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson), a project manager at an architectural firm, gets up the nerve to talk up a mousy, shy-looking woman on the subway, Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman). She rejects Matt’s initial advances until a thief tries to run off with her handbag. Playing the hero, Matt runs down the thief and returns the handbag. Suitably impressed, Jenny agrees to a date with Matt. Matt’s best friend, Vaughn (Rainn Wilson), the office horndog, suggests Jenny’s exactly what Matt needs at the moment. Matt, though, has eyes for his co-worker, Hannah Lewis (Anna Faris), but Hannah’s romantically attached to a shallow underwear model, Steve (Mark Consuelos).

Matt’s initial date with the slightly off-center Jenny leads to a shaky romantic relationship, but Matt soon discovers Jenny’s secret identity: she’s G-Girl, a Superman-like (or is Supergirl-like?) superhero. Jenny can fly, has super strength, is practically invulnerable, and has heat vision and super hearing. Every superhero has to have an arch-nemesis dedicated to bringing her down. Jenny’s Lex Luthor-like supervillain, Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard), doesn’t have superpowers, just a supergenius intellect and billions of dollars at his disposal.

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In a summer already glutted with family-oriented, computer animated films (Ice Age: The Meltdown, The Wild, Over the Hedge, Cars, Monster House), the latest entry, The Ant Bully, written and directed by John A. Davis (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius) from a book by John Nickle, may turn out to be the second or third most memorable (after Ice Age: The Meltdown and Cars). Combining quality animation (a practical given at this point), plus a well-paced, heartfelt, only occasionally didactic storyline about friendship, compassion, and community, The Ant Bully will keep kids entertained from the first frame to the last, while parents will find plenty to keep them visually engaged during The Ant Bully’s 80-minute running time.

Lucas Nickle (voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen), a friendless, harried 10-year old, finds little understanding from his immediate family. His parents (Larry Miller, Cheri Oteri) take off for a long-planned vacation, leaving Lucas in the care of his self-absorbed sister, Tiffany (Allison Mack), and his eccentric grandmother, Mommo (Lily Tomlin). Beat up, once again, by the neighborhood bully, Lucas takes out his frustrations on a nearby anthill. Lucas stomps around and on the anthill, sending the ants scurrying for cover. Changing tack, Lucas uses a water pistol to flood the anthill. Lucas barely gives the anthill a second thought before retreating to his house to play video games while avoiding his grandmother’s speech about aliens and alien invasion.

The ants in the anthill have a nickname for Lucas, the Destroyer (it’s actually “Peanut the Destroyer” after a term of endearment Lucas’ mother calls him). One wizard ant, Zoc (Nicolas Cage) decides to do something about Lucas. Thanks to a magic potion Zoc slips into Lucas’ ear while he’s asleep, Lucas shrinks down to the size of an ant. Newly awake, Lucas barely has a moment to gain his bearing before Zoc and an ant squad kidnaps Lucas and takes him back to the anthill.

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Any time a filmmaker revisits the stories and characters that first made him famous, there’s a good chance said filmmaker is in the middle of a career slump, desperately or semi-desperately trying to dig his way out and reclaim his status as a filmmaker with something, anything to say, and more importantly, regain the confidence of money-holding studio executives and finance his next project, whatever that might be. Yes, we’re discussing none other than fanboy-turned-indie writer/director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), eager to recover from Jersey Girl, a box-office and critical disappointment that proved one dud too many for fading actor/star Ben Affleck.

Whatever his reasons, Smith decided to bring Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) and Randall Graves (Jeff Anderson), the squabbling best friends/menial workers at the center of Clerks, back for the sequel. In Clerks II (aka The Passion of the Clerks), Dante and Randall are still clerks, but the Qwik-E-Mart that Dante managed has burned down in a fire. With non-existent job skills, Dante and Randal end up working at the local Mooby’s, a McDonald’s-like fast food restaurant short on edible food and long on semi-seedy squalor. And let’s not forget Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith), slackers with nothing else to do with their time than hanging out in front of Mooby’s.

Randall spends most of his free time verbally sparring with customers or verbally abusing Elias (Trevor Fehrman), a slower-than-slow, fundamentalist Christian teenager with an obsession with all things Transformers and Lord of the Rings. Dante has other plans. He’s engaged to the ultra-thin, wealthy, controlling Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach). Dante and Emma are scheduled to move to Florida in 24-hours. Next stop for Dante: wedded bliss, a “free” house, thanks to Emma’s generous parents and a car wash for Dante to manage.

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