Sony Film is attempting to establish a beach head in the computer animation space to complete against Pixar/Disney and Fox but hasn’t made a great deal of progress yet. Surf’s Up is their third major release, better than either Open Season and Monster House but still not as good as Pixar’s least effort (say A Bug’s Life).

Which is not to say Surf’s Up is a bad movie; it’s just not a terrific one. Yet another penguin story, we get a mockumentary-style look at Cody Maverick (Shia Labeouf), the next great surfing champion. Cody is toiling away unappreciated in Antarctica when a promoter’s lackey comes searching for new faces his boss (James Woods) can promote at the big tournament in Hawaii.

The promoter’s problem is that no one can dethrone Tank (Diedrich Bader, doing his best to imitate Patrick Warburton’s mean voice) who, unfortunately, is your stereotypical spoiled sports star. The third main competitor is stoner Chicken Joe (Jon Heder). Tank became champ by beating the original surf king, Big Z (Jeff Bridges)–Z died in that contest.

Or did he? When Cody gets to Hawaii he meets reporter Lani (Zooey Deschanel), Z’s niece. Cody’s board is broken in an early test against Tank so Lani takes him to Geek for a new one. Hmm. Lani and Cody of course fall in love immediately and meanwhile Geek tries to teach our boy how to grow into a good man.

Surf’s Up was directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck, who previously worked at Disney and Pixar, and they deliver good visual elements but the script, by Brannon, Buck, Chris Jenkins (no previous writing credits) and Don Rhymer (no animated films but credits include classics like Big Momma’s House 1 and 2, Santa Clause 2, Agent Cody Banks 2 and Deck the Halls), never rises above expectations nor does the voice work. There are some nice gags and jokes but not much originality and few places where anyone takes a risk.

recommended

After a career mostly spent writing children’s animated dinosaur movies and writing and directing fluffy romantic pics, Michael Davis steps up and, in my book, scores a near bullseye with a misunderstood satire of the recent Jason Stathem/Vin Diesel ultra-violent anti-hero thrillers.

Clive Owen is Smith, the anti-hero at the core of Shoot ‘Em Up, and, as he did in Children of Men, shows why he was most everyone’s first choice to be the current Bond (even though Daniel Craig was fine too). He faces off against henpecked hitman Hertz (Paul Giamatti, taking his cues off Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Mission: Impossible III global bad guy) attempting to protect a beautiful whore (the beyond gorgeous Monica Belluci) and an infant whose mother died in Smith’s arms.

How does Davis turn the cartoon-level violence on its head? For starters, Smith’s signature killing move is driving a carrot through an opponent’s eye–and having Smith, a real invisible man further off the radar than Gene Hackman’s character in Enemy of the State, actually grow his own carrots in the vacant building in which he squats. That’s what I call a whole ‘nother level.

In the current batch of one man going up against an army of killers movies, the protagonist somehow evades multiple fusillades of bullets but Owen and Belluci take this to ridiculous heights in Shoot ‘Em Up, with two confrontations towards the end, one in Smith’s squat and the other where Owen tracks Giamatti to his client and attacks their lair. The idea that his aim–and luck–is so much better than every single one of the baddies’, well, I just have to laugh.

Warning: Though this is decidedly a satire, and a high-grade one, I want to be clear that bullets and blood are onscreen in massive quantities.

recommended

Love, Actually is one of our (my wife and I) favorite movies, which we watch every New Year’s Eve (or Day), and Ryan Reynolds is turning out to show up pretty well most times too so when we saw a ‘new movie from the people who brought you Love, Actually’ starring the actor that Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc want to be we figured it would be to our liking. Sure enough, it was.

Definitely, Maybe is kind of a grownup fairy tale that Will Hayes (Reynolds) tells to his spunky daughter Maya (the uber-present tike Abigail Breslin) after he splits up with his wife and her mother. Once upon a time daddy was luckier than, well, most princes and got to date three gorgeous women. “What’s a threesome, daddy?” “A game adults play sometimes when they get… bored.” Whatever.” Will marries one but changes some of the facts and the names so Maya has to guess which one became her mommy.

Is she college sweetheart Elizabeth Banks, aspiring journalist Rachel Weisz or the unassuming Isla Fischer, who Will meets when he moves to New York to launch his career in politics? Any one of them would have satisfied 99.999% of (straight) men in America, I’d have to say. Each has some failing that makes Will move on. And of course at the end his precocious daughter makes sure he reconnects with the woman who is the right choice for him.

Also lending a hand are Derek Luke as Will’s best friend and consulting partner, Adam Ferrara as their mentor, Nestor Solano the politician the three support and Kevin Kline as Weisz’s Tom Wolfe-ish mentor and lover.

Despite the advertising, Love, Actually’s writer/director Richard Curtis is in no way involved here; the connection is a few of the same people produced both flicks (and probably carefully chose a title that echoes the earlier hit). No worries, Canadian-born writer/director Adam Brooks (Practical Magic, Wimbledon, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason) does fine with this American-set tale and Curtis has rarely ventured beyond the shores of the British Isles.

Brooks offers three very different, smart and warm women as Hayes’ (and our) choices, develops his characters without rushing or stomping plot development and cleverly avoids telegraphing the result so early that the climax gets spoiled. A chick flick that men can enjoy, on par with Brook’s Practical Magic rather than his Renee Zellweger sequel which, to be fair, possibly suffered from too many chefs sticking spoons in.

recommended

This is a cute little movie starring Heather Graham and Tom Cavanagh as sister and brother who are also best friends and flatmates and Bridget Moynihan as the woman who turns their lives upside down. If you wonder how come you don’t remember it from being in the cineplex last year that would be because other than a few short art house showings it was essentially straight to DVD.

Sam and Gray Baldwin are very happy with their lives; Gray Matters opens with a dinner party where a couple of the other guests who don’t know them too well mistakenly get the idea their a married couple. Having recently passed 30 they decide it’s time to get out and find loves, which starts with a trip to the singles heaven that is the local (Manhattan) dog park. They see Charlie Kelsey (Moynihan) and Gray makes an excuse to introduce herself, then point out her cute brother.

The three meet up later at a Spanish place for tapas, drinks and dancing. Both Baldwins find her extremely attractive but it’s Sam who stays up all night with her. Then  turns up home that afternoon with the news that he and Charlie are getting married in Vegas Saturday and would Sis very kindly come along as maid of honor/best man.

All good time is had by all but certain events during the Friday night bachelorette party trigger the main conflict of the movie. Back home Gray is forced to confront the truth of her desires, reconcile with Sam and Charlie, and find a new path to happiness. All of which she does, with some assistance from her officemate Carrie (Molly Shannon in one of her few mature, non-annoying roles) and new bet pal Gordy (Alan Cummins, allowed for once to be himself, or at least a heterosexual version of himself).

Written and directed by Sue Kramer (her only IMDB credit, though she bears a striking resemblance to the also-lesbian Heather Matarazzo), Gray Matters is a sweet post-modern coming of age story that is smart and believable, wastes little time on poorly though out ‘character development’ and (sadly, because Graham is hot) avoids the easy allure of cheap lesbian sex scenes.

recommended

A surprisingly positive, funny movie that’s enjoyed great critical success including Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Jason Reitman for directing, Diablo Cody for the script and Ellen Page for Best Actress. This is only Reitman’s second feature, Cody’s first and Page’s first leading role, which make all the nominations quite surprising as well.

Juno is an offbeat 16 year old high school junior living in suburban Minnesota who decides one fall day she’s ready to find out what sex is really like and so climbs atop meek boyfriend Paulie Bleeker. Two months and three home pregnancy tests later Juno cannot deny her experiment worked all too well. She tries to get an abortion but can’t go through with it.

Dad (J.K. Simmons) and stepmom Bren (Allison Janney) are unhappy at the news but supportive as soon as they hear she intends to give the baby up for adoption. Juno may be offbeat but she is smart enough for a 16 year old. Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark (Jason Bateman) are pretty good as the yuppy couple she decides should have her offspring despite some struggles of their own. Michael Cera, Bateman’s son on the late lamented series Arrested Development, puts in another good performance as Paulie and Olivia Thirlby is Leah, a goofy cheerleader who’s Juno’s best pal.

Diablo Cody is famous for working as stripper to support herself before making a living writing and she gives the characters very realistic attitudes and words. Reitman, who learned at the foot of his father, the great comic director Ivan Reitman, and Reitman pals like Bill Murray, does better here than in his previous film, Thank You For Smoking, helped by the not nearly as dark nature of Juno. He adopts a nice visual language using camera angles and more sunlight than expected for a Minnesota winter.

recommended

Pre-Friday Night Lights, pre-We Are Marshall, pre-Glory Road, Varsity Blues (1999) is nonetheless a step in their direction with its depiction of a snarky, proto-intellectual backup QB (James Van Der Beek) who dethrones a throwback, Neanderthalish career high school football coach after the starter goes down with a nasty broken leg.

In Texas, as in many parts of the American Midwest and South, high school football is just about a second religion and one which gets much more attention than their first. Players are given passes on every transgression and West Canaan even built a statue of Coach Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight) out front of the ball field. Jon Moxon (Van Der Beek), despite signing up to be the second string quarterback, mocks the adulation and yearns to escape to the Ivy League.

In this season the Coyotes are closing in on a 23rd division title in Kilmer’s 25th year in charge when Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) gets creamed after Billy Bob (Ron Lester), an effective yet massively overweight lineman, has a near heart attack as the ball’s snapped. Harbor’s done and Moxon must come on to finish the game and season. He can’t stomach the masochistic, racist Kilmer and his success gives him the leverage to ignore him. Also, there’s a hot scene where the boys spend the night before the Big Game at a strip bar where one of their younger, hotter teachers picks up some extra cash.

mildly recommended

From the very strange mind of Terry Gilliam (Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and all those whack Monty Python animations back in the day) comes this darkly humorous examination of a man (Bruce Willis) who can’t decide if he’s insane or has been sent back in time to help humanity recover from a devastating virus unleashed by terrorist group that killed 97% of us. Brad Pitt co-stars as a fellow lunatic and putative leader of the terrorists.

In the dread future that opens 12 Monkeys (1995) the remainders struggle along underground in a strictly regimented society dependent on a strange steampunk-ish combination of technology with forays to the surface tightly controlled to avoid bringing the virus into their cramped quarters. Scientists have developed a (never explained) method for traveling back in time, though as its still highly experimental only long-sentence prisoners are used as chrononauts. Hence Cole’s (Willis) involvement.

The machinery lacks precision so travelers have been scatted across the centuries (indeed, the film implies the 14th century black death was triggered by one of Cole’s predecessors) and our boy requires several tries before surfacing any time close in 1990–the virus is unleashed in 1996. Naked and incoherent he’s immediately arrested and sent to a local loony bin where he meets Jeffrey (Pitt), who really is off his rocker but understands Cole well enough to help him attempt to escape.

The hospital is also where Cole meets Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe, who looks more appealing here than almost any other film in which I’ve seen her). Though unconvinced by Cole’s story his strange disappearance (the scientists pull him back to the future after his failed escape) inspires her to write a book and softens her response when he reappears in her life days before the virus’ release.

The main block of the film is what transpires from this point, with Cole attempting to convince himself he is insane and the ‘memories’ of the terrible future proof of his disease while Dr. Railly similarly moves towards believing the opposite. Pitt, meanwhile, has been released into the care of his world-famous virologist father but remains less than sane, having used some of dad’s riches to found the Army of the 12 Monkeys.

For me 12 Monkeys is the most successful of Gilliam’s trilogy of future fantasy comedies; it would have to be since I’ve never been able to sit through either Brazil or Munchausen. Roger Ebert once wrote that “[Gilliam's] world is always hallucinatory in its richness of detail” and I would have to agree. The set designs, both in the underground of the future and mid-’90s Philadelphia, are worn-down and dirty and feature unlikely combinations of components, furniture and so on, while Willis’s mental uncertainty, Pitt’s vivid lunacy and Stowe’s growing belief offer complimentary psychology tension. Stowe, whose character clearly represents the audience point of view, is a useful guidepost as the film unfolds.

recommended

Paul McGuigan takes an American spin on the gangster revenge flick he did so well a half decade earlier in Gangster No. 1. The result here is good but while it is no doubt funnier lacks the vicious edge that put the 2001 movie over the top. You will want to pay close attention, though, as almost nothing is as it seems.

Lucky Number Slevin has quite the cast. Josh Hartnett is the title character, Bruce Willis is a veteran mob hitman called Goodkat(?), Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley are partners turned rival gangsters called The Boss and The Rabbi (yes, Kingsley’s character really is a rabbi), Stanley Tucci is an NYPD detective, Mykelti Williamson is a dimwitted henchman, Danny Aiello has a cameo as a bookie, Robert Forster a cameo as one of Tucci’s colleagues and Lucy Liu is her usual sexy, gregarious self as Slevin’s accidental love.

The plot is a black humor twist of Hitchcock’s mistaken identity classic, North by Northwest, with Slevin standing in for Cary Grant’s Roger Thornhill and Liu for Eva Marie Saint. Writer Jason Smilovic doesn’t leave the comparison to chance and has Kingsley’s character talk about taking his immigrant father to see it. But while we viewers know from the start that Slevin Kelevra is not the Nick Fisher the others seem to think, well, like I said at the top nothing is as it seems; Lucky Number has onion-like layers, an Outback Steakhouse Bloomin’ Onion, fried and big and greasy and still so tasty.

recommended

Ten years on and much Hollywood success later, Kevin “Silent Bob” Smith returns to bookend the original black & white indie comedy that launched him. Where are Dante and Randal now? Has Dante outgrown his indecisiveness or Randal his adolescent preoccupations? And did they ever see that fabled donkey show?

No, no and no, of course, not in a Kevin Smith movie. The opening of Clerks II is Dante (Brian O’Halloran) raising the metal grating one morning at the Quick Stop only to find the interior consumed in fire; Randal (Jeff Anderson), with typical thoughtlessness, had left the empty coffeepot on the previous evening. Fate finally put an end to their internment and not ambition or even pride (the boys are 33 years old, for crying out loud) but what do they do with the opportunity? Take jobs behind the counter at the local Mooby’s fast food joint.

Dante has found love, sort of, in the form of their hot high school classmate Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, married in real life to writer/director Smith) and, a year after the fire, the two are headed to Florida in 24 hours where they’ll move in with her wealthy parents for a few months until the wedding. Emma seems to have realized that the hunky guys she’s been dating before Dante have egos to match her own but Dante’s low self-esteem makes him her’s to control.

Randal is as foul-mouthed and misinformed as ever. One running joke is over the made-up anti-black slur porch monkey, that he never understood his grandmother was a racist and all the nasty names she taught him were offensive epithets. Another is his confusion of Anne Frank and Helen Keller, though not to quite the same effect. He isn’t happy with Dante’s plans. There’s a new younger character, sort of Randal’s opposite (virgin who’d rather wash his mouth out with soap than curse), played by Trevor Ferhman called Elias; the kid is the butt of many, many of Randal’s jokes.

Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) are here too, just returned from six months in rehab, hanging out back dealing drugs and dancing their weird dances. Rosario Dawson is Becky, the lovely younger woman who really loves Dante, though she won’t admit it and he doesn’t realize it. Jason Lee and Ben Affleck make their customary cameos though Lee has the better of it, playing a high school classmate of our boys who recently struck it rich after his internet startup was acquired for millions.

The best scene in C2, for me is when Becky tries to teach Dante how to dance for his wedding up on the Mooby’s roof (other than the open and close and a couple of brief scenes, the entire film takes place in or around the fast food joint). The song is the Jackson 5 classic ABC, played at blast volume by Jay down below, and after we see the blinders fall from Dante’s eyes at the girls beauty and charm Smith gives a terrific homage to the Ray Charles music store scene in Blues Brothers. First a series of quick cuts to the other leads toe-tapping or headshaking wherever they are and then a full blown coordinated dance scene out in the parking lot.

Overall funnier than I thought it would be, if (and this is a big if) you can get past the continuous stream of obscenities and general teenage level nastiness. And that donkey scene? Close but not quite what you’ll be expecting.

recommended

This feel good for freaky teen boys flick, a surprise Summer 2007 hit, was actually sweeter and kinder than I’d expected. Ben Stone (Seth Rogen), hefty and goofy looking, a geek’s geek, scores a one night stand with the stunning Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) via far too much booze and yet not enough to prevent him from getting her with child. The meat of the movie is Ben’s decision to put aside his childish things, well-represented by his slacker pals (Jason, Jay, Jonah and Martin), and become the husband and father Alison and his child ought to have.

Another hit from the mind of writer/director Judd Apatow, who previously gave us Fun With Dick and Jane, The 40 Year Old Virgin and the TV series Freaks and Geeks. He smartly makes the conflict about more than just slacker goof versus career-minded or beauty versus beast (which Alison’s sister Debbie, played by Leslie Mann, can’t get past) but proffers a complete disconnect of worlds and ways of thinking between the two groups. Coming somewhere in the middle as symbol of what Alison might have had is Debbie’s husband Pete (Paul Rudd), a yuppie on the surface but whose inner geek has nearly been stomped out of existence by his wife’s utter dominance.

Knocked Up compares well with Virgin. In fact Ben and Virgin’s Andy Stitzer (Steve Carrell) are two sides of a very similar coin, if Ben hadn’t connected with Alison and continued on his previous, sad path.

recommended