That's My Boy

Whazzup!!

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Rated: R  Nudity, crude sexual content, pervasive language and some drug use.
Release Date: June 15, 2012
Runtime:  1 hour 56 minutes

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Director: Sean Anders
Writers: David Caspe
Cast:  Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Leighton Meester, Vanilla Ice, James Caan, Milo Ventimiglia, Tony Orlando, Will Forte, Rachel Dratch, Nick Swardson

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SYNOPSIS: Teenager Donny has an affair with his teacher, fathering a child, and raising Todd as a single parent until Todd's 18th birthday. Disappearing for years, Donny returns on the eve of Todd's wedding.

REVIEW: Director Sean Anders is most notable for writing and helming the farce Sex Drive, as well as being a comedic writer for films like Mr. Popper's Penguins, Hot Tub Time Machine, and She's Out of My League. This time around, Anders leaves the writing duties to Happy Endings creator and writer David Caspe. With the comedic talents of Adam Sandler and the SNL Digital Short wunderkund Andy Samberg, we can only hope for a raunchy good time better than Sandler's Jack and Jill or Samberg's Hot Rod.

As a young thirteen-year-old boy Donny Berger (Justin Weaver) was the big man on school grounds. He and his beautiful teacher Ms. McGarricle (Eva Amurri Martini, Isolation) realize their soulmate passion for each other while in detention for Donny's inappropriate sexual innuendos. After a lengthy trist, they are eventually found out and Ms. McGarricle stands trial and is convicted for her relationship with a minor. Donny's father is given custody of the unborn baby until Donny turns eighteen, at which point Donny would take over parental duties. But when Han Solo Berger (Andy Samberg, Hot Rod) turns eighteen himself he disappears and becomes estranged from Donny. Years later, Donny finds himself in trouble with the government due to back taxes, owning $43,000. Fortunately, Donny sees that his son, now Todd Petersen, has become a successful hedge fund manager and is engaged to a beautiful girl Jamie (Leighton Meester, Country Strong). With an opportunity to get the money if he reunites him, Todd, and Ms. McGarricle at the prison, Donny crashes the wedding weekend at Todd's boss's summer house. Trying to keep the truth from his soon-to-be in-laws Gerald (Blake Clark, Rango) and Helen (Meagen Fay, Halloween II), Jamie's brother Chad (Milo Ventimiglia, The Divide), and his boss Steve Spirou (Tony Orlando), and Grandma Delores (Peggy Stewart, The Runaways), Todd does all he can to keep Donny away from the people in his new life and his secrets intact.

Very worried going into this film, I dreaded a repeat of Sandler's Jack and Jill. Comedies and comedians are really only as good as their last project, most people forgetting Sandler's pre- Jack and Jill funny and silly romantic comedy film with Jennifer Aniston, Just Go With It, or the grown up buddy flick, Grown Ups. In his latest work, Sandler channels the spirit of one of his earliest creations, Billy Madison, into a 40-year-old reckless, down-and-out, former tabloid celebrity who gained all of his notoriety from being the willing underage 'victim' to a beautiful bombshell teacher. Instant fame, a six-figure payday for the rights to his story for a television movie of Donny's exploits, and poor child-rearing experience, lead Donny to a place where he has no money, lives on the generosity of strippers still enamoured with him, and drives a barely running Pontiac Fiero. Using his sometimes stuttering, sometimes loud, sometimes stammering, always Sandleresque ways, Adam brings his typical juvenile ways to an adult delinquent role who just wants to be a good guy.Thrust into the spotlight by stellar work on his Saturday Night Live Digital Shorts, Andy Samberg trades in his legacy of viral hits such as 'D**k in a Box', 'Lazy Sunday', and the Grammy nominated 'I'm on a Boat' for the glimmer and glamour of the big screen. With his tenure on SNL officially at a close, we can only hope that his graduation from small screen to big screen to be an easy transition. In That's My Boy, Samberg brings his physical, rubbery ah-shucks but uptight presence to his role of Todd Petersen AKA Han Solo Berger. Completely reinventing his life and back story, Todd is wholly unprepared to deal with the sudden reappearance of his father Donny. With a father who was but a kid himself, Todd ends up with so many issues that he needs a barrage of pills to keep stable.

Filled with the usual menagerie of characters, Sandler continues to support the careers of his friends such as Blake Clark. But he also illicits the help of other clever and silly people such as long-time strip club patron Kenny (Nick Swardson, 30 Minutes or Less), overweight motherly stripper Champale (Luenell, Think Like A Man), new-age co-worker Phil (Will Forte, Rock of Ages) and his wife (Rachel Dratch, Just Go With It), always formidable Father McNally (James Caan, Detachment) and former rapping star Vanilla Ice (himself). They round out the cast nicely, bringing an absurdity to the story that is over the top, silly, and out loud funny.

Funny and raunchy, the Samberg and Sandler team-up reinstates Sandler as the comedic top-dog, erasing the horrid double showing of him as a man and his sister in Jack and Jill. Filled with beer guzzling, grand-cougar sex, bare breasts, and the return to lost youth and juvenile delinquency, That's My Boy both tickles the funny bone enough to tears (especially if you liked movies like The Hangover) and has that near tender moment that Sandler likes to put in some of his films such as Click.

That's My Boy is the typical Adam Sandler fair. If you like him, you will love this movie. The film is outrageous without being outrageous for the sake of it. There are gratuitous shots of flesh and plenty of potty humor, but their use all seems to work for the right laughs. There are even some sight gags and one-liners so subtle that you may miss their humorous worth. That's My Boy brings a great soundtrack, filthy humor, crude language, and a touching message to a theater near you. Whazzup!!!  

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WORTH: Matinee or Rental

Monte Carlo

Don't Mess with Paris, Texas!

Director: Thomas Bezucha
Writers: Thomas Bezucha, April Blair, Maria Maggenti, Kelly Bowe, Jules Bass (Novel "Headhunters")

Stars: Selena Gomez, Katie Cassidy, Leighton Meester, Cory Monteith, Luke Bracey, Pierre Boulanger, Brett Cullen, Andie MacDowell

SYNOPSIS: Grace longed and saved for a trip to Paris after high school graduation. Armed with her best friend and her step-sister, a Paris tour gone wrong turns misfortune into mistaken identity for a British heiress and a trip to Monte Carlo.

REVIEW: 2005's The Family Stone writer and director Thomas Bezucha returns, with help, for the big screen adaptation of Jules Bass' novel "Headhunters". Gone are the four middle-aged New Jersey women looking for adventure and mates by pretending to be four of the richest widows in the world. Missing are the rich men the women prey on, also impostors in their own rights. Instead, the story is simmered down to reluctant Prince and the Pauper tale. But in this case, the prince is a 'princess' who is a self-centered British heiress named Cordelia Winthrop Scott, and the pauper is Texas graduate girl Grace (both played by Selena Gomez) who saved and scrimped her entire four years of high school for the trip of self-discovery to Paris. Along for the ride are her best friend and waitress co-worker Emma (Katie Cassidy from A Nightmare on Elm Street) and her step-sister Meg (Leighton Meester from Country Strong).

Light and airy, Monte Carlo runs along the lines of The Princess Diaries, playing at teenage love and adventure for the adolescent girl. The scenic backdrop is splendid, both in Paris and Monte Carlo. Those not longing for romance will enjoy the view anyway. But for the young ladies, they will enjoy Meg's friend from Australia Riley (Luke Bracey in all his young Heath Ledger rugged good looks), Emma's Texas grown boyfriend Owen (Cory Monteith from Glee) and the handsome Theo Marchand (Pierre Boulanger) who falls for the girl that Grace is, but under the guise of the rich Cordelia.

Two standouts performances are the suspicious Aunt Alicia (Catherine Tate), and Selena Gomez herself. Selena's bored jet-setting rich girl image with her stare-downs and constant phone conversation really made for a good antagonist. Also, a certain concierge at a certain Monte Carlo Hotel de Paris steals the show as he fights with Cordelia on the phone, Grace at the counter, hotel security and the local police.

Altogether, Monte Carlo is a story of a girl looking to see the world, a girl looking to lose herself to the world, and a girl looking to hide herself from the world. Will a trip to Paris, then Monte Carlo, help Grace to find her center? Will time in the City of Lights help Emma to see what she is leaving behind? And will a much-deserved vacation help Meg to let go of the chains of her mother's death? In the end, what we learn on the road or across the oceans is just as familiar as what we can learn at home - just ask a dimmer switch.

WORTH: Matinee or Netflix

The Roommate

Roommates are like a Box of Chocolates...

[Leighton Meester, Minka Kelly, Cam Gigandet, Alyson Michalka, Danneel Harris]

image from beyondhollywood.com

RANT: Went to the box office today and chatted with the ticket taker behind the window. She asked me to let her know how good The Roommate was because her daughter was interested in seeing it. I won't give it away here, but I did return to the box office to let her know my thoughts.

SYNOPSIS: College freshman Sara thinks she has found the perfect dorm roommate, Rebecca. That is, until Rebecca starts exhibiting obsessive and violent behavior.

In the tradition of Single White Female and Obsessed, director Christian E. Christiansen brings a new obsessive thriller to the screen. Taking place at the University of Los Angeles, Sara Matthews (Minka Kelly) arrives at the dormitory and anxiously awaits the arrival of her new roommate. Finally meeting Rebecca (Leighton Meester) after a night of drinking at a fraternity party, Sara sees that they could be best friends. Of course, once Rebecca finds that Sara has other friends and other interests, their relationship become strained by Rebecca's "over-protectiveness" and aggressiveness.

Rebecca is alternately sweet and creepy. Two of the best sequences Christiansen shoots with her involve Rebecca slowly and silently stalking Sara's boyfriend Stephen (Cam Gigandet) in the aisles of the college library. The other is a great zooming shot where Rebecca sits barely visible behind the front window of a store across the street from her best friend. And the extent to which Rebecca will go in order to protect Sara from outside threats - such as furry kittens, dorm mates in the common showers, and flirty fashion design professors - is creative and unnerving.

The story is suspenseful, although predictable and somewhat given away by the trailers and commercials. As with any obsessive psychotic friend film, the success lies solely on the villain. In this case, Leighton Meester plays it perfectly. Tracy (Alyson Michalka from television's Hellcats) and her belly button find out the hard way in the showers during an always classic homage to Hitchcock's Psycho.

Of course, The Roommate is not for everyone. But the theater was filled with couples and groups of young ladies. The Roommate is nowhere near Single White Female or All About Eve, but it's good enough for a bucket of popcorn.

Worth: Matinee or Netflix

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Country Strong

Music Imitates Life

[Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund, Leighton Meester]

image from celebrity-mania.com

RANT: Wanted to go see Country Strong, but needed to go to a different Regal theater much farther away from the house. I ended up at the outlet mall in Deer Park at a Regal theater with an IMAX theater. I asked the ticket taker if the IMAX was a true IMAX or an "IMAX Experience". He was unsure, but I was able to peek inside the theater. It was not a 6-story screen, but the sound system was definitely rocking!

SYNOPSIS: A drama focusing on the multi-city comeback tour of a country superstar after a stint in rehab, her husband/manager, and two up-and-coming acts trying to break it big in the business.

Reminding me of Robert Altman's Nashville, Loretta Lynn's biopic Coal Miner's Daughter and Jeff Bridges oscar-worthy Crazy Heart, Country Strong dramatizes the glamorous glitz and urban under belly of life on the road for a multi-Grammy winner legendary country artist trying to make a comeback after alcohol destroyed her performance in Dallas and her relationship with her husband/manager.

Following Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow) on her last day in rehab , her husband James pushes her to get back on the road to soon with a 3-city "encore" tour to get the momentum back to Kelly's career. Added to the tour bill per Kelly's request is young honky-tonk bar performer Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund from Tron: Legacy) and Kelly's sometime lover. As manager, James adds Texas pageant queen and aspiring country pop star Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester) to the lineup.

Each character has their own baggage. Kelly emerges from rehab much to early, still needing to deal with her alcoholism and the loss of her unborn baby after an intoxicated fall from stage in Dallas. James, once a loving husband, is now a controlling manager desperate to have Kelly reclaim her place as the country legend she is - all the while failing to deal with Kelly as a wife or the loss of their unborn baby. Beau has the heart of gold to accompany his singing and songwriting skills, sometimes unsure of how far he should go in the industry. And finally, Chiles, focuses on the lights and stardom of the country stage, unable to put into shadow her childhood insecurities from a seemingly too-perfect youth.

Paltrow, McGraw, Hedlund and Meester all shine brightly in their own right. McGraw is an old 10-gallon hat when it comes to the strong, southern gentleman. Paltrow excludes the southern charm, hospitality and singing chops that she certainly honed in order to get her role of Fox's Glee. And Hedlund and Meester look they were plucked right out of line at the Grand Ole Opry. One specific moment that made the film for me was Kelly's Make a Wish Foundation appearance at a school for a young student named Travis. The scene showcased Kelly's vulnerability and her love for her music. Some of the plot is paced and placed for convenience, Kelly's alcoholism, for example, allowed to ebb and flow based on the need of the character and story.

The real star of the movie, though, is the music. With originals and country standards, every note is pitch perfect for its tone and story. I am sure at least one will make its way into the Oscar race as a nominee. The music hearkened back to my youth where I helped my father work on the car in the neighbor's garage, listening to his favorite country blues in a backless knob radio.

I enjoyed the film for what it is. The ending was obvious, even though it seemed to be the only course that would make sense. The acting is good, the music is better and the realization that fame does not necessarily buy happiness or love is just a common truth.

Worth: Matinee

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