The Way Way Back

COMEDY/DRAMA

Bring the Heat, Bring the Noise

8.75 out of 10 | Matinee or Rental

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Rated: PG-13  Some sexual content, language, brief drug material and thematic elements
Release Date: July 5, 2013 (limited)
Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes

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Director: Jim Rash, Nat Faxon
Writers: Jim Rash, Nat Faxon
Cast: Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Amanda Peet, Toni Collette, AnnaSophia Robb, Maya Rudolph, Rob Corddry, Allison Janney, Liam James, Jim Rash, Nat Faxon, River Alexander, Ava Deluca-Verley

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SYNOPSIS:  Over the course of his summer break, a teenager comes into his own thanks in part to the friendship he strikes up with one of the park's managers.

REVIEW: Nat Faxon and Jim Rash moved from just comedians and actors with their breakout screenplay for George Clooney, The Descendants. Jim Rash is most recently known for his work as the Dean in NBC's Community, while Nat Faxon appeared in Bad Teacher and The Zookeeper. Now they write, direct and star in a film about a young man's coming of age in spite of external forces he can never hope to control.

14-year-old Duncan (Liam James, 2012) finds himself in the back of the vintage station wagon going to a summer beach house owned by his mother's boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World). Sitting in the far back seat, Duncan is the odd man out with his mother Pam (Toni Collette, Hitchcock) diverting attention to Trent. Once they get to the Ramsey summerhouse - called the Riptide - Duncan is even more an outsider when Trent's friends reconnect from previous summers. Duncan's mom joins in the fun and Duncan finds himself moping around wishing he was anywhere but there. After a few days Duncan bumps into Owen (Sam Rockwell, The Sitter), the manager of the local water park waterways, and finds the kinship to him. Taking a job at the water park Duncan diverts his problems to enjoyment of the summer job at the park, finding new friends and people to make his days worthwhile. Along the way Duncan finds a friend in Trent's neighbors daughter, makes friends at the water park, and find a new confidence that comes with the start of being a man.

The Way, Way Back can mean many things. Does it refer to Duncan's seat assignment at the far back bench of Trent's station wagon? Or is it a more metaphysical in defining how to find one's way back once you gone astray? At the very least The Way, Way Back is a coming-of-age story of a boy dealing with the destruction of his nuclear family and the turmoil that comes with a new one.

From Steve Carell's turn as a not so funny boyfriend, to Toni Collette reprising a familiar role as an uncertain mother to a young son, to Sam Rockwell scene-stealing with his juvenile antics, the cast is phenomenal. Liam James, playing Duncan, provides all the tell tale sign of an awkward boy who has to find it within himself to grow up a bit. With the addition of Amanda Peet, Rob Cordry, Allison Janney, and Mya Rudolph, the entire film works in wonderful concert. Even Mat Faxon and Jim Rash 'do good' with their more than cameo roles.

The Way, Way Back also captures the volatile teenage angst that seems so foreign to adults. But it also captures the uncertainties and poor judgements that adults make that seem so foreign to a teenager. Life is still so black and white for a young adult - the emotions so raw and intense, the decisions so difficult to come by but obvious and 'right' when made.

Life in a summer season town may seem like a two month paradise to those living on the outside, but it is an odyssey of awkwardness and self-discovery for the young, and a period of regret and the pursuit to recapture youth under the guise of too much drinking, smoking, and partying for adults. Decisions are made or made on our behalf at any age, providing a breeding ground for contempt, regret, and lost opportunities. Seize the day, wherever you are!

The Way, Way Back is a sweet, funny and serious look into the perils of new places, new people, and new family dynamics. The perfect tale for summer, this film will give you a reflection of wonders lost and wonders found.

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Pain and Gain

ACTION/ADVENTURE, COMEDY

Bigger Than Yours

8.0 out of 10 | Movie or DVD

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Rated: R Language throughout, bloody violence, drug  use, crude sexual content and nudity
Release Date: April 26, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 9 minutes

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Director: Michael Bay
Writers: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Pete Collins
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackey, Tony Shalhoub, Ed Harris, Rob Corddry, Ken Jeong, Rebel Wilson, Mindy Robinson

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SYNOPSIS:  A trio of bodybuilders in Florida get caught up in an extortion ring and a kidnapping scheme that goes terribly wrong.

REVIEW: Director Michael Bay made his mark on Hollywood with his adrenalized actioners Bad Boys, Pearl Harbor, and The Transformers franchise. He takes a break from robots in disguise to return to something more terrestrial. The true story is adapted to the big screen by Captain America and The Chronicles of Narnia series writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and new writer Pete Collins.

Daniel Lugo (Mark Walhberg, Broken City) has a dream. He is a body builder trainer with ideas of being the best he can be. He's a do-or not a don't-er. After going to a self-help seminar led by Johnny Wu (Ken Jeong, The Muppets), Daniel gets it in his head to target one of the gym's wealthy clients, Victor Crenshaw (Tony Shalhoub, Monk), and take his house and money. A three-man job, in his opinion, Daniel enlists the help of fellow trainer Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie, Gangster Squad) to help. Needing one more man, they approach ex-convict muscle head named Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson, G.I. Joe: Retaliation). Looking to have Crenshaw sign over his property and bank accounts, the trio end up being bumbling idiots and unable to get the kidnapping for the transfers done right the first time around. When Crenshaw somehow survives the experience the cops do not believe his story and Daniel, Paul and Adrian hunt Crenshaw down again. Crenshaw goes to the Yellow Pages to find former Miami cop and former private detective Ed Du Bois (Ed Harris, Man on a Ledge) to take his case. When Daniel, Paul and Adrian start living the big life off the money they stole from Crenshaw, their living in excess has its costs and forces them to plan another job, thus allowing the Miami-Dade police department to close in.

Michael Bay returns to the directors chair to leave behind giant robots and alien invasions. This time, he focuses on an unfortunate true story that seems almost as unbelievable. Michael Bay was the originator of the slo-mo hero walk and overly stylistic cinematography. In this effort he adds in some Tarantino-esque edit stop shots and on-screen labels to add to the story. With the added elements, it  shows that the director is expanding his palette a little bit.

Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, and Anthony Mackie devoted their bodies to fitness for the making of this film - and it shows. Each of them normally have great physiques but they completely bulked up for these roles. Wahlberg is thick, Johnson has no neck, and Mackie looks almost unrecognizable (except for his mug). The trio is so big there costars Tony Shalhoub and Ed Harris look utterly puny in comparison.

Wahlberg knows his way around both drama action and comedy. Pain and Gain is right up Mark alley. Anthony Mackie adds in his own style, and The Rock plays against type as a coke-snorting, Jesus-finding ex-con. These guys makes for a modern day Three Stooges criminal disorganized ring. One would like to believe that Americans aren't this stupid, but since it is based on true story I guess anything is possible.

Coming in at two hours and eight minutes this film is long, but he keeps moving. Michael Bay changes narrative perspectives, by letting each of the main characters have their own voice over. Switching perspectives keeps everybody involved in the plot line and keeps the story moving. It also helps that all the characters are just fun to watch.

The success of Pain and Gain comes in the fact of its ridiculousness. Wahlberg is a master of the straight man with absurd dialogue and monster stunts without cracking a smile. The film is a series of misdeeds and misadventures on a scale larger then Dwayne Johnson's biceps.

Filled with laughs, a degree of cat and mouse antics, and some Oceans 11 style planning, Pain and Gain will make you laugh and will make you cringe. This film is never better then when Mark Wahlberg and his cronies are at their worst.

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Escape from Planet Earth

ACTION/ADVENTURE, ANIMATED, COMEDY, FAMILY, SCI-FI/FANTASY

Earth's Greatest Secrets Break Out

8.25 out of 10 | MOVIE - DVD

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Rated: PG Some mild rude humor and action.
Release Date: February 14, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 29 minutes

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Director: Cal Brunker
Writers: Tony Leech, Cory Edwards, Cal Brunker, Bob Barlen
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Rob Corddry, Ricky Gervais, Jonathan Morgan Heit, jessica Alba, Sofia Vergara, Sarah Jessica Parker, William Shatner

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SYNOPSIS:  Astronaut Scorch Supernova finds himself caught in a trap when he responds to an SOS from a notoriously dangerous alien planet. His nerdy brother Gary from Mission Control may be his only hope.

REVIEW: Cal Brunker, storyboard artist on films like Despicable Me and Horton Hears a Who!, takes direction to new heights as the director of the new Weinstein Company animation Escape from Planet Earth. A cadre of writers bring this cosmic cartoon to life, including Hoodwinked! screenwriters Tony Leech and Cory Edwards, director Brunker, and Push and Turn writer Bob Barlen.

Scorch Supernova (voiced by Brendan Fraser, Furry Vengeance) is a home world hero to the citizens of Baab. He goes out on various missions rescuing babies from baby-eating savage aliens, and more. Always trying to prep and prepare scorch for every mission is his older brother Gary (voiced by Rob Corddry, Warm Bodies), considered a nerd who rattles his fingers on keyboards at mission control by his brawny dimwitted brother and the rest of the workers. When Scorch is told to answer a distress call on the 'Dark Planet' and his eagerness works against his brother's preparedness, Gary quits and Scorch is left to his own devices. When Scorch is captured by the 'Dark Planet's' government's military, Gary must sum up the courage to go after Scorch on a rescue mission of his own. In his attempts to rescue his brother, Gary is captured by the men of General Shanker (William Shatner, Boston Legal) at Area 51 who is using other captured aliens - including a three-eyed slug named Thurman (George Lopez, The Smurfs), a solar brute librarian named Io (Jane Lynch, Wreck-It Ralph), and a psycho-therapist personality Doc (Voiced by Craig Robinson, Hot Tub Time Machine) - to build a defense weapon before they are allowed to return to their respective planets. But as Gary tries to break his brother out of Area 51, they uncover more than they bargained for.

The Weinstein Company and Kaleidoscope bring out their big galactic guns for a space odyssey that centers around two orbiting brothers. Gary is the older brother that tries to look after his younger, bolder and reckless brother and hero Scorch. Looked down by Scorch, and even his own son Kipper (voiced by Jonathan Morgan Heit, Date Night) who idolizes the planetary explorer, Gary is forced to face the prospect of having to step light years outside his comfort zone to save his captured family. But as with every tale that included Area 51, a deeper conspiracy is afoot, making this personal tale more galactic.

General Shanker is the typical steely eyed military leader obsessed with taking advantage of the secrets and technology the aliens who have been captured have to offer. But his terrestrial trappings does not limit his malice to his own planet. He may even have corrupt allies on other planets!

Escape from Planet Earth is a silly animated tale that should delight children and parents alike. The voice com in mission control and on board the escape pod Mr. James Bing (Ricky Gervais, The Invention of Lying) belts out a variety of quick throw-away one-liners that only adults will catch and appreciate. Lopez's Thurman provides slimy and sticky comic relief for the kids. Even a janitor and his nemesis, a broom handle, add to the yucks. It's screw ball animated comedy that the whole family can enjoy.

The animation is reminiscent of Monsters Vs, Aliens and Planet 51. Cartoony, detailed, and pleasing to the eye, Escape from Planet Earth will give you something fun to look at - at the very least! The 3D is cool, but not critical to the enjoyment of the film. If you need to save some dollars in favor of more concessions for the kids, skip the cost for the 3D glasses.

Escape from Planet Earth offers a fun family comedy. It's clever, without the need to be overbearing. Just the right amount of silly galactic goodness for the whole family to enjoy.

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Warm Bodies

Doesn't Skip A Beat

★ ★ ★ 1/2 out of 5 buckets | Matinee or DVD

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Rated: PG-13 - Zombie violence and some language.

Release Date: February 1, 2012

Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes

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Director: Jonathan Levine
Writers: Jonathan Levine, based on the novel 'Warm Bodies' by Isaac Marion
Cast:  Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich, Dave Franco, Rob Corddry, Analeigh Tipton

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SYNOPSIS: When a zombie named R starts to have feelings for a human named Julie, he finds himself in the strange position of finding love after death.

REVIEW: Jonathan Levine, noted director of The Wackness and 50/50, changes direction with a move into a popular but fickle subgenre known as the ZomRomCom - a zombie romantic comedy. Based on a novel written by Isaac Marion, Jonathan Levine adapts to the screen a new dead twist on a classic love story concept.

Being a zombie is a drag, literally! As your rotting corpse fails you and you can't feed you will eventually become a Boney - a skeletal shriveled walker with only the taste of human flesh ad blood. Corpses eats brains, too! But when the twenty-something dead corpse, with only the memory of the first initial of his first name R (Nicholas Hoult, X-Men: First Class), eats brains he feels conflicted about it. When young human survivor soldiers, led by Perry (Dave Franco, 21 Jump Street), venture out from behind the high walls of their safe urban city for a pharma-salvage run, they encounter a pack of corpses with a hungry R in tow. While feasting, R notices Julie (Teresa Palmer, I Am Number Four) and starts to feel something different than just hunger. He protects her from the other corpses in the pack and takes her back to his airfield home. Julie soon realizes that R is different from the other corpses. He escorts Julie back to her city, Julie trying to come up with a way to persuade her general father (John Malkovich, Transformers: Dark of the Moon) to look at R with more than just the urge to put a built in his skull.

Warm Bodies is one of those film that could have premiere CW or SyFy Channel film. But this film goes above and beyond to put together a good cast, clever story, and decent FX in order to give the zombie loving audience a cool big screen experience. There have been other well done zombie genre films that never made the big time, including cult films like 'Fido'. Warm Bodies takes advantage of the recent trend of monster romances like in The Twilight Saga to fit nicely into what is popular theater past time these days. Lucky for us, the filmgoers, Warm Bodies doesn't change the formula of what makes a zombie a zombie, never compromising the essence of the undead craving human flesh and soft brains.

Writer/director Levine adapts some interesting new walking dead ideas from Marion's book, like the deteriorated Boneys and the idea that a corpse can remember and even fall in love. The corpse R shuffles around with the other walkers at the local airport, bumping off his fellow undead with stiffening limbs. But unlike most other zombie flicks where the undead are simply backdrop pieces to a human tale of survival, this film's main corpse R provides a more human internal narrative to give us insight to their inhuman condition and set the stage for sympathetic and sometimes hilarious monologues.

Part comedy, part brain-eating undead survival tale, part classic Shakepearean love story - Warm Bodies is the perfect blended ZomRomCom film for both rabid genre fans and newbies who do not want to have to hide their eyes behind their split fingers. Sure, there are a couple moments that could be frightening to some, the majority of the story is more about the relationship between a corpse who has enough of a memory to collect random knick-knacks and to play found vinyl records on a turn table in his hoarder's airplane fuselage and a human girl who has lost her boyfriend and who does not share the survivalist attitude of her military leader father.

Nicolas Hoult plays R with style and staggering grace, ever the handsome corpse. Teresa Palmer, as the lovely Julie, is not just the typical damsel in distress. She plays fear, sadness, and defiance with equal ease. Rob Corddry, as a fellow zombie and possible best friend zombie to R, trades in pink flesh for a gray pallor  - all the while not relinquishing any of his signature dry wit. And John Malkovich, as Julie's father and leader of the last bastion of humanity, brings all of his Malkovich-esque abilities to his role.

Warm Bodies entertains as a fine genre romantic comedy, offering quaint insights to the human and undead condition. This film will never be on par with Romeo's original Night of the Living Dead, but it does take zombies to the next step of acceptance by the rest of us.

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Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

End of World, Start of Humanity

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Rated: R  Language including sexual references, some drug use and brief violence.
Release Date: June 22, 2012
Runtime:  1 hour 41 minutes

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Director: Lorene Scafaria
Writers: Lorene Scafaria
Cast:  Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Nancy Carell, Adam Brody, Mark Moses, Connie Britton, Rob Corddry, Derek Luke

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SYNOPSIS: As an asteroid travels through space on a collision course with Earth for a extinction event, insurance agent Dodge Petersen faces the end of the world alone but joined by neighbor Penny on a journey to find an old romance.

REVIEW: Screenplay writer of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Lorene Scafaria, return with a new story that she also directs. A lightly comedic look at the drama and angst that accompanies the end of life as we know it, Scafaria enlists the always earnest Steve Carell and the beautiful and brilliant Keira Knightley to tell the tale. 

When the last hope to destroy a asteroid on a collision course with earth fails, all of the news outlets announce that all of the people on the planet have less than a month before the extinction event occurs. When the news breaks, Dodge Petersen (Steve Carrell, The Office, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and his wife Linda (Nancy Carell, Bridesmaids) hear it on the car radio. Suddenly, Linda disappears from the car and Dodge's life, leaving Dodge to face the end alone. Dodge's friends face the end in different ways. His friend Warren (Rob Corddry, Hot Tub Time Machine) and his wife Diane (Connie Britton, A Nightmare on Elm Street - 2010) choose to have a part filled with food, drugs, and sex. Others, like co-worker Jeremy (Rob Huebel, The Descendants), end it all before the end. Dodge retains his normal routine of going to his insurance agent desk job and wallowing in his loneliness. When neighbor Penny (Kiera Knightney, A Dangerous Method) appears on his fire escape crying due to a breakup, Dodge lets her in for the night. When riots make the neighborhood too dangerous, Dodge and Penny leave town in search of their own last futures. Dodge looks to track down the first girl 'that got away' and Penny tries to find a way to get back to her family. Along the way, they meet others facing their own decided fates.

Like the recently limited release Safety Not Guaranteed and the wider released Jeff, Who Lives at Home, Lorene Scafaria utilizes an odd plot device to tell a very humanizing and heartfelt tale. We have seen the extinction event asteroid in Deep Impact and Armageddon, but the Bruce Willis film was a tent pole action extravaganza and the Elijah Wood version released the same year split the screen time between heroes and humanity. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World focuses wholly on the effects of the event at ground level. Revolving around Dodge Petersen, we see the world through his eyes. Even in the face of the end, Dodge's new found solitude and demeanour keep him detached from the rest of the people around him. Neither partaking in the last efforts of carnal or mind-altering acts nor seeking to mend any fences with his spouse or relatives, Dodge doesn't have any plans for the future until he discovers that his wife was cheating on him and his neighbor Penny hands him a bunch of undelivered mail that includes a letter from an often thought about old flame. Then rage and slim hopes spark enough emotion within Dodge to break the patterns and routines of his daily life to find something   that will erase the regrets of his life.

Steve Carell as Dodge is just a regular guy in this film, playing more Dan in Real Life or Crazy, Stupid, Love than Dinner With Schmucks or Date Night. He is the human vessel that needs to be filled with emotion.  Kiera Knightley as Penny is the opposite, brimming with the effects of bad relationships and the suffering from what her therapist said was a incessant need to be with someone. They run the opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, but compliment each other perfectly on screen. In their travels, other characters flesh out the story. At a Friendsy's restaurant, host Darcy (T.J. Miller, Rock of Ages) and waitress Katie (Gillian Jacobs, Community) take the idea of a family themed restaurant to the ecstasy extreme. When Penny's Prius runs out of gas, a kindly trucker (William Petersen, CSI) picks Dodge and Penny up and regals them with the story of his life and that of his father's life. Others that Penny and Dodge meet are just as interesting, including an old boyfriend of Penny's, Speck (Derek Luke, Captain America: The First Avenger) who seems ready to ride out the last day.

Lorene Scafaria does not get lost on her own words, painting a picture of humanity that is both urgent and hopeful. While Dodge and Penny have to face destructive riots out their apartment windows, a news anchorman continues to keep the populace up to date on breaking news, offering a kind and familiar voice to those who turn on their televisions. Even as Dodge's friends cast aside the stereotypes of modern morality with free love and mind expansion, they are doing so to fill their lives with more than they used to have - not less. Scafaria even keeps the streets relatively clean and the the power on, with the hopes that the breakdown of civil services and utilities would wait until the last possible moment. There are some interesting ideas tossed out that coincide with the end of the word, including the hiring an assassin to take your life so you are left unaware of your last moments.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is a film that asks what would you do if you knew how long you had to live. Crossing items out a bucket list, righting past wrongs, forgiving others or asking them for forgiveness, or just finding someone to be with when it all ends, Seeking a Friend... may make you wonder if working to balance your life's ledger may be best started now - before you are given a deadline.

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WORTH: Matinee or DVD

Hot Tub Time Machine

Blast From The Blast

[John Cusack, Clark Duke, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry]

Its happened again. The cost of movie-going has gone up. The ticket price for my matinee today went from $8 to $9. The cost of full price tickets and 3D glasses are even worse. I am glad I opted to forego later day movie viewing in favor of the first viewings on the weekend. Now I can enjoy a matinee at Friday night prices! I did not even venture to the concession counter to see the increases there. I guess the cost of a bucket of popcorn will give me a heart attack sooner then the actual popcorn itself!

SYNOPSIS:  Three friends going through hard times with a nephew in tow go back to a ski resort in hopes of reliving some of the craziness of their youth. Instead, they go back in time to their 1986 heyday by way of a hot tub time machine. Do they do the same things they did then in order to keep everything the same, or do they try to make new history?

Hot tubs, time travel, the 80s, friends unhappy with their current lives... what could go wrong? Everything, of course! There have been a myriad of time travel epics, from several "Star Trek" movies to "Time Bandits" to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure". The hot tub is a funnier prop then Bill and Ted's phone booth, 'cause it's a hot tub! And what's funnier then going to important periods of history, going to the 80s!

John Cusack (Adam), Craig Robinson (Nick), Rob Corddry (Lou) and Clark Duke (Jacob) start the film wallowing in their own mid-life miseries, mostly centered around their lackluster lives and problems with romance. Lou's attempt to "not kill" himself brings the three estranged friends back together. Adam and Nick are guilted into keeping an eye on Lou and decide to take him to the ski resort they frequented in their youth. Unfortunately, the resort is as run down as their current lives. The only highlight seems to be their suite's outdoor hot tub. Of course, in the spirit of defying the laws of physics, the hot tub becomes a time machine to the 80s due to the spilling of some illegal Russian energy drink.

Each of them find themselves back in their young bodies, except Jacob who wasn't even born yet. Early on, they realize that their trip is a paradox since Jacob starts flickering in and out courtesy of a "Back to the Future"-like plot twist. Some of the laughs are based on the characters' references to other time travel film science, notably "The Terminator" and "The Butterfly Effect". Some of the laughs are based on the fact that the 80s were hilarious, especially in hindsight. Director Steve Pink brings us glimpses of "Sixteen Candles" and other 80s essentials. Cusack even breaks out a little "Better Off Dead" for us. Chevy Chase makes a cameo as the time traveler guide trying to fix the glitchy jacuzzi, and "Back to the Future" star Crispin Glover breaks out again for maximum comic effect as the resort concierge Phil with one arm in the present and two in 1986. Every scene we wonder if this is when the detachment occurs!

What do you do when you realize that the 1986 Winterfest is the pivotal point of the rest of lives? Do you retrace it exactly so that you do not make any changes to your already boring present, or do you use your opportunity to change things for the better? The script is smartly written and keeps us smiling and entertained. If the cost of movies were the same as in the 80s, I would definitely recommend this one.

Movies: Matinee

Own: Pass

Rental: Netflix