"Hall Pass"
Richard's Review: 3 stars
"Hall Pass" can't rightly be called a romantic comedy because there is very little actual romance contained in its story of two couples who are experiencing the martial blahs. Instead let's call it a mid-life comedy.
In this Farrelly Brothers film Owen Wilson, Jenna Fischer, Jason Sudeikis and Christina Applegate are Rick, Maggie, Fred and Grace, two long time couples in stale, sexless marriages. After an embarrassing incident at a friend's home the fed up wives decide to give their husbands a "hall pass" -- a week long holiday from marriage in an effort to prove to them that the grass is not greener on the other side of the nuptial fence.
The kind of gross out humor you would expect from the purveyors of films like "There's Something about Mary" and "Dumb and Dumber" is firmly in place here. Unfortunately "Hall Pass" isn't anywhere near as funny as either "Mary" or "Dumber" -- even though the Farrely's obsession with overly tanned people is firmly in place -- but as puerile as it may be the charming cast wrings whatever humor there is to be found out of the script. Because of them the movie has a fairly constant ripple of giggles punctuated occasionally by big laughs.
It's a thin premise, stretched almost to breaking, with a moral -- surprise, surprise, single life isn't all it's cracked up to be -- that seems very predictable, especially coming from the Farrelys. Luckily good casting and the odd well timed joke elevates "Hall Pass" from the level of a Katherine Heigl couples comedy, but just barely.
"Drive Angry 3D"
Richard's Review: 4 stars
"Drive Angry?" More like "Drive Crazy." The new Nicolas Cage movie is so over-the-top, so gratuitous, so in-your-face it feels like it sprung from the Roger Corman School of Fine Arts, class of 2011.
Cage plays John Milton, a man who would literally go to hell and back to get revenge on the men who killed his daughter and kidnapped his granddaughter. He's a dead man who escaped the clutches of Satan to come to Earth to even the score. Trouble is, the Devil wants him back.
"Drive Angry 3D" has all the trappings of a b-rated drive-in-movie -- muscle cars, too short shorts on the girls, gratuitously bad language and nudity, a vengeful Southern cult leader and the single wildest sex scene/gunfight ever captured on film. Still not convinced it belongs in the Russ Meyer Hall of Fame? Maybe Cage's cheesy-cool line "I never disrobe before a gunfight" will convince you.
Even the old-school in-your-face 3D seems like a throwback to the days of the drive-in. There are no elegant stereoscopic "Avatar"-style visuals here; bullets, flames and body parts fly off the screen in an exaggerated way that suits the tone of the movie.
Director Patrick "My Bloody Valentine 3D" Lussier never met a breast he didn't want to feature in a close-up or an explosion that he couldn't make bigger and louder, but he does so with a gusto that would make Ray Dennis Steckler (look him up!) proud. And he earns extra points for using Can Con classics like Trooper's "Raise a Little Hell" and "I Like to Rock" by April Wine on the soundtrack.
Is this for everyone? Hell no. But if movies by Roger Corman, Russ Meyer or Ray Dennis Steckler sit on your shelf next to the Quentin Tarantino DVDs you'll likely have a helluva time at "Drive Angry 3D."
"Megamind"
Richard's Review: 3 stars
"Megamind," the new animated kid's flick starring Will Ferrell and Tiny Fey, ponders an age old question, asked by super villains from Lex Luthor to Doctor Doom: What's the point of being evil is there's no one there to stop you?
Self described super genius and master of all villainy Megamind (voice of Will Ferrell) has had a lifelong rivalry with Metro Man (Brad Pitt), a hero so special he can literally walk on water. Megamind has been trying to wrestle control of Mega City from Metro Man for years, and despite his best efforts cannot defeat the ridiculously square-jawed hero. That is, until the day he breaks out of jail, kidnaps intrepid girl reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) and finally outsmarts his nemesis. Metro City is finally his but now that his lifelong dream has come true he finds when there is no good guy, no yin to his yang, his evil existence is an empty experience. To combat his boredom he decides to create a superhero to spice things up... of course nothing could go wrong with that plan.
"Megamind" plays like the evil stepchild of "The Incredibles" and "Monsters vs Aliens" with some pop culture references thrown in -- like a takeoff on the famous balcony scene from "Superman" and a wild spoof of Jor-El's windswept hair. It's a pleasant enough confection, with some genuine laughs sprinkled throughout, but given the talent involved -- Ferrell, Fey and David Cross -- it should be much funnier.
David Cross and Ferrell make the most out of their characters. Ferrell gives Megamind fun vocal tics -- he pronounces Metro City as one long word, Metrossoity -- but Fey, in the Lois Lane role, and Jonah Hill as the newly minted superhero, hand in the bland voice work that doesn't add much to the movie. It's a shame, spunkier voice work would have wrung a few more laughs out of a script that is more a funny idea than actually funny all the way through.
Little kids probably won't get -- or care about -- the "Superman" references or Megamind's secret taste for Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You," but they will enjoy the larger than life characters, the 3D slapstick and even take away the message that there is good inside of almost everyone.
"Due Date" DVD
Richard's Review: 3 stars
If the new Zach Galifianakis / Robert Downey Jr. comedy was a mathematical equation it might look something like this: "Trains, Planes and Automobiles" x "The Hangover" ^4√( "The Odd Couple" + "Thelma and Louise") = "Due Date." In other words it's a gross out road trip story (masturbating dogs!) about two mismatched people with a bit of action.
Downey and Galifianakis are Peter and Ethan, the odd couple who, through circumstance, find themselves placed on a no fly list after an incident at the Atlanta airport. To make matters worse, Peter needs to be in LA in three days to attend the birth of his first child and Ethan, a wannabe actor has a meeting with an agent. Peter reluctantly agrees to share a ride with Ethan and by the time they arrive in Los Angeles they have been arrested, drank coffee made of human ashes and come close to dying.
"Due Date" is the kind of movie where you lean over to the person next to you and VERY quietly whisper, "That was funny," more often than you will actually laugh out loud. The movie is amusing, often gross and rather dark, but it doesn't have the deep belly laughs of Galifianakis and director Todd Phillips's last film "The Hangover." Its ninety minutes of strange non sequitors, socially awkward behavior and bickering. In other words it's a lot like a 2010 version of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," but we live in a more cynical and mean spirited time and the movie reflects that.
"Due Date" is missing the one element that made "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" so appealing and that's sweetness. John Candy's character—reflected here through a fun house mirror by Galifianakis—was annoying as all get out but underneath the annoying questions, bumbling and boorish behavior was an undeniable sweetness which Phillips has surgically removed from almost every scene of "Due Date." The characters have an edgy kind of chemistry, but charming they are not.
Ethan is a borderline head case and Peter has rage issues. That's a combo that's been played for laughs since the days of the Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy but the thing that's missing is amiability.
Not that "Due Date" isn't funny. It is, it just isn't very likeable.
