Bridesmaids

If you've ever been a bridesmaid, this movie is simply hiliarious.  Since I've been both a bridesmaid and a maid of honor, I'm still laughing at it.  In fact, I have several bridesmaid veteran friends that I'd love to go back and see this with again.  What's even more impressive about Bridesmaids is that not only did it prove that women are capable of making a successful gross-out comedy, we can do that and include a geniunely sweet story as well.

Bridesmaids stars SNL's Kristen Wiig (who wrote the film along with Annie Mumolo) as Annie, a down-and-out baker who is asked to be the maid of honor in the wedding of her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph).  Annie has had no luck in recent months, having lost her novelty bakery to the recession, which cost her a boyfriend as well.  She shares an apartment with two lazy British roommates (Rebel Wilson and Matt Lucas), has a nagging mother (Jill Clayburgh, in her final film), and the lowest point, has an awful relationship with an obnoxious hunk (Jon Hamm) who just uses her for sex. 

Planning a wedding might have come as a welcome distraction, but it quickly turns out to be anything but as bridesmaid egos clash, plans go devastatingly wrong and budgets go overboard, all of which threaten the survival of Annie and Lillian's lifelong friendship.  The wedding-from-hell also risks Annie's chance at love again when a cute Irish cop (Chris O'Dowd) takes an interest and tries to get her motivated out of her current misery.

Wiig was funny as hell in this - if you're a fan of her on Saturday Night Live, you'll love her here, especially her drunken meltdown on a flight to Las Vegas.  But the scene stealer was Mike & Molly's Melissa McCarthy as bridesmaid Megan, the no-nonsense sister of the groom who has so many deadpan one-liners (among them: suggesting that the bridal shower have a Fight Club theme) that I can't imagine how many alternate takes they must have of some of her scenes.

Like I mentioned earlier, the movie is also totally gross.  I'm not always the biggest fan of gross-out comedies, but the infamous food-poisoning scene was insanely funny - again McCarthy steals the show here, in ways you don't even want to imagine. 

The movie wasn't perfect, I thought it ran a little long and some of the characters seemed a bit underdeveloped.  And I can't wait to see Jon Hamm in a movie when he's not playing a prick.  But it was still a hilariously funny movie.  I've heard it called the "female Hangover," but I would compare it more to The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which was also a raunchy comedy covering for what turned out to be a sweet story in the end. 

So Bridesmaids is definitely worth checking out, even if you've never been in a wedding.  It's even worth checking out if you're a guy - it's still that funny.

Arthur

 

Arthur is the “re-imagining” of a classic Dudley Moore comedy from the 80’s. Like most great films from that era now being pillaged and raped by Hollywood, Arthur continues the trend in failing to be better than or at very least as good as the original.

The story if you’re not at all familiar is about an irresponsible drunken billionaire heir to his successful families’ fortune. Arthur (Russell brand) is our drunken rich hero, who not only fails to appear somewhat believable in the role, but comes off as doing more of a ridiculous Moore impersonation than giving his own take to the character. He’s being forced to marry a woman he doesn’t care for in order to remain the heir to his family fortune. His mother, who played a very insignificant role in his upbringing, refuses to believe he’s capable of getting his shit together and representing their prestigious family name, so it’s her decision to have Arthurs' marriage arranged. She sets it up for him to tie the knot with one her most publicly well respected employees (Jennifer Garner). The only problem being that Arthur’s fallen in love with a “nobody” from queens that his mother won’t approve of.

As charming and funny as Russell Brand is at times it’s still very obvious the gig was strictly about the pay cheque. His humour would have easily suited an R rating much better than the PG13 cheese fest we’re given. The only real redeeming quality of the film was Helen Mirren’s portrayal of Arthur’s sarcastic and witty Nanny/surrogate mother Hobson.

I went in with high hopes of actually enjoying the film, but unfortanately I ended up more than disappointed. Not only did it feel like a pointless and failed remake, it was no different than any other recent rom-com. Had there been something to set it aside from everything else with a slightly more original take on the story, I think I might have had a different take coming out. Usually Brand finds a way to win the audience over, even when the character or story may be lacking. But without the freedom of an R rating It didn't fee like it was nearly as funny as it could have been.

Although there were a few good laughs throughout, they felt far and few between the drawn out and cliché plot. Not only was the story extremely obvious and predictable, it was also boring as hell. Sadly all Arthur really is, is a by the numbers romantic comedy, which also happens to be a poorly put together remake of an actually funny film.

Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark

Oh, Spiderman 3...all is forgiven.

Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark, the $65 million behemoth directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King) with songs by U2's Bono and The Edge, has been in previews on Broadway since last November.  Normally, preview performances for a Broadway show last about 2-3 weeks before it officially opens.  But as everyone knows by now, Spidey's much-delayed Broadway debut, which is still in previews, has been anything but normal. 

Originally scheduled to open over a year ago, the production literally ran out of money and shut down for months until a new investor could be found.  Rehearsals and preview performances were plagued by production delays, and even worse, several actors were seriously injured thanks to the show's complicated flying stunts.  To make matters worse, despite the fact the show was playing virtually sold out every night, word quickly spread that while the special effects (when they worked) were great, the show itself was a dud.  Critics, fed up with ongoing delays, went forward with their reviews back in February, and needless to say, the reviews were brutal. 

Well, the powers-that-be have taken action and Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark is set to close down later this month, delaying its opening night for the sixth time while the production undergoes a major overhaul.  Director Julie Taymor has been canned, Bono and The Edge have been summoned to write new music, and the choreographer has been replaced.

So is this show really so bad?  I saw it Saturday night, and put simply, the answer is...yep, it's terrible.

I left the Foxwoods Theatre convinced of two things:  that I don't think Julie Taymor has ever read a Spiderman comic book, and that Bono and The Edge have never seen a musical.  The story is a confusing, muddled mess, and the while the rock score was enjoyable (I'm a big U2 fan, so I can't hate on them too much), the lyrics of the songs were virtually incomprehensible.

The biggest mistake of Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark is that instead of choosing from a wealth of Spiderman stories to build a show around, Taymor decided to base the whole thing in Greek mythology, complete with a "Geek Chorus," four comic book geeks who narrate the show to the audience as they create their ultimate Spiderman story.  Now, I know geeks.  I'm proud to be one myself.  Real geeks would have come up with a better Spiderman story than this.  The Geek Chorus was reportedly supposed to represent Taymor, Bono, The Edge, and co-writer Glen Berger...which makes me think the show needs an even bigger theater than the Foxwoods to contain all of the egos behind this production.

But in reality, the Geek Chorus is just there as filler to keep the audience distracted (not entertained, because the Geeks were not even remotely entertaining) as the massive sets are changing around behind them.  Whenever their scenes are done, they sat on the side of the stage with the same glazed-over expressions as the rest of the audience had for most of the show.  You know it's bad when one of the ushers has to start the applause when the audience stayed silent after one of the songs ended.

Now, about those massive sets.  Visually, this show is stunning.  The way they did the perspective on the buildings, the projection screens...even the flying, which thankfully went off without incident at our performance, was actually really cool.  "Bouncing Off The Walls," a song in Act 1 when Peter Parker wakes up with his Spiderman powers and goes running and down the walls of his bedroom and then takes on the bullies at school while Batman-style "BAM!" "WHACK!" "POW!" signs flashed in the background, was a fun scene that I hope survives the upcoming show overhaul. We were sitting in the cheap seats up in the balcony, and Spiderman even managed to land in our section a few times, much to the delight of a little boy sitting in our row who yelled "OH MY GOD!  SPIDERMAN!" the first time that happened.

The problem was, the sets and special effects were too much, and far too distracting.  I kept thinking of a scene in Monty Python's Spamalot where King Arthur complains that they've gotten lost "in a dark, and very expensive forest."  They couldn't just have Peter and Mary Jane's houses, they had to have versions of their entire street folding in and out as they walked on a treadmill track as if they were walking all through Queens, while a miniture subway train kept rolling on and off the stage.  Sure, you could definitely see the $65 million up on that stage...you're just left wondering why they needed to blow it on such unnecessary stuff on the set. 

Getting back to that muddled mess of a story, at the beginning of Act 1, one of the Geeks suggests bringing in the character of Arachne, a woman who, according to Greek mythology, was transformed into a spider after defeating the goddess Athena at weaving.  So while Act 1 loosely follows the story of the first Spiderman film, the Arachne character randomly pops in and out of the story for some reason.  Is she Spidey's nemesis?  Guardian angel?  Who the hell knows.  What we do know is that she's there at the expense of Uncle Ben and Aunt May, who are totally underused.  Uncle Ben is hit by car instead of shot by a robber and never even tells Peter the "with great power comes great responsibility" line, and by Act 2, Aunt May is mostly reduced to a cameo.  Even J. Jonah Jameson isn't given much to do.

Arachne's most puzzling moment comes in Act 2, which is when Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark truly descends into madness.  Furiously jealous of Peter/Spidey's relationship with Mary Jane, Arachne plans to attack, but not before sending her army of spider-women to loot Manhattan shoe stores and perform a song dancing in high-heeled shoes.

Seriously.  That happened.

So where are the good villians?  Well, the Green Goblin is in Act 1.  He plays a mean piano, too.  I'm not kidding - he plays Rodgers and Hart's "I'll Take Manhattan" on the top of the Chrysler Building in front of a captive Spiderman.  We don't know why.  He's also dead by the end of Act 1, so we're stuck with Arachne for most of Act 2.  Arachne employs the Sinister Six (The Lizard, Kraven, Electro, Carnage, Swarm, and a new character called Swiss Miss) to wreak havoc in Act 2, but they don't do much more than show up on a fashion show-type runway to show off their cool costumes.  The Goblin shows up again as well, but in the end we learn that all of it was an illusion by Arachne and none of the villians were ever really there in the first place.  At this point we were all wishing we weren't there in the first place either.

Also missing are Spiderman's trademark wisecracks, or any development of Peter Parker as a character.  Spidey was played by Matthew James Thomas at our performance, and I thought he had a great voice and could have been a terrific Spiderman with the right material to work with.  Unfortunately, Taymor and crew seemed to think that once they got him flying, they didn't need to do anything else with him.  Same goes for Jennifer Damiano as Mary Jane - great voice, got to repeat a lot of Kirsten Dunst-type lines from the movies, but she didn't have much else to do.

As far as the music...like I said earlier, I'm a big U2 fan, so I did like parts of the score.  In fact, I'd love for U2 to grab some of this music back and use it on a future album.  The show had some decent songs, like the show's anthem, Rise Above, and Spidey's big eleven o'clock number, The Boy Falls From The Sky is another highlight.  But they're rock songs, and instead of moving the story along, they grind it to a halt.  Earlier on Saturday, I saw the matinee performance of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  Now, that's a 50-year-old musical.  But those songs were the ones I was still humming to myself after leaving Spiderman.  I couldn't remember how a single song from Spiderman went afterwards without having to look it up.

Before Spiderman started previews last year, 60 Minutes ran a behind-the-scenes look at the troubled production, which you can watch here.  Sadly, this show's troubles were only just getting started when the segment aired, but one comment, by producer Michael Cohl stood out for me.  Discussing the show's massive budget, he said that "No one wants to see the $25 million Spiderman." 

Well...if the $25 million Spiderman had some better songs, a coherent story, and wouldn't leave everyone holding their breath hoping that no one gets hurt every time an actor goes up on the wires, then yeah, I would totally take the $25 million Spiderman over this bloated mess.  I felt bad for the entire cast, who was so talented and clearly working their asses off on that stage.  They deserve a better show...and so does Spiderman.

Moan Of The Week - 'Ghost World' (2001)

Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch is by far the most visually entertaining movie I think Zack Snyder or any other filmmaker has made in a long time. Right off the bat I have to throw it out there, the action set pieces and visual mind-fucks of this film will blow you away!

We start out with being introduced to Baby Doll (Emily Browning) who's wrongfully imprisoned in a mental institution. During her stay she spends nearly all her time in a fantasy world she's created for herself to escape her own "reality", although there's actually very little reality to the film at all. In her fantasy world she's being held in a brothel/burlesque house. It's in the brothel where she discovers her crazy dance moves which only bring her further into the fantasy worlds she's creating. The fantasy worlds themselves feel a lot like a video game premise. They need to find key items in order to escape and must defeat the most ridiculous and other worldly foes along the way.

Being that the film is set in the 60's one of the threats looming in Baby Dolls reality is the possibility of a lobotomy. This helps serve as her biggest motive in needing to escape. The only problem is very little of the "real world" is actually taking place throughout the film, making it somewhat of a narrative nightmare. Although the story jumps all over the place and at times feels like the last twenty years of pop culture was just smashed together in one nonsensical action flick, Snyder does an amazing job of keeping you interested and invested to the end. A lot of the film seems like a huge departure from a lot of his previous films in so many ways, but at the same time it has the very noticable Snyder stamp all throughout it. I know most peoples complaints are always that he's too visual and brings no substance to his films. With Sucker Punch there's definitely a recurring theme of male empowerment over women and their attempts to stand strong on their own. It wasn't at all what I expected going in, but served as a surprisingly very intruiging and interesting plot point.

The biggest complaint I'm expecting people to have is the third act. Everything leading up this point seems absolutely brilliant and brings you to think this may be Snyder's best work to date. But this is where you'll either come to love it or hate it. Like most Snyder films there's not much grey area left in between. I found myself torn at this point as well, on the one hand the end and the conclusion make perfect sense, but on the other it almost feels as though things fall apart and don't come together as smoothly as first two acts did. Overall the film works on more levels than it doesn't. The biggest acheivement would likely be succesfully thinking outside the box and not going the safe route like all too many film makers and studios seem to be doing more and more now.

The performances, cinematography, writing and obviously directing were all things I thought worked amazingly. Although I'm well aware not everyone will be able to agree with me, I can honestly say that I actually loved Sucker Punch. It's likely at least the most visual film we'll see this year. It's just too bad that the story behind all the amazing action scenes and visual effects won't get nearly as much if any credit at all.