SYNOPSIS: In “Good Fortune,” a body-swap comedy starring Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves and now playing in theatres, a bumbling guardian angel attempts to convince a down-on-his-luck guy that money won’t solve all his problems. “”Money in your pocket can’t hide the poverty in your character,” says tech mogul Jeff (Seth Rogen).
CAST: Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh, and Keanu Reeves. Directed by Aziz Ansari.
REVIEW: If “Trading Places,” “Nomadland” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” had a baby, it might look something like “Good Fortune.”
In his directorial debut, Aziz Ansari, who also wrote the script, stars as Arj, a down-on-his-luck handyman who, if he didn’t have bad luck, wouldn’t have no luck at all. He does odd jobs for tech bro Jeff (Seth Rogen), a wealthy guy who never met an excess he didn’t embrace. “I did everything right,” Arj says, “but nothing is working out.”
Arj gets a second chance at life when his “budget” Guardian Angel Gabriel (Keanu Reeves)—he usually sticks to saving people from texting and driving—is inspired by the other guardian angels to do something more meaningful with his job.
Wanting to show lost soul Arj how superficial a life of wealth can be the angel offers him a chance to see life through Jeff’s eyes.
Literally.
Gabriel swaps Arj and Jeff, allowing them to live one another’s lives. “Maybe I can show you that [that] life is not all it’s cracked up to be,” Gabriel says to Arj.
Trouble is, Arj’s problems are solved by Jeff’s cash. “I tried to show him that wealth wouldn’t solve all his problems, but it seems to have solved most of his problems.” As punishment for his divine intervention Gabriel loses his wings and is sent to Earth to become Jeff’s roommate. “You have to get Arj to go back,” says head angel Martha (Sandra Oh). “Until then I have to take your wings.”
“Good Fortune” is an American Dream satire with a standout performance from Keanu Reeves who brings humor and heart to the fallen angel Gabriel. All innocence and wide eyes, Reeves plays Gabriel like a baby in a man’s body as he learns about the simple pleasures of street tacos, dancing and laughing. “How will I know when I’m done chewing?” he asks as he tastes food for the first time. It’s a strange, committed performance that provides many of the film’s unexpected laughs.
Rogen and Ansari are solid, playing characters that echo their previous roles, but Reeves is the glue that sticks “Good Fortune’s” simple and sentimental story together.
Hidden underneath the character driven story are incisive and biting commentary on the difficulty of the gig economy—“We have it good” rich guy Jeff tells his board of directors, “because they have it bad.”—being true to yourself and finding hope in life. The presentation of the ideas is earnest, but effective situationally.
“Good Fortune” isn’t a laugh a minute, but the situation overall is amusing and director Ansari milks some laughs out of the circumstances.
“This is the End,” a new apocalyptic comedy starring a who’s who of millennial stars, is the most meta movie of the year. Maybe of the decade. Possibly ever.
The story begins when best friends Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen attend a party at James Franco’s house in the Hollywood Hills. The “How to Train Your Dragon” isn’t happy at the crowded get together. He’s uncomfortable with phoniness of it all and Jonah Hill’s “I loved you in ‘Million Dollar Baby’” pandering.
Jay and Seth get some air on a smoke and snack run to a nearby convenience store, but before they can pay for the Marlboroughs and Munchos, something strange—really odd—happens. Flames fill the sky. The earth opens, swallowing people, places and things. Blue lights from the heavens beam blessed people skyward, leaving the damned to stay put.
It’s the end of times, but back at Franco’s mansion it’s business as usual. Michael Cera is snorting cocaine, Jason Segal is mingling and Craig Robinson is leading a singsong of a song called “Take Off Your Panties.”
The shaky town partygoers are nonplussed as the earth rumbles—it’s earthquake territory after all—until a giant sinkhole in the front yard gobbles up many of the guests, (MILD SPOILER) including Cera, Aziz Ansari, Rhianna and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.
Inside the survivors—the broken social scene of frenemies Baruchel, Rogen Hill, Franco, Robinson and Danny McBride—ration what few supplies they have and try and figure out what the hell is going on.
“When disaster strikes,” says Franco, trying to maintain calm, “who do they rescue first? The actors!”
Thus begins a story of survival of the famous and a lesson on how to get on the right side of the Rapture.
Each member of the scruffy core ensemble—including two Oscar nominees!—play heightened versions of their screen personas. For Rogen’s fans there’s the easygoing stoner. Franco plays it pretentious and edgy while Hill actually refers to himself as “America’s Sweetheart.”
Dynamics develop.
Franco is fixated on Rogen, Hill hates Baruchel and McBride is the wildest card in the deck.
As an experiment in insider tomfoolery bordering on narcissism, it’s a hilariously unhinged look into celebrity that takes no prisoners. They poke fun at their own work—particularly “Your Highness” and “The Green Hornet”—careers and personas. It’s a brazen mega meta idea that works well, more so if you’re already fans of the guys.
Emma Watson buffs will also be treated to a different, axe wielding side of Hermione and Channing Tatum’s cameo must be seen to be believed.
The biblical aspects of the story are played remarkably straight for a pedal-to-the-metal frat boy comedy. Anatomically correct Harryhausen-esque demons wreak havoc and a moral message about sacrifice and a “do unto others” sentiment is somewhat unexpected given the tone of the rest of the film.
Not unexpected from this bunch is a reliance on juvenile barf and bodily fluid gags. Kicking a dismembered head around like a soccer ball is one thing in a funny movie about earth and destruction, but screenwriters Rogen and Evan Goldberg play up the low brow aspects just a bit to much.
“This is the End” packs a great deal into its one hour and forty-five minute running time. Not all the jokes land—in fact quite a few don’t—but when it is clicking on all cylinders it is the funniest and most inventive comedy of the summer.
