“The Lego Movie” is possibly the weirdest, most psychedelic kid’s entertainment since “H.R. Pufnstuf.”
Released by a big corporation—Warner Bros—and based on one of the world’s most popular toys, it manages to feel as though a kid who threw away his Lego kit’s instructions and snapped the blocks together in random, fun ways made it.
When we arrive at the Lego universe it is ruled by the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell), a tyrant obsessed with perfection and conformity. In his world the radio pumps out perfect pop sings like “Everything is Awesome,” and a group of robotic “micro-managers” ensures that everything is just so.
To guarantee the world he has created from interlocking bricks stays just the way he wants it, he has a plan to spray the entire thing—Lego people and all—with Kraggle, a super glue that will permanently paste everything it touches into Lord Business’s idea of excellence.
When Emmet (Chris Pratt), a Lego figure who was invisible in life, stumbles across the “piece of resistance” he becomes The Special, the greatest Master Builder in the universe, jopining a group that includes Batman (Will Arnett), a pirate named Metalbeard (Nick Offerman), Abraham Lincoln (Will Forte), Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) and Green Lantern (Jonah Hill).
With the help of the Master Builders, a loopy wizard named Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) and Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) a tough young woman with a sensitive side, Emmet must break free of the chains of conformity and defeat Lord Business.
The first thing you notice about “The Lego Movie” is the look. It’s computer-animated but looks like stop-motion. The film’s handmade composition isn’t slick, but it is playful, which is a perfect compliment to its Lego origins. (It should be noted, however, that the movie in no way plays like a commercial for the toys.) From the crude Lego flames to the awkward way the characters move, the movie is completely consistent in its vision of a Lego world.
The second thing you’ll notice is how off the wall the story is. It’s not just off-the-wall, it’s off-the-planet. Directors and co-writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have taken the movie’s credo of battling against conformity to heart and made a big budget studio movie that bends all the rules. At its heart it’s a simple hero journey, a primal story about good against evil, but frenetic storytelling and inventive twists in almost every scene add a richness that belies its humble toy story origins.
It may be a bit too hectic at times—blame video game influence for that—and a titch too long for little ones with short attention spans, but the overriding message of dancing to your own beat combined with an unexpected and touching live-action section make “The Lego Movie” far more than an exercise in nostalgia for parents who grew up creating worlds from little plastic blocks or a way to sell more toys to a new audience. Instead it’s a wildly entertaining movie that uses the toys as a muse, and does what the toys have always done, light imaginations on fire.
I’m glad I saw the first “Hunger Games” movie because I’m not sure if I would have a clue as to what was going on if I didn’t have that background. I may have been taken in by the beautiful art direction, or Jennifer Lawrence’s intense performance, but I don’t think I would have been able to connect all the dots. Plot points become more obvious in the second hour, but for non-Hungerites it might be confusing.
If you haven’t seen the first movie, or read one of the 26 million copies of the book that are currently in print, here’s a glossary of terms to get you up to speed.
Katniss Everdeen: Sixteen year-old protagonist and citizen of District 12, a poor mining area in the dystopian nation of Panem.
Peeta Mellark: A baker’s son, who, according to Wikipedia has “extensive strength and cake decorating skills that contributed to the art of camouflage.”
Both are “tributes” chosen from the young people of District 12 and forced to participate in an annual Hunger Games, The Hunger Games, an annual televised event in which one teenaged boy and girl from each districts surrounding the Capitol are chosen by lottery to fight to the death until only one remains.
There’s more, but you’ll figure it out.
In the new film combatants and sweethearts Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) have returned from the 74th Annual Hunger Games victorious to become the toast of the nation. While on a Victory Tour to Panem’s various downtrodden districts, revolution is in the air. They see Katniss as a symbol of freedom, which, of course, doesn’t sit well with President Snow (Donald Sutherland), the country’s autocratic leader. To quell the revolution he and his head gamesmaker (Philip Seymour Hoffman) devise the trickiest Hunger Games yet, the Quarter Quell that will pit former winners against one another in the battle to the death. If Snow gets his way Katniss will be killed and the revolution squashed.
“Hunger Games: Catching Fire” is a better movie than the first installment.
Set decorated and costumed (as played by Elizabeth Banks, District 12 minder Effie Trinket has the most elaborate futurist art deco costumes since “Metropolis”) to within an inch of its life, but has nonetheless has a gritty edge. It doesn’t feel like a budget big franchise movie and that’s a good thing,
Visually as well as thematically it has more edge than any of the recent Marvel movies. And it skirts around the thing that upset many people about the first movie—the idea of kids killing kids—by setting the action between former victors ranging in age from 20s to 70s.
It creates a world with it’s own rules, style and customs and does so convincingly. In part it’s comprised of things we’ve seen before in everything from the human sacrifices of Greek Mythology to reality television to stories of government corruption on the news, but author Suzanne Collins and director Francis “I Am legend” Lawrence tie it together to create something new.
In many ways it breaks the mold of what we expect from a young adult a blockbuster. The focus is on the characters and the underpinning of romance that snakes throughout the story. The action sequences are few and far between and it takes almost an hour before any of Katniss’s trademark bow-and-arrow dexterity comes into play. (Silly complaint: the number of arrows in her quiver changes from shot to shot! Just when you think she’s out, arrows magically appear.)
Sure there’s poison fog, angry animals and vicious victors but it’s about survival and relationships not the wholesale slaughter of the characters. It’s grim, shot in hues of grey with a perpetually overcast sky, which lends it a classic feel, more like 1970s sci fi than the brightly couloured eye catchers Hollywood makes these days.
“Hunger Games: Catching Fire” has a who’s who of a cast—Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, Jena Malone, Brit heartthrob Sam Claflin and Amanda Plummer—who all perform well, lending some gravitas to the story, but it is carried by Lawrence whose vision for Katniss is as straight as an arrow.
The title is a bit of a misnomer because the brother in question isn’t exactly an idiot. He’s more a trusting soul who naïve ways get him, and those around him, in trouble.
Paul Rudd plays Ned, a Mr. Nice Guy unsuited for life outside of his organic farm. Imagine R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural and you’ll get the picture. When he innocently sells marijuana to a uniformed policeman he is arrested and thrown in jail. His good nature stands him well in jail, where he earns an early release—he won Most Cooperative four months running. Unfortunately in his absence his hippie girlfriend found a new boyfriend and has decided that Willie Nelson, Ned’s beloved dog, is better off with her than with him. His three sisters (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Dechanel and Emily Mortimer) take turns putting a roof over his head, but in each case his willingness to believe the best in people causes chaos.
“Our Idiot Brother” is a low key indie comedy with a much different feel from the movies that made Rudd famous. His Apatow years have been spent doing broad comedy in movies like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up but this is more character based—and less funny.
There are laughs here, but instead of going for the jokes Rudd is concentrating on playing he character and allowing the humor to flow naturally from him and the situations. The result is a character driven comedy with a lot of compassion and some very good supporting performances from the women playing his sisters.
Banks, Dechanel and Mortimer each bring a different flavor to their roles. Banks is a driven writer with sketchy ethics, Dechanel a free-ish spirit with commitment issues while Mortimer plays a mousy mom. They all stand in stark contrast to the innocence of their brother but their presence buoys, and gives heart to, the film’s family first message.
“Our Idiot Brother” is a likeable comedy elevated by a strong cast who bring empathy to characters who, in less experienced hands, might not have had any.
With a cast that includes Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde and Michelle Pfeiffer apparently the “people like us” referred to in the title are all exceptionally good-looking persons. Just as the cast reflects a specific, unreal vision of real life, so does the script.
Chris Pine plays Sam a sleazy New York salesman who is on the cusp of being investigated for fraud. When his estranged father passes away he travels to Los Angeles only to confront his mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) and his father’s legacy—a daughter named Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) from a second, secret family.
This family drama has much going for it, but gets almost fatally bogged down by melodrama and the way the movie stretches out Sam’s inability to tell Frankie why he’s glommed on to her and son Josh (Michael Hall D’Addario).
To make up for the slow moving story director Alex Kurtzman tries to jumpstart the pacing with frenetically edited scenes that would seem more appropriate to an action film. I know Chris Pine is best known as the young Captain Kirk, but not all his movies need to be cut as though a fight is about to break out.
It’s too bad because at the core of the film is an interesting story, which is ably performed by the good looking cast (even if they are frequently saddled with long melodramatic, confessional speeches).
Pine proves he can do more than action pieces and Pfeiffer has a small, but complex part, but it is D’Addario who adds heart to the story. As Frankie’s troubled eleven-year-old son he grounds the movie, giving the viewer a reason to feel empathy not only for him but for Sam and Frankie as well.
“People Like Us” is an effective family drama, clumsily told.
In Definitely, Maybe Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds plays Will Hayes, a divorcee with a young daughter (Abigail Breslin) and relationship woes of near epic proportions.
The movie begins with the eight-year-old wanting to know how her father met her mother. Will agrees to share the story, but changes the names and the places, creating a “romantic mystery” the little girl must unravel. For the next couple of hours Will unwinds a bedtime story of love lost and found complete with all the gossipy details. It’s an interesting framework for a romantic comedy, and, aside from the questionable practice of an adult sharing the details of his sexual history with a youngster, this romantic Rashômon works very well.
With Maya hanging off every word, and even making up flow charts to keep track of her father’s various involvements, Will works through his romantic life, starting with his college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks), right up to his big city crushes, the sexy and free spirited Summer (Rachel Weisz) and the edgy April (Isla Fisher). There are ups and downs along the way—one woman tells him that they shouldn’t date because they’re like “Lennon and McCartney… Good while they lasted but afterwards they couldn’t even be friends”—and even though he tries to present a PG version of the story, he still occasionally gets down and dirty with the details.
The romantic escapades are woven in amongst a timely parallel story of Will’s involvement with the Clinton—Bill Clinton, that is—campaign in 1992.
In recent years the romantic comedy genre has suffered from a bad case of predictability. Most often you know how they going to end before they even start, so it is the journey, how the characters end up in a loving embrace at the end of the film that matters. Definitely, Maybe’s storytelling structure is a different take on the tried and true formula and while it does have a happy ending—it has to otherwise it would be a romantic tragedy!—the twist adds some life to an otherwise moribund genre. It’s a rom com for grown-ups; a little more realistic than most (although just a tad more realistic), with a welcome bit of edge.
Like all good romantic comedies Definitely, Maybe is set in New York, and has some genuine laughs, mostly bolstered by a charming cast led by Reynolds, whose chemistry with the women and Breslin seems real and unforced. His sense of timing is bang on, and his way with physical humor works here—a subtle sight gag that sees him, with his big hands, drinking from a tiny juice box drew laughs and awws from the audience I saw it with—and since he is in every scene, it’s ultimately his charisma that carries the movie.
Definitely, Maybe still has most of the predictable elements found in many movies of its genre, but is heartfelt and just different enough to earn a recommendation.
Within the first five minutes of Zach and Miri Make a Porno director Kevin Smith establishes the tone of the next ninety minutes. Mere moments after the opening credits he unleashes bathroom jokes, racial jabs and a sequence involving burning pubic hair. It’s not for the faint of heart, but then again the faint of heart likely wouldn’t be caught dead at a movie about two platonic friends who decide to make a pornographic movie to raise money to pay their bills.
“If it’s so easy why doesn’t everyone do it?” asks a skeptical Miri.
“Because other people have options and dignity… which we don’t have,” replies Zach in one of the film’s better exchanges.
Seth Rogen, Hollywood’s go-to Canadian funnyman, and Elizabeth Banks, Rogen’s 40 Year Old Virgin cast mate, play the titular roommates. When their water, electricity and heat are shut off for non-payment of bills on the eve of their high school reunion their already dire situation gets much, much worse. After a chance meeting with a gay porn star (a very funny Justin Long) they hit on the idea of making dirty movies for fun and profit. Well, mostly for profit. “Paris Hilton makes a night vision sex tape,” says Zach, “and now she’s selling perfume to tweens!” After a casting session turns up some willing actors and actresses they begin production on an ill fated erotic reimagining of Star Wars but as the clothes come off and the cameras roll Zach and Miri reveal much more about themselves than what’s under their clothes.
As usual director Kevin Smith, of Clerks and Mallrats fame, manages to be saccharine and over-the-top vulgar simultaneously—a recipe that Judd Apatow has perfected in recent years—although nothing here approaches the gross out of 2006’s Clerks II. Even a gag about an… unusual cure for constipation comes off as cute. Smith, however, is still better at making us laugh than warming our hearts which is Zach and Miri’s main downfall.
The comedy works more often than not, but when the movie switches to full-on romance mode it flops around more than overenthusiastic actors in amateur porn. Banks has the right stuff to be funny, sexy and romantic on-screen and Rogen displays his usual goofy charm, but Smith’s script has too many gaps in logic—I know, it’s a sex comedy, but it should still make sense—to make the relationship aspect believable, let alone something the audience would really care about.
Zach and Miri Make a Porno features frequently endearing characters, some funny supporting work from real live porn stars—Katie Morgan as a big-hearted but dumb stripper and Traci Lords—and a performance from Justin Long that is guaranteed to become a youtube favorite but it lacks the heart of Rogen’s others films, most notably Knocked Up and Superbad, and gets bogged down when it tries to hammer home its sappy “ain’t love grand” ending.
