Bring ear plugs and sun screen to The Kingdom. So many things blow up that you’ll need ear protection from the sound and tanning lotion to prevent getting a sun burn from the glare off the giant fireballs that light up screen.
Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx is Ronald Fleury, an FBI special agent who leads a rogue band of investigators—Chris Cooper’s explosives expert, an intelligence analyst played by Jason Bateman and a forensics specialist in the form of Jennifer Garner—to Saudi Arabia to track down and arrest the terrorists behind a brutal attack on a compound housing American oil company workers and their families. They have just five days to sift through the evidence and find the evildoers.
The Kingdom has a jittery, over-amped feel that suggests the director, Peter Berg, may have chugged one too many Red Bulls between takes. He stages the action scenes well, and creates a fair bit of tension—particularly in the film’s chaotic final twenty minutes—but I found myself occasionally wishing that the camera would stop flying around so we could focus and actually clearly see what was happening on screen.
Berg’s decision to keep the camera in almost constant motion mostly suits the action oriented tone of the film, unfortunately he doesn’t fare as well at creating compelling, fully rounded characters.
Foxx displays his usual charisma as the FBI team leader and has some nice moments, both tender and butt-kicking but the other members of his team are reduced to stereotypes—Bateman’s smart alec analyst, Cooper’s wise old investigator and Garner’s cute but steely forensics genius—that wouldn’t seem out of place on any of the CSI shows on television. The movie’s top character and best performance comes from Ashraf Barhom as the compassionate but deadly Arab colonel.
Aside from a masterful montage at the beginning of the film which traces the history of U.S.—Saudi involvement from the 1930s onwards, The Kingdom isn’t going to shed light on the conflict in the Middle East. It is essentially a western. They are the good guys and the bad guys and no shades of grey. Not every movie about the Middle East needs to dig deep into the politics of region, but The Kingdom’s take on the way to deal with terrorism, although crowd pleasing, turns the FBI into vigilantes and anyone in a caftan or a kepi into bad guys.
Director Mike Judge understands crappy jobs. “Office Space,” his 1998 cult comedy, is not only a very funny look into minimum wage but an insightful one as well. Ditto his new work place comedy “Extract,” except for the funny part. It nails the workplace dynamic but unfortunately it isn’t nearly as laugh out loud as you would expect from the creator of “Beavis and Butthead.”
“Extract” stars Jason Bateman as Joel, the owner of Reynolds’s Extract Company. He’s an unhappy, sexually frustrated former bartender and chemistry major obsessed with flavor extracts; pure, mostly colorless, concentrated flavors used in baking. Looking for a way out of his business and marriage complicates his life. Taking bad advice from his friend Dean (Ben Affleck), a bartender and self proclaimed spiritualist and healer he hires a dimwitted gigolo to test his wife’s fidelity, tries to stave off a lawsuit from an injured employee and falls for Cindy (Mila Kunis) a beautiful kleptomaniac who almost costs him everything.
“Extract” has some funny moments. David Koechner as the neighbor from hell is as amusing a character as we’re likely to see this year and there is a bong scene that gives Cheech and Chong a run for their money, but by and large it’s a great example of the trailer giving away all the best moments. The film is a bit of a comedy flat line but you’d never know it from the trailer which showcases at least four solid laughs. Too bad the movie only has six or seven in total.
Having said that, “Extract” is a likeable movie. The story plays well enough without nonstop laughs and the main and supporting casts are interesting.
Jason Bateman brings a low key charm to Joel. As his life spins out of control Bateman slowly ratchets up the anxiety level and even though the situation is unbelievable—I can’t imagine too many men hiring a gigolo to tempt their better half—he grounds the role in realism. The beauty of the performance is that the viewer feels for him even though he’s making every mistake in the book.
Mila Kunis smolders as Cindy the manipulative con woman and Ben Affleck continues his career rehabilitation with a supporting role that plays against the leading man type roles that nearly sunk him a few years ago.
When the movie shifts away from the main characters the casting is just as strong. The odd cast of losers, loners and nonconformists that populate the factory are a colorful addition to a film already ripe with strong characters.
“Extract” is billing itself as a comedy which does it a disservice. It isn’t funny enough to compete against “The Hangovers” and the “Brunos” of the summer season, but it does succeed as an engaging character study.
Just when I was ready to declare the romantic comedy genre dead along comes a movie that makes believe that there is some life left in the old boy-meets-girl storyline. “The Switch”, a new rom com starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman as best friends who—now here’s a surprise—might have unresolved feelings for one another doesn’t exactly cover new ground, but it covers the old ground in a pleasing, interesting way. Dear friends, it’s not time to write that eulogy just yet.
At the beginning of the movie Wally (Bateman) is described as a beady eyed manboy. That’s a pretty apt description, although it leaves out insecure, hypochondriac and loner. His best friend Kassie (Aniston) is a network television producer with “gorgeous cervical mucus” desperate to have a baby, even though she is single with no prospects of a boyfriend, let alone husband. Wally offers his “services” but she declines. “She wouldn’t know good sperm if it slapped her in the face,” offers Jeff Goldblum, Wally’s pal from work. She eventually settles on Roland, a married, but genetically blessed donor. On the night of the artificial insemination Wally, who doesn’t approve of the whole thing gets black out drunk and makes a switch. Cut to seven years later. Kassie and son Sebastian (Thomas Robinson) return to New York after living in Minnesota. Wally’s memories of that night are foggy at best, but the more time he spends with Sebastian the more he is convinced he is the father. The problem is Kassie is more interested in striking up a relationship with Roland, the man she believes is the boy’s biological or “seed” dad.
“The Switch” has much in common with other romantic comedies. It shares same kind of predictable plot, the New York setting so crucial to rom coms and the convention of the wacky friend—Jeff Goldblum is a wild eccentric presence here, but makes it worth staying to the end to hear a snippet of his bebop piano version of Happy Birthday.
What’s missing is the shiny gloss of most other romantic comedies. Despite the kind of outlandish plot “The Switch” feels like maybe there are actually real emotions involved instead of the usual rom com faux feelings. For instance in the final reveal—no spoilers here, but you can likely guess what it is—there is no sappy music trying to manipulate us into feeling a certain way. Instead there are believable characters in a slightly unreal situation behaving the way real people might. The tears look genuine and unlike most romantic comedies, they aren’t always tears of joy. Call it an art house rom com if you like but if all romantic comedies were this good the idea of going to see people fall in love at the movies wouldn’t be so odious.
This is considerably more charming than say, “The Back Up Plan,” the JLo movie from earlier this year that covered some of the same ground as “The Switch” and it is mostly because of the actors. Aniston and Bateman are compelling and watchable but it is Sebastian (played at different ages by brothers Thomas and Bryce Robinson) who is the bow on the package. His (their?) deadpan performance is both hilarious and touching.
“The Switch” is much better than it has to be and gives me hope that romance isn’t dead in Hollywood.
“The Change Up,” a new comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, is like two movies in one. It’s part gross out comedy, part heart tugger and all Hollywood switcheroo.
Reynolds and Bateman are Mitch and Dave, best friends since grade three but total opposites. Bateman is a career mind lawyer and family man, Reynolds a slacker womanizer who lives like a frat boy. Both have a bad case of “the grass is always greener” and on one freaky Friday they wake up to discover they have switched personalities. Of course no one will believe their outlandish story of personality swapping so they are forced to live each other’s lives until they can figure out how to switch back. Mitch must fake being a lawyer and Dave has to… well, pretend to be a slacker. In their time in each other’s bodies they discover much about themselves–Dave learns not to be so uptight and Mitch learns never to let Dave get a tatoo–and learn to rspect one another’s lives.
“The Change-Up” feels as though it switched directors midway through. The first hour is all gross out–baby endangerment, diaper hijinx and pregnant sex kittens–but into the second hour the characters not only start respecting one another, but the audience as well. It’s still pretty outrageous stuff, but it has far more heart than the first half and the “I can’t believe they just did that” laughs morph into genuine laughs based on the story and characters.
Bateman and Reynolds have good chemistry and do a nice, subtle job of integrating the other’s personality tics into their performances. Bateman adds a little “Van Wilder” to his speech and Reynolds drops his energy a few notches to match Bateman’s more laconic style. It works because they are both likeable actors, with charm and charisma to burn. They can play the comedy, but later, when real life enters the story, they can play that as well. This would have been a much different movie if flat out comedians like Will Ferrell and Danny McBride or thesps like Al Pacino and Sean Penn had been cast as the leads.
“The Change Up” feels a bit wonky, as if it can’t decide whether to be an R-rated gross fest or a heartfelt rom com. Somewhere between the two is a better movie than the one we got, but for those with a strong stomach for diaper humor there ae some laughs here.
The guys from “Swingers” have finally grown up. Thirteen years after their break out hit Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau are teamed up again but this time around the zoot suits have been left in storage and the hipster lingo is a thing of the past. In “Couples Retreat” (sic) the boys are old hipsters with wives, kids, martial dysfunction and a group of friends teetering on the cusp of major mid life crisis. They’re no longer “money,” to use the “Swingers” lingo, but they’re in for some major change.
The story focuses on four couples Dave and Ronnie (Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman), Shane and Trudy (Faizon Love and Kali Hawk), Jason and Cynthia (Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell), and Joey and Lucy (Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis) who go to an island resort called Eden West. This isn’t Sandals or Hedonism, however, couples at Eden West are expected to follow a rigorous relationship building course, that is equal parts Tai Chi, couples therapy and Art of War, taught by Marcel (Jean Reno). Participation is not optional, and of course, each of the couples learns something new about themselves and their bond.
“Couples Retreat” annoyed me for many reasons. First off, when did it become OK for Hollywood to completely ignore the lowly apostrophe? The title should be “Couple’s Retreat,” but apparently no one at Universal (or Vaughn or Favreau) owns a copy of “The Elements of Style.” Punctuation, however, is just the beginning of the problems with “Couple Retreat.”
The movie starts promisingly. The cast is likeable enough—Vaughn, Favreau, Jason Bateman, Faison Love, Malin Ackerman and the two Kristens, Davis and Bell—and the opening half-an-hour pleases in a low-fi way. As a set up to the main action—the trip to the Bora Bora—we’re treated to a mostly well written and interesting introduction to the characters. And Vaughn and Ackerman’s youngest son is hilarious. As I say, it’s mostly good stuff that sets up the relationship comedy that is to follow, except that once they hit the island at 40ish minute mark the movie slows to a slow grind. A grating slow grind.
What is it about comedies set on islands Remember “Club Paradise”? “Club Dread”? Sunshine and sky blue water seem to be comedy killers (except for “Gilligan’s Island” of course!). It’s certainly the case here. The post island scenes are only intermittently amusing, slowed by therapy scenes that don’t deliver big laughs and predictable relationship “development” that should be heartfelt but feels forced.
High points include Carlos Ponce as the randy yoga instructor Salvadore and the scenes with the kids that bookend the film. Low points include every minute the usually reliable Jean Reno is on screen and the beyond shameless product placement for Applebee’s and Guitar Hero.
“Couples Retreat” feels like a movie of missed opportunities. It’s not funny enough to be called a comedy and when the best relationship advice on offer is about finding the right person to take to Applebee’s, it can’t be called insightful either.
It’s a pop culture cliché that all child actors grow up to become the subject of tragic tabloid stories. Sure adulthood was not kind to Gary Coleman or Jodie Sweetin, (although she does earn a point or two for the title of her tell-all, unSweetined), but there are dozens of kid actors who grew up to have fulfilling careers in Hollywood.
Jason Bateman is one of the lucky ones who made the transition to adult roles with ease. At twelve he debuted as James Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie and, dozens of credits later, this weekend stars in Identity Thief opposite comedy it-girl Melissa McCarthy.
The longevity of his career is dwarfed by Jodie Foster, whose forty-seven years on screen have seen her do everything from Disney movies like Freaky Friday to playing an underage prostitute in Taxi Driver to winning Oscars for The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs. “I don’t know why people think child actresses in particular are screwed up,” she says. “I see kids everywhere who are totally bored. I’ve never been bored a day in my life.”
Mickey Rooney’s cameo appearance in The Muppets marked ten decades of acting in movies. He was just a year-and-a-half old when he began performing in his parent’s vaudeville act and made his first film just a few years later playing Mickey McGuire in a series of short films. The audition breakdown requested a young boy with dark hair so Mickey’s mom rubbed burnt cork to his scalp to color his blonde hair.
Long before Elijah Wood donned huge hairy feet and went off in search of the magical ring in Lord of the Rings, he kept busy as a child actor in movies like Internal Affairs and Radio Flyer.
It’s hard to top winning an Oscar at age 11, but Anna Paquin has gone on to distinguish herself in indie hits like The Squid And The Whale and on television in True Blood.
And speaking of Oscars, one of this year’s Best Actor nominees, Joaquin Phoenix, made his debut at age eight, appearing on an episode of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers with his brother River. “There are kids who get on a BMX bike when they’re eight and they go, ‘Whoa, this is incredible’ and grow up to do extreme sports,” he said. “It’s the same for me with acting.”
