Month: January 2015

Yes Man (2008)

Yes Man (2008)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On TV, January 2015)  I’m not sure when the Jim Carrey golden era ended.  We all know it started in 1994, but the classic rubber-faced speed-talking Carrey sort of petered out during the mid-2000s, and Yes Man, with its similarities with archetypical Carrey vehicle Liar, Liar, feels like the end of an era not even eight years later.  Suffice to say that a simple premise (a man convinced he must say Yes! To all questions asked of him) leads to ample opportunities for broad comedy in the typical Carrey mold, stripping away a clean-cut exterior to reveal madness within.  Carrey is pretty good as his usual shtick, even though the mechanics of the say-yes plot are moronic at best.  This being said, the film doesn’t quite work as a romantic comedy, partially because Carrey is eighteen years older than co-star Zooey Deschanel (and looks like it; the role plays better as a young-man one) and partially because the film has such a high concept that it sucks all the oxygen required for a romantic subplot to truly breathe – it simply falls back on broad strokes in which the audience supplies their own emotional connection based on generic subplot knowledge.  Still, Yes Man isn’t hard to watch – it’s good-natured, dumb and goofy enough to be pleasant even when it doesn’t do much that the expected.  Terence Stamp has a fun turn as a cranky motivational speaker and, of course, Carrey is likable no matter the circumstances.  While the results may not be spectacular, they do extend what we could think of as the classic-Carrey filmography and that’s already nothing to dismiss.

The Terminal (2004)

The Terminal (2004)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(In French, On TV, January 2015)  Big-budget high-concept mimetic dramas are getting scarce on the ground at an a time where spectacle reigns at the box-office, but throw enough big names at a project and you may find a few surprises.  This Spielberg-directed film stars Tom Hanks as a tourist who finds himself stranded within New York’s JFK airport after a coup back home.  Laboriously trying to make sense of an unfamiliar environment, he eventually manages to learn English, earn a decent salary as a construction worker, romance a high-flying stewardess and accomplish his original goals.  It may sound simple, but much of the film’s pleasure is in seeing it unfold in quasi-procedural detail.  Tom Hanks is remarkable as the stranded tourist, learning how to adapt to his situation as best as he can.  The supporting players are often good (Catherine Zeta-Jones plays The Girl with a nice touch of unpredictability, with a surprising conclusion to her arc) although some plotlines involving Stanley Tucci as an antagonist feel more caricatured than they deserve.  Spielberg at the helm means that we get solid direction, with occasional flourishes such as the vertiginous pull-back shot that shows how crazy-large the terminal set was.  I watched the film in French, which took away a bit of the film’s linguistic element but introduced a bilingual bonus when Zoe Saldana’s character comments that she goes to Star Trek conventions cosplaying as Uhura.  (Saldana would go one to play Uhura in the 2009 film; in the original English version of The Terminal, she says that she cosplays as Yeoman Rand)  The film’s ending does feel a bit downbeat, but not all that much: in the end, we still get an amazing robinsonade in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

God’s Pocket (2014)

God’s Pocket (2014)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(Video on Demand, January 2015) Even almost a year after his death, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s presence is still deeply felt, and each posthumous film seems to remind everyone of what an interesting screen presence he could have.  In God’s Pocket, he’s about as far from glamour as he could be, playing a down-on-his-luck blue-collar worker you gets entangled in a growing pit of lack luck and even worse circumstances.  It’s far from being a cheerful story, and Hoffman’s hanging-dog charm fits perfectly with the poor-neighborhood setting.  Unfortunately, he’s stuck in a script that doesn’t quite know how to balance the sad drama with the black comedy – at times, God’s Pocket goes from naturalistic social study to jet-black absurdist comedy without graceful transition, or even unity in its presentation.  The very dark ending doesn’t help anything.  Still, John Slattery’s direction isn’t too bad, and Richard Jenkins gets some attention as a journalist who’s ultimately too smart for his own good.  In the end, we just want to get away from the place as quickly as we can.

Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On Cable TV, January 2015)  The return of the Muppets in their 2011 film, after a lengthy eclipse, was a perfectly calibrated comeback, lending considerable promise to any sequel.  With Muppets Most Wanted… well, we’re back to a more ordinary level of quality.  Picking up where The Muppets ended, this sequel cheerfully announced its colors with the “An Unnecessary Muppets Sequel” music number, but then does on to far more ordinary territory with the rest of its crime/comedy framework.  Fortunately, even a more average Muppets film is still a good time at the movies, and this sequel coats on the good-will of the previous film with an astonishing number of celebrity cameos.  Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais and Ty Burr do well in the human roles.  The caper plot has a nice international flavour, and the film seems willing to cram twice as many jokes as there are space for them, hoping that at least some of them will stick.  The biggest asset of The Muppets is its oft-corny charm, and for all of its more ordinary impact, Muppets Most Wanted at least has much of that charm.  It’s a decent follow-up, although it can’t touch the 2011 film for sheer success.

This is Where I Leave You (2014)

This is Where I Leave You (2014)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(Video on Demand, January 2015) Considering the amazing cast put together for This is Where I Leave You, it would be understandable to expect a bit more from the results.  I count at least nine interesting actors on the top bill, and seeing some of them play against each other is almost fun no matter the material they’re given.  As siblings (and their assorted partners) reunite after the death of their father, the film becomes an intricate multi-ring circus of entwined subplots –enough of them that you’re guaranteed to relate.  There are laughs, cringe-worthy situations, a surprising amount of R-rated material and an ending that ties up most loose ends hopefully.  Jason Bateman is his usual leading-man self, Jane Fonda gets a late chance to play her curves, Corey Stoll and Adam Driver finally gets substantial big-screen comedy roles, Tina Fey and Kathryn Hahn are effortlessly likable… think of this film as a buffet and you won’t be too far off the final impression.  Of course, this means that some parts don’t entirely work, or feel contrived, or are executed more mechanically than anything else.  There’s wasted potential here, magnified by the known-name actors.  (I suspect that had it featured unknowns, the film would have earned better reviews.)  Still, as far a dysfunctional family comedies and assorted romantic dramas go, This is Where I Leave You is decently enjoyable, with enough twists and turns and revelations and set-piece sequences to justify the running time. 

Mr. Deeds (2002)

Mr. Deeds (2002)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On Cable TV, January 2015)  I may be off to lunch here given my lack of familiarity with the Adam Sandler oeuvre, but it seems to me that Mr. Deeds marks a bit of a transition between the violent man-child persona of Sandler’s early movies (most notably Billy Madison) and the more good-natured family-man persona of latter films (most notably the Grown-Ups series).  This is not, obviously, a comment on increasing or decreasing quality of his movies – just an entirely predictable evolution from a young comic’s persona to a middle-aged actor’s most appropriate roles.  Sandler still gets to assault someone (a fake mugging), but he spends most of the film as a likable small-town pizzeria-owner abruptly thrust in the cutthroat world of Manhattan finances after an unlikely inheritance.  The plot mechanics are standard and the jokes are lame, but there are occasional laughs to be found in the details and the character work.  Winona Ryder is at her peak-cute moment as the love interest, but John Turturro turns in much funnier material as a supporting character who then becomes far more important to the plot’s conclusion.  Still, this isn’t even near close to middle-brow entertainment: The characters act in ways that make no sense away from dumb comedies or kids shows, while elements of the plot are brutally stupid.  I suppose I’d feel outraged about this being a remake of a well-liked Gary Cooper film if I have a deeper knowledge of historical cinemas, but in the meantime I can just say that Mr. Deeds isn’t particularly good on its own merits.  

The Place beyond the Pines (2012)

The Place beyond the Pines (2012)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On Cable TV, January 2015)  If I was in a better mood, I would probably have something nicer to say about The Place Beyond the Pines, its savvy use of Ryan Gosling, its unusual generation-hopping timeline, the quality of its images, the profound exploration of the meaning of fatherhood, the unexpectedly dramatic performances by Eva Mendes and Bradley Cooper, and a number of other meaningful factors.  It’s a quality film, one that has a lot on its mind, and one that takes time to invest in its characters.  But if writer/director Derek Cianfrance seems to be directly inspired by the artistic moviemaking of the seventies, he isn’t particularly interested in snappy storytelling or even base entertainment: The Place beyond the Pines tests everyone’s patience at 140 minutes, wallows in a somber tone and never again reaches the heights of its first act.  I may not be in the mood for moody films these days, and that’s not the film’s problem.  But it becomes my problem in trying to report on it, as the dominant impression I keep from it is having lost quite a bit of time watching something underwhelming.  Not recommended for people with only the patience for light entertainment.

The Double (2013)

The Double (2013)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On Cable TV, January 2015)  I don’t have a lot of patience for ambiguity these days, so when I have to confront a film like The Double, which deals in fantasies and metaphors and unanswered questions, my first tendency is to retreat to the surface level and stop digging.  Jesse Eisenberg stars as a corporate office drone who comes to confront a doppelganger who’s far more charismatic than he is.  Slowly, the double takes over his life, steals his girlfriend, makes inroad at the office and dominates his thoughts.  Shot as it if was set somewhere behind the Iron Curtain in the mid-seventies, The Double is thankfully replete with humor and ironies –if nothing else, that aspect of the film works without too much trouble.  Seeing Eisenberg play both the beta and the alpha is a good use of his developing screen persona – his first few roles were nebbishly undistinguishable from Michael Cera, but his post The Social Network career so far has fully embraced alpha-nerddom.  Writer/director Richard Ayoade manages a few entertaining moments before the film sinks into a closing act of mounting ambiguity and oh-so-profound symbolism.  It’s those moments that save The Double from terminal self-absorption.  See the film in a double-feature with Enemy for more doppelgänger madness.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On Cable TV, January 2015)  Given that I barely remembered the first Percy Jackson, it’s not as if I was hungering for a sequel.  Now that it’s out, the only thing to say is that it’s… average.  Much of the interest of the first film, as inspired by the Rick Riordan books, was in seeing how various elements of Greek mythology could be integrated in the modern world, and so it goes with the sequel –most amusingly in seeing a cameo by Nathan Filion running a Hermes-inspired messenging service.  (That’s supposed to take place in Washington… except for the high-rises in the background)  There are interesting odds and ends: A wild taxi ride, a trip through a sea monster, some nice special effects.  There are action scenes every few minutes, but otherwise it’s as generic a fantasy product as can be aimed at teenagers.  It’s generally enjoyable (and the actors aren’t bad, just stuck with undistinguished material) but it’s not really essential.  There is really no need to do a third one.

Welcome to the Punch (2013)

Welcome to the Punch (2013)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On Cable TV, January 2015)  As it turns out, there is a thinner line than I thought between cool and ridiculous.  This can be best shown using Welcome to the Punch, a British crime thriller that tries so hard to look cool that it eventually become laughable despite itself.  Much of the film isn’t too bad, though: The cinematography of the film (finding surprising beauty in the blue-hued glass buildings in night-time London) is stylish and striking, and James McAvoy has seldom looked more self-assured as a once-wounded police officer forced to ally with a career criminal (Mark Strong, also good) in order to take down a bigger operation.  Director Eran Creevy scores a few great sequences, including a grabbing opening sequence, and a mid-movie slow-motion living-room confrontation.  Unfortunately, the wheels start coming off mid-way through as a sympathetic character is badly killed (maybe even excessively killed, if it’s possible to overstate it), and the film then incongruously ramps up the cool factor until it exceed maximum pretentiousness levels shortly before the night-set loading docks ending sequence.  By the time the protagonist (again) rises up (again) in slow-motion with (again) a shotgun, it’s hard not to laugh at the film’s expense.  Which is too bad, because McAvoy and Strong are pretty darn cool when they don’t have to overplay their moments, and the direction has its moments before falling off the cliff of obnoxiousness.  It’s hard to avoid thinking that with a slightly defter touch, Welcome to the Punch could have been much better.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On Cable TV, January 2015)  How many movies does it take for a director to redeem himself?  I’ve had trouble with Wes Anderson’ first few films (too twee, too weird, too annoying), but after Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonlight Kingdom and now The Grand Budapest Hotel, it feels as if I have re-discovered a great director.  Easily the most ambitious of his films so far, The Grand Budapest Hotel ends up being a delicious blend of comedy, fake history, striking characters, artful cinematography and dozens of name actors seemingly having tons of fun.  Visually, the film voluntarily goes retro with classical staging, highly stylized set design and voluntarily cheap special effects that somehow add to the comic absurdity of the plot.  (Also notice the absence of diagonal movement in-frame)  The story has surprisingly dark twists and turns, but screenwriter Anderson seems delighted in playing with a familiar plot, only to flip over the table and have whimsical fun whenever it suits him. The result is almost impossible not to watch with a growing sense of fondness.  Ralph Fiennes turns in a small comic masterpiece performance as an ultra-competent hotel concierge, while being ably supported by far too many great players to count or enumerate.  It amounts to a striking oddity of a film, something almost impossible to describe faithfully but nonetheless utterly compelling upon viewing.  From time to time, we get a film that reaffirms why cinema can be fun and stylish without forgetting to be meaningful.

And so it Goes (2014)

And so it Goes (2014)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(Video on Demand, January 2015)  The modern drive to transform movies into non-stop spectacles means that middle-of-the-road character-based comedies such as And so it Goes are often forgotten among so many other viewing choices.  And that’s too bad, because they often offer satisfying acting performances by well-known names, gentle humor, quiet pacing and heartwarming conclusions.  There isn’t, to be clear, anything new or challenging in And so it Goes: Michael Douglas stars as an embittered real-estate agent drawing back into his shell after a series of setbacks.  Fortunately, there’s Diane Keaton as a lounge singer widow to draw him out of his shell, alongside a number of other supporting characters including an estranged granddaughter.  We all know where that kind of story is going, and that’s part of the charm.  Veteran director Rob Reiner isn’t interested in flash, and the unspectacular result might have been better, but it goes down nicely given appropriate exceptions.  The focus of And so it Goes on older leads, addressing similarly-older audiences, is not a bad change of pace, even though there’s a pervasive feeling that the film should have been quite a bit more than what it is.  

22 Jump Street (2014)

22 Jump Street (2014)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(Video on Demand, January 2015) At this point, following the successful streak from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie and now 22 Jump Street, who isn’t impressed by writer/director Christopher Miller and Phil Lord’s ability to take on the most hopeless projects and turn them into gold?  No one expected anything good from TV adaptation 21 Jump Street, and yet they delivered a fairly successful crime comedy.  Nobody expected anything from 22 Jump Street, and here they are, delivering not only another successful crime comedy, but one that comments upon the clichés of the genre, and indulges into a lot of meta-commentary on movie sequels.  It’s surprisingly effective, playing off our knowledge of the characters and the genre they’re working within.  Some of the best moments of the film come from seeing characters react to each other, with Ice Cube being integral to two of the movie’s funniest comic set-pieces.  Meanwhile, Jonah Hill is more or less up to his usual persona, while Channing Tatum continues to impress with his comic persona.  The end-credit montage by itself is practically worth the time watching the entire film.  While occasionally vulgar and easy and cheap, there’s quite a bit more running under the motor than most typical sequels, and it’s that extra effort that makes the film so endearing.  And while good enough should be left alone, meaning that there’s no need for a 23 Jump Street, it’s going to resist seeing what Miller/Lord have in mind when it inevitably arrives.