“The Tree of Life” – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, June 17, 2011
by Loey Lockerby

A philosopher, a scientist and a theologian walk into a bar. Eight hours later, they stumble out with the script for The Tree of Life.

Viewers of Terrence Malick ’s long-awaited film may also be a bit wobbly when it’s over. It is an impressive, confounding achievement that calls to mind every drunken late-night debate that no one could articulate the next morning.

To the extent that The Tree of Life has a plot, it centers on the memories of Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn), who looks wistfully out of high-rise windows as he recalls his childhood in Texas.

The oldest of three sons born to an authoritarian father (Brad Pitt) and a saintly mother (Jessica Chastain), Jack is caught between these two opposing personalities. The family’s trials, which include a premature death, lead to ruminations on faith, meaning and the ultimate significance of human existence.

Malick certainly can’t be accused of timidity in his approach to these issues. Characters wrestle with them in voiceover throughout the film, and one lengthy sequence involves nothing less than the creation and evolution of the universe (that’s the part you may have heard about with the dinosaurs).

This passage is literally breathtaking, a work of cinematic poetry that offers more insight into Malick ’s themes than any dialogue could hope to. If this man ever makes an IMAX nature documentary, I’ll be first in line.

The sections dealing with Jack’s childhood are as close to conventional as The Tree of Life gets, and the movie deflates a little whenever it comes back down to earth.

While Hunter McCracken is very good as the young Jack, it’s Pitt’s performance that makes an impact. His character is a bully whose family can barely breathe in his presence, but he is also a sensitive man filled with love and regret. Just when it’s tempting to write him off as a horrible person, he’ll have a moment of such tender clarity, it will completely shift your perspective.

While the other characters are ill-defined shadows of Jack’s memories (the mother even floats at one point), his father seems like a true, solid human being. Everyone else is minimized when he’s around, which seems to be Malick ’s intent.

Of course, figuring out Malick ’s intent is what makes The Tree of Life such a mind-flipping experience. His musings are often pretentious and never reach any particular conclusion, but that’s part of what makes the film so fascinating. Watching it is an invigorating, unforgettable experience — even if it makes you dizzy.

The Tree of Life: 3 out of 4 stars

Rated PG-13  Running time: 2 hours 18 minutes

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, July 15, 2011
by Loey Lockerby

If you thought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was too slow, prepare to have your need for speed satisfied.

From a ride on a dragon’s back to the epic final battle at Hogwarts, Part 2 rarely pauses as it roars to the series’ finish.

The action picks up up right where Part 1 ended, with uber-villain Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) in possession of the powerful Elder Wand, while Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) search for the remaining Horcruxes, items containing pieces of Voldemort’s soul.

As Harry nears the inevitable showdown with his nemesis, he ends up back at Hogwarts, where his past and future collide with devastating consequences.

For fans of the Potter universe, this is a bittersweet experience, especially after watching these kids grow up before our eyes. The films have grown up, too, developing a maturity that fits the darker subject matter.

Harry is faced with not only his own possible death, but the deaths of all the people who have worked so hard to protect him, right down to the youngest Hogwarts student. Even the venerable school itself is not safe, and seeing it under attack packs a real emotional punch.

There are quieter moments, too, including a famous one in the Forbidden Forest that may earn a few tears of its own. The actors have inhabited these characters so beautifully for so long, it’s a joy to see them at work when the movie holds still.

The younger stars have become confident adults, easily holding their own with the who’s-who supporting cast (Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, etc.).

Director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves — both series veterans, supported by author J.K. Rowling — know exactly what these people can do and which scenes will resonate most with the audience, making sure they get the proper emphasis.

There are still some lags, especially when flashbacks and exposition take over, and the 19-years-later epilogue works much better on the page than it does on screen.

It’s also odd that lesser characters like Griphook, the Gringotts Bank goblin, get more attention than Hagrid or Lupin, who have been much more vital to the overall story. Splitting the final book into two movies wasn’t a bad idea (there’s a lot of ground to cover), but Yates and Kloves might have been more focused if they hadn’t had that luxury.

These are minor quibbles, given the scope of the film’s accomplishment. Deathly Hallows brings Harry, his friends and his fans to the exciting end of a journey that has lasted over a decade.

It works its own kind of magic, the kind that comes from a great story, well told.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2: 3 stars out of 4

Rated PG-13  Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes

“Beginners” – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, July 8, 2011
by Loey Lockerby

Beginners is a deeply personal project based on actual events in the life of its writer/director, Mike Mills.

It never quite achieves the emotional impact it aims for, but at least half of it is a great film.

Naturally, that half is the one most rooted in reality, although it sounds like a Hollywood contrivance. An aging widower, Hal Fields (Christopher Plummer), announces his homosexuality to his befuddled grown son, Oliver (Ewan McGregor). Even after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, Hal is determined to enjoy his new self as much as possible, even taking up with a much younger man (an endearingly eccentric Goran Visnjic).

Hal and Oliver grow closer as Oliver begins to understand the rote coldness of his parents’ long marriage. That brings us to the movie’s other half, set just after Hal’s death, when an aimless, depressed Oliver falls in love with the equally commitment-phobic Anna (Melanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds). This tentative romance is intercut with Oliver’s recollections of both his father’s coming out and the troubled years preceding it.

This is only Mills’ second feature (after 2005’s Thumbsucker), but he directs with tremendous confidence. Beginners moves in a stream-of-consciousness fashion, the way real thoughts and memories do, and Mills cleverly places everything in a larger historical context.

When Hal admits that he turned in his “gay card” when his wife turned in her “Jewish card” (something Mills’ own father said to him), he encapsulates the differences between his era and Oliver’s, and the cruelly casual ways in which people are forced to suppress their true selves.

The irony is that Oliver and Anna have suppressed their true selves as well, without needing societal pressure. They’re too emotionally stunted to embrace the freedom the modern world offers them, and it almost takes Hal reaching out from the grave to push Oliver in the right direction.

The Oliver/Anna romance is purely fictional, and it shows. It’s too by-the-numbers — they meet cute, get close, get scared and have overly contrived misunderstandings until they finally decide what they want. McGregor and Laurent are a believable, relatable couple, but those qualities fade as they dutifully fulfill Mills’ narrative requirements.

When the film shifts back to Hal’s story, it gets a burst of energy thanks to Plummer ’s vivid performance. Scene by scene, he conveys the joy, fear and determination of a man finally living his life just as he nears the end of it. Even in the saddest moments, Plummer is such fun to watch, it’s a little disappointing when Mills cuts away from him.

The movie isn’t hurt too badly by this — it’s still exceptionally well-made — but the strange truth of Beginners is much more interesting than its fiction.

Beginners: 3 stars out of 4

Rated R  Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes

 

Troll Hunter – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, July 22, 2011
by Loey Lockerby

Troll Hunter is a bizarre mashup of Grimm’s fairy tales, Godzilla movies, The X-Files and The Blair Witch Project. If that sounds like fun, it is. Up to a point.

An entry into the fake-found-footage subgenre, Troll Hunter is supposedly the edited recordings of three Norwegian college students (Glenn Erland Tosterud, Johanna Mørck and Tomas Alf Larsen), who follow a man (Otto Jespersen) they think is poaching bears in the countryside.

Why they’re chasing him around with a camera is never fully explained, but they’re persistent and finally catch him in the act. Of course, he is not hunting bears, although the government would like everyone to believe he is.

Director André Øvredal’s deadpan sense of humor is ideal for a movie whose monsters are smelly, funny-looking giants. The trolls are straight out of Scandinavian folklore, complete with an allergy to sunlight and an ability to sniff out Christians (leading to an awkward moment with a Muslim camera operator).

Just when the film is turning into an intentional camp classic, Øvredal gets serious, even killing off a major character. Combined with the intense attack scenes, this change of tone keeps Troll Hunter  from being entirely effective as a dark comedy, while the pervasive (and occasionally juvenile) humor undercuts its success as a horror or action film.

It’s still an entertaining effort with “cult following” written all over it, and it doesn’t really aspire to anything else.

No wonder there are plans for an American remake.

Troll Hunter: 2 1/2 stars out of 4

Rated PG-13  Running Time: 1 hour 43 minutes

Norwegian with English subtitles

Another Earth – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, August 12, 2011

 

In Another Earth, a planet identical to our own suddenly appears in the sky, looming like a reflection in an enormous mirror. The philosophical impact of this is expressed in a moving, intimate story of loss and second chances.

Brit Marling, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film with director Mike Cahill, plays Rhoda, whose promising academic career is cut short by one incredibly foolish mistake. Driving home drunk after a party, she looks out her window to see the just-discovered new Earth — and plows into the car of John (William Mapother) and his family, killing his wife and young son.

After serving four years in prison, Rhoda returns home and looks for some way to connect with the man whose life she ruined.

There is no shortage of movies about people trying to atone for past sins. What Another Earth offers is dramatic weight and excellent performances from Marling and Mapother. There are long, quiet scenes with little dialogue, and Cahill’s probing close-ups leave no room for thespian error.

He’s also a fan of shaky camerawork and voiceovers, which can be deadly in the hands of lesser filmmakers. That he uses both techniques with skill and sensitivity is remarkable, especially given his lack of experience (this is his first feature, after directing a documentary in 2004).

It’s easy to nitpick the movie’s premise, as many sci-fi fans already have. Despite the involvement of astrophysicist Richard Berendzen, who offers some intriguing theories on how this could happen, the idea of a huge twin planet coming so close to Earth without causing widespread devastation is still absurd. It also seems extraneous to the human story, except in the most obvious metaphorical sense.

Somehow, though, Another Earth is deeply affecting, even in its most outrageous, pretentious moments. It raises big questions and finds thoughtful ways of addressing them, using the fantastical set-up as a backdrop.

Its science may be a bit bogus, but its fiction is powerful and emotionally authentic.

Another Earth: 3 stars out of 4

Rated PG-13  Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes

Beastly – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, March 4, 2011

It’s always tempting to grade movies on a curve this time of year.

Awards season is over, the summer blockbusters haven’t rolled out yet and the best we can hope for is bland watchability at the multiplex.

Beastly is tolerable enough for a March release. Yes, that is damning with faint praise.

Based on Alex Flinn’s novel, Beastly is a modern take on Beauty and the Beast that hits all the plot points without losing its Teen Vogue shine.

Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four) is vain pretty boy Kyle, whose cruel behavior gets him placed under a curse by his school’s resident witch (Mary-Kate Olsen, putting her blank-eyed creepiness to good use). Now covered in scars and weird tattoos, Kyle has a year to earn the love of someone who can see past appearance.

With the help of his tutor (Neil Patrick Harris) and a housekeeper (Lisa Gay Hamilton), Kyle tries to win the heart of an unpretentious classmate, Lindy (the ever-charming Vanessa Hudgens).

It would take more than this movie’s entire budget to make Pettyfer ugly, so he’s given a kind of alien punk look, like a cousin of Eric Bana’s villainous Romulan in Star Trek. The girls in the target audience shouldn’t be too put off, although it seems unlikely that this will really hold their interest. It has all been done so many times, and so much better.

Writer-director Daniel Barnz is competent, and he includes some fun throwaway dialogue (most of it spoken by Harris, who steals Beastly as he does everything).

But just imagine the wit, energy and creativity someone like Joss Whedon or Baz Luhrmann could have brought to the project. This had the potential to be an interesting new twist on an old story. Instead, it’s just more March mediocrity.

Beastly: 2 stars out of 4

Rated PG-13  Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes

Winter in Wartime – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, May 27,
2011

When you’re young, good and evil seem like simple concepts. For Michiel (Martijn Lakemeier), the boy at the center of the thought-provoking Dutch drama Winter in Wartime, the distinction couldn’t be more obvious.

As the Nazis occupy his small town through the harsh winter of 1945, Michiel learns just how blurry his youthful moral clarity can become.

Michiel begins the film as a fairly typical teenager, goofing around with his best friend while cavalierly irritating the German soldiers. He’s protected somewhat by the status of his father (Raymond Thiry), the town’s mayor, who maintains a subservient friendliness toward the occupiers.

Michiel is disgusted by this and idolizes his mysterious uncle (Yorick van Wageningen), who has ties to the Resistance. When he learns that a wounded British soldier (Jamie Campbell Bower) is being hidden in the nearby woods, Michiel impulsively joins the cause, with shattering consequences.

Michiel has the classic teenage combination of idealism, bravery and stupidity, which leads him to admirable actions that can only turn out badly. Newcomer Lakemeier has a natural grasp of his character’s contradictions, and watching him lose his naïveté is both heartbreaking and exhilarating. He may not grow up completely by the end of the film, but he has learned a great deal about living in the real, difficult adult world.

Director Martin Koolhoven, adapting Jan Terlouw’s 1972 novel, maintains the constant tension of a world where every stray word or glance could lead to tragedy. He relies too much on melodramatic shorthand (slow motion, swelling music), and a last-act plot twist is a bit hard to swallow.

These are relatively minor flaws in an otherwise powerful and distinctive film, whose stark landscapes reflect much more than its physical setting.

Winter in Wartime: 3 stars out of 4

Rated R  Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes

In Dutch and German with English subtitles

The Double Hour – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, July 29, 2011

 

The Double Hour is a thriller with elements of romance, mystery and horror. Or maybe it’s a mysterious horror film that includes thrills and romance. However you classify it, it’s a strange, chaotic experience.

Sonia (Ksenia Rappoport) is a Slovenian immigrant living in Turin, Italy, who attends a speed-dating event. The last man on her list is an easygoing ex-cop named Guido (Filippo Timi). They begin a tentative relationship, and one day he takes her to the isolated, treasure-filled estate where he now works security. The date is interrupted by a violent robbery, leaving Sonia deeply traumatized.

Her deteriorating mental state allows director Giuseppe Capotondi to dig into his cinematic toy box, and he stages some creepy scenes in Sonia’s dark apartment and the hotel where she works. It often feels like a great ghost story or a cousin to the classic French shocker Diabolique.

Rappoport beautifully handles everything Capotondi throws at her, always leaving the audience slightly confused about Sonia’s emotions and motives. Guido is also tough to pin down, although he is what passes for a straightforward character in this film.

Capotondi’s ambition eventually gets the better of him, and The Double Hour stuffs too many genres into one (relatively short) film — you’ll half expect someone to put on a cowboy hat or burst into song, just for good measure. This anything-goes uncertainty is exciting for a while, but it’s all the movie has to offer.

The final resolution is easily forgotten, more of an afterthought than anything else. The fun is in the twisting, absurd journey, not the destination.

The Double Hour: 2 1/2 stars out of 4

Not rated  Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes

Italian with English subtitles

Another Harvest Moon – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, June 24, 2011

 

Anyone who has ever faced old age — or watched a loved one do so — will find plenty to identify with in Another Harvest Moon.

It covers nearly every angle of the experience, from the perspectives of worried relatives, stressed-out caregivers and, of course, the elderly themselves.

The film is based on Jeremy T. Black’s play, which had only four characters — residents of a nursing home who gather regularly to play cards.

Director Greg Swartz opens up the story to include other people and settings, but the focus remains on the core group. Frank (Ernest Borgnine) is a World War II veteran recovering from a stroke, who spends his days hanging out with Ella (Anne Meara), Alice (Doris Roberts) and the dementia-stricken June (Piper Laurie). Together, they fight to live on their own terms as long as they possibly can.

In Frank’s case, that also means dying on his own terms, as he realizes he may not recover from his latest health setback. His grown children (Cybill Shepherd and Richard Schiff) struggle to accept the inevitable, although his adoring grandson (Cameron Monaghan) seems to understand.

Frank’s determination inspires his friends, especially Alice, who is still independent enough to go out and achieve some of her unfulfilled goals.

Black adapted his play for the screen, and the theatrical limitations are still evident, with carefully blocked dialogue scenes taking up most of the running time. Luckily, the dialogue is delivered by a dream cast. Watching Borgnine, Meara, Roberts and Laurie interact could substitute for an entire semester of drama school. Black and Swartz must have been pinching themselves while they filmed this.

Shepherd and Schiff are no slouches either, and 15-year-old Monaghan is a real find. Even the actors in smaller roles, like Sunkrish Bala as Frank’s nurse and Amber Benson as June’s granddaughter, are given a chance to shine. As much as they can with those legends in the room, anyway.

Most of the material in Another Harvest Moon has been dealt with elsewhere, in everything from The Notebook to The Bucket List to Cocoon. What sets this film apart is the honest, mostly unsentimental way it addresses issues that everyone will deal with sooner or later.

It may not be terribly original, but in its sweet, unassuming way, it is inspiring.

Another Harvest Moon: 2 1/2 stars out of 4

Rated PG-13  Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes

 

We Bought a Zoo – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Thursday, December 22, 2011
Author: LOEY LOCKERBY, Special to The Star

Cameron Crowe is an odd match for We Bought a Zoo. The man known for directing R-rated fare like Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous seems out of his element with a cute-kids-and-animals movie.

That turns out to be a surprisingly good thing.

Crowe brings the kind of warmth to this material that doesn’t suffocate. His smartest idea is casting Matt Damon as Benjamin Mee, a widower who buys a rundown private zoo to start a new life with his kids, sullen teenager Dylan (Colin Ford) and adorable 7-year-old Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones).

As he struggles to turn the zoo around and earn the respect of the skeptical staff, Benjamin gradually confronts his family’s grief.

Based loosely on a true story, We Bought a Zoo slips up on occasion, letting slapstick sentimentality undermine the low-key style. Crowe has a terrific facility with actors, however, and Damon is a perfect Crowe leading man. Benjamin is impulsive and a bit self-involved, but Damon is so charming, he easily demolishes any ill will his character might inspire.

He and Crowe aren’t afraid of difficult scenes, like the angry arguments between Benjamin and Dylan, and they play them with realism and compassion.

The supporting characters are a mixed bag. Thomas Haden Church brings his usual offbeat wit to the role of Benjamin’s brother, while Scarlett Johansson is largely wasted as a possible love interest (even Crowe doesn’t seem to think she belongs in the movie, as the romantic subplot gets pushed aside unceremoniously). The zoo employees and animals are amusing in the way of all good comedy sidekicks, funny without stealing too many scenes from the leads.

Without Crowe’s laid-back approach and Damon’s anchoring performance, We Bought a Zoo could have been a sappy disaster — think of a cross between Zookeeper and Mr. Popper’s Penguins and shudder. In this case, one of the least likely directors turned out to be the best possible choice.

We Bought a Zoo: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars

Rated PG  Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes

My Week With Marilyn – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Thursday, November 24, 2011
Author: LOEY LOCKERBY , Special to The Star
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Watching My Week With Marilyn is like seeing an actual, long-lost Marilyn Monroe film: It’s not that great, but the star is mesmerizing.

Michelle Williams conveys the mix of canny manipulation and desperate insecurity that defined Monroe, going well beyond the obvious mimicry that a lesser actress would rely on.

The closest comparison is Cate Blanchett’s portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator — neither actress looks much like her subject, but she becomes her nonetheless. It’s no wonder Williams is a leading contender for a best actress Oscar.

The film adapts the recollections of Colin Clark, a young crew member on the set of Laurence Olivier’s The Prince and the Showgirl, for which Monroe traveled to England in 1956. The troubled movie star clashed immediately with the short-tempered Shakespearean, a battle Clark witnessed up close. Lucky for us, he kept a diary.

My Week With Marilyn introduces him as an eager 23-year-old (played by Eddie Redmayne) who boldly pushes his way into Olivier’s company. He’s basically a glorified gofer, until he makes an unexpected connection with Monroe.

Colin is as smitten with her as everyone is, but he treats her like a human being, something no one else seems capable of (or interested in). By the end of their short relationship, Colin has become part therapist, part boyfriend and part personal assistant, giving her the courage to finish the project and impressing the frustrated Olivier (Kenneth Branagh).

Like many movies about iconic figures, My Week With Marilyn slips into hagiography — but this time, it’s not the star who ends up idealized. Colin is practically a saint in this story, tirelessly protecting the fragile actress from the many people who mistreat her.

While it’s certainly believable that Clark cared for Monroe and offered genuine friendship, he’s just a little too much the selfless hero here. I don’t know if the same tone pervades his memoirs (Clark died in 2002, so he can’t comment personally), but director Simon Curtis and screenwriter Adrian Hodges could have deepened the character for the fictionalized version.

A similar problem afflicts the other players. All the actors (including Judi Dench, Dougray Scott and Emma Watson) are fine, and Curtis captures the nervous rhythms of a movie set nicely. There’s just not much going on beneath the surface. Branagh, in particular, tries mightily to nail down the elusive Olivier persona, but he’s simply miscast. You never forget who you’re really watching.

That is emphatically not the case with Williams.

My Week With Marilyn: 2 1/2 stars out of 4

Rated R  Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes

Real Steel – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Thursday, October 6, 2011
Author: LOEY LOCKERBY , Special to The Star
A deadbeat dad tries to bond with his precocious offspring while fighting for success in an unpredictable profession.

There are financial troubles, lots of setbacks and a pretty girl, and everything is resolved by a last-act confrontation with cartoonish bad guys.

You probably just thought of at least three or four movies like that. Real Steel is indistinguishable from any of them, with one exception: It has awesome robot fights.

The script borrows its premise (and not much else) from a 1956 Richard Matheson short story. Hugh Jackman plays a washed-up former boxer named Charlie Kenton, who now acts as a manager of sorts to the robots that have replaced humans in the ring. Deep in debt to some very nasty characters, Charlie is desperate for a winning machine. He gets unexpected help from his estranged 11-year-old son, Max (Dakota Goyo), who ends up tagging along on the circuit after his mother dies.

When Max finds a battered, outdated robot in a junkyard, he insists on making it their new fighter. With help from Bailey (Evangeline Lilly), an old friend/love interest of Charlie’s, Max persuades his dad to put the new ’bot in the ring against the bigger, more advanced models.

Real Steel always turns in the expected directions, right up to the weepy finale. Every cliché from sports movies, underdog stories and father-son dramas is trotted out and played with a straight face. It would be hard to take this seriously in any context, and it’s nearly impossible with Rock’em Sock’em Robots going on in the background.

Jackman musters every bit of his considerable charm to make Charlie likable, and he and Lilly are a spectacularly attractive couple (although he’s way too buff to play a guy who drinks Budweiser for breakfast). Goyo is spunky without being annoying and manages not to be overwhelmed by his surroundings.

The robots are the real stars here, and watching them smash each other is the only reason anyone would want to see this movie in the first place. Director Shawn Levy, who also made Night at the Museum, knows how to give special effects some personality.

The same cannot be said for the flesh-and-blood characters. It’s possible to bring real depth and emotion to a genre film, but Levy just doesn’t have the skill.

Maybe the assignment should have gone to his executive producer, who has a slightly better track record with these things — a little-known upstart named Steven Spielberg.

Real Steel: 2 stars out of 4

Rated PG-13  Running time: 2 hours 27 minutes

The Hangover Part II – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, May 27, 2011
Author: LOEY LOCKERBY , Special to The Star

 

Apparently, filmmakers thought a change of venue was all the novelty anyone needed for The Hangover Part II.

Otherwise, this is a faded copy of its predecessor, only raunchier (if you can imagine) and with better scenery.

Instead of a bachelor party in Las Vegas, Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) are headed to Stu’s wedding at a resort in Thailand. The bride’s upper-class Thai parents do not approve of her goofy American fiancé, and Stu is determined to have one carefully controlled drink with his buddies — and no more — so he can avoid trouble.

Then they wake up in Bangkok.

The first half-hour is like a “previously on The Hangover” recap, with the characters discussing and comparing their situations, as if anyone watching this would be unfamiliar with the material. Its only real accomplishment is reminding viewers of how lazily the same plot points are being repeated, with the seedy debauchery of Bangkok standing in for the bright lights of the Vegas strip.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few laughs. Returning director Todd Phillips keeps up the pace and pushes the R-rating to the breaking point, which inspires uncomfortable giggling, if nothing else.

The actors have the same easy chemistry, although it’s increasingly hard to grasp why their characters are still friends. Setting aside the obvious requirements of the script, why would anyone spend five seconds with a whining, infantile disaster like Alan? Galifianakis’ manchild shtick is getting old already, and giving him so little to work with just makes him worse. Even Ken Jeong, as coke-addled racial caricature Mr. Chow, seems tolerable by comparison.

If The Hangover Part II succeeds at the box office, which it almost certainly will, expect sequels involving every party town in the world. By the time they get to The Hangover Part XV, the guys will be trashing a Miami retirement home after Alan roofies the Ensure.

You’re welcome, Warner Bros. I expect my cut of the profits.

The Hangover Part II: 2 stars out of 4

Rated R  Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes

Crazy, Stupid, Love – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, July 29, 2011
Author: LOEY LOCKERBY , Special to The Star
No one plays clueless social ineptitude more sympathetically than Steve Carell. He may be the world’s most huggable loser.

Of course, his characters aren’t really losers, which is why they gain our sympathy so easily. The former Office star is the rare television actor whose persona makes a completely smooth transition to the big screen.

In Crazy, Stupid, Love, he plays Cal Weaver, a devoted, hard-working husband and father whose contentment is shattered when his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), suddenly asks for a divorce.

While drowning his sorrows at a singles bar, Cal meets Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a ladies’ man who decides to become a GQ Henry Higgins for his sad new friend. While trying (and mostly failing) to make Cal more like him, Jacob goes through his own identity crisis when he meets the one woman (Emma Stone) who won’t respond to his slick moves.

This should be enough for one movie, but the filmmakers are just getting started. They have more romantic chaos to throw at the audience, including Cal’s dalliance with a crazy schoolteacher (Marisa Tomei) and Emily’s attempts to sort out her feelings for a co-worker (a marvelously smarmy Kevin Bacon). There is even a subplot involving Cal, his teenage son (Jonah Bobo) and their family’s baby sitter (Analeigh Tipton), which is a little too borderline-creepy for this kind of film.

Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have trouble maintaining a consistent tone, an issue that also plagued their last film, I Love You, Phillip Morris. That scattershot quality does create a loose atmosphere, which allows the characters to seem authentic, even when the plot rings false. Screenwriter Dan Fogelman’s dialogue is brutally, hilariously honest about modern relationships, in a way that’s fair to everyone without losing its edge.

With a cast this good delivering the lines, there’s almost no way to screw it up. Carell shows a dramatic range to go with his well-known comedy skills, while Moore and Gosling make their characters sympathetic even before the script does. Stone proves once again that she’s not just another beautiful face. Bacon and Tomei steal the handful of scenes they’re given, as does singer Josh Groban, who plays Stone’s goofy boyfriend.

Crazy, Stupid, Love has too much going on, and it gets increasingly clumsy in its attempts to wrap everything up. Even in its messiest moments, however, it never loses its sweet-natured charm. There’s still plenty here to love.

Crazy, Stupid, Love: 2 1/2 stars out of 4

Rated PG-13  Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes

 

Attack the Block – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, September 2, 2011

Author: LOEY LOCKERBY , Special to The Star

 

Have we had enough alien-invasion movies for one year? After Battle Los Angeles, Super 8 and Cowboys & Aliens, it’s hard to muster much excitement for yet another tale of extraterrestrial nasties. Call it E.T. Fatigue.

Don’t write off the genre just yet, though. While it lacks originality, Attack the Block zooms along with energy and deadpan humor.

Some teenage thugs, led by Moses (John Boyega), rob a nurse (Jodie Whittaker) as she walks to her apartment in a South London housing project. Their crime is interrupted when an object comes crashing out of the sky, bringing with it a ferocious creature that the kids mistake for a dog. They kill it and take it to a local drug dealer (Nick Frost), who lets them store it in his “pot room.”

Before long, more things are landing in the neighborhood, but they’re not so easy to dispatch. They’re also unusually interested in Moses and his companions, who band together with the nurse, some fellow locals and a slumming rich guy (Luke Treadaway) who just wants to get stoned and find his car.

Writer/director Joe Cornish is a veteran of British television, and he knows how to make the most of a small budget. What money there was (a reported $13 million) clearly went into the aliens, inky black monsters with glowing teeth who like to climb up the sides of buildings. The characters use terms like “gorilla” and “wolf” to describe them, along with several choice expletives, all of it delivered in vivid (if occasionally hard to decipher) slang.

Nearly all the young actors are making their film debuts, and they’re funny and unaffected performers. Cornish even gets some depth out of them, especially in Boyega’s case. The high-rise location is also put to good use, with dark hallways and twisting stairs offering inexpensive opportunities to build suspense.

Although it may develop a cult following, Attack the Block isn’t the kind of movie people will go around quoting or make the centerpiece of a viewing party. It’s just an entertaining example of a premise far too many filmmakers are using. And there’s really nothing wrong with that.

Now, if we could just get them to stop putting zombies in everything …

Attack the Block: 2 1/2 stars out of 4

Rated R  Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes

 

Jumping the Broom – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, May 6, 2011
Author: LOEY LOCKERBY , Special to The Star
There’s an interesting movie lurking around the edges of Jumping the Broom.Issues of race and economic status are central to its story, and its cast is worthy of such challenging material.Then why is it so relentlessly average? Part of the problem is its desire to be funny and uplifting while dealing with such weighty topics.

Thirty-something couple Sabrina Watson (Paula Patton) and Jason Taylor (Laz Alonso) get engaged after six months of dating, which leads to a wedding-weekend clash between his working-class Brooklyn family and her snooty Martha’s Vineyard clan. Bad behavior and family secrets compete with the joyous occasion for the bride and groom’s attention — and the audience’s.

Jumping the Broom is directed by Salim Akil, a veteran of the sitcoms Girlfriends and The Game, so he is a practiced hand with witty, upwardly mobile African-Americans. That gets everyone through the film’s light, romantic first half successfully.

Akil’s style doesn’t blend well with the contributions of producer T.D. Jakes, the superstar pastor responsible for heavy dramas like Woman Thou Art Loosed and Not Easily Broken. Serious conflicts erupt as the movie progresses, and every character becomes annoying at best.

Sabrina’s parents (Angela Bassett and Brian Stokes Mitchell) are controlling and image-obsessed, while Jason’s mother (Loretta Devine) seems determined to hate everyone she meets. Their nastiness starts to rub off on their children, which makes later attempts at reconciliation seem contrived and, frankly, undeserved.

There are hints of potential in conversations about the families’ differing backgrounds. One in particular involves the African-American tradition of the title, in which a couple jump over a broom at the conclusion of their wedding, in honor of slave ancestors who could not formalize their unions legally. The Taylors want the practice continued, but the Watsons balk, even pointing out that their people owned slaves. This is a fascinating can of worms to open, but it gets closed again almost immediately, as the dull soap opera takes over.

The religious themes are presented fairly smoothly, although the attitudes toward sex, divorce and gender roles aren’t likely to appeal much outside the church door. The charm of Jumping the Broom is in its glossy, spirited humor, not its clumsy spiritual melodrama.

Jumping the Broom: 2 1/2 stars out of 4

Rated PG-13  Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes

Rio – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, April 15, 2011
Author: LOEY LOCKERBY , Special to The Star
Rio is yet another kid flick about a domesticated animal discovering his wild side, a close cousin to movies like Open Season and Madagascar. Despite its copycat nature, it has its own irresistibly joyful energy.

Jesse Eisenberg voices Blu, a macaw from the wilds of Brazil who has been raised as a pet by Minnesota bookstore owner Linda (Leslie Mann). An ornithologist (Rodrigo Santoro) arrives to announce that Blu is the last male of his kind and offers Blu and Linda a chance to travel to Rio de Janeiro, where a female counterpart (Anne Hathaway) awaits to help continue the species.

Since this is intended for children, the mating plans are presented in a sweet, teen-romance fashion, with a careful sidestepping of anything that might inspire uncomfortable questions.

Rio gets close to several iffy topics, from smuggling to homelessness, pulling back just before it becomes too intense for the little ones (it was edited from a PG to a G rating). It still has some rude humor, but it’s fairly mild and includes what may be the most creative uses of dog slobber ever committed to film.

After directing the Ice Age movies, Brazilian animator Carlos Saldanha clearly relishes showing off his home country, albeit in cartoon form. The elaborate opening musical number sets a vibrant pace that never slows down, which makes it easy to overlook the narrative flaws.

A supporting voice cast that includes Tracy Morgan, Jemaine Clement and George Lopez keeps the humor nicely off-kilter, and all the visuals — not just the scenery — are breathtaking.

The fun doesn’t even start with Rio. Get to the theater on time to catch the short “Scrat’s Continental Crack-Up,” another clever adventure starring the hapless proto-squirrel from Ice Age. Both films are in 3-D, but you don’t need special glasses (or expensive tickets) to enjoy their wit and exuberance.

Rio: 3 stars out of 4

Rated G  Running time: 1:36

Hop – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, April 1, 2011

Author: LOEY LOCKERBY , Special to The Star
The ads for Hop proudly declare it’s “from the creators of Despicable Me.”Those “creators” are two screenwriters and a producer, whose collective credits also include College Road Trip and The Santa Clause 2. The director has helmed Alvin and the Chipmunks and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties.Let that information sink in before you get too excited about Hop.

This attempt to create a holiday movie for Easter resembles the Chipmunks movies more than anything else, as furry animated creatures screw up the life of a hapless live-action human.

In this case, the critter in question is E.B. (voiced by Russell Brand), who is due to inherit the role of Easter Bunny from his father (voiced by Hugh Laurie). Of course, he’d rather be a rock star and runs away (from Easter Island, natch) to Hollywood, where he nearly gets run over by unemployed slacker Fred (James Marsden).

Fred is also struggling to overcome his parents’ disappointment, and together they wreak havoc, save the holiday, learn heartwarming lessons, etc.

Writers Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio and Brian Lynch have essentially taken a Christmas-movie script and replaced the Santa Claus references with Easter Bunny ones (Tim Allen must be wondering why he didn’t get a call). That level of originality can be found all over Hop, from the lazy D-list celebrity cameo (David Hasselhoff) to the lazier theme song choice (it involves wanting candy).

Hop is elevated by the quality of its animation, which bursts with color and detail. There are some clever sight gags and pop culture references and an epic onslaught of rabbit-related puns. Some of these will go right over the heads of the target audience, but they’ll be too busy giggling at the dancing and poop jokes to care.

E.B. is an adorable little critter, with expressive features and a hearty dose of Brand’s delinquent charm. He has much more personality than his human counterparts, despite Marsden’s exhausting efforts to behave like a living cartoon.

If the filmmakers had just made a movie about E.B. and his clever animated bunny world, they might have delivered a tasty Easter surprise. This one has been sitting in the back of the fridge too long.

Hop: 2 stars out of 4

Rated PG  Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Evangelion 2.0 – 2011 Review

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Kansas City Star, The (MO) – Friday, January 21, 2011
Author: LOEY LOCKERBY , Special to The Star
Japanese anime films can be tough going for the uninitiated, but Hideaki Anno’s 2007 reboot of his Neon Genesis Evangelion series was relatively straightforward.

Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone introduced Shinji Ikari, a teenager recruited to pilot giant robotic weapons against mysterious beings who are decimating Earth in a post-apocalyptic future.

Now, Version 2.0 kicks off the action with little introduction, so even those who’ve seen the original might be slightly confused at first. The peripheral characters are hard to keep track of, and a medieval theologian would be weirded out by all the mystical gibberish.

Some of that could probably be blamed on translation issues, but not all. And, of course, there are plenty of cute girls who can’t keep their clothes on, which is apparently required by law.

Like its predecessor, Evangelion 2.0 has terrific battle scenes and gorgeous animation. Those elements don’t compensate for every shortcoming, but they make a challenging genre much easier for novices to enjoy. I’m looking forward to the next installments in the series — even if I never fully understand them.

 

Evangelion 2.0: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars

Not rated  Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes

Japanese with English subtitles