Spy (B+), the latest collaboration between Bridesmaids director Paul Feig and his comic muse Melissa McCarthy, is both a successful send-up of espionage films and a running showcase of hilarious dialogue and pratfalls. Although it falls into the overlong territory (Judd Apatow started this trend in comedies), it is stuffed with double-crosses, witty quips and madcap action. McCarthy is a hoot as an unexpected but ultimately highly credible heroine, and she becomes more and more comfortable in her own skin as she dons an array of frumpy disguises. Rose Byrne is a fabulous foil as an Eastern Bloc baddie, with piercing, non-ironic zingers leveled at our protagonist. Jason Statham and Jude Law are surprisingly daft in their comic moments as well. The film is a great escape, brassy, vulgar and a laugh riot.
Tag Archives: Comedy
“Pitch Perfect 2” Brings On the Sonic Sisterhood
Furious 7 delivered a winning formula earlier this spring: a diverse, likable ensemble with over-the-top automotive stunts and even a bit of nostalgia. Replace race cars with riffs, and you have the imminently pleasing aca-comedy sequel Pitch Perfect 2 (B+), sure to please the franchise faithful. Elizabeth Banks, who repeats her funny gig as a wry music contest commentator, takes the helm as director of PP2, and she orchestrates a creative bumper-crop of pranks, pratfalls, life lessons and female empowerment. Anna Kendrick gets a smart subplot working for a music producer (masterfully played by Keegan-Michael Key) while Hailee Steinfeld skillfully assumes the ingenue role. Rebel Wilson and Adam DeVine bring ample comic relief from the frantic quest to restore the Bellas’ good names after a wardrobe malfunction causes global pandemonium. Several sequences are mild misfires, but mostly it’s a summer camp-fest of fun and surprises. There’s music and one-liners aplenty to keep this pop bonbon sweet and sassy. The script’s respect for the female ensemble and for music itself is admirable. It’s a rollicking ride that at times surpasses the original film’s cult success and is certainly bound for box office glory.
“Paddington” is a Charming Delight
Paul King’s British live action/animated comedy Paddington (A) is quite simply one of the most consistently satisfying family films ever made, following each instinct of visual whim and whimsy with clever and entertaining results. The film chronicles a polite young marmalade-obsessed bear’s journey from the jungles of Peru to the heart of modern-day London as he is taken in by a kindly family (charmingly headlined by Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville) and embarks on a series of madcap adventures. The art direction and production design are exquisite and would leave Wes Anderson slackjawed with its artisan detail. The family home rendered as a dollhouse, the city archives like a scene out of Brazil, the menacing Natural History Museum populated by juicy taxidermist villain (a delightful Nicole Kidman) and the colorful streets filled with antiquities and street music troubadours dot the movie with resplendent visuals which are a wonder to behold. There is also genuine menace in some of the action sequences and an affecting level of sentimentality that never crosses into preciousness. The crafty screenplay is full of double entendres and fun asides that deliver a droll and altogether unexpected joy that adults can appreciate as much as kids. It’s brisk, funny and memorable and joins films such as Babe, The Muppet Movie and Willy Wonka as family classics.
“The Interview” is a Bold Comic Swing
Directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have certainly stirred up a lot of controversy with The Interview (C), but it’s basically just another bro-comedy in the tradition of 21 Jump Street, although not as good. Seth Rogen and James Franco mug and try to outwit each other with vulgarities during an extended adventure to assassinate the Communist Korean leader. Cartoonish silliness ensues with little real insight into the grand stage hornet’s nest of geopolitics with which the filmmakers are provoking. Most of the humor comes from the barrage of back and forth insults between the two comic leads. It’s much ado about something not so distinctive.
“Pride” (2014) an Inspiring Tale of Community
Matthew Warchus’s Pride (B-) is a delightful true story about a group of London-based gay and lesbian activists who raise money for families affected by the British miners’ strike in 1984. When the national union passes on their support, the activists take their donations directly to a small mining village in Wales, resulting in an alliance between the two oppressed communities and of course a bit of fish-out-of-water culture clashes. Many popular British stars are on hand, with Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West providing some familiar faces for the festivities. But it is Ben Schnetzer as the ringleader and Georgia MacKay as the reluctant hero who shine in central roles. The same formula that worked for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Full Monty and countless others works for the most part here. The period detail is a highlight, and the film is a stirring tribute to outcast communities banding together. The film could have had a bit more meat on its bones to sustain the final reel, and you can see many of the conflicts from a mile away, but it’s a good-hearted romp and a nice surprising history lesson to boot.
“Skeleton Twins” Offers Strong Dramedy
Craig Johnson’s dark comedy-drama The Skeleton Twins (B) is like a Hallmark Card series launched by The Addams Family: a veritable arsenal of pick-me-up announcements from occasions such as suicide attempts, abandonment, abuse and infidelity. The fact that this tragic terrain is so skillfully navigated by typically comic actors Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader is a testament to the range of their craft. As Wiig’s good-natured husband, Luke Wilson is also effective as an everyman foil. After nearly a decade without speaking, a botched suicide attempt brings the titular adult twins back together to experience why they can’t live with or without each other. Drunken mishaps, terrible truth or dare games, a great karaoke sequence and a fun Halloween outing string together some of the threadbare plot and themes. The tonal shifts come as fast and furious as the characters’ mood swings; and you simply have to be prepared to not know where the journey will take you. The film depicts lots of lows and very few highs, very true to life for characters in the mental state that these are experiencing, and much of the humor comes in their macabre sarcasm. Johnson’s film portends exciting future works to come.
With This Cast, “This Is Where I Leave You” Should Be Better
Somewhere on the sliding scale far down from Terms of Endearment and even a few notches down from Beautiful Girls is Shawn Levy’s you-can-go-home-again comedy-drama This Is Where I Leave You (C); and despite often amusing and sometimes touching ensemble work, it doesn’t necessarily add up to a cogent success or complete payoff. Faring best are Jason Bateman, Rose Byrne, Adam Driver and Jane Fonda in some affecting and bawdy bits. The very loose plot involves a family being grounded together for a week after the death of its patriarch right as their lives are unraveling and they really could use some good advice. The best parts of the movie are often told in the margins, which makes it a bit touch to break through Levy’s overproduced hucksterism. Dare I say on the first weekend of its theatrical release that it might make a nice rental?
“Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014) a Delightful Cosmic Surprise
Beaming onto a screen near you is a vaudeville starship troupe milking about five jokes for all they’re worth in James Gunn’s aimless but often joyful space opera comic book adaptation, Guardians of the Galaxy (B). A smuggler out of the Han Solo playbook, Chris Pratt continues his awesome year with crowd-pleasing snark on a mission to keep a mysterious orb out of the clutches of baddies. His companions including an endearing tree-man and a wise-cracking raccoon (voiced by Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper) who each get some great laughs in mischief-making derring-do. The intergalactic plot? Kinda lost in space. The film deserves kudos in the Marvel canon as a lively lark even if it uses up its clever action conceits in the first hour. The planetary effects are as triumphant as the tone ribald. Motown tracks and monster ballads also add some lift. It’s much more style than substance but filled with the tart nihilism of a cherry bomb that detonates when you least expect it. Side note: On the schawarma scale of consequence, the very brief epilogue will ruffle some feathers.
“Magic in the Moonlight” is Minor in the Allen Canon
Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight (C-) is a very undernourished romantic comedy about a pompous magician rooted in realism (Colin Firth) endeavoring to out a skilled spiritual medium (Emma Stone) as a fraud while slowly surrendering to her charms. The film feels like a rushed first draft and a trifle of a notion with no standout performances. Squandering lovely settings in Germany and France and the goodwill of likable actors, the film is an unoriginal and labored dud. It’s not clear why Allen would care to share these characters or find them to advance his themes in any substantial way. The film falls into his category of lesser works.
More Franchise Fun in “22 Jump Street”
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s comedy sequel 22 Jump Street (B-) provides just enough laughs from the raunchy raucousness of buddy cops Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill infiltrating college life to ferret out a drug scheme, but the freshness of its predecessor is largely missing. When it plumbs meta antics such as a Buster Keaton style car chase outside the film studies department or a warped therapy session with the psych professor, the film flirts with cleverness that is rarely delivered. The central bromance continues to be an often hilarious draw; and Tatum in particular is a great sport, throwing himself into the part even when the screenplay isn’t throwing him quite the quality content it could. Still, it’s intensely watchable with enough verbal fireworks and physical stunts to render the sequel decent rainy day fun.
“A Million Ways to Die in the West” a Failed Comedy
A spectacular fail on the great wide expanse of the American Wild West, writer/director Seth MacFarlane follows up his deliriously ribald Ted with the supremely unfunny frontier comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West (F). Casting himself in the lead role is honestly the first way MacFarlane demonstrates painful western death, with a cloyingly modern but childish sensibility and an utter lack of awareness inhibiting his protagonist’s basic story needs of winning the girl and defeating the villain. His character is largely a tool (pun intended) to observe how pointless living in the west was and to drone on and belabor this thesis with an escalating series of violent or puerile sight gags. Charlize Theron is the only cast member who leaves this blazing prattle unscathed. Lame jokes and dumb pratfalls abound while there are missed opportunities for real satire. MacFarlane as triple threat makes a terrible leading man, acting from a dopey script in an excessive and lugubriously paced summer tentpole comedy. Hopefully for Universal Studios, this vanity project required little more than letting an enfant terrible run amuck on a backlot and in the desert for a few weeks. These gunslingers needed more zingers to justify more than two hours of oppressive running time.
“Chef” a Wonderful Comfort Food Comedy
Writer/director Jon Favreau’s Chef (A-) is an ordinary story told extraordinarily about a man’s journey to the brink and back, set against a topical landscape blending the zest of cooking for a living, the zeitgeist of social media as a buzz builder for a restauranteur’s commerce, the influence of one’s family and friends on one’s well-being and keen observations about the melting pot of America with mixed families and split households struggling to make their spiritual soufflés rise with righteousness. Effective in the lead role, Favreau is a veritable lava cake of emotions in need of a new direction, and the story takes him from L.A. to Miami, New Orleans and Austin on a quest to reclaim his food, friends and fatherhood. Sofía Vergara as his ex and John Leguizamo as his kitchen mate are wonderful in supporting roles. Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr. and Dustin Hoffman all make high-impact cameos. It’s an emotional feast with laughs that surface naturally from the story. Check operating hours for your nearest Cuban cuisine before viewing, because you will want a Little Havana style sandwich after watching this film.
Explore my “fantasy food trucks” based on foodie films in my story on BuzzFeed.