The Reel World

Ever since his departure from Saturday Night Live, Adam Sandler has become one of the most successful comedians of all time.  Granted not all of his movies have been great; in fact, some are better left forgotten, but he has a loyal fan base that will keep returning to the theater to see the funny man with hopes of the next big hit.  Sure, he had success with Grown Ups, but when looking over his films from the past decade I can’t help but wonder what happened.  I’m a big fan of Funny People; it was a more serious role for Sandler, and I appreciate when actors and film makers step outside their comfort zone and try something different.  But in the end the fans still want what got us to love them in the first place.  With That’s My Boy it’s Sandler returning to his roots, and he’s cranked it up.

Joining Sandler is Andy Samberg, who recently left SNL after being a cast member with the show for seven years.  With That’s My Boy being the first release since his recent departure we’ll soon see if he will have a life after the long running sketch series or fade into obscurity like many other cast members that have left the show over the years.  Though there is only a 12-year age difference between Samberg and Sandler, the two play father and son in this crude raunchfest.

Even those of us who enjoy movie musicals concede there's a certain degree of eye-rolling that comes with the territory. Some of the greatest musicals of all time — from classics like Singin' in the Rain and West Side Story to more modern hits like Chicago — are not immune to audible groans from jaded audiences whenever dialogue is interrupted by a showtune or a preposterously choreographed dance sequence. No one is going to confuse Rock of Ages with one of the greatest movie musicals of all time, but the best thing about director Adam Shankman's bloated, star-packed film is that it has a pretty good idea of how cheesy and phony it is.

The film is based on the successful Broadway musical of the same name and follows a small town girl (Julianne Hough) and a city boy (Diego Boneta) as they pursue their dreams of music superstardom in 1987 Hollywood. A lot of the action takes place in The Bourbon Room, a popular bar/club owned by Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin), that is the object of scorn for Mayor Mike Whitmore (Bryan Cranston) and, particularly, his morally uptight upright wife Patricia (Catherine Zeta-Jones, in a role invented for the movie). Of course, the story is just an excuse to feature as many classic rock hits from the 1980s as possible. I counted almost 25 songs — including the ones that were mashed up into single performances — which means that any tune from this time period that wasn't included in the film should be seriously offended.

“First, I will take your life, my lord, then I will take your throne.”

Is it wrong for me to watch Snow White and the Huntsman and root for the evil queen? How about disagreeing with the magic mirror on the wall about Snow White (Kristen Stewart) being the fairest of them all, when Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) is absolutely ravishing? I’m sorry, Twihards, but Stewart isn’t even in the ballpark compared to Theron’s stunning beauty, not to mention acting chops. How do I reconcile these feelings with the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed this gothed-up version of the beloved and culturally ubiquitous Snow White fairy tale? With Mirror Mirror in the theaters earlier this year and the new hit series Once Upon a Time, as well as the direct to video Snow White: A Deadly Summer (with Marcia Brady as the evil stepmother which I had the great misfortune to review) perhaps Snow White fatigue is setting in a bit, but this is my personal favorite take on the story since Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Warning, some minor spoilers ahead!

"I promise you the secrets of the universe, nothing more..."

It's been an astonishing 15 years since Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones first teamed up as Agents J and K respectively for the intergalactic police force Men In Black. The film was like a breath of fresh air. It combined top flight science fiction fantasy with whimsical humor. It was a hit at the box office, and like most wonderfully original hits it was quickly followed by a sequel that had almost none of the cleverness and freshness of the original film. The film was so unmemorable that I sat with other critics getting ready to see Men In Black 3 and none of us could actually remember what the second film was even about. Years went by and most of us put the franchise in our rearview mirror.

“Aside from the sketchy van situation, if you promise that the tour is safe, I think it could be kinda cool.”

Chernobyl Diaries… so many bad choices to make and so little time. Imagine we are clueless Americans abroad in the Ukraine, so instead of visiting the major metropolitan areas, why not go on a tour of the Pripyat, the ghost town evacuated due to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown in 1987? Nothing says vacation more than exploring the scene of the worst nuclear disaster in history.

“My dad said they’d come, said it my whole life. He said one day we’ll find them or they’d find us. Know what else he said? He said, ‘Hope I’m not around when that day comes.’”

Director Peter Berg kneels at the altar of Michael Bay and lovingly creates a clone of his most bombastic, military-fetish, slo-mo obsessed, whiplash-cut-driven movies with Battleship, based on the Hasbro (the same company behind the Transformers movies and yes, it definitely shows) board game of the same name. In fact, it kind of feels like the Sea Monkey version of Transformers, just add water and watch the mech monsters grow before your eyes.

There's obviously nothing funny about the atrocities committed by some of history's most notorious tyrants. So why have these men proven to be such a surprisingly fertile source of comedy? Whether it's (Puppet) Kim Jong-il crooning forlornly about being lonely (actually "ronery") in Team America: World Police or Adolf Hitler being saluted by a chorus line of high-stepping stormtroopers in The Producers, there's certainly a precedent for mocking these reviled figures. With The Dictator, Sacha Baron Cohen appears to be taking his patented inappropriateness to a new level.

Cohen — the English actor, comedian and professional provocateur — stars as Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen, ruler of the oil-rich and fictitious Republic of Wadiya. (Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein are clearly major influences.) The trick to making this sort of (potentially-abhorrent) comedy seems to be focusing on the outrageous personalities of these tyrants, rather than all the horrible things they've done. As a result, Aladeen is racist, sexist and too many other negative "-ists" to list, but the movie portrays him as a bearded buffoon who isn't even remotely dangerous. (Though try telling that to the dozens of people Aladeen orders to be executed over trivial offenses.) When he is summoned by the United Nations to address concerns about his country's nuclear program, Aladeen travels to New York, where he embarks on a life-changing journey involving a boyish feminist (Anna Faris), a severed head and a few celebrity cameos.

"They say blood is thicker than water...my name is Barnabas Collins."

In the late 1960's and early 1970's Dark Shadows dominated the mid-day television landscape. I remember wanting to rush home from school each day to catch the horror soap opera. The daytime series had a little bit of something for everyone. There were the typical soap opera conventions for the mellow-dramatic housewives and other serious themes for the adults. But there were some wonderfully exotic fantastic elements that appealed to the kids. The show broke soap opera convention in that it ran only a half hour, perfect for our short attention spans after a day at school. It's no wonder that the show has endured in our pop culture 40 years after it left the television airwaves.