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BABY
MAMA
Evidently, the gestation period for
writer-director Michael McCuller's anemic
comedy was less than optimal and it's only
thanks to the performers that the final
product is not excruciatingly painful.
Former "SNL" mates Tina Fey and Amy Poehler
limn an infertile Philadelphia career gal
and the white trash vessel she chooses as a
surrogate. The "Odd Couple"/"Kate & Allie"
dynamic is half-baked and, please, shred the
manual that has Fey's character meet a
corporate-lawyer-turned-juice-bar-owner
(Greg Kinnear). Steve Martin and Sigourney
Weaver are good for a few chuckles, but
Poehler's antic presence plus satirical jabs
at the birthing and health food industries
are the movie's lifeblood. (PG-13) FAIR
COMEDY Dir-Michael McCullers Lead-Tina Fey
RT-96 mins.
DECEPTION
Ewan McGregor presses down hard on the dweeb
pedal to play a Certified Public Wallflower
in a thriller that suffers from multiple
credibility gaps. Hugh Jackman portrays a
high-flying attorney who introduces the
lonely accountant to a Manhattan sex club,
through which he meets a fetching blond
(Michelle Williams) and gets caught up in
homicide and larceny. Club members are busy
capitalist tools (one played by senior
citizen Charlotte Rampling) seeking
"intimacy without intricacy" in hot,
anonymous hotel hook-ups. Lust is the bait,
but love is what finally denudes the movie
of any smarts. Preposterously alluring, its
slick veneer is totally see-through by the
end. (R) BORING THRILLER Dir-Marcel
Langenegger Lead-Ewan McGregor RT-107 mins.
DR. SEUSS' HORTON HEARS A WHO
Theodore Geisel's gentle plea for tolerance
has been turned into far-right propaganda
about how Christians are a persecuted
minority and loudmouthed atheists are
ruining everything. Jim Carrey's titular
elephant discovers a civilization of tiny
people living on a speck of pollen, which
prompts a kangaroo (Carol Burnett) -- who
might as well be named ACLU -- to go on a
rampage of indignation over such nonsense.
Meanwhile the dim bulb Mayor of Who-ville
(Steve Carell) -- a stand-in for poor,
besieged Dubya -- talks to God and knows
what's best for everyone, the heck with
democracy. (G) BORING ANIMATED COMEDY Dirs-Jimmy
Hayward & Steve Martino Lead-Jim Carrey
RT-88 mins.
88 MINUTES
Inanity and incompetence form an imposing
tag team in this sorry excuse for a
thriller, which stands as the new
frontrunner for 2008's dumbest movie.
Flipping off realism and plausibility at
every turn, it focuses on an FBI forensic
psychologist (Pacino) who gets a phone call
saying he has eighty-eight minutes to live,
a threat he suspects originates from a
death-row killer he helped convict with
controversial testimony. As supporting
players glance about shiftily, Pacino
lethargically offers up innumerable Pacino-isms.
Trying to piece together the film's puzzle
is like trying to run through a brick wall:
futile, and apt to give one a headache. (R)
POOR THRILLER Dir-Jon Avnet Lead-Al Pacino
RT-108 mins.
THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM
Along with pairing Jackie Chan and Jet Li,
this mixed effort wants to blend ethereal
Hong Kong marital arts with earthbound
coming-of-age fare about maladjusted
American teens. Call it chop-socky chum
intended to lure mall rats. Though the fight
choreography is first-rate and it looks
decent, the movie is deflated by boilerplate
dialogue and the young actor portraying a
traveler from contemporary Boston, fated to
free an ancient warrior by returning his
magic staff. Michael Angarano is a
less-than-magnetic stand-in for Shia LaBeouf.
Harsh perhaps, but when you're playing the
hero in a Kung Fu flick you must be able to
withstand low blows. (PG-13) FAIR
ACTION-ADVENTURE Dir-Rob Minkoff Lead-Jackie
Chan RT-113 mins.
FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL
The latest bawdy entertainment saddled in
Judd Apatow's stable doesn't insist on its
hilarity, nor does it shove pop culture
references down your throat. Structured like
a traditional romantic comedy -- boy loses
girl, cries, and tries to move on (in
Hawaii) -- the laughs and commentary on
corporate-driven escapism are organic. They
spring naturally from the story, along with
full frontal male nudity and the most
explicit sex talk heard onscreen since
"Knocked Up." Ms. Marshall (Kristen Bell)
headlines a television crime-scene drama,
while the doofus she dumps, played by
screenwriter Segel, composes music for the
show. Don't count him or his talent out. (R)
GOOD ROMANTIC-COMEDY Dir-Nick Stoller
Lead-Jason Segel RT-105 mins.
HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY
The sequel to 2004's hilariously raunchy
reefer comedy takes liberties that are hard
to defend. If the two movies were graded
like cannabis, "White Castle" would be Maui
waui and this would be ditch weed. An
enlightened satirical premise is replaced by
blunt attempts to skewer post-911 security
hysteria and jingoism. While flying to
Amsterdam, our pothead pals are arrested on
suspicion of terrorism. Rendition is an
appropriate punishment for those who would
guffaw at the movie's cruder scatological
gags and harsher sexual references. The line
between vulgar-funny and just plain vulgar
is crossed too often. (R) BORING COMEDY Dirs-Jon
Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg Lead-Kal Penn
RT-102 mins.
LEATHERHEADS
The flimsy headgear worn by football players
in the 1920s provided little protection, but
that doesn't explain how this sepia-tinged
bomb got so slaphappy. George Clooney must
have sustained a concussion prior to
filming, before he made the decision to
direct himself and signed-off on trying to
please the Three Stooges crowd and fans of
sophisticated screwball comedies at the same
time. Drafting Renee Zellweger to play a
quick-witted reporter and John Krasinski a
war hero and gridiron phenom might've worked
using a different playbook. NFL legend
George Halas and director Howard Hawks are
both spinning in their graves. Only the team
behind "Semi-Pro" is laughing. (PG-13)
BORING COMEDY Dir-George Clooney Lead-George
Clooney RT-114 mins.
NIM'S ISLAND
It's hard to predict whether kids will
cotton to this grinder about a girl and her
marine-biologist father (Gerard Butler) who
live on a fantasy island in the South
Pacific and are visited by a phobic
authoress (Jodie Foster). Adults can safely
make the sacrifice since suitable platitudes
about self-actualization fly, along with
lizards and a trusty pelican that sounds
like a parrot. Plenty happens to limit
unnecessary trips to the concession stand or
toilets, though the time to duck out is
during one of Foster's embarrassing stabs at
physical comedy or when a flatulent sea lion
tries to repel Aussie tourists. (PG) FAIR
FAMILY ADVENTURE Dirs-Mark Levin & Jennifer
Flackett Lead-Abigail Breslin RT-95 mins.
PROM NIGHT
A PG-13 slasher film is something of an
oxymoron, since tame propriety is
fundamentally antithetical to the
down-and-dirty genre. Yet while the MPAA
designation -- sought so more teens can
flush their allowance down the studio toilet
-- explains the lack of nudity and gore,
it's hardly responsible for the absence of
suspense or mystery in this wretched
approximation of a scary stab-a-thon. On
prom night, a girl is stalked by the psycho
who years earlier killed her family. What
ensues is pitifully un-scary, though the
film is truly intolerable thanks to its
characters, whose soul-crushingly vapid
dialogue makes one hate high school all over
again. (PG-13) POOR HORROR Dir-Nelson
McCormick Lead-Brittany Snow RT-88 mins.
STREET KINGS
The screenwriter of "Training Day" helms an
equally brutal film about corruption within
the LAPD. If it weren't fictional, it would
constitute the department's worst public
relations nightmare. Keanu Reeves is a
renegade detective prone to bagging the
baddies by the most deadly and dirty means
in a vice squad run by Forest Whitaker's
captain. An ageless story pushed to the
hilt, the piece has a certain extreme
integrity. Not surprisingly, Whitaker
upstages Reeves and Brit Hugh Laurie (from
TV's "House") effectively cuts the
testosterone level as an Internal Affairs
officer. While excessive, the script,
co-written by James Ellroy, doesn't lead
everywhere you assume. (R) GOOD DRAMA
Dir-David Ayer Lead-Keanu Reeves RT-107 mins.
21
Ever heard the expression "The house always
wins"? Well, when it comes to this flashy
adaptation of Ben Mezrich's compelling
bestseller, the book always wins. Both
recount how a team of math whizzes from MIT
made millions counting cards at Las Vegas
blackjack tables. But the book presented a
number of interesting arguments that the
movie simply ignores. It does mark a stylish
upgrade for director Robert Luketic
("Legally Blonde"), who, with Kate Bosworth
seated at the table, emphasizes the sexy
gloss of Sin City. Even so, it's about as
dangerous as betting the minimum at the $5
tables. With Kevin Spacey and Laurence
Fishburne. (PG-13) FAIR DRAMA Dir-Robert
Luketic Lead-Jim Sturgess RT-110 mins. |
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Copyright © 2008 Cineman Syndicate, LLC. All rights reserved.
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