Film: Cowboys & Aliens

GENRE: Action, Western, Sci-Fi
RATING: PG 13 for violence and partial nudity
RUNTIME: 1 hours and 58 minutes
STARRING: Daniel Craig (Bond), Harrison Ford (Indy), Olivia Wilde (House), Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2)
DIRECTOR: Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Iron Man 2)
WRITERS: Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek, Transformers) Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby (Iron Man, Children of Men) Damon Lindelof (Lost, Star Trek Sequel)
PLOT: Spaceships arrive in the Old West and abduct the citizens of a poor Arizona town. The posse tries to get them back.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS: 

1 This film smartly takes the content seriously; it’s not campy in any way. The cowboys don’t even call the intruders ‘aliens’ and Daniel Craig is surprised when he flies in the air. There is a sense of authenticity even though it deals with extra-terrestrials. I thought the concept worked even though many critics didn’t think they pulled it off nearly well enough.
2 My biggest issue is that I didn’t care too much about what happened to Craig or Ford’s characters. I didn’t feel myself rooting for them like they wanted me to. This is where the story needed a little more help.
3 I was rooting for Rockwell’s Doc instead. He was someone you could feel for. I also got a kick out of Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood) as the snotty son of Harrison Ford. Keith Carradine’s (Dexter) sheriff wasn’t too bad either.
4 Even though the subject matter was serious, there were still plenty of funny lines throughout the film. I don’t know which of the five writers wrote which but the humour seemed pretty Lindelof-y. Great gun pointing scene.
5 The fight between the aliens and the posse is too cliché. A small gun against a large alien? Not a chance. While the aliens kill a bunch a people, most are the faceless ones we don’t care about. When someone Important dies, the fighting seems to stop so we can have some final words. The last 30 minutes of the film kind of takes away from all the good stuff in the beginning. Oh well.

RECOMMENDATION: DVD is good enough
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Crazy, Stupid Love

Film: Bad Teacher

GENRE: Comedy
RATING: R for sexual content, nudity, language & drug use
RUNTIME: 1 hours and 32 minutes
STARRING: Cameron Diaz (There’s Something About Mary), Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Justin Timberlake (SNL)
DIRECTOR: Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard, Orange County)
WRITERS: Gene Stupnitsky & Lee Eisenberg (Year One, The Office)
PLOT: A terrible teacher gets involved at school to get enough money for a boob job and woo a new colleague.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:
1 Cameron Diaz’ Elizabeth Halsey is not nearly bad enough. She does what she can with the role but they don’t give her much to work with. Sure, she’s self-centered and doesn’t care about her students or co-workers but nothing that would make you drop your jaw with amazement. I thought that was the point.
2 The only saving grace in this film is Jason Segel as the gym teacher who has a crush on Elizabeth. His scenes with Diaz actually show some chemistry; I wish there was more of that in the film. He is endearing and fun to watch. Phyllis from The Office is also fun but I don’t know why Elizabeth would talk to her.
3 Justin Timberlake was great in Social Network and Alpha Dog, both dramas. He is very funny on SNL. He sucks in this film, however. What odd casting. His lame-ass song that he sings at the bar is the only chuckle but that’s only because we know what he can really do.
4 Kasdan should have taken a cue from School of Rock, the kids are an essential part of a teacher film. Those kids had it, this film does not. The kids are boring and add nothing to the story. I even saw one of them smiling when Diaz is chewing them out for their sucky essays.
5 As a media teacher, I got a kick out of Elizabeth just showing inspirational teacher films in her class like Stand & Deliver. Scream was a fun stretch. I try to make sure I don’t show a film on the first day of school though.

RECOMMENDATION: Maybe TBS, maybe.
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Cowboys & Aliens

Film: Horrible Bosses

GENRE: Comedy
RATING: R for crude, sexual content, course language & drug use
RUNTIME: 1 hours and 38 minutes
STARRING: Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) , Jason Sudeikis (SNL)
DIRECTOR: Seth Gordon (King of Kong, Breaking In)
WRITERS: Mike Markowitz (Duckman, Becker), John Francis Daley (Bones), Jonathan Goldstein (New Adventures of Old Christine)
PLOT: Three friends decide to help each other do away with their awful bosses. Hilarity ensues.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:
1 This is a very funny movie. The chemistry between the three leads is perfect. They have multiple car scenes together which are filled with wonderful dialogue and hijinks. You could see these people being friends in real life.
2 Charlie Day + Bowl of cocaine = Hilarious. I had tears coming out of my eyes. His sifting is priceless. Best scene in the film by far.
3 The pacing of this film is really well done. Almost all the people involved from writing to directing to acting are all involved with sitcoms, therefore they aware of time constraints and are careful not to drag things on too much. It’s about time a good comedy had a running time of just over 90 minutes. Kudos.
4 Jennifer Aniston (Friends) and her sexually charged potty mouth was funny but might put some people off. You can tell she relished the opportunity to finally play the bad girl.
5 There are a couple of instances where Jason Sudeikis is scoring with the ladies. Really? He’s okay looking but are women falling all over this guy? He got women a little too easily even with his ‘model’ line.

RECOMMENDATION: Wait for DVD since it’s a comedy
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Cowboys & Aliens

Film: Cars 2

GENRE: Animation/Adventure
RATING: G for mild action violence and some rude humour
RUNTIME: 1 hours and 46 minutes
STARRING: Larry the Cable Guy (Blue Collar Comedy Tour), Owen Wilson (Wedding Crashers), Michael Caine (Batman Begins)
DIRECTORS: John Lasseter (Toy Story 2), Brad Lewis (newcomer)
WRITER: Ben Queen (Drive)
PLOT: While Lightning McQueen races in the World Grand Prix, Mater gets mixed up in some international espionage.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:
1 Like usual, it was better than I thought it was going to be; but it was definitely not my favourite Pixar film either. I’m nervous about Pixar already dipping into the sequel well. Toy Story was fine (the animated short preceding Cars 2 was awesome) but I hear there is a Monsters Inc sequel in the works. I hope they can continue churning out some great original concepts in the future.
2 Even though Lightning McQueen is supposedly the star, we all know that Mater stole the spotlight last time around, so it was wise of them to put him front and centre on this sequel. He’s even billed first in the credits and rightfully so. He is still a fun character to watch and empathize with. Great work Larry.
3 The supporting characters from the last film definitely took a back seat (pun intended) to Mater this time around. The new characters didn’t have fun personalities; maybe it was because they were too British. They served the story well but I wished for more antics from Luigi and Guido, the Italian pit members.
4 There was a lot of gun violence in this film. I was surprised. It fits the spy genre but seemed a little over the top at times.
5 Having just returned from London, it was fun to see the animated sights again.

RECOMMENDATION: Wait for DVD
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Horrible Bosses