Wedding Crashers

You can now label me officially a Vince Vaughn fan. First, he was the only decent thing about Dodgeball, then he does that comic genius thing again, only in a radical 360-degree kind of way. Usually, these kind of films bore me silly -- two dopey guys only interested in sex find the girl(s) of their dreams. Yawn. Been done thousands and thousands and thousands... Ten minutes in I was sure this would be an eye-roller. But once they finish showing us how Vaughn and Owen Wilson have perfected the dastardly art of wedding crashing, and the film gets down to business, it's pretty freakin' funny. (I'll admit, right off the bat, that the first dinner table scene made me laugh so hard I had to make an effort to keep my eyes open. I don't quite know what it was that made it so funny -- it's the oldest joke in the book. Context, I guess.) Naturally, the plot is ridiculous, but all romance movies have ridiculous plots. Assume this before you go or there'll be no viewing pleasure for you. Still, I can't give it more than a 3.0, if only because of the evil boyfriend (but he looks so nice!) and the homosexual brother (but he's a sensitive artist!). Back to my original point... Wilson is terrific (you just want to pinch his cheeks he's so sweet) and Rachel McAdams as the love interest is as engaging as she was in The Notebook (I'd like to see her do something other than romance now; she clearly has the chops for it), but Vaughn simply sparkles. He's kooky, clever, completely twisted, and loving every second of it. Just what you need in a sidekick. Isn't it time he got a headliner, though?

year: 2005
length: 119 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396269/combined

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Liam Aiken is a kid to be watched. His mannerisms seem wise for someone twice his age. I'd guess that's the mark of someone who finds acting as natural as tying his shoes and brushing his teeth. It's interesting to note that he was on the short list for the Harry Potter role, but was turned down because he wasn't British. I don't know -- if Renée Zellweger can play a Brit seamlessly, so (conceivably) could Aiken. In some ways, I can see him as better than Daniel Radcliffe (gasp! sacrilege!). But he's by no means the only good thing in the film -- the tale of three orphans being shuttled among "relatives" after their parents die in a fire. Jim Carrey plays Count Olaf, the worst of the relatives, and he is predictably hysterical (his prehistoric scene was a belly-laugh). He also gets to enact multiple characters -- a pie-in-the-sky kind of acting job for him, I'm sure. The sets are gorgeously rendered, perfectly odd and filled with so much minutiae that you'd have to see it multiple times to catch everything. The animation used at the beginning and during the credits is Tim-Burton-esque (think Nightmare Before Christmas), and the music is Danny-Elfman-esque. But it doesn't necessarily play as darkly as a Burton film. Sure, Count Olaf' s house is über-creepy, dank and nasty, and bad things keep happening to the orphans, but at least this film has a (semi-)happy ending. Speaking of the ending, I'm getting tired of films that assume they will be franchises and so have these ultra-wimpy endings (e.g ., Spiderman I, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) that allow them to pick up right where they left off. This will only get worse as studios sink the majority of their budgets into those flicks that can be franchised. Urg. Fight this insidious takeover! Go see small films like Northfork or Shaun of the Dead or Super Size Me. Now THAT is one we really don't need franchised.

year: 2004
length: 108 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339291/combined

The Fly

Among the list of foods you should NEVER eat while watching this film is cherry pie. I'm not one to get squeamish while watching make-believe (although I may shake my hands or make a face during a particularly grody scene), but David Cronenberg takes the cake. The film only reveals itself as horror halfway through, so there you are enjoying mid-80s costuming and amusing repartee between the leads, Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, when the full effect of Cronenberg's special effects masters splatters across the screen. Blechy. Although I don't recommend eating while watching, I wouldn't avoid it in the video store because it deserves a viewing. Goldblum delivers, well, himself, and there are soulful moments that mesh nicely with his halting speech patterns and spazzy mannerisms, as bizarre as that may sound. Perhaps Cronenberg chose him because the actor is so obviously himself even under pounds of fake-fly makeup. Davis does good counterpoint, although it's not one of her best films, and the writing is often funny and always clever. But the soul of the picture lies in the recognizably human emotions evident in this fly-man even as he becomes something unrecognizable and disgusting to us. For that alone, it's worth peeking between your fingers and relegating the cherry pie back to the kitchen for the time being.

year: 1986
length: 95 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091064/combined

House Calls

Oh, I do love Walter Matthau. Sadly, I was introduced to him during his Grumpy Old Men stage (in which he's, frankly, marvelous, my favorite line being "Putz.") and then had to return in time and rent The Taking of Pelham One Two Three on the strength of him (and some great reviews). Not having failed me yet, I rented this flick because one of my reviews fans (blush) gave it high marks. So far we're three for three. Matthau can take any dialogue and make it belly-laugh-inducing hilarious. I rarely laugh heartily in films anymore -- a line or scene has to be REALLY good to make me guffaw -- and this film had at least a half dozen such instances. The only decent doctor at a hospital crammed with nitwits, Matthau plays a recent widower who wants to play the field for the first time ever (not that he didn't love his wife, don't get me wrong). He goes out with all these young idiots and of course becomes entangled with a woman closer to his age, the magnificent actress-cum-sparring-partner, Glenda Jackson (she's actually now the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate!). Of course, there's abject silliness along the path towards Matthau giving in and admitting his adoration for Jackson, including cross-dressing, singing along with an Enrico-Caruso-alike, and hysterical interactions with Art Carney as the surgical head of the hospital. If you're in the mood for laughing, don't miss this one.

year: 1978
length: 98 min.
rating: 3.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077699/combined

The Coca-Cola Kid

I don't remember now why I even had this movie in my queue. I guess it's interesting for three reasons: 1) to see why Greta Scacchi has no shame 2) to see how far Eric Roberts has fallen and 3) to see why Australians are ever so much cooler than Americans. Roberts is some big-shot Coca-Cola marketing genius, sent to Australia to shake up the Aussies and make them sell, sell, sell! Scacchi is his secretary who has never heard the phrase "playing hard to get," culmintaing in them at long last going to bed together...amidst big fluffy pillow feathers. It's ludicrous. Especially since Roberts has made it abundantly clear that he is not in the least interested throughout the film and then all of a sudden they're smooching on a big red bed. We don't even see the "caving in" scene! That's not just bad plotting, that's extraordinarily bad acting. I guess Roberts was still a possibility as a leading man in Hollywood at this time; after this you'll see why he's remained a B-movie actor. (His sister's astronomically better; must be galling.) The rest of the plot is too silly and poorly directed to mention. Ok, one mention: the cross-dressing party and subsequent singing-in-the-rain scene. What the heck was that?! Talk about ludicrous. Anything good about the movie -- yes, the Coca-Cola song (I see at least one IMDB reviewer thinks exactly the same as me) and the cute little girl playing Scacchi's daughter. Not enough for a recommendation, I'm afraid.

year: 1985
length: 98 min.
rating: 1.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088931/combined