Film Review: "Larry Crowne"

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Thursday, 30 June 2011 05:00

Written by Lloyd Carroll

Larry Crowne
Directed by Tom Hanks
Written by Tom Hanks, Nia Vardalos
Starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Cedric the Entertainer, Rob Riggle

Larry Crowne purports to be another film that reflects the tough economic times that all too many Americans are facing. While it’s an innocuous way to spend 90 minutes, it is certainly no Up in the Air.

The titular character, Larry Crowne, is a hardworking team leader at a San Fernando Valley U-Mart, a big chain retailer modeled after you-know-what. Despite being well-like by colleagues and having been named “employee of the month” eight times, Larry is called into a meeting with store executives and told that he is being let go because he lacks a college degree.

While the film says that Larry is a victim of downsizing, it seems that he is instead hurt by a new, sudden “up or out” philosophy at the store: without the sheepskin, he can never be promoted.

So after pounding the pavement and discovering that it is hard to find a decent paying job when you are over 50 -- even if you unexpectedly lose your previous one -- Larry decides to enroll in fictional East Valley Community College in the hopes that it will lead to a better economic future for him.

Rather than be told to enroll in technical classes, such as accounting or computer networking, he is told by a liberal arts-oriented dean to take Speech, Composition (although we never see him in that class) and Economics 101.

(Based on my experience, the only thing that matters in Economics is supply and demand, while everything else is used just to fill up textbooks.)

Larry’s speech professor, Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts), is a bitter burnout whose favorite activity at home is breaking out the blender and downing one margarita after another. She is married to a failing writer who spends his days surfing the web for new porn sites. It is only a matter of time until she finds herself attracted to salt-of-the-earth Larry.

Larry Crowne had the ingredients to be a good film, but it is unfortunate that it loses its focus rather early. We are supposed to believe that AARP member Larry would be sought out by a group of young, mostly Hispanic, motorcycle riders to be their newest member.

To be fair, in a refreshing change of pace, motorcycle enthusiasts are portrayed as upstanding citizens instead of criminal gang members. The film also points out the great gas mileage motorcycles get.

The notion that Roberts’ character, an aspiring Medieval English scholar, would embark on a romance with Hanks, a part-time short order cook who is now a full-time student where she teaches, is rather far-fetched, even for romantic comedies.

One positive for the film is its supporting cast. Cedric the Entertainer nearly steals the film as Larry’s next door neighbor who is always having a flea market on his lawn. He enjoys the haggling far more than the actual selling.

The always welcome Rob Riggle is hysterical as a blowhard U-Mart executive who gets his comeuppance.

Larry Crowne is not an awful film. It just should have been a lot better.

Cinefantastique Spotlight Podcast: Cars 2

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Monday, 27 June 2011 13:30

Written by Daniel Persons

Kids love cars, and kids love Cars-- that seems to be the calculation behind Pixar's latest animated offering, Cars 2. Abandoning the original film's theme that celebrated the romance of exploring off-the-beaten-superhighway U.S, director John Lasseter and crew have devised an espionage plotline for this sequel, with cocky race car Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and kids'-fave country-bumpkin tow-truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy, a.k.a. Daniel Lawrence Whitney) embarking on a whirlwind world tour to compete in an international racing competition, and finding themselves dragooned into a deadly conspiracy being battled by suave super spy Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and his sexy (check out those steel-belted radials!) partner Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer). With beautifully crafted settings and numerous, exquisitely choreographed action sequences, does Cars 2 overcome the problems found in the first installment, a film that many feel is Pixar's weakest effort? Join Cinefantastique Online's Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons as they examine the movie.

Also in this episode: Steve offers his thoughts on Woody Allen's hit fantasy/comedy, Midnight in Paris, Dan discusses the level of human misery he'll inflict for the sake of saving a few lousy bucks, and the gang discusses the inscrutable artistry of Michael Bay.

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June '11 Digital Week IV

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 26 June 2011 15:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week
Cedar Rapids (Fox)
Ed Helms is being positioned as a sensitive farceur a la Steve Carell, but based on the execrable The Hangover and this mild comedy, he’s in danger of falling into the trap of sameness and falling completely off the radar. The “fish out of water” story of a small-town insurance salesman who discovers the big, bad world at a business convention in swinging Wisconsin is barely enough for a feature, as the brief running time reveals. The cast, comprising John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and Sigourney Weaver alongside Helms, is game, but the feeble material holds them back. There’s an adequate Blu-ray transfer; extras include deleted scenes, gag reel, featurettes and interview segments.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (Fox)
A painless 95 minutes, this silly sequel to the original adaptation of Jeff Kinney’s famous children’s book has enough humor about the absurdities of being parents and kids that it will surely click with many families. There’s nothing here we haven’t seen spoofed before in the generational department, but the actors are certainly enjoying themselves, which helps pass the time. The Blu-ray transfer is decent; extras include a gag reel, deleted scenes, alternate ending and director/author commentary.

Hall Pass (Warners)
The Farrelly brothers, still motoring along, keep their raunchy comedy tradition going. This one has even less going for it than usual, as a strictly second-string cast comprises Owen Wilson, Jason Sudekis, Christina Applegate and Jenna Fischer. There are a few good laughs, but most of the humor is of the deliberate gross-out kind, especially in the seven-minute longer unrated cut, where we (and Wilson) are supposed to find the sight of a black man’s large penis and a white man’s small member shocking and hilarious. (It’s neither.) The Blu-ray transfer is quite good; extras consist of a four-minute deleted scene and two-minute gag reel.

Insignificance (Criterion)
Nicolas Roeg’s insignificant 1985 fantasy, based on Terry Johnson’s mediocre play, features unnamed stand-ins for Albert Einstein, Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe and Joe McCarthy duke it out in 1950s Manhattan. The plot gives Roeg the chance to show off his well-worn visual trickery, including slo-mo nuclear annihilation, but nothing really stays with you after viewing. The actors give their all, but if Michael Emil, Gary Busey and Tony Curtis are defeated by the weak material, Theresa Russell is luminous and touching as The Actress. As usual with Criterion, the Blu-ray image is far superior to any other home video version of the film so far; extras include new interviews with Roeg, producer Jeremy Thomas and editor Tony Lawson, vintage making-of featurette.

Kill the Irishman (Anchor Bay)
This fast-paced dramatization of Danny Greene, the real-life Irish crime boss in 1970s Cleveland, has enormous sympathy for a gangster who just happened to be taking on even nastier Italian gangsters. It helps that Jim Stevenson’s enormously charismatic presence becomes the focal point of the film. Even if this ground is oft-trodden, such an offbeat take on the mob scene is worth  a look. Considerable support comes from Vincent d’Onofrio, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer and Linda Cardellini and Laura Ramsey as Danny’s women. Jonathan Lensleigh’s movie looks strikingly realistic on Blu-ray; the lone extra is an hour-long documentary, Danny Greene: The Rise and Fall of the Irishman, which gets insights from the people involved in Danny’s life story.

Kiss Me Deadly (Criterion)
Robert Aldrich’s dark film noir is a triumph of style over substance: it’s easy to see why Quentin Tarantino loves this film, which has ridiculous characters and an even more ludicrous storyline. But Aldrich’s tough-minded direction compels one to watch even as the implausibilities pile up higher and higher. The stiff and awkward acting mitigates against the movie succeeding dramatically, but damned if Aldrich doesn’t tighten the screws until the risible but awesomely explosive ending. The stark B&W photography is well-served by Criterion’s pristine Blu-ray transfer; extras include a commentary, documentary excerpts, altered ending and an appreciation by director Alex Cox.

Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…Season 2 (MVD)
Season 2 of Elvis Costello’s Sundance Channel musical talk show is bookended by heavyweights: the first program finds Bono and the Edge engagingly discussing careers with Elvis and singing songs with and without him; the final two programs are given over to Bruce Springsteen, who does the same. In between, four episodes feature appearances by Sheryl Crow, Levon Helm, Nick Lowe, Lyle Lovett and Ray LaMontagne, who sing and talk with Elvis, and actress Mary Louise Parker, who interviews Elvis but does not sing. The shows look sharper than on TV, although it’s not necessary to put them on Blu-ray; extras include three bonus songs and a behind-the-scenes documentary.

Unknown (Warners)
Based on Taken and Unknown, Liam Neeson should avoid Europe. In Taken, his daughter was kidnapped in Paris; in Unknown, he loses his memory and finds his wife with another “husband” in Berlin. Stylish, action-packed and thoroughly illogical, Unknown is turn-off-the-brain entertainment, with a swaggering Neeson complemented by spunky Diane Kruger, smarmy Aidan Quinn, voluptuous January Jones and cadaverous Bruno Ganz. The movie’s images look excellent on Blu-ray; the meager extras are a four-minute Neeson profile and a four-minute behind-the-scenes featurette.

DVDs of the Week
American: The Bill Hicks Story (BBC)
Bill Hicks was a cult comedian whose career took off before he tragically died of cancer at age 32 in 1994. This heartfelt documentary shows excerpts from his standup act alongside a standard bio narrated by friends and family members. Though Hicks had an interesting outlook on the foibles of everyday life, his onstage persona owes a lot to Sam Kinison, who is never mentioned. Hours of fan-friendly extras include additional interviews and vintage clips.

Poison (Zeitgeist)
Todd Haynes’ first feature is an overheated, campily melodramatic triptych of stories that overlap routinely. Half-baked plotting, amateurish acting and Haynes’ ineptitude defeat whatever he’s trying to say; even neophyte Jean Genet did better with his lone film, an obvious influence. Haynes would go on to make Far from Heaven, I’m Not There and Mildred Pierce, all well-crafted dramas that show he learned something after making Poison. The 20th anniversary release includes interviews from last year’s Sundance Film festival and Haynes’ 1999 audio commentary.

CD of the Week
Herbert Howells: The Winchester Service (Hyperion)
British composer Herbert Howells (1892-1983) wrote much sacred choral music, and this valuable disc collects works he composed near the end of his life for choir and organ, solo organ, and a cappella choir. The standouts are the 10-minute title track and the 12-minute Te Deum 'St Mary Redcliffe' in which the Winchester Cathedral Choir soars angelically. Also noteworthy is Exultate Deo, a beautiful hymn to the beyond that stands as an 82-year-old composer’s remarkable religious anthem. It’s a testament to Howells’ talent that he found so much variety in a relatively narrow genre, and a testament to the choir (under leader Andrew Lumsden) and organist Simon Bell, who give all of these works such splendid readings.