KNIGHT AND DAY (Three-Disc Combo)

Written by Pirata Hermosa

June Havens (Cameron Diaz) was in Wichita picking up some new parts for her father’s GTO in order to restore it as a wedding gift for her sister. But little did she know that she was about to have an “accidental” run in with rogue agent Roy Miller (Tom Cruise).

Initially she thinks it’s a lucky coincidence that she keeps running into Roy. But after she boards a supposedly full commercial jet to return home with but a handful of passengers aboard, she begins to get a little suspicious. After quickly dismissing that thought from her mind, she is surprised to find that while she was visiting the lavatory Roy not only killed all the other passengers but the pilots as well.

Once Roy manages to crash land the plane into a cornfield, he promptly tells the hysterical June that he works for the government and some of his colleagues have turned against him. He warns her to be careful of anyone that comes looking for him, that they will tell her that he is crazy, and if they say the words "safe" or "secure", that they are planning on killing her. Roy offers her a drink and she immediately passes out.

June wakes up the next morning in her own bed thinking that what happened the previous night was a dream. But she quickly finds out that it was real when FBI agents pick her up outside her house and want to take her to a secure location so she will be safe. As she begins to worry about her safety, Roy shows up and frees her during an elaborate high-speed chase on the streets of Boston.

The two are now partnered together in order to clear both their names and to protect the Zephyr, a secret invention that is a perpetual energy battery which is the size of a regular flashlight battery and can power an entire city.

In order to keep the Zephyr out of the wrong hands and the inventor who created it, Simon Peck (Paul Dano), their journey will take them around the world to Spain, a secret island in Jamaica and on a train through the Alps.

The three-disc set contains a Blu-ray, DVD and a digital copy of the film. The Blu-ray is presented in Widescreen 2.40:1 ratio with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. The audio immerses you in the action with gunshots and explosions going off all around you. The video quality is a completely different experience. There’s a little graininess at the beginning and some warping when looking at the screens displaying the flight schedules. There’s also a number of times when the characters seem to really pop out compared to the background making it look like they are standing in front of green screens, but as some of the special features attest to, everything was shot on location and no green screens were used.

There are several features on the disc showing the making of the film, how the action scenes were filmed and what locations were used. The most interesting of the features was “Knight and Someday” where Tom Cruise flies into London to watch a Black Eyed Peas concert and then meets up with the band for the after party where they play the new song “Someday” that Tom had asked them to write for the film. Watching Tom chat up the members of the band seems a little surreal and then watching them all dance around while they play a recorded version of the song to a crowd of people foaming at the mouth behind barricades is just weird. And to top it off, the song isn’t very good.

The other cool but strange aspects of the bonus features section are the two viral videos “Soccer” and “Kick”. In the first one you watch Tom and Cameron from a distance as they are kicking a soccer ball back and forth. Suddenly they start doing a bunch of tricks. In the second one Cameron is practicing her karate kicks with a trainer and a giant cushion. Tom comes over and takes the cushion from the trainer and tells her to kick him as hard as she can. After a couple kicks, Tom gets distracted and looks away only to have Cameron kick him through a table and halfway across the lawn.

The film tries to walk a fine line between being an action film or a comedy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t walk it well enough to be either one. The comedy aspect isn’t pronounced enough. It gets close, but is then yanked back too abruptly into the seriousness of the situation. The action should be amazing. They used real locations. They set up good stunts and Cruise does his own. So why doesn’t it work? For some reason several of the stunts look fake. Even after watching the feature “Wilder Knights and Crazier Days” where they show how the stunts were done and how real they were, they just visually don’t work in the film.

Overall Knight and Day is not a bad film. It’s just an average film. The acting is good. There are plenty of exotic locations. There are a number of well-choreographed action scenes. There are many reasons why the film should succeed, but ultimately it just doesn’t live up to its full potential.

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: Knight and Day (Three-Disc Combo) on Blogcritics.

MACGRUBER - Unrated Edition (Blu-ray)

Written by Pirata Hermosa

Saturday Night Live was created in 1975, and since then a number of films have been produced based on some of the more popular reoccurring skits. Unfortunately, up to this time only two of them have translated successfully onto the big screen, 1980’s The Blues Brothers, which was based on musical performances by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, and Wayne’s World starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as two geeks that produce their own television show from Wayne’s basement. But even after the success of these two films, neither one could produce a worthy sequel.

While most SNL skits are based on one joke that is just repeated over and over again, the two most popular films were exceptions to the norm. Unfortunately, MacGruber is not one of the exceptions. Instead, the skit is based on MacGruber (Will Forte) who is playing a caricature of the popular MacGyver from the popular '80s television show of the same name. The skits are all about MacGruber trying to disarm some kind of bomb using nothing but his wits and whatever random objects happen to be lying around. But unlike MacGyver, MacGruber always gets distracted and ends up with the bomb blowing up in his face. With such a limited scope of characterization I wasn’t sure what anyone could do to make a full-length feature film worth watching, and after seeing the film it was obvious that the writers couldn’t find anything either.

The film starts with a nuclear missile being stolen in Russia by Macgruber’s arch nemesis, Dieter Van Cunth (Val Kilmer). A name that neither he nor the audience will ever forget, mostly since he is referred to by his last name pronounced with a silent H, which is repeated over and over to a nauseating degree.

In order to “pound Cunth”, MacGruber must put together a strong team of mercenaries of his own. But his plans change after he accidentally blows them all up in his van. Struggling to convince his superiors to give him another try so he can avenge the death of his wife he puts together a ragtag team consisting of Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) and Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Philippe).

The three bumble and stumble along following any lead they can find, while MacGruber keeps dressing up the other two to look like him so he can flush out anyone that might want to kill him. It all climaxes in a fight between the two adversaries with MacGruber having to disarm the nuclear warhead.

The Blu-ray includes both the Uncut and Theatrical version of the film as well as special features. The special features are just as disappointing as the film itself. There is only one deleted scene. The gag reel is flat and boring. And finally there’s the regular obligatory commentary with director, writers and Will Forte.

The Blu-ray is presented in 1080p High-Definition Widescreen 2.35:1 with the audio DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The picture is sharp and clean, but with the story being set in the ‘80s and having an older look to it the video didn’t appear to reach its full potential. The same can also be said of the audio, which really seemed to perform only during the giant explosions that could throw you out of your seat at full volume.

Going into this film I had pretty low expectations, but unfortunately my expectations weren’t low enough. Logically, you would think that it might be a poor man’s MacGyver imitation filled with cheesy '80s references with miraculous escapes made using only a piece of string and a coconut. If that was the case, there might have at least been an element of charm to the film. In fact, it had no charm whatsoever. Every other word out of MacGruber’s mouth was the F-word. He was a total jerk throughout and when he had to beg Lt. Piper to join his team by letting him have sex with him, any integrity the film had was lost.

There were a couple of humorous moments in the film, like the running gag of always taking his car stereo with him whenever he got out of his car, or the distraction technique of dancing around naked with a piece of celery clenched between his butt cheeks. But the laughs were too few and far between The film had already reached such a debase level that even those moments didn’t warrant a chuckle.

IT'S COMPLICATED

Written by Fido

Really, it’s not that complicated. It’s not the kind of movie that’s going to change the landscape of movie-making. It’s not some effects-laden adventure story culled from hundreds of other stories and dressed up in a fancy new CG package. There’s no incredibly clever stuff here. The jokes in the movie you’ve heard before and the plot is pretty dang pedestrian. But what sets Nancy Meyers It’s Complicated apart are the performances in that exceedingly normal story.

The big giant surprise, Meryl Streep is once again completely hypnotizing to watch. You find yourself quietly rooting for her from beginning to end. Even through moments of her character’s middle-aged chick nuttiness, you never grow tired of her. In fact, I found myself wondering halfway through the movie if she has ever really been atrocious in anything. Even in the worst of scripts (which this movie isn’t) or productions, she winds up with her head above water.

For that matter, Alec Baldwin is pretty charming here too. There’s a little overload on the whispering voiceover version of his voice, but when it comes down to it even the “dirtbaggery” his character dispenses becomes kind of endearing. Add onto that an increasingly odd-looking, but still comfortable to watch, Steve Martin in the role of the peon new guy that stumbles his way into the arena of family nuttiness, and this movie has something that is unfortunately seen less and less nowadays.

The acting is well done and leads to sheepish, smile-inducing chemistry. That alone makes It’s Complicated anything but complicated to grab a hold of and enjoy no matter your age or if you have a penchant for a cleanly executed romantic comedy.

Even down to the miniscule scenes between The Office’s John Krasinski and Meryl Streep (by the way they have an interesting dynamic on screen that would feed really well into some kind of cougar premise, if that whole thing isn’t played out yet), this movie is a shining example of how actors with actual talent, not just flash-in-the-pan pop stars force fed to us, can make anything not just watchable, but exceedingly comfortable.

In the end, I can’t see why It’s Complicated would win any awards, but not every movie needs to be some sweeping epic, cheap awards grab or hackneyed statement on social mores of the time. Sometimes it’s great just to see a movie that makes you feel a little better about the state of acting and the state of yourself.

Love American Style: Season 1, Volume 1

Written by Musgo Del Jefe

Although the air dates for Love American Style: Season 1, Volume 1 run from September 29, 1969 to December 22, 1969, this show is pure early Seventies. It's certainly our memory of the early Seventies, looking back almost 40 years later. The bright colors, the hip, quick cuts, the corny jokes and the quirky Herb Alpert-ish score. But 38 years later, what this really represents is an important transition to the core ABC shows that would dominate the ratings for the better part of the Seventies and early Eighties.

Love American Style represents a genre that really doesn't exist anymore - the anthology show and more specifically the comedic anthology show. The formula is basic but really it's brilliant. The hour-long shows consist of anywhere from two to four stories. These separate stories are surround by short filler gags heavily influenced by Laugh-In. These "short attention span" gags were unrelated to each other and usually starred a core group of actors, "The Love American Style Players." The theme song is sung by The Cowsills (best known for Hair) and it's catchy happiness along with the fireworks and red, white and blue heart tell the viewer that this is going to be a light-hearted party. The flexibility of this formula was perfect for syndication (where I first encountered the show at Noon-time just before The Hollywood Squares in the late Seventies). The filler jokes allowed the shows to be edited to 30 minutes by filling out the 20-minute stories.

Because the only criteria for this show is to be about "love", there's a variety of stories that can be adapted for the show. One is the extended joke. In "Love and the Hustler," Flip Wilson plays Red, a Muhammad Ali of the pool-hustling world. The extended skit has Red boasting about his skills until the final reveal when the hustler gets hustled. Only the final line of the piece brings the piece back to a "love" theme. Same for "Love and the Pill" where two parents are first concerned that their daughter may be having sex with her boyfriend and then concerned that something might be wrong because she isn't. These single-scene pieces are cheap to film, usually taking place all in one location and in one time period, like a Saturday Night Live skit.

The second type of story is what I call the "One Man Play". In this type, the set-up is very simple and allows one actor to showcase their comedic talents, including physical humor. In "Love and the Living Doll", Arte Johnson plays a Woody Allen-ish character trying to make his neighbor jealous. The clever episode allows Arte to show off his physical talent by wrestling and dancing with a blow up doll and later letting him try to explain his way out of an accusation of murder when a nosy neighbor sees him disposing of the doll. My favorite of this set is "Love and Who?" featuring TV veteran Sid Caesar. Sid wakes up in a hotel room in Vegas unsure of what happened the night before when he started at a party in L.A. The story showcases Caesar's comedic timing as he finds out that he got married (he's already married!), and starts to try to piece together what this new bride might look like. His one-sided phone conversations with the party host in L.A. and the wedding chapel are worthy of Bob Newhart's best.

The last type of story is the "Pilot" piece. Many of the longer stories feel like rejected pilots or try-outs for a pilot. In fact, Season Three will spin-off both Happy Days and Wait Until Your Father Gets Home. The episode, "Love and the Phone Booth" is a well-acted, well-written story that lasts about forty minutes. There's great chemistry between the actors and it would be easy to see an ongoing story between the lovable nerd from Indiana and the free-spirited naive girl from San Francisco.

This genre works well because of its variety. Stick around and you'll find something to latch onto in almost every episode. There's great writing, quality TV directors like Jerry Paris and a bevy of upcoming actors and established film actors. Volume 1 features Regis Philbin, Shari Lewis, Morey Amsterdam, Harrison Ford, Norman Fell, Robert Reed, Ozzie Nelson, Broderick Crawford, Phyllis Diller, Larry Storch, Bill Bixby and Connie Stevens along with tons of other TV regulars from the Seventies.

The format spawned ABC's biggest hit of the Seventies, Happy Days, a show that spawned other ABC hits in Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy, shows that helped anchor Tuesday nights for almost a decade. The format itself was perfected a few years later with The Love Boat and Fantasy Island - two shows that would conquer Saturday nights for ABC, a tradition that would last into the late Eighties. The Love Boat would take essentially the same format and add a compelling permanent cast around which the weekly stories (three or four usually) could be told. This anchor of an appealing cast is just what Love American Style is missing, ultimately. There's no host (ala Ricardo Montalban) to lead us through the stories each week. Viewers like that steady character to comment on the storylines.

The first release is a bare bones set. You get 12 episodes on three discs and no extras. Some of these episodes must have a helluva background story and I'd love to hear some commentary from these TV icons. You don't get TV shows like this anymore, so keep bringing these out on DVD.

THE DARWIN AWARDS

Written by Fumo Verde

These awards have been posthumously given out since 1991 and there is a book of all the “winners.” Many take offense to those who make light of the premature death of others, but if you think about it, some of these clownshoes had it coming. Director Finn Taylor not only makes light, he makes you laugh. This movie weaves together true and false claims about past award recipients with the backdrop of romance in the insurance industry. Starring Joseph Fiennes as an ex-profiling expert with the SFPD who joins Winona Ryder, the claims adjuster for a major insurance company, they are out not to save the world but to save the company money.

Fiennes does a wonderful job of an anal-retentive police profiler who passes out at the sight of blood. He lets a killer go in the beginning then tracks his movements through out the movie. After losing a wanted serial killer, Fiennes tries to get a job with an insurance company. Enter Ryder who has seen it all during her travels and has ice water for blood. She has told starving mothers that their claims have been denied with a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye, but this shit is getting to her. They are accompanied by a cast that includes David Arquette, Juliette Lewis, Wilmer Valderrama, and Metallica to name few.

I liked the idea of this movie but I found myself laughing mainly at the actions that bring about the untimely deaths of the awardees. The plot surrounding these weird deaths falls short, leaving you wanting to see more crazy ways people have accidentally killed themselves. It would have been nice to dig a little deeper into the workings of the insurance industry and to see why they deny all claims to everyone right off the bat. Anything would have been better than boy meets girl and falls in love as he catches the bad guy while helping poor insurance companies revoke claims due to the stupidity of the deceased. And let’s be honest here, some of the accidents are real award winners while others are urban legends, to find out which are real and which urban legends one will have to visit the award’s website.

It was a fun movie but I’m glad I didn’t pay ten bucks to see it in the theater. See this on cable or rent it for a dollar if you can. Quirky and sick, but that kind of sick where you know you have a shit-eating grin on your face, and you still won’t wipe it off.

BALLS OF FURY

Written by Hombre Divertido

Balls of Fury is the greatest ping-pong movie ever made!

In a movie that easily could have been called Balls of Glory, Dan Fogler takes the Ferrell role as Randy Daytona, a once great Olympian who became an outcast after an embarrassing incident at the Olympics. Sound familiar? What if I throw in Jim Lampley as the commentator?

Picking up the action years later; Daytona is now a cheap ping-pong lounge act. Yes, you read that right. The FBI recruit him to infiltrate the underground world of Ping Pong in order to help capture the evil Feng (Christopher Walken).

George Lopez plays the FBI agent who takes Daytona to the local Ping Pong guru: Master Wong (James Hong), so that he and his daughter Maggie (Maggie Q) can whip Daytona into shape. Maggie is an amazing ping-pong player, and one might wonder why she was not recruited for the mission instead of Daytona since the FBI obviously had access to her, but this is no movie in which you should be thinking.

Fogler plays the character with more subtle innocence than a Farrell creation, and Hong has some wonderful moments, but the rest of the cast just seems like they owed someone a favor or had a mortgage payment due.

The film actually opens with some solid laughs as it manages to spoof numerous other films, but gets bogged down and repetitive about 40 minutes in. Lopez hangs around waiting to do his Scarface impression, and Walken is wasted. Though it has a ninety-minute run time, the last ten minutes amazingly look as if the writers knew the story was over and that the film was too short, so they came up with a couple more gags.

Like Blades of Glory, this film has some solid laughs, but just not enough to justify the price of admission.

Recommendation: Wait for it to come out on DVD; then wait some more cuz it will be on Comedy Central soon after.

MR. BEAN'S HOLIDAY

Written by Hombre Divertido

Generally, there are two types of people in the world. Those that like Mr. Bean and those that don’t. Considering that Mr. Bean’s Holiday had made 188 Million internationally before being released in the U. S., it really didn’t matter which group it fell upon here.

The pratfalls and antics of Bean (Rowan Atkinson) work well in the brief and simple scenarios of the popular British television show, but his first outing; the 1997 motion picture Bean, had far too convoluted of a story to support the comedy of Bean. Though this effort has a far more simple premise, it appears that the writers took a holiday from writing gags for our talented actor.

Atkinson, who is aging gracefully and still posses the rubber face and athletic ability to pull off the expressions, gestures, and pratfalls that make up all that is Bean, finds his character on his way to Cannes for a vacation. Along the way, he misses a train, causes the separation of a man and his son, attempts to assist the son in finding his dad, losses all his money and passport, and interrupts the filming of a movie. Oh, if only he had interrupted the filming of this one with the same type of humorous effort.

There are some nice moments in this film, just not enough. One should always be concerned when a scene from the commercials does not show up in the film, as is the case here, and at a running time of eighty eight minutes, one must wonder how they felt that anything remotely funny could be left out. Too much was left out, and the final product is just unsatisfying.

Recommendation: The DVD of the televisions series would be a better investment of your time and money if you really want to experience Mr. Bean. If you are intent on seeing a motion picture featuring Rowan Atkinson, go with Rat Race or Johnny English. No awards to be given to those two efforts, but far more fun than Mr. Bean’s Holiday.