THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD

'The Great Buck Howard' is a movie that showcases the life and times of an aging, over the hill mentalist/magician named Buck Howard (John Malkovich).  Buck was once the star of late night TV, appearing 61 times on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but now plays to the senior citizen crowd in rundown theaters in podunk towns (Hello Wahoo, Nebraska!).

While Buck's days are long past him, Troy Gable's (Colin Hanks) best days are ahead of him.  Fed up and disillusioned with the possibility as a career as a lawyer, Troy drops out of college and law school, and answers a classified ad in the newspaper to become Buck's new road manager.  Troy has no choice but to learn quickly, and proceeds to travel the country as Buck's right hand man.  Playing small town after small town, we come to see Buck's many idiosyncrasies and oddities. 

Buck's got a heck of a handshake, a penchant for spring water (not distilled!) and a love for every town he visits.  The movie's comedy comes in Buck's quirkiness, and Malkovich does a great job of making you both laugh at him and feel for him at the same time.  Emily Blunt shows up half way through the movie as a publicist and becomes Troy's love interest, albeit for no apparent reason. 

When Buck declares that he'll perform his greatest trick ever, he finally gets some press and everyone shows up for his big show.  Buck gets the press he hoped for, even if it's not as he expected it to happen.  Suddenly, the once run down, past his prime Buck Howard is hip again, running the late night circuit, appearing on Regis and Kelly, Martha Stewart and MTV.   Buck's return to prominence is short lived however, allowing us to see the fall, resurgence, and re-fall of the Great Buck Howard.

While I liked the movie enough, it almost came across as a vehicle to let John Malkovich act eccentric for 90 minutes.  I did enjoy Buck's complete apathy for anything that's happened after 1970 though, clearly living in the past, where he truly was, The Great Buck Howard.  Even Tom Hanks seemed disinterested in his 2 cameo's however, and he produced the film! 

There's very little substance here, and you certainly don't come away from this movie having learned anything whatsoever.  Having said that, it's a pretty good comedy that won't make you feel like you wasted your time, but you won't be raving about it afterwards either.  3 out of 5 stars.

DELIVERANCE

That's right....we're going old school for today's movie review.  I had never seen Deliverance before, but knew that it was a classic, and I got a chance to catch a late night Cinemax viewing yesterday evening.

Deliverance is the story of 4 Atlanta businessmen who decide to take a 'boys weekend', and go rafting down the fictional Cahulawassee River in northern Georgia.  The 4 men (Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ron Cox) are clearly out of their element.  The locals appear to be, and are portrayed as, inbred, 2 teeth, overall wearing, banjo playing hillbillies. 

In the beginning of the movie, the four men stop for gas and Drew (Ron Cox) plays his guitar, to which a local boy playing a banjo joins in, and we get a rousing rendition of the classic 'dueling banjos'.  In fact, the song was nominated for an Academy Award in 1972, and the music serves as an undertone for the entire movie, being heard througout the film.

As you can imagine, not all goes as smoothly as the four men would have hoped.  The river is far more dangerous than they could have imagined.  Fast rapids, sharp rocks, and local mountain men with the worst of intentions.  The famous scene involving the mountain men and Bobby (Ned Beatty in his film debut) and Ed (Jon Voight - the star of the movie) is both cringe inducing and horror movie worthy.  It flows into a perfect what-would-you-do-if-it-happened-to-you scene where the 4 men argue the pros and cons of the situation, finally reaching a necessary, albeit nearly damning conclusion.

Things don't get any better for the foursome, as one bad thing leads to another, ending with the final scenes back on dry land, trying to convince the local sheriff (James Dickey, the author of the book in a cameo role here) that all is well, and they just want to go home. 

While there are long stretches of the movie where absolutely nothing happens, the amount of fear that you can't help but feel for the men is overwhelming - surely coming from the fact that it's a classic 'this could happen to me' movie.  The tension builds and builds, and slowly releases as the situations evolve, not giving you the quick payoff, but rather allowing you to ease into the moment.  The film is overwhelmingly anti-Appalachian, and undoubtedly ceased any vacation thoughts of visiting the area in the early 1970's. 

I found myself glued to the screen, and had absolutely no idea how it would end.  Nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1972 (eventually losing to The Godfather), you don't need me to tell you this was a good film, but I did enjoy it.  I stopped short of loving the movie, whether due to Burt Reynolds atrocious acting (he does have the laying down and moaning down pact though), or the long stretches of simply drifing down river, but it was a good movie.  I'm going with 3.5 out of 5 stars for this one, just short of 4.

2012

2012 is one of many 'end of the world' movies that have come out over the last few years.  At over 150 minutes long, it takes a shot at being an epic film, and while it misses badly at doing so, it certainly does enough to entertain and makes for a pretty good movie watching experience.

The overwhelming plot is of course is the total meltdown of the earth's core, causing massive earthquakes and tsunami's, leading to the eventual collapse and destruction of the earth.  In fact, the movie uses nearly 2 hours to show exactly that.  We see the White House destroyed, Vatican City collapse, the Statue of Christ in Rio De Janeiro crumble, and so on and so forth. 

Where the movie succeeds is in the fantastic chase scenes, where John Cusack and his family outrun, well, mother nature I guess......... and in the overwhelming sense of dread as you watch the 5 of them narrowly escape certain death after certain death.  Even though most of this is cliche, it's actually done surprisingly well.  The film consistently feeds off of our emotions, and nothing strikes fear into your heart more than children in peril (which is a constant theme throughout the movie).

Danny Glover, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Amanda Peet and Oliver Platt all play important, albeit relatively minor roles in the film.  Chiwetel Ejiofor gets a major role as the geophysicist who predicts the impending disaster, and despite making mistake after mistake - is consistently the only one in the room who seems to know what's going on. 

Perhaps one thing I'd nitpick on is how quickly the destruction escalated.  One minute, we're having minor tremors and semi-strong earthquakes in California - the next minute, the entire San Andreas Fault is collapsing and the entire State is on fire.  Things haven't escalated this quickly since Ron Burgandy and the NewCenter 5 team got into a street brawl.

As I mentioned, 2 and half hours is a long time to invest in a movie, but I thought the filmmakers did a pretty good job overall.  The CGI effects are obvious, but I couldn't help but wonder what worldwide landmark was going to go down in flames next.  Most of it was, literally, unbelievable (I mean, who doesn't drive sports cars out of the back of crashing airplanes, right?), but it was also a mindless fun.  3.5 out of 5 stars.  Absolutely rentable.

KICK-ASS

I've never been a 'comic book' kind of guy, it's just never been something that's ever interested me.  Having said that, I've been putting off seeing Kick-Ass ever since I read that the movie was a comic book adaptation.  Big mistake on my part.

What comes across in the posters and previews as a type of schlock superhero movie, turns out to be a legit, big budget, full-on action movie.  The premise is such that Dave (Aaron Johnson) wonders aloud why nobody has attempted to be a real superhero, and decides to go into the crime-fighting business on his own, clad in scuba gear and calling himself Kick-Ass.  His first encounter as Kick-Ass goes quickly south, but he manages to survive and fight another day, and eventually winds up being a viral sensation on Youtube.

Taking his cue, we're introduced to Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz).  This is where the real fun starts.  Hit Girl is the star of the movie.  The 11 year old, four and a half foot, foul mouthed, knife wielding aficionado and her father, Big Daddy, are top notch killing machines.  A particular scene where we first see Hit Girl in action really jump starts the film, and lets the viewer know that this isn't your daddy's superhero movie.

Blood.  Guts.  Severed limbs.  All in a day's work for this band of superheroes.  There are many cringe inducing scenes that feel brutal at the time, but quickly subside as you can't help but admire Hit Girl's athleticism and total control of any situation she's put into.

I thoroughly enjoyed how the movie tied up loose ends and pulled many of the minor scenes together in order to make a very coherent and cohesive film.  At 1 hour and 56 minutes long, it surely could have been shortened a bit, but I'm not complaining. 

Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin from Superbad) seemed a bit miscast, and his characters motives swung more than once or twice, not sure of what he was supposed portray to the audience.  I did however enjoy Clark Duke (Hot Tub Time Machine, Sex Drive) in a minor role as one of Dave's buddies, who comes across as the perfect high-school geek that everybody likes anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the movie, and it certainly peaked my interest in the new Scott Pilgrim vs. The World movie coming out next week (also a comic book adaptation).  I definitely say it's worth renting - just be prepared to hear a 11 year old say words only a truck driver could get away with....  4 out of 5 stars.

COP OUT

On the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, Tracy Morgan's character has a slew of faux movie posters on the wall of his dressing room, mimicking low-budget 'paycheck' movies that he's made.  If you see a Cop Out poster on the wall in next season's episodes, don't be surprised. 

I've enjoyed Kevin Smith's movies in the past.  Clerks, Mallrats, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Dogma - all fine examples of Smith's writing and directing ability.  It's always been his smart, witty dialogue and ability to mix pop culture references and observational humor into a humorous, 100 minute package.  Unfortunately, Smith didn't write this film, and can only take blame credit for the directing portion.  Et tu Kevin Smith? Et tu....


Cop Out is a buddy cop movie in the Beverly Hills Cop / Lethal Weapon framework.  Tracy Morgan is 'the black guy', and Bruce Willis is 'the white guy'.  The problem with the movie, is that I couldn't tell what kind of movie Smith was trying to make.  On the surface, you'd think it'd be straight comedy, until you get to the multiple brutal killings that seem so far out of bounds for this type of film, you can't help but feel like you missed the joke somewhere. 

The plot is loosely based around a stolen baseball card, and Willis and Morgan's attempt to get it back from a drug dealer (Juan Carlos Hernandez from Half-Baked).  Throw in a maybe she is / maybe she isn't cheating Rashida Jones (The Office, Parks & Recreation), 2 straight and narrow cops (one played by Kevin Pollak), a Mexican beauty who doesn't speak any English, a parkour burglar (Sean William Scott), a stuck up jerk of a 2nd husband to Willis' ex-wife (Jason Lee) and Willis' attempt to pay a $48,000 wedding bill for his daughter, and you've got 3 too many side plots that start and end up as complete nonsense. 

In the end, I was most disappointed in the lack of originality in the film.  I felt like the movie was about 20 minutes too long, and I honestly just wanted it to be over.  The synthesizer music was a nice homage to the Beverly Hills Cops franchise, but the rest of the soundtrack was scattered and felt disjointed as well. 

I feel bad not liking this more as much as I've enjoyed Kevin Smith's other films, but to me, it just felt like a 'cop out' on his part.  2 out of 5 stars.

SALT

Another Tuesday, another $5 matinee.  This weeks pick was the new Angelina Jolie flick, Salt.  Typically, this is not the type of movie I'd go out of my way to see.  I feel like if you've seen one of these cookie-cutter action movies, you've seen them all.  It's usually cliche, predictable, and I find it pretty boring.  Salt was cliche, perhaps predictable...but boring it was not.

I found myself pleasantly surprised in the flow of the movie, and the many twists and turns that it took us on for just over an hour and a half.  Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, who aside from being as resourceful as MacGyver and good looking as, well, Angelina Jolie....is also a top notch CIA officer and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.  At least it felt that way.  She's basically a superhero without the cape.  Jolie is able to jump from truck roof to truck roof, to moving car, from window to window and down elevator shafts without so much as a twisted knee.  I broke my ankle stepping in a divot.  Needless to say, I'm envious.

The plot is basically inconsequential.  I don't know that there's anything you need to know except that Salt is on the run, half the CIA is trying to catch her, and there's going to be some broken glass along the way.  The plot has holes big enough to drive a truck through (with Angelina Jolie riding on top of it).  Doesn't matter, you're in this for the action, and the movie delivers, all the way down to the sequel enticing ending.

Two things I'd nitpick about:  1. Angelina Jolie doesn't run like a superhero/trained badass.  I can't explain it, except that when she's running for her life, she reminds me of someone keeping a steady 5.0 on the treadmill at the gym.  For example, Matt Damon, in the Bourne movies, RUNS like someone being chased, and looks natural doing it.  2. For about 60% of the movie, Jolie is in some god-awful blond wig that makes her look like a hippy housewife from the 70's.  There's simply no way for anyone watching the movie to ever believe that was her natural hair, and I thought it looked awful.

Those couple of things aside, I can say that I enjoyed the movie.  I don't think it's necessary to run out and see it in the theater, I'd recommend waiting until hit the DVD circuit in a few months - but it's worth a rental for sure.  3.5 out of 5.  For what it was, it was done well.