During the Friday, July 23 "Cort and Fatboy" podcast, we (briefly) discussed the propulsive "Bourne"-style thriller "Salt" -- but mostly we talked about screaming Sam Neill, sexy Helen Mirren, Comic-Con as advertising experience, and the artificially de-aged Jeff Bridges.
So let's get the tourism board's question out of the way immediately: "How does Portland look in 'Ramona and Beezus,' the new film based on Beverly Cleary's books and set on Klickitat Street in our fair city?"
Well, it looks like Canada. Because that's where they shot the movie.
Otherwise, "Ramona and Beezus," directed by Elizabeth Allen ("Aquamarine"), is low-key and episodic and occasionally clunky; it frankly feels like three or four installments of a low-budget "Ramona" TV series stitched together. But it does have some modest charm -- mostly due to the strong child performance at its center.
It's also, in its own exceedingly unexceptional way, a recession and housing-crisis flick. The film cherry-picks elements from several of Cleary's books, but takes its spine from "Ramona and Her Father" -- in which Ramona Quimby's dad (playing the film by John Corbett) loses his job during the family's house remodel and money gets tight. (However, the movie drops Ramona's in-book attempts to get her dad to quit smoking, probably to keep its G rating, as well as her dad's quiet struggle with depression.)
The threat to Quimby stability drives noted pest Ramona (Joey King) into all sorts of wacky hijinks as she tries to make money with lemonade stands, car washes and commercial auditions. The film also draws a subplot from "Ramona Forever," in which visiting grown-up Hobart (Josh Duhamel) and Ramona's Aunt Bea (Ginnifer Goodwin) make woo.
The movie's mostly inoffensive -- too inoffensive to work up much of an opinion about beyond, "Should I buy this on DVD for my 8-to-12-year-old when it's $7.99 at Fred Meyer?" That said, Joey King is a terrific find as Ramona (I suspect we'll be seeing more of her elsewhere). Selena Gomez (Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place"), playing older sister Beezus, is probably another successful decantation from the Disney Channel pop-starlet clone-vat. I hope her career ends up incorporating more Duff than Lohan.
The story gets off to a pretty rough start, with early scenes of family levity feeling way too forced thanks to Corbett's antics -- but once "Ramona and Beezus" settles into its sweet little TV-movie groove, I found myself mildly drawn into Ramona's childlike fear of change amid all the flatly staged water-fights and slapsticky accidents. King is good enough that you can't help but root for her. But frankly, I can't imagine paying full ticket price plus concessions for that privilege. _____
During Friday's "particularly contentious" "Cort and Fatboy" podcast, we argued about the merits of Bill Shakespeare and The Famous Mysterious Actor (with whom I collaborated on thesecomics) before discussing "Inception" and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."
Oh, and if you're interested, our Shakespeare argument spilled over onto Fatboy's Facebook page right here -- as did a spoiler-happy discussion of "Inception."
Movie review in the Wednesday, July 14 Oregonian....
Confession: I look forward to every single Nicolas Cage movie -- because no matter the quality of the film itself, there's always a chance Cage will do (or wear) something awesomely ridiculous. And he will do (or wear) it with total, unapologetic, goofy commitment.
Case in point: several moments in the formulaic but surprisingly entertaining family flick "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."
In the film, Mr. Cage plays a centuries-old wizard -- an apprentice of Merlin himself -- who now spends his time doing three things: (a) mourning his lost love (Monica Bellucci); (b) guarding a magic nesting doll that traps history's wickedest warlocks; and (c) looking for "The Prime Merlinian," a boy blessed with a magical destiny blah blah blah etc. and so forth.
Cage doesn't ascend to the cackling-mad heights of "Wicker Man," "Vampire's Kiss" or "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" here, but he does choose to yell "I can read minds!" at an inappropriate volume. And he has a lot of deadpan fun messing with the head of his apprentice, the Prime Merlinian-in-training -- a physics-nerd college student (Jay Baruchel) with a crush on the least-alternative college-radio DJ in movie history (Teresa Palmer). Cage also rocks a wardrobe I half-hope he designed himself, which includes a flared-out rawhide trenchcoat, ridiculous hat, and what appear to be leg-warmers on his arms.
Oh, and the rest of the movie's not too bad, either.
"Apprentice" is directed by Jon Turteltaub, who previously collaborated with Cage on the "National Treasure" movies, which are basically "History Detectives" episodes with gunplay. Turteltaub has a workmanlike touch and an easy sense of humor here, and he and his team do a better-than-expected job of keeping you interested in the story, despite it being yet another Tale of a Reluctant Young Man With A Supernatural Hero's Calling™.
The film (mostly) plays because it's (mostly) charming in the details. Cage and Baruchel have a lot of fun together, even if Baruchel's nervous-dork routine is starting to wear thin; he's a good actor I'd like to see stretch a bit. Alfred Molina plays a villainous rival sorcerer as a seen-it-all dandy forever suffering fools, including his own apprentice, a fame-obsessed showboat magician (Toby Kebbell) clearly modeled on Criss Angel. I also enjoyed the film's pseudo-scientific "explanation" of how magic works, and expect it will inspire many children to ask their parents for Tesla coils. And the sorcery special effects are pretty well-done -- particularly when characters are magically cast into a mirror-universe or chased by a dragon come to life in a lovely, confetti-strewn Chinatown set piece.
(Oh, and yes, they do manage to work in the briefest nod to the Mickey Mouse "Fantasia" sequence, which was itself a nod to the 1797 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe poem.)
I suppose I could call out "Sorcerer's Apprentice" for all sorts of modest dramatic misdeeds. The ability to conjure anything-goes magic spells at any time means the movie's more concerned with wowing you than it is with rules-based dramatic tension. There's a car chase where the already-established ability to levitate objects is never employed, even when it would prove incredibly useful. There are several wizard-on-wizard battles that end with Cage or Molina simply letting the other get away, even when the fate of the world is clearly at stake. And the Baruchel/Palmer romance is as generic as the supposedly "indie" music she spins.
But the movie is still enough of an all-ages good time, anchored by just enough mainstream-grade Nic Cage loopiness, that somehow those criticisms feel like nitpicking. I'm guessing your kids will lightly dig this thing. ______
Bill Mudron and I are so excited for "Trek in the Park 2" -- an outdoor-theater performance of the classic "Star Trek" epsiode "Space Seed" -- that we made some promotional fan-art. Click to enlarge. Use it however you wish.
You can also download much-bigger versions in the following formats:
In a summer-blockbuster season that thus far offers one instant classic ("Toy Story 3"), a handful of forgettable pleasures and a stunning number of big-budget bombs, "Predators" earns more points than it might otherwise simply for stripping itself down to storytelling fundamentals.
The movie's a fairly successful attempt by producer Robert Rodriguez ("Sin City") and director Nimród Antal ("Kontroll") to recapture the no-nonsense glory of John McTiernan's 1987 action hit "Predator," which introduced the eponymous alien hunting human commandos in the jungle. (That glory was tarnished after Fox squandered its potentially great movie monster in a series of increasingly weak sequels -- the last one featuring a Predator larking about in small-town Colorado.)
This time around, a clever premise takes the series back to its '87 basics. Mercenaries and criminals from across the earth are (literally) dropped into an alien-jungle "game preserve" to be killed by a Predator hunting party. They try to survive while resisting the urge to turn on each other, with varying degrees of success. And that's pretty much it. The whole enterprise feels like a pretty decent, grim little lost-patrol mash-up of the original "Predator" and "Pitch Black" -- a perfectly fine night at the beer-theater, in other words.
While "Predators" isn't nearly as vivid or fresh as the original, it's certainly its strongest sequel. It's also a weird semi-nostalgia trip back to the days when Joel Silver ruled action cinema, when directors had the patience to lock their cameras down and calmly set up situations before blowing things up in comprehensible action beats -- all while quickly sketching a large "Aliens"-style action cast (this time using Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Walton Goggins, Alice Braga, Topher Grace and the great Danny Trejo, among others).
It's a little sad this summer has been so lame that I'm now turning to pretty-good '80s pastiches for my meat-and-potatoes action fix. Here's hoping Sly Stallone's "The Expendables" delivers along the same lines. _____
The Friday, July 2 "Cort & Fatboy" broadcast wanders all over the place. We talked "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" and "The Last Airbender," and Cort killed me with his awesomely terrible Predator impression. Also: Mel Gibson, Pee-Wee Herman, M. Night's career, Spider-Neck and the war of the textboxers who listen to the show live.
Also, in support of the July 2 "Cort and Fatboy Midnight Movie," "Independence Day," we recorded a feature-length commentary track that you can listen to while watching your "ID4" DVD with your choice of adult beverage. This really wanders all over the place. Featuring Cort, Fatboy, Dave Walker, The Famous Scott Dally and yrs. truly.
